03/10/26
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, March 10th.
National Nap Day
Which means I get to do my yearly lecture about how great I am at naps.
Y’all – I am so good at naps! Here’s how to do it:
First, I highly recommend a coffee nap. That’s where you drink coffee or tea before you take said nap. Because you’re only taking a 20-minute nap anyway, so it’s going to hit right as you’re waking up.
Even if you don’t do that, you should not be taking a nap in bed. Your body will think it’s full on sleeping all night time.
Which is why you’re also going to stay in your clothes with at least some lights on.
And finally – set an alarm. You’re sleeping for 20 minutes. That’s it.
You. Are. Welcome.
And now, the news.
Wyoming Signs Fetal Heartbeat Bill into Law
-via ABC News
Happy Women’s History Month everyone! Wyoming, the first state to give women the right to vote (fun fact), because not enough women were enticed to live in the state and marry the men, and so they thought autonomy over their lives might help make the case for women to want to live there and therefore earning itself the nickname The Equality State…
Has banned abortions after cardiac activity can be identified – which is around the six-week mark.
It does not include exceptions for rape or incest.
The only exception is to prevent “death or for which a delay will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”
Previously, abortion was legal in the state until fetal viability, so between 24 and 26 weeks.
Do you see how a heartbeat is not the same as fetal viability?
And they always phrase the exception of preventing death as protecting the life of the mother. First of all – the mother is not always the one carrying the baby.
And protecting the life, if you actually meant it, means seeing the pregnant person as a whole person. Seeing their life as a whole life, in need of protection. Seeing that, for people all over this country, there are many reasons why simply being pregnant is a threat to their lives. And that’s before you get into the physical toll it takes on a person’s body to carry a baby.
And because this doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest, we’re talking about forcing someone to carry that trauma for the rest of their lives.
So don’t say this is about protecting all lives.
It’s about removing choice. It’s about power. It’s about control.
And here’s what really makes me mad about this whole thing – the governor doesn’t even like the bill! He posted on Twitter that it was well-intentioned (we can argue about beliefs, it’s okay to have different beliefs! All I’m asking is that you stop making your religious beliefs a law that prohibits me from existing as freely as a man!), but he thinks it should be up to the voters.
But he still signed the law!
He didn’t have to do that. He had a choice not to.
…he had a choice.
Iran
-via AP News and Military Times
And in Iran – a 26-year-old Army Sgt. is the 7th service member to die in combat in Iran. He died Sunday after being injured on March 1st.
Additionally, an NYPD officer who was serving in the Army National Guard, and was deployed to Kuwait, died following an as-yet-unknown medical episode. He didn’t die in combat, but he died while serving this mission.
And we learned on Monday that an assessment done right before Trump and Netanyahu teamed up for this little experiment showed an American military intervention was not likely to lead to regime change in the Islamic Republic. Even, according to the National Intelligence Council, if the supreme leader were killed.
And yet they were still like… eh. We’re gonna have to get in there anyway. Why? No reason!
I mean, they’ve given a few different reasons: Trump says he wants to see regime change. Hegseth says that’s not why they did it. Trump says it was to stop their nuclear weapons program. That was after he said it was because they were going to attack us.
So like… we don’t know why Trump went through with the attack, but we do know that regime change can’t be a real reason because he was told it wouldn’t work.
And it was proven out on Sunday when the son of the previous supreme leader became the new supreme leader.
Nepotism strikes again!
Don’t worry, according to Trump, as oil prices surge (and then plummet) and he eyes Cuba as his next target, this thing in Iran is “very complete, pretty much.”
So… we’re.. good?
Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth says, “This is only just the beginning.”
So… we’re.. bad?
You know what we are? We just… are.
Not for nothing, but also not for anything, after the markets closed for the day a reporter asked Trump if the US really was almost done in Iran and he said, “No.”
Attempted NYC Bombing
-via BBC
In New York, two men have been charged with terror offenses after attempting to detonate two bombs outside the Mayor’s Mansion. A third device was found in their car. The suspects, who are 18 and 19-years-old, told authorities they were inspired by the Islamic State and wanted Saturday’s attack to be bigger than the Boston bombing.
This happened during an anti-Islam protest. I talked about this a little in yesterday’s episode, too, but at the time, there weren’t many details. This is obviously both more details and worse details.
Pretty normal for 2026.
Kevin Kiley Moves Left
-via CBS News
I don’t know if you remember this, but during the last government shutdown (because yes, we’re still in one but this is a partial one), there was one House Rep. a Republican named Kevin Kiley from California, who kept showing up to work.
And I said I didn’t know anything about his politics but I respected him for showing up. And I added that he was a little cutie with his hair swoop.
Well that little hair-swooped cutie is leaving the Republican party and I respect him even more now! Dude’s got ethics for dayz!
Unfortunately, those ethics mean he will caucus with the Republicans for the rest of the term because that’s how he was elected. However, he would not say whether he would be a reliable Republican vote.
Right now, counting that swoop as a Republican, Speaker Johnson can only afford to lose one Republican vote if every member is in this hizzy and voting.
But now that swoop is a wildcard.
That’s gotta be keeping Mikey J up at night. And that, alone, is worth the price of admission.
Shooting at Rihanna’s House
-via NBC News
And finally – on Sunday there was an attempt on Rihanna’s life!!
No no no… No Rihanna.
At around 1:15 PM on Sunday a woman, identified as Ivanna Lisette Ortiz, opened fired on Riri’s mansion, while she was home with her A$AP Rocky and their kids, using an AR-15-style rifle.
No one was hurt! Though there are bullet holes in the front gate.
A motive is not yet known.
When I was in college, I did an internship for MTV TRL in San Diego and Rihanna performed. No one knew who she was. Umbrella had just come out, but it was like… people knew the song, but she came out to perform live, and when she stepped on that stage, no one knew who she was. Everyone was drunk. It was hot. Here’s this woman no one knows.
I have never seen an artist grab an entire audience like that, and so quickly! It was incredible.
She’s so incredible.
Ortiz has been booked on suspicion of attempted murder.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of Rihanna.
She’s a billionaire. Self-made at that. And she uses some of that money to fund a foundation named after her grandparents, and it gives money to climate change solutions; women’s entrepreneurship in under-invested regions of East Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S. South; an oncology center at Barbados’ main hospital; pandemic relief; racial justice; and the arts.
Isn’t that amazing? And did you know that? Mayhaps not because she just is so great and confident and doesn’t need to be in your face about it. Her foundation is literally a model, in the space, for what others should be like. That’s not just me saying it. The executive director of the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has called the approach her foundation takes unique in its long-term bottom-up approach and says she’d love to see others take the same approach.
In 2021 she was declared a National Hero of Barbados by Dame Sandra Mason, the first female president of Barbados, when it became a republic. Giving her the official title The Right Honourable Robyn Rihanna Fenty.
Also Good Girl Gone Bad is one of the best albums!! Why is it so good?? I’m listening to it the second I’m done editing this episode.
But more than naps, because now I’ve really wound myself up thinking about how great Rihanna is and now I need a nap… because I think you do great stuff as well! Hey. Heeeeeyyyyyy…. I’m proud of you.