August 23, 2026
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael's Daily Notes
|
On Friday we published an editorial cartoon by illustrator Eric Allie that generated some blowback. You'll see it again below, as you do every Sunday when we reprint the week’s cartoons. My policy hasn't changed. Four prize-winning cartoonists draw for this newsletter. They represent diverse views. Some of them draw things I disagree with, and that is the point. I don't censor them.
Plus Allie put his finger on something real, however you feel about how he did it.
On January 24, 2023, Patrick Clancy left his Duxbury home to pick up takeout. He was gone for about 25 minutes. In that window his wife Lindsay, a labor and delivery nurse at Mass General, killed their three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and eight-month-old Callan — then went to a window and jumped. She survived, paralyzed.
None of that is in dispute. The question in Plymouth is narrower and much harder: was she criminally responsible? Her attorney says postpartum psychosis had taken her, that she heard a voice commanding her to do it. Prosecutors say she planned it and skipped the medication she'd been prescribed. And in Massachusetts, unlike most states, the burden isn't on her to prove she was insane — it's on the Commonwealth to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she wasn't. A finding of not criminally responsible doesn't set her free. It commits her indefinitely to a secure psychiatric facility.
Last week about 300 people stood silently outside that courthouse in pink, holding signs that read "Believe" and "She Needed Help." They say this isn't about excusing what happened in that house. It's about a system that dismisses women when they ask for help.
Soon we will learn what the jury thinks.
##
|
DAILY POLL
|
Was Lindsay Clancy too sick to be guilty of murder?
|
TOP STORY
|
A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration’s suspension of immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries, ruling that Secretary of State Marco Rubio exceeded his legal authority.
|
TODAY'S YOUTUBE
|
SPONSORED BY PARX CASINO
|
IN OTHER NEWS
|
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he walked away from trade talks with the Trump administration after late U.S. demands on culture, autos and sovereignty made a deal untenable, triggering new tariffs and Canadian countermeasures.
A CNN review of Natalie Harp's since-removed X account found the now-White House aide posted more than 150 tweets on January 6, 2021, urging Republicans to "FIGHT FOR TRUMP," echoing stolen-election claims, amplifying Rudy Giuliani and hailing senators who objected to the electoral count.
Growing public opposition to data centers over rising electricity costs, water use and environmental concerns is forcing candidates in key swing states to embrace stricter policies and distance themselves from the industry ahead of the 2026 midterms.
|
A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
Democrats are preparing a broad slate of investigations into President Trump and his allies if they regain control of the House, while the administration braces for a wave of subpoenas and internal party debate over possible impeachment.
The Duchess of Sussex's reported casting in season three of Guy Ritchie's Netflix series 'The Gentlemen' has been withdrawn after an intense UK backlash, according to former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown.
A new analysis finds that nearly 25% of U.S. workers are “functionally unemployed,” highlighting potential weakness in the labor market despite the nation’s 4.1% headline unemployment rate.
|
CARTOONS
|
|
MORE NEWS
|
Allies of Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers have asked AIPAC not to run ads on his behalf against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, fearing the pro-Israel group's involvement would backfire as it did in the primary and hand El-Sayed a potent foil ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
The Atlantic argues that affluent, college-educated Americans are increasingly drawn to socialism not out of hypocrisy, but from firsthand experiences that have convinced them capitalism is deeply flawed and in need of systemic reform.
Mark Ruffalo has linked Paramount’s proposed Warner Bros. merger to Oracle’s ties to the Israeli military, prompting the studio to accuse the actor of antisemitic rhetoric and call for a less inflammatory debate.
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
For the Left
Senator John Fetterman is backing President Trump’s push to accelerate AI development, arguing that slowing the technology or restricting data centers could give China an advantage in the global AI race.
For the Right
On Friday, Syria requested to join an international partnership against chemical weapons impunity, pledging accountability for the 2013 sarin attack that killed more than 1,400 people under Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.