Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Dahlia Lithwick: Is It Too Late for Robert Mueller to Save Us? (Slate)
It might not be enough for the special counsel to hand us a smoking gun and an indictment.
Hadley Freeman: Has Hollywood changed? Mel Gibson's bulletproof career would suggest not (The Guardian)
Clearly it takes an awful lot to destroy a high-profile straight white man's career.
Deborah Orr: My problem with Viagra? It feeds men's obsession with macho performance (The Guardian)
I'm all for the erectile dysfunction drug being available over the counter. But this doesn't mean women have to tolerate men's fantasy-driven sex antics.
Alison Flood: White House library lowers the tones with its Christmas book tree (The Guardian)
Apart from the fact that the president will never read them, the only thing the books in this festive display have in common is that they're coloured green.
Alison Flood: New Marvel editor-in-chief under fire for using Japanese pseudonym (The Guardian)
CB Cebulski, newly appointed to prestigious role at the comics giant, has admitted writing under the name Akira Yoshida.
Michele Hanson: Of course pets need Christmas presents - but why get swanky with them? (The Guardian)
You already know what they want: anything edible, noisy and wrapped up. Your dog doesn't give a sniff whether its ball thrower is a £24 retro wooden model.
Daniel Marans: Here Are 6 Of The Most Radical Provisions In The GOP Tax Bill (Huffington Post)
Congratulations to private schools!
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Predator & his twitter acct
Seriously, who controls what? Predator has made his idiotic twitter crap part of the official record so is it or isn't it him? Or who is acting as president while he's in the john? (And we ALL know Dowd is lying to try to save Predator from his own confession of guilt--much like Predator's stupid brag to Lester Holt about why he fired Comey!) Added bonus--1 file attached.
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
SMOKING GUN?
WTF?!!!
SOCIALIZED MEDICINE NOW!
OINK, OINK.
KLEPTOCRACY?
CAN WE SUE TRUMP FOR BEING AN ASSHOLE?
HOTEL KLEPTOCRACY.
THE SPHINX IN CALIFORNIA
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The raccoons are back bowling on the roof.
Releases Vast Archive
Neil Young
Neil Young on Friday opened an exhaustive online archive of his half-century career, as the rock legend charged ahead on a politically loaded new album.
In a project whose breadth has no parallels among musicians of his level of fame, Young made all of his albums available for streaming alongside the accompanying lyrics, credits and artwork as well as videos and tour information.
In a delight for fans of the ever-prolific Canadian with years of rumored obscurities, the Neil Young Archives includes around 10 unreleased albums although most are not yet fully uploaded.
Envisioning the archives as a high-tech version of collections that authors and fellow rock elders generally establish at universities, Young said he would continually update the site, accessible at neilyoungarchives.com.
Young wrote that he had spent years designing the site, which will be free through June 30 after which Young said he will charge a "very modest" fee.
Neil Young
Cast Embroiled In Spat
The West Wing
Like any true political junkie, Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-Spokesliar) is a devoted fan of the hit TV series, The West Wing.
But it looks as if the admiration is not mutual.
Comparing herself to C.J Cregg, the press secretary to fictional president Jed Bartlet, was too much for the cast to bear.
Bradley Whitford, who portrays Josh Lyman, Bartlet's deputy chief of staff, was swift to turn to Twitter. He told Ms Sanders bluntly that she was no C.J.
Allison Janney who portrays C.J. was grateful that "Josh" had her back.
The West Wing
Lost Painting
Frida Kahlo
After taking an overnight bus to Poznan in Poland for an exhibition on Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, two Portuguese sisters are now standing in front of a curious blue suggestion box.
"Who can tell us what happened to the missing painting or where we can find it?" reads a sign next to a photo of Kahlo's largest work, "The Wounded Table", a mysterious surrealist masterpiece that vanished without a trace in Warsaw more than half a century ago.
A black-and-white replica of the horizontal oil painting, a double self-portrait with Kahlo represented both as herself and a wounded table dripping with blood, can be seen until January 21 at "Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: Polish Context".
The exhibition at the ZAMEK Culture Centre -- a castle built for Kaiser Wilhelm II and later meant to be a residence for Adolf Hitler -- spotlights the famed married couple's little-known links to Poland.
Prignitz-Poda points out that while the painting is considered great today and would be worth around $20 million (17 million euros), back then its "surreal absolutely cruel depiction of the double Frida" went against the preferred socialist realist style.
Frida Kahlo
Resumes Acquisition Talks With Rupert
Disney
US media and entertainment giant Disney has renewed discussions for the purchase of some of rival 21st Century Fox's assets, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
Talks between the two began several weeks ago but fizzled due to disagreements over price, according to the newspaper.
Fox and WSJ parent News Corp share common ownership in the family-led empire created by mogul Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate).
Other companies such as Comcast, Verizon and Japan's Sony have also expressed varying levels of interest, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter.
The discussions are focused on the Twentieth Century Fox movie and TV studio, some international assets like Fox's 39 percent stake in British satellite TV operator Sky, India's Star TV, and some US cable networks -- but not Fox News -- long seen as a jewel in the Murdoch family crown.
Disney
Trusts Mining Interests
EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday it would not act on a proposal to require hardrock mining companies to show they can afford to clean up their sites.
"EPA is confident that modern industry practices, along with existing state and federal requirements address risks from operating hardrock mining facilities," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt (R-Corporate Handmaiden) said in a statement.
The financial responsibility proposal, issued by the administration of President Barack Obama, was supported by Democrats and environmental groups, but opposed by the mining industry and Republicans.
It would have required companies mining metals such as gold, silver, copper and lead to show they had the financial means to clean up their sites once they finished mining by issuing bonds or buying insurance. It was partly aimed at taking the burden off Washington to clean up sites when miners declare bankruptcy.
It represents the latest move by Pruitt, an appointee of President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Corrupt), to reverse or weaken a series of regulatory actions by the Obama administration, often at the request of the affected industries.
EPA
Sue Venezuela
Koch Brothers
The capitalist Koch brothers want the socialist president of Venezuela to pay up.
Two companies that belong to Koch Industries, the energy conglomerate of the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, are suing Venezuela to collect $409 million awarded by an international arbitration panel.
Koch Minerals Sarl and Koch Nitrogen International Sarl filed the lawsuit this week in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Both companies argue Venezuela has not paid any part of the award granted in October by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, after then-President Hugo Chavez expropriated FertiNitro in 2010.
The lawsuit by the Koch brothers -well-known for their strong advocacy for conservative causes- came only days after the Venezuelan government and the state oil company, PDVSA, defaulted on billions of dollars' worth of bonds.
Koch Brothers
Tax Dollars At Work
Benghazi
The House Benghazi committee used $150,000 in taxpayer money to settle a lawsuit filed by a former aide who alleged he was fired in part because he was not willing to focus his investigative work on Hillary Clinton, documents released Friday show.
Air Force Reserve Maj. Bradley Podliska also complained that the committee's leadership discriminated against him, because they were unhappy he had to leave work to perform military service during the panel's inquiry into the deadly 2012 attacks at U.S. facilities in Libya.
The dollar amount of the settlement was made public Friday by the House Administration Committee as part of wider release of records detailing taxpayer-financed payments made over the years to settle claims of sexual harassment, discrimination and other prohibited behavior by members of Congress.
Gowdy said in 2015 that Podliska was fired for mishandling classified information. Podliska denied that and claimed Gowdy defamed him.
Podliska's attorney said his firing violated a law that protects service members and veterans from workplace discrimination based on their military service or status.
Benghazi
Former Public Radio Host
John Hockenberry
A former public radio host in New York City who left his show earlier this year has been accused of sexual misconduct by an author and some of his former colleagues.
Suki Kim said she met former WNYC "The Takeaway" host John Hockenberry in 2014 as a guest on the radio program. He later sent her a series of emails that made her uncomfortable, asking for her home address so he could write her letters and entitling a subject line: "Need another dose of you," she wrote in an article published on New York Magazine's website.
He left the radio show in August, saying it was time to move on.
After the accusations against media mogul Harvey Weinstein broke, Kim decided to ask Hockenberry's former colleagues about whether they ever felt uncomfortable, she wrote. One former colleague, Kristen Meinzer, told her that he made unwanted advances and wrote her sexually-explicit notes through social media. She eventually left the show.
Others reported similar behavior but did not want to be named in the story. Kim, author of "Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite" had complained to the station in February.
John Hockenberry
Weekend Box Office
'Coco'
In a sleepy post-Thanksgiving weekend at the box office, Pixar's "Coco" remained the top film for the second straight week while a number of Oscar contenders packed theaters in specialty release.
"Coco" again easily led all films with $26.1 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday. The acclaimed animated tale based on the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) has dominated new releases both domestically and abroad. It has already racked up a global gross of $280 million, including record-breaking totals in Mexico and an impressive $75.6 million in China.
With no major wide releases, Warner Bros.' "Justice League" also held in second place with $16.6 million in its third weekend. With a domestic total of $197.3 million in three weeks, the DC Comics superhero team-up release isn't going to catch Marvel's "Thor: Ragnarok." The better-received "Thor" sequel has proved far mightier, with nearly $300 million in five weeks of release.
The family film "Wonder," about a fifth-grade boy (Jacob Tremblay) with facial abnormalities, likewise stayed in third with $12.5 million. The sleeper hit of the season, also starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson, has taken in $88 million in three weeks for Lionsgate.
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. "Coco," $26.1 million ($69 million international).
2. "Justice League," $16.6 million ($35.7 million international).
3. "Wonder," $12.5 million ($7.8 million international).
4. "Thor: Ragnarok," $9.7 million ($6.5 million international).
5. "Daddy's Home 2," $7.5 million ($15.6 million international).
6. "Murder on the Orient Express," $6.7 million ($23.1 million international).
7. "Lady Bird," $4.5 million.
8. "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," $4.5 million.
9. "The Star," $4 million.
10. A Bad Moms Christmas," $3.5 million ($3.7 million international).
'Coco'
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