GaetzGate Opens Wider

Today's hot news, politics and humor, plus music from Joni Mitchell, Lyle Lovett, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Phil Ochs.

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News & Politics

The Onion: “Arkansas Legislator Warns Loophole In New Law Could Still Allow Trans Youth To Exist.”

The much-watched Amazon union drive in Alabama has apparently collapsed. Half the votes were counted late yesterday and the balloting is running a whopping 1100 to 463 against.

Jimmy Kimmel: “Good luck, Matt Gaetz. Maybe he just loves Trump so much he wants to go to jail with him.” Stephen Colbert: “I know Gaetz is from Florida, but ‘Bahamas sex trafficking with weed-peddling hand surgeon’ is almost too Florida, even for him.”

Yes, a bad Thursday for Matt the Rat. The legal peril he faces appeared to increase sharply after a court hearing indicated that one of his close friends, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, is likely cooperating with federal prosecutors. Then came word concisely captured in a CNN banner: “REP MATT GAETZ PAID ACCUSED SEX TRAFFICKER, WHO SENT MONEY TO TEEN VIA VENMO.” On Thursday night Adam Kinzinger became the first GOP congressman to call for him to resign. Let’s recall for a moment the GOP fury over Rep. Katie Hill and Sen. Al Franken.

Politico notes this morning growing calls for liberal SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, to consider stepping down soon, with Biden in White House and Dems with slight Senate control, for now, given the RBG example. Yes, she became a progressive “rock star” but this “sidelined questions about her health woes and muffled debate, while she was alive, about whether she should have left the court sooner to give Obama the chance to replace her.”

Lord of the Flies? Lot of late-night chat about Mike Pence’s big book deal. Jimmy Kimmel: “The former vice poodle is putting Pence to paper. He signed a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster — I wonder if he knows they’re a gay couple.” Jimmy Fallon: “Of course the book will be written by a ghost writer—Mike Pence.” Kimmel again: “This will be the only time pages got whiter after words were printed on them.”

Great new piece at The New Yorker by Ben Bradlee, Jr. on my longtime friend Dan Ellsberg, which answers the question: What did Dan think of the recent admission by reporter Neil Sheehan (published posthumously) that he had unethically misled him at key moments in the process of the NY Times publishing the Pentagon Papers? Well, spoiler alert, Dan is okay with it.

Today, Ellsberg holds no grudge against Sheehan and called him “an outstanding journalist.” He chalked up their mutual grievances to a “misunderstanding.” “I was so right, and so lucky, to have given the Pentagon Papers to Neil,” Ellsberg said. “No one—no one—could have done better with them.’’

Apparently the based-on-a-true-story monster movie many Americans really want to see, here from The New Yorker:

The (delayed) Olympics Games are still set to begin in Japan in July but a surprising story in NY Times reveals that most Japanese are against it and many athletes wary—the country has just a 1% Covid vaccination rate (though not hard hit by virus so far).

“After Georgia, Voting Fight Moves to Texas,” sez Wall St. Journal: “The Texas legislature is advancing a bill that would limit early voting hours, place more restrictions on people who provide assistance voting, control the number of voting machines at each location and allow partisan poll watchers to record video or photos of people voting, among other measures….Opponents to the Texas legislation are trying to build on the Georgia experience by pushing major corporations to come out earlier in opposition to the bill.”

At last, from NYT: “Since the beginning of the year, men from some of France’s most prominent fields — politics, sports, the news media, academia and the arts — have faced accusations of sexual abuse in a reversal from mostly years of silence.”

Music

On June 25, three days after the 50th anniversary of the release of Joni Mitchell’s classic Blue album, a new box set will be issued collecting her first four albums. The Reprise Albums (1968-1971) will gather remastered versions of Song To A Seagull, Clouds, Ladies Of The Canyon and Blue. In the case of the David Crosby-produced Song To A Seagull a new mix improves the album’s sound. Later in the year, the second volume of the Joni Mitchell Archives will be issued featuring other material recorded during the 1968 to 1971 period. Here’s one of the few upbeat songs on Blue, “Carey,” live.

On this day in 1969: Bob Dylan released his ninth studio album Nashville Skyline, which sent shockwaves by fully embracing country music after the mere hints on John Wesley Harding. “Lay, Lady, Lay” would become a surprise hit single. Of course, Johnny Cash dueted on “Girl from the North Country” and I remember watching Bob then on the Cash TV show. Here’s a little-seen (until recently) “outtake” video, as the pair try out one of my faves, “One Too Many Mornings.”

And sadly on this day 1976, my friend Phil Ochs—who never was able to climb out of Dylan’s huge shadow, despite his own songwriting talent, and struggled mightily with that (plus mental illness) — hung himself at his sister's home in Queens. But let’s remember him for this political activism, his sly testimony at the Chicago 8 trial, and a song like this, including its Hiroshima message.

Prince’s estate has announced a never-before-heard album, Welcome 2 America, to be released in July. Recorded in 2010, the album documents “Prince’s concerns, hopes and visions for a shifting society, presciently foreshadowing an era of political division, disinformation, and a renewed fight for racial justice,” his estate said.

I was very impressed with Colbert’s Wednesday night interview with Leslie Odom Jr. when Stephen went kind of deep, when asking about Sam Cooke, as he dropped the name of his early career with the Soul Stirrers gospel group. Yeah, I do it here all the time but not many do.

Song Pick of the Day

There’s a new (first ever) doc about the late Guy Clark, so here’s one of greatest songs—also his first, and one he never recorded, as far as I know—from Lyle Lovett, “Step Inside This House.”

“Essential daily newsletter.” — Charles P. Pierce, Esquire

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. 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.California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. 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