Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jonathan Cohn: The GOP's Extremist Agenda Is Making It Easy For Democrats To Stand Their Ground (Huffington Post)
Not even the politically vulnerable ones are afraid to defy Trump.
Bill Ozaneck: Comparing Trump to Hitler says a lot more about the accuser than the accused (The Hill)
Trump is unquestionably unpresidential (this is the man who mocked a disabled reporter), but he's nothing like Hitler. I encourage everyone to challenge and condemn the immoral and unfeasible ideas that Trump has, such as the proposal to deport 11 million undocumented migrants, but comparing Trump to Hitler is not only inaccurate, ineffective, dishonest, and dangerous, it also trivializes the tragedy of the Holocaust in the name of scoring political points.
Andrew Tobias: No, Of Course He's Not Hitler
But to compare the nature of Trump's appeal and his rhetoric to Hitler's . . . and to note, as I have, repeatedly, that, according to his ex-wife, he frequently read from a book of Hitler's speeches by his bedside . . . and to note his affinity for journalist-murdering dictators like Putin and Duterte . . . and to find it telling that he defended some "very fine people" among the white nationalists carrying torches in Charlottesville chanting "Jews will not replace us" - well, it seems to me, these are data points that someone evaluating Trump's world view and fitness to be president should take into account.
Marissa Martinelli: Disney's New Frozen Short, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Olaf the Snowman (Slate)
I didn't always loathe Olaf. In fact, when Frozen first came out in 2013, I was pleasantly surprised that the character, who seemed to have Jar Jar Binks potential in the film's first trailers, was actually pretty funny, if not especially relevant to the plot; he might not have been on par with Timon and Pumba or Genie, the paragons of Disney comic relief, but at least he wasn't a Gurgi-level disaster.
Laura Miller: The Year in Best-Sellers (Slate)
What Happened to 2017? A Gentleman in Moscow, perhaps.
Nick Greene: Three-Man Alabama Pulls Off Greatest Loss in NCAA Basketball History (Slate)
… Alabama was forced to play three-against-five for more than 10 minutes in the second half-and the Crimson Tide nearly overcame a double-digit deficit and won the damn game doing so.
Lucy Mangan: When good TV goes bad: how Roseanne's dream turned into a nightmare (The Guardian)
The sitcom's honest portrayal of a working-class family made it a hit for eight seasons. Then the Connors won the lottery and everything got weird.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
said:
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
WH Christmas
Janet shared the links below. Look at the chair (picture 37) in the first link! How big is Predator's butt now?! You could fit TWO Tafts in that thing!
As for the second link--love snarky people!
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
KILL 'SCROOGE McDUCK'.
KILL 'SCROOGE McDUCK'. PART TWO.
CALL MY JAPANESE LAWYER 'SOSUEME'.
THE FRAUD!
THE TRAITOR!
THE PREDATOR.
WHILE THE PEOPLE WATCH THE TRUMP CIRCUS THE KOCH BROTHER...
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit of rain overnight.
Dictionary.com's Word Of The Year
Complicit
To say 2017 has been a rough year would be an understatement. If you need some proof of the struggle look no further than Dictionary.com's word of the year: Complicit.
On Monday the online dictionary announced that the not-so-reassuring adjective is 2017's standout word because it's "indicative of larger trends that resonated throughout the year."
Defined as "choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act," Dictionary.com said the word is associated with everything from Russia's involvement with the U.S. election and Trump's decision to opt out of the Paris Climate Agreement to the ever-growing sexual harassment allegations in today's society.
While the word could surely be applied to several 2017 events, many remember the word "complicit" making waves back in April after Ivanka Trump sparked a debate about whether or not she understood the meaning of the word.
In an interview with CBS, Gayle King asked Ivanka about media reports calling her and her husband Jared "complicit." Ivanka casually replied, "I don't know what it means to be complicit," and naturally the internet had a field day.
Complicit
CBS Cancels Show
Jeremy Piven
CBS plans to end "Wisdom of the Crowd" after just one season, sources close to the show told TVLine Monday, as more women come forward with allegations of sexual harassment by lead actor Jeremy Piven throughout his career.
Piven confirmed the show was being canceled via his Twitter account Monday afternoon.
At least five women have shared stories of Piven's misconduct. Several first described their experiences with the actor in an interview with BuzzFeed News last week.
Piven has adamantly denied all of the claims, going so far as to take a polygraph test earlier this month, which he says proves his innocence.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, "Wisdom of the Crowd" was the least-watched series on the network's Sunday lineup, pulling in around 8.9 million viewers among adults aged 18-49.
Jeremy Piven
Science In The News
'Faraday Cage'
A man in Australia was sacked after he relied on a 180-year-old scientific discovery to help prevent his colleagues discovering his whereabouts while he played golf during work hours.
Tom Colella, a 60-year-old electrician in Perth, lost his job after an anonymous letter to his firm claimed that he left work to play golf at least 140 times over the last two years.
Australia's Fair Work Commission, a workplace tribunal, heard that Mr Colella blocked his whereabouts by storing his personal digital assistant, a phone-like device that has a GPS inside inside, in an empty foil packet of Twisties, a puffy cheese-based snack that is popular in Australia.
The tribunal found that the packet was deliberately used to operate as an elaborate "Faraday cage" - an enclosure which can block electromagnetic fields - and prevented his employer knowing his location. The cage set-up was named after Scottish scientist Michael Faraday, who in 1836 observed that a continuous covering of conductive material could be used to block electromagnetic fields.
The tribunal ruled that Mr Colella was fairly sacked and that he had been "deliberate in trying to hide his whereabouts and deceive his employer". It also relied on less scientific evidence, including records from the golf club and records from an electronic gate which showed that he had not entered a worksite as required.
'Faraday Cage'
Glasses Sold At Auction
Claude Monet
A collection of French artist Claude Monet's personal belongings, including a pair of round-rimmed wire spectacles, have fetched almost $11 million at an auction in Hong Kong, Christie's said.
The dainty glasses, made from gold-coloured metal, went to an unnamed Asian buyer on Sunday for $51,457, far exceeding the auction house's estimate of $1,000 to $1,500.
The sale included other rare items like Monet's pencil sketches, paintings and Japanese woodblock prints from the French master's personal collection.
A sculpture of a cat from 19th century Japan's late Edo or early Meiji period, sleeping curled up and measuring 32.8 centimetres (12.9 inches), went under the hammer for $67,538.
The top lots sold for well above their estimated price.
Claude Monet
Administration Eyes Easing Protections
Student Debt
Thousands of students who ran up unpayable debts at for-profit schools are anxiously waiting to see if US President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) administration does away with anti-fraud protections put in place by his predecessor Barack Obama.
Some 95,000 cases of former students seeking forgiveness of their debt have been put on hold by the Department of Education, now led by Betsy DeVos (R-Dominionist), an ardent advocate of for-profit, post-secondary schools.
Most of the cases now on hold involve former students at two giants of the for-profit college industry -- Corinthian Colleges and ITT Tech, which closed in 2015 and 2016.
Students claim they were lured into enrolling in training programs by promises of jobs and diplomas that later proved worthless.
"They laughed at my diploma," said Danielle Adorno, describing the reaction of prospective employers.
Student Debt
Pipeline Spills
Keystone
TransCanada Corp's existing Keystone pipeline has leaked substantially more oil, and more often, in the United States than indicated in risk assessments the company provided to regulators before the project began operating in 2010, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.
The Canadian company is now seeking to expand the pipeline system linking Alberta's oil fields to U.S. refineries with its proposed Keystone XL project, which has U.S. President Donald Trump's backing.
The existing 2,147-mile (3,455 km) Keystone system from Hardisty, Alberta, to the Texas coast has had three significant leaks in the United States since it began operating in 2010, including a 5,000-barrel spill this month in rural South Dakota, and two others, each about 400 barrels, in South Dakota in 2016 and North Dakota in 2011.
Before constructing the pipeline, TransCanada provided a spill risk assessment to regulators that estimated the chance of a leak of more than 50 barrels to be "not more than once every seven to 11 years over the entire length of the pipeline in the United States," according to its South Dakota operating permit.
For South Dakota alone, where the line has leaked twice, the estimate was for a "spill no more than once every 41 years."
Keystone
Tufts University Postpones His Talk
Scaramucci
Originally set to speak at his Tufts University on Monday, one-time White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is instead spending the early hours of the day defending himself on Twitter after his alma mater postponed the engagement.
Tufts said it would postponed the event after Scaramucci threatened to sue a Tufts graduate student and the school's student newspaper for defamation. The graduate student, Camilo A. Caballero, penned several op-eds in The Tufts Dailyearlier this month criticizing Scaramucci and questioning his seat on Tufts' Board of Advisors. Scaramucci was set to talk about his board seat at the Monday event.
In response, Scaramucci, through his lawyer, sent a letter seeking a retraction and public apology from the Daily. The same letter warned that Scaramucci may seek a lawsuit if his demands were not met.
Scaramucci's lawyers cited segments from Caballero's op-eds, including statements that Scaramucci is "irresponsible, inconsistent, an unethical opportunist…who exuded the highest degree of disreputability."
The university noted that it would postpone the event until the legal matters between Scaramucci and the Daily were resolved.
Scaramucci
Over 100 Reindeer
Norway
More than 100 reindeer have been mowed down by freight trains in northern Norway in recent days in what has been called a "bloodbath" during their winter migration, said the nation's public broadcaster.
One train killed 65 deer on a track on Saturday while 41 died between Wednesday and Friday, NRK reported late Sunday.
Norway is home to around 250,000 semi-domestic reindeer and most of them live in the nation's far north.
At this time of the year, herders take the reindeer to the winter pastures in search for grazing grounds, a perilous journey as many animals are hit by cars and trains. Some also drown.
More than 2,000 reindeer were mowed down along the same northern railway line between 2013 and 2016.
Norway
Forced To Delay Launch Of Homemade Rocket
Flat-Earther
A man who says he believes the Earth is flat and is building a rocket he claims will help prove this theory has been forced to delay his mission after being banned from using his planned launch site.
"Mad" Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver from California, has been building a rocket out of salvage parts for two years, costing him a reported $20,000 (£15,000), which he had planned to launch himself over the Mojave Desert at 500 miles an hour.
His plan to disprove thousands of years' worth of scientific thought has been waylaid by the Bureau of Land Management, which has stopped him from making the launch on public land in Amboy, California, NPR reported.
In addition to his launch site issues, Mr Hughes suffered a set-back over his homemade rocket launcher, which he crafted out of a used motor home. The launcher broke down in his driveway, but has since been fixed, he claims.
Mr Hughes' main sponsor for his rocket is Research Flat Earth. He previously told the Associated Press "I don't believe in science" when discussing his launch plans.
Flat-Earther
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