Random News: December 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 December 23, 2022, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Here’s are some things I’ve seen or thought on Christmas Eve Eve…

• Well, the Senate finally passed a $1.7 trillion government funding bill yesterday in a 68-29 vote, sending the package to the House for approval today.
• Nancy Pelosi got the voting started in the House last night. It should pass before the midnight deadline. They all want to get out of there before Christmas.
• The bill provides $858 billion for defense, $787 billion for non-defense domestic programs, and nearly $45 billion for military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
• Sounds good. Get it done, House.
• The House Select Committee on the January 6 failed coup attempt is now public. It’s 845 pages long. I’ll put a link in the comments.
• If you don’t want to read it, I’ll give you the TLDR version: Trump should be barred from ever holding office again and should be prosecuted for multiple crimes in regard to the insurrection.
• Now over to Jack Smith to do the prosecution work.
• In other House news, at least for the moment, it seems as if Kevin McCarthy does not have the requisite 218 votes to become Speaker of the House.
• I think he’ll get there eventually, but right now he’s got about 20 Republicans who’ve sworn not to support him. This could get fun.
• Basically every other news story is about it being cold.
• Our winters will be colder, our summers hotter, and our storms more severe every year for the rest of our lives. And this is being greatly accelerated due to mankind’s impact on the climate.
• We can slow it down, but we cannot stop it at this point. We could have 40, 50, 60 years ago. But nope. All we can do is try and minimize our impact for future generations.
• Anyway, it’s cold, and I hope you are doing okay in staying safe and warm under the circumstances.
• As long as I’m on the topic, though… airlines canceled more than 2,400 US flights by late yesterday and had proactively canceled more than 2,200 flights for today.
• Point being, if you were going anywhere, I hope you’re already there.
• And now, The Weather: “Atopos” by Björk
• Here’s something cool: yesterday, House Democrats voted to make Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) the top Democrat on the powerful Oversight and Reform Committee in the next Congress.
• The Oversight panel, with subpoena authority and a broad mandate to probe federal affairs, is among the most powerful panels in Congress. And with Republicans set to take control of the House next year, the position of ranking member will assume even greater importance. 
• Republicans have promised that the Oversight panel will be focused on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
• Shrug.
• As long as we’ve been talking about voting, the Senate passed a bill that guarantees workers reasonable break time to pump breast milk by a vote of 92-5. The five anti-women, anti-baby Senators are John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Rand Paul (R-KY).
• Average American life expectancy fell from 77 to 76.4 years last year, bringing U.S. figures back 25 years to where they were in 1996.
• Causes of death remained largely the same between 2020 and 2021, led by heart disease, cancer and COVID-19.
• What factors increase longevity in other wealthy countries that we don’t seem to prioritize in the USA?
• Quality education, affordable housing, access to healthy food, reduced income inequality and greater regulation of industries that pollute or provide potentially dangerous products such as cars or guns.
• Welp.
• In food news, rest in peace to Ali Ahmed Aslam, who died at age 77. This Pakistani-Scottish chef was credited (at least by himself) with inventing Chicken Tikka Masala.
• From the Sports Desk… it’s the time of year when the NFL becomes like a calculus equation. Making the playoffs for about a third of the teams is some factor of their winning and multiple other teams losing, and so on. After this weekend, the playoff picture should be a lot more clear, although frankly it will likely be another two weeks when the regular season ends that we really who who’s in and who’s out.
• Good luck to your team, unless their success impacts my team.
• Today in history… King James II of England flees to Paris after being deposed in favor of his son-in-law and nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary (1688). George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, MD (1783). The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published (1815). The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System (1913). Sex Disqualification Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom (1919). The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories (1947). First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray (1954). The North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York, NY is topped out at 1,368 feet, making it the tallest building in the world (1970). The Immaculate Reception is caught by Franco Harris to win the Pittsburgh Steelers their first ever playoff victory (1972). 
• December 23 is the birthday of painter/sculptor/architect Giovanni Battista Crespi (1573), businesswoman Madam C. J. Walker (1867), trumpeter/singer Chet Baker (1929), NFL player Paul Hornung (1935), computer scientist Bob Kahn (1938), singer-songwriter Jorma Kaukonen (1940), singer-songwriter Tim Hardin (1941), actor Harry Shearer (1943), guitarist Adrian Belew (1949), journalist William Kristol (1952), NFL player Jim Harbaugh (1963), singer-songwriter Eddie Vedder (1964), and actor Corey Haim (1971).

As you may note, I’m up at my usual early hour to bring you this news and then to get my ass to work, but frankly, I’m not expecting to get a lot done today. Ideally, I’ll spend more of the day listening to Handel’s Messiah, watching the 1970 Scrooge musical with Albert Finney, and just chilling. Now that I’ve said that, some emergency will come up and I’ll be working all day, but no matter. I’ll take it as it comes. Enjoy your day.