Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Helaine Olen: The Trump Penalty (Slate)
Five ways many Americans' finances will take a hit under the Trump administration.
Nick Hanauer: Beware, fellow plutocrats, the pitchforks are coming (TED TALKS)
… what I would like to do is speak directly to other plutocrats, to my people, because it feels like it's time for us all to have a chat. Like most plutocrats, I too am a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, cofounded or funded over 30 companies across a range of industries. I was the first non-family investor in Amazon.com. I cofounded a company called aQuantive that we sold to Microsoft for 6.4 billion dollars. My friends and I, we own a bank. I tell you this - (Laughter) - unbelievable, right?
ALANA SEMUELS: It's Not About the Economy (Atlantic)
In an increasingly polarized country, even economic progress can't get voters to abandon their partisan allegiance.
Mark Morford: The top 10 records of 2016 (SF Gate)
Every year at this time, my friend Andy sends out an anxious little email asking his most music-crazed friends - sound engineers, clubsters, DJs, me, anyone for whom music is less a casual dalliance and more like lifeblood - to send around their personal lists of the year's best music, so we can all discover something new and/or gently mock each others' weird tastes in African banjo disco, kazoo jazz funk or lumberjack doom metal.
Chitra Ramaswamy: "'Where's the beef?' The weirdest stories from 2016's autobiographies" (The Guardian)
Why was Michael Gove hiding in toilets, what did Carrie Fisher finally confirm for Star Wars fans, and how did Phil Collins witness a historic act of adultery?
Stuart Heritage: What 2016's movie posters would look like if they told the truth - in pictures (The Guardian)
What the ad campaigns for Fantastic Beasts, Ghostbusters, Batman v Superman, Girl on a Train, Finding Dory and others should really have looked like.
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took the day off.
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
PLASTIC FANTASTIC BULLSHIT!
"…A POWER HUNGRY, DRUG-AFFECTED SOCIOPATH."
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!
THE NEXT ELECTION BEGINS NOW!
THE NATIVISTS ARE RESTLESS.
JABBA THE TRUMP GET REJECTED!
MERRY CHRISTMAS 'YAHOO!'
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer, but more rain on the way.
Traffic Deaths Fell
Medical Marijuana
Legalization of medical marijuana is not linked with increased traffic fatalities, a new study finds. In some states, in fact, the number of people killed in traffic accidents dropped after medical marijuana laws were enacted.
"Instead of seeing an increase in fatalities, we saw a reduction, which was totally unexpected," said Julian Santaella-Tenorio, the study's lead author and a doctoral student at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.
Deaths dropped 11 percent on average in states that legalized medical marijuana, researchers discovered after analyzing 1.2 million traffic fatalities nationwide from 1985 through 2014.
The decrease in traffic fatalities was particularly striking - 12 percent - in 25- to 44-year-olds, an age group with a large percentage of registered medical marijuana users, the authors report in the American Journal of Public Health.
Medical Marijuana
Most Admired Man
2016
President-elect Donald Trump (R-Grifter) might have been the long-shot success story of the year, but his predecessor, President Obama, is still the most admired man in the U.S., according to a plurality of respondents in a new poll.
Gallup released the results of a new poll Wednesday that shows 22 percent of 1,028 American adults surveyed mentioned Obama when posed an open-ended question about the man they most admire in the world. Trump was named by 15 percent of respondents.
According to the polling company, this is Obama's ninth straight win in this category, although his 7-point margin above Trump is his narrowest yet. The list also included Pope Francis, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Rev. Billy Graham, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Dalai Lama and plenty others.
Americans also named Hillary Clinton as the most admired woman of the year for the 15th consecutive year and the 21st time in total. Clinton won a plurality of the 2016 poll's vote, with 12 percent. Others included first lady Michelle Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Pakistani women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai.
Obama and Clinton have been named the most admired man and woman, respectively, every year since 2008, when the former first won the U.S. presidential election. Trump placed in the top 10 five other times: 1988, 1989, 1990, 2011 and 2015.
2016
Designates Monuments, Protects Federal Land
Obama
President Barack Obama on Wednesday designated over 1.6 million acres of land in Utah and Nevada as national monuments, protecting two areas rich in Native American artifacts from mining, oil and gas drilling in one of his final moves to protect the environment.
"Today's actions will help protect this cultural legacy and will ensure that future generations are able to enjoy and appreciate these scenic and historic landscapes," Obama said in a statement.
Obama used the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect 1.35 million acres of federal land at Bears Ears in Utah and 300,000 acres at Gold Butte outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. The move will be difficult for President-elect Donald Trump to reverse.
Utah's governor and congressional delegation opposed the designation as a national monument, saying it went against the wishes of Utah citizens.
Various tribes and lawmakers have been trying for years to protect the Bears Ears region, home to a wealth of Native American sacred sites, rock art, ancient cliff dwellings and other areas of cultural significance.
Obama
Biggest-Ever Scale Seizure
Pangolins
Chinese customs seized over three tonnes of pangolin scales, state media said, in the country's biggest-ever smuggling case involving the animal parts.
Shanghai Customs found around 3.1 tonnes of pangolin scales mixed in with a container of wood products imported from Nigeria, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday.
It estimated up to 7,500 of the creatures could have been killed.
The reclusive pangolin has become the most trafficked mammal on Earth due to soaring demand in Asia for their scales for traditional medicine and their flesh, considered a delicacy.
Pangolins
Sues CBS For $750 Million
Burke Ramsey
The brother of slain Colorado child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey has filed a $750 million defamation lawsuit against CBS Corp over a documentary aired by the network theorizing that he killed his little sister, court documents showed on Wednesday.
Burke Ramsey has been "exposed to public hatred, contempt and ridicule" over the four-hour show that was broadcast in September in two parts, according to the complaint filed in a state court in Michigan, where he lives. The program aired amid a flurry of media accounts ahead of the 20th anniversary of the girl's death.
The bludgeoned and strangled body of 6-year-old JonBenet was found in the basement of her parents' Boulder, Colorado, home on Dec. 26, 1996.
No one has ever been charged for the murder, but in 1999 a grand jury seated to examine the case voted to indict the parents for child abuse resulting in death.
A spokesman for CBS declined to comment on the lawsuit. At the time of the broadcast, the network said it stood by the program and "will do so in court" if sued by Ramsey.
Burke Ramsey
Republican Family Values In Action
S. Carolina
A South Carolina House member who rebuked his colleagues in a Christmas card for lacking morals when they took down the Confederate flag is accused of beating his wife and pointing a gun at her, deputies said.
Officers in Aiken County charged Rep. Chris Corley with a pair of felonies that could send him to prison for up to 15 years after he attacked his wife during an argument over his infidelity late Monday night at their home in Graniteville, according to a police report.
The couple's young children were there, and the wife took the family to her mother's house across the street after Corley threatened to kill her, then said he would kill himself, the report said.
Corley's wife said he stopped hitting her only after noticing she was bleeding and hearing the children screaming, deputies said.
The 36-year-old Republican lawyer was just elected to a second term.
S. Carolina
Neo-Nazi Rally Condemned By Officials
Montana
Neo-Nazis planning an armed rally next month in Montana were warned by state lawmakers Tuesday that they would find "no safe haven here."
The founder of white Supremacist website The Daily Stormer wrote a post last week encouraging a march through the remote mountain town of Whitefish, the home of the mother of white nationalist leader Richard Spencer. A building owned by Sherry Spencer has been a target of protests because of her son's beliefs and actions, which included giving a Nazi salute during a conference last month/.
In his post, Andrew Anglin encouraged followers to take advantage of Montana's "extremely liberal open carry laws" to arm themselves with "high-powered rifles." The march, he said, would be "against Jews, Jewish businesses and everyone who supports either."
But both Democratic and Republican officials in the state condemned such views. The message came in an open letter that was signed by various local leaders, including Democratic Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, U.S. Sens. Democrat Jon Tester and Republican Steve Daines, Republican Attorney General Tim Fox and U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, who has been picked by President-elect Donald Trump (R-Pot Meet Kettle) to be interior secretary.
The Daily Stormer has called for a "troll storm" against community leaders, publishing their photos and contact information, along with tags like "super-Jew." Anglin refers to Jews as "a vicious, evil race of hate-filled psychopaths." He also urges against using violence.
Montana
Larvae Navigate Using Earth's Magnetic Field
Cardinalfish
Scientists who have observed and studied cardinalfish - a tiny species that inhabits shallow marine habitats, such as coral reefs - know that even when its larvae are dispersed over a distance of several miles, most of them find their way back home. What they have struggled to understand is how.
Until now.
A study published in the latest edition of the journal Current Biology revealed the larvae of these fingernail-sized fish have an internal magnetic compass that directs them home even when there are no sun or stars to guide them.
"This study is the first clear demonstration that reef fish larvae possess magnetic senses to orient them at night," study co-author Michael Kingsford from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, said in a statement. "Up until now, we only knew adult birds, marine mammals, sharks and boney fish have this in-built sense of direction."
For their study, the researchers gathered larval specimen of Ostorhinchus doederleini - Doederlein's cardinalfish - from the One Tree Island on the Great Barrier Reef. In order to test if an internal compass was responsible for their exceptional navigational skills, the authors of the study used a device that allowed them change to direction of a magnetic field surrounding the tank the larvae were floating in.
Cardinalfish
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Dec. 19-25. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. NFL Football: Denver at Kansas City, NBC, 21.41 million.
2. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia, NBC, 17.95 million.
3. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Game," NBC, 16.62 million.
4. "Thursday Night Post-Game," NFL Network, 15.9 million.
5. "Football Night in America, Part 3," NBC, 13.26 million.
6. NFL Football: Carolina vs. Washington, ESPN, 11.21 million.
7. "Thursday Night NFL Pregame," NBC, 10.07 million.
8. "NCIS," CBS, 9.76 million.
9. "America's Got Talent" (Monday), NBC, 9.54 million.
10. "Oprah Winfrey Special: Michelle Obama Interview," CBS, 9.47 million.
11. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 7.87 million.
12. "Football Night in America, Part 2," NBC, 7.64 million.
13. "Scorpion," CBS, 7.53 million.
14. "Thursday Night Pre-Game," NBC, 7.49 million.
15. "Bull," CBS, 6.97 million.
16. "Tony Bennett: Celebrate 90," NBC, 6.69 million.
17. "The Wall," NBC, 6.53 million.
18. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 6.34 million.
19. "Man With a Plan," CBS, 6.17 million.
20. "Code Black," CBS, 5.98 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Debbie Reynolds
Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds, who sang and danced her way into the hearts of millions of moviegoers around the world in musicals like "Singin' in the Rain," died on Wednesday at age 84, Variety reported citing her son.
Reynolds, one of the most enduring and endearing Hollywood actresses, died hours after being rushed to the hospital in Los Angeles after suffering a possible stroke, according to media reports. Her death came just one day after her daughter, the actress Carrie Fisher, died of a heart attack.
Reynolds, who rose to stardom in the film "Singin' In the Rain," appeared in dozens of films. She starred opposite Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, Donald O'Connor, Fred Astaire and Dick Van Dyke. She received a best actress Academy Award nomination for the 1964 musical "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
She is survived by her son, Todd Fisher, an actor and producer. Her daughter Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" fame, died a few days after suffering a heart attack.
At the peak of her stardom, Reynolds was drawn into a scandal when her husband, singer Eddie Fisher, began an affair with actress Elizabeth Taylor. Reynolds and Fisher divorced in 1959 and he married Taylor.
Reynolds and Taylor, who eventually divorced Fisher, made peace years later and appeared together in the 2001 television movie "These Old Broads," written by Carrie Fisher.
Mary Frances Reynolds was born on April 1, 1932. She was 16 and in the Miss Burbank beauty contest when she was discovered by a talent scout. Warner Brothers changed her name to "Debbie," and she had a bit part that year in "June Bride."
It was 1952's "Singin' in the Rain," however, that catapulted Reynolds to stardom, playing opposite Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor and recording the original soundtrack album for the film.
Reynolds' song "Tammy" from her 1957 movie "Tammy and the Bachelor" hit No. 1 on the singles charts. That year, she became a regular on "The Eddie Fisher Show" broadcast by NBC.
Her second marriage, to shoe businessman Harry Karl, ended in the early 1970s after he gambled away most of her money. Financial reasons compelled her to keep working.
In 1984 she married her third husband, real estate developer Richard Hamlett, and they bought a Las Vegas hotel and casino, where she also performed. That marriage ended amid the financial collapse of that property and Reynolds filed for bankruptcy protection in 1997.
In 1992 she made a cameo appearance in the movie "The Bodyguard" and the next year she had a supporting role in "Heaven and Earth."
The 1996 Albert Brooks comedy "Mother," brought Reynolds back to the big screen in a lead role.
The rest is history: "Halloweentown" movies for Disney, a recurring role in the sitcom "Will & Grace," more TV movies and, in 2012, a role in the feature film "One for the Money."
Debbie Reynolds
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