False rumors about hurricane relief

Hurricane Helene has been devastating for the southeastern part of the US, especially parts of Georgia and North Carolina, leaving a trail of over 200 people dead, many still missing, and massive damage to property. This has necessarily put a strain on emergency relief efforts. Add to that Hurricane Martin is headed towards Florida and is expected to arrive on Wednesday.

But relief efforts have not been helped by false statements issued by creepy Donald Trump and his new sidekick Elon Musk that the Biden administration has been slow to provide assistance, suggesting that this is because the states involved are GOP-leaning. This has been flatly contradicted by the governors of those states.

The falsehoods started quickly and came from the top. Donald Trump, freshly landed in Georgia on Monday to see the storm’s devastation, claimed that the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, had not been able to reach Joe Biden to talk about disaster aid. Kemp had already said earlier in the day that he’d spoken to the president, who offered any help the state needed and said to call him directly.
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Harper Steele and Will Ferrell talk to Seth Meyers

I reviewed the excellent documentary Will and Harper a couple of days ago about the cross-country journey taken by Will Ferrell and Harper Steel to see what Harper’s experience would be like now that she has transitioned.

The two of them were interviewed by Seth Meyers on his show where they discussed how the documentary came about and their experience making it. Meyers worked alongside the two of them on Saturday Night Live (and made a cameo appearance in the film) and it was really nice to see three funny people who seem to genuinely like each other bantering with one another.

The tax games that rich people (and companies) play

Rich people and companies have all manner of ways to avoid paying any taxes at all, let alone their fair share, all because of so-called ‘loopholes’ in the tax laws. These tax evasions are facilitated by giant accounting firms, especially the largest known as the Big Four: Deloitte, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), and KPMG. These accounting firms are not just passively looking after the books, they are often key to setting policies.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reveal one such massive loophole that is being exploited and how Deloitte played a leading role in doing so.
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New documentary on Netanyahu’s corruption

Brooke Gladstone, the host of the radio program On the Media, had an interview with Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker who has been investigating Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for decades. Netanyahu and his wife Sarah have apparently engaged in brazen acts of corruption, demanding and getting bribes from various people to satisfy their taste for luxuries. There have been years of hearings with 333 witnesses since May 2020.
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Film review: Will & Harper (2024)

About thirty years ago, Will Ferrell became a cast member on Saturday Night Live where he became friends with Andrew Steele, one of the writers who had also been hired that year, and they stayed close friends even after Ferrell left the show and went on to other things. About three years ago, Ferrell received an email that Steele had sent out to a few friends saying that she had transitioned and was a woman and now had the name Harper Steele.

In a subsequent conversation, Steele told Ferrell how she used to enjoy driving back and forth across this vast country many times, stopping at small towns, going to local bars, meeting the people, and enjoying the activities of the local communities. She felt that doing so now as a trans woman would not feel as comfortable or even safe and that she missed the ability to do so. Ferrell suggested that they do such a road trip together, and this documentary chronicles their 17-day journey from New York to Los Angeles, stopping at Steele’s hometown in Iowa, doing the kinds of things that Steele used to do alone.
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The Boss endorses Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

It was quite an eloquent endorsement of them and a repudiation of the GOP ticket. But you would expect that from such a gifted songwriter like Bruce Springsteen.

What is it with toilet paper hoarding?

It seems like during periods of uncertainty, the main thing that many Americans worry about is running out of toilet paper. We saw this during the pandemic when store shelves were quickly stripped bare of the product. I recall seeing my neighbors unloading many multipacks of toilet paper from their car and carting them into their house.

We now see the same thing happening because of fears that the strike by dockworkers at eastern US and Gulf ports would lead to shortages. Whereas the pandemic fear had at least some basis in reality because everything was uncertain and we did not know how long the supply chain disruptions would last, this latest hoarding makes no sense since almost all the toilet paper sold in the US is made within the country or in Canada and thus is not affected by the dock strike.
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What is Melania Trump up to?

After being almost invisible during the entirety of this campaign, suddenly Melania Trump is making news. Excepts from her memoir to be released next month say that she supports abortion rights. She then reiterated that view in a video.

Melania Trump doubled down in her first public response to news of her passionate support for abortion rights, a position starkly at odds with that of her husband, Donald Trump, and the Republican party he leads.

“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard,” the former first lady said in a video released on Thursday. “Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth. Individual freedom. What does, ‘My body, my choice’ really mean?”
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Rudy Giuliani’s daughter’s shame over her father’s behavior

As another example of how creepy Donald Trump is the anti-Midas, turning everything and everyone he touches to rubbish, Rudy Giuliani’s daughter Caroline Rose Giuliani has written an essay endorsing Kamala Harris for president but also expressing anger at creepy Trump for what happened to her father who, as a result of climbing aboard the MAGA wagon, went from once being being a respected prosecutor and mayor of New York to being disbarred from New York and Washington DC for spreading election lies.
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Have I been committing a serious offense against Italian cuisine?

This cartoon brought me up short.

(WuMo)

My practice has been to take spaghetti out of the box and break the strands into four smaller pieces before cooking it. That way I don’t have to go through what (to me) is the tedious business of winding long strands of spaghetti on the fork when eating. But maybe for some, that is the appeal of spaghetti.