Get 'Beck' To Where You Once Belonged

Today's hot news and politics takes, cartoons, and music from Beck & McCartney, Brandi Carlile, James Booker and Stevie Nicks, as Joni Mitchell meets Travis Bickle.

And away we go. If you missed yesterday’s unveiling of first chapter of my novel (soundtrack by Dylan and The Band), go here. My Countdown to Hiroshima series continues here. Don’t forget to share, comment, tweet and subscribe (it’s still free).

News & Politics

The Onion: “Hesitant Man Just Waiting To Observe Long-Term Effects Of Vaccine Over Next Several Eons.”

Headline of the Day: U.S. Sells One-of-a-Kind Wu-Tang Album to Cover Martin Shkreli’s Debt.

Dancing monkey Rep. Kevin McCarthy yesterday: “Make no mistake—The threat of bringing masks back is not a decision based on science, but a decision conjured up by liberal government officials who want to continue to live in a perpetual pandemic state.”

In the special election runoff in Texas’s 6th District another Trump-endorsed candidate, Susan Wright, lost.

A swastika was found etched into the wall of a State Department elevator near the office of its special envoy to combat anti-Semitism.

Looking ahead: NYT reports, “The Justice Department notified former Trump administration officials” that witnesses “can give ‘unrestricted testimony’ to the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, the department said in a letter this week….The decision runs counter to the views of former President Trump, who has argued that his decisions and deliberations are protected by executive privilege. It also sets up a potential court battle if Mr. Trump sues in a bid to block any testimony. In that case, the courts could be forced to decide the extent to which a former president can be protected by privilege.”

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Daniel Hale, a former intelligence contractor who leaked details of the U.S. drone program, to nearly four years in prison. Meanwhile, from Politico: ‘A very dangerous precedent’: Democrats take aim at Biden’s Somalia airstrikes.

Number One, But It’s Not Insane? Bono’s climate-focused private equity fund is now the biggest of its kind in the world. The fund, TPG Rise Climate, announced that it had raised $5.4 billion. Bono has recruited former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as its executive chairman.

Bit by Bit: Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pressing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to rally federal agencies to develop a “coordinated and cohesive regulatory strategy” on cryptocurrencies, which the Massachusetts Democrat says pose growing risks to the financial system.

Cafes and fine-dining establishments alike are offering to take away your phone so you can unplug, enjoy the meal and actually talk to each other, Axios' Erica Pandey reports. The digital detox is likely to become even more popular as people emerge from months of digital overload.

Music

Right on time, indeed: Sneak preview with first song from upcoming Brandi Carlile album.

Things so slow at mid-summer this week that Rolling Stone put at top of its site this 2015 tribute for Linda Ronstadt when she got inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame with Stevie Nicks, Emmylou, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, even Glen Frey, etc. covering Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy.”

There’s a tribute album out with various artists covering tunes from Paul McCartney’s latest album. If you’ve missed it, here’s the new Paul/Beck vid with de-aging process used on the once and current Beatle.

But is “comeback” now over?: Officially annnounced Tuesday—Paul Simon, The Killers, LL Cool J, Elvis Costello, Andrea Bocelli, Carlos Santana and the New York Philharmonic will join Bruce Springsteen and others at the Central Park concert the city is planning for August 21 to celebrate its Covid “comeback.” Concertgoers will need to show proof of vaccination. Good news: CNN will air the whole thing. At a safe distance.

And Joni’s feeling “Blue.”

Film

Consider my book on the first atomic bomb movie from Hollywood (MGM)--1947’s The Beginning or the End—and how Truman and the Pentagon sabotaged its critical view.

Song Pick of the Day

You seemed to appreciate my James Booker deep cut this week with him doing “Papa Was Rascal” so here is the wild NOLA piano man’s second best vid, this time on a haunting love ballad, with a staggering vocal.

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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. His new film, Atomic Cover-up, just had its world premiere and is drawing extraordinary acclaim. 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.