08/30/24
Good morning! It’s Friday, August 30th.
Beach Day.
What a delight! What a dang delight.
And now, the news.
Texas State Fair
-via AP News
Let’s start in Texas, where AG Ken Paxton, who still has a job despite the time that he used his office to help an Austin real estate developer and donor who, in turn, hired a woman with whom Mr. Paxton was having a relationship and also settled a suit from one of his aides for $3.3 million because he created a climate of fear and was super corrupt… that’s not a part of this story but I do think it should always be talked about…
Anyway, that stand-up guy, is all up in arms about not being able to be up in arms at the Texas State Fair.
So what’s happening here is that fair organizers announced that, after a shooting at last year’s fair that left three injured, no guns will be allowed this year.
But in Texas, this is a big no thank you because the state has a real “the bible told the dinosaurs to invent guns” attitude about them (that’s not a saying!) – the point is, in Texas you can carry a handgun without a license, background check or training.
So we’ll see what happens. I personally think this is a silly conversation because he shouldn’t have a job anymore.
There’s not much more news about this yet – the state fair hasn’t made a comment or decision, but here are other things about Ken Paxton:
As the attorney general of Texas, he sought medical records for transgender youth… in Georgia. Georgia! Not even his own state!
He also sent a letter to the hospital where Kate Cox, a pregnant Texan woman who was seeking an abortion to save her life, threatening criminal and civil charges if the were to perform the abortion that Texas state law affords her.
Again, not really part of the story but I just think we should always talk about this stuff when it comes to him.
Ken Paxton – not sending our best.
New Squids
-via CBS News
Remember last week when I was like we don’t new worms?
We have… new squids!
We don’t need new squids.
Also on the research expedition that found these new squids, they found a mountain that’s two miles tall.
Taller than Mount Everest.
Under the sea.
And apparently it supports a “thriving deep-sea ecosystem.”
The mountain in the sea supports the sea.
That’s a real sentence.
We don’t need to go to other planets, we have the ocean!
Election 2024
-via NPR, NBC News, NPR, and Rolling Stone
And hey, how about some election news?
Starting with an update on the story out of the Arlington National Cemetery, where, as you may remember, on Monday Trump and his team broke the laws of law and decency by using our nation’s most hallowed ground as a campaign stop.
Turns out, when we learned that the employee was “physically and verbally assaulted” by Trump’s staffers so that they could take their illegal pictures and video… was shoved. They shoved the employee.
He truly is the worst.
He also said, on Thursday, that as president he would make the government or insurance pay for IVF. When pressed about whether it would be paid for by the government or insurance, he wasn’t super clear.
Don’t worry though, he did add the grossest possible comment after he said he said he’d loved IVF since he first heard about it: “And we need great children, beautiful children in our country, we actually need them.”
…for what?
Because listen, of course we need humans. Most humans are great. But when he says it, it’s got a real…. Not great vibe. Meanwhile Sarah Huckabee Sanders is over in corner like we need the 6-year-olds for our factories!
I realize he is not a normal person but has he ever just once said anything in a normal way??
Also don’t trust him on the IVF thing. The only reason we’re even having conversations about protecting IVF is because he very proudly put three justices on the highest court in our land and, despite lying and saying they wouldn’t, they got rid of Roe as soon as possible.
I would say don’t trust him on anything, actually. Feels like a good move.
Moving on over to Kamala Harris…
On Thursday, a nonsense right-wing outlet called The Free Beacon published an article suggesting that Kamala Harris never worked at McDonalds during college, because she didn't mention the summer she spent there in either of her memoirs (one of which is literally about her mother dying), nor did she put it on her application for a job as a law clerk in the Alameda County DA’s office.
This is the same outlet that called Tim Walz out for the time, two literal decades ago, when he claimed to have received the “Outstanding Young Nebraskan” award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, when it was actually an award from the state’s Junior Chamber of Commerce.
So… some hard-hitting journalism there!
Fine, I’ll say it… they’re being weird.
They have nothing on Harris or Walz. The things they’re coming up with are nothing. It’s weird! They’re weird!
Why would you put your summer working at McDonalds on a resume for law clerk? What would be the point?
I worked at Best Buy for years, in high school and in college. It never once made it onto a resume.
Because I wasn’t seeking a career in retail, so it didn’t really translate.
This was forty years ago… why would they keep the records of their employees? What are we ever doing here?
We live in the dumbest timeline!
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Hey, no news next week!
It’s a short week and frankly, the McDonalds story has kind of broken me. There is no world in which we can believe it’s reasonable to view Trump breaking the law of law and also morality by filming a campaign video at the Arlington National Ceremony in the same way that we view the fact that McDonalds can’t find a 40-year-old employee record.
So I’m taking a week off.
There are 67 days until Election Day. Spend the 7 or so minutes you would have spent listening to me in the morning talking to a friend about double-checking their voter registration.
Let’s go with this thing.
I’m proud of beaches. And waves. And water. And because you are also powerful and majestic and amazing… I’m proud of you.