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Yesterday we posted an Ann Telnaes cartoon from her archives re: Lindsey Graham but she has rolled out a few more, so a selection below:

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Paul Krugman on taxing the wealthy:

Before Trump 2.0 political corruption was generally disguised and implicit: Politicians and political staffers favored corporate interests because of incentives like the revolving door, in which they could expect to move on to well-paid employment as lobbyists. These days, thanks to Trump, political graft is open and direct: much of it is simply cash, crypto and sweetheart contracts that enrich politicians and their families.

In addition, big money has gained the ability to shape the information environment. Right-wing think tanks, subsidized “research” and captured media relentlessly push the interests of billionaires. This shifts the Overton Window, the range of policies conventional wisdom considers acceptable: even centrists often end up viewing billionaire-friendly policies as sensible and reasonable, while other policies — even policies that were considered perfectly normal in the past, like high taxes on profits — are viewed as radical and irresponsible.

A key part of the argument that corporate taxes must be kept low is the claim that the United States is competing with other nations for a limited pool of global capital, and that if we have higher corporate taxes than other nations, the capital will go elsewhere. Correspondingly, advocates of further cuts in corporate taxes claim that such cuts will generate huge inflows of capital from abroad, leading to higher economic growth and wages for workers.

So it’s worth pointing out that Trump did, in fact, slash corporate taxes in 2017. What happened as a result? Basically, nothing, except that corporations paid even less in taxes.

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Axios: “In Drew, Miss., the Emmett Till Interpretive Center is transforming the barn where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed in 1955 into a memorial and a place for reflection.”

This Twitter comment by Scott Barber on photo below went viral: “So the White House is a Thai restaurant now?”

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Music Pick

Have noted previously that we are enjoying catching up with super-popular YouTube videos, by Jack Coyne known as “Track Star.” He plays music cuts— some famous, some deep—and asks guests on a NYC street to ID them and talk about the artist, if they can (they usually can). Guests are usually from the world of music, but also music-obsessed celebs, such as Ethan Hawke, Jimmy Fallon and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. He’s been doing it for about four years so you can browse what’s already posted and find plenty of artists you like or who at least are fairly close to your age so the music and chat may hit your sweet spot. We have loved everyone from Lucinda Williams to Taj Mahal and Adam Scott. Running time might range from about 8 to 20 minutes. There’s also a podcast and occasional live music.

Last night we caught this episode with Jon Batiste who is his usual engaging self as he bows down to Satchmo, Duke, Monk, Sam Cooke, and Randy Newman.

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From Tunes to Toons

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Royaards:

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Church on hillside, entering Sedona.

Still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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God only knows…

Famous Twitter quote from 2016: @LindseyGrahamSC

If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.

Ann Telnaes, from the archives:

David Edelstein today:

I'm guessing it's Lindsey following Mitch into the Great Beyond and not vice versa because Lindsey was a follower to the core. Or to the lack of a core.

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The end of reading (but not here we hope), Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic:

I investigated what our society will look like as reading vanishes for all but the smallest sliver of Americans. The share of Americans who read a book or an article on any given day has fallen by 40 percent over the past two decades. In 2022, fewer than half of all adults had read a book of any kind in the prior year. Only 38 percent had read a novel or a short story. One historian I spoke with described reading as a “niche hobby, like stamp collecting or growing orchids.” And its disappearance shows no signs of slowing down.

Humans spent millennia communicating only by voice. The advent of reading and writing transformed society. It altered people’s consciousness and politics, along with the intellectual feats they were capable of. The decline of reading will bring about changes of the same magnitude. It will affect how we think, how our elected leaders campaign and govern, what skills our culture values, and even how we tell the history of our civilization. If we look closely, we can see that these changes have already begun.

This shift is often referred to as a literacy crisis. But that’s not quite right. Americans can still read. Paradoxically, they might be reading more words than ever before. People’s lives are filled with emails, text messages, X posts, Reddit threads, and Instagram captions. But these snippets of text have crowded out the time necessary for sustained reading of complex texts. And over time, people have lost the higher-order abilities of comprehension and synthesis. America, in other words, isn’t illiterate. It’s post­literate.

Paul Krugman sez:

AI is clearly a major technological shock, and it may take years before we fully understand its economic and social impacts. What we do know, however, is that this technological shock is occurring in the context of a pre-existing environment of extreme wealth and political inequality. And this pre-existing condition will magnify the downsides of the AI shock.

Heather Cox Richardson warns:

On Friday a Pentagon official told Rebecca Turco of WJLA 7News in Washington, D.C., that National Guard troops will stay activated in Washington through Inauguration Day 2029 “until law and order are fully restored in our Nation’s Capital.”

“So,” Bill Kristol of The Bulwark commented. “[M]ilitary troops under the direct control of Trump and Hegseth will be on the streets of our nation’s capital for the rest of Trump’s term. The rationale—they’re here to help with a crime emergency—is laughable. But of course the real reason is ominous.”

Meanwhile, conservative lawyer and Kellyanne’s ex-, George Conway, writes: “A severely mentally ill man has control of the launch codes for America’s nuclear arsenal, but it doesn’t seem that many people care.”

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Music Pick

Missed Mavis’s 87 birthday on Friday, but here we go, with one of the great songs of this century, Tweedy’s “You Are Not Alone.”

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From Tune to Toons

Bennett:

Anderson:

Brodner:

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Goris:

Missed this last week, a Scarry takeoff:

Day:

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From my camera to you: Butterfly Bush

Still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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Fun new song, “I Just Got Off the Phone With Mitch”

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ICE Killing in Houston Puts Focus on Surge in Immigration Arrests

The shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo occurred as immigration enforcement has ramped up across the country, with thousands being arrested daily.

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NY Times:

The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.

The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.

In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.

The Times denounced the administration’s actions.

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.

Meanwhile, from Heather Cox Richardson:

After federal judges have repeatedly prohibited the administration from seizing state voter lists, apparently to run them through a program designed to identify noncitizens who are not eligible for certain federal programs (something federal judges have also prohibited), Trump’s appointees at the Department of Justice appear to have turned to trying to intimidate election officials.

On Tuesday the Department of Justice confirmed that it has sent letters to election officials in all fifty states and Washington, D.C., warning them that they could be criminally prosecuted if noncitizens vote. The letters came from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump loyalist, and gave them five days to detail how they will maintain “clean voter lists.”

Utah lieutenant governor Deidre Henderson, a Republican, posted on social media: “Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution. I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts. This is truly bizarre behavior by the federal agency that is supposed to be protecting civil rights.”

Last night, Trump fired the last two Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), an independent federal commission that helps state and local officials make sure elections are smooth and secure. Among other things, it certifies voting machines and maintains the national mail-voter registration forms. The only other current member of the EAC, a Republican, resigned. The fourth member of the EAC, a Republican, resigned earlier this year.

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Music Pick

Allison Russell out with a new lp yesterday, here is one bouncy cut, “Love Is a Golden Lion”

Always happy to post the annual “Peace and Love” celebration of Ringo’s birthday in LA, this year #86, and great country set with Ringo’s Beatles songs and covers of Lucinda Williams, Gram Parsons etc.—with T Bone, Molly Tuttle, Sarah Jarosz, Colin Linden, David Mansfield, Daniel Tashian.

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From Tunes to Toons

Davies:

Schwadron:

Margolis & Cox:

Wolverton:

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Molina:

Sack:

Wuerker:

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From my camera to you, “Daybreak, Stateline Lookout, Over the Hudson”

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We featured the Norwegian FIFA team and fans celebrating latest win with epic VIking row, and now they are joined by the country’s Parliament. Next game: Saturday vs. England .

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Ron Filipkowski:

Platner playing games and waiting until the Monday deadline to file the paperwork to withdraw is totally unacceptable. No reason he couldn’t file it today or tomorrow. He has shown in every conceivable way what a piece of garbage he is. Can’t even get o;ut with any decency.

Lucian Truscott IV:

It’s not just about Graham Platner or even Donald Trump. It’s about the millions and millions of men who are just like them. I have personally known far too many of them. They are men who for some reason I have never completely understood believe that they can do anything they want with a woman simply because she is a woman….

The Graham Platners and Donald Trumps of the world are everywhere. I am not doing anything more than stating the obvious to say that there are far too many of them, certainly far more than we talk about publicly. In the world as it exists in the United States, it takes a man running for office, or perhaps becoming famous as an actor or musician or sports figure, for the world to find out what is in his past….

Some men pass along to boys an inherent disrespect of women as things rather than human beings. Something similar was probably experienced by Donald Trump and Graham Platner. You are not born believing the way they do. Trump is a pig. Platner is a pig. Too many men are pigs.

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Music Picks:

More from the listening party for new Stones album, out today: “You Can’t Always Get What Ya Want”

and “Dead Flowers”

And from the new album, a surprising Amy Winehouse cover:

And a Chuck Berry cover:

And an always welcome Keith lead vocal making us happy:

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From Tunes to Toons

Ann Telnaes on Trump not getting the Iran war off his back

Luckovich:

Takeoff on now famous photo by MJ Hiblen:

KAL:

Molina:

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Bramhall:

Wuerker:

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Luckovich again:

Don’t count him out:

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Venetian market, closing for afternoon:

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From NY Times today:

Does a Sex Assault Claim Kill a Political Career? It Depends.

The swift exit of Graham Platner from the Maine Senate race followed Eric Swalwell’s similar exit from the California governor’s race, but Republicans have taken a different tack.

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Tom Nichols in The Atlantic yesterday noted that Trump was “incoherent” in Ankara. He referred to Iran as the “Islamic Republic of Japan” and to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin.” He also announced he had ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cut off all trade with Spain, a ludicrous impossibility.

Paul Krugman:

What we have is President Sundowner. I mean, this this is completely insane stuff. In any kind of normally functioning political system, in any kind of normally functioning party environment we would have a massive bipartisan call across the aisle, across almost everybody except for a handful of members of congress who are themselves crazy, to say okay this guy is non compos mentis. We cannot leave the fate of the United States or the world in the hands of somebody who is completely irrational, who is making demands and believing himself to have powers that he does not.

And of course, instead, not only does everybody pretend that he’s still a rational human being, but the Republican Party, the Trump administration, is full-on engaged in trying to build a personality cult.

What this says to me is that the problem is a lot bigger than Trump. Something is fundamentally wrong with America, and at this point you don’t have to go through complicated justifications. You can just say something is wrong with a country and a system that lets this guy remain in a position of power.

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Music Picks

The aged (or ageless?) Stones suddenly announced they have a new album coming on Friday. Mick and Woody got up and played new countryish song at a listening party. Love the piano.

Change of pace: Natalie Merchant from a performance last month for children (and adults) in Chicago, with the classic “Peter Pumpkin Eater.” From the summary:

Natalie Merchant and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform "Peter Pumpkin Eater from 'Cabinet of Wonder,' available to download and stream August 21 on Nonesuch Records: https://cabinetofwonder.lnk.to/album ‘Cabinet of Wonder’ is a multimedia collaboration between American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Children’s Theatre, along with Manual Cinema, a collective of artists and a team of early childhood educators. It was designed to be a powerful educational and enrichment tool for teachers and parents of children ages 3-6. With a collection of musical recordings, videos, sheet music, and teaching guides, Cabinet of Wonder re-imagines Mother Goose and her famous canon of rhymes for a new generation. Find this video and all the others in the series, along with extensive teaching resources (available for free) and so much more at: https://cabinetofwonder.org

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From Tunes to Toons

Luckovich:

Blitt:

Slygnstad

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Anderson:

Bramhall:

Ohman:

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Anderson again:

Davies:

Brodner:

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Grand Central Terminal, Chrysler Building

“Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

Still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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Couple fun clips from the World Cup this week. First, unique Norway “Viking” celebration after their major upset of Brazil, led by superstar Haaland.

When Belgium players mocked cheater Trump after their win over USA, with his YMCA dance.

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With Platner about to leave the race (one hopes) in Maine, the NY Times reports on a few mainstream Dem candidates who might replace him on the ballot, then adds, “More unconventional picks were being bandied about, as well. One Democratic firm in recent days included the actor Patrick Dempsey in a poll (he was viewed favorably by 52 percent of voters in the survey). Others floated the popular liberal historian Heather Cox Richardson, who is based in Maine.” Richardson, of course, is oft-quoted here and has 3 million Substack subscribers.

Journalist Jonathan Alter was among many who endorsed her, writing, “Richardson is progressive but also reasonable, and extremely well-informed on the problems facing her state. Picking her would be the kind of bold stroke that people no longer expect from Democrats. Do it.” Others predicted a landslide if she ran….

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Paul Krugman:

Yesterday, soon after he arrived in Ankara for the NATO Summit, Trump reiterated his demand that Denmark hand him control of Greenland. But reactions were subdued. As far as I can tell, our erstwhile allies are now treating Trump as the senile uncle who says crazy, outrageous things, but shouldn’t be taken seriously….Europe’s turn away from Trump also reflects plummeting perceptions of his power. At one time the world feared Trump although it never respected him. The silence that met his renewed demand for Greenland shows that the world no longer takes him seriously.

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NYT columnist Thomas Friedman:

Our country is built on written documents — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to name the most important. So to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, my wife, Ann, hosted a special event at Planet Word, the immersive language museum she founded in Washington to promote literacy. The singer-composer Nolan Williams Jr. led a singalong featuring classic American songs, including, of course, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.”

Despite 100-degree heat, a remarkably diverse crowd of 300 people packed the museum’s main hall, and young and old sang together with gusto. There was so much joy and camaraderie in the room — and so many leaving attendees saying to one another how much they wished the entire country could reflect that same harmony every day. So many people asked afterward, “Why aren’t we singing these songs together on the National Mall?”

Which leads — I am sorry to say — to a quite different variation on “This Land Is Your Land” heard on the National Mall later that evening. In my mind, it was the Trump variation, with lyrics that went, “This land is my land, this land is my land / From California to the New York island / From my cryptocurrency to the Qatari 747 / This land belongs to me and mine.”

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Upcoming Music Pick

Leonard Cohen’s family has announced first Canada, U.S. and Europe “tribute” tour, led by Leonard’s son Adam and grandson, plus videos and special guests.

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From Tunes to Toons

Luckovich:

Boris:

Anderson:

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Goris:

Wuerker:

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Fro

m my camera to you: Sunrise, Bodega Bay, CA

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Some distractions here so more limited postings today (and Kimmel still on vacation, Colbert gone and John Oliver doing “General Hospital”. Looks like farewell to Platner in Maine and of course to the U.S. World Cup team after the Curse of Trump arrived. Were some great cartoons yesterday before that (naturally) happened.

Bramhall:

And some fun commentary online, this is just a sample:

Ron Filipkowski: “So now millions of football fans around the world view the US as cheaters who used political corruption to influence FIFA and we lose anyway. So much winning. When’s the next war?”

Franklin Leonard: “Get your Belgian chocolate now before the tariffs hit.”

Spencer Hakimian: “BREAKING: Donald Trump has just called Gianni Infantino and asked FIFA to “just find 4 more goals.”

More cartoons down below.

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Interview with me re: my new “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” film now streaming over PBS.org and PBS apps and airing at PBS stations this summer. Rolling Stone piece now up at Yahoo and no longer paywalled. You can watch now here.

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Music Pick

Paste just picked its “50 Greatest Protest Songs” and plenty of omissions of course. Woody came in at #2 with “This Land.” Good #1 pick, see below.

1. Billie Holiday: “Strange Fruit” (1939)

This track has to be at the top of the list; it’s that influential. One of the first racism protest songs to be recorded in popular music, 1939’s “Strange Fruit” is based off a poem written by Abel Meeropol. Holiday sang the song for the first time at Café Society in Greenwich Village, which was the first integrated nightclub in New York City. With the song’s blatant indictment of racism in the American South, it’s said that Holiday was afraid of retaliation every time she sang the song. Not to mention, no record label would touch it. Eventually, Milt Gabler put the track out on Commodore records after Holiday’s a cappella performance of it brought him to tears. Despite being aware of the danger of singing a song like this as black woman, Holiday sings “Strange Fruit” with unwavering bravery and intention, her emotive voice bolstering its timeless meaning. —Alexa Peters

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From Tune to Toons

Telnaes:

de Adder:

Morland:

Zyglis:

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Brodner:

Jerge:

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Orange, Bowl

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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No John Oliver show last night as he has been away fulfilling a lifelong dream of ….performing on a soap opera, in this case “General Hospital.” Here is an Access Hollywood report on his endeavor:

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Heather Cox Richardson:

Trump clearly thinks there is political gain in convincing his followers that his political opponents are communists, although this is a lie made up out of whole cloth after the victory of Democratic Socialists in Democratic primaries and the popularity of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani. Communists call for the end of private ownership of the means of production, giving the state control of private enterprises. In today’s America, it is actually Trump, himself, who is taking government stakes in private enterprises.

Paul Krugman on Trump’s crypto and various coin schemes:

What we’re witnessing is or has been a really enormous pump and dump scheme, I would argue, involving more or less all of crypto.

It’s an extraordinary thing. There have been pump and dump schemes forever, probably going back to the Phoenicians or something. But this is on a scale we’ve never seen, and with the president of the United States in the center of it. Which I guess given everything else comes as no surprise.

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Today’s Toons

Luckovich:

Anderson:

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Brodner on the now-famous photo: that we featured yesterday:

Bramhall:

Day:

Wuerker:

Sack:

Noth:

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Paris, 5 a.m.

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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Tom Nichols:

If you had told me in the ‘80s that “YMCA“ would be played by a military band as a tribute to the sitting president of the United States, I would’ve assumed the story originated with some mischievous Soviet propagandist.

Some are already predicting this as the Pulitzer winner next year. Cheney Orr captured this in a Washington Metro car as the racist masked Patriots arrived for last night’s Trump rally.

Steve Brodner commented on the cowards:

And Dennis Goris:

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Also on July 4: this Rolling Stone piece about my new film now streaming over PBS, “Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad Today.”

“Woody has been embraced by new generations, certainly at the No Kings protests and anti-ICE protests. He’s sort of everywhere.” Guthrie resonates, Mitchell said, because “he seems authentic. Most of the country is not left wing, but he had an incredible life, and he wrote all these great songs and lived it.”

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Music Picks

You will enjoy Nigerian-American Shaboozey (a recent Grammy winner) at NPR’s Tiny Desk last week

Billy Bragg on Beethoven, politics, and why he re-wrote lyrics for “Ode to Joy” for today. About 15 years ago he did the same in a film I co-produced “Following the Ninth,” which was screened at dozens off cities and festivals around the world.

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From Tunes to Toons

Anderson:

Ann Telnaes: Trump is “unfit to be the ruler of a free people”

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Zyglis:

Kemensky:

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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Ron Filipkowski: “Nothing says good old fashioned 4th of July American patriotism like flying to a speech in a grifted Qatari jet.”

Paul Krugman:

On the eve of America’s 250^th birthday we had confirmation of presidential corruption on a scale Nixon could never have imagined. That’s bad in itself. What’s worse is that nobody believes that there will be any consequences for Trump, his cronies, and their henchmen. In 1974 Republicans joined with Democrats to hold Nixon accountable. This time around they’re fully invested in magnifying Trump’s power and his cult of personality, despite knowing perfectly well who he is and what he is doing.

I am not giving up hope. America is not irretrievably lost. But now, much more than 50 years ago, we are a nation in desperate need of redemption.

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Mary Oliver:

Yes, that is the late poet Mary Oliver, also the subject of a new PBS film which we saw in a theater yesterday and coming to American Masters soon. Here is the trailer:

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PBS has been touting its rapidly expanded short Bruce Springsteen “Newshour” segment from a couple of weeks back, which will now air as a half hour special tomorrow. But they put it up online last night and no need to wait, here it is. Of course, I appreciate the multiple references to Woody Guthrie and even to his “The Ghost of Tom Joad” and “Grapes of Wrath.” Bruce, as you may have heard, is featured in my own PBS film, which you can watch now here or on an upcoming airing on your local station, “Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad.” Somewhere in there we also see the first Bruce cover ever, in 1975, which we produced at Crawdaddy!

Rolling Stone with a major piece on the film today.

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From Tunes to Toons

Barry Blitt captured moment yesterday when these embarrassed gentlemen tried to attend Trump’s speech ignito:

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Goris:

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From my camera to you: near our apartment in Greenwich Village, 1985

Special posting today for the holiday, and hopefully to promote activism for freedom and civil rights and musical protest and exploration. After premieres in L.A. and for the Guthrie Center in Tulsa, our film is now streaming at PBS.org and PBS apps and airing over PBS stations around the country (for example at 2 p.m. today in Austin). But you can also watch the final cut of “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today,” narrated by Rosanne Cash and with a Springsteen finale, below via Vimeo. If you do, please share and comment below. Thank you!

Update: new Rolling Stone piece on the film.

Written and directed by Greg Mitchell, co-produced by Lyn Goldfarb, editor Rob Burgos, associate producer Barbara Bedway, narrated by Rosanne Cash. (2026, 57 minutes) You can reach Greg Mitchell at: epic1934@aol.com

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“Well done! And perfect for the spirit of the times.” — Joe Klein, author of “Primary Colors,” “Woody Guthrie: A Life,” and other books

“I was proud to narrate a new documentary by Greg Mitchell about Woody Guthrie. A beautiful film about a timeless artist.” – Rosanne Cash

“Greg Mitchell has written and directed a wonderful documentary. It chronicles the intertwining paths of Guthrie and writer John Steinbeck in the 1930s, as the author chronicled the travails of migrant workers, culminating in The Grapes of Wrath, and the singer-songwriter gave voice to the Dust Bowl refugees, immigrants, and itinerant workers exploited, oppressed, and assaulted in the fields of California. But the film goes beyond depicting this important history and draws a poignant connection to the plight of migrant workers today and the cruelty and brutality they currently face from ICE raids and Trump’s anti-immigration crusade.” — David Corn, Mother Jones

“A marvelous film. It is so effective in its approach to social unrest and justice.” — Van Dyke Parks

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“An extraordinary film.” — Anna Canoni, president of Woody Guthrie Publications and Woody’s granddaughter.

“It’s a splendid piece of work. Very fine use of stills and footage, ditto for songs and music, a highly resonant story about great American artists, and above all a strong social conscience.”
– David Sterritt, author and former president, National Society of Film Critics

“An excellent documentary.” — Peter Rainer, LAist and Christian Science Monitor

“This is a fantastic documentary. Wonderful narration by Rosanne Cash. Bravo, Greg Mitchell. Very proud to debut the film at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa.” — Steve Higgins, director of the Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie centers

“Mitchell’s only-too-timely doc comes in just under an hour as a visually arresting history lesson that forges links between the struggle of migrants then and the immigrant population now. Woody’s legacy runs straight on to Springsteen.” — Fred Schruers, author of Billy Joel: The Definitive Biography and other books,

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Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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Jon Stewart and gang with special look at the 250 countdown, or is it down for the count?

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Had to laugh at this posting from one Twitter wag: “If Taylor and Travis really want a private wedding, they should get married not at Madison Square Garden but at the Great American State Fair.”

Meanwhile, if you are World Cup watching: Folarin Balogun, who is a US citizen because he was born here, scored a go-ahead goal for the US team in a knockout game. Score one more for birthright citizenship. A law not just a GOOOOOOAL.

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Get “Lucky”

On Tuesday, I snuck off to the local cinema to see my friend Rod Lurie’s latest film, “Lucky Strike.” It follows his previous war film, from 2020, “The Outpost,” which became the most popular movie on Netflix for weeks running. Rod, a West Point grad, can be trusted to make strong war flicks (although he is now shooting a Western). My taste in films runs more to two of his earlier “political” films, the acclaimed “The Contender” and “Nothing But the Truth.” But I thought “The Outpost” (based on a Jake Tapper book) was terrific, as is the quite different “Lucky Strike.”

Scott Eastwood, who also appeared in “The Outpost,” takes center stage here as a U.S. Army engineer stuck near or behind Nazi lines during the Battle of the Bulge and his struggles to reach safety. It reminded me that Rod’s all-time favorite film (and in my top five) is Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory,” but Eastwood here is in his own “no man’s land” for days.

I won’t give away what the title means, but it did make me recall the famous slogan for the cigarette during my youth: LSMFT. “Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco,” though in this movie “fine” could be changed to “fatal.” A certain communication device named “Lassie” also plays a key role. The cinematography is tremendous and the writing and overall tone reminded me of a fine episode of the HBO series “Band of Brothers,” no small praise—and Colin Hanks, from “Brothers” also makes a brief appearance here—and it too “inspired” by true events. Here is the trailer:

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Paul Krugman:

The fact is that very few Americans — even among politicians who call themselves “democratic socialists” — are really socialists. What many, I’d say a majority, of Americans support is what Europeans call social democracy — an ideology that is OK with living in a mostly market-driven economic system in which some people make much more money than others, but one that advocates policies to tame markets and inequality with progressive taxation, safety net programs, and regulations.

America already has an extensive range of social-democratic policies, although they are weaker than those in most other rich countries. And sustaining social democracy — indeed, making U.S. social democracy stronger — has very broad support, even among Republicans. Actual socialism, by contrast, has little public appeal.

Why, then, does it look as if socialism is on the rise? Mainly because right-wing propagandists continually smear social democratic policies as socialist, trying to make popular, mainstream policy ideas sound extreme. And some Americans who are basically social democrats in effect respond by saying, “Well, if that’s socialism, I guess I’m OK with socialism.”

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Music Pick

Phoebe Bridgers is hot again, with an upcoming tour and album and this song topping the indie popularity list this week, “Lost Boys.”

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You didn’t think I’d come back from California without another Calla photo did you?

Don’t miss my latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad” now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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Heather Cox Richardson on the SCOTUS birthright citizenship ruling:

Four of nine Supreme Court justices are willing to rewrite the Constitution by fiat.

Although the court’s decision simply upheld the conditions that have been in place for more than a century, MAGA is treating it as a dramatic and dangerous change. “Now that [the Supreme Court] has opened the floodgates for foreign invaders to flock across our borders and spawn, the only choice we have is to triple down on immigration enforcement,” wrote right-wing podcast host Matt Walsh. “Militarize the border. Mass deportations. Round every illegal up. Don’t pull back when the lesbian activists start screeching about it. Use whatever force is necessary. There is no other option.”

Meanwhile, still pathetic turnout on the mall for Trump’s 250th gathering.

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Another shocking upset: Melat Kiros, a political newcomer and democratic socialist, defeated 15-term U.S. Rep Diana DeGette on Tuesday night in the Democratic primary to represent Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, a major upset.

And via NY Times:

Manny Rutinel, a progressive state representative, defeated a moderate Democrat to win the primary election in Colorado’s most competitive swing district, according to The Associated Press. Now he will face Representative Gabe Evans, a Republican seen as vulnerable, in a race that will help determine which party controls the House.

A Dominican American former animal rights activist and lawyer with a significant social media following and a knack for fund-raising, Mr. Rutinel appealed to voters with his multicultural biography in a suburban area north of Denver that is nearly 40 percent Latino.

And Axios also on Colorado:

The establishment couldn’t stop the left: A progressive won the secretary of state nomination. Several statehouse incumbents lost their primaries to left-wing challengers.

Why it matters: Colorado shows New York’s Zohran Mamdani-fueled victories for the left weren’t a fluke. The antiestablishment surge is real, and Democratic incumbents have good reason to sweat their own primaries.

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NY Times today:

Trump Pulled in at Least $2 Billion After Returning to the White House

The release of a mandatory financial disclosure for 2025 shows that the Trump family’s holdings, particularly the president’s crypto businesses, were stunningly lucrative.

Not sure there is a connection, but, from Paste yesterday:

We’re entering a “shitting on the floor at concerts” epidemic

After Olivia Rodrigo revealed that she’s often smelled her fans’ feces at the barricade of her shows, musicians like Noah Kahan are coming forward with horror stories of their own fans’ incontinence.

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Music Pick

Robert Earl Keen early last month with one of my favorite tunes, Dave Alvin’s “Fourth of July.”

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Boris:

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Someone called this a scene straight out my hometown hero Edward Hopper: premiere of my new film last week in Tulsa for the Woody Guthrie Center.

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Lucian Truscott IV on Trump’s fiasco on the mall:

The problem is, to use an old New York turn of phrase, Donald Trump doesn’t know from fun. He turned what should have been a jamboree of American schmaltz and glee into a sad sack of self-glorification that like everything he touches, turned to shit.

Ann Telnaes: “Justices Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett rule presidents have the power to fire independent government regulators “overturning 90 years of court precedent curbing executive power.”

Lisa Graves, head of Court Accountability, on that latest SCOTUS ruling:

And this attack on what they call the administrative state is really an attack on expertise. It’s an attack on the ability of agencies to do the job Congress has entrusted them to do, which is to faithfully implement those laws in defense and in pursuit of the public interests of the American people. So you now have this convergence between a president who is so determined to take cash, in many ways, out of other people’s pockets, including the pockets of the taxpayers, in order to advance himself, to aggrandize himself. And this has come to a head at a time when the court has the majority. So this captured court has the majority it needs to accomplish its long-term ideological agenda.

And what a lot of people don’t realize is that when you look at the Supreme Court, this nine-member court, and the six members in the Republican-appointed majority, five of those six members were executive branch attorneys. They were people who cut their teeth for years in advancing presidential power, in trying to expand presidential power. And they’ve acted, I think, with a real arrogance toward congressional power, hostility toward congressional power, and with a bias toward their own long-standing agenda as lawyers, as Republican lawyers in this cause. And they’re moving forward even at a time when we have a president at the helm who is abusing his power almost on a daily basis in terms of asserting extraordinary king-like powers to do almost anything he wants.

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Music Picks

Margo Price dropped two cuts from her upcoming (political) album today. First, “Oval Room”:

And the Woody song she’s been doing live for many months, “Deportee,” the song of the year (even truncated, as here), now with Joan Baez, opening with “Thank you, Woody”:

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Last week, up the stairs to 2nd floor of Dylan Center in Tulsa.

Greg Mitchell’s latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad,” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

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John Oliver last night on the important issue of horrid gerrymandering and the upcoming midterms.

I’m back home after my travels to L.A. and Tulsa for premieres of my new PBS film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad,” narrated by Rosanne Cash, so I will return to my nearly daily posting after slacking off just a bit (did anyone notice?). For now I’ll just leave you with the link to watch the film NOW and for the new web site for the film which includes many of the swell early reactions and some background. The film will also be airing at PBS stations on different days starting July 1 and I will post listings later. Entrance to the Guthrie Center:

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Paul Krugman:

It’s kind of hard to believe, but the original Borat movie was 20 years ago. It’s time for a second sequel. And I already have the title. It would be Corruption for Make Benefit Glorious Family of Trump.

I hope that some of my listeners are young enough to not remember the original Borat movie. The reason I think about it is that today’s New York Times has a piece that reports, investigative reporting, on an immense mining deal in Kazakhstan, which, what do you know, turns out to be a big profit center for the Trump sons and also the sons of Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary.

Foreign Policy magazine: “Average life expectancy of a new Russian recruit — from arrival at a training ground to death in a combat zone — lies somewhere between 10 days and three weeks. Once sent onto the battlefield, they survive an average of 20 to 35 minutes.”

Heather Cox Richardson:

The administration appears eager to keep what’s happening in the national parks out of sight. Early this year, the Department of the Interior instructed its employees that they could not share information about serious injuries or deaths on public lands, instead redirecting all such information through the Department of the Interior’s Office of Communications.

As Jake Spring reported in the Washington Post, more than 300 million people visit America’s national parks each year, and about 350 of them die (not always from accidents). In the past, park service employees could identify deaths or injuries from unsafe conditions, warning others from the area. Now the communications team from the Interior Department controls that information and does not always release it.

It did not release the information that a 72-year-old man died of extreme heat on a popular trail in the Grand Canyon on June 12 of this year. NPS employees wanted to warn other visitors, but the Interior Department did not release the information. Four days later a couple aged 67 and 68 also died of extreme heat on the same trail.

The profligate use of our tax dollars for whatever Trump and his cronies want while the American people suffer is at least as representative of Trump’s reign as is the peeling, algae-filled, militarily guarded Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

This president and administration are turning the extraordinary resources of the American people—the things we the people have created over decades with our effort and our tax dollars—to their own ends. We are paying for their theft with a significantly diminished country, and even with our lives.

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Music Picks

Rhiannon Giddens has a new album coming in September, here is the first fine cut just released.

We posted a couple of songs with Natalie Merchant on Saturday from the great Wilco/Billy Bragg “Mermaid Avenue” Woody Guthrie reunion the night before, but next day she also showed up for a little solo pop up show therem where she did her old hit “Wonder.”

From the reunion she performed just with Billy “Birds and Ships,” lyrics by Woody.

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Bennett:

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Anderson;

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Woody’s 1930s guitar now at the Huntington for special “This Land Is…” exhibit, with purportedly the first time he posted or scratched “This Machine Kills Fascists” on it.

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Just back from my week-long travels to L.A. and Tulsa (for the Woody Guthrie Center) for premiere screenings of our Woody film. But now, after its broadcast PBS premiere in L.A. on Thursday you can all watch it NOW, as it is streaming over PBS.org and PBS apps, or maybe coming up at your local PBS station in July (listings will follow next week). Special thanks to Caleb Ford for music in Tulsa and to Sam Flowers for showing me a great tour and time there!

Narrator Rosanne Cash gave another shout out for the film to her many fans yesterday. You can watch it streaming either at the main PBS site or via the host SoCal PBS site in L.A. Either way: 57 minutes. I play the role of John Steinbeck. Bruce provides the finale. Please let me know what you think in the comments here!

Was interviewed in L.A. for a fine article, along with our musical guest out there, the great Carla Olson.

Just launched a modest web site for the film, which has some early responses and will include station listings and updates and photos as we roll along.

See below for videos of last night’s historic concert in Mass. of Wilco and Billy Bragg, plus a delighted Natalie Merchant, performing for the first time much of their Grammy-winning “Mermaid Avenue” albums of their music with Woody’s lyrics. Speaking of Natalie, I found her self-portrait and signature on the Wall of Fame for certain visitors to the Guthrie Center in Tulsa, from Dylan on down. That’s my signature below her. Kind of a thrill.

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David Corn at Mother Jones wrote of the film last week that it “goes beyond depicting this important history and draws a poignant connection to the plight of migrant workers today and the cruelty and brutality they currently face from ICE raids and Trump’s anti-immigration crusade.” And sure enough, now we have this, via Heather Cox Richardson:

The turmoil in Washington, D.C., reflects the changing world of American politics as the Republicans become a far-right party that embraces white nationalism while those Americans standing firm on the nation’s historic democratic principles jockey to create a political system that will represent their movement.

On June 25 the Supreme Court allowed Trump and his administration to end the legal status of more than 350,000 people who are in the United States under temporary protected status, or TPS, after fleeing wars and violence in Syria and Haiti. The six right-wing justices cited procedural reasons for their decision, but Trump loyalists read it as an endorsement of their white nationalism.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters: “This country doesn’t have a future if we don’t end birthright citizenship…. One way or another, this nation has to end birthright citizenship.”

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Music Picks

If not for my little tour, I surely would have been up in North Adams, Mass., last night for that Wilco-Billy Bragg reunion for “Mermaid Avenue.” I listed to it all via the local NPR outlet but could not see it, but a few good videos have now been posted. Here’s our Natalie happily joining them for “Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key.”

Natalie dancing throughout “Hoodoo Voodoo.”

“Secret of the Sea” and “My Flying Saucer.”

The naughty double-entendres of “Walt Whitman’s Niece.” Not to say which seamen.

A “California Stars” encore.

And then Nora Guthrie and dozens of other Guthries join in for “This Land Is Your Land.” I spoke to one of them early that morning.

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At the Dylan Museum in Tulsa: Bob sings at Newport in ‘65 with his iconic black leather jacket that he wore that historic night.

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy.

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Now in Tulsa on the soon-to-be-ending tour around my Woody Guthrie film. That’s the view from my hotel room above. Tonight a premiere for the Guthrie Center almost at the same hour the film gets its TV debut over the big PBS station in L.A. (once KCET, now SoCal), at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. You might even be able to watch it streaming tonight.

I will get a tour today of the Guthrie Center and will also visit the Dylan Center which is, aptly, almost next door—and across from the city’s main gathering place, The Guthrie Green, scene of regular outdoor concerts.

Earlier this week outside the Woody-soaked “This Land….” exhibit at the Huntington, with Woody’s guitar and the Declaration of Independence (and with spouse/producer Barbara Bedway):

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Heather Cox Richardson:

Testifying at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing today, Postmaster General David Steiner told senators that under a new rule proposed by the Trump administration, the United States Postal Service will not deliver election mail in states that refuse to turn over their voting lists to the federal government.

Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) clarified: “So the proposed rule basically coerces states to conform to these new requirements and hand over their absentee voter rolls or face the consequences of not being able to vote by mail.”

Lucian Truscott IV on Trump, late-June, 2026:

He has been reduced to a stumbling, babbling display of what he was all along, beneath the pancake and red ties and “YMCA” and bluster – a very stupid man who can’t hide it any more….You could call what has been happening to Donald Trump a perfect storm, but that is not what it is. It’s a stupid man finally hitting a wall. He couldn’t find his way around at the G-7. He let out one of his epic farts when everyone was sitting around the meeting table, and it wasn’t the Oval Office, with all the trained lickspittles knowing how to keep a straight face. It was presidents and prime ministers, and they couldn’t keep their faces from showing how bad it smelled.

He’s old, and his orange makeup is absurd, and he smells, and he can’t walk straight, and they can’t hide his physical ailments, and whether his mental decline is age related or not, the simple fact that he is a stupid, stupid man has come to the fore, and it’s not going away.

Paul Krugman this morning:

Why Does Everyone Hate AI?

It’s the fear, the enshittification, datacenter hostility, and the tech broligarchy

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Music Picks

Dusty Springfield’s live cover of the Gene Pitney hit “24 Hours from Tulsa,” which I bought as a kid.

There’s yet another new version this week of Song of the Year “Deportee,” here by Lucinda Williams and Mason Via.

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Ohman:

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Day:

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Steve Brodner:

Was there ever enough money AIPAC could spend to convince you there was no genocide in Gaza? Can Trump spend enough in November to convince you that the cost of living is down, that the war was a smart idea, that there was nothing to see in the Esptein files or that the pool looks great etc? I don’t think so. So what would we call this inflection point where voters, thinking for themselves, will effectively neuter the PACS? Whatever we call it, maybe “participatory democracy”, it will enable us to end dark money and keep democracy for even when we’re are not in constant trauma.

Anderson:

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On the wall of the Dylan Center: Life on some rolling stones.

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy.

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Hello folks, I am still on my “tour” around my PBS film “Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad.” Had terrific screening in L.A. at the Autry with Carla Olson singing. Visiting the “This Land…” exhibit at the Huntington yesterday (see photo down below and more to come) and off to Tulsa tomorrow for premiere for the Guthrie Center there. You may be able to watch the film streaming as early as this Friday or on July 1 in any case as it starts over PBS stations.

So somewhat irregular and limited content newsletters all week….Jon Stewart last night:

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Here I am with my longtime producer Lyn Goldfarb introducing the film at the Autry.

The one and only legend Van Dyke Parks (left) at the screening with ace publicist Bob Merlis before the show. Van Dyke got up and hailed the film from the audience later.

Carla Olson was fantastic, with Todd Wolfe, singing three songs, including “Deportee".”

Here’s Carla via Facebook shot by Merlis, I believe. And below doing her own protest song warning about Trump in 2016…

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David Corn at Mother Jones:

Greg Mitchell has written and directed a wonderful documentary called Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad Today. It chronicles the intertwining paths of Guthrie and writer John Steinbeck in the 1930s, as the author chronicled the travails of migrant workers, culminating in The Grapes of Wrath, and the singer-songwriter gave voice to the Dust Bowl refugees, immigrants, and itinerant workers exploited, oppressed, and assaulted in the fields of California. But the film goes beyond depicting this important history and draws a poignant connection to the plight of migrant workers today and the cruelty and brutality they currently face from ICE raids and Trump’s anti-immigration crusade.

Meanwhile:

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Wuerker::

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At the major 250th USA birthday exhibit at the fabled Huntington, Woody’s guitar used in L.A. around 1937, inscribed on back with “This Machine Kills Fascists” and “Woody.” His painted portrait of George Washington behind.

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy.

We are in L.A. preparing for premiere of my Woody Guthrie film so a limited newsletter today. Here’s Monty Python’s own version of the World Club featuring teams of …famous philosophers.

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Trump’s latest excuse for his reflecting pool fiasco:

Although multiple cameras line the mall and no one has offered any proof either of additional arrests or of vandalism, and although we have all been able to see workers dumping chemicals into the pool to kill the algae, Trump claimed that vandals “took some form of a knife or blade, and put a 250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete. They also poured corrosive and destructive chemicals into the Pool.”

“The Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened,” he wrote. “We are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of Beauty.”

Until his second term in office, Trump has always been protected from the fallout from his own actions, and it appears he has become accustomed to simply describing his fantasy world and expecting that others will agree they see it. If his “fix” for the reflecting pool failed, someone else must be responsible, and they must pay for it.

Music Pick

Since our premiere is at the Autry Museum here in L.A. let us note that the fairly famous Woody Guthrie song “Oklahoma Hills” was co-written by his cousin Jack—and made them both a few bucks when released as a hit single by Gene Autry and performed in one of his films:

Van Dyke Parks attending our screening today so one of his lyrical classics, ”Surf’s Up.”

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Adam Zyglis:

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View from our hotel, San Gabriel Mountains

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Kimmel survives gross attack:

New York Times: “A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas weeks after Defense Secretary Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said.

Hooray, if you watched John Oliver last week:

Labour Mayor Wins U.K. Special Election, Clearing Path to Challenge Starmer

Andy Burnham, Labour’s most popular politician, beat the populist right-wing Reform U.K. party in the Makerfield by-election. The decisive victory will energize his bid to become prime minister.

Nick Kristof:

A woman dies every two hours of cervical cancer in the US -- and these deaths are utterly unnecessary. HPV vaccines prevent it, and screenings catch it early when it’s treatable. But we’re dismantling federal support for reproductive health care programs like Title X.

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Lucian Truscott IV:

Trump justified the $14 million no-bid contract for his buddy the golf resort pool guy because he wanted the reflecting pool gleaming with “American flag blue” water before the 250^th American anniversary ceremonies on the National Mall. Instead, he produced an ecological wonderland that has the extra-added benefit of attracting wildlife to the pool, such as ducks and geese, and yes, the mosquitoes that Washington is famous for. Mosquitoes just love to lay their eggs in algae-ridden still waters. The only way Trump could have produced a better mosquito incubator would have been to create a huge pile of 10,000 used automobile tires and let rain fill them with water for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs in. Mosquitoes like used tires better than reflecting pools, but they’ll settle for Trump’s pool guy paint job if they have to.

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Music Picks

At the opening of the Obama Library in Chicago on Thursday….Bruce with “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

John Legend and Common with “Glory”

Bono and The Edge, “City of Blinding Lights”

Stevie Wonder and everyone with the climax “Higher Ground” and hugs from the Obamas at end

….And Stephen Colbert wore a tan suit.

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Ann Telnaes:

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Wuerker”

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Sack

Steve Brodner: Those of us in the graphic arts are weighing in with our take on a 250th Birthday image. This is mine, for the current Harper’s.

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Since I’m heading for L.A., here from a previous trip: