Cartoons Thursday!

Plus Colbert (and Banksy) parodies, Beatles, more Pope vs. Trump.

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.

Colbert music video, don’t miss, “Antichrist Superstar.”

Also from Stephen last night, Ken Burns presents “The (Chimp) Civil War.”

Meanwhile:

Trump believes diet soda kills cancer cells, Dr Oz reveals

While at the same time: Trump vowed to fire Jerome Powell if he doesn’t quit the Federal Reserve after his term as chair ends next month. Paul Krugman comments:

Trump is doubling down on his attempt to turn the Federal Reserve into a personalized institution that will do what he wants, and never mind the fact that it’s set up to have substantial independence, never mind the fact that there’s a long tradition of respecting the Fed’s independence. Trump thinks that he should be, as George Bush would say, the decider on monetary policy.

This would be a bad thing even if Trump was somebody who generally had good judgment. Monetary policy, what the Fed does — control of short-term interest rates, control of the money supply— monetary policy is technical. Doing it right does require that you know quite a lot about what’s going on. It’s something that you really do want, technocrats at least having a strong role in the decision-making process. And in fact we generally leave it up to technocrats.

Then there’s this: The popular influencer known for “looksmaxxing,” a subculture obsessed with male attractiveness, was taken to a hospital after he appeared to overdose during a livestream. Read more about him here.

BTW, my next film coming to PBS this summer:

Shocker this morning:

Virginia Ex-Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Kills Wife and Self, Police Say

Music Pick

A day late, maybe, but timeless, alternate take, The Beatles, “Taxman.”

From Tune to Toons

Anderson:

Zyglis:

Bramhall:

Davies:

Goris:

Brodner:

Clay Jones:

Photo Finish

From my camera to you: “One Morning in the Luxembourg Garden.”