Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Maya Oppenheim: "Jared Kushner 'admitted Donald Trump lies to his base because he thinks they're stupid'" (Independent)
'He just knows Republicans are stupid and they'll buy it,' says former New York Observer editor.
Shawn Boburg: How Jared Kushner built a luxury skyscraper using federal loans intended to support deprived areas (Independent; Warning - Intrusive Advertising)
The tactic - critics liken it to the gerrymandering of legislative districts - made it appear that the luxury tower was in an area with extraordinarily high unemployment, allowing Kushner Companies and its partners to get $50 million in low-cost financing through the EB-5 visa programme.
Paul Krugman: Trump Gratuitously Rejects the Paris Climate Accord (NY Times)
As Donald Trump does his best to destroy the world's hopes of reining in climate change, let's be clear about one thing: This has nothing to do with serving America's national interest. The U.S. economy, in particular, would do just fine under the Paris accord. This isn't about nationalism; mainly, it's about sheer spite.
Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker and Michael Birnbaum: "Inside Trump's climate decision: After fiery debate, he 'stayed where he's always been'" (Washington Post)
The pressure on President Trump to remain in the Paris climate accord came from all sides.
Bari Weiss: When the Left Turns on Its Own (NY Times)
Shutting down conservatives has become de rigueur. But now anti-free-speech activists are increasingly turning their ire on free-thinking progressives. Liberals shouldn't cede the responsibility to defend free speech on college campuses to conservatives. After all, without free speech, what's liberalism about?
Mitch Prinstein: Popular People Live Longer (NY Times)
The results revealed that being unpopular - feeling isolated, disconnected, lonely - predicts our life span. More surprising is just how powerful this effect can be.
Rachel Aroesti: "Pixx: The Age of Anxiety review - riveting, cliche-free electropop joy" (The Guardian)
The title of 21-year-old Hannah Rodgers' first album may seem like an attempt to capitalise on the zeitgeist but, satisfyingly, is actually taken from a 1947 Auden poem
JM McNab: 6 Classic Kids' Books With Insanely Deep Messages You Missed (Cracked)
Unless you're some kind of weirdo who still reads the same books from childhood -- or the kind of weirdo who actually has kids of their own -- you probably haven't checked out any picture books in a while. Well, guess what: There's some heavy shit out there. Since our prepubescent brains weren't equipped to untangle them, let us present a series of book reports on some of those childhood favorites that totally flew over your head while you were busy eating glue.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Veljko Suggests
Spectacular Buildings
Veljko
Thanks, Veljko!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
He wants to be liked. He NEEDS to be loved and admired. But he goes out of his way to piss everyone off. They mock him mercilessly. Why does he keep on such a path of failure? Is attention--even 99.99% negative attention--really that much more important? I can only guess that more than his pathetic need for love, he is so afraid that everyone will ignore his worthless, puny self if he's not doing despicable things, that being hated is somehow better than being ignored.
It's so childish. How the hell does someone get to be 70 and remain so childish?! He has obviously bought his way out of anyone standing up to his childish antics and tantrums thus far. But it won't work with Merkel, Macron, Trudeau, and any other world leaders with an ounce of backbone.
Please give him a Big Mac to go with his bucket of chicken and two scoops of ice cream. Please let the cholesterol do its work quickly!
By the way, the word-a-day guy is still throwing shade at Lumpy with his "Thought of the Day" quotes:
The capacity to produce social chaos is the last resort of desperate people. -Cornel West, author and philosopher (b. 2 Jun 1953)
Linda's word of the day must be shade!
Not only did Macron deliver a rebuke to Stain's decision to abandon the climate accords in ENGLISH, as Kathy just read and shared, at the European gathering last week, Macron spoke ONLY French at Stain. With Teresa May, he spoke English.
The French have ALWAYS known how to throw shade! Love that Francophone hottie more and more.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda (& Kathy)!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"EARTH IS A LOSER!"
EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED.
CONSERVATIVE KILLERS.
DECAPITATING SNAKE HEAD!
SAVING A GREAT WHITE SHARK.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
More June, less Gloom.
Returns With Trump In Sights
Roger Waters
On his first album in 25 years, Roger Waters has brought back the tense mood of isolation that characterized Pink Floyd. But this time the nemesis isn't abstract -- it's Donald Trump (R-Buffoon).
The rock legend Friday released "Is This the Life We Really Want?", his first studio album since 1992, accompanied by an extensive tour with a characteristically elaborate show that incorporates his signature work, Pink Floyd's "The Wall."
The 73-year-old has long conceptualized rock albums around ideas -- "The Wall" about a boy's struggle to connect to humanity and "The Dark Side of the Moon" probing the roots of mental illness.
The characters in "Is This the Life We Really Want?" similarly conjure up terrifying worlds. "The Last Refugee," spliced with radio snippets, depicts the treacherous flight to safety at the end of a calamitous war.
Trump pervades the music, with the title track even sampling a recording from one of the US president's regular complaints about media coverage."Picture That," one of the hardest-edged songs on the album, erupts into a rock interlude when Waters makes a charged reference to Trump.
Roger Waters
Administration 'Spying On Journalists'
T-rump
Donald Trump's (R-Pendejo) administration is spying on journalists who have been handed leaked information, it has been claimed.
The US Justice Department has obtained a legal warrant from the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to conduct electronic surveillance on reporters who were known to have published articles based on leaked information, according to the New York Post.
The surveillance is said to be part of the Trump administration's attempts to clamp down on leaks from within the White House and government departments.
According to the newspaper, some in the administration believe the leaks are coming from someone he described as "a retired, high-ranking military officer who held important posts in the intelligence service".
T-rump
Scientists Detect For Third Time
Einstein Gravitational Waves
Scientists have for a third time detected ripples in space from black holes that crashed together billions of light years from Earth, a discovery that confirms a new technique for observing cataclysmic events in the universe, research published on Thursday shows.
Such vibrations, known as gravitational waves, were predicted by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago and were detected for the first time in September 2015. They are triggered by massive celestial objects that crash and merge, setting off ripples through space and across time.
The latest detection occurred on Jan. 4, 2017. Twin lasers in Louisiana and Washington picked up the faint vibrations of two black holes that were 20 and 30 times more massive than the sun, respectively, before they spiraled toward each other and merged into a larger black hole.
The discovery marks a turning point in the nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy, which scientists are developing to learn more about how the universe formed. The first detection of gravitational waves created a scientific sensation.
A team of more than 1,000 scientists published their findings in this week's issue of Physical Review Letters.
Einstein Gravitational Waves
Fake Immigration Control Posters
Washington
Residents of at least one Washington D.C. neighborhood woke up on Thursday to find the area plastered with posters urging them to turn in illegal immigrants, but federal authorities denied putting up the signs and denounced them as inciting fear.
The bogus posters bearing the seal of the Department of Homeland Security warned about criminal offenses related to harboring or helping people in the country illegally, and gave phone numbers to report information about them to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"If you see something, say something," said the flyer, titled "Sanctuary City Neighborhood Public Notice" and written on the ICE letterhead.
Washington is among dozens of so-called sanctuary cities that offer safe haven to illegal immigrants, and local police are under orders not to cooperate with federal authorities seeking to deport residents. An attempt by the administration of Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) to cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities has been blocked by a court.
Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Twitter that the posters were aimed at scaring residents of the heavily Democratic city and that she had ordered police and the Public Works Department to remove them.
Washington
He Is 'Crazy', Senior Republican Says
T-rump
Donald Trump (R-Crooked) is struggling to find new staff to work for him because everyone thinks he is "crazy", a senior member of the US President's Republican Party has said.
Michael Steele said potential White House employees were put off by an environment in which aides are "flying by the seat of their pants".
"The talent pool is shrinking, because who wants to sign up for crazy?" added Mr Steele, who served as chairman of the Republican National Committee between 2009 and 2011.
"Nobody wants to step into a situation where you're flying by the seat of your pants and don't know whether what you just said will hold up from one news cycle to the next," he told The Hill. "Nobody is going to be lining up for positions with that much uncertainty."
Mr Steele has previously said that he does not believe Mr Trump will make it to the end of his four-year term in office and that current Vice President Mike Pence (R-Mother) will be Commander in Chief by 2020.
T-rump
Concealed Gun Bill
Kansas
Kansas legislators approved a bill Thursday to keep concealed guns out of public hospitals and mental health centers, and handed the National Rifle Association and its state allies their first big political defeat in years.
The House vote Thursday evening was 91-33, coming hours after the Senate approved the measure, 24-16. It goes next to conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback (R-Delusional), a strong gun-rights supporter.
Several GOP legislators said Brownback would veto it, but the governor declined to say what language he supports. Supporters had more than the two-thirds majority needed in the House to override a veto but were three votes short in the Senate.
The bill is a response to a midsummer deadline to either approve costly security upgrades at the state's two mental hospitals and its two hospitals for the developmentally disabled or allow concealed weapons into their buildings. Other public hospitals, community mental health centers, some nursing homes, the University of Kansas Health System and the university's teaching hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, face the same deadline. So do state universities.
A 2013 law enacted by gun-rights majorities in the Legislature said gun owners could bring their concealed weapons into public buildings if those buildings didn't have "adequate" security such as guards and metal detectors. It gave universities, public hospitals and other health care facilities a four-year exemption that ends July 1, and the bill would make the exemption permanent for the public health care facilities but not universities, where the pro-gun policy appears especially unpopular.
Kansas
Under Fire
Mulvaney
The White House's budget chief came under fire on Thursday from Democrats and others over his attack on the budget research office of the U.S. Congress, escalating tensions between Republicans and professional staffers on Capitol Hill.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney (R-Liar) called "absurd" a recent finding by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that a Republican healthcare bill would cause 23 million people to lose health insurance coverage.
In an interview on Wednesday with the Washington Examiner, a conservative newspaper, Mulvaney said, "At some point, you've got to ask yourself, has the day of the CBO come and gone?"
The CBO is one of a handful of analysis units of Congress whose employees strive for political impartiality, providing dependable and neutral information that lawmakers can use when making often complex budget, tax and other decisions.
Donald Trump (R-Grifter) and his fellow Republicans, including Mulvaney, have been frustrated with the CBO's findings about their proposals to roll back Obamacare, the healthcare system put in place by then-Democratic President Barack Obama formally known as the Affordable Care Act.
Mulvaney
Judge Jails Ex-Pinochet Agents
Chile
A Chilean judge ordered jail sentences for over 100 former secret police from Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship this week, the biggest mass sentence to date for human rights abuses from the period.
Judge Hernan Cristoso convicted 106 ex-agents who worked for Pinochet's DINA intelligence service for the kidnapping and killing of 16 people during "Operation Colombo" in the early years of the 1973-1990 dictatorship.
The judge ruled the 16 killed were leftist militants or members of the socialist party who had been arrested by DINA agents in 1974 or 1975 in Santiago. They were transferred to torture centers around the city and were not again seen alive.
At the time, authorities explained the disappearances by saying the victims had fled the country. They later changed their story and said the victims were killed due to internecine fighting.
Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende in September 1973. His secret police collaborated with dictatorships in neighboring Argentina and in Brazil amid a wider crackdown called "Operation Condor."
Chile
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 Bieber; $4,378,036; $88.64.
2. Drake; $1,959,318; $90.37.
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers; $1,404,126; $88.34.
4. Bon Jovi; $1,389,061; $87.24.
5. Elton John ; $1,289,990; $101.74.
6. The Weeknd; $1,168,939; $68.74.
7. Olly Murs; $1,088,455; $60.17.
8. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill; $1,076,571; $86.54.
9. John Mayer; $1,000,470; $79.62.
10. Eric Church; $896,174; $60.90.
11. Ariana Grande; $844,086; $76.89.
12. Stevie Nicks; $843,404; $94.60.
13. Blake Shelton; $723,045; $62.11.
14. Kings Of Leon; $692,087; $63.35.
15. Green Day; $684,904; $59.21.
16. Journey; $662,910; $86.64.
17. Chance The Rapper; $634,779; $55.45.
18. Jerry Seinfeld; $579,382; $94.92.
19. Twenty One Pilots; $551,599; $48.16.
20. Bryan Adams; $542,717; $84.20.
Global Concert Tours
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