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.” Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. At Blue Sky and Twitter: as @gregmitch. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for FREE. **Sustain this newsletter by ordering one of his books, see list near bottom of this page.**
Well, some good news here (if in a stupidly bad situation): Producers of the road show of “Hamilton” have cancelled their scheduled lengthy run at the Kennedy Center in D.C. citing the takeover of the Trump gang there. “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center,” Lin-Manuel Miranda said. Not gonna take their shot!
Also, Trump’s approval rating now under water in most recent respected polls.
But this morning:
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation. The move, expected as soon as April, would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden's administration.
Here’s an article recommendation, especially for you vinyl heads (I am one, in part): fascinating New York Times profile of the man who has pressed so many premium “wax” releases for many years, his standards to make you hear the music better and the process itself. Give it a spin.
Speaking of swell music: Julien Baker (of boygenius and etc.) and Torres introduced on The Daily Show last night a song from their new album, coming April 18, which they described as their “queer country” surprise. They rocked the Nudie-style outfits and also gave a hearty shout out to country legend George Strait. The Flying Burrito Sisters? Here’s “Bottom of a Bottle.”
Even better, another song from the lp, from the Fallon show, “Sugar in the Tank.”
This served to remind me of two of favorite “country” duets with a more veteran pair. Here’s Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris doing the old Gram Parsons-Chris Hillman “Juanita.”
…..and an amazing version of Lou Reed’s “Pale Blue Eyes.”
Sustain this free newsletter by ordering one of my books, see list near bottom of this page.
Tariffic Mistake
“Billionaire Merit Badges,” according to The New Yorker this week.
Some of Greg Mitchell’s books, you might order one or more to help sustain this FREE newsletter (links to Amazon but most also available elsewhere), in no particular order.
>The best-selling “The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall—and the Historic Films JFK Tried to Kill” (Crown, 2016).
>Award winning “The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (The New Press, 2020).
>Another award winner (and considered a “classic” by many election nerds and others), “The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics” (Random House, 1992, and later editions).
>”So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits—and the President—Failed on Iraq” (Union Square Press, 2008), with a preface by Bruce Springsteen, Forword by Joe Galloway).
>”Tricky Dick and The Pink Lady: Richard Nixon vs. Helen Gahagan Douglas, Sexual Politics and the Red Scare” (Random House, 1998), a New York Times Notable Book.
“Vonnegut & Me,” an inexpensive (some would say cheap) little ebook recalling my interviews with the author and humorist in the 1970s, including a much-anthologized profile of the author by one Kilgore Trout.
>Best-seller “Hiroshima in America: Fifty Years of Denial,” with Robert Jay Lifton (Putnam’s, 1995).
>”Atomic Cover-up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and the Greatest Movie Never Made” (Sinclair Books, several updated editions), inspired my award-winning film of the same name.
>”Memorial Day Massacre: Workers Die, Film Buried” (Sinclair Books, 2024), companion to my PBS film on the 1937 police murder of striking steel workers and activists in Chicago.
“Journeys With Beethoven,” a companion to film I co-produced on the political impact of the 9th Symphony and “Ode to Joy” around the world, including interview with Bill Bragg.
”Who Owns Death? Capital Punishment and the American Conscience,” with Robert Jay Lifton (Morrow, 1999).
The cartoon of the dove in the meat grinder gave me cold chills, as did the one of Putin putting out the Liberty torch. Both are way too close for comfort, but they both make crucial points. The whole country needs to wake the f**k up to what is happening right before our eyes.
Great selection of cartoons. Who did the State of the Union? The merit badges are brilliant.