24 for 2024: My Top Indie Music Releases of the Year

Hello, and welcome back to another of my annual year-end best-of new music lists. Here's the deal... this is my list. It's not your list. It's not Rolling Stone's, Paste's, Pitchfork's, or anyone else's list. So what you can expect is shit that I like. If you don't like it, that matters not. But before you start scrolling, I'll tell you what to expect.

First, nearly all of the music I highlight is somewhere in the indie rock/indie pop, shoegaze, experimental/art rock, and dream pop/bedroom pop genres that I enjoy. Looking for metal, hip-hop, R&B, mainstream pop, country, or jazz? Find another list. Side note: I love music in all those genres too, but again... this is my list. You'll find 24 of my favorites highlighted below, with another batch of dozens of honorable mentions below that. Everything detailed below was released in the calendar year of 2024, and are listed in alphabetical order; I couldn't possibly rank this stuff. Anyway, have fun and let me know if you discovered anything cool while perusing this year's list!

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Allegra Krieger
Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine (Double Double Whammy)

This is the fifth album by 28-year-old New York singer-songwriter Allegra Krieger, and if you’re looking for something to listen to on a rainy Sunday, or even a cloudy Thursday, here’s your album. A tasteful blend of folky singer-songwriter sounds and indie rock vibes, the whole album is smart and satisfying.

Key Track: How Do You Sleep

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Being Dead
EELS (Bayonet Records)

There’s nothing not to like about Being Dead, as long as you’re down with quirky and experimental artistic pop that sounds like a future-retro version of the Mamas and the Papas on even more drugs. EELS is their second album, and sometimes it’s hard to tell if they’re doing what they do genuinely or ironically, but either way they did some of the most interesting, fun, and surprisingly hooky collections of new music in 2024.

Key Track: “Big Bovine”

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Bistro Plate
“Space Limo” (Self Released)

This is a brand new three-piece band out of Australia… I’m not sure they’re on a label at all, and I think they have three singles out over the past few months. And they’ve all been good, ranging from brisk rock on their first track “Autodog” to the lush sounds of “Space Limo” that I’ve chosen to highlight here. Synths and guitars take turns to glisten and crunch. Serene but exciting. Music to put on when you’re getting ready for a night on the town.

Key Track: Space Limo

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Crumb
AMAMA (Crumb Records)

I've been a fan of Crumb since the first time I heard their initial EPs in the mid-2010s. They have an immediately identifiable and distinctive sound, mostly due to the uniquely great voice and guitar playing of frontwoman Lila Ramani. Their latest is fuzzy psyche-pop with an articulate smooth groove, and it's fucking great.

Key Track: The Bug

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Cool Band
Cool Band (Self Released)

Like many of the smaller artists whose music attracts me, I don’t know much about Cool Band, other than that they’re from somewhere in California, and that they released a self-titled album in September. I do know that the album is packed with delightful, good-sounding, and melodic indie pop/rock songs. They are indeed a cool band.

Key Track: Multi Level Marketing

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DIIV
Frog In Boiling Water (Fantasy Records)

One of the “biggest” bands on my list this year, DIIV (pronounced “dive”) is a shoegaze/indie rock band formed in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY. I’ve been a fan for years, but really got deep into them with their 2019 release Deceiver. Their new album is absolutely outstanding. It’s a thoughtful record that requires multiple listens to try and understand the deeper meanings. Is it an actual-ass concept album? Maybe it is.

Key Track: Brown Paper Bag

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Draag
Actually, the quiet is nice (Self Released)

Hailing from Sylmar, the northernmost Valley-based suburb of Los Angeles, CA, Draag is a sludgy dream pop band with abundant elements of shoegaze and occasionally even metal. This band is always beautiful, even when they’re ugly. There’s nothing not to like about their latest EP. I've never heard a Draag song I didn't like,  which is super rare for any band.

Key Track: Orb Weaver

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Duster
In Dreams (Numero Group)

I’m pretty sure that Duster is one of the two most longterm bands on my list this year (the other being Idaho), having both gotten started in the early/mid 90s. Duster seemed to be somewhat forgotten for years until the start of the 2020s, when their resurged as a result of popular use other tunes in TikTok videos. Their sparse, melancholic, slowcore sound is the perfect vibe for certain moods.

Key Track: Poltergeist

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Ford Chastain
Wavelines (Self Released)

Hailing from OKC, Ford Chastain is a bedroom pop guy with jangly guitars and dreamy vocals. I called him — not disparagingly — a combination of Kurt Vile and Real Estate. Okay, I called him Vile Estate, and that’s a high compliment coming from me. This album is summery in its laid-back vibe, but also has some underlying sad resignation that pulls me in as well.

Key Track: No Way

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Hockey Season
“You're Not Here Anymore” (Self Released)

I thought I’d discovered Hockey Season in 2021 with the release of their album Sticky Concrete. However, it turned out I’d already been listening to the band when they were known as Toronto-based Swanes, a band comprised of brothers Michael and Stefan Bildy. Unfortunately, Mike didn't survive his bout with severe mental disorder, but Stefan has carried on the band's smooth and sophisticated indie alternative pop/R&B with a new name and a few singles released this year.

Key Track: You’re Not Here Anymore

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Homeshake
CD Wallet (Self Released)

This is the solo musical project of Montreal-based singer-songwriter and musician Peter Sagar, who used to play guitar for Mac DeMarco. Very cool indie alternative stuff here throughout. By the way, Homeshake was a busy boy this year; after the 9-song CD Wallet album, he released a whole-ass other 12-song LP called Horsie later in the year.

Key Track: Smoke

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Idaho
Lapse (Arts & Crafts)

This was a very pleasant surprise. Idaho is a Los Angeles-based band founded in 1992. But their 10th studio album Lapse comes after a 13-year hiatus. These guys — along with bands like Songs: Ohia, Codeine, and Red House Painters — are slowcore pioneers. They reconnected at a band member's mom's desert house in 29 Palms, CA, wrote and recored some new music, and this is the fantastic result. As I told my bandmates in They Stole My Crayon, I feel less weird about our pending new album after not having released one since 2016.

Key Track: On Fire

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Juicer
Retire The Fences (Self Released)

This is the debut album by Brooklyn’s Juicer. Is it part of the ongoing resurgence of the ‘90s sound? Yes. Is it packed with dreamy shoegaze guitars, low key but intense vocals, and unapologetic melancholy? Also yes. If you appreciated bands like Pavement and Archers of Loaf back in the day, you’re gonna want to get you some Juicer now.

Key Track: Let Go

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Knitting
Some Kind of Heaven (Mint Records)

Another debut album! I love new music, but I especially love new music from new bands. Knitting, out of Montreal, is fucking fantastic. Indie shoegaze rock and pop that thinks it’s lo-fi but is actually quite articulate and pleasant and super melodic. This crazy batch of seemingly nonbinary Canadian kids made some of the best music of 2024.

Key Track: Sleeper

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Lutalo
The Academy (Winspear)

I got deep into Vermont based singer-songwriter Lutalo Jones via last year’s album AGAIN, but he’s topped that with this new release. it’s insanely good; I featured more tracks from his The Academy this year in my daily song recommendations than that any other band or artist. Sometimes I hear Neil Young in this guy, other time Nick Drake, or Smashing Pumpkins, or Bob Dylan, or Bill Callahan… but mostly I hear Lutalo. It's definitely an album you can listen to start to finish, and my only challenge was deciding which track to feature here.

Key Track: About (Hall of Egress)

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Merce Lemon
Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild (Darling Recordings)

It’s folky, it’s country (in a very good way), and it’s definitely one of my favorite discoveries of 2024. This music of this singer-songwriter out of Pittsburgh is warmth embodied in sound. You hear the Harvest-era Neil Young in all the best of ways, while still seeming fresh and pertinent to the now. Special extra credit for featuring Xandy Chelmis of Wednesday on pedal steel, who reminds me of Sneaky Pete Kleinow.

Key Track: Backyard Lover

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MJ Lenderman
Manning Fireworks (Anti- Records)

This is weird because I mentioned a member of the band Wednesday just above. Now here’s another: MJ Lenderman, whose fourth solo album is the only one on my list that also made many of the indie media’s “best of” year-end lists. I’ve appreciated this Asheville, NC-based singer-songwriter for a good while now, but he’s really hit his stride with this album. And if this music sounds a bit like that of his other band, that’s because it features contributions from his Wednesday bandmates Karly Hartzman, Xandy Chelmis, and Ethan Baechtold.

Key Track: She’s Leaving You

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Sea Lemon
“Crystals (feat. Benjamin Gibbard)” (Luminelle Recordings)

This was a surprisingly great track, and I'm not sure why I was surprised. I've enjoyed the music of Seattle-baed Natalie Lew (aka Sea Lemon) since her debut, and while I'm not the world's biggest Death Cab or Postal Service guy, on many occasions I've appreciated the songwriting and performances of Ben Gibbard. Still, this fuzz-pop jam seem to be more than the sum of its parts. Great track. 

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Shower Curtain
words from a wishing well (Angel Tapes/Fire Talk)

Yes, more shoegaze alt-rock out of Brooklyn. You got a problem with that? I didn’t think so. This is another debut album, I should note, and it’s great… and has potential for even better stuff in the future of this band. Swirling fuzzy guitars, noise miasma, and dream-like vocals by Victoria Winter. All good. More please.

Key Track: Edgar

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Snoozer
Mid-Earth (Born Losers)

Here's something maybe sorta funny? Snoozer's debut album comes close to two decades after this literal band of brothers first formed. Mike and Tom Kelly are known only for their rocking house shows around their native Philadelphia. Oh, and for Tom being the live touring drummer for Alex G. But I didn't know any of that when I got turned on to Mid-Earth, and this shit is fucking fantastic multilayered indie rock. Well done, lads.

Key Track: Behave

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Snowy
Age Difference (Blossom Rot Records)

Melbourne, Australia-based singer-songwriter Liam Snowy Halliwell seems to release a solo album like, every other month. You'd think I was exaggerating; I'm not. Maybe a little. But not much. However, Age Difference is just the third album by the indie folk Snowy Band (distinct from his solo output), and it is utterly amazing. Lyrically poetic, musically evocative, hard to even pin down to any genre at all.

Key Track: God Texted Back

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Sofia Bolt
Vendredi Minuit (Born Losers)

France-born, Los Angeles-based musician, songwriter, and producer Amelie Rousseaux records as Sofia Bolt. Her second LP combines dreamy pop, orchestral psych, and sweet grooves. As a fan of art-pop in general, I dove into this one right way. I'm even working on my French to possibly cover the title track at some point.

Key Track: Vendredi Minuit

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Various Artists
TRAИƧA (Red Hot Org)

I'm not quite sure if I've ever included a "various artists" collection in my best-of list. Maybe I have. I'm too lazy to look, but regardless, this absolutely fantastic album -- released by activist and music production non-profit Red Hot -- includes 46 songs and contributions from over a hundred musicians in celebration of the trans community and to bring awareness to trans rights. And yes, many of the contributors on TRAИƧA are via the gifts of the most daring, imaginative trans and non-binary artists working today. My hats off to all of them. I can't just highlight one song off this massive gathering of greatness, so here are a few standouts...

Key Track: Deeper Understanding (Hand Habits feat. Bill Callahan)

Key Track: Feel Better (Adrianne Lenker)

Key Track: Make 'em Laugh (Benét + Faye Webster)

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Wand
Vertigo (Drag City)

I enjoyed the slow mutation of LA-based psyche-rock quartet Wand from their more druggy, fuzzed-out origins to whatever you'd call their latest outing Vertigo. This band's sixth studio album has country elements, but more desert country than anything you'd hear in Nashville. It's not very surprising considering that the last solo effort from frontman Cory Hanson was literally called Western Cum. But this is a fine album in its own right, great for a day fucking around in Joshua Tree or anywhere there's dirt and cacti.

Key Track: Hangman

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Honorable Mentions

Barney Cortez

"Nowhere To Hide"

Caroline Polachek/Weyes Blood

"Butterfly Net"

Chastity Belt

"Kool-Aid"

Clothesline from Hell

"You Don't Know"

Dana Gavanski

"Let Them Row"

Eyedress

"Occasional Stoner"

Fake Fruit

"Long Island Iced Tea"

Far Caspian

"Finding My Way Home"

Fanclubwallet

"Bands Like That"

Faye Webster

"Undressed at the Symphony"

Goat Girl

"ride around"

Goon

“Death Spells”

Jaeger

"Dragonslayer9999"

J.R.C.G.

"Drummy"

Julia Holter

“Something in the Room She Moves”

Kamasi Washington

“Asha The First (feat. Thundercat, Taj Austin, Ras Austin)”

Kim Deal

“Nobody Loves You More”

Lozenge

"Aubrey Plaza"

Maxband

"Lines"

Mk.gee

"Alesis"

Mount Kimbie & King Krule

“Empty and Silent” 

Niall Summerton

"Tear Me Apart"

Nilüfer Yanya

"Mutations"

PACKS

"Missy"

Peel Dream Magazine

"Anorak"

Sex Week

"Toad Mode"

Semiwestern

“abasement tapes”

The Smile

"Teleharmonic"

Spirit of the Beehive

“LET THE VIRGIN DRIVE”

urika’s bedroom

"Metalhead"

Vilde

"A Hideous Win"

Winter

"Sallow"

Wishy

"Spit:

World Brain

"Ville Fleurie"

youbet

"Vacancy"

Hotel Chelsea (12.03.24)

A nice crowd on a happy Tuesday evening at Hotel Chelsea. Photo by Kat.

Well hi there, friends and enemies and everyone in between. It is I, Zak, here to tell you about various things... including a terrific show at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life on Tuesday evening. But first, let's just kinda chat about various things.

How are you doing? Pretty good? Not so good? Totally not at all good? Okay, well, glad we had this chance to discuss your feelings. Me? I'm alright.

That Video Shoot for Takamine Guitars

As a good portion of the people who read this blog know, I work in the world of musical instruments and professional audio gear and related industries. I normally don't talk about that much, and I'm not planning to now or any time soon. Why not? Because it's work, and frankly -- despite having a job some folks might consider glamorous in some ways -- work is work. I'm not one of those people whose being is defined by what I do for a living, and I try not to let work take up most of my attention when I'm not actively doing it.

But every so often I do something interesting, which is the only reason I'm mentioning this now. On Saturday November 23, I headed into LA proper and did a video shoot for Takamine Guitars. Takamine is my marketing client, but for this project, I was just there as talent, and that was nice for a change.

Here's what we did. Myself, another guitar player -- the great Jake Allen -- and a moderator took part in a podcast-style conversation where we first tried every shape of guitar that Takamine currently offers, and then took one shape -- the ubiquitous dreadnought -- and tried it out in many combinations of top and back woods. That guitars were miked very well, and I thought the whole things came out superb (though we'll know for sure once the edit is done). It's due to air in mid-January 2025.

What's that? Play every one of these guitars on camera? Don't mind if I do.

It's never as glamorous as it looks onscreen.

Me and my Takamine posse... Tom Watters and Jake Allen.

Why have two different players to demonstrate these guitars? Because a lot of the sound of a guitar is in the player's hands, and if you only feature one person playing, it doesn't tell the whole story. So while Jake played his usual intricate, virtuosic style, I stuck to a style more recognizable for typical singer-songwriters, where I'm strumming through chord progressions.

Anyway, I haven't seen anything yet, but the draft edit was well received. I'll send around a link to folks once it's up and live next month.

Sniffly 

The days leading into that video shoot, I had a horrible cold. Actually, strike that; it was a cold and it was horrible, but every time I get any illness, it seems awful, but the symptoms were all what you'd expect form any cold virus. And this one definitely seemed bad in context, because I hadn't had a cold for exactly five years, since November 2019.

Think about it; since that point, nearly every time I was out in public in close proximity to people, I had a mask on. And I was washing my hands multiple times per day, every day. Even though that was in the specific effort to avoid getting COVID-19 during the pandemic, the routines also worked well against my picking up a seasonal cold that I otherwise would have caught once or twice each year. I even got COVID once, but not a single cold in all that time.

And this one sucked, like they all do. In fact, it was slightly miraculous that after feeling shitty all the way through Friday of that week, I found myself greatly improved on that Saturday morning, allowing me to get up and go to work on that video shoot. Since then, I've continued to recover well (though the typical lingering cough after a cold plagued me for another week).

What About Turkey Day?

Thanksgiving was very good. We did our usual tradition, which was to go nowhere and for me to kick a bunch of ass in the kitchen. We cooked the same feast as I've done for a long-ass time... turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, green bean casserole, and bread rolls. Pumpkin pie (which was purchased, not baked) for dessert.

It was good to enjoy that meal with my immediate family here. Thanksgiving is also a time, for those of us who have family members that are no linger among the living, to more acutely feel those people's absence. But regardless, like most people who cook Thanksgiving at home, we had enough turkey for plenty of the most amazing and delicious sandwiches the day after... and to be utterly burned out on turkey by Saturday, when we got rid of the last of the leftovers.

My bird came out perfect... moist and tasty.

And the entire meal. I wouldn't change a thing... and I seem to keep getting better at preparing said feast each passing year.

Okay, Now How About That Show?

So, all that lead-in was for a reason. Between the cold I had and it being my absolute busiest time of year work-wise, I went for weeks before his show without singing. I can't say the same about guitar playing; I'd done plenty of that. But I was a bit concerned when I got up on Tuesday morning and my vocal range was... limited, to put it nicely.

But I know myself by now, and all it took was an extra-long period of warm up to get my voice back to the point where I feel confident enough to perform in front of a crowd. I do, I should note, have a series of vocal warmups that I do before every show or recording session. Just like an athlete stretched before taking the field, it's important to get those vocal cords working in a proper manner before trying anything challenging. I felt like my voice -- while still a tiny bit scratchy from the cold -- sounded fine by the time I got onstage.

And I should note... we had a surprisingly large crowd for this venue. I don't feel like I do a huge amount of promo for my shows, but between myself, my manager Maali, and the great Shyla the Super Gekko, we pulled together a good-sized batch of people in the audience right from the start. Considering that Max Kleene was scheduled after me, the crowd only grew from that point on.

That's me in the spotlight. Photo by Kat.

Rocking some originals and covers, as usual. Photo by Kat.

I enjoy doing my final song out in the crowd so the person following me can get set up and ready to roll. Here's me and Kat, with Max onstage behind us. Photo by Kat.

Hotel Chelsea set list...

River Man (Nick Drake)

Jane (Barenaked Ladies) 

Long December (Counting Crows)

Swing Low Magellan (Dirty Projectors)

Blew The Dust Away (They Stole My Crayon)

Don't Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young)

The Waiting Boy (Zak Claxton) 

Free Man in Paris (Joni Mitchell)

Abrasion (They Stole My Crayon) 

It's Good to be King (Tom Petty) 

Long Time Gone (Crosby, Stills & Nash) 

Holly Jolly Christmas (Burl Ives)

Thanks to everyone who came out to the show, with super special awesome thanks to the following who helped support it!

Buck Dezno, Maximillion Kleene, Rusty Seisenbacher, Trixee Trotter, lexi Beery, Persephone Phoenix, Trouble Streeter, Tove Abrams, cristoofarr Resident, Richy Nervous, Kat Claxton, ShadowFX1999 Resident, my terrific manager Maali Beck, Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko, and Chelsea's great staff!

Random News: December 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 December 4, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. There’s all kinds of shit going on in the world. Good shit. Bad shit. Weird shit. Let’s closely examine this shit and see what it’s all about.

• Let’s start on the international front.
• Calls are growing for South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol to resign or face impeachment after he briefly imposed martial law over the country yesterday.
• Opposition parties filed a motion today to impeach Yoon, signed by every one of their lawmakers. Civic groups in most major cities are planning to hold large-scale rallies urging Yoon's ouster.
• President Yoon lifted emergency martial law early this morning, just six hours after he declared it in a surprise televised address. Yoon said that by imposing martial law, his aim was "to crush North Korea-sympathizing anti-state forces and to preserve the free constitutional order."
• Two and a half hours after the announcement, 190 lawmakers gathered at the National Assembly amid armed soldiers swarming onto the legislature's premises. The lawmakers, including 18 from Yoon's party, annulled martial law in a unanimous vote.
• National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik declared that the martial law was “invalid” and that lawmakers “will protect democracy with the people.”
• No surprise that the U.S. Embassy in South Korea issued an alert, advising U.S. citizens to stay away from protests or other large gatherings, which could escalate into violence. The U.K. also made a similar travel advisory.
• So that’s all… crazy.
• But it also speaks to a future in the USA, where Dump might well try something similar. Will our legislators and citizens have the balls to stand up to him that way South Korea did?
• Believe it or not, I think we will.
• Let’s move on. In fact, this is somewhat related.
• Incoming U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) signaled that he’s willing to push back against potential attempts by Dumpy to expand presidential power over federal spending.
• “Every president is going to come in and try to do as much as they can by executive action as possible,” Thune said. “Congress, in some cases, is going to be the entity that sometimes will have to put the brakes on.”
• Dump’s pick for his budget director, Russ Vought, served in the same role during the first Trump administration. Vought has since outlined an aggressive vision for presidential power in Project 2025, a 922-page document from the far-right Heritage Foundation.
• Thune said yesterday he plans to immediately begin committee hearings on Cabinet nominees when Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025.
• In other news… but on the topic of Dumpy’s appointments…
• Today is a critical day for Pete Hegseth, whose future appears in jeopardy as GOP senators raise questions about his fitness to serve as Dump’s defense secretary amid past misconduct allegations.
• Hegseth said he spoke to Li’l Dumpy earlier today, who encouraged him to “keep fighting” as he faces an uphill battle for confirmation. The former Fox News host will meet with key GOP senators today, and if just three of them don’t approve — assuming all Democrats vote against him — he’s out. There are already more than three lawmakers who have expressed uncertainty.
• So who’s Dumpy got ready for next in line? Snorrrrrrrrrtttttttttt. Dump’s list of alternative candidates to Hegseth includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
• No, seriously. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa.
• While we wait and see what happens with Hegseth, another Dump nominee has pulled out after Dumpy’s minions got upset that he wasn’t MAGA enough.
• Chad Chronister, Dump’s pick to run the Drug Enforcement Administration, has withdrawn his name from consideration. He’s the second person selected by Dumpster to bow out quickly after being nominated for a position requiring Senate confirmation, following human trash Matt Gaetz.
• Why does MAGA hate Chronister? Because as sheriff of Hillsborough County, Florida, he enforced COVID protocols and said that his office “does not engage in federal immigration enforcement activities.”
• Which is correct, but MAGA wants leaders who break laws.
• Let’s move on.
• Some final news from the election a months ago.
• I am somewhat pleased with myself that my prediction of the final tally for the incoming House is exactly correct after Democrat Adam Gray defeated GOP Rep. John Duarte in a rematch in California’s 13th District in the Central Valley following weeks of ballot counting.
• That’s a flip of the district from red to blue, as Republicans won 220 House seats in the 2024 elections to Democrats’ 215.
• Thanks to Gray’s victory, Democrats added one seat in the House elections, flipping nine Republican-held seats as Republicans flipped eight Democratic-held seats.
• That means the GOP can lose just two votes on legislation in the House in the next Congress if Democrats all vote in opposition, giving them little wiggle room for absences, internal fighting, and vacancies.
• Moving on.
• The Biden administration is moving to phase out a Depression-era program that allows employers to pay disabled workers far less than minimum wage.
• How fucked up is that? Can you believe it’s still fucking legal in this day?
• The decision is the culmination of the Labor Department’s year-long review of the program, which opponents have criticized as a form of discrimination.
• I should note that supporters have described the program as providing disabled people with hard-to-find opportunities for steady wages and meaningful work
• I describe it as paying someone slave wages just because they have a fucking disability. I had no idea this was a thing.
• Yesterday, the agency released a 137-page proposed rule that would immediately halt the issuance of certificates that allow employers to pay less than minimum wage and institute a three-year phaseout period for employers that already hold those certificates.
• Regardless, it’s exactly the type of thing that the incoming Dump administration will put back in place as soon as his term starts.
• And now, The Weather: “Trader's Log” by People I Love
• From the Sports Desk… yesterday, Super Bowl-winning Green Bay Packers coach Mike Holmgren was chosen as the coaching finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2025.
• In the seniors category, former Packers wide receiver Sterling Sharpe; Maxie Baughan, a linebacker who was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection in the 1960s for the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams; and Jim Tyrer, the gigantic offensive tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1960s and 1970s, were named finalists.
• The selection committee will vote separately on 15 finalists from the modern era, with the 2025 inductees being announced during Super Bowl week in New Orleans in February.
• Today in history… Austrasian king Carloman I dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne — my 39th great-grandfather — as sole king of the Frankish Kingdom (771). Kings Louis IX of France — my 25th great-grandfather — and Henry III of England — my 24th great-grandfather — agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels (1259). At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington bids farewell to his officers (1783). The 109 Electors of the several states of the Confederate States of America unanimously elect Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander H. Stephens as Vice President (1861). North Carolina ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed soon by Georgia, and U.S. slaves were legally free within two weeks (1865). The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published (1881). Alpha Phi Alpha the first black intercollegiate Greek lettered fraternity was founded at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (1906). The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, the oldest surviving professional hockey franchise in the world, is founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association (1909). U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office (1918). By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations (1945). During a concert of Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention at the Montreux Casino, an audience member fires a flare gun into the venue's ceiling, causing a fire that destroys the venue and is  immortalized in the Deep Purple song, "Smoke on the Water” (1971). Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco's first female mayor (1978). Pan American World Airways ceases its operations after 64 years (1991). Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the government to allow universal and equal suffrage (2005). 
• December 4 is the birthday of medical expert Agnes Forbes Blackadder (1875), bacteriologist Alfred Hershey (1908), financier/criminal Charles Keating (1923), TV host Wally George (1931), game show host Wink Martindale (1933), actor Max Baer, Jr. (1937), murderer Gary Gilmore (1940), singer-songwriter/guitarist Chris Hillman (1944), singer/drummer Dennis Wilson (1944), actor Jeff Bridges (1949), guitarist Gary Rossington (1951), singer-songwriter Cassandra Wilson (1955), NFL player/coach Frank Reich (1961), actress Marissa Tomei (1964), actor/musician Fred Armisen (1966), rapper/businessman Jay-Z (1969), model Tyra Banks (1973), intelligence specialist/criminal Reality Winner (1991), and MLB player Blake Snell (1992).

There’s always more news, but never more time. When I do have a moment later today, I’ll also write up a little report on my fun live music show from last night… it was a good one. Enjoy your day.

Random News: December 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 December 3, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. Whooo boy, do I have a busy day today. Meetings and deadlines and more, oh my! But that’s okay. A life should be lived, and that sometimes means doing a lot of things, sometimes fun, sometimes tedious and frustrating, but never boring.

• Today is a somewhat recently-spawned altruistic event called GivingTuesday. It began in 2012.
• It’s an annual day held the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States, and is touted as a “global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.”
• If you’re able to donate to a cause important to you today on GivingTuesday, take a look around and see if you can find an entity doing bathing donations. I know that Facebook has done so in previous years.
• I am making small donations today to two entities that I use every single day to help research and verify information that helps me do this report for you… the Associated Press and Wikipedia.
• Let’s do some news.
• A mom in Tennessee has had to take days off work to drive hundreds of miles from her home in Nashville to a North Carolina clinic that could treat her transgender son after Tennessee banned gender-affirming care for transgender youth last year.
• Parents like her and transgender communities across the United States will be paying close attention tomorrow as the US Supreme Court hears arguments in US v. Skrmetti – a case that could determine whether states can ban certain forms of gender-affirming care for trans children and teens.
• The case, brought by the Biden administration on behalf of families of trans youth, challenges the constitutionality of Tennessee’s gender-affirming care ban, which restricts puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors and enacts civil penalties for doctors who violate the law.
• If the court rules the Tennessee ban is unconstitutional, it will deliver a resounding win for transgender rights advocates. Similar state laws would be effectively invalidated, and trans youth would gain greater protections in accessing gender-affirming care.
• Maybe I’m more pessimistic after the recent election and my awareness of the track record of this Supreme Court, but I’d be surprised if that happens.
• We’ll see. Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) announced that it will stop publishing content on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, beginning January 20th, 2025.
• That, of course, is the date that Dumpy the Dick Tater will assume office.
• The organization stated that it can “no longer ethically participate in a social network that its owner has transformed into a machine of disinformation and propaganda.”
• Understandable. “We cannot continue to participate in the social network feed of a man who proclaims the death of the media and therefore of journalists,” said the president of EFJ, Maja Sever.
• The EFJ is the largest organization of journalists in Europe, representing over 295,000 journalists in 44 countries has announced that it will stop posting content on X.
• In absolutely related news, Bluesky, a nearly 2-year-old app, is grabbing a ton of attention amid a recent massive surge of new users due to growing frustrations with X.
• Bluesky’s membership snowballed following the November 5 presidential election. The platform currently has more than 22 million users, up from about 12 million people in mid-October.
• PCWorld tech writer Dave Parrack wrote in a recent column that, “Bluesky feels like a safe haven. There's very little trolling, and when it does happen, people aren't biting.”
• How is Bluesky able to sustain itself without accepting advertising? In October, the company raised $15 million in venture funding, which followed a seed round of $8 million in 2023.
• They will eventually be adding revenue streams from subscriptions and financial transactions. 
• Their business model is obviously far different from that of Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, who has more than 3 billion daily users across its apps, and booked almost $40 billion in revenue during that time.
• I hope the best for them. I like Bluesky a lot. You can find me there.
• From the International Desk…
• South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law today, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces as he struggles against an opposition that controls the country’s parliament and which he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea.
• That’s not good… none of it.
• The surprising move harkens back to an era of authoritarian leaders that the country has not seen since the 1980s, and was immediately denounced by the opposition and by the leader of Yoon’s own conservative party.
• Following Yoon’s announcement, South Korea’s military proclaimed that parliament and other political gatherings that could cause “social confusion” would be suspended.
• The military also said that the country’s striking doctors should return to work within 48 hours. Thousands of doctors have been striking for months over government plans to expand the number of students at medical schools.
• I really wish the world would chill the fuck out. I know that’s not happening anytime soon, but I still wish it.
• Moving on…
• Sex workers in Belgium have been given the right to health insurance, maternity leave, sick pay, and other employment benefits under a new world-first law.
• The new legislation will allow sex workers to enter into employment contracts and benefit from the same rights and legal protections as any other employee, which also includes pension, unemployment benefits and annual vacation.
• So yes. A hooker in Brussels probably has better benefits than you do at your crap-ass job in the USA.
• I’m serious.
• In other news…
• Senate Democrats are meeting this morning to elect colleagues to the party’s leadership ranks — with the main action expected to be the elevation of Sens. Amy Klobuchar (MN.) and Cory Booker (NJ) into the third and fourth spots of conference leadership, respectively.
• Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Whip Dick Durbin are expected to be tapped again for their leadership posts, while Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) is slated to become chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
• Side note: last night, the Senate confirmed two more of President Joe Biden’s judicial picks to lifetime posts, and Schumer filed cloture on five more picks. That’s good news.
• Moving on…
• Following up on a horrifying story we reported earlier, a Florida woman was sentenced yesterday to life in prison for zipping her boyfriend into a suitcase and leaving him to die of suffocation.
• Circuit Judge Michael Kraynick imposed the sentence in Orlando on Sarah Boone, 47, for the 2020 killing of 42-year-old Jorge Torres.
• Wanna hear about a bad decision (on top of a long series of bad decisions, I’m sure) by this person? Boone had rejected a plea deal offer of a 15-year sentence. Now she has life.
• Let’s move on.
• A piece of shit is dead, and it’s cause for celebration.
• Roger Golubski, a white former police detective accused of sexually assaulting Black women and girls in Kansas — and terrorizing those who tried to fight back — did not appear in court yesterday morning for the start of jury selection.
• He was to be tried on six felony counts of violating women's civil rights. On a multitude of occasions, Golubski would pull over women and demand sexual favors and threaten to harm or jail their relatives.
• His attorney said his client "was despondent about the media coverage." He did not elaborate. Hopefully that means what I think it means.
• The details of this guy are so vile and disgusting that I don’t want to repeat them here. In one instance, he drove one of the women at the center of a criminal case to a cemetery and told her to find a spot to dig her own grave. He’d sexually assaulted her repeatedly, starting when she was just in middle school.
• So we should absolutely celebrate the death of this worst of human beings.
• And now, The Weather: “Make 'em Laugh” by Benét + Faye Webster
• A personal side note: today would been my mom’s 80th birthday. She would have found this fact annoying, were she alive.
• From the Sports Desk… the NFL suspended Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair three games for repeated violations of player safety rules after his hit to the head of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence on Sunday.
• The hit was fucking nasty. Lawrence was running with the ball and had gone into a slide when Al-Shaair slammed him straight to the head, causing the Jaguars star to suffer a concussion.
• Sorry. There’s no place for that kind of shit in today’s NFL. Three games seems about right to me.
• Today in history… Pope John X crowns Berengar I of Italy — my 36th great-grandfather — as Holy Roman Emperor (915). The Electoral College casts votes for president and vice president that resulted in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr (1800). Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state (1818). In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word report to the House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits” (1901). Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show (1910). Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Utilization of Jewish Property forcing Jews to sell real property, businesses, and stocks at below market value as part of Aryanization (1938). Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter (1973). In Cincinnati, 11 fans are suffocated in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert (1979). A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague (1992). Sony releases the first PlayStation in Japan (1994).
• December 3 is the birthday of general/politician George B. McClellan (1826), philanthropist/activist Phoebe Hearst (1842), businessman Charles Alfred Pillsbury (1842), novelist Joseph Conrad (1857), songwriter Gussie Davis (1863), psychologist Anna Freud (1895), singer Andy Williams (1927), director Jean-Luc Goddard (1930), singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne (1948), singer-songwriter Mickey Thomas (1949), race car driver Rick Mears (1951), actress Daryl Hannah (1960), actress Julianne Moore (1960), singer-songwriter/bass player Joe Lally (1963), actor Brendan Fraser (1968), businessman Hal Steinbrenner (1969), comedian/actress Tiffany Haddish (1979), actor Brian Bonsall (1981), and rapper Lil Baby (1994).

That’s plenty of news. So, in addition to the utter giant assload of work I have to do today, I also have a live music show at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life tonight at 5PM SLT, for those of you who might want to pop by. Enjoy your day.

Random News: December 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 December 2, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I am fighting my very typical December stress, with my busiest time of year work-wise combining with holiday stress and general life stress. What I generally find is that the only way through it is to do it, as in, the more I get done, the less there is to worry about.

• Let’s do the news.
• President Biden announced late last night that he signed a pardon for his son Hunter Biden, in a major reversal in the final weeks of his presidency.
• Biden had repeatedly pledged not to pardon his son, who was convicted in June of three separate felony charges related to his purchase of a revolver in 2018 when he was battling an addiction to illegal drugs, which he lied about on paperwork to obtain the gun, and pleaded guilty to nine tax evasion charges in a separate case September.
• Republicans reacted predictably. Everyone from Dump to Speaker Mike Johnson to that bastion of class Marjorie Taylor Greene expressed shock and outrage.
• They seem to have very selective memory.
• In the final hours of his presidency in 2021, Donnie Dump pardoned 74 people and commuted the sentences of 70 others. For context, a pardon wipes out a conviction, commuting reduces or shortens a sentence.
• Some of those who were granted clemency were Dumpy's close associates and allies, such as former campaign manager Paul Manafort, long-time ally Roger Stone, his son-in-law Jared Kushner's father, Charles, and adviser Steve Bannon.
• Did Dumpy pardon more than most Presidents? Nope! Harry Truman pardoned close to 2,000 people. Ronald Reagan pardoned over 400. Nixon pardoned nearly 1,000.
• And while Obama only pardoned about 400 people, he commuted the sentences of another 2,000.
• Of course, stating the obvious: if Dump follows through on his campaign promise to pardon all of the people tried and convicted for their actions in the insurrection on January 6, 2021, that will add over 1,000 to his list.
• Biden’s reasoning was pretty straightforward. "No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong," Biden said.
• I’m not even making any judgement here. Pardons are a perk of the office, and all US presidents in my lifetime have issued them, especially at the end of their term.
• And I’m not at all upset that the Republicans are feigning angst. It’s all theater.
• Let’s move on.
• Stellantis is the fourth-largest automaker in the world, behind Toyota, Volkswagen Group and Hyundai Motor Group. They’re the makers of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Fiat, and Peugeot, among other brands.
• They announced yesterday that CEO Carlos Tavares has resigned due to differences with the board and in the face of disappointing sales and calls for his ouster.
• The departure comes following a steep drop in Stellantis’ sales, a glut of unsold vehicles on dealers’ lots, layoffs at several of its plants, and calls for his departure from the United Auto Workers union, which represents its US workers.
• If I may be frank, the fact that nearly every industry has consolidated into these massive conglomerates where just a few huge companies control a huge majority of the market is never a good thing for consumers.
• Let’s move on.
• Here in my home state, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers are returning to the state Capitol today to begin a special session to protect the state’s progressive policies ahead of another Dump presidency.
• Newsom is well known as a fierce critic of Dumples the Clown. He is positioning California to once again be the center of a resistance effort against the conservative agenda.
• He is asking his Democratic allies in the Legislature, who hold supermajorities in both chambers, to approve additional funding to the attorney general’s office to prepare for a robust legal fight against anticipated federal challenges.
• California sued the first Trump administration more than 120 times to various levels of success. “We’re not going to be caught flat-footed,” said Newsom.
• Dumpy often depicts California as representing all he sees wrong in America. I say that makes him a fool.
• Side note: Democrats hold every statewide office in California and have commanding margins in the Legislature and congressional delegation. We outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 2-to-1 statewide.
• Thank all the gods I’ve spent nearly my entire life here. Actually, thank my late parents, who moved us here in 1975.
• Let’s do… something entirely different.
• I’ve been doing one of my every-so-often deep dives into some weighty scientific information… things like quantum field theory and related topics.
• I always find it helpful to keep in mind that the little things we do in our short time of being alive are extraordinarily inconsequential in a universe that’s been chugging along for billions of years.
• A little perspective goes a long way.
• And no, I’m not going to explain quantum field theory here. The world’s most renowned experts find it difficult to explain to other very knowledgeable people.
• One of history’s most respected theoretical physicists, Richard Feynman, said in the 1960s that, “Anyone who claims to understand quantum theory is either lying or crazy.”
• That’s not to say that it’s not understood and accepted by most physicists; it’s showing how counterintuitive it is compared to more established big-picture physics ideologies like classic Newtonian physics or Einstein’s relativity.
• Anyway, that got me thinking about the stuff that makes up reality. And then that got me thinking about what I’m made of.
• Here’s a list of what chemical elements I, and you — a human, presumably — are made of. All measurements below are listed by mass.
• Oxygen: 65.0%. That’s right. You are 2/3 a colorless, odorless, flammable gas.
• Carbon: 18%. All life that we know of is carbon-based.
• Hydrogen: 10%. This makes sense, because you are mostly water, so that hydrogen and oxygen is the water that makes up most of you.
• So those three elements alone — some of the most common elements in the entire universe, I should add — make up 93% of you. What else?
• Nitrogen: 3%. 
• Calcium: 1.4%. Side note: it’s a metal. You’re made of metal.
• Phosphorus: 1.1% of your total body mass will burst into flame quite easily.
• Potassium, Sulfur, Sodium, Chlorine, Magnesium: all less than 1%.
• You also have tiny amounts of Iron, Fluorine, and Zinc inside you. These trace elements are essential to keeping your body functioning, even in small amounts.
• Where did all that shit come from? Originally from an exploding star, and refreshed via the things you eat.
• Basically you’re a ghost controlling a robot body made of stardust. Stop worrying so much.
• And now, The Weather: “Dragonslayer9999” by Jaeger
• From the Sports Desk… last night’s game with the Niners visiting the Bills was one for the ages. Not because it was a great game — the Bills won 35-10 — but because the entire game seemed to be held in a snow globe.
• Buffalo locals had to come to the stadium and get tons of snow off the field for the game to commence.
• The victory saw the Bills improve to 10-2 and become the second team this week to punch their ticket to the postseason, following the Kansas City Chiefs.
• And quarterback Josh Allen became the first quarterback in NFL history with a passing, rushing, and receiving touchdown in a single game. He’s currently the odds-on favorite for MVP.
• Today in history… The University of Leipzig opens (1409). Swedish parliament approves the Swedish Freedom of the Press Act and implements it as a ground law, thus being first in the world with freedom of speech (1766). In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas (1823). In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West (1845). Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16 raid on Harpers Ferry, WV (1859). Alabama ratifies the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed by North Carolina, then Georgia; U.S. slaves were legally free within two weeks (1865). Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile (1927). In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a $150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy (1930). New York City's LaGuardia Airport opens (1939). During the Manhattan Project, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (1942). In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba will adopt Communism (1961). The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations (1970). Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart (1982). NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope (1993). Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (2001). Cannabis is removed from the list of most dangerous drugs of the international drug control treaty by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (2020).
• December 2 is the birthday of lawyer/politician John Breckinridge (1760), painter Georges Seurat (1859), businessman Charles Edward Ringling (1863), singer Maria Callas (1923), general/politician Alexander Haig (1924), actress Julie Harris (1925), lawyer/politician Harry Reid (1939), fashion designer Gianni Versace (1946), politician Deb Haaland (1960), actress Lucy Liu (1968), bass player/songwriter Nate Mendel (1968), rapper Treach (1970), tennis player Monica Seles (1973), singer-songwriter Nelly Futado (1978), singer-songwriter Britney Spears (1981), NFL player Aaron Rodgers (1983), rapper/chef Action Bronson (1983), and bass player/composer Tal Wilkenfeld (1986).

I’m going to try and follow my own advice today, and not freak out about stuff that, in the big picture, is actually small and will be quickly forgotten. Anxiety is a bitch, but I’ve got some tools in my bag that minimize its effects. And no matter what you’re going through, it’s always up to you as to how you react and allow it to affect you. Keep it in mind. Enjoy your day.

Random News: December 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 December 1, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I’ve just crawled out of bed and am now — in a blue bathrobe and with a large cup of coffee — taking a look around to see what’s going on.

• Rabbit rabbit rabbit.
• We’re in the final month of 2024. But why is it called December?
• December's name derives from the Latin word decem (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the calendar of Romulus which began in March.
• There are plenty of holidays and celebrations that happen in this month around the world. If you’re a person of social conscience, it is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month in the USA.
• If you’re a person who buys into bullshit marketing, it’s also National Egg Nog Month, National Fruit Cake Month, and National Pear Month.
• I will say that pears are underrated. See how it works, though? I already made a mental note to buy some pears when I shop this week.
• I suppose we should do some news, even when it’s eye roll-inspiring stupid news.
• Dump has nominated Kashyap "Kash" Patel to be the next FBI director. As has been consistent with Dumpy’s other picks for cabinet members and government posts, he’s a horrible human being.
• Patel previously served as a U.S. National Security Council official, senior advisor to the acting Director of National Intelligence, and chief of staff to the acting United States secretary of defense during the first Dump administration.
• Like all of Dump’s picks, Patel has for years been a loyalist, doing whatever Dump wants regardless of legality.
• Their close bond would depart from the modern-day precedent of FBI directors looking to keep presidents at arm’s length.
• Here’s a quote that tells you all you need to know about this piece of shit.
• “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.”
• He’s the perfect guy to enact the anti-American agenda of retaliating against Dump’s perceived enemies, be they politicians, journalists, scientists, or just regular citizens like you and me who are critics of Dump and his policies.
• And paired with AG pick Pam Bondi, it’s a dream team for an authoritarian regime. And please, I don’t want to see anyone shocked by what transpires once they’re in office. I will get no joy from any “I told you so” posts down the road.
• Enough on that.
• One more note on a Dump appointment. This one is for real estate developer, pardoned felon, and family connection Charles Kushner as US ambassador to France.
• France reacted to the news with scorn, which is appropriate.
• Kushner, the father of Dump’s son-in-law Jared, was a big donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign.  He was pardoned by Dump after he was convicted on multiple counts of tax evasion, campaign finance violations and witness tampering, for which he spent time in jail. He was released in 2006. 
• He doesn’t even seem to speak French. I’m serious. that might tell you how much of a joke the “ambassador” appointment is.
• Is Kushner a nice guy? Well, at one point he hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife.
• These are the kinds of people Donnie Dump admires. No surprise.
• Okay, let’s move on from that shit.
• I’ve been reading up on the Dump administration’s plan to put an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. I’m actually trying to keep an open mind on this.
• But for now, it’s hard to separate rumor from reality. 
• Dump has appointed Keith Kellogg, his 80-year-old former national security advisor, as his special envoy to Ukraine, and has chosen a very specific, pre-announced plan.
• The plan In short: a ceasefire will freeze the frontlines and both sides will be forced to the negotiating table. But the longer details get complex.
• What is unknown, among many things, is whether Russia will keep the parts of Ukraine that they’ve taken by force. That would obviously be an unacceptable solution.
• For agreeing to a ceasefire and the establishment of a demilitarized zone, Russia would get limited sanctions relief, and full relief only when a peace deal is signed that is to Ukraine’s liking.
• A levy on Russian energy exports would pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Ukraine would not be asked to give up on reclaiming occupied territory, but it would agree to pursue it through diplomacy alone.
• This plan makes a lot of assumptions about what Putin is actually willing to accept. And a DMZ would need to be policed, possibly putting NATO troops, or soldiers from other non-aligned nations, in between the two sides.
• So all that is very difficult to enact successfully, but as I said, I’m trying to keep myself from naysaying the plan for now.
• And now, The Weather: “Autodog” by Bistro Plate
• From the Non-Sports Desk… shit got really ugly after a brawl between Michigan and Ohio State players broke out yesterday afternoon, moments after the unranked Wolverines stunned the No. 2 Buckeyes in Columbus, OH.
• Players from the Wolverines planted a Michigan flag at midfield and were accosted by Buckeyes players, who took issue with the gesture following their 13-10 loss. Players began shoving, swinging at, tackling and restraining one another.
• And that’s when the cops decided it was a good idea to start pepper-spraying everyone. Videos showed Michigan players crouching and squinting their eyes. Players from both teams were affected.
• Way to go, cops.
• From the actual Sports Desk… not many consequential games in the NFL today. Maybe see an eye on Philadelphia (9-2) at Baltimore (8-4), with both teams in contention for the playoffs.
• The Ravens are favored by less than a field goal at -2.5.
• Today in history… A council is convened in the Vatican, at which Charlemagne — my 39th great grandfather — is to judge the accusations against Pope Leo III (800). Diarist John Evelyn records skating on the frozen lake in St James's Park, London, watched by Charles II and Queen Catherine (1662). Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the 1824 presidential election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1824). In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation (1862). President Rutherford B. Hayes gets the first telephone installed in the White House (1878). Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom (1918). Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom (1919). The National Hockey League's first United States-based franchise, the Boston Bruins, plays their first game in league play at home (1924). The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery (1952). In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws (1955). World AIDS Day is proclaimed worldwide by the UN member states (1988). Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet beneath the seabed (1990). Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union (1991). The outbreak of coronavirus infection begins in Wuhan, China (2019).
• December 1 is the birthday of sculptor Marie Tussaud (1761), general/politician Zhu De (1886), general/politician Georgy Zhukov (1896), actress/singer Mary Martin (1913), nun/activist Mother Antonia (1926), actor David Doyle (1929), saxophonist Jimmy Lyons (1931), singer-songwriter Lou Rawls (1933), golfer Lee Trevino (1939),  comedian/actor/screenwriter Richard Pryor (1940), drummer/songwriter John Densmore (1944), singer-songwriter/actress Bette Midler (1945), drug lord/terrorist Pablo Escobar (1949), bassist/songwriter Jaco Pastorius (1951), actor Treat Williams (1951), singer-songwriter Julee Cruise (1956), model Carol Alt (1960), guitarist Brad Delson (1977), singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe (1985), NFL player DeSean Jackson (1986), actress Zoë Kravitz (1988), and NBA player Gary Payton II (1992).

Time to get out of this robe and into the shower. Enjoy your day.

Random News: November 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 November 30, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I’m in my robe and have a cup of Peet’s Brazil, and it’s delicious. Let’s see what’s going on around this crazy-ass world.

• Li’l Donnie Dump had dinner with an actual leader last night… Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• As you know, Dumpy has promised massive hikes in tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada starting on the first day of his administration, specifically calling for a 25% tariff on all products sent to the US.
• And now he’s looking for a way out without losing face.
• Dump is going to look like the world’s biggest idiot once prices skyrocket and people start losing jobs as a result. His own biggest supporters — well, at least some of them — won’t stand for being jobless and poverty-stricken.
• Trudeau is playing it perfectly.
• He said, “One of the things that is really important to understand is that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it. Our responsibility is to point out that in this way he would be actually not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States; he’d actually be raising prices for American citizens as well and hurting American industry and businesses.”
• Correct.
• The subtext, if you have trouble comprehending politicalese, is that Dumpy is not serious, has no intention of acting on this campaign promise, and wants to seem like he gets a win when there’s none to be had.
• Either way, if these tariffs go into effect as Dump has promised, you can count on severe hardships for you and your family starting very soon.
• Let’s move on.
• How are things going to Dump’s key cabinet picks? Not so great.
• Take, for example, Dumpy’s pick to be the secretary of defense, Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth.
• His own mother, Penelope Hegseth, accused her son of routinely mistreating women and displaying a lack of character.
• In an email that got published by the New York Times yesterday, Pete’s mom wrote, “You are an abuser of women – that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego.”
• She continued, “You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
• Apparently Mrs. Hegseth had written the email while angry about Pete’s acrimonious divorce from his second wife, Samantha, the mother of three of his children.
• Still, moms are pretty good judges of character. Something to keep in mind.
• Hegseth is already facing questions over payments he made to a woman who accused him of sexual assault — an encounter that he insists was consensual and she says was rape.
• What does this stuff matter in regard to him leading the entire US military? Well, a lot.
• “I’m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles,” Pete Hegseth said on a podcast this month. “It hasn’t made us more effective, hasn’t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”
• But that’s far different from how women who have filled such roles see their achievement.
• With thousands of women in combat units past and present, Hegseth’s “notions” — as one Army veteran recently labeled them — could affect many futures.
• Women are currently members of the country’s most elite forces. While acknowledging that conversations about military readiness are always important, decorated female veterans called Hegseth’s views on what women in uniform contribute outdated, uninformed, and inaccurate.
• And I agree.
• Moving on.
• Let’s head to the International Desk for a moment.
• Today, thousands of Syrian insurgents fanned out inside Aleppo in vehicles with improvised armor and pickups, deploying to landmarks such as the old citadel, a day after they entered Syria’s largest city facing little resistance from government troops.
• Two airstrikes on the city’s edge late yesterday targeted insurgent reinforcements and hit near residential areas. A war monitor said 20 fighters were killed.
• The surprise takeover is a huge embarrassment for Syrian President Bashar Assad, who managed to regain total control of the city in 2016, after expelling insurgents and thousands of civilians from its eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which his forces were backed by Russia, Iran, and its allied groups.
• If you’re wondering who are the good guys and who are the bad guys here… join the club. In some aspects, this feels like one terrorist group attacking another.
• And really, violence of this nature is never good and ends up mostly harming the people who happen to live in the area under attack.
• Let’s move on.
• I want to once again mention what will likely happen with Dumpy’s pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if he’s confirmed as the next secretary of Health and Human Services.
• But don’t listen to me. Listen to Scott Gottlieb, who led the Food and Drug Administration during the first Dump administration. Yesterday he issued a stark warning.
• “You’re going to see measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates go down,” he said. The nation is approaching a “tipping point,” Gottlieb said, where a continued decline in childhood vaccines could soon lead to measles outbreaks and deaths of children.
• “We’re going to start seeing epidemics of diseases that have long been vanquished, and, God forbid, we see polio reemerge in this country,” he said.
• Gottlieb said he had been warning senators against confirming Kennedy to run the federal health department. He added that Kennedy, who founded one of the country’s most prominent antivaccine groups, had people around him who could take immediate steps to affect Americans’ access to vaccines, such as changing federal vaccine recommendations.
• All I will say is this: while the government may lessen requirements to get vaccines, you — as a person and possibly as a parent — can make up your own mind.
• No one wants to see their children suffering from these very preventable diseases just because some fucking politician is a wackjob.
• Moving on.
• Here’s a concept for all the guys who call themselves “alpha males” while threatening and belittling women: it used to be that an actual man was one who protected the rights and dignity of women.
• But immediately after the election, there’s been a huge spike in misogynistic rhetoric,  including some extremely violent misogyny.
• The phrase “Your body, my choice” has been largely attributed to a social post from Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and far-right internet personality who dined at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
• Fuentes’ post had 35 million views on X within 24 hours.
• Misogynistic attacks have been part of the social media landscape for years. But disinformation said language glorifying violence against women or celebrating the possibility of their rights being stripped away has spiked sky-high since the election.
• Online declarations for women to “Get back in the kitchen” or to “Repeal the 19th,” a reference to the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote, have spread rapidly.
• The top 10 posts on X calling for repeal of the 19th Amendment received more than 4 million views collectively.
• Anonymous rape threats have been left on the TikTok videos of women denouncing the election results.
• And those are in the best-known public spaces on the web. In places like 4chan forums, the men are calling for “rape squads” and the adoption of policies in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a dystopian book and TV series depicting the dehumanization and brutalization of women.
• I’ll be offering some advice in future installments of Random News in terms of how to ensure your safety against such “men.”
• And now, The Weather: “Alien” by Gaspard Eden
• It’s been awhile, so let’s do a chart, going back 40 years from today.
• It’s late November 1984. I’m in my junior year of high school, and here’s the top of the Billboard 200 Albums chart. I remember this time well… pretty much fucking up in school, playing in a rock cover band, and smoking way too much weed.
• 1. Purple Rain (Soundtrack) (Prince And The Revolution). 2. Born In The U.S.A. (Bruce Springsteen). 3. Private Dancer (Tina Turner). 4. The Woman In Red (Soundtrack) (Stevie Wonder). 5. Volume One (The Honeydrippers). 6. Big Bam Boom (Daryl Hall John Oates). 7. Sports (Huey Lewis & The News). 8. Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie). 9. Suddenly (Billy Ocean). 10. She's So Unusual (Cyndi Lauper). 11. Tonight (David Bowie). 12. The Unforgettable Fire (U2). 13. Break Out (The Pointer Sisters). 14. Chicago 17 (Chicago). 15. 1100 Bel Air Place (Julio Iglesias). 16. I Feel For You (Chaka Khan). 17. Heartbeat City (The Cars). 18. Eddie & The Cruisers (Soundtrack) (John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band). 19. Emotion (Barbra Streisand). 20. Animalize (KISS).
• From the Sports Desk… who’s hot in the NBA?
• Eastern Conference: Cavaliers (17-3), Celtics (16-3), Magic (14-7), Knicks (11-8), Heat (9-8).
• Western Conference: Thunder (15-4), Rockets (14-6), Warriors (12-6), Grizzlies (13-7), Nuggets (10-7).
• Today in history… In Paris, representatives from the United States and Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (1782). The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial of Federalist Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase (1804). The Confederate Army of Tennessee suffers heavy losses in an attack on the Union Army of the Ohio in the Battle of Franklin (1864). The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England (1872). A German engineer patents front-wheel drive for automobiles (1900). The Soviet Red Army crosses the Finnish border in several places and bomb Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the Winter War (1939). The SS-Einsatzgruppen round up 11,000 Jews from the Riga Ghetto and kill them in the Rumbula massacre (1941). In Sylacauga, AL, the Hodges meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap (1954). Michael Jackson's sixth solo studio album, ‘Thriller’, is released worldwide, ultimately becoming the best-selling record album in history (1982). Exxon and Mobil sign a US$73.7 billion agreement to merge, thus creating ExxonMobil, the world's largest company (1999). In Seattle, WA, demonstrations against a World Trade Organization meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies (1999). NASA launches STS-97, the 101st Space Shuttle mission (2000). The AI chatbot ChatGPT is launched by OpenAI (2022).
• November 30 is the birthday of admiral Andrea Doria (1486), satirist Jonathan Swift (1667), novelist Mark Twain (1835), physician/activist Martha Ripley (1843), singer/guitarist Brownie McGhee (1915), actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (1918), police officer/activist Elliott Blackstone (1924), activist/politician Shirley Chisholm (1924), actor Richard Crenna (1926), actor Robert Guillaume (1927), TV host/producer Dick Clark (1929), lawyer/criminal G. Gordon Liddy (1930), NFL coach Bill Walsh (1931), actor/director Woody Allen (1935), activist Abbie Hoffman (1936), film director Ridley Scott (1937), bass player/songwriter Roger Glover (1945), playwright/director David Mamet (1947), actor Mandy Patinkin (1952), singer-songwriter Billy Idol (1955), singer-songwriter Stacey Q (1958), singer-songwriter Cherie Currie (1959), NFL/MLB player Bo Jackson (1962), actor Ben Stiller (1965), DJ/music producer Steve Aoki (1977), singer Clay Aiken (1978), and model Chrissy Teigen (1985).

Time to shower and get dressed and do things. Enjoy your day.