Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: "Brexit Versus Trumpit (Wonkish)" (NY Times)
So that's why Brexit estimates are so much higher than trade-war logic might suggest. Brexit won't tax trade, it will make it really, truly, deeply more expensive to conduct - and that's a big deal.
Marc Dion: Hitler Was a Hero (Creators Syndicate)
Despite what my left-leaning friends say, there is a big difference between President Donald J. Trump and Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a hero. He volunteered for military service in World War I, served on the front lines, was wounded in the leg, gassed, awarded several decorations and promoted. Hitler ran messages through a storm of lead. Trump charged into Stormy Daniels, spurning the condom as cover for cowards. Although not much worked out for Hitler in the end, his military service was very useful to him in his rise to power.
Mark Shields: The Question Republican Candidates Fear Most in 2018 (Creators Syndicate)
Alan Baron, who was a wise and witty man of politics, used to tell this true story to remind those who worked in politics like he did that in some election years, the outcome is determined by events and forces completely beyond any candidate's or her campaign's control.
Mark Shields: Where Is the Republican Gene McCarthy? (Creators Syndicate)
This was South Carolina, where, in a 2016 primary debate, candidate Trump accused former President George W. Bush of lying about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to take the country to war. ("They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction ... and they knew there were none.") In spite of the fact that there is video of the debate, Trump denied ever having said this. But this is the party of Donald J. Trump, and that chill causing Republican office seekers to shiver is the frost from the cowardly fear they have of offending their master. Where is the Republican Gene McCarthy?
Froma Harrop: How Opponents Feed Trump Media Machine (Creators Syndicate)
I know, I know, my Twitter confreres. You're riled up. Well, you're letting them rile you up. Aren't you getting tired of being jerked around on an hourly basis with no rest on weekends? Don't you realize that the best revenge on publicity freaks is to starve them of publicity?
Froma Harrop: When Women's Dignity Counts for Zero (Creators Syndicate)
The woman soon to be Rudolph Giuliani's third ex-wife is not the most sympathetic of victims. Judith Nathan cavorted openly with Giuliani while the New York mayor was still living with his second wife and their two children.
Lenore Skenazy: "Warning to Parents: You Are About to Do Something Very Dangerous" (Creators Syndicate)
If you're wondering why parenting seems so fraught, go to a store such as Target or Walmart and check out the baby items aisle. It is crammed with stuff that makes it seem as if your child is literally crawling to death's door unless you do or buy something IMMEDIATELY.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Comment on Wonkette--I'd open a restaurant just to kick her out of it!
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
"TWO SOULS"
NO ONE DOES IT LIKE DONALD!
"OUT DAMN SPOT."
DONALD TRUMP IS CRAZY AS A LOON!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running extra late.
Refused Ryan's Selfie Request
Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen stopped by The Late Show on Friday to chat about work, Canada's marijuana legalization, and the time he shut down Paul Ryan's selfie request in front of his own kids.
The actor told Stephen Colbert that earlier this month he shared an incredibly awkward moment with the Speaker of the House at Mitt Romney's annual political summit in Park City, Utah.
Ryan and his sons, all fans of Rogen, approached him at the event to ask for a selfie but Rogen wasn't having it.
"My whole body puckered, as it were. I tensed up. And I didn't know what to do!" Rogen explained. After Ryan shook the actor's hand and requested a picture, Rogen said, "No way, man!" before proceeding absolutely drag Ryan in front of his kids.
"...I couldn't stop," Rogen told Colbert. "I said, 'Furthermore, I hate what you're doing with the country at this moment, and I'm counting the days till you no longer have one iota of the power that you currently have.'"
Seth Rogen
Blasts Leaders
Sting
British singer and actor Sting called world leaders "half men and cowards" on Saturday for their inability to solve the refugee crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already played down expectations of a breakthrough at hastily-arranged talks among EU leaders on Sunday on the migration dispute dividing Europe and threatening her own government.
Austrian Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said on Saturday he expects a chain reaction across the European Union if Germany closes its borders to refugees.
Migration policies in the U.S. have also been in the spotlight.
"Thank God for Greece because you have shown the way," said Sting, whose real name is Gordon Sumner, at an Amnesty International event in Athens.
Sting
Wedding News
Leslie - Harington
Game of Thrones fans rejoice! There was a wedding involving stars of the hit HBO show that didn't involve someone brutally dying. Kit Harington and Rose Leslie tied the knot on Saturday in Scotland.
Harington and Leslie, who played an on-screen couple on GOT, said "I do" at her childhood home - which just so happens to be a castle. The 31-year-old actors wed in Aberdeenshire. The ceremony was held at Rayne Church, while the afterparty took place at the sprawling Wardhill Castle, owned by Leslie's father, Seb, who told reporters earlier in the day he was "absolutely thrilled" for the nuptials.
Many of Harington and Leslie's co-stars were in attendance. Sophie Turner - who has her own nuptials to plan with Joe Jonas - Emilia Clarke, Richard Madden, Maisie Williams, and Peter Dinklage were just a few of the cast members on hand.
Harington, who plays Jon Snow, and Leslie quietly began dating after meeting on set in Iceland 2012.
Although she left the drama and her Free Folk character, Ygritte, behind in 2014, their romance continued off-screen. The pair confirmed their engagement last year with an official announcement in the newspaper.
Leslie - Harington
Getting High On Cocaine
Eels
Cocaine flushed into rivers is making critically endangered eels "hyperactive" and threatening their survival, new research suggests.
Traces of the drug routinely make their way into Britain's waters after passing through users' bodies, and could be causing serious health problems for some fish, according to the study.
Previous research has found residues of illegal drugs including cocaine, amphetamines and ecstasy in European lakes and rivers, including the Thames.
The drugs end up in surface waters in highly populated areas after passing through sewage treatment plants, but scientists say little is known about the ecological impact.
In the new study, biologists at the University of Naples Federico II put European eels in water containing a small dose of cocaine - similar to the amount found in rivers - for 50 days.
Eels
Violence
Central Americans
Nightfall in El Salvador's capital was fast approaching and Ernesto Pena was waiting for a bus that never arrived. His work day delivering rice and cooking oil to street vendors in the bustling district of Santa Tecla had ended and like most people he was anxious to get home before the gangs that control the poor neighborhood where he lives enforce an informal curfew.
For years, he and his wife have been saving what they can on their combined $700-a-month income to one day pay smugglers to ferry them and their 8-year-old son to what they hope will be a safer future in the U.S. But the searing images displayed across local newspapers this week of children held in fenced cages after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border has led the 30-year-old to rethink his plans to journey northward.
Still, thousands are pressing on, despite the Trump administration's policy of "zero tolerance" toward illegal immigrants.
The number of families entering the U.S. illegally at the southwest border jumped six-fold in May to 9,485, compared with the same month in 2017. Since October, more than 58,000 have arrived, the bulk from Guatemala, followed by Honduras and El Salvador.
Feelings of desperation and impotence are being felt throughout Central America, where the lawlessness, endemic poverty and levels of gang violence akin to war zones that have driven so many families from their homes show little signs of abating.
Central Americans
Warming Drives Spread
Toxic Algae
The words blasted to cellphones around Oregon's capital city were ominous: "Civil emergency . prepare for action."
Within half an hour, a second official alert clarified the subject wasn't impending violence but toxins from an algae bloom, detected in Salem's water supply.
Across the U.S., reservoirs that supply drinking water and lakes used for recreation are experiencing similar events with growing frequency. The trend represents another impact of global warming and raises looming questions about the effects on human health, researchers say.
Technically called cyanobacteria, the ancient class of organisms that create the blooms are present nearly everywhere water is found but thrive in warm, still bodies like lakes and ponds. They also create a unique class of toxins, the impact of which on humans is only partly understood.
Long linked to animal deaths, high doses of the toxins in humans can cause liver damage and attack the nervous system. In the largest outbreaks, hundreds have been sickened by blooms in reservoirs and lakes, and officials in some areas now routinely close water bodies used for recreation and post warnings when blooms occur.
Toxic Algae
Restaurant Refused To Serve
Sarah
Sarah Sanders had a hard time getting dinner in the D.C. area on Friday. She and her family were asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, Va.
Jaike Foley-Schultz, who says he is a waiter at the Red Hen, shared a post on Facebook that said his boss kicked out the press secretary and her party.
The post went viral when the director of Clean Virginia, a left-leaning energy nonprofit, shared the post on Twitter, along with a handwritten note, purportedly from the restaurant, with the note: "86 - Sara Huckabee Sanders."
The term "86" is restaurant shorthand for cutting people off, asking them to leave, or throwing them out.
Sanders confirmed that she was asked to leave in a tweet this morning.
Sarah
Attorney General Confronted
Florida
Protesters confronted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R-Trump University) at a showing of a documentary about children's TV host Fred Rogers, and they questioned the Republican's stands on immigration and health care.
The Tampa Bay Times reports Bondi received a police escort Friday when several members of Organize Florida confronted her as she left a Tampa theater after seeing "Won't You Be My Neighbor" about Mr. Rogers. The demonstrators questioned Florida joining a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act and Bondi's general support of President Donald Trump's immigration policies.
Bondi protester Maria Jose Chapa said was an impromptu demonstration after someone spotted the attorney general, who has a national following as a contributor on Fox News and as a friend of Trump. Video shows that as Bondi and her companion left the theater surrounded by officers, Chapa followed her yelling.
"What would Mr. Rogers think about you and your legacy in Florida? Taking away health insurance from people with pre-existing conditions, Pam Bondi!" Chapa hollered. Another person shouted at Bondi, "You're a horrible person!" Onlookers stared agape as the procession moved past.
When the Times asked Chapa if the documentary's star would have handled the situation the same, she replied, "I'm not Mr. Rogers. I don't have the poise or temperament of Mr. Rogers."
Florida
Physicists Just Found
Missing Protons and Neutrons
The universe's missing matter has been found, and it's floating between the stars.
Researchers who study the ancient history of the universe know how much ordinary matter - matter that makes up baryons, a class of subatomic particles that includes protons and neutrons - the universe created during the Big Bang. And researchers who study the modern universe know how much ordinary, baryonic matter humans can see with telescopes.
But until recently, those numbers didn't match up: A full third of the universe's original baryonic matter was missing. Now, thanks to a clever observation involving an incredibly bright black hole, an international team of researchers says they've found it.
The missing baryons, the researchers wrote in a study published today (June 21) in the journal Nature, have been hiding out as thin, hot clouds of oxygen gas floating between the stars. The gas is highly ionized, meaning that most of its electrons are missing, and it has a strong positive charge.
"We found the missing baryons," Michael Shull, an astronomer at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a co-author on the paper, said in a statement.
Missing Protons and Neutrons
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