Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Mar-a-Lago Comes for British Health (NY Times)
Of privatization, cronyism and trade deals.
Greg Sargent: Biden just blasted Trump on one of his biggest weaknesses. More will follow. (Washington Post)
The Biden campaign is hitting back. In a statement sent my way, Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said this: "We can't trust President Trump to look out for American workers, because for all his bluster, he never does. Just look at the record: The trade deficit is larger than when Trump took office, he's forced labor to take a back seat in his dealings with China, and he's alienated our allies who also suffer from China's trade abuses. Instead of delivering results, Trump is asking American farmers and American families to bear all the costs of his trade war. His administration's erratic and impulsive approach to China is causing families economic pain."
Andrew Tobias: Forget Bush v. Gore - How About TRUMP v. Gore?
No one asked about impeachment should fail to lead with something like this: "Well, the FIRST thing the Senate needs to do is pass the nine bills the House has already passed this year to make regular people's lives better. The House did its job passing those bills to lower prescription drug prices and impose universal background checks and confront climate change and so much else - the Senate needs to do ITS job and vote on those bills. But on impeachment, yes, that's part of our job, too. OUR NATION IS UNDER ATTACK BY THE RUSSIANS. For real! And the President constantly denies it and praises our attacker. So, yes: it's part of our job to investigate that.
Andrew Tobias: WHOSE DEBT IS IT ANYWAY?
Did you know that the National Debt grew 13.9% a year under Reagan - a Republican - and at 11.5% a year under Bush 41 - a Republican - but was cut to just 4% a year under Clinton? Did you know that after Clinton (a Democrat) handed off a balanced budget and, thus, a National Debt that had stopped growing, Bush 43 (a Republican) grew it at 8.5% a year? And that even though he handed off an ENORMOUS deficit that it would take Obama some time to tamp down (he first had to save the world from global depression), Obama's 8-year rate of growth in the debt, even including the nightmare deficit he inherited, was 7.5% … less than Reagan, Bush, or Bush. Here are the numbers. Trump has the deficit exploding again … during good times, which is exactly when you don't want to run them.
Chuck Jones: Don't Blame Obama For Doubling The Federal Deficit (Forbes)
President Obama's debt actually grew at a slower annual rate than any of the Republican presidents [from Reagan on] even though there were events that negatively impacted the deficit that started before he became President. The Great Recession is probably the biggest of them as can be seen in the yearly deficit numbers.
Seb Patrick: Game of Thrones petitions and Star Wars trolls? Fans have become far too entitled (The Guardian)
Enjoy, criticise, analyse - yes. But demanding to have a say in the work itself isn't part of the deal.
Mary Beard: The end of history? 18th century style (TLS)
I have several times said that the accession of the first emperor Augustus represented in some ways the end of history for the Romans, for a good few centuries (lots of things happened but nothing changed!).
Mary Beard: Boudicca or Boadicea? (TLS)
But, paradoxically, there has been no more potent symbol of British imperialism than this rebel against the Roman empire. Take a look at her statue on the Thames Embankment.
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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
Dormer Loft Conversions
David
Thanks, Dave!
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Johnny Brewton is the creator behind the zine X-Ray, which consists of 226 copies, each one at least slightly different. It was definitely an artistic project, and lifetime subscribers included the J. Paul Getty Museum, the rare book department of S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, and the University of Wisconsin. One contributor was Hunter S. Thompson, who helped create the cover of X-Ray #4 by putting on lipstick and kissing a few copies and by shooting a bullet through every copy. (The cover was a photograph of Marilyn Chambers holding a box of Ivory Snow.) Another contributor to X-Ray was Charles Bukowski, who impressed Mr. Brewton with his work ethic: Mr. Brewton wrote Mr. Bukowski on a Monday requesting some poems, and by that Saturday-not even a week later-he received an envelope containing some poems. Mr. Brewton says about Mr. Bukowski, "I was amazed at how generous he was-he really gave backa lot and supported small presses; he taught me a lot about professionalism and deadlines. He was always on time." Yet another contributor was Timothy Leary. Mr. Leary's publicist, however, in a phone conversation told Mr. Brewton, "Mr. Leary has to charge one dollar per word for articles and stories. Are you sure you want to do this?" Because the zine made basically zero money, Mr. Brewton sarcastically replied, "That fits my budget perfectly! I'll buy one word." The publicist asked, "Which word do you want?" Mr. Brewton replied, "I don't know. Have Mr. Leary decide." The publicist spoke to Mr. Leary, and Mr. Brewton overheard Mr. Leary say, "That's great! Yes! I pick the word 'Chaos'-that's my piece!" Mr. Brewton titled the work "A One Word Dosage from Dr. Timothy Leary" and put a card saying "Chaos" inside a pill envelope-each of the 226 copies of the issue contained the one-word contribution.
• Students at MIT have occasionally hacked (that is, pranked) the school's works of art. Actually, one hack really wasn't a hack - it really was a work of art. Artist Scott Raphael Schiamberg installed what appeared to be a field of wheat in Lobby 7. On a Monday in May 1996, students and faculty strolled through the wheat. Mr. Schiamberg received much media publicity, and he received many congratulatory emails. One MIT employee emailed him, "It took my breath away. All Mondays should be so beautiful." Of course, MIT students added a few touches of their own to the work of art - such as a cow and a scarecrow. However, MIT students liked the field of wheat, and they did not like some of the other works of art on the MIT campus, such as Louise Nevelson's Transparent Horizons, which MIT students criticize as being like much other MIT art: In the students' word, the art is "ugly." MIT hackers once installed a desk and a study light in the top of the sculpture, and they once rededicated it with this plaque: "Louise Nevelson / b. 1990 / Big Black Scrap Heap / 1975." And occasionally MIT hackers will install authentic-looking but satiric "works of art" in MIT galleries. For example, in 1985 MIT hacking group James E. Tetazoo installed "NO KNIFE: A STUDY IN MIXED MEDIASEARTH TONES, NUMBER THREE" in MIT's List Visual Arts Center. The "work of art" consisted of a large plate, small plate, fork, two spoons (one a soup spoon), and glass on a tray placed on an upside-down trash receptacle. A statement accompanying the "art" satirized art criticism. The first sentence read, "The artist's mode d'emploi relies upon minimalist kinematic methods; space and time are frozen in a staid reality of restrained sexuality."
• The Society of Design in Pennsylvania (the home state of letterer, illustrator, and designer Jessica Hische, who lives in San Francisco, California) wanted her to visit them, so they created a unique invitation for her with 27 registered Pennsylvania vehicle license plates. They were vanity license plates, so each plate bore carefully chosen letters. Put together, the 27 license plates (each license plate is separated from another with a slash) spelled out the invitation: "DEAR JES / SICA PLE / ASE CONS / IDER VIS / ITING SO / CIETY OF / DESIGN I / N PENNSY /LVANIA A / ND SHAR / NG CAPTI / VATING A / ND AMAZI / TYPOG /RAPHIC W / ORK THAT / WILL AMA / ZE ASTON / ISH MOTI / VATE AND / PROVE TO / BE BENEF / ICIAL TO / AN ENORM / OUSLY LA / RGE CROW / D THANKS" - of course, she said YES to the invitation. Actually, she wrote in her blog, "Of course my answer is a resounding 'YES! I will marry come to visit you!' In fact, not only will I come visit you, but I'm bringing each of you a present. Each of the 35 people listed on the site will receive an original drawing as my sincerest and most heart-felt appreciation for making me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Already got started on two of them! There are days when I wish I could hug the universe. Today is one of those days."
• As a beginning cartoonist, Ted Rall wanted people to see his art. After meeting graffiti artist Keith Haring, he thought, "He has the approach." What is the approach? Instead of working to please editors, who are pleased by generic work, simply get your art in front of the people. Therefore, Ted took his cartoons, went to the bank he hated working at, and ran off 700 copies very early in the morning on the bank's Xerox machine. Then he and his girlfriend walked through Broadway, Harlem, and Times Square and pasted the cartoons wherever they could. The walk and pasting took four hours and covered seven miles. He put his PO address on the cartoons and got fan mail-and he got letters from editors who wrote, "I was visiting New York. I saw your cartoon on the wall and ripped it down. I was wondering if you'd mind if we ran your cartoons." Ted quit the bank job he hated and became a professional cartoonist.
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Bonus Links
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Proposal
Considering what's going on in Missouri and Alabama and so many other red states: I think a Georgia (female, of course) legislator proposed something similar a year or two ago, but I like this proposal I found in a Wonkette comment:
72-hour waiting period to get your prescription issued for your little blue boner pill, then another 72 hours to get the script filled. And I said 'pill' singular because you can only have one boner at a time, what are you, some kind of sex pervert freak? Of course there is only one pharmacy in the state, and it is quite illegal to transport boner pills across state lines. The one pharmacist refuses to fill your script for your single little blue boner pill because only God can grant the mighty life-affirming shaft, you remember that part about thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, it's all there in the King James. Did I mention there's a mandatory rectal exam? I did now. Got to make sure the prostate and any other boner machinery is up to snuff. And fuck that fiber optic shit, we're talking a high definition full studio quality camera, right up in there.
How stupid are they?
This is SERIOUS need to control women!
The University of Alabama's board of trustees voted to return a recent $21.5 million gift from the university's largest donor after the philanthropist called on students to boycott the school over the state's severe abortion ban, local media reported Friday.
The vote wrapped up a two-week conflict between the university and Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr., a 70-year-old Florida real estate investor and lawyer whose pledge in September to donate a record $26.5 million led the university to praise this generosity publicly and rename its law school after him; it has been the "Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law" since last fall. He has already given $21 million, which the university will now return, and the school's name will revert to the University of Alabama School of Law. Friday afternoon, the university removed Culverhouse's name from display.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely marine layer.
Receives Walk O'Fame Star
Alan Arkin
A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled Friday honoring Alan Arkin, whose more than 50-year acting career includes a supporting-actor Oscar and three other Oscar-nominated performances.
Arkin's son Matthew, who appeared with him in five films, the 2001-02 A&E legal drama "100 Centre Street" and the 1978 made-for-television movie "The Defection of Simas Kurdika," and Steve Carell, a castmate of Arkin in three films, joined him in speaking in the late-morning ceremony in front of the Miniso store on Hollywood Boulevard.
The star is the 2,665th since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the first 1,558 stars.
Arkin received a best supporting actor Oscar in 2007 for his portrayal of a grandfather who coaches his beauty pageant contestant granddaughter (Abigail Breslin) in "Little Miss Sunshine."
Born March 26, 1934, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, a grandson of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Arkin began taking acting lessons when he was 10 years old. Arkin was an early member of the famed Chicago-based improvisational theater group The Second City, and he performed with it in the 1961 Broadway musical revue, "From the Second City."
Alan Arkin
Calls For Hollywood
Spike Lee
Director Spike Lee is calling for Hollywood production companies to leave Georgia over a law that would ban abortions as early as six weeks, upon detection of a fetal heartbeat.
Most studios that have commented have said they're waiting to see if the so-called "heartbeat" law actually takes effect next year, or if the courts will block it. But at the arrivals line for Denzel Washington's American Film Institute lifetime achievement tribute Thursday, Lee said now is the time for Georgia-based productions to "shut it down" and boycott the state's booming film industry to drive change.
Lee acknowledged that a mass exodus could dent livelihoods, but cited black bus drivers affected by the Civil Rights Movement-era boycott in Montgomery.
"I know it's going to affect people's livelihood. But that's how things change," Lee said.
"You've got to be on the right side of history, and the state of Georgia and those other states, they're wrong," he added.
Spike Lee
Proudly Theocratic
Univ. of Alabama
The University of Alabama board of trustees voted Friday to give back a $26.5 million donation to a top donor who recently called on students to boycott the school over the state's new abortion ban.
Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr., a 70-year-old real estate investor and lawyer, has already given $21.5 million to the university after his pledge last September with the rest still to come. But in a news release last week, he urged students to participate in a boycott of the school.
Hours later, Alabama announced it was considering giving back his money, the biggest donation ever made to the university, and is expected to remove his name from the law school that was named in his honor.
While Culverhouse said he has no doubt Alabama is retaliating over his call for a boycott, the university said the dispute has nothing to do with that. Instead, officials say it was in an "ongoing dispute" with Culverhouse over the way his gift was to be handled.
Culverhouse said he was stunned by the university's stand. But he also confessed: "You probably shouldn't put a living person's name on a building, because at some point they might get fed up and start talking."
Univ. of Alabama
Body Confirmed
Dennis Day
Police have confirmed that a body found in April at an Oregon home is that of missing man Dennis Day, who was an original member of Disney's "The Mickey Mouse Club."
The Oregon State Medical Examiner's office identified the body, although they were unable to use dental records or DNA because of the condition of the remains, Oregon State Police said Thursday. Police are still investigating Day's death.
He was reported missing in July by his husband, Ernie Caswell, who suffers from memory loss and was in the hospital when he made the report.
Day's car on July 26 was found at the Oregon coast. A missing person report said Day had "uncharacteristically" left his dog with a friend on the day he disappeared.
Day's body was found in his Phoenix, Oregon, home in early April.
Dennis Day
'A Part' Of Mars
The Moon
Followers of astronomy were in for a surprise on Friday, when Donald Trump (R-Deluded) announced that the moon is part of Mars.
In a tweet, apparently commenting on his own administration's space policy, the president said: "For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago."
He added: "They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!"
Trump's declaration shocked many space enthusiasts, because the moon has not traditionally been regarded as part of Mars.
Irrespective of whether the moon is part of Mars (it isn't), Trump's announcement was doubly surprising given his previous enthusiasm for a moon trip. His criticism of Nasa for "talking about going to the moon" came just three weeks after Trump championed the idea of a lunar visit.
The Moon
Boys Will Be Boys
West Point
In July 2016, U.S. Military Academy Cadet Jacob Whisenhunt was sentenced to 21 years in prison and discharged from the Army after being found guilty raping a female classmate as she slept in a nearby sleeping bag during Cadet Field Training at Camp Buckner. Whisenhunt's defense was that what transpired between him and the female cadet was consensual. But after a four-day trial, a jury of West Point faculty and staff found him guilty on three counts of sexual assault.
Now, an appeals court has thrown out Whisenhunt's conviction, vacating his sentence. And on Wednesday, the cadet returned to his class at West Point, according to The Associated Press.
The three appellate military judges who overturned Whisenhunt's conviction ruled that circumstantial evidence backed up Whisenhunt's defense that the act was consensual, based on the fact that the woman - identified by the initials LM - did not struggle loudly enough to alert other cadets who were sleeping nearby.
According to the Army Times, the female cadet testified that she froze when she woke up to discover Whisenhunt assaulting her, and remained in the fetal position for the duration of the intercourse. But the judges didn't seem to find that plausible.
In their ruling Monday, the judges also cited the fact that the female cadet could easily identify Whisenhunt as one of her classmates, and the fact that he did not attempt to clean up the semen he left behind in her sleeping bag, as reasons to believe it must have been consensual.
West Point
Arms Deal
Saudi Arabia
A controversial arms deal for Arab allies approved by the Trump administration will allow U.S. hi-tech bomb parts to be manufactured in Saudi Arabia, giving Riyadh unprecedented access to a sensitive weapons technology.
The production arrangement is part of a larger $8.1 billion arms package for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan announced two weeks ago. The Trump administration pressed ahead with the sale without congressional approval, declaring an "emergency" based on what it said was a heightened threat from Iran.
The deal came as a surprise to lawmakers, who were outraged that the administration chose to bypass Congress. But most members of Congress only learned days after the deal was announced May 24 that it opens the door for Saudi Arabia to host the production of electronic guidance and control systems for Paveway precision-guided bombs, congressional aides said.
The U.S. government tends to closely guard technology linked to sophisticated weapons, and limits how much of that technology is shared through co-production projects with other countries.
Human rights, U.N. investigators and aid groups have accused Saudi Arabia and its allies of striking civilian targets, including hospitals and schools, in indiscriminate bombing raids in Yemen since Riyadh launched an armed intervention against Houthi rebels in 2015. Congressional resistance to weapons sales to Saudi Arabia only grew after the killing last year of Saudi writer and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Saudi Arabia
Police Push Legal Boundaries
Cellphones
William Montanez is used to getting stopped by the police in Tampa, Florida, for small-time traffic and marijuana violations; it's happened more than a dozen times. When they pulled him over last June, he didn't try to hide his pot, telling officers, "Yeah, I smoke it, there's a joint in the center console, you gonna arrest me for that?"
They did arrest him, not only for the marijuana but also for two small bottles they believed contained THC oil - a felony - and for having a firearm while committing that felony (they found a handgun in the glove box).
The officers demanded his passcodes, warning him they'd get warrants to search the cellphones. Montanez suspected that police were trying to fish for evidence of illegal activity. He also didn't want them seeing more personal things, including intimate pictures of his girlfriend.
So he refused, and was locked up on the drug and firearms charges.
Five days later, after Montanez was bailed out of jail, a deputy from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office tracked him down, handed him the warrants and demanded the phone passcodes. Again, Montanez refused. Prosecutors went to a judge, who ordered him locked up again for contempt of court.
Cellphones
Unknown Group of Ancient Humans
Siberia
A pair of children's teeth that were lost 31,000 years ago in Siberia led scientists to the discovery of a previously unknown population of ancient humans.
These people inhabited northeastern Siberia during the Ice Age and were genetically distinct from other groups in the region, researchers reported in a new study.
The scientists analyzed genetic data extracted from the teeth, along with DNA from ancient remains found at other sites in Siberia and central Russia. In doing so, they reconstructed 34 ancient genomes dating to between 31,000 and 600 years ago, piecing together the puzzle of how Paleolithic humans spread across Siberia, and then crossed over the Bering Land Bridge into the Americas.
The tiny teeth belonged to two unrelated male children and were found at the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site (RHS) on Siberia's Yana River, a locale that was first discovered in 2001. Though Yana RHS contained thousands of artifacts - among them stone tools, ivory objects and animal bones - these teeth are the site's only known human remains.
Together, the teeth and the artifacts are the earliest evidence of human occupation in the region; the teeth also represent the oldest Pleistocene human remains found at such high latitudes, the scientists reported.
Siberia
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