1/ Frank Rich on the week's stories....
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/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, the meaning of Brett Kavanaugh’s presence on the Supreme Court and the New York Times’ reporting on apparent tax fraud by the Trump family.
Brett Kavanaugh is hearing his first cases as a Supreme Court justice this week. Has the bitter fight brought out by his confirmation ended?The bloody Kavanaugh fight was not the beginning, middle, or the end of this bitter fight. It was just the latest battle in a culture war that pits one of America’s two major political parties against the nation’s women.
2/ Trevor Noah on the Kavanaugh confirmation....five good minutes!
Trevor Noah tried to put a positive spin on a new United Nations report predicting devastating consequences of climate change on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Daily Show.”
“The newest member of a conservative majority on the Supreme Court just got a lifetime appointment,” the host said, in reference to Brett Kavanaugh’s controversial swearing-in as a Supreme Court justice on Monday.
“But there is a bright side,” Noah pointed out. “If that climate change report is right, a lifetime appointment might be shorter than we think.”
3/ The latest UN report on the climate came out this week, and it says we [humans] have to get to zero emissions by 2050 if we are going to avoid catastrophe. Jeff Goodell tells us what this really means, and essentially it's that we are on the edge of an abyss with our way of life irrevocably changed no matter what....
A thousand years from now, when some vaguely human-like machine digs through the ashes of the Twenty-First century and tries to figure out what happened to those once-thriving animals called Homo sapiens, it may be confused about why an intelligent species that could build rockets and write songs like “Imagine” couldn’t heed warnings of its own destruction. A key question for future historians of the universe: How stupid were those humans anyway?
A new report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the gold standard of climate science, outlines in frightfully stark terms what it would take to keep the earth’s temperature below 1.5 C of warming, which is the threshold for avoiding catastrophic climate change like the collapse of rain forests and coral reefs, rapid melting of the ice sheets that would swamp coastal cities around the world and heat extremes that could lead to millions of climate refugees.
4/ Jimmy Kimmel shreds Hannity on Kanye's visit to the White House....two amusing minutes....
5/ This is a must read - Umair with the dirty little secret about the media pronouncing "the economy is booming"....
it's predatory capitalism that's doing great, not you and the middle class....
An excellent, mind numbing and frankly scary article....
My whole adult life long, it seems, the very same thing’s been said, over and over again, breathlessly, by every establishment type, forever, as long as I can remember — with the possible exception of the crash in 2008. “The economy’s booming! Woo-hooo!! High-five me, Tucker!!” And yet, here’s the thing. During that very same time period, wages have never risen — they flatlined long before I was born, in fact — and real incomes, what people actually bring home, have shrunk. LOL. Do you see a problem here? I do.
And any sane person should. Because those two dismal facts are just the tip of a dark and grim iceberg. Does it feel to you as if the economy’s booming? As if things are just hunky-dory in the US of A? If so, then why are most Americans the most pessimistic they’ve ever been about the future? Why is democracy being shredded, the republic decapitated, and life seem to be generally falling apart, as people crowdfund healthcare? Can all of things really coexist?
Here’s a secret.
The economy’s not booming — capitalism is.
6/ Absolute classic political ad.....Ted [Cruz] - "Tough as Texas".....30 seconds...
7/ The Times bombshell story on Trump's tax fraud was incredibly well done, but was largely ignored by the rest of the media.....but as Matt Taibbi points out Trump is just a minor cog in the system of tax avoidance by the wealthy individuals and corporations....the whole system is corrupt, and is one of the prime drivers of income inequality which is creating the kind of anger that produced Trump....
Good read....
When New York Times reporters David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner published their exhaustive, gazillion-word expose on the Trump family tax practices last week, there was only one word for it.
“Tax bombshell,” blared Yahoo!
By my count, this was roughly the 4,790th “bombshell” of the Trump presidency, but one of the few to deserve the title. The Times story is an extraordinary piece of investigative reporting and a monument to the kind of work we all should be doing.
The parts I found most interesting were less about the rapaciousness of the Trump family per se than the myriad opportunities for gaming the system one presumes is available to everyone of this income level. The ordinary person cannot hire an outside appraiser to tell the IRS what it thinks he or she is worth, but the Trumps could systematically undervalue their properties for tax purposes (and then go back and overvalue them when it served their public relations needs).https://www.
8/ The most amusing Pete Davidson on Weekend Update, commenting on Kanye's MAGA turn last week....three funny minutes....
Pete Davidson had a few words to say about Kanye West’s pro-Trump rant last week on Saturday Night Live.
For folks who didn’t tune in last weekend, Kanye went on a very awkward pro-Trump rant off air after he performed.
“What Kanye said after we went off the air last week was one of the worst, most awkward things I’ve seen here, and I’ve seen Chevy Chase speak to an intern,” Davidson said on SNL’s Weekend Update.
9/ Our local cartoonist Taylor Jones.....
10/ Eric and Don Jr. Trump on SNL's Weekend Update....four fairly good minutes....
11/ Matt Taibbi talks with Bernie Sanders on the next financial crash.....
Ten years ago, George W. Bush signed into law the Troubled Asset Relief Program, better known as the TARP bailout. The rescue forked over $700 billion of taxpayer money to bail out giant Wall Street banks that were already too big, and were about to get bigger.
On Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) introduced new legislation on TARP’s anniversary. It is aimed at the central, still-unaddressed issue of the last disaster: the ungovernable size of the country’s biggest banks.
Dubbed the “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist” act, the Sanders-Sherman bill revolves around a simple concept: If a bank controls assets that collectively represent more than 3 percent of the country’s GDP, or about $584 billion, it has to shrink or be broken up.
12/ And this......our new Supreme Court.....
13/ SNL on the cellphone Presidential alert....very good....one minute....
14/ Boy I hope Benjamin Studebaker is right......he thinks Kavanaugh being confirmed will improve Dems chances of taking the Senate.....
If you looked at 538’s midterm projects in September, they were pretty good for the Democrats. At one point they showed an 80% chance of taking the House and even a 32% chance of taking the Senate. This was a really significant chance of recapturing both houses–538’s projections only put Trump at a 28% chance of victory in 2016. Trump’s approval had also slid back a bit, to just under 40%.
But then Kavanaugh happened.
15/ Jimmy Kimmel with a clever two minute piece on how Melania is happier out of the country....
16/ Tom Tomorrow sums it up....
17/ A beautiful song from Above and Beyond, Live at Porchester Hall......soft, wistful and for me
one of the best from this live performance. It uses all three of the singers, violins, trumpet and even a broom.....wonderful!
And the photography is amazing too....
18/ I've not heard of this show, but it sounds really, really good...."The Good Place"....
How do hands move in heaven? Ted Danson knows. Watch him in “The Good Place,” NBC’s circle-squaring philosophical sitcom about life, death, good, evil, redemption and frozen yogurt. As Danson speaks, his hands flutter and hover in front of him like a pair of trained birds. They poke and swirl, pinch and twist. They snap suddenly ahead to accent a word as if they’re plucking a feather from a passing breeze. Danson is tall and slim — he was a basketball star growing up — and his hands are expressively large. He can move them, when he needs to, with the long-fingered languor of Michelangelo’s God reaching out to touch Adam. On the show, Danson plays an “architect” of the afterlife named Michael, a sort of immortal Willy Wonka who dresses in bright suits and bow ties. He is always flying into spasms of delight over the fascinating novelties of human culture — paper clips, suspenders, karaoke, Skee-Ball — and in one scene he gets so celestially excited that he lunges into a squat, holds his arms out in front of him and gyrates his wrists like an electric mixer on full blast. “How do you pump your fist again?” he asks. “Is this it?”
Todays medical joke
An old guy goes to his doctor for his physical and gets sent to the Urologist as a precaution.
When he gets there, he discovers the Urologist is a very pretty female doctor.
The female doctor says,"I'm going to check your prostate today, but this new procedure is a little different from what you are probably used to.
I want you to lie on your right side,bend your knees, then while I check your prostate, take a deep breath and say, '99'".
The old guy obeys and says,"99".
The doctor says, "Great", now turn over on your left side and again, while I repeat the check, take a deep breath and say, '99'".
Again, the old guy says, "99". The doctor said, “Very good”.
"Now then, I want you to lie on your back with your knees raised slightly.
I'm going to check your prostate with this hand, and with the other hand I'm going to hold on to your penis to keep it out of the way.
Now take a deep breath and say, '99'".
The old guy begins,
"One... two… three…"
When he gets there, he discovers the Urologist is a very pretty female doctor.
The female doctor says,"I'm going to check your prostate today, but this new procedure is a little different from what you are probably used to.
I want you to lie on your right side,bend your knees, then while I check your prostate, take a deep breath and say, '99'".
The old guy obeys and says,"99".
The doctor says, "Great", now turn over on your left side and again, while I repeat the check, take a deep breath and say, '99'".
Again, the old guy says, "99". The doctor said, “Very good”.
"Now then, I want you to lie on your back with your knees raised slightly.
I'm going to check your prostate with this hand, and with the other hand I'm going to hold on to your penis to keep it out of the way.
Now take a deep breath and say, '99'".
The old guy begins,
"One... two… three…"
Todays joke collection
A woman was having a passionate affair with an inspector from a pest-control company.. One afternoon they were carrying on in the bedroom together when her husband arrived home unexpectedly.
'Quick,' said the woman to the lover, 'into the closet!' and she pushed him in the closet, stark naked.
The husband, however, became suspicious and after a search of the bedroom discovered the man in the closet..
'Who are you?' he asked him..
'I'm an inspector from Bugs-B-Gone,' said the exterminator.
'What are you doing in there?' the husband asked..
'I'm investigating a complaint about an infestation of moths,' the man replied.
'And where are your clothes?' asked the husba nd.
The man looked down at himself and said, 'Those little bastards!'........
------------------------------
'Quick,' said the woman to the lover, 'into the closet!' and she pushed him in the closet, stark naked.
The husband, however, became suspicious and after a search of the bedroom discovered the man in the closet..
'Who are you?' he asked him..
'I'm an inspector from Bugs-B-Gone,' said the exterminator.
'What are you doing in there?' the husband asked..
'I'm investigating a complaint about an infestation of moths,' the man replied.
'And where are your clothes?' asked the husba nd.
The man looked down at himself and said, 'Those little bastards!'........
------------------------------
Wife: 'What are you doing?'
Husband: Nothing.
Wife: 'Nothing ...? You've been reading our marriage certificate for an hour.'
Husband: 'I was looking for the expiration date.'
------------------------------
Wife : 'Do you want dinner?'
Husband: 'Sure! What are my choices?'
Wife: 'Yes or no.'
------------------------------
Stress Reliever
Girl: 'When we get married, I want to share all your worries, troubles and lighten your burden.'
Boy: 'It's very kind of you, darling, but I don't have any worries or troubles.'
Gil: 'Well that's because we aren't married yet.'
----------------------------
Husband: Nothing.
Wife: 'Nothing ...? You've been reading our marriage certificate for an hour.'
Husband: 'I was looking for the expiration date.'
------------------------------
Wife : 'Do you want dinner?'
Husband: 'Sure! What are my choices?'
Wife: 'Yes or no.'
------------------------------
Stress Reliever
Girl: 'When we get married, I want to share all your worries, troubles and lighten your burden.'
Boy: 'It's very kind of you, darling, but I don't have any worries or troubles.'
Gil: 'Well that's because we aren't married yet.'
----------------------------
Son: 'Mum, when I was on the bus with Dad this morning, he told me to give up my seat to a lady.'
Mom: 'Well, you have done the right thing.'
Son: 'But mum, I was sitting on daddy's lap.'
____________________________
A newly married man asked his wife, 'Would you have married me if my father hadn't left me a fortune?'
'Honey,' the woman replied sweetly, 'I'd have married you, no matter who left you the fortune!'
------------------------------
Mom: 'Well, you have done the right thing.'
Son: 'But mum, I was sitting on daddy's lap.'
____________________________
A newly married man asked his wife, 'Would you have married me if my father hadn't left me a fortune?'
'Honey,' the woman replied sweetly, 'I'd have married you, no matter who left you the fortune!'
------------------------------
A wife asked her husband: 'What do you like most in me, my pretty face or my sexy body?'
He looked at her from head to toe and replied: 'I like your sense of humour!'
He looked at her from head to toe and replied: 'I like your sense of humour!'
______________________________
Husbands are husbands
A man was sitting reading his papers when his wife hit him round the head with a frying pan.
'What was that for?' the man asked.
The wife replied 'That was for the piece of paper with the name Jenny on it that I found in your pants pocket'..
The man then said 'When I was at the races last week Jenny was the name of the horse I bet on'. The wife apologized and went on with the housework..
Three days later the man is watching TV when his wife bashes him on the head with an even bigger frying pan, knocking him unconscious.
Upon re-gaining consciousness the man asked why she had hit him again.
Wife replied.. 'Your horse phoned'.
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