Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Tobias: Hurrah for Disney
You often hear from Republicans about their doubling of the standard deduction, to $24,000 for joint filers. Have you ever heard them mention eliminating the $4,050-per-person exemption? Yes, a family with three kids sees its standard deduction jump by $12,000 - oh happy day! And gain $3,000 from the doubling of the child tax credit. But they also lose $20,250 in personal exemptions. So once you do all the math, it may not be quite the bonanza for middle America that the Trump family will see (for example). Or the Wilbur Ross or Gary Cohn families. Or the Steve Mnuchin family or the Carl Icahn family. And us not forget the Kochs and Mercers, Betsy DeVos, and the delightful Sheldon Adelson.
Stuart Jeffries: "Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein and all: have we reached 'peak asshole'?" (The Guardian)
From the US president firing dimwitted tweets at Kim Jong-un, to Hollywood moguls and actors exposed as sexual predators, and the oafish Boris Johnson blundering onwards: 2017 has been the year of the asshole. And the signs are that 2018 could be just as bad.
The Ten Best Films of 2017 (BBC)
From The Florida Project to Paddington 2, BBC Culture film critic Nicholas Barber chooses his favourite movies of the year.
Josh Marshall: Dylan and the Cross (TPM)
I've always thought what's known as Dylan's 'Christian period' is the most underrated period of his career, though many see it as a black hole or an embarrassing digression.
Dot Wordsworth: After many centuries, the triumph of 'hi' is complete (Spectator)
It was first recorded in the 15th century, but now nearly every email starts this way.
Felicity Cloake: 'If it looks better than it tastes, step away' - 2017's dumbest food trends (The Guardian)
Last year's avo toast was only a precursor to 2017's parade of culinary weirdness - with plates filled with cloud eggs, Yorkshire pudding wraps and a side of unicorn sprinkle.
Zoe Williams: Everything is awesome (ish)! Ten reasons why 2017 was actually brilliant (The Guardian)
Good news for people who like good news - here are 10 events from the year that suggest it wasn't quite the dystopian hellscape we feared.
Black Women Got Swag After Leaving Alabama Voting Booths
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
15 people who look like people in old paintings!
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
DOOMED?
"HIS MOTHER WOULD BE HORRIFIED."
OOPS!
'YAWN-NOPOULOS.'
ROY (NO) MOORE.
IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE.
'PEAK ASSHOLE'?
READ A BOOK.
TRUMPS MOUSE NEEDS A REST.
THE YEAR IN REVIEW.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Road Trip Monday!
Laws Collide
California
California legalizes marijuana for recreational use Monday, but that won't stop federal agents from seizing the drug - even in tiny amounts - on busy freeways and backcountry highways.
Marijuana possession still will be prohibited at eight Border Patrol checkpoints in California, a reminder that state and federal laws collide when it comes to pot. The U.S. government classifies marijuana as a controlled substance, like heroin and LSD.
"Prior to Jan. 1, it's going to be the same after Jan. 1, because nothing changed on our end," said Ryan Yamasaki, an assistant chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector. "If you're a federal law enforcement agency, you uphold federal laws."
The checkpoints, located up to 100 miles (161 kilometers) from Mexico, are considered a final line of defense against immigrants who elude agents at the border. They also have been a trap for U.S. citizens carrying drugs, even tiny bags of marijuana.
About 40 percent of pot seizures at Border Patrol checkpoints from fiscal years 2013 to 2016 were an ounce (28 grams) or less from U.S. citizens, according to a Government Accountability Office report last month. California's new law allows anyone 21 and over to carry up to an ounce.
California
Ancient European Culture
Cave Paintings
Archaeologists have discovered that prehistoric tools and artwork from western Europe owe their existence to an even earlier culture in the Middle East. Carbon dating of a cave in Israel supports a theory that the Ahmarian culture of the Levant predated the Aurignacian culture of Europe by thousands of years, according to Haaretz.
The Ahmarian and Aurignacian cultures were the first two modern human cultures, according to Haaretz. They did coexist, but it's been unclear if one was borne from the other. Now, archaeologists have dated the Ahmarian-inhabited Manot Cave, in northern Israel near the Lebanon border, which shows that Ahmarians lived in the region around 42,000 to 46,000 years ago-earlier than Aurignacians are known to exist.
This evidence suggests that somewhere around that time the Ahmarians entered Europe and gave rise to the entire Aurignacian culture-evolving along the way-and it weakens the opposing theory that the two cultures evolved at the same time and independently of each other.
"Once we see a sequence from the Levant to Europe, from the older to the younger, we can confirm that the dispersal model of the Ahmarian-Aurignacian is right," co-lead excavator Omry Barzilai, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority, told Haaretz. "If in the Levant this culture is 46,000 years old and in Europe it's 40,000 then it makes sense to say that the direction is from the Levant to Europe."
Scientists from the Dangoor Research Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, were able to radiocarbon date the charcoal remains from Manot Cave's hearths. Elisabetta Boaretto, director of Weizmann's Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, told Haaretz that they were able to date levels containing tools from each culture. The Middle Eastern Ahmarians developed predominantly stone tools, while the later European Aurignacians developed bone tools.
Cave Paintings
Women Will No Longer Be Arrested For Violating 'Islamic' Dress Code
Tehran
Police in Iran's capital are loosening up restrictions regarding dress code after decades of pushback from women in the country.
On Wednesday, Tehran police announced that women will no longer risk arrest for breaching the country's conservative interpretation of Islamic dress code, which includes a ban on wearing nail polish, heavy makeup or loose headscarves. Instead, violators will be ordered to take police-instructed classes on "Islamic values," while repeat offenders could still be subject to legal action, reported the Wall Street Journal.
"Based on a society-oriented, educational approach, the police will not arrest those who don't respect Islamic values," said Brig. Gen. Hossein Rahimi, according to the country's official Islamic Republic News Agency. "It will instead educate them."
For decades, Iranian women have been resisting a government ruling passed in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that required women to wear headscarves in public. Iranian millennials have been especially defiant of the policy through social media protests and street marches.
The decision marks another step toward social progress under Iran's relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, though some Iranians question just how large of a step it is.
Tehran
Slightly More Christmassy Than 'White Christmas'
'Die Hard'
A December 2017 survey listed action movie "Die Hard" as the US's seventh-favorite Christmas film. The film's scriptwriter Steven E. de Souza offered a light-hearted perspective on its merits as a seasonal classic via Twitter.
Mall hostage rescue story "Die Hard" is one of the US's favorite Christmas movies, according to a late December poll run by political news site Axios in conjunction with SurveyMonkey.
Ranked seventh with a combined seven percent percentage point tally, the 1988 Bruce Willis movie directed by John McTiernan ("Predator") sees an off-duty police officer tackle a terrorist plot in a glitzy shopping mall in Los Angeles.
Based on a novel by Roderick Thorp, "Die Hard" takes place at Christmas. This, among other reasons, might make it a better Christmas movie than the 1954 Bing Crosby musical "White Christmas," one of its scriptwriters playfully suggests.
The entirety of the film is set during Christmas, Steven E. de Souza noted through his Twitter account - during a Christmas party, in fact. By contrast, "White Christmas" waits until its final reel to usher in the festive event.
'Die Hard'
Outgrows 'Witch Hunt' Phase
Mueller Probe
Steve Bannon's eyes lit up. Several months before he left his job as a senior White House adviser last August, Bannon was talking to President-for-now Trump (R-Crooked) about the brewing political storm over the Justice Department investigation into his campaign's alleged ties to the Kremlin. Suddenly, Trump had an inspiration. He looked straight at Bannon, jabbed at him with his finger and uttered the phrase that would become the slogan of the White House pushback against the Russia probe: "Witch hunt!"
Brilliant, thought Bannon, as he later related the exchange to colleagues.
Ever since, it is a phrase Trump has returned to time and again - and repackaged with typical Trumpian hyperbole. "This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!" Trump tweeted last May after ex-FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed as Justice Department special counsel to oversee the probe.
But now, as Trump prepares to end his first year in office, the witch hunt narrative may have outlived its usefulness. Mueller's investigation has expanded and gained serious traction: The president's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Manafort's chief deputy, Rick Gates, have been indicted. His former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has pleaded guilty and is now a cooperating witness. So too is a former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, who has admitted lying to the FBI about repeated contacts with alleged Russian cutouts who had offered the Trump campaign "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails."
As described by sources familiar with various aspects of the investigation, the Mueller probe is fast approaching a critical crossroads. The president's lawyers, Ty Cobb and John Dowd, are pressing Mueller to wind down the investigation and exonerate their client, which they have assured the president will happen by early next year.
Mueller Probe
(a.k.a. Playing Golf)
'Back To Work'
Day after day, CNN's team of political journalists have set up cameras on the same public road to catch glimpses of President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) hitting the links at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. But on Wednesday, a white box truck parked right in front of those cameras and blocked the news organization's view.
While the Secret Service denied that the truck was intentionally placed to obstruct views of Trump, CNN's Dan Merica pointed out the significance of the vehicle's placement.
"The president and the White House have tried to obscure the fact that President Trump golfs on a regular basis," Merica said. "This is a man who ran for president, who criticized President Barack Obama regularly for playing golf during his presidency, but that criticism hasn't continued into the Trump presidency."
Trump's latest outing marked the 87th time he has visited one of his golf properties since taking office. It was also his 112th day staying at a Trump-owned property during his presidency, NBC News reported.
The most recent rounds of golf occurred soon after Trump tweeted that he was getting "back to work" after the Christmas holiday.
According to pool reports, Trump arrived at his West Palm Beach golf course at 9 a.m. on both Tuesday and Wednesday. The White House would not say if the president was actually playing golf.
'Back To Work'
Set For US Auction
Hitler's Mercedes
A 1939 luxury Mercedes limousine used to carry Adolf Hitler around Germany will be auctioned in the US state of Arizona next month -- one of only four such models ever built.
Powered by a 7.7-liter supercharged engine capable of exceeding 100 mph (160 kph), the Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser -- known to the world as the "Super Mercedes" -- was a potent propaganda symbol of the Third Reich which the Fuhrer rode standing in the front seat.
Billed as "the most historically significant automobile ever offered for public sale," the imposing four-door convertible will be offered to bidders at the Worldwide Auctioneers event in Scottsdale on January 17 at the city's annual classic car event.
The car -- which carried the number plate 1A 148461 -- was used to ferry Hitler on his victory parade through Berlin following the stunning defeat of France, and for a state visit by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
After the war it went briefly to a private owner in Belgium before being sent to the US where it made its way to the Greenville, North Carolina bureau of Veterans of Foreign Wars, which used the car for parades, carrying dignitaries and Gold Star Mothers.
Hitler's Mercedes
Bad First Date
Andy Warhol Paintings
Authorities say an intoxicated Dallas woman on a first date with a prominent Houston trial lawyer caused at least $300,000 in damage to his art collection, including two Andy Warhol paintings.
Lindy Lou Layman was arrested Saturday on criminal mischief charges after her date with Anthony Buzbee. She was released on $30,000 bond. Online court records don't list an attorney for her.
Prosecutors say Buzbee told investigators that the 29-year-old Layman got too intoxicated on their date, so he called her an Uber after they returned to his home. She allegedly refused to leave and hid inside the home, and that when Buzbee found her and called a second Uber, she got aggressive.
Authorities say she tore down several paintings and poured red wine on some, and she threw two $20,000 sculptures.
The damaged Warhol paintings were each valued at $500,000. She was released on $30,000 bond. Online court records don't list an attorney for her.
Andy Warhol Paintings
Briefly Pops Up In New York
Enormous Mural
For a brief spell over the festive period, the Lower East Side had an enormous erection.
No, really it did. A huge, four-storey mural of a turgid penis popped up on a building on Broome St. in New York City on Christmas Eve. But, a mere matter of days after the phallus made its debut on the street, the mural was painted over at the request of the building's landlord.
The handiwork of Swedish artist Carolina Falkholt, the phallic artwork was commissioned by local street art organisation The New Allen. The giant penis was intended as a complement to a nearby super-sized mural of a vagina on Pike Street.
"I usually paint giant vaginas, pussies and cunts," Falkholt toldThe Guardian. "And since I had just finished one on the side of a five-storey building, I felt like a dick was needed."
Falkholt says the space on Broome Street was a "perfect fit" for the penis painting. "To paraphrase Judith Bernstein, if a dick can go into a woman, it can go up on a wall," she added.
Enormous Mural
In Memory
Rose Marie
Rose Marie, best known for her role as Sally Rogers on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," died Thursday in Van Nuys, Calif. She was 94.
Rose Marie was Emmy nominated three times for her work on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," in which she played part of the writing team, led by Van Dyke's Rob Petrie, for the fictional "Alan Brady Show." The actress began a five-season stint as Sally Rogers in 1960, but decades earlier, she had been a child singing star under the name Baby Rose Marie. She began her career at 3, starring in her own show on NBC radio by the age of 5, cutting records and appearing in vaudeville, in shorts including 1929's "Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder" and in Paramount's 1933 feature "International House" with W.C. Fields.
Later, as a teenager, she became a nightclub singer before returning to radio as a comedienne.
In the early 1950s Rose Marie appeared on television variety shows as a singer and dancer, and she returned to the big screen in 1954, starring opposite Phil Silvers in "Top Banana," an adaptation of Silvers' Broadway show about a TV comedian.
The actress recurred on "The Bob Cummings Show" as Martha in 1958-59, and she was a series regular on a brief TV adaptation of "My Sister Eileen." After "The Dick Van Dyke Show" she guested on a variety of TV shows, including "The Monkees" and "My Three Sons," and she recurred on "The Doris Day Show."
During the 1960s she also appeared onstage in "Bye Bye Birdie" and in a pair of features, starring opposite her "Van Dyke" co-star Morey Amsterdam in "Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title," and appearing in "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round," starring James Coburn.
Rose Marie made a steady stream of TV appearances from the early 1970s until the early 2000s, appearing, for example, on "Adam-12" and "Kojak"; recurring as Hilda the sandwich delivery lady on "S.W.A.T."; appearing repeatedly in different roles on "The Love Boat"; guesting on "Cagney and Lacey" and "Murphy Brown"; appearing as a series regular on the brief 1994 sports comedy "Hardball"; and guesting on "Caroline in the City" (with Amsterdam), "Wings" and "Suddenly, Susan." She was also a semi-regular on "Hollywood Squares" in the 1980s and '90s.
Onstage, she starred with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O'Connell and Margaret Whiting in the musical revue "4 Girls 4," which toured the U.S. and made television appearances for several years beginning in 1977.
In the 2000s she appeared in another comedienne's HBO special, "Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales," and returned to the "Van Dyke" fold for Carl Reiner's animated "The Alan Brady Show" and for 2004's "The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited."
Rose Marie Mazetta was born in New York City. She was married to trumpeter Bobby Guy from 1946 until his death in 1964.
She is survived by a daughter.
Rose Marie
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