1/. Joe Manchin, the most powerful man in the Senate....God help us....
Joe Manchin, King of the Senate. Photo: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
The Senate Rules and Administration Committee is holding a hearing today on S.1, the upper chamber’s version of the For the People Act, the sweeping voting-rights legislation already passed by the House on a near-party-line vote. There will be witnesses on both sides of the aisle and lots of thunder and lightning (both Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell will attend the hearing, which is rare). But it might be wise to pay particular attention to the testimony of West Virginia secretary of state Mac Warner, a Republican who predictably opposes the legislation. That’s because the lawmaker who likely holds the fate of S.1 in his hands is Warner’s senator, Joe Manchin, who happens to be the only Democratic senator who didn’t co-sponsor the legislation.
2/. A fascinating analysis from the Times about how America is segregated by race, class but also by political affiliation.....people move to where their neighbors are just as partisan as they are.....it's evident in both places we live, Mount Dora and Asheville.....excellent graphics in this story....
The broad outlines of America’s partisan divides are visible on any national map. Republicans typically dominate in most Southern and Plains states, and Democrats in Northeastern and West Coast ones. Democrats cluster in urban America, Republicans in more rural places.
But keep zooming in — say, to the level of individual addresses for 180 million registered voters — and this pattern keeps repeating itself: within metro areas, within counties and cities, even within parts of the same city.
3/. Ron DeSantis, Florida's thuggish mini-Trump.....new ad from 'RonBeGone"....
4/. Interesting story about how a town in the Outer Banks of North Carolina is dealing with climate change....many more big dollar
decisions like those facing this town are coming everywhere on the coastlines....
Note - the pictures are especially good in this story...
5/. Brits should like this SNL skit on how Kate Middleton meets the real Royal Family.....shades of Megan Markle?
Five British minutes....
6/. Umair with an analysis why the UK has overtaken us as the dumbest developed country and is moving towards authoritarian rule.
If you doubt this, read some of the stories this week about how protesting is now a crime in Britain....
Like much of the world, you probably watched Meghan Markle last nightand shuddered. But you shouldn’t be surprised. Today, the dubious honour of being the dumbest country in the world goes to…Britain. It’s a nation that’s completely destroyed itself, and will probably never recover. Even America’s better off than Britain, and that’s saying something. And rarely has a country imploded in so short a time. https://eand.co/how-britain-became-the-dumbest-society-in-the-world-e90431463924
7/. Tom Tomorrow on the "news"....
8/. Do your own mini-test - ask a Conservative if they are going to get vaccinated, and if they say no
they may be QAnoners....but at the very least, they are really stupid....
Holloway is among potentially millions of Republican-identifying men who say they don’t plan on getting the coronavirus vaccine. According to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey, 49% of Republican men told pollsters that they wouldn’t get the jab; the poll is among recent analyses claiming that vaccine hesitancy is highest among this demographic.
9/. John Oliver devoted 23 minutes to eviscerating Tucker Carlson....wonderful!
Yes it's long, but try anyway...
10/. The excellent Thomas Frank telling liberals to stop being afraid of social media and defeat the conspiracy theorists
with anything except censorship. There's more than a grain of truth in this column from the Guardian....
O
ne day in March 2015, I sat in a theater in New York City and took careful notes as a series of personages led by Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates described the dazzling sunburst of liberation that was coming our way thanks to entrepreneurs, foundations and Silicon Valley. The presentation I remember most vividly was that of a famous TV actor who rhapsodized about the wonders of Twitter, Facebook and the rest: “No matter which platform you prefer,” she told us, “social media has given us all an extraordinary new world, where anyone, no matter their gender, can share their story across communities, continents and computer screens. A whole new world without ceilings.”
11/. Our Amazon future....aka Soylent Green!
12/. Floriduh seems to have escaped the worst effects of the pandemic but it has nothing to do with the responses of our Republican Governor and state officials. My theory is we are fortunate to live in an ideal climate because everyone can go outside, all year.
Also as far as Central and South Florida goes, mask discipline is pretty good.
MIAMI — Other than New York, no big city in the United States has been struggling with more coronavirus cases in recent weeks than Miami. But you would hardly know that if you lived here.
13/. Did you know the East coast of Australia has had massive and unprecedented flooding?
Thought not....here's a 2 minute video from CNN...
14/. This story in Vanity Fair gave me a lot of pleasure - how Trump, the consummate legal bully, is facing multiple lawsuits and investigations with no immunity and a diminished reputation......wonderful!
For much of his adult life, Donald Trump was known for going after his enemies with frivolous lawsuits, so much so that by the time he ran for president in 2016, he and his businesses had been involved in at least 3,500 legal actions. According to a 2016 report, Trump had no qualms about responding to “even small disputes with overwhelming legal force” and didn’t “hesitate to deploy his wealth and legal firepower against adversaries with limited resources,” sometimes refusing “to pay real estate brokers, lawyers, and other vendors.”
15/. A double dose of Tom Tomorrow....
16/. Anyone over 65 should read this one and ask yourself - is this me? Thought-provoking article.....
There are, in a manner of speaking, 3 stages to life, and each lasts roughly 20 to 25 years: Youth, The Middle, and Old Age. The first 20 years of life are spent in Development. You are born tiny and helpless and empty, a vessel for hunger and need. You grow, but more importantly, you LEARN. You learn to move, to crawl and then walk and then run and jump. You learn to speak, you learn to think. You learn and you learn and you learn.
17/. Yup....see story #8...
18/. If you are looking for somewhere to move to to minimise the effects of climate change, in this article there's a list of places to go... includes Asheville....Back in 2006, when Scott Shuford was Asheville’s planning director, he reluctantly accepted a friend’s invitation to attend a meeting about the impact of climate change on local governments.
“I didn’t see how a two-degree temperature change could affect the community,” he recalled, referring to the predicted rise in earth temperatures in years to come. “But I agreed to attend, thinking it would only be about 15 minutes.
“After about an hour-and-a-half I came out of the meeting drenched in sweat.” https://avlwatchdog.org/come-hell-or-high-water-asheville-is-climate-winner/
19/. Still a beautiful song.....Christina Perri with "A Thousand Years"....
20/. Your Floriduh story for this week....
MIAMI — The recruitment of the sham candidate began with a Facebook message at around 4 a.m. on May 15, 2020. “Call me,” a Florida legislator turned lobbyist wrote to an old friend. “I have a question for you.”
Later that day, former State Senator Frank Artiles, a Republican, asked Alexis Pedro Rodriguez by phone whether he still owned a home in the suburban Miami village of Palmetto Bay. Because in that case, Mr. Artiles wanted something else: to put his friend’s property and last name to use in the upcoming election.
21/. Carl Hiaasen has finished his columns for the Miami Herald....and Dave Barry tells us why that's important....
Carl Hiaasen is retiring. This is good news.
It’s good news for sleazeballs, charlatans, buffoons, blowhards and fools. It’s good news for the powerful, the pompous, the entitled, the smug and the slimy. It’s good news for those who view the Everglades as a useless swamp, or look at mangroves and see only a bunch of smelly trees blocking the view.
It’s good news for those people, but it’s bad news for Florida. For decades this state has had no watchdog fiercer (or funnier) than Carl. He has more than earned his retirement, of course. But he’ll leave a void in the journalism landscape the size of Lake Okeechobee.
22/. Entertainment Weekly with the best shows on Amazon Prime....
Today's video - three minutes of fails....some amusing, some painful!
Today's guy philosophy joke....
I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a cold beer.
The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking.
My wife walked by and asked me what I was doing, and I said, "Nothing."
The reason I said "nothing" instead of saying "just thinking" is because she then would have asked, "About what?"
At that point I would have had to explain that men are deep thinkers about various topics, which would lead to other questions.
Finally I pondered an age old question: Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the nuts?
Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the nuts, but how could they know?
Well, after another beer, and some more heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with an answer to that question.
Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby, and even though I obviously couldn't really know, here is the reason for my conclusion:
A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, "It might be nice to have another child."
But you never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts."
Time for another beer. Then maybe a nap.
Today's awful, truly awful puns....
1. Dad, are we pyromaniacs? Yes, we arson.
2. What do you call a pig with laryngitis? Disgruntled.
3. Writing my name in cursive is my signature move.
4. Why do bees stay in their hives during winter? Swarm.
5. If you're bad at haggling, you'll end up paying the price.
6. Just so everyone's clear, I'm going to put my glasses on.
7. A commander walks into a bar and orders everyone around.
8. I lost my job as a stage designer. I left without making a scene.
9. Never buy flowers from a monk. Only you can prevent florist friars.
10. How much did the pirate pay to get his ears pierced? A buccaneer.
11. I once worked at a cheap pizza shop to get by. I kneaded the dough.
12. My friends and I have named our band "Duvet". It's a cover band.
13. I lost my girlfriend's audiobook, and now I'll never hear the end of it.
14. Why is "dark" spelled with a k and not c? Because you can't see in the dark.
15. Why is it unwise to share your secrets with a clock? Well, time will tell.
16. When I told my contractor I didn't want carpeted steps, they gave me a blank stare.
17. Bono and The Edge walk into a Dublin bar and the bartender says, Oh no, not U2 again?
18. Prison is just one word to you, but for some people, it's a whole sentence.
19. Scientists got together to study the effects of alcohol on a person's walk. The result was staggering.
20. I'm trying to organize a hide and seek tournament, but good players are really hard to find.
21. I got over my addiction to chocolate, marshmallows, and nuts. I won't lie, it was a rocky road.
22. What do you say to comfort a friend who's struggling with grammar? There, their, they're.
23. I went to the toy store and asked where the Schwarznegger dolls are. I was told "Aisle B, back".
24. What did the surgeon say to the patient who insisted on closing up his own incision? Suture self.
25. I've started telling everyone about the benefits of eating dried grapes. It's about raisin awareness.
Today's teacher joke....
A private school in Washington recently was faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back.
Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.
To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it.
Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. There are teachers, and then there are educators...
Today's joke for guys...
On the first day after his wife served him with divorce papers, a man packed his stuff into boxes, crates and suitcases.
On the second day, the movers came and collected his things.
On the third day, he sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining-room table, put on soft background music, and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of spring-water.
When he finished, he went into each and every room and placed a few half-eaten shrimps dipped in caviar into the hollow center of the curtain rods.
He then cleaned up the kitchen and left.
On the fourth day, the wife came back with her new boyfriend, and at first all was bliss.
Then, slowly, the house began to smell. They tried everything; cleaning, mopping, and airing-out the place. Vents were checked for dead rodents, and carpets were steam cleaned.
Air fresheners were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in, the expensive wool carpeting was replaced but in the end, nothing worked!
People stopped coming over to visit, repairmen refused to work in the house and to top it all off, the maid quit.
Finally, they couldn't take the stench any longer, and decided to move. They listed the house but even after a month with their asking price cut in half, they couldn't find a buyer for such a stinky house.
Word got out, and eventually all the local realtors refused to list the house.
Finally, unable to wait any longer for a purchaser, they borrowed a huge sum of money and bought a new house.
One day shortly thereafter, the man called his ex-wife and asked how things were going. She told him the saga. He listened politely and said he missed his old home terribly and would be willing to reduce his divorce settlement in exchange for the house.
Knowing he could have no idea how bad the smell really was, the ex-wife agreed to sell him the home for 1/10 th of what the house was worth if he would only sign the papers that very day.
He agreed, and within two hours, her lawyers delivered the completed paperwork and the deal was done.
A week later, the ex-wife and her boyfriend stood smiling as they watched the movers pack everything to take to their new home .......and to spite the ex-husband ......they even took the curtain rods!
I LOVE A HAPPY ENDING, DON'T YOU
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