Bernie Sanders to Lead Zohran Mamdani’s Public Swearing-In Ceremony

Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist senator from Vermont, has supported New York City’s mayor-elect since the Democratic primary.

from Frank Bruni’s column in the Times today quoting Bret Stephens Times column a few days ago:  And Bret Stephens summarized a year of Trump, the length of his sentence befitting the magnitude of this president’s offenses to decency and democracy: “Right now, in every grotesque social media post; in every cabinet meeting devoted, North Korea-like, to adulating him; in every executive-order-signing ceremony intended to make him appear like a Chinese emperor; in every fawning reference to all the peace he’s supposedly brought the world; in every Neronic enlargement of the White House’s East Wing; in every classless dig at his predecessor; in every shady deal his family is striking to enrich itself; in every White House gathering of tech billionaires paying him court (in the literal senses of both ‘pay’ and ‘court’); in every visiting foreign leader who learns to abase himself to avoid some capricious tariff or other punishment — in all this and more, our standards as a nation are being debased, our manners barbarized.”

this blows my mind: WHEN I WAS BORN IN 1947, there were a little less than 2.5 Billion people. TODAY there are about 8.5 Billion people. 

A Life Rooted in Activism and Listening to Others

Michele Singer Reiner was the guiding force in the lives of her family, stressing the need to help and respect one another.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/us/michele-singer-reiner.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

I DON’T HAVE A TV. My biggest screen is this iPad. All I need. 

 

Donald Trump’s Remarks on the 

Death of Rob Reiner 

Are Next-Level Degradation

On a weekend of terrible violent events, you would not expect a President of the United States to make matters even worse. But, of course, he did.

By David Remnick

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/donald-trumps-remarks-on-the-death-of-rob-reiner-are-next-level-degradation

James Carville: Rob Reiner’s Legacy and Trump’s Reaction

https://youtu.be/R8Gi94M0RKo?si=V1dOWJU1fTbB3YAk

 

Stephen King: What Rob Reiner Saw in Me

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/opinion/culture/stephen-king-rob-reiner-stand-by-me.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

 

Ilhan Omar says Trump’s repeated attacks fuel climate of political violence

The US House member says president’s rhetoric about her and Somali Americans could have dangerous consequence

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/16/minnesota-congresswoman-ilhan-omar-trump-attacks

 

 

Norman Mailer Interview: On Muhammad Ali, Hemingway, Churchill, and MLK (a video)

https://youtu.be/32hSpwLr9v8?si=pJJpsGkR6NB7gTOD

 

A timely New York exhibition immerses listeners in voices from the Holocaust

At New York Historical, rare, unheard recordings collected by Claude Lanzmann for his monumental film “Shoah” feature testimonies that still demand to be heard.

https://www.jta.org/2025/12/03/ny/a-timely-new-york-exhibition-immerses-listeners-in-voices-from-the-holocaust

EVERY WEEKDAY MORNING after I’ve held my sign, I see this Frank Gehry building right ahead of me as I’m about to descend the steps to get the subway home.

 

MY PLACE. This morning.

 C-SPAN 7:00-10:00 seven mornings a week. 

IT WAS 19 DEGREES this morning. Too cold for this old guy to hold his sign. So I watched—just finished watching—this documentary on Netflix. Smart. Wonderful.

 A VIEW FROM MY COUCH two days ago:

The Big Fail

(New York MAGAZINE)

Student achievement has fallen off a cliff. And neither Trump nor the pandemic is to blame.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/public-education-failure-american-test-scores-trump-pandemic-liberals.html

 

Sabrina Carpenter condemns ‘evil and disgusting’ ICE video that uses her song

Pop star calls out White House’s ‘inhumane agenda’ after post that soundtracks immigration raids to her song Juno

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/02/sabrina-carpenter-ice-video

 

NAPHEESA COLLIER interviewed by SUE BIRD (a video)

https://youtu.be/8wFHCurXhVw?si=6YlfmHZt13bnFhve

COOL VIDEO.

 

https://youtu.be/Ml_oY_zTFJA?si=DEuN6cAvQJ3Hx4u0

Historian Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat On Understanding Trump and Autocratic Behavior (on Simon Rosenberg’s podcast which I watch/listen to regularly)

https://youtu.be/F5koz58DkBc?si=llW50QEoWuUmU5yl

A GUY younger than me (who isn’t?) in my apartment lobby pulled out a paperback copy of a Norman Mailer book to show me. I didn’t tell the guy I’d given all my books to the Salvation Army. But I thought maybe I’d kept at least one Mailer book. I had. I started re-reading The Armies of the Night last night. It’s about the anti-Vietnam War 1967 march on the Pentagon. It’s phenomenal. 

Sitting at the counter for breakfast (bowl of oatmeal, scrambled eggs and home fries, 2 cups of back coffee) at Joe Jr’s at 16th and Third Avenue. My frequent place after holding the sign.

 

A Battle with My Blood

When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my first thought was that this couldn’t be happening to me, to my family. (The New Yorker)

By Tatiana Schlossberg

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/a-battle-with-my-blood

John Green on Anxiety, Hope and his Next Book. (A video)

https://youtu.be/9zDAGzA5stQ?si=dvkF8jJPEborkQl5

Cynthia Erivo surprises her old school with a tear-jerking performance.

https://youtu.be/RcVHn1RvP40?si=Y1vEQLDlUf1P2gUj

‘EARLY MORNING’

Al Gore on America’s Noticeable Absence at COP 30 Climate Conference | Amanpour and Company

https://youtu.be/A3JZzszAQp0?si=aQTNPibXHCKaxNDs

DYLAN bootleg, 1956-1963. New.

 https://youtu.be/4J3F3Oj4bX4?si=fHoc98KaDxVTo9bu

 

How Mamdani built an ‘unstoppable force’ that won over New York

The mayor-elect built the greatest field operation by any political campaign in the city’s history – by getting New Yorkers to talk to eachother. Can Democrats learn from his success?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/06/zohran-mamdani-campaign-new-york-democrats

 ‘AMERICAN TUNE’. Paul Simon.

https://youtu.be/06Gmp0Xvm1Q?si=bIjgYjlj2iFpLK6N

 

How to Endure Authoritarianism

A visit to a poet’s home in Kraków recalls the lessons of Eastern Europe’s dissidents.

By Adam Gopnik

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/how-to-endure-authoritarianism

I STARTED READING THIS TONIGHT. I bought it this afternoon. I’m lucky. It’s what I wanted. Hoped for.

EAST WING.

 

WHEN I WAS BORN in 1947, there were around 2.5 billion people on earth. NOW there are over 8 billion people. 

 

18! Gold Gloves and 4 Cy Young awards.

AI Could Wipe Out the Working Class | Senator Bernie Sanders

https://youtu.be/dthbi4lzO58?si=KTcxyqEwn2aYb-RD

At breakfast out after holding the sign I liked the look of the hat.

 

Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and the “War from Within”

Peace abroad and war at home? It’s an unusual note to strike in an electoral democracy.

By Benjamin Wallace-Wells

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/13/donald-trump-pete-hegseth-and-the-war-from-within

 GREAT MOVIE:

 BREAKFAST:

 Dr. Jane Goodall. RIP.

 

 

 

Trump’s attack on George Soros is the next step in the autocrat’s handbook

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/27/trump-attack-george-soros