Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Zach Beauchamp: Mueller's obstruction of justice case against Trump looks damning (VOX)
This should worry Trump even more than allegations of collusion.
Cameron Joseph: After Key California GOP Retirements, Dems Fret About Blowing A Golden Opportunity (TPM)
Democrats know from experience how problematic the top-two primary system can be. In 2012, then-Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar (D), a top Democratic recruit, split the Democratic vote with three other candidates in that year's primary, finishing behind then-Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) and a Republican state senator. He was boxed out of the general election as two Republicans squared off in a district that President Obama ended up winning by a 16-point margin, costing the party the seat until he won it in a second try in 2014.
Josh Marshall: Missouri Gov Admits Affair Amidst Claims of Sex Pic Blackmail (TPM)
Politicians are frequently able to weather scandals based on extra-marital affairs. But the allegation of blackmail makes the story considerably more serious and politically perilous.
Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson: The GOP is trying to pass a super-unpopular agenda - and that's a bad sign for democracy (Vox)
Political science (and common sense) says they ought to pay a price at the polls. They might not.
Andrew Tobias: "How They Get Away With It"
So how do [Republican politicians] get away with this? "One explanation, perhaps the most important, is that they have built a formidable electoral floodwall. To hold the House, for instance, it's generally estimated they can afford to lose the national popular vote in 2018 by 6 or 7 points."- from Vox article above. And the Senate? Well, Wyoming, Alaska, and the Dakotas, with 3 million people, have 8 votes in the Senate compared with just 2 for California, with 40 million. But in a wave election November 6, we can overcome all that. We just have to turn out.
Ben Yagoda: The Reviewer's Fallacy (Slate)
When critics aren't critical enough.
Xan Brooks: "Three Billboards director Martin McDonagh: 'Little girls don't have a Marlon Brando to emulate'" (The Guardian)
Oscars frontrunner Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri stars Frances McDormand as a mother seeking violent justice for the murder of her daughter. Its writer-director explains why McDormand's character is the foul-mouthed heroine we need, and addresses the controversy of the film's portrayal of race-relations.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Shipping
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
ROUTING OUT THE TRAITORS.
DOWN IN THE RABBIT HOLE.
WTF IS THIS JERK TRYING TO PULL?
TAKING NAMES.
CHA-CHING.
HOT ROAD!
"THE RESTLESS WIND"
NO SHIT 'DICK TRACY'.
IMPEACH HIM NOW!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
To Air Live After State Of The Union Address
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert's Late Show will broadcast live following President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Pendejo) State of the Union Address on Tuesday, January 30.
Tommy Victor, Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett, hosts of Pod Save America, as well as Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson of 2 Dope Queens, will join Colbert from the Ed Sullivan Theater. Chris Stapleton will be the night's musical guest.
Colbert's program last aired live about a year ago, when Trump delivered his address to the joint session of Congress not long after his inauguration, aka Virtual State Of The Union Address, on February 28, 2017.
Actress Lisa Kudrow and former White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest were Colbert's guests that night, which had marked the 15th time Late Show had been broadcast live, including his epic train-wreck Election Night special on Showtime in which Colbert and his showrunner forgot to map out plans for a Trump win, which became painfully clear about mid-broadcast.
To date those live broadcasts, which also happened during the political conventions, the nights of presidential and vice presidential debates, earned strong ratings and good reviews.
Stephen Colbert
Launches Global 'Apology Race' Tour
Samantha Bee
"Full Frontal" host Samantha Bee is sending her correspondents around the globe to apologize "for every garbage thing Donald Trump does."
"His poor impulse control might force us to go apologize to Korea, the entire Muslim world or some rando," Bee said in an "Amazing Race"-style parody promo clip for the "Apology Race" tour.
Ashley Nicole Black, Allana Harkin, Amy Hoggart and Mike Rubens will travel to "the far corners of the earth to say the two words that this administration will never have the guts to say: 'I'm sorry,'" per a statement released Tuesday.
Follow updates about the quartet's travels via the @FullFrontalSamB account on Twitter, and suggest who they should apologize to with the #ApologyRace hashtag.
Samantha Bee
Three-Year Deal With HBO
Ronan Farrow
Ronan Farrow has finalized a three-year deal with HBO, the network confirmed Thursday, to commence later this year. Farrow will develop and front a series of investigative documentary specials for HBO. He'll also produce topical pieces for HBO's other platforms.
The deal comes on the heels of Farrow's groundbreaking reporting for The New Yorker on now-disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein. He'll remain at the magazine.
Farrow detailed decades of sexual assault allegations against Weinstein in multiple pieces for The New Yorker magazine. He also penned an explosive examination of Weinstein's army of enablers, including lawyers, publicists, agents, gossip media toadies - and corporate investigative firms, which Weinstein employed to keep misconduct buried, although it what was an open secret in Hollywood.
Farrow's reporting transformed him into a hot commodity among media companies, though he has only ever had one less than successful TV gig on his résumé - an MSNBC show that lasted a year on the network. Since the show was canceled in early 2015, Farrow had been doing investigative pieces for NBC News, which mostly ran on the Today show.
It was during this time that he began looking into Weinstein. But ultimately, network executives declined to move forward with the story and allowed him to take his reporting to The New Yorker, where the first of multiple Weinstein stories was published on Oct. 10.
Ronan Farrow
Fragment Of Flag To Auction
Lord Horatio Nelson
A piece of the Union Jack flag believed to have been flown from British military leader Lord Horatio Nelson's ship during the Battle of Trafalgar is to be auctioned in London later this month.
The item is part of a collection of Nelson memorabilia that is up for sale, which includes weapons, his "grog chest" and personal letters. It features in a sale of Royal and aristocratic heirlooms being held by auction house Sotheby's.
The 86 cm by 92 cm flag fragment (34 inches by 36 inches), dubbed "The Victory Jack", has an estimated price of between 80,000 and 100,000 pounds. ($108,000-$135,000)
The last surviving complete Union Jack flag flown at the battle fetched 384,000 pounds in 2009, more than twenty times its estimated price.
The battle of Trafalgar was a naval clash that took place in 1805, and saw the British defeat a numerically superior French and Spanish fleet. Nelson was fatally wounded during the battle, which cemented his status as a national hero in Britain.
Lord Horatio Nelson
Secret Deals
Real Estate
Even after taking office, President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) has sold more than $35 million worth of real estate last year to secretive buyers.
Trump sold 41 luxury condo units in Las Vegas last year to people who used limited liability companies (LLCs), which allow them to hide their identities, a USA Todayreport found. The president can withdraw profits from these sales at any time using a trust that names him as the sole beneficiary but is managed by sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
Before Trump signed the GOP tax bill into law in December 2017, a last-minute tax break was added for real estate investors who use LLCs, partnerships and S corporations to make deals.
The number of buyers using LLCs to purchase property from Trump climbed even before the tax break was announced last year. A mere 4 percent of buyers used the secretive shell companies in the two years before Trump became the Republican nominee. A year later, the number dramatically increased to nearly 70 percent, according to USA Today.
Real Estate
'100 Percent Responsible'
USA Gymnastics
Aly Raisman just called out USA Gymnastics for victim-blaming the 120-plus women who have accused former team doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, the Olympic gold medalist wrote that USA Gymnastics is "100 percent responsible" for Nassar's rampant sexual abuse, and called for an investigation into the organization.
?@USAGym STOP VICTIM SHAMING," Raisman wrote. "Your statements are hurtful. If you did not believe that I & others were abused than why pressure & manipulate us? WE WERE MOLESTED BY A MONSTER U ENABLED 2 THRIVE FOR DECADES. You are 100% responsible. It was mandatory to get 'treatment' by Nassar."
Raisman seems to be referring to USA Gymnastics' most recent statement in which the organization responds to top-tier gymnast Maggie Nichols' new allegations that Nassar sexually abused her while treating a back injury. In the statement, USA Gymnastics denied that the organization covered up Nassar's abuse, and applauded Nichols for coming forward. But it says Nichols and a second athlete "did not provide reasonable suspicion that sexual abuse had occurred."
Raisman, along with Olympians Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney, have alleged that Nassar abused them for years under the guise of treatment.
USA Gymnastics
Grants Citizenship
Ecuador
Ecuador said Thursday it had granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity and usher him out of its London embassy without the threat of arrest by Britain.
Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said the 46-year-old Australian, who has been holed up at the embassy for five years to avoid arrest, became an Ecuadoran citizen on December 12.
She told a press conference in Quito that Ecuador had asked London to recognize Assange as a diplomat -- which would give him safe passage out of the embassy without fear of arrest -- but Britain had refused.
"The Ecuadoran government is empowered to grant nationality to the protected person and thus facilitate... his inclusion in the host state," Espinosa told reporters.
Ecuador's attempt to obtain diplomatic status for Assange comes as part of the country's broader efforts to resolve the case of their long-term lodger, who moved into the embassy in 2012 to avoid arrest over a Swedish probe into rape allegations.
Ecuador
Ban On Foreign Adoptions
Ethiopia
Ethiopian lawmakers have approved a ban on foreign adoptions amid concerns about mistreatment of children overseas.
The approval came after rare heated debate as some lawmakers worried that the East African nation does not have enough child care centers to handle the effects of the ban.
Ethiopia had been among the top 10 countries for adoptions in the United States, according to State Department figures released last year. Actress Angelina Jolie is among the people who have adopted a child from the country.
But the death in the U.S. in 2011 of an Ethiopia-born girl, with her adoptive mother convicted of homicide by abuse, led to an outcry back home, with Ethiopia that year reducing foreign adoptions by 90 percent.
Ethiopia's new National Child Policy says orphans should grow up only in their homeland while honoring their culture and traditions. "They should either be adopted locally or supported by a guardian family, tutor or help them to reunite with biological parents or relatives," it says.
Ethiopia
Authorities Demolish Church
China
Authorities in northern China's coal country this week demolished a well-known Christian mega-church, underscoring long-standing tensions between religious groups and the officially atheistic Communist Party.
Witnesses and overseas activists say paramilitary People's Armed Police forces used excavators and dynamite on Tuesday to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church in the city of Linfen in Shanxi province.
ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian advocacy group, said local authorities planted explosives in an underground worship hall to demolish the building, which was built with nearly $3 million in contributions from local worshippers in one of China's poorest regions.
The church, with a congregation of more than 50,000, has long clashed with the government. Hundreds of police and hired thugs smashed the church and seized Bibles in an earlier crackdown in 2009 that ended with church leaders receiving long prison sentences.
There are an estimated 60 million Christians in China, many of whom worship in independent congregations like the Golden Lampstand. Millions of Christians, Buddhists and Muslims also worship in state-sanctioned assemblies.
China
In Memory
Doreen Tracey
Doreen Tracey, one of the original Mouseketeers on the fabled kids' program The Mickey Mouse Club, has died. She was 74.
A kid with a vivacious personality, Tracey appeared on Disney's Mickey Mouse Club throughout its original 1955-59 run on ABC. The series then lived on for decades in syndication.
Tracey was born in London on April 3, 1943. Her parents, Bessie Hay and Sid Tracey, were Americans who had a vaudeville dance act known as Tracey & Hay.
When Tracey was 4, the family returned to the U.S., and her father opened a dance studio in Hollywood. It was there that Tracey learned to sing and dance, and she had an uncredited part in The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953), starring Betty Grable and Dale Robertson.
At age 12, Tracey auditioned for a job on The Mickey Mouse Club - she sang a Patti Page number called "Cross Over the Bridge" - and was hired.
While a Mouseketeer, Tracey also was cast in the Disney feature Westward Ho the Wagons! (1956), starring Fess Parker. She also appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club's Annette serial and on The Donna Reed Show and toured Australia with the Mouseketeers.
In the 1960s, Tracey visited American military bases in South Vietnam and Thailand with her own act. Later, she worked in promotions at Warner Bros. Records with acts including Frank Zappa, Tower of Power and The Doobie Brothers.
In the 1980s, '90s and 2000s, Tracey co-starred with former Mouseketeers in several Mickey Mouse Club reunion shows at Disneyland and at Disney conventions. She last celebrated the show's 60th anniversary in 2015.
Survivors include her son, Bradley, and grandchildren Gavin and Autumn.
Doreen Tracey
In Memory
'Fast Eddie' Clarke
Musician Eddie Allen Clarke, known as "Fast Eddie", has died after suffering from pneumonia. He was 67.
Clarke was the last surviving member of Motörhead's classic line-up, after Phil Taylor, known as "Philthy Animal Taylor", died in November 2015, six weeks before frontman Lemmy (born Ian Fraser Kilmister) passed away aged 70.
Clarke was the band's main guitarist, and his riffs feature on most of Motörhead's best-selling singles and albums. He joined the group in 1976 and played with the band throughout their hey-day, leaving in 1982 after he disagreed with Motörhead collaborating with the Plasmatics, and felt disappointment with the results of their Iron Fist album.
Clarke continued to pursue music, forming a second band, Fastway, with UFO bassist Pete Way. He continued to make music until his later years, both as a soloist and with other musicians. In 2014, he reunited with Lemmy to play Ace of Spades, one of Motörhead's best-known songs, in Birmingham.
'Fast Eddie' Clarke
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