Random News: May 5, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s May 5, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. Today is a more chill day than yesterday for me, so I’m enjoying the early hours in my bathrobe and with a cup of delicious freshly brewed coffee. Let’s see what’s happening in the world.

• The media seems pretty fixated on the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, unless it’s Fox News, who refers to them as anti-Israel.
• Can you see the difference in language? Media outlets do this purposefully all the time. if you’re ever in the mood to learn something, pull up a news aggregator like Google News and look at the ways different media refer to the same story.
• Your news shouldn’t have to be positioned and spun for some agenda. But it nearly always is.
• Anyway…
• Protesters left a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Southern California early this morning after they were surrounded by police and told they could face arrest if they didn’t go.
• Livestream video from student journalists showed the encampment had emptied out as police formed a line to move remaining protesters away and stop people from re-entering the area.
• At the University of Virginia, 25 people were arrested yesterday for trespassing after police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters who refused to remove tents from campus, and demonstrators at the University of Michigan chanted anti-war messages and waved flags during commencement ceremonies.
• The next week or two would normally be filled with commencement ceremonies, but many of them have been canceled due to the threat of violence and other safety concerns in light of the protests.
• USC would typically expect some 65,000 people to gather to celebrate graduates. Now? Not.
• Congress is getting in on some of the media coverage, as they like to do.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the student protests are in support of “evil,” and threatened to haul college professors and even students in front of Congress as part of his supposed effort to stamp out antisemitism on campuses.
• It’s touching, this sudden focus on antisemitism. Let’s look back to August 2017, when the Unite the Right rally happened in Charlottesville, VA.
• Hundreds of people — almost all young white men — marched while holding symbols of Naziism and white supremacy, shouting slogans including, “Jews will not replace us!”
• One of them, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr., deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 people.
• The president at the time was Donald Trump, who spoke after the event and described the conflict as having “very fine people on both sides.”
• So if Congress is going after antisemitism, why the focus on some college kids who are upset about genocide? Why not haul up some genuine white supremacists who are open and active in their antisemitic behavior?
• Moving on.
• The 2024 general election is exactly six months from today on November 5, 2024.
• A lot is going to happen between now and then. Some will be predictable; some will not.
• All I can say for now is this: your vote, or lack thereof, will be the only real determining factor that dictates the future of the USA.
• It will be the difference between continuing a democracy that’s lasted for 248 years, versus falling into an autocratic dictatorship.
• It will be the only thing that prevents America from becoming a religious theocracy, or being a country where women’s sexuality is controlled by the government and are forced to give birth or be jailed.
• That’s how powerful and important your vote is in 2024. Even if you’ve never voted before in your life, now is the time to get registered and then use your power as a US citizen to protect yourself and the people you love from a nightmarish dystopian future.
• There’s something I have not yet mentioned in this column. It’s called Project 2025.
• It’s a plan to reshape the executive branch of the U.S. federal government at an unprecedented scale in the event of a victory by Donnie Dump this fall.
• It’s horrifying even on the surface. The plan proposes slashing funding for the Department of Justice (DOJ), and dismantling the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security.
• It guts environmental and climate change regulations in favor of fossil fuel production, eliminates the departments of Education and Commerce, and ends the independence of various federal agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
• Project 2025 proposes criminalizing pornography and ending anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Project calls for immediately invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement and directing the DOJ to pursue Dump's adversaries.
• It’s the masturbatory dream of the far right, and they have been actively taking steps to be ready to enact it immediately should Dump win. If you’re not a straight, white, Christian male, you may no longer have actual citizenship in this country as you know it today after the election in November.
• When I tell you this stuff, it’s not to scare you, or to support my “team” like it’s a stupid fucking football game.
• It might be to save your life, and that of your family and closest friends.
• Vote, and help others register to vote. Hit me up, here or in private, and I promise I’ll help.
• Moving on.
• We should probably note that today is Cinco de Mayo, one of the silliest US holidays that exists.
• I won’t harp on this this. If you want to eat tacos and drink margaritas and Mexican beer, go ahead. Fuck, do that every day. I don’t give a shit.
• The holiday started in California by Mexican-American miners who heard the news that an ill-equipped, ill-armed, poor Mexican army was able to fight off a superior French army on the outskirts of the city of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
• The miners were stoked, and fired gun shots into the air and passed around a bottle of booze in celebration.
• Side note: they won that battle over Napoleon III’s troops in Puebla, but not the war. Mexico would ultimately live under French rule for years.
• That’s it. That’s the story. And to this day, the celebration of Cinco de Mayo occurs in a much more widespread fashion in the USA than in Mexico.
• Mexican Independence Day, when they celebrate their separation from rule by Spain in 1810, happens every year on September 16.
• Now, if you want to use Cinco de Mayo to show true appreciation for Mexican culture and the tremendous contributions that people of Mexican origin have made on America, that’s something I support.
• Also, since I stopped drinking some 20 years ago, holidays with a main goal of drinking enough to throw up and pass out seem less appealing to me for some reason.
• But growing up and spending almost my entire life in Southern California, I am well aware of the impact Mexico has had on American culture and society and our workforce. We are far better off from their inclusion in our melting pot.
• Let’s move on to Sunday Gunday, my weekly notes on acts of gun violence in the USA over the past 48 hours.
• Four dead among 23 people shot in a multitude in incidents spanning several areas of Chicago, IL. Two dead in a shooting at a shopping center parking lot in San Antonio, TX. One teenager dead, five others shot (all in ages from 14 to 16) in Buffalo, NY. One dead, three seriously injured in a shooting at a baby shower in Queens, NY. One dead, three more injured in a shooting in southwest Philadelphia, PA. One dead, another critically injured in a shooting near the Ohio State fairgrounds in Columbus, OH. One dead, one injured in a shooting at a parking lot in Minneapolis, MN. One dead, one injured in a shooting West Baltimore, MD. A 3-year-old shot and killed in an SUV by a stray bullet in Washington, D.C. A 14-year-old shot and killed in Lansing, MI. One dead in a shooting the Natomas area of Sacramento, CA. One dead in a shooting at an apartment complex in Lawrenceville, GA. One dead in a shooting in Denver, CO. One dead in a shooting in Fayetteville, NC. Seven people shot, four critically, in a shooting at a nightclub in Long Beach, CA. Three shot in Grand Rapids, MI. Two shot at a mall in Fort Wayne, IN. Two shot at a gas station in North Charleston, SC. One critically injured in a shooting at a seafood restaurant in Philadelphia, PA. One shot outside a high school in Omaha, NE. One shot in Colorado Springs, CO.
• That seems like enough to prove the point that there’s a continuing epidemic of gun violence in the USA.
• And, as per usual: these are not all of the incidents, even in just the past two days, and don’t include shootings by law enforcement or actions of self harm.
• We can fix this if we want.
• Moving on.
• I promise, we have little reason to keep talking about out Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. She’s heading down the path of irrelevancy, especially after her boss Donnie Dump said he was “disgusted” by her dog-killing story.
• There’s no way she’s still in contention for Dump’s VP choice.
• But the thing I wanted to mention has nothing to do with her shooting her puppy in the head. Instead, it’s another part of her upcoming book.
• Noem specifically states in the book that she met North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and stared him down.
• Noem as never met the North Korean leader. Her own team admitted this, with her chief of communications Ian Fury saying, “It was brought to our attention that the upcoming book No Going Back has two small errors. This has been communicated to the ghostwriter and editor. Kim Jong-un was included in a list of world leaders and shouldn’t have been.”
• Yes, blame the ghostwriter and editor. Slow clap.
• Here’s a scary one, but not unexpected: AI-controlled fighter jets.
• Yep.
• AI is expected to be the biggest advance in military aviation since the introduction of stealth technology in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in.
• Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning for an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes, the first of them operating by 2028.
• And I’m sure that our own heavily-armed, robot-controlled fighters and bombers could never be hacked or have programming errors that caused them to attack our own citizens, right?
• Right?
• Fuck.
• Let’s move on to something more cheerful.
• Over 1,000 sea lions were counted hanging out on the docks at Pier 39 in San Francisco this week.
• This is a good sign. It means their population is strong, as is that of their food — a bounty of anchovies and herring in the bay waters.
• The pinnipeds are feasting ahead of their mating season, which starts next month. It’s said that California sea lions reflect the health of the ocean. So this is great news.
• And now, The Weather: “Slipping On Ice” by Maxband
• Seems to be getting into the Texas flood time of year. More storms were moving through the already saturated Houston area today, where flooding from heavy rains has led to the rescue of hundreds of people from homes, rooftops and roads.
• Stay safe, peoples.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the start of May 1980, I’m in sixth grade and am spending a lot of time playing guitar, riding my BMX bike, and skateboarding, and this is the top of the Billboard 200 album chart.
• 1. Against The Wind (Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band). 2. The Wall (Pink Floyd). 3. Glass Houses (Billy Joel). 4. Mad Love (Linda Ronstadt). 5. Light Up The Night (The Brothers Johnson). 6. Off The Wall (Michael Jackson). 7. American Gigolo (Soundtrack). 8. Departure (Journey). 9. Women And Children First (Van Halen). 10. Christopher Cross (Christopher Cross). 11. The Whispers (The Whispers). 12. Go All The Way (The Isley Brothers). 13. Pretenders (Pretenders). 14. Damn The Torpedoes (Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers). 15. The Long Run (Eagles). 16. Phoenix (Dan Fogelberg).  17. Middle Man (Boz Scaggs). 18. Gideon (Kenny Rogers). 19. Catching The Sun (Spyro Gyra). 20. Warm Thoughts (Smokey Robinson).
• From the Sports Desk… as I’m wrapping up these bullets, game 7 of the Magic/Cavs NBA playoff series in Cleveland has just begun.
• In other Sports Desk news, I guess, Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby yesterday in dramatic style, winning by far less than a nose in the closest three-horse photo finish since 1947.
• The horse was an 18-1 shot, so someone made some dough.
• Today in history… Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire (1260). On his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus sights Jamaica, landing at Discovery Bay and declares Jamaica the property of the Spanish crown (1494). Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread (1809). Emperor Napoleon dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean (1821). The first edition of The Manchester Guardian, now The Guardian, is published (1821). Troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico (1862). Workers marching for the eight-hour day in Milwaukee, WI were shot at by Wisconsin National Guardsmen in what became known as the Bay View Massacre (1886). The Music Hall in New York City — later known as Carnegie Hall — has its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor (1891). Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball (1904). Authorities arrest Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for alleged robbery and murder (1920). A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army during WWII kills six people near Bly, OR (1945). The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect (1955). Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight via Project Mercury (1961). Secretariat wins the 1973 Kentucky Derby in 1:59-2⁄5, an as-yet unbeaten record (1973). Start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America with the Iran-Contra affair (1987). The World Health Organization declares the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as a global health emergency (2023).
• May 5 is the birthday of philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813), philosopher/sociologist Karl Marx (1818), businessman/hatter John Batterson Stetson (1830), geneticist Helen Redfield (1900), actor Tyrone Power (1914), musician/composer Delia Derbyshire (1937), actor Lance Henriksen (1940), singer-songwriter Tammy Wynette (1942), actor Michael Palin (1943), actor John Rhys-Davies (1944), journalist Kurt Loder (1945), drummer Bill Ward (1948), singer-songwriter/guitarist Jon Butcher (1955), singer-songwriter Ian McCulloch (1959), philanthropist/model Vanessa Bryant (1982), actor Henry Cavill (1983), and singer-songwriter Adele (1988).

Well, that’s plenty of news and whatnot. Time for me to get out of this robe and into being a responsible adult. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 4, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s May 4, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I am, oddly, not in a bathrobe; I have a special live music show to perform early this afternoon, so I’m showered and dressed, up and about, and I can’t spend a whole lot of time doing this news. But we’ll get the important shit in, because we always do.

• Do I have to so it? The Star Wars thing?
• Sigh. Fine.
• May the 4th be with you. Lord help me.
• I should mention that I don’t dislike Star Wars. It’s just that there’s a reason why Star Trek now has like 752 total TV series and films, while Star Wars is… a goofy-ass space cartoon.
• But don’t let me stop you from enjoying it. As Master Yoda would say, enjoy, or do not enjoy. There is no try.
• Let’s do some news.
• Actually, as a segue into the news, the date is significant: it was on May 4, 1970 that students at Kent State University, not far from Akron, OH, were demonstrating against the Vietnam War when National Guard troops opened fire with live ammo, killing four kids and wounding nine others.
• Want to know the prevailing attitude at the time? President Nixon referred to student protesters as "bums," while then-California Governor Ronald Reagan said "if it takes bloodbath" to deal with campus demonstrators "let's get it over with."
• The day before the massacre, May 3, Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes described campus demonstrators as "the worst type of people that we harbor in America."
• So basically that was the Fox News-type messaging of the day.
• One thing to keep in mind… for college students in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Vietnam was more than a social issue to get behind; our country was directly involved in the military conflict and those students’ friends and family were being forced to participate in violent military action via the draft.
• And if you were male between 18-25 and weren’t a full-time student, your ass was going to ‘Nam. My father was 26 years old and married to my mom in 1967, and he still got drafted. His platoon guys called him the Old Man, because the average age for the foot solider in Vietnam was 19.
• Back to the present.
• I support the right of people to protest, end of story. I do hope that the current batch of pro-Palestine demonstrators are smart enough to understand that while their cause is legit, they are also being useful tools of factions whose outlooks aren’t nearly as noble.
• I’m also hoping that a cease-fire and the return of hostages is imminent. Peace talks continue in Cairo today.
• Hamas said its delegation was in a positive spirit after studying the latest truce proposal. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is involved in the negotiations being brokered by Egypt and Qatar that would at least temporarily pause Israel's offensive in Gaza in return for freeing hostages.
• The main issue appears to involve whether the ceasefire deal would be permanent or temporary. Hamas is insisting any deal makes a specific commitment towards an end to the war, but Israel is reluctant to agree while the group remains active in Gaza.
• Here’s hoping. Let’s move on.
• In yesterday’s session of Donnie Dump’s hush money/election interfere criminal trial, his former communications director Hope Hicks was nervous and occasionally in tears as she told the jury about how Dumpy reacted when news reports surfaced about his extramarital sexual encounters and his attempts to suppress them.
• Hicks said she was initially unaware of the deals in 2016 to pay two women, Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, for their silence about their sexual encounters with Fat ’n’ Smelly.
• She testified that she first learned of the payments on November 4 of that year, when a reporter sent her questions about McDougal, a former Playboy model who received $150,000 from the National Enquirer's parent company.
• Hicks was Dumpy’s PR person when the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape went public, a 2005 recording in which Trump is heard saying he could "grab [women] by the pussy" and "make them do anything."
• They didn’t want any more political fallout after the “grab ‘em but he pussy” tape came out, so that’s why Dump had his then-lawyer Michael Cohen pay $130,000 in exchange for Stormy Daniels' silence.
• So…
• Hicks made it clear that Dump knew of the Cohen payoff scheme to Daniels. Her testimony sank Dump's defense since he is on record in a civil case admitting that he reimbursed Cohen the $130,000.
• And she established that Dump knew that money was for Daniels’ silence — not for the claimed legal fees for ongoing legal work by Cohen.
• Which is the entire basis of the 34 counts of falsifying business records related to those reimbursements to Cohen.
• So Hicks was an absolutely devastating witness against Dump. The trial continues next week.
• In other news…
• As you likely recall, in February, the Alabama Supreme Court put the entire in-vitro fertilization (IVF) medical practice in jeopardy after declaring that frozen embryos were, in the eyes of the law, children.
• That Court had the opportunity yesterday to reconsider their controversial ruling, and in a 7-2 decision without comment, they rejected a request to revisit the ruling that drew international attention and prompted fertility clinics to cease services earlier this year.
• It wasn’t a mistake or an accident. They don’t want IVF procedures to be legal in the state, and they want women to require to become impregnated via penetrative sex or not at all.
• After the Alabama justices ruled that three couples could pursue wrongful death lawsuits for their "extrauterine children,” women saw fertility treatments canceled or put in jeopardy after the ruling.
• The Mobile Infirmary Medical Center, which was the focus of the two lawsuits that led to the state Supreme Court's controversial ruling, announced last month that it will stop IVF treatments at the end of 2024 due to litigation concerns. 
• One of the most tangible aspects of the 2024 presidential election is that Joe Biden wants to create legislation that enshrines the right to reproductive freedom nationwide, while Donnie Dump won’t even commit to stopping a national abortion ban.
• Vote accordingly.
• Moving on.
• For those of you who think this column is biased against right-wing political candidates… you are correct.
• However, I always call out any unjust action no matter what side of the aisle it’s on. That rings us to…
• Yesterday, the Justice Department indicted longtime Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-TX, and his wife, Imelda, charging the pair with bribery and money laundering related to their ties with a bank in Mexico and an oil and gas company controlled by Azerbaijan.
• Assholes.
• The Cuellars accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from the two foreign entities in exchange for the congressman performing official acts. The bribe payments were laundered via sham consulting contracts through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar.
• The congressman and his wife are each charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and to have a public official act as an agent of a foreign principal; two counts of bribery of a federal official; two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal; one count of conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering; and five counts of money laundering.
• Yikes!
• If convicted, they could spend years or even decades in prison. If they are guilty, they should pay the price like any criminal. I don’t give a single shit that Cuellar is a Democrat.
• I’ll note that they profess their innocence. Save it for the court, Henry.
• Moving on.
• Some interesting news hit yesterday about an accounting firm named BF Borgers. They were charged yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission with widespread fraud, and were accused of operating a “sham audit mill.”
• Why might you give a shit? Because Borgers is the accounting form used by Trump Media & Technology Group. The SEC accused BF Borgers of “deliberate and systemic failures,” including “fabricating” audit documentation and falsely representing to clients its work would comply with accounting standards.
• The SEC lowered the fucking hammer on Borgers, permanently suspending the firm from practicing as accountants effective immediately. The firm and its owner, Benjamin Borgers, also agreed to pay $14 million collectively in fines.
• The fraudulent company served as Trump Media’s independent registered accounting firm before his social media company went public in March.
• Pffft.
• The backlash toward South Dakota governor and Republican vice-president contender Kristi Noem continued this week. Noem, as you’re most certainly aware by now, is the politician that wrote about shooting her puppy in the head for being rambunctious.
• Yesterday, a Republican group in Colorado said that it was cancelling a fundraiser featuring Noem. The group's fundraising dinner, which was set to take place today, was being cancelled due to safety concerns after the group, the governor and her staff, and the hotel hosting the event received numerous threats.
• Look, people like dogs, and we don’t like people who shoot and kill them for no reason at all. Noem called the puppy “less than worthless” before killing the small and defenseless animal.
• That’s your Republican party, folks.
• And to bring this all full circle, Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) shared a video online yesterday that showed anti-Palestine counter-protestors at the University of Mississippi who were taunting a Black woman by making monkey noises at her and jumping up and down.
• “Ole Miss taking care of business,” wrote Collins on social media platform X.
• The racist counter-protestors were also praised by Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Donnie Dump.
• Again, folks… that’s the Republican party. If you’re a part of it, I assume you support those actions. Even if you say nothing at all, I still assume this is what you support.
• If it bothered you, you’d speak up.
• And now, The Weather: “Station REM” by Goofy Geese
• From the Sports Desk… with many of the NBA and NHL playoff series being blowouts, we actually have a few exciting game 7’s coming up in this first round.
• In the NBA, with the semifinals already getting underway today, tomorrow will have a matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic, who are knotted up at 3-3.
• In the NHL, the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs are tied at 3-3 with game 7 happening tonight. Likewise, the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights are wrapped at 3-3 and their game 7 is tomorrow. 
• Today in history… Assassination of the Swedish rebel — later national hero — Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson (1436). Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III (1776). The National Association, the first professional baseball league, opens its first season in Fort Wayne, IN (1871). The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal (1904). Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, which transferred Chinese territory to Japan (1919). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated (1927). In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion (1932). Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ (1953). The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held (1959). The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others (1970). Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979). Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges, but the convictions are later overturned on appeal (1989). Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho (1994).
• May 4 is the birthday of abolitionist Horace Mann (1796), first lady Julia Gardiner Tyler (1820), biologist Eugenie Clark (1922), actress Audrey Hepburn (1929), bassist Ron Carter (1937), guitarist/songwriter Dick Dale (1937), journalist George Will (1941), actress Pia Zadora (1953), singer-songwriter Randy Travis (1959), actress Ana Gasteyer (1967), actor Will Arnett (1970), sportscaster Erin Andrews (1978), singer Lance Bass (1979), golfer Rory McIlroy (1989), and NBA player Victor Oladipo (1992).

I mentioned up top that I have a show today. For you Second Life people, it’s a special charitable show at Feed-a-Smile at 1PM SLT. Come see me if you can. For now, time to tune the Takamine and get warmed up to play. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 3, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s May 3, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m your headline man, and I’ll do the best I can to run up the news that you can use. Let’s go.

• President Biden delivered an unscheduled address from the White House yesterday in which he denounced the violence and the antisemitism that have erupted on college campuses.
• Biden had previously not addressed at length the pro-Palestinian protests that have disrupted the end of the school year at dozens of universities coast to coast.
• He said, “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos. People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked.”
• I agree.
• Biden also pointedly rejected the idea of deploying National Guard troops to quell the protests.
• I definitely agree with that too.
• In the past week, more than 2,100 arrests have been made nationwide in relation to the pro-Palestine demonstrations. Interestingly, more than a quarter of protesters arrested Tuesday at Columbia University and 60 percent of those arrested at the City College of New York had no connections to the institutions.
• What that should tell you is that there’s a significant influence of outside sources who are using the students and campuses for their own goals, be they antisemitic or anarchistic.
• Let’s move on.
• The criminal hush money/election interference trial of Donnie “El Dumpo” Dump goes into its 11th day today.
• Dump has continued to fall asleep in court, a fact seen by many but that he continues to deny. I rarely quote him here but I snorted at this particular batch of bullshit…
• “Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I don’t fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.’s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!”
• What a fucking kook.
• Apart from various witness testimony yesterday, there was a second hearing on Dump’s continual violations of his gag order where prosecutors raised four more statements Dump made that violated the judge’s gag order barring discussion of witnesses and the jury.
• I think he’s trying to get incarcerated and make himself a martyr.
• Let’s move on.
• Today, President Biden named 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

• It’s the nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors.
• Some of this year’s recipients include Senator Elizabeth Dole, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State John Kerry, swimmer Katie Ledecky, educator/activist Opal Lee, astronaut Ellen Ochoa, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, union leader Teresa Romero, athlete Jim Thorpe, and actress Michelle Yeoh, among others.
• Good stuff. Moving on.
• In our continuing coverage of the pieces of shit who tried (and failed) to enact a coup at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, meet Jack Wade Whitton.
• Whitton is a Georgia business owner who bragged that he “fed” a police officer to a mob of MAGA fuckheads. He was sentenced yesterday to nearly five years in prison for his repeated attacks on law enforcement during the insurrection.
• During the event, Whitton struck an officer with a metal crutch and dragged him — head first and face down — into the crowd on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. He later boasted in a text message that he “fed him to the people.”
• He then tried to pull a second officer into the crowd, and also kicked at, threatened and threw a construction pylon at officers trying to hold off the mob of Dump’s MAGA team. Whitton also shouted, “You’re gonna die tonight!” after striking an officer’s riot shield.
• Now meet Ryan T. Nichols of Texas.
• Nichols brought two guns to a D.C.-area hotel and fought with police at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison.
• He also was fined $200,000, by far the largest financial penalty yet handed down in a Jan. 6 case. Most of the more than 800 defendants sentenced so far either have not been fined (because they’re broke-ass fucks), or were fined only a few thousand dollars, in addition to a $2,000 restitution payment for damage to the Capitol, which all defendants have been assessed.
• But Nichols decided to be a cute fuck and refused to cooperate with probation officials about his financial status, so Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered him to pay the maximum amount allowed under federal sentencing guidelines.
• Ha ha!
• Keep in mind that Donald Trump has already promised to pardon the January 6 insurrectionists, like the attempted cop killer Whitton. You can never again claim to respect law enforcement if you support Dump.
• Arrests from the January 6 insurrection continue to this day. Just yesterday, a case was unsealed against David A. Marshall Jr., 57, of Alexandria, VA.
• In addition to assaulting officers, Marshall helped rioters take a ladder, stole an officer’s baton and bag, and used zip ties to close the Capitol’s Memorial Doors, preventing police from opening them.
• He, too, would be pardoned by Dump if he’s reelected.
• More than 1,350 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the failed cup attempt.
• Let’s move on to a concerning story about Boeing whistleblowers.
• Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at a key Boeing supplier who raised concerns about improperly drilled holes in the fuselage of 737 Max jets, died on Tuesday morning at age 45. 
• He had fallen into critical condition after being diagnosed with a MRSA bacterial infection. Dean is the second Boeing-related whistleblower to die in the past three months. In March, John Barnett, 62, died in Charleston, SC from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• Huh.
• Let’s cheer up a little with an amazing story from our animal friends.
• An orangutan appeared to treat a wound with medicine from a tropical plant.
• Scientists observed Rakus the orangutan pluck and chew up leaves of a medicinal plant used by people throughout Southeast Asia to treat pain and inflammation.
• The adult male orangutan then used his fingers to apply the plant juices to an injury on the right cheek. Afterward, he pressed the chewed plant to cover the open wound like a makeshift bandage.
• Photographs show the animal's wound closed within a month without any problems.
• Never make the mistake in believing that humans are unique in our intelligence or our sentience. It’s my belief that every living creature has far more self-awareness than we’ve ever given them credit for.
• Moving on.
• Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared yesterday that her state won't comply with a federal regulation that seeks to protect the rights of transgender students in the nation’s schools.
• Fuck you, you disgusting scum.
• Sanders signed an executive order stating that Arkansas schools will continue to enforce restrictions on which bathrooms and pronouns transgender students can use, laws that could be invalidated by the new regulations on how to enforce Title IX.
• Her order follows similar moves by several other states, including Texas and Oklahoma, that have told schools to not comply with the new regulation.
• Hey look… when the federal government forced states to ensure their schools integrated black and white students, many conservative states also refused to follow that order until they were forced to do so in various ways.
• These backwards-ass states will get the same treatment.
• Moving on.
• The operator of a retirement facility in Columbus, GA will have to pay $78,000 to a receptionist to settle an age and disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Shirley Noble was 78 when she was terminated from her job at Covenant Woods Senior Living — one month after being honored as a 2021 employee of the year. 
• She’d worked for Covenant for 14 years, but then returned to her job after a brief hospitalization to find a new, younger employee seated at her desk.
• ”Employers have a responsibility to evaluate an employee's performance without regard to age, if the employee is 40 and over, and without regard to an actual or perceived disability," said the EEOC, and they’re right.
• Good for you, Shirley. 
• And now, The Weather: “Forsythia” by Mandy
• From the Sports Desk… the NBA playoffs are chugging along, with more teams eliminated from contention.
• Eastern Conference: Celtics beat the Heat 4-1, Knicks beat the Sixers 4-2, Pacers beat the Bucks 4-2, and Cavs lead the Magic 3-2.
• Western Conference: Thunder sweep the Pelicans 4-0, Nuggets beat the Lakers 4-1, T’Wolves sweep the Suns 4-0, and Mavericks lead the Clippers 3-2.
• The first round will be complete soon, and the semifinals start tomorrow.
• Today in history… A total solar eclipse is visible across northern Europe and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within four minutes accuracy (1715). Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District's founding government (1802). American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua (1855). Ireland is partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (1921). West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues (1921). The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to Blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable (1948). The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time (1952). Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (1957). The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters (1963). The first unsolicited bulk commercial email, which would later become known as “spam", is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States (1978). Margaret Thatcher wins the United Kingdom general election and becomes the first female British Prime Minister (1979). The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet (2000).
• May 3 is the birthday of historian/philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469), Israel prime minister Golda Meir (1898), singer/actor Bing Crosby (1903), playwright William Inge (1913), singer-songwriter/activist Pete Seeger (1919), boxer Sugar Ray Robinson (1921), singer-songwriter James Brown (1933), singer/actor Frankie Valli (1934), businessman/philanthropist David Koch (1940), MLB player Davey Lopes (1945), sportscaster Greg Gumbel (1946), singer-songwriter Christopher Cross (1951), NBA player/coach Tyronn Lue (1977), golfer Brooks Koepka (1990), and rapper Desiigner (1997).

Okay. Off to work out and then do Friday shit. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 2, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s May 2, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. As has been the case on a daily basis, we have many things to talk about here and not enough time to do it justice, so let’s get past the silly preamble and jump right in.

• Yesterday, Arizona lawmakers repealed the draconian abortion ban from 1864 that was recently declared valid by their state Supreme Court. The law in question is extraordinarily severe, outlawing all abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest.
• When the state law was put in place, Abraham Lincoln was president, slavery was legal, and women wouldn’t be allowed to vote for almost another 50 years.
• And Arizona wasn’t a state; it was still a US territory at the time.
• Despite all that, the repeal barely made it through Arizona’s Republican-controlled State Senate, needing the support of all 14 Democratic senators as well as two Republicans.
• Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, will sign it, after which abortion policy in the state will revert to a 2022 law that restricted the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
• Sorry, while it’s better than the 1864 law, it’s still not good enough. After a massive signature drive, Arizona voters will have the chance this November to enshrine women’s reproductive rights in their state’s constitution.
• Let’s move on.
• I probably don’t have to mention the continued spate of civil unrest via pro-Palestine demonstrations at colleges across the country.
• It’s probably being covered as a top news item on your TV. I don’t watch TV, so I’m just guessing here.
• My big headlines seem to be centered on UCLA, where late last night, police removed barricades and began dismantling the fortified encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
• Hundreds of protesters defied orders to leave, some of them forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds. Some people were detained, their hands bound with zip ties.
• Hundreds of college campuses have had varying levels of protest actions over the past couple of weeks. I’m hoping that a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war will ensue and the campuses can become more peaceful.
• We’ll see.
• And in related news, the House voted yesterday to pass the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act. The vote tally was 320 to 91, with 70 Democrats and 21 Republicans voting against the bill.
• Supporters of the legislation say it will help combat antisemitism on college campuses, but some opponents say it overreaches and threatens to chill free speech, while others just don’t seem to like Jews very much.
• I’m looking at you, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who voted against it and made a truly bizarre statement about the proposed law not allowing her to discuss how the Jews killed Jesus.
• What the actual fuck?
• The bill mandates that when the Department of Education enforces federal anti-discrimination laws it uses a definition of antisemitism put forward by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The bill would next need to be taken up by the Senate.
• The American Civil Liberties Union has called on lawmakers to oppose the bill, saying quite correctly that federal law already prohibits antisemitic discrimination and harassment by federally funded entities.
• This bill is essentially showboating for its sponsors. This happens pretty often, when they try and enact laws that already exist. Pretty weird, frankly.
• Moving on to follow-up on a topic I mentioned recently.
• When noted conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began his long shot independent presidential campaign, the Republicans seemed to think his voting base would eat into that of President Biden.
• Think again.
• RFK Jr.’s increasingly frequent appearances on conservative media platforms are beginning to raise alarms at Mar-a-Lago, and he’s now being more correctly perceived as a threat to Dump.
• In recent months, Kennedy has become a regular on Fox News and Newsmax, and he is now a staple on the conservative podcast circuit — being interviewed by the likes of Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck and Megyn Kelly.
• A Monmouth University poll this week asked people whether they were aware that Kennedy continues to claim that autism is linked to vaccines, and that he has floated a theory that COVID-19 was targeted at certain races (neither beliefs being remotely true).
• The responses were pretty even; about half of Republicans said they were aware of this, and about 6 in 10 Democrats said they were.
• After mentioning his vaccine outlook, the pollsters asked respondents if they would still consider voting for RFK. The percentage of Republicans who said they would rose by eight percentage points, nearly doubling to just shy of 1 in 5. But the percentage of Democrats who said they would still consider Kennedy dropped by seven points to 1 in 10.
• Sounds like a problem for Dumpy, not Joe.
• Let’s move on to some good news.
• Yesterday, the United Methodist Church repealed their longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.
• The delegates voted 692-51 at their General Conference — the first such legislative gathering in five years. In previous gatherings, the church had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests.
• What changed? The same thing that’s changing the rest of the world — many of the conservatives who had previously upheld the ban have left the denomination in recent years, and the church has moved in a solidly progressive direction.
• Well done.
• Let’s move on to a terrible story.
• Police in Austin, TX responded to an "outbreak" of over 50 opioid-related overdose calls between Monday and Tuesday morning that's been linked to as many as eight deaths.
• Their EMS usually receives an average of 2 to 3 calls a day. The overdose patients range in age from their 20s to 50s.
• It’s obvious that some sick fuck put out a deadly batch of the illicit narcotics. I know that some of the people reading this news report are addicted to opioids. Statistically, with over 3,000 followers here on FB, it’s probably dozens of you, if not more.
• Please be careful… and please try to get help. Opioid addiction — via street drugs or from prescription meds — is horrifying.
• Moving on.
• I almost don’t want to mention Rudy Giuliani for any reason, but this is rich.
• As you know, in December 2023, a jury awarded $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers who sued Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.
• He filed for bankruptcy after a federal court ordered him to immediately pay former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss
• Rudy said last Friday that he has a net income of $2,308 per month, but according to recent filings, Giuliani has a combined monthly income of just over $46,000 from various sources.
• At the same time, Giuliani claims monthly expenses of (drum roll please)… $43,797.
• Can you imagine trying to get sympathy while claiming that you need over $40,000 per month to survive?
• Fuck that fucking guy.
• And now, The Weather: “Dark in the Hollow” by Finnish Postcard
• Rest in peace to Duane Eddy, the world’s original guitar hero. He died Tuesday at age 86.
• Duane’s twangy guitar sound inspired thousands of musicians to pick up the guitar. He also had some great instruments hit in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, including the theme to TV series “Peter Gunn” and the rock tune “Rebel Rouser” that’s been used in like 50 movies.
• In all, he notched 16 top-40 singles. More importantly, he influenced nearly every kid of that era, and the list of guitarists who cite Eddy as one of the reasons they play guitar include George Harrison, Dave Davies, Hank Marvin, Bruce Springsteen, Adrian Belew, Mark Knopfler, and many more.
• Another great musician passed away. RIP to Richard Tandy, the keyboardist and a founding member of progressive pop band Electric Light Orchestra, aka ELO. He was 76.
• Tandy was an essential part of ELO’s sound, and made his biggest contributions to the band during their most successful time frame in the mid-70s to early ‘80s.
• From the Sports Desk… the current top teams in each division in Major League Baseball.
• AL East: Baltimore Orioles (19-11).
• AL Central: Cleveland Guardians (20-10).
• AL West: Seattle Mariners (17-14).
• NL East: Atlanta Braves (20-9).
• NL Central: Milwaukee Brewers (19-11).
• NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers (20-13).
• Today in history… Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason, and witchcraft (1536). The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker (1611). King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America (1670). Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion (1885). The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin (1945). A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg (1952). The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City (1969). The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano in the Falklands War (1982). President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military (2000). Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan (2011). A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for a work of art at auction (2012).
• May 2 is the birthday of composer Alessandro Scarlatti (1660), Russian empress Catherine the Great (1729), gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (1885), fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen (1892), actress Norma Talmadge (1894), playwright/lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895), pediatrician Benjamin Spock (1903), singer-songwriter/actor Theodore Bikel (1924), singer-songwriter/guitarist Link Wray (1929), singer Engelbert Humperdinck (1936), actor Lorenzo Music (1937), singer-songwriter Lesley Gore (1946), singer-songwriter Lou Gramm (1950), fashion designer Donatella Versace (1955), soccer player David Beckham (1975), race car driver Kyle Busch (1985), NFL player Pat McAfee (1987), NBA player Paul George (1990), and British royal Princess Charlotte of Wales (2015).

“May you live in interesting times” is an ancient curse. If you want someone to be happy, you want things steady, reliable, predictable, and yes, boring. A smart person can always create their own excitement without the world going fucking psycho. Just a thought. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 1, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s May 1, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. So many things to discuss on this fine Wednesday morning, so let’s just jump in.

• Rabbit rabbit rabbit.
• Disclaimer: nothing bad will happen if I don’t say those three words at the start of a new month, nor will anything good happen as a result of saying it.
• Some things are just fun to do.
• Let’s do the news.
• It was an evening of conflict at college campuses on opposite coasts.
• Dueling groups of protesters clashed last night at the University of California, Los Angeles, grappling in fistfights and shoving, kicking, and using sticks to beat one another.
• After hours of scuffles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators at UCLA, police wearing helmets and face shields formed lines and slowly separated the groups. That quelled the violence, and the scene was calm as day broke this morning.
• Hours earlier, police burst into a building at Columbia University that pro-Palestinian protesters took over and broke up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school while inspiring others.
• And very early this morning at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, SWAT officers descended on the campus with guns drawn, surrounding an encampment of protestors. Multiple law enforcement agencies began clearing the encampment around 4AM.
• Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza have spread across the country in a student movement unlike any other in the 21st century, reaching from New York to Texas and California.
• How do I feel? Welllll…
• I mean, I obviously support the right for peaceful protest. I’ve been personally involved in protests for causes in which I believe.
• And a lot of people are making comparisons between this series of pro-Palestine actions and the anti-war demonstrations the late ‘60s regarding Vietnam.
• But the USA was a direct participant in the Vietnam conflict, which makes it a bit different than the current Israel-Hamas war.
• And the protestors in the ‘60s never demanded to have their occupation catered. Kids are just different now. That’s fine. I get it.
• And finally, as has happened in many protest movements, there are a bunch of people involved who are not students but rather full-time agitators, anarchists, nihilists, and the like who just want to tear the whole system down.
• As I know from personal experience, protest movements can be very compelling, especially for young people who perhaps previously never felt they had a chance to make a real difference.
• And as cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas are appearing to gain steam, it’s still not clear whether those talks would inspire an easing of campus protests.
• Anyway, it’s an interesting time to be alive.
• Let’s move on.
• As long as we’re talking about “power to the people” topics, I should mention May Day, which is today.
• The original May Day holiday is a European festival of ancient pagan origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on May 1, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice.
• But I’m referring to International Workers' Day, often also referred to as May Day. It celebrates laborers and the working classes… basically, anyone who actually works for a living, as do most of us.
• Not-Fun Fact: the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan are the only countries that don’t have a public holiday on May 1, but all of the above have some kind of Labor Day later in the year.
• Moving on.
• In a historic shift, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will move to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug.
• The DEA’s proposal, which still must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would recognize the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledge it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs. However, it would not legalize marijuana outright for recreational use.
• But once OMB signs off, the DEA will move marijuana from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD, to Schedule III, alongside ketamine and some anabolic steroids.
• The move comes after President Joe Biden called for a review of federal marijuana law in October 2022 and moved to pardon thousands of Americans convicted federally of simple possession of the drug. He has also called on governors and local leaders to take similar steps to erase marijuana convictions.
• As I’ve noted many times, cannabis is currently fully legal for recreational use in nearly half of US states, and is legal for medicinal use in another 20 states, leaving only six states where it’s outright illegal in all circumstances.
• Removing this discrepancy between the federal law and state laws will make it much easier for marijuana to be distributed and taxed in a manner similar to alcohol sales have been since the end of prohibition in 1933.
• Let’s move to another topic.
• Donnie Dump gave a new interview where he was asked about abortion.
• He states that states with restrictive abortion bans might monitor women’s pregnancies and should be left to decide whether to prosecute women for having the procedure.
• How will the state “monitor” your (or your wife’s) pregnancy?
• When asked whether he would be comfortable with “states prosecuting women for having abortions beyond the point the laws permit,” Dump told Time Magazine, “It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.”
• Dump actually got three opportunities to say that he’d veto a federal abortion ban, and he refused to give an outright answer.
• So a big batch of refusing responsibility, as usual. He would not confirm that he won’t enact a national ban on abortion that would impact every person in every state in the country, however.
• In other news…
• This morning, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) triggered her motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) as the top leader of the House, announcing she wants an imminent floor vote on the speaker’s future.
• What an embarrassment she is to… literally everyone, but primarily to her Republican party.
• House Democratic leadership has pledged to rescue Johnson from this idiot’s “motion to vacate” by attempting to kill the measure before it can gain any traction.
• Republicans hold only a two-vote House majority, and anything could happen in the volatile chamber where support from GOP hard-liners is always in question.
• I promise, there will come a time when you look back and laugh that someone these people were ever worthy of a headline news story.
• Speaking headlines, here’s one that brought me happiness this morning: “Democrats Massively Overperform In Special Election Triumph.”
• Timothy Kennedy, a Democratic New York state senator, has won the special election for the Congressional seat vacated by the retired Democrat Brian Higgins. He easily defeated his Republican opponent for New York's 26th district seat, which includes Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
• Kennedy won by more than 36 percentage points. The Cook Political Report had expected Kennedy to win the seat by nine percentage points.
• The Blue Wave is coming, folks. All you have to do is vote.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court allowed Texas to enforce age-verification requirements for porn sites, rejecting a request from the adult entertainment industry to block the law on First Amendment grounds.
• If that’s what a state wants, sure, I agree they should be allowed to do that. The state isn’t taking away a First Amendment right; they’re not doing anything differently than if a kid got his ID checked for trying to buy a titty magazine at a gross little store in a mini-mall.
• And now there’s gonna be a big business of hacking porn site databanks and getting the photo ID information of Texans, and then blackmailing them to not release the info to their spouses and co-workers in regard to what kind of porn they watch.
• The Supreme Court offered no explanation for its decision, common for decisions on its emergency docket. There were no noted dissents.
• Let’s keep moving on. Lordy, so mujch going on.
• I’m mostly sad to say that my state, California, has reversed a three-year population decline.
• A rebound in legal immigration and drop in COVID-19 deaths fueled the increase of 67,000 in 2023. California still lost more residents to other states than it gained from them — as has been the case for two decades — but the number of people leaving for other parts of the country fell to pre-pandemic levels.
• Obviously, the good news is that we don’t lose any more House seats based on our slowly declining population.
• The bad news is that we already have almost 40,000,000 people living in this state. My county — Los Angeles County — is the most populous in the USA.
• With our population of just under 10,000,000, more people live in LA County than in 40 states. Trust me, I’d be fine with some of them moving away.
• But both Los Angeles and San Francisco grew last year, in a reversal of fortunes which suggests that a return to hybrid or in-person work is attracting some employees back to major cities.
• Here’s something else I’d wanted to talk about.
• There’s been a little fun discussion flowing around social media about whether it would be worse for a woman to unexpectedly run into a bear while in the remote woods versus running into a strange man.
• It would seem obvious that the bear is a far scarier situation.
• But that’s not what the facts say. From 2020 until now, eight women have been killed by bears.
• However, in the year 2020 alone, about 80,000 women were killed by men… 47,000 of which were family members.
• Is that some kind of false equivalency? Perhaps. Are “not all men” evil murderers? Of course. But any way you look at it, women are always, in every possible circumstance, in more danger of being killed by men than by bears.
• “But I would never!” says a man, and I believe you. I wouldn’t either. But how is a woman supposed to look at you as you emerge between a dense stand of trees and immediately discern that you’re not one of the rapey-killey kind of guys?
• Little relevant side note: over 90% of homicides are committed by men, as opposed to women. Now tell me how bears are scarier than men. I’ll listen.
• And now, The Weather: “Slow Learning, Long Yearning” by Vilde
• From the Sports Desk… let’s see where we’re at the first round of the NBA playoffs.
• Eastern Conference: Celtics lead the Heat 3-1, Knicks lead the 76ers 3-2, Pacers lead the Bucks 3-2, and Cavs lead the Magic 3-2.
• Western Conference: Thunder sweep Pelicans 4-0, Nuggets beat the Lakers 4-0, Timberwolves sweep the Suns 4-0, and Mavs and Clippers tied at 2-2.
• Today in history… Wars of Scottish Independence end: England recognizes Scotland as an independent state (1328). Christopher Columbus presents his plans discovering a western route to the Indies to the Spanish Queen Isabella I of Castile (1486). The Act of Union joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain takes effect (1707). The Slave Trade Act 1807 takes effect, abolishing the slave trade within the British Empire (1807). The Memphis Race Riots begin (1866). Rallies are held throughout the United States demanding the eight-hour work day, culminating in the Haymarket affair in Chicago, in commemoration of which May 1 is celebrated as International Workers' Day in many countries (1886). "Pluto" is officially proposed for the name of the newly discovered dwarf planet Pluto. (1930). The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public (1956). Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis (1960). Amtrak — the National Railroad Passenger Corporation — takes over operation of U.S. passenger rail service (1971). In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended” (2003). Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden (2009).
• May 1 is the birthday of physician/activist Emily Stowe (1831), frontierswoman Calamity Jane (1852), singer Kate Smith (1907), comedian/TV host Jack Paar (1918), novelist Joseph Heller (1923), novelist Terry Southern (1924), NFL player Chuck Bednarik (1925), singer-songwriter Judy Collins (1939), singer-songwriter Rita Coolidge (1945), actress Joanna Lumley (1946), songwriter/producer Glen Ballard (1953), singer-songwriter/guitariist Ray Parker Jr. (1954), bass player D'arcy Wretzky (1968), director/film producer Wes Anderson (1969), NFL player Wes Welker (1981), and MLB player Marcus Stroman (1991).

I know that was a lot, but it’s just one of those times where it’s had to pick and choose what’s important. It’s probably all important in some way to some people. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 30, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 30, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. yesterday was a super Monday, in that I found myself getting slammed with work stuff damn near every minute from sunup to sundown. I’m hoping today is slightly more chill, though you never know. Let’s start this Tuesday with a look around this world to see what’s going on.

• Testimony continues today in the criminal hush money trial of Donnie Dump, but the court had some other business to handle first.
• Judge Merchan found that the former president and current accused felon violated a gag order nine times, fining him a total of $9,000. He also warned that Dump could be jailed if he continued to violate the gag order.
• Merchan wrote that Trump “is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”
• He also stated, quite accurately, that it is a shame that he was limited by law to the maximum of $1,000 per violation, writing that it’s basically pointless in a. situation where a person held in contempt “can easily afford such a fine.”
• Today’s testimony is expected to include the third prosecution witness, Gary Farro, a banker who helped Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen open accounts.
• Moving on.
• Tomorrow, one of the nation’s most brutal abortion laws since the fall of Roe v. Wade goes into effect in Florida.
• The cruel six-week abortion law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last year and confirmed by the Florida Supreme Court earlier this month takes effect Wednesday.
• They chose the six-week cutoff intentionally; it’s before most women are aware or can confirm they are pregnant.
• Last year, more than 84,000 people got abortions in Florida, more than in almost any other state.
• Starting tomorrow, the closest abortion clinic for someone living at Florida’s southernmost tip will be a 14-hour drive away in Charlotte. A patient whose pregnancy has progressed beyond 12 weeks, the point at which North Carolina bans abortion, will have to drive 17 hours, to southern Virginia.
• This November, voters in Florida will have the power to vote for a referendum to enshrine women’s reproductive rights in their state’s constitution.
• Women and other Floridians will also have the opportunity to vote a good number of the people who made those laws out of office.
• But this isn’t just a red/blue, Democrat/Republican issue. People across party lines overwhelmingly support the rights of women to not be forced to give birth.
• Vote accordingly.
• In other news…
• A big win for transgender rights yesterday when a federal appellate court became the first in the country to rule that state health-care plans must pay for gender-affirming surgeries.
• The decision came from a set of cases out of North Carolina and West Virginia, where state officials argued that their policies were based on cost concerns rather than bias.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit rejected that argument, saying the plans were discriminating against trans people in need of treatment.
• Correct. Well done, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who ruled 8-6 in the case.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Israeli officials said they had reduced the number of hostages they were asking Hamas to free in exchange for a temporary cease-fire in the war in Gaza.
• It’s a sign that the two sides might be inching closer to agreeing on their first truce in five months. A new round of cease-fire negotiations could begin as soon as today.
• The details of the negotiation are a reduction of Israeli hostages from 40 to 33, in exchange for a 40-day cease-fire and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
• The decision is in the hands of Hamas now.
• Let’s move on.
• We spoke extensively about Ralph Earl last year. He’s the teenager who was shot in the face when he went to the wrong house and knocked on the door to pick up his younger twin brothers.
• His family filed a civil lawsuit in Missouri yesterday against the accused shooter, Andrew Lester, and the homeowner’s association where he lives. Lester’s criminal trial is set to begin on October 7.
• The 85-year-old was charged with one count of felony assault in the first degree in connection to the April 13, 2023 shooting and one count of armed criminal action, also a felony. Lester pleaded not guilty and was released on $200,000 bond.
• Yarl, who is now 17, suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) from the shooting.
• In other news…
• I don’t know why I’m bothering with still talking about this guy, but former Dump adviser Peter Navarro was shot down yet again by the Supreme Court yesterday.
• Navarro is currently serving time in prison over his contempt of Congress conviction. He’d already submitted an emergency request last month that was denied by Chief Justice John Roberts, forcing Navarro to report to prison on March 19.
• Then he tried re-submitting it. No, I’m not kidding. Justice Neil Gorsuch referred the request to the full court, which then denied the request without comment.
• Ha ha! Just serve your four stupid months, you whiny baby shithead.
• Moving on.
• The fierce political fallout from South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) having shot her sweet puppy Cricket in the head has crossed party lines.
• Apparently the reason why Noem wrote about it in her book was clear: there were witnesses who watched her, in a fit of rage at the rambunctious pup, pull out her weapon and blow the dog’s brains out.
• The story was going to come out anyway as Noem grew closer to being Donald Trump’s Republican vice-presidential nominee, so she tried to control the narrative.
• It didn’t work. I would ask the people of South Dakota to consider how continuing to elect Noem to your state’s highest office reflects on you as people.
• I’d really prefer to not mention this again — it make me physically ill to think about — so let’s move on.
• Here’s another story about an animal, though one with a slightly better ending.
• Clarence Yoder of Idaho Falls, ID was visiting Yellowstone National Park and decided to kick a bison.
• The bison then injured Yoder. There’s no specific information on what the injury was, though I was hoping he was gored in the testicles.
• Anyway, park rangers arrested and jailed him after he was treated for his injuries. He was charged with being under the influence of alcohol, disorderly conduct, and approaching and disturbing wildlife.
• Leave animals alone, you fucking assholes.
• Jesus. Let’s do a happy story.
• The $1.3 billion Powerball jackpot was won by a man in Oregon named Cheng “Charlie” Saephan. He’s a 46-year-old immigrant from Laos.
• Saephan has been fighting cancer for eight years, undergoing chemotherapy treatments.
• What will do with his winnings? He merely wants to find a good doctor, and is relieved that he’ll be able to provide for his family.
• Interesting side note: Saephan is Iu Mein, a southeast Asian ethnic group with roots in southern China.
• Many Iu Mein were subsistence farmers who aided Americans during the Vietnam war, recruited by the CIA and U.S. military to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.
• After the war, many lu Mein people fled to Thailand to avoid retribution, and eventually resettled in the US.
• Okay, back to annoying news.
• Did you buy any N-95 masks during the pandemic that you still use or have around? Better give them a look.
• The Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that a company called Razer and its affiliates advertised the Zephyr mask as N95-grade despite never submitting it for testing or certification by the Food and Drug Administration or National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
• The Zephyr masks were touted as the equivalent of an N95 that would protect users from COVID.
• Now they must refund more than $1.1 million to customers nationwide.
• Fuck that company. Can you imagine if you had a friend or relative who died of COVID after relying on those masks?
• And now, The Weather: “Caméra” by Corridor
• From the Sports Desk… Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — known to many of you as Taylor Swift’s boyfriend — just became the top-paid tight end in the NFL. I thought you might like to know the current highest-paid player (based on their pay per year averaged over the next three years) at each position.
• Offense: Quarterback Joe Burrow (Bengals) - $62.9 million, Running Back Christian McCaffrey (49ers) - $17.2 million, Wide Receiver A.J. Brown (Eagles) - $32 million, Tight End Travis Kelce (Chiefs) - $17.1 million, Offensive Tackle Penei Sewell (Lions) - $28 million, Guard Chris Lindstrom (Hawks) - $21.8 million, Center Frank Ragnow (Lions) - $14 million.
• Defense: Cornerback Jaire Alexander (Packers) - $21.8 million, Safety Derwin James Jr. (Chargers) - $19.6 million, Edge Rusher Nick Bosa (49ers) - $34.7 million, Defensive Tackle Chris Jones (Chiefs) - $31.7 million, Linebacker Roquan Smith (Ravens) - $20 million.
• Special Teams: Kicker Justin Tucker (Ravens) - $6.2 million, Long Snapper Luke Rhodes (Colts) - $1.67 million, Punter Michael Dickson (Seahawks) - $3.9 million.
• If you were wondering about the highest total guaranteed money in the NFL, that would go to Browns QB Deshaun Watson, who will take home $230 million regardless of any other factor.
• Today in history… Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots (1598). On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first President of the United States (1789). The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation (1803). The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana (1812). J. J. Thomson announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton, at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London (1897). Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor (1900). Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Co. for $146 million plus $50 million for charity (1925). NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address (1939). Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours (1945). In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam (1947). U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that White House Counsel John Dean has been fired and that other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, have resigned (1973). CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free (1993). U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers committing war crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison (2004). Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (2009). 
• April 30 is the birthday of my 19th great-grandmother, noblewoman Anne of Glouster (1383), physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777), dentist Mary Haviland Stilwell Kuesel (1866), memoirist Alice B. Toklas (1877), actress Cloris Leachman (1926), author Larry Niven (1938), actress Jill Clayburgh (1944), singer-songwriter/activist Mimi Fariña (1945), guitarist/singer-songwriter Wayne Kramer (1948), NBA player Isiah Thomas (1961), singer-songwriter/pianist Amanda Palmer (1976), NBA player Luis Scola (1980), actress Gal Gadot (1985), and singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco (1990).

That’s plenty of news for now. Side note: there’s always way more news that I don’t cover here than the news I have time to include in the allocated hour I spend each morning. You can always seek out more info on your own than whatever they feed you on your TV. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 29, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 29, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I’m up and about, as I tend to be, and trying to get my brain working after a weekend of mostly nothingness. You know what helps rev up the ol’ synapses? Seeing what’s happening in the world. Let’s do that.

• Yesterday, President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to discuss the prospects of a possible cease-fire deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, while repeating his warnings about a new Israeli assault on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
• The call was meant to pave the way for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who left Washington just a few hours earlier for his latest trip to the Middle East with the goal of scaling back the war in Gaza.
• Blinken will meet in Saudi Arabia with Egyptian and Qatari officials who have served as intermediaries with Hamas in the cease-fire and hostage talks, which remain in a stalemate. Blinken will also stop in Jordan and Israel. 
• Let’s hope for the best. This whole thing would settle down a lot faster if Hamas could release more hostages and Israel could slow down on the killing of Palestinians.
• Shrug. It’s up to them.
• Meanwhile, there is a flurry of talk that the International Criminal Court may issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• The ICC is looking at possible war crimes committed by both sides in the conflict.
• While neither Israel nor the United States accept the ICC’s jurisdiction, any warrants could put Israeli officials at risk of arrest in other countries.
• They would also serve as a major rebuke of Israel’s actions at a time when pro-Palestinian protests have spread across U.S. college campuses.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Republican vice-presidential hopeful Governor Kristi Noem tried to justify her actions of having shot and killed Cricket, her 14-month-old puppy, by saying that it was legal at the time under South Dakota state law.
• I’m sure everyone will be fine with it then.
• Moving on.
• Donnie Dump is suddenly worried about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• On Friday, someone probably explained to Dumpy how RFK’s ridiculous independent run for president was siphoning votes at an equal rate from both Dem and Republican voter bases, per recent polls.
• I wont reprint Dump’s moronic rant, but among other things he said that a vote for the independent candidate would be a “wasted protest vote” and that he’d “even take Biden over Junior.”
• A Quinnipiac poll of registered voters this week shows support for Kennedy at 16 percent, with Trump and Biden deadlocked at 37 percent each, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent Cornel West both receiving 3 percent support.
• And the scary part for the Dumpster: more Republican voters find RFK Jr. favorable than Democrats — 44 percent of Republican voters expressed a favorable opinion of Kennedy, compared to just 11 percent of Democrats.
• Hmm. So that’ll be interesting come November.
• Moving on.
• Here’s some irony for you…
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is doubling down on her commitment to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), saying his days in the leadership position are “numbered” as House members await a potential privileged vote on a motion to vacate.
• Greene is mad because the Speaker allowed the vote for aid to Ukraine to pass. That probably upset her Russian supporters. She already filed a motion to remove Johnson and two other GOP lawmakers have already backed it.
• But the only way it would gain traction is for every Democrat to support her effort. Is it funny, thinking of Sporky having to pander to Democrats to accomplish her nefarious goals?
• I think it’s funny.
• Needless to say, that won’t be happening. The Dems don’t work with chaos agents backed by the Kremlin.
• We’re not huge fans of Johnson ether, I should note, but he received widespread praise from leaders in both parties this month after muscling both the high profile foreign aid and FISA bills through the House this month.
• In other news…
• I have yet to cover any of the insane shit revolving around Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell (D).
• She was charged last with burglary after being found dressed in all black in the basement of her stepmother's home. She confessed to breaking into the home to retrieve her father's ashes and other sentimental items after her stepmother stopped speaking to her.
• On social media, Mitchell denied the allegations, saying she was at the house to check on a family member with Alzheimer's. Mitchell, who has also been a TV meteorologist and a commander with the Air National Guard, was elected in 2022 and is in the midst of her first term.
• Yesterday, it was announced that she will be removed from her committee assignments and caucus meetings while those bizarre allegations against her play out in both a Senate and legal investigation.
• Probably a good idea. Moving on.
• Today, Columbia University president Minouche Shafik said that talks with student protest organizers have stalled, and that the university will not divest from Israel — a demand that has sparked protests on college campuses across the country. 
• She asked for those in encampment protests on campus to voluntarily disperse, saying the demonstration had created “an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty.”
• If Columbia doesn’t arrive at some agreement with the protestors, it’s quite possible that their commencement, scheduled for May 15, will be canceled as has been the case at other schools like USC.
• In other news, a program that has helped low-income Americans be able to access the internet is running out of funds, and will likely soon be gone altogether.
• The popular federal benefit known as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which covers home internet service, provides up to $30 of monthly credits from the government.
• It may not seem like a lot, but for Americans subsiding on Social Security disability payments, it can make the difference between being able to connect with the world and being isolated.
• Most of the beneficiaries are folks in rural areas and red states, and use their internet for everything from typical school, work, and entertainment to telemedicine, visiting their grandkids, and going to church online.
• The collapse of the ACP in May will affect nearly 60 million individual Americans. The program is heavily used by Americans over age 50, military veterans, and low-income working families nationwide.
• President Biden and congressional Democrats have blamed Republicans on Capitol Hill for blocking legislation that would extend the ACP, even as many red congressional districts have received millions of dollars from the program.
• I think that at this point, internet service is essential for a normal modern life, and should be considered like any basic utility.
• Fix that shit and get it paid for, Republicans. Jesus.
• And now, The Weather: “motorway” by Goat Girl
• I don’t have to tell you that severe weather has been a huge problem in many areas of the country over the past few days, and continues today.
• Global climate change will continue to drive stronger storms and higher heat in nearly every place on Earth, and they will keep getting worse. Stay prepared for that, peoples.
• Let’s do a chart. Rewinding back to late April 1983, when I was a freshman in high school, here are the videos being played on MTV.
• This is the heavy rotation (3-4 plays/day) list: “Cuts Like A Knife” (Brian Adams), Der Kommissar (After The Fire), Photograph (Def Leppard), Red Skies (The Fixx), The One Thing (INXS), Beat It (Michael Jackson), Billie Jean (Michael Jackson), Separate Ways (Journey), Overkill (Men At Work), I Melt With You (Modern English), Why Me (Planet P), A World Of Fantasy (Triumph), New Years Day (U2).
• Seems about right.
• From the Sports Desk… since we looked at basketball playoffs yesterday, let’s catch up on the NHL’s first round playoff status.
• Atlantic Division: Panthers lead Lightning 3-1; Bruins lead the Maple Leafs 3-1.
• Metropolitan Division: Rangers have swept the Caps 4-0; Canes lead the Islanders 3-1.
• Central Division: Knights lead the Stars 2-1; Avs lead the Jets 3-1.
• Pacific Division: Canucks lead the Preds 3-1; Oilers lead the Kings 3-1.
• Today in history… Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans (1429). James Cook arrives in Australia at Botany Bay, which he names (1770). Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union (1861). The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the People's Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the British public (1910). SOE agent Nancy Wake, a leading figure in the French Resistance and the Gestapo's most wanted person, parachutes back into France to be a liaison between London and the local maquis group (1944). Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker (1945). The controversial musical ‘Hair’ opens at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway (1968). United States President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings relating to the Watergate scandal (1974). Riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King, and over the next three days 63 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed (1992). The final Oldsmobile is built in Lansing, Michigan, ending 107 years of vehicle production (2004).
• April 29 is the birthday of physician/polymath John Arbuthnot (1667), mathematician/physicist Henri Poincaré (1854), publisher William Randolph Hearst (1863), immunologist Michael Heidelberger (1888), pianist/composer Duke Ellington (1899), Japan emperor Hirohito (1901), harmonica player Toots Thielemans (1922), singer-songwriter Lonnie Donegan (1931), singer-songwriter Willie Nelson (1933), singer-songwriter/guitarist Otis Rush (1935), felon Bernie Madoff (1938), politician Debbie Stabenow (1950), race car driver Dale Earnhardt (1951), comedian/actor Jerry Seinfeld (1954), actor Leslie Jordan (1955), actress Kate Mulgrew (1955), actor Daniel Day-Lewis (1957), actress Michelle Pfeiffer (1958), actress Eve Plumb (1958), actor Federico Castelluccio (1964), tennis player Andre Agassi (1970), actress Uma Thurman (1970), NFL player Jay Cutler (1983), and NHL player Jonathan Toews (1988).

Welp, time to Monday. I’ll be Mondaying all day. That’s fine. Enjoy your day.