Hi everyone,

Welcome back.  Come on in, have a seat.  How are you?  I woke up with a splitting headache this morning, so BDH and Little Buddha are in quiet mode at the moment.  Don't know what brought this on.  Anyway, we're at the end of February, and that's exciting.  Even though I have to shovel later today, and there's still snow in the forecast, the year starts picking up speed in March.  There's baseball, more sunlight, and eventually, it will be time to talk about gardening!  Looking forward to all of that.  In the meantime, the guys just brought in the coffee, so help yourself to a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Thursday Clutter.

Michael Cohen provided a devastating profile of Donald Trump before the House Oversight and Reform Committee yesterday.  Trump's former longtime fixer told Congress about Trump's racism, dishonest business dealings, advanced knowledge of the stolen DNC emails, and hush payments to cover up his extramarital affairs (including payments personally made since he's been in office), among other things.  In all, it appears Cohen accused Trump of committing 14 felonies. Republican committee members had no arguments except to continually call Cohen a lying liar who lies, so nothing he ever says can be believed because he's a liar.  Not exactly the strongest defense of Trump, which has to be concerning to the White House. 

While Cohen has a long history of dishonesty, he had supporting documents to go with his testimony, and there's also the matter of his upcoming prison sentence.  He couldn't reduce it by testifying, but it could be lengthened if he lied yesterday.  Team Trump will continue to attack Cohen's testimony, but it seems clear that folks like Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump should be expecting to hear from the House Oversight Committee as a follow-up to yesterday, and the idea of Junior should be especially worrisome for Trump. There's also the issue that yesterday's testimony was only the version Cohen could give in public.  He had a private session on Tuesday, and he has another one today, and one can only imagine what other details are being revealed.

 It was pretty wild to watch the Republicans get so worked up about calling a guy a pathological liar without a hint of irony, since they've been obediently following one for years without argument.  Whatever the impact of Cohen's testimony, we never would have heard from him if the GOP still controlled the House.  Remember that the next time someone foolishly tells you voting doesn't matter because there's no difference between the two parties.

Michael Cohen had a lot to say about his former boss on Wednesday.  (pic via salisburypost.com)

The Florida Bar is investigating Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) because he threatened Michael Cohen on Twitter on Tuesday.  Gonna take a wild guess that's what inspired Representative Gaetz to apologize to Cohen yesterday.  We are not dealing with the best and the brightest here.

It appears that Donald Trump's summit with Kim Jong Un is a bust. Trump doesn't appear to have gotten anything from the discussions with North Korea's leader except for a strengthening friendship with the dictator.  For example, when asked to choose to stand with either Kim or an American whose family says he was tortured in North Korea, Trump sided with Kim.   Of course, given who we're talking about here, one has to wonder if we'll hear about a Trump Tower being built in North Korea at some point.

BDH and Little Buddha want to make sure you all see this nice article about the Animal Rescue League of Boston.  They also want to know if we can get a pet pig.

We're sorry to hear about the sudden passing of Blake Swihart's adopted brother on Wednesday.  Our condolences go out to the Boston Red Sox catcher and his family.

Glad to hear the Philadelphia Eagles are not going to put the franchise tag on Nick Foles. Maybe it's just because they couldn't find a trade they liked for the quarterback, but general manager Howie Roseman is right - Foles deserves a chance to lead his own team.

Suicide Squad fans - are you disappointed that Will Smith will reportedly not be in the sequel?  We admit to not seeing the first movie, but it seems like films have a better chance to do well without Smith these days.

Ray Liotta has joined the cast of The Many Saints of Newark, which is the Sopranos prequel movie.  Don't know what role he'll be playing, but that's a solid bit of casting, given that the actor is best known for his portrayal of mobster Henry Hill in Goodfellas.

We could be talked into seeing Dark Phoenix this summer after seeing this trailer.  Who wants to come with us?

There's a Beverly Hills 90210 limited revival coming to Fox this summer. It sounds like a mockumentary.  Most of the original cast will reportedly back and playing themselves as they try to get a 90210 reboot on the air.  Not going to lie, we're probably going to watch at least one of these episodes.

An arbitrator ordered 21st Century Fox to pay the stars and executive producer of Bones $179 million because of the studio's fraudulent accounting regarding the show's streaming rights.  Fox will apparently appeal the $128+ million in punitive damages, bu in any case, it will be interesting to see if this award has any impact on the way "Hollywood math" is calculated moving forward.

We've got a sneak peek at the Kensi/Deeks wedding for all of our friends who are NCIS: Los Angles fans.  We still find it fascinating that Daniela Ruah  is married in real life to Eric Christian Olsen's brother David.  That's got to be some weird family dynamics when your sister-in-law is your TV love interest, right?

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's the great Otis Redding to close things out with, "Hard to Handle," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  Enjoy the rest of your day, be careful if you are driving on those slippery roads, and we'll catch up with you again for more fun soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.