Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Apple and the Fruits of Tax Cuts (NY Times Column)
What looks like a big giveaway to wealthy stockholders is, in fact, exactly that.
Josh Marshall: 'An MO For Other More Serious Crimes' (TPM)
Read what this person says. I cannot identify the person but I can vouch for the expertise: "I know everyone has a take on this Rudy/Cohen shit-show, but I thought I would give you some perspective from someone steeped in anti-corruption enforcement (both domestic and foreign) on the prosecution and defense side. …"
Mary Beard: 99 and Counting (TLS)
I got in, and spent the next four years with Joyce as my Director of Studies, under a regime of tough love that would probably be outlawed now. There were several occasions when I went away from having my essay torn apart - and retreated to my room for a little cry, at the sense of being so stupid that I had failed to nail the points in what I had written.
CHRISTINA ANDERSON and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA: No 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, Panel Says Amid Sex Scandal (NY Times)
The Swedish Academy said it would postpone the 2018 award until next year, when it will name two winners, making this the first year since World War II that the panel has decided not to bestow one of the world's most revered cultural honors. The academy is involved only in the literature award, so other Nobel Prizes are not affected.
Mary Beard: Front of House in the British Museum (TLS)
If you are on Twitter, you may have spotted my tweet about doing a short stint as a gallery attendant in the British Museum. It was something that I had always wanted to do (I mean, see the galleries from this different perspective) ….
Ryan Raman: Is Hummus Healthy? 8 Great Reasons to Eat More Hummus (Heathline)
Hummus is an incredibly popular Middle Eastern dip and spread. It is typically made by blending chickpeas (garbanzo beans), tahini (ground sesame seeds), olive oil, lemon juice and garlic in a food processor. Not only is hummus delicious, but it is also versatile, packed with nutrients and has been linked to many impressive health and nutritional benefit.
Steven Pinker: Is the World Getting Better or Worse? (TED)
Was 2017 really the "worst year ever," as some would have us believe? In his analysis of recent data on homicide, war, poverty, pollution and more, psychologist Steven Pinker finds that we're doing better now in every one of them when compared with 30 years ago. But progress isn't inevitable, and it doesn't mean everything gets better for everyone all the time, Pinker says. Instead, progress is problem-solving, and we should look at things like climate change and nuclear war as problems to be solved, not apocalypses in waiting.
Keza MacDonald: "Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery review: a shameless shake-down" (The Guardian)
After drawing in the Potterites with a enchanting start, this game refuses to let you play unless you pay up. It's dull, dismaying and deeply cynical.
Suzanne Moore: I wouldn't go to Harry and Meghan's pay-as-you-go bash. It's pure meanness (The Guardian)
Twelve-hundred hand-picked "ordinary" people, many from charities that the royals support, will be let into the castle's grounds. They will be there for hours and hours, and yet, it seems, they will not get so much as a vol-au-vent. Those who work with deprived and alienated people have been advised in letters from lord lieutenants "to bring a picnic lunch as it will not be possible to buy food and drink on site". What? What kind of invite is that?
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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
Pervasive lying
As someone said this AM, you've never been able to get the truth from Predator; you can't get the truth from his staff--paid liars like the Hag & the Southern Cow; now you can't get the truth from his legal team--there is NO ONE ANYWHERE in this administration able to speak truth at any time. This is a sorry state of affairs. We are being buried alive in bullshit. And with Predator in another manic phase, the amount of excrement he is spewing out is increasing exponentially.
Honestly, for me it's like being trapped in the attic with the living embodiment of a portrait of Dorian Gray, only Predator was never beautiful and charming in his youth.
Love idiot headlines like this--Is Huckabee Sanders Finished? CNN Says She's 'Lost All Credibility With American People'
When tf did the Southern Lying Cow ever HAVE any credibility? Works for someone who will tell a lie when the truth would be easier. Repeats his lies all the time. Tells ADDITIONAL lies on his behalf.
Why are people just now noticing?! Why did they ever believe even a tiny bit? Lie to me once, and you're dead to me. Lie to me repeatedly? I don't even hear sound coming out of that foul orifice.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
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
BURN BABY, BURN!
MOVING ON UP!
"SENATOR MURDERER".
"…WE'D BE WAVING A BLOODY SHIRT RIGHT NOW."
THERE'S NOTHING THERE.
USEFUL IDIOTS.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
We're having a heat wave. Ack.
Ex-CIA Director's Advice
Michael Hayden
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden has some surprising advice for onetime colleagues who ask whether they should take a job working for President Trump: Don't do it. You will only endanger your own future and reputation.
In a new interview featured on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery , Hayden said it's been hard to watch top Trump administration officials - including former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, former Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert and others - defend an often indefensible president.
"The longer they were in the administration, the more their personal credentials were being threatened," Hayden said. "At what point do you stop being a guard rail and become an enabler and a legitimizer?"
The former CIA chief is quick to acknowledge that Trump is not the first modern president to have an attenuated relationship to the truth. Hayden himself served as CIA chief under a president (George W. Bush) who took the country to war based on false claims about the threat posed by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
"We've had presidents who lie, who have argued with us, who have disagreed with our version of objective reality," said Hayden, without naming which ones he had in mind. But Trump, he said, is in a category all to himself.
Michael Hayden
New Order Alarms LGBTQ Groups
'Religious Liberty'
President Donald Trump (R-Serial Philanderer) on Thursday marked the National Day of Prayer by signing an executive order creating a new office aimed at giving churches and other faith-based organizations a stronger political voice. But some LGBTQ advocates fear this administration could use the new order as ammunition to target their communities.
The order, entitled the "Establishment of a White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative," will form a "faith initiative," headed by a yet-to-be-appointed advisor. This advisor will alert the administration to "any failures of the executive branch to comply with religious liberty protections under law," according to a press release.
"This office will also help ensure that faith-based organizations have equal access to government funding and the equal right to exercise their deeply held beliefs," Trump said Thursday.
Previous presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, created similar versions of this office during their respective tenures. Trump's order, however, sparked concern among a number of LGBTQ advocacy groups. Many fear that it may encourage discrimination against LGBTQ people in the name of religion.
Lambda Legal, a national legal nonprofit focused on LGBTQ issues that is based in New York, warned of the potential "weaponization" of religious freedom in a series of tweets Thursday.
'Religious Liberty'
Bets On 3D Printers
GM
General Motors Co said on Thursday it was working with design software company Autodesk Inc to manufacture new, lightweight 3D-printed parts that could help the automaker meet its goals to add alternative-fuel vehicles to its product lineup.
Last year, the company announced ambitious plans to add 20 new electric battery and fuel cell vehicles to its global lineup by 2023. Chief Executive Mary Barra has made a bold promise to investors that the Detroit automaker will make money selling electric cars by 2021.
The ability to print lightweight parts could be a gamechanger for the electric vehicle industry. With consumer concerns over the limited range of electric vehicles a major obstacle to their mass adoption, making them lighter improves fuel efficiency and could help extend that range.
GM executives this week showed off a 3D-printed stainless steel seat bracket developed with Autodesk technology - which uses cloud computing and artificial intelligence-based algorithms to rapidly explore multiple permutations of a part design.
Using conventional technology, the part would require eight components and several suppliers. With this new system, the seat bracket consists of one part - which looks like a mix between abstract art and science fiction movie - that is 40 percent lighter and 20 percent stronger.
GM
Up For Auction
Royal Wedding Cake
It's unlikely that digging into a slice of 37-year-old cake is an appealing prospect to many people - but some are prepared to pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege. That said, the decades-old cake in question could be seen to be a historical artifact, given that it formed part of the original wedding cake of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana on 29 July 1981.
A slice of the decade-old wedding cake is just one of several slices of historic cakes being auctioned by the Beverly Hills-based Julien's Auctions in celebration of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's upcoming nuptials. The auction will take place at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on June 23.
Also up for grabs is a slice of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge's 2011 wedding fruitcake, which is estimated to be sold for $600-$800 and comes with a special card that reads: "With best wishes… from… TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall… in celebration of the wedding… of… TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge."
There are also wedding cake samples being auctioned from the marriage of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson held at Buckingham Palace on July 23, 1986 (estimated to sell for $600-$800), and the marriage of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips on November 14, 1973 (expected to go for $300-$500).
But, the auction's pièce de résistance is the slice of cake from the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, which is expected to be auctioned off for as much as $800-$1,200. The cake comes inside a white box with silver printing that reads "CD/ Buckingham Palace/ 29th July 1981," and is wrapped in a paper doily with an original paper envelope bearing Queen Elizabeth's royal stamp.
Royal Wedding Cake
Triples Collection
NSA
The U.S. National Security Agency collected 534 million records of phone calls and text messages of Americans last year, more than triple gathered in 2016, a U.S. intelligence agency report released on Friday said.
The sharp increase from 151 million occurred during the second full year of a new surveillance system established at the spy agency after U.S. lawmakers passed a law in 2015 that sought to limit its ability to collect such records in bulk.
The spike in collection of call records coincided with an increase reported on Friday across other surveillance methods, raising questions from some privacy advocates who are concerned about potential government overreach and intrusion into the lives of U.S. citizens.
The 2017 call records tally remained far less than an estimated billions of records collected per day under the NSA's old bulk surveillance system, which was exposed by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.
Overall increases in surveillance hauls were both mystifying and alarming coming years after Snowden's leaks, privacy advocates said.
NSA
Cozy With Lobbyists
Pruitt
Lobbyists and a well-connected GOP political backer played outsized roles in shaping Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt's travel plans, according to new reports.
Pruitt, already the target of multiple investigations for lavish spending and possible ethics violations, relied on the same lobbyist who helped plan a controversial trip to Morocco in December to arrange details of travel to Australia earlier last year, CNN reported on Thursday. Additionally, Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate and GOP backer, played a major role in helping shape Pruitt's planned trip to Israel in February, The Washington Post reported.
It's very unusual for a person outside government to arrange travel plans for a Cabinet official, ethics experts have noted, and some critics have questioned whether Pruitt violated federal law by recruiting lobbyists and friends for this role. Public officials are prohibited from using their position to financially benefit friends.
The Post reported that Pruitt had been enlisting "well-connected friends and political allies" to help plan overseas travel since he took office. "Pruitt drew up a list of at least a dozen countries he hoped to visit and urged aides to help him find official reasons to travel," the paper added.
Reports earlier this week revealed that Pruitt relied heavily on a longtime friend and former Comcast lobbyist, Richard Smotkin, to help plan his expensive trip to Morocco. Smotkin reportedly was hired as a lobbyist by the Moroccan government shortly after Pruitt's visit, raising questions about whether the embattled EPA chief's trip served to benefit Smotkin financially.
Pruitt
Hush Payment
Stormy
An angry Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) dismissed a growing storm over a hush money payment to an adult movie star as "crap" Friday, as it threatened to become a second front in the president's deepening legal troubles.
Trump promised to clarify what he called a "very simple" story after his newly recruited lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, revealed the president had reimbursed his personal attorney for the payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
The secret $130,000 payment was made on the eve the hotly contested 2016 US presidential election to silence Daniel's claims of a decade-old affair with Trump.
Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, implied the payment was made just weeks before the election to prevent Daniels from hurting Trump's chances to win -- which if true could potentially have been a criminal violation of election laws.
Trump though suggested Giuliani misspoke, while rejecting questions about changing his own positions after saying last month that he didn't know about the payment.
Stormy
Used To Thwart Hostage Raid
Drone Swarm
FBI agents covertly surveilling a criminal gang suspected of holding at least one person hostage had their cover blown when a swarm of drones descended on them.
Joe Mazel, the head of the FBI's operational technology law unit, said the small unmanned units hovered around the agents and made "high-speed low passes" at them.
Mazel, a veteran federal agent, recounted the incident this week while speaking to attendees at the AUVSI Xponential tech conference in Denver, according to Defense One.
He said it happened in a large U.S. city last winter but was reportedly careful not to share identifying details about the incident, saying it is "law enforcement sensitive."
The drones, according to Mazel, not only buzzed the agents but also livestreamed the entire thing.
Drone Swarm
Top 20
Global Concert Tours
The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. Justin Timberlake; $3,329,623; $143.04.
2. "Springsteen On Broadway" ; $2,226,600; $508.89.
3. Romeo Santos; $1,575,062; $101.76.
4. Kendrick Lamar; $1,489,005; $88.86.
5. Kevin Hart; $1,020,636; $79.52.
6. Demi Lovato; $1,000,971; $80.41.
7. Blake Shelton; $997,285; $78.17.
8. The Killers; $907,234; $59.28.
9. Kid Rock; $889,672; $89.60.
10. Harry Styles; $879,098; $73.80.
11. Imagine Dragons; $828,979; $61.28.
12. Lana Del Rey; $779,149; $81.25.
13. André Rieu; $772,070; $86.44.
14. Sunrise Avenue; $663,753; $63.39.
15. Miranda Lambert; $583,098; $58.47.
16. Stereophonics; $550,141; $58.95.
17. Gloria Trevi / Alejandra Guzman; $537,174; $62.53.
18. A-ha; $529,448; $81.51.
19. "Soy Luna Live"; $521,483; $71.90.
20. Jerry Seinfeld; $488,497; $102.07.
Global Concert Tours
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