Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: "The Sanctimony and Sin of G.O.P. 'Moderates'" (NY Times Column)
Whatever they say,, they keep on enabling their party's extremists.
Jonathan Cohn: Obamacare Is Alive Because It Has Made Life Better For Millions (Huffington Post)
Republicans could never admit this - and it came back to haunt them.
Bill Bradley: Tomi Lahren Uses Military Trans Ban To Slam Obama. J.K. Rowling Wasn't Having It. (Huffington Post)
"Truly, whom amongst us can forget Trump ordering the killing of bin Laden? Or Obama bragging about barging in on naked beauty contestants?" said Rowling in a burn worse than any "Harry Potter" incendio charm could manage.
Andrew Tobias: I Scream, You Scream … (Sarcasm)
WHY THE RUSSIANS HAD NO EFFECT ON OUR ELECTION. I just figured this out.
Blake Harper: 25 Funniest Dirty Jokes Hidden in Animated Kid's Films (Fatherly)
Children's movies are, well, made for kids, but they're made by adults - adults who understand that parents make up a good deal of their audience. That's why a lot of animators bury sexual innuendos, dirty one-liners, and other adult-themed jokes among the standard mix of gags. They're sly and subtle, intended to fly over a kid's head and into a parent's ears. We combed through 25 classic animated children's movies and found a wealth of subtle and blatantly obvious dirty jokes buried in the squeaky clean worlds.
Tom Danehy: "Saying goodbye to Vern Friedli: championship coach, molder of men" (Tucson Weekly)
For those who would turn a nose up at the accomplishments of a football coach, I ask how many lives are touched by a politician or a banker. Not nudged in one direction or another and/or made worse, but truly touched. Vern Friedli molded men-so many men over the years-and did so with an unmatched combination of self-deprecating humor and steely determination. He knew that his way was the right way and he wanted nothing more than to share his knowledge and outlook on life with those who were willing to walk through the doors of his weight room.
ROBERT D. McFADDEN: June Foray, Virtuoso of Cartoon Voices, Notably Rocky's, Dies at 99 (NY Times)
June Foray, an actress of a thousand voices, who portrayed Rocky the flying squirrel and the fiendish spy Natasha Fatale on the wickedly satirical animated adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle in the 1960s and myriad other animated creatures and characters on television and film, died on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Anna Smith: "Violent femmes: Atomic Blonde and Hollywood's new wave of killer women" (The Guardian)
Charlize Theron stars as a rough-housing MI6 agent, while Jennifer Lawrence and Taraji P Henson are also portraying spies and hit-women. But is it progress to simply feminise the action-film grunt?
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
I keep remembering that hideously cringe-worth cabinet suck-up meeting and how Reince thanked his god for the opportunity to serve Predator. Wonder if he's thanking god now--maybe thanking god that this nightmare is over.
And then there's the Slate headline tonight about Predator replacing Reince with a general. It talks about how much Predator loves surrounding himself with generals--not listening to them but having them all around him. I know Predator would never stoop to reading an actual novel, but he might want to watch Seven Days in May. Could be eye-opening.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
YOU DID THE RIGHT THING JOHN.
"POOTIE POOT" WINS.
THE "MOOCH".
IT'S BEEN A GOOD DAY.
IT'S BEEN A GOOD DAY. PART TWO.
STOP THE PUSHER MAN!
CONSERVATIVES FREAK OUT!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
If it's Friday I must be running late.
Showtime Picks Up Animated Series
Stephen Colbert
It's a go! Showtime has given the green light to an animated satirical series based on Donald Trump's (R-Buffoon) presidency and administration.
Stephen Colbert will executively-produce the untitled series, which will span 10 episodes and air this fall. "I know lot of people wanted to do this and I'm honored that the Cartoon President invited our documentary crew into his private world," the late-night host, who has openly criticized Trump on his show, said of the forthcoming comedy. "I've seen some of the footage and I look forward to sharing the man behind the MAGA," a nod to the commander in chief's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again."
"Stephen [has] an uncanny genius for deconstructing the world of Donald Trump and this series opens a new realm for [him]," Showtime's president and CEO David Nevinsexplained of the series-to-be.
The sitcom is inspired by Colbert's Emmy-nominated Showtime special, Stephen Colbert's Live Election Night Democracy's Series Final: Who's Going To Clean Up This Sh*t? The cartoon version of the commander in chief has also appeared on several episodes of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Stephen Colbert
Science Journalist Retires
David Perlman
A 98-year-old US science journalist, who has finally decided to retire, has said a generation of Americans are suffering from a "major disability in what they can think about and understand".
David Perlman, who has not only won awards but had them named after him, said this was one reason why so many people refused to recognise climate change was real.
Speaking to the website of the Poynter Institute, which trains the media, The San Francisco Chronicle journalist described cuts in science coverage by newspapers as "absolutely obscene".
"Newspapers, whether online or in print, are a major factor in the ongoing education and awareness of the public, and specifically of a younger generation," he said.
This lack of critical thinking was being demonstrated in the US public's reaction to scientific evidence that the world is getting warmer because of greenhouse gas emissions, largely caused by fossil fuels.
David Perlman
'Most Powerful Book Critic'
Michiko Kakutani
A woman described as the most influential book critic in the English-speaking world, is stepping down because she wants to instead write about politics and culture under the administration of Donald Trump (R-Crooked).
After 38 years at the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani has decided to step down as the newspaper's chief book critic.
Ms Kakutani began her career at the paper in 1979 as a reporter covering cultural news. Vanity Fair - which broke the news of her stepping down - said she was "by a wide margin, the most powerful book critic in the English-speaking world".
But Ms Kakutani has made clear she has no plans to stop writing. Rather, she wants to write more about culture and politics under the presidency of Donald Trump.
The critic was apparently feared by many authors who believed a review Ms Kakutani could make or break their reputation. Among those writers she helped to bring to national and international attention, were Brett Easton Ellis, David Foster Wallace, George Saunders and Zadie Smith - the latter whom Ms Kakutani described as a "preternaturally gifted new writer".
Michiko Kakutani
Taking Majority Ownership Of The Atlantic
Laurene Powell Jobs
Laurene Powell Jobs, through her company Emerson Collective, will take majority ownership of The Atlantic, the company announced Friday.
The majority ownership gives Emerson Collective access to the magazine's digital properties, live events business, and consulting services, according to the press release.
The deal doesn't, however, extend to subsidiary properties of Atlantic Media, "like National Journal, Quartz and Government Executive," according to Axios.
Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, spearheaded the deal.
She discussed her enthusiasm for the project in a statement:
"What a privilege it is to partner with David Bradley and become a steward of The Atlantic, one of the country's most important and enduring journalistic institutions. The Atlantic was co-founded 160 years ago by a group of abolitionists including Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is a primary inspiration for our own work at Emerson Collective. Emerson and his partners, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, created a magazine whose mission was to bring about equality for all people; to illuminate and defend the American idea; to celebrate American culture and literature; and to cover our marvelous, and sometimes messy, democratic experiment."
Laurene Powell Jobs
Biases And Prejudices
Racism
The racial biases of white members of a community have a direct link to the number of black people shot and killed by police officers in that same area, new research indicates.
A study published last year found that African Americans are almost three times more likely than white people to be killed by the police's use of force. Indigenous Americans are also almost three times as likely to suffer such a fate, while Hispanic men are twice as likely.
"We expected many economic or demographic variables such as the overall wealth of an area, residential segregation, average levels of education in the area, or overall crime levels, to be involved," said the report's lead author, Eric Hehman.
Yet the researchers - Mr Hehman from Ryerson University in Toronto, Jessica Flake from Toronto's York University, and Jimmy Calanchini of Germany's Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg - found implicit bias, or the strength of someone's association between specific social groups and threat, was the primary indictor as to the level of lethal force.
Specifically, they added, regional implicit biases toward black people, or the implicit stereotypical association between black people and weapons, predicted African Americans being more likely to be killed by police. Where these biases were stronger, African-Americans were more likely to be killed by police.
Racism
Leads To Divorce
Supporting T-rump
A former Miami Dolphins cheerleader has split from her husband in what is being described as the "Trump divorce." The woman issued a press release stating that the couple were forced to end their marriage due to their political differences.
In the statement, 37-year-old Lynn Aronberg, who once cheered for the Florida football team, was described as a "staunch Republican and supporter of Donald Trump (R-Corrupt)," the Palm Beach Post reported. Her husband, Florida state attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg, is a Democrat.
According to the statement, their political differences drove the couple apart after Lynn Aronberg's favor for the president caused her to feel "increasingly isolated in the marriage."
Despite their political differences, the former couple, who were wed in May 2015, have remained amicable throughout the separation and signed a divorce settlement earlier in the week. Lynn Aronberg will reportedly receive a $100,000 settlement, which includes a new BMW and $40,000 in cash.
The Aronbergs are not the first couple to end their marriage due to their partisanship. In May, Arlington, Virginia-based polling firm Wakefield Research released a study that found one in 10 couples, married or not, had ended their relationships because of political disagreements. The study, which included 1,000 participants across the U.S., found millennials in particular were separating at an increasing rate after 22 percent said that they broke up with their significant other over political differences.
Supporting T-rump
Pedophile Priest Released From Prison
Paul Shanley
A former priest at the center of Boston's Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal was quietly released from prison Friday morning after completing a 12-year sentence for the rape of a boy in the 1980s.
Paul Shanley, 86, was released from the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater. He plans to live in an apartment in Ware, a town of about 10,000 people about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west of Boston, according to the state's sex offender registry.
Prosecutors opposed his release, and several men who say they were abused by him when they were young called on the public to help them track his whereabouts. They said they are concerned Shanley will reoffend.
The registry designates Shanley a Level 3 offender, considered the most likely to reoffend. But two psychologists hired by state prosecutors cited Shanley's advanced age and his health issues in concluding that his likelihood to reoffend is low.
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented dozens of men who say they were abused by Shanley, said the evaluations were incomplete because the psychologists didn't interview Shanley. Instead, they reviewed police reports, prosecutors' files and Shanley's church personnel file containing numerous sexual abuse complaints against him.
"The fact that neither expert spoke to Paul Shanley leaves a hole in the report you could drive a trailer truck through," Garabedian said.
Paul Shanley
Study Disproves Bible
Ancient Canaanites
The ancient Canaanites were not wiped out, as the Bible suggests, but went on to become modern-day Lebanese, a study has found.
Living between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago, the holy text suggests things did not end well for the people living in the Middle East.
According to a passage in Deuteronomy, God had ordered the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanites. "You shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them ... so that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things which they have done for their gods."
It seems they didn't destroy them all, though. Examining the DNA of the region's ancient and modern inhabitants, the scientists found more than 90 per cent of the ancestry of modern-day Lebanese derived from the Canaanites.
"The Bible reports the destruction of the Canaanite cities and the annihilation of its people; if true, the Canaanites could not have directly contributed genetically to present-day populations," the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Ancient Canaanites
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; $6,229,677; $101.95.
3. Metallica; $5,042,077; $121.57.
4. Celine Dion; $4,016,123; $149.68.
5. Justin Bieber; $3,193,681; $109.34.
6. Depeche Mode; $2,933,439; $74.83.
7. Dead & Company; $2,063,654; $74.74.
8. Roger Waters; $1,706,432; $125.80.
9. Ed Sheeran; $1,668,890; $80.40.
10. Bruno Mars; $1,518,779; $78.51.
11. Bon Jovi; $1,473,552; $82.40.
12. The Weeknd; $1,352,435; $85.68.
13. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers; $1,292,303; $86.94.
14. Enrique Iglesias / Pitbull; $1,230,104; $93.90.
15. Neil Diamond; $1,182,486; $94.14.
16. Red Hot Chili Peppers; $1,160,129; $85.93.
17. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill; $1,152,090; $86.91.
18. Elton John; $1,145,520; $99.41.
19. Tool; $1,100,072; $78.32.
20. John Mayer; $1,058,462; $73.86.
Global Concert Tours
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