Ramblin' with Roger

Fear an orange win

xenophobia

I fear an Orange win. While it’s been brewing in my mind for a few weeks, it is epitomized in observations made by commenters on ABC This Week on October 13.

RACHAEL BADE, ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTING POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: ‘We’ve been talking about women this entire election, how they’re running away from Trump. Childless cat lady comments, abortion, just Trump’s temperament in general. But… in the final weeks of this election, we are really starting to see that Donald Trump has been very successful with turning out men or at least getting them excited to vote for him.

“And not just conservative men, but men who consider themselves to be…pro-abortion rights, socially liberal men, black men, Latino men. And, you know, I was interviewing one of the more famous focus group analysts, Sarah Longwell, at “The Bulwark,” and she was talking about why, and it sounds like a lot of these men, they don’t view Donald Trump as extreme.

“You might disagree with that. They like him. They think he’s somebody that they would want to hang out with, and he has just been sort of successful and leaning into the strongman mentality that right now, with, you know, all the chaos in the Middle East, with the issues with the hurricanes, she’s hearing more and more in focus groups not just from men but also some women who are reaching for that sort of strongman mentality and starting to second-guess Harris.”

Not extreme?

SUSAN GLASSER, THE NEW YORKER STAFF WRITER: “I think this conversation we’re having, it’s really a question of who, in the end is the election about, and if people’s gaze is focused on Donald Trump, his escalatory rhetoric, I mean, some of the things we’ve seen this week are the most nakedly racist and xenophobic things I’ve ever seen from a national candidate, and that includes Donald Trump in his previous two outings.”

The notion that djt is not an extreme candidate suggests that Americans are more ahistorical people than I had already feared.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is quoted in Bob Woodward’s new book, War. The general approaches the writer “in a state of panic about the prospect of a Trump revival. ‘No one has ever been as dangerous to this country,’ the general exclaimed. ‘I glimpsed it when I talked to you … for Peril [Woodward’s previous book], but I now know it, I now know it. … We have got to stop him! You have got to stop him! … He’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country! … A fascist to the core!’”

Intuition

REP. MIKE JOHNSON, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: We all know intuitively that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections.

“Intuitively.” The Speaker was on CBS’ Face The Nation. He must “intuitively” know the 2020 election was “rigged” because he played a leading role in Trump’s legal effort to overturn it. He “has made statements in recent weeks suggesting that the certification of the election results is conditional.”

How Harris Can Finish Strong

Meanwhile, New York Times columnist David Brooks notes that “Undecided voters in a Times Opinion focus group were recently asked to describe Kamala Harris’ efforts. They responded with phrases like: ‘honeymoon’s over,’ the paint is wearing off,’ ‘uninspired,’ ‘absent,’ and ‘scared to talk directly to the American people.’ Researchers who have been surveying voter sentiment as the campaign progresses found that there’s been a decline in how voters think about Harris, while sentiment toward Donald Trump has rebounded slightly since the September debate…

“The playwright David Mamet once wrote a memo to a group of fellow writers in which he reminded them that audiences ‘will not tune in to watch information.’ They will ‘only tune in and stay tuned to watch drama.’ What is drama? Mamet says it ‘is the quest of the hero to overcome those things which prevent him from achieving a specific, acute goal.’ The screenwriter Aaron Sorkin builds on that definition. He says that strong drama is built around intention and obstacle. The hero has to be seized by a strong, specific desire, and she needs to face a really big obstacle.”

Passion

“That suggests that Harris needs to show the American people her strongest, most acute, and controlling desire, the ruling passion of her soul. I know what Trump wants. He wants to dismantle the elites who he thinks have betrayed regular Americans. It’s unclear what Harris wants most deeply, other than the vague chance to do good and to be president…Candidates who are not driven by a single, specific, compelling desire become reactive. “

This aligns with what people, even those who are going to vote for her, have been saying to me about how they don’t know what she really thinks, believes, or values.

Yet she’s always working at a disadvantage. Harris’ responses to her battery of recent interviews are being scrutinized, while djt ducked the 60 Minutes interview altogether. He hasn’t released his health records, as she has. Moreover, his supporters stand with him by ‘sussing out rhetoric from reality.’ In other words, many of his loyal fans don’t believe he’ll do what he says he’ll do.

“What’s extraordinary… is the dire and graphic nature of his language.”

More to the point, as an opinion piece in the Boston Globe says: “He’s running a closing-days campaign fueled by falsehood – and it could work. After all, as he demonstrated with his Big Lie about the 2020 election, even his most far-fetched claims can race to the far corners of the country before fact-checkers are able to set off in persuasive pursuit.

“From last week’s assertion that Aurora, Colorado, and other towns have been ‘invaded and conquered’ by ‘vicious and bloodthirsty criminals‘ to his recent description of illegal immigrants as ‘savages,’ ‘predators,’ and ‘animals’ who want to ‘rape, pillage, thieve, plunder, and kill’ Americans, to his ominous warning that migrants ‘grab young girls and slice them up right in front of their parents…,’ it’s trademark Trump, a dark, roiling, racially-tinged rhetorical torrent, unlike anything we’ve seen in any presidential campaign in modern American history.

“That dystopian rhetoric is an obvious attempt to create fear sufficient to move voters beyond his enormous character faults and his well-documented assault on democracy and get them to conclude that however unsavory they find him, he’s the strongman the country needs to solve its supposed problems.”

For reasons involving his cult of personality, 45 is graded on a curve, and he could win in November—probably not the popular vote, but quite possibly the Electoral College. I’d SO love to be wrong.

Movie review: The Wild Robot

say important things

Based on good word-of-mouth, I attended a Tuesday afternoon matinee showing of the animated film The Wild Robot at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

I didn’t know it was based on a children’s book until I saw the movie. The story begins with robots that are shipwrecked on the shore. One robot is stymied by the fact that our heroine has no people to serve.

(Hmm. Can robots HAVE gender? This and many other questions are addressed in author Peter Brown’s reflections on the writing of this book.)

Initially, Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) confounds or terrifies the wildlife she sees. When she figures out the language of the woodland creatures, she, to her surprise, is not welcome. She inadvertently ends up parenting an orphaned baby goose, Brightbill (Kit Connor), assisted by a conflicted fox, Fink (Pedro Pascal).

I loved this movie. First, the DreamWorks film looks marvelous. But more importantly, it has a compelling storyline about making one’s way in a strange land. Some have compared it favorably with the movies E.T., the Iron Giant, and WALL-E, and I suppose there are hints of those.

“stunning visual feast but also a moving meditation”

However, I found it more reflective and deep about the complexities of life, yet it is still accessible to children. Several reviews (97% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) glommed onto the complexities of being a parent. Yet, at times, it was hysterically LOL funny.

Leonard Maltin wrote: “The Wild Robot is a genuinely beautiful movie, in every sense of that adjective. Its physical production is impressive, to say the least, but there are no weak links in its chain, from character design to its exquisitely rendered environment.” Other critics used terms such as “unexpected emotional rollercoaster, “and “a moving meditation on life, friendship, and survival in an unforgiving environment,”

Some reviewers were even more taken by it. Courtney Lanning of Arkansas Public Radio wrote: “Everyone who watches ‘The Wild Robot’ can come away connecting with something, whether it’s an urge to help others, even if they’ve hurt you in the past, or learning to say important things to loved ones because you never know when it’ll be too late.” Hmm. She’s not wrong.

Right before the film, I attended a book review of The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence by Matteo Pasquinelli, reviewed by Lex Bhagat, former Executive Director of FFAPL, and currently a business librarian at NY SBDC, where I used to work. Two days later, I saw an episode of Law & Order: The founder of an AI-infused dating app is murdered. These got me thinking again about the nature of technology and how “real” Roz was. No answers, just musings.

October rambling: Sudden Genius

The Mystery of Sudden Genius. The phenomenon of acquired savant syndrome reveals what happens when brain damage unleashes brilliance. I know Diana, who is profiled in the piece.

Federal Courts: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and The Interview: John Oliver Is Still Working Through the Rage:

One year after October 7

Junk Science Put Me on Death Row. I Shouldn’t Die.

A Woman Was Accused of Murder After Losing Her Pregnancy. Now She Tells Her Story

Twitter is not Elon’s

To Understand Trump vs. Harris, You Must Know These American Myths

‘Trump Bible’ is one of few that meet the criteria for Oklahoma classrooms. “According to the bid documents, vendors must meet certain specifications: Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.”

The Republican Ethic of Lies

Jill Stein: The Grifter Who May Hand djt the White House Again

1950s TV episode featured a con man named “Trump” who wanted to build a wall

Also

John Amos, ‘Good Times’ Dad, Dies at 84. I saw him perform at Capital Rep in Albany in the August Wilson play Fences as the father several years ago, and he was very good.

I knew the plantation before I knew the college.

U.S. Divorce Rates Down, Marriage Rates Stagnant From 2012-2022

2023 New Zealand Census data

Wrecked rain gauges. Whistleblowers. Million-dollar payouts and manhunts. Then a Colorado crop fraud got really crazy. “The sordid story of two ranchers who conspired to falsify drought numbers by tampering with rain gauges on the plains of Colorado and Kansas, resulting in millions in false insurance claims.”

History of the Famous “Daisy” Attack Ad from the 1964 Presidential Election

A history of Western art (in less than 7 minutes)

Horse-Riding Librarians Were the Great Depression’s Bookmobiles.

Cookbooks and the war of the sexes

Zoom Sex

Drake Hogestyn, a ‘Days of Our Lives’ Veteran, dies at 70. I only watched DOOL for a couple of years, but I remember him well.

Now I Know: Another Brick in the Wall of Prohibition, and He Complained — and Proved Himself Wrong, and You Could Say Their Commute Goes Swimmingly and Why Late 16th Century British Workers Had to Wear Hats

Word of the Day: Zhuzh– Make something more stylish, lively, or attractive. This would be a brutal Wordle word.

MUSIC

For sister Leslie: He that that a pleasant face by John L. Hatton

When I Go Away – Levon Helm

Nocturne in E min by Fryderyk (Frédéric) Chopin; Grazyna Auguscik

Avinu Malkeinu – Barbra Streisand

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: The Cure

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Live at The Egg, Hart Theater on 2016-06-08

When Somebody Loved Me – Sarah McLachlan from Toy Story 2

Our Time – Jim Walton, who originated the role of Franklin Shepard in the musical Merrily We Roll Along

I Am What I Am – Voctave and the The Swingles

Matrix III by John Whitney Sr.

Bus Stop (The Hollies) and Taxman (The Beatles) – MonaLisa Twins

Death Of Suzzy Roche-The Roches (live)

An Oscar-Nominated Short Film of John Lennon’s Ramblings

Professor of Rock interviews Weird Al

The last of the DNC 2024 roll call and playlist

South Carolina — Get Up – James Brown, who grew up in rural southwestern South Carolina

South Dakota — What I Like About You – the Romantics

Tennessee — 9 to 5 – the Tennessee singer, artist and activist Dolly Parton

Texas — Texas Hold ‘Em – Beyoncé, a Texas native.

Utah — Animal -Neon Trees, from just outside Salt Lake City.

Vermont — Stick Season – Noah Kahan, who hails from Vermont, mentions “I Love Vermont” in the song.

U.S. Virgin Islands — VI to the Bone – Mic Love, about the Virgin Islands.

Virginia — The Way I Are – Timbaland, born and raised in Norfolk, Va.

Washington — “Can’t Hold Us,” by the Seattle-based hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

West Virginia — “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” by John Denver, a song so core to West Virginia that it is considered an official state anthem.

Wisconsin — “Jump Around.” Though written by California’s House of Pain, this song is played at University of Wisconsin football games.

Wyoming — “I Gotta Feeling,” by the Black Eyed Peas.

Stories about Elections in New York

non-affiliated

There were two news stories about elections in New York. One pleased me greatly, while the other mildly surprised me.

ITEM: Judge Tosses a New York Law That Moved Many Local Elections to Even-Numbered Years. “A law moving many town and county elections in New York to even-numbered years to align them with state and federal races was struck down by a state judge, providing a win to Republicans who claimed it was a partisan effort by Democrats to gain an electoral edge.

“Sponsors of the bill approved by the Democrat-led state Legislature last year said they wanted to shift elections for town supervisor, county executive, and some other local posts from odd-numbered years to reduce confusion and increase voter turnout. Republicans denounced the law as an effort to move local elections to higher-turnout presidential election years, which could favor Democrats.”

Judge Gerard Neri wrote in his ruling that the law conflicts with individual county charters. Moreover, “the Even Year Election Law would effectively double the size of a ballot and could lead to voter confusion and also a drop off in the voter participation for down-ballot races and referendums.”

As I wrote last year, before Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the legislation, I HATED the new legislation. A local race can’t get the oxygen a federal or statewide gets. I support the judge’s ruling.

Independent

ITEM: “One in four registered active voters in New York do not belong to a political party, according to the most recent registration data collected by the Times Union.” This follows a national trend that’s been taking place for over a decade.

Interestingly, the state has one of the most restrictive primary voting policies. If you’re a non-affiliated voter, i.e., not a Democrat or Republican or registered in one of the two recognized minor parties, Conservative and Working Families, you don’t get to vote in primaries. I have always been registered as a Democrat because not voting in a primary would disenfranchise me.

In June 2024, there was the primary for an open seat in the New York State Assembly, the 109th AD; the person who won the primary, Gabriella Romero with 30.1% of vote against five opponents, is almost certain to be elected in November. Likewise, the mayor of Albany is up next in 2025, and the winner of the Democratic primary will almost certainly become mayor five months later.

Ballot access

Moreover, the Empire State has continually eroded ballot access in recent years. From Ballotopedia: On October 19, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the ballot access laws passed in New York in 2020. The Libertarian Party sued the New York State Board of Elections over these laws on July 28, 2020, calling them unconstitutional thresholds enacted to keep minor parties off of the ballot. A U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the New York State Board of Elections in 2021, and the Second Circuit upheld that ruling.

Provisions of the 2020 ballot access laws include the following:

Increasing the statewide independent petition from 15,000 to 45,000 signatures.
Changing the definition of a qualified party from a group that polls at least 50,000 votes for governor to one that polls 2% for the office at the top of the ticket every two years. In 2020, 2% was 172,337 votes.
Retaining a six-week petitioning period, increasing the distribution requirement, and retaining a ban on anyone signing two petitions for the same office.
Lacking any procedure for a group to transform itself into a qualified party in advance of an election–something that exists in 39 states.

Minor parties, such as the Green Party and the aforementioned Libertarian Party, have had a much tougher time getting their candidates on the ballot. Also, the Conservatives and the Working Families folks have some incentive to cross-endorse a Republican or Democrat.

New York State often does not have a very democratic process.

Sunday Stealing: email

if I had two million dollars

This week’s Sunday Stealing continues to purloin queries from 200 Questions, so I dubbed it 200.06. It includes email.

1. What do you hope your last words will be?

It will probably be some intentional malaprop such as refrigagator instead of refrigerator or ipitical allasion for optical illusion. People will wonder what I was trying when I merely found them fun to say.

2. What do you spend the most time thinking about?

The never-ending To-Do List.

3. What is something you can never seem to finish?

It is getting rid of my emails. I have, seriously, over 10,000 emails. Some I want to use for a blog or for a project. But a good chunk of them could easily—well, not easily, because I haven’t done it—be systematically purged, and I need to do that because my Gmail is over half full.

4. What mistake do you keep making again and again?

Taking on more than I can handle. I thought that would become easier when I retired, but that proved to be a total lie. I feel like I’ve I’m failing retirement.

5. What’s the best thing you got from your parents?

From my father, it was a love of music, a love of listening to and singing it. From my mother, it was kindness and patience, though I’m not always sure the patience has stuck in my case.

6. What’s the best and worst thing about getting older?

The best thing about getting older is that I have a wide swath of knowledge about many things. The worst thing about getting older is that there’s all this new stuff I can’t keep up with.

Myth

7. What do you wish your brain was better at doing?

I’m convinced that the notion of multitasking is a fiction. In any case, my brain can’t do it.

8. If your childhood had a smell, what would it be?

Lilac, specifically the lilac tree or lilac bush, more correctly. It sat right next to our house when I was growing up in Binghamton, NY.

9. What have you created that you are most proud of?

At some level, it may be this blog because I’ve been doing it every day for almost 19 1/2 years. There are very few things that I’ve done as long continuously. This gives me a chance to plug things I want to plug, like the Underground Railroad Educational Center’s Interpretive Center or church concerts or library events. Maybe I brag about my daughter or my nieces. It has helped me remember stuff that I would have otherwise forgotten.

10. What were some of the turning points in your life?

There are too many to count, but certainly, I have had relationships, romantic and otherwise, that didn’t work, or relationships I didn’t have that could have happened. This is very vague and intentionally so.

No guilty pleasures

11. What song or artist do you like but rarely admit to liking?

This is not an issue. If I like it, I say I like it. If you just don’t think I should like it, I don’t care. I’ve said more than once that I’m very fond of Could It Be Magic by Barry Manilow because I love the Chopin upon which it’s built.

I was thinking a lot about a guy named Dustbury, given the name Charles Hill, who died five years ago last month. We would talk online about music a lot. I remember telling him that every time I’m feeding the cats, I start singing the song “Cat Food” by the band King Crimson. He thought that was very funny.

12. What small impact from a stranger made a big impact on you?

I don’t know if there’s a specific stranger. When I’m riding on the train or a Greyhound/Trailways bus and I have conversations with people, I find that there’s always some interesting and odd piece of information or understanding that I take from that.

Disinformation

13. As you get older, what are you becoming more and more afraid of?

Global warming. Clearly the ferocity of some of the hurricanes that have hit in the US Southeast this year are result of it. The other thing is the constant… misrepresentation of what’s been happening in the world. The administration is doing nothing to help the people suffering and/or they created the hurricanes.

14. What are some of the events in your life that made you who you are?

Substantially, it was moving to Schenectady in December 1977. I subsequently moved to nearby Albany, where I’ve lived for 45 years. It’s not too big or small and has decent mass transit. But I think there are multitudes of events that would qualify.

15. What could you do with $2 million to impact the most amount of people?

I don’t know. I’ve been fond of nonprofit groups such as R.I.P. Medical Debt, which have relieved Americans of billions in hospital bills. They pay a fraction of the money due, which has a real multiplier effect. However, a study found that it did not improve their mental health or their credit score. It is a puzzlement.