Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  Come on in, have a seat.  How's your weekend going?  It got off to a great start on this end when Dad Clutter and I went to Friday's Red Sox game.  The Sox won in the 10th inning, thanks to Mookie Betts hitting his first-ever walk-off home run, so that was exciting.  Yours truly made it on TV for a second at one point during the game, and that made BDH and Little Buddha happy to no end.  Also, the garden got a solid watering thanks to yesterday's rain, but the sun is shining now, so yeah, everything is good here.  On top of all that, the guys made coffee!  Help yourself to a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Sunday Clutter.

The midterm election is now 100 days away.  While things look promising, Democrats can not afford to take anything for granted.  Donald Trump and his cronies will do whatever they can to stop voters from tossing Republicans out of office and finally providing a counter-balance to the Great Pumpkin and his Russian owners.

Apparently no one bought Rudy Giuliani's initial dismissal of the Michael Cohen - Donald Trump tape discussing a payoff for a Playboy model's story about an affair with Trump.  Giuliani has now moved on to claiming that the tape has been doctored.  We'll see what excuse Rudy throws against the wall next week as he frantically looks for something that might stick.  One might be tempted to ask if this fraud was really the best lawyer available for the job, but then one remembers who the client is, and the answer is obviously yes.

Representative John Lewis (D-Georgia) is in the hospital for what's being described as "routine observation" after recently becoming ill.   We send our best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to the 78-year-old civil rights icon.

CBS CEO Les Moonves has been accused of sexual harassment and intimidation by six women.  Ronan Farrow's latest article is a powerful and detailed indictment of both Moonves and the overall corporate culture at the network.  In other words, the Charlie Rose story from last year appears to have been the tip of the iceberg at CBS.

Les Moonves is under fire.  (pic via w3livenews.com)

Owen Labrie's appeal of his sexual assault conviction will be heard by the New Hampshire Supreme Court on September 13.  Labrie, the former St. Paul's School student, was found guilty of assaulting then-15-year-old Chessy Prout in 2015.

Coca-Cola says Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs are one of the reasons why the company is raising prices this year.  Presumably, Trump will be launching a Twitter attack against the soda giant any time now.

Facebook wasn't the only social media company to have a rough day on Wall Street last week.  Twitter's stock fell over 20% on Friday after the company announced it lost one million users and said additional losses were possible.

Sam Adams beer sales are down?  Hey, if we need to buy more to help improve the situation, so be it.  We're here to help, although a $200 bottle might be asking a little too much.

There have apparently been some claims that sleeping with a fan on might be bad for your health.  It's not, but even if it was, the alternative would be not getting any sleep around here for the entire month of July at a minimum, and we're pretty sure that would be worse.

The Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins 10-4 on Saturday.  Rick Porcello got off to a rough start, giving up the four runs over the 2nd and 3rd innings, but he hung in there long enough for the Sox to get him back the lead in the bottom of the fifth, and then they eventually broke things open with a four-run 8th inning.  It was good to see Boston's offense come alive again with 14 hits, and every member of the lineup reached base at least once.  It was also encouraging that reliever Tyler Thornburg continues to show signs of returning to form, as he had a shutdown 8th inning appearance in a high leverage situation.  The only downside was that it seems third baseman Rafael Devers is heading back to the DL after tweaking his left hamstring.  Newly-acquired Nathan Eovaldi makes his Sox debut this afternoon as Boston tries to win the series against the Twins.

We love our baseball around here, but the whole notion of the "unwritten rules" usually quickly veers into silly territory.  The latest example is the Atlanta Braves TV announcers blasting the Los Angeles Dodgers for their attire choice during batting practice yesterday.  There's more to the story about what the players were wearing (click on the link to find out), but even if things were exactly as they seemed, lighten up, kids.

Star Wars fans must be thrilled to hear that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher will be returning for Episode IX.  The late Princess Leia will appear via previously shot footage, so it will be interesting to see how that gets worked into the story.  We'll find out when the movie is released in December 2019.

WWE CEO Vince McMahon reportedly doesn't want to appear on the company's television programs anymore because of how old he looks these days.  Can't say we blame the 72-year-old.  He didn't look well on last week's Monday Night Raw, and given his vanity, we can see how that could be enough to convince him to stay behind the scenes.  Our only question is if this discussion raises any concerns for anyone about McMahon's ability to pull off his XFL resurrection.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  We're going to close things out with a tune that recently came up in a conversation.  Here are the Beach Boys with, "Sloop John B," for today's, "Song of the Day." 

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  Enjoy the great weather, be good, and we'll see you back here again for more fun soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.