Trump orders UFO files released, puts his giant face on DOJ; Amazon passes Walmart; don't blame your phone if you need glasses.
It's National Muffin Day!
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“How Is The Dow” (Auto-Tune The News): Pam Bondi ends all opposition with an unassailable argument.
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(Most) everything you need to know for today:
February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 314 days remain until the end of the year. Unfortunately, as of this writing, 1,064 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Trump orders release of UFO government files. The president’s decision follows former President Obama’s podcast comments about aliens
Large banner featuring Trump’s face is displayed on Justice Department headquarters. While Trump banners have been hung outside other agencies across Washington, the decision to place one on the storied Justice Department building amounted to a striking symbol of the erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from White House control.
The former Prince Andrew never should have forwarded those emails. He faces criminal penalties for allegedly leaking government secrets to Jeffrey Epstein. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. His brother, King Charles III, was not officially informed in advance, but had signaled that the royal family would cooperate with any police inquiry.
Amazon is now America’s biggest company. Amazon surpassed Walmart as the country’s largest company by annual revenue, reporting $716.9 billion compared with Walmart’s $713.2 billion. Walmart leadership prepared for the change, shifting its focus to becoming “America’s favorite place to shop” over being the biggest. Also:
Amazon’s shiny new warehouse robot just failed in spectacular style. So much for building on AI breakthroughs.
Federal judge accuses Trump administration of ‘terror’ against immigrants in scathing ruling. Citing the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the judge said that the White House had also “extended its violence on its own citizens.”
The buzz in Kristi Noem’s home state: South Dakota Republicans worry that she might return.
A huge survey of CEOs and other execs just found something damning about AI’s productivity gains. TLDR: There aren’t any.
Why so many people suddenly need glasses. The global rise in nearsightedness has largely been attributed to our phone addiction, but researchers now suggest that incessant scrolling is not solely to blame.
Microsoft caught plagiarizing graphics with AI slop — “Microsoft continvoucly morged my diagram there for sure”.
Late Night:
Writers from ‘The Daily Show’, ‘Last Week Tonight’, ‘SNL’, and more try to solve a riddle: Is Donald Trump actually funny?
Stephen Colbert: A major figure in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal is finally facing consequences, President Trump held the first meeting of his Board of Peace, and the fallout from President Obama's comment about alien life forms continues. (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:
1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly met with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party‘s upcoming election campaign. Good thing nothing like that could happen today, right?
Quote of the day:
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.
--Hunter S. Thompson (Wikipedia link)
(More Hunter S. Thompson quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
Clean Out Your Bookcase Day, Friday Fish Fry Day, International Ectodermal Dysplasias Awareness Day, International Pipe Smoking Day, Love Your Pet Day, National Caregivers Day, National Cherry Pie Day, National Comfy Day, National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants, National Handcuff Day, National Leadership Day, National Muffin Day, National Student Volunteer Day, National Tartar Sauce Day, National Woman’s Heart Day, Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day, and World Day of Social Justice.
On This Day:
2003 – During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display set the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.
1998 – American figure skater Tara Lipinski, at the age of 15, became the youngest Olympic figure skating gold-medalist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
1992 – Ross Perot announced he would run for President on Larry King Live.
1986 – The Soviet Union launched its Mir space station. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it was occupied for ten of those years.
1985 – Ireland allowed the sale of contraceptives.
1971 – The United States Emergency Broadcast System was accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert. (Video)
1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.
1952 – “The African Queen” went into wide release in the U.S. (It premiered in Los Angeles in December to qualify for the Academy Awards). (Video)
1943 – The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell‘s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt‘s 1941 State of the Union address.
1942 – World War II: Lieutenant Edward O’Hare became America’s first World War II flying ace.
1939 – Madison Square Garden Nazi rally: The largest ever pro-Nazi rally in United States history was convened in Madison Square Garden, New York City, with 20,000 members and sympathizers of the German American Bund present.
1935 – Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.
1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly met with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party‘s upcoming election campaign.
1933 – The U.S. Congress approved the Blaine Act to repeal federal Prohibition in the United States, sending the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution to state ratifying conventions for approval.
1931 – The U.S. Congress approved the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
1905 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Massachusetts‘s mandatory smallpox vaccination program in Jacobson v. Massachusetts.
1877 – Tchaikovsky‘s ballet Swan Lake premierd at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. (Video)
1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.
1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. (Video: how most are introduced to this work)
1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, was signed by United States President George Washington.
(For comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
2003 – Olivia Rodrigo, American actress and singer
1988 – Rihanna, Barbadian singer, songwriter and actress
1987 – Miles Teller, American actor
1984 – Trevor Noah, South African comedian, actor, and television host
1979 – Michael Zegen, American actor
1978 – Jay Hernandez, American actor
1973 – Andrea Savage, American actress and comedian
1967 – Lili Taylor, American actress
1967 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1994)
1966 – Cindy Crawford, American model and businesswoman
1964 – French Stewart, American actor
1963 – Charles Barkley, American basketball player and sportscaster
1960 – Joel Hodgson, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (MST3K)
1959 – David Corn, American journalist and author
1954 – Anthony Head, English actor
1954 – Patty Hearst, American actress and author
1951 – Edward Albert, American actor (died 2006)
1949 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite and model (died 2022)
1948 – Jennifer O’Neill, American model and actress
1947 – Peter Strauss, American actor and producer
1946 – J. Geils, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2017)
1946 – Sandy Duncan, American actress, singer, and dancer (Video)
1942 – Mitch McConnell, American lawyer and politician
1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer
1937 – Nancy Wilson, American singer and actress (died 2018)
1936 – Larry Hovis, American actor and singer (died 2003)
1929 – Amanda Blake, American actress (died 1989)
1927 – Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-American actor, director, and diplomat (died 2022)
1927 – Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer (died 2018)
1927 – Roy Cohn, American lawyer and political activist (died 1986)
1926 – Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (died 2013)
1925 – Robert Altman, American director and screenwriter (died 2006)
1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt, American actress, fashion designer, and socialite (died 2019)
1920 – Karl Albrecht, German businessman, co-founded Aldi (died 2014)
1914 – John Charles Daly, South African–American journalist and game show host (died 1991) (Video)
1912 – Pierre Boulle, French soldier and author (died 1994)
1906 – Gale Gordon, American actor (died 1995) (Video)
1902 – Ansel Adams, American photographer and environmentalist (died 1984)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2025 – Jerry Butler, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1939) (Video)
2014 – Garrick Utley, American journalist (born 1939) (Video)
2010 – Alexander Haig, American general and politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (born 1924)
2006 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (born 1919)
2005 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (born 1937)
2005 – John Raitt, American actor and singer (born 1917)
2005 – Sandra Dee, American actress (born 1942)
2001 – Rosemary DeCamp, American actress (born 1910)
1999 – Gene Siskel, American journalist and critic (born 1946) (Video)
1992 – Dick York, American actor (born 1928)
1987 – Wayne Boring, American illustrator (Superman) (born 1905)
1976 – Kathryn Kuhlman, healing evangelist, known for belief in Holy Spirit (born 1907)
1972 – Walter Winchell, American journalist and actor (born 1897)
1966 – Chester W. Nimitz, American admiral (born 1885)
1936 – Max Schreck, German actor (born 1879)
1920 – Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (born 1856)
1895 – Frederick Douglass, American author and activist (born c. 1818)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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