Hi everyone,

Welcome back.  How are you?  No luck at the bookstore yesterday, but the rest of the to-do list went well, so I'll take it.  BDH and Little Buddha said there are only a few errands to take care of today, and then we'll wait to see if this expected snow actually arrives.  The current forecast calls for 2-7 inches. I think it's supposed to be the light stuff, but then there's also talk of rain tomorrow, so things could get messy.  We'll just have to stay on top of the shoveling.

For now, let's take a peek at the headlines.  The guys made coffee, so grab yourself a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Wednesday Clutter.

Donald Trump is reportedly considering replacing defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as the controversy continues to grow over Hegseth's reported drinking issues and harassment of women, as well as paying a woman not to sue him for sexual assault in 2017.  Governor DeSantis, who served in the Navy, has waged war against women for years with his anti-abortion crusade, but as far as we can tell, he's never been accused of sexual misconduct.  That puts him in a class above Trump, Hegseth, and former attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, which shows you how low the bar is with the incoming administration.

Is Governor DeSantis checking out of Florida?  (pic via www.npr.org)

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's choice to lead the DEA, Chad Chronister, withdrew his name from consideration after being criticized by the MAGA cult for not being crazy enough for the job.  It seems the wingnuts are angry Chronister, the sheriff of Hillsborough County in Florida, dared to enforce COVID-19 protocols.  Forget working in the Trump administration - that's enough to get you run out of the GOP these days.

On a related note, Donald Trump's pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, was hawking fraudulent supplements earlier this year to supposedly help people "detox" from COVID-19 vaccines.  Are we sure Trump didn't mean to appoint Patel to lead HHS, instead of Robert Kennedy Jr.?   Trump couldn't care less about this fraud, because con men appreciate con men.  Then there's also the fact that Patel has already promised to abuse the powers of his office to protect Trump.  We're going deaf from all of the alarm bells going off over this selection.

Any Black Republican who is actually surprised they're being left out of Donald Trump's Cabinet picks needs to reexamine every life choice they've ever made which got them to this point.

House Republicans will have a one-seat majority for the first few months of 2025, until special elections take place to fill the seats of Rep. Matt Gaetz, and presumably  Reps. Michael Waltz and Elise Stefanik who will be taking jobs with the Trump administration.  That means every Republican will have insane leverage over Speaker Mike Johnson, because he can't afford to lose a single one of them during that stretch.

There's a move underway to impeach South Korea's president, after he imposed martial law for a few hours on Tuesday.  We're still trying to understand the situation, but the linked article says a presidential source claims the move was designed to break the country's current political stalemate.   It's hard to see how that's going to fly, so our money is on President Yoon Suk Yeol being out of office, one way or another, by the end of this month. 

Meta is looking to nuclear energy to fuel its AI plans.  Can't see how any of this could possibly go wrong.

A South Carolina mom is suing Mattel for mistakenly including a link to an adult movie website on the packaging of some dolls connected to the Wicked movie.  The dolls in question were recalled as of November 11.  Apparently the toy company still hasn't offered refunds to any offended consumers, which it should have already done by now.  However, suing for $5 million in alleged damages is an overreach.  (We would still like to hear the story of how this mix-up occurred in the first place.)

Bluesky is now up to 24 million users, fueled in large part by Elon Musk supporting Donald Trump during the presidential election.  It really is remarkable how much more enjoyable Bluesky is, compared to Twitter.  People can have conversations without having them hijacked by Nazis, cryptocurrency scammers, and porn bots.  It's easier to control and shape your feed, and now that so many folks have finally switched over, we barely need to use Twitter, which is nice. 

According to the linked article, Bluesky is eventually looking at subscriptions to stay in business.  We'll give that a look when the option becomes available.

Wait, today is National Cookie Day?  Looks like we'll have to add a trip to the grocery store to our schedule, because it's important to properly celebrate such an important holiday!

Juan Soto's agent Scott Boras said the free agent slugger has begun narrowing down the list of teams he'll consider joining.  No word on if the Boston Red Sox made that cut.  Again, we'd certainly be happy to have the 26-year-old come to Boston on a long-term deal.  That would go a long way towards restoring fans' trust in ownership.  However, regardless of whether Soto signs here, the Red Sox still need a impact starting pitcher.

The Boston Red Sox and reliever Aroldis Chapman agreed a 0ne-year/$10.75 million deal yesterday.  Perhaps we needed to be more specific, we'd prefer the Sox not sign guys who have been suspended for violating MLB's anti-domestic violence policy, like Chapman was for the first 30 games of the 2016 season.  The once-dominant reliever had 14 saves in 19 opportunities, with a 3.79 ERA, for the Pittsburgh Pirates this season.  Does he probably help the Boston bullpen a little?  Yes.  Are we glad this is only a one-year contract?  Absolutely.

The NFL suspended Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair for three games without pay for his dirty hit on Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence last Sunday, as well as Al-Shaair's involvement in a subsequent fight after the play.  The linebacker later apologized to Lawrence, although he still claims he had no ill intentions, despite the fact that he had plenty of time to avoid driving Lawrence's head into the ground after the quarterback already began sliding.  Al-Shaair has the right to appeal the punishment, but he shouldn't waste everyone's time. 

Do you know how to pronounce Daniel Craig's name? Are you sure?  Stephen Colbert repeatedly got it wrong until the actor finally corrected him.  Colbert apologized for the mistake, and it's a good thing Craig accepted it, because having James Bond mad at you can't be a good thing.

We are still hooked on NCIS: Origins.  It's so much more than "just" Leroy Jethro Gibbs' early days at the agency, and this week's episode has us looking at agent Bernard "Randy" Randolph in a different light and has us wanting to know more about his story.  That's perfect, because now after eight weeks of the series, we're invested in all of the major characters, and that's what you want in a show.

Now-former General Hospital star Kelly Monaco responded to a Twitter troll by saying, "Those whom choose to bully behind their power, will suffer their own consequences."  It sounds like she's referring to the people who were responsible for her being fired from the soap opera, and we're still dying to hear more about what actually happened here. All we know so far is that it seems to have something to do with the late Billy Miller also being let go back in 2019.

Putting aside the real-life business decisions behind Kelly Monaco's exit, her character's death led to the return of Lulu Spencer after a four-year absence, and we have to say, "new Lulu" Alexa Havins is crushing it so far.  First, there's the superficial issue that she looks like "original adult Lulu" Julie Berman, which creates a stronger pull towards the recast character.  More importantly, the soap opera is already throwing a LOT at Lulu right out of the gate, as she discovers everything she's missed since falling into a coma in 2020.  Havins is hitting all of her marks.  She's been given a cocktail of intense joy, sadness, and a sense of being completely overwhelmed by all of it, and the actress brings the audience in more and more with every reaction. 

It sounds like we missed quite the train wreck with Peacock's series about Girls Gone Wild.  If we've got this correct, company founder Joe Francis thinks he's a genius and everyone is out to get him because of jealousy.  Let him stay in Mexico for the long haul.

TVLine.com posted their "Worst TV Shows of 2024" list.  We've only heard of about half of the shows, and haven't watched any of them.  Did the site make any mistakes, or should other series be added to this group?

You can probably guess Spotify's most-streamed artist for 2024 on the first try.  This is her world, the rest of us are just sharing space with her on it.

LL Cool J  believes that at some point, people will eventually say he, "is the most important rapper that ever existed," because of all of the different elements he says he brought to the genre.  We have no doubt that most rap fans consider him a legend and a pioneer, but they're more likely to include him on a list of the top 10-25 rappers of all-time, not have him at the #1 spot, and that's unlikely to change.

We're sorry to hear that Goo Goo Dolls front man Johnny Rzeznik has been hospitalized with pneumonia, which has forced the band to postpone some shows.  Hopefully the singer will be back in action soon.

Okay kids, that's going to do it for now.  Madonna released a moving video in honor of this year's World AIDS Day, so here she is to close things out with a live version of, "Live to Tell" 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.