Polymarket war profiteers, middle east Cloud bombed, Trump's mysterious neck rash.
It's Canadian Bacon Day!
Mess O’Potamia: Jon Stewart on The Daily Show dives into America and Israel’s impromptu attack on Iran, Trump’s laid-back war announcement from the Mar-a-Lago basement, and MAGA’s refusal to sell the American people on the plan, purpose, and duration of the war. Plus, Jordan Klepper reveals America’s calculated war strategy: winging it.
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(Most) everything you need to know for today:
March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 303 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 1,053 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
The latest on the Iran war from the Associated Press.
Amazon Cloud facilities in Middle East knocked out by apparent Iranian drone strikes. Cloud customers are being urged to migrate their data away from the Middle East.
Anonymous Polymarket accounts won $1.2 million on Trump’s Iran strikes in suspicious bets. "It's insane this is legal. People around Trump are profiting off war and death." (futurism dot com)
Key moments from Bill and Hillary Clinton’s videotaped depositions. GOP-led House committee pressed former first couple as part of Epstein probe. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Doctors sound alarm on White House ‘secrecy’ over Trump’s neck rash. “Preventative skin treatments (such as topical 5 flurouracil) are commonly used to prevent overt skin cancer in people with precancerous skin lesions. We don’t know what specific treatment the president is receiving, but why all the secrecy for something that is potentially easy to treat and very common in older people?” (Daily Beast)
In a first as president, Trump says he’ll attend the White House correspondents’ dinner. Every president since Coolidge had attended except Trump — until now. In his post Trump wrote that, “Because the Press was extraordinarily bad to me” he had “boycotted the event, and never went.”
650,000 gallons of bottled water ‘contaminated with filth’ recalled. Valley Springs Artesian Gold, LLC, recalled nearly 650,000 gallons of bottled water due to packaging under “insanitary conditions.” (delish)
Torturous ‘Cheek Splitter 9000’ airplane seat worries travelers about the future of flight. (It’s actually “a custom seat blocker cushion meant” to prevent people from sitting there for the foreseeable future.) (NY Post)
Late Night:
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Early Saturday morning just after midnight the Pentagon launched “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran, Trump monitored the attack from his bunker at Mar-a-Lago, he claims that the operation in Iran could last four to five weeks or longer, six Americans were killed in the counter-attacks, even Ted Cruz said that he saw “no indication” that Iran was close to getting nuclear weapons, we all thought he was supposed to be the President of Peace, Trump is all of a sudden about toppling regimes even though he thought not being able to make a deal was seen as a negative, he rambled about drapes during a Medal of Honor ceremony, Melania was in New York to preside over a meeting of the UN Security Council, former President Bill Clinton testified for more than six hours about Jeffrey Epstein, and Lauren Boebert explains inflation. (Video)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: President Trump still hasn't told the American people why he's bombing Iran, the U.S. and Israel have sent mixed messages about whether the goal is regime change, and Secretary Hegseth boasted that the military will disregard customary rules of engagement during this campaign. (Video)
Cold open: Whether you're launching Benjamin into manhood or missiles into the Middle East, Mar-a-Lago has all the amenities! (Video)
Late Night with Seth Meyers: Seth takes a closer look at the Trump administration launching a war with Iran without any clear strategy for how it would end, how long it would last or who would take over. (Video)
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:
1991 – An amateur video captured the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
Quote of the day:
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.
--Danny Kaye (Wikipedia link)
(More Danny Kaye quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
33 Flavors Day, Observed annually on March 3rd, share, Canadian Bacon Day, I Want You to be Happy Day, International Irish Whiskey Day, International TAPS Day, National Anthem Day, National Cold Cuts Day, National Moscow Mule Day, National Mulled Wine Day, National Soup it Forward Day, National Sportsmanship Day, Peace Corps Day, Peach Blossom Day, Purim, Talk in Third Person Day, TB-303 Appreciation Day, Unique Names Day, What if Cats and Dogs Had Opposable Thumbs Day, World Birth Defects Day, World Hearing Day, and World Wildlife Day.
On This Day:
2005 – Steve Fossett became the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.
1991 – United Airlines Flight 585 crashed on its final approach to Colorado Springs killing everyone on board.
1991 – An amateur video captured the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
1985 – “Moonlighting” premiered on ABC. (Video)
1980 – The USS Nautilus was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.
1944 – A freight train carrying stowaway passengers stalled in a tunnel shortly after departing from Balvano, Basilicata, Italy just after midnight, with 517 dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.
1938 – Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia.
1931 – “The Star-Spangled Banner” became the official U.S. national anthem.
1923 – US magazine Time published its first issue.
1887 – Helen Keller met Anne Sullivan, her teacher and ‘miracle worker’.
1879 – The United States Geological Survey was created.
1875 – Bizet‘s opera Carmen was first performed at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. (Video)
1875 – The first indoor game of ice hockey ended in a brawl.
1873 – The U.S. Congress enacted the Comstock Act, making it illegal to send any “obscene literature and articles of immoral use” through the mail.
1863 – Congress passed the Civil War Conscription Act (first wartime draft).
1849 – The Territory of Minnesota was created.
1845 – Florida was admitted as the 27th U.S. state.
1845 – Congress overrode a presidential veto for first time.
1820 – Congress passed the Missouri Compromise.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1982 – Jessica Biel, American actress, singer, and producer
1977 – Buddy Valastro, American chef and television host
1974 – David Faustino, American actor
1971 – Tyler Florence, American chef and author
1970 – Julie Bowen, American actress
1968 – Brian Cox, English keyboard player and physicist
1962 – Herschel Walker, American football player, mixed martial artist, and activist
1962 – Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American heptathlete and long jumper
1959 – Ira Glass, American radio host and producer
1958 – Miranda Richardson, English actress
1954 – Robert Gossett, American actor
1950 – Tim Kazurinsky, American actor and screenwriter (Video)
1949 – Ron Chernow, American historian, journalist, and author
1947 – Jennifer Warnes, American singer-songwriter and producer
1945 – George Miller, Australian director, producer, and screenwriter
1940 – Perry Ellis, American fashion designer, founded Perry Ellis (died 1986)
1933 – Lee Radziwill, American socialite, sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (died 2019)
1920 – James Doohan, Canadian-American actor and soldier (died 2005) (Video)
1913 – Harold J. Stone, American actor (died 2005)
1911 – Jean Harlow, American actress (died 1937)
1882 – Charles Ponzi, Italian businessman and convicted con man (died 1949)
1847 – Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-American engineer and academic, invented the telephone (died 1922)
1831 – George Pullman, American engineer and businessman, founded the Pullman Company (died 1897)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2023 – Tom Sizemore, American actor (born 1961)
2018 – David Ogden Stiers, American actor, voice actor and musician (born 1942)
2018 – Roger Bannister, English middle-distance athlete, first man to run a four-minute mile (born 1929)
2012 – Ralph McQuarrie, American conceptual designer and illustrator (born 1929)
2003 – Horst Buchholz, German actor (born 1933)
1998 – Fred W. Friendly, American journalist and broadcaster (born 1915)
1993 – Albert Sabin, Polish-American physician and virologist (born 1906)
1987 – Danny Kaye, American actor, singer, and dancer (born 1911) (Video)
1966 – Alice Pearce, American actress (born 1917)
1966 – William Frawley, American actor and vaudevillian (born 1887)
1959 – Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (born 1906) (Video)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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