Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  Things are good on this end at the moment.  It's a little chilly in here this morning, but that's not going to last long, according to the weather forecast.  We're looking at highs of 85-95 for the next few days, so summer isn't over just yet.  That works for us, maybe we'll get a few late-arriving guests in the garden.  In the meantime, there are headlines to sort through and coffee to be enjoyed. The guys made a fresh pot, so help yourself to a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Sunday Clutter.

We're sorry to hear that Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) died from brain cancer yesterday.  He passed away nine years to the day after his longtime friend Senator Ted Kennedy died from the same condition.   David Foster Wallace once wrote an essay about Senator McCain's complicated legacy which sums up our feelings about the man, so rather than do a pale imitation of Wallace, we encourage you to read the piece.  Our condolences go out to Senator McCain's family and friends.  He was 81 years old.

RIP.  (pic via tribune.com.pk)

The news just keeps getting worse for Donald Trump, as now a former Trump Hotel doorman says he's been freed from his non-disclosure agreement with the National Enquirer's parent company and is free to talk.  Everywhere he looks, the Great Pumpkin sees people telling his secrets.  At this point, we're almost ready to start taking odds on which one of his children will be the first one to turn on him.  Eric Trump seems like the most likely candidate to us.  Who is your pick?

There's also the fact that there are multiple investigations of the Trump Organization taking place now, and Donald Trump can't do much about any of them.  Of course, we can't forget the inquiries coming if the Democrats take back the House.  You can see that tidal wave forming off in the distance.

Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) has already thrown his wife under the bus after the two of them were indicted on multiple charges of campaign finance violations.  Classy.  Best of luck to Hunter's opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, because the voters in this district should toss Hunter out on his backside.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano claims he told Pope Francis about an abusive priest in 2013, and that Francis did nothing about it, which is why Vigano argues he should step down.  Everyone in that organization should resign, and many of them should be on their way to prison.

The Boston Globe editorial board has endorsed City Counclior Ayanna Pressley's primary challenge to Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA).  Primary Day in Massachusetts is just nine days away, so it will be interesting to see if this moves voters. 

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will testify before Congress on September 5. That should go well.  Twitter is a mess on multiple fronts, and Dorsey and company seem to have no clue what to do about rampant propaganda and all sorts of other abuses, but the money here is on Republicans spending the entire time pretending that conservatives are somehow discriminated against by the social media site.

After getting observers all riled up with a tweet indicating otherwise, Elon Musk has decided not to take Tesla private after all.  We'd still encourage investors to quietly walk away from the company unless the board of directors gets Musk some support, but to each their own.

The Boston Red Sox lost 5-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays last night.  Rick Porcello seemed to be in challenging situations all night, and he ended up giving up six hits and three runs over five innings.  While we're not disagreeing with the actual comments, it was a little surprising to hear Porcello call out his teammates after the game:

"To be honest with you, it started with me, but we didn't play a good ballgame tonight," Porcello said. "We were pretty sloppy all the way around. I had two walks, two hit batters, a lot of traffic on the bases. Those are things that I felt like I could have prevented being a little bit sharper, and just our entire ballclub didn't play a very clean ballgame tonight, and the result was a loss."

This is the first series the Red Sox have lost out of the last 15.  Their lead over the New York Yankees is down to seven games, and Nathan Eovaldi takes the mound for Boston as the Sox try to avoid a sweep this afternoon.  There's no panic on this end, but don't relax just yet Red Sox fans, because September could still have plenty of drama.

It sounds like Serena Williams has already moved on from the controversy regarding the French Tennis Federation banning the black catsuit she wore at the French Open this year.  The ban was a racist move which never should have happened in the first place.

Disney put Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on hold while the company tries to deal with the controversy over director James Gunn's firing earlier this year.  The franchise has made too much money to be scrapped, but there's been no announcement of a revised timetable at this point.

30 years later, it doesn't sound like we're likely to ever hear an official remix of Metallica's, ...And Justice for All album that has any bass, but apparently there are some fan versions which include Jason Newstead's contributions, so those might be worth looking for on the Internet.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's have Toots and the Maytals close things out with, "Take Me Home Country Roads," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  It's already getting warmer out there, so enjoy the rest of your day, 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.