Hi everyone,

Happy winter solstice, gang.  While sunsets are already now three+ minutes later than their earliest times, sunrises will begin doing their part after today.  We'll have literally brighter days ahead starting tomorrow, which is fantastic.

I helped Dad Clutter yesterday, and BDH and Little Buddha have already come up with today's to-do list.  It's almost entirely non-Christmas related, and they said if I get through it, they built in a window for a much-needed nap.  Score! 

Let's kick things off by checking out the headlines.  The guys made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Thursday Clutter.

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Donald Trump's lawyers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court not to rush to a decision about whether or not Trump had presidential immunity that keeps him from being prosecuted for his role in the January 6 coup attempt.  This is just another move by Donald Trump to delay legal proceedings against him for as long as possible, so he can hopefully return to the White House to escape prosecution.  The Supreme Court should reject this argument.  The American people have the right to know the verdict in this case before they vote next November.  The trial should begin as scheduled on March 4.

The MAGA mob is already threatening the Colorado Supreme Court justices who disqualified Donald Trump from the state's presidential ballot because he violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  This is what these people do.  Their hero suffers a loss, and they immediately bring violence into the equation.  They're a public safety threat, and their thuggish actions only reconfirm that Donald Trump shouldn't be let anywhere near the White House ever again.  Their ongoing assault on the legitimacy of our elections shows the court was right to apply the anti-insurrectionist clause to Trump.

A new poll shows 42% of likely Iowa caucus attendees are more likely to vote for Donald Trump, now that he's engaging in full-fledged Nazi rhetoric about immigrants.  That's repulsive.  How many of these people watched Band of Brothers and thought the wrong guys won?

The judge in Rudy Giulani's defamation case ordered the former mayor to immediately pay the $146 million he owes the plaintiffs, agreeing with the women's concerns that he may try to hide his money from them.  Judge Beryl Howell ruled that if Giuliani intends to appeal the verdict, he must put up a bond for the full amount owed to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.  You love to see it.

Rep. Matt Gaetz apparently thinks it's a good idea to link himself to serial fraud George Santos:  Gaetz sent his supporters a fundraising email lamenting Santos' recent expulsion from the House and indicating he could be next.  Seems like a weird call to make sure everyone remembers you're still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for alleged sex trafficking, drug use, sharing inappropriate pictures and videos on the House floor, and misuse of campaign funds, but hey, maybe that's just us.

Don't think of one without the other.  (pic via yahoo.com)

Twitter is back up and running after suffering a global outage shortly after midnight.  No cause has been announced yet, but it's weird that this would happen, considering what a terrific job Elon Musk is doing running the place.  We're increasingly paying more attention to the Bluesky platform.  So far, it's been much calmer and less Nazi than Musk's junkyard.  Hopefully we'll find some time in January to start tracking down more of the accounts we currently follow on Twitter.

Apple's mixed reality headsets reportedly could be available by this February.  We'll take a pass on the $3,499 hardware, but feel free to drop us a review if you buy a pair.

The Clutter investment team wants to make sure none of you are worrying about the S&P 500 dropping 1.5% yesterday.  The index has been on a roll recently, as investors get increasingly excited about the idea of interest rate cuts in 2024.   It's up 22.37% for 2023, which is a more than healthy return.  In fact, the staff thinks that's a little on the frothy side, so they have no problem with a moderate pullback for the remainder of the month.  While this turned out to be a strong year for the stock market, it's still important to remain focused on the long-term picture.

Boston Globe baseball writer Peter Abraham argues the Red Sox have become comfortable being a "second level" team that isn't prioritizing winning championships anymore.  The start of spring training is still almost two months away, but so far, new baseball boss Craig Breslow doesn't seem much different than his predecessor Chaim Bloom.  Management's approach still appears to be picking up random players who might be considered "bargains."  Meanwhile, the team continues to have some of the highest average ticket prices in baseball.  It's not an encouraging outlook so far as we get ready for 2024.

ICYMI - Netflix is recording a Tom Brady roast next May.  Can the GOAT take a joke?  Our sense is that there will be a lot of awkward/phony laughter involved in the proceedings.

Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman shared an anecdote about a funny conversation he had with Michael Jordan shortly before Super Bowl LXIX in 2015.  Long story short, it's a good thing the Patriots came back to beat the Seattle Seahawks in that game.

The NFL upheld Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee's suspension for the rest of the regular season yesterday.  Kazee was hit with the punishment after being thrown out of last week's game for his dirty hit against Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr., with the league citing his repeat offender status as the reason for the severity.  However, now Kazee will be eligible to return if the Steelers make the playoffs, so the NFL still isn't really all that concerned about clean play.

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global are reportedly in merger talks.  At this rate, the entire entertainment industry will end up being controlled by 2-3 companies in a few years.  It's still early, so who knows if this deal will come together.  After reading the linked article, the only benefit we see here is if the Paramount+ streaming library combines with Max to give us more content options.  However, you know cable prices will go up even further if this consolidation happens.

We understand that the upcoming movie, The Iron Claw, which tells the story of pro wrestling's tragic Von Erich family, isn't a documentary.  Creative liberties will be taken to advance the story.  However it's still glaring that a film about brothers dealing with a toxic father has deleted one of the siblings.  There were actually five Von Erich who got involved with wrestling, but Chris Von Erich is nowhere to be found.  Filmmaker Sean Durkin explained his reasoning for removing Chris, but it still falls short.  The youngest Von Erich, who died from suicide before his 22nd birthday, is another example of the themes in the movie.  He should have been included.

UltimateClassicRock.com went a little off-topic with their list of "The Worst Movie of Each Year Since 1980."  As always, lists like these are subjective.  However, it would be hard to come up with bigger stinkers than this group.  Also, it's not enough to call the 2023 selection the worst movie of this year.  It's an abomination, and everyone associated with it should be punished with an eternal damnation for even thinking of such a terrible idea.  (Side note:  We haven't seen the film.)

Ryan Gosling and Mark Ronson released the "Christmas version" of Barbie's now-iconic song, "I'm Just Ken."  Sequels are almost never as good as the original, which is the case here, but we still might add this to our holiday playlist in the future:

Hey General Hospital fans - Eden McCoy is expected to return as Josslyn Jacks at the beginning of next year, according to a spokesperson for the soap opera.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's AC/DC to close things out with, "I Want a Mistress for Christmas" 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, maybe sneak in your own nap if you have time, 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.