Cartoon Commentary on Trump Shooting

Plus Natalie Marchant at the Library of Congress.

Jul 15, 2024

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books including “The Tunnels” and “The Campaign of the Century” (see link) and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre” (up for an Emmy later this month) . You can still subscribe to this newsletter for free.

Notable cartoonists did not wait long to comment on the shooting at Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday (see below). But first, Natalie Merchant performed a remarkable 90-minute program for the Library of Congress last month, and the entire set has just been posted. She has been a strong supporter and board member for years. As they say, “Enjoy a selection of the artist's favorite works as well as a snapshot of some of the Library's greatest treasures.”

From the Folk Life Center:

Alongside a few of Natalie’s own compositions, and a few old popular compositions, the concert featured mostly traditional folksongs which have connections to the unparalleled archival collections of the American Folklife Center. Natalie had already researched some of these songs before her time on the Center’s Board of Trustees, and in the run-up to the concert she enlisted my help to find some of the deeper connections between these songs and the American Folklife Center archive. For a few weeks before the concert, we worked together by email to find out as much as we could. Natalie distilled that research down into her spoken introductions for each song, as well as a mesmerizing slideshow of images and sound clips from the archive, which you can see in the concert video.

You can find fuller stories behind each song at this blog, along with the complete archival audio tracks wherever possible.