July 2024 - Ramblin' with Roger

July rambling: Dr. SCOTUS

Gleichschaltung

Dr. SCOTUS Will Now See Your Next Patient – Ron Harman King fears our healthcare lies with those in black robes, not white coats.

Cory Doctorow: Unpersoned about romance writer K Renee and others locked out of their Google docs

CrowdStrike blames test software for taking down 8.5 million Windows machines.

Teaching the Bible in Public Schools

Disputing Errors on Your Tenant Background Check Report

Succeeding in the Post-Wayfair Landscape: Top 3 Trends in Sales Tax Six Years On (yes, this is interesting to a geeky business librarian)

The Nation’s Data at Risk: Meeting America’s Information Needs for the 21st Century

Why Paper Checks Refuse To Die

A neurological disorder stole her voice. Jennifer Wexton takes it back on the House floor.

Quieting Your Inner Critic – Self-Compassion and Other Methods

Navy exonerates Black sailors unjustly punished in 1944 after a deadly California port explosion.

Bob Newhart Was an Everyman With a Comic Voice Like No Other. The 25 best TV series finales ever. Newhart is #22 and should be much higher. I watched him on Ed Sullivan and his three CBS shows

Whitney Rybeck, ‘Friday the 13th’ Actor and Crash Test Dummy in Seat Belt Ads, Dies at 79

The Worm Charmers: A Florida family coaxes earthworms from the forest floor

Homicide: Life on the Street Finally Gets Streaming Home at Peacock. This was one of my favorite programs.

Oscars: What To Do When You Lose

Now I Know: The Dirty Lyric Snuck Onto The Radio and The Pencil That Told Kids To Do Something They Shouldn’t and A Mountainous Problem With Instant Noodles

Kelly and Sunday Stealing

SSA

“Soon, you will no longer be able to sign in to your online Social Security account using your Social Security username and password. To access Social Security online services, including my Social Security, you will need to create a Login.gov or ID.me account.”

This is a real thing, reported on AARP and CBS Mornings.

“The change affects about 46 million of the roughly 86 million people who have My Social Security accounts, according to an SSA spokesperson.”

POLLYTICKS

How Joe Biden launched his career by beating two unbeatable Republicans

Thank You, President Biden

Weekly Sift: Resolutions and The Two Kinds of Unity, in which I was introduced to the word Gleichschaltung. “It’s an old German engineering term for when you wire a bunch of electrical circuits together under a common master switch. It got applied to German politics in 1933, for reasons that you may recall from history books.” Also, the Kamala surge and Couches, Cat Ladies, and J. D. Vance.

djt Returns to Bad Form — and Gives the Democrats Hope

Immigration, Crime, Politics, and lies and Fact-checking djt’s lies during his RNC acceptance speech

RNC & “Migrant Crime”: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Demagoguery repeats itself

djt Sells Sneakers, Coins, and Trading Cards Imprinted with his Bloody Face

How Kamala’s name is pronounced; even a child can do it

From way back on July 15: ‘Terrified’ – Americans in NZ react to Trump shooting, Biden uncertainty

Borowitz Reports repeats: New Conspiracy Theory Links Wide Availability of Guns to People Getting Shot

MUSIC

Anything Goes – Peter Sprague featuring Rebecca Jade

Look At Me, I’m MTG!– A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

John Mayall, British Blues-Rock Legend and 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Dies at 90. Room To Move

Flivver Ten Million by Frederick Converse, performance is by the Buffalo Philharmonic,

Coverville 1495: Cover Stories for Marc Cohn and Simple Minds and 1496: The Trevor Horn Cover Story II

The Great Curve – Talking Heads

K-Chuck Radio: Gaze into the crystal ball …

Coast -Kim Deal

You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away– Peter Sprague, featuring Allison Adams Tucker.

Patterns – Laura Marling

Several versions of Sit Down, You’re Rocking The Boat here and here and here and here (1992 Tonys – Nicely-Nicely (Walter Bobbie) plus Nathan Lane and J.K. Simmons) and here and here (current London revival) and probably more here

Knee Deep Blues – Caleb Caudle:

Breath Out – Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn –

This LOST 1986 Song Went Viral…But for Years-NOBODY Knew WHO Sang it—UNTIL Today!–Professor of Rock

Chautauqua Institition

no place like it

My wife and I had talked about going to the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York State for about two decades. People in our church said, “You really ought to go.” It was time since it was our 25th anniversary a couple of months ago. Our daughter was home caring for the cat, bringing in the mail, and so on. My wife had taken off eight weeks for the summer.

But what IS Chautauqua? From the homepage: “For 150 years, Chautauqua has served as a catalyst for creative exploration, educational growth, relaxation and recreation. Each day brings new opportunities to live, learn, and laugh on our historic grounds. We invite visitors to join a community that enriches mind, body and spirit year after year.”

The late author David McCollough noted: “There is no place like it. No resort. No spa. Not anywhere else in the country or anywhere else in the world. It is at once a summer encampment and a small town – a college campus, an arts colony, a music festival, a religious retreat, and the village square. It is all of these things, and it’s none of these – just. And there is no place – no place – with anything like its history.”

One of the Chautauquens I met says, when describing the place to friends, “It’s Disneyland for the NPR set.” The calendar of events each day is so enormous that one can go to only a fraction of the offerings.

Day 1

We arrived at about 4:05 p.m. on July 20. It is a bit of a complicated process. One has to arrive between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. and have a gate pass to get in and out of the grounds. We had 40 minutes to find the Presbyterian House where we were staying, unload the vehicle, and then park the vehicle on the outskirts of the property.

A small but mighty young woman loaded our bags onto a cart and took me to the registration area for the Presby House, as some veterans call it, and got my orientation materials. Then I waited for my wife, who took nearly an hour to park the vehicle and return.

As promised, dinner was announced by a gong – a small gong, to be sure – which one of the younger workers played throughout the building. An hour after being served a family-style meal, facilitated by large lazy Susans on each table, a small bell tolled to invite us to leave the dining area.

Chautauqua Lake is nearby. It’s gorgeous. “Sometimes Chautauqua Lake is referred to as the ‘thumb of the Finger Lakes’ due to its close proximity and perpendicular position, but it’s important to note that it was formed by separate glacial activity and is not associated with the Finger Lakes.” (That is so wonderfully geeky.)

Phil

There was a concert nearly every night of the week in the Amphitheater, a good twenty meters away from Presby House. This night’s performance was by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the very colorful Stuart Chafetz. The program was titled In The Air Tonight: Celebration Of Genesis and Phil Collins. It featured the drumming of the very good Brian Kushmaul from the CSO.

Two vocalists, Aaron Finley, currently on Broadway in Moulin Rouge: The Musical, and Brook Wood, sang. Some pieces were solos, others duets. In my opinion, and that of my wife, she had a stronger voice and a more interesting personality.

The singers and the conductor provided a narrative about Phil’s life and career. They performed, among others, Turn It On Again, Follow You Follow Me, That’s All, No Reply at All, I Missed Again, One More Night, Another Day in Paradise, I Don’t Care Anymore, and Susudio in the first half.

After intermission: Abacab, Invisible Touch, In The Air Tonight, Hold On My Heart, Throwing It All Away, Don’t Lose My Number, and appropriately, Take Me Home. I seldom remember which were Phil songs or group songs unless I saw the videos.

A point about In The Air Tonight: Brook Wood explained that we often get the air drum too early and that she would cue us in at the right time. For me, I suspect it’s because it was edited when it was used on an episode of the television show Miami Vice.

It was a good show and a suitable kickoff for our CHQ experience.

Project 2025: Personnel and staffing

Christian nationalism

I have looked at Google Trends. Since the week of June 3, there has been a definite upward trend in the number of searches for the term Project 2025, “the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration.” That’s good. Maybe djt is one of them since he claimed he doesn’t know about it but is opposed to many of its aspects. How are both possible?

Leading up to the election, I’ve decided to reiterate its tenets. Regarding Personnel and staffing, “Project 2025’s goals for staffing the next GOP presidency reflect Trump’s idea to gut civil service staff and replace them with potentially tens of thousands of MAGA loyalists. The New York Times describes this plot for a second Trump administration as an ‘expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government’ that would reshape “the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.”

When I first searched for Schedule F, I discovered the IRS Form 1040 to report farm income and expenses. That’s not what we’re looking for.

Here’s an article from The Brookings Institute, a hardly liberal think tank, titled The Risks of Schedule F for Administrative Capacity and Government Accountability.

“Weeks before the 2020 election, President Trump unveiled an executive order that would have created a new class of political appointee, Schedule F. The order would have allowed a president to turn any career official with a policy advisory role into a political appointee, removing job protection and opening the door to vastly politicize the federal workforce.

“President Biden rescinded the order, but Trump has made it a central feature of his re-election campaign as part of his effort to take control of “the deep state…”

“Deep state”

“First, let’s understand the scale of what is being proposed. Among developed countries, the U.S. is an outlier in terms of its existing level of politicization. We use about 4,000 political appointees to run the executive branch, an increase from about 3,000 in the early 1990s…

“Supporters of Schedule F have proposed converting 50,000 career civil servants into political appointee status. That is a massive degree of additional politicization and the most fundamental change to the civil service system since its inception in 1883. Increasing the number of political appointees would create a new venue where political polarization would undermine the quality of governance by replacing moderates with extremists.”

Or, put another way, the cabal would replace people who know how to do their jobs with political hacks. Naturally, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) supports legislation to stop it. Unsurprisingly, it was introduced in the House in February 2023, where it languishes.

Pushback

However, back in April 2024, the “Office of Personnel Management issued the final version of its regulation meant to safeguard the civil service from the return of a Trump-era policy that sought to convert most federal employees to at-will workers.”

In a statement, Joe Biden said, “‘My administration is announcing protections for 2.2 million career civil servants from political interference, to guarantee that they can carry out their responsibilities in the best interest of the American people’… Day in and day out, career civil servants provide the expertise and continuity necessary for our democracy to function.”

“The final rule states that an employee’s civil service protections cannot be taken away by an involuntary move from the competitive service to the excepted service; clarifies that the ’employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating positions’ terminology used to define Schedule F employees means noncareer, political appointments and won’t be applied to career civil servants; and sets up an appeals process with the Merit Systems Protection Board for any employees involuntarily transferred from the competitive service to the excepted service and within the excepted service.”

So djt and his people could reinstate Schedule F, but implementing it would be more difficult.

Christian nationalism

Another tenet of Project 2025 is Christian nationalism. It claims that “centralized government ‘subverts’ families by working to ‘replace people’s natural loves and loyalties with unnatural ones,’ utilizing the biblical language of natural versus the unnatural.”

More specifically, “Former Trump official Jonathan Berry’s chapter on the Department of Labor states that ‘the Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis, has always recognized fruitful work as integral to human dignity, as service to God, neighbor, and family’ and claims that Biden’s administration is ‘hostile to people of faith.'”

As a person of faith, I trust my antipathy for Christian nationalism and Christofascism is abundantly clear.

Sunday Stealing: plans for August

Sing Sing

Another Sunday Stealing quiz.

1. What are your plans for August?

My family is going on another trip. I’ll tell you about it after the fact. I will note that my wife and I returned yesterday from the Chautauqua Institution. We were away for a week during its 150th anniversary. I’ll write about it in dribs and drabs in the coming weeks. Also, some major housecleaning is required due to an unexpected development.

2. Your mid-year resolutions or goals

Do more genealogy. My sister Leslie was in our hometown of Binghamton, NY, for a reunion this month, and she got a lot of info from a third cousin (I think) on my mother’s side and my father’s first cousin. Oh, and I plan to do LESS of some other things.

3. Are you good at taking care of plants?

Absolutely not. I have no plants; I’ve never been good with them. My wife has a few, but we must keep them out of reach of our cat Stormy, who will otherwise chew on them and then throw up.

4. What makes you feel nourished?

Interesting question. It depends on what one means by “nourished.” It could be oatmeal or music.

5. Which animals do you see most in your area?

Cats. Lots of cats are in our backyard, so many that our neighbors mistakenly think they are ours.

6. Books on your summer reading list

When folks come to the Friends of the Albany Public Library and present an author talk, I usually buy one of their books. Currently, I have more than a dozen unread. I’ll pick one AFTER the projects are done, which is to say, probably in the autumn.

Hanging like the sword of Damocles

7. Projects you want to tackle this summer

I am editing someone’s book, which I MUST return to; I haven’t touched it all month. Getting our back porch replaced.

8. Do you have weddings, graduations, summer celebrations

We went to the Olin family reunion in July. It’s my MIL’s people.

9. Which summer snacks are you excited to enjoy again?

I can’t think of a thing I eat only in summer.

10. How much time do you like to take for vacations

A minimum of a week. Three-day jaunts can be okay, but it’s not vacating enough.

11. Where are your favorite picnic locations?

Random roadside stops. There’s a nice one on I-86 about a half hour west of Binghamton.

12. Something that would be out of character for you

Not singing.

13. Which summer movies are you excited to see?

I went to the Rolling Stone list of The 44 Most-Anticipated New Movies of Summer 2024. So far, I’ve seen Ghostlight, Inside Out 2, Janet Planet, Thelma, and Daddio, all of which I have reviewed in the links; I liked them all except Janet Planet. Sing Sing is the only movie on the list I know enough about that I would like to see.

14. Your favorite free/cost-effective ways to have fun

Lots of free concerts in Albany

15. Who do you trust most to house & pet sit?

My daughter’s friend Kay

Middle-Road Singles of 1964

different Ray Charles

Billboard began compiling an adult contemporary chart in July 1961. I’m calling this Middle-Road Singles of 1964. What they specifically called the category kept changing.

It went from Easy Listening to Middle-Road Singles in November 1962 to Pop-Standard Singles in May 1964, and back to Middle-Road Singles in November 1964.

Four of the five biggest AC hits were also #1 on the pop charts.

Hello, Dolly – Louis Armstrong, #1 AC for nine weeks AC, #1 for one week pop

Everybody Loves Somebody – Dean Martin, #1 AC for eight weeks, #1 pop for one week. Dean’s NBC variety show began in September 1965 through May 1964, and this was the theme song for the program.

Ringo – Lorne Greene, #1 AC for six weeks, #1 pop for one week. Greene, a Canadian, played patriarch Ben Cartright on the TV western Bonanza starting in the autumn of 1959. After Bonanza moved from Saturday night to the sweet Sunday night slot, the ratings went from #17 (autumn 1960) to #2, #4, #2 (’63-’64), to #1 for three years running.

We’ll Sing In The Sunshine – Gale Garnett, #1 AC for 6 weeks, #4 pop

There! I Said It Again – Bobby Vinton, #1 AC for five weeks, #1 for four weeks pop

Fava – Al Hirt, #1 AC for 4 weeks, #4 pop. Instrumental. The theme of the 1966 ABC show The Green Hornet with Van Williams and Brice Lee was an arrangement of Flight Of The Bumble Bee played by Hirt

Love Me With All Your Heart (Cuando Caliente El Sol) – The Ray Charles Singers, #1 AC for four weeks AC, #3 pop. This Ray Charles was born Charles Raymond Offenberg in Chicago.

People – Barbra Streisand, #1 AC for three weeks, #5 pop

Teen idol

For You – Rick Nelson, #1 AC for two weeks, #6 pop. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet aired on ABC from 1952 to 1966, with the family, including Rick’s brother David playing themselves.

The Girl From Ipanema – Stan Getz/Astrud Gilberto, #1 AC for two weeks, #5 pop

The Door Is Still Open To My Heart – Dean Martin, #1 AC for two weeks, #6 pop

Navy Blue – Diane Renay, #1 AC for one week, #6 pop

Interestingly, though they dominated the pop charts in 1964, The Beatles were not represented on the AC roster. They didn’t appear on the AC charts until Something, #17 in 1969. Their only AC #1 was Let It Be in 1970.