Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Josh Marshall: Paris Decision Was Driven By the President's Rage and Fear (TPM)
Trump is scared. He's entering a widening gyre of political crisis over Russia. He's scared and he's angry and he needs friends. So he's more and more likely to hug his base - both the most aggressive advisors and the most committed supporters.
Marc Dion: Sainthood is Hard (Creators Syndicate)
If you were a saint, you'd have to stop on your way to work and give all your money to a panhandler. You'd probably have to kiss him, too. Then, you'd have to give all your clothes to people whose clothes were old and ragged. You'd show up at work naked, and you'd get fired. Even strippers are supposed to have clothes on when they GET to the job. This is why sainthood is a job that's always hiring, because saints have to care about everyone and everything, all the time.
Froma Harrop: Can Americans Be Happy Again? (Creators Syndicate)
America is not a very happy place, and it is getting less so. Our downward trend in happiness precedes the election of Donald Trump, but sadly, there's little in his agenda that would reverse this trend. On the contrary.
Froma Harrop: Focus on victims rewards terrorists (Creators Syndicate)
… the media drenched the public with tearful accounts of the pain exacted, often with musical accompaniment. The cable channels ran the few seconds of panicked crowds fleeing the arena in a hypnotic loop. And there were the agonizing stories of the victims and the grieving loved ones they left behind. This is a problem for those who want to cut off the terrorists' cracked system of rewards.
Clive James: 'In a crisis such as Manchester, words aren't easily handled' (The Guardian)
Proper writers should take responsibility for the pictures their words suggest.
Hadley Freeman: A gripping TV series gives crime victims the last word - and captures a new mood (The Guardian)
Let's talk first about The Keepers, the true crime documentary that is the new Making A Murderer, that itself was the new Jinx, which in turn was the new Serial. Except, really, it's none of those things, because The Keepers is wholly concerned with the victims, whereas those previous sensational series focused on the accused.
Michelle McManus: Martyn Hett will forever be the brightest star in the sky (Evening Times)
THERE are some people you meet in life that you instantly know stand out from the crowd, making them impossible to ever forget.
Froma Harrop: We Can Move Past Trump on Climate Change (Creators Syndicate)
President Trump's spoken thoughts on climate change layer ignorance over irresponsibility. They humiliate thinking Americans and frustrate our friends. The president's recent refusal in Europe to commit to sticking with the Paris accord for curbing planet-warming gas emissions is the latest national embarrassment.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
WHAT A LOSER!
'MAKE OUR PLANET WAIT AGAIN.'
DIE FOTHERMUCKERS!
MAKE JESUS GREAT AGAIN!
WHAT A CREEP!
CREEP IN CHIEF.
THERE IS NO OTHER SOLUTION.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Think I need more sleep.
Foot In Mouth
Bill Maher
Bill Maher apologized Saturday for using a racial slur to describe himself as a house slave during a live segment for his HBO talk show.
Maher's comment during his discussion with Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, was quickly and broadly criticized after it aired on the comedian's "Real Time with Bill Maher" show Friday night.
HBO said the remark was "completely inexcusable and tasteless" and the segment would not be re-aired.
During Maher's discussion with Sasse, the senator joked that he would like to have Maher visit Nebraska and work in the fields. The comedian responded by using a slur in a joke that he was a house slave.
The comedian immediately waved off audience groans. "It's a joke," he said on the show.
Bill Maher
Urge Congressional Probe
Press Groups
A national coalition of press groups urged a congressional ethics panel on Friday to consider disciplinary action against Montana's newly elected congressman, who is charged with throwing a reporter to the ground during a confrontation a day before the election.
Republican Greg Gianforte (R-Contemptible) has yet to face a judge on the misdemeanor assault charge, which further intensified attention on a race that had already garnered wide national coverage.
The groups suggest Gianforte violated the House's code of official conduct when he allegedly assaulted Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. The groups also say Gianforte violated the code when he issued a news release that was contradicted by eyewitness accounts and an audio recording made by the reporter during the fracas.
"Amid a climate of escalating hostility toward the press it is essential for the House to send a clear message to its members and to the nation that hostile treatment of the press will not be tolerated or ignored," said Gabe Rottman, the Washington director of PEN America, one of several groups, including the Society of Professional Journalists, seeking an inquiry by the Office of Congressional Ethics.
After its evaluation of the complaint, the ethics office can make a recommendation to the House Ethics Committee. The press groups said it also sent a letter to the committee reminding it of its obligation to open an investigation within 30 days of any member being charged with a crime. They also sent letters to President Donald Trump.
Press Groups
Offers To Pay $15Million
Michael Bloomberg
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he will personally make up the $15m in funding that the United Nations will lose after Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) pulled the US out of the Paris climate accord.
The US would have been required to contribute that amount towards efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change under the historic agreement between 195 countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Americans are not walking away from the Paris climate agreement," Mr Bloomberg said on Thursday, according to the Washington Examiner.
"Just the opposite - we are forging ahead. Mayors, governors, and business leaders from both political parties are signing on to a statement of support that we will submit to the UN and together, we will reach the emission reduction goals the United States made in Paris in 2015."
The billionaire philanthropist added: "Americans will honour and fulfil the Paris agreement by leading from the bottom up - and there isn't anything Washington can do to stop us."
Michael Bloomberg
Auction House Pulls
'Stolen' Autographs
An auction house due to sell autographs by the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev and Yasser Arafat in Spain has pulled the lots after a Belgrade museum claimed they were stolen from the mausoleum of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito.
The pages, whose signatories include the last Soviet leader Gorbachev, late Palestinian leader Arafat and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, were among other written messages and signed pictures up for auction Saturday in the southern Spanish city of Malaga.
The documents were posthumous tributes to Tito, who led socialist Yugoslavia from the end of World War II until his death in 1980, apparently written into books during official visits by the leaders in the years that followed.
Following a media report that the autographs had been stolen, Belgrade's Museum of Yugoslav History launched an internal probe and established the pages were missing from the tribute books that were on display in a mausoleum that is part of the museum's complex.
'Stolen' Autographs
Mr. Kellyanne Withdraws
Conway
New York lawyer George Conway (R-Biased), who had been expected to be nominated to head the U.S. Department of Justice's civil division, has withdrawn from consideration.
Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, said in a statement received on Friday that he was "profoundly grateful to the President and to the Attorney General" for selecting him to serve in the Justice Department.
However, he said, he had concluded that it is "not the right time for me to leave the private sector."
Conway joins a number of potential hires who have withdrawn from consideration for posts in the Trump administration in recent weeks, including candidates for director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation after President Donald Trump fired James Comey.
Conway also has been involved in politically charged cases, including a behind-the-scenes role in the sexual harassment lawsuit that former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones brought against then-President Bill Clinton.
Conway
'Gone Rogue'
Nunes
The House Intelligence Committee, under the leadership of Republican Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Weasel), made at least 5-6 unmasking requests to US spy agencies related to Russia's election meddling between June 2016-January 2017, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Nunes, who would have had to sign off on any committee requests to reveal the identities of US persons mentioned in intelligence reports, called unmaskings "violations of Americans' civil liberties" in a tweet last week.
He appeared to be responding to criticism that he went around the committee's Democrats and subpoenaed the CIA, FBI, and NSA for more details about why Obama administration officials requested the unmasking of Trump associates last year. Reports have suggested that Trump advisers like Michael Flynn and Carter Page were either mentioned or directly involved in surveilled conversations with Russian officials during the election.
Nunes and other Republicans have expressed concern that requests by Obama administration officials, like former national security adviser Susan Rice, to unmask members of the Trump campaign were politically motivated.
But The Post reported on Friday that the House Intelligence Committee requested unmaskings of individuals and entities related to both Trump and Hillary Clinton throughout the latter half of 2016.
Nunes
Paris Climate Pact Withdrawal Inspires
Amazing Headlines
In announcing that he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate change accord, Donald Trump (R-Crooked) said the deal would have allowed the rest of the world to have a laugh at the expense of the United States.
"We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won't be." he said from the White House Rose Garden as he confirmed that the U.S. would join Nicaragua and Syria as the only countries not to be part of the pact.
Whether or not people were laughing at the U.S. before, there has been plenty of mocking of the American president since his decision. World leaders have generally kept a respectful if critical tone, although French President Emmanuel Macron, he of the robust handshake, did take a shot at Trump's famed slogan, saying, "Make our planet great again."
Headline writers across this warming planet have been having even more fun at the president's expense. This is particularly true in Germany, where Trump recently took shots over trade. Many front pages there have issued cutting rebukes of Trump's decision to turn his back on the landmark agreement to tackle climate change.
Berlin tabloid Berliner Kurier reversed the conversation, seeing it from the planet's point of view. Using language that could only be described as blunt, it also morphed into English for extra effect.
Amazing Headlines
Cosmetics, Medications Found in Blood
Australian Turtles
Green turtles in the Great Barrier Reef are the latest identified victims of environmental pollution. Researchers with the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences in Australia found heart and gout medications, herbicides, pesticides and industrial chemicals in blood samples taken from green turtles living near two urban locations and three remote locations along the reef.
Specifically, the blood analysis turned up allopurinol, which is used to treat kidney stones; isoquinoline, used in adhesives; guaiaculsulfonate, a pharmaceutical ingredient; and several other "unpronouncables." The researchers also found compounds used in cosmetics and some that they couldn't identify.
A two-year-old green sea turtle named Sea Biscuit swims at a tropical reef aquarium in Australia. A new study found several industrial chemicals in the blood of green turtles living in the Great Barrier Reef. Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images
According to University of Melbourne chemist Amy Heffernan, one of the study leaders, the chemicals found in the turtles' blood differed among sites. But regardless of where the turtles lived, they were affected by human pollutants. "What you put down your sink, spray on your farms or release from industries ends up in the marine environment and in turtles in the Great Barrier Reef," said Heffernan.
The study was part of the Rivers to Reef to Turtles Project, a multiyear program sponsored by the World Wildlife Foundation-Australia and Banrock Station Wines Environmental Trust. The aim of the project is to identify pollutants in rivers, the Great Barrier Reef and the turtles who make their home there in order to gauge and improve the health of these animals. Christine Hof, a spokesperson for the World Wildlife Foundation-Australia, said the turtles could be an effective way to keep tabs on what chemicals are seeping into the reef and potentially hurting its wildlife.
Australian Turtles
Employees To Deliver Orders On Way Home
Walmart
In a move to match up to the Amazon's convenient options for web purchases, Walmart announced Thursday it will allow store employees to opt for a delivery service program in which they would drop packages at customers' homes while going back home, reports said.
Walmart executives pointed out the idea behind this move was to cut costs on the so-called last-mile of deliveries. When the multinational retail giant's employees drive to customers' homes, the most expensive part of the fulfillment process would be taken care of, the Washington Post reported.
Both Walmart and Amazon are competing for speeding up their delivery systems for online orders in the country. Walmart's announcement comes amid the retailer doubling down on online business, where sales grew 63 percent in the first quarter this year. The largest retailer in the U.S. has worked towards increasing its online share in the country in 2016.
Around 90 percent of the U.S. population reside within 10 miles of a Walmart and the retail giant is probably using these locations as shipping hubs to challenge Amazon's online delivery services. By utilizing their own workforce and their vehicles, Walmart could create a vast network with lesser upfront cost, similar to how Uber created a ride-hailing service without owning any cars last year, Bloomberg reported.
Apart from speeding up delivery procedures, the new program is also reportedly seen as a way for employees to earn extra income, although there were few details on how they would be paid.
Walmart
In Memory
Jack O'Neill
Jack O'Neill, a Northern California surfing world icon who pioneered the wetsuit, has died.
O'Neill's died of natural causes Friday at his Santa Cruz, California home, his family said in a statement. He was 94.
O'Neill moved with his wife to San Francisco's Ocean Beach neighborhood in the early 1950s. Looking to surf longer in the frigid Northern California ocean, he began experimenting with various materials until he invented the first neoprene wetsuit.
He opened a surf shop in San Francisco but in 1959 moved his growing family 75 miles south to Santa Cruz, where he opened his second shop to cater to the city's growing surf scene.
By the 1980s, O'Neill had become the world's largest recreation wetsuit designer and manufacturer and the O'Neill surf brand had reached Australia, Europe, Japan and other corners of the globe.
He considered O'Neill Sea Odyssey, a marine and environmental education program for children, his proudest achievement. Founded in 1996, it has taken nearly 100,000 school-aged children in his personal Team O'Neill catamaran to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to learn about the ocean.
Jack O'Neill
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