Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Tobias: WHAT TO DO ABOUT TRUMP'S LIES
Paul: "Trump's Lies Versus Your Brain is required reading of everyone in Dem politics. As you will see, it suggests no particular solution. But I thought of one that is consistent with the article's explanation of human psychology: Every time Trump says or tweets something, everyone in Dem politics should say, both at the beginning and end of each response, 'Trump lies about everything.' With enough repetition, it will make headway."
Zeynep Tufekci: "It's the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age of Free Speech" (Wired)
For most of modern history, the easiest way to block the spread of an idea was to keep it from being mechanically disseminated. Shutter the newspaper, pressure the broadcast chief, install an official censor at the publishing house. Or, if push came to shove, hold a loaded gun to the announcer's head.
Josh Marshall: Trump, Wolff and The Secret of the Russia Story (TPM)
It is simply impossible not to see some version of the same story with Russian efforts to penetrate the Trump campaign and the Trump White House - dangling money, help against enemies, praise and all without any supervision by anyone with the experience or ethics or worldliness to see what was happening. This is, in many ways, the most important lesson and message and story of Wolff's book.
Jennifer Weiner: We Need Bodice-Ripper Sex Ed (NY Times)
"Romance novels teach readers that all partners are equal participants in a sexual relationship," said Bea Koch, the 28-year-old co-owner (with her 25-year-old sister, Leah) of the Ripped Bodice, a bookstore in Culver City, Calif., that exclusively sells romance titles. "They highlight conversations about consent, birth control and myriad other topics that people generally find difficult to talk about. In some instances, it can be a literal script for how to bring up difficult topics with a partner. They give a road map to people wanting to experiment with their sexuality, or even just get in touch with what they want and need in a sexual relationship."
Adam Graham: "Review: Lovely 'Shape of Water' one of 2017's best" (Detroit News)
A monster movie and a love story, 'The Shape of Water' could have only come from director Guillermo del Toro.
CHRIS KRAUS: Howl (London Times Literary Supplement)
Composed of essays, interviews, memoirs and manifestos by veterans of London's punk scene, Richard Cabut and Andrew Gallix's Punk is Dead is a nostalgic, intelligent homage to the brief, hazy era of "pure" London punk, before it was named, over-described and turned into another subcultural phenomenon.
Josh Marshall: Party Taxonomy (TPM)
Our politics begin to make sense when you realize that the GOP is two parties: Party A, a rightist, ethno-nationalist party similar to rightist parties in Europe and Party B, a center-right pro-business party that is distinct from but controlled by Party A. The Democrats, meanwhile, are a coalition of progressive and center-left factions.
MARIA KONNIKOVA: Trump's Lies vs. Your Brain (Politico)
Unfortunately, it's no contest. Here's what psychology tells us about life under a leader totally indifferent to the truth.
Trump's 2,000 Lies - A Documentary (YouTube)
Donald Trump reached a major milestone according to the Washington Post by telling his two-thousandth lie since taking office. Telling two thousand lies is an unprecedented achievement in Presidential history, so tonight we look back at his many prevarications with a new mini-documentary that shows us how we got to this remarkable moment in misrepresentation.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Dating Profiles
David
Thanks, Dave!
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
REPUBLICAN CROOKS AND LIARS!
REPUBLICAN CROOKS AND LIARS. PART TWO.
REPUBLICAN CROOKS AND LIARS. PART THREE.
"OK, THAT'S ENOUGH."
"VERY BAD AND EVIL PEOPLE."
IT'S MILLER TIME.
"…SOME OF THE DUMBEST CRIMINALS IN THE HISTORY OF CONGRESS...
"WOLFF" IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
THE CANDY MAN!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Skunk's gone, again.
Nominations
Razzies 2018
Ahead of the Oscar nominations, which celebrate the best in film, we have the nominees for this year's Razzie Awards, which mark the opposite.
"Transformers: The Last Knight" has the most nominations with a total of nine, including worst picture and worst actor for Mark Wahlberg. Following close behind is "Fifty Shades Darker," with eight nods.
Those two films are joined in the worst picture category by "Baywatch," "The Emoji Movie" and "The Mummy."
Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence also scored a nod for worst actress for her role in "Mother!"
The "winners," if you can call them that, will be announced on March 3 -- as per tradition, the day before the Oscars ceremony.
Razzies 2018
End Of An Era
Budweiser
The King of Beer has fallen on some hard times.
Budweiser, once the best-selling beer in America, is no longer in the top three best-selling brands, CNN reports.
Budweiser was beat out by Miller Lite in American sales in 2017, according to trade publication Beer Marketer's Insights. MillerCoors CEO Gavin Hattersley previously announced the triumph in December, saying that the brand's position as the "Original Lite Beer" gave it an advantage over Budweiser and Bud Light.
This is the first time since Beer Marketer's Insights began tracking data in the 1970s that Budweiser hasn't made the top three.
Budweiser sales in 2016 reached 14.4 million barrels - less than a third of the brand's peak.
Budweiser
Detains Doctor
ICE
A Michigan doctor who has been living in the US for nearly 40 years has been detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The family of Lukasz Niec, who came from Poland to America when he was just five years old, are now concerned he will be deported back to Poland.
Mr Niec's sister said the family has no idea when her brother, who is currently being held at Calhoun County Jail, will be released from prison.
According to the news outlet, Mr Niec was convicted when he was 17 on one charge of destruction of property less than $100 and receiving and concealing stolen goods.
Mr Niec reportedly pleaded guilty to the charges under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which helps young first-time offenders keep charges off of a criminal record, but US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not honour the state plea agreement.
ICE
Ending His Show
Don Imus
Don Imus, the radio host who has been on the airwaves for decades, is hanging up his cowboy hat on his morning show later this year.
Imus was a fixture on New York's WFAN and MSNBC until 2007, when he was fired by the former and dropped by the latter because of comments he made about the Rutgers women's basketball team in the national title game, calling them "nappy headed hos.".
The comments went beyond the local airwaves. There was national outrage and shock over Imus using racial and sexist slurs to slander a team that battled its way to the NCAA Tournament finals only to lose to Pat Summitt's Lady Vols.
Imus apologized, while Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer held a fiery press conference with her players behind her.
It wasn't the only time his knuckleheaded statements nearly cost him his career (but somehow didn't). Imus found employment on another New York radio station, WABC. A year later, he had to clear up comments he made about NFL cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones while speaking to sportscaster Warner Wolf.
Don Imus
No Homeland Security Input
'Bogus' Terror Report
A Trump administration report that claimed three-quarters of those convicted of "international terrorism-related charges" were foreign born, was reportedly created without the input of Department of Homeland Security specialists and many experts believe it is misleading.
Last week, the DHS issued the 11-page report which claimed to have examined the details of 549 individuals convicted of offences between September 11 2001 and December 31 2016.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen called the findings of the report "chilling", while President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) tweeted about its findings.
"New report from DOJ & DHS shows that nearly 3 in 4 individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges are foreign-born," he said.
But a new media report claims the analysis was not carried out by the DHS and its experts did not contribute to the report. Rather, the material was collated under the charge of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who then sent it to Ms Nielsen for her sign-off after it was completed.
'Bogus' Terror Report
Allowing Roads Through Rainforest
Peru
Peru has approved a law that would allow roads to be built in the most remote and pristine region of its Amazon rainforest, a haven for isolated indigenous groups and an area of primary forest rich in mahogany trees.
The law which declares the construction of roads in border zones of "national priority and interest" was announced in Peru's official gazette just hours after Pope Francis ended a visit to the country in which he warned that the Amazon and its peoples had never been so under threat.
In an address in the jungle city of Puerto Maldonado on Friday, the pope railed against "pressure being exerted by big business interests" which were destroying a natural habitat vital for the entire planet.
But the law which promotes the construction of roads in Purus - an Amazon region near the border with Brazil - had already been approved by Peru's congress and passed into law on Monday after no objections were raised by the country's executive. The area encompasses four national parks and could affect five reserves for indigenous peoples living in "voluntary isolation".
The law contravenes several international commitments made by Peru including climate change pledges and trade agreements with the US and Europe.
Peru
Road Through Refuge
Alaska
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed a land trade agreement Monday that could lead to construction of a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska, portraying the exchange as a people-versus-wildlife issue.
Environmental groups have said they will fight to keep a road out of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and its internationally recognized habitat for migrating waterfowl.
Surrounded by Alaska officials in Washington, D.C., Zinke signed the agreement swapping up to 0.8 square miles (2 square kilometers) of federal refuge for lands of equal value owned by King Cove Native Corp.
King Cove, a fishing community of about 900 people sandwiched between ocean and mountains, wants the road for land access to an all-weather airport at the community of Cold Bay.
King Cove, Cold Bay and the Izembek refuge are near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, the body of land in Alaska's southwest corner that juts toward the Aleutian Islands.
Alaska
Manuscript Pieced Together
Dead Sea Scrolls
Israeli scholars have pieced together and deciphered one of two previously unread manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls more than half a century after their discovery, an Israeli university has said.
The more than 60 tiny fragments of parchment bearing encrypted Hebrew writing had previously been thought to come from a variety of different scrolls, a Haifa University spokesman said.
But Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov of the university's Bible studies department found the pieces all fit together after they started examining them just under a year ago, Ilan Yavelberg said.
"They put it all together and said it was actually one scroll," he said.
A Haifa University statement said that Ratson and Ben-Dov were now working on deciphering the last remaining scroll.
Dead Sea Scrolls
More Dead Sea Scrolls?
Qumran
Archaeologists are excavating a newfound cave in Qumran, with the hope of finding new Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 12 caves and date back around 2,000 years and consist of thousands of fragments from more than 900 manuscripts, including numerous copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible. The scrolls were written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, but who, exactly, wrote them is a matter of debate among scholars. Many experts believe that members of a Jewish sect called the Essenes wrote the scrolls at Qumran. Eleven of the Dead Sea Scroll caves were discovered between 1947 and 1956 near the newfound cave, in what is now the West Bank, near the shore of the Dead Sea.
In 2017, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 12th cave, though they said the cave had been looted in the mid-20th century. Inside the cave, they discovered only one blank scroll, along with the remains of jars, cloth and a leather strap that would have been used to wrap and store the scrolls, according to the team, led by Oren Gutfeld, an archaeologist with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Archaeology.
Gutfeld and Randall Price, of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, are now leading an archaeology team that is excavating this newfound cave.
"Dr. Gutfeld and I have been at Qumran since December, working with our team on excavating a new cave in the Qumran area," Price told Live Science in an email. No other details about this "new cave" have been released, but the team will release a statement soon, Price said.
Qumran
In Memory
Naomi Parker Fraley
The woman believed to have inspired artist J. Howard Miller's iconic World War II "Rosie the Riveter" poster died on Saturday at the age of 96, her family confirmed to The New York Times.
Naomi Parker Fraley was 20 years old when she and her younger sister, Ada, went to work at the Naval Air Station in Alameda, California, following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.
They were tasked with drilling and patching airplane wings and riveting, The New York Times reported. A photographer touring the station snapped a photo of Fraley wearing a red-and-white polka-dot bandana as she worked a vertical turret lathe, and the image was published in newspapers around the country.
The photograph reportedly caught the attention of Miller, who portrayed a flexing, bandana-clad woman in his now-iconic poster.
For years, the woman in the photo was thought to be Geraldine Hoff Doyle, who worked as a metal presser in a Michigan plant during the war.
When Fraley attended a reunion at the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in 2009, she saw a copy of the photo captioned with Doyle's name.
"I couldn't believe it, because it was me in the photo, but there was somebody else's name in the caption," she told People magazine in 2016. "I was amazed."
Scholar James J. Kimble, an associate professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, had also been researching "Rosie's" true identity and zeroed in on Fraley. He published his findings in a 2016 article in the journal Rhetoric and Public Affairs.
"There is no question that she is the 'lathe woman' in the photograph," Kimble told The New York Times.
After her stint at the naval air station, Fraley went on to waitress at a restaurant in Palm Springs and later got married and started a family. Her Facebook page proudly displayed an image of the "Rosie" poster, Fraley smiling and flexing her arm beside it.
Naomi Parker Fraley
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