1/ We may be seeing Trump's tax returns in the future, but it will be in spite of Republicans' feeble efforts to block this process....interesting details of the blatant hypocrisy of the Republicans...
Donald Trump, President of the United States and legitimate businessman. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
The first two years of the Trump administration, Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and could quash any movement to compel the release of President Trump’s tax returns without much public discussion. Now that Democrats control the House, and have the legal power to get the tax returns, Republicans have been forced to muster positive arguments for why Trump should be able to conceal his financial information.
2/ You may have watched SOTU, but only Bad Lip Reading knows what they really said....an amusing three minutes...
3/ An "on form" Samantha Bee with her take on how Fox News is attacking the "Green New Deal", a good one - five excellent minutes with some great zingers....
Samantha Bee dedicated the opening segment of her show to the “terrifying thing that has been tearing America apart.” No, not Will Smith’s Genie from Aladdin, but rather the progressive Green New Deal that was introduced by “Republicans’ wet nightmare” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”
After playing a montage of various pundits criticizing the plan, the Full Frontalhost said, “It’s ‘too expensive’ and ‘too hard’ isn’t a reason not to save the world. It’s a reason not to have a destination wedding.” She added, “The Green New Deal has been controversial, but the idea behind it really shouldn’t be. An overwhelming number of experts agree we only have about 12 years to stop climate change from devastating our planet.”
4/ Benjamin Studebaker with some words on the Democratic candidates in the 2020 race.....he might surprise you....
I want to argue that these metrics are largely useless. Instead, I want to give you a much better toolkit for assessing candidates–one that most journalists don’t know how to use.
At this point, many media people have figured out that politicians can use rhetoric in misleading ways. Someone can promise you “hope” and “change” or claim to be “progressive” but unless you have a sense for what those words mean to that politician they are just words. So these days we demand that candidates tell us what their policy positions are. We think that we’re so smart for caring about policy–unlike the unwashed masses that fall for the rhetoric.
5/ SNL sketch that nails the Virginia blackface issue.....hey, it's Virginia in the 80's.....a most amusing four minutes....
SNL did not steer clear from the blackface controversy surrounding Virginia governor Ralph Northam and the state’s Attorney General Mark Herring during their latest show.
Instead, they hit it hard and early.
In an early clip, Kenan Thompson played a government official who asked — after the room came to an agreement that the state’s Lt. Governor should resign — if those in the room had every worn blackface.
6/ A painfully funny Tom Tomorrow....
7/ Seth Meyers with a look at the alternate reality Trump lives in, fueled and reinforced by Fox News.....good comic journalism, 9 minutes....
Seth Meyers went after Fox News for reinforcing President Donald Trump’s “alternate reality” in his latest Closer Look.
In an interview that aired after Trump’s Texas rally on Fox News, Trump admitted to Laura Ingraham that he had actually chosen to do the interview with her, rather than read the proposed bipartisan deal to avoid the shutdown.
Meyers did not let that presidential comment slide.
“He literally said, I had a choice between running the government and going on Fox News, and I chose Fox News,” Meyers said. “No quote has ever summed up Trump’s presidency better than that.
8/ The full clip of Michelle Obama at the Grammys.....roll this forward to the 2.40 mark to see her introduction and her remarks....and her standing O from the audience!
9/ AOC in Congress exposing how easy it is for politicians to be corrupt.....this is a glimpse of the charisma and intelligence of this rising star.....five excellent and viral minutes...
10/ Bill Maher shreds the media narrative of both Republicans and Democrats are to blame for our corrosive politics....it's only the Republicans!
An excellent five minutes....
Bill Maher attempted to put to rest the conventional wisdom that both political parties are to blame for the apocalyptic nightmare we are currently in. On Real Time Friday night, he started his argument using former Starbucks CEO and possible 2020 Independent presidential candidate Howard Schultz as an example. Schultz’s main stated motivation to run is to save Americans from both Democrats and Republicans.
Schultz’s “central premise that we need an independent because both sides have become equally extreme” and “this idea of a pox on both of their houses is just factually wrong,” Maher said during his New Rules segment.
11/ Meathead!
12/ If you've seen the incredibly good movie "Green Book" you will like this story about how the pivotal scene in the Alabama restaurant was changed.....most interesting. If you haven't seen the movie, you missed a great one....
Mahershala Ali (left) and Viggo Mortensen in Green Book. Photo: Patti Perret/Universal Pictures
Over the next few weeks, Vulture will speak to the screenwriters of 2018’s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found hardest to crack. Which pivotal sequence underwent the biggest transformation on the way from script to screen? Today, Green Book writer-director Peter Farrelly — who is nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay and whose film is up for a best picture Oscar — unpacks his difficulty plotting a key scene in which jazz/classical pianist Don “Doc” Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is turned away from a whites-only hotel dining room, putting his driver-cum-bodyguard Tony “Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) in a tricky situation. The scene is then excerpted below.
13/ This looks good, "Russian Doll" on Netflix....article has spoilers....
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Natasha Lyonne is one of my favorite actors.
That’s one of my few shareable reactions to the new Netflix comedy Russian Doll, because the less you know about this terrific new series, the better. So let me just assure you that Lyonne is the star, she gets to showcase her considerable range, and her gift for wildly unconventional line readings is on full display. The series is probably too weird to win a bunch of Emmys, but God willing, Lyonne will be nominated. She’s so good.
Todays diary joke
Wife’s Diary;
Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner.
I was shopping with my friends all day long, so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, but he made no comment.
Conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested that we go somewhere quiet so we could talk
He agreed, but he didn't say much
I asked him what was wrong; He said, "nothing."
I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset.
He said he wasn't upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it.
On the way home, I told him that I loved him.
He smiled slightly, and kept driving. I can't explain his behavior.
I don't know why he didn't say, “I love you, too.”
When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.
He just sat there quietly, and watched TV. He continued to seem distant and absent.
Finally, with silence all around us, I decided to go to bed. About 15 minutes later, he came to bed.
But I still felt that he was distracted, and his thoughts were somewhere else.
He fell asleep; I cried.
I don't know what to do. I'm almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.
Husband's Diary:
A one-foot putt...who misses a one-foot putt?
Todays mixed bag of groaners....
- Today at the bank, an old lady asked me to help check her balance. So I pushed her over.
- I bought some shoes from a drug dealer. I don't know what he laced them with, but I've been tripping all day.
- I told my girlfriend she drew her eyebrows too high. She seemed surprised.
- My dog used to chase people on a bike a lot. It got so bad, finally I had to take his bike away.
- I'm so good at sleeping. I can do it with my eyes closed.
- My boss told me to have a good day.. so I went home.
- Why is Peter Pan always flying? He neverlands.
- A woman walks into a library and asked if they had any books about paranoia. The librarian says "They're right behind you!"
- The other day, my wife asked me to pass her lipstick but I accidentally passed her a glue stick. She still isn't talking to me.
- Why do blind people hate skydiving? It scares the hell out of their dogs.
- When you look really closely, all mirrors look like eyeballs.
- My friend says to me: "What rhymes with orange" I said: "No it doesn't"
- What do you call a guy with a rubber toe? Roberto.
- What did the pirate say when he turned 80 years old? Aye matey.
- My wife told me I had to stop acting like a flamingo. So I had to put my foot down.
- I couldn't figure out why the baseball kept getting larger. Then it hit me.
- Why did the old man fall in the well? Because he couldn't see that well.
- I ate a clock yesterday, it was very time consuming.
- Whatdya call a frenchman wearing sandals? Phillipe Phillope.
- A blind man walks into a bar. And a table. And a chair.
- I know a lot of jokes about unemployed people but none of them work.
- What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot.
- Did you hear about the italian chef that died? He pasta way.
- Why couldn't the bicycle stand up? Because it was two tired!
- Parallel lines have so much in common. It’s a shame they’ll never meet.
- My wife accused me of being immature. I told her to get out of my fort.
- Where do you find a cow with no legs? Right where you left it.
- When a deaf person sees someone yawn do they think it’s a scream?
- As I suspected, someone has been adding soil to my garden. The plot thickens.
- How do crazy people go through the forest? They take the physco path.
- And the lord said unto John, "Come forth and you will receive eternal life". John came fifth and won a toaster.
- What did the traffic light say to the car? Don’t look! I’m about to change.
- I just wrote a book on reverse psychology. Do *not* read it!
- What did one hat say to the other? You stay here. I’ll go on ahead.
- Why wouldn’t the shrimp share his treasure? Because he was a little shellfish.
