09/18/26
Title
He Didn’t Even Say Please!!
Good morning! It’s Friday, September 18th.
National Cheeseburger Day.
It’s… not for me.
And now, the news.
Update: Iran
Starting in Iran where a U.N.-commissioned panel of human rights experts are saying that the US’ first strike in Iran, on a school, killing at least 168 people (women and children being the majority of those dead), was most likely a war crime.
The group also agreed that school was “the intended point of impact,” and that it wasn’t, as US officials have said, an accident. And frankly, I’m inclined to believe it because the Pentagon did a whole investigation into it and guess what we haven’t seen? The report from that investigation.
As for Iran, the group also found that state security forces have killed on “a staggering scale” and civilians face "gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by their own government."
It’s hard to know how many people have been killed by their own government in Iran, because obviously the country doesn’t want to say, but it’s believed that, between January 8th and 9th, just two days, more than 30,000 people were killed during protests against the government, prompted by a deflation of their currency and fueled by the government’s reaction.
So the moral here is…
Just because Iran is doing something horrific doesn’t make it okay that the US also did something horrific.
Two things can be bad.
The report ended by noting that both the US and Iran should pay reparations.
Good luck with getting the US to do that.
Update: Russia
-via AP News
Moving to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I mentioned in yesterday’s episode that the House passed sanctions against Russia.
On Thursday, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy called the sanctions “symbolic.”
Why? Well, sanctions aren’t ironclad – Russia’s been skirting around them for years.
But more pressingly, here’s a great example of how well those sanctions are helping… following those sanctions, Russian missiles and drones injured at least 19 people overnight in the capital and surrounding region.
Also this week – in an exclusive interview with CBS News, President Zelenskyy announced that Russia has now targeted his plane twice. The news came after the news that drones attacked a passenger train close to one carrying senior European officials and former CIA Director David Petraeus.
So… that’s the latest on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Canadianland
Hey, fancy a cuppa of Double-Double?
(That joke works if you know that Double-Double is a Tim Horton’s coffee that includes two sugars and two creams, and also that cuppas are what they call cups of tea in England.)
Following Trump’s decision to rename, in his mind only (and in the mind of suckups, I guess) Lake Ontario to Lake America because the country isn’t backing down from the retaliatory sanctions they put up in retaliation to Trump’s sanctions…
Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney paid the EU a little visit, where he got a standing ovation and an interesting proposition…
Why don’t you come on over here, buddy?
Opening up the possibility that Canada could become an associate member of the EU – something the European Commission President just like… well frankly appears to have made up on the spot. I mean, maybe not but it was a surprise announcement without any real details besides what it’s called.
It wasn’t even something everyone in the EU agreed on before the announcement came.
She was excited! She had an idea, and she was ready to get started on it. Who among us, ya know?
It’s like 0% started and Trump is having very big feelings about it.
On Wednesday, Trump said it would be considered a “hostile act” if a country he’s not a part of, or can even legally shouldn’t even be able to enter once he’s not president because he’s a felon, were to make its own decision about its future.
On the northern side of the border, Canada called the fracture of its relationship with America the end of the old world order, something he doesn’t believe they should mourn because, "We believe that from the fracture, we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just. This is the task of the middle powers."
Which is something AOC said when Trump was elected a second time – something about how sometimes something has to break all the way for it to be built better.
That’s not… that’s not a comment on the Canadaland of it all, just… it just reminded me of that quote.
Trump threatened heavy tariffs, or perhaps stop trade completely, with the EU.
As a child of divorce, I’d just like to say… Trump is very clearly acting out from a sad place and he should consider talking to someone about his feelings.
Kennedy Center
As you may recall, Trump really needs his name on a wall. Like, real real bad.
And he’s decided it should go on the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center, whose hand-picked-by-Trump board said, just last week, that the poor thing has no money and the only solution in the entire world is to have Trump’s name on the wall so that he’s motivated to help raise the money.
What else are they supposed to say? That’s literally the only possible option!!
Well, there’s always another option. To… demolish it.
Last Wednesday night, photos were taken through the window of Air Force One, of Trump holding a giant poster that said “Kennedy Center demolished” and then it had photos under it of what appear to just be a construction site and a building being demolished.
Because again… he is in cognitive decline and likely has had multiple strokes, and so things like a large sign with clear pictures can help make him understand the idea better.
Those photos of him holding this giant sign inside of the plane were introduced into a suit filed by Democratic House Rep Joyce Beatty, who is trying to prevent the closure of the center.
Her request for an emergency hearing was denied, however, the US District Judge overseeing the case says that the government now needs to provide a 30 day notice if they intend to knock down the center.
So for now, the Center stands. It is, however, closed. It’ll remain closed for a week, for what they say are renovations, though it could be closed longer than a week.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Hey, on a podcast on Tuesday, Veep Vance gave the world his big selling point for voters to help them keep the House and Senate: "Give us another chance."
For real. He added, "Give us another couple years to continue to work on the amazing things that we've been doing for the past two years."
And he didn’t even say please!!
At least Trump said please when he begged for votes earlier this month: "Pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot."
How about this? How about instead of pretending that he’s on the ballot, you think about every good thing the Trump administration has done for YOU personally. The ways that YOU personally have benefited from the choices this administration has made. And then… decide if you want that party to stay in power, or if you want to give someone else a try.
We are the deciders.
And hey, guess what… I’m proud of you.