1/ I hope Frank Rich is right.....
They can put up with a lot, but now he’s threatening their donors’ bottom line. Photo: Alex Wong/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 consequences of Trump’s erratic moves at home and abroad.
With the harsh words of Secretary of Defense James Mattis’s resignation, the unexpected withdrawal from Syria, and the about-face toward a looming government shutdown, some close to President Trump’s Washington feel like we’ve been thrown back into the chaotic early days of the administration, while others worry that “the wheels may be coming off.” Is it right to read this as the beginning of the end?
The beginning of the end of the Trump presidency came and went a long time ago.
2/ Seth Meyers with a summary of the week's news....a very good 11 minutes....
On Thursday night, Late Night host Seth Meyers mocked Senior Advisor to the President Stephen Miller.
Meyers’ remarks came on the same day as Miller appeared in a lengthy and contentious interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
After introducing Miller with sound effects and a “you rang?” reminiscent of Lurch, Meyers noted Trump’s”creepiest aide” once went on CNN to make Trump look good “by comparison” and by repeatedly “calling him a genius.”
3/ This is indeed a provocative article from the Times....
It really makes one think....you might not like your conclusion, but it is what it is....
An overgrown lot along Highway 13 near the town of Haleyville, Ala.
There are stirrings of discussion these days in philosophical circles about the prospect of human extinction. This should not be surprising, given the increasingly threatening predations of climate change. In reflecting on this question, I want to suggest an answer to a single question, one that hardly covers the whole philosophical territory but is an important aspect of it. Would human extinction be a tragedy?
To get a bead on this question, let me distinguish it from a couple of other related questions. I’m not asking whether the experience of humans coming to an end would be a bad thing. (In these pages, Samuel Scheffler has given us an important reason to think that it would be.) I am also not asking whether human beings as a species deserve to die out. That is an important question, but would involve different considerations. Those questions, and others like them, need to be addressed if we are to come to a full moral assessment of the prospect of our demise. Yet what I am asking here is simply whether it would be a tragedy if the planet no longer contained human beings. And the answer I am going to give might seem puzzling at first. I want to suggest, at least tentatively, both that it would be a tragedy and that it might just be a good thing.
4/ Jimmy Kimmel with the Trump hotline....two amusing minutes....
Jimmy Kimmel had some fun at the expense of a telephone hotline set up by Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign that urges supporters to call and thank the president.
Kimmel dialed into his own spoof version of the number on Tuesday night, and was somewhat surprised by the options.
“For instructions in English, press 1 now. For instructions in Spanish, go back to wherever the hell you came from,” said a voice, which Kimmel jokingly claimed was Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale, who’s featured in the original ad.
5/ Paul Krugman with an excellent column on the complete ruthlessness of Republicans in pursuit of power.....Democrats, the game has changed.
Great writing...
The midterm elections were, to an important extent, a referendum on the Affordable Care Act; health care, not Donald Trump, dominated Democratic campaigning. And voters delivered a clear verdict: They want Obamacare’s achievements, the way it expanded coverage to roughly 20 million people who would otherwise have been uninsured, to be sustained.But on Friday, Reed O’Connor, a partisan Republican judge known for “weaponizing” his judicial power, declared the A.C.A. as a whole — protection for pre-existing conditions, subsidies to help families afford coverage, and the Medicaid expansion — unconstitutionalhttps://www.
6/ Sam Bee on Christmas with Mueller.....a funny five minutes....
Samantha Bee gathered with her fellow “Muelliacs” on Wednesday’s Full Frontal, celebrating Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s latest legal moves connected to President Trump’s associates in the Russia investigation. “Lying to federal investigators [is] a crime,” the host said. “We don’t know if any of this will come back on Trump in the end, but at least a few more of the people who surround him will go to jail. And in the spirit of the holidays, let me just say it is fun to watch these stooges squirm.”
The host focused on the latest developments regarding Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Trump himself – including the president submitting his written answers to Mueller’s questions. “Presumably it took so long because every other time he tried to answer them, he got burger juice on them and then tried to eat them,” she cracked. “He’s a hungry boy.
7/ Hmmm....
8/ Stephen Colbert's opener Friday night.....an amusing four minutes....
Of all the things that could’ve linked former president Richard Nixon to current president Donald Trump in our “political climate,” their drawl and penchant for scandalous activities are taking a temporary back-seat in favor of some Florida hospitality. Because as Stephen Colbert realized on The Late Show last night, Trump is heading off to his balmy Mar-a-Lago compound for the remainder of the year, a move that, gasp, held major significance for Nixon’s administration decades ago. “Coincidentally, Richard Nixon went to Mar-a-Lago a month before he resigned from the presidency,”
9/ Miami - fascinating story about how climate change is leading to climate gentrification and displacement of minorities as richer Miamians go to higher ground, in this case up from seven feet above sea level to 16 feet which is the highest point in Dade County........but happens to be a poor area.
The story includes a three minute video....
Miami has a housing crisis, and Pugh is one of its victims. Soaring rents have led to a shortage of affordable housing, which in turn has led to a surge in slum conditions. For some owners, allowing apartments to disintegrate is pure neglect; for others, it’s a strategy to turf out tenants to make it easier to sell up. But whatever the reason, when residents like Pugh are forced to leave their rundown apartments, many find it impossible to afford another home in the neighborhood.
10/ Melania Trump [Italian actress Laura Benanti] on the Colbert show with musical Christmas greetings to all of us.....a hilarious five minutes....
Actress Laura Benanti jumped back into character as Melania Trump to make a song and dance special about spending Christmas without Donald Trump for Thursday’s broadcast of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
The bogus FLOTUS zinged her husband and his administration’s policies, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and Vice President Mike Pence as she patiently waited for the president to show up to record their holiday message.
But when she learned that Trump was tied up with official (Santa-related) work, the fake first lady burst into song.
“I could grab my bag and march out that door, but I really really really don’t want to be poor!” she sang.
11/ Tom Tomorrow with [maybe] your neighbors?
12/ A new and very interesting theory on why Republicans and Democrats see the world differently....
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“Of the many factors that make up your worldview, one is more fundamental than any other in determining which side of the divide you gravitate toward: your perception of how dangerous the world is. Fear is perhaps our most primal instinct, after all, so it’s only logical that people’s level of fearfulness informs their outlook on life.”
That’s political scientists Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler, writing in their book Prius or Pickup, which marshals a massive trove of survey data and experimental evidence to argue that the roots of our political divides run so deep that they make us almost incomprehensible to one another. Our political divisions, they say, aren’t about policy disagreements, or even demographics. They’re about something more ancient in how we view the world.
Hetherington and Weiler call these worldviews, which express themselves in everything from policy preferences to parenting styles, “fixed” versus “fluid.”
13/ Trevor Noah with a six minute piece about how the Russians suppressed the black vote....and his correspondent Dulce Sloan is wonderful....
More than two years after the 2016 election, “we’re still learning about how deep the Russian rabbit hole goes,” Trevor Noah said on Tuesday’s broadcast of “The Daily Show.”
“Russia’s interference in the election is a serious thing,” Noah said, “especially because they targeted one group in particular”: African-Americans.
He then asked “Daily Show” correspondent Dulce Sloan about what she thought of Russia’s efforts to suppress the black vote.
14/ This is incredible footage....Peter Jackson has taken WW1 British army film and enhanced and colorized it.....
There are four short clips in the story from the Times, and they are incredible....
As the director of elaborate fantasy epics like the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogies, Peter Jackson has become known for meticulous attention to detail. Now he has put the same amount of care into making a documentary.
With “They Shall Not Grow Old,” Jackson has applied new technology to century-old World War I footage to create a vivid, you-are-there feeling that puts real faces front and center and allows us to hear their stories in their own words.
The documentary, which will screen nationwide Dec. 17 and Dec. 27,concentrates on the experiences of British soldiers as revealed in footage from the archives of the Imperial War Museum. Jackson and his team have digitally restored the footage, adjusted its frame rate, colorized it and converted it to 3-D.
"They Shall Not Grow Old" trailer....
15/ One of the skits SNL had this week was a pretty funny 4 minute sketch about the band Weezer, with hilarity from Matt Damon and Leslie Jones....it's pretty funny, but apparently Weezer is an unusual band in that they had their big hits in the 90's but have reinvented themselves for the millennials....
I am not a fan, but found this an interesting analysis of the comedy.....the SNL skit is in the article....
Photo: Jeff Daly/Invision/AP/REX/
The most recent episode of Saturday Night Live featured a sketch where an entire dinner table got into a debate about whether Weezer is still a good band, prompted by their cover of Toto’s “Africa” coming up on shuffle. In the interest of taking this sketch to its very extreme endpoint, Vulture Music editor Sam Hockley-Smith, music columnist Craig Jenkins, music writer Dee Lockett, editor Neil Janowitz, and staff writer (and former classmate of Rivers Cuomo) Abraham Riesman took all of the talking points raised during the sketch and sort of earnestly discussed them all.
Also their video "Pork and Beans" below is super catchy and funny....guaranteed to get the toes tapping....
16/ Seven Netflix movies to watch during the Holidays....
There are two camps of holiday movies: those with mistletoes, round men in red suits with white whiskers, and borish romances that convince no one of anything, and then there are those that simply carry the essence of the holidays.
We've reached December's mid-point, which means by now we've had our fill of The Grinch, A Christmas Story, and Love Actually. For those who simply cannot take anymore, we have compiled this list of alt-holiday classics for you to watch while you're high at home on your parents' couch until the new year.
17/ The best TV of 2018, from the Times' critics....
The best series of the year included, from left, “The Americans,” with Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell; “Killing Eve,” with Sandra Oh; “Atlanta,” with Lakeith Stanfield and Donald Glover; and “Lodge 49,” with Wyatt Russell.
18/ The best movies of 2018, from the Times....
The year’s best movies include, clockwise from top left, “Minding the Gap,” “First Reformed,” “Burning,” “Happy as Lazzaro” and “Private Life.”
Todays religious joke....
Todays religious joke...
Three guys die together in an accident and go to heaven. When they get there, St. Peter says, "We only have one rule here in heaven: Don't step on the ducks!"
So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first guy accidentally steps on one.
Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest woman he has ever seen. St. Peter chains them together and says, "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to the ugly woman!"
The next day, the second guy steps accidentally on a duck, and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing, and with him is another extemely ugly woman. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first guy.
The third guy has observed all this and not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly woman, is very, VERY careful where he steps. He manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to him with the most gorgeous woman he has ever laid eyes on: a very tall, tan, curvaceous, sexy blonde. St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.
The guy remarks, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?"
She says, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck!"
Todays historical joke
An 18th-century vagabond in England, exhausted and famished, came to a roadside Inn with a sign reading: "George and the Dragon." He knocked.
The Innkeeper's wife stuck her head out a window. "Could ye spare some victuals?" He asked.
The woman glanced at his shabby, dirty clothes. "No!" she shouted.
"Could I have a pint of ale?"
"No!" she shouted.
"Could I at least sleep in your stable?"
"No!" she shouted again.
The vagabond said, "Might I please...?"
"What now?" the woman screeched, not allowing him to finish.
"D'ye suppose," he asked, "that I might have a word with George?"
So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first guy accidentally steps on one.
Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest woman he has ever seen. St. Peter chains them together and says, "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to the ugly woman!"
The next day, the second guy steps accidentally on a duck, and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing, and with him is another extemely ugly woman. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first guy.
The third guy has observed all this and not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly woman, is very, VERY careful where he steps. He manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to him with the most gorgeous woman he has ever laid eyes on: a very tall, tan, curvaceous, sexy blonde. St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.
The guy remarks, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?"
She says, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck!"
Todays historical joke
An 18th-century vagabond in England, exhausted and famished, came to a roadside Inn with a sign reading: "George and the Dragon." He knocked.
The Innkeeper's wife stuck her head out a window. "Could ye spare some victuals?" He asked.
The woman glanced at his shabby, dirty clothes. "No!" she shouted.
"Could I have a pint of ale?"
"No!" she shouted.
"Could I at least sleep in your stable?"
"No!" she shouted again.
The vagabond said, "Might I please...?"
"What now?" the woman screeched, not allowing him to finish.
"D'ye suppose," he asked, "that I might have a word with George?"
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