KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday, is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.
August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 148 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 898 days remain in Trump’s term of office.
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Trump’s irrationality is dangerous. His rant yesterday about the Reflecting Pool... was a warning that the president has encased himself in the hard amber of irrationality that inevitably surrounds authoritarian leaders. He has become detached from reality—and that detachment is extremely dangerous.
(The Atlantic gift article)Inside the Oval Office showdown between Trump and Jeanine Pirro. Pirro told President Trump that his interior secretary, Doug Burgum, whom she called an incompetent liar, had misled him with a self-serving cover story for his own mistakes. (New York Times gift article)
Trump suffers 20th straight loss in pathetic “voter fraud” crusade. The Justice Department can’t get a single win in its quest to obtain states’ voter rolls.
(The New Republic)CNN data guru reveals Trump’s disastrous GOP collapse. in October 2024, Trump had a 69-point net positive approval rating among moderate Republicans, including “leaners.” Now, however, Trump is up just ten points, meaning he dropped a whopping 59 points. Trump’s erosion in support among that demographic was even bigger on the economy in particular. While Trump was +80 in the month before he won reelection, now he is just +3. (The Daily Beast)
Trump orders changes to new helipad after weeks of around-the-clock work. Contractors have removed the granite seal that had begun to take shape in recent days, after the president complained about the slope of the White House lawn. (Washington Post gift article)
Armed man with armour-piercing bullets arrested near Trump’s California golf course, just ahead of the president's visit for a fundraising dinner there. (BBC)
ICE has deployed a round-the-clock digital surveillance program to scour social media for threats, paying millions to private contractors. To unmask anonymous online critics, DHS has sent hundreds of subpoenas to social-media companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Its agents have tracked down Americans at work and on the road, asking them to sign letters acknowledging their online speech about ICE “may” be a crime. (Wall Street Journal gift article)
DOCUMENT: Stupid, Crime. Idiot “Auditor” Gets Jail For Assaulting Target. Michigan man, 47, tries to rage bait his way to YouTube $$. (The Smoking Gun)
Chipotle Mexican Grill said on Tuesday it had removed jalapenos from some restaurants after identifying the peppers as a potential ingredient tied to a salmonella outbreak, replacing them with supplies from different growers. (Reuters)
How a GOP congressman disturbed young female staff… he planned helicopter rides and strip club visits. He sent 30 different types of ice cream. He did their housework and decorated Christmas trees. He bought them designer purses, guns and tickets to Broadway shows. His text message exchanges were unusually intimate, disturbing – and, in some cases, downright odd. (USA Today)
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:
1974 – Watergate scandal: President Richard Nixon, under orders of the US Supreme Court, released the “Smoking Gun” tape, recorded on June 23, 1972, clearly revealing his actions in covering up and interfering investigations into the break-in. His political support vanishes completely.
Quote of the day:
I’m a gay Libertarian. I’m one of those ‘laisse fairies’.
--Peter McWilliams (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,674 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)
Click here for more Peter McWilliams quotes
Today’s holidays:
Green Peppers Day, International Traffic Light Day, National Couscous Day, National Oyster Day, National Psychiatric Technician Appreciation Day, National Underwear Day, and Work Like a Dog Day.
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On This Day:
2015 – The Environmental Protection Agency at Gold King Mine waste water spill released three million gallons of heavy metal toxin tailings and waste water into the Animas River in Colorado.
2010 – The Copiapó mining accident occurred, trapping 33 Chilean miners approximately 2,300 ft (700 m) below the ground for 69 days.
1983 – The film “Risky Business” premiered, launching Tom Cruise to stardom. (Video)
1981 – President Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
1974 – Watergate scandal: President Richard Nixon, under orders of the US Supreme Court, released the “Smoking Gun” tape, recorded on June 23, 1972, clearly revealing his actions in covering up and interfering investigations into the break-in. His political support vanishes completely.
1965 – TV news showed Marines burning a Vietnamese village.
1963 – Cold War: The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
1962 – American actress Marilyn Monroe was found dead at her home from a drug overdose.
1962 – Apartheid: Nelson Mandela was jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
1957 – American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage “baby-boomers” by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuted on the ABC television network.
1949 – In Ecuador, an earthquake destroyed 50 towns and killed more than 6,000.
1944 – World War II: The Nazis began a week-long massacre of between 40,000 and 50,000 civilians and prisoners of war in Wola, Poland.
1944 – World War II: Polish insurgents liberated a German labor camp (Gęsiówka) in Warsaw, freeing 348 Jewish prisoners.
1926 – Harry Houdini performed his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.
1924 – ‘Little Orphan Annie’ comic strip was first published.
1921 – KDKA Pittsburgh presented the first radio broadcast of a major league baseball game as the Pirates beat the Phillies 8-0 with Harold Arlin as the first play-by-play broadcaster.
1914 – In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light was installed.
1914 – German assault on Liege began first battle of World War I.
1888 – Bertha Benz drove from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip, commemorated as the Bertha Benz Memorial Route since 2008.
1884 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s Island (now Liberty Island) in New York Harbor.
1882 – Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, today known as ExxonMobil, was established officially. The company would later grow to become the holder of all Standard Oil companies and the entity at the center of the breakup of Standard Oil.
1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Mobile Bay began at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut led a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and sealed one of the last major Southern ports.
1861 – American Civil War: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levied the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US$800; rescinded in 1872).
1861 – The United States Army abolished flogging.
1858 – Cyrus West Field and others completed the first transatlantic telegraph cable after several unsuccessful attempts. It operated for less than a month.
1816 – The British Admiralty dismissed Francis Ronalds‘s new invention of the first working electric telegraph as “wholly unnecessary”, preferring to continue using the semaphore.
1620 – The Mayflower departed from Southampton, England, carrying would-be settlers, on its first attempt to reach North America; it was forced to dock in Dartmouth when its companion ship, the Speedwell, sprung a leak.
1583 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert established the first English colony in North America, at what is now St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1982 – Lolo Jones, American hurdler and bobsledder
1980 – Jesse Williams, American actor, director, producer, and political activist
1966 – Jonathan Silverman, American actor and producer
1966 – James Gunn, American filmmaker
1965 – Jeff Coffin, American saxophonist and composer
1962 – Patrick Ewing, Jamaican-American basketball player and coach
1961 – Janet McTeer, English actress
1956 – Maureen McCormick, American actress
1951 – Samantha Sang, Australian pop singer
1947 – Rick Derringer, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2025)
1946 – Erika Slezak, American actress
1946 – Shirley Ann Jackson, American physicist
1945 – Loni Anderson, American actress (died 2025)
1943 – Sammi Smith, American country music singer-songwriter (died 2005)
1941 – Bob Clark, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2007)
1936 – John Saxon, American actor (died 2020)
1930 – Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut, first man to walk on the Moon (died 2012)
1911 – Robert Taylor, American actor and singer (died 1969)
1906 – John Huston, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1987)
1887 – Reginald Owen, English-American actor and singer (died 1972)
1850 – Guy de Maupassant, French short story writer, novelist, and poet (died 1893)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2022 – Judith Durham, Australian singer-songwriter (“The Seekers”) (born 1943) (Video)
2019 – Toni Morrison, American author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Nobel laureate (born 1931).
2009 – Budd Schulberg, American author, screenwriter, and producer (born 1914)
2002 – Matt Robinson, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (born 1937)
2000 – Alec Guinness, English actor (born 1914)
1991 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and businessman, founded Honda (born 1906)
1984 – Richard Burton, Welsh actor (born 1925)
1983 – Judy Canova, American actress and comedian (born 1913)
1955 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-Brazilian actress and singer (born 1909)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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