04/11/25
Good morning! It’s Friday, April 11th.
Day of Silence.
Day of Silence was created in 1996 and is a campaign meant to focus on the silencing of our LGBTQ+ youth that takes place every single day in classrooms, workplaces, sports, and legislation.
And now, the news.
Helicopter Crash
-via ABC News
Starting with a tragedy in New York City, where six people have died (a pilot, two adults, and three children) after a tourist charter helicopter crashed into the Hudson.
The family was visiting from Barcelona.
An investigation is underway – so far, it’s unclear what caused the crash.
Immigration in America
-via AP News, NBC News, NY Times, and NPR
On Thursday the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration must work to bring home Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran citizen who was in America legally, literally because a judge said going back to El Salvador wasn’t safe for him, but who the government swept up and imprisoned in that horrific prison back in El Salvador under what they called an “administrative error.”
And even though they knew it was an error, the Trump administration was still fighting to keep him kidnapped out of the country.
But on Thursday, the Supremes ruled Garcia must be returned home.
Justice Sotomayor wrote that the government was “plainly wrong,” saying, “The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.”
Yep. That’s exactly it. It doesn’t imply anything, it’s exactly what they did. What they did to Garcia and what they did to 250 Venezuelans who are still in that horror show of a prison.
So hopefully those folks can either come home soon or, at least, have access to a lawyer.
In the meantime, here in the states, the Trump administration is moving to revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are here in this country.
Legally.
Can’t stress that enough… they are here legally.
But now, in an effort to have people “self-deport,” they are canceling the social security numbers they legally obtained.
Without a social, they will be cut off from being able to use bank accounts, open credit cards, and access government benefits.
And I can’t stress this enough… they got these numbers legally!
They’re doing it through something called the “death master file” which normally tracks people who have died, to make sure they don’t get benefits. But now they’re putting people who have legally obtained these numbers in a “death master file.”
And I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet, but these folks legally obtained these numbers.
This is unprecedented. And abhorrent.
And it’s the second unprecedented and abhorrent action they’ve taken this week. Remember that earlier this week, the IRS agreed to work with Homeland Security to give them information about undocumented immigrants, who are paying taxes, so that they can kick this out of the country.
These social security numbers were obtained legally!
Buy the Dip
Let’s talk about the stocks! Now that I’m in a MOOD, let’s talk about stocks! From me, your stock market expert.
After bouncing back on Wednesday, the stocks took another hit on Thursday with the Santa and Parrots down 2.8%.
That’s not the interesting part of the story. That’s just to let you know how things are going and to remind you that the S&P 500 stands for 1 Santa and 499 Parrots.
Here’s something interesting.
Now, I want to start by telling you that I wasn’t even going to cover this at all. But now it’s turning into a bit of a story so I’m going to KIND OF cover it.
On Wednesday, while stocks were down, Trump went to his ironically-named Truth Social and said, in all caps, “this is a great time to buy!!! DJT”
And then four hours later, he announced a 90-day pause on almost all of the tariffs and, as I mentioned yesterday, the stocks jumped up. (Wait, did I mention that? I’m so tired. TGIFriday, amiright?).
So now the question is – did Trump know he was going to pause the tariffs when he said that? Is he, as the president of the United States, manipulating the stock market for his benefit?
There’s also the question of his initials in the post. He could easily say that’s just his initials and how he’s signed off. But… DJT is also the stock symbol for Trump Media and Technology Group, which is Truth Social’s parent company, which closed 22.7% up on Wednesday. Shocking moves from a company that lost $400 million last year.
Trump’s ownership in the company grew by $415 million on Wednesday.
Honestly, just talking about it is filling me with rage.
Listen, I’ve given this a lot of thought and here’s what we need to do. Know about this story but unless you are a lawyer or a financial… we gotta let this one go. It will only make us mad. They made a lot of money, they’re probably not going to get in trouble. These are bad people.
What new information did you learn from this?
They are bad people doing bad things. Of all the bad things they do, on a daily basis, this is the lowest.
We didn’t learn new information here. We gotta let this one go.
Podcast
-via The Hill
And finally in… am I an inspiration to these men because if so… bummer.
Another governor is starting a podcast! This time it’s Kentucky’s Governor Beshear.
Is starting a podcast a presidential-run soft launch?
Let me tell you something… This humble little podcast here take two hours to write and a third to produce. And I’m not even doing all the things I want to be doing for the podcast. There’s no video element. That takes time! And I know they have teams behind them but I do not want my governor doing podcasts! I want them doing governor stuff!
I don’t want my governor doing podcasts, I don’t want my president doing insider trading, I just want normal politics! That’s all. That’s all I’m looking for in this little world.
Feels like that’s kind of the bare minimum, and yet – here we are.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of our LGBTQ+ youth who