Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Matt Osborne: "Primary Error: Donna Brazile Mixed Up Two Different Clinton-DNC Agreements"(deepstatenation)
It is also normal for the nominee to sign a whole new Joint Fundraising Agreement with the DNC, which is exactly what Clinton did. Brazile has two different Agreements mixed up in her mind - and her publisher has failed on a basic fact-check. Either someone is too lazy to read the actual DNC documents for themselves, or they are lying on purpose.
Marc Dion: Cashin' the Checks (Creators Syndicate)
I'm a saver, a working guy who puts money in the bank. If you do that, and you stay continuously employed for 46 years, and you work way up to a middle-class wage, you end up with a solid rock of money in the bank.
Froma Harrop: Trump Economy Fails to Wow Many Investors (Creators Syndicate)
A rich guy I know really, really dislikes Donald Trump. A member of the 1 percent, Jack (not his real name) thinks the president has sullied the country's reputation and put democracy in danger. But I had to ask him this: "Aren't you at least happy with the stock market?" He's done quite well on that score, as have many investors.
Alice Ollstein: House GOP Votes To Fund Children's Insurance With Cuts To Public Health (TPM)
House Democrats who spoke to TPM ahead of the vote were beyond "annoyed." Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), jabbing her finger for emphasis, so furious she tripped over her words, said she would be proud to vote "Hell no" on the bill. "This is robbing Peter to pay Paul," she said. "We're going to take from lead paint screenings and testing water and vaccinations? Take it from the money you're giving to the richest of the rich in tax cuts. Don't cut the prevention fund."
Josh Marshall: Clowns and Imbeciles and Spies and Paul Manafort (TPM)
It's very hard to imagine that Manafort, being on the receiving end of multiple approaches and simultaneously trying to use his newfound profound prominence to 'make himself whole' with people in Ukraine and Russia didn't have a pretty clear sense of what was going on. Mueller and his deputies seem to think the same thing.
Nick Wingfield: The Disappearing American Grad Student (NY Times)
There are two very different pictures of the students roaming the hallways and labs at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering. At the undergraduate level, 80 percent are United States residents. At the graduate level, the number is reversed: About 80 percent hail from India, China, Korea, Turkey and other foreign countries.
Camille Dodero: The Patron Saint of Books (Neatorama)
James Patterson might be the most successful man in the book-writing business. But these days he wants something more.
Sarah Knapton: Farmers urged to bury their underpants to improve quality of their beef (Telegraph)
Burying a pair of underpants in a field may not seem the obvious starting point for the perfect roast, but farmers are being urged to dig deep for tastier meat.
Froma Harrop: College Football Haves, Have-Nots and Dropouts (Creators Syndicate)
The University of Alabama's football coach ruffled surprisingly few feathers up north when he dismissively contrasted the game played by the University of Rhode Island with his school's.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
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In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Janet found these better versions of the official portraits:
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
THIS IS HOW REPUBLICANS WIN ELECTIONS. THEY CHEAT!
'IT'S THE SAFEST GRIFT AROUND.'
ARE MARX AND ENGELS CHRISTIAN PROPHETS?
THE "JEFF" SESSIONS.
SHOULDN'T THEY PUNISH TRUMPS MOTHER?
MUELLER KEEPS ROLLING ALONG.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Oh joy - an extra hour of sleep (I wish).
'Welcome To Kenya'
Hawaii
Protesters in Hawaii mocked Donald Trump (R-Birther) with signs that said "welcome to Kenya" as the President touched down on the first leg of his Asia-Pacific tour.
Making light of the President's past enthusiasm for the so-called "birtherism" conspiracy that targeted Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, demonstrators also held signs that read "Aloha means goodbye" and "Immigration gave me my family".
State congressman Kaniela Ing told Hawaii News Now: "Hawaii is the most diverse state in the nation, and just a few days ago Trump literally said, 'Diversity sounds like a good thing, but it is not a good thing.' That statement alone undermines the values that make Hawaii, Hawaii."
Islanders called their rally "Hawaii 3, Trump 0", referencing the number of times courts in the state have blocked the President's attempts to institute a ban on travel from majority-Muslim countries.
Hawaii
America 'Already Great'
Neil Young
Rock legend Neil Young on Friday took aim at President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Execrable) --- declaring America to be "already great" -- as he announced his latest album.
The prolific 71-year-old will on December 1 release "The Visitor," his 39th studio album and his second with Promise of the Real, a hard-charging back-up band that has brought comparisons to Crazy Horse which appeared on Young's classic works.
Young released a first song off the album entitled "Already Great," a pointed rejoinder to Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again."
To a rugged rock guitar backed up by piano, Young starts off the song by mentioning, "I'm Canadian, by the way" but voicing love for the "freedom" found in life in the United States.
The song then slows down in a harmonic chorus with echoes of Pink Floyd, as he sings, "You're already great / You're the promised land / You're the helping hand."
Young is no stranger to politics. 1989's "Rockin' in the Free World," his most identifiable song, attacked the policies of then president George H. W. Bush, but soon instead became an anthem in Eastern Europe as communism collapsed.
Neil Young
Sculpture To Paris Auction
Auguste Rodin
On November 10, a rare sculpture by Auguste Rodin known as "Venus Washing" will be put up for auction at Hôtel Drouot in Paris.
In stark contrast to the tragic "Gates of Hell," "Venus Washing" (also known as "Kneeling Goddess" and "The Awakening") is a voluptuous, sensual piece. Signed by Rodin, it was completed on September 13, 1945 at the Alexis Rudier foundry. The log states that it was worked on by three men for over 30 hours.
This rare sculpture went on view for the first time at the Jean de Ruaz Gallery in 1946. In 1963, it was shown at New York's Museum of Modern Art as part of a major Rodin retrospective.
The statue will also be included in the Brame & Lorenceau Gallery's soon-to-be-published "Catalogue critique de l'oeuvre sculptée d'Auguste Rodin," a Rodin collectors' bible.
"Venus Washing" is part of a Belgian private collection. It was designed in 1890 and cast in 1945, and is estimated at 250,000-300,000 euros.
Auguste Rodin
Trump Is a 'Blowhard'
Poppy
Both former President Bushes had choice words for President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Fabulist) in a new book scheduled to be published later this month, with the elder Bush reportedly calling the billionaire commander-in-chief a "blowhard" and flatly stating he does not "like" him.
Presidents George Bush and George W. Bush, the 41st and 43rd top executives respectively, spoke to author Mark K. Updegrove for the book "The Last Republicans." It detailed the relationship between the father-and-son presidents and how they were fretful of what Trump had done to the Republican Party.
Furthermore, both ex-presidents admitted they did not vote for Trump. The elder Bush pulled the lever for Democrat Hillary Clinton while the younger told Updegrove he voted for "none of the above."
"I don't like him," George Bush said in May 2016 according to a The New York Times on Saturday. "I don't know much about him, but I know he's a blowhard. And I'm not too excited about him being a leader.
The Bushes also made a not-so-veiled statement following President Trump's comments in the wake of the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, protest in August.
Poppy
Increased for the Second Straight Year
Gun Deaths
The U.S. rate for gun deaths has increased for the second straight year, following 15 years of no real change, a government report shows.
Roughly two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides and those have been increasing for about 10 years. Until recently, that has been offset by a decline in people shot dead by others. But there's been a recent upswing in those gun-related homicides, too, some experts said.
Overall, the firearm death rate rose to 12 deaths per 100,000 people last year, up from 11 in 2015, according to the reportreleased Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before that, the rate had hovered just above 10 - a level it had fallen to in the late 1990s.
Overall, there were more than 38,000 gun deaths last year, according to the CDC. That's up from about 36,000 in 2015, and around 33,500 each year between 2011 and 2014.
Most gun deaths tend to happen in warm weather so it's too early to know what is happening this year, said Bob Anderson, the CDC's chief of mortality statistics.
Gun Deaths
Claim Papa John's As Official Pizza
Alt-Right White Supremacists
Neo-Nazis and white supremacists have always been distasteful, but now it turns out their taste in pizza is terrible, too.
The white supremacist website the Daily Stormer announcedThursday that Papa John's pizza is the official pie of the alt-right, posting a picture of a pizza with a swastika fashioned from pepperoni slices. The caption reads, "Papa John: Official pizza of the alt-right?"
The pronouncement came after Papa John's CEO John Schnatter, whose pizza is an official NFL sponsor, blamed his company's recent losses on NFL players protesting police brutality during the national anthem.
"This might be the first time ever in modern history that a major institution is going to be completely destroyed explicitly because of public outrage over their anti-white agenda," Daily Stormer writer Adrian Sol posted, referring to the NFL and adding disturbingly, "The Negro fatigue caused by this whole NFL fiasco is reaching heights that even I didn't fully expect."
This isn't the first time the far-right has endorsed a brand and demonstrated how hateful ideology can permeate everything from sports to retail. Last November, the neo-Nazis said New Balance shoes were the "official shoes of white people" because one of the company's top executives criticized former President Barack Obama and said that he supported Trump.
Alt-Right White Supremacists
Counters Papa John
Pizza Hut
Papa John is blaming NFL player protests for a dip in pizza sales, but Pizza Hut says otherwise.
On Wednesday, Papa John's International reported disappointing third-quarter earnings: its sales rose, but only by 1%-less than analyst expectations. Sales rose 5.5% in the same quarter last year.
CEO John Schnatter said the reason is the NFL. "The NFL has hurt us by not resolving the current debacle to the players' and owners' satisfaction… NFL leadership has hurt Papa John's shareholders," he said on the earnings call.
But one day later, Greg Creed, CEO of Yum Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC, was asked to comment on the claim.
"We're not seeing any impact from any of that," Creed said on Yum's earnings call.
Pizza Hut
Takes No Action
Netflix
One day after a HuffPost report revealed that actor Danny Masterson is the subject of a criminal investigation into allegations of rape by four women, Netflix, which produces and airs the program he co-stars on, "The Ranch," has told HuffPost it isn't taking any action against him.
"We are aware of the allegations and the subsequent investigation, and will respond if developments occur," a Netflix spokesman said in a statement emailed to HuffPost.
Four women have accused Masterson of violently raping them in the early 2000s. One year ago, the Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation into the claims and found the evidence compelling enough to refer the case to the Los Angeles County district attorney. The investigation has been overseen by one of the top prosecutors in the office, Reinhold Mueller.
One of Masterson's accusers initially filed an LAPD report in 2004 saying that she was raped in 2003 while she was "passed out" and that, when she awoke and realized Masterson was raping her, she struggled with him until he choked her and she passed out again. The case was not referred to the district attorney at the time after more than 50 members of the Church of Scientology, which both Masterson and his accuser belonged to, submitted affidavits to the LAPD denying the woman's account. The tactic is a common one for the organization, which is known for using fear and intimidation in order to silence anyone perceived as attacking Scientology.
Two of Masterson's accusers initially reported being raped directly to the Church of Scientology. Scientology rules say that members of the church must never report a Scientologist to law enforcement. The punishment would be immediate expulsion from the church, which would include family and friends being ordered not to associate with or speak to the banished member.
Netflix
T-rump Supporter
Vegas Gunman
Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock was quite the fan of Donald Trump (R-Crooked) before he killed 58 people and left another 500 injured-the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history.
Paddock, a millionaire who reportedly would gamble up to $1 million a night in casinos, was attracted to the president's politics because of the boost the stock market has enjoyed since Trump took office, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told KLAS, a local CBS affiliate in Las Vegas, during a two-hour interview.
Paddock said "he was happy with Trump because the stock market was doing well," Lombardo said.
Stocks have indeed risen nearly every month since Trump took office-something that has been achieved under no other U.S. president, Forbes reported. But the magazine also noted that the markets have actually seen better gains under five other presidents.
Lombardo said he didn't know offhand who Paddock was talking to when he was talking about Trump, adding that it's the "only thing that we have seen that references politics." Authorities do not believe it correlates to a motive in the shooting.
Vegas Gunman
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