Mr. Warmth and his compassionate administration; Pulitzer Board hits Trump with broad discovery; Ford kills electric F-150.
It's National Chocolate Covered Anything Day!
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December 16 is the 350th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 15 days remain until the end of the year.
Put up or shut up: Pulitzer Prize Board members dump broad discovery demands on Trump for tax returns, psych records, and ‘any’ prescription meds history. Pulitzer Prize Board members filed court documents in Okeechobee County, Florida, on Thursday, containing a litany of broad discovery demands in an attempt to beat back President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit over Russia probe reporting awards. Meanwhile…
Mister Warmth and his Compassionate Administration—
Trump blames Rob Reiner for his own murder. This morning’s Truth Social post was nauseating even by the president’s standards.
Rob Reiner was a mensch. In death, he showed us Trump’s a schmuck.
Trump attack on Rob Reiner tests the limits, even for his MAGA base.
Trump doubles down on his vile comments about “deranged” Rob Reiner.
Born deaf and blind, she’s caught in Trump’s anti-diversity crusade. A program for deafblind children helped 3-year-old Annie Garner, born with poor vision and no ears, learn to communicate. The Trump administration cut the program’s funding over diversity goals.
Trump officials celebrated with cake after slashing aid. Then people died of cholera.
Here’s what Bari Weiss’s CBS focused on amid multiple mass shootings. You could hardly be blamed for missing that there were two shootings over the weekend.
Pentagon plan calls for major power shifts within U.S. military. If adopted, the changes would complement other efforts by the Trump administration to move resources away from the Middle East and Europe.
Ford pulls the plug on the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck. Ford says the move is following customer demand, and reflecting the reality that the all-electric Lightning was a money-loser — and, Ford concluded, it always would be.
Florida man says his wife ‘wants a divorce’ after he lost $45,000 on an AI-generated Elon Musk car scam. The 69-year-old was reportedly targeted after he posted in a Facebook group advertising Elon Musk car giveaways.
United flight attendant arrested for shoulder tap in Florida after rude speakerphone incident. A United Airlines flight attendant was arrested for tapping the shoulder of a very rude woman, exposing how absurd Florida’s battery law is and also how intolerable speakerphone culture is in shared spaces.
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 sinks to new low addressing murder of Rob Reiner and wife and Mrs. Obama surprises great family.-Jimmy Kimmel (Video)
A long snake tale | Trump: We’re building an arc | “Slop” of the year | I love you, drunk raccoon-Stephen Colbert (Video)
Trump and MAGA wage war on Christmas; Trump tells snake story; Fox says buy a fake tree: A Closer Look-Seth Meyers (Video)
Seth remembers Rob Reiner. (Video)
History highlight:
1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occurred in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.
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.
Quote of the Day:
The mediocrity of everything in the great world of today is simply appalling. We live in intellectual slums.
--George Santayana (Wikipedia link)
(More George Santayana quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Barbie and Barney Backlash Day, Boston Tea Party Day, Green Chili Day, National Chocolate Covered Anything Day, and Stupid Toy Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA.
On This Day:
2019 – Maria Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” hit #1 on the Rolling Stone 100, 25 years after its initial release. (Video)
1998 – U.S. House of Representatives recommended impeaching President Bill Clinton.
1969 – The film “Love Story” was released. (Video)
1969 – The film “Hello, Dolly!” premiered in New York (Video)
1968 – The film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang“ premiered in London. (Video)
1960 – A United Air Lines Douglas DC-8 and a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation collided over Staten Island, New York and crashed, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft and six on the ground.
1960 – President Truman declared a state of emergency over the Korean War.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
1914 – Germans bombarded English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.
1777 – Virginia became the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party: Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1707 – Most Recent eruption of Mount Fuji.
533 – The Digest, the great collection of all Roman jurists’ law, is issued together with a new official law textbook for legal schools, The Institutes.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
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Some Birthdays:
1981 – Krysten Ritter, American actress, musician, and model
1963 – Benjamin Bratt, American actor and producer
1961 – Sam Robards, American actor
1961 – Bill Hicks, American comedian and musician (died 1994)
1961 – Shane Black, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1950 – Claudia Cohen, American journalist (died 2007)
1949 – Billy Gibbons, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1946 – Benny Andersson, Swedish singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
1943 – Steven Bochco, American television writer and producer (died 2018)
1943 – Patti Deutsch, American actress and comedian (died 2017)
1941 – Lesley Stahl, American journalist and actress
1938 – Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress, director, and screenwriter
1937 – Joyce Bulifant, American actress
1936 – Morris Dees, American lawyer and activist, co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center
1928 – Philip K. Dick, American philosopher and author (died 1982)
1928 – Terry Carter, American actor, director, and producer (died 2024)
1917 – Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer (died 2008)
1901 – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist and author (died 1978)
1899 – Noël Coward, English actor, playwright, and composer (died 1973)
1863 – George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (died 1952)
1775 – Jane Austen, English novelist (died 1817)
1770 – Ludwig van Beethoven, composer (died 1827)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2013 – Ray Price, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1926)
2011 – Nicol Williamson, Scottish actor (born 1938)
2009 – Roy E. Disney, American businessman (born 1930)
2007 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1951) (Video)
2005 – John Spencer, American actor (born 1946)
1989 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (born 1925)
1985 – Paul Castellano, American mobster (born 1915)
1980 – Colonel Sanders, American businessman, founded KFC (born 1890)
1965 – W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist, and short story writer (born 1874)
1921 – Camille Saint-Saëns, French pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1835)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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