Jon Stewart breaks down the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner that took place over the weekend: After the original WHCD event was derailed by an attempted shooting, Trump’s defiant return to the stage featured timely references to 2016, wordy roasts that failed to pack a punch, and trailing explanations of jokes that bombed. Jon gives Trump’s speech a Comedy 101 critique and wonders which of this year’s correspondents' dinners ended more unceremoniously.
KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday, is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.
July 28 is the 209th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 156 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 906 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Trump asks Supreme Court to allow his executive order restricting mail voting. The Trump administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for an executive order by President Trump that restricts voting by mail, setting up a legal showdown as the president pushes for more control over voting ahead of the midterm elections in November. (New York Times gift article)
GOP Senate leader is having none of Trump’s signature voter suppression SAVE Act pressure. “We could stay here til Christmas, Democrats aren’t voting for this. I’m just telling you,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. “And Republicans are not getting rid of the legislative filibuster.” (The New Republic)
The war that shall not be named. Last week, the Pentagon quietly lowered the death toll of the war with Iran from 18 to 14. This wasn’t happy news about an initial miscount, but a sketchy accounting trick. The Trump administration’s bumbling effort to pretend it’s not fighting a war has pushed it into covering up the deaths of American soldiers. (The Atlantic gift article)
McConnell extends Senate leave, “not medically cleared”. “I’m still working hard to get back to my full schedule of work in the Senate and in Kentucky, keeping up with intense physical therapy per my doctors’ orders,” Mr. McConnell said in the statement. (New York Times gift article)
How much charity would it take for people to like Elon Musk? Elon Musk suggested Monday he’d be giving away a lot of money before it supposedly becomes worthless. (Musk claims that AI will exceed human intelligence in five years and humans will no longer be in charge of the world by 2036. And at that point, he claims a techno-utopian society will emerge where no one will need money because robots will do all the labor and produce a world of abundance. Riiight.) (Gizmodo) Also,
Elon Musk is having one of his all-time meltdowns. He loses it during his Economist interview. (Futurism)
Rand Paul releases Anthony Fauci’s pandemic-era diary notes. The entries, and Paul's commentary on them, highlight the disagreement between the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and some politicians over the origins of the coronavirus. (NPR)
United Airlines bans humanoid and animal-like robots from all flights. This follows a similar policy established by Southwest in May. TLDR: They’re not worried about the robots running amok or seizing control, it’s about their potentially dangerous lithium-ion batteries. (Live and Let’s Fly)
Space data centers could be ‘catastrophic’ for planet, scientist says. The aluminum injected into the atmosphere from satellites falling from orbit could affect the Earth’s winds and deplete ozone levels. (News Nation)
AI chatbots know how to make deadly biological weapons. Some will teach you. The absence of mandated safeguards coincides with a rise in queries from users asking AI models how to kill en masse- and chatbots responding with credible plans for mass-casualty attacks, according to current and former employees at the major AI labs, including OpenAI, as well as policy advisers and researchers who study biological weapons. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
Be skeptical of OpenAI’s rogue hacker agent story. If OpenAI loudly proclaims how dangerous AI is, investors will hear how powerful it is. And who benefits from that? (The Guardian)
Late Night:
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: John Oliver discusses how the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures have overshadowed their other businesses, how they’ve created massive conflicts of interest for the Trump administration, and what it all has to do with Fartcoin. (Video)
The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon: Jimmy addresses the latest news, like Trump giving a speech at the General Motors plant in Michigan, LeBron James signing with the Philadelphia 76ers and Mitch McConnell giving a long-awaited health update. (Video)
Late Night with Seth Meyers: Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. (Video)
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:
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified, establishing African American citizenship, birthright citizenship, and guaranteeing due process of law.
Quote of the day:
All outward forms of religion are almost useless, and are the causes of endless strife. Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.
--Beatrix Potter (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,674 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)
Click here for more Beatrix Potter quotes
Today’s holidays:
Buffalo Soldiers Day, National Hamburger Day, National Milk Chocolate Day, National Soccer Day, National Waterpark Day, World Hepatitis Day, and World Nature Conservation Day.
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On This Day:
2022 – Catastrophic floods devastated Eastern Kentucky, resulting in 45 fatalities and causing damage to thousands of homes and businesses.
2016 – Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination for president.
2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army called an end to its thirty-year-long armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland.
2002 – Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, were rescued after 77 hours underground.
1996 – The remains of the prehistoric Kennewick Man were discovered near Kennewick, Washington.
1984 – Games of the XXIII Olympiad: The summer Olympics were opened in Los Angeles. (Video)
1978 – The film “Animal House” was released. (Video)
1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 moment magnitude flattened Tangshan in the People’s Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
1975 – The grizzly bear was classified as a “threatened” species.
1973 – Summer Jam at Watkins Glen: Nearly 600,000 people attended a rock festival at the Watkins Glen International Raceway.
1968 – The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded.
1965 – President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 and injuring 26. (Video)
1942 – World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issued Order No. 227. In response to alarming German advances, all those who retreated or otherwise left their positions without orders to do so were to be tried in a military court, with punishment ranging from duty in a shtrafbat battalion, imprisonment in a Gulag, or execution.
1938 – Hawaii Clipper disappeared between Guam and Manila as the first loss of an airliner in trans-Pacific China Clipper service.
1935 – First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
1932 – During the Great Depression, U.S. president Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the “Bonus Army“ of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.
1914 – World War I: In the culmination of the July Crisis, Austria-Hungary declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia and began the Great War.
1896 – The city of Miami was incorporated.
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was certified, establishing African American citizenship, birthright citizenship, and guaranteeing due process of law.
1854 – USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy and current museum ship in Baltimore Harbor, was commissioned.
1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were executed by guillotine in Paris, France.
1540 – Henry VIII of England married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
1540 – Thomas Cromwell was executed after having been condemned untried, using a bill of attainder which Cromwell had used against his opponents.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1985 – Dustin Milligan, Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter
1984 – John David Washington, American actor and football player
1974 – Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
1974 – Afroman, American rapper and comedian
1964 – Lori Loughlin, American actress
1958 – Michael Hitchcock, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1958 – Terry Fox, Canadian runner and activist (died 1981)
1954 – Steve Morse, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan colonel and politician, President of Venezuela (died 2013)
1948 – Gerald Casale, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and director
1947 – Sally Struthers, American actress
1946 – Linda Kelsey, American actress
1946 – Jonathan Edwards, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Video)
1945 – Jim Davis, American cartoonist, created Garfield
1943 – Richard Wright, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player (died 2008)
1931 – Darryl Hickman, American actor (died 2024)
1929 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American journalist and socialite, 37th First Lady of the United States (died 1994)
1923 – Ray Ellis, American conductor and producer (died 2008)
1922 – Jacques Piccard, Belgian-Swiss oceanographer and engineer (died 2008)
1915 – Frankie Yankovic, American polka musician (died 1998) (Video)
1907 – Earl Tupper, American inventor and businessman, founded Tupperware Brands (died 1983)
1901 – Rudy Vallée, American actor, singer, and saxophonist (died 1986)
1866 – Beatrix Potter, English children’s book writer and illustrator (died 1943)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2021 – Dusty Hill, American musician (ZZ Top) (born 1949)
2013 – Eileen Brennan, American actress and singer (born 1932)
1969 – Frank Loesser, American composer (born 1910)
1794 – Maximilien Robespierre, French politician, (born 1758)
1750 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German organist and composer (born 1685)
1741 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian violinist and composer (born 1678)
1655 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French poet and playwright (born 1619)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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