ICE murders mom in Minneapolis; does Congress exist?; "sick of stupid"; how about a holographic anime girlfriend?

It's National English Toffee Day!

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—Kevin G. Barkes

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We’re off tomorrow. Have a great weekend, we’ll be back on Monday, January 12.

January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 357 days remain until the end of the year.

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(Note: none of the links below are behind paywalls. They’re either on free sites or are gift articles. If you land on a page obscured by pop-ups asking for your email or showing a subscription offer, just look in the upper right corner of the pop-up for the close icon.)

• Minneapolis ICE shooting:

  • Witnesses: ICE just shot a legal observer in the face multiple times.

  • ICE Barbie pushes unhinged defense for Minnesota ICE shooting.

  • Trump responds to Minnesota ICE shooting—and makes it way worse.

  • Hundreds rally and join vigil after woman killed during Minneapolis ICE immigration crackdown.

  • What to know about the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

  • The woman fatally shot by ICE in Minneapolis did not deserve to die. Rioting in response to fatal shooting plays into Trump’s hands.

• The Trump Doctrine: Violence Is Us. The message is clear—be afraid.

• The Wrath of Stephen Miller. The man who turns President Trump’s most incendiary impulses into policy.

• 'I'm sick of stupid': GOP senator slams Stephen Miller's Greenland remarks.

• Does Congress even exist anymore? The fast fade of a co-equal branch of government.

• CES 2026 really wants you to own a holographic anime girlfriend.

  • CNet’s official Best of CES 2026.

• 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.

  • Trump puts the squeeze on Venezuela’s oil and eyes Greenland as next target | The Daily Show (Video)

  • Trump’s Venezuela money grab, problem falling asleep in meetings and unarmed woman killed by ICE-Jimmy Kimmel (Video)

  • Rubio: U.S. wants to buy Greenland | Stealing Venezuela’s oil | Dr. Oz: booze brings people together-Stephen Colbert (Video)

    • Colbert condemns Minneapolis ICE shooting in Late Show cold open.

  • Trump and Miller threaten Greenland; MAGA dumps “America First” for “Law of the Jungle”: A Closer Look-Seth Meyers (Video)

  • HBO renews Real Time With Bill Maher through 2028.

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.

Keep scrolling down. 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.

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History highlight:
1982 – Breakup of the Bell System: In the United States, AT&T agreed to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.

Quote of the day:

The only thing worse than watchin’ a bad movie is bein’ in one.
-Elvis Presley (Wikipedia link)

(More Elvis Presley quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)

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Today’s holidays:

Argyle Day, Bubble Bath Day, Earth’s Rotation Day, Healthy Weight, Healthy Look Day, National Career Coach Day, National English Toffee Day, National JoyGerm Day, National Man Watcher’s Day, National Winter Skin Relief Day, Show and Tell Day at Work Day, War on Poverty Day, and World Typing Day.

Details here and here.

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On This Day:

• 2016 – Joaquín Guzmán, (“El Chapo”) widely regarded as the world’s most powerful drug trafficker, was recaptured following his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico.

• 2011 – Sitting US Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head along with 18 others in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Giffords survived the assassination attempt, but six others died, including John Roll, a federal judge.

• 2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collided at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man was killed, but the sub surfaced and was repaired.

• 2002 – President of the United States George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act.

• 1992 – President George H.W. Bush vomited on the Prime Minister of Japan.

• 1982 – Breakup of the Bell System: In the United States, AT&T agreed to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.

• 1981 – A local farmer reported a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be “perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time”.

• 1975 – Ella T. Grasso became Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.

• 1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate began.

• 1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “war on poverty“ in the United States.

• 1946 – Elvis Presley received his first guitar.

• 1940 – World War II: Britain introduced food rationing.

• 1920 – The steel strike of 1919 ended in failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.

• 1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his “Fourteen Points“ as conditions for ending World War I.

• 1912 – The city of San Diego passed an ordinance restricting free speech, provoking months of civil unrest between socialist Wobblies and business leaders that became the bloodiest free speech fight in history.

• 1900 – President William McKinley placed Alaska under military rule.

• 1889 – Herman Hollerith was issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’ — his punched card calculator.

• 1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fought their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.

• 1867 – The United States Congress passed the bill to allow African American men the right to vote in Washington, D.C.

• 1828 – The Democratic Party of the United States was organized.

• 1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson led American forces in victory over the British.

• 1790 – George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address in New York City.

(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)

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Some Birthdays:

• 1987 – Freddie Stroma, English actor

• 1987 – Cynthia Erivo, English actress and singer-songwriter

• 1982 (or 1983, 1984) – Kim Jong Un, North Korean soldier and politician, 3rd Supreme Leader of North Korea

• 1982 – Gaby Hoffmann, American actress

• 1977 – Amber Benson, American actress, writer, director, and producer (Video)

• 1967 – R. Kelly, American singer-songwriter, producer, and sex offender

• 1965 – Michelle Forbes, American actress

• 1955 – Harriet Sansom Harris, American actress

• 1947 – David Bowie, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (died 2016) (Video)

• 1942 – Yvette Mimieux, American actress (died 2022)

• 1942 – Stephen Hawking, English physicist and author (died 2018) (Video)

• 1941 – Boris Vallejo, Peruvian-American painter

• 1941 – Graham Chapman, English actor and screenwriter (died 1989) (Video)

• 1938 – Bob Eubanks, American game show host and producer

• 1937 – Shirley Bassey, Welsh singer (Video)

• 1935 – Elvis Presley, American singer, guitarist, and actor (died 1977) (Video)

• 1933 – Charles Osgood, American journalist (died 2024) (Video)

• 1926 – Soupy Sales, American comedian and actor (died 2009) (Video)

• 1926 – Kerwin Mathews, American actor (died 2007) (Video)

• 1923 – Larry Storch, American actor and comedian (died 2022)

• 1912 – José Ferrer, Puerto Rican-American actor and director (died 1992)

• 1911 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American actress, dancer, and author (died 1970)

• 1909 – Evelyn Wood, American author and educator (died 1995)

(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)

Some Deaths:

• 2020 – Buck Henry, American actor, screenwriter, and director (born 1930)

• 2015 – Andraé Crouch, American singer-songwriter, producer, and pastor (born 1942)

• 2010 – Art Clokey, American animator (Gumby, Davey and Goliath), director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1921)

• 2007 – Iwao Takamoto, American animator, director, and producer (born 1925)

• 2007 – Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-American actress and singer (born 1922)

• 2002 – Dave Thomas, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy’s (born 1932)

• 1994 – Pat Buttram, American actor and comedian (born 1915)

• 1990 – Terry-Thomas, English actor and comedian (born 1911)

• 1980 – John Mauchly, American physicist and academic (born 1907)

• 1976 – Zhou Enlai, Chinese soldier and politician, 1st Premier of the People’s Republic of China (born 1898)

• 1825 – Eli Whitney, American engineer and theorist, invented the cotton gin (born 1765)

• 1775 – John Baskerville, English printer and type designer (born 1706)

• 1642 – Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (born 1564)

(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)

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