Snow and ICE Warnings for Weekend

What to do about it? Our usual cold truth cartoons plus music by Neil Young, Lucinda Williams and Townes Van Zandt

Greg Mitchell has authored more than a dozen books (see most of them here) and directed four recent PBS films, including the current “The Atomic Bowl.” Subscribing to this newsletter is still FREE—so if you want to help fund, maybe purchase one of those books, thanks. Or recommend this Substack to a friend!

David Horsey, in honor of this weekend’s Snow Apocalypse:

Daily Beast:

Amazon has reportedly committed a staggering $35 million to show “Melania” in more than 1,400 theaters in 27 countries before making it available on streaming. For all that, the film is projected to bring in only about $5 million during its opening weekend.

Even worse, from NY Times:

Rejecting Decades of Science, Vaccine Panel Chair Says Polio and Other Shots Should Be Optional

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who leads the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said a person’s right to refuse a vaccine outweighed concerns about illness or death from infectious diseases.

Also: “The FBI agent who sought to investigate the federal immigration officer who fatally shot Renee Good has resigned from the bureau, according to two people familiar with the matter, after leadership pressured her to discontinue a civil rights inquiry into the officer.”

Something to Think About

I’ve known Melinda Henneberger a bit for many years, going back to when we used to interview her at Editor & Publisher, and later as she became a columnist for USA Today and editorial writer for the Kansas City Star, where she won a Pulitzer in 2022. Not a flaming radical though surely on the left side of our great divide. She posted a piece yesterday at her substack that she shares with another writer. It was striking and also scary.

She writes about a conversation with a former colleague, a principled (therefore non-MAGA) conservative—she names him, with his permission—who has grown so alarmed about Trump that he asked her “a terrifying question.”

When Trump cancels elections, he asked, will we advise that others fight back with violence for what’s left of our democracy? And will we ourselves fight with words only, or bullets too?

I’m not sure that will happen — California won’t be canceling, nor will Illinois or New York — but the question holds. Because put another way, what will we do when he seizes ballot boxes or goes into friendly state courts to stop ballots from being counted?

No matter what happens, I will be taking my cues from MLK, who took his from Jesus and Gandhi, so non-violent resistance would be my answer.

But with the state doing everything it can to initiate and incite violence, these conversations are happening already. Bishop Rob Hirschfeld, an Episcopal prelate in New Hampshire, told his clergy at a vigil for Renee Good that they needed to ready themselves for “a new era of martyrdom…I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order to make sure they have their wills written,” he said, “because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.” Naturally, a spokeswoman for DHS answered that it was ICE agents who were the truly vulnerable and who were the victims with whom the clergy should be standing.

Dave, who does not believe in a lot of limits on the Second Amendment, said he would not be throwing in with Gandhi and me, but would try to take a few folks down with him if it came to that.

But here’s where we absolutely do agree: “It’s something we all need to be thinking about.” Even if Trump doesn’t invoke the Insurrection Act, we are going to have to decide. Because what is going on on the streets of Minneapolis already looks like an occupation. And if the government doesn’t succeed in starting a civil war there, I’m confident it will just keep trying.

Winterlude

For this weekend’s massive snow and ice storm through much of USA, Neil Young live version of his long forgotten early 1970s deep cut “Winterlong.”

And Townes Van Zandt, “Snowin’ on Raton”

Lucinda Williams played her entire new album with band in a “listening party” a couple of days ago….

From Tunes to Toons

Brodner:

Goris:

Photo Finish

From my camera to you, let me know if I should continue this daily feature, today for the weekend storm: “The Ladder, Rockland Lake, N.Y.”