Real doozies, Canadianos, Cronkite speaks
It's No-Brainer Day!
Information, essential and otherwise, for the day ahead.
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Knee Deep in the Hoopla
The Trump/Musk firehose of folly continues, and it’s impossible to review all but the most egregious outrages here. The Associated Press, NBC, Aljazeera, and The Guardian are my masochistic picks for keeping up to date. Frankly, it’s a bit exhausting, but what the heck- knock yinzselves out.
That said, there are some real doozies today that deserve special attention:
Donald Trump is trying to take American law back to 1641. He has moved to subvert the neutrality of federal administrative law judges, who make up more than two-thirds of federal judicial officers. If allowed to proceed, this will be a major hit to an independent judiciary.
Over the line: Trump posts “Trump Gaza” video.
Trump says he will offer ‘gold cards’ for $5 million path to citizenship, replacing investor visas. The Trump Gold Card would replace EB-5 visas in two weeks. EB-5s were created by Congress in 1990 to generate foreign investment and are available to people who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least ten people.
Trump administration unveils key strategy to 'immediately' bring down record-high egg prices. TLDR: Import them. Hopefully from countries who haven’t been slapped with tarriffs.
Apple will fix iPhone glitch that suggests replacing the word ‘racist’ with ‘Trump’. And they say AI doesn’t work.
Musk’s business depends on $38 billion in government funding.
A new document undercuts Trump admin's denials about $400 million Tesla deal.
White House Correspondents’ Association cedes control of pool reports to Trump administration. So, we’re doing state media now?
Elon Musk asks for reason US can’t afford healthcare — Mark Cuban gives seven (and a solution).
Coffee shops renaming Americanos ‘Canadianos’ in protest at Trump tariffs.
What we know about the illnesses that have sickened over 400 people and killed more than 50 in Congo. USAID assistance isn’t available?
Dogs may have domesticated themselves because they really liked snacks, statistical model suggests.
Shirt of the day (click on image)
KGB Quote of the Day:
“A great part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them.”
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Wikipedia link)
(More Henry Wadsworth Longfellow quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Among other things, today is- in no particular order of importance-
KGB REPORT STUFF! (Click on link) On This Day:
1801 – Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. was placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
1859 – United States representative Daniel Sickles, after learning of an affair between his wife and Attorney General Philip Barton Key II, murdered him.
1922 – A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, was rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
1940 – Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered carbon-14.
1951 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, was ratified.
1968 CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite delivered a scathing editorial on America's chances of winning the Vietnam War.
1973 – The American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee in protest of the federal government.
1991 – Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announced that "Kuwait is liberated".
1996 First ever appearance of Pokémon in role-playing video game "Pocket Monsters Red and Green" for Game Boy in Japan
2015 – Russian politician Boris Nemtsov was assassinated in Moscow while out walking with his girlfriend.
Quotes by or about persons born on this date (Click on link after name for quotes):
1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet and educator (d. 1882)
1886 – Hugo Black, American captain, jurist, and politician (d. 1971)
1891 – David Sarnoff, American businessman, founded RCA (d. 1971)
1902 – John Steinbeck, American journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
1910 – Peter De Vries, American journalist and author (d. 1993)
1913 – Irwin Shaw, American author and screenwriter (d. 1984)
1917 – John Connally, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1993)
1932 – Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress and humanitarian (d. 2011)
1934 – Ralph Nader, American lawyer, politician, and activist
Other birthdays:
1888 – Lotte Lehmann, German-American soprano and actress (d. 1976)
1892 – William Demarest, American actor (d. 1983)
1897 – Marian Anderson, American singer (d. 1993)
1899 – Charles Best, American-Canadian physiologist and biochemist, co-discovered insulin (d. 1978)
1910 – Kelly Johnson, American engineer, co-founded Skunk Works (d. 1990)
1930 – Peter Stone, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2003)
1930 – Joanne Woodward, American actress
1937 – Barbara Babcock, American actress
1940 – Howard Hesseman, American actor (d. 2022)
1943 – Mary Frann, American actress (d. 1998)
1981 – Josh Groban, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
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