1/ Michael Avenatti for President? Don't laugh - there is a good case for his entry to the race, and it's he will bring the kind of
spine - straightening ruthlessness Democrats need to change this country for the better.....
Really interesting article....
Michael Avenatti should not be running for president. The exuberant attorney might have acquitted himself well representing Stormy Daniels in court — and the resistance’s vindictive id on cable news — but the road to the White House shouldn’t run through CNN’s greenrooms. As Donald Trump has ably demonstrated, the skills required for establishing a strong Twitter presence and those necessary for governing the world’s most powerful nation are not perfectly identical. And regardless, the Democratic Party already has more conventionally qualified 2020 hopefuls than they can reasonably ask the Iowa State Fair to accommodate. If Avenatti wants to try his hand at public service, he should run for city council (for a first-time candidate, municipal office should be #basta).
But American politics in 2018 isn’t as it should be.
2/ And while we are on the subject of Avenatti, Tucker Carlson had him on his show and things got ugly....so Stephen Colbert defended Tucker hilariously....two clever and funny minutes....
On Friday night, Stephen Colbert had some fun at the expense of Fox News host Tucker Carlson for his feud with Michael Avenatti.
Earlier this week, Carlson blasted The View for dedicating three segments of their show to Avenatti and his client Stormy Daniels, who he referred to as a “newly-minted political pundit who has spent her career having sex with strangers for money.” He also referred to Avenatti again as the “creepy porn lawyer.”
“I wouldn’t throw around the word ‘creepy’ if I looked like fancy lad who paid his wet nurse to sit on his lap,” Colbert reacted.
3/ And speaking of Democrats needing a spine, watch this Bill Maher "New Rules" where he reams the Dems for not standing up for themselves.....why does it take a comedian to tell truths that should be obvious.....
An excellent six minutes - one of his serious ones.....
Bill Maher closed his show Friday night by lecturing Democrats who don’t have a strong response to socialist charges made by Republicans.
Maher began by arguing that the “best voices” who have been speaking out against Republicans “are Republicans,” citing Nicolle Wallace, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, George Will, Bret Stephens, Joe Scarborough, Richard Painter, Michael Steele, Jennifer Rubin, David Jolly, Ana Navarro, Max Boot, and David Frum.
“They’re the ones who are out there with the gloves landing head punches, even Trump’s own people tear him down better than any Democrat,” Maher said . “Where are our potty mouths?”
4/ A reasoned and believable article about how fascism takes hold in a country - Umair explains the rise of Trump and other would be dictators....fascism breeds where there is blatant inequality and the middle class loses ground. Like America today - a rich country for some, a poor one for many....
This is a must read folks......
Today, I read, as you probably did, that Steve Bannon is to keynote the New Yorker’s Ideas Festival. LOL — it should go without saying that’s a pretty good indication that a society is out of ideas. Yet I can almost hear the reasoning in the New Yorker’s offices. Their problem is that American thinkers have no real explanation for fascism — just fairy tales — and that leaves you with…the fascists. Or maybe they just wanted to stoke controversy and make money (I’d give them more credit than that, but I digress.)
Let’s take the fairy tales Americans tell themselves about fascism — there are three — one by one, and then discuss what really causes fascism (and why American thinkers are completely unable to get it, even at this late stage). You can skip this part if you want the less nerdy stuff.
— Fascism is caused by identity politics.
5/ Seth Meyers with a funny "A Closer Look"....nine minutes...
On Thursday night, Seth Meyers blasted President Donald Trump for rejecting the death toll that followed Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year.
Meyers began by mocking Trump’s latest efforts to “convince people that he’s competent” but quickly took aim at the “deranged” president for his tweet casting doubt on the official death toll out of Puerto Rico.
6/ North Carolina Republicans passed a law in 2012 that made it mandatory to ignore climate change in zoning decisions......with the result we have this week with Florence.....
Eight years ago, a team of top scientists and engineers warned North Carolina’s government that the state faced a potentially cataclysmic rise in sea levels that would bury billions of dollars in real estate under a meter of water.
Armed with this information, the Republicans in charge chose to bury their heads in sand instead.
Nearly a decade later, as Hurricane Florence makes landfall on the state’s Atlantic coast, the decision by North Carolina leaders to ignore that sea-level assessment are being criticized as a short-sighted bid to appease developers—which may leave more than 300 miles of coastline exposed to the ravages of climate change.
7/ And a thought for you while you watch the devastation of the Eastern Carolinas by the rain and wind from Florence - we, the taxpayers, may be subsidizing the rebuilding of this town and many others on the barrier islands after Florence.
By all means give them the insurance money after Florence [bless their hearts], but no more Federally subsidized policies funded by taxpayers for these ridiculously vulnerable houses on the barrier islands and oceanfront....
If they want to rebuild, great - but at their own risk....
8/ Frank Bruni with an insightful column.....
Protestors hold signs behind Richard S. Fuld Jr., then chief executive of Lehman Brothers, in October 2008. Ten years later, you can see the lingering effects of the financial crisis just about everywhere
The unemployment rate is lower than it was before the financial crisis began. The stock market has soared. The total combined output of the American economy, also known as gross domestic product, has risen 20 percent since Lehman collapsed. The crisis is over.
But, of course, it isn’t over. The financial crisis remains the most influential event of the
21st century. It left millions of people — many of whom were already anxious about the
economy — feeling much more anxious, if not downright angry.
9/ Stephen Colbert on form is incredibly good.....ten kind of serious minutes but with LOL moments galore....
He starts with the hurricane and the amazing Weather Channel graphics about storm surges, then lays into Trump for his tweet storm on Puerto Rico....
From the very start of last night’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, it was clear that something was not sitting right with Stephen Colbert. The opening monologue is usually an opportunity for him to make some riffing jokes — some of which he himself finds funny, if his occasional smiles are any indication — but this was something different.
First, he opened by asking those affected by Hurricane Florence to “stay safe,” although he did find a moment to tease The Weather Channel for the new attempt it made to illustrate how high waters can get during a storm. But that wasn’t the only hurricane mentioned last night.
10/ The middle class financial crisis is still with us, no matter what the statistics say about "the economy".....the rich and corporations are doing fine, real people aren't....
The Recovery Threw the Middle-Class Dream Under a Benz
But what she seeks out again and again is a bound diary of the events of the financial crisis and their aftermath.
A decade later, things are eerily calm. The economy, by nearly any official measure, is robust. Wall Street is flirting with new highs. And the housing market, the epicenter of the crash, has recovered in many places. But like the diary stored in Ms. Swonk’s basement, the scars of the financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession are still with us, just below the surface.
The most profound of these is that the uneven nature of the recovery compounded
a long-term imbalance in the accumulation of wealth. As a consequence, what it
means to be secure has changed. Wealth, real wealth, now comes from investment
portfolios, not salaries. Fortunes are made through an initial public offering, a grant
of stock options, a buyout or another form of what high-net-worth individuals call a liquidity event.
11/ The wonderful Tom Tomorrow.....
12/ Jeff Goodell with another excellent story, on Florence, climate change and where we are
headed with our refusal to face this crisis......
Right now, Hurricane Florence is spinning toward the mid-Atlantic coast like a giant thermo-aquatic buzz saw. Hurricanes are fickle and can shapeshift at the last minute, but Florence is on track to be one of the biggest hurricanes in U.S. history, with winds that are expected to accelerate to 155 mph and a storm surge up to 15 or 20 feet. Already 1.5 million people have been evacuated from the Carolina coast, and surely more evacuation orders are to come. This is a monster storm, and it will likely have a devastating impact on the people who live in the region. And Florence is just one of three big storms that are spinning simultaneously in the Atlantic, at what is historically the peak of hurricane season.
13/ Stephen Colbert is on CBS, so it was interesting to watch him take down Leslie Moonves....
Stephen Colbert addressed the resignation of Leslie Moonves, who abruptly resigned from his position as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of CBS on Sunday.
“It’s never a good sign when you’re the subject of a Ronan Farrow double dip,” Colbert quipped during his monologue on Monday’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The host was referring to Farrow’s two damning New Yorker reports that detail multiple sexual misconduct claimsagainst the former CEO.
Colbert quoted from one of Farrow’s articles, which detail 13 women’s allegations against Moonves. One of them had “entered Moonves’ office to discuss a work matter, and he said that he was going to get a glass of wine. He left briely and, when he returned, she said, he was not wearing pants, and was aroused,” Colbert read from Farrow’s piece.
14/ Matt Taibbi on the Cuomo/Nixon primary result - in this one the money won......
Taibbi nails the issue with our politics, both parties.....
Cuomo won by a fair margin, by about 65 percent to 35 percent, which wasn’t exactly a surprise. He spent over $16 million in a period of six weeks this summer, or about 25 times what Nixon was spending. At various times in the campaign, Cuomo has had 50 times as much cash as his opponent
Cuomo has always been significantly backed by real estate developers and by the finance sector, and leaned heavily on big donors.
15/ Trump's base are fueling our toxic politics.....and you know a few, don't you.....
Trump is not our worst national menace, however front and center his politics of personal persecution. Though a johnny-come-lately to the D.C. swamp, his brazen, novel corruptions dump volumes into the swill. That makes our most pernicious, enduring peril the unteachable, unreachable, diehard Trump cult. Con men come and go, but ever present are the aggrieved so enraged they dismiss real world events, legal evidence and public exposure. How national body blows are compounded when a demagogue who refuses to learn from failure holds sway over voters who refuse to learn from failure.
In short, we can’t have a know-nothing president without an ongoing know-nothing base.
16/ John Oliver with a most amusing seven minute summary of the week....
Bob Woodward’s new book detailing the “harrowing” halls of the Trump administration’s White House comes out this week, and so it made sense for John Oliver to provide his insightfully comedic reaction on HBO’s Last Week Tonight.
Last week was a tough week for the embattled commander in chief, as the promotion for Woodward’s book coincided with an unprecedented and damaging anonymous op-ed was published in the NY Times by someone claiming to be a “senior Trump administration official” who was actively working to undermine the efforts of President Donald Trump.
17/ I remember reading 10 years ago that not only is it important to exercise and stay active as you age, men especially need strength exercises as well.....but here it is again from the Times.....
And it's never too late to start!
“Use it or lose it.” I’m sure you’re familiar with this advice. And I hope you’ve been following it. I certainly thought I was. I usually do two physical activities a day, alternating among walking, cycling and swimming. I do floor exercises for my back daily, walk up and down many stairs and tackle myriad physical tasks in and around my home.
My young friends at the Y say I’m in great shape, and I suppose I am compared to most 77-year-old women in America today. But I’ve noticed in recent years that I’m not as strong as I used to be. Loads I once carried rather easily are now difficult, and some are impossible.
Thanks to an admonition from a savvy physical therapist, Marilyn Moffat, a professor at
New York University, I now know why. I, like many people past 50, have a condition
called sarcopenia — a decline in skeletal muscle with age.
Todays geezer joke....
An old man goes into a restaurant and is seated. All the waitresses are gorgeous.
A particularly voluptuous waitress wearing a very short skirt with legs that won’t quit, came to his table and asked if he was ready to order."What would you like, sir?”He looks at the menu, scans her beautiful frame from top to bottom, then answers, "A quickie."The waitress turns and walks away in disgust.After she regains her composure, she returns and asks again, "What would you like, sir?"Again the old man thoroughly checks her out and again answers, "A quickie, please.”This time her anger takes over, she reaches over and slaps him across the face with a resounding "SMACK!" and storms away.A man sitting at the next table leans over and whispers, "Um, I think it’s pronounced 'quiche'.
More guy jokes....
Where can it be found?
"And Mary rode Joseph's ass all the way to Egypt..."
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