10/23/24

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, October 23rd.

National Boston Cream Pie Day

I don’t really understand why they call it a pie when it is very clearly cake, but what are you gonna do?

And now, the news.

Update: Middle East

-via NY Times

Starting with an update in the Middle East, as the Israel military announces that they have killed the person believed to be next in line to lead Hezbollah, as well as another military official, in an airstrike.

This happened just before Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu for two and a half hours as Blinken made the case that Israel should use the death of Hamas’ leader to secure the release of the hostages and end the conflict.

To which Netanyahu said yeah but I’m still gonna need to fight Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran.

Listen, again, Israel has a right to defend itself. And bad actors should not be able to continue to just be bad actors in the world.

But that doesn’t give you the right to kill tens of thousands of civilians.

Feels like pretty basic stuff here.

Meanwhile, the US is still investigating the intelligence leak that showed Israel’s plan to retaliate against Hezbollah.

 Seattle Shooting

-via NPR

In Seattle, a teenager was arrested after police were called to a house after a report of a disturbance. Upon arrival, they found that five people (two adults and three teenagers) had been shot to death. A fourth teenager was found with injuries, and was sent to the hospital.

Police say that everyone in the house is related, and that the shooting took place before the call to 911.

A motive is still unclear.

St. Louis Law Change

-via Washington Post

And for a real tonal shift…

A St. Louis law that was created in the 1940s is set to be reversed by the city. The law – barbers can’t work after 6:30pm and never on the weekends.

Why such an odd law?

It was created by white barbers who worked with their union to create the law in reaction to the fact that they felt Black barbers were taking their jobs.

University of Alabama PhD student Tanner Corley, who researched the history of barbershops, said that cutting hair was one of the most popular lines of work among Black people. However, most didn’t join the union because of perceived prejudices against minorities. That meant that when union barbers (aka mostly white barbers) closed at night, regular customers visited Black barbers.

Thus, this law was specifically meant to prevent Black barbers from being successful.

And it’s great that it’s being overturned, but it’s 2024.

Election 2024

-via ABC News, NPR, CNN, CNN, and AP News

And let’s talk about the election! Because we are 13 days out from Election Day, but of course that is not the only day we vote. People are voting right now. How many?

How about 19 million.

19 million votes have been cast as of Tuesday afternoon.

Very exciting

Not enough! We always need more voters, but 19 million is a solid start. In Georgia, it’s possible that 70% of the state will have voted before Election Day.

Something to be aware of is that, as early votes come in, people are going to want to draw conclusions as far as what that means.

I would say… don’t.

Polls don’t decide elections. People decide elections.

We are the deciders. Don’t let pollsters try and freak you out. Instead, call three friends and make sure they’re voting.

And also make sure that they’re telling all the right information.

On Tuesday, NPR put out a great (and scary!) piece about how Russian disinformation tried to push a lie about how Tim Walz had an inappropriate relationship with a student early in his career. I was sent some info about it last week and it didn’t seem right, so I just kind of had it on the backburner of things I was paying attention to but wasn’t going to highlight until there was more information.

And then boom – here’s this article. Making very clear that no, this did not happen. Tim Walz did not have an inappropriate relationship with a student. There was literally no evidence.

 Just like in 2016, and every other election since, Russia is interfering in our election. They are doing it by trying to manipulate our news.

But this is also a great reminder that, especially for these next 13 days, when you hear something that doesn’t seem quite right… it might not be. So double-check.

I’d say you should apply that to Trump too but he freely spent part of a speech talking about how Arnold Palmer was hung and seems to believe Hannibal Lecter is real so… I don’t know what to say about that.

But lest you start to feel a little stressed out about this election. How about some consequences for actions!

Starting with Rudy Guiliani.

As you may recall, Rudes pushed Trump’s big lie about the 2020 election being stolen (it wasn’t. He lost because he is a loser). That included naming and harassing two election workers in Georgia. He accused them of stealing ballots to throw the election to Trump and, as a result, they received death threats and constant harassment.

They rightfully sued and America’s Mayor was like oh no! My hair dye’s in my eyes! Also, I have no money!

He owes them $148 million and on Tuesday a Manhattan judge came up with a great solution. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss have now been awarded… Rudy’s New York City apartment, more than two dozen luxury watches and a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacal.

His three New York Yankees World Series rings and Florida condo may also go to them as well, but they’re currently tied up in other litigation.

Consequences for action!

Rudes has seven days to turn everything over.

We love to see it.

Other things we love to see?

Safeguarding elections!

Also on Tuesday the Georgia State Supreme Court upheld a decision that the state election board can’t enforce seven rules specifically pitched by Trump allies as a way to be sneaky sneaky with voters votes.

The seven rules were: requiring county election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before certifying them, allow county election officials to “examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results,” requiring officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place on Election Day, expand the number of areas poll watchers can access, and require after-hour video surveillance of drop boxes at early voting locations.

Very sneaky!

Luckily, those rules will not hold and not be enforced.

13 days.

Let’s go prove to the country, and world, that we want to keep this democracy.

Raisingvoters.org/increaseturnout

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of Boston Cream Pie, I guess. Because we really can be anything we want, if we just… name ourselves that.

But more than that, because you are also as spectacular as your name would suggest… I’m proud of you.