1/. The climate movement has been badly outclassed by the fossil fuel deniers, who have sown doubt about
what is happening to our planet for years.....
Volunteers fight a wildfire in Grebaštica, Croatia, 13 July 2023. Photograph: Mate Gojanovic/A ou may think we have all the proof we need. More of it is in front of us right now, with heatwaves scorching through Europe, breaking records, wreaking havoc. In Athens, they closed the Acropolis on Friday as temperatures at the site headed towards 48C. In Lisbon, visitors expecting perfect blue skies have been disappointed to find them streaked with grey – not clouds, but smoke from forest fires. In Italy, there was no spring this year: floods gave way to unbearable heat with barely a pause.
2/. Which leads to this cartoon.....
3/. Britain's National Health Service is on the verge of collapse - this isn't from Umair, but an in
depth look at the system by the New York Times.....
Fifteen hours after she was taken out of an ambulance at Queen’s Hospital with chest pains and pneumonia, Marian Patten was still in the emergency room, waiting for a bed in a ward. Mrs. Patten, 78, was luckier than others who arrived at this teeming hospital, east of London: She had not yet been wheeled into a hallway.
For months, doctors at Queen’s have been forced to treat people in a corridor because of a lack of space. As the ambulances kept pulling up outside, the doctor supervising the E.R., Darryl Wood, said it was only a matter of time before nurses would begin diverting patients into the overflow space again.
4/. Jordan Klepper went to three Trump events, and "the faithful" are still some of the
most delusional people you will ever see,,,,,,,amazing....
5/. I sometimes think what might have happened if Bernie Sanders wasn't sabotaged by Hillary's campaign
and won against Trump....because he WOULD have won.....
Anyway here are Bernie's reasons why he is voting against the bloated Defense Budget.....
An aerial photograph of the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US department of defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. Photograph: Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images The US Senate is now debating an $886bn defense authorization bill. Unless there are major changes to the bill, I intend to vote against it. Here’s why.
As everyone knows, our country faces enormous crises.
As a result of climate change our planet is experiencing unprecedented and rising temperatures. Along with the rest of the world, we need to make major investments to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into more efficient and sustainable energy sources, or the life we leave our kids and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and precarious.
Our healthcare system is broken. While the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry make hundreds of billions in profit, 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, our life expectancy is declining, and we have a massive shortage of doctors, nurses, mental health practitioners and dentists.
6/. A group called Baggage-Free GOP is panicking about Trump - here's their ad.....
7/. NYC commercial real estate is in big trouble......interesting story.....
Every time the real-estate market crashes, people say, “This time is different.” When there’s distress all around, it’s hard to grasp how there could ever be an upside. But with the benefit of hindsight, you can see that if you’d had enough money when things got bad, you could have made a killing by taking the other side of the bet. Let’s go back to 2009. There was calamity as far as the eye could see: bank bailouts, paralyzed credit markets, a toxic heap of mortgage debt crushing the world economy. Scott Rechler, having fortuitously sold his family’s real-estate company at the top of the market to a competitor for $6 billion, decided it was a good time to go shopping for office buildings. After raising more money from sovereign wealth funds, other institutional investors, and wealthy private individuals overseas, he went on an opportunistic buying spree. Over three years, he spent $4.5 billion on Manhattan office acquisitions. By 2020, his company, RXR, was a major office landlord with more than 22 million square feet of space in the city.
8/. Robert Crumb's "History Of America", set to Joni Mitchell.....
It's slow, but give it a chance to sink in because it's sooooo relevant.
9/. Ron DeSantis is a truly unpleasant person.....and if you are skeptical of this assertion, read this!
Donald Trump is a man so notoriously self-centered that during his presidency we had a public debate about whether it was ethical to diagnose him with narcissistic personality disorder from afar. Yet somehow, he’s handily winning the 2024 charm contest over Ron DeSantis. As the Florida governor launched his presidential run this spring, people started coming out of the woodwork to make a shocking allegation: The guy who made a name for himself by bullying mask-wearing children, teachers, LGBTQ+ people, and Mickey Mouse isn’t a very nice person. “I think he’s an asshole,” said former congressman David Trott. “I don’t think he cares about people.”
11/. Ever flown on a private jet? It's so wonderful that the 1%ers don't want you to know too much
about it while you fight your way on to the cattle car.......
It was all quite serene, at first. Out on a gated-off section of taxiway at Geneva Airport in May, a row of private jets (PJs, to fans) gleamed under the warm spring sun: Bombardier Challengers, Dassault Falcons, and Gulfstreams stood in a line beneath the distant verdure of the Alps. The display was part of the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition, a yearly confab that brings together manufacturers and service providers with their ultrarich customers in a politically neutral safe space. Velvet ropes and red carpets separated the curious onlookers from the VIPs being escorted aboard to tour the cabins and cockpits with swiveling leather club chairs, walnut veneer, and, in at least one case, a stateroom with an extra-long seat belt stretching across a full-size bed. The vibe was discreet, calm, befitting an environment designed to cosset the fortunate as they wafted through the upper reaches of the stratosphere.
12/. The Private Equity vultures, explained. Very good detail on how these bastards work....
Private equity is quite a racket. PE managers pile up other peoples’ money — pension funds, plutes, other pools of money — and then “invest” it (buying businesses, loading them with debt, cutting wages, lowering quality and setting traps for customers). For this, they get an annual fee — 2% — of the money they manage, and a bonus for any profits they make.
On top of this, private equity bosses get to use the carried interest tax loophole, a scam that lets them treat this ordinary income as a capital gain, so they can pay half the taxes that a working stiff would pay on a regular salary. If you don’t know much about carried interest, you might think it has to do with “interest” on a loan or a deposit, but it’s way weirder. “Carried interest” is a tax regime designed for 16th century sea captains and their “interest” in the cargo they “carried”:
13/. Tom Tomorrow nails it again.....
14/. Marjorie Taylor Greene, bless her heart, gave a speech listing President Biden's accomplishments and programs, which was immediately used as a campaign ad by the White House.
The scary bit is Greens genuinely believes all of the programs focusing on making people's lives better are wrong....
Republicans are sick......
Video is in a Tweet in this article....
15/. Be very careful with tick bites this year.....and we speak from personal experience!
When Reema Shah was 13 years old, she became plagued by a mysterious suite of symptoms: rashes, brain fog, fatigue. Her exhaustion was so extreme that walking up stairs would leave her winded, and she had to quit her high school tennis team; she could barely even keep up with her schoolwork.
In her hometown of Hillsborough, N.J., doctors diagnosed her with allergies and eczema and prescribed steroids and antihistamines, but none of the treatments helped.
16/. And Cecily Strong IS Marjorie Taylor Greene!
Great SNL skit from one year ago....
17/. If you have watched a few episodes of "The Bear" and got put off by the negativity and
darkness of the show [like we did], give it another chance.
Interesting story from the Times, about the pain and loss shown by Richie.......
Every now and then, a fictional character can have a profound real-world impact. I’m thinking, for example, of Jason Sudeikis’s Ted Lasso in 2020. There was a moment in the first season of the character’s self-titled show when a simple act of immediate forgiveness symbolized the generosity of a show that radiatedacross American culture and reminded us of the power of kindness and mercy to alter the course of a person’s life.
In 2023, a very different character is revealing different truths, and the effect is, if anything, even richer and more meaningful. The character is Richie Jerimovich, brilliantly portrayed by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and the show in which he appears is FX’s “The Bear,” the second season of which was released last month.
18/. Bob Lefsetz with a rave review of a book on the MAGA mentality....and where it comes from....
This is the real “Hillbilly Elegy.”
If you want to understand the rural MAGA mentality, this is the place.
What we’ve got here is Clinton, Arkansas. Not Fayetteville, the hip Arkansas, not Little Rock, the urban Arkansas, but nowhere Arkansas, where people have no money, drop out of school when they’re pregnant and the cycle of poverty continues and everybody believes it’s God’s will and you will be saved by the Almighty.
It’s your responsibility. Even though you were born without advantages, and your hometown continues to go down the drain as the tax base craters and you entertain yourself with drugs and alcohol while you live a shortened life.
19/. Who'd a thunk it? "Barbie" the movie as a subversive send up of modern society?
Rolling Stone loves the movie, and explains why.......
IT’S TOUGH TO sell a decades-old doll and actively make you question why you’d still buy a toy that comes with so much baggage. (Metaphorically speaking, of course — literal baggage sold separately.) The makers of Barbie know this. They know that you know that it’s an attempt by Mattel to turn their flagship blonde bombshell into a bona fide intellectual property, coming to a multiplex near you courtesy of Warner Bros. And they’re also well aware that the announcement that Greta Gerwig would be co-writing and directing this movie about everyone’s favorite tiny, leggy bearer of impossible beauty standards suddenly transformed it from “dual corporate cash-in” to “dual corporate cash-in with a very high probability of wit, irony, and someone quoting Betty Friedan and/or Rebecca Walker. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/barbie-review-margot-robbie-ryan-gosling-greta-gerwig-1234784040/
Today's video - an old favourite - "At the Dentist" from the Carol Burnett show, with Harvey Korman and the wonderful Tim Conway......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IUSM4EKcRI
Today's medical joke
Joe has had severe headaches for all his adult life, after trying every pill on the market
he finally goes to the Doctor.
The doctor said, 'Joe, the good news is I can cure your headaches. The bad
news is that it will require castration.
You have a very rare condition, which causes your testicles to press on your
spine and the pressure creates one hell of a headache. The only way to
relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles.'
Joe was shocked and depressed. He wondered if he had anything to live for.
He had no choice but to go under the knife.
When he left the hospital, he
was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he
was missing an important part of himself. As he walked down the street, he
realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning
and live a new life.
He saw a men's clothing store and thought, 'That's what I need... A new
suit...'
He entered the shop and told the salesman, 'I'd like a new suit..'
The elderly tailor eye'd him briefly and said, 'Let's see... Size 44 long.'
Joe laughed, 'That's right, how did you know?'
'Been in the business for 60 years!' the tailor said.
Joe tried on the suit and it fit perfectly.
As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, 'How about a new
shirt?'
Joe thought for a moment and then said, 'Sure.'
The salesman eyed Joe and said, 'Let's see, 34 sleeves and 16-1/2 neck.'
Joe was surprised, 'That's right, how did you know?'
'Been in the business for 60 years.'
Joe tried on the shirt and it fit perfectly.
Joe walked comfortably around the shop and the salesman asked, 'How about
some new underwear?'
Joe thought for a moment and said, 'Sure.'
The salesman said, 'Let's see... Size 36.
Joe laughed, 'Ah ha! I got you! I've worn a size 34 since I was 18 years
old.'
The salesman shook his head, 'You can't wear a size 34. A size 34 would
press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you one hell
of a headache.'
Today's funeral joke
A man was leaving a convenience store with his morning coffee when he noticed a most unusual funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery.
A black hearse was followed by a second black hearse about 50 feet behind the first one.
Behind the second hearse was a solitary man walking a dog on a leash.
Behind him, a short distance back, were about 200 men walking single file.
The man couldn't stand the curiosity. He respectfully approached the man walking the dog and said: “I am so sorry for your loss, and this may be a bad time to disturb you, but I've never seen a funeral like this. Whose funeral is it?”
“ My wife's.”
“She yelled at me and my dog attacked and killed her.”
He inquired further, “But who is in the second hearse?”
The man answered, “My mother-in-law. She was trying to help my wife when the dog turned on her. She didn’t survive either.”
A very poignant and touching moment of brotherhood and silence passed between the two men.
“Can I borrow the dog?”
The man replied, “Get in line.”
Today's health warning jokeWhen you drink Vodka over ice, it can give you kidney failure,
When you drink Rum over ice, it can give you liver failure,
When you drink whiskey over ice, it can give you heart problems,
When you drink Gin over ice, it can give you brain problems.
Apparently, ice is really bad for you.
Warn all your friends.......
Today's medical joke
A woman takes her 16-year-old daughter to the doctor.
The doctor says, “Okay, Mrs. Jones, what’s the problem?”
The mother says, “It’s my daughter; Cynthia. She keeps getting these… cravings, she’s putting on weight and is sick most mornings”.
The doctor gives Cynthia a good examination then turns to the mother and says, “Well, I don’t know how to tell you this but your Cynthia is pregnant.
About 4 months would be my guess.”
The mother says, “Pregnant? She can’t be, she has never ever been left alone with a man! Have you Cynthia?”
Cynthia says, “No mother! I’ve never even kissed a man!”
The doctor walks over to the window and just stands staring out.
About five minutes pass and finally, the mother says, “Is there something wrong out there doctor?”
The doctor replies, “No, not really, it’s just that the last time anything like this happened, a star appeared in the east and three wise men came over the hill.
I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss it this time!”
