Random News: November 19, 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 19, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. I’m waking up with a delicious cup of coffee because I have a task to handle this morning. Actually, I’d have the coffee regardless, but I do have something to handle shortly, so let’s get to the news.

• Starting with some good news on the global stage: Israel and Hamas are close to agreement on a U.S.-brokered deal that would free dozens of women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for a five-day pause in fighting.
• The release, which could begin within the next several days, could lead to the first sustained pause in conflict in Gaza. The terms would require all parties to the conflict to freeze combat operations for at least five days while an initial 50 or more hostages are released in smaller batches every 24 hours.
• The stop in fighting is also intended to allow a significant increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance, including fuel, to enter the besieged enclave from Egypt.
• Let’s hope it works out. Keep in mind, the ultimate goal of any violent conflict is for it to end. Peace is the world’s most valuable commodity.
• Moving on.
• Before we do Sunday Gunday, where we take a quick look at some of the many incidences of gun violence that happen each weekend in the USA, we have to acknowledge the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at the Colorado Springs, CO LGBTQ+ nightclub, Club Q.
• The city previously had a reputation for being unwelcoming to gay, lesbian and transgender people. But in the year since, Colorado Springs has taken steps to reshape itself as inclusive and welcoming.
• A new LGBTQ+ resource center is set to open in the city, where an independent candidate surprisingly defeated a longtime Republican officeholder to become the first Black mayor of the city of roughly 480,000 people. And the owners of Club Q, which has been shuttered since the November 19, 2022, attack, plan to build a memorial and reopen at a new location under the rebrand The Q.
• Five were slaughtered and more than a dozen more shot at that horrific event. The perpetrator, Anderson Lee Aldrich, pleaded guilty in June to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder for each person who was at the club during the attack. Aldrich also pleaded no contest to two hate crimes and was given five consecutive life sentences.
• I’m a tolerant person in most aspects, with the exception of hatred. From an Anderson Aldrich to an Elon Musk, I have no acceptance for those who attack and belittle others based on their religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, race, and other factors. I will go far out of my way to ensure they face justice for their actions.
• Let’s get back to the present.
• Three women and a 13-year-old girl shot dead (and another teen girl critically wounded) in Memphis, TN. A security guard and his shooter killed in Concord, NH. One more dead in Manchester, NH. One shot dead in Greensboro, NC. One shot dead in Fort Worth, TX. One dead at a shooting at an apartment complex in Northglenn, CO. A 23-year-old shot dead in South Los Angeles, CA. An 18-year-old shot dead in Spartanburg, SC. A 16-year-old shot dead on the far West Side of Chicago, IL. A 2-year-old shot to death by his 3-year-old brother in Gary, IN. A woman shot dead in northeast Portland, OR. Another woman shot to death in southeast Memphis, TN. Another woman shot to death in North Philadelphia, PA. Another woman shot dead in Vicksburg, MS. One shot dead in Minneapolis, MN. One shot dead in the Avondale neighborhood of Jacksonville, FL. One shot dead in the parking lot of a grocery store in Springfield, MO. A toddler shot in the head by a grandfather cleaning his gun in San Antonio, TX. A valet driver shot to death west Houston, TX. One shot dead inside a hotel in Merrifield, VA. One shot dead outside a KFC in Westminster, CO. One shot dead in his front yard in Kansas City, MO. A teenager shot at a bart in Omaha, NE. Five shot in a backyard in Spring Valley, CA. Three shot at a strip mall in east Phoenix, AZ. Three people shot while their van was leaving a funeral in Landover, MD. Two shot in the Little Italy area of the Bronx, NY. Two shot on the near east side of Columbus, OH. One shot with life-threatening injuries in Lexington, KY. A man shot while selling goods outside a mosque in Providence, RI. One shot outside a grocery store in Miami-Dade, FL. One shot during a robbery in Billings, MT. A guy shot while sitting on his porch in Shreveport, LA. 
• Once again, I’ll remind you: that’s only SOME of the shootings, and only those on Friday and Saturday.
• When you elect people who support guns, you get more guns and more shootings and more killings. Ask yourself if that’s what makes life better.
• Moving on.
• The state-level battles over abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion have exposed another fault line: the commitment to democracy.
• As voters in state after state affirm their support for abortion rights, opponents are acting with escalating defiance toward the democratic processes. Republican elected officials and anti-abortion activists around the country have responded to losses at the ballot box by challenging election results, refusing to bring state laws into line with voter-backed changes, moving to strip state courts of their power to consider abortion-related laws and challenging the citizen-led ballot initiative process itself.
• This will not stand. Voters will continue to unite against the forces that try and force women to give birth, and will vote out any elected official who tries to stop the democratic process.
• Let’s move on.
• Amazingly, Interstate 10 in Los Angeles — or, as we call it, “the 10” — is expected to reopen tomorrow following a fire that closed one of the busiest highways in the country. Initial estimates had the freeway closed for another month or more.
• "Tomorrow, the commute is back on," Vice President Kamala Harris said during press conference this morning alongside California Gov. Gavin Newsom, LA Mayor Karen Bass and local officials.
• That’s crazy. Respect to the people who worked their ass off to make this happen.
• In other news that’s shitty but not unexpected, Republicans swept three runoff races for powerful statewide offices in Louisiana — attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer — in their elections yesterday.
• Come January, Republicans will control the five most powerful positions in Louisiana’s executive branch. In addition, the GOP holds majorities in both the House and Senate. I feel badly for the people of that fine state who’ll suffer as a result.
• And now, The Weather: “Titania” by Films on Song
• Again, a reminder that weather may likely be particularly shitty right in the midst of many folks’ Thanksgiving travel plans on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. if you’re driving, take all precautions ahead of time. If you’re flying, be prepared for delays and cancelations.
• If you assume this is only relevant to people in the Midwest and Northeast, the National Weather Service issued advisories Saturday along the California-Nevada line ahead of an early winter storm that could bring more than a foot of snow and winds gusting up to 100 mph in the Sierra Nevada mountain areas.
• Me? I’m not going anywhere. I try to never go anywhere, most of all over major holidays.
• But I am cooking a feast, which I do every year. And that is why I’m trying to wrap up this news shit quickly; my first round of shopping happens shortly, as soon as I get my ass showered and dressed.
• The way I do it, I buy all slower perishables the weekend before… stuffing, yams, all that shit. Then on Tuesday, I buy my bird fresh so there’s no defrosting involved. I’ve done this same routine for like 15 years and it always works.
• From the Sports Desk… here are the best NFL teams based on a simple metric of how many points they scored versus how many points have been scored against them.
• 1. Baltimore Ravens (+127). 2. San Francisco 49ers (+109). 3. Dallas Cowboys (+104). 4. Buffalo Bills (+78). 5. Kansas City Chiefs (+65). 6. Miami Dolphins (+60). 7. Philadelphia Eagles (+57). 8. Cleveland Browns (+44). 9. Detroit Lions (+38). 10. Houston Texans (+25).
• Today in history… Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island he first saw the day before, and he names it San Juan Bautista, later renamed Puerto Rico (1493). U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony for the military cemetery at Gettysburg, PA (1863). Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures (1916). Nazis murder at least 6,000 Jews at Janowska concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv), western Ukraine (1943). Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations (1946). Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon (1969). Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran (1979). U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time (1985). The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton (1998). The worst brawl in NBA history — the “Malice at the Palace” — results in several players being suspended (2004).
• November 19 is the birthday of king Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1600), US president James A. Garfield (1831), bandleader Tommy Dorsey (1905), Indian politician Indira Gandhi (1917), actress Gene Tierney (1920), MLB player Roy Campanella (1921), talk show host Larry King (1933), engineer/businessman Jack Welch (1935), talk show host Dick Cavett (1936), businessman Ted Turner (1938), actor Dan Haggerty (1941), fashion designer Calvin Klein (1942), actor Robert Beltran (1953), journalist Ann Curry (1956), actress Alison Janney (1959), actress Meg Ryan (1961), actress Jodie Foster (1962), motorcycle rider Jeremy McGrath (1971), businessman Jack Dorsey (1976), gymnast Kerri Strug (1977), and actor Adam Driver (1983).

Okay. Time to do the various things. Enjoy your day.