Ford, GM to build weapons; mid-term $$ madness; 20 pound rodents invade CA; 5.6 million bees in NY cemetery; Martian ink?
It's National Eggs Benedict Day!
“Jesus quietly begs him to stop…” - Jimmy Kimmel
Please note:
For the next four Mondays I’ll be getting infusion treatments, a process that can take up to six hours and result in side effects that may impair my ability to publish anything that day. So, if I miss a Monday or Tuesday newsletter in the coming month, that’s why. They tell me things go better after the first session… I hope they’re right. I’ll try to compensate by publishing on Fridays. Have a great weekend… see you next week.
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The newsletter is published Monday through Thursday (holidays and medical procedures excepted).
—Kevin G. Barkes
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
April 16 is the 106th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 259 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 1,009 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
The latest on the Iran war from the Associated Press. (Use this link if other is not working. Then check back later and use the first link.)
Pentagon approaches automakers, manufacturers to boost weapons production. Senior defense officials have talks with GM, Ford and others about shifting some capacity. Guess Ford will reintroduce the Pinto. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Senate Republicans again block Democratic effort to end Trump’s Iran war. The vote shows Republicans are still standing with Trump to continue the war, even as polls show it’s unpopular. But some in the GOP say they might change their minds after 60 days. (NBC News)
Billionaires, dark money fuel questions ahead of 2026 midterms. The ultra-wealthy donor class is preparing to pour resources into an election that will decide which party controls Congress. (CBS News)
Economists warned California not to raise the minimum wage to $20. They were wrong in almost every way so far, another economist says. (Fortune)
Invasion of 20-pound rodents wreaking havoc on California may have been intentional: officials. “It’s too far of a distance and we don’t find any in the areas in between. That makes human introduction the most likely scenario.” (New York Post)
Scientists just found over 5.6 million bees living under a New York cemetery. It’s one of the largest bee colonies ever recorded. (Daily Galaxy)
Scientists found literal ink from ballpoint pens in Martian meteorites. We might need a more unified approach for cleaning important samples. (Gizmodo)
Psychological research finds Trump supporters are not doing well. A tranche of psychological studies found something startling about Donald Trump’s most loyal soldiers: they each turn to a grim coping mechanism to make sense of his lies. (Futurism)
Light pollution has brightened Earth by 16% since 2014, satellites find. But some regions are dimming due to energy-saving policies, wars and disasters. (Space.com)
Late Night:
The Daily Show: JD Vance continues his apology tour on Trump’s behalf at a TPUSA event, begging Gen Z not to leave MAGA over Iran and Epstein frustrations, and Ronny Chieng tries to make sense of Trump’s “Diet Coke is healthy” logic. Plus, since Trump’s Jesus AI images won’t stop, Grace Kuhlenschmidt steps in as a fully supportive, temporary “war pope.” (Video)
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Trump lashes out at the Pope AGAIN, posts an A.I. Jesus pic AGAIN and distracts from Iran AGAIN! (Video)
Late Night with Stephen Colbert: The war against Iran is making America's affordability crisis worse, Stephen imagines a future beyond President Trump, and VP Vance sounds ridiculous criticizing the Pope. (Video)
Cold Open: Ken Burns Presents: The Chimp Civil War (Video)
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:
1943 – Albert Hofmann accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of the research drug LSD.
Quote of the day:
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
--Anatole France (Wikipedia link)
(More Anatole France quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Biomedical Research Awareness Day, College Student Grief Awareness Day, Day of the Mushroom, Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia, Foursquare Day, Get to Know Your Customers Day, International 4p-/Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome Awareness Day, International Pizza Cake Day, National Ask An Atheist Day, National Bean Counters’ Day, National D.A.R.E. Day, National Eggs Benedict Day, National Healthcare Decisions Day, National High Five Day, National Librarian Day, National Orchid Day, National Stress Awareness Day, National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day, Save The Elephant Day, Take Action for Libraries Day, Teach Your Daughter to Volunteer Day, World Semicolon Day, and World Voice Day.
On This Day:
2018 – The New York Times and The New Yorker won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for breaking news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal.
2018 – Kendrick Lamar became the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize.
2008 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Baze v. Rees decision that execution by lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
2007 – Virginia Tech shooting: Seung-Hui Cho murdered 32 people and injures 17 before committing suicide.
1972 – Apollo program: Apollo 16 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1963 – U.S. civil rights campaigner Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his open letter from Birmingham Jail, sometimes known as “The Negro Is Your Brother”, while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting against segregation.
1947 – Bernard Baruch first applied the term “Cold War“ to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1947 – An explosion on board a freighter in port caused Texas City to catch fire, killing almost 600 people.
1945 – World War II: The Red Army began the final assault on German forces around Berlin, with nearly one million troops fighting in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.
1943 – Albert Hofmann accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of the research drug LSD.
1917 – Russian Revolution: Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd, Russia, from exile in Switzerland.
1912 – Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly an airplane across the English Channel.
1910 – The oldest existing indoor ice hockey arena still used for the sport in the 21st century, Boston Arena, opened for the first time.
1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fought his last gun battle. He paid an $8 fine and took the train out of Dodge City that evening.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
2002 – Sadie Sink, American actress
1996 – Anya Taylor-Joy, Argentine-British actress
1993 – Chance the Rapper, American rapper
1984 – Claire Foy, English actress
1982 – Gina Carano, American mixed martial artist and actress
1976 – Kelli O’Hara, American actress and singer
1972 – Tracy K. Smith, American poet and educator
1971 – Selena, American singer-songwriter, actress, and fashion designer (died 1995)
1965 – Martin Lawrence, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1965 – Jon Cryer, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1963 – Jimmy Osmond, American singer
1954 – Ellen Barkin, American actress
1950 – David Graf, American actor (died 2001)
1947 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, American basketball player and coach
1947 – Gerry Rafferty, Scottish singer-songwriter (died 2011)
1939 – Dusty Springfield, English singer and record producer (died 1999)
1937 – George Steele, American wrestler and actor (died 2017)
1935 – Bobby Vinton, American singer
1934 – Robert Stigwood, Australian producer and manager (died 2016)
1933 – Ike Pappas, American journalist and actor (died 2008)
1927 – Edie Adams, American actress and singer (died 2008
1924 – Henry Mancini, American composer and conductor (died 1994)
1922 – Kingsley Amis, English novelist, poet, and critic (died 1995)
1921 – Peter Ustinov, English actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2004)
1919 – Merce Cunningham, American dancer and choreographer (died 2009)
1918 – Spike Milligan, Irish actor, comedian, and writer (died 2002)
1889 – Charlie Chaplin, English actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and composer (died 1977)
1867 – Wilbur Wright, American inventor (died 1912)
1844 – Anatole France, French journalist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1924)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2018 – Harry Anderson, American actor and magician (born 1952)
2011 – Sol Saks, American screenwriter and producer (born 1910)
2010 – Daryl Gates, American police officer, created the D.A.R.E. Program (born 1926)
2003 – Graham Jarvis, Canadian actor (born 1930)
2002 – Robert Urich, American actor (born 1946)
2002 – Ruth Fertel, American businesswoman, founded Ruth’s Chris Steak House (born 1927)
2001 – Michael Ritchie, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1938)
1994 – Ralph Ellison, American novelist and critic (born 1913)
1992 – Neville Brand, American actor (born 1920)
1991 – David Lean, English director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1908)
1968 – Edna Ferber, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (born 1885)
1946 – Arthur Chevrolet, Swiss-American racing driver and engineer (born 1884)
1859 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and philosopher, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1805)
1850 – Marie Tussaud, French-English sculptor, founded the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (born 1761)
1828 – Francisco Goya, Spanish-French painter and illustrator (born 1746)
1756 – Jacques Cassini, French astronomer (born 1677)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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The draft registration combined with Ford/GM being asked to build weapons means that Cuba, Canada and Greenland are still on the SprayTan agenda.
SprayTan plans to involve the USA in non stop wars while US citizens keep hoping the midterms will save them.
But hey, organize another saturday protest…that should work.
I feel for ya, about to drive 3 hours for my first. $100 in gas each way. Trump sucks. Oh and cancer too.