1/ What are our billionaires doing to protect themselves from the coming apocalypse.....and keep you and I,
the hoi polloi, out of their safe places....
Yup, bunkers.....
What’s your plan for the apocalypse? I’ll tell you what mine is: death. I am not really built for battle – I need five cups of coffee just to function and I have terrible allergies. My body can’t even handle pollen, it’s not going to do well with nuclear war. Plus, even if I was hardier – who wants to live a few extra months in a completely destroyed world?
Billionaires. Billionaires do. As you have probably noticed bunkers have become the ultimate status symbol among the 1%.
2/ Tom Tomorrow with tomorrow's news today.....
3/ A dark Bob Lefsetz isn't happy with our corruption and crazy politics.....can't blame him either.....
It started in the eighties with trickle-down economics. If we just lowered taxes on the rich, the poor would get the benefit. We know how that worked out, rampant income inequality. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. And then the poor were blamed for their lack of capital, they were told to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Even supposed Democrat Bill Clinton put a dent in welfare, because as we all know, the takers are what’s wrong with society.
And then came the dotcom era. You could deliver a popsicle for free. Stocks only went up. Made no sense, and of course it was untrue, and the market crashed and many lost their life savings.
But they were told everybody in America is entitled to own a house, that is the goal. And the end result was the 2008 crash. Even worse, those who caused it skated completely, they had to be saved for the good of the economy. Wondering now who’s looking out for your interests? You should.
4/ Joe Biden sat down with Seth Meyers for an interview.......it went surprisingly well.....11 minutes...
5/ If Trump wins again, Alabama's laws will be nationwide.....
Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos frozen in in vitro fertilization procedures are “children” under state law, and that a person responsible for their destruction can be held liable. The opinion is a staggering attack on every facet of reproductive health, including the freedom of people experiencing infertility who use assisted reproductive technologies. It represents the culmination of a movement to enshrine into law the unscientific and purely religious claim that life begins when a sperm fertilizes an egg, supplanting secular laws with supposedly “biblical” beliefs. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/alabama-ivf-embryo-ruling-trump-rcna139649
6/ Orange one cartoons......
7/ Bob Lefsetz in a philosophical mood......he takes on Biden and the music business......a very good column....."Disruption"....
The two biggest stories in America today are AI and the Sphere, and neither were in the public consciousness a year ago.
Oh that’s not right Bob, what about Taylor Swift, and Gaza?
Well, the Israeli/Arab conflict is always simmering, it’s always in the news. As for Taylor Swift…
This is not a new story. Successful musical artist goes on the road to massive sell-out audiences playing their hits. In this case, a retrospective of their entire career.
Don’t get me wrong, Taylor Swift is an original. But her tour looked backward. Yes, the massive outpouring of love from female fans was noticeable, but it was not DISRUPTIVE! The media was just reporting a story it saw, there was no harbinger of where we’re going. Because the media never knows, but Washington, D.C. and most industries are just as bad.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/03/03/disruption-2/
8/ SNL Weekend Update......Colin Jost interviews woman of a "certain age"......I have left the CC on as Heidi Gardner
has a strange accent, but quite amusing.....
9/ Our corrupt Supreme Court just tried to hand the election to Trump.....
At least four members of the most corrupt Supreme Court in American history have decided to help Trump delay his trial for trying to overthrow the government of the United States.
Just like in 2000, when five Republicans on the Court ignored Al Gore’s probable (later found to be definite) win in Florida to put Bush in the White House, today’s Court is doing as much as they can to help Trump win this November.
In a hail-Mary attempt to push his trials beyond the election, hoping he’d win with Putin’s help and could then pardon himself and gut the DOJ, Trump’s attorneys filed a claim that his efforts to overturn the 2020 election were “official acts” and that all presidents have “absolute immunity” while in office and for the rest of their lives thereafter.
Nobody took it seriously. Even the appeals court his bid first went to pointed out how absurd it was.
10/. This says it all about "Christian" evangelicals.....
11/. Tax breaks you may or not be aware of.....
Looking to make your home more energy-efficient, install solar panels or buy an electric car? You may be able to save thousands of dollars on climate-friendly purchases through federal tax credits and rebates.
Those savings kicked in last year as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, a law that aims to cut the pollution that is rapidly heating the planet by investing in clean energy across the U.S. economy. The law tackles two major sources of emissions, transportation and buildings, by making it cheaper for Americans to replace fossil-fuel burning cars and appliances, like furnaces and boilers, with cleaner versions, and to make their homes more energy efficient.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/climate/tax-breaks-inflation-reduction-act.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
12/. He certainly could use a new lawyer!
13/. You have of course of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, but are you aware there are far
bloodier conflicts going on? Probably not....
David Wallace-Wells lays it all out....
War is on the rise everywhere. When the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London published its authoritative Armed Conflict Survey in early December, it counted 183 conflicts globally in 2023 — higher than had been recorded in 30 years. The most remarkable episode of this harrowing new era of global violence is an astounding spate of military takeovers in what has come to be known as the coup belt, stretching uninterrupted across Africa’s Sahel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea: six countries enduring 11 coup attempts, eight of them successful, since just 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/opinion/international-world/coups-climate-change-africa-sahel.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
14/. Weekend Update #1 - pretty good one.....Mitch McConnell jokes!
Weekend Update #2 - decent.....
15/. John Oliver with his main topics "The Courts", and specifically a brilliant offer for Clarence Thomas.....
Really good and informative as well - comedic reporting at it's best.....
16/ Like Sci-fi? Some movies for you.....a couple look really good!
17/ Bob Lefsetz raves about "God And Country", which delves into the minds of Christian Nationalists......and it's scary, and
required watching if you ever want to understand your Trumpie friends [or ex-friends].
'God And Country" trailer....
18/. Great TV - "Prisoner", review by the Guardian.....
Prisoner throws you right into the melee from the very start and barely pauses to surface for air. There is no slow buildup to the action here, only a practice prison riot and a sense that all is not as it appears to be. It treats its viewers as intelligent and capable, throwing character after character on to the screen, while drip-feeding the plot in small and tantalising portions. The reward is a mature, gripping drama about the complexities of the modern-day prison system in Denmark. No, come back! If Borgen taught us anything, it’s that the Danes are impeccable at turning bureaucracy into thrilling drama. It really is gripping, I promise.
Today's clever jokes.....
Seinfeldisms
1. Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
2. Can fat people go skinny-dipping?
3. Can you be a closet claustrophobic?
4. Why is the word abbreviation so long?
5. Is it possible to be totally partial?
6. What's another word for thesaurus?
7. If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?
8. If the funeral procession is at night, do folks drive with their lights off?
9. When companies ship Styrofoam, what do they pack it in?
10. If you're cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right?
11. If a stealth bomber crashes in a forest, will it make a sound?
12. If the cops arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?
13. If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?
14. When it rains, why don't sheep shrink?
15. Should vegetarians eat animal crackers?
16. Do cemetery workers prefer the graveyard shift?
17. What do you do when you see an endangered animal that eats only endangered plants?
18. Do hungry crows have ravenous appetites?
19. Why is bra singular and panties plural?
20. If a mute swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?
21. If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?
22. Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow? Only to be troubled and insecure?
23. Is there another word for synonym?
24. Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?
25. When sign makers go on strike, is anything written on their signs?
26. When you open a bag of cotton balls, is the top one meant to be thrown away?
27. Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all"?
28. Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
29. Why do they report power outages on TV?
Today's guru joke
An elderly woman climbed three flights of stairs, opened a carved mahogany door and walked into an exotically furnished reception room.
A gong sounded and out of a cloud of incense appeared a beautiful Oriental brunette.
"Do you" she said softly, "wish to meet with His Omnipotence, the wise, all-knowing, all-seeing guru, Maharishi Naru?"
"Yeah," said the gray-haired woman.
"Tell Sheldon his mother is here from the Bronx!"
Today's Mormon joke.....
MOSSE A JEWISH TRUCK DRIVER HATED SEEING DOOR-TO-DOOR RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS WALKING DOWN THE ROAD
He hated how they would go from house to house, bothering people and questioning their faith.
So whenever he would see some walking down the road, he would slow down, ease over, and bump them with his fender to make them fall
down into the mud on the side of the road.
He grew to enjoy the satisfaction of hearing the "whump" as they hit his fender and the "splash" as they fell in the mud.
One day as he was doing his deliveries, he saw an old Rabbi standing by his broken down car on the side of the road.
He immediately stopped and offered the Rabbi a ride into town, which the Rabbi accepted.
As they were driving, the driver saw two more zealots on the side of the road.
He immediately started easing over, getting ready to knock them down.
But then he thought "This is crazy, I can't do this while I have a Rabbi in the cab!
I'll be excommunicated!"
So at the last minute, he pulls away to miss the zealots.
But despite his driving, he still hears "whump" "splash" and sees the zealots in his rear view mirror, fallen down in the mud.
"I'm so sorry, Rabbi, I didn't mean to do that, I wish you hadn't seen that, Rabbi, I..."
The Rabbi speaks up "It's okay, it's okay my son. I got them with the door."
Today's medical joke....
A woman and a baby were in the doctor's examining room, waiting for the doctor to come in for the baby's first exam.
The doctor arrived, examined the baby, checked his weight, and being a little concerned, asked if the baby was breast-fed or bottle-fed.
"Breast-fed" she replied.
"Well, strip down to your waist," the doctor ordered.
She did. He pinched her nipples, then pressed, kneaded, and rubbed both breasts for a while in a detailed examination. Motioning to her to get dressed, he said, "No wonder this baby is underweight. You don't have any milk."
"I know," she said, "I'm his Grandma, but I'm so glad I came..
Today's Rabbi joke....
Two radical Arab terrorists boarded a flight out of London.
One took a window seat and the other sat next to him in the middle seat.. J
ust before takeoff, a rabbi sat down in the aisle seat.
After takeoff the rabbi kicked his shoes off, wiggled his toes and was settling in when the Arab in the window seat said, 'I need to get up and get a coke.'
'Don't get up,' said the rabbi, 'I'm in the aisle seat, I'll get it for you.'
As soon as he left, one of the Arabs picked up the rabbi`s shoe and spat in it. When the Rabbi returned with the coke, the other Arab said, 'That looks good. I'd really like one, too.'
Again, the rabbi obligingly went to fetch it.
While he was gone the other Arab picked up the rabbi`s other shoe and spat in it.
When the rabbi returned, they all sat back and enjoyed the flight.
As the plane was landing, the rabbi slipped his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened.
He leaned over and asked his Arab neighbors:
'Why does it have to be this way?
'How long must this go on?
'This fighting between our nations?
'This hatred?
'This animosity?
'This spitting in shoes and pissing in cokes?
