Sept. rambling: end of the American age?

Songs In The Key Of Life: The EP

AI Giants Probe ‘Tens of Thousands’ of Security Incidents—Some Involving Government Sites

At the End of the American Age

Jon Stewart: The City Began Covering Their A**es Three Weeks After 9/11

The Nerd Reich

Amazon drones are overwhelming a Texas suburb

UnitedHealthcare & UnitedHealth Group, and Brazil Elections 2026: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver;  John Oliver is a Lawsuit Gremlin, and LegalEagle loves it

The High Crime of ‘LMAO’: Cops Are Treating Flock Mass Surveillance Like a Joke

The great American road trip is in peril

Nik Durga: In defense of Mississippi, the place where I became a writer, which has a poignant mention of Emmett Till

They Kept Outsiders Away for 500 Years. Their World Is About to Change.

Meet the First Brand-New Cat Species Identified in More Than a Century

Peter Max, Trippy Artist of Counterculture Era and Beyond, Dies at 88

In Memoriam – 78th Emmy Awards

Taylor Swift joins Mariska Hargitay for a very special episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Bob Pettit, who was the N.B.A.’s first M.V.P., dies at 93

From MLB.com: Looking at the 2026 playoff teams, you might notice something: Three of them have never won a World Series. That’d be the Brewers, Rays, and Padres, who are three of the five teams that have never won it all. (To the other two, the Rockies and Mariners: There’s always next year.)

How One Trick Play Tells The History Of Football

Getting Rich and Going Broke, One Pack of Sports Cards at a Time

When First Comes in Third and Free Money’s Fine Print

Everything is better when you add Godzilla to it

Oy

U.S. rejects U.N. declaration on preparing for pandemics

A quiet ICE surge that unfolded “everywhere all at once” this summer

Supreme Court lets regime use flawed database for voter purges

EPA says repealing power plant emissions rules will save billions – but its estimate leaves out health and climate costs

Officials eject 750,000 people from Obamacare, claiming fraud

RFK Jr Assures Vaccine Skeptics That They Have a ‘Friend at the White House’

Kennedy Center delayed the repairs it now cites for its closure

FBI blindsided as hackers claim to steal data on ‘all employees’

Snipers and drones on his giant arch?

Who’s A ‘Communist’? Trump TV State News Channel

Unprecedented: Most Supreme Court Decisions Issued On ‘Shadow Docket’ 

Call for action on the Census 2030 plan

You may all have heard about a Federal Register Notice changing rules for the 2030 Census.

The proposed rules and a Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis can be found in the documents section of https://www.regulations.gov/document/USBC-2026-0628-0001

This is also where you can submit your comments and read others’ comments.

The biggest changes that might impact us all are:

  • Many residents are excluded from the count. The proposal only counts US citizens and Legal Permanent Residents
  • The proposal suggests that people should be counted where they spent most of the winter months
  • The proposal suggests not asking about race/ethnicity, but asks for comments on including a citizenship/legal status question

 Some of the potential impacts:

  • Funding inequities because of a mismatch between Census counts and numbers of people present
  • No census data on communities of color
  • Limited data for smaller communities (especially combined with the plans for a new disclosure avoidance system)
  • Lower quality population estimates and downstream impacts for survey controls, funding distributions, denominators for all kinds of rates, etc.
  • Loss of seats in the House of Representatives

A group of expert stakeholders created a website: Hands Off Our Census

There you can read all about the proposal, how you can comment, and many other resources.

MUSIC

Songs In The Key Of Life: The EP – Stevie Wonder

Dummy with a Wig on Top – Randy Rainbow

In An Autumn Garden by Toru Takemitsu 

The 1999 London West End production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! starring Hugh Jackman

The musical Annie in Korean

Come From Away: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert (2019)

You’ll Be Back from Hamilton –  Lemon Squeezy

Coverville 1594: The Chrissie Hynde/Pretenders Cover Story IV and 1595: Tributes for Duncan Sheik, Tim Curry, and Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory

Typewriter – Brandenburger Symphoniker

Rocket “88” – Jackie Brenston, sometimes cited as the ‘first’ rock ‘n roll record, from 1951, 75 years ago

Birdland – Quarantine Big Band Helsinki 

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #9: The Pogues 

Autumn Leaves – Nat King Cole

Peter Sprague Plays Good Vibrations featuring Leonard Patton

A Town With An Ocean View by Joe Hisaishi, a cue from Kiki’s Delivery Service

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana, in honor of the 35th anniversary of the album Nevermind; also Smells Like Nirvana – Weird Al Yankovic

Footloose (dancing in the movies)

Songs Mark Evanier’s mom sang to him

Take My Breath Away – Berlin

K-Chuck Radio: What happened to Timothy?

Stuck With You – Huey Lewis and the News 

Rick Beato Finally Defeated Every Copyright Claim on His Channel (ft. LegalEagle

The Beatles UK vs. US Albums: The Compleat Chart

August rambling: dowfart

Waiting for a Library Book?

Catbird: “When I viewed it again, it looked like a heart that had been run over by a tire, which reflected my yet-unrealized reaction to what doge had just started. My conscious mind didn’t know yet, but my hand did. What a revelation!”

Dowfart – Meaning: 1. A dimwit. 2. A coward.

Digital sewer socialism: Mamdani’s Public Interest Technologists are what DOGE should have been.

Talarico Explains Infamous ‘Powell Memo’ to Texas Voters. The top 1% put the American Dream behind a paywall,” said the Texas Democrat as he unveiled a framework for his economic vision.

History Wars: The Declaration of Independence

First Came the Flock Cameras. Now Local Cops Want Autonomous Drones. Hundreds of local police departments have received waivers to fly surveillance drones that navigate with AI. Also, are Flock cameras in your neighborhood?

The Manosphere and MAHA Have Merged. I Worry for My Pre-Teen Son

FDA Approves First mRNA Flu Vaccine — Approval is for people 50 years or older

 

‘The Good Maharaja’: How an Indian Prince Saved Hundreds of Polish Children During WWII. When the world looked away, Maharaja Digvijaysinhji Jadeja stepped forward to provide refuge and hope to young castaways

A High Schooler Invents a Plant-Based Plastic That Removes Microplastics From the Environment as It Biodegrades.

Waiting for a Library Book? This Man Makes Sure You Get It

Sydney Towle, who chronicled her cancer on TikTok, dies at 26

Tommy John, Dodgers pitcher and medical pioneer, dies at 83. After tearing an elbow ligament, he underwent a risky procedure and returned at his best, changing baseball and giving new hope to injured players.

Why Gen Z and millennials are embracing “grandma hobbies”

When His Church Goes Dark, They Talk to His Digital Twin

Can Robots Save an Aging Japan?

Ireland (The Words)

Memories of Goldmine

The Reality TV Show That Wasn’t Out of This World and The Driver That Can’t Give the Cops the Split and When Astronauts Smuggled Mail into Space and The Worst 2.6% of the Planet? and The Baseball Steroid Testing Loophole of 2003 and Jeopardy! is Full of Lies

FOTUS

Treasury Confirms $1.4 Trillion FY 2026 Deficit So Far, Higher Than 2025

& the DOJ: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Inside the New York court where children face deportation without access to attorneys

Draft dodger sure loves big battleships and military cosplay

Helicopter hiccup shows air traffic control is still a mess

Proposed arch could obstruct views of Washington’s historic sites

MUSIC

Funk music is as unapologetically Black as the musicians who pioneered it

The Enduring Power Of Stevie Wonder’s “As,” R&B’s Greatest Song Ever, and you could make a strong case for it being the greatest song ever recorded, period.

Claustrophobia – Bee Gees

Andy Warhol – David Bowie

Vienna — Billy Joel

Black Coffee In Bed  – Squeeze

Under A Violet Moon  -Blackmore’s Night

Radar Love – Golden Earring

That’s The Way I Always Heard It Should Be – Carly Simon

Coverville 1588: Queen’s Final 1986 Concert and 1589: The Glen Hansard Tribute

Glen Hansard edition

Grand March from the opera La reine de Saba by Charles Gounod

July rambling: Kalshification of news

Taken at Hampshire College, 17 Feb 2026

How Kalshi infects the news (Kalshification)

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of centrists who bemoan “political polarization” and call for a politics that abandons the “tribalism of left and right.”

Incarcerated People Lose Treasured Media When Prisons Change Tablet Contracts

Why most Black Americans say they never fly the American flag, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

Charlie Chaplin – Final Speech from The Great Dictator

Capitalism vs. Socialism? Get Serious.

Texas Public School Students Will Be Required to Read the Bible. The state passed what may be the first state-mandated book list for public school students. It focuses on classic literature and includes Bible excerpts.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called for a ban on data centers in rural areas.

Might as well

A list of resources for people and organizations involved in, or interested in, one or more operations for the 2030 Census.

May as Well Get COVID and Flu Shots on the Same Day, Study Says — Coadministration was not associated with an increased risk of side effects

The A.I.-Design Aesthetic That’s Taking Over the Internet. How Anthropic’s new tool, Claude Design, is creating overnight web-design clichés.

Street photographer Ray Di Pietro focuses his work sharply on his adopted hometown of Nashville. With little fanfare, he has attracted tens of thousands of devotees. His images are artfully composed, spontaneous, honest, and, well, kind.

George E. Johnson, Who Built a Black Hair-Care Empire, Dies at 99

 What I Learned About Masculinity at Thai Kickboxing School

‘Navigating the unknown together’: me and my idiot AI boyfriend

‘Separate in name and power’: How America reinvented English 

Every John Oliver Scene on General Hospital and his debut

The Empire State Plaza Fireworks show for 2026

David Brickman’s show of color photographs at McGreevy ProLab and ProPress

Witch Way to Victory? and The 18 Month Soccer Bet and Baseball’s Brady Bunch

The return of King George III

Forget Project 2025 — he is following the royal’s playbook

Declaring War on The Declaration

Justice Department subpoenas New York Times reporters over Air Force One reporting

From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday and Fireworks Fiasco Descends Into Chaos

Arsonist in chief

Plans for racist renovations to the Smithsonian

Propaganda history trucks may soon visit your neighborhood

“Islamic Republic of Japan”?

DJT airport could spell doom for Palm Beach. Via Heather Delaney Reese: The agreement gives the Trump Organization control over which vendors can manufacture and sell merchandise at the airport. It gives Trump veto power over any biographical material displayed inside the building. A non-disparagement clause bars the airport from publishing anything that could tarnish his reputation. His own staff writes the version of his story that travelers see. And the trademark applications cover watches, jewelry, collectible coins, cufflinks, purses, backpacks, suitcases, umbrellas, tote bags, clothing, robes, neckties, belts, and plastic slippers designed for use at security checkpoints. They trademarked slippers at a public airport.

Air Force officer arrested at Capitol after calling for FOTUS impeachment,  a civil-disobedience story

He Bought Hundreds of Stocks the Day Before He Paused Tariffs and Sparked a Historic Rally

His Dubious Promise to End Birthright Citizenship

Caught by gangland-style squeeze play/ Damned if they do, damned if they betray. (poem)

JD Vance appears most agitated because he believes America is engaged in a civilizational struggle — and it is losing.

MUSIC

The Washington National Cathedral marked the 250th anniversary of the United States with an interfaith service on July 3. Lifting themes of pluralism and the common good, We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident celebrates the nation’s ideals alongside an honest reckoning of its history and unfinished work.

250

 Total Eclipse of the Heart (Turn Around) – Bonnie Tyler, described as a “husky-voiced powerhouse vocalist” who died this month.  

Ballad of Orin score by Toru Takemitsu

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #8: Eric Dolphy

Overture to Pique Dame by Franz von Suppé

The New Christy Minstrels: The folk group that lasted for centuries

Coverville 1584: The Tears For Fears Cover Story III

My Life -Billy Joel (From the 100th — Live at Madison Square Garden, New York, NY-March 28, 2024)

Burn The Other End – Billy Strings 

Feller From Fortune, set for chorus by Harry Somers

A sizzling mix for summer listening

May rambling: the Great Society

No one wants a permanent gerontocracy

LibrariansHeather Cox Richardson: “On May 22, 1964, in a graduation speech at the University of Michigan, President Lyndon Johnson put a name to a new vision for the United States. He called it ‘the Great Society’ and laid out the vision of a country that did not confine itself to making money, but rather used its post–World War II prosperity to ‘enrich and elevate our national life.’ That Great Society would demand an end to poverty and racial injustice.”

Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical

Structured Settlements & Factoring Companies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

FOTUS claims Congress said yes to his big dumb arch—102 years ago

No one wants a permanent gerontocracy

Newark’s Mayor Arrested at Protest Outside ICE Detention Center; Gov. Sherrill denied access to facility; migrant jail detainees launch hunger, labor strike over conditions behind bars

Elon Musk is mad that mythological movie characters aren’t white

Tennessee Man Jailed for Sharing Charlie Kirk Meme Receives $835K Settlement. Larry Bushart missed the birth of his granddaughter and lost his job as a result of his 37 days in jail.

Anderson Cooper’s emotional farewell to 60 Minutes after 20 years

Veteran 60 Minutes Journalist Sharyn Alfonsi Says ‘Wall Has Come Down Between Editorial Independence and Corporate Interests’

Mark Evanier’s Trip Back East, mostly to see Jack Kirby’s name on a street sign, and a story about his  Uncle Nathan

Kobe Bryant + Kyle Busch =/= Abraham Lincoln + John F. Kennedy

“He Breathes, He Writes”: The Voluminous Memory and Deep Empathy of Ironweed Author William Kennedy

Is Kingston The New ART CAPITAL of Upstate NY?

Only In Monroe with Stephen Colbert

The Most Valuable Background Actor in History? and Don’t Let the Moose Lick Your Car and The Day America Locked Canada Out of Its Garages

I’ve been away

I’ll likely write about it in dribs and drabs. But this was oddly relevant.

Wordle 1,800 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩AROSE 94

🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩CLIME 4

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩NIECE

Wordle 1,801 3/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜AROSE 97

🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜TULIP 1

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 VISIT

MUSIC

Paul McCartney’s Joyous Performance in the Finale of ‘The Late Show’

Orion and Pleiades by Toru Takemitsu

Laurie Anderson: Tiny Desk Concert, May 22, 2026

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #4: This Heat (And Related Artists) and #5: Jonathan Richman

Top Of The World – Greenvines Duo

I Can’t Stand The Rain  – Ann Peebles (1974)

Coverville 1581: The Janet Jackson Cover Story and 1582: The Bob Dylan Cover Story IX

Come On – The Rolling Stones

West End Girls – Pet Shop Boys

K-Chuck Radio: S-S-S-S-S-Saigon…

Nik Durga: New Zealand Music Month and the songs I didn’t grow up with

Greatest Love Of All – Whitney Houston

WHERE THE HELL IS OUR CONGRESS? | A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

May rambling: Not Wisdom

RJ wins another SDMA

What I Can’t Show You (John Green visits Koidu Government Hospital and sees the Maternal Center of Excellence for the first time), and Despair is Not Wisdom (Hank Green).

The FDA withdrew studies showing that the Covid and shingles vaccines were safe.

Gas Station Drugs:  a world of questionable supplements and boner pills, and The Hadow Docket: a shortcut to the Supreme Court – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

I Was Told I Had 6 Months to Live. That Was 20 Years Ago. — Here’s what two brain surgeries taught me about public health and care access.

I caught myself thinking: “Some of these research papers are awfully good for what might be a student’s first effort.”

Some white nationalists swoop in after natural disasters, trying to soften their image while offering help (Lesley Stahl/60 Minutes)

8647

Demand destruction vs fuel-superseding infrastructure: Will FOTUS Hormuz us into the full Gretacene?
AI

Silicon Valley Is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass. AI is pushing millions of employees to the edge of a cliff as most sectors are racing to replace jobs with AI. As a wise friend of mine noted, “We need programs and plans to ensure everyone is active, connected, engaged with society when millions have no work. Some countries will get this right, while others will slide into a dystopian abyss of depression, isolation, and anger toward technology that will not bode well for a peaceful, productive humanity.”

I got punished for paying off my car loan two years early

A rare archaeological site in the Sonoran Desert was bulldozed by a DHS contractor involved in building the latest sections of the border wall.

Free Phone Calls Saved Incarcerated People and Their Loved Ones $622.5 Million

Young Boy Finds the First Ancient Greek Artifact Discovered in Berlin

New Musicals ‘Schmigadoon!’ and ‘Lost Boys’ Lead List of Tony Nominees

The Song That Puts You to Sleep (On Purpose) and The Cartoon That Shut Down Boston and Operation Mincemeat and The Part of Canada That Doesn’t Want You

MUSIC

Rounds by Jessie Montgomery, for piano and strings, inspired by poet TS Eliot

Moonage Daydream –  David Bowie

Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) – Bobby Womack

At The Ballet – Audra McDonald, Megan Hilty & Kelli O’Hara

All You Need Is Love – Peter Sprague,  featuring Rebecca Jade

 

Suffolk Suite by Doreen Carwithen

Man On The Moon – R.E.M.

Coverville 1579: Cover Stories for Lesley Gore and Christopher Cross

Horses and Divorces – Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert

This Year – the Mountain Goats

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #2: The Bonzo Dog Band and #3: Midnight Oil and

Bastards of Young – the Replacements

Theme from The Love Boat – WDR Funkhausorchester

Everyone’s Gone to the Moon – Nina Simone

Common – Maren Morris featuring Brandi Carlile

Time – Tom Waits

I Wish I Was the Moon –  Neko Case

Addicted To Love – Robert Palmer

Man On The Moon – Megan Moroney

Aloha Bossa Nova – Peter Sprague, featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Eclipse – Pink Floyd