Josh Marshall: GOP Plans Major Social Security Cuts (TPM)
This is a huge benefit cut. Benefits could later be raised again if there was the political will to do so. The means testing component probably does more to endanger the future of the program in political terms.
Josh Marshall: Maybe the Answer Is That He Can't Divest (TPM)
Perhaps Trump simply doesn't feel like he can trust anyone else to keep the whole shambling enterprise afloat. More plausibly, and consistent with Trump's history over the last couple decades, Trump's business is dependent on an ever expanding number of deals not just to grow but to stay afloat at all. It is certainly plausible that if Trump simply sold off his company in toto, he'd be in debt. Maybe there wouldn't be anything left to put in a blind trust.
Tierney Sneed: Surprise! Obamacare Repeal Includes A Stealth Tax Cut For Top Earners (TPM)
Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement - which health care policy experts predict could cost 30 million people their health insurance - will also bring a major tax break for high-income Americans. Two taxes that will be presumably axed with the law affect only those making $200,000 or more. The break the ACA repeal will bring to those taxpayers will amount to a $346 billion tax cut in total over 10 years, according to the CBO report on the 2015 repeal legislation GOP lawmakers say they'll be using as their model next year.
Henry Rollins: Burning Punk-Rock Artifacts Is Not Punk Rock (LA Weekly)
When I first became aware of punk rock, it was more than just the music that commanded my attention. The artwork on the records and fliers, the clothes that people in the bands were wearing - it all made for a powerful combination.
Scott Burns: The Growing Longevity Gap (AssetBuilder)
As Bloomberg reports, our overall life expectancy has decreased, while the longevity gap between rich and poor has increased. Members of the one percent are now expected to live a whopping 14 years longer than those in the bottom percentile of wealth. Even when we ignore the extremes, the gap is significant. Longevity increases with each decile of income. Males in the top decile now live a full decade longer than men in the bottom decile.
Draughts or checkers (American English) is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Draughts developed from alquerque. The name derives from the verb to draw or to move.
The most popular forms are English draughts, also called American checkers, played on an 8×8 checkerboard; Russian draughts, also played on an 8×8; and international draughts, played on a 10×10 board. There are many other variants played on an 8×8, and Canadian checkers is played on a 12×12 board.
Source
Alan J was first and correct with:
Checkers.
Randall wrote:
Checkers
Deborah responded:
Is that aka Checkers? That's what I remember from a trivia night in an Irish pub in San Diego some years ago.
The skies cleared yesterday, the roads are dry, so there's a bike ride outside in my future. I can live with that.
Billy in Cypress wrote:
In the USA (which is GRATE again) it's played on a CHECKERBOARD and called CHECKERS...
DJ Useo answered:
Why, that's "checkers". Or, dead boring, as we called it when my Great Grandma would watch us when we visited.
Maybe it was more fun when the pieces were all gold!
Joe S took the day off.
mj took the day off.
MAM took the day off.
Marian took the day off.
Dale of Diamond Springs, Norcali took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Patriot Act NSA Spying Unconstitutional Section 215 National Security Letters Must End
My name is Marc Perkel and I have decided to announce that I will not comply with the so called "Patriot Act" laws requiring me to disclose information about my customers. If I receive a national security letter I will immediately photograph it, post it online everywhere I can, and then make a video of me burning it. I will then await my arrest. If you want to put me in jail then come get me mother fucker.
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'Kevin Can Wait', followed by a FRESH'Man With A Plan', then a FRESH'2 Broke Girls', followed by a FRESH'The Gawd-Awful Odd Couple', then a FRESH'Scorpion'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are John Goodman, Denee Benton, and Norah Jones.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are Chris Pratt and Olivia Munn.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'The Voice', followed by a FRESH'Timeless'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Bryan Cranston, Hailee Steinfeld, and OneRepublic.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Billie Lourd, Maureen Dowd, and Dave Lombardo.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson 'The Scab' Daly are Adria Arjona, Peter Bjorn & John, and Gotham Chopra.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'The Great Christmas Light Fight', followed by a RERUN'Great American Baking Show'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Jennifer Lawrence and Phantogram.
The CW offers the chestnut 'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer', followed by the FRESH'Greatest Holiday Commercials Countdown 2016'.
Faux has a RERUN'Gotham', followed by a RERUN'Lucifer'.
MY has an old 'L&O: SVU', followed by another old 'L&O: SVU'.
A&E has 'The First 48', 'Leah Rimini: Scientology & The Aftermath', another 'Leah Rimini: Scientology & The Aftermath', and 'The First 48'.
AMC offers the movie 'Back To The Future', followed by the movie 'Back To The Future Part II', then the movie 'Back To The Future Part III'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Fish
[7:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Birds
[8:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Insects
[9:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 12-The Stolen Earth-Part 1.
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 13-Journey's End-Part 2.
[11:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE NEXT DOCTOR
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 4-Gambit (Part 1)
[1:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 5-Gambit (Part 2)
[2:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 6-Phantasms
[3:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 7-Dark Page
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 8-Attached
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 9-Force of Nature
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 10-Inheritance
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 11-Parallels
[8:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 12-The Pegasus
[9:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 13-Homeward
[10:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 15-Lower Decks
[11:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 4-Gambit (Part 1)
[12:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 5-Gambit (Part 2)
[1:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 6-Phantasms
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 7-Dark Page
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 8-Attached
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 9-Force of Nature
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 10-Inheritance (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Vanderpump Rules', another 'Vanderpump Rules', followed by a FRESH'Vanderpump Rules', then a FRESH'Timber Creek Lodge', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
Comedy Central has 'Futurama', another 'Futurama' and 3 hours of old 'South Park'.
Scheduled on a FRESHThe Daily Show is President Barack Obama.
Scheduled on a FRESH@Midnight are Reggie Watts, James Adomian, and Morgan Murphy.
FX has the movie 'Kung Fu Panda 2', followed by the movie 'How To Train Your Dragon 2', then the movie 'How To Train Your Dragon 2', again.
History has 'American Pickers', another 'American Pickers', followed by a FRESH'American Pickers', then a FRESH'Pawn Stars', followed by a FRESH'Pawn Stars: Pumped Up'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] THE MATRIX
[9:00AM] THE MATRIX RELOADED
[12:00PM] THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS
[3:00PM] THE MATRIX
[6:00PM] THAT '70S SHOW-I'm Free
[6:30PM] THAT '70S SHOW-We're Not Gonna Take It
[7:00PM] THAT '70S SHOW-Christmas
[7:30PM] THAT '70S SHOW-I'm a Boy
[8:00PM] THAT '70S SHOW-Young Man Blues
[8:30PM] THAT '70S SHOW-A Legal Matter
[9:00PM] THAT '70S SHOW-I Can See for Miles
[9:30PM] THAT '70S SHOW-Sally Simpson
[10:00PM] THAT '70S SHOW-Won't Get Fooled Again
[10:30PM] THAT '70S SHOW-Baby Don't You Do It
[11:00PM] THAT '70S SHOW-I'm Free
[11:30PM] THAT '70S SHOW-We're Not Gonna Take It
[12:00AM] THAT '70S SHOW-Christmas
[12:30AM] THAT '70S SHOW-I'm a Boy
[1:00AM] THAT '70S SHOW-Young Man Blues
[1:30AM] THAT '70S SHOW-A Legal Matter
[2:00AM] THAT '70S SHOW-I Can See for Miles
[2:30AM] THAT '70S SHOW-Sally Simpson
[3:00AM] THAT '70S SHOW-Won't Get Fooled Again
[3:30AM] THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] M*A*S*H-Private Charles Lamb
[6:30AM] M*A*S*H-Bombed
[7:00AM] M*A*S*H-Bulletin Board
[7:30AM] M*A*S*H-The Consultant
[8:00AM] M*A*S*H-House Arrest
[8:30AM] M*A*S*H-Aid Station
[9:00AM] M*A*S*H-Love and Marriage
[9:30AM] M*A*S*H-Big Mac
[10:00AM] M*A*S*H-Payday
[10:30AM] M*A*S*H-White Gold
[11:00AM] M*A*S*H-Abyssinia, Henry
[11:30AM] M*A*S*H-Welcome to Korea
[12:00PM] M*A*S*H-Welcome to Korea
[12:30PM] A Few Good Men
[3:30PM] Starman
[6:00PM] Thelma & Louise
[9:00PM] Two Weeks Notice
[11:15PM] Monster-in-Law
[1:45AM] Thelma & Louise
[4:47AM] Rectify-Episode 7 (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Galaxy Quest', followed by the movie 'National Treasure: Book Of Secrets'.
French President Francois Hollande visits Lascaux 4, a newreplica a new replica of the prehistoric paintings of the Lascaux cave, in Montignac, on December 10, 2016
Photo by Regis Duvignau
Two Chinese filmmakers won the top awards at the Marrakesh film festival this weekend, with Zang Qiwu's "The Donor" on the controversial issue of organ transplants taking the coveted Golden Star.
The best director award went to China's Wang Xuebo for "Knife in the Clear Water".
Fourteen films competed in the annual festival but the top prize was Saturday handed to "The Donor" a drama about a poor father forced to sell his kidney to look after his family.
The Jury Prize at the festival was awarded to "Mister Universo" a film co-directed by Italian Tizza Covi and Austrian Rainer Frimmel.
Best actress award went to Fereshteh Hosseini for her performance in the film "Parting" of Afghan director Navid Mahmoudi.
Chinese dancers perform during a rehearsal of 'Chinese Dance: Maestros & Classics', the closing performance of the 'NCPA Dance Festival 2016 at the National Centre for the Perfoming Arts (NCPA) Theatre in Beijing, China, Dec. 11, 2016.
Photo by How Hwee Young
Colombia's peace deal is a model for countries at war like Syria, President Juan Manuel Santos said Saturday as he accepted his Nobel Peace Prize, though a ceremony for other laureates was marked by Bob Dylan's no-show.
Despite not attending the gala ceremony in Stockholm due to "pre-existing commitments", the US music icon-cum-literature laureate said in a speech read on his behalf that he was "honoured" to receive the award.
His decision not to attend has been perceived by many as a slight towards the Swedish Academy that awards the literature prize and the Nobel Foundation, though they have denied taking offence.
American rock star Patti Smith, a friend of Dylan's, performed his song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" during the awards ceremony, stumbling after being overcome by nerves. She apologised to the 1,500 guests and resumed singing after warm applause.
Earlier in the day in Oslo, Santos said in his acceptance speech that the Colombian peace accord, signed on November 24 to end five decades of conflict, was a "model for the resolution of armed conflicts that have yet to be resolved around the world."
NASA's been making a concerted effort over the past year to share its enormous archive of images and video with the internet. Last October, the agency teamed up with Flickr to feature thousands of Apollo era mission pictures. Thursday, NASA
once again opened its vault -- this time to unload thousands more animated GIFs onto its
Pinterest and
GIPHY pages. If you already have accounts on either of these platforms, you now have full access to NASA's archive. And thanks to GIPHY's API integration, you'll be able to embed these images into your tweets directly from the Twitter app.
A man takes photograph of displayed puppets during 'Yangon Living Street Experience' event at downtown area in Yangon, Myanmar, Dec. 11, 2016.
Photo by Lynn Bo Bo
There's at least a slice of good news for a pizza restaurant in the nation's capital caught up in fake news stories about a child sex trafficking ring run by prominent Democrats.
In the days since a conspiracy theorist showed up and fired an assault weapon inside Comet Ping Pong, supporters of the restaurant have turned out in droves to buy pizzas and leave homemade signs and flowers.
More than 2,000 people said on Facebook that they're going to this weekend's "Stand With Comet" event to support the pizza place and other neighborhood restaurants targeted by fake news fanatics.
So many came out Friday that people waited an hour and a half for a table and carry-out took 45 minutes. Other local restaurants spontaneously sent over wait staff to help. Others sent food for employees.
The restaurant also is getting support online, where a GoFundMe page set up to help it pay for legal expenses and extra security had passed $15,000, with a goal of $28,000.
Former "Brady Bunch" child star Susan Olsen was fired from her hosting gig on LA Talk Radio after sending a homophobic-tinged message to one of her guests.
The 55-year-old, known for playing Cindy Brady on the famed '70s sitcom, co-hosted a radio talk show called "Two Chicks Talkin' Politics" and went on a rant against openly gay actor Leon Acord-Whiting after the two debated various issues on the show.
The actor publicized a private message Olsen sent to him on Facebook following the broadcast, which read, in part, "You are the biggest f-- in the world."
Acord-Whiting followed it up with a statement: "It is wildly irresponsible for LA Talk Radio to allow a Trump fanatic to co-host one of their programs, where she can spew her idiotic lies unchecked. (Being a liberal and a patriot are mutually exclusive? Hillary is causing the protests & hate crimes? The Koran is a political tract?)," he wrote, mentioning topics discussed during his show appearance on Wednesday.
LA Talk Radio said in a Friday Facebook post that it "will not tolerate hateful speech by anyone associated with our radio station and have severed our ties with a host that veered off the direction in which we are going."
A Vietnamese bride is seen pushing the groom on a scooter during a photo shoot for their wedding in An Bang Beach outside Hoi An in Vietnam Dec. 11, 2016.
Defense lawyers in the Sept. 11 war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay asked a judge Wednesday to secure a copy of a U.S. Senate report on the CIA's harsh interrogation tactics before President-elect Donald Trump (R-Grifter) takes office, at which point they fear it might be too late.
The incoming Trump administration may be less likely to turn over the so-called Senate "torture report" or may even seek to destroy it, lawyer James Connell told the military judge presiding over the case.
"The new administration has made statements promising waterboarding or worse and there are many reasons to believe it is hostile to preservation of the report," Connell said during a pretrial hearing at the U.S. base in Cuba.
The Senate Intelligence Committee released a nearly 500-page summary of the report on the CIA "enhanced" interrogation program in December 2014. It provided details on the at-times brutal treatment of 119 prisoners, including five men facing trial by military commission at Guantanamo for their alleged roles planning and aiding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
Eight copies of the report were distributed to various branches of the government, including the Department of Defense, but the CIA inspector general disclosed that it had inadvertently destroyed its copy, said Connell, who represents defendant Ammar al Baluchi.
ESPN has been making investors nervous. The network's rapid subscriber loss has been blamed for the Disney's weak performance this year, but the worldwide leader in sports certainly isn't alone.
More than 70 percent of the most widely distributed channels have lost subscribers in the last year, according to Nielsen data. Most television network owners have a channel that has done as bad or worse than ESPN's percentage loss since December 2015.
Overall, the number of households with cable or satellite hookups in the U.S. fell by 1.6 percent - those are people who disconnected entirely, so that figure represents a sort of minimum loss for widely distributed networks like ESPN (if you're already in every cable household, there's nowhere to go but down). That's why the median losses were around 2 percent for the most popular channels.
What makes ESPN unique among cable networks is the extremely high fees it charges distributors to offer the channel to customers. While that high price can be attributed to unique costs related to sports programming, it has also made the channel a target in slimmed down cable packages that aim to offer cheaper bundles with more personalized options.
A fan makes his way to Lambeau Field in the snow before an NFL football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 11, 2016, in Green Bay, Wis.
Photo by Mike Roemer
A nearly complete dinosaur skeleton sold for more than one million euros at auction in the eastern French city of Lyon late Saturday, the Aguttes auction house said.
The Allosaurus, a ferocious carnivore named Kan whose species went extinct some 135 million years ago, fetched 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million), Aguttes said.
Discovered in 2013 in the Jurassic Era Morrison Formation in the western United States, the specimen is more than 7.5 metres (25 feet) long and 2.5 metres tall.
The unnamed buyer is French and the skeleton will remain in France and go on public display, an Aguttes spokesman said, without revealing when or where the unveiling would take place.
The skeleton is three-quarters complete and shows Kan in a running position with its mouth open.
Disney's "Moana" has continued to sit pretty atop the box office for its third consecutive weekend, but Damien Chazelle's musical "La La Land" was what really had audiences singing this weekend.
Playing in only five theaters, the lively and well-reviewed "La La Land" grossed a staggering $855,000 for Lionsgate, according to studio estimates Sunday. Its $171,000 per theater average is an all-time high for a five-theater release and for 2016 in general.
It was mostly business as usual among wide releases, with "Moana" in first with $18.8 million, followed by the Jennifer Aniston comedy "Office Christmas Party," which debuted to $17.5 million - a quiet moment before "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" opens next weekend.
The rest of the top five looked similar to the past few weeks, with the Harry Potter spinoff "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" in third with $10.8 million, bringing its domestic grosses to $199.3 million. The Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner sci-fi pic "Arrival" held on in fourth with $5.6 million, while Disney and Marvel's "Doctor Strange" added $4.6 million to take fifth place.
The Jessica Chastain lobbying thriller "Miss Sloane," meanwhile, fizzled in its wide expansion, earning $1.9 million from 1,648 locations.
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."Moana," $18.8 million ($23.5 million international).
2."Office Christmas Party," $17.5 million ($1.6 million international).
3."Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," $10.8 million ($33.1 million international).
4."Arrival," $5.6 million ($4.7 million international.)
5."Doctor Strange," $4.6 million ($1.6 million international).
6."Allied," $4 million ($4.8 million international).
7."Nocturnal Animals," $3.2 million ($1.2 million international).
8."Manchester by the Sea," $3.2 million.
9."Trolls," $3.1 million ($4 million international).
10."Hacksaw Ridge," $2.3 million ($15 million international).
West Virginia statesman and author Ken Hechler, whose seven-decade career included stints in the Truman White House and Congress, has died. He was 102.
Hechler's wife, Carol Hechler, said Sunday her husband died Saturday night at their home in Romney.
Ken Hechler served nine terms in Congress and four terms as West Virginia's secretary of state.
An Army combat historian in Europe during World War II, Hechler wrote "The Bridge at Remagen." The 1955 nonfiction best-seller about a key Allied victory became a 1969 film.
After President Harry S. Truman's 1948 re-election, Hechler landed some research projects for the White House and eventually became a special assistant to Truman, writing speeches and handling other tasks.
Passengers cross the River Thames in cable cars with the moon seen behind at Greenwich Peninsula in London, Britain Dec.11, 2016.
Photo by Toby Melville
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