04/22/25
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, 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, like right this very second, 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.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia
-via ABC News
Starting with the news that the government of El Salvador has rejected a request from Florida House Rep Maxwell Frost and three others to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The government says they are being denied the visit because they aren’t in the country in an official capacity.
Meanwhile, Republicans have been able to visit and film any PR videos they want. I guess it just depends on what kind of work is considered official and what isn’t.
Frost says they are not giving up and that they have more meetings scheduled.
Abrego Garcia has been transferred out of CECOT, which is the name of that prison which is quite literally, on purpose, essentially a torture chamber, and is being held at a different facility.
Harvard Sues Trump
-via AP News and The Guardian
After putting their foot down and saying they would not cave in the face of the Trump administration’s anti-Constitutional threat to freeze funding unless it put a stop to all of their DEI practices and let the administration muck around in the rest of their business (to which Trump said they would freeze $2.2 billion in federal funds), Harvard is now suing the Trump administration.
Yeah. Suing!
“The Government has not — and cannot — identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security, and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation. Nor has the Government acknowledged the significant consequences that the indefinite freeze of billions of dollars in federal research funding will have on Harvard’s research programs, the beneficiaries of that research, and the national interest in furthering American innovation and progress.”
GOT EM
In related news, last week 18 universities signed onto a Big Ten Academic Alliance, to get ahead of anything the Trump administration might do to them. If the administration tries this anti-Constitutional move against one of them, the other 17 universities will act as if it were an attack against their own college.
This is how we win.
Stand together or fall apart.
Market Moves
-via NY Times
Talk money to me.
That’s a cute, charming way to ease us into a story that is… a bummer.
On Monday, stocks continued to trend down as Trump called the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, “a major loser” before saying any economic slowdown would be his fault.
His comments added uncertainty to an already pretty uncertain market, causing what ultimately ended up being a 2.4% drop in the Santa and Parrots (aka the S&P 500 for those new to the show).
And that’s Market Talk with Kim, your new economic expect which is a joke but also a reminder that Trump is a wily and unpredictable and anyone who tries to say they know what’s going to happen with the economy, with any real certainty, might actually be lying. They might be trying to sell you something. Like Bitcoin. Uh oh!
So use caution.
Signal Gate
-via The Guardian
And let’s end on a down! Well, it’ll be an up because we bully the bullies, but it’s a down because when we’re talking about concerns about national security and how people are playing fast and loose with it, that’s a down.
Computer, play Stand By Your Man, again because, once again, the Trump administration is claiming that they are standing by Trump.
However, according to unnamed sources, Hegseth may be on his way out. Because he put his brother and wife on a group chat about highly sensitive national security information!
Sidenote, for a while, I thought I saw a headline that said the group also included his third wife. As in his wife and his third. And no shame to being married multiple times, but it would be wild to have both of them in same group chat that is also illegal.
And Pete Hegseth is such a dunce and also wildcard (rough combo) that it kind of made sense to me.
Anyway, seems like he might be on his way out.
We’ll see.
People keep saying Musk might be on the way out too, so who knows. It’s all just hot goss. But we love it – gossiping about normal people trying their best isn’t fun. Gossiping about bad people actively trying to make the world worse?
Kinda cool.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
As a reminder, there is another episode in the feed. A special episode all about the Pope.
I’m proud of the earth. We’re really putting her through it.
But more than that, because you also spin right round baby right round… I’m proud of you.