1/ Andrew Sullivan with two good stories in his column for New York Magazine.....the first is of course about Trump and how this is a dangerous place for our democracy, such as it is. But the other is about AOC and charm, which Democrats need to find somewhere.
Please Nancy and Chuck, read it!.....
It’s an emergency. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
When is the moment we can say that Trump has clearly gone over the line in erasing democratic and constitutional restraints on his personal power?
I’d say declaring a national emergency when there isn’t one to fund a project he can’t get through Congress pretty obviously qualifies. Wouldn’t you?
He couldn’t manage to get his wall funded when his own party controlled the entire government. He even turned down a bipartisan offer to build a “wall” in return for a path to citizenship for Dreamers last year, because he wanted a reduction in legal immigration as well.
2/ Thomas Edsall with an excellent column on who really runs our gub'mint - lobbyists.....most interesting....
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the idealistic class of 64 Democratic House freshmen are armed with a reform agenda.
This includes H.R. 1, a 571-page bill that addresses voting rights, corruption, gerrymandering and campaign finance reform as well as the creation of a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis — a first step toward a “Green New Deal.”
Proponents of this ambitious project face a determined adversary, however — the top ranks of the interest group establishment, skilled in co-opting liberal members of Congress and converting initiatives to square with the interests of corporate America
3/ Trump's new idea!
4/ Well well well - look who's building the steel border wall - a Russian Oligarch, Roman Abramovich....with Trump always follow the money.....
Donald Trump huddled with top advisers at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for most of the day Sunday, as ABC News reported, in an attempt to come top with a solution to end the ongoing shutdown of large parts of the United States government over Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding to construct his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. When he returned later in the day, Trump appeared to have his solution — build a steel wall rather than a concrete one.
“I informed my folks to say that we’ll build a steel barrier. It’ll be less obtrusive and it’ll be stronger,” Trump said, as reported by CBS Newsreporter Mark Knoller via Twitter.
When asked why he believed Democrats in the House of Representatives, who have said that they will not approve any funding at all for a border wall, will consent to a “steel barrier,” Trump said, per Fox News, “They don’t like concrete, so we’ll give ’em steel. Steel is fine.”
5/ This a a mildly amusing clip from Jimmy Kimmel......four minutes....
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of legal recreational marijuana in California, Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday hired a Transportation Security Administration agent to ferret out who’s stoned on Hollywood Boulevard.
Fatina Amina McIntosh, a TSA agent at Los Angeles International Airport, got the task as part of Kimmel’s program this week to employ federal workers hurt by the government shutdown. McIntosh said she’s among government employees working without pay during the shutdown. Others are furloughed without pay.
McIntosh asked three pedestrians what they had for lunch, hoping to narrow in on which one was baked. Was it the dude who had pizza, the man who said “I had air” or the woman who ate at In-N-Out?
6/ Seth Meyers with a good "A Closer Look", some great zingers....about 9 minutes....
Seth Meyers thinks he knows what may have happened to the notes that President Donald Trump reportedly seized from his own interpreter following his 2017 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Now we don’t know what Trump did with those notes, but we do know that in her tell-all book former Trump aide Omarosa said she saw Trump trying to destroy evidence by eating a piece of paper in the Oval Office,” Meyers said on Monday’s broadcast of “Late Night.”
7/ This is pretty obvious.....and I'll bet it's mostly Trumpies.......
Fake News Is an Old-People Problem
Photo: Vanya Dudumova/Getty Images/EyeEm
Today in “news that is nice to have to confirm things you probably were already assuming without statistical data”: A new study found that people over 65 are the most likely to sharing fake news.
8/ Don't often post articles like this....very depressing, as his premise is that the US is in the throes of economic and societal collapse, and that's without even mentioning the effects climate change will have on the economy and the people who will be devastated by extreme weather.
The idea is unless you know what's coming you won't be prepared. However......my opinion is his logic is a little overblown and things aren't as bad as he says.....but the seeds of collapse are certainly there so you really don't know.
For conspiracy theorists only....
I have mentioned the very visible decline of the US and its associated Empire in many of my articles already, so I won’t repeat it here other than to say that the “ability to exert influence and impose its will” is probably the best criteria to measure the magnitude of the fall of the US since Trump came to power (the process was already started by Dubya and Obama, but it sure accelerated with The Donald). But I do want to use a metaphor to revisit the concept of catastrophe.
9/ Tom Tomorrow.....
10/ Umair with commentary on why this is a cruel country to live in, compared to any other Western state....really interesting .....
A friend, recently, told me a very telling story. She’d recently been in the States, where she was taking the subway to work, and she fell down, injuring her wrist. Not a single person helped her up — they all stared at her angrily as if to say: “you are going to make us late for work!!”. (Ironically, the train was full of doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers).
She contrasted that with London — where, the last year, when she’d broken a limb, and had a cast on, people would regularly, and very courteously, give up their seats on the tube.
It’s a tiny example. And perhaps you will say it’s just a meaningless anecdote. But by now, American cruelty is both legendary — and one of the world’s great unsolved mysteries
11/ The Times has a weekly section called "The Ethicist", and this one I thought was really good as we have known people with this exact problem.....
May I Cut My Daughter Out of My Life?
12/ Wow - the TV critics of the Times give us their choices for the best TV series made since the Sopranos.....I agree with a lot of what they say,
but also seem have missed a lot of great TV.....
Fascinating list! And an interactive article too.....
“It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that, I know. But lately, I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end.” —Tony Soprano
You’re wrong about that one, Tony. It may be that no TV show does anything entirely new — change always builds on change. But “The Sopranos” was as clear a marker of the beginning of an era (even if I hate the term “Golden Age”) as anything in TV.
Before “The Sopranos,” yes, TV dramas could take risks (“Twin Peaks”) and tell stories about difficult people (“NYPD Blue”). But after the ducks landed in Tony’s backyard pool in January 1999, an immense flock followed. TV series, we saw, could rely on audiences to pay close attention to a long-running story. They could have high visual and narrative ambitions. They could resist quick answers (or any answers, in the case of the Russian from “Pine Barrens”) and tidy moral conclusions.
13/ Hmmm....the latest casualties in Miami's challenge from sea level rise are homes with septic tanks.....a major
and very expensive problem with no real solution........
Dade has tens of thousands of septic tanks, and a new report reveals most are already malfunctioning — the smelly and unhealthy evidence of which often ends up in people’s yards and homes. It’s a billion-dollar problem that climate change is making worse.
As sea level rise encroaches on South Florida, the Miami-Dade County study shows that thousands more residents may be at risk — and soon. By 2040, 64 percent of county septic tanks (more than 67,000) could have issues every year, affecting not only the people who rely on them for sewage treatment, but the region’s water supply and the health of anyone who wades through floodwaters. https://www.miamiherald.com/
Todays Marketing joke
People often ask for a simple explanation of "Marketing."
Well, here it is:
* You're a woman and you see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him
and say, "I'm fantastic in bed."
and say, "I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Direct Marketing.
______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________ ______________________________
* You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One
of your friends goes up to him and, pointing at you, says, "She's fantastic
in bed."
of your friends goes up to him and, pointing at you, says, "She's fantastic
in bed."
That's Advertising.
______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________ ______________________________
* You see a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and get his
telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed."
telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Telemarketing.
______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________ ______________________________
* You see a guy at a party; you straighten your dress. You walk up to him
and pour him a drink. You say, "May I?" and reach up to straighten his tie,
brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say,
"By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."
and pour him a drink. You say, "May I?" and reach up to straighten his tie,
brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say,
"By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Public Relations.
______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________ ______________________________
* You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says,
"I hear you're fantastic in bed."
"I hear you're fantastic in bed."
That's Brand Recognition.
______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________ ______________________________
*You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He fancies you, but you talk
him into going home with your friend.
him into going home with your friend.
That's a Sales Rep.
______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________ ______________________________
* Your friend can't satisfy him so he calls you.
That's Tech Support.
______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________ ______________________________
* You're on your way to a party when you realize that there could be
handsome men in all these houses you're passing, so you climb onto the roof of
one situated towards the center and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm
fantastic in bed!"
handsome men in all these houses you're passing, so you climb onto the roof of
one situated towards the center and shout at the top of your lungs, "I'm
fantastic in bed!"
That's Facebook.
______________________________ ______________________________
______________________________ ______________________________
