Random News: December 22, 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 December 22, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! It’s the Friday before Christmas… not sure that means anything other than hopefully, work will be slightly more mellow today than in recent times. Let’s see what’s going on.

• Prague, Czech Republic is in shock and mourning today after a gunman killed 14 people and injured 25 more at Charles University, the deadliest peacetime attack in the history of the country.
• This is obviously awful news, especially this close to Christmas, but it does highlight how rare these incidents of gun violence are in countries other than the USA. It was the first-ever school or college shooting in the Czech Republic.
• How many have happened here?
• I like the message from Interior Minister Vít Rakušan, who asked the media and the public not to share information about the gunman and details of the shooting. “Do not give the perpetrator what he wanted. Do not give him the publicity, do not give anyone a chance to be inspired by this act,” he said.
• I agree.
• Moving on.
• A recording of a telephone call from November 17, 2020 has surfaced in which former President Donnie “El Dumpo” Dump is heard pressuring two Michigan officials not to certify his election loss to Joe Biden.
• Dumpy and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers — the body that certifies election results for Michigan's most populous county, home to Detroit — to urge them not to sign off on the results.
• McDaniel told the canvassers: "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. We will get you attorneys.”
• ”We'll take care of that," Trump added.
• That, kids, is a crime. It’s a similar crime as the one Dump and his gang are being charged with in Georgia. Don’t be shocked if new indictments pop up and again the Orange Goblin as a result.
• In other Dump-related news, California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis is urging Secretary of State Shirley Weber to follow Colorado's suit and "explore every legal option to remove" Donnie Dump from California's 2024 presidential primary ballot.
• Hee hee.
• Moving on.
• Two minutes after I posted yesterday’s news about the court order for Rudy Giuliani to immediately pay the $145,969,000 judgement in the defamation case judgement to Fulton County election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, Rudy declared bankruptcy.
• Giuliani estimates that he’s in the hole for somewhere between $100 million and $500 million. However, the bankruptcy does not absolve him from paying Freeman and Moss, who are cleared to begin seizing his assets.
• No sympathy.
• Let’s do some lurid news.
• Florida cops have obtained a sex tape involving Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler and another woman as part of their rape investigation into Ziegler’s husband, state Republican Party chair Christian Ziegler.
• Ziegler is accused of raping a friend who’d previously had a threesome with him and his wife, which he’d recorded on video. The second video depicts Bridget engaging in sexual activity with a woman. It’s unclear whether the person in the video is the accuser.
• Since the sex scandal broke, Bridget has faced calls to resign from the Sarasota school board, and Christian was stripped of his salary and authority as GOP chair after refusing to resign. Officials will vote to remove him from office January 8.
• Again, the problem isn’t the sex; it’s that both of these people use their positions of power to subjugate and discriminate against other people for their sexuality. It’s the hypocrisy. That’s the problem.
• Let’s do some health news. As I scroll down my Facebook feed, I seem to be seeing a huge portion of my friends have COVID, or have family members who do. It’s the last thing anyone would want heading into Christmas.
• The new COVID-19 variant that scientists call JN.1 now makes up about 44.1% of COVID cases across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated today, marking another week of the fast-spreading variant's steep rise in the U.S.
• The increase is more than two times larger than the 21.3% that the CDC now estimates the strain made up of infections for the week ending December 9, after Thanksgiving.
• The CDC estimates that JN.1's prevalence is largest in the Northeast region spanning New Jersey and New York, where the strain is 56.9% of cases in those states.
• So try and avoid that if you can.
• Speaking of avoiding things, be sure to avoid Florida.
• Nearly 700 books have been pulled from teachers’ shelves in Orange County, FL schools this year to comply with new state rules.
• The banned books include works by Shakespeare and popular titles like “Catch 22″ and “Charlotte’s Web.” It’s all in an effort to follow state law that bans books with sex or pornography.
• Disturbingly, the bad also includes a global bestseller by a Jewish Holocaust victim; a novel by a beloved and politically conservative Jewish American writer; a memoir of growing up mixed-race and Jewish; and a contemporary novel about a high-achieving Jewish family.
• Do not let these Nazis win. Fight with all your might.
• In one more story of the evilness that is pervasive in our world, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) tried to compel a Seattle hospital to hand over information about gender-affirming treatment Texas youths may have received across state lines.
• The Seattle Children’s Hospital requested a Texas judge nullify, or at least rein in, Paxton’s demands, arguing that his office lacks the jurisdiction over the Washington state hospital.
• Fuck Ken Paxton.
• And now, The Weather: “The Line” by Aure
• I and my fellow Southern Californians got in on the nasty weather trend for the past day or two. The storm system drenched parts of coastal Southern California with 1 to 5 inches of rain from early Wednesday to late Thursday, with some areas seeing more than 6 inches of rainfall. 
• The deluge led to knee-deep floodwaters in some areas, road closures and an evacuation warning for communities in Ventura County just days before the holiday weekend.
• We’re fine here, but a number of neighbors on my street had to use sandbags to keep the waters from flooding their garages and homes.
• From the Sports Desk… in last night’s NFL game, the Los Angeles Rams (8-7) beat the new Orleans Saints (7-8) by a score of 30-22. I don’t think either of these teams will make the playoffs, but there are still a couple of regular season games left to find out.
• Today in history… Three weeks after the death of King Henry I of England, Stephen of Blois claims the throne and is privately crowned King of England, beginning the English Anarchy (1135). The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson (1807). Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy (1808). Savannah, GA, falls to the Union's Army of the Tennessee (1864). Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography (1891). The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City (1937). German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: “Nuts!" (1944). The first test flight of the SR-71 Blackbird takes place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, CA (1964). Gerald Ford creates the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to the 1970s energy crisis (1975). Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany (1989). Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63 (2001). The repeal of the Don't ask, don't tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama (2010). The 2018–2019 United States federal government shutdown, the longest shutdown of the U.S. federal government in history, begins (2018).
• December 22 is the birthday of playwright Jean Racine (1639), composer Carl Friedrich Abel (1723), politician Frank B. Kellogg (1856), composer Giacomo Puccini (1858), composer Edgard Varèse (1883), chemist St. Elmo Brady (1894), first lady Lady Bird Johnson (1912), actress Barbara Billingsley (1915), actor Héctor Elizondo (1936), journalist Diane Sawyer (1945), MLB player Steve Garvey (1948), guitarist/songwriter Rick Nielsen (1948), singer-songwriter Maurice Gibb (1949), singer-songwriter Robin Gibb (1949), NFL player Ray Guy (1949), guitarist/songwriter Frank Gambale (1958), painter/poet Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960), actor Ralph Fiennes (1962), rapper DaBaby (1991), and singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor (1993).

Alrighty, I guess that’s all. I’m starting to feel a bit better overall after a few days on antibiotics, which is good. I’m not at all ready for Christmas, which is bad, but later today and tomorrow, I’ll take care of the remaining things that I think I need to do. Enjoy your day.