Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Coker: Deconstructing Word-of-Mouth Marketing (Publishers Weekly)
Many factors can lead to a book going viral-and many obstacles can prevent it from reaching the next reader.
Marc Dion: I Was Right About Trump's Wall (Creators Syndicate)
I remember my bartender father coming home with scraped knuckles. "I could tell when the guy walked in there was something wrong with him," Pop said as my mother poured Mercurochrome into the small abrasions, the results of breaking up a fight and having to hit the guy who looked like something was wrong with him. "Geez, I hate being right," Pop said as the Mercurochrome stung him. Everyone hates to be wrong, but there are times when it's not so good to be right, either.
Suzanne Moore: How will we cope when the last middle-class man slumps to the ground? (The Guardian)
To hear the likes of Niall Ferguson, he is part of an endangered species. A strange new phenomenon seems to have struck him and his media chums: victim-envy.
Froma Harrop: Boycott Ingraham's Advertisers? What About All of Fox News? (Creators Syndicate)
For Laura Ingraham, the decline came well before the fall. The Parkland teens' success in pressuring advertisers to flee her Fox News Channel show could cut her career down to tweet size. Ingraham made the mistake of mocking student leader David Hogg's reaction to being turned down by several colleges.
Hadley Freeman: Help! I think I'm turning into Ben Affleck (The Guardian)
I saw a photo of Ben Affleck at the beach, tattoo of a phoenix on his back, towel positioned to hide his belly in front, and I thought, oh Ben. I feel you, man.
Jeremy Dyson: "Beasts at the box office: why the horror anthology refuses to die" (The Guardian)
From Dead of the Night to The Field Guide to Evil, multi-story shockers are a cinema staple. The League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson - co-writer of new anthology Ghost Stories - on why creepshow compendiums are immortal.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Better not count on my vote
I would not have stayed to hear one word after he pulled out his penis substitute:
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
TRUMPOLINI.
THE RIGHT TO ARM BEARS!
'PUSSY LIPS' TRUMP CAN'T KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT!
"WE ARE THE LAND AND YOU ARE THE WATER"
"KEEP THEM IN THE GROUND."
'MORE MONET' FOR SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS!
"IT'LL TEAR YOUR ARMS OUT."
WHAT A CHICKENSHIT.
"PROPAGANDA SCRIPTS".
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Field trip to Chinatown.
Sounds The Alarm On Fascism
Madeleine Albright
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warns of the growing risk of worldwide fascism emboldened by Donald Trump's "scorn" for democracy in a scathing New York Times op-ed.
"Fascism - and the tendencies that lead toward fascism - pose a more serious threat now than at any time since the end of World War II," Albright writes in the op-ed, titled " Will We Stop Trump Before It's Too Late? " She decries mounting nativist and extreme right-wing movements around the globe, along with the growing threat of despotism. A key enabler, she argues, is America's unleashed president.
"The possibility that fascism will be accorded a fresh chance to strut around the world stage is enhanced by the volatile presidency of Donald Trump," Albright warns.
"Instead of standing up for the values of a free society, Mr. Trump's oft-vented scorn for democracy's building blocks has strengthened the hands of dictators. No longer need they fear United States criticism regarding human rights or civil liberties. On the contrary, they can and do point to Mr. Trump's own words to justify their repressive actions," she adds.
Trump has "attacked the judiciary, ridiculed the media, defended torture, condoned police brutality, urged supporters to rough up hecklers and ... equated mere policy disagreements with treason," she writes. "He libels immigrants and the countries from which they come. His words are ... calculated to exacerbate religious, social and racial divisions."
Madeleine Albright
Student-Led Events
'Town Hall For Our Lives'
A flurry of town halls to address the country's gun violence epidemic are planned nationwide for Saturday, marking the next major action organized by March For Our Lives.
The forums with elected officials and their constituents are the result of a call to action issued March 25 by David Hogg, a 17-year-old survivor of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting and outspoken member of the #NeverAgain movement to end gun violence.
March For Our Lives partnered with Town Hall Project, a volunteer-based initiative that identifies and promotes congressional forums, to help students organize each event, known as a "Town Hall For Our Lives."
By Friday afternoon, there were more than 120 Town Hall For Our Lives events listed on Town Hall Project's website, with over 30 Democratic members of Congress having organized or accepted invitations to the forums.
But their Republican counterparts failed to accept a single invitation to a Town Hall For Our Lives, causing the bulk of the events to be planned as "empty chair" town halls, in which the invited lawmakers aren't expected to show up.
'Town Hall For Our Lives'
Body-Shaming Girls
Band-Aids
After a weekend in Orlando, 17-year-old Lizzie Martinez decided to go easy on her sunburned shoulders. So she went to school, Braden River High in Bradenton, Fla., without a bra under her oversize, gray, long-sleeved T-shirt. Those straps can sting when they rub against a sunburn!
But during the day, Martinez says school dean Violeta Velazquez called Martinez into her office and told her a teacher heard a boy in her class laughing and telling his friends about her lack of bra.
"I never heard anybody," Martinez says. Velazquez had her put on an undershirt and then asked Martinez to stand up and move around, according to the teen. Not satisfied with the solution, Martinez says the dean asked the nurse to get her four Band-Aids and told her to go to the bathroom and "X-out her nipples."
"I got a text message from Lizzy that said, 'I feel completely sexualized and I'm so embarrassed,'" Martinez's mother, Kari Knop, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Knop left work and picked her daughter up from school right away. "If this was a male dean, we would not even be having this discussion to try to justify the behavior."
Over the course of three conversations with school administrators, Knop says she heard different variations on the story - because her daughter hadn't violated any dress code rule, she wasn't in trouble, but they also said that she was a "distraction."
Band-Aids
Water Crisis Over
Flint, Michigan
The state of Michigan will no longer supply free bottled water to Flint, the city once plagued with lead-tainted drinking water in a crisis that drew national attention, officials said on Friday.
For nearly two years, tests have shown that Flint's water is the same or better than similar cities across the state, a statement from Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's office said. When the current supply of state-funded bottled water is depleted, the distribution centers will close and deliveries will end.
"The scientific data now proves the water system is stable and the need for bottled water has ended," the Republican governor said in the statement. "Since Flint's water is now well within the standards set by the federal government, we will now focus even more of our efforts on continuing with the health, education and economic development assistance needed to help move Flint forward."
Michigan State Representative Sheldon Neeley, a Democrat whose district includes most of Flint, a predominantly black city of about 100,000, denounced the decision to end free bottled water, calling it cruel.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the parties that sued state and city officials to secure safe drinking water for residents, called the decision disappointing. "The people of Flint deserve better," NRDC health director Erik Olson said.
Flint, Michigan
Leak About Double Previous Estimate
Keystone Pipeline
The Keystone crude oil pipeline leak in November in rural South Dakota was nearly double the original estimate, making it one of the largest U.S. inland spills since 2010, a newspaper report on Saturday said.
Robynn Tysver, a spokeswoman for Calgary-based TransCanada Corp, which owns the pipeline, told the Aberdeen American News some 9,700 barrels of oil leaked in the Nov. 16 spill, the South Dakota paper reported. The original estimate was 5,000 barrels.
The spill gave further ammunition to environmental groups and other U.S. opponents of another pipeline the company has proposed, the long-delayed Keystone XL.
TransCanada had shut down the 590,000 barrel-per-day pipeline, one of Canada's main crude export routes linking Alberta's oil fields to U.S. refineries, immediately following the spill. Operations were restarted less than two weeks later.
Keystone has leaked substantially more oil, and more often, in the United States than the company indicated to regulators in risk assessments before operations began in 2010, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.
Keystone Pipeline
More Republican Family Values
Texas
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Oink) is resigning from Congress, he announced Friday in a statement and accompanying video.
Farenthold declared in December that he would not seek re-election in 2018 after reports emerged that he'd used taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims. A few of his GOP colleagues urged him to resign over the accusations, which Farenthold has repeatedly denied.
"While I planned on serving out the remainder of my term in Congress, I know in my heart it's time for me to move along and look for new ways to serve," he said in the statement.
In his video, flanked by an American flag and a Texas state flag, he added: "You know, I look forward to staying in touch with everyone. It's been an honor and a privilege to serve. Thank you so much. Please, stay in touch. I love y'all. God bless you, God bless Texas, God bless America."
Farenthold used $84,000 in taxpayer funds to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit his former communications director, Lauren Greene, had filed in 2014, Politico reported in December. Greene accused Farenthold of telling her he had "sexual fantasies" and "wet dreams" about her, and then claimed she was fired after complaining to Farenthold.
Texas
Sirens
Pruitt
A security officer who tried to stop the US environment agency chief Scott Pruitt from using his vehicle's sirens frivolously to get through traffic is among a number of employees who were removed from their jobs and reassigned, according to US media reports.
Reports in CBS News, the New York Times and others paint a picture of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where those who question Mr Pruitt find themselves sidelined.
Mr Pruitt, a key Trump appointee who has previously suggested climate change might actually be good for humans, is reportedly often late for meetings where he has to travel across Washington DC.
Yet when special agent Eric Weese told Mr Pruitt that his security detail's lights and sirens were only for emergencies, he was replaced as the man in charge of security detail by Pasquale Perotta, according to CBS.
Mr Weese had also unsuccessfully tried to convince his boss not to fly first class for short trips, according to The New York Times. The EPA administrator had justified it by saying flying in economy posed a security risk.
Pruitt
Interior Department
Endangered Species
The Trump administration is proposing rolling back protections for close to 300 threatened animal and plant species.
A new proposal - "Removal of Blanket Section 4(d) Rule" - was posted Monday by the Department of the Interior on a government database and was spotted by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental nonprofit.
The proposal's title refers to a measure in the Endangered Species Act that extends protections to hundreds of threatened plant and animal species.
An endangered species is in danger of extinction, while a threatened species is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Threatened species include such animals as manatees, sea otters, the Guadalupe fur seal, wood bison, the gray wolf, the grizzly and polar bear, the northern spotted owl and other species of birds, snakes, corals and lizards, among others.
Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity said the proposed rule change is an attempt to ease restrictions for companies that operate in wildlife habitats.
Endangered Species
'Rabid Coyotes'
Nugent
Ted Nugent (R-Pantsshitter) compared multiple groups he opposes to "rabid coyotes" on Friday, adding that you "keep your gun handy" to shoot them on sight.
Nugent, a musician and National Rifle Association board member, made the remarks during a seemingly casual -- yet fiery -- interview with InfoWars host Alex Jones. During the interview, Jones -- a right-wing conspiracy theorist -- said he wanted to know why liberals hate America and "love communism."
"Don't ask why," Nugent said. "Just know that evil, dishonesty and scam artists have always been around and that right now they're liberal, they're Democrat, they're RINOs, they're Hollywood, they're fake news, they're media, they're academia, and they're half of our government, at least."
"So come to that realization," he continued. "There are rabid coyotes running around, you don't wait till you see one to go get your gun, keep your gun handy. And every time you see one, shoot one."
Nugent's comments come days after he called the Parkland, Florida, shooting survivors "liars" and "poor, mushy-brained children."
Nugent
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