03/26/25
Good morning! It’s Thursday, March 27th.
International Whiskey Day.
Fun fact – whiskey, spelled with an e before the why, refers to grain spirits that are distilled in Ireland and the United States. Without the e refers to grain spirits distilled in Scotland, Canada, or Japan.
We love fun facts!
And now, the news.
Supreme Court Rules on Ghost Guns
-via SCOTUSblog
Starting with a Supreme Court ruling on ghost guns. On Wednesday, the court handed down a 7-2 decision to uphold the Biden-era restrictions on ghost guns, which are untraceable guns that can be ordered in pieces and then put together without anyone knowing you have the gun.
The only two decenters were, and I’m sure you’ll be shocked by this… Historic Badman Clarence Thomas and Sam Aleako.
That’s actually not that surprising (because, you know… comeon) But also because in the original arguments, Aleako asked this really mindblowing, super smart, question… “If I show you — I put out on a counter some eggs, some chopped-up ham, some chopped-up pepper and onions, is that a Western omelet?”
No, man, obviously, it’s not a Western omelet. It’s the ingredients for a Western omelet. And if Western omelets were killing school kids and I heard you had the ingredients for a Western omelet out on your counter, I’d be like – hello? Police?
Sidenote… what an absolute putz that all of the ingredients for a Western omelet, all on the counter right next to each other, don’t make a Western omelet. But if a person capable of getting pregnant even thinks about ovulating… PREGNANT! Keep the baby! No option. Sorry.
Anyway, everyone else voted to uphold the regulations that are based on the radical idea that ghost guns are, in fact… guns.
Trump v Homelessness
-via CBS News
In classic Trump fashion, on Wednesday he vowed to take a new approach to homelessness by, and this is genuinely a chilling statement to be making here…. Putting them in camps and mandating mental health and addiction treatment.
Putting people in camps.
A formal policy has not yet been announced, but that was also a part of his campaign. This would cut housing initiatives and instead impose fines, and possible jail time, on folks.
Meanwhile, he’s also slashed federal funding for programs that would actually help people who are currently experiencing homelessness.
So… putting people in camps while slashing programs that will help them.
Why do I feel like, as DOGE shuffles everything around, this ends up with the Department of Defense?
Housing First is a program that was implemented on a national level in 2004 by the Bush administration. Obama expanded it, and Biden expanded it further. It provides folks with social services and case management without requiring work or sobriety. It’s just about getting folks into a place with a door that locks, which, study after study shows, is an absolute game changer for folks experiencing homelessness. Once they have that, folks have the ability to think about a job search, mental and physical health, and, if needed, sobriety.
This isn’t that.
And let’s say, as impossible as it is, that this works. Let’s be yay-sayers for a moment. It works and folks are ready to leave… where will they go?
Individuals are helped, great. The problem persists.
This is only going to make things worse.
And isn’t that really the motto of Trump?
US Ends International Vaccine Program
Speaking of making things worse and also general heartlessness at a level rarely seen.
A 281-page document was sent to Congress from USAID, outlining programs it would cut, including… the organization that purchases vaccines for kids in developing countries to save lives. They’re also going to scale back efforts to fight malaria. In 2022, there were an estimated 249 million malaria cases in the world, leading to more than 608,000 deaths.
In one single year.
Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases in the world. In addition to ensuring an accurate diagnosis and treatment, do you know the easiest way to prevent it? Insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor bug spray.
By the organization who lost the funding estimates that 75 million children will not receive routine vaccines for the next five years, killing at least 1.2 million kids.
1.2 million kids.
This administration is so incredibly heartless.
Alien Enemies Act
-via CNN
Speaking of!
On Wednesday, in a not-heartless ruling, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that Trump cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to essentially kidnap Venezuelans in America and send them to a truly horrific prison in El Salvador.
Expect this one to go to the Supremes.
Yemen Group Chat
-via The Washington Post
And, of course, we’ve got an update on the war plans group chat.
On Wednesday, the directors of the CIA and National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe and Tulsi Gabbard, testified once more before the House Intelligence Committee about how, on earth, it came to pass that the plan to attack Houthis in Yemen was one: discussed on Signal when there are a plethora of government-sanctioned secured apps and locations that this group could have used instead, and two: how the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was added to this group.
And you’ll never believe it… on Tuesday, no one could recall a single thing… that happened two weeks ago.
On Wednesday they were purposely vague because a suit was filed to allege they violated federal records laws and to prevent the messages in the group chat from being deleted.
The signal does erase messages based on what the user sets the preferences for. This group chat has that preference set for four weeks, so all those messages should still be there – unless someone violates the law and deletes it on their own.
Violating the law? This group? How dare you!
Expect more hearings.
Also, on Wednesday, the Atlantic published more messages from the group just to further verify the story and to push back against the administration’s angle that no confidential information was discussed in the chat.
Because obviously that’s a lie.
But like… did Tuls really forget what was discussed two weeks ago or did she lie on oath? Cause if she lied, that’s not good. But if she can’t remember… we’ve already got Trump not remember whether he signed something or if people are signing things on his behalf. What’s in the water in the White House?
I’m kidding… they’re drinking water there. It’s all Diet Coke and bad ideas.
Also – I have to assume she lied.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Okay this time for real, no episode tomorrow.
But like, I’m going to miss you so so much.
Today is opening day for the Padres! All of baseball, technically, but The San Diego Padres! America’s Finest City! Right now, in this moment, we are #1 in the league and no one can take that away from us.
I’m proud of the Padres.
We did it! #1!
But more than that, because you’re always the best of the best… I’m proud of you.