02/23/26
Good morning! It’s Monday, February 23rd.
National Banana Bread Day
Yes please – a warm piece of banana bread with good butter?
Actually, you what? Maybe no show today. Maybe I’m just gonna make myself some banana bread. And churn my own butter. Like a pioneer woman… no that’s too much. I’ve talked myself out of it.
And now, the news.
Russia Attacks Ukraine
-via ABC News
Starting in Ukraine.
How do you like that? Little bit of a twist. Lots of news here in America, but I’m trying to keep you on your toes. Trying to keep this relationship fresh by reminding you that there are also really bad things happening in Ukraine.
Starting in Ukraine, where Russia launched nearly 300 drones and 50 missiles into the country overnight. According to Ukraine’s President Zelensky, the main target was the energy sector. However, residential buildings were hit as well. At least one person was killed and at leas eight others, including a child, were injured.
The attack, which has been one in a series of attacks that Russia launched against Ukraine last week, comes on the heels of Steve Witkoff saying the two countries could head into a new round of peace talks in the next three weeks.
I wonder how those will go…
Armed Man Killed at Mar-a-Lago
-via BBC
On Sunday morning, a 21-year-old man named Austin Tucker Martin of Cameron, North Carolina, carrying a shotgun and fuel, was shot and killed when he entered the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago (where Trump was not at).
Secret Service and the Sheriff’s deputy told him to “drop the items.” After that, and, according to Palm Beach County sheriff, "He put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position.”
It’s unclear what’s meant by shooting position. I mean, I know what that means but it’s unclear where he was aiming. It’s also, as of this recording, not publicly known if the gun was loaded.
As I mentioned, he’s from North Carolina. His family reported him missing on Saturday.
Texas ICE Killing
-via Texas Tribune
In Texas (really hitting all the states here. All the states get a sprinkle of bad!)… In Texas, the news has broken that nearly a year ago, on March 15th, ICE agents shot and killed a man in South Padre Island, but the information was just never fully disclosed.
We only know now thanks to that nonprofit group American Oversight.
Apparently, on March 15th, ICE agents were helping local police direct traffic at the scene of a crash (which… why? Why were they doing that??). According to records, the man shot, 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez failed to follow traffic instructions and then (stop me if you’ve heard this before) when ICE agents surrounded his car, he accelerated and struck an agent, who ended up on his hood.
This prompted another agent to fire an UNSPECIFED number of rounds from the passenger side window at Martinez, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The mayor of San Antonio has called for a congressional investigation into this shooting.
Partial Shutdown Continues
-via NY Times
And moving from individual states to all of them at once now (it’s called efficiency… and your girl’s got in spades)…
We are still in a partial government shutdown! Did you hear that story before this one? That’s probably not going to help anything because, as a reminder, this is all about DHS spending and the democrats don’t want to give any additional funding to ICE. Probably because of things like that.
The thing about a partial government shutdown is that the likelihood of it affecting your life right now is slim to none. Which means you’re probably fine with it taking however long it takes for the dems to get what they want.
The Republicans really need you to be on their side here, so they had a thought.
What if we found a way to inconvenience the American public during this shutdown? Certainly then they’d want it to end sooner?
So there was a brief moment, brief!, where TSA pre-check was going to shut down during the shutdown. It doesn’t cost anything extra to run it.
They were still going to shut it down. Saying it was a matter of staffing.
Untrue. Which we know because they didn’t shut it down during the last shutdown. The longest one in history, which happened while Donald Trump was the president, because he’s not a good dealmaker. Nor did it happen during the second-longest shutdown in American history. Which also happened while Donald Trump was president because he’s not a good dealmaker.
Donald Trump. Racist. Sexual assaulter. Also… terrible maker of deals.
Anyway, after immediate outcry (because what do you mean I would need to take my shoes off in an airport? I pay good money not to have to do so!) DHS has reversed course, and TSA PreCheck will continue to operate as normal.
SCOTUS Tells Trump No
On Friday, the Supreme Court told Donald Trump no.
Did you know they were allowed to do that?
I’ll tell you who was unaware of that fact… Donald Trump! He was shocked and very unchill in his reaction to this ruling.
So here’s what went down: this ruling was all about Trump’s tariffs. That is, as a reminder, a tax that we pay. Tariff – his self-proclaimed favorite word in the dictionary.
Wait, hold on. Before I go on. I need to read you a quote that has nothing to do with this story but I just need you to know it exists.
Trump was in the Oval signing a bill that allows schools to serve whole and 2% milk to kids (reversing an Obama-era rule that only allowed fat-free or low-fat milk) and he said: " It’s actually a legal definition. Whole milk, and it’s whole with a W. For those of you that have a problem, most of the media will get that.”
I think… I think that’s the first time he saw milk spelled that way. I don’t know what he thought whole milk was before and why he thought it would be spelled “hole” like hole in the ground but that quote makes me think he was learning, in that moment, that “whole” has a “w” in it.
Anyway… that’s who people elected!
Getting back to it – this SCOTUS case was about his tariffs. A tariff is a tax and because it’s a tax, or any money situation, it needs to run through Congress, because they hold the purse strings. However, Trump called this an emergency (very clearly it was not) and overstepped Congress.
Hence this entire thing being an overstep of the Constitution.
In a 6-3 opinion, the Justices ruled that the tariffs had exceeded the law. Chief Justice Roberts wrong: “The president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope,” Roberts wrote for the court. “In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it.”
And Trump fully melted down.
He held an emergency press conference, saying this about Chief Justice Roberts, as well as Gorsuch and Coney Barrett: "They're just being fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical left Democrats.”
He also said they were: "disloyal, unpatriotic."
The most ironic moment was when he said Chief Justice Roberts: "led the effort to allow Foreign Countries that have been ripping us off for years to continue to do so.”
That came from Trump! The human version of a Russian wind-up toy.
On Sunday, the Trump administration announced they found a new way to impose tariffs, including a 15% global tariff, with “very durable tools” (legal speaking).
So no one worry – you will still be paying higher taxes.
There is sort of a question about what happens next with the nearly $130 billion in tariffs that the administration has already collected and how it will be returned to the American taxpayers.
I would say… they’re not going to do it anyway so what’s the point in worrying about it. Ya know? Like, come on. He’s a grifter. We’re not getting that money back, why waste our brain power on that and instead spend our time thinking about how to win back the House and Senate this year.
And in Olympics news… Sunday marked the end of the winter games. I’ll be honest, I’m recording this before closing ceremonies BUT what I can tell you is that both the men and women’s US hockey teams beat the Canadian hockey teams.
For the women, it was sweet retribution for 2022, when Canada took home the Gold and US took home the silver.
For the men, they haven’t won gold since 1980 and the so-called Miracle on Ice.
The final medal count puts Norway on top with 41 (18 of which are gold). We took home 33, 12 of which were gold. And Italy rounds out the top three with 30 medals, including 10 gold.
But the real gold medals… are the people they slept with along the way.
The Olympic village ran out of the 10,000 condoms they were giving away within the first 72 hours.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of those athletes. Not for the condom thing! Although I mean… it’s good to make friends internationally. But more for the sports part.
I’m proud of people who don’t take their shoes off in airports, unless the law requires you to do so, and then only for those few moments. Please… this is a space for shoes. And socks.
But more than all of that. More than an Olympic athlete with shoes on their feet and banana bread in their pocket, but you are also the best in the world… I’m proud of you.