Random News: December 1, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s December 1, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m feeling pretty good this morning, and I never take that for granted. Let’s see what’s going on in this wacky-ass world in which we live.

• Rabbit rabbit rabbit. Welcome to December.
• December is a month both delightful and stressful in various ways. This is my first December as an orphan; some of my greatest memories as a child revolved around the huge Christmas tree, the decorations, the music, the food, and all the other elements of the season.
• But, as most of us realize at some point, it eventually becomes your role to be the creator of new happy memories for others to enjoy. And so it goes.
• Alrighty. Let’s get to the news… stating with a breaking story.
• Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the court, has died. She was 93.
• O’Connor was appointed to the court by Reagan in 1981 and retired in 2006, after serving more than 24 years on the Court. While on the court, she was called "the most powerful woman in America." She often cast the deciding vote in cases involving abortion, affirmative action, national security, campaign finance reform, and separation of church and state.
• Rest in peace.
• And some more breaking news from this morning: a federal appeals court has ruled that Donald Trump can be sued for inciting the January 6 failed coup attempt at the US Capitol.
• It was previously argued that Dump was immune in his role as President at the time. The appeals court disagreed. More details on this coming soon.
• In other Dumples news…
• A state appeals court in New York reinstated a gag order against Donnie Dump and his lawyers in the $250 million civil fraud case against the former presidumb and his company, rejecting his argument the order was unconstitutional.
• State court officials put the gag order in place after Trump had bizarrely blasted the court’s clerk on social media, and then renewed his attacks on the clerk after a judge issued a temporary stay of the order earlier this month.
• But the ruling yesterday by a four-judge panel rejected Dump's appeal and reinstated the orders against Trump and his lawyers.
• Judge Arthur Engoron said, "I intend to enforce the gag orders rigorously and vigorously and I want to make sure counsel informs their clients of the fact that the stay was vacated.”
• In my final note about El Dumpo, a woman formerly employed by the Trump National Golf Club filed a lawsuit this week claiming she was pressured into sex by her supervisor and coerced by Trump’s personal lawyer into signing an illegal nondisclosure agreement.
• Alice Bianco filed her lawsuit against the Bedminster, New Jersey, club in the state’s Middlesex County Superior Court. In her claim, Bianco makes a series of disturbing allegations about her experience as a server at the club in 2021 when she was 21.
• Typical. Sexual harassment is just part of daily life at every level of the Trump crime family.
• Enough on that. Let’s move south to Florida for some deliciously juicy news.
• Christian Ziegler is Florida’s GOP chairman. His wife is Sarasota County School Board member and Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler. As you probably know, Moms for Liberty is one of those crazy right-wing “parents’ right groups” who demand that books be removed from libraries, especially those that involve same-sex relationships of any kind. The group has been at the forefront of the movement to remove LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum from classrooms. 
• With me so far?
• Well, Christian Ziegler is now under criminal investigation after a woman filed a complaint with the Sarasota Police Department alleging the longtime Republican official had raped her. 
• That’s obviously terrible, but wait.
• The victim alleged that she and both Christian  and Bridget Ziegler have been involved in a longstanding consensual three-way sexual relationship prior to the incident. The incident under investigation occurred when Christian Ziegler and the woman were alone at the woman’s house, without Bridget Ziegler present.
• So look: I respect that people have private sex lives and I’m the opposite of the kind of person who would shame anyone’s sexuality or their kinks or their choices in relationships. Hats off to all consenting adults and their actions.
• But Bridget Ziegler has spent years on a crusade to remove any reference of LGBTQIA people from schools, and then going home and eating this woman’s pussy every night? Once again, it’s the hypocrisy that seriously bothers me.
• It’s my suspicion that the majority of these people who are so virulently vocal in their anti-gay rhetoric are, in fact… gay. Which is fine, but they should just be open about it, or be willing to allow other people to live their most authentic lives.
• Moving on.
• Advertisers said yesterday that they did not plan to reopen their wallets anytime soon with X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, after its owner, Elon Musk, used the words “Go fuck yourself” in a statement to brands who’d been advertising there, and then told them not to spend on the platform.
• Sounds good! I will continue to never spend a dime on Twitter, nor support them with my content.
• At least half a dozen marketing agencies said the brands they represent were standing firm against advertising on X, while others said they had advised advertisers to stop posting anything on the platform.
• Lou Paskalis, the founder and chief executive of marketing consultancy AJL Advisory, said, “There is no advertising value that would offset the reputational risk of going back on the platform.”
• Agreed.
• I watched a few minutes of the big Rob DeSantis/Gavin Newsom debate on Fox last night. It was too stupid to view for long.
• Gavin had some great quotable zingers, including, "There are profound differences tonight, and I'm happy to engage them, but one thing we do have in common is neither of us will be the nominee of our party in 2024."
• Burn!
• "When are you going to drop out and at least give Nikki Haley a shot to take down Donald Trump in his nomination?”
• Extra burn!
• But the end result of this pointless debacle of a debate is that if you're a conservative, you likely hold up California as everything that's wrong with America. But if you're left of center, you likely see DeSantis and his governance as abhorrent.
• In other words, this changed nothing.. Moving on.
• The rate of suicides involving guns in the United States has reached the highest level since officials began tracking it more than 50 years ago.
• Overall, about 27,000 of 50,000 suicides were carried out by gun in 2022.
• Two factors were singled out as possible causes for the rise. First is that the pandemic exacerbated many of the known risk factors for suicide generally, like social isolation, strained relationships, and drug and alcohol disorders.
• The second factor is a little more tangible: rising gun sales. See, when you have a depressive episode, most people eventually get past it and with some help, they get better. But if you have easy access to a gun, you might make an irreversible decision. And more people have more access to guns than ever before, due to lax laws about gun purchasing and ownership.
• And now, The Weather: “Jean” by Hovvdy
• In actual weather news, heads up to my friends in the PNW.
• Multiple storms are making a beeline for the Pacific Northwest, which will result in a prolonged period of heavy precipitation and gusty winds at times. Over the next week, a widespread 4 to 8 inches of rain is predicted for lower elevations and as much as 15 to 20 inches in the mountains.
• Be safe, my peoples.
• From the Sports Desk… the Seattle Seahawks did surprisingly well against the hot Dallas Cowboys, and the Thursday night game was very close the whole way through. Dallas ended up winning 41-35.
• Today in history… A council is convened in the Vatican, at which Charlemagne — my 39th great grandfather — is to judge the accusations against Pope Leo III (800). Diarist John Evelyn records skating on the frozen lake in St James's Park, London, watched by Charles II and Queen Catherine (1662). Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the 1824 presidential election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1824). In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation (1862). President Rutherford B. Hayes gets the first telephone installed in the White House (1878). Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom (1918). Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom (1919). The National Hockey League's first United States-based franchise, the Boston Bruins, plays their first game in league play at home (1924). The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery (1952). In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws (1955). World AIDS Day is proclaimed worldwide by the UN member states (1988). Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet beneath the seabed (1990). Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union (1991). The outbreak of coronavirus infection begins in Wuhan, China (2019).
• December 1 is the birthday of sculptor Marie Tussaud (1761), general/politician Zhu De (1886), general/politician Georgy Zhukov (1896), actress/singer Mary Martin (1913), nun/activist Mother Antonia (1926), actor David Doyle (1929), saxophonist Jimmy Lyons (1931), singer-songwriter Lou Rawls (1933), golfer Lee Trevino (1939),  comedian/actor/screenwriter Richard Pryor (1940), drummer/songwriter John Densmore (1944), singer-songwriter/actress Bette Midler (1945), drug lord/terrorist Pablo Escobar (1949), bassist/songwriter Jaco Pastorius (1951), actor Treat Williams (1951), singer-songwriter Julee Cruise (1956), model Carol Alt (1960), guitarist Brad Delson (1977), singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe (1985), NFL player DeSean Jackson (1986), and actress Zoë Kravitz (1988).

Okay then. That’s plenty for now. Enjoy your day.