Random News: November 17, 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 17, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Like everyone, I’ve got stressful shit that goes on in my life, but I’m going to remember that positivity always beats the alternative. Let’s see what’s shaking.

• Not even a day went by after Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post on X as “the actual truth” of what Jewish people were doing, IBM pulled its advertising on the social media platform.
• IBM cut off about $1 million in advertising spending that it had committed to the platform for the last three months of the year. Hopefully other advertisers will follow suit.
• X employees said they had gotten calls from many advertisers wondering why Mr. Musk was making comments seen as antisemitic and why their ads were showing up next to white nationalist and Nazi content.
• I work in both advertising and social media. None of my clients are advertising on Twitter, and I’m making sure they’re all aware of its transition to an antisemitic and racist platform.
• Moving on…
• President Biden signed a short-term government funding bill yesterday, avoiding a government shutdown over the holidays, but pushing into next year debates about wartime funding for Ukraine and Israel.
• Biden’s approval came a day after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the stop-gap spending bill. The measure, designed by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), funds four federal agencies until January 19, 2024, and the rest until February 2, 2024.
• The far right wing Johnson’s own Republican party is already rebelling against him in the House, and it’s going to be difficult for him to get enough solidarity for an actual longer-term budget as such.
• Speaking of Republican Reps… ah, George Santos (R-NY). The perfect example of the modern Republican. The House Ethics Committee report on Santos came out yesterday to reveal that he’d been spending donors' money on trips to casinos, shopping at high-end retailers and even Botox treatments and OnlyFans payments.
• This guy was taking the cash donations that people gave him and literally using them to jack off. Amazing. Well, it seems his colleagues in Congress have finally had enough, and they may choose to vote him out of office ASAP. It requires two-thirds of the entire House to remove a member.
• The report is scathing. "Representative Santos was frequently in debt, had an abysmal credit score, and relied on an ever-growing wallet of high-interest credit cards to fund his luxury spending habits. He occasionally deposited large amounts of cash that he has never accounted for, moved money between his various bank accounts in a highly suspicious manner, and made over $240,000 cash withdrawals for unknown purposes.”
• Moving on with some good local (for me) news.
• All lanes of the arson-damaged 10 freeway near downtown Los Angeles are scheduled to reopen by next Tuesday, per California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
• More than 250 people were working around the clock to make the repairs.
• In other news from my area, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office have arrested a suspect in the death of a Jewish man killed during dueling Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestinian rallies earlier this month.
• Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji has been arrested and booked for for involuntary manslaughter. Bail is being set at $1 million. Alnaji is suspected of causing the death of Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man attending a Pro-Israel rally on the afternoon of Nov. 5.
• Conflicting stories say that either Kessler merely fell and hit his head, or that Alnaji hit the senior citizen with a bullhorn, causing his death. Hopefully justice will be served either way.
• I haven’t been giving daily updates on the Israel-Hamas war. It’s all horrible news and I figure it’s readily available to those who are following it.
• Currently, the Israeli military is tightening its grip on northern Gaza, as its war on the Hamas militant group is showing no signs of abating. Almost six weeks into the conflict, however, Israel is yet to offer a clear post-war plan for the territory.
• The UN warned yesterday that with only 10% of necessary food supplies entering Gaza since the start of the conflict, the Gaza Strip now faces a massive food gap and widespread hunger.
• “Supplies of food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza and only a fraction of what is needed is arriving through the borders. With winter fast approaching, unsafe and overcrowded shelters, and the lack of clean water, civilians are facing the immediate possibility of starvation,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain.
• Things will only get worse there before they get better, if they ever do.
• Moving on.
• In our continuing coverage of the insurrectionist assholes who attempted and failed to commit a coup against the USA, meet Kaleb Dillard.
• The 28-year-old from Mountain Brook, AL was sentenced yesterday on a felony charge for his actions during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised released.
• Dillard was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb to pay $36,238.55 in restitution. He pleaded guilty in July to assaulting to assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers.
• Fuck that guy.
• Some good news…
• Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate a Florida law that punishes businesses for allowing children into drag shows.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the bullshit "Protection of Children Act" in May to ban "children" from any "adult live performances".
• Hamburger Mary's Restaurant and Bar in Orlando challenged the law in court, contending that it violates the First Amendment right of free speech. The restaurant frequently hosts drag show performances, comedy sketches, and dancing.
• The Court agreed via a 6-to-3 vote, with the courts three biggest assholes — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — noting their dissents.
• Well done.
• Workers at more than 200 U.S. Starbucks locations walked off the job yesterday in what organizers said was the largest strike yet in the two-year-old effort to unionize the company's stores.
• The Workers United union chose Starbucks' annual Red Cup Day to stage the walkout since it's usually one of the busiest days of the year. Starbucks expected to give away thousands of reusable cups Thursday to customers who order holiday drinks.
• Federal prosecutors arrested two men this week and seized more than 200,000 counterfeit handbags, clothes and other luxury items worth over a billion dollars, making it the largest-ever seizure of counterfeit goods in US history.
• Adama Sow and Abdulaj Jalloh used a Manhattan storage facility as a distribution center for massive amounts of knock-off designer goods. From Queens and Manhattan, New York, respectively, Sow, 38, and Jalloh, 48, are each facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
• And now, The Weather: “Moon” by Teethe
• From the Sports Desk… the Oakland A’s are now the Las Vegas A’s. The owners of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball unanimously approved the move yesterday, though the A's aren't expected to play in Vegas until 2028.
• The team will play their 2024 season at the Oakland Coliseum. But their lease at the stadium expires after that and no decision has been made on where they'll play while the stadium in Las Vegas is being built.
• In more news from the Sports Desk, the Bengals lost badly to the Ravens 34-20. The Ravens are now 8-3 and a very strong contender for a Super Bowl berth.
• Today in history… Emperor Charles the Fat is deposed by the Frankish magnates (887). Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England (1558). Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason (1603). The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C. (1800). Sweden declares war on the United Kingdom, though no fighting ever takes place (1810). The city of Denver, Colorado is founded (1858). In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated (1869). The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks — Russian for “majority" — and Mensheviks — Russian for “minority" (1903). The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath (1947). American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor (1947). United Nations Security Council Resolution 89 relating to the Palestine Question is adopted (1950). President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region (1962). Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S. (1968). In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook.” (1973). United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement (1993). The first known case of COVID-19 is traced to a 55-year-old man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China (2019).
• November 17 is the birthday of Roman emperor Vespian (9), painter Bronzino (1503), French king Louis XVIII (1755), actor Lee Strasberg (1901), engineer/businessman Soichiro Honda (1906), actor Rock Hudson (1925), politician Jim Inhofe (1934), film director Martin Scorsese (1942), singer-songwriter/guitarist Gene Clark (1944), actor Danny DeVito (1944), film/TV producer Lorne Michaels (1944), MLB player Tom Seaver (1944), NBA player Elvin Hayes (1945), guitarist/songwriter Martin Barre (1946), politician Howard Dean (1948), guitarist East Bay Ray (1948), politician John Boehner (1949), actor Stephen Root (1951), talk show host Jonathan Ross (1960), actor RuPaul (1960), diplomat Susan Rice (1964), singer-songwriter/guitarist Jeff Buckley (1966), and actress Daisy Fuentes (1966).

Welp, there’s more news, but there always is, and there’s never more time. Speaking of time, I now have to go downstairs to work out (booooooo). Enjoy your day.