May 25, 2026
|
Michael's Daily Notes
|
Former President Obama inspired today’s Memorial Day poll question. He’s been thinking about what song best defines America as we approach our 250th birthday. In a sweeping new essay for Rolling Stone - timed to the opening of his presidential center in Chicago - he traces the American story through its music. He argues that Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land Is Your Land" to insist that this country belonged to the struggling and marginalized as much as the privileged. He points to "We Shall Overcome" echoing through jail cells during the Civil Rights Movement. He even reveals that Jay-Z and Eminem were his pre-debate pump-up songs in 2008. Those are Obama's choices, and they are your limited choices today.
If I’d made the list, I’d have included "The House I Live In (That’s America to Me)".
In 1945, Frank Sinatra starred in a 10-minute film built around racial and religious tolerance, singing the title song with lines about all races and religions being America. The backstory is remarkable. The music was composed by Earl Robinson, who was later blacklisted during the McCarthy era. The lyricist, Abel Meeropol - writing under the pen name Lewis Allan - is notable for another reason entirely: he was the adoptive father of the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Sinatra loved the song and performed it across every decade of his career - at a Kennedy inaugural, in the Nixon White House, and for Reagan at the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty. A song written by two men later targeted as communists became Sinatra's most enduring patriotic signature. Only in America.
The song builds to a close that says it all:
The town I live in, the street, the house, the room / The pavement of the city, or a garden all in bloom / The church, the school, the clubhouse, the millions lights I see / Especially the people - that's America to me.
On this Memorial Day, that's what those we honor today gave everything to protect.
##
|
DAILY POLL
|
What song best defines America?
|
TOP STORY
|
Oil prices fell sharply after tentative signs of a U.S.-Iran deal raised hopes of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, though analysts warn energy markets and gas prices could remain disrupted for months even if an agreement is reached.
|
TODAY'S YOUTUBE
|
SPONSORED BY PARX CASINO
|
IN OTHER NEWS
|
At 106, the nation’s oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor, Freeman Johnson, is sharing his memories of the 1941 attack and World War II service to help keep the history of Pearl Harbor alive for future generations.
Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo set fire to a treatment center, the second such attack in the region in a week. 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are now unaccounted for.
Felix Rosenqvist captured his first Indianapolis 500 in dramatic fashion, passing David Malukas on the final straightaway to secure the closest finish in the race’s 110-year history by just 0.023 seconds.
|
A MESSAGE FROM INCOGNI
|
Have someone who doesn't like you? They already know where you live.
The Independent reported this year on a woman who'd barely used social media. A stalker still found her home, her relatives, her workplace—all from a single name search on a data broker site.
These sites don't ask why someone is looking. They just answer. Your address. Your family members. Your daily patterns. Available to anyone—an angry ex, a stranger, someone who just didn't like something you posted.
Incogni tracks down every site exposing your data, removes you, and removes you again when it comes back. Get 55% off with code SMERCONISH.
A suicide car bombing targeting a train carrying soldiers in Pakistan’s Balochistan province killed at least 24 people and injured more than 50, with the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army claiming responsibility.
A Florida construction worker returned a lost fanny pack containing more than $30,000 in cash found in a Wawa bathroom. The owner had raised the money from Pokémon collectible sales to help pay for his sister's medical procedure.
NASCAR honored the late Kyle Busch with emotional pre-race tributes at the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, as family, fans and fellow drivers remembered the two-time champion’s legacy on and off the track following his death from complications of pneumonia and sepsis.
|
MORE NEWS
|
Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, "Magnifica humanitas", warns that artificial intelligence must serve human dignity, truth, justice, and peace rather than concentrate power, exploit workers, fuel conflict, or diminish humanity itself.
A dangerous chemical leak at a Garden Grove, California aerospace facility has forced tens of thousands to evacuate as crews work around the clock to prevent a potentially catastrophic explosion from an overheating tank of highly flammable industrial chemicals.
Philadelphia columnist Chris Brennan argues that Pennsylvania’s closed-primary system is increasingly disenfranchising the growing number of independent voters — especially younger Americans — and warns that politicians risk alienating a rising bloc of voters by denying them a voice in key elections.
For the Left
U.S. intelligence officials say Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is hiding in a fortified undisclosed location and communicating only through couriers, creating major delays in negotiations with the Trump administration.
For the Right
Three Canadian activists returned to Vancouver after Israeli forces intercepted a Gaza-bound flotilla, with detainees alleging abuse and torture in custody as Canadian officials review the claims and organizers call for sanctions against Israel.
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.