1/ Frank Rich makes sense of this crazy week....
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, the fallout from Trump’s summit meeting with Putin, the GOP’s professions of powerlessness to change the president’s behavior, and the case of Maria Butina.
Donald Trump, reportedly surprised at the bipartisan criticism of his press conference with Vladimir Putin, has been able to deflect attention from past crises by going on the attack, especially against targets on the left. Will it be different this time?
Now that Trump has failed to pin his historic calamity on a misplaced “double negative” and turned the confusion of the words “would” and “wouldn’t” into an international punch line, scapegoating will inevitably be his next tactic.
2/ Samantha Bee with a blistering commentary on the Republicans.....a very good five minutes....
Wednesday night, Samatha Bee had a lot to say about not only President Donald Trump‘s remarks at the Helsinki summit but the “shocked” reactions from the GOP and the media.
She first took aim at Congressional Republicans, citing the reactions of Senators John McCain, Ben Sasse, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who all condemned Trump’s performance alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“These guys knew all this already!” Bee reacted. “Trump wasn’t doing new material, he was just doing his greatest hits.
3/ Andrew Sullivan with an insightful take of how Trump sees the world, and why his adoration of Putin is completely in character. An absolutely fascinating article, and will make you think, even if you believe Trump is being run as a Russian asset.....
It is possible, is it not, that Donald Trump simply believes what he says.
I realize, of course, that this is technically impossible from moment to moment. But bear with me. The slackened jaws, widened eyes, and general shock that greeted his chuffed endorsement of the Kremlin over Washington this past week were understandable but misplaced. Everything Trump did in Europe — every horrifying, sick-making, embarrassing expostulation — is, in some way, consistent, and predictable, when you consider how he sees the world. It’s not a plan or a strategy as such. Trump is bereft of the attention span to sustain any of those. It is rather the reflection of a set of core beliefs and instincts that have governed him for much of his life. The lies come and go. But his deeper convictions really are in plain sight.
4/ Sacha Baron Cohen is back on TV [Showtime] with a new show "Who Is America" - he is punking politicians, and starts off with the gun lobby.....a frankly frightening ten minutes, where his character pushes a program called "Kinderguardians", kids with guns in schools....
In this first look at the seven-episode series, premiering Sunday on Showtime, Cohen plays Israeli anti-terrorist expert Col. Erran Morad. The character’s fuzzy logic goal is to “get deadly weapons in the hands of schoolchildren” in an effort to prevent school shootings.
Cohen’s character sits down with gun rights activist Philip Van Cleave to expose the lengths the gun lobby goes to stop any gun control measures, including one bill that would have prevented ages children 4 to 12 from handling weapons.
“They tried to stop four-year-old children from having access to guns? What is the logic that these people come up with,” Morad asks Van Cleave before recruiting the activist’s help on a “common sense training” instructional video for three-year-olds.
“Just remember to point Puppy Pistol’s mouth at the middle of the bad man,” Van Cleave says in a cartoon schoolroom setting. “Aim at the head, shoulders, not the toes, not the toes.”
5/ Tom Tomorrow on our new Supreme Court Justice....
6/ The underrated Michelle Wolf skewers the media....a pointed riff on the formula used in our "news"....six pretty good minutes...
7/ Thomas Edsall examines why poor whites dependent on government programs support Republicans determined to take them away.....
Good column from the Times....
One question that has troubled Democrats for decades is freshly relevant in the Trump-McConnell era: Why do so many voters support elected officials who are determined to cut programs that those same voters rely upon?
Take Kentucky, which has a median household income that ranks 45th out of the 50 states.
Over the past half century, residents of Kentucky have become steadily more reliant on the federal government. In the 1970s, federal programs provided slightly under 10 percent of personal income for Kentucky residents; by 2015, money from programs ranging from welfare and Medicaid to Social Security and Medicare more than doubled to 23 percent as a share of Kentuckians’ personal income.
Twenty years ago, there was only one county (out of 120) in which residents counted on the federal government for at least 40 percent of their personal income. By 2014, 28 counties were at 40 percent or higher.
But as their claims on federal dollars rose, the state’s voters became increasingly conservative.
8/ The Fox and Friends idiots were so upset by the Putin fiasco they talked directly to Trump......Seth Meyers with a comedic reporting nine minute segment....
On Wednesday night, Seth Meyers mocked President Donald Trumpbecause of how “alarmed” the hosts of Fox & Friends were after his press conference alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Meyers began by insisting that turning to Trump’s allies in the midst of a controversy is a “good barometer” as to how serious it is. He then pointed to Fox & Friends the morning after his Helsinki summit as an example.
“They’re always acting like the rich parents defending their kid in the principal’s office,” Meyers said. “‘It’s not Donald’s fault for pulling the fire alarm. It’s YOUR fault for having one!'”
9/ Jimmy Kimmel reams out Sarah Huckabee Sanders for her lying....four minutes....
ABC
Jimmy Kimmel began his show on Wednesday night by sharing a few more corrections from the White House. “They asked me to help get a few messages out,” he explained.
“First of all, the president meant to say that Papa John was treated unfairly, not fairly,” the host said. “He mistakenly carried the ‘un’ from his meeting with Kim Jong Un, who he would like to clarify is not a great guy under that chubby exterior. Second, the president did not intend to say that Kentucky Fried Chicken is a healthy breakfast for children. And he would like to retract the name ‘junior’ from Donald Trump Jr. as it has become clear his son is kind of a douche.”
10/ Thomas Friedman with an excellent column.....
A President With No Shame and a Party With No Guts
If your puppy makes a mess on your carpet and you shout “Bad dog,” there is a good chance that that puppy’s ears will droop, his head will bow and he may even whimper. In other words, even a puppy acts ashamed when caught misbehaving. That is not true of Donald Trump. Day in and day out, he proves to us that he has no shame. We’ve never had a president with no shame — and it’s become a huge source of power for him and trouble for us.
And what makes Trump even more powerful and problematic is that this president with no shame is combined with a party with no spine and a major network with no integrity — save for a few real journalists at Fox News like the outstanding Chris Wallace.
When a president with no shame is backed by a party with no spine and a network with no integrity, you have two big problems.
11/ Jimmy Kimmel doesn't mince his words about Trump.....six excellent minutes....
Jimmy Kimmel held President Trump’s feet to the fire on Tuesday after the president backed away from his comments in Helsinki, Finland, the day before on who had meddled in the 2016 election. Trump asserted that when he said, “I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia, he had actually meant to say “wouldn’t.”
But Kimmel refused to accept the flip-flop. “The news today is that our president is a liar,” he said. “And not even a good one.”
“President Trump today — in an attempt to explain what the Helsinki was going through his cotton candy-covered head when he stood next to Vladimir Putin, of all people, and took sides with Russia over our own American intelligence agencies — now says it was just a tiny little slip-up. Even smaller than his fists.” — JIMMY KIMMEL
“This is like if Bill Clinton had come out and said, ‘Wait, no, I meant to say I did have sexual relations with that woman!’” — JIMMY KIMMEL
12/ Oh so true....
13/ Republicans despise the poor....they really hate poor people, black and white....
Four years ago, on the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty, House Republicans led by Paul Ryan issued a report declaring that war a failure. Poverty, they asserted, hadn’t fallen. Therefore, they concluded, we must slash spending on the poor.
Last week, Donald Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers issued a new report on poverty, recognizing what most experts in the field have said: The standard poverty measure is badly flawed, and a better measure shows substantial progress. In fact, these advisers went so far as to assert that poverty is no longer a problem. (Do these people ever get out into the real world?)
Anyway, the war on poverty, said the report, “is largely over and a success.” And our response, says the Trump administration, should be to … slash spending on the poor.
O.K., the report doesn’t openly call for benefit cuts. Instead, it calls for the widespread imposition
of work requirements for Medicaid, food stamps and other programs. But that would have the effect
of sharply reducing those programs’ coverage.
14/ If there's a story this week that makes you realize we are so screwed as a society it's this one.....about the water wars of Arizona, where Saudi and other big ag companies are pumping the aquifer's dry to grow water intensive crops in the desert, and the Republicans who run the State are paid off to not bring in any regulations or limits to pumping the water....
So the hottest state in the country will be a desert in a few years....just amazing...
A small woman with a tight smile and a bright orange streak in her hair, Lori was
immediately unnerved by the sight. Like all homes in the valley, where there are no
reservoirs or rivers, the Paups’ house drew its water from a private well drilled into the underlying aquifer.
Todays Old Lady joke
An elderly lady was invited to an old friend's home for dinner one
evening.
evening.
She was impressed by the way her lady friend preceded every
request to her husband with endearing terms such as: Honey, My Love,
Darling, Sweetheart, etc. The couple had been married almost 70 years
and, clearly, they were still very much in love.
request to her husband with endearing terms such as: Honey, My Love,
Darling, Sweetheart, etc. The couple had been married almost 70 years
and, clearly, they were still very much in love.
While the husband was in the living room, her lady friend leaned over to her hostess to say,
'I think it's wonderful that, after all these years, you still call
your husband all those loving names.'
your husband all those loving names.'
The elderly lady hung her head, 'I have to tell you the truth,' she said, 'his name slipped my
mind about 10 years ago, and I'm scared to death to ask the cranky old
asshole what his name is.'*
mind about 10 years ago, and I'm scared to death to ask the cranky old
asshole what his name is.'*
Todays biker joke
A duded-up city rider walks into a seedy tavern in Sturgis, South Dakota.He sits at the bar and notices a grizzled old biker with his arms folded,
staring blankly at a full bowl of chili.After fifteen minutes of just sitting there staring at it, the newby
rider bravely asks the old biker, 'If you ain't gonna eat that, mind
if I do?'
The old veteran of a thousand rides slowly turns his head toward the
young pup and says, 'Nah, you go ahead.' ...
Eagerly, the guy wearing the shiny new leather fashions reaches over
and slides the bowl into his place and starts spooning it in with
delight. He gets nearly down to the bottom of the bowl and notices a
dead mouse in the chilli. The sight was very shocking and he
immediately barfed up the chili back into the bowl.
The old biker quietly says, 'Yep, that's as far as I got, too.
Todays senior joke
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