03/11/23
Good morning! It’s Monday, March 11th.
National Napping Day!
Okay here’s the thing… I’m really good at naps. So good, in fact, that I know I’ve talked about it here before. The secret is training (that’s not a joke. I trained myself to take good naps). Also, you’re not going to bed so don’t act like it… don’t get all comfy in bed. Sleep somewhere else so that your body understands “hey, I’m on the couch. This isn’t going to be 8 hours. This is going to be a nap.”
And scientifically speaking – your nap should be about twenty minutes. It’s scientifically proven that that’s the correct amount of time for a nap that’ll leave you feeling energized.
I’m passionate about naps.
And now, the news.
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
-via AP News
Let’s start with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because on Sunday, the same day AP’s “20 Days in Mariupol” documentary won an Oscar, it came out that the Pope, in an interview recorded last month with Swiss broadcaster RSI, said that Ukraine should have “the courage to raise the white flag” and be open to peace talks brokered by international powers.
For reasons totally unknowable, I’m in a very emotion mood as I record this. I think, this is not a joke, I think it started with me getting emotionally invested in Billie Eilish winning an Oscar, and then it went from there. But seeing this has really… I’m leaning into the emotions here.
Because you know what’s brave? What Ukraine is doing. Fighting. Fighting for their home. Their future.
They have shown the world courage for more than two years, and the idea that anybody could genuinely say that the courageous thing to do is wave a white flag. This is a country that is sustained on courage. Audacious courage.
Not to like… fight the Pope by… how dare you?
And also, in the year of Greta Gerwig not being nominated for best director… why is the onus on Ukraine to stop when all they are doing is trying to survive?
Why is it not on Russia, a country lead by a monster, to stop their invasion? Russia is the bad actor here.
Have the courage to do the right thing, Russia.
In the meantime, Ukraine will do what it’s been doing since March of 2018… fighting to reclaim with is rightfully theirs.
Israel-Hamas War
-via NY Times
Hopes for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war hit a long pause on Sunday, as the sun set and Ramadan began.
Meanwhile, the United States has carried out its fifth aid drop in Gaza. At his State of the Union address, President Biden announced a plan to build a temporary pier off Gaza’s shoreline, to allow for the delivery of food, water, and medicine. However, that could take up to 60 days.
Once it’s built, however, that pier could help deliver two million meals a day.
RNC Goes Full MAGA
-via CBS News
Remember how people used to say, “I’m a Republican but I’m not a Trump Republican” and we’d be like… good luck with that?
Well… good luck with that. Because Trump takeover of the RNC is officially complete as, on Friday, the Republican National Committee voted to install Trump’s handpicked nominees as the new leader of the party.
The party’s new chair will be Michael Whatley, an election denier. The co-chair will be his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. And in the chief of staff role will be a top Trump campaign advisor, Chris LaCivita, who will do both jobs at once. He will be the chief of staff for the RNC and a campaign advisor for their presidential nominee.
And if you’re wondering what this future of the RNC will look like, let’s take a look at the Republican response to the State of the Union, where Senator Katie Britt gave a truly bizarre speech, during which she creeping whisper-smiled a bunch of lies to us.
I’m not kidding – go look up a video of her talking normally, and then go check out a clip of her talking in the State of the Union. Those are not the same voices.
Anyway, in her speech, she talked about the time she met a woman who was sex trafficked starting at age 12, and then added “President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace.”
What she’s talking about is a truly sad story. There’s no denying that.
But this happened in Mexico, so not America, in 2000. That year is also known as – a year Joe Biden wasn’t president.
Katie Britt, and the rest of the Republican party, really have no probably acting like facts are flexible and only care about people when they think it’ll help them. Just like with Lakin Riley – what happened is horrific. But you can’t use people as pawns when you’re the party actually holding up legislation to attempt to help things at the border.
And lest you think I’m projecting my own feelings about what they’ve done here, let’s hear from Karla Jacinto – the woman who Katie Britt was talking about in her speech. On Sunday she confirmed that she was trafficked before Biden was president and added “I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair.”
Not only did they manipulate the facts behind this woman’s story, to serve their own narrative, but their lives have forced this woman to talk about what happened, to clarify the way it was manipulated.
This is the RNC. And while it’s been the party of Trump for a while, there can no longer be any denying it at all. Trump owns this party and, come November, he will own the loss we’re going to hand them.
Royal Mystery
And finally… we’ve got to talk about Princess Kate.
As I’ve mentioned, as we all know, Princess Kate has been recovering from what the palace has maintained was planned abdominal surgery that will, apparently, take months to recover from. You know, like all modern planned abdominal surgeries in 2024.
It’s odd on its own.
Then last week we got a picture of Princess Kate, taken apparently by photographers, while she was riding in the car with her mom. That ignited a lot of questions that all kind of circled around one thing… do we even believe this is her?
Now listen… off-pod, I’ve made some conspiracy theory-lite jokes about this. But for some reason, I think it’s funny to pretend like this is a real news show and so I feel weird making those jokes here.
So I’ll just say – it looks like her. I think we can all reasonably believe that we’re not getting the whole story from the palace, but I’m not here to say whether it’s her in the car. But it’s relevant because it got so many people questioning what was going on, that the Palace put out an official photo of the Princess and all the kids.
And that photo was up for… a few hours. But it’s been taken down by multiple photo agencies who say the “source” may have “manipulated” the photo.
Specifically, there’s a very clear photoshop error with Princess Charlotte’s hand. Whatever was erased or added or whatever, you can see that part of her hand has been erased.
Again, I’m not here to push a conspiracy theory, so I’ve been trying to avoid this as much as possible but it felt weird not to mention this.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of… The Oscars. They were fine this year! Also Regina King… she was on stage at one point and I just think she’s so great. I’m always just so proud of her.
Also, listen Pepperidge Farms… if you’re going to pay to air the Hannah Waddingham commercial during the Oscars, why don’t you PAY Apple TV a little visit and tell them it’s time to release the season 4 teasers.
But more than my delusions… because you’re normal… I’m proud of you.