User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Sunday Swing
This bit of Americana to end your 4th of July weekend.
Benny Goodman’s Orchestra playing the extended version of Sing, Sing, Sing.
Enjoy, Jack
19 thoughts on “Sunday Swing”
thanks, Jack. as always in the swing of things on sundays.
something different today: a cartoonist instead of a cartoon. here’s an interview with CBob’s favorite guy Horsey. this is what he had to say at the end of DODO’s 1st term. wonder how he’s coping with the 2nd.
Seattle native David Horsey, a nationally syndicated, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist and commentator, ponders four years of Donald Trump in his new book “Drawing Apart: Political Cartoons from a Polarized America.” Produced by Peggy Lycett
Ah, I grew up listening to this. My parents favorite music.
today’s meme…
There is a certain satisfaction to finally catching a tipsy mouse. A mouse that enjoys munching on olives from martinis. A mouse smart enough to trip mouse traps without getting caught. Weeks of setting traps and planning finally paid off. It now gets to live out in the wilds of the back trees.
Thank you, Jack.
Lovely swinging out to a big band to brighten a Sunday.
that is a time-lapse video of flooding, which I tried to embed here to allow you to watch it without visiting muskâs hate site. AlasâŚ
fun with commenters..
A raccoon, I suspect, is what picked, tasted, smushed up, and mostly left where it grew, an heirloom tomato of some sort. It/they took down a metal birdhouse two days ago. This is why we canât have nice things.
you have to lay in wait for them and catch them in the act and then scold them lovingly
at least thatâs how i do it đ¤ˇââď¸
âŚor fences, can make out of anything, sticks and old t-shirts
anything tasty you plant outside of a fence is a gamble with God, the devil and Mother Nature
itâs too hot to sow late season crops but iâm starting anyway
Marjorie Taylor Greene Wants To Make Weather Manipulation A Felony
toldja
their God canât save Trump AND kill sweet little girls, undermines the whole narrative
Leavenworth, Kansas, is nearly synonymous with prisons. But when CoreCivic announced plans to detain immigrants there, residents pushed back.
âTo be profitable, private prison firms must ensure that prisons are not only built but also filled,â Hammett said. âWhich is how you end up with a scare tactic over migrants to drum up a reason to put people in jail.â
Ashley Hernandez, an organizer for the Sisters of Charity Leavenworth, lamented that CoreCivic has portrayed those who oppose the detention facility as âout-of-townâ agitators. But this room is full of locals, she noted. âTheyâre the outside organization.â
Many locals remember what happened when CoreCivic previously ran the detention center, housing mostly pretrial detainees for the U.S. Marshals from 1992-2021. They recall guards who were permanently injured by attacks from prisoners, and understaffing that undermined security, according to a federal audit.
Even those who support the mass deportations âare on our side in not trusting CoreCivic to do the right thing,â he said.
Scandals plagued the facility during its final years of operation â beatings, stabbings, suicides and alleged sexual assaults, according to court records. Leavenworth police said they were blocked at the gate from investigating crimes inside.
The facility finally closed in 2021 as the Biden administration shifted away from private prison contracts.
*Private prisons should be illegal.
The city changed its ordinance since CoreCivic initially opened a prison here, just six miles south of the federal governmentâs own massive medium-security penitentiary, which has been operating since 1903. The rules now require a new prison operator to seek a city permit. CoreCivic paid a fee and applied for a permit in February to reopen its facility, now called the Midwest Regional Reception Center. But the firm quickly reversed course as residentsâ opposition mounted.
CoreCivic argued in court filings that because it retained employees in Leavenworth, it never really closed â and didnât need a permit to reopen the facility. City leaders responded by suing in federal court, and then state court, seeking to block CoreCivic from repopulating the facility. In filings, the city argued the company previously ran an âabsolute hell hole,â and the infamous American prison town did not want this one.
In an editorial in the Kansas Reflector, critics of reopening the prison fumed: âCoreCivic has repeatedly shown that it is incapable of running a humane facility. Now, the company flouts city approval to move forward with an ICE center based on false promises.â
He touted the company’s promises to Leavenworth: A one-time impact fee of $1 million, a $250,000 annual fee, and an additional $150,000 annual fee to the police department. This is in addition to the over $1 million in annual property taxes CoreCivic already pays, Gustin said.
The Reception Center originally expected âresidentsâ as of June 1. The company has posted numerous photos of its warden handing out $10,000 checks to veteranâs causes and the Salvation Army.
In legal filings, CoreCivic argued that preventing the opening of its 1,000-plus bed facility would cost it more than $4 million per month. In a federal financial disclosure filed in May, the company stated its letter agreement for the Leavenworth facility with ICE authorized payment up to nearly $23 million for a six-month period âwhile the parties work to negotiate and execute a long-term contract.â
She recoiled when Hammett cited public records showing CoreCivicâs CEO earned more than $7 million last year. Corporate leaders at CoreCivic and GEO Group gushed on recent earnings calls about the âunprecedented opportunityâ theyâre facing with Trump in office. Ads and text messages show CoreCivic is offering new guards $2,500 signing bonuses.
Across the river in rural Missouri, cash-strapped sheriffâs departments are signing up to hold ICE detainees in small jails for $110 per night, per head, and to transport them as far as Kansas City for $1.10 per mile. Emails obtained through public records requests show that about a week after Trump was elected, CoreCivic leadership began contacting Leavenworth city officials about reopening their facility there.
âThey don’t want to do better. They are in it for profit,â Shonk-Little said. âThey could give two shits about the people. The more people they have, the better off they are because it’s more money in their pocket.â
Twain is quoted as having called himself not just an American, but “the American.” “I think that part of the continuing fascination with Mark Twain is that he combines in his person both the best and the worst of our national culture,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow. He has chronicled the lives of great Americans, perhaps most famously Alexander Hamilton, whose biography spawned the Broadway musical. Chernow’s latest book tackles the life of Twain, a figure who has never left the national spotlight.
âChernow traces Twain’s sardonic humor to the pain in which it was rooted. Although he enjoyed boyhood adventures that would inspire “Tom Sawyer,” his father was a failure in business. The fear of poverty, and an anxious pursuit of wealth, would dominate Twain’s adult life.â
thanks, Jack. as always in the swing of things on sundays.
something different today: a cartoonist instead of a cartoon. here’s an interview with CBob’s favorite guy Horsey. this is what he had to say at the end of DODO’s 1st term. wonder how he’s coping with the 2nd.
Seattle native David Horsey, a nationally syndicated, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist and commentator, ponders four years of Donald Trump in his new book “Drawing Apart: Political Cartoons from a Polarized America.” Produced by Peggy Lycett
Ah, I grew up listening to this. My parents favorite music.
today’s meme…
There is a certain satisfaction to finally catching a tipsy mouse. A mouse that enjoys munching on olives from martinis. A mouse smart enough to trip mouse traps without getting caught. Weeks of setting traps and planning finally paid off. It now gets to live out in the wilds of the back trees.
Thank you, Jack.
Lovely swinging out to a big band to brighten a Sunday.
This one should be an easy quiz for all.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2025/07/us/cnn-5-things-independence-day-2025-quiz-sec/?utm_source=cnn_Five+Things+for+Sunday%2C+July+6%2C+2025&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=CZRhRnCjXEEzBbCCa%2BL1KdZqdzzKY3XIVWprMjpaOMSEcLYL22oKLUn6inBZA5LR&bt_ts=1751806961880
đ Leftover Rib Trick just dropped.
https://x.com/EuropeCentral_/status/1941690428153061712
that is a time-lapse video of flooding, which I tried to embed here to allow you to watch it without visiting muskâs hate site. AlasâŚ
fun with commenters..
A raccoon, I suspect, is what picked, tasted, smushed up, and mostly left where it grew, an heirloom tomato of some sort. It/they took down a metal birdhouse two days ago. This is why we canât have nice things.
you have to lay in wait for them and catch them in the act and then scold them lovingly
at least thatâs how i do it đ¤ˇââď¸
âŚor fences, can make out of anything, sticks and old t-shirts
anything tasty you plant outside of a fence is a gamble with God, the devil and Mother Nature
itâs too hot to sow late season crops but iâm starting anyway
toldja
their God canât save Trump AND kill sweet little girls, undermines the whole narrative
Sounds like ‘Yes’
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/07/01/leavenworth-kansas-immigration-prison-fight
Leavenworth, Kansas, is nearly synonymous with prisons. But when CoreCivic announced plans to detain immigrants there, residents pushed back.
âTo be profitable, private prison firms must ensure that prisons are not only built but also filled,â Hammett said. âWhich is how you end up with a scare tactic over migrants to drum up a reason to put people in jail.â
Ashley Hernandez, an organizer for the Sisters of Charity Leavenworth, lamented that CoreCivic has portrayed those who oppose the detention facility as âout-of-townâ agitators. But this room is full of locals, she noted. âTheyâre the outside organization.â
Many locals remember what happened when CoreCivic previously ran the detention center, housing mostly pretrial detainees for the U.S. Marshals from 1992-2021. They recall guards who were permanently injured by attacks from prisoners, and understaffing that undermined security, according to a federal audit.
Even those who support the mass deportations âare on our side in not trusting CoreCivic to do the right thing,â he said.
Scandals plagued the facility during its final years of operation â beatings, stabbings, suicides and alleged sexual assaults, according to court records. Leavenworth police said they were blocked at the gate from investigating crimes inside.
The facility finally closed in 2021 as the Biden administration shifted away from private prison contracts.
*Private prisons should be illegal.
The city changed its ordinance since CoreCivic initially opened a prison here, just six miles south of the federal governmentâs own massive medium-security penitentiary, which has been operating since 1903. The rules now require a new prison operator to seek a city permit. CoreCivic paid a fee and applied for a permit in February to reopen its facility, now called the Midwest Regional Reception Center. But the firm quickly reversed course as residentsâ opposition mounted.
CoreCivic argued in court filings that because it retained employees in Leavenworth, it never really closed â and didnât need a permit to reopen the facility. City leaders responded by suing in federal court, and then state court, seeking to block CoreCivic from repopulating the facility. In filings, the city argued the company previously ran an âabsolute hell hole,â and the infamous American prison town did not want this one.
In an editorial in the Kansas Reflector, critics of reopening the prison fumed: âCoreCivic has repeatedly shown that it is incapable of running a humane facility. Now, the company flouts city approval to move forward with an ICE center based on false promises.â
He touted the company’s promises to Leavenworth: A one-time impact fee of $1 million, a $250,000 annual fee, and an additional $150,000 annual fee to the police department. This is in addition to the over $1 million in annual property taxes CoreCivic already pays, Gustin said.
The Reception Center originally expected âresidentsâ as of June 1. The company has posted numerous photos of its warden handing out $10,000 checks to veteranâs causes and the Salvation Army.
In legal filings, CoreCivic argued that preventing the opening of its 1,000-plus bed facility would cost it more than $4 million per month. In a federal financial disclosure filed in May, the company stated its letter agreement for the Leavenworth facility with ICE authorized payment up to nearly $23 million for a six-month period âwhile the parties work to negotiate and execute a long-term contract.â
She recoiled when Hammett cited public records showing CoreCivicâs CEO earned more than $7 million last year. Corporate leaders at CoreCivic and GEO Group gushed on recent earnings calls about the âunprecedented opportunityâ theyâre facing with Trump in office. Ads and text messages show CoreCivic is offering new guards $2,500 signing bonuses.
Across the river in rural Missouri, cash-strapped sheriffâs departments are signing up to hold ICE detainees in small jails for $110 per night, per head, and to transport them as far as Kansas City for $1.10 per mile. Emails obtained through public records requests show that about a week after Trump was elected, CoreCivic leadership began contacting Leavenworth city officials about reopening their facility there.
âThey don’t want to do better. They are in it for profit,â Shonk-Little said. âThey could give two shits about the people. The more people they have, the better off they are because it’s more money in their pocket.â
*It sure smells like human trafficking.
Great toe-tapper, Jack. Iconic.
Sweet land
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-lady-liberty-became-a-beacon-for-immigrants/
âChernow traces Twain’s sardonic humor to the pain in which it was rooted. Although he enjoyed boyhood adventures that would inspire “Tom Sawyer,” his father was a failure in business. The fear of poverty, and an anxious pursuit of wealth, would dominate Twain’s adult life.â
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ron-chernow-on-the-life-of-mark-twain/
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