Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Twitter
"Hard to argue against an audit/recount if the president-elect asserts, without any evidence, that were millions of illegal votes" - Nate Cohn
"The Trump voting tweet may be more than an ego spasm. It may also be a warning that voting is about to be made more difficult for millions" - David Frum
Paul Krugman: Why Corruption Matters (NY Times)
It's not the money, it's the incentive.
Andrew Tobias: The Recount
So Hillary will have won the popular vote by more than 2 million ballots - please, Trumpies, stop talking about "the will of the people," let alone a "mandate"; if "the people have spoken," they have spoken for Hillary even though, under the agreed-upon rules, their voice will not be heard.
Tim Jonze: How can we spot fake news stories when the real ones beggar belief? (Guardian)
When one of the Dragons' Den dragons is seriously mulling whether he could be prime minister and no one bats an eyelid, we know we've crossed the rubicon.
Suzanne Moore: Watching Ed Balls on Strictly was the uncomplicated joy we all needed (The Guardian)
In a year in which dreadful men have risen to the top by taking themselves too seriously, Balls showed the power of letting it all go.
Kevin EG Perry: "Jim Jarmusch: 'I shy away from sex in my films. It makes me nervous'" (The Guardian)
After almost 40 years in cinema, the director remains the quintessential leftfield auteur. He discusses how his gentle new film Paterson offers a Zen alternative to blockbuster chaos.
Ed Balls & Katya Jones Salsa to 'Gangnam Style' by Psy (YouTube)
Strictly Come Dancing 2016: Week 8.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
took the day off.
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Home Cleaning Hacks
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO.
GODS COUNTRY.
GIVE A LITTLE LOVE.
IT'S TIME TO CLEAN OUT THE BARN!
"MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES."
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Seems I'm allergic to something around here. Don't know what - yet - but it's quite unpleasant.
No Plans To Forcibly Remove Protesters?
North Dakota
U.S. authorities said on Sunday they had no plans to forcibly remove activists protesting plans to run an oil pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota, despite telling them to leave by early December.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the federal land where the main camp protesting the Dakota Access pipeline is located, said last week it would close public access to the area north of the Cannonball River on Dec. 5
On Sunday, the agency said in a statement that it had "no plans for forcible removal" of protesters. The statement said anyone who remained would be considered unauthorized and could be subject to various citations. It also said emergency services might not be adequately provided to the area.
There are smaller camps on land not subject to the planned restrictions, including an area south of the Cannonball River where the Corps said it was establishing a free-speech zone.
Last weekend, police used water hoses in subfreezing weather in an attempt to disperse about 400 activists near the proposed tunnel excavation site.
North Dakota
Signs Deal With ABC Studios
Larry Wilmore
Three months after Comedy Central axed "The Nightly Show," its host, Larry Wilmore, has signed a multi-year deal with ABC Studios, the company said Monday.
Under the deal, Wilmore will develop his own projects as well as supervise others while helping target talent for the studio.
Besides hosting "The Nightly Show" for 17 months, Wilmore co-created HBO's new hit comedy, "Insecure," as well as the Peabody Award-winning "Bernie Mac Show" and "The PJs," an animated series he co-produced with Eddie Murphy.
Earlier writing and producing credits include "In Living Color," ''The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," ''The Jamie Foxx Show" and "The Office."
Before launching "The Nightly Show," Wilmore appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," where he was billed as the Senior Black Correspondent.
Larry Wilmore
New Clues In Mystery Of Lost Ships
Terror and Erebus
Almost two centuries ago, 134 men set sail on two British naval ships to discover the fabled Northwest Passage, a trade route through the Arctic linking Europe to the riches of the East. They never returned. The Inuit, native residents of the North, tell tales of the three-masted ships caught in ice and of men afflicted by scurvy and going hungry, until finally they broke the biggest taboo of humankind: cannibalism.
Despite search efforts, neither ship was found. It was not until 2014 that the first traces of the expedition emerged, when divers located a shipwreck that they identified as HMS Erebus, named after the spiritual limbo between Earth and hell. Last month, the second big piece of the mystery fell into place when an Inuit ranger and a team of explorers announced that they had located HMS Terror - in near-pristine condition, not far from the Erebus - at the bottom of the Northwest Passage.
The story of the ships' loss and eventual finding reveals how much the Arctic, and our relationship with this frontier, has changed in just a few decades. The ice is no longer what it once was; scientists think that the Arctic will be reliably ice-free and navigable in the summer by the middle of the century, if not earlier. A cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 tourists traversed the northern ocean of North America for the first time this year.
The conditions today are balmy in comparison to what the expeditioners faced in the middle of the 19th century, at the height of the British Empire. The admiralty asked John Franklin, a 59-year-old polar explorer, to find a northern sea path linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
On May 19, 1845, Erebus and Terror, both painted a menacing black with a yellow stripe, set off down the River Thames and into the Atlantic Ocean. Londoners thronged the banks and cheered the might of their empire. Success seemed assured.
Terror and Erebus
Reclaiming Branded Bodies
Tattoos
After escaping years of sexual slavery, Jennifer Kempton could not look in the mirror without being taken back to her dark, traumatic past.
On her neck was tattooed the name of one of her traffickers along with his gang's crown insignia. Above her groin were the words "Property of Salem" - the name of the former boyfriend who forced her into prostitution nine years ago.
"Slaves have been branded for centuries and it's just evolved into being tattooed. It's happening all over the world," said Kempton who suffered horrific brutality during six years working on the streets of Columbus, Ohio.
Today the tattoo on her neck has been transformed into a large flower "blooming out of the darkness". Three other brandings have been masked with decorative, symbolic motifs.
Two years ago Kempton, now 34, set up a charity called Survivor's Ink to help others who have escaped enslavement get their brandings covered up or removed.
Tattoos
Pedophile Fights For Tax-Covered Pension
Hastert
Dennis Hastert (R-Sweaty Wrestler™ is serving a 15-month prison term in a hush-money case that stemmed from his sexual abuse of students when he taught at an Illinois public school over 35 years ago. The ex-U.S. House speaker is now pointing to a technicality to argue that a state body should restore his $17,000-a-year teacher's pension that it yanked after his April 27 sentencing.
A recent letter from Hastert's lawyer to the agency overseeing the pensions notes his conviction was not for sexual abuse when he was at Yorkville High School from 1965 to 1981: It was for one count of violating banking law as Hastert withdrew cash from 2010 to 2014 as he sought to pay one victim $3.5 million to ensure his silence. On those grounds, the letter argues, his teacher's pension can't be revoked.
In the lead-up to sentencing, prosecutors disclosed in court filings that Hastert abused at least four teenage boys, including in a school locker room. At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin dubbed Hastert "a serial child molester."
Had Hastert been convicted of abusing those students, there would be no question that withdrawing his pension was legal. Prosecutors made clear that, if they could have charged Hastert with sexual abuse, they would have. But the statute of limitations expired decades ago, so the only option for offering those abused some semblance of justice, prosecutors said, was to charge him with comparatively mundane banking violations.
That Hastert chose to fight for his relatively meagre pension may suggest financial difficulties. But Hastert was already considered wealthy around the time he left Congress, so he may be more than capable of absorbing the costs. Disclosure forms from 2006 show Hastert listed from $1.1 million to $5.3 million in bank and stock holdings, and an additional $3 million to $12 million in property.
Hastert
CEO Calls For 'Civility On Our Planes'
Delta Airlines
The CEO of Delta Airlines called on employees to ensure "civility" on the company's aircraft after a video surfaced of a passenger heckling the people around him and shouting his support for President-elect Donald Trump (R-Grifter).
"The heightened tension in our society means that now more than ever we must require civility on our planes and in our facilities," CEO Ed Bastian wrote Monday in a public memo to the company's workers.
Bastian said Delta made a mistake last week allowing a disruptive passenger to remain on a flight from Atlanta to Allentown, Pa. In a Facebook video that went viral, the man was heard berating other passengers.
"Donald Trump, baby. That's right!" he yelled. "We got some Hillary bitches on here? Come on, baby. Trump!" he continued.
The unidentified man "will never again be allowed on a Delta plane," Bastian said.
Delta Airlines
Could Collapse 'In Our Lifetimes'
West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Scientists say they discovered the "troubling" reason why a massive iceberg splintered off one of West Antarctica's largest glaciers last year, and why this may not bode well for the future of the world's coastal megacities.
Warm ocean waters appear to have melted Pine Island Glacier from underneath, causing a deep subsurface crack that split the ice from the inside out, Ohio State University researchers found.
The 20-mile-long rift eventually broke through the surface and cleaved off a 225-square-mile iceberg in July 2015, according to their study, published Monday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Their finding offers further evidence that large parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could collapse in coming decades as human-caused climate change and other forces weaken glaciers. Such an event would trigger catastrophic sea level rise and coastal flooding around the world.
"It's generally accepted that it's no longer a question of whether the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt, it's a question of when," Ian Howat, the study's lead author and an associate professor of Earth sciences at Ohio State, said in a news release
West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Skating Rink Slammed
Japan
A Japanese skating rink that froze 5,000 dead fish into the ice as an attraction for visitors has been forced to close after receiving a barrage of criticism.
Amusement park Space World is now melting the rink -- which could take about a week -- and will hold a memorial service for the fish, the company said.
The rink in southwestern Japan opened on November 12, after 5,000 fish were frozen under the surface of the ice as a decorative effect while customers skated above.
But the concept was slammed as unethical and the rink in the city of Kitakyushu was forced to close on Sunday, Space World spokesman Koji Shibata said.
Shibata said the fish were all already dead at the time of purchase and were considered unfit to be sold in markets.
Japan
More Than 80 Anglo-Saxon Coffins Uncovered
England
An ancient Anglo-Saxon cemetery with more than 80 rare wooden coffins containing skeletons has been unearthed in England.
Earlier this year, archaeologists were investigating the ground around a river in the village of Great Ryburgh in eastern England, ahead of the construction of a lake and flood defense system. During an excavation, they started finding graves arranged in rows.
"We had no idea it [the cemetery] was going to be there," James Fairclough, an archaeologist with the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), told Live Science.
Based on broken pieces of pottery found in the dirt used to fill the graves, Fairclough and his colleagues determined that the cemetery dates back to the early Anglo-Saxon period, from about the seventh to ninth centuries A.D.
Wood is biodegradable, so it often disappears in the archaeological record. Evidence for wooden coffins usually appears as a stain in the ground. But at this cemetery in Norfolk, thanks to some special environmental conditions, many of the wooden coffins remained intact.
England
In Memory
Fritz Weaver
Fritz Weaver, the courtly veteran of Broadway and the big screen who won a Tony Award and stood out in such films as Fail-Safe and The Day of the Dolphin, has died. He was 90.
Weaver received his Tony in 1970 for his performance as strict Catholic boarding school teacher Jerome Malley in Robert Marasco's long-running thriller Child's Play.
The 6-foot-3 Pittsburgh native made his Broadway debut in 1955's The Chalk Garden, for which he landed his first Tony nom. He also played Sherlock Holmes in the 1965 musical Baker Street and appeared in such productions as the 1962 musical All-American, Alan Ayckbourn's 1974 comedy Absurd Person Singular and Lanford Wilson's Angels Fall in 1982.
Weaver was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2010.
In his movie debut, Weaver portrayed a rattled Air Force colonel facing a nuclear crisis in Sidney Lumet's classic Fail-Safe (1964), and he was an evil mastermind bent on using trained dolphins to attack the president in Mike Nichols' The Day of the Dolphin (1973).
His film résumé also included The Maltese Bippy (1969), Marathon Man (1976), Demon Seed (1977), Black Sunday (1977), The Big Fix (1978), a segment of Creepshow (1982), Lumet's Power (1986) and the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.
More recently, Weaver appeared in the 2013 HBO telefilm Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight and in the features The Cobbler (2015) and The Congressman (2016).
Weaver worked often in television, earning an Emmy nomination in 1978 for portraying a Jewish doctor sent to Auschwitz in the NBC miniseries Holocaust.
He starred in two episodes of the original The Twilight Zone, including 1960's "Third From the Sun," in which he played a scientist who tries to hijack a rocket to get him and his family off Earth as nuclear war beckons.
Weaver also appeared on the small screen on Playhouse 90, The Defenders, Gunsmoke, Dan August, Hunter, Mannix, Falcon Crest, Law & Order and dozens of other shows. Recently, he narrated specials for the History channel.
Fritz Weaver
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