A Little Brandi in the Morning

The usual hot news and politics takes, cartoons, plus music from John Prine, Iris DeMent, Jerry Lee Lewis and Brandi Carlile.

And away we go. Don’t forget to share or subscribe (it’s free).

News & Politics

Jimmy Fallon: “Normally when a billionaire flies away faster than the speed of sound it’s because they just got linked to Jeffrey Epstein.” Seth Meyers: “Just ’cause you touched net doesn’t mean you can say you dunked.”

Andy Borowitz imagines: “Neighbors See Trump Waiting by Mailbox for Reinstatement Notice.”

Cop killer killer killed by cops: From Harper’s week in review, “A Colorado man who shot and killed a man who had shot and killed a police officer—and was then subsequently shot and killed by police—was hailed by police as a hero.”

Biden in a speech today in Philly will call efforts to limit ballot access “authoritarian and anti-American.” In 17 states, Republican lawmakers have recently enacted laws limiting ballot access, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Texas House Democrats fled the state Monday, in an attempt to block Republicans from passing new voting restrictions.

Trump blasts Brett Kavanaugh for lack of “courage” in his SCOTUS votes in his interview with Michael Wolff for his new book: “Where would he be without me? I saved his life. He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him."

“E.P.A. Approved Toxic Chemicals for Fracking a Decade Ago, New Files Show…. For much of the past decade, oil companies engaged in drilling and fracking have been allowed to use the chemicals, which, over time, can break down into toxic substances known as PFAS — a class of long-lasting compounds known as ‘forever chemicals’ that pose a threat to people and wildlife,”
the NY Times reports.

Oh, Zuck Me Blind: That Facebook book, The Ugly Truth, out today and more reviews and excerpts appearing. For instance, Facebook security experts were alarmed about posts from "domestic extremists" as January 6 neared. Some of the execs "floated getting Zuckerberg to call Trump to find out what the president would say" at the pre-riot rally. "They ultimately decided against the move, out of concern that the conversation would likely leak to the press. It could make Facebook complicit in whatever Trump did that day."

Steve Brodner:

Sacha Baron Cohen hit social media for spreading racist hatred against the three black soccer players for England who missed penalty shots on Sunday: “Facebook and Twitter are spreading racist attacks on these Black athletes. Online racism leads to real-world hate crimes. It's time to rid racism from your platforms once and for all!"

Jane Goodall still has hope for humans.

As I noted yesterday, I’ve just launched my annual daily Countdown to Hiroshima over at my blog, with accounts of what happened on this date in July-August 1945. Here’s today’s entry (with bonus report on the genesis of John Hersey’s famous article).

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt suggests that vaccines are "against nature" and appeared to argue some viruses are "supposed to wipe out a certain amount of people" as part of the evolutionary process.

Record numbers of French citizens, meanwhile, rushed to book vaccine appointments after Presdent Macron announced new Covid rules that require “health pass” for access to restaurants, cinemas, trains, etc.

Music

Yes, Obama picked this new Brandi Carlile political song, “Speak Your Mind” for his Summer Playlist (but then again he helped produced the Netflix series it comes from, “We the People”).

Byron Berline, the great country fiddler who backed up a legion of rock stars and groups, has died at 77.

Film/TV

Never a Wes Anderson fan, but his long-delayed new movie The French Dispatch seems interesting based on trailer and this from Hollywood Reporter: "Wes Anderson pens an extravagant love letter to the adventurous editors of sophisticated literary magazines like The New Yorker, and to the writers, humorists and illustrators nurtured up through their ranks..."

Song Picks of the Day

John Prine and Iris DeMent, and then Jerry Lee Lewis with one of the greatest Hank Williams covers, “You Win Again.”

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Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s wild atomic bomb movie), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. His new film, Atomic Cover-up, just had its world premiere and is drawing extraordinary acclaim. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.