Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Attack of the Republican Decepticons (NY Times Column)
The G.O.P.'s health care strategy is built entirely on dishonest claims and misrepresentations.
Josh Marshall: The Brutal Hand (TPM)
But heads of state leading campaigns of lies and incitement and threat against a major news organization? That's simply not normal or remotely in bounds of anything this country has ever accepted. It really is what we expect from brutalized quasi-democracies like Venezuala and now Hungary and at a more distant remove Russia. We're not close to those. But we're close enough to see parallels and many other things that have and should be unimaginable.
Richard Conniff: This Is How I Want to Be Dead (NY Times)
Years ago, doing some research in England on moles - the burrowing kind - I paid a visit to the grave of Kenneth Grahame. As author of "The Wind in the Willows," Grahame was the creator of the fictional Mole, a mild-mannered character beloved by children everywhere for messing about in boats, bumbling dimly into the Wild Wood and otherwise misadventuring with Ratty, Badger and Mr. Toad of Toad Hall.
Ana Samways: "Sideswipe: July 7: Blues could have chance" (New Zealand Herald)
"When my 3-year-old's fish died, I took her to the pet shop, pointed to a similar fish, and said, 'What's Troy doing here? Come on, Troy; we're taking you back home'."
Lucy Mangan: "being 'relentlessly, tirelessly ambitious' isn't for everyone" (Stylist)
It felt like getting home and finally taking your Spanx off at the end of a long evening. When former women and equalities minister Jo Swinson recently announced that she would be standing for the post of deputy leader rather than leader of the Liberal Democrats on the grounds that a) she didn't feel experienced enough for the top job, and b) just because a man in her position would do so without a qualm didn't mean that she should, I breathed a sigh of glorious relief.
JONATHAN MEADES: Facing the Music (Literary Review)
Three hundred pages of photographs of egomaniacal longhairs trying their utmost to look insolently delinquent (as only the alumni of Harrow, Charterhouse, Haberdashers' Aske's, Oundle, the Perse and numerous other public schools can).
Laurie Penny: Take Back the Power (New Statesman)
The rock-star activist and author Naomi Klein on how the rise of Donald Trump could startle the global left into finally getting its act together.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
replied:
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
FALLING DOWN ON THE JOB.
A HARD RAIN IS GOING TO FALL!
EAT THE RICH!
THE TRAITOR!
POP GO THE WEASELS!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Charter Communications was down from 8pm until 4am. Bastids.
Congress Republicans Deem 'Inappropriate Attire' For WomenSleeveless Dresses
During the summer, it can be difficult to wear comfortable clothes around Washington, and new rules enforced by Congress makes that even harder -especially if you're a woman. CBS News reported Thursday that an unnamed journalist was turned away from the Speaker's Lobby outside the House chamber because her sleeveless dress was deemed "inappropriate" because her shoulders were showing.
The report said that she was "forced to improvise," and that "she ripped out pages from her notebook and stuffed them into her dress's shoulder openings to create sleeves," according to CBS's witnesses.
After trying to put together makeshift sleeves, the officer who was tasked with enforcing rules in the Speaker's lobby said that her outfit was still unacceptable.
"When I was kicked out that day, I was just trying to pass through the area to reach another hallway, but I was told I was violating the rules. They offered to find a sweater for me to put on, so it wasn't some tyrannical end of free press, but I opted to just go around instead. But recently they've been cracking down on the code, like with open-toed shoes," she said to CBS, adding that she sometimes walks quicker so that patrol doesn't notice.
The Speaker's lobby is used for reporters to grab lawmakers for interviews. Men are required to wear suit jackets and ties in the lobby. Woman are prohibited, in addition to the sleeveless blouses or dress, from wearing sneakers or open toed shoes. These restrictions make the oppressive heat even more unbearable for reporters looking to beat the heat.
Sleeveless Dresses
Secret Square Discovered
Avebury
Hidden beneath the world's largest prehistoric stone circle, archaeologists in England have discovered an even older, secret square-shaped megalithic monument.
"Our research has revealed previously unknown megaliths inside the world-famous Avebury stone circle. We have detected and mapped a series of prehistoric standing stones that were subsequently hidden and buried, along with the positions of others likely destroyed during the 17th and 18th centuries," Mark Gillings, academic director and reader in archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, said in a statement. "Together, these reveal a striking and apparently unique square megalithic monument within the Avebury circles that has the potential to be one of the very earliest structures on this remarkable site."
The new finds are shocking for such an old site, which has been extensively studied by archaeologists since the 1600s. The Avebury site in Wiltshire, southwest England, is one of the most mysterious ancient monuments in the country. The Neolithic monument was built largely between 4,850 and 4,200 years ago, according to English Heritage. Along with Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and Windmill Hill, the newfound monuments may have formed a vast sacred landscape that ancient people used for rituals and communal gatherings whose purpose remains shrouded in mystery.
The site of Avebury consists of a vast circular henge - of which all that remains is a 3,270-foot-across (1,000 meters) circular ditch and embankments - and an inner stone circle, which was once composed of nearly 100 massive, upright boulders and two smaller inner stone circles.
Avebury
People Protest
'Banned Grandmas'
Iranian-American opponents of Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) travel ban want you to know that it's shutting out one loving person: grandma.
After the Supreme Court ruled that the travel ban could not be used against anyone from the six Muslim-majority countries who has a "bona fide relationship" with the U.S., the Trump Administration moved quickly to define that term narrowly. Spouses are included, but not fiances; parents, but not grandparents.
The revised ban temporarily wedges a block between grandparents, aunts and uncles who have been waiting years to reunite with relatives living in America, and some have decided to fight back on social media. Starting last week, many people began sharing photos of their grandmothers using #BannedGrandmas and #GrandparentsNotTerrorists.
One of the people who curates the account's photos is Holly Dagres, a 31-year-old analyst based in Jerusalem who stars in the account's first post. She believes the snapshots put a universal face on the ban's impact.
"Let's be real. Whose grandmother has ever committed a terrorist attack?" she said. Dagres married her husband in July 2016 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and says family visits were tough before but feels they're nearly impossible now. "My family cannot come visit me to meet my new husband."
'Banned Grandmas'
New Island Pops Up Off Coast
North Carolina
A new island suddenly emerged from the sea just off the coast of North Carolina - but officials warn that the spit of land is too dangerous for humans to explore.
The new sandbar island seemingly sprang from the ocean in just a few weeks, the Virginian Pilot reported. The island, which is about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) long and about 480 feet (146 meters) wide, lies off the coast of Buxton, North Carolina, which is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
The new island grew from a mere nubbin in the ocean in April to its current size over Memorial Day weekend. One of the early explorers of the island, Janet Regan, took her 11-year-old son there to collect seashells. Because of its treasure trove of shells, the boy named it Shelly Island, the Pilot reported.
While the newborn island may be tantalizing for would-be explorers, it's also very dangerous, Bill Smith, president of the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association, told the Pilot. Officials with the Cape Hatteras National Seashore have warned people not to try to reach the island.
Because the island formed near a popular fishing spot, years' worth of fishing hooks could be lurking just below the sand. Sharks and stingrays prowl just beneath the water's surface in the area, and the narrow 50-foot (15 m) strip of water between the island and the mainland forms a little "river" that creates a strong rip current, he said.
North Carolina
18 U.S. States Sues
Student Loans
More than one-third of U.S. states on Thursday sued the U.S. Education Department and Secretary Betsy DeVos (R-Corrupt) over the recent suspension of rules that would have swiftly canceled the student-loan debt of people defrauded by Corinthian Colleges Inc and other for-profit schools.
Last month DeVos pressed pause on the rules, due to take effect on July 1, saying they needed to be reset.
Massachusetts, 17 other states and the District of Columbia said in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. the department broke federal law in announcing the delay with limited public notice and opportunity to comment.
DeVos, a Republican, has said accelerating the debt cancellation process would put taxpayers on the hook for significant costs, and a delay is needed while current litigation in California over the rules works through the legal system.
Consumer groups Public Citizen and Project on Predatory Student Lending sued on Thursday to lift the delay as well.
Student Loans
Teenage Rape Survivor Jailed
El Salvador
A judge in El Salvador - where abortion is illegal in all circumstances - has sent a 19-year-old rape survivor to 30 years in jail because her baby was stillborn, on the grounds that her failure to get prenatal care amounted to homicide.
High schooler Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz, 18 at the time of childbirth, reportedly gave birth in a bathroom last April after a bout of acute pain in her stomach and back. She hadn't realized that she was in the third trimester of a pregnancy, the Guardian reports.
Hernandez had reportedly been raped repeatedly for months prior in a forced sexual relationship. She didn't report the rapes out of fear, but the hospital that received her did report the stillbirth to authorities, says Amnesty International.
Medical experts could not determine if the fetal death happened before or after delivery, according to the Guardian. The judge hearing the case reportedly accepted prosecutors' theory that Hernandez didn't seek prenatal care because she didn't want the baby, and further suggested her mother might also be criminally responsible at sentencing.
The Central American nation has imposed a blanket ban on abortion since 1998. According to Amnesty, women who experience complications during their pregnancies - including miscarriages - have been convicted on charges of aggravated murder, and imprisoned for up to 40 years.
El Salvador
Sues Simon & Schuster
Milo
Apparently, the success of Milo Yiannopoulos' new book "Dangerous" isn't enough to satisfy him.
Disgraced alt-right darling Yiannopoulos, who earlier this week said that his self-published book had sold 100,000 copies on its first day of release, is now suing Simon & Schuster for backing out of a deal to publish the book earlier this year, TMZ reports.
The former Breitbart editor is asking for $10 million in the suit, which was filed Friday.
In his suit, Yiannopoulos accuses the publisher of caving to pressure when it 86'ed the publication of the book after video surfaced of him appearing to condone pedophilia.
Yiannopoulos contends that he denied multiple times that he was condoning pedophilia in the video, in which he said some relationships between adults and 13-year-olds are consensual and joked that being molested had made him good at oral sex.
Milo
Israelis Outraged By Decision
UNESCO
The U.N. cultural agency on Friday declared the old city in the West Bank town of Hebron as a Palestinian world heritage site, a decision that outraged Israeli officials who say the move negated the deep Jewish ties to the biblical town and its ancient shrine.
The move was the latest chapter in Israel's contentious relationship with UNESCO, an agency it accuses of being an anti-Israeli tool that makes decisions out of political considerations.
While the Palestinians welcomed the action, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "another delusional decision by UNESCO."
Both Jews and Muslims revere the same site in Hebron as the traditional burial place of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs - Jews call it the Tomb of the Patriarchs, while for Muslims it is the Ibrahimi Mosque.
The 12-3 vote, with six abstentions, came on a secret ballot at an annual UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in Krakow, Poland. The proposal came from the Palestinian side. Israel contended that its historic links to Hebron were ignored and its ambassador to UNESCO left the session.
UNESCO
Surface 'More Uninhabitable' Than Thought
Mars
Hopes of finding life on Mars, at least on the surface, were dealt a blow Thursday by a study revealing that salt minerals present on the Red Planet kill bacteria.
In lab tests on Earth, the compounds known as perchlorates killed cultures of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis, a basic life form, a research duo from the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy reported.
Perchlorates, stable at room temperature, become active at high heat. Mars is very cold.
In the new study, Jennifer Wadsworth and Charles Cockell showed the compound can also be activated by UV light, without heat, in conditions mimicking those on the martian surface.
It killed bacteria within minutes, said the team, implying the planet was "more uninhabitable than previously thought."
Mars
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
