10/23/25
Good morning! It’s Thursday, October 23rd.
National Slap Your Coworker Day
What… on earth?
Well, I’m nothing if not a celebrator of holidays…
And now, the news.
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
-via BBC
Starting in Ukraine, where, just hours after a meeting between Trump and Putin was canceled, Russian drone and missile strikes killed at least 27 people in Ukraine. Including children, which we know because a kindergarten was hit.
Russia has continued to reject calls for a ceasefire; however, despite, as I said, Trump saying the meeting between him and Putin was off, Russia says the plans for the meeting are continuing.
And don’t we just love being in the position where we don’t know if we can trust the president of America or Russia?
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Zelensky has arrived in Norway to kick off his European conversations to try and keep the European leaders on his side and in his camp.
Boat Strike in the Pacific
-via The Guardian
And although the military is not being paid because of this government strike… they are still being forced to do what is almost certainly a buncha crimes, all in one, when they were asked to do the eighth deadly strike on what officials tell us was carrying out drug-trafficking activities.
But we don’t know because every time they do this, they either kill everyone on board or, in one of the more recent case, they capture someone from the boat and then send them back to the country from whence they came.
If you’re so concerned about this epidemic – wouldn’t you want to question these folks and find out who’s at the top?
What makes this strike stand out is that it happened in the Pacific Ocean, meaning they’re they are widening their scope of attack.
Not great!
The White House has tried to give a few, legally weak, reasons for attacking the ships. They will not hold up in court. Take it from me… a nonlawyer. Although I’ve seen Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde a lot so… is that still true? Technically?
Because they claim the boats are affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations, simply because they have drugs on them (again, they have offered no proof of said drugs). But legal experts agree that just saying “they’re probably are” isn’t enough.
But that’s what happens when we are, as Trump says, engaged in a “non-international armed conflict.”
Because what the hell does that even mean??
Non-international. So… national.
Words used to mean something.
North Carolina Map
-via CNN
And in North Carolina, the North Carolina House gave the final thumbs up needed to change their maps in a way that is meant to give Republicans one more seat in the US House of Representatives.
Because Donald Trump asked for it.
North Carolina – a swing state.
Pressured by the President of the United States to change its congressional maps so that people who apparently otherwise will lose elections… won’t. Which I don’t say to be mean (if I wanted to be mean I’d say other things) I say because people who believe they can win don’t cheat.
And we’re all appalled by all of it, of course. And of course Trump does a million bad things every day so it’s really pick your poison of, well, poison. But still – the President of the United States is doing this.
That’s bad and not, I don’t believe, being highlighted enough.
But let me be clear – nothing is over until it’s over. Elections don’t get decided until Election Day.
I talked about it more on the substack but we’re fighting for every single House seat – all 435 of them. This makes the fight harder, but it as a fight already.
And it’s work worth doing.
Government Shutdown
And checking in on the government shutdown… it’s still shut down.
Welcome to Day 23 and the second-longest government shutdown in history!
We did it!
Trump would love to negotiate by he’s very busy tearing down the East Wing. Tearing down the East Wing for a ballroom while the government is shut down because you don’t want people to have healthcare is such a wild choice.
Not the wildest he’s made, not by a mile, but it’s still wild.
I’ll tell you who’s had it – Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, who took to the Senate floor at 6pm Eastern Tuesday night and spoke for twenty-two hours and 37 minutes, where he spent most of the time reading the book “How Democracies Die.”
Tell us how ya really feel Jeff!
(Cause we probably feel the same)
Melanie Trump Being Sued
-via MSN
And how about some hopecore?
Under, over, and around – we gotta find a way. And after she threatened to sue him a casual $1 billion dollars, best-selling author Michael Wolff is suing (for real, for real. No threats about it) Melania Trump, marking the first time a president’s wife has been the subject of court action.
The suit accuses her of an assault on free speech and trying to stifle “legitimate inquiry” into the Epstein investigation.
Under, over, and around.
Someone is going to find a way to break through this case.
Wolfe has asked the court for permission to question both Melanie AND ol Donnie boy on the stand.
He is doing it using something called an anti-SLAPP law. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation and the law is made to prevent powerful people from being able to sue, for example, journalists and writers, simply because they were connected to one of the most prolific child sex-trafficking rings in history.
We’ll see what happens from here.
And that’s it. That’s that news.
I’m proud of my co-workers. And not just because some of them listen!
But more than… nope! Not gonna trip me up there because I still need to go to work today… more than crocs – it’s also National Crocs Day and, quite frankly, I do not co-sign. So more than a foam shoe with holes in it that you can decorate for reasons that exist for sure…
I’m proud of you.