02/11/25
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, February 11th.
International Day of Women and Girls in Science Day!
Ladies! Doing lady things! Like science!
Over the past two decades, women have been more likely to receive an undergraduate degree than men, but are less likely to earn a STEM degree (science, tech, engineering, or math) than the fellas.
But ladies still DO science! Like Rosalind Franklin, born in Notting Hill, which is a city, as well as an excellent movie. She discovered the basic dimensions of DNA.
Or Caroline Herschel, the first woman to discover a comet.
Or Alice August Ball, the chemist who cured Hansen’s disease, aka leprosy, when she was just 23 years old.
When I was 23, I was closing a Hollywood Video down.
Women truly contain multitudes.
And now, the news.
Bus Crash in Guatemala City
-via ABC News
Starting with the news out of Guatemala City, Guatemala, where at least 51 people have died, and 20 more were injured, after a bus drove off a highway and into a ravine.
An investigation is going, as the country’s president saying they will have three days of national mourning.
Hamas Accused Israel of Violating Ceasefire
On Monday, Hamas announced that they are delaying the further release of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip after they accused Israel of violating the three-week-old ceasefire.
Hamas is accusing Israel of not allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, carrying out strikes in Gaza, and not facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Not unlike general relations in the Middle East, this ceasefire deal is obviously very fragile.
So of course, it is extra concerning that Donald Trump is still talking about how he wants to own Gaza, and use it as a real estate development for the future as he casually displaces almost two million people.
During his original announcement, Trump said he envisioned “the world people living there, the world’s people,” which is… that’s a child’s answer. That’s what children say.
Anyway, he has switched his answer now and, when asked by Fox News’ Bret Baier in a clip from an interview that was released on Monday, he said they would not have the right to return to their land. “No, they wouldn’t because they’re going to have much better housing, much better.”
So now he’s saying, straight up, Palestinians in Gaza will not be able to return to their home. So I’m sure that’s not helping the ceasefire, necessarily. In fact, in order to try and drum up a little good favor with Trump, the Palestinian President ended the co-called “martyr’s fund” which pays stipends to the families of Palestinian prisoners, including any convicted in the October 7th attack on Israel.
I’ll keep you updated.
Russia Says US Relations Are Near Collapse
-via NBC News
On Monday, despite Trump saying he spoke with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Sunday, the Kremlin said US-Russian relations are on the brink of collapse and would not confirm the existence of the call Trump said he had.
Oh, your international relationship with us is on shaky ground? Join the club, man! We elected this absolute buffoon and now no one likes us. Canada’s making Super Bowl commercials about how we should stay best friends.
Yeah, you hear that? We’re on shaky ground with Canada. We’ve got a lot to worry about!
Anyway, this isn’t great.
In addition to the drama between Trump and Putin, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister also reiterated to the media conference that the war in Ukraine would not end until Kyiv dropped its ambitions to join NATO and withdrawals from the four regions of Ukraine that Russia is attempting to steal.
It’s so interesting because I’m pretty sure Trump said he’d end that war on day one.
And yet…
The NSA is About to Hit Delete
-via Popular
In a memo distributed by the National Security Agency on Monday, the NSA alerted staff that all websites or internal network pages that include any of the 27 banned words they gave (don’t worry, we’ll get to those bad bad words in a minute), will be deleted.
Not edited. Deleted.
And what are these words that are so bad, so dangerous to our national security, that they the website must resort to what they’re calling a “big delete”?
Brace yourself. I know I like to keep it PG here, but call me this generation’s George Carlin because I’m about to need a parental advisory up in this episode.
Here are the 27 words that are now banned from the NSA’s website:
Anti-Racism, Racism, Allyship, Bias, DEI, Diversity, Diverse, Confirmation Bias, Equity, Equitableness, Feminism, Gender, Gender Identity, Inclusion, Inclusive, All-Inclusive, Inclusivity, Injustice, Intersectionality, Prejudice, Privilege, Racial Identity, Sexuality, Stereotypes, Pronouns, Transgender, and Equality.
Imagine being so afraid of your own shadow that you’re deleting whole websites if they include the word “equality.”
The problem here, well one of the problems, is that some of those words do other things. Crazy, I know. But like – words do multiple things.
Take, for example, the word “privilege” … in the intelligence world, that can also refer to "techniques that adversaries use to gain higher-level permissions on a system or network." AKA – privilege escalation.
But according to a source who spoke with a website called Popular, the process is so chaotic, and not well-staffed, so it’s possible way more sites are going to be shut down. The chaos is the point here.
Well, the chaos and the hate.
New Tariffs
-via CNN
On Monday, Trump announced new blanket 25% tariffs against all steel and aluminum imports into the United States.
Well, he announced that he’d be announcing it. As of this recording, he has yet to do the actual announcing so far.
He is also planning matching tariffs who put a tariff on US imports.
As a reminder, when a tariff is placed on something being imported into the US, the US is who pays for it.
Just… feels like something we want to remember.
Federal Funding Freeze
-via ProPublica
Despite a judge ruling last week to block the federal fund implemented by the OMB and directed by Trump, Propublica is reporting that there are many agencies still withholding the money. For example, a health clinic in Phoenix that serves, among the thousands of people within their care, members of the LGBTQ+ community. They did receive their funding last week, but it came with a note from the US Department of Health and Human Services noting “Executive Orders regarding potentially unallowable grant payments,” as a reason that they will continue “taking additional measures to process payments” and reviews “will result in delays and/or rejections of payments.”
And that clinic is not alone. Many agency are still refusing to send the funding that they are mandated to send, based on either Trump’s direction or the agency’s own judgement.
On Monday, Judge McConnell Jr ruled that the Trump administration violated a restraining order by keeping those fund frozen, calling the freeze “likely unconstitutional” and ruling that the funds must immediately be restored unless they can show “a specific instance where they are acting in compliance with this order but otherwise withholding funds due to specific authority.”
Neither the White House nor the Department of HHS have commented on the judge’s ruling yet, but if this is ringing any bells or flags, perhaps of the red variety, let’s remember that just this past weekend JD Vance tweeted: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
Which is, of course, not true. But we’ll see if this one comes back around.
Trump Wants to Get Rid of the Penny
-via NPR
On Sunday, after spending $15 million of our tax dollars to attend the Super Bowl, Trump announced that he ordered the secretary of the Treasury to stop printing new pennies, calling it “wasteful.”
This is not a new thought.
This was literally a storyline on West Wing! Also, Obama had the same thought.
But first of all – it’s not even clear that he can do this.
Congress oversees the Mint’s operations and I realize we’re in the middle of a Constitutional crisis but we don’t need to go full out with it. So, there’s gray area – it might need Congressional approval or it could be just be that the secretary of the Treasury can halt production.
And of course, this hasn’t even been studied properly. You can obviously point to production costs and say that if it costs more to make than they’re worth, let’s make a cut.
But on the other hand, prices will round up to the nearest nickel and now we’re raising prices. However, others argue it’s just as likely that things will go down to the nearest nickel.
The bottom line is - this hasn’t been studied, we just don’t know. It might be a good idea, it might be a bad idea. But if it’s not being studied, and Trump’s just out her making decisions that are legally murky and done without any preparation… well just because it’s the norm, doesn’t mean it’s okay.
Kanye’s Antisemitism
-via Rolling Stone, CNN, and NPR
Last Friday and into the weekend through Sunday, Kayne West went on yet another antisemitic rant on Twitter. This time he really mixed it up – weaving antisemitism in with homophobia, misogyny, and ableism. He also took personal attacks at Taylor Swift, admitted that he had “hit women,” and tagged Donald Trump in his personal appeal to free Sean Combs.
His tweets were finally labeled NSFW, though it’s not clear if it’s because of that. Or because he started reposting porn.
In the midst of all of that, a Super Bowl commercial aired which was just Kanye, sitting in what appeared to be a dentist’s chair, telling people to go to his website. The only thing on his website, which is still up as of this recording, is a t-shirt with a swastika on it.
Now, we have been down this path with Kanye before and frankly, I almost didn’t want to talk about it. He is clearly a terrible person looking for attention.
And I don’t want to give that to him.
But we do have to talk about this because the last thing he tweeted, before he decided to clear his account, was this: "I'm logging out of Twitter. I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent. It has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board. It was like an Ayahuasca trip. Love all of you who gave me your energy and attention. To we connect again. Good afternoon and good night."
I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent.
Elon, who did a nazi salute on the world’s stage.
Elon, who appeared virtually at a campaign event for a far-right German political party to urge them not to be ashamed of the country’s history. That history, of course being… the holocaust.
Don’t be embarrassed by the Holocaust.
That is who Kanye thanked for the platform.
That is who Trump named his most special government employee as he let him get his little far-right grub hands in every aspect of our government.
I’m disgusted by all of it. Every aspect of it. But unfortunately we still have to know about it because these are the people that Trump willingly surrounds himself with.
Sheeran’s Busking Shut Down
-via CBS News
And I can’t just leave you with that! That can’t be the last story. On a Tuesday?
In New Delhi, India, Ed Sheeran surprised fans by doing an impromptu show on Church Sheet. However, local police quite literally pulled the plug because they said he didn’t have permission to perform in the public space.
Sheeran said he had permission to busk and I believe him. He’s always out busking around. He’s a busking boy!
Anyway, that’s not really much of a story but I like Ed Sheeran and I love the word “busk” so it was a must do.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Not great! Too much news! Too much bad news!
But you know what? We got through it. We’re here.
I’m proud of… Ed Sheeran. Little cutie. His little guitar. Oi, I’m singing here!
But more than that, and certainly more than that spot on impression where certainly, for a moment there, you were like wow! She booked Ed Sheeran for a little guest spot!. Because you are also talented… I’m proud of you.