This Little Gala Mine

The Bezos disaster, our usual cartoons, Colbert, Stewart and Kimmel plus: Who Killed Nettie Moore, Why, and What's the Reason For?

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. You can also show appreciation by pledging a small sum if we go partly “paid” one day.

Triple header of (grim) laughs today: Jon, Stephen and Jimmy.

Trump, par for the coarse:

Soil at D.C. Golf Course Where East Wing Debris Was Dumped Contains Toxic Metals

The National Park Service said the dump of debris, between the fourth and ninth holes, does not exceed environmental limits. Opponents disagree.

On the other hand, happy to celebrate the Pulitzer winners. This was a big part of our job every Spring when I edited Editor & Publisher from 2001-2009. Just to single out a couple. Go here to see full list with links to the winning entries from our favorite opinion columnist, M. Gessen, at NY Times. “For an illuminating collection of reported essays on rising authoritarian regimes that draw on history and personal experience to probe timely themes of oppression, belonging and exile.” And below, winning photos from Gaza by Saher Alghorra.

Also good to see a “special citation” for Julie K. Brown, who broke the Epstein case and is still getting heat for that from some quarters.

Headline this morning:

More Than 150 Wind Projects Stall as Pentagon Delays Reviews

Krugman comments today:

Last month, out of more than 11,000 new passenger vehicles registered in Norway, only around 150 had internal consumption engines. The rest were fully electric. In mainland Europe as a whole, EV sales are up 51 percent from a year ago.

Let’s not pretend that hostility to the energy transition has anything to do with faith in free markets or the desire to keep energy cheap. Trump and his minions are actively trying to stop the expansion of green energy even when it’s profitable.

Fortunately, America is not the world. We account for less than 20 percent of world electricity generation. So Trump’s policies can’t stop the global energy transition. Indeed, as a result of the Iran debacle, Trump’s presidency has been a net positive for the global green energy revolution.

Trump and the fossil-fuel cabal may be able to extract a few billion dollars in profits by keeping America stuck in a dirty-energy past. But in so doing they will also ensure that the United States is left behind, and that the future belongs to China.

Music Pick

We’ve discussed last week’s sketchy NY Times list of the alleged 30 greatest living songwriters, American division. But with each mini-profile the judges picked “five essential” tracks. I have to say, I was amazed to see among the five for Dylan—for which there surely were dozens of worthy candidates—that one of the five listed was “Nettie Moore.” Now, I have been a Dylan fanatic for over 60 years but that song meant nothing to me. True, I have skipped various Bob albums over the years, and it turns out this comes from one of them, “Modern Times.”

So, as a public service, here it is. Spins quite a yarn. One of five best? No way, but you may enjoy it. Comment if you wish.

From Tune to Toons

Goris:

Telnaes on gala host Bezos and wife:

Anderson:

de Adder:

Peter Kuper, who we have used here in the past, found out he was a Pulitzer finalist yesterday, here are two of his entries:

Photo Finish

Yes, mom, I finally got to….Carnegie Hall.