02/03/26
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, February 3rd.
African American Coaches Day
So naturally… let’s look at some numbers!
In the NFL – 58% to 70% of the players are Black, while 22% of head coaches are Black, but 19-22% of assistant coaches are Black.
In MLB, 8.8-10% of coaches are Black.
In US soccer, 8.9% of coaches are Black.
The NBA is the only one that has made a genuine effort to diversify its coaching staff, and the 2022-2023 season marked the first time in the league’s history that there were more Black than white coaches. now half of the franchise coaches are Black.
In the W however, there are ZERO Black coaches.
ZERO.
In the WNBA. Where 67% of the players self-identify as Black.
Diversifying is a choice… so is actively working not to diversify.
And now, the news.
Update: Georgia Voting Raid
-via NY Times and Washington Post
Starting with an update on last week’s raid on Georgia’s election offices. Where truckloads, literally truckloads, of ballots were taken from the offices by FBI agents.
Well, it turns out, following that raid, things continued to be… not amazing.
Tulsi Gabbard, you remember Tulsi Gabbard, right? The democrat? Well Tulsi Gabbard, famous democrat and for sure not a Russian spy (psst, I’m just kidding… she a Russian spy), is now in charge of national intelligence, somehow, and not a member of the FBI, met with some of the FBI agents.
To be clear – someone in her role does not get involved in in-site criminal investigative work.
So it was already weird.
But to make it ever worse, Tuls used her cell to call Trump. The president spoke to the agents on speakerphone, thanking them for their work. He talked to them for about a minute, and the person who gave this story to the Times compared the call to a coach giving an encouraging speech to their players.
This same person made it clear that Trump ordered Tuls to go to Atlanta for the raid and coordinated her actions with Andrew Bailey, in the FBI.
This is incredibly, wildly, unacceptably, unacceptable.
For anything! Any case!
But for it to be about a raid on an election office that ended in the removal of truckloads of ballots and other items…
Of the raid, a White House spokesperson said: “President Trump pledged to secure America’s elections, and he has tasked the most talented team of patriots to do just that. President Trump has full confidence in his entire team.”
They were already secure!
This does the opposite.
Wild, I know, that allowing an insurrectionist back into office would have these consequences. And yet…
He also went on a podcast on Monday (like that’s hard), to say that the 2020 election was stolen (you absolute loser! Get over it!) and because of that, the Republicans should nationalize the elections.
What’s one more Constitutional crisis, at this point?
No one knows what this means, which means we do know it’s not time to panic. It’s not.
What it is, is time to dig in and make sure every single House Rep and Senator makes it clear that we are paying attention to this.
Trump Closing Kennedy Center
-via Axios
On Sunday, Trump took a break from trying to relitigate the 2020 election (again) to announce that the Kennedy Center, which has seen a huge number of cancellations since he put his name on the center, will close for two years for what I can only assume will be absolutely hideous renovations.
Why do I assume that?
Because he wrote: "I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World."
Complete rebuilding?? Oh lord.
It does sound like, however, the center will continue to fund the National Symphony Orchestra.
So at least there’s that.
Clintons to Testify
-via The Hill
Proving, once again, that literally everyone listens to this show – Bill and Hillary Clinton announced on Monday that they will testify in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. And I’m sure that’s 100% because I said Bill should in yesterday’s episode, and not because the new trove of Epstein files show the Bill was on Epstein’s plane multiples times in the early 2000s.
So they’ll speak before Congress.
Who’s next?
Because by no means am I minimizing how bad it is that he’s in these files. It’s bad. He should testify and then, probably, you know, be in jail.
But he is not the only one in the files.
So who’s next? The president?
Which Republican will find one little brave and say that they think it’s wrong that the president did pedophilia, allegedly. And even if he didn’t, he has deep connections to someone who did, and we need to know every single thing about that.
It’s literally not that hard.
And yet here they are, rightfully demanding that Bill Clinton testify. But quiet little chickens when it comes to Trump.
Savannah Guthrie’s Mom
-via AP News
In Arizona, Today show host Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother has disappeared in what authorities are investigating as a crime based on what they found in her home on Sunday.
She was last seen Saturday night and reported missing Sunday around noon after someone from church called a family member to say she hadn’t arrived at church that day.
84-years-old! Scary!
Government Shutdown
And as the government shutdown heads into Tuesday (I’m recording this on Monday night, who knows if a vote will happen today. That’s the goal!), the big hurdle is this: hey, these five funding bills are good to go, but in about two weeks, we need to talk about the DHS spending bill.
And so those conversations need to start happening now, because obviously the divide between the two sides is, uh… the divide is dividing, ya know?
To that end, Kristi Noem announced on Monday that ICE agents in Minneapolis will wear body cams. Noem said this was in the interest of transparency.
“Also, famously, I like watching murders. Just ask my puppy. Well, I guess technically you can’t, but…”
…my mom is going to hate that joke, I think.
Risky!
In a bit of interesting timing, she also added that agents nationwide will get bodycams… when funding comes through.
See? That’s what the money will be for! So innocent!
Get your head out of the gutter. If Kristi Noem invited you to her home for drinks, that’s one thing. Otherwise, get your head out of the gutter!
Hey, will these body cams always be on? And unblocked? These big braves won’t even show their faces… will they keep those camera lenses clear?
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of… African American coaches. And also industries that understand that diversity matters.
It is also not hard. Very vital. Not difficult.
I am also proud of golden retrievers, because I can’t say more than African American coaches and it’s golden retrievers day and because you also have great hair… I’m proud of you.