Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Health Care in a Time of Sabotage (NY Times Column)
Republicans are working hard to make Obamacare fail.
Andrew Hallam: Why You Shouldn't Bother To Save For Your Retirement (AssetBuilder)
Most of us have lost friends or family members early. Last week, I met a 51-year old woman named Kate. She and her husband haven't saved for their retirement. But twice, they've saved enough money to take a year off to travel. "We were young enough to enjoy it," Kate said. "Some of my friends died young. They never had that chance."
Harriet Gibsone: Pop's glass ceiling: why new female stars can't break through (The Guardian)
From Anne-Marie to Zara Larsson, the music industry is promoting more women than ever - but few seem to be making it to stardom. Is it because labels treat them differently to their male counterparts?
Alexandra Pollard: "Maggie Rogers on the song that left Pharrell speechless: 'It tumbled out in 15 minutes'" (The Guardian)
Last year, an earnest student raised on the banjo stunned Pharrell Williams. The video of the encounter went viral, and now her striking folk-electronica is making waves too.
From Donna Summer to Derek Jarman: gay stars reveal the artworks that changed their lives (The Guardian)
Mary Portas got married to the sound of I Feel Love, David Sedaris had his heart broken by The Boys in the Band, and Isaac Julien fell for a sexed-up Caravaggio. For Radio 4's Gay Britannia series, stars picked an inspirational work of art.
Harriet Gibsone: Lana Del Rey: Lust for Life review - in a luxurious league of her own (The Guardian)
With a sunnier sound, a social conscience and a determined smile on her face, Del Rey is moving on from the darkness she's inhabited in the past.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
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
"HOW TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN"
THE LIARS,THE CHEATS AND THIEVES!
SPICER'S GREATEST HITS!
WHEN MEN CAN GET PREGNANT ABORTION WILL BECOME A SACRAMENT.
DUMBER THAN A BOX OF ROCKS!
THE MAN BE CRAZY!
A LITTLE HISTORY.
ABSOLUTELY, NO FUCKING WAY!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running late, again. Sigh.
Personal Music Collection
Princess Diana
Rarely-seen possessions belonging to Britain's late Princess Diana including her music collection and ballet shoes are to go on display this summer at London's Buckingham Palace to mark the 20th anniversary of her death.
Many of the objects selected to feature in the display were chosen by Diana's sons Princes William and Harry "to reflect their mother's commitment to duty and their personal memories of her", the Royal Collection Trust said on Friday.
William and Harry attended a private service earlier this month to re-dedicate her grave and the brothers have also commissioned a statue to be erected in her honor outside their official London home.
Among the possessions to be featured in the display are a leather photo frame with pictures of family and friends, a burgundy leather briefcase, and her school "tuck box", which she used to keep sweets and other treats in while she was away at boarding school, which has the name "D Spencer" written on it.
The tribute also includes a case of cassette tapes, featuring albums by artists such as George Michael, Diana Ross and Elton John, who famously sang at her funeral.
Princess Diana
Exhumed In Figueras, Spain
Salvador Dali
Forensics experts exhumed Salvador Dali's remains from a tomb in his Spanish hometown on Thursday, nearly three decades after his death, in order to test a fortune teller's claims that she is the only daughter of the surrealist.
Working behind closed doors, they removed a slab weighing more than a tonne which covers the tomb of the artist at the Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueras in northeastern Spain where he was born.
The DNA samples in the form of bone or tooth fragments will be sent to Madrid to undergo the necessary tests.
A crowd of onlookers gathered outside the elaborate museum of Dali's work to watch as police escorted the experts into the building which is topped by a huge metallic dome decorated with egg shapes. Dali designed the building himself.
The museum, a top tourist site that drew over 1.1 million visitors last year, was covered in some places with cloth to prevent drones from capturing images.
Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old who long worked as a psychic in Catalonia, says her mother had a relationship with the artist when she worked in Cadaques, a picturesque Spanish port where the painter lived for years.
Salvador Dali
Pulls Health Law Help In 18 Cities
T-rump Administration
Donald Trump's (R-Con Man) administration has ended Affordable Care Act contracts that brought assistance into libraries, businesses and urban neighborhoods in 18 cities, meaning shoppers on the insurance exchanges will have fewer places to turn for help signing up for coverage.
Community groups say the move, announced to them by contractors last week, will make it even more difficult to enroll the uninsured and help people already covered re-enroll or shop for a new policy. That's already a concern because of consumer confusion stemming from the political wrangling in Washington and a shorter enrollment period. People will have 45 days to shop for 2018 coverage, starting Nov. 1 and ending Dec. 15. In previous years, they had twice that much time.
Some see it as another attempt to undermine the health law's marketplaces by a president who has suggested he should let "Obamacare" fail. The administration, earlier this year, pulled paid advertising for the sign-up website HealthCare.gov, prompting an inquiry by a federal inspector general into that decision and whether it hurt sign-ups.
Now insurers and advocates are concerned that the administration could further destabilize the marketplaces where people shop for coverage by not promoting them or not enforcing the mandate compelling people to get coverage. The administration has already threatened to withhold payments to insurers to help people afford care, which would prompt insurers to sharply increase prices.
"There's a clear pattern of the administration trying to undermine and sabotage the Affordable Care Act," said Elizabeth Hagan, associate director of coverage initiatives for the liberal advocacy group Families USA. "It's not letting the law fail, it's making the law fail."
T-rump Administration
'Godly Justice'
Alt-Right
Most Americans met Wednesday night's news that Arizona Senator John McCain (R-Get Off My Lawn) was facing a dire diagnosis of brain cancer with shows of respect for the elder statesman and former prisoner of war. But to some on the extreme right, the longtime Republican is a traitor worthy of scorn, presumably because of his willingness to work with Democrats, as well as his criticism of Donald Trump (R-Buffoon).
The attack on McCain--a war hero who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison-is faintly reminiscent of the early days of Trump's presidential campaign. During a family values summit in Iowa in the summer of 2015, just a month after he'd announced his seemingly quixotic bid for the White House, Trump lashed out at McCain: "He's not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."
"The last president for McCain will be Trump. There's some godly justice right there," wrote one user on the "Politically Incorrect" message board of social media network 4chan, a hothouse of right-wing memes.
"I'm pretty sure that God is punishing him," wrote another 4chan user. "God made it pretty clear that he supports New Right now."
The vitriol against McCain seems especially striking given his record of military service, as well as his leadership of the Republican Party. The attackers, it would seem, have more fealty to alt-right mascot Pepe the Frog than to the GOP's iconic elephant.
Alt-Right
Resigns As Press Secretary
Spicey
White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned on Friday amid changes to Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) communications shop.
The news of Spicer's resignation was first reported by the New York Times. A White House staffer subsequently confirmed it to Yahoo News.
According to the Times, Spicer departed because "he vehemently disagreed with the appointment of New York financier Anthony Scaramucci as communications director." Multiple sources familiar with the situation confirmed to Yahoo News that Scaramucci was given that position on Friday morning.
Scaramucci appeared with White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at a briefing on Friday where he officially announced his appointment. He also said Sanders would be replacing Spicer as press secretary.
Spicer came to the White House from the Republican National Committee where he was communications director. He is a longtime deputy and close ally of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who was RNC chairman before Trump took office.
Spicey
Six Months In
T-rump
Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) took office trailing a string of promises made during a bruising election campaign.
Six months into his presidency, here is where the 45th occupant of the White House stands in fulfilling some of the most notable promises in his ambitious agenda:
REPEAL AND REPLACE OBAMACARE
STATUS: PROMISE BROKEN
IMPROVE RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA
STATUS: UNCERTAIN
T-rump
Aims To Require Reservations
Zion National Park
It would be a first for a U.S. national park: requiring reservations to get in. But it's an option that Zion National Park is considering to manage an overwhelming surge of visitors to its sweeping red-rock vistas and canyons in Utah.
Zion, which welcomed 4.3 million people last year, is weighing online reservations for those who want to explore its main canyon. National Park Service rangers struggle to cope with overcrowded tour buses and alleviate damage to Zion's natural wonders, including soil erosion and human waste near trails.
People without reservations could pay an entrance fee and drive through the park, but they couldn't stop to hike or picnic.
Zion isn't the only U.S. national park with swelling numbers of tourists, and at least two national parks, in California and Hawaii, are testing more limited reservation systems for parking.
Overall, more than 330 million people visited U.S. national parks in 2016, a record. Visits were bolstered by the improving economy, cheap gas and marketing campaigns for the National Park Service's 2016 centennial.
Zion National Park
Battering Rams Of The Arctic
Icebreakers
When ice floes stretch to the horizon in the Arctic Circle, threatening to strand normal ships, icebreakers are in their element.
For big vessels, they can turn quickly to avoid big blocks of ice, and can stop fast. They can slice through many ice fields without a shudder. And when the going gets rough, they can push their mighty bow on top of the ice and bust it up through the sheer force of the ship's weight.
The MSV Nordica, operated by Finnish company Arctia, a government-owned enterprise, is equipped with several heavy-duty engines and a hardened bow and rounded hull. The ship's 13,000 tons break the ice from above.
When ice is particularly thick, the vessel can turn around and use its huge azimuth thrusters - a versatile type of propeller - to chew a path through the ice.
There are more than 100 dedicated icebreaking ships around the world. Russia has over 40 - by far the most - due in part to its long Arctic coastline. The country also has the only nuclear-powered icebreakers - and one became the first surface vessel to punch its way through to the North Pole in 1977.
Icebreakers
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. U2; $7,276,551; $118.55.
2. Guns N' Roses; $6,173,463; $101.04.
3. Metallica; $5,534,886; $101.67.
4. Celine Dion; $3,534,669; $145.47.
5. Justin Bieber; $3,193,681; $109.34.
6. Depeche Mode; $2,963,771; $75.79.
7. Dead & Company; $2,082,160; $75.27.
8. Roger Waters; $1,754,392; $124.12.
9. Ed Sheeran; $1,678,688; $79.93.
10. Bruno Mars; $1,506,526; $77.56.
11. Bon Jovi; $1,424,139; $83.48.
12. The Weeknd; $1,286,824; $80.78.
13. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers; $1,282,471; $86.61.
14. Neil Diamond; $1,189,498; $93.59.
15. Elton John; $1,179,721; $100.14.
16. Red Hot Chili Peppers; $1,116,653; $85.54.
17. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill; $1,115,199; $86.20.
18. Tool; $1,100,072; $78.32.
19. John Mayer; $1,058,462; $73.86.
20. Iron Maiden; $940,995; $70.27.
Global Concert Tours
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