Recommended Reading
from Bruce
John Judis: Trump's Tirade is a Return of the Repressed in American Politics (TPM)
A Trump aide boasted to CNN that his comments would appeal to "his base." That's the perfect pun. His comments do appeal what is most base in us and our politics. He is the most dangerous politician to achieve high office during my lifetime.
Sally Jenkins: Why do we let immigrants from 'holes' into our country? Because of people like this.(Washington Post)
The Bible teaches that there are no real "shitholes," of course, that the only things that defile us come from somebody's mouth. But if that source isn't persuasive enough for you, there is always the evidence you can acquire from firsthand acquaintance with someone from a faraway place.
Tom Gatti: "The slow death of the literary novel: the sales crisis afflicting fiction" (New Statesman)
The percentage of authors earning a full-time living solely from writing dropped from 40 per cent in 2005 to 11.5 per cent in 2013.
Lenore Skenazy: The Student Anti-Anxiety Project That's Going Viral (Creators Syndicate)
You can't get good at throwing a ball without practice. And you can't get good at problem-solving and bouncing back if you never get practice at those - which kids don't. Parents have been told that they must watch their kids 24/7 and smooth their path all the way. So it's no surprise that kids can't solve problems; we're always right there, solving them! And when kids lose at soccer, we're there with a trophy. And when they're old enough to walk to school, we keep driving them.
Froma Harrop: Trump's Dancing Monkeys Break Bipartisan Hearts (Creators Syndicate)
Sen. Lindsey Graham's reputation as an honorable conservative lies like a ripped-up banana peel at the bottom of the baboon cage. What happened? What turned the principled voice from South Carolina, respected by Republicans and Democrats alike, into one of Donald Trump's dancing monkeys? During the 2016 primaries, Graham warned about Trump: "I think he's a kook. I think he's crazy. I think he's unfit for office." But two months ago, he used the exact same words to say the opposite. "What concerns me about the American press is this endless, endless attempt to label the guy as some kind of kook not fit to be president."
Froma Harrop: For at Least One News Cycle, Trump Talks Sense on Immigration (Creators Syndicate)
One hesitates to assume that what the president says one moment won't be totally contradicted the next. But on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 9, Donald J. Trump made sense on immigration reform - with just a few contradictions. Take a screenshot.
Michael Hann: "'Fast' Eddie Clarke: a rock'n'roll revivalist who made Motörhead motor" (The Guardian)
With Lemmy's growl and Phil Taylor's kick drums, 'Fast' Eddie Clarke, who has died aged 67, turned Motörhead into something rock had never seen.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Contribution
pendejo
tony k
Thanks, Tony!
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 SECRET LIFE OF "MOBY".
GETTING OUT BEFORE THE HAMMER FALLS!
THE REPUBLICAN MONEY PIT
GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH.
"AND THERE WILL BE MORE."
'THIS PLACE IS A SHITHOLE'.
CONSERVATIVES ARE CRAZY!
'BIRDS OF A FEATHER…'
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and much warmer than seasonal. Not that I'm complaining.
'Saturday Night Live'
Bill Murray
Bill Murray returned to his old "Saturday Night Live" stomping grounds to do Steve Bannon in the program's cold open the way Bannon has never been done before.
The sketch scorched Bannon, "shithole" diplomacy and even journalist Michael Wolff in an "SNL" take on "Joe In The Morning."
Before Bannon pops up and pulls off his grim reaper hood to reveal Murray's old familiar face, Wolff (played by Fred Armisen, another show alum) gets a grilling on Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Mika Brzezinski (Kate McKinnon) wants to know what Wolff didn't put in the book.
Even the "Bannon Cannon" admits that everything he's quoted as saying in the book is pretty much true. But don't count him out now that he has been exiled by the Trump crew. He's already working on a web series for Crackle, a line of wrinkled barn jackets called Frumpers for Guys and a skin-care line called Blotch.
And he'll be a kingmaker again. "I convinced this country to elect … Donald ... and I can do it again," he threatens. Next on the list could be controversial vlogger Logan Paul or incarcerated businessman Martin Shkreli. "It's time for America to slide down the Bannon-ster," he chortles. "The Bannon dynasty is dawning."
Bill Murray
''Shithole' Projected
Washington DC
Trump Hotel in downtown Washington DC got a surprise makeover last night-with the expletive President Donald Trumphas used to describe developing world countries beamed onto its outer walls.
Video posted on Twitter shows the words "This Place is a Shithole" projected onto the walls of the hotel Saturday night, alongside poop emojis, and an arrow pointing at the establishment's arched entrance.
Other messages beamed onto the building Saturday included "The President of the United States is a Known Racist and Nazi Sympathiser," alluding to the president's controversial comments after the Charlottesville white nationalist rally in August.
Video of the stunt was posted on the Twitter account of Robin Bell, who has previously used projectors for political messages-projecting "emoluments welcome" and images of flags where Trump has business projects on the wall of the hotel in May.
Bell has been described by The Washington Post as a "hit-and-run editorial writer."
Washington DC
Hawaii Had No Safeguard
FCC
Hawaii apparently did not have adequate safeguards in place to prevent a false emergency alert about a missile attack that panicked residents for more than a half-hour before it was withdrawn, a federal official said on Sunday.
Speaking after Saturday's errant ballistic missile warning to Hawaii residents, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said government officials must work to prevent future incidents. The FCC "will focus on what steps need to be taken to prevent a similar incident from happening again," he said.
Officials at all government levels need to work together "to identify any vulnerabilities to false alerts and do what's necessary to fix them."
The alert, sent to mobile phones and broadcast on television and radio shortly after 8 a.m. local time, was issued amid raised tensions over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and missiles.
The FCC has jurisdiction over the wireless alerts and has proposed technical upgrades to precisely target them to communities. It plans to vote on revisions to the alert system later this month.
FCC
Travelers Shatter Records
Tourism
The numbers are trickling in from tourism offices and it seems that 2017 was a banner year for many parts of the world.
Japan posted a record 28.7 million tourist visitors in 2017, marking the sixth consecutive year of growth for the country, reports The Japan Times.
Moreover, the record-breaking tourist arrivals in 2017 marks an impressive 20 percent increase from the previous year.
Likewise, Los Angeles reports welcoming a record 48.3 million visitors in 2017, for its seventh consecutive year of growth.
Source countries that posted the biggest growth for the city include China, which sent 1.1 million visitors last year and a 6 percent year-over-year increase; Canada, which posted its highest visitor total at 747,000 (6 percent YOY increase); South Korea with 315,000 visitors (the largest gain among markets at more than 6 percent) and India, with 121,00 visitors.
Tourism
Takes Credit
Zinke
Late last month, the Interior Department published a "comprehensive list of accomplishments" in its first year under Secretary Ryan Zinke's leadership, including several actions it felt demonstrated "a conservation stewardship legacy, second only to Teddy Roosevelt."
In a summary of those accomplishments, Interior noted that it opened public access to the 16,000-acre Sabinoso Wilderness in New Mexico - even though that agreement was first announcedin 2016, and made possible thanks to a sizable private donation. The agency also noted that it expanded hunting and fishing opportunities on 10 national wildlife refuges - an announcement that closely mirrored ones from the Obama administration in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
But the most perplexing accomplishment listed on the summary was that DOI had "successfully defended a mineral withdrawal near the Grand Canyon."
Zinke's first year was largely marked by efforts to boost mining and fossil fuel production, prioritizing energy development over conservation. There is also no evidence to support the claim that his agency did anything to protect the Grand Canyon area specifically, and a more detailed list linked to in the agency's Dec. 28 press release curiously makes no mention of this issue.
Instead, Zinke is taking credit for the government's victory in a yearslong lawsuit over mining near the Grand Canyon, a legal fight that had already been argued in federal court a month before the Trump administration took office.
Zinke
Short Memories
Senators
Two Republican senators who had said they did not recall President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) using a vulgarity to describe African countries backtracked Sunday and challenged other senators' descriptions of the remark.
Trump has been accused of using the word "shithole" to describe African countries during an Oval Office meeting Thursday with a bipartisan group of six senators in which the president also questioned the need to admit more Haitians to the U.S., according to people briefed on the conversation but not authorized to describe it publicly. Trump also said in the meeting that he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway instead.
The White House has not denied that Trump uttered the word "shithole," though Trump has pushed back on some depictions of the meeting.
Georgia Sen. David Perdue and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton had issued a statement on Friday saying they "do not recall the President saying those comments specifically."
Perdue on Sunday described as a "gross misrepresentation" reports that Trump used the vulgarity. He said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina were mistaken in indicating that was the case. All four senators were at the meeting.
Senators
Own Words
T-rump
More than 150 years after the abolition of slavery and more than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) incendiary comments about immigrants have ripped open a jarring debate in the United States and around the world: Is the American president racist?
To Democrats and some historians, there is little dispute given the president's own words and actions. His political rise was powered first by his promotion of lies about Barack Obama's citizenship, then by his allegations that Mexican immigrants to the United States were rapists and murderers.
During a private meeting with lawmakers Thursday, he stunningly questioned why the U.S. would admit Haitians or people from "shithole" countries in Africa, expressing a preference instead for immigrants from Norway, a majority white nation.
Trump has repeatedly denied he is a racist, declaring during the 2016 campaign that he was the "least racist person there is." On Friday, he offered a vague denial of his comments to lawmakers, tweeting that he said nothing "derogatory" about Haitians. He did not address the reports that he disparaged African nations and ignored questions about the comments from reporters.
Yet there's no doubt that the episode has added new fuel to the charges of racism that have dogged Trump for years, since long before he assumed the presidency. In the 1970s, the federal government twice sued Trump's real estate company for favoring white tenants over blacks. He aggressively pushed for the death penalty for a group of black and Latino teenagers who were accused of raping a white woman in Central Park but later exonerated.
T-rump
Ban On Women Buying Alcohol
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's president on Sunday reimposed a four-decade-long ban on women buying liquor, just days after his finance minister had lifted the restriction.
Maithripala Sirisena said he had ordered Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera to revoke his decision last week to overturn the 1979 law prohibiting the sale of any type of alcohol to women.
"From tomorrow (Monday), the minister's order will be rescinded," Sirisena's office said in a statement, which added that the status quo will be restored but offered no explanation.
The reversal comes after a finance ministry official told AFP Samaraweera had revoked the 39-year-old law in an effort to strike sexist bills from the statute books.
Sri Lanka
Weekend Box Office
"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle"
Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, Taraji P. Henson and Paddington Bear and all rushed into movie theaters over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, but "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" still roared the loudest with an estimated $27 million in ticket sales, Friday to Sunday.
"Jumanji" easily remained the no. 1 film in North America despite an onslaught of new challengers, according to studio estimates Sunday." The Sony Pictures release is now approaching $300 million domestically and, after grossing $40 million in China this weekend, a worldwide total of $667 million.
Coming closest was Steven Spielberg's Pentagon Papers drama "The Post," starring Streep as Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and Tom Hanks as editor Ben Bradlee. Twentieth Century Fox is forecasting $18.6 million for the weekend and $22.2 million for the four-day holiday.
Landing in third was the Neeson thriller "The Commuter," a Lionsgate release in partnership with Studiocanal. The modest $13.5 million opening for the film - Neeson's fourth with director Jaume Collet-Serra ("Non-Stop," ''Unknown, "Run All Night") - suggested some of the thrill of Neeson's action-movie period, kicked off 10 years ago with the $145 million hit "Taken," may be waning.
The children's book adaptation sequel "Paddington 2" opened with $10.6 million. The film, originally to be distributed in North America over the Christmas holiday by The Weinstein Co., was sold to Warner Bros. after any association with the disgraced Weinstein Co. co-chairman Harvey Weinstein was deemed toxic for the film.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final four-day domestic figures will be released Tuesday.
1. "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," $27 million ($81 million international).
2. "The Post," $18.6 million ($1.7 million international).
3. "The Commuter," $13.5 million ($6.3 million international).
4. "Insidious: The Last Key," $12.1 million ($17.7 million international).
5. "The Greatest Showman," $11.8 million ($15.2 million international).
6. "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," $11.3 million ($19 million international).
7. "Paddington 2," $10.6 million ($1.9 million international).
8. "Proud Mary," $10 million.
9. "Pitch Perfect 3," $5.7 million ($8.3 million international).
10. "Darkest Hour," $4.5 million ($10.6 million international).
"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle"
In Memory
John Tunney
John V. Tunney, whose successful campaign for a California seat in the U.S. Senate became the basis for the 1972 Robert Redford film "The Candidate," has died. He was 83.
Tunney was among the youngest people elected to the U.S. Senate in the past century when he won his seat in 1970 at age 36. He then became one of the youngest in recent history to lose a Senate seat when he was defeated after just one term.
The charismatic young Democrat, who was often compared to the Kennedy brothers, had to quiet some of his idealism and swing to the center to beat the 68-year-old Republican incumbent George Murphy in 1970.
Director Michael Ritchie worked on Tunney's campaign, and the story of competing generations and the machinations of elections was perfect fodder for the political-minded Hollywood of the day.
Redford took on the role of Bill McKay, based on Tunney. The film was a commercial and critical success, winning an Academy Award for screenwriter Jeremy Larner.
Tunney was born in New York the son of Connecticut socialite Polly Lauder Tunney and boxer Gene Tunney, the 1920s heavyweight champion whose two victories over Jack Dempsey were among the most renowned fights of the 20th century.
John Tunney grew up on the family farm in Connecticut. He graduated from Yale and earned a law degree from the University of Virginia before moving to California, where he became a law professor.
Tunney was elected to the U.S. House, where he served from 1964 until his Senate election in 1970.
In 1976, he was challenged on the left by political activist Tom Hayden, but won re-nomination.
He lost in the general election to Republican S.I. Hayakawa, the 70-year-old president of California State University, San Francisco who had never run for office before.
John Tunney returned to a Los Angeles firm and resumed practicing law.
In addition to his brother, he is survived by his second wife, Kathinka Osborne Tunney, sons Mark and Ted, daughters Arianne and Tara, stepchildren Cedric Osborne and Dariane Osborne Hunt, and grandsons John, Liam and Andreas.
John Tunney
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