Recommended Reading
from Bruce
DAHLIA LITHWICK and MARK JOSEPH STERN: Defenseless (Slate)
Trump desperately needs a crack legal team. But his lawyers are no match for Mueller, and no sane attorney would join them now.
Josh Marshall: Contingency Lawyer/Medieval Historian is Trump's New Lead Counsel (TPM)
Today we learned that Donald Trump's erstwhile lead Russia lawyer, John Dowd, was likely forced to step down rather [than] opting to pursue new opportunities in the law as originally claimed. So I got curious about Andrew J. Ekonomou, who is now apparently functioning as Trump's lead attorney since Dowd's departure.
Eddie Deezen: Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla: An All-Time Turkey (Neatorama)
According to comedian Dick Martin, at the time, because of Dean and Jerry's success, "Everyone (every comedy team) was doing a 'Martin and Lewis.' One guy would sing and the little guy would jump around."
Sian Cain: Sean Penn's debut novel - repellent and stupid on so many levels (The Guardian)
The Oscar-winning actor's first foray into fiction, Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, has met with derision online. But how bad can it be?
John Dugdale: "Colonel Sun: is Kingsley Amis's Bond novel the weirdest of all?" (The Guardian)
Fifty years ago, the literary giant wrote a James Bond novel under a pseudonym. With all the shoddy spies and friendly Soviets, it is staggeringly un-Fleming-like.
Sam Leith: Dead Men's Trousers by Irvine Welsh review - the Trainspotting gang party on (The Guardian)
Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud are back in this wildly farcical story of revenge, sentimentality and psychedelic drugs.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Team Coco
CONAN
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
A comment in a Wonktte article:
This morning my coworkers and I were trying to decide on a celebrity couple style name for the Trump/Stormy hookup (e.g., Brangelina, Bennifer, that stupid shit).
We settled on Stumpy.
Goes well with Colbert saying his nickname, in honor of Stormy taking the magazine to his uglyass tush is Spanky.
Oh, dear
Jefferson Butterbeans is on the cover of Time. Guess that means he's next to get the boot--how dare he get his face on the cover?!
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
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
'SMILE WHEN YOUR HEART IS BREAKING...'
THE REVOLVING DOOR IN THE OVAL OFFICE.
"PUTTING THE EX-CON IN CONSERVATISM."
MEXICO WILL PAY FOR THE WALL.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and pleasant.
The Onion, A.V. Club, Clickhole Unionized
Writers Guild of America
The editorial and video staffs at the Onion, A.V. Club and Clickhole have unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.
The guild announced Thursday that "an overwhelming majority" of the staff, comprised of about 100 employees, have signed union cards and called on management to voluntarily recognize the WGA East as the collective bargaining representative.
Onion Inc., which operates the satirical sites the Onion and Clickhole and the cultural site, is part of the Fusion Media Group. The WGA East currently represents editorial and video staffs at the Fusion owned Gizmodo Media Group, which includes sites Splinter News, the Root, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, Kotaku, io9, Jalopnik and Earther.
In 2011, comedy/variety writers for The Onion's satirical television news show, "Onion News Network," joined the WGA East. The show aired for two seasons on IFC.
The WGA East has been active in organizing digital news sites for the past three years and now reps about 1,000 members in that area, including Vice, HuffPost, the Intercept, Gizmodo Media Group (Splinter, Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, the Root, Lifehacker, Kotaku, io9, Jalopnik, Earther), ThinkProgress, MTV News, Thrillist, and Salon. In January, Vox Media agreed to recognize the guild as the collective bargaining representative of approximately 400 employees.
Writers Guild of America
Representing Reuters Reporters
Amal Clooney
Prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has joined the legal team representing two Reuters reporters jailed in Burma, who are accused of possessing secret government papers, her office said on Thursday.
A court in Yangon has been holding preliminary hearings since January to decide whether Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, will be charged under the colonial-era Officials Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
The journalists had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in western Burma's Rakhine stateduring an army crackdown that began in August, which has sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.
Lawyers for the two reporters on Wednesday asked the court to throw out the case, saying there was insufficient evidence to support charges against the pair in Burma, also known as Myanmar.
Government officials have previously denied the arrests represent an attack on press freedom, which rights advocates say is under growing threat in the Southeast Asian country.
Amal Clooney
Exotic Distant Galaxy
NGC1052-DF2
Astronomers have detected for the first time a galaxy that is devoid of dark matter, the plentiful but enigmatic material that does not emit light or energy and had been considered a fundamental part of all galaxies including our own Milky Way.
The discovery, announced on Wednesday, is forcing scientists to rethink their ideas about the formation of galaxies.
"We didn't expect that this could happen," said Yale University astronomer Pieter van Dokkum, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature.
Paradoxically, the discovery of a galaxy without dark matter may actually confirm that the stuff actually exists by contradicting hypotheses advanced by dark matter doubters.
Van Dokkum said the galaxy, called NGC1052-DF2 and located about 65 million light years away from Earth, also appears to be devoid of gas and is relatively sparsely populated by stars.
NGC1052-DF2
Two Pilots Report
UFO
Two pilots flying different aircraft above Arizona have reported close encounters with an unidentified flying object (UFO).
The sightings occurred within minutes of each other on Saturday near the US-Mexico border.
ABC News obtained an audio clip of a conversation between the two pilots and the Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Centre.
While around 37,000 feet above the ground, a pilot flying a small aircraft manufactured by Canadian firm Learjet asks the controller: "Was anybody above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?"
Minutes later, the controller contacts an American Airlines pilot flying an Airbus aircraft to look out for anything "passing over" in the next 15 miles.
UFO
It's Time To Leave Your 'Jerk Of A Husband'
Conservative Pundit
Conservative pundit and HLN host S.E. Cupp urged first lady Melania Trump on Tuesday to leave her husband for the humiliation she's had to endure as women come forward alleging they've had affairs with President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Small Hands).
The affairs, which the president denies, allegedly occurred when Melania was pregnant and after she gave birth to their son, Barron.
During her show, Cupp likened Melania's current situation to the one former Democratic presidential nominee and first lady Hillary Clintondealt with during the 1990s, when President Bill Clinton's alleged infidelities were making headlines.
"While feminists trotted [Hillary Clinton] out as a role model for strong women, all I saw was a woman who was humiliated time and again," Cupp said of Clinton's decision not to leave her husband.
"Melania may not have a political career to consider, but as first lady, she is an inherently important figure in American politics, and women are watching - particularly young women," Cupp continued. "Melania should do for this generation of girls what Hillary Clinton did not do for mine and leave her jerk of a husband."
Conservative Pundit
Republican Obstruction
Court Vacancies
In a rambling speech billed as a curtain raiser for his $1.5 trillion plan to rebuild the nation's crumbling infrastructure, President-for-now Trump veered off topic numerous times, at one point mocking his predecessor for leaving him a high number of court vacancies.
"You know when I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren't appointed," Trump told a small crowd Thursday at an Ohio factory. "I don't know why Obama left that. It was like a big beautiful present to all of us. Why the hell did he leave that? Maybe he got complacent."
Trump did indeed inherit 103 judicial vacancies from President Obama, though the explanation has nothing to do with complacency. When Republicans took control of the U.S. Senate in 2015, they made sure to bring the process of confirming judges appointed by Obama to a near halt.
As the Washington Post reported, 25 of Obama's court nominees had been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but were not given final Senate votes before the chamber broke for the holidays at the end of 2016.
This was part of a strategy concocted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to thwart Obama's agenda, which he also employed to keep a Supreme Court seat open. The nomination of Obama's choice, Merrick Garland, expired without a vote, and Trump got to appoint Neal Gorsuch instead.
Court Vacancies
Former Disney Channel Star
Caroline Sunshine
President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) TV star-run administration has hired former Disney Channel actress Caroline Sunshine as a White House press assistant.
Sunshine, 22, is best known for a role with Zendaya in the Disney series "Shake It Up," which followed the lives of teenage backup dancers during its run from 2010 to 2013.
Sunshine was named to the new job after a White House internship, which she landed through an application on the White House website, CNN reported.
"In college, she was involved with the American Enterprise Institute and an active member of her school's Model United Nations team," White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters told CNN. "Prior to her internship at the White House, Caroline interned for the Office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the College Republican National Committee and the California Republican Party."
Caroline Sunshine
'Street Fighter' With Ivy League Degree
Michael Avenatti
Michael Avenatti wants to be clear: He does not bluff.
A year ago, the attorney was in the closing days of a jury trial, facing off against a company he had accused of making faulty surgical gowns. When the other side questioned his plans to bring a plant manager in from Honduras to testify, Avenatti hopped on a plane to Central America to persuade the man to come to Los Angeles and take the stand.
"We did our homework. We did what we needed to do. We put him on on a Friday afternoon. And it was devastating to the defense," said Avenatti, who went on to win a $454 million jury judgment.
A take-no-prisoners litigator armed with sharp suits and a seemingly endless supply of trash talk, Avenatti is now using his signature mix of force and flash to go after President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) on behalf of porn actress Stormy Daniels. With a Trump-style media blitz, Avenatti has pursued the president relentlessly, taunting him in interviews, baiting him with tweets and putting him on notice with a motion to place him under oath and depose him.
Daring Trump to underestimate him, Avenatti, 47, says this case is a natural fit for a "dragon slayer" who has spent his career trying to help Davids fight Goliaths.
Michael Avenatti
Storing 300,000 Diesels Around U.S.
VW
Volkswagen has taken parking lots to a whole new level in the United States and will not be emptying them soon.
Volkswagen AG has paid more than $7.4 billion to buy back about 350,000 U.S. diesel vehicles through mid-February, a recent court filing shows. The German automaker has been storing hundreds of thousands of vehicles around the United States for months.
Volkswagen has 37 secure storage facilities around the United States housing nearly 300,000 vehicles, the filing from the program's independent administrator said. The lots include a shuttered suburban Detroit football stadium, a former Minnesota paper mill and a sun-bleached desert graveyard near Victorville, California.
VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said in a statement on Wednesday that the storage facility in Victorville, California, is one of many "to ensure the responsible storage of vehicles that are bought back under the terms of the Volkswagen" diesel settlements.
"These vehicles are being stored on an interim basis and routinely maintained in a manner to ensure their long-term operability and quality, so that they may be returned to commerce or exported once U.S. regulators approve appropriate emissions modifications," she said.
VW
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