Random News: February 21, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s February 21, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I seem to be alive and awake, so now that we’ve established that, let’s see what’s going on so we can, together, make the world a better place in which to live.

• President Joe Biden said yesterday that his administration will announce major sanctions on Friday to hold Russia accountable for the death last week of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
• National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the announcement is also in response to Russia's continued aggression in Ukraine, which began nearly two years ago. He stressed that one of the most powerful actions the U.S. can take to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin is for Congress to pass an emergency spending bill that would provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
• Good.
• Moving over to the man recently ranked by scholars as the worst president in US history, it might be time to grab the assets of ol’ Smelly.
• Four days after a judge ordered Don the Con to pay $354 million in his civil fraud case, New York Attorney General Letitia James said that she is prepared to seize the former president's assets if he is unable to find the cash to cover the fine.
• ”If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets," she said.
• Dumpy was fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in pre-judgment interest on Friday after Judge Arthur Engoron determined that he inflated his net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The interest alone on the judgement goes up by $87,000 each day.
• Moving on to a follow-up on a horror story I’ve reported on many times.
• Ruby Franke, the mother who inflicted terrible abuse on her children while running a popular YouTube channel about child rearing, was sentenced yesterday to four consecutive sentences of one to 15 years in a Utah prison.
• Franke, 42, had made videos of the abuse of her children on her now-deleted YouTube channel “8 Passengers” which had 2.3 million followers. She was arrested in August after her 12-year-old son ran away and asked a neighbor to call police.
• She was initially charged with six counts but pleaded not guilty to two of the counts as part of a plea deal to testify against her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, who was also charged with aggravated child abuse but also reached a plea agreement.
• Hildebrandt also was sentenced Tuesday and received the same sentences. I tell you about this nightmare situation for a specific reason.
• You live in a world where literally anyone can publish information in many forms… written in social posts, produced in video formats, and so on. I highly advise you to use extreme care in following advice on crucial aspects of your life, from parenting to health to financial practices, based on the messaging of people who may have zero qualifications and may be out to actively harm you.
• Moving on.
• I’ve been hesitant to bring up the case of 16-year-old Nex Benedict, a non-binary student from Owasso, OK who collapsed and died after an altercation in a girls’ bathroom at the public high school they attended.
• It was known that the 10th-grader, who used they/them pronouns, had long been bullied for being nonbinary. Owasso is a Tulsa suburb of about 40,000 in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, a conservative state where LGBTQ issues are lightning rods of controversy.
• What is known is this: on February 7, Nex was beaten in their school’s bathroom by other students. Officials did not summon an ambulance or police.
• They were picked up from school and taken to a hospital for an MRI given the bad facial bruises and scratches. The next morning, Nex collapsed at home and was rushed back to the hospital.
• Autopsy results are pending. Unlike federal law, Oklahoma law does not address hate crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation. To be 100% clear, you can go to Oklahoma and injure or kill all the gay and trans people you want and not be charged with a hate crime by the state.
• I was going to wait to see if any definitive answers about Nex’s cause of death were revealed, but frankly this is too important a topic to hold back. This year, legislators in Oklahoma have already have proposed more than 50 anti-LGBTQ+ laws — more than any other state.
• Last year, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an executive order defining an individual’s sex as the “biological sex” at birth. Laws took effect requiring students to use bathrooms that match their sex assigned at birth and restricting gender-affirming care for trans youths.
• For now, moving on.
• Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) could face major repercussions over the Republican attempt to impeach Joe Biden after a former FBI informant charged with making false bribery claims against the president was accused of using Russian intelligence.
• Alexander Smirnov, 43, is accused of making a false statement to the FBI and creating a false and fictitious record in relation to claims that the president and his son, Hunter Biden, were paid bribes from Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
• In court filings yesterday, the Department of Justice said that Smirnov admitted during interviews that he had met with officials associated with Russian intelligence who were involved in passing a story about Hunter Biden.
• As a result, Jordan and other Republicans could face consequences if it is found Russian intelligence was the source of the alleged false bribery claims they said justified the impeachment of Biden. 
• It seems very much that Jordan, Chuck Grassley, and James Comer were either duped by Smirnov and the Kremlin—or they were in on it.
• Guess we’ll see. Let’s move on for now.
• This coming Saturday is the GOP primary in South Carolina, the home state of the last major Republican candidate standing in Dumpy’s path to the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.
• It is predicted that Nikki Haley will have a blowout loss to the Dumpster in the state, but Haley refuses to quit. She vowed yesterday to stay in the fight against Trump at least until after Super Tuesday’s slate of more than a dozen contests on March 5.
• Why?
• Well, the only reason I can think of is that in the potential circumstance that El Dumpo doesn’t make it to the general election — perhaps by being incarcerated, having fled the country, or being no longer among the living, Haley would remain the only viable GOP option to take on President Biden.
• And now, The Weather: “Olly Olly Oxen Free” by D.A. Crimson
• Let’s do a chart. It’s this week in February 1979, and I’m in fifth grade. I remember being somewhat concerned at the time via various propaganda that when I got to middle school the next fall, older kids would force me to do drugs.
• Turns out that no one of any age wants to give away drugs much less force it on others, and a few years later I’d be buying my own regardless.
• Noted for no reason: big LGBTQ influence on this particular chart from exactly 45 years ago, in case you thought gay stuff was a new fad.
• 1. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? (Rod Stewart). 2. Fire (The Pointer Sisters). 3. A Little More Love (Olivia Newton-John). 4. I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor). 5. Y.M.C.A. (Village People). 6. Tragedy (Bee Gees). 7. Le Freak (Chic). 8. Lotta Love (Nicolette Larson). 9. Somewhere In The Night (Barry Manilow). 10. I Was Made For Dancin' (Leif Garrett). 11. Heaven Knows (Donna Summer With Brooklyn Dreams). 12. Got To Be Real (Cheryl Lynn). 13. Shake It (Ian Matthews). 14. Soul Man (Blues Brothers). 15. No Tell Lover (Chicago). 16. Blue Morning, Blue Day (Foreigner). 17. The Gambler (Kenny Rogers). 18. Shake Your Groove Thing (Peaches & Herb). 19. Don't Cry Out Loud (Melissa Manchester). 20. Dancin' Shoes (Nigel Olsson)
• From the Sports Desk… here are the NBA’s current top scorers with their points per game average.
• 1. Joel Embiid (PHI) - 35.3. 2. Luka Doncic (DAL) - 34.2. 3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) - 31.1. 4. Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL) - 30.8. 5. Donovan Mitchell (CLE) - 28.4.
• Today in history… A force of 1,400 French soldiers invade Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen and are defeated by 500 British reservists (1797). John Greenough is granted the first U.S. patent for the sewing machine (1842). Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish ‘The Communist Manifesto’ (1848). The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated (1895). The New Yorker publishes its first issue (1925). In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America (1947). The peace symbol, commissioned in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom (1958). Malcolm X is gunned down while giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem (1965). United States President Richard Nixon visits China to normalize Sino-American relations (1972). Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison in the Watergate scandal (1975). Russian President Vladimir Putin declares the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic as independent from Ukraine, and moves troops into the region, an action condemned by the United Nations (2022).
• February 21 is the birthday of executed accused witch Rebecca Nurse (1621), scientist/inventor Francis Ronalds (1788), Mexico president Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794), guitarist Andrés Segovia (1893), essayist//novelist/diarist Anaïs Nin (1903), poet W. H. Auden (1907), computer scientist Thelma Estrin (1924), film director Sam Peckinpah (1925), journalist/humorist Erma Bombeck (1927), singer-songwriter Nina Simone (1933), actress Rue McClanahan (1934), businessman David Geffen (1943), actress Tyne Daly (1946), actor Alan Rickman (1946), guitarist/songwriter/producer Jerry Harrison (1949), keyboardist Vince Welnick (1951), actor Kelsey Grammer (1955), novelist Chuck Palahniuk (1962), singer-songwriter Ranking Roger (1963), NBA player Steve Francis (1977), actress Jennifer Love Hewitt (1979), actor/filmmaker Jordan Peele (1979), singer-songwriter Charlotte Church (1986), actor Elliot Page (1987), and actress Sophie Turner (1996).

That’s enough for now. I’m gonna work out and do things. Oh a little side note: I’m heading back to the world of dental surgery tomorrow morning. If my news is late or absent, you’ll know why. And don’t worry… I’ll be fine, if not immediately then eventually. Enjoy your day.