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

June rambling: Tony Stark and Elon Musk

250 to 250 Project videos (Heather Cox Richardson)

An essay on A. R. Moxon’s blog, The Reframe, connects how our system works to the stories we tell in our mass media. Make a hero out of Tony Stark, he claims, and you’ll wind up with an Elon Musk.

Spying on kids to save kids from spying is very, very stupid

In Gaza, Fathers Can’t Promise Their Children Food, Safety, or Even Survival

Medicare Advantage Organizations Overturned Nearly All Appealed Prior Authorization Denials for Skilled Nursing Facility Admission, Raising Concerns About Initial Denials

JD Vance says Nixon’s Watergate scandal would be ‘12-hour news story’ today

Feral Hogs: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

American Zoo – a frightening documentary on the Catskill Game Farm

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine calls on lawmakers to get rid of the state’s death penalty

Tell Publishers: Don’t Block the Wayback Machine!

Videos from the 250 to 250 Project that Heather Cox Richardson and others are producing to honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. “We designed the videos to emphasize the agency of Americans—mostly everyday Americans—to change the country. Each falls into a category that defines what it means to be an American, including community, democracy, innovation, mobility, civil rights, education, conservation, and creativity.”

The Knicks Just Gave Us a Teaching Moment. Let’s Not Waste It

Amer

Amer Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil: NYC, July 3, 1981

Cheers creator James Burrows dies at 85. He also directed episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi, and Frasier, all of which I watched religiously,  plus Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Will and Grace, Rhoda, Phyllis, and Laverne & Shirley, which I saw occasionally.

Archaeologists Unearth Hundreds of Artifacts at Fort Ticonderoga, the Site of America’s First Offensive Victory of the Revolutionary War

Alan Greenspan, Fed Chairman Through Prosperity and Crisis, Dies at 100: The pre-eminent economic policymaker of his time and a skilled political operator, he favored market-friendly stances that would later come to be associated with destructive financial forces.
Where does punctuation come from?!
Why Is a Basketball Team Named After Pants, and Why Cops Stereotypically Eat Donuts, and A Random Quack of Kindness, and The Island the U.S. and Canada Both Want
Older, not better

Disenfranchisement machine is besieging the courts; he demands control of state elections—or else; Steve Bannon calls for ICE and others to be at “every precinct” for the midterms: “If you’re armed or not, that depends upon what your state laws are.” These 19 election deniers and vote suppressors are on the ballot in the midterms.

Court allows regime to end removal protections for Syrian and Haitian nationals. Know that, per the Kagan dissent, the decision was racially motivated based on comments such as suggestions that Haitians in Ohio were “eating the dogs . . . [and] cats.” Yes, immigration is about race.

Overruling Wary Intel Officials Who Withheld Kushner’s Top Secret Clearance

Seeking to Use “Domestic Terrorism” to Target Nonprofits and Activists

Moving forward with a State Department plan to strip the CDC of its oversight on global health programs.

American emergency podcast: The movement to kill FEMA

Raving about vandalism even though he’s responsible for the pool’s issues.

Did we finally learn something about his health

MUSIC

Blackbird -New York Vocal Collective

Ode to Birds and Rainbow by Takashi Yoshimatsu

Mother Nature – Angélique Kidjo

Beginnings – Chicago

Rebel – Songs in the Key Of Resistance

Whiter Shade of Pale – Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds

Human Mind – Mavis Staples

Resurrection – Robbie Robertson

Coverville 1583: The Alison Moyet/Yaz/Yazoo Cover Story

Sweet Dreams – Eurythmics

The Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi

The Royal ScamSteely Dan 

Criminal — Fiona Apple

Vertigo – Billy Eckstine

Peter Sprague Plays Valse Warm  and Hanalei Town

Let’s Stay Together – Al Green

Marnie – Nat King Cole

Rubberband Man – Spinners

I’m A Man – Chicago

Mississippi Queen – Mountain

Bohemian Rhapsody – The Muppets

On My Own – Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald

Old Lady Grey: Dee Palmer (1937-2026)

TED Recommends for Black Music Month: How Black girls can reclaim their voice in music by Kyra Gaunt

Clive Davis, Hitmaking Titan of the Music Industry, Dies at 94

Such a weird man, at 80

“The fake images and the false boast are not separate stories.”

Sure, I LOATH his politics. But, beyond that, he’s a weird man. I saw someone complain on their Substack, “Why does the media ignore his madness?” Lately, it’s been too difficult to avoid.

Why did he explain executions to kids? Was the lesson for children “to fear difference, obey power, and treat vulnerable people as threats”?

From April 13: His Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate. As he “threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as ‘lunatic’ and ‘clearly insane.'”

Thomas Meisenhelder complained in Common Sense that the man “isn’t mentally ill; he’s evil.” Moreover,  “repeating time and time again that [he] is crazy not only negatively affects the mentally ill but also seriously misunderstands the man and his policies.” Yeah, I get it. But isn’t it possible that he’s BOTH crazy and evil?

NOT a genius

I’ve been reading the Facebook feed, It’s a Lovely Life by Heather Delaney Reese. Here’s just a part of her June 1 feed:

“In the middle of the night, while most Americans were fast asleep, [he] was awake inside the White House. Unable to get any much-needed rest, he opened Truth Social and shared a post that had the complete opposite effect he hoped it would.
“And at exactly 12:35 this morning, [he] decided it was the perfect time to announce to the world that a cognitive screening exam, the kind doctors use to help identify signs of cognitive impairment and dementia, proved he possessed what he called ‘extreme intelligence…’
“But what he either doesn’t understand, or what nobody told him, is that these tests are not designed to measure genius. They’re not IQ tests, and they’re not difficult for those without impairments to pass. They are screening tools used by doctors to determine whether someone may be showing signs of significant cognitive decline. Healthy adults are expected to perform well on them. The goal isn’t to identify extraordinary intelligence. It’s to identify potential impairment.
This “makes [his] insistence that this was a ‘high difficulty’ test proving his ‘extreme intelligence’ far more revealing than the score itself…
“During a seven-hour posting spree on [May 30] alone, he shared more than fifty posts, including fake images of himself standing beside George Washington, multiple depictions of himself carved into Mount Rushmore, and jealousy that China has a ballroom and he doesn’t. And later, he even posted a bizarre power-fantasy image of Air Force One surrounded by a military escort…
Falsehoods galore
“The fake images and the false boast are not separate stories. They are the same story. Both are attempts to manufacture a version of himself that reality will not provide. He cannot place himself alongside anyone alive today who is of historical significance these days, so he commands others to create fake images of himself with George Washington. He cannot point to actual evidence of extraordinary intelligence, so he points to a test that was never designed to measure it. The medium changes, but the impulse remains the same. Image by image. Post by post. Claim by claim. He is constructing a version of himself that the facts cannot sustain…
“That is why we should expect more chaos, more spectacle, and more manufactured crises. We need to prepare now for more attempts to make us exhausted, divided, frightened, and distracted because they know the clock is ticking.”
Another Heather
Here’s Heather Cox Richardson on June 2: “His posts seemed designed primarily to reassure himself. By Saturday, so many of the musical acts his team had lined up to play at his Freedom 250 “Great American State Fair” from late June through the beginning of July had bailed that he posted that he was ‘thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History…’

“A series of AI images in the style of the 1950s Dick and Jane readers show a town parade festooned with flags and patriotic bunting, little girls laughing together at an old-fashioned town fair, and little boys in a suburb playing ball. All of the images read: ‘AMERICA IS BACK!’ And in them, all of the people are white.

“He posted an image of a white family from that era standing beside a Cadillac Coupe DeVille parked on a suburban street, with the caption: ‘BILLIONS WERE SPENT TO CONVINCE YOU THIS IS EVIL.’

djt is 80 and appears to be utterly daft. Kim Wehle, opinion contributor for The Hill, says he’s “losing it and must be removed.”  

Todd Blanche of The Worst Wing

SPLC

There’s a running segment on The Daily Show during which the program “highlights” the bozos in the regime. While I’ve complained about others, I hadn’t had a chance to kvetch about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, formerly FOTUS’s personal attorney.

You’ve probably heard about the “$1.8 billion fund created by the regime to pay people who claim mistreatment by the federal government appears to violate longstanding Justice Department standards and practices, as well as a policy directive issued by the administration last year, legal experts said.

“Todd Blanche… defended the fund at a Senate hearing, calling it “unusual” but insisting it was appropriate, reflective of past settlements.” Even former AG Pam Bondi would not have allowed such egregious actions.

Some of the Jan. 6 rioters could get large spoonfuls. But the Family looks to be the biggest beneficiaries of all: “As part of the settlement, the U.S. government is barred from prosecuting or further auditing the Trumps or their family business for any potential misconduct preceding the agreement. That saves them from penalties that some estimate could have reached $100 million or beyond. More than that, it functionally puts the family beyond the reach of the law in these tax cases. The order is intended to last, according to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, “FOREVER.”

This is A Department of Justice for an Age of Conspiracy Theories, per Quinta Jurecic of The Atlantic

Baseless allegations

“Not so very long ago, the Justice Department stood as a bulwark of facts against [djt’s] wildest claims. During his first term, a pattern emerged: Trump would make a bizarre assertion (say, that Barack Obama had illegally wiretapped Trump Tower), a litigant would point to this assertion in court to cast doubt on the Justice Department’s arguments, and DOJ attorneys would be forced to explain to an irritated judge that the president’s statements did not actually reflect the government’s position on the matter. Checking his comments against what a government lawyer was willing to swear in front of a judge was a handy way of demonstrating how FOTUS’s version of reality measured up to the truth.

In the second term, the Justice Department no longer maintains a polite distance from the baseless allegations he  shares in his late-night Truth Social posts.”

Terry Moran is “righteously furious about the Slush Fund. And all the rest of the corruption cascading out of this administration. And, to me, some of the real villains here—aside from the president and his White House henchmen—are Trump’s lawyers, all the way up to the Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. A law license is a public trust. And I know that’s a pretty low bar much of the time. You can get a lawyer to make a case for you that the sky is green and the grass is blue, and they’ll do it without blushing. For a nice fee.

“But this? At some point, the bar should step in. If you are an American lawyer and you have played a part in the plundering of our Treasury with this ‘weaponization’ slush-fund scheme, maybe you should lose your license?”

“Reverse racism?”

Substack: Trump DOJ will avenge the KKK by taking out SPLC by Liz Dye. The racism is not subtle.

“The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche claimed.

“Flanked by embattled FBI Director Kash Patel, Blanche announced an 11-count federal indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The civil rights organization that effectively brought down the Ku Klux Klan.

“The indictment is a grotesque attempt to recast white people as the real victims of racism. In the Trump DOJ’s telling, the civil rights advocates who spent decades mapping and dismantling the Klan are somehow its secret benefactors, ‘enriching’ themselves by secretly creating racism — something which is apparently in such short supply that it can only be generated with constant infusions of cash.”

Newsmax: In an early morning Truth Social post on Friday, FOTUS described the SPLC as “one of the greatest political scams in American history.” He declared that if the allegations prove true, the 2020 presidential election should be “permanently wiped from the books.”

Bogus charge

National Memo: “The absurdity of the bogus indictment is obvious to anyone – including former federal prosecutor Blanche – who knows how the FBI prosecutes organized crime, terrorism, narcotics smuggling, or violent extremism, in nearly every case, depending on paid informants. In fact, over the past few decades, the FBI and the Justice Department have relied on information from SPLC and its informants to jail violent Klansmen and Nazis. The indictment also charges that SPLC ‘concealed’ its identity behind false fronts when sending money to informants, just as the FBI and the Justice Department would do, so as not to expose their paid spies.

BTW, per WaPo: Elon Musk posted almost daily about race on X in recent months, a Washington Post analysis found, at times sharing views experts said echoed white supremacy.

April rambling; alternative world order

Sid Krofft

Defective hotel clock

Amnesty International’s annual report on human rights around the globe described a push for a “predatory alternative world order.”

His Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate

The Most Ludicrous, Morally Obscene, and Dangerous Man in the World

The deaf, dumb, and blind cult is still dazzled by the nastiest, most naked ‘emperor’ ever, and Jordan Klepper Gets MAGA’s Take on the Iran War & the War with the Pope | The Daily Show

‘Anytime you engage the Border Patrol in interior enforcement, the wheels are going to fall off.’

Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data.

The insider trading suspicions looming over this regime

Flu vaccine no longer mandated for US troops, Hegseth says, citing “medical autonomy” and religious freedom.

When Ezekiel 25:17 Meets Psalms 3:16

The Pentagon doesn’t want you to hear about threats to the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes. They fired their ombudsperson.

He Wrote an Op-Ed. Then the police tracked him. A legal case in Kansas shows how surveillance technology can distort policing priorities. When authorities can monitor anyone cheaply, the temptation to target critics increases.

Jimmy Kimmel Provides an Alternative White House Correspondents’ Dinner Roast

AfA

Astronauts for America is a nonpartisan organization of former NASA astronauts who have sworn to defend the Constitution of the United States,  committed to science, evidence-based decision-making, public service, and the rule of law.

Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know.

The Death of a Superman. How clothing donation bins quietly kill homeless people across North America.

988 Launch Tied to Drop in Youth Suicides

The Short and Ridiculous Trial of a Protester Arrested in an Inflatable Penis Costume. An Alabama cop who confronted the No Kings protester claimed she posed a risk to public safety.

The product liability legal case of the century arrives this summer: Coyote vs. Acme, the movie

Gerry Conway, Former Marvel EIC, Dies at 73. The first Spider-Man comic I read was the Death of Gwen Stacy, which he wrote, among MANY other pieces for Marvel and DC. He also wrote for television, including Diagnosis: Murder and, my favorite of his, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. 

Sid Krofft: About and Memories,  and H.R. Pufnstuf, Witchiepoo, Joy the Bugaloo, and me

Marvel Confirms 2019 ‘Avengers: Endgame’ To Be Replaced Before ‘Doomsday’ Released- a good reason to give up on the MCU, IMO

William Shatner is selling Kellogg’s Raisin Bran

“Your settlement payment of $9 for the In re EpiPen Marketing, Sales Practices and Antitrust Litigation, Civil Case No. 2:17-md-02785-DDC-TJJ is now available.” I’m rich!

Crease and Desist and The Cat Phone Came Back and The Crime of Borrowing a Teenage Witch? and The Good Advice That The DMV Rejected

MUSIC

Antichrist Superstar from Colbert

Aeolian Beauty by RZA · Colorado Symphony · Christopher Dragon

Goodbye Henry – RAYE, feat. Al Green

Solsbury Hill -MonaLisa Twins

Gladys Knight’s title tune for 1989’s Bond movie Licence To Kill

Meaning Business – Wendy Eisenberg
Coverville 1577: 50th Anniversary of Ramones and 1578: Dave Mason Tribute and Paul Carrack Cover Story
Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #1: HOUSE Of ALL

Angel Of The Morning – Merrilee Rush

Kiss – Prince

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