Hi folks,

Welcome back!  How are you?  BDH, Little Buddha, and I were just listening to the wind howl outside.  It started last night, and apparently it's not going to stop until later this evening.  I don't think it will have much of an impact on today's to-do list, though.  One of my biggest tasks is to re-pot another plant.  I did two more yesterday, and they're both decompressing in their new spaces.  The guys said they'd be happy to keep an eye on all of them today and encourage them to be healthy and happy.  That works, because really, no one can refuse BDH and Little Buddha.  Now, let's take a peek at 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 Thursday Clutter.

Democrats sound optimistic that President Biden will do something positive soon when it comes to student loan debt.  Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.) said Biden indicated during a recent meeting that he is planning on taking new actions, both in terms of extending the federal loan repayment moratorium, as well as erasing some level of debt by executive order.  This move for economic justice is of course causing Republicans to melt down, because they'll vote for any corporate subsidy you put before them, but help ordinary Americans?  Not a chance. 

For example, Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) always likes to present himself as some dignified elder statesman. In reality, he's one of the biggest frauds in Washington.  He's tried on multiple political identities over the years, and while he loves to tsk-tsk the MAGA crowd, he's still a loyal party soldier.  (His vote to convict Trump during his impeachment trial, knowing it wouldn't make a difference, was pure cynicism.)  The world gets the real Romney with this tweet:

"Desperate polls call for desperate measures: Dems consider forgiving trillions in student loans. Other bribe suggestions: Forgive auto loans? Forgive credit card debt? Forgive mortgages? And put a wealth tax on the super-rich to pay for it all. What could possibly go wrong?"

You can feel the pure contempt Romney has for everyone who isn't rich.  The system is rigged to require the non-wealthy to take on a mountain of debt to go to college, which then keeps them as economically vulnerable as possible.  That drives the entire GOP agenda, so Republicans then oppose any attempt to help these folks have a real chance at the American dream.  Romney loathes average Americans as much as Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP.  If President Biden does take action on this front, we hope he calls out Romney as a reason why he did it.

Senator Romney and the GOP have no use for 99% of the country.  (pic via cbsnews.com)

Senator Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) is calling for Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-North Carolina) to be investigated for undisclosed cryptocurrency purchases.  Apparently talking about orgies in Washington is the line for Republicans to turn on each other.  Sedition is part of the GOP platform, but when you spill the beans on the sex parties, that's too much to tolerate.  You know Republicans could bring down Marjorie Taylor Greene like this if they wanted to, and the fact that they don't speaks volumes.

We're sure many parents across the country will be happy to hear that Moderna has asked the FDA for emergency authorization for its vaccine for children ages 6 months to 5 years old.  There are some who will say it's too late.  However, with case numbers once again on the upswing, it's still important to do whatever we can to protect young children. 

Elon Musk tweeted yesterday that he wanted to buy Coca-Cola to put cocaine back in the soda.  The tweet was a response to suggestions from Twitter users about other companies he should purchase besides the social media platform.  Of course this was meant to be funny, but Musk also issued a criticism of Twitter that violates the agreement to buy the company, and our staff is starting to wonder if he's going to pull out of the deal.  Our crew thinks it's currently 50-50 at best that he'll own Twitter one year from today.   

Facebook did fine on the profit front for the first quarter of 2022, but the company is warning its revenue may not grow in the second quarter, which would be a first for Mark Zuckerberg and company.  The main culprits are said to be things like an increase in videos (which don't make much money), and the fact that Russia has currently blocked Facebook.  The Clutter investment team's was wondering if investors will punish Facebook for this, like the way Netflix was pummeled last week for losing subscribers.  However, it seems the market has already been expecting this news, because Facebook's stock is down 38.4% for the year.  It sounds like things are expected to improve in the second half of 2022, so maybe the stock is a good deal here.  As always, do your own research before making any investing decisions.

We didn't win the $473 million Powerball jackpot last night.  There are a couple of factors involved here:  First, the winning numbers are not the ones we use, and second, we didn't buy a ticket.  However, if you're the lucky winner from Arizona, and you'd like to help us increase our coffee budget, our "Donations" link is right at the top of your screen.  Of course you don't have to win the lottery to support us.  Even a recurring $5 monthly contribution would go a long way towards keeping everyone here fully caffeinated. 

The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-1 last night to snap their four-game losing streak.  Boston's starter Michael Wacha had another strong outing, giving up just one run and four hits over six innings.  Perhaps the Red Sox should consider switching Wacha and Nick Pivetta's spots in the rotation.  The Red Sox offense woke up after a sleepy stretch, with 13 hits on the evening and six players driving in runs.  The Sox can split the series against Toronto with a win this afternoon.  Garrett Whitlock will take the mound for Boston.

The NFL Draft begins tonight.  We have no idea who the New England Patriots will take in the first round, and there's always the chance that they'll trade out of it to get more picks later.  However, the team has a lot of holes on offense and defense.  They need to do as least as well as they did in last year's draft if this is going to be anything more than another rebuilding year.

Jason Sudeikis' camp claims he had "no prior knowledge" that his ex Olivia Wilde would be served with child custody documents while she was on-stage for a CinemaCon appearance.  That seems pretty tacky.  Do we buy Ted Lasso's claim he didn't know anything about it?  What does seem clear is that the CinemaCon folks need to tighten up their security if anyone can just hand a celebrity something without being stopped.

In more pleasant CinemaCon news, Marvel reportedly showed the first footage from the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.  We're eagerly awaiting that movie (which is scheduled for a November release), although it's hard to imagine the story without the late Chadwick Boseman.  If the clips are starting to be shown privately now, hopefully it won't be much longer until the rest of us see a proper trailer.

We finally started watching Barry on HBO Max.  What a terrific show.  Bill Hader is fantastic as the lead character, a depressed hitman who wants to become an actor.  He's surrounded by a great supporting cast, and we were fully invested in the story in the first 10 minutes of the series premiere.  We're about half-way through Season 1, so there will be no further discussions here until we get at least that far into Season 2, because we don't want to know any spoilers.  However, so far, so good.

Ooh, we have big Chicago Fire news, but you'll have to click on the link to read it, because we don't want to give away the surprise.

Pitchfork.com likes Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett's new solo EP.  We really enjoyed "High Plains Drifter" when we played it here last week, and it sounds like the other tracks are equally impressive.  It may be that the biggest problem with the project is that it only has four songs.  Perhaps the positive feedback will encourage the guitar virtuoso to do a longer album next time.

Meanwhile, Metallica has a new whiskey for sale.  We didn't realize before today that the band uses its own music in the production process.  Click on the linked article to find out more.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's close things out with the latest single from Sheryl Crow.   We leave you with, "Forever" for 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, be good, 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.