Supreme Court Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Born January 1955: Simmons, Costner, Roberts

SCOTUS

Among the famous folks turning 70 this month are Rowan Atkinson, who played Mr. Bean (6th) and coach Tom Izzo (30th).

9th – J. K. Simmons, American actor, born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He’s the epitome of the working actor. I’ve seen/heard him in The Cider House Rules (1999); Thank You For Smoking (2005); as the dad in Juno (2007); Up In The Air (2009); voicing Ford Pines in eight episodes of Gravity Falls (2015-2016); voicing the mayor in Zootopia (2016); La La Land (2016); and playing William Frawley in Being the Ricardos (2021), for which he received an Oscar nomination.

But I know him best from about 50 episodes of the various Law & Order shows (1994-2010), playing the shrink Emil Skoda; as J. Jonah Jameson in a half dozen Spider-Man movies (2002-2023); in 109 episodes of The Closer (2005-2012), playing Assistant Police Chief Will Pope; and his Oscar-winning performance as the harsh music instructor in Whiplash (2014).

Also, for several years, he was the guy in the Farmer’s Insurance commercials, such as Sesame Street, lawnmower, and the recent sleigh insurance. Here he is in Guys and Dolls (1992).

KC

19th – Kevin Costner, Jan 18, American actor, born in Los Angeles, California. Of the movies of his I’ve seen, he starred in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991); JFK (1991), McFarland, USA (2015), and Message In A Bottle (2016). He’s also significant in Hidden Figures (2016).

He won Best Director and Picture and was nominated for Best Actor in Dances With Wolves (1990).

But it’s two baseball movies, released in consecutive years, for which I think of him the most. Bull Durham (1988) is a great movie about the minor leagues. But Field of Dreams (1989) is a bit of hokum that makes me cry EVERY SINGLE TIME, not always in the same place.

One other film he was in: The Big Chill (1983). “‘We shot this whole flashback … in Atlanta, and we shot it first, when we’re all together in our college days,’ [Jeff] Goldblum said… ‘Then we saw the movie, and for one reason or another, they decided not to use it,’ Goldblum said. ‘But [Costner] was wonderful.'”

CJ

Jan 27 J- John G Roberts, 17th Chief Justice of the United States, born in Buffalo, New York. From here: He “is expressing concerns about the growing disregard for the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of major rulings expected in 2025. In his year-end report, Roberts emphasized the importance of maintaining judicial independence, urging that court decisions be honored regardless of their political implications.

“‘Within the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings,’ Roberts wrote. ‘These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected. Judicial independence is worth preserving.'”

I agree with that last sentence. But many of the rulings of the Roberts Court, starting with Shelby County v. Holder (2013), in which Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was ruled “unconstitutional, and its formula can no longer be used as a basis for subjecting jurisdictions to preclearance. “

Then, in Trump v. United States (2024), “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.” But “unofficial acts” is so vague as to be meaningless.

Both of the cases, BTW, were written by the Chief Justice. I’d love to see some “judicial independence.”

June rambling: Schedule F

Donald Sutherland

**Washington Park on Willett Street between Lancaster and Streets, Albany, NY, Friday, June 21, 2024, after the storm the day before (ROG)**

djt’s Second Term: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and his Schedule F plan, explained

The Limits of Originalism (SCOTUS)

Deep-Sea Mining and UK Elections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Europe is Healthier than the US: But it’s not about the physical (although it makes the stage more dramatic), it’s about the work/life balance. About third spaces that encourage being around people, in a way that’s deeper than a brutal transactionalism.

The US is about the individual, to a hyper degree. Everyone is so focused on being emancipated from everything, freed from any “outdated” obligations, that they end up in an empty loneliness.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

Why Physical Media is Having a Comeback

Bill Cobbs, Actor in ‘Night at the Museum’ and many others Dies at 90. He was one of those character actors I learned to recognize in film and episodic television.

Martin Mull, Funnyman and ‘Fernwood 2 Night’ Star, Dies at 80

The Real (Weird) Way We See Numbers

Now I Know: How Bad Film Captured an Explosion and The Nobel Prize Winner Who Bet Against Himself and The Dead Parrot Society and The Case of the Mousey Soup

Kelly’s Sunday Stealing. He is the greatest cheerleader for Pie I’ve ever known.

Alex Trebek Forever stamps

Donald Sutherland 1935 – 2024

The obituary and Hollywood tributes

I saw him in LOTS of movies: The Dirty Dozen (1967) – as a “crazed/dazed Pvt.” at the drive-in with my parents and sisters.

MAS*H (1970) – the original anti-establishment Army medic Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce; I saw it again on TV when WXXA, Channel 23, first broadcast in Albany in 1982. The station showed it on the first Sunday morning it broadcast at 8 a.m.; I thought it was a strange choice

Klute (1971) -” a private eye who falls for a prostitute (his then real-life romantic partner Jane Fonda)”

National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) – the pot-smoking professor

Ordinary People (1980) – a friend of mine describes this movie as like his growing up with a controlling mother (the Mary Tyler Moore character) and ineffectual father (Sutherland)

Backdraft (1991) – pyromaniac; JFK (1991) – conspiracy theorist

Undoubtedly many others.

What struck me in a 2017 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper was this exchange:

If there’s a slight sadness about Sutherland it may be because his childhood in Canada wasn’t easy. He survived polio as a toddler and spent all of fourth grade at home with rheumatic fever. He was an awkward kid. Tall with big ears, at school they called him Dumbo. When he was 16, he had a question for his mother.

Donald Sutherland: And I went to her and I said: “Mother, am I good looking?” And my mother looked at me and went. “Your face has character, Donald.” And I went and hid in my room for at least a day.

Anderson Cooper: Did what she say stay with you?

Donald Sutherland: Not really. Just– just for– 65, 66 years.

Donald Sutherland: It’s not easy, Anderson. It’s not easy to know that you’re an ugly man, in the business like I’m in.

Anderson Cooper: Do you think of yourself as an ugly man?

Donald Sutherland: Unattractive is a gentler way of putting it.

Ouch! I never thought that.

Kelly posted some music.

Alerts!

I’m constantly reminded that technology is fine until it’s not. When the Massachusetts 911 system went down on Tuesday, June 18, I received an alert to that effect. I do not know why. A program intended to secure the state’s system caused the firewall to stop calls from reaching dispatch centers. Or something like that.

About 15 minutes later, while I was at a book review at the library, almost everyone’s phone started buzzing. It was rather startling and worrisome. It was the New York State 911 system letting us know that OUR state’s system was NOT down.

MUSIC

I Have Nothing – Peter Sprague featuring Rebecca Jade

Licks Off Of Records – Martin Mull

Mandela’s Blues – Kinky Friedman

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Grateful Dead, which reminded me of the time I saw the Jerry Garcia Band in New Paltz on November 29, 1977

Coverville 1492: The John Wetton Cover Story and 1493: Purple Rain 40th Anniversary

Had To Cry Today – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

March Of The Belgian Paratroopers by Pierre Leemans.

Star 69 – R.E.M.

Let’s Go Fly A Kite – Dick Van Dyke and Jason Alexander

Christian Nationalism and American Democracy

Christian nationalism makes an idol of the nation

As a practicing Christian, I’ve long been simultaneously fascinated, horrified, and mortified by the link between Christian Nationalism and American Democracy.

One of the triggers this time is the February 29 episode of the NPR program Fresh Air that my friend ADD linked to recently. The piece was called The Impact Of Christian Nationalism On American Democracy. Spoiler: the impact is NOT good.

“Why do many Christian nationalists think Trump is chosen by God to lead the country? We talk with Bradley Onishi about the ties between Christian nationalism and political and judicial leaders. Onishi became a Christian nationalist and a youth minister in his teens and then left the church. He is the author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism — and What Comes Next, and he cohosts a podcast about religion and politics called Straight White American Jesus.”

Onishi notes, as I had heard before, that Ronald Reagan said many of the right things to appeal to evangelicals yet never really curried their favor.

George W. Bush was one of them, talking about his “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ, yet never delivered the goods. Onishi gave me new insights about the 2004 W and John Kerry race. The author had indicated to his colleagues that he was positively disposed toward Kerry, who used Matthew 25 language about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. The colleagues acknowledged Kerry’s position but asked if Onishi wanted to be responsible for all the “murdered babies” that a pro-choice Kerry administration would create.

SCOTUS

As I well remember, Mitch McConnell stifled Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court because 2016 was an election year, yet allowed Amy Comey Barrett’s nomination to SCOTUS, even though 2020 was also an election year. SCOTUS was then poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. All sorts of state laws, often invoking religion, were instituted. The Alabama Supreme Court’s in vitro fertilization ruling was merely the (il)logical next step.

They like djt because he delivered. You may recall that he allowed a group of preachers to pray and lay hands on him. This encouraged the infiltration of a mentality that has taken over everything from school boards to state houses, not to mention the current Speaker of the House.

This mentality makes me deeply uncomfortable. What happened to rendering unto God what was God’s to Caesar what was Caesar? I read that in a book somewhere. Anyway, listen to the recording.

djt 47?

What might djt do with another four years in the White House? A NYT study suggests that it is “useful to take [his]allies at their word simply. One group of them published 887 pages’ worth of words in a dense but fascinating document called “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.”

Among other things, “it calls for the closing or remaking of agencies on ideological or religious grounds. (The Department of Health and Human Services should be known as ‘the Department of Life,’ and the government must ‘maintain a biblically based, social-science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.’) It portrays the president as the personal embodiment of popular will and treats the law as an impediment to conservative governance. (‘The legal function cannot be allowed to thwart the administration’s agenda,’ it says.)

While the likely Republican nominee has not specifically endorsed the document, the document mentions djt some 300 times. Read the article, which should fill you with dread.

Moreover…

In What is Christian nationalism? by Rev. Ryan Dunn, a pastor in the United Methodist Church, writes: “Christian nationalism limits who we are in our spiritual identity and who we are in our American identity. And it runs the even more dangerous route towards a belief that the nation is infallible. Christian nationalism makes an idol of the nation–the country becomes an interchangeable object of worship. We believe we serve God by serving the country.”

Check out Crisis Of Faith: Christian Nationalism and the Threat to U.S. Democracy by Edward Lempinen (Sept 2022)

Christian Nationalism Is ‘Single Biggest Threat’ to America’s Religious Freedom. An Interview With Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee (Apr 2022)

An ‘imposter Christianity’ is threatening American democracy. Analysis by John Blake, CNN (July 2022)

THE DANGER OF CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM: The First Amendment is fundamental, and it’s under attack by Jace Woodrum, Executive Director, ACLU of South Carolina (Nov 2023)

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.” – Romans 16:17-18, NIV

Jan. rambling: worse than you’d think

P.D.Q. Bach

What’s Indoor Air Quality Like in Long-Term Care Facilities During Wildfires? Worse Than You’d Think

The Media Is Melting Down, and Neither Billionaires Nor Journalists Can Seem to Stop It. Across the industry, contraction, layoffs, sales, and labor unrest remind us of 2008 — but insiders are less optimistic this time.

Politicians Must Stop Playing Doctor — Personal ideology should not guide medical care, even for abortion.

Frank S. Robinson’s Book Review of “The Democrat Party Hates America”

The Green Island Power Authority responded to Chuck Miller’s questions. All of them.

2030 Census Planning in 2024

NY County data on detailed race by sex and age

What Happens When a Baby Is Born on a Plane? The unique reality of being—and having—a ‘skyborn’? at 39,000 feet

Pam Grier Set for Career Tribute at Toronto Black Film Festival

Complexly Signs Major Tetris Athlete

“God told me to run a bitcoin swindle on my parishioners.”

The last Salem “witch”

The Bookshop Sketch

9 Issues You Absolutely Need to Fix Before Selling Your Home

How to properly use a semicolon?

Now I Know: The Pregnant Platypus With a Secret and The Jail With a Built-in Breakout Plan (one of my sisters used to live in El Cajon)

Obits and a birthday

The Unthinkable Mental Health Crisis That Shook a New England College (WPI)

Colon cancer is killing more younger men and women than ever.

Norman Jewison, Director of In the Heat of the Night, Moonstruck, Fiddler on the Roof, The Hurricane, and many others, dies at 91

Charles Osgood, the host of CBS News Sunday Morning from 1994 to 2016, died at 91. I watched religiously. Thank you, VCR and DVR.

Joyce Randolph, Trixie on ‘The Honeymooners,’ Dies at 99

Bill Mumy, who I remember from Lost in Space and episodes of The Twilight Zone, turns 70 on February 1.

SCOTUS on tape

The Supreme Court – now with sound! The Moving Image and Sound Branch of the National Archives is also home to over 300,000 sound recordings. The recordings are organized chronologically. Since cases are often argued over multiple days, cases can be split up between different recordings.

Time, Inc. v. Hill in 1966. The Hill family case was argued by former vice president and future president Richard Nixon. You can hear Nixon argue at about 51:30 in this recording.

Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 required states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The recordings are divided into three parts: question one, question two, and the opinion.
Engel v. Vitale in 1962 decided that school-initiated prayer in public schools violated the First Amendment.
Gideon v. Wainwright from 1963 declared that indigent defendants must be provided legal representation without charge.
Roe v. Wade was argued over two dates: December 1971 and October 1972. The court declared abortion to be a constitutional right.
Loving et ux. v. Virginia struck down state laws that banned interracial marriage in 1967.

MUSIC

The American Dream Is Killing Me – Green Day [graphic]

Otis Redding: “(Sittin’ on) The Dock Of The Bay”, the first posthumous #1 pop song

Peter Schickele, Composer and Gleeful Sire of P.D.Q. Bach, Dies at 88. P.D.Q. Bach – Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Sportscast

Singer Melanie, Who Performed at Woodstock,” Dies at 76. Listen to Lay Down with the Edwin Hawkins Singers; Ruby Tuesday.

Peter Gabriel: Games Without Frontiers

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Opera film (2004)

Peter Sprague Plays The Wind Cries Mary featuring Lisa Hightower

John Lennon featuring the Plastic Ono Band: Jealous Guy

Coverville 1473: The Footloose 40th Anniversary Album Cover and 1474: Cover Stories for Roxette, Aaliyah and The Ventures

Symphonic Poem on Three Notes by Tan Dun.

Billy Joel: The Stranger

K-Chuck Radio: The Frank Farian Catalogue

Paul Simon: Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

Peter Sprague Plays Ocean Song, Earth Song

2024 Songwriters Hall of Fame Class: Timbaland, R.E.M., Steely Dan, Hillary Lindsey, Dean Pitchford

Ramones Biopic Caught In Crossfire of Heirs’ Clash In Court

December 1st

among other things, vote

Every December 1, I’m torn about what to write. Item #1: It’s World AIDS Day. “This year’s theme is “World AIDS Day 35: Remember and Commit.” This annual event serves as a reminder of the global struggle to end HIV-related stigma, an opportunity to honor those we have lost, and a rallying cry to commit to working toward a day when HIV is no longer a public health threat.

In the national goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030, GLAAD “noted an alarming generation gap. Gen Z, the youngest generation in population surveys, is the most diverse and most out LGBTQ generation in history. According to our study, Gen Z is also the least knowledgeable about HIV.” Ignorance is NOT bliss.

Wyoming

Here’s a JEOPARDY clue:

#8974, aired 2023-11-16

THE NAME OF THE LAW $1600: The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 was named for James Byrd Jr. & this Casper, Wyoming man

The $1,600 clue was a Triple Stumper, with no one even ringing in to say the name of Matthew Shepard, born on December 1, 1976, whose brutal death in Wyoming in 1998 because he was gay I mentioned here and elsewhere.

(In case you’ve forgotten Byrd, he was the black man “who was tied to a truck by two white supremacists and a third man who had no racist background, dragged behind it, and decapitated in Jasper, Texas” in the same year.”)

It only took a decade and a black President to enact the bill.

Per Wikipedia:

“The measure expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

“The bill also:

Removes, in the case of hate crimes related to the race, color, religion, or national origin of the victim, the prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally protected activity, like voting or going to school;
Gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crime investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue;
Provides $5 million per year in funding for fiscal years 2010 through 2012 to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes;
Requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to track statistics on hate crimes based on gender and gender identity (statistics for the other groups were already tracked).”

Sister Rosa

The other December 1st recollection involves Rosa Parks being arrested on a Montgomery city bus in 1955 for failing to cede her seat to a white man.

As I noted back in 2010, Rosa was hardly the first person unwilling to give up her bus seat. Claudette Colvin had done the same nine months earlier, but she was young, loud, and brash.

What got me thinking about this was a new movie about Bayard Rustin, which I have not yet seen. He was the most important civil rights organizer that most people never heard of. It was his study of Gandhian nonviolence that informed much of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategies. He was also instrumental in forming the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

You probably didn’t know him because he was gay at a time when, at best, it was inconvenient to the civil rights movement. At worst, he could have been jailed.

This makes me think about how well we marginalize folks who either don’t fit a particular narrative or else we cast aspersions on them to make them less than.

Alternative narratives

The defense in the Shepard case suggested that his ruthless murder was just a drug purchase gone wrong.

Many high-profile murder of a black person while dealing with law enforcement since the Black Lives Matter movement began has involved the victims painted as criminals. George Floyd allegedly passed a counterfeit $20 bill. Philando Castile was stopped for a traffic violation. Eric Gardner was selling loose cigarettes. And so on.

So, December 1st often fills me with hope. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 wouldn’t have happened if Martin Luther King Jr. and MANY others hadn’t used the Montgomery bus boycott as a launching pad for another phase of the Civil Rights movement.

December 1st shows how marriage equality, from Loving v. Virginia (1967) to Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) can take place.

But I have no illusion that these hard-won victories can’t be rolled back. Since Shelby County v. Holder, when SCOTUS gutted the Voting Right Act, the “Brennan Center has consistently found that states previously covered by the preclearance requirement have engaged in significant efforts to disenfranchise voters.”

Books being banned and challenged usually highlight black people, brown people, gay people, trans people… you get the drift.

My Christmas wish is for people to register and vote, not just in presidential years. Folks should be voting in school and library board selections, city and town council races, state and county legislative contests, etc. If possible, get involved in campaigns. Or – if you’re brave enough, and in this social media environment, it is brave – run yourself.