Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Allegra Kirkland: Lawman Keeps $750K In Inmate Food Funds, Buys Beach Home, Blames Media (TPM)
[Sheriff Todd] Entrekin [of Etowah County, Alabama] bought a $750,000 beach house, spent food funds on lawn mowing.
Marc Dion: I'm a Protected Species (Creators Syndicate)
I'm 60. I'll be 61 next month. If life is a 9-5 shift at work, I've just returned from my 3 p.m. coffee break. I'll be getting off work soon. Because I personally have always envisioned death as an endless fifth grade snow day, I'm fine with the approaching end of my shift.
Connie Schultz: Paul Ryan's Family Legacy (Creators Syndicate)
Another mother in Ohio, Maribel Trujillo Diaz, was torn away from her four American children. She, too, had no criminal record and had fled Mexico in 2002 because of drug cartels targeting her family. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Catholic dioceses in several states tried to persuade the Trump administration to let her stay, but her family was torn apart anyway. Her youngest child, who is 3, has epilepsy. "She doesn't understand what's happening," Trujillo told The Washington Post. "She thinks I'm on a vacation."
Ted Rall: Distractor-In-Chief Trump Is Gaslighting Us Into Forgetting America's Real Issues (Creators Syndicate)
Workers ought to be out in the streets agitating for a raise: a $25-an-hour minimum wage is literally asking for nothing, since it's the same, adjusted for inflation, as it was in the 1960s. I say go for $50. While we're at it, let's set a $200,000-a-year maximum wage. No one needs more.
Froma Harrop: Bernie the Good Versus Bernie the Bad (Creators Syndicate)
Bernie Sanders is back in the news, showing us all both his good side and the bad. Let's start with the good. "If Democrats control either the House or the Senate," he recently told The New York Times, "Trump's agenda is dead." Here is Bernie at his best - blunt and colorful, the senator from Vermont whom Sunday talk shows love to book. Here is the unapologetic progressive who speaks plainly on the economic plight of working Americans.
Suzanne Moore: "What Brigitte Macron learned: only trophy wives count in Trumpland" (The Guardian)
The state visit seems to be little more than alpha male leaders bonding very publicly, with wives deployed to watch.
David Moye: Ex-NFL Player Says He Was Violently Arrested After Cops Mistook His Phone For A Gun (Huffington Post)
A police officer has been placed on administrative leave as a result of the confrontation with Desmond Marrow.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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
JDTTDO
JD Took The Day Off
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running late.
America Must 'Start Penalizing Liars'
Bill Maher
Bill Maher is calling time on liars.
On Friday's broadcast of "Real Time," the comedian said people, including President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked), should be held more accountable for their lies.
Speaking about Trump's "very disturbing" Thursday interview with "Fox & Friends," Maher said the president had broken "his own record for lying within a sentence." "I swear to God, he was talking about CNN, and he said, 'I don't watch it at all. I watched it last night,'" he said.
People had "normalized" Trump's lies, Maher added, before claiming "the most important thing we have to do in America right now, is start penalizing liars."
"[Former President Barack] Obama should sue Trump for saying that he wiretapped him," said Maher. "I'm just saying that I don't think we can leave this in the court of public opinion anymore. That's what the liars want."
Bill Maher
New Music After More Than 35 Years
ABBA
Gimme, gimme, gimme an ABBA reunion after more than 35 years.
The legendary pop group announced on Friday that they are set to release two new songs for the first time since disbanding in 1982.
The Swedish hitmakers, which include Björn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, previously revealed that they were working on a virtual ABBA experience. This project was apparently so successful the quartet has decided to make music together once again.
"The decision to go ahead with the exciting ABBA avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence. We all felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio," they wrote in a statement. "So we did. And it was like time had stood still and we had only been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience!"
The group only revealed the name of one of the new songs, "I Still Have Faith In You," which will be performed by their "digital selves" in a two-hour TV special produced by NBC and BBC airing in December.
ABBA
Cuts Only Moon Rover
NASA
In a move that shocked lunar scientists, NASA has cancelled the only robotic vehicle under development to explore the surface of the Moon, despite President Donald Trump's vow to return people there.
Scientists working on the Resource Prospector (RP) mission, a robotic rover that had been in development for about a decade to explore a polar region of the Moon, expressed astonishment at the decision.
"We now understand RP was cancelled on 23 April 2018 and the project has been asked to close down by the end of May," said the letter dated April 26 by the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, addressed to NASA chief Jim Bridenstine and posted on the website NASAWatch.com.
"This action is viewed with both incredulity and dismay by our community," particularly because Trump's space policy "directs NASA to go to the lunar surface," the letter said.
The robotic rover was being built as the world's only vehicle aimed at exploring the polar region of the Moon, and was expected to undergo a design review next year ahead of launching in 2022.
NASA
Major Breakthrough
Tasmanian Devils
Scientists have discovered a small population of Tasmanian devils living apparently untouched by a cancer-causing disease that has forced the iconic marsupial to the brink of extinction.
The discovery, on Tasmania's south-western shoreline, of at least 14 devils with no signs of Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) is a major breakthrough in the effort to preserve the iconic species.
Populations of wild devils have fallen 80 per cent since the disease was first discovered, and bids to bolster numbers by reintroducing vaccinated members of the species have been hampered as many are killed on the road.
The isolation of the new population has helped them survive, as they forage along the coastline and are less likely to encounter infected individuals or passing cars.
The first strain of DFTD was identified in 1996 and has spread to take over the whole island, while a second strain was identified in 2014 but is so far confined to the south-east of the island.
Tasmanian Devils
Seeks Rule Revision
Offshore Oil Wells
The Trump administration on Friday proposed relaxing a rule on offshore oil wells that was finalized after the 2010 BP Plc disaster and crude spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as part of its effort to slash regulations it considers burdensome on industry.
The exact revisions to the 2016 well control rule proposed by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), an office of the Department of Interior, will be known next week when they are published in the Federal Register.
But the proposed changes will include removing "prescriptive requirements" for real-time monitoring of offshore drilling facilities and allow the oil producers to use company-specific approaches, a BSEE fact sheet said.
The proposed revisions will also seek to minimize what BSEE says are duplicative notifications of rig movements that operators are required to send to the agency. In addition, independent third-party groups would be allowed to do some certifications and verifications on parts of blow-out preventers, which seek to stop the uncontrolled releases of crude, according to the fact sheet.
The 2010 Macondo disaster killed 11 oil rig workers, was the biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history, and has cost BP about $65 billion.
Offshore Oil Wells
Yellowstone National Park
Steamboat Geyser
The world's largest active geyser has erupted for the third time in less than six weeks.
Steamboat Geyser, in Yellowstone National Park, erupted at around 6.30am local time on Friday morning, geologists said.
The eruption is the latest event in a rare period of activity at the geyser this year, following similar water discharges on March 15 and April 19 this year.
Before this year, Steamboat had not erupted since September 2014.
The US Geological Survey said all events so far in 2018 had been smaller than recent major activity observed in 2013 and 2014.
Steamboat Geyser
Republicans Reject Investigation
House Chaplain
A top Democratic congressman on Friday unsuccessfully tried to create a special committee to investigate why House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) abruptly fired the House chaplain last week.
Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, introduced a resolution on the House floor calling for a new committee to examine "the motivations and actions" of Ryan when he unexpectedly told House Chaplain Patrick Conroy to resign or be forced out. Conroy has said he was blindsided, and some lawmakers in both parties, particularly Catholics, are furious. Ryan has given no reason.
Crowley's proposal would have created a six-member committee ? three Republicans and three Democrats ? to look at what happened.
But the House voted to reject his proposal, 215 to 171. Reps. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) were the only Republicans who voted with Democrats to create the committee. Three Republicans voted "present": Reps. Tom Rooney, David Joyce and Scott Taylor.
The speaker's office still won't say why Ryan fired Conroy, who has been the House chaplain since 2011. His last day will be May 24.
House Chaplain
Archaeologists Find
Peru
Archaeologists in northern Peru say they have found evidence of what could be the world's largest single case of child sacrifice.
The pre-Columbian burial site, known as Las Llamas, contains the skeletons of 140 children who were between the ages of five and 14 when they were ritually sacrificed during a ceremony about 550 years ago, experts who led the excavation told The Associated Press on Friday.
The site, located near the modern day city of Trujillo, also contained the remains of 200 young llamas apparently sacrificed on the same day.
The burial site was apparently built by the ancient Chimu empire. It is thought the children were sacrificed as floods caused by the El Nino weather pattern ravaged the Peruvian coastline.
Excavation work at the burial site started in 2011, but news of the findings was first published on Thursday by National Geographic, which helped finance the investigation.
Peru
Promises To Repay Sexual Harassment Settlement
Rep. Pat Meehan Resigns
Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) said Friday he's immediately resigning, months after he said he wouldn't seek re-election following reports that he used taxpayer money to secretly settle a misconduct complaint.
The suburban Philadelphia congressman said he would leave office on Friday and would repay the $39,000 his office used to settle a complaint filed by a former aide, whom he had referred to as his "soul mate."
The congressman was forced out of his post on the House Ethics Committee in January after The New York Times reported a harassment settlement between the congressman and his former aide.
The aide, who wasn't named, and staffers familiar with the issue told the Times that Meehan had expressed interest in the aide's personal life and attempted to pursue a romantic relationship with her. His behavior toward her, they said, turned hostile after she rejected him.
Meehan has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and does not appear to have apologized to his accuser. In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer in January, he admitted that he had told the aide he saw her as a "soul mate" and suggested that any negative behavior toward her stemmed from stress over the Republican effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Pat Meehan Resigns
In Memory
Larry Harvey
Larry Harvey, an Oregon farm boy who lit a wooden skeleton on Baker Beach in San Francisco, igniting the cultural force that is Burning Man, died Saturday.
A messianic figure known for wearing a felt Stetson and smoking Marlboro Lights, Harvey was the founder and guiding light of the annual Burning Man bacchanalia in the Nevada Desert, which attracts 70,000 campers the week before Labor Day.
Harvey, who last appeared in public March 29 at the opening of a Burning Man art exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., died after suffering a massive stroke on April 4. He was 70.
What started on the Summer Solstice, 1986, with maybe a dozen people torching an 9-foot effigy at the beach has grown into a year-round $30 million-a-year enterprise with 70 full-time employees at its San Francisco headquarters and satellite art events everywhere.
As chief philosophic officer and Burning Man project president, Harvey was plain-spoken and good-humored about the spiritual command he held over his disciples, who call themselves "burners."
Harvey was born Jan. 28, 1948. In a 2011 interview with The Chronicle, he said he and his brother Stewart were adopted by parents who moved west from the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl. They settled on a farm outside Portland, Ore.
Larry Harvey
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