Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Hamilton Nolan: This Is Just the Beginning (Splinter News)
One thing that people who wield great power often fail to viscerally understand is what it feels like to have power wielded against you. This imbalance is the source of many of the most monstrous decisions that get made by powerful people and institutions. The people who start the wars do not have bombs dropped on their houses.
Joe Bob Briggs: One California Is Enough (Taki's Magazine)
Bottom line: You're supposed to live next door to the weird guy with the ridiculous opinions. He's part of the demos. He's gonna vote against you. You might have to, like, talk to him, dude.
Joe Bob Briggs: How to Be a Billionaire (Taki's Magazine)
What you're gonna buy is a "bespoke" suit. "Bespoke" is a Brit word that probably has some linguistic origin involving a manservant named Farnsworth who was sent to pick up cummerbunds from a tailor named McSweeney. The suit is "spoken for," it's one of a kind, made from scratch. You're gonna spend all day consulting with a Chinaman who's gonna stick a tape measure in your crotch and show you 17,000 different fibers and then you're gonna go back four times in the next three months while he builds the goldang suit. Then he's gonna ask you for $30,000.
Matthew Yglesias: Mitch McConnell's politics of shamelessness have won (Vox)
Angry and frightened by the prospect of the Supreme Court moving further rightward, much of the progressive base is inevitably going to take out their rage not on Trump, McConnell, and vulnerable Senate Republicans like Dean Heller (R-NV) but on Democrats for not being able to make the right tactical choices to block him - just as much of the progressive rank-and-file reacted to disappointment with Democrats' legislative productivity in 2009-2010 by sitting out the midterms.
Hamilton Nolan: Time To Make Life Hard For The Rich (Splinter News)
It is time for polite, respectable, rational people to start saying what has become painfully obvious: It is time to stop respecting the rich, and start stealing from them. In earnest. Inequality is eating America alive. It has been growing for decades. To say that "the American dream is dead" is no longer a poetic exaggeration-it is an accurate description of 40 years of wage stagnation and declining economic mobility that has produced a generation that cannot expect to live better than their parents did.
Joe Bob Briggs: Donnie and Jong Un, BFFs (Taki's Magazine)
SupremeCommanderDude: Hey, you up? What time is it there? The sun already saluted me three times today. AwesomeHillaryKiller: The Jongster! Just thinking about ya.
Amrit Dhillon: "The mega mural movement: how India's rundown railway stations have been transformed" (The Guardian)
Many Indian stations are a microcosm of the squalor that afflicts the urban landscape. But all that is changing, in an explosion of birds, tigers and Buddhist statues.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
responded:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Paywalls
Hey, Marty!
I've noticed
the 'paywall' thing has grown exponentially in just the last few weeks...basically
since Obama's Net Neutrality bill was shot down! Now, even CBS is going to start
charging for viewers to pay to view their network shows (they have a happy notice
that you can get "5 free viewings"!) just in the last couple of weeks, whereas
before, it was always free. Also, now the photos on any "Bored Panda" link no longer
appear on the page...I'm guessing that one has to either 'sign up' or pay for a
membership. This is all so sudden, it's going to big surprise a lot of 'surfers'...
Your faithful reader,
Tiera in SD
Thanks, Tiera!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Alan Douchebag Dershowitz
Friend Janet sent the link below to a story about twitter's response to poor Alan Dershowitz saying he is being shunned (clutch your pearls!) by his Martha's Vineyard neighbors
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
The Hope of a "Blue Wave" Is Dangerous to Democracy
HE'S BACK!
THE MOMENTUM OF TRUMPIAN FASCISM...
"RESPECT ALL SENTIENT BEINGS"
FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The kitties are greatly displeased with all the early fireworks and are protesting by velcro-ing themselves to my lap.
Global Goodwill Ambassador
Ben Stiller
Actor Ben Stiller was named a global goodwill ambassador on Monday by the United Nations refugee agency.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, made the announcement on the same day that Stiller finished up a trip with the agency to Guatemala, where he met people who have been forced to flee their homes due to violence from organized crime and gangs.
"With over 68 million displaced people around the world today, there has never been a more compelling reason or greater urgency to show solidarity and support for refugees," Stiller said in a statement announcinghis appointment. "I for one will do what I can as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR to advocate for refugees and encourage others to join me."
He also said in a tweet: "I'm not exactly sure what my credentials are as a Goodwill Ambassador, or who approved it, but somehow I got through and I'm honored to be advocating for the millions fleeing violence and persecution all over the world." The tweet included the hashtag #DoIHaveDiplomaticImmunity.
The actor and director has been involved with the international refugee agency since 2016, and also has traveled to Germany and Jordan to meet with Syrian refugees.
Ben Stiller
Leaving ABC News
Brian Ross
Brian Ross, the veteran ABC News investigative correspondent who embarrassed the network late last year with an on-air report suggesting former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had been told by President Donald Trump to make contact with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign for the Oval Office, is leaving the network.
Rhonda Schwartz, who served as the chief investigative producer for Ross' team, is also leaving the Walt Disney news unit.
Ross' reputation was sorely tested in December after he took to ABC in a special report and told viewers erroneously that Trump had directed Flynn when he was a candidate to make Russian contacts. The report prompted the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall more than 300 points and a tweet about it was reposted on Twitter tens of thousands of times before ABC clarified on "World News Tonight" that Trump's instruction came after he was elected.
Ross was suspended for four weeks, and ABC News said at the time that the information had not been properly vetted and fact-checked before it was aired. When Ross returned, he and Schwartz were given positions at Lincoln Square Productions, ABC News' in-house production unit.
Ross and Schwartz have won many awards over the years for their work. ABC News' Goldston listed "four George Polk awards, four Peabody awards, four duPonts, five Murrows, 17 News and Documentary Emmys and the Harvard Goldsmith Prize, in 2014, for the single best investigative report in print or broadcast." Ross had been with ABC News since 1994, examining everything from the dangers of nuclear smuggling to investigations of various U.S. politicians.
Brian Ross
'Vilified Too Long'
Teachers' Unions
Gunshots ring out from the nearby hunting range across the railroad tracks in Westmoreland City, Pennsylvania, but Jason Davis is not easily deterred.
"You never know what's going to happen when you knock on someone's door," says Davis as we get out of his car to start walking the hills of this blue-collar, Trump-supporting community in the foothills of the mountains of south-western Pennsylvania.
Davis is going door-to-door to rally support for a teacher's union after a historic supreme court decision - Janus vs AFSCME - that threatens its funding and that of all other US public sector unions.
Following last Wednesday's ruling, non-union members will no longer have to pay "fair share" fees to be represented by unions in collective bargaining negotiations. The move could cost unions millions and lead some union members to make the decision to stop paying their dues.
For Davis, this is vital work. Over the past 15 years, the Republican-leaning school district where Davis teaches has seen the number of teachers reduced through attrition and layoffs from 320 to 270 today. He sees unions as the best way to fight back against those cuts.
Teachers' Unions
HBO Orders Spanish-Language Comedy Series
Fred Armisen
HBO has given a series order to the Spanish-language comedy "Los Espookys," formerly known as "Mexico City: Only Good Things Happen."
Fred Armisen is a writer and executive producer on the project and will also appear in the role of Tico. The half-hour series is set in a strange and dreamy version of present day Mexico City following a group of friends turning their love for horror into a peculiar business. The project was ordered to pilot at HBO in November.
Bernardo Velasco will star as Renaldo, the leader of Los Espookys. He's described as noble, kind, serene and obsessed with gore. He's always running out of cellphone minutes. Cassandra Ciangherotti will play Ursula, a calm and collected dental assistant. She provides teeth for the group's monsters. She loves horror and her sister Tati but above all, teeth. Ana Fabrega stars as Tati, Ursula's sister and Los Espookys' test dummy. She's constantly juggling several odd jobs, such as breaking in other people's shoes and testing child safety locks. Julio Torres will play Andres, Renaldo's best friend. He's a dark and mysterious heir to a chocolate empire. His only true nemesis is his gorgeous boyfriend. And as previously mentioned, Armisen will play Tico, Renaldo's reliable uncle who lives in LA. He's a prodigious valet driver living his dream of parking cars.
In addition to Armisen, Fabrega and Torres also serve as writers on the series as well as co-executive producers. "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels will also executive produce via his Broadway Video production company, with Broadway Video's Andrew Singer also executive producing. Alice Mathias will co-executive produce. Fernando Frias directed the pilot. Broadway Video will produce in association with Antigravico and Más Mejor.
Fred Armisen
Kept Secret Calendar To Hide Meetings
Pruitt
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and his aides have kept "secret" calendars and schedules to overtly hide controversial meetings or calls with industry representatives and others, according to a former EPA official who is expected to soon testify before Congress. A review of EPA documents by CNN found discrepancies between Pruitt's official calendar and other records.
EPA staffers met routinely in Pruitt's office to "scrub," alter or remove from Pruitt's official calendar numerous records because they might "look bad," according to Kevin Chmielewski, Pruitt's former deputy chief of staff for operations, who attended the meetings.
A CNN review which compared Pruitt's public calendar with internal EPA schedules and emails shows more than two dozen meetings, events or calls were omitted from his public calendar.
Chmielewski said that some interactions were intentionally removed from Pruitt's calendar after they occurred, such as meetings in June 2017 between Pruitt and Cardinal George Pell, who was charged weeks later with multiple historical charges of sexual offenses. Pell has pleaded not guilty.
If the allegations are true, the practice of keeping secret calendars and altering or deleting records of meetings could violate federal law as either "falsifying records" or hiding public records, according to legal experts interviewed by CNN.
Pruitt
White House Sets Records
Turnover
President Donald Trump (R-Fabulist) has seen staff turnover in excess of 37 percent over the calendar year ending June 30, an AP analysis of White House filings shows.
According to the most recent filing, 141 staffers who worked for the president at that point last year are gone, with 138 new arrivals. The figures don't include those who arrived and departed during the year - like short-lived communications director Anthony Scaramucci - or those who departed before June 30, 2017.
Trump's White House is setting records for attrition, said the White House Transition Project's Martha Joynt Kumar. Some 61 percent of Trump's senior-most aides have left the White House. Only Bill Clinton's 42 percent comes close for the last five administrations.
The White House's annual salary disclosure to Congress shows that more than 170 staffers received raises over that period, largely reflecting promotions. Jordan Karem, the former deputy director of advance and now the director of Oval Office operations, received a $50,000 raise to $165,000. First Lady Melania Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, received a $40,000 bump to $155,000. Research director Adam Kennedy, who was previously the deputy, received a $38,000 increase.
Sylvia Davis, a deputy policy coordinator, received the largest increase. She now makes 121 percent, or $85,000, more than the $70,000 she made as an assistant staff secretary.
Turnover
Internal Investigation
Prank Call
The White House has opened an investigation into how a comedian managed to prank call Donald Trump on Air Force One.
The call involved comedian John Melendez pretending to be New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, and being connected to the president for a conversation about immigration and the new nomination for a judge to be placed on the Supreme Court.
Mr Melendez, who recorded the call and published excerpts on his "Stuttering John" podcast claimed that he had been passed to President Trump by his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The White House office of legislative affairs contacted the office of Mr Menendez and were told that the senator had not requested a call with the president and it should not go through, but it was put through anyway, seemingly leaving Mr Trump's team embarrassed.
The call occurred on Mr Trump's flight back from a rally in North Dakota on Thursday, with Mr Melendez claiming that the call showed "how easy it is to infiltrate the White House."
Prank Call
Capture Images
Astronomers
Astronomers have captured the first ever image of a newborn planet that is still forming in our galaxy.
The amazing images of the planet, known as PDS 70b, were taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile.
It is the first time astronomers have caught an image of a baby planet as it plots a path through a disc of dust surrounding its star - 370 light-years away from Earth.
Researchers have long suspected the existence of the planet in orbit around the star PDS 70, but now they have the proof.
Planet formation had previously been hidden from the human eye by dust, but a team at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy grabbed a clear image of the planet breaking through the disc from which it forms.
Astronomers
Found In Police Raids
Ecstasy
Authorities uncovered orange ecstasy pills shaped like President Donald Trump in Indiana in a coordinated police action called "Operation Blue Anvil" announced over the weekend.
The pills are stylized on the front to resemble the president's face, and on the back the words "Great Again" are imprinted into the pill.
They're nearly identical to pills seized by German police in August, where 5,000 were recovered in the northwestern city of Osnabruck.
The operation in Indiana involved nine different departments seizing drugs during traffic stops last month. An Indiana State Police release said there were 129 arrests made.
Ecstasy
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