KGB Report is published Monday through Thursday, is assembled by an aging human, and contains no intentional A.I. generated material.
July 20 is the 201st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 164 days remain until the end of the year. As of this writing, 914 days remain in Trump’s term of office. (AP)
Knee-deep in the hoopla:
Trump now wants to tariff Canada over the wildfires. On Truth Social Friday afternoon, the president accused Canada of “Willful Negligence,” vowing to add billions of dollars to existing tariffs against Canada to make up for the wildfires’ cost to the U.S. (The New Republic)
Trump says new Air Force One will be taken out of service to be ‘maxed out’. The Qatari-donated plane has been under scrutiny over whether it is fitted with sufficient defensive capabilities to adequately protect a U.S. president and others traveling on it. (New York Times gift article)
Trump says he’s taking the Qatari 747 for his library when he leaves office, so another 747-8 (actually, two) are still in development by Boeing, and have been since 2008. This video explains why Boeing can’t seem to finish them.
Trump claimed China collected 220 million U.S. voter registration files. But members of the public can legally obtain much of the same category of voter information in many states — without hacking into anything at all. (CBS News)
System that DHS is urging states to use to assess voter rolls known to return faulty results: reports. DHS is now pushing states to use the system, but some experts and state election officials have flagged faulty data using it in the past. Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program, described the results as “garbage in, garbage out”... “I have complete confidence that these numbers are essentially worthless, that they don’t mean anything,” he said. “It conflicts with all available data and history and just clearly cannot be the case that there are this many noncitizens on the rolls.”
(ABC News)Inside Trump’s rush job to build his arch. An independent federal agency that Trump has quietly reshaped is contemplating changes to the rules that govern Section 106. The move could potentially speed up not only Trump’s plans for Washington but also federal projects affecting historic places nationwide, while shrinking the amount of scrutiny they receive. (The Atlantic gift article)
We’re underestimating the power of ‘one-in-a-thousand-year’ solar storms, NASA warns. New research led by NASA Goddard found persistent “erroneous measurements” skewing past estimates for how severe geomagnetic storms can get. Solar radiation from 2003’s “Halloween Storms,” for example, disrupted a Federal Aviation Administration navigation system for 26 hours and led to the FAA’s first ever advisory warning of excessive radiation doses on commercial flights. (Gizmodo)
Grieving South Koreans seek comfort in AI videos of deceased loved ones. Reminds me of an episode of the old Max Headroom television series, about a TV ministry that stores people's personalities in a computer so they can be resurrected after they die. You can watch the episode for free with ads on Tubi, but you need to register. In a somewhat similar vein,
China wants more babies—so it’s cracking down on chatbot love affairs. China enacted rules forbidding companionship chatbots from encouraging emotional reliance and banning virtual relationships with minors.
(Wall Street Journal gift article)What’s a Monday without a Florida Man story? A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly threw beer on a woman and attempted to run her over with his horse at a local rodeo, authorities said. (Fox 35 News)
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:
1969 – Apollo 11‘s crew successfully made the first human landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility.
Quote of the day:
(I suspect this is meaningful to many Substack publishers.)
Even if what you're working on doesn't go anywhere, it will help you with the next thing you're doing. Make yourself available for something to happen. Give it a shot.
--Cormac McCarthy (Wikipedia link)
(One of 52,674 quotations from the searchable KGB Quotations Database.)
Click here for more Cormac McCarthy quotes
Today’s holidays:
Global Hug Your Kids Day, International Cake Day, International Chess Day, International Moon Day, Nap Day, National Fortune Cookie Day, National Get Out of the Doghouse Day, National Lollipop Day, Space Exploration Day, Ugly Truck Contest Day, and World Jump 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 – O. J. Simpson was granted parole to be released from prison after serving nine years of a 33-year sentence after being convicted of armed robbery in Las Vegas.
2015 – The United States and Cuba resumed full diplomatic relations after five decades.
2012 – A gunman opened fire at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70 others.
2005 – The Civil Marriage Act legalized same-sex marriage in Canada.
1997 – The fully restored USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) celebrated its 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
1977 – The Johnstown flood of 1977 killed 84 people and caused millions of dollars in damages. (Video)
1977 – The Central Intelligence Agency released documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.
1976 – The American Viking 1 spacecraft successfully landed on Mars.
1969 – Apollo 11‘s crew successfully made the first human landing on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility.
1968 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
1960 – The Polaris missile was successfully launched from a submarine, the USS George Washington, for the first time. (Video)
1951 – King Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated by a Palestinian while attending Friday prayers in Jerusalem.
1944 – Adolf Hitler survived an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
1940 – California opened its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company shipped its first automobile.
1881 – Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army.
(For more comprehensive lists of the day’s historical events, check here, here, and here.)
Some Birthdays:
1988 – Julianne Hough, American singer-songwriter, actress, and dancer (Video)
1975 – Judy Greer, American actress and producer
1974 – Simon Rex, American actor and rapper
1973 – Roberto Orci, Mexican-American screenwriter and producer (died 2025)
1973 – Omar Epps, American actor
1971 – Sandra Oh, Canadian actress
1969 – Josh Holloway, American actor
1966 – Stone Gossard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Dean Winters, American actor (Allstate’s “Mayhem”) (Video)
1964 – Terri Irwin, American-Australian zoologist and author
1958 – Billy Mays, American salesman (died 2009) (Video)
1947 – Carlos Santana, Mexican-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1946 – Randal Kleiser, American actor, director (”Grease”), and producer
1945 – Kim Carnes, American singer-songwriter (Video)
1945 – Larry Craig, American soldier and politician
1944 – T. G. Sheppard, American country music singer-songwriter
1943 – John Lodge, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (died 2025)
1938 – Natalie Wood, American actress (died 1981)
1938 – Diana Rigg, English actress (died 2020)
1933 – Cormac McCarthy, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (died 2023)
1930 – Sally Ann Howes, English-American singer and actress (died 2021)
1929 – Mike Ilitch, American businessman, founded Little Caesars (died 2017)
1925 – Frantz Fanon, French–Algerian psychiatrist and philosopher (died 1961)
1924 – Lola Albright, American actress and singer (died 2017)
1919 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer (died 2008)
1918 – Cindy Walker, American singer-songwriter and dancer (died 2006)
1890 – Verna Felton, American actress (died 1966)
1822 – Gregor Mendel, Austro-German monk, geneticist and botanist (died 1884)
1304 – Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (died 1374)
(A more complete list of today’s birthdays.)
Some Deaths:
2025 – Malcolm-Jamal Warner, American actor (born 1970)
2013 – Helen Thomas, American journalist and author (born 1920)
2007 – Tammy Faye Messner, American Christian evangelist and talk show host (born 1942)
2005 – James Doohan, Canadian-American actor (born 1920) (Requiem for a fictional Scotsman) (Neil Armstrong salutes Doohan at retirement banquet video)
1999 – Sandra Gould, American actress (born 1916)
1983 – Frank Reynolds, American soldier and journalist (born 1923)
1976 – Joseph Rochefort, American captain and cryptanalyst (born 1900)
1973 – Bruce Lee, American actor and martial artist (born 1940)
1945 – Paul Valéry, French author and poet (born 1871)
1937 – Guglielmo Marconi, Italian physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874)
1923 – Pancho Villa, Mexican general and politician, Governor of Chihuahua (born 1878)
(A more complete list of today’s deaths.)
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