03/24/26

Good morning! It’s Tuesday, March 24th.

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims… Day.

There’s gotta be a shorter name for this!

It was created to honor Saint Óscar Romero, an El Salvadorian Archbishop who was assassinated in 1980 by a right-wing pro-government group for speaking out against the military government and their actions towards citizens.

And amazingly this day fixed that problem and everything’s okay now!

And now, the news.

Iran

-via ABC News

Starting in Iran, where we seem to have a little bit of a misunderstanding because on Tuesday president Trump said strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure had been postponed, saying negotiations between Iran and America were going well, with “major points of agreement.” And because of that, the strikes are on pause. 

But according to Iran’s Parliament Speaker, "No talks with the U.S. have taken place; reports claiming otherwise are fake news aimed at influencing financial and oil markets and distracting from the challenges facing the U.S. and Israel."

So who is Trump talking to? Trump won’t say, just "a man who I believe is the most respected."

That’s what he said on Monday. But on Friday, he said that after strikes killed most of the top leadership in Iran, there was “nobody to talk to.”

We do know it’s not the Supreme Leader that’s been confirmed. 

It could be… hear me out… no one. It could be imagination. 

In the meantime, the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. When Trump was asked who would control the Strait after this mess is over, Trump seemed to believe it would be jointly controlled.

"Maybe me, me and the next ayatollah, whoever that is."

Huh. I wonder if there’s, you know… money for him to be making in that venture.

TSA

-via AP News, NPR, NY Times, and ABC SF

As the partial government shutdown continues, TSA agents remain unpaid and lines are untenable, President Trump has ordered ICE agents to step in as supplemental security.

That’s right. Untrained ICE agents.

But they’re not really doing the TSA agents’ jobs. Instead, on Monday, day one of their assignment, they just kind of stood by the terminals and lines. 

Oh, and arrest a woman in front of her child who genuinely thought she was being kidnapped because they were in plain clothes. The entire family is now being sent back to Guatemala.

So day one and one arrest already. 

So now, when you think about it, it makes sense why Trump said on Monday that Republicans shouldn’t make any deal on DHS funding. 

Well, actually what he wants to do now is tie it to the SAVE Act. Which, as a reminder, the SAVE Act is the voter ID law that will prevent eligible voters from being able to register to vote and prove their eligibility (which it will require them to do every two years).

Oh Kim but it’ll also prevent fraud by voters

It will prevent fraud by voters in the same way that it will prevent leprechauns from smooching unicorns while they skip on rainbows into the 4th dimension where clouds are cotton candy.

Because fraud by voters has never, not once, ever changes the outcome of any election ever.

You know what does? Preventing people from turning out to vote. No wonder Trump wants to tie DHS funding to the SAVE Act. The longer the debate goes on that, the longer ICE agents will stay in airports. Two horrors, one stone thrown lopsidedly by his little grub hands.

Meanwhile, Markwayne Mullin (As a reminder Markwayne is his first name. That’s two first names smashed into one) was confirmed as the new homeland security secretary, taking over for Kristi Noem.

He was confirmed on a 54-45 vote, with two Democrats joining Republicans to give him the thumbs up. On the Republican side, unsurprisingly Sen. Rand Paul voted no. Probably because Mullin was like “I actually think it’s very cool that his neighbor broke a bunch of his ribs in an argument over leafblowing.”

Meanwhile, at LaGuardia airport in New York – an Air Canada regional jet collided with a fire truck on the ground, killing both pilots in the plane and injuring many others, with 41 passengers and crew members going to the hospital. 32 have been released from the hospital so far.

The collusion is not in any way tied to the shutdown, but more than 600 flights in or out of LaGuardia were cancelled on Monday, adding to significant delays and headaches at the 19th busiest airport in the country.

Colombian Military Plane Crash

-via CNN

In other bad plane news (sorry)… at least 66 people were killed with an as-yet-unknown number more injured after a Colombian military transport plane crashed on takeoff in south Colombia on Monday.

The cause of the crash is not yet known but it is not believed to be caused by criminal groups.

SCOTUS v Voting

-via The Guardian

On Monday the Supreme Court signaled that they are ready to make yet ANOTHER cut to voters voices being voiced, by ruling that states may not count ballots that arrive to the polling place after election day.

It comes from a case out of Mississippi, which currently allows ballots to be counted if they arrive up to five days after election day, as long as they are postmarked on Election Day. Makes sense. You, as someone mailing something, are not in charge of when something is delivered by the letter carrier. If it’s postmarked by election day, you did your job.

Five days is a reasonable window.

But not for the Republican National Committee, who would prefer zero days of voting in general actually. Just, no voting at all. 

So this is their first attack. Mississippi, solidly red, is pushing back against the RNC because they want to be able to make their own laws regarding elections. As every state does. 

The biggest argument here, which was pointed out by the Mississippi solicitor general but I was already going to make this argument so I’m going to give myself the credit… because here’s the problem. If you’re going to say, as 36 states already do, that ballots received after election day don’t count, then you’re not giving those voters full access to all information needed. You’re forcing them to vote before Election Day – some campaigns strategically release information about opponents in that short window where you’re forcing people to vote.

The other issue is confusion. This a state law. Does it supersede the federal laws around the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act? (I mean, it can’t because state laws can’t supersede federal but you can see how people will be confused). 

And that’s honestly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems here. But of course, this is the Roberts Court and if there’s one thing that dude’s gonna do, it’s silence voters. So we’ll see but, you know… we’ll see. 

If SCOTUS sides with the RNC, this would affect 14 states, DC, and three territories.

Robert Mueller

-via CNN

On Sunday Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who history will remember for a lot of things but likely best remember as the director who investigated Trump for obstruction of justice into the Russia investigation, died. 

Mueller investigated two different things. One: did Trump’s campaign coordinate, conspire, or have meaningful contacts with Russia’s 2016 election interference. For example, when he, on public television, asked Russia to release Hillary Clinton’s emails, and then they did… was that because they were working together?

There was also the huge social media disinformation campaign run by the Internet Research Agency and dozens of contacts between Trump’s little buddies and Russian-linked individuals. Was that just a crazy coinky-dinky or was that to do interference?

Two: Did Donald Trump obstruct justice through little things like firing James Comey, directing or pressuring aides like Don McGahn to curtail the investigation, attempting to influence witnesses including Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, and repeatedly trying to limit or shut down the probe?

In the end, while Mueller did find that yes Russia definitely interfered in the 2016 election, and yes there was a lot of crossover between those in Russia doing election crimes and those in the Trump camp, a criminal conspiracy could not be established. And although there was a lot of potential obstruction shown, it’s very difficult, not impossible but so difficult that it’s basically impossible, to charge a sitting president with a crime. 

Mueller’s final report neither charged nor exonerated the president. Hey, guess which part of that sentence the president and all Republicans really took to heart and then just stopped listening after?

Robert Mueller was 81 when he died after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in August 2021.

Trump’s response? “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”

Good. I’m glad he’s dead.

That is the president of the United States.

What a small bitter horrific man. 

So instead, I’ll give Robert Mueller the last word:

"Integrity is of utmost importance; without it, nothing else holds significance".

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Hey, sorry about no news yesterday. I have no real excuse, I was just very sleepy.

I’m proud of Robert Mueller. I’m proud of people who are able to bravely tell the truth about what’s actually happening in this country and in this world. 

Also… Chocolate Covered raisins. It’s National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day.

But more than chocolate-covered raisins… because you’re a sweet treat no one’s ever forgotten about… I’m proud of you!