Recommended Reading
from Bruce
b>Henry Rollins: "Hurricane Maria Was Our Planet Yelling, 'Look What You Made Me Do!'" (LA Weekly)
In periods of crisis, such as what Puerto Rico is currently enduring, it is the American government that must step up and supply aid, the same as it would to Texas. I think comrade Trump gets that, but it seems he still seeks to keep some distance. One of his recent statements was strange for a president but right on track for Trump: …
b>Lenore Skenazy: The Oy of Language (Creators Syndicate)
I grew up talking like Nancy Drew. "Yuck!" I'd exclaim. "So?" "Oh, no!" Then I moved to New York after college, and suddenly I started talking like grandparents. "Feh!" I'd exclaim. "Blech!" "Oy!" Blame it on the bagels, on Brooklyn! Something in the air made me reclaim my Jewish heritage. Thank God, a little help I had: Leo Rosten.
b>Lenore Skenazy: Does China Have the Secret to Education? (Creators Syndicate)
But learning to sit still doesn't violate any U.N. conventions. And neither did what happened next. Rainey told his mom he had found egg - the food he detested most - in his mouth four times that day. How did it get there? Chu asked. The teacher put it in, because eggs are an important food. He cried and spit it out three times. The fourth time, he swallowed. And today? I asked Chu. "He likes eggs."
b>Froma Harrop: Taxing Dollars Already Taxed by States Will Not Happen (Creators Syndicate)
Nice try, Republicans. You'd like to end the federal deduction for state and local taxes. That would stick the expensive-to-live-in blue states with more of the nation's bills. It would amount to taxing incomhttps://www.creators.com/read/froma-harrop/10/17/taxing-dollars-already-taxed-by-states-will-not-happene that has already gone to taxes. Not gonna happen.
b>Froma Harrop: America Creates Industry to Clean Up Massacres (Creators Syndicate)
But something made this story stand out. It was the professionalism of those hired to deal with such calamities. The police who went after the gunman while managing the chaos below. The emergency medical workers removing the wounded from the carnage, not knowing whether the shooting had stopped. The hospital workers putting in multiple shifts while deftly handling the crush of causalities.
b>Ted Rall: Hugh Hefner Said His Critics Were Prudes And Puritans (Creators Syndicate)
Really-existing feminists rarely frame their critiques of pornography where it belongs, within the construct of a slave-labor capitalism in which construction workers and yoga teachers and professional athletes and UPS workers and cartoonists wear down their bodies for cash - or starve.
b>Camille Paglia on Hugh Hefner's Legacy, Trump's Masculinity and Feminism's Sex Phobia (Hollywood Reporter)
The pro-sex feminist, cultural critic and author tells THR why Hef's art of seduction is needed today and how Gloria Steinem is not a role model for young women.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
WATCHING OUR GOVERNMENT GO INTO THE TOILET!
WATCHING OUR GOVERNMENT GO INTO THE TOILET! PART TWO.
THERE'S BULLSHIT IN THE WATER!
THE REAL ENEMY.
NICE PEOPLE LIVE HERE TOO.
HARD AS STEELE.
THE SHORT LIST.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot, dry, and windy.
Battery Power For Puerto Rico
Tesla
Tesla said Friday it was delaying the planned launch of its electric transport truck, diverting resources to step up production of its Model 3 sedan and to produce batteries for storm-ravaged Puerto Rico.
The electric carmaker's chief executive Elon Musk announced the news on Twitter, pushing back the launch of its semi-truck which had been set to be unveiled October 26 in California.
In a series of exchanges on Twitter Thursday and Friday, Musk said the company could help restore electricity to Puerto Rico -- whose power system was decimated by Hurricane Maria -- by using solar panels and batteries.
Responding to a tweet asking if Tesla could help, Musk answered: "The Tesla team has done this for many smaller islands around the world, but there is no scalability limit, so it can be done for Puerto Rico too."
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosello joined the conversation, tweeting to Musk: "Let's talk. Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that flagship project."
Tesla
Donates Food To Puerto Rico
Survivalist
A grieving widower survivalist and a young Puerto Rican couple have found a way to turn tragedy into hope.
Forty barrels, filled with over 300 pounds of food each are making their way to Puerto Rico after Joseph Badame ran into Victoria Barber at an estate sale where bankers were selling of Mr Badame's New Jersey home. The food - amassed over 45 years as Mr Badame prepared with his late wife for a potential national or international crisis - were not for sale, and the 74-year-old was concerned it would all get tossed.
But on the day of the estate sale, Ms Barber was in the market for massive food donations: Just the day before, Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, leaving most of the island without food, water, and reliable food supplies - including Ms Barber's hometown. She and her husband Anthony had started a fund out of their food truck for donations to help, but she was not expecting to come across a stash of supplies as big as what Mr Badame had to offer.
Mr Badame had developed the stockpile alongside his wife, Phyllis, after they returned to the US from stints in the Peace Corps in the 1970s. That time was particularly volatile in South Jersey, where they lived, with race riots erupting in Camden, leading to an exodus of white families out of that city after one in 1971 after a Puerto Rican man was killed by two white police officers.
But Phyllis had a massive stroke that left her paralyzed in 2005. Mr Badame had to quit his job to care for her, and he went broke. His wife died in 2013 after another stroke. Mr Badame received his eviction notice last month, after defaulting on mortgage and tax payments.
Survivalist
Ousted From Weinstein Co.
Harvey
Harvey Weinstein, the sharp-elbowed movie producer whose combative reign in Hollywood made him an Academy Awards regular, was fired from The Weinstein Company on Sunday following an expose that detailed decades of sexual harassment allegations made against Weinstein by actresses and employees.
In a statement, the company's board of directors announced his firing Sunday night, capping the swift downfall of one of Hollywood's most powerful producers and expelling him from the company he co-created.
"In light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days, the directors of The Weinstein Company - Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar - have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with The Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately," the company's board said in a statement on Sunday night.
Weinstein had previously taken an indefinite leave of absence following the revelation of at least eight allegations of sexual harassment uncovered in an expose Thursday by The New York Times. The board on Friday endorsed that decision and announced an investigation into the allegations, saying it would determine the co-chairman's future with the company.
But the Weinstein Co. board, which includes Weinstein's brother, went further on Sunday, firing the executive who has always been its primary operator, public face and studio chief. Under his leadership, the Weinstein Co. has been a dominant force at the Oscars, including the rare feat of winning back-to-back best picture Academy Awards with "The King's Speech" and "The Artist." In recent years, however, Weinstein's status has diminished because of money shortages, disappointing box-office returns and executive departures.
Harvey
Debates, Protests Over Slavery Ties
UNC
The national debate over removing Confederate symbols from U.S. college campuses is spurring wider questions about university benefactors whose ties to slavery or white supremacy flew under the radar in decades past.
Students and alumni are no longer simply opposing overt Confederate memorials, but also lesser-known founders and donors with troubling racial legacies. And the discussions have intensified after deadly white nationalist protests in August in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The problem is apparent at the University of North Carolina, where opposition to a Confederate statue has dredged up racist statements by a former trustee. Tobacco magnate Julian S. Carr, himself a Confederate veteran, gave the dedication speech in 1913 for the campus statue depicting an anonymous rebel soldier. His remarks included a reference to the "pleasing duty" of whipping a black woman in public.
"He stood out here and stood in front of a crowd of people and bragged about how he drug a 'negro wench' through the streets for insulting a white woman," said Gabrielle Johnson, a student who helped organize a sit-in against the statue nicknamed "Silent Sam." ''I don't see how that embodies anything other than hatred."
UNC's chancellor has said a state historic monument law prevents the university from removing "Silent Sam." But the fresh attention to Carr has spurred wider conversations about his legacy at UNC and nearby Duke University, where part of campus was built on land donated by Carr. Both schools are home to a "Carr Building" and have convened panels on how to handle controversial building names.
UNC
Awarded Joint Custody
Convicted Rapist
A man who raped a 12-year-old has been awarded joint custody of her child despite being convicted of her rape and another sexual assault on a child.
The convicted rapist assaulted the girl nine years ago and she subsequently became pregnant.
A judge has given Christopher Mirasolo, 27, parenting time and joint legal custody of the eight-year-old boy after a paternity test found he was the father.
Since his conviction for the rape in 2008, Mirasolo, from Brown City, Michigan, has been convicted of another child sex assault, for which he served four years in prison.
The custody was granted by Judge Gregory S Ross and Mirasolo was given the victim's address and his name added to the birth certificate, without the victim's consent.
Convicted Rapist
Tiki-Torch White Nationalists Return To Charlottesville
Richard Spencer
Less than two months after violence broke out at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, white supremacists returned to Emancipation Park on Saturday evening to demonstrate in support of Confederate statues.
The rally in early August was purportedly organized to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate soldier Robert E. Lee from downtown Charlottesville. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) declared a state of emergency after the white supremacists clashed violently with counterprotesters, injuring at least 35 people and killing 32-year-old paralegal Heather Heyer.
On Saturday, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer (R-Proud Nazi) led a group holding torches to the park and livestreamed the rally from his Twitter account. The images were reminiscent of the group's previous rally in the city, when they held tiki torches and chanted "Blood and soil" as they marched.
The group sang the Confederate Civil War song "I Wish I Was In Dixie Land," and chanted phrases like "the South will rise again" and "Russia is our friend."
Spencer delivered a speech filled with his familiar rhetoric, and he claimed that the U.S. was founded by what he calls "white culture."
Richard Spencer
Blackwater Founder Weighing U.S. Senate Run
Erik Prince
Erik Prince (R-Mercenary), who founded a private military contractor that has faced lawsuits for shootings and other misconduct in Iraq, is considering challenging a Republican Senator from Wyoming in a primary next year, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
Steve Bannon (R-Satan's Catamite), U.S. President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) former chief strategist, had urged Prince to run for the seat now held by John Barrasso, an ally of Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Turtlehead), as part of an effort to shake up Republican leadership, the paper said.
Prince, a former Navy SEAL and the brother of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, founded the company formerly known as Blackwater. Some of its guards had been convicted of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007, an incident that outraged Iraqis and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment around the world.
Prince has told DeVos that he would like to run against Barrasso, a person with knowledge of the conversation told the Times, and he traveled this weekend to Wyoming to investigate how to attain residency.
North Carolina-based Blackwater was sold and renamed several times after the Baghdad incident. It is now called Academi and is based in northern Virginia.
Erik Prince
Trump Nominates Coal Lobbyist
Environmental Protection Agency
Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) just nominated a lobbyist for the coal industry to be the second-in-command at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Andrew Wheeler is a former Congressional aide and since 2009 has been a prominent lobbyist at the Faegre Baker Daniels firm where his clients include Murray Energy, one of the country's largest coal mining companies.
The Sierra Club's Legislative Director Melinda Pierce said in a statement that "Halloween apparently came early this October because the nomination...is absolutely horrifying."
If confirmed, he will serve as the Deputy Administrator of the federal agency to Scott Pruitt.
Mr Wheeler used to work for Senator James Inhofe, who infamously brought a snowball onto the Senate floor to decry the complaints of those who believe in global warming.
Environmental Protection Agency
Weekend Box Office
'Blade Runner 2049'
"Blade Runner 2049" had the pedigree, the stars and the stellar reviews. But even though the highly touted sequel had seemingly everything going for it, something didn't click with audiences.
The big-budget, handsomely crafted sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic opened surprisingly weak at the North American box office. According to studio estimates Sunday, "2049" grossed $31.5 million, a poor start for a movie that cost at least $150 million to make.
The Kate Winslet-Idris Elba adventure romance "The Mountain Between Us" debuted in second place with $10.1 million. The 20th Century Fox film, which cost $35 million to make, chronicles the budding affection between two strangers whose charter plane crash lands in the mountains.
The horror hit "It" followed in third place with $9.7 million in its fifth week. The Stephen King adaptation has made $603.7 million worldwide.
"My Little Pony: The Movie" opened with $8.8 million for Lionsgate. But even it managed broader gender appeal than "Blade Runner 2049." It drew a 59 percent female audience.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers also are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Blade Runner 2049," $31.5 million ($50.2 million international).
2. "The Mountain Between Us," $10.1 million ($3.6 million international).
3. "It," $9.7 million.
4. "My Little Pony: The Movie," $8.8 million ($3.8 million international).
5. "Kingsman: The Golden Circle," $8.1 million ($25.5 million international).
6. "American Made," $8.1 million ($1.8 million international).
7. "The Lego Ninjago Movie," $6.8 million ($6.9 million international).
8. "Victoria & Abdul," $4.1 million ($3 million international).
9. "Flatliners," $3.8 million ($1.5 million international.)
10. "Battle of the Sexes," $2.4 million.
'Blade Runner 2049'
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