02/17/23

Good morning! It’s Friday, February 17th. Random act of kindness day!

Isn’t that cool? A whole day dedicated to just… being nice. Being a nice person.

I mean, I don’t need it. I don’t need the reminder, as I am FAMOUSLY very nice and for sure not at all, even a little, passive aggressive at other cars on the road. But that’s nice for you all, to get that reminder.

And now, the news.

Trump Crime Update Time

-via AP News & Washington Post

Let’s go big. Start strong. Because tick tock tick tock, looks like it’s…

TRUMP CRIME UPDATE TIME!!

(ya’ll! Edition)

In case that VERY well pronounced “ya’ll” didn’t give it away, I’m talking about… Georgia baybee.

As you may recall… Donald Jimminy Criminality Trump is, electorally speaking… a loser. Big time. And because losers gonna lose, he lost the 2020 presidential election.

And instead of being like, “thank goodness! This job was NOT fun!” He decided to just, cheat his way on into keeping it. Including, but not limited to, attempting to overturn the Georgia election results.

Which has always been so interesting to me because, even with Georgia in his win pile, he still wouldn’t have won the election. But anyway, he called his buddy, the Georgia Secretary of State, and asking him to just… FIND the missing votes. And SOS Brad was like… “no. I don’t… um… I did TRY and prevent people from voting but it didn’t work and people did, unfortunately, cast their ballots. And I can’t overturn this election because, if I did that, then I would go to jail and someone else might take over my job and actually make voting laws fair. So… as much as it pains me, I don’t think I’ll be doing it.”

(As always, I’ve nailed the impression.)

Anyway, so Bradley said no BUT that doesn’t mean that Trump’s phone call, as well as subsequent phone calls from people like Senator Lindsay Graham!, weren’t still super illegal. Probably. That’s what a special grand jury in Georgia would like to get to the bottom of.

Problem is, as they’ve been calling in witnesses… some of them may have been lying.

At least, that’s what Fulton County Superior Court Judge McBurney released in a report on Thursday. The report doesn’t name who they believe lied but did say this: “A majority of the grand jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it.” Adding, “the grand jury recommends that the district attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”

Notably, the report offers no major clues into what else the jury has found. Though, and this is unsurprising but deserves repeating: they found no evidence that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud.

For now, the report remains sealed, except for what was unsealed, with DA Fani Willis saying that charging decisions were imminent.

Trump Crime Update Time: The Meadows Hour Spinoff

-via CNN

And hey, just because we love a binge, let’s hit play on another episode of…

TRUMP CRIME UPDATE TIME

(The Meadows Hour spinoff)

Donald Trump’s former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, has joined Mike Pence in the list of top tier folks that are getting legally asked to come out down and answer some questions about the time that Donald Trump wanted to tear down the basic pillars of the very democracy we pride ourselves on, even though it’s like… not running it’s VERY best. But we love it like I loved the last two seasons of Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman… not the best but still better than any other show.

Anyway, this is specifically related to the January 6th insurrection that Donald Trump and people desperate for his approval the way Trump is forever chasing his father’s approval.

An important reminder: While both this and the Georgia investigation are connected to the fact that Trump tried to overturn the election, they are different investigations.

This is the investigation lead by special counsel Coach Beard, I mean Jack Smith. And, just to clarify further. This is the insurrection case that Smith is investgating. It’s separate from the handling of classified materials investigation that Smith is also leading.

And that’s just THREE of the cases against Trump. You know what I think… I think maybe this Trump guy is bad. Really really bad. Let’s really make sure he’s never elected again.

Anyway, no word yet on whether Meadows will comply with the subpoena. But we can guess…

Sen. Fetterman Checks into Hospital

-via NPR

Senator John Fetterman, the hoodie-wearing big guy from Pennsylvania, has checked himself into Walter Reed, seeking treatment for clinical depression.

He’s certainly not the first Senator to experience clinical depression. He’s likely not even the first Senator to seek medical help for clinical depression. But he is the first Senator to do this openly, and that’s incredibly commendable.

Here’s hoping the help helps.

Toxic Chemicals in Ohio

-via NY Times

Two weeks after a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio began leaking chemicals into the air, there are more questions than answers. As a reminder, there were about 150 cars on the train that derailed, though only 38 derailed. Afterwards, a fire damaged another 12.

The train was operated by Norfolk Southern and was carrying chemicals that include vinyl chloride, a toxic flammable gas. There were other ones too but like… yes I have, technically, mastered all science but… I can’t pronounce the other ones. But they are toxic.

Three days after the derailment, authorities performed a controlled release of the toxins. During which residents were encouraged to leave

Then, on the 12th, the EPA said it has not found that contaminants in the air reach levels of concerns. And even though residents might still be smelling toxins and having headaches and oh whoops at least 3,500 fish have died… everything’s fine.

But also – please only drink bottled water.

So like I said… more questions than answers. Though hopefully answers are coming soon, as chemical testing continues.

In the meantime, two federal lawsuits have been filed.

Aliens?? (Ep. 2)

-via CNN

And speaking of more questions than answers…

On Thursday, President Biden said that the three post-balloon objects shot down in North America air space are not a part of China’s spy balloon problem.

Adding that they still don’t know what they are, or whether they’re from, but they’re not surveillance objects from any other country.

But what about planets…?

Probably not, based on this quote from Biden: “The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research.”

And that’s it. That’s the news.

So much news lately! Geezers!

I’m proud of people who are nice. Again, I do it all the time and am never ever rude, not even when it’s just for a joke but like the joke is so good that even though it’s mean, I still have to make the joke because otherwise I get heart burn.

THAT never happens to me.

But still – because you are also nice and I enjoy that about you… I’m proud of you.