Random News: March 20, 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 20, 2023, and it’s a Monday. Let’s goooooooooooo…

• Happy first day of Spring 2023, fellow Northern Hemispherites.
• It’s the start of autumn in the lower half of the world.
• 87% of all humans live in the Northern Hemisphere, I should add, so there’s a major northern bias on this planet.
• Why is it even called “spring”?
• Because the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt relative to the Sun, and the length of daylight rapidly increases for the relevant hemisphere. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to "spring forth.”
• Scientifically, or at least astronomically, Spring begins at the moment of the vernal equinox, when the Sun is exactly above the Equator and day and night are of equal length. My personal equinox, here at 33° 50' N latitude, happened a couple of days ago. My sunset and sunrise were both at 7:01am.
• The actual equinox happens today at 2:24pm PDT/5:24pm EDT.
• Fun Fact: the Baháʼí calendar year starts at the sunset preceding the March equinox, calculated for Tehran.
• Neopagans observe the March equinox (referred to as Ostara) as a cardinal point on the Wheel of the Year.
• In Annapolis, MD, boatyard employees and sailboat owners celebrate the spring equinox with the "Burning of the Socks" festival.
• Let’s do some news…
• Ben Barnes, a former Texas Lt. Gov., is claiming he witnessed a plot to sabotage the reelection of President Jimmy Carter in 1980 by delaying the release of 52 U.S. hostages in Iran.
• Let’s be super clear about this.
• 52 American hostages were held in Iran for 444 days. They could have been released earlier.
• But high-ranking members of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 Republican presidential campaign took a secret diplomatic tour of the Middle East and told them to hang on to the Americans longer than they would have.
• Iran finally released them minutes after Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981, per the plan that Reagan had set up.
• Fucking disgusting. And this whole time, people blamed Jimmy Carter.
• Barnes, now 85, said, “History needs to know that this happened. I think it’s so significant and I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more."
• Better late than never, I guess.
• In other news…
• The City of Miami Beach, FL has issued a state of emergency and a midnight curfew following two fatal shooting incidents and “excessively large and unruly crowds” during spread break activities there.
• On Friday, violence broke out in the popular South Beach area amid both St. Patrick’s Day festivities and Spring Break celebrations, leaving one person dead and another injured. In addition, one person was fatally shot and another injured early Sunday morning.
• Moving on…
• I know people are trying to scare you with statements like, “Trump will definitely get reelected if you indict him!” or “There will be blood in the streets if he is arrested!” and all that mumbo jumbo.
• It’s all bullshit. Trump is scared as hell. He’s never in his life been held accountable for his actions like any other American would be.
• If he thought that getting indicted would increase his chances for reelection, he’d have made it happen long ago. If people were going to shed blood for that prick, there would have been a lot more than what happened on January 6.
• No one, and I repeat, NO ONE is above the law. 
• The FBI and local law enforcement entities have been monitoring any signs of large-scale organization of violent actions in regard to Trump’s pending arrest. Nothing of concern has been noted.
• There’s also a lot of extreme paranoia in their ranks, talking about how they’re being set up to be arrested and so on.
• The funny thing, despite Trump’s direct call for people to take to the street, is that even that is being downplayed by his minions.
• "I don't think people should protest this. I think President Trump, when you talk to him, he doesn't think that either.” - Kevin McCarthy, human jellyfish.
• The MAGA world is taking advantage of this in one way, though. Trump-loving conservatives want Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to defend Trump against the Manhattan district attorney's investigation. DeSantis, who's expected to run against Trump for president in 2024, hasn’t said a damn word about the whole thing.
• So now the Orange Man’s lovers are using this lack of a statement as a talking point to denigrate DeSantis.
• Heh heh.
• In my own local news, the Redondo Beach city council voted unanimously to fly a Pride flag this June.
• My city usually manages to do the right thing after creating unnecessary drama about the wrong thing for awhile.
• And now, The Weather: “Crushed Out” by Pynkie
• There was a 150-car pileup in terrible weather conditions on I-96 in Michigan on Saturday. That sounds awful. Amazingly, only 16 people were transported to area hospitals and none with serious injuries.
• Be safe out there.
• Were there more shooting last night? Of course there were. This is America. Gun violence is our claim to fame.
• A Michigan college baseball player. Two high school kids in Texas. Six in a nightclub in Ohio. Three in an Atlanta-area home. A guy in Connecticut. Two in Charlotte. 
• From the Sports Desk… I was a little concerned for Shaquille O’Neal. The formed NBA center posted a rather cryptic pic of himself in a hospital bed last night. Turns out it was just follow-up from a recent hip replacement. The big guy is fine.
• Back in the NCAA tournament, but on the ladies’ side, 8-seed Ole Miss stunned 1-seed Stanford 54-49 to advance to the Sweet 16. 5’8” senior guard Angel Baker had 13 points, while Stanford’s 6’4” junior forward had 13 rebounds.
• Today in history… The Dutch East India Company is established (1602). After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule (1815). Harriet Beecher Stowe's ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’ is published (1852). The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, WI (1854). Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity (1916). The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso's first United States showing, entitled ‘Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso’, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States (1923). With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC (1948). The first Provisional IRA car bombing in Belfast kills seven people and injures 148 others in Northern Ireland (1972). Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (1985). A Solar eclipse, equinox, and a supermoon all occur on the same day (2015).
• March 20 is the birthday of poet Ovid (43 BC), Thai king Rama I (1737), poet/playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828), athlete/umpire Amanda Clement (1888), psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904), actor Ozzie Nelson (1906), singer-songwriter/guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915), singer-songwriter Vera Lynn (1917), actor/director Carl Reiner (1922), TV host/producer Fred Rogers (1928), actor Hal Linden (1931), singer-songwriter/producer Lee "Scratch" Perry (1936), singer-songwriter/guitarist/actor Jerry Reed (1937), Canada prime minister Brian Mulroney (1939), NBA player/coach Pat Riley (1945), actor John de Lancie (1948), NHL player Bobby Orr (1948), actor William Hurt (1950), drummer Carl Palmer (1950), actor/director Spike Lee (1957), actress Holly Hunter (1958), model Kathy Ireland (1963), NBA player Mookie Blaylock (1967), singer-songwriter Alex Kapranos (1972), and singer-songwriter Chester Bennington (1976).

There’s always more news than I have time or energy to give you. There are always things that could make you a better and stronger person by simply being aware of what’s going on around you. Me? I’m going to do usual Monday things and be a productive member of society. Enjoy your day.