Random News: February 1, 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 February 1, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’ve had two days off in the past six weeks: Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. That’s it. All I need to do is get past today and tomorrow and I get an actual weekend. Until then, let’s see what’s going on in the world.

• But first…
• Rabbit rabbit rabbit.
• I’m not superstitious but I do like maintaining consistent patterns. It’s not quite OCD, but it’s more SCD. Silly compulsive disorder.
• Okay, let’s go.
• Today marks the start of National Black History Month.
• When is White History Month? Every other fucking month of every year, forever.
• President Biden issued a statement yesterday. “This National Black History Month, we celebrate the vast contributions of Black Americans to our country and recognize that Black history is American history and that Black culture, stories, and triumphs are at the core of who we are as a Nation.”
• He’s right. 
• The history of Black people and the African diaspora via slavery tends to be swept under the rug (or worse, completely denied). Its precursor was Negro History Week, founded by historian Carter G. Woodson to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, both of which Black communities had celebrated since the late 19th century.
• Aspects of Black culture have had a tremendous impact on American lives for people of all races and ethnic backgrounds. An America without Black cultural influence has no rock and roll and no dance music beyond polka and waltzes, to name but one of hundreds of examples.
• Black educators and Black United Students at Kent State University in Ohio first proposed Black History Month in February 1969. The first celebration of Black History Month took place a year later in 1970.
• Perhaps my favorite moment in the recognition of Black History Month came on February 18, 2016, when 106-year Virginia McLaurin visited the White House. When asked by President Barack Obama why she was there, McLaurin said: "A Black president. A Black wife. And I'm here to celebrate Black history. That's what I'm here for."
• We are all better off as a result of the efforts of Black people in the USA. A month that recognizes their contributions is a minimal effort to acknowledge this fact.
• Moving on.
• Donnie Dump is facing a cash crunch as he tries to defend himself in court, lock down the Republican nomination, and turn toward a general election rematch with an increasingly money-flush President Joe Biden.
• Mwa ha ha ha ha!
• Campaign finance records filed yesterday show the main super PAC supporting Trump's campaign, MAGA Inc., spent more than it raised in the last six months of 2023 — primarily by transferring back $30 million to Save America, the main vehicle for paying Dumpy's staggering legal fees. Similarly, Trump's official campaign blew through more cash than it took in over the last three months of the year.
• By comparison, Biden's campaign ended the year with $46 million in cash, far more than the $33 million Trump's campaign held before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
• Those who donate money to Dump — often money they can’t afford to spend — are not paying for his re-election bid. Two of Dump’s committees, Save America leadership PAC and the Make America Great Again PAC, spent $55.6 million on legal bills in 2023.
• How much longer are people going to keep supporting this guy with their hard-earned money? I think of some poor MAGA supporters who can barely stay above water financially, giving some wealthy New Yorker their only extra income. It’s just sad and humiliating for them.
• While we’re on the gross topic of Smelly Orange Man, we need to laugh in the direction of his lawyer, or possible former lawyer, Alina Habba.
• Not only is she being replaced after her disastrous performance representing Dumpy in the E. Jean Carroll rape and defamation case that lost with a judgement of $83.3 million against him. Now members of Dump’s MAGA community are suggesting that Habba is a “deep state plant” who purposefully fucked up Dump’s defense.
• I just think she’s grossly incompetent. Dump is notorious bad at aligning himself with capable people.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the House passed a $78 billion tax bill that boosts the child tax credit and reinstates business deductions that were rescinded during the Trump administration, sending the bipartisan, bicameral legislation to the Senate for consideration.
• The measure, dubbed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 357-70 vote.
• Who voted against it? Conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats. It feels like the country is getting very tired of catering to extremists on both sides.
• Speaking of a rather moderate politician…
• President Biden has opened up a 6 point lead in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up with former President Trump, new polling shows, amid signs of a growing gender gap in support for the two party front-runners. 
• A new Quinnipiac University national poll found Biden with 50 percent support among registered voters, ahead of Trump’s 44 percent. 
• Fifty-eight percent of women say they support Biden, up from 53 percent in December. At the same time, 53 percent of men say they support Trump, largely unchanged from 51 percent in December.
• As we get through the primaries, we’re going to be focusing on more reasons why a vote for Biden is the right thing for America.
• Let’s move on for now.
• I’ve been hesitant to talk about the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith last week in Alabama. As you should know by now, I’m very much opposed to capital punishment regardless of circumstances.
• But these circumstances went far beyond the realm of what any civilized culture should find acceptable. Smith was executed using nitrogen gas, the first ever use of this method to carry out a capital sentence in America.
• Smith argued that killing him with nitrogen would violate the Eighth Amendment’s bar against cruel and unusual punishment, but the Supreme Court declined to stay his execution by a 6–3 vote.
• I’m not going to describe what happened, but it was not a painless death. It took a long time, with Smith essentially being tortured. One observer called it the most horrible thing he had ever seen. I am sparing you the actual gruesome details, I promise.
• Is that what we do in America?
• Let’s move on.
• I’m happy to report that Michael Cassidy, the man who attacked and beheaded a permitted statue put up by the Satanic Temple at Iowa’s Capitol in December, has now been charged with a felony under the state’s hate crime statutes.
• Cassidy, 36, was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Mississippi’s state House of Representatives. He had originally been charged with a misdemeanor. The enhanced charge is a class D felony.
• And now, The Weather: “Right Back to It (feat. MJ Lenderman)” by Waxahatchee
• Speaking of weather… I’m writing these words in the midst of a massive El Niño storm that’s nailing us in Southern California this morning. I can already tell there’s going to be serious flooding in many areas.
• Stay safe, people.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s January 1974, exactly 50 years ago, and here’s what’s at the top of the Billboard 200 album charts. A couple of notes…
• Jim Croce has three albums on the charts at once, unfortunately due to the fact that he had died in a plane crash a couple of months earlier and people tend to purchase music of the recently departed at high numbers.
• Also note that three Beatles (Ringo, Paul, and John) had albums in the top 20 at that time. George’s album Living in the Material World was #1 for five weeks the year before.
• 1. The Singles 1969-1973 (Carpenters). 2. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John). 3. You Don't Mess Around With Jim (Jim Croce). 4. The Joker (The Steve Miller Band). 5. Jonathan Livingston Seagull/soundtrack (Neil Diamond). 6. I Got A Name (Jim Croce). 7. Quadrophenia (The Who). 8. Ringo (Ringo Starr). 9. Bette Midler (Bette Midler). 10. Full Sail (Loggins & Messina). 11. Muscle Of Love (Alice Cooper). 12. Life And Times (Jim Croce). 13. Behind Closed Doors (Charlie Rich). 14. Band On The Run (Paul McCartney And Wings). 15. Imagination (Gladys Knight And The Pips). 16. John Denver's Greatest Hits (John Denver). 17. Laid Back (Gregg Allman). 18. Mind Games (John Lennon). 19. Brain Salad Surgery (Emerson, Lake & Palmer). 20. Los Cochinos (Cheech & Chong)
• From the Sports Desk… um, literally nothing. 
• Today in history… The teenaged Edward III -- my 21st great-grandfather -- is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer (1327). The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege (1662). France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands (1793). Texas secedes from the United States and joins the Confederacy a week later (1861). President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1865). Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, NJ (1893). “La bohème” premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio, conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini (1896). Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary-General (1946). Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, NC (1960). The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with "I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1964). Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile (1979). The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress (1996). Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard (2003). A coup d'état in Myanmar removes Aung San Suu Kyi from power and restores military rule (2021).
• February 1 is the birthday of violinist Francesco Maria Veracini (1690), opera singer Clara Butt (1872), film director John Ford (1894), actor Clark Gable (1901), writer/activist Langston Hughes (1902), singer-songwriter Don Everly (1937), actor Garrett Morris (1937), actor Sherman Hemsley (1938), pianist Joe Sample (1939), actor/director/writer Terry Jones (1942), journalist Jessica Savitch (1947), singer-songwriter Rick James (1948), guitarist/songwriter Mike Campbell (1950), singer-songwriter Exene Cervenka (1956), actor Brandon Lee (1965), actress Sherilyn Fenn (1965), singer-songwriter/actress Lisa Marie Presley (1968), actor Pauly Shore (1968), actor Michael C. Hall (1971), martial artist/actress Ronda Rousey (1987), and singer-songwriter Harry Styles (1994).

Okay. Enough for now. I’m gonna work out and then do various work things. Enjoy your day.