1/ Frank Rich on Republican impeachment panic....
House Republicans gather to speak at a press conference on impeachment organized by Representative Matt Gaetz on Capitol Hill on October 23, 2019. Photo: Alex Wroblewski/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, diplomat William Taylor’s “smoking gun” Ukraine testimony, Trump’s fading GOP support on impeachment, and the Democratic Party’s Hail Mary attempts to hold off Warren and Sanders.
Congressional testimony this week by William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, laid out an explicit quid pro quo linking U.S. military aid for Ukraine to a Biden investigation, and detailing the rogue “diplomacy” driven by Rudy Giuliani. Is this the “smoking gun” Democrats have been waiting for?
2/ Last weeks SNL cold open with Alec Baldwin as Trump.....a pretty good six minutes....
3/ This article is titled - "Dear Trump supporters - it's over between us".....see if you feel this way too
about some of your acquaintances!
4/ Bill Maher lectures Democrats - "You've Got Nowhere Else to Go"! Five very good minutes....
5/ Andrew Sullivan with his three essays.....for New York Magazine....
The first is about trans gerderism, second is about the case against impeachment, third is about Obama....
Photo: Jonathan Kirn/Getty Images
Earlier this week, I met a
group of women in their early 20s who are not
supposed to
exist.
They’re women who, in their teens, realized that they were actually men, socially transitioned to the other sex, and then underwent hormone therapy to change their bodies, faces, and voices to become transgender men. After varying amounts of time, however, they all realized they had made a big mistake, stopped testosterone therapy, and “detransitioned” back to being who they were before. They are now embarrassed, they say, but not ashamed. “I don’t identify as anything,” one of them told me. “I just have two X chromosomes in the bag.”
6/ Weekend Update with Eric and Don Jr.......three good minutes....
7/ David Leonhard in the Times with advice on how to beat Trump - focus on the corruption!
House Democrats are doing the right thing by pursuing impeachment against President Trump. But it does create a political quandary for their party.
Democrats have been most successful against Trump when they have focused on his unpopular policies, as they did during
the 2017 fight over Obamacare and
the 2018 midterms. They have been least successful when focusing on his outrageous behavior, as Hillary Clinton did in her 2016 campaign. Trump’s supporters seem to take his personality as a given and aren’t moved by complaints about it. Some fraction of them, however, can evidently be swayed by his failure to live up to his policy promises.
8/ Jimmy Kimmel did a mash-up of Obama and Trump.....amusing but painful....one minute....
9/ A thoughtful article from Umair, on how downwardly mobile white men [Trumpies] are betraying America....and why.
Check out the jaw-dropping picture above — which by now you might have seen. Now think about Senators travelling constantly to Moscow for reasons unknown. Then consider a President who’s more loyal to Russian self-interest than he is to any vaguely American ideal.
America today faces a (yet another) crisis that’s as weird and bizarre as it is gruesome. School shootings? Opioid epidemics? Retirees living in their cars and working at Walmart? Insulin which costs ten times what it does in Pakistan or Iran?
Try the quislings of American collapse.
10/ Movie review from Vox - "Terminator - Dark Fate".....they like it!
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Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate. Paramount Pictures
Either by design or stroke of luck, the Terminator franchise is set up brilliantly for logically explainable reboots. This isn’t a Hulk or Fantastic Four situation, where you just start all over again. In the time-traveling Terminator world invented by James Cameron in 1984, movies can easily be both sequels and reboots.
11/ Chance the Rapper [SNL Host} as a sports reporter out of his depth! Amusing, four minutes....
12/ Good story from NPR on how to pick your streaming service/TV service....might save you money, also screwing Comcast!
What's your strategy for watching TV?
That might sound like an obvious question. ("Turn it on?") But there will soon exist so many high-profile streaming services that the concept of watching TV — and how to do it without breaking your bank account — will be redefined.
Todays awful jokes
1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The Ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.
2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."
3. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: "A beer please, and one for the road."
6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"
7. "Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.'" "That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome." "Is it common?" Well, "It's Not Unusual."
8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," says Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" exclaims Daisy.
9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.
10. Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.
11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.
12. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!" The doctor replied, "I know you can't I've cut off your arms!"
13. I went to a seafood disco last week... and pulled a mussel.
14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.
15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says Dam!"
16. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
17. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why," they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."
18. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.
19. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him. (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good...) A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
20. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did!!!!!!!!
Todays retiree joke
Working people frequently ask us retired people what we do to make our days interesting.
For example, just the other day my wife and I went into town and visited a shop, browsing
for a while. When we came out, there was a parking meter cop writing out a parking ticket.
I went up to him and I said, 'Come on, man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?'
He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him an asshole. He glared at me
and started writing another ticket for having worn-out tires.
So Liz called him a shit head. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield
with the first. Then he started writing more tickets.
This went on for about ten minutes - the more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote.
Just then......our bus arrived, and we got on it and went home. We weren't too concerned about the
vehicle's owner because of the sticker on the back window:
Trump 2020
We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's important at our age.
