KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday, is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material. Have a great weekend!
(Most) everything you need to know for today:
August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 147 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 897 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
A Senate panel says it has obtained a copy of Fauci’s Covid-era phone. Republicans in Congress have ramped up scrutiny of the 85-year-old retired government doctor, and one panel could vote on holding him in contempt on Thursday. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Trump tries to pause his own BBC lawsuit to hide his finances. He filed on Wednesday an emergency motion to stop the BBC from gaining broad access to intimate details about his finances. Last month, a judge allowed the BBC to obtain financial information on at least 400 business entities owned by Trump’s family trust and set a Thursday deadline for their release. (The New Republic)
No evidence? No problem. Trump pushes ahead on false claims that Reflecting Pool was vandalized. Jeanine Pirro this week found out there is a trade-off between loyalty to President Donald Trump and being loyal to reality. (AP)
The once-shameless President is deeply embarrassed. As Donald Trump faces one humiliation after another, he is attacking those he blames. (The Atlantic gift article)
Tradwife aesthetic collapses as Trumpism curdles into ‘unmitigated disaster’. The internet's most famous "tradwife" is running from the label that made her rich, and a New York Times columnist says her retreat is a sign of something bigger: the whole retro-domestic, MAGA-adjacent aesthetic is losing its grip as Trumpism curdles.
Donald Trump’s latest $35M event leaves museums worried about damage. The Freedom 250 is a 1.66-mile, seven-turn street course that will see drivers speed past the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the National Archives. It could cause the foundations of some buildings to be undermined and artifacts in the buildings could be destroyed. (Daily Express)
Carrying on from yesterday, police department not happy when every single one of its Flock cameras gets stolen. Those hardy patriots in Minnesota swiped all eight of Winona’s plate readers. (Futurism)
Abortion foes backed ballot measures in two red states. Voters said No. Voters in Kansas rejected a proposal to start electing Supreme Court justices, while Missourians declined to make it harder to amend the State Constitution.
(New York Times gift article)Florida deputy reprimanded after ticketing one-armed driver for alleged texting while driving. A verbal reprimand. You’d think someone that dense would at least get a whack upside the head by his sergeant. (CBS 12 West Palm Beach)
Veterinarians traced a lemur’s fatal herpes infection back to a yoga class. The findings highlight the importance of being careful in how people interact with wildlife, especially animals that aren’t naturally immune to the viruses we carry. Lemur yoga? (Gizmodo)
Keep scrolling… lots of interesting stuff in Quote of the Day, Holidays, On This Day, Birthdays, and Deaths. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll learn something new.
History highlight:
1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan was devastated when the atomic bomb “Little Boy“ was dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people were killed instantly, and some tens of thousands died in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
Quote of the day:
One day you’ll discover that the opinions of worthless people are worthless.
--Piers Anthony (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,772 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)
Click here for more Piers Anthony quotes
Today’s holidays:
Balloons to Heaven Day, Corporate Baby Name Day, Farmworker Appreciation Day, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, International Day of Awareness of the Special Development Needs and Challenges of Landlocked Developing Countries, International Sailor Moon Day, KFS Awareness Day, Mom’s Equal Pay Day, National Fresh Breath Day, National Gossip Day, National IPA Day, National Root Beer Float Day, and Wiggle Your Toes Day.
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On This Day:
2012 – NASA‘s Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars.
1996 – NASA announced that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contained evidence of primitive life-forms.
1991 – Tim Berners-Lee released files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW made its first appearance as a publicly available service on the Internet.
1990 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
1975 – The New York Times published a front page obituary for Agatha Christie’s sleuth Hercule Poirot, an honor rarely, if ever, given to a fictional character.
1969 – Army announced murder charges against eight Green Berets.
1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
1960 – Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalized American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
1960 – Chubby Checker performed his version of Hank Ballard's "The Twist" on "The Dick Clark Show," starting a worldwide dance craze. (Video)
1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network madeits final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.
1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan was devastated when the atomic bomb “Little Boy“ was dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people were killed instantly, and some tens of thousands died in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
1930 – Judge Joseph Force Crater became the “missingest man” in New York.
1926 – Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
1926 – First public screening using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc process.
1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electric chair.
1862 – American Civil War: The Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas was scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering catastrophic engine failure near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1846 – Donner Party encountered first delay.
1787 – Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States were delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1981 – Leslie Odom Jr., American actor and singer
1976 – Soleil Moon Frye, American actress
1973 – Vera Farmiga, American actress
1972 – Geri Halliwell, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
1972 – Jason O’Mara, Irish actor
1970 – M. Night Shyamalan, Indian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
1963 – Kevin Mitnick, American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker (died 2023)
1962 – Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian-Hong Kong actress and producer
1958 – Randy DeBarge, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1951 – Catherine Hicks, American actress
1940 – Louise Sorel, American actress
1938 – Peter Bonerz, American actor and director
1938 – Paul Bartel, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2000)
1934 – Piers Anthony, English-American soldier and author
1928 – Andy Warhol, American painter, photographer and film director (died 1987)
1926 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (died 1999)
1924 – Ella Jenkins, American folk singer (died 2024)
1924 – Samuel Bowers, American white supremacist, co-founded the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (died 2006)
1922 – Freddie Laker, English businessman, founded Laker Airways (died 2006)
1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (died 1997)
1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress, television producer and businesswoman (died 1989)
1901 – Dutch Schultz, American gangster (died 1935)
1881 – Louella Parsons, American journalist (died 1972)
1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, and botanist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955)
1848 – Susie Taylor, American writer and first black Army nurse (died 1912)
1809 – Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English poet (died 1892)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2012 – Marvin Hamlisch, American pianist, composer, and conductor (born 1944)
2009 – John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1950)
2005 – Creme Puff, tabby domestic cat, oldest recorded cat (born 1967)
2004 – Rick James, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1948)
1991 – Harry Reasoner, American journalist, co-created 60 Minutes (born 1923)
1978 – Edward Durell Stone, American architect, designed Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (born 1902)
1978 – Pope Paul VI (born 1897)
1964 – Cedric Hardwicke, English actor and director (born 1893)
1959 – Preston Sturges, American director, screenwriter, and playwright (born 1898)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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