King Trump, Captain America slugged, potato chip inflation.
February 20, 2025
Be sure to visit KGB Overset for all the memes, cartoons, humor, news, and miscellany that didn’t fit in today’s newsletter.
Knee Deep in the Hoopla
Trump says Ukraine started the war that’s killing its citizens. What are the facts?
Trump says he would have had a ‘very nasty life’ if he’d lost the election. Now we’re the ones with the nasty lives.
Ninth Circuit rejects Trump administration’s attempt to block birthright citizenship. A Seattle federal court's ruling will stand, the appeals court said, meaning the case may now land in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump floats new 'concept' to pay Americans with DOGE “savings”. While DOGE reports $55 billion in savings, analyses by Bloomberg and ABC News have verified only approximately $8.6 billion of these savings to date.
Trump moves to narrow independence of Fed, along with other Wall Street overseers. The White House seeks greater control over Fed activities, including banking regulation, but stops short of trying to influence interest rate decisions.
How the world might retaliate against Elon Musk. Canada considers 100% tariff on Tesla imports.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s revealed some dark priorities in his first speech to HHS staff. He plans to begin investigations into whether anti-depressant medications and the childhood vaccine schedule are responsible for chronic diseases in the United States. No word about brain worms.
Man argues with Captain America, pepper sprays protesters during Salt Lake rally, police say. Guess who he supports?
Potato chip prices are soaring due to an unexpected factor: 'It's not sustainable'. Rising temperatures pose problems in Pennsylvania, which has more potato chip factories than any other state. Last year, Pennsylvania had its warmest year on record. The acreage devoted to chipping potatoes, which are grown for french fries and chips, may still be significant in Pennsylvania but has been declining for several years. Part of the reason is that potatoes are sensitive to rising soil temperatures.
The number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic was so large that it ended up impacting the nation’s Social Security fund — which had a net increase of $205 billion.
Google reveals ‘Co-Scientist’ AI it says could lead to huge research breakthroughs. “System can look through research and propose new hypotheses – which appear to be correct.” “Appear”?
Shirt of the day (click on image)
KGB Quote of the Day: Sidney Poitier
“The great disease of mankind is ignorance.”
-Sidney Poitier (Wikipedia link).
(More Sidney Poitier quotes on the KGB Quotations Database)
Among other things, today is- in no particular order of importance-
Clean Out Your Bookcase Day, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, National Love Your Pet Day, National Cherry Pie Day, National Comfy Day, National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants, National Handcuff Day, National Leadership Day, National Muffin Day, National Student Volunteer Day, National Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day, The Great American Spit Out, and World Day of Social Justice.
Quotes by or about persons born on this date (Click on link after name for quotes):
1902 – Ansel Adams, American photographer and environmentalist (d. 1984)
1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt, American actress, fashion designer, and socialite (d. 2019)
1925 – Robert Altman, American director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
1926 – Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1927 – Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, director, and diplomat (d. 2022)
Other birthdays:
1756 – Angelica Schuyler Church, American socialite, sister-in-law to Alexander Hamilton (d. 1814)
1906 – Gale Gordon, American actor (d. 1995)
1912 – Pierre Boulle, French soldier and author (d. 1994)
1927 – Roy Cohn, American lawyer and political activist (d. 1986)
1929 – Amanda Blake, American actress (d. 1989)
1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
1942 – Mitch McConnell, American lawyer and politician
1946 – Sandy Duncan, American actress, singer, and dancer
1946 – J. Geils, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
1949 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite and model (d. 2022)
1951 – Edward Albert, American actor (d. 2006)
1954 – Patty Hearst, American actress and author
1960 – Joel Hodgson, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1963 – Charles Barkley, American basketball player and sportscaster
1964 – French Stewart, American actor
1966 – Cindy Crawford, American model and businesswoman
1967 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1994)
1984 – Trevor Noah, South African comedian, actor, and television host
On This Day:
1521 – Juan Ponce de León set out from Spain for Florida with about 200 prospective colonists.
1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, was signed by United States President George Washington.
1816 – Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville premiered. (The clip below ends with a bit of Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” thrown in.)
1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.
1877 – Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake received its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The opening credits for the first sound version of Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi includes a modified version of the Swan Theme from Act 2. The same piece was later used for the credits of The Mummy (1932) as well as Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) and is often used as a backing track for the silent film, Phantom of the Opera (1925).
1905 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Massachusetts's mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts.
1933 – The U.S. Congress approved the Blaine Act to repeal federal Prohibition in the United States, sending the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution to state ratifying conventions for approval.
1939 – Madison Square Garden Nazi rally: The largest ever pro-Nazi rally in United States history was convened in Madison Square Garden, New York City, with 20,000 members and sympathizers of the German American Bund present.
1943 – The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms
1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.
1971 – The United States Emergency Broadcast System was accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.
1986 – The Soviet Union launched its Mir space station. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.
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