10/01/24
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, October 1st.
Balloons Around the World Day
Hey, don’t do this one. Balloons are cute. Balloons are nice. Balloons going into the air, popping, and then becoming a hazard for animals everywhere is not nice. Also pollution.
And now, the news.
Hurricane Helene
Starting with an update on Hurricane Helene, where the death toll has risen to more than 130 people across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Locals are still without power and clean water.
It’s a pretty dire situation, with hundreds of people still missing, so expect that number to go up.
President Biden will visit the area this week but only if it doesn’t disrupt rescue and rebuilding efforts. A decision made in the world of common sense, as well as at the request of people like North Carolina’s governor Roy Cooper who said the state doesn’t need “elected officials that require a lot of security and attention.”
So it should come as no surprise, then, that Trump was in Georgia on Monday, bringing in items like oil and water. He spoke at a podium that was decorated with bricks from a destroyed building behind him.
Dude’s out here using devastation as props! Meanwhile, Project 2025 would get rid of federal weather tracking, and oh also as a reminder – North Carolina’s 2017 Hurricane Matthew caused devastation throughout the state. The state asked for $929 million in federal funding to rebuild… and they were given less than 1% of that money. $6.1 million.
So please… leave these areas alone.
And if you live in that area… please remember that when you vote next month.
Yeah. Next month.
My stomach hurts!
Georgia Chemical Fire
-via AP News
And of course, Georgia is still also seeing the effects of this weekend’s chemical fire which, as of this recording, still has 90,000 residents sheltering in place east of Atlanta and now spreading into Atlanta.
The fire started around 5a when a sprinkler head was like what if I did the exact opposite of my job and malfunctioned, causing water to mix with a water-reactive chemical in the plant.
Israel Expands Lebanon Invasion
-via CNN
Something to keep an eye out about – Israel’s National Security Cabinet has approved what they say is the “next phrase” of their war with Hezbollah, as their ground operation begins.
The IDF is calling the attacks “targeted raids” and the operation “limited.”
However, since the escalation in the war, hundreds of civilians have been killed and more than a million people have been displaced.
95 people in Lebanon were killed in the 24 hours leading up to the official expansion of the incursion.
The United Kingdom is charting flights for Britons who want to leave Lebanon.
This is breaking news as I record this, so we’ll know more tomorrow.
The Purge
-via Politico
Hey, here’s something.
At a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania over the weekend Donald Trump casually floated the idea of making The Purge, real.
If you don’t remember, or aren’t familiar, The Purge is a movie franchise that centers around the idea that America is ravaged by crime, and plagued by overcrowded prisons, and so, as a solution, the government sanctions an annual 12-hour period during which all criminal activity -- including murder -- is legal.
They’re… just okay.
But if you think I’m joking about what Trump wants, here’s an exact quote: “One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately.”
The it, I guess, is crime.
As a reminder, Trump was just found guilty of 34 felonies and is in various stages of trial on many many others. While Kamala Harris is not under any indictments and according to the FBI, property crime has declined 2.4% over the last year.
Now, obviously his campaign is trying to get a little cover for him and says he was joking. And when you watch the video you can tell he’s playing to the audience.
But what do you think he’ll do when he’s in office?
This is a deeply broken, and also bad, man. He will continue to play to an audience.
He called the post-George Floyd unrest “a beautiful thing to watch” before his administration lobbed tear gas at protestors, so he could get his little picture with his upside-down bible. In 2017 he said, “When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’”
You think this man wouldn’t do a purge if someone agreed with him after he casually tossed the idea out there into the oval office?
And even if he wouldn’t, even if it really was a joke…
Is that what we like in a candidate? Casually joking that police, who kill Black Americans at disproportionately higher rates than anyone else, should be able to do whatever they want do an hour?
There are 35 days until Election Day.
It’s between a competent, smart, experienced candidate, and the guy that wants to do The Purge.
Let’s go get it done.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of people that don’t let balloons into the air.
But more than that… because you also have comment sense… I’m proud of you.