Ian Dury and The Blockheads " Reasons To Be Cheerful, Pt. 3 (1979)
www.youtube.com

That's a lyrics-enabled video, albeit a bit cryptic.

So ...

Lyrics excerpt ...

genius.com

...
[Verse 1]
Summer, Buddy Holly, the working folly
Good golly, Miss Molly and boats
Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet
Jump back in the alley and nanny goats
18 wheeler Scammells, dominica camels
All other mammals, plus equal votes
Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willie
Being rather silly and porridge oats

A bit of grin and bear it (Reasons to Be Cheerful)
A bit of come and share it (Part 3)
You're welcome we can spare it, yellow socks
Too short to be haughty (Reasons to Be Cheerful)
Too nutty to be naughty (Part 3)

Going on forty, no electric shocks
The juice of a carrot (Reasons to Be Cheerful)
The smile of a parrot (Part 3)
A little drop of claret, anything that rocks
Elvis and Scotty (Reasons to Be Cheerful)
The days when I ain't spotty (One, two, three)
Sitting on a potty, curing small
...

Trump-Endorsed Candidate JD Vance Once Said Trump Might Be America's Hitler' (2022)
www.vice.com

... Former President Donald Trump's newest Senate endorsee was even less of a Trump fan than he'd publicly let on.

Back in 2016, during his #NeverTrump phase, Ohio Senate candidate and Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance said Trump was either a "cynical [anal-pore]" or "America's Hitler" in a private message to an old law school classmate.

It's no secret that Vance, who won the coveted Trump endorsement last weekend, wasn't a Trump fan back then -- he publicly mocked Trump all year and refused to vote for him in the 2016 general election, and publicly called him "noxious," "reprehensible," and an "idiot" in October 2016.

But Vance went even further rhetorically in a private Facebook message he sent to Josh McLaurin, Vance's old Yale Law School roommate, when McLaurin reached out to ask for his take on the GOP primary in February 2016.

"I think most people are not very ideological, and Trump, while I find him loathsome, touches a legitimate nerve. You should read David Frum's piece in the Atlantic on the Republican revolt.

But I'm not surprised by Trump's rise, and I think the entire party has only itself to blame," Vance messaged McLaurin. "We are, whether we like it or not, the party of lower-income, lower-education white people, and I have been saying for a long time that we need to offer those people SOMETHING (and hell, maybe even expand our appeal to working-class black people in the process) or a demagogue would.

We are now at that point. Trump is the fruit of the party's collective neglect."

Vance then said Trump was either like disgraced former President Richard Nixon"or Nazi leader Adolph Hitler.

"I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical [anal-pore] like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he's America's Hitler. How's that for discouraging?" Vance concludes, before asking McLaurin how his work was going. ....

A Giant Telescope Searched 3I/ATLAS For Signs of Aliens. Here's Why.
www.sciencealert.com

... A dedicated scan for signs of radio-transmitting technology in interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has come back with absolute cometary radio silence.

The Breakthrough Listen project used one of the world's biggest, most sensitive radio telescopes, the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope, to listen for several hours to the comet roughly a day before it reached perigee on 19 December 2025.

The team searched for artificial technosignatures across a wide range of radio frequencies, and while many signals were heard, not a single one turned out to be from the comet.

That's not a surprise -- there's absolutely nothing about 3I/ATLAS that indicates anything other than "comet" -- but, well, the Universe handed humanity this opportunity on a platter.

We'd have been silly NOT to look. ...

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani greets commuters on subway, announces Office of Mass Engagement
abc7ny.com

... Friday is the second day in office for New York City's new mayor and Zohran Mamdani is already looking to follow through on campaign promises.

On his second day in office, Mamdani announced an effort to get more people involved in city government -- a move meant to mirror the grassroots energy of his successful campaign.

The creation of the Office of Mass Engagement will be led by Tascha Van Auken, the head of his huge campaign volunteer network.

"For too long, city government has only listened to the wealthy and well-connected while working New Yorkers remain further and further disconnected from those elected to serve them," Mamdani said.

"The Office of Mass Engagement will fundamentally change this, creating a deeper connection between City Hall and community organizations, faith-based groups, and everyday New Yorkers looking to make their voices heard."

He started his day on Friday morning like an everyday New Yorker himself, greeting commuters on a packed W train as he rode from Astoria, Queens to City Hall.

He gripped an iced coffee in one hand as he shook hands with the other commuters -- laughing and joking with riders, while taking countless selfies.

"I love your energy, you're awesome," one rider told him after shaking hands.

Asked by another rider how long he would be commuting from Queens, he said "for just a little bit longer," indicating he would be moving into Gracie Mansion soon. ...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announces action to make New York City housing more affordable
abc7ny.com

... The press conference was held at 85 Clarkson Avenue in Brooklyn, a rent-stabilized building, where residents are threatening a rent strike. ...

How R.F.K. Jr. Has Turned His Public Crusades Into a Private Windfall (2023)
www.nytimes.com

... The causes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has championed have brought him admiration, criticism -- and tens of millions of dollars. ...

n 2021, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned more than $500,000 as the chairman and top lawyer at Children's Health Defense, the nonprofit organization that he has helped build into a leading spreader of anti-vaccine falsehoods and a platform for launching his independent bid for the White House.

The compensation was almost three times as high as the amount paid to the organization's president, but it was not Mr. Kennedy's biggest source of income. ...

Georgia's GOP House Speaker says vote-by-mail system would be 'devastating to Republicans' (April 2020)
thehill.com

..."... a multitude of reasons why vote by mail in my view is not acceptable," [Georgia state House Speaker David] Ralston went on, before adding "the president said it best, this will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia." ...

"The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you ever agreed to, you would never have a Republican elected in this country again," [fmr Pres] Trump said...

Bridgeport election probe expands; four more operatives charged (July 2025)
ctmirror.org

... The state criminal investigation involving election crimes in Bridgeport grew Wednesday with the arrests of four more people, nearly two years after a judge tossed out the results of the city's 2023 Democratic mayoral primary because of widespread allegations of absentee ballot fraud.

Robert Anderson, Maria Hernandez, Elsie Mercado and Silvia Ramos turned themselves in Wednesday at the Connecticut State Police barracks in Bridgeport.

They were charged with illegally taking possession of voters' absentee ballots during the primary between Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and his Democratic challenger John Gomes. ...

There is even video (widely shown on CT TV news) of ballots being stuffed.

4 charged with absentee ballot misconduct in 2019 Bridgeport election (June 2024)
www.ctpublic.org

... Four campaign workers are facing charges of misuse of absentee ballots in connection with Bridgeport's 2019 mayoral primary election, including a high-ranking member of the city's Democratic Town Committee.

Chief State's Attorney Patrick J. Griffin announced Tuesday that inspectors from his office arrested the four on charges of unlawful possession of absentee ballots and other election-related criminal offenses.

Those charged include Wanda Geter-Pataky, the vice chairwoman of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, and Alfredo Castillo, a member of Bridgeport's city council, along with campaign workers Josephine Edmonds and Nilsa Heredia, according to Griffin's office.

"Integrity of our voting process is vital to our democracy," Griffin said in a written statement. "I appreciate the attention and time the Statewide Prosecution Bureau put into these investigations. I hope these prosecutions will send a message that deters tampering with election results in the future in Connecticut."

The four defendants are scheduled to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on June 24. A lawyer representing Geter-Pataky did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear whether the other defendants had hired legal representatives.

News of the arrests comes more than four years after Bridgeport's closely-contested 2019 mayoral race, in which incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim was reelected to another term.

However, allegations of absentee misconduct prompted an investigation by the State Elections Enforcement Commission, which referred the case to the state's top prosecutors after conducting a probe that lasted more than three years.

In the interim, allegations of election misconduct surfaced again in Bridgeport, this time garnering national attention. A judge ordered the city to redo its 2024 mayoral election after a video surfaced that appeared to show Geter-Pataky stuffing papers into a ballot drop box.

An investigation into the video is still underway. The charges announced Tuesday pertain only to the race four years earlier. ...

fwiw, Bridgeport politics are known here in CT to be, ummm, I'll be kind, different from the rest of the state.

Nearly 1 million ballots are in the mail as Utah's voting begins
archive.sltrib.com

... Let the voting begin.

County clerks mailed out an estimated 920,000 ballots Monday for the June 28 primary election.

All-by-mail voting is occurring in 20 of Utah's 29 counties and will involve about three of every four registered voters in the state. ...

Securing Your Mail Ballot
vote.utah.gov

... Utah has been voting by mail for over a decade, and it has proven to be a secure and accessible way to vote. Keep reading below for more information: ...