Random News: December 28, 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 28, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’m having a relatively busy but pretty good week overall. Let’s talk a little stroll down the information superhighway and try not to get run over.

• Starting with the queen of public handjobs, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
• Boebert had no possibility of being elected in the CO-3 congressional district she represented since 2021, which covers a huge swath of western and southern Colorado. This was true long before the infamous video went public of Boebert and her date performing sexual acts on each other in a theater with children present.
• In 2022, she won her election by only a few hundred votes, less than two percentage points over Democrat Adam Frisch.
• Boebert’s solution? She’s going to abandon her district and run in a different one in 2024. She said in a Facebook video that she intends to seek office in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, which covers the Eastern Plains, currently represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck. 
• Buck said last month that he won't seek reelection in 2024, due to the Republican Party's support of former President Donald Trump and, what he called an embrace of conspiracy theories. He's represented the district since 2015.
• I’m not saying BoBo is smart — this was likely a decision forced on her by the national GOP. But she was going to lose her election next year. Now she has a pretty good shot at winning in the super-conservative CO-4 district, and the Republicans can run a candidate with a better chance of beating Frisch in CO-3.
• Side note: don’t you have to actually live in the district you represent? Maybe she’ll just jack off the voters and that’s good enough for their ballot support.
• Moving on…
• Last night, when a town hall attendee asked Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley what the cause of the U.S. Civil War was, she did not cite slavery as a factor in what led to the bloody conflict.
• Haley is the former governor of South Carolina -- the first state to secede from the Union in 1860. She said that the catalysts were “basically how the government was going to run” and “freedoms and what people could and couldn't do."
• The questioner told Haley they thought it was “astonishing” she gave an answer that did not mention slavery.
• ”What do you want me to say about slavery?” she responded before pivoting and asking for the next question.
• This morning, President Joe Biden wrote a four-word response on the Threads social network: “It was about slavery.”
• Fact check: Correct.
• Moving on to some news of fucking idiots.
• Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters blocked morning traffic yesterday around Los Angeles International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport – two of the nation’s busiest – in coast-to-coast demonstrations that ended with dozens of arrests.
• I support peaceful demonstration 100%. I have participated in many rallies, marches, and demonstrations. My political outlook would be described as liberal, and even progressive by some.
• However, these fucking people are clueless. Some of the anti-Israel protesters chanted “from the river to the sea,” a phrase regarded as a call for the destruction of Israel and which Jewish watchdogs call antisemitic.
• The slogan generally appears as the first half of the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — referring to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, which encompasses Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
• Over 60 people were arrested during the two protests after the demonstrations stopped cars on the outskirts of New York’s JFK, where some travelers set off on foot to bypass the jammed roadway, as well as at LAX.
• I’ll say it again, LOUDLY: you can support Israel’s right to defend itself again terrorist attacks while condemning their overly aggressive military actions against Palestine. You can support the rights of Palestinian citizens who have nothing to do with terrorism while condemning the horrible actions of Hamas terrorists.
• But saying that Israel doesn’t have a right to exist, or blaming Jews around the world for the actions of Israel’s government? You call that a progressive mindset? Fuck all the way off. You’ve done nothing but damaged your cause and forced public support for Palestine to dwindle through actions like this.
• Stupid assholes.
• Moving on.
• Speaking of assholes, though… Jodi Hildebrandt, the business partner of former YouTube personality Ruby Franke, pleaded guilty yesterday to four felony counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse.
• Police had found one of Franke’s children with open wounds after escaping from Hildebrandt’s home, as well as another one of her children in similar malnourished condition inside her home.
• The details of the infliction of physical torture and severe emotional harm to these children are enough to make any decent human sick. Hildebrandt’s sentencing, like Franke’s, is scheduled for February 20.
• I hope the punishment fits the crime.
• Here’s a weird story that I’m not sure how to feel about.
• The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents unanimously fired UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow yesterday after discovering videos posted on porn websites featuring him and his wife.
• Gow, 63, and his wife, Carmen Wilson, appear in videos on several porn websites using "Sexy Happy Couple" as the account name. The couple also published two books under pseudonyms detailing their experiences in the adult film industry. Both books and the social media accounts feature photos clearly showing Gow and Wilson.
• "I would say that anything that I do or my my wife and I do, we do as citizens in the United States, who have the freedom of First Amendment to the Constitution, to create and publish books and videos that explore consensual adult sexuality," he said.
• I mean, he’s not wrong. However, it’s probably something that the University of Wisconsin doesn’t want to be associated with, I guess.
• And now, The Weather: “In The Shadow Of Her” by Horsebeach
• Speaking of which, I have some very local weather news for you in the form of huge-ass surf.
• Residents and beachgoers are being warned about the dangers of a massive swell that is expected to reach its peak along the Southern California coastline today. The high surf and flooding dangers are of particular concern in Ventura County and here at Redondo, Hermosa, Manhattan, and Palos Verdes beaches.
• Waves of 10 to 15 feet with sets to 20 feet are expected. A high surf warning and coastal flood warning are in effect from 4am today to 10pm Saturday.
• I may have to walk down the street and check it out. When I was a kid, I would have been tempted to surf that shit. Not anymore. Death is less appealing to me now.
• Rest in peace to Tom Smothers, the older half of the comic folk duo the Smothers Brothers, whose skits and songs on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in the late 1960s brought political satire and a spirit of youthful irreverence to network television. He was 86.
• You might not know this, but the Smothers Brothers show paved the way for shows like “Saturday Night Live”, “The Daily Show,” and many others.
• Another RIP goes out to Herb Kohl, a former Democratic U.S. senator from Wisconsin and former owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, who died at 88.
• Kohl was a popular figure in Wisconsin, purchasing the Bucks to keep them from leaving town, and spending generously from his fortune on civic and educational causes throughout the state. He also used his own money to fund his Senate races, allowing to him to portray himself as “nobody’s senator but yours.”
• Let’s do a chart. Rewinding back to exactly 40 years ago today, on December 28, 1983, here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100. I am a sophomore in high school and I could sing every lyric to every one of these songs. I probably still could, though I don’t want to test that theory past the first chorus.
• Side note: my friend Derek and I saw Big Country on March 30, 1984 at the Hollywood Palladium, with Wire Train opening. Really great show!
• 1. Say Say Say (Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson). 2. Say It Isn’t So (Daryl Hall & John Oates). 3. Union Of The Snake (Duran Duran). 4. Owner Of a Lonely Heart (Yes). 5. All Night Long (All Night) (Lionel Richie). 6. Uptown Girl (Billy Joel). 7. Love Is a Battlefield (Pat Benatar). 8. Trust Of Fate (Olivia Newton-John). 9. Undercover of the Night (The Rolling Stones). 10. Break My Stride (Matthew Wilder). 11. I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues (Elton John). 12. Talking In Your Sleep (The Romantics). 13. Church of the Poison Mind (Culture Club). 14. Major Tom (Coming Home) (Peter Schilling). 15. Cum On Feel The Noize (Quiet Riot). 16. Synchronicity II (The Police). 17. Karma Chameleon (Culture Club). 18. Islands In the Stream (Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton). 19. Why me? (Irene Cara). 20. In A Big Country (Big Country).
• A little update on this actual news report, as I’m prone to do now and then.
• Since I started Zak’s Random News — my daily compilation of news stories and various musings — in May 2022, we’re now up to 772,105 words.
• To be clear, this isn’t journalism. That would mean that I was researching and fact-checking information on a direct basis, maintaining my own independent sources and putting together completely original content.
• Instead, it’s simply dissemination of existing news content, along with some opinions and trivial info. Still, having passed over three-quarters of a million words since I started, it’s no small feat.
• Where do I get my news that I pass along to you? Almost all of it comes from neutral news sources like the Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and information that I initially discover on social media (such as Threads) but then verify before adding to my daily news.
• Anyway, at 772,105 words, I long ago surpassed the word count of book series such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ including “The Hobbit” at 550,147 words. I’ve also left Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” in the dust at its 587,287 words. “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell is a paltry 418,053. “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville is just 206,052 words.
• I mean, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis is seriously just 36,363 words, a sum that I pass in under a month.
• A typical novel ranges anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words, with the average coming in at around 90,000 words. 
• From the Sports Desk… the Denver Broncos are benching quarterback Russell Wilson for the remainder of the 2023 NFL season.
• This is too complicated to get into now, but the reason is a combination of Wilson’s poor performance and his huge contract. It’s obvious that the Broncos are looking to unload Wilson on another team as soon as possible.
• Today in history… John C. Calhoun is becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign, after being elected Senator from South Carolina (1832). Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army (1835). Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state (1846). Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays (1895). The Syracuse Athletic Club defeat the New York Philadelphians, 5–0, in the first indoor professional football game, which was held at Madison Square Garden (1902). The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco (1912). Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium (1958). American businesswoman Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (1967). The last scheduled day for induction into the military by the Selective Service System (1972). 
• December 28 is the birthday of brewer John Molson (1763), astronomer Thomas Henderson (1798), US president Woodrow Wilson (1856), singer-songwriter Pops Staples (1914), writer/publisher Stan Lee (1922), NHL player Terry Sawchuk (1929), actress Maggie Smith (1934), musician Edgar Winter (1946), singer-songwriter Alex Chilton (1950), actor Denzel Washington (1954), NHL player Ray Bourque (1960), computer programmer Linus Torvalds (1969), and actor/TV host Seth Meyers (1973).

That’s all for now. Enjoy your day.