Hi everyone,

Welcome back!  How are you?  BDH and Little Buddha were just talking about how loud the birds were early this morning.  That hasn't happened in a while.  The guys think they were discussing how much they're also enjoying the cooler temperatures this weekend.  Cloudy days can sometimes be a drag, but it's a fair price to pay to not have heatstroke after being outside for five minutes.  Sounds like it's supposed to rain later this afternoon, so I better take care of a couple of errands after we're done here.  First, let's check out the headlines.  We just made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Sunday Clutter.

Schools are starting to reopen across the country, and it is not going well, with over 2,400 students and staff already infected or quarantined because of possible exposure to the coronavirus.  As hard as Donald Trump tries to force all schools to have in-person classrooms, it's obvious that's a disaster waiting to happen.

How about some hopefully positive pandemic news for once:  The FDA gave an emergency approval to a saliva-based coronavirus test that was developed by Yale, the NBA, and the NBA Players Association.  This development has the potential to significantly ramp up this country's testing capacity, which would be a huge step forward in the fight against the coronavirus.  Speaking from experience, if you can use this product instead of getting the old brain poke, jump at the opportunity.  The only fear we have, as much as it pains us to say it, is that hopefully the Trump administration won't find a way to block the distribution of "SalivaDirect," because we all know in Trump's twisted worldview, increased testing is designed to make him look bad.

African American voters have a large presence in states like Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and having Senator Kamala Harris on the ticket could help Joe Biden retake a number of these and other key battleground states that narrowly went for Donald Trump in 2016. 

Donald Trump's brother Robert died yesterday.  He was 71 years old.

The New York City police union endorsed white supremacist Donald Trump yesterday.  They're on the wrong side of history, and it's yet another reason we need to revamp policing in this country. 

We have no idea why Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly "considering" bringing the House back early to address the current crisis regarding Donald Trump's attacks on the U.S. Postal Service.  There's no argument - the House should be back tomorrow and immediately subpoena Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to account for his recent attempts to cripple the agency ahead of the November election.  Between his policies to dismantle the USPS, and his conflicts of interest, DeJoy should be removed from his position.  Scolding tweets won't get the job done.  The House has a constitutionally-mandated oversight responsibility.  Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats can't wait until September to address this assault on our democracy.

Do your job.  (pic via mercurynews.com)

Meanwhile, the USPS said it would temporarily stop removing mail collection boxes in some Western states until after the election after an uproar ensued over the eliminations.  However, we can personally confirm that this is not a nationwide pause, as we watched a truck take away several of these boxes yesterday in Massachusetts.

It sounds like all of this year's new iPhones will be 5G-enabled.  Will that motivate you to upgrade your phone soon?  We don't expect to be making any changes anytime in the near future.  Our current phone does everything BDH and Little Buddha need, and they'd rather we'd spend more money on more books for them to enjoy.

If you're a child of the 90's and don't mind traveling, the last Blockbuster store on Earth can be rented on Airbnb for just $4 a night.  All you have to do is go to Bend, Oregon.  It looks like it would be a blast.  We probably still have a Blockbuster card around here somewhere.

As MLB rightfully celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues today, there should be an honest discussion of why they were necessary in the first place.  We salute all of the amazing athletes who played baseball at the time, but let's not overlook that they were there because Major League Baseball was discriminating against them.

It's deja-vu all over again:  The Boston Red Sox lost 11-5 to the New York Yankees last night to fall to 6-15 on the season.  Boston's pitching is now becoming fascinatingly awful.  Nate Eovaldi, one of the only two legitimate major league-quality starters in the rotation, gave up eight runs on nine hits (including three home runs) over 5 1/3 innings.  Red Sox pitchers have given up at least eight runs per game over the last six games.  The worst part is that there's no reason to think this will get better.  We could very well be looking at the worst Red Sox pitching staff in franchise history before the year is over.  Someone named Chris Mazza takes the mound for Boston against New York tonight, as the countdown to the luxury tax reset on September 1 continues.

The St. Louis Cardinals took a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox yesterday as the Cards returned to action for the first time in 17 days.  The Cardinals are now 4-3 on the "season" as they face the challenge of playing 53 games over 44 days.

Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask abruptly left the team and opted-out of the rest of this year's NHL playoffs yesterday.  He cited family reasons in his statement.  We have no idea what the story is, and we're not going to speculate.  Hopefully everyone is fine, but it's clear that Rask is done with the Bruins.  There's simply no recovering in the public eye from his recent comments downplaying the importance of the last few games, as well as this sudden departure.  The fans will never let him move past it, and who knows where his teammates stand on the issue.  Rask will be a major distraction if he's still here next season, so it's best for the B's to figure out their future at goalie now.

We want to wish a happy belated birthday to Steve Martin.  The legendary comedian/banjo player turned 75 years old on Friday.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's Weezer to close things out with a track off the soundtrack for the upcoming Bill & Ted Face the Music (which comes out on August 28.)  Here's, "Beginning of the End," for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, everyone.  It was great to see you, as always.  BDH and Little Buddha have almost finished reading their latest book, but they say you're welcome to come back later if you want to watch a movie or something before the Red Sox game.  Otherwise, be good, 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.