Orbán out; oil surges, Dow drops on blockade; Trump 'not a big fan' of Pope Leo; Trump's 250 foot arch; weakened IRS "...isn't going to catch me."
It's National Peach Cobbler Day!
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The newsletter is published Monday through Thursday (holidays excepted).
—Kevin G. Barkes
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 262 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 1,012 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
The latest on the Iran war from the Associated Press. (Use this link if other is not working.)
Trump’s blockade: oil prices surge, Dow futures drop 500. “Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4-$5 gas,” the speaker of Iran’s parliament said Sunday. (NBC News)
Illiberalism is not inevitable. If Viktor Orbán can lose, then his Russian and American admirers can lose too. (The Atlantic gift article)
Trump abruptly walks away from reporters as they ask Viktor Orbán question. (The Daily Express)
Congressman Eric Swalwell drops out of California governor’s race amid abuse claims. (AP)
Trump says he is ‘not a big fan’ of ‘weak’ and ‘terrible’ Pope Leo. The pope last week criticized Trump's threats to “wipe out” Iranian civilization and urged U.S. leaders to end the war. “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican,” Trump said on Truth Social. (NBC News)
Officials release design for 250-foot arch in Washington, as Trump seeks another imprint. The president has proposed the arch, which would rise on a Washington roundabout across from the Lincoln Memorial, as a way to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. (New York Times gift article)
America’s new tax mantra: ‘The IRS isn’t going to catch me.’ The battered Internal Revenue Service shed thousands of enforcement employees—and more taxpayers appear eager to cheat. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
South Africa’s great white sharks mysteriously vanished. Scientists can’t agree who, or what, is the culprit. (CBS News)
New air traffic control hiring campaign targets gamers to address longtime staffing shortage. The DOT's new ad shows clips of video games and tells potential applicants: "You've been training for this ... become an air traffic controller. It's not a game. It's a career." Hope the gamers realize multiple lives are unavailable. (ABC News)
OpenAI staffers horrified when senior leadership hatched “insane” plan to pit world governments against each other. This anecdote of near comic-book-villainry comes from The New Yorker’s sweeping new investigation into CEO Sam Altman, which documents his alarming pattern of lying and manipulating to build his AI empire, a behavior that some insiders likened to that of an actual “sociopath.” (Futurism)
Florida woman charged with buying ten vehicles in eight days by claiming she earned $180k a month as a restaurant manager. Dunia Sierra, 38, allegedly walked into multiple car dealerships over eight days and drove away with a small fleet of vehicles, including a Corvette Stingray, a BMW i8, and three Harley-Davidson motorcycles. (Yahoo News)
Late Night:
Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update
Keep scrolling… 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:
1970 – At 10:08 PM EST an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module exploded, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed “Odyssey“) while en route to the Moon.
Quote of the day:
I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
--Thomas Jefferson (Wikipedia link)
(More Thomas Jefferson quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
International FND Awareness Day, International Plant Appreciation Day, National Borinqueneers Day, National Make Lunch Count Day, National Peach Cobbler Day, National Scrabble Day, Thomas Jefferson Day, and Word Sarcoidosis Day.
On This Day:
2009 – US record producer Phil Spector was found guilty of the second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003.
1997 – Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.
1976 – The United States Treasury Department reintroduced the two-dollar bill as a Federal Reserve Note on Thomas Jefferson‘s 233rd birthday as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.
1970 – At 10:08 PM EST an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 Service Module exploded, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the Apollo command and service module (codenamed “Odyssey“) while en route to the Moon.
1964 – At the Academy Awards, Sidney Poitier became the first African-American man to win the Best Actor award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
1960 – The United States launched Transit 1-B, the world’s first satellite navigation system.
1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launched the mind-control program Project MKUltra.
1943 – The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson‘s birth.
1941 – A pact of neutrality between the USSR and Japan was signed.
1928 – First nonstop flight from Europe to North America.
1919 – Jallianwala Bagh massacre: British Indian Army troops led by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer killed approximately 379–1,000 unarmed demonstrators including men and women in Amritsar, India; and approximately 1,500 injured.
1873 – The Colfax massacre: More than 60 to 150 black men were murdered in Colfax, Louisiana, while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan.
1870 – The New York City Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded.
1861 – American Civil War: Union forces surrendered Fort Sumter to Confederate forces.
1742 – George Frideric Handel‘s oratorio Messiah made its world premiere in Dublin, Ireland. (Video)
1360 – A hail storm killed 1,000 English troops in France.
1204 – Constantinople fell to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1988 – Allison Williams, American actress and singer
1976 – Glenn Howerton, American actor
1975 – Lou Bega, German singer
1970 – Ricky Schroder, American actor
1963 – Garry Kasparov, Russian chess player and author
1951 – Max Weinberg, American musician and bandleader
1951 – Peabo Bryson, American singer
1950 – William Sadler, American actor
1950 – Ron Perlman, American actor
1949 – Christopher Hitchens, English-American essayist, literary critic, and journalist (died 2011) (Video)
1946 – Al Green, American singer-songwriter, producer, and pastor
1942 – Bill Conti, American composer and conductor
1939 – Paul Sorvino, American actor and singer (died 2022)
1931 – Jon Stone, American composer, producer, and screenwriter (died 1997)
1924 – Stanley Donen, American film director and choreographer (died 2019)
1924 – Jack T. Chick, American author, illustrator, and publisher (died 2016)
1923 – Don Adams, American actor and director (died 2005)
1919 – Howard Keel, American actor and singer (died 2004)
1919 – Madalyn Murray O’Hair, American activist, founded American Atheists (died 1995)
1909 – Eudora Welty, American short story writer and novelist (died 2001)
1906 – Samuel Beckett, Irish novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)
1866 – Butch Cassidy, American criminal (died 1908)
1743 – Thomas Jefferson, American lawyer and politician, 3rd President of the United States (died 1826)
1570 – Guy Fawkes, English soldier, member of the Gunpowder Plot (probable; died 1606)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2017 – Dan Rooney, American football executive and former United States Ambassador to Ireland (born 1932)
1941 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer and academic (born 1863)
1917 – Diamond Jim Brady, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1856)
1794 – Nicolas Chamfort, French playwright and poet (born 1741)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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