most extreme Justices are out in the open now, and don't care how it looks or what we think....
Many Americans are confused by the spectacle they heard (we couldn’t “witness” it because Republicans on the Supreme Court won’t allow their proceedings to be televised) yesterday as an attorney for Donald Trump, at least three different times in different ways, argued that Trump was above the law and should be treated as such.
Even more baffling was the apparent agreement with that position by at least four of the six Republicans on the Court.
Every time the government’s attorney or the Democratic appointees on the Court tried to bring the discussion back to “calling balls and strikes in the case before us” (as Roberts said is all he’d ever do) the Republican appointees changed the subject, claiming they’re more concerned about “future presidents” than Trump. Right…https://hartmannreport.com/p/is-scotus-in-on-the-coup-and-trying-26c?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=302288&post_id=144006328&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2cwgv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
2/. Joe Biden nailed it at the White House Correspondents Dinner......
Joe Biden has shown no mercy to Donald Trump with a series of barbed jokes about his election rival, telling a gathering of Washington’s political and media elites: “I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old.”
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday night provided the ideal platform for Biden to continue a recent run of taking the fight to Trump with more aggressive rhetoric, cutting humour and personal insults.
But the jovial mood inside the room contrasted sharply with raucous demonstrations outside the Washington Hilton hotel. Hundreds of protestersshouted “Shame on you!” at White House officials, journalists and celebrities as they arrived at the dinner, condemning Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza and the media’s coverage of it.
Here is his speech....just over 9 minutes....some wonderful Trump jokes, but also a
serious message to the press there about our democracy. Biden did good!
3/. Colin Jost was the comedian host of the WH Correspondents Dinner, and readers of DDD know how much I like his humor....but not last night.
He was really bad, his jokes looked good on paper but his delivery was off.
On Weekend Update most of what they do is zingers and sarcasm, but this 25 minute set seemed like it went on forever, with hardly any laughs from the audience.
Jost's format just didn't work.
So I thought you might be interested to see again a WHCD comedian who caused major controversy in 2018, Michelle Wolf,
and is defended in this column from the Times.
One of Michelle Wolf’s first jokes at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner involved a certain vulgarity that rode into widespread public use aboard Donald Trump’s “Access Hollywood” bus. To this crowd, it was apparently still a bit shocking. “You should have done more research before you got me to do this,” she said.
It was funny because it was true. The association invited Ms. Wolf, a political comedian, to its annual shindig Saturday night. She performed a political comedy routine. It was scathing, confrontational and impolite.
4/. Interesting - this lists the top High Schools in the state, and every county in Central Florida.....and yes Lake County is pretty bad.....
5/. Back to the 60's....hey hey LBJ, how many kids have you killed today......
6/. Since the orange monster is sucking up most of the media's oxygen I'll bet you haven't heard of most of the things Biden has done this month......
As always, excellent column from Heather Cox Richardson.....
In the past two days, the Biden-Harris administration has announced a wide range of new rules to protect ordinary Americans.
Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the administration has finalized two new rules affecting patients in nursing homes and receiving home care, as well as the workers who care for them. The first sets minimum staffing requirements for facilities funded by Medicare and Medicaid, and the second concerns how home healthcare companies account for Medicaid funding. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-23-2024?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
7/. And I'll bet you didn't know this either.....
The days of airlines leaving customers in the financial lurch after canceling their flights may be coming to an end.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued two new rulesthat are aimed at tackling delayed refunds and hidden junk fees for consumers. Airlines will be required to promptly refund customers who are owed money and to inform customers about service fees before they purchase their fares and additional services.
“Passengers deserve to know upfront what costs they are facing and should get their money back when an airline owes them — without having to ask,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
8/. Jimmy Kimmel with another good one....includes a skit on "Truth Social TV", right at the end [13 minute mark]...
9/. Conservatives are finally, finally turning on MTG....
A New York Post front page on Monday blaring “Nyet, Moscow Marjorie”, its mocked-up picture showing Marjorie Taylor Greene wearing a Soviet cap, was the latest sign of sections of the US right turning on the extremist, pro-Trump Georgia congresswoman over her opposition to military aid for Ukraine.
“The score in Congress is now ‘Jewish space lasers lady 0, common sense 1’,” the Murdoch-owned tabloid said, celebrating the fact that Greene and other “Republican renegades” failed to stop passage of the Ukraine aid on Saturday, though they long delayed it.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/22/ukraine-aid-marjorie-taylor-greene-new-york-post
10/. Why are there so many people homeless in America?
Hedge funds and private equity are the problem.....Thom Hartmann explains the issue.....
Back in 1967, a friend of mine and I hitchhiked from East Lansing, Michigan to San Francisco to spend the summer in Haight-Ashbury. One ride dropped us off in Sparks, Nevada, and within minutes of putting our thumbs out a city police car stopped and arrested us for vagrancy.
The cop, a young guy with an oversize mustache who was apologetic for the city’s policy, drove us to the desert a mile or so beyond the edge of town, where we hitchhiked standing by a distressing light-post covered with graffiti reading “39 hours without a ride,” “going on our third day,” and “anybody got any water?”
Vagrancy laws were so 20th century.
Today, the US Supreme Court will hear a case involving efforts by the City of Grants Pass, Oregon to keep homeless people off its streets and out of its parks and other public property. The city had tried a number of things when the problem began to explode in the last year of the Trump administration,
11/. it's spring.....time for Karen's to start complaining...
12/. Yes we all use them, but Amazon truly is a toxic company......an interview with the author of a book about their culture.....
In May of 2020, seven members of the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee penned a letter to then CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos. “On April 23,” their message began, The Wall Street Journal “reported that Amazon employees used sensitive business information from third-party sellers on its platform to develop competing products.” The article contradicted previous sworn testimony from the company’s general counsel, possibly rendering the testimony “false or perjurious,” the seven congressional leaders wrote.
The Journal’s exposé, which ultimately spurred Bezos’s first-ever congressional testimony, was written by Dana Mattioli as part of the paper’s wide-ranging investigation into Amazon’s business practices.
13/. Are you a victim of polypharmacy? Taking meds that fight each other?
Read on......quite interesting....
Around one in five adults between the ages of 40 to 79 is taking five or more prescription drugs, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the older patients are, the more likely it is they’re taking even more medications.
But taking many medicines simultaneously, known among medical experts as polypharmacy, increases people’s risk of experiencing severe side effects and drug interactions, said Dr. Nina Blachman, an associate professor of medicine and geriatrics at the N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/22/well/live/medication-prescription-drug-use.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
14/. Now this is an Oops.....if you are travelling abroad make sure your phone is set for International roaming......and
this includes Canada and Mexico too....
US man returns from Europe to $143,000 T-Mobile bill for using phone overseas
Gigantic bill apparently reflected using 9.5 gigabytes of data on a phone that had not been set up for international roaming
15/. The Tampa Bay Times analyzes and explains the Lyrics of Taylor Swift's "Florida".....
In case you haven't played it.....
16/. And speaking of Florida.....DeSantis's immigration law is having the expected consequences.....immigrants are leaving.....
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Manuel Vasquez says he remembers when people started to leave. When one by one, people in this community started vanishing.
It began about a year ago, in May 2023, when a new law was signed into law by Governor — and then presidential candidate — Ron DeSantis.
It's considered one of the toughest immigration laws in the country.
Among other things, SB 1718 penalizes employers from using undocumented labor, prohibits undocumented people from having driver's licenses, and defines giving an undocumented person a ride into the state of Florida as human smuggling. It also requires hospitals to include questions about immigration status.
17/. We all know at least one of these - a "Small Business Tyrant".....
Despite the blue-collar affectations of some of its most visible leaders or the populist rhetoric of its most vocal cheerleaders, it has never been more obvious that the Republican Party is the party of the boss, and in particular the party of the small-business tyrant.
Who or what is the small-business tyrant? It’s the business owner whose livelihood rests on a steady supply of low-wage labor, who opposes unions, who resents even the most cursory worker protections and employee safety regulations and who views those workers as little more than extensions of himself, to use as he sees fit.
18/. A most interesting story from the Times - their TV critic with some observations on how TV has
evolved and what we have now.....he calls it Mid-TV......
A few years ago, “Atlanta” and “PEN15” were teaching TV new tricks.
In “Atlanta,” Donald Glover sketched a funhouse-mirror image of Black experience in America (and outside it), telling stories set in and around the hip-hop business with an unsettling, comic-surreal language. In “PEN15,” Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle created a minutely observed, universal-yet-specific picture of adolescent awkwardness.
In February, Glover and Erskine returned in the action thriller “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” on Amazon Prime Video. It’s … fine? A takeoff on the 2005 film, it updates the story of a married duo of spies by imagining the espionage business as gig work. The stars have chemistry and charisma; the series avails itself of an impressive cast of guest stars and delectable Italian shooting locations. It’s breezy and goes down easy. I watched several episodes on a recent long-haul flight and they helped the hours pass.
But I would never have wasted an episode of “Atlanta” or “PEN15” on in-flight entertainment. The work was too good, the nuances too fine, to lose a line of dialogue to engine noise.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/27/arts/television/mid-tv.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
19/. New in May on Netflix.....
Summer is near and with it comes a seasonal update to Netflix’s offerings. It has been a full year since the last trip to the Ton with the Bridgerton spinoff Queen Charlotte. Now, a new season of the original series is upon us—and centered on long-awaited friends-to-lovers romance between Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin (Luke Newton). “Their story really speaks to me—the unrequited crush, the wallflower-underdog coming off the wall,” first-time showrunner Jess Brownell, who takes over duties from Chris Van Dusen, tells Vanity Fair. “That speaks to high school Jess. I liked that the Penelope and Colin story lends itself so well to rom-com tropes because it’s a friends-to-lovers story. There’s more playfulness and familiarity to the story and that allows us to lean into awkward banter and play up the humor a little bit more.”
Today's train set joke...
A few days after Christmas, a mother was working in the kitchen listening to her young son playing with his new electric train in the living room.
She heard the train stop and her son said, "All of you sons of bitches who want off, get the hell off now, cause this is the last stop!
And all of you sons of bitches who are getting on, get your asses in the train, cause we're going down the tracks."
The mother went nuts and told her son, "We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and you are to stay there for TWO HOURS.
When you come out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language."
Two hours later, the son comes out of the bedroom and resumes playing with his train.
Soon the train stopped and the mother heard her son say, "All passengers who are disembarking from the train, please remember to take all of your belongings with you.
We thank you for riding with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one.
We hope you will ride with us again soon."
She hears the little boy continue, "For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under your seat.
Remember, there is no smoking on the train.
We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today."
As the mother began to smile, the child added, "For those of you who are pissed off about the TWO-HOUR delay, please see the bitch in the kitchen."
1. Two blondes walk into a building ........you'd think at least one of them would have seen it.
2. Phone answering machine message - '...If you want to buy marijuana, press the hash key...'
3. A guy walks into the psychiatrist wearing only Cling Film for shorts. The shrink says, "Well, I can clearly see you're nuts."
4. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day - but I couldn't see any.
5. My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli. A strong currant pulled him in.
6. A man came round in hospital after a serious accident.
He shouted, 'Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!'
The doctor replied, 'I know you can't, I've cut your arms off'.
7. I went to a seafood disco last week and pulled a muscle.
8. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly.
They lit a fire in the craft and it sank, proving once and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat it.
9. Our ice cream man was found lying on the floor of his van covered with hundreds and thousands.
Police say that he topped himself.
10. Man goes to the doctor, with a strawberry growing out of his head.
Doc says 'I'll give you some cream to put on it.'
11. 'Doc I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home'.
'That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome. '
'Is it common?'
'It's not unusual.'
12. A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet. 'My dog is cross-eyed, is there anything you can do for him?'
'Well,' said the vet, 'let's have a look at him'
So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then he checks his teeth.
Finally, he says, 'I'm going to have to put him down.'
'What? Because he's cross-eyed?'
'No, because he's really heavy,'
13. Guy goes into the doctor's room. 'Doc, I've got a cricket ball stuck up my bottom.'
'How's that?'
'Don't you start.'
14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.
15. Two fat blokes in a pub, one says to the other 'Your round.'
The other one says 'So are you, you fat bastard!'
16. Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid, and the other was eating fireworks.
They charged one and let the other one off.
17. 'You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today.
They left a little note on the windscreen. It said, 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice.'
18. A man walked into the doctor's, he said, 'I've hurt my arm in several places'.
The doctor said, 'Well don't go there anymore'.
19. Ireland's worst air disaster occurred early this morning when a small two-seater Cessna plane crashed into a cemetery.
Irish search and rescue workers have recovered 2826 bodies so far and expect that number to climb as digging continues into the night.
Today's Scottish joke
A man was sitting on a blanket at the beach. He had no arms and no legs.
Three women - one from England, another from Wales, and the other from Scotland, were walking past and felt
sorry for the poor man.
The English woman said, "Have you ever had a hug?"
The man said, "No."
So she gave him a hug and walked on, feeling pleased about herself.
The Welsh woman said, "Have you ever had a kiss?"
The man said, "No."
So she gave him a kiss and walked on, feeling pleased about herself.
The Scottish woman came to him and said, " 'ave ye ever been fucked, laddie? "
The man broke into a big smile and said, "No".
She said, "Aye, well ye will be when the tide comes in"
Today's Irish joke
John O'Reilly hoisted his beer and said, "Here's
to spending the rest of me Life, between the legs
of me wife !"
That won him the top prize at the pub for the best
toast of the night !
He went home and told his wife, Mary, "I won the
prize for the Best toast of The night."
She said, "Aye, did ye now. And what was your toast?"
John said, "Here's to spending the rest of me
life, sitting in church beside me wife."
"Oh, that is very nice indeed, John!" Mary said.
The next day, Mary ran into one of John's drinking
buddies on the street Corner.
The man chuckled leeringly and said, "John won the prize the other
night at The pub with a toast about you, Mary."
She said, "Aye, he told me, and I was a bit
surprised myself.. "You know, he's only been in there twice in the last four years.
Once I had to pull him by the ears to make him come, and the
other time he fell asleep".
Today's Italian joke
An elderly Italian man who lived on the outskirts of Rimini, Italy, went to the local church for confession.
When the priest slid open the panel in the confessional, the man said:
"Father, during World War II, a beautiful Jewish woman from our neighborhood knocked urgently on my door and asked me to hide her from the Nazis. So I hid her in my attic." The priest replied: "That was a wonderful thing you did, and you have no need to confess that." "There is more to tell, Father. She started to repay me with sexual favors. This happened several times a week, and sometimes twice on Sundays." The priest said, "That was a long time ago and by doing what you did, you placed the two of you in great danger, but two people under those circumstances can easily succumb to the weakness of the flesh. However, if you are truly sorry for your actions, you are indeed forgiven." "Thank you, Father. That's a great load off my mind. I do have one more question." "And what is that?" asked the priest. "Should I tell her the war is over?'' |
Today's joke for English Majors....
Consider yourself schooled 
• An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.
• A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
• A bar was walked into by the passive voice. • An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
• Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”
• A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
• Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
• A question mark walks into a bar?
• A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
• Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, "Get out -- we don't serve your type."
• A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
• A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
• Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
• A synonym strolls into a tavern.
• At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar -- fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
• A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
• Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
• A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
• An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
• The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
• A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
• The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
• A dyslexic walks into a bra.
• A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
• A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
• A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
• A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.
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