August 27, 2026
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael's Daily Notes
|
The breadth of the tributes to Dolly Parton speaks to her unique contribution to society. Her music is being played everywhere. Her movies are being downloaded yet again. Her humor is being repeated and her generosity saluted.
Me, I'm appreciating her influence on a vanishing monoculture.
Monoculture is our shared story. The thing everybody saw. In 1983, the finale of M*A*S*H drew a 77 share. Seventy-seven percent of every television in use in America was tuned to one channel. That country is gone. This year, roughly 95 of the 100 most-watched telecasts were sports. We no longer have a national conversation. We have 340 million private ones.
Which is what made Tuesday remarkable. On a few hours' notice, CBS and ABC both cleared primetime. That machinery is retired. It exists now for a presidential address, a national tragedy, and the Super Bowl. It fired up for a country singer from Sevier County whose father paid the doctor who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal.
The polling explains why. In March, UMass Lowell and YouGov had her at 70 percent favorable, 5 percent unfavorable. She was the only person in the survey above 50 percent with Democrats, Republicans and independents at the same time. Obama was next at plus 14. Trump minus 18. Biden minus 19.
And she managed it without splitting the difference. She had positions. She simply refused to use them as weapons and refused to let anyone use her as one.
Dolly Parton didn't unite us. We united around her, because of who she was.
She found something in this country we had stopped believing existed.
It's still here.
##
|
DAILY POLL
|
Are the U.S. and Canada still allies?
|
TOP STORY
|
Satellite images and seismic data suggest a high glacier snapped off a cliff and plunged more than a kilometre into a Nepal-Tibet river valley, unleashing a catastrophic flash flood that researchers say ranks among the worst mountain disasters and likely bears the fingerprints of human-caused warming.
|
TODAY'S YOUTUBE
|
SPONSORED BY PARX CASINO
|
IN OTHER NEWS
|
Meta agreed to pay roughly $18 billion to resolve a multistate lawsuit alleging it designed addictive platforms that harmed young users, and will impose daily time limits, a midnight-to-6 a.m. night mode and other default restrictions for teen accounts.
A military judge has ruled that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, will stand trial on June 5, 2028, nearly 25 years after the attacks and more than two decades after his 2003 capture.
With fewer than 100 days until the midterms and a $400 million super PAC war chest to deploy, President Trump has rejected advisers' suggestions to focus on individual races and instead wants to make the election a referendum on himself and his accomplishments.
|
A MESSAGE FROM COMCAST
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
The USS Abraham Lincoln will stop in Thailand for crew rest before returning home after a grueling Middle East deployment that included more than 250 consecutive days at sea, amid reports of crew mental health concerns and shortages of supplies.
The Chicago Sky banned former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom from Wintrust Arena after a courtside confrontation with Natasha Cloud, saying he attempted to provoke the guard and became a potential threat when he stood, gestured toward her and stepped toward the court.
A federal judge lifted a nationwide block on new mail-in voting restrictions, allowing the Trump administration to begin implementing Postal Service requirements ahead of the midterms, even as Democratic-led states and voting-rights groups pursue new legal challenges to the rules.
|
CARTOONS
|
by Steve Breen
|
MORE NEWS
|
In a new essay and interview, the Microsoft co-founder warns that AI has already crossed dangerous thresholds in bioterrorism, cyberattacks, job destruction, psychosocial dependence, and controllability, and floats ideas like human-reserved jobs and a token tax to help society weather the coming turbulence.
After Dolly Parton's death at 80, tributes poured in from across the political spectrum — including President Donald Trump (who ordered flags lowered to half-staff) and the Democratic Socialists of America — a rare unifying moment for a figure who transcended politics with humor and acceptance.
A new study estimates that at least 1 in 4 former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, with 215 of 235 donated brains from that period showing CTE pathology, though researchers caution the findings can't be generalized to living players or lower levels of football.
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
For the Left
Democrats are facing pressure to distance themselves from streamer Hasan Piker after controversial comments about Jewish Americans and Israel drew accusations of antisemitism, with several party leaders condemning his rhetoric.
For the Right
President Trump says the U.S. doesn’t need Canada, but trade data show deep economic ties remain, including heavy American reliance on Canadian crude oil and potash, as his administration prepares to impose 50 percent tariffs on Canadian vehicles and parts.
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.