Economic blackout, egg smuggling, Elon Musk vs Jon Stewart
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Knee Deep in the Hoopla
(Robert Leighton in the New Yorker)
The Trump/Musk firehose of folly continues, and it’s impossible to review all but the most egregious outrages here. The Associated Press, NBC, Aljazeera, and The Guardian are my masochistic picks for keeping up to date. Frankly, it’s a bit exhausting, but what the heck- knock yinzselves out.
Economic Blackout: Will a 24-hour boycott make a difference? No, this isn't going to hurt them. But when they look at the day's receipts and compare it to a normal day, they'll be able to pretty accurately gauge public sentiment.
Elon Musk offers to guest with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, show accepts. Musk should consider his offer carefully. Stewart is legendary for his takedowns. His 2004 appearance on CNN’s Crossfire resulted in that show’s demise. His destruction of CNBC’s Jim Cramer was- well, it has its own Wikipedia article. You owe it to yourself to watch the clips, here and here. If Musk shows, he could be walking into Stewart’s figurative chainsaw.
Judge finds mass firings of federal probationary workers were likely unlawful. Trump folk aren’t fazed: Social Security Administration could cut up to 50% of its workforce. And, mass layoffs begin at NOAA, with hundreds said to be fired in one day. “This is not a move toward efficiency; it’s a move toward putting Americans in danger every day.”
Lauren Boebert called out over tax on tips comment: 'didn't even read'. Or should that be ‘couldn’t’?
Anti-aging pill for dogs certified as 'effective' by FDA. but could it work for humans, too? This is one of those developments that could have unintended consequences. I think a dog with a human-like life span could kill the institution of marriage. If you had a good dog- a creature that loves you more than it loves itself- why would you want to spend the rest of your life with another human?
Forget fentanyl- eggs are so pricey that people are literally smuggling them across the border from Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have stopped at least 90 people from egg smuggling since January 2025.
Breakfast is really under siege: The retail price of ground coffee hit an all-time high of $7 a pound in January, up 75% from $4 in January 2020, government data shows.
Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez to lead Blue Origin all-women crewed mission. Sánchez is Blue Origin boss Jeff Bezos’ fiancé.
Is 98.6°F outdated? That figure for normal human body temperature was determined in the 1850s, and “…we are not the same people that we were in the middle of the 19th century.” TLDR: Today, it’s more like 97.9°F. Women have higher temperatures than men, and older people are usually colder. Tell me about it.
Marvelous views of the moon captured by private lunar lander. Bah. Probably lost Stanley Kubrick footage from 1969.
Shirt of the day (click on image)
KGB Quote of the Day:
“Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand on a clock.”
--Ben Hecht (Wikipedia link)
(More Ben Hecht quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Among other things, today is- in no particular order of importance-
KGB REPORT STUFF! (Click on link) On This Day:
1749 - First edition of the novel "Tom Jones" by Henry Fielding was published.
1787 - The charter establishing the institution now known as the University of Pittsburgh was granted.
1849 -First boat load of gold rush prospectors arrived in San Francisco from the east coast and became known as “The 49ers.”
1883 - First US vaudeville theater opened in Boston, Massachusetts.
1953 - Francis Crick, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins deciphered the chemical structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard were offered for sale to the general public. The set, from Westinghouse (model H840CK15), cost $1,295, or the 2025 equivalent of about $15,000. It was made available in the New York area on February 28, 1954 and is generally agreed to be the first production receiver using NTSC color offered to the public. The three major networks did not broadcast their entire prime-time schedules in color until 1966, and sales of color sets did not surpass those of black and white sets until 1972. (Photo from Steve’s Vintage Color TV page.)
1983 – "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen", a two hour television film that served as the final episode of the television series "M*A*S*H" aired on CBS. In the United States, the episode drew 105.97 million total viewers and a total audience of 121.6 million, more than both Super Bowl XVII and the Roots miniseries. The episode surpassed the single-episode ratings record that had been set by the Dallas episode that resolved the "Who Shot J.R.?" cliffhanger. From 1983 until 2010, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" remained the most watched television broadcast in American history, passed only in total viewership (but not in ratings or share) in February 2010 by Super Bowl XLIV. As of 2025, it still stands as the most-watched single episode of any television series in U.S. history. (Here’s a link to the entire episode, taken from a VHS recording.)
1991 – Gulf War ends after Iraq accepted a ceasefire following the liberation of Kuwait.
1993 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents raided the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader David Koresh, starting a 51-day standoff.
2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigned as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since Pope Gregory XII in 1415.
Quotes by or about persons born on this date (Click on link after name for quotes):
1894 – Ben Hecht, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1964)
1901 – Linus Pauling, American chemist and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
1915 – Peter Medawar, Brazilian-English biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
1948 – Bernadette Peters, American actress, singer, and author
1953 – Paul Krugman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (See Paul Krugman’s posts here on Substack.)
Other birthdays:
1903 – Vincente Minnelli, American theatre and film director (d. 1986)
1907 – Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
1919 – Alfred Marshall, American businessman, founded Marshalls (d. 2013)
1923 – Charles Durning, American actor (d. 2012) (Video)
1931 – Gavin MacLeod, American actor, Christian activist, and author (d. 2021) (Video)
1939 – Tommy Tune, American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer
1942 – Frank Bonner, American actor and television director, Herb Tarlek on WKRP in Cincinnati. (d. 2021) (Video)
1945 – Bubba Smith, American football player and actor (d. 2011)
1955 – Gilbert Gottfried, American comedian, actor, and singer (d. 2022) (Video)
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