Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  We're all doing fine at the moment, except for one small thing.  BDH and Little Buddha saw a blurb about the maximum amount of sunlight for the year being this coming Saturday, and none of us want to talk about what that means for the rest of 2020.  In more positive news, I gave the garden a good long soaking last night, and that was fun.  The plants could use an extended stretch of rain, and it's in the forecast for 10 days, starting next Monday.  I'm not saying we expect it to happen for that entire stretch, but we could use some assistance here.  We also could use some coffee.  The guys just put a fresh pot on the counter, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, and let's clear out some Wednesday Clutter.

Donald Trump is suing former national security adviser John Bolton to try to block the release of Bolton's upcoming book next week.  Trump claims Bolton violated a non-disclosure agreement and is including classified information in the book.  Bolton and his publisher don't seem too concerned about this attack on the 1st Amendment, and it looks like they expect the book to still come out next Tuesday.  What has the orange one so frightened?  Bolton has indicated he can show that Trump's extortion to launch a politically-motivated investigation into Joe Biden wasn't limited to just Ukraine.  That certainly would have been nice to hear a few months ago.

Bolton had a chance to make a national impact if he had been willing to testify during Trump's impeachment trial.  However, the lure of the large paycheck trumped (pun intended) any sense of protecting national interests.  We have no doubt this will be unflattering to Donald Trump.  We just wish John Bolton had the courage/decency to tell his story under oath.

Everyone knows books terrify Donald Trump.  (pic cnn.com)

Donald Trump signed a toothless executive order regarding police reform yesterday.   He wants to pretend he cares about the issue of police brutality while not actually doing anything about it.  Trump loathes law enforcement with a passion when he or his cronies are being investigated.  However, if we're talking about minority suspects, he's on-board with the police with no questions asked.  The likely biggest reason Trump wanted to have yesterday's event was so he could lie and claim that the Obama administration never addressed police reform, when in fact, Trump undid several of his predecessor's policies.

ABC News obtained a copy of the Trump campaign's internal polling from March which showed him losing by wide margins in a number of battleground states.  Team Trump claims there's been a huge swing in Trump's favor since then.  That makes sense, given his leadership on the coronavirus and race relations.  Wait...

Donald Trump thinks a coronavirus vaccine will soon be developed by the same people who invented an AIDS vaccine...that doesn't exist.  We all know Trump lives in his own reality, but is being this wrong about a basic fact an example of his ignorance or a sign of a further-deteriorating mental state?

Texas decided to ignore science and rushed the reopening of their economy.  Texas now has a record number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations.  Let's not be like Texas.

Good for United Airlines and American Airlines, who say they may ban passengers who don't comply with the industry's current mask-wearing requirements.  There's no excuse for not wearing them, particularly when you're trapped in a confined metal tube.

This is interesting:  Facebook is rolling out a feature over the next five weeks that allows users to turn off political ads.  Who will be most impacted by this tool?  If it turns out to be Donald Trump, you know there's going to be another rant about social media discriminating against conservatives. 

Doctor Anthony Fauci (remember him?) says baseball should be over by the end of September in order to further minimize coronavirus-related concerns.  Let's review:  Players and owners aren't close to an agreement.  The absolute best-case scenario is the two sides come to an agreement by July 1.  They'd need at least three weeks to ramp up, so maybe there would be about six weeks of games before the playoffs.  Even putting the money drama to the side, none of this makes sense.  Shut it down and try again for 2021.

Kyrie Irving reportedly thinks players should bail on the NBA's plan to restart the season and should form their own league instead.  We said it last week, and we'll say it again:  We support whatever the players decide to do about playing again this year.  There are a number of reasons why resuming the season doesn't make sense.  However, we beg them not to let Kyrie Irving become the face of their decision.  He makes every situation he's involved in worse, and if left unchecked, he could easily turn this entire situation into a soap opera that rivals baseball.  Someone else needs to grab the spotlight and do it soon.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers released the first official pictures of Tom Brady wearing their uniforms yesterday.  Maybe it's because there's too much other weirdness going on in the world for us to process, but this didn't have any impact on us at all.  We wish Brady (and Gronk) the best of luck next season, whenever that happens.

We need to wish a happy birthday to Jodie Whittaker!  The 13th Doctor turns 38 years old today, and we can't wait to see her back in action for this year's holiday special.

Hey, 30 Rock is returning for a one-time special on July 16!  The world could use a little Liz Lemon right about now.  Now, who do we talk to about having House or Happy Endings return?  What programs would you see like to come back for a night?

We've got a little information for Christopher Meloni fans:  His new show is called Law & Order: Organized Crime (which sounds intriguing), and it will be on Thursday nights at 10:00, starting at some point this fall.  Law and Order: SVU moves to 9:00 on Thursdays.  We're curious to see how all police shows fare in light of current events.  Will they take a hit in the ratings, or will it be business as usual this fall/winter?

The soap opera Bold & the Beautiful resumes filming today with a variety of safety measures in place.  That includes having all of the actors eight feet away from each other in every scene, so it sounds like the editors will have their hands full trying to create a sense of intimacy. We're still waiting for news about when General Hospital will return.

Have you always dreamed of going on a date with Keanu Reeves?  Here's your chance:  The actor is auctioning off a 15-minute Zoom call with him to benefit a children's cancer charity.  Bidding ends on June 22, and it's currently at $17,400.  Our bet is that he would be fascinating to hang out with for a little while, so good luck!

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's Evanescence to close things out with a cover of "Cruel Summer" for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  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.