1/. Thom Hartmann with a good report on how evil Fox News is, and is the cause of the polarisation
in our country.....all to profit the Murdochs....
We all saw it on Wednesday night. Bret Baier, the multimillionaire supposed “real news” guy at Fox, angrily and rudely lied to the face of the Vice President of the United States and his millions of viewers, presenting an edited version of Trump’s most fascistic remarks that turned truth on its head. This is just the most recent example of the deadly toxants Fox “News” has been spreading across the American media and political landscape for decades.
The soil in which a democracy grows and flourishes is truthful information held as common knowledge by the majority of the population. Lies, when presented as news or as truth-based information, become a poison that severely injures and can even kill a democracy.
Particularly when those lies are packaged and sold just to make a buck. Or, in the case of the Murdoch empire, billions of bucks.
2/. Powerful ad......a long one, but wow.....
3/. DeSantis and the Republicans are spending your money to get you to vote no on Marijuana and Abortion......
As voting begins across Florida, Ron DeSantis is ramping up a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign against ballot measures that would overturn a statewide abortion ban and legalize marijuana. The DeSantis administration has in recent days launched more television commercials targeting both Amendment 3, which would allow recreational use of marijuana, and Amendment 4, which would end one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation.
That’s not all. An anti-abortion nonprofit subsidized with state tax dollars has also begun paying for additional TV ads that complement the state’s anti-Amendment 4 spots.
DeSantis has repeatedly refused to say how much public money he is pumping into all this advertising against the only two citizen-led constitutional amendments on the November ballot — both of which need support from 60 percent of voters to pass. But a Seeking Rents review of recent purchase orders and vendor payments shows the total tab may now exceed $16 million.
That’s enough money to hire nearly 400 teachers or pay for a month of childcare for nearly 2,000 kids.
4/. SNL had a very good cold open last week - Trump and Harris on Family Feud.....
5/. Why Texas politics is so awful.....two billionaires and their religious crusades.....
Last December, Sid Miller, the Texas commissioner of agriculture, posted a photo of himself brandishing a double-barrel shotgun on X and invited his followers to join him on a “RINO hunt.” Miller had taken to stumping in the March primary election against incumbents he deemed to be Republicans in Name Only. Not long after that, he received a text message from one of his targets, a state representative named Glenn Rogers. “You are a bought and paid for, pathetic narcissist,” it began. “If you had any honor, you would challenge me, or any of my Republican colleagues to a duel.”
6/. Here's a fascinating video story - Rachel Maddow with breaking news involving Stormy Daniels.....
7/. Desi Lydec on the Daily Show......she's really good!
8/. The MAGA lies about the response to Hurricane Helene are distorting our sense of reality.....
David Wallace-Wells with a very good article.....
How hard is it to see disaster clearly? Barely one month before a contentious presidential election, with the country seemingly divided into alien epistemological spheres, a storm sneaked across the coast of Florida’s Big Bend and traveled inland from there, ultimately flooding large portions of several mountain states hundreds of miles from the ocean and thousands of feet from sea level, crumbling highways and washing away homes, killing 234 and inflicting damages, one estimate suggests, of $225 billion to $250 billion.
Both numbers are astonishing. Two hundred and thirty-four deaths makes Hurricane Helene, almost ignored by the national media until several days after landfall, the third-deadliest U.S. hurricane in the 21st century. The low-end figure of $225 billion represents more than half of the Congressional Budget Office estimate for the 10-year investments contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, meaning that a single storm had produced damages equivalent to more than five full years of federal outlays from what is often called by proud American lawmakers the most consequential piece of climate legislation the world has ever seen.
9/. Heather Cox Richardson's analysis of Kamala's interview on Fox.......she NAILED Bret Baier......
Two Fox News Channel interviews bracketed today: one this morning with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in front of an audience of hand-picked Republican women in Georgia, the other by Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris with host Bret Baier. Together, the two were a performance of dominance.
FNC billed Trump’s so-called town hall as a chance for female voters, a demographic that is swinging heavily to Harris, to ask Trump about issues they care about. But Hadas Gold and Liam Reilly of CNN reported that FNC had packed the audience with Trump supporters. The first question came from the president of the Fulton County Republican Women, though she was not identified as such. FNC then edited the broadcast to cut out remarks in which the attendees expressed support for Trump. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-16-2024?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=20533&post_id=150343437&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2cwgv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
10/. You know some of these people.....all white men of course.....
11/. This story relates to the West Coast, but also in Central Florida it's not quite back to normal.....debris and gas shortages.....
Thousands of people who fled the onrushing Hurricane Milton are facing fuel shortages, debris and long traffic jams as they return to damaged Florida communities that are confronted with lengthy rebuilds.
Millions of people were urged to evacuate before Milton, which slammed into western Florida on Wednesday as a category 3 hurricane, causing more than a dozen deaths, ruined homes and flooding and triggering a rash of destructive tornadoes. More than 1.5 million people are still without power in the wake of the storm.
Many of those who did evacuate have been trying to make their way back home but face difficulties in doing so, with traffic snarled back into the Tampa Bay area.
12/. The full Weekend Update last week with two guest segments......pretty good......13 minutes.....
13/. Republicans in North Carolina, at the behest of the building industry, gutted building codes
that could have saved a lot of homes.....
The amount of rain that Tropical Storm Helene unleashed over North Carolina was so intense, no amount of preparation could have entirely prevented the destruction that ensued.
But decisions made by state officials in the years leading up to Helene most likely made some of that damage worse, according to experts in building standards and disaster resilience.
Over the past 15 years, North Carolina lawmakers have rejected limits on construction on steep slopes, which might have reduced the number of homes lost to landslides; blocked a rule requiring homes to be elevated above the height of an expected flood; weakened protections for wetlands, increasing the risk of dangerous storm water runoff; and slowed the adoption of updated building codes, making it harder for the state to qualify for federal climate-resilience grants.
14/. Time for another "Last Week In Collapse", this one has some pretty awful statistics.....
15/. Yup, it's "that guy"......
16/. Climate change is going to transform the American South.....really
interesting, and can't fault the logic.....
When Hurricane Helene, the 420-mile-wide, slow-spinning conveyor belt of wind and water drowned part of Florida’s coastline and then barged its path northward through North Carolina last week, it destroyed more than homes and bridges. It shook people’s faith in the safety of living in the South, where the tolls of extreme heat, storms and sea level rise are quickly adding up.
Helene was just the latest in a new generation of storms that are intensifying faster, and dumping more rainfall, as the climate warms. It is also precisely the kind of event that is expected to drive more Americans to relocate as climate change gets worse and the costs of disaster recovery increase.
17/. SNL - Jennifer Coolidge [and Ariana Grande] for Maybelline.....most amusing.....
18/. Snoopy goes Q-Anon....
19/. The goofier she gets, the more the Media loves her......
20/. The Florida condo market is a disaster....prices have collapsed.....
Ten years ago, Howard and Sheila Konetz bought themselves a Florida dream: an 1,820-square-foot condo in a leafy gated community north of Miami, complete with access to a country club, tennis courts and swimming pools. The $478,500 purchase would usher them into blissful semiretirement, they thought. With enough cash in the bank, the couple didn’t need a mortgage and downsized from their house in Miami Beach.
Seven years later, on June 24, 2021, the Champlain Towers South condo building in the nearby town of Surfside partially collapsed when its corroded concrete and steel supports buckled, killing 98 people. Florida lawmakers responded by requiring condominiums that are at least 30 years old to undergo inspections, make critical improvements and amass reserve funds for future repairs.
Suddenly, the Konetzes found themselves facing a $224,000 bill — their share of a special assessment to renovate and repair their 36-year-old building. Unable to secure a loan or sell the unit, the couple now fear bankruptcy.
21/. Wake up, rural Merica......
22/. "The Apprentice", the movie about Trump is out.....Bob Lefsetz likes most of it.....
The first half is fantastic.
This is not the film I thought it would be. I figured it would be a left wing takedown, a la Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” a movie trumpeted by the left, released just before the 2004 election, but despite the flick’s condemnation, Bush ended up winning the presidency anyway.
And based on the kerfuffle, studios’ refusal to release it, I thought that “The Apprentice” would be an evisceration of Trump.
But this is not what “The Apprentice” is. If anything, I’d call it the modern day “Scarface,” not the original, but the Al Pacino remake, which has become a cult favorite amongst drug dealers and gang members everywhere.
You see so much in this film is accurate. America is about winning. The laws are just suggestive guardrails for the rich and powerful. And sure, most people will never play in this league, but they want to, which is why poor people consistently vote against increased taxes for the rich, because they plan to become rich themselves, however delusional that might be.
So what we’ve got here is Donald Trump’s arc with Roy Cohn. Who is played by Jeremy Strong, whom you’ll recognize from “Succession,” who until the head-nodding tic gets tired in the second half, delivers an Academy Award winning performance. He’s that good. As for the tic, the head-bobbing, there’s very little footage of Cohn online, I saw one interview, he did move his head, not in the same way, but there must be something there for Strong to have made it such a part of his performance.
23/. The 50 best movies on HBO Max right now.....
When HBO Max debuted in May 2020, subscribers rightfully expected (and got) the formidable catalog of prestige television associated with the HBO brand. But its movie library drew from a much deeper well. Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns HBO, is a huge conglomerate, and its premiere streaming service comprises decades of titles from Warner Bros., Turner Classic Movies, Studio Ghibli and more. Viewed in that light, its recent rebranding as Max seems fitting.
That means a lot of large-scale fantasy series and selections from the DC extended universe. Max is also an education in Golden Age Hollywood classics and in independent and foreign auteurs like Federico Fellini, Satyajit Ray and John Cassavetes. The list below is an effort to recommend a diverse range of movies — old and new, foreign and domestic, all-ages and adults-only — that cross genres and cultures while appealing to casual and serious movie-watchers alike. (Note: Streaming services sometimes remove titles or change starting dates without notice.)
24/. Bob Lefsetz likes this book! "Tell Me Everything".....
This is a fantastic book. (And easy to read too!)
For those of you not on the Strout train… You’re the lucky ones, because you can go back and read all the books that preceded this one. If, like me, you’re totally up to date, you’ll be fascinated by the fact that seemingly every previous character plays a part in “Tell Me Everything.”
In reality, it’s all about style. And I can’t say I can define it, but I’ll try to relate the experience of reading the book.
It’s set in the modern world, the world we live in, but really it’s more like the world we used to live in prior to the internet. We’re all overwhelmed with the election, social media, there’s a tsunami of information, and although there are some proud Boomers who will tell you they’ve got flip phones and have never been on Instagram, never mind TikTok, most of us want to know what is going on, and we’re drawn into the maelstrom.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/10/10/tell-me-everything/
25/. Vanity Fair with the best movies so far of 2024........some good ones you missed are listed!
AND Mad Max Furiosa!
Today's musical clip!
On a scale of 1-10 for guitar solos, this one is an 11 - David Gilmour with Comfortably Numb......
Today's Satan Joke
An alcoholic, a sex addict and a pothead, all die and go to Hell.
Satan is waiting for them and tells all of them, I am in a good mood today, so I am going to let each one of you pick one thing you love from earth and let you keep it here for 100 years, and then I will return for the goods.
Satan first approaches the alcoholic, What is it that you would like to have, to which the alcoholic responds, I want the finest brew, wine and liquor you can get me?.
Satan brings him to a room filled with every type of beer on tap, the finest aged cellars of wine and of course the purest grain alcohol, each type of liquor you could possibly think of or never afford to even taste; a never ending supply of it all. The man yells, WHOOA WHO!! in excitement, and runs into the room.
Satan laughs, shuts the door and locks it.
Satan then approaches the sex addict and asks What is it that you would like to have?, to which the sex addict responds WOMEN!
I want lots of beautiful women, one for each day of the year!.
Satan brings him to a room filled with only the most gorgeous women imaginable.
Some with huge chests, some with small, some with big behinds and some with small, some tall with never ending legs and some short,
All of the women are hot, naked and very horny. The sex addict immediately gets into action and runs into the room.
Satan laughs, shuts the door and locks it.
Satan finally approaches the pothead and asks. What is it that you would like to have?, to which the pothead responds, Well, that's easy!
I want the best weed you got.
Satan brings him to a room which is filled with the tallest, thickest, stinkiest, most dank plants growing on for acres.
The sweet smell from the purest plants fills this enormous room.
There were crystals growing on some buds which grew 15 feet high, just begging to be harvested.
The quality of the bud would put the Cannabis Cup winners to shame, in all categories. It was beyond belief.
The pot head was so awed and humbled by the sight of these beautiful plants, that he slowly walked into the room, he sat down Indian style (like with his legs crossed), took slow deep breaths, closed his eyes and proceeded to meditate on this miraculous sight.
Satan looks at him curiously, shuts the door and locks it.
**ONE HUNDRED YEARS PASS**
Satan returns to the first room (remembering the alcoholic), unlocks and opens the door.
There is broken wine and liquor glass bottles shattered everywhere.
The room smells like rotting animal flesh and piss.
The alcoholic comes running at the door, naked covered in his own vomit and shit, screaming 'HELP!, I don't want anymore. Let me out of here!'.
Satan laughs, shuts the door and locks it.
Satan then returns to the second room (remembering the sex addict), unlocks and opens the door.
There are thousands of kids running around the room and babies crying madly making so much noise no one could hear their own scream.
Hundreds of very very old ladies now limp around with no clothes on, still very horny for the sex addict who attempts to run out the door as Satan watches.
Before the sex addict can utter a word of desperation, Satan laughs, shuts the door and locks it.
Satan finally arrives at the third and final room (remembering the pothead), unlocks and opens the door.
After a quick look inside, Satan's evil grin turns to a look of confusion.
Nothing had changed. The plants were untouched, just as dank as the day he left them.
Even the pothead was in the same position, sitting down with his legs crossed.
So Satan walks up behind the pothead, taps him on his shoulder and says, Hey, What's wrong?.
A tear rolls down the pothead's cheek as he turns to Satan and simply replies,
'GOT A LIGHTER?
Today's Taxi joke
I got cut off by a taxi driver last week.
I was walking through town today and I saw him at the back of the queue at the taxi rank.
I got in the first taxi in the queue and said "How much to the station ?"
"$5" said the driver. "And how much for a blow job ?" I asked him.
"That's disgusting" he said "Get out of my cab"
I got in the second taxi and said "How much to the station ?". "$5" said the driver. "And how much for a blow job ?" I asked him.
"I'm not having any of that" he said "Get out of my cab"
I worked my way down the line, getting thrown out of each taxi in turn, until I came to my target at the back of the queue.
"How much to the station ?". "$5" said the driver.
"Ok" I said "Let's go"
As we pulled out and overtook the other taxis I wound the window down and gave all the other drivers a thumbs up with a big grin on my face!!.
Today's Oldie jokes
Paul Lynde had some great zingers......
Peter Marshall: "Eddie Fisher recently said, 'I am sorry. I am sorry for them both.' Who was he referring to?"
Paul Lynde: "His fans."
Marshall: "According to Tony Randall, 'Every woman I've been intimate with in my life has been...' what?"
Lynde: "Bitterly disappointed."
Marshall: "Paul, how many fingers in the girl scout salute?"
Lynde: "Gee, I don't remember. The last time I saw it was when I didn't buy their cookies."
Marshall: "Paul, does Ann Landers think there is anything wrong with you if you do your housework in the nude?"
Lynde: "No, but I have to be terribly careful when I do my ironing."
Marshall: "Paul, any good sailor knows that when a man falls off a ship you yell 'Man overboard!' What should you shout if a woman falls overboard?"
Lynde: "Full speed ahead!"
Marshall: "What are 'dual-purpose cattle' good for that other cattle aren't?"
Lynde: "They give milk... and cookies, but I don't recommend the cookies."
Marshall: "Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?"
Lynde: "Because chiffon wrinkles too easily."
Marshall: "According to the IRS, out of every 10 Americans audited, how many end up paying more taxes?"
Lynde: "11."
Marshall: "What's the one thing you should never do in bed?"
Lynde: "Point and laugh!"
Marshall: "In 'The Wizard Of Oz', the Tin Man wanted a heart, and the Lion wanted courage. What did the Straw Man want?"
Lynde: "He wanted the Tin Man to notice him."
Marshall: "In the Shakespearean play 'King Lear,' King Lear had three of them - Goneril, Cordelia, and Regan? Who were they?"
Lynde: "King Lear had Goneril?"
Marshall: "Paul, everyone knows the first verse: What shall we do with the drunken sailor? / What shall we do with the drunken sailor? / What shall we do with the drunken sailor? / Early in the morning? But what is the first line of the next verse?"
Lynde : [singing] "Put him in bed with Elizabeth Taylor / Put him in bed with Elizabeth Taylor / Put him in bed with Elizabeth Taylor / Early in the morning." [audience laughs] "How disgusting... that poor sailor!"
Marshall: "True or false, Paul Revere had 16 children?"
Lynde: "From ONE midnight ride?"
Marshall: "Back in the 1870s, Emile Berliner invented something, and without it, I wouldn't be able to do my job. What was it?"
Lynde: "Let's see... toupees? Facelifts? Contact lenses?"
Marshall: "Now cut that out!"
Lynde: "Makeup? Capped teeth? Loud sports jackets?"
Today's Goth joke
A nurse was on duty in the Emergency Room when a young woman with purple hair styled into a punk rocker Mohawk, sporting a variety of tattoos and wearing strange clothing, entered the E.R.
It was quickly determined that the patient had acute appendicitis, so she was scheduled for immediate surgery.
When she was completely disrobed on the operating table, the staff noticed that her pubic hair had been dyed green and above it there was a tattoo that read ... 'Keep off the grass’
Once the surgery was completed, the surgeon wrote a short note on the patient's dressing which said . . .
'Sorry, had to mow the lawn.'
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