10/23/23

Good morning! It’s Monday, October 23rd.

National iPod Day.

Why? Because the first ipod came out, are you ready for this? October 23rd, 2001.

It sold more than 400 million units before it went away, and the first ipod was $399 but held 1,000 songs. Which now it’s like – eh. That’s not that much, compared to having spotify or apple music in your pocket. But when you went from a 12 track CD player to 1000 songs in your little noggin – that’s insane.

And now, the news.

Israel-Hamas War

-via AP News, CNN, and Detroit News

We, of course, start with the Israel-Hamas war, where Israeli warplanes struck Gaza, two Syrian airstrips, and a West Bank Mosque on Sunday.

On Saturday, 20 trucks entered Gaza for the first shipment of aid into the area since Israel closed the borders to any aid or supplies two weeks ago. Egypt also said 17 trucks went in on Sunday but as of this recording, the United Nations have not seen any pass through.

Meanwhile, the United States is still attempting to get Israel to delay their ground incursion, in hopes of allowing more time for hostage negotiations. Two American hostages were released on Friday.

Here in America, Samantha Woll, who was president of the board at a Detroit synagogue, was found murdered outside of her home on Saturday. I want to be as clear about this as possible. This is a tragedy. It’s absolutely horrific. And also – the police have not yet named a motive for her killing, nor have they named a suspect.

Search for a House Speaker Continues

-via Washington Post

And off that very serious story, we of course move right on over to another story that is serious but is also… embarrassing.

After promising to stay in the fight, but losing his third round of votes while also not gaining back any defectors, Jim Jordan is out for the race for speaker.

Pretty bad week to be Jimmy Jords. To which we say… GOOD. That dude sucks.

But of course, now what? Because that was the second person that the GOP voted on to become speaker, and even though Scalise didn’t even get a full house vote, so far no one else the votes.

Now they Republicans are expected to meet again today to try and figure out which nine new candidates may end up with the gavel. Nine. So… yeah no I don’t think we’re getting a speaker any time soon.

Out of those nine, only two voted to certify the 2020 election. Meaning seven are election deniers.

Hakeem Jeffries is expected to continue to have the full support of the Democrats, because he is the only House leader who’s managed to unit his party this session.

Republicans in disarray! Hooray! (Just kidding. This is terrible for our country!)

Trump Crime Update Time

-via NPR (Chesebro), AP News (Gag Order)

And then we’ve got a couple big

Trump Crime Update Time

Updates for ya, edition.

First, let’s start with the news that broke on Friday, when Kenneth Chesebro, the author of the memo about how Republicans could sent fake electors to congress, pled… guilty!

That’s right! That’s three of the original 19 folks who were all charged in the Rico election stealing crimes case.

As a reminder, the other big fish (oh man, remember the movie Big Fish?) who has pled guilty in the last few days is Sidney Powell. Both Powell and Chesebro requested a speedy trial, but I guess it wasn’t speedy enough because uh… they both pled guilty.

I can’t overstate what a big deal this is. Because Chesebro got five years probation, and will have to pay restitution and do community service, plus write a letter of apology to Georgia voters, in exchange for… testifying at trial.

So as a non-lawyer, it can be pretty obviously presumed that he gave up something big.

Also, I mentioned Powell pled guilty. Well now Trump claims that she was never his lawyer. Has this dude ever spoken one truth in his entire damn life? Just once?

On November 15th, Trump publicly said he added her to his team of lawyers. She was at the truly bonkers November 20th, 2020 press conference where she and America’s Mayor talked about how Venezuela and George Soros stole the election. She met with Trump often, and usually with others.

Now, she says she never had a letter of engagement with Trump, which is also what Trump would mean also, if he understood literally anything about the law, so yes technically she wasn’t his official lawyer. But I’m not entirely sure that matters. He listened to her, and together they, as well as 17 others, worked together to commit a crime against the voters of Georgia. Because of the way Rico cases are, I don’t think it matters whether she was officially his lawyer. They still did crimes. He still willingly attempted to commit a huge fraud against the state and country. He still fully sucks.

But if I were Trump, first of all – wow. One of the most significant bummers of my lifetime. And also, I would, uh, big time be quiet. Last week, Judge Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s federal election crimes stealing case, issued a gag order meant to prevent him from talking about prosecutors, court staff and potential witnesses. He was also issued a gag order in his civil trial for his money crimes (that’s the one where he inflated, and delated, the worth of his buildings, including square footage, to help with deals or taxes). On Friday, he was fined $5000 for violating that order, with the judge warning that if he does it again, he will be subject to “far more severe sanctions.”

So he’s also screwing things up in New York. In the federal case, although the gag order was temporarily lifted while first amendment legal challenges play out, that is still in the ether.

Like – my dude. I know you’re physically in capable of this but, should you be interested in shutting your mouth for the first time in your life, this is the moment.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of ipods. I definitely didn’t get that first iteration, but I know I was rocking some Mandy Moore Coverage on that thing once I got it. Kelly Clarkson Breakaway. And uh… honestly that’s probably it. Just those two on loop.

Not unlike now, to be honest.

But more than… oof… I can’t say more than Mandy Moore and Kelly Clarkson, but duh – we stay proud. How about more than ipods… because you’ve evolved with the times… I’m proud of you.