Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: His Excellency, Don Diego (Creators Syndicate)
Still, while I was working at a newspaper, making myself a grilled cheese sandwich, sleeping or standing in line at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, Diego, the papers say, was quietly, doggedly making sure hundreds of female tortoises were impregnated during his 30-year reign as a star breeder.
Ted Rall: America's Long History of Meddling in Russia (Creators Syndicate)
In 1982, then-President Ronald Reagan approved an ingenious CIA operation to blow up a huge natural gas pipeline running across Siberia. "In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines and valves was programmed to go haywire after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds," recalled a former member of Reagan's national security council. The result was economic disruption, environmental catastrophe and "the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space."
Froma Harrop: Democrats Should Put an End to Caucuses (Creators Syndicate)
"It is quite astonishing to see with what deadpan and neutral a tone our press and television report the open corruption - and the flagrantly anti-democratic character - of the Iowa caucuses." I quote the late Christopher Hitchens because I couldn't put it better.
Mark Shields: In Defense of Iowa (Creators Syndicate)
It is time someone stood up for Iowa and Iowans. It's true that Iowa is neither very representative of the entire nation nor very average. Scholarly studies have ranked Iowa as tied for first place in percentage of the adult population who are high school graduates. Iowans are fourth highest in access to health care (more "representative" Florida and Texas rank 46th and 47th respectively in citizens' access to health care); first in broadband access; and third highest in public libraries per capita. True, the Hawkeye State leads the nation in production of corn, soybeans and pork, but Iowans are at the top of the nation in literacy, and the state has the U.S.'s 14th lowest murder rate.
Froma Harrop: Do Canadians Want to Defer to Harry and Meghan? (Creators Syndicate)
One thing Canadians tend to be is sensible. And so it is surprising how many would consider making Prince Harry and his wife, the former Meghan Markle, king and queen of Canada. Harry is a beneficiary of the lucky sperm club, and Meghan was TV actress from Los Angeles. Do Canadians really want to defer to these two, even under their current titles, His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex?
Susan Estrich: The Warren Strategy (Creators Syndicate)
What a coincidence. With less than three weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, we suddenly learn about a meeting that took place a year ago, with only two people in the room. She, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, told him, Sen. Bernie Sanders, she was running for president; he allegedly told her that a woman couldn't win, which is a weird thing to say to a woman who has told you that she is running, but even so. It's a fair question I've been trying to answer for a few decades.
Susan Estrich: Equality Deferred (Creators Syndicate)
It was in 1972 that Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment. The Amendment provides "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Last week, 48 years later, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment - which would make it law but for the fact that the deadline for ratification passed in 1982.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Song: "Blueberry Jam No. 27" from the album BLUEBERRY & COUNTRY SUGAR
Artist: Benjamin Vo
Artist Location: Lititz, Pennsylvania
Info: All songs written by Benjamin Vo
Benjamin Vo - guitar/vocals
Joel Stoltzfus - drums/percussion
Jeff Pickel - bass
Mike Titzer - piano
Produced by Jon Sambrick
Price: $1 (USD) for song; $8 (USD) for nine-track album
Genre: Blues Guitar Instrumental
Benjamin Vo on Bandcamp
BLUEBERRY & COUNTRY SUGAR
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
Reader Contribution
Poinciana Tree
This is a photo of the blooms from my Poinciana tree. I bought this plant four years ago. In September 2017 it was knocked down by Hurricane Irma. I replanted the tree and it prospered, however, in January 2018 we had our only freeze day in the last 10 years and the tree died. Or so I thought. In March we dug up the stump only to find green shoots in the root ball of the tree! Yea! I replanted the stump with plant goodies and it grew back. These are the beautiful blossoms nearly two years later!
Always a Fan,
BSmasher
Thanks, Brain!
from Bruce
Anecdotes
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Blurring photos from the Women's March to avoid engaging in politics? MALE COW EXCREMENT, National Archives! Is there ANY part of our government that has not been crippled and corrupted to protect Orange Baby Narcissist's feefees?! Tampering with/changing history is NOT part of the mission of the National Archives. They are supposed to preserve artifacts that reflect our history, even controversial artifacts.
An accurate photo is history, not politics. The idiot ordering the doctoring of photos is the one playing politics. I would bet $1,000 that person is a political appointee (Republican) rather than a career civil servant. The hat? No, the OPPOSITE of that! Running a country is not about appeasing the feelings of a corrupt dictator.
Do he and his minions spend every waking moment figuring out what to screw up next? It feels like the octopus tentacles are everywhere defiling, destroying, and tainting!
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The current Grand Sumo tournament is at the half-way mark.
So far, there have been lots of twists and surprises - a most excellent basho.
Removes Exhibit
National Archives
The U.S. National Archives, home to foundational documents such as the Bill of Rights, apologized on Saturday for altering images critical of President Donald Trump (R-Impeached) at an exhibit on women's fight for voting rights and said it had removed the display.
The entrance to the Washington exhibit had featured interlaced photographs of a 1913 women's suffrage march and the Women's March that took place on Jan. 21, 2017, each visible from a different angle. In the 2017 photograph, the word "Trump" had been blurred in at least two signs carried by demonstrators, including one that originally read "God Hates Trump."
The word "vagina" and other anatomical references were also obscured.
"We apologize, and will immediately start a thorough review of our exhibit policies and procedures so that this does not happen again," the Archives said in statement.
The Post reported on Friday that the Archives had said in a statement last week that as a non-partisan agency it had altered the image "so as not to engage in current political controversy."
National Archives
Aircraft Carrier
Doris Miller
The U.S. Navy is expected to honor a World War II hero when a new aircraft carrier is named for Mess Attendant 2nd Class Doris Miller.
Miller was the first African American to receive the Navy Cross for valor.
Miller was recognized for manning a machine gun on the USS West Virginia and returning fire against Japanese planes during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Miller, then 22, was collecting laundry when the attack alarm sounded. His normal battle station in an antiaircraft battery magazine was destroyed by a torpedo. He went on deck and carried wounded soldiers to safety before receiving orders to aid the mortally wounded captain on the bridge.
"He subsequently manned a 50-cal. Browning anti-aircraft machine gun until he ran out of ammunition and was ordered to abandon ship," the Navy said, noting Miller was not trained to operate the gun.
Doris Miller
Man With An Opinion
Ron Reagan
Donald Trump (R-Grifter) is a traitor and Ronald Reagan would be embarrassed and ashamed of what has become of the Republican Party, the former president's son has claimed.
During an interview on Friday, Ron Reagan said his father would never support Mr Trump and blasted him as "a traitorous president who is betraying his country".
He also criticised the current Republican Party which he described as "entirely illegitimate" and "made up of a bunch of sycophantic traitors mouthing Kremlin propaganda to defend this squalid little man who is occupying the White House".
"This is a dying party. They either have to remake themselves entirely or they will disappear eventually. Within a decade the Republican Party will be a minor fringe group if it continues going this way," Mr Reagan told The Daily Beast.
"My father would have been ashamed of this Republican Party. He would have been embarrassed and ashamed that a president of the United States was as incompetent and traitorous as the man occupying the White House now. He's a disgrace to the office of the presidency."
Ron Reagan
Franchise's Lowest Rotten Tomatoes Score
'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'
In a very unusual twist of fate, the Rotten Tomatoes score for "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" has managed to drop enough since it was released in theaters to earn the worst percentage for the entire film franchise with 52% positive reviews, just barely edging out, for now, the 1999 prequel "The Phantom Menace."
On the day it was released, "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" had garnered 58% positive reviews from critics who are included in the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, which was the second worst percentage that any live-action "Star Wars" film had earned. The film was only ahead of the 53% earned by "The Phantom Menace." That in itself was a remarkable feat, as it's pretty difficult to make a "Star Wars" movie that gets that many negative reviews. "The Rise of Skywalker" has been trounced by the other two prequels, with "Attack of the Clones" coming in at 65% and "Revenge of the Sith" earning an 80%.
The Disney "Star Wars" flicks had all earned stellar reviews to this point, with "The Force Awakens" at 93%, "Rogue One" at 83%, "The Last Jedi" at 91%, and even "Solo," the first "Star Wars" movie to be an outright failure at the box office," coming in at 70%.
But over the past four weeks, that percentage has slowly crept downward as reviews continued to trickle in. It's a surprising turn of events, but not unfathomable. Since its opening weekend, "The Rise of Skywalker" has received more than 100 new reviews that were included in its count on Rotten Tomatoes. That isn't unusual, as the same thing happened with "Frozen 2" a month earlier. What's surprising is that its overall percentage would change that much with those new reviews, as the new "Star Wars" flick has 158 more reviews counted in its tally than its Disney cousin - 469 to 311 - and so each new review has less of an impact on the overall percentage than it would for most movies.
'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'
Outside Law Firms
Recording Academy
Among the concerns listed in a memo sent to the Recording Academy's head of HR by president/CEO Deborah Dugan before she was placed on administrative leave Thursday was an item about the organization's "exorbitant and unnecessary" legal fees to outside law firms, according to sources familiar with the document.
According to the most recent 990 forms (for tax-exempt organizations) filed to the IRS by the Academy covering the tax years 2013-2017, the organization paid out nearly $15 million over those years to two law firms - Greenberg Traurig LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP - as well as millions in additional legal expenses. Those firms are headed by Joel Katz and Chuck Ortner, respectively, both of whom have worked closely with the Academy, particularly former president/CEO Neil Portnow, for decades and also represent Academy executives and/or Board of Trustees members (including new interim president/CEO Harvey Mason, Jr., a Greenberg Traurig client). Katz is also one of the music industry's top and most entrenched lawyers, having represented many executives (including L.A. Reid and Republic Records' Monte and Avery Lipman) over the years as well as artists including Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Buffett, Julio Iglesias, Willie Nelson and many others; he also was the chief negotiator for Scott Borchetta in the recent acquisition of Big Machine Records by Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings. Sources tell Variety that both Katz and Ortner are also paid salaries as outside general counsels by the Academy, as well as expenses.
Reps for the Academy and Ortner did not immediately respond to Variety's requests for comment; Katz said he was uncertain whether he received a salary during those years but noted that the firm's fees included the 2016 CBS television contract negotiation for the Grammy Awards (as noted below), a fee that was approved by the Board. That deal nets the Academy over $20 million (and perhaps significantly more) in licensing fees annually, sources tell Variety.
The Recording Academy has no in-house attorney or business affairs executive, choosing instead to pay outside law firms, apparently for all of its legal work. An executive who has worked closely with the Academy - a 501(c)(6) tax exempt non-profit organization formally called the National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences - for many years called the arrangement "unconscionable."
Recording Academy
What Climate Change 1
Maldives
The tropical Maldives may lose entire islands unless it can quickly access cheap financing to fight the impact of climate change, its foreign minister said.
The archipelago's former president Mohamed Nasheed famously held a cabinet meeting underwater to draw attention to submerging land and global warming a decade ago.
Yet the Maldives, best known for its white sands and palm-fringed atolls that draw luxury holiday-makers, has struggled to find money to build critical infrastructure like sea-walls.
At the U.N. climate talks in Madrid in December, the Maldives and other vulnerable countries pushed for concrete progress on fresh funding to help them deal with disasters and longer-term damage linked to climate change - but failed.
One of the world's lowest-lying countries, more than 80% of the Maldives' land is less than one meter above mean sea levels, making its population of around 530,000 people extremely vulnerable to storm surges, sea swells and severe weather.
Maldives
What Climate Change 2
Miami Beach
Dozens of trucks have started dumping hundreds of thousands of tons of sand on Miami Beach as part of US government measures to protect Florida's tourist destinations against the effects of climate change.
"We have erosion hotspots," said Stephen Leatherman, an expert on beaches and the environment at Florida International University.
Leatherman -- known locally as "Dr Beach" -- said that rising sea levels, triggered by climate change, are causing the accelerated erosion of the famous beach, as well as coastal storms and in particular hurricanes.
The Army Corps of Engineers this month began the $16 million operation to dump 233,000 cubic meters (8.2 million cubic feet) of sand on eroded areas of Miami Beach by June, a project that was originally designed to address damage wrought by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Every day, trucks will tip between 100 and 250 loads, each containing 22 tons of sand, onto the beach, the Army said in a statement.
Miami Beach
'Ghetto' Language Classes
Austria
Every morning Abulrahman leaves his normal primary school lessons in Vienna and joins about 20 other children for three hours to learn to read, write and speak German.
Only when his level is deemed good enough will the eight year-old, who arrived from Yemen in July, be allowed to stop what critics call the "ghetto classes".
Despite conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's new coalition partners, the Greens, having expressed concerns about the controversial policy, it looks set to continue.
Kurz has pledged to maintain his anti-immigration reforms -- with junior partner, the Greens, conceding -- including the special classes, which the government argues allow children with weak German skills to learn at their own pace without holding others back.
Some 6,300 children across Austria are now enrolled in the language classes.
Austria
'Made in Africa'
Cigars
While drinking in a nightclub in Mozambique in 2015, Kamal Moukheiber had an idea: a luxury cigar made not in Cuba, but in southern Africa.
The Lebanese former banker glanced at a customer puffing at what looked like an imported cigar and thought: "What's wrong with Africa producing cigars?"
"Africa has been growing tobacco for 100 years," Moukheiber, 50, told Reuters. We have the land, we have the water, we have the skill set. So what's missing?"
His business, Bongani Cigars - it means "be grateful" in Zulu - was conceived as a small, fun project. Now it produces nearly 10,000 cigars a month, small numbers compared to the big producers. It sells in South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique, where some of its tobacco is grown.
He traveled to the Dominican Republic to recruit a head of production, Anthony Padilla Perez, and move him to Maputo, where he helped train a workforce in the precise art of rolling by hand. Bongani now employs five rollers.
Cigars
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