Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: Stormy Daniels Knows How to Deal (Creators Syndicate)
Porn star Stormy Daniels does not come from any mainstream school of feminism. When a powerful man presses her to have sex, she does not charge harassment. She charges money. … Critics of Trump's business ethics can appreciate the frontier justice element to this story. A porn actress managed to shake down the master of the shakedown.
Marc Dion: Secret Ballot (Creators Syndicate)
In those days, campaign buttons were very popular. Neither of my parents ever wore a campaign button with the name of their favored candidate. We did not fly the American flag from our porch. In fact, I don't think we had an American flag in the house. My father got a free flag when we buried him. Both my parents took the concept of the secret ballot very seriously. In fact, neither one of my parents ever told the other how they'd voted. We didn't discuss politics in my house, though we took a newspaper, and we watched the evening news and, as I said, my parents voted in every election.
Froma Harrop: Are We Losing Mexico? And Canada? (Creators Syndicate)
If NAFTA fell apart, the winner would not be the U.S., Mexico or Canada. It would be China. Russia, meanwhile, would quietly smile at the further erosion of U.S. influence - and in Americans' own backyard, too.
Ted Rall: Divide and Conquer (Creators Syndicate)
In other words, the DPRK is saying - reasonably - they'll get rid of our nukes, but only if we promise not to invade them. That guarantee would have to be issued by two countries: South Korea and the United States.
Froma Harrop: When Only a Human Will Do (Creators Syndicate)
As computers continue to replace cashiers, ticket vendors and bank tellers, consumers increasingly don't notice or care much whether they are dealing with a human or a machine. The big exception is when they do.
Pamela Hutchinson: Hedy Lamarr - the 1940s 'bombshell' who helped invent wifi (The Guardian)
The actor, who depicted film's first female orgasm, was well known for her scandalous love life and sultry beauty. Now, a new documentary explores how her scientific talents were vastly overlooked.
Lenore Skenazy: Dad Makes Kid Run in the Rain: Hero or Bully? (Creators Syndicate)
A father who made his 10-year-old son run to school in the rain after the boy was barred from the bus because of bullying made a video of the boy's trek and posted it on Facebook. Now he has become a pariah or a folk hero, depending on which comments you read.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
THERE IS NO CURE FOR HIS DESEASE.
"HISTORY IS ON OUR SIDE."
IN HIS OWN WORDS.
BONE SPURS GETS HIS PARADE.
"TRENDY FASCISM."
WORLD SCIENTISTS WARNING TO HUMANITY.
METH HEAD FOR JESUS.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely rainy day.
ABC Shelved Episode Over 'Creative Differences'
'black-ish'
ABC has indefinitely shelved a politically and socially themed episode of "Black-ish" as a result of creative differences with showrunner Kenya Barris. The network has no plan at this time to air the episode or make it available through other forms of distribution.
Titled "Please, Baby, Please," the episode was originally set to air Feb. 27. ABC revealed in a scheduling announcement on Feb. 22 that the episode would be replaced with a rerun of the single-camera family comedy, but did not provide any additional detail at that time about why the change had been made or when "Please, Baby, Please" would air.
"One of the things that has always made 'Black-ish' so special is how it deftly examines delicate social issues in a way that simultaneously entertains and educates," an ABC spokesperson told Variety Friday. "However, on this episode there were creative differences we were unable to resolve."
Shot in November and directed by Barris, "Please, Baby, Please" features Anthony Anderson's patriarch Dre caring for his infant son on the night of an intense thunderstorm that keeps the whole household awake. Dre attempts to read the baby a bedtime story, but abandons that plan when the baby continues to cry. He instead improvises a bedtime story that, over the course of the episode, conveys many of Dre's concerns about the current state of the country.
The episode covers multiple political and social issues. In one scene, Dre and oldest son Junior (Marcus Scribner) argue over the rights of athletes to kneel during the performance of the national anthem at football games.
'black-ish'
Declines Literary Award
Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie has declined the Carnegie Medal he received last month, the American Library Association told The Associated Press on Friday.
Alexie was given the $5,000 award for nonfiction for his memoir "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me." He has since faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment and issued a statement acknowledging wrongdoing. Jay Asher and James Dashner are among other writers who recently faced similar allegations.
The library association did not have immediate comment on whether the decision was solely by Alexie or whether he had been urged to turn the award down. Attempts to reach Alexie on Friday were not immediately successfully. His publisher, Hachette Book Group, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When it announced Alexie's medal in February, the ALA praised him for writing "a courageous, enlightening, anguished, and funny memoir told in prose and poetry that pays tribute to his Spokane Indian mother and reveals many complex traumas and tragedies of reservation life, as well as his own struggles."
The Carnegie prize, established in 2012, is awarded for fiction and nonfiction. Colson Whitehead, Donna Tartt and Doris Kearns Goodwin are among the previous winners. The library association told the AP on Friday that no nonfiction prize will be given this year. Jennifer Egan's "Manhattan Beach" was the fiction winner.
Sherman Alexie
Best Way To Get One
Pardon
A former Navy sailor who pleaded guilty to a felony count of unauthorized possession and retention of national defense information for snapping photos on a nuclear attack submarine has received a pardon from President Donald Trump- and his attorney says Fox News deserves the credit.
The legal team for Kristian Saucier, who served a year in federal prison, had compared his case to the handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. That grabbed Trump's interest, and it's now paid off in the form of a presidential pardon.
Last week, Saucier appeared on "Fox & Friends," a program that the president records and watches during his morning "executive time." Trump frequently sends tweets that correspond with segments on the morning show.
Ronald Daigle, a lawyer hired to advocate for Saucier's pardon, told HuffPost that Fox News played a key role in getting the case on Trump's radar.
"Absolutely," Daigle said when asked whether going on Fox News was a big part of their strategy. "They were big supporters of Kris right from the beginning. They supported Kris."
Pardon
Nun In Legal Battle Dies In Court
Katy Perry
An ugly legal battle between one of world's most popular artists and a group of nuns over a real estate dead turned tragic when one of the sisters involved died in court Friday. CBS Los Angeles reports that Sister Catherine Rose was one of the nuns fighting Katy Perry over the singer's claims to the Los Feliz property on which a former convent of the Los Angeles Archdiocese once stood.
She collapsed during a court hearing in Los Angeles Friday, in what has been a protracted effort by the nuns to keep Perry from taking ownership of the property.
Late Friday, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez issued a statement that read in part: "Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, IHM passed away suddenly at the age of 89.[…] Sister Catherine Rose served the Church with dedication and love for many years and today we remember her life with gratitude.[…]"
In dispute is the sprawling property in Los Feliz Sister Rose and her fellow nuns bought back in the 1970s from philanthropist Daniel Donohue. The nuns wanted to sell the convent to restaurateur Dana Hollister.
A judge ruled in 2016 that the nuns' sale to Hollister was invalid, paving the way to a purchase by Perry from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Katy Perry
Settlement Resolves Lawsuit
Pepe the Frog
The cartoonist who created Pepe the Frog has resolved a copyright infringement lawsuit that accused a Missouri woman of misusing the character to sell hate-promoting oil paintings.
The settlement is the latest milestone in California-based cartoonist Matt Furie's legal campaign to reclaim his creation from far-right extremists who hijacked Pepe, mixing images of Furie's "chill frog-dude" with Nazi symbols and other hateful imagery. On Monday, Furie sued conspiracy-promoting website Infowars for selling a poster that included an image of Pepe.
A court filing Friday says Furie and Kansas City resident Jessica Logsdon agreed to the dismissal of the federal lawsuit he filed against her in October. Each side is bearing their own legal expenses.
Furie isn't seeking any money from Logsdon, who agreed to stop using Pepe's image, according to a statement released by one of Furie's attorneys. Logsdon didn't immediately respond to a phone call or email seeking comment.
The statement says Logsdon admits she inadvertently and unintentionally infringed on Furie's copyrights. It adds that Logsdon disavows any association with the "alt-right," a white nationalist, anti-Semitic fringe movement that adopted Pepe as a mascot.
Pepe the Frog
Explicit Photos Shared Online-Again
Female Service Members
It's been one year since the U.S. Department of Defense started investigating Marines who shared naked photos of more than two dozen servicewomen on a Facebook group of 30,000 members called Marines United. Now, the military is dealing with another case of nonconsensual revenge porn: A Dropbox folder has reportedly been circulating on social media with hundreds of explicit photos of women in the military.
The folder, called "Hoes Hoin," contains 267 photos of female service members taking naked selfies and performing sexual acts, according to Vice News. Making it even worse, some of the photos show women's faces, their dog tags, or their name tags on their uniforms.
The Dropbox link allegedly first appeared last month in a male-only Facebook group called "Blame Marines United (Non-Butthurt Edition)," which has since been shut down after Marine Corps veteran Erin Kirk Cuomo learned of its existence and reached out to Facebook. Kirk Cuomo is the founder of #NotInMyMarineCorps, an advocacy group.
She also tweeted in support of the women who were featured in the photos: "What is breaking my heart tonight? Not MU, even though that is bad. The number of victims who are blaming themselves for "something I could have prevented" "if only I hadn't done this" in response to our story. I want to scream IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT #metoo #metoomilitary"
After last year's investigation, the Marine Corps received $18 million in funds to to address the revenge porn and harassment issue, and Congress made it a criminal offense in the military to share nonconsensual nude photos. But that apparently hasn't solved the issue.
Female Service Members
Gave $7 Million
NRA
The National Rifle Association has dramatically increased its funding to schools in recent years amid a national debate over guns and school violence, an Associated Press analysis of tax records has found. But few say they plan to give up the money in the aftermath of the latest mass shooting.
The AP analysis of the NRA Foundation's public tax records finds that about 500 schools received more than $7.3 million from 2010 through 2016, mostly through competitive grants meant to promote shooting sports. The grants have gone to an array of school programs, including the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, rifle teams, hunting safety courses and agriculture clubs.
In some ways, the grant distribution reflects the nation's deep political divide over guns. Nearly three-quarters of the schools that received grants are in counties that voted for President Donald Trump in the 2016 election, while a quarter are in counties that voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to the AP analysis. Most are in medium-sized counties or rural areas, with few near major cities.
California received the most in school grants, more than $1 million, while Florida was a close second.
Florida's Broward County school district is believed to be the first to stop accepting NRA money after a gunman killed 17 people at one of its schools Feb. 14. The teen charged in the shooting had been on a school rifle team that received NRA funding. School officials announced the change Tuesday but declined to comment further.
NRA
Former Google Engineer's Start-Up
Unauthorized Satellite Launch
Satellite manufacturer Swarm Technologies is under scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the unauthorized launch of four prototype satellites in January, the regulatory authority confirmed to CNBC on Friday. The news was previously reported by IEEE Spectrum.
Swarm -- founded in 2016 by former Google and Apple engineers Sara Spangelo and Benjamin Longmier, respectively -- launched its first four SpaceBee satellites aboard an Indian-built PSLV rocket in January. This was a snub to the FCC, which had dismissed the company's application a month before.
The FCC confirmed to CNBC that it revoked Swarm's authorization to launch its next four satellites, contracted to go to orbit aboard a Rocket Lab mission in April.
"We're aware of the situation and can confirm that we set aside their grant while we're looking into the matter," an FCC spokesman told CNBC in a statement.
Spaceflight Industries, which sold payload space for 19 satellites onboard PSLV-40, facilitated Swarm's inclusion on the rocket, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC. While Spaceflight acted as a broker between Swarm and the rocket provider -- Indian Space Research Organisation's commercial division, Antrix -- Spaceflight was not the intermediary between Swarm and the FCC. Spaceflight received an email from Swarm three days before the launch, CNBC learned, which told the broker that Swarm's FCC license was pending and approval was imminent.
Unauthorized Satellite Launch
Oakland Coffee Shop
Hasta Muerte
A coffee shop has banned police officers dressed in uniform in an effort to prevent their customers from becoming upset by their presence.
The ban began when Hasta Muerte in Oakland, California, denied a police officer's request to buy a drink last month over fears for the "emotional safety" of other customers.
And the coffee shop stands by their decision according to a photo uploaded to the store's Instagram page.
"We know in our experience working on campaigns against police brutality that we are not alone in saying that police presence compromises our feeling of physical and emotional safety," they wrote.
Hasta Muerte
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