09/15/23

Good morning! It’s Friday, September 15th.

Felt Hat Day.

Finally! I’ve been waiting all year for this! Been waiting all year to put out my felt hat day decorations. And now it’s here and suddenly I also feel so unprepared.

What a life.

And now, the news.

Libya Flood Update

-via Washington Post (Libya) and NBC News (Morocco)

We start in Libya, where every updated figure is just worse than you can even imagine. Because as of Thursday evening, the new death toll is over 11,000 but the feared death toll is up to 20,000.

20,000 people. Dead in a flood.

Meanwhile, the latest numbers in last weekend’s Moroccan earthquake have 2,901 people dead and another 5,530 injured.

Awful.

MGM International Cyberattack

-via CNN

Looks like some mainstream media organizations are finally starting to report on the MGM International cyberattack, which is still going on.

We’ve also learned that this happened to Caesars earlier this summer, but they apparently paid their ransom quicker and so it didn’t have this long of an impact.

It sounds like MGM resorts are starting to come back online a little bit, but this is still going on as we head into another weekend, where obviously Vegas makes the majority of its money.

Kim Davis Ordered to Pay $100k

-via NPR

Kim Davis, the former Rowan County, Kentucky clerk who refused to grant a same-sex couple’s marriage license because of her hate-filled, I mean religious, beliefs. However, famously, the Constitution doesn’t care about your religion and her little fit was a violation of the 14th Amendment, which says “hey, Kim Davis – boooo”

No no, the 14th grants citizenship, and all privileges therein of, to everyone born or naturalized in the United States. And in 2015’s Obergefell v Hodges, the Supreme Court held that the 14th meant states had to allow and recognize same-sex marriages under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Last year a court ruled that her little fit was a violation of the 14th, and on Thursday a federal jury awarded $100,000 to one of the two same-sex couples that sued Davis over her refusal to issue a marriage license.

UAW Strike Possible

-via Reuters

As the writers and actors continue to strike for fair wages and AI protects, the Big Three automakers are also on the cusp of a strike. If a deal can’t be strike by 11:50p ET on Thursday night, which is long after this recording will be done, the strike is on.

This would be the first-ever simultaneous strike by all three companies (Ford, GM, and Chrysler aka Stellantis), and the striking union encompasses 146,000 employees.

This is a developing story that I’ll be covering more on Monday, depending on what happens at midnight.

Democracy in Peril

-via The Guardian (Judge Protasiewicz), CBS News (WI Election Official), Hunter Biden (NBC News), NY Times (McCarthy in Trouble), AP News (Georgia Election Case), and The Atlantic (Mitt Romney)

And then we’ve got a bunch of stories that I’m just gonna call… Democracy in Peril (stay calm, but stay aware).

Let’s start with the news that Hunter Biden was indicted on gun charges on Thursday. As a reminder, he’d already signed a deal that would ignore his gun charge and instead punish him, financially, for tax crimes. Then at the least minute, the judge in that case wanted some of the language clarified at, at that point, the plea deal fell apart.

Well on Thursday, Hunter Biden was formally indicted on a gun charge. He may actually be the first person in history to get this specific charge. He was charged, on a federal level, for lying about having used drugs in a specific window when he bought, but did not use, the gun in October of 2018.

And listen, here’s where things get a little twisted between the two parties. Because we don’t think anyone is above the law. He screwed up and there should be consequences for actions. But this is so clearly only being done because he’s the president’s son. It’s just absolutely absurd.

He was charged with three counts – two of which weren’t even a part of the original plea deal. That’s how much they didn’t care about this. And! This is a gun charge… where are all those 2A loyalists now? It’s almost like… it’s all for show…

And speaking of all for show – McCarthy is still attempting to hold his party together, a little bit to prevent a government shutdown, and a lot to keep his job as Speaker. This is currently just a story of drama and in-party fighting so I’m not going to continue to cover this as if it’s news, because it’s just hot goss. And we love hot goss, especially hot goss that makes McCarthy look like a binkus. But he also does that all on his own, so there’s no need to go out of our way for this. However, know that we’re going to start hearing a lot of people talking about taking the gavel from McCarthy and, once that becomes a little more real, I’ll cover it. In the meantime, it’s just a lot of people who live and breathe on airtime and I won’t give it to them needlessly.

And speaking of… people I don’t really want to talk about – Mitt Romney! Yesterday I mentioned that Romney has announced he will not seek re-election in the Senate because the party’s a mess. And my reaction to that was… okay well thanks for nothing. Because if you were really so worried – stay and fight! Or leave and announce what you’re going to do to save the democracy you admit is in trouble.

Instead, he sat down with a biographer and told that biographer some pretty harrowing things. Like how he texted Mitch McConnell a few days before January 6th and warned him that he’s hearing “There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require.”

He never heard back from McConnell.

That sure seems like important stuff we should have known about way before a book deal.

I just am not here for people to be so proud of Mitt. And listen, if this makes a difference, if I’m wrong and he actually put a little muscle into it and does everything he can to prevent another Trump presidency and bring his party back to the real world just a little bit… then I’m happy to give him his kudos. I’d love to be wrong.

But until then… while everyone else talks about how proud they are of him for standing up, it’s not gonna come from me. Did he vote for impeachment? Yes, absolutely. And that’s great. Very happy about that. But now he’s voluntarily leaving the party so, you know… you’re not gonna get your attaboys here.

Oh! But apparently part of the book talks about him watching Ted Lasso alone and they tried to make that sound so sad. Watching Ted Lasso alone, so you can catch literally every single nuance without people trying to interrupt? That’s the dream!! I’m not gonna feel bad for you because you got to watch Ted Lasso. And by the way – why don’t you use the power of the Senate and get us a Season 4.

If Mitt Romney gets Ted Lasso a 4th season, I will buy him a cake and watch an episode with him (which is a big sacrifice).

Let’s head on over to Wisconsin, where, on Thursday, the Republican-controlled Senate voted to fire the state’s Elections Commission Administrator, simply because she didn’t say the 2020 election was stolen. This one’s headed for further legal action because this is obviously just political interference to bolster the Republicans in the state. So this one’s a big one to keep an eye on, because it’s not going to happen in a vacuum. Other states are going to try this.

And now that that’s done, they’ve got their eyes on new state Supreme Court judge Janet Protasiewicz, who was elected earlier this year and just this month was finally sworn in. She hasn’t tried any cases yet, but remember that not only is she pro-life, she also said the maps in Wisconsin weren’t fairly drawn. And so Republicans are now saying that, if she doesn’t recuse herself from any and all gerrymandering cases before her, they will impeach her.

To which Supreme Court Justices A-leak-o and Thomas said “what’s a recusal?” And every Republican ever said “shhh not you. This isn’t about you. We WANT you on cases.”

To be clear, the Judge still has her job and impeachment proceedings haven’t started yet. But that is on their radar.

And finally, technically this is Trump Crime Update Time but not a whole separate segment. I’m putting it under Democracy in Peral (Stay Calm but Stay Aware) because every story I told you, even the Hunter Biden story, are all what I would call January 6th 2.0. Because the point of the deadly insurrection was to break democracy. And since it didn’t work on the 6th they’re just going to continue to try and break it in a new, different, way.

But prior to January 6th, Trump first tried to get him and his merry band of bing bongs to overturn election results state by state. And because of that, he, and 18 others, have been indicted in Georgia.

Well on Thursday we learned that, since former Trump lawyers Chesebro and Powell, will actually be tried separate from Trump and the rest of the dinkuses. That’s because Chesebro and Powell have filed for speedy trials. No one else has (including Trump who obviously wants the slowest trial in the world, in hopes that he’ll delay until he wins the presidency).

So their trial will begin on October 23rd.

In the meantime… hey… have you checked your voter registration lately?

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Big news day! Didn’t even get to everything!

I’m proud of… Felt Hats, Ted Lasso, Rebecca Welton, Hannah Waddingham, and above all… above the entire cast of Ted Lasso wearing felt hats… because you are just as adorable… I’m proud of you.