Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Josh Marshall: Toxic (TPM)
Every president has these industry councils like the ones we've been talking about in recent days. They range from meaningless to not terribly important. They're mainly symbolic. With everything that's happened in recent days, I don't want to make it out like the decisions of a small number of CEOs is the biggest news. Still, we should recognize that it is entirely unprecedented to have a sitting president become so toxic that corporate America feels unable to publicly associate with him. That is totally, totally new territory.
Paul Krugman: Whither Trumpism? (NY Times Blog)
… my prediction is that with Bannon and economic nationalism gone, he will eventually double down on that part even more. If anything, Trumpism is going to get even uglier, and Trump even less presidential (if such a thing is possible) now that he has fewer people pushing for trade wars.
Marc Dion: There Goes Colonel Sanders (Creators Syndicate)
One of the worst advertising flops I've ever seen has been the effort to replace the original Colonel Sanders, the portly, white-suited gent who invented, and later advertised, Kentucky Fried Chicken. The first Colonel Sanders replacement was teenage-girl-chained-in-the-cellar creepy, and the newest guy is vaguely threatening, plus, in the most recent television commercial, the camera focuses on his crotch.
Roger Simon: A Majority of One Walks Away From His Keyboard (Creators Syndicate)
We live at a pivotal time because Donald Trump and his thugs have done us a favor. They have shown us that democracy is not inevitable. They have shown us it can fail.
Hadley Freeman: It's fine to talk about your abortion - but don't mention your elective caesarean (The Guardian)
The 'normal birth' campaign may have come to an end, but 'natural' childbirth is still seen as the ideal by far too many.
What I'm really thinking: the disappointed counselor (The Guardian)
Meanwhile, I need money, so I have to get a full-time job and have had to pretty much give up on my dream of becoming a counsellor. People praise me for my dedication, but all I can think is how stupid I've been for wasting all that time and money.
What I'm really thinking: the burned-out businessman (The Guardian)
'I sailed on, hitting target after target, until one day I couldn't do it any more'
John Judis: Trump: White Nationalist or in his Second Childhood - A Response (TPM)
"So this is his elective affinity with the Klan and the Neo-Nazis. If he condemns them unequivocally, he is embracing the political correctness that says that you are not allowed to demean entire groups based on prejudicial stereotypes. But then he wouldn't be able to say that Mexicans are rapists and Muslims are terrorists. In short, even with Bannon gone, he does not really have a choice but to double down on racism-it is all he has got." - Fred Block
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
THE SLIDE INTO AUTHORITARIANISM.
A SOLAR ECLIPSE IS COMING TO AMERICA.
"MAY THEIR CAUSE PROSPER.
NAZI PROTESTERS LOSE.
MAKING THE REPUBLICAN OLIGARCHS RICH.
THE NEO-NAZI GODZILLA.
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Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely marine layer.
Supporting Colin Kaepernick
Frank Serpico
Some 75 active and retired NYPD officers rallied in Brooklyn Saturday to demonstrate their support for quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The officers wore "#imwithkap" T-shirts and talked and sang in support of the quarterback and his efforts to find another team in the NFL. Kaepernick opted out of his contract with the 49ers this spring, but his politicial activism, most notably his decision to kneel during the national anthem before games last season, has reportedly made several teams wary of signing him.
While most of the officers at the rally were African-American or other minorities, one notable exception was 81-year-old former NYPD officer Frank Serpico, whose whistle-blowing efforts on corruption in the department inspired the 1973 Al Pacino movie "Serpico."
"I am here to support anyone who has the courage to stand up against injustice and oppression anywhere in this country and the world," Serpico told the New York Daily News.
NYPD Sgt. Edwin Raymond, who helped organize the rally, said Kaepernick is being "railroaded."
Frank Serpico
T-rump To Skip Awards Program
Kennedy Center Honors
Acknowledging that he has become a "political distraction," Donald Trump (R-Crooked) has decided to skip the festivities surrounding the annual Kennedy Center Honors arts awards later this year, the White House announced Saturday amid the continuing fallout over Trump's stance on last weekend's white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump reached their decision Friday, a White House official said, the same day that the entire membership of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned in protest over Trump's remarks about Charlottesville.
The Kennedy Center said it respected Trump's decision and the show will go on.
Presidents traditionally host a light-hearted and oftentimes humorous gathering for the honorees at the White House before everyone shifts to the performing arts center for the ceremony, which is later broadcast nationally.
Kennedy Center Honors
Hope For Renewal
Solar Eclipse
While much of the country gawks at the solar eclipse, Bobbieann Baldwin will be inside with her children, shades drawn.
In Navajo culture, the passing of the moon over the sun is an intimate moment in which the sun is reborn and tribal members take time out for themselves. No talking. No eating or drinking. No lying down. No fussing.
Across the country, American Indian tribes are observing the eclipse in similar and not-so-similar ways. Some tribal members will ignore it, others might watch while praying for an anticipated renewal, and those in prime viewing spots are welcoming visitors with storytelling, food and celebration. For the Crow Tribe in Montana, the eclipse coincides with the Parade Dance at the annual Crow fair, marking the tribe's new year.
Many American Indian tribes revere the sun and moon as cultural deities, great sources of power and giver of life.
U.S. Bureau of Indian Education spokeswoman Nedra Darling said the agency's schools, most of which are on the Navajo Nation, were given the option of closing Monday. Navajo Nation employees have Monday off, and other schools on and off the reservation that extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah earlier decided to close in respect of the culture that teaches that looking at the sun during an eclipse can be harmful not only to one's eyesight but for overall well-being.
Solar Eclipse
Founder Says Climate Change Isn't Real
Weather Channel
Weather Channel founder and longtime meteorologist John Coleman has a message he'd like to share about climate change: It's not real. Coleman, who runs a blog dedicated to attempting to prove that widely-accepted climate change is the result of "bad science."
"I'm just a dumb old skeptic," the 82-year-old told My News LA Friday. "A denier, as they call me, who ought to be jailed or put to death. I understand how they feel. But you know something? I know I'm right. So I don't care."
His blog, aimed at "correcting the bad science behind the 'climate change' frenzy," details his efforts. Coleman has been critical of former Vice President Al Gore for his environmental crusade and denounced San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer's new "Climate Action Plan."
Coleman's brainchild, the Weather Channel, tends not to agree with him. When Donald Trump (R-Buffoon) announced in June he'd be pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the channel made a somewhat tongue-in-cheek political statement on its website. The Weather Channel altered its homepage at the time to feature eight prominent stories with specifically tailored headlines.
Weather Channel
Judge Rejects Bid
Polanski
A Los Angeles judge on Friday rejected a request by the woman who was raped by director Roman Polanski 40 years ago to have the criminal case against him dismissed.
Superior Court Judge Scott Gordon ruled that Polanski remained a fugitive from justice and that the court could not dismiss a case "merely because it would be in the victim's best interest."
The ruling follows the first appearance in June in the case by Samantha Geimer, who was 13 years old when Polanski sexually assaulted her in Los Angeles in 1977.
Geimer, who has three sons and now lives in Hawaii, said in June that Polanski had apologised to her years ago, but that she continued to remain a victim because of media attention each time there was a new development in the case.
Gordon on Friday also rejected a request by Polanski's attorney, Harland Braun, to unseal testimony about the 1977 plea deal. Braun had hoped to use the testimony to persuade European authorities to rescind the international arrest warrant against Polanski.
Polanski
T-rump Adviser Resigns
Carl Icahn
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn (R-Corporate Vampire), who resigned Friday from an unpaid post as Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) adviser on deregulation efforts, stepped down as The New Yorker was preparing to publish a lengthy article detailing Icahn's potential conflicts of interest and questioning the legality of his actions.
Icahn said in a letter to Trump released Friday that he would resign to prevent "partisan bickering" about his role that Democrats suggested could benefit him financially.
In his letter, Icahn wrote that he "never had access to nonpublic information or profited from my position, nor do I believe that my role presented conflicts of interest."
Several weeks after Trump's November victory, Icahn agreed to become special adviser to the president on regulatory reform, and CVR's stock nearly doubled in value on the expectation that the renewable fuels rule would be changed, the magazine wrote.
Icahn's attorney, Jesse Lynn, rejected allegations that Icahn exploited his relationship with Trump to make bets on the renewable fuel credits. He said the CVR board, which Icahn chairs, made decisions on when buy or sell credits. "Any suggestion that we had access to information that others didn't is unequivocally false," he told the magazine.
Carl Icahn
German Writer Arrested In Spain
Dogan Akhanli
German-Turkish author Dogan Akhanli was arrested in Spain on Saturday after Turkey issued an Interpol warrant for the writer, a critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, fanning an already fierce row between the NATO allies.
The arrest of the German national in Granada was part of a "targeted hunt against critics of the Turkish government living abroad in Europe," Akhanli's lawyer Ilias Uyar told magazine Der Spiegel, which first reported Akhanli's detention.
A German foreign office official said Germany was in touch with Spanish authorities demanding that Berlin be involved in any extradition proceedings and insisting that no extradition should take place.
Any country can issue an Interpol "red notice", but extradition by Spain would only follow if Ankara could convince Spanish courts it had a real case against him.
Ties between Ankara and Berlin have been increasingly strained in the aftermath of last year's failed coup in Turkey as Turkish authorities sacked or suspended 150,000 people and detained more than 50,000, including other German nationals.
Dogan Akhanli
Sued For Alleged 'Colossal Fraud'
Poland Springs
A class action lawsuit filed against Nestlé Waters North America, Inc. Tuesday claimed Poland Spring Bottled Water is "a colossal fraud."
Eleven bottled water drinkers accused Poland Spring of a "colossal fraud perpetrated against American consumers." They filed the 325-page lawsuit in a Connecticut federal court. According to the suit, 11 individuals spent thousands of dollars on Poland Spring in the past few years and are seeking $5 million in damages for a national class.
The suit alleged Poland Spring's parent company Nestle bottles groundwater and claims it is spring water. The claims questioned whether Poland Spring water sources met the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) definition of a spring.
The FDA defined spring water as water "collected only at the spring or through a bore hole tapping the underground formation feeding the spring." According to the suit, Nestle obtains Poland Spring water from some sites that are "phony" or "man-made" and do not meet the FDA's qualifications to be a spring.
The bottled water drinkers said the spring in Poland Spring, Maine, has been dry for almost 50 years. The lawsuit claimed Poland Spring water sources in Hollis, Fryeburg, Denmark, Dallas Plantation, Pierce Pond Township and Kingfield may not be legitimate either.
Poland Springs
USS Indianapolis
Roughly seven decades ago, the USS Indianapolis was struck by Japanese torpedos and sank within minutes into an ocean full of sharks. About 300 people survived, but the ship was lost.
And now it's been found.
Paul Allen, who cofounded Microsoft, announced Saturday that he and a crew of researchers had finally located wreckage from the USS Indianapolis, which went down on July 30, 1945.
On Friday, the team found the wreckage in the Philippine Sea-about 18,000 feet under the surface.
USS Indianapolis
In Memory
Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory, the pioneering standup comedian and civil rights activist who made his advocacy work a key component of his on-stage persona, died Saturday night in Washington, D.C. He was 84.
Gregory was active on the standup and public speaking circuit on and off for more than a half-century. He had recently been making comedy appearances until he was hospitalized on Aug. 9. Gregory recently released a new book, "Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies," and he recently penned a guest column for Variety
Gregory made his mark in the early 1960s as a rare African-American comedian who was a success in nightclubs geared to white audiences. One his breaks famously came in 1960 when he was invited by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner to perform at his Playboy Lounge in Chicago.
Gregory was known for his folksy delivery and for incorporating commentary about segregation and discrimination into his routines. During this period he released a number of successful spoken word albums, notably 1961's "In Living Black and White," 1962's "Talks Turkey," 1964's "So You See … We All Have Problems" and 1968's "The Two Sides of Dick Gregory." In 1964, his autobiography was published with the provcative title: "N--: An Autobiography."
By the mid-1960s, after his friend and fellow activist Medgar Evers was murdered, Gregory turned his focus to full-time work as an activist with Martin Luther King Jr. and others. He was vocal advocate for the rights of African-Americans and Native Americans, and he was an early opponent of the Vietnam war and South Africa's apartheid. Gregory tried his hand at politics, running unsuccessfully for mayor of Chicago in 1967 and mounting a presidential bid in 1968.
A native of St. Louis, Gregory was one of six children who were abandoned in childhood by their father. He became a track star in high school, which led him to a scholarship Southern Illinois University in 1951. He left the school after his mother died in 1953 and was drafted into the Army. His comedy career was kindled during his time in the service, where he first performed in talent shows and variety shows.
Gregory was a frequent presence on the talk show and late-night comedy circuit during his 1960s heyday. But he logged only a few acting roles during his long career. He had guest shots in two episodes of Comedy Central's "Reno 911" in 2004. He had a role in the 1995 Mario Van Peebles film "Panther" as an activist minister and a cameo in the 2002 Rob Schneider vehicle "The Hot Chick."
A prolific writer, Gregory's other books included "Up From N--", "No More Lies," and "Callus on My Soul."
Dick Gregory
In Memory
Sonny Landham
Sonny Landham, the muscular action-movie actor who co-starred in "Predator" and "48 Hrs," has died. He was 76.
Landham's sister, Dawn Boehler, said the actor died from congestive heart failure Thursday at a Lexington, Kentucky, hospital. Landham was a brawny, deep-voiced actor and stunt man who played a bit part in Walter Hill's 1979 street-gang thriller "The Warriors" before the director cast him as the trigger-happy criminal Billy Bear in 1982's "48 Hrs."
Landham, who was part Cherokee and Seminole, was perhaps most known for playing the Native American tracker Billy Sole in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film "Predator."
Landham entered the movie business after working in pornography in the '70s. Later in life, he attempted brief and unsuccessful political campaigns.
He's survived by his son, William, and daughter, Priscilla.
Sonny Landham
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