Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ben Mathis-Lilley: Rule Used to Silence Warren Was Created to Protect Delicate Feelings of Senate's Foremost Lynching Advocate (Slate)
The rule was created, in other words, to protect senators like Ben Tillman from hearing mean things that would make them so mad they had to punch someone. And Ben Tillman, as it happens, is perhaps the most notorious proponent of racial terrorism in the history of the United States. Here are just a few of the things Tillman said during his horrific political career: …
Jonathan Jones: How can Obama smile at a time like this? I think he knows something (The Guardian)
Trump has a stay-at-home electorate of reality tv fans. It is the left who are on the streets. It is his enemies who have the youth, anger and numbers. Obama is smiling because he knows this is going to be the most ineffectual dictatorship ever - and soon we won't be worrying about Trump. We will be deriding his incompetence.
Rob Davies: Spinal Tap creators aim to 'go to 11' with $400m lawsuit (The Guardian)
The complaint alleges that between 1989 and 2006, Vivendi reported that the total income from soundtrack music sales was just $98. It also claims that Vivendi reported that the four creators' share of total worldwide merchandising income between 1984 and 2006 was $81, despite music and merchandise linked to the film racking up "tens of millions of dollars" in revenue.
Kristen Salaky: Spicer: Nordstrom Dropping Ivanka Trump's Line Is 'Direct Attack' On Prez (TPM)
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday that Nordstrom's decision to stop carrying Ivanka Trump's clothing and accessories line is an attack on the president's policies and his daughter. Spicer told reporters during his daily press briefing that the decision -- which Nordstrom said was a result of poor sales, not politics -- was because of the clothing company's displeasure with President Donald Trump's executive orders and his policies.
S.V. Date: Leaks Suggest Trump's Own Team Is Alarmed By His Conduct (Huffington Post)
President Donald Trump was confused about the dollar: Was it a strong one that's good for the economy? Or a weak one? So he made a call ? except not to any of the business leaders Trump brought into his administration or even to an old friend from his days in real estate. Instead, he called his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, according to two sources familiar with Flynn's accounts of the incident.
KYLE DROPP and BRENDAN NYHAN: One-Third Don't Know Obamacare and Affordable Care Act Are the Same (NY Times)
Despite this widespread confusion, Republicans in Congress have recently started to edge away from A.C.A. repeal as the politics of the issue have become more difficult. What would happen if people understood the law better?
Jaime Hopkins: Trump Signs Memorandum Shelving Fiduciary Standard For Financial Advisors (Forbes)
Simply put, the DOL fiduciary rule was designed to make sure that, if you hired a financial advisor to help with your retirement planning and assets, the financial advisor acted in your best interest, avoided conflicts of interest when possible, and was transparent with you about his or her compensation and fees.
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"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
replied:
answered:
took the day off.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Valentine's Day Gift Baskets
David
Thanks, Dave!
Reader Comment
Doing what they can...
Hey, Marty!
It's so good to have you back...we missed you greatly! Thank God we have
you to find all the funny/fascinating stuff that you do each day, otherwise, it's a
long boring search! I bet it was nice for you to have a little time away, though,
huh?
Meanwhile, I just heard on the SD news that now our state's Cheyenne River Sioux
Tribe has filed a petition to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, citing danger to the
waters of the Missouri/Lake Oahe, in an attempt to block/slow down the completion of
the pipeline. The pipeline now, as you all probably know, is scheduled to be done
within appox. 3 mo., so I'm glad our members down here have stepped up to help and
are doing what they can. I'm pretty close to the Missouri...I'd hate to see it
defiled by crude oil! Anyway, here's the story:
Tribe files legal challenge to stall Dakota Access pipeline | News OK
The world is better with you here each day!!
Your faithful reader,
Tiera H.
Thanks, Tiera!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
drums of war
Sinclair broadcasting has started a new segment on their stations to beat the drums of war, it is a daily segment of fearmongering stories to keep everyone panicked
Sinclair group is a big tRump supporter, they regularly run editorials that are pro right wing / anti Democratic
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
BAD JOKES AND STUPID!
FACTS? FACTS? I DON'T NEED NO STINKING FACTS!
LET THERE BE LIES!
NO! STOPPING FASCISM!
DUMP TRUMP!
FIGHTING BACK FOR OUR SCHOOLS.
"TRUMPERTANTRUM"
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal, but more rain on the way.
Blondie & Garbage Announce
Rage and Rapture Tour
Blondie and Garbage plan to hit the road on a co-headlining tour this summer with more than 20 dates around the U.S. in July and August. John Doe & Exene Cervenka will open the first half of the tour; Deap Vally will serve as the supporting act on the second leg.
This tour will allow Blondie to test their new material on the road: the band will release their 11th studio LP, Pollinator, on May 5th. In a statement about the new record, lead singer Debbie Harry emphasized that it will be an enjoyable affair. "We're very serious about fun," she said. "Quoting Emma Goldman, 'If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution,'" added guitarist Chris Stein, reiterating her point. "In these trying times we need some fun." The band collaborated with a wide variety of songwriters from pop (Sia, Charli XCX) and rock (The Strokes' Nick Valensi, former Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr) on the new material.
Garbage also has recently released songs to perform; the band put out Strange Little Birds last year. In addition, Garbage will release an autobiographical coffee table book, This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake, this summer.
Tickets for the Rage and Rapture tour go on sale Friday, February 17th at 10 a.m. A pre-sale is available for many shows through Ticketmaster using the password RAGEANDRAPTURE.
Blondie & Garbage Tour Dates - Rage and Rapture Tour
Obama Photographer Taunts T-rump On Instagram
Pete Souza
For Pete Souza, who served as the chief White House photographer during former President Barack Obama's eight years in office, every day is throwback Thursday - and, increasingly, an opportunity to slam President Trump (R-Pendejo).
Since Trump's inauguration, Souza has been posting vintage images from Obama's two terms on Instagram while subtly throwing barbs at the new commander in chief.
Last month, amid Trump's war of words with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto over the president's vow that Mexico will pay for his proposed wall along the U.S. southern border, Souza posted a photo of then-President Obama sampling tequila with Peña Nieto in 2013.
Last week, after reports surfaced that Trump abruptly ended a tense phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Souza shared an image of a smiling Obama talking with Turnbull and former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos in September.
Souza then gave a direct shout-out to Bruce Springsteen, who apologized for Trump on behalf of America during a concert in Melbourne.
Pete Souza
Former Alabama Governor Back Home
Don Siegelman
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman was released from a federal prison in Louisiana and arrived home Wednesday after serving a six-year sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice.
Siegelman grinned widely and waved to a small group of cheering supporters and relatives as he walked through the Birmingham airport after landing on a commercial flight.
Siegelman is still technically in federal custody and can't talk to the media; his daughter put her hand over his mouth when he appeared about to speak with reporters.
Siegelman, 70, must report to a federal probation office and is expected to go to his home in suburban Birmingham to serve the remainder of his sentence on house arrest, longtime aide Chip Hill said.
Don Siegelman
Archaeologists Discover New Cave
Dead Sea Scrolls
Archaeologists have uncovered a new cave that once housed Dead Sea Scrolls, in a discovery described as one of the "most important" in 60 years.
The Hebrew University in Jerusalem said the scrolls were missing from the cave, though, but hopes to find others.
The cave discovered west of Qumran in the occupied West Bank contained no manuscripts, but there is ample evidence of their earlier presence.
Many of the caves containing the manuscripts were looted in the 1950s.
Heads of pickaxes dating from that time were found in the cave in another indication they had been looted, a Hebrew University statement said.
Dead Sea Scrolls
Cleaner Robot Pulled Due To Radiation
Fukushima
A remote-controlled cleaning robot sent into a damaged reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant had to be removed Thursday before it completed its work because of camera problems most likely caused by high radiation levels.
It was the first time a robot has entered the chamber inside the Unit 2 reactor since a March 2011 earthquake and tsunami critically damaged the Fukushima Da-ichi nuclear plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it was trying to inspect and clean a passage before another robot does a fuller examination to assess damage to the structure and its fuel. The second robot, known as the "scorpion," will also measure radiation and temperatures.
Thursday's problem underscores the challenges in decommissioning the wrecked nuclear plant. Inadequate cleaning, high radiation and structural damage could limit subsequent probes, and may require more radiation-resistant cameras and other equipment, TEPCO spokesman Takahiro Kimoto said.
During Thursday's cleaning mission, the robot went only part way into a space under the core that TEPCO wants to inspect closely. It crawled down the passage while peeling debris with a scraper and using water spray to blow some debris away. The dark brown deposits grew thicker and harder to remove as the robot went further.
Fukushima
To Be Shielded By Glass Security Walls
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower, the symbol of Paris, will soon be protected by bulletproof glass walls 2.5 metres (eight feet) high, part of a plan to prevent attacks at the monument, the city said Thursday.
The walls costing some 20 million euros ($21.4 million) will be erected this autumn at the northern and southern ends of the monument area, city hall said in a statement.
On the western and eastern sides, "inelegant temporary" barriers that were thrown up around the 324-metre (1,063-foot) tower during the Euro 2016 football tournament in France last year will be replaced by ornate fencing.
The glass walls will prevent individuals or vehicles storming the site visited by six million people each year, he added.
Eiffel Tower
House Committee Eliminates Voting Commission
EAC
Despite President Donald Trump's (R-Fabulist) continued insistence that the 2016 Presidential election was rife with fraud, the House Administration Committee voted to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an agency formed specifically to ensure the integrity of elections.
The vote came along party lines, with the six Republican members of the Congressional committee voting in favor of terminating the commission. The decision will shift the duties of the EAC to the Federal Election Commission.
The three Democrats on the committee opposed the decision. Congressman Robert Bradyof Pennsylvania offered an amendment to reform the EAC while funding it through 2022, but the amendment was denied.
The proposal to do away with the commission committed to ensuring election integrity was opposed by 38 different organizations including the League of Women Voters, NAACP and Voting Rights Institute.
The EAC was first established in 2002 following the 2000 Presidential election that was plagued with problems. The commission's mission was to upgrade voting technology and provide vital information to federal and state officials regarding elections.
EAC
Numbers Drop By 27 Percent In Mexico
Monarch Butterfly
The number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped by 27 percent this year, reversing last year's recovery from historically low numbers, according to a study by government and independent experts released Thursday.
The experts say the decline could be due to late winter storms last year that blew down more than 100 acres (40 hectares) of forests where migrating monarch butterflies spend the winter in central Mexico.
Millions of monarchs make the 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) migration from the United States and Canada each year, and they cluster tightly in the pine and fir forests west of Mexico City. They are counted not by individuals, but by the area they cover.
Officials estimate the storms in March killed about 6.2 million butterflies, almost 7.4 percent of the estimated 84 million that wintered in Mexico, said Alejandro Del Mazo, Mexico's commissioner for protected areas. The monarchs were preparing to fly back to the U.S. and Canada at the time the storm hit.
The combination of rain, cold and high winds from the storms caused the loss of 133 acres (54 hectares) of pine and fir trees in the mountaintop wintering grounds, more than four times the amount lost to illegal logging. It was the biggest storm-related loss since the winter of 2009-10, when unusually heavy rainstorms and mudslides caused the destruction of 262 acres (106 hectares) of trees.
Monarch Butterfly
Listing As Endangered Delayed
Bumblebees
The Trump administration on Thursday delayed what would be the first endangered designation for a bee species in the continental U.S., one day before it was to take effect.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted a rule Jan. 11 extending federal protection to the rusty patched bumblebee, one of many types of bees that play a vital role in pollinating crops and wild plants. It once was common across the East Coast and much of the Midwest but its numbers have plummeted since the late 1990s.
Federal law requires a 30-day waiting period before most new regulations become effective. The addition of the bumblebee to the endangered species list was scheduled for Friday. The listing would require the service to develop a plan for helping the bee recover and provide more habitat.
But in a Federal Register notice, the service announced a postponement until March 21 in keeping with a Trump administration order issued Jan. 20. It imposed a 60-day freeze on regulations that had been published in the register but hadn't taken effect. The delay, according to the White House, was for the purpose of "reviewing questions of fact, law and policy they raise."
With President Donald Trump (R-Crooked) pledging to cut back on federal regulations, environmentalists said they feared the bumblebee protection might be doomed.
Bumblebees
Bans 'Unreliable' Daily Mail As Source
Wikipedia
Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the use of articles from British tabloid The Daily Mail and its globally popular website as sources, calling them "unreliable", according to a statement.
English-language editors of the online encyclopaedia cited the newspaper's "reputation for poor fact-checking, sensationalism, and flat-out fabrication", said the statement posted on Wikipedia Wednesday.
From now on, it said "the Daily Mail will generally not be referenced as a 'reliable source' on English Wikipedia, and volunteer editors are encouraged to change existing citations to the Daily Mail to another source deemed reliable by the community".
The National Enquirer, a US tabloid, is the only news publication that "should never be used", according to editors' guidelines.
Content on Wikipedia is written and edited by a global network of volunteers who must base their articles on "reliable, third-party, published sources with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy".
Wikipedia
Told To Stop Claiming It Has 'Fastest Internet'
Comcast
Who has the fastest internet? It's hard to say. It's even harder for Comcast to say, thanks to a ruling from the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) that asks the internet service provider to stop claiming it has "fastest internet."
The recommendation provided by the NARB, a division of the advertising industry's system of self-regulation body administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, comes after Verizon challenged the language Comcast has used to promote its internet service.
In advertisements, Comcast has made numerous claims boasting about how its Xfinity service outpaces other ISPs. "Xfinity from Comcast delivers America's fastest Internet according to 60 million consumer tests run at Speedtest.net," one ad stated. Another said, "Xfinity Internet delivers the fastest in-home Wi-Fi," though provided no qualification to back the claim.
The NARB noted it wasn't necessarily fair to draw a direct comparison between the services because the companies offer various tiers of service that achieve different speeds. It also suggested that Comcast's claims of being the "fastest" internet service required context that the company wasn't providing.
For example, while Speedtest.net has declared Xfinity the fastest ISP according to its overall testing, data from Ookla-the proprietor of Speedtest.net-also showed that the top 10 percent of Verizon FiOS consumers had higher upload speeds than the top 10 percent of Xfinity consumers.
Comcast
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