Hi everyone,

Welcome back, and a happy Monday to you all.  Did you have a good weekend?  Ours was okay.  We got much more rain than I was expecting yesterday, which meant no garden or bike ride time, so that was disappointing.  BDH and Little Buddha say today's forecast calls for more rain/thunderstorms this afternoon, so the guys will have to figure out how to factor that into the schedule.

I'm sure they'll come up with a good game plan.  Let's start by taking a peek at the headlines.  There's a fresh pot of coffee on the counter, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Clutter.

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The 2024 Democratic National Convention starts in Chicago tonight, as the Harris-Walz ticket continues to generate excitement across the country.  The convention is a four-day event, and it begins with a speech from, and tribute to, President Biden, who shook up this race when he dropped out about a month ago.  He may have been forced into making that decision, but history will remember him well for taking that critical step.  It is fitting that the convention kicks off the tribute to his legacy.

Let's get this party started.  (pic via www.wfaa.com)

Donald Trump is so desperate, he's now lying about being endorsed by Taylor Swift, and he's using AI-generated pictures as "proof."   The singer hasn't backed anyone in this race yet.  However, she endorsed President Biden and Vice President Harris in 2020, and there's no reason to believe she's going orange in 2024.  What a sad old man.

You know things are looking bad for Donald Trump when Senator Lindsey Graham is getting ready to bail on him again:  Senator Graham warned on Meet the Press yesterday that,

"President Trump can win this election. His policies are good for America, and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.”

Graham knows full well Trump isn't capable of staying focused on a policy debate, and so the lackey is heading for the exit.  If Vice President Harris wins in November, look for Lindsey Graham to start kissing up to her before the end of next January.

Meanwhile, JD Vance was busy comparing Vice President Harris to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein yesterday, a move that's sure to fix Vance's gigantic problem with women voters.  We know Vance hates women, but he understands that they vote, right?   Also, we can't imagine anyone in Team Trump wants his running mate bringing up Epstein.  That's not a move which is going to work well for their boss.

The Republican-controlled House Judiciary, Oversight, and Ways and Means Committees released a joint report this morning accusing President Biden of impeachable conduct.  There's nothing new to the allegations, and these clowns don't even bother to recommend articles of impeachment.  They just needed something to talk about on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.  The priority in November is to make sure Donald Trump doesn't return to the White House.  However, it would also be a huge win for the country to send Speaker Mike Johnson and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan back to minority party status.

Former Rep. George Santos is expected to plead guilty to a number of fraud-related charges later today.  It sounds like the Republican pathological liar struck a plea deal, so let's see what he's getting in return here.

CNET.com argues this is a terrible time to upgrade your iPhone, because the new models may be coming out next month.  As the author states, even if you don't care about getting the latest version, Apple often offers price discounts for the older models when the new ones are released, so you might save a few bucks by waiting just a little longer.  That's always a win around here, so this is just something to consider before you make a change.

Perdue Farms is recalling over 167,000 pounds of different chicken items because they potentially contain a metal wire.  Think about the negligence that has to be involved for that much food to be at risk, and yet this story will probably disappear from the headlines by Wednesday.

We make jokes about eating dinner early because we're getting older, but this article argues that a 5:30 dinner can be better for your health.  See?  We're just trying to stay in shape.  Yeah, that's the ticket.

The Boston Red Sox lost 4-2 to the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, thus splitting their weekend series.  The loss drops the Sox to  3 1/2 games behind the Kansas City Royals in the race for the final AL Wild Card spot.  Boston starter Kutter Crawford was cruising along for five innings, but he once again got into trouble quickly with a walk and a hit batter, and the Orioles eventually scored three runs in the sixth inning. 

That's the second straight outing where things have turned on a dime for the righty.  Meanwhile, the Red Sox batters left 11 runners on base for the day.  It's hard to win when you come up short like that.

Next up:  The Red Sox start a series against the Houston Astros tonight.  Tanner Houck takes the mound for Boston.

The weirdest part of the game was that the NESN 360 streaming feed started jumping between yesterday and Friday's game in the seventh inning.  We had to bail after about a half hour, because it was giving us a headache.  Still haven't seen any explanation for what happened there.  Hopefully the folks at NESN will figure out the problem quickly, and make sure it doesn't happen again, because that's the kind of thing that can generate a lot of ill will over the app's $29.99 monthly fee real fast.

Boston Red Sox reliever Liam Hendriks threw an inning of scoreless relief during a Triple A rehab assignment yesterday.  It was his first time in a game since he had Tommy John surgery last year, and that was just a few months after he beat Stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.  Hendriks is an elite relief pitcher when he's healthy, so while the focus is mostly on him helping the 2025 team, it would be a boost if he's able to join the club for a few outings in September.  He's also a character, and baseball always needs more of those, so we're pulling to hear more from him soon.

Boston Globe football writer Ben Volin seems personally offended by New England Patriots GM Eliot Wolf's evasive answers at a press conference yesterday.  The quotes in the article sound like things Bill Belichick might have said if he was still here, so maybe Volin is irritated that the "new" front office might not be any different than the old once when it comes to transparency.  We can see how that would be frustrating, but comparing Wolf to, "a frightened mouse," seems harsh this early into Wolf's run.  Pretty unprofessional, Mr. Volin.

If you saw the viral clip about the marriage proposal that went horribly wrong at the Los Angeles Chargers - Los Angeles Rams game on Saturday, don't worry:  The linked article says the whole thing was staged by Chargers staff.

The Mike Tyson - Jake Paul boxing "match" is back on for November 15 now?  That's a shame.  As we said a few months ago, there's no benefit for Tyson here, apart from a presumably huge payday, which is apparently enough.  If the 58-year-old Tyson wins, it does nothing for his legacy.  If he loses, he embarrasses himself against Paul, who is a YouTube personality.  We just hope Tyson doesn't get seriously hurt here.

Congratulations to Alien: Romulus for knocking Deadpool & Wolverine out of the top spot at the box office, thus ending the Marvel film's three-week run at #1.

The wait is almost over:  The new season of Only Murders in the Building finally begins on Hulu a week from tomorrow.  BDH and Little Buddha are excited for a new mystery to solve.

Thanks to Pluto TV airing reruns, we are just about all caught up on FBI, so now we're just waiting for Season 7 to begin on October 15.  Can't remember if we knew that, similar to other Dick Wolf-ensemble productions, there will be some cast appearance reductions in the upcoming season.  The cost-cutting move was a serious distraction on Chicago P.D. last year, so we're hoping it won't be as obvious here.

It sounds like the reformed Pantera lineup might have recorded a recent show for a live album.  Not gonna lie, don't think we'd survive being in the audience for one of their concerts.  However, we'd be interested in hearing this record if it turns out to be a legit thing. 

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Here's Lady Gaga with Bruno Mars to close things out with, "Die With a Smile" 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, stay dry, 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.