Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  Come on in, have a seat.  How are you?  I was just telling BDH and Little Buddha about the trivia contest I participated in last night.  Our team tied for third place, but we would have had third to ourselves if I just could have remembered the name of the Top Gear show.  I knew Matt LeBlanc was one of the current hosts, and I could see the promotional materials, but alas.  Oh well, we still had fun.  Hey, does anyone here know how to reach a live support person at Facebook?  Drop us a line at [email protected] if you do.  Thanks!  The guys just came in with the coffee, so help yourself to a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Thursday Clutter.

As everyone waits for today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing featuring Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, another woman has now accused Kavanaugh of assault , this time in the late 1990's.  Kavanaugh denies the claim, but the man's honesty is on par with Donald Trump.  Forget the Supreme Court, he should be removed from the bench.  Will today's testimony be enough to convince any Republicans, like perhaps Susan Collins, to finally change their minds?  In any case, today's hearing is likely to go down in history.

Wait, hold on, there's yet another new accusation.  This time, a man claims his friend was sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge on a boat in 1985.  No wonder Trump nominated Kavanaugh.  In addition to wanting him to be his get-out-of-jail card on the Supreme Court, the Great Pumpkin clearly sees Kavanaugh as a kindred spirit.  Both of these men should be Bill Cosby's new cellmates.

We also want to send our thoughts out to those who have gone through these kinds of horrific incidents, and we hope you are finding ways to take care of yourselves today as this hearing plays out.

This story keeps getting worse.  (pic via indystar.com)

As expected, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates yesterday and indicated they will do it again in December.  Donald Trump had a tantrum about the hike, which is another indicator that it was the proper move.  Imagine what could happen if other government bodies, like say, Congress, could establish the same independence from the Great Pumpkin as the Fed seems able to maintain?

McDonald's is removing all artificial preservatives, flavors, and colors from their classic hamburgers.  It's been almost 30 years since the last time we ate there, and this announcement won't change that, but we're interested in hearing how people feel about the new burgers.  Thoughts?

Good for Gisele Bundchen for talking about her mental health struggles and bouts with suicidal thoughts.  It's important to be able to have those conversations in public and to remember that just because someone looks like they're doing fine from the outside, that doesn't mean others know what's going on in their lives.  Everyone is dealing with something, and we'd all be better off if we could keep that in mind and be a little nicer to each other.  (So say BDH and Little Buddha.)

The Boston Red Sox split yesterday's doubleheader with the Baltimore Orioles.  The Sox won the first one 19-3 and lost the second one 10-3, so they were real pitchers duels.  The highlights of the day included Mookie Betts becoming a 30-30 man, and Xander Bogaerts reaching the 100 RBI mark for the season, so cheers to both of them.  The big concern is Chris Sale's lower than usual velocity in the night game.  He struck out 8 batters, but he needed 92 pitches to get through just 4 2/3 innings and is clearly not in peak form.  The Sox have about a week to figure out what else they can do to help the ace.  The Red Sox have tonight off, and then they take on the New York Yankees for the final series of the regular season.  Rick Porcello gets the ball for Boston on Friday.

The bad news keeps coming for the New England Patriots (inspiring sympathy from 0% of the rest of the NFL), who announced they put running back Rex Burkhead and rookie linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley on injured reserve.  We just started the season, and the Pats are already in a danger zone that makes this Sunday's contest against the Miami Dolphins feel like a playoff game.

Hey X-Men fans, the first trailer for Dark Phoenix looks all kinds of outstanding.  Check it out:

It looks like we know what we'll be watching on Thanksgiving weekend.  Check out this trailer for Creed II:

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's have Neil Young close things out with, "Old Man," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  We've got some TV premieres to catch up on later today, so you're welcome to come back later if you want to watch with us.  (Maybe you could bring a pizza?)  Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day, be good, and we'll meet back here again for more fun soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.