Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ray Fisman and Andrea Prat: Can Fox News Get Trump Elected? (Slate)
The network exerts more power over the electorate than you might think.
Hadley Freeman: Hillary Clinton in charge is OK, but Elizabeth Warren, too? That's pushing it (The Guardian)
If Clinton chooses Warren as her number two, would that break the oestrogen limit at the White House?
Tony Romm: Apple won't aid GOP convention over Trump (Politico)
Apple has told Republican leaders it will not provide funding or other support for the party's 2016 presidential convention, as it's done in the past, citing Donald Trump's controversial comments about women, immigrants and minorities.
Anna Rhodes: "Tom Hiddleston's publicist must be having a field day: Taylor Swift is the fame pimp of the modern British male" (Independent)
One date with Taylor, and these men are international superstars - Calvin Harris, Harry Styles, even her friendship with Ed Sheeran managed to do it.
Henry Rollins: Muhammad Ali Made All the Right People Mad (LA Weekly)
Of all the notable passings this year, Muhammad Ali's might be the most profound.
Ryan Holiday: 5 "Geniuses" Who Drove Their Legacies Into the Ground (Cracked)
#5. Steve Jobs
Megan McBride: The Crew (Slate)
After my father's death, these men taught me about family, friendship, and kindness.
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wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Re: Tie a Yellow Ribbon
To answer about the origins of that vomit inducing glurgical song, who better to explain than the composer?
Per Wikpedia
This is "NOT" the story of a convict who had told his love to tie a ribbon book to a tree outside of town. I know because I wrote the song one morning in 15 minutes with the late lyrical genius Irwin Levine. The genesis of this idea came from the age old folk tale about a Union prisoner of war--who sent a letter to his girl that he was coming home from a confederate POW camp in Georgia.... Anything about a criminal is pure fantasy....
-?L. Russell Brown
Speaking of horrible glurge from that era, another vomit inducing number was Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks. Have to admit though,
this version by Black Box Recorder is pretty cool! Not to mention beautifully haunting.
Dave in Tucson
Thanks, Dave!
Reader Comment
anti-Hillary bullshit??
Why are you posting all the anti-Hillary bullshit??
Doug
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do." - John Ruskin -
That's a fair question, Doug.
For starters, I try not to censor the trivia responses. Not saying I haven't, but, so far, it's only been for gratuitous sex-stuff.
Several regular readers are firmly in the Bernie camp, and, at this point, I consider it venting.
Me, I like Bernie, but having waited my whole life for a viable woman candidate, I'll vote with my reproductive system, and am firmly in the Hillary camp.
I don't need any proselytizing on the issue, and figure so long as no one is humping Trump, I'm cool with it.
If you, or anyone else, would like to see more Hillary-based content, send it to me - I'm more than open to it.
But with a couple of jobs, an ungodly commute, quirky equipment, and all too often a lack of sleep, finding time to do 'extra' stuff is damn near impossible.
FWIW, haven't missed a day in nearly 5 years.
~marty
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
HOW STUPID CAN SOME PEOPLE GET?
BLOWING THEIR BALONEY INTO A MILLION PIECES!
READ IT WEEP REPUGS!
"…MR. PEABODY'S COAL TRAIN HAS HAULED IT AWAY."
SHUTUP!
A "STATE OF CALAMITY."
WHAT A LOSER!
IT'S A TURD, IT'S A PAIN, IT'S 'SUPER DELEGATES!'
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Stinkin' hot with a major invasion of ants in the kitchen.
Withholding Funds And Free MacBooks
Apple
Back in February, Donald Trump called on his Twitter followers to boycott Apple, because they wouldn't unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone. Now Apple is returning the favor, declining to provide funding to the Republican National Convention in July.
According to Politico, the tech company will not be "donating technology or cash to the effort." This is quite a break from protocol when it comes to Silicon Valley companies and their political spending, which is usually bipartisan. As Politico explains:
While Apple isn't the most active political player in the nation's capital, the tech giant previously has backed both parties' conventions. It provided about $140,000 in MacBooks and other tech tools to the Democratic and Republican events in 2008, according to campaign finance records. Apple sat out the nominating conventions in 2012, the year Democrats opted against accepting corporate contributions.
Apple hasn't commented publicly on why exactly they're not providing financial support to the GOP convention. They haven't announced if they're supporting the DNC this year or not, either. But they have told Republican leaders privately that they're withdrawing their support because of Trump and his comments on "women, immigrants and minorities." Trump's camp hasn't commented publicly either, but the GOP convention host committee has provided this terse statement: "We are working with a variety of major tech partners who are focused on being part of the American political process." This apparently includes Facebook, Google and Microsoft, though we're still a month away from the convention. Trump could say something between them that gets those sponsors to pull out as well.
Apple
Teen Hacks Websites, Gets Thanked
Pentagon
High school student David Dworken spent 10 to 15 hours between classes on his laptop, hacking U.S. Defense Department websites.
Instead of getting into trouble, the 18-year-old who graduated this week was one of two people praised by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter at the Pentagon on Friday for finding vulnerabilities before U.S. adversaries did.
More than 1,400 participants took part in a pilot project launched this year, and found 138 valid reports of vulnerabilities, the Pentagon said. The project invited hackers to test the cyber security of some public Defense Department websites.
The pilot project was limited to public websites and the hackers did not have access to highly sensitive areas.
The Pentagon said it paid a total of about $75,000 to the successful hackers, in amounts ranging from $100 to $15,000.
Pentagon
Restoration Of Frigate
La Belle
Archeologists have finished restoring the partial remains of a frigate that was carrying French colonists to the New World when it sank in a storm off the Texas coast more than 300 years ago.
The restored remains of the La Belle's hull will be put on display at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas A&M University said in a statement sent Friday to The Associated Press.
"When excavated, the archaeological site was found full of merchandise - everything requisite to form a colony and establish trade - knives, axe heads, pottery, tiny glass beads, bottles and brass pins," Peter Fix, Texas A&M's watercraft conservator, said in the news release. "Personal items including clothing, combs, and even a signet ring were found, and also weaponry such as long guns, lead shot, sword parts and three bronze cannons."
The 54-foot-long oak frigate sunk in 1686 during an expedition led by famed Mississippi River explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle. Faulty maps led the colonists to miss their intended destination, the Mississippi River delta, and arrive more than 400 miles away along the Texas coast.
The La Belle's sinking is blamed for dooming France's further exploration of what would become Texas and the American Southwest. But La Salle's short-lived Fort St. Louis near the shipwreck site in Matagorda Bay, about 100 miles southwest of present-day Houston, also convinced Spain to boost its presence in the region to ward off a feared French territorial expansion.
La Belle
New Mexico Dispute
Hatch Chile
A federal appeals court has sided with a green chile growers group in southern New Mexico's Hatch Valley in a dispute over what food can be labeled with the renowned Hatch name.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled in favor of the Hatch Chile Association and allied Albuquerque food distributor El Encanto in their efforts to subpoena records that may indicate whether a rival's products contain purely Hatch-grown chile as marketing suggests.
The subpoenas could influence the outcome of a related dispute before a federal trademark board over efforts by the Hatch Chile Co. to trademark the term "Hatch" for its exclusive use.
The written court decision pays tribute to the winding desert Hatch Valley for "producing some of the world's finest chile peppers," venturing that the area "may be to chiles what Napa is to grapes."
Reversing a district court ruling, a three-judge panel noted Hatch Chile Co. initially said it did not know where its chiles came from, and directed questions to supplier Mizkan Americas, the owner of Border Foods and its southern New Mexico chile processing plants.
Hatch Chile
Drops In US
Gun Ownership
Gun ownership has decreased among all age, race and gender groups since 1973. At its peak in that time frame, in 1977, 50.4 percent of households had guns. By 2014, just 31 percent of households did.
The drop was most pronounced among younger Americans. Among 18- to 25-year-olds, the ownership rate fell from 45 percent to 13 percent.
Black gun ownership has dropped 75 percent since 1973; white gun ownership has decreased 48 percent.
In 2014, about one-fourth of whites, 26 percent, owned a gun. Among blacks, the rate was 10 percent.
Gun owners are more likely to vote. In 2004, 31 percent of gun owners said they voted, versus 17 percent of those without guns. In 2008, 23 percent of gun owners reported voting, compared with 17 percent of non-gun owners. In 2012, it was 25 percent versus 19 percent.
Gun Ownership
Bribery Exception
Montana
A Montana legislator can stay in office after a jury found he took illegal corporate contributions from an anti-union organization during his 2010 primary election campaign, a judge ruled Friday.
Instead, Republican Rep. Art Wittich of Bozeman was ordered to pay a $68,232 fine, plus court costs, for a total between $80,000 and $90,000.
District Judge Ray Dayton stressed that he is only imposing the will of the Legislature through its laws and that he must be cautious with any discretion he has in interpreting the statute.
Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl's request that Wittich be ousted and not allowed to run again until he files a campaign report acknowledging he accepted illegal contributions goes against the Legislature's intent, Dayton said.
Montana law prohibits candidates from accepting contributions from corporations, and candidates must report all in-kind contributions they receive.
Montana
"Friends of the Parks"
Lucas Museum
A group suing to block construction of "Star Wars" filmmaker George Lucas' museum on Chicago's lakefront is willing to negotiate a settlement to allow the project to proceed, but only under several conditions.
Friends of the Parks released a memo outlining stipulations under which it would settle its lawsuit, including a legally-binding promise from the city to protect the lakefront from development for the next century. The memo says the group also wants 5 percent of the museum's revenues allocated to a parks fund for improvements in areas lacking funding, The Chicago Tribune reported Saturday (http://trib.in/1UIhJoR ).
Friends of the Park Executive Director Juanita Irizarry sent the memo to group members Thursday, responding to some in her organization who want to be more flexible to the Lucas project. The group wants to discuss the conditions outlined in the memo with the mayor's office.
Lucas wants the museum, which would showcase his art collection, on Lake Michigan's shores near downtown Chicago. The museum's construction was scheduled to begin this spring, but the group's lawsuit contending the 300,000-square-foot project violates laws restricting the area's development put construction on hold.
Last month, the city of Chicago asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the lawsuit. A ruling is pending.
Lucas Museum
T-rump
Courts Anti-Gay Pastor
In the days following a mass shooting which killed at least 50 people, including the gunman, at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (R-Grifter) has attempted to get the LGBTQ community in his corner by suggesting his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton can't protect them against Islamic extremists.
But that didn't stop him from courting the favor of Pastor Robert Jeffress of Dallas, Texas, an anti-gay, religious-right leader who the candidate welcomed onstage at a rally in the city on Thursday.
It's not the first time Trump and Jeffress have teamed up on the campaign trail, but the embrace of the pastor suggests Trump is more concerned with consolidating his support among Evangelical voters than convincing LGBTQ people he will be a reliable ally.
As the Advocate notes, Jeffress has a long public record of statements bashing homosexuality as a "perversion" comparable to "bestiality, uh, incest or pedophilia." In a 2012 sermon, Jeffress warned his congregation "homosexual marriage" and other liberal social ideas might cause the almighty to smite the U.S., adding "there is absolutely no amount of armaments we could require to protect ourselves against the judgment of almighty God." In 2015, the Christian Post reported Jeffress claimed protecting LGBTQ people against discrimination by Christian business owners could "pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist, to persecute and martyr Christians without any repercussions whatsoever."
T-rump
Weekend Box Office
'Finding Dory'
The forgetful blue fish of "Finding Dory" is box office gold.
The Pixar sequel far surpassed its already ocean-sized expectations to take in $136.2 million in North American theaters, making it the highest-grossing animated debut of all time, not adjusting for inflation, according to comScore estimates Sunday.
The Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson buddy comedy "Central Intelligence" also had a relatively muscular weekend, with a better-than-expected $34.5 million, putting it in second place.
In third place, the James Wan horror pic "The Conjuring 2" fell 62 percent in its second weekend in theaters, earning $15.6 million and bringing its domestic total to $71.7 million.
Rounding out the top five were "Now You See Me 2," with $9.7 million, and "Warcraft," with $6.5 million.
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 domestic figures will be released Monday.
1."Finding Dory," $136.2 million ($50 million international).
2."Central Intelligence," $34.5 million ($6.8 million international).
3."The Conjuring 2," $15.6 million ($41.9 million international).
4."Now You See Me 2," $9.7 million ($15.8 million international).
5."Warcraft," $6.5 million ($17.7 million international).
6."X-Men: Apocalypse," $5.2 million ($12.8 million international).
7."Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows," $5.2 million ($10.5 million international).
8."Me Before You," $4.2 million ($13.5 million international).
9."Alice Through the Looking Glass," $3.6 million ($8 million international).
10."Captain America: Civil War," $2.3 million.
'Finding Dory'
In Memory
Anton Yelchin
Anton Yelchin, a 27-year-old actor best known for playing the character Chekov in two "Star Trek" movies, was killed early on Sunday when his car rolled and pinned him against a wall in his driveway, police said.
Yelchen was due at a rehearsal and when he did not show up, friends went to his house and found him dead, Houser said. No foul play was suspected but the accident is under investigation.
The actor was best known as playing Chekov in the Star Trek movie series, including 2009's "Star Trek," 2013's "Star Trek Into Darkness" and the upcoming "Star Trek Beyond," set to open on July 22.
Yelchin was born in Russia, the son of two figure skaters, and emigrated to the United States as an infant.
He has appeared in numerous films and was in the TV series "Huff."
Early in his film career as a teenager, Yelchin gained wide attention when he appeared with Anthony Hopkins in film "Hearts in Atlantis" in 2001 and with Robin Williams in the "House of D" in 2004.
Yelchin played Jacob Clarke in the Steven Spielberg miniseries "Taken" and also appeared in the films "Terminator Salvation," "Charlie Bartlett," "Fright Night," "Like Crazy," and "Only Lovers Left Alive" between 2007 and 2013.
Anton Yelchin
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