Thursday Clutter: Kevin McCarthy, Matt Gaetz, GOP Debate, Meta, New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Norman Lear, Taylor Swift, and more
(Review) Doctor Who: The Giggle

Friday Clutter: Hunter Biden, Texas Abortion, Elon Musk, McDonald's, New England Patriots, Doctor Who, Donald Glover, GH, Green Day, and more

Hi everyone,

Welcome back, and a happy Friday to you all.  What's the plan for the weekend?  I've got a little running around to do today, and then tomorrow is the big finale for the Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials.  Pretty sure BDH and Little Buddha have a long list of errands for me to take care of on Sunday, since the Patriots won't be playing.  These two like to keep me moving.

(Side note:  The guys were looking ahead, and it appears we may be out of the office for a couple of days next week.  We'll post any updates on our Facebook page.)

Are you ready to check out the headlines?  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.

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!

Hunter Biden has been indicted on nine counts related to his taxes.  Tell us more about how President Biden is "weaponizing" the Department of Justice against Donald Trump and his family.  If he was, you'd think he'd be able to shield his son.  The reality is, this all would have been resolved long ago on misdemeanor charges if Hunter had a different last name.

A Texas court granted a woman the right to have an abortion, because her fetus is not expected to live more than a few days at most after birth.  As we've said before, no decent society would force a woman to stand before a judge asking them for control over her own body, especially when continuing the pregnancy would put her own life at stake.  What makes this case even worse is that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is still threatening to sue this woman's doctor if she performs the procedure.  Paxton would rather see Kate Cox die than stop the GOP's never-ending war on women.

Vladimir Putin announced he will run for re-election in 2024.  We won't be shocked if the final results show Putin winning 105% of the vote.

Elon Musk wants Disney CEO Bob Iger fired for pausing the company's advertising on Twitter because of the proliferation of antisemitic propaganda on the social media platform.  That's a totally rational response.  Musk seems unable to grasp that "free speech" includes the ability to get as far away as possible from people who could damage your brand.  Lashing out like a spoiled five-year-old child because someone disagrees with you is not going to inspire Iger, or any of the other companies who have pulled back their Twitter ads, to reconsider their decision. 

Elon Musk Bob Iger December 8 2023Elon Musk is pouting because Bob Iger doesn't want to play with him.  (pic via yahoo.com)

Maybe Musk's tantrum was partly because Tesla's labor problems continue to worsen in Sweden.  The company didn't approve a collective bargaining agreement with its mechanics in October, and now other unions are showing solidarity with their brothers and sisters.  That includes the post office refusing to deliver license plates to Tesla.  Musk responded with a lawsuit, but a judge shot it down for the time being.  Imagine how much better the United States would be for ordinary Americans if our unions were this strong and worked together so well.

Investors will be keeping an eye on November's jobs report, which comes out later today.  According to the linked article, the number is expected to have increased since October, which is an argument for the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer.  (Update: The jobs number is even higher than expected.  This administration is getting people back to work.)   The rates may not go much higher (so lock in those CD's if you've been considering them), but the Clutter investment team doesn't expect to see cuts anytime soon.  In the meantime, the staff continues to enjoy earning enough interest on their savings account to pay for more than one cup of coffee per month.

(However, to be clear, we are always accepting donations for our coffee budget.)

McDonald's recently announced a new spin-off called CosMc's.  This isn't another hamburger joint.  The menu includes a variety of beverages and snacks that more closely resemble Dunkin' or Starbucks offerings.  Now, we haven't eaten at a McDonald's, or any other fast-food joint, in close to 24 years.  Do you think visiting a CosMc's would count as breaking that streak?  We're leaning towards yes, so if one of you could send us a review of CosMc's at [email protected], that would be great.

Meta's Threads now has tags to help you find conversations of interest.  That sounds like a positive development, but we have a question:  How many of you are using Threads?  Do you like it?  We decided to pass on it for the time being, because the idea of surrendering even more personal information to Meta is unappealing.  However, we're struck by the fact that no one ever seems to be talking about it in any context. 

COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise in the United States again.  Yes, we're far below the numbers at the peak of the pandemic, but almost 20,000 Americans were hospitalized the week of November 25.  That's not insignificant.  The majority of patients are the oldest and youngest members of our society.  We owe it to them to do everything we can to keep them healthy.

Look at that:  The New England Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-18 last night to improve to 3-10 on the year.  Our predictions about the result and the over/under of 30 were both wrong, and we're perfectly fine with that.  The Steelers played with zero urgency for the first 1.5 quarters, and the Patriots made them pay for it with three touchdowns in the first half.  (We'd almost forgotten what it was like to see a New England player have the ball in his hands in the end zone.) 

Patriots starting quarterback Bailey Zappe went 19-28 for 240 yards, had the three TD's, and also threw one interception.  We still don't think he's New England's quarterback of the future, but he played with a decisiveness last night that hasn't been seen from that position all year.  Now, the 7-6 Pittsburgh Steelers are roughly at New England's level on both sides of the ball, so it's not like the Pats beat the Philadelphia Eagles.  However, simply showing signs of life on offense is enough to be excited about at this point. 

The job is clearly Zappe's to lose for the rest of the year, but here's the issue:  Would it be better if the Patriots could string a few wins together, just so fans finally have a reason to pay attention again, or should they bomb the rest of the way to get a higher draft pick?  Of course, the team may not really have that much say in the matter, given the strength of their remaining opponents.  Next up:  The Patriots face Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs a week from Sunday.

Shame on the bigots who complained to the BBC about the inclusion of a transgender character in the first Doctor Who anniversary special.  If you're griping about inclusion, you've missed the entire point of the show about a 2,000+ year-old alien who loves exploring everything the universe has to offer.

We're not huge fans of Neil Patrick Harris.  However, the actor plays the big villain in tomorrow's Doctor Who episode, even though Harris had never heard of the Doctor before being cast, so we're trying to keep an open mind about him before we see his performance.  Seriously though, never even heard of Doctor Who?  It's fine if he never saw the show before, but never heard of it? 

Oh come on, now someone is leaving FBI: International this season?   There's a lot of change happening in the Dick Wolf universes, and we don't care for it.  Why can't they just contain all of the cast turnovers to FBI: Most Wanted, since we're never going to watch that show?  Booooo.

Consider us intrigued by the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series Mr. & Mrs Smith, starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine:

It looks like General Hospital is finally about to deal with the death of longtime character Bobbie Spencer, after the passing of actress Jacklyn Zeman back in May.  It's hard to think of Bobbie and Port Charles without immediately also thinking of Grandma and Grandpa Clutter, so this hits close to home a bit.  We just hope they give Bobbie a fitting goodbye.  (Maybe Luke Spencer will make a quick cameo?)

Today is a dark day in music history:  It's the 43rd anniversary of the murder of John Lennon, and the 19th anniversary of the killing of Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell.  The world was deprived of so much future great music from these men, and they are both missed to this day.

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

Thanks for stopping by, folks. 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.

 

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