What A Day: The Lindells vs the Machines

 -Roger Stone, right before getting suspended from Twitter again

The U.S is ramping up aid for the war in Ukraine, and not being shy about it. 

• President Biden has asked Congress for another $33 billion to help Ukraine resist Russia's invasion and provide support to its people, including $20 billion in additional security and military assistance for Ukraine, $8 billion for economic assistance and $3 billion in humanitarian aid, a move that would more than double the defense- and economic-aid package passed last month. 
   
• The President also requested new authority to seize and repurpose Russian oligarchs’ assets, like the “dozens of yachts” that have already been seized by REPO task forces in other countries, to help the people of Ukraine. 
   
• The real novelty this time around is the swagger. The Department of Defense isn’t just sending heavy artillery to Ukraine—it’s tweeting pictures of it. The Biden administration also recently leaked the news that it’s begun training Ukrainian fighters to use U.S. howitzers in an undisclosed third country. Most comically, Biden plans to visit a Lockheed Martin facility in Troy, AL, to thank the workers there for their contributions to the Ukrainian war effort. It’s like Eisenhower said: We must treat the military-industrial complex like troops.

These U.S. shows of support may peer-pressure other global powers into action too. 

• Not to be outdone, Germany’s parliament also voted to instruct the government to boost military support for Ukraine, and sent pointed warnings to China and Serbia over their support for Russia. German lawmakers approved a resolution on “comprehensive support for Ukraine,” enhancing the delivery of heavy weapons and complex systems to Kyiv. Ukrainian lawmakers had previously pushed Germany for more support and gotten a lukewarm response. On Twitter, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote: “This vote will go down in history as one of the last nails in the coffin of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s lobbying in Europe and as the return of German leadership.”
   
• Against this backdrop, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan seems to think that Putin might finally submit to real peace negotiations, directly with Zelensky. Erdogan announced this week that he’d taken that idea directly to Putin, which he probably wouldn’t have done if Putin was having an easy go of things. Putin, of course, has not agreed to such a meeting, and just today reacted to the global pressures on him by bombing Kyiv. But that doesn’t mean he’s in a great spot.  

This week on Hysteria, Erin and Alyssa discuss the recent trove of Mark Meadows texts, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s testimony, Ron DeSantis’ battle with Disney, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, and more. Plus, Dr. Heather Irobunda and stand up Alison Leiby join to discuss medical gaslighting, how to improve communication with your doctor and normalizing being happy (??) after an abortion. New episodes of Hysteria drop every Thursday wherever you get your podcasts.

There have been eight known attempts to tamper with voting systems in five U.S. states since the 2020 election. All involved local Republican officeholders or party activists who have advanced Trump’s stolen-election Big Lie or conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, including the most recent case of Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder, the Colorado county’s top election official, fiddling with cables and typing on his phone as he copied computer drives containing voting information. Newly released surveillance footage captured the incident last August. Schroeder testified to creating a “forensic image of everything on the election server” and providing the hard drive copy to two lawyers. Schroeder, like many soldiers in Mike Lindell’s war against the voting machines, was under the impression that regularly scheduled system maintenance would erase proof of alleged election fraud unless a copy was made. Sometimes, the only way to prove that ballot machines can be tampered with is to tamper with them. 

• The U.S. economy shrank for the first time in nearly two years, thanks to the highest inflation levels in four decades, but strong consumer spending and business investment has reassured analysts that this is not actually a recession, just an artifact of consumers turning to cheaper imports. 
   
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) blamed the Catholic Church’s charitable support of migrants on poor leadership, specifically because “Satan is controlling the Church.” In response, Bill Donohue, President of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, released a statement calling Greene “a disgrace,” which Greene responded to with another defiant statement, which officially makes this a celebrity feud. 
   
• Twitter’s revenue and daily active users are up compared to a year ago, just in time for Elon Musk to take the self-driving wheel. 
   
• But with a less-rosy financial outlook, Chipotle, Rite Aid, and other public companies cite the Great Resignation—that is people quitting their jobs to take higher-paying, better ones—as a threat to profit and operations. 🎻
   
• Home Depot, Deere & Company, General Dynamics, Motorola Solutions, FedEx, and Tyson Foods are among the Fortune 500 companies that donated more than $20,000 each last month to Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election results.
   
• Following the Texas model, Oklahoma lawmakers approved a bill banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and rely on private civil actions for enforcement, which will make abortions virtually inaccessible to the state’s 3.9 million residents. 
   
• And in the world of covid treatment, some are wondering why Vice President Kamala Harris received the promising drug Paxlovid, which hasn’t been available to most Americans in recent months, for her current covid infection. Wild guess here, it’s because she’s the vice president?
   
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is betting on moderates, emphasizing her centrist credentials and bipartisan ties in her ongoing re-election race, running the risk that Alaskans may instead choose a ‘rubber stamp Republican’ instead.
   
• The FDA has proposed a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, which would be the most aggressive tobacco regulation ever taken in the U.S.
   
• Bipartisan Policy Center President Jason Grumet called comedy a ‘superpower’ that could help DC nerdlosers connect with voters at the unironically named “Punchlines and Politics” event in Washington Wednesday evening. 

2022 is a great time to be a virus. Climate change is moving the Earth’s animal populations around to find more comfortable temperatures, and species that had never would’ve crossed paths with each other are now moving into the same neighborhoods. That creates thousands of opportunities for viruses to jump into new hosts, including people, according to science writer Ed Yong. Based on a global-change biology study at Georgetown University cheekily named “Iceberg” (lol), even under the most optimistic climate scenarios, the coming decades will see roughly 300,000 first encounters between species that normally don’t interact, and about 15,000 cases of a virus entering a new host. Okay, okay, we get it: climate change might actually be a bad thing.

If it’s Earth Month, it’s April. You’re shedding layers and getting ready for more time outdoors, and you have to ask yourself: what’s on my feet? Comfort comes first, whether you’re running to catch your train or getting your steps in. But that doesn’t mean looks can’t be a close second.
 

Lightweight yet durable, CARIUMA’s OCA sneaker is made ethically and sustainably from materials like organic cotton, recycled plastic, and natural rubber. But the biggest difference between these sneakers and your old canvas sneakers? OCA is actually comfortable.
 

CARIUMA designed their cork + memory foam insoles to mold to your foot, to ensure a perfect fit. Your standard memory foam is a kind of plastic made from petroleum, but theirs is made from organic mamona oil, which is plant-based—never plastic.
 

We love CARIUMA because they really do have a style and color for everyone, from bright pink and tangerine orange, to classic neutrals, pastels and prints. They’re also famously collaborative—we heard they just dropped a spring collection with Pantone, and a limited-edition sneaker with Atari, for all you nostalgic heads out there.
 

CARIUMA takes care of the planet and their carbon footprint, and they’re leveling up this commitment to celebrate Earth Month. For the rest of April, your sneakers plant not two, but 10 trees, which helps to restore biodiversity to the Brazilian rainforest.
 

As always, CARIUMA ships all their sneakers free & fast in the USA and offers worldwide shipping & 60 day FREE returns. 
 

Find your perfect pair! What A Day readers receive an exclusive 15% off your pair of CARIUMA sneakers for a limited time.

The President of the University of California promised full tuition coverage for all California residents from federally recognized Native American, American Indian, and Alaska Native tribes enrolled at any of U.C.’s 10 campuses, starting this fall. The move would include an estimated 500 undergraduate students and 160 graduate students. 

Moderna has at last asked U.S. regulators to authorize low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children younger than 6, which may finally make vaccines available for kids by this summer. 

Since their invasion of Ukraine began, Russia has been the target of an “unprecedented” wave of cyberattacks: the hackers have become the hack-ees. 

President Biden pushed back, at least a little, on politicized book bans in schools.