Random News: February 12, 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 12, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I am getting closer to my normal self health-wise, which is very much appreciated. Still not perfect, but who is, really? Let’s see what’s been happening in this world of ours.

• Before anything else, I need to fix something I’d neglected to do over the weekend and note the passing of my city’s mayor.
• Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand died Friday night at the age of 65 from lung cancer. To say he fought the disease valiantly is a massive understatement.
• Brand survived his specific cancer for 4-1/2 years, which is longer than any other diagnosed in the United States. He was a champion of open-space policies and environmental protection, both policies that have been to benefit of the residents of our city. 
• He served two terms on the city council and was elected mayor in 2017, winning re-election four years later. He continued to serve while undergoing cancer treatments in recent years.
• I sometimes talk about Redondo Beach like a sleepy little town, but the reality is that Redondo Beach is a respected Los Angeles beachside suburb of almost 70,000 residents. I’ve always considered myself very fortunate to live here. Mayor Brand did a fine job as the steward of our city, and he will be missed.
• Moving on.
• But as long as we’re doing some news from Southern California, here’s another tale of one of my least favorite trends: a gender reveal event gone wrong.
• This one sparked a wildfire that killed a firefighter in 2020, and resulted in a man having to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
• The El Dorado Fire erupted on September 5, 2020, when Refugio Jimenez Jr. and Angelina Jimenez and their young children staged a photo shoot for their baby gender reveal at El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains.
• A smoke-generating pyrotechnic device was set off in a field and quickly ignited dry grass on a scorching day. The couple frantically tried to use bottled water to douse the flames and called 911, but to no avail. In addition to the charges, the Jimenezes were also ordered to pay victims’ restitution in the amount of $1,789,972.
• It’s sad and I’m sure they never meant to cause devastation and death… but in an era where birth gender is less and less important in the big picture, taking reckless risks for some likes on Instagram seems like an unwise choice.
• Let’s move on.
• Today, closed-door hearings start in the classified documents criminal case against Donnie Dump and others. The hearings are focused over access to evidence that could impact whether the former president is tried before the November election.
• El Dumpo arrived at the federal courthouse this morning as he and his attorneys plan to meet for several hours with Judge Aileen Cannon without prosecutors present to discuss the case in detail. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team will meet with Cannon afterward.
• In addition to today’s hearing, Dump’s team faces a major deadline for court filings in less than two weeks, as they continue to strategize for ways to delay the trial.
• That is their top goal at this stage… to delay, delay, delay as long as possible. Dump and his team know he will be convicted, so he’s doing everything possible to get elected for the purpose of pardoning himself and facing no accountability for his crimes.
• Does that seem fair to you?
• Got some more Dump Ass news for you.
• Dumpy faces a deadline today for asking the Supreme Court to extend the delay in his trial on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 election loss.
• His lawyers have indicated they will file an emergency appeal with the court, just four days after the justices heard Trump’s separate appeal to remain on the presidential ballot despite attempts to kick him off because of his efforts following his election loss in 2020.
• The filing would preserve a delay on what would be a landmark criminal trial of a former president while the nation’s highest court decides what to do. The federal appeals court in Washington set the deadline for filing when it rejected Trump’s immunity claims last week and ruled the trial could proceed.
• The Supreme Court’s decision on what to do, and how quickly it acts, could determine whether Dump, the Republican presidential primary front-runner, stands trial in the case before the November election.
• Guess we’ll see. Moving on.
• While most of us were watching the Super Bowl yesterday, Republicans in the Senate were busy defying Dumpy by moving forward on a bill to send $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
• The Senate voted 67-27 to advance the foreign aid supplemental spending bill that doesn’t include border provisions, moving it another step closer to passage.
• Dumpy had helped tank the bipartisan border-foreign aid bill, calling for Republicans to block that legislation as well. This time, many GOP senators didn’t seem concerned with his opposition. Republican support actually gained some ground on Sunday, with 18 voting to move the measure forward.
• Good. Fuck Dump and his irrelevant opinions.
• In other news…
• Major credit card companies are moving to make a merchant code available for firearm and ammunition retailers in order to comply with a new California law that will allow banks to potentially track suspicious gun purchases and report them to law enforcement.
• Glad to hear it.
• Retailers are assigned merchant codes based on the types of goods they sell, and the codes allow banks and credit card companies to detect purchase patterns. Currently gun shops are lumped in with other types of retailers, such as sporting goods stores. 
• Proponents say a code for firearms merchants would allow banks and credit unions to alert law enforcement of potentially suspicious purchasing patterns in the same way they already flag other types of transactions, such as those that suggest identity theft or terrorist financing. 
• Seems like a good step toward preventing tragedies that occur after a person is stockpiling weapons and ammunition.
• I want to make one non-sports mention of the Super Bowl.
• Various Democrats — including Joe Biden himself — enjoyed the opportunity to poke fun at the conspiracy theorists after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. As you may be aware, an insane rumor had floated around the MAGA world that the NFL had rigged the playoffs for the Chiefs so that Taylor Swift could announce her support for Biden after they won the big game.
• When he game ended in the Chiefs’ favor, social media lit up with liberals making statements to the tune of “Just like we planned it.”
• I did laugh.
• And now, The Weather: “Let Them Row” by Dana Gavanski
• From the Sports Desk… no matter which team you did or didn’t support, helluva fucking game yesterday.
• If you were abducted by aliens yesterday and just returned, allow me to tell you that the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in what was only the second overtime Super Bowl in history.
• As far as football games go, Super Bowl LVIII was exciting as hell. I didn’t have a team I was rooting for, but I will say this: had the Niners won, I would have vaulted into the top spot in the annual Pick ‘Em NFL pool I play.
• Instead, I think I ended up in sixth place. Oh well.
• Final note: much like I felt about the Patriots in the 2000s and 2010s, the Chiefs are annoyingly good, and I’m kinda tired of seeing them win over and over. That being said, they deserve their success.
• Patrick Mahomes is going to end up listed among the best that ever played the game, and rightfully so.
• And it’s worth mentioning that a whole lot of young people — mostly girls and women — who wouldn’t have otherwise given a shit about the Super Bowl got to see Taylor Swift’s boyfriend hoist the Lombardi trophy, and maybe they got a lot fo enjoyment out of it.
• I’m happy when people are happy.
• Today in history… Isabella I issues an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of Castile, forcing virtually all her Muslim subjects to convert to Christianity (1502). Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by general Kwon Yul successfully repel more than 30,000 Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju (1593). Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, by settling at Savannah (1733). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — NAACP — is founded (1909). George Gershwin's ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ received its premiere in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music", in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano (1924). African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer, galvanizing the civil rights movement (1946). Construction begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO (1963). United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial (1999). NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down on 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid (2001). The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom (2004). 
• February 12 is the birthday of naturalist Charles Darwin (1809), US president Abraham Lincoln (1809), engineer/businessman Louis Renault (1877), US general Omar Bradley (1893), MLB player/announcer Joe Garagiola, Sr. (1926), NBA legend Bill Russell (1934), author Judy Blume (1938), keyboardist/songwriter Ray Manzarek (1939), scientist/futurist Ray Kurzweil (1948), guitarist Steve Hackett (1950), singer-songwriter Michael McDonald (1952), bass player/producer Bill Laswell (1955), actor/TV host Arsenio Hall (1956), drummer Omar Hakim (1964), SCOTUS justice Brett Kavanaugh (1965), actor Josh Brolin (1968), NHL player Owen Nolan (1972), rapper Gucci Mane (1980), actress Christina Ricci (1980), and NFL player Robert Griffin III (1990).

Okay, that’s plenty for now. I’m trying to get to a point where taking ibuprofen every fucking day isn’t a necessity. I’ll get there eventually. At least I finish my gross antibiotics today. Enjoy your day.