Title
We’re Big Brave Dogs
Good morning! It’s Wednesday, October 21st.
Count Your Buttons Day.
I don’t… have anything for this.
And now, the news.
We Are Jane Doe
I’m starting off with an update on the Cornell story as well as a story out of the University of Chicago. Both are about sexual assault. If you need to skip this part of the episode, please do. Normally I’d put these at the end and then just tell you to skip the rest of the episode, but in this instance, I’d really love for you to stick around for the whole thing. So if you need, hit that 15-second button a few times and catch me at the next story.
But let’s start with Cornell.
This week, in a letter obtained by NBC News, Jane Doe shared her account of her meeting between the University president and then-sorority president. In her letter, she said the university president, Kotlikoff, asked why she waited so long to report what happened.
“She interpreted his question as an expression of doubt in the veracity of my story.”
Cornell disputes that and says he was questioning more like – why didn’t bystanders report anything sooner?
Why didn’t the men witnessing the gang rape report anything sooner? Are we really supposed to believe that’s what he was asking?
No! He was likely doing nearly what every other man does when they hear a story like this – ask why Jane Doe didn’t report sooner. Because they always ask. They don’t ask (I mean, I’m sure some of them wonder but they never ask out loud) why the men did the raping. But sure, yeah, why did she wait so long to understand this horrific crime and then report it to the police that, based on this case, didn’t do anything to investigate it as they often do?
And then over in Chicago, at the University of Chicago, a 19-year-old says she was raped at a frat party in February. She is the 2nd woman to say she was raped at a frat party at the University. Two different frats, by the way.
The woman has filed a suit against the University and holds that the frat, as well as the University, ignored the allegations and failed to “put meaningful safeguards in place.”
Eagles Hurt Hurts
-via AP News
On Saturday, Jalen Hurts, the Super Bowl-winning QB of the Eagles (I’m a football head. Everyone knows that), was put on the IL for what is expected to be the rest of the season (we’re early into the season, too. The Super Bowl is in February, the day before the premiere of Hulu’s The Land, airing February 15th).
So what happened?
A blood clot in his left calf traveled to his lungs.
Now, in any other world, this would just be a scary medical thing and yes, news(ish) because he’s a famous player but not multiple days of headlines.
What makes this different?
Hurts was, well, hurt on October 4th when he took a cleat to the calf. He told the medical team on the 8th.
The next day Hurts flew with his team and his blood clot to Londontown.
In Londontown, oui oui, he was diagnosed with the blood clot and told to stay away for 36 hours as a precaution.
So now we’ve got: blood clot, then in the air for 7 and a half hours, then awake for 36 hours, at which time doctors know, for sure, he’s got the clot.
And that’s around the point that they put him on the field and let him play.
It’s literally a miracle he’s alive. Football is a dangerous sport and the lack of sleep is its own very serious concern. Not to mention the blood clot that they KNEW about.
There is no acceptable reason for this to have happened.
And the Eagles? They will not be disciplined for what they did and didn’t do.
Christina Applegate’s Misdiagnosis
-via People
After being diagnosed in 2021 with MS, Christina Applegate announced on Tuesday that, after five years of living with MS… she actually hadn’t been. She’d been misdiagnosed. She said the doctor, severely misreading the room, came into the room and said, “Congratulations, you don’t have MS.”
Congratulations?
Girl (the doctor was a woman. Yeah, doctors can be women!) – that’s not the moment for congrats.
Because, as she added, she’s had all of the symptoms. But now she doesn’t have a diagnosis.
And apparently she’s not alone in this. One in five MS patients have been misdiagnosed. And some of those 20% are on MS medication.
20%
Hopefully with some awareness, she, and others, can get some answers.
Trump v Elections
-via CBS News, CNN, AP News, The Hill, NY Times, and The Guardian
And now let’s do a bunch of stories I’m tossing into one segment called… the elections are coming up and Trump’s gonna try and trick you!
First, he offered $8 billion in aid to farmers to offset the high price of diesel stemming from the war her started to distract from the fact that he’s in the Epstein files.
"When Republicans win, we will pass even more funding for our farmers. We love our farmers.”
Do you? Name one farmer.
Just one. Name a single farmer you love.
Also, “when Republicans win”? Is this just like your little $5k for every voter when you win? Yet another bribe. You know what’s a cool bribe?
The Dems have promised to do the following in their first 100 hours in Congress:
Restore ACA premium tax credits to lower health insurance costs.
Reverse Republican Medicaid cuts, including new work requirements.
Roll back Trump’s tariffs.
Push to end the war in Iran
Investigate Trump, his family, and his administration
And develop affordability policies addressing housing, groceries, gas, utilities, health care, and caregiving
Oh wait, sorry. That’s not a bribe. That’s a campaign promise. The Republicans could do that instead of… whatever this is.
Because we don’t even know how much each farm will get. And it’s not like diesel is the only thing affecting farmers.
I mean, yes good, help the farmers. But, you know, it’s very obvious what he’s doing it for.
Trump also announced a $25 million whistleblower fund, offering up to $30,000 to people that uncover fraud in the government.
Great! Because wait until I tell you about this guy who’s in the Epstein files and started a whole war, well technically it’s a conflict because Congress hasn’t voted on it so actually technically it’s literally an illegal war, all so people would forget he’s in the Epstein files.
So far, the only announced person who’s gotten any money from this fund is Nick Shirley, who uncovered so-called fraud at daycares in Minneapolis because he showed at daycares with cameras and the daycares were like “hey, you can’t come in here because you’re strangers with cameras and these are minors.” And Shirley was like FRAUD!!! What a hero and, in no way, is he a creep.
Meanwhile, Trump’s also working on another plan in case the bribing and filtering money to people he likes doesn’t work…
Antisemitism!
Yeah, he used an antisemitic phrase at a rally on Monday. “Maybe he didn’t know what it meant.” Well, first – he’s factually a white supremacist and it’s a fact, also, that he used to keep a book of Hitler’s speeches on his bedside table. So like… he probably knew what it meant.
It’s also not a common word. I’m obviously not going to repeat it here but he’s repeated it before. He said it last summer and then was told it’s a slur and he said he didn’t know that. So he was told it’s a slur and then used it again.
That’s Trump.
The white supremacist.
And speaking of him being… the worst…
Remember last week when I said the DOJ asked Los Angeles, a city of literal angels, to investigate 20,000 people that they needed to pull from the voter rolls and force them to verify their citizenship?
Well you’ll be shocked, shocked I tell you, when you hear that only 7,000 actually had an address in Los Angeles. And additionally, 38.9% were born in America. That doesn’t mean the other 61.1% weren’t citizens. It just means that 38.9% were born in the States.
Additionally, 43% had a voter registration record that had been cancelled and 71% of those in the sample never voted.
It’s almost like they’re incredibly disorganized and only sent in the list because they wanted to kick eligible voters off the rolls. And also scare eligible voters.
But we’re not scared. We’re brave. We’re big brave dogs. And we’re absolutely positively not going to let these feckless losers scare us out of voting and taking back the House and Senate.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Hey, guess what? 13 days.
I’m proud of you.