Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Shields: Nobody Knows Who the 2020 Presidential Nominees Will Be, but … (Creators Syndicate)
Finally, at a time when only 7 percent of U.S. adults are military veterans - and half of them are over age 60 - dozens of U.S. military veterans, especially women, are winning nominations for seats in the U.S. House. Most are Democrats, and what they have in common and what voters respond to is their willingness to sacrifice and serve for a value larger than their own self-interest.
Lucy Mangan: "Why we need to be optimistic, now more than ever" (Stylist)
Volunteers at the local laundry in Tham Luang took in rescuers' uniforms and kit every evening and returned it all clean and ready every morning. "I cannot go down to the boys directly," explained one. "But I can wash these clothes." I'm taking it as my mantra from now on.
Lucy Mangan: Pessimists of the world unite - our time is now, and I'm feeling happy about it (inews)
Looking on the bright side loses once again. I WIN. I haven't been this happy since 1996 when a group of American sociologists and psychologists published a paper with their findings that most troublesome teens' problem wasn't too little self-esteem but too much. What a day that was.
Paul Waldman: Republicans are telling Democrats to move right. It's dreadful advice. (Washington Post)
Right now, the Democratic Party is benefiting from a huge wave of enthusiasm, especially from liberals, many of them young people who are tired of the timid politics that has characterized the party for so long. […] If Democrats are going to win this year, they have to ride that new energy. And nothing would puncture it quicker than the party making a collective decision that what it really needs is the more tentative, apologetic strategy that has failed so often in the past.
Matthew Yglesias: It's time to take Trump both seriously and literally on Russia (Vox)
[Trump] is acting to unravel America's global trading relationships, doing what he can to undermine NATO and the European Union, trying to find an excuse to wriggle out of defense obligations to South Korea, and otherwise implement the mercantilist vision he articulates over and over again. It's time to stop psychoanalyzing Trump's statements - and time for congressional Republicans to stop issuing toothless statements denouncing them - and take this seriously as the president's governing agenda.
Joe Bob Briggs: "I'm Not Crazy, You Are" (Taki's Magazine)
The United States shouldn't have a binary political system. […] Ralph Nader fought against this system for years, filing lawsuit after lawsuit, to no avail. What are the major parties afraid of? We're the third largest country and by far the most diverse country. We shouldn't have two parties, we should have twenty parties. Bernie Sanders should have a party. David Duke should have a party. Gridlock would be impossible, because getting 51 percent control would require compromise.
Joe Bob Briggs: Barney Fife Runs North Carolina (Taki's Magazine)
We need a Southern Female Intervention. Ideally this would be his grandma. McCrory is only 60, so there's a possibility that one of his grandmothers would be alive, but if that's not an option, it can be his mother, his wife, an older sister, or-if all of those are absolutely unavailable-any pissed-off spinster aunt related by blood. This designated Southern female will approach McCrory at the breakfast table, withhold the biscuits until she has his attention, and then say, "Pat, you're either gonna stop this nonsense or I'm gonna slap you nekkid."
Joe Bob Briggs: "Probiotics: Here, Drink Some Gut Slime" (Taki's Magazine)
Is probiotic a real word or did somebody make that up just to be a smart-ass?
I mean, antibiotics I understand-pesticides for the body, they slide down your throat and napalm anything in sight until every germ is exterminated.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
13 Defining Points
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
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
REALITY WINNER!
THE RUSSIANS ARE STIL COMING!
WHAT COULD TRUMP DO?
THE HYPOCRITES!
RACISM IS ALIVE AND WELL.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hotter. More humid. Ack.
Harvard Analysis
'In My Life'
It has been a long and winding road, but academics may have finally solved the dispute over who wrote the melody for The Beatles' song 'In My Life.'
The track has always been attributed to John Lennon on the sleeve notes of The Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul.
Yet Sir Paul McCartney has long claimed that he actually penned the melody, telling the music writer and broadcaster Paul Gambaccini in the 1970s: 'Those were the words John wrote, and I wrote the tune to it. That was a great one.'
Now US and Canadian researchers have concluded that Sir Paul probably 'misremembers', because the song bears all the musical hallmarks of Lennon.
Mark Glickman, senior lecturer in statistics at Harvard University, and Jason Brown, Professor of Mathematics at Dalhousie University, created a computer model which broke down Lennon and McCartney songs into 149 different components to determine the musical fingerprints of each songwriter.
'In My Life'
Talks Retirement
Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek may currently be the long-running host of Jeopardy!, but he already has a replacement in mind should his retirement come: sportscaster Alex Fraust.
During a sit down with TMZ's Harvey Levin for the latest episode of OBJECTified on Sunday night, Trebek says his chances of leaving the show are more than "50/50" once his contract expires in 2020. When asked who would be an ideal replacement, Trebek said that Fraust, who is an LA Kings hockey announcer, should take over.
"I mentioned to our producer, not so long ago, that the fellow who does play-by-play for the Los Angeles Kings - they should consider him," the 78-year-old host coyly said.
Though Faust, who is just 28, may seem like a newcomer to some, the sportscaster was chosen to replace Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Miller after 44 seasons to do play-by-play for the Kings.
Despite Fraust being an ideal candidate to replace him, Trebek revealed that he's also open to the idea of a female replacement, in particular CNN legal analyst Laura Coates.
Alex Trebek
Not Retiring
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Rest easy, liberals. The Notorious RBG said once again that she is not going anywhere.
On Sunday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested she plans to stay in the bench at least until she is 90 years old. "I'm now 85," Ginsburg said. "My senior colleague, Justice John Paul Stevens, he stepped down when he was 90, so think I have about at least five more years."
She made the remarks following a production of "The Originalist," a play about the late Justice Antonin Scalia, in New York.
Her comments shouldn't come as a surprise. Ginsburg has promised in the past that she wouldn't leave the bench until it was absolutely necessary. When asked about her retirement at an event last fall, she said: "My answer is as long as I can do the job full steam, I will do it."
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
New Docs
PBS
Ken Burns is digging into our collective family history.
The legendary documentarian is collaborating with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee on a new documentary based on Mukherjee's best-selling 2016 book, "The Gene: An Intimate History." (They previously partnered on another project, "Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies.")
Planned for spring 2020, the three-hour documentary explores the history and makeup of the human genome using science, history and personal stories. It will also examine the science around human genes, including the impact they play in disease and behavior, and the ethics of gene editing. The documentary will also cover the history of gene research, from the early gene hunters to the race to read the entire genome. '
The network also announced a documentary about the legendary Woodstock music festival, debuting in 2019 to coincide with the 50th anniversary, and "Reconstruction: America After the Civil War," a historical documentary executive produced and hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
PBS
Cast Slams 'Mob Mentality'
'Guardians of the Galaxy'
It has been 10 days since Disney fired Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn over a series of inappropriate Twitter jokes the filmmaker made between 2009 and 2012, and the backlash to that decision has only continued to mount. Guardians stars Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt, and Zoe Saldana have all responded to their collaborator's dismissal with varying degrees of unhappy social posts, while thousands of fans have signed a petitiondemanding Gunn's reinstatement to the Marvel franchise. And on Monday, the entire Guardians cast joined forces for a joint statement about Gunn's fate - which indicates that they're strongly supportive of calls to get him back behind the camera for the series' third installment.
Karen Gillan (who plays Nebula in the Guardians films) took to Twitter Monday afternoon to post an "Open Letter from the Cast of Guardians of the Galaxy," which is signed by Pratt (Star-Lord/Peter Quill), Saldana (Gamora), Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), Gillan, Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon), Vin Diesel (Groot), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Michael Rooker (Yondu), and Sean Gunn (Kraglin), with the spirit-of-solidarity #wearegroot hashtag:
Pratt reposted that letter on his own Instagram account, along with a definitive message: "Although I don't support James Gunn's inappropriate jokes from years ago, he is a good man. I'd personally love to see him reinstated as director of Volume 3. If you please, read the following statement - signed by our entire cast."
While this letter makes it sound like the actors are resigned to Gunn's firing, it also underlines that they're not pleased about it - nor what they refer to as the "mob mentality" that brought it about in the first place. They also make a plea for less cultural divisiveness and warn about the dangers of social-media expression - and the latter has already been heeded by Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, who recently deleted 20,000 tweets for basic self-preservation reasons. What resounds most forcefully in their missive, however, is the sense that Gunn has been wronged by, among other things, "outlandish conspiracy theories" (Gunn's offending tweets were resurfaced by right-wing activists Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich and cheered by conservatives who were targeted by Gunn's vehemently anti-Trump posts). The cast's joint statement radiates hurt, frustration, and anger regarding how Gunn was treated, which in turn may leave the door open for his return - since, after all, they now wield considerable clout and influence over the Guardians franchise (unless Disney would like to continue making movies with a group of seriously unhappy, and irreplaceable, stars).
'Guardians of the Galaxy'
Free Plans
3D Guns
Dozens of US legislators are demanding that the Trump administration explain a recent agreement to allow the free distribution of plans for using 3D printers to make plastic handguns that will be easy to hide and almost impossible to control.
After a lengthy legal battle, the government reached agreement last month with Cody Wilson, a militant gun rights advocate from Texas. He successfully argued that the US Constitution's Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to private gun ownership, should extend to a person's right to make guns at home -- uncontrolled by authorities, since they will bear no serial number.
Dozens of Democrats in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate have decried the settlement and are demanding an explanation from the President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) administration, which has been extremely supportive of gun-owners' rights.
The agreement between the State Department, which controls the exportation of American arms, and Wilson's Defense Distributed (DD) group was reached on June 29.
But it remained secret until last week, after groups advocating for stronger gun controls demanded its publication.
3D Guns
Nazis, Racists, Bigots RepublicansUS Ballot
Arthur Jones is an avowed Nazi. John Fitzgerald says the Holocaust is a myth. Rick Tyler wants to "make America white again."
Their fringe ideas are reminiscent of another age, but the unapologetic men who espouse them are all on US election ballots in 2018.
Extremism and bigotry, even outright white supremacy and anti-Semitism, have found new lives in 21st century US politics and the era of President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Grifter), beyond just the toxic rhetoric of a few little-known cranks.
They have received more exposure this year on the national stage than at any time in recent memory. And the mainly conservative proponents of hate running for office are proving to be a major embarrassment for the Republican Party.
Experts say there is an unprecedented number of openly bigoted candidates this year, and that their chief enabler may well be the president of the United States himself.
Ballot
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