1/. We live in an age of doublespeak - when Christian Nationalists say something, they mean more than the obvious.
A revealing article.....
In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, characters engage in doublespeak, a way of distorting language to obscure its true meaning. Christian Nationalists have mastered their own doublespeak. Nowhere is this more apparent than when reading Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s manifesto for transforming our government into a Christo-fascist regime.
2/. Tom Tomorrow decodes Trump's campaign slogans....
3/. How can these people in this story be so incredibly stupid.......
First the cartel cut its teeth with drug trafficking. Then avocados, real estate and construction companies. Now, a Mexican criminal group known for its brutality is moving in on seniors and their timeshares.
4/. The full video of the ship hitting the bridge....eeeek....
5/. Hesitate to put this in as it's such a downer, but hey.....these are all facts......
Much of the Caribbean & Latin America experienced its hottest March night in history, with temperatures surpassing 27 °C (80 °F).....Some states also felt their hottest March days, with temperatures exceeding 40 °C (104 °F). Meanwhile, an assessment of 150 Indian reservoirs found them lacking—filled to 40% capacity, their lowest levels in 5+ years. Canada broke March records in some spots as well—and the Maldives. Canada also set a record for its warmest winter ever.
6/. This is a little disturbing.....Tom Tomorrow did this 8 years ago......and here we are.......
7/. Alex Jones - a truly evil little bastard.....
There is a statistic dropped into the middle of the new HBO documentary about Alex Jones and his conspiracy-theory-laden campaign to deny the Sandy Hook school massacre that is so startling it changes the complexion of the film
It’s tempting to see the blustering alt-right Infowars host as little more than a charlatan selling snake oil conspiracy theories to the fringes of American society. But then The Truth vs Alex Jones tells us that one in four Americans believes Jones’s claim that the 2012 murder of 20 small children and six staff at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, never happened.
8/. Talk about a polarised America......
9/. You may have heard Trump is about to get a $3 billion bonus from Truth Social, and may be wondering how this can be true.
The Guardian explains....
Donald Trump’s social network went public on Tuesday and quickly achieved a valuation of almost $8bn (£6.3bn), a gain of more than 15% on its initial public offering (IPO) value. Shares rose again in volatile trading on Wednesday, rising 14% and valuing it at $9.6bn. That enormous success has raised questions, and not all of them are easy to answer.
How can it possibly be worth $9bn?
The glib answer is “because the most recent price someone bought a share of the company at is $66.46”. The valuation of a publicly traded company such as Truth Social – officially, the Trump Media & Technology Group Corp, with the stock ticker DJT, referencing its founder’s initials – is just a product of multiplying the value of an individual share with the number outstanding.
10/. John Oliver had an excellent segment on student loans......great comedic reporting.....the Guardian liked it!
John Oliver tackled the thorny issue of student loan debt on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, an issue plaguing over 43 million Americans – about 13% of the population – with a total outstanding debt of over $1.73tn, higher than the national GDP of Australia.
Joe Biden’s $400bn debt relief plan was struck down by the supreme court last year, in part because of outdated ideas on who owes money and how feasible student loans are. “For all the scorn heaped on people who took on student debt, it’s worth noting that this only got so big because of a lot of short-sighted policy choices over the years,” Oliver explained.
https://www.theguardian.com/
Here's the show.....
11/. The Times lists the best TV on Netflix....
Netflix adds original programming at such a steady clip that it can be hard to keep up with which of its dramas, comedies and reality shows are must-sees. And that’s not including all the TV series Netflix picks up from broadcast and cable networks. Below is our regularly updated guide to the 50 best shows on Netflix in the United States. Each recommendation comes with a secondary pick, too, for 100 suggestions in all. (Note: Netflix sometimes removes titles without notice.)
12/. Jordan Klepper on the Daily Show with a very funny segment......
13/. Remember "Road House" with Patrick Swaze back in the 90's? They just remade it starring Jake Gyllenhaal......and it's better.......
Mary and I watched it, and it's pure "B" movie stuff but done well......no gratuitous violence, just lots of fights....
You remember Road House, right? The 1989 movie where Patrick Swayze is a professional New York City bouncer imported to Missouri to work at the most raucous road house bar in the Show Me State? The kind of film in which the hero does tai chi, reads philosophy and coos Zen koans like “Pain don’t hurt,” and the bad guy utters bon mots like, “I used to fuck guys like you in prison?” (It was a different time.) Direct by the appropriately named Rowdy Harrington, this finely aged slice of cinematic Velveeta remains the perfect action flick to watch on basic cable at 3am, features what’s easily Swayze’s best grace-under-pressure performance, and wins the award for Best ’80s Hair in a Motion Picture in the same decade that gave us Valley Girl, Working Girl and Labyrinth. https://www.rollingstone.com/
14/. Looks like this movie "Knox Goes Away" might be watchable....I like Michael Keaton......
Movies rarely pause to simply watch a character think, and not all actors can withstand the scrutiny. Michael Keaton, however, has always been uncommonly adept at telegraphing intent with minimum dialogue. So when, early in “Knox Goes Away,” his character, a contract killer named John Knox, is warned by his doctor of an imminent mental health crisis, Keaton’s control is more eloquent than any breakdown.
15/. If you fancy a courtroom drama, no violence and some great performances have a look at this - "The Burial", with
Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones......really good, a B+ movie.....
Here's the trailer....
16/. Hmmm....interesting movie "Immaculate" - erotic Catholic horror....and Sydney Sweeney!
MAYBE IT’S BEST to begin at the end of Immaculate, the religious horror flick starring white-hot movie star, Euphoria‘s resident crying MVP and current savior of the rom-com Sydney Sweeney. You’ve likely heard about the last 10 minutes, even if you don’t know the plot surprises and spoilers regarding the who, what and why of it all. We’ll simply direct you to the photo above, in which our blood-smeared Lady of Perpetual Screamitude aims for the highest-decibel mark. By this point, Sweeney’s character — a chaste young American woman living at an Italian convent — has been to hell and back. She’s got one last task to perform. The camera stays locked in a tight close-up on her face, moving with her as she does what she has to do. Everything is focused on her reactions; even the backgrounds are a blur.
Today's Jewish Firemen joke....
One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant and in a blink it exploded into flames.
The alarm went out to the fire departments from miles around.
When the volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to the fire chief and said, "All of our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved. I will give $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out intact."
But the roaring flames held the firefighters off.
Soon more fire departments had to be called in as the situation became desperate.
As the firemen arrived, the president shouted out that the offer was now $100,000 to the fire department who could bring out the company's secret files.
From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight.
It was the nearby Jewish rural township volunteer fire company composed entirely of menschen over the age of 65.
To everyone's amazement, the little run-down fire engine operated by this Jewish Fire Department passed all the newer sleek engines parked outside the plant.....and drove straight into the middle of the inferno.
Outside the other firemen watched as the Jewish old timers jumped off and began to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen before.
Within a short time, the Jewish old timers had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas.
The grateful chemical company president joyfully announced that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the brave, though elderly, Jewish fire fighters.
The local TV news reporters rushed in after capturing the event on film asking, "What are you going to do with all that money?"
"Vell," said Abe Hertzfeld, the 70-year-old fire chief, "the foist thing ve're going to do is fix the brakes on that feshtunkena truck!"
Today's awful groaners......
How does an attorney sleep? First he lies on one side, then he lies on the other side.
I have a few jokes about unemployed people, but none of them work.
"I have a split personality," said Tom, being Frank.
How do you make holy water? You boil the hell out of it.
When life gives you melons, you're dyslexic.
It's hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally.
What’s the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter.
Two windmills are standing in a wind farm. One asks, “What’s your favorite kind of music?” The other says, “I’m a big metal fan.”
Hear about the new restaurant called Karma? There’s no menu - you get what you deserve.
I went to buy some camouflage trousers yesterday but couldn't find any.
What do you call a bee that can’t make up its mind? A maybe.
I tried to sue the airline for losing my luggage. I lost my case.
When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
A cross-eyed teacher couldn’t control his pupils.
She had a photographic memory, but never developed it.
Is it ignorance or apathy that's destroying the world today? I don't know and don't really care.
I wasn’t originally going to get a brain transplant, but then I changed my mind.
Which country’s capital has the fastest growing population? Ireland. Every day it’s Dublin.
My ex-wife still misses me. But her aim is starting to improve.
Two fish are in a tank; one says to the other, "How do you drive this thing?"
The guy who invented the door knocker got a no-bell prize.
Need an ark? I Noah guy.
I used to be indecisive; now I'm not so sure.
Sleeping comes so naturally to me, I could do it with my eyes closed.
What did the grape say when it got stepped on? Nothing - but it let out a little whine.
What do you call a super articulate dinosaur? A Thesaurus!
Today's divorce joke.....
On the first day, he sadly packed his belongings into boxes, crates and suitcases.
On the second day, he had the movers come to collect his things.
When he'd finished, he went into each and every room and deposited 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 to set off gas canisters, during which time the two had to move out for a few days, and in the end they even paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting. Nothing worked!
People stopped coming over to visit.
Repairmen refused to work in the house. The maid quit.
Finally, they couldn't take the stench any longer, and decided they had to move, but a month later - even though they'd cut their price in half - they couldn't find a buyer for such a stinky house.
Word got out, and eventually even the local realtors refused to return their calls.
Finally, unable to wait any longer for a purchaser, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place.
Then the ex called the woman and asked how things were going.
She told him the saga of the rotting house.
He listened politely and said that he missed his old home terribly and would be willing to reduce his divorce settlement in exchange for having the house.
Knowing he could have no idea how bad the smell really was, she agreed on a price that was only 1/10 nth of what the house had been worth ... but only if he would sign the papers that very day.
He agreed, and within two hours her lawyers delivered the completed paperwork.
A week later the woman and her boyfriend stood smiling as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home ........ and just to spite the ex-husband, they even took the curtain rods!!!
Today's Parrot joke...
A woman goes to her rabbi with a serious problem.
Her two female parrots have picked up a bad habit.
Any time she has visitors, the two parrots embarrass her by saying, in unison, "Hi ! We're hookers. Want to have some fun?"
To her surprise, the rabbi breaks into a smile,explaining that he has two male parrots which he has trained to pray and who've become very observant, spending
much of the day praying in their cage.
He's confident that if the woman brings her twoparrots over to his house, his two parrots will exert such a positive influence that her birds will turn into model parrots.
The next day the woman drives over to the rabbi'shouse and brings her two parrots into his home.
As she looks around, she notices a large cage with two parrots, each wearing a little kippah and tiny tallis (prayer shawl)and each holding a miniature
prayer book while they rock back and forth in prayer.
Sure enough, as soon as she places her female parrots in the cage, they shout out to their male counterparts: "Hi! We're hookers.Want to have some fun ?"
One of the rabbi's parrots immediately turns to the other, squawking: "Moishe, put the fucking book down.
Our prayers have been answered!"
