1/. A very thoughtful article from a Guardian reporter who was at the Biden press conference for NATO.....it was embarrassing for all present.
I also watched Joe with Lester Holt, and Joe was just good enough for it not to be too painful, but it's clear Joe is not the President we need to deal
with Trump, MAGA, Republicans let alone taking on the Supreme Court.
If he stays, we're toast.....
Should I stay or should I go? If I stay there will be trouble … This wasn’t so much a press conference, more a job interview conducted in front of an audience of millions. One where almost everyone had already made up their mind that they would rather almost anyone else got the nod.
This was politics as a bloodsport. Painful to watch. Like intruding on a personal grief. Because there could be no winner here. Were Joe Biden to be word perfect and razor sharp, the doubts would remain about his cognitive abilities. The US president cannot erase his recent past. The gaffes come with ever increasing frequency. The obvious confusion. The long silences. The middle-distance stares.
2/. A Poll out today [Wednesday] says 2/3 of Democrats want Biden to drop out.
Adam Schiff has said the same.....the first senior Democrat with some cojones.....
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him.
The new survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted as Biden works to salvage his candidacy two weeks after his debate flop, also found that only about 3 in 10 Democrats are extremely or very confident that he has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, down slightly from 40% in an AP-NORC poll in February.
3/. A country divided.......but by who?
David Remnick with an excellent and thoughtful piece on political violence and Trump's assassination attempt..........
On April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Robert F. Kennedy, who was pursuing the Democratic nomination for President, spoke to the Cleveland City Club about the “mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.”
In a mournful cadence, Kennedy told the crowd that a sniper is a coward, not a hero; that the “uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.” Violence, whether it is carried out by one man or a gang, he said, degrades an entire nation:
4/. A devastating "New Rule" from Bill Maher......Biden has to go, and he lists who could take his place.
Truly a must watch.
Actually if you have time watch the whole show on MAX- It's one of his best ever......
5/. Another Biden story, this one related to the Lester Holt interview......
In the shadow of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, where Donald Trump officially became the party’s nominee, days after surviving an attempt on his life, Joe Biden was still confronting a question he thought he’d answered: will he be the Democratic nominee in November?
“1,000%” the president said in an interview with Complex’s Chris “Speedy” Morman, which aired on Monday. So the president would remain the party’s standard-bearer, Morman asked? “Unless I get hit by a train, yeah,” Biden replied.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/15/biden-nbc-interview-analysis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
6/. Tom Tomorrow on the media......
7/. It's hot, and outside workers need breaks and water......but Republicans and DeSantis rejected a bill to do just that after Big Ag and other lobbyists gave them their orders.
Republicans truly don't give a shit about workers.....
When we’re making a list of titles that remind us of our state’s elected leader, “cruel” is not a word we want to see. But take a look at the latest headlines starring Gov. Ron DeSantis — the stories about rejected funding that would have kept hungry kids fed while school’s out, or the continuing coverage of Florida’s failure to care about the workers sweltering in brutal heat — and one song title comes to mind: “Cruel Summer.”
It fits all too well. It doesn’t even matter which “Cruel Summer” we’re talking about — Taylor Swift’s hit, which is still getting airplay, or the 1983 Bananarama song. Either works.
Florida’s workers, its children, don’t deserve this. And while DeSantis may not be on the ballot this fall, his actions should be. None of this could have happened without the eager compliance of the GOP- and DeSantis-dominated Legislature.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/07/10/editorial-desantis-lawmakers-gave-florida-the-cruelest-of-summers/
8/. Tom Tomorrow gives us a history lesson.....
9/. More on the blatant corruption of Clarence Thomas.....
EARLIER THIS WEEK, two Democratic senators announced they have requested a criminal investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — regarding, in part, a loan for a luxury RV provided by a longtime executive at UnitedHealth Group, one of America’s largest health insurers. Thomas apparently recused himself in at least two cases involving UnitedHealth when the loan was active, according to a Rolling Stone review. Yet, he separately chose to participate in another health insurance case and authored the court’s unanimous opinion in 2004. The ruling broadly benefited the industry — shielding employer-sponsored health insurers from damages if they refuse to cover certain services and patients are harmed. Thomas’ advice to patients facing such denials? Pull out your checkbook. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/clarence-thomas-rv-loan-health-care-1235059440/#recipient_hashed=fbbe473f5037f7de779a9b352866aaa97ce40dede88d542358cbe645dd211019&recipient_salt=72f9aae92f438bcc1f8948b09959b8992e4c153d9d01266946bf43b0824dab99
10/. The ad ExxonMobil should have made......wonderful....
11/. Interesting story on how Norwegians bring up their kids. Hint - no helicopters!
It’s 1.30pm. Nila and Arion arrive home after finishing school for the day. They let themselves in, make some food, then sit down to do homework, or practise piano, or do the housework they’ve been asked to do. Their parents won’t be home for a few hours yet. The children sometimes go out with friends to play in the street or wander the fields. The only real rule is no screen time unless everything else has been taken care of.
So far, so normal, perhaps, except the sister and brother are just 10 and eight, and they’ve been living this kind of unsupervised mini-adult life for years.
They live in Stavanger, on the south-west coast of Norway. Like all of their friends, they’ve been walking to and from school alone since they first attended at the age of six. They were given their own set of house keys soon after. This is the parenting way in Norway – it’s decidedly free-range, with an emphasis on independence, self-determination and responsibility, with a dash of outdoor fun thrown in for good measure.
12/. If you were wondering what the hell is this Hawk Yuah thing, this is it......7 seconds of stupid.....
13/. If Joe stays, this could well be our future.....
14/. Live in Lake County FL? Your vote -by mail -registration you had last year may have expired....
You may need to re-apply, would advise you to check [thanks Ron DeSantis]....
Different from the previous general election cycle, voters need to re-apply to vote by mail (previously known as an absentee ballot).
The deadline to request a Vote-by-Mail Ballot to be mailed to you is 5 p.m. on the 12th day before the election.
If you prefer to pick up a Vote-By- Mail Ballot, the deadline is the close of business on the 11th day before the election.
Go to Lake County's vote-by-mail for more instructions here.
15/. Just by existing, liberals are the provocateurs....
16/. Sometimes you come across a story that is so awful and unfair it sticks with you......a man is in jail for life, and was sent there wrongly - but even the
Prosecutor's office who thinks he is innocent can't get him out. Of course it's a Republican state, Tennessee....
Sunny Eaton never imagined herself working at the district attorney’s office. A former public defender, she once represented Nashville, Tennessee’s least powerful people, and she liked being the only person in a room willing to stand by someone when no one else would. She spent a decade building her own private practice, but in 2020, she took an unusual job as the director of the conviction-review unit in the Nashville DA’s office. Her assignment was to investigate past cases her office had prosecuted and identify convictions for which there was new evidence.
18/. Bob Lefsetz went to see the Stones.....he was blown away!
they are no longer selling danger.
They’re selling rock and roll. A lost art. If you want to experience it in its original form, go to see the Stones.
What I’m saying is the emphasis is misplaced. It’s on Mick Jagger’s dancing, his onstage antics. The bottom line is this is necessary when you play in the vast stadiums the Stones appear in.
Have you ever been to SoFi? One of the most bizarre experiences in the sports stadium stratosphere.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/07/15/the-stones-at-sofi/
19/. "Bad Faith", a documentary on Christian Nationalism. is a riveting piece of film.....
The new documentary Bad Faith, directed by Stephen Ujlaki and Christopher Jacob Jones, begins with footage familiar to many Americans: an army of insurrectionists adorned in stars, stripes, and military gear storming the Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 election results. It was a watershed moment that left many Americans wondering how we got here. Bad Faith seeks to help answer that question by looking at a crucial reason why American democracy ended up at a precipice: the rise of Christian nationalism.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/05/bad-faith-christian-nationalism-documentary/
20/. Bob Lefsetz takes a break from Biden, and likes "Blue Lights", a British cop show....
This is a really good TV show.
But it’s on BritBox.
I know, I know, you’re sick of having to subscribe to another streaming platform, and I am too, but I was running out of blue chip shows.
As you know, I won’t watch week to week. Therefore I won’t pay for Apple TV+. And the interesting thing is when the series ends, I usually don’t go back and sign up to watch it straight through. I noticed this happening with movies a few years back. I’d make a notation to stream it when it came to television, but when it was finally available, I just couldn’t create the inner oomph to partake. And my point here is never, NEVER hold back anything from the audience today. You might think you’re winning, you might think you’re building water cooler buzz, but the joke is on you. If you don’t make something readily available, the masses will just move right past it, you’ll miss the target and not even know it.
Kinda like the Hawk Tuah girl. Are we going to be talking about her a year from now? Three months from now? Strike when the iron is hot. You think everybody is paying attention, everybody is hungry for your product, when in truth most people are just shrugging if they are even aware of it.
But there are a limited number of good series out there.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/07/11/blue-lights/
The good old days joke....
Peter Marshall: "Eddie Fisher recently said, 'I am sorry. I am sorry for them both.' Who was he referring to?"
Paul Lynde: "His fans."
Marshall: "According to Tony Randall, 'Every woman I've been intimate with in my life has been...' what?"
Lynde: "Bitterly disappointed."
Marshall: "Paul, how many fingers in the girl scout salute?" Lynde: "Gee, I don't remember. The last time I saw it was when I didn't buy their cookies."
Marshall: "Paul, does Ann Landers think there is anything wrong with you if you do your housework in the nude?"
Lynde: "No, but I have to be terribly careful when I do my ironing."
Marshall: "Paul, any good sailor knows that when a man falls off a ship you yell 'Man overboard!' What should you shout if a woman falls overboard?"
Lynde: "Full speed ahead!"
Marshall: "What are 'dual-purpose cattle' good for that other cattle aren't?"
Lynde: "They give milk... and cookies, but I don't recommend the cookies."
Marshall: "Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?"
Lynde: "Because chiffon wrinkles too easily."
Marshall: "According to the IRS, out of every 10 Americans audited, how many end up paying more taxes?"
Lynde: "11."
Marshall: "What's the one thing you should never do in bed?"
Lynde: "Point and laugh!"
Marshall: "In the Shakespearean play 'King Lear,' King Lear had three of them - Goneril, Cordelia, and Regan? Who were they?"
Lynde: "King Lear had Goneril?"
Marshall: "Paul, everyone knows the first verse: What shall we do with the drunken sailor? / What shall we do with the drunken sailor? / What shall we do with the drunken sailor? / Early in the morning? But what is the first line of the next verse?"
Lynde : [singing] "Put him in bed with Elizabeth Taylor / Put him in bed with Elizabeth Taylor / Put him in bed with Elizabeth Taylor / Early in the morning." [audience laughs] "How disgusting... that poor sailor!"
Marshall: "True or false, Paul Revere had 16 children?"
Lynde: "From ONE midnight ride?"
Marshall: "Back in the 1870s, Emile Berliner invented something, and without it, I wouldn't be able to do my job. What was it?"
Lynde: "Let's see... toupees? Facelifts? Contact lenses?"
Marshall: "Now cut that out!"
Lynde: "Makeup? Capped teeth? Loud sports jackets?"
Today's Viagra joke
Isaac falls asleep on a beach for several hours and gets sunburned.
His legs are the worst and they are already starting to blister.
In agony, Isaac goes to the local hospital and is immediately admitted after being diagnosed with 2nd degree burns.
Dr Cohen tells the nurse, "This man needs continuous intravenous feeding with saline and electrolytes, a sedative, and a Viagra pill every four hours."
The nurse is astonished by this and says, "Dr Cohen, what good will Viagra do him?" "It'll keep the sheets off his legs," replies Dr Cohen.
Today's naughty joke
Bob went to the doctor's clinic for a checkup.
The nurse asked him to remove his clothing and put on a gown to be checked by the doctor.
“In front of you?” He asks, shy.
The nurse says: “Well no, but I’ve seen the human body before.
The man said, “Not one like mine. You’d die laughing at my body.”
“Of course I won’t laugh,” said the Nurse to the patient, “I’m a professional. In over twenty years I’ve never laughed at a patient.” “Okay then,” said the patient, and he proceeded to drop his trousers, revealing a huge male body with the smallest adult male organ the Nurse had ever seen in her life.
In length and width it was almost identical to a AAA battery.
Unable to control herself, the Nurse tried to stop a giggle, but it just came out.
And then she started laughing at the fact that she was laughing.
Feeling very badly that she had laughed at the man’s private part, she composed herself as well as she could.
“I am so sorry,” she said, “I don’t know what came over me.
On my honor as a Nurse and a lady, I promise that it won’t happen again. Now, tell me, what seems to be the problem?
“It’s swollen,” Bob replied.
She ran out of the room....
Today's guy joke..
I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a cold beer.
The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking.
My wife walked by and asked me what I was doing, and I said, "Nothing."
The reason I said "nothing" instead of saying "just thinking" is because she then would have asked, "About what?"
At that point I would have had to explain that men are deep thinkers about various topics, which would lead to other questions.
Finally I pondered an age old question: Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the nuts?
Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the nuts, but how could they know?
Well, after another beer, and some more heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with an answer to that question.
Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby, and even though I obviously couldn't really know, here is the reason for my conclusion:
A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, "It might be nice to have another child."
But you never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts."
I rest my case.
Time for another beer. Then maybe a nap.
