Merry Christmas folks!
1/. Andrew Sullivan with a summary of where we are now, titled "Biden's Annus Horribilis".....plus Trump and why
he isn't going away......interesting, and depressing....
President Joe Biden before delivering opening remarks for the virtual “Summit for Democracy” on December 9, 2021.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)A year ago, as the vaccines began to arrive and as the nightmare of the Trump administration appeared to be over, I found myself unusually optimistic. In an end-of-year essay I admitted was written in part to cheer myself up, I looked forward to 2021: “No Trump; no quarantine; no viral fear; and the rites of Spring.”
We end 2021 in a rather, er, different place.
2/. Jordan Klepper with another amusing four minutes of anti-vaxxers.....you just can't believe how stupid they are....
3/. Part 2 of Matt Taibbi's analysis on why the Democrats lost the Virginia Governor's race....this narrative of what happened to this
School Board is all new to me, and wow! What a cluster....
“The Underground Railroad,” by Charles T. Webber February 5th, 2019. An educational consultant named Dr. Linda Deans walked to the lectern at a meeting of the Loudoun County School Board. Addressing issues like black student underrepresentation in the gifted programs and overrepresentation in disciplinary cases, she asked the board to remedy matters through more funding of diversity and inclusion positions. Loudoun had a diversity officer, but Deans stumped for a department.
4/. Tom Tomorrow with a prediction.....
5/. Thomas Edsall with a sobering column. He is the nerdiest columnist the Times has, and always quotes multiple experts on whatever his focus is, and this essay is on how our democracy is very close to broken, and how there is no coming back from the precipice apparent. So there....
Political analysts, scholars and close observers of government are explicitly raising the possibility that the polarized American electoral system has come to the point at which a return to traditional democratic norms will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
6/. This is amusing - every Christmas movie you've ever seen, condensed into six minutes.....some good "singin" too....
7/. Amanda Marcotte with a biting article about where we are now.....Joe Manchin has done us in, and don't be fooled by false optimism....
Interesting analysis, and I really really hope she's wrong.....
After days of rumors swirling among reporters on Capitol Hill, President Joe Biden confirmed it late Thursday evening: The Build Back Better plan is not going to pass this year. Which almost certainly means that the timeline for passing it is never.
Biden, of course, denied that "never" is in the cards.
8/. Tom Tomorrow in a dark mood....
9/. A most disturbing article from Newsweek, postulating what will happen if Trump loses in 2024.....it's all too believable....
10/. The Twelve Days of Christmas, from an Irishman's point of view.
Absolutely the funniest thing I have seen for a month or so.....the captions
are close but not strictly accurate, but you will get the gist of it.....
Really, really good....
11/. Fascinating Times picture/video presentation of how climate change has affected every country on Earth.....
The Times does this really well....
12/. A classic SNL skit "What's That Name", very funny, five minutes.....
13/. Umair predicts what's going to happen in the next 30 years, and needless to say it isn't going to be fun.....
Here’s a tiny secret. One that Coronavirus should have clued us into. Normal is over. The age of normal is finished, done, a relic of history. Things will not go back to normal. From here, they societies only grow more unstable, economies more depressed, nations more fractured, and lives — yours and mine — more surreal, difficult, and troubled
14/. Don't tread on me - it's my freedom!
15/. General background on the tech world, and how it's still accelerating beyond our comprehension.
Skeptical? OK - define an NFT....
The best way to put the past year into context is to simply look at the numbers. For example, over the course of 2021, as of this writing, Elon Musk’s personal net worth grew by $87 billion. That’s more than the market capitalization of Ford. Musk wasn’t alone—Larry Page’s and Sergey Brin’s net worths grew by $46 billion and $43 billion, respectively; Mark Zuckerberg’s by $21 billion, and Jeff Bezos’s by $4 billion. Over the same period, Apple’s worth grew to almost $3 trillion, up some $700 billion from 12 months ago. (That means it grew by about the entire GDP of Saudi Arabia.) The market cap of cryptocurrencies grew from around $770 billion to over $2 trillion, and that’s on a bad day (at its peak this year, in November, crypto was worth almost $3 trillion). Even the internet itself added 222 million new users—nearly 90 million people more than the average number of births per year—bringing us 100 million shy of 5 billion users. All connected together like billions of little synapses in one giant, discombobulated, meme-making, fake-news-sharing, Netflix-and-chilling chatterbox of a network.
16/. This is so true....
17/. The best TV of 2021.....from the Entertainment editors of Huffpost....
From unexpected obsessions (“Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” "Love Life") to satisfying sensations (“Succession,” "Hacks") to shows we bid farewell to (“On My Block,” “PEN15,” "Insecure," "Pose"), here's our long list of favorites.
18/. Ever heard of "Girls5Eva"? Apparently it's incredibly funny....but it's only available on
Peacock, NBC's streaming service....
19/. According to Roger Ebert "Being the Ricardos" is really good.....on Amazon Prime tonight....
Today's video [and music video too] - Day-O from the movie Beetlejuice.....keep an eye on the shrimp bowls!
Today's psychiatric joke
Therapist - what's the problem?
Wife - he replaces words with animal names just to annoy me.
Husband - I don't do it on porpoise!
Today's terrible Minnesota joke
Ole is a farmer in Minnesota. He needs a new milk cow and hears about one for sale over in Nordakota. (That would be North Dakota for you non-Scandahoovians out der).
He drives to Nordakota, finds the farm and looks at the cow. He reaches under to see if she gives milk. When he grabs the tit and pulls...the cow farts.
Ole is surprised. He looks at the farmer selling the cow, then reaches under the cow to try again. He grabs another tit, pulls, and the cow farts again.
Milk does come out however, so after some discussion, Ole buys the cow and takes her home.
He gets back to Minnesota, he calls over his neighbor Sven, and says, 'Sven, come look at dis ere new cow I yust bought. Pull her tit, and see vat happens.'
Sven reaches under, pulls the tits - and the cow farts.
Sven looks at Ole, 'You bought dis here cow in Nordakota, didn't yah?'
Ole is surprised since he hadn't told Sven about his trip.
Ole replies, 'Yah, dats right. But how'd yah know?'
Sven says, 'My wife's from Nordakota.
Today's Star Wars joke
Therapist - so why do you want to end your marriage?
Wife - I hate the constant Star Wars puns.
Husband - Divorce is strong with this one.....
Today's lawyer jokes....Q: What do you call a smiling, courteous person at a bar association convention?
A: The caterer.
Q: What's the difference between a female lawyer and a pitbull?
A: Lipstick.
Q: What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 100?
A: Your Honor.
Q: What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50
A: Senator.
Q: What's the difference between an accountant and a lawyer?
A: Accountants know they're boring.
Q: What's the one thing that never works when it's fixed?
A: A jury.
Q: Why did God invent lawyers?
A: So that real estate agents would have someone to look down on.
Q: What's the difference between a vacuum cleaner and a lawyer on a motorcycle?
A: The vacuum cleaner has the dirt bag on the inside.
Q: What' the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
A: A boxing referee doesn't get paid more for a longer fight.
Q: What's the difference between a good lawyer and a bad lawyer?
A: A bad lawyer makes your case drag on for years. A good lawyer makes it last even longer.
Q: What's the difference between a jellyfish and a lawyer?
A: One's a spineless, poisonous blob. The other is a form of sea life.
Q: What's the difference between a lawyer and a trampoline?
A: You take off your shoes before you jump on a trampoline.
Q: What's the difference between a lawyer and a leech?
A: After you die, a leech stops sucking your blood.
Q: What's the difference between a lawyer and God?
A: God doesn't think he's a lawyer.
Q: How are an apple and a lawyer alike?
A: They both look good hanging from a tree.
Q: How can a pregnant woman tell that she's carrying a future lawyer?
A: She has an uncontrollable craving for bologna.
Q: How does an attorney sleep?
A: First he lies on one side, then he lies on the other.
Q: How many lawyer jokes are there?
A: Only three. The rest are true stories.
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