Random News: February 14, 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 14, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I’ve come to appreciate Wednesdays more, most likely because it’s the one day of the week I don’t have any scheduled meetings and can actually work. Sad, huh? Let’s see what’s happening in this world.

• And let’s open with some excellent news.
• Democrat Tom Suozzi has won back his old seat in the House, giving the party a critical pickup that will further narrow the GOP House majority.
• Suozzi defeated Republican Mazi Pilip in the special election to fill the seat vacated by disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R), who was expelled from his seat in December in the aftermath of criminal charges being filed against him and the many false claims he made about his background.
• Suozzi not only beat his Republican opponent; he creamed her with 54% of the vote tally to her 46%. This is huge news as a portent to the November general election, as New York will be key to Democrats’ strategy to win back control of the House.
• Quick side note.
• Pollsters had described the Suozzi/Pilip race as “neck and neck” as recently as this past weekend with only one percentage point separating them. What went wrong?
• Polling is expensive. It takes 50 calls to get a person to respond on a landline, but it takes 500 calls for a cell, so they prefer landlines. Most people who pick up their phones for unknown caller numbers are older folks.
• So polls tend to be skewed these days toward older and presumably more conservative voters. Until they change the methodology drastically, keep that in mind next time you get scared by any particular poll.
• Continuing on… I’m sure that Donnie Dump was kind and sympathetic toward Pilip after her loss.
• Ha! Just kidding. He called her a "very foolish woman,” and said, "She would have easily WON if she understood anything about MODERN DAY politics in America.”
• Keep in mind that this same election will happen again in November; this special election only covered the remaining term that Santos would have served had he not been a criminal piece of shit liar.
• We have some more good election news.
• In the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Democrats retained their slim majority yesterday after voters elected a former school board member to represent them in a Philadelphia suburb that has been trending more to the left.
• Jim Prokopiak’s election to the Bucks County seat will give Democrats a 102-100 majority in the PA House, which they have sought to defend in four special elections in the past year.
• I don’t need to tell you that with Pennsylvania being a major battleground swing state, having a Democratic majority at the state going into the general election is nothing but good.
• I will also tell you about a Democratic loss yesterday, but for a good reason. Republican Erick Harris won the state House election over Democrat Regan Raff with 50% to Regan’s 45%.
• But Donnie Dump won that district by 26 points in 2020. A five-point margin of victory in a place like Oklahoma should scare the shit out of all MAGA candidates going into this fall.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, President Biden forcefully condemned Donnie Dump’s comments — in which he said he would encourage Russia to invade NATO allies — as un-American.
• The worst part of Dump’s speech, Biden said, was that “he means it.”
• Biden delivered the remarks to urge Congress to pass a $95 billion national security package to aid Israel, Ukraine, and other U.S. allies. The Senate passed the bill early Tuesday morning, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has already rejected the package.
• In other political news, the Republican-led House of Representatives impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas yesterday for (checks notes) no reason at all. They’d said they were going to pick one of Biden’s cabinet members to impeach, and now they have.
• It’s only the second time in U.S. history that a Cabinet member has been impeached.
• By a vote tally of 214-213, the House approved two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, alleging that he intentionally violated federal immigration laws and blocked congressional oversight of the Homeland Security Department.
• Mayorkas isn’t going anywhere. This was all for show. The Senate, which is on recess until February 26, will either dismiss the impeachment articles outright or send the trial to a special committee to hear evidence.
• Keep in mind, these are the same Republicans who refused $20 billion of border security funding in a bipartisan Senate deal last week. They don’t want to protect the border. That would take away their biggest talking point to try and help their lord, El Dumpo.
• Moving on.
• Judge Arthur Engoron, who presided over the $370 million civil fraud case in New York against El Dumpo and his company, is expected to issue his verdict in the trial by the end of the week.
• It is currently anticipated the Engoron decision will be released on Friday, barring unforeseen circumstances.
• Can’t fucking wait. I’ll be ready to celebrate that day.
• In other news that may or may not relate to Donnie Dump…
• The number of syphilis cases in the U.S. are on a drastic rise. Cases increased by nearly 80% to more than 207,000 between 2018 and 2022.
• In 2022, 3,755 cases of babies born with syphilis in the U.S. were reported, which reflects an alarming 937% increase in the past decade. Nearly a quarter of syphilis cases in the U.S. were being diagnosed in women in 2022, a sign that the nation's alarming epidemic of the sexually transmitted infection is increasingly spreading among heterosexual couples.
• I shouldn’t have to tell you this in 2024, but maybe you should use some kind of protection when you put your wang dang in the sweet poontang, or wherever you put it.
• Hey, you know that “futuristic” Cybertruck from Elon Musk’s Tesla company?
• They just started shipping it to customers a couple of months ago, but the stainless steel monstrosity has a small problem: it’s rusting.
• One Cybertruck Owners Club forum member says they started noticing small orange flecks appearing on his truck after driving it in the rain for just two days. He posted followup photos after washing the vehicle down with soap, showing body panels already pockmarked with small orange spots.
• Snort.
• And now, The Weather: “Closer” by pecq
• Haven’t done a chart in a little bit. Let’s do one now.
• This is the Billboard 200 albums chart from February 1975, for no reason. I’m sure people used most of these album covers to roll joints on, though. Maybe not the Barry Manilow record, but still.
• 1. AWB (Average White Band). 2. Blood On The Tracks (Bob Dylan). 3. Heart Like A Wheel (Linda Ronstadt). 4. Miles Of Aisles (Joni Mitchell). 5. War Child (Jethro Tull). 6. Do It 'til You're Satisfied (B.T. Express). 7. Empty Sky (Elton John). 8. Rufusized (Rufus And Chaka Khan). 9. Barry Manilow II (Barry Manilow). 10. All The Girls In The World Beware!!! (Grand Funk Railroad). 11. Dark Horse (George Harrison). 12. Phoebe Snow (Phoebe Snow). 13. What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (The Doobie Brothers). 14. Fire (Ohio Players). 15. Joy To The World-Their Greatest Hits (Three Dog Night). 16. Prime Time (Tony Orlando & Dawn). 17. So What (Joe Walsh). 18. Souvenirs (Dan Fogelberg). 19. Perfect Angel (Minnie Riperton). 20. It'll Shine When It Shines (Ozark Mountain Daredevils)
• From the Sports Desk… the top teams in the NBA, if you hadn’t been paying attention.
• Eastern Conference: Celtics (42-12), Cavaliers (35-17), Bucks (35-20).
• Western Conference: Timberwolves (38-16), Thunder (37-17), Clippers (35-27).
• Today in history… Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg (1349). The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones (1778). James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii (1779). In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken (1849). Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state (1859). Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray (1876). Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections (1899). Arizona is admitted as the 48th and the last contiguous U.S. state (1912). The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation, aka IBM (1924). Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago (1929). The British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden (1945). The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time (1949). Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California (1961). Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster (1989). The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later becomes famous as ‘Pale Blue Dot’ (1990). YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world (2005). A shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida is one of the deadliest school massacres with 17 fatalities and 17 injuries (2018).
• February 14 is the birthday of painter/poet/philosopher Leon Battista Alberti (1404), composer Francesco Cavalli (1602), composer Georg Friedrich Kauffmann (1679), businesswoman Lydia Hamilton Smith (1813), journalist/politician/inventor Christopher Latham Sholes (1819), soldier/drummer Julian Scott (1846), engineer George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (1859), actor John Barrymore (1882), actor Jack Benny (1894), union leader Jimmy Hoffa (1913), journalist Hugh Downs (1921), actor Vic Morrow (1929), actress Florence Henderson (1934), politician Donna Shalala (1941), businessman/politician Michael Bloomberg (1942), actor Andrew Robinson (1942), saxophonist Maceo Parker (1943), journalist Carl Bernstein (1943), film director Alan Parker (1944), actor/dancer Gregory Hines (1946), singer-songwriter Tim Buckley (1947), guitarist Roger Fisher (1950), journalist Terry Gross (1951), NFL player Jim Kelly (1960), NFL player Drew Bledsoe (1972), singer-songwriter Rob Thomas (1972), and NFL player Steve McNair (1973).

Time for me to workout, and then work. Enjoy your day.