02/20/25
Good morning! It’s Thursday, February 20th.
Clean Out Your Bookcase Day
Who did this? I’m not doing it. This feels personal and to whoever created this I just want to respectfully decline. And also, joke’s on you because the books aren’t just on the bookcases. They’re under the coffee table too, because there’s no more room on the bookcase.
And now, the news.
Yet Another Plane Collision
-via CNN
Starting in Arizona where at least one person is dead after yet another mid-air flight collision. It happened just before 8:30 AM with two small planes colliding near the runway.
The FAA calls this type of field an “uncontrolled field” which means pilots use a Common Traffic Advisory Frequency because there is no air traffic control tower in use.
Obviously an investigation is taking place.
Hours after the crash, the only tweet from Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy was a link to his op-ed on Fox News that said, in part: “President Donald Trump has already started implementing his bold vision to rebuild our nation, and modernizing our air traffic systems will be a crucial part of that legacy.”
Oh, it’ll be a part of his legacy all right.
Russian Into Trouble
-via NPR, Washington Post, and BBC
The worrisome bond of Trump and Putin, and rivalry of Trump and Zelensky, took a new turn on Wednesday when Trump took to his ironically-named Truth Social and called, in a post laden with misspellings and odd capitalizations (as well as putting quotes around his own all-caps name), Trump referred to Zelensky as a dictator. In another post, he also said his approval rating was 4%. It’s at 57%.
Trump likely had the number four on his mind, because his approval rating is 44%.
The reason he called Zelensky a dictator is that the country was supposed to have an election last year. However, there is a law in the country that states there can be no election under martial law.
And even if that weren’t the case, how could Ukraine possibly be expected to hold a fair election right now, with millions of Ukrainians are have fled to Europe, millions more are displaced within the country, and nearly 500,000 troops are fighting in the war. Not to mention how much of the country is currently occupied by Russia.
I should also mention that, late Tuesday, Trump was asked about Ukraine’s comments regarding not being invited to the talks between Russia and the US. Here is what Trump said: “Today I heard, ‘Oh, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Ukraine did not ask for this war. Ukraine was invaded. Ukraine has been under attack.
And where we were an ally for Ukraine, after less than a month in office Trump is already siding with Russia in a way that baffles even our closes allies. With France’s Sophie Primas calling Trump’s comments “diverse, varied and often incomprehensible,” before adding: “We do not understand the American logic very well.”
Don’t worry Soph, neither do we.
In a very cool response from one of Ukraine’s mayors, who has often criticized Zelensky, Borys Filatov said this: “We may like Zelensky, or we may not. We may scold him, or we may praise him. We may condemn his actions, or we may applaud them. Because he is OUR president, as he is. It makes no difference whether he is bad or not. And no lying creature, neither in Moscow, nor in Washington, nor anywhere, has the right to open his mouth against him.”
In other words – keep Ukraine out your mouth.
Eric Adams
-via Washington Post and NY Times
On Wednesday Judge Ho heard arguments in the Eric Adams case as the Department of Justice offered their reasoning for the judge to drop the case. No decision has been made yet, as the judge asked for “patience as I consider these issues carefully.”
Acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III represented the government in the courthouse. Bove has been the person pushing for the case to be dropped, after directed by the Trump.
Adams’ lawyers argued that the indictment had made him unable to work with a federal task for on immigration. Interesting, because before all of this, Adams said the indictment hadn’t interfered in his work in any way.
Did he… lie??
Following today’s hearing, Bove sent an email inviting any other officials at the Department of Justice to quit if they have an issue with him trying to get these charges dropped.
Which is a petulant thing to do, and also risky because seven people have already quit over this. How many more people are you trying to add? Or, I guess, subtract.
King of New York
On Wednesday, Real World/Road Rules star Sean Duffy sent a letter, on behalf of Trump, to New York’s Kathy Hochul objecting to New York City’s congestion pricing program and calling for it to end. No date for its end has been given, but the order to cancel the program was already challenged in federal court by the MTA, which manages the polls.
Trump called for the program to end because it draws visitors and businesses away from Manhattan.
Okay, here’s the thing. I can’t speak to that. This isn’t about that.
This is about the President of the United States, who is currently working on doing ethnic cleansing in Gaza and buddying up with Vladimir Putin, sticking his nose in the business of a city.
Leave this to the state.
And to make it even weirder… the official White House Twitter account then posted a picture made to look like Trump was on the cover of Time magazine (but instead of Time, the magazine was called Trump). And it’s a picture of him with a crown on, calling him a King.
The White House, referring to the president as a King.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
A little bit shorter of an episode because the White House referred to Trump as a King and I realize there’s a lot of look at this shiny object while we do worse stuff happening, but that’s a little thing that feels like not a great sign.
Also I know I said I’d cover the Trump/Elon interview but it wasn’t that interesting. Although I do have to tell you that Trump used the word “speeded.” That’s obviously not a word, but that’s what he said. He was trying to say, “that sped it up” but he literally said “that speeded it up” and that’s… that’s who people voted for! That’s who represents us on the world’s stage!
And so that’s why I must, for my own sanity, do a shorter (more typical) episode today.
I’m proud of… bookcases! Mine are just barely hanging on. Doing the best they can.
But more than that, because you’re doing better than just the best you can. You’re doing the best that anyone could possibly do… I’m proud of you.