Friday Clutter: Ukraine Aid, Trump, Matt Gaetz, Nazi Twitter, Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Pulp Fiction, Josh Hartnett, Bill Burr, Dickey Betts, Taylor Swift and Post Malone, and more
Thursday Clutter: Trump, President Biden, Arizona Abortion Ban, Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Deadpool & Wolverine, Channing Tatum, Jim Henson, David Gilmour, Johnny Cash, and more

Monday Clutter: Trump Trial, House Passes Ukraine Aid, U.S. Supreme Court, Wall Street, Boston Red Sox, Stephen Colbert, Doctor Who, Taylor Swift, Wolfgang Van Halen, Shinedown, and more

Hi everyone,

Welcome back, and a happy Monday to you all.  Did you have a good weekend?  Things went well on this end.  I took my first bike ride of the year, and there was a solid amount of garden time, so my legs are shot, but it was worth it.  BDH and Little Buddha say today's to-do list isn't that hectic, so we can ease into the new week.  That works for me, since the current wind chill factor is 28 degrees. 

A quick programming note:  Something has come up, so we may or may not be here tomorrow and Wednesday.  I think we'll have to play it by ear both days.  However, we do still expect to be back on Thursday.

Now, let's check out the headlines.  The guys made coffee, 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!

The opening statements in Donald Trump's hush money case start today.  Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal payments he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.  He'll have to sit in the courtroom with his mouth shut while prosecutors criticize him and make the jury aware of many negative aspects of his life.  Staying quiet will require a discipline Trump is not known for, so that will be something to watch, as the con man's first of four criminal prosecutions begins.

Donald Trump April 22 2024Lock him up.  (pic via news.yahoo.com)

New York Attorney General Letitia James asked Judge Arthur Engoron to reject Donald Trump's $175 million bond in his NY fraud case, because, she argued, it's not clear the company that put up the money can actually pay if necessary.  How could anyone think Donald Trump might do business with a shady company?  That would be shocking.  Shocking, we say.  AG James wants Judge Engoron to require that a new bond be posted within seven days.  A hearing will reportedly be held on this motion today. 

Former Rep. Liz Cheney urged the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve Donald Trump's ludicrous "absolute immunity" claim fully and promptly.  That way, his January 6 criminal case can take place before the elections, and voters can have that information before they make their decision.  Trump's dangerous assertion is absurd on its face, and the court should already have rejected it.  The conservative majority of justices are slow-walking this process to tip the scales in Trump's favor.  Add in the fact that Justice Clarence Thomas refuses to recuse himself, despite his wife having a key role in the coup attempt, and the stench of corruption becomes overwhelming.

The House passed Speaker Mike Johnson's foreign aid bills for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan on Saturday.  The Senate is expected to take up these proposals tomorrow, and President Biden has already promised to sign them.  The Ukraine legislation passed 311-112-1, thanks to some help from Democrats, and that's a huge loss for Donald Trump and the pro-Russia lobby in the GOP. 

Stinging from her humiliating defeat, Vladimir Putin's congressional liaison Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Speaker Mike Johnson can either resign, or she will move forward with her motion to remove him from leadership.  This will probably end up being nothing more than hot air.  If Rep. Greene finally follows through on her long-standing threat, the odds are good that House Democrats will save Speaker Johnson, especially now that he finally allowed a vote on Ukraine aid. 

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today about whether or not it is cruel and unusual punishment to prohibit homeless people from sleeping outside.  Fines and arrests miss the point:  These people don't have any control over their situations.  Talk about blaming the victim and refusing to look a the systemic issues which create the problem in the first place.

The stock market is in a bit of a correction mode right now:  The S&P 500 is down 5% from its recent March 28 high and is up just over 4% so far for 2024.  The Clutter investment team is fine with this current down stretch.  They thought stocks were a little overpriced to start with, so this decline  feels like a move towards more realistic prices.  The staff will be keeping an eye out for any large-scale panic moves, because that's often a good time to find a bargain, but otherwise, our crew remains focused on the long-term.

The Boston Red Sox beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-1 yesterday to sweep their series and improve to 13-10 on the season.  Give Boston credit, you might only recognize four or five names in Sunday's box score, but the team took care of business this weekend.  The Sox have today off, and then they start a new series on the road against the Cleveland Guardians.  Hopefully Tyler O'Neill and Rafael Devers will both return to the lineup tomorrow.

The injury bug continues to plague the Boston Red Sox:  This time, it's first baseman Triston Casas going on the 10-day IL with a left rib strain.  That's worrisome, because rib injuries feel like the sort of thing that can linger.  We wouldn't bet money on the big guy being ready to go in 10 days.  Hopefully this won't derail Casas this year, because the Sox need his bat in the lineup. 

The Boston Celtics thumped the Miami Heat 114-94 yesterday to take a 1-0 lead in their playoff series.  Boston has had its battles with Miami in the past, but this year is not a fight between peers.  These Celtics are much better than the Heat (who are missing Jimmy Butler), and they need to not let this drag out.  Put Miami away quickly, stay healthy and fresh, and then repeat for the next round.  We won't get too far ahead of ourselves though - Game 2 is also in Boston on Wednesday.

The first full trailer for the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine is being released at some point today.  The actual film arrives on July 26.

Stephen Colbert said he'd like to get back to acting at some point.  We saw him once as the bad guy in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.  He was okay...little creepy, which was the point.

Current Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa did an interesting interview talking a lot about self-acceptance.  We can't wait to see the 15th Doctor and Ruby Sunday finally kick off a full season of new adventures on May 10.

We like that Pluto TV offers a healthy dose of NCIS reruns, but we might need to take some time to find out what else we want to watch on the streaming service.

Many of you know that we love talking about series finales and how hard they are to get right.  Some come too soon, some are too late, and the definition of "satisfying" can vary by program.  Given all of the things that can go wrong, it's all the more impressive when a show comes in for a successful landing.  TVLine.com highlighted some of the pitfalls with their list of the 25 worst final programs.  We'd argue that one of them shouldn't be on the list, but the rest show viewers often don't get a great payoff for the time they invest over multiple seasons.

Spotify said Taylor Swift is now the most streamed artist in a single day, her new record The Tortured Poets Society is the most streamed album in one day, and her new song Fortnight is the most streamed tune in a single day  in company history.  Oh, and TTPS also sold 1.4 million traditional records on its first day of release.  Who could have guessed that she was so popular?  Swift might just have a future in the music business after all.

Hey Metallica fans, you can buy Lars Ulrich's childhood home for the low price of just $6.85 million.

The famous docuseries Behind the Music is returning in May and will exclusively be featured on Paramount+.  One of the new episodes will feature a look at Wolfgang Van Halen, which is the strongest argument yet for us to subscribe to the streaming service.  However, we might wait to see if anyone wants to post a copy of it on YouTube first.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Let's have Shinedown close things out with their new single, "special" 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 like we said, the next couple of days are up in the air, but we will 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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