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