Random News: April 16, 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 April 16, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. I’m back home, and I’m in a blue robe and drinking coffee, and it’s my first kinda day off in about a month, so let’s see what the hell has been happening; I genuinely have no idea.

• Before I get to that, I’ll tell you where I was.
• I was at a trade show I’ve worked every year since 1993 (except 2021 for reasons of global disease stuff). It’s called NAMM. It’s for the industry that makes musical instruments and pro audio (live sound, recording, etc.) products.
• That’s what I do for a living. Believe it or not, I don’t make a lot of money for writing news bullets or strumming my own guitar. I do those things because they’re fulfilling to me in various ways.
• But for money, I write about guitars and speakers and mics and things, and on a bigger picture I advise companies on how to get more people to be interested in the things they make, and then help them achieve those goals.
• And at the NAMM Show, I get content. Lots and lots of content. Over three days, I did right about 40 videos for a couple of different brands. Mostly video spotlights of their products, and some interviews of the more well-known people who use their products.
• Anyway, that’s where I was. It’s such a hectic and fast-paced time every moment from waking up to going to bed that it would have been impossible for me to have the focus to write these bullets. I’d briefly considered doing a quick video news update while I was out, but I didn’t have the time nor the energy to wedge that into my busy mornings, so… nope.
• Okay, what is going on in the world?
• Literally the first thing I see is that there are four dead and up to 20 shot last night at a teenager’s birthday party in Dadeville, AL.
• The US has suffered at least 162 mass shootings in the first 15 weeks of 2023.
• Guns are the problem. Every country in the world has mental stress, societal conflict, and some percentage of the populace with violent intent. But they don’t have mass hootings. Ask yourself why not.
• Moving on.
• Starting tomorrow in Delaware, the defamation suit trial of Dominion Voting Systems versus Fox News is set to begin. 
• The recap: Dominion is an election technology company. After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden, Dominion alleged Fox pushed various pro-Trump conspiracy theories, including false and potentially damaging information about the company’s voting technology, because “the lies were good for Fox’s business.”
• The excuse given by Fox is that it was merely reporting the claims made by the Trump administration and Donald Trump’s associates. But Dominion says they have proof that Fox knew they were lies and reported them anyway, acting with “actual malice”. It filed a defamation lawsuit in 2021, asking for $1.6 billion in damages and additional punitive damages.
• Dominion wants Fox hosts and executives to appear on the witness stand, potentially including Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, their president Jay Wallace, hosts Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham and Bret Baier, and others.
• I’ll let you know how it goes.
• I have yet to mention Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old who is charged with the unauthorized removal and transmission of classified national defense information.
• At first, I was like many people who wondered how and why there was any reason a 21-year-old has top-secret clearance to view classified documents. 
• But the answer is pretty understandable. He was in a tech support role, managing computers and communications systems. You can’t do that job without being able to access files and so on.
• There’s an exhaustive process to getting top-secret security clearance, but more than a million people have it due to the insane size of our military/defense structure. All it takes is one of those people to be a complete asshole, and you have the kind of situation you do with Teixeira. 
• Anyway, he was arrested by the FBI for allegedly leaking national security documents after they raided his Massachusetts home on Thursday.
• He is allegedly behind hundreds of pages of classified military intelligence being shared with an online gaming group before becoming public in a string of disclosures last week.
• One comedic follow-up was Marjorie Taylor Greene defending Teixeira on Twitter, saying “Jake (sic) Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.”
• Ok Marge.
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) disagreed, saying, “There are military members serving today from Georgia and other places who are less safe because of what this airman did. There is no justification for this, and for any member of Congress to suggest it’s OK to leak classified information because you agree with the cause is terribly irresponsible and puts America in serious danger.”
• Good job, Sporky.
• In loss of women’s rights news, as most of you know by now, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill into law on Thursday that bans abortions after six weeks. Most women don’t know they’re pregnant at that point, meaning Florida essentially has become a total forced-birth state.
• But DeSantis signed this new law for Florida, he did it in a private office at 10:45pm, which raises questions about how DeSantis is trying to both appease his super right-wing base (to try and win a presidential primary) while not drawing too much attention to the issue that carries the biggest political risk going forward (so he’s not killed in the general election).
• I’ve got good news for Ron: he’ll never be taken seriously as a national candidate so nothing he does will help him regardless.
• Speaking of people who have no shot at ever being President, former VP Mike Pence was loudly booed while speaking at the NRA convention in his home state on Friday.
• The MAGAs still think Pence could have negated the electoral vote count on January 6, 2021. Note: no, he couldn’t have. We have fair and legal elections in this country.
• And now, The Weather: “What a Day” by Tyler, The Creator
• From the Sports Desk… the NBA playoffs have started. Here’s your overview…
• Eastern Conference: Milwaukee Bucks (1) vs. Miami Heat (8), Boston Celtics (2) vs. Atlanta Hawks (7), Philadelphia 76ers (3) vs. Brooklyn Nets (6), and New York Knicks (5) vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (4).
• Western Conference: Denver Nuggets (1) vs. Minnesota Timberwolves (8), Memphis Grizzlies (2) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (7), Sacramento Kings (3) vs. Golden State Warriors (6), and Phoenix Suns (4) vs. LA Clippers (5).
• Today in history… In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle (1881). The oldest existing indoor ice hockey arena still used for the sport in the 21st century, Boston Arena, opens for the first time (1910). Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British colonial troops (1919). Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic effects of the research drug LSD (1943). Bernard Baruch first applies the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union (1947). The New York Times and the New Yorker win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for breaking news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal (2018).
• April 16 is the birthday of actor/director Charlie Chaplin (1889), madam Polly Adler (1900), actor Peter Ustinov (1921), composer Henry Mancini (1924), NFL player Night Train Lane (1928), flute player Herbie Mann (1930), music manager/film producer Robert Stigwood (1934), singer Dusty Springfield (1939), NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947), singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty (1947), NFL coach Bill Belichick (1952), voice actor Billy West (1952), actress Ellen Barkin (1954), keyboardist T Lavitz (1956), actor Jon Cryer (1965), actor Martin Lawrence (1965), singer-songwriter/actress Selena (1971), and actress Claire Foy (1984). 

So yes. I am done and taking most of the day off work. Ahh. Enjoy your day.