04/11/24

Good morning! It’s Thursday, April 11th.

National Pet Day!

Listen, I love her, we all know I do but… how many days does Ruth get? Because I don’t mean to blow your mind but unless you’re a literal monster, all the days are pet days.

But also… well deserved. They’re so cute!

And now, the news.

Update in Arizona

-via NY Times

Let’s start with an update to the ramifications of Arizona’s absolutely backwards and disgusting decision to enact an 1864 law the makes abortion illegal in the state.

First update – I’m still mad. Are you still mad? Great – we’re staying mad until November.

Next update – on Wednesday, Democrats attempted to push forward a series of bills that would have repealed the ban and force Republicans to take a vote, aka actually put on paper where they stand on abortion.

But in the Senate, Republican leaders removed the bill from the day’s agenda. And in the House, a Republican did call for a vote on a bill that would repeal the ban (it’s been in the House, stalled, for months because Arizona’s taken a few swings at banning abortions this year), but Republican leaders called for a recess and then adjourned for a week.

They don’t want this to come to a vote in state Congress? Okay, have it your way.

Every single Arizona state congressmember, in the State House and in the State Senate, are up for election this year. Every single one of them. Enshrining abortion into the State Constitution may also be up for vote this year.

Fine, be a chicken. Don’t even let this come up for a vote.

Let’s see how this works out for you come November.

Update your resumes.

Because imagine voting to keep in power a group that are so absolutely lame that instead of even bothering to vote on something, instead of saying it with their chest, they factually ran away. Shut down the State House for a whole week, instead of standing by their beliefs. It’s almost as if, hear me out… they don’t have beliefs. They just, you know, hate women.

Gotta say, good for the Dems here. Get caught trying.

Michigan Parents Charged

-via CNN

On Tuesday, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, the Michigan teen who killed four students in a 2021 school shooting, were each sentenced to ten to fifteen years in prison, after being convicted of manslaughter for the part they played in the shooting.

The part they played, by the way, was giving him their son the gun, failing to secure it, and failing to get their son proper mental health treatment.

As a reminder, this is the first time that the parent of a school shooter has been charged for their roll in their child’s mass shooting.

Trump Crime Update Time

-via Washington Post

And finally, how about a little

Trump Crime Update Time

(The final countdown, edition)

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again… well I’m not here to diagnose someone I’ve never met but for the third time this week, team Trump was denied in their request to delay Monday’s hush money (better name pending) trial.

This time his request for a delay was that the judge wasn’t qualified.

My guy, if you are (somehow) qualified (in some people’s eyes) to be president, certainly this actual judge is qualified to be a judge.

Jury selection starts Monday for the case that will often be known as the hush money trial, but in actuality is an election interference trial, because he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to payoff adult film star Stormy Daniels in order to keep an affair with her quiet ahead of the 2016 election.

This is a criminal case, which means Trump will need to be there, in court, during the trial. It’s going to be quite the sight. I mean, unfortunately this country continues to uplift a sexual assaulting grifter who continues to be in court for his various crimes. But up until now, those have been civil cases. Sometimes he’s there, sometimes he isn’t.

This is different. Because it’s a criminal trial, he will need to be there. And as a country, we are going to need to start wrapping our heads around a former president, and current Republican nominee for that seat, being sat in a criminal trial.

What a time. (Not a great time. But still, technically a time, nonetheless)

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Honestly a lot of the news was about Arizona. As it should be.

But oh – I have some personal news!

I wrote a book! Well, a novella. Five years ago I released a short story called December. And now I’m re-releasing it as a novella. It’s also called December and you can buy it on Amazon. If, by chance, you come across two versions of December on Amazon, you want the one with the green cover that came out this year. I mean, you can also buy the short story that came out five years ago, but this one has all the words in the short story, as well as some new ones.

Zero jokes. Zero politics. Some romance. Some sad stuff.

December! In paperback on Amazon, or as an ebook on Amazon and Apple Books. Link in show notes.

Yikes.

I’m proud of… Ruth. Imagine being my roommate (one of you is listening right now and knows exactly what that’s like). Not easy, that’s for sure.

But more than… 8-tracks, it’s also National Eight Track  Tape Day… because you’ll never go out of date… I’m proud of you.