The Worst of Colbert?

Plus Jon and Jimmy, our usual cartoons, Trump's spirit of "1.776" (billion), John Prine and an all-star "California Stars."

Yes, it’s still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is the author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy.

Stephen kicked off his final weeks with a special episode that he called “The Worst of the Late Show” but mainly was an offbeat tribute to his many staffers, not a surprise knowing Steve….Here is the full show in an “extended cut.”

Meanwhile, old boss Jon is still at it:

And so is monologue heir, Jimmy:

NYT: “State prosecutors on Monday charged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with assault in the January shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis, an incident that sparked violent protests at the height of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.”

Finishing my Woody film this morning so keeping it simple with just one major text post below, but a good one from Sir Krugman. And now I recall when I first talked to him about 25 years ago when I was the editor of Editor & Publisher and we had just picked him as our cover story Columnist of the Year.

Krugman:

So the Trump administration is creating a $1.776 billion slush fund — 1776, get it? — to pay off victims of “lawfare and weaponization.” Just to be clear, if you’re a U.S. taxpayer, this action means that almost $1.8 billion of your money will be handed out to whomever a panel appointed by Donald Trump decides to reward. The beneficiaries are likely to include January 6 insurrectionists, as well as Trump, his family, and his allies.

Few things shock me these days, but this development — in which a Justice Department that works for Trump is paying a vast sum to “settle” a lawsuit brought by Trump himself — is a new nadir in self-dealing, further revealing Trump’s utter contempt for the American people.

Now, massive corruption on the part of Trump and his minions isn’t new. But the shamelessness of this latest episode of looting takes it to a new level. Until now, we’ve seen a combination of crony capitalism and insider trading. Plutocrats and corporations have been enriching Trump through back channels, especially crypto, in return for government contracts and policy favors, while Trump himself and people close to Trump have been making hugely profitable market bets thanks to advance knowledge of government policies.

But now Trump has eliminated the middlemen, effectively telling his officials to pay money directly to him or anyone else he favors….

So you can think of the $1.8 billion slush fund as a promise to MAGA-world that there is a payoff to be had if they just stick with him for the next two and a half years.

Beyond that, we are, in effect, watching what happens when a quasi-authoritarian regime’s corruption and criminality pass the point of no return.

Music Picks

The late great John Prine’s Old Boy Records just posted this clip of John doing his “Other Side of Town.”

And to celebrate finishing my film, an all-star version of the Woody/Wilco “California Stars,” my anthem for the past year (and soon a screening and PBS debut are coming to L.A. in June), with Tweedy, Alejandro Escovedo, Rosanne Cash (my narrator), Margo Price, Butch Hancock, Bill Callahan, and an Isbell-Cline guitar duel….

From Toons Tunes

Brodner:

Bagley:

Goris:

Jon Richards:

Rowe:

Sack:

Photo Finish

“Bridge in Central Park”