11/14/23

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, November 14th.

National Pickle Day.

Sign me up. I love a pickle – all that vinegar! It’s like – it’s a stick of crunchy vinegar and I’m all in for them.

And now, the news.

SCOTUS Is Here for the Ethics

-via AP News

Let’s talk about possible, maybe, could be… consequences for actions!

On Monday the Supreme Court adopted their first code of ethics.

Now, before we get too excited, the policy does not appear to impose any significant new requirements and it also leaves compliance up to each justice.

So…

Because the Court says they’d adhered to their own vibe of ethics for a long time and honestly, you thinking that people leaking decisions and going on private jets with people who business before the Courts is anything other than highly ethical is just, you know, a misunderstanding.

Literally - “The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules. To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.”

Super cool Court.

Eric Adams

-via NY Times

The investigation into New York City mayor Eric Adams got a boost last week, as FBI agents seized at least two cellphones and an iPad from the mayor.

As a reminder, the investigation is into whether, weeks before his election 2021 election, Adams pressured New York Fire Department officials to sign off on the Turkish government’s new high-rise consulate in the city, even though, according to three people familiar with matter, said there were safety concerns about the building.

And that’s part of a bigger investigation into whether the Adams campaign conspired with the Turkish government to funnel money into the campaign.

Which is, uh, you know… not legal.

Trump Jr. Back on the Stand

-via CNN

Little Boy Brag (new nickname for Trump Jr… I don’t know how I feel about it) took the stand for the New York money crimes case defense on Monday.

In addition to calling his dad an “artist” and “visionary” (I… okay. No comment.), he joked about the classic crime of perjury. Literally, when welcomed back to the stand by the judge (who needed to give the court reporter time to catch up because he was talking so fast, which I’m sure is just totally a natural speed) the responded by telling the judge: "I'd say it's nice to be here, but I have a feeling the attorney general would sue me for perjury."

Sick burn.

My personal favorite moment was when he said that future of Trump Org may depend on the 2024 election.

“We’ll probably be put on hold for a little while and sued into oblivion for the foreseeable future."

Yeah, but probably if you stop doing money crimes, you’ll stop getting sued for money crimes.

Tricky, that. Huh?

Eric and the President are likely to be called up again.

Iceland Declares State of Emergency

-via NBC News

As intense earthquake swarms in a coastal Iceland town continue, the country has issued a state of emergency and evacuated the 3,400 person town ahead of the significant likelihood that that city’s volcano may erupt in the next few days.

Since midnight on Monday, around 900 earthquakes have been detected in the area, with the size and intensity increasing.

Secret Service Prevent Carjacking

-via The Guardian

Secret Service agents assigned to the president’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, had to open fire on Sunday night after three people tried to carjack an unmarked Secret Service vehicle.

The car was parked and unoccupied at the time, and no one was struck by the guns.

It does not appear the carjackers knew it was her car.

And that’s why there’s that famous saying – never carjack, because you never know if it’s the unmarked Secret Service vehicle of the president’s granddaughter.

I-10 Fire Was Arson

-via AP News

Arson appears to have been the cause of Los Angeles 10 freeway fire, per Governor Newson. Though he did not say any suspects or people of interest had been named.

300,000 people use that section of the freeway every day, and the crush of traffic caused by the closer is expected the be felt all over Los Angeles, as well as into Long Beach.

So way to go arsonist. You made traffic in Los Angeles.

Unimpressive!

Thundergong 2023

-via Steps of Faith

Listen, I wasn’t going to talk about this because I could feel like, if I did, I would just continue to talk about it forever and then it would become my whole personality, but now other news organizations are covering it and, as someone who finds literally any way possible to mention Hannah Waddingham or Ted Lasso into an episode as often as possible, it now feels weird that I haven’t mentioned it.

Over the weekend, the charity Steps of Faith had their annual benefit concert, hosted by Jason Sudekis and friends. This year, friends included Hannah Waddingham who had PIPES. Which, duh we stay knowing but Sudekis and Waddingham covered Shallow, a song that, I’m not kidding, I somehow missed hearing in its entirety of during the Star is Born madness.

Which means the first time I heard that song, in its entirety, was over the weekend, and into Monday and then, I assume, in perpetuity, was their duet over the weekend.

And you know what? That’s kind of the only way I ever want to hear it. It was… so good. So good!

Anyway, the point is… the duet is getting a lot of coverage, as it should. And I don’t really have anything to add here without making it weird (I’m just saying – that’s some great chemistry), but I put a link to the event in show notes because the organization, Steps of Faith, raises money to help un- or under-insured amputees get prosthetic limbs. Which is very excellent.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of… nonprofits (cough sounds couch sounds www.raisingvoters.org is where you can go to see mine cough sounds cough sounds)

We stay proud of Ted Lasso and like, whatever, wouldn’t it be wild if between all this press for Sudekis and Waddingham’s duet, and also Hannah Waddingham’s Apple TV produced Christmas Special next week, somehow finally got Apple TV to announce the spinoff or 2nd Christmas Special or Season 4 or literally anything… would that be neat?

Ugh, whatever. Also pickles. But more than that… because you’ve got a bite but it keeps things fun, I’m proud of you.