A.I. will replace you in two years; BeeGee death hoax; lots of inane Trump news
It's National Grape Popsicle Day!
Don Jr and his new bride Bettina were married on Saturday on an island in the Bahamas and Trump did not make it, they have begun construction on the arena for the big UFC fight scheduled for Trump’s 80th birthday next month, we are now on week thirteen of Trump’s “little excursion” in Iran, he posted a message to social media for Memorial Day, he gave himself a glowing report about his health after his physical, RFK Jr. decided to pick up snakes at Dr. Oz’s house, and after months of delays the Trump Mobile phone is finally shipping to customers.
Subscriptions are free. There are no paywalls hiding stuff and links to paywalled sources are provided via gift articles (just close the popups asking for emails or subscriptions). That said, a paid subscription will help keep the lights on and, more importantly, keep the puppies and kitties in kibble and litter. If you don’t want to go the paid subscription route, please consider donating a buck or two.
Please share the newsletter with a friend.
—Kevin G. Barkes (KGB)
KGB Report is assembled by an aging human and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
May 27 is the 147th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 218 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 968 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
99 percent of CEOs are preparing to lay off workers and replace them with AI within two years, survey finds. Business leaders like Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke are already using AI to squeeze more value from their workers, while venture capitalists use it to pry equity back from theirs. In some cases, managers are even using AI chatbots to decide who to fire. (Futurism)
The Ken Paxton Republicans. Trial lawyers and Democrats are the big winners in the GOP Texas Senate primary. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
US draws up plans to halt immigration, customs processing at ‘sanctuary city’ airports. The move could effectively halt international air travel and commerce at major airports in Democratic states, with millions of foreign tourists expected to stream in for next month's start of the FIFA World Cup. (Reuters)
Trump wraps up three-hour medical visit to Walter Reed and declares ‘Everything checked out PERFECTLY’. Perfectly for an old man with a half-dozen chronic illnesses, escalating cognitive deficits, and in increasingly tenuous grip on reality. (AP)
While on the subject of physical perfection: The Olympics these were not. Athletes at the Enhanced Games were bigger—but not exactly better. Participants in the “doping Olympics” looked like action figures. (The Atlantic gift article)
Why Trump keeps getting rolled in negotiations. The president will try to spin any Iran deal he makes, but he’s ill-equipped to gain real concessions.
(The Atlantic gift article)Trump administration proposes non-disclosure agreements for federal workers to crack down on leaks to journalists. It’s Trump’s latest effort to exert more control over U.S. government workers and the flow of information to the public. (Reuters)
Trump’s plan to slap his name on New York’s Penn Station exposed. Newly released design renderings of a renovation project for New York’s Penn Station show a large presidential seal with Trump’s name, along with gold railings, columns, and escalators in Trump’s signature style. (The New Republic)
America’s tech-filled classrooms are facing a backlash against school-assigned devices. “The Chromebook is just a world of distraction. Every day, I’m battling, ’Who would you rather listen to, Ms. Soffer or Minecraft?’” (AP)
Stayin’ alive: Barry Gibb forced to confirm he’s not dead yet. (The Daily Beast)
Late Night:
Jimmy Kimmel presides over a mostly dark week for late night. (LateNighter)
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:
1962 – The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire was ignited in the town’s landfill above a coal mine.
Quote of the Day:
You got to look on the bright side, even if there ain’t one.
--Dashiell Hammett (Wikipedia link)
(More Dashiell Hammett quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Cellophane Tape Day, Emergency Medicine Day, International Day of Marketing, 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 Otter Day.
On This Day:
2022 – The film “Top Gun: Maverick” was released in the U.S. (Video)
2016 – Barack Obama was the first president of the United States to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and meet survivors of the nuclear attack.
1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on STS-96, the first shuttle mission to dock with the International Space Station.
1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
1997 – The 1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak occurred, spawning multiple tornadoes in Central Texas, including an F5 that killed 27 in Jarrell.
1995 – Actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed after falling from his horse in a riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia.
1994 – Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after exile.
1994 – Larry King ended his syndicated radio talk show.
1994 – The final episode of the original “The Arsenio Hall Show” aired.
1986 – Lonnie George Johnson was a granted a U.S. patent for a “squirt gun” toy that was later marketed as the Super Soaker water gun.
1984 – The Danube–Black Sea Canal was opened, in a ceremony attended by the Ceaușescus. It had been under construction since the 1950s.
1975 – Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, in North Yorkshire, England, killed 33 – the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom.
1971 – The Dahlerau train disaster, the worst railway accident in West Germany, killed 46 people and injured 25 near Wuppertal.
1969 – Official construction of the main structures at Walt Disney World began at Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista.
1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy was launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
1963 – Bob Dylan’s breakthrough album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” was released. (Video)
1962 – The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire was ignited in the town’s landfill above a coal mine.
1949 – Marilyn Monroe posed for the “red velvet” nude photo session.
1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck was sunk in the North Atlantic, killing almost 2,100 men.
1941 – World War II: U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed an “unlimited national emergency” in response to Nazi threats.
1940 – World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit were shot after surrendering to German troops; two survive.
1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic.
1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declared the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States.
1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act was signed into law, the first major federal legislation to regulate the offer and sale of securities.
1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City opened to the public.
1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceased manufacturing the Ford Model T and began to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.
1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian Baltic Fleet was nearly obliterated as the Battle of Tsushima began.
1896 – The St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado touched down in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing over $10 million in damage.
1883 – Alexander III was crowned Tsar of Russia.
1813 – After 12 years of bitter silence, Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams, initiating a correspondence that would continue until their deaths on July 4, 1876.
1703 – The city of Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1999 – Lily-Rose Depp, French-American actress and model
1990 – Chris Colfer, American actor and singer (Video)
1987 – Bella Heathcote, Australian actress
1975 – Jamie Oliver, English chef and author
1975 – André 3000, American rapper
1973 – Jack McBrayer, American actor and comedian
1971 – Paul Bettany, English actor (Video)
1967 – Eddie McClintock, American actor
1965 – Todd Bridges, American actor
1964 – Adam Carolla, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1962 – Steven Brill, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1961 – Peri Gilpin, American actress
1956 – Cynthia McFadden, American journalist
1955 – Richard Schiff, American actor, director, and producer
1950 – Dee Dee Bridgewater, American singer-songwriter and actress
1944 – Christopher Dodd, American lawyer and politician
1943 – Bruce Weitz, American actor
1943 – Cilla Black, English singer and actress (died 2015)
1937 – Allan Carr, American playwright and producer (died 1999)
1936 – Louis Gossett Jr., American actor and producer (died 2024)
1935 – Lee Meriwether, American model and actress, Miss America 1955
1935 – Ramsey Lewis, American jazz pianist and composer (died 2022)
1934 – Harlan Ellison, American author and screenwriter (died 2018)
1923 – Sumner Redstone, American businessman and philanthropist (died 2020)
1923 – Henry Kissinger, German-American political scientist and politician, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2023)
1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor (died 2015)
1915 – Herman Wouk, American novelist (died 2019)
1912 – John Cheever, American novelist and short story writer (died 1982)
1911 – Vincent Price, American actor (died 1993)
1911 – Hubert Humphrey, American journalist and politician, 38th Vice President of the United States (died 1978)
1907 – Rachel Carson, American biologist, environmentalist, and author (died 1964)
1894 – Dashiell Hammett, American detective novelist and screenwriter (died 1961)
1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American police officer (died 1876)
1836 – Jay Gould, American businessman and financier (died 1892)
1819 – Julia Ward Howe, American poet and songwriter (died 1910)
1818 – Amelia Bloomer, American journalist and activist. She promoted the idea of women wearing pants, which came to be known as "Bloomers" (died 1894)
1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1877)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2024 – Elizabeth MacRae, American actress (born 1936)
2017 – Gregg Allman, American musician, singer and songwriter (born 1947)
2011 – Jeff Conaway, American actor and singer (born 1950)
2007 – Ed Yost, American inventor, created the modern hot air balloon (born 1919)
2007 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress and dancer (born 1932)
2006 – Paul Gleason, American actor (born 1939)
1969 – Jeffrey Hunter, American actor and producer (born 1926)
1949 – Robert Ripley, American cartoonist, publisher, and businessman, founded Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (born 1890)
1867 – Thomas Bulfinch American mythologist (born 1796)
1564 – John Calvin, French pastor and theologian (born 1509)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
Bookmark KGB Report Notes and check periodically for cartoons, memes, news, commentary and other stuff that didn’t fit or broke between e-mail newsletter issues. It’s also a great place to comment and chat.
Read for free with Kindle Unlimited!
If you like KGB Report, please share with a friend.
Subscribers get all content for free. If you sign up for a paid subscription, you get my eternal gratitude, and maybe some occasional photos of the dogs and cats here at the South Park Casa de Pelaje y Cajas de Arena.
Old KGBReport.com archives (not the stuff here on Substack), all the way back to the previous century.
Current weather in South Park, PA (Personal station on Weather Underground)
KGB Quotations Database Search (KGB Quote-A-Matic)
DCL Dialogue Online (an archive of my DCL Dialogue columns which appeared in DEC Professional (later renamed Digital Age) magazine from March, 1987 through December, 1995.)