Bohemian Rhapsody, played on a century-old fairground organ:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed bipartisan legislation that would expand prevention, treatment and education about drug abuse involving heroin and prescription painkillers. Only problem is: There’s no funding for it. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 passed with a near-unanimous 94-1 vote, a rarity in a contentious election year when both… Continue Reading »

Paul Krugman:

The most a progressive can responsibly call for, I’d argue, is a standstill on further deals, or at least a presumption that proposed deals are guilty unless proved innocent.

The hard question to deal with here is the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the Obama administration has negotiated but Congress hasn’t yet approved. (I consider myself a soft opponent: It’s not the devil’s work, but I really wish President Obama hadn’t gone there.) People I respect in the administration say that it should be considered an existing deal that should stand; I’d argue that there’s a lot less U.S. credibility at stake than they claim.

The larger point in this election season is, however, that politicians should be honest and realistic about trade, rather than taking cheap shots. Striking poses is easy; figuring out what we can and should do is a lot harder. But you know, that’s a would-be president’s job.

A Buddhist monk in Oregon was attacked by a man who mistook him for a Muslim while he was visiting Hood River. Kozen Sampson, 66, has been a monk for 50 years. “I pulled over, someone ran up and yelled. I turned around, they kicked the door, hit me in the side of the face and… Continue Reading »

Ha ha, who cares about that global warming nonsense now?

The top U.S. health officials leading the response to the mosquito-borne Zika virus sweeping through the hemisphere said its growing links to a broad array of birth defects and neurological disorders are worse than they originally suspected, increasing the risk for devastating harm during pregnancy.

Until Zika, “there has never been a mosquito-borne virus that could cause serious birth defects on such a large scale,” Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday during a conference call with reporters.

Frieden and Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, used Thursday’s briefing to plead for urgently needed funds from Congress to battle Zika. They described the growing risk to pregnant women, the almost-certain link to Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological condition that can cause paralysis, and the lack of effective agents to fight mosquitoes that have developed resistance to commonly used insecticides.

It’s also clear from their frank warnings that officials are trying to lower expectations that they will be able to protect all pregnant women in the United States.

Get used to it. We’re going to see more diseases creep into our hemisphere for which we have no antibodies.

In a generation we’ve managed to go from candidate as product to candidate as former pitchman…to… The Donald. Trump felt no need to address Romney’s policy critiques — but the GOP front-runner did spend a solid ten minutes of his celebratory press conference defending Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka. The mogul went so far as to… Continue Reading »

McGraw was charged yesterday with assault & battery, and disorderly conduct. What an asshole:

A man charged with assaulting a protester at a Donald Trump rally Wednesday night says the protester deserved it.

“Yes, he deserved it. The next time we see him, we might have to kill him,” said John McGraw, 78, in an interview with “Inside Edition” on Wednesday night.

He added: “We don’t know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization.”

Asked if he enjoyed the rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, McGraw told the show, “You bet I liked it. Clocking the hell out of that big mouth.”

As far as why he punched protester Rakeem Moore as police escorted him from the premises, as shown in a video posted to YouTube, McGraw said, “We don’t know who he is, but we know he’s not acting like an American.”

“I was walking up the stairs. The railing was in front of me, as a matter of fact there was two other people in front of me, they walked past and I was really not paying attention to them so I’m walking and as soon as I turned, he hit me,” Jones told WRAL. “He hit me dead in my eye.”

Son Volt:

Still one of the best songs ever. Mark Knopfler:

Gram and Emmylou: