1/ Andrew Sullivan with his predictions for the future of Trumpism, and some of the possible ways we could end up living in a dictatorship.....I am hopeful what he fears won't happen, but read this and be prepared....maybe....
Advantage Trump. Photo: Calla Kessler/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Tuesday, if you step back, was an ordinary election in an extraordinary time. The swing against the president’s party in the first midterm election was not far off the historical range. The average loss for the president’s party in the House two years into a first term over the last century is 29. Trump’s GOP, at last estimate, lost 37. For some recent perspective: In 1982, Reagan’s GOP lost 26 seats; in 1990, George H.W. Bush’s GOP lost 8; in 1994, Clinton’s Democrats lost 54; in 2002, W.’s GOP gained 8 (but in the context of 9/11); in 2010, Obama’s Democrats lost a devastating 63 seats. In terms of the popular vote in the House, the Dems’ share — 51.7 percent — is also very close to the norm for the opposition in a first-term midterm.
There was, in other words, no blue wave.
2/ One of the funniest SNL cold open's ever - Kate McKinnon plays Jeff Sessions saying goodbye to his office, with visitors dropping in. Hysterically funny, five minutes...
Saturday Night Live took on Jeff Sessions post-election firing in the latest cold open.
Kate McKinnon reprised her role as Sessions, giving fans — who took to social media this week to express their sadness that McKinnon’s Sessions impression days may be coming to an end — one more chance to see her play the now former Attorney General.
“I don’t understand how Mr. Trump could replace me with Matt Whitaker,” McKinnon as Sessions said to Sarah Sanders, as played by Aidy Bryant at the top of the sketch. “He’s just a shady businessman with no experience and blindly loyal to Donald Trump.”
3/ A Bill Maher "New Rules" with some bite - this is one of his serious ones, and he lists the ways Trump is beginning to act like a dictator....a very good five minutes and well worth watching.....
Just days before the 2016 presidential election, comedian Bill Maher warned of the “slow-moving right-wing coup” that he claimed was taking over America.
On Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time,” Maher said this was the week it started “moving a little faster”— with President Donald Trump’s appointment of “personal protector” Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general.
Maher then reviewed his 2017 “dictator checklist” to make his point:
4/ Samantha Bee with a summary of the election results, and lots of good jokes about Jeff Sessions! Seven amusing minutes....
Samantha Bee broke down the good and the bad from the midterm elections, as well as the new kind of chaos that’s already begun to grip President Trump’s administration on Full FrontalWednesday.
Bee opened her show with the deluge of news that’s already overwhelmed the election results, such as Trump forcing out Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then presiding over yet another wild press conference. During this rare appearance in front of the press, Trump not only insulted reporters and Republican candidates who lost, he also struggled to figure out how many Senate seats Republicans may end up with. “I haven’t seen Trump struggle with math this much since somebody asked him how many kids he has,” Bee cracked.https://www.
5/ Umair with a most interesting essay on Capitalism, and how we are all exploited by not knowing what everyone makes....he really makes you think!
Today is one of the most interesting weeks of the year — not just because America went right on collapsing, yet another mass shooting, a President banning a reporter (LOL), after a lacklustre midterm. It’s the week of National Jealousy Day, as it’s affectionately called. In Finland, every year, a list of how much everyone makes is published — and anyone can pore over it. Many do. It’s kind of a comical national event.
But it’s also something more. A slap in the face to capitalism — or perhaps a better way to put it is a clever defensive roll out from under the jackboot of capitalism, stamping on a society’s face, so it can stay something like an egalitarian social democracy. How so? Let’s think about the counterexample, which, of course, is an America that’s collapsing — but seems to want never to really change. How does a society end up believing greed is good, anyways?
Now, one of the strangest things about America, when you think about it, is that nobody really knows how much anyone else makes. how-capitalism-blinds-
6/ Jimmy Kimmel and the doctored video of Jim Acosta.....Kimmel makes this pathetic incident funny....three minutes...
Jimmy Kimmel called on President Donald Trump to fire White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for sharing a doctored video. And he had an idea about what should happen to her next.
Kimmel was among many who said Sanders should resign over the incident, which began with a testy exchange on Wednesday between CNN reporter Jim Acosta and Trump. While Acosta was speaking, a female intern tried several times to pull the microphone away from him. At one point, his hand appeared to brush hers as she again grabbed for the microphone.
7/ And of course SNL had a skit on "The Intern and the Microphone".....excellent, and a really funny two minutes...
Cecily Strong played a sneaky, microphone-grabbing intern during a “Weekend Update” sketch on “Saturday Night Live” that parodied the confrontation between a White House intern and CNN correspondent Jim Acosta ― including a controversial video of the incident.
8/ Matt Taibbi keeps nailing the Democratic elites with his commentary on the conventional political wisdom from the talking heads on TV and in what's left of the mainstream media.....an excellent article, as usual....
The title is "There Are No More Moderates"....
It happens after every election. National press voices sift through results, toss around hot takes, and within a news cycle or two, the disease called conventional wisdom is pandemic again.
Listening the other night to talking heads like CNN’s Jake Tapper yammer on about how “candidate recruitment” and “veterans” are big takeaways for Democrats going forward triggered years of campaign-cliché flashbacks.
The big takeaway was that Trump got creamed in the suburbs, where he lost the confidence of “suburban moderates,” especially women. Trumpism is moving into the hills, we’ve been told, and Democrats seized big new territory in the suburbs, which should be everyone’s focus going forward.
9/ A quick one from Stephen Colbert of how "The Caravan" has vanished from Fox News after the election....four amusing minutes...
“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert noted Friday how Fox News’ fear-mongering reporting of the migrant caravan traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. has dramatically changed since the midterm elections.
Colbert pointed out how the “Fox & Friends” morning show used the word “caravan” an average 21 times per episode in the six days prior to Tuesday’s vote.
But, per Colbert’s research team, the program only mentioned the topic once on the day after the election. “I can’t watch ‘Fox & Friends’ because my doctor said it’s just horrible,” quipped Colbert during his analysis.
10/ So the idiot in charge of elections in Broward County may cost Bill Nelson the Senate seat....but there was no fraud.
Incompetence, but no fraud...
If Nelson ends up losing by a nose, this will go down as another butterfly ballot. That absurdly confusing ballot may well have cost Al Gore the White House (and yes, even though Dubya isn’t Donald Trump, he was still a historically bad president who dropped the ball on al-Qaida before 9/11, invaded Iraq without cause, and squandered Bill Clinton’s surplus on tax cuts for millionaires—and that’s just for starters). This year’s Broward ballot fiasco might just cost Bill Nelson a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Too fitting that it’s Florida again. When are we going to learn?
11/ Last week on SNL Pete Davidson said something stupid and was raked over the coals by right wing media....so here is his apology and a special guest - the man he insulted. A heartfelt five minutes.....and Crenshaw is a sport!
Pete Davidson formally apologized to Lt. Com. Dan Crenshaw on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live, one week after Davidson drew criticism for comparing the then-Texas Republican congressional candidate and military veteran to a “hitman from a porno movie.”
Following the outcry over Davidson’s comments, Crenshaw said that the SNL didn’t need to apologize for the jokes, but Davidson still opened his Weekend Update appearance with an apology to the new congressman-elect.
“In what must be a huge shock for people who know me, I made a poor choice last week,” Davidson said. “I made a joke about Lt. Com. Dan Crenshaw and on behalf of myself and the show, I apologize… I mean this from the bottom of my heart, it was a poor choice of words. The man is a war hero and he deserves all the respect in the world. https://www.
12/ Bad Lip Reading takes on Major League Baseball....a three funny minutes....
13/ A trailer for the new movie coming out, from Donald J. Trump Productions - "The Caravan".....one amusing minute from the Colbert Show.......
14/ A look at the Florida races that no matter what the recount results were a defeat for Democrats.....but think on this - even though the turnout for Dems was at a record for the midterms, it was also a huge turnout for Republicans. And you need to wonder if the racists in Florida came out because they didn't want a black Governor.....
If only Gwen Graham had won the Democratic primary....
Florida Democrats believed 2018 would be different.
After two decades of watching moderate candidates fail, the party had a young, charismatic nominee for governor on the ticket, a majority-minority slate of Cabinet candidates and an unpopular president in the White House dragging down Republicans all year. With apparent momentum and millions of dollars pouring into get-out-the-vote efforts, Florida Democrats went into Tuesday’s elections confident that a generational odyssey in the political wilderness would end.
Instead, Democrats suffered a crushing defeat.
Todays video - the peasant scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.....very funny, four minutes....
Todays golf joke
The Reverend Francis Norton woke up Sunday morning and realizing it was an
exceptionally beautiful and sunny early spring day, decided he just had to
play golf. So he told the Associate Pastor that he was feeling sick and
convinced him to say mass for him that day. As soon as the Associate Pastor
left the room, Father Norton headed out of town to a golf course about
forty miles away. This way he knew he wouldn't accidentally meet anyone he
knew from his Parish.
Setting up on the first tee, he was alone. After all, it was Sunday morning
and everyone else was in church! At about this time, Saint Peter leaned
over to the Lord while looking down from the heavens and exclaimed, "You're
not going to let him get away with this, are you?" The Lord sighed, and
said, "No, I guess not."
Just then Father Norton hit the ball and it shot straight towards the pin,
dropping just short of it, rolled up and fell into the hole. IT WAS A
420 YARD HOLE IN ONE! St. Peter was astonished. He looked at the Lord and
asked, "Why did you let him do that?" The Lord smiled and replied, "Who's
he going to tell?"
exceptionally beautiful and sunny early spring day, decided he just had to
play golf. So he told the Associate Pastor that he was feeling sick and
convinced him to say mass for him that day. As soon as the Associate Pastor
left the room, Father Norton headed out of town to a golf course about
forty miles away. This way he knew he wouldn't accidentally meet anyone he
knew from his Parish.
Setting up on the first tee, he was alone. After all, it was Sunday morning
and everyone else was in church! At about this time, Saint Peter leaned
over to the Lord while looking down from the heavens and exclaimed, "You're
not going to let him get away with this, are you?" The Lord sighed, and
said, "No, I guess not."
Just then Father Norton hit the ball and it shot straight towards the pin,
dropping just short of it, rolled up and fell into the hole. IT WAS A
420 YARD HOLE IN ONE! St. Peter was astonished. He looked at the Lord and
asked, "Why did you let him do that?" The Lord smiled and replied, "Who's
he going to tell?"
Todays God joke
A kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew pictures. Occasionally,
she would walk around the room to see each child's work.
“What are you drawing?” she asked one little girl who was working diligently at her desk.
The girl replied, “I'm drawing God.”
The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.”
The little girl replied, “They will in a minute.”
Todays hangover joke
Dan wakes up with a huge hangover after attending his company's Christmas Party.
Dan is not normally a drinker, but the drinks didn't taste like alcohol at all. He didn't even remember how he got home from the party. As bad as he was feeling, he wondered if he did something wrong.
Dan had to force himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table. And, next to them, was a single red rose!!
Dan is not normally a drinker, but the drinks didn't taste like alcohol at all. He didn't even remember how he got home from the party. As bad as he was feeling, he wondered if he did something wrong.
Dan had to force himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table. And, next to them, was a single red rose!!
Dan sits up and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. He looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotlessly clean; so is the rest of the house.
He takes the aspirins, cringes when he sees a huge black eye staring back at him in the bathroom mirror.
Then he notices a note hanging on the corner of the mirror written in red with little hearts on it and a kiss mark from his wife in lipstick:
"Honey, breakfast is on the stove. I left early to get groceries to make you your favourite dinner tonight.
I love you, darling! Love, Jillian"
He takes the aspirins, cringes when he sees a huge black eye staring back at him in the bathroom mirror.
Then he notices a note hanging on the corner of the mirror written in red with little hearts on it and a kiss mark from his wife in lipstick:
"Honey, breakfast is on the stove. I left early to get groceries to make you your favourite dinner tonight.
I love you, darling! Love, Jillian"
He stumbles to the kitchen and sure enough, there is hot breakfast, steaming hot coffee, and the morning newspaper.
His 16 year old son is also at the table, eating. Dan asks, "Son... what happened last night?"
"Well, you came home after 3 a.m., drunk and out of your mind. You fell over the coffee table and broke it, and then you puked in the hallway, and got that black eye when you ran into the door."
Confused, he asked his son, "So, why is everything in such perfect order and so clean? I have a rose, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me??"
His son replies, "Oh THAT... Mum dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you screamed...."Leave me alone, I'm married!!"
His 16 year old son is also at the table, eating. Dan asks, "Son... what happened last night?"
"Well, you came home after 3 a.m., drunk and out of your mind. You fell over the coffee table and broke it, and then you puked in the hallway, and got that black eye when you ran into the door."
Confused, he asked his son, "So, why is everything in such perfect order and so clean? I have a rose, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me??"
His son replies, "Oh THAT... Mum dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you screamed...."Leave me alone, I'm married!!"
Hot Breakfast £4.20
Two Aspirins £.38
Saying the right thing, at the right time. .. PRICELESS
Two Aspirins £.38
Saying the right thing, at the right time. .. PRICELESS
