1/ Trump's insanity on full display in the White House......
This is not a news conference. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
On Wednesday, 48 U.S. Senators officially affirmed that Donald Trump has abused his power so profoundly that he deserves to be the first president ever removed from office by congressional order. Among those who took this extraordinary stance was one member of the president’s own party. Never before in U.S. history had a senator voted to remove a co-partisan from the White House.
2/ Who's going to save us?
3/ Frank Rich on the disaster that is the DNC and the Democratic Party in general.....bringing a pen knife to a gunfight....
Manage your expectations. Photo: Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via 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 fallout from the Iowa caucus delay, Trump’s post-impeachment presidency, and the rule change that allows Michael Bloomberg into the next Democratic debate.
One of the big hopes of the Iowa caucus was for it to bring clarity to a divided campaign season. Instead, it brought what one former Iowa party chairman has called “a systemwide disaster,” with results still delayed as of this morning. How does this affect the Democratic primary going forward?
The Iowa debacle was not just a gift to Donald Trump but to Vladimir Putin, whose army of Vichy Republicans and social-media bots can now blame Russia’s 2020 election interference on the Democrats as well as Ukraine. And for those who are thinking, oh, this is a one-off disaster that is contained in Iowa that will soon be forgotten, I say, think again. Iowa is but the latest chapter in a rolling Democratic calamity.
4/ Sam Bee with her pithy comments on Trump's acquittal by the Senate.....painfully funny, she finds laughs in this horrible story.....a very good six minutes....
5/ Andrew Sullivan with the end of optimism about our political divide...it's not looking good for us....
Wake up. Illustration: Art Handler
I do not recommend reading the new books by Ezra Klein and Christopher Caldwell one after the other. Klein’s Why We’re Polarized and Caldwell’s The Age of Entitlement come from very different perspectives, but convey a near-paralyzing and plausible pessimism. Klein’s is a political-science explanation of our intensifying cultural and political tribalism, and its incompatibility with functional liberal democracy (a theme I explored here). Caldwell’s is a deeper, wider cultural and constitutional narrative of the last half-century.
6/ The 2020 version of NFL "Bad Lip Reading" is out, and for me the best part is the players [new] names....a very amusing nine minutes....
7/ The biggest crime you have never heard of is the European double tax scandal, and the EU authorities are going after banks, lawyers and stock traders with a vengeance. Most interesting....
They made quite a team.
One was an Oxford-educated wunderkind who handled the complicated math behind the transactions. The other was a beefy, 6-foot-2 New Zealander with an apparent fondness for Hawaiian shirts, who brought in clients and money.
Martin Shields and Paul Mora met in 2004, at the London office of Merrill Lynch. Mr. Shields was always the pupil, a little in awe of the older man’s ability to bluff and charm. Once, after Mr. Mora fended off suspicious auditors at a bank where the two worked, Mr. Shields sent an admiring email.
“Remind me never to play poker with you,” he said, according to an internal report later commissioned by the bank.
Today, the men stand accused of participating in what Le Monde has called “the robbery of the century,” and what one academic declared “the biggest tax theft in the history of Europe.” From 2006 to 2011, these two and hundreds of bankers, lawyers and investors made off with a staggering $60 billion, all of it siphoned from the state coffers of European countries.
8/ Bill Maher with a comedic reporting segment on "What if Trump refuses to leave office?"....one of his
best "New Rules"...five minutes....
9/ A sobering story from the Times on our complete loss of privacy and how you are essentially digitally naked to everyone.
Nothing too bad has happened yet, but it will.....it will....
The debate on privacy and law at the Federal Trade Commission
was unusually heated that day. Tech industry executives “argued that they were capable of regulating themselves and that government intervention would be costly and counterproductive.” Civil libertarians warned that the companies’ data capabilities posed “an unprecedented threat to individual freedom.” One observed, “We have to decide what human beings are in the electronic age. Are we just going to be chattel for commerce?” A commissioner asked, ‘‘Where should we draw the line?” The year was 1997.
was unusually heated that day. Tech industry executives “argued that they were capable of regulating themselves and that government intervention would be costly and counterproductive.” Civil libertarians warned that the companies’ data capabilities posed “an unprecedented threat to individual freedom.” One observed, “We have to decide what human beings are in the electronic age. Are we just going to be chattel for commerce?” A commissioner asked, ‘‘Where should we draw the line?” The year was 1997.
The line was never drawn, and the executives got their way. Twenty-three years later the evidence is in. The fruit of that victory was a new economic logic that I call “surveillance capitalism.”
10/ Definitely one of the wickedest sketches SNL has ever done, and one of the funniest too.....
"Meet Your Second Wife", five minutes....
11/ A story from Rolling Stone ranking Super Bowl half time shows, from best to worst.....wonder how this year's will score?
Chances are it’s the biggest worldwide audience of your life, and getting it right means rising to the hugeness of the moment. Getting it wrong can crush a career. Good luck, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira.
And with Super Bowl 53 set for this Sunday, what better time to rank the Big Game’s halftime shows from worst to best. Here’s a subjective, personal, irresponsible and indefensible breakdown of the winners and losers. The Bonos and Beyoncés and Bru
12/ On of the things that should bother us all is how we are destroying our ecosystems and natural habitats....the Amazon rainforests, northern Alberta etc......but of them all the one closest to home is the Everglades, and between Big Sugar, farming and development it's barely hanging on. A great story with wonderful photographs from the Times....
For years, whenever I found myself in Miami with an afternoon to spare, I sneaked off west to where a road abruptly separates the urban grid from the Everglades. Depending on time, I drove as deep into the saw grass void as I could, parked, got out and gazed up at tropical clouds racing unimpeded by tree or building.
Then, usually, I burst into tears.
Sky and grass. Nothing else. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit that anything in Florida — with its postcard palms plastered against postcard sunsets, its coconut tanning oil and Lily Pulitzer pinks and greens, its schmaltz and buffoonery and hanging chads and “Florida Man,” with his love of Styrofoam, weapons and monster trucks — affects me this way. But it does.
13/ A digestible [one month only, rather than a full year!] story about February"s good TV.....one month is doable...
Every month offers a variety of intriguing new shows and returning favorites. And then there’s this February, which sees everything from the long-awaited return of Bob Odenkirk’s shifty lawyer Saul Goodman to Al Pacino tracking down Nazis in ’70s New York. There’s also a documentary about a long-running fast-food scam, an animated series starring Amy Poehler, and a Netflix series about a psychic teen. Here are your best TV/streaming bets for February.
14/ And February's good movies....
Forget the horror films of 2019 — was there anything scarier than that first Sonic the Hedgehog trailer, featuring a disturbingly toothy rendition of the video game hero? It created such an outcry that the film was bumped to February 2020; thankfully, you’ve got a lot of other choices re: what to check out this month at the movies, from a supervillainess getting her moment in the spotlight to a few fresh literary adaptations, an ingenious new take on a classic Universal monster-movie staple and an A-list American remake of a Swedish black comedy. Here are the 10 things to see this month at a theater near you.
Todays video - "The Honey Badger", narration by Randall.....time for this classic again, and note it's been viewed 70 million times
which is pretty high for a "normal" video, i.e. not Beyonce.........
Todays British joke
I was fed up with being burgled every other day in my neighbourhood. So, I tore out my alarm system & de-registered from our local Neighborhood Watch.
I've planted a Pakistani flag in each corner of my front garden and a large Black Flag of ISIL in its center.
Now, the Yorkshire police, the National Security Bureau, Scotland Yard, MI-5, MI-6, the CIA and every other intelligence service in Europe are all watching my house 24x7x365.
My children are followed to school every day and my wife when she goes shopping. I'm followed to and from work every day. So no one bothers me at all.
I've never felt safer.
Thanks be to Allah.
Todays funny signs jokes
Sign over a Gynecologist's Office: "Dr. Jones, at your cervix." In a Podiatrist's office: "Time wounds all heels." On a Septic Tank Truck: Yesterday's Meals on Wheels At an Optometrist's Office: "If you don't see what you're looking for,
you've come to the right place."
On a Plumber's truck: "We repair what your husband fixed."
On another Plumber's truck: "Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber."
At a Tire Shop in Milwaukee : "Invite us to your next blowout." On an Electrician's truck: "Let us remove your shorts."
In a Non-smoking Area: "If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action."
On a Maternity Room door: "Push. Push. Push."
At a Car Dealership: "The best way to get back on your feet -miss a car payment."
Outside a Muffler Shop: "No appointment necessary. We hear you coming."
In a Veterinarian's waiting room: "Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!"
At the Electric Company "We would be delighted if you send in your payment. However, if you don't, you will be delighted."
In a Restaurant window: "Don't stand there and be hungry;
come on in and get fed up."
In the front yard of a Funeral Home: "Drive carefully. We'll wait." At a Propane Filling Station: "Thank heaven for little grills." And don't forget the sign at a CHICAGO RADIATOR SHOP: "Best place in town to take a leak." And the best one for last............ Sign on the back of another Septic Tank Truck: "Caution - This Truck is full of Political Promises
you've come to the right place."
On a Plumber's truck: "We repair what your husband fixed."
On another Plumber's truck: "Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber."
At a Tire Shop in Milwaukee : "Invite us to your next blowout." On an Electrician's truck: "Let us remove your shorts."
In a Non-smoking Area: "If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action."
On a Maternity Room door: "Push. Push. Push."
At a Car Dealership: "The best way to get back on your feet -miss a car payment."
Outside a Muffler Shop: "No appointment necessary. We hear you coming."
In a Veterinarian's waiting room: "Be back in 5 minutes. Sit! Stay!"
At the Electric Company "We would be delighted if you send in your payment. However, if you don't, you will be delighted."
In a Restaurant window: "Don't stand there and be hungry;
come on in and get fed up."
In the front yard of a Funeral Home: "Drive carefully. We'll wait." At a Propane Filling Station: "Thank heaven for little grills." And don't forget the sign at a CHICAGO RADIATOR SHOP: "Best place in town to take a leak." And the best one for last............ Sign on the back of another Septic Tank Truck: "Caution - This Truck is full of Political Promises
A little old lady went to the grocery store to buy cat food. She picked up three cans and took them to the checkout counter.
The girl at the cash register said, "I'm sorry, but we cannot sell you cat food without proof that you have a cat. A lot of old people buy cat food to eat, and the management wants proof that you are buying the cat food for your cat."The little old lady went home, picked up her cat and brought it back to the store.They sold her the cat food. The next day, she tried to buy two cans of dog food.Again, the cashier said, "I'm sorry, but we cannot sell you dog food without proof that you have a dog. A lot of old people buy dog food to eat, but the management wants proof that you are buying the dog food for your dog."
So she went home and brought in her dog.She then was able to buy the dog food. The next day she brought in a box with a hole in the lid.The little old lady asked the cashier to stick her finger in the hole.
The cashier said, "No, you might have a snake in there."
The little old lady assured her that there was nothing in the box that would harm her.
So the cashier put her finger into the box and quickly pulled it out.
She said to the little old lady, "That smells like shit."
The little old lady said, "It is. I want to buy three rolls of toilet paper."Don't mess with old people.
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