TACO Tuesday; Trump won't recover; using the 25th?; A.I. making students stupid; hackers target U.S. infrastructure; sympathizing with the villain
It's National Empanada Day!
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Today was Trump’s deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or get bombed, he posted this morning that if they didn’t agree that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” luckily it was Taco Tuesday and he decided not to drop the chalupa for at least another two weeks, no one seems to have any idea what his plan is, some prominent members of the nutcase community are calling for him to be removed via the 25th Amendment, Lindsey Graham stopped by Hannity to give the war his full support, Bill Gates and Howard Lutnick have been asked to testify before the House Oversight Committee about Epstein, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche talked about whether or not he would like the job full-time, Trump talked to the crew of Artemis II and Congressman Tim Burchett told TMZ that he has seen proof of alien life, and JD Vance has been sharpening his speaking and comedy skills!
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The newsletter is published Monday through Thursday (holidays excepted).
—Kevin G. Barkes
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 267 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 1,017 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
The latest on the Iran war from the Associated Press.
The day Trump’s Iran threat gripped the world. In posting that a whole civilization would die if no deal was struck, the president sparked a frantic global guessing game over his real intentions. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Oil slides below $100, stocks soar as Trump agrees to two-week ceasefire. (Reuters)
An eclectic, bipartisan group suddenly calls for removing Trump using the 25th Amendment. (CNN)
The real reason Trump is never going to recover: biographer. “On a tipping point scale, this [Iran issue] is very much, very clearly—I think indisputably—the beginning of the end. He’s not going to recover from this.” (The Daily Beast)
An incredibly weird time to be alive. The world witnessed the best and worst of humanity in a single week. (The Atlantic gift article)
The farm labor shortfall bites. U.S. workers applied for only 182 of 415,000 jobs advertised last year. Lack of workers is “threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers.” (Wall Street Journal gift article)
AI will affect more than half of all U.S. jobs, analysis finds. 10% to 15% of U.S. jobs could be replaced by AI over the next five years. (CBS News)
College students losing ability to participate in class discussions because they offloaded their thinking to A.I. Students from all layers of society have become empty vessels that parrot the outputs of AI without critically engaging with the subject matter at hand. (Futurism)
Pro-Iran hackers target critical U.S. energy and water infrastructure. Hackers linked to the government of Iran have been targeting U.S. energy and water infrastructure since President Donald Trump launched a war in Iran, according to a new advisory from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and several other federal agencies. (Gizmodo)
Why so many Americans now sympathize with the villain. (The Hill)
Late Night:
With six weeks left, Colbert’s Late Show shifts into endgame. With a shortened schedule and a calendar already filling up with A-list names, the question now isn’t whether The Late Show will lean into the moment—it’s how big the sendoff becomes, and who else shows up before the curtain falls.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: The crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission completed their historic journey around the moon, President Trump threatened to destroy an entire civilization, and a top official at FEMA has a wild story about teleporting to a Waffle House. (Video)
Cold Open: What happens when Nutella goes to space? (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:
1959 – A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper met to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL.
Quote of the day:
Is it possible that existence is our exile and nothingness our home?
--Emile Cioran (Wikipedia link)
(More Emile Cioran quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Dog Farting Awareness Day, Draw a Picture of a Bird Day, International Day of Pink, International Feng Shui Awareness Day, International Pageant Day, International Romani Day, National All is Ours Day, National Dog Fighting Awareness Day, National Empanada Day, Step into the Spotlight! Day, Trading Cards For Grown-ups Day, and Zoo Lovers Day.
On This Day:
2022 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars for ten years after he slapped host Chris Rock on stage during the 2022 ceremony.
2020 – Bernie Sanders ended his presidential campaign, leaving Joe Biden as the Democratic Party‘s nominee.
2014 – Windows XP reached its standard End Of Life and was no longer supported.
2010 – U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START Treaty.
1994 – Grunge icon Kurt Cobain was found dead three days after his suicide.
1990 – “Twin Peaks” premiered on ABC.
1975 – Voyageurs National Park was established by the U.S. Congress.
1975 – Frank Robinson made debut as first Black manager in MLB.
1974 – Hank Aaron passed Babe Ruth as the all-time leader in career home runs by hitting his 715th home run off of Al Downing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
1959 – A team of computer manufacturers, users, and university people led by Grace Hopper met to discuss the creation of a new programming language that would be called COBOL.
1935 – The Works Progress Administration was established by Congress as part of FDR’s “New Deal”.
1904 – The French Third Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland signed the Entente cordiale.
1820 – The Venus de Milo was discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1981 – Taylor Kitsch, Canadian actor and model
1980 – Katee Sackhoff, American actress
1973 – Emma Caulfield, American actress
1968 – Patricia Arquette, American actress and director
1966 – Robin Wright, American actress, director, producer
1963 – Julian Lennon, English singer-songwriter
1963 – Dean Norris, American actor
1960 – John Schneider, American actor and country singer
1946 – Tim Thomerson, American actor and producer
1942 – Douglas Trumbull, American director, producer, and special effects artist (died 2022)
1938 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian economist and diplomat, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations (died 2018)
1937 – Seymour Hersh, American journalist and author
1931 – John Gavin, American actor and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Mexico (died 2018)
1929 – Jacques Brel, Belgian singer-songwriter and actor (died 1978)
1928 – Fred Ebb, American lyricist (died 2004)
1926 – Shecky Greene, American comedian (died 2023)
1923 – Edward Mulhare, Irish-American actor (died 1997)
1920 – Carmen McRae, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress (died 1994)
1918 – Betty Ford, American wife of Gerald Ford, 40th First Lady of the United States (died 2011)
1912 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian-American figure skater and actress (died 1969)
1911 – Emil Cioran, Romanian-French philosopher and academic (died 1995)
1896 – Yip Harburg, American composer (died 1981)
1892 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of United Artists (died 1979)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2013 – Margaret Thatcher, English politician, first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1925)
2013 – Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (born 1942)
2005 – Onna White, Canadian choreographer and dancer (born 1922)
2000 – Claire Trevor, American actress (born 1910)
1997 – Laura Nyro, American singer-songwriter and pianist (born 1947)
1996 – Ben Johnson, American actor and stuntman (born 1918)
1993 – Marian Anderson, American operatic singer (born 1897)
1990 – Ryan White, American activist, inspired the Ryan White Care Act (born 1971)
1981 – Omar Bradley, American general (born 1893)
1973 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor (born 1881)
1950 – Vaslav Nijinsky, Polish dancer and choreographer (born 1890)
1861 – Elisha Otis, American businessman, founded the Otis Elevator Company (born 1811)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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