Hi everyone,

How are you?  Weekend going okay so far?  Everything is fine on this end.  We have a bit of running around to do today before the NFL playoff games, so BDH and Little Buddha wanted to make sure we had a chance to say hello to you first.  The guys are eager to dive into the headlines, so let's get started.  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 Sunday Clutter.

The video footage of the Memphis police officers murdering Tyre Nichols is horrifying and disturbing, but it's not surprising.  The police system in this country has nothing to do with "protecting public safety."  Its primary focus is promoting white supremacy at every opportunity.  It doesn't matter that the five former officers, who have all been charged with second-degree murder, are also Black.  The system is designed to remove any and all value connected to a Black person's life.  These officers didn't see Nichols as a human being.  They saw him as prey to be destroyed, and that's exactly what they did.

Tyre Nichols should be here today.  (pic via apnews.com)

Don't fall for the apologists who will try yet again to pretend this is some isolated incident involving "a few bad apples."  This isn't a bug in the system - it's the fundamental nature of the system.  We won't make any real progress in this area until that reality is acknowledged.   On a related note, we continue to believe that the vast majority of traffic stops are unnecessary.  There are enough cameras watching the roads to track down anyone committing a minor violation without forcing a police interaction.  Send a ticket to the offender's home and let them deal with the judicial process from there.  Too many people of color are dying from a situation that is almost never life-threatening for white folks.

We're glad to see that the January 6 rioter who pepper sprayed Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was sentenced to 80 months in prison.  It was the appropriate sentence for Julian Khater, and it should be the minimum sentence for the organizers of this attempted coup.

Donald Trump tried to jump-start his stalling 2024 presidential campaign by visiting New Hampshire yesterday, where he rambled in an hour-long speech with no connection to reality, as usual.  If you had a friend or a relative who lied so compulsively about everything, even when it was so easy to prove him wrong, you'd seek help for them, because they're clearly troubled.  However, no one in Trump's family has ever cared enough about him to take such action.  They use him for whatever they need and then move on, and he returns the favor.  He's a sad and tired man, and the country can do so much better than a rerun of this clown show.

It turns out that John Durham's "investigation" into the folks who looked into Donald Trump's Russia connections was a complete waste of time.  What a surprise.  Not only did Durham not find any major conspiracy or "witch hunt" against Trump, he was given evidence of Trump himself committing crimes.  House Republicans just established a new committee about the "weaponization of government" in regards to the Biden administration's handling of the pandemic.  As usual, they're deflecting from their own actions, because that's exactly what they did here.

With so many depressing stories in the news, BDH and Little Buddha want to make sure you see this one about the bear who went on a selfie spree. 

New data shows inflation continues to slow down, which is encouraging news.  Our weekly grocery budget remains much higher than we'd like, but other costs seem to be slowly decreasing, which helps.  However, the Clutter investment team is concerned that investors will overreact to these numbers once again on Monday, only to reverse course after the upcoming Fed Reserve meeting this week.  Everyone expects that the next interest rate hike will only be another 0.25%. 

The problem is that our crew also thinks that Wall Street won't like what Chairman Jay Powell is likely to say about rates staying this high for the foreseeable future.  The Fed says time and time again that they won't err on the side of ending this fight prematurely, but folks just don't want to listen.

We're excited for both NFL playoff games today.  Let's get to the picks:

The fun starts with the Philadelphia Eagles playing the San Francisco 49ers at home in the NFC Championship Game.  We love that third-string rookie quarterback Brock Purdy lead the 49ers to this point after Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo were both injured.  "Mr. Irrelevant" is a terrific story.  We think he's shown he deserves to be San Francisco's starting quarterback next year.  We love the idea of him bringing his team to the Super Bowl.  However, we don't see San Francisco 49ers getting past the Eagles.  Both offenses are great, but Philly's defense will be the tie-breaker.  Hopefully we're wrong, but it looks like Jalen Hurts and Philly are going to the Super Bowl.

After that, the Kansas City Chiefs face the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game, in what should be one of the best match-ups of the entire season.  The Bengals have won the last three times they've faced the Chiefs, including last year's championship game, and it says here they'll make it four in a row.   Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow was unfazed about going into snowy Buffalo last week, and he won't be overwhelmed by another trip to Arrowhead Stadium.  Plus, Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes is talking a great game about being ready to go after suffering a high ankle sprain last week, but the Bengals defense will be able to keep him in check just enough for a win.  It will be fun, and it will be close, but Burrow and company are going back to the Super Bowl.

SNL weighed in on seemingly everyone having classified documents these days:

The show also took those State Farm Insurance commercials to their next logical step:

ABC News permanently removed Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes as the co-hosts of GMA3 following the recent revelation that the two have been having an affair.  That feels like an overreaction.  The show did well with the two of them, and we're not convinced the show's audience would have left over this relationship.  Being involved hasn't hurt Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC's Morning Joe, after all.  In any case, no word yet about who will replace the pair.

Doctor Who boss Russell T. Davies confirmed that the "Whoniverse" will be expanding with new spin-offs.  RTD wasn't specific about who will be getting their own shows, although you have to assume the Daleks and Cybermen are the leading candidates.  Many fans (us included) would love to see the 8th Doctor get his own TV run after being mostly limited to Big Finish audio adventures.  We'd also be thrilled if "Impossible Girl" Clara Oswald made a return, although Jenna Coleman may be too busy these days for that to happen.  Really, we're up for just about anything Davies has in mind to help pass the time between the Time Lord's new seasons.

Journey played their first show of 2023 this past Friday, even though guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain are busy suing each other over the band's American Express card.  Those legal bills, and the disputed credit card total, aren't going to pay themselves, you know.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's P!nk to close things out with the title track from her upcoming album.  We leave you with, "Trustfall" 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.