“Project 2025’s agenda, backed by more than 100 right-wing organizations, is detailed in Mandate for Leadership, a version of which Heritage has written as transition plans for each prospective Republican president since 1981. This year’s version is its most complete and toxic ever as it puts democratic institutions and democratic ideals on the chopping block by threatening civil and human rights, eliminating reproductive rights, infusing the government with Christian values, denying climate change, rounding up and deporting undocumented people, taking over the Justice Department, and intimidating journalists. The Project’s goal? Unadulterated, unchallengeable political power for decades to come.” Also, read Weekly Sift.
The Supreme Court is breaking America’s faith in the law.
There is a connection between seasonal allergies and mental health
The Rise of Mega Studios: How MGM Remade Hollywood 100 Years Ago
Denzel Washington Set for Retrospective at American Black Film Festival
Roger Corman, Giant of Independent Filmmaking, Dies at 98
Jeannie Epper, Legendary ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Romancing the Stone’ Stuntwoman, Dies at 83
The beekeeper who saved a baseball game
Three Whole Onions with Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Hank Green
“Thank you for paying your bill in full three months ago. Now pay us $240 more RIGHT NOW.”
Views of the northern lights from around the US; alas, I missed them
Now I Know: He Eight a Cheeseburger and A Different Type of Buried Treasure and When New York City Moved — All At Once and How To Become a Marvel Hero Without Being Furious About It and When It’s Better Not to Share Where Things are Made
Funner/funnest
Amendment XII
The presumptive Republican Party nominee for President in 2024. I wonder how the 12th Amendment to the Constitution will affect his choice of Vice-President.
The presumed candidates include Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), Sen. Tim Scott (SC), Sen. J.D. Vance (OH), Sen. Mike Lee (UT), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Gov. Doug Burgum (ND), Gov. Kristi Noem (SD), Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY), Rep. Byron Donalds (FL), Rep. Wesley Hunt (TX), Rep. Michael Waltz (FL), Sen. Tom Cotton (AR), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson (FL), Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (AR), and Sen. Katie Britt (AL).
Amendment XII reads in part: “The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.” The Constitution Center writes: “The Twelfth Amendment cannot be understood outside of the Electoral College, which was set out in the 1787 Constitution as the mechanism by which Americans select their presidents.”
Without getting too much in the weeds, the electors could not vote for both if two Floridians were running for President and Veep from the same party. Most likely, they’d vote for the president, but the Senate could decide the Vice-President. Since djt is now from Florida, I can’t imagine he’d pick Rubio, Donalds, Waltz, or Carson, since the state has 30 electoral votes.
But djt won’t make a selection until shortly before the RNC convention. It makes all of those potential selections better surrogates.
I think, at this moment, it could be Stefanik or Sarah Huck, though Scott grovels well, and Burgam has a lot of money. Frank S. Robinson sarcastically (I think) suggests a Trump-Trump ticket.
Writer’s Institute
From the New York State Writer’s Institute:
“You think it will never happen to you, that it cannot happen to you,
that you are the only person in the world to whom none of these things will ever happen,
and then, one by one, they all begin to happen to you, in the same way they happen to everyone else.”
– Paul Auster (1947-2024), from Winter Journal (2012)
Music
Beethoven 9 -BBC Proms 2012 and Chicago Symphony Orchestra in honor of its premiere 250 years ago. Locks of Beethoven’s Hair Offer New Clues to the Mystery of His Deafness
Century Rolls: I. First Movement (excerpt) – John Adams
Sleep by Eric Whitacre
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – I Know | Challengers (Original Score)
Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Eagles and INXS and Red Hot Chili Peppers
K-Chuck Radio: The sweet sounds of The Executives
I Turn My Camera On – Spoon
Audra McDonald sings I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady
Ali Farka Touré – Ali Aoudy
Catch The Wind – MonaLisa Twins
Grand March from The Queen of Sheba by Charles Gounod
Thom Yorke – Suspirium
Matadjem Yinmixan · Tinariwen
TRON suite -Wendy Carlos
Like A Prayer – Madonna
Bombino – Tar Hani (My Love)
Thou shalt not plagiarize Blotto
Until I noticed that the country music charts started in 1944, per Joel Whitburn’s Record Research book, Al Dexter was unknown to me. This even though he was a massive star.
If Bing Crosby was big in 1934, he was massive a decade later, as the #1 hits of 1944 show. He sang on six of the 17 songs on the charts, two with the 
History shows there are no “one-day” 
The 2024 National Recording Registry includes 25 items as usual. For me, the real find is the Kronos Quartet’s Pieces of Africa, which I will probably buy. The