Minnesota gaslighting not working; Trump tacos again; humans not mature enough to manage powerful A.I.; Looney Tunes returns.
It's National Chocolate Cake Day!
After the second murder of a Minnesota ICE protester by federal agents, Jon Stewart breaks down the increasingly unhinged gaslighting from Trump officials, who are trying to paint victim Alex Pretti as a "domestic terrorist" and ICE agents as innocent kittens, despite clear video evidence to the contrary. And as MAGA and Kristi Noem ignore even their precious Second Amendment in their attempts to justify the shooting of a legally armed citizen, Jon points to the real weapon threatening this administration: cameras.
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—Kevin G. Barkes
January 27 is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 338 days remain until the end of the year. Unfortunately, as of this writing, 1,088 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
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Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Minnesota
New video analysis reveals flawed and fatal decisions in shooting of Pretti.
White House backtracks initial claims about Alex Pretti after intense backlash. The move came as Trump advisers appeared to realize that the caustic portrayals of the man, Alex Pretti, who was reportedly licensed to carry a gun, had turned the killing into an even larger political liability for the president.
Minnesota proved MAGA wrong. The number of Minnesotans resisting the federal occupation is so large that relatively few could be characterized as career activists. They are ordinary Americans—people with jobs, moms and dads, friends and neighbors.
Greg Bovino loses his job. Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol “commander at large” and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon.
Trump’s about-face in Minnesota after Pretti’s death is latest in pattern of sudden shifts.
Anthropic CEO says AI progress is outpacing society’s ability to control it. “Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it.”
Health insurance is now more expensive than the mortgage for these Americans. Monthly health insurance bills are rocketing higher for middle-income earners who rely on Obamacare.
Risk of a partial government shutdown this weekend is rising. Senate Democrats said they won’t support the sprawling appropriations package without changes to the provisions regarding the Department of Homeland Security, raising the risk of a partial government shutdown this weekend.
40 years after Challenger: Lingering guilt and lessons learned. "He said the Challenger's going to blow up. Everyone's going to die. And he was beating his hands on the dashboard. … He was frantic."
People are uninstalling TikTok and downloading an indie competitor. TikTok’s US joint venture is off to a bumpy start.
TikTok censorship claims spark California probe of app’s handling of anti-Trump content. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was launching a review of TikTok as skepticism of the app's new U.S. business spread on social media.
Original ‘Looney Tunes’ library returns to Warner Bros. with TCM deal.
Late Night:
Jimmy Kimmel on the vile and heartless murder of nurse Alex Pretti by ICE in Minneapolis. (Video)
Stephen Colbert: The Trump Administration is lying about the killing of Alex Pretti, Pretti's family wants everyone to know the truth about who he was and what happened to him, and America's founding document outlines what should be done if the government turns on its citizens. (Video)
Nobody likes ice. (Video)
Seth Meyers takes a closer look at new poll data suggesting that Americans are deeply unhappy with ICE's tactics amid the intense national backlash over yet another deadly shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis. (Video)
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.
History highlight:
1967 – Apollo program: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Quote of the day:
In this world we do not see things as they are. We see them as we are, because what we see depends mainly on what we are looking for.
-John Lubbock (Wikipedia link)
(More John Lubbock quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, International Port Wine Day, National Chocolate Cake Day, National Geographic Day, National Plan for Vacation Day, Punch the Clock Day, Speak Up and Succeed Day, Thomas Crapper Day, Vietnam Peace Day, and World Breast Pumping Day.
On This Day:
2010 – Apple announced the iPad.
1973 – The Paris Peace Accords officially ended the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde was killed in action becoming the conflict’s last recorded American combat casualty.
1967 – Cold War: The Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom signed the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting the usage of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.
1967 – Apollo program: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with Operation Ranger.
1945 – Auschwitz was liberated.
1944 – World War II: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad was lifted.
1943 – Americans bombed Germany for first time.
1888 – The National Geographic Society was incorporated.
1880 – Thomas Edison received a patent for his incandescent lamp.
1825 – The U.S. Congress approved Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the “Trail of Tears“.
1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast.
1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
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Some Birthdays:
1969 – Patton Oswalt, American comedian and actor (Video)
1966 – Tamlyn Tomita, Japanese-American actress and singer
1965 – Alan Cumming, Scottish-American actor
1964 – Bridget Fonda, American actress
1959 – Keith Olbermann, American journalist and author
1957 – Frank Miller, American illustrator, director, producer, and screenwriter
1956 – Mimi Rogers, American actress
1955 – John Roberts, American lawyer and judge, 17th Chief Justice of the United States
1952 – G. E. Smith, American guitarist and songwriter
1948 – Mikhail Baryshnikov, Russian-American dancer, choreographer, and actor
1940 – Reynaldo Rey, American actor and screenwriter (died 2015)
1940 – James Cromwell, American actor
1936 – Troy Donahue, American actor (died 2001)
1921 – Donna Reed, American actress (died 1986)
1919 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor, created Alvin and the Chipmunks (died 1972)
1918 – Skitch Henderson, American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2005)
1908 – William Randolph Hearst, Jr., American journalist and publisher (died 1993)
1905 – Howard McNear, American actor (died 1969)
1901 – Art Rooney, American football player, coach and owner (died 1988)
1900 – Hyman G. Rickover, American admiral (died 1986)
1885 – Jerome Kern, American composer and songwriter (died 1945)
1850 – Samuel Gompers, English-American labor leader (died 1924)
1832 – Lewis Carroll, English novelist, poet, and mathematician (died 1898)
1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian pianist and composer (died 1791)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2022 – Andy Devine, British TV actor (born 1942)
2021 – Cloris Leachman, American actress and comedian (born 1926)
2018 – Mort Walker, American cartoonist (born 1923)
2014 – Pete Seeger, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and activist (born 1919)
2011 – Charlie Callas, American comedian and musician (born 1927)
2010 – Howard Zinn, American historian, author, and activist (born 1922)
2010 – J. D. Salinger, American soldier and author (born 1919)
2010 – Zelda Rubinstein, American actress (born 1933)
2009 – John Updike, American novelist, short story writer, and critic (born 1932)
2004 – Jack Paar, American talk show host and author (born 1918)
1994 – Claude Akins, American actor (born 1918)
1993 – André the Giant, French professional wrestler and actor (born 1946)
1972 – Mahalia Jackson, American singer (born 1911)
1967 – crew of Apollo 1
Roger B. Chaffee, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (born 1935)
Gus Grissom, American pilot and astronaut (born 1926)
Ed White, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (born 1930)
1922 – Nellie Bly, American journalist and author (born 1864)
1910 – Thomas Crapper, English plumber and businessman (born 1836)
1901 – Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (born 1813)
1851 – John James Audubon, French-American ornithologist and painter (born 1789)
1596 – Francis Drake, English captain and explorer (born 1540)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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Couldn't agree more. Your insights are always so sharp, just like your previous taks on media and disinformation. Do you think we'll ever be matur enough to handle truth in an AI-dominated world?
The Anthropic CEO quote about humanity being "handed almost unimaginable power" while lacking "the maturity to wield it" captures something essential about our current technological moment. The same dynamic shows up in the Minnesota coverage—the disconnect between what's documented on camera versus official narratives demonstrates how even visual evidence struggles against institutional framing. What's interesting is how quickly these incompatible realities collide in the same news cycle. We're seeing accelerating versions of problems (AI governance, information ecosystems, institutional accountability) that previous generations could address more gradually.