Trump rage posts, heads back to hospital, is "world-class" kleptocrat; Pope Leo on A.I., slavery; what happened to Rudy?
It's National Blueberry Cheesecake Day!
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.
Please share the newsletter with a friend.
—Kevin G. Barkes (KGB)
KGB Report is assembled by an aging human and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 219 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 969 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Manic Trump kicks off Memorial Day with 6:15 am rage post. Draft-dodging President Donald Trump kicked off Memorial Day by flying into a full-blown hissy fit over criticism of his bungled war negotiations. (Daily Beast)
Why Trump is heading back to Walter Reed for his third checkup in 13 months. Third time’s the charm? (Newsweek)
Trump is now a world-class kleptocrat. The president’s demand for a slush fund to pay billions of dollars to his cronies places him among the planet’s most infamous political criminals. (The New Republic)
Fake ICE agents terrorize immigrants amid Trump’s crackdown. A Noticias Telemundo investigation documented a marked increase in cases of people posing as federal agents to rob, intimidate and even injure or rape immigrants. (NBC News)
Pope Leo compares AI threat to biblical ‘Tower of Babel’. The head of the Catholic Church is adding his moral suasion to a growing backlash against the impact of artificial intelligence. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Pope Leo XIV makes historic apology for Vatican’s role in legitimizing slavery. No pope has ever publicly acknowledged, much less apologized for, the role that past popes played in giving European sovereigns explicit authority to subjugate and enslave “infidels.” (AP)
Thousands of journalists’ data exposed to dark web. Swiss privacy and security company Proton and Constella Intelligence found more than 116,000 instances where employees at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post had their data exposed to the dark web.
What happened to Rudy Giuliani? No man should be judged entirely on their last act. (The Atlantic gift article)
Late Night: Colbert’s gone, and everyone else is in reruns tonight.
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:
1967 – The Beatles‘ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. (Video)
Quote of the Day:
Well, f*ck you too, little lady.
(In response to a student heckler).
--John Wayne (Wikipedia link)
(More John Wayne quotes from the KGB Quotations Database)
Today’s holidays:
LGD Awareness Day, National Blueberry Cheesecake Day, National Cherry Dessert Day, National Paper Airplane Day, Sally Ride Day, World Dracula Day, World Lindy Hop Day, and World Redhead Day.
On This Day:
2021 – Amazon announced it would acquire 97-year-old film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $8.45 billion.
2020 – Protests triggered by the murder of George Floyd erupted in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, later becoming widespread across the United States and around the world.
1998 – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in New Jersey v. New York that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.
1991 – Lauda Air Flight 004 broke apart in mid-air and crashed in the Phu Toei National Park in the Suphan Buri province of Thailand, killing all 223 people on board.
1975 – Glen Campbell’s single “Rhinestone Cowboy” was released. (Video)
1972 – Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
1970 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
1969 – Apollo 10 returned to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first crewed Moon landing.
1967 – The Beatles‘ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released. (Video)
1940 – World War II: Operation Dynamo: In northern France, Allied forces began a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France. The Battle of Dunkirk began simultaneously as Allied defenders fight to slow down the German offensive.
1938 – In the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee began its first session.
1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.
1923 – The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was held in France. Run annually in June thereafter, it became the oldest endurance racing event in the world.
1908 – The first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made at Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia. The rights to the resource were quickly acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.
1897 – Bram Stoker’s horror novel "Dracula" went on sale in London.
1896 – Charles Dow published the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
1868 – Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: President Andrew Johnson was acquitted by one vote in the United States Senate.
1865 – Conclusion of the American Civil War: The Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi division, was the last full general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.
1637 – Pequot War: A combined English and Mohegan force under John Mason attacked a village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Pequots.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1975 – Lauryn Hill, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1971 – Matt Stone, American actor, animator, screenwriter, producer, and composer
1966 – Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
1964 – Lenny Kravitz, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor
1962 – Genie Francis, Canadian-American actress
1951 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut, founded Sally Ride Science (died 2012)
1949 – Hank Williams Jr., American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1949 – Philip Michael Thomas, American actor
1949 – Pam Grier, American actress
1949 – Ward Cunningham, American computer programmer, developed the first wiki
1948 – Stevie Nicks. American singer-songwriter
1941 – Aldrich Ames, American CIA officer and criminal (died 2026)
1940 – Levon Helm, American singer-songwriter, drummer, producer, and actor (died 2012)
1928 – Jack Kevorkian, American pathologist, author, and assisted suicide activist (died 2011)
1926 – Miles Davis, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (died 1991)
1923 – James Arness, American actor (died 2011)
1923 – Roy Dotrice, English actor (died 2017)
1920 – Peggy Lee, American singer-songwriter and actress (died 2002) (Video)
1913 – Peter Cushing, English actor (died 1994)
1912 – Jay Silverheels, Canadian-American actor (died 1980) (Video)
1908 – Robert Morley, English actor (died 1992)
1907 – John Wayne, American actor, director, and producer (died 1979)
1886 – Al Jolson, American singer and actor (died 1950)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2022 – Ray Liotta, American actor (born 1954)
2013 – Jack Vance, American author (born 1916)
2010 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (born 1912)
2008 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1934)
2005 – Eddie Albert, American actor (born 1906)
1995 – Friz Freleng, American animator, director, and producer (born 1906)
1976 – Martin Heidegger, German philosopher and academic (born 1889)
1969 – Allan Haines Loughead, American engineer, co-founded the Lockheed Corporation (born 1889)
1943 – Edsel Ford, American businessman (born 1893)
1939 – Charles Horace Mayo, American physician, co-founded Mayo Clinic (born 1865)
1933 – Jimmie Rodgers, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1897)
1924 – Victor Herbert, Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor, founded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (born 1859)
1703 – Samuel Pepys, English politician (born 1633)
(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.)
I thought it was curtains for Rudy caludy . Funny how fast he disappeared from the news...