Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Are the Danes Melancholy? Are the Swedes Sad? (NY Times Blog)
The truth about the Nordic economies.
Greg Sargent: Trump is manufacturing a phony crisis (Washington Post)
President Trump is now in the process of revealing to the country that his agenda on the signature issue that he believes got him elected is a complete and abject failure. This was inevitable, because - and this is also being unmasked for all to see right now - that agenda rests on a foundation of lies. We are now learning that Trump, who is in rage over the Central American migrants straggling their way through Mexico, may declare a national security emergency in order to completely close down the southern border to Central American asylum seekers. It is perfectly legal for people to present themselves at the border and seek asylum.
Paul Waldman: A mail bomb suspect is now in custody. To Trump, nothing has changed. (Washington Post)
Any sane leader would be profoundly disturbed by the idea that someone might be attempting to murder his political adversaries; he'd surely make statements not just lamenting the attempted bombings and making general comments about unity but also specifically talking about what is happening right now and what's wrong with it. And he would have addressed his own supporters, telling them that they can disagree with the other side but that violence on his behalf is never acceptable. He wouldn't just read it off a teleprompter, he'd mean it.
Helaine Olen: Why Megyn Kelly's possible eight-figure payday matters (Washington Post)
The wealthy and powerful get chance after chance, and even when they fail, get to exit on a generously padded slide.
Lucy Mangan: "Why women are brilliantly describing themselves as #AppropriatelyConfident" (Stylist)
I was doing a book event the other day, and a woman my age recalled how her mother told her when she was seven or eight to stop reading because if she got too clever she would never get a husband. That was bad enough, but the murmur of recognition that went round the hall full of people older and up to 20 years younger was worse. All of us, I'm sure, can add to the pile our examples of times we were told to hide our lights under bushels lest it offend the 'natural' order of things.
Lucy Mangan: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina review - where has the magic gone? (The Guardian)
"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest," said CS Lewis. As with children's books, so with teen television series.
Frank Rich: "Shampoo: First as Farce" (Criterion)
When Shampoo was released in February 1975, Warren Beatty was at once a movie star known for his prolific and unabashedly public love life and an ambitious cinematic auteur who had helped trigger a sea change in Hollywood filmmaking.
Mary Beard: The Garstang Museum (TLS)
A couple of weeks ago I saw that the Garstang Museum at the University of Liverpool was going to be open to the public by appointment only. It is a great archaeological collection (with particular strengths in Egypt and Mediterranean archaeology), and it's named after a great archaeology professor at the University in the early twentieth century, John Garstang. It didn't seem to me at the time a step in the right direction [ ... ] But I have since done a bit more digging, and think that the Garstang experiment is probably worth a try.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Because an aged Catholic priest had become deaf, people going to confession were accustomed to write out their sins on a piece of paper and pass the paper to him in the confessional. One day, a sinner slipped a piece of paper to the priest. The priest read the paper - "Fish sticks, two cans of beans, bread, milk" - then passed the note back to the sinner. The sinner looked at the note, then exclaimed, "Mother of God, I've left my sins at the grocery store."
• Cynthia Kahn owned a small sweets shop that competed with a national chain. In fact, she was winning the competition. Reporters asked her for the secret of her success, and she explained, "In the other store, when customers order a pound of candy, the salesgirls scoop up more than a pound of candy, then they start taking away. In my store, I scoop up less than a pound of candy, then start adding."
• Often, the first thing two deaf people do when they go to a nice restaurant is to remove the centerpiece so they have an unobstructed view of each other's hands. (In addition, they make certain that the restaurants they go to are well lit.)
• After woman jockey Joan O'Shea lost a race, a man in the crowd yelled to her, "Go home where you belong and cook dinner!" She replied, "I can't cook, either."
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
America's Next Civil War · The Walrus
FASCIST BRAZIL!
THE MAGA-BOMBER!
THE 'SUPREME COURT' MAGA-BOMBER!
"CRONCH. CRONCH. CRONCH."
"NEVER AGAIN!"
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running late.
Shares Cut Footage
Michael Moore
After Cesar Sayoc Jr. drove around in a white van with a photo of Michael Moore with a bullseye on it, the Fahrenheit 11/9 director realized that this was not the first time he has seen Sayoc, who was arrested Friday in connection with a series of bombs mailed to CNN, prominent Democrats and critics of Donald Trump.
Moore took to Twitter to share a video of Sayoc in Melbourne, Florida at Trump's first "Trump 2020 Re-election Rally" in 2017. The footage was for Fahrenheit 11/9, but didn't make the final cut.
"My direction to my producer Basel Hamdan and our longtime collaborator Eric Weinrib was to NOT film Trump, but rather only film the people who came out to see him," said Moore in a post on his website. "My feeling was, after one month in office, we didn't need to hear anything more from Trump's mouth - we already knew everything we needed to know about him."
"You've seen the photos of him on the news over the past couple days- a slight, normal, everyday American. But those are from before," writes Moore. "Here with our footage, I can show you what he had actually become - overdosed on steroids in what looks like some desperate attempt to hang on to what was left of his manhood."
Michael Moore
Urges Fans To Vote
Janelle Monáe
Performing on the main stage Saturday at the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience at New Orleans' City Park, Grammy-nominated funky diva Janelle Monáe begged fans to vote on Nov. 6 - and more specifically, to "vote for somebody that wants to see this country work for all of us and not just some of us."
"Yes, I'm an artist, but I'm also a young, black, queer woman living in America," began the 32-year-old singer, actress, rapper, model, and Prince protégé, who came out as pansexual in Rolling Stone earlier this year.
"I, like you, have been paying attention to what's going on in this world - this country that my ancestors built with their blood, sweat, and tears. I just want to encourage each and every last one of you to continue to protect those who may not be as privileged as you are. Continue to fight for the rights of the LGBTQIA community. Trans rights are human rights. Continue to fight for immigrants' rights, black folks' rights, women's rights, minorities' rights, [disabled] people's rights, poor folks' rights.
"Let's look after each other and let's vote. Register to vote. And I'm asking you, I'm begging you, to vote for somebody that wants to see this country work for all of us and not just some of us. Do not vote for anybody who is seeking to divide us and to support the 'Abuser of Power in Chief.'"
Monáe has been known for her activism and outspokenness for years. In 2015, her mic was cut off on Good Morning America when she went off script and railed against police brutality, and that same year, she released a song (later covered by David Byrne) called "Hell You Talmbout" that listed the names of black victims killed by police officers. She has also performed a charity concert to protest the Flint, Mich., water crisis, led a Chicago march with the mother of Sandra Bland, advocated for gun control, and worked with charities like the Foundation for AIDS Research, Autism Speaks, Keep a Child Alive, and the Save the Music Foundation. It was recently announced that she will be honored at 2018 American Ingenuity Awards by Smithsonian magazine. Her recently released third album, Dirty Computer, is one of the most acclaimed of the year.
Janelle Monáe
HBO Programs
Intimacy Coordinators
HBO is doing their part to ensure that actors feel comfortable when asked to perform intimate scenes.
The network announced on Thursday that all of their TV shows and movies featuring "intimate scenes will be staffed by an intimacy coordinator" who serves as an advocate for the actors on set.
The company hired its first intimacy coordinator after The Deuce actress Emily Meade, who had felt "uneasy" during a sex scene she had filmed during the show's first season, demanded that action be taken, Rolling Stone reported.
Starting season 2, Alicia Rodis was on-hand to review scripts, have conversations with actors about exactly what they were comfortable doing and make sure they stayed appraised of any last-minute changes made to the script.
Before HBO announced their policy change, David Simon, The Deuce showrunner, opened up about what an eye-opening experience hiring an intimacy coordinator had been.
Intimacy Coordinators
Moved To A Jungle
Student Debt
Chad Haag considered living in a cave to escape his student debt. He had a friend doing it. But after some plotting, he settled on what he considered a less risky plan. This year, he relocated to a jungle in India. "I've put America behind me," Haag, 29, said.
He now lives in a concrete house in the village of Uchakkada for $50 a month. His backyard is filled with coconut trees and chickens. "I saw four elephants just yesterday," he said, adding that he hopes to never set foot in a Walmart again.
The philosophy major concedes that his student loan balance of around $20,000 isn't as large as the burden shouldered by many other borrowers, but he said his difficultly finding a college-level job in the U.S. has made that debt oppressive nonetheless. "If you're not making a living wage," Haag said, "$20,000 in debt is devastating."
He struggled to come up with the $300 a month he owed. The first work he found after he graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 2011 - when the recession's effects were still palpable - was on-again, off-again hours at a factory, unloading trucks and constructing toy rockets on an assembly line. He then went back to school to pursue a master's degree in comparative literature at the University of Colorado Boulder. After that, he tried to make it as an adjunct professor, but still he could barely scrape a living together with the one class a semester he was assigned.
Haag had some hope restored when he landed full-time work as a medical courier in Denver, delivering urine and blood samples to hospitals. However, he was disappointed to find that he brought home just $1,700 a month. He had little money left over after he paid his student loan bill. He couldn't afford an apartment in the city, where rents have been rising sharply. He lived with his mother and rarely went out with friends.
Student Debt
Wait Times Stretch To 2 Years
Citizenship
More than 700,000 immigrants are waiting on applications to become U.S. citizens, a process that once typically took about six months but has stretched to more than two years in some places under the administration of President Donald Trump.
The long wait times have prompted some immigrant advocates to ask whether the delays are aimed at keeping anti-Trump voters from casting ballots in elections.
The number of immigrants aspiring to become U.S. citizens surged during 2016, jumping 27 percent from a year earlier as Trump made cracking down on immigration a central theme of his presidential campaign. At first, the federal government kept up with the applications, but then the wait grew.
Backlogs are nothing new in the U.S. immigration system. It often takes years to receive asylum or to be deported. But naturalization - the final step to become an American citizen, obtain a U.S. passport and receive voting rights - had not been subject to such delays in recent years.
Now the average wait time for officials to decide on applications is more than 10 months. It takes up to 22 months in Atlanta and as long as 26 months in parts of Texas, according to official estimates.
Citizenship
A Metaphor
Umbrella
Donald Trump (R-Deplorable) did more than just play the victim-blaming game after Saturday's horrific synagogue shooting. He also abandoned an umbrella as he climbed aboard Air Force One.
In a clip that quickly went viral, Trump is seen walking up the stairs leading to his presidential jet, umbrella in hand. As he reaches the door, Trump's hand drops lower and lower until the umbrella is scraping the floor. Seconds later, he ditches it entirely and disappears into the plane.
If video shares are any indication, the American public loves seeing Trump play the part of a buffoon. Probably because those moments offer a momentary distraction from the fact the he's still the U.S. president.
Personally, I look at this viral umbrella clip and see a perfect reflection of the man we've come to know since he settled into the Oval Office.
Trump is in this for no one other than himself (and maybe his family, I guess). He plays to his base and riles progressives to maintain chaos. He proposes destructive policies with an eye toward lining his pockets.
Umbrella
Unrelenting Hum Is Silencing Whales
Japan
Humans have got a lot to answer for when it comes to interfering with nature. And we can add noisy cargo ships to the rather shameful list of ways we're affecting the lives of the animals we share the planet with.
A new study reveals low-frequency hums from this maritime traffic are causing whales to stop their own singing calls, sometimes for up to 30 minutes after ships have passed by.
While the whales weren't found to be adjusting their calls in any other way, that period of silence is troubling.
The researchers also noted that fewer male humpbacks were singing in the shipping lane areas compared with the surrounding parts of the ocean.
The research was carried out around the Ogasawara Islands in Japan, and involved 26 male singers in total (females and calves don't sing) - between one and three calling whales a day.
Japan
Scientists Have Finally Engineered
Sustainable Bricks
The next time you pee, think about this: Your urine could one day create the sustainable building materials of the future.
Dyllon Randall is a research engineer at the University of Cape Town. He's also the supervisor on a new project in which students harvested urine from urinals so they could transform the waste into building bricks.
Not only could these bio-bricks eliminate one form of human waste, they could also help fight climate change.
In a paper published in the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, the team describes the process of creating one of its bio-bricks.
First, they collect human urine in special urinals that convert much of the liquid into a solid fertilizer.
Sustainable Bricks
Weekend Box Office
'Halloween'
Michael Meyers - or is it Jamie Lee Curtis? - can't be stopped. "Halloween" dominated the North American box office for the second straight weekend, carving up an estimated $32 million in ticket sales.
The top four films were all unchanged at the North American box office, according to Sunday estimates, as Hollywood left "Halloween" to dominate the pre-trick-or-treating weekend. The sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 original, starring the 59-year-old Curtis as Laurie Strode, last week notched the biggest opening ever for a film with a female lead older than 55.
After a promising limited release last weekend, Jonah Hill's directorial debut, the coming-of-age skateboarding drama "Mid90s," took in a mediocre $3 million 1,206 theaters for A24. Pure Flix's Christian war film drama "Indivisible" took in $1.6 million on 830 screens.
The long-delayed "London Fields," starring Amber Heard, notched one of the worst openings in years, grossing a minuscule $160,000 from 613 theaters. The film had been tied up for three years in legal disputes, including a suit between Heard and producers over nudity in the film. ("London Fields" sported a 0 percent "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes.)
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday also are included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Halloween," $32 million ($25.6 million international).
2. "A Star Is Born," $14.1 million ($17.6 million international).
3. "Venom," $10.8 million ($17.3 million international).
4. "Goosebumps 2," $7.5 million ($10.3 million international).
4. "Hunter Killer," $6.7 million ($3.2 million international).
6. "The Hate U Give," $5.1 million ($1.2 million international).
7. "First Man," $4.9 million ($6.3 million international).
8. "Smallfoot," $4.8 million ($17.3 million international).
9. "Night School," $3.3 million.
10. "Mid90s," $3 million.
'Halloween'
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