Arthur@AmeriNZ Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

October rambling: wrackful

A Whole Lotta Fibbin’ Going On

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 23: An excavator works to clear rubble after the East Wing of the White House was demolished on October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. The demolition is part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to build a multimillion-dollar ballroom on the eastern side of the White House. (Photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images)

Wrackful. Meaning – adjective: Ruinous. In Sonnet 65, Shakespeare laments time’s “the wrackful siege of battering days.” You can almost hear the timbers groan and the sigh of loss.

AWS outage spotlights the global economy’s fragile foundations

The AI that we’ll have after AI

How a Fringe Movement of Gun Nuts, Backwoodsmen, and Free Marketers Paved the Way for Autocracy

American e-waste is causing a ‘hidden tsunami’ of junk in Southeast Asia

The World Is Running Out of Fresh Water. What Happens If We Do? The pace of freshwater depletion is staggering. An area twice the size of California is drying up annually.

Does Brazil have an app that can upend digital finance?

One of 20 Million in the US With Long COVID. RFK Pulled the Rug From Under Us.

Americans remain pessimistic about the country’s direction and the state of the country.

Why So Many Gen Z-ers Are Drawn to Conservative Christianity

A Whole Lotta Fibbin’ Going On

The Big Budget Act Creates a “Deportation-Industrial Complex” —The result will be a lopsided, enforcement-only machine that will be hard to dismantle.

“Divisive”? (BHO)

The shrinking future of Ph. D.s

Medicare Advantage: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Response

The Resistance Stiffens and “No Kings” — Loving America

Labor Unions, EFF Sue Administration to Stop Ideological Surveillance of Free Speech Online

John Dickerson: What Hamilton warned in the Federalist Papers #1

June Lockhart obituary: American stage and screen actor who enjoyed huge success on the television shows Lassie, Lost in Space, and Petticoat Junction.

Baseball Obituary: Mike Greenwell (1963-2025)

The Jewish Prisoners Who Escaped From a Nazi Death Camp

Ernest Shackleton’s journey was most likely doomed before it began

Why Paris Designed Its Peculiarly Popular Grand Graveyards to Evoke a Celebration of Life Amid All the Death

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Erie Canal, History of the canal system of the State of New York together with brief histories of the canals of the United States and Canada / by Noble E. Whitford v.1 (1906)

These Airport Codes Make No Sense

Now I Know: Where the Other Two Musketeers Went and Hackers, Pre-Internet Edition and The $10,000 Blade of Grass (Dali and Ono) and The “Baseball versus Beer” Loophole and Our Anti-Photographic Memories?

The dog that was twenty times smarter than Lassie

Wrecking crew

The East Wing of the White House has been demolished. Here’s a look at its history

Demolition Seen as Potent Metaphor for His Destructive Presidency

Daily Kos: “Normal people looked at the demolition… and asked, ‘Hey, shouldn’t an official body, like the National Capital Planning Commission, have to sign off on the demolition?’

“No, you sweet summer child. According to him and his allies on the NCPC, the planning commission need only sign off on the construction of buildings, not their demolition.

“What kind of person who heads a planning commission charged with the overall planning of the nation’s capital would agree to this?

“Oh, that would be Will Scharf. Scharf is the White House staff secretary, and he is also now the head of the NCPC. Does Scharf have any experience in urban planning or architecture, or anything really?

“Nope. You all get one guess as to why Scharf has not one, but two high-level government jobs? Yes, he was one of his former criminal defense attorneys.”

Borowitz: FOTUS “would continue his father’s proud tradition of gleeful destruction [Steeplechase Park] when he demolished the Bonwit Teller Building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to clear the site for his Tower. After saying he’d try to preserve the building’s priceless Art Deco friezes so that they could be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he discovered that it would cost $32,000 to remove them intact. As a clever solution to his problem, he had his workmen smash them to bits.”

MUSIC

Take Me Down To Stewy’s – Jackson Simpson (feat. Azel & Grey Mizzy), a tribute to the many Stewart’s Shops, a chain of convenience stores located in Upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

Last Time (I Seen the Sun) – Alice Smith and Miles Caton

That Thing You Do! – The Wonders

I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow – The Soggy Bottom Boys with Dan Tyminski

La Academia – Peter Sprague

Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor, Moonlight, by Ludwig van Beethoven

That Song In Every Musical That No One Likes – Sarah Smallwood Parsons

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Take 27) – The Beatles [Anthology 2025]

Bonehemian Rhapsody– 28-Trombone collaboration

Coverville 1553: The Bruno Mars Cover Story and 1554: The Tom Petty Cover Story V

New Moon in the Old Moon’s Arms by Michael Kamen

Over, Under, Sideways, Down -The Yardbirds

How Lucky Can You Get -Jason Graae, the voice of the Leprechaun in the Lucky Charms commercials for several years

Take On Me– a-ha

You’ll Be Back (from Hamilton) – Primer (Barbershop Quartet)

Theme to Top Cat – Hoyt Curtin

On Your Shore -Enya

Theme from Jurassic Park – John Williams

Oh Sheila – Ready for the World

J. Eric Smith’s blog, Genre Delve #4: Gospel, with links to the intro, Jazz, and Africa

What Makes Surf Rock Sound Instantly Recognizable?

September rambling: Tohubohu

a dangerous assault on democratic oversight

Word of the Day: Tohubohu – A state of chaos; utter confusion.

Threatening Vulnerable People Is No Way to Mourn Someone Who Was Murdered. Those who had nothing to do with the violence against Charlie Kirk are being menaced—just like always.

Big Tech Data Centers Compound Decades of Environmental Racism in the South

Scholars’ group cites mass civilian killings, starvation, and official incitement as evidence, while Israel and the United States reject the genocide label.

Pentagon press clampdown sparks First Amendment alarm. Journalists and free press advocates warn that new restrictions requiring pre-approval of even unclassified information represent a dangerous assault on democratic oversight.

Robert Reich on FOTUS’ Calamitous Crypto Corruption

Cartoon: The road to fascism

FOTUS to U.N.: ‘Your Countries Are Going to Hell.’ Read his full address at the U.N. General Assembly.

Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez lays out what she found about the degree to which every New Yorker is being tracked, the harms that tracking is already inflicting, and the reasons to fear that things might get much worse, here and across the nation.

Modern dogs now occupy roles historically reserved for close human relationships and often receive greater moral concern than people.

RFK Jr., HHS secretary, “is correct that reported autism rates have exploded in the last 30 years — they’ve increased roughly 60-fold — but he is dead wrong about the causes,” the psychiatrist Allen Frances writes in The Times Opinion. “I should know, because I am partly responsible for the explosion in rates.”

FOTUS Has ‘Strong Feelings’ About Autism; the Issue Is Personal

Rural Health Clinics Begin to Fall Under Crushing Weight of Big, Ugly Bill

Nanoplastics are not just in seafood; a new study finds small plastic particles penetrate crops

Potential Trouble for Retirees: A Wealth Adviser’s Guide to the OBBB’s Impact on Retirement

History

In October, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine will reach an extraordinary milestone: 1 trillion webpages preserved. Record a video answering the question: “Why is the Wayback Machine important to you?”

The last look at American poverty? New data shows 41% of Americans are poor or low-income, revealing deep racial and regional disparities ahead of sweeping federal cuts.

Netanyahu: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Thieves Steal and Destroy Solid Silver Statue of Abraham Lincoln Created by Mount Rushmore Sculptor Gutzon Borglum

American Hindenburg -“the worst air disaster you’ve never heard of”

Jordan Klepper’s The Daily Show interview of John Fugelsang talking about his book Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds. There is a lovely George Harrison reference as well.

10 of the Oldest Cities in the U.S.

Why Romania Excels in International Olympiads

Internet Archive Designated as a Federal Depository Library

The Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation Settlement Administrator has sent me $38.36 USD. I’m RICH!

John Masius, St. Elsewhere, Emmy-winning writer, and Touched By An Angel creator, dies at 75

‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Ben Scripps Dies at 52 After Losing Battle With Cancer

Baseball’s Davey Johnson (1943-2025)

Now I Know: Why The Dot Got Dashed

Jimmy Kimmel

The Death of Free Speech – Legal Eagle

The FCC: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

He is Back!

HCR

Heather Cox Richardson, about the first of her Letters from an American newsletter six years ago: “In that first letter where I warned of rising authoritarianism, I wrote: ‘So what do those of us who love American democracy do? Make noise. Take up oxygen…

“If you are tired from the last six years, you have earned the right to be.

“And yet you are still here, reading, commenting, protesting, articulating a new future for the nation. And I am proud to be among you.

“I write these letters because I love America. I am staunchly committed to the principle of human self-determination for people of all races, genders, abilities, and ethnicities: the idea that we all have the right to work to become whatever we wish. I believe that American democracy has the potential to be the form of government that comes closest to bringing that principle to reality. And I know that achieving that equality depends on a government shaped by fact-based debate rather than by extremist ideology and false narratives.”

MUSIC

Freedom of Speech – Marsh Family parody of “Under the Sea” from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”

Sonny Curtis, member of the Crickets who wrote the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme song, dies at 88; here he was on CBS Sunday Morning in 2022

Love Is All Around – Sonny Curtis; Mary Tyler Moore Show – Seasons 4-7 Intro & Theme

I Fought The Law – Bobby Fuller Four (1966), written by Sonny Curtis; I Fought The Law – the (post-Buddy Holly) Crickets (1959), featuring Curtis

Ouvertüre zum Lustspiel “Ein Morgen, ein Mittag, ein Abend in Wien” by Franz von Suppé

From – Bon Iver

Wuthering Heights score by Alfred Newman, composed for the 1939 film of the same book.

Makin’ Whoopee – Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, September 9, 2025 – Radio Free Birdland #34

Need A Ride – Kathleen Edwards

Wuthering Heights suite from the 1939 film by Alfred Newman

Elegy by Mark Camphouse

Helter Skelter – The Beatles (Second Version, Take 17) [Anthology 2025]

K-Chuck Radio: Celebrating Earth, Wind & Fire Day

Ivonny Bonita – Karol G

Full Moon by Ludovico Einaudi

Sesame Street: Pentatonix Counts (and Sings) to Five

Flash Gordon – Queen

Coverville 1549: Interview with Jeff Kanan of The Keep Recording and 1550: Cover Stories for Fee Waybill of The Tubes and B.B. King

J. Eric Smith’s Best Albums of 2025 (Third Quarter)

St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) – John Parr

Protein Synthesis (1971)

Money For Nothing – Dire Straits

August rambling: down 1000%

both fans and athletes being left at the gate

Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Immigration Enforcement: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

In a democracy, the people shape their government. But in the long run, the government also shapes its people. What kind of citizens does a democracy need to have, if it will sustain itself? And An Authoritarian Economy is a Bad Economy

Maga’s boss class thinks they are immune to American carnage

FTC Data Show a More Than Four-Fold Increase in Reports of Impersonation Scammers Stealing Tens and Even Hundreds of Thousands from Older Adults

An Ancient Law Could Shape the Modern Future of America’s Beaches. Here’s How. The growing battle over how to manage sea level rise turns partly on a legal principle set down in Roman times.

I spent a year in Antarctica. Here’s what I learned living through nine months of darkness and -112F temperatures

New book explores the science behind ‘super aging’ and longer, healthier lifespans | PBS News Weekend

Library of America to publish new edition of William Kennedy’s ‘Albany Trilogy’

“YOU OVER-OFFICIOUS JERK!” (or, Happy 100th Birthday, Marv Levy, the great former coach of the Buffalo Bills)

Jim Lovell, who flew on Apollo 8, the first manned mission to orbit the Moon, and commanded Apollo 13, died at 97

Loni Anderson, who died at 79 after a long illness, gained her greatest recognition on screen in the American sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.

JEOPARDY Coincidences

Now I Know: Do Not Touch, Eat, or Even Smell The Flowers and Extreme Paint Ball, Literally, and Crashing a Car to Save a Life

Flat earth

Speaking to members of Congress last month, he boasted, “This is something that nobody else can do. We’re gonna get the drug prices down. Not 30 or 40% which would be great, not 50 or 60, no. We’re gonna get ‘em down 1000%, 600%, 500%, 1500%.” Steven Rattner, counselor for the Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration, says he’s “economically illiterate.”

Yo Semite

He Orders New Census Excluding Undocumented Immigrants. New York Law School Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow Jeffrey Wice: “The Congress debated whether or not to count citizens only, and the decision was made back in the 1860s that the reapportionment was to be based on the whole number of persons, regardless of their status.” The old poli major who was a State Center rep for two decades is really ticked.

The Texas plan to hand the GOP five more safe seats is part of the Massive Fraud that’s tearing America apart. It’s all a part of the Regime’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election.

A Confederate statue toppled during Black Lives Matter protests will be reinstalled, but remembering black and women heroes is DEI. Got it.

WH to Vet Smithsonian Exhibits to Ensure They ‘Align’ With His Interpretation of US History’

FCC Considers Supercharging Corporate TV Consolidation. Media conglomerates are pushing to eliminate rules limiting local TV station consolidation.

‘Utterly Unqualified‘ Project 2025 Economist Named as New Labor Stats Chief

People will die

Pulling the Plug on mRNA Vaccine Development Is ‘Reckless,’ Experts Say. Puts the U.S. at a disadvantage as the H5N1 pandemic threat looms. RFK Jr. does not understand the science. His Impact So Far: ‘The Worst Possible Case’; David Wallace-Wells and Emily Oster argue that the effects of MAHA will be long-lasting. They use fringe science.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin moves to rescind the ‘legal foundation for all US greenhouse gas regulations’

Should the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics go forward?

I am ambivalent.

NYT: What Immigration Crackdown Means for the 2028 Olympics.

Axios: A new $250 visa fee could curb World Cup and Olympic travel. The U.S. travel industry is warning that the fee could deter millions of international visitors just as the country gears up to host the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics.

USA Today: Olympics organizers are willing to treat FOTUS like a toddler to protect 2028 LA Games | Opinion. “By letting him think he’s in charge of … something, Games officials could avoid headaches over athlete visas and fan safety while keeping him from meddling elsewhere…

“Olympic athletes and their coaches are supposed to be exempt from Trump’s latest travel ban, while Olympic fans are usually greeted with open arms by host countries. Yet the recent refusal to allow Cuba’s women’s volleyball team and Senegal’s women’s basketball team into the United States, along with ICE agents who target immigrants, as well as citizens and tourists, has raised concerns that Olympic athletes and fans won’t have a safe harbor for the Los Angeles Games.

“Before anyone squawks about canceling the Games or moving them, save your breath.”

Democratic reputation

Inside The Game (February 2025): “The [regime] didn’t prioritize visa processing in its first term… So I can’t imagine that there’s going to be some full-court press to get these visas processed in a short amount of time,” David J. Bier, Associate Director for Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute, told The Los Angeles Times last month.

“The fear among organisers and sporting bodies alike is that even stricter immigration policies end up resulting in the worst-case scenario of both fans and athletes being left at the gate, with the ensuing and considerable revenue loss if the situation escalates; not to mention a major hit to the nation’s democratic reputation.”

MUSIC

Eddie Palmieri, Latin Music’s Dynamic Innovator, Dies at 88. He roped salsa into conversation with jazz, rock, funk, and modern classical music. I saw him perform when I was in college.

A Jazz Symphony by George Antheil

Everytime You Go Away – Paul Young

K-Chuck Radio: The hidden evolution of Black Betty

Strawberry Fields Forever – Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, featuring Debbie Harry

Shout – Tears For Fears

Ellen Plays Bass – the channel of a girl, starting at nine (now 13), who’s pretty good

Beautiful Maria of My Soul from the film The Mambo Kings

Coverville 1544: Help! 60th Anniversary

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jimmy Fallon, and The Roots Perform a Hamilton Medley (Classroom Instruments)

K-Chuck Radio: How a vintage doo-wop song turned into the OTHER Kingsmen hit

The Chicks – Goodbye Earl

Music is a language of its own: 12 terms explained.

July rambling: the Sin of Condemnation

The 1934 National Firearms Act unconstitutional?

The Stones in Our Hands: Misreading John 8 and the Sin of Condemnation

‘Motherhood Should Come With a Warning Label’

CBS News’ John Dickerson Takes on Paramount Settlement: “Can You Hold Power to Account After Paying It Millions?” (especially from 36:45) Dan Rather calls it “a Sell-Out to Extortion.” Steve Kroft tells Jon Stewart that it was a “shakedown.”

“The regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons; at the very time, we need a much better understanding of it,” said one environmentalist. “This is so reckless and dangerous.”

A 2024 report published by Texas A&M University found that extreme rainfall events in the state have already increased by about 10 percent due to climate change. That number could double in the coming decades, reaching a 20 percent increase compared to a century ago.

Deep cuts erode the foundations of the US public health system, end progress, and threaten worse to come.

Kelly has links, including the sad closing of the Ontario Science Centre, which my family LOVED when we went to Toronto in 2011.

VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer released a viral video about race in America in 2020, just after George Floyd was killed. If anything, it’s more relevant now.

Meet the Moon Mammoths, the baseball mascot masterminded by John Oliver’s show

Now I Know: The Bovine Unity of Milk and Glue? and Brunch: Because We Like the Party and Why the National Animal of Scotland is… Wait, Really? and This Airport SUX

Leading to the semiquincentennial

Full interview: Ken Burns on “Face the Nation” about his new film on the American Revolution and the importance of telling the story of American history.

July 4th in the Face of Fascism: Moral resources for Americans who know we’ve been betrayed – Our Moral Moment w/ Bishop William Barber & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

“If fireworks ring hollow, you’re not alone. Light a candle instead.”

HCR: The MAGA Ideology That Brought Us to This Moment. It’s Our Job to Make Sure People Know the Truth

I am the man on Fifth Avenue.

Americans Have Never Been Less Proud of Their Country

Retired Supreme Court justice gripes about the hot mess he helped create

“While the lighthouse shining the way is admittedly hard to make out through the cruel fog that envelopes us, it is out there, sturdy upon the shore, and still blazing brightly. We must trust that we will rediscover its guiding power and, together, steer this ship safely home. We’ll do it together, and in our strong and welcome company, we will find the courage and conviction we need.” – Jay Kuo

Purblind bunny boiler

Heather Cox Richardson: “Within hours of [FOTUS] signing the [OBUB] into law, Gun Owners Of America and… other pro-gun organizations filed a lawsuit claiming the measure makes the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) unconstitutional. That law regulated machine guns and short-barrel guns by imposing a tax on them and making owners register their weapons. The Supreme Court upheld that law as a tax law. The budget reconciliation bill ended those taxes and thus, the plaintiffs’ claim, the constitutional justification for the law.”

10 Charts to Understand the 900-Page Budget Bill

GOP budget bill would give top 1% over $1 trillion in tax breaks, analysis finds. It will steal from the poor and give to the rich.

FOTUS/DOGE foreign aid cuts could cause 14 million deaths by 2030, study warns

The trolling is coming from inside the White House

Cold as ICE

A surge in ICE detentions of those with no criminal record, despite stated priorities. Still, “as a result of the agency’s stonewalling, the Guardian, alongside the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, last week filed a lawsuit against ICE for unlawfully withholding documents that represent a clear and overwhelming matter of public interest.”

FOTUS ramps up deportation spectacle with new stunts and ICE funding

He only has ICE for you. And: ICE Agents Deserve No Privacy. Attempts by the public to keep tabs on ICE are provoking predictable and pathetic responses from the government.

MUSIC

Lou Harrison’s Pacifika Rondo

Coverville 1539: Carly Simon Cover Story and 1540: The Blondie Cover Story III

Mockingbird – Weavers Gallery

Chorale and Shaker Dance by John Zdechlik

Another Day of Sun, the opening number from La La Land.

Sit Down, John from 1776

Weird Al Medley (A CAPELLA) White & Nerdy, Party in the CIA, Like A Surgeon, Tacky, Eat It – Jared Halley

Sussudio – Phil Collins

The Longest Time – Boyz II Men and Billy Joel

June rambling: wealth to the top

Henry Johnson

The Republican budget shifts wealth to the top, with workers paying the price. A new congressional analysis reveals massive tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, while working families are expected to shoulder cuts, tariffs, and rising costs under GOP economic plans. ITEP analysis.

America is a scam

Peace through… by Sharp Little Pencil

The Rot Goes Deeper Than FOTUS: Just winning the next set of elections won’t fix the underlying problems.

West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate

DOJ keeps busy suing states for not being bigoted enough

If Blanche Were Here by Sharp Little Pencil

The Court fails transgender youth.

Hard Truths About Immigration by Adam Ragusea, a podcaster/content creator to whom folks usually look for tips on the best way to cook dinner

Congresswoman Kim Schrier (D-WA) questions our Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Asked to flag ‘negative’ National Park content, visitors gave their own 2 cents instead.

World of Ideas

Bill Moyers, the longtime PBS and CBS Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker, dies at 91. “He showed a generation of journalists, scholars, and public intellectuals what it means to speak truth to power.” I have his book World of Ideas and its sequel in my office, at arm’s length.

We Don’t Have To Give In To Smartphones. They haven’t defeated us. Yet. By Jonathan Haidt, Will Johnson, and Zach Rausch

That’s It, The F-Word Is Officially Boring

The unexpected package Mark Evanier received was probably brushing

I Was A Juror On A Murder Trial (possibly related: just this month, I filled out a survey to be on jury duty)

The Hollywood Blockbuster They Forgot To Copyright

Six Miles of Field Goals

Now I Know: The Earth’s Great Bear Coincidence and The Original Slush Fund and How to Watch Golf During a Basketball Game (Maybe) and The Girl With Twin Fathers and The Restaurant With A Rotating Grandma On The Menu

SCOTUS

The Supreme Court restricted the ability of federal judges to issue broad nationwide freezes on executive orders, a significant victory for FOTUS that opens the door for states to at least temporarily enforce his order ending birthright citizenship.

Justice Sotomayor’s dissent, in part. “The Government now asks this Court to grant emergency relief, insisting it will suffer irreparable harm unless it can deprive at least some children born in the United States of citizenship…

“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates. Today, the threat is to birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, a different administration may try to seize firearms from law-abiding citizens or prevent people of certain faiths from gathering to worship. The majority holds that, absent cumbersome class-action litigation, courts cannot completely enjoin even such plainly unlawful policies unless doing so is necessary to afford the formal parties complete relief. That holding renders constitutional guarantees meaningful in name only for any individuals who are not parties to a lawsuit. Because I will not be complicit in so grave an attack on our system of law, I dissent.”

Justice Jackson adds, “The Court’s decision to permit the Executive branch to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law.”

RENAME

From here and elsewhere: “Henry Johnson of Albany, N.Y., was a genuine war hero — recipient of the Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor, and the first American to receive France’s highest award for valor. President Theodore Roosevelt called him one of the ‘five bravest Americans’ to serve in World War I…

“This [month], news came that Johnson’s name will be stripped from the U.S. Army fort [in Louisiana] that was named for him, part of the Trump administration’s decision to revert to names that honor military leaders of the Confederate States of America who waged war against the United States.”

Technically, “according to a press release on the Army’s website, the renaming of Fort Johnson will now pay homage to a World War II colonel and Silver Star recipient, James H. Polk, as opposed to [Confederate General] Leonidas Polk.” But this is a sham.

46th District New York Senator Pat Fahy, a Democrat, says that the news “felt like a gut punch.” “It is shameless, and it is it’s, you have to call it what it is. This is clearly trying to whitewash the history, clearly a complete dishonor…

“To help re-stake claim to that legacy, Fahy, Assembly colleagues Gabriella Romero of the 109th and John McDonald of the 108th, along with Republican Senator Jake Ashby of the 43rd district, have introduced legislation that would rename the Patroon Island Bridge after Johnson.

MUSIC

Lalo Schifrin, Acclaimed Composer of ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘Mannix’ Themes, Dies at 93

Lou Christie, Lightnin’ Strikes and Rhapsody In the Rain Singer, Dies at 82

In honor of Dr. Demento: The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati

Bobby Sherman, Teen Idol and ‘Here Come the Brides’ Actor, Dies at 81

Best Albums of 2025 (First Half)

Caledonia – VOCES8

Coverville 1535: A Rick Derringer Tribute and Spandau Ballet Cover Story, and 1538: Cover Stories for Air Supply and The Zombies

The Joker – Lady Gaga

MAYBE HAPPY ENDING’s Standbys Sing ‘The Rainy Day We Met’; Hannah Kevitt and Christopher James Tamayo are the standbys for Claire and Oliver

Sour Times – Portishead

Peter Sprague Plays Hurricane Country and A Felicidade featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Big Spender – Sam Phillips

God Almighty’s Gonna Cut You Down – The Jubalaires –

6 Underground – Sneaker Pimps

The Longest Time by Billy Joel, Julien Neel, Dan Wright, Sam Robson, and COVID-era Zach Timson

Defying Gravity – Brittain Ashford

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, from the Disney film Fantasia 2000

God Only Knows – the Beach Boys

Heaven – Bryan Adams

Lassie 1959 Opening and Closing Theme (With the Lone Ranger Snippet)

Remembering James Horner (1953-2015)

Book: Daniel de Visé’s ‘The Blues Brothers’