Categories: Donald Trump, Republicans
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Okay, let’s say it’s 1999 and you’re in a bar or some other public place and someone is sitting near you and they suddenly, rather loudly, say, “Democratic leaders are part of a Satanic cult that runs an international pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza place in Washington, DC. They murder children, then drink their blood. Tom Hanks is in on it too.” You might think that this is a person who’s lost their mind as you smile awkwardly and slowly back away. This person continues to spout-
“You know all these mass shootings we’ve had over the last few years? They didn’t really happen! They were all faked so Democrats could take our guns!” This might have made you a little nervous and you thought that maybe you should leave. But this person isn’t done.
“You know how they have those fires out in California? Well, those fires are actually started by Jewish space lasers!” And at that point you leave thinking you’ve encountered someone who is totally bat-sh*t crazy.
Yes, back then you’d think that this person had a severe mental problem. Today you’d think that this person was a Republican.
-David Durham on Quora
Categories: Republicans
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Uvalde teacher who lost 11 kids in his classroom says 'there is no excuse' for officers' delay in taking down gunman. "You're supposed to protect and serve. ... There is no excuse for their actions. And I will never forgive them."
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Most Americans don't accept the mass slaughter of children. Why does the GOP? (Washington Post gift article.)
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Fox News Channel to skip live primetime broadcast of Jan. 6 committee hearings because of course. Fox News will be the only major news network not to air the entire Jan. 6 Committee hearings live, and instead will provide its own coverage "as warranted" through the filter of its regular prime-time programs and hosts.
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Nightclub needle attacks puzzle authorities across Europe. It's not just France: Britain's government is studying a spate of "needle spiking" there, and police in Belgium and the Netherlands are investigating scattered cases, too.
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The 'Benjamin Button' effect: Scientists can reverse aging in mice. The goal is to do the same for humans. Using proteins that can turn an adult cell into a stem cell, researchers have reset aging cells in mice to earlier versions of themselves. In the first breakthrough, published in late 2020, old mice with poor eyesight and damaged retinas could suddenly see again, with vision that at times rivaled their offspring's.
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World Bank warns global economy may suffer 1970s-style stagflation. The World Bank on Tuesday slashed its global growth forecast to 2.9% and warned that many countries could fall into recession as the economy slips into a period of stagflation reminiscent of the 1970s.
Domino's Pizza offering half off all online pizza orders until June 12. All regularly priced pizza items are part of the deal, including specialty pizza offerings like Brooklyn style or pan pizzas. The deal can be applied to pick-up or delivery orders.
Target is ramping up discounts. Here's why. Target is stuck with too much home decor and too many TVs. To clear out the glut, it will ramp up discounts.
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Five biggest Supreme Court cases to watch. The U.S. Supreme Court tends to issue its biggest decisions in June. With a conservative super majority of justices, the public is focused on what new precedents the court could set - or even overturn.
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The GOP drive to install thousands of poll workers sets off alarms. Raises alarms that Republican election deniers could infiltrate official election operations and undermine the process.
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They thought they bought Obamacare plans. What they got wasn't insurance.
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10 secrets snack companies don't want you to know. Well, this is depressing.
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Neural 'poisonous flowers' could be the source of Alzheimer's plaque, says study.
Neuroscience says this simple sleep habit literally cleans your brain. We're not sure why it works. But it seems to have a significant effect.
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Paramount sued over 'Top Gun' copyright as 'Maverick' soars at the box office.
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Miscellany:
Birthdays
- 1917 - Dean Martin, American singer, actor, and producer (d. 1995) (Video)
- 1940 - Tom Jones, Welsh singer and actor (Video-when you're over 80 and still the coolest dude in the room...)
- 1952 - Liam Neeson, Irish-American actor
- 1958 - Prince, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor (d. 2016) (Video)
- 1959 - Mike Pence, 48th Vice President of the United States, 50th Governor of Indiana
- 1974 - Bear Grylls, English adventurer, author, and television host
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On this date in:
- 1776 - Richard Henry Lee presented the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress. The motion was seconded by John Adams and led to the United States Declaration of Independence. (Video)
- 1887 - The Monotype mechanical typesetting system was patented by Tolbert Lanston.
- 1892 - Homer Plessy was arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the "whites-only" car of a train; he lost the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, widely regarded as one of the worst decisions in U.S. Supreme Court history.
- 1942 - the battle of Midway ended in American victory. (Video)
- 1953 - the first color network telecast in compatible color was transmitted in Boston, MA
- 1955 - Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first U.S. president to appear in a live telecast on color television.
- 1965 - Sony Corp announced its first home video tape recorder priced at $995.
- 1965 - the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, prohibiting the states from criminalizing the use of contraception by married couples.
- 1968 - Sirhan Sirhan was indicted for the assassination of US Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
- 1969 - Tommy James and the Shondells released their single Crystal Blue Persuasion. (Video)
- 1972 - the musical "Grease" opened at the Broadhurst Theater in New York City, where it ran for 3,388 performances. (Video)
- 1975 - Sony launched Betamax, the first videocassette recorder format. (background)
- 1982 - Priscilla Presley opened Graceland to the public.
- 1991 - Mount Pinatubo began erupting, eventually generating an ash column over four miles high.
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Today is:
Daniel Boone Day, June Bug Day, National CAPHPACH Day, National Chocolate Ice Cream Day, Trial Technology Day, and VCR Day
Categories: Aging (Ageing), Alzheimer's Disease, Domino's Pizza, Economics, Elections, Fox News, Mass shootings, Needle spiking, Obamacare, Paramount Pictures, Republicans, Stagflation, Supreme Court, Target, Top Gun, Uvalde school shooting
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It's 19 weeks into the year and America has already seen 198 mass shootings. "This is planned violence. There is, in every one of these cases, always a trail of ... behavioral warning signs."
A fringe conspiracy theory, fostered online, is refashioned by the G.O.P. (NY Times free story) Replacement theory, espoused by the suspect in the Buffalo massacre, has been embraced by some right-wing politicians and commentators.
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Potentially alive 830-million-year-old organisms found trapped in ancient rock. What could go wrong?
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Americans can expect to pay a lot more for medical care in retirement. No kidding. A 65-year-old couple retiring this year can expect to spend an average of $315,000 in health-care and medical expenses in their retirement, according to a new estimate by Fidelity Investments. That's 5% higher than last year's estimate.
And what do they get for it? One in four Medicare patients harmed in hospitals, nearly half preventable. Among the roughly 1 million Medicare patients who were discharged from hospitals in October 2018, a total of 258,323 experienced an adverse or temporary harm event during their stay. And 12% experienced events that led to longer stays, lifesaving interventions, permanent harm, or death. "This projects to 121,089 Medicare patients having experienced at least one adverse event during the 1-month study period," the report stated.
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Whiny space tourists say they were too busy on the space station. They wanted to look out the window.
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The other scary thing about Alito's draft ruling on abortion... The dissents Alito stakes his argument on don't have to do with only abortion. They suggest threats to other constitutional rights, such as contraception access or LGBTQ protections. (Washington Post free article.)
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"I cannot survive on $260 a week": US retail and fast-food workers strike. Workers who bore the brunt of the Covid pandemic at billion-dollar companies such as Dollar General, McDonald's and Wendy's are leading a surge in action.
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Pennsylvania US Senate candidate Fetterman suffers stroke but says he's 'well on my way to a full recovery'. Don't bet against anybody who looks like Thanos. Election Day is tomorrow. Don't miss it.
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Yale research identifies causes of cancer. TL;DR: Essentially, being a living being on Earth.
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Confirmed: Disney Officially Replaces Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. Though the Mouse House still uses Johnny Depp's likeness for new Jack Sparrow merchandise, as well as features the man in their famous Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at Disney Parks, Disney has officially dumped Depp forever.
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Pizza has a delivery problem. The difficulty finding and keeping employees has hampered businesses across multiple sectors, but the restaurant industry has been hit particularly hard, leading to shorter operating hours and longer wait times for customers.
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The strange post-Trump politics of the Pennsylvania republican primaries. A few theories for why the former President's endorsement of Mehmet Oz failed to clear the field.
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Before Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, only 20% of Finland's citizens were in favor of joining NATO. Now it's 75%.
And in response...
Russian state TV suggests deploying nuclear weapons against Finland, Sweden. "Their official reason [to join NATO] is fear. But they'll have more fear in NATO. When NATO bases appear in Sweden and Finland, Russia will have no choice but to neutralize the imbalance and new threat by deploying tactical nuclear weapons," presenter Dmitry Kiselyov reportedly said on the channel.
Remember the old truism that the United States was never involved in conflicts with countries that had McDonald's franchises? McDonald's to leave Russia for good after 30 years.
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Aging, and the chronic diseases that come with it, is considered just an inevitable part of life. But what if it wasn't? What if aging itself was a disease- a disease that can be treated? Many scientists are doing just that, and the results are nothing short of shocking. Just how close are we to a cure for aging?
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Tweets, observations, and diversions:
Things you discover looking up other things: Back when rat infestations were commonplace, people found that rats loved chewing on paper. In an effort to save your notes while also offering a bit of papery delicacy to disease-carrying rodents, companies added wide margins to all four sides of notebook paper.
Some clickbait just doesn't work. "Unsettling Don Knotts secrets you never knew." Don't think so.
Trump supporters are white people for whom being born white in America
wasn't enough of an advantage.
-Middle Age Riot
Questions for the people who are scared of becoming a minority: Why is
that? Are minorities treated differently?
-Padma Lakshmi
You don't really think the party that yawned while its public health
policies killed over 1,000,000 Americans with COVID is ever going to
care if its ahistorical Second Amendment fetish kills thousands of
Americans with gun violence, do you?
-Mrs. Betty Bowers
Categories: Abortion, Aging (Ageing), Cancer, Disney, Elections, Finland, Joe Scott, John Fetterman, Johnny Depp, Mass shootings, McDonald's, Medicare, Medicine, Mehmet Oz, NATO, Pirates of the Carribean, Pizza, Replacement Theory, Republicans, Retirement, Russia, Science, Space, Supreme Court, Sweden, Ukraine, Unions
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Warhol's 'Marilyn,' at $195 million, shatters auction record for an American artist. Not bad for a kid from Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. (NY Times free article)
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Elon Musk says he'll reverse Donald Trump's Twitter ban. Swell.
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The next book ban: States aim to limit titles students can search for. Republican lawmakers across the country are proposing legislation that would target online library databases and library management technology- tools built by a half-dozen large companies that catalogue millions of books, journals and articles that students peruse for assignments.
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Baby formula shortage worsens: About 40% of popular brands sold out across US. The ongoing infant formula shortage isn't over yet- and appears to be getting worse.
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Ukraine is rebuilding cities as fast as Russia destroyed them. (Washington Post free article).
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Earth given 50-50 chance of hitting key warming mark by 2026. The odds are inching up along with the thermometer. Last year, the same forecasters put the odds at closer to 40% and a decade ago it was only 10%.
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Oddly-related climate story: Bodies surfacing in Lake Mead recall mob's time in Las Vegas. "There's no telling what we'll find in Lake Mead," former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Monday. "It's not a bad place to dump a body."
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The end of an era: Apple discontinues iPod touch, ending 20 year run of iconic 'iPod' brand. The number of devices made obsolete in my lifetime is into two figures and growing...
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Speaking of obsolete technology, on this date in 1975, Sony introduced the Betamax videocassette recorder.
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Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leitch ) is 76 today.
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Bono (Paul David Hewson) is 62 today.
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Microsoft to help cover workers' travel costs for abortions. The software maker will "support employees and their enrolled dependents in accessing critical health care- which already includes services like abortion and gender- affirming care- regardless of where they live across the U.S.," according to a statement Monday. "This support is being extended to include travel expense assistance for these and other medical services where access to care is limited in availability in an employee's home geographic region."
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Tweets and observations:
Last week, Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said her confidence in the court had
been "had been rocked" because justices lied during their confirmations
about their intent to overturn Roe v. Wade. This week, she's voting to
block Democrats' effort to codify Roe v. Wade.
-No Lie with Brian
Tyler Cohen
Good morning to everyone who reported treason through proper channels
and not book deals, @MarkTEsper
-Rachel Vindman!
Republicans want to keep women pregnant so their swollen feet hurt too
much to stand in line for six hours and vote against them.
-Middle
Age Riot
The President, whether Democrat or Republican, is not in charge of baby
formula.
-Paula Poundstone
The people protesting outside the homes of the justices are just
tourists engaging in legitimate political discourse.
-Covie_93
Categories: Abortion, Andy Warhol, Apple, Betamax, Bono, Book bans, Climate change, Donald Trump, Donovan, Elon Musk, iPod, Lake Mead, Las Vegas, Marilyn Monroe, Microsoft, Republicans, Sony, Ukraine
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When I told my 95-year-old mother I planned to stop by on Mother's Day, she asked, "Are you doing it for me or are you doing it for yourself?"
This was at the end of a ten minute soliloquy- prompted by what she thought to be impudence on my part- in which she enumerated all the things she regretted doing in her life. I wasn't included by name, but an overly sensitive individual could have made that inference due to associations with certain other events and individuals she referenced.
It should have been obvious I wasn't planning to return to her house on Mother's Day because I enjoyed listening to her ramblings of what she perceived to be her past dystopian existence. I suspect my anticipated visit wouldn't be the highpoint of her day, either.
I'm going to see her on Mother's Day because that's what a son does. Especially when you're an only child. In this time of societal breakdown, it's important to uphold tradition. I respect the office, if you know what I mean.
Sunday is Mother's Day. Grandmothers are a subset of that cohort. I've done mother-related quotes in the past; this year, let's go with grandmas.
And don't forget to at least call Mom on Sunday. At best, she'll appreciate the sentiment. At worst, she'll realize everyone makes mistakes.
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A grandmother will put a sweater on you when she is cold, feed you when
she is hungry, and put you to bed when she is tired.
-Erma Bombeck
A home without a grandmother is like an egg without salt.
-Florence
King
Grandchildren don't make a man feel old; it's the knowledge that he's
married to a grandmother.
-G. Norman Collie
If nothing is going well, call your grandmother.
-Variously
attributed
Just about the time a woman thinks her job is done, she becomes a
grandmother.
-Edward H. Dreschnack
Let's bring back grandmothers! A real family consists of three
generations. It's time Americans stopped worrying about interference and
being a burden on the children and regrouped under one roof.
-Florence
King
Grandmamma had been the last connection to our past. I had understood
her as some referent moral authority to whom we paid no heed, but by
whose judgments we measured our waywardness.
-E.L. Doctorow
My grandmother gave me five dollars and said, 'Don't tell your mother.'
I told her, 'It's going to cost you more than that.'
-Steven Wright
My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty.
She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is.
-Ellen
DeGeneris
My grandmother was a very tough woman. She buried three husbands. Two of
them were just napping.
-Rita Rudner
My grandmother was insane. She had pierced hearing aids.
-Steven
Wright
To reform a man, you must begin with his grandmother.
-Victor Hugo
Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting.
-Variously attributed
Whoever said 'Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting' obviously never
licked one.
-John Alejandro King (The Covert Comic)
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Remembering Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985):
On the evening of October 9, 1985, Welles recorded his final interview on the syndicated TV program The Merv Griffin Show, appearing with biographer Barbara Leaming. "Both Welles and Leaming talked of Welles's life, and the segment was a nostalgic interlude," wrote biographer Frank Brady. Welles returned to his house in Hollywood and worked into the early hours typing stage directions for the project he and Gary Graver were planning to shoot at UCLA the following day. Welles died sometime on the morning of October 10, following a heart attack.
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The Hot Topic:
"'The unborn" are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They
never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the
incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your
condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike
widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they
don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't
bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike;
they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating
or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget
about them, because they cease to be unborn. It's almost as if, by being
born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for
them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or
privilege, without re- imagining social structures, apologizing, or
making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to
love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who
breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All
the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get
thrown under the bus for the unborn."'
-from a 2018 social media
post by Dave Barnhart, a pastor at Saint Junia United Methodist Church
in Birmingham, Alabama.
What are Alito's primary sources for suggesting the criminalization of women for terminating their pregnancies? One is a 1732 journal called Gentleman's Magazine. (via Slate)
The GOP doesn't want your 12 year old daughter to read "The Handmaid's
Tale". But they are absolutely giddy at the thought of making her live
it.
-@dan6654
For all those worried about "The Handmaid's Tale" coming true, there had
to be a plague first that disrupted everything so... oh, shit.
-@iamisaided
In honor of Mother's Day, the Republican Party is trying to force more
women to be mothers.
-@middleageriot
Don't like abortions?
Just ignore them like you do kids in foster
care.
-@TrisResists
"Judges can't just wake up one day and say I have an agenda - I like
guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion - and walk in like a
royal queen and impose their will on the world. It's not the law of Amy.
It's the law of the American people."
-Amy Coney Barrett,
10/13/20
Categories: Abortion, Amy Coney Barrett, Dave Barnhart, Grandmothers, Mother's Day, Republicans, Roe v Wade, Supreme Court, The Handmaid's Tale
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That noise you hear is the whirlpool of the drain our democracy is approaching.
Roe v Wade in 1973 was a 7-2 decision, with five of the justices appointed by Republican presidents. Any further movement to the right, and we're in The Handmaid's Tale- if we're not there already.
Categories: Republicans, Supreme Court
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'Black Widow' Stunner: Disney's streaming revenue reveal may be game-changer. It takes something really major to get me into a movie theater these days.
It may sound strange, given a year of panic over school closures and reopenings, a year of masking toddlers and closing playgrounds and huddling in pandemic pods, that among children the mortality risk from COVID-19 is actually lower than from the flu.
FDA adds warning about rare reaction to J&J COVID-19 vaccine.
The 'Lambda' variant is now found in 29 countries. Here's what we know about it. Lambda? What about Epsilon through Kappa?
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From Crazytown:
Fox News hosts smear Covid vaccine, despite outbreaks among unvaccinated.
With Covid surging, GOP members continue to discourage vaccination. (Video)
Don Jr. bombs at CPAC as crowd cheers low vaccination rates: A Closer Look. (Video)
Neighbors see Trump waiting by mailbox for reinstatement notice. "When the mail truck comes, he gets this excited look on his face." (Satire: Andy Borowitz)
Student charged with putting Hitler quote in school yearbook.
Allen Weisselberg removed as officer of Trump Organization subsidiaries.
A new and rapidly growing Christian movement is openly political, wants a nation under God's authority, and is central to Donald Trump's GOP. They forget about that pesky U.S. Constitution: "...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." (Article VI, paragraph 3). It's the only place in the entire Constitution where the word "ever" appears, so the founders were pretty clear on their intent, no?
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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:
Among other things, today is
- Barbershop Music Appreciation Day
- Beans 'n' Franks Day
- Embrace Your Geekness Day
- Fool's Paradise Day
- Go West Day
- Gruntled Workers Day
- National Beef Tallow Day
- National French Fry Day
On this date:
- 1832 - The source of the Mississippi River was discovered by American geographer Henry Schoolcraft
- 1863 - New York City draft riots: In New York City, opponents of conscription began three days of rioting which will be later regarded as the worst in United States history.
- 1865 - Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the "New-York Tribune" reportedly told his readers to "Go west, young man"
- 1871 - World's first championship cat show was organized by Harrison Weir and held at the Crystal Palace in London.
- 1917 - A vision of the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared to children in Fatima, Portugal
- 1923 - The Hollywood Sign was officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles. It originally reads "Hollywoodland" but the four last letters are dropped after renovation in 1949.
- 1955 - The last execution of a woman in Britain, Ruth Ellis, took place at Holloway Prison, London
- 1960 - Democrats selected John F. Kennedy as their nominee for President.
- 1973 - Watergate scandal: Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret Oval Office taping system to investigators for the Senate Watergate Committee
- 1977 - An electrical blackout in New York City lasted nearly 24 hours, contributing to widespread fires and looting.
- 2013 - Black Lives Matter movement created in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Birthdays
- 1864 - John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman and soldier (richest passenger aboard the Titanic) (d. 1912)
- 1913 - Dave Garroway, American journalist and television personality (d. 1982) (Video)
- 1926 - Robert H. Justman, American director, producer, and production manager ("Star Trek")(d. 2008) (Video)
- 1928 - Bob Crane, American actor (d. 1978) (Video)
- 1940 - Sir Patrick Stewart, English actor, director, and producer (Video)
- 1941 - Robert Forster, American actor and producer (d. 2019) (Video)
- 1942 - Harrison Ford, American actor and producer (Video)
- 1946 - Cheech Marin, American actor and comedian (Video)
- 1951 - Didi Conn, American actress and singer (Video)
- 1957 - Cameron Crowe, American director, producer, and screenwriter (Video)
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Miscellany
Can mankind be unified by an extra-terrestrial threat? The reaction to Covid has shown that the 'unity through crises' model of the global ruling class has backfired. Moot point. Any advanced civilizations monitoring us know to avoid us.
Duh. TikTok trend of whitening teeth with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is not safe, dentists say.
8 secrets Domino's doesn't want you to know.
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Categories: Allen Weisselberg, Black Widow, Christians, Covid-19, Donald Trump, Fox News, Marvel, Republicans, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert
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KGB Report will return on Tuesday, July 6. Have a safe Independence Day holiday!
(Salt Lake Tribune)
Town that recorded highest temperature in Canada's history destroyed by wildfire. More than 1,000 people living in and around Lytton, B.C., northeast of Vancouver, were forced to leave with little notice Wednesday. They raced out of town in every direction as smoke and flames swallowed the community in minutes.
The IRS is swamped with 35 million unprocessed tax returns, meaning people will have to wait longer for refunds. Former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told The Washington Post's Jeff Stein that "the problem is not with IRS employees who work very hard. It's with Republicans in Congress who have refused to provide adequate funding for 10 years."
China building more than 100 'nuclear' missile silos in desert. Satellite footage shows 'alarming development' that signals possible expansion of nuclear capabilities.
The biggest threat to America is America itself. We Americans repeat the mantra that "we're No. 1" even though the latest Social Progress Index, a measure of health, safety and well-being around the world, ranked the United States No. 28. Even worse, the United States was one of only three countries, out of 163, that went backward in well-being over the last decade.
Flesh eating parasites skyrocket in the US.
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From Crazytown:
Trump calls U.S. military generals 'woke,' 'weak and ineffective leaders'.
Trump Organization and CFO Allen Weisselberg plead not guilty to tax crimes. Prosecutors described a yearslong scheme to compensate executives "off the books" to avoid paying taxes.
Govs Gone Wild: Unhinged, Uncensored, Uninformed (Video)
Seditionists' roundup... "not the tightest zip ties in the bag..." And a vertical penile fracture. (Video)
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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:
Among other things, today is
- Comic Sans Day
- Drive Your Corvette to Work Day
- Freedom From Fear of Speaking Day
- I Forgot Day
- Made in the USA Day
- National Anisette Day
- Special Recreation for the Disabled Day
- World Sports Journalists Day
- World UFO Day
On this date:
- 1698 - Thomas Savery patented the first steam engine.
- 1776 - The Continental Congress adopted a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence was not published until July 4.
- 1839 - Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutiny and took over the slave ship Amistad.
- 1881 - Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded U.S. President James A. Garfield (who died of complications from his wounds on September 19).
- 1890 - The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
- 1897 - British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtained a patent for radio in London.
- 1900 - The first Zeppelin flight took place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
- 1900 - Jean Sibelius' Finlandia received its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. (Video)
- 1921 - U.S. President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox-Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany.
- 1928 - The Jenkins Television Corporation goes on air with W3XK, the first television broadcasting station in the USA
- 1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
- 1955 - "Lawrence Welk Show" premiered on ABC (Video)
- 1956 - Elvis Presley recorded "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" (Video)
- 1962 - The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opened for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
- 1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
- 1980 - The movie "Airplane!" premiered (Video: Airplane! is actually a remake of Zero Hour!)
- 2002 - Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007 while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert, between Nevada and California. Extensive searches proved unsuccessful, and he was declared legally dead in February of the following year.
Birthdays
- 1877 - Hermann Hesse, German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
- 1906 - Hans Bethe, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- 1908 - Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd Solicitor General of the United States (d. 1993)
- 1916 - Ken Curtis, American actor and singer (d. 1991)
- 1922 - Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer (d. 2020)
- 1925 - Medgar Evers, American soldier and activist (d. 1963)
- 1927 - Brock Peters, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1929 - Imelda Marcos, Filipino politician; 10th First Lady of the Philippines
- 1931 - Robert Ito, Canadian-born actor (Sam-Quincy ME)
- 1932 - Dave Thomas, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy's (d. 2002)
- 1937 - Polly Holliday, American actress
- 1946 - Ron Silver, American actor, director, and political activist (d. 2009)
- 1947 - Larry David, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter
- 1948 - Saul Rubinek, German-born Canadian character actor, director, playwright, and producer of television, theatre, and film
- 1986 - Lindsay Lohan, American actress and singer
- 1990 - Margot Robbie, Australian actress and producer
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Miscellany
Senate passes bill wishing younger generations best of luck stopping climate change. (The Onion)
Yes, a Florida man is actually accused of hiding meth inside this body part. Crystal rocks found in private area, deputies say.
Picasso kept in Maine house closet for 50 years is sold for $150K.
No, you can't recycle a bowling ball (but people sure keep trying). Why do 1,200 balls end up at New York City’s main recycling plant each year? People seem to think that because they are plastic, they are the same as, say, takeout containers. They are not.
Excruciating slip-up sees BBC News report confuse Bill Clinton with Bill Cosby. Oops.
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Categories: Alexa, Allen Weisselberg, amazon.com, America is..., Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, China, Climate change, Environment, Florida, IRS, January 6, Pablo Picasso, Republicans, The Onion
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Condo owners in Surfside building were facing assessments for $15 million worth of repairs. Payments were set to begin a week after the building's deadly fall.
Gas stations are running out of gas ahead of the holiday weekend. It's the shortage of tank truck drivers coupled with rising demand that is causing supply chain bottlenecks and shortages. Experts say a growing number of stations are reporting that they are simply not able to get gas delivered- at any price.
Hotter than the human body can handle: Pakistan city broils in world’s highest temperatures (126°F) (Video)
-----
From Crazytown:
Blame Democrats for the rise in Chipotle burrito prices. (Video)
Out-of-practice Trump forgets to strand rally crowd in parking lot. (Andy Borowitz)
What underlies the G.O.P. commitment to ignorance? Closed-mindedness and ignorance have become core conservative values, and those who reject these values are the enemy, no matter what they may have done to serve the country.
Trump Organization sues New York City for closing golf course after January 6 riots. That could be a big mistake.
Tucker Carlson says 'Biden administration is spying' on him. The television personality offered no additional evidence to support his claim, which drew scrutiny from several users on social media.
Giuliani son gets no votes from Republican leaders in bid for New York governor. Andrew Giuliani, who has traded off his surname, embarrassed by poll that indicates Lee Zeldin will challenge Andrew Cuomo.
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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:
Among other things, today is
- International Asteroid Day
- National Meteor Day
- National OOTD Day
- National Organization for Women Day
- National Parchment Day
- World Social Media Day
On this date:
- 1892 – Actions culminating in the Homestead Strike began
- 1905 – Albert Einstein sent the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduced special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik
- 1908 – The Tunguska Event, the largest impact event on Earth in human recorded history, results in a massive explosion over Eastern Siberia. (Video)
- 1938 - Superman first appears in DC Comics' Action Comics series issue #1
- 1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolled off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan. (Video)
- 1966 – The National Organization for Women, the United States' largest feminist organization, was founded.
Birthdays
- 1901 - Willie Sutton, American bank robber (d.1980)
- 1917 – Susan Hayward, American actress (d. 1975)
- 1917 – Lena Horne, American actress, singer, and activist (d. 2010) (Video)
- 1930 - Thomas Sowell, American economist, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution
- 1934 – Harry Blackstone Jr., American magician and author (d. 1997) (Video)
- 1942 - Robert Ballard, American professor explorer and discoverer (wrecks of the Titanic, Bismarck, and USS Yorktown)
- 1943 – Florence Ballard, American pop/soul singer (The Supremes)(d. 1976)
- 1956 – David Alan Grier, American actor, singer, and comedian
- 1959 – Vincent D'Onofrio, American actor (Video)
- 1966 – Mike Tyson, American boxer and actor (Video)
- 1985 – Michael Phelps, American swimmer
-----
Miscellany
A record-breaking hailstone fell near San Antonio. A bigger one went into margaritas.
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Categories: Climate change, Covid-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, Environment, Fox News, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani, Shortages, Superman, Surfside collapse, The Big Lie, Tucker Carlson
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(Note: KGB Report will be on vacation until June 28)
-----
Another jump in prices tightens the squeeze on US consumers. And Deutsche Bank issues dire economic warning for America. If the U.S. economy descends into an inflation spiral like that experienced after World War II, we could be on the brink of excruciating economic pain. As Donald Trump's more or less sole lender, they know about economic pain.
Why Democrats are voting on bills that have no chance of passing. A vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act this week marked the start of this process, which will soon include votes on a series of Democratic priorities that will likely fail. These votes are intended to demonstrate Democrats’ commitment to issues like voting rights protections and gun control, while underscoring how willing Republicans are to obstruct these policies.
Half of the pandemic's unemployment money may have been stolen. Criminals may have stolen as much as half of the unemployment benefits the U.S. has been pumping out over the past year, some experts say.
You know those scary television ads about Biden weaponizing the IRS? You really have nothing to worry about if you're a normal person or business. The plan is aimed at legally owed but uncollected taxes, which could total over $7 trillion over the next ten years.
These businesses found a way around the worker shortage: Raising wages to $15 an hour or more.
Study shows Bitcoin is actually traceable. The F.B.I.’s recovery of Bitcoins paid in the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack showed cryptocurrencies are not as hard to track as it might seem. But ransomware rolls on: JBS says it paid $11 million ransom after cyberattack. And hacker known as Max is 55-year-old woman from Russia, US says.
National Geographic says there’s a fifth ocean on Earth. The 130-year-old exploration and education nonprofit marked World Oceans Day on Tuesday by declaring that the waters around Antarctica will now be known as the Southern Ocean - the planet’s fifth ocean.
Americans could be cut off from the internet over copyright claims. A court ruled that ISPs can avoid liability by kicking customers off the internet. The ruling is being challenged.
Well, this is awkward: Jeffrey Toobin is back at CNN eight months after exposing himself on Zoom.
-----
From Crazytown:
No, Trump's not delusional - it's actually much worse than that. Trump's Big Lie about the election and fantasies of "reinstatement" aren't delusional. They're devious strategies./p>
21 QAnon-linked candidates are running for office in 2022. Newsweek asked them about Q. Lots of fun evasions here.
Gohmert asks if federal agencies can change Earth's or moon's orbits to fight climate change. "Did the tree lady call back with the moon answer?" (Video)
Poll: US image abroad rebounds sharply with Biden in office. In 12 of the surveyed countries, a median of 75% expressed confidence in Biden, compared with 17% for Trump in 2020. A median of 62% across 12 nations had a favorable overall opinion of the U.S., while only 34% held that view last year.
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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:
Among other things, today is
- Corn on the Cob Day
- Cousteau Day
- King Kamehameha Day
- National German Chocolate Cake Day
- National Making Life Beautiful Day
- National Marriage Day
On this date:
- 1742 - Benjamin Franklin invented his Franklin stove
- 1776 - The Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
- 1920 - During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading United Press to coin the political phrase "smoke-filled room".
- 1935 - Inventor Edwin Armstrong gave the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey.
- 1962 - Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly became the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
- 1963 - Alabama Governor George Wallace defiantly stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they were able to register.
- 1963 - Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc self-immolated himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.
- 1963 - John F. Kennedy addressed Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights. (Video)
- 2001 - Timothy McVeigh was executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
- 1937 - Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races", was released in the US (Video)
- 1982 - "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was released (Video)
- 1993 - "Jurassic Park" released, sets box office weekend record of $502 million (Video)
Birthdays
- 1864 - Richard Strauss, German composer and conductor (d. 1949) (Video)
- 1910 - Carmine Coppola, American flute player and composer (d. 1991)(Video)
- 1910 - Jacques Cousteau, French biologist, author, and inventor, co-developed the aqua-lung (d. 1997)
- 1913 - Vince Lombardi, American football player, coach, and manager (d. 1970
- 1925 - William Styron, American novelist and essayist
- 1933 - Gene Wilder, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2016) (Video)
- 1945 - Adrienne Barbeau, American actress
- 1956 - Joe Montana, American football player and sportscaster
- 1959 - Hugh Laurie, English actor and screenwriter (Video)
- 1969 - Peter Dinklage, American actor and producer (Video)
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Miscellany
Dog ejected from vehicle in Idaho crash found herding sheep.
We've been telling the Alamo story wrong for nearly 200 years. Now it's time to correct the record. Thank heavens John Wayne isn't around to hear this...
Ice block containing frozen poo crashes into the street from passing airplane. At least it wasn't alien.
Automobile semiconductors, meat, wood products, food service employees... what next? Glad you asked: New Orleans strip club offering contract bonuses due to exotic dancer shortage.
Signs of the Apocalypse: Crocs with stiletto heels.
Zombie sea slugs (video) and dangerous little ticks.
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Categories: Alamo, Bitcoin, CNN, Cryptocurrency, Democrats, Dogs, Donald Trump, Environment, Filibuster, Inflation, Internet, IRS, Jeffrey Toobin, Joe Biden, Louie Gohmert, National Geographic, QAnon, Republicans, Taxes, The Big Lie, Unemployment
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Reporters traveling to the United Kingdom for President Joe Biden's first overseas trip were delayed seven hours after their chartered plane was overrun by cicadas.
(Video) Rachel Maddow: GOP succeeds in wasting Democrats' time in power. You would think they would have learned something from the Obamacare debacle.
Jobless in PA livid over new unemployment system errors as state declares victory. When's the best time to migrate to a new system using an entirely different platform and paradigm? Probably not during a pandemic with a record number of claimaints. Duh.
Susan Collins sad that Joe Manchin has replaced her as most annoying Senator. "It's only fitting that the baton be passed to an obscure senator from West Virginia," she said. (Andy Borowitz)
Biden disliked Putin before it was cool. For more than 20 years, Joe Biden has questioned Vladimir Putin's true intentions.
US to buy 500 million Covid vaccine doses for world. But let's draw the line at free beer and lottery tickets, ok?
San Francisco may be first major US city to hit herd immunity, experts say. City still recording small number of Covid cases per day but they don't appear to be triggering wider outbreaks.
From Crazytown:
Trump returns as a diminished TV draw. Not having the nuclear codes kind of diminishes the drama, I guess...
QAnon at a crossroads: leaders try to rein in the crazy. With Q silent and Trump out of office, QAnon's heroes are trying to pump the brakes on the right's most popular nutty conspiracy theory.
'5G towers,' other conspiracies flourish at hearing on vaccine bill. "They can put a key on their forehead, it sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can stick, because now we think there's a metal piece to that. There's been people who have long suspected that there was some sort of an interface, yet to be defined interface, between what's being injected in these shots and all of the 5G towers." (Video)
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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:
Among other things, today is
- Alcoholics Anonymous Founders' Day
- Ballpoint Pen Day
- National Black Cow Day
- National Herbs and Spices Day
- National Iced Tea Day
On this date:
- 1692 - Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop was hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries".
- 1752 - Benjamin Franklin tested the lightning conductor with his kite-flying experiment
- 1845 - Andrew Jackson's African Grey parrot "Poll" was removed from his funeral for swearing at The Hermitage, Tennessee. Funeral attendee William Menefee Norment recorded: "Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house
- 1847 - The Chicago Tribune began publishing.
- 1854 - The United States Naval Academy graduated its first class of students.
- 1924 - first political convention broadcast on radio (Republicans at Cleveland)
- 1935 - Dr. Robert Smith (Doctor Bob) took his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio.
- 1947 - Saab produced its first automobile.
- 1964 - United States Senate broke a 75-day filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill's passage.
- 1966 - The Mamas and the Papas win a gold record for "Monday, Monday" (Video)
- 1974 - "Feel Like Makin' Love" single released by Roberta Flack (Video)
Birthdays
- 1886 - Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese actor (The Bridge on the River Kwai) and producer (d. 1973) (Video)
- 1895 - Hattie McDaniel, American actress (Gone with the Wind)(d. 1952) (Video)
- 1915 - Saul Bellow, Canadian-American novelist, essayist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- 1918 - Barry Morse, English-Canadian actor and director (d. 2008) (The Fugitive, Space: 1999) (Video)
- 1921 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (d. 2021)[
- 1922 - Judy Garland, American singer, actress, and vaudevillian (d. 1969) (Video)
- 1928 - Maurice Sendak, American author and illustrator (d. 2012) ("Where the Wild Things Are") (Video)
- 1929 - James McDivitt, American general, pilot, and astronaut (Gemini 4, Apollo 9)
- 1933 - F. Lee Bailey, American criminal defense attorney (Sam Shepard; Boston Strangler; Patty Hearst; OJ Simpson)(d. 2021)
- 1949 - Kevin Corcoran, actor (Swiss Family Robinson, Babes in Toyland), born in Santa Monica, California (d. 2015) (Video)
- 1959 - Eliot Spitzer, American lawyer and politician, 54th Governor of New York (Video- Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer)
- 1965 - Elizabeth Hurley, English model, actress, and producer
- 1968 - Bill Burr, American comedian and actor (Video)
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Miscellany
Rio de Janeiro's Christ statue: 'Thou shalt not bribe'. The Rio branch of the international accounting firm KPMG has signed an agreement with the administration of the Sanctuary of Christ the Redeemer to ensure operations are aboveboard.
Retired nun will plead guilty to stealing more than $835K from Catholic school ...to "pay for expenses that the order would not have approved, much less paid for, including large gambling expenses incurred at casinos and certain credit card charges..."
"Not a good day to get tacos..."two Florida men flying to get tacos when their small plane went down in the Everglades."
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Categories: Andy Borowitz, Cicadas, Clergy, Computers, Congress, Covid-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, Florida, Jesus, Joe Biden, Joe Manchin, QAnon, Rachel Maddow, Republicans, Susan Collins, Vladimir Putin
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New York Times: Fields of watermelons found on Mars, police say. Authorities say rise of fruit aliens is to blame for glut of outer space watermelons. Oops.
The secret IRS files: trove of never-before-seen records reveal how the wealthiest avoid income tax. In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world's richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes. Michael Bloomberg managed to do the same in recent years. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn did it twice. George Soros paid no federal income tax three years in a row. The reaction? Biden administration investigates 'illegal' leak of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett's tax information.
Beware the Delta Variant. A new and deadlier variant of Covid-19 may cause another wave this summer among the unvaccinated and those who only received the first shot.
Fastly outage: why it just broke Amazon, Reddit, Twitch and much of the internet. As Corinne Cath-Speth, a Ph.D. candidate at Oxford Internet Institute and the Alan Turing Institute pointed out on Twitter, this means "a technical hiccup in a single company can have huge ramifications." Here's an more detailed and mostly non-technical explanation of CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) (Video).
And if that wasn't bad enough, CyberNews reported that an anonymous forum poster uploaded a 100GB text file containing 8.4 billion entries of passwords.
Global crime bust involving U.S., 15 other nations nabs hundreds, drugs, cash. Authorities worldwide have arrested hundreds of suspects connected to organized crime after decrypting messages sent over an FBI-controlled smartphone application popular with the criminal underworld.
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From Dementialand:
Rejecting Biden's win, rising Republicans attack legitimacy of elections. The next generation of aspiring G.O.P. congressional leaders has aggressively pushed Donald Trump’s false fraud claims, raising the prospect that the results of elections will continue to be challenged through 2024.
How America fractured into four parts. People in the United States no longer agree on the nation's purpose, values, history, or meaning. Is reconciliation possible?
Trump feared Democrats would replace Biden with Michelle Obama, book claims. Donald Trump called Joe Biden a "mental retard" during the 2020 election, a new book says, but was reluctant to attack him too strongly for fear the Democrats would replace him with Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama.
QAnon supporter who chased Capitol police officer says he was deceived by 'pack of lies'. His attorney said he "fell victim to this barrage of internet sourced info" and came to the Capitol at the urging of former President Trump to "demonstrate that he was a 'true patriot.'"
Wisconsin ex-pharmacist gets prison for ruining vaccine. A former pharmacist in Wisconsin who purposefully ruined more than 500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday. He is an admitted conspiracy theorist who believes he is a prophet and vaccines are a product of the devil. He also professed a belief that the Earth is flat and the 9/11 terrorist attacks were faked.
An anti-vaccine film targeted to black Americans spreads false information
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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:
Among other things, today is
- Donald Duck Day
- National Earl Day
- National Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Day
- World APS Day (World Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome Day)
- Writers' Rights Day
On this date:
- 68 - Roman emperor Nero committed suicide, after quoting Vergil's Aeneid, thus ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
- 1856 - Five hundred Mormons left Iowa City, Iowa for the Mormon Trail.
- 1934 - first appearance of Donald Duck in the cartoon, "The Wise Little Hen".
- 1954 - Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashed out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings, giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" (Video)
- 1958 - "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley hit #1 in the U.S. (Video)
- 1959 - The USS George Washington was launched, the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. (Video)
- 1973 - Secretariat (March 30, 1970 - October 4, 1989) won the U.S. Triple Crown. He still holds the fastest speed records in all three races.
- 1980 - Comedian Richard Pryor suffered burns from freebasing cocaine. (NSFW Video)
- 1989 - "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" premiered in USA. This was the one directed by Shatner. The less said the better.
Birthdays
- 1672 - Peter the Great, Russian emperor (d. 1725)
- 1891 - Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter (d. 1964) (Video)
- 1910 - Robert Cummings, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1990) (Video)
- 1915 - Les Paul, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2009) (Video)
- 1916 - Robert McNamara, American businessman and politician, eighth United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2009)
- 1922 - John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Anglo-American pilot and poet (d. 1941); author of the poem "High Flight."
- 1930 - Marvin Kalb, American educator and newscaster (CBS/NBC, Meet the Press)
- 1931 - Jackie Mason, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
- 1934 - Jackie Wilson, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984) (Video)
- 1961 - Michael J. Fox, Canadian-American actor, producer, and author
- 1961 - Aaron Sorkin, American screenwriter, producer, and playwright
- 1963 - Johnny Depp, American actor
- 1981 - Natalie Portman, Israeli-American actress
-----
Miscellany
(Sky News)
Hartlepool's monkey statue to be given 'explanatory sign' to avoid offending visitors. Unless you're a visitor from France: "Legend states that the animal was the only survivor of a shipwreck off the northeast coast of England and because the villagers had never seen a monkey before, they mistook it for a Frenchman and convicted it of being a spy."
Las Vegas woman crushes three watermelons in 7.5 seconds for world record. Olson used her thighs to smash three watermelons in 7.5 seconds, nearly halving Ukrainian bodybuilder Olga Liashchuk's Guinness World Record of 14.65 seconds.
I really wasn't planning to, but here's another good reason: FDA issues warning not to eat cicadas if you're allergic to seafood. The insects share a family relation to shrimp and lobsters.
South African woman gives birth to decuplets. A South Africa woman who was expecting eight babies is believed to be a new record holder after she gave birth to 10 infants.
Categories: Covid-19, Cybercrime, Donald Trump, Internet, IRS, January 6, QAnon, Republicans, Taxes, The Big Lie
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Signs of the Apocalypse, #913. Game over, man. It has begun...
(Another link if video is missing.)
Signs of the Apocalypse, #914. Almost as scary- you don't need to be Douglas Trumbull or Jim Cameron to pull this off. Just about anyone can do this with easily obtainable software.
New grand jury seated for next stage of Trump investigation. Nope. Not gonna get excited. Been burned before...
Even worse: Arizona's Secretary of State 'stripped' of duties after criticizing election audit.
Republicans worried blind worship of Trump overriding traditional values like blind worship of Reagan. (The Onion)
Trumpland: QAnon crowd convinced UFOs are a diversion from voter fraud. "They want you talking about aliens because they don’t want you talking about Maricopa," Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson tweeted. You know things are bad when the story about the UFOs is true.
Social media heavyweights wooed for Pfizer smear campaign. Social media influencers in France with hundreds of thousands of followers say a mysterious advertising agency offered to pay them if they agreed to smear Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine with negative fake stories.
Germany gives greenlight to driverless vehicles on public roads. Germany has adopted legislation that will allow driverless vehicles on public roads by 2022, laying out a path for companies to deploy robotaxis and delivery services in the country at scale. While autonomous testing is currently permitted in Germany, this would allow operations of driverless vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel.
Missed opportunity: Tom Hanks, a life-long Star Trek fan, almost played Zefram Cochrane in "Star Trek: First Contact."
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KGB's daily agglomeration of stuff I find interesting:
Among other things, today is National Blueberry Cheesecake Day, National Cherry Dessert Day, National Paper Airplane Day, National Senior Health & Fitness Day, Sally Ride Day, World Dracula Day, World Lindy Hop Day, World Product Day, and World Redhead Day.
Samuel E. Wright, voice of Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid, dead at 74. (Video)
Events:
1647 - Alse
Young was the first person executed as a witch in the American
colonies
1805 - Lewis
and Clark see the Rocky
Mountains for the first time.
1828 - Mysterious feral child Kaspar
Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg
1868 – The
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson ended with his acquittal by one vote.
1896
– Charles
Dow published the first edition of the Dow
Jones Industrial Average.
1897 – Dracula
by Bram
Stoker was published in London.
1927 – The last Ford
Model T rolled off the assembly line after a production run of
15,007,003 vehicles.
1967 – The
Beatles' Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in the UK. (Video)
1975
- Glen
Campbell's Rhinestone
Cowboy single was released. (Video)
1978
- first
legal gambling casino opened in Atlantic City.
Birthdays
Isadora Duncan (b. Angela Isadora Duncan, May 26, 1877 – September 14, 1927)Al Jolson (b. Asa Yoelson, c. 1885 – October 23, 1950)
John Wayne (b. Marion Robert Morrison, May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979)
Jay Silverheels (b. Harold Jay Smith, May 26, 1912 – March 5, 1980)
Peter Cushing (May 26, 1913 – August 11, 1994)
Peggy Lee (b. Norma Deloris Egstrom, May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002)
James Arness (b. James King Aurness, May 26, 1923 – June 3, 2011)
Miles Davis (b. Miles Dewey Davis III, May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991)
Dr. Jack Kevorkian (b. Murad Jacob Kevorkian May 26, 1928 – June 3, 2011)
Stevie Nicks (b. Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks, May 26, 1948)
Pam Grier (b. Pamela Suzette Grier, May 26, 1949)
Sally Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012)
Bobcat Goldthwait (b. Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait, May 26, 1962
Lenny Kravitz (b. Leonard Albert Kravitz, May 26, 1964)
Helena Bonham Carter (b. May 26, 1966)
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We're taking an extended Memorial Day holiday and will resume on Tuesday, June 1.
Categories: Arizona, Cartoons, Covid-19, Deep Fakes, Donald Trump, Jim Carrey, Republicans, Ronald Reagan, Signs of the Apocalypse, Star Trek, The Big Lie, Tom Hanks
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Wow... lots of things happened on May 25:
1803, Ralph
Waldo Emerson was born;
1878, Gilbert
and Sullivan's comic opera "H.M.S.
Pinafore" opened at the Opera Comique in London;
1921, Hal
David was born;
1925, John
T. Scopes was indicted for teaching
human evolution in Tennessee;
1926, Claude
Akins was born;
1929, Beverly
Sills was born;
1936, Tom
T. Hall was born;
1939, Sir
Ian McKellen and Dixie
Carter were born;
1943, Leslie
Uggams was born;
1944, birth of Frank
Oz;
1947, Karen
Valentine was born;
1955, birth of Connie
Selleca;
1960, Amy
Klobuchar was born;
1961, U.S. President John
F. Kennedy announced, before a special joint session of the US
Congress, his goal to initiate a project
to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade. (video);
1962,
The
Isley Brothers release "Twist
and Shout" (video)
;
1963, birth of Mike
Myers;
1968, The Gateway
Arch in St. Louis, Missouri was dedicated;
1969, "Midnight
Cowboy" was released and Anne
Heche was born;
1970, Octavia
Spencer was born;
1977, the original "Star
Wars" movie premiered (without the Episode IV-A New Hope
subtitle);
1979, "Alien"
debuted;
1983, "Return
of the Jedi" hit theaters;
1986, The Hands
Across America event took place;
1990, Vic
Tayback died;
1992, Jay
Leno became host of "The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno";
2001, the first Towel
Day;
2007, Charles
Nelson Reilly died;
2011, the last episode of "The
Oprah Winfrey Show" aired; (video)
2017,
"Wonder
Woman" was released;
2020, George
Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota during an arrest.
Five years ago today:
"Donald Trump is now ahead of Hillary Clinton in the polls. This was
reported today in the Washington Post and 2,000 years ago in the Book of
Revelations."
-Conan O'Brien
-----
The Havana Syndrome first affected spies and diplomats in Cuba. Now it has spread to the White House. US officials suspect Russian spies are aiming microwave radiation devices at targets to collect intelligence from their computers and cell phones. Brain frying is just collateral- not intentional- damage.
re: spies: Jeff Bezos, a real-life Bond villain, may own James Bond very soon. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon's recently rumored plans to acquire MGM have taken a major step forward, in a roughly $9 billion deal that is one of the e-commerce giant's largest acquisitions.
re: wealth: Wikipedia is swimming in money— why is it begging people to donate? The site is way richer than it wants you to know.
-----
Why is Anthony Fauci hedging on the origins of the coronavirus? Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report that could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the Covid-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory. Nah. It was the takeout pangolin nuggets they got from Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
The 2021 vaccination map looks like the 2020 election map. The scary thing is if something that can save a lot of lives has fallen into the usual political traps, then pretty much anything can.
Speaking of scary things: Once nearly extinct, the Florida panther is making a comeback. Not as scary and aggressive as the Florida cougar.
-----
Republicans claim January 6th rioters were middle schoolers on field trip. (Andy Borowitz satire)
Senate GOP misrepresents Jan. 6 riot panel. (Associated Press; not satire, alas.)
-----
Body of missing man found inside dinosaur statue. While police have not confirmed how he got inside, local media reports that the man dropped his phone inside the statue and was trying to retrieve it, BBC News reports. He fell inside, hanging upside down, and was unable to call for help.
-----
John Oliver humiliates local TV stations with 'sexual wellness blanket' sponsored content.
-----
A mysterious rise in methane levels is sparking global warming fears.
-----
US warns against all travel to Japan as Olympics loom. The State Department's warning, which followed the CDC alert, was more blunt. "Do not travel to Japan due to COVID-19, it said in the announcement, which raised the department's travel alert from Level 3 — Reconsider travel — to Level 4 — Do not travel. The previous alert was issued on April 21.
-----
"I assume the person who first said 'to coin a phrase' said it twice in
a row."
-The
Covert Comic
Categories: Andy Borowitz, Anthony Fauci, Covert Comic, Covid-19, Cuba, Florida, Havana Syndrome, James Bond, January 6, Japan, Jeff Bezos, John Oliver, May 25, MGM, Olympics, Republicans
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One of the problems associated with being thrown into Facebook jail is ignorance of the alleged offense.
The announcement states that your post has violated Facebook's "Community Standards," a dense, 27-page litany of offenses that will get you kicked off the platform.
I found the section which I believe addresses my post:
"We care deeply about the safety of the people who use our apps. We regularly consult with experts in suicide and self-injury to help inform our policies and enforcement, and work with organizations around the world to provide assistance to people in distress.
"While we do not allow people to intentionally or unintentionally celebrate or promote suicide or self-injury, we do allow people to discuss these topics because we want Facebook to be a space where people can share their experiences, raise awareness about these issues, and seek support from one another."
"We define self-injury as the intentional and direct injuring of the body, including self-mutilation and eating disorders. We remove any content that encourages suicide or self-injury, including fictional content such as memes or illustrations and any self-injury content which is graphic, regardless of context."
Here's the offending cartoon:
I maintain this isn't a cartoon about suicide- it's a cartoon addressing the power of social media to influence otherwise sane people to do insane things. If anything, it's an anti-suicide cartoon.
I've appealed prior suspensions and won, because it was obvious the artificially intelligent bot or stressed human outside contractor didn't grasp the concepts of satire, parody, or irony and made a bad call. Most of the time Facebook admitted it was in error and unhid the post. But I don't think it's going to work in this instance, because self-injury is one of those categories of which Facebook seems to have a zero tolerance policy. There is no way to contact any human at Facebook to offer a defense. And a small potatoes page administrator with a mere 10,134 followers really can't create enough media outrage to get Facebook executives involved.
I suspect Facebook adopted this policy to aggregate a number it can use in its "we're doing our best, but we can't catch everything" defense. They can point to their mountain of context-free suspensions and say, "Look, we suspended n accounts in the last month for violating our policy against self-injury."
Supplementary viewing/reading:
25+ best memes about jumping off a cliff
Little evidence supports the claimed effectiveness of zero-tolerance policies.
"The whole principle is wrong (censorship); it's like demanding that
grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak."
-Robert
A. Heinlein
"The written word will soon disappear and we'll no longer be able to
read good prose like we used to could. This prospect does not gentle my
thoughts or tranquil me toward the future."
-James
Thurber
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"The first way to answer the questions in the song ('Blowin' in the
Wind') is by asking them. But lots of people first have to find the
wind."
-Bob
Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman. He's 80 today.)
Actor Gary Burghoff is 78 today. The video above is the 1984 pilot episode of a M*A*S*H spinoff that wasn't picked up.
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The first text message: On this day in 1844, Samuel Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.
On this day in 1940, Igor Sikorsky performed the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.
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NOT REAL NEWS: a look at what didn't happen last week.
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Pentagon's UFO footage- and Obama's curiosity- ratchet up expectations for a big reveal. When Congress passed the $2.3 trillion omnibus appropriations bill in December, it included a requirement that the Pentagon and a number of intelligence agencies prepare a report laying out what they know about UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), which is the new military-speak for UFOs. The report is expected to be delivered as early as June 1, and at least part of it will be made available to the public.
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Good news for a Monday morning: "...greater coffee consumption is associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality."
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Liz Cheney's GOP primary challenger admits to impregnating 14-year-old when he was 18. Liz Cheney's GOP primary challenger admits to impregnating 14-year-old when he was 18. The Facebook video he released, called "Senator Bouchard takes on the fake news media," claimed "I was young" and "you've heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story," he said, neglecting several glaring differences like the Shakespearean characters were fictional and neither was running for Congress in the so-called "family values" party.
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Can the news be fixed? The fix is already in. Oh, you mean like repaired.
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The Great Amazon Purge... "About three weeks ago, several major Amazon brands were suddenly kicked out. Most people were unaware of the names of more than 12 disappearing Chinese companies, such as Mpow and Aukey. However, these two sell a number of electronic devices, such as phone chargers and external batteries for smartphones. If you click "Buy" on Amazon's first phone charger or wireless headphones, it could be from one of the sellers currently suspended."
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Alabama will now allow yoga in its public schools (but students can't say 'namaste'). But on the other hand, Alabama becomes latest state to legalize medical marijuana.
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Life as we know it:
Solar storms are back, threatening life as we know it on Earth.
A massive heat dome is about to make the Southeast sweat. "Temperatures starting on Monday will run between 10-15 degrees above normal, and border on record maximum temperatures, both for daily highs and lows."
Spermageddon: Could men be infertile by 2045? One word: parthenogenesis.
New coronavirus discovered- and dogs are spreading it. It could be the eighth coronavirus known to cause illnesses in humans.
Categories: Alabama, amazon.com, Anthony Bouchard, Bob Dylan, Coffee, Covert Comic, Dogs, Drugs, Facebook, Fact check, Gary Burghoff, Helicopters, Igor Sikorsky, James Thurber, January 6, Liz Cheney, M*A*S*H, News Media, Republicans, Robert A. Heinlein, Romeo and Juliet, Samuel Morse, Self-injury, Spermageddon, Suicide, Telegraph, The Sun, Weather, William Shakespeare
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased its guidelines Tuesday on the wearing of masks outdoors, saying fully vaccinated Americans don’t need to cover their faces anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers. So we grabbed the dogs and some grandkids and headed to the park to enjoy the 80° temperatures.
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A so-called audit of the 2020 election in Arizona was always going to be crazy. This is something else. The counting has just begun, but already the audit has become almost inextricable from the far-right internet. There, audit-watchers share tips and concerns about security offered by Ron Watkins, a man suspected of helping birth the QAnon craze.
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Thought of the day: "I think perhaps the most important problem
is that we are trying to understand the fundamental workings of the
universe via a language devised for telling one another where the best
fruit is."
-Terry
Pratchett (b. Terence David John Pratchett on April 28, 1948 –
March 12, 2015) (More
Terry Pratchett quotes)
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Among other things, today is Biological Clock Day, Clean Comedy Day, Denim Day, Great Poetry Reading Day, International Guide Dog Day, International Noise Awareness Day, International Pay it Forward Day, National Blueberry Pie Day, National Cubicle Day, National Kiss Your Mate Day, National Superhero Day, Stop Food Waste Day, Workers' Memorial Day, and World Day for Safety and Health at Work.
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Remembering Lee Falk (b. Leon Harrison Gross; April 28, 1911 – March 13, 1999), American writer, theater director and producer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strips Mandrake the Magician (1934–2013) and The Phantom (1936–present). At the height of their popularity, these strips attracted over 100 million readers every day.
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Remembering Harper Lee (b. Nelle Harper Lee; April 28, 1926 – February 19, 2016), novelist best known for her 1960 novel "To Kill a Mockingbird", which won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. (Quotes by Harper Lee)
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Remembering Carolyn Jones (b. Carolyn Sue Jones; April 28, 1930 – August 3, 1983) American actress of television and film. Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for "The Bachelor Party" (1957) and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising new actresses of 1959. Her film career continued for another 20 years. In 1964, she began playing the role of Morticia Addams in the original black and white television series The Addams Family.
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On this day in 1930, the Independence Producers hosted the first night_game in the history of organized baseball in Independence, Kansas.
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Remembering Madge Sinclair (b. Madge Dorita Walters on April 28, 1938 – December 20, 1995) Jamaican actress best known for her roles in "Cornbread, Earl and Me" (1975), "Convoy" (1978), "Coming to America" (1988), Trapper John, M.D. (1980–1986), and the ABC TV miniseries "Roots" (1977). Sinclair also voiced the character of Sarabi, Mufasa's wife and Simba's mother, in the Disney animated feature film "The Lion King" (1994). A five-time Emmy Award nominee, Sinclair won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama Series for her role as Empress Josephine in Gabriel's Fire in 1991. Sinclair, in her brief uncredited role as the captain of the USS Saratoga in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", is commonly cited as the first female Starfleet starship captain to appear in Star Trek. Years later, Sinclair played Geordi La Forge's mother, captain of the USS Hera, in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Interface".
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Ann-Margret (b. Ann-Margret Olsson on April 28, 1941) is 80 today.
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On this day in 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
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Jay Leno (b. James Douglas Muir Leno on April 28, 1950) is 71 today. (Jay Leno quotes)
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On this date in 1965, CBS aired the special "My Name Is Barbra," Barbra Streisand's first television special. A solo performance, she sang 26 songs during the one hour program. The show was nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards in 1965, for which it won five. Streisand won the award for "Outstanding Individual Achievements in Entertainment." It also won the Directors Guild of America Award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Television" in 1966.
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On this date in 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, recorded at Abbey Road Studios reached number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, beginning a record-breaking 971-week chart run. The album is in the top 25 of the list of best-selling albums in the United States. Although it held the number one spot in the US for only a week, it remained in the Billboard album chart from 1973 to 1988. The album re-appeared on the Billboard charts with the introduction of the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in May 1991. (Older "catalog albums" had been dropped from the weekly list between May 1999 and December 2009). In the UK, it is the seventh-best-selling album of all time and the highest selling album never to reach number one.
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"Florida hasn't always been the weird state claims the book "The Thing About Florida" which was written by, er, a Florida man. Speaking of Florida, here's a stupendous obituary from the Tampa Bay Times.
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Memes of the day:
Categories: Ann-Margret, Barbra Streisand, Baseball, Carolyn Jones, CDC, Covid-19, Florida, Harper Lee, Jay Leno, Kon-Tiki, Madge Sinclair, Meme of the day, Obituaries, Pink Floyd, QAnon, Republicans, Star Trek, Terry Pratchett, The Big Lie, The Dark Side of the Moon, Thor Heyerdahl
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I'm scheduled to be released from Facebook "jail" today, a week after I was suspended from the social networking platform for a satirical cartoon I posted six years ago that supposedly violated "Community Standards." My only guess is that it popped up in the daily "Memories" feed and got tagged there. Bear in mind, the post was perfectly okay in 2015, when I shared it from another account.
Ah, Community Standards... a vague set of rules established to protect Facebook from criticism that it harbors Bad People Thinking Bad Thoughts. But the standards are subjectively interpreted, and randomly and arbitrarily enforced by buggy AI software that doesn't understand the concepts of satire, sarcasm, and parody.
I was suspended two years ago for this picture, which Facebook's artificial intelligence bots tagged as "hate speech":
It's an obvious, self-deprecating male joke. I was offending men? Women? The dog?
Facebook has an appeal process, and for several times each day in the past week I stated my case in the form supplied, hit the send button, and received this:
I think it's hard coded into the page.
What's particularly frustrating is the whole banning business is totally opaque. You're told you can't post for a specified period of time, and then are directed to review the Community Standards to make certain you don't do it again. But in many cases, Facebook doesn't tell you what it was you were doing that triggered the censorbot: violating some advertising rule, promoting hate speech, etc. It's like being pinched by the feds, having them hand you the U.S. Code, and telling you to read it to discover why you were arrested.
And of course, there's no way to actually contact a human being at Facebook. If you go to the page to report a problem and send them the details, you just get a pop-up acknowledging submission.
The guy in the video sums up the whole thing. Understandably NSFW language, but it's no worse than some of the stuff that appears on Facebook that, for some reason, doesn't get flagged for violating community standards:
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Thought of the day: "I rise only to say that I do not intend to
say anything. I thank you for your hearty welcomes and good cheers."
(Known as Grant's perfect speech.)
-Ulysses
S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822 – July 23,
1885)
(More Ulysses S. Grant quotes)
Speaking of dead presidents... on
this day in 1994, Richard
M. Nixon was buried on the grounds of the Nixon Library in Yorba
Linda, California.
Contemporary Thought of the Day: Just think, in 30 years this country will be run by people who were home schooled by alcoholics.
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Among other things, today is Babe Ruth Day, Marine Mammal Rescue Day, Matanzas Mule Day, Morse Code Day, National Devil Dog Day, National Prime Rib Day, National Tell a Story Day, International Design Day, and World Tapir Day.
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On this date in 1810, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59, Bia 515) for solo piano, commonly known as Für Elise. One of his most popular compositions, and one of the most famous piano pieces of all time, it was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl ) 40 years after his death.
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On this day in 1897, Grant's Tomb was dedicated. Officially the General Grant National Memorial, President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia Grant are entombed there. Thus, "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" is a pedantic, trick question. No one is buried there.
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Sheena Easton (b. Sheena Shirley Orr, 27 April 1959) is 62 today. She had 15 US Top 40 singles, seven US top tens and one US No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1981 and 1991.
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The current junior United States Senator from New York, Cory Booker, (b. Cory Anthony Booker, April 27, 1969) is 52 today. Notable quote: "Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people. Before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children." (More Cory Booker quotes)
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On this date in 1981, Xerox introduced the first commercially available computer mouse.
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Why the world should worry about India. The world's largest vaccine producer is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge—and that's everyone's problem.
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When you see a headline like Biden isn't banning meat, USDA chief says, you just know it's just another conservative delusion.
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Now this is great investigative journalism, no sarcasm intended: the REAL reason McDonalds' ice cream machines are always broken.
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This looks interesting, but is it really necessary? Of course, the original 1961 film was a yet another take on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which itself was based on the 1562 narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet and a 1556 work by William Painter.
And speaking of movies, the television rating for the Oscars® plunged 58% from 2020, with less than ten million viewers tuning in.
Categories: Computers, Cory Booker, Covid-19, Facebook, Florida, Ice Cream, Ludwig Nohl, Ludwig van Beethoven, McDonald's, Oscars, Republicans, Richard Nixon, Romeo and Juliet, Sheena Easton, Steven Spielberg, Ulysses S. Grant, Weather, West Side Story, Xerox
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Today is Wednesday, May 27, the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 218 days remain until the end of the year.
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Among other things, today is Cellophane Tape Day, National Grape Popsicle Day, National Gray Day, National Senior Health & Fitness Day®, Nothing to Fear Day, Old-Time Player Piano Day, Sunscreen Protection Day, and World Product Day.
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On this day:
in 1837, American folk hero Wild
Bill Hickock (d. August 2, 1876) was born.
in 1907, Silent
Spring author Rachel
Carson (d. April 14, 1964) was born. Quotes
by Rachel Carson.
in 1911, Vincent
Price (d. October 25, 1993) was born.
in 1911, Hubert
H. Humphrey (d. January 13, 1978) was born. Quotes
by Hubert H. Humphrey
in 1922, Christopher
Lee (d. June 7, 2015) was born.
in 1923, Henry
Kissinger was born. Quotes
by Henry Kissinger
in 1933, Walt Disney's cartoon 3
Little Pigs was released. It won the Academy Award Best Animated
film in 1934;
in 1934, Harlan
Ellison (d. June 28, 2018) was born. Quotes
by Harlan Ellison
in 1935, Lee
Meriwether was born.
in 1936, Louis
Gossett Jr. was born.
in 1937, the Golden
Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic.
in 1941, the German
battleship Bismarck
was sunk in the North Atlantic.
in 1962, the Centralia
mine fire was ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine. It
could burn for another 250 years.
in 1995, actor Christopher Reeve
(September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004)
was paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a
riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia. Quotes
by Christopher Reeve
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Where U.S. coronavirus cases are on the rise... Twenty U.S. states reported an increase in new cases of COVID-19 for the week ended May 24, up from 13 states in the prior week, as the death toll from the novel coronavirus approaches 100,000, according to a Reuters analysis.
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The coronavirus is deadliest where Democrats live. Democrats are far more likely to live in counties where the virus has ravaged the community, while Republicans are more likely to live in counties that have been relatively unscathed by the illness, though they are paying an economic price. Counties won by President Trump in 2016 have reported just 27 percent of the virus infections and 21 percent of the deaths — even though 45 percent of Americans live in these communities, a New York Times analysis has found.
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Remembering Sara Little Turnbull, whose bra cup design became the N95 mask.
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Asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs struck earth at “deadliest possible” angle. Related: Meteor that blasted millions of trees in Siberia only 'grazed' Earth, new research says.
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Twitter refuses to remove Trump's false tweets, but in some cases has begun fact-checking them.
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America's unemployment numbers are stabilizing. That's not a good thing.
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Kate Mulgrew might 'move to Ireland' if Trump wins second term.
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McConnell: Talking about fifth coronavirus bill 'in the next month or so'.
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NOAA's outlook for US summer weather—and hurricane season... wet, dry, and windy.
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'Something isn't right': U.S. probes soaring beef prices. One hundred years ago, U.S. antitrust prosecutors broke down monopolies in meatpacking. But can they do it again?
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Thoughts of the day:
In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.
-Charles
Caleb Coulton
I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to
go to summer school.
-Peter De Vries
If you cast your bread upon the water and you have faith, you'll get
back cash. If you don't have faith, you'll get soggy bread.
-Don
King
Population density is a term that has two meanings.
-William W.
Webb
Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time
as farce? No, that's too grand, too considered a process. History just
burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries
ago.
-Julian Barnes
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You are not working from home. You are laboring in confinement, under duress.
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Things are really rough out there.
Please consider donating to Feeding
America
.
Categories: Astronomy, Bismarck, Centralia Mine Fire, Christopher Lee, Christopher Reeve, Climate change, Covid-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, Frontotemporal Dementia, Golden Gate Bridge, Harlan Ellison, Henry Kissinger, Hubert H. Humphrey, Kate Mulgrew, Lee Meriwether, Louis Gossett Jr., Mitch McConnell, NOAA, Rachel Carson, Republicans, Three Little Pigs, Twitter, Unemployment, Vincent Price, Weather, Wild Bill Hickock
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I know it shouldn't make a difference, but the knowledge that Maya Angelou, Ayn Rand, Jay Silverheels, and Mike Connors were born Marguerite Johnson, Alisa Rosenbaum, Harold J. Smith, and Krekor Ohanian kind of takes the bounce out of my step.
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There are two kinds of people in this world- those who think there are two kinds of people, and those who don't.
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Categories: Conspiracy Theorists, Covid-19, Education, Existential Dread, God, Murder Hornet, Reality, Republicans
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...when the only election that mattered was the Democratic Primary.
The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats
allow the poor to be corrupt, too.
-Oscar Levant
Categories: Democrats, Elections, Republicans, The Daily KGB Report
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This already abysmal election season has been made even more intolerable by the absemce of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert the character, not to be confused with the Stephen Colbert who took over The Late Show from David Letterman.
But last night on CBS, we were given a bit of a reprieve as Colbert pulled out all the stops:
Categories: Jon Stewart, Republicans, Stephen Colbert
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Categories: Children, Congress, Hypocrisy, Paul Ryan, Republicans
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