03/18/24
Good morning! It’s Monday, March 18th.
Awkward Moments Day.
Interesting. That’s probably great for some people. For me it’s like… can’t relate. Ya know? Never had an awkward moment in my life. Good luck to those who do though, that’s for sure.
And now, the news.
Two Weekend Shootings
-via ABC News (D.C.) and ABC News (Philadelphia)
We start how we start here in America, with the story of two different shootings over the weekend.
First, three people are dead in Philadelphia after a 26-year-old named Andre Gordon Jr shot his and killed three family members in two different homes before fleeing to New Jersey where he barricaded himself in a house for hours before apparently just… slipping out of the house. Which was surrounded by law enforcement.
He was arrested several blocks from the house.
Several blocks! He got several blocks!
But he has been arrested. A motive is not yet known.
And over in Washington D.C., two people are dead and five have been injured after a shooting that took place at 3 AM. The suspect fled on foot and is still at large. The motive there is also still unknown.
Motive unknown. Means very very known – it’s the guns.
Russia Heads to the Polls
-via NY Times
Russia’s Vladimir Putin has secured yet another six-year term as President.
Notice I said secured, and not won.
These are sham elections. Putin and the Kremlin do not allow for any real competition. We know that because Alexi Navalny, who was his actual competition, is dead. And was killed right before this election.
Still he had secured another six-year term.
Trump’s Ohio Rally
-via NPR
And as you’re thinking about that – thinking about how Russia has this president who just… eliminates any possibility of him being voted out of office, who literally has people killed because they pose a threat to his power…
At a campaign stop in Ohio, Trump said this: "If I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath...It's going to be a bloodbath for the country."
When asked to clarify his remarks, senior Trump campaign advisor Stephen Miller said this: "Any reporter that falls for this Biden camp spin is stupid."
What is the spin? Your guy said it.
At that same rally, he also had this to say when talking about the southern border: "In some cases, they're not people, in my opinion.”
Days before the rally, in an interview with CNBC he said this about social security and Medicare: "there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements. There's tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do."
At that same rally, he said this: "I made a promise that I will always keep Social Security, Medicare. We always will keep it. We never will cut it."
“If I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath.”
"In some cases, they're not people.”
Trump is terrible. A terrible terrible person.
He shouldn’t even be able to get a tour of the White House, let alone get to run the country from there. Tell everyone.
Loose Ends
-via NBC News (Fani Willis), CNN (hush money)
And a couple of loose ends to tie up here…
In Trump’s Georgia RICO case, a judge has ruled that Fani Willis should not be disqualified, as long as Nathan Wade, the prosecutor she had the relationship with, was no longer on the case. Literally the judge said it was him or her, one had to go. Wade, the head prosecutor for the case, has resigned. So the RICO case will proceed with discovery and hopefully go to trial at some point soon.
In Trump’s so-called hush money case, the judge overseeing that case has agreed to delay the case for no more than 30 days, to give Trump’s defense team more time to review the documents that were recently handed over. As a reminder, DA Alvin Bragg said last week that they were ready to go to trial but fine giving a small pause to allow the defense to review the materials. That case was meant to start March 25th. A new date has not yet been set.
And finally, there’s been a rumor going around that the BBC is on hold to report on some super secret royal news. Nothing that I’ve seen has confirmed this. It is obviously so possible that I just haven’t seen it, but everything I’ve seen doesn’t really have an actual source. So who knows… it’s possible that there might be a royal announcement but because I’ve decided this is a real news show and I’ve also decided part of what I’m doing this year is trying to fight misinformation when possible – I just want to note that no, we don’t know what’s going on with Kate. No one’s seen her. Could be nothing. Could be something. But we do not know what’s happening, nor do we know for sure that the BBC is on hold because the rumor is that the BBC is on hold until Wednesday. That’s a wildly long time to be on hold for something, without no one having actual news. So… you know… take the information you get with a grain of salt.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Why?
Because I don’t want us to forget that Trump literally said it would be a bloodbath if he lost the election.
We saw what he did last time he lost. Why would this be any different?
But here’s the thing – how do we combat that?
By winning. Big.
Make sure your friends are registered to vote.
And because I know you know you need to make sure you’re double-checking that sweet sweet voter at least once a year… I’m proud of you.