Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Waldman: Should Democrats be as ruthless as Republicans when they have the chance? (Washington Post)
But that doesn't mean Democrats' principles will inevitably cause their defeat. Just this year they used voter initiatives to strike down felon disenfranchisement in Florida, create independent redistricting commissions in Colorado, Michigan and Utah, and pass automatic voter registration in Maryland, Michigan and Nevada. They're making progress, even if it isn't easy to do so while holding on to your belief in democracy.
Paul Waldman: Is there anything Trump touches that isn't corrupt? (Washington Post)
President Trump would like to consider himself a modern-day King Midas, with the ability to turn anything he touches to gold (and his Manhattan apartment certainly looks like the actual Midas careened drunkenly about the place, laying hands on everything from the wallpaper to the furniture). But it's becoming clearer by the day that everything he touches is poisoned by corruption.
Greg Sargent: "Trump: Democrats are the reason I can't have my wall! Republicans: Well, actually …" (Washington Post)
[…] Republicans feel boxed in by Trump's demand that they pass his wall funding, and they're reluctant to hold this vote. First, even if they do pass a measure with $5 billion in wall funding, it faces certain defeat in the Senate. Second, some Republicans worry it might not even pass the House, because there are plenty of House moderates who lost in November who might not be all that inclined to help Trump out here, since he's why they lost. More to the point, some GOP strategists have even concluded that Trump's closing message of xenophobic fearmongering over the border also contributed to their defeat.
Jonathan Chait: Trump Had Nothing to Do With His Own Inauguration, White House Says (NY Mag)
Apparently Trump just showed up, gave a speech, and left, never asking how the money being raised in his name was being spent or who was handing it over. And so the massive, nationally televised festival of Trump joins the list of Trump-related people or activities for which Donald Trump claims no responsibility.
Matthew Yglesias: The latest Obamacare ruling is part of a larger conservative attack on democracy (Vox)
"Populism" is not the problem
Shannon Palus: "You Should Ignore the 'Amazon's Choice' Label While Holiday Shopping" (Slate)
You're probably better off spending a few minutes reading the reviews.
Sam Adams: Does It Matter How You Watch Roma? (Slate)
Are critics who say you have to see Alfonso Cuarón's masterpiece in a movie theater being advocates or just snobs?
Dana Stevens: The 10 Best Movies of 2018 (Slate)
Plus five honorable mentions.
David Zinn (Instagram)
Freelance illustrator and street artist, specializing in small-scale, improvised and (mostly) light-hearted chalk art.
How Long Has It Been? (Wordpress)
Written & performed by George J. Raymond.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Drought began to kill the crops, and a Rabbi began to pray for rain; however, a dream told him that he needed to ask a certain merchant to pray for rain. The Rabbi was surprised by the request because the merchant seemed to be ignorant of religious matters; however, he went to the merchant and requested that he pray for rain. The merchant brought out a pair of scales and prayed, "I use these scales in my business, and I have never cheated anyone. If I am lying, let fire consume me. If I am telling the truth, let it rain." It rained.
• In the first half of the 20th century, Ed Diddle coached the football team of Western Kentucky State Teachers College - the Praying Colonels. Mr. Diddle once coached his team captain in how to say a prayer properly - one should ask for one's team to give a good performance on the playing field, but one should not ask for victory. Before the game, the team captain started to pray, but in the middle of the prayer, Mr. Diddle interrupted: "Damn it! I told you not to ask for victory!"
• In 1933, an earthquake struck Los Angeles. Two members of the New York Giants organization - manager Bill Terry and club secretary Jim Tierney - were rooming together. When the quake struck, Mr. Tierney, a devout Catholic, knelt and prayed. Mr. Terry, who was not a devout Catholic, also knelt, saying, "I don't know what you're saying, Tierney, but it goes for me, too."
• Rod Chisholm coached football, so of course his young daughters, ages 10 and 4, wanted to be cheerleaders. They practiced their cheers in the basement, then came upstairs to perform before their parents. That evening, the youngest daughter said her bedtime prayer in a special way: "God bless Ma, God bless Pa, God bless everybody, rah rah rah!"
• When Helen Ross was dying of cancer, her friend Fred Rogers (TV's Mister Rogers) visited her. She asked him, "Do you ever pray for people, Fred?" He replied, "Of course I do: Dear God, encircle us with Thy love wherever we may be." She said, "That's what it's all about, isn't it? It's love. That's what it's all about."
• After young professional tennis player Tracy Austin was sidelined with an inflamed sciatica nerve in early 1981, she was forced to rest, although she was very eager to start playing competitively again. Therefore, she used to say this prayer: "God, give me patience - but hurry up!"
• Doug Marlette's cartoon creation, the Reverend Will B. Dunn, says this prayer: "Lord, give me the peace that passeth understanding - not to mention the tongue to pronounce it without lisping."
• "It is not a unity of religion we plead for, but a unity of religious people. We may not be able to meet in the same pew, but we can meet on our knees." - Bishop Fulton Sheen.
• A little girl prayed to God, "Please watch after Daddy." After a moment's thought, she added, "And You'd better keep an eye on Mommy, too."
• As Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel walked with Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama, he felt that "my feet were praying."
• R' Chaim of Sanz was once asked, "Rebbe, what do you do before the prayers?" R' Chaim replied, "Before the prayers, I pray."
• Peg Bracken's grandmother occasionally ended her prayers by saying: "And if You'll just tend to Your business, Lord, I'll tend to mine."
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
New York Conversation
"The Notorious RBG"
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an unlikely national rock star. But the woman known as "the notorious RBG" is now the subject of a second film about her this year - in theaters on Christmas Day.
On Saturday evening, the Brooklyn native appeared in person, expressing love for her hometown of New York to a sold-out audience at the event organized by the Museum of the City of New York with WNET-TV. NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg led the question-and-answer session about Ginsburg's quarter century on the Supreme Court, and about her life.
Totenberg asked Ginsburg, 85, what she thought of a marital sex scene in the new biopic, "On the Basis of Sex," with Felicity Jones playing the young Ginsburg. It explores how her early legal battles changed the world for women.
"What I thought of it is that Marty would have loved it," the justice deadpanned with a laugh, referring to her late husband.
Sitting on the stage, Ginsburg exuded the kind of vitality that has kept her going to the gym, lifting weights - a routine she was forced to interrupt last month when she fractured three ribs in a fall. She was back to work within days.
"The Notorious RBG"
Auction
Oscars
One Academy Award trophy sold for nearly $500,000 and the second for well over $200,000 in a rare auction of Oscars that ended Friday in Los Angeles.
A best-picture Oscar for "Gentleman's Agreement," the 1947 film starring Gregory Peck that took on anti-Semitism, sold for $492,000. A best picture statuette for 1935's "Mutiny on the Bounty" fetched $240,000.
Both were outpaced by an archive of papers on the origin and development of "The Wizard of Oz" that brought in $1.2 million.
Other items sold include a TIE fighter helmet from the original "Star Wars" that went for $240,000, a Phaser pistol from the original "Star Trek" TV series that fetched $192,000, a hover board Marty McFly rode in "Back to the Future II" that sold for $102,000, and a golden ticket from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" that brought in $48,000.
The "Mutiny on the Bounty" Oscar price came close to auction-house projections, but the "Gentleman's Agreement" statuette brought in more than twice what was expected, for reasons that are not clear. The buyers of both Oscars and "The Wizard of Oz" document chose to remain anonymous.
Oscars
Just How Many
Ongoing Investigations
Most people know President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Aquanet) is linked in one way or another to various investigations, whether it's the special counsel's Russia probe or the ongoing case against his charitable foundation.
But to see it all in one place is another thing entirely.
On CNN's "New Day" Saturday, hosts Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul put up a graphic showing every Trump-related entity known to be under investigation. It was disconcerting, to say the least.
The half-dozen entities include the Trump Foundation, the Trump Organization, the Trump presidential campaign, the Trump transition team, the Trump inaugural committee and the Trump administrationitself.
Resident George W. Bush's chief ethics attorney Richard Painter joined the segment to urge Trump and his legal counsel to stop pretending these investigations are baseless and start negotiating some sort of plea deal.
Ongoing Investigations
'Asking You For The Truth, Sir'
Rudi
Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday pleaded with President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Grifter) personal attorney Rudy Giuliani (R-Serial Philanderer) to simply tell the truth during a wide-ranging, contentious interview.
The former New York City mayor danced around Wallace's questions on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and whether Trump had been truthful about hush money payments made to women who say they've had affairs with the president.
In typical Giuliani fashion, the attorney appeared to contradict himself several times about whether Trump directed his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to make the payments. Cohen has told federal prosecutors Trump knew about the payments and told him to make them.
"We're talking about something that doesn't matter," Giuliani said. "Whether it happened or it didn't happen, it's not illegal."
Wallace interrupted, "You're moving shells around on me. Either it happened or it didn't happen." But Giuliani defended himself by claiming, "That's what lawyers do all the time."
Rudi
$1 Billion a Month
The Cost
U.S. companies paid $1 billion more in tariffs on technology products imported from China in October than a year earlier, as new duties imposed by the Trump administration took effect.
The tariff costs rose more than seven-fold to $1.3 billion, as the world's two biggest economies became embroiled in a trade war, according to data provided by the Consumer Technology Association and analyzed by consulting firm The Trade Partnership.
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Yeti Pubes) has imposed tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports since early July. The duties have been implemented in three tranches, the latest of which applied to $200 billion in goods and took effect Sept. 24.
A new round of talks between the two governments has raised hopes of a lasting truce. After Trump met President Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires on Dec. 1, the U.S. agreed to put off raising the tariff rate on the $200 billion of imports from 10 percent to 25 percent. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is leading talks to reach a deal on "structural changes" to China's economy by March 1.
Technology products now subject to higher tariffs include everything from printed circuit boards to computer servers and vacuum cleaners. Apple Inc. has so far avoided tariffs on popular products it manufactures in China such as the iPhone and Apple Watch.
The Cost
New Top Blockbuster Bomb of 2018 Box Office
'Mortal Engines'
After Thanksgiving weekend, it looked like the Lionsgate movie "Robin Hood" would be the biggest blockbuster bomb of the 2018 box office. But the Sherwood Forest revamp has now been dethroned by Universal/Media Rights Capital's "Mortal Engines," an adaptation of Philip Reeve's sci-fi dystopian novel that opened to a mere $7.5 million domestically this weekend.
Most of this year's box office flops have been mid-budget releases like "Annihilation" and "The Hurricane Heist," rather than blockbusters with $100 million-plus budgets like 2017's "Ghost in the Shell." "Robin Hood" was the closest to that budget mark with a reported budget of around $97 million.
But "Mortal Engines" had a budget of at least $100 million, with some reports estimating it as much as $150 million. While Universal doesn't disclose budget figures, it's possible that the studio might not make back its production costs, let alone that of its marketing campaign. Overseas figures haven't been good either for "Mortal Engines," with an international launch of around $34 million and a global start of $42.3 million. Warner Bros.' "Aquaman" has made it extremely difficult for this film to get a foothold, as the DC film's global total this weekend nearly tripled that of "Mortal Engines" with $126 million grossed and a $261 million cume.
Like "Annihilation," "Ghost in the Shell" and even the acclaimed sequel "Blade Runner 2049," "Mortal Engines" is proving that sci-fi is a hard sell at movie theaters unless it's got a popular brand like Marvel on it. Universal tried to sell "Mortal Engines" on its connection to the legendary "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, as the Oscar-winning director-writer trio of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens were attached as writers and producers.
But without any stars, the "LOTR" connection and the elaborate sign of gigantic moving cities wasn't enough to get people into theaters. Critics panned "Mortal Engines" with a 28 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, praising the VFX and artistic direction but criticizing its story as "dramatically inert," as L.A. Times critic Kenneth Turan described it.
'Mortal Engines'
Reshapes Brains
Chronic Bullying
Sticks and stones may break your bones, but name-calling could actually change the structure of your brain.
A new study has found that persistent bullying in high school is not just psychologically traumatising, it could also cause real and lasting damage to the developing brain.
The findings are drawn from a long-term study on teenage brain development and mental health, which collected brain scans and mental health questionnaires from European teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19.
Following 682 young people in England, Ireland, France and Germany, the researchers tallied 36 in total who reported experiencing chronic bullying during these years.
Across the length of the study, in certain regions, the brains of the bullied participants appeared to have actually shrunk in size.
Chronic Bullying
Excavation Reveals Mysterious Relative
'Little Foot'
Following an epic 20-year-long excavation in South Africa, researchers have finally recovered and cleaned the nearly complete skeleton of an ancient human relative: an approximately 3.67-million-year-old hominin nicknamed Little Foot.
Little Foot is likely a previously unknown species, the researchers said. In four newly posted studies - all available on bioRxiv, meaning they are not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal - the researchers delved into Little Foot's anatomy. Their findings reveal that Little Foot likely walked upright on two feet and probably had a nearly lifelong injury on her left arm.
The successful two-decade-long excavation of Little Foot was "almost a miracle," study researcher Robin Crompton, a musculoskeletal biologist at the University of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, told Nature, because the bones themselves were softer than the rock surrounding them in the Sterkfontein caves, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Johannesburg.
Researchers first came across Little Foot's remains in 1994, when Ronald Clarke, a paleoanthropologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, found some small bones in a collection of fossils recovered from the Sterkfontein caves. The collection was previously thought to contain ancient monkey bones. But an analysis revealed that some of the bones were something else entirely. The scientists dubbed the newfound specimen Little Foot because its foot bones are quite small.
The newfound Little Foot specimen is more than 90 percent complete, which far exceeds the status for Lucy, whose skeleton is about 40 percent complete, Live Science reported previously.
'Little Foot'
Weekend Box Office
"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"
"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" swung to the top of the domestic box office in its first weekend in theaters, proving that there is widespread audience interest in big screen animated versions of Marvel's marquee superheroes.
The film led a host of newcomers that debuted to varying success on this pre-Christmas holiday weekend, including Clint Eastwood's drug smuggling drama "The Mule" and the Peter Jackson-produced epic "Mortal Engines" which bombed in North American theaters.
"Into the Spider-Verse" earned an estimated $35.4 million from 3,813 theaters against a $90 million production budget according to Sony Pictures on Sunday, which is a record for animated movies in December (although the hybrid "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movies were higher). The film features an innovative animation style - both CGI and hand-drawn - and focuses on the Miles Morales character as he learns to become the famed web-slinger. It's another financial win for the studio's latest "expanded Spider-Man universe" strategy following "Venom" and "Spider-Man: Homecoming."
The Clint Eastwood-directed drug smuggling drama "The Mule" debuted in second place with an estimated $17.2 million. It's a solid debut for R-rated film that cost $50 million to produce. The Warner Bros. film drew an audience that was mostly older (78 percent over 35-years-old) and male (54 percent).
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."Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," $35.4 million.
2."The Mule," $17.2 million.
3."Dr. Seuss' The Grinch," $11.6 million.
4."Ralph Breaks the Internet," $9.6 million.
5."Mortal Engines," $7.5 million.
6."Creed II," $5.4 million.
7."Bohemian Rhapsody," $4.1 million.
8."Instant Family," $3.7 million.
9."Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald," $3.7 million.
10."Green Book," $2.8 million.
"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"
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