1/ Frank Rich on the Kavanaugh hearings.....wonderful as usual!
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, Christine Blasey Ford and the many questions surrounding Brett Kavanaugh’s potential confirmation.
After saying that an FBI investigation “should be the first step” of addressing her allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, and with a Senate hearing scheduled for Monday, Christine Blasey Ford is now in a standoff with Republican leadership. Is her request fair?
Ford’s request is more than fair. She is saying you don’t have to take only my word for it.
2/ Great story by Matt Taibbi on Bernie's new bill targeting Amazon and Walmart - it says if employees of huge corporations have to go on food stamps to live it levies penalties on the behemoths.....love it!
This new piece of legislation sounds audacious at first. It tells companies like Amazon: if you pay your workers so poorly that they have to go on food stamps, the government is going to hit you with a 100 percent tax on such subsidies.
Sponsored by Bernie Sanders and California House Democrat Ro Khanna, the bill is called the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act, or Stop BEZOS Act.
Initially, Sanders was thrashed in the press for his “ham-fisted” proposal.
“In Bernie Sanders vs. Jeff Bezos, Only Workers Lose,” read the USA Today headline. “Bernie Sanders Picks The Wrong Kind of Fight With Amazon,” blared Bloomberg.
Many reports cited the objections of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), in particular those of senior analyst and former chief economic adviser to Joe Biden, Jared Bernstein.
3/ "Jokes Seth Can't Tell", a skit where Seth and two of his writers tell politically incorrect jokes.....five wryly humorous minutes....
4/ You may have wondered why Trump is attacking Bruce Ohr from the FBI....David Leonhard explains in the Times, and it confirms everything you might suspect.....
President Trump with President Putin in Helsinki in July. Trump’s odd affinity for Russia continues to cause him trouble.
Donald Trump has a long history of doing what he thinks is best for Donald Trump. If he needs to discard friends, allies or wives along the way, so be it. “I’m a greedy person,” he has explained.
It’s important to keep this trait in mind when trying to make sense of the Russia story. Trump’s affinity for Russia, after all, is causing problems for him. It has created tensions with his own staff and his Republican allies in Congress. Most voters now believe he has something to hide. And the constant talk of Russia on television clearly enrages Trump.
He could make his life easier if only he treated Vladimir Putin the way he treats most people who cause problems — and cast Putin aside. Yet Trump can’t bring himself to do so.
This odd refusal is arguably the biggest reason to believe that Putin really
does have leverage over Trump.
5/ Republicans....
6/ Bill Maher opines Trump's magic is slipping with his base....five minutes....
“It was a bad week for Trump,” Maher said. “I know I say that every week, but c’mon… it was a bad week, a bad month and a bad summer.”
Maher, who worries Trump is plotting an authoritarian coup, said he feels better about the state of the country than he has in a long time.
“I feel better,” Maher said. “I like—really, I feel a little lighter than i have in a very long time. The polls for him are going down. The looks on the faces at the people at his rallies. I think the magic is gone. They’re bored, he hasn’t written new material. They have a look like, ‘Man, it’s a lot about you.'”
The problem with Trump’s schtick is that similar ones traditionally wears thin after awhile.
“Conmen traditionally skip town,” Maher said. “He’s working the same town. And eventually even his people catch up.
7/ North Carolina's dirty secret - toxic waste pits in serious risk from Florence flooding......
Interesting and disgusting story about the greed of our corporations and the lack of caring by NC's regulators, but I can't give you a sample because I've had my free articles from WaPo....hope it opens for you!
8/ Rare triple breach by three humpback whales.....wow! One minute....
9/ Puerto Rico - one year after Hurricane Maria....Jeff Goodell with a look at the underlying problems that the island has, a lot of it to do with Wall Street....
It has been a year since Hurricane Maria wiped out Puerto Rico. If you drop onto the island for a visit, the recovery looks almost complete. The San Juan airport is crowded, the cruise ships are docking on schedule, and the piña coladas are flowing in Old San Juan. The lights work and your cellphone gets pretty good reception. If you ignore a few dead traffic signals and bent road signs, you might even be able to fool yourself into thinking nothing ever happened.
But Puerto Rico has not recovered. In fact, it’s arguably as close to collapse as it has ever been. The power is on and the roads are open, but if you look closely, the entire island is held together with duct tape and baling wire.
10/ Bill Maher with his opener from Friday..... a short one [but good!] at 4 minutes.....
Bill Maher opened his HBO show Real Time by with a little light mockery of cable TV news coverage of Hurricane Florence.
“They’re freaked out about Florence,” Maher said. “Not the hurricane, a trans woman who used the wrong bathroom.”
Maher got a few groans, and laughed it off.
“We wish the best for the Carolinas,” he said. “They can’t hear me, they have no power.”
Maher then talked about Friday’s legal developments, in which former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort finally flipped and agreed to cooperate with special prosecutor Bob Mueller in his investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.
“Paul Manafort flipped on Fat Donny. That’s right, Fat Donny got flipped on by his former consigliere,” Maher said.
11/ Why do Americans revere the rich? Umair with a revealing and exceptionally insightful treatise on why the really rich are doomed to be unhappy....
It’s often said these days, that if you think America has problems, of capitalism, of decline, of blindness and folly and self-inflicted ruin, that you must hate the rich. No, I don’t hate the rich. I think that I pity them.
Here’s a little secret. I grew up among the super rich. Not the American super rich — pfff, that’s the minor league. I mean the genuinely global mega-rich. People so bizarrely, gruesomely rich they’d have towering Italian palazzos shipped over tile by tile, painstakingly rebuilt by hand, put behind gleaming gates, surrounded by opulent gardens, and guarded by little armies. I don’t say that to boast, becauseit didn’t happen by my design — but only through a quirk of fate. My grandfather and father, politicians both, were courted by them, who grew that wealthy by siphoning off the wealth of the countries my forefathers were trying to protect.
12/ Really interesting article, written by a conservative, about how Al Franken was treated and how it's coming back to bite conservative media.....
As one of the few commentators with the gall (foolishness?) to commit blasphemy by expressing consistent skepticism and concern about the #MeToo movement, I have watched mostly in horror, but with some amusement, as the saga involving an ancient allegation of sexual abuse against Brett Kavanaugh has unfolded. Revulsion because it sure looks like a good man is getting unfairly smeared, but gratification because the frailties of both the conservative media and the #MeToo movement have been exposed in different, but significant, ways.
13/ Stephen Colbert does a summary of the Senate race between Beto O'Rourke and Ted Cruz, with samples of the ads being aired.....a really amusing four minutes....
Stephen Colbert interviewed Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) ― Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) challenger in the upcoming November midterms ― on Wednesday’s broadcast of “The Late Show.” But Cruz’s campaign did its level best to undermine the appearance.
“Beto is running in Texas against incumbent senator and man-whose-campaign-staff-is-de
14/ Get ready for a Category 6 hurricane, because it's coming......soon.....
There is no such thing as a category 6 hurricane or tropical storm – yet. The highest level – the top of the scale for the most powerful, most devastating hurricane or tropical storm capable of destroying entire cities like New Orleans or New York – is a category 5 storm.
Meteorologists and scientists never imagined that there would be a need for a category 6 storm, with winds that exceed 200 miles per hour on a sustained basis, sweeping away everything in its path. Until now, such a storm wasn’t possible, so there was no need for a new category above category 5.
15/ This is hysterical.....give it a few seconds, you'll laugh when you see it.....one Weather Channel minute.....
16/ Michelle Goldberg riffs on the awfulness of Brett Kavanaugh with a good column in the Times....
A protester dressed as a character from “The Handmaid’s Tale” attended the first day of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing last week.
Shortly after his inauguration, Donald Trump, uniquely attentive to his debt
to the religious right, appointed the anti-abortion activist E. Scott Lloyd to
head the Office of Refugee Resettlement, despite Lloyd’s lack of relevant
experience. The position gave Lloyd authority over unaccompanied minors
caught crossing into the United States, authority Lloyd exploited to try to
stop pregnant migrants from getting abortions.
Last year, thanks to Lloyd’s interference, a 17-year-old from Central America had to wage a legal battle to end her pregnancy. Known in court filings as Jane Doe, the girl learned she was pregnant while in custody in Texas, and was adamant that she wanted an abortion. In keeping with Texas’s parental consent law, she obtained a judge’s permission, helped by a legal organization called Jane’s Due Process. Jane’s Due Process raised money for the abortion, which was scheduled for the end of her first trimester.
But under Lloyd’s direction, the shelter where she was being detainedrefused to cooperate. Doe went back to court, and a federal judge ruled in her favor, issuing a temporary restraining order against the government. The administration appealed, and the case, Garza v. Hargan, went to a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. One of the judges was Brett Kavanaugh.
17/ Good TV - out on Netflix this week - "Maniac".....
Owen Milgrim (Jonah Hill), the mentally ill hero of the new Netflix drama Maniac, is obsessed with what’s real and what isn’t. It’s hard to blame him, since his illness often manifests itself as a hallucinatory doppelganger of his horrible brother Jed (Billy Magnussen), who sends Owen on nonexistent spy missions. And the bulk of the limited series, adapted from a Norwegian show of the same name, involves Owen and the depressed Annie Landsberg (Emma Stone) undergoing a drug trial where they experience one computer-generated fantasy after another in an attempt to diagnose, confront and cure their problems. Is the drug trial real? Is Annie? Or is one of these fantasies his actual life and everything else a particularly sad illusion?
18/ And the best movies of this year so far.....
Photo: Strand Releasing, Sony Pictures Classics, StudioCanal, Cohen Media Group, Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures
We’re not even close to done with 2018, and there are already tons of films worthy of great praise — and breaking box-office history. Here are the best movies Vulture has reviewed, according to our movie critics David Edelstein and Emily Yoshida.
Todays ladies jokes
AVOCADOSA wife asks her husband, "Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk,and if they have avocados, get 6.A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk. The wife asks him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?"He replied, "They had avocados."If you're a woman, I'm sure you're going back to read it again! Men will get it the first time.WATER IN THE CARBURETORWIFE: "There is trouble with the car. It has water in the carburetor."
HUSBAND: "Water in the carburetor? That's ridiculous "
WIFE: "I tell you the car has water in the carburetor."
HUSBAND: "You don't even know what a carburetor is. I'll check it out. Where's the car?
WIFE: "In the pool"HE MUST PAYHusband and wife had a tiff. Wife called up her mom and said, "He fought with me again, I am coming to live with you."
Mom said, "No darling, he must pay for his mistake. I am coming to live with you.Todays Jewish joke
Hebrew Writing....... Written across the wall of the cave were the following symbols:
It was considered a unique find and the writings were said to be at least 3,000 years old! The piece of stone was removed, brought to the museum, and archaeologists from around the world came to study the ancient symbols. They held a huge meeting after months of conferences to discuss the meaning of the markings. The president of the society pointed to first drawing and said:
"This is a woman. We can see these people held women in high esteem.
You can also tell they were intelligent, as the next symbol is a donkey, so they were smart enough to have animals help them till the soil.
The next drawing is a shovel, which means they had tools to help them.
Even further proof of their high intelligence is the fish which means that during a famine, they seek food from the sea.
The last symbol appears to be the Star of David which means they were evidently Hebrews." The audience applauded enthusiastically.
Then an old Jewish man stood up in the back of the room and said,
"Idiots... Hebrew is read from right to left… It says: 'Holy mackerel, dig the ass on that chick".
Todays senior joke
Yesterday my daughter e-mailed me, again, asking why I didn't do something useful with my time, "like sitting around the pool, as drinking wine isn't a good thing.
Talking about my "doing-something-useful" seems to be her favorite topic of conversation.
She is "only thinking of me," she said, and suggested, I go down to the Senior Center and hang out with the fellas.
So, I did and when I got home, decided to play a prank on her. I sent her an e-mail saying that I had joined the Senior Parachute Club.
She replied, "Are you nuts? You're 68 years-old and now you're going to start jumping out of airplanes?"
I told her that I even had a Membership Card and e-mailed a copy to her.
Immediately, she telephoned me and yelled, "Good grief, Dad, where are your glasses?! This is a membership to a Prostitute Club, not a Parachute Club."
"Oh man, am I in trouble," I said, "I signed up for five jumps a week!" The line went dead.
Life as a Senior Citizen isn't getting any easier, but sometimes it can be fun.
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