RFK Jr. Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

November rambling: America’s Greatness

Second Cousin or Once Removed?

America’s Greatness: A Guest Commentary

The Vibecession and the AI bubble

America’s got a Jenga economy

Citizens United and the Decline of US Democracy: Assessing the Decision’s Impact 15 Years Later

A Vast Camera System Now Feeds Police Information on Drivers Across the US. They have been called invasive, insecure, and unconstitutional.

Public Media: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

America is sliding toward illiteracy

Veterans Charities to Avoid

Panel discussion at Hampshire College’s 55th anniversary celebration: “Urgent and Unbounded: The Role of Liberal Arts Education in an Age of Rising Authoritarianism,” featuring filmmaker and historian Ken Burns, 71F, AI expert and author Gary Marcus, 86F, and Dr. Lynn Pasquerella, P08, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

The Wonderful Public Domain of Oz

Boss preppers: What does a captain of industry have to offer after the sh*t hits the fan?

Short of Medicare for All, Bernie Sanders Offers Democrats 6 Other Ways to Tackle Healthcare Crisis

Disney has lost Roger Rabbit.

Terrible Maps and a very tall garden shed

How a humble weed became a superstar of biology

What’s a capitonym? It is a prime example of the power of capitalization: a single letter can transform a regular noun, such as “turkey,” into a proper noun with a different meaning — “Turkey.”

Building a Book Lamp – actually, building a lamp made out of books

The Chinese Ban on “Fried Rice” and The Lake That Killed Its Neighbors, and At Least He Was Right About the Cake Thing? and Does This Expensive Coffee Taste Like Poop?

Relations

Because I was asked: Second Cousin or Once Removed? Untangling the Family Tree. The Kennedy example: Caroline, JFK’s daughter, and RFK Jr, RFK’s son, are first cousins.

Caroline’s son, Jack Schlossberg (who’s running for Congress in NYC), is RFK Jr.’s first cousin once removed. “If someone is your cousin ‘once removed,’ that means they’re one generation above or below you. For example, your mother’s cousin is your first cousin once removed.” Jack’s sister, Tatiana Schlossberg, also RFK Jr.’s first cousin once removed, announced she has a rare terminal cancer. She noted: “Throughout my treatment, he had been on the national stage… mostly as an embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family.”

Metamucilini and company

Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: He Faces Realities of Aging in Office

In Courting Saudi Arabia, He Emulates MBS’s Authoritarianism

RFK, Jr. Violates Agreement On CDC Vaccine Guidance, Putting Millions At Risk

The FDA Commissioner Is Missing the Point of Advisory Committees — Makary’s hand-picked panels lack diversity of opinion, robust evidence reviews, and credibility

Swastikas and Nooses Are No Longer Hate Symbols Under New Coast Guard Rules

Soldiers Must Disobey Unlawful Orders — It’s Their Legal Duty

List of Degrees Not Classed As ‘Professional’ by Regime

Marjorie Taylor Greene resigns: Read her statement in full. I’m oddly annoyed that he chooses to misspell her last name as Green.

MUSIC

Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff dies, aged 81. The Harder They Come; Many Rivers To Cross

Robert Plant: Tiny Desk Concert, Nov 21, 2025

J. Eric Smith’s Genre Delve: British Folk Rock and Metal vs Hard Rock

Coverville 1558: The Neil Young Cover Story IV

MTG Has Broken Cover – Marsh Family parody of “Billie Jean” by MJ about Marjorie Taylor Greene

Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles

The Beatles Songbook – Christine Pedi

Heaven -James McCartney

Vltava (The Moldau) by Bedrich Smetana

Spill The Wine – Eric Burdon & War

Waterways by Ludovico Einaudi

Not One Of Us – Peter Gabriel

The Hunt for Red October suite by Basil Poledouris

Bach Fugue -The Newfangled Four | GWC 50th Anniversary Show

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Born Free

White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane

Long May You Run – The Stills-Young Band

Time Of The Season– The Zombies

My Fair Lady overture

Take Me or Leave Me – Idina Menzel · Tracie Thoms from RENT OST

Table for Two, Away from the Band, Please – Road Work Ahead

Organist John Jasper McClellan (1874-1925) performs the Overture from Tännhauser (1845) by Richard Wagner (1813-1883). It’s one of the oldest acoustic (church) pipe organ recordings ever made, from late August and early September 1910 in the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Given the label print from the disc, this must have been a later production run of this record.

We Built This City – Starship

Blame It on the Record Label

September rambling: Snollygoster

Measles and Polio Down In The Schoolyard

Word of the Day: Snollygoster – A shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician.

Pity the Nation, a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (2007)

Anti-Intellectualism Is Not a Fruit of the Spirit by Rev. Benjamin Cremer

You can’t worship God and money

A.Word.A.Day: kleptocrat – A politician or an official who uses their position to enrich themselves.

United States Boycotts UN Human Rights Review. The move sets “a terrible precedent that would only embolden dictators and autocrats and dangerously weaken respect for human rights at home and abroad.”

SCOTUS ruling allows ICE to use racial profiling in Los Angeles raids.

Israel’s Attacks on Seed Banks Destroy Millennia of Palestinian Cultural Heritage, and Israel Bombs Hamas Ceasefire Negotiating Team in Doha

Lysenkoism Comes to America: As RFK Jr. purges the CDC and cancels billions in research grants, Americans need a refresher course on what happened to Soviet biological research during the Stalin years.

Are You Ready for Measles’ Wrath?

Submit Your Official Comment Against the EPA’s Plan to Rescind Its Ability to Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions Created By Any Industry and Gut Vehicle Standards Needed to Fight Climate Change

Tax cuts helped health giants dodge billions while patients faced higher costs and denials.

FOTUS vs. Higher Education and The Baileys: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The Attack on the Smithsonian Previews His Presidential Library

How math turned me from a D.E.I. skeptic to a supporter

Kennedy Center Ticket Sales Plummet as “MAGA Former Dancer” Takes Over Dance Program. Upcoming ballet performances are between only 4 and 19% sold.

FOTUS steals $400b from American workers

Information

Internet Archive Designated as a Federal Depository Library

The National Archives Recovers Rare Logbook from the Pearl Harbor Attack

The Return of Plundered Belongings Offers a Chance for Healing to a Grieving Lakota Community 170 Years After a Long-Forgotten Massacre

Giorgio Armani, Fashion’s Master of the Power Suit, Dies at 91

CBS News’ Mark Knoller, veteran White House correspondent, dies at 73

Davey Johnson, an Orioles infielder before becoming the manager of the Mets, including their 1986 World Series win, died at 82

High Greens, Chip Ordway– now and forever

The game was perfect. The call, more perfect. Sept. 9, 1965 -Sandy Koufax, Vin Scully

You Know More Finnish Than You Think

Reviews, Ratings, and Pointless Surveys by Seth Meyers

The Beetle Bailey book celebrates 75 years in the funny pages

Spider-Man’s first live-action TV run was on PBS, and I watched it

Now I Know: The Worst Movie Money Couldn’t Buy, The Problem With Faking a Smile, and The Human Traffic Cone?

**The latter box should read: “$893 million in 30 graduated annuity payments”**

MUSIC

Bottle Up Magic – Rebecca Jade (feat. Eric Darius)

Measles and Polio Down In The Schoolyard – Marsh Family parody of Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio” on RFK

In Memoriam: Mark Volman of the Turtles (1947-2025). From Stuart Mason: The masterpiece of the album The Battle of the Bands was ‘Elenore,’ simultaneously an absolutely deathless sunshine pop classic and a not particularly subtle middle finger to White Whale Records.

Supertramp co-founder, singer, and keyboardist Rick Davies died at the age of 81 after a 10-year battle with Multiple Myeloma. 5 standout Rick Davies tracks by Supertramp.

Bohemian Rhapsody, isiZulu version – Ndlovu Youth Choir

Everybody’s Song– Robert Plant and Saving Grace

Moonlight, one of Four Sea Interludes from the Benjamin Britten opera Peter Grimes

One Tiny Flower – Jeff Tweedy

Song To The Moon from Rusalka, Act I, by Antonín Dvořák

Better Broken – Sarah McLaughlin

Coverville 1547: Van Morrison Cover Story IV and 1548: The Aimee Mann Cover Story I

Dead – Sudan Archives

Big Money – Jon Batiste

Letter To My 13-Year-Old Self and Lover Girl – Laufey

Am I Born To Die – Billy Strings, 12/13/24 ACL

Surf’s Up – The Beach Boys

The Boys Of Summer -Don Henley

Hot Fun In The Summertime – Sly & The Family Stone

September Morn – Neil Diamond

I Started A Joke – Ruby Leigh

The Power Of Love – Huey Lewis and the News

Thunderstruck + It’s a Long Way to the Top – Goddesses of Bagpipes

Burning Down The House – David Byrne ft. Olivia Rodrigo – Live at Gov Ball 2025

Is AI Ruining Music? | Dustin Ballard | TED, and AI-generated music sparks industry concern, and AI music takes on a life of its own: Walking Away –Sadie Winters

K-Chuck Radio: Billy Joel gets pitchy and The Out-Of-Phase Stereo Series

Stairway, Denied

June rambling: the rich get richer

it’s cruelty, plain and simple

How the rich get richer: Evade taxation, grease trillion-dollar tax breaks, jack interest rates, then seize depressed assets

Air Traffic Control and Med Spas: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Edmund White, pioneer of gay literature, dies at 85

Loretta Swit, Maj. Margaret Houlihan of TV’s ‘MAS*H,’ Dies at 87

Frederick Forsyth, Author of ‘The Day of the Jackal,’ Dies at 86

Valerie Mahaffey, Actress on ‘Northern Exposure,’ ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Young Sheldon,’ Dies at 71. I loved her on The Powers That Be.

Alf Claussen, Emmy-Winning Composer for ‘The Simpsons,’ Dies at 84

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Crisis, Kindness, and Change; interview with Katie Couric; she was also on CBS Sunday Morning

The Hidden History of the Nazi U-Boats That Prowled the Gulf Coast

Ben Franklin’s Project

10 States With the Most Expensive Toll Roads

Ursa Incommodus

Lin-Manuel Miranda teaches us some of the slang terms used on Broadway.

Don Glut, Sheldon Mayer to Receive 2025 Bill Finger AWARD

Andy Huggins, king of the one-liners. A comedian older than I am…

The Curious Case of the Pygmy Nuthatch

Pocket Watch From Lake Michigan’s Deadliest Shipwreck Returned After 165 Years

500 days since Mark Evanier broke his ankle (I LOVE the picker-upper)

Follow the rule of adjective order!

How to eat a burrito

Now I Know: Can a Flying Potato Read This Email? and The Ancient Roman Pee Tax and The Great Bread Squeezing Crime Spree of the Late 1990s and Why a Boy Brought a Microwave to School

Bunny boiler

It’s Time to Admit the US Constitution Has Failed

Hegseth Lays Out a Case for Troop Deployments in ‘Any Jurisdiction in the Country’ cf. Hitler’s Enabling Act, the ‘Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich.’ From the Atlantic: Hitler Used a Bogus Crisis of ‘Public Order’ to Make Himself Dictator. “The first paragraph [of the decree] suspended civil liberties, providing Hitler the means to suppress political opposition in advance of the upcoming elections on March 5 [1933]. The second paragraph gave Hitler the power to trample states’ rights: ‘If any state fails to take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, the Reich government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.'”

Gabbard is considering ways to revamp FOTUS’s intelligence briefing. One idea is to make the briefing, which, according to his schedule, he has been taking less often than his predecessors, into a video that resembles Fox News.

Shiny new AI contradicts EPA chief’s do-nothing climate change stance

RFK Jr. Ousts All of CDC’s Vaccine Advisors. “Citing studies that don’t exist is NOT an ‘error.’ It is lying.”

The gutting of medical research. There are nearly 2,500 NIH grants that have ended or been delayed.

‘Completely Unworkable’: Sculpture Experts Say $34 Million Statue Garden Has Major Problems.

Kennedy Center hopes coupons will fix the toxic takeover

Borowitz satire: Travel Ban Unnecessary After Rest of World Shows Zero Interest in Coming to S***hole Country

Big, Ugly Bill

From my Congressman, Paul Tonko:

The GOP’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” is a historic transfer of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest — providing $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations while slashing essential services and raising costs for those who can least afford them.

Independent researchers at the University of Pennsylvania estimate that the GOP budget will cost the poorest households more than $1,000 per year, even as the wealthiest 0.1% reap an annual windfall of more than $389,000.

And according to the independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) most recent projections, their plan would strip health insurance from 16 million Americans while adding $2.4 trillion to the deficit. This isn’t “fiscal responsibility” — it’s cruelty, plain and simple.

John Green

John explains how $20 per person per year has helped save 91 million human lives since 2000.

Truthout

Bill Will Lead to 51,000 Preventable Deaths Each Year and Would Limit Investigations Into Abuse, Neglect of Disabled People. Annual cuts to Medicaid would average $70 billion, roughly the same amount the wealthy will save in tax cuts.

MUSIC

Symphony No. 5 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Arthur Hamilton, “Cry Me a River” Songwriter, Dies at 98; Cry Me A River – Julie London

Green Fields Of France – Dropkick Murphys.

Handel’s Op. 6

In My Room – Julien Neel

You Won’t Dig My Grave -Josh Ritter

Love – OK Go

K-Chuck Radio: The Musical Legacy of Terry Knight and the Pack

Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears for Fears

Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by John Williams

Have A Nice Day– World Order

Good Lovin’ – the Olympics

Coverville 1536: Covering Our Tracks Back To June 1985

Whistle While You Work from the live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

For Your Eyes Only – Sheena Easton

The Scott Joplin Problem

Billboard Presents 24 Hours with “Weird Al” Yankovic

Hamilton Original Broadway Cast: Where Are They Now?

“Make America sick again”

placebo testing

A December 9 article in MedWatch is titled How Measles, Whooping Cough, and Worse Could Roar Back on RFK Jr.’s Watch. The subtitle: Some experts fear he could “make America sick again.” Arthur Allen, KFF Health News, wrote it.

“Ater backlash against public health interventions culminated in President-elect Donald Trump’s nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the country’s best-known anti-vaccine activist, as its top health official, infectious disease and public health experts and vaccine advocates say a confluence of factors could cause renewed, deadly epidemics of measles, whooping cough, and meningitis, or even polio…

“Even states that keep existing requirements will be vulnerable to decisions made by a Republican-controlled Congress as well as by Kennedy and former Republican Rep. Dave Weldon, MD, of Florida, should they be confirmed to lead HHS and the CDC, respectively.

“Both men — Kennedy as an activist, Weldon as a medical doctor and congressman from 1995 to 2009 — have endorsed debunked theories blaming vaccines for autism and other chronic diseases… Both have accused the CDC of covering up evidence… despite dozens of reputable scientific studies to the contrary.”

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair’s December 13 article notes that RFK Jr.’s lawyer, who is helping staff HHS, has demanded the FDA’s revoke of the polio vaccine approval. The headline undersells the gravity of the issue.

Let’s bring back polio!

“That lawyer is Aaron Siri, whose polio petition was filed in 2022 and who does not discriminate when it comes to vaccines he’d like to take an axe to. According to the Times, Siri ‘has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines…; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions.’… While Kennedy has claimed, not very convincingly, that he does not intend to take away access to vaccines, his persistent undermining of them and his relationship with Siri does not inspire much confidence.” Vaccines for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, and diphtheria could be on the chopping block.

My friend Mary, who has a deep background in health issues, notes: “The basis for [Siri’s] request to revoke approval was the fact that when the polio vaccine was first being tested (about 70 years ago), they didn’t run randomized, double-blind studies against a placebo. The reason they didn’t was that, given the known risks of polio-causing paralysis that can seize major organs and kill people, such work is considered unethical.

“It was unethical to withhold the actual vaccine from some, substituting a theoretical risk from the vaccine for the actual risk of getting the disease. RFK and Siri want all polio vaccinations to stop until the placebo testing can happen, sacrificing a large cohort of children to the strong possibility that some of them will have extremely serious outcomes from not getting an actual vaccine that’s been in safe use for many decades.”

Although some of Kennedy’s comments about nutrition might make some sense, he is dangerous regarding vaccination. If his policies are implemented, they will gravely harm Americans for decades.

Hey, what a difference a month makes

Harris/Walz

What a difference a month makes. Like a lot of people, by the time the Republican National Convention was over, I was thoroughly depressed. When Joe Biden was running, he rightly pointed out the risk to democracy if his opponent were elected. Unfortunately, the Republicans said the same thing if the Democrats won.

Even as I heard the calls for Joe Biden to step aside, I couldn’t imagine how that would work out. Kamala Harris’ polling numbers weren’t much better than Joe’s. The pundits also noted that she never got any footing in the 2020 Democratic campaign season, which was true.

Do you know who else ran not one but two dismal Presidential campaigns? Joe Biden, who dropped out of the 2008 campaign after faring poorly in Iowa. Of course, Barack Obama then picked him as his running mate.

So, I am cautiously optimistic. In retrospect, I should have KNOWN that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would be the Presidential/Veep candidates for the Democrats. I jest. But it feels so right.

The Republicans are currently on the defensive. A disoriented djt insists that the attendance at his “rally” on Jan. 6, 2021, before the storming of the Capitol, was larger than the quarter million on August 28, 1963, when MLK Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. He has fantasized that Joe Biden might somehow snatch back the nomination. People around him say he’s been knocked off his bearings.

Uh-uh

Harris/Walz has pivoted to We’re Not Going Back. Some have criticized it as unduly negative, but I think it’s wonderful. It’s oblique. Go back to what? The time before Roe v. Wade? Before Jan. 6? It’s a counterweight to Make America Great Again, Again.

Now, the GOP candidate is considered ‘Too Old’ by a majority. “Mental Fitness Increasingly Worry Voters.” Like Biden, he can’t pivot to become younger, and touting his alleged prowess in basic cognitive tests isn’t helping. I only wish the press had been harsher on djt earlier, because he’s been saying crazy stuff for quite a while.

Also, several pundits have noted that the “weird” labeling is particularly effective. If one attacks djt on policy, he’ll say his position was misrepresented. But if one points out his mixing up California politician Willie Brown with another black man, and you say, “That’s weird,” you don’t have to ask if he’s losing it. After Hillary Clinton used “deplorable” to describe MAGA fans, they embraced it, but weird is a different thing.

I should write about tech bro JD Vance and how Silicon Valley owns him, but nah.

DEI

When Harris got down to her Veep candidates, you knew there would be a white man. That DEI! If you’re gonna have a black South Asian woman, you gotta have a white guy. Walz seems to be the least likely candidate. Gov. Roy Cooper (NC) looks like how a president would have been portrayed in many 1980s disaster films. Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, looks like a policy wonk. US Senator Mark Kelly (AZ) looks like, well, an astronaut. Then there were the forty-somethings, Gov. Andy Beshear (KY) and US DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

MN governor Tim Walz is the least telegenic, but he has a Midwestern genuineness and a great biography, which people are attracted to. “He tossed off multiple zingers about how ‘creepy and weird as hell’ the Republican ticket. Coach Walz’s sudden rise in the Democratic Party was no accident. And according to the satirical Borowitz Report, “in an extraordinary show of support from the furry mammals, America’s cats gave a full-throated endorsement to…Walz.”

Interestingly, according to an article published in the National Library of Medicine in 2023, “We vote for the person, not the policies: a systematic review on how personality traits influence voting behaviour.” The GOP candidates and most of their proxies are not very nice people. Their “stolen valor” attack on Walz is overblown, e.g., and is funny coming from the campaign of Captain Bone Spurs.

RFK, Jr.

When Biden was still poised to be the Democratic candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. seemed to have the chance to be at least a spoiler. His stock is down now, and John Oliver’s skewering on Last Week Tonight didn’t help.

Worse, from Behan Communications: “Since ‘weird’ seems to be the word of the moment, we thought we’d hop right in with some news about… [the] presidential candidate of the Comic Relief Party.

“Where to begin? With his admission that he dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park 10 years ago? Or that he once had a freezer full of roadkill meat? Or that doctors told him he has a dead worm in his brain? Or that he somehow believes, according to testimony he gave this week in an Albany, N.Y., courtroom, that an intent to move somewhere is ‘the only requirement for residency?'” He has been “disqualified from the New York ballot over his false residence claim.” It’s likely to affect other states where he used that bogus address.