06/15/26

Good morning! It’s Monday, June 15th

Take Your Cat to Work Day

That’s currently every day for me. Also, cats would hate this. They’re booked and busy; they don’t have time to deal with our jobs too. They’ve got the weight of the world on their scapulae; do you really think they need to go to work with you and hear your boss talk about how it’s time to start thinking about using a new font on the Macintosh Report?

And now, the news.

Update: Iran

-via AP News

Starting in Iran, where it’s possible, POSSIBLE, that an initial deal may have been reached that would see the Strait of Hormuz opened and the ceasefire extended.

Deets of the deal have not been released, and apparently they won’t be until the paperwork is signed on Friday.

One thing we do know about the deal with that is that it gives 60 days to figure out what to do about Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium as well as its atomic program. 60 days is a long time for things like learning how to cross-stitch or roller-blade, but when it comes to planning out when to do about nuclear bombs in the Middle East, it’s the most amount of time. It took years to work it out for the 2015 nuclear deal, and that was when multiple countries were working out that deal. The same deal that Trump removed us from in his first term, which actually put us in this problem in the first place.

In response, Trump tweeted: “I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

He later said, in a different post, a whole ramble about how many have tried but he’s the first president to make peace with Iran. Which isn’t true, but I’m bringing that second post up because in that one he added this little line: "With the opening of the Strait upon the signing of the Deal on Friday, for purposes of mine removal, oil will flow on both ends again for the Region, and the World!"

So I guess the Strait will open Friday, or whenever the T-s and I-s get crossed. 

And even though Trump said last week that he loves the inflation because the price of oil will drop so quickly (yes, that’s right – he likes that things are costing us so much money right now because hey, one day it won’t be so expensive), it’s still believed that prices won’t immediately fall once things are signed, sealed, delivered. And even if they do, it’s hard to know how far they’ll fall. 

But that’s where things stand. We could have a deal this week – but as we’ve seen with everything during this deal, we have to believe it when we see it (and I guess hold our breath until then)

Skydiving Plane Crash

-via ABC News

In Missouri, twelve people, a number that includes a pilot and eleven skydivers, died after the plane crashed near the airport shortly after takeoff.

Some of the drivers were first time divers, and some of the witnesses were the family members of the divers.

The cause of the crash is being investigated.

Kyiv Religious Spots Under Attack

-via CNN

In Ukraine, a Russian attack has killed five and injured at least 20 in Kyiv, as apartments and other buildings were set on fire, including one of the most significant religious landmarks in the country.

The five killed were Ukrainian rescuers – people who literally went in to fight the fires that were set, and then they were killed in a second attack. 

And what was set on fire was the Monastery of Caves, which was built between the 11th and the 19th centuries, and is a labyrinth of caves spanning more than 2,000 feet of monasteries and churches, including some underground. It’s one of the largest Christian shrines.

And just to put an extra clear bow on this… no, it doesn’t also house the Ukrainian military.

This was an attack on a completely civilian area.

Elon Musk – the Trillionaire

-via Hollywood Reporter

Elon Musk, who once did a Hitler salute to celebrate the election of Donald Trump (not a part of this story but it’s not nota part of this story) became a trillionaire on Friday after SpaceX, the company he CEOs, went public.

Now, because it’s nearly impossible to understand what a trillionaire is, let me say this because I couldn’t really wrap my head around that until I heard this (and it’s true. I looked it up, this is true)

Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, and in history, with about $1.1 trillion

Jeff Bezos is the 2nd richest with about $250 billion

The difference between the two is about $850 billion

Elon Musk is so rich that Jeff Bezos is closer, financially, to you or me than he is to Elon Musk.

Put another way, the financial gap between Bezos and Musk is more than three times larger than the gap between Bezos and someone with almost no net worth.

Musk could buy every major North American sports league—that’s every team in the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB, and NHL, PLUS every single residential apartment in Manhattan.

And when that’s done – he could fund the estimated $40 billion annual cost to end world hunger for over two decades.

And still, after all of that… after ending world hunger for two decades, buying every single team in every major sports league in North America as well as every residential apartment in Manhattan, he’d have $10 billion left over.

Elon is 54.

Let’s say he lives 50 more years.

He’d need to spend $27.39 million a day for the rest of his life before he ran out of money.

And this scenario pretends that he’s not making any more money. On average, his daily earnings vary based on the market but his daily, not weekly, not monthly, not yearly, his DAILY average wealth generated swings from as low as $90 million and $500 million, with recent years putting it closer to $584 million. 

He will never be able to spend even close to the money he makes. He can never run out. Literally. It’s literally impossible.

He could cure hunger and poverty and help cure diseases. 

And many will say what happened on Friday is a win. And of course he believes it is.

And of course we want people to feel inspired to innovate and create and believe that they can reach further and further and further. 

But Elon Musk sitting on $1.1 trillion while kids die of hunger isn’t anything to be celebrated. It’s nothing but a failure of humanity and our systems that allowed us to get here.

Mitch McConnell Hospitalized

-via NPR

On Sunday, a spokesperson for Senator Mitch McConnell announced that the Republican Senator from Kentucky and former Majority Leader has been hospitalized. No details about the 84-year-old’s condition have been released, just that he’s receiving excellent care. 

We’ll know more when we know more.

UFC Fight

-via The Guardian

We’re going to end on some ups but first we gotta cover this… 

On Sunday, an old man had a really embarrassing birthday party.

That’s right, Trump’s 80th birthday UFC fight on the White House lawn happened on Sunday – an hour later than planned because God tried one last time to give an out after a thunderstorm delayed it.

These pictures look like something out of AI. Trump’s saluting the crowd (not the military. The crowd of civilians.). There’s an octagon in front of the White House. One of the fighters said a wildly racist thing about Michelle Obama after he won his fight. 

It looks like a group of people you can’t leave an open drink around. 

It was as bad and as embarrassing as you imagine and I’m recording this before it’s over.

So far he hasn’t fallen asleep but like I said – the fight’s not over.

Kennedy Center’s New Old Name

-via NPR

And let’s end on some ups. Not too far down from the super embarrassing UFC fight, at the Kennedy Center, after months of legal fights, Trump’s name has been removed from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. 

As a reminder, it was just a few months into his second term that Trump pushed out the president, board chair, and board members and replaced them with a group of trustees that, by pure coincidence that he totally didn’t see coming, named Trump as chair. Following that, his name was added to the building, making it: "The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."

Rolls right off the tongue.

Here’s why this is a big deal: he renamed the center and made all the changes without Congress. Which he was supposed to do. He does this, he leapfrogs over Congress and tosses us into a Constitutional crisis, all the time. But getting things like this back – it matters. It shows that he has to follow the law and when he doesn’t, and when we continue to stay focused on it, he doesn’t get away with that.

His name came off the building and it’s a big deal.

But it’s also yet another reminder that he is not the sun and we are not without power.

Knicks in Five

-via ESPN

And finally, and I do mean finally… after 53 years, the New York Knicks are the kings of the court, winning the NBA Finals in a series where, in their four wins (in five games) they came back from double-digit deficits each time. 

In the final seconds of the game, as the Knicks secured the win, ESPN and MSG Network broadcaster Monica McNutt said this: "There is nothing like the love letter that an organization has an opportunity to write to its fans and to its cities quite like winning a championship.”

Which is such a beautiful. Because there’s almost no other way, no more beautiful way, that a city comes together than when your team wins a championship.

I… would only know as an almost, as well as someone who has to have lived through the sheer brutal punishment of some karmic punishment for a crime I have yet to understand that has forced me to live in the city of back-to-back World Series champions while my sweet gentlemen Padres continue to play their medium while management makes insane trades because no one wants to grow a team anymore!

Anyway… congratulations to the New York Knicks!

As for the World Cuppa… it’s early days so I’m not going to run down where things are until the Round of 16 but I will note that, in a shocker, USA beat Paraguay. That in itself is incredible, but it was 4-1, which is also wild. 

They play Australia on Friday, at a classic nooner. Both teams are in Group D and tied at the top of the table with 3 points each, so obviously that’s a vital game.

And this has been Sports by Kim™️

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of cats.

Ruth has no job and no interest in getting one.

And I respect that.

But more than that. But you’ve got a job, and your job is working. It. (I’m not entirely sure what I mean by that, but I also feel like you get it and it’s a compliment) and because of that… I’m proud of you.