Yes, it’s still somehow free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter, please do so, and if you are already a subscriber, let’s hear from you, thanks!
Stephen with a mainly non-comical monologue on the Alex Pretti murder.
Jimmy really on fire on “the vile and heartless murder.”
Let’s start with a quote from a journal entry by folk genius Woody Guthrie, a message for a future child:
If you are a girl or boy, you will be loved an equal amount. And if you are twins or quintuplets or something like that, then there will just be that many more to lick fascism. A girl can do just as much in any field as a boy to beat fascism although I’m hoping this is one monster that your eye won’t have to see-- yet you may—because the world is full of hesitators and long waiters.
Now, from a far more conservative source (though a music lover), Jeffrey Blehar, staff writer and podcast host at the National Review:
Any hope of Trump’s presidency clawing its way out of the hole it has dug for itself begins with firing Kristi Noem, current secretary of homeland security and the administration’s most prominent “ridealong disaster” during its first year. Preferably out of a rocket, and into the sun. Damage control is needed, and she is the most visible avatar of damage.
The NY Times this morning has a new, frame-by-frame analysis of videos of the Pretti execution. Headline:
New Video Analysis Reveals Flawed and Fatal Decisions in Shooting of Pretti
Humorist Paul Rudnick: “Trump just posted that tickets to MELANIA are ‘selling out, fast!’ You could say the same thing about Bari Weiss, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.” Inspired by Trump’s repeated claims, I checked the tickets sales for the Amazon-funded film’s opening day, this coming Friday, at my large nearby multiplex, for four screenings. They have so far sold....20 tickets.
Joke going around: “Even if they showed this on a plane, people would still walk out.”
Rudnick continued: “The director of this film, Brett Ratner, was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in 2017; a seventh accused him of rape (he denied all). His career subsequently collapsed. Amazon MGM and Melania Trump could have chosen a different director. They didn’t.”
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos promises more deep job cuts at The Washington Post, which he has destroyed with previous slashings and editorial bowing to Trump. Longtime media critic Jack Shafer, paraphrasing Bezo’s original bold slogan for the paper, quipped:
The Washington Post Dies in Darkness.
Excerpt from new interview with Trump for New York magazine:
“[My father] had one problem,” Trump said. “He started getting, what do they call it?” He pointed to his forehead and looked to his press secretary for the word that escaped him.
“Alzheimer’s,” Leavitt said.
“Like an Alzheimer’s thing,” Trump said. “Well, I don’t have it.”
Then there’s this Onion headline:
Headline from Rolling Stone last night:
Neil Young Trashes Amazon, Gives His Complete Musical Catalog to Greenland for Free
“Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, a billionaire backer of the president,” Young writes to fans. “My music will never be available on Amazon, as long as it is owned by Bezos.”
Finally, in a public letter he posted on Monday, his third in just three days, Young also shared some thoughts on the media landscape today. “If you watch Fox, try another channel for your news for just one day,” he wrote. “Untruths are abounding on Fox. New York Times used to be where I went for news. Now I go to The Guardian. I suggest you give it a try. Forget the news ‘shows’ on media. They are all posers and good looks. Remember ‘News Programs’ where it was not all about posing? Americans need some truth, not media obsessed with satisfying everybody. CNN? Trash mostly. Look deeper. There is real coverage. Go to independent journalism. Get some relief from white-washed ‘news shows.'”
He wasn’t a household name but for several decades Sly Dunbar was one of the most influential drummers, emerging to boost the reggae trend (behind the likes of Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff) and then with the Stones, Dylan and countless others. Also Grammy winner and constant presence with partner Robbie Shakespeare. Now he’s died at age 73.
Let’s remember him with an apt song for this week that he played on, by Junior Murvin, later covered by The Clash, “Police and Thieves.”
Police and thieves in the street (Oh, yeah)
Scaring the nation with their guns and ammunitions
Dum-day-dum-day, dum-dum-dum-day-dum
Dum-day-dum-day, dum-dum-dum-day-dum
All the crimes committed, day by day
No one tried to stop it in any way
And two more appropriate songs for now, since many are comparing ICE violence to some of the scenes during the Civil Rights movement: Mavis Staples with Ry Cooder, the fantastic “We’ll Never Turn Back.”
….and “Turn Me Around”
From Tunes to Toons
Clay Bennett:
Steve Brodner:
Nick Anderson:
Adam Zyglis:
Dennis Goris:
Matt Davies:
Photo Finish
From my camera to you, “Paris.”
Thanks Greg, your photo fits right in with the Tunes and Toons today.
I agree. And the map is perfect.