Hi everyone,

How are you?  Things are a little disorganized here at the moment.  I thought we'd be out of the office today, because I was hoping to get the car back from the mechanic first thing this morning.  However, he just called to say the new goal is for everything to be resolved by the end of the day.  That completely throws off today's to-do list, and now most of the errands have to be bumped to tomorrow.

Of course, BDH and Little Buddha didn't miss a beat.  They said this means we can now check out the headlines with you, and then make the weekly visit to the bookstore, while we wait for an update.  Plus, we always have the option of looking for something else to watch on Disney+.  Works for me.

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 Tuesday Clutter.

President Biden is scheduled to sign the "Respect for Marriage Act" into law today.  The bill will provide federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages.  That's especially important, with Supreme Court Justice Clarence "I don't have an ethical bone in my body" Thomas indicating he thought the court should reexamine marriage equality.  While a handful of Republicans in the House and Senate voted for this legislation, it never would have passed if the GOP controlled Congress.  The bipartisanship is a small step forward, but conservatives as a whole still have no use for anyone who isn't a right, straight, white guy.  That's one of many reasons to ignore anyone who tells you that there's no difference between the two parties.

President Biden and Democrats are the ones defending equality.  (pic via denver7.com)

Senator Joe Manchin said he won't follow Kyrsten Sinema's lead and leave the Democratic Party yet, but the door is open for him to change his mind down the road.  Like Sinema, Manchin is clearly unhappy that he lost some of his leverage with Democrats once Raphael Warnock gave D's a 51-49 majority in the chamber.  He intends to leave the possibility of leaving open so that he can continue to hijack any policy discussion he likes.  Neither Manchin nor Sinema care about their constituents.  They're both out for themselves above all else.

Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensprger, as part of the DOJ's investigations into Donald Trump.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene bragged at an event last weekend that if she had organized the January 6 coup attempt, "we would have won," and "it would've been armed."  That's a member of Congress openly boasting about how she would have overthrown the U.S. government.  A political party with any moral compass would censure her for these remarks at a minimum.  However, MTG owns Kevin McCarthy, and he won't do anything about it.  You can be a Republican, or you can be a fundamentally decent person, but you can't be both.

Authorities finally arrested FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried yesterday.  The guy's been making the press rounds acting like he just had an embarrassing day at the office, not like someone looking at criminal charges.  The indictment against him is currently sealed, but it's got to have something to do with fraud.  Our hopes aren't high here, considering how weak this country is on white collar crime, but officials should at least pretend to care.

There's some good news on the inflation front:  November's Consumer Price Index (CPI) number came in considerably lower than expected this morning.  Prices rose 7.1% annually (expectations were for 7.3%), and this the lowest number since last December.  Investors are having a party to celebrate the news.  The S&P is currently up 2.66% for the day, which leaves the index down 14% for the year, well off this year's lows.  Now we wait for the Federal Reserve to have their last meeting of the year tomorrow and then announce the final interest rate hike of 2022.  Given today's news, a smaller hike of 0.50% seems reasonable.  The focus will be more on any stated changes in thinking about how deep the war on inflation will continue into 2023.

The COVID-19 vaccines have saved over three million lives, according to a new study.  Folks, please get your shots and boosters if you haven't already done it.  Keep yourselves and those around you healthy this winter.

A huge storm is crossing the country this week.  Sounds like we might have to do some stretching before the first serious shoveling of the year next weekend.

The New England Patriots beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-13 last night.  New England now improves to 7-6 on the season and is back in the playoff picture as a wild card team.  It was an ugly game that saw Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray carted off the field with a knee injury after the third play of the opening drive.  The Patriots would lose DeVante Parker (head), Jack Jones (knee) and Rhamondre Stevenson (ankle) before it was all over.  The New England offense continued to look uneven at best.  However, rookies Kevin Harris and Pierre Strong stepped up, with each man getting their first NFL rushing touchdowns, while Mac Jones (24-for-35, 235 yards, one interception) did what he could with Matt Patricia's game-plan.

At the end of the day, the New England defense feasted on Arizona's backup quarterback Colt McCoy, sacking him six times, and causing two turnovers, one of which was a fumble returned for a touchdown. This crew generally takes care of business against weaker opponents, thus keeping the Patriots in these games.  That should work against the struggling 5-8 Las Vegas Raiders next week.  However, New England has the Bengals, Dolphins, and Bills after that, and it's still hard to see them winning against any of those teams.  However, we're getting ahead of ourselves.  Bring on old friend Josh McDaniels and company on Sunday.

Sorry, Boston Red Sox fans:  Christian Vázquez has reportedly agreed to a three-year/$30 million with the Minnesota Twins.  Some folks were hoping the former Sox catcher might be willing to return to Boston after being traded to the Houston Astros this season, but really, why would he want to do that?  Vázquez seemed to take the trade really personally, and he probably decided there was no need to come back to deal with Chaim Bloom again.  We wish the catcher the best of luck in Minnesota.

Comcast is going to make Xfinity subscribers pay for NBC's Peacock streaming service?  We'll have to take another look at the content choices, but it sounds like we'll be cutting the cord on that one.  Apart from occasional old school WWE shows from the 1970's and 1980's, we can't think of anything we regularly watch on Peacock. 

The first publicity picture is out for the Night Court revival, starring Melissa Rauch and John Larroquette.  We loved the original series, which ran from 1984-1992, so sign us up when this kicks off on NBC on January 17.

Janet Jackson fans will be thrilled to hear the singer is going on tour in 2023.  She just released an itinerary that runs next April - June.  This will be Jackson's first tour in four years since she celebrated the 30th anniversary of Rhythm Nation in 2019.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  It's almost time for us to break out the Christmas music, but we're not quite there yet.  We leave you with Iggy Pop's new single, "Strung Out Johnny" for today's, "Song of the Day."

The guy's still crushing it at 75 years old.  That's just wild.

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.