Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  Congratulations on making it through another week.  The weather finally seems to be moving into a more seasonable range.  BDH and Little Buddha said we're going to have highs in the 70's today!   They also said we're expecting a thunderstorm this afternoon/evening, but still, 70's!  That calls for coffee (because really, everything calls for coffee.)  They just made a fresh pot, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Friday Clutter.

Joe Biden said he will not pardon Donald Trump if he's elected president.  Biden also said that his Department of Justice would be more independent than the compromised Trump defense enterprise currently run by Attorney General William Barr (our words, not his.)  Trump knows being in office is the only thing keeping him from being swept away by a tidal wave of legal problems.  That is why he'll pull out all the stops to win a second term, even though he clearly hates the job and many of the people in this country.

This quote from Donald Trump about coronavirus testing is so stupid, a friend asked us if it was legit or something made up on the Internet.  It's real, and it's idiotic:

“We have more cases than anybody in the world, but why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases. They don’t want to write that. It’s common sense. We test much more.”

To review:  With more than 85,000 coronavirus-related deaths in this country, Donald Trump thinks the problem is that we're testing people, and if we just stopped testing, everything else would go away.  Let's be honest, if he wasn't in the White House, that's the kind of comment that would cause family members (if any actually cared about him) to schedule an appointment for him with a medical professional.   The Onion couldn't write something that would make him sound more foolish.

Maybe electing a con man was a bad idea.  (pic via cnn.com)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admits he was wrong to claim that the Obama administration didn't leave behind a pandemic playbook, even though it was confirmed in March that they did exactly that.  Do you think McConnell a) was lying from the beginning, or b) was too lazy to do the slightest bit of research before making a public allegation like that?  We'd bet the house on the former, but either way, this country has suffered enough from his actions during his time in charge of the Senate.  It's long past time to send him back to the minority.

Stephen Colbert described Donald Trump using just one word, but it might be the insult of Trump's nightmares.  Colbert said he has no interest in interviewing Trump again, after having done in it in 2015, because Trump is "boring" in real life.  That reality would devastate the MAGA cult members who somehow think this guy is some amazing Alpha male, and not a dim-witted coward.  Boring?  Who wants to rush back into unsafe crowded situations, and maybe shoot up with Lysol, for a boring guy?  Why, you'd have to be an idiot to do that.

There have been some headlines about whether or not Amazon's Jeff Bezos is "on track" to become the world's first trillionaire anytime soon.  It's probably not likely to happen soon, given the current state of the economy, and the projections for long-term damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  However, the fact that we're even talking about the possibility, and the fact that no individual should even be worth $144 billion, reflect gross moral failures in our economic system.

Hold on, we missed a chance to do a virtual workout with Big Papi this week?   Let's just put this right here for now, and we can come back to it later today:

Sorry to hear that former All-Star/GM Bob Watson died due to kidney disease yesterday.  Watson had a 19-year career in the majors, much of it spent with the Houston Astros, but there were also stints with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves.  We're pretty sure we picked up a large number of his baseball cards during our collecting days.  Watson went on to become the second African-American general manager in MLB when he was hired by the Yankees in 1995, and he helped assemble the team that won the World Series the next year.  Our condolences go out to his family and friends.  Bob Watson was 74 years old.

Fox announcer Joe Buck says the network is planning on using fake crowd noise for NFL games this fall, and they're also working on putting "virtual" fans in the stands, assuming the real ones aren't allowed in the stadiums.  We still don't think the league is going to start on time in the first place, but in any case, this doesn't seem like it would be a big deal if it happens.  You don't see much of the crowd during a football play, so some blurry computer images around the edges of the screen wouldn't be that distracting.  It would also probably take about 30 seconds to forget about the artificial noise.  Do you think this would be a major issue?

We are completely on board with Matthew Gilbert's praise of the never-ending entertainment that is blooper reels.  That's a YouTube rabbit hole we've also fallen down many times.  There's something about seeing professionals unable to do their jobs because they can't stop laughing, which is infectious.  Whether it's an over-the-top case like SNL's Rachel Dratch's Debbie Downer breaking everyone around her in the terrific Disney World sketch, or even someone in a dramatic show who simply mangles a line and causes laughter, these videos are addictive.  These days, we need all the laughs we can find, so if you haven't done it already, look for bloopers from your favorite shows and prepare to smile.

The CW announced they plan to start their next season in January, but hopefully the final episodes of Supernatural will air this fall.  The long-running show had five episodes in post-production and two episodes left to film before the coronavirus shut everything down in Hollywood.  It will be nice to have that last bunch of adventures to look forward to this fall, assuming the network is able to keep to this schedule.  We have to know how things turn out for the Winchester brothers, especially before Jared Padalecki moves on to the Walker, Texas Ranger reboot in 2021.

(Also, going back to the previous item, the Supernatural gag reels are always entertaining.  They're also long, because the show's stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki have seemingly made it their quest to break everyone in every episode over the last 15 seasons.)

Former Chicago Fire star Monica Raymund's new show Hightown premieres on Sunday.  Pretty sure we get Starz, so we'll have to check it out.

Some fool on Twitter criticized wrestling legend Steve Austin for wearing a mask yesterday, and "Stone Cold" wasn't having it.  Austin understands what needs to be done during these times, and that's the bottom line, son.

Speaking of wrestling, we're big fans of wrestler Chris Jericho around here.  It's partly for his consistently strong in-ring performances, but largely because he's the master of reinvention.  Jericho has successfully reset his wrestling character many times, which not many of his peers can do.  In addition to that, he's also been a best-selling author, podcast host, and the lead singer of his own band (Fozzy.)  Jericho has multiple interests, and he's pursued all of them, so more power to him.  It's an approach to life more people should take.  That's why we're not surprised to hear Jericho has now formed a 1980's-focused KISS cover band, because hey, why wouldn't he do it?  The world could use some bombastic rock right now.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's wrap this up by checking out Pearl Jam's latest single.  Here's "Retrograde," for today's, "Song of the Day."  (Check out the psychic.)

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  BDH and Little Buddha want to make sure you know you're welcome to come back later if you would like to do that Big Papi workout with them.  We'll keep everyone a safe distance apart.  The guys just may need to stretch a little bit first.  Otherwise, be good, stay safe, and we'll catch up with you again soon.  Until next time, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.