Yes, it’s still somehow free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of four films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy.
Stephen and Jimmy wrapped up their weeks last night:
Now that plans for Jughead’s massive Arch have been fully revealed, fear and loathing, and mockery, have arrived full force. First, here’s renowned architecture critic Michael Kimmelman in today’s NY Times:
If it really involves a human architect it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to someone purposefully trying to simulate A.I. slop. It’s an insult to veterans, blocking views of Arlington National Cemetery. It is what you come up with if you’re designing a monument to excess and narcissism.
Matt Wuerker proposes a possible use:
Peter Baker of NY Times tweets today: “At 250 feet tall, Trump's arch would be the biggest such structure in the world. Asked last fall what this modern-day arch was meant to commemorate, Trump pointed to himself and replied, ‘Me.’”
We rarely re-post Trump’s dangerous minds ravings over at Truth Social but hard to resist this comic gem:
The White House doesn’t have a Ballroom (No Taxpayer Money!), which Presidents have desperately wanted and desired for over 150 years, but a Trump Hating, Washington, D.C. District Court Judge, a man who has gone out of his way to undermine National Security, and to make sure that this Great Gift to America gets delayed, or doesn’t get built, is attempting to prevent future Presidents and World Leaders from having a safe and secure large scale Meeting Place, or Ballroom, one with Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass—which all means that no future President, living in the White House without this Ballroom, can ever be Safe and Secure at Events, Future Inaugurations, or Global Summits.
Matt Davies sees it this way:
Also, Trump read a statement at a presser :
Millions of American small businesses, including corner stores. What is a corner store? I've never heard that term. I know what a corner store is but I've never heard it described-- a corner store. Who the hell wrote that?
Well at least there’s this: NPR says it has received two gifts totaling $113 million, and that one of them was its largest ever from a living donor.
On the other hand, from Heather Cox Richardson:
Today Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) posted on social media that an opinion from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews and approves surveillance warrants against foreign actors and agents in the U.S., “raises serious concerns about FBI implementation of FISA 702,” the law that allows warrantless surveillance. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) reposted Massie’s comment and added that he, Wyden, has sent “a classified letter to House and Senate colleagues about a secret interpretation of surveillance law that every American should be concerned about.”
This exchange seems to suggest that FBI director Kash Patel has authorized FBI agents to use surveillance on Americans without a warrant, illegally.
Music Picks
Shockingly clear and crisp Robert Johnson singing and playing his classic “Cross Road Blues,” off a recently transferred shellac test pressing”
If you watched the credits of “The Pitt” finale last night you caught a couple of our heroes blowing off steam at a karaoke bar, singing (at least one of them drunk) this Alanis classic. Maybe some of you are too old or too young to know it well, so here is original video:
From Tunes to Toons
Ann Telnaes on Trump and Pirro out to overturn January 6 convictions:
Molina:
Luckovich:
Barry Blitt re-imagines Bible tales at The New Yorker, here are two of them:
One more of these at least:
Photo Finish
From my camera to you: “Heart of Tulip.”
Lots to enjoy here today! Among my favorites are Trump playing Operation (wait a second, I’m not referencing the not-war with Iran), and who really did coin the phrase “corner store”.
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