Harp freak-out; juggling the numbers; bear tragedy; El Niño wild guesses; the Big One is nigh; depressing health insurance updates

We’re publishing Tuesday-Friday this week. Then things should be back to the regular schedule next week. Have a great weekend!

KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday (usually), is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.

August 21 is the 233rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 132 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 882 days remain in Trump’s final term of office.

Knee-deep in the hoopla:

• The White House freak-out over Natalie Harp. You are reading this story only because the White House didn’t want you to. (The Atlantic gift article)

• Vance: Bessent has ‘very discreet plan’ to shrink $40 trillion national debt. He then goes on to complain about how the deficit is Biden’s fault, and that the plan is to grow the economy faster than the debt. (KGB: The U.S. national debt-to-GDP ratio is approximately 122.5% to 124.6%, depending on how you calculate it. If the GDP grows faster than the debt, the percentage goes down, which makes the bean counters happy even though the debt actually increases. At some point, we’re going to have to have bake sales.) (The Hill)

• New details of plans for the Kennedy Center and White House ballroom include columns carved in Italy, and a plaza named for Trump. "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund." Oh, please.

  (CBS News)

• We never had to deal with stuff like this with Walter Cronkite or Tom Brokaw. Ex-CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin dishes on her desires after candid sex confession- and shares career update. (New York Post)

• A study by researchers at Florida International University found there is no single person who attracts all mosquito species, suggesting repellents and public health strategies may need to be tailored to specific mosquito species. At least the study was conducted on humans, not mice. (YourSun.com)

• What’s worse than a kid locked in a hot car? Black bear found dead inside car in Colorado as drivers warned to lock vehicles. ​The 250-pound animal entered the unlocked vehicle in central Colorado Springs before destroying the car's interior. Unable to leave once inside, the bear died in the summer heat, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said. (The Independent)

• NOAA releases fall weather predictions for all 50 states as El Niño grows stronger. TLDR: Looks like they’re using a dartboard for their forecast. There’s a pretty map, though. (The Hill)

• The threat from El Niño? Pfft. The San Andreas fault could shake northern California sooner than scientists thought. A section of the fault that runs through the Santa Cruz Mountains, south of San Francisco, could be moving faster than scientists previously believed, which would make the fault more conducive to earthquakes. High magnitude earthquakes, even. (The Inertia)

• It’s enough to make you ill:

  • Costco sells vacations, gas and, soon, Medicare plans. Costco plans a limited rollout of Costco-branded Medicare plans in partnership with nonprofit insurer SCAN Group. But you’ll still have to buy a Costco membership.

  • And for those of you who aren’t yet on Medicare: U.S. workers are paying more for healthcare, and next year will be worse. For 2027, employers face an 11.1% jump, their biggest health-insurance increase in at least two decades. Americans with workplace coverage are expected to spend an average $5,297 this year on healthcare, $388 more than 2025. The spending represents a combination of payroll deductions for premiums and out-of-pocket charges like deductibles and copays. (Wall Street Journal gift articles)

    • (Personal note: Avoid Medicare Advantage plans. When my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had to wait two weeks for her insurance company to authorize an MRI, and the co-pay was not insignificant. Neither were the co-pays for multiple specialist visits, radiation treatments, and follow-up services. I have a Medicare Supplemental- or Medigap- plan. When my PCP recommended I see an oncologist, I wasn’t confined to a network- I could go to any doctor that accepted Medicare, which is pretty much all of them. I had scores of complex blood tests, a bone marrow biopsy, a PET scan, and four weekly infusion treatments. The chargemaster price- what those without insurance would have to pay- was about $100,000. My cost? Medicare’s $257 deductibe, plus the $240 a month I pay for Medigap coverage. True, that’s typically more than an Advantage plan, but it’s all-inclusive. No pre-authorizations, no co-pays, no co-insurance. And it’s significantly below the average Medicare Advantage plan’s out-of-pocket limits.-KGB) (Wall Street Journal gift article)

  • Sort of health care related: Why you should never walk barefoot on a hotel carpet. “Carpet and rugs can act as a reservoir for shoe dust, dirt, pollen, mold spores, pesticides and other materials that originated from outside,” (Washington Post gift article)

  • How to rediscover your purpose later in life. Not difficult for me. I’ll be 72 next month. I write this substack. And I have four dogs and two cats. Life is good. (Psyche)

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:

• 1959 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii’s admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day.

Quote of the day:

If I were running the world, I would have it rain only between 2 and 5 a.m. Anyone who was out then ought to get wet.
--William Lyon Phelps (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,783 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)

Click here for more William Lyon Phelps quotes.

Today’s holidays:

International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, Internet Self-Care Day, National Brazilian Blowout Day, National Kool-Aid Day, National Men’s Grooming Day, National Senior Citizens Day, National Spumoni Day, National Sweet Tea Day, and Poet’s Day.

Details here and here.

Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Subscriptions are free. There are no paywalls hiding stuff and links to paywalled sources are provided via gift articles (just close the popups asking for emails or subscriptions). That said, a paid subscription will help keep the lights on and, more importantly, keep the puppies and kitties in kibble and litter. If you don’t want to go the paid subscription route, please consider donating a buck or two.
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—Kevin G. Barkes (KGB)

On This Day:

• 2017 – A solar eclipse traversed the continental United States.

• 1993 – NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

• 1991 – Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed.

• 1987 – The film “Dirty Dancing” was released in the U.S. (Video)

• 1986 – Carbon dioxide gas erupted from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometre (12 mi) range.

• 1974 – The Equal Educational Opportunities Act was enacted.

• 1971 – Antiwar protesters raided draft offices in Buffalo, New York, and Camden, New Jersey, to confiscate and destroy draft records.

• 1959 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii’s admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day.

• 1957 – The Soviet Union successfully conducted a long-range test flight of the R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile.

• 1945 – Physicist Harry Daghlian was fatally irradiated in a criticality accident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

• 1944 – Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.

• 1911 – The Mona Lisa was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee.

• 1897 – Olds Motor Vehicle Company founded.

• 1888 – The first successful adding machine in the United States was patented by William Seward Burroughs.

• 1883 – An F5 tornado struck Rochester, Minnesota, leading to the creation of the Mayo Clinic.

• 1878 – The American Bar Association was founded in Saratoga Springs, New York.

• 1863 – Lawrence, Kansas was destroyed by pro-Confederate guerrillas.

• 1858 – The first of the Lincoln–Douglas debates was held in Ottawa, Illinois.

• 1831 – Nat Turner led black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia.

• 1793 – Philadelphia hit by an outbreak of yellow fever.

• 1770 – James Cook formally claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.

(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)

Some Birthdays:

• 1994 – Alex Cooper, American podcaster

• 1992 – RJ Mitte, American actor

• 1990 – Bo Burnham, American comedian, musician, actor, filmmaker and poet

• 1989 – Hayden Panettiere, American actress (died 2026)

• 1988 – Kacey Musgraves, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

• 1981 – Tyler Winklevoss, American rower and businessman, co-founded ConnectU

• 1981 – Cameron Winklevoss, American rower and businessman, co-founded

• 1979 – Diego Klattenhoff, Canadian actor

• 1975 – Alicia Witt, American actress and musician

• 1973 – Sergey Brin, Russian-American computer scientist and businessman, co-founded Google

• 1967 – Carrie-Anne Moss, Canadian actress

• 1962 – Cleo King, American actress

• 1961 – Stephen Hillenburg, American marine biologist, cartoonist, animator and creator of SpongeBob SquarePants (died 2018)

• 1958 – Steve Case, American businessman, co-founder of America Online (AOL)

• 1956 – Kim Cattrall, English-Canadian actress

• 1950 – Arthur Bremer, American attempted assassin of George Wallace

• 1949 – Loretta Devine, American actress and singer

• 1945 – Patty McCormack, American actress

• 1945 – Basil Poledouris, Greek-American composer, conductor (died 2006) (Video)

• 1944 – Peter Weir, Australian director, producer, and screenwriter

• 1943 – Hugh Wilson, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2018)

• 1941 – Jackie DeShannon, American singer-songwriter (Video)

• 1939 – Clarence Williams III, American actor (died 2021)

• 1938 – Kenny Rogers, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (died 2020)

• 1936 – Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player and coach (died 1999)

• 1932 – Melvin Van Peebles, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2021)

• 1930 – Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (died 2002)

• 1924 – Jack Weston, American actor (died 1996)

• 1906 – Friz Freleng, American animator, director, and producer (died 1995)

• 1904 – Count Basie, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (died 1984) (Video)

• 1754 – William Murdoch, Scottish engineer and inventor, created gas lighting (died 1839)

(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)

Some Deaths:

• 2024 – John Amos, American actor (born 1939) (Video)

• 2015 – Jimmy Evert, American tennis player and coach (born 1924)

• 2013 – Sid Bernstein, American record producer (born 1918)

• 2005 – Robert Moog, American businessman, founded Moog Music (born 1934) (Video)

• 1947 – Ettore Bugatti, Italian-French engineer and businessman, founded Bugatti (born 1881)

• 1940 – Leon Trotsky, Russian theorist and politician, founded the Red Army (born 1879)

• 1940 – Ernest Thayer, American poet (“Casey at the Bat”) and author (born 1863)

(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)

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