DDD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR JAN/18/2017

THE MAIN EVENT

• Last week, Julian Assange tweeted "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case." Yesterday Obama granted clemency to Chelsea Manning. Well played, Mister President. Your move, Julian. I wonder what odds they're giving at Ladbrokes? 
• A Nigerian air force bomber on a mission against the Boko Haram Islamic extremist terrorist group has accidentally attacked a refugee camp, killing scores. Satan, laughing, spreads his wings. 
• UK Prime Minister Theresa May's BREXIT speech continues to reverberate through the corridors of global power... and online, at the Apple Store, where the British Pound won't go as far as it used to.

A DEEPER DIVE

• Israel's scandal plagued, right-wing extremist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the growing international call for the establishment of a Palestinian state as "the last flutters of yesterday's world." Oh yeah? Well... that's just, like, your opinion, man!
• The gunman who attacked a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey on New Year's Eve, killing 39, has been captured in a police sting operation, and has confessed, saying he did what he did in the name of ISIS.
• If you plan on going to Washington in order to protest Donald Fucking Trump's inauguration, be aware that a James O'Keefe--a well funded, Far Right agitator with a known history of infiltration, agitation, and the creation of lie-packed propaganda on behalf of, and in concert with, more "reputable" conservative and Republican groups--is up to his dirty tricks again. See the above graphic and this link for more information... and be safe!  

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SUGGESTED READINGS

1. Ah, thank Cthulhu for Matt Taibi! I don't know if I could take it if he ever went the mushy-headed, leftier-than-thou, Putin-apologizing way of Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange. His latest for Rolling Stone--entitled The Russia Story Reaches a Crisis Point--is a must-read, no matter where you stand on the much-debated Trump Dossier, and the ethics of the media treatment of those materials. And it ends with a bang, too. Taibi writes:

...Ynet in Israel is reporting that Israeli intelligence officials are deciding not to share intelligence with the incoming Trump administration. The report indicates they came to this conclusion after a recent meeting with American intelligence officials, who told them the Russians have "leverages of pressure" to use against Trump. 

This is an extraordinary story. If our intelligence community really believes this, then playtime is over. 

No more Clapper-style hedging or waffling. If Israel gets to hear why they think Trump is compromised, how is the American public not also so entitled? 

But if all they have are unverifiable rumors, they can't do this, not even to Donald Trump.

There's more. Be sure to read the whole thing. It's killer!

2. How cool is The Watchmen? Not the movie, but the graphic novel. Turns out it's pretty fucking cool... especially if you dig obsessive creative genius. I've been a fan for decades, and I learned some new stuff from this listicle, which is rare!

3. As if life wasn't terrifying enough these days, here's a batch of supremely terrifying short films to keep you even MORE awake at night! Some of them are lame, but some others really dug their clutches deep into the old grey matter... like, for instance, this one...

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TWEET OF THE DAY

Protests 2009: Our black President is a secret Muslim terrorist!

Protests 2017: Please don't kill me. pic.twitter.com/YSbEMTjQjp

— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) January 15, 2017

DDD EXTRAS

• If you want to learn about some cool and/or weird things that happened on the 18th day of January, check out our sister-site, Useless Eater Blog.
• Over at Kubrick U, we've got a whole bunch of cool artwork related to The Shining, as well as the somber news of the passing of legendary Leonard, of "Hair by" fame. All this and more, in the latest Kubrick News In Brief.

THE TAKEAWAY

I lost an ENTIRE COMPLETE fucking DDD Executive Summary today somehow. Not even sure how I did it. Sorry if this one feels rushed, but it was.

DDD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY JAN/09/2017

THE MAIN EVENT

• Get ready for the biggest shit-show since election night as a whole bunch of Trump's cabinet picks are about to be subjected to some degree of scrutiny during Senate confirmation hearings. More details about this sickening confederacy of kleptocrats, coming soon!
• Meanwhile, in the UK, the ongoing Brexit debacle continues to wreak havoc, and how are the right-wingers over there reacting to the unavoidable consequences of their own little Trump Lite race-based mini-tantrum? Why, by BLAMING THE MEDIA, of course! Because of course they would.

A DEEPER DIVE

• At the Golden Globes award show on Sunday, a handful of entertainment industry professionals decided to use the media attention afforded them as a platform to express their thoughts about the ongoing state of the union, thus triggering a near endless supply of tantrums from the whiny, reactionary crybullies of the Far Right Mediasphere. You know, I always find it ironic when self-described "conservative" pundits--people whose entire job consists of having and expressing an opinion--try to say that everyone else should keep their opinions to themselves. 

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SUGGESTED READINGS

1. This Politico feature article, sub-titled "How an 89-year-old Cold Warrior became America's Nuclear Conscience", is absolutely hair-raising, beginning as it does:

At this naked moment in the American experiment, when many people perceive civilization on the verge of blowing up in some metaphorical sense, there is an elderly man in California hoping to seize your attention about another possibility. 

It is that civilization is on the verge of blowing up in a non-metaphorical sense.

William J. Perry is 89 now, at the tail end of one of his generation’s most illustrious careers in national security. By all rights, the former U.S. secretary of Defense, a trained mathematician who served or advised nearly every administration since Eisenhower, should be filling out the remainder of his years in quiet reflection on his achievements. 

Instead, he has set out on an urgent pilgrimage. Bill Perry has become, he says with a rueful smile, “a prophet of doom.”

Read it. Just do it. And pass it along to people whom you deem worthy.

2. Within the very title of his righteously indignant and meticulously argued Mother Jones essay, Kevin Drum rips apart a recent Los Angeles Times editorial. He goes through the article, line by line, and mercilessly dissects it, simultaneously asking, then answering, the following question: "Did Putin Swing the Election to Trump?" His answer? "Of Course He Did." I love this kind of thing, where someone rebuts another person's writing in a thorough and methodical way, taking apart flawed or misleading arguments, piece by piece, exposing the bullshit. I think my own most successful attempt at writing something like Drum's piece was my response to the Washington Post's Richard Cohen's ridiculous attack on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which I called "Requiem for a Self-Loathing Liberal". It is still among my favorite pieces of my own writing. 

3. The band Shytegeist has released its first video, It's called "I am Waiting." Words are by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and is read by Matt Aston. There's a lot of hard-hitting celebrity talent joining in. Enjoy.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I suppose I'll be able to say that I won at the last ever Golden Globes. I don't mean to be gloomy, it's just that it has the words Hollywood, foreign and press in the title."

- Meryl Streep got all the media attention, but the funniest comment of last night's Golden Globes, in yer old pal Jerky's opinion, came from international treasure Hugh Laurie, who put his British wit to good use while accepting the trophy for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Movie or Limited Series for "The Night Manager", which I hear is pretty good.

DDD EXTRAS

1. If you want to learn about some cool and/or weird things that happened on the 9th day of January, check out our sister-site, Useless Eater Blog.
2. A "hilarious" misunderstanding involving a conservative who fought tooth and nail against Obamacare because he thought it was messing with his beloved Affordable Care Act. Beautiful irony, man... just beautiful.
3. A guest editorial by Daily Dirt veteran contributor A.C. Doyle serves as a fitting farewell and a nice tribute to the One Democrat Who's Got a Reason to Look Forward to the Inauguration.

THE TAKEAWAY

The credibility crisis has reached critical mass. Solutions?