Rewriting history; buying Greenland; third impeachment; prosecution over Epstein files; stair-climbing robot vacuum; really big burger.
It's National Tempura Day!
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January 7 is the 7th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 358 days remain until the end of the year.
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Donald Trump wants you to forget this happened. January 6, five years later.
The erasure of January 6. Like the Party in Orwell’s dystopia, Trump and the Republicans have sought to rewrite history and erase the stain of Trump’s profound betrayal of America.
Trump marks January 6 anniversary by completely rewriting history. The White House unveiled a new website recounting its own version of the insurrection.
Trump may have accidentally pardoned the January 6 pipe bomber. Oops.
Rubio tells lawmakers Trump aims to buy Greenland, downplays military action. The secretary of state said the White House is using rhetoric to pressure Denmark into negotiations.
Seven European heads of state issued a joint statement denouncing U.S. designs on Demark’s semiautonomous territory.
Trump warns of third impeachment if House Republicans lose midterms. Trump on warned that Democrats would “find a reason to impeach me” if the GOP lost control of Congress — using the prediction to pressure lawmakers to unify behind a narrow set of electoral priorities to win the 2026 midterm elections.
‘They’ve got a real problem’: Massie says Trump officials could face criminal prosecution over Epstein files. “The biggest problem isn’t that they’re missing the deadlines, it’s what they’re redacting.”
Roborock’s next stair-climbing robot vacuum has actual legs. Whether this stair-climbing—and cleaning!—robot is the first true whole-home robot vacuum remains to be seen.
The AI bioweapon demo that caused alarm in Washington. An app that coaxed popular AI models into giving what appeared to be detailed step-by-step instructions for creating poliovirus and anthrax.
McDonald’s worker gives sneak peek of chain’s biggest-ever burger set for launch in weeks. It is McDonald’s first new permanent, worldwide menu item since Chicken McNuggets launched in 1983.
Something grim is happening to people who go off GLP-1s. Many people who successfully lost weight on Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonist drugs are having trouble weaning themselves off the injectables, according to the BBC, because the hunger for food comes roaring back with a vengeance.
The genius whose simple invention saved us from shame at the gas station. On a rainy day in Detroit, a Ford engineer got confused, then soaked—and inspired. It took decades before he got any credit.
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.
Maduro faces judge and MAGA scrambles to justify abduction | The Daily Show (Video)
Trump delivers scatterbrained speech to GOP, he guns for Greenland and 5th anniversary of insurrection-Jimmy Kimmel (Video)
January 6 is a permanent stain on Trump’s legacy | The Pokémon President | Colbert out-rates The Don-Stephen Colbert (Video)
Celebrating January 6?-Stephen Colbert (Video)
Trump rules out Venezuela election in the next 30 days.-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:
2025 – A series of wildfires ravaged the Greater Los Angeles area, resulting in at least 16 deaths and 13,401 structures destroyed.
Quote of the Day:
If history teaches us one thing, it is that history teaches us nothing.
-Peter Ustinov (Wikipedia link)
(More Peter Ustinov quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Distaff Day, Harlem Globetrotter’s Day, I’m Not Going to Take it Anymore Day, International Day to End Conversion Therapy , International Programmers’ Day, National Bobblehead Day, National Old Rock Day, National Pass Gas Day, National Tempura Day, and Orthodox Christmas Day.
On This Day:
2025 – A series of wildfires ravaged the Greater Los Angeles area, resulting in at least 16 deaths and 13,401 structures destroyed.
2023 – The longest U.S. House of Representatives speaker election since the December 1859 – February 1860 U.S. speaker election concluded and Kevin McCarthy was elected 55th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
2015 – Two gunmen committed mass murder at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, executing twelve people and wounding eleven others.
1999 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton began.
1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorized legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
1959 – The United States recognized the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
1955 – Contralto Marian Anderson became the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi‘s Un ballo in maschera.
1953 – President Truman announced the U.S. had developed the hydrogen bomb.
1927 – The first transatlantic commercial telephone service was established from New York City to London.
1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game.
1904 – The distress signal “CQD“ was established only to be replaced two years later by “SOS“.
1896 – Fannie Farmer’s first cookbook appeared, one of the first to replace "handfuls" and "pinches" with precise measurements. The publisher made her personally pay to print the first 3,000 copies. It went on to sell millions.
1894 – Thomas Edison made a kinetoscopic film of someone sneezing. On the same day, his employee, William Kennedy Dickson, received a patent for motion picture film.
1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries traveled from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opened.
1610 – Galileo Galilei made his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he was not able to distinguish the last two until the following night.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
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Some Birthdays:
1977 – Dustin Diamond, American actor and comedian (died 2021)
1971 – Jeremy Renner, American actor
1970 – Doug E. Doug, American actor
1966 – Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. (died 1999)
1964 – Nicolas Cage, American actor
1963 – Rand Paul, American politician and physician
1962 – Hallie Todd, American actress
1957 – Katie Couric, American television journalist, anchor, and author
1956 – David Caruso, American actor
1950 – Erin Gray, American actress and model
1948 – Kenny Loggins, American singer-songwriter
1946 – Jann Wenner, American publisher, co-founded Rolling Stone
1928 – William Peter Blatty, American author (The Exorcist) and screenwriter (died 2017)
1920 – Vincent Gardenia, Italian-American actor (died 1992)
1912 – Charles Addams, American cartoonist, created The Addams Family (died 1988)
1903 – Alan Napier, English actor (died 1988)
1873 – Adolph Zukor, Hungarian-American film producer, co-founded Paramount Pictures (died 1976)
1800 – Millard Fillmore, American politician, 13th President of the United States (died 1874)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2025 – Peter Yarrow, American singer-songwriter (Peter, Paul & Mary), guitarist, and producer (born 1938)
2021 – Tommy Lasorda, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1927)
2021 – Michael Apted, English filmmaker (born 1941)
2020 – Elizabeth Wurtzel, author and feminist (born 1967)
2015 – Rod Taylor, Australian-American actor and screenwriter (born 1930)
2002 – Avery Schreiber, American comedian and actor (born 1935)
1990 – Bronko Nagurski, Canadian-American football player and wrestler (born 1908)
1989 – Hirohito, Japanese emperor (born 1901)
1988 – Trevor Howard, English actor (born 1913)
1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American inventor and engineer (born 1856)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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Nice touch including Galileo's Ganymede observation. What people dont realize is he initially thougt all four moons were single point until the next night when optical resolution improved enough to distinguish them. That observational limitation shaped early planetary science in interesting ways since astronomers had to infer orbital mechanics from fragmentary data. I remember studying how his rough sketches became foundational evidence agianst geocentric models. The whole epistemology of astronomy shifted because one guy kept detailed notes instead of just saying "saw some dots near Jupiter."