Random News: April 30, 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.

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Good morning. It’s April 30, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. I’ve awakened and made coffee; so far, so good. Let’s see what’s happened…

• Last night was the White House correspondents’ dinner. President Biden had some good jokes and well-timed delivery. 
• I don’t think any president will be as good as Obama was at this. But I’ll give Biden some points on a few zingers.
• “In a lot of ways, this dinner sums up my first two years in office: I’ll talk for 10 minutes, take zero questions and cheerfully walk away."
• "I believe in the First Amendment and not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it."
• "Elon Musk tweeted that NPR should be defunded. Well, the best way to make NPR go away is for Elon Musk to buy it."
• "MSNBC is owned by NBCUniversal. Fox News is owned by Dominion Voting Systems."
• And finally…
• "I want everybody to have fun tonight, but please be safe. If you find yourself disoriented or confused, either you're drunk or Marjorie Taylor Greene."
• ZING!
• Alright, let’s do some shitty news.
• A man from Riverside County, CA was convicted of killing three teenagers because they ding-dong-ditched his home.
• Anurag Chandra was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder.
• No words.
• In other news…
• California continues to lead the nation in climate action. New big rigs and buses that run on diesel will not be sold in California starting in 2036, per new rules approved by state regulators.
• The new rule, which still approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, tackles pollution from heavy trucks used to transport goods through ports and requires companies to disclose their use of these so-called drayage trucks by 2024.
• If the EPA approves California's rule, other states could later adopt the same standards.
• CA regulators previously voted to require that all new cars, pickup trucks and SUVs be electric or hydrogen by 2035. They also banned the sale of new products run by small gas-powered engines, including leaf blowers, lawn mowers and portable generators.
• I like my state. A lot.
• As we head into the next election systole, the one thing that Republicans don’t want you thinking about is women’s reproductive rights.
• They know that the grand majority of Americans are very opposed to government control of women’s choice.
• A recent survey by the Pew Research Center recently found that Americans, by a margin of two to one (!), believe medication abortion should be legal, for example.
• Unfortunately for the GOP candidates at all levels, after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the forced-birth faction of that party are pushing more and more for a total abortion ban nationwide, and they want their candidates to commit to that.
• "As Republicans, we need to read the room on this issue because the vast majority of folks are not in the extremes. We’re going to lose huge if we continue down this path of extremities." - Nancy Mace (R-SC)
• Correct.
• And now, The Weather: “If I’m Right” by Snowy
• In weather news, the Mississippi River was cresting in Iowa yesterday as melting snow from Minnesota and Wisconsin continues to push up river levels.
• The weather service said Saturday’s levels came close to 1993 and 2001 records, between 23.9 and 25.4 feet.
• Do you get the feeling that this Supreme Court is slow-walking cases? If so, you’re not wrong.
• 100 years ago in 1923, the Supreme Court had issued 157 rulings by May 1. A century later, the current justices have disposed of just 15 cases by the same date.
• The court has decided fewer cases at this point of the term — which begins each October and ends in June — than at any time in the last 100 years.
• Why? Well, the SCOTUS faces a firestorm of scrutiny on multiple fronts. But also they’ve sidetracked from their daily work by a series of high-profile cases that have arrived at the court on an emergency basis.
• However, it also means that there again will be a flurry of blockbuster decisions in June, much like last year’s last-minute overturn of Roe v. Wade.
• The Democrats retain a razor-thin margin of majority in the Senate, but if we’re not careful, that will flip in 2024, which would be disastrous on many levels. Here are the top ten states that might flip — mostly to the GOP, unless we kick ass at getting people to vote…
• 1) West Virginia — Incumbent: Democrat Joe Manchin. 2) Montana — Incumbent: Democrat Jon Tester. 3) Ohio — Incumbent: Democrat Sherrod Brown. 4) Arizona — Incumbent: Independent Kyrsten Sinema. 5) Nevada — Incumbent: Democrat Jacky Rosen. 6) Wisconsin — Incumbent: Democrat Tammy Baldwin. 7) Michigan — Incumbent: Democrat Debbie Stabenow (retiring). 8 ) Pennsylvania — Incumbent: Democrat Bob Casey. 9) Texas — Incumbent: Republican Ted Cruz. 10) Florida — Incumbent: Republican Rick Scott.
• We will address this in tangible ways eventually. It’s too early for me to be going into election mode and continue that for a fucking year and a half.
• I did have a show yesterday in Second Life, benefitting the Feed-a-Smile charity. It was great and successful in its goal. I’ll write more about that elsewhere.
• From the Sports Desk… I’m sure some of you are looking breathlessly at “NFL Draft Grade” articles. Let me tell you something: there is nothing more ridiculous than this in life.
• If you want to grade a draft, it’s simple: grade the one from 2020, because there’s actual evidence on whether the draft picks panned out, about three years later.
• However, if you like the absurdity of pundits deciding how well your team chose based on nothing at all…
• The top-graded drafts: Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Seattle Seahawks.
• The worst-graded drafts: Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Miami Dolphins, San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, and Washington Commanders.
• Meaningless.
• Today in history… Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots (1598). On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first President of the United States (1789). The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation (1803). The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana (1812). J. J. Thomson announces his discovery of the electron as a subatomic particle, over 1,800 times smaller than a proton, at a lecture at the Royal Institution in London (1897). Automaker Dodge Brothers, Inc is sold to Dillon, Read & Co. for US$146 million plus $50 million for charity (1925). NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address (1939). Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours (1945). In Nevada, Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam (1947). U.S. President Richard Nixon announces that White House Counsel John Dean has been fired and that other top aides, most notably H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, have resigned (1973). CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free (1993). U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers committing war crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison (2004). Chrysler files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (2009). 
• April 30 is the birthday of physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777), dentist Mary Haviland Stilwell Kuesel (1866), memoirist Alice B. Toklas (1877), actress Cloris Leachman (1926), author Larry Niven (1938), actress Jill Clayburgh (1944), singer-songwriter/activist Mimi Fariña (1945), guitarist/singer-songwriter Wayne Kramer (1948), NBA player Luis Scola (1980), actress Gal Gadot (1985), and singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco (1990).

Okay then. It’s still pretty early here and the sky is deeply overcast, foreshadowing our typical May Gray weather that precedes June Gloom here at the beach. And yes, I like it. Enjoy your day.

Lavender Field/Feed-a-Smile (04.29.23)

Rocking Lavender Field for Feed-a-Smile. Photo by Kat.

Well, hello there. How ya' been? I've missed you too.

I was supposed to have performed at Lavender Field for the Feed-a-Smile charity back in February... which turned to to be literally the week I finally got COVID and was in no shape to sing for a good long while. My friend Brique Zeiner (aka Brique Topaz in SL), who runs the charity in Second Life, actually hit me up to play last weekend, but I was still getting my voice back from the NAMM Show and again was in no condition to do a vocal performance. But I told her to give me a week, which she did, and I was super happy on Saturday to finally get back on that stage once again.

What Is Feed-a-Smile?

It's probably my favorite charitable organization, though obviously any charitable use of your music is appreciated by those impacted. The thing I like most about Feed-a-Smile is that a) I know the funds are going in a straight line to the recipients in need, and b) I selfishly get to see the direct results of my efforts. Today's show, which featured myself as well as Rock Doghouse/Taiko Silversmith and Twostep Spiritweaver/Beth Odets performing earlier, raised 424 meals for the kids in Nukura, Kenya. The charity is the Second Life arm of Live & Learn in Kenya, a a registered non-profit charity NGO based in Germany. I try and do 1-2 shows each year for this cause, and it's always fun.

LLK battles the desolation, hunger and thirst, poverty, illiteracy, AIDS, child prostitution, and other tragic realities that affect children living within the Ronda/Barut slums. Anything I can do to make just a few of their lives better in any way, even for a short while, is a deposit in my own personal karma bank. I've never once regretted doing a show for them.

A pic sent to me after one of my earlier Feed-a-Smile shows all the way back in 2011. Amazing.

My Homegirl Brique

While LLK is based in Selb, Germany, one of its principals is Brique Zeiner, a woman who coincidentally grew up in the area that I've made my home for most of my life: Redondo Beach, CA. As I mentioned during my show, Brique's SL name of Topaz comes from a street name in my city. Note for no reason at all: the streets in the southern part of Redondo Beach are all named after gemstones or the names of Latina women. So you have Agate, Beryl, Diamond, Emerald, Ruby and so on, and then Irena, Juanita, Guadalupe, Lucia, Paulina, and so on as cross streets. In North Redondo, for some reason, streets are named after wealthy industrialists...  Huntington, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Pullman, Vanderbilt and the like. Ew.

Brique Zeiner, an angel in human form.

What Else is Up?

Oh, you know. Just the usual things. I got through the NAMM Show, my annual huge work event, a couple of weeks ago. It was fine. I've been very consistently writing my daily "Zak's Random News" aggregation of current events in bullet point form, and people claim to like it and benefit from it.

Little story in that regard. I write those bullets in one continuous word processing document, making it easy to keep a word count. I started it almost a year ago, on May 17, 2022. It's just passed 343,000 words, which is crazy. Granted, a lot of it is simply info that I grab elsewhere and then edit and arrange it to my own style. It's not like writing a novel of actual original creative work. But at 343,000 words, it's longer than any Harry Potter book. Longer than A Game of Thrones. Way longer than Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, or East of Eden. Shit, it's coming up on Don Quixote and David Copperfield.

I write way too much. You have no idea.

Hey, How About That Show?

Oh, right. Yes. So, I've been performing really sporadically as of late, something I'm starting to rectify with a couple of show this month (and another coming next Tuesday). What that means is that I really need to make sure my voice and hands are well warmed up and I'm fully prepared to do a show. Singing and playing an instrument are physical activities, and if you don't stay practiced, your skills do diminish. Trust me on this.

That just meant I made sure to take some time this past week with a guitar in my hands, running through some tunes and rebuilding my vocal strength and hardening my finger calluses on my fretting hand. By the time I hit the stage on Saturday, I felt fine and ready to rock. The set was a mosh-mosh of tunes that would hold some familiarity and appeal across a range of folks; at a fundraiser, the goal is never to chase people off with weird tunes that don't inspire generosity toward the cause.

Me, rocking some tunes and feeding some smiles. Photo by Kat.

Not a huge crowd but a generous one, and everyone seemed to have fun. Photo by Kat.

And apparently a big fan of They Stole My Crayon was present as well. Photo by Kat.

I did, as usual, pick a number of songs that were thematically appropriate to the purpose of the day. It seemed to work; between my generous crowd and those of the other artists performing before me, we definitely raised an acceptably great number of donations. I am really glad I did that show, and know there will be many more Feed-a-Smile shows in my future.

Lavender Field/Feed-A-Smile set list...

I Am A Child (Neil Young)

Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne)

California (Joni Mitchell) 

Crosses (José González)

Northern Sky (Nick Drake)

Among the Leaves (Sun Kil Moon)

Airport Bar (Martin Courtney)

Hunger Strike (Temple of the Dog)

Thank U (Alanis Morissette)

Loading Zones (Kurt Vile)

Bag of Nothing (They Stole My Crayon)

What I Got (Sublime)

Any Major Dude (Steely Dan)

*Feed-a-Smile Theme (Zak Claxton)

*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL

Thanks to everyone who was present for my show at Lavender Field for Feed-a-Smile! I have no way of knowing who donated and how much, but you're all heroes to me (especially Brique Topaz!). Here are some of you that were there...

Maali Beck, Beth Thane, hynesyte Harbour, Trouble Streeter, Larry The Panda, AutumnFoxx Melchior, Magnus Melchior, Beth Odets, A. Clavdivs Caesar Avgvstvs, Kat Claxton, Rock Doghouse, Katie Canucci, and anyone I missed. You're awesome!

Random News: April 29, 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.

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Good morning. It’s April 29, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. I’m wearing a robe of blue; let’s see what’s up, my nieces and nephews…

• Bad news incoming. There were three huge blows to democracy yesterday in North Carolina.
• The state Supreme Court’s new Republican majority reversed two rulings by the previous, Democratic-leaning court that upheld fair elections.
• They threw out rulings that had rejected gerrymandered election district maps. They reinstated a voter ID law that’s discriminatory against Black voters. They also reversed a lower court ruling that restored the right to vote for those convicted of felonies once they leave prison or jail.
• This doesn’t just impact North Carolinians. The ruling that effectively sanctions extreme partisan gerrymandering may well add to the Republicans’ thin majority in the U.S. House. It affects us all. It’s very bad news for the whole USA.
• What do we do? Keep fighting, like always.
• Moving on… let’s talk about something positive.
• I’m excited. I have a show today at 2PM PST in the online virtual world of Second Life where I’ve done live acoustic music performances since 2006.
• Today’s show is for a great charitable organization. It’s Feed-a-Smile, benefitting Live & Learn in Kenya. I’ve done many shows for them over many years. Always a good time, and always feel good about using my music for a tangible helpful purpose.
• After my first show for Feed-a-Smile in 2011, I described it as my proudest moment as a musician. I’ve done tons of charity benefit shows for everything from fighting cancer and kidney disease to funs for animal shelters and private fundraisers for people in need, but there’s something special about having an immediate and direct impact on the lives of kids.
• Anyway, if you’re a Second Life person, come by today at 2PM SLT and let’s enjoy it together.
• Back to the news…
• A jury in California has convicted a woman of lying to authorities about a couple attempting to kidnap her children at a Bay Area Michaels craft store in 2020.
• Turns out it was all bullshit. Kathleen Sorensen, 31, could serve up to six months in jail after the jury returned a guilty verdict on one count of false report of a crime.
• She made a viral video about it and went on the news.
• The couple she identified, Sadie Martinez and her husband, are Latina. Sorensen is White. “I couldn’t believe it. It’s like we’re literally guilty of being brown while shopping.” said Martinez.
• Welp.
• The Minnesota Senate passed a bill to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use. The bill passed 34-33 along party lines late yesterday afternoon. This bill allows people to have up to five pounds of cannabis in their home.
• Jesus, Minnesota. That’s a lot of weed, you betcha.
• Moving on…
• Yesterday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed four major gun measures designed to make it harder to obtain firearms.
• The legislation expands Colorado's existing "red flag" law to allow educators, health care professionals, and district attorneys request the seizure of a person's firearms under an extreme risk protection order. The other measures raise the minimum age to buy firearms from 18 to 21, impose a three-day waiting period on the purchase of guns, and make it easier to sue gun and ammunition manufacturers.
• Hell yes, Colorado! Well done!
• If that had happened in Texas, a family might still be alive this morning.
• A child is among five dead after a mass shooting in San Jacinto County overnight. The gunman, believed to the victims’ next-door neighbor Francisco Oropeza, has not yet been caught.
• San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said deputies were called to a house around 11pm due to a harassment complaint. While en route, 911 calls began coming in about an active shooter at the location.
• Oropeza, 38, had been drinking and shooting his rifle in his yard. A neighbor asked if he could stop because they had a baby that was trying to sleep inside. Instead, he killed four members of the family. The victims are between eight and 40-years-old.
• This is what the NRA and Republican party wants, and they fight to keep it that way every day. Making it easy for everyone to get more and more guns — and more powerful guns with higher ammo capacity and firing rates — so any drunk fucker can kill his next door neighbors.
• When you vote for those people, it’s what you want too.
• Moving on…
• The US army has grounded aviation units for training after 12 soldiers died in helicopter crashes in Alaska and Kentucky in the last month.
• Training for active-duty units is to take place between 1 and 5 May. National guard and reserve units will have until 31 May to complete theirs.
• Probably a good idea.
• Here’s a headline…
• “Biden v Trump: US is unenthused by likely rematch of two old white men”
• Really? Shocking. I’m sure everyone wants old white men to lead them.
• Say other old white men.
• And now, The Weather: “Familiar Face” by Lutalo
• From the Sports Desk… congrats to my 7th seed Los Angeles Lakers, who beat the 2nd seed Memphis Grizzlies 4-2 in the first round of the NBA playoffs last night. LET’S GO LAKERS (clap clap, clap clap clap)!
• Next week in the second round, they will face either the Warriors or Kings after their game 7 matchup on Sunday.
• The rest of the NBA playoff winners: Heat over the Bucks (4-1), Celtics over the Hawks (4-2), 76ers over the Nets (4-0), Knicks over the Cavs (4-1), Nuggets over the T’Wolves (4-1), and Suns over the Clippers (4-1).
• Today in history… Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orléans (1429). James Cook arrives in Australia at Botany Bay, which he names (1770). Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union (1861). The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the People's Budget, the first budget in British history with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the British public (1910). SOE agent Nancy Wake, a leading figure in the French Resistance and the Gestapo's most wanted person, parachutes back into France to be a liaison between London and the local maquis group (1944). Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker (1945). The controversial musical ‘Hair’ opens at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway (1968). United States President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings relating to the Watergate scandal (1974). Riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers charged with excessive force in the beating of Rodney King, and over the next three days 63 people are killed and hundreds of buildings are destroyed (1992). 
• April 29 is the birthday of physician/polymath John Arbuthnot (1667), mathematician/physicist Henri Poincaré (1854), publisher William Randolph Hearst (1863), immunologist Michael Heidelberger (1888), pianist/composer Duke Ellington (1899), harmonica player Toots Thielemans (1922), singer-songwriter Lonnie Donegan (1931), singer-songwriter Willie Nelson (1933), singer-songwriter/guitarist Otis Rush (1935), felon Bernie Madoff (1938), politician Debbie Stabenow (1950), race car driver Dale Earnhardt (1951), actor Leslie Jordan (1955, actress Kate Mulgrew (1955), actor Daniel Day-Lewis (1957), actress Michelle Pfeiffer (1958), tennis player Andre Agassi (1970), and actress Uma Thurman (1970).

Okay, so… definitely come to my show today if you’re an SL person. If you’re not… um… don’t? Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 28, 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.

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Good morning. It’s April 28, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! We shall once again walk together down the treacherous trail of information and discover what might be pertinent…

• Since it’s Friday, let’s open with some terrific news.
• Yesterday in Nebraska and South Carolina, which both have Republican-controlled legislatures, measures that would have severely restricted abortion failed.
• In Nebraska, a “Heartbeat Act” would have banned most abortions after six weeks except in cases of rape or incest or to preserve the life of the mother. The bill failed by a vote of 32-15, with two senators abstaining, leaving the measure one vote shy of the two-thirds majority needed for full consideration.
• In South Carolina, state Senate failed to pass the “Human Life Protection Act,” which would have banned abortions in the state, in a 22-21 vote with five women voting against it – including three Republicans.
• Why are these bills failing? Because they are political suicide. By a large margin and crossing political affiliations, the public does not prefer government control over women’s bodies. End of story.
• In other news…
• The myth that we’re so divided on topics like gun control is being disproven all the time.
• A Fox News poll this week says that 87% of Americans are in favor of background checks on gun purchases. 81% say the legal age to buy guns should be 21. 80% say there should be mental health checks for gun buyers. 77% approve of a 30-day waiting period.
• Yes, Fox News posted this poll of registered voters. We can do this.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence testified yesterday for over five hours to a federal grand jury investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election and the actions Donald Trump.
• This is for the investigation led by special prosecutor Jack Smith.
• It’s the first time in modern history a vice president has been compelled to testify about the president he served beside.
• A spokesman for Smith’s office and a spokesman for Pence both declined to comment.
• Moving on… for now…
• Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked a measure that would have allowed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to be added to the Constitution.
• The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters.
• Senators voted 51 to 47 to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed, falling short of the 60 votes it it needed. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) were the lone Republicans to vote with every Democrat.
• The ERA passed Congress in 1972, having been first proposed in 1923. Constitutional amendments, under U.S. law, must be ratified by three-quarters of all state legislatures, meaning 38 states.
• Here’s the weird part: in 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA, but it did so after the 1982 deadline to ratify the amendment had passed.
• So the current Senate resolution would have removed the deadline so that the ERA could become the 28th Amendment. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Murkowski were the resolution’s lead co-sponsors.
• Get your shit together and pass the fucking ERA, you pricks. Lord.
• I am giggling about the now-official adoption of the “Dark Brandon” persona to the Biden campaign. For example, when you hit the site’s “404” page, the message shows his sinister, glowing-eyed alter ego with the words, “You’re lost, Jack. Let’s get you back on the rails.”
• If you’re not familiar with “Dark Brandon”, I”m not going to explain it all now. Short version: MAGA people were screaming “FUCK JOE BIDEN” at a sporting event which a sports reporter mistook for “Let’s go Brandon,” referring to her interview subject.
• The MAGAs picked up on “Let’s go Brandon” as a way to swear without saying the word “fuck” because that’s what immature kids do. But then, surprisingly, the left reclaimed the name and used it in meme culture to build a mythos of a tough old man with laser eyes who does not accept your malarky. 
• So, the Biden campaign is now selling $32 t-shirts and “Dark Roast” coffee mugs emblazoned with the menacing Brandon persona.
• As I said, it’s difficult to describe. But it’s funny and I’m here for it.
• Let’s get more serious for a sec.
• Yesterday, Republican legislators in Kansas enacted what may be the most sweeping transgender bathroom law in the U.S., overriding the Democratic governor’s veto of the measure without having a clear idea of how their new law will be enforced.
• The new law will take effect July 1. Kansas joins at least eight other states who have enacted laws preventing transgender people from using the restrooms associated with their gender identities, but most of them apply to schools. The Kansas law applies also to locker rooms, prisons, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers.
• Let me tell you something right now. Transmasc men often look very, very manly. Thick beards, short hair, broad shoulders, deep voices. Kansas law now says those burly men will be LEGALLY REQUIRED to use the bathrooms with your wives and daughters, you fucking idiots.
• You. Fucking. Idiots.
• You.
• Fucking.
• Idiots.
• In related news, the son of Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT), met their father in his office to lobby him to reject several bills that would harm transgender people in the state.
• David Gianforte identifies as non-binary and uses he/they pronouns. They felt an obligation to use their relationship with their father to stand up for LGBTQ+ people in the state.
• ”I would like to make the argument that these bills are immoral, unjust, and frankly a violation of human rights.”
• Well said.
• On Tuesday, the Montana state legislature voted to ban Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Democratic lawmaker, from the statehouse floor for telling lawmakers they would have “blood on their hands” from passing these anti-trans laws.
• During questioning in the continuing civil trial of Donald Trump for rape and defamation, Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina repeatedly grilled E. Jean Carroll about why she did not scream during the approximately 3-minute attack in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, and why she didn’t make a police report.
• “I’m not a screamer,” Carroll testified. “I was too much in panic to scream.”
• Facts: it is very common for women to not scream during sexual assault, purely out of shock and fear. Also, most victims of rape and sexual assault do not report their attacks to the police. According to RAINN, only 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported.
• And now, The Weather: “Eastern Ave” by Flasher
• Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman whose false accusation of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 caused his torture and lynching, died yesterday. She was 88 years old. 
• She’d accused the teen of grabbing her while she worked alone in her family store in Money, Mississippi.  
• All of Emmett Till’s killers were acquitted — they later admitted killing him but had no repercussions — and Bryant Donham never faced any punishment either.
• The only positivity to come from the horror of Emmett Till’s brutal murder was its profound impact and influence on civil rights. In Montgomery a few months after the murder, Rosa Parks attended a rally for Till, led by Martin Luther King Jr., and soon after famously refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus to a white passenger.
• So fuck you, Carolyn Bryant Donham. I hope hell is hot.
• Something more positive…
• Dillon Reeves, a seventh grader in Warren, MI, is being praised as a hero for preventing his school bus from crashing after his bus driver lost consciousness.
• The driver passed out due to a medical emergency and her bus started to veer into oncoming traffic. Reeves, who was seated about five rows back, “jumped up from his seat, threw his backpack down, ran to the front of the bus, grabbed the steering wheel and brought the bus to a stop in the middle of the road”.
• That kid took control of the steering wheel, brought the bus to a stop, and then instructed the other kids to call 9-1-1.
• Some more good news…
• Fort Lee, an Army base in Virginia named for a Confederate general in the Civil War, was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams yesterday in honor of two Black Army pioneers.
• Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg ose to the rank of three-star general during his more than three decades in the military. He was the first Black lieutenant general in the Army.
• Lt. Col. Charity Adams served as the first Black officer in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp and led the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion as it served in the European Theater during World War II.
• Good. Fuck Robert E. Lee, that traitorous piece of shit.
• From the Sports Desk… last night was Round One of the NFL draft. You can find out who your team drafted in like a million places, so I won’t post all 32 picks here.
• My Las Vegas Raiders drafted a defensive end named Tyree Wilson from Texas Tech. He’s a 6-foot-6, 275-pound, quarterback destroying monster. Maybe he’ll be good. No one ever knows if draft picks will actually pan out.
• The second round of the draft resumes tonight.
• In other sports news: if you’re a sports journalist, try not to do what longtime ESPN baseball reporter Marly Rivera did recently. She was in a squabble with another reporter about an Aaron Judge interview and on camera, loudly called her a “fucking cunt”.
• The other reporter happens to be married to MLB’s vice president of communications.
• ESPN’s comment on Rivera: “She no longer works here.”
• I’ll bet.
• Today in history… Temür, grandson of Kublai, is elected Khagan of the Mongols (1294). Maryland becomes the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution (1788). France invades the Austrian Netherlands — present day Belgium and Luxembourg — beginning the French Revolutionary Wars (1792). Chinese and Irish laborers for the Central Pacific Railroad working on the First transcontinental railroad lay ten miles of track in one day, a feat which has never been matched (1869). Wembley Stadium is opened, named initially as the Empire Stadium (1923). Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot dead by Walter Audisio, a member of the Italian resistance movement (1945). Igor Stravinsky conducted the premiere of his American ballet ‘Orpheus’ at the New York City Center (1948). Boxer Muhammad Ali refuses his induction into the United States Army and is subsequently stripped of his championship and license (1967). ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ by Pink Floyd goes to number one on the US Billboard chart, beginning a record-breaking 741-week chart run (1973). High levels of radiation resulting from the Chernobyl disaster are detected at a nuclear power plant in Sweden, leading Soviet authorities to publicly announce the accident (1986). CBS News released evidence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse (2004).
• April 28 is the birthday of English king Edward IV (1442), US president James Monroe (1758), actor Lionel Barrymore (1878), astronomer Jan Oort (1900), businessman Oskar Schindler (1908), businessman Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916), singer Blossom Dearie (1924), novelist Harper Lee (1926), astronomer Eugene Merle Shoemaker (1928), Iraq president Saddam Hussein (1937), actress Ann-Margret (1941), author Terry Pratchett (1948), actor Bruno Kirby (1949), comedian/TV host Jay Leno (1950), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Chuck Leavell (1952), singer-songwriter/musician Kim Gordon (1953), golfer John Daly (1966), NHL player Nicklas Lidström (1970), actress Penélope Cruz (1974), actress Jessica Alba (1981), and NFL player Blake Bortles (1992).

I’m sure glad it’s Friday. It’s going to be busy work-wise, but that’s okay. I’ve cranked out some good shit this week and I’d like to wrap it up by getting all the things done that will allow me to not think about work over the weekend. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 27, 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.

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Good morning. It’s April 27, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. Here are various things I’ve seen that may or may not impact your life right now, but you never know…

• I’ll start with a little breaking news: RIP to Jerry Springer. The one-time mayor of Cincinnati and king of trashy tabloid TV has passed away at age 79.
• Moving on…
• Mickey Mouse is about to bite Ron DeSantis in the ass. 
• Yesterday, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his hand-picked oversight board, accusing him weaponizing his political power to punish the company for exercising its free speech rights.
• It says DeSantis’ retaliation “now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”
• In a move that’s sure to be popular with Floridians, Martin Garcia, chairman of the DeSantis-picked Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board of supervisors, said the board would seek to raise taxes to pay for its legal fees in evaluating and combatting their fight against Disney.
• “Because that’s going to cost us money, we’re going to have to raise taxes to pay for that,” Garcia said.
• Whoo boy.
• In other news…
• The House voted yesterday to pass Kevin McCarthy’s silly bill raising the nation’s debt ceiling, after days of wrangling Republican lawmakers to unify behind the package.
• The final vote was 217-215, with four Republicans – Ken Buck of Colorado, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Matt Gaetz of Florida – voting against the bill. McCarthy could only lose four votes and prevail on the vote.
• Why is it silly? Because the Senate — even Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — has already called the bill “dead on arrival” as soon as it reaches the upper chamber who would have to sign-off. All of McCarthy’s alleged work on this has been for nothing but political posturing.
• Moving on…
• The co-founder of a fundraising group linked to Steve Bannon that promised to help Donald Trump construct a wall along the southern U.S. border was sentenced to four years and three months in prison yesterday for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors.
• Brian Kolfage, a decorated Air Force veteran, previously pleaded guilty for his role in siphoning donations from the We Build the Wall campaign. A co-defendant, financier Andrew Badolato, was also sentenced to three years for aiding the effort.
• Kolfage and Badolato were also ordered to pay $25 million in restitution to the victims.
• Why isn’t Bannon being sentenced? He was initially arrested aboard a luxury yacht and faced federal fraud charges along with the other men, but Trump pardoned him during his final hours in office.
• Remember that when you vote in 2024.
• However, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought new state charges against Bannon last year. He is awaiting trial on that. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses.
• Elsewhere…
• The Montana House voted yesterday to censure the state's first openly transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr, who called for her colleagues to vote against a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth.
• The House voted 68-32 to censure Zephyr, who is barred from participating from the House floor. Zephyr said that she would continue to stand behind her beliefs after the censure.
• Assholes.
• Speaking of which…
• “I'm here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn't happen. He shattered my reputation.” - author E. Jean Carroll, testifying yesterday at the trial stemming from her defamation and battery lawsuit against Donald Trump.
• “He immediately shut the door and shoved me against the wall,” Carroll said. She then said in the next few moments, Trump pulled down her tights and penetrated her with his hand and genitals.
• Wednesday's hearing began with a reprimand from the judge after Trump called the civil case a "made-up scam" on his social media site.
• In other Trump crime news (there’s always a lot), he lost an emergency attempt to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying about their direct conversations.
• That Orange guy is going to go through some stuff for the rest of his life.
• Here’s a weird one…
• Rapper Pras Michél from the Fugees was found guilty in federal court in Washington yesterday of 10 criminal counts related to an international conspiracy reaching the highest levels of the US government.
• Um, what?
• It was over a failed conspiracy to help Malaysian businessman Jho Low and the Chinese government gain access to US officials, including former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Michel was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the US, witness tampering and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
• Lordy.
• Independent Senator and previous presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has endorsed President Biden’s re-election, closing the door on mounting a third consecutive insurgent White House bid in 2024.
• “The last thing this country needs is a Donald Trump or some other right-wing demagogue who is going to try to undermine American democracy or take away a woman’s right to choose, or not address the crisis of gun violence, or racism, sexism or homophobia. So, I’m in to do what I can to make sure that the president is re-elected.”
• Preach Bernie!
• I can tell you with certainty now: based on the current state of things, there will be no legitimate Democrat who will pose any challenge to Biden for the 2024 election. I’m fine with that.
• Is Biden too old for four more years? Yeah, probably. But he seems physically and mentally sound for a man his age, and I think he’ll continue doing a great job as he has been. I’m in. Let’s go Joe.
• Five Republicans have already launched campaigns for the 2024 nomination: former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, and Donnie T. There will be more soon enough. The GOP primaries will be a shit show, though Trump has already said he won’t be participating.
• Moving on…
• A new bipartisan federal bill unveiled yesterday would establish a national minimum age for social media use and require tech companies to get parents’ consent before creating accounts for teens.
• Under the bill, known as the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, social media platforms would be barred from letting kids below the age of 13 create accounts or interact with other users, though children would still be permitted to view content without logging into an account.
• I am normally against government interference in matters that could and probably should be handled by families, but having seen the devastating results of young kids being exposed to social media far too early, I am not against this measure.
• Some momentary good news…
• Yesterday, a Missouri judge temporarily blocked a first-of-its-kind rule restricting access to gender-affirming health care for transgender kids and adults, just hours before it was set to take effect.
• Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo ruled against Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey's emergency rule on transgender health care, putting it on hold until at least Monday.
• Transgender Missourians and health care providers sued to stop it from taking effect as scheduled Thursday. They argued that Bailey sidestepped the GOP-led Legislature and acted beyond his authority in attempting to regulate gender-affirming health care under the state's consumer-protection laws.
• The rule would "essentially outlaw, on less than two weeks' notice, virtually all medically-necessary treatment for gender dysphoria in Missouri, treatment that is supported by every major medical association in the United States," attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in court filings.
• And now, The Weather: “Back to the Start” by Mazey Haze
• Speaking of weather, it’s been pretty gnarly in various places. Texas was getting pounded with baseball-sized hail that fucked up a bunch of things. The Gulf Coast and Florida are getting hammered with severe storms and flooding.
• Global climate change will continue to increase the severity and frequency of deadly weather events. Plan ahead.
• And please stay safe out there.
• At a fancy state dinner at the White House last night, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol grabbed a microphone and sang a verse of “American Pie” in front of President Biden and an oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
• That was not expected. I think more people should just start spontaneously start jamming songs at various moments. That would make life more fun for everyone.
• “I had no damn idea you could sing.” - President Joe Biden
• From the Sports Desk… today is the start of the NFL draft. Here is the whole first round in order as it stands now: 1) Carolina Panthers (from Chicago), 2) Houston Texans, 3) Arizona Cardinals, 4) Indianapolis Colts, 5) Seattle Seahawks (from Denver), 6) Detroit Lions (from L.A. Rams), 7) Las Vegas Raiders, 8) Atlanta Falcons, 9) Chicago Bears (from Carolina), 10) Philadelphia Eagles (from New Orleans), 11) Tennessee Titans, 12) Houston Texans (from Cleveland), 13) Green Bay Packers (from N.Y. Jets), 14) New England Patriots, 15) New York Jets (from Green Bay), 16) Washington Commanders, 17) Pittsburgh Steelers, 18) Detroit Lions, 19) Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 20) Seattle Seahawks, 21) Los Angeles Chargers, 22) Baltimore Ravens, 23) Minnesota Vikings, 24) Jacksonville Jaguars, 25) New York Giants, 26) Dallas Cowboys, 27) Buffalo Bills, 28) Cincinnati Bengals, 29) New Orleans Saints (from San Francisco through Miami and Denver), 30) Philadelphia Eagles, and 31) Kansas City Chiefs.
• Quarterback Bryce Young of Alabama is expected to be the first pick. Pre-draft controversy: he’s only 5’10”, which is pretty normal fora. typical human being and rather tiny for an NFL QB.
• In other sports news, the Kicks beat the Cavs 4-1 in the NBA playoffs and will be moving to the next round. In the NHL playoffs, no team has yet to finish their first round series.
• Today in history… Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapulapu (1521). John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers' Register (1667). American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus (1861). The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor (1936). Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier (1945). John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, AZ, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes (1978). Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse (1981). The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 (1989). The first democratic general election in South Africa in which black citizens could vote (1994). Airbus A380 aircraft has its maiden test flight (2005). Two hundred five tornadoes touched down in the Southeast USA, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more (2011).
• April 27 is the birthday of Mughal empress Mumtaz Mahal (1593), feminist philosopher/writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759), inventor Samuel Morse (1791), US president Ulysses S. Grant (1822), MLB player Rogers Hornsby (1896), poet Cecil Day-Lewis (1904), actor Jack Klugman (1922), activist Coretta Scott King (1927), radio host/voice actor Casey Kasem (1932), drummer Jim Keltner (1942), singer-songwriter/guitarist Pete Ham (1947), singer-songwriter Kate Pierson (1948), guitarist Ace Frehley (1951), NBA player George Gervin (1952), politician Cory Booker (1969), singer Lizzo (1988). 

Well, I have only mundane plans for the day, and that’s fine. I always have plenty to do, and don’t mind — to a point — being busy. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 26, 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.

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Good morning. It’s April 26, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. Things of varying levels of importance to different people happen all the time, and the more you know, the better equipped you are to handle shit, so…

• As mentioned previously here on Ye Olde Random News Bullets, the state of Washington has managed to ban the sales of assault-style weapons.
• Governor Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1240 into law yesterday. It prohibits the manufacture, importation, distribution and sale of assault-style weapons in Washington, with an exception for sales made to armed forces and law enforcement.
• The bill passed the state House last week in a 56 to 42 vote, after the state Senate passed it days earlier in a 28 to 21 vote – both votes fell largely along party lines.
• Washington is the tenth state to band sales of these types of weapons. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York are the others. Washington, D.C., also has similar restrictions in place.
• If they can do it, the rest of us can too.
• Moving on…
• The case for seditious conspiracy against former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants went to the jury yesterday.
• Lawyers for the Proud Boys argued that their attempt to obstruct the electoral count by force is not their fault at all.
• Instead, their closing statement said that it was entirely Donald Trump’s fault because he “authorized” the Proud Boys to commit crimes that day.
• Be that as it may, adult people are required to take responsibility for their own actions, and no amount of pointing at the Orange Man will prevent their prison sentences from being levied.
• Keep that in mind for future reference, shitbags: the “Trump made me do it” defense does not work.
• Speaking on the failed coup attempt on January 6, 2021…
• According to a recording made by for Fox News producer Abby Grossberg, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) advocated the creation of an electoral commission to asses unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
• Nothing new about that, right? But the tape features a previously private conversation between Cruz, Grossberg and Maria Bartiromo, and shows the scope of Cruz’s scheming to assist Donald Trump in illegally overturning Biden’s victory.
• Cruz says in the recorded conversation that he successfully organized 11 senators to object to the legal electoral certification. 
• “Is there any chance you can overturn this?” Bartiromo asked Cruz.
• “I hope so,” he responded.
• Asshole.
• Moving on…
• Seven protestors were arrested yesterday at the Montana state house for disrupting proceedings with demands that Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Democrat silenced by lawmakers for comments against bans on gender-affirming care, be allowed to speak.
• They canceled proceedings as a result. The cancellation is the latest development in a standoff over whether Montana Republicans will let the lawmaker from Missoula speak unless she apologizes for her remarks last week on a gender-affirming care ban proposal.
• Assholes.
• I was hoping to see a craft land on the Moon yesterday morning, but was disappointed… though assuredly not nearly as much as the private firm who made the attempt.
• The lander, built by Japanese firm Ispace, launched atop a SpaceX rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on December 11. The spacecraft then made a three-month trek to enter orbit around the moon.
• But flight controllers on the ground were not immediately able to regain contact, prompting the company to presume the spacecraft was lost.
• In history, only three countries have ever executed a controlled landing on the moon — the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. The US remains the only country to have put humans on the moon.
• Leaving Earth to go literally anywhere is really hard.
• Donald John Trump’s rape trial began yesterday with jury selection and opening statements. 
• The federal civil case heard writer E. Jean Carroll’s allegation of being attacked by Trump in a luxury department store dressing room. The former president says nothing happened between them.
• As a reminder to everyone, this trial is in civil court, meaning that no matter the outcome, Trump isn’t in danger of going to jail. He isn’t required to be in court, either, and his lawyers have indicated he most likely won’t testify.
• “She’s not my type,” said Trump.
• Jurors are also expected to hear from two other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Trump. Jessica Leeds says that Trump tried to put his hand up her skirt on a 1979 flight on which the two were assigned neighboring seats. Natasha Stoynoff says that Trump pinned her against a wall and forcibly kissed her at his Florida mansion when she went there in 2005 to interview Trump and his then-pregnant wife Melania Trump.
• Asshole.
• A 100-year-old tobacco company based in London pleaded guilty to selling and manufacturing products in North Korea in violation of U.S. sanctions and bank secrecy laws. 
• British American Tobacco (BAT) admitted to evading bans against doing business with the People's Republic of North Korea, who has been sanctioned for producing weapons of mass destruction. BAT also caused U.S. banks to unwittingly process their hundreds of millions in profits. 
• BAT and the federal government entered into a deferred prosecution agreement — the charges will ultimately be dropped if BAT continues to abide by the law — but the company will still be slapped with $635,241,338 in penalties.
• Assholes.
• A guy in California has been practicing as a doctor and treated thousands of patients for several years, even for serious medical conditions like cancer.
• One problem: 43-year-old Stephan Gevorkian is not a doctor. His wannabe practice, Pathways Medical in North Hollywood, now has five felony counts of practicing medicine without a certification.
• When an undercover investigator went for a consultation, Gevorkian failed to address abnormal levels of a hormone that could indicate a serious medical condition. Gevorkian's preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 24.
• Something random to consider: Joe Biden and Mick Jagger are almost exactly the same age.
• And now, The Weather: “Undone” by Public Interest
• In amazing news, a high school student in Louisiana has received more than $9,000,000 in scholarship offers.
• Dennis Barnes has been offered aid from 125 colleges and universities, after maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 4.98, among other academic accomplishments. Holy shit!
• My high school GPA? A very unimpressive 2.8. I still made it into state universities and have had a happy life, so blow me, overachievers.
• From the Sports Desk… probably the most shocking series of the NBA playoffs is the 8th seed Miami Heat being up 3-1 over the 1st seed Milwaukee Bucks. But also interesting is the series between 2nd seed Boston Celtics who can’t shut down the scrappy Atlanta Hawks… the Celtics lead that series 3-2 as they head back to ATL. Another unexpected direction is the LA Lakers (7) being ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies (2) 3-1 in that series.
• Several first round matchups are already done; the 76ers, Nuggets, and Suns are moving on the the second round.
• In other sports news, tomorrow is the NFL draft.
• Today in history… The Virginia Company colonists make landfall at Cape Henry (1607). Sybil Ludington, aged 16, rode 40 miles to alert American colonial forces to the approach of the British regular forces (1777). Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist (1803). Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia (1865). Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games (1920). The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring (1933). Guernica, Spain, is bombed by German Luftwaffe (1937). The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, VA (1954). NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon (1962). The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force (1970). The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1986). The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module (1993). South Africa begins its first multiracial election, which is won by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (1994). American comedian Bill Cosby is convicted of sexual assault (2018). Marvel Studios' blockbuster film, Avengers: Endgame, is released, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time (2019). 
• April 26 is the birthday of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121), French queen Marie de' Medici (1575), French queen Maria Amalia (1782), ornithologist John James Audubon (1785), politician Charles Goodyear (1804), physicist Owen Willans Richardson (1879), singer-songwriter Ma Rainey (1886), philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889), seismologist Charles Francis Richter (1900), architect I. M. Pei (1917), actress Carol Burnett (1933), music producer Giorgio Moroder (1940), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Gary Wright (1943), drummer Roger Taylor (1960), martial artist/actor Jet Li (1963), first lady Melania Trump (1970), singer-songwriter Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins (1970), drummer Joey Jordison (1975), actor Channing Tatum (1980), and MLB player Aaron Judge (1992).

Well, that’s all the news I have time for at the moment. My oft-repeated note: there’s never enough time to tell you everything you might need to know. And really, there’s never enough time to say all the things you’d like to say to anyone about anything, or to do all the things you’d like to do. The point is to say and do as much as you can in the time that you have, and to have a good-ass time while doing it. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 25, 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.

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Good morning. It’s April 25, 2023, and it’s a Tuesday. Lots and lots of things going on; let’s explore them together…

• About two minutes after I posted my news bullets yesterday morning, something magical happened.
• Tucker Carlson, the heir to the Swanson frozen foods fortune and a terrible human being in every measurable aspect, was fired from Fox News.
• How do we know he was fired, as opposed to having resigned?
• His show on Friday signed off by telling his viewers they’d see him Monday. In other words, he’d not planned on leaving over the weekend.
• A few minutes after the announcement on Carlson’s firing, CNN announced that Don Lemon had been fired from CNN. Many MAGA folks were feeling like this was some balancing event to compensate for Tucker’s firing in the universe of mainstream news media.
• Nope!
• Don Lemon put his foot in his mouth not long ago when he was talking about presidential candidate Nikki Haley, age 51.
• “She says people, politicians are not in their prime. Nikki Haley is not in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.”
• Yikes! I’m happy to see him go, frankly, for a whole bunch of reasons.
• Anyway, back to Tucky.
• News sources are saying that Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch personally ordered Tucker Carlson’s firing over a discrimination lawsuit filed by Abby Grossberg, a former producer on his show. Her suit alleges lawyers for Fox News “coached” and “intimidated” her into giving misleading testimony in the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems.
• Murdoch also didn’t like Tucker’s conspiracy theory that undercover government agents were involved in the January 6 insurrection. Like much of Tucker’s “news”, this has no factual basis nor evidence.
• But mostly Murdoch’s decision was about the money that personalities like Tucker are causing to rapidly drain from Fox’s coffers.
• Here’s how it went down: yesterday morning, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott called Carlson and informed him he was being taken off the air, and his Fox News email account was shut off.
• Carlson was stunned. He was in the midst of negotiating the renewal of his Fox News contract through 2029, and as of last week, Carlson had told people he expected the contract to be renewed.
• Delicious.
• Anyway, some good news for Tucker: he lost his job while the U.S. currently has its lowest rate of unemployment in more than five decades, so he should be just fine.
• In other news…
• Yesterday, President Biden and Vice President Harris met with the "Tennessee Three," Democratic Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, in the Oval Office.
• Those are the people who TN Republicans tried to throw out of office for supporting gun control measures. Biden called the Tennessee Republican legislature's move to expel them “shocking” and “undemocratic”.
• President Biden announced his reelection bid today. Why now?
• A formal reelection announcement means the president is now allowed to raise money directly for his campaign. Biden will spend campaign funds on salaries and logistics building out a 2024 staff and holding events outside his official presidential business.
• Makes sense.
• Will I support Biden for president in 2024? Absolutely yes. Is he my all-time favorite person? No, but we’re not in middle school. Under the circumstances handed to him as president, he’s done a remarkably good job.
• He has my vote.
• Also, despite all the doom and gloom, I find it very likely Biden will beat presumptive opponent Trump in the general election rather easily, or at least with a larger margin of victory than in 2020.
• Moving on…
• It was announced yesterday that Fulton County, GA district attorney Fani Willis will announce potential indictments of Trump or others between July 11 and September 1.
• In case you need a program to keep track of all the Orange Menace’s crimes, this is in regard to crimes related to interference in Georgia’s 2020 election.
• “What we have here is a conspiracy to acquire and improperly distribute (unauthorized) data. There is probably a crime of interfering with the rights of the people of Georgia to have a free and fair election. And this is a series of crimes, a pattern of criminal activity, then it could possibly violate the Georgia RICO statute.” - Former prosecutor Michael Zeldin
• Fani Willis has been investigating the breach of voting systems in Coffee County, GA, coordinated by members of Trump’s legal team including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. 
• Yikes. Sucks to be them!
• Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota has signed into law a near-total ban on abortion, becoming the latest Republican governor to adopt stringent antiabortion measures after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
• While I never paid much value to “red states” or “blue states”, the dividing line of states where women have bodily autonomy versus being forced to give birth is very tangible to me.
• I would never send a child to college in one of those states. I would never plan a business event or a vacation there. I would never do anything that was going to help those states in their war against women.
• Moving on…
• Myles Cosgrove, the cop who was fired by the police department in Louisville, KY after he shot and killed Breonna Taylor in March 2020, has now been hired by a small county sheriff’s office in the same state.
• Ms. Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer said she was disgusted to learn that Mr. Cosgrove would again be working as a police officer. “When are these cops going to stop protecting bad cops? The people in that county have now got a killer with a badge they’ve got to deal with.”
• Yup.
• Some good news from the SCOTUS.
• Yesterday the Supreme Court allowed lawsuits brought by municipalities seeking to hold energy companies accountable for climate change to move forward in a loss for business interests.
• Oil companies are mad. The court turned away their appeals in five cases involving claims brought by cities and municipalities in Colorado, Maryland, California, Hawaii and Rhode Island as part of efforts to hold businesses accountable for the effects of climate change.
• Get their asses.
• Recreational marijuana is likely going to be legalized and regulated in Minnesota very soon.
• The state’s Democrat-controlled House is expected to pass it today after green-lighting similar legislation in 2021. The Senate, where Democrats hold only a one-seat majority, is scheduled to vote Friday on its own version.
• Across the country, Black and Hispanic Americans have been disproportionately burdened by state convictions for marijuana-related offenses.
• I don’t know why I’m mentioning the train wreck that is Twitter, but the insanely incompetent rollout of their premium Twitter Blue service (that sells checkmark “verification” with membership) has been a laughingstock.
• First Elmo stated that no one who didn’t pay $8/month would get a verification badge as of April 20, 2023.
• At first almost all of the blue checks disappeared. But then magically on Saturday, they were back. It seems that Elon decided that anyone with over 1M followers would keep the badge for free.
• Still, the information on the account states that the people have paid and have verified their phone number, which was universally denied by the people whose checkmarks were handed back without explanation.
• But that led to another embarrassment for Elmo, which was that they were claiming they’d received payment and verification from celebrities who were DEAD, but still had large followings.
• When contacted by media for comment on the debacle, Twitter responded with a poop emoji, thereby showing the maturity of its owner.
• And now, The Weather: “From Me to You” by PWNT
• RIP to Harry Belafonte, who died today at age 96. He singlehandedly popularized the Trinbagonian Calypso musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album ‘Calypso’ was the first million-selling LP by a single artist.
• Belafonte was also a political activist who was a huge supporter of the civil rights movements of the ‘50s and ‘60s, and literally bankrolled Martin Luther King Jr., supporting him and his family financially and bailing MLK out of jail.
• Rest in pece to a good man. Day-O!
• From the Sports Desk… the Green Bay Packers have finally traded quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets. The deal was announced yesterday.
• The Packers agreed to deal Rodgers and their 2023 first round pick (No. 15) and a 2023 fifth-round pick (No. 170) to the Jets for New York's 2023 first-round pick (No. 13), a 2023 second round pick (No. 42), a 2023 sixth-round pick (No. 207) and a conditional 2024 second-round pick that becomes a first if Rodgers plays 65% of the plays this season.
• Shrug. I don’t think it’s going out on a limb to postulate that Rodgers’ best years, football-wise, are behind him.
• Rodgers, 39, is a four-time NFL MVP, and led the Packers to 11 playoff appearances but only one Super Bowl championship in 15 years as the starting quarterback.
• In other sports-related news, retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre will remain as a defendant in a civil lawsuit that seeks to recover millions of dollars of misspent welfare money that was supposed to help some of the neediest people in the U.S.
• Circuit Judge Faye Peterson wrote that Favre's attorneys made "unpersuasive and inapplicable" arguments in seeking to have him removed as one of more than three dozen people or businesses being sued by the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
• Fuck you, Favre.
• Today in history… The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar (1607). Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine (1792). Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War (1846). Forces under U.S. Admiral David Farragut demand the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, LA (1862). New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates (1901). The United Negro College Fund is incorporated (1944). Assaulting Chinese forces in the Korean War are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces, primarily made up of Australian and Canadian troops, at the Battle of Kapyong (1951). Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA (1953). Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit (1961). President George W. Bush pledges U.S. military support in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan (2001). The March for Women's Lives brings between 500,000 and 800,000 protesters, mostly pro-choice, to Washington D.C. (2004). 
• April 25 is the birthday of French king Louis IX (1214), politician Oliver Cromwell (1599), astronomer James Ferguson (1710), inventor/businessman Guglielmo Marconi (1874), physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900), journalist Edward R. Murrow (1908), singer Ella Fitzgerald (1917), singer-songwriter/guitarist Albert King (1923), actor/director Paul Mazursky (1930), basketball player/actor Meadowlark Lemon (1932), songwriter/music producer Jerry Leiber (1933), actor Al Pacino (1940), bass player Stu Cook (1945), drummer Steve Ferrone (1950), singer Paul Baloff (1960), actor Hank Azaria (1964), bass player Eric Avery (1965), sportscaster Joe Buck (1969), actress Renée Zellweger (1969), and NBA player Tim Duncan (1976).

Wow. Well, that’s a lot. I plan on having a rather normal Tuesday today. Work, meetings, grocery shopping. Typical shit. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 24, 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.

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Good morning. It’s April 24, 2023, and it’s a Monday. Things always happen. That’s how we know time exists as its own dimension; if it didn’t nothing would happen…

• Republicans have a prime directive in all upcoming elections: keep abortion rights off the ballot by any means necessary.
• Six abortion rights measures were on ballots last year and all of them won. Knowing that will continue to be the case, the new strategy is to keep as many as possible away from the public to vote for, and to make it harder for people to vote when they do get on the ballot.
• Example: GOP state lawmakers in Ohio are pushing for a ballot amendment that would raise the passage requirement for a constitutional amendment from a simple majority to a 60 percent supermajority threshold. This is being done specifically to thwart abortion rights advocates who are working to get a constitutional amendment protecting abortion before fetal viability on the ballot. 
• Arkansas and North Dakota have also both made recent moves to stiffen the process for proposed constitutional amendments. They are trying to take the direction of the country out of the hands of its people. You gonna put up with that?
• This will be a very big deal over the next 18 months, I promise you.
• Last night was a lot more colorful than usual for people in some 30 US states as the aurora borealis (aka northern lights) made an appearance.
• What causes aurora borealis? Oh, not much. Just something entirely horrifying.
• The sun, a star that makes up the main gravitational center of our solar system and takes up 99.8% of the mass of it, is a giant nuclear fusion explosion that goes on for billions of years. We’re about 93,000,000 miles from it, but its energized particles still slam into Earth's upper atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million mph.
• This is especially true during the massive solar storms that occasionally bombard Earth with extreme amounts of energy. This is when the northern lights are at their brightest and most frequent.
• Fortunately, our planet has this cool magnetic field that protects us from this deadly radiation. Otherwise there would be no life on this planet. There never would have been life. It would be sterile and dead. If you’re alive, thank Earth’s geomagnetic field.
• That magnetic field redirects the particles toward the poles and the result is this beautiful atmospheric phenomenon we call northern lights. Note: there are southern lights too.
• What makes them colorful? Every type of atom or molecule absorbs and radiates its own unique set of colors when bombarded by solar radiation. Some of the dominant colors seen in aurorae are red, a hue produced by the nitrogen molecules, and green, which is produced by oxygen molecules.
• But what they are is essentially a crack in a shield. You see those lights due to particles overwhelming the geomagnetic system at its weak point and getting through, where they light up these molecules in the atmosphere. 
• Anyway, last night’s aurora borealis went quite a lot further south than typical, stretching from Washington to Maine, and were seen in places like Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, and other spots not terribly high in latitude.
• Probably nothing to worry about.
• In other news…
• Susan Rice is stepping down as Joe Biden's domestic policy chief. 
• She was very nearly our vice president. Rice served in foreign policy roles during the Obama and Clinton administrations, and then adopted a structure at the Domestic Policy Council similarly to that of the National Security Council, bringing in policy experts and codifying a process for convening officials across the government.
• She entered the administration intending to stay two years, and ended up staying a bit longer. Thanks for your service, Ms. Rice. P.S. She’ll probably be back in politics in some role at some point. 
• Remember Howard Dean? He was the governor of Vermont in the ‘90s, and for awhile in 2004 was the leading Democratic candidate for president.
• Then he did one thing. He made a speech.
• "Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! YEAH!"
• That “YEAH” is now infamously known as the “Dean Scream”, and it immediately turned him into a laughing stock, because Americans are weird and petty like that. Why am I telling you this?
• I saw “Bobblehead Ron” trending on Twitter this morning. “What’s this all about,” I asked myself, and then opened a Tweet that showed Florida governor Ron DeSantis in Japan for some reason.
• When asked about his poor poll numbers against Trump, he stated, “I am not a candidate, so we’ll see if and when that changes.”
• Except while he said that, his head was bouncing around indeed as if on a spring, with his eyes looking kind of crazy and… YEAH! Dean Scream moment.
• It’s so bad his supporters are assuming it’s fake. Nope.
• And now, The Weather: “The Moment” by Michael B. Thomas
• This may be interesting. Today, California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis launched her campaign to become the first woman governor of the nation’s most populous state in 2026. She’d be replacing current Gov. Gavin newsroom, who is termed out and will likely be a top candidate in the 2028 presidential election.
• I like Kounalakis a lot… and I think Newsom will be a good President if he makes it there.
• And also, just in case Newsom is going to challenge Biden in 2024 (which I doubt), Kounalakis would be replacing him anyway and then be positioned to be elected to a full term.
• Trump’s E. Jean Carroll rape trial starts tomorrow. That’s nice.
• Today is Armenian Remembrance Day.
• From the POTUS… “On April 24, 1915, Ottoman authorities arrested Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople—the start of a systematic campaign of violence against the Armenian community. In the years that followed, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths—a tragedy that forever affected generations of Armenian families."
• I’ve had many friends of Armenian descent. I salute them!
• From the Sports Desk… NHL and NBA playoffs continue, MLB season is in full swing, and the NFL draft starts this week.
• It’s a lot. Enjoy it, sports fans.
• Today in history… Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris (1558). The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress” (1800). American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West (1885). The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation (1922). Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II (1953). Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open (1967). The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery (1990). WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak (2011).
• April 24 is the birthday of Tahiti queen Marau (1860), painter Willem de Kooning (1906), actress Shirley MacLaine (1934), politician Richard M. Daley (1942), singer/actress Barbra Streisand (1942), music producer Tony Visconti (1944), singer-songwriter Jack Blades (1954), comedian/actor Cedric the Entertainer (1964), MLB player Chipper Jones (1972), MLB player Carlos Beltrán (1977), singer-songwriter/TV host Kelly Clarkson (1982), and NFL player Jerry Jeudy (1999).

Okay. Time to get my ass downstairs to work out. Enjoy your day.