Random News: January 17, 2024

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 January 17, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I’m alive and awake and aware, and more importantly, I have coffee. Let’s see what’s happened since we last met here.

• ABC News was supposed to have a Republican primary debate that was scheduled for tomorrow in New Hampshire. But now? No.
• Nikki Haley sad she wouldn’t do the debate unless it was against Dump. The Dumpster has refused to do a single debate during the entire primary.
• That that would have left Ron DeSantis standing on a stage all alone, and no one wants that. The debate has been canceled.
• Actually, apparently Florida Ron does want that. He said, "I won't snub New Hampshire voters like both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, and plan to honor my commitments. I look forward to debating two empty podiums in the Granite State this week."
• Which is fine, except it won’t be on TV. Have at it, Ron.
• Speaking of Nikki, she made a helluva statement on Fox News yesterday. 
• When asked by host Brian Kilmeade if the GOP is a racist party, Haley made a broader point that the US has “never been a racist country.”
• “We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country.”
• Fucking wow! Someone should tell that to the people driven from homes and schools, who had crosses burned on their lawn, were denied employment and education, weren’t allowed to vote, or had family members lynched due to the color of their skin. I have no words.
• In other news…
• Yesterday Donnie Dump attended the first day of his civil defamation trial, watching as a jury was selected to determine how much, if any, damages the former president must pay to E. Jean Carroll for his 2019 defamatory statements about Carroll’s sexual assault allegations.
• El Dumpo watched as prospective jurors were asked about their political donations to him and his political opponents, whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen, and how they got their news.
• His lawyers have suggested he could testify in the case, though the judge has ruled that Trump cannot try to contest a previous jury’s verdict that he sexually abused and defamed Carroll, who is seeking $10 million in damages.
• I hope she gets it all.
• Moving on to something I cover only rarely, which is state-level elections, but this is a good one.
• In a typically red district in Florida, Tom Keen (D-Lake Nona) beat Republican opponent Erika Booth in a special election for District 35, which represents nearly 180,000 people in Orange and Osceola counties.
• It flips the Florida state house seat from red to blue. Keen had campaigned on issues of high property insurance premiums, unaffordable rent and abortion rights, and criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis' culture wars agenda.
• His GOP opponent campaigned with slogans that included “stop the woke mob,” “cancel the woke agenda,” “stop the brainwashing,” and “free and fair elections.”
• This country is getting past the point that those idiotic phrases are effective political tools. Don’t get me wrong… there are still plenty of susceptible fools. But they’ve been down that road, and it didn’t make their lives better.
• Some are just smart enough to be once bitten, twice shy.
• Also, look for the removal of women’s reproductive rights to be a key point again every Republican at every level of government this year and beyond.
• We should probably mention the storms and cold weather. It’s important and affects you more directly and immediately than anything else I’m going to write about.
• Widespread flight cancellations continued yesterday as a winter storm pummeled the eastern US. By the late afternoon, airlines had scratched more than 2,200 scheduled US flights, while roughly 6,800 flights were delayed.
• Southwest got hit the hardest, having to scrap more than 400 flights, or 11% of its daily schedule, while another 909 were delayed. Cancellations were also high at Alaska and United.
• If you’re flying or driving anywhere, give it plenty of time and be a patient person.
• Here’s some news: super-wealthy guy sexually assaults and traffics a woman. Shocking, isn’t it?
• James Dolan, who’s the CEO of Madison Square Garden Entertainment and owns the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, was accused of these heinous acts in a new lawsuit filed in Los Angeles yesterday. The same suit also accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.
• Again, shocking, I know.
• The federal complaint alleges that Dolan and Weinstein separately sexually assaulted massage therapist Kellye Croft in 2013 and 2014 while Croft was working as a massage therapist for the band Eagles. 
• Before you get mad at Don Henley or anyone, Dolan's own shitty band was opening for Eagles on tour, and Croft was hired by the band in 2013 to travel with them. Croft alleges that Dolan first made an appointment with her in November 2013 and that he forced himself on her during their second appointment.
• Both pieces of shit deny the allegations.
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who I believe was born in 1673, has been hospitalized in the Washington area with an infection and is receiving antibiotic infusions.
• Grassley, who is actually 90 years old, will return to work as soon as possible following doctors' orders. Let me ask you something, and I say this in the most non-agist way possible… would you want a 90-year-old Uber driver? A 90-year-old surgeon? Would you want a 90-year-old pilot flying your plane?
• I’m not young by any definition, but I can say that at a certain point, it’s probably time to relax and enjoy the remainder of one’s life, and not be making crucial decisions about the direction of a country with 300 million people counting on your acumen. I also said this about my beloved Senator Dianne Feinstein long before her passing last year.
• And now, The Weather: “High speed calm air tonight” by ML Buch
• It’s a big anniversary for those of us in the Los Angeles area. 30 years ago today, at 4:31am, I was asleep in my bed, happily dreaming away, when we got hit with the 6.7 magnitude Northridge earthquake.
• Of all of the scary events in my life, that was almost certainly the worst. Even down in the South Bay area where I still live to this day, some 30 miles from the epicenter, it felt like the end of the world, and for some folks, it was.
• 57 people were killed and over 8,700 more were injured. Property damage estimates from the massive earthquake range between $13 billion and $50 billion.
• Moving on.
• As I noted in a post yesterday, I got a haircut. I woke up today and after getting out of the shower, forgot that I had about 30% of the hair that had been previously situated atop my skull, and proceeded to scrape a hairbrush over my head in violent manner that was totally uncalled for.
• From the Sports Desk… yesterday I promised you the lines for this coming weekend’s NFL divisional playoff games. They seem pretty much in line with what I’d expect.
• Ravens (-9) over Texans.
• 49ers (-9.5) over Packers.
• Lions (-6.5) over Buccaneers
• Bills (-2.5) over Chiefs.
• That being said, at least one, if not more, of these games will likely end in an upset of sorts. For example, it’s happened fairly often that the week of rest during the bye week for the top-seeded teams (in this case, Baltimore and San Francisco) becomes a week of rust instead, and they have trouble getting in the groove on game day.
• Today in history… Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean (1524). Captain James Cook leads the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle (1773). Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina (1781). The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean (1899). Anton Chekhov's ‘The Cherry Orchard’ receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre (1904). The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands (1917). Alcohol Prohibition begins in the United States as the Volstead Act goes into effect (1920). Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again (1945). Capital punishment in the United States resumes after a ten-year hiatus, as convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah (1977). During a visit to South Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II (1992). The 6.7 Mw  Northridge earthquake shakes the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX, leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured (1994). Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website (1998). Former cyclist Lance Armstrong confesses to his doping in an airing of ‘Oprah's Next Chapter’ (2013). 
• January 17 is the birthday of botanist Gaspard Bauhin (1560), publisher/inventor/politician Benjamin Franklin (1706), author Anne Brontë (1820), illustrator A. B. Frost (1851), politician Douglas Hyde (1860), actor/director Konstantin Stanislavski (1863), film producer Carl Laemmle (1867), mafia boss Al Capone (1899), saxophonist Peggy Gilbert (1905), boxing trainer/manager Cus D’Amato (1908), actress/animal rights activist Betty White (1922), actress/singer Eartha Kitt (1927), hairdresser/businessman Vidal Sassoon (1928), actor James Earl Jones (1931), actress/puppeteer Shari Lewis (1933), boxer/activist Muhammad Ali (1942), actor/comedian Andy Kaufman (1949), guitarist/songwriter Mick Taylor (1949), pianist/composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952), bass player Jeff Berlin (1953), singer-songwriter/actor Steve Earle (1955), singer-songwriter Paul Young (1956), actor/comedian/TV host Steve Harvey (1957), singer-songwriter/guitarist Susanna Hoffs (1959), actor Jim Carrey (1962), lawyer/first lady Michelle Obama (1964), animator Genndy Tartakovsky (1970), NHL player Jeremy Roenick (1970), rapper Lil Jon (1971), actress/singer Zooey Deschanel (1980), NBA player Dwyane Wade (1982), MLB player/rapist Trevor Bauer (1991), and YouTube guy Jake Paul (1997).

Time for me to do all those things I do. Enjoy your day.