Random News: December 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 December 29, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Contrary to most people’s experiences, the week between Christmas and New Year’s has been busy as fuck for me, getting my clients ready for 2024 product rollouts and a big upcoming trade show. For that and other reasons, I’m very glad it’s Friday, so let’s see what’s happening.

• Maine’s top election official has removed former President and current accused felon Donnie Dump from the state’s 2024 primary ballot, in a decision based on the 14th Amendment’s insurrectionist ban.
• As was the situation in Colorado, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows paused her decision pending a potential appeal in state court.
• The decision makes Maine the second state to disqualify Trump from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment tot he US Constitution, a provision that was designed to protect the country from anti-democratic insurrectionists.
• And apparently, it’s working! It’s like they knew what they were doing when they wrote it. Mission accomplished. 
• Ratified after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment says American officials who engage in insurrection can’t hold future office. Seems straightforward to me.
• Moving on to some more very good news.
• A new system that will put independent lawyers in charge of the prosecution of sexual assault cases in the U.S. military took effect on yesterday.
• As a result of the change, sexual assault and other serious crimes will shift away from military commanders to legal organizations within each military service called the Offices of Special Trial Counsel.
• In 2022, the Pentagon's Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military showed incidents rose 13% in the Navy, 9% in the Air Force and 3.6% in the Marine Corps. While incidents in the Army fell 9%, there were still 8,942 reports of sexual assault across the entire force. In military academies, 1 in 5 female students said they experienced sexual assault
• Last year, Congress passed legislation to strengthen protections for service members, and in July, President Biden approved the system that takes effect today.
• It’s about time. When you thank a servicewoman, remember that she’s probably had to fight battles that their male counterparts never faced.
• And yes… I am fully aware that sexual assault and unwanted sexual contact, in the military and elsewhere, happens to men as well.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday the Biden administration warned Texas that it will sue the state if it implements a strict immigration law known as SB4 that would empower state and local law enforcement officials to arrest, jail, and prosecute migrants suspected of entering the U.S. unlawfully.
• In addition to creating illegal entry crimes at the state level, the law would allow Texas judges to issue de facto deportation orders.
• The DOJ said SB4 would effectively criminalize actions that are already illegal at the federal level, undermine relations with Mexico, and prevent officials from enforcing federal immigration laws, including those designed to grant refuge to migrants fleeing persecution. 
• Also, as I questioned before, how are local law enforcement officers in Texas going to handle SB4? By asking people for their birth certificate on the street? Who will they ask? Anyone who is brown skinned?
• Fucking un-American bullshit is what that is. Texas leaders should be deeply ashamed.
• In other news, some disconcerting reports on the global front this morning.
• Poland's armed forces believes a Russian missile entered their country for almost three minutes and then turned back into Ukrainian airspace.
• President Andrzej Duda convened an emergency security meeting after the object was picked up on radar.
• Poland is a member of the NATO alliance, and Polish and Allied aircraft were scrambled in response to the incident today. I’ll remind you that the NATO pact says that any attack on a member nation is viewed as an attack on all… including the United States.
• In Ukraine, at least 18 people were killed in the attacks which targeted Lviv, the closest Ukrainian city to Poland’s Lublin region, as well as Dnipro, Kyiv, and other cities.
• Let’s try not to think about WWIII and move on to some better news.
• With 2023 almost at a close, our country is poised to finish the year with its biggest annual drop in homicides on record.
• The homicide rate in the United States is expected to plummet nearly 13% compared to 2022, meaning more than 2,000 fewer people were the victims of homicide this year.
• Cities say the 2023 drop in homicides and other violent crimes can be attributed to expanded efforts to prevent crime, including working with community volunteers, targeting gun possession in high-crime areas, and placing officers on foot and bike patrols.
• Good. Let’s keep that trend rolling. 
• I was skimming the news yesterday when I ran across a CBS headline that made me laugh incredulously.
• Here was the headline: "How much house can I afford on a $50,000 salary?”
• The answer, if you were wondering, is a house that costs $150,000. I then looked at local real estate listings, and the lowest-priced residence I could find that one is able to purchase in Redondo Beach, CA is $980,000.
• Yes, I know I live in an expensive beachside city. But still, you tell me what kind of house you can buy in your area for $150,000. I’m interested in seeing what you find.
• And now, The Weather: “December” by Shuttle
• A massive rogue wave slammed into a sea wall along the beach, in Ventura, CA yesterday, sweeping up a truck and sending numerous people to the hospital. Ventura is about an hour drive north of where I live.
• Video of the moment shows a crowd standing in a parking lot near the ocean before quickly scrambling to try to outrun the incoming wave.
• Be careful, fellow beach people.
• I found myself musing about my age, a topic that neither concerns me nor that I consider very often.
• I was born in 1969, making me 54 years old. There was a time not very long ago in the big picture where that would have been considered old. Human life expectancy in 1900 worldwide was 32 years. It went up to 48 years by 1950. Today it is 73 years globally.
• Japan has the highest life expectancy at 84. Congo is one of the lowest at 62. It’s currently about 78 in the USA.
• But that’s not what I was thinking about. Instead, I was thinking about the people who had a big impact on the world, but died at a younger age than I am now… sometimes much younger.
• Obviously, there’s a “27 Club”, the musicians, artists and actors who all managed to be dead at that relatively young age. Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse are but a few of that dubious group.
• But I’m also older than John Lennon ever was (40), or Babe Ruth (53). John F. Kennedy was 46 when he was murdered. I’m quite a bit older than those guys ever were.
• How about some folks who are among the living?
• I am older than current presidential candidates Nikki Haley (51) and Vivek Ramaswamy (38). I am older than gross-ass Republican reps like Marjorie Taylor Greene (49), Elise Stefanik (39), and Lauren Boebert (37), as well as cool Democratic reps like Hakeem Jeffries (53), Katie Porter (49), Ruben Gallego (44), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (34). I am older than Senators like Ted Cruz (53), Brian Shatz (51), Kysten Sinema (47), Laphonza Butler (44), Jon Ossoff (36), and several more.
• That’s fine. I’ve done a lot of shit in my 54 years and I intend to do a lot more, regardless of how much time I have. I’ll make good use of it, however long it may be.
• Hopefully pretty long.
• From the Sports Desk… I must admit, I was a person who laughed about Joe Flacco continuing his NFL career at the ancient age of 38. Guess what? I was wrong.
• In last night’s 37-20 victory over the Jets which secured a playoff spot for the Cleveland Browns, Flacco passed for 296 yards in the first half, the most in any half in his career. He has now thrown for more than 300 yards in every victory in Cleveland's four-game winning streak.
• Hats off to the old guy.
• In other Sports Desk news, the list of candidates for admission to the Pro Football Hall of Fame has narrowed to 15. They include first-time candidates Julius Peppers and Antonio Gates, as well as Torry Holt, Reggie Wayne, Patrick Willis, Andre Johnson, Dwight Freeney, Jared Allen, Willie Anderson, Darren Woodson, Devin Hester, Eric Allen, Rodney Harrison, Fred Taylor, and Jahri Evans.
• That list will be brought down to 10, among which maybe 5-7 will enter the hall in 2024.
• Today in history… According to John Smith, Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan leader Wahunsenacawh, successfully pleads for his life after tribal leaders attempt to execute him (1607). Three thousand British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, GA (1778). The United States annexes the Republic of Texas (1845). Cecil B. DeMille starts filming Hollywood's first feature film, The Squaw Man (1913). The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution (1937). Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia (1989). The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct (2003).
• December 29 is the birthday of inventor Charles Macintosh (1766), chemist Charles Goodyear (1800), US president Andrew Johnson (1808), UK prime minister William Ewart Gladstone (1809), cellist Pablo Casals (1876), politician Tom Bradley (1917), golfer/architect Pete Dye (1925), actress/producer Mary Tyler Moore (1936), actor Jon Voight (1938), singer-songwriter/bass player Rick Danko (1943), singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull (1946), actor Ted Danson (1947), drummer/songwriter Cozy Powell (1947), comedian Paula Poundstone (1959), NFL coach Sean Payton (1963), director/screenwriter Lilly Wachowski (1967), actor Jude Law (1972), NFL player Myles Garrett (1995), and MLB player Julio Rodríguez (2000).

Time to exercise and then to work. Also, I am getting a COVID booster this afternoon. I’m personally acquainted with probably 20-30 people who’ve had COVID in the past couple of weeks, and I have a major trade show coming where I’ll be exposed to tens of thousands of people from around the country and the world. I need all the help I can get. Enjoy your day.