01/16/25

Good morning! It’s Thursday, January 16th.

Appreciate a Dragon Day

I’m not kidding.

And it was created in 2004, by an author, to help drum up some PR for an upcoming book.

So this one’s… you know, whatever but I do have two interesting facts.

One: the oldest recognizable image of a dragon goes back to 1260 (the year I was born, actually) and the word dragon means “serpent of a huge size.”

So… not gonna find that kind of riveting info on MSNBC, that’s for sure.

And now, the news.

LA Fires

-via AP News

Starting again with the fires in Los Angeles, which finally saw some good news as winds began to die down.

As of this recording, the Palisades fire is ____ acres and ___ contained, while the Eaton fire is ____ and ____ contained.

Curfews are still in effect for both fire zones from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Israel/Hamas Ceasefire

-via NPR and Rescue.org

In huge international news, Israel and Hamas have both signed onto a ceasefire deal that, should both sides follow through, will begin the end of the war. Though I should note that, after this deal with announced, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu came out to say it wasn’t all buttoned up yet. Eventually though, he announced that the final details had been finalized.

The first phase will last six weeks, during which Hamas has promised to release 33 hostages in exchange for a significant number of Palestinian detainees (though an exact number is not known, since it depends on how many hostages are living when released by Hamas, however it’s expected to be around 1,000.)

Again, while this is a significant breakthrough, it only works if it works. If both sides abide by the ceasefire.

And hopefully they will, because Palestinians in Gaza desperately need relief. Since the war began on October 7th, 2023, 1200 people were taken from Israel by Hamas. In retaliation, more than 46,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, the majority of which are woman and children.

Of course, those awful numbers alone don’t paint the full picture, and all of Gaza is experiencing a humanitarian crisis. 90% of the region has been displaced, most multiple times. A lack of drinking water has led to an increase of infectious diseases in the area. They are also facing an unprecedented food crisis, as the Famine Review Committee has warned that, if famine is not already there in northern Gaza, it is imminent.

While this deal will not immediately restore resources into the region, it’s a start they desperately need.

The ceasefire deal will begin Sunday.

Red Dye #3

-via NBC News

On Wednesday, the FDA announced that they are banning the use of red dye #3 – an item that is used in more than 9,200 different foods.

Food manufacturers will have until Jan. 15, 2027 to make the change, while companies that make ingested drugs, like dietary supplements, get an additional year.

Interestingly, it was already banned from makeup and topical drugs in 1990.

Southwest Airlines Sued

-via CNN

In 2022, two Southwest Airline flights, one between Chicago Midway and Oakland and the other between Baltimore and Cleveland, were so chronically late that it caused more than 180 disruptions between April and August.

And because of that, on Wednesday the Department of Transportation announced that they are suing the company for maximum civil penalties. Which I assume is money, but maybe they’ll toss one of the planes in jail.

Not the pilots, mind you. Literally just the plane.

I don’t have much else to talk about here. I just think it’s a silly thing to picture. Think a Paw Patrol style plane, and then their roommate is a real person. And the real person is in there for, like, drugs and robbery. And the plane is in there because it was always late.

And their roommates.

And eventually, best friends.

“Plain Folk” – coming to Peacock this April.

Confirmation Hearings

-via Washington Post

Another day of Senate confirmation hearings has come and gone. I’m not going to give the rundown of each of them, but just in case you took some time off from the news like I did, here’s who Trump has selected for each of these top spots. Spoiler alert… they’re not great!

For Attorney General, Trump originally selected Matt Gaetz but then everyone was like “hey isn’t he being investigated for sex trafficking and having relations with a 17-year-old, as well as paying for relations with others?” and then the House went back and forth and ultimately released a report showing exactly how gross Matt Gaetz was and for one brief moment we all related to Kevin McCarthy who’s only redeamining wuality is that he hates Matt Gaetz as much as he should and so then Trump finally stopped backing Matt and went to… Pam Bondi.

Pam is the former AG of Florida

As a reminder, Trump has often talked about how his adversaries should be in jail so a lot of people wanted to know: “hey Pam, ya gonna do that?” She said no in her hearings but… I wouldn’t put a lot of stock in that. I mean, let’s wait to see! Let’s see if we can be surprised!

Notably, she backed up Trump’s claim that the DOJ was weaponized, adding “They targeted Donald Trump. They went after him — actually starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him.”

So that’s a bummer.

And yeah, they did launch investigations into him. Because of all the crimes he did! He did insurrection! We saw! He did a bunch of crimes and the reason we know that is because, most of the time, he told us about them!

Anyway, that’s Pam!

Florida’s Senator Marco Rubio, who you may remember Trump previously referring to as “Little Marco” is his pick to lead the State Department.

Former Texas congressmember John Ratcliffe is his pick for CIA director. He was a member of Trump’s defense team for his first impeachment (because remember – he’s the only twice impeached felon we’ve ever reelected president). However, he did warned White House staffers that overturning, or attempting to overturn, the 2020 election results was bad so… at least there’s that.

Chris Wright is his pick for energy secretary. He is the founder and chief executive of a fracking firm and as recently as 2023 said, “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either.”

Sean Duffy, of MTV’s Real World fame, is his pick for transportation secretary. Good luck filling Mayor Pete’s shoes! Duffy has been a frequent contributor of Fox News for the last 4 years or so. He was also a Wisconsin congressmember.

Rounding out Wednesday, Russell Vought is his pick for director of the Office of Management and Budget. And for all my “Trump didn’t know anything about Project 2025” folks… this man is the co-author. Fear not… hardly anyone asked him about in on Wednesday anyway. He believes that the office of the president can, and should, be expanded; programs should have spending cut without the approval of Congress; the president can use the military during civil unrest; and that the president should have more control over the DOJ.

Not ideal!

Probably gonna get the gig.

What a job we have ahead of us for the next four years!

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I got a new episode of Plain Folk to watch.

It’s a pun, you see. Because “plain” is spelled “plain” and so it’s like… one of the cellmates is a plane, but they’re also just plain folks. It’s a pun as well as a statement on the way our justice and prison systems need to be rethought.

Wait… should we do this? Should we pitch this for real?

I’m proud of… dragons. I guess. Sure, why not?

But more than that… because you’re not a very large serpent… I’m proud of you.