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News Transcripts

07/30/24

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, July 30th.

International Day of Friendship

Aw

And now, the news.

 

Stabbings in England

-via BBC

Starting with the shocking news that two children have died, and at least nine were injured, after an attack at a children's dance workshop in Southport, England on Monday.

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Though it is not being treated as terror-related, the motive is still unclear.

Witness statements describe a horror scene from a crime that has shocked everyone.

One person, the owner of a business on the lock, said this: "It's like something from America, not like sunny Southport.”

 

Venezuelan Election

-via NY Times

Sticking with international news – On Sunday, the Venezuelan electoral authority announced that President Maduro had won reelection with 51.2% of the voice.

However, The United States, as well as many others, are currently not accepting those results.

So here’s what’s happening.

Maduro is an extremely unpopular figure in Venezuela because he’s a dictator who many believe led to an economic and social services downfall in Venezuela.

On the other side was María Corina Machado, the opposition leader. Days before she was about the enter the primary, the Comptroller General’s Office announced that she is banned from running for office for the next 15 years.

So she threw her support behind Edmundo Gonzalez and the two have been campaigning together.

So technically the election was Maduro versus Gonzalez but Machado is a very vital part of this story.

Also important to remember that, in 2019, Maduro claimed he won the election while most of the rest of the world said it was rigged. So his current presidency is already seen as illegitimate.

Which brings us to this weekend’s election, with Muduro once again claiming success, while the rest of the world disagrees. Here, the problem is the vote count.

There is a digital tally, as well as a physical tally. The paper verifies the digital.

But the problem is that election officials aren’t handing over the paper tally. According to Machado, the half that have been handed over show Gonzalez winning in a landslide.

Adding to suspicion, in the past, election results have been put online. So far, that has not been the case in this election.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people. Adding, “The international community is watching this very closely.”

So that’s what’s going on in Venezuela.

Not great!

Also quite the cautionary tale. Good thing we don’t have that problem.

 

Election 2024

-via CNN and AP News

Just kidding!

Two things to know – first, a group called True the Vote, who was a big pusher in the 2020 big election lie, is trying to get non-vetted, ordinary folks, to help “clean the voter rolls” by using an app that lets users access voter data and then submit voter-eligibility challenges to local election offices.

Does not sound safe!

So far, 7,000 people have submitted more than half a million record.

Is not great!

So what can you do here? Two things. One – make sure everyone knows about this because this group is awful and what they’re doing is targeted based on getting people who probably don’t vote the way they want off the polls.

Because that’s the only way they can win.

So tell people.

And tell them to pledge to vote at wearevoters.org/beavoter because part of the pledge is checking your voter registration. You need to be checking your registration before your state’s deadline in every single election. The registrar’s office won’t tell you you’ve been kicked off the list, so you have to check.

The next thing to know about and be telling people about is that Elon Musk shared a video on Twitter (which I will never call X. I’m sorry you’re such a dork that you’re absolutely obsessed with a letter in the alphabet because you don’t know how have normal hobbies) – anyway he released a fake, AI generated, anti-Kamala Harris ad that uses AI to make it sound like she’s talking. And when he put it out, he never said it was parody.

It's really bad and illegal and likely violates his own platform rules which state users can’t: “share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”

So… also not great!

Tell people about this too.

This election is going to be enough work without having to deal with these yahoos.

But hey, here’s something fun. I’ll end this story on an up – when Kamala Harris wins in November, we’ll never have to think about Donald Trump again. He will just be what he always has been… a loser.

 

Biden’s Supreme Court Dreams

-via AP News

On Monday, President Biden announced major reforms for the Supreme Court, including an enforceable code of ethics, term limits, and a constitutional amendment limiting the presidential immunity decision.

To white historical badman Justice Thomas said ethics? Term limits?! I came here to do bad stuff and get free plane rides. This place is about to suck!

And then Justice Aleako said Yeah man, we’re outta here!

And then they left to fly their literal freak flags.

Just kidding. But a delight it would be!

Anyway, so this is a great announcement by Biden. It won’t pass, because it would need to pass by Congress, but you know… get caught trying.

When you are trying to do good, to be of service – get caught trying.

Adding to the complexity of making this happen is that these would be Constitutional changes – the President proposed an 18-year term limit but the Constitution gives federal judges the gig for as long as they want it.

So it’s tricky but what’s the alternative? We just don’t try to fix this at all?

And then of course, the trickiness about the ethics code is that Chief Justice Roberts would have to enforce it and, uh… yeah so he’s not gonna do that. I’m not even convinced he looked hard enough into the Dobbs leak. Sometimes we only look so far into something, but not all the way because we don’t actually want to know the answer.

But still, again… what’s the alternative? We have to try.

Get caught trying.

 

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Quick medal update –

Team USA leads with 20 total medals. France has 16, Japan has 12.

We lead in the number of bronze medals, with 9, while we’re tied with France with our four silver medals. As for gold, Japan has        6, France has 5, and Team USA has three.

Everyone looks like they’re having a blast. Jessica Chastain is there. It’s a good time.

Go sports!

But more than sports, because no one can match your friendship skills… I’m proud of you.

Kim Moffat