Random News: December 7, 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 7, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. My busy time with work craziness continues today, but it’s all going very well, and I may even live through this week and beyond. Let’s take a look at the news that affects our lives.

• Two minutes after I posted these bullets yesterday, another large political story popped up.
• Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the former House speaker who was ousted from his position in October in a revolt by hard-right members, will not only not seek reelection to his congressional seat; he’s retiring from Congress altogether at the end of this month.
• “I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways,” he said. Not exactly sure what he means by that — I seriously doubt he’ll be chosen as Dumpy’s running mate — but I’d prefer he didn’t serve America at all.
• Go do something else, Kevin.
• McCarthy’s departure before the end of his term means California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) will have to call a special election to replace him for his congressional district in the area of Bakersfield, CA.
• As a result of McCarthy’s abrupt departure, in coming months, it is in the realm of possibility that the House GOP majority shrinks so much that Republicans will be able to afford to lose just two votes on any party-line measure, depending on timing of resignations, special elections to fill vacancies, and which party wins control of the Santos seat.
• Hee hee. You love to see it.
• In related news, a Republican man who is running for former Rep. George Santos’s (R-NY) seat was found guilty yesterday of charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021 failed coup attempt at the US Capitol.
• Because of course he was.
• Philip Sean Grillo of Queens, NY was found guilty of five charges, including one felony, and convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony and misdemeanor of entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
• In other political news, the fourth Republican presidential debate was held last night. No one cared. I don’t even know where it was broadcasted.
• Per reports, the four contenders onstage — former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — spent most of the two-hour debate hammering each other.
• From what I can, the most topics they prioritized included transgender people using bathrooms, as well as ganging up on Nikki Haley since she’s gained some traction in the polls. None of them of course, are anywhere near Dumpy’s frontrunner status.
• Chris Christie actually had a moment of sanity, making a point about Donnie Dump that left the other idiots speechless.
• “When you go and you say the truth about somebody who is a dictator, a bully, who has taken shots at everybody — whether they’ve given him great service or not over time — who dares to disagree with him, then I understand why these three are timid to say anything about it. Maybe it’s because they have future aspirations; maybe those future aspirations are now or maybe they’re four years from now. But the fact of the matter is, the truth needs to be told.”
• Nods.
• Moving on.
• As you loyal readers know, I try and limit my coverage of gun violence to a single day each week that I call Sunday Gunday. Unfortunately, I’m compelled to cover yesterday’s mass shooting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
• Students and professors cowered in classrooms and dorms as a gunman roamed the floors of a UNLV building, killing three people and critically wounding a fourth before dying in a shootout with police.
• The gunman in yesterday’s shooting was a professor who had unsuccessfully sought a job at the school. He previously worked at East Carolina University in North Carolina.
• The shooter was identified as Anthony Polito, 67. As is typical, when a shooter is Black, they’re a thug; when they’re of Middle Eastern ethnic origin, they’re a terrorist. But when they’re an old white man, it’s a “mental health issue”.
• While we’re in news of Nevada, a grand jury yesterday charged six Republicans who claimed to be presidential electors in 2020 and submitted certificates to Congress falsely asserting that former president and current accused felon Donnie Dump had won the election in their state.
• Nevada becomes the third state after Georgia and Michigan to seek charges against the pro-Dump activists who met and cast ballots for the then-president on Dec. 14, 2020, despite Joe Biden’s victory.
• Get their asses.
• Let’s do some better news.
• Taylor Swift has well-deservedly been named Time magazine’s 2023 “Person of the Year,” beating out Barbie and King Charles III.
• Part of Swift’s incredible year was her “Eras Tour,” which grossed about $2.2 billion in North American ticket sales alone. The “Eras Tour” was StubHub’s biggest tour in the website’s history.
• Swift has dominated not only huge arenas, but local movie theaters as well. In its opening weekend, the pop singer’s concert film, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” raked in about $96 million in the box office in the United States and Canada, making it the highest-grossing concert film domestically for an opening weekend.
• I don’t really care if you enjoy her music or not. Her career is about as good as any musician has ever had, and the power she has to encourage her youthful fans to be active and vote is already having an impact… and will in 2024 as well.
• Oh, and my favorite part of Swift being named Time’s “Person of the Year” is that right-wing men are super angry about it. Social media, especially in right-leaning platforms like Elon Musk’s X, were filled with vitriolic posts from guys who can’t believe that a woman can be as powerful and influential as Taylor has become.
• And now, let’s talk about some much less worthy people in the music industry. Trigger warning: sexual assault topics for the next set of seven bullets.
• Sean Combs, his longtime lieutenant Harve Pierre, and a third unidentified man allegedly gang raped a 17-year-old girl inside Combs’ recording studio in Manhattan in 2003, after the high school student was trafficked across state lines and plied with copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, an explosive new lawsuit filed yesterday alleges.
• Combs has now had multiple lawsuits filed against him for sexual assault. One case alleges that Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall took turns raping a plaintiff and her friend following an event at Uptown Records in the early 1990s.
• Fucking pieces of shit.
• On the opposite end of the dark underside of the music industry, former Grammys CEO Mike Greene as well as the organization itself has been sued by a former Recording Academy executive, accusing Greene of sexually assaulting her multiple times when she was his employee.
• Terri McIntyre, who served as the Recording Academy’s Los Angeles chapter executive director from 1994 to 1996, filed a graphic 55-page suit in Los Angeles Court yesterday, claiming that Greene, who stepped down as Grammy chief in 2002 amid other sexual misconduct claims, sexually harassed and assaulted her over the two-year period.
• The complaint against Greene marks the second lawsuit against the Recording Academy and its former executives in the past month. In November, an anonymous Jane Doe accuser claimed that Neil Portnow — Greene’s successor who served as CEO from 2002 to 2019 — drugged and raped her in 2018.
• The suit was filed through California’s AB 2777, which temporarily waives the statutes of limitations on sexual abuse civil claims.The window will likely yield several more lawsuits against music industry figures, continuing the wave of allegations made prominent through New York’s Adult Survivor’s Act.
• May justice be served.
• Let’s move on.
• Lest you think I forgot, we should note the date… “a day that shall live in infamy”.
• December 7, 1941 was when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, pulling the USA into WWII and changing the course of history forever after.
• If you want to see an accurate film about the event, do not watch the abomination called “Pearl Harbor.” Instead, see “Tora, Tora, Tora” or “Midway”.
• And now, The Weather: “Out Loud” by pecq
• From the Sports Desk… going into Week 14 of the NFL season, here’s who would be in the playoffs were they to start today.
• AFC: 1. Miami Dolphins (9-3). 2. Baltimore Ravens (9-3). 3. Kansas City Chiefs (8-4). 4. Jacksonville Jaguars (8-4). 5. Pittsburgh Steelers (7-5). 6. Cleveland Browns (7-5). 7. Indianapolis Colts (7-5).
• NFC: 1. Philadelphia Eagles (10-2). 2. San Francisco 49ers (9-3). 3. Detroit Lions (9-3). 4. Atlanta Falcons (6-6). 5. Dallas Cowboys (9-3). 6. Minnesota Vikings (6-6). 7. Green Bay Packers (6-6).
• Today in history… Cicero is assassinated in Formia on orders of Marcus Antonius (43 BC). The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England (1732). Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution (1787). First concert of the New York Philharmonic (1842). The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary (1917). German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa (1932). The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (1941). Instant replay makes its debut during the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia (1963). Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched (1972). The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34 (1995).
• December 7 is the birthday of composer Bernardo Pasquini (1637), businessman Richard Warren Sears (1863), actor Eli Wallach (1915), actor Ted Knight (1923), philosopher Noam Chomsky (1928), actress Ellen Burstyn (1932), singer-songwriter/guitarist Harry Chapin (1942), MLB player Johnny Bench (1947), singer-songwriter/guitarist Tom Waits (1949), NBA player Larry Bird (1956),  actor C. Thomas Howell (1966), singer-songwriter/guitarist Louise Post (1966), NFL player Terrell Owens (1973), singer-songwriter Damien Rice (1973), and MLB player Yasiel Puig (1990).

That’ll do for now. More tomorrow. Enjoy your day.