Hi everyone,

Welcome back, and a happy Friday to you all.  Yesterday was a little crazy.  My dentist appointment actually went well, which was nice.  However, I made the mistake afterwards of returning a modem to Comcast.  The employee somehow decided that meant he should also cancel my cable package.  Long story short, it took about four hours to resolve, my saved shows are gone, and I've either shaved $90 off my bill or tripled it.  Apparently it's time to seriously think about cord-cutting.

So that was Thursday.  Today should be relatively quiet, as long as no one from Comcast deletes my account when I return this TV box.  Fingers crossed on that, but in the meantime, let's check out the headlines.  BDH and Little Buddha just made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Clutter.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James has started the process of seizing Donald Trump's assets, following the $464 million judgment against Trump in his NY civil fraud case.  Trump has until March 25 to post a bond to appeal the ruling, or else AG James can keeping moving forward on grabbing control of some of his properties in order to pay off this obligation.  The supposed billionaire doesn't have the cash, and no one wants to post the bond with Trump's real estate holdings as collateral, because everyone knows they're not worth as much as he claimed.  Of course, that's how this whole mess started in the first place. 

Take it all.  (pic via 9news.com.au)

On a related note, the Trump takeover of the Republican National Committee (RNC) now calls for the RNC to send donations to Trump for his campaign and legal expenses before supporting any other GOP candidates.  Is Trump trying to find a way to have the RNC pay for his bond?  We wouldn't put it past him.  At the very least, this shows once again that he can't afford his own legal bills, because he's been lying about his worth this entire time.  It also demonstrates that he doesn't care about anyone but himself.  The GOP will likely pay a heavy price at both the national and state level for this fealty in November.

Congress is expected to pass a last-minute $1.2 trillion spending package today, thus avoiding another threat of a government shutdown until later this year.  Wouldn't it be nice if the House was run by a party who is actually interested in governing, and not a mob of extremists who care more about constantly holding the country hostage in order to get on Fox News?   That shouldn't be too much to ask for, friends.

A federal appeals court ordered the judge in the Boston Marathon bombing case to investigate bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyer's claims that two jurors engaged in misconduct during the selection process.   According to the linked article, the two individuals are accused of lying about whether they engaged in any social media activity at the time which would indicated bias against Tsarnaev.  If these claims are upheld, his death sentence would likely be changed to life in prison without parole. 

We remember the horror of that attack like it was yesterday.  No one is arguing Tsarnaev's innocence, but he still deserved a fair trial, and no matter the offense, capital punishment is an abomination.  Leave him behind bars for the remainder of his days.

New York is expected to repeal its law criminalizing adultery soon.  The statute calls for up to three months in prison for someone who is convicted of the charge.  It's rarely used, but that kind of thing shouldn't be on the books anyway.  The government has no role meddling in relationships like that, and you know the original point was just to punish women.  Get rid of it and keep the judicial system out of peoples' sex lives.

The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple yesterday, accusing the technology giant of creating an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market.  The Biden administration has been aggressive about fighting on behalf of consumers in the tech space, and we wish them the best of luck with this fight.

Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story's first two seasons with the team have been a disaster, as he's dealt with injuries.  Story was healthy for this entire offseason, so it will be a significant upgrade for the club, particularly in the infield, if he can get back to his previous form this season.

Former Boston Red Sox DH J.D. Martinez agreed to a one-year/$12.5 million deal with the New York Mets yesterday.  According to the linked article, Martinez will get $4.5 million this season, with the rest to be deferred.

A lot of people seem eager to reach the worst possible conclusion about the Shohei Ohatani gambling story.  All we seem to know for sure right now is that Ohtani's now-ex-translator Ippei Mizuhara paid a $4.5 million gambling debt with the phenom's money.  That's disturbing all by itself, and it sets off alarm bells about the growing relationship between professional sports and betting companies.  However, we'll wait to hear more concrete details about Ohtani's role in his particular story before making assumptions.

The first teaser trailer is out for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which arrives in theaters on September 6.  We won't rush to see this one, but it would be fun to catch Michael Keaton in this role again when the movie hits streaming:

BDH and Little Buddha were happy to hear that NBC renewed all three "One Chicago" shows yesterday.  Looks like we'll be keeping our Wednesday plans for another season.  The good news continued for Dick Wolf when the network also announced the renewal of Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU.  It appears Law & Order: Organized Crime is still on the bubble.  That show has seemingly struggled right from the start, as they continue to burn through showrunners in only four seasons.  We'll see if Elliot Stabler lives to fight another day.

NCIS: Origins has its young Mike Franks:  Kyle Schmid will play Leroy Jethro Gibbs' mentor in the prequel series.  We don't know anything about Schmid, but the Frank - Gibbs relationship is one of the biggest reasons we want to see this show.  We enjoyed the Muse Watson - Mark Harmon interactions over the years on the mother ship, and the idea of watching that relationship develop in its early days is appealing.

We don't love having to wait until April 4 for Young Sheldon to return to CBS, thanks to that whole basketball tournament business.  However, the rest of our CBS programs are still airing new episodes in the meantime, so we'll stay busy with some NCIS and FBI adventures.

Sorry, Pete Davidson fans - the actor decided to cancel his Peacock series Bupkis after one season, saying he's done talking about this part of his life. 

In more positive news, Dr. Dre revealed yesterday that Eminem will have a new album coming out later this year.

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford said the band still isn't thinking about calling it quits, even though it's been 50 years since the release of their first album.  After hearing them deliver the goods on their new record, Invincible Shield, we say, more power to these guys.  They've clearly still got the chops, so if the desire is there to continue performing, go for it.

As a celebration of Motörhead's 50th anniversary, there will be a graphic novel featuring 25 stories of various Lemmy encounters, as told by some of his friends in the music business.  It's sure to be an entertaining read, so keep an eye out for it this summer.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's Lenny Kravitz to close things out with his new tune, "Human" for today's, "Song of the Day."

Thanks for stopping by, folks.  It was great to see you, as always.  Enjoy your weekend, 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.