Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Taxpayers, You've Been Scammed (NY Times Column)
The tax cuts may look like a gift, but the middle class will end up paying the bill.
Andrew Tobias: A Letter from Warren Buffett
The big headline this year? The Republicans' "middle class" tax cut enriched Berkshire Hathaway shareholders by $29 billion. Even when you're rich, every little bit helps.
Joe Bob Briggs: When Did Real Courts Become TV Courts? (Taki Magazine)
If anybody in the reality TV world remembers Judge Wapner, the original host of The People's Court, I doubt that they remember what he stood for. He stood for the rule of law. The rule of law above all other considerations. The role of the courtroom was to apply law and nothing else. In other words, stop your sniveling, if you're in the dock, and stop your grandstanding, if you're a lawyer.
Joe Bob Briggs: A World of Hurt in the Boardroom (Taki Magazine)
Apparently a whole bunch of CEOs and public officials and celebrities and high sheriffs of various sorts have been writhing around in their mahogany offices, screaming in agony. I speak, of course, of the painful decision.
Joe Bob Briggs: "Nuke That Rascal's Website" (Taki Magazine)
Every day somebody howls for the shutdown of a website, the squelching of a Twitter account, the nuking of a Facebook page, the removal of a video or a screed or a manifesto, all in the name of…uh…well, it depends, but mostly in the name of saving the world. We've become a nation of scolds and censors and digital night-riders, trying to get people removed from the internet.
Hadley Freeman: "After Weinstein: why this year's Oscars are make or break" (The Guardian)
After a tumultuous year for the film industry (and the wider world) the Academy will face ridicule unless it starts giving prizes to the truly important films.
Ryan Gilbey: The weirdest Oscars nominees ever - ranked! (The Guardian)
On the eve of the 90th Academy Awards, we celebrate the unlikeliest red-carpet-walkers, including Robert Towne's dog, several people who don't actually exist and … Jean-Paul Sartre.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Latte Art
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Let's have neverending gun conferences
Here's an answer to the guns problem that I like:
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
"BLOWING UP THE SYSTEM".
KEEP THEM BAREFOOT AND PREGNANT!
TUCKER FREAKS OUT.
HOW CONSERVATIVES WORSHIP THEIR GOD.
WHAT IS THE NRA HIDING?
LOVE YOUR ENEMY.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rained off and on all day. It's a start...
Twitter
'Alex' Baldwin
President-for-now Trump (R-Crooked) lashed out at Alec Baldwin in a typo-ridden tweet early Friday morning about the actor's recent assertion that he is tired of playing the commander in chief on NBC's "Saturday Night Live."
"Alex Baldwin [sic], whose dieing [sic] mediocre career was saved by his impersonation of me on SNL, now says playing DJT was agony for him," Trump tweeted at 5:42 a.m. ET, about an hour after "Fox & Friends First" aired a segment on Baldwin's lament. "Alex [sic], it was also agony for those who were forced to watch. You were terrible. Bring back Darrell Hammond, much funnier and a far greater talent!"
The president subsequently deleted and resubmitted the statement without typos.
Baldwin responded less than an hour later with a tweet predicting the collapse of Trump's presidency.
In Trump, Baldwin says he's found his most popular character: "The 'SNL' Trump sketches prompted people to approach me, thank me, and beseech me to 'keep going' more than any other portrayal or piece I have performed."
'Alex' Baldwin
Rattled
John Brennan
Former CIA Director John Brennan expressed "deep worry and concern" Friday about leadership and the nation's safety in the wake of Donald Trump's ugly Twitter attack against Alec Baldwin over the actor's portrayal of the president on "Saturday Night Live."
Brennan was asked by Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC if he thought Trump was "too unstable" to possess the nuclear codes that would allow him to launch an attack. Brennan responded that he was rattled by the president's strange focus on Baldwin the morning after Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted of his nation's nuclear capabilities to strike anywhere in the world, including the U.S. A simulated video presented by Putin appeared to depict next-generation nuclear missiles striking Florida.
Trump has yet to respond to Putin. Instead, he ranted against the actor in an error-riddled tweet early Friday morning (the tweet was later reposted with corrections).
"When I hear what Vladimir Putin was saying about the nuclear capabilities he has [and] then the president of the United States is tweeting about Alec Baldwin this morning, I mean, where is your sense of priorities?" Brennan asked. "I think a lot of Americans are looking at what's happening with a sense of: This is surreal."
"Our country needs strong leadership now. If we have somebody in the Oval Office who is unstable, inept, inexperienced and also unethical, we really have rough waters ahead," he said.
John Brennan
Weekly Comedy Show
Hasan Minhaj
"The Daily Show" correspondent Hasan Minhaj is getting a weekly comedy show on Netflix, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Minhaj will become the first Indian-American to front a weekly comedy show, one that THR's story said will "explore the modern cultural and political landscapes with depth and sincerity."
Netflix has already committed to 32 episodes of the show, according to THR.
Minhaj reportedly produced his own pilot, sparking a bidding war that Netflix won. Netflix's vice president of content, Bela Bajaria, told THR she's been "a big fan of Hasan's for many years."
Minhaj started on "The Daily Show" in November 2014 and will transition to his new role this summer. He had an hourlong Netflix special titled "Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King" released in May 2017, mere weeks after he performed at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington.
Hasan Minhaj
Record Store Day
David Bowie
Three rare David Bowie records will be released in limited edition, April 21, for Record Store Day. The news was announced on the late artist's Instagram.
The first release, "Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78)," is a previously unreleased set of three LP discs featuring recordings from David Bowie's Isolar II tour gigs at Earls Court, London, June 30 and July 1, 1978.
The second release is a single featuring the full-length demo of "Let's Dance," as well as a live version of the track.
The third record, "Bowie Now," is a previously unreleased 1977 promotional LP featuring tracks from the "Low" and "Heroes" albums, reports Pitchfork.
The site also reports that a reissue of David Bowie's "Aladdin Sane" album was also recently announced.
David Bowie
Imagine If
Little Tucker
Fox News host Tucker Carlson doesn't criticize Donald Trump (R-Pendejo) very often, but he did so on Thursday night after the president suggested taking guns away from potentially dangerous people before due process.
"Imagine if Barack Obama had said that," Carlson said. "Just ignore due process and start confiscating guns."
Carlson said Obama would've been "denounced as a dictator" for making such a comment.
"We would have denounced him first, trust me," Carlson said. "Congress would be talking impeachment right now. Some would be muttering about secession."
It was the second time in recent months that Carlson had broken with the president. In January, Carlson called out Trump for indicating that he would be willing to protect young undocumented immigrants, who are also known as dreamers. Noting that Trump's campaign platform was tough on immigration, Carlson asked: "So what was the point of running for president?"
Little Tucker
Olympics Op-Ed
Fox "News"
The Fox News executive editor who wrote an anti-diversity op-ed railing against the U.S. Olympic Committee for celebrating a diverse Team USA has retired from the network, CNN reported Thursday.
John Moody, who also served as an executive vice president, made headlines last month when he wrote that the USOC "would like to change" the Olympics slogan from "Faster, Higher, Stronger" to "Darker, Gayer, Different."
He added, "If your goal is to win medals, that won't work."
The column was written in response to the USOC celebrating that Team USA's Winter Olympics delegation of athletes was the most diverse in the county's history. The team was overwhelmingly white and far less diverse than the 2016 Summer Olympics team.
The column was posted for about a day before Fox News retracted the article and removed it from the website. A spokesperson told HuffPost at the time: "John Moody's column does not reflect the views or values of FOX News."
Fox "News"
Tapping The Rush
Lithium
A small Canadian mining company has staked claim to mineral rights on over a hundred thousand acres of federal land in Utah since last year, hoping to tap lithium deposits from spent oil wells to feed America's high-tech battery industry.
The play by Vancouver-based MGX Minerals is part of a global scramble for the super-light metal used in smart phones, electric vehicles, and storage for power generated by wind and solar installations.
MGX Minerals shares have surged 40 percent this year to C$1.43 ($1.11). Still, analysts were divided over prospects of the move. The company said it was encouraged by President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) administration's move this year to encourage more U.S. production of lithium and other metals on a list of "critical minerals" it says are important for national security.
U.S. officials "understand that the U.S. needs a supply of lithium and is cognizant of global competition," said MGX CEO Jared Lazerson in an interview. He called Utah "one of the best places to start for lithium for North America."
The United States currently has only one active lithium operation, owned by Albemarle Corp in Nevada, and imports more than half the lithium it consumes. Other companies, including Westwater Resources, US Lithium Corp and Pure Energy, are also trying to develop new lithium projects in the United States to feed rising demand.
Lithium
Servitude
Nuns
A Vatican magazine has denounced how nuns are often treated like indentured servants by cardinals and bishops, for whom they cook and clean for next to no pay.
The March edition of "Women Church World," the monthly women's magazine of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, hit newsstands Thursday. Its expose on the underpaid labor and unappreciated intellect of religious sisters confirmed that the magazine is increasingly becoming the imprint of the Catholic Church's #MeToo movement.
"Some of them serve in the homes of bishops or cardinals, others work in the kitchens of church institutions or teach. Some of them, serving the men of the church, get up in the morning to make breakfast, and go to sleep after dinner is served, the house cleaned and the laundry washed and ironed," reads one of the lead articles.
A nun identified only as Sister Marie describes how sisters serve clergy but "are rarely invited to sit at the tables they serve."
While such servitude is common knowledge, it is remarkable that an official Vatican publication would dare put such words to paper and publicly denounce how the church systematically exploits its own nuns.
Nuns
Discovered On Remote Antarctic Islands
Penguins
A thriving hotspot of some 1.5 million Adelie penguins has been discovered on the remote Danger Islands in the east Antarctic, surprised scientists announced Friday.
Just 160 kilometres (100 miles) away in the west Antarctic, the same species is in decline due to sea ice melt blamed on global warming, they said.
The first complete census revealed that the Danger Islands host more than 750,000 breeding pairs of Adelie penguins, more than the rest of the Antarctic Peninsula region combined, the team reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
It included the third and fourth-largest Adelie penguin colonies in the world.
The islands, which lie at the tip of Antarctica nearest South America, have rarely been visited, and the new discovery was thanks to Earth-monitoring satellites, the team from America, Britain and France, said.
Penguins
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