It's the other side of Tuesday....
1/ Frank Rich with a reality check for us all, as we celebrate Trump's defeat at the polls, but as Rich says we are divided, and there is a
Red America and a Blue America....
An excellent article, and a must read after our liberal dreams of a blue wave were shattered.
We talk a lot about the right wing bubble, but there's a left version too. It's a gut check to realise that half the country voted for Trump again.....you can understand 2016, he was a fresh face and completely different to Hillary so there was a choice....but all of us [including Republicans] have seen him over the last four years and know him for the evil, corrupt and incompetent fraud that he is.....and yet half the country including some of your family, friends and neighbors put out their signs and voted for him again. How do you cope with that? Or understand it?
Again - Frank Rich is a must read....
A smashed ceramic MAGA hat, sculpted by
@connor.czora, is seen on Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, November 3, 2020 in Washington DC.
Photo: Timothy Fadek/Redux Pictures for New York MagazineRomantic illusions die hard in America. So many fell on Election Night 2020 that it will be months, maybe years, before we compile a full inventory. We can start by acknowledging a paramount reality that contradicts the idealistic Obama-Biden catechism: There is a Blue America and there is a Red America, but there is no United States of America.
2/ Stephen Colbert got emotional last night.....he seemed worn down by the lies and BS, and gave a message to Republicans - speak up, now is the time....
3/ What happened in Florida? Is it now a red state? Politico says maybe, because Republicans have used divide and conquer to create pockets of support that Dems used to rely on. Of course the biggie was the Cuban vote in Miami-Dade.....
The truly depressing news was the big winner was DeSantis....
4/ You may or may not know this, but your taxes are going up next year, thanks to the Trump tax bill of 2017....
The Trump administration has a dirty little secret: It’s not just planning to increase taxes on most Americans. The increase has already been signed, sealed and delivered, buried in the pages of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
President Trump and his congressional allies hoodwinked us.
5/ Nathan Robinson in the Guardian argues the blame for the super close election is the blindness of the Democratic elites.....they have learned
nothing from 2016....
Read this - it might hurt, but read it anyway....
In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Democrats were extremely confident in Joe Biden’s prospects. With his comfortable lead in national polls, there was talk of a Biden landslide, a giant “blue wave” that could turn Texas blue. Even though the polls had been off in the 2016 election, media commentators reassured audiences that Biden’s lead was different – far stronger and more stable – than Hillary Clinton’s had been.
As of this writing, it does look as if Biden will squeak his way into the White House. But only just.
6/ Fascinating story about Jerry Falwell Jr., and reveals what an unpleasant man he was......it's a long article, but an interesting
insight into the bizarre world of the evangelicals....
On May 27th, the second day of mounting national outrage over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, the president of America’s largest evangelical university decided it was the perfect time to blast out a tweet featuring the crudest of racial imagery. “I was adamantly opposed to the mandate from @GovernorVA requiring citizens to wear face masks until I decided to design my own,” wrote Jerry Falwell Jr. Below the text was his design: a mask displaying the image of a white person in blackface, standing next to a fellow sporting a Klan robe and hood.
7/ Hmmmm....
8/ The extreme heat in Arizona and the failure of Republicans to even acknowledge it may have been one of the factors making Arizona a swing state....
Good story from the Guardian....
Even now, Ivan Moore can’t think why his father didn’t didn’t tell anyone that the air conditioning in their house was busted. “I honestly don’t know what was going through his mind,” he said.
That week three years ago, temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona were forecasted to top 115F (46C). Moore, his wife and two children went to the mountains for a camping trip, and his dad Gene, stayed behind. A few days later, Gene died
9/ The big loser on Tuesday was any chance Democrats have of making meaningful change to the power structure and the financial security of the average American, let alone doing anything about our healthcare system. As for raising taxes on the wealthy, ain't goin to happen.....
Social democracy dies in Bangor. Photo: Robert F Bukaty/AP/Shutterstock
This week, the American left clambered out of hell, only to find itself condemned to political purgatory.
Barring an act of malign intervention, Donald Trump will be a one-term president. As of this writing, Joe Biden has won 253 Electoral College votes, with expected wins pending in Nevada, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, and decent odds of eking past the president in Georgia. If you’d told Democrats one year ago that their nominee would reassemble the party’s “blue wall” in the Midwest – and make long-awaited gains in the Sun Belt, to boot – they would have been ecstatic. Today, they’ve brought less ecstasy to blue America than an amalgam of relief and despair.
10/ Fascinating story in the Times about how right wing media spreads it's lies......not being on Twitter I wasn't totally sure
how it works, but it's a tutorial and an insight into how cunning Trump is....
On Wednesday afternoon, with the presidential race unresolved, a protester in Nevada interrupted an election official’s news conference by yelling, “The Biden crime family is stealing the election!”
That moment wasn’t random. #BidenCrimeFamily is part of a yearlong, effective disinformation campaign against Joe Biden — one that was spread by social media, political influencers and the president himself.
11/ The Times with a list of new streaming shows and movies for November....
Today's one liners.....
I bought a vacuum cleaner six months ago and so far all it's been
doing is gathering dust.
Every time someone comes up with a foolproof solution, along comes a more-talented fool.
I'll bet you $4,567 you can't guess how much I owe my bookie.
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.
If you keep your feet firmly on the ground, you'll have trouble
putting on your pants.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
Ever stop to think and forget to start again?
When I married Miss Right, I had no idea her first name was Always.
My wife got 8 out 10 on her driver's test--the other two guys managed to jump out of her way.
There may be no excuse for laziness, but I'm still looking.
Women spend more time wondering what men are thinking than men spend thinking.
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
He who laughs last thinks slowest.
Is it wrong that only one company makes the game Monopoly?
Women sometimes make fools of men, but most guys are the do-it-yourself type.
I was going to give him a nasty look, but he already had one.
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
The grass may be greener on the other side but at least you don't have mow it.
I like long walks, especially when they're taken by people who annoy me.
I was going to wear my camouflage shirt today, but I couldn't find it.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let her sleep.
If tomatoes are technically a fruit, is ketchup a smoothie?
Money is the root of all wealth.
No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
Today's religious joke...
A man is driving down the road and his car breaks down near a monastery.
He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, "My car broke down.
Do you think I could stay the night?"
The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, and even fix his car. As
the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. A sound unlike
anything he's ever heard before. The Sirens that nearly seduced Odysseus
into crashing his ship comes to his mind. He doesn't sleep that night.
He tosses and turns trying to figure out what could possibly be making such
a seductive sound. The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was,
but they say, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk."
Distraught, the man is forced to leave.
Years later, after never being able to forget that sound, the man goes back
to the monastery and pleads for the answer again.
The monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk."
The man says, "If the only way I can find out what is making that beautiful
sound is to become a monk, then please, make me a monk."
The monks reply, "You must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of
grass there are and the exact number of grains of sand. When you find these
answers, you will have become a monk."
The man sets about his task.
After years of searching he returns as a gray-haired old man and knocks on
the door of the monastery. A monk answers. He is taken before a gathering of
all the monks.
"In my quest to find what makes that beautiful sound, I travelled the earth
and have found what you asked for: By design, the world is in a state of
perpetual change. Only God knows what you ask. All a man can know is
himself, and only then if he is honest and reflective and willing to strip
away self deception."
The monks reply, "Congratulations. You have become a monk. We shall now show
you the way to the mystery of the sacred sound."
The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, "The
sound is beyond that door."
The monks give him the key, and he opens the door. Behind the wooden door is
another door made of stone. The man is given the key to the stone door and
he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. And so it went that he needed
keys to doors of emerald, pearl and diamond.
Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. The sound has become very
clear and definite. The monks say, "This is the last key to the last door."
The man is apprehensive to no end. His life's wish is behind that door!
With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the knob, and slowly pushes
the door open. Falling to his knees, he is utterly amazed to discover the
source of that haunting and seductive sound...
But, of course, I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk.
Today's Martian joke
The year is 2122 and Charlie and Maureen land on Mars after accumulating
enough Frequent Flier miles.
They meet a Martian couple and are talking about all sorts of things.
Charlie asks if Mars has a stock market, if they have laptop computers, how
they make money, etc.
Finally, Maureen brings up the subject of sex.
'Just how do you guys do it?' asks Maureen.
The Martian responds, 'Pretty much the way you do.'
A discussion ensues and finally the couples decide to swap partners for the
night and experience one another...
Maureen and the male Martian go off to a bedroom where the Martian strips..
He's got only a teeny,weenie member about half an inch long and just a
quarter-inch thick.
'I don't think this is going to work,' says Maureen.
'Why?' he asks. 'What's the matter?'
'Well,' she replies, 'it's just not long enough to reach me!'
'No problem,' he says, and proceeds to slap his forehead with his palm. With
each slap of his forehead, his member grows until it's quite impressively
long.
'Well,' she says, 'that's quite impressive, but it is still narrow.'
'No problem,' he says, and starts pulling his ears. With each pull, his
member grows wider and wider until the entire measurement is extremely
exciting to the woman.
'Wow!' she exclaims, as they fell into bed and made mad passionate love.
The next day the couples rejoin their other partners and go their separate
ways. As they walked along, Charlie asks, 'Well, was it any good?'
'I hate to say it,' says Maureen, 'but it was wonderful.
How about you?'
'It was horrible,' he replies. 'All I got was a headache...
She kept slapping my forehead and pulling my ears..'
