1/. What really happened in that disastrous meeting of Zelensky/Trump/Vance?
Bob Lefsetz gives us his thoughts.....
This reminds me of nothing so much as being called to the principal’s office in high school.
Somehow you offended the teacher, who wants you to respect them because of their twenty years of tenure, even though you’re more intelligent than they are.
Or some weasel kiss-ass cried wolf and since you’re the outsider, you’re the one who colors outside the lines, you’re at fault.
So you’re marched down to the office where some grand poohbah excoriates you, doesn’t want to hear your defense, just wants to sentence you to detention.
And when you emerge from the building having paid your penance, you run into the bullies on the schoolyard. There’s no one there to come to your defense. And it’s always the number two who is the consigliere, who warns you of the power of the number one, who stands there silently, staring at you, as you get ready to take a punch.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2025/02/28/zelensky-trump-vance/
2/. And so does Heather Cox Richardson.....
Today, President Donald Trump ambushed Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky in an attack that seemed designed to give the White House an excuse for siding with Russia in its war on Ukraine. Vice President J.D. Vance joined Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office—his attendance at such an event was unusual—in front of reporters. Those reporters included one from Russian state media, but no one from the Associated Press or Reuters, who were not granted access.
In front of the cameras, Trump and Vance engaged in what Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo called a “mob hit,” spouting Russian propaganda and trying to bully Zelensky into accepting a ceasefire and signing over rights to Ukrainian rare-earth minerals without guarantees of security. Vance, especially, seemed determined to provoke a fight in front of the cameras, accusing Zelensky, who has been lavish in his thanks to the U.S. and lawmakers including Trump, of being ungrateful. When that didn’t land, Vance said it was “disrespectful” of Zelensky to “try to litigate this in front of the American media,” when it was the White House that set up the event in front of reporters.
4/. A non-political and really interesting story about scammers, you know the ones telling you you will be fined for unpaid tolls......
Turns out they are in Myanmar, and are virtually slaves.....
There are usually no international flights out of the airport in Mae Sot, a town on Thailand’s border with Myanmar. But in recent days, hundreds of people here boarded direct flights back home to China. They had been rescued from Myanmar, where they were ensnared in a 21st-century scourge — online scam mills that have used forced labor to bilk tens of billions of dollars out of victims worldwide.
The chartered flights were part of a multinational effort that followed the trafficking last month of a Chinese actor to work in a fraud center, which scared off Chinese tourists from visiting Thailand. The rescue missions, coordinated by officials in Thailand, Myanmar and China, were pitched as a body blow to this industry of grift.
5/. Tom Tomorrow and the
real President.....
6/. So what are we living through? The answer - a reality show......
A very insightful and serious story about how Trump has instinctively played to our
TV culture of shallowness and sensation.....
The takeover of the Kennedy Center may seem like an afterthought in the furious drama of President Donald Trump’s first month in office. The abandonment of the transatlantic alliance, proposals to annex territory on multiple continents, the evisceration of national institutions, and overt claims to kingship are such eye-popping departures from precedent that the leadership of a somewhat stuffy, self-consciously elite performing-arts venue seems negligible by comparison. But Trump’s peculiar preoccupation with the Kennedy Center is symptomatic of a profound change in the nature of American power since his inauguration: America is undergoing a cultural revolution. “This is going to be great television,” Trump said at the end of Friday’s stormy session with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It may as well be the motto of his administration.
7/. Just wait - Trump will have some flunky rewrite school history books just like this toon.....
Wait - they don't teach history in public schools any more.....
8/. Is Social Security an essential part of your retirement?
Oops.....Trump and Musk are gunning for it.....
Tuesday night, Donald Trump stood before the nation and, with the full backing of billionaires like Elon Musk, laid the groundwork for the biggest heist in American history — the rapid, systematic destruction of Social Security, disguised as “reform.”
We saw the formal announcement of it during Trump’s State of the Union address, and the DOGE announcement earlier in the week that 7,000 employees at Social Securityare to be immediately laid off — with as many as half of all Social Security employees (an additional 30,000 people) — soon to be on the chopping block.
Republicans and their morbidly rich donors have hated Social Security ever since it was first created in 1935. They’ve called it everything from communism to socialism to a Ponzi scheme.
9/. These AI videos are amazing.....
10/. MAGA's next target? Women and women's rights.....
Amanda Marcotte with a disturbing story.....ladies you need to read this.....
For decades, the anti-abortion movement has aggressively promoted women into visible leadership roles. It's for cynical reasons, namely, to bat off entirely accurate accusations that the movement is misogynist. Never mind that there have always been women who are eager to police the bodies and behavior of other women. Enough people are credulous or at least disingenuous enough to think that "I'm a woman, which means I can't hate other women" is an actual argument. For ambitious women who wanted to climb the ranks of Republican politics, anti-feminism has long been the steadiest of ladders. The propaganda value of their gender outweighed their party's larger hostility to women in leadership.
But now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned and Donald Trump is back in the White House, many on the right feel they no longer need to hide the naked sexism fueling their movement or put up with the annoyance of women in even token leadership positions.
11/. Sometimes change is not necessarily good!
12/. This struck a chord - Democrats are annoyingly safe, messages are filtered and lawyered to death.
People want authentic feelings, emotions etc. Trump is a master at this.....
I'm a lawyer. When I look at Democrats today, I see myself. That's not a good thing. Let's consider the 2024 presidential campaign. Democrats appeared to adopt the classic lawyer tactic of saying, "My client didn’t do anything." There’s good reason this has become a cliché: You win in court by showing that your client followed the law and the other guy didn’t. Which is why as a lawyer, you do everything in your power to make it seem like your client was off flying kites with his kids or staring out the window at pretty clouds while the other guy was doing the most.
In other words, you try to make your client seem like Kamala Harris and the other guy seem like Donald Trump. https://www.salon.com/2025/03/01/democrats-are-lawyering-themselves-into-political-oblivion-time-to-change-that/
14/. 2026 Elections? Yes - 2026! The "free and fair" election has already been fixed........
You can ignore Trump slyly hinting to the Lord’s chosen that he just might call off the next election.
“Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.”
But don’t ignore this: Trump won’t be calling off the election because he doesn’t have to. The Fix for 26 is already in.
The Republican plan is to win next year’s election this year. Yes, the voting will be bent, jacked and hammered this year, 2025, one year before the official voting. Because this is the year of The Great Purge.
And if The Great Purge doesn’t do the trick, Republicans are ramping up other vote suppression tactics they rolled out to win 2024, including a private army of MAGA-nauts who challenged over a million voters’ ballots in 2024 and plan on way more by the 2026 midterm.
15/. The Times with a video of how the Dems are going to win, based on what they are doing......or not.
Democrats - take a deep breath and watch this 4 minute video....
16/. Insurance companies in Florida are crying poor mouth, denying claims and hiking premiums, but they
have siphoned billions out of Florida using accounting tricks.
TALLAHASSEE — While Florida insurers claimed to be losing money in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Michael, their parent companies and affiliates were making billions of dollars, according to a study obtained by the Times/Herald.
The start of the state’s insurance market meltdown came on the heels of those two storms between 2017 and 2019, as companies justified big rate increases to cover their losses.
But those financial hardships don’t tell the full story, according to the 2022 study that has never been made public and was released to the Times/Herald after a two-year wait for public records. https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/02/22/florida-insurance-profits-desantis-regulation-investors-crisis/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
17/. "The King of the One Liners......most amusing video.....
18/. Had enough? Want to move abroad? Then read this......
If the 2024 U.S. elections have you thinking about moving overseas, you’re not alone. Search volume for terms such as “where to move out of the U.S.” and “how to move to Canada” spiked from 400–3,800% in the days after November 5th. Before that, 15% of Americans had already considered leaving the country for political reasons, making expatriation a trend — not a fad. Overall, U.S. citizens’ interest in living abroad has tripled since 1974.
After experiencing the transformative power of living overseas as a study abroad student in 2002, I moved abroad full-time and dedicated my career to helping others do the same. As an International Relocation Consultant, I’ve since helped more than 1,200 people move to 37 different countries. In my experience, some places are easier to move to than others https://medium.com/@kristinmwilson/10-easy-countries-for-americans-to-move-to-right-now-4a8020d9ad01
19/. Classic SNL - Kristen Wiig with "Almost Pizza"....
20/. Here's a movie everyone missed......an early Keanu Reeves in "Constantine"....
Everything in Constantine is washed with green, as though the whole world were unwell and not just the film’s terminally ill hero. The color-grading choice was particularly popular in movies at the turn of the millennium, a sickly tint that conveyed metropolitan gothic sensibilities and disaffection while amping up the physical sallowness of already-pallid leads. The Matrix is the stone-cold classic, and Dark City has its devotees (Roger Ebert notable among them), but for me, Francis Lawrence’s directorial debut about a psychic consultant has always been the best distillation of this aesthetic. Constantine has such a palpable appreciation for the details of the universe it puts onscreen — from the stained subway tile lining John Constantine’s kitchen to the oxblood club chairs in a church to the lock of hair that keeps escaping to flop over Keanu Reeves’s forehead — that any grander point becomes incidental.
Not that the story is lacking! Constantine is deeply pleasurable in a way that has become easier to admit as the film, which just crossed its 20th anniversary this year, has been removed from the context in which it was originally received.
21/. An Italian TV series "The Leopard" - the Guardian loves it....
First the Americans came for British period drama. Now the Brits are getting their mitts on Italy’s heritage. In 2020, the US producer Shonda Rhimes sexed-up Regency England with lusty intrigue, soapy storylines and orchestral covers of pop hits to create Netflix’s smash-hit Bridgerton. This year, British screenwriters Benji Walters and Richard Warlow (The Serpent) and director Tom Shankland (SAS Rogue Heroes) are collaborating with the streamer on a bit of pop cultural colonisation of their own.
You can see why they would want to: The Leopard – the trio’s adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s seminal 1860s novel, set in Sicily – is sumptuous, sensuous, emotionally tempestuous and full of nice food; all qualities our homegrown costume drama tends to lack. But this sweaty, steamy series is far more than a treat for the senses. Behind the frills and the romantic thrills – at the centre of the action is a captivating young love triangle – is a socio-historically insightful tale of an elite clan’s descent into obsolescence.
Today's "Happily Married" Joke:
A group of women were at a seminar on how to live in a loving relationship with their husbands.
The women were asked, "How many of you love your husband?"
All the women raised their hands.
Then they were asked, "When was the last time you told your husband you loved him?"
Some women answered today, a few yesterday, and some couldn't remember.
The women were then told to take out their cell phones and text their husband - "I love you, Sweetheart."
Next the women were instructed to exchange phones with one another and read aloud the text message they received in response to their message. Below are 11 hilarious replies.
If you have been married for quite a while, you understand that these replies are a sign of true love.
Who else would reply in such a succinct and honest way?
1. Who the hell is this?
2. Eh, mother of my children, are you sick or what?
3. Yeah, and I love you too. What's wrong?
4. What now? Did you wreck the car again?
5. I don't understand what you mean.
6. What the hell did you do now?
7. Don't beat about the bush, just tell me how much you need.
8. Am I dreaming?
9. If you don't tell me who this message is actually for, someone will die.
10. I thought we agreed you wouldn't drink during the day.
11. Your mother is coming to stay with us, isn't she?. ........
Today's blond joke
Two blondes were working on a house.
One of them was nailing down siding.
She’d reach into her nail pouch, pull out a nail, and either hammer it in or toss it over her shoulder.
The other blonde, curious, finally asked, “Why do you keep throwing some of those nails away?”
The first one replied, “Well, if I pull out a nail and it’s pointed toward me, I toss it—obviously, it’s defective. But if it’s pointed toward the house, I nail it in.”
The second blonde smacked her forehead and shouted, “You idiot!
The ones pointed toward you aren’t defective… they’re for the other side of the house!”
Another blond joke
The Blonde and the Road Paint Job
A man hires a blonde to paint stripes down the middle of a road, giving her one simple rule: she must paint at least four miles per day to keep the job.
On the first day, she absolutely crushes it—eight miles! The boss is blown away.
The second day, she paints four miles. Not as impressive, but still meeting the requirement. On the third day, she only manages two miles. The boss raises an eyebrow but figures maybe she’s just tired.
By the fourth day, she barely scrapes out one mile.
Frustrated, the boss finally asks, “What’s going on? You started off amazing! Why are you slowing down so much?”
The blonde wipes her forehead and sighs, “Well, I’m getting farther and farther away from the paint bucket!”
Today's awful joke
I had a call from a scammer the other day.
Me: “Hello.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Hello. This is Hymie Zeller from Microsoft Support. We are seeing a lot of virus activity from your device.”
Me: “Oh no. My device? Are you sure?”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Oh yes, we have many reports.”
Me: “Oh jeez. How can I fix it?” NOT-Microsoft support: “It’s okay Ma'am". We can help you right now. Are you in front of your device Ma'am"?
Me: “Yes. I was just about to use it. I’m glad you called.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes Ma'am", we are going to help you. Can you please push the Start button?”
Me: “I think it’s already on.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Okay, Sir. Now you want to click on Control Panel.”
Me: “I don’t see that.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Do you see a bunch of information above the Start button?”
Me: “Yes.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “That is your Control Panel.”
Me: “Wow, I didn’t realize it had a name.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Yes Ma'am", now press on Internet Options.”
Me: “Yeah, I definitely don’t see any Internet options. I don’t think I purchased that feature. This is just a cheap one.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “They all have the Internet, . Press the Start button again.”
Me: “Okay, it’s the same as before.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “That’s okay Ma'am". We are going to restart your device. Can you please turn it off?”
Me: “Um … Oy..I don’t know how. I’ve never turned it off. Since I bought it, it just kind of stays on all the time.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “There must be an off button on your device. How do you stop it when it’s running?”
Me: “In those cases, I usually press the big button.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Okay . Please press that button.”
Me: “Okay.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Is your device off?”
Me: “No. The door popped open.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Door? Is there a disc inside the door?”
Me: “No, there’s a burrito.”
NOT-Microsoft support: “Why is there a burrito in your computer?”
Me: “Computer? I thought you said this was microwave support.”
