Hi everyone,

Welcome back, and a happy Friday to you all.  Any big plans for the weekend?  We probably won't do anything too crazy.  BDH and Little Buddha still have to check the TV listings, but I assume we have a Twilight Zone and/or Three Stooges marathon on tomorrow night's schedule.  After that, comes the Patriots-Dolphins game on Sunday afternoon.  Seems like a good way to ease into the new year.  Man, did 2022 go by quickly. 

Are you ready to check out the headlines one more time before 2023 arrives?  Let's do it.  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.

President Biden signed the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill into law yesterday.  The legislation keeps the federal government funded through next September, so we'll have a break until the next Republican threat of a shutdown.  Check out the linked article for the contrast between the statements from President Biden and Kevin McCarthy about this appropriation.  The president highlighted the ways it will help Americans, while McCarthy went on an unhinged rant about restoring the "integrity" of Congress.  That's the two parties in a nutshell:  One actually wants to make the country better, while the other has nothing to offer but unnecessary tax cuts for the wealthy.

President Biden is working for Americans while Republicans play games. (pic via www.local12.com)

Kevin McCarthy is so desperate to become the next House speaker, he's apparently agreed to slash the number of votes required to call for the ousting of the sitting speaker.  This is weak.  Everyone in the chamber knows the real Republican power in the House will come from the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, with McCarthy as their puppet.  Assuming McCarthy does enough groveling to actually secure the job in January, should we take bets on whether or not he holds the position for a year? 

In addition to everything else he's lied about, Rep.-elect George Santos was dishonest about his mom's death, saying it was because of 9/11, when in fact, she passed away in 2016.  Is there anything we actually know about this fraud for sure?  Who paid to install him in Congress?

Donald Trump's 2015-2020 tax returns will be made public by the House Ways and Means Committee today.  These records were the subject of a multi-year fight between the two parties, and now the rest of the country can see what they say about Trump's finances.  What is clear is that Donald Trump continually lied about his financial standing, and the IRS failed its legal obligation to audit him while he was in office.  (For anyone about to ask, President Biden has already been audited for the past two years.)

Twitter can be a hellhole, but every so often, something fantastic happens:  Right-wing misogynistic troll Andrew Tate recently tried to talk trash to climate activist Greta Thunberg, asking for her email address to send her a complete list of his car collection.  The 19-year-old Thunberg murdered Tate with her response of, “Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at [email protected].”  Not content to just take the loss, Tate replied with a video that featured a pizza box.  As the story currently goes, Romanian officials were able to use the box to confirm that Tate was in the country.  That enabled them to arrest Tate and his brother on human trafficking charges.

After cancelling thousands of flights over the holidays, Southwest Airlines said it expects to be back to usual operations today.  As others have pointed out, when the pandemic hit, the airlines received a bailout.  However, when Southwest failed its customers, these people were largely left to fend for themselves.  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said his department will be looking into this disaster.  We hope he will demand real reform, not just allow more empty statements of apology.

The first recreational marijuana store in New York opened for business yesterday.  Pot is now legal for adult use in 21 states.  It's long past time to make it legal at the federal level and stop racially-disproportionate arrests from continuing any longer.  According to the linked article, "On average, a Black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates."  No public interest is served with these arrests.

It looks like the final trading day of the year on Wall Street could be gloomy.  The question is if the S&P 500 will end the year down more than 20%.  The index starts the day with a year-to-date loss of 19.24%.  However, the Clutter investment team will take the optimistic side and predict it won't break through that level.  The best the team can say about 2022 at this point is that it's almost over.  Here's to a hopefully better picture for stocks in 2023.

The New England Patriots play the Miami Dolphins at home on Sunday.  Amazingly, the 7-8 Patriots are still in contention for a playoff spot, with two games left to go in the regular season.  Does anything about this year's team yell, "playoff contender?"  There's an opportunity to steal a win here.  The Miami Dolphins have lost four straight games, and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater will likely replace Tua Tagovailoa, who is once again in the NFL's concussion protocol. 

We want to pick Bill Belichick and company to come out on top, but we just can't do it.  The Patriots have been so bad over the years against the Dolphins on the road (17-41), it's warped our view of this series, even though New England is 36-19 against Miami at home.  We have also lost any faith in the New England offense, as long as Matt Patricia is still calling the plays.  The Patriots might be able to pull this off with a competent coordinator, but we see Mac Jones and company losing a close contest.  At this point, we just don't want to see yet another game end with a crushing turnover.

Rian Johnson is right - Dave Bautista is the best professional wrestler-turned-actor.  At the end of the day, that might not be the highest bar to clear, but the big guy has a range that his peers like Dwayne Johnson and John Cena can't match.  He's got terrific comedic chops, but he can also play small moments surprisingly well.   We saw that twice this month in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and Glass Onion:  A Knives Out Mystery.  The 53-year-old Bautista clearly puts in the work, and we look forward to seeing his acting career continue to evolve for many more years to come.

Den of Geek has a fun little look at the meaning behind the cameos in Glass Onion:  A Knives Out Mystery.

Here we go:  BDH and Little Buddha found this year's Twilight Zone marathon schedule.  We better remember to put snacks on the grocery list.

Bill Cosby is apparently planning to go on tour in 2023.  That's gross.  Close to 60 women have accused the man of sexual assault in recent years, and you know there are others who haven't wanted to go public.  He should still be in prison.  All of the revelations about Cosby's criminal behavior makes Eddie Murphy's mockery of him in 1987 all the more brilliant:

Steven Tyler is being sued by a woman who claims she had a sexual relationship with the Aerosmith frontman in 1973 when she was 16 and he was 25 years old.  Julia Holcomb is accusing Tyler of, "sexual assault, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress."  It sounds like Holcomb's parents were well aware of what was happening.  It will be interesting to see if they also get included in this lawsuit.

Okay kids, that's a wrap on 2022 for our crew.  Here's Europe to close things out with a terrific live version of, "The Final Countdown" for today's, "Song of the Day."

We say this all the time, but thank you so much for hanging out with us again this year.  We know you have a billion options on the Internet, and we appreciate you choosing to enjoy some coffee with us each morning.  You are the best!  Enjoy your weekend, be safe, and we'll see you back here again in 2023.  Until then, that's today's Clearing out the Clutter, and we are outta here.