Deconstructing Mooch-speak

We see that the new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has claimed his first high-profile victim. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus has been fired and replaced by the head of Homeland Security John Kelly. If you are keeping score at home, others who have departed within six months include the national security adviser Michael Flynn, deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh, press secretary Sean Spicer, and press aide Michael Short. The scale of this kind of turnover does not happen by chance. It happens because of rot at the very top.
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What the power handshake really suggests

Much attention has focused on Donald Trump’s use of the handshake as a means of assering dominance over the other person by putting people off balance and the way that foreign leaders have responded. Way back in 1998, in one of his stand up performances, Eddie Izzard explained what the person using that handshake wants to suggest and what it really signifies.
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Eddie Izzard on being transvestite and transgender

Eddie Izzard has long been my favorite stand up comedian. I think s/he is positively brilliant. I love the seemingly stream of consciousness patter, the mimicking of conversations, allusions to the Bible and history and popular culture, and the ability to find humor in the most mundane aspects of life. There are many clips from the live performances available on YouTube (many of which I have linked to in the past) but if you can get hold of the full performances that are available on DVD, they are well worth it.
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The background to Susanna Reid’s epic put down of Smarmy Piers Morgan

Pretty much everyone must have seen the clip of the way that Smarmy Piers Morgan (I believe that is his full name) was hilariously put down by his TV co-host Susanna Reid, and the expression on his face as it slowly dawned on him that he was having his own words turned on him by his co-presenters. The clip has been rocketing around on Twitter and blogs, a sure sign of how everyone hates Morgan and are delighted at the opportunity to laugh at him. But there is some background to it.
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