Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tony Stubblebine: How to Be Enthusiastically and Completely Pro-Hillary (Medium)
Best candidate of my lifetime.
Paul Krugman: How Did The Race Get Close? (NY Times Blog)
Well, my guess is that it was the Goring of Hillary: beginning in late August, with the AP report on the Clinton Foundation, the mainstream media went all in on "abnormalizing" Mrs. Clinton, a process that culminated with Matt Lauer, who fixated on emails while letting grotesque, known, Trump lies slide.
Paul Krugman: VAT of Deplorables (NY Times Blog)
Should we be reassured that Trump wasn't actually winging it here, just taking really bad advice? Not at all. This says that if he somehow becomes president, and decides to take the job seriously, it won't help - because his judgment in advisers, his notion of who constitutes an expert, is as bad as his judgment on the fly.
Mark Morford: "Hillary vs. Trump: Are you stressed/depressed enough?" (SF Gate)
But as with everything this election cycle, this one feels - is different, largely because of the undeniable, world-stabbing fact that Trump is not merely one of the most disastrous presidential candidates in American history, but he's also just a terrible human being, filled with easy cruelty and an endless reserve of taunts and bile, never once to be seen showing an ounce of genuine kindness or compassion.
Hilary Clinton: Issues
Yes, these are her policy papers.
CandaceTX: Hillary Clinton's Record of Accomplishments (Daily Kos)
… I have compiled this list of Secretary Clinton's accomplishments below: …
Matthew Yglesias: Hillary Clinton laid a surprisingly intricate trap for Donald Trump, and he blundered into it (Vox)
… in Monday night's debate he not only revealed himself to be a bit of an ignorant, blustering fool. He also showed that he's not nearly as shrewd as he likes to think he is by stumbling into an elaborate trap: Alicia Machado.
Tony Stubblebine: Strong, Weak & Dynamic Mythologies (Medium)
Some people will read that religion is fairytales, history is not science, science is not fact. And they'll be offended. However, I think all three are great. This framing helps me live in world that has shades of grey while not getting completely cynical.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Suggestion
DU
So worth your time. You're welcome.
"Let Me Remind You Fuckers Who I Am" by Hillary Clinton - Democratic Underground
Deborah
P.S. I miss Bartcop so hard right now. Thanks for keeping his mission and memory alive.
Thanks, Deborah!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"POLYESTER KOTTON."
FEEL THE WARM!
"HEY TRUMP! QUIT SNORTING KOCH!"
THIS JACKASS CAN'T GET ANYTHING RIGHT!
WELCOME TO THE OLIGARCHY!
JABBERWHOCKY!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The weather prognosticators were wrong - heat wave didn't break.
Winslow, Arizona
Glenn Frey
A life-sized bronze statue of late musician Glenn Frey of the Eagles has been installed in the "Standing On The Corner" Park in Winslow, Arizona.
It joins the statue that many feel looks like Jackson Browne that has stood in the city's downtown area since the late 1990s.
Browne and Frey co-wrote the Eagles' song "Take it Easy" in 1972 that included the lyric "standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona."
Frey died in January at age 67.
Two radio personalities from Phoenix radio station KSLX - Mark Devine and Paul "NeanderPaul" Marshall - helped fund the $22,000 Frey statue, along with the Standing on The Corner Foundation and the City of Winslow.
Glenn Frey
What Americans Find Offensive
Banned Book List
This week is known as Banned Books Week, which was founded to support "the freedom to seek and to express ideas." It also shows that some ideas face a lot more opposition than others.
Every year, the American Library Association makes a list of the books that receive the most challenges - in other words, the books people want to see pulled from library shelves.
In 2001, nine of the top 10 most challenged books were on the banned book list because opponents said they had offensive language, sexually explicit passages or both.
The only one that didn't was Harry Potter. The series was challenged over its "religious viewpoint" - the only one of the top 10 to face that objection.
Fast forward to 2015, and five of the top 10 most challenged books faced opposition over their religious viewpoints. Librarians say it seems like people aren't taking issue with specific passages being inappropriate, but are against diverse themes like gender, sexuality and religion.
Banned Book List
US Owes Reparations Over Slavery
UN
The United States should give African Americans reparations for slavery, UN experts said Tuesday, warning that the country had not yet confronted its legacy of "racial terrorism."
Amid a presidential election campaign in which racial rhetoric has played a central role, the UN working group on people of African descent warned that blacks in the US were facing a "human rights crisis."
This has largely been fuelled by impunity for police officers who have killed a series of black men -- many of them unarmed -- across the country in recent months, the working group's report said.
Those killings "and the trauma they create are reminiscent of the past racial terror of lynchings," said the report, which was presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday.
Addressing the deeper causes of America's racial tensions, the experts voiced concern over the unresolved "legacy of colonial history, enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism and racial inequality."
UN
Norway Rejects Extradition Lawsuit
Snowden
A Norwegian appeals court has rejected a lawsuit from fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden against the Norwegian government, upholding the verdict of a lower court, it said on Wednesday.
Snowden's law firm said in April he would take Norway to court to secure free passage to the Nordic country to receive a free speech award, but the Oslo District Court dismissed the case in June.
"The court of appeal has -- like the district court -- concluded that the lawsuit must be rejected," it said on Wednesday, adding that the justice ministry could not be compelled to issue an advance decision on whether or not to extradite.
Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked details about the U.S. government's massive surveillance programs, was granted asylum in Russia, which borders Norway, after fleeing the United States in 2013.
Snowden had been invited to Norway to receive an award from the local branch of writers' group PEN International, but worried that he would be handed over to the United States, his lawyers have said.
Snowden
Thai Authorities Bar News Conference
Amnesty International
Thai authorities blocked an Amnesty International news conference on torture in the kingdom Wednesday, the watchdog said, the latest move to silence rights groups in the army-run country.
Two foreign Amnesty International staff were scheduled to speak at the launch in Bangkok of a report detailing 74 cases of torture at the hands of Thai soldiers and police.
But the advocacy group was told by labour officials and police on Wednesday that speaking at the event could be grounds for arrest, AI spokesman Omar Waraich told AFP, forcing the group to cancel the conference.
All of the speakers had valid business visas and were in touch with local authorities before the conference, he added.
Amnesty International
Petition To Putin
Russian Orthodox Patriarch
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on Tuesday signed a petition calling for a legal ban on abortion, the Church said in a statement.
The Patriarch met anti-abortion campaigners and signed a petition to be handed to President Vladimir Putin urging a ban on abortions.
The Patriach's signing of the petition apparently represents a hardening of the Church's position as it has previously only called for a ban on state-provided abortions without a medical necessity.
The Church said in its statement that the wording of the petition, which calls for "the end of legal murder of children before birth" was agreed with its commission on family and protecting motherhood and childhood.
In May the Patriarch called abortions "truly a national catastrophe carrying away the lives of more than 1 million of our fellow citizens every year."
Russian Orthodox Patriarch
Appeal Against Extradition
Kim Dotcom
Lawyers for German entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, wanted in the United States on copyright infringement and money-laundering charges over his file-sharing website Megaupload, argued on Wednesday there was not enough evidence to show he conspired to commit a crime.
The Auckland court heard closing arguments in Dotcom's four-week appeal against a lower court's decision to extradite him to the U.S., the first New Zealand court proceedings to be broadcast live on the internet.
The appeal took place nearly five years after dozens of black-clad police rappelled into the flamboyant entrepreneur's New Zealand mansion and cut him from a safe room.
U.S. authorities say Dotcom and three co-accused Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million and generated more than $175 million by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material.
The case has been closely watched by the media industry and developers in the file-sharing business for signs of how far the United States is willing to go to protect copyright holders.
Kim Dotcom
Re-Branding
SeaWorld
SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a new virtual reality experience on a roller coaster, a new presentation on orcas, and a shareable entrance pass.
The Orlando-based company has faced falling attendance and revenue as people's feelings about using animals for entertainment has soured. SeaWorld has been under fire from animal rights activists over its treatment of killer whales in captivity, and it announced earlier this year it would end its killer whale breeding program and that stop using killer whales for theatrical performances.
The new orca presentation will focus on how the killer whales live, and not on the splashy theatrics that once defined SeaWorld.
The new program, starting at SeaWorld San Diego next year, will show what killer whales eat, how they communicate and how they navigate, according to a company news release. The program will open at the company's Orlando and San Antonio SeaWorld parks by 2019.
The theme park company also announced a virtual reality experience to its Kraken coaster that will debut next year. Riders will wear a headset that provides a digital overlay while riding the coaster.
SeaWorld
Ancient Roman Coins Unearthed
Japan
Japanese archaeologists said Wednesday they have for the first time unearthed ancient Roman coins at the ruins of an old castle.
The discovery of 10 bronze and copper coins -- the oldest dating from about 300-400 AD -- in southern Okinawa caught researchers by surprise.
It was the first time Roman Empire coins have been discovered in Japan, thousands of kilometres from where they were likely minted.
A team of researchers have been excavating Katsuren castle, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, since 2013.
An X-ray analysis of the dime-sized coins showed some were embossed with Roman letters and possibly the image of Emperor Constantine I and a soldier holding a spear.
Japan
In Memory
Agnes Nixon
Agnes Nixon, known as the grande dame of daytime drama for creating, writing, and producing soap operas including "All My Children,' "One Life to Live" and "Search for Tomorrow," died Wednesday in Pennsylvania. She was 88.
Nixon was also co-creator of CBS' long-running "As the World Turns" with her mentor, Irna Phillips, who is credited with creating the soap opera genre on radio. Early in her career Nixon was a writer on CBS' "Guiding Light" and NBC's "Another World."
A native of Chicago, Agnes Eckhardt attended Northwestern University and decided to focus on a career as a writer. Eckhardt's father arranged a meeting with Phillips in an effort to dissuade her from going into writing, but Phillips wound up hiring Eckhardt to work on the radio soap "Women in White," according to Turner Classic Movies' biography on Nixon.
Nixon and Phillips co-created "Search for Tomorrow" for CBS in 1951 and "As the World Turns" in 1956. During this period Nixon also wrote episodes of primetime anthology series including "Robert Montgomery Presents" and "The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse."
Nixon hit her stride in the late 1960s and early 1970s as she and her husband, Robert Nixon, created "One Life to Live" and "All My Children" for ABC. The series were notable for featuring racial and ethnic diversity among its characters, in contrast to the existing soaps. Susan Lucci's Erica Kane character from "All My Children" became a TV icon and synonymous with the soap genre. "All My Children" pushed the envelope in addressing issues such as the anti-war movement and by having Kane undergo a legal abortion in 1971, nearly two years before abortion was addressed in primetime on CBS' "Maude."
In the 1980s Nixon expanded her soap empire with ABC's "Loving." The show was revamped in 1995 into "The City," which was designed to have a faster MTV-esque pace, but the reboot only lasted another two years.
Nixon's other credits included the 1981 ABC miniseries "The Manions of America," a story of Irish immigrants that featured a young Pierce Brosnan.
Over her long career, Nixon earned five Daytime Emmy Awards and five Writers Guild Awards, among many other honors. She was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2010.
Agnes Nixon
In Memory
Gary Glasberg
Gary Glasberg, the longtime showrunner of CBS' "NCIS" and creator of spinoff "NCIS: New Orleans," died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 50.
The New York City native began his career writing comic books and working on animated series for Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros., Disney and Nickelodeon. He segued into drama by the early 1990s, working on the staff of such series as UPN's "Swift Justice" and "Mercy Point," and CBS' "L.A. Doctors."
Glasberg's reputation as a writer-producer grew as he advanced to supervising producer and co-exec producer status on such series as NBC's "Crossing Jordan," CBS' "Shark" and Fox's "Bones." He joined "NCIS" in 2009 and was upped to exec producer the following year. He had been showrunner of "NCIS" since 2011.
Last year, Glasberg created the spinoff "NCIS: New Orleans," toplined by Scott Bakula.
On Glasberg's watch, "NCIS" has maintained its status as TV's most-watched drama series for the past seven years. Now in its 14th season, "NCIS" last season averaged 20.4 million viewers and 3.1 rating/11 share in adults 18-49.
Glasberg's survivors include his wife of 20 years, screenwriter Mimi Schmir, and two sons, Dash and Eli. He is also survived by his father, Edwin Glasberg, and a sister, Mindy Glasberg.
Gary Glasberg
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