Donald Trump Loses It More Than Ever On Twitter

Donald Trump is the world's most obnoxious tweeter, we know that.

And what's with the millions of Twitter bots that he or one of his minions appears to have purchased. (You can purchase fake Twitter followers to make it look like you have a lot more followers than you do.)

Anyway, this tweet from The Donald went up early this morning, and stayed up for a few hours. Don't know where he was going with this:

If you click on the copy of the tweet I've put in this post to make it bigger and easier to read, Trump gave us this bit of profound wisdom: "Despite the constate negative press, covfefe."

Not sure what "covfefe" means, but I'm sure we can come up with some good definitions, right?

Was Trump Operating A Disco In The White House? No, But The Idea Is Fun

What was the deal with the red lights in the White House
windows Sunday night?

In a web cam that's always trained on the White House, there was a bit of a spectacle Sunday night.

It looked like there was a red strobe light going off in the second floor residence of the White House.

You could see the flashing lights in two of the windows.  

What was going on?

As always, social media had a lot of fun with this.

Michael Hicks wrote on Twitter, "Everybody relax. The flashing red lights coming from inside the White House are just a simple code being transmitted to Russian overseers."

Trey Lucas speculated: "Looks like a rave, where are my globe sticks?"

Another theory: "He probably pulled the fire alarm because his Diet Coke button didn't work."

The real explanation for the lights was much more tame, as real explanations tend to be.  Due to a medical emergency unrelated to the White House, a DC ambulance was parked on a street nearby for 17 minutes.

What people saw in those windows was the lights of the ambulance reflected in the White House windows.

Oh. Too bad. Wish the other theories were true, as they'd be more fun.

Angry Pedestrian Having A Bad Day

How's your day going?

Better than this guy? Let's hope so!

New Music Videos For Old Elton John Classics Are Awesome

A scene from the brilliant new music video for the
Elton John classic, "Rocket Man."

The early hits in Elton John's extensive, awesome, Captain Fantastic music catalog came before music videos were a thing.  

As Rolling Stone reports, Sir Elton John and his lyricists Bernie Taupin rectified that situation by working with YouTube for a global competition to get music videos up for three great, iconic early 1970s hits:

The songs are "Bennie And The Jets," "Tiny Dancer" and "Rocket Man."

John and Taupin revealed the winning videos recently at the Cannes Film Festival recently. The videos are awesome and are viewable below. (You might have to click on "Watch on YouTube" to actually seem them.

All the videos are awesome, but I'll show them below ranking them from my least favorite to favorite. (Although my least favorite one is pretty awesome.)

The first one is "Bennie and the Jets"

In this one, Director Jack Whitley and choreographer Laura Brownhill, imagine the protagonist in the song, Bennie, forming the members of the Jets, her band. Rolling Stone says the pair were inspired by Busby Berkeley's old Hollywood musicals and "Metropolis," the memorable 1927 Fritz Lang movie.


The second video is for "Tiny Dancer." I have to say this is one of my favorite road songs and every time I hear it, I have an image of me driving around on a sunny, gorgeous spring afternoon.

In this video, Director Max Weiland creates a series of compelling mini-stories of eclectic people in Los Angeles driving around and singing along to "Tiny Dancer." You only get glimpses of all these people, but you really end up caring about them by the end of the video, and want to know more about them.



The best video, in my opinion, is Majid Adin's animated video for "Rocket Man."

I totally agree with Rolling Stone's review of this video:

"(Adin) brilliantly re-contextualizes Taupin's lyrics about a lonely astronaut with a visual tale that draws on his past experience as an Iranian refugee traveling to England.......Taupin's words take on a more melancholy spin in this vivid setting, particularly the line, 'I think it's gonna be a long, long time,' repeated as the protagonist dwells on his uncertain future."

I could not take my eyes off this "Rocket Man" video and I want to watch it again and again:

You Can't Get Two Same-Flavor Scoops of Ben & Jerry's In Australia Until There's Same Sex Marriage

 

Do you want two scoops of the same flavor of Ben & Jerry's ice cream in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney or anywhere else in Australia?  

You're out of luck, at least for now.

Australia is struggling with the question to allow same-sex marraige (the country is behind the times on this issue).

Activists there are bucking for same-sex marriage, and the reason for the Ben & Jerry's ban is part of that effort.

NBC News says that Ben & Jerry's declared that "love comes in all flavors" and in protest of Australia's lack of same sex marriage, they're banning ice cream cones with one flavor of ice cream.

You want two scoops? You must have two flavors.

Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's said the point of the scoop protest is to get people to imagine "how furious you would be if you were told you were not allowed to marry the person you love.

So, we are banning two scoops of the same flavor and encouragig our fans to contact their MPs to tell them that the time has come - make marriage equality equal."

For the uninitiated, "MP" stands for "member of parliament."

Polls indicate a majority of Australians support same sex marriage.

NBC said last November, the national Senate rejected a national referendum on same-sex marriage. Both liberals and sympathetic conservatives said the vote would have been just a delaying tactic.

Parliament could just change the law and allow same sex marriage.

The Ben & Jerry's scoop protest won't have a huge impact: There are only 26 Bem & Jerry's outlets in the entire country of Australia.

Assault On Reporter By Republican Candidate Gianforte A Campaign Boost

Republican Greg Gianfonte, in a special Montana Congressional
election today, is accused of assaulting a reporter Wednesday
evening. Will that help or hurt him?

Everybody is talking about Republican Greg Gianforte today this morning.

He's up for a special Congressional election today against Democrat Rob Quist in a closely watched race.

Of course the reason all the talking today is going on is because Gianforte assaulted a reporter who fairly aggressively questioned him about the Republican repeal and replace of Obamacare, which would kick 23 million people off health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Yep, Gianforte is charged with misdemeanor assault for body slamming Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs the night before the election.

Many people rightly condemned the assault. Montana newspapers withdrew their endorsements of Gianforte. Many people are now hoping he loses the election, which had been tightening anyway due to revulsion over some Republican proposals.

If Gianforte loses, that would be something, as his Congressional district is normally reliably Republican.

Don't count on him losing, though.

There's a large subset of the worst of the Republican base who are thrilled that Gianforte punched a so-called obnoxious reporter, especially one from the left-leaning Guardian.

Gianforte's macho moves might lead hard-core Republicans to come out and vote for him in droves today.

After all, the Trump campaign and his administration has made literally bashing journalists - not just criticiziing them - a popular move among the Republican wacko caucus.

As CNN notes:

"Senior Huffington Post media reporter Michael Calderone pointed to the arrest earlier this month of a West Virginia reporter who shouted questios about health care reform at Health Secretary Tom Price and the manhandling by security gaurds of a Washington reporter at the Federal Communications Commisson headquarters."

All this led Modern Family Executive Produer Danny Zuker to tweet, "It's a sad fact that in this climate I have no idea if assaulting a reporter hurts Gianforte or helps him."

That is sad.

But people really are applauding the assault. Brent Bozell, the president of the conservative Media Research Center, tweeted, "Jacobs is an obnoxious, dishonest first classs jerk. I'm not surprised he got smacked."

If Jacobs is an obnoxious, dishonest first class jerk, does that justify assaulting him? To Bozell, the answer is yes.

Of course, Bozell might still have sour grapes because Jacobs broke a story about suspicious financial dealings by the Media Research Center.

Reports from Montana polling places this morning are not encouraging.  CNN National Correspondent Kyung Lah offered the following tweets from Montana this morning:

"MT GOP voter to me just now, knowing I work for @CNN. 'That audio made me cheer.' She smiled as she walked in to vote for Gianforte."

And:

"MT  GOP voter, upon learning we're from @CNN: 'You're lucky soeone doesn't pop one of you.'"

Sigh.

 By the way, Jacobs also got Gianforte pissed off in another respect

The assaulted reporter - Ben Jacobs - had previously broken a story about Gianforte's investments in Russian companies and we all know how controversial that type of thing is under the Trump administration.

It was telling that Gianforte's statement after the assault blamed Jacobs, saying he was a liberal reporter being aggressive. I guess that's grounds for body slamming, I guess.

Also, how can anyone run for office if they can't stand reporters asking tough questions and shoving tape recorders in their faces? That's what life is like for all politicians, liberal and conservative.

Today's election in Montana has turned into a referendum on which is better: Civility, or the natios continued decline into an acceptance of mob "justice" or the rule of law.

Car Split In Half In Crash, Driver Somehow Survives

This car was split in half lengthwise in a recent California
crash, but the woman driving it somehow only had minor injuries

The video at the bottom of this post is probably the scariest auto wreck I've seen.

The scene is the aftermath of a crash on Highway 101 in California in which an SUV driven by Kevin Fenty, 27, drifted across the highway into the opposite lane.  

In that opposite lane was Apol Lansang, 26, who was driving a Chevrolet Impala and was hit by Fenty's vehicle.

The crash tore Lansang's car in half lengthwise down the middle. Amazingly, she suffered just minor injuries and was treated and released at a nearby hospital, says the Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Fenty had more serious injuries but is expected to recover.

"The scene was, it was pretty intense.....It was definitely one of the most severely damaged cars I've ever seen," said CHP Sgt. Jason Bahlman.

In a follow-up interview with the Press Democrat, Lansang said when the crash was about to happen, she closed her eyes and hoped for the best.

When the crash subsided, she saw what appeared to be another car involved in the crash resting against an embankment. She later realized it was the passenger side half of her car.

Police said Lansang might not have survived had she not been wearing a seatbelt. Fenty had more serious injuries because he was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from his vehicle. He's been charged with DUI.

Here's the video:












“The scene was, it was pretty intense,” said Sgt. Jason Bahlman, who has been with the CHP for 16 years. “It was definitely one of the most severely damaged cars I’ve ever seen.”