1/ Frank Rich on the news of the week....
Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/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, Joe Biden’s campaign launch, Trump’s battle against congressional subpoenas, and the White House boycott of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.
After weeks of buildup, Joe Biden has officially launched his presidential campaign with an argument that he’s the best option for stopping a Trump second term and returning things to normal. Is it a convincing pitch?
Biden isn’t the only one who thinks he’s the best man to defeat Trump. Democratic voters favor him in polls, and it’s nearly impossible to find an article about his candidacy that doesn’t reiterate the common perception that he’s the “most electable” of the 20 Democrats in the field.
http://nymag.com/
2/ Bill Maher has a go at Robert Mueller.....interesting.....no one else has! All the media attention is on Barr, but Maher as usual tells it like it might be...
Bill Maher, host of HBO’s Real Time, went after Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday for not prosecuting “corrupt” President Donald Trump. The comedian criticized Mueller’s “Boy Scout” way of “playing it by the book” during a time when America is “off book.”
Maher began his “New Rules” segment by scorching Mueller for his deliberate hard pass even after finding what many think were prosecutable offenses committed by the president, saying, “For over two years, America has had a crazy person in the White House, and for over two years the Democrats have done fuck-all about it because they were waiting for Mueller.”
3/ Everyone is obsessed with the 2020 Presidential race, but even if we get a Dem to oust our would-be dictator he or she won't be able to get anything done with a Republican Senate....so the nightmare of Gubmint paralysis may well continue....
Nightmare creature. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Winter has come. The air stings your skin as you shuffle toward the National Mall. But there are scattered patches of blue in the sky, and sunlight peeking out from behind a cloud. And the crowd that now surrounds you is alive with good cheer. Your fellow Americans are high off civic pride, or their proximity to future history, or possibly marijuana (your nose is stuffy, but you think you think can smell a trace of something skunky on the wind).
He emerges from the Capitol Building. The crowd goes wild. You join their cheer, but can’t make out your own voice above the din. And now you’re not even sure what it is their chanting. But you know their words are not your own. You look up at the nearest television monitor and there it is — that awful, orange face.
http://nymag.com/
4/ Something that is rarely discussed in the media or anywhere else - overpopulation. Sir David Attenborough with a 15 minute talk on how
this is one of the most intractable problems the world faces today.
If you enjoy hearing someone intelligent and articulate speak, listen to this and learn.
5/ Andrew Sullivan on how appeasing Trump is a bad strategy....he feeds from chaos and confusion, and placating
him doesn't work......excellent column....
Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The definition of appeasement, according to Dictionary.com, is “to bring to a state of peace, quiet, ease, calm, or contentment; pacify; soothe: i.e. to appease an angry king” and to “yield or concede to the belligerent demands of (a nation, group, person, etc.) in a conciliatory effort, sometimes at the expense of justice or other principles.”
That’s where we are aren’t we? We are appeasing an angry king. And the usual result of appeasement is that the angry king banks every concession and, empowered and emboldened by his success, gets more aggressive and more power hungry. Far from restraining him, appeasement gives him time to amass strength, until there’s no restraining him at all. By the time it’s absolutely clear that he is a tyrant, it’s too late. That’s the core narrative of every Shakespeare play that charts a historical bid for absolute power. And every one of those plays is a tragedy.
6/ Sam Bee hosted the "Not The Correspondents Dinner" this week, and gave a wonderful four minute roasting of Trump....most amusing....
Samantha Bee delivered a scathing roast of Donald Trump at the second annual Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C. Friday.
With the real White House Correspondents Dinner taking a comedy-free route after Michelle Wolf’s controversial speech in 2018, and with Trump still not attending the annual event, Bee warned the president, “I’m going to roast you as if you are here tonight.”
“I thought long and hard about what I would say if I was ever in the same room as you. I mean, what I’d say after ‘Hey, let go! I’m not a bowling bowl.’ It’s funny because he’s a sexual assaulter,” Bee said.
7/ Look at this very carefully and from different angles.....the "Swamp Of Deplorables"....
8/ Bill Maher's opening monologue.....an amusing and informative five minutes...
9/ Tom Tomorrow nails it again.....
10/ SNL with some new "shows" spun off from Game Of Thrones....amusing, especially if you are a GOT fan....2 minutes...
11/ Book Review - David Wallace-Well's new book [that I am halfway through] "The Uninhabitable Earth".....God it's depressing thinking about the future, especially as there may not be much future left....maybe 10 years of "close to" normality....
A power line catches fire during a massive blaze in Malibu, Calif., in November. Among the scenarios resulting from climate change, David Wallace-Wells warns, are dying oceans, drying rivers, wildfires, plagues of disease, climate wars and rising tides. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
Here is a modest proposal: Climate scientists should shut up about global warming. The gatekeepers for what we know and think about climate change should take a vow of silence and let some other people get a word in edgeways. Because, important though the science is, we need to stop defining the great issue of the 21st century in scientific terms.
If climate change is, as this book successfully argues, a game-changer for everyone, everywhere, all the time, then let’s reflect that in the discourse. We’ve got the science. Let’s bring on the philosophers and playwrights, lawyers and priests, economists and comedians. Society’s response depends on it.
David Wallace-Wells offers a good starting point. His book, “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming,” scares us with tales from a future climate-changed world that transcend climate science.
12/ This is without a doubt one of the strangest SNL pieces ever.....but Rolling Stone liked it, so here it is....four minutes....
Melissa Villaseñor has carved out a niche of developing characters that are inexplicably excited by events that horrify or confuse everyone else. She’s half the reason the season’s best sketch (“Career Day”) works so well: Her enthusiastic response to Abraham H. Parnassus’ machinations is the secret sauce that makes that sketch sing. She’s rarely the lead in sketches, but she’s a wild card that can turn ordinary proceedings into something unpredictable.
13/ This is an article from Forbes on the 20 best cities to retire to.....really interesting, and although there are a few Florida cities on the list it's telling - they put in footnotes like "Elevation 10 feet".....
Even for the we’ll-do-it-our-way Baby Boom generation, retirement usually means two predictable changes: less income and more freedom to live where you please. That’s why so many folks at least consider moving in retirement and why Forbes’ list of The Best Places To Retire In 2019 highlights 25 locales that offer both affordability and a high quality of life.
Our new roster, our ninth annual such list, contains places in 17 states across all four continental time zones. While they vary dramatically by size, climate and culture, all offer excellent retirement value for the buck. The list is in alphabetical order, meaning we consider all equally worthy. Sadly, our quest for affordability excludes most of the Northeast and the West Coast. If you want to live in those regions, check out Forbes’ list of The Best Places To Retire In Each State. If you’re looking for something even farther from home, consider our recent list of the Best Places To Retire Abroad In 2019.
14/ May's TV and streaming options offerings from Rolling Stone....with reviews and trailers...
Serial killers and cuckoo soldiers, talking birds and friendly demons — it’s an everything-and-the-kitchen-
Todays relaxing video....
Todays bear joke....
The Atheist and the Bear
An atheist was taking a walk through the woods. 'What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!', he said to himself.
As he continued walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes. Turning to look, he saw a 7 foot bear charging towards him.
He ran as fast as he could up the path. Looking over his shoulder he saw that the bear was closing in on him. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster.
He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear raising his paw to take a swipe at him.
At that instant the atheist cried out: 'Oh my God!...'
Time stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
It was then that a bright light shone upon the man and a voice came out of the sky saying:
'You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don't exist and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?'
The atheist looked directly into the light.
'It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps, could you make the BEAR a Christian?'
'Very well, 'said the voice. The light went out, and the sounds of the forest resumed.
And then the bear lowered his paw, bowed his head and spoke: 'Lord, bless this food which I am about to receive and for which I am truly thankful, Amen.'
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