YK Osiris - Worth It

Sam Smith - Dancing With a Stranger

Trump's FEMA Chief Forced Out of Office In Advance of Hearings Over His Failed Respone to Hurricane Maria

Brock Long, is stepping down as head of FEMA under a cloud of controversy and suspicion, after it was revealed that the committed fraud and misused taxpayer funds via improper use of government vehicles during 400-mile commutes between Washington DC and his home in North Carolina.

Long was already under fire from Congress over the botched Trump administration response to the Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, which resulted in over 3,000 deaths. 

According to the Inspector General report, it was revealed that Long would make the 400-mile trip to his home in a 'caravan' of vehicles. Taxpayer-paid drivers would be put up in hotels in Long's home state, adding to the taxpayer expense.  The trips cost the government $94,000 in salary costs, $55,000 in travel expenses, and another $2,000 in operations and maintenance costs.   Long was ordered to repay the government for expenses associated with the improper and "unauthorized" use of the vehicles and security detail. 

"Administrator Long’s apparent violations of federal law for his own personal benefit are another example of how senior officials in the Trump Administration continue to use American taxpayer money to bankroll their lavish lifestyles," said House Oversight and Government Reform chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings . "Even more concerning are his efforts to mislead investigators after he was caught," he said, seeking a briefing on how the government would claw back the funds.

Cabinet Needs Cleaning

Cold-Stone Busted

Awkward Text

Crisis Mismanagement

Getting Bit While Feeding Tigers

Takes it From Melania at Home and Takes it From Nancy at Work

Bordering on the Delusional

Rejected Candy Hearts

Lizzo - Juice

Meerkat Love

A Zoo in Texas is offering the ultimate in feel-good for Valentine’s Day.

The El Paso Zoo is not only giving men and women the chance to name their ex’s after cockroaches, they’ll even feed them to Meerkats on the special day.  The cockroach-- not the ex, that is.  So if you had a particularly horrid ex, or a boyfriend who ghosted you, this is your chance to get them back a little.

Staff will live stream the event on Facebook and the zoo’s website, and the names of the exes will be shown around the meerkat exhibit on social media for everyone to see.

El Paso Zoo event coordinator Sarah Borrego told reporters,  "The meerkats love to get cockroaches as a snack and what better way to celebrate Valentine’ Day than by feeding them a cockroach named after your ex!"

And they're not the only ones to catch the Valentine's Day bug.  The Hemsley Conservation Centre in Kent, England, will name a cockroach after your ex in exchange for a donation.  Australia’s Wild Life Sydney has done one better – they’re offering to name your ex after a snake.

Hooked on Dancing

Sad But True

Another Fox News Host Denying Science

Fox News host Pete Hegseth admitted on air yesterday that he has not washed his hands in a decade.

The admission came as Hegseth discussed eating day-old pizza that had not been refrigerated. He did not see any issue with eating the pizza, he said, then added that he didn’t think he had washed his hands in 10 years.  "Really," he said. "I don’t really wash my hands ever."

Met with laughter, he explained: “I inoculate myself. Germs are not a real thing. I can’t see them, therefore they’re not real.”  Hegseth graduated from Princeton, where (apparently) they don't teach common sense.

After furor erupted on social media, Hegseth later claimed he had been joking and blamed the media for being so “self-righteous and angry”. He also said he supported drinking from hosepipes and riding bikes without a helmet.

Fox News "journalists" have a long tradition of denying scientific facts just because they are not immediately observable- such as discussing  climate change when the weather is particularly cold, seeking to cast doubt over accepted science regarding rising global temperatures.

Hegseth, was reported to be Trump’s favored pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, before veterans' groups objected.  While Hegseth was the chief executive of Concerned Veterans for America, he hired his brother Philip to work for the non-profit at an annual salary of $108,000^.  While Hegseth ran the political action committee MN PAC, he spent one third of the PAC's resources on Christmas parties for families and friends^.  Less than half of the PAC's resources was spent on candidates.  If he had been appointed to run the Veterans Affairs, he would have made him responsible for the health and well=being of 20 million Americans.

In More Ways Than One!

Indeed!

Ann Coulter Goes on Racist Rant on Twitter

Conservative political pundit Ann Coulter, often at the centre of controversy for her anti-immigrant views went on Twitter and blasted an Asian American reporter who published an article about Immigration and Customs Enforcement senior advisor Jon Feere, and how much he likes Coulter’s “racist immigration writings.”

Some of the articles Eric Hananoki cited in his piece, written by Coulter, included Islamophobic comments, including "What's the upside of admitting 250,000 poor, culturally backward, non-English-speaking Muslims every year? We want remarkable Americans, not immigrants whose selling point is: 'hasn't blown anything up yet'.”

Hananoki, an investigative reporter for Media Matters received a barrage of insulting tweets from Coulter about his ethnicity.

Trump's Nipple-gate

Donald Trump mispronounced Bhutan and Nepal as “Button and Nipple” in a White House meeting with intelligence officials. He then went on to incorrectly identify both as being part of India, national security correspondent John Walcott told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin.



Talking about reporting Donald Trump’s intelligence briefings for Time, Walcott revealed:

There are a combination of things. The first one is the president’s ignorance. That goes to the point of thinking that Nepal and Bhutan – which incidentally he also mispronounced a 'nipple' and 'button' – are part of India, which they’re not. 

“Wait, seriously? That’s what he said?” asked a shocked Baldwin. Walcott responded: "Seriously.”

He also talked about the article he wrote in Time that suggested sources in the intelligence community were worried that he is a national security risk due to his “wilful ignorance” about international affairs. Baldwin asked about what the consequences could be if the president doesn’t listen to his advisors.

There are two dangers. The first one is he will make decisions based not on real information, but on his instincts, which are not always good. The real underlying concern is what might happen if the nation is suddenly hit with a real national security crisis out of the blue,” Walcott also told CNN. “How will the president respond? Will Trump stop and listen and think about that response first - or again, will he simply react on instinct? 

Banks Among the Biggest Beneficiaries of Trump Tax Cut

Now that 2018 is behind us, we are starting to get definitive results on the actual impacts of the Trump tax cut.  It should come as no surprise that big banks have proven to be some of the biggest beneficiaries of the Trump tax cut. Bloomberg reports that, in total, major U.S. banks got about a $21 billion break on their taxes last year. And what did they do with that huge cash windfall? Like corporate America, not much for everyday folks.

Even though their effective tax rates dropped to under 19 percent (roughly 10 points below what they paid in 2016) the banks eliminated thousands of jobs and their lending fell. The people who really benefited were shareholders, who received major payouts due to the savings.  Anybody who does just a little research on the so-called "trickle down" effect knows that it's a bunch of bullshit.  When corporations receive windfalls from the government (reduced regulations, tax cuts, subsidies etc.)  it has been proven time and time again that they just spend the $$$ on stock buybacks, executive bonuses, dividend payments and the like-- not wage increases, new jobs, R&D or production investments.  Greed is good.

Misstate of the Union

We just heard a very long speech that was incredibly short on details and specific proposals that might help bridge the gap in congress.  Without anything specific or concrete to latch onto, we are only able to walk away focusing on a few of the most stupendously ignorant flourishes-- his claim that the only thing standing in the way of peace and prosperity are investigations, and his statement that "If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now be in a war with North Korea."

And despite all the talk on immigration, he refused to even mention the shutdown-- even though he is threatening to have yet another one.   And with all his historical references, Trump brought to mind a comparison to Nixon and his last state of the union.  Like Nixon before him, Trump also made a plea to congress to stop investigating him. 

As it was so obvious before the speech, it is even more so now-- that Trump is politically weak.  Instead of using the night to reach out and build his coalitions and he pandered only to his narrow base (demonizing immigrants, threatening abortion rights, promoting charter schools and scaring people about socialism). 

Defenses Deployed; Records Destroyed; Levine on Steroids

Awkward Text With Dad

Atlanta Building with Kaepernick Mural Mysteriously Demolished Just Before Super Bowl

The building on which a mural of Colin Kaepernick was painted in Atlanta has been unexplicably demolished on the eve of the Super Bowl.  NFL player Kaepernick started kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 to protest against racial injustice.

Kaepernick's protest developed into a movement as many other NFL players followed suit.  In response, the NFL announced that teams would be fined if players continued to kneel during the national anthem.  Kaepernick, who was the staring quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 47, remains without a club after the 31-year-old quarterback left the 49ers two years ago.

Fabian Williams, the artist who painted the mural,  said "the timing is mad suspicious".  It is not known who was responsible for the demolition.  The building was less than a mile from Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be held.

Williams, who is also known as Occasional Superstar, painted the mural over a year and a half ago.  The mural depicted Kaepernick in an Atlanta Falcons uniform and Muhammad Ali as T'challa from Black Panther.  The mural's location had previously been used for many years to promote albums, parties and movies. 

The mural had remained intact since it was created and the artist said that he met the building’s owner on one occasion.  “He said he liked it,” Williams said. “But said that the city was complaining to him about it.”  There are reports that the building's owner had recently been under pressure from the city over the mural. 

"Tarantula" by Beck