Nothing to Worry About, Except Iran War, ICE, Trump, A.I.

Our usual hot cartoons plus John Oliver and music from Janis Ian and Diana Krall.

Jun 23, 2025

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” Now watch trailer for acclaimed 2025 film “The Atomic Bowl” coming to PBS in July. Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books.

John Oliver on HBO last night opened with a strong hit against Trump’s moves against Iran—and it was taped just before he announced the Saturday bombings. You can find it replayed at Max but here is what followed, a segment on what he calls “A.I. Slop,” you know, what now dominates your social media feeds…

On Iran, Trump will be reeling and dangerous today as revelations appear showing that his “total obliteration” was far, far from a complete success. Also he now seems to be promoting “regime change” in Iran, an idea from others that has gone nowhere in….almost 50 years. So expect him to launch more strikes, even as he vows this was a one-off. Down the road: a tactical nuke?

Given the mainstream media coverage in the run-up to the bombing, and coverage of it, Ann Telnaes posted this cartoon—which she did in 2003 re: our Iraq invasion:

In other news, from the Wall Street Journal last night:

A month into Florida’s six-week abortion ban, Republican Rep. Kat Cammack went to the ER with a deadly ectopic pregnancy and struggled to get prompt care. She blames the left.

If you missed shocking video of ICE arresting and roughing up a gardener in Orange County, CA—who has three sons in the Marines.

Video isn’t great here, but sound is okay, as Diana Krall paid tribute on Saturday night to Brian Wilson with a cool rendition of “In My Room.”

I posted the video of the new PBS doc on Janis Ian awhile back, and now it has started streaming there and appeared on CNN on Saturday night. If you’ve never heard, or forgotten, her landmark “Society’s Child,” here it is live from the Smothers Brothers in 1967. She wrote it when she was 14, and it explored a sad interracial romance, so of course it was banned from most radio and sales until Leonard Bernstein hosted her on TV and liberals like the Smothers boys aided. We learned that legendary producer Shadow Morton demanded that she remove the ID of the black boyfriend but she refused.