Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Trump Tax Scam, Phase II (New York Times Column)
Deficits are up? Cut Medicare and Social Security!
Helaine Olen: Why Republican tax cuts are still unpopular (Washington Post)
Social Security and Medicare happen to be quite popular, and the number of people outside the Beltway and the one percent who think they should be cut back to fund tax cuts for Trump, his wealthy peers and corporate America can probably be counted on two hands. But it is bigger than that. The results of decades of disinvestment are literally all around us. Student-loan debt soared as states cut funding for higher education, sticking millennials who attended college with life-altering tabs. Our infrastructure is in an increasing state of disrepair, with the American Society of Civil Engineers giving it a grade of D-plus.
Paul Waldman: What Mitch McConnell is up to is even worse than Democrats say (Washington Post)
So when Democrats say that McConnell is admitting that Republicans want to take an ax to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, they're only partially right. Does he want to do that? Sure. But he knows how difficult it would be, so he has a more immediate plan: Let the money flow as long as there's a Republican president, but clamp down as soon as a Democrat is elected. It worked so well in the past, why wouldn't it work again in the future?
Greg Sargent: A shouting match inside the White House unmasks one of Trump's biggest lies (Washington Post)
A shouting match has erupted inside the White House between two of President Trump's top advisers. While angry arguments are typical in the world of stressful, high-stakes White House decision-making, this one has true revelatory potential: It opens a window on a big, festering lie at the very core of Trump's worldview.
Greg Sargent: Trump's latest absurdity about the elections hints at much worse to come (Washington Post)
When Trump preposterously claims a Democratic victory won't be his fault, he's foreshadowing an effort to contest the idea that this outcome demonstrates public desire for oversight and accountability. It's not hard to picture Trump doing this by arguing that Republicans lost because they didn't stand by him staunchly enough.
Helaine Olen: Why Republicans are so afraid of Elizabeth Warren (Washington Post)
Warren remains a formidable political presence. She has a preternatural understanding of the pocketbook politics of most Americans. Unlike Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), it's hard to dismiss the grandma from Oklahoma as a radical - heck, she was a Republican till the mid-1990s. But most important: Warren is one of the few Democrats who consistently calls Trump out on his lies in a way that catches the public's attention and can leave him on the defensive in 2020.
Marc Dion: Say a Prayer for Fall River (Creators Syndicate)
In Fall River, Massachusetts, the red brick and gray granite perpetually poor city of 90,000 where I live, the mayor is under indictment on 13 separate federal counts of wire fraud and filing misleading tax returns. The mayor's name is Jasiel Correia II, a 26 year-old chipmunk-faced fellow with a very nice wardrobe and an apartment over a bar. People are calling on him to resign, but he is staying in office where he can draw a hysterically inflated salary of $120,000 a year. In addition, he can use the rapidly dwindling power of his office to solicit contributions to an internet-based legal defense fund. We understand this well in Fall River, where people frequently start GoFundMe pages to cover the funeral of an overdosed relative.
Garrison Keillor: It is a good and pleasant thing not to rant
It was a hard week, a steady drizzle of anger in the news, the words "divisive" and "divisiveness" everywhere you looked, and at the risk of sounding naïve, I must say it was a pleasure to sit down to hotdish and pie in honor of young love and bite my tongue when tempted to fulminate and rant.
Tom Danehy: Tom has a secret plan to deal with those musclebound morons who don't wipe down the weightlifting equipment at the gym (Tucson Weekly)
I work out every single day; sad, but true. Despite an exercise regimen that's pretty impressive for someone of my advanced age and weight, I still look like this big, giant tub of goo. The fancy digital scale at our house will tell you that my weight fluctuates back and forth between "Whoa, lay off the fried food, Buddy … or, better yet, lay off the food," and "Hey, only one person on the scale at a time."
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Presenting
Michael Egan
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Ice skating coach Frank Carroll (who became now Michelle Kwan's coach) once explained to a mischievous young skater named Christopher Bowman - at the request of the young boy's mother, who felt Christopher was growing pudgy - the importance of a good, healthy diet. The very next day, Christopher's mother came to Mr. Carroll, bringing young Christopher with her - and the four boxes of doughnuts he had been eating. Mr. Carroll decided to teach the boy a lesson. He said, "Christopher, you sit down here. You are going to eat every one of those doughnuts before you get on the ice. And you're not moving from here until every one is gone." After the boy had eaten the doughnuts, Mr. Carroll made him practice spins until finally young Christopher exited the ice and vomited.
• Eleanor Powell and the black dancer Bill Robinson, aka Mr. Bojangles, once performed at a private party put on by rich people. When the performance was over, Ms. Powell told the butler that she would like a glass of water - but only if Mr. Bojangles were also offered a glass of water. The butler brought them two glasses of water, and Mr. Bojangles broke his glass after drinking the water, and offered to pay for the glass. He told Ms. Powell later that he had broken the glass because he knew that no one would use the glass after he had used it.
• As a young child growing up in Ufa, the great dancer Rudolph Nureyev was frequently hungry. When he started kindergarten, he was always late to class each morning, and his teacher asked him why. Young Rudi explained that he had to eat at home. His teacher then reminded him that he could eat at school. What young Rudi didn't explain was that now he had a chance to eat twice in the morning, he was not going to miss it - especially since he could not be sure that there would food at home in the evening. (One day in class, he actually fainted from hunger.)
• In Calcutta, the Missionaries of Charity feed several thousand people every day. However, one day there was no food to feed them. A Sister told Mother Teresa, "We have nothing left. We do not have food for so many people." However, at 9 a.m. a truck loaded with bread arrived. At the city schools, children are given a slice of bread. That day, the city schools were closed for some reason, and the bread that would have given to the children was instead given to the Missionaries of Charity. All of the hungry people were able to eat bread until they were satisfied.
• The Dalai Lama can be very open. Once, he toured Gethsemani Monastery in Kentucky. The monastery made its own cheeses and fruitcakes, and the Dalai Lama was offered some cheese. Later, he joked, "I was presented with a piece of the homemade cheese, which was very good, but really I wanted some cake! It was so unfortunate - really I was hoping someone would offer me some cake, but no one did!" The Dalai Lama was able to be happy without fruitcake, and some of his happiness came from being able to laugh at his desire for fruitcake.
• While opera singer Mary Garden was sailing on the Alfonso XIII, she walked by - and smelled - the ship's kitchen, and she resolved never to eat anything that came out of that kitchen. Fortunately, she had some baskets of fruit that friends had given her as going-away gifts, and she lived off those. Whenever there was stormy weather, the fruit would tumble out of the baskets and bounce around the room. Ms. Garden amused herself by watching to see which fruit made it around the room first - it was always the pineapple.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Suggestion
Political Rivals
As Seth would phrase it, this is a story we need right now.
Political rivals stun voters with unexpected duet
LAMOILLE COUNTY, Vt. - In Lamoille County, Vermont, the fall colors are at their peak. Everywhere you look, bursts of Lucy Rogers green, and Zac Mayo red, white and blue.
"We don't need as much government," Zac said.
He's the Republican. She's the Democrat.
"I'm pretty centrally focused on healthcare," Lucy said.
They're aggressively competing for a state House seat. Both have visited, or plan to visit, every single home in the district - all 2,000 plus. The locals say they've never seen anything like it.
"They both want to win in the worst way," one person said.
But this highly competitive race took a dramatic turn recently. It happened during their debate, when the candidates asked for a few extra minutes at the end to do something together. They stood up from their tables and began moving the furniture, preparing for what appeared to be some kind of musical performance.
But no one knew what was coming. Indeed, what happened at the local library that night was totally unexpected and unprecedented in modern American politics.
Read the rest - Political rivals stun voters with unexpected duet
Thanks, Mike B!
Reader Comment
Current Events
My hope: We all know he does next to nothing each day except watch TV, tweet, and shove cheeseburgers & 2 scoops of ice cream in his disgusting upper orifice. With all these non-stop "love me" rallies, I'm hoping the strain on him will cause a catastrophic health incident.
Death to tyrants!
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
THE KILLERS!
THE LIARS.
THE CRIMINALS!
GOP GUINEA PIGS.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Technical issues prevented the timely uploading of Sunday's page until nearly 9pm (pdt), so gonna roll-over Sunday's trivia question to today.
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, an American comedian whose career on the improv stage led to iconic roles on shows such as Seinfeld, was honored on Sunday for contributing to the national culture.
Louis-Dreyfus gained fame as Elaine - the perpetually single neurotic in Jerry Seinfeld's ensemble sitcom - but her role as a blundering politician on the HBO show Veep has brought more acclaim.
On Sunday evening, Louis-Dreyfus was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center, the national showcase for arts. Dreyfus, 57, was praised as an actor who could nail a farcical role and then deliver a satire with smarts.
Sunday night's ceremony will be broadcast on PBS on Nov. 19.
Louis-Dreyfus has earned six consecutive Emmy awards portraying Vice President Selina Meyer - a haul that surpassed that of past female comedy icons like Mary Tyler Moore or Lucille Ball.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Family Attends Gainesville Park Dedication
Tom Petty
Tom Petty's family and friends were among the hundreds in attendance at a ceremony Saturday to rename a Gainesville, Florida park after the late rocker.
The ceremony, which took place on what would have been Petty's 68th birthday, was one of a number of Petty events this weekend in the Florida city where the Heartbreakers bandleader was born and raised.
On Saturday, Petty's daughter Adria Petty and brother Bruce Petty spoke to the crowd at Gainesville's Northeast Park, which was renamed Tom Petty Park at the dedication ceremony. Petty had frequented the park often as a child, the Gainesville Sun reports.
The park renaming was one event in a week of celebrations dubbed Tom Petty Weekend in the Florida city; Tom Leadon of Mudcrutch, Petty's early project that he revived in the years before his death, headlined a pair of Gainesville performances with his band the Bayjacks, the Gainesville Sun reported.
Tom Petty
Placed Hex
Witches
Witches placed a hex on US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (R-Unfit) during a protest ritual in New York.
The spell, which was livestreamed on Facebook and Instagram on Saturday, was also targeted at "all rapists and the patriarchy which emboldens, rewards and protects them".
Organisers at the Catland occult bookshop in Brooklyn said the hex was as "an act of resistance and resilience" following the controversy over allegations of sexual assault against Mr Kavanaugh.
"He will be the focal point, but by no means the only target, so bring your rage and and all of the axes you've got to grind," the bookshop told its followers.
Directions on how to cast a "stripped-down" version of the spell at home, were also provided on Facebook.
Witches
Joke Cut
Wreck-It Ralph
Disney's first Wreck-It Ralph came out in 2012, the same week that the studio announced its acquisition of Lucasfilm. Which is to say, new Star Wars movies were barely a twinkle in the eye of the Mouse House at the time. But now six years have passed, which has provided the filmmakers behind the Wreck-It sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet plenty of Star Wars fodder to play with amid the film's many nods to other Disney properties like Marvel and the Disney princesses.
And yet, there was one particularly noteworthy joke that didn't make the cut.
As directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston and head of story Josie Trinidad explain it, Disney declined to run with a certain Kylo Ren gag.
"At one point we had a joke about Kylo Ren being kind of a spoiled child," laughs Moore. "We went to Lucasfilm and said, here's what we're doing. And they said, well, we'd prefer that you don't show him as a spoiled child. You know, he is our villain, and we'd prefer you don't do that. So we were respectful of that."
It's just part of the process, the filmmakers explain, but also the whole point of including beloved and familiar Disney characters in Ralph Breaks the Internet is to "honor who these characters are" and be appropriate to their history while taking "playful jabs." Like C-3PO being the butler to the princesses, for example. That "felt like that's of his character," says Johnston. "It's really loving satire that we're doing."
Wreck-It Ralph
Republican Bastions Under Threat
California
As the door slammed in his face, Josef Siroky understood that campaigning for a Democrat in the conservative California city of Huntington Beach was not going to be easy.
But he kept knocking on doors, handing out pamphlets -- and selling the idea of political change.
Siroky is one of hundreds of volunteers canvassing the Golden State's conservative bastions like Huntington Beach, which Democrats are hoping to conquer in the November 6 midterm elections en route to winning control of the House of Representatives -- and possibly, Congress.
On a sunny Sunday in October, Siroky and the other volunteers are going door-to-door for Harley Rouda, a former Republican who is now running for office as a moderate Democrat in a tight race with a veteran Republican.
"It's great to see the blue wave right now," Rouda shouted, earning applause from the squadron of volunteers.
California
Reidite Found In Crater
Western Australian
An extremely rare mineral that only forms when rocks from space slam into the earth's crust with immense pressure has been found in Western Australia, the sixth discovery in the world so far.
Curtin University geology student Morgan Cox was working on her thesis and testing drill core samples from the buried Woodleigh impact crater, near Shark Bay, that had been stored in a shed since 2001 when she spotted reidite.
It is the first time the mineral has been discovered in Australia.
Reidite forms when meteorites hit the earth with enough pressure to transform the common mineral zircon.
The research team is now using numerical modelling to refine the size of Woodleigh, and if its diameter is greater than 100km, it will be the largest-known impact crater in Australia.
Western Australian
Weekend Box Office
'Halloween'
Universal Pictures said Sunday that "Halloween" took in an estimated $77.5 million in ticket sales from North American theaters.
It captured first place at the box office with the second-highest horror opening of all time, behind last year's "It."
"Halloween" was enough to bump the comic-book film "Venom" out of the No. 1 spot and into third place. In its third weekend in theaters, it collected $18.1 million, bringing its domestic total to $171.1 million.
Meanwhile "A Star Is Born" held on to second place in its third weekend with $19.3 million. The Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga drama has grossed $126.4 million from North American theaters and is cruising to break $200 million worldwide Sunday.
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."Halloween," $77.5 million ($14.3 million international).
2."A Star Is Born," $19.3 million ($22.8 million international).
3."Venom," $18.1 million ($32.3 million international).
4."Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween," $9.7 million ($6.2 million international).
5."First Man," $8.6 million ($13.4 million international).
6."The Hate U Give,"$7.5 million.
7. "Smallfoot," $6.6 million ($14 million international).
8."Night School," $5 million ($1.5 million international).
9."Bad Times At The El Royale," $3.3 million ($2.5 million international).
10."The Old Man & The Gun," $2 million.
'Halloween'
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