08/12/24
Good morning! It’s Monday, August 12th.
National Vinyl Day
God I love a vinyl. Those pops? Gotta flip it? Yes please!
And now, the news.
Israel-Hamas War
-via NY Times
Starting with the Israel-Hamas war. On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike hit a school that was serving as a shelter for Palestinians in Gaza. The Gaza Civil Defense strike killed more than 90 people, a number that has not yet been confirmed though for sure it’s at least dozens, and occurred during a prayer service where more than 200 people had gathered.
The following day, on Sunday, the Israeli military ordered civilians in Gaza to, yet again, evacuate a humanitarian zone.
No word yet on what this means for the possibility of both parties returning to the table for ceasefire talks.
Doesn’t feel positive! That’s for sure!
Russia-Ukraine War
-via NBC News
Over with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – President Zelensky has, for the first time, acknowledged that there are, in fact, Ukrainian military forces fighting inside of Russia.
This began on Tuesday, with more than 1,000 troops entering the Kursk region of Russia. On Sunday, Moscow bombed its own land, in an attempt to contain Ukraine’s movement.
There’s not a ton known about what, exactly, Ukraine is doing in Russia. Because obviously sneaky sneaks is the name of the game. But so far more than 76,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk region of Russia since Tuesday.
But again, not much more is known than that.
But uh… yeah, they’re in there. That’s for sure.
Venezuela’s Contested Election
-via CNN and The Guardian
And in Venezuela, as President Maduro continues to tell the world that he won the election, the opposition candidate, and his supporters, continue to fight for the future of their country.
The problem, however, is that Maduro still runs the government and is doing everything he can to hold onto his power.
It’s called Operation Knock-Knock and I’m not seeing enough people talk about what’s happening.
So after arresting thousands of protestors in the streets, Maduro is now having police literally go to people’s homes based on what they’re publicly posting online. So far, more than 1,100 people have been arrested. That includes Freddy Superlano, the national coordinator of the opposition party. It also includes the investigation of María Corina Machado, who was going to run against Maduro but, for some reason, was banned from running for office.
On Friday, Maduro said he’s going to try and turn off Twitter in the country for ten days.
Make no mistake, Maduro lost this election.
What he’s hoping for, what he’s brutally working towards, is silence. Complacency.
Inside of Venezuela, at least 24 people have died since the protests started. Inside of Venezuela, being silent may save your life. And yet, they fight. They refuse to be silent.
And so here, because we can, because we must, we have to keep talking about what’s happening.
Because Venezuelans went to the ballot box and told the world who they wanted to be. And so in this moment, as we also stand on the edge of deciding what kind of country we will be, we have to stand with them. Loudly.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Election 2024
-via Washington Post
And over here in our own election news…
Over the weekend the Trump campaign announced that they’d been hacked. This came after a series of emails were sent to Politico, seemingly from a campaign insider. Materials hacked include a dossier on JD Vance. Confusingly, this means they did, in fact, research him. And I guess they were fine with the fact that, truly not that long ago at all, he called Trump “America’s Hitler”?
The materials were sent via an AOL email address from someone known as Robert.
US officials have not confirmed the hack.
I want to be clear that a hack and a mole are two different things.
If you’ve seen anything about Trump in the last week, it’s very clear that he is having very big feelings about doing very badly right now.
It’s also very clear, to me, that there may be someone in the campaign working against him. Just last Friday, the campaign played Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On at an event, as they waited for Trump to take the stage. If you don’t know that song (aka have never been in conversation with me for longer than seven minutes, which is about how long it takes for me to bring up how great Titanic is) – that’s the song from Titanic.
That’s not an accident.
Something’s not right in that campaign.
So yes, it is news that campaign materials are being sent to news outlets.
But again, hacks and leaks are two different things.
Olympics
And the Olympics are over! Oh no – now how will I watch water polo? (Seriously, we should be broadcasting more water polo.)
Team USA women’s soccer won gold! A very fun second half, following a very stressful first half, gave us a 1-0 win. That means we are the gold standard once again baybeeeeeeee
Overall, we won 126 total medals, including 40 gold (tying with China), 44 silver, and 42 bronze.
What a time! We all worked equally hard.
Somethings to know about –
In gymnastics, US gymnast Jordan Chiles has been asked to return her bronze medal because last week, after she won it (you may have seen the iconic photo of Chiles and Simone on the podium, bowing down to Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, giving the world the first all-Black gymnastics podium).
So what happened? During competition, after Chiles finished her floor routine and got her score, there was a last-minute inquiry from her coaches that boosted her score by a tenth of a point. That tenth of a point put her on the podium. But not it appears perhaps that inquiry was filed too late, and as a result, Chiles is going to lose her medal and it will be given to the Romanian gymnast that finished fourth place.
Then late on Sunday, USA Gymnastics released a statement saying it submitted evidence that proves the inquiry was filed in time, so now it’s truly TBD to see what happens. Sure sucks for all though, that’s for sure!
And in boxing – after being genuinely bullied by the worst parts of the worst people, Algerian Imane Khelif, won a gold medal in boxing and then turned around to announce that she is suing what I can only hope is a gaggle of jerks, for online bullying and harassment.
So here’s what happened. Khelif, who was born a woman, identifies as a woman, was raised a woman, has a female passport, and competes as a woman in boxing – has, for some reason, become a target of the anti-trans movement and now the worst people you know, like JD Vance, Donald Trump, and JK Rowling, are out here calling this woman a man and using the fact that she is so great at boxing as a way to… stick up for victims of domestic abuse?
(By the way, Vance is also on the record saying women should stay with their abusers because it’s good for the kids so he can get all way bent. Actaully, everyone here can.)
This is so mean!
It’s also dangerous because we can call these people weird all we want. And we should. Because they are. But they’re also dangerous and unhinged.
But it’s also dangerous because it’s illegal to be trans, or a member at all of the LGBT+ community, in Algeria.
These people are putting her life at risk, to what… own the libs?
How mortifying for all of us.
Anyway, she’s suing and I hope the list of people she’s suing is long. I support her in every possible case.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of the Olympics.
How fun was that! How fun and very very stressful.
Hey, now that that’s done, let’s go win ourselves an election!
I’m also proud of vinyl records. Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, by Lauryn Hill. Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape. Mandy Moore – Silver Landings. No skips. There are other not skips, but that’s just off the top of my head.
But more than… omg. Not more than Mandy Moore.
More than a record player, because you are also timeless… I’m proud of you.