05/20/24

Good morning! It’s Monday, May 20th.

Be a Millionaire Day!

And that’s it. Just… be it.

And now, the news.

Iran’s President

-via NPR

So we’ll start as every other news organization will start which is… Iran’s president, prime minister, and seven other have been declared dead after a helicopter crash on Sunday. The crash happened amidst extremely foggy conditions.

Due to the time difference, and always just, you know, the world… I am not going to report anything else here right now.

This is a significant change in the political landscape of Iran, in the midst of a very tense, to put it mildly, time most of the world. It would be irresponsible to parse language and vibes.

So in this moment all I can responsibly include in this podcast is that this happened. I think it’s of note, though certainly this word carries weight and tells a different story that I haven’t seen enough evidence for, that some Iranians will wake up today with headlines that call him a martyr.

Again, that word carries a certain connotation, one that would be irresponsible to use right now. So early into this story.

But the news you need, on this Monday morning, is that Iran’s president and prime minister are among the nine dead on a helicopter crash.

We’re going to learn a lot today, and I’m certain we’ll be covering this more tomorrow.

Diddy Video

­-via ABC News

Over the weekend, a video was leaked of Sean Combs, aka Puff Daddy, aka Diddy, aka I hope my kids and grandkids never hear a bar of your music, assaulting singer Cassie in 2016.

The video is horrendous.

I mention it here, in this episode, because the way I became aware of the video was on Twitter. The way I became aware of his apology was breaking news on AP News and NY Times. I literally got push notifications about his apology.

Diddy paid $50k for the video, in hopes it wouldn’t leak.

In his apology, he says this was his low point. Which I guess we all have to hope it is the lowest he’s been. But I also can’t really accept that apology, because guy you seem to be standing pretty tall as you act out this horror. And then you spent more than most people make in a year, in hopes that no one would see this video because then you wouldn’t be able to keep the jobs you kept that allow you to spend $50k on these horrific acts.

So all of this to say… no. No more to him.

And also – come on news apps. Are we really out here saying the apology is breaking news? Being sorry for some of the worst possible action after the video got leaked is not being sorry, it’s being sorry you got caught.

Supreme(ish) Court

-via CNN, NBC News, Washington Post, and History

And then we get to the story that I actually thought would lead today’s episode. On Thursday the news broke (but like… after my news was already done. A Kim’s gotta rest!) that Samuel Alito had an upside-down flag flying outside of his house in January of 2021.

If you are unfamiliar with the symbolism of the upside-down flag, it is meant as a sign of distress. It goes back to our founding, when sailors would fly a flag upside-down when their ship was in distress.

You likely haven’t seen a lot of upside-down flags in your life, and if you have – it’s post Biden’s win in 2020. After Biden won, a lot of Trump supporters started flying their flag upside-down.

Let us merry on back to the un-merry days of January 2021 – when the Supreme Court was deciding whether they would hear a 2020 election case.

And in that moment, as the Supreme Court was deciding whether they would hear a case about whether we would have, as we always have had, a peaceful transfer of power, and Ginny Thomas was texting Marky Meads about how they should stop the steal and her best friend agreed. (It’s believed that the best friend to which she was referring is historical badman Clarence Thomas, because she would so often refer to her as her best friend, though it could have also been a different best friend she was referring to, which I find harder to believe because I have many friends who genuinely love their husbands but if they called them their best friend I’d be like “nerd!” and also “so what am I? Someone who you just send Reels too without a title?”)

And it was at this moment, that a flag was flown, upside-down, outside of Justice Alito’s house.

I will have more to say on this in a moment but first off… when I first read this story, I though it was historical badman Clarence Thomas’ house. Because of Ginster. But no, there are two.

And I find this particularly awesome but not in the good way but as in I am struck by awe by the audacity because actually, though I have many times believed this country to be in distress, one of those times was when Roe was overturned. And for Alito, who I call A-Leak-O because he (allegedly) leaked the ruling ahead of time because he just couldn’t wait, was just so filled with glee, to tell people that they had taken just the idea choice away from people who can get pregnant, to be such a whinny little baby in 2021 that he had to turn his little flag upside-down…

I too believe this country is in distress. Has been in distress. And I’m a cishet white woman. I have felt whatever the opposite of distress is for longer than many others.

When A-Leak-O and his buds overturned my right to make a medicical decision about my body, I was on a train. I will never forget it. When the opinion leaked, I was on my little train ride and I re-rerouted my trip to spend the night in DC. I was supposed to spend this trip writing my little sad stories, and instead I spend most of that trip after the leak (that he “allegedly” caused) going to work.

In times of distress in this country, I got to work.

He turned his flag upside-down.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he didn’t get to work because what we’ve seen so far isn’t great!

But we are meant to make things better – not just for us. Not just in the moment but, to quote John Wesley – “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

Earlier this month, in Virginia, the Shenandoah County school board voted to rename two of their schools after Confederate military leaders. You, of course, remember the Confederate as those losers who lost the civil war.

The measure passed 5-1 to rename the schools after Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby, three Confederate leaders.

First of all… they were defectors who didn’t even want to be a part of this country because it had the audacity to this the Black Americans were Americans and also people and not that the north would go on to be the most best, but they were at least against slavery (except when it came to the 13th). And that is who these schools will be named after.

And I say renamed because, in 2020, the schools changed their names. Dropped the loser Confederate soldiers for the super normal school names of Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School.

But in 2024, they will be renamed.

And it’s important to note that the only reason we named schools after these dum dum losers, and gave them statues, is because even though the civil war ended in 1865, most of the statues didn’t go up until the 1890s, with the largest spike in the 1900s and 1920s.

Hey history, what was going on then?

Plessy v Ferguson. Segregation. Jim Crow laws.

The 15th Amendment gave Black men the right to vote in 1870. More than a half million Black men voted, helping to elect almost 2,000 Black men to public office.

That’s 1870.

In 1890, Mississippi passed the first literacy and poll tax. Followed by others. And while these states were at it, they were putting up statues, and naming the schools their kids would learn at, after the very people that didn’t even want to be a part of this country anymore because it dared to have the audacity to believe that Black people are, in fact, people.

By 1910, voter registration among Black men dropped to under 2% in Alabama and Mississippi. An 15% in Virginia.

Virginia, where earlier this month they voted to rename two schools after three Confederate soldiers.

Virginia, where on Friday, Governor Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have eliminated state tax loopholes for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Inc.

Those groups, in this country, still get to operate and not pay taxes. Operate? Fine. You’re wrong, but the First Amendment says you get to have your dumb beliefs. But the idea that a group honoring the confederacy does not have to pay taxes in this country? Absolute insanity.

But he also vetoed a bill that just suggests that hey – people should have access to contraceptives. So, you know… not the best dude.

And so, with all of that – is it any wonder that a Justice sitting on our highest Court, who “allegedly” leaked one if not two major Supreme Court rulings because he was so exited, would also put his little flag upside-down and then presume the believe he should be able to sit in on cases regarding the 2020 election?

I started with a quote from John Wesley, but I think a more apt quote may be from James Baldwin: “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

In times of distress, sailors put their flags upside-down.

This moment, to me, feels distressing. But I am not yet drowning. And so I will get to work.

Are you, and is everyone you know, registered to vote?

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of strawberries! It’s also national pick strawberries day. But more than that… because there is no season in which I wouldn’t pick you… I’m proud of you.