Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Me and Cigars (Creators Syndicate)
I like a low unemployment rate, but I think what the jobs pay is more important than how many jobs are available. I believe in labor unions, not because union jobs pay more, but because unions make sure there's one little piece of power that doesn't belong to the boss.
Ted Rall: Reemember When? (Creators Syndicate)
"Legal immigration should become safe, legal and commonplace," I wrote in 2005 in response to George W. Bush's call for a guest-worker program for immigrants here illegally. I opposed Bush's plan because it would have hurt American wages and job prospects. "At the same time, no nation worthy of the name can tolerate porous borders. We can and must seal our borders to prevent economic migrants, terrorists and others with unknown motives from entering the United States."
Mark Shields: Which Politicians Look Like Their Home State? (Creators Syndicate)
Former President Barack Obama had a good line after an ugly Rudy Giuliani charge that Obama doesn't love America. Obama's perfect comeback: "If I did not love America, I wouldn't have moved here from Kenya." The late Richard J. Daley, six times elected mayor of Chicago, looked exactly like the Windy City. The current mayor, Rahm Emanuel, has a definite Second City look to him, but Obama never really looked that much like the City of the Broad Shoulders. Abraham Lincoln did look like Illinois - and completely like America, as well.
Rosanna Greenstreet: "Elvis Costello: 'Who do I most despise? There isn't enough paper, there isn't enough ink'" (The Guardian)
The singer-songwriter on a rare guitar, crying on planes and Judi Dench.
Hadley Freeman: I can't wait to turn 40. After four decades of getting things wrong, I know some stuff (The Guardian)
I'm genuinely excited about my 40s. My teens were a mess of hormones and mental health issues. My 20s were lost in a vortex of terrible boyfriends and worse drugs. My 30s were a dream, and by "dream" I mean one of those anxiety dreams that turns your bed into a river of sweat, as I was hit by personality-altering fertility panics. My 40s are the decade when I can just live, unencumbered by the neuroses that, in my case, were largely just a symptom of being young and insecure. As Danny Glover would say, I'm too old for that shit.
Gary Saul Morson: "'The Idiot' savant" (New Criterion)
Just 150 years ago, Dostoevsky sent his publisher the first chapters of what was to become his strangest novel. As countless puzzled critics have observed, The Idiot violates every critical norm and yet somehow manages to achieve real greatness.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
responded:
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
HOW RELIGION DESTROYED THE GOP.
THE REAL DRUG PUSHERS!
FUCK THE GEEZERS!
PRESIDENT CROOK!
TRUMPS PERSONAL BIGOT!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The local grocery store is on a big kick touting 'local' products.
OTOH, they consider things from Napa & Sonoma as 'local'.
It's over 400 miles to Napa and/or Sonoma.
So, does that make Las Vegas, 280 miles away, in my backyard?
Finds New TV Home
'Brooklyn Nine-Nine'
"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is coming back to television!
Fox canceled the Golden Globe-winning comedy show on Thursday, but NBC revealed late Friday it had picked up the show for its sixth season.
The new season will have 13 episodes, per Variety.
Cast and crew members including Andy Samberg, Chelsea Peretti, Melissa Fumero, Terry Crews and Stephanie Beatriz were jubilant at the news.
'Brooklyn Nine-Nine'
Canceled
'Kevin Can Wait'
"Kevin Can Wait" has been canceled by CBS after two season, Variety has learned.
The CBS sitcom stars Kevin James, Leah Remini, Taylor Spreitler, Mary-Charles Jones, James DiGiacomo, Ryan Cartwright, Lenny Venito, Gary Valentine, and Leonard Earl Howze. James, Rock Reuben, Rob Long, Jeff Sussman, Andy Fickman, Tony Sheehan, and Steve Mosko are executive producers for CBS Television Studios in association with Sony Pictures Television.
"Kevin Can Wait" underwent a creative overhaul between seasons one and two, with original co-star Erinn Hayes' character written off the show and Remini joining the cast, reuniting James with his former "King of Queens" co-star.
But the show faced a ratings slide in its second season.
'Kevin Can Wait'
Record-Smashing Auction
Rockefeller Collection
In what was billed as the "sale of the century," the art collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, comprising 1,500 pieces, sold at auction for a record-breaking $832.5 million, Christie's said Friday.
The figure eclipsed the previous record held by the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge which sold for $484 million in 2009.
Coming after the extraordinary $450 million sale last November of Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," also at Christie's, there had been some speculation that the billion dollar threshold could be crossed by this sale.
Organized over 10 days, including online sales, it nonetheless broke numerous records, testament to the rude health of the global art market.
The collection's crown jewel was auctioned Tuesday for $115 million, the sixth most expensive ever sold: Pablo Picasso's "La fillette a la corbeille fleurie," a part of the Rockefeller Collection since 1968.
Rockefeller Collection
Unaware
'Fox & Friends'
"Fox & Friends" host Pete Hegseth trashed the "failing New York Times" on Friday for supposedly not reporting on the recent capture of five ISIS leaders, apparently unaware the paper beat Fox News to the story.
"I looked for the five ISIS leaders captured in the failing New York Times," Hegseth said, flipping through the newspaper. "And in the print edition today, I have not seen it yet."
Hegseth didn't find the story in Friday's New York Times because the paper covered it on Wednesday. Hegseth's own station, Fox News, reported on the Times' coverage a day later, on Thursday.
Hegseth and his co-hosts were discussing President-for-now Donald Trump's (Corrupt) tweet on Thursday announcing that ISIS five leaders were "just captured."
So the Times reporting also beat Trump's. The paper published the news on Wednesday, describing Iraqi news broadcastsreferring to a sting operation that took place earlier in the spring.
'Fox & Friends'
Bloomberg Warns
'Epidemic Of Dishonesty'
Americans are facing an "epidemic of dishonesty" in Washington that's more dangerous than terrorism or communism.
That's according to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who warned in a commencement speech on Saturday at Texas' Rice University that "an endless barrage of lies" and a trend toward "alternate realities" in national politics pose a dire threat to U.S. democracy.
The 76-year-old billionaire, who flirted with an independent presidential run in 2016, did not call out any politicians by name.
Although he derided Donald Trump as "a con" and a "dangerous demagogue" before his election, in an interview before the speech Bloomberg refused to comment specifically on the Republican president's troubled history with the truth. Fact checkers have determined that Trump has made hundreds of false and misleading statements since entering the Oval Office.
"How did we go from a president who could not tell a lie to politicians who cannot tell the truth?" Bloomberg asked Rice graduates and their families gathered in Houston.
'Epidemic Of Dishonesty'
Berated Staffers
Sarah
The White House could have fired the aide who said that the opinion of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is meaningless because he's "dying anyway." Instead, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reportedly dressed down the White House communications team for leaking the remark to the press.
Then at least five White House staffers promptly leaked Sanders' scolding to the media.
That likely came as no surprise to Sanders: "I am sure this conversation is going to leak, too. And that's just disgusting," a furious Sanders said, according to one of five people at the meeting who spoke with Axios. White House officials also leaked details of the meeting to ABC News.
The mess started Thursday at a communications team meeting when aide Kelly Sadler reportedly mocked McCain, who has brain cancer. Referring to McCain's opposition to the nomination of Gina Haspel as CIA chief, Sadler reportedly said, "It doesn't matter. He's dying anyway."
White House sources reportedly dismissed Sadler's comment as a "joke," and there has been no public mention of firing her. At Sanders' briefing Friday, the press secretary refused to confirm or deny a "leak ... out of an internal meeting."
Sarah
Holding Seattle Hostage
Amazon
The 9:30 a.m. meeting of the Seattle City Council's Finance and Neighborhoods Committee - the most boring name imaginable - was overflowing. People in the crowd held up signs: "Don't vote our jobs away" or "Tax the rich."
The committee was taking public comment on the proposed Progressive Tax on Business, a fee on Seattle's largest corporations to support homeless services. Last week, Amazon - the employer of more than 45,000 Seattleites that is on the hook for an estimated $20 million under the tax - announced it was pausing construction planning on a tower downtown and would consider renting some of its office space to other companies if the fee goes through.
Now the mayor and City Council have to decide whether to take this threat seriously. About a third of the attendees at Wednesday's hearing were wearing construction vests. One of them told committee members that if the tax passes, workers will have to go home, look their kids in the eye and tell them Daddy doesn't have a job anymore. Another called a member of the City Council a communist (she's actually a socialist) and said she "seems to be getting paid by the residents of Seattle to throw temper tantrums."
But the fight is about more than just one company or one policy. It is about the growing challenge of running American cities and all the ways companies make it even harder. Seattle faces an impossible choice: Either raise revenue from employers and risk driving them away, or keep levying taxes on voters and risk a backlash that could exacerbate the very problem it's trying to solve. Whatever happens here, it will be a template for the rest of the country.
The details of Seattle's proposed tax are crucial to understanding why Amazon hates it so much. Under the current proposal, the city will charge large companies 26 cents for every hour their employees work. That's about $520 per worker every year. Though the tax will apply only to companies with more than $20 million in revenue per year, or about 3 percent of Seattle businesses, Amazon employs about 145,000 people.
Amazon
Debt May Force Sale Of Artifacts
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
The foundation that supports the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum says it might have to sell artifacts if it can't pay off a decade-old loan that financed items related to the 16th president.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation has revealed it owes $10 million on a 2007 loan it used to buy the Barry and Louise Taper Collection, which includes a stovepipe hat Lincoln purportedly wore, bloodstained gloves he wore the night he was assassinated and an 1824 book containing the first known example of his handwriting.
The foundation paid $25 million and borrowed $23 million. The note comes due in October 2019.
Foundation officials have been in talks with Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's office about securing state money but say they haven't received any financial commitments, the foundation said in a news release. The foundation plans to continue private fundraising and to discuss a plan that includes state funding, but without commitments "it will have no choice but to accelerate the possibility of selling these unique artifacts on the private market, which would likely remove them from public view forever."
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Ancient Thoroughbred Racehorse
Pompeii
Excavation in the ancient Italian city of Pompeii has unearthed a stable with what appears to be the final resting place of an ancient racehorse.
Pompeii officials on Thursday displayed a cast of the horse, which appeared to have been lying on its left flank when it died.
Naples daily Il Mattino quoted archaeologist Greta Stefani as saying the shape of the horse was represented by a vacuum, created by the decay of organic material.
Pompeii director Massimo Osanna said the animal was a thoroughbred likely used for races, not farm work.
The animal remains were found thanks to the illegal diggings of a group of tomb robbers, following an investigation conducted by Carabinieri police.
Pompeii
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