East Wing worries; ICE follies; Russia's new "flying Chernobyl"; AI "de-skilling"; Victorian-era orgasms; John Adams' prayer
It's National Potato Day!
Back when the White House was respected by its temporary occupants.
“I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessings On This House And All that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.”
-John Adams (in a letter to his wife, Abigail)
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—Kevin G. Barkes
Trump’s ballroom is a gilded warehouse. President Trump’s crown envy inspires his White House makeover.
Before Trump gutted the White House, Erdogan built his ‘White Palace’. Less than a year into a second term shaped by his ability to break things, Trump has taken a jackhammer to the literal edifice of the U.S. presidency in a desire to build something more concretely in his own image.
Where is debris from the White House East Wing demolition being taken? Makes those “own a piece of the East Wing” offers seem rather sketchy.
Embarrassing flaws emerge in Trump’s new White House design.
Federal agents use tear gas, disrupt Chicago Northwest Side Halloween parade. Chemical irritants used for the fourth day in a row in the Windy City.
US judge rules ICE illegally detained man whose daughter is battling cancer. Detention of Chicago man violates his due process and he must be given a bond hearing by October 31, judge says.
ICE detains British journalist after criticism of Israel on US tour. Trump ally Laura Loomer took credit for Sami Hamdi’s detainment in the move denounced as ‘affront to free speech’.
Fact-checking claims that a Canadian ad was misleading about Reagan’s tariff warning.
Trump Treasury Sec. Bessent says he’s felt ‘pain’ from China because he’s a ‘soybean farmer’. Yeah, a soybean farmer worth $600 million…
US airports report over 20 air traffic controller shortage incidents in one day.
The US warships off Venezuela aren’t there to fight drugs. The US says it is fighting drugs, but its warships off Venezuela tell another story about power, control and regime change.
Russia has tested a new nuclear powered cruise missile. Many think it’s a nuclear thermal rocket with a solid-fueled booster engine. Experts have pointed out the risk of nuclear contamination to Russia itself, and have called the weapon system “uniquely stupid” and a “flying Chernobyl“.
It’s getting harder to take OpenAI seriously. Introducing slop and sex creates some serious risk to a brand built on world-changing idealism.
The Age of De-Skilling. Perhaps Carl Sagan said it best: “We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.“
Victorian-era orgasms and the crisis of peer review. A favorite anecdote about the origins of the vibrator is probably a myth.
Florida!
Skeleton strip show in Florida rattles neighbors, sparks debate over Halloween decor.
Florida woman claims Eminem is her ‘spouse’ during diner arrest.
Florida dad, son rescued after snow strands vehicle on Engineer Pass summit.
Late Night:
Why is there a Late Night section? Because late night comedians, unfettered by institutional journalistic and corporate inhibitions, often provide observations and analysis that are more thorough and comprehensive than network or cable news. And the humor helps.
Jon Stewart says he’s “working on staying” on as ‘Daily Show’ host. The comedian’s one-year deal to helm the Comedy Central late night show on Mondays is up in December.
Could Sabrina Carpenter get banned from Saturday Night Live? TLDR: Probably not. While the singer dropped two f-bombs on the October 18 show, FCC obscenity restrictions on broadcast TV are limited to 6 a.m. through 10 pm.
Keep scrolling down. Lots of interesting stuff in On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths.
Quote of the Day:
Life is something to do when you can’t get to sleep.
--Fran Lebowitz (Wikipedia link)
(More Fran Lebowitz quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Boxer Shorts Day, Cranky Co-Workers Day, National American Beer Day, National Civics Day, National Parmigiano Reggiano Day, National Potato Day, Sylvia Plath Day, United States Navy Day, World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, and World Occupational Therapy Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA.
(Not currently updating due to government shutdown.)
On This Day:
2018 – A gunman opened fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing eleven and injuring six, including four police officers.
2004 – The Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, their first Series victory since 1918.
1997 – The 1997 Asian financial crisis caused a crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
1994 – Gliese 229B, the first Substellar Mass Object, was identified.
1994 – The Justice Department announced that the U.S. prison population exceeded one million.
1992 – United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. was murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay, precipitating debate about gays in the military that resulted in the United States’ “Don’t ask, don’t tell“ military policy.
1988 – Cold War: Ronald Reagan suspended construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow due to Soviet listening devices discovered in the building structure.
1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo was renamed Zaire.
1964 – Ronald Reagan delivered a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launched his political career and came to be known as “A Time for Choosing“.
1962 – By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averted nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force became the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane was shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.
1961 – NASA tested the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
1955 – James Dean’s second major film, “Rebel Without a Cause”, was released the month after his death in an auto accident. (Video)
1954 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.
1948 – One of the worst air pollution disasters in US history occurred in Donora, Pennsylvania when a temperature inversion created a “death fog” of hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide that killed 20 and caused respiratory problems for 6,000 of the town’s 14,000 residents.
1936 – Mrs. Wallis Simpson obtained her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.
1904 – The New York City subway opened.
1838 – Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Extermination Order, which ordered all Mormons to leave the state or be killed.
1810 – The United States annexed the former Spanish colony of West Florida.
1682 – Philadelphia was founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
1659 –William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, two Quakers who came from England in 1656 to escape religious persecution, were executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for their religious beliefs.
1553 – Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus was burned at the stake just outside Geneva.
1275 – Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.
312 – Constantine the Great was said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1993 – Troy Gentile, American actor
1986 – Christine Evangelista, American actress
1985 – Alex Soros, American investor and philanthropist
1984 – Kelly Osbourne, English television personality
1978 – Vanessa-Mae, Singaporean-English violinist and skier
1963 – Marla Maples, American model and actress
1957 – Peter Marc Jacobson, American actor, director, and producer
1953 – Robert Picardo, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1952 – Roberto Benigni, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter
1951 – Jayne Kennedy, American model, actress, and sportscaster
1950 – Fran Lebowitz, American author
1947 – Terry A. Anderson, American journalist (died 2024)
1946 – Ivan Reitman, Slovak-Canadian actor, director, and producer (died 2022)
1945 – Carrie Snodgress, American actress (died 2004)
1942 – Lee Greenwood, American singer-songwriter
1940 – John Gotti, American mob boss (died 2002)
1939 – Dallas Frazier, American country music singer-songwriter (died 2022)
1939 – John Cleese, English actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer
1938 – Lara Parker, American actress and author (died 2023)
1936 – Neil Sheehan, American journalist and author (died 2021)
1932 – Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short story writer (died 1963)
1926 – H. R. Haldeman, American businessman and diplomat, 4th White House Chief of Staff (died 1993)
1925 – Warren Christopher, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 63rd United States Secretary of State (died 2011)
1922 – Ruby Dee, American actress and poet (died 2014)
1920 – Nanette Fabray, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2018)
1918 – Teresa Wright, American actress and singer (died 2005)
1915 – Harry Saltzman, Canadian-French production manager and producer (died 1994)
1914 – Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and playwright (died 1953)
1911 – Leif Erickson, American actor (died 1986)
1858 – Theodore Roosevelt, American colonel and politician, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)
1811 – Isaac Singer, American actor and businessman, founded the Singer Corporation (died 1875)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2013 – Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (born 1942)
2009 – August Coppola, American author and academic (born 1934)
2003 – Rod Roddy, American game show announcer (born 1937)
1990 – Xavier Cugat, Spanish-American violinist, bandleader, and actor (born 1900)
1977 – James M. Cain, American journalist and author (born 1892)
1975 – Rex Stout, American detective novelist (born 1886)
1553 – Michael Servetus, Spanish physician and theologian (born 1511)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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Has djt turned the white house into a brown site?