Random News: November 14, 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 November 14, 2023, and it’s a Tuesday. All alone and awake, I’m like a garter snake. Let’s see what’s going on out there in the great big world.

• Yesterday, the Supreme Court announced it has adopted what it called a new code of conduct following allegations of ethics lapses.
• The court issued a 14-page document that included five canons of conduct in addition to lengthy commentary. Most of the rules outlined in the code are not themselves new, but the lack of a published code "has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the justices of this court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules."
• Among other things the code requires justices to "uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary" and "avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities."
• Although Supreme Court justices follow some of the same rules that are imposed on lower court judges, such as a requirement that they file annual financial disclosure reports, they are not bound by the code of conduct that applies to other judges.
• Which seems ridiculous to me. They are the highest judges in the land and should be held to the absolute highest standards, with transparency and oversight.
• Moving on.
• The House is set to vote this afternoon on a plan newly-elected Speaker Mike Johnson has pitched to avert a looming government shutdown. Unfortunately, his own party has planned to sabotage it. Seems about right.
• Johnson told his GOP conference over the weekend that he is moving forward with a two-step government plan that he has described as a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded at 2023 levels. House Republican leadership has scheduled a 4:20 p.m. vote on Johnson's plan.
• But 40 or more Republicans say they are a no vote. Who hates Johnson’s plan? The House Freedom Caucus, of course… the far-right assholes who got rid of Kevin McCarthy last month.
• So now it looks as if Johnson will have to look across the aisle to pass his plan. Will the Democrats rescue him? I guess it depends on what’s in the spending plan. We’ll see later today.
• Moving on.
• Last week's election results in Ohio and Virginia were proof that abortion rights remain the most powerful issue on the ballot. Women’s reproductive rights will continue to be a key topic for voters in many states.
• In Tennessee, terminating a pregnancy even if the mother's life is at risk is prohibited, and this has affected women like Allie Phillips, who is now running for state office in Tennessee as a result of her experience.
• Phillips, a mom of a six-year-old, was excited to be pregnant with a second child. But a 20-week ultrasound revealed there was not enough amniotic fluid to support her baby's organ development.
• Her baby was diagnosed with a rare brain defect called semilobar holoprosencephaly. This meant that the brain only partially develops into two hemispheres, and the pregnancy would have resulted in a miscarriage or stillbirth.
• Once the baby had no heartbeat, Phillips’ life was at immediate risk due to sepsis or blood clots. Tennessee would still not allow for a medical procedure to save her life. She had to travel to New York for it. Also she had to do a GoFundMe just to raise the $5,000 for the abortion… her family does not have high income.
• As a result of her horrifying experience, Allie Phillips is now running for state office in the Tennessee House of Delegates. I wish her nothing but the best… and hers is just one of thousands and thousands of similar stories happening across the USA since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
• Please do not vote for ANY candidate at ANY level of government who wants this to happen to you, or your mothers, sisters, and friends. And remember, what the top-level Republicans want is a nationwide ban on women’s reproductive rights that would make every state like Tennessee.
• Moving on.
• Maryanne Trump Barry, a former federal judge and the older sister of former president and current accused felon Donald Trump, has died at the age of 86.
• She was first appointed to the U.S. District Court of New Jersey in 1983 by Ronald Reagan, and then to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, by Bill Clinton in 1999. She retired in 2019.
• Maryanne Trump Barry was born in New York in 1937, the eldest of five Trump siblings. The eldest son, Fred Trump Jr., died in 1981 and the youngest, Robert Trump, died in 2020. They are survived by 77-year-old Dumpy Dump and sister Elizabeth Trump Grau, 81.
• El Dumpo’s reaction to his sister’s death was quite predictable. He posted a truly unhinged attack on Special Counsel Jack Smith and said nothing about his family member’s passing.
• Just one other note on that increasingly irrelevant person… the testimony of his former attorney Jenna Ellis who pleaded guilty in the Fulton County, GA RICO case shows that Dump’s plans for a coup started long before January 6.
• Fuck that guy forever. Let’s move on.
• The U.S. Army has finally set aside the convictions of 110 Black soldiers who were arrested following the 1917 Houston Riots. 
• The military service records of the soldiers, also known as "Buffalo Soldiers," will be corrected and characterized as honorable. 
• ”After a thorough review, the Board has found that these Soldiers were wrongly treated because of their race and were not given fair trials. By setting aside their convictions and granting honorable discharges, the Army is acknowledging past mistakes and setting the record straight.” - Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth
• On August 23, 1917, after rumors spread that a white mob was descending upon Camp Logan to attack Black troops, more than 100 Black soldiers seized weapons and marched into Houston.
• In the months that followed, the Army convicted 110 Soldiers in a process that was, according to historians, characterized by numerous irregularities. Following the trial, 19 soldiers were executed in what the Army said remains the largest mass execution of American soldiers by the U.S. Army. 
• I’m glad that over 100 years later, some justice has been offered.
• In other news, the massive fire that has shut down a crucial section of the 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles was caused by arson. More than 100 columns along the swath of the freeway were damaged. It's still unclear, pending the results of official tests at the site, if the entire overpass will be torn down or retrofitted.
• The situation poses a commuting challenge that L.A. has not seen in years, with hundreds of thousands of commuters facing detours and heavier-than-normal traffic.
• For those people assuming that unhoused people were the cause of the fire, that is not correct. The property where the fire broke out was being leased by Calabasas-based Apex Development Inc., which was subleasing the storage site under the overpass without permission from state and federal agencies. The company stopped paying rent and had been out of compliance with its lease agreement.
• Assholes. Get those fuckers.
• Speaking of assholes, meet Seann Pietila. This young asshole is just 19, but he pleaded guilty yesterday to threatening to commit a mass shooting targeting Jewish people in a series of Instagram messages.
• Pietila exchanged messages with another Instagram user in June about committing a mass killing and streaming the attack online. He specifically referenced wanting to inspire others to “take arms against the Jewish controlled state.” FBI Director Christopher Wray warned last month that antisemitism is reaching historic levels in the country.
• A search warrant at Pietila’s home found firearms, tactical vests, scopes, a Nazi flag, black skull masks and other items. On the notes app of his iPhone, investigators found the name of an East Lansing, MI synagogue, a date and a list of weapons, including bombs, Molotov cocktails and guns.
• This seems like a good time to remind folks: Jewish not does equal Israeli, and Palestinian does not equal Hamas. I’m sure you’ve seen a Venn diagram before. Don’t blame all Jews for the actions of Israel any more than you’d blame all Muslim people for the actions of any terrorist group.
• C’mon folks. You’re smarter than that.
• And now, The Weather: “Not Even for the Weekend” by Finnish Postcard
• Speaking of the weather, the first Pacific storm of the season is set to sweep into California this week. The wet weather arrives after a drought-busting year and during a building El Niño.
• Rain arrived late yesterday in Northern California and will move into Southern California by tomorrow. Whee!
• Got a chart for ya. This is the bottom of the Billboard Hot 100 for this date in 1981. Looking at the bottom of the charts is interesting, because you see some songs on their way up, and some on their way down, and also some that were so unmemorable that few people beyond the performers and their immediate friends and families still know they existed. But those people had genuine hit records at one point in their lives, so shout out to them too.
• Side note: I was in eighth grade at this point in 1981. Pretty sure there was a girl in my intermediate school with whom I’d walk around holding hands and such at the time.
• 81. Leader Of The Band (Dan Fogelberg). 82. My Kinda Lover (Billy Squier). 83. Sweet Merilee (Donnie Iris). 84. Alien (Atlanta Rhythm Section). 85. WKRP In Cincinnati (Steve Carlisle). 86. Walking Into Sunshine (Central Line). 87. Urgent (Foreigner). 88. Hold On Tight (Electric Light Orchestra). 89. Mistaken Identity (Kim Carnes). 90. Anyone Can See (Irene Cara). 91. Snap Shot (Slave). 92. Pay The Devil (Ooo, Baby, Ooo) (The Knack). 93. In The Dark (Billy Squier). 94. I'm Your Superman (All Sports Band). 95. I Surrender (Arlan Day). 96. La La Means I Love You (Tierra). 97. I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do) (Lulu). 98. Better Things (The Kinks). 99. Queen Of Hearts (Juice Newton). 100. The Voice (The Moody Blues)
• From the Sports Desk… the NBA season is still fairly young, but might as well document who’s doing well and who’s… not.
• Top five Eastern Conference teams by record: 1. Philadelphia 76ers (8-1). 2. Boston Celtics (-2). 3. Miami Heat (6-4). 4. Indiana Pacers (6-4). 5. Atlanta Hawks (5-4).
• Top five Western Conference teams by record: 1. Denver Nuggets (8-2). 2. Dalas mavericks (8-2). 3. Minnesota Timberwolves (7-2). 4. Houston Rockets (6-3). 5. Oklahoma City Thunder (6-4).
• Also from the Sports Desk… how the fuck did the Buffalo Bills lose to the shitty Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football? Not only did the Bills play horribly all game, but then a penalty for having an extra player on the field during a missed 41-yard field goal attempt by Denver kicker Wil Lutz held the door open for the Broncos to leave Buffalo with a 24-22 win.
• That’s why they play the games, I guess. Buffalo had been a -7.5 point favorite.
• Today in history… German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope (1680). ‘Moby-Dick’, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA (1851). Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first takeoff from a ship (1910). The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom (1922). Coventry, UK is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers (1940). Ruby Bridges becomes the first Black child to attend an all-White elementary school in Louisiana (1960). American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser (1967). NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon (1969). A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close (1995). Astronomers discover 90377 Sedna, the most distant trans-Neptunian object (2003). Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas (2012).
• November 14 is the birthday of violinist/composer Leopold Mozart (1719), engineer Robert Fulton (1765), pianist/composer Fanny Mendelssohn (1805), painter Claude Monet (1840), India prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1889), composer Aaron Copland (1900), politician Joseph McCarthy (1908), producer Sherwood Schwartz (1916), actor Brian Keith (1921), actor McLean Stevenson (1927), keyboardist/composer Wendy Carlos (1939), journalist P. J. O’Rourke (1947), UK king Charles III (1948), singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop (1951), politician Condoleezza Rice (1954), pianist/composer Yanni (1954), actress Laura San Giacomo (1962), hip-hop artist Joseph Simmons (1964), actor Patrick Warburton (1964), singer-songwriter/guitarist Nina Gordon (1967), drummer/songwriter Travis Barker (1975), actress Vanessa Bayer (1981), singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe (1983), and NFL player DeVonta Smith (1998).

Alright, that’s plenty for now. More news tomorrow. Enjoy your day.