09/30/24

Good morning! It’s Monday, September 30th

International Podcast Day

Well well well well well well well

And now, the news.

Hurricane Helene

-via NY Times

Let’s start with Hurricane Helene. Notice how I didn’t say we’re starting with weather on the tens and two? That’s because this is… devastating.

As predicted, Hurricane Helene made landfall late Thursday night, and, after hitting Florida’s Big Bend area, which is the area of the state where the panhandle becomes the Peninsula. I believe. It’s the top – you know the flat area on the top? The middle of that is the Big Bend.

After landing there, it immediately went to Georgia, causing incredible devastation, killing at least 17 people in what the Augusta, Georgia mayor called the worst storm in the city’s history. It then spread to North Carolina, where floods and mudslides have cut off power and killed at least 37 people.

In all, approximately 90 people have died in the storm that touched Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

Now – I’m saying 90 because I’ve seen that number a couple of times. I’ve also seen 84 and 86, as well as numbers of over 100. Obviously, in a situation like this, the lower the number the better but different news outlets are reporting different things. Since I’ve seen 90 a few times, that’s the one I’m going with until there’s an official number.

As of this recording, a large portion of the two million customers who lost power have gotten it back.

Residents who stayed in the area have been asked to avoid travel and stay out of the water, to avoid contamination.

Georgia Power Plant Explosion

-via AP News

And just in case you were like “yikes, that’s really bad. But I bet that’s the only really bad thing happening in Georgia right now…”

Some residents east of Atlanta were asked to evacuate the area as a chemical plant fire burned early Sunday morning, after a sprinkler head malfunctioned.

That’s wild. Those sprinkler heads are there in case there’s a fire! They’re not supposed to cause the fire!!

No injuries have been reported.

Update on the Middle East

-via AP News and Council on Foreign Relations

On Saturday, Israel announced that it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a series of airstrikes.

This comes after 12 days of increased fighting between Israeli defense forces and Hezbollah, which saw the death of other high-ranking officials in Hezbollah as well as more than 1,000 people, civilians, in Lebanon. These attacks include, as I mentioned last week, pagers and walkie-talkies exploding, as well as airstrikes.

In return, Hezbollah fired rockets towards northern Israel. And although they were mostly intercepted, this does mark the first time Hezbollah has even done so. A few of those missiles made it through, damaging homes civilians, and a hospital.

Now, it is believed that Israel is preparing to invade Lebanon.

It was brought to my attention recently that, while I talked about Hezbollah and Hamas are different groups funded by Iran, I didn’t really explain why Lebanon. I’ve done it in the past, but it’s been a while.

Hezbollah was founded during the fifteen-year Lebanese Civil War. Thanks to a 1943 political agreement, political power in the country is divided among its predominant religious groups—a Sunni Muslim serves as prime minister, a Maronite Christian is president, and a Shiite Muslim is speaker of Parliament. Probably not the best idea, and that’s how the civil war started.

During that time, Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon to expel Palestinian guerrilla fighters who used the region as their base to attack Israel.

In 1979, a group of Shiites were influenced by Iran and took up arms against the Israeli occupation. Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps then began to fund and train that group, which then adopted the name Hezbollah.

So that’s why Israel now is looking to Lebanon. After the October 7th attack on Israel from Hamas, Israel started fighting back in Gaza. Since Iran funds both groups, Hezbollah has been in the mix this whole time. It’s just that now things are heating up.

Likely because Israeli Defense Forces have already killed more than 40,000 people in the Gaza Strip so like – now what?

Hezbollah is not a good group. Hamas is not a good group.

But in the last 12 days, IDF rockets and attacks killed 1,000 civilians. Plus 7 high-ranking members of Hezbollah.

Newsom Vetoes AI Legislation

-via NY Times

Proving that you never can tell what the guy’s going to do… on Sunday, California’s Governor Newsom vetoed a bill that would have been the nation’s first restrictions on artificial intelligence.

The bill would have required safety testing of large A.I. systems or models before their release, given the state’s AG the right to sue companies over serious harm caused by their tech, and mandated a kill switch to turn off A.I. systems in case of potential biowarfare, mass casualties or property damage.

And Newsom was like… okay but also, here’s the thing… do you know how much money there is in tech?

No no… no he didn’t say that.

Out loud.

Actually what he said was the bill was flawed because it focused too much on regulating the systems without considering the tech’s risks and harms, which I don’t totally get but you know… okie doke.

We need legislation. We’re 36 days away from Election Day. We’ve got Elon Musk doing fake Kalama ads… we need legislation! I’m sorry it isn’t perfect like your jawline but we need real protections now.

Newsom? More like lamesom.

Good em!

Hey, as you may have heard me mention… we are 36 days away from election day. And as my very wise friend Wes said on Sunday, maybe we should all start being Kimocrats – which is something he said, I loved and then said I would find a way to put in this episode and, if we’re all being honest, I did not do it smoothly. But still… be a Kimocrat.

Which is really just going on and one about how Ted Lasso season 4 is real and will be great, Kelly Clarkson’s voice is unmatched, not unlike Mandy Moore’s talent, in all fields, frankly. And also… you need to register to vote and double-check your registration.

Talk about it. Talk about it all the time. Tell people about how great Mandy was in This Is Us and also about how you need to double-check your voter registration ahead of upcoming elections so that you’re not surprised at the polls. And maybe play a little Silver Landings and In Real Life while you’re waiting in line to vote.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of… podcasters. Not this one! Not me! But others… I mean, I’m obviously not going to promote them, instead I’ll remind you that you can also listen to Kim Moffat is a Fan.

Oh but I will obviously promote How Rude Tanneritos. Not that they need it, but because we promote family here. And you know we stay proud of Andrea Barner and Jodie Sweetin.

Also there are other podcasters and I’m proud of some of them.

Not Ted Cruz. He’s got a, presumably, terrible podcast as well as an awful weird and a horrific set of morals.

But more than that… more than Ted Cruz, which isn’t saying anything, and also more than the podcasters I love but won’t promote. Because I’ll always promote you… I’m proud of you!