Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Henry Rollins: What Are the Odds Rex Tillerson Lasts Another Week? LA Weekly)
It must be interesting and awful to be Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He left the comfy environs of ExxonMobil to serve his country only to get blindsided on a regular basis by his boss, the president. Sad!
Josh Marshall: More on the White House Clean Up Operation (TPM)
There's certainly nothing wrong with catching-up on these letters that apparently had fallen through the cracks. But it's more evidence of what we learned from the Roll Call piece. The White House did not seem to have an organized process for these condolence communications. Roll Call said when the controversy first spun up they didn't even have a current list of war fatalities during Trump's presidency. Some had heard from the White House. Seemingly most or at least a large percentage had not.
Jonathan Jones: Domestikator is nasty public art. The Louvre was quite right to reject it (The Guardian)
In a gallery, obscenity is one thing. But in a public space where people of all ages will see it without choosing to do so? That's bullying.
OliverBurkeman: Why pessimists have a reason to be cheerful (The Guardian)
Whatever explains Japan's chart-topping life expectancy, it isn't being really chipper all the time.
Anonymous: What I'm really thinking: the supermarket checkout operator (The Guardian)
Some days, after 10 hours of scanning and beeping, your refusal to acknowledge me is upsetting.
Scott Stump: Why Denmark is considered one of the happiest places in the world (Today)
"Where you find happy places it's not just a coincidence,'' Buettner said. "There's always a genesis. And it's usually between 100 and 150 years ago some enlightened leaders made some decisions which set off an upward spiral chain of events that has created a happy population today.
Christine Copelan: "Does Where You Live Determine Your Happiness? Blue ZonesAuthor Dan Buettner Says 'Yes'" (Parade)
Academically speaking, happiness is a meaningless term. You can't really measure happiness, but you can measure three things: life satisfaction, which is how you evaluate your life as a whole; positive affect, which means your experienced day-to-day, moment-to-moment happiness; and purpose and meaning, and that's measured by the question Did I do something new and interesting today?
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
LOONEY TUNES!
MOVE ALONG.
THE #ME TOO MOVEMENT.
REPUBLICAN LIARS AND CHEATS.
TEFLON DON!
"…AT THIS POINT."
THIS ONE STINKS.
UNPATRIOTIC!
'DEHISTORICIZING THE PRESENT.'
'A LITTLE DAB WILL DO YA'
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
On the way-too-toasty side.
Hurricane Benefit Concert
Former Presidents
All five of America's living former presidents took the stage Saturday at a benefit concert in Texas to raise money for victims of the hurricane-ravaged southern United States and Caribbean.
Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter appeared together onstage at Texas A&M , praising Americans for their willingness to help fellow citizens and urging them to do more.
The effort by the three Democrats and two Republicans has raised over $31 million from 80,000 donors for the victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, George H.W. Bush's office said.
Lady Gaga gave a surprise performance at the concert, announcing that she would make a $1 million donation and that a "mental health and emotional trauma surviving program" would be set up for hurricane survivors.
Trump, too busy golfing, did not attend the concert, but praised the effort in a video message released earlier, terming it a "wonderful" and "vital effort."
Former Presidents
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
David Letterman
David Letterman, a pioneering entertainer who was the longest-running host of late-night TV in U.S. history, was honored on Sunday for his contributions to American culture.
After-hours television was built around the set-piece interview and guest appearance when Letterman's "Late Night" broke the mold in 1982 with absurd pranks and send-ups.
Everyday viewers went on his show to present "stupid pet tricks." Behind his desk, Letterman could be serious, dry and cerebral. But he often volunteered for oddball pranks. In one well-known stunt, he worked a shift at a Taco Bell in suburban New Jersey, taking pickup orders.
Receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center, the national showcase for arts, Letterman, 70, was praised for his imagination, comic daring and heart.
The Letterman tribute will be aired on public television stations on Nov. 20.
David Letterman
Theory Of Happy Living
Albert Einstein
A note that Albert Einstein gave to a courier in Tokyo, briefly describing his theory on happy living, has surfaced after 95 years and is up for auction in Jerusalem.
The year was 1922, and the German-born physicist, most famous for his theory of relativity, was on a lecture tour in Japan.
He had recently been informed that he was to receive the Nobel Prize for physics, and his fame outside of scientific circles was growing.
A Japanese courier arrived at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo to deliver Einstein a message. The courier either refused to accept a tip, in line with local practice, or Einstein had no small change available.
Either way, Einstein didn't want the messenger to leave empty-handed, so he wrote him two notes by hand in German, according to the seller, a relative of the messenger.
Albert Einstein
Trigger Warnings Inspire Outrage
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare may have died over 400 years ago, but he's still clashing with the politically correct crowd.
Lecturers at the University of Cambridge in England have recently begun to include trigger warnings on course documents, letting students know that discussing a few of the Bard's famous plays may make them uncomfortable, according to BBC News. For example, faculty gave advance notice of a Thursday lesson on Titus Andronicus and The Comedy of Errors-along with Sarah Kane's Blasted-because it involved sexual violence.
The university told the Guardian that professors issue the warnings at their discretion, and it's "in no way indicative of a faculty-wide policy." But a controversy has nonetheless arisen among Shakespeare fans, who argue the legendary playwright should never come with a content advisory.
"This degree of sensitivity will inevitably curtail academic freedom. If the academic staff are concerned they might say something students find uncomfortable, they will avoid doing it," David Crilly, artistic director of the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, told the Telegraph.
"If you get upset by Shakespeare I'd strongly suggest chucking your TV, computer and phone and staying indoors. There's no hope for you," British TV host Matthew Wright chimed in.
Shakespeare
Approval Rating Plunges
T-rump
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) had a week defined by tumult-but what else is new? Amid the usual flurry of controversy, his popularity has taken a dip, according to the latest approval rating polls Saturday.
Notably, Trump's approval rating neared his all-time low in the Gallup poll. The latest figure in Gallup's tracking survey, released Thursday, pegged Trump's approval at just 35 percent, down from 38 percent at this point last week. He's just one percentage point higher than his lowest rating ever of 34 percent. To make matters worse for the commander-in-chief, Trump's disapproval was nearing his all-time high, as well. It stood at 60 percent, just one percentage point off from his all-time high of 61 percent in early September. The Gallup poll surveys 1,500 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Trump fares a bit better in the tracker from data-focused website FiveThirtyEight. The site aggregates public polls and comes up with an average approval rating that accounts for each poll's quality, recency, sample size and any partisan leanings. It had Trump at 37.8 percent approval Saturday, 1.2 percentage points higher than his all-time low of 36.6 percent in the FiveThirtyEight tracker. Trump's disapproval stood at 56 percent Saturday, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Still, the former reality TV star is the most unpopular president in recent history. In the history of modern polling, no other president had as low an approval rating on day 274 of his presidency, according to FiveThirtyEight. The closest was former President Gerald Ford, who stood at 38.4 percent at the same point in his first term. It's worth noting that Ford's popularity plummeted after he pardoned his predecessor Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace amid the Watergate scandal. Ford's decision was unpopular at the time but has largely been accepted as a correct and courageous decisionyears later. And at day 274, Trump's predecessor, former President Barack Obama, had an average approval rating of 53 percent.
T-rump
Deletes Mention Of 'Climate Change'
Environmental Protection Agency
America's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reportedly removed dozens of references to climate change from its website, along with resources to help local governments from tackling the issue.
New analysis from The Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), a watchdog which monitors federal environmental agency web pages found one EPA website - which previously offered climate and energy resources for state and local governments - has had references and links to climate science and policy removed.
Other websites taken down in April have returned to the EPA's site with references to climate change omitted, it said. Other references have also been removed.
Six months ago, the EPA began overhauling its archive of climate change resources, stating they were being updated to reflect the new administration under Donald Trump's leadership.
It previously contained tools to help governments use renewable energy and implement climate change policies.
Environmental Protection Agency
Abruptly Blocks Agency Scientists
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency has reportedly barred three agency scientists from giving talks about climate change at a conference in Rhode Island days before they were scheduled to speak.
The researchers were booked to appear Monday in Providence at the State of the Narragansett Bay and Watershed workshop, an event highlighting the health of New England's largest estuary, where temperatures have risen 3 degrees Fahrenheitand water has risen up to seven inches over the past century.
The New York Times first reportedthe news on Sunday. EPA spokesman John Konkus, a former Trump campaign operative in Florida, provided an emailed statement to The Washington Postand The Hill confirming the cancellations: "EPA scientists are attending, they simply are not presenting, it is not an EPA conference."
The move comes days after the EPA scrubbed dozens of links from its website to materials that helped local governments deal with the effects of climate change. Administrator Scott Pruitt has said he does not believe greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels cause climate change, and has scrapped or proposed eliminating numerous regulations to reduce emissions. Two weeks ago, he proposed repealing the Clean Power Plan, the federal government's primary policy for slashing utilities' output of planet-warming gases.
The sudden cancellations on Sunday inflame concerns that the agency is muzzling scientists to further the White House's political interests.
EPA
Monsanto Sues Over Proposed Herbicide Limits
Arkansas
Monsanto Co sued Arkansas agricultural officials on Friday to stop a proposed summer ban on a weed killer linked to widespread crop damage beyond the major farm state's borders.
The lawsuit seeks to block the Arkansas State Plant Board from prohibiting the use of dicamba herbicides, manufactured by Monsanto and BASF SE, during summer when the products are meant to be sprayed on soybeans and cotton engineered by Monsanto to resist the chemical.
Growers across the farm belt said this summer that dicamba hit areas other than where it was sprayed, damaging millions of acres of crops that could not tolerate the herbicides. Experts say dicamba is more likely to vaporize in high temperatures in a process known as volatility.
Chemical companies, though, have blamed the damage on farmers misusing dicamba.
Arkansas
Weekend Box Office
"Boo 2! A Madea Halloween"
It was a spooky weekend at the box office for nearly everyone but Tyler Perry.
Perry's comedy sequel "Boo 2! A Madea Halloween" scared up a healthy $21.7 million in its first weekend in theaters, but the waters were rough for other new openers including the disaster epic "Geostorm," the firefighter drama "Only the Brave" and the crime thriller "The Snowman."
Made for a reported $25 million, Perry's film drew a mostly older and female audience, who gave it an A- CinemaScore. "Boo 2!" did a little less business than the first film, which opened to $28.5 million just last year.
But a slight drop for a sequel hardly compares to the catastrophe of "Geostorm," a long-delayed $120 million disaster epic starring Gerard Butler that only managed to open to $13.3 million from North American theaters.
A co-production between Skydance Media and Warner Bros. Pictures, "Geostorm" marks the directorial debut of "Independence Day" producer Dean Devlin. The film was shot back in late 2014 and lousy test screenings resulted in $15 million of reshoots, pushing back the release over a year and a half.
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. "Boo 2! A Madea Halloween," $21.7 million.
2. "Geostorm," $13.3 million ($36.4 million international).
3. "Happy Death Day," $9.4 million ($6.5 million international).
4. "Blade Runner 2049," $7.2 million ($14.3 million international).
5. "Only the Brave," $6 million.
6. "The Foreigner," $5.5 million ($2.7 million international).
7. "It," $3.5 million ($12.8 million international).
8. "The Snowman," $3.4 million ($6.6 million international).
9. "American Made," $3.2 million ($2.7 million international).
10. "Kingsman: The Golden Circle," $3 million ($48.7 million international).
"Boo 2! A Madea Halloween"
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