Tag: Fillyjonk

August rambling: America’s wombmate

NEW Rebecca Jade!

Credit: DNY59/gettyimages

Big Brother Moves to Become America’s Wombmate -government access to medical data threatens patient rights.

Here’s a Map of What FOTUS-GOP Destruction of US Hospitals Looks Like

America First is America alone. Power-crazed he may be, but he fails to grasp soft power.

This is what extreme heat is doing to us: Policies to Make the Planet Hotter

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon Burned: The NPS Burns Too

The Founders of This New Arkansas Development Say You Must Be White to Live There

How Ireland’s ‘Mediocre’ Milk Powder Made it Big in West Africa

U.S. Drinking Drops to New Low, Poll Finds

How to champion libraries in Congress: a free virtual event on Tuesday, September 9 at 5 PM ET / 4 PM CT / 2 PM PT, where ALA policy experts and special guests will share updates, inspiring stories, and how you can pitch in at the start of this school year.

Mike Lindell & MyStore: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Kelly’s 2X4

Matt Damon & Ken Jennings on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Marvel v. DC: The 25-Cent War from Tales From My Spinner Rack! by Gary Sassaman

Now I Know: The Dancing Plague and The Baseball Player With The Special ID, and He Bought His Freedom With Fake Money, and Why Some Movies Can’t Give it a Rest, and His Hometown Went to Pot? and Excel Has Bad Genes

ICE Raids and DC Occupation

Make democracy work part of ordinary life, not an add-on (ht/Paul Tonko). Lauren DesRosiers quoted Audre Lorde: “Every day of your lives is practice in becoming the person you want to be. No instantaneous miracle is suddenly going to occur and make you brave and courageous and true. And every day that you sit back silent, refusing to use your power, terrible things are being done in our name.”

DHS is using the Bible to promote ICE, claiming ‘righteous’ fight against immigrants. The agency refers to Scripture, including Micah 6:8, as it seeks to recruit agents.

 

New York State has seen a surge in ICE arrests, with totals four times the number seen during the same June-July period last year.

 

Don’t Let ICE’s Legal Abuses Stop You From Asserting Your Rights

 

‘Go Home, Fascists’: Protesters Jeer Federal Agents in Streets of DC

Federal agents face protests after Trump orders unprecedented takeover of DC police

Five Ways to Fight FOTUS Fascism by Robert Reich

Tonko and Fahy

My Congressperson, US Rep. Paul Tonko: “I traveled to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia… This visit was even more urgent given the results of a report from ICE’s Office of the Inspector General from an unannounced facility inspection earlier this summer. The report found the facility and ICE staff were not in compliance with federal law and used excessive, inappropriate force, including striking detainees and spraying them with pepper spray.

“Despite the pressing need for oversight and in violation of federal law that grants me and all Members of Congress access to these facilities, I was denied at the gate. The facility guards blocking my entry went so far as to confirm that they knew they were in violation of the law. If they are fine ignoring the legal rights of a Member of Congress, what does that mean for our own communities and individuals who are detained?”

You may or may not be able to read my state senator, Pat Fahy’s, newest op-ed in the Times Union, “about the paramilitary-type tactics taking over our streets. 

“No visible identification, no judicial warrants, no due process – these are setting a dangerous precedent for Americans and normalizing paramilitary secret police style tactics on our streets. That’s why I introduced legislation to prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks or face coverings during civil immigration enforcement in New York.

“Security and humanity can both exist, and instilling fear will not create the immigration reforms we need to enrich America and honor its legacy.”

Kudos to them both.

MUSIC

Not Me No Way – Rebecca Jade ℗ 2025 Ultimate Vibe Recordings, Released on: 2025-08-18

Join Ice – Jesse Welles

He Just Can’t Wait To Be King! – Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Coverville 1545: Cover Stories for Steve Martin and Modest Mouse and 1546: The Mamas & The Papas Cover Story

The Mamas & The Papas cover Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart songs: My Heart Stood Still (from One Dam’ Thing after Another, 1927); Glad To Be Unhappy (from On Your Toes, 1936); Sing For Your Supper (from The Boys from Syracuse, 1938). They sang those three songs and Here In My Heart (from Dearest Enemy, 1925) for Rodgers and Hart Today, a salute to the composers, which aired March 2, 1967, on ABC TV, then reworked it as  No Salt On Her Tail.

Symphony No. 1 in F minor by Dmitri Shostakovich

Gospel Plough – Robert Plant and Saving Grace

Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You from the movie The Music Man

You’ll Be Back – Primer

On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe from the movie The Harvey Girls (1946),  with Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, and many others

Theme to the movie Emma by Rachel Portman

The Cast of Oliver with Davy Jones perform I’d Do Anything on The Ed Sullivan Show, Feb 9, 1964

Peter Sprague Plays Waters of March featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Run On -Elvis Presley

I Love You Period –  Dan Baird

Bernstein – Academic Festival Overture (Brahms)

Go Away, Little Girl – Donny Osmond

Beethoven “Moonlight Sonata” for Mongkol, the Old Bull Elephant (ht/aal)

The hairpin: The Most Misunderstood Symbol in Music (ft. Seymour Bernstein) by Ben Lade

August rambling: Sanewashing

PsychoPAC

From School Librarian to Activist: ‘The Hate Level and the Vitriol Is Unreal.’ Amid a surge in book bans nationwide, the librarian Amanda Jones was targeted by vicious threats. So she decided to fight back.
Healthy Black women with low risk factors were far more likely to get C-sections than white women with similar medical histories, a large new study found.

New FTC Data Shows Massive Increase in Losses to Bitcoin ATM Scams

Ed Kranepool, longest-tenured Met and 1969 WS champ, dies at 79

What Happens If You’re Not “Disabled Enough” For the Paralympics?

How Costco hacked the American shopping psyche

The right to disconnect has started, allowing Australians to stop responding to emails and calls after hours.

Turf War: For 148 years, the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club was an ivy-covered bastion of civility with a roster of like-minded, blue-blooded members. Then, an old-money-versus-new-money clash erupted.

Trolley, the online journal of the NYS Writers Institute. Issue 7: Summer Camp

Now I Know: The Art Teacher With No Class and Ohio’s Admission Problem and A Shark and a Murder, But Not the Way You Think
Orange

The Word Of The Week: Sanewashing. “If Biden made a flub, that became the headline. It eclipsed whatever else he had been trying to say. Why isn’t Trump being covered the same way? When Trump says something insane or incoherent, that should be the news. It’s not just smoke that a reporter needs to blow away to reveal some underlying policy point that may or may not actually exist. The nominee of a major party regularly says things that are insane or incoherent. That’s what’s significant. That — and not whatever policy a reporter can interpret from his ravings — is the news in these Trump events.”

See, for instance: ‘Can’t Even Find a Complete Sentence’: Trump’s ‘Gobbledygook’ Childcare ‘Solution’ Slammed.
Thumbs Up: The Story of No-Context Trump. Is he a ghoul or a sociopath?
Or, in the words of George Conway’s PsychoPAC – “Voters have forgotten one important fact: Trump is f**king nuts.”

A Week in His Declining Spiral

The debate

This is precisely the debate analogy I thought of: Kamala Harris Floats Like a Butterfly, Stings Like a Bee. 

Kimberly Atkins-Stohr writes in the Boston Globe: “His bar was on the floor. All he had to do was not look crazy. He failed. I didn’t think it could get worse than Trump lobbing lies like Democrats supporting post-birth abortions or immigrants eating house pets in the Heartland. But I was wrong. Trump said that on Jan. 6, 2021, after he sicced an armed mob on the US Capitol: ‘Nobody on the other side was killed.’ Elected officials carrying out their constitutional duties are not ‘the other side.’ He proved himself unfit in less than an hour.”

Per Vanity Fair: “Ever since he flirted with running for president in 1988, Trump has relied on his mentor Roy Cohn’s three rules of winning: attack, attack, attack; admit nothing, deny everything; and always claim victory. ‘I thought that was my best Debate, EVER,’ Trump posted on Truth Social about 20 minutes after leaving the stage.”

FactChecking the Harris-Trump Debate

Harris-Walz Campaign Responds to Trump’s “I Hate Taylor Swift” Comments With Singer’s Song Lyrics

 

Also: 

I believe the delay in sentencing djt in the hush-money case deprives him of another chance to play the victim before the election.

RedState asks the Biggest Traitors to the Conservative Cause – the McCain Family or the Cheney Family? (No, I’m not linking to that.) My answer is the Congressional MAGA enablers (Stefanik, Jordan, Cotton, Cruz, Graham, et  al.)

Speaking of enabling: Evangelical leader Lance Wallnau pitches djt to followers as divinely chosen for the presidency.

MUSIC

Pale September – Fiona Apple

Sérgio Mendes obituary: Brazilian musician who popularised bossa nova worldwide. Fool On The Hill – Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66

Will Jennings, Oscar Winner for “My Heart Will Go On” and “Tears of Heaven, Dies at 80. I remember him mostly for his work with Steve Winwood, such as Valerie.

James Darren, ‘Gidget’ Surfer and Cop on ‘T.J. Hooker,’ Dies at 88. He sang, too. Her Royal Majesty – James Darren

Music Television Is (Way)Back!

New Chautauqua – Peter Sprague

Symphonic Suite from On The Waterfront by Leonard Bernstein

Hangover Game – MJ Lenderman

Phil Donohue Show (1990) -the original cast of A Chorus Line, just before the show would close

Anacreon overture by Luigi Cherubini

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Three) #21: Robyn Hitchcock

Dream A Little Dream Of Me – MonaLisa Twins

Coverville 1501: Nina Persson Cover Story and Greg Kihn Tribute and  1502: Cover Stories for P!nk and Jack Black

Anthem – Leonard Cohen

Save It For Later – Harvey Danger

Can’t Find My Way Back Home – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

Darker Than Death  – Indigo De Souza

The opening number from the 1994 Tony Awards

What’s Love Got To Do With It – Tina Turner

You Can’t Stop The Beat – Ambassadors of Harmony

K-Chuck Radio: The Surgeon General won’t like this…

Bishop’s Countdown from Aliens by James Horner

Green Day: Wake Me Up When September Ends

Roll call

Florida — I Won’t Back Down –  Florida’s own Tom Petty, and used by Florida politicians for decades, including, most recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Guam — Espresso – Sabrina Carpenter.

Hawaii — “24k Magic” by Hawaii’s most successful pop artist, Bruno Mars.

Idaho — Private Idaho – the B-52’s, who are not from Idaho.

Illinois — Sirius – the Alan Parsons Project, which played while the Chicago Bulls were introduced during the Michael Jordan era of the 1990s.

Indiana — Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough – Indiana’s own Michael Jackson. [It’s on Off The Wall, MJ’s best album.]

Iowa — Celebration – Kool & the Gang.

Kansas — Carry On Wayward Son by, um, Kansas. I LOVE this song.

Maine — Shut Up And Dance – Walk the Moon.

Maryland — Respect – Aretha Franklin.

Massachusetts — I’m Shipping Up To Boston – Dropkick Murphys, a loud-and-proud Massachusetts punk band that regularly wears Boston sports jerseys while playing.

Minnesota — 1999 -Prince, Minnesota’s own, well, prince.

Mississippi — Twistin’ the Night Away – Sam Cooke, the “King of Soul,” who helped expand the genre in Mississippi.

Missouri — Good Luck, Babe – Missouri’s Chappell Roan.

Montana — American Woman – Lenny Kravitz (originally by Guess Who, a Canadian band).

August rambling: Corporate Bullsh*t

Alice Green

Cory Doctorow reviews Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America, Nick Hanauer, Joan Walsh, and Donald Cohen’s 2023 book on the history of corporate apologetics. “The authors’ thesis is that the business world has a well-worn playbook that they roll out whenever anything that might cause industry to behave even slightly less destructively is proposed. What’s more, we keep falling for it.” Oh, the last stage in their playbook is ‘this is socialism.'” Or communism.

‘A different level than 2020’: djt’s plan to steal the 2024 election is taking shape

djt made $300k from selling Bibles – but owes $100m

Republican group cites notorious Dred Scott ruling as reason Kamala Harris can’t be president

The Convention That Ate Republicans’ Lunch

Harris, djt, and Our Broken News Media

I Put Him on Death Row. He Shouldn’t Die.

Hospice: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Hollywood’s 20 Best Political Movies, Ranked

Very demure is very trendy.

Why Schools Are Racing to Ban Student Phones

How to Escape From the Russian Army

Everyone Is Judging AI by These Tests. But Experts Say They’re Close to Meaningless

Pew (2023): 32% of Americans have a tattoo, including 22% who have more than one

Everything You Need To Know About Saturday Night Live, season by season

My favorite Progressive ad is the first 30 seconds-“Practicing gratitude, manifesting abundance.”

The Flagstones and The Flintstones

Tulsa dog starts house fire after chewing on lithium-ion battery

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes ad (Huck and Yogi)

Duff, another meaning

Mark Evanier: My Ten Favorite Cartoon Show Openings From My Youth and Ten More

How to Mug Yourself?

OBITS

Local civil rights activist Alice Green would describe a formative episode from her teenage years when she and a white friend were hired to work at a small summer resort. I heard her tell this story in one of her books, We Who Believe In Freedom. She was a 2018 FFAPL literary Legend. Some of her work shone a light on the struggles of Black Adirondackers. 

Phil Donahue, Who Died at 88, Transformed Daytime Television

Peter Marshall, Host of ‘The Hollywood Squares,’ Dies at 98

Wally Amos, R.I.P. He was “Famous”

Alain Delon, Seductive Star of European Cinema, Dies at 88

MUSIC

How Will I Know – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade

Yo Me Estreso – The Linda Lindas, feat. “Weird Al” Yankovic

Look Through My Window – The Mamas & The Papas

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: The Black Angels

Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture

Coverville 1498: The Counting Crows Cover Story III and  1499: The Phoebe Bridgers Cover Story

Die With A Smile – Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars

The Cedar and the Palm by Vasily Kalinnikov

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker, Jr.

Kellogg’s Rice Krispies ad – I LOVED this song as a kid

Million Dollar Baby – Tommy Richman.  “It holds the record for most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s new TikTok Top 50 chart.” I did not know that existed.

The main theme for Once Upon A Time In The West by Ennio Morricone

The Love You Save – Jackson Five

Big Man On Mulberry Street – Billy Joel;  Bruce Willis in Moonlighting, Maddie´s Dream episode.

I Had Some Help – Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen

Badge – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart– Taylor Swift

Apple – Charli xcx. I understand my iPhone cover is BRAT; Bill Maher is confused by the term.

Stay – Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs; Maurice recently died at 86

Greg Kihn, Pop Star Who Had a Big Hit With “Jeopardy,” Dies at 75 (the song and the parody included)

A Mel-dey — a medley of songs from all the musicals written by Mel Brooks — both of them…

MUSIC (political section)

KAMALA!– A Randy Rainbow Song Parody (2020)

The Lawyer or the Conman and JD, JD… . (Married Lady) – Randy Rainbow Song Parodies (2024)

Childless Cat Ladies – Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer

DNC 2024 roll call and playlist, including:

Arizona — Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks, a native of Phoenix.

Arkansas — Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac, the 1992 campaign song for Bill Clinton, the former governor of Arkansas. (I remember that well.)

Colorado — September by Earth, Wind & Fire. Philip Bailey, one of the band’s two lead singers, hails from Denver.

Connecticut — Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours by Stevie Wonder. Connecticut is known as the Constitution State.

Democrats Abroad — Love Train by the O’Jays. (“People around the world, join hands,” the lyrics say.)

Delaware — Higher Love by Kygo and Whitney Houston. President Biden, Delaware’s favorite son, has played this song regularly at his events, including after his acceptance speech in 2020.

(I’ll probably do this again. This is fun!)

What Kamala Harris and djt’s Music Choices Reveal About Each Campaign

Used by Kamala: All American – Mickey Guyton; Something More Than Free – Jason Isbell

The songs below were among those used by the djt campaign, to the disdain, and sometimes threat of legal action, by the artist and/or songwriter family:

Freedom – Beyoncé

Hold On, I’m Coming – Sam & Dave

My Heart Will Go On -Celine Dion

April rambling: when democracies fall

Sporadic Acts of Journalism

History shows there are no “one-day” dictatorships. When democracies fall, they typically fall completely.

A Different Take on Retro Conservative Fantasy

Mike Johnson Is No Hero

Anita Hill on Harvey Weinstein Reversal: “Our Movement Will Persist”

John Oliver Confesses to “Sporadic Acts of Journalism.” Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Medicaid and UFOs and Executions

Republicans Scramble to Contain Their Abortion Disaster.  William Claude Jones (c. 1815 – March 3, 1884) was an American politician, poet, fabulist, and “pursuer of nubile females,” who authored the 1864 Arizona abortion bill.

The Manhattan case against djt is strong but The Supreme Court is breaking America’s faith in the law

Census Bureau: Wealth by Race of Householder

The endless quest to replace alcohol

On the Romance of Old Maps

The Cloud under the Sea (Internet Cables)

Williams-Sonoma Will Pay Record $3.17 Million Civil Penalty for Violating FTC Made in USA Order

The Average Body Temperature Is Not 98.6 Degrees

Linear, streaming, AVOD, and beyond: What do common TV terms mean?

Updated charity ratings from Charity Watch

fillyjonk and the brick

16 Fascinating Historical Artifacts Stored In The Library of Congress

Step into the chilling world of CBS Radio Mystery Theater—with nearly 1400 episodes from 1974 to 1982, guaranteed to give you goosebumps, hosted by the commanding voices of E.G. Marshall and Tammy Grimes

Fantastic Trina Robbins remembrance by Andrew Farago
Kelly does a quiz
Now I Know: The Wife, Husband, and Ex-Husband Nuclear Family and The Environmental Intervention That Backfired
MUSIC

Spiegel im spiegel (Mirror in the mirror) by Arvo Pärt and how he tintinnabulates

Better Oblivion Community Center – Dylan Thomas

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Fairport Convention

St. Vincent – Broken Man

Coverville 1484: The Soul Asylum Cover Story and 1485: The Cure Cover Story V

Deep Field by Eric Whitacre

Margo Guryan: Moon Ride (1956)

Peter Sprague Plays You Won’t See Me and Serrado, each featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!

Against All Odds – Phil Collins

The Analogues – The Beatles tribute – Salle Pleyel – ARTE Concert

Arthur’s Law and Taylor Swift

I can say my jeans are long, but I can’t say …

This blog is old enough to vote

6,575 days in a row

This blog is old enough to vote. It’s Eighteen, and I like it!

In February, fillyjonk wrote: “It’s weird to think of how much stuff I’ve lived through in the time I have been writing this blog.” I realized how true that was.

Bloggers who get up and write a post or create one the night before are remarkable. I cannot do that anymore, though I wrote that way for the first three years when scheduling a post on the Blogger platform was not an option.  Now the idea makes me exhausted.

I try to write every day, but it won’t necessarily be posted soon. If there is something I know I want to say about Labor Day, I’ll write it, even if it’s July. If I don’t know what to write about, I create a music year post because I know that in October 2029, I will need a post about the #1 hits of 1999.

Also, I rearrange my posts like crazy. I wrote several blog posts in succession when I saw many movies.  But I didn’t want to post many reviews in a row. My working theory is that if whatever I post about today doesn’t strike your fancy, maybe tomorrow’s item will be more to your liking.

Also, some posts are time-sensitive, while others can be pushed back a day or a week. I have about a half dozen posts, which are evergreen. You may never see them unless I become seriously ill or injured.

Politics

Ultimately, I blog for two reasons. One, which I’ve stated several times, is that I don’t know what I think about many issues until I write about them. Sometimes, I change my mind, at least in part, or at least see another point of view.

Oddly, I don’t LIKE writing about divisive topics. Yet, I can’t NOT write about them sometimes. For instance, there have been four Presidents, and I penned something about all of them; unfortunately, there is too much about one in particular.

To my recollection, I never wrote about abortion before Roe was overturned. I never felt that I had to. And now I do.

I never want to write about race here. And I never cannot, mainly when it involves someone dying unjustly, such as here or here.
Relationship

The other reason for blogging is about community.  When I started writing, I made electronic acquaintances with some folks on my friend Fred Hembeck’s link page.

My dedication to this enterprise prompted the Times Union to ask me to blog there from 2008 to 2021. I’ve kept in touch with some of those folks even after the TU killed the community blog.

I was involved with ABC Wednesday for over twelve years, even running it for five years.

Initially, I participated in Sunday Stealing as a quick way to write a post. I’ve found I like making and receiving comments from those folks.
How long?

I don’t know how long I’ll keep up this daily blogging routine. Part of it is dealing with the technological part. When Kelly was having functionality problems with his blog, it discouraged me. Occasionally I have technical difficulties, and I cannot fix them myself.

I hope that the site will survive me via the Internet Archive, “a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

The first five years of my blog are still available here. And my emergency backup is out there somewhere.
Ramblin' with Roger
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