Late night relief, tanking the economy, medieval Catholicism
February 7
Be sure to visit KGB Overflow for all the cartoons, humor, news, and miscellany that didn’t fit in today’s KGB Report.
Rather than sending two emails, I’m moving the KGB Quote of the Day into the KGB Report itself.
The broadcast networks’ late night shows are probably the best place to get up to speed on the continuing dismantling of the federal government. The comedy aspects make it a little less painful.
Late Night with Seth Meyers is the first video I watch to get the news. Of all the late night show, Meyers’ “A Closer Look” segment provides the most comprehensive rundown of the day’s events. Sure, it’s satire and comedy, but the real news broadcasts are just too depressing. No need to stay up until 12:35: the show’s “Closer Look” segment is usually online by 9 pm EST. (Use the link above if clicking on the video below doesn’t work.)
The Daily Show, even on the days without Jon Stewart, is also worth watching, at least until the point where the sketch featurint their outside correspondents begins.
The Stephen Colbert show and Jimmy Kimmel Live cover topics other than what’s going on in Trumpistan, but their over-enthusiastic audiences are bit much to endure.
Knee Deep in the Hoopla
Andy Borowitz has been hitting them out of the park these days.
A site reliability engineer with over two decades of experience explains why DOGE’s meddling at Treasury could have catastrophic consequences for the US economy. “It’s only a matter of time until DOGE’s meddling inadvertently triggers a catastrophic failure of Bureau of the Fiscal Service systems, and the damage may not be reversible, if the safeguards required to run a secure, reliable system have been bypassed. Revoking DOGE’s administrative access to the BFS payment systems and restoring the systems to a known safe state is a sensible, bipartisan action that voters and their representatives on both sides of the aisle should agree on.”
Trump says ‘we have to bring religion back’ during bipartisan National Prayer Breakfast. Trump says his relationship with religion “changed” after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year as he advocated at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol for Americans to “bring God back” into their lives. Well, a lot of people are going to be praying since Trump’s stop work order at USAID has placed millions of lives at risk.
Speaking of religion, Vice President JD Vance invoked the medieval Catholic concept of ordo amoris to justify the administration’s immigration policy.
Gutting USAID threatens billions of dollars for U.S. farms and businesses, but the Trump administration plans to slash all but a fraction of USAID jobs.
Along party lines (53-47), the Republican majority in the Senate confirmed Russell Vought as White House budget director. Vought was one of the architects of Project 2025, of which Trump claimed ignorance during the campaign.
Elon Musk’s disasters are not limited to federal offices. Last month’s “rapid unscheduled disassembly” (explosion) of his SpaceX Starship rocket forced air traffic controllers to re-route commercial jets to avoid being struck by the 85 tons of metal from the fragmented space vehicle. It’s a growing problem; an increase in returning space debris from de-orbiting satellites as well as an increase in commercial flights makes collisions more likely.
Miscellany
Astronomers are tracking an asteroid the size of a football field that has a 2.3% (1 in 43) chance of hitting Earth in 2032. The bad news is that it’s after that year’s US Presidental election. Assuming, of course, we’re still having them.
Instead of binge-watching cable news or doomscrolling on your phone, take note: Warner Brothers is mysteriously dumping obscure and wonderful movies on Youtube for free. Among the 31 films are classics like The Wind and the Lion and, uh, not classics like The Bonfire of the Vanities. The full list is here.
Shirt of the Day
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Be a resistor!
Among other things, today is- in no particular order of importance-
"e" Day, Ballet Day Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Bubble Gum Day, Give Kids a Smile Day, National Fettuccine Alfredo Day, National Patty Melt Day, National Periodic Table Day, National Wear Red Day, Rose Day, Send a Card to a Friend Day, and Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbors Day.
Some persons born on this date with quotable quotes (Click on link after name for quotes):
1812 – Charles Dickens, English novelist and critic (d. 1870)
1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author (d. 1957)
1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1951)
1887 – Eubie Blake, American pianist and composer (d. 1983)
1962 – Garth Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – Eddie Izzard, English comedian, actor, and producer
Other birthdays:
1804 – John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded Deere & Company (d. 1886)
1950 – Natalie Cole, American singer-songwriter and actress (d. 2015)
1957 – Kathy Najimy, American actress and comedian
1962 – Axl Rose, American singer-songwriter and producer
1966 – Rick Astley, English singer-songwriter
1978 – Ashton Kutcher, American model, actor, producer, and entrepreneur
KGB Report isn’t published on the weekend, but I didn’t want to miss noting that composer John Williams will be 93 tomorrow, February 8. With 54 Academy Award nominations (he’s won five), he is the second-most nominated person, after Walt Disney, and in 2024 became the oldest Oscar nominee in any category. Williams is the only person to be nominated for an Academy Award in seven different decades (the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s). He said last year that he’s not retiring, that he can’t retire from music and that a day without music “is a mistake.” He will conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in June of this year.
John Williams conducts the National Symphony Orchestra at 90 years old:
On This Day:
1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri
1904 – The Great Baltimore Fire began in Baltimore, Maryland; it destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
1940 - Walt Disney's second feature length movie, "Pinocchio" premiered in New York City.
1964 – The Beatles landed in the United States for the first time, at the newly renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport.
1969 "This Is Tom Jones" debuted on ABC TV
1974 - Mel Brooks’ satirical postmodernist Western black comedy film “Blazing Saddles” was released.
(Sidenote: I tried to post a video of the film’s trailer to YouTube, but got the message: “Your content couldn't be shared, because this link goes against our Community Standards.“ I guess the film actually endorses DEI, although through absurdist humor.)
1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agreed to give up its monopoly on power.
2013 – The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
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