Random News: November 20, 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 20, 2023, and it’s a Monday. It’s also the Monday before Thanksgiving, and from my many years of previous experiences, this will be a week where tons of work is expected and yet no one is really around or checked-in enough to make it happen. That’s okay. I’m good at keeping myself busy regardless. First, let’s see what’s been happening.

• Rest in peace to former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died yesterday at the age of 96. 
• Carter had been diagnosed with dementia last spring and continued to live at home in Plains, GA, with her husband, former President Jimmy Carter. Last week, she entered home hospice care.
• Rosalynn Carter played an active role in the White House and championed causes such as research into mental health. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter had a partnership unlike any other known at the time for a president and first lady. She sat in on Cabinet meetings — a first — and took the heat for it.
• Born in Plains on August 18, 1927, the oldest of four children, Rosalynn Smith started dating Jimmy Carter when she was 18 and reminded by his side for nearly 80 years.
• Moving on.
• Right-wing libertarian psychopath Javier Milei has won Argentina’s presidential elections, He succeeded in a runoff vote versus centrist Sergio Massa.
• What kind of guy is Milei? Kind of an even weirder South American version of Donald Trump, who, unsurprisingly supported his candidacy. He’s a a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” who’s expressing support for ideas such as legalising the sale of human organs and eliminating all gun laws. He also referred to China, Argentina’s largest trading partner, as “murderous”, the Argentine Pope Francis as “a filthy leftist”, and climate change as “a socialist hoax”.
• Welp, good luck Argentina. Oh, by the way: he’s also going dollarize Argentina, turning over the reins of its own monetary policy to Washington decisionmakers.
• Let’s… move on. Since I mentioned El Dumpo…
• His lawyers and the Justice Department are fighting today in a federal appeals court, where the Dump Team is arguing that his constitutional rights have been violated by a gag order barring him from disparaging witnesses and prosecutors associated with the election interference case.
• You should definitely try that next time you have a leal proceeding. If Trump can do it, you can too, right? Don’t we live in a country where no one is above the law? That we have the same rules that apply to everyone?
• So yeah, definitely intimidate witnesses and publicly disparage the judge and prosecution. I’m sure it’ll work out fine.
• Moving on.
• Here in L.A., the 10 freeway is miraculously open as of this morning. Experts initially believed it would take months to open the freeway after a pallet fire caused by arson erupted on November 11, closing the roadway from Alameda Street to Santa Fe Avenue.
• That estimate was later revised to three to five weeks before it ultimately opened in just eight days. Incredible.
• A moronic L.A. Times editorial asked why all transportation projects can’t be fast-tracked like this was.
• If the question is “why,” the answer is almost always “money.” Try it and see.
• In other news, the Wisconsin supreme court will hear oral arguments tomorrow in one of the most closely watched voting rights cases in the country this year. The challenge could ultimately lead to the court striking down districts in the state legislature, ending a cemented Republican majority, and upending politics in one of the US’s most politically competitive states.
• The case, Clarke v Wisconsin Elections Commission, is significant because Wisconsin’s state legislative maps, and especially its state assembly districts, are widely considered to be among the most gerrymandered in the US.
• In 2011, Republicans redrew the districts in such a way that cemented an impenetrable majority. As a result, Republicans have consistently won at least 60% of the 99 seats, sometimes with less than 50% of the statewide vote.
• If you live in a state where the results of state legislative elections are determined before a single vote is cast, you’re not in a democracy. Here’s hoping WI fixes this bullshit.
• Moving over to Oregon, Portland Public Schools negotiators and the union representing its 3,500 educators bargained over a new contract over the weekend, but they have not yet reached a deal to end the strike that started November 1.
• Representatives on both sides expressed optimism about the progress. In a note to educators late Saturday, the Portland Association of Teachers union deemed the day’s negotiations positive and productive.
• Meanwhile, high school juniors and seniors are rightfully worried that three weeks of missed class time could leave them unprepared for intensive final exams. I’d say they’re right.
• There’s some big news coming out of the United Methodist church, where over 7,000 congregations have been approved to break away since 2019 when the church strengthened bans on same-sex marriage.
• The North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church voted Saturday to allow another 261 congregations to break away, or disaffiliate, after theological tensions over bans on same-sex marriages and the ordination of clergy who are openly LGBTQ+.
• So far 7,286 of about 30,000 United Methodist congregations – many in the South and Midwest – have received approval to disaffiliate from the denomination.
• There was a time where plenty of churches in the South didn’t allow interracial marriages either. Adapt or die, as the old saying goes.
• And now, The Weather: “Closure” by Good Wilson
• Another RIP in today’s news, this one for Suzanne Shepherd, the actress known for her roles on "The Sopranos" and “Goodfellas." She was 89.
• Shepherd starred as Karen Hill's mother in "Goodfellas" and Carmela Soprano's mother in "The Sopranos."
• From the Sports Desk… Sunday's Week 11 of NFL games felt like a sequence of heartbreaking and/or ugly defeats across the league, and a lot of fans are clamoring for the heads of their team’s coaches.
• Who are the NFL head coaches most likely tools jobs in the near future? Experts say they are 
Frank Reich (Carolina Panthers), Ron Rivera (Washington Commanders), and Brandon Staley (Los Angeles Chargers).
• Side note: over 18.5 million people live here in the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. Do you know how many Chrgaers fans I personally know? 
• One. Literally one. Go to any Chargers game at SoFi Stadium and note that at least as many people are cheering for the visiting team as they are the home team. It’s bizarre.
• Today in history… New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights (1789). An 80-ton sperm whale attacks and sinks the Essex 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (1820). Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosí, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution (1910). Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg (1945). In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation (1962). Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island for a year and a half until being ousted by the U.S. Government (1969). The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation, leading to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System (1974). Lake Peigneur in Louisiana drains into an underlying salt deposit (1980). Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released (1985). The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar, the first time the tournament is held in the Middle East (2022).
• November 20 is the birthday of Roman emperor Maximinus II (270), inventor Mungo Ponton (1801), astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889), linguist Charles Berlitz (1913), pianist Yakov Zak (1913), senator/racist Robert Byrd (1917), lawyer/politician Robert F. Kennedy (1925), actor/host Richard Dawson (1932), actor/comedian Dick Smothers (1939), singer-songwriter/pianist Dr. John (1941), US President Joe Biden (1942), actor Bob Einstein (1942), singer-songwriter/guitarist Norman Greenbaum (1942), guitarist/songwriter Duane Allman (1946), singer-songwriter/guitarist Joe Walsh (1947), activist Jeff Dowd (1949), actor Rodger Bumpass (1951), singer-songwriter/guitarist Frank Marino (1954), actress Bo Derek (1956), actor Joel McHale (1971), and rapper Future (1983).

Alright, time to go work out, something I do though I’d really rather not, and yet would regret if I ever skipped, which I never do despite bitterly complaining about it. Enjoy your day.