Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple doing Gene Clark’s classic song “Here Without You”:

House of Freaks: Sun Goes Down.

The singer, Bryan Harvey, was murdered along with his wife and two daughters in a home invasion robbery on New Year’s Day 2006 in Richmond, VA.

UPDATE: So I don’t end the post on such a depressing note, here’s Stephen McCarthy from the Long Ryders (also of Richmond) doing a few seconds of an old Merle Haggard tune to tease their upcoming tour.

Your Republican frontrunner:

Trump campaign’s adviser for veterans issues can’t account for $6 million raised for veterans charities by the billionaire—and from the sounds of it, couldn’t care less.

“I could ask, but it’s not high on my priority list,” Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative, told The Daily Beast.

. . . .

Questions have lingered about whether that money has actually been dispense[d] to those charities—since the fundraiser, numerous media organizations have investigated whether the charities have received the $6 million. The investigations span the ideological spectrum: the progressive MSNBC and the conservative Weekly Standard have been unable to find all the funds; as have The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and The Daily Beast.

The money simply hasn’t been found.

In early March, CNN was able to track down $2.9 million, citing the Trump campaign. In early April, The Wall Street Journal traced $2.4 million of the promised funds.

What these investigations have yielded is a solid conclusion that, thus far, Donald Trump and his nonprofit have dispensed, at maximum, about half of the $6 million to the listed beneficiaries. Nearly three months—85 days—have passed since the fundraiser.

“I don’t track that,” Baldasaro told The Daily Beast. “I’m not concerned about it, because I know [Trump is] an honorable, honest guy… you guys just want to say, ‘gotcha.’”

Baldasaro tried to minimize his responsibility in the issue, saying that “it’s not that I’m the lead veterans adviser” or a paid staffer. But then he later acknowledged that he’s “the only one that talks about veterans for Trump.”

“It’s not high on my priority list,” he said, when pressed on why he didn’t account for the $6 million in order to put the issue to rest. “I agree with you on looking into it. I just wish I had a little more time… My veterans constituents have never asked us that question.”

He’ll give them the money as soon as he turns over his tax returns.

Never.

[guest post by JVW]

William Shakespeare died 400 years ago today. There are any number of commemoratives events taking place across The Globe*, including President Obama’s visit to England where he saw a “cribbed” piece of Hamlet. Pity he didn’t hear words from Henry IV (“There’s neither honesty, manhood, or good fellowship in thee”) or from the sonnets (“I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought/And with old woes new wail my dear times’ waste”). His influence endures four centuries later in many of the everyday English language phrases we use to the recycling of Shakespearean plots into modern movies and television.

It’s long been a complaint among many cultural conservatives that Shakespeare has disappeared from modern education. Last year, we discussed an op-ed written by a California teacher arguing that the Bard’s words were no longer relevant to teenagers. Fortunately, the general consensus from that debate across the entire English-speaking world appeared to be opposed to sidelining Prince Hamlet, the Capulets & Montagues, Iago, and Miss Kate Minola. While a newly-hired literature professor these days is more likely to have written a dissertation on lesbian poets of the Andean Mountains than on the symbolism of the witches in Macbeth**, I think that most colleges and universities still teach a course on Elizabethan authors, if not on William Shakespeare himself. This one is from my alma mater:

Shakespeare: Global Shakespeares
Global Shakespeares approaches some of the playwright’s most enduring works through their vibrant and varied afterlife. We will focus on four or five plays, drawn from different genres, including Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Tempest. Close reading of the texts will accompany examining how they have been adapted and performed around the world, on film, and in theater. Students will reflect upon how adapting the plays in different ways and for different contexts changes our understanding of their cultural impact. We may also attend one or more theatrical performances, depending on what is available in the Boston area during the semester.

I note too that the high school in my neighborhood covers British Literature in 12th grade English and the Honors and Advanced Placement English courses mention assigning “classic” literature, so I feel safe in guessing that Shakespeare is covered in those courses.

Consider this an open thread on celebrating William Shakespeare. Do you have a favorite work of his? Does your college or your kids’ college still have a course on him? Does your local high school still assign his plays and sonnets? Given the many distractions that we now have at our fingertips, it is remarkable that his work has been so influential for so long.

– JVW

* See what I did there?
** Years ago I knew a woman whose boyfriend was working on a PhD at Harvard. His crusty old-school advisor supposedly sat him down and said to him, “You are a straight white male writing a dissertation on Shakespeare; you have zero chance of a faculty appointment at any decent university.” Indeed, he ended up teaching at a private high school.

[guest post by Dana]

Raise your hands if you’re surprised.

Then:

Trump: “We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt.”

Woodward: “How long would that take?”

Trump: “I think I could do it fairly quickly, because of the fact the numbers…”

Woodward: “What’s fairly quickly?”

Trump: “Well, I would say over a period of eight years. And I’ll tell you why.”

Woodward: “Would you ever be open to tax increases as part of that, to solve the problem?”

Trump: “I don’t think I’ll need to. The power is trade. Our deals are so bad.”

Woodward: “That would be $2 trillion a year.”

Trump: “No, but I’m renegotiating all of our deals, Bob.

Now:

You’ve said you plan to pay off the country’s debt in 10 years. How’s that possible?

No, I didn’t say 10 years. First of all, with low interest rates, you can think in terms of refinancings, and get it down. I believe you can do certain things to pay off the debt more quickly. The most important thing is to make sure the economy stays strong. You can do it in smaller chunks. You can do it in larger chunks. And you can do it in refinancings.

How much of the debt could you pay off in 10 years?

You could pay off a percentage of it.

Who wins number of times a candidate has had to, shall we say, re-adjust his claims?

I read on the interwebs that if Trump actually gets into office, look for a shiny, new gold leaf $19 trillion dollar coin bearing his image to be issued immediately. Just one… It’ll be fabulous! This I promise you.

–Dana