Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Waiting for the Third World (Creators Syndicate)
Back when we were fat, when we ruled the world, Americans knew how to tell if a country was "Third World." The country was invariably led by a bellicose dictator who said things like "enemies of the state" and who constantly claimed greatness for himself.
Froma Harrop: Are We Truly One Paycheck From Disaster? (Creators Syndicate)
The partial government shutdown has forced some federal workers to move money around to pay for food and rent. No surprise there. What's shocking is the many who don't have the money to move. They have no financial cushion to cover even one month's worth of ordinary expenses.
Mark Shields: Weeding Out the 2020 Presidential Candidates (Creators Syndicate)
… first we must demand that all self-selected presidential hopefuls tell us now why they want to be president and what real difference - in the lives of everyday Americans - their presidency would make if they were to win. If they cannot first do that, they deserve neither your time nor even your courtesy.
Ted Rall: Our Pointless, Vicious, Very American Culture of Shame (Creators Syndicate)
It's impossible to discuss shame culture without talking about the #MeToo movement. Criminal prosecution of accused sexual predators like Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey are exceptions. For the most part, #MeToo is a shame-based movement. Sometimes, as in the case of comedian Aziz Ansari's bad date, shame seems excessive and misplaced. In many cases, the targets seem to have had something coming - because it's not jail, we settle for job loss - and it's unlikely they would have faced consequences otherwise.
Lenore Skenazy: 4 Lessons From a Horrible Case (Creators Syndicate)
It may feel as if we are living in the most dangerous times ever. But in reality, crime is at a 50-year low. Lesson No. 3, therefore, teaches us that to ignore statistical odds and concentrate on the very scariest, saddest, least likely possibilities is a recipe for constant anxiety and pointless safety measures.
Susan Estrich: Hello, Dolly (Creators Syndicate)
She was my daughter's godmother. She was my friend. We knew her from politics, not Hollywood: She was close to "Lady Bird" Johnson and her legendary press secretary, Liz Carpenter. We had no family in California. And she fell in love with my beautiful baby.
Pamela Hutchinson: "From femme fatale to cattle rancher: how Barbara Stanwyck bucked convention" (The Guardian)
Her versatility made her a star of Hollywood's golden age, but Stanwyck's best characters were always fighters who, like herself, had tasted life's bitterness.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Claude Monet worked hard, painting outdoors in very bad weather and sometimes dangerous locations. Art critic Léon Billot wrote about him in the Journal de Havre on October 9, 1868, "It was during winter, after several snowy days … [and the] desire to see the countryside beneath its white shroud had led us across the fields. It was cold enough to split rocks. We glimpsed a little heater, then an easel, then a gentleman, swathed in three overcoats, with gloved hands, his face half-frozen. It was [Monsieur] Monet, studying an aspect of the snow. We must confess that this pleased us. Art has some courageous soldiers." Monet painted on the Normandy Coast, including the Manneporte arch at Etretat. Some people had been trapped under the arch at high tide and then washed out to sea and drowned. In November 1885 Monet himself almost died there. While he was painting, a large wave struck and slammed him and his canvas and his paints against a cliff and then swept them into the sea. Monet wrote Alice, his wife, "My immediate thought was that I was done for, as the water dragged me down, but in the end I managed to clamber out on all fours."
• In his old age, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, but he continued to paint. Unable to walk, he was either carried in a sedan chair or pushed in a wheelchair. His hands were twisted, and according to his son Jean, "Visitors who weren't used to it couldn't take their eyes off the mutilation. Their reaction, which they didn't dare express, was 'It's not possible. With those hands, he can't paint these paintings. There's a mystery!'" According to Jean, "The mystery was Renoir himself." In order for Mr. Renoir to paint, a piece of cloth was pushed into the center of his hand, which was like a claw, and then a brush was pushed into his hand. A mechanism was created in order to move large paintings so that the part that Mr. Renoir wanted to work on was within his reach. With these adaptations, Mr. Renoir was able to continue to create masterpieces despite his infirmity. In 1919, his last year of life, Mr. Renoir painted both Girl with a Mandolin and The Concert, although he looked like a skeleton and his voice was so weak that people could barely hear him.
• Auguste Rodin, sculptor of The Thinker, suffered from rejection during his student days and early in his career. Three times he tried to get accepted into the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and three times he was rejected. Following this major disappointment, he submitted a sculpture titled The Man with the Broken Nose, aka the bust of Bibi, to the Salon, but the judges rejected it because they thought that it was too realistic. Later, sculptor Jules Desbois visited Mr. Rodin, saw the sculpture, and asked to borrow it. "Take it," Mr. Rodin said. Mr. Desbois took it to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he said, "Come and see what I've found. Look at this splendid antique statue. I've just discovered it in a secondhand dealer's shop." Everyone admired it, and then Mr. Desbois told them, "Well, Rodin, the man who did this, failed three times to get into the Ecole, and this piece, which you all thought was an antique, was rejected by the Salon."
• Many artists are impoverished early in their careers. When Pablo Picasso was living with Fernande Olivier, they sometimes ran out of money to buy food. One trick they used to get food was to order it and have it delivered. When the delivery boy would knock on their door with bags of food, Ms. Olivier would yell, "Put them down! I can't open [the door] now! I'm naked!" The delivery boy would put down the bags of food and leave, Mr. Picasso and Ms. Olivier would eat, and when they got the money, they would pay for the food. Even earlier, when Mr. Picasso lived in an unfurnished apartment with his friend Carlos Casagemas, they could not afford to buy or rent furniture, and so Mr. Picasso painted fine furniture on the walls. He even painted a maid and an errand boy. (By the way, young Pablo grew up watching his artist father create art. Pablo's first word reportedly was piz- the Spanish word for pencil is lápiz.)
• In 1534, Pope Paul III asked Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo worked on the painting for five and a half years, beginning in 1536. Finally, when on October 31, 1541, Pope Paul III saw the completed work of art without parts of it hidden by scaffolding, he was overcome by its artistic and spiritual vision and fell to his knees. The painting was not without controversy. While Michelangelo was working on the painting, papal court official Biaglio da Cesena objected to the nudity of the figures. Michelangelo showed his opinion of Biaglio's views of art by putting him in the painting - Biaglio is shown in hell, with horns, and with his nudity covered by a serpent's coils. Biaglio was not amused, but Pope Paul III was.
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Hey, Marty!
This is more of a question, actually: morbid curiosity made me turn on
CNN to watch Trump's impotent (oops, I meant important, right?) message today, and
the first hour was taken up by the naturalization ceremony of 5 people. However,
before that ceremony began, would-be-king Trump came out and spoke shortly to the
audience.
I need to see if I actually heard him right...in that initial address, he actually
said something to the effect of 'I'm doing great because I have a lot of money'!
I've tried to find a video of it, but couldn't find one anywhere, even at the CNN
site. Did anyone else hear what he said? I may not have the wording correct, but the
part where he bragged about having "a lot of money" is correct.
What an insane thing to say to Americans considering our economy and the all our
furloughed workers! Does he truly not know what an assinine remark that is or is he
deliberately trying to provoke our hate? The man is psychotic!
Your faithful reader,
Tiera in SD
Thanks, Tiera!
Found this - Remarks by President Trump at a Naturalization Ceremony, from earlier in the day, when a citizenship ceremony was held in the Oval office for 5 people. Yes, 5.
Read the whole thing - it's not often you get to read transcripted babbling.
Anyway, the 11th paragraph has a money line:
Marcelo Ramos Ramirez is from Bolivia and has a beautiful, lawful permanent resident of the United States, and has been since 2013. He is the co-owner of a staffing company with his son Marcio. The business is thriving. He's doing really well. And it's expanding in all different ways. He says, "I know that in the [United States] you can achieve anything that you want, and I am a perfect example." In another words, he's making a lot of money. (Laughter.) Marcelo, thank you very much. (Applause.)
Finally, Lord Dampnut wraps it up with:
As Americans, and American citizens, we are bound together in love, and loyalty, and friendship, and affection. We must look out for each other, care for each other, and always act in the best interests of our nation and all citizens living here today. We love each other. We're proud of each other.
The beauty and majesty of citizenship is that it draws no distinctions of race, or class, or faith, or gender or background. No matter where our story begins, whether we are the first generation or the tenth generation, we are all equal. We are one team and one people proudly saluting one great American flag.
Again, I want to congratulate you and welcome you to the family. It's a family. It's a beautiful family. It's a family doing very well. We're setting records economically. Our economy is the hottest in the world, and it's continuing, and continuing upward.
Our unemployment is the best it's been in more than 50 years. And for certain individuals, it's the best it's ever been, historically. It will probably soon be now for everybody. It's an honor to have you. God bless you. God bless America. Congratulations. (Applause.) Thank you.
Remarks by President Trump at a Naturalization Ceremony | The White House
That ain't pride I'm feeling...
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Back to sunny and warmer than seasonal.
Gets Booed
Bill Maher
"Real Time" returned last night after a two-month hiatus, and Bill Maher wasted little time courting controversy - this time from his own studio audience. During a panel discussion with former congressman Barney Frank, Maher received boos from the crowd when he announced that Ann Coulter would be on the show next week.
"Yeah, that's called a newsmaker. A policymaker. You'll have to suck on that," he said in response to his audience's vocal disapproval. Coulter has appeared on "Real Time" on several occasions throughout the years, and the two are friends despite holding diametrically opposed political views.
It wasn't the first time Coulter was mentioned last night. During his monologue, which focused on the ongoing government shutdown as well as the latest bombshell revelations about Donald Trump and his inner circle, Maher alluded to the fact that Coulter and other Fox News personalities have the president's ear when it comes to major policy decisions. "Of course Trump was not having that. Nobody puts man-baby in the corner," Maher said of Trump's feud with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. "He was like, 'I'm not gonna let some woman push me around - is Ann Coulter OK with that?'"
Maher and Coulter both thrive on controversy, and neither is likely to be bothered by this response - or the fact that they're probably going to receive more boos during next Friday's episode of "Real Time."
Bill Maher
Israel Ceremony
Roseanne
Roseanne Barr has said she finds Natalie Portman "repulsive" in a brand new interview.
The actor, whose sitcom Roseanne was cancelled following a racist tweet in 2018, criticised the Oscar-winning star for declining to participate in a prestigious ceremony as she "didn't want to be seen endorsing" the president of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was due to attend.
Speaking to daily newspaper Israel Hayom, Barr said: "It was really sickening, I find her repulsive. She was raised in incredible privilege of safety in the Jewish state and knows nothing about anti-Semitism."
Portman, who was born in Jerusalem, moved to the United States with her parents when she was three.
Referring to her former Roseanne co-star John Goodman, who now fronts spin-off show The Conners, Barr said he "should've fought harder" for her following her firing from ABC.
Roseanne
Secretly Arrested
Marzieh Hashemi
The U.S. government on Friday acknowledged for the first time that it secretly arrested an Iranian journalist earlier this week, demanding she testify to a federal grand jury as part of a federal probe that still remains a mystery.
The acknowledgement came in a federal judge's order stating that American-born Melanie Franklin, also known as Marzieh Hashemi, was taken into custody on a material witness warrant issued in Washington.
In an interview with the Associated Press, her son said that she had just come from the New Orleans area, shooting a documentary about Black Lives Matter.
The order, unsealed Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., confirms that Franklin has not been accused of any crime and has made two court appearances before a federal judge.
"We still have no idea what's going on," said Hossein Hashemi, who is Hashemi's son and who is a research fellow at the University of Colorado
Marzieh Hashemi
Comic Collection Stolen
Batman
A Florida man is reaching out to the comic-collecting community, hoping to reclaim nearly 450 valuable comic books that were recently stolen.
The Sun Sentinel reports that Randy Lawrence posted on social media last week that his registered Batman and Detective Comics collection valued at $1.4 million was stolen from an air-conditioned storage unit in Boca Raton.
Lawrence is asking other collectors to keep an eye out for anyone trying to sell his stolen comics . He says they're registered with the Certified Guaranty Company, a comic book grading service, and the size and rarity of the collection should make its source obvious.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office is investigating the break-in that occurred sometime between Nov. 28 and Jan. 8. A report says the storage facility management was reviewing surveillance videos.
Batman
Still Separating Families
DHS
In the five months since President Trump (R-Grifter) issued an executive order indefinitely suspending his administration's zero-tolerance family separation policy, immigration officials have continued to separate immigrant children and parents - at steadily increasing rates.
According to a report released Thursday by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), between July 1 and Nov. 7 last year, at least 118 immigrant children were separated from parents or adult guardians by officials at the border and referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the department in HHS that is responsible for the care of unaccompanied immigrant children in U.S. custody.
The key takeaway of the report, which prompted immediate calls for accountability from immigration advocates and some Democratic lawmakers, was that the total number of immigrant families separated by border officials under the Trump administration is unknown and likely significantly larger than what had previously been announced.
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, called the report's revelations "wholly unacceptable" and vowed to "fully investigate the actions leading to this disastrous decision and will hold the Trump administration to account for their cruel and incompetent actions."
Although the incidence of family separations at the border has dropped significantly from its peak, the practice has hardly stopped. According to the same tracking by ORR, the proportion of separated children referred to ORR care by DHS has increased steadily each month, from 0.47 percent in July to 0.91 percent during the first week of November 2018 alone. Overall, separated children made up 0.69 percent of all ORR intakes during this period- more than twice the rate observed by ORR officials in 2016.
DHS
L.A. County
Jailhouse Beating
A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was convicted Friday of lying to federal investigators in an attempt to conceal the 2011 beating of a handcuffed man who was visiting his brother in jail, prosecutors said.
Byron Dredd, 36, was found guilty of making false statements to the FBI during a July 2012 interview in which he painted the victim as the aggressor, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said in a news release.
Dredd and five other deputies assigned to the Men's Central Jail have already been convicted and sentenced in connection with the assault on the restrained victim, identified by the Los Angeles Times as Gabriel Carrillo. The newspaper reported that he had been left bloody and bruised by the attack.
The deputies handcuffed Carrillo and took him into an employee break room because they thought he was carrying a cellphone, which is against state law. The victim's hands remained restrained behind his back while they beat him, prosecutors said.
Dredd was in an adjacent room and witnessed the assault through a metal window. But he lied about what he saw, and false reports filed by Dredd and others led to Carrillo being charged with multiple crimes, including resisting an officer and battery, investigators said.
In attempting to cover it up, Dredd falsely told the FBI he saw Carrillo swing at and punch the deputes, then push another as he tried to escape. Prosecutors determined the statements were blatant lies because they had proof the victim was handcuffed the entire time.
Jailhouse Beating
Melting Four Times Faster
North America's Glaciers
Across the world's icy landscapes, climate change is spurring a major meltdown. That includes the western U.S. and Canada where not only is ice vanishing, but it's doing so at a more rapid pace than it was just a decade ago, according to a new study released this week in Geophysical Research Letters.
The faster melt can be partial attributed to a shift in weather patterns over the past years, which has worked in concert with rising temperatures to speed along ice's demise.
The glaciers of North America are remnants of the Ice Age. They cling to high peaks from British Columbia to Montana where snow replenishes them each winter and temperatures have been cool enough to keep them more or less at equilibrium for centuries. But now humans have thrown that equation out of whack, pouring carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The result has been the death of ice.
There are ice monitoring stations to measure what's going on scattered across the West, but the new research uses satellites to see how much ice has changed. By detecting minute elevation changes from year-to-year from 2000-18, scientists were able to paint a comprehensive picture of ice in decline. Brian Menounos, a glacier researcher from the University of Northern British Columbia, told Earther the research could "improve modeling efforts for the fate of western North American glaciers in the decades ahead."
More than 80 percent of glaciers showed a loss in elevation, indicating they're losing ice faster than snow can replenish what's melting away. Northern parts of British Columbia's interior saw the most dramatic thinning.
North America's Glaciers
Models Can't Keep Up
Magnetic North Pole
Rapid and erratic movements of Earth's north magnetic pole have prompted an early update to a model that assists with navigation. The scheduled fix was supposed to happen on January 15, but the US government shutdown has forced an unwelcome delay.
The magnetic north pole is shifting at an unprecedented rate. Over the last 30 years, the rate of distance that the magnetic north pole moves per year has sped up, around 15km per year to around 55km per year, according to Nature.
Unlike the static geographic north pole, the north magnetic pole is in constant flux, influenced by the movements of iron-rich fluids deep below the Earth's crust. Or at least that's the theory - the whole thing is still somewhat of a scientific mystery.
The World Magnetic Model (WMM) provides a five-year forecast of the Earth's magnetic field, which assists with navigation. But the rapid and irregular movements of the north magnetic pole over the past three years have made the 2015 WMM inaccurate. An unprecedented early update was supposed to happen on 15 January 2019, but that's been bumped to January 30 owing to the ongoing US government shutdown, reports Nature.
The WMM forecasts are produced by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) on behalf of the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the UK Defence Geographic Centre.
Magnetic North Pole
Something Surprising
Saturn's Rings
As the Cassini probe plunged into Saturn, it measured the gravitational pull of the rocks making up its iconic rings - and those readings tell us the rings might be a lot younger than we previously thought.
In fact, they might have formed around the same time dinosaurs were walking the Earth, with scientists estimating that the rings formed less than 100 million years ago, and maybe as little as 10 million years ago.
With Saturn clocking in at around 4.5 billion years old, it means the giant planet may have been without its distinctive halo for much of its life. Even from beyond the grave, Cassini is still teaching us more about our Solar System.
Astronomers have long suspected that Saturn's rings might not be that old, but thanks to Cassini's hyper-sensitive gravity measurements, there's now some solid evidence.
The gravitational pull of the rings indicates their mass, which in turn indicates how old they are. The more time these icy rocks spend out in space, the heavier they get, contaminated by passing space debris.
Saturn's Rings
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