09/27/23

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, September 27th.

Morning Show Hosts Day.

How exciting! How fun!

And now, the news.

Shutdown Update

-via Reuters and NBC News (and El Nino via CNN)

 “Hey Kim, that was a really short intro.” Yeah, because there’s so much news!

Let’s start with the looming, but maybe not?, government shutdown.

On Tuesday, the Senate released a short-term spending bill that would keep the government open until November 17th.

The bipartisan bill includes $6 billion each for FEMA and Ukraine aid, both of which the Republicans in the House didn’t want to include in the bill.

Sidenote on that FEMA note… weather-ologists are predicting this winter will see one of the worst EL Ninos we’ve seen in years. And while it’s too early to say what that will look like, we’re looking at a lot of freezing rain, snow, sleet in the south. So uh… yeah no, we should fund FEMA.

Back to the bill!

It passed the Senate on a 77-19 vote Tuesday night and is now headed to the House. The House will need to pass it without changes, if it’s expected to go to the president’s deck for signing. If they make any changes, and I would almost certainly expect it will, it’ll need to go back to the Senate for approval before it gets to Biden.

So… who knows. And isn’t that great? Isn’t it so great, the way that the Republicans are running the House?

Biden Visits UAW Strike

-via BBC News

But while the House and the Senate play… um… I was gonna say play house, but that’s just confusing. Whatever. Just – imagine I had a great segue here. Anyway!

While they something something something, President Biden’s a little busy making history.

The pro-union president became the first to join striking workers on the picket line, as he joined the UAW workers in Michigan.

He also gave brief remarks to the workers, saying they "deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits" and added they should be do as "incredibly well" as the companies that employ them.

As a reminder, Trump will be there today. That’s the same Trump that is famously anti-worker, anti-union, and who the UAW strikers themselves said should stay away.

Amazon Sued

-via CNN

And speaking of big ol companies… the united states and 17 of the states she’s claming are united are suing Amazon, claiming it abused its economic dominance and harmed fair competition.

Psh… good luck proving it.

Just kidding… this one’s like… duh.

This is separate than last year’s suit, for the same thing, that California filed against the former book seller.

Remember that? They really just only sold books.

Wild.

Alabama’s Congressional Courts

-via AP News

The Supreme Court ruled that Alabama will need to draw a new Congressional map to include greater representation for Black voters.

The new map could, potentially, give Democrats an advantage in the House.

The rare win for democracy to come out of the Supreme Court!

Hunter Biden Suing Giuliani

-via NBC News

Here’s something… Hunter Biden is suing Rudy Giuliani, his business, and his former lawyer, for alleged violations of computer fraud and data access laws.

Though the suit doesn’t explain how, Hunter claims that his data was “manipulated, altered, and damaged” before it was sent to Giuliani and his lawyer, who were then involved in illegal hacking and tampering involving "further alterations and damage to the data to a degree that is presently unknown to Plaintiff."

It also alleges that those "unlawful hacking activities are ongoing today."

This is a lawsuit about two very famous private citizens.

Trump Crime Update Time

-via Washington Post

And finally…

Trump Crime Update Time!

(Take Two, edition)

Hey, guess what? Remember how, before he was in trouble for insurrection crimes and election steal crimes, and found liable for sexual assault and defamation, he was also in trouble for money crimes? Specifically he was in trouble in New York for inflating, or deflating, the value of his assets which is very totally illegal.

Well friends… on Tuesday, the former president of the United States, and current front runner for the Republican party, was found… liable again!

Liable for money crimes and striped of control over some of his New York properties.

Hey, wanna guess how much he inflated his properties by? I’ll tell ya – as much as $2.2 billion!

With a B!

The court is seeking a $250 million penalty.

The pending trial will be over the size of the fiscal penalty. However, this ruling means Trump will see the cancellation of business certificates that allow some of his big apple properties to operate.

All in all, a bad day for Trump. Which, as always, is a great day for us.

Hey you know what? Mayhaps the fraudulent fraudster, who also planned and carried out an deadly insurrection and failed coup, shouldn’t be our president again. Sort of feels like the bare minimum, huh?

The Republican debate is tomorrow, I wonder if that’ll come up! As he did in the last debate, Trump will be skipping this debate. Unlike the last debate, I’ll be wasting my night by watching it. The things I do for you…

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of… The Morning Show! (Don’t worry Carly, I haven’t seen any episodes this season) But still… are you really, with a straight face, going to tell me you’re not proud of Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Julianna Margulies, or Tig Notaro? (I’m talking about the people. The characters make questionable choices.)

I would love to be proud of AppleTV, but they have yet to announce that dang Ted Lasso Christmas special. So instead, let’s just be… thankful?

But more than AppleTV, because you’d announce the Christmas Special if you knew about it, I’m proud of you.