Random News: March 19, 2023

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.

---

Good morning. It’s March 19, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. The world is weird, so the more you know, the less surprised you’ll be…

• As I mentioned yesterday, the former president anticipates that he’ll be arrested on Tuesday March 21.
• He’s milking this. If anything, all that will happen will be the issuing of a criminal indictment and the requirement for him to surrender and be processed and arraigned — booked, fingerprinted, mug shots, and so on.
• No one is above the law.
• In New York City, they’re beefing up courthouse security due to the potential for demonstrations or rallies outside of the courthouse by Trump supporters or counter demonstrations by anti-Trump protesters, with the risk of the two groups clashing.
• However, the assumption that Trump will turn himself in as anyone would do under similar circumstances may be wrong as well.
• There’s are conflicting reports about his plans. A source close to the Trump family that, contrary to what his attorneys have said publicly, he does NOT plan on cooperating with law enforcement for his arrest, and he plans on barricading himself in Mar-a-Lago in a public standoff.
• Oh, please do that.
• The funny thing: this Tuesday date is something arbitrary he made up based on shit he’s read in the news. There’s been no indictment or any arrangements made as of yet.
• “No one tells us anything which is very frustrating. President Trump is basing his response on press reports.” - Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina
• As for Trump’s call for people to protest, his followers have been quite conflicted about what he means. Some are viewing it as an immediate call for openly hostile armed civil war.
• Others think it’s time for a peaceful protest, as is their right. Yet others think they’ll organize all Republicans in the USA for a general strike.
• I doubt any of those things will happen. I think there will be isolated flare-ups of MAGA crybaby actions.
• In other shitty person news, a retired Air Force officer who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was sentenced to two years in prison Friday. 
• 55-year-old Lance Brock, a resident of Galveston, TX, was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment for a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding. 
• These criminal investigations will never stop until each and every participant in the failed coup attempt is brought to justice. It might take decades, but justice will prevail.
• In other news…
• Wyoming has become the first state in the nation to outright ban abortion medication. The state  also enacted a near-total ban on abortion.
• Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill making it a felony to prescribe, sell, or use “any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.” Violators could face up to six months in prison and a $9,000 fine.
• If you are a woman in Wyoming, the state will force you to give birth regardless of the circumstances.
• The one thing that Republican lawmakers do NOT want is abortion on the ballot for the people to decide.
• In a recent letter to legislators, Oklahomans for Life Chair Tony Lauinger argued that if they don’t amend the state’s anti-abortion law to add exceptions for rape and incest, there is a real chance a citizen-led ballot initiative to make all abortion legal will eventually succeed.
• Think hard about that.
• How can they stop citizens from enacting ballot measures that people overwhelmingly want? Easily, it turns out.
• Legislatures in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma are debating bills this session that would hike the filing fees, raise the number of signatures required to get on the ballot, restrict who can collect signatures, mandate broader geographic distribution of signatures, and raise the vote threshold to pass an amendment from a majority to a supermajority.
• Moving on…
• As is typical in the USA on any given weekend, there were dozens of shootings in the past few days. A baseball player in Ohio. Four people near Temple University. Two minors in Indianapolis. Two spring breakers in Miami Beach. Some guy in Hampton, VA. Two in Columbus, OH. A motorcyclist in Albuquerque. Two people in San Antonio.
• A single day never goes by in the USA without some incident of fatal gun violence. You’ve been trained by the gun lobby to think of it as normal and to accept it.
• It’s not normal. Do not accept it.
• And now, The Weather: “Breast” by Matty
• Fertility rates are down worldwide.
• In 2020, the United States saw 43 states register their lowest fertility rates in at least three decades. And the U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2034, people 65 and older will outnumber those under the age of 18 for the first time in U.S. history.
• In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78.
• In January, China also recorded its first population decline in decades.
• Experts say a 2.1 rate is needed for a country to maintain a stable population without migration.
• The drop in fertility rates has left countries facing a future of aging populations and shrinking workforces. Fewer young adults working means slower economic growth, which will make it harder for governments to care for older people as they continue to make up a larger share of the population.
• Why are people having less kids? That’s easy.
• Housing and cost of living rates are so high that people can’t afford them. It’s also much more difficult for women to be in the workplace while also being the primary child caregiver. Also, people are having children later, and therefore have fewer of them.
• Also, a lot of men are assholes, so who wants to fuck them anyway?
• From the Sports Desk… for you NCAA fans, yet another huge upset. Kansas, the top seed in the West, fell to the Razorbacks 72-71. Kansas becomes the second No. 1 seed in this year's tournament to fall, following Purdue.
• That’s why they play the games. There’s now a possibility of a final four with no number-1 seeds left.
• The Sports Desk also notes that the World Baseball Classic is producing more than great international baseball games; it’s injuring MLB players.
• New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz suffered a torn patellar tendon while celebrating Puerto Rico's win over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, and is out for the season.
• And then yesterday, the Houston Astros lost All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve for an undetermined period of time after he suffered a right-hand injury during an at-bat.
• Today in history… The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it "useless and dangerous to the people of England” (1649). Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men (1687). First documented bank heist in U.S. history, when burglars stole $245,000 from the City Bank — now Citibank — on Wall Street (1831). The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines, and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000 (1863). The US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (1918). Governor Fred B. Balzar signs a bill legalizing gambling in Nevada (1931). Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed (1945). 
• March 19 is the birthday of lawman/gambler Wyatt Earp (1848), politician William Jennings Bryan (1860), politician Edith Nourse Rogers (1881), SCOTUS chief justice Earl Warren (1891), actress Ursula Andress (1936), actress Glenn Close (1947), producer/rapist Harvey Weinstein (1952), songwriter/guitarist Ricky Wilson (1953), actor Bruce Willis (1955), NFL coach Andy Reid (1958), police officer/murderer Derek Chauvin (1976), and NBA player Hedo Türkoğlu (1979).

I think I will take off this robe (woo woo!) and get into the shower, and then put on clothes, and then do various things that people do. Enjoy your day.