Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Sorrow and the Pity (NY Times Blog)
A lot of people in politics and the media are scrambling to normalize what just happened to us, saying that it will all be OK and we can work with Trump. No, it won't, and no, we can't. The next occupant of the White House will be a pathological liar with a loose grip on reality; he is already surrounding himself with racists, anti-Semites, and conspiracy theorists; his administration will be the most corrupt in America history.
DANIEL DUANE: I Wish We All Could Be Californian (NY Times)
San Francisco - THIS is going to sound very California, but here goes: I drowned my election sorrows by surfing.
Marc Dion: Leonard Cohen and Donald Trump (Creators Syndicate)
Most American newspapers, especially the influential ones, wrote more words about the death of singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen than their readers wanted to (or did) read. Why? Same reason most American newspapers blew the Donald Trump story.
Connie Schultz: No, Let's Not Congratulate Him (Creators Syndicate)
Don't ask us to congratulate him. Not today. Not this week. Not ever, probably.
Froma Harrop: Goodbye, Facebook. You're Evil (Creators Syndicate)
Dear Facebook friends, If you don't see me gushing over the pix of your Thanksgiving pies, take no offense. It's not that your pie is a bore (though, frankly, it is). And it's not because I unfriended you. It's because Facebook has become a platform for the sort of fake news stories that helped elect Donald Trump. In doing so, Facebook undermines our civic culture - its creepy smile floating overhead.
Susan Estrich: "Just Because You Lose Doesn't Mean You Stop Trying, or, 'Marian's Lesson'" (Creators Syndicate)
"What are you doing?" I asked her, although it was obvious. She told she was there advocating for programs that helped the children most in need. "Not very popular these days," I said stupidly. She looked at me as if I were a serious person, which was only sometimes true in those days: "You never stop just because you lose."
Ted Rall: No, Everything is Really Not Going to Be All Right (Creators Syndicate)
Imagine a 6 to 12 to 18 months from now, when these characters face the inevitable political crisis: terrorist attack. Natural disaster. Economic meltdown. Race riot. Nuclear crisis. These aren't personalities predisposed to respond to these challenges with introspection or compromise. Beginning with Trump himself, these are people with a cop mentality who, like a hammer, see everything as a nail to be pounded into submission.
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wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Fake News
CBS on fake news
Idiot interviewed on CBS morning program today about fake news said it's the responsibility of the person sharing a news story to check its veracity before sharing. Fat chance! I remember scolding Tracy (Republican daughter of my Republican boss when we were overseas) for emailing crap (like the story back then of Hillary refusing to meet with Gold Star moms) without checking out its truth on snopes.com. (Hasn't it always been anti-Clinton, anti-Hillary crap?!)
She, and the other haters, weren't checking veracity before MASS email sharing twenty years ago. They sure as shit won't check before sharing fake news now if it supports what they want to believe!
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
I'm so old I can remember when the networks had fact-checkers.
Back then the news divisions were required to operate in the public's interest, convenience and necessity, budget be damned.
Now, 'news' is part of the entertainment division, and they are required to turn a profit for their corporate masters.
The only people who have been well served by deregulation and consolidation are the corporate masters, facts be damned.
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
TYPICAL TWO FACED LIARS!
"FASTEN YOUR SEAT-BELTS. IT'S GOING TO BE A BUMPY RIDE!"
NO MERCY!
SPEAK UP! SPEAK OUT! ACT UP! ACT OUT!
THE DEMONS ARE LOOSE!
'LES DEPLORABLES'
BOYCOTT 'HAMILTON'. HEE HAW!
DIE FOTHER MUCKERS!
WTF?
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and cool.
Beastie Boys' Playground Vandalized
Adam Yauch
A Brooklyn playground named for the late Beastie Boys' star Adam Yauch had been vandalized with swastikas and the words "Go Trump!"
Photos show the swastika and words were spray-painted on playground equipment in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood.
The city named the park for the late rapper, who was Jewish, in 2013. He died of cancer in 2012 at the age of 47.
New York City Councilman Brad Lander said police were investigating and a Parks Department spokesman said Saturday the graffiti was removed.
It was one of several recent instances of the Nazi symbol being found around New York and in other parts of the country.
Adam Yauch
French Fashion Designer
Sophie Theallet
There's no doubt which side the fashion world supported during the US presidential campaign.
For years, First Lady Michelle Obama and Democrats' vanquished presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have been favorites with fashion designers who dressed them in clothes aimed at evoking their values.
But New York-based French designer Sophie Theallet has gone a step further, throwing down the gauntlet by refusing to dress
future first lady
Melania Trump because of the political views of her husband, President-elect Donald Trump.
"As one who celebrates and strives for diversity, individual freedom and respect for all lifestyles, I will not participate in dressing or associating in any way with the
next first lady," she wrote in an open letter published Thursday.
"The rhetoric of racism, sexism and xenophobia unleashed by her husband's presidential campaign are incompatible with the shared values we live by."
Sophie Theallet
300-Year-Old Poo
Danish Bishop
A 300-year-old lump of faeces from a Danish bishop has shown researchers that he had a cosmopolitan diet that included grapes, figs and pepper, a Danish archaeologist said on Friday.
The faeces were originally found in a latrine box in 1937 when bishop Jens Bircherod's manor was excavated in the northern city of Aalborg.
But they were only recently analysed as part of a research project on diaspora communities in Danish cities between the early 15th century and the late 17th century.
While most other latrines from the late 17th century were used by many different people, this one was only used by Bircherod and his wife.
While most Danes at the time had to settle for regional staples like pork, rye bread and cabbage, the bishop -- along with other wealthy residents of Aalborg -- appears to have had a penchant for berries and nuts.
Danish Bishop
Residents Sue 27 Energy Companies
Oklahoma
Residents of a town hit by Oklahoma's strongest earthquake have filed a class-action lawsuit against dozens of energy companies, accusing them of triggering destructive temblors by injecting wastewater from oil and natural gas production underground.
Pawnee residents filed the suit Thursday in district court against 27 companies, saying they operate wastewater injection wells even though they know the method causes earthquakes. The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount for property damage and reduced value, plus emotional distress.
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck the town of about 2,200 in September and the lawsuit claims 52 more have hit the area since. On Nov. 6, a magnitude 5.0 quake damaged dozens of buildings in nearby Cushing, a town that is home to one of the world's largest oil hubs.
Oklahoma has had thousands of earthquakes in recent years, with nearly all traced to underground wastewater disposal. Some scientists say that the high-pressure injection of massive amounts of chemical-laced wastewater deep in the earth induces the quakes. Regulators have asked oil and gas producers to either close injection wells or reduce the volume of fluids they inject.
Residents and environmental groups in neighboring states have sued energy companies curb or stop similar operations. Quakes in north central Arkansas all but stopped after the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission voted to ban wells for the disposal of natural gas drilling fluids in July 2011. In 2014, a Prague, Oklahoma, resident sued two companies on the same grounds after a magnitude 5.6 temblor rattled her town in 2011.
Oklahoma
Says Honor Fat Tony
Slappy
Supreme Court Justice Clarence "Slappy" Thomas called on fellow conservatives Thursday to continue the work of the late Justice Antonin "Fat Tony" Scalia to keep the power of the courts and other branches of government in check.
Thomas told 1,700 people at a dinner in honor of Scalia that the Supreme Court has too often granted rights to people that are not found in the Constitution. He cited the decision in 2015 that made same-sex marriage legal across the country.
Thomas said he and his longtime friend and colleague formed an "odd couple" of a white New Yorker and a black man from Georgia.
He paraphrased Lincoln's Gettysburg address to exhort the audience to "be dedicated to the unfinished business for which Justice Scalia gave his last full measure of devotion."
Slappy
Developer Says Pipeline Will Not Be Rerouted
Dakota Access
Energy Transfer Partners LP Chief Executive Officer Kelcy Warren said the company will not consider rerouting its Dakota Access oil pipeline despite concerns voiced by U.S. native groups, according to an Associated Press interview published on Friday.
President Barack Obama said earlier this month that the government was examining ways to reroute the pipeline.
Energy Transfer did not immediately respond to calls and emails seeking comment. Warren did tell the AP that he would like to meet with tribal leaders to ease their concerns about the project.
On Friday, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple asked the Army to resolve the permitting issues, citing protests that have sometimes turned violent at Cannon Ball, where the Standing Rock Sioux have erected a large camp that they plan to man throughout the winter. He also asked for assistance in law enforcement from federal authorities.
"Further delays simply prolong the risks to public safety, prolong the hardships endured by area residents and increase costs incurred by the state of North Dakota and Morton County," he said in a statement.
Dakota Access
Could Undo Student Loan Relief
Congress
The U.S. Congress republicans beholding to lobbyists could as soon as January start to dismantle President Barack Obama's transformation of student loan rules by blocking freshly minted regulations designed to help students who say they were defrauded by for-profit colleges.
The new measures, which lay out loan relief procedures for the students, were issued by the Department of Education just days before the election. That is recent enough to allow the new Republican-led Congress to disapprove them under a 1996 law called the Congressional Review Act. It gives Congress 60 legislative days to reverse regulations with a simple vote.
Republicans opposed the rule when it was proposed. Lamar Alexander, who chairs the Senate committee on education, is considering introducing a resolution that would overturn the so-called "Borrower Defense" rule, according to a spokeswoman.
Even without a legislative reversal, president-elect Donald Trump (R-Grifter), who ran on an anti-regulation platform and started his own for-profit school, could instruct agencies to be more restrictive in how they interpret this rule and others aimed at easing student loan burdens.
Students who attended the now-defunct Trump University did not qualify for federal loans and are not eligible for loan relief. Trump is facing civil lawsuits alleging fraud related to the school.
Congress
China Tells Mongolia To Bar
Dalai Lama
China told Mongolia to forbid the Dalai Lama's planned arrival there on Friday, suggesting the Tibetan spiritual leader's trip could harm Beijing's relations with its northern neighbor.
China regards the Dalai Lama as a separatist, though he says he merely seeks genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland Tibet, which Communist Chinese troops "peacefully liberated" in 1950.
"We strongly urge Mongolia to act by keeping in mind the big picture of maintaining the stable development of bilateral relations and to keep their promises made on this issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.
"Do not allow the Dalai Lama to visit. Do not support or facilitate the separatist activities of the Dalai clique," Geng said at a regular press briefing.
Dalai Lama
Found Frozen Mid-Fight
2 Moose
Two moose were recently discovered frozen in battle and encased in ice near a remote village on Alaska's unforgiving western coast.
Brad Webster, a middle school social studies and science teacher in Unalakleet, captured images of the massive animals poking through the ice as they lay on their sides with antlers apparently locked together.
He had taken a friend who recently moved to the village for a walk on Nov. 2 near a frozen slough at Covenant Bible Camp, where Webster volunteers as a camp steward.
It took him a moment to realize what he was seeing, he said.
It was the end of moose rutting season, and the animals likely were fighting over a female moose. Webster speculates that one of the animals was wounded by the other animal's antlers, and perhaps died as their antlers were caught together, dragging the rival down with it.
2 Moose
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