The trade deadline this year was a flurry of activity. Let’s hope it made the divisional races more exciting.  One of the more active teams was the Washington Nationals. And they went out afterward and put up 25 runs on the Mets. Jeez, that’s gonna leave a mark.  Other winners were: San Francisco, Philly, the Yankees, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Tampa, Atlanta, Kansas City, Cleveland, Colorado, Arizona, Oakland, Milwaukee and the World Champion Houston Astros, who needed a win pretty badly.

WROOOOONG!!!!!

On the historical note, Roman Emperor Claudius was born on this date.  He shares it with American explorer William Clark, composer Francis Scott Key, long-winded writer Herman Melville, funny fat man Dom DeLuise, hippy musician Jerry Garcia, bassist Rick Anderson, role-actor extraordinaire Taylor Negron, and rapper Coolio.

Its also the date on which King George I was crowned, Horatio Nelson routed the French Navy off the Egyptian coast, London Bridge was opened to traffic, the British Empire abolished slavery, Wilhelm II declares war on his nephew Nicholas II and kicks WWI into high gear, the 1936 Olympics were opened in Berlin, the first Jeep rolled off the line, Anne Frank made her last diary entry, David Ben-Gurion’s party wins the first Israeli election, Charles Whitman went on his rampage, Mike Tyson unified the heavyweight championship, Rush Limbaugh made his radio show debut, Hedy Lamarr was arrested for shoplifting, the Rolling Stones began their Voodoo Lounge World Tour, and the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during the evening rush hour.

That’s a decent amount to take in, even if the birthday cupboard was pretty bare.  Anyhoo, on to…the links!

Robinson freed

Tommy Robinson is out on bail. A judge found that there were “irregularities” in the original finding. Let’s hope he stays out as the British attack on free speech continues to criminalize actions we take for granted in America.

It looks like TANSTAAFL is once again going to become a reality in Ontario. Its amazing that a program throwing free money at people for doing nothing is financially unsustainable.  The comments (at least before it was linked at Drudge) are hilariously pathetic.

What’s surprising to me is that this is surprising to anyone with a functioning brain. Draw your own conclusions about voter ID, registration, etc., but the fact that this surprises anyone seems ridiculous.

Oregon congressional candidate keeps it classy. Isn’t making fun of a First Lady supposed to be grounds for excoriation by the media?  Apparently not.

Man sticking up exactly one more finger than he has wins over Ohio State.

Jim Harbaugh: idiot. And he’s also 0-3 in The Game.

Way to go, Chicago!!!! Looks like your budget deficit will be below $100 million for the first time in over a decade. I wonder how much they have budgeted for police abuse though. They seem to manage around $1m a week to settle those cases for the last 12 years.

Am I the only one creeped out by this? I better not be because…::shudders::

FREAKS!!!

Well this could be an interesting case. Can the Pulse nightclub survivors sue unnamed police officers for not trying to capture the shooter right away.  Pretty sure the Supreme Court has already ruled that cops have no obligation to protect, but maybe that only applied to criminal responsibility and not civil law.  Maybe a couple of our legal minds can chime in.

And lastly, there are new wildfires in Northern California and they are threatening 12,000 homes.  Stay safe, NorCal Glibs.

Not their biggest fan, but I do quite enjoy this song. I hope some of you do as well.

Go have a great day, friends.