1/. Andrew Sullivan with an excellent column on conservatives and climate change...
Trump continues to ignore climate change, even after witnessing its effects in places like Paradise, California. Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
A cartoon popped up in my Twitter feed last week that seemed the perfect coda for the latest, congressionally mandated report on climate change. It shows a dinosaur looking up into the heavens at night, at all the twinkling stars. His smiling face utters the words: “The dot that gets bigger and bigger each night is my favorite.”
I’m relieved, I suppose, that Trump officials didn’t actually suppress, censor, or doctor volume two of the Fourth National Climate Assessment. All they did was release it on the Friday after Thanksgiving, suggesting that somewhere deep in what passes for someone’s conscience in this putrid presidency, some residual shame might linger. http://nymag.com/
2/. SNL with a very funny "Morning Joe" skit.....five amusing minutes....
3/. Wow. Wow. A major investigation into the billionaire Jeffrey Epstein by the Miami Herald, and how Epstein with the help of many household names was essentially let off from sex offender charges by a combination of blackmail and bribery....
Great journalism and a fascinating read....
A follow up today [Wednesday] is that Epstein settled the first lawsuit brought by victims....but this story isn't over.
Palm Beach County Courthouse
June 30, 2008
Jeffrey Edward Epstein appeared at his sentencing dressed comfortably in a blue blazer, blue shirt, jeans and gray sneakers. His attorney, Jack Goldberger, was at his side.
At the end of the 68-minute hearing, the 55-year-old silver-haired financier — accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls — was fingerprinted and handcuffed, just like any other criminal sentenced in Florida.
But inmate No. W35755 would not be treated like other convicted sex offenders in the state of Florida, which has some of the strictest sex offender laws in the nation.
Ten years before the #MeToo movement raised awareness about the kid-glove handling of powerful men accused of sexual abuse, Epstein’s lenient sentence and his extraordinary treatment while in custody are still the source of consternation for the victims he was accused of molesting when they were minors.
Beginning as far back as 2001, Epstein lured a steady stream of underage girls to his Palm Beach mansion to engage in nude massages, masturbation, oral sex and intercourse, court and police records show. The girls — mostly from disadvantaged, troubled families — were recruited from middle and high schools around Palm Beach.
4/. A pretty good Colbert monologue, where he "explains" Trump's tariff issues and Michael Cohen's plea deal....eight minutes....
On Tuesday, Stephen Colbert said in his opening monologue on The Late Show that Donald Trump’s claims to have a trade cease fire with China was such an obvious lie that “even the Fox and Friends weren’t buying it.”
“You know how Donald Trump keeps saying he’s going to make America great again? Turns out the ‘Great’ might be short for ‘Great Depression’,”
5/. Interesting article titled "The Other Side Isn't Dumb", and it's a reasoned attempt to make us understand there are always two sides to every story.....
I completely agree, but it's hard when it comes to Trumpies....
There’s a fun game I like to play in a group of trusted friends called “Controversial Opinion.” The rules are simple: Don’t talk about what was shared during Controversial Opinion afterward and you aren’t allowed to “argue” — only to ask questions about why that person feels that way. Opinions can range from “I think James Bond movies are overrated” to “I think Donald Trump would make an excellent president.”
Usually, someone responds to an opinion with, “Oh my god! I had no idea you were one of those people!” Which is really another way of saying “I thought you were on my team!”
In psychology, the idea that everyone is like us is called the “false-consensus bias.”
6/. I thought I had seen most of the ways we have destroyed our planet, but this is a new one - insects are being decimated. Apparently there has been a huge drop in the number of insects, with consequences we aren't sure about. A very, very interesting article from the Times.
Also I think one of the reasons we are seeing more of these stories about the collapse of our natural systems is that normally cautious scientists are very worried, and are speaking out about the probabilities of something happening instead of waiting till they can 100% prove their case.....about time - speak up Professors....
Sune Boye Riis was on a bike ride with his youngest son, enjoying the sun slanting over the fields and woodlands near their home north of Copenhagen, when it suddenly occurred to him that something about the experience was amiss. Specifically, something was missing.
It was summer. He was out in the country, moving fast. But strangely, he wasn’t eating any bugs.
For a moment, Riis was transported to his childhood on the Danish island of Lolland, in the Baltic Sea. Back then, summer bike rides meant closing his mouth to cruise through thick clouds of insects, but inevitably he swallowed some anyway. When his parents took him driving, he remembered, the car’s windshield was frequently so smeared with insect carcasses that you almost couldn’t see through it. But all that seemed distant now. He couldn’t recall the last time he needed to wash bugs from his windshield
7/ As a follow up to the insect armageddon story this is an interview with Al Gore by David Wallace-Wells in New York magazine......
Gore still believes that it's possible for the human race to save itself.....I hope he's right....
Al Gore. Photo: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images,
It would probably have been tempting, talking to Al Gore at any point over the 18 years — after 9/11, in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, in the depths of the financial crisis, as Obama failed to pass climate legislation and pushed the Clean Power Plan instead — to wonder what might have been. And what it must be like to be him, and, looking out at the world, wonder the same.
But the presidency of Donald Trump — which happens to coincide with a kind of “crisis” for the internet, one of his signature subjects, and a growing public appreciation for the planetary peril of global warming, his other — is an especially glaring prompt.
8/. And as a follow up to Al Gore's optimism, here is a column from Paul Krugman on what
we are up against politically to try to do anything to help save the planet....
Many observers seem baffled by Republican fealty to Donald Trump — the party’s willingness to back him on all fronts, even after severe defeatsin the midterm elections. What kind of party would show such support for a leader who is not only evidently corrupt and seemingly in the pocket of foreign dictators, but also routinely denies facts and tries to criminalize anyone who points them out?
The answer is, the kind of the party that, long before Trump came on the scene, committed itself to denying the facts on climate change and criminalizing the scientists reporting those facts.
9/ One of Seth Meyer's writers has a segment called "Amber Says What?" It's pretty funny, just ignore the voice for four minutes....
Before Amber Ruffin began writing for Late Night With Seth Meyers, she performed with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam and The Second City. However, a rejection from Saturday Night Live marked a turning point in Ruffin's career.
Ruffin recalled that two days after the audition, she was nannying back in Los Angeles when she received a phone call from Seth Meyers. "I assumed he was calling to say 'I'm sorry you didn't get SNL.' It never occured to me that he had a late night show and that he would want me to write on it."
Meyers initially hired Ruffin as a writer, but as her role on the program expanded, she has
become one of the show's breakout performers, featuring in popular segments such as
"Jokes Seth Can't Tell," "Amber's Minute of Fury" and '"Amber Says What."
10/. The always amusing Tom Tomorrow....
11/. This should be read by Democrats.....Clintonism is gone, most people see through the phoniness...
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (L) and former President Bill Clinton arrive on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. In today's inauguration ceremony Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Twenty-five years ago—when I wrote a book titled “False Hope: The Politics of Illusion in the Clinton Era”—I didn’t expect that the Democratic Party would still be mired in Clintonism two and a half decades later. But such approaches to politics continue to haunt the party and the country.
The last two Democratic presidencies largely involved talking progressive while serving Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. The obvious differences in personalities and behavior of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama diverted attention from their underlying political similarities. In office, both men rarely fought for progressive principles—and routinely undermined them.https://www.commondreams.
12/. Rolling Stone's TV critic with the best new shows to watch in December......
George R. R. Martin's "Nightflyers"...
The end of the year brings a cavalcade of seasonal specials, — and whether you like yours with a side of righteous feminist outrage or glorious drag eleganza, you’re all covered. There’s also a spike in curiosity-piquing nonfiction set for the next few weeks, covering everything from Marilyn Monroe’s legacy to the Sandra Bland death investigation to the spiritual transcendentalism of surfing. All this, plus the return of Starz’s double-your-pleasure sci-fi/espionage thriller and a new Pete Holmes stand-up set on HBO. Here’s what you’ll be watching this month on network and cable TV.
13/. This SNL skit isn't typical, but it's interesting.....five minutes....
There are basically two ways you can build a comedy sketch. If you have the time, you can carefully design an intricate series of escalating comical situations that slowly build toward a climax that is surprising, but in retrospect, inevitable. Or you can just go from one joke to the next with no rhyme or reason, then plaster a musical number on the end in hopes of making your escape in the confusion. Fortunately, the sketch from this week’s Saturday Night Live in which Mikey Day and host Claire Foy carry on an extremely unsatisfying WWI correspondence falls into the prior category:
14/. And there will be many stories about the "Best of 2018" coming this month.....here's the Times
with their pick of the 10 best books of the year...
Todays video - a lone male lion takes on 20 hyenas....
Todays other video - I have never seen close up magic like this guy.....I think he's performing in front of other magicians....
Todays gun joke....
Todays manly golfer joke...
It is important for men to remember that, as women grow older, it becomes harder for them to maintain the same quality of housekeeping as when they were younger. When you notice this, try not to yell at them.
My name is Ron. Let me relate how I handled the situation with my wife, Carol.
When I retired a few years ago, it became necessary for Carol to get a full-time job, along with her part-time job, both for extra income and for the health benefits that we needed.
Shortly after she started working, I noticed she was beginning to show her age. I usually get home from the golf club about the same time she gets home from work. Although she knows how hungry I am, she almost always says she has to rest for half an hour or so before she starts dinner. I don't yell at her. Instead, I tell her to take her time and just wake me when she gets dinner on the table.
I generally have lunch each day in the Men's Grill at the Golf Club, so eating out is not an option in the evening. I'm ready for some home-cooked grub when I hit that door. She used to do the dishes as soon as we finished eating. But now, it's not unusual for them to sit on the table for several hours after dinner. I do what I can by diplomatically reminding her several times each evening that they won't clean themselves. I know she really appreciates this, as it does seem to motivate her to get them done, before she goes to bed.
Another symptom of aging is complaining, I think. For example, she will say that it is difficult for her to find time to pay the monthly bills during her lunch hour. But, boys, we take 'em for better or worse, so I just smile and offer encouragement. I tell her to stretch it out over two, or even three days. That way, she won't have to rush so much. I also remind her that missing lunch completely now and then wouldn't hurt her any (if you know what I mean). I like to think tact is one of my strong points.
When doing simple jobs, she seems to think she needs more rest periods. She had to take a break, when she was only half-finished mowing the front lawn I try not to make a scene. I'm a fair man... I tell her to fix herself a nice, big, cold glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and just sit for a while. And, as long as she is making one for herself, she may as well make one for me, too.
I know that I probably look like a saint in the way I support Carol. I'm not saying that showing this much patience & consideration is easy. Many men will find it difficult. Some will find it impossible! Nobody knows better than I do how frustrating women get as they get older. However, guys, even if you just use a little more tact and less criticism of your aging wife because of this article, I will consider that writing it was well worthwhile. After all, we are put on this earth to help each other.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Ron died suddenly on November 30 of a perforated rectum.
The police report says he was found with a Callaway extra-long 50-inch Big Bertha Driver II golf club jammed up his rear end, with barely 5 inches of grip showing, and a sledge hammer lying nearby.
His wife Carol Anne was arrested and charged with murder...
The all-woman jury took only 10 minutes to find her Not Guilty, accepting her defence that Ron, somehow without looking, accidentally sat down on his golf club.
A hole in one, so to speak!
Todays Canadian joke
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