Random News: November 29, 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 29, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. I’m here and ready to tell you some things that have happened.

• The temporary truce between Israel and Hamas is set to expire today, but mediators in Qatar are trying to extend it for at least another 48 hours to allow for the exchange of more captives and for additional aid to reach Gaza.
• The latest swap since the cease-fire began Friday had 10 Israeli citizens and two Thai nationals freed by Hamas and had been returned to Israel. Soon after, Israel released 30 Palestinian prisoners. The truce is currently due to end after one more exchange tonight.
• Hope the good news in the Middle East continues. Moving on…
• Life expectancy in the United States shows a partial rebound from the worst phase of the COVID pandemic, but drug overdoses, homicides, and chronic illnesses such as heart disease continue to drive a long-term mortality crisis that has placed our country on the low end of longevity among wealthy nations.
• Per info from the CDC, life expectancy for 2022 in the USA rose more than a full year, to 77.5 years. Over 80% of this positive jump was attributable to a drop in COVID-19 deaths.
• But the rebound in 2022 regained less than half the years lost to the pandemic. In 2019, U.S. life expectancy at birth stood at 78.8 years before nosediving to 76.4 in 2021.
• Let’s try to live longer, people.
• In other news, gotta give credit where credit is due…
• Sunday (November 26) was the busiest day ever at airports in the USA, with the TSA reporting 2,884,783 people screened. It was also an incredibly smooth day of travel with fewer than one-half of one percent of 51,332 scheduled flights canceled.
• This tells me Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is doing a damn fine job.
• Up next, a story that I’m posting this next item for a specific reason.
• A former girlfriend of Jason Eaton, the guy accused of shooting three Palestinian college students in Vermont, had at one point reported him to the police because he was harassing her with messages "sexual in nature" — but she stopped short of pressing charges against him.
• He’d sent her numerous sexual text messages, emails and phone calls after she made it clear she didn't want to communicate with him or see him anymore. They weren’t threatening messages, but they were unwanted. And that’s the point I wanted to make.
• People, if someone says they are not interested in you, that’s not a signal to be even more annoying to them. If someone doesn’t want to date you, move on to someone else. If someone says they don’t want you to contact them, regardless of the previous nature of the relationship, just don’t.
• It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you deserve to be treated that way. I think this sense of entitlement is the cause of a lot of problems. Listen to what people tell you, believe them, accept the loss and move on.
• Moving on.
• Disgraced national joke George Santos (R-NY) has said he will not be resigning ahead of a vote that could see him expelled from the House following a scathing ethics report.
• That report states that Santos knowingly used his campaign committee to file false and incomplete reports to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), that he used campaign donations for personal expenses, that he violated the Ethics in Government Act, and that he committed fraud using a company he co-owned.
• Santos used campaign money to pay for Botox, luxury purchases at Hermes and Ferragamo, and spent his constituents and supporters money to masturbate on OnlyFans, among other things.
• I find the overall concept of taking money from people to literally jack off seems very on-brand for Republicans. I wonder how many other GOP reps are doing the same? Perhaps the ethics probe should be expanded, computer records researched and so on.
• While we’re on political news…
• Dumpy is creating bigly problems for his fellow Republicans, especially those locked in tight Senate races. Over this past weekend, he made extremist statements on health care, immigration, and other issues unlikely to play well with swing voters in key states. 
• Among other repulsive statements, Dump declared that if elected president again, he would make another run at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. 
• A bunch of GOP Senators immediately distanced themselves from Dump’s comments. Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-SD) said he doesn’t know what Trump is talking about. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the ranking Republican on the Senate Health Committee, said repealing Obamacare was unlikely to happen regardless. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), said there’s no consensus within his party on how to replace former President Obama’s landmark law. 
• But the biggest thing that would happen with Dump’s proposal would be to repeal protections for people with preexisting conditions, a key reform of ObamaCare. 
• Remember this when you vote in 2024.
• Some more political news… the possibly good kind.
• A proposed Georgia House map released on Monday drew five new majority-Black districts and forced several incumbents into head-to-head matchups in next year’s elections.
• The maps arrived the day before legislators return to the Georgia Capitol for a special session in response to a federal judge’s ruling that the state’s political boundaries drawn in 2021 illegally weakened Black voting power.
• While this seems like great news on the surface, the new map — which was drawn by state Republicans — might not be enough to meet the standards of Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act.
• Some districts declared illegal saw changes that did little to affect their racial or partisan balance. By contrast, Republicans propose redrawing a number of Democratic-held districts in Fulton and Cobb counties that U.S. District Judge Steve Jone didn’t single out.
• Okay, let’s do some good news for real.
• Yesterday, 813,000 Americans got emails today announcing that their student loans have been forgiven under programs rolled out by President Biden.
• The Biden Administration has now forgiven $127 billion in loans for 3.6 million Americans.
• Hallelujah.
• Moving on… to the clusterfuck formerly known as Twitter.
• In recent days, a number of prominent media brands have not only paused their paid marketing campaigns on the embattled Elon Musk-owned social platform, but have ceased posting on it altogether.
• The flagship accounts belonging to Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery have not posted on the platform in over 10 days, following Musk’s disturbing endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which he still has not apologized for.
• Using Disney as an example, the studio’s most high profile accounts, such as @StarWars, @Pixar, and @MarvelStudios, which were previously posting multiple times a day on the platform to their millions of followers, have gone dark. Instead, these brands have switched over to the Meta-owned rival Threads, where they have started actively posting.
• And now, The Weather: “Water Underground” by Real Estate
• Speaking of which, significant winter weather hit communities across the interior Northeast this morning. As expected, more than 40 inches of snow fell over the past two days over parts of the Great Lakes and interior Northeast in the first significant lake-effect snow event of the season.
• The heaviest snowfall was recorded at Constableville, New York, where 42.7 inches landed. Yikes! Cold weather and snow has been happening across the Midwest as well.
• Stay warm and safe, peoples.
• From the Sports Desk… 25 semifinalists were just announced as potential inductees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This will be pared down to 15 before the final voting process for the 2024 class.
• Eric Allen, CB. Jared Allen, DE. Willie Anderson, T. Tiki Barber, RB. Anquan Boldin, WR. Jahri Evans, G. London Fletcher, LB. Dwight Freeney, DE. Antonio Gates, TE. Eddie George, RB. James Harrison, LB. Rodney Harrison, S. Devin Hester, PR/KR/WR. Torry Holt, WR. Andre Johnson, WR. Robert Mathis, DE/LB. Julius Peppers, DE. Steve Smith Sr., WR. Fred Taylor, RB. Hines Ward, WR. Ricky Watters, RB. Reggie Wayne, WR. Vince Wilfork, DT. Patrick Willis, LB. Darren Woodson, S.
• A typical enshrinement class will have 5-9 of these players. 
• Today in history… San Jose, CA is founded as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe and is the first civilian settlement, or pueblo, in Alta California (1777). The crew of the British slave ship Zong murders 54 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance (1781). Union forces under Ambrose Burnside successfully defend Knoxville, TN from Confederate forces under James Longstreet (1863). Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time (1877). FC Barcelona is founded by Catalan, Spanish and Englishmen (1899). Richard E. Byrd leads the first expedition to fly over the South Pole (1929). The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia is declared (1945). Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1963). "I Want to Hold Your Hand", recorded on October 17, 1963, is released by the Beatles in the United Kingdom (1963). Atari releases Pong, the first commercially successful video game (1972). 
• November 29 is the birthday of evangelist the Public Universal Friend (1752), physicist Christian Doppler (1803), novelist Louisa May Alcott (1832), physicist John Ambrose Fleming (1849), director/choreographer Busby Berkeley (1895), novelist C. S. Lewis (1898), singer-songwriter/guitarist Merle Travis (1917), author Madeleine L’Engle (1918), sportscaster Vin Scully (1927), singer-songwriter/guitarist John Mayall (1933), actress Diane Ladd (1935), musician/producer Meco (1939), horn player/composer Chuck Mangione (1940), singer-songwriter/pianist Felix Cavaliere (1944), singer-songwriter/guitarist Ronnie Montrose (1947), comedian Garry Shandling (1949), guitarist Barry Goudreau (1951), writer/director Joel Coen (1954), comedian/TV host Howie Mandel (1955), politician Janet Napolitano (1957), politician Rahm Emanuel (1959), actor Andrew McCarthy (1962), actor Don Cheadle (1964), actor Brian Baumgartner (1972), actor Chadwick Boseman (1976), actress Anna Faris (1976), politician Andy Beshear (1977), NFL player Russell Wilson (1988), and NFL player Stefon Diggs (1993).

That’s enough for now. I’m going to try and convince myself to deal with some health things that I’ve been putting off. Wish me luck. I’m super stubborn in some ways and I don’t enjoy dealing with myself. Wish me luck in my battle against me. Enjoy your day.