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In 2007, National Review published a cover story proposing “a conservative strategy on global warming.” While the strategy left much to be desired, what mattered was that the conservative movement finally seemed ready to abandon its denial of the science and acknowledge that the emission of heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere was raising the Earth’s temperature.
2/ Tom Tomorrow on vaccinations....
3/ Many Trumpies [and don't forget there were 74 million of them] still believe his lies, and
this is a huge problem for this country..... excellent story from Vanity Fair....
One of the enduring legacies of Donald Trump’s runs for office and four years as president is the phenomenon in which a shameless politician can tell a brazen, easily fact-checkable lie and his or her supporters will buy it without question, even when evidence to the contrary is screaming in their faces. The earliest example of this was the claim Trump made when announcing his 2015 bid for office—that he was going to build a wall and Mexico was going to pay for it, an absurd lie that he was still telling in the fall of 2020. And of course an equally audacious lie was the one he started spreading last November and hasn’t stopped spewing to date—that he won the presidential election and a second term was stolen from him.
4/ Bill Maher with a "New Rules" on ageism, and how being older means in a lot of ways you are wiser....five minutes....
5/ A most interesting POV from Andrew Sullivan on mask wearing, and how some people cannot realise that once you are vaccinated there is no more danger from Covid....and he equates this irrational fear to the HIV issues on the 90's and condoms....
Plagues are not terribly well known for spawning outbreaks of rationality. And their reputation in 2021, I think we can safely say, is intact. We’d love to believe that in the modern era we have overcome superstition or false panic or misplaced fear, and now “trust science”. But look around you. https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/are-face-masks-the-new-condoms-f8d
6/ Maya Rudolph in a clever adaptation of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining".....four minutes....
7/ European soccer is changing due to the influx of billionaire owners of the clubs, and the influence of American sports mentality.....
When the announcement came late on Sunday that 12 of Europe’s wealthiest soccer clubs were forming a lucrative breakaway Super League, the first person I thought of was Terry Crouppen, a personal-injury lawyer from Missouri who was also a huge fan of the St. Louis Rams.
8/ Jordan Klepper from the Daily Show gave us many segments of interviews and attendees at Trump rallies over the last four years, and they were quite amusing showing off the stupidity and emptiness of the Trump supporters. He has done a summary of the last four years, and even though you haven't seen or heard of the idiot for three months now, it's worth a look back if only to remind you of the sanity and normality that has settled on our country. It's a half an hour of reverse nostalgia....
9/ Fox News went through a rocky patch post Trump, but they're back.....with a very dangerous theme - white nationalism.....
10/ Matt Taibbi on the internal Democratic fight to repeal SALT....which you have never heard of, but read on.....most interesting....
Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey, made an inspired plea recently. The Harvard man and Alpha Epsilon Pi brother is a member of the so-called “SALT caucus,” a group of congressfolk
threatening to hold up Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill if it doesn’t include a full repeal of a Donald Trump-imposed $10,000 cap on deductions of state and local taxes. “It is high time that Congress reinstates the state and local tax deduction, so we can get more dollars back into the pockets of so many struggling families,” intoned Gottheimer, one of 32 members of the SALT caucus, which includes 8 Republicans.
11/ The Floriduh law is even worse....
12/ The latest roofing scam in Florida is to get the homeowner to sign an AOB [assignment of benefits], then the roofer then gets some scum attorneys to sue the insurance company....it's bad folks....
TALLAHASSEE — A trend has emerged in the storm-battered Sunshine State in which a relatively small number of roofers and attorneys are utilizing assignment-of-benefits (AOB) clauses in homeowners' insurance policies to sue insurance companies for more than the actual cost of repair or, in some cases, for non-existent damage.
According to a report from WFTV 9 in Orlando, these roofers are falsely claiming that roofs need to be replaced because of hail damage and offering to do the work for free. However, in most cases, there is no storm damage—just a roofing company looking to obtain an AOB from homeowners so they can bill the insurance company for non-existent damage. https://flarecord.com/stories/511084491-free-roof-insurance-scam-plagues-florida-homeowners?t=1YKysAsb0POlkBTH29_a
13/ Brett Kavanaugh is a heartless prick, and he proved it again with the "teenager life without parole" decision, which Justice Sotomayor then nailed him on.....this is our Supreme Court folks - 6 to 3 for brutal punishment....
From out of the recently Trumpified Supreme Court came yet another decision that murdered precedent. Delivering the death blow was Justice Brett Kavanaugh. This was a major flex for the carceral state and a major hit to criminal justice reform. It not only closed off future improvements in that regard, but also undercut what few accomplishments already exist.
14/ A damning ad from a Republican group about Marco Rubio....note - a Republican group!
15/ Tom Tomorrow and we wish this was just a cartoon.....
16/ Coming this summer - water woes in the West as the Colorado River dries up.....Just how bad is the drought in the Western US? The shrinking of Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, is a troubling indicator.
The massive man-made lake, which straddles the border of Arizona and Nevada, is now only at 39 percent of its full capacity, down from 44 percent in April 2020. That’s equivalent to a 10-foot drop in the water level, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Reclamation. Which means mandatory restrictions on the amount of water surrounding states draw from Lake Mead could be triggered in the next few months. https://www.vox.com/22392710/southwest-water-drought-arizona-nevada-california-colorado-river-lake-mead-climate-change?fbclid=IwAR1alCkxFOmTueIOa5BuP7Aov4jUrxYUJBufrfw-Vz-HhyuYBurdKBbvmuA
17/ A twofer - a most interesting article about flooding due to climate change, and how almost all of the insurance claims for flooding in the US are from 8 counties, including of course four in Florida.
Also in the article is a link to Bill Gates on Fox News Sunday to explain how the climate is changing, and it was a pretty good interview - about 12 minutes.....
18/ SNL with one of their game show parodies - this one is silly but quite amusing - "What's wrong with this picture?"
Five minutes....
19/ Michelle Goldberg with a chilling column from the Times...abortion, and where it might go with this Supreme Court.....
The anti-abortion movement was never going to stop with overturning Roe v. Wade.
For years, Republicans have argued that their goal was to return the issue of abortion to the states. At no point was this believable; since 1984, the Republican Party platform has called for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. Having spent decades denouncing abortion as a singular moral evil, the anti-abortion movement will not be content to return to a pre-Roe status quo, where abortion was legal in some places but not others.
20/ Ahhhh the Villages.....occasionally the Villages' iron curtain of silence is lifted, and we get a glimpse of the machine in action......
Rarely, do I write in the first-person voice.
But after an extraordinary week spent in federal court in Tampa, it’s probably the best vehicle for sharing the many observations from covering Properties of The Villages, Inc. vs. Jason Kranz, Christopher Day, Angela Kranz, Nanette Elliott and Angie Taylor.
This story is more about you than me or the people in the courtroom. But you’re going to have to bear with me through several stage-setting paragraphs.
Today's video - the original "Bad Lip Reading" NFL.....
Today's wine taster joke
At a winery, the regular taster died and the director started looking for a new one to hire.
A drunkard with a ragged, dirty look came in to apply for the position.
The director of the winery wondered how to "nicely" send him away in this "all too Politically Correct" world. He gave him a glass of their low end wine to drink.
The drunk sipped it and without the traditional sniffing or swirling said, “It’s a Muscat, three years old, grown on a north slope, matured in steel containers. Low grade, but acceptable.”
“That’s correct”, said the boss.
Another glass…
“This is a Cabernet, eight years old, a south-western slope, oak barrels, matured at 8 degrees. Requires three more years for finest results.”
“Correct.”
A third glass…
“It’s a Pinot Blanc Champagne , high grade and exclusive,” the drunk said calmly.
The director was astonished. He winked at his secretary, secretly suggesting something. She left the room, and came back in with a glass of urine.
The alcoholic tried it.
“It’s a blonde, 26 years old, three months pregnant and if I don’t get the job I’ll name the father.”
Today's cowboy joke
In the old West, a young cowboy, sitting in a saloon one Saturday night, recognized an elderly man standing at the bar who, in his day, had been the fastest gun in the West.
The cowboy walked over to the old-timer, bought him a drink and told him of his great ambition to be a great gunfighter. "Could you give me some tips?" he asked.
The old man said, "Well, for one thing, you're wearing your gun too high -- tie the holster a little lower down on your leg."
"Will that make me a better gunfighter?"
"Sure will."
The young man did as he was told, then stood up, whipped out his .44, and shot the bow tie off the piano player.
"That's terrific!" exclaimed the cowboy. "Got any more tips?"
"Yep," said the old man. "Cut a notch out of your holster where the hammer hits it -- that'll give you a smoother draw."
"Will that make me a better gunfighter?" asked the young man.
"You bet it will,"said the old-timer.
The young man took out his knife, cut the notch, stood up, drew his gun in a blur, and then shot a cuff link off the piano player.
"Wow!" said the cowboy excitedly, "I'm learnin somethin here. Got any more tips?"
The old man pointed to a large can in a corner of the saloon. "See that can of axle grease over there? Coat your gun with it."
The young man smeared some of the grease on the barrel of his gun. "No," said the old-timer, "I mean smear it all over the gun, the handle, and all."
"Will that make me a better gunfighter?" asked the puzzled young man.
"No," said the old-timer, "but when Wyatt Earp gets done playing the piano, he's gonna shove that gun up your ass, and it won't hurt near as much."
Today's protection tips [not a joke, just useful stuff!]
Some people left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose while away, and someone broke into the car. Using the information on the car's registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to the people's home in Pebble Beach and robbed it. So I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener. This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.
Someone had their car broken into while they were at a football game. Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents. Something to consider if you have a GPS - don't put your home address in it. Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.
I never thought of this! This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her cell phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen. Twenty minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says, "I received your text asking about our Pin number and I've replied a little while ago." When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text "hubby" in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.
Moral lesson:
a. Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.
b. And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back.
c. Also, when you're being texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet "family and friends" who text you.
4. PURSE IN THE GROCERY CART SCAM:
A lady went grocery-shopping at a local mall and left her purse sitting in the children's seat of the cart while she reached something off a shelf/ Wait till you read the WHOLE story!
Her wallet was stolen, and she reported it to the store personnel. After returning home, she received a phone call from the Mall Security to say that they had her wallet and that although there was no money in it, it did still hold her personal papers. She immediately went to pick up her wallet, only to be told by Mall Security that they had not called her. By the time she returned home again, her house had been broken into and burglarized. The thieves knew that by calling and saying they were Mall Security, they could lure her out of her house long enough for them to burglarize it.
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