Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Tom comes to the sad realization that some folks are going to stand by President Trump, no matter what (Tucson Weekly)
Originally, this column was going to include a list of infractions that would be serious enough to cause the aforementioned voters to finally say, "That's it! I'm out!" But apparently, no such infraction-real or imagined-exists. I went around and asked several people whom I know to have voted for Trump what would be the straw that broke the camel's back for them. I promised them anonymity and still got zilch for an answer. A fairly big shot in the Republican Party told me that Trump is a flawed person, but so are all great leaders. Yes, he said "Great leaders." And I don't think he's a day drinker.
Helaine Olen: The crisis in journalism that's helping Trump (Washington Post)
Did the collapse of local journalism help give us Donald Trump?
Helaine Olen: Want to tackle Facebook? Stop mindlessly celebrating business success. (Washington Post)
Warren Buffett is not portrayed as the ruthless businessman that he is, maintaining ownership of a mobile home empire that saddles desperate, would-be poverty-stricken homeowners with onerous mortgages. Instead he's a folksy elderly guy with pithy sayings about business and investments who, despite his billions, still lives in the same home he bought in Omaha in 1958.
Zoe Williams: What's the best way to get written out of history? Be a middle-aged woman (The Guardian)
The omission of Mo Mowlam from a lineup of the architects of the Good Friday agreement shows how older women are forgotten - even ones who changed the world.
Sarah Boseley: What is Britain eating? The ultra-processed truth about 10 of our bestselling foods (The Guardian)
From Cherry Bakewells to Fray Bentos pies, do we really understand the cocktail of ingredients in our favourite brands? Nutritionists assess them - and just what they might mean for our health.
Damon Wise: Netflix v Cannes: what the film festival feud means for the future of cinema (The Guardian)
Cannes will announce its 2018 lineup shortly, but new films by Netflix are likely to be notable for their absence. It's a conflict that could have major ramifications for the industry.
Graeme Virtue: Why smart horror is putting the fear into sequel-addicted Hollywood (The Guardian)
While the industry hedges its bets on reboots and expanded universes, subversive scare flicks such as A Quiet Place and Get Out are making low-budget risk-taking pay.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda (& Stuart)!
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
THE BEST FAKE NEWS IN THE COUNTRY!
HUMANS HAVE A VERY SHORT MEMORY.
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
"BE A MAN!"
THE RIGHTWING HATES TEACHERS!
PRESIDENT FOREST FIRE!
"PRUNE WHIP" THE THIEF.
"THE MORE HE WHISPERS…"
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Extra windy.
Show for Netflix
'SCTV'
The comedic icons behind the long-running Canadian sketch comedy series "Second City Television (SCTV)" are getting back together. Netflix has announced that the "SCTV" cast will be filming a reunion special for the streaming platform. The show will be directed by none other than Martin Scrosese.
"SCTV" ran between 1976 and 1984 and is famous for launching the careers of John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catharine O'Hara, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, and Harold Ramis, among other comedians. The series began as an offshoot of Toronto's Second City comedy troupe and launched just a year after "Saturday Night Live."
Netflix confirms Scorsese's special will "explore the enduring legacy" of the series and feature a sit-down down interview with former cast members Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Levy, Martin, O'Hara, and Short. The interview will be moderated by Jimmy Kimmel and filmed Sunday, May 13 at Toronto's Elgin Theatre at an event tiled "An Afternoon With SCTV." Martin previously teased the reunion special last year.
"The thing about 'SCTV' is we did it in a vacuum, so we weren't aware that it had any impact until many years afterwards," Martin told the Los Angeles Times. "That generation of brilliant comedians, there are so many fans - Judd Apatow, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Hader. It's been 40 years since it's been on the air. We're in the process of talking about a reunion show. And Martin Scorsese has talked to us about directing it."
'SCTV'
Potential Revival
Mad About You
Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt have both closed deals to return for a potential revival of Mad About You, which producers started developing late last year.
This reboot would bring back New York married couple Paul and Jamie Buchman as they prepare to become empty nesters, by sending their teenage daughter Mabel off to university.
Reiser was the first to express interest in bringing back the show, telling People recently: "If we can find the story to tell, and anybody's interested, I'd be open to it."
Entertainment Weekly reports that there is no network yet attached to the Mad About You. NBC would seemingly be the most likely option, since it originally airedMad About You as part of its Must See TV block with Friends and Seinfeld in the '90s.
Mad About You would certainly fit NBC's growing interest in bringing back its classic comedies. The Peacock Network recently ordered a second and third season of its highly-rated Will & Grace revival.
Mad About You
Totally Bogus Doomsday Predicted
April 23
Call it the recycled doomsday: A new prediction for the end of the world sets the apocalypse date as Monday, April 23, based on a mishmash of old numerology, re-readings of the biblical Book of Revelation and rehashed conspiracy theories about a rogue "Planet X."
Even the calendar date of the prediction, April 23, hearkens back to one of the most famous failed apocalypse predictors of all time, William Miller. A Baptist preacher whose followers would eventually form the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Miller predicted multiple doomsday dates in the mid-1800s, including one on April 23, 1843. He was most famous for a later prediction of Oct. 22, 1844, a date that would live on in infamy as "The Great Disappointment" when Jesus Christ did not appear to kick off the end of the world.
The latest doomsday predictor with a slippery grasp on dates is David Meade, who previously claimed that a rare alignment of stars on Sept. 23, 2017, heralded the end. Meade said that the star alignment would precede the passage by Earth of a rogue planet called Planet X, which would cause all sorts of geological trials and tribulations, culminating in the eventual return of Jesus per the Book of Revelation.
Meade's new prediction is more of the same. According to an interview with the Express tabloid, Meade has now pegged April 23, 2018, as the new apocalypse start date. The reason, he said, is that on that date, the sun, moon and Jupiter will align in the constellation of Virgo, echoing Revelation 12:1-2, which refers to a "woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head" laboring to give birth to an eventual global dictator with a role to play in the end of the world.
This same passage was Meade's basis for predicting Sept. 23, 2017, as the start of the apocalypse, though in that case, he fixated on an alignment of the sun in Virgo with nine stars and the planets Mercury, Venus and Mars.
April 23
Increasing Fees
National Parks
The Interior Department is increasing fees at the most popular national parks to $35 per vehicle, backing down from an earlier plan that would have forced visitors to pay $70 per vehicle to visit the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and other iconic parks.
A plan announced Thursday would boost fees at 17 popular parks by $5, up from the current $30 but far below the figure Interior proposed last fall.
The plan by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke drew widespread opposition from lawmakers and governors of both parties, who said the higher fees could exclude many Americans from enjoying national parks. The agency received more than 109,000 comments on the plan, most of them opposed.
The $35 fee applies mostly in the West and will affect such popular parks as Yellowstone, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain and Grand Teton parks, among others.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the fee hikes were needed to help maintain the parks and begin to address an $11.6 billion maintenance backlog.
National Parks
Lawsuit
US
The Trump administration is illegally detaining and trying to deport immigrants pursuing lawful immigration status who are married to U.S. citizens, according to a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.
The lawsuit, filed late Tuesday, says the administration is targeting people for deportation who are following established rules for becoming lawful permanent residents based on their marriages to American citizens.
Among the people named in the complaint is Lilian Calderon, a Guatemalan living in Rhode Island, who was detained for a month after she appeared for a routine interview at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to discuss her marriage.
"It's not fair what's happening to us," the mother of two said Wednesday. "We're just trying to following a process that was implemented."
A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
US
Report Attacked
NYT
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) bashed The New York Times once again Thursday, claiming a report that suggested he sought to fire special counsel Robert Mueller in December was "fake news."
Trump tweeted that he "would have fired" Mueller, the head of a federal probe into whether Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia, in December had he wanted to do so.
Trump's insistence that he has the power to remove Mueller is at stark odds with many legal experts who say Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is the only person who can directly fire Mueller.
According to a Department of Justice regulation: The Special Counsel may be disciplined or removed from office only by the personal action of the Attorney General. The Attorney General may remove a Special Counsel for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies. The Attorney General shall inform the Special Counsel in writing of the specific reason for his or her removal.
Since Attorney General Jeff Sessionshas recused himself from the Russia probe, the next person in line to hold such power would be Rosenstein.
NYT
Gift From The GOP
LyinComey.com
President-for-now Trump is the little push that sent an already-deteriorating Republican Party plunging into full-blown madness. There are signs of this every day, from the congressman who runs away from reporters at the Capitol yelling, "Fake News!" to the activities of International Man of Stupidity Devin Nunes.
But Thursday brought a true milestone in the party's descent into lunacy, as CNN revealed Trump's allies have drawn up "battle plans" ahead of the release of former FBI Director James Comey's book next week. Part of that plan is a website, "LyinComey.com," established in an effort to discredit him.
That's right: This plan to drag the former FBI director's name through the mud with schoolyard insults will be overseen not by Nunes or some other fringe Trump toady, but by the Republican National Committee-the party's central apparatus. This quintessentially Trumpian strategy has the express approval of the Party Establishment, because the party is Trump. There is nothing else. In fact, the RNC seems downright giddy about the whole thing.
Just to recap: Comey is a Republican who was appointed deputy attorney general by resident George W. Bush.
Comey is the former FBI director because Trump fired him amid an FBI investigation into ties between Russian officials and Trump associates.
LyinComey.com
Spiked the Story
National Enquirer
Eight months before the company that owns the National Enquirer paid $150,000 to a former Playboy Playmate who claimed she'd had an affair with Donald Trump, the tabloid's parent made a $30,000 payment to a less famous individual: a former doorman at one of the real estate mogul's New York City buildings.
As it did with the ex-Playmate, the Enquirer signed the ex-doorman to a contract that effectively prevented him from going public with a juicy tale that might hurt Trump's campaign for president.
The payout to the former Playmate, Karen McDougal, stayed a secret until the Wall Street Journal published a story about it days before Election Day. Since then curiosity about that deal has spawned intense media coverage and, this week, helped prompt the FBI to raid the hotel room and offices of Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The story of the ex-doorman, Dino Sajudin, hasn't been told until now.
The Associated Press confirmed the details of the Enquirer's payment through a review of a confidential contract and interviews with dozens of current and former employees of the Enquirer and its parent company, American Media Inc. Sajudin got $30,000 in exchange for signing over the rights, "in perpetuity," to a rumor he'd heard about Trump's sex life - that the president had fathered an illegitimate child with an employee at Trump World Tower, a skyscraper he owns near the United Nations. The contract subjected Sajudin to a $1 million penalty if he disclosed either the rumor or the terms of the deal to anyone.
National Enquirer
Condo Prices
New York
For Todd Brassner, an art dealer who died in a fire that ripped through his Trump Tower apartment last weekend, the New York high-rise he lived in for two decades became unbearable after Donald Trump announced he was running for president.
Brassner's experience trying to sell his 50th-floor condominium in the building that is both President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) gilded New York home and headquarters of his business empire is emblematic of how a high-rise that once defined luxury has lost its luster.
Brassner, who paid $525,000 for the home in 1996, according to property deeds, failed to find a buyer willing to come close to the $2.5 million value put on the condo in his 2015 personal bankruptcy filing.
Since 2015, prices at Trump Tower have dropped 30 percent per square foot compared with an 8 percent fall in comparable properties on Manhattan's Midtown East Side, according to New York real estate site CityRealty.com.
Guests arriving at Trump Tower now face airport-style security screening by the Secret Service. Brassner complained of waiting for hours to get into the building when Trump was in town.
New York
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