Random News: November 23, 2022

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 23, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday that feels like a Friday. Here’s whatever is on my mind that is still publishable on a family-friendly web site…

• Can I wake up on one fucking day in the United States of America without a mass shooting?
• Apparently not.
• Last night, it was at a Walmart in Virginia, leaving six dead and others shot but alive.
• The shooter was a manager at the store. There’s no known motive. He killed himself after killing his staff.
• Stores, schools, churches, hospitals, nightclubs… there is nowhere safe in this country from gun violence.
• We’ve had plenty of opportunities to change that and then choose not to.
• And a little message to you gun nuts: someday it’s going to be you, or your wife, or your dad, or your child, or your best friend, and you will have to accept part of the responsibility for fetishizing these instruments of death.
• Anyway, RIP to the dead, I guess. Poor-ass people just trying to earn a living at Walmart. Dead now for no reason at all.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied the request of the former president to shield his tax returns from Congress, who had requested them for investigations starting years ago.
• There were no dissenting opinions given. They did not state a reason for their denial.
• It’s likely that the Treasury Department will immediately hand over six years of tax records from Trump and some of his companies to the House Ways and Means Committee.
• They’re gonna have to hurry; the new GOP-led House which starts in January will immediately withdraw the request to better allow Trump to continue his criminal ways unfettered.
• Godspeed, you defenders of democracy.
• Why doesn’t FPOTUS want his tax records released? I mean, they’re just taxes. Every president has made their public until that guy.
• It’s likely he’s been lying about how rich he is, by a LOT.
• It’s likely that despite that, he hasn’t been paying his fair share of taxes.
• He got a $73 million refund in 2010 and may not have been truthful about its reasons.
• He very well may have loans with foreign countries or individuals that may have compromised his decisions as president.
• He’s repeatedly claimed that he makes large donations to charity, while the tax records might show that’s a giant load of shit.
• Yesterday was a very bad day for FPOTUS yesterday on another front as well.
• Trump’s lawyers in his criminal document case argued before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
• That conservative court includes Chief Judge Bill Pryor (George W. Bush appointee), Judge Britt Grant (Trump appointee), and Judge Andrew Brasher (another Trump appointee).
• That court annihilated Trump’s lawyers’ arguments and said that Judge Cannon “abused authority”, and may apparently end her Special Master ruling.
• We expect a ruling from the 11th circuit within a week. Then Jack Smith will get down to business in prosecuting that and the January 6 incitement crimes.
• Oh, almost forgot: Kanye West says he was at Mar-a-Lago yesterday and asked Trump to be his running mate in 2024. PLEASE let that happen.
• In other news…
• There are mounting concerns about an upcoming rail strike. Earlier this week, the largest rail union announced they have rejected the tentative agreement reached in September.
• The good news: it if happens, it shouldn’t impact Christmas much. Most of the products for the season are already at retailers and distribution centers.
• The super bad news: a prolonged rail strike could cause product shortages and price spikes early in 2023 as nearly one-third of all freight in the United States moves by rail.
• Speaking of things that move…
• Do you know who the founders and chief inventors behind Tesla are?
• American engineers Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard founded the company in 2003. That’s it.
• The guy who you mistakenly think had something to do with establishing the brand and its technologies was merely an investor who bought his way into being the largest shareholder, then made himself the CEO.
• I was glad to see that when Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez identified the victims of the Club Q shooting massacre, he not only used the names by which they identified themselves, but also gave their preferred pronouns.
• Kelly Loving; Pronouns are “she/her;” Daniel Aston; Pronouns are “he/him;” Derrick Rump; Pronouns are “he/him;” Ashley Paugh; Pronouns are “she/her;” Raymond Green Vance; Pronouns are “he/him."
• If you can’t respect the wishes of people who struggled and fought their entire lives just to have the world see them as they are, I don’t know what to feel about you. Pity, I guess.
• And now, The Weather: “Resolutions” by Una Rose
• So yeah, most of us Americans eat the same thing tomorrow. My menu is ultra traditional.
• Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, bread rolls, and pumpkin pie and pecan pie for dessert.
• I cook everything except a) Kat is in charge of the mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, and b) although I do know how to bake them, I buy the pies because ain’t no one got time for all that.
• I know a lot of people in various areas of the country and from various cultures add or substitute things like mac and cheese, collard greens, peach cobbler, and more. I’m good with any of that.
• However, as I mentioned on the Bird Site, Thanksgiving is NOT a time to experiment. Experiment with your meals and recipes on a random day in March. Not at the most important feast of the year.
• Today in history… Thespis of Icaria becomes the first recorded actor to portray a character on stage (534 BC). John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship (1644). King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to succeed him (1890). Edwin Hubble's discovery, that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another island galaxy far outside our own Milky Way, is first published in The New York Times (1924). The BBC broadcasts ‘An Unearthly Child’, the first episode of the first story from the first series of ‘Doctor Who’, which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama (1963). Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17, giving the CIA the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua (1981). Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury announces in a statement that he is HIV-positive and dies the following day (1991). The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada (1992). 
• November 23 is the birthday of Holy Roman emperor Otto I (912), US president Franklin Pierce (1804), actor Boris Karloff (1887), comedian/musician Harpo Marx (1888), composer Johnny Mandel (1925), musician R. L. Burnside (1926), activist/politician Bobby Rush (1946), politician Chuck Schumer (1950), reality TV personality Snooki (1987), and singer Miley Cyrus (1992).

Well, today will be kinda weird. It is a work day, but at some point around lunch, everyone with whom I work will be traveling or cooking or prepping their homes for the holiday. I already know that there will be some type of last-minute emergency that will hit because that’s how life is, but I’m not worried about it. Oh, and my fucked-up back is a tiny bit better today, so I am grateful for that, even though it is still unmistakably fucked up. I guess that’s it. Enjoy your day.