Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Josh Marshall: The Trump-True GOP (TPM)
Republicans never 'needed' Donald Trump. A big tax cut was probably easier - certainly no less difficult - with a Jeb Bush or a Marco Rubio or any other 2016 Republican on offer. Republicans rallied to Trump because their voters demanded it. The current moment confirms this. Republicans got their tax cut. Far from slackening, their loyalty to Trump, not just in conventional political terms but against the criminal justice system itself is intensifying.
Anna Leszkiewicz: The Highway Rat: a preachy tale about eating in moderation that's NOT in the Christmas spirit (New Statesman)
The great heroes of children's literature guzzle and gulp with pride. […] All this makes The Highway Rat at odds with the true meaning of Christmas, which everyone knows is: Eat, all ye hungry. Eat whatever the fuck you want, and as much as you humanly can. Even you, Tiny Tim. God bless us, every tum.
Rowan Williams: "The Good Samaritan: how politics transformed the meaning of a biblical story"(New Statesman)
The former Archbishop reviews The Political Samaritan: How Power Hijacked a Parable by Nick Spencer.
Andrew Tobias: Donald, Denis, and Vlad
At the end of the day, however powerful or powerless any one of us is, each of us - Donald Trump, Denis Davidov, Vladimir Putin - is just a human being, trying to make the best of it for the years we have on the planet.
James Cooray Smith: The backlash against The Last Jedi is bizarrely familiar and irrational (New Statesman)
The outraged fans are missing its charms - and forgetting the history of the series.
Deborah Orr: Modern life is lonely. We all need someone to help (The Guardian)
You can feel it on the bus, in school, at the shops: the threat of isolation, hardwired into our lives.
Michele Hanson: "The joy of noisy sex (as long as it's between animals not humans)" (The Guardian)
A Mexican fish mates so loudly it has been compared to a machine gun. Far better that than having to listen to flatmates' or neighbours' love-making.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
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
IT COSTS BUNCH TO LIVE ON EASY STREET.
MURDER INC.
JACKASS ALERT!
IT'S CALLED 'HYPOCRISY'
THE GRAHAM CRACKER.
MAKE AMERICA HATE AGAIN!
"HIS UTTER LACK OF INTEGRITY…"
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Back is still unhappy - can't sit for long periods of time.
New Species Of Spider
Bob Marley
A new species of water-adapted spiders has been discovered on Australia's coral reefs, with researchers naming it after reggae star Bob Marley for his song "High Tide or Low Tide."
The team of researchers that discovered Desis bobmarleyi sp. n -- Dr. Barbara Baehr, Dr. Robert Raven and Dr. Danilio Harms of the University of Queensland and the University of Hamburg -- named the spider based on it's ability to survive both in and out of water.
The intertidal spiders adapted to become true marine animals, the researchers say, adjusting to life underwater by hiding in barnacle shells, kelp or corals during high tide along the coast of Australia's Queensland state.
They developed air chambers to breathe, using silk, and when the tide recedes they can be found hunting small invertebrates on rocks and plants.
The researchers named the spider for Marley after being inspired by the song during the research trip, which "promotes love and friendship through all struggles of life," the researchers write in the study, published in the journal Evolutionary Systematics.
Bob Marley
Don't Want GOP in Congress
Educated Voters
College-educated women are increasingly abandoning the "damaged" Republican Party as part of a backlash against President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) and the party's backing of an alleged child molester for Senate-and the shift could mean big trouble for Republican candidates in the midterms.
Democrats in Congress currently boast a 20-point lead over Republicans with women and an even larger 32-point lead among college-educated women, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted December 13-15.
The numbers indicate that Democrats are already performing far better with college-educated women than they have in the last two midterm elections. That's a big shift, considering Republicans were able to regain control of the House in 2010 and gain seats in the Senate thanks in part to women. Married women in particular skewed more Republican that year, which some speculated was due to financial and economic stresses they thought Democrats weren't adequately addressing.
What's changing women's minds this year? Some women told the Wall Street Journal that Republicans' support for failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore left them feeling disillusioned with the party and uncertain about its direction.
And it's not just women who will be hard to win over: Polling from earlier this month found that American voters on the whole are less likely to identify as Republicans than they were a year ago, with more voters identifying as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents. The findings are on track with general trends that precede Trump's shake-up to the Republican Party. Over the last decade, Gallup surveys show Democrats with a consistent lead over Republicans.
Educated Voters
Disney Resorts Remove Signs
'Do Not Disturb'
Walt Disney World Resorts in Florida began taking away "Do Not Disturb" signs last week after a Las Vegas mass shooting that saw gunman Stephen Paddock conceal 23 guns by hanging such a sign on his hotel room door.
Four of the Disney World resort properties near Orlando will now allow housekeeping and maintenance staff to enter rooms on a daily basis, The Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday. The resort will be replacing the widely used "Do Not Disturb" hanging tag with one that reads "Room Occupied."
Following the October shooting, Las Vegas hotels including The Orleans Hotel and Casino on the Strip began changing their "Do Not Disturb" policies in November. Disney declined to tell The Orlando Sentinel if the change was directly related to the October massacre that killed 58 people attending a country music festival and injured 500 more on the Las Vegas Strip. The company is still deciding if it will implement the new policy at its other resort location in California.
Housekeeping and maintenance staff at Disney Resorts will now be required to knock and identify themselves before entering rooms where guests have hung the "Room Occupied" signs on the doorknob.
Disney said guests will be notified about the new right-to-entry policy upon checking into the hotel. The guidelines are now in effect in the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Polynesian Village Resort, Contemporary Resort and Bay Lake Tower.
'Do Not Disturb'
Power Outage
Disneyland
A power outage at Disneyland left some visitors stranded on rides, prompting widespread frustration.
Park spokeswoman Suzi Brown told the Associated Press that a transformer problem cut power in Fantasyland and Toontown, affecting about a dozen rides. Power was restored by the end of the afternoon.
While Ms Brown said that no one had been injured, visitors complained on social media of getting stuck on stalled rides.
A man named Geoff Fienberg posted an image of halted cars at the "It's a Small World" ride.
"It was just dark, music was still playing, so that will be in most of our heads probably for the following year," he told CNN.
Disneyland
Right-Wing Judges
T-rump
While President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) for most of the year struggled on the legislative front, his administration was quietly succeeding at nominating and installing powerful right-wing judges at an unprecedented rate for a president's first year in office.
With the US Senate's confirmation of a 12th circuit court judge earlier this month, Mr Trump set a record for the most appellate judges confirmed in a president's first year. His predecessor, former President Barack Obama, was able to get three confirmed during his first year as President.
Each nomination seems to be aimed at shifting the US's judiciary system ideologically to the right. And the administration's ability to have gotten so many of its appellate nominees confirmed is particularly important given that appellate courts are where thousands of cases in the federal courts meet their ends because they will never make it onto the Supreme Court's limited docket.
It should be kept in mind that even though Mr Trump has succeeded in getting at least 12 appellate judges confirmed this year, there are 179 appellate court judgeships overall. He has changed the composition of the US's appellate courts by only 6.7 per cent.
But the situation could worsen for liberals if Republicans maintain their Senate majority during next year's mid-term elections. By the end of his first term, Mr Trump could conceivably have handpicked more than 30 per cent of the nation's federal judges, experts say.
T-rump
Cuts Ties
Bannon
Paul Nehlen, the far-right activist who is challenging House speaker Paul Ryan for his congressional seat, will not get the backing of Breitbart News and Steve Bannon.
A source close to Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who is orchestrating a slate of challengers to Republican establishment figures, confirmed to the Guardian that Nehlen became persona non grata after he appeared on a white supremacist podcast, Fash the Nation, earlier this month.
Bannon had never been particularly enthusiastic about Nehlen despite the wealth of coverage on Breitbart, the source said.
Nehlen is a businessman and so-called "mini-Trump" who was backed by leading rightwing figures including Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter in the 2016 primary for Ryan's Wisconsin congressional seat. The speaker's eventual margin of victory was huge - 84% to 16% - despite aggressive pro-Nehlen coveragefrom Breitbart.
Nehlen had remained close to Bannon's circle and the website to which Bannon returned after his spell in the White House. Nehlen joined Bannon in endorsing and campaigning for Roy Moore, for example, in the Alabama Senate election that was won this month by the Democrat Doug Jones.
Bannon
Fishermen Shoot Down Drone
Sea Shepherd
The environmental group Sea Shepherd said fishermen fired 25 shots at one of its night-vision drones in Mexico's Gulf of California, bringing it down.
Various drones have been employed to patrol the Gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez, to combat illegal fishing and save the critically endangered vaquita marina, the world's smallest porpoise.
Poachers often set out at night to set nets for totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is prized in China. But vaquitas often get caught in totoaba nets, causing the population to plunge to less than 30.
Sea Shepherd has been the target of demonstrations by fishermen in the past, but said the Christmas Eve shooting represented "a new level of violence."
The group said Tuesday that its drone had located four small boats illegally fishing for totoaba.
Sea Shepherd
Water Fight
Nestle
Nestlé has been bottling and selling water that it does not have the legal right to use, officials in California have concluded.
Fights over water are a constant in California, exacerbated when drought years make the supply especially scarce. Since 2015, officials with the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) had received numerous complaints that Nestlé was claiming water from the San Bernardino National Forest to which it had no right and then selling it under its Arrowhead brand.
Because California allocates water rights in part based on who got there first, getting to the bottom of those allegations required a deep dive into history. Nestlé cited a 150-year-old claim by a man named David Noble Smith whose property later became the site of the Arrowhead Springs Hotel, for instance.
The company's materials tout its history in California and its commitment to "sourcing water exclusively from carefully selected mountain springs," which "ensures that every drop is as crystal clear as the water revered by Native Americans for its healing powers".
After combing through decades worth of permitting information, the water board declared last week that the company had no basis for much of the water it was draining from the Strawberry Canyon watershed. It said the company's invocation of David Noble Smith was "not valid for Nestlé's current appropriative diversion and use of water from the San Bernardino National Forest".
Nestle
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 18-24. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Saturday Night Football: Minnesota at Green Bay, NBC, 15.29 million.
2. "The OT," Fox, 12.76 million
3. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 11.32 million.
4. "Saturday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 11.023 million.
5. "The Voice (Monday)," NBC, 11.022 million.
6. "The Voice (Tuesday)," NBC, 10.91 million.
7. NFL Regular Season: Atlanta at Tampa Bay, ESPN, 9.46 million.
8. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 9.42 million.
9. "Mom," CBS, 8.85 million.
10. "Survivor," CBS, 8.73 million.
11. "Football Night in America, Part 3," NBC, 8.04 million.
12. "The Voice (Tuesday)," NBC, 7.91 million.
13. "Ellen's Game of Games," NBC, 7.25 million.
14. "Life in Pieces," CBS, 6.72 million.
15. "I Love Lucy Christmas Special," CBS, 6.5 million.
16. "Kevin Can Wait," CBS, 6.4 million
17. "60 Minutes," CBS, 6.29 million.
18. "S.W.A.T.," CBS, 6.28 million.
19. "Survivor Reunion," CBS, 5.97 million.
20. "The Dick Van Dyke Show," CBS, 5.83 million.
Ratings
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