Tag: Kelly Sedinger

September rambling: ‘Subsidizing Suicide’

Rebecca Jade in London


CDC Issues Emergency Response for Florida Dengue Outbreak.

Ahead of Biodiversity Summit, UN Chief Warns Countries Are ‘Subsidizing Suicide’ by Backing Fossil Fuels. “I urge governments everywhere to end these handouts once and for all, and to use the savings for people and planet instead,” said António Guterres.

Voters in Oil-Rich Alberta Strongly Reject Leaving Canada.

In Virginia, Racism and Redlining Are Fueling a Flock Camera Backlash.

Expedia amazoned hotel rooms. 

Smart Answers to Stupid Comments About Slavery – Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie.
Dolores Huerta, Labor Leader and Force for Civil Rights, Has Died. She co- founded the United Farm Workers.

Tom Skerritt has died at age 93. I watched him in many movies and TV shows, but my favorite was his run on Picket Fences.

Walter Koenig, Chekov From ‘Star Trek,’ Has Died. As the Russian navigator of the U.S.S. Enterprise, he was a mainstay of the original television series and seven films. He was 90.

Christiane Amanpour Says She Is Leaving CNN After 43 Years.

The Dominican Baseball Factory – A teenage prospect’s family was promised $1.8 million, and most of it was gone within a few years thanks to the moneylenders who circle young players.

A Final Scream at the End of the Movie. Not quite an end credits scene, but worth the wait. 

Churn and Burn

140 Horror Scripts to Download and Study – Share.

What does it mean when someone says, “Roger that”? Incidentally, as of this writing, ROGER is still available for Wordle. 

LOWER AND LOWER

‘I don’t ramble,’ as he sinks to new levels of delusion.

Ohio’s Republican Governor Calls on Vivek Ramaswamy to Take Down Attack Ad. It features the estranged mother of Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, and has drawn widespread criticism, though FOTUS strongly defended it.
Could House Republicans refuse to seat Democrats? FOTUS might try
FOTUS Signs Order Exempting Russia From Sanctionss Law. The sanctions were part of a measure that was named after Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died in July.
“I’d Like to Report a Theft”: Bernie Mocks FOTUS’s  Anti-Fraud Tipline. “A man inside our government illegally spent nearly $22 million in taxpayer dollars on bogus campaign ads praising himself. He now resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

902 pregnancy-related prosecutions in three years after Dobbs. Pregnancy Justice found that most cases involved child neglect or endangerment charges

FEMA tells states to handle disasters on their own

Women are disappearing from top roles in the regime

CMS rescinds nursing home voting guidance

Musk chose to restrict Ukraine’s access to SpaceX satellite network
Most of Ken Paxton’s Money Can Be Traced to Elon Musk. The world’s richest person, who has become the biggest known midterm donor, gave $158 million to a group that quickly spent that much to help Mr. Paxton’s Senate bid in Texas.
MUSIC

The Smooth Jazz Show on The Soul Of London Radio– Thursday 15th October 2026. The “Album Of The Week” is the latest from vocalist Rebecca Jade. Released in 2022 and entitled “A Shade Of Jade”, Paul Russell features several tracks from the Album on the show. The interview came ahead of her LIVE performance at The Indigo @ The O2 on Friday, 16th October.

The RFK Jr. Lament – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Symphony No.10 in F minor “In Autumn” by Joachim Raff

Coverville 1597: The Chuck Berry 100th Birthday Cover Story and 1598: The Hall & Oates Cover Story IV

Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists (Series Four) #12: The Smiths and  #13: Moxy Früvous 

expectations – Olivia Rodrigo (feat. Chappell Roan); video appearance by David Byrne

Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes

Show Me– Pretenders

Ingrid Bergman – Billy Bragg and Wilco

It Never Entered My Mind – Dawn Upshaw

Cinnamon Girl – Los Lobos

Nicole Kidman – ADÉLA

Burning House – Cam 

When I Think Of You – Janet Jackson

From Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot – the title song and If Ever I Would Leave You

Fiddler: A Miracle Of Miracles | Documentary, which I saw at the Spectrum Theatre in 2019; recommended. 

K-Chuck Radio: When it was more than tainted love

How Bernie Taupin and Elton John Became The Greatest Songwriting Duo – Rick Beato interviews Taupin

Sept rambling – Bust Unions

Whispers from the Great Beyond, featuring Rebecca Jade

Amazon Is Deploying AI to Spy on Its Workers and Bust Unions Before They Form

The Secret Service: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The Nobel Peace Prize announcement is that this year’s award went to Navi Pillay, a person of “exceptional courage” who has led accountability efforts against apartheid, prosecuted war crimes, and upheld international law for decades.  The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Pillay, who early in her career served as a judge on South Africa’s High Court, her native country.

Being Heard Is Not Enough. As the Cornell 7 case reminds us, institutional accountability is a must

A Photo of Mussolini’s Corpse Led Page 1. How It Got There Is a Tale.

When Your Charity Dollars Go Overseas, Can You Follow the Money?

Where to Take Your Unwanted Prescription Meds – The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has an online tool that lets you find the closest kiosk by entering your ZIP code.

Eva Marie Saint, from the movie North by Northwest, and an Oscar winner for On the Waterfront, is dead at 102

Mike Ditka has died. He and the Bears won the Super Bowl in 1986, and after coaching, he became one of the sport’s most visible and enduring talking heads. He was 86.

70 Up and saying goodbye to the greatest documentary series of all time

Toadstools and Toxins, what’s in those “magic mushroom” gummies?

UGH

The U.S. Supreme Court granted the regime’s request to resume third-country deportations, issuing an unsigned stay of a lower-court injunction. The Court added the case to its docket and scheduled oral arguments for December.

FOTUS wrote that the White House sees anyone who says “artificial intelligence” instead of “super intelligence” as “THE ENEMY”.

FOTUS’s decision to hold an international summit at his private golf club, an idea he rejected in his first term, shows how much he has shattered norms.

He personally told an aide to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising him

The regime’s allies have sought to prove a “grand conspiracy” through a sprawling Justice Department inquiry. It has buckled under staffing shake-ups, internal disputes, and trouble finding evidence.

A scorecard from MAHA activists suggests the regime has broken most of its promises to the movement on food, agriculture, and environmental health.

GOP senator’s gotcha question blows up in his face

MUSIC

This Land Is Your Land/Power to the People – Tom Morello leads an all-star finale featuring Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Dave Grohl, Dave Matthews, Stephen Stills, and more, performing live at the Power to the People Festival 2026! The whole 10-hour concert✊

My Minnesota Home – Gail Sparlin. I heard her sing this at the Reader’s Theater event in Albany, NY, on October 5, benefiting the Wizard’s Wardrobe tutorial program.

Peter Sprague Plays Whispers from the Great Beyond, featuring Rebecca Jade

Autumnal Sketch by Sergei Prokofiev

The main theme from the score to Dangerous Beauty by George Fenton

Kansas City – The New Basement Tapes

Dolly Suite by Gabriel Fauré

Teardrops – Womack & Womack

On the radio, I heard Leyenda by Albeniz. IDK who was playing, but here’s Andres Segovia. It reminded me of Spanish Caravan – The Doors

Coverville 1596: Album Anniversaries for XTC, ELO and Simon & Garfunkel

The Fall of the Leaf by Gerald Finzi

Surreptitious – Romy

Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels) – Jim Croce 

Peter Sprague Plays The Kiss featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #11: Elton John

NYT: My Favorite Phone Songs

Remembering when there were ‘Stax’ of soul musicians in Memphis

What Makes This 50’s Fender Precision Bass So Rare! The insane story of how Joe Bonamassa helped solve Rick Beato’s 50-year-old family mystery.

Opposing the death penalty

“a barbaric promotion of a culture of death”

Hank Green mused about the botched execution in Tennessee: Why Are We So Bad at Executing People? He has a statistical analysis that might well explain it. Christa Pike’s attorneys had made it known that she had essential thrombocytosis, which complicates IV access. A doctor explains: “What happened in Tennessee’s execution chamber is one of the most common failures in medicine.”

Kelly mentioned his conversion to opposing the death penalty. I’ve opposed it for longer, but I like his point: “Time and time again I have seen that, as a response to the actions of the worst of us, executions do not bring out the best of us.”

Over 200 people have been exonerated after being on death row, some of them incarcerated for decades.

From the ACLU:

  • Almost all people on death row could not afford to hire an attorney. The quality of legal representation better predicts whether someone will be sentenced to death than the facts of the crime.
  • Race often plays a role in determining a capital sentence, in multiple ways. Over 80% of capital cases involve white victims, even though nationally, only 50% of murder victims are white…. 
Death is a carnival

But what frankly enraged me recently was Pete Hegseth announcing that the Pentagon plans a public livestream execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan, its first in decades. The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, has rightly condemned the plan as “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death” that would “only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation.”

Public execution as entertainment? AP: “For about nine decades, executions in the U.S. have been private affairs.” After years of public executions, “states started to change the policy as an increasing number of people witnessed botched hangings and as broader concerns grew over the events… Instead of promoting the sanctity of life and how solemn the circumstance was, with people applauding and having a carnival-like atmosphere, that really turned people off.” 

I will admit that the “festivities” image created a visceral reaction in me. It reminded me of lynchings, “the public killing of an individual who has not received any due process. These executions were often carried out by lawless mobs, though police officers did participate, under the pretext of justice.

“A typical lynching involved a criminal accusation, an arrest, and the assembly of a mob, followed by seizure, physical torment, and murder of the victim. Lynchings were often public spectacles attended by the white community in celebration of white supremacy. Photos of lynchings were often sold as souvenir postcards.”

Don’t be like Iran

I’m not arguing that Hasan was not fairly convicted, as far as I know, or that the government doesn’t have the AUTHORITY to execute him. But the OHCHR’s Shabia Mantoo, responding to a question from journalists at a press briefing in Geneva, noted that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in response to public executions in Afghanistan and Iran, had previously stressed that such executions “constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

We are presumably better than Yemen and North Korea, other countries that have performed public executions in recent years. Or maybe not. Watch Jonathan Pie on American Morality.

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

Sept. rambling: Murdering 60 Minutes

Baseball Walk Up Song Database

Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian, at the Natural History Museum. Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post via Getty Images

UN rights chief Volker Türk raises alarm over AI’s ‘existential’ risk to humanity

What students lose when they stop writing

“Murdering 60 Minutes” is what it would look like if “60 Minutes” covered what happened to itself after Bari Weiss took over. The film is available to watch for free on YouTube and at www.murdering60minutes.com.

It’s Not Just Flock. Police Can’t Be Trusted With Our Data

Gloria Steinem Dies at 92. She challenged sexist assumptions, helping women develop self-worth and gain a measure of equality at work, at home, and in society at large. Somewhere in the attic is my copy of the premiere issue of Ms. magazine.
Americans Agree on Almost Nothing. Except Data Centers. Three-fourths of Americans oppose them.

As A Teen, I Wrote A Famous Musician A Fan Letter. 23 Years After His Death, I Finally Got A Response.

Bob Mackie, Designer Who Bedazzled Carol Burnett and Cher, Dies at 87

It’s One of Our Greatest and Most Controversial Novels. How Should “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Be Taught?

He Was a Top Lawn Care Influencer on YouTube. Then Everything Went Haywire.

I Study Successful People. They Have One Habit in Common.  The habit is asking for help when you get stuck.

The Glare

The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice

Any Human Ever

To Protect and Swerve and All Price Tags Go To Heaven, and Denim Dresses Were the Old Black and How Hippos Swim:

Hmm…

‘Beware my power’: White House shares AI-generated video of FOTUS as Green Lantern

EPA Takes ‘Yet Another Sledgehammer’ to Clean Water Act

Vance lies through his teeth about regime’s military missteps

Hegseth vs. the Deep Pentagon

Dozens of Joint Staff members subject to polygraph tests in leak hunt

At $5.85 a Gallon, Diesel Price Hits All-Time High thanks to War on Iran

RFK Jr.’s vaccine lies finally catch up to him

Regime to rescind rule protecting old-growth forests. “The public has until 21 September to comment on the plan.”

Why did FOTUS order up 660 million pounds of mystery meat?

Russian Businessman Paid for DT Jr.’s Lavish Wedding After-Party

U.N. approves Equal Earth map in 164-1 vote as U.S. slams it as ideological

Lonnie G. Bunch III has announced his decision to depart as Smithsonian’s Secretary after 38 years of service to the institution. With a storied career dating back to the 1970s, Bunch leaves a remarkable legacy, most notably the founding of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which we visited in 2024. I heard him speak in 2019 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.
MUSIC

Baseball Walk Up Song Database

You’re Not Alone – Mavis Staples

Canticle of Light by Akira Nishimura

Best Albums of 2026 (Third Quarter) Report

Brahms’ Academic Overture –  The Cleveland Orchestra

Coverville 1592: The Dolly Parton Tribute and 1593: The Bee Gees Cover Story V

Sunshine Boots – Johnson Mkhalali

Gumboots -Paul Simon featuring The Boyoyo Boys

Nightflyer – Alison Russell

Joan Osborne issued an album of 12 Bob Dylan covers circa 2017; she performed some of them live. Full Session – 8/31/2017 – Paste Studios – New York, NY

A Song For You – Donny Hathaway

Beautiful Dawn – The Wailin’ Jennys

Harvest Moon – Cassandra Wilson, jazz star, who died at 70, which reminds me of my late friend Donna

Peter Sprague Plays The Wind Cries Mary, featuring Lisa Hightower, and George, Tell It Like It Is, featuring Sinne Eeg

STAR TREK edition

Do You Miss Me Darlin’ – The Guess Who

This Time Tomorrow – Brandi Carlile

Higher Love – Steve Winwood

We Shall Be Known – MaMuse

Venus – Bananarama

Dopamine (Jamie xx Remix) – Robyn

Something To Love – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit