"Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory"; Dems in disarray after caving to GOP; Aliens could arrive by Christmas; magnetic weak spot worries scientists.
It's National Sundae Day!
In the wake of Democrats’ decision to end the government shutdown, Jon Stewart returns to his prediction that they were going to piss away last week’s hard-earned electoral victories. With nothing to gain from caving, momentum on their side, and a deeply unpopular president, Jon compares the Democrats to the New York Giants, who at least had the good sense to fire their coach.
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Measure heads to House after Democratic defectors side with G.O.P.
Democrats were winning the shutdown. Why did they fold?
A restless Democratic base is seething at older leaders in Washington.
Mike Johnson shows the Dems’ shutdown deal is already backfiring. The House speaker has repeatedly indicated this would be the case, and yet eight senators still caved.
Why the Democrats finally folded. For the past 30 years, the party that has forced federal agencies to close their doors in a funding fight has never actually achieved the policy outcome it was demanding.
Trump is still doing everything he can to keep full SNAP payments frozen.
While Trump threatens controllers, US flight cancellations will drag on even after shutdown ends.
Supreme Court rejects call to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Trump asks Supreme Court to throw out E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million verdict.
Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and others who backed efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. It applies only to federal crimes, and none of the people named in the proclamation were ever charged federally over the bid to subvert the election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Wendy’s to close hundreds of US stores in bid to halt falling profit.
A giant weak spot in Earth’s magnetic field is spreading and scientists are worried.
Florida!
Florida woman going 107 mph wanted Little Caesars before it closed.
85-year-old Florida man knew he hit ‘something’ when he ran over a 91-year-old woman in grocery store parking lot and drove home.
Florida man charged with felony littering after allegedly dumping woman’s cremated remains with 500-lb. trash pile.
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 gets booed at NFL game, Democrats cave on government shutdown and it’s 80s week-Jimmy Kimmel (Video)
Dem defectors vote to end shutdown, get nothing from GOP | Trump Stadium | Asleep in the Oval Office-Stephen Colbert (Video)
The Donald J. Trump Sleepy-Time Coin Collection-(Video)
Trump booed at NFL game; Democrats cave on shutdown despite big wins, favorable polls: A Closer Look-Seth Meyers (Video)
Keep scrolling down. Lots of interesting stuff in On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths.
Quote of the Day:
There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of organization. If there are such things as angels, I hope that they are organized along the lines of the Mafia.
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Wikipedia link)
(More Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Air Day, Death/Duty Day, International Energy Saving Day, National Metal Day, National Sundae Day, National Young Reader’s Day, Origami Day, Pocky Day, Singles’ Day, Veterans Day, and World Shopping Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA.
(Not currently updating due to government shutdown.)
On This Day:
2004 – The Palestine Liberation Organization confirmed the death of Yasser Arafat from unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.
1994 – The film “Interview with the Vampire” was released. (Video)
1992 – The General Synod of the Church of England voted to allow women to become priests.
1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on STS-5, the first “operational” mission of the Space Shuttle program, deploying communications satellites in orbit. (Video)
1971 – Rolling Stone published journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s most famous work, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”.
1957 – Sun Records released the single “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis; the record sold a million copies in its first ten days of release. (Video)
1954 – “The Two Towers,” the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien‘s high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, was published.
1942 – Germany occupied Vichy France.
1942 – Draft age was lowered to 18 and the upper limit set at 37.
1938 – Kate Smith first sings “God Bless America” on her radio show. (Video)
1930 – A patent was awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.
1926 – The United States Numbered Highway System was established.
1923 – Adolf Hitler was arrested in Munich for high treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.
1921 – The Tomb of the Unknowns was dedicated by U.S. President Warren G. Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.
1918 – World War I: Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne.
1911 – Many cities in the Midwestern United States broke their record highs and lows on the same day as a strong cold front, “Great Blue Norther of 11/11/11”, rolled through.
1889 – The State of Washington was admitted as the 42nd state of the United States.
1864 – The destruction of Atlanta began.
1831 – In Jerusalem, Virginia, Nat Turner was hanged after inciting a violent slave uprising.
1778 – Cherry Valley massacre: Loyalists and Seneca Indian forces attacked a fort and village in eastern New York during the American Revolutionary War, killing more than forty civilians and soldiers.
1750 – The F.H.C. Society, also known as the Flat Hat Club, was formed at Raleigh Tavern, Williamsburg, Virginia. It was the first college fraternity.
1675 – Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of y = ƒ(x).
1634 – Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery.
1620 – The Mayflower Compact was signed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1986 – Jon Batiste, American singer and pianist
1974 – Leonardo DiCaprio, American actor and producer
1971 – David DeLuise, American actor and director
1964 – Calista Flockhart, American actress
1964 – Philip McKeon, American actor (died 2019)
1962 – Demi Moore, American actress, director, and producer
1960 – Stanley Tucci, American actor and director
1951 – Marc Summers, American television host and producer
1951 – Kim Peek, American megasavant (died 2009)
1948 – Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (died 2005)
1940 – Barbara Boxer, American journalist and politician
1925 – Jonathan Winters, American actor and screenwriter (died 2013) (Video)
1922 – Kurt Vonnegut, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist (died 2007)
1918 – Stubby Kaye, American entertainer (died 1997) (Video) (Video)
1915 – William Proxmire, American soldier, journalist, and politician (died 2005)
1909 – Robert Ryan, American actor (died 1973)
1906 – Brother Theodore, German-American monologuist and comedian (died 2001) (Video)
1904 – Alger Hiss, American lawyer and convicted spy (died 1996)
1901 – Sam Spiegel, American film producer (died 1985)
1899 – Pat O’Brien, American actor (died 1983)
1885 – George S. Patton, American general (died 1945)
1821 – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and philosopher (died 1881)
1493 – Paracelsus, Swiss-German physician, botanist, astrologer, and occultist (died 1541)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2016 – Robert Vaughn, American actor (born 1932)
2004 – Yasser Arafat, Palestinian engineer and politician, 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929)
1999 – Mary Kay Bergman, American voice actress (born 1961)
1984 – Martin Luther King, Sr., American pastor, missionary, and activist (born 1899)
1979 – Dimitri Tiomkin, Ukrainian-American composer and conductor (born 1894)
1945 – Jerome Kern, American composer (born 1885)
1855 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher, author, and poet (born 1813)
1831 – Nat Turner, American slave and rebel leader (born 1800)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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