World News

Do Not Speak of the House

A Georgia man received a million dollar speeding ticket. Also, Australia said "no" to giving representation to indigenous people, the US House of Representatives is still a complete disaster, Israel is continuing their assault on the people of Gaza, and a French royal didn't quite make it.

Endeavorance

Oct 16, 2023 — 5 min read

Content Warning

This issue of Stuff Keeps Happening has strong discussions of death, genocide and the ongoing events in Palestine. No graphic imagery or descriptions are included aside from death tolls.

Imagine Getting a Million Dollar Speeding Ticket

More than that, actually. Well, not actually, but kinda actually.

A man in Georgia was issued a $1.4 Million speeding ticket from his city's police department after being caught by police going 90mph on a 55mph street. Upon calling the state court for some clarity, he was told he had to either pay the fine or appear in court.

Turns out, that was not his actual fine, but was instead a simple "placeholder." The fine is capped at $1,000, despite the "placeholder" amount being put down as literally over a million dollars.

The state has now said they will be "adjusting placeholder language to avoid any confusion."

Given The Chance, Australia Said "No"

Australia recently held a vote referred to as "The Voice," which was a measure to amend the country's constitution in order to formally recognize the indigenous First Nations and to augment the country's government with a mechanism for them to influence policy.

A "Yes" vote was to essentially close the gap a bit on unequal rights for indigenous peoples. A "No" vote was, well, "no." The "No" vote won, winning out over "Yes" by about 20 percentage points.

For many, this was of course interpreted as a country turning their backs on the people who originally belonged to that land. There was also a contingent of First Nations people who were against the idea of being brought into a constitution that was at odds with their culture, having been instated by a country and leaders who do not represent them.

Either way, Australia (as well as MANY other countries) has a long, long way to go to do right by the indigenous population of that land.

No Speaker In This House

So we're past 10 days without a speaker of the house now here in the ol' US of A, and we're not really sure when that is going to change.

Representative Steve Scalise already pulled out last week, and then the GOP nominated Jim Jordan as a potential next speaker. Jordan is a far-right Trump ally who has allegations of covering up sexual assault in his background, so one would think he would be a perfect face for the Republican party, just as Bob Menendez is for the Democrats.

However, Jimmothy Jordan is not even well loved among his own party, and is struggling to gather up enough votes to actually win out on a general speaker vote. Dems have already made it clear that he would get nothing from them, so he has to instead try and gather up nearly every single vote in his own party, which does not look particularly likely, given his strong alignment with Trump, general extreme-right views, and engagement in the attempt to prevent the removal of Trump from office.

He may end up shooting his own party in the foot by forcing a vote to happen too soon, which could potentially even open a window for a Democrat to become Speaker of the House, depending on how it all shakes out. That would be an actually hilarious twist of fate, and would seal this Republican majority as among the most unhinged political moments in American history.

Israel's Assault on Palestinians Escalates, Again

Starting off: The State of Israel is an apartheid, a colonizer and unrepresentative of the general will of Jewish people across the world, and often even its own citizens. The attack from Hamas against people in Israel was horrifying, just as Israel's decades-long genocidal attacks on Palestinian people is horrifying.

After the attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas, Israel has responded by killing significantly more civilians, indiscriminately bombing the strip in which two million people live, about half of whom are children. Israel has also cut off access to food, water, power and internet to the region, and has referred to the, again, two MILLION human beings living there as "animals." Their rationale is that they must rid the area of Hamas, regardless of the collateral damage.

Hamas is an organization who was voted into power in the Gaza strip nearly 20 years ago. There has not been a free election since then. The average age of a person living in Gaza is 18.

Israel has the unwavering support of the United States military and many other western nations, though the citizens of said nations are far more divided on the subject.

A count as of October 14th puts the child death toll in Palestine at 724 and rapidly growing. The same count has the confirmed death toll at 2,200 people. The number is expected to rise dramatically, and is likely already a severe under count.

As millions try to flee their homes and seek refuge, reports of bombings and attacks on exit points have cropped up, solidifying this as nothing more than an excuse to perform an ethic cleansing of people from their own homeland.

Responses to the events unfolding are about as you'd expect, which is deeply disappointing. America, a country famous for genocide, colonization, slavery and apartheid as the foundation of the country's current standing, is supporting Israel in genocide, colonization and apartheid, despite teaching about how what America did in the past was "a no-no that we shouldn't have done but history can't be changed so we must learn from it instead!"

Unfortunately, general approval of the actions of Israel and the continued involvement of the US is somewhat strong. Democrats are strongly supporting Israel, as well as Republicans, who have been calling for increased operations against the Palestinian people, despite otherwise often calling for America to be less involved in international affairs. Can't quite put my finger on WHY. (Spoiler: its the skin color and the weird apocalyptic conspiracy they believe the establishment of Israel progresses).

As with most situations, I recommend seeking out and elevating Black and indigenous peoples voices on the subject, as their perspectives are more rooted in lived experience and cultural understanding in the face of a never-ending effort to simplify, de-fang and rewrite history to be more easily consumed by those who benefit from the privilege these atrocities ultimately create.

On This day…

On this day in 1793, Marie Antoinette was executed by guillotine as a result of the French Revolution. She was the final Queen of France before the public gave her neck a bit too close of a shave.

She is famous for her "Let them eat cake" quote, which is strange because most historians agree she never actually said that. Also strange is that the "cake" referred to in the quote that is often mis-attributed to her is also not cake, but brioche. So. She didn't say the thing and the thing that she didn't say wasn't the thing that it says it was.

So.

The moral of the story here: don't be French royalty unless you've eaten the Chop Chop fruit.