Random News: December 30, 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 30, 2022, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m sure there are things we can talk about, so let’s find out what they are together…

• A couple of notable people died yesterday.
• Brazilian soccer legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, died at age 82. Pelé was a global ambassador for soccer and nearly single-handedly responsible for the growth of its popularity in the United States in the ‘70s. He is still considered one of, if not the very best to have ever played.
• Iconic English fashion designer Vivienne Westwood died yesterday at age 81. She was the first to take styles from punk rock and new wave and bring them into the mainstream. 
• Rest in peace.
• I really wasn’t going to bother mentioning this moronic social media influencer and infamous misogynist Andrew Tate except for two things.
• Thing one: Greta Thunberg’s perfect response to Tate’s “huge emissions” taunt on Twitter (“yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com”) is now one of the ten most-liked Tweets in history.
• Thing two is much tastier. When Tate made a video to try and regain some of his manliness after Greta neutered him in front of hundreds of millions of people, the video was noticed by law enforcement in Romania. Why does that matter? Well…
• In the video to Greta, he had a pizza box from a Romanian chain restaurant. That’s how they knew where to find him. Tate and his brother have now been detained along with two Romanians, with prosecutors claiming they "appear to have created an organized crime group with the purpose of recruiting, housing and exploiting women".
• So literally, in a purposeless effort to be a dick to a 19-year-old woman, he’s now a global laughingstock and is facing international sex trafficking and rape charges. Small Dick Energy indeed!
• As long as we’re reveling in the world of schadenfreude, another horrible person I’ve avoided mentioning is named Chaya Raichik, but she’s better known as the far-right wing social media influencer “libsoftiktok”.
• She’d hidden her identity while spewing horrible rhetoric about the LGBTQIA community, specifically trans people that has resulted in violence including attacks on hospitals providing gender-affirming care.
• Raichik finally unveiled her face on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program this week… and was immediately identified as a participant in the January 6 failed coup attempt.
• You love to see it.
• The FPOTUS’s tax records have been released publicly. Honestly, as excited as you might think I’d be… I’m not. I always just assumed this guy used every cheat in the book to avoid paying his fair share. I didn’t need the paperwork to prove it.
• I’m just happy they finally got released after all these years. It should be a prerequisite for any candidate at a national level.
• And now, The Weather: “Hips” by Warpaint
• A Chinese fighter jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. Air Force aircraft that was conducting routine operations over the contested South China Sea last week.
• Some reports had the Chinese jet flying within ten feet of the US plane. The American plane had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision.
• The problem is that China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, where it has territorial disputes with Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and others.
• We consider it international air space. Therein lies the rub. Similar aggressive acts have happened in recent weeks between China and aircraft from Australia and Canada. The minute it results in the loss of a plane or a life, this will escalate very quickly.
• I know some of you folks in various states are having legal recreational cannabis stores opening, and might visit one for the first time right now. New York is one of them.
• You’re probably used to getting weed from some guy with dreads named TJ who you meet in a McDonald’s parking lot.
• There is no one type of weed dispensary, just like there’s not one kind of liquor store. Some of them are sorta sleazy and weird, and others are super trendy and upscale, like you’re buying a quarter ounce of indica inside of an Apple Store.
• From the Sports Desk… a very worthy shoutout to NBA star Luka Dončić, who did something amazing this week.
• The 23-year-old Slovenian Dallas Mavericks 6’7” point guard had a triple-double unlike anything the NBA has ever seen with 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists, including the tying basket off his intentionally missed free throw to force overtime.
• Holy shit. And he has a long career still ahead of him.
• Today in history… British soldiers burn Buffalo, NY in the War of 1812 (1813). The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed (1816). The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed (1825). The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest in the Gadsden Purchase (1853). The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - USSR - is formed (1922). Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed (2006).
• December 30 is the birthday of author Rudyard Kipling (1865), Japan prime minister Hideki Tōjō (1884), singer-songwriter Bo Diddley (1928), astrophysicist John N. Bahcall (1934), singer-songwriter Del Shannon (1934), actor Russ Tamblyn (1934), MLB player Sandy Koufax (1935), director James Burrows (1940), actor/singer-songwriter Michael Nesmith (1942), actor/singer-songwriter Davy Jones (1945), singer-songwriter Patti Smith (1946), singer-songwriter/producer Jeff Lynne (1947), journalist Matt Lauer (1957), actress/singer Tracey Ullman (1959), bag of dicks Sean Hannity (1961), secretary of state Mike Pompeo (1963), pimp Heidi Fleiss (1965), singer Jay Kay (1969), golfer Tiger Woods (1975), NBA player LeBron James (1984), and NFL player Carson Wentz (1992). 

Alrighty. It’s Friday, and for many of us in the USA and elsewhere, it’s a three-day weekend. I’m just going to do things and occasionally not do things, and basically be a person and appreciate just being here and alive and mostly well. I’ll talk about New Year’s stuff tomorrow, on the appropriate day as such. Enjoy your day.