$6/gallon gas; Pope speaks out; Vance thinks UFOs are "demons"; Cocaine sharks; God Squad may snuff "America's whale"; sliding toward illiteracy
It's National Hot Chicken Day!
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The newsletter is published Monday through Thursday (holidays excepted).
—Kevin G. Barkes
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
March 30 is the 89th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 276 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 1,026 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
The latest on the Iran war from the Associated Press.
US stock futures sink, oil prices surge as Iran war shows no signs of letting up. (MarketWatch)
Analysts prepared for $200 oil as some gas prices set to cross $6 a gallon. Prediction market site Polymarket on Sunday reported that U.S. officials and Wall Street analysts have begun preparations for oil to top $200 a barrel as the Iran war continues and shows signs of possible escalation. (Newsweek)
Birthright citizenship case pushes Trump’s relationship with the Supreme Court to the brink. A ruling against the president would further undercut Trump’s stated desire for a court that rubber-stamps his agenda. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Trump, 79, shares wisdom about getting into Heaven. Trump’s fixation on the afterlife is not inspiring confidence among his critics. (Daily Beast)
US military building ‘massive complex’ beneath White House ballroom project: Trump. It used to be a secret massive complex. (AFP)
Pope Leo XIV rejects claims that God justifies war in Palm Sunday Mass message. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’”
JD Vance tells MAGA podcaster he thinks UFOs are ‘demons’. “When I hear about extra natural phenomenon, that’s where I go to: The Christian understanding that there’s a lot of good out there, but there’s also evil out there.” (Mediaite)
Climate change, El Niño push Earth ‘beyond its limits’. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on March 23 that the planet’s climate is now “more out of balance than at any time in observed history." (USA Today)
Sharks showing unusually high levels of cocaine. Are they implying there are “usual” levels? (Futurism)
Trump’s “God Squad” might vote for a whale’s extinction this week. On Tuesday, a powerful committee of agency leaders will decide whether oil and gas companies can disregard protections for a critically endangered species that’s known as “America’s Whale.” (The New Republic)
America is sliding toward illiteracy. Declining standards and low expectations are destroying American education. The decline began well before the pandemic, so COVID-era disruptions alone cannot explain it. (The Atlantic gift article)
Keep scrolling… lots of interesting stuff in Quote of the Day, Holidays, On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll learn something new.
History highlight:
1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr.; three others were wounded in the same incident.
Quote of the day:
We each decide whether to make ourselves learned or ignorant, compassionate or cruel, generous or miserly. No one forces us. No one decides for us, no one drags us along one path or the other. We are responsible for what we are.
--Maimonides (Wikipedia link)
(More Maimonides quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Grass is Always Browner on the Other Side of the Fence Day, Holy Monday, International Day of Zero Waste, JeoparDAY! (Jeopardy! Day), National Doctors Day, National Hot Chicken Day, National I am in Control Day, National Pencil Day, National Take a Walk in the Park Day, National Turkey Neck Soup Day, National Virtual Vacation Day, Pencil Day, School Day of Nonviolence and Peace, World Bipolar Day, and World Idli Day.
On This Day:
2023 – Donald Trump became the first former United States president to be indicted by a grand jury.
2017 – SpaceX conducted the world’s first reflight of an orbital class rocket.
2017 – President Obama announced auto industry shakeup.
1999 – Craig Kilborn became the second host of “The Late Late Show” on CBS.
1981 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr.; three others were wounded in the same incident.
1974 – John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulders” hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Video)
1971 – Starbucks opened its first store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market.
1965 – Vietnam War: A car bomb exploded in front of the United States Embassy, Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
1939 – Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27.
1870 – Texas was readmitted to the United States Congress following Reconstruction.
1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted, prohibiting the federal government or any state from denying or abridging a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
1867 – Alaska was purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about two cents/acre ($4.19/km2), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1858 – Hymen L. Lipman was awarded a patent for the first pencil with an attached eraser.
1861 – Sir William Crookes announced his discovery of thallium.
1842 – Ether anesthesia was used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.
1822 – The Florida Territory was created in the United States.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1979 – Norah Jones, American singer-songwriter and pianist (Video)
1968 – Celine Dion, Canadian singer-songwriter (Video)
1965 – Piers Morgan, English journalist and talk show host
1964 – Tracy Chapman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Video)
1956 – Paul Reiser, American actor and comedian
1955 – Randy VanWarmer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2004) (Video)
1950 – Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor (died 2022)
1945 – Eric Clapton, English guitarist and singer-songwriter (Video)
1937 – Warren Beatty, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1933 – Joe Ruby, American animator (co-created Scooby-Doo) (died 2020)
1930 – John Astin, American actor
1930 – Rolf Harris, Australian singer-songwriter (died 2023) (Video)
1929 – Richard Dysart, American actor (died 2015)
1926 – Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish businessman, founded IKEA (died 2018)
1919 – McGeorge Bundy, American intelligence officer and diplomat, 6th United States National Security Advisor (died 1996)
1913 – Frankie Laine, American singer-songwriter (died 2007) (Video)
1913 – Richard Helms, American soldier and diplomat, 8th Director of Central Intelligence (died 2002)
1853 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch-French painter and illustrator (died 1890)
1135 – Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher (died 1204)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2021 – G. Gordon Liddy, chief operative in the Watergate scandal (born 1930)
2020 – Bill Withers, American singer-songwriter (born 1938) (Video)
2013 – Phil Ramone, South African-American songwriter and producer, co-founded A & R Recording (born 1934)
2005 – Mitch Hedberg, American stand-up comedian (born 1968) (Video)
2004 – Alistair Cooke, English-American journalist and author (born 1908)
2003 – Michael Jeter, American actor (born 1952) (Video)
2002 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (born 1900)
1986 – James Cagney, American actor and dancer (born 1899) (Video)
1966 – Maxfield Parrish, American painter and illustrator (born 1870)
1840 – Beau Brummell, English-French fashion designer (born 1778)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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