Hi everyone,

How are you?  Weekend going okay so far?  No complaints on this end.  We're keeping things pretty low key, but BDH and Little Buddha really wanted to say hello, and they're in charge, so here we are.

The guys made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Saturday Clutter.

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Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Donald Trump to pay $355 million in penalties in his NY civil fraud trial yesterday.  Tack on another $100 million in interest (so far), and you're talking about some real money.  Of course, Trump also owes E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million because he defamed her, and those lawyer bills won't stop anytime soon. Yes indeed, Trump currently owes over $500 million and counting.  At what point will his followers stop giving their money to the con man/supposed billionaire?  Probably never, because they're in a cult, and that's just sad.

In addition to the money, Donald Trump is also banned from serving as an officer or director of any New York-based company for three years.  An independent monitor will continue to oversee the Trump Organization for three years, and the company will also have to hire a compliance officer.  The only problem we have with the penalty is that the company should have been shut down for good, and Donald Trump should have received a lifetime ban from operating in New York.  He'll be right back at the massive fraud the second he gets the opportunity. It's in his blood.

Of course, Trump doesn't have to pay anything right now, because he intends to appeal the case.  Fines like this seem to have a tendency to be reduced in the end, but it probably won't be completely eliminated.  Also, as we understand it, he still has to put up the money as a bond in order to appeal.  Trump's finances are going to take a major hit, and he still has the matters of the hush money case, Georgia election interference case, January 6 case, classified documents case, and civil suits related to January 6 to deal with.  The serial criminal deserves bankruptcy and a long prison sentence for his actions.

Loser keeps losing.  (pic via nashuatelegraph.com)

Putting all of the criminal matters to the side for the moment:  Donald Trump would reportedly support a national abortion ban after 16 weeks if he returns to the White House.  We know Trump is a disaster for sexual and reproductive health.  As he constantly brags about on the campaign trail, he appointed the Supreme Court Justices who finally allowed the right wing to accomplish their obsession with overturning Roe v. Wade.  We've also seen how abortion has been a winning issue for Democrats ever since then, because the GOP is out of touch with mainstream America.  Voters don't want the government taking away their rights, and they'll show it again if Trump is the nominee in November.

The Republican push to impeach President Biden was largely based on claims from FBI informant Alexander Smirnov.  Now that Smirnov has been arrested, conservatives are pretending they have other evidence of wrongdoing.  They're stringing their base along with baseless conspiracy theories to distract from the fact that their leader belongs behind bars, and they have nothing to offer to actually help ordinary Americans.  The entire party is a huge waste of time that's holding back this country.

There was some uncertainty yesterday, but Alexei Navalny's death has been independently confirmed, and his associates are calling for the Russian opposition leader's body to be returned to his family immediately.  An official cause of death has yet to be released, but we all know it won't be whatever the Russian government announces.  Whatever the actual answer, the world knows that Vladimir Putin is responsible.  This is Donald Trump's hero - a brutal dictator.  The United States has a moral duty to stand up to Putin at every opportunity.

The Clutter investment team is comfortable with Wall Street being down for the week.  Stocks are still at near-record levels, and while the staff doesn't think it's a bubble, they think it would be good for everyone to take a step back for a quick breather.  Investors keep getting over their skis when it comes to interest rate cut timing, so a little cold water on expectations is a good thing every so often.  The crew much rather prefers slower growth at a steady rate, over spikes in either direction.

Boston Globe baseball writer Peter Abraham did some P.R. work for new Red Sox boss Craig Breslow in this weekend's column.  Abraham pointed out that plenty of people have thought for a number of years that Breslow would eventually make a good executive, so you know, maybe be patient with him.  We still have no real opinion on Breslow yet, because our problem lies with ownership.  It seems clear they have lost interest in fielding a competitive big league club and have been stringing fans along for years with talk about all the up and coming prospects.  If they're going to hamstring Breslow's ability to make moves, his strengths are fairly irrelevant at the moment.

Former Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts is moving over to second base for the San Diego Padres this year.  Bogaerts has never played second base in the big leagues, so we're curious to see how this goes, but we wish hm the best of luck with the transition.

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will reportedly be suspended for two games next year for violating the league's performance enhancing drugs policy.  Jimmy G. is also expected to be released by the Raiders at the start of the new league year next month, so things aren't looking great for him at the moment.  This situation never really clicked for the QB, right from the start.  It was probably a sign of things to come when his signing with the Raiders was delayed at the last minute because of injury concerns last March.  Would Jerod Mayo and the New England Patriots consider him as a backup to whomever they pick in this year's NFL draft, if his price is low enough?  Maybe a cheap one-year deal to try to rebuild some value?

The WWE is struggling to regain their footing in the aftermath of the sex abuse/trafficking allegations against former chairman Vince McMahon.  The company has been working for months to set up a Cody Rhodes - Roman Reigns rematch at this year's Wrestlemania.  The story was on track as of the end of the Royal Rumble event in January, but then the company panicked in the aftermath of the McMahon lawsuit.  They had Cody give up his title shot out of the blue to Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, in a move that made no sense, except to distract fans. 

The audience booed the hell out of that idea, so the WWE creative team called another audible and decided that Johnson and Reigns would instead team up against Rhodes, who regained his title match.  This still doesn't really make any sense, and it makes for bad television, because people don't want to boo the Rock.  Wrestlemania is still about two months away, so there's more time to try to fix this, but it will be interesting to see if this mess has any impact on the event's viewing numbers.  From here, it looks like another blow to Johnson's drawing power after the disastrous Black Adam, but we'll see.

The reviews we've read so far for Bob Marley:  One Love haven't been great, but the movie seems to be doing well at the box office.

It feels like we can probably predict every beat of Tom Ellis' new romantic comedy, The Players, which is out now on Netflix.  We'd probably skip the movie if the former Lucifer star wasn't in it, but should we give it a chance?  Maybe we'll give it a shot at some point on a night when nothing else is on TV.

Brian Dietzen co-wrote the upcoming NCIS episode that pays tribute to the late David McCallum, and he shared some insight into the creation of the story with TVLine.com.  Given that we were a little emotional at the end of the season premiere last week, we expect to be a mess on Monday.  McCallum was a regular appearance in our weekly TV watching for the better part of 20 years.  We're sorry that's over but appreciative for the entertainment.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's Stone Temple Pilots to close things out with a live version of "Interstate Love Song" for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, folks.  It was great to catch up with you for a bit.  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.