Tuesday Clutter: U.S. Supreme Court, Trump, President Biden, Boston Celtics, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Bear, Doctor Who, GH, Johnny Cash, and more
(Review) Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Wednesday Clutter: Trump, Rudy Giuliani, President Biden, Netflix, Wall Street, Boston Red Sox, Aaron Rodgers, Josh Hartnett, Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest, Heart, Demi Lovato, and more

Hi everyone,

Welcome back.  How are you?  Our crew slept in a little bit this morning, so we're off to a late start here.  BDH and Little Buddha are having a hard time working out the to-do lists, both for today and the rest of the week.  I told them not to worry about it, and maybe we'll just enjoy a quiet couple of days around here to recharge a bit.  These two have definitely earned it.

The guys are considering my proposal, but they insist we still need to check out today's headlines, so let's get to work.  There's a fresh cup of coffee on the counter, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Wednesday Clutter.

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The judge in Donald Trump's felony hush money case announced that he will respond on September 6 to Trump's motion to have the verdict set aside, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's outrageous presidential immunity ruling.  As a result, Trump's sentencing date has been pushed back to September 18.  Judge Juan Merchan should move forward with this process like he would have before the Supreme Court bailed Trump out yet again.  There's no reality-based argument that paying an adult film star to stay quiet about a sexual encounter, and then falsifying records to cover it up, falls under "official presidential duties." 

Donald Trump July 3 2024Still doing whatever he can to escape accountability for his actions.  (pic via latimes.com)

Democrats don't seem to have much of a plan about the Supreme Court's gift to Donald Trump, except to say that it's bad, and people should vote.  Of course Trump needs to be defeated in November.  However, that's not enough to save this country over the long haul.  The court needs to be expanded, and walking conflicts of interest Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas need to be impeached.  Otherwise, we're all just waiting for the next Republican president, whether it's Trump or someone else, to take advantage of this ruling and turn the U.S. into a fascist state.

Donald Trump took millions from foreign governments during his first term in office, and there's no reason to think it won't be more of the same if he returns to the White House.  The man's allegiance is to himself.  That's it.  He doesn't care about this country.  He's an ongoing national security threat who should be behind bars, not running for president. 

Rudy Giuliani was disbarred yesterday for his dishonesty during his attempts to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election.  The decision was handed down by the Appellate Division First Department in New York.  Giulaini's lawyers say they'll appeal the order, but this feels like the fitting end for the former mayor who once claimed to be "tough on crime."  He's an unrepentant fraud who lost his career, and owes $148 million, because he got into bed with Donald Trump. 

President Biden will do a televised interview with ABC News which will be shown on different programs this Friday - Monday.  The president needs a strong bounce back here after his recent poor debate performance.  Replacing him on the top of the ticket isn't going to work, so he needs to help some skittish Democrats calm down and remember the priority here - keeping a wannabe-dictator, who was just told he can basically do whatever he likes in office, out of the White House.

Hailey Welch, the infamous "Hawk Tuah Girl,” now has official management.  We say more power to her for taking advantage of her current fame.  Do you think she'll still be in the news by the end of the summer?

Netflix has begun phasing out its cheapest ad-free plan for existing users:  Those folks who currently pay $11.99 a month can either drop down to $6.99 with ads, or go up $15.49 without them.  The $11.99 deal was already scrapped last year for new customers, so now it's time for current subscribers to make a decision.  Keeping Netflix is always up for discussion with our staff.  If we decided to drop it, what do you think should take its place, since we already have Hulu?  Send your recommendations to [email protected].

The Clutter investment team appreciates this Morningstar.com article about the dangers of recency bias.  Just because certain investing trends seem like they might be unstoppable right now doesn't mean "this time is different."  Our crew has been around long enough to watch hot sectors go ice cold, and then back again, multiple times over the past few decades.  The more people become convinced the latest status quo is permanent, the more our staff looks at what's out of favor at the moment, because that reversal is coming.  It's a question of if, not when.  Stay focused on a long-term plan when dealing with Wall Street.

Did you know some sodas contain modified vegetable oil?  That's disgusting.  The FDA is banning the use of brominated vegetable oil in soda and other products, effective August 2.  However, companies will have a year to get into compliance with the prohibition.  According to the linked article, this stuff is said to be linked to "nervous system damage, headaches, skin and mucous membrane irritation, fatigue and loss of muscle coordination and memory."  In other words, it's just another reason to keep your soda intake as low as possible.

The Boston Red Sox started their latest road trip on a positive note by beating the Miami Marlins 8-3 last night.  Boston starter Kutter Crawford took full advantage of the week Miami offense by giving up just one run on three hits, with seven strikeouts, over six innings.  He could have gone longer, but manager Alex Cora said the team is keeping an eye on the righty's workload.  The Red Sox jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first and then added to that with home runs from Ceddanne Rafaela and Jarren Duran. 

This was exactly what the Red Sox needed to do against the 30-55 Marlins.  Now we'll see if Boston's Brayan Bello can turn around his recent struggles when he takes the mound against Miami tonight.  If Bello has another bad outing, it may be time to re-evaluate his position in the starting rotation.

The New England Patriots continue to re-sign their own players as the team launches a new era:  This time, it's linebacker Jahlani Tavai getting a three-year/$15 million extension.   New head coach Jerod Mayo knows his defensive players well, having started his coaching career on that side of the ball, so if he wants to keep Tavai, we're fine with that.  All of our major questions about the Patriots this season concern the offense.

Aaron Rodgers reportedly missed the New York Jets' recent mandatory minicamp because of a previously-scheduled trip to Egypt.  The team is doing its best to make this seem like no big deal.  However, you can be sure the quarterback will find a way to be a distraction once again for the entire season. 

Congratulations to Gary Striewski on reportedly agreeing to a contract extension with ESPN.  We saw him at the local gym once years ago, back when he was still the sideline reporter for the Boston Red Sox.  It looks like things have worked out just fine for him since then.

This Beverly Hills Cop:  Axel F review does not sound promising.  However, it's about what we expected, so we still plan to see the movie at some point.  Hmm, maybe that's what BDH and Little Buddha need this week.

Awkwafina and John Cena star in a new movie called Jackpot!, and the trailer looks so insanely stupid, we might keep this at the bottom of the watch list when the film is released on Amazon Prime Video on August 15:

The Hollywood Reporter has a fun interview with Josh Hartnett, talking about his cameo in The Bear.  We won't give away any spoilers, and we still haven't seen the final two episodes of the third season yet, but we are curious to find out if the actor will return to the series.

Cheers to Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest, who went on their first date 40 years ago yesterday.  Curtis marked the anniversary on Instagram, noting that the couple married five months later.  Forty Hollywood years has to be at least 65 years for non-celebrities, so good for the happy couple for making it work for so long.

This week's episode of The Boys doesn't come out until tomorrow, but here's a quick preview of Homelander making friends like usual.

We're sorry to hear that Heart singer Ann Wilson has been diagnosed with cancer.  The band has since cancelled the rest of their tour for this year, but Wilson insists she plans on returning to the stage in 2025.  We wish her the best of luck.

The Internet Archive created a searchable index of over 460,000 MTV News articles after Paramount recently shut down the site.  According to the linked article, this isn't everything MTV News published since 1997, but it's a good chunk of the content, and it's an important step to preserve such a large chunk of music history.  That's one of the big dangers of living in an ever-increasingly digital age:  None of it is as secure as a hard copy, which is why we still own CD's, cassette tapes, DVD's, and books.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's Demi Lovato to close things out with, "Made in the USA" 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 we'll 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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