Random News: February 10, 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, or afternoon, or something. It’s February 10, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I had kind of a slow start this morning, and had to spend some time moping while the ibuprofen kicked in. Now I’m. much better, so let’s do some news.

• Starting with some unfortunate stuff.
• Israeli airstrikes killed at least 44 Palestinians — including more than a dozen children — in the southern Gaza city of Rafah today, hours after Israel’s prime minister said he had asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people there ahead of a ground invasion.
• Netanyahu did not provide details or a timeline, but the announcement set off panic and warnings from diplomats.
• More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are packed into Rafah, many after following Israeli evacuation orders that now cover two-thirds of the territory. It’s not clear where they could run next.
• This is a very bad situation all around, and I don’t think history will be on the side of Israel when it’s said and done.
• Got another story from the World News desk, a weird one.
• Katalin Novák, Hungary’s conservative president, resigned today amid public outcry over a pardon she granted to a man convicted as an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case.
• She announced in a televised message that she would step down from the presidency, an office she has held since 2022. Her decision came after more than a week of public outrage after it was revealed that she issued a presidential pardon in April 2023 to a man convicted of hiding a string of child sexual abuses in a state-run children’s home.
• Welp. Bad move, lady. At least she had the decency to resign. US politicians seem to take the opposite approach and double-down on their shitty actions when called out.
• Moving on.
• Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, will not seek reelection this November.
• Gallagher said he will leave Congress at the end of his current term to enter the private sector and spend more time with his young family.
• Hmm.
• Before anyone gets excited about flipping this seat in the Green Bay area, note that Republicans have about a 16-point edge in the largely rural 8th District, and Gallagher had won each reelection by 25 points.
• That seat is staying red.
• And speaking of elections…
• With two weeks to go before the South Carolina Republican primary, Nikki Haley is trying to challenge Donnie Dump on her home turf while Dumpy is trying to smash Nikki once and for all, so he can get all attention his little heart requires.
• I don’t really care about that. Dump — as long as he’s alive and hasn’t been otherwise disqualified — will be the GOP nominee.
• In much more important election news, our household received our primary ballots this week, and we’ve marked today as our day to fill them out. California’s primaries are far earlier this year than in recent times, making us part of Super Tuesday on March 5.
• But long before there were other reasons to not vote at the polls, I’ve been a vote by mail guy. These days, it’s so easy that there’s an official ballot drop box just a few hundred yards form my door, at the park down the street.
• Also, California has a program called BallotTrax that confirms my ballot’s receipt vie email or text. I have to say, I wish every state in the country did elections like we do here.
• Let’s move on to some Don’t Do This news…
• A Houston woman has been sentenced to three years in prison for threatening U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the criminal case against El Dumpo for his handling of classified documents.
• Tiffani Gish, 50, was sentenced yesterday for using interstate communications to threaten a federal official.
• Gish left three threatening voicemails on the chamber’s telephone for Cannon. She claimed to be a member of military combat units, trained and “familiar with weapons of war,” and said the judge would “get a bullet in the head.” She also said she’d sent snipers and bombs to Cannon’s house.
• Don’t do this. Let’s move on.
• There was some rock and rolling in a couple of states yesterday, and not the fun kind.
• The U.S. Geological Survey said that a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck just south of the Big Island of Hawaii. It was initially reported as magnitude 6.3 before it was downgraded. Shaking could be felt all the way in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, which is about 200 miles to the north.
• A couple of hours later, a 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Southern California coast near Malibu and was widely felt in the Los Angeles region, rattling windows and shaking shelves but bringing no reports of major damage or injuries.
• It wasn’t a scary quake here — just some blinds and light fixtures swaying and some mild rumbling — but it was very noticeable and went on for a good long while.
• And now, The Weather: “One Night/All Night” by Justice x Tame Impala
• Today it’s warmer in places like Boston than in Los Angeles, but your freaky warm weather is about to vanish, East Coasters.
• A nor’easter is expected to bring significant weather and travel impacts to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast early next week after first dumping heavy rain and causing possible severe thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast and in the Southeast tomorrow and Monday.
• Yes another weather note: yesterday, Wisconsin's had one of its first February tornadoes in history.
• The National Weather Service determined there were two tornadoes: an EF-1 near just southwest of Evansville, then an EF-2 that moved northeast from Evansville to southwest Jefferson County. Winds reached up to 135 mph in the Evansville tornado.
• Yikes. Stay safe, peoples.
• Got another two music-related RIPs today. You folks are welcome to stop dying and stuff so I don’t have to write these.
• First honors go to Seiji Ozawa, the Japanese conductor and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who died last week in Tokyo. He was 88.
• Ozawa was famous for having overcome the mistaken idea that Asian musicians couldn’t achieve a real understanding of Western orchestral music’s interpretive needs or a deep feeling for its emotional content.
• My second RIP goes out to Damo Suzuki, the vocalist of German experimental rock band Can. He passed away after a battle with colon cancer at 74.
• He joined Can in 1970 when the band found him busking outside a Munich café. He played with Can that very night, improvising much of the performance.
• That’s my favorite kind of musician. Rest in peace, sir.
• From the Sports Desk… let’s say you don’t know shit about football but want to fit in at the Super Bowl party you’re going to tomorrow. I’ve got you, fam. Here are some random things to say to people while the game is on.
• When your team has the ball: “They gotta establish the running game.”
• When the other team has the ball: “That was a hold!”
• Any time your team is losing: “There’s a lot of game left!”
• When someone is tackled particularly violently: “He’s gonna feel that tomorrow!"
• Every penalty against your team: “Bullshit! Let ‘em play, ref!”
• Randomly at any time: “Roger Goodell ruined this league.”
• Today in history… Baghdad falls to the Mongols, bringing the Islamic Golden Age to an end (1258). Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India (1502). Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1840). Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America (1861). A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Civil War Battle of Elizabeth City in North Carolina (1862). Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, TX (1923). U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam (1954). Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (1962). The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified (1967). Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party (1989). The traditional Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is canceled for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic (2021).
• February 10 is the birthday of poet John Suckling (1609), composer Johann Melchior Molter (1696), English admiral William Cornwallis (1744), astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke (1842), electrical engineer Edith Clarke (1883), actor/singer Jimmy Durante (1893), playwright/director Bertolt Brecht (1898), actress/educator Stella Adler (1901), actor Lon Chaney Jr. (1906), composer Jerry Goldsmith (1929), actor Robert Wagner (1930), singer-songwriter Roberta Flack (1937), singer-songwriter Kenny Rankin (1940), drummer Nigel Olsson (1949), swimmer Mark Spitz (1950), golfer Greg Norman (1955), astrophysicist Katherine Freese (1957), journalist George Stephanopoulos (1961), bass player Cliff Burton (1962), actress Laura Dern (1967), director/producer/screenwriter Vince Gilligan (1967), actress Elizabeth Banks (1974), MLB player Travis d’Arnaud (1989), and actress Chloë Grace Moretz (1997).

I am having a very relaxing weekend thus far. Let’s keep it that way. Enjoy your day.