Alaskans desire to protect their precious bodily fluids is going to cost them

Many will have seen Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant satire Dr. Strangelove. Here is the clip of two famous scenes where the US general (played by Sterling Hayden) who has unleashed an unprovoked nuclear attack on the Soviet Union explains to a British officer (Peter Sellers) how the introduction of fluorine into the drinking water (promoted as a way of reducing tooth decay) was actually a cunning Communist plot to weaken Americans by destroying their precious bodily fluids.


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NBC and MSNBC are not progressive media

In the Donald Trump era NBC and MSNBC have tried to position themselves as the alternative to Fox News and have taken to giving negative coverage on him like the way that Fox News provides positive coverage. That may be a good ratings strategy to attract all those viewers who intensely dislike Trump but that should not delude us into thinking that it is a progressive news outlet. Far from it. Glenn Greenwald publicizes an astonishingly frank email written to various news outlets by veteran military and national security reporter and analyst William Arkin as he quits NBC News and MSNBC in disgust at what he sees as having become slavish pro-war propaganda outlets.
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These women look ready for action

I love this photograph of six new women members of Congress. They look like a team of crime fighters or superheroes ready to go into action to fight wrongs and bring justice.

To add to that image that some of these new members are ready to buck the old order, another new member Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib (who is not in the photograph) was sworn in on Thomas Jefferson’s Koran, as did Keith Ellison before her when he was sworn in back in 2007. That caused a controversy back then, fueled by those who sought to give the impression that the US was founded on explicitly Christian foundations. Since these bigots tend tp have very short memories, you can predict that they will boil over in outrage again and argue she is committing an unprecedented act of disrespect.

But clearly Tlaib was unfazed by that prospect and she even wore a traditional Palestinian dress called a thobe for the occasion.

Hasan Minhaj’s critique of Saudi Arabia censored by Netflix

I have been praising Hasan Minhaj’s new weekly show on Netflix for its hard-hitting exposes of important news items wrapped up in comedy. But he seems to have been a little too tough on Saudi Arabia’s leadership and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman following its murder of reporter Jamal Khashogi for that government’s taste. Minhaj’s sponsor Netflix seems to be too weak-kneed and cowardly because it has removed that particular episode from its Saudi Arabian service..
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Impressive demonstration by women in India protesting temple ban

The southern Indian state of Kerala has been roiled with turmoil for three months ever since the Indian Supreme Court ruled that a major Hindu temple’s ban on women of menstruating age entering it was unconstitutional. Because of that rule, women between the ages of 10-50 had been barred. The temple leaders and their male supporters have resisted the decision and stopped women from entering and as a result there have been clashes between them and the police trying to enforce the ruling, the latest occurring when two women entered the temple under police protection.


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The real Louis C. K. reveals himself

After the blizzard of revelations about sexual harassment and abuse by a whole slew of famous people, it was only a matter of time before many of them started to plan their comebacks into the public’s favor by various levels of statements and acts of contrition. One of those is comedian Louis C. K. who has used the mechanism of turning up unannounced at the Comedy Cellar venue for stand-up comics to try out new material as part of his road back, though the reaction has been mixed to say the least.
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Just get lost, John Kelly

As is almost always the case with those who served as enablers for Donald Trump, once they leave the administration they try to distance themselves from him and his actions in order to regain some of the credibility, integrity, and self-respect that they shredded by their association with him. The latest to do so is former chief of staff John Kelly who now says in an interview that he should be judged not by the actions that Trump took while he served him but by what he did not do.
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The old two-step being danced again

It is the same old script. The Republicans give out tax cuts like candy that mostly benefit the wealthy and then when the budget deficit increases, they express surprise at this development and claim that salary and services for everyone else must be cut in the name of fiscal discipline because there is no other solution. I’ve lost count of how many times this stunt has been pulled and am amazed that people haven’t revolted in anger at being treated as if they were too stupid to know what is going on. Donald Trump has followed the pattern and used that same reasoning to cancel salary increases for nearly 2 million federal workers.
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Abominable treatment of detained migrant children

The news that yet another Guatemalan child has died has once again focused attention on the utterly cruel treatment that is meted out to the child migrants who are in the custody of the Customs and Border Protection agency. Felipe González Morales, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, had already called for a full investigation of the first child’s death.
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