08/15/25

Good morning! It’s Friday, August 15th

National Shoe Donation Day

According to runrepeat.com, approximately one billion people in the world lack adequate footwear, or even no shoes at all. This includes 300 million kids who can’t go to school or participate in activities because they don’t have the necessary footwear.

Meanwhile, global shoe ownership is 7 to 8 pairs per person.

Lots of problems in this world – this one feels super fixable.

And now, the news.

Mississippi Social Media Age Verification

-via CNN

We’re going state by state today, starting in Mississippi. M-I-SS-SS-I-social media age verification.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court (ever heard of it) allowed the state to enforce a law requiring social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to verify user age and get parental consent for minors. As is often the case for emergency rulings, the court didn’t explain its reasoning.

None of the justices dissented but, interestingly, Justices Kavanaugh wrote that the law is “likely unconstitutional” but the companies who sued hadn’t shown they would be harmed by it.

This is a First Amendment case, with the group that, along with others, filed a brief with the court, arguing that the law is “well-intentioned but fundamentally flawed.”

I’m going to annoy talk about gerrymandering later in the episode again but honestly I feel the same way there that I do here. I don’t know what the answer here is. We gotta protect kids.

But we also need to protect their first amendment rights, with NetChoice, a trade group that represents the social media groups saying, “Online platforms, including social media sites, offer safe spaces for individuals, including youth, to connect with others who share their identities, access information about LGBTQ+ issues and resources, and explore their gender identity and sexual orientation in a supportive environment.”

It's also tricky when it’s a state but not a federal law. How do you enforce this? The internet is a series of pipes and the clouds and it’s all around. I don’t know how it works but it’s not like it becomes a different internet.com when you cross state lines. A solution needs to be found, but we also need to protect the First Amendment.

Florida Adds Another Deportation Center

-via ABC News

And moving down to Florida – Ron DeSantis, who once thought he could design a theme park better than Disney World (remember that? He was like fine! Fine Disney, you do woke stuff and we’ll just make a new theme park and ours will be even more successful!)

Anyway, that guy announced on Thursday that the state will add another immigration detention facility, which they’re calling “Deportation Depot.” This one will be in North Florida.

I bet they think they’re soooooo clever too, with their alliteration.

It should be noted that their other horrific Alligator Alcatraz had to hit a 14 day pause last week because of the environmental impact it was having on the Everglades. Cause Ron DeSantis loves his state so much that he’s willing to ruin it, just to keep it safe from people who came to this country for a better life.

It’s not that the detention center has been proven to be bad for the state, it’s that they don’t even know because they didn’t bother to test. Couldn’t wait! No time!

Who has time to be careful? So now they’re opening another one of these spots. No news yet on when.

As Goes Florida, So Goes Texas

-via NBC News

Not to be outdone, Texas’ Fort Bliss is slated to eventually open as the largest immigration detention facility in the country, with the ability to hold 1,000 people.

There are currently 60,000 (you heard that right – 60,000) people in detention facilities across the country.

The site has seen a variety of setbacks, including canceled contracts, a recent death on site, and two separate investigations into improper bidding, and is yet another example (Alligator Alcatraz’s 14 day pause being another one, them literally trying to use Gitmo as a detention center before everyone was like whoa whoa whoa… that’s INSANE) of what happens when ICE has to rush to build and retrofit spaces because they were ill-prepared for this horrific racist roundup.

This new facility in Texas will open this week.

Texas v California

-via ABC News

And staying a little in Texas and a little in California, California’s Governor Newsom made it official on Thursday and announced that he is moving forward with putting new congressional maps on the ballot in a November 4th special election.

Fine.

I give up.

Apparently he’s asking voters to approved gerrymandering in 2026, 2028, and 2030. And then after the 2030 census, we’ll go back to our independent redistricting commission.

I don’t know… I maintain my position on this. I think it’s a slippery slope and I don’t know how we come back from this. I’m more okay with it going to a vote though.

Here’s what I want to talk about though – as Newsom mad his speech at the Democracy Center at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown LA, ICE agents, fully decked out in riot gear, riot shields, their precious masks over their previous faces, guns, the whole shebang, carried out an ICE raid that they called a routine roving patrol.

We’ll see what voters say in November. I think gerrymandering is wrong, full stop but if we’re taking it the polls then all I can do is vote my conscience.

I don’t know… I can’t do another rant on this. You don’t want another rant on this.

I’m moving on (in this episode. Never emotionally)

Update: DC

-via The Guardian, NY Times, and AP News

Moving to DC – Trump took questions from the Oval on Thursday, tossed to him by people such as, I can’t even believe this sentence that’s about to come out of my mouth… Cara Castronouva from Lindell TV, an outlet founded by Mike Lindell.

Among the many inane questions she got to ask, the most concerning was for a response to what she called “very concerning reports” that “police are manipulating crime data to downplay crime in DC.”

Concerning because Trump responded by not only saying the administration would release their own data (lies), but they would investigate the people putting out the current data, saying, “They are giving us phony crime stats, just like they gave us phony stats in the financial world.” As a reminder, when he didn’t like the jobs numbers, he fired the person who gave him that number.

Because that’s what he does.

Because that’s what dictators do.

Meanwhile – the real crime is being rooted out of DC so don’t you worry! On Thursday it was announced that Sean Charles Dunn, who threw a sub sandwich at a CPB agent on Sunday has been fired… from his job at the Department of Justice!

Man… that dude was going through it. Because if he was throwing a sub at a CPB agent, it wasn’t like he did it to be like here, enjoy.

Wildly enough, Pam Bondi’s comment after the firing was: “You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”

You guys did insurrection!!

Right now, as I speak into the void of this microphone to tens of you, and one Zazz, the Department of Justice fully employees, gives a paycheck to, a former FBI agent who was a part of the insurrection. He was charged with it!

Every day that Pamela Duncifer Bondi walks into general vicinity of DC is disrespect to the government. This current government is a disrespect to the government.

But go off babe.

Aliens

-via The Hill

And finally – Florida House Rep Anna Paulina Luna went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to say that lawmakers in Congress have seen evidence of “interdimensional beings” and “I think that they can actually operate through the time spaces that we currently have.”

Great. Great! Take me with them.

I would like out of this general time-space situation.

Or I stay and others go. I’m fine with either!

That is a sitting member of the House of Representatives.

Whatever. Gerrymander it all. Make it all California. I don’t care.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

We’re all alright.

I’m proud of shoes.

But more than… whatever. You know what? I’m proud of you.