Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Tobias: "Dangerous Donald: Meet Honest Hillary"
It's okay to hold leaders like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and, yes, for sure, Hillary Clinton - none of them perfect, but each of them awesomely talented, their entire lives dedicated to making a better, fairer, more sustainable world - in the highest regard. It's not fashionable, but it's okay. And - especially when you grade them on a curve with folks like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle, and (preposterously) Donald Trump - it's spot on.
Jill Abramson: "This may shock you: Hillary Clinton is fundamentally honest" (The Guardian)
I've investigated Hillary and know she likes a 'zone of privacy' around her. This lack of transparency, rather than any actual corruption, is her greatest flaw.
Michael Arnovitz: Thinking About Hillary - A Plea for Reason (The Policy)
"In the course of a single conversation, I have been assured that Hillary is cunning and manipulative but also crass, clueless, and stunningly impolitic; that she is a hopelessly woolly-headed do-gooder and, at heart, a hardball litigator; that she is a base opportunist and a zealot convinced that God is on her side. What emerges is a cultural inventory of villainy rather than a plausible depiction of an actual person."?-?Henry Louis Gates
John Patterson: "Samuel L Jackson: 'I was a drug addict but I showed up on time and hit my marks'" (The Guardian)
The one-time Black Panther is getting political in The Legend of Tarzan. He talks about how getting sober led to non-stop work and stardom.
Tim Jonze: "Tegan and Sara: 'We couldn't tell each other we hated being on stage'" (The Guardian)
Tegan and Sara's relationship might be tumultuous but their music proved cathartic for many after the Orlando shootings. They explain why moving into pop has opened up new worlds.
Pete Paphides: "How women shaped indie rock: 'the lyrics could never have come from a male perspective'" (The Guardian)
Sharon Signs to Cherry Red, a new anthology, showcases female musicians who rejected the machismo of rock and sang of motherhood, babies and love..
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from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JESUS TURNS DOWN DONALD.
STOP!
"GOOD MORNING LADIES!"
"THE STUPIDITY IS BREATHTAKING"
GRAB YOUR CAN! HERE COMES THE GARBAGE MEN!
BORIS. WE HARDLY KNEW YOU!
"OLD MAN TRUMP" BY WOODY GUTHRIE.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
It's Christmas time at work. Seriously.
Widened Last Year
Income Gap
Financial inequality became even wider in the United States last year, with average income for the top 1 percent of households surging 7.7 percent to $1.36 million.
Income for the richest sliver rose twice as fast as it did for the remaining 99 percent of households, according to an updated analysis of tax data by Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Still, the incomes of households outside the top 1 percent appear finally to be recovering from the Great Recession, which officially ended seven years ago. After accounting for inflation, their average income rose 3.9 percent last year to $48,768 - the strongest annual gain since 1998. Contrast that with the period from 2008 to 2011, when the economy remained in a rut and inflation-adjusted income for the bottom 99 percent of households was falling.
"It is indeed the best growth year for the bottom 90 percent and bottom 99 percent since the late 1990s," Saez said. "At the same time, top incomes grow even faster, leading to a further widening of inequality, which continues an alarming trend."
Income Gap
Judge Blocks Law
Mississippi
A federal judge has blocked a Mississippi law intended to allow people who object on religious grounds to refuse wedding and other services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, in a ruling late on Thursday, said that the wide-ranging law adopted this spring unconstitutionally allowed "arbitrary discrimination" against the LGBT community, unmarried people and others who do not share such views.
"The state has put its thumb on the scale to favor some religious beliefs over others," wrote Reeves, who issued a preliminary injunction halting the law that was to take effect on Friday.
Mississippi is among a handful of southern U.S. states on the front lines of legal battles over equality, privacy and religious freedom after the U.S. Supreme Court last year legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states.
Mississippi's "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act" sought to shield those who believe that marriage involves a man and a woman and that sexual relations should occur within such marriages. The law also protected the belief that gender is defined by sex at birth.
Mississippi
Drum Kit To Auction
Beatles
A drum kit used in the recording of The Beatles first single "Love Me Do" on their debut album will be up for auction on Thursday in Los Angeles, Nate D. Sanders Auctions said.
The Ludwig drum kit was played by drummer Andy White, not Ringo Starr, in the first session that the Beatles collaborated on with record producer George Martin in London in 1962, according to auction house manager Michael Kirk.
Starr had already been hired by the group but he had not had a proper audition with them, so White was brought in for the recording session.
Kirk said the drum kit, which has a reserve price of $150,000, has attracted interest from around the globe.
Beatles
Not Disavowing New Book
Gay Talese
Although some of the facts in Gay Talese's new non-fiction book The Voyeur's Motel. have been called into question, Grove Press said today that it is moving forward with the book's July 12 publication and Talese said, contrary to earlier statements, he is not disavowing the book.
The Voyeur's Motel tells the story of Gerald Foos, a self-confessed voyeur who claims to have spied on guests at a Colorado motel he owned from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. An excerpt from the book caused a sensation when it was published by The New Yorker in April, and DreamWorks snapped up the property and is planning a film version to be directed by Sam Mendes and produced by Mendes and Steven Spielberg.
But a Washington Post investigation into Foos' claims, published June 30, unearthed discrepancies in Foos' story. It reported that Foos actually sold the motel in 1980 and did not reacquire it until 1988. In response to the Post's questions, Talese appeared to disavow the book, saying he would not promote it. When questioned about the facts the newspaper uncovered, Talese told the Post, "I should not have believed a word [Foos] said. I'm not going to promote this book. How dare I promote it when its credibility is down the toilet." He added, "The source of my book, Gerald Foos, is certifiably unreliable."
Today, however, Talese struck a different tone, explaining in a statement provided by Grove Press, "Gerald Foos, as no one calls into question, was an epic voyeur, and, as I say very clearly in the text, he could also at times be an unreliable teller of his own peculiar story. When I spoke to The Washington Post reporter, I am sure I was surprised and upset about this business of the later ownership of the motel, in the eighties. That occurred after the bulk of the events covered in my book, but I was upset and probably said some things I didn't, and don't mean, Let me be clear: I am not disavowing the book and neither is my publisher. If, down the line, there are details to correct in later editions, we'll do that."
Gay Talese
Domestic Violence Charges Dismissed
Jerry 'The King' Lawler
Last month, WWE Hall of Famer and announcer Jerry 'The King' Lawler and his longtime girlfriend, Lauryn McBride, were arrested on domestic assault charges following an incident in East Memphis that reportedly involved an unloaded pistol. It was scary, and led to Lawler's indefinite suspension from WWE. According to a report from The Commercial Appeal, charges against both Lawler and McBride have been dismissed.
Ted Hansom, Lawler's attorney said it was "a big misunderstanding and won't happen again. We are happy with the outcome."
Lawler said they argued over her lying about where she had been, the affidavit states. She was intoxicated, and he tried to prevent her from leaving in her car, he said. She scratched the right side of his face, threw a candle at him and kicked him the groin, he said according to the affidavit. Lawler contended that she got the gun from the garage and had threatened to kill herself.
Both were arrested when officers could not determine a primary aggressor.
The charges will be expunged from their records
Jerry 'The King' Lawler
Replace 'Heebie Jabbies'
T-rump
A woman asked presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump (R-Grifter) to "get rid of" the "heebie jabbies" at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and replace them with veterans, leading to an awkward exchange during a New Hampshire event on Thursday.
"Why aren't we putting our military retirees on that border or in TSA?" she said. "Get rid of all these heebie jabbies they wear at TSA. I've seen them myself, " the woman added, apparently referencing the hijab, the veil most commonly worn by Muslim women.
"We are looking at that. We are looking at that," Trump responded. "We're looking at a lot of things."
When asked asked about whether Burkas should be banned in "schools, courts, and bordered checkpoints" in the United States during a February interview with Boston Herald Radio, Trump said "I'm okay with it. I know you're shocked to hear me say it right? I'm okay with it."
T-rump
Dead Whale
Dockweiler Beach
The reeking carcass of a dead humpback whale was stuck on a popular Los Angeles County beach Friday as Fourth of July weekend crowds began arriving.
Authorities planned to use boats pulling ropes attached to the tail to pull it off the sand during an evening high tide and take it far out to sea.
Because of the stench, authorities attempted the procedure at midday, with a bulldozer pushing, but it was unsuccessful.
The huge whale washed onto Dockweiler Beach, a long stretch of sand near the west end of Los Angeles International Airport, just before 8 p.m. Thursday and holiday beachgoers began arriving in the morning.
Tail markings were compared with a photo database and found that the same whale had been spotted three times previously off Southern California between June and August of last year by whale watchers who gave it the nickname Wally, said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a whale research associate with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Dockweiler Beach
May Hold Buddha's Skull Bone
Ancient Shrine
Archaeologists have discovered what may be a skull bone from the revered Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. The bone was hidden inside a model of a stupa, or a Buddhist shrine used for meditation.
The research team found the 1,000-year-old model within a stone chest in a crypt beneath a Buddhist temple in Nanjing, China. Inside the stupa model archaeologists found the remains of Buddhist saints, including a parietal (skull) bone that inscriptions say belonged to the Buddha himself.
The model is made of sandalwood, silver and gold, and is covered with gemstones made of crystal, glass, agate and lapis lazuli, a team of archaeologists reported in an article published in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.
Inscriptions engraved on the stone chest that the model was found in say that it was constructed during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong (A.D. 997-1022), during the Song Dynasty. Also inscribed on the stupa are the names of people who donated money and material to build the model, as well as some of the people who constructed the model. [See Photos of the Model Stupa Holding Buddha Remains
While the inscriptions say that the skull bone belongs to the Buddha, it is unknown whether it really does come from him. In the journal article, archaeologists didn't speculate on how likely it is. The bone is being treated with great respect and has been interred in the modern-day Qixia Temple by Buddhist monks.
Ancient Shrine
Newfound Human Species
Africa
The most recently discovered extinct human species may have lived less than 1 million years ago, researchers have discovered.
This finding suggests that a diverse range of human species might have lived at the same time in Africa, just as they might have in Asia, researchers said.
In 2015, scientists reported South African fossils of a hitherto-unknown relative of modern humans that possessed an unusual mix of features, such as feet adapted for a life on the ground but hands suited for a life in the trees. The fossil's discoverers named the species Homo naledi, and noted that although the early human had a brain about the size of an orange, these humans may have performed ritual burials of their dead.
Frustratingly, the age of H. naledi remains unknown. "This has been one of the biggest points of consternation for other researchers," said study co-author Mark Collard, a biological anthropologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.
Since scientists don't know when H. naledi lived, it's difficult to determine how exactly the species fits into the family tree of hominins, those species composed of humans and their close relatives. Given some of H. naledi's primitive, ape-like features, some researchers argued that the species might not be a member of the human lineage Homo, but might have belonged to Australopithecus, the most likely ancestors of humans.
In Memory
Stuart Nisbet
Stuart Nisbet, the character actor with the very familiar face who seemingly appeared on every television series from Dennis the Menace to The Practice, has died. He was 82.
Nisbet, who has an astronomic 172 acting credits listed on IMDb, died June 23 at USC Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, Calif., his wife, Nancy, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Nisbet played the bartender Bart on the 1960s NBC series The Virginian and also doled out drinks on such shows as Route 66, Two Faces West, Hogan's Heroes, The Monkees and The Rockford Files.
In the first season of ABC's Happy Days, he was the principal who allowed the Fonz (Henry Winkler) to return (albeit briefly) to high school.
Nisbet showed up as a member of the Southern town mayor's council in the Oscar best picture winner In the Heat of the Night (1967), was a veterinarian in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and portrayed a banker in Martin Scorsese's Casino (1995).
If you look closely, he can be spotted in the "One word: plastics" scene in The Graduate (1967), and his film résumé includes The Quick and the Dead (1963), Games (1967), Angel in My Pocket (1969), Slither (1973) and Hearts of the West (1975).
He was a co-founder and owner of the Hollywood casting agency Baker-Nisbet Inc.
Born in Los Angeles, Nisbet spent his childhood in Bakersfield, Calif., then studied acting at Los Angeles City College and Cal State L.A. One of his first professional acting jobs came when he played Mr. Wade, whose daughter Margaret (Jeannie Russell) had a crush on Dennis (Jay North), on the 1960s CBS sitcom Dennis the Menace.
Nisbet appeared multiple times on such series as Get Smart, Dragnet, Barnaby Jones, The Fugitive, The Name of the Game, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Marcus Welby, M.D. and Mannix, playing a different character each time. He also worked on The Munsters, My Mother the Car, The Green Hornet, My Three Sons, Mission: Impossible, Fantasy Island, The Dukes of Hazzard, T.J. Hooker, L.A. Law, The Golden Girls and Baywatch (the list goes on and on).
In addition to his wife of 55 years, survivors include their children Bill, Linda and Scott and grandchildren Shane, Shilo, Brandy and Hope.
Stuart Nisbet
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