1/. The excellent Frank Rich with an essay on how history will treat Trump's enablers like Lindsey Graham....the answer is not well....
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Irony, declared dead after 9/11, is alive and kicking in Trump’s America. It’s the concepts of truth and shame that are on life support. The definition of “facts” has been so thoroughly vandalized that Americans can no longer agree on what one is, and our president has barreled through so many crimes and misdemeanors with so few consequences that it’s impossible to gainsay his claim that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Donald Trump proves daily that there is no longer any penalty for doing wrong as long as you deny everything, never say you’re sorry, and have co-conspirators stashed in powerful places to put the fix in.
2/. Trevor Noah summarizes the Iran situation, and make sure you watch the last minute...seven minutes...
3/. Paul Krugman with an excellent column on how the US has squandered any credibility internationally under Trump, and why
the Iran situation is so dangerous. Some perceptive insights....
International crises often lead, at least initially, to surging support for a country’s leadership. And that’s clearly happening now. Just weeks ago the nation’s leader faced public discontent so intense that his grip on power seemed at risk. Now the assassination of Qassim Suleimani has transformed the situation, generating a wave of patriotism that has greatly bolstered the people in charge.
Unfortunately, this patriotic rallying around the flag is happening not in America, where many are (with good reason) deeply suspicious of Donald Trump’s motives, but in Iran.
4/. Trump has bought a Super Bowl ad, and Stephen Colbert got hold of it......20 seconds....
5/. The title is "Australia Is Committing Climate Suicide".....and the author explains how geography and politics are coming together with a vengeance...
BRUNY ISLAND, Australia — Australia today is ground zero for the climate catastrophe. Its glorious Great Barrier Reef is dying, its world-heritage rain forests are burning, its giant kelp forests have largely vanished, numerous towns have run out of water or are about to, and now the vast continent is burning on a scale never before seen.
The images of the fires are a cross between “Mad Max” and “On the Beach”: thousands driven onto beaches in a dull orange haze, crowded tableaux of people and animals almost medieval in their strange muteness — half-Bruegel, half-Bosch, ringed by fire, survivors’ faces hidden behind masks and swimming goggles. https://www.nytimes.
6/. Seth Meyers on Iran and Trump.....an informative and amusing 12 minutes....
7/. The nightmare has become true....there are no sane people left on Trump's team, and he is now free to do whatever his diseased mind wants,
unchecked by his sycophants.....excellent column from Michelle Goldberg....
There are no more adults in the room.
After three harrowing years, we’ve reached the point many of us feared from the moment Donald Trump was elected. His decision to kill Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s second most important official, made at Mar-a-Lago with little discernible deliberation, has brought the United States to the brink of a devastating new conflict in the Middle East.
We don’t yet know how Iran will retaliate, or whether all-out war will be averted. But already,
NATO has suspended its mission training Iraqi forces to fight ISIS. Iraq’s Parliament has voted to expel
American troops — a longtime Iranian objective.
8/. Fascinating and insightful story on why the poor keep voting for the rich. The author really gives us the background on how the oligarchy keeps control.
Well worth reading...
Why do the poor keep voting for political parties and corporate bodies that can only exist by exploiting their vulnerabilities and their trust? What are the social and psychological stressors that cause this?
- Although we’ve seen brutal authoritarian nationalism rise and fall within the lifetimes of our own living relatives, why have Western democracies now made such a synchronised lurch to the right (with particular focus on the Trump and Johnson administrations)?
- There’s always been lies in politics — but why, has Western political campaigning now entirely abandoned the truth as a necessary component of the election cycle?
- Within public conversation, why are we reduced to two equally ridiculous, warring possibilities: corporate-powered, free-market capitalism or Soviet-bloc communism?
9/. The great Tom Tomorrow
10/. Paul Krugman with another great column.....how the media is finally accepting climate change is real and
making weather events worse....but it still doesn't convince Republicans....
The past week’s images from Australia have been nightmarish: walls of flame, blood-red skies, residents huddled on beaches as they try to escape the inferno. The bush fires have been so intense that they have generated “fire tornadoes” powerful enough to flip over heavy trucks.
The thing is, Australia’s summer of fire is only the latest in a string of catastrophic weather events over the past year: unprecedented flooding in the Midwest, a heat wave in India that sent temperatures to 123 degrees, another heat wave that brought unheard-of temperatures to much of Europe.
11/. Matt Taibbi looks and the year in media, and it's not pretty. You should read this because it applies not just to the despicable Fox News, but also to MSNBC with their endless array of talking heads. Not saying don't watch it, but keep your skeptical hat on....
As 2019 wound down, well-known press figures sounded alarms about the “erosion of truth.” MSNBC’s Chuck Todd spoke to our own Peter Wade about the “epidemic” of “disinformation.” Washington Post editor Marty Baron and New York Times editor Dean Baquet joined Todd on Meet The Press to talk about how the Internet and Donald Trump and Russia are all combining to create an era in which “crazy conspiracy theories” and “absolute falsehoods and lies” can proliferate.
This isn’t a new idea. Since 2016 especially, a wide array of American politicians and think-tanks have been hammering the idea that the free media of the “post-Cold War democratic order” is under outside threat.
12/. Ricky Gervais was exceptionally rude, but funny at the Golden Globes Sunday.....watch celebs and executives with
pained smiles.....some good zingers here....7 minutes...
13/. Umair with one of his better columns, "What Happens When People Find Out Capitalism Is a Lie?" Really interesting, and if he is right we are in for some rocky times ahead....
It’s hardly just America. In Britain, there is the spectacular folly of Brexit. Australia is burning, even while the government refuses to take climate change seriously. The world is destabilizing, fracturing, unravelling, coming undone. Why? And what does the future hold?
The truth, my friends, may be grimmer — and yet a little more hopeful, in a strange and funny way — than you might think. Let me start at the beginning.
For the last few decades, the world has been held together with a lie. The lie that held the world together was capitalism. Like all lies, it was a tenuous thing, made of duct tape and string, dreams and prayers.
14/. The Times with 50 TV shows to watch this year....
Every season we say it, and every season it’s true: There’s more intriguing television on the way than ever. The pressure to binge feels particularly intense this winter — the 50 highlights below (ordered by their premiere dates) were drawn from a much longer list of new and returning shows arriving in the next three months.
The analysts say that the 10-figure budgets currently being thrown around are unsustainable, so enjoy the great bingeing bubble of the early 21st century while you can. It’s too early for reviews of these shows, and many of them weren’t available to preview. But you probably couldn’t go too far wrong devoting some time to “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay,” “Better Call Saul,” “Little Fires Everywhere” and “Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker.”
15/. And TV from the past....the best 50 shows on Netflix....
Netflix adds original programming at such a steady clip that it can be hard to keep up with which of its dramas, comedies and reality shows are must-sees. And that’s not including all the TV series Netflix picks up from broadcast and cable networks. Below is our regularly updated guide to the 50 best shows on Netflix in the United States, ranked alphabetically. Each recommendation comes with a secondary pick, too, for 100 suggestions in all.
Todays video - the tipping scene from Quentin Tarantino's great movie "Reservoir Dogs", with Steve Buscemi as
Mr. Pink, who doesn't believe in tipping.....a classic.......
Todays Cabbie joke
A man walked out to the street and caught a taxi just going by.
He got into the taxi, and the cabbie said, "Perfect timing. You're just like Brian"
Passenger: "Who?"
Cabbie: "Brian Sullivan. He's a guy who did everything right all the time. Like my coming along when you needed a cab, things happened like that to Brian Sullivan, every single time."
Passenger: "There are always a few clouds over everybody."
Cabbie: "Not Brian Sullivan. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang like an opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy."
Passenger: "Sounds like he was something really special."
Cabbie: "There's more. He had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody's birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order and which fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Brian Sullivan, he could do everything right."
Passenger: "Wow. Some guy then."
Cabbie: "He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid traffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. But Brian, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman and make her feel good. He would never answer her back even if she was in the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highly polished too. He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No one could ever measure up to Brian Sullivan."
Passenger: "An amazing fellow. How did you meet him?"
Cabbie: "Well, I never actually met Brian. He died. I'm married to his f-king widow."
Todays retiree joke
Yesterday I was at my local Publix buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Jake, the Wonder Dog and was in the check-out line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
What did she think I had an elephant?
So because I'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina Nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.)
Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me.
I told her no, I stopped to pee on a fire hydrant and a car hit me.
I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.
Publix won't let me shop there anymore.
Publix won't let me shop there anymore.
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