# byron donalds (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover byron donalds. Page: Feed: --- ## [What’s yr take on Cassavetes?? Songs about THE movies](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/22/whats-yr-take-on-cassavetes-songs-about-the-movies-2/) _2026-08-22 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ One of my few attempts at songwriting, “Gregory Peck” praised the actor for wearing pressed suits, his kind mien, and his dullness. The last point mattered to twenty-year-old me: I wanted a big, courteous, pretty guy with whom I’d enjoy an open relationship while meeting in his library for port and a debriefing. Film has \[…\] ## [Seattle Times Columnist Quits After Paper Spikes Column Defending Girls’ Sports](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/seattle-times-columnist-quits-after-paper-spikes-column-defending-girls-sports/) _2026-08-22 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ A longtime Seattle Times sports columnist has resigned after the newspaper refused to publish a column arguing that supporting separate sports for biological women does not make someone a bigot. Matt Calkins, who spent 11 years at the newspaper, announced his resignation Thursday, saying the decision was entirely his own. The final straw, he said, was the paper’s refusal to run a column built… ## [I turn on my computer: Songs about Technology](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/22/i-turn-on-my-computer-songs-about-technology/) _2026-08-22 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ The extent to which rock critics skew left-liberal is inversely proportional to their attitudes about technology. I still chuckle over Anthony DeCurtis’ review of Big Country’s debut The Crossing (1983): Here’s a big-noise guitar band from Britain that blows the knobs off all the synth-pop diddlers and fake-funk frauds who are cluttering up the charts \[…\] ## [The gangrene of toxic parents](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/21/the-gangrene-of-toxic-parents/) _2026-08-21 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Celeste Marcus’ column “Cutting Your Parents Off Isn’t the Answer” has kicked around on social media since it went live at the beginning of the week. As Bryan Ferry sang, you can guess the rest. A self-described lesbian and a member of a “politically conservative Orthodox Jewish community” with robust pro-Palestinian views, Solomon shares a \[…\] ## [So You Don’t Have to Learn Chinese or Russian](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/so-you-dont-have-to-learn-chinese) _2026-08-21 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ I was watching Lioness when a scene between Joe and her daughter punched me in the face. ## [New York Times Loses First Defamation Case In Five Decades](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/new-york-times-loses-first-defamation-case-in-five-decades/) _2026-08-21 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ For the first time in more than half a century, The New York Times has lost a U.S. defamation case involving one of its articles, with an Alabama federal jury ordering the newspaper Thursday to pay $9.25 million to a former University of Alabama basketball player falsely placed at the scene of a murder. The verdict is particularly striking for a newspaper that has spent decades successfully… ## [The best song intros](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/20/the-best-song-intros/) _2026-08-20 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Listening to Ron Carter’s bass part on “Excursions” for the 200th time on a plane last week, I envisaged a project whereby I looped the introductions to favorite songs, forever. Some of these below are brief. The most fraught and delicious ones (“I Need a Lover,” “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” “Mother of Pearl”) have \[…\] ## [Bomb Attack Thwarted At New York Capitol](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/bomb-attack-thwarted-at-new-york-capitol/) _2026-08-20 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ A New York woman who allegedly praised the September 11 attacks, encouraged Muslims to pledge allegiance to ISIS and talked about poisoning “infidels” has been arrested after federal authorities say she moved from online jihadist propaganda to an actual plan to bomb the New York State Capitol and kill lawmakers inside. Jessica Bowie, 35, of Albany, was arrested Wednesday after allegedly accepting… ## [Art damage: ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/20/art-damage-teenage-sex-and-death-at-camp-miasma/) _2026-08-20 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ An ambitious queer director, Kris Williams (Hannah Einbinder) gets sent by the studio, in search of profitability for “woke,” to the Pacific Northwest to make a reboot of Camp Miasma, the title for a series of Friday the 13th-inspired cheapo horror films. Kris’ problems with the series’ transphobic presence do not mitigate her affection for \[…\] ## [Trump’s Strategy Pays Off: Oil Moves Through Hormuz](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/trumps-strategy-pays-off-oil-moves-through-hormuz/) _2026-08-20 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ The United States is quietly doing something Iran has spent months insisting it would never allow: moving millions of barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz under American military protection. U.S. forces have established a tightly controlled shipping corridor through the southern portion of the strait, allowing 15 to 20 oil tankers to move through the strategic waterway each night, according… ## [Play Both Sides Of The Lie (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/EsK6SppWjQBl) _2026-08-20 · **Sponsored**_ Two operatives, one manufactured war — uncover the Complete Truth after both campaigns. ## [I need to score: Songs about drugs](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/19/i-need-to-score-songs-about-drugs/) _2026-08-20 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Bernard Sumner of New Order and about 6000 rappers can write about the highs and consequences of drug-taking, which means I could easily quadruple this list. I listen to these tunes most because they’re catchy and their musical complements catch the contradictions in this foul behavior. 1. New Order – True Faith 2. D’Angelo – \[…\] ## [The Government Is About to Let Private Companies Hack Cybercriminals. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/the-government-is-about-to-let-private) _2026-08-20 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ There was a story out of Washington last week that barely made a dent in the news cycle. ## [Couple Wants Surrogate To Pay $100,000 For Not Killing Their Baby](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/12178/) _2026-08-19 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ The legal battle over Baby Gabriel has taken another remarkable turn: The biological parents who wanted their surrogate to abort him after doctors discovered a serious heart defect are now suing her for more than $100,000 for refusing to do it. Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed filed a countersuit against McKenna West, the 28-year-old Alaska nurse who carried their child, in the weeks before West… ## [Dems in array?](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/19/dems-in-array/) _2026-08-19 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ We tried the moderate old former Republican in the 2022 gubernatorial race. We’re trying the moderate old former Republican in the 2026 gubernatorial race. Let’s try the younger Black leftist woman for Senate. It can’t hurt. I have no illusions about Florida. Treebeard’s lament from The Two Towers rolls around my head often: “It is \[…\] ## [David Jolly’s 900,000-Vote Problem](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/david-jollys-900000-vote-problem) _2026-08-19 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ By: Jamie Miller ## [Fauci Right Hand Man Pleads Guilty](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/fauci-right-hand-man-pleads-guilty/) _2026-08-19 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ A longtime senior adviser to Anthony Fauci has pleaded guilty to conspiring to hide federal records about taxpayer-funded coronavirus research, turning years of congressional allegations about secret emails and disappearing government records into an admitted federal crime. David M. Morens, 78, who served as a senior adviser in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director’s… ## [I won’t give up on my life: Songs about the night](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/i-wont-give-up-on-my-life-songs-about-the-night/) _2026-08-19 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. When the sun goes down, rock ‘n’ \[…\] ## [California Rule Could Increase Price Of Tires Everywhere](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/california-rule-could-increase-price-of-tires-everywhere/) _2026-08-18 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ Liberal regulators in California have found another way to make an everyday necessity more expensive. As one of the largest consumer markets in the world, drivers thousands of miles from Sacramento could eventually feel the consequences. The California Energy Commission voted unanimously Monday to impose the nation’s first energy-efficiency standards on replacement tires, regulations that could… ## [The inequities of adjunct professorships](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/18/the-inequities-of-adjunct-professorships/) _2026-08-18 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ I knew adjuncts worse off than me two decades ago: in the years before online courses they’d wake up and remind themselves which of three college and university campuses they had to visit in one day. Lucky enough to work in an administrative position, I regarded this part-time teaching as extra but essential money. Adjuncts \[…\] ## [The CIA Admitted the Conspiracy Was Real](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/the-cia-admitted-the-conspiracy-was) _2026-08-18 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ The other day I came across one of those videos on X that makes you stop scrolling because the question is so good that you need to hear the answer. ## [Trade Bitcoin and Ethereum Today (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/GKGACjYHxhmZ) _2026-08-18 · **Sponsored**_ Buy, sell, and margin trade BTC and ETH with EUR, USD, CAD, GBP, or JPY. ## [Eric Swalwell Was Receiving Illegal Contributions](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/eric-swalwell-was-receiving-illegal-contributions/) _2026-08-18 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ Newly declassified FBI files reveal that federal agents believed suspected Chinese intelligence operative Christine Fang used straw donors to funnel illegal campaign contributions to former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell while cultivating a personal relationship with the California politician and helping place interns in his offices. The files, declassified by President Donald Trump and released… ## [The best songs about actors](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/17/the-best-songs-about-actors-2/) _2026-08-18 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Readers will look at the top entry and think, ‘lol wtf.’ But John Grant’s thick rattling synth jam reconstructs an actor’s image in queer form with the thoroughness of a Pet Shop Boys approach to same, and as of 4:30 p.m. EST it’s the song I want to keep listening to. The list: 1. Cornershop \[…\] ## [Kansas Democrat Says Jesus Could Have Been Trans](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/kansas-democrat-says-jesus-could-have-been-trans/) _2026-08-17 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ Kansas Democrats are trying to win the governor’s mansion in one of the most reliably Republican states in the country. But they just can’t quit being for “they/them.” Cindy Holscher, the Democratic nominee for governor and a state senator, is facing renewed scrutiny over comments in which she said she had no idea whether Jesus Christ was transgender, gay or straight—remarks she made while… ## [Purgatorial: ‘Her Private Hell’](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/17/purgatorial-her-private-hell/) _2026-08-17 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Calling Her Private Hell a bad film does me no favors because this is the kind of “difficult” film I want to defend against pedants who prefer biopics starring Judi Dench. I should have expected no less from Nicolas Winding Refn, the wannabe perv who made Drive (whatever) and Only God Forgives (Hague-level offense) and \[…\] ## [The best songs alluding to Shakespeare](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/16/the-best-songs-alluding-to-shakespeare-2/) _2026-08-16 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ A couple weeks after reading Clinton Heylin’s Despite the System, I needed a monthly excuse to revisit Orson Welles films. In an hour I’ll re-watch Othello for the first time since a 1992 reissue sent a bowdlerized yet accepted edition of Welles’ Shakespeare adaptation to theatres; it earned good reviews anyway. Please watch Welles’ own \[…\] ## [Iran Puts Bounties On Heads Of American Soldiers](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/iran-puts-bounties-on-heads-of-american-soldiers/) _2026-08-16 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ Iran is now offering cash for dead or captured American soldiers. The Iranian military announced Sunday that it will pay the equivalent of $30,000 to anyone who kills or captures a member of the U.S. military, according to Iranian state media. Women who carry out the act will receive twice as much. Army chief Amir Hatami said the program was created in response to “the large number of requests”… ## [Dave Marsh — RIP](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/16/dave-marsh-rip/) _2026-08-16 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ If readers in 1990 lived in a small town or in a small town like Miami posing as a city, the B. Daltons and Waldenbooks at the local mail saved your life. Dadeland and International malls carried three books of rock criticism: Christgau’s Record Guide: The 1980s; The Trouser Press Record Guide, edited by Ira \[…\] ## [Ranking #11 U.S. edition: 1967-1969](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/ranking-11-u-s-edition-1967-1969/) _2026-08-15 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Every time I post a rundown of hits from the sixties I have to say, Goddamn it and restrain my nostalgia, but, really, any chart with Mother Popcorn and I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) and Is That All There Is will draw attention. Immune to Simon and Garfunkel, I placed Scarborough Fair \[ \] ## [Stephen A. Smith Says Byron Donalds Could Turn Him Republican](https://www.newconservativepost.com/2026/08/stephen-a-smith-says-byron-donalds-could-turn-him-republican/) _2026-08-15 · Walt Rasinger · New Conservative Post_ Stephen A. Smith’s slow-motion breakup with the Democratic Party may have just taken another step. The ESPN star and longtime Democrat says there is at least one Republican who might actually convince him to switch parties: Florida Rep. Byron Donalds. “And I ain’t no d— Republican. But that mean if anybody could make me one, it would be him. I’m just going to keep it a buck. I’m just letting you… ## [Walk the dinosaur: ‘The End of Oak Street’](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/walk-the-dinosaur-the-end-of-oak-street/) _2026-08-15 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Had my screening of The End of Oak Street taken place at night instead of 9 a.m., I hope the audience would ve applauded loudly when Ewan McGregor turns into an amuse bouche for an Allosaurus. The latest film by David Robert Mitchell, director of the excellent It Follows and the unseen by me Under the \[ \] ## [Build with the cheapest GPUs (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/OxTR1AmV5jqX) _2026-08-15 · **Sponsored**_ Deployed a live API in minutes; one user spent under $10. ## [Ranking #6 singles U.S. edition: 1965-1967](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/15/ranking-6-singles-u-s-edition-1965-1967/) _2026-08-15 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Because aging potbellied men ran the music biz and constituted part of the audience during the High LBJ Era, The Men in My Little Girl s Life exists. It so happens that I was watching The Apartment with dinner a few minutes ago and Mike Douglas attitude towards women was Fred MacMurray and his four dwarves. \[ \] ## [My favorite novels about adolescence](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/13/my-favorite-novels-about-adolescence/) _2026-08-14 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ By necessity incomplete, this list of old, new, and new-ish favorites treat adolescence as a hinterland whose borders recklessly separate childhood and adulthood when, really, to some degree we should ve held on to medieval notions about children as young or little adults. Maybe I knew I was queer by adoring Judy Blume and especially Louise \[ \] ## [Criticism in an age of discontent](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/13/criticism-in-an-age-of-discontent/) _2026-08-13 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Jill Mapes, formerly of Pitchfork and whom I know from Pop Conference, wrote an elegy for Brooklyn Vegan, Alternative Press, Revolver, and Goldmine that doubles as an elegy to an ideal: the full-time music journalist. The way I read it her essay comes across as a mea culpa for failing to consider the utility of \[ \] ## [Leave Paris in the morning with T.E.E.: Songs about trains](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/12/leave-paris-in-the-morning-with-t-e-e-songs-about-trains/) _2026-08-13 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ The preferred method of long distance travel for Americans and the cheapest until deregulation lowered airplane fares in the 1980s, trains dominated pop songs well into the 1990s when for example Soul Asylum earned an unexpected top five with Runaway Train. Elvis scored the first and best hit: a missive from a country within a \[ \] ## [The best songs about states](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/11/the-best-songs-about-states/) _2026-08-12 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Listening to what is to my ears Public Enemy s most powerful album, I thought about good songs in which states figure. Ray Charles sets the standard: Georgia as state of mind, like Wallace Stevens jar in Tennessee. Many of these tunes are classic in themselves. Which states dominate the imagination? California, whose temperate climes serve \[ \] ## [‘Trans-ideology is far outside of what most normal gays espouse’](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/11/trans-ideology-is-far-outside-of-what-most-normal-gays-espouse/) _2026-08-11 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Interesting! Democrat Elijah Manley, a gay, Black and Jewish Gen Zer, faces two veteran U.S. representatives in a high-profile Democratic primary. Shevrin Jones, Florida’s first out gay state senator, and Kendrick Meek Jr., an out politician whose father and grandmother both represented South Florida in Congress, face each other in a heated Democratic primary. Self-described \[ \] ## [We’re Already Being Tracked. Flock Cameras Just Make It Obvious](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/were-already-being-tracked-flock) _2026-08-11 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ I checked the DeFlock Maps today and there are around 30 Flock cameras within five miles of my house. ## [The best songs about business](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/10/the-best-songs-about-business/) _2026-08-11 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Pop music would not exist without capitalism: the business of recording and distribution, the means of production, the media in which the art gets to the people. When non-critics complain about the Death of the Album, I remind them that the sainted album relied on products (ahem vinyl) and things like radio and stores to \[ \] ## [On Nora Ephron and ‘You’ve Got Mail’](https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2026/08/10/on-nora-ephron-and-youve-got-mail/) _2026-08-10 · humanizingthevacuum · Humanizing The Vacuum_ Although I haven t seen a flood of appraisals, I ve read or heard enough praise for the late writer-director Nora Ephron s comedies from younger film writers and film podcasters for me to reexamine my prejudices. A spring watch of When Harry Met Sally occasioned by the death of Rob Reiner delighted me: a fizzy and still \[ \] ## [The Math Problem: Why Byron Donalds Will Be Florida’s GOP Nominee](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/the-math-problem-why-byron-donalds) _2026-08-10 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ By: Jamie Miller ## [What Florida Voters Should Know About David Jolly](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/what-florida-voters-should-know-about-1f6) _2026-08-07 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ David Jolly is a fifth-generation Floridian, born in Dunedin in 1972 and raised in Dade City. ## [What Florida Voters Should Know About Bobby Williams](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/what-florida-voters-should-know-about-ee5) _2026-08-06 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ A few months ago, Bobby Williams’ posts started showing up in my feed, so I reached out and had the opportunity to speak with him one on one. ## [What Florida Voters Should Know About Paul Renner](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/what-florida-voters-should-know-about-8fa) _2026-08-06 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ Paul Renner was born in Atlanta in 1967 and raised in Northeast Florida, where he attended public schools. ## [What Florida Voters Should Know About James Fishback](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/what-florida-voters-should-know-about-e1f) _2026-08-05 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ James Fishback is a fourth-generation Floridian from Davie who now lives in North Florida. ## [What Florida Voters Should Know about Jay Collins](https://reasonablearguments.substack.com/p/what-florida-voters-should-know-about-b0a) _2026-08-04 · Reasonable Arguments® · Reasonable Arguments®_ Jay Collins spent more than 23 years in the United States Army.