Wednesday Clutter: Impeachment Witnesses, Trump, Facebook Privacy Tool, Hard Rock Hotel Closing, Fast & Furious 9, Arrow, Friends, Alice in Chains, and more
Friday Clutter: Trump Sexual Assault Claim, Elizabeth Warren, Susan Collins, Coke Energy, Facebook and WWE Stocks Drop, Pee-wee Herman, Green Day, and more

Thursday Clutter: Unrestrained Trump, Jared Kushner, Facebook Settlement, Warren Buffett, Baseball Notes, John Oliver, Amy Winehouse, and more

Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  I'm just waiting for BDH and Little Buddha to come back with today's weather forecast.  There was a little issue last night.  We settled in on the couch after a busy day, all set to watch the "One Chicago" programs on NBC, only to discover they were all repeats!  Someone forgot to check the schedule.  Fine.  I forgot to check the schedule.  The guys were understanding though, and we watched a few more episodes of The Good Place.  We're almost halfway done with season 3, so we can only watch a couple of the shows at a time.  Have you seen it?  Just terrific.  Oh, the guys are back -- what's the story?  Sunny with highs in the mid-30's?  We can work with that.  They also want you to know that the coffee is ready, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Thursday Clutter.

Senate Republicans are all-in on Donald Trump's corruption, and at this point, it looks like they're going to give him the green light to do whatever he wants.  Trump's legal team basically argued there's almost nothing he can do to warrant impeachment, and the GOP seems good with that.  They're panting with excitement at the idea of an unrestrained executive branch, because really, checks and balances are for suckers.  Any supposed "small government" voter should be appalled by this power grab and disregard for the Constitution.  Our democracy is under assault from the inside, while Vladimir Putin laughs at how easy it was to buy himself a White House.

We've always been under the impression that the Middle East conflict was a difficult situation to solve.  However, Patrick Bateman look-alike/Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushener thinks he's figured everything out, and only stupid people (i.e. Palestinians) wouldn't immediately understand the greatness of his plan.  Seriously, the guy read 25 books and everything, so what's the hold-up?  We bet all of the people who have tried to create a feasible solution to this conflict over the years bailed after 24 books at most.  If only they knew they were one more book away from an answer.   Given the Trump administration's track record over the last three years, it's not like this proposal will likely make everything even worse or anything.

Jared Kushner January 30 2020Who can argue with 25 books? (pic via vox.com)

Life expectancy in the United States increased in 2018, the first rise in four years.  The improvement came from reductions in cancer deaths and drug overdoses.  However, we expect a tweet from Donald Trump at some point today saying it's all because of him.

If you haven't seen it already, these new images of the surface of the sun are amazing.  They look like a collection of caramel popcorn nuggets, except that each nugget is the size of Texas.

Facebook has been forced to pay $500 million to settle a class action lawsuit because they violated a Illinois privacy law.  That's a drop in the bucket for the company (which had revenues of $21 billion in 2019), so it makes more sense for them to continue violating their users' privacy at every opportunity and just consider settlements like this the cost of doing business.

Warren Buffett is checking out of the newspaper business: He's selling the papers he owns for about 40% of what he originally paid for them.  Even the "Oracle of Omaha" strikes out now and again.

Vanessa Bryant issued her first public statement after the tragic death of her husband Kobe and daughter Gianna.

The Boston Red Sox still don't have a manager at the moment, but they did sign first baseman Mitch Moreland to a new 1-year deal for $2.5 million, with a club option for 2021.  Moreland will most likely work in a platoon with Michael Chavis and Bobby Dalbec, so it's good they'll have a steady veteran presence to compliment the kids.

Minor League Baseball officials are accusing Major League Baseball of making false statements regarding their willingness to negotiate over their dispute regarding proposed team cuts.  It seems pretty clear that MiLB has in fact been at the table for talks, so if if the MLB is lying about that easily proven fact, what else are they being dishonest about here?

Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant lost his grievance against the team yesterday.  Bryant argued he should be granted an extra year of service time because the Cubs manipulated his call-up in 2015.  If they had done it a day earlier that year, Bryant would be eligible to be a free agent at the end of this season, but now he has to wait until the end of 2021, which also makes him a more valuable trade chip for the Cubs.  It was a shady move by the team, which happens a lot in baseball, and it will be interesting to see if the issue gets revisited the next time players and owner have to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.

DraftKings put out their official odds about where Tom Brady will play next year.  The favorite isn't surprising, but every team after the top five choices would be a shocker.

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting profile piece on new U.S. citizen John Oliver.  His show Last Week Tonight returns on February 16.

Apparently we also have to wait until February 16 for the next new episode of NCIS: New Orleans.  It's been a long hiatus, man.  Hold on, if that's on at the same time as Doctor Who, we'll have to set the DVR for a couple of weeks.

After months of uncertainty, NBC is renewing the soap opera Days of Our Lives for a 56th season.  That's good.  A world without daytime soap operas is much less entertaining.  There are only a handful left on network television, and we hope they're able to continue plugging away for years to come.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's have the great Amy Winehouse close things out with this performance of, "You Know I'm No Good," for today's, "Song of the Day."

It's such a loss that she left us so early.

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  Enjoy the rest of your day, be good, and we'll catch up with all of you again soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.

 

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