As Garfield says, “I love lasagna!” The United States Congress is poised do two things this coming week: Confirm the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and add more serious sanctions to pressure Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine. Not surprisingly, the Republican Party is somehow standing in the way of both maneuvers. This stonewalling is not a business as usual reiteration of previous political battles from the 20th century—this is new.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Bucha and Irpin today; Russia retreated from both cities in the face of Ukrainian counterattacks but left behind evidence of horrific war crimes perpetrated during their scant few weeks of occupation. The bodies of civilians are still being collected, some of them with their hands bound behind their backs.

A teacher once told me to write what you know. Since there’s very little call for stories about incrementally turning into Gollum as I shun natural light, social interaction, and the impudent inveigling of relatives trying to coax me out of my Reefer Madness redoubts and into the so-called “world,” I like to write about weed.

Archival video footage offers an amazing glimpse into the past that provides context for today. During my time at CBS, it was a joy to watch my colleagues pull together last-minute packages celebrating the lives of luminaries or tying in segments from the past into segments that better inform the public about major issues.

The U.S. Supreme Court has again threatened our freedom to vote, this time in Wisconsin. As part of their “shadow docket,” the right-wing majority threw out a Wisconsin map that would have given Black voters the representation they deserve.

Now is the time to get angry, but to also build the groundwork to defend our democracy.

Wisconsin is the ultimate “tipping point” state. President Joe Biden won it by 21,000 votes in 2020, and in 2022 we have a key U.