Random News: February 19, 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 19, 2024, and it’s a Monday. Some of my fellow Americans have today off work. I am not one of them. That’s my own choice, by the way; I own a business and I tend to work whenever I am able, and it takes more of an effort to not work. Regardless, I’m up and about and ready to give you some news of the day before I start doing my job.

• Some interesting news out of Russia today, where Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable opponent, vowed to carry on her husband’s crusade against the Russian regime.
• Not sure if Putin saw that coming. Maybe he’s slipping a bit as he ages.
• Navalnaya, 47, made her announcement in a video statement on YouTube, in which she accused Russian authorities of fatally poisoning Navalny in the Arctic prison where he died suddenly on Friday at age 47.
• Dressed in mourner’s black and her voice trembling a bit, the widow delivered a strong message. “Putin did not only murder the person, Alexei Navalny. He wanted, along with him, to kill our hope, our freedom, our future.”
• I wish the best for Ms. Navalnaya. Statistically, it will be more likely that Putin will just have her killed as well. That’s what people like Putin (and Trump) do.
• Moving on.
• On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are “children”. I”m 100% serious, and it’s a way bigger issue than it seems.
• The case pertains to three couples whose frozen embryos were destroyed when a hospital patient dropped the specimens, and can now can sue for wrongful death.
• But this ruling can and will be used as precedent to remove access to in vitro fertilization across the state and potentially across the country.
• Let me tell you, in simple terms, why a frozen embryo is not a child.
• The reason you can freeze it for upwards of 30 years, defrost it, implant it, and have the possibility for it to grow into a viable fetus is that at the point of collection, it’s a blastocyst… a collection of dividing cells.
• But it has no brain, no organs, no features yet developed. It would be difficult for even a trained scientist to easily discern it from the embryo of a chicken, or a turtle.
• All of these Republican-led cases are there to enact more and more governmental control of women’s reproductive freedom.
• It doesn’t stop at abortion. They will come after your access to birth control. They will want to have authority over who you choose to have sex with.
• The real goal of the Christofascist cabal is to gain complete domination of all women’s choices. If you can’t see it, you’re blind.
• Moving on.
• Right after last Wednesday’s mass shooting in Kansas City after the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win, a photo was circulating online that purportedly showed the shooter.
• The murderer was identified in the pic, which went viral on places like Twitter, as 44-year-old illegal immigrant named Sahil Omar.
• Except it wasn’t. It was a picture of Denton Loudermill. He's an Olathe native, a father of three daughters, and a proud Chiefs fan. And he didn’t shoot anyone or do anything at all. He just doesn’t have white skin.
• His lawyer appealed to the media and the public. “Denton has received death threats over a lie, over misinformation. He didn't do anything wrong. He did not commit a crime. So please, run, tell that. Get the truth out there. Help us clear his name. Help us save his life."
• But even after this misinformation was clarified, a whole bunch of conservative accounts on social media are continuing to show Mr. Loudermill’s image — along with the fake Muslim-sounding name — as the perpetrator, even now.
• I’m telling you this in a request that maybe you should take a closer look at information you see from unknown and/or untrustworthy sources online. 
• Let’s move on.
• Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who has almost no chance of being elected as long as Dump remains alive and well and in the race, said last night that, if elected to the White House, she would pardon Dumpy if he’s convicted of a federal crime.
• At a Fox News town hall in South Carolina, where she once served as governor, Haley said a pardon would be in the country’s “best interest” so Americans can work to “leave the negativity behind” without being further divided.
• Allow me to interject… no. Only justice brings peace.
• And none of this matters. She will endorse Dump the moment she drops out of the race, which will likely be after the South Carolina primaries that she will badly lose.
• And now, The Weather: “Big Air” by Office Dog
• It’s drizzling here in California this morning. That in itself is definitely not news.
• However, our ground is still saturated from the previous series of storms, and flooding and mudslides are always a real issue. As a result, 37 million of us, including me, are under flood watches.
• I’ll be fine.
• Instead of a music chart, I thought it would be appropriate given today’s holiday to give you a list ranking all US Presidents from best to worst.
• This isn’t my list, which would be silly. This is new for 2024 from the Presidential Greatness Project, based on 154 respondents who are current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.
• They are the foremost organization of social science experts in presidential politics, as well as scholars who have recently published peer-reviewed academic research in key related scholarly journals or academic presses.

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt

3. George Washington

4. Teddy Roosevelt

5. Thomas Jefferson

6. Harry S. Truman
7.  Barack Obama

8. Dwight D. Eisenhower
9. Lyndon B. Johnson

10. John F. Kennedy
11. James Madison
12. Bill Clinton
13. John Adams

14. Joe Biden
15. Woodrow Wilson
16. Ronald Reagan
17. Ulysses S. Grant
18. James Monroe
19. George H. W. Bush

20. John Quincy Adams
21. Andrew Jackson

22. Jimmy Carter
23. Wiliam H. Taft

24. William McKinley

25. James K. Polk

26. Grover Cleveland
27. Gerald R. Ford
28. Martin Van Buren
29. Rutherford B. Hayes
30. James A. Garfield
31. Benjamin Harrison
32. George W. Bush
33. Chester A. Arthur
34. Calvin Coolidge
35. Richard M. Nixon
36. Herbert Hoover
37. John Tyler
38. Zachary Taylor
39. Millard Fillmore
40. Warren G. Harding
41. William Henry Harrison
42. Franklin Pierce
43. Andrew Johnson
44. James Buchanan
45. Donald Trump

• Side note, if you were wondering (and I was): even the scholars who identified as conservative — and there were a good portion of them — also placed Dumpy near or at the very bottom.
• But yes, it’s true: the guy who is by far the leading Republican candidate right now is literally the worst president in the history of our country.
• I mean, no surprise to me.
• From the Sports Desk… last night’s ridiculous NBA All-Star Game saw a team exceed the 200-point mark for the first time in NBA history as the Eastern Conference won for the first time in ten years, beating the Western Conference 211-186.
• When neither team is playing any defense and the whole game is for fun, you can indeed break records. And look, I’m not against fun. But don’t put it in any record book.
• Today in history… The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the worship of pagan idols in the Roman Empire (356). Former US vice president Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, AL (1807). The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States (1846). Thomas Edison patents the phonograph (1878). Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country (1913). Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people (1942). About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima (1945). The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence (1959). The publication of Betty Friedan's ‘The Feminine Mystique’ reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women's organizations and consciousness raising groups spread (1963). Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford's Proclamation 4417 (1976). NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system (2002).
• February 19 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473), physician/chemist Friedrich Hoffmann (1660), burlesque performer Lydia Thompson (1838), writer/poet André Breton (1896), jockey Eddie Arcaro (1916), actor Lee Marvin (1924), sportscaster Dave Niehaus (1935), singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson (1940), chemical technician/activist Karen Silkwood (1946), guitarist Tony Iommi (1948), novelist Amy Tan (1952), actor Jeff Daniels (1955), singer-songwriter/guitarist Peter Holsapple (1956), singer-songwriter/guitarist Dave Wakeling (1956), singer-songwriter Falco (1957), keyboardist/composer Steve Nieve (1958), businessman Roger Goodell (1959), UK duke Prince Andrew (1960), singer-songwriter Seal (1963), actress Justine Bateman (1966), actor Benicio del Toro (1967), singer Beth Ditto (1981), NBA player Nikola Jokić (1995), and model/actress Millie Bobby Brown (2004).

As I previously mentioned, tonight I am returning to Second Life with a live music performance at Lutz City of Templemore at 6PM SLT. I spent some time over the weekend choosing a set list and getting my guitar fingers and vocal cords back into shape, and I think it will be a cool show. Come see me tonight if you can. Enjoy your day.