07/16/24

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, July 16th.

Guinea Pig Appreciation Day!

I have had three guinea pigs in my life – they were all very cute but their cages were miserable to clean and none of them lived to a full life expectancy. Johnny, Mo, and Midnight… may their memories be a blessing.

And now, the news.

Israel-Hamas War

-via BBC and Washington Post

There is just… so much news! Let’s start with an update on the Israel-Hamas war which is still happening, despite the fact that the only news that currently seems to be breaking through is election stuff. Don’t get me wrong, that’s important but that’s not the only important thing happening.

On Sunday, an Israeli military airstrike killed at least 22 Palestinians and injured at least 100 more, when the strike hit a school that was being used as a refugee camp.

Witness have said there were no armed fighters there and children are among those dead in an attack that the Israeli military says killed a number of Hamas terrorists.

This is the fifth attack on, or near, schools in the last eight days.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday the Israeli military again called for Gaza City to again be evacuated. The city was last evacuated in January. It’s unclear where Gazans are meant to go, though the Hamas-run Interior Ministry is actually telling people not to evacuate but to instead “move to a place close to your area of residence” if needed.

Cease-fire talks are said to be continuing, but there’s not much news there.

Trump Crime Update Time

-via Twitter

There’s also some

Trump Crime Update Time

(Remember when Trump wasn’t in politics and therefore his crimes didn’t have to be in the news? Edition)

On Monday, bright and early, Judge Aileen Cannon decided – hey, sure would be cool if I could be a Supreme Court Justice. Fly around private planes. Leak decisions. Never have to worry about what to wear to work… not a bad deal!

And so – she dismissed Trump’s classified documents crimes case. Not because she doesn’t believe what Trump did wasn’t a crime. But because in the Supreme Court ruling that gave presidents immunity, Historical Badman Justice Thomas, on his own, decided to also call into question whether Jack Smith should have ever been appointed because Congress didn’t vet him.

Well no one vetted you beyond Trump liking the idea that a Florida judge would be helpful to him down the line so…

She also doesn’t love his budget, siding with Team Trump that funding shouldn’t come through Treasury unless Congress appropriates it. Though if funds are reallocated, she says that can be worked out.

So this is… unideal for sure. Because it would be one thing if there just wasn’t enough evidence for this case to continue. But it’s not about that. It’s about just like… let’s just try and throw it out in a way that Team Trump has tried before and no judge has accepted.

Which tells us two things – it tells us that she’s on Trump’s side here.

And two – Coach Beard will appeal and, when it does, it’s possible it will go to another judge and hey… I bet that judge will do the right thing and at least hear the case!

We’ll know more when we know more.

RNC Night One

-via AP News, NY Times, and CNN

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a-hole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.”

That’s JD Vance, writer of Hillbilly Elegy, Senator from Ohio and now… Trump’s pick for Vice President.

I keep seeing that quote around the internet, but to me all it says is that he’s spineless and Trump loves nothing more than getting people to submit to him. Nothing new there.

But if you’re only just now really coming to learn about Vance, here are some other important things to know:

He is against abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest.

He is against support of Ukraine, wanting zero funding to go to the country and in fact told Steve Bannon: “I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”

He believes “Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans.” He wants a merit-based immigration system and would “oppose every attempt to grant amnesty” to people who are here illegally.

Of course, he thinks the election was stolen and, and this is important -  if he’d been Trump’s VP in 2020, he would have overturned the election.

He does not believe in climate change, wants a 10% tariff on goods coming in from any other country, and is a firm supporter of Israel, saying that of course his heart goes out to the civilian casualties in Gaza but the fault lies with Hamas, not Israel.

Now, what’s happening is Gaza is both complicated at not. It’s not complicated to be against the deaths of children and people who are not associated with Hamas at all. The politics of it all are complicated. Having something be both complicated and not is, on its own, complicated… JD Vance is not someone who is capable of having that difficult of thought process. And the reason I know that is because he’s not doing it.

So that’s JD Vance. He is… not awesome.

The Republican National Convention started on Monday. I’m not going to talk a ton about it unless news breaks. Otherwise it’s just an ad for fascism and they’re not going to get that from me for free. Or for money! But for sure not for free.

Here’s the deal – I can report on every infuriating thing said this week, or I can use that energy to tell you to go make sure three friends are registered to vote. One is certainly a better use of my time and energy than the other.

www.wearevoters.turbovote.org – check that registration.

Hurricane Beryl

-via NBC News

About 288,000 customers are without power in Texas, still, after last week’s Hurricane Beryl ripped through the state.

CenterPoint Energy, which is the only option in that area of Texas, did say that they were prepared for this year’s storms but now we’ve got people sleeping in cars because there’s at least air conditioning there.

And I don’t mean to blow your mind or anything but if you’ve never been to Texas… it’s hot there in the summer! It’s in the high 70s overnight in Houston this week, with humidity in the low to mid 70s.

Hopefully they can get that power back on soon.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of guinea pigs. They’re cute! They have fourteen toes! That’s not what makes them cute, but it’s a fun fact for sure.

But more than that… because I don’t care how many toes you have… I’m proud of you.