Trump Melts Down Into Orange Puddle

Plus John Oliver, our usual cartoons, Bruce and Phoebe Bridges and Dylan, and Scott Pelley won't go away quietly.

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.

John Oliver last night on the conservative college promoted by Gov. Ron DeSantis….

Far too much else to catch up on from yesterday. In defiance of rapidly fading Trump, Israel started bombing Iran again. There was the Scott Pelley interview in the NY Times in which he revealed, among other things, that Bari Weiss asked him and others to make up stuff surrounding the Renee Good murder in Minneapolis. Also the fact they lied about him physically attacking his new boss:

But nothing got as much attention as NBC’s Welker finally standing up to lie machine Trump—and the doddering old fool walking off the set, while calling her “darling.”

Tom Nichols: “Emotionally unstable man goes on paranoid, babbling rant. Somewhere in that suit, he has a small card with the codes to 1500 strategic nuclear weapons.”

Molly Jong-Fast: “Remember when we were told women were too emotional to be president?”

Amazingly, none of this appears in a disgraceful The New York Times story by Katie Rogers about the interview.

But here's The Guardian:

When Welker asked the president for any evidence on the gubernatorial race being fraudulent, he also accused the veteran reporter of being “crooked”.

“They’re crooked, just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked. And Meet the Press is crooked,” said Trump.

Welker then defended herself and tried to ask additional questions, with Trump replying: “You’re either crooked or you’re stupid. You play right into their hands with this crap. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they’re rigged.”

Trump then brought up previously repeated false claims that he won the 2020 US presidential election.

When Welker later tried to ask additional questions, Trump continued to assert that NBC was “crooked” and ended the interview. “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” said Trump, taking off his microphone. “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”

Mary Trump: “Donald had a temper tantrum on national television and walked out of an interview simply because Kristen Welker presented him with a basic fact. Note to other journalists: now is the time to pile on. He won’t be able to handle it.”

Barry Blitt:

Music Picks

New Springsteen interview at NY Times on weekend of opening of his center for American music in Jersey—on his place in that history.

Bruce on state of protest music today:

It’s certainly not front and center these days. I’ve written a lot of music that has political implications, and what I would call critically patriotic, which is really my definition of a patriot. And I’ve written a lot of music like that. And I suppose I’ve written things that you could call protest songs — “American Skin,” “Born in the U.S.A.,” really, obviously, and, of course, “Streets of Minneapolis.” But where’s it going? There’s young folks out there. Jesse Welles. There’s my buddies in Dropkick Murphys. It’s there, it’s alive, it’s present, it’s living and it’s having its impact. There’s always going to be something to protest in the U.S.A.

Speaking of which, Phoebe Bridgers at her sold-out Madison Square Garden benefit show a couple days ago call edout ICE almost immediately, telling the crowd, “I hate those fucking ICE idiots.” The show raised money for Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund, with tickets randomly allocated through Tidal and priced between $1 and $20.

Meawhile, as a fan of The Basement Tapes going back to the earliest bootlegs in the late-1960s, I was amazed to see Bob on Saturday out of nowhere digging out one of the more obscure but terrific tracks from the “complete” multi-volume sessions with The Band (which took decades to emerge), “Baby, Won’t You Be My Baby.” And unlike many of his songs live these days, in a crisp, clear version even from an audience tape:

From Tune to Toons

Boris:

This week’s cover, also via Barry Blitt:

Anderson:

Bramhall:

Jennings:

Horsey:

Royaards:

Brodner:

Photo Finish

From my camera to you: Summer in the air.