Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Henry Rollins: Russia Picked the Perfect Guy to Put in the Oval Office (LA Weekly)
Game, set, match, Putin. Pathetic. If this is the "art of the deal," if this is how America's president puts his country first, Putin and his cronies couldn't be happier. Of all the millions of Americans, Russia picked the perfect guy to put in office.
Marcy Gordon: Winners And Losers Under The Senate GOP Tax Bill (TPM)
… people living in high-tax states, who deduct their local property, income and sales taxes from what they owe Uncle Sam, could lose out from the complete or partial repeal of the deductions. And an estimated 13 million Americans could lose health insurance coverage over 10 years under the Senate bill.
Rich Cohen: The Rise and Fall of Rolling Stone (Atlantic)
What happened when Jann Wenner traded the hippie dream for pop-star friends and luxury.
Irvi Torremoro: 23 Ex-Cons Share The Craziest Things They've Witnessed in Jail (tfln.co)
The United States is the world's leader in incarceration. There are 2.2 million people incarcerated in the U.S. prison system, alone. And so many of them have seen some unbelievable things, with endless stories for their archives.
Paul Krugman: True Blue Americans (NY Times, from May 2002)
There's no mystery about why the heartland gets such special treatment: it's a result of our electoral system, which gives states with small populations -- mainly, though not entirely, red states -- disproportionate representation in the Senate, and to a lesser extent in the Electoral College. In fact, half the Senate is elected by just 16 percent of the population.
Jacob Brogan: Twitter's Best Weirdo Got Identified and It Doesn't Matter (Slate)
The Twitter account known as Dril has long been one of the internet's most unlikely treasures. A comically unhinged, but somehow coherent character, Dril is, as the AV Club's Clayton Purdom puts it, "a rare rallying point and muse for everyone, regardless of affiliation or creed." Indeed, the account's best tweets show us our own digital lives as in a fun house mirror.
Farran Smith Nehme: "The Philadelphia Story: A Fine, Pretty World" (Criterion)
The Philadelphia Story was as sweet a comeback as any Hollywood actress was ever granted. In life, and even sometimes in movies, not all of us find that one special person, but all real stars have that one special role. For Katharine Hepburn, it was the imperious, impetuous heiress Tracy Lord. And how could it not have been? Tracy all but sprang fully formed from that expansive Hepburn forehead.
Nick Greene: The Boston Celtics Are Athlete's Foot (Slate)
Can they annoy their way to an NBA title?
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
wrote:
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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
TOOTHLESS!
A TRAVESTY!
THE 'PIG' DIDN'T SQUEAL.
THE PARANOID.
THE CHILD MOLESTER.
A SEXUAL PREDATOR SYMBOL.
GIVE FIDO A TREAT.
THE RETURN OF FASCISM.
THE FASCIST WHO LIKES TO HAVE SEX WITH CHILDREN.
"GOOD MORNING, ARE YOU WRIED?"
RIP MEL.
WOOF.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sounds like the raccoons are bowling on the roof again.
Rare Memorabilia To Auction
Grateful Dead
The widow of the Grateful Dead's longtime lawyer is auctioning off treasures from their long strange trip with the psychedelic rock-and-roll band.
Hal and Jesse Kant's memorabilia collection includes signed artwork by the band's late leader, Jerry Garcia, and backstage passes from concerts spanning 30 years.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports some of the items are expected to go for as much as $100,000 when they're sold online by a Reno art gallery and auction house from Nov. 22 through Dec. 9.
In addition to the Dead, Hal Kant represented a number of musicians dating to the 1960s, including Janis Joplin and Sonny and Cher.
Highlights among the more than 100 items include a colorful set of banners used as the backdrops for 88 concerts around the world and a poster from a Lake Tahoe show in 1968, when tickets cost $3.50 at the door.
Grateful Dead
Departs 'Transparent'
Jeffrey Tambor
Jeffrey Tambor, who played Maura Pfefferman on Amazon's "Transparent," has exited the series amid sexual harassment allegations against the actor.
Tambor was accused of sexual harassment by his former personal assistant, a trans woman named Van Barnes, in a private Facebook post on Nov. 8, causing Amazon to open an investigation into the allegations. On Thursday, guest star Trace Lysette came forward with further alleged instances of inappropriate behavior.
The team behind "Transparent" had already begun planning a way to continue the show without Tambor once the allegations broke. No final decision about next season has been made by Amazon.
The writers room, led by new showrunner Jill Gordon, is still in the process of planning Season 5, which is set to debut next year. "There's momentum on the inside to continue without Jeffrey Tambor," a source told Variety on Friday.
Jeffrey Tambor
Could Hold Secret
Squirrels
Squirrels could hold the key to helping stroke patients avoid brain damage, scientists believe.
Researchers in the US have discovered that when squirrels hibernate a protective process occurs in their cells which allows their brain to function with reduced blood flow and oxygen.
When they awaken the animals suffer no ill-effects despite being deprived of essential nutrients.
During an ischemic stroke the blood supply, containing sugar and oxygen, is cut off to the brain, causing cells to die, which often leads to paralysis and speech problems.
Scientists from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) believe that creating a drug which could trigger the same cellular changes of hibernating squirrels could prevent that brain damage.
Squirrels
Saved From Hunters
White Moose
A rare white moose's life has been saved in Sweden after a decision to allow hunters to kill it was overturned.
The magnificent moose, named Ferdinand, gained worldwide media attention in August after local politician Hans Nilsson captured him swimming on camera in Värmland, western Sweden.
The elk became a potential target for hunters after police blamed the animal for an attack on a jogger on 6 November.
In response to the incident, police "decided to allow local hunters to shoot the moose, claiming that it was a danger to people," he explains.
Mr Nilsson started a petition to protect the moose and it gained more than 14,000 signatures in just a few days. The nature photographer said the police reversed their decision due to the backlash: "The moose is no longer considered dangerous to humans. The moose is safe and can continue to live in his habitat in western Värmland.
White Moose
Fox "News" Is Helping to Spread
Neo-Nazi Propaganda
It was a Friday night in early November and Fox "News" host Tucker Carlson was preaching to the camera about leftists sowing "racial divisions" throughout America. Reacting to an article in The Washington Post about a principal at a Maryland high school investigating an incident in which someone posted fliers proclaiming, "It's Okay to Be White." Carlson claimed to see evidence of an anti-white agenda at play in the Post report. The segment was typical Fox News fodder, but with an exception: Carlson was pushing forward a meme promoted by white supremacists, and he was doing so exactly as they had intended him to do it.
"Being white by the way is not something you can control," Carlson said to the camera in a priggish tone. "Like any ethnicity, you're born with it. Which is why you shouldn't attack people for it, and yet the left does constantly-in case you haven't noticed."
Carlson skipped an important detail: The "It's Okay to Be White" fliers that have been papered on schools and public spaces throughout the U.S. and Canada this month are part of a prank that was promoted widely by neo-Nazi trolls and veteran white supremacists. Other conservative outlets have also covered the fliers in a straightforward manner, including Red State and the Daily Caller, which illustrates how America's openly racist far-right appears to use such spaces to promote a radical agenda.
Like many other trolling campaigns that have emerged in the era of President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Racist), "It's Okay to Be White" started on the imageboard site 4chan, a favorite online hub for young, white males who consider themselves part of the so-called alt-right movement. Anonymous users of that site posted a "game plan" urging people to hang "It's Okay to Be White" signs on college campuses in an attempt to bait people into an overreaction against an ostensibly benign statement. As one anonymous 4chan user envisioned it, media outlets would go "completely berserk" after the signs were discovered, revealing what the alt-right perceives as the media's anti-white agenda.
Writers for The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website directed at disaffected white teenage boys, joined in to promote the prank soon after it was launched, as did former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and other politically organized racists. Duke, for example, ran a headline on his website declaring, "It's OK to Be White Campaign Sweeping the Nation!" That appeared on November 2, a full day before Carlson aired his segment.
Neo-Nazi Propaganda
Losing Palm Beach Elite
Mar-A-Lago
People are ditching Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) Palm Beach resort for a competitor he once ridiculed for getting "the leftovers."
After Trump refused to condemn the white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville this summer, 19 charities such as the Red Cross and Bethesda Hospital Foundation, canceled their events at the resort, with some taking their business to one of his adversaries, The Breakers, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Mar-A-Lago was once thought of as the peak of the Palm Beach social scene, but now members reportedly can't convince their friends to step foot in it, forcing them to go elsewhere.
As the Palm Beach elite shifts set its sights on more a-political horizons, Trump defenders have started flocking to the resort as a means of showing support for the commander-in-chief.
Among those who are planning to hold galas at the oceanside retreat this winter season include Televangelist Pat Robertson and a group of high society ladies called "The Trumpettes USA."
Last week, the private club held a Young Republicans National Federation gala that included a speech from singer and Trump cheerleader Joy Villa, who celebrated conspiracy theorist and Sandy Hook-denier Alex Jones and an America-first ideology.
Mar-A-Lago
About That Tax Break
Private Jets
Tucked away inside the Senate Republican's tax bill, already jam-packed with goodies for U.S. businesses, is a provision that seems specially tailored to spark massive populist outrage: a tax break aimed at private plane travel.
It appears on page 50 of the bill, which is headed for a vote sometime after Thanksgiving. The plane thing got a wave of attention Thursday after a tweet about the provision went viral.
"If there were any doubt about who this [tax plan] serves, the special tax break for private planes should settle it," Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist and liberal economist, wrote on Twitter.
Well, yes and no. The measure is certainly a tax break for private plane travel, and the fact that this is part of the Republican tax bill is yet another clear sign of the way the party has used this bill to favor businesses over humans.
Private Jets
Told FBI Informant To 'Watch The Fireworks'
Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby told an FBI informant to "watch the fireworks" on the day President John F Kennedy was assassinated, the latest release of JFK files reveals.
Ruby, who went on to shoot and mortally wound Lee Harvey Oswald two days later, made the comments hours before the President was killed in Dallas, Texas.
Although the President was assassinated on 22 November 1963, the interaction between Ruby and the FBI informant, identified as Bob Vanderslice, was not officially relayed to the FBI until March 1977.
"The informant stated that on the morning of the assassination, Ruby contacted him and asked if he would 'like to watch the fireworks'," the FBI record stated.
"He was with Jack Ruby and standing at the corner of the Postal Annex Building facing the Texas School Book Depository Building, at the time of the shooting.
Jack Ruby
Weekend Box Office
'Justice League'
Only in the modern era of superhero films could a $96 million opening weekend be considered anything less than impressive. But that's the situation Warner Bros. and DC's "Justice League" is in.
The big-budget superhero mashup came in well under expectations, which had pegged it for a $110 million launch in North American theaters. If studio estimates hold, it will also have the dubious distinction of being the lowest-opening film in the DC Extended Universe.
One film that did have a heroic showing this weekend is "Wonder," an adaptation of R.J. Palacio's novel about a child with a facial deformity that stars Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay. The family-friendly drama opened in second place with $27.1 million against a $20 million production budget and could be on its way to becoming a sleeper hit. Lionsgate distributed the film, which was financed and produced by Participant Media.
Disney and Marvel's "Thor: Ragnarok" fell to third place in weekend three with $21.8 million, bringing its North American total to $247.4 million. "Daddy's Home 2" took fourth with $14.8 million, and "Murder on the Orient Express" landed in fifth with $13.8 million. Both are in their second weekend in theaters.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1."Justice League," $96 million.
2."Wonder," $27.1 million.
3."Thor: Ragnarok," $21.8 million.
4."Daddy's Home 2," $14.8 million.
5."Murder on the Orient Express," $13.8 million.
6."The Star," $10 million.
7."A Bad Moms Christmas," $6.9 million.
8."Lady Bird,' $2.5 million.
9."Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," $1.1 million.
10."Jigsaw," $1.1 million.
'Justice League'
In Memory
Earle Hyman
Earle Hyman, the admired stage, television and film actor best known for playing Bill Cosby's sage father, Russell Huxtable, on The Cosby Show, has died. He was 91.
Hyman died Friday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey, his nephew Rick Ferguson told The Hollywood Reporter.
Hyman played Othello hundreds of times, appeared often on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for featured actor in a play for his performance as Oscar in the original 1980 production of Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque. He also appeared on stages throughout Europe during his career.
Meanwhile, animation fans know him as the baritone voice of the aggressive Panthro, a member of the ThunderCats. He worked on 125 episodes of that cartoon series in the 1980s.
Hyman made his Broadway debut in 1944 in Anna Lucasta and appeared over the years on the Great White Way in The Merchant of Venice; in the original production of No Time for Sergeants; as the title character in the Nigeria-set Mister Johnson; twice in Saint Joan, more than a decade apart; in Waiting for Godot in an acclaimed all-black production in 1957; in Les Blancs; and in Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder, opposite Lynn Redgrave.
Born on Oct. 11, 1926, in Rocky Mount, N.C., Hyman was the son of schoolteachers with Native-American and African-American roots. He was raised in Brooklyn and began his film career with an uncredited appearance in the best picture Oscar winner The Lost Weekend (1945).
Hyman also guest-starred on many TV shows in the 1950s and '60s, including Camera Three, East Side/West Side and The Defenders, and he appeared on the big screen in the war film The Bamboo Prison (1954) and in the crime drama Fighting Back (1982).
An admirer of Ibsen, Hyman took a vacation to Oslo in 1957, eventually became fluent in Norwegian and owned property in that country.
"The only place I'm a star in the true sense of the word is Norway," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. "There they come to see me and hope the play is all right. I'm the only foreign actor and only black actor who performs in both Norwegian languages."
Earle Hyman
In Memory
Mel Tillis
Mel Tillis, who embraced his own speech impediment to become one of Nashville's most celebrated singer-songwriters during a six-decade career in country music, has died at age 85, his publicist said on Sunday.
Tillis died early on Sunday in an Ocala, Florida, hospital, a statement posted on Absolute Publicity's website said. Respiratory failure was the suspected cause, but the singer had suffered from intestinal issues since early 2016.
A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry, Tillis recorded more than 60 albums and penned a string of hits for stars such as Kenny Rogers, George Strait and Ricky Skaggs. Under his own name, he cut six singles that topped the country charts, including "I Ain't Never," "Coca-Cola Cowboy" and "Southern Rains."
Born Lonnie Melvin Tillis in Florida, he became one of the most sought-after Nashville songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s. His catalog contains an estimated 1,000 songs, 600 of which were recorded by other artists.
Perhaps his best-known crossover hit was "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town," narrated by a military veteran paralyzed during "a crazy Asian war." Kenny Rogers and the First Edition scored a Billboard top 10 hit with the song in 1969, during the height of the Vietnam War.
Tillis, known for his rich baritone and the smooth sincerity of his vocal performances, spoke with a stutter since he was a toddler, according to online biographers.
Rather than attempt to disguise it, Tillis used the speech impediment as one of the trademarks of his act. His ability to poke fun at himself on stage assured him a loyal following among country music fans.
He even entitled his 1984 autobiography, "Stutterin' Boy," a nickname conferred on him early in his career.
Among the many honors bestowed on Tillis, President Barack Obama awarded him the National Medal of Arts in 2012.
His daughter Pam Tillis, a country music singer-songwriter in her own right, is among the six children who survive him.
Mel Tillis
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