03/31/25
Good morning! It’s Monday, March 31st.
Cesar Chavez Day.
Cesar Chavez Day is a federal holiday that was initiated by President Obama in 2014. It commemorates Cesar Chavez, a labor leader and community organizer who, along with Dolores Huerta, founded the National Farm Workers Association.
He spent his life participating in labor strikes, protests, and uprisings around the country, leading hundreds of sit-ins and labor protests. He also led hundreds of voter registration drives.
And now, the news.
Earthquakes
Starting with two stories of two earthquakes.
First, on Friday, a 7.7 earthquake rocked southeast Asia. The epicenter was in Mandalay, Myanmar but the ramifications spread as far as Bangkok, 600 miles away.
The majority of deaths and injuries are in Myanmar where, a s of this recording, at least 1,644 people have been killed, another 3,408 have been injured, and at least 130 others are missing.
In Bangkok, at least 18 were killed, 33 are injured, and another 78 are missing.
Also known as Burma, Myanmar has been embroiled in a long internal conflict since it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1948. It’s actually the world’s longest civil war. Most recently, in 2021 the civilian government was overthrown in a military coup.
In the wake of this earthquake, The National Unity Government, the representative body of the civilian government that was overthrown, announced a "two-week pause in offensive military operations.”
The military government has not yet made a comment.
So that was Friday.
On Sunday, a 7.0 earthquake hit the South Pacific in Tonga, which then set off a tsunami warning, which has since been lifted.
As of this recording, there have not been any reported deaths related to that quake.
FCC Investigating Private Companies
-via NPR
In a letter sent on Thursday, the chair of the FCC announced to Disney Corporations, as well as ABC network, that they’re now under investigation for violating FCC’s equal employment opportunity regulations.
But not like… not like you think.
Because remember, we’re in the upside-down now, and Brendan Carr, the chair of the FCC, who Trump himself handpicked, is investigating the company because, "Numerous reports indicate that Disney's leadership went all in on invidious forms of DEI discrimination a few years ago and apparently did so in a manner that infected many aspects of your company's decisions."
“As you know, Disney started out a century ago as an iconic American company. For decades, Disney focused on churning out box office and programming successes. But then something changed. Disney has now been embroiled in rounds of controversy surrounding its DEI policies.”
I wonder what they mean by “an iconic American company,” and why they’re so upset about Disney now?
Just kidding, I don’t wonder.
This is the government going after a private company, who does, yes, have business in front of the government because they have access to the airwaves, simply because they don’t like that the company has created their own company bylaws that include, among other things, inclusivity.
Be crystal clear about what’s going on here.
Disney says they are reviewing the letter and will respond.
What a terrible time in our history.
Elon’s Election Games
-via AP News
Speaking of terrible – Elon Musk!
There is a very important Wisconsin state supreme court race that, if a Republican wins, will be devastating for the state and country. Abortion rights, gerrymandering, election laws, union power… big big stuff is on the ballot in this justice’s race.
So naturally, Elon Musk is doing exactly what he did last year and handing out $1 million checks to voters, in a lottery-type system, to voters who say they’ll vote for the Republican-supported candidate.
Obviously, this is legally dubious as best, just as it was in 2024. But in 2024, there wasn’t really a definitive no and punishment for Musk doing this. Which means, of course, he’s doing it again.
The state’s AG asked an appellate court to put a stop to the checks, but that was denied.
So, it looks like, by the time you hear this, Musk will have given out a million dollars each to two voters, as well as $100 to anyone who signs a petition against what he calls activist judges.
They don’t have a problem with activist judges. Most judges aren’t activists. But when you’re not following the law, and so judges rule against you, the only thing to do is to is… more crimes and try and twist things to make it seem like everyone who isn’t directly for you is against you.
Feels like it would be easier to just not do crimes and find a hobby instead. Collect silly sunglasses or something.
That’s just me, though.
Rumeysa Ozturk
-via CNN and Constitution
And unfortunately, what started as a dystopian story is now a dystopian series because last week Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts PhD student who was meeting friends to break their 13-hour Ramadan fast, was captured by six police officers wearing cloths over their mouths and nose, some of them even in sunglasses, before she was tossed into an SUV and driven away before she was flown more than 1,500 miles away to a staging facility in Louisiana.
It's vital to note here that the flight is a violation of a court order given after her arrest, which stated she was not allowed to be moved out of Massachusetts without 48-hour notice.
In that illegal transfer, she was not given access to a lawyer.
Nor was she charged. She still hasn’t been charged.
Snatched off the street, taken out of state in violation of the court, and not charged with a crime.
That’s kidnapping!
Why was Ozturk kidnapped?
Because she is originally from Turkey, though she is here legally on a valid student visa, and co-wrote an op-ed in the school’s newspaper, in which the students called for Tufts to divest from companies that have ties to Israel because of the atrocities in Gaza.
Snatched off the street, taken out of state in violation of the court, and not charged with a crime – for using her first amendment rights.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
That’s it. That’s the whole First Amendment.
It doesn’t say it only applies to citizens – it applies to everyone in America.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere.” MLK Jr. It’s one of my all-time favorite quotes.
If freedom of speech is only for citizens, then it’s actually for no one. Because if the only thing that gives you freedom of speech is your citizenship, and the government can take that away, then there actually isn’t a freedom of speech.
And I know that’s a terrifying idea, because freedom of speech is literally the first amendment.
But it’s also very real.
I’m not telling you this so you can be afraid.
I’m telling you this so we can stay aware. So we can fight back.
Trump’s Weekend Moves
-via BBC, The Guardian, and AP News
And last, we’ve got this cluster of stories that are short but we still should cover and I guess we’ll call this section… what if his dad had just told him he was proud of him when he was a kid? Then what? Then where would we be?
All of these stories came from a single NBC News interview that Trump gave.
First – we’re going to talk about this more tomorrow, but Trump is unleashing more tariffs on April 2nd, including on foreign-made cars.
On Saturday, he said he “couldn’t care less” that car prices will go up. Now, for context the rest of that was because he believes people will just buy American.
Okay well even if that were true… American cars are still often built in Mexico or Canada. And even if that’s not the case, parts still come from other countries.
Can you imagine if, just for a moment, a brief beautiful moment, Trump understood anything?
We also learned, over the weekend, that Trump is big mad at Putin because he, Trump, wants a ceasefire so he can put it on his resume (I guess. I don’t know. He doesn’t actually care about what’s happening in Ukraine, he just wants to accolades). But Putin is in no rush to sign a ceasefire because they want Ukraine. Full stop.
In the interview, Trump said he would put secondary tariffs on oil in Russia, to anywhere between 25 and 50%.
He wants to date of the ceasefire to be Easter. So expect this not to happen because he also said covid would be completely gone by Easter of 2020.
Also, in that interview, he said, “We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%” before adding that there’s a “good possibility that we could do it without military force … I don’t take anything off the table.”
He also said that if Iran doesn’t make a deal to curb their nuclear weapons program soon, “there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
And then, there’s this… once again he talked about a third time but time time said “I’m not joking.”
I’m not joking.
I said, the entire time he was running, that if he won that was the ballgame. No more presidential elections, not really.
And I knew this would happen, but I didn’t expect it to happen this fast.
He has talked about this a few times, very casually. But he’s never followed it up with this. “I’m not joking.”
Take this seriously – because he absolutely is.
So that’s… not great.
Stop giving him interviews! He says scary stuff!
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Happy Monday, the president wants to run for a third term!
Let’s try for jokes tomorrow.
I’m proud of Cesar Chavez. Also, Dolores Huerta. Anyone who stands up and fights.
Because we have to.
The only way out is through. And right now it feels like the “through” is through a brick wall, but we have to fight.
And because I know you know, and because I know you’re in this… I’m proud of you.