Hi gang,

How are you?  Our crew is doing well, thank you.  I struck out with the new releases at the bookstore yesterday.  BDH and Little Buddha said not to worry about it.  They're more focused on tonight's new Loki episode at the moment.  There are a few items on today's to-do list to take care of before that, but it's not too long.  That works, because I'm in no rush to go outside, considering it's 27 degrees at the moment. (Hello to you too, November.)

Let's check out the headlines while we wait for it to warm up a little.  The guys made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Thursday Clutter.

We have teamed up with Clearly Balanced Days, a NH-based/women-owned CBD company.  Enter promo code "cmoore" to get $5 off your next purchase!

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that the House bill to provide aid to Israel, paid for by cutting IRS funding, would increase the federal deficit by $26.8 billion.  Speaker Mike Johnson and the rest of the House GOP are more concerned about protecting tax cheats than our national interests.  They know their proposal is fiscally irresponsible.  It doesn't take a genius to understand that making it harder to collect owed taxes would add to the deficit.  Johnson and company just don't care.  They're in Washington to protect the rich at all costs.

Speaker Johnson is just the newest puppet for the wealthy.  (pic via news.yahoo.com)

The resolution to expel serial conman George Santos from the House failed yesterday.  Of course Republicans won't support removing Santos.  First, they'll do anything to protect their tiny majority in the chamber.  Second, why would they object to having a pathological liar as a congressman when they've got one as the head of their party/cult?  The GOP is corrupt to its core.

It sounds like the judge in Donald Trump's classified documents case is leaning towards delaying the start of the trial next year, because Trump's January 6 case could still be happening next May.  (Wouldn't it be amazing if the head of the GOP wasn't an accused serial criminal?)  Prosecutors seemingly object to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's implying that preference, arguing, "The court should not let the D.C. case drive the schedule here."   Judge Cannon has already made it clear she'll bend over backwards to help the man who appointed her to the federal bench.  Voters have the right to know the verdict in this matter before next year's elections.

As expected, the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at this week's meeting.  However, chairman Jerome Powell made it clear that future hikes are still on the table, as inflation remains well above the Fed's 2% goal.  This was the last meeting for 2023, so investors know the status quo will remain in place until at least the start of 2024.  That was enough to send the S&P 500 up just over 1% on Wednesday.

YouTube is ramping up its fight against ad blockers, telling viewers to either stop using them or pay $14 a month for an ad-free option.  We certainly don't love YouTube parent company Google bombarding us with ads.  However, paying for the premium service isn't even on our list of possibilities.  How about you? 

The American Cancer Society's new guidelines say even people age 50 to 80 who were heavy smokers, but quit smoking more than 15 years ago, should still be regularly screened for lung cancer.  That's a change from the previous guidelines which had 15 years as a cutoff date.  It appears that cigarettes can still cause cancer even after that long of a break.  If this new approach applies to you, we hope you'll get checked out.  Early detection can make all the difference.

As the New England Patriots prepare to take on the Washington Commanders this Sunday, NBC's NFL insider Mike Florio is floating the idea that the Commanders might want to trade for Bill Belichick this offseason.  This is obviously just a rumor at this point, but we're skeptical that Florio made it up out of thin air.  If the Patriots really crash and burn this year (say, a 4-13 record), would they be open to making a deal with the Commanders, or another team looking for a new coach?  What would you like to see New England get in return?

The Boston Celtics destroyed the Indiana Pacers 155-104 last night to improve to 4-0 on the season.  That's the second most points scored in franchise history, only behind the 1958-59 Celtics who beat Minneapolis 173-139.  In other words, it's early, but the NBA is being put on notice:  This team has the ability to be scary good when everything is clicking.

Congratulations to the Texas Rangers on winning the 2023 World Series by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in Game 5 last night.  While we were rooting for Arizona, we appreciate a team winning its first-ever championship.  It's also nice to see former Boston Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi win another ring and shine in the postseason once again.  We're still okay with the Sox letting Eovaldi go, because the big righty always seems to be a health issue, but man, does he deliver when it counts. 

Robert De Niro lost his cool yesterday while testifying in the abuse and discrimination lawsuit his former assistant filed against him.  It doesn't sound like the actor disputes most of the examples of his poor behavior happened, but he says they're being mischaracterized.  In other words, we have yet another famous man downplaying his mistreatment of a woman. 

Scarlett Johansson is suing an AI app for using her name and likeness in an ad without permission. The app used real footage of the actress to create new dialogue for her, and the actress isn't having it.  You know this is just the start of these kinds of lawsuits.

Variety has a lengthy look at Marvel's current challenges.  The piece primarily focuses on Jonathan Majors' legal problems, as well as the large amount of content that the company churns out every year.  Majors is set to be the focus on the next phase of Marvel movies.  However, company may need to figure out how to rewrite their plans, given the actor's upcoming trial for domestic violence later this month.  Then there's also the argument that Marvel has produced so much for streaming, the quality has taken a significant hit, both in terms of plot and special effects.  It will be fascinating to see if/how Marvel can fix all of this.

Whatever the issues, we're still looking forward to seeing The Marvels, which hits theaters on November 10:

Variety also has a look at the reunion of Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre, some 11 years after Sheen went into an epic tailspin and was fired from Two and a Half Men.  Sheen and Lorre worked on the latter's new show called Bookie, which premieres on Max on November 30.  Not sure if Sheen has a recurring role, or if it's just a one-off appearance, but we'll take a peek at Bookie when the time comes.

Side note:  We really need someone to write a comprehensive oral history of Two and a Half Men.  There's the whole Sheen drama, but then there's also the fact that the Ashton Kutcher era of the show seemed to completely lose its way, which eventually led to one of the nastiest/most unprofessional series finales we've ever seen.

We caught a little bit of the "Best of Chandler" Friends marathon on TBS yesterday.  Of course it was all seen in a different light, given the recent passing of Matthew Perry, but it was always clear that the actor brought humor and sweetness to the show.

You can probably predict almost every plot point of the new Netflix movie Family Switch, starring Jennifer Garner and Ned Helms as parents who switch bodies with their kids, before the movie even begins.  However, this feels like something we might check out some night when nothing else is on TV.  It may be predictable, but that doesn't mean it can't still be fun:

We're sitting here counting the days until the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials arrive, starting November 25.  After that, the countdown is on to Ncuti Gatwa's first season as the Time Lord.  Meanwhile, showrunner Russell T. Davies is already talking about planning for the third and fourth seasons.  As we've said before, this feels like the start of a monumental shift for the series, and we can not wait for it to get started.

Russell T. Davies also confirmed that he won't rewrite anything from previous showrunner Chris Chibnall.  Good.  Chibnall's "Timeless Child" story about the Doctor's origin has a lot of potential if someone wants to do some repair work on it.  The show should take big swings every now again.  Our guess is that RTD means he's just going to ignore the whole thing.  That's fine if it doesn't fit into his current vision for the Doctor, but it would be interesting to hear more of this concept, perhaps in a future Big Finish audio adventure series.

This is impressive:  The Rolling Stones are now the first band to have an album in the top 10 in every decade since the 1960's.  (Their new album, Hackney Diamonds, entered at #3 on the latest Billboard chart.) 

Britney Spears' new memoir, The Woman in Me, sold over one million copies in its first week.  People want to read the singer's account of the major events in her life, and she delivered.  (You can read our review here.)

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's Sia to close things out with, "Gimme Love" for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, folks.  It was terrific to see you, as always.  BDH and Little Buddha say you're welcome to come back tonight if you want to watch Loki with them.  (They want to see how everyone recovers from the end of last week's episode.)  Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your day, stay warm, 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.