Cartoons Thursday!

Plus more for Glen Hansard. Once was not enough.

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.

Heather Cox Richardson on the Fauci “hearings” yesterday:

What Republicans did not do is introduce any evidence that the 85-year-old lifelong public servant had broken any laws.

More to the point was Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) yelling at Fauci about closings during the pandemic, blustering: “Who the f*ck do you think you were?” F-bombs are rare on the Senate floor, and the outburst has gotten significant media attention.

That attention has distracted from the other reason Moreno is in the news. As Abby Vesoulis of Mother Jones reported, Moreno has said nothing as his daughter’s ex-husband, Representative Max Miller (R-OH), has been credibly charged with the violent abuse of her and their 2-year-old daughter. As the Republicans struggle to hold on to their congressional majorities, Republican leaders have refused to call for Miller, who is running for a third term, to resign.

They also inspired Paul Krugman for some rare satire

The Covid vaccine didn’t work, and vaccines cause autism. But hydroxychloroquine worked, and so did ivermectin. Anthony Fauci killed millions of people.

Climate change is a hoax. Wind power caused a massive TV blackout during the Trump-Biden debate. Solar power is useless because the sun doesn’t shine at night, and batteries don’t exist. Smoke blanketed North America, not because of climate change, but because Canada didn’t rake its 2 million square miles of boreal forest.

We’ve destroyed Iran’s military, and the Iranian regime is begging for a deal. Also, the U.S. isn’t running out of precision weapons as a result of the Iran war, and furthermore the shortage is Joe Biden’s fault.

The economy is in a “golden age.” Prices are down. And Trump has a 59 percent approval rating.

Trump won the 2020 election.

Communism is the greatest threat facing America.

Music Picks

Rolling Stone:

Some good news the world doesn’t get every day: There’s a brand new John Lennon song from 1965 that nobody knew about until now. It’s a home demo called “Little Girl,” a previously unheard tune on the upcoming Rubber Soul Special Edition, which arrives on October 2. Nobody had any idea this song existed — it’s never been bootlegged or even rumored.

“Little Girl” is a real mystery. How did it stay hidden until now? “Yeah, it was surprising,” producer Giles Martin tells Rolling Stone. “It was one of those things that came from the Lennon Estate — I think it was Sean. It was one of those things where they say, ‘Oh, and then there’s this.’”

It’s a fragile, gorgeous, bittersweet little tune, just John and his acoustic guitar, sighing in Buddy Holly mode. He sings, “Little girl, I’ve come to say/That this has been a lovely day/I love you.” The song was discovered on a Lennon tape reel; Martin edited two sections together for the 2:17 Rubber Soul version. It’s reminiscent of “I’m Only Sleeping,” especially when he sings the “I love youuu” hook. It’s mind-blowing that this song exists.

A few adds to our collection of songs/videos in tribute to the late great Glen Hansard yesterday.

Singing “Drive All Night” with Bruce in Kilkenny, one of best ever guest spots with Springsteen.

With The Frames back in the day, rocking “Revelate.”

I watched this years ago but still fun and classic: Glen as young man meeting and finding the courage to sing with his inscrutable hero Van the Man.

From Tunes to Toons

Blitt:

Telnaes:

Ohman:

Goris:

deAdder:

Luckovich:

Photo Finish

Provincetown