Yes, it’s still somehow free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of four films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy.
Stephen on our modern Antichrist:
Trump as Jesus is not all right with him…
A reporter asked Nancy Pelosi why Trump posted himself as Jesus. Her response: “You should ask a psychiatrist. It needs diagnosis, not conversation.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin:
Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations, unleashes chaos in the Middle East while violating Congressional war powers, aggressively insults the Pope of the Catholic Church and sends out artistic renderings online likening himself to Jesus Christ. We are at a dangerous precipice, and it is now a matter of national security for Congress to fulfill its responsibilities under the 25th Amendment to protect the American people from an increasingly volatile and unstable situation.
Ann Telnaes:
Just one more for this meme:
Paul Krugman:
While the average American voter may (unfortunately) tolerate some small-scale corruption by those in power, the level of corruption we are now seeing is so vast that it has become a cancer, that is eating away at the heart of the U.S. government.
Want to stop a data center in your community and impose common-sense controls on AI? Well, that’s a non-starter because the Trump family has invested in data centers and in AI firms. Want to regulate crypto and stop its use as a vehicle for crime? Well, um, no, because the Trump family has amassed billions from their crypto holdings. Want to rein in the pernicious effects of prediction markets. I don’t think so, because the Trump family invests in Polymarket. Want to shift America towards safe, clean renewable energy? Think again, because petrostate oligarchs have poured $500 million into Trump’s World Liberty coin.
I could go on, but I think you get the point. Trump promised to drain the swamp, but under his rule the swamp drains you.
And everyone can see it.
Like Orbán, Trump is trying to solidify his own version of soft autocracy by destroying the American system of democratic checks and balances – such as corrupting the Justice Department, bullying Democratic states, and delivering CNN into the hands of the Ellisons.
The possibility that should truly terrify us is that Trumpian levels of corruption and its accompanying authoritarianism will become normalized in America. And that’s the game plan of the autocrat: the public comes to believe that resistance is futile because the regime controls so many levers of power and has corrupted so many people and institutions.
The good news from Hungary is that blatant corruption doesn’t have to be normalized. In fact, public perceptions of runaway corruption can become a weapon in defense of democracy. The public understands corruption, hates it, and can be mobilized to vote en masse against it.
Hungary has shown the way. Will America follow?
Music Picks
Some of us may be kinda sick of David Byrne by now (although I chose the Heads’ first publicity photo in 1976) but “Life During Wartime” always holds up, here this week at Coachella.
I noted yesterday that Gram Parsons had finally made the cut for the Roll and Roll Hall of Fame, coming in the back door as an “early influencer.” I promised a few more Gram tunes so here are alternate versions of “The New Soft Shoe” and “Reutrn of the Grievous Angel” with Emmylou.
So few live performances of Gram survive on tape that this wonderful if weak quality one with Emmylou doing “Streets of Baltimore” in Texas not long before his death stands out.
Let’s hope this fails: A biopic is the latest move by the Michael Jackson estate to rehabilitate his public image.
From Tunes to Toons
de Adder:
Anderson:
Bramhall:
KAL:
Photo Finish
“Cooper’s Hawk in the backyard after lunch.”
Love the bird pics.
The U.S. must follow Hungary out of the pit of fascism, just like we followed them into it!