Way more Trump stuff than we really want; more things that cause cancer; low oil reserves could damage storage sites; pet feeders offline

We’re publishing Tuesday-Friday this week. Then things should be back to the regular schedule.

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

August 18 is the 230th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 135 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 885 days remain in Trump’s final term of office.

Knee-deep in the hoopla:

• Trump is at odds with his own administration—and with reality. The president’s actions… demonstrate that his approach to the world, always contingent and improvisational, has lost its last shred of coherence. The White House cannot agree on the goals of the Iran war, much less on how to achieve them. The president is clashing with long-standing allies, in conflict with his vice president on the aims of the war, and publicly at odds with uniformed commanders over conditions for American troops stationed abroad. (The Atlantic gift article)

• Live updates: Trump threatens to bomb Oman with Iran war stuck in stalemate as 60-day negotiation period ends. (CBS News)

• Trump blames vandals for damaged grass in the spot where he held his big July 4 celebration. Of course he does. “He sounds like every grumpy golfer who’s complaining about their golf course and actually has no idea what it takes to maintain it on a day-to-day basis.”(AP)

• Years of Trump support came undone in 15 minutes in an airport. The case represents a new front in President Trump’s mass deportation drive: arrests at airports of people who have active immigration cases and no criminal history. (New York Times gift article)

• Troops appear to viciously mock Trump with scrawled barbs on plane in wild photo: “Operation Epstein Fury” (Raw Story via MSN)

• Uh oh. BBC asks Florida court to authorize subpoenas for Trump family members in defamation suit. "The Third Parties have personal knowledge and likely have possession, custody, or control of records relevant to multiple elements of Plaintiff's claims against the BBC," the network's legal team argued in the court filing. (CBS News)

• If it’s good enough for El Apestoso… Trump votes by mail again in his home state of Florida. Voting records from Palm Beach County show the president requested his ballot in late July and it was returned on Aug. 13. (Politico)

• U.S. strategic petroleum reserves are getting so low the drawdown threatens to damage the 60 underground salt caverns storing American oil. “Salt is a highly dynamic rock type, and aggressively altering the fluids, pressure, and temperatures inside these deep caverns directly threatens their structural integrity.” (Fortune via Yahoo News)

• Pilots and flight attendants are bombarded by cosmic radiation- and getting deadly cancers from it. These two jobs ranked first and second in having the greatest share of deaths from radiation-related cancers: 6.9% of attendants and 6.7% of pilots died of such cancers. (One of the reasons I’m glad I no longer have to fly 20-30 times a year, like I did in the early 2000s. I wonder if the variation of non-Hodgkins lymphoma I developed earlier this year might be linked to all that time I spent in the air, usually in a window seat.) (Gizmodo)

• Think you’re safe on the ground? Hah. Researchers found that consuming at least one sugar-sweetened beverage per day is associated with more than twice the risk of developing gastric cancer compared to rarely consuming them. (And if you have a ginger ale while you’re in the air, you might as well sit next to a door plug on a 737.) (USA Today)

• Internet-connected pet feeders go down, leaving kitties hungry. “I am on vacation and cannot tell if my cats are being fed or not.” (In the words of the immortal Montgomery Scott, “The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.”) (Futurism)

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:

• 1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women’s suffrage. The decisive vote was cast by a 24-year-old representative who reportedly changed his vote after receiving a note from his mother.

Quote of the day:

Racism isn’t born, folks. It’s taught. I have a two-year-old son. Know what he hates? Naps. End of list.
--Denis Leary (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,783 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)

Click here for more Denis Leary quotes.

Today’s holidays:

Helium Discovery Day, Mail Order Catalog Day, National Bad Poetry Day, National Fajita Day, National Ice Cream Pie Day, National Independent Worker Day, Never Give Up Day, Pinot Noir Day, Serendipity Day, SJS Awareness Day, and World Breast Cancer Research Day.

Details here and here.

Astronomy Picture of the Day.

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On This Day:

• 2019 – One hundred activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in Iceland held a funeral for Okjökull glacier, which had completely melted after having once covered six square miles (15.5 km²).

• 2005 – A massive power blackout hit the Indonesian island of Java; affecting almost 100 million people, it was one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history.

• 1983 – Hurricane Alicia hit the Texas coast, killing 21 people and causing over US$1 billion in damage (1983 dollars).

• 1977 – Steve Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under Terrorism Act No. 83 of 1967 in King William’s Town, South Africa. He later died from injuries sustained during the arrest, bringing attention to South Africa’s apartheid policies.

• 1971 – Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decided to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.

• 1965 – Vietnam War: Operation Starlite began: United States Marines destroyed a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war.

• 1963 – Civil rights movement: James Meredith became the first African American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

• 1958 – Vladimir Nabokov‘s controversial novel Lolita was published in the United States.

• 1956 – Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reached #1 on the charts, staying for 11 weeks (a record for a single release) (Video)

• 1940 – World War II: The Hardest Day air battle, part of the Battle of Britain, took place. At that point, it was the largest aerial engagement in history with heavy losses sustained on both sides.

• 1938 – The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York, United States, with Ontario, Canada, over the Saint Lawrence River, was dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

• 1920 – The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing women’s suffrage. The decisive vote was cast by a 24-year-old representative who reportedly changed his vote after receiving a note from his mother.

• 1903 – German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flew his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright brothers.

• 1877 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos, one of Mars’ moons.

• 1868 – French astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium.

• 1590 – John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returns from a supply trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.

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

Some Birthdays:

• 1998 – Nick Fuentes, American far-right political commentator

• 1994 – Madelaine Petsch, American actress and YouTuber

• 1993 – Maia Mitchell, Australian actress and singer

• 1991 – Richard Harmon, Canadian actor

• 1989 – Anna Akana, American actress, comedian, musician, and YouTuber

• 1978 – Andy Samberg, American actor and comedian

• 1975 – Kaitlin Olson, American actress and comedian

• 1970 – Malcolm-Jamal Warner, American actor and producer (died 2025)

• 1969 – Christian Slater, American actor and producer

• 1969 – Edward Norton, American actor

• 1969 – Everlast, American singer, rapper, and musician

• 1964 – Craig Bierko, American actor and singer

• 1961 – Bob Woodruff, American journalist and author

• 1958 – Madeleine Stowe, American actress

• 1957 – Denis Leary, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter

• 1953 – Marvin Isley, American R&B bass player and songwriter (died 2010)

• 1952 – Patrick Swayze, American actor and dancer (died 2009)

• 1952 – Elayne Boosler, American actress, director, and screenwriter (Video)

• 1945 – Sarah Dash, American singer-songwriter and actress (died 2021)

• 1943 – Martin Mull, American actor and comedian (died 2024)

• 1939 – Johnny Preston, American pop singer (died 2011)

• 1936 – Robert Redford, American actor, director, and producer (died 2025)

• 1935 – Gail Fisher, American actress (died 2000)

• 1934 – Rafer Johnson, American decathlete and actor (died 2020)

• 1934 – Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and soldier (died 1972)

• 1934 – Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author (died 2015)

• 1933 – Roman Polanski, French-Polish director, producer, screenwriter, and actor

• 1931 – Grant Williams, American film, theater and television actor (died 1985)

• 1928 – Marge Schott, American businesswoman (died 2004)

• 1927 – Rosalynn Carter, 41st First Lady of the United States (died 2023)

• 1925 – Brian Aldiss, English author and critic (died 2017)

• 1920 – Shelley Winters, American actress (died 2006)

• 1917 – Caspar Weinberger, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of Defense (died 2006)

• 1905 – Enoch Light, American bandleader, violinist, and recording engineer (died 1978)

• 1904 – Max Factor, Jr., American businessman (died 1996)

• 1834 – Marshall Field, American businessman, founded Marshall Field’s (died 1906)

• 1774 – Meriwether Lewis, American soldier, explorer, and politician (died 1809)

• 1750 – Antonio Salieri, Italian composer and conductor (died 1825)

• 1587 – Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Governor John White of the Colony of Roanoke, first child born to English parents in the Americas (date of death unknown)

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

Some Deaths:

• 2024 – Alain Delon, French-Swiss actor (born 1935)

• 2024 – Phil Donahue, American talk show host and producer (born 1935)

• 2020 – Ben Cross, English stage and film actor (born 1947)

• 2018 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations (born 1938)

• 2015 – Bud Yorkin, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1926)

• 2014 – Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer (born 1918)

• 2012 – Scott McKenzie, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1939)

• 2009 – Robert Novak, American journalist and author (born 1931)

• 2004 – Elmer Bernstein, American composer and conductor (born 1922) (Video)

• 1998 – Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress, Femina Miss India 1965 (born 1948)

• 1990 – B. F. Skinner, American psychologist and philosopher, invented the Skinner box (born 1904)

• 1940 – Walter Chrysler, American businessman, founded Chrysler (born 1875)

• 1919 – Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian businessman and politician, founded the Seagram Company (born 1841)

• 1886 – Eli Whitney Blake, American inventor, invented the Mortise lock (born 1795)

• 1850 – Honoré de Balzac, French novelist and playwright (born 1799)

• 1227 – Ghengis Khan, founder and first khan of the Mongol Empire.

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

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