Of War Crimes and Desperadoes

Monday morning (and more rockets) coming down. Still, an historic day for Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys, a new Joni interview, plus music from Dion, Waylon, Willie, Cash and Kristofferson.

And away we go for another wild week. Click here if you missed my report this past weekend on “My First Rock Festival”—which naturally turned out to be one of the biggest music debacles ever. Enjoy, then share, comment, please subscribe (it’s still free).

News & Politics

More sane pandemic advice from Dr. Fauci, via The Onion: “There’s No Longer A Need For Statues To Wear Masks Outside.” But I do agree with this Wash Post opinion piece: “The CDC’s mask guidance is a mess. Biden needs to clean it up.”

Andy Borowitz claims: “Elise Stefanik Replaces Ivanka as Trump’s Daughter.”

Hot Vice on vice action: “Vice Obtained Larry Flynt’s FBI File and It’s Pretty Wild. The 322-page file contains a litany of events from John DeLorean’s cocaine bust to an alleged effort by Flynt to blow himself up in front of the Supreme Court.”

Trump roast: If you haven’t caught up to the amazing, appalling, report last night by Axios’ Jon Swan on Trump’s batshit crazy behavior and orders as his days in office dwindled.

AOC on Biden weakness on Israeli bombing campaign: “If the Biden admin can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?” Associated Press: “Biden gave no signs of stepping up any pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate cease-fire despite calls from some Democrats for the Biden administration to get more involved.” Wash Post today: "The Biden administration has approved the sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel….Congress was notified on May 5 of the commercial deal in which Boeing will provide the weapons to Israel."

From Steve Brodner:

Born in the USA: Bernie Sanders points out, “The devastation in Gaza is unconscionable. We must urge an immediate ceasefire. The killing of Palestinians and Israelis must end. We must also take a hard look at nearly $4 billion a year in military aid to Israel. It is illegal for U.S. aid to support human rights violations.” More from Sanders: “We should also understand that, while Hamas firing rockets into Israeli communities is absolutely unacceptable, today’s conflict did not begin with those rockets…. Over more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Israel, Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism.”

A massive merger of AT&T (HBO Max, CNN) and Discovery (Food Channel etc.) media assets may be announced as soon as today

Headline of the Day from the NY Times: “Breathing Through the Rectum Saves Oxygen-Starved Mice and Pigs: Japanese scientists who studied an unusual method of delivering oxygen in mammals hope to one day try it in people.”

Dozens of Black people have died in police custody after being restrained, pepper-sprayed or shocked with stun guns—but their deaths were attributed to genes. A NY Times investigation found at least 47 instances over the past 25 years in which sickle cell trait was cited as a cause or major factor in deaths of Blacks in custody. The determinations on sickle cell trait, which is carried by one in 13 Black people, often created enough doubt for officers to avert criminal or civil penalties, the Times found.

Barry Blitt at The New Yorker:

BULLETIN, Monday, from Politico:

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will review Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, taking up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. The Mississippi ban, which has been blocked by lower courts since it was enacted in 2018, will be one of the first reproductive rights case argued before the Supreme Court since Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed in October, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority that is widely expected to curtail abortion access. The court will consider the heart of Roe by hearing arguments on whether all bans on abortion prior to the point of fetal viability are unconstitutional.

An offshoot of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project is launching tomorrow, “aiming to unify people opposed to partisan dysfunction and authoritarianism through civics education and grassroots organizing.” It’s called the Franklin Project, as in Ben, not Aretha.

The Book on Matthew: All right all right—already? McConaughey has been quietly making calls to influential people in Texas political circles, Politico reveals, “including a deep-pocketed moderate Republican and energy CEO, to take their temperature on the race and to talk about seriously throwing his hat in the ring, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations.”

No pee tape, but… My old friend Barry Meier, longtime NY Times reporter—and already featured in past week in the fine Alex Gibney opioid probe on HBO—has a new book, Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube and the Rise of Private Spies (and here's a preview).

Prosecutors have filed at least one charge against 411 suspects in the Capitol riot, and have charged about 75 people with assaulting police, Wash Post reports. They hail from 44 states and D.C. About 15 are military vets. A separate story concludes that most of the defendants won't serve time.

Six current and former employees of Microsoft tell the NY Times that Bill Gates at times created an uncomfortable workplace environment. Mr. Gates was known for making clumsy approaches to women in and out of the office. His behavior fueled widespread chatter among employees about his personal life.

And the question is? “Jeopardy!” fans thought they saw a white-supremacist hand gesture, and they won’t let it go.

Music

Joni Mitchell gave a rare interview on Saturday at a Clive Davis virtual party, where she spoke about her early career, songwriting, and her legacy.

“My early work is kind of fantasy, which is why I sort of rejected it,” she said. “I started scraping my own soul more and more and got more humanity in it. It scared the singer-songwriters around me; the men seemed to be nervous about it, almost like Dylan plugging in and going electric. Like, ‘Does this mean we have to do this now?’ But over time, I think it did make an influence. It encouraged people to write more from their own experience.

“People used to say to me, ‘Nobody’s ever going to cover your songs. They’re too personal,'” she continued. “And yet, that’s not true, they’re getting a lot of covers.  It’s just humanness that I’m trying to describe. This generation is ready for what I had to say, I guess, and is not so nervous about it.”

Next month, as I’ve noted previously, Joni will release The Reprise Albums (1968-1971).

On this date in 1966: Famous incident when Dylan, still getting booed for “going electric,” answered a cry of “Judas!” from the crowd at The Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England, with “I don’t believe you….you’re a liar,” and then to The Hawks/The Band: “play fucking loud,” as they launched into “Like a Rolling Stone.” Watch it below.

The day before the Dylan incident: He was set to release in the States his Blonde on Blonde, which among other things, shocked fans and others by being the first major “double-lp” ever. And “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” took up an entire side. (Latest research suggests that the official release date may have been a full month later.) Also on this day: the Beach Boys released their greatest and highly influential album, Pet Sounds. That means on a single day, two of the ten greatest albums ever—in many critics’ polls—emerged. Here are isolated vocals on “God Only Knows.”

On this date in 2016: Ace Texas songwriter Guy Clark died in Nashville following a lengthy battle with lymphoma. There’s a brand new film doc about him. One of his most famous songs here by Willie, Waylon, Johnny and Kris.

And lookee who’s here…Virginia, 1965.

Song Pick of the Day

Always loved this little “live at the diner” version of “The Wanderer” by Dion and doo-wop friends a few years back. And Dion has not lost a bit of voice since then.

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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.