01/14/25

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, January 14th.

National Dress Up Your Pet Day

More like national try and get one good photo before they rip the costume off… day.

And now, the news.

LA Fires

-via AP News, Public Policy Institute

The big story is still, of course, Los Angeles, where fires have burned more than a collective 62 square miles of the city, with the two major fires consuming at least 59 combined square miles.

For reference, San Francisco is 47 square miles, Boston is 48 square miles, and Minneapolis is 54 square miles.

Areas larger than those areas are just… gone.

As of this recording, the Eaton fire is ____ contained, and the Palisades fire is _____. Winds are already starting to pick up again, with gusts up to 65 MPH expected through Wednesday.

And as Angelenos deal with one of the costliest and most destructive disaster in California’s history, not to mention that this may end up being the most expensive disaster in the country’s history, surpassing 2005’s $200 billion Hurricane Katrina… let’s let out some of our anxiety by talking about the bozo’s making it worse.

Let’s go straight to the middle.

House Speaker Mike Johnson who, as a reminder, shares an app with his son that monitors both of their porn viewing (that’s not a part of this story, but it certainly paints a picture about who he is)… on Monday, Speaker Johnson said that there has been mismanagement in both water resource and forests and that he, personally, thinks there should be conditions on aid here in California.

He added that he had not had a change to “socialize that with any of the members” because they’ve been busy but they will for sure text him back about maybe going back to his place for some pizza after work one day and just hanging out and becoming best friends. That’s for sure going to happen but it just hasn’t happened yet because people are busy and certainly not because he described talking to people as “socialize that.”

Dork.

Let me tell you something, let me tell you why this really ruffles my feathers. This really gets my goat… because California is the largest in the country. And not by a little. We contribute 14% of the country’s GDP. Our economy is also growing faster than any other state.

When FEMA pays other states… where do you think a bunch of that money comes from?

And now you’re gonna stand there, with your weird app sharing tendencies, and say California should have some conditions on the aid?

Get out of here.

No literally like… get out of government.

I’ve never loved Los Angeles more than I do this week, and I’ve never liked Speaker Johnson less than I have since I first learned who he was fifteen months ago, after he was the FIFTH pick for Speaker.

But hey, I can’t end this story on that guy, so how about a bit of lighter news? Back in 2010, reality stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt spent basically all of their money producing Heidi’s album. And it totally flopped.

Unfortunately, like so thousands others, the Pratt’s lost their home in the Palisades fire and so Spencer took to TikTok to ask people to stream Heidi’s album because those residuals would really help.

And it worked.

Fifteen years after they produced it – the 2010 album “Superficial” is number one on iTunes.

Because this is LA.

And anything can happen.

Links to places you can donate are still in show notes. Time, money, and influence – anything and everything helps.

NYC Congestion Pricing

-via ABC News

In New York City, the first in the nation congestion pricing program, which charges passenger vehicles $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th street during peak hours has seen anecdotal evidence of it working.

Travel times have cut down, with 7.5% fewer vehicles in the area.

Again, anecdotal but still… anything to help!

SCOTUS + Climate Change

-via AP News

A bit of good news (always a surprise) from the Supreme Court who, on Monday, declined to hear an appeal from oil and gas companies, allowing a Honolulu lawsuit can move forward. Which is great news because I don’t know if you heard that first story or not but climate change isn’t coming, it’s here. And we deserve the chance to fight it wherever possible, including in the courts.

Hamas Hostage Exchange

-via CNN

In Gaza, Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages in the first phase of a ceasefire agreement this is currently being finalized.

251 people were taken from Israel on October 7th, 2023. Of those 251, 109 have been released, 8 have been rescued, 37 have been recovered after death, and three managed to escape but were later killed by the Israeli military in an accident.

This leaves 94 hostages, 60 of whom are presumed to still be alive. Israel believes most of the 33 hostages in the exchange are alive.

The ceasefire would also allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Since the October 7th attack, more than 46,500 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed with an additional 100,000 missing.

Smith vs Trump

-via AP News

And hey, how about this… Jack Smith, aka Coach Beard (if you’re new here… please go look at a picture of Jack Smith and then a picture of Coach Beard from Ted Lasso… twins. Twins!). Anyway, on Monday US District Judge Aileen Cannon, seated on the bench by Trump and who has done a lot to return the favor to the President-Elect, surprised us all by allowing Coach’s DOJ report about the way that the many many ways Donald Trump interfered in the 2020 election by attempting to overturn the election and doing insurrection to go public. She previously blocked it.

Of course, Trump’s lawyers are fighting it and you can all but expect this one to go all the way up to the Supreme Court, but this is a surprising move considering we are days away from Trump taking the oath of office yet again.

She also set a hearing for Friday regarding whether Coach cane release a separate volume about the time Trump stole our nation’s most precious secrets and then hid them in the world’s ugliest bathroom before telling those secrets to anyone who offered him something vaguely resembling friendship (aka the thing he desires most! Well, besides his dad’s love, of course.)

Anyway, I just think that’s neat.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

We’re back baybee!

I’m proud of animals dressed in costumes. I’m sorry, it’s cute.

But more than that, because you’re cute… I’m proud of you.