04/22/24
Good morning! It’s Monday, April 22nd.
Earth Day
That’s right. On this day, 2,024 years ago, Earth was born! I remember it well…
No, no – obviously this is a day to celebrate Earth and what it gives to us and remember that we all have a vested interest in its survival. Because while I would be fine with some people living on Mars, I certainly don’t want to be there if they’re there, there’s really no alternative to Earth. So, take out the recycling, compost if you can, and just do your part.
And now, the news.
Israel-Hamas War
Let’s start with an update on the Israel Hamas war, because in Friday’s episode I had to do a record scratch, so let’s talk about things that have happened over the weekend.
First, yes on Friday night Israel did launch a retaliatory attack against Iran.
Following that, Iran grounded flights because the airstrike was near an air base and nuclear site. However, it’s important to note here that, not unlike Iran’s attack on Israel, this had minimal damage and both Israel and Iran are each downplaying both attacks, hopefully signally that they’ve both had their moments, unideal as they may be, but aren’t looking to turn this into a larger, more widespread, escalation.
Now, that doesn’t mean they’re moving forward towards any type of resolution. It simply means they’re not willing to turn this exact back and forth into a broader war.
So that’s that.
In Gaza’s Rafah, 22 people were killed Saturday night as Israel continued their near-daily air raids on the southern city.
That 22, by the way, includes 18 children.
Children.
Rafah is where about half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge – and that it where near-daily air strikes are happening amid Israel’s vow to expand its ground offensive in the city.
This, as the United States was on track to approve a multi-billion dollar military aid package to Israel. How close are they to that aid package? Well…
House Passes Funding Package
-via CNN
Over the weekend, the House passed a $95 billion funding package that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, more than $26 billion for Israel, and more than $8 billion for Indo-Pacific security.
A fourth bill in the package includes a new potential TikTok ban.
Yep.
The first TikTok ban passed through the House, but there is not a clear path to success for it on its own in the Senate. So instead, they are attaching it to the aid to other countries, aid places like Ukraine desperately need.
In theory, the Senate can send the package back to the House and ask them to remove the TikTok bill, but because aid is so urgently needed in Ukraine, it’s unlikely that’ll happen. If it gets signed off on, it heads to Biden’s desk for signature. If he signs, as he as in the past said he would, that starts the clock on a 270-day window in which TikTok needs to find a new buyer.
This is absurd. If TikTok is that dangerous, tell us! Millions of people, myself included, are using this every single day. I have a right to know if it’s as dangerous as they’re acting like it is. I also have a right to know how this is different than what Meta does. Than what Elon Musk does. If not, tell us why Project Texas doesn’t work. I understand that, for our own security, there are going to be things we don’t get to know about national security. But as they continue to say nothing, all it sounds like is happening here is that the government doesn’t want an app that makes as much money as TikTok does to be owned by someone outside of our country.
So we’ll see what happens here. The Senate is expected to start its vote tomorrow.
In the meantime, the least serious person in the House, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has called on Speaker Johnson to resign over the passage of Ukraine aid. She added in an interview over the weekend that if he doesn’t resign, he will be vacated.
We’ll see what happens there as well. Hard to really know who to root for here – Marjorie Taylor Greene, who we should never want to have a Congressional win, or Speaker Johnson, who is such a weirdo and normally a bad but in this moment did something fine.
What a week we have ahead of us!
Deadly Collision in Michigan
-via CBS News
And then some absolutely tragic news out of Michigan, where an eight-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother have died, and more than a dozen were injured, after a drunk driver crashed into a birthday party at a boat club on Saturday. Of the injured, many are critically injured.
The woman is in custody and cooperating with police.
Big News Day
-via NY Times (Trump) and CNN (SCOTUS)
Couple things to look out for today, as far as the news goes…
Today we will see the opening statements for the Trump hearing. You will hear people call this a hush money trial – it is a 2016 election inference crime. In order to keep information from you, the voter, he falsified business documents to hide the fact that he had multiple affairs, including with Stormy Daniels, because he already knew that he didn’t have a great reputation after he was caught on tape admitting to sexually assaulting women by kissing and grabbing them without asking. He couldn’t keep that a secret, so instead he paid to keep this information from you, so that you, the voter, could not have access to everything you needed in order to make a decision about who to vote for.
And if it were me, I would say that’s not someone who deserves to be elected ever again.
(Don’t get me wrong, dude never stood a chance with me but still… tell other people what this case is really about.)
Also happening today – the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether ticketing folks who are experiencing homelessness and living on the streets is an eight amendment violation. The 8th is the one that notes: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
So is ticketing cruel and unusual punishment? That is what the Court will decide. And I think, what a perfect group of people to decide this! Yes, let’s definitely let A-Leak-O, who said the only reason he flew private on that Alaskan fishing trip is because the seat was empty and it would sad if it didn’t have someone sitting it.
According to a December Department of Housing and Urban Development student, on any given night more than 650,000 people in the United States are unhoused –about 40% lf which do not have adequate shelter.
The city that has begun ticketing people sleeping on the streets say this policy is actually an anti-camping ordinance and includes everyone sleeping outside in specific areas with bedding – be it a sleeping bag or bundled-up clothing. But critics of the law say the only people sleeping on sidewalks are unhoused.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of the earth. It’s round (that seems to be news, or a point of contention, for some people for reasons truly unknowable). It’s great overall though – we should be nicer to it.
But more than the earth… because while the earth has a lot of great things, it also has mosquitos for some reason… but you have a lot of great things for a lot of reasons… I’m proud of you.