Random News: January 22, 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 22, 2024, and it’s a Monday. It’s pouring rain here in Southern California as dawn breaks on this Monday morning. It’s a day where I have, in many previous years, encountered bad anxiety, being the Monday before a major annual business event. But I’m feeling just fine, so let’s see what’s going on in the world.

• About five minutes after we posted our news yesterday morning speculating that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was about to drop out of the Republican presidential race, he… dropped out of the Republican presidential race.
• He claims that he had no clear path to victory. That is almost correct. He actually had no path at all to victory.
• The real reason he dropped out is much more simple: he ran out of money. No one had faith in him to win, so they stopped bankrolling his campaign.
• Despite having been constantly denigrated and humiliated by Dump throughout the campaign, DeSantis immediately offered his endorsement to Dump. No one should be surprised by this.
• A brief comedic moment here. While making his speech about ending his campaign, DeSantis quoted renowned UK prime minister Winston Churchill by saying, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
• One problem: Churchill never said that. It was from some Internet meme awhile back. Jesus.
• Soon after DeSantis announced he was dropping out of the race, Nikki Haley told reporters, "He's been a good governor and we wish him well," and noting that the race is now down to "one fella and one lady," she added, "May the best woman win."
• That’s cute and all, but Haley will also be endorsing Dump when she also drops out, which probably will happen within a month or so, I‘m guessing.
• Haley is still polling significantly below Dump, even in New Hampshire which was expected to be one of her strongest states in the primaries.
• Let’s move on.
• Today wld have been the 51st anniversary of Row v Wade, the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected a right to have an abortion. 
• It was decided by the Court on January 22, 1973, and was ended by a new decision of the Court on June 24, 2022 via their ruling on the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
• Donald Trump has taken credit for ending Roe. He says he is proud to have removed an aspect of women’s rights that had been in place for over 49 years.
• Nikki Haley has taken it a step further. Yesterday on “Face the Nation”, she gave support to a national law banning abortion in every state.
• I’d like to think that some of you care about women’s reproductive freedom, and that you (or your wife or daughter or sister or friend) shouldn’t be forced by the government to give birth.
• That’s one reason I’m asking you over and over to support Democratic candidates at every level of government. It’s one of many reasons, but it’s an important one.
• In related news, today the Biden administration is announcing new steps intended to ensure access to contraception, abortion medication and emergency abortions at hospitals.
• Federal agencies are issuing guidance that would make no-cost contraceptives more available under the Affordable Care Act and take similar actions to expand contraception access for federal employees.
• The federal health department also announced a new team dedicated to enforcing its interpretation of a law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, which the Biden administration has said requires hospitals to provide emergency abortions nationwide, including in the 21 states where the procedure is limited or banned.
• Keep this in mind: no matter how you feel about abortion, you will be welcome to keep that opinion. No laws force people to get abortion; under Roe v. Wade, what women got was the freedom of choice regarding their own reproductive decisions.
• Now, under right-wing Republican policies, that freedom of choice has been removed by the government. How can anyone support this? I will never understand people who prefer less freedom and strict government control of their lives.
• Moving on.
• Things are getting mighty weird in Eagle Pass, TX, right on the US-Mexico border.
• At a place called Shelby Park, there’s a standoff going on between Texas and the federal government.
• The entire 47-acre park, including a golf course, is enclosed with concertina wire and patrolled by state troopers from Texas and Florida. At the entrance, behind a chain-link fence, National Guard members are strapped with rifles.
• Under federal law, the federal government has sole authority to enforce immigration laws — a power that’s been affirmed by Supreme Court decisions.
• But Governor Greg Abbott has sent state troopers and National Guard members to different parts of the 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border. He ordered state police to arrest migrants on suspicion of trespassing. He lined the river at Shelby Park with shipping containers. He ordered 70,000 rolls of concertina wire to be deployed along 29 miles of the river.
• This is ugly both literally and figuratively, and the previously unthinkable idea of a clash at the site between the USA and Texas isn’t all that far-fetched anymore.
• And now, The Weather: “New Year Song” by Wandering Years
• I don’t have to all you that the weather is fucked up; you can look out a window in most places in the USA. Nationally, winter storms have claimed at least 72 lives around the U.S. in January thus far, many involving hypothermia or road accidents.
• Here in typically lovely Southern California, a three-part storm is gaining strength by the minute right now, impacting both coastal and mountain communities. We’re getting a ton of rain along with gusty winds.  
• From the Sports Desk… we have our matchups for this year’s NFL Conference Championships. First, let me tell you about yesterday’s divisional games.
• The Buccaneers put up a good fight against the Lions, but despite throwing for 349 yards and three touchdowns, Tampa Bay QB Baker Mayfield also threw two very untimely interceptions, and that was all it took. Detroit won 31-23.
• The later game was a slugfest between the Chiefs and Bills. You hate to see it come down to this, but Buffalo missed a heartbreaking field goal that would have tied the game with less than two minutes remaining. The Bills have a horrifying history of crucial missed field goals; this one was as bad as any of them. Final score: KC 27, Buffalo 24.
• Next weekend’s conference championship games will feature the Kansas City Chiefs at the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC, and the Detroit Lions at the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC. And of course, the winners of those two games meet in the Super Bowl on Sunday February 11.
• Betting lines for the conference championships are up. Baltimore is favored by -3.5 over KC, and San Francisco is favored -6.5 over Detroit. Both should be good games.
• In other sports news — and despite the fact that I don’t cover the NCAA or coaching, except when I do — huge congratulations are due to Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, who is the new winningest basketball coach in NCAA history.
• The Stanford women's basketball team defeated Oregon State 65-56 at Maples Pavilion yesterday to give VanDerveer her 1,203rd career victory, passing former Duke men's coach Mike Krzyzewski.
• Today in history… Edward VII is proclaimed King of the United Kingdom after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria (1901). Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1924). Australian and American forces in WWII defeat Japanese army and navy units in the bitterly fought Battle of Buna–Gona (1943). KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood (1947). Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space (1968). The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport (1970). The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states (1973). The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial (1984). The space shuttle Discovery launches on STS-42 carrying Dr. Roberta Bondar, who becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space (1992). Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (2002).
• January 22 is the birthday of soldier/writer/explorer Walter Raleigh (1552), philosopher/politician Francis Bacon (1561), poet John Donne (1573), sailor/pirate William Kidd (1645), poet Lord Byron (1788), philanthropist Edward Harkness (1874), director D. W. Griffith (1875), actress Piper Laurie (1932), actor Bill Bixby (1934), actor John Hurt (1940), impresario Malcolm McLaren (1946), singer-songwriter Steve Perry (1949), director Jim Jarmusch (1953), NHL player Mike Bossy (1957), actress Linda Blair (1959), singer-songwriter Michael Hutchence (1960), DJ/producer DJ Jazzy Jeff (1965), and chef Guy Fieri (1968).

Okay, enough for now. I have things to do. But I”m alright, so that’s good. Enjoy your day.