Random News: November 21, 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 21, 2023, and it’s a Tuesday. We’re progressing through the pre-Thanksgiving work week in a way that has people answering my emails with out-of-office auto replies and short “see you after the holiday!” notes, and I couldn’t be happier. Today will still be a bit busy, and I have to go pick up my bird — fresh, never frozen — and be ready for the feasting. Let’s do some news first.

• A divided federal appeals court ruled yesterday that private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the federal Voting Rights Act, a decision that contradicts decades of precedent and could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law.
• This is fucked up.
• The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis found that only the U.S. attorney general can enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires political maps to include districts where minority populations’ preferred candidates can win elections.
• The majority said other federal laws, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, make it clear when private groups can sue but said similar wording is not found in the voting law.
• Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said “By failing to reverse the district court’s radical decision, the Eighth Circuit has put the Voting Rights Act in jeopardy, tossing aside critical protections that voters fought and died for.”
• Yesterday’s ruling applies only to federal courts covered by the 8th Circuit, which includes Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota… for now.
• It’s stuff like this that shows you need to be constantly vigilant about your rights being slowly eroded and stripped.
• Let’s move on to a better appeals court ruling.
• A federal appeals panel appears inclined to restore the limited gag order in former president and current accused felon Donald John Trump’s federal election subversion case. They may also loosen some restrictions so he can more directly criticize special counsel Jack Smith.
• Jack is tough. He can handle the little angry orange man.
• A three-judge panel of the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments yesterday in the closely watched case, which stems from Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and obstruct the lawful transfer of power. He pleaded not guilty.
• None of the three judges embraced Trump’s claims that the gag order should be wiped away for good. The limited gag order from District Judge Tanya Chutkan restricts Trump’s ability to directly attack Smith, members of his team, court staff or potential trial witnesses. He is allowed to criticize the Justice Department, proclaim his innocence, and to idiotically argue that the case is “politically motivated."
• There are no laws against being an idiot.
• Let’s move on to some more good court news.
• Yesterday the Supreme Court turned away an appeal by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, leaving in place his conviction for the killing of George Floyd in May 2020.
• Chauvin and his lawyers argued that his trial wasn’t fair because of pretrial publicity and the threat of violence and riots in the event he was acquitted.
• The state supreme court had already declined to review that decision in July, leaving in place Chauvin's conviction and 22 ½-year sentence.
• I hope he serves every minute of it.
• Moving on.
• Congress’ failure to include extra aid money for low-income moms and babies in last week’s spending bill sets up a potential showdown early next year.
• The program that requires funding is known as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC.
• Unlike other federal nutrition programs, WIC funding has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, with Republicans and Democrats committed to ensuring every eligible mother and baby who applies for the program can receive benefits.
• But now, House Republicans want to pull WIC spending this year, arguing tough cuts are needed across the government amid the nation’s mounting debt and that they’d rather those babies starve to death than not offer big tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires.
• WIC administrators fear they may have to begin putting people on waitlists to receive aid like breastfeeding support, baby formula and other nutrition assistance. The stop-gap spending bill passed last week left out the White House’s request for an additional $1 billion in funding to cover rising WIC program costs.
• Moving on.
• I’ve mentioned on several occasions that I’m enjoying the social network Threads, which is owned by Meta, the same company that runs Facebook and Instagram.
• After the past week of people making an exodus away from the X (formerly called Twitter) platform when its owner Elon Musk made a series of blatant anti-semitic statements of hating Jewish people, a new member popped up on Threads: President Joe Biden.
• If you want to find me on Threads, it’s https://www.threads.net/@zakclaxton
• Moving on… to star babies.
• The James Webb Space Telescope captured an image of the dense center of the Milky Way, a chaotic region of space. 
• The image features Sagittarius C, a star-forming region about 300 light years from the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A. Some 500,000 stars are visible in the image, including a cluster of still forming baby stars.
• Baby stars!
• And now, The Weather: “I Have No Idea What I'm Doing” by Lo Noom
• In lieu of a chart, I have a stat for you.
• ‘Legend’, the Bob Marley greatest hits collection which came out in 1984 while I was in high school, has now spent 200 non-consecutive weeks at the No. 1 position on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart.
• I mean, it’s a really great album. I think it’s cool that other reggae albums keep hitting the top spot, but then ‘Legend’ pops right back up again as soon as they fade.
• I have a word of advice for people who plan on deep-frying their turkey on Thursday.
• Don’t.
• Just fucking don’t.
• Since some of you won’t take that advice, make sure your turkey is completely thawed before placing it in the boiling oil, because any ice or water left inside the turkey will instantly boil and expand, causing the oil to overflow and ignite when it hits the burner.
• And then your house burns down and people die because you wanted to be some chucklefuck who won’t use an oven like a normal human being.
• Anyway… don’t.
• From the Sports Desk… last night’s Monday Night Football game was a rematch of Super Bowl LVII, with the Philadelphia Eagles taking on this Kansas City Chiefs… except this time, the Eagles won 21-17.
• Side note: Eagles center Jason Kelce finally got his first professional win against his brother Travis Kelce — whom some of you know as Taylor Swift’s boyfriend — and his old coach Andy Reid.
• The Eagles now have the best record in the NFL at 9-1. The worst record? That’s the Carolina Panthers, at 1-9.
• Today in history… Judas Maccabeus restores the Temple in Jerusalem, and this event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah (164 BCE). Danish astronomer Ole Rømer presents the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light (1676). North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state (1789). Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound (1877). Claude Monet's paintings shown at Gallery Durand-Ruel in Paris (1900). The Philadelphia Football Athletics defeat the Kanaweola Athletic Club of Elmira, New York, 39–0, in the first-ever professional American football night game (1902). Albert Einstein's paper that leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc², is published in the journal Annalen der Physik (1905). Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator (1922). American disc jockey Alan Freed, who had popularized the term "rock and roll" and music of that style, is fired from WABC radio over allegations he had participated in the payola scandal (1959). The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI (1969). National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents allegedly implicating them in the Iran–Contra affair (1986). 2002 – NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members (2002). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust (2019).
• November 21 is the birthday of writer/philosopher Voltaire (1694), businessman Samuel Cunard (1787), painter René Magritte (1898), songwriter/producer Buck Ram (1907), NFL player Sid Luckman (1916), MLB player Stan Musial (1920), author Christopher Tolkien (1924), actor Laurence Luckinbill (1934), actress/activist Marlo Thomas (1937), politician Dick Durbin (1944), NBA player Earl Monroe (1944), actor/writer Harold Ramis (1944), actress Goldie Hawn (1945), singer-songwriter Björk (1965), NFL player Troy Aikman (1966), MLB player Ken Griffey Jr. (1969), NFL player/TV host Michael Strahan (1971), singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen (1985), and NFL player Justin Tucker (1989).

That’s enough news. I’m going to work out, do some work, have a meeting or two, and then wrap up my shopping for the feast. Enjoy your day.