May 24, 2021
Hope everyone had a swell weekend! Here's a surreal milestone you may have missed: The more than 2,000 National Guard troops that have been stationing the Capitol in the aftermath of January's insurrection have finally left. The departure comes as Republicans increasingly align themselves, and rather brazenly so, to the very false statements that spurred the deadly attack in the first place. Meanwhile, hopes for a bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection are looking doomed, thanks to Republicans who presumably don't have any interest in rehashing just how on earth pro-Trump supporters came to storm the Capitol. When asked about the GOP insistence to downplay the attack, Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré didn't mince words. "What I'm afraid of when I hear statements like that," Honoré told CBS, "is that we have a two-party system that normally would be referred to as the minority party, the opposition, and that scares me. They've gone from being a minority party to an opposition party." —Inae Oh Advertisement 
Their approval for Black Lives Matter is lower today than it was before he was killed. BY JAMILAH KING
BY FERNANDA ECHAVARRI
BY JAMILAH KING
BY NINA LAKHANI
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SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE
When it became clear that people 65 and older were at higher risk for severe illness from the coronavirus, I instinctively started worrying about my favorite, Bob Dylan. I checked the perpetually touring geezer’s website to make sure he’d canceled his tour dates in Japan (he had), and felt a touch a comfort. But Dylan’s scant media presence makes it hard to discern how he’s really doing. Then, he released a nearly 17-minute-long track about John F. Kennedy’s assassination, assuring me that he’s okay—probably. I don’t really know if “Murder Most Foul” is any good or if it means Bob Dylan has gone insane. But it means Bob Dylan’s still kicking. That’s all that matters. The Nobel Laureate’s first original song in eight years includes such questionable poetry as, “Rub-a-dub-dub, it’s a murder most foul,” and “What’s new, pussycat? What’d I say? / I said the soul of a nation been torn away.” The track—a typical, rambling, refrain-less Dylan ballad—has the old crooner’s voice sounding smoother than usual. Yet the song’s successive references to sixties music remind us that Dylan hit his peak long ago. His output is not dark yet, but it’s getting there. Either way, happy 80th birthday to Bob Dylan. —Abigail Weinberg Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by forwarding it to a friend or sharing it on Facebook and Twitter.
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