Hi everyone,

Welcome back, and a happy Friday to you all!  We made it through another week, good for us.  BDH and Little Buddha breezed through this week's rock and roll crossword puzzle all the way right until the end.  There was literally one letter left, and the guys had no idea what the answers were to either the across or down clues, so they took their best guess (which they think was an "a.")  Now we have to wait until next Thursday to find out if they were right.  Oh, the suspense!  They love that puzzle.  I wonder if I could find them a collection of those for times when they have nothing to read.  That's a thought.  Well, I'll get back to that later.  Let's check out the headlines.  There's a fresh pot of coffee on the counter, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Clutter.

To the surprise of no one, Donald Trump repeatedly lied about his record during the final night of the Republican National Convention.  You name the topic, Trump couldn't tell the truth about it.  Otherwise, he'd have to admit he's been a disaster of historic proportions who has cost thousands of lives and caused hardships for millions during his time in office.  If there's one thing Trump's not into, it's personal accountability.

The lies may have been appealing to the MAGA worshippers, but the rest of the country knows it's time to send this delusional con man home.  (We still suspect he's looking at which countries don't have extradition treaties with the United States.)  Our nation can't afford to see what damage he would inflict in a second term.  Restoring some basic decency to the federal government is the first step to making America truly "great."

An ill orange man lost in his delusions.  (pic via tennesseestar.com)

Also, we should point out - giving his acceptance speech from the White House South Lawn?  Probably illegal and definitely unethical.

Also (part 2), do we dare guess how many people who were in the audience for that illegal speech, and weren't wearing masks, will end up testing positive for the coronavirus?  Trump must have also made them sign a pledge not to sue him if they become sick, right?  It's a death cult of criminals, folks.

We encourage everyone to check out the "Keep America Great" website, especially Trump supporters.

Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a police officer, and as he lies paralyzed in a hospital, his family says he's handcuffed to his bed.  What possible rationalization could there be for the police to take that step?  We can already hear the online trolls trying to defend it with something along the lines of Blake showed he's dangerous by disobeying the officer's commands last Sunday, so he deserves to be chained.  The part they (probably) won't say out loud is that they think he deserves to be chained like an animal, which is how they see black men.  It's just the latest repulsive chapter in the story of how this country's policing system is fundamentally broken.

Due to extensive backlash, the CDC is now trying to retreat a little on their recent guidelines saying that asymptomatic people don't need testing even if they know they've recently been around someone with the coronavirus.  Outside public health experts agree that's not a scientifically justified approach.  We're embarrassed for the professionals who are torching the credibility of their agency in order to serve Donald Trump's political agenda.  Hopefully a Biden administration will be able to repair the damage.

A former Liberty University student claims Becki Falwell initiated a sexual encounter with him in 2008.  Why do we have the feeling that we're only at the beginning of the Falwell stories?  It would be nice if there was any hope of the couple reconsidering their blatant moral hypocrisy over the years, but we assume they'll just spend the rest of their lives claiming to be victims.

The stock market is setting all sorts of new records again, but the Clutter investment team believes there's still a huge gap between the optimism of Wall Street and the reality of Main Street.  If another correction does come in the near future, the team's only hope is that it's an "appropriate" fall of say, maybe 10%, and not another drop off a cliff of 30% or more.  Otherwise, the staff will have to stock up on Tums.

It appears that the NBA playoffs will resume this weekend.  We support whatever decisions the players make about the rest of the season.

Patrick Bateman lookalike Jared Kushner was in full smarmy mode as he mocked NBA players for being rich enough "to be able to take a night off from work" to protest the Jacob Blake shooting.  What job would Kushner hold if dad hadn't bought his way into Harvard, and Donald Trump didn't apparently need him for every White House project because no competent people will work in that administration?  Kushner would be lucky to be a Burger King shift manager, and you know his underlings would spit in his food.

We were pleasantly surprised that the Boston Red Sox decided not to play their game against the Toronto Blue Jays last night and join the ranks of the professional sports teams protesting the Jacob Blake shootings.  Race relations advocacy is not a strong suit of either Major League Baseball, or the Red Sox, and it was good to see the team stand behind outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who was not going to play on Thursday.  However, it will take more than one night for them to show true leadership.   The game is expected to be made up in September, and now (at least for the moment), the Sox are set to open a home series against the Washington Nationals tonight, with fan favorite TBD taking the mound for Boston.

It was also good to see the NHL postpone the Stanley Cup playoffs for two days in support of the protests.  Hockey, like baseball, usually seems to be late on these things, so this was a positive break from the norm.

Nine NFL teams cancelled their practices yesterday in support of the protests.  It's disappointing, but not surprising that the New England Patriots weren't one of them.  Bill Belichick doesn't strike us as someone who would vaguely care about this issue, or let it get in the way of practicing.  We can understand why guys like Devin McCourty would be frustrated.  McCourty and his twin brother Jason been two of the major NFL voices on racial justice over the last few years, and it has to be hard when your coach and employer are both major Trump supporters.

NFL Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher embarrassed himself with some Instagram posts criticizing the Jacob Blake protests and supporting domestic terrorist Kyle Rittenhouse, and the Chicago Bears don't want to be associated with his mess.  Shame on Urlacher for this revolting display of white privilege.

Bill & Ted Face the Music is out, and we've only looked at the headlines, so we can avoid spoilers, but the reviews generally seem to be positive.  Maybe we'll let BDH and Little Buddha figure out how to order the movie on pay-per-view if there's nothing else going on this weekend.  A little silliness sounds great right about now.

It looks like November is the big month for NBC fans, because that's when many of the network's programs will start their new seasons.  The "One Chicago" trio returns on November 11.  It will be nice to have that part of our weekly routine back.  However, it will be interesting to see if current events have any impact on Chicago P.D. and what will it mean for the show's future if they try to stick to business as usual and push their pro-police propaganda?

We're focused first on October 8, because that's when the final stretch of Supernatural finally begins.  The first teaser trailer is here, and we're not prepared for this story to end:

Gonna need a minute here...

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Queen and Adam Lambert have a live album/DVD coming out on October 2.  Of course, there's only one Freddie Mercury.  However, Lambert has made his mark as the band's current front man, so let's have them close things out with this performance of, "The Show Must Go On," which feels like a theme of 2020 and is definitely 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, wear your masks, 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.