12/05/23

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, December 5th.

International Volunteer Day.

Fun fact! Volunteering may reduce blood pressure because of added physical activity, bringing down your risk factor of heart disease or a stroke. It also lowers stress.

And now, the news.

Mass Shootings Over the Weekend

-via Washington Post

We start how we start here in America, where two mass shootings within ninety minutes of each other on Sunday pushed the country into the highest number of mass killings in a year since 2006.

In Dallas, Texas a man that was meant to be wearing an ankle-monitor because of previous aggravated assault charges, cut off the monitor before walking into a home and shooting five people, killing three adults and a toddler (the survivor is a 13-year-old girl). The shooter fled before fatally shooting himself. Truly unimaginable horror.

Ninety minutes later, in Vancouver Washington, a man fatally shot his wife, their two adult daughters, and his brother, before turning the gun on himself in what is being investigated as a murder-suicide.

Two stories that are horrific on their own. Together, they paint quite the picture.

And yet, while yes this was the top story on Washington Post’s website, I didn’t see this covered anywhere else.

Israel-Hamas War

-via NY Times

And then to the Israel-Hamas war, where Israeli troops have entered southern Gaza to likely begin the next phase of their ground fight. Troops are now telling those in southern Gaza that, as in northern Gaza, civilians need to evacuate.

Problem there, well lots of problems but one is: Israeli troops already told folks to evacuate from the north to the south, making one of the most densely populated areas in the world even more dense. Now they’re being asked to move even further south, which is getting to be, just based on number of people and available space – a near impossible task.

Meanwhile, on Monday the corruption trial of Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu resumed. Israeli courts hit pause on non-urgent cases after the October 7th attack, but on Friday it was decided that normal court operations could resume. That includes Netanyahu’s case, which has been ongoing since 2020 after he was accused of political favors in exchange for gifts and regulatory benefits to media moguls in exchange for positive news coverage. While he didn’t appear in court on Monday, which was mostly just a procedural day, this case is resuming at a time when his public perception is down in the country, with many Israelis blaming him and his government for failing to prevent them from the October 7th attack.

Pacific Northwest Storm

-via CNN

And in traffic and weather on the 10s and 2s… a super gnarly storm is headed to the pacific northwest, with flood watches already issued for 10 million people in portions of Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Idaho.

So everyone be very careful please.

Fetterman Hires Santos

-via Yahoo! News

And finally, in “this is real, I checked” news… Senator John Fetterman, who is better at the internet than all of us, hired former House Rep George Santos to troll Senator Bob Menendez.

Cameo, in case you weren’t aware, is a platform where you can buy personal messages from celebrities to be sent to certain people. And there are limits on what they’re willing to do, obviously, but you can ask them to relay a wide-range of messages. Happy holidays, happy birthday, I got into college… whatever. And apparently, one of the people you can buy a video message from is George Santos.

Fetterman is no stranger to the app, because he had Snooki from Jersey Shore congratulate Dr. Oz on running for the Senate in Pennsylvania, even though he’s a Jersey guy.

Senator Bob Menendez, as you may recall, is under investigation for bribery because they found literal gold bars in a personalized jacket.

Put all of that together, and you get this story: Fetterman spent a total of $343.20 to get Santos to record a 24 second video where he tells Senator Menendez, known only as “Bobby from Jersey” at the point of recording the video, to ignore the haters and stand your ground.

Great prop joke. No notes.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Because you can’t really top a story like that, can ya?

I’m proud of volunteers! It’s good for all of us!

But more than… wow. More than volunteers? That’s what you want me to say right now? That’s really what you want me to say?

WOW.

Anyway, because you are a good person with a big heart for servitude… I’m proud of you.