Recommended Reading
from Bruce
CHRISTOPHER O'DONNELL, ELI MURRAY, CONNIE HUMBURG AND NOAH PRANSKY: The campaign is over. The candidate might be dead. But the spending never stops (Tampa Bay Times)
Then there's baseball-star-turned-senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky. He paid his daughter $94,800 from campaign money in the four years after he left office, only stopping when he'd bled his fund dry. And over the past 17 months, political advisor Dylan Beesley paid his firm more than $100,000 from the campaign account of Hawaii Congressman Mark Takai for "consulting services." It's hard to imagine what Beesley advised. Takai was dead that whole time.
Paul Krugman: Let Them Eat French Fries (NY Times Blog)
So here's how the bait and switch goes: pass a huge tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the rich, but gives ordinary workers a few crumbs - or actually a bag of fries now and then. Then point to the big deficits created by that tax cut as a reason social program essential to many ordinary families must be slashed. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Andrew Tobias: YOU Get $930! And YOU Get $930!
Only Clinton and Obama managed to turn the deficits around, leaving their successors with economies growing faster than the debt . . . thus shrinking the debt relative to the economy as a whole. This massively irresponsible Republican tax cut reverses that, once more. It puts us back over $1 trillion in deficit spending . . . gets the debt growing faster than the economy again, as under Reagan, Bush, and Bush . . . and is sold to the voters as, "Look! You get $930! And you get $930!" (And me? Don't bother your pretty little head with that. If you can't trust Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and Devin Nunez and Vladimir Putin - Trump trusts him, why shouldn't we? - whom can you trust?) Right?
Eric Posner: How Congress Can Protect Mueller (NY Times)
Lawmakers should pass a bill that would prohibit Trump from firing the special counsel without good cause.
Katie Roiphe: The Other Whisper Network (Harper's)
How Twitter feminism is bad for women
Kate Mossman: Female murder victims, Sexy Autopsy Lady and the problem with crime fiction (New Statesman)
But the best way to recalibrate the gender clichés in crime fiction? Write more female serial killers. Lawless should establish a prize for the best female maniac in literature. Give her a motive as inane as the kind of thing the men are given - an obsession with Edgar Allen Poe; a missed job opportunity, many years ago. Give her a narcissistic personality disorder and a monumental ego. Make her kill everyone, male and female, without discrimination, and build a treehouse out of their bones. With literature, we can change the world.
Kate Mossman: Queen wrote regular letters to their fans. I decided to analyse their handwriting. (New Statesman)
Members of the Queen fan club circa 1990s may recall the quarterly magazine's highlight was The Letter, a copy of a handwritten note from one of the band.
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
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
A picture is worth, etc.
Hi Marty,
Below is a link to an article about the Super Bowl viewing party at Trump's West Palm Beach golf course. It contains some interesting pictures. The one I found most telling is attached to this email. My caption: Donald ogles cheerleader while Melania looks the other way. "Viewing" party, indeed!
Didn't anyone on Trump's team think maybe some of the photos from his Super Bowl party in Florida were bad optics, given that the general public hasn't yet forgotten about Stormy Daniels? Or do they care?
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Trolling Predator
A little Predator trolling from today's Delanceyplace selection. Ha ha:
from Warren G. Harding by John W. Dean. Though history has not treated him kindly, President Warren G. Harding proposed an all-star roster of cabinet secretaries before his inauguration, including industrial and banking titan Andrew Mellon, and had that entire slate confirmed by the Senate within an hour after his inauguration:
"Well before his inauguration, Harding arranged for the names of his cabinet to be quietly submitted to the Senate. Republican Senate leader [Henry Cabot] Lodge cleared all the names with all the committees before Harding's swearing-in, so that after his inauguration address he could personally submit his cabinet to the Senate and have it approved. This plan was known to only a handful in the Senate. ...
"When Harding dropped by the Senate chamber less than an hour after his inauguration address, it was a dramatic moment. Former members of the Senate are given the special privilege of returning to the Senate floor, at any time, so Harding needed no permission (as had Woodrow Wilson) when he visited the Senate chamber. With Vice President Calvin Coolidge in his new seat as the presiding officer of the Senate, in an executive session (closed to the public and press) Harding read the list of his cabinet nomi¬nees. Knowing the reaction it would cause when he named Albert Fall as secretary of interior, he named Fall first, which brought Fall's colleagues to their feet. Fall was the first (and last) cabinet officer to be confirmed by instant acclamation of the Senate. The new president then continued: secretary of state -- Charles E. Hughes, secretary of the Treasury -- Andrew W. Mellon, secretary of war -- John W. Weeks, attorney general -- Harry M. Daugherty, postmaster general -- Will H. Hays, secretary of the navy -- Edwin N. Denby, secretary of agriculture -- Henry C. Wallace, secretary of commerce -- Herbert C. Hoover, and secretary of labor -- James J. Davis. The entire cabinet was confirmed without objection in record time, less than ten minutes.
He MISSED some TV watching!
Obviously the MF'er never watched the Republicans during one of Obama's SOTU addresses. And the word "treason" has a specific meaning (the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.) which is NOT "refusing to stand up and applaud a racist, misogynistic, narcissistic, pathological liar"!
President Donald Trump on Monday suggested Democrats were "un-American" and "treasonous" for not reacting positively to his State of the Union address. During a Monday speech in Ohio, the president blasted the opposing party's lawmakers for not applauding him even when he referenced "positive news." He said: "They were like death. And un-American. Somebody said 'treasonous.' I mean, yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that treason? Why not?"
MF'er , not content with destroying the courts, the press, and the FBI is killing language too! How I despise him.
Fw: A.Word.A.Day--snollygoster
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg
snollygoster
PRONUNCIATION:
(SNOL-ee gos-tuhr)
MEANING:
noun: A shrewd, unprincipled person.
ETYMOLOGY:
Of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of snallygaster, a mythical creature said to prey on poultry and children, possibly from Pennsylvania Dutch schnelle geeschter, from German schnell (quick) + Geist (spirit). Earliest documented use: 1846.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take. -Adlai Stevenson, statesman (5 Feb 1900-1965)
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
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
DUMP THE TRUMP!
HOUSE INTELLIGENCE?
YEAH FOR OUR SIDE!
THE WORLD IS ON FIRE!
THE MAN WHO KNEW TO LITTLE.
WHAT IS SHARIA LAW?
TRUMP IS A LIAR!
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON.
MOVING RIGHT ALONG.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another summer day in the middle of winter.
Announces Farewell Tour Plans
Paul Simon
US singer-songwriter Paul Simon has revealed details of a North American and European tour that he says will be his last.
Last week, it was revealed that the legendary musician would performing in a headlining slot at the BST Hyde Park festival this summer, and the title of his performance, "Homeward Bound: The Farewell Performance," suggested the live show might be the last for the 76-year-old performer.
Now Simon has confirmed that the BST Hyde Park show will be part of a greater trek called "Homeward Bound: The Farewell Tour," consisting of a 20-date North American tour as well as dates throughout the UK and Europe, and concluding with the headlining festival show in London.
The artist said of his decision to stop touring, "I've often wondered what it would feel like to reach the point where I'd consider bringing my performing career to a natural end. Now I know: it feels a little unsettling, a touch exhilarating and something of a relief."
Paul Simon
Coolest Music
Norway
Inside a giant igloo in a snowy Norwegian village, the sound of a horn rings out, warming the mood of a freezing audience, huddled together in -24 Celsius.
But the four musicians performing are even colder: the instruments they are playing are all made of ice.
The xylophone, claves and wind instruments have been painstakingly carved from ice blocks extracted from a frozen lake, and are now part of a finger-numbing performance at the 13th Ice Music Festival in the mountain village of Finse.
The problem is, the longer the musicians play, the more the instruments start to disintegrate.
It is not an easy task "to perform on instruments that are melting while you play them," says percussionist Terje Isungset, also the founder of the festival.
Norway
Fails to Launch (Again)
Flat-Earth Rocketeer
The flat-Earth rocketeer remains planet-bound.
"Mad" Mike Hughes, a flat-Earth conspiracy theorist who has managed to get significant attention for his now-repeated failed rocket launches, strapped himself into his second homemade rocket Saturday (Feb. 3). But, as Noize TV documented in an excruciating 11-minute livestream of the event, Hughes' rocket never left its pad.
His stated plan, as Live Science previously reported, is to launch himself 1,800 feet (550 meters) above the desert in California and take photos before bailing out in a parachute. These photos, shot from a height anyone can reach by climbing a very tall building or even a small mountain, will, Hughes claims, show that the Earth is flat.
In fact, it's pretty easy for anyone to show that the Earth is round with a simple experiment - though the planet's curvature doesn't become visible to the naked eye until a height of about 35,000 feet (10,700 m).
Hughes canceled his previous launch after the Bureau of Land Management caught wind that he planned to crash his rocket into public land. In a video posted to YouTube, Hughes claimed that Saturday's failure resulted from a faulty plunger or a blown o-ring. However, he added that the details will remain unclear until the rocket cools down and he opens it up to examine it in detail.
Flat-Earth Rocketeer
Newly Discovered Segment
Berlin Wall
A recently discovered remnant of the Berlin Wall from the heavily fortified border's early days is being given protected status, city authorities said Monday.
The announcement by the city government's culture ministry came on the day when the wall has been open for as long as it divided Berlin: 28 years, two months and 26 days.
An amateur historian said last month that he had found the 80-meter (260-foot) stretch of wall and reported it to authorities because of concerns about its condition.
The old brick wall in the city's Pankow district was incorporated into communist East Germany's original fortifications when the border with West Berlin was sealed in 1961. It was expanded and topped with a wire barrier as part of efforts to prevent East Germans fleeing to the West.
The remnant illustrates how existing structures initially were incorporated into the wall to enable the quick sealing of the border, the city government said.
Berlin Wall
Falls Short
America
North America has been classed as a "flawed democracy", falling short of the threshold of a fully democratic society for the second year running, according to a comprehensive new report.
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) produces an annual review ranking countries on their adherence to 60 distinct democratic values, including electoral processes and press freedom.
The US scored of 7.98 out of 10 last year, dropping into the flawed democracy category for the first time. The change reflected what the report said was "a sharp fall in popular confidence in the functioning of public institutions". This predated and aided the election of Donald Trump, according to the think-tank.
The US scored 7.98 again in 2017, placing it behind 19 full democracies including Norway, Ireland, the UK, Uruguay and Spain.
Now ranking 21st, North America was among other countries with flawed democratic systems including Italy, South Korea, France, Chile, Botswana and Mexico.
America
Health Care System
Religious "Rights"
President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) new effort to protect the rights of health workers who object to participating in abortions and other procedures will cost the health care system more than $300 million to set up, according to a government estimate.
More than 40 complaints have been filed since Trump's election, alleging violations of conscience and religious rights. An estimated 18 million people work in the nation's health care system.
"This is looking for a problem," said critic Susan Berke Fogel, a lawyer who directs reproductive health work for the nonprofit National Health Law Program.
But enforcement of federal laws that are supposed to protect religious and conscience rights has long been a priority for social conservatives, a steadfast constituency for Trump represented in the White House by Vice President Mike Pence (R-Mother).
"For too long, conscience and religious freedom were treated as second-class rights," Roger Severino, director of the Health and Human Services civil rights office, said in an interview. "They're getting the proper focus they deserve."
Religious "Rights"
US Nursing Homes
Human Rights Watch
Nursing homes across the US are giving antipsychotic drugs to residents with dementia to control their behaviour, despite rules against the misuse of drugs as "chemical restraints", a new report claims.
Even though the use of antipsychotic drugs on older people with dementia is associated with a nearly doubled risk of death, their routine use continues. In many cases, facilities administer the drugs without obtaining informed consent from either the residents or their families.
Using such medications for the convenience of staff or to discipline residents, violates federal regulations and can amount to a breach of international human rights law, claims the report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). However, it says even when facilities were found to have broken the rules, they were rarely punished.
"People with dementia are often sedated to make life easier for overworked nursing home staff, and the government does little to protect vulnerable residents from such abuse," said Hannah Flamm, a New York University School of Law fellow at HRW.
The report - They want docile: how nursing homes in the United States overmedicate people with dementia - claims that every week, as many as 179,000 people, mostly older and living with dementia, are given antipsychotic drugs without an appropriate diagnosis.
Human Rights Watch
New Congressional Map
Pennsylvania
Top Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania suffered another defeat on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court denied their request to delay drawing a new congressional map ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
In January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state's congressional map gave Republicans such a clear political advantage that it "clearly, plainly and palpably" violated the state's constitution. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court gave Republican lawmakers about three weeks to redraw the map, and said the court would redraw the map itself if the lawmakers failed to agree on one with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D).
Hinting that there weren't federal questions at stake, the Pennsylvania justices wrote the Pennsylvania Constitution was the "sole basis" for their decision.
Pennsylvania Republicans appealed the state court's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the U.S. Constitution only granted legislatures, not state courts, the power to draw congressional districts. They also said an entirely new congressional map would cause chaos in the system's election process, set to begin at the end of February. Pennsylvania's top election official says they can run the election in a timely manner with a new map in place.
Their request went before Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees the 3rd Circuit, which includes Pennsylvania. Alito denied the request on Monday without referring it to the whole court.
Pennsylvania
Protections For Desert
California
Trump administration officials announced this week that they're considering dropping protections for a vast swath of the California desert to open up more land to energy development.
The warning is similar to the one that led to the dramatic reduction of protected land in the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah to provide drilling and mining rights to energy industries.
The federal Bureau of Land Management said in a statement Thursday that it's taking a new look at millions of acres in the desert region of southern California to comply with Donald Trump's executive order last year to increase energy development on public lands.
"We need to reduce burdens on all domestic energy development, including solar, wind and other renewables," Interior Department deputy assistant secretary Katherine MacGregor said in a statement announcing the review.
Conservationists are skeptical that changes would focus on renewable energy, given Trump's often expressed support for fossil fuels. His administration has sought subsidies for coal plants, and last month Trump approved an import tax on solar energy panels.
California
In Memory
John Mahoney
John Mahoney, best known for playing Martin Crane on 11 seasons of "Frasier," died in Chicago on Sunday while in hospice care, his manager, Paul Martino, confirmed. He was 77.
Mahoney played the father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce's characters during the show's run on NBC from 1993 to 2004. He won a SAG Award and received two Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal. He was also a mainstay of Chicago's theater community.
From 2011 to 2014, Mahoney had a recurring role on "Hot in Cleveland" as Roy, the love interest of Betty White's character, Elka. He was much praised for his performance as an anguished CEO in psychological counseling on Season 2 of HBO's "In Treatment" in 2009.
Mahoney worked in film for more than 35 years, appearing in classics like "The American President" and "Say Anything," along with voicing animated characters in the "Antz" and "Atlantis" films. He also had guest spots in a number of TV shows including "Cheers," the forerunner of "Frasier" (although he played a different character), and "3rd Rock from the Sun."
Born Blackpool, England, the actor started his career in theater and continued to return to the stage, appearing in "Prelude to a Kiss" on Broadway and "The Outgoing Tide" and "The Birthday Party" in Chicago after "Frasier" ended.
He came to the U.S. at age 19 and taught English at Western Illinois University before entering into the entertainment industry in 1977.
Mahoney never married and didn't have any children.
John Mahoney
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
