04/24/24

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, April 24th.

Pigs in a blanket day

Pigs in blankets? In April? Maybe in some parts of the world, but definitely not right now in Los Angeles, that’s for sure. A light sweater, perhaps. But certainly not a blanket.

And now, the news.

Tennessee Teachers Can Carry Guns

-via CNN and Department of Justice

Let’s start in Tennessee, where state legislatures passed a bill that will allow teachers and school staff to carry guns. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk for signature.

This… will not fix it.

So first of all, to be fair (I guess) to this bill, getting an on-campus permit will require a number of conditions that include written authorization from the superintendent, principal and the chief of the appropriate law enforcement agency as well as 40 hours of basic training in school policing and 40 hours of Peace Officer’s Standards and Training commission-approved training.

But when I said this wouldn’t fix it, obviously I was referring to the very American problem of school shootings. And I wasn’t just being callous – in an in-depth study by the Department of Justice, controlling for a variety of factors that include location and school characteristics, the rate of deaths was 2.83 times greater in schools with an armed guard present.

This won’t fix it.

This will make it worse.

It’s the guns.

FTC Bans Noncompete Clause

-via NPR

On Tuesday the Federal Trade Commission voted to ban nearly all noncompete clauses. A move that, once it takes place later this year, will open allow people to swap jobs freely, possibly leading to increased wages since, by nature of the name alone, if a noncompete clause goes away, you’re only let with market competition.

Trump in Court

-via CBS News, Washington Post, and NBC News

Tuesday saw yet another day of Donald Trump in a criminal court for his 2016 election interference crimes case.

On the case side, the big story out of the courthouse was more information about the catch and kill deal Trump struck with the National Enquirer. A deal under which the tabloid would kill negative stories about Trump, while boosting stories about his adversaries.

To what degree?

Well, let’s hear it from American Media Inc CEO David Pecker: “I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr. Trump, and I would publish negative stories about his opponents.”

He also told Trump: “I would be your eyes and ears. … If I hear anything negative about yourself, or if I hear anything about women selling stories, I would notify Michael Cohen as I did over the last several years.”

Prosecutors also argued that Trump is a walking gag order violation and are seeking a financial penalty for his violations. TBD on whether it’ll happen, but it doesn’t sound like Trump’s lawyers did Trump any favors in court today. As Trump’s lawyer, Blanche, tried to say that Trump “very carefully” tried to comply with the order, Judge Merchan responded that Blanche was "losing all credibility with the court."

Blanche argued that Trump should be allowed to respond to what he believes are political statements, even if they’re made by a witness. Merchan asked, multiple times, to give him a recent example of what Trump was responding to, only for Blanche to respond: "I don't have a particular tweet that is dispositive."

Real crack team ya got there, guy.

I do have to talk about something awful that happened outside of the courthouse on Friday when a 37-year-old man set himself on fire. He later died from his injuries. It’s not totally clear why he did it. Mostly it just sounds like someone who was, by all accounts, a kind a generous person who was troubled and fell into some anti-government conspiracy groups.

A reminder that none of this happens in a vacuum. And I’m not blaming Trump for this, I’m not blaming anyone specifically. But when Trump walks out of the court and says that the judge is taking away his right to free speech, and turns around to tweet about how the system is against him… that kind of stuff has consequences.

Court is, blessedly, not in court on Wednesday (for me. I don’t really care if Trump spends every dang day in court, and he’s certainly aiming for it. But I just need a break). Thursday will be a continuation of David Pecker’s testimony, while in DC the Supreme Court will decide if this guy, this binkus should receive presidential immunity from prosecution in his Coach Beard federal election interference crimes case. Just in case you’re wondering how my blood pressure is… it’s not.

Santos Drops Congressional Bid

-via ABC News

And finally, because we could all use a little laugh…

George Santos has dropped his bid to get back into Congress. But don’t worry, he wants you to know… “it’s only goodbye for now.”

Thanks pal.

Actually, notably, he dropped out because he switched from Republican to Independent and, as a third-party candidate, didn’t want to pull votes from the Republican. I can’t imagine he would be able to pull that many votes, but it’s a great reminder that third-party candidates just aren’t viable. I know it’s a bummer, I get it, but they’re just not. And if George Santos can see it, please tell all your Jill Stein and Robert Kennedy curious friends.

It's not even about the candidates (I mean… it’s not, NOT, but in the case it really isn’t)… the math doesn’t math. It is factually impossible for a third-party candidate to win the presidency. All it does, is hand the White House to Trump.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of pigs in blankets. Or sweaters. All apparel really.

And hey, speaking of apparel – We Are Voters, the nonpartisan nonprofit I run, just put some new stuff up on the shop. Go check it out!

But more than pigs in blankets, because you are often weather appropriate… I’m proud of you.