02/03/25
Good morning! It’s Monday, February 3nd.
The second day of Black History Month.
On Saturday, the first day of the month, President Trump signed the declaration declaring February to be Black History Month, as every president has done since 1976. Honestly, it was a little bit of a surprise since he blame quite literally everything on DEI and in fact, the day before he took his big sharpie to the proclamation, the Department of Defense was putting at a memo titled “Indentity Months Dead at DoD.” The memo noted that official resources would no longer be put to celebrating Women’s History Month; Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month; Pride Month; National Hispanic Heritage Month; National Disability Employment Awareness Month; and National American Indian Heritage Month.
But look, here’s the thing… whether the DoD uses federal resources, whether the president signs a proclamation… there is still Black History. Without Black Americans, we wouldn’t have automatic elevator doors, dryers, gas masks, traffic lights, potato chips, or, are you ready for this? The Super Soaker water gun. Come on!
But even without that… your worth is not tied to your contributions to water fights. There is still Black History. There is no America without Black history.
And now, the news.
Philadelphia Helicopter Crash
-via ABC News
Just a note, this episode is going to be longer than normal. There’s just… there’s just so much news. All the time.
Starting with the awful news that, on Friday, there was yet another aircraft crash. This one happened in Philadelphia, when a small medical transport jet carrying an eleven-year-old pediatric patient, her mom, and four other, crashed in a high-impact crash after being in the air for less than a minute. All six people were Mexican citizens and were headed home after the patient had just finished treatment at Shriners Hospital.
The jet crashed into a strip mall. On the ground, one person is dead while the number of injured has risen to 22, with three people in critical condition.
An investigation is underway, but listen – I know two crashes in three days is a scary concept, and I’m not here to tell you how to feel, but I think you should try and remember what former Real World roommate, and current Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy had to say about these crashes: “obviously it is not standard to have aircraft collide. I want to be clear on that.”
So we do at least know that… Thanks Duff.
FB-I Never Heard of Her
-via CNN
On Friday, FBI leaders were told that they have until tomorrow to turn over the names of everyone who worked on the investigations into January 6th, as well as various Trump-related investigations (because, remember! He did more than insurrection! Money crimes, election interference, sexual assault, tie lengths… many crimes of various degrees of bad.
It is expected that those people will be given a giant cake for their work in preserving our system of justice upon which a pillar of our democracy was built-oops! Misread that! It is expected that these people will be fired.
See what I’m trying to do is give ya a little sugar. Some hahas, because this is… bad. This is bad. He’s asking for people who worked “at any time” on any of these investigations. People don’t get to pick and choose which cases they’ll be working on. So we’re talking about what could potentially be thousands of people being fired, some of whom probably worked minimally at best.
And the reason we know they’re probably going to be fired is because the memo was attached to an email with the subject like “termination.”
One agent said this about the email: “This is a massacre meant to chill our efforts to fight crime without fear or favor. Even for those not fired, it sends the message that the bureau is no longer independent.”
Also on Friday, about a dozen prosecutors who worked on January 6th cases on a temporary position, but who had their positions made permanent at the end of Biden’s term, were fired.
So expect tomorrow to be a big news day. And honestly, at this rate, who knows what’ll lead the day but this will definitely be a headline at some point.
I know things are bleak right now, but this segment is called “FB-I Never Heard of Her” and that’s solid.
Tariffs Begin
-via AP News, The Daily Beast, and BBC
Welp. The tariffs are officially here.
On Saturday, President Trump signed off on 10% tariffs on all imports from China, and 25% on all imports from Canada and Mexico.
In response, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “The actions taken today by the White House split us apart instead of bringing us together,” before announcing 25% tariffs on imports up to $155 billion, including alcohol and fruit.
Adding to that, Ontario’s Premier said they will be removing American products from liquor stores, while the British Columbia Premier got more pettier - “Effective today, I have directed BC Liquor sales to immediately stop buying American liquor from red states.”
The tariffs are a bad idea, I want to be absolutely clear about that.
But the pettiness?
We do love to see it.
Mexico also ordered retaliatory tariffs, though they have yet to be announced, with the President saying: “We categorically reject the White House’s slander that the Mexican government has alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of meddling in our territory.” She also added, “If the United States government and its agencies wanted to address the serious fentanyl consumption in their country, they could fight the sale of drugs on the streets of their major cities, which they don’t do and the laundering of money that this illegal activity generates that has done so much harm to its population.”
China has also opposed the tariffs but not yet announced their retaliation.
Canada, Mexico, and China are our three largest supplier countries.
Hey, you know what I keep trying to get going? What if we called it a Tariff-Off. Like a riff-off from Pitch Perfect.
I hate it here.
Musk Gets the Money
On Saturday, The Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE because this is the bad place, gained access to sensitive Treasury data including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems.
This could also allow them to access taxpayer data.
Which means Elon Musk, who I wouldn’t even leave alone with my drink, has now been left alone with the Treasury.
This is what’s becoming a classic – big news, important news, not much known about it news.
We first learned about this on Friday night, when Oregon’s Ron Wyden, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to Trump’s Treasury Secretary to express concern that “officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs.”
This comes after the Treasury’s acting Deputy Secretary resigned because Musk was given this access.
Over the weekend, Musk then went on Twitter (yeah, we call it Twitter here. Guess what? I’m gonna call it Gulf of Mexico too! I am… so brave)… Musk went on Twitter and made outrageous claims about how the Treasury never, not once, ever reject an improper payment. So except he will make some cuts.
It’s also possible Elon and Trump may use this as a workaround to make federal fiscal cuts, which they tried to do last week but as you may recall, it turns the country upside-down in chaos for a moment so… expect that to continue!
So far, Elon’s team has not gained operational capabilities and no government payments have been missed.
Immigration Protections End for Thousands of Venezuelans + ICE Protests
-via CBS News
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary, and person who will never be asked to dog sit, Kristi Noem revoked one of the two Temporary Protected Status designations for Venezuelans in America. The status was originally given because it’s too dangerous to allow Venezuelans to return home safely.
The program is currently, or was until Noem did this, protecting more than 600,000 people. Of those 600,000 people, 350,000 are now two months out from losing their work permits and deportation protections.
People who live here in this country. Who first found safety, and then a life, here in this country. A country built on stolen land, built by stolen people, and whose sonnet on the base of the statue of liberty, a beacon of hope for those in search of a better life says: "Give me your tired, your poor // Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free // The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. // Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, // I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
On Sunday, a protest began on Olvera Street before growing to a few thousand and making their way to City Hall before ultimately walking onto the 101 freeway, shutting it down for a couple hours.
The protestors held signs saying, among other things, “nobody is illegal.”
There were similar rallies and protests in other cities in the country.
I quoted the sonnet from the statue of liberty, but it was missing a piece. This whole thing is this:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, // With conquering limbs astride from land to land; // Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand // A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame // Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name // Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand // Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command // The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. // "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she // With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, // Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, // The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. // Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, // I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
The sonnet is called The New Colossus and the giant of Greek fame the author refers to is Colossus of Rhodes, built to commemorate a military victory.
The author is saying that we’re not meant to conquer by military defeat of other nations, (Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!), but instead stand on the shores to guide people to us, to safe harbor, with the light of a statue of liberty.
There will be many times, many moments, in the next four years, even the next four days at the rate we’re going, where we will be so incredibly exhausted and heartbroken and the truth is that we will ask, out loud or just to ourselves, if there’s even any reason to fight anymore.
That is success, to this administration. Your exhaustion is their purpose.
But it is not your purpose.
We are called to something higher in this moment. We have a democracy to keep.
It will quite literally save lives.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Almost.
That’s not even all the news! Like… what are we doing here? How is that not all of the news?
Come back tomorrow I guess.
I’m proud of… Elijah McCoy.
Back in 1872, Elijah invented "Improvement in Lubricators for Steam-Engines.” It was very popular but, since trains were all the rage back then (as, quit frankly, they should still be!), other people copied his invention. But his was the best one, so to make sure railroaders were getting the best product, they asked… “is this the real McCoy?”
And because you are also the real McCoy… I’m proud of you.