Presidential panic; inferno of hate; health care, weather research hit; ICE vs pregnant lady; more A.I. predictions; ocean 'wave that shouldn't exist.'
It's National Ham Salad Day!
Have a happy holiday! We’re taking our Christmas break- well, that’s the excuse we’re using for rewiring the office- and will return on Monday, December 29. In the meantime, check out KGB Report Notes for periodic posts.
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—Kevin G. Barkes
December 18 is the 352nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 13 days remain until the end of the year.
This is what Presidential panic looks like. The president of the United States just barged into America’s living rooms like an angry, confused grandfather to tell us all that we are ungrateful whelps.
Trump’s inferno of hate Is intensifying. When a man with the president’s personality feels besieged and abandoned, he becomes more desperate and more dangerous.
Moderate House Republicans join Democrats to force vote on ACA subsidies. The Senate has already rejected the plan, so the subsidies are still virtually certain to expire at the end of this year.
Trump administration plans to break up premier weather and climate research center. The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in humanity’s understanding of weather and climate. Russell Vought, the White House budget director, called the laboratory a source of “climate alarmism.”
ICE agent kneels on pregnant woman as bystanders hurl snowballs at him. As always, the story Minneapolis residents are sharing is different from what ICE claims.
Worried about the AI spending boom? Here’s some historical context.
Elon Musk predicts AGI by 2026 (he predicted AGI by 2025 last year).
Ghislaine Maxwell asks court to vacate her 20-year prison sentence.
A faster-than-light spaceship would actually look a lot like “Star Trek’s” U.S.S. Enterprise. Physicists discovered that the famous ‘Star Trek’ spaceship got a lot right about designing a ship that could travel faster than light.
Caught on video: ‘The wave that shouldn’t exist’: four 12-ft (3.7-m) waves regularly converge into an oval dip, with explosive results. (includes video)
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 addresses the nation and Ted Cruz insults Jimmy Kimmel During FCC hearing about our show-Jimmy Kimmel (Video)
FCC Chair denies ‘explicitly’ threatening affiliates if they didn’t drop Jimmy Kimmel Live. (LateNighter)
Trump interrupts “Survivor” finale | Explaining Hanukkah | Venezuela watch | Farewell, Mayor Adams-Stephen Colbert (Video)
The GOP unveils a new health care plan-Stephen Colbert (Video)
Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles stuns Washington with explosive Vanity Fair comments: A Closer Look-Seth Meyers (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:
1962 – “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol”, the first animated Christmas special to be produced specifically for television, aired on NBC. (Full video)
Quote of the Day:
The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened.
--H.H. Munro (Saki) (Wikipedia link)
(More H.H. Munro (Saki) quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day, Arabic Language Day, Bake Cookies Day, Flake Appreciation Day, International Migrants Day, National Crime Junkie Day, National “I Love Honey” Day, National Ham Salad Day, National Regifting Day, National Roast Suckling Pig Day, National Twin Day, National Wear a Plunger on Your Head Day, and UN Arabic Language Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA.
On This Day:
2019 – The United States House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump for the first time.
2015 – Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in Great Britain, closed.
1976 - After several successful airings in the fall, the series “Wonder Woman” began airing weekly on ABC. (Video)
1976 - The film “A Star Is Born” premiered in Los Angeles. (Video)
1972 – Nixon announced start of “Christmas Bombing” of North Vietnam.
1969 – The sixth James Bond film, “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, premiered in London. (Video)
1966 – Saturn‘s moon Epimetheus was discovered by astronomer Richard Walker.
1966 – The Christmas special “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” premiered on CBS. (Video)
1964 – Filming was completed on the first pilot episode of the original “Star Trek” television series. (Video) (NBC rejected this pilot, but portions were used in the first season two-part episode, “The Menagerie”.
1963 – The film “The Pink Panther” premiered in Italy. (Video)
1962 – “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol”, the first animated Christmas special to be produced specifically for television, aired on NBC. (Full video)
1961 – The Tokens earned a #1 hit with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (Video)
1958 – Project SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite, was launched.
1957 – A violent F5 tornado wipes out the entire community of Sunfield, Illinois.
1956 – The game show “To Tell The Truth” premiered on CBS. (Video)
1944 – The Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in Korematsu v. United States supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s Executive Order 9066 which cleared the way for the incarceration of nearly all 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, born and raised in the United States.
1941 – Japan invaded Hong Kong.
1932 – The Chicago Bears defeated the Portsmouth Spartans in the first NFL playoff game to win the NFL Championship.
1917 – The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition was passed by the United States Congress.
1892 – Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1865 – US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the United States.
1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
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Some Birthdays:
2001 – Billie Eilish, American singer
1980 – Christina Aguilera, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1978 – Katie Holmes, American actress
1970 – DMX, American rapper and actor (died 2021)
1968 – Casper Van Dien, American actor and producer
1964 – Stone Cold Steve Austin, American wrestler and producer
1963 – Brad Pitt, American actor and producer
1956 – Ron White, American comedian
1954 – Ray Liotta, American actor (died 2022)
1950 – Leonard Maltin, American historian, author, and critic
1946 – Steven Spielberg, American director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded DreamWorks
1943 – Keith Richards, English musician
1927 – Ramsey Clark, American lawyer and politician, 66th United States Attorney General (died 2021)
1917 – Ossie Davis, American actor and activist (died 2005)
1916 – Betty Grable, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 1973)
1910 – Abe Burrows, American author, playwright, and director (died 1985)
1904 – George Stevens, American director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer (died 1975)
1890 – Edwin Howard Armstrong, American engineer, invented FM radio (died 1954)
1888 – Robert Moses, American urban planner (died 1981)
1886 – Ty Cobb, American baseball player and manager (died 1961)
1878 – Joseph Stalin, Georgian-Russian marshal and politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (died 1953)
1870 – Saki, British short story writer (died 1916)
1856 – J. J. Thomson, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1940)
1707 – Charles Wesley, English missionary and composer (died 1788)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2016 – Zsa Zsa Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and socialite (born 1917)
2014 – Robert Simpson, American meteorologist and author (born 1912)
2014 – Virna Lisi, Italian actress (born 1936)
2008 – Majel Barrett, American actress and producer (born 1932)
2006 – Joseph Barbera, American animator, director, and producer, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (born 1911)
2000 – Kirsty MacColl, British singer-songwriter (born 1959) (Video)
1997 – Chris Farley, American comedian and actor (born 1964) (Video)
1992 – Mark Goodson, American game show producer, created Family Feud and The Price Is Right (born 1915)
1972 – Neilia Hunter Biden, first wife of Joe Biden (born 1942)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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