Tag: Donald Trump

May rambling: To Secure These Rights

Charles Strouse

To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights. HARRY S. TRUMAN, The White House, December 5, 1946.

How Civil Rights Were Made—and Remade—By Black Communities In the Jim Crow South

In HR 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed by the House of Representatives, Sec. 70302: “This section limits the ability of U.S. courts to enforce a citation for contempt for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order. Specifically, if no security was given when the injection or order was issued, the citation of contempt may not be enforced using appropriated funds. This limitation applies to injunctions or orders issued before, on, or after the date of enactment.”

The AKG Museum exhibit honoring the people killed in the shootings at Tops Market in Buffalo, 5-14-2022, including the poem Mourning Until Morning by Jillian Hanesworth

The ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Uncensored Oral History of a Revolution

My Father Prosecuted History’s Crimes. Then He Died in One. He was a Nazi hunter — and was killed in the Lockerbie bombing. What does it mean to seek justice for his death?

Wendy McMahon Resigns as Head of CBS News: “Company and I Do Not Agree on the Path Forward”

This Channel Is Biased
A business owner tested whether customers would pay more for American-made products. The results were ‘sobering.’
Revisiting Biden’s Decline
The Long, Strange Trip of the Titanic Victims Whose Remains Surfaced Hundreds of Miles Away, Weeks After the Ship Sank
And…
Baby Is Healed With the World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment. The technique used on a 9½-month-old boy with a rare condition has the potential to help people with thousands of other uncommon genetic diseases.
John shares some extremely good news six years into Nerdfighteria’s effort to improve maternal and child health in Sierra Leone.
No One Knows When They Don’t Die
Legendary comic book writer Peter David dies at age 68
James McEachin, Star of ‘Tenafly’ and Perry Mason Telefilms, Dies at 94
George Wendt, the Beer-Loving Norm on ‘Cheers,’ Dies at 77
Discover® is now part of Capital One as of May 18, 2025
June Squibb on Her Nonagenarian Career High
Why Teacher Jamal Roberts is the New American Idol

Autocephality is a fancy word for self-governance. It’s mainly used in the context of Eastern Orthodox Churches that independently govern their spiritual affairs without a higher ecclesiastical authority.

Now I Know: It’s Not Easy Being Clean and Why Purple is the Royal Color and The Secret Code of Central Park’s Lamp Post and It’s Not Easy Driving Green

On and on…

Yes, this is Project 2025 (ft. Liz Dye)

The Greatness Paradox: His notion of national greatness is stuck in the Napoleonic Era, which is causing him to destroy everything that makes America great today.

Harvard Derangement Syndrome

Him & The Press: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

His CFPB kills the data broker rule

When He Was the One Taking Land From Farmers and How His Embrace of Afrikaner “Refugees” Became a Joke in South Africa

She Devoted Her Life to Serving the U.S. Then DOGE Targeted Her. A veteran who returned from Iraq injured and transformed, Joy Marver is now facing a crisis at home.

We’re Experts in Fascism. We’re Leaving the U.S.

Why Eliminating the NEA Would Be a Disaster For Our Country

The New DEI — Discrimination, Exclusion, and Inequity

All Hail Our Rococo President!

Strange Bedfellows and Long Knives, about the secret engine of sweeping political upheavals (like Trumpism) and their inherent fragility

 

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” -Harry S. Truman, 33rd US president (8 May 1884-26 December 1972)
Heather Cox Richardson, May 23 (in part)

After S.V. Date of HuffPost noted last week that the White House had published fewer than 20% of [his] speeches, the White House has stopped publishing a database of official transcripts of [his] announcements, appearances, and speeches altogether and has taken down those it had published. Instead, it will just post videos. And yet it is publishing just a few of the videos of the president’s term: so far, fewer than 50 videos of the first 120 days of his term, according to Brian Stelter of CNN.

A presidential administration traditionally publishes the president’s words promptly to establish a record. The White House, in contrast, says removing the transcripts will enable people to get a better sense of him by watching his videos. But it’s likely closer to the truth that his appearances since he took office have been erratic, and removing the transcripts will make it harder for people to read his nonsensical rambles.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The [FOTUS] White House is the most transparent in history,” but of course, it’s objectively not. White House officials have made it impossible to tell who is making decisions at the Department of Government Efficiency, for example, or who gave the order to render migrants to El Salvador. Now the president’s words, too, will be hidden.

MUSIC
Charles Strouse, Tony-winning composer of Annie, Applause, and Bye Bye Birdie, dies at 96. He’s known for such songs as “Tomorrow,” “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” “Put on a Happy Face,” and the ‘All in the Family’ theme song, “Those Were the Days.” He also wrote scores for motion pictures, including The Night They Raided Minsky’s
That’s Trump Derangement! – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody
Pamela Bondi – Marsh Family parody of The One and Only sung by Chesney Hawkes (by Nik Kershaw)

New Day Will Rise  – Yuval Raphael

Rick Derringer, a Zelig-like rocker, the guitarist, singer, and songwriter, dies at 77. Hang On Sloopy – The McCoys. Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo – Rick Derringer. Eat It – Weird Al Yankovic (Rick plays lead guitar; he produced six of Al’s albums)

Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In)-The New Edition, featuring Kenny Rogers

Somewhere Over Laredo – Lainey Wilson 

On an American Spiritual  by David R. Holsinger
Leucadia Uncompromised – Peter Sprague
The Firebird suite by Igor Stravinsky

Coverville 1534: Brothers in Arms Album Cover and Devo Cover Story

Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)‎ ‎- Taylor Swift ‎ ‎
Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds
Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck covering Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready
Crazy For You –  Madonna
Harry Truman – Chicago

Lithuania did it right

‘in very bad shape’ or ‘dead’

You may recall the story from Lithuania in late March 2025 about four soldiers, “part of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division [who] were on a tactical training exercise when they and their vehicle went missing, the Army said.

“Lithuanian, Polish, and U.S. soldiers and rescuers searched through the forests and swamps at the Gen. Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in the town of Pabradė, 6 miles (10 kilometers) west of the border with Belarus. The M88 Hercules armored vehicle was pulled from a peat bog.”

May rambling: We Cannot Remain Silent

When the U.S. Is No Longer the Good Guy

We Cannot Remain Silent: A Statement on the National Moment from Albany Presbytery, PCUSA (May 1, 2025)

Who broke the internet?

Cardinal Robert Prevost Becomes First American Pope, Will Take the Name Leo XIV; he plays Wordle!

David H. Souter, Republican Justice Who Allied With Court’s Liberal Wing, Dies at 85. He left conservatives bitterly disappointed with his migration from right to left, leading to the cry of “no more Souters.” I saw him speak in 2013. “A demand for saving art, keeping music, teaching civics in the schools is not asking for favors. Rather, it is vital for the stability, even the very survival of the United States, which is hampered by a voting citizenry that is grossly unaware about how the government of the country is supposed to work.”

This month, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding! It is a national landmark and world-renowned research center located in the heart of Harlem.

John Green – “Everything Is Tuberculosis” | The Daily Show

The Remote Work Paradox: Higher Engagement, Lower Wellbeing

Pulitzer Prize for a distinguished portfolio of editorial cartoons or other illustrated work (still, animated, or both) characterized by political insight, editorial effectiveness, or public service value: Ann Telnaes of The Washington Post: “For delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years. The Cartoonist Who Crushed the Oligarchs: An Interview with Ann Telnaes.

What was food like before the FDA? Formaldehyde, brick dust, lead, and borax once made grocery shopping a minefield.

Measles Cases Top 1,000: A Crisis of Complacency— This situation is an avoidable public health failure
Baloney

How Will We Know When We Have Lost Our Democracy?

We Have To Deal with Presidential Power

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear. “-Harry S. Truman, 33rd US president (8 May 1884-1972)

FOTUS family crypto firm raises concerns over potential conflicts of interest. Crypto landscape is like a ‘Walking Dead, post-apocalyptic anarchy. Tell Congress: Ban Government Officials From Issuing Cryptocurrencies

The firing of the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, is the latest move in the upheaval of U.S. cultural institutions.

MAGA news network OAN to take over venerable government-funded outlet, Voice of America

Bill Gates says Elon Musk is ‘killing the world’s poorest children’

The battle is here: GOP health care cuts and tax giveaways to the rich

What Happens to Hollywood When the U.S. Is No Longer the Good Guy? For decades, the studios have churned out movies that celebrated truth, justice, and the American way. Now, as FOTUS attacks allies, tears down democratic institutions, and cozies up to dictators, U.S. exceptionalism is a hard sell onscreen.

100% Tariff on Movies: 8 Key Questions the Industry Is Now Pondering and Dreading

PBS President Says Executive Order to End Funding Is “Blatantly Unlawful”

New Oklahoma Curriculum Requires Students To Learn 2020 Election Fraud Conspiracies

Sherman Tanks have no use for Elon Musk

Plus

Anne Frank: The Exhibition: Opened on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, 2025, to mark the 80th commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz. It has been extended until October 31, 2025. It’s at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY (between 5th and 6th Avenues).

EFF How to Fix the Internet Podcast Episode: Digital Autonomy for Bodily Autonomy

Little Bosses Everywhere review: Pyramid schemes are as American as apple pie.

The Diabolical World of Phone Scams

Family-Vlogger Documentary Trend Magnifies a Serious Societal Problem

A scientist was urged not to take a risky cosmic image. He didn’t listen.

Ruth Buzzi, the Lady With the Handbag on ‘Laugh-In,’ Dies at 88

Monty Python’s Life of Brian. It’s hilarious, but is it in any way accurate? Answered for us by classicist Honor Cargill-Martin

Pentasyllabic is a word that both means and is five syllables long.

Do The Spike Thing — The Defiant Director on Reuniting With Denzel, Bad Money and Resisting

Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery

Why the Laugh Track Won’t Die

Why the U.S. Government Really Wants Some People To Take Vacations and The Phone Calls That Cost €220 Million a Minute (for Life) and How Jibberish Beat a Prison Sentence and The Rain of Fish

MUSIC

Never Let Me Go – Andy Bey; Smooth Sailing -Andy & The Bey Sisters; In Memoriam: Andy Bey, 1939-2025

Jill Sobule, “I Kissed A Girl” and “Supermodel” Singer, Dies at 66. Singer Vance Gilbert wrote on Facebook (May 3): “Backstage, Jill and I bonded with the idea of someday doing an album of the saddest songs we could think of. When we were last hanging out, the list looked like this: Ballad Of The Sad Young Men; Sweet Bitter Love; Do What You Gotta Do; Train Off The Track.

“While we were waiting to go on, I’d play one of these songs, and Jill and I would cry, and then try to put on some kind of game face while laughing for the set. Just last year, I had signed with a new agency, Black Oak Artists, and Jill and I shared an agent, and there were plans for sending us out together to do shows.
“Tomorrow really is never guaranteed. I will forever feel the loss of not having that future time together.”

Incompetent! – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Ablassen by Gottfried Reiche

From -Bon Iver

Coverville 1532: The Foreigner Cover Story II and 1533: Tribute to Mike Peters and Captain & Tennille Cover Story

Never Enough – Turnstile

Here – Pavement

Who is Broken Peach?

offa me -davido feat victoria monet

Gentle On My Mind – The Band Perry

Yesterday Was Just The Beginning Of My Life – Mark Williams

Star Wars – The Throne Room and End Title

Husky – Jimmie Nicol, a Beatle for two weeks

 

FOTUS and the WHCA dinner

“not the enemy of the people”

I watched the White House Correspondents’ Association awards on C-SPAN. It took place on April 26, and I viewed it two days later. It occurred to me that FOTUS should have attended the WHCA dinner this year because he will likely never be so kindly treated in the next three years.

Here are some of the award winners:

OVERALL EXCELLENCE: Alex Thompson, Axios. “Thompson’s aggressive reporting on Biden, especially leading up to and after the Trump-Biden debate, revealed that the president’s cognitive decline was impacting his ability to do his job, information the White House tried to conceal.” Thompson said in his brief speech that he and his colleagues initially missed the story. 

EXCELLENCE UNDER DEADLINE PRESSURE, print: Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller, The Associated Press. “Madhani and Miller caught the White House press office trying to alter the official account of history — the White House transcript of Biden’s use of the word ‘garbage’ to describe supporters of Donald Trump. On deadline, Madhani and Miller captured the conflict between federal workers who document the president’s words for posterity and political appointees trying to protect their boss.”

EXCELLENCE UNDER DEADLINE PRESSURE, broadcast: Rachel Scott, ABC News. “Scott’s reporting in the chaotic aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was unflappable and authoritative. When the Secret Service tried to clear the area, Scott stood her ground and provided confirmed verifiable facts as well as eye-witness accounts of the shooting amid the mayhem after the shooting.”

JRB, Jr.

EXCELLENCE BY VISUAL JOURNALISTS: Doug Mills, The New York Times. “A somber President Joe Biden — then wrestling with historic challenges, from international crises to domestic calls for him to end his re-election campaign — is centered in the image yet surrounded and visually almost overwhelmed by the physical infrastructure and historic weight of the White House.” 

Examples of the reportage are included.

I’m sure FOTUS would have wallowed in the Biden administration being seen in a less-than-favorable light. The awards were announced at the beginning of April.  

UNLESS FOTUS’ handlers were afraid he would make an unhinged fool of himself at the dinner, as he did in recent interviews. The one with ABC News’ Terry Moran – see the Daily Show segment – shows his ignorance about the Monroe Doctrine and the Declaration of Independence. 

FOTUS told NBC News’ Kristen Welker ‘I don’t know’ when asked if he must uphold the Constitution. Naturally, Red State defends him: “Of course, the president’s answer was more nuanced than they imply, and he explicitly said he would adhere to rulings by the Supreme Court.” Nuance? But the specific question is simple because he swore to uphold said Constitution. TWICE.  

In April 2026, they’ll be evaluating coverage of the 2025 White House. Instead of FOTUS, they showed clips of Presidents from Reagan to Biden. But not 45, who eschewed the event thrice, and the fourth year was COVID.  

Not the enemy

White House Correspondent Association President Eugene Daniels spoke about the press, saying, “We journalists are a lot of things. We are competitive and pushy, we are impatient, and sometimes we think we know everything. But we’re also human. We miss our families and significant life moments in service to this job. We care deeply about accuracy and take seriously the heavy responsibility of being stewards of the public’s trust.

“What we are not is the opposition, what we are not is the enemy of the people, and what we are not is the enemy of the state.”

If you have a strong desire to watch the event, go here. Or you can spend $20.26 and view NOT The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, recorded the same day and available until June 30.

April rambling: humanity in motion

Metonymy and metalepsis

Craving Geometric by Catbird

To Understand Global Migration, You Have to See It First. New estimates based on location data from Meta reveal a picture of humanity in motion.

‘60 Minutes’ Calls Out Paramount for Executive Producer’s Exit in Rare On-Air Rebuke; Has ’60 Minutes’ Run Out of Time? Shari Redstone’s Big Decision. The Paramount mogul is stuck in the middle of an impossible choice. Fight djt and blow up her $8 billion Skydance deal, or cave to the president and torch the most valuable news property in her media empire. Tick, tick, tick…

RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver 

Fraserherman: Why, yes, diversity is a plus.

In April in years ending in 5

1775: Ride Paul Ride – The 2025 Showdown between Patriots and Loyalists

1865: Lincoln assassination, end of the American Civil War

1925: The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was published, and Art Deco hit the international stage

1945: Hitler dies

1975: On April 30, “the city of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, was taken by the army of North Vietnam, ending the conflict that had grown out of the Vietnamese war for independence from France and a proxy war for the conflict between the US and the Soviet Union.”

1995: The bombing in Oklahoma City on April 19 killed 168 people. There was a woman I knew who worked for an SBDC in OKC. Her building was right across the street from the Murrah Building.  She suffered severe injuries from flying glass and other items that acted as shrapnel. She wrote a very moving story about her recovery the following year, which I published in a newsletter. Another aftermath story, about forgiveness, I wrote about here.

The usual weird stuff

Three R’s: Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.

The US intensifies its crackdown on peaceful protests. Forty-one anti-protest bills in 22 states have been introduced since the start of 2025, according to the law tracker.

DEI Programs Are Lawful Under Federal Civil Rights Laws and Supreme Court Precedent

Pope Francis shames the crap out of JD Vance in final acts on earth; Pope dies at 88

A whistleblower’s disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data

Team That Investigates Line-of-Duty Fire Deaths slashed; cuts will also halt a first-of-its-kind study of the causes of thousands of firefighters’ cancer cases.

US FDA suspends milk quality tests amid workforce cuts

Law Firms Made Deals. Now He Wants More From Them

 

Environmental rollbacks would boost pollution and endanger lives

 

Congress’s Biggest Financial Priority Is “Stablecoin.” What the Hell Is That? Instead of tackling crashing markets, Congress is pushing a crypto sector in which FOTUS’ family is financially involved.

FOTUS Demands Investigations Into Negative Approval Rating Polls

Hegseth blames the ‘deep state’ for his being so bad at his job

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY. IMPEACH. HIM. AGAIN.

FOTUS, dementia, and the duty to warn

Also

Space Monsters #1 Kickstarter: “An all-new horror/sci-fi/fantasy magazine in a cool new format! The initial 200 copies will be serial numbered on the back cover.” by FantaCo Enterprises LLC

 

A collection of Street Academy of Albany / Harriet Gibbons High School yearbooks

From the Books: John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name

 

Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams’s tell-all memoir about her years running global policy for Facebook

 

My Mother, the Hollywood Scab

Wink Martindale, Prolific Game Show Host, Dies at 91

 

Will Hutchins, Star of ABC’s ‘Sugarfoot,’ Dies at 94

 

Jane Fonda is Far from Finished with Fitness or Activism

 

Oscars: Film Academy Establishes Stunt Design Award

Metonymy and metalepsis are two concepts that explain how we use substitutions in our speech.

 

Why are people never smiling in old photos?

The Oatmeal: Believe

 

Now I Know: Ben Franklin’s One Simple Trick to Save Sailors from Drowning and Maybe There Is an “I” in “Team” and The Childhood Terror That Turned Kind Of Nice and The Fashion Accessory That Prevents False Alarms and The Church of the World’s Oldest Tennis Ball

MUSIC

Lawyers, Guns, and Money – Warren Zevon

 

Traficano Rap – J Noa, LOWLIGHT

 

Streets of London by Ralph McTell

Tubthumping -Chumbawamba

Coverville 1530 The ABBA Cover Story V and 1531: The Buzzcocks Cover Story

Love In Real Life – Lizzo

Pump It Up -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Annabel Lee – Sarah Jarosz

Purple Haze – The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Party at Ground Zero – Fishbone

A garden of flourishing paths by Jeffrey Mumford

We Are The World -USA for Africa

Eine kleine nachtmusik

How ‘Star Wars’ Is Changing Its Tune

Ramblin' with Roger
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