01/03/23
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, January 3rd. Festival of Sleep Day. And listen, don’t let me stop you from having a good time. Every day should be festival of sleep day. But also… on the 3rd? Did no one want to take a second pass at this one. Because I really think it would have gained more traction if they’d just moved this one up to the first.
And now, the news.
Update on Ukraine
It’s a new year! That’s… that’s not news. You already knew that part. But because I took two weeks off to do my version of relaxing, I’m going to cover the big stories that happened during that time. For funsies, And for context, since a lot of them are on-going.
So let’s get into it. Starting with… Russia, where Ukraine says around 400 Russian soldiers were killed in a missile attack in the Donetsk (daw NETSK) region, which is an occupied region. The Russian defense ministry is pushing back on that count and says that 63 Russian soldiers were killed in the attack. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle but currently unknown because the building that was attacked is almost completely destroyed.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, all 25 administrative regions spent more of New Year’s Eve under air raid warnings, as Armed Forces intercepted a total of 12 attacks from Russia, with the total of attacks coming from Russia currently unknown.
Riot in a Mexican Prison
-via NPR
At least 20 inmates are on the loose in Jaurez Mexico after a prison riot turned into a jailbreak. At least ten people were killed in the riot. The prison is considered one of the most dangerous, and this is not the first riot there. In 2009 a riot killed 20, and another in 2011 killed 17.
Government officials, who say the situation in the prison is now under control, have said the prison is run by an organized crime group that, over the years, has planned and ordered attacks on Juarez from inside the prison. This particular riot appears to have been started by armed folks came into the prison from the outside.
…yikes.
Jeremy Renner in “Critical but Stable Condition”
-via ABC7 Los Angeles
Actor Jeremy Renner, of the Hawkeye Renners, is said to be in “critical but stable condition” after an accident on Sunday as he was plowing snow in Reno. There are no other updates but here’s hoping he continues to improve.
Airport Worker Dies in Alabama
-via The Guardian
Brace yourself, this story is terrifying… a ground crew worker at an airport in Montgomery Alabama has died after being “ingested into the engine,” which is a direct quote from the National Transportation Safety Board and wow do I wish they had something different.
An investigation is ongoing.
Yeah… I’d hope so!
Trump Crime Update Time
-via Washington Post // The Hill
And what would the first episode of the year be without…
Trump Crime Update Time!
Two days after I wrapped the last episode of last year, the January 6th Committee released their final report.
REAL COOL EVERYONE.
So maybe you’ve seen the coverage, maybe you read the report, maybe you got the gist of what happened when “someone who probably should have seen this coming because they lost the popular vote the first time and then, in the four years of their presidency only proceeded to get worse and so, in the face of a deadly pandemic and continued voter suppression, the country decided we wanted to try someone else for a while and so in addition to, again, losing the popular vote also lost the electoral college and instead of taking some time to do some deep reflecting on the fact that an entire country hard passed on him, he just decided to burn the very basics of our democracy to the ground because when I tell you that Some People Will Literally Be An Insurrectionist Instead Of Going To Therapy.”
But either way, let’s talk a little but about what this report means.
As a reminder, the report was put out because the Republicans won the House, where the committee sits and since obviously they don’t want to investigate a bunch of their co-workers (even though they should… looking at you Marj!), the Republicans will shut the committee down when they start back up today (more on that in a minute).
So the report is done and recommends that Congress should consider barring Trump from ever holding office again (which they should do because of how he’s an insurrectionist. But also, they would literally never.)
But it also has a few things that will help make sure this can’t happen again. Democracies should have fail-safes. It’s just a bummer to realize we need it sooner rather than later, because of how the insurrectionist is STILL able to run for office. WILD.
Some of those suggestions include a reform of the Electoral Count Act that clarifies that the Vice President can’t reject state submitted states; an expansion of federal law enforcement agencies focus on extremist groups, especially the calls that are coming from without the house. Aka white nationalists and anti-government groups. They are also suggesting stronger protection for poll workers; oversight for Capitol Police; a closer look at the policies of media companies that have radicalized their consumers; and making the counting of the electoral counts (a previously super boring event that I guarantee the majority of those dinkuses who ran up to the capitol on the 6th, and the one that encouraged them to do so, didn’t even know about), making that count into a national special security event, similar to inaugurations and State of the Union addresses.
118th Congress Starts Today
-McCarthy via CNN
-Santos via
So, besides the fact that they seem like… eh, fine. About the leader of their party planning and inciting an insurrection… what else do we know about the new Republican House?
To be honest… not much. As a reminder, the Republicans won with a slim majority which includes some middle-of-the-road districts where newly elected members may not want to be super extreme in their voting. And Kevin McCarthy wants to be Speaker the way Ted Cruz wants to be president… desperately because hey! Maybe that’ll fix it! (…it won’t). The problem is, he’s just not that popular in the House. Republicans have 222 seats, and he needs 218 votes to make him Speaker.
That means he can only lose 4 Republicans.
Okay, sure. The problem is… more than 4 Republicans have said they will not vote for him.
Now, my hunch is that he’ll squeak through but here’s how the voting works in the House… highest vote wins. There is no alternative for McCarthy, so people will just vote yes or no. But the Democrats already decided on Hakeem Jeffries as the Leader for their party. If he gets more yes votes than McCarthy, he could win the Speakership.
Very unlikely this will happen, but imagine how silly that would be!
Voting will happen today, and we will talk about it tomorrow.
And that’s it. That’s the news!
I’m proud of… sleeping. It’s nice. I don’t think I did enough of it last night, but still… I’m proud of it.
But more than that. More than the sweet sweet moment when you decide to go to bed really early and it’s a delight. Because it’s the new year and I personally don’t think you should change a thing, but I also know you’re always looking for ways to improve… I’m proud of you.