02/26/24
Good morning! It’s Monday, February 26th.
Letter to an Elder Day.
I love this. I used to write letters to my grandpa. Everyone loves getting mail! I would write him letters and draw silly little drawings and in person we would just never talk about it. But it was just a fun thing. I really liked it and I think he liked it? I tell myself he liked it.
Write a letter today.
And now, the news.
South Carolina Republican Primary
-via AP News
Sometimes I start an episode and I’m like – I really don’t know what kind of mood I’m in today. I’ve been really busy today and you know how sometimes you don’t really know what your mood is until all of the sudden you’re like… oh! Oh there it is. That’s my mood. Copy.
I am in a Capital M Mood.
I don’t know what that means, that’s not a saying but you’ll get the feeling pretty quickly.
South Carolina Republicans went to the polls on Saturday and, as has happened in every other primary, picked Trump as their candidate.
Trump won with 59.8% of the vote. Nikki Haley took 39.5% of the vote. Ron DeSantis, who isn’t even running for president anymore, still got .4%.
So just under 60%, that’s what Trump won with.
That’s not bad. But would you describe it like this: “Trump cruised to victory in the South Carolina primary with the support of an almost unwavering base of loyal voters.”
No? Me neither. You know who did? The Associated Press!
Which is a wild way to say that Trump got just a little less than 60% of the votes.
Even more wild when you consider this: “President Joe Biden easily won South Carolina’s Democratic primary on Saturday, clinching a state he pushed to lead off his party’s nominating process after it revived his then-struggling White House bid four years ago” was how AP announced that Biden won his South Carolina primary with 96.2% of the vote.
Certainly 96.2% says “unwavering base of loyal voters” more than just under 60% right?
I bring all this up to tell you that: Trump won in South Carolina. This is not a surprise. But also… we are going to need to be very diligent when we hear how people talk about these elections because this is just… very annoying.
The man’s an insurrectionist!
“Oh but Biden’s old!” okay well so is Trump. But Biden doesn’t have 91 indictments, a large amount of which came from the time he tried to steal an election because he a bad.
See? We found my mood pretty quickly – turns out it wasn’t hiding.
Update: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
-via NY Times
Sunday marked two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an odd bit of phrasing sure but it’s important to remember, especially as we’re marking this pretty horrific anniversary, that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began when they invaded, and later annexed, Crimea in 2013.
But two years ago is when Putin because his all-out invasion. Since then, it is estimated that close to 70,000 Ukrainians have been killed, with another 100,000 to 120,000 wounded.
President Zelensky said on Sunday that, since the invasion began, around 31,000 soldiers have been killed – though this number has not been verified, this is the first time he’s put an actual number to the loss in his country. He didn’t want to put a number on the injured or missing, so that Russia can’t use the information for their benefit. However, he did want to counter Russia’s lies that Ukraine had lost 60,000 soldiers.
Though there is no positive movement forward in the House, Zelensky noted he was still optimistic about a forthcoming $61 billion aid package.
The House is meant to come back into session on Wednesday.
Update: Israel-Hamas War
And then there’s also an update on the Israel-Hamas War as, on Sunday, a man set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in D.C. He remains in critical condition. Details are limited, as this is breaking news.
It comes on the heels of a weekend that saw White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan noting that “representatives of Israel, the United States, Egypt and Qatar met in Paris and came to an understanding among the four of them about what the basic contours of a hostage deal for temporary cease-fire would look like."
He added that, "There will have to be indirect discussions by Qatar and Egypt with Hamas, because ultimately they will have to agree to release the hostages."
In the four months since Hamas October 7th attack in Israel, that killed 1,163, the death toll in Gaza is just under 30,000.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I said this last week, and then it never really came to fruition so we’ll see what this week looks like but, in theory, we’re looking at hopefully getting some Trump Crime Update Time court rulings that will be major. We’ll see, I guess.
Hey, it’s also “For Pete’s Sake” Day and come on… how cute? No one says that anymore! They should! Should I bring it back?
But more than Pete and his sake, because you’re also timeless… I’m proud of you.