06/02/26
Good morning! It’s Tuesday, June 2nd.
Election Day baybee!
If you live in California, it’s the last day possible to cast that sweet sweet ballot in the primary and make your voice heard. It’s also National Leave Work Early Day.
If you live in California, polls are open from 8 AM to 7 PM and you’re allowed to take time off for voting, but only at the beginning or end of your regular work shift (whichever allows the most free time for voting and the least time off from your regular working shift) unless you make another arrangement with your employer. So in theory… you can celebrate both National Leave Work Early Day and casting that sweet sweet ballot day.
And now, the news.
Ebola Outbreak
-via ABC News
Starting in the DR Congo, where, according to the International Rescue Committee (aka the IRC), the Ebola outbreak is "likely far worse" than official figures suggest.
So far, there are 282 cases and 42 deaths have been confirmed, but Congo’s Ministry of Health believes the numbers are more like more than 1,000 suspected cases and more than 200 suspected deaths in the DRC, with the IRC saying the virus may have been spreading potentially as long as three months before it was confirmed last month.
More and more, this outbreak is resembling the 2018-2020 outbreak, which saw more than 3,400 cases and 2,200 deaths. The difference, however, is that outbreak had an approved vaccine. Where this one does not. However, some public health specialists have suggested that this current strain may be slightly less deadly than others.
Still, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has announced that it will "urgently accelerate" the development of three potential vaccines.
Trump and Netanyahu Argue (Again)
-via CNN
As a ceasefire deal continues to elude all parties, Trump got on the horn with Benjamin Netanyahu and had yet another heated conversation with him. Apparently, according to people familiar with the call, Trump used bad words (in many ways, all his words are bad because he’d bad, ya know? But some words are worse. And others, like this case, were just cuss words, I guess.). But some of the bad words started with F. "You're f-ing crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your a--. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."
Well, I wouldn’t say JUST that. Remember, Netanyahu is also choosing to do genocide in Gaza. (And just to clarify something about Trump’s little pull quote there, he’s generalizing by saying the entire country of Israel but many Israelis, as well as Jewish people worldwide, heavily oppose Netanyahu.)
It all came from Israel’s taking of the Lebanese castle that I talked about in yesterday’s episode, which prompted Iran to threaten to leave the negotiations.
Following that, Trump told Netanyahu to hold off on bombing Hezbollah targets in Beirut because it turns out short-term actions have long-term consequences.
But then, because they’re… look I got in trouble last time I said the girls are fighting by my former boss who is, in my mind, my forever boss. So now I hesitate to call them anything (for the record, I was going to call them children). But honestly, at least children are still learning things about the world. And also have things like favorite books and think slime is cool.
Instead, they’re just, you know, basic war criminals. Anyway, because they’re basic war criminals and Trump is also emotionally stunted, at the end of all this, took to Temu Twitter and posted that they’d actually had a “productive” call and that Israel and Hezbollah will stop attacking each other. Meanwhile, Netanyahu put out his own statement saying the Israeli military would keep striking southern Lebanon “as planned.”
So… that’s… how Monday went.
Anti-Trans Ban Unconstitutional
Citing a lack of evidence and a classic inability to meet the standards of constitutionality, the DC U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled, on a 2-1 decision, that the Pentagon’s policy banning transgender troops from serving in the military is illegal.
The ruling is narrow and only applies to those named in the suit. There is a second suit, blocked by the Supreme Court, which would apply more broadly.
This goes back to Trump’s January 27th, 2025, executive order stating that the sexual identity of a trans soldier “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
Interestingly, he said nothing about whether having your dad, who didn’t even like you enough to ruffle your little head and take you for ice cream but did give you enough money to start a racist landlord business, and before that, pay a podiatrist that your dad rented office space from, to lie and say you have bone spurs so you could get out of ever having to serve this country, conflicts with someone’s “commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
Huh.
They’re going to send this up to the Supreme Court, and even knowing what the Supreme Court has already said about the other case, allowing the ban to continue while legal challenges carried on through the lower court, this cruel for the sake of being cruel administration added this little gem of a headline to the docket on Monday… Pete Hegseth has blocked the promotions of nine Navy officers who a board of senior Navy admirals had already selected.
According to Pentagon rules, he’s only supposed to pull officers from the list for moral, mental, physical, or professional failings that raise questions about the officers’ fitness to lead.
Three of the officers are women, two are Black men, and the other four are white men. This means the new list of promoted officers includes zero female officers… even though women make up 21% of the Navy. Adding to the reason that this should be scrutinized, nearly 60 percent of the senior officers Mr. Hegseth has fired are female or Black.
And again… he’s not really supposed to be doing these firings or pulling people from promotion lists anyway unless it’s a very serious mental, physical, moral or professional failing. Like, say, very obvious sexism or racism.
Slush Fund Falls Apart
-via CBS News
And finally… hey, it turns out, all this yelling into the void? It’s not for nothing.
On Monday, the Department of Justice announced it will stop work on the $1.8 million slush fund it created to pay back their political allies who had their little feelings hurt. People like, you know... insurrectionists.
Yeah, the actual literal insurrectionists that did insurrection on January 6th at the suggestion of, organization of, and in honor of, Donald Trump, who is also an insurrectionist.
And that’s who Trump was going to pay, or some of the people Trump was going to pay, with a fund funded through the taxpayers. A fund that wasn’t actually $1.8 million, but was actually $1.776, because not only are they incredibly immoral, they’re incredibly immoral losers.
But because we all, Democrats and Republicans alike, all normal people, refused to stop talking about this, refused to just let this go, the DOJ was forced to announce on Monday that it will stop working on the fund after a district judge blocked the program from moving forward.
When’s the last time the DOJ, or any of these Trump loyalists, would say this: “The Department will abide by the Court's ruling."
Come on… the only reason they’re doing this is because we all knew this was ridiculous and we said so. And we never stopped saying so.
Let this be a lesson to all of us. And them. I mean, they’ve never learned a lesson in their lives but we can at least learn this lesson.
And at the very least, at the end of the day, we have this win… our tax dollars are not going to pay insurrectionists for doing insurrection.
And as a bonus, maybe they’ll get mad at Trump! That’ll learn em for trusting a criminal who literally has never been loyal to anyone.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Hey, for real. It’s election day in California and here’s the deal – statewide and here in Los Angeles, the threat of a Republican governor and Republican mayor are very real. And the only reason that would happen is low voter turnout. That’s it. Steve Hilton in the gubernatorial, and Spenser Pratt (yeah, that’s right, Spenser Pratt, FROM THE HILLS), are the leading Republicans in the races. If you’re not from here, you might be surprised that Republicans are even polling well at all. California is not a guaranteed blue state. The Pratt thing is just… dude’s a moron.
But they are betting on, and benefiting from, our exhaustion.
We cannot give that to them. Today is the day. One last day. If you haven’t turned your ballot in yet, now is the time.
And look, I’m not going to tell you here on this show and tell you who to vote for between Beccera and Steyer, or Bass and Ramen (though if you haven’t voted yet and you’re not sure, slide into those DMs, RESPECTFULLY, and I’m happy to answer any questions you have) but I will tell you this… I’m sorry if this was your candidate but Katie Porter is polling at 8%. She is not going to win this primary. It is irresponsible of her to still be in this race. She is pulling votes from the top two Democrats and, because we have a jungle primary, there’s a real threat that a vote for her will give us two Republicans in the general.
I’m a big believer that you should vote with your heart in the primary and your noggin in the general, but here you gotta do both. And a vote for Katie Porter is, at this point, a throwaway vote. She can try again tomorrow, but this isn’t her time and she should not be in this race.
As for me? I’ll be up late tonight and hopefully, in tomorrow’s episode, I’ll have some info for you. Remember that California, because we’re so great and our state has a pet bear and our state flower was heavily featured the film Wicked, and you wouldn’t even have the movie The Fall Guy (or frankly, most movies) without us… sometimes it takes us a while to count our votes.
But I’m proud of voters. Always. Even when you goofballs make the wrong choices, as least you’re making your voice heard.
(Though I will say… it would be cool if people could start making better, more future-forward decisions…)
But more than a rotisserie chicken. Because it’s National Rotisserie Chicken Day and because you spin me right round baybee right round… I’m proud of you.