Random News: December 11, 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 December 11, 2022, and it’s a Sunday. I’ve got a cup of coffee, it’s drizzling, and the house is quiet, so let’s see what there is to see…

• In the “didn’t expect to see this ever get resolved” folder, a suspect is in custody for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988. The attack killed 270 people on the flight from London to New York.
• The US charged Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi for his role in the attack two years ago and now have him. That’s the long arm of the law at work.
• In the “petty asshole” folder, outgoing Arizona governor Doug Ducey has been building his own border wall for miles between the USA and Mexico out of used shipping containers. 
• Small problem: the US Bureau of Reclamation and the Cocopah tribal nation said that Ducey was violating federal law by placing the containers on federal and tribal land there.
• Former general counsel for the council on environmental quality within the executive office of the White House Dinah Bear says, “There’s just no question that this is federal property. There’s no legal difference between the land they’re putting the shipping containers on and Grand Canyon national park.”
• David Hathaway, sheriff of Santa Cruz county, says that if anyone tries to put the containers in his jurisdiction, they will be arrested for illegal dumping.
• Now incoming governor Katie Hobbs will be left to clean up Ducey’s mess in the desert. Typical.
• And now, The Weather: “Children of the Empire” by Weyes Blood
• If Congress can’t reach a deal on a massive government funding package, they will need to pass a short-term measure to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week. 
• Conservatives, of course, are trying to torpedo any deal.
• I may be about done with Twitter.
• The owner of that social network this morning publicly announced that, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci”.
• I’m not going to participate in a platform that’s turning into a QAnon conspiracy playground. My very presence (and yours, and anyone’s) on any of these platforms increases its value. 
• The Pacific Northwest and California — primary NorCal — have been getting pounded with heavy rain and snow. The big “atmospheric river” storm has now made its way down here to SoCal but with much more mild effects. It is raining pretty good right now, though.
• Lots of flooding, snow avalanches, and power outages up there though. Be safe, friends to the north.
• "I think he's less relevant all the time. Again, even if you capture all of the Trump voters, you may be able to win a primary but you're not necessarily going to win a general election. And in this business, you have to win an election before you can actually govern. So it's not like, you know, it's not like coming in second and getting a trophy like you did in junior high school, for participation.” - Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) speaking about the former president
• Today in history… King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention (1792). Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state (1816). Guglielmo Marconi transmits the first transatlantic radio signal from England to Saint John's, Newfoundland (1901). More than two years after it was stolen from the Louvre, Leonardo da Vinci's painting Mona Lisa is recovered in Florence, Italy (1913). The British Parliament establishes legislative equality between the UK and the Dominions of the Commonwealth—Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland (1931). Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the final time (1934). Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941). Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City (1964). The Lufthansa heist, the largest cash robbery ever committed on American soil at that time, is committed by a group led by Lucchese family associate Jimmy Burke (1978). Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme (2008). The Food and Drug Administration issues an Emergency Use Authorization on the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the agency (2020).
• December 11 is the birthday of founding father George Mason (1725), composer Hector Berlioz (1803), physicist Max Born (1882), politician Fiorello H. La Guardia (1882), farmer/businessman Walter Knott (1889), Nazi criminal Amon Göth (1908), singer-songwriter Big Mama Thornton (1926), actress/singer/dancer Rita Moreno (1931), pianist McCoy Tyner (1938), actress Donna Mills (1940), politician John Kerry (1943), singer Brenda Lee (1944), bass player Nikki Sixx (1958), actress/comedian Mo’Nique (1967), and rapper/actor Mos Def (1973).

I did what I set out to do yesterday, which was to get our pagan symbol of Yule- whoops, I mean our Christmas tree. We found a good one, nice and thick and exactly eight feet tall, just barely fitting in the living room. Some people having been saying their trees were more expensive this year but I paid the same as I have the past few years at the same place. Perhaps in more interesting news, maybe, I spent the rest of yesterday preparing my annual “best-of” new music list, and later today I’ll officially announce my “22 for 2022”, and maybe you can check it out since it was a giant pain in the ass to create. Enjoy your day.