09/17/25

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, September 17th.

It is both National DEI Day and National Constitution Day, which is on purpose. Because the Constitution, in the very beginning, promises justice and the general welfare. The 14th Amendment notes that all men are created equal. DEI ensures that that equality is taken into account in every aspect.

Feels like it’s not that controversial of a take.

And yet…

And now, the news.

Homeless Encampment Shootings

-via ABC News

We start how we start here in America, with 13 people injured, including five critically, after two shootings took place in the span of twelve hours at two different homeless encampments in Minneapolis. It’s unclear if they’re connected, though they are suspected to be.

No arrests have been made. These are the fourth and fifth mass shootings in Minneapolis in the last three weeks.

Israel Bombs Gaza City

-via CNN

And moving to Gaza, more than 100 Palestinians (actually, at the time I wrote this, it was literally 101 people, but unfortunately, that number will have grown by the time you hear this, so we’ll go with over 100) were killed between Monday and Tuesday, as Israel expanded its ground offensive.

Meanwhile, when asked about it, President Trump, who just months ago posted an AI video of turning Gaza into a gold-plated Trump casino and has multiple times said that he wants to turn the area into the Riviera of the Middle East, Trump now says he doesn’t know much about what Israel’s doing. Israel? Never heard of it.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu has announced another visit to the White House this month.

But while Trump was out here pretending like he’s barely ever even heard of a gortar, a United Nations inquiry, set up by the UN Human Rights Council, has found that Israel committed four genocidal acts in Gaza since Hamas carried out the October 7th attacks.

Those are: the killing of Palestinians in Gaza, causing Palestinians “serious bodily and mental harm,” “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” and “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

Nearly 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th, according to the Palestinian health ministry. And though they do not distinguish between civilians and fighters, they say the majority of those 65,000 are women and children.

State Terrorism Charges Dropped

-via NY Times

In New York, Luigi Mangioni, the defendant charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, had his state terrorism charges dropped on Tuesday after the judge found the charges to be “legally insufficient.”

The argument for the charges is fairly obvious – Mangioni wanted to create a spectacle and send a message. But the argument against was that applying terrorism charges here would “trivialize and redefine” the definition of terrorism.

He’s still up for fairly serious charges of, you know, regular murder and such. But I’d say, based on vibes in the country (I’ll get into it in the next story), not redefining the definition of terrorism is a strong and, frankly, preferred move.

Patel’s Panel

-via Axios, CBS News, and The Hill

FBI Director Kash Patel had his time in front of Congress on Tuesday, answering questions for four and a half hours, mostly about his amateurish and ham-handed (who came up with that saying? What does that actually mean?) handling of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

He was asked about saying they had a subject in custody, when in reality they did not. His answer was basically well if you look up the definition of the word subject stemming from the Latin subiectus (that’s real, I looked it up just for the joke)

His actual answer wasn’t that far off though: "What we had at the time was a subject in custody in relation to this investigation. So in my commitment to work with the public to help identify subjects and suspects, I put that information out. And then when we interviewed him, I put out the results of that. And could I have been more careful in my verbiage and included 'a subject' instead of 'subject?' Sure."

When asked if it was a mistake, he said: "I don't see it as a mistake. I see it as something, working with the public to identify that there was a subject in custody."

The hearing also covered the Epstein files and Patel said the “original sin” there was the sweetheart deal Alex Acosta made in 2006. Now, yes – Acosta did make a bad deal but if we’re going sins, I’d say the original one was the absolutely heinous crimes that Epstein and Maxwell did and that people like Trump and others knew about and either took part in or helped cover up.

Just a thought.

I bring this up though because when it was Cory Booker’s turn to chat with Patel, it was heated and led to Booker saying: "Here's the thing, Mr. Patel. I think you're not going to be around long. I think this might be your last oversight hearing. Because as much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump and not the Constitution of the United States of America, Donald Trump has shown us in his first term and this term, he is not loyal to people like you. He will cut you loose. This may be the last time I have a hearing with you because I don't think you're long for your job. But I'm going to tell you this. I pray for you. I pray for you, that you can step up and defend your oath, defend the Constitution and do a much better job of defending this country."

He’s feeling good! He’s got that vegan diet and new engagement and he’s out for vegan blood!

They then went back and forth in whose time is up and who’s a bigger threat to democracy and then Ted Cruz, of all people, said: "it used to be that to see theater you had to go to the Kennedy Center. Now apparently you need only go to the Senate Judiciary Committee."

Oh I’m sure you and your terrible beard think you really nailed it don’t you? Shave it! Shave the beard. You don’t deserve it.

Patel will return today for more questioning.

I’m sure that thrills him to no end.

Fani Willis Denied Appeal

-via AP News

On Tuesday, the Georgia State Supreme Court declined Fulton County DA Fani Willis the opportunity to appeal her removal from the Trump and Co Georgia election RICO crimes case.

As you may recall, she was removed because she was… well, frankly, she was removed because she’s good at her job, but the reason they then landed on was her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

And listen – okay. Fine. Let it play out in court, as it has. But then let it play all the way out in court… let her have a chance to appeal. As, quite frankly, any defendant should have the opportunity to do.

While this decision is unideal, Willis said she will direct her office to make the case file available to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, in hopes that they will appoint a new prosecutor to replace her.

Because while this is professionally (and justly!) disappointing, this case can’t go away. Trump did election crimes. He included others in those election crimes. Him being the president right now does not negate the fact that, in 2020, he did crimes in an attempt to steal an election that he lost because all he does is lose because his dad never hugged him.

Trump Sues NY Times

-via BBC

And speaking of… On Monday night, Trump announced that he is suing the New York Times. Add it to the list! Suing the Times because they endorsed Kamala Harris! Even though it ultimately did nothing because while he’s got those sweet, sweet loser vibes, he still won the election, he’s still big mad and is suing over the endorsement and because it’s apparently become a "mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party".

How much is he suing them for?

$15 BILLION

Normal.

Super chill.

Good stuff!

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of – hey, it’s also National Apple Dumplings Day, and because you are sweeter and more fun to say than apple dumplings with a southern accent (just let me have this one)… I’m proud of you.