Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Sullivan: It's Time to Resist the Excesses of #MeToo (Daily Intelligencer)
… I'll tell you what's also brave at the moment: to resist this McCarthyism, to admit complexity, to make distinctions between offenses, to mark a clear boundary between people's sexual conduct in a workplace and outside of it, to defend due process, to defend sex itself, and privacy, and to rely on careful reporting to expose professional malfeasance. In this nihilist moment when Bannonites and left-feminists want simply to burn it all down, it's especially vital to keep a fire brigade in good order.
AZIZ'S ACCUSER IS 'APPALLING' (TMZ)
Ashleigh goes on to say she had the option to walk out the door rather than continue to engage in sexual contact with him. What's worse, Ashleigh says the woman is gunning to ruin Aziz's life over a bad date.
Tiffany Wright: Assault is not a feeling. The Aziz Ansari story shows why language matters (The Guardian)
"I'm not defending Ansari," I wrote. "I'm concerned with the eagerness to call every man who's ever made a woman feel uncomfortable an abuser, instead of trying to understand/dismantle the larger structures which play into men's inability to sense discomfort and women's inability to say no."
Michelle Goldberg: The President and the Porn Star (NY Times)
In retrospect, the dynamics of the Clinton-era culture wars seem blissfully simple, pitting a sexually libertarian left against an aggressively prudish right. It is a cosmic irony that, 20 years later, it is conservatives who've finally killed off the last remaining unspoken rules about presidential sexual ethics.
Josh Marshall: Lies, Bad Lies and Trump Lies (TPM)
One of the elemental features of the Trump Era is how readily Trump has been able to garner from most Republicans the kind of reflexive obsequiousness and fealty strong men and would-be strongmen demand. While our political system has many ills, this has not tended to be one of them. Trump's arrival changed that. It's obvious they're lying. They know it's obvious. They know we know and yet they're doing it anyway. That is a message in itself. They're doing it because hyper-loyalty of this sort trumps embarrassment in the Trump GOP.
Alice Ollstein: New Medicaid Rules Will Give Kentucky Health Care Whiplash (TPM)
"There are, for example, countless studies showing that charging premiums to people with very low incomes will result in them not being able to pay and losing coverage," [Leonardo Cuello, the director of health policy at the National Health Law Program] told TPM. "So that's not an experiment. We already know what will happen. It's like saying, 'I want to experiment by running at full speed into a brick wall and seeing what will happen.'"
Josh Marshall: Wisconsin Dems Flip GOP Held State Senate Seat (TPM)
This is of course just one race in one state. But we have a growing list of just one race, just one state type situations around the country.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Star Wars Flags
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
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
"UGH, PLEASE DON'T PAY ME…"
"FEED THE HUNGRY, HELP THE POOR AND HEAL THE SICK."
"THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS"
FAKE NEWS.
HE'S JUST A MORON!
"A TALL TALE?"
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW.
THE RACIST PRESIDENT.
THE PANTHEON OF FASCISM.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running late...
Offers $100,000
James Gunn
James Gunn, director of the two "Guardians of the Galaxy" films, is offering $100,000 if President Donald Trump will step on a scale.
Gunn's unusual proposition came hours after White House doctor Ronny Jackson said on Tuesday that the president was 6'3? and weighed 239 pounds, or one pound shy of the level that would be considered obese.
The filmmaker and other Trump critics didn't buy it. Mocking Trump's involvement in the debunked "birther" conspiracy theory that claimed President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States, Twitter users created the #Girther hashtag to question Jackson's claims.
Some even demanded to see Trump's #GirthCertificate.
Gunn's bounty echoed Trump's 2012 offer of $5 million to charity if Obama would release his college transcripts.
James Gunn
Gerrymandered Map
Pennsylvania
A plurality of state Supreme Court justices on Wednesday appeared open to the possibility that the Pennsylvania congressional map may violate the state's constitution, but during oral argument seemed unclear as to how to remedy the situation.
The state's map, which has been in place since 2012, gives Republicans a considerable advantage. The GOP consistently has been able to win 13 of the state's 18 congressional seats despite winning just 50 percent of the vote. The Brennan Center for Justice describes the congressional map as one of the worst gerrymanders in the country, and analyses have found it to be responsible for at least three additional GOP seats in Congress.
During an oral argument that lasted about two and a half hours in a packed courtroom, the justices seemed resistant to the plaintiffs' suggestion that any level of partisanship would be unacceptable in drawing district lines. Reaching such a conclusion would mean the court would be wading into redistricting more than any court had before, said Justice Debra McCloskey Todd.
But a plurality of the justices seemed more open to a map that took into consideration some partisan concerns as long as they were not given more importance than traditional, neutral redistricting requirements, such as those mandating districts be compact and contiguous. David Gersch, the lawyer for those challenging the congressional map, said such an approach would be acceptable as a fallback position.
Lawyers for the Republican defendants did not dispute that voters had been sorted into districts based on their past votes, but said that did not amount to impermissible viewpoint discrimination. They argued that social science could not necessarily predict how voters would cast their ballot, and that political parties were not a protected group the way racial groups are.
Pennsylvania
Former Fox News Hosts
Twitter
The Twitter accounts of two former Fox News hosts were hacked on Tuesday, resulting in both of their feeds being filled with Turkish propaganda supporting the country's controversial president.
The hackers tweeted and sent direct messages from the accounts of Eric Bolling and Greta Van Susteren. Bolling left Fox News last year and Van Susteren left Fox News in 2016, going to MSNBC for a few months in 2017. Both are among the exclusive group of 45 accounts that President Donald Trumpfollows on Twitter.
During the breach, hackers shared a screenshot of what appeared to be Bolling's direct messages. They also sent messages to Trump from Van Susteren's account.
Both accounts were restored within several hours, but not before Twitter users and journalists saved the tweets.
While under the hacker's control, Bolling and Van Susteren's accounts shared messages in support of the Turkish government and President Tayyip Erdogan.
Twitter
Ultraviolet Lizards
Chameleons
Chameleons don't just change the color of their skin. Scientists have discovered their bones can glow fluorescent under ultraviolet light, creating intricate luminous patterns.
The ability, it turns out, is widespread among chameleons from Madagascar and other parts of Africa. But, this is the first time researchers have reported the impressive phenomenon. Their results were published in Nature Scientific Reports.
"It has long been known that bones fluoresce under UV light, but that animals use this phenomenon to fluoresce themselves has surprised us and was previously unknown," Frank Glaw, Curator of Herpetology at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Munich, Germany, said in a statement.
The researchers shone a UV light on 160 different chameleon specimens, spanning 31 species. Many of the creatures emitted a distinct blue glow under the lamp.
"We could hardly believe our eyes," said David Prötzel, lead author of the study and PhD student at the Bavarian State Collection. "Almost all species showed blue, previously invisible patterns on the head, some even over the whole body."
Chameleons
Developing More
Nuclear Weapons
The Trump administration is considering developing two new sea-based nuclear weapons to combat the growing threats of China and Russia, according to new Department of Defence review of its nuclear strategy.
The planned change to strategy comes at a moment of intense debate over proliferation in the world, with much of the international attention focused on North Korea's pursuit of a nuclear deterrent.
Supporters of such a strategy change say that it is about time that the Defence Department come up with a new path forward, nearly three decades after the end of the Cold War, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, which first noted the strategy change.
But others are concerned that the warheads - by all accounts, lighter and more agile tools of war - could lower the applicable threshold for using a nuclear warhead.
One of the weapons is a so-called "low-wield" warhead that could be used alongside American Trident missiles, which are currently stocked alongside larger nuclear weapons on submarines capable of launching ballistic missiles. That warhead could be developed in as little as two years, according to experts.
Nuclear Weapons
Avoiding Grand Jury
Bannon
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon (R-Scarlet Letter) has reached agreement with U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller to be interviewed by Mueller's investigators rather than appearing before a grand jury, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Bannon, who was a close adviser during President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) 2016 election campaign and in his first months in office, had been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Mueller's probe of links between Russia and Trump's campaign.
But the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mueller offered Bannon the option of being interviewed instead and Bannon accepted. It was unclear when the interview would take place.
An interview with prosecutors would allow Bannon to have an attorney present during his appearance, as lawyers are not permitted in grand jury rooms.
According to a person familiar with the arrangement, the attorney who represented Bannon for Tuesday's House appearance, William Burck, is not representing him in connection with Mueller's investigation. The person said they did not believe Bannon had hired counsel for that yet.
Bannon
Worst-Case Scenarios Not Credible
Global Warming
Earth's surface will almost certainly not warm up four or five degrees Celsius by 2100, according to a study released Wednesday which, if correct, voids worst-case UN climate change predictions.
A revised calculation of how greenhouse gases drive up the planet's temperature reduces the range of possible end-of-century outcomes by more than half, researchers said in the report, published in the journal Nature.
"Our study all but rules out very low and very high climate sensitivities," said lead author Peter Cox, a professor at the University of Exeter.
How effectively the world slashes CO2 and methane emissions, improves energy efficiency, and develops technologies to remove CO2 from the air will determine whether climate change remains manageable or unleashes a maelstrom of human misery.
But uncertainty about how hot things will get also stems from the inability of scientists to nail down a very simple question: By how much will Earth's average surface temperature go up if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is doubled?
Global Warming
60 Percent Were Wiped
Saiga Antelopes
In May 2015, researchers in central Kazakhstan witnessed something really strange: thousands of saiga antelopes began acting a bit weird, becoming unbalanced, and then just plopping on the ground within a few hours - dead. Over the course of just three weeks, more than 200,000 saigas died, or about 60 percent of the global population.
"I had never seen anything like it," says Richard Kock, a wildlife veterinarian and professor at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK. "It was very concerning because it was so unnatural, outside of the realm of my experience."
The saiga antelopes were later found to be infected with a bacterium that causes blood poisoning and internal bleeding, or hemorrhagic septicemia. Now, a new study shows that unusually wet and hot weather played a key role in causing the outbreak. How exactly that happened, though, remains a bit of a mystery.
Researchers analyzed historical data related to other mass die-offs of saigas from the 1980s, and found that when the outbreaks occurred, it was warmer and more humid than normal, according to a new study published today in Science Advances. That doesn't bode well for the future of this critically endangered species. A warmer world could make such outbreaks more likely, and if that happens, the saiga antelopes could go extinct.
Saiga antelopes, whose bulbous noses recall the tauntaun creatures in Star Wars, live in the grasslands of central Asia, from Hungary all the way across Mongolia. They've been around for thousands of years, since the time of the mammoths, but they're now at risk of disappearing because of hunting and habitat loss. "Extinctions took out other animals, but the saiga persisted through modern time," says Kock, one of the authors of the study. With thick furs and unusual noses that warm up cold air before it gets to the lungs, the animals are highly adapted to extreme environments, and being able to survive harsh winters.
Saiga Antelopes
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 8-14. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. College Football Championship: Alabama vs. Georgia, ESPN, 27.7 million.
2. NFL Playoff: Tennessee at New England, CBS, 26.69 million.
3. "NFL Playoff Post-Game," Fox, 23.44 million.
4. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 15.93 million.
5. "College Football Championship Pre-Game," ESPN, 15.66 million.
6. "NCIS," CBS, 14.24 million.
7. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 14.17 million.
8. "College Football Championship Post-Game," ESPN, 13.59 million.
9. "Bull," CBS, 10.5 million.
10. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 10.17 million.
11. "This is Us," NBC, 9.65 million.
12. "Mom," CBS, 9.54 million.
13. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 9.38 million.
14. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 9.12 million.
15. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 8.7 million.
16. "The Good Doctor," ABC, 8.3 million.
17. "MacGyver," CBS, 8.14 million.
18. "The Simpsons," Fox, 8.04 million.
19. "Ellen's Game of Games," NBC, 7.89 million.
20. "The Big Bang Theory" (Monday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 7.75 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Mathilde Krim
Mathilde Krim, the founding chairman of amfAR and an inspirational leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS, died Monday night at her home in Kings Point, New York, the organization announced. She was 91.
Krim was married to Arthur B. Krim, a president and chairman of United Artists, founding chairman of Orion Pictures and the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1975 Oscars, from 1958 until his death in 1994.
The star-studded amfAR benefit is always among the most coveted events at the Cannes Film Festival each year; entering 2017, it had raised more than $210 million for research since the inaugural edition in 1993.
In April 1983, Krim co-founded the AIDS Medical Foundation, the first private organization concerned with fostering and supporting AIDS research. AMF merged with a similar, California-based group to form the nonprofit American Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR, in 1985, and she served as chairman of the board from 1990-2004.
The eldest of four children, she was born Mathilde Galland in Como, Italy, on July 9, 1926. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Geneva in 1953. From 1953-59, she pursued research in cytogenetics and cancer-causing viruses at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where she helped develop a method for the prenatal determination of sex.
She moved to New York and joined the research staff of Cornell University Medical School following her marriage to then-attorney Arthur Krim.
In 1962, she and her husband hosted a 45th birthday party for President John F. Kennedy in their New York home attended by Marilyn Monroe, Maria Callas, Jack Benny, Harry Belafonte and others.
Also that year, she started as a research scientist at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and, from 1981-85, was the director of its Interferon Laboratory.
Survivors include her daughter Daphna, grandchildren Robert and Amanda and sister Maria.
Mathilde Krim
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