Random News: December 9, 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 9, 2022, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Here’s some of this, that, and the other…

• Kyrsten Sinema, the bespectacled bisexual Senator from Arizona, has surprised no one by announcing that she’s left the Democratic party to be an independent.
• She joins the Senate’s two other Independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine.
• While Sanders and King formally caucus with Democrats, Sinema declined to explicitly say that she would do the same.
• However, that said she expects to keep her committee assignments, and since Chuck Schumer controls committee rosters for Democrats, it would seem that she will continue to vote as if she was a Democrat, which basically means that she’ll keep being the same untrustworthy piece of crap she’s been the whole time, and the Democrats retain their 51-49 advantage.
• A little reminder: she was in the Green Party before running as a Dem in 2012 for the House and then in 2016 for the Senate.
• Britney Griner is now back in the USA.
• She had been being held in the most dangerous women’s prison in Russia, and possibly in the world: IK-2 in the Mordovia region about 300 miles east of Moscow.
• It is a prison known for its brutality and torture, slave labor, filth, and rotting food.
• No person deserves that treatment, much less an American woman who was held there only as a pawn for Putin to use in his games.
• Moving on…
• The House has sent the Respect for Marriage Act to President Biden’s desk after all Democrats and 39 Republicans in the body voted to support the bill. It passed the House in passed in a 258-169-1 vote.
• This officially repeals the awful Defense of Marriage Act and requires states to recognize interracial and same-sex marriages lawfully performed in other states.
• I have a message to anyone who claims that a same sex marriage, or people of different races being married, impacts their religious freedom. That message is fuck you. Fuck all the way the fuck off.
• And now, The Weather: “Berlin” by Michael B Thomas
• Some potential good news regarding the domestic terrorist attack on the Moore County, NC electrical substation over last weekend.
• Deputies there have obtained multiple search warrants in connection to the attacks. The warrants are under seal due to sensitive info. I’ll bet.
• From the Sports Desk… my Raiders lost in a horrible game versus the Rams last night that saw a return of Baker Mayfield. I’m absolutely disgusted with them.
• For the first time in history, US currency will have the signatures of not just one woman but two: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and US Treasurer Lynn Malerba, who also represents the first Native American person to have signed our money.
• The DOJ is asking a federal judge to hold the FPOTUS in contempt of court for failing to comply with a subpoena issued this summer ordering him to turn over records marked classified.
• Ha ha.
• Today in history… British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British rule in Virginia (1775). The Texian Army captures San Antonio following the Siege of Béxar (1835). The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London (1868). In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first African American governor of a U.S. state following the impeachment of Henry C. Warmoth (1872). Student protests occur in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and are subsequently dispersed by government authorities (1935). China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth declare war on Germany and Japan (1941). Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union (1950). General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company (1953). The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom (1960). Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (1968). The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first of only two diseases that have been driven to extinction (1979). Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada (1996). 
• December 9 is the birthday of poet John Milton (1608), author Joel Chandler Harris (1845), fitness expert Joseph Pilates (1883), businessman Clarence Birdseye (1886), clown Emmett Kelly (1898), actress Margaret Hamilton (1902), author Dalton Trumbo (1905), admiral/computer scientist Grace Hopper (1906), actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1909), politician Tip O’Neill (1912), actor Kirk Douglas (1916), actor/comedian Redd Foxx (1922), actor Dick Van Patten (1928), actor/writer Buck Henry (1930), actress Judi Dench (1934), musician Junior Wells (1934), NFL player Deacon Jones (1938), NFL player Dick Butkus (1942), singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading (1950), actor Michael Dorn (1952), actor John Malkovich (1953), singer/actor Donny Osmond (1957), actress Felicity Huffman (1962), politician Kirsten Gillibrand (1966), singer-songwriter Jakob Dylan (1969), and singer-songwriter Imogen Heap (1977).

I guess that’s all. Today should be a normal Friday for me, which means far too much shit to do in not nearly enough time to do it. That’s okay. I have gotten so much better at handling stress over the course of my life. I got referred to yesterday in an introduction to another person as one of the most experienced and capable people in my job role in my entire industry, and at first I was like, “Ah jeez, that’s not true.” But then I kinda stepped back and thought about it, and decided I’ve done enough shit over 30 years in my job that I merit the accolades, as over-the-top as they sounded at first. Enjoy your day.