Random News: May 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.

---

Good morning. It’s May 28, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. It’s day two of a three-day weekend. I’m in a bathrobe and drinking coffee, so what better time to see what has transpired since we last met? Let’s find out together…

• President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached a tentative agreement on legislation to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and avoid a federal default.
• The House will vote on the legislation on Wednesday, giving the Senate time to consider it before the June 5 deadline.
• Full details about the deal are unknown, but I’ve seen a lot more angry conservatives than liberals talking about what they think they know. Here’s what’s known thus far…
• It keeps nondefense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year and increase it by 1% the following year, as well as provide for a two-year debt-limit increase — past the next presidential election in 2024, which is definitely a Biden win.
• The agreement fully funds medical care for veterans per Biden’s proposed 2024 budget blueprint, including for a fund dedicated to veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances or environmental hazards. That’s absolutely a Biden win.
• House Republicans had passed legislation that would create new work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, but that was left out of the final agreement. That’s certainly a Biden win.
• But the agreement would also expand some work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The agreement would raise the age for existing work requirements from 49 to 54, similar to the Republican proposal. That’s a… reasonable compromise, I guess. 
• Another unknown: student loan debt relief. The budget agreement keeps Biden’s plan in place, though the Supreme Court will have the ultimate say on the matter.
• Before you celebrate, be aware that both sides are still posturing, and loud complaints are being stated from both Republican and Democrat leaders. But I think they’ll work it out. The details should be released today.
• Anyway, that’s closer to being settled, and it seems that in the big picture, few of the hard line right wing budget requirements were allowed. The debut ceiling is being raised, as it always has. Moreover it seems that catastrophic Republican plan to default is close to being averted. Big thanks to Joe Biden for standing up for the American people… all of us.
• Moving on…
• The Texas House of Representatives voted yesterday to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton. The vote was 121-23, with two members voting “present.”
• The third-term Republican is accused of a yearslong pattern of corruption, with an impeachment indictment of 20 counts including abusing his office’s powers, retaliating against whistleblowers and obstructing justice.
• Paxton is now temporarily suspended from his duties as attorney general and will await a Senate trial.
• Paxton is an ally of former president Trump. All in all, I couldn’t be happier.
• Moving on…
• I know that if you’re like me, you’re disgusted by the idea that the January 6 defendants are raising funds and profiting off their attempts to overthrow the election process.
• Well, here’s some good news: the Justice Department now wants these people to give up the money they raised — a clawback effort so that these criminals can’t personally profit from participating in the failed coup attempt.
• A review of court records shows that prosecutors in the more than 1,000 criminal cases from Jan. 6, 2021, are increasingly asking judges to impose fines on top of prison sentences to offset donations from supporters of the Capitol rioters.
• Of note: there's nothing illegal about defendants asking for help for attorney expenses. But the Justice Department has questioned where the money is really going because many of those charged have had government-funded legal representation.
• Yup. These fucking grifters.
• The really funny thing? Most of the fundraising efforts appear on GiveSendGo, which bills itself as “The #1 Free Christian Fundraising Site”, since defendants have been barred from using mainstream crowdfunding sites, including GoFundMe.
• They proclaim their innocence and portray themselves as victims of government oppression, even as they cut deals to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors.
• So far this year, prosecutors have sought more than $390,000 in fines against at least 21 Jan. 6 defendants, in amounts ranging from $450 to more than $71,000.
• Good. Get that money back.
• As has been the case in the downward spiral of other red states, Iowa is now restricting education about gender identity and sexual orientation, banning books with certain sexual content from school libraries, and requiring schools to notify parents if their child asks to use a new name or pronoun.
• Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed a sweeping bill into law yesterday making all of these state law.
• There were more book bans across the country during the fall 2022 semester than in each of the prior two semesters. The bans were most prevalent in Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina.
• About one-third of the titles banned are books about race or racism or feature characters of color. About 26% of the titles have LGBTQ+ characters or themes.
• It’s a dangerous path for the kids in these states, and leads to a continuation of ignorance in places that need an educated populace the most.
• Moving on…
• I often talk about gun violence on Sundays, but I honestly don’t have it in me today to go through all the various shootings thus far this holiday weekend. I will mention a notable one.
• The 41st annual Red River Memorial Motorcycle Rally is this weekend in a small New Mexico resort town. They’d expected some 30,000 bikers; what could go wrong?
• At least three people were killed and multiple others were injured in a shooting there yesterday evening. The shooters have been apprehended in the incident.
• Important side note: I’ve known some decent people with very strong ethical outlooks who were also serious bikers. But in a situation these days where there are too many guns combined with too many people and too much partying, welp…
• Sad side note: there were dozens of other shootings yesterday. I’m just not listing them.
• And now, The Weather: “Anthropocene” by Mega Bog
• From the Sports Desk… some total insanity in both the NBA and NHL playoffs yesterday.
• The Boston Celtics won a literal last-second victory over the Miami Heat in game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals with a score of 104-103. No team has ever, in history, come back from a 3-0 deficit to win, but the Celtics have the chance to do just that as the series returns to Boston tomorrow night.
• Over in the NHL, the Dallas Stars, who had also been down 3-0 the the Vegas Golden Knights, have won two straight and are now down 3-2, having own 4-2 in game 5. Game 6 of that series is also tomorrow night.
• Today in history… A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales (585 BC). In the first engagement of the French and Indian war, Virginia militia under the 22-year-old lieutenant colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania (1754). U.S. President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which denies Native Americans their land rights and forcibly relocates them (1830). In San Francisco, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club (1892). Alan Turing submits ‘On Computable Numbers’ for publication (1936). Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer, is founded (1937). Peter Benenson's article ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’ is published in several internationally read newspapers, later thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International (1961). The Palestine Liberation Organization is founded, with Yasser Arafat elected as its first leader (1964). U.S. President Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal, and the Governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud (1996). The last steel girder is removed from the original World Trade Center site (2002). 
• May 28 is the birthday of UK prime minister William Pitt the Younger (1759), inventor Carl Richard Nyberg (1858), athlete Jim Thorpe (1888), author Ian Fleming (1908), singer-songwriter/guitarist T-Bone Walker (1910), actress/activist Zelda Rubinstein (1933), NBA player/executive Jerry West (1938), lawyer/politician/national joke Rudy Giuliani (1944), singer-songwriter Gladys Knight (1944), physician Patch Adams (1945), singer-songwriter John Fogerty (1945), bass player Leland Sklar (1947), singer-songwriter Wendy O. Williams (1949), guitarst Jerry Douglas (1956), MLB player Kirk Gibson (1957), politician Marco Rubio (1971), and NFL player Percy Harvin (1988).

Okay then. It’s time for me to get my ass in the shower and start doing something productive and not being a blob. Enjoy your day.