1/. Some more background on Ron DeSantis, and what an unpleasant person he is in real life.....most interesting....
governor ron desantis has a growing store of admirers. This includes many who have watched the cantankerous Floridian only from afar. They have heard glowing things. He was the biggest winnerof an otherwise dark election cycle for Republicans. He has impeccable bona fides as a Donald Trump disciple—without being Trump himself, whom many see as the biggest loser of said dark election cycle.
This has made DeSantis the GOP’s hottest molecule. He is full MAGA without the high drama. He is terrorizing all the right targets while Trump keeps blowing himself up in new and creative ways. “He is Trump with a brain,” goes the whispered refrain among DeSantis aides (this clearly drives Trump nuts—always a noble goal).
2/. It's YOUR fault this asshole is a Nazi.....
3/. DeSantis and the Florida Republicans are way more corrupt than you can imagine.....everything is crooked...
Before the start of this year’s session of the Florida Legislature, Gov. Ron DeSantis publicly unveiled a plan to suspend the state’s tax on gasoline — a temporary tax “holiday” that the governor said would bring badly needed relief to Floridians struggling with rising prices at the pump.
And to make sure that this tax break was truly passed on to Florida drivers, the governor proposed a harsh penalty for any fuel supplier or gas station tempted to pocket the tax savings themselves: Third-degree felony charges, punishable by up to five years in prison.
4/. Wonderful British Christmas ad....if you've got dry eyes while watching this there's no hope for you!
5/. Sarah Sherman plays the dingbat President of the Peppa Pig fan club.....this builds to being quite amusing.....
6/. An excellent article from George Monblot on how the worst industries for our planet are the most politically powerful.....
Illegal fires in the Amazon rainforest reserve in Pará state, Brazil, 2020. Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty ImagesWed 30 Nov 2022 01.00 EST
7/. Stephen Colbert with a very good intro....12 funny minutes....
8/. Most of these are out of print!
9/. Weekend Update, skewering Kanye and others.....not bad.....
Weekend Update Part 2.....a little better....
10/. Ever heard of the city of Lusail? Thought not, as it's in Qatar....how unlimited money and
zero taste has created a brand new city that will be uninhabitable in 10-20 years.....
It has been overlooked so far in the middle of so many other urgent issues, but the state of Qatar is currently facing a ticklish existential question. Here is another standard-issue jaw-dropping fact about this place. Climate scientists have estimated that by the year 2070 Qatar will no longer be fit for human habitation. Wait. What?
Lodged between two seas, deprived of greenery or waterways, Qatar is warming at an alarming rate. At the same time Qatar produces more carbon per citizen, for export and domestic use, than any nation on earth. Here is a place that is basically sitting on a pile of gold, while simultaneously gnawing its own legs off. The end of the world? It’s on the check-list. The Supreme Committee is aware of your interest.
The answer, it seems, is to build new worlds. Welcome to Lusail, Lego-city of the gods, venue for Qatar’s World Cup final three weeks from now, and surely one of the strangest places on earth.
11/. As Trump slips into dementia, this one might be true!
12/. Bob Lefsetz on the troubles in China.....
The people don’t like totalitarianism.
That’s why the sanctity of elections is so important.
I don’t know if this is news on the east coast. Maybe you went to bed before this story broke. But they’re revolting in China, over the zero-Covid policy, as a result of the ten people who died in a fire as a consequence thereof and…
You don’t protest in a totalitarian state anymore, BECAUSE THERE ARE CAMERAS EVERYWHERE!
Donald Trump may have skated, at least so far, but all those people who participated in 1/6? They’ve gone up the river, and they certainly don’t have a paddle. There’s endless footage, people have been identified, they’ve been brought to trial. And if they believe elected officials have their backs, the same ones pledging fealty to Trump, who only cares about himself, who will sacrifice anybody to maintain power, they’ve got another think coming.
13/. Samuel Alito is undoubtedly the most evil high court justice....yes, worse than Clarence Thomas....
Top Democrats are calling for an inquiry into explosive allegations that an earlier Supreme Court decision authored by Samuel Alito was leaked—seemingly by the conservative justice himself. “The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem,” Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wrote on Saturday. “At SCOTUS, the problems run deep.”
The high court was already battling intense questions about its legitimacy following its Dobbs decision striking down reproductive rights at the federal level, a draft of which was obtained and published by Politico more than a month before the ruling was handed down. But a New York Times report over the weekend is sure to kick the scrutiny around Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts into overdrive:
14/. Some people are just astonishingly stupid....
The New Zealand parents of a four-month-old have refused life-saving surgery to go ahead over fears of ‘vaccinated blood’. Photograph: Hannah Peters/Getty ImagesWed 30 Nov 2022 00.38 EST New Zealand’s health service has made a court application over the guardianship of a four-month-old baby whose parents are refusing to allow his life-saving heart surgery to go ahead unless non-vaccinated blood is used.
The parents of the baby discussed their son’s health situation and their medical preferences in an interview with an anti-vaccination campaigner.
In the interview the parents say their baby has severe pulmonary valve stenosis, and that he needs surgery “almost immediately”, but that they are “extremely concerned with the blood [the doctors] are going to use”.
15/. This is an excellent question.....how should late night comics handle Trump?
Jimmy Kimmel on the set of his show, Jimmy Kimmel Live! Photograph: Randy Holmes/ABC/Getty Imageswo weeks ago, the night after Donald Trump announced his 2024 presidential bid at Mar-a-Lago, Stephen Colbert recapped the occasion with clear reluctance. Colbert, who for two years has refused to say the former president’s name on The Late Show, confessed to not watching Trump’s speech – “I pay some sucker to do that for me,” he quipped – but nevertheless devoted the bulk of his monologue to what he called “2016 all over again”. “I get it, but you’re going to want to pace yourself,” he told his booing audience. “Those boos need to last for two years.”
16/. Rolling Stone lists the 22 best movies of the year......half of them you have never heard of.....
17/. "Glass Onion", starring Daniel Craig looks really good.....on Netflix soon.....
It starts as a game for the amusement of a tech billionaire. Miles Bron, a would-be master of the universe played with knowing exuberance by Edward Norton, invites a small group of friends to a party on his private island. The weekend’s entertainment will be a make-believe murder mystery, with Miles himself as the victim and center of attention. By the end, real homicides have been committed and the fun has become democratic, as rank-and-file ticket buyers and Netflix subscribers enjoy themselves at the expense of imaginary members of the economic, political and cultural elite.
18/. Tilda Swinton is an incredible actress, and this movie has a rave review in
the Times - "The Eternal Daughter"....
“The Eternal Daughter,” a lovely and haunted dream of a movie from the director of “The Souvenir,” opens on a spectral scene at dusk. On a desolate country road shrouded in fog and bordered by bare trees, sounds of the wind and lonely music drift on the soundtrack as spindly branches reach across the frame like fingers. By the time taxi headlights pierce the fog, your head may be churning with thoughts of ghosts and fanged demons, the kind that emerge from the shadows in old horror films to trouble your sleep.
I imagine that the British filmmaker Joanna Hogg has a passing acquaintance with some of those movies, even if her work is rarefied enough to constitute its own auteurist genre.
"Eternal Daughter" trailer....
Today's video - this kid is amazing....."Issy the small magician" even has Simon Cowell astonished....
Today's collection of zingers
I¹m not saying let's go kill all the stupid people. I'm
just saying let's remove all the warning labels and let
the problem work itself out.
I changed my car horn to gunshot sounds. People move out of
the way much faster now.
You can tell a lot about a woman's mood just looking at her
hands. If they are holding a gun, she's probably angry.
Gone are the days when girls used to cook like their mothers. Now
they drink like their fathers.
You know that tingly little feeling you get when you really like
someone? That's common sense leaving your body.
I don't like making plans for the day because then the
word "premeditated" gets thrown around in the courtroom.
I didn't make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row
I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim.I
feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning
Dear paranoid people who check behind shower
curtains for murderers; if you find one, what's your plan?
Todays sexist joke
A man walks into a cocktail lounge and approaches
an attractive woman sitting by herself and asks,
"May I buy you a cocktail?"
"No thank you," she replies, "alcohol is bad for my legs."
"Sorry to hear that. Do they swell?"
"No, they spread."
Today's British jokes
THESE ARE ACTUAL COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY "THOMAS COOK VACATIONS" FROM DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS:
1. "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."
2. "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time -- this should be banned."
3. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food."
4. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price."
5. "The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room."
6. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow."
Kylian Mbappé: much talked about, according to Fox Sports. Photograph: Lee Smith/Reuters
‘For a healthy population, we must mandate or at least incentivize growing real food for nutrition, not cheap meat and corn and soya beans for junk food.’ Photograph: Mohamed Osama/Alamy
