Trump decline visible, noisy; $1.6 billion for "victims" of Democrats; folks really hate A.I.
It's National Devil's Food Cake Day!
Trump supposedly went to China to get tough on trade, collect rare earth minerals, and maybe solve the Iran War, but instead he spent his trip telling President Xi what a tall, handsome, and strong leader he is. Plus, it's graduation season, and Jon Stewart gives the Class of 2026 the ultimate guide on how to nail that big job interview the Donald Trump way.
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The newsletter is published Monday through Thursday, holidays and medical procedures excepted.
—Kevin G. Barkes
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
May 19 is the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 226 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 976 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
How Team Trump helps hide how fast he’s aging. Donald Trump is in obvious physical decline—but you wouldn’t know it from how his team tells it.
(New Republic)A different kind of fading president. Joe Biden became quieter, while Donald Trump grows even louder. (The Atlantic gift article)
Justice Department announces nearly $1.8B fund to compensate Trump allies in a deal to drop IRS suit. The Trump administration announced Monday the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate allies of the Republican president who believe they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted, an arrangement that Democrats and government watchdogs derided as “corrupt” and unconstitutional. (AP)
Jury rejects Musk’s claims against OpenAI. Elon Musk accused OpenAI of putting commercial gain over the public good, but jurors ruled that the statute of limitations had expired. Mr. Musk said he planned to appeal, skewering the decision and the judge on X. (New York Times gift article)
ChatGPT can now connect to your bank account and see all your transactions. What could go wrong? (Gizmodo)
AI CEOs baffled by hatred of their technology. There’s a huge gap between the public and AI executives. (Futurism)
The American rebellion against AI is gaining steam. Booed commencement speakers, blocked data centers, plummeting poll numbers: Fast-growing industry has a faster-growing crisis. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Urgent warning over USPS’s big blue mailboxes after woman has $20,000 stolen. I quit trusting those boxes years ago. I mail important letters directly at the Post Office. (The U.S. Sun)
Are consumers cracking under the weight of high prices? We’re about to find out. Quarterly earnings from Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart and Target this week will offer one of the clearest reads yet on how U.S. consumers are holding up.
(NBC News)Comcast’s email service is shutting down – act now to save your emails.
(Cord Cutters News)Ancient teeth hint at canoodling between early human relatives. It could be that H. erectus is actually just an ancestor to the Denisovans, who inherited those genes over time. But the headline writer wanted to use “canoodling”. (AP)
Late Night:
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: John Oliver discusses structured settlements – the incremental payments designed to sustain victims of injury or wrongful death over long periods of time. And, of course, he also discusses the parasitic companies trying to get their hands on that money while getting jingles stuck in your head: factoring companies. (Video)
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Trump’s crazy posting spree, embarrassing trip to China and a deep dark government conspiracy! (Video)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Stephen Colbert kicks off his final week at The Late Show with a special episode that shines a light on comedy bits that were too stupid, too messy, and too outrageous to make it onto the show over the past eleven seasons. Watch as Stephen rolls out graphics, field pieces, and character sketches that should never have been televised in any form, culminating in the "worst" musical number in The Late Show history. (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:
1977 – The film “Smokey and the Bandit” premiered in New York City. (Video)
Quote of the Day:
I used to dread getting older because I thought I would not be able to do all the things I wanted to do, but now that I am older I find that I don’t want to do them.
--Nancy Astor (Wikipedia link)
(More Nancy Astor quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Accounting Day, Agender Pride Day, Boy’s Club Day, Celebrate Your Elected Officials Day, Dinosaur Day, Hepatitis Testing Day, Malcolm X Day, May Ray Day, National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, National Devil’s Food Cake Day, National Hepatitis Testing Day, National Mechanical Dry Eye Day, National Roadie Day, World Fair Play Day, World Family Doctor Day, and World IBD Day.
On This Day:
2018 – The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion.
2016 – EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea while traveling from Paris to Cairo, killing all on board.
1977 – The film “Smokey and the Bandit” premiered in New York City. (Video)
1967 – Soviets ratified treaty banning nuclear weapons from outer space.
1963 – The New York Post Sunday Magazine published Martin Luther King Jr.‘s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy took place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe‘s rendition of “Happy Birthday“. (Video)
1961 – Venera program: Venera 1 became the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data).
1950 – A barge containing munitions destined for Pakistan exploded in the harbor at South Amboy, New Jersey, devastating the city.
1943 – Winston Churchill’s second wartime address to the U.S. Congress
1921 – The United States Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration.
1897 – Poet and playwright Oscar Wilde was released after two years in prison.
1883 – Buffalo Bill‘s first Buffalo Bill’s Wild West opens in Omaha, Nebraska.
1780 – New England’s Dark Day, an unusual darkening of the day sky, was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada.
1743 – Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale.
1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, was beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1992 – Lainey Wilson, American singer-songwriter
1992 – Sam Smith, English singer-songwriter
1983 – Michael Che, American comedian
1979 – Shooter Jennings, American country singer, songwriter
1966 – Polly Walker, English actress
1965 – Maile Flanagan, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1955 – James Gosling, Canadian-American computer scientist, created Java
1951 – Joey Ramone, American singer-songwriter (died 2001)
1948 – Grace Jones, Jamaican-American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1946 – André the Giant, French-American wrestler and actor (died 1993)
1945 – Pete Townshend, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1944 – Peter Mayhew, English-American actor (died 2019)
1942 – Gary Kildall, American computer scientist, founded Digital Research Inc. (died 1994)
1941 – Nora Ephron, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2012)
1939 – Dick Scobee, American pilot, and astronaut (died 1986)
1939 – Nancy Kwan, Hong Kong-American actress and makeup artist
1935 – David Hartman, American journalist and television personality
1934 – Jim Lehrer, American journalist and author (died 2020)
1930 – Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright and director (died 1965)
1925 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (died 1965)
1925 – Pol Pot, Cambodian general and politician, 29th Prime Minister of Cambodia (died 1998)
1890 – Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese politician, 1st President of Vietnam (died 1969)
1881 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (official birthday), Turkish field marshal and statesman, 1st President of Turkey (died 1938)
1879 – Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-English politician (died 1964)
1861 – Nellie Melba, Australian soprano and actress (died 1931)
1795 – Johns Hopkins, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1873)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2017 – Stanislav Petrov, Lt. Colonel in Soviet Air Defence Forces (born 1939)
2016 – Morley Safer, Canadian-born American journalist (born 1931)
2016 – Alan Young, English-born Canadian-American actor (born 1919)
2015 – Happy Rockefeller, American philanthropist, socialite; 31st Second Lady of the United States (born 1926)
1994 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American journalist, 37th First Lady of the United States (born 1929)
1971 – Ogden Nash, American poet (born 1902)
1958 – Ronald Colman, English actor (born 1891)
1946 – Booth Tarkington, American novelist and dramatist (born 1869)
1935 – T. E. Lawrence, (Lawrence of Arabia) British colonel and archaeologist (born 1888)
1864 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer (born 1804)
1795 – James Boswell, Scottish biographer (born 1740)
1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England (1533–1536); second wife of Henry VIII of England
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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