Trump in free-fall; ICE targeting citizens; Earth warming faster; brain worms in CA; 30% think world will end in their lifetime
It's National Meatball Day!
Fox News apologizes for showing old video of a hatless Donald Trump at a dignified transfer ceremony.
Fox News apologized for airing old video of a hatless President Donald Trump during coverage Sunday of his attendance at the dignified transfer ceremony for U.S. soldiers killed in the Middle East war, insisting it was an honest mistake. (AP)
Subscriptions are free. There are no paywalls hiding stuff and links to paywalled sources are provided via gift articles (just close the popups asking for emails or subscriptions). That said, a paid subscription will help keep the lights on and, more importantly, keep the puppies and kitties in kibble and litter. If you don’t want to go the paid subscription route, please consider donating a buck or two.
—Kevin G. Barkes
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 297 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 1,047 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
The latest on the Iran war from the Associated Press.
Tehran shrouded in toxic cloud after Israel strikes fuel depots. “The rain is black, I can’t believe it, I’m seeing black rain.” (Time via AOL)
Insider trading is going to get people killed. Hours before Khamenei’s compound in Tehran was reduced to rubble last week, an account under the username “magamyman” bet about $20,000 that the supreme leader would no longer be in power by the end of March. Polymarket placed the odds at just 14 percent, netting “magamyman” a profit of more than $120,000. (The Atlantic gift article)
Americans are now a target in Trump’s immigration crackdown. A Wall Street Journal investigation tracked the U.S. citizens caught in the crosshairs of an aggressive federal campaign to detain and demonize dissenters. (gift article)
Donald Trump’s presidency is in free fall. Republicans typically lead on the economy, national security, and immigration. Trump is squandering the GOP’s traditional strength on all three. (The New Republic)
Trump says he won’t sign bills until Congress overhauls voting. In a social media post Sunday, Trump said he won't sign any bills into law until Congress passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. (NPR)
The Supreme Court just dealt a crushing blow to “AI artists”. “Although the Copyright Act does not define the term ‘author,’ multiple provisions of the act make clear that the term refers to a human rather than a machine.” (Futurism)
U.S. Judge says Kari Lake broke law in overseeing Voice of America. The judge declared all of Lake's actions over the past year to be null and void. That includes the layoffs of more than 1,000 journalists and staffers at the U.S. Agency for Global Media and the Voice of America. (NPR)
Earth is warming faster than previously estimated, new study shows. Planetary warming has significantly accelerated over the past ten years, with temperatures rising at a higher rate since 2015 than in any previous decade on record, a new study showed. (Los Angeles Times via Yahoo)
A brain-invading worm spread by rats and snails has reached California. Researchers have found evidence the rat lungworm is now endemic in southern California. (Gizmodo)
Is it any surprise, then, that one-third of people believe the world will end in their lifetime? (Earth dot com)
A new generation of mall rats has arrived. Gen Z is embracing in-person mall shopping, providing a bright spot for a business that has struggled in recent years. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Punch the orphan macaque is outgrowing his plushie and making friends. Punch the baby orphan macaque is outgrowing the orangutan plushie that comforted him through early rejection from his mother and other monkeys. (AP)
Late Night:
At the 2026 Writers Guild Awards, Stephen Colbert share jokes penned by the show’s writers that didn’t make it to air. (Video)
Saturday Night Live:
Cold open: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (Colin Jost) answers questions about the military operation in Iran before allowing Kristi Noem (Ashley Padilla) to say her final goodbye. (Video)
Weekend Update: Anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like New Mexico officials reopening an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's ranch. (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:
1954 – CBS television broadcast the See It Now episode, “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy“, produced by Fred Friendly. (Video)
Quote of the day:
Mike Hammer drinks beer because I can’t spell Cognac.
--Mickey Spillane (Wikipedia link)
(More Mickey Spillane quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Amerigo Vespucci Day, Bang-Clang Day, Commonwealth Day, False Teeth Day, Fill Our Staplers Day, Get Over It Day, Joe Franklin Day, National American Paddlefish Day, National Barbie Day, National Crabmeat Day, National Meatball Day, National Workplace Napping Day, and Panic Day.
On This Day:
2020 – Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy, announced in a televised address and signed the decree imposing the first nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in the world.
2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery made its final landing after 39 flights.
1987 – Chrysler announced its acquisition of American Motors Corporation.
1981 – Dan Rather became the anchor of the CBS Evening News.
1976 – Forty-two people died in the Cavalese cable car disaster, the deadliest cable car accident in history.
1961 – Sputnik 9 successfully launched, carrying a dog and a human dummy, and demonstrating that the Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
1959 – The Barbie doll made its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
1954 – CBS television broadcast the See It Now episode, “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy“, produced by Fred Friendly. (Video)
1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, killed 33 and injures hundreds more.
1945 – World War II: Allied forces carried out firebombing over Tokyo, destroying most of the capital and killing over 100,000 civilians.
1862 – American Civil War: USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (rebuilt from the engines and lower hull of the USS Merrimack) fought to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.
1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurred at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.
1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
1776 – Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, ushering in the classical period of political economy.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1986 – Brittany Snow, American actress and producer
1980 – Matthew Gray Gubler, American actor
1979 – Jordan Klepper, American comedian
1979 – Oscar Isaac, Guatemalan-American actor
1972 – Jean Louisa Kelly, American actress and singer
1971 – Emmanuel Lewis, American actor
1969 – Kimberly Guilfoyle, American lawyer and journalist
1964 – Juliette Binoche, French actress
1958 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress
1943 – Charles Gibson, American journalist
1943 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player and author (died 2008)
1942 – Mark Lindsay, American singer-songwriter, saxophonist, and producer
1940 – Raul Julia, Puerto Rican actor (died 1994)
1939 – Malcolm Bricklin, American businessman, founded Bricklin and Yugo
1936 – Marty Ingels, American actor and comedian (died 2015)
1936 – Mickey Gilley, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 2022)
1934 – Joyce Van Patten, American actress
1934 – Yuri Gagarin, Russian colonel, pilot, and cosmonaut, first human in space (died 1968)
1926 – Joe Franklin, American radio and television host (died 2015)
1921 – Carl Betz, American actor (died 1978)
1918 – Mickey Spillane, American crime novelist (died 2006)
1918 – George Lincoln Rockwell, American sailor and politician, founded the American Nazi Party (died 1967)
1902 – Will Geer, American actor (died 1978)
1451 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer, namesake of the Americas (died 1512)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2023 – Chaim Topol, Israeli actor (born 1935)
2021 – Roger Mudd, American journalist (born 1928)
2011 – David S. Broder, American journalist and academic (born 1929)
1997 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper, songwriter, and actor (born 1972)
1997 – Terry Nation, Welsh author and screenwriter (born 1930)
1996 – George Burns, American comedian, actor, and writer (born 1896)
1994 – Fernando Rey, Spanish actor (born 1917)
1994 – Charles Bukowski, American poet, novelist, and short story writer (born 1920)
1992 – Menachem Begin, Belarusian-Israeli soldier, politician and Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1913)
1989 – Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer (born 1946)
1983 – Faye Emerson, American actress (born 1917)
1895 – Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian journalist and author (born 1836)
1851 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist and chemist, discovered electromagnetism and the element aluminium (born 1777)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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.
Read for free with Kindle Unlimited!
If you like KGB Report, please share with a friend.
Subscribers get all content for free. If you sign up for a paid subscription, you get my eternal gratitude, and maybe some occasional photos of the dogs and cats here at the South Park Casa de Pelaje y Cajas de Arena.
Old KGBReport.com archives (not the stuff here on Substack), all the way back to the previous century.
Current weather in South Park, PA (Personal station on Weather Underground)
KGB Quotations Database Search (KGB Quote-A-Matic)
DCL Dialogue Online (an archive of my DCL Dialogue columns which appeared in DEC Professional (later renamed Digital Age) magazine from March, 1987 through December, 1995.)