6/. Jon Stewart on Israel and the Middle East....even though he's a little subdued in this one, doing
some excellent comedic reporting, he is still very amusing........
7/. Paul Krugman makes a very good point about Trump's tariff plan, which every economist thinks will be terrible for
consumers, but Republicans have accepted Trump's line that it will cost countries like China money.
The dear leader has spoken, forget your reality....
Do tariffs — taxes on imports — raise prices for U.S. consumers? There’s really no debate on the subject.
I don’t mean that everyone agrees. Rather, there are two distinct groups that aren’t talking to each other, each of which is more or less unified in its views. Almost all economists agree that taxes on imports are, in fact, passed on to consumers. Why? Because that’s what the evidence says, and it’s very hard to come up with an alternative story.
On the other hand, Trump loyalists — which these days means almost the entire Republican Party — insist as a group that foreigners, not American consumers, pay taxes on imports. Why? Because Donald Trump says so. And they don’t even try to engage with economists who disagree.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/opinion/trump-tariffs-economy.html
8/. JD Vance.....what a horrible human being....
9/. Thom Hartmann with a very interesting synopsis of the weeks news.....
Some new items you may have missed....
Caution: We are entering the desperation phase of the Trump campaign. Trump and Vance have moved into their carrot/stick phase, offering both wild tax cut gifts to working class people (tips, Social Security, overtime) and also threatening people if he doesn’t win. Most recently, Trump claimed this week (at a workshop on antisemitism, no less) that if he wasn’t elected this fall it’ll be the fault of American Jews who are “disloyal” to both him and Israel. Add that to his and Vance’s attempt to get people killed in Springfield, Ohio, and you have naked desperation on display. And it’ll only get worse as we get closer to the election; there’s still about six weeks go to and it’s hard to imagine them getting any more racist and hyperbolic, but it’s an easy prediction. Who will be the next target of their slanders and blood libels? I’m betting on Hispanics, now that they’ve managed to threaten both Black immigrants and Jews. On top of that, the government will shut down on October 1 if funding legislation isn’t passed; as I wrote Thursday, Trump and Mike Johnson tried to attach a bill that would have prevented millions of married women from voting, but Democrats defeated it. What’s next and who’s next? What do you think?
10/. Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader in a very amusing SNL sketch.....
11/. He's still here, screwing up Florida......
AMID A BRAZEN, state-sanctioned disinformation campaign against a ballot measure to restore abortion rights in Florida — including visits to voters’ homes by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ election goon squad — doctors say the state’s ban is putting their patients’ lives at risk, forcing them to confront unfathomably dark medical scenarios, and some are warning they may be forced to leave the state if the measure fails this November. The Planned Parenthood Health Center in Miami, Florida, has remained open, but since May 1, there has been a big sign in the lobby informing patients that, with limited exceptions, clinicians are not allowed to provide abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Many of the patients that Dr. Chelsea Daniels sees on a daily basis are not aware of the state’s ban before they see the sign. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/desantis-abortion-florida-doctors-amendment-1235106222/
12/. Taking the kid to the pool in 1999, and 2024 - amusing, and also pretty true!
Helicopter time......
13/. Thomas Edsall's columns for the Times are pretty long and detailed, but this one is a little better than usual - he attempts to
explain why Trump supporters who know exactly how awful he is still love him......
The mystery of 2024: How is it possible that Donald Trump has a reasonable chance of winning the presidency despite all that voters now know about him? Why hasn’t a decisive majority risen to deny a second term to a man in line to be judged the worst president in American history?
The litany of Trump’s liabilities is well known to the American electorate. His mendacity, duplicity, depravity, hypocrisy and venality are irrevocably imprinted on the psyches of American voters.
Trump has made it clear that in a second term he would undermine the administration of justice, empower America’s adversaries, endanger the nation’s allies and exacerbate the nation’s racial and cultural rifts.
14/. Springfield and the Haitians.....
15/. If you - presumably an adult - watch TikTok you know your feed doesn't include any "Girly Girl" videos....
But this is what young women are watching....
TikTok’s latest musical obsession is a country song. But not the kind that first comes to mind.
Miles removed from the weather-beaten earnestness of Zach Bryan, or Bailey Zimmerman’s heart-on-sleeve crooning, the viral “10 Drunk Cigarettes” is plasticky, poppy, alien and seemingly A.I.-assisted. Its lyrics advocate for a carefree, resolutely American way of life, although they replace Nashville standards like beers and Bibles with cigarettes and copious amounts of cocaine, and find humor (and plenty of shock value) in their clash of saccharine femininity and unbridled nihilism. The result is like the cult comedy “Strangers With Candy” or the early web series “The Most Popular Girls in School” for the short-form video generation.
“10 Drunk Cigarettes” is by Girly Girl Productions: a mysterious trio supposedly based in St. Louis that seem to have a preternatural ability to turn ironic, startlingly contemporary internet humor into music. Most Girly Girl songs follow a brutally effective structure: an intro verse about how empowered women are, followed by a chorus about using that power to do something horrifyingly self-destructive, in a tone that vaguely echoes the “God forbid women have hobbies” meme.
"10 Drunk Cigarettes
16/. Another Harris campaign ad - "Best Friends".....linking Trump and the "Black Nazi" Mark Robinson.....
17/. MAGA -don't be afraid to confront most of them, they cave because they are full of fear....
18/. Ezra Klein with a very good analysis of MAGA, and how it has grown past Trump and become its own movement.....
In 2024, the deep state that defeats Donald Trump might be his own.
That, after all, is what Project 2025 was actually meant to be. The 900-page tome that Democrats hoist in front of the cameras is a festival of policy options, detailed down to the subagency level. But options for whom? Not for Trump. Even the most wonkish of presidents can engage on only a small fraction of what the executive branch does. And Trump was not the most wonkish of presidents. When he said, during his debate with Kamala Harris, that he hadn’t read Project 2025 and has no intention of doing so, I believed him.
But Project 2025 — and much else like it that has gotten less press — is more than a compendium of policy proposals: It is an effort to build a deep state of Trump’s own.
19/. Jimmy Kimmel hates Trump, and at a rally this week Trump went on about Kimmel making a joke about him at the Oscars, 6 months ago.
Needless to say, Kimmel eviscerated him.....very funny.....
20/. 'A Very Royal Scandal".....a three part series on Amazon that details Prince Andrew's disastrous interview about Epstein....
“A Very Royal Scandal,” available now on Amazon Prime Video, tells — retells — the story of when the BBC journalist Emily Maitlis interviewed Prince Andrew on television in 2019 about his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein. The very first thing he says in the interview is that “there is no good time to talk about Mr. Epstein and all things associated.” Welp …
The mini-series is tightly focused — its three episodes cover the period just before the interview, the interview itself and the immediate aftermath, with a few key flashbacks — but the show exists in a hall of mirrors of real-world scandals and media. “Royal” lives in the shadow of the crown, and in the shadow of “The Crown,” and is part of a prestige-laundering industry that refashions tabloid ignominy and wretchedness into cool-toned, highbrow drama. And it follows the movie “Scoop,” starring Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell, which premiered in April and is about the same interview.
21/. This looks interesting!
Aaron Hernandez was football’s shooting star – the big, fast and tough receiver you couldn’t take your eyes off. Deployed as a tight end, the name for the double duty players on offense who block as well as catch passes, Hernandez quickly emerged as the nation’s best while winning a college championship at the University of Florida in 2009. After joining the NFL the following year at the tender age of 20, Hernandez helped evolve the tight end position from complementary to headlining role on the way to reaching the Super Bowl and signing a $40m contract extension. Ultimately, though, his penchant for self-destruction proved greater than his knack for wrecking game plans. In 2017 Hernandez was found dead at age 27 while serving life in prison for fatally shooting a close friend who played semi-pro ball. His spectacular fall from grace became the biggest media scandal since the OJ Simpson saga – so it’s no wonder that Hernandez has also received the Ryan Murphy treatment.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/sep/17/american-sports-story-aaron-hernandez-review?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
22/. "The Substance" and other body horror movies......
In some scary movies, the sources of horror are closer than in your town or even in your house — they’re in your very own skin.
These films belong to a subgenre called body horror: movies that depict various transformations, mutations and degradations of the human form. The terrifying changes often emphasize the futility of our efforts to control our horribly unpredictable bodies. We like to think of ourselves as a mind managing a body, but these movies remind us that we’re ultimately at the mercy of the meat sacks we walk around in.
Coralie Fargeat’s newest film, “The Substance” (in theaters), starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, participates in this robust tradition, depicting an aging starlet who uses an experimental new drug to create a younger, better version of herself. As you might guess, the treatment causes some unexpected and disgusting side effects, satirizing society’s (and particularly Hollywood’s) obsession with wanting women to stay stereotypically beautiful and youthful — at any cost.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/movies/the-substance-body-horror-movies.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&ngrp=mnp&cbgrp=p&pvid=F036171D-7F6D-4ADD-8120-64A759E28E3D
Today's religious joke....
A Muslim died and reached the gate of heaven.
He was very upset because he had longed to meet the Prophet Muhammad all his life.
He reached the gate and there he encountered a man with a beard.
"Are you Muhammad?" he asked.
"No, son, I'm Peter. Muhammad is higher," said the man, pointing to a ladder leading up to the clouds.
Rejoicing that Muhammad would be taller than Peter, the Muslim began to climb quickly up through the clouds until he discovered another bearded man in the next room. Again he asked, "Are you Muhammad?"
"I am Moses, you will find Muhammad above."
Tired, but with a heart full of joy, the Muslim continued to climb the ladder, until he reached the next room, where again there was a man with a beard.
"Are you Muhammad?" he asked him with hope in his voice.
"No, no, I'm Jesus, you have to go higher for Muhammad."
The exhausted Muslim began to climb into the clouds again in wistful anticipation.
Muhammad is higher than Jesus!
He climbed higher and higher until he finally arrived in a huge room where sat a stout man with a huge white flowing beard.
Barely catching his breath, the Muslim collapsed next to him and wheezed:
"Are you Muhammad?"
"Oh no, my son, I am God. But you look exhausted, would you like some coffee?"
“Yes, please, my lord.
God looked behind him, clapped his hands and called:
"Hey, Mohamed, two coffees. And a waffle!"
Today's Entrepreneurial joke
A young guy from North Carolina moves to Florida and goes to a big "everything under one roof" department store looking for a job.
The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?"
The kid says "Yeah. I was a vacuum salesman back in North Carolina."
Well, the boss was unsure, but he liked the kid and figured he'd give him a shot, so he gave him the job.
"You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did."
His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down to the sales floor.
"How many customers bought something from you today?"
The kid frowns and looks at the floor and mutters, "One".
The boss says "Just one?!!? Our sales people average sales to 20 to 30 customers a day.
That will have to change, and soon, if you'd like to continue your employment here.
We have very strict standards for our sales force here in Florida.
One sale a day might have been acceptable in North Carolina, but you're not in the mountains anymore, son."
The kid took his beating, but continued to look at his shoes, so the boss felt kinda bad for chewing him out on his first day.
He asked (semi-sarcastically), "So, how much was your one sale for?"
The kid looks up at his boss and says "$101,237.65".
The boss, astonished, says $101,237.65?!? What the heck did you sell?"
The kid says, "Well, first, I sold him some new fish hooks.
Then I sold him a new fishing rod to go with his new hooks.
Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down
to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft.
Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Expedition."
The boss said "A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and a TRUCK!?"
The kid said "No, the guy came in here to buy tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing
Today's Samurai joke
A powerful Emperor advertised for a new Chief Samurai.
Only three applicants applied: a Japanese, a Chinese, and a Jewish Samurai.
Number One Samurai, "Demonstrate your skills!" commanded the Emperor.
The Japanese samurai stepped forward, opened a tiny box, and released a fly.
He drew his samurai sword and "swish"; the fly fell to the floor, neatly divided in two!
"What a feat!" said the Emperor. "Number Two, Samurai, show me what you can do."
The Chinese samurai smiled confidently, stepped forward, and opened a tiny box, releasing a fly. He drew his samurai sword and "swish, swish"; the fly fell to the floor, neatly quartered!
"That is skill!" nodded the Emperor. "How are you going to top that, Number Three Samurai?"
Number Three Samurai stepped forward, opened a tiny box, released one fly, drew his Samurai sword, and "swoosh" flourished
his sword so mightily that a gust of wind blew through the room. But the fly was still buzzing around!
Disappointed, the Emperor said, "What kind of skill is that? The fly isn't even dead."
"Dead, schemed," replied the Jewish Samurai. "Dead is easy. What takes real skill is circumcision."
Today's Pregnancy joke
A lady about 8 months pregnant got on a bus.
She noticed the man opposite her was smiling at her.
She immediately moved to another seat.
This time the smile turned into a grin, so she moved again.
He seemed more amused.
When on the fourth move, the man burst out laughing, she complained to the driver and he had the man arrested.
The case came up in court.
The Judge asked the man (about 20 years old) what he had to say for himself.
The man replied...
"Well your Honor, it was like this: When the lady got on the bus, I couldn't help but notice her condition. She sat under a sweets sign that said, "The Double Mint Twins are Coming" and I grinned.
Then she moved and sat under a sign that said "Logan's Liniment will reduce the swelling", and I had to smile.
Then she placed herself under a deodorant sign that said "William's Big Stick Did the Trick", and I could hardly contain myself.
BUT, your Honor, when she moved for the fourth time and sat under the sign that said "Goodyear Rubber could have
prevented this Accident"....I just lost it.......
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