Hi everyone,

Welcome back.  I'm sorry we missed you yesterday.  I discovered while driving back from my dad's house on a rainy Tuesday night that one of my headlights was out.  That required a trip to the mechanic first thing Wednesday morning, and then it was right back to helping dad with more errands.

Everything is working at 100% again, so BDH and Little Buddha are putting the finishing touches on today's to-do list.  Are you ready to check out the headlines?  Let's do it.  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!

When President Biden delivers tonight's State of the Union address, look for him to hit Donald Trump for wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Republicans despise the ACA, because their entire platform is predicated on the goal of keeping workers as economically vulnerable as possible.  Employees have a harder time fighting back against unfair/unsafe work conditions if they're too concerned about being able to pay their bills or can't access health care. 

The ACA provides reasonably priced health care insurance, and that helps make it easier for people to advocate for themselves.  That makes conservatives furious, which once again shows how out of touch they are with most of the country.

President Biden will deliver the State of the Union address tonight.  (pic via www.wdbj7.com)

Nikki Haley finally suspended her presidential campaign yesterday.  She only won the Vermont and D.C. Republican primaries, but her presence highlighted the fact that Donald Trump is in trouble.  Haley consistently pulled in around 40% of the vote in these races, which shows significant weakness for the Great Pumpkin.  It's a warning sign that he needs to expand his support to win in November.  However, we all know he's physically incapable of building bridges with opponents. 

Some of these voters will come home to vote for Trump just because he's the Republican nominee, but not all of them. The MAGA cult is great for Trump's ego.  However, as we've already seen, there aren't enough of them to win a legitimate election.

Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) announced she won't run for re-election, to which we say, good riddance.  This political chameleon adapted whatever persona best fit her career ambitions at the time, before settling in as Wall Street's BFF.  She would have been trounced in a three-way race this fall, and now Democrats can focus on Republicans like MAGA supporter Kari Lake in their efforts to put that seat solidly back in their column.

The U.S. Supreme Court is waiting until the last possible day (April 25) to hear oral arguments regarding Donald Trump's absurd "absolute immunity" claim.  The fix is in, and we can tell you right now that the court won't side with Trump.  If they were going to back him up, Chief Justice John Roberts would have scheduled the arguments for much earlier, so they could turn around a quick supportive decision like they just did with the ballot access case.  This outcome is as predetermined as the main event of Wrestlemania. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochu announced plans to deploy 750 National Guard members to patrol the NYC subways after several high-profile crimes.  The NYPD already has a presence in the stations, and crime is actually down in the city (nonstop GOP propaganda notwithstanding.)  This move gives Governor Hochu her "tough on crime" headline, but it sounds like a poor use of resources.

A man reportedly got 217 COVID-19 vaccinations over a 29-month period.  Test results seem to indicate that this didn't do anything to strengthen his immune system more than following the guidelines would have, but maybe more importantly, he didn't show any adverse effects either.  Getting this many shots doesn't seem like a good public health policy, and it's hard to imagine anyone trying to replicate these results.  However, it is something to keep in mind the next time a tinfoil hat-wearing anti-vaxxer goes on another rant about the alleged dangers of the vaccine.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell told a House committee yesterday that he still thinks interest rate cuts are likely this year, but he also indicated that officials still won't rush to make that move.  Powell and company have been consistent with their messaging - they want to err on the side of caution, rather than risk cutting too soon.  Maybe the first cut will happen in June, as some are now predicting.  However, at this point, the Clutter investment team wouldn't be shocked if it's later than that, or even not until 2025, if the economy remains strong.

Warren Buffett is not a fan of cryptocurrency, and the Clutter investment team is right there with him on that topic.  As we've watched from the sidelines, the entire industry still looks like one big scam, and our staff wants no part of it.  A small basket of diverse and low-cost index funds is not sexy, and it won't give you huge gains overnight.  However, history has shown it is a strong strategy for a healthy long-term financial picture.

While we were out of the office, it was reported that new Boston Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolitoa has a partially torn ligament and flexor strain in his right elbow that could force him to miss this season.  Sounds about right.  The Red Sox had shown no aggressiveness about improving their starting pitcher even before this development, and going by the linked article, they don't seem inclined to do much now.  But hey, there's that Netflix series to look forward to next year, so who cares if they actually win any games this season, right John Henry?  This is ownership negligence.

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox are reportedly talking to pitcher Brayan Bello about a long-term contract extension, even though Bello is already under team control through the 2028 season.  We have mixed feelings about this idea.  Much like our thoughts about Tristan Casas talking about a new deal, we like Bello, but can we see how maybe this year and next play out before we talk about keeping him here past 2028?  On the other hand, these long-term deals for young players are becoming more and more common, and if we were going to roll the dice on two Red Sox players, it would be Bello and Casas.

We won't tell you why Jason Kelce had his ankles taped before he gave his retirement speech on Monday, but trust us, you'll want to read the story.  Kelce seems to be widely regarded as a good guy.  It will be easy to root for him in whatever he does next after playing football.

TKO Group Holdings President Mark Shapiro confirmed yesterday that Vince McMahon is not returning to the WWE after being accused by a former employee of sex abuse and trafficking.  McMahon just sold $412 million worth of stock, which now means he only holds close to half of his original TKO position.   It's still hard to understand why the company reportedly fought so hard to have McMahon stay at first after the merger with the UFC, when they knew he was a legal risk.  Maybe they figured they'd just try to ride out the eventual storm whenever it hit, like they're doing right now.

Entertainment Weekly has a fun look back at the movie High Fidelity, which came out 20 years ago.  John Cusack may have blocked us on Twitter years ago (for simply pointing out that the platform has a spell-check feature), but we still enjoyed this film.

This upcoming documentary about Steve Martin looks interesting, but it's not enough to get us to subscribe to Apple TV+.  Maybe STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces will eventually make it to another streaming service in the future:

We have often mentioned the shrinkage of the soap opera landscape over the years, but CBS is reportedly developing a new daytime show, featuring a prominently Black cast, called The Gates.  Best of luck to everyone involved with this project - may it be the start of a soap resurgence. 

Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik will reportedly appear in person in the series finale of Young Sheldon on May 16.  We're guessing this will take the form of a scene featuring the young Sheldon Cooper that transforms into the adult Sheldon and his wife Amy Farrah Fowler with their kids, right as the closing credits appear.  What do you think?

New day, same transphobia from author J.K. Rowling.

The lawsuit regarding allegedly stolen Eagles lyrics was abruptly dropped, because apparently Don Henley and his lawyers were hiding embarrassing information that should have been made available to the defendants. The whole story seemed weird, so we'll see if there ends up being some sort of confidential settlement that makes everything go away.

Wolfgang Van Halen responded to David Lee Roth's recent attacks on him, saying, "I guess I'm honored he even thinks about me as much as he seems to."  Roth's random criticisms of the musician seemingly came out of nowhere, and all they did was make Roth look like a tired old has-been who is desperate for attention.  Meanwhile, Van Halen and his Mammoth WVH band continue touring everywhere, while fans also wait for the third album.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's close things out with a group we haven't heard from in a long time.  We leave you with Alien Ant Farm and "Fade" 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, double-check your headlights, 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.