Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: When a Red State Gets the Blues (Washington Post)
Conservative, self-reliant Texas chose its fate. But now it wants the rest of us to bail it out?
Paul Krugman: The Very Bad Economics of Killing DACA (NY Times Blog)
Trump's decision to kill DACA - never mind the attempt to obscure things with that meaningless delay - is, first and foremost, a moral obscenity: throwing out 800,000 young people who are Americans in every way that matters, who have done nothing wrong, basically for racial reasons.
Josh Marshall: Trump Wishes Dreamers Luck as He Tosses Them Out of the Plane (TPM)
What the President is doing is the executive action equivalent of flying the plane up to 10,000 feet, tossing the Dreamers out the door and yelling after them, "I hope you have a parachute or if you don't that Paul Ryan can get you one really fast!' Actually, one small difference. He had Jeff Sessions toss them out of the plane. The big picture is the same: this is an approach meant not to achieve any good outcome but to get out of the blame when bad things start happening.
Mark Morford: Trump is a most shameful and cruel old man (SF Gate)
There is not a shred of evidence from scientific research that the availability of DACA, or any social service, is what attracts immigrants. Overwhelming evidence shows that they come because of family ties and wage and employment differentials between their country and the United States. Some are fleeing gangs and drug violence in their place of origin.
Andrew Tobias: Seeing It From Their Point Of View
I don't know anyone in the Democratic Party or mainstream media who believes 40 percent of Americans - i.e., everyone who voted for Trump - is a racist idiot. Clearly there are some. You saw racists marching with tiki torches. And if there are idiots who vote, it would not be surprising if they were quicker than non-idiots to believe Trump would get them "great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost."
Joseph Smith: A woman threw a poo out of a window on a first date and firefighters had to get involved (Bristol Post)
One Bristol student has posted the incredible true story of a Tinder date gone astoundingly awry.
Spy Vs Spy - All Episodes (YouTube)
Comedy.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Evolution of the iPhone
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Kathy shared the link saying that it absolutely nails Ivanka. Linda adds--as Scarlett Johansson said on SNL--Complicit!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
THE "LIAR IN CHIEF".
THE "LIAR IN CHIEF." PART TWO.
"GLOBAL WARNING".
THE "LIAR IN CHIEF". PART THREE.
"…THEY HAVE ONLY ENSURED THEIR OWN INFAMY."
THE MOST DANGEROUS COMPANY!
HEE HAW!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The backyard seems so empty without any butterflies.
Lifetime Oscar
Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland, the star of "MASH," "The Hunger Games" and more than 140 other movies, is to get a lifetime achievement Oscar, along with Belgian director Agnes Varda, Oscar organizers said on Wednesday.
Sutherland and Varda will be joined by African-American indie film director Charles Burnett and cinematographer Owen Roizman in receiving honorary Oscars at a ceremony in Los Angeles in November, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in statement.
Canadian actor Sutherland, 82, has a career spanning five decades starting with his 1967 breakthrough in "The Dirty Dozen." He went on to play wisecracking army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the 1970 movie version of "MASH," as well as roles in thriller "Don't Look Now" and "Klute."
Belgian-born Varda has experimented with shorts, documentaries and feature films during her more than 60-year career. Called the mother of the French New Wave, her movies include "Cleo from 5 to 7," "Le Bonheur," and "One Sings, the Other Doesn't."
The honorary Oscars will be presented at a gala dinner on Nov. 11.
Donald Sutherland
Season 25 Cast
'Dancing With the Stars'
Actor Frankie Muniz, "Shark Tank" star Barbara Corcoran, former Paralympic athlete Victoria Arlen and WWE superstar Nikki Bella will be battling one another on the dance floor during season 25 of "Dancing With the Stars."
Debbie Gibson, who sang her way to fame in the 1980s, will also compete this season, alongside Nick Lachey, who made his name in the '90s as the frontman of 98 Degrees.
Lachey, now a father of three, and pro dancer Peta Murgatroyd will face off against his wife, Vanessa Lachey, who is paired with Maks Chmerkovskiy, Murgatroyd's husband.
The celebrity cast members and their partners were announced live on "Good Morning America" today.
Season 25 of "DWTS" will feature Drew Scott, Sasha Pieterse, Barbara Corcoran, Derek Fisher, Victoria Arlen, Jordan Fisher, Nikki Bella, Terrell Owens, Frankie Muniz, Debbie Gibson, Lindsey Stirling, Vanessa Lachey and Nick Lachey.
'Dancing With the Stars'
Nautical Maps From 1770s
Coral Loss
Between 1773 and 1775, George Gauld, a surveyor with the British Admiralty, immortalized the coast of the Florida Keys in ink. Though his most pressing goal was to record the depth of the sea - to prevent future shipwrecks - Gauld embraced his naturalist side, too. He sprinkled his maps with miscellany that later charts would omit: where sea turtles made their nests, or the colors and consistency of sand.
Gauld also took note of the corals he saw. And in doing so he created the oldest known records of Florida reefs.
"With the early charts you can actually see the reef itself being drawn," said Loren McClenachan, a marine ecologist at Colby College in Maine. "It matches almost exactly with the satellite data." In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, McClenachan and her colleagues compared those 240-year-old observations with present-day satellite images.
A stark picture of shrinking coral emerged: Half of the reefs recorded in the 1770s are missing from the satellite data.
The coral nearest to shore fared the worst, with 88 percent of the coral that Gauld recorded now gone. At the fore-reef, the coral at the most seaward edge of the reef, there appeared to be no loss between historical coral observations and modern habitat maps. "I was surprised that there was such a strong spatial gradient," McClenachan said.
Coral Loss
Paternity Claim Disproved
Salvador Dali
A paternity test has disproved a Spanish woman's claim that she is the daughter of surrealist artist Salvador Dali, the deceased painter's foundation announced Wednesday.
The Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation said in a written statement that the Madrid court that ordered the DNA test informed it that Pilar Abel, a 61-year-old tarot card reader, has no biological relationship with Dali.
Abel has long alleged her mother had an affair with Dali and claimed she had the right to part of his vast estate. The foundation said it was happy the "absurd" claim had been resolved.
A judicial spokesman told The Associated Press the court has not made the test results public but has informed the parties in the lawsuit. He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with court rules.
The high-profile paternity claim led to the exhumation of Dali's embalmed remains so genetic samples could be taken. Forensic experts removed hair, nails and two long bones in July.
Salvador Dali
Sold For Just $1
New York Daily News
The New York Daily News has been sold for $1 to newspaper publisher Tronc, in a move that's been called both "bold" and a "sign of perilous times" for newspapers and the people who run them.
Tronc, which owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune among several other papers, confirmed the takeover on Monday night.
In typical Daily News fashion, the Pulitzer Prize-winning tabloid, which has been in operation since 1919, shared the big news on Twitter. The other big story of day: Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) reported decision to pull the plug on the so-called "Dreamers" immigration program.
Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Publishing, acquired the Daily News for $1 but also assumed all of the paper's operational and pension liabilities, according to the Chicago Tribune. The exact worth of the Daily News' pension liabilities was believed to be in the tens of millions of dollars.
Reaction to the acquisition was mixed among those in the media industry. The New York Times said "the deal represents the end of an era for The News, which was long a voice for New York's working class. It may also signal the end of the political influence of its owner, the real estate magnate Mortimer B. Zuckerman, who often used the paper's bold, front-page headline … for commentary about candidates and politicians, locally and nationally." Zuckerman has owned the Daily News since 1993.
New York Daily News
Christian Ponzi Scheme
"Mystery Babylon"
Larry Bates told listeners of Christian broadcast programs that they should buy gold and silver coins to give them financial protection during a supposedly looming religious and economic collapse termed "Mystery Babylon."
Trusting Bates' status as a former Tennessee lawmaker and believing he was an honest Christian man, hundreds of people sent him money, and waited for their shiny coins to arrive.
So many times, the coins never came.
Bates was sentenced Tuesday to more than 21 years in federal prison for leading a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that prosecutors said defrauded more than 400 people from 2002 through 2013.
U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman ordered Bates, 73, to repay more than $21 million to victims. A large number of those victims were elderly Americans who lost life savings and the ability to pay for health care, prosecutors said.
"Mystery Babylon"
First Legal Cannabis Shops
California
Growing marijuana has run in June's family for three generations, a stretch that has seen universal prohibition give way to accelerating legalisation.
For well over a decade, June - who asked her real name not be used - and her husband have been among the thousands of Californians who cultivate pot in a state where the marijuana leaf has become as much of a symbol as the surfboard.
But, despite the grand opening of California's recreational marijuana industry being mere months away, many of the people who have tended their plants beneath the evergreens and oaks of the state's undulating hills aren't sure they can stay in the business. A crop that should be becoming a boon risks becoming a burden, as many will have nowhere to sell what they've grown.
June and her husband, who built a consistent business supplying dispensaries and hoped to get right with the law, aren't sure they can meet the necessary regulations - and costs - to keep selling what they grow in a newly legitimised industry.
They had moved from a location in the so-called Emerald Triangle, three counties in Northern California that form the state's cultivation epicentre, to a discreet property in Sonoma County they thought would be better suited to meet the regulations they were sure were coming. But it may not be enough.
California
Considering Universal Basic Income
Hawaii
Hawaii is considering introducing a basic income for all its citizens.
The US state's congress voted to look into the idea as research suggests a large number of current jobs are likely to be replaced by automated technology in the coming years.
The bill declares that all families in Hawaii are entitled to "basic financial security" - paving the way for a policy that would guarantee this.
It also tasks several government offices with analysing the state's economy and finding "ways to ensure all families have basic financial security, including an evaluation of different forms of a full or partial universal basic income."
Hawaii is the first US state to pass legislation in support of UBI but a number of countries around the world have taken steps towards introducing the policy.
Hawaii
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Aug. 28-Sept. 3. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 13.13 million.
2. College Football: Florida St. vs Alabama, ABC, 12.34 million.
3. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 11.09 million.
4. "College Football Pre-Game," ABC, 7.4 million.
5. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.05 million.
6. "Big Brother" (Wednesday), CBS, 6.13 million.
7. "American Ninja Warrior," NBC, 6.11 million.
8. "NCIS," CBS, 5.85 million.
9. "Big Brother" (Sunday), CBS, 5.65 million.
10. College Football: Ohio St. vs Indiana, ESPN, 5.14 million.
11. "Bull," CBS, 5.1 million.
12. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.097 million.
13. "NCIS: New Orleans," CBS, 5.08 million.
14. "Bachelor in Paradise," ABC, 5.05 million.
15. "Big Brother" (Thursday), CBS, 4.89 million.
16. College Football: West Virginia vs Virginia Tech, ABC, 4.65 million.
17. "Marlon," NBC, 4.56 million.
18. "Hollywood Game Night," NBC, 4.41 million.
19. "Hawaii Five-O," CBS, 4.39 million.
20. "Dateline Classic," NBC, 4.25 million.
Ratings
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
