Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Republicans Despise the Working Class (Continued) (NY Times Blog)
How did they manage to produce this political lemon? Josh Barro argues that Republicans have forgotten how to talk about tax cuts.
But I think it runs deeper: Republicans have developed a deep disdain for people who just work for a living, and this disdain shines through everything they do. This is true both on substance - the tax bill heavily favors owners over workers - and in the way they talk about it.
Gwilym Mumford: "The 50 top films of 2017 in the US: No 3 Get Out" (Guardian)
Jordan Peele's sleeper hit was a note-perfect dismantling of white American liberalism - but it was also chilling, hilarious and relentlessly entertaining.
Confederate Statues In Memphis Removed After City Sells Public Parks (TPM)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Crews removed two Confederate statues from Memphis parks after the city sold them to a private entity.
Leigh Blickley: "Keala Settle Makes Grand Entrance As The Bearded Lady In 'The Greatest Showman'" (Huffington Post)
The stage actress stands up for "rejects" in Hugh Jackman's latest passion project.
Bill Bradley and Matthew Jacobs: "Surprise, Surprise: The 'Alt-Right' Claims Credit For 'Last Jedi' Backlash" (Huffington Post)
An angry fanboy told HuffPost he used bots to flood Rotten Tomatoes with negative reviews of the new "Star Wars" movie.
Lee Moran: Someone Dubbed Trump's Horrible Speeches Over His Animatronic, And It's Terrifying (Huffington Post)
As if Walt Disney World's animatronic of President Donald Trump wasn't scary enough. On Tuesday, Twitter user @DustinGiebel dubbed audio of Trump's more controversial speeches over footage of the Florida theme park's newly unveiled talking robot.
Kimberly Yam: There's A Brutally Honest Twist To These 'Baby-Sitters Club' Covers Featuring Claudia Kishi (Huffington Post)
Where was "Claudia and the Model Minority Myth" when we were kids?
Amelia Abraham: "Fyre Festival: 'I paid $4,000 to go. It's fair game to make fun of me'" (The Guardian)
The luxury festival in the Bahamas promoted by Bella Hadid and Ja Rule was supposed to be heavenly. One blogger explains how it descended into hellish chaos that has prompted lawsuits - and his own podcast on the fiasco
Tom Danehy: Tom's Best of 2017: Wind River, Baby Driver and Killers of the Flower Moon (Tucson Weekly)
This year has been yucky in so many ways. From little things like the 90-degree weather on Thanksgiving to gigantic things like the resurgence of open racism sanctioned by the White House, it's just been a bad year. It looks like we're going to survive it, but we're Americans. We shouldn't have to survive anything. We should kick each and every year square in the butt and then say, "Bring on the next one." I even feel bad for real Republicans. If their ideas and policies are so great, they shouldn't have to hitch their wagons to a bully and a tyrant just to try to pass their agenda. We all deserve better.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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
THINGS GO BETTER WITH KOCH.
ROY MELTS DOWN!
NOT GUILTY.
GO TO HELL FAT BOY!
TEN "SCROOGES".
ARCTIC REPORT CARD. (pdf file)
WILL TRUMP DESTROY THE WORLD?
PARIS DELIVERS!
THE ORIGIN OF REPUBLICANS."
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny but on the brisk side.
Isn't Impressed With Government's UFO Evidence
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Earlier this week UFO hunters got some incredible news in the form of a New York Times report detailing a $22 million government program that sought to determine whether UFO sightings held any water. Just what government contractors were able to prove over the five years the program was active remains largely unknown, but the report claimed that the government has unidentified "alloys" that may or may not have come from an alien spacecraft.
If you dream of one day meeting a creature from another world this is some pretty exciting news, but leave it to world-famous astrophysicist and noted Pluto hater Neil deGrasse Tyson to spoil everyone's fun. In an interview with CNN, Tyson dishes the dirt on the so-called "alien" investigation and brings us all crashing back down to Earth.
Tyson's chat with CNN focuses largely on one specific video clip that was released earlier this week showing what appears to be an otherworldly craft caught on camera by US pilots. In the short video, the seasoned pilots struggle to explain what they are seeing, repeatedly asking each other what the craft could possibly be and how it could be moving in the peculiar way it was.
The popular scientist started his brief rant by tackling the term "UFO" at its roots. "It's a highly nonspecific term. It is so nonspecific, it admits that you don't know what you're looking at," Tyson explains. "So just because you don't know what it is you're looking at doesn't mean it's intelligent beings, aliens from another planet. You just said you didn't know what you're looking at."
Tyson goes on to note that he has never seen any real evidence that makes him think aliens have actually visited our planet, saying "Call me when you have a dinner invite from an alien."
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Declares "We're At War"
Tom Brokaw
Donald Trump this morning tweeted another love letter to Fox News Channel's morning show Fox and Friends, faux-asking "Was @foxandfriends just named the most influential show in news?"
On Wednesday, web site Mediaite had named the FNC morning show the Most Influential In News Media for 2017, topping a list that also included, in reverse order, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Matt Drudge, FNC star Sean Hannity, and CNN chief Jeff Zucker.
Mistaking Mediaite's "most influential" for "best," Trump crowed that the Trump News Network morning show hosts "deserve it" and that "the many Fake News Hate Shows should study your formula for success!"
Longtime NBC evening news anchor Tom Brokaw happened to be on MSNBC's Morning Joe when the tweet landed and got asked to weigh in:
"[Trump] watches [F&F] because it reinforces what he believes," Brokaw said. "Fox News…is on a jihad right now" against institutions of the government. "Newt Gingrigh looking into the camera and saying the FBI is a corrupt organization - three months earlier he'd said Bob Mueller is one of the great, distinguished public servants we have." "So, we're at war here," Brokaw said.
Tom Brokaw
Posters Were Revenge
Meryl Streep
A rightwing artist who believes that leftism is a "disorder" has claimed responsibility for a series of posters placed around LA that depict Meryl Streep and Harvey Weinstein with the message "She Knew" plastered across the Oscar winner's face.
The artist in question, a former US marine who goes by the name of Sabo, has said that the posters, which imply that Streep knew about Harvey Weinstein's legacy of sexual assault, are an act of revenge against Streep after her latest film, The Post, supposedly criticised the Donald Trump regime.
Around a dozen posters appeared across LA on Tuesday, including near Streep's house.
Sabo has been called an "alt-right" version of Banksy and claims that Republicans are the new punks.
Sabo said he did not know if Streep had in fact enabled Weinstein's alleged decades of abuse. "I wasn't sitting in a room with her. I can't say 100%. But I'd say anyone in the (film) industry had a pretty good idea. I think she knew. Maybe she was providing Weinstein with the fresh meat."
Meryl Streep
Top Seller At Auction
Balzac Manuscript
A manuscript of Balzac's novel "Ursule Mirouet" sold for 1.17 million euros ($1.38 million) at auction in Paris late Wednesday, as the world's biggest private collection of French literary texts went under the hammer.
The draft, one of only two in private hands of the 1841 story of a woman who survives a plot by provincial notables to deprive her of her inheritance, went for the highest price in the first sale of the vast collection amassed by the collapsed investment firm Aristophil.
The 130,000 manuscripts and historical documents that Aristophil had its investors sink their savings into are now being sold off by the authorities in 300 auctions over the next six years.
The other big price at the first sale was for a 15th-century illuminated copy of Roman author Quintus Curtius Rufus' first-century "Histories of Alexander the Great", which sold for 640,000 euros.
A love letter from Napoleon Bonaparte to his wife Josephine dating from 1796 also went for 280,000 euros, more than four times its estimate.
Balzac Manuscript
2 More Women Join Lawsuit
O'Really
Ousted Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's efforts to smear the many women who've accused him of sexual harassment is once againcoming back to bite him.
Two more women, former Fox Business Network host Rebecca Gomez Diamond and former "The O'Reilly Factor" producer Andrea Mackris, joined a defamation lawsuit against O'Reilly and Fox News on Wednesday that was filed earlier this month by Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, a former Fox producer. Bernstein is also suing for additional claims, including breach of contract.
Both Diamond and Mackris were named in a bombshell New York Times story in April as some of the women to whom O'Reilly personally paid settlements in order to end sexual harassment allegations they brought against him. Bernstein's complaints against O'Reilly did not allege sexual misconduct but rather "severe mistreatment and abuse" in front of colleagues.
Wednesday's expanded defamation complaint centers around comments on those earlier harassment complaints that O'Reilly and Fox News representatives gave to the Times and other outlets, including HuffPost, which the women say were false and defamatory.
"They are tired of being smeared with lies by a bully who thinks that his victims are afraid to answer to them," Nancy Erica Smith, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement. "They are standing up for the truth, joining the many voices of brave women who are no longer tolerating abuse or being silenced."
O'Really
Pro-Rape Official Blocked Abortion
Immigrant Teen Rape Victim
A Trump administration official blocked a detained immigrant teenager from leaving a shelter to receive an abortion even though she had been raped, arguing it would be curing "violence with further violence," according to documents unsealed as part of a lawsuit on Thursday.
Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Scott Lloyd, who has taken the unprecedented step of requiring a sign-off for any abortion of an immigrant teen in custody, wrote in an internal Dec. 17 memo that the 17-year-old girl had been raped in her home country, that the rape had resulted in pregnancy, and that she had threatened to harm herself if she was unable to have an abortion. He also wrote that she was 22 weeks pregnant at the time.
[W]e are being asked to participate in killing a human being in our care," he wrote. "I cannot direct the program to proceed in this manner. We cannot be a place of refuge while we are at the same time a place of violence. We have to choose, and we ought to choose protect life rather than to destroy it."
The document was the first to reveal that Lloyd has barred victims of rape from obtaining abortions, as he has done with other teens in government custody, and one of the clearest descriptions yet of how his ideology is shaping the agency's treatment of pregnant girls. The government previously refused to tell HuffPost whether it was barring rape victims from obtaining abortions.
Lloyd wrote in the memo that he was "mindful that abortion is offered by some as a solution to a rape," but did not see it that way and believed it was "perhaps likely" that allowing the teenager to receive an abortion would create "additional trauma on top of the trauma she experiences as a result of her sexual assault."
Immigrant Teen Rape Victim
Mormon Baptisms Draw Ire
Holocaust Victims
Mormons are posthumously baptizing Holocaust victims as well as grandparents of public figures like Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Steven Spielberg, despite church rules intended to restrict the ceremonies to a member's ancestors, according to a researcher who has spent two decades monitoring the church's massive genealogical database.
The discoveries made by former Mormon Helen Radkey and shared with The Associated Press likely will bring new scrutiny to a deeply misunderstood practice that has become a sensitive issue for the church. The church, in a statement, acknowledged the ceremonies violated its policy and said they would be invalidated, while also noting its created safeguards in recent years to improve compliance.
Proxy baptisms are tied to a core church teaching that families spend eternity together, but the baptisms do not automatically convert dead people to Mormonism. Under church teachings, the rituals provide the deceased a choice in the afterlife to accept or reject the offer of baptism.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only major religion that baptizes the dead, and the ritual has contributed to struggles by the faith to combat the mischaracterization of its beliefs.
The ceremonies first drew public attention in the 1990s when it was discovered they were performed on a few hundred thousand Holocaust victims, which Jewish leaders condemned as grossly insensitive.
Holocaust Victims
Climate Change Sea Wall
Ireland
Ireland on Thursday approved a the construction of a sea wall at the Trump International Golf Links Doonbeg, a golf course owned by the Trump organization owned by President-for-now Trump, Reuters reported Thursday. Environmental groups are concerned the wall could damage wildlife habitats.
Two sea barriers, 630 meters and 260 meters long have been approved, Clare County said in a statement, according to Reuters, which also reported local environmental groups had raised a number of objections to the plan.
Over a year ago, Mr. Trump applied for the permit to build a sea wall to prevent erosion. In May 2016, Politico reported that his application included an environmental impact statement that explicitly mentioned "global warming and its effects." The statement reportedly said that rising sea levels in the region could accelerate erosion.
President-for-now Trump used to call the evidence that humans are responsible for climate change a "hoax," and this year he announced that the U.S. would not comply with the Paris climate agreement. However, in June, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley told CBS News' "Face the Nation," "The president believes the climate is changing, and he does know that pollutants are a part of that equation."
Ireland
Least Popular First-Year President
T-rump
Donald Trump (R-Crooked) has the lowest approval rating of any post-war US President at the end of their first calendar year in office, a string of polls shows.
The Republican's favourability sank as low as 32 per cent in mid-to-late December, fully 10 points below Gerald Ford's rating at a similar date in 1974.
An AP/Norc poll returned the 32 per cent figure and also found a quarter of Republicans disapproved of the billionaire's performance.
CNN's polling had Mr Trump's overall approval rating at 35 per cent, as did Gallup's.
According to historical Gallup data both on the company's site and compiled by the University of Santa Barbara, Mr Trump's ratings are far below those of past presidents during their first December in the White House.
T-rump
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