Random News: November 27, 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 27, 2023, and it’s a Monday. It’s the worst sort of Monday; a back-to-work Monday where you’re struggling to remember what you actually do for a living. I’m sure things will start becoming more familiar as I start getting into it. Meanwhile, let’s do some news.

• Starting with something good on the labor front. Leaders of Portland Public Schools and the Portland Association of Teachers finalized a tentative agreement yesterday, allowing 43,000 students to return to school today for the first time since Halloween.
• The final sticking point – an additional $4 million in raises – was resolved in favor of teachers. Union leaders agreed that teachers will return to work on today, even though the district’s 3,500 unionized educators won’t have a chance to review and vote on the proposed contract by then.
• Good… for the teachers and students. Moving on.
• If you thought that Palestine and Ukraine were the only places in the world experiencing violent conflict, you’re wrong… and we never seem to talk about Africa for some reason.
• A nationwide curfew was been declared in Sierra Leone after gunmen attacked the country's main and largest military barracks in Freetown, the capital city, raising fears of a breakdown of order amid a surge of coups in the region. The curfew has since been lifted, though will be in place again tonight.
• President Julius Maada Bio later said most of the leaders behind the attack had been arrested.He described the events as a "breach of security" and an attack on democracy.
• He carefully avoided calling them an attempted coup. Bio said calm had been restored but gave no details about who the perpetrators were or what they wanted.
• Hmm.
• Back in the USA, Congress is aiming to pass a foreign aid package by the end of this year to provide what lawmakers say is critically needed assistance for key U.S. allies, including Israel and Ukraine.
• Despite the USA’s longstanding support for allies Israel and Ukraine, President Joe Biden's emergency request for foreign aid has met hurdles in the House and Senate over how to move forward.
• A bipartisan Israel-only aid bill is at a standstill because House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) included an offset provision that would pay for the assistance through cuts to the Internal Revenue Service budget.
• Meanwhile, the Republicans are trying to link U.S. aid to Ukraine with immigration reform.
• And throughout the process, nothing happens. This entire Congress might become famous mostly for their inability to do anything at all.
• Speaking of our President, Joe Biden will invoke a Cold War-era measure to boost investment in U.S. manufacturing of medicines and medical supplies that he has deemed important for national defense.
• The announcement is part of a series of measures the Biden administration is unveiling today to help industrial supply chains and counter several years of historically high inflation. Biden will authorize the Department of Health and Human Services to use powers under the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to enable investments in essential medicines.
• The areas of investment also include "medical countermeasures," which include supplies that diagnose, prevent, or treat diseases related to chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attacks.
• Um. Well, that’s not frightening or anything.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic on the Manhattan Bridge.
• The demonstration demanding a cease-fire in Israel's war on Hamas militants in Gaza came on one of the busiest travel days of the year. The protest ended around 6pm, and the NYPD said there were multiple arrests at the demonstration.
• Among the organizers was Jewish Voice for Peace, which has called Israel an apartheid state.
• A current pause in the war to facilitate the exchange of Hamas hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody and the delivery of aid is set to expire tomorrow. It would be great to extend the period of peace if possible.
• It’s being said that both Israel and Hamas have expressed interest in extending the truce. Here’s hoping.
• In related news, Elon Musk is in major damage-control mode after his social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) faces tanking advertising revenue in the wake of Musk’s blatant antisemitic comments.
• To that end, Musk is meeting today with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Musk was taken to Kfar Azza — one of the kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on October 7 — by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The kibbutz was the home of Abigail Edan, a four-year-old American dual citizen abducted by the militant group that day and released Sunday.
• In a live online conversation with Netanyahu today, Musk agreed with the prime minister that Israel must destroy Hamas. Let’s see how well that plays with the anti-Jewish cabal that’s taken over much of Twitter.
• Musk’s visit to Israel comes more than a week after he agreed with the conspiracy theory claim that Jewish communities push “hatred against Whites,” a theory that has long been espoused by online hate groups.
• Also in likely related news, Burlington, VT police have arrested a white man who is suspected of shooting three 20-year-old men of Palestinian descent on Saturday, which we covered in our weekly “Sunday Gunday” section yesterday.
• The three men were in Burlington visiting the home of one of the victim's relatives for Thanksgiving. Two of the victims were shot in the torso while the third man was shot in his lower extremities.
• Two of the victims were wearing keffiyehs, scarfs that have come to symbolize Palestinian solidarity. Two of them are U.S. citizens and one is a legal resident. 
• Police detained Jason J. Eaton, 48, yesterday afternoon. Evidence collected during a search of Eaton's home gave investigators and prosecutors probable cause to believe that he’d perpetrated the shooting. He was then arrested and is scheduled to be arraigned today.
• Fucking piece of shit.
• Just one note in political news today.
• The Republican Party’s finances are increasingly worrisome to party members, advisers to former president Donald Trump, and other operatives involved in the 2024 election effort.
• The Republican National Committee disclosed that it had $9.1 million in cash on hand as of Oct. 30, the lowest amount for the RNC in any Federal Election Commission report since February 2015. That compares with about $20 million at the same point in the 2016 election cycle and about $61 million four years ago.
• The Democratic National Committee reported having $17.7 million as of Oct. 30, almost twice as much as the Republican Party, with one year before the election.
• It seems that big-dollar and small-level donors are way down as it becomes apparent that most of the money is going toward the legal defenses of the criminals who make up much of the party.
• Okay, one other note.
• Tuesday will mark the first time lawmakers are back in the Capitol since the House Ethics Committee released a damning report about Rep. George Santos (R-NY),  which said he “violated federal criminal laws.”
• The chair of that panel — Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) — introduced a resolution to expel Santos, and other lawmakers have said they plan to force a vote on the New York representative’s ouster this week.
• He will not be missed.
• And now, The Weather: “Stump” by Hotline TNT
• RIP to Kevin “Geordie” Walker, guitarist and founding member of post-punk icons Killing Joke, who died after suffering a massive stroke. He was 64.
• Killing Joke formed in 1978 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), and Youth (bass). Apart from Coleman, Walker was the only constant member over the group’s 45-year history. His inventive style — atmospheric and aggressive — inspired countless others over the last four decades.
• From the Sports Desk… the Carolina Panthers fired head coach Frank Reich this morning. I like Reich, but an NFL-worst 1-10 record doesn’t keep a coach around for long.
• It will be the sixth straight losing season for the Panther since owner David Tepper purchased the team in 2018 for $2.275 billion.
• Today in history… James Pratt and John Smith are hanged in London; they are the last two to be executed for sodomy in England (1835). Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an attack on Cheyenne living on reservation land (1868). Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss is first performed (1896). In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held (1924). CARE is founded to send CARE Packages of food relief to Europe after World War II (1945). The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module. It malfunctions and crashes, but it is the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars (1971). The United States Senate votes 92–3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (1973). In San Francisco, city mayor George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by former supervisor Dan White (1978). A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet (2001). 
• November 27 is the birthday of Aragon King Ferdinand I (1380), physicist Anders Celsius (1701), painter Frank Dicksee (1853), Israel president Chaim Weizmann (1874), novelist/critic James Agee (1909), sportscaster Chick Hearn (1916), car dealer Cal Worthington (1920), drummer Al Jackson, Jr. (1934), actor/martial artist Bruce Lee (1940), singer-songwriter Eddie Rabbit (1941), singer-songwriter/guitarist Jimi Hendrix (1942), trumpeter Randy Brecker (1945), human glob of goo Steve Bannon (1953), engineer/educator Bill Nye (1955), lawyer/diplomat Caroline Kennedy (1957), MLB player/manager Mike Scioscia (1958), and actor Jaleel White (1976).

As usual, there’s more, but I don’t have more time to tell you what it is. Ah well. Enjoy your day.