05/28/26
Good morning! It’s Thursday, May 28th
Amnesty International Day, which is a day meant to encourage the entire world to study the ways we can improve human rights conditions around the world and work together to overall make things better for—whoops! This just in from the White House – May 28th is cancelled.
And now, the news.
Update on Paper Mill Explosion
-via AP News
Starting with an update on Tuesday’s paper mill explosion in Washington state as authorities now say the likely death toll is eleven, as another person died and they no longer believe the remaining nine that are missing will be found alive.
If the eleven deaths are confirmed, this will be tied for the third-deadliest industrial accident in the United States in decades.
Although authorities are warning residents to stay away from ditches, and some contamination of the chemical known as “white liquor” had reached the Columbia River, the EPA has reported that there haven’t been any effects on the river so far and authorities say the rupture hasn’t affected the air or drinking water in the city.
Lebanon Evacuation Orders
It’s all just a little bit of history repeating as the Israeli army issues evacuation orders for large parts of southern Lebanon ahead of new strikes against Hezbollah.
Saying Hezbollah broke the ceasefire before telling residents to move north, this is the largest evacuation order since the ceasefire took effect on April 17th.
The IDF says they have a right to continue to fight the threat from Hezbollah, while Lebanese officials say the Israeli strikes themselves are a violation of their own accord.
As a reminder, the way all of this connects is that Iran heavily funds Hezbollah, so on February 28th, after an Israeli strike killed Iran’s supreme leader, Hezbollah was like, okay well I guess we’re in this now and on March 2nd they launched rockets into Israel.
Israel then responded with an air and ground campaign.
Since then, at least 3,213 people have been killed in Lebanon since then.
Israel says 23 soldiers and 4 civilians have been killed in the same period of time.
(In Lebanon, they don’t distinguish between civilians and soldiers.)
Meanwhile, and I don’t know why this is news again because he already said this once but for some reason people everyone’s like “can you believe it??” Yeah… I can…
Anyway, sorry I’m getting ahead of myself… MEANWHILE… Trump says he doesn’t care about the midterms when it comes to things in Iran.
“They thought they were gonna out-wait me. You know, ‘We’ll out-wait him. He’s got the midterms. I don’t care about the midterms.”
Now, I know what he’s saying is that he doesn’t care about the midterms in relation to Iran but the pull quote there “I don’t care about the midterms” is very silly for someone who is quite literally doing voter disenfranchisement and attempting to snuff out democracy so they can steal votes all because his did never tussled his hair and called his “little champ.”
E. Jean Carroll
-via CNN
In “this isn’t political payback, it’s just… it’s… different!” news…
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that they are launching an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the woman Trump sexually assaulted to the point that the judge said any reasonable person would have called it rape and they only reason they weren’t calling it rape was because of just the letter of the law.
Now look… I know the DOJ works for the president now because we’re in the upside down but this is perhaps the dumbest one possible because the investigation is over whether Carroll committed perjury in her two civil suits – the one accusing Trump of sexual abuse and the second for saying he defamed her in 2019 after repeatedly denying the abuse because (and this was what he said his defense was) she wasn’t his type.
Yeah… that was his defense. He didn’t not do it because that’s a reprehensible crime. No no… he said he didn’t do it because she wasn’t his type.
Anyway, so she’s being investigated for perjury but that investigation will require going over those cases again.
He was found liable! That happened! He did this (and the way you know he did this is because 1: he did it and 2: you know, in your heart of hearts, she’s not the only one. He’s in the Epstein files. He’s on record talking about doing assault. He’s on record talking about how he wishes he could date his daughter! He’s a certifiable creep and he should be in jail but you know… why believe a woman when instead we can elect fascists? And that’s a famous saying.)
It’s just wild to me that this DOJ is so up Trump’s abnormally long ties that they’re missing to do whatever he wants AND that he is so “from the ankles to the brain ain’t none of it working” that he thinks this is a good idea.
It’s not like we forgot he did this, but when people are still talking about the fact that he was besties with the most prolific child sex predator, and when Thomas Massie is out there threatening to name Epstein list names now that he’s about to lose his job, wild to me that anyone chose to do this.
These people are so dumb. It’s incredible. Truly.
Politics aside (not forever, just for this one second)… politics aside, they’re so dumb. And then when you add in the politics… you know what? I’ll say this, and I think it’ll surprise you… they’re really just not for me. Not my people.
Hunger Strike at ICE Facility
-via The Guardian and MMA Facts
In New Jersey, detainees of an ICE facility have been on a hunger since Friday May 22nd. And on Tuesday, federal officers sprays protestors with pepper spray and charged at them for… it’s unclear. At some point in the evening and chaos, a protester threw something at an ICE officer. That person was chased by dozens of officers before being tased and taken to jail.
On Monday, Governor Sherrill tried to get into the facility but was denied access. Now, as governor, she’s not guaranteed access (which is absurd but that’s the deal there), however she was with Senator Kim who, as a member of congress, has been able to get access to the facility and reported back that the conditions are “inhumane.”
In response, Markwayne Mullin said: “There is no hunger strike at Delaney Hall. There are no subprime conditions.”
So… that’s a lie. He says detainees are given three meals a day. He also says they’re evaluated by certified dieticians, and receive clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, toiletries and comprehensive medical care.
Now, I hate to say I don’t believe a guy who once threatened to fight the head of the Teamsters by telling him to “stand your butt up” and who left his illustrious MMA career which he loves bragging about, saying he left with a 5 win, 0 loss record, but it turns out his career was just shy of 5 months, he only a total of three wins, two were against the same person, and his total career fight time was less than 10 minutes and only 2.7 rounds (yeah, I looked it up Markuswayne McMullin and it’s linked in show notes) but the detainees have said the food is inedible, sometimes it contains worms, the infrastructure has no air conditioning and poor ventilation, things like a persistent flu and other viruses consistently spread through the facility, and there’s a delay in medical care as well as lags in their immigration cases.
So just, as a reminder… ICE isn’t in the news every day, but the atrocities (and kidnappings) are still happening every day.
Perry’s Assistant Charged
-via NY Times
And finally – Kenneth Iwamasa, Matthew Perry’s former assistant, the one who injected Perry with the deadly dose of ketamine, the last of the five defendants to be sentenced, was sentenced on Wednesday to 41 months in prison, two years of supervised release, a $10,000 fine, and a mandatory special assessment of $100.
Now obviously I know what that $100 mandatory special assessment is. Duh. But I looked it up for you. Not for me. I knew it already. But just so you know…. That’s the mandatory federal crime victims' assessment and it’s a flat administrative charge meant to support victim services generally.
For individuals, it’s $25 for a misdemeanor, $100 for a Class A misdemeanor or felony, and up to $400 for a felony. For corporations it can range up to $10,000 per offense.
Huh.
I mean… not interesting. Because I already knew.
Look… this entire story is obviously so sad but, and I said this last time, but this one here in particular, is the one that really makes me mad. This guy knew Matthew Perry for decades. Moved in with him in 2022. In court, it came out that twice before that, he had found Perry unconscious. And his defense was that, because Perry was his boss, he couldn’t refuse him.
That’s not true. I’m sorry, that’s just not true. I don’t know what their working relationship was but I can tell you as someone with enough knowledge of how a relationship like that works, that if he really loved Matthew Perry, if he loved his friend more than he loved his friend’s residual checks and mansion and connections… he could have made a call. To a friend, a family member, a sponsor… someone.
But he didn’t. And a man died. A man who trusted him so much that he let him live with him! 41 months… it’s like… whatever. Fine. Because what is the number that makes that better. That this guy took advantage of someone like that? I realize there are worse crimes, people do them every day, but I just hate this.
At any point, a million times over, this guy could have saved his life. But he was more concerned with being able to be associated with the lifestyle being connected to Matthew Perry afforded him, than actually caring about Matthew Perry.
That’s disgusting.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of… you know who I’m proud of? People who like their friends. People who love their friends enough to have hard conversations sometimes.
Oh also! This is not connected at all. Crazy leap, but also… today the movie Breadwinner comes out! It stars… Mandy Moore. Am I pronouncing that correctly? I’m unfamiliar with her work but based on the trailer alone, I think she’s got a great career ahead of her. Some would even say EGOT.
Other people are in it as well (I’m kidding. I’d obviously go see it regardless but it genuinely looks great! It looks sweet and funny. Remind me of anyone else you know?)
But more than… nope! Not gonna catch me slippin! Not gonna say more than Mandy Moore!
More than improving human rights conditions… nope. Sorry, I actually was gonna be able to land the joke, but the president cancelled the entire thing right in the middle of it.
More than passion fruit martinis! It’s also WORLD Passion Fruit Martini Day. Because shaken or stirred, you might be a little salty, but I’m passionate about what a classic you are… I’m proud of you.