03/12/24

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, March 12th.

National Girl Scout Day!

Let’s give it up to those girl scouts… making all of our favorite cookies… really amazing.

And now, the news.

School Bus Crash

-via ABC News

We’re going to, unfortunately, be starting with a terrible story –

Three children and two adults are dead in Illinois, after a semi collided with a school bus on Monday morning. The school bus only had those three kids on the bus at that time.

The National Transportation Safety Board, as well as Illinois State Police are investigating the accident that preliminary reports indicate happened when the school bus, traveling east, crossed over into the westbound traffic in front of the semi.

Biden’s Budget

-via NY Times

On Monday, President Biden showed off his brand new $7.3 billion budget for 2025 which includes things like $100 billion in southern border security, as well as aid for Ukraine and Israel. Also included are tax increases on corporations and the Richie Rich-level of rich people.

Is this budget going to pass? No, of course not – Mike Johnson isn’t here to actually do things!

But this budget is more like… an official/unofficial campaign budget. “Hey, here’s my plan and in order to get it done, you’ve got to reelect me and give me a Congress that’ll actually do something. Remember those? Lol anyway, this is my budget. Please note, my ice cream purchases are coming out of pocket.”

House Moves Forward on TikTok Ban

-via AP News

In “but I’m doing to many videos” news… House Republicans are moving forward with their plan to make sure I never get to go viral, I mean moving forward with their plan to ban TikTok.

The full House will vote tomorrow. If it passes, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, will either need to sell TikTok or be banned here in the states.

TBD though because, are you ready for this… Trump has now come out to say TikTok shouldn’t be banned. Why? Because even though he still thinks it’s a national security risk, he’s fine with it because if TikTok is banned, people will be on Facebook more and he’s still mad at Facebook because… they wouldn’t let him lie about the election.

That’s right. He’s fine with the thing that he, himself, believes is a national security threat, as long as it helps him win an election.

Just like how he views the southern border problem.

This man does not care about this country. Don’t let him act like he does. And don’t give him your vote when you know he doesn’t.

Florida Can Kind of Say Gay!

-via CBS News

And let’s end with some almost good(ish) news – under a settlement between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys, Florida students and teachers can now kind of say gay!

Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education will send instructions to every school district explaining that the law doesn't prohibit discussing LGBTQ+ people. It also doesn’t prevent anti-bullying rules to include LGBTQ+ bullying, and it allows Gay-Straight Alliance groups.

Here’s why this is only almost good(ish) news… the law still stands. All this does is clarify the bad law. Clarifying laws is helpful. You what is never helpful? Creating laws that says that a student’s gender and sexual identity, that the way they love and exist as a person moving through this world, is illegal. And so dangerous that we had to make laws against it.

This law remains bad. These people remain bad. Love remains love and a big enthusiastic thumbs down to anyone that can’t see that.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Short episode today! I had some internet issues and to be honest, I wasn’t even sure this episode would make it out into the world okay.

But it did! Look at us – we did it!

Hey I keep forgetting to mention. I mean, I mentioned it once but didn’t say it again but… this show is also a Substack! You can subscribe, I’m @kimmoffat on Substack, and you’ll get the news I talked about here, with some fun gifs and commentary and, here’s where the real fun is… a few broken down pieces of information you can tell your friends. So when, for example, someone says something about the Don’t Say Gay Law, you can tell them that, according to a study out of the Yale School of Medicine’s SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, Black and Hispanic LGBTQ+ youth were 32% more likely to have symptoms of depression in states without protections like anti-bullying legislation and conversion therapy bans.

So there we go. Kimmoffat.substack.com

But more than… substack. Because you are a very tall stack of good and that’s a nice compliment not a weird thing to tell someone… I’m proud of you.