Random News: February 28, 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 28, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. Another busy news day, but I’ve got a big cup of coffee and have fingers with which I can type. Let’s do this.

• Starting with coverage of yesterday’s primary election in Michigan. Both Biden and Trump handily won their respective races as we get closer to their nearly inevitable rematch this fall. However, there are some aspects that need to be reviewed.
• In the Democratic primary, president Joe Biden got 81.1% of the votes, easily trouncing the two other candidate names who remained on the ballot. However, Biden’s victory came with a warning from progressives, young voters, and Arab American Democrats in the form of an “uncommitted” protest vote that got about 13% of the total.
• They want Biden to change course on Israel’s war in Gaza, or risk losing a significant chunk of support in what could be a decisive general election state.
• I’ve long supported the idea of “vote with your heart in the primaries, but vote with your head in the general election.” Ultimately, if a good number of those folks don’t vote for Biden in November, they could end up with Donnie Dump, a president who has already threatened to deport all people of Muslim background.
• Before anyone panics about 13% of Michigan’s voters selecting “uncommitted” as their choice, I also want you know that in 2012, Barack Obama had nearly the same percentage and ended up destroying his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, by over 400,000 votes that fall.
• Moving over to the Republican side, El Dumpo defeated his remaining challenger Nikki Haley by 68% to her 26%. This is actually much more alarming for the MAGA world. More than 30% of the GOP base came out to vote against the unquestioned leader of their party.
• And a good portion of those folks will not support Dumpy in the general election no matter what.
• Weird side note: while Joe Biden was awarded all 109 of Michigan’s Democratic delegates, only 16 of Michigan’s 55 delegates to the Republican National Convention were at stake in Tuesday’s primary, with Dump getting 9 and Haley getting 4. The rest will be awarded at a state party convention Saturday.
• And another note on polling: the most recent 538 polling average had Dump winning Michigan by 57 points. He ended up winning by about 30.
• Shrug.
• Anyway, we’re now less than a week out from Super Tuesday, where 16 states plus one territory will result in hundreds and hundreds of delegate votes that will lead to the eventual official party nomination for the leading candidates.
• There is no question that these will end up being Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
• Moving on.
• It’s the season for major court cases, and there are a couple of them on tap today.
• The Supreme Court is considering whether a ban on bump stocks — an accessory that allows semiautomatic rifles to fire hundreds of bullets per minute — is legal. They were banned by the Trump administration after dozens of people were killed and hundreds more injured at an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas in 2017.
• A bump stock has a similar effect to turning a legal rifle into an illegal machine gun. There’s no way in hell they should be legal. I’m betting this disgusting Court that lacks any semblance of ethics feels otherwise.
• Here’s a moment of comedy from Monday’s Supreme Court hearings about social media companies and the First Amendment.
• Justice Samuel Alito, perhaps the most conservative member of this shitty Court, asked a question and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t trying to be funny. It was about whether editorial protections that newspapers have are applicable to social media platforms.
• "Let's say YouTube were a newspaper, how much would it weigh?" he asked, and the room erupted in laughter.
• Fucking Jesus. This guy is deciding laws for tech firms?
• In terrible law news, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed Indiana’s ban on care for transgender youth to take effect immediately.
• The court issued a stay yesterday, overturning a June decision from a federal judge that blocked the health care ban. Indiana’s Senate Bill 480 bans health care providers from administering gender-affirming medical care to transgender minors.
• I’m at a point now where I’d support a boycott on business with companies based in states that enact these draconian measures. Money talks.
• Moving on.
• Last week, Owasso, NE police said in a statement last week that “preliminary information” from the medical examiner’s office indicated that 16-year-old transgender student Nex Benedict “did not die as a result of trauma.”
• Some people took the department’s statement to mean that any potential injuries Benedict sustained from the fight didn’t cause their death. However, Lt. Nick Boatman, a police spokesperson, said yesterday that that wasn’t what the statement was intended to mean.
• We’ll be watching for more information as it becomes available. And if it becomes clear that Benedict’s beating resulted in or contributed to their death, we do expect murder charges to be filed accordingly.
• As long as we’re talking about teenagers, we should mention Tyler Jay Boebert, the 18-year-old son of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
• He was arrested yesterday after a recent string of vehicle trespass and property thefts. Boebert faces multiple felony counts of criminal possession of identification documents, conspiracy to commit a felony, and more than 15 additional misdemeanor and petty offenses.
• As of this morning, the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office listed Tyler Boebert as an inmate in the county jail with no bond amount or release date set.
• In a high level of irony, just hours before her son’s arrest, Rep. Boebert wrote, “The Biden Crime Family will go down as the most corrupt political family in American history,” despite the fact that she, her ex-husband Jayson, and her son have all faced charges in the past six months.
• Moving on.
• Starbucks and a union seeking to organize the coffee chain's U.S. workforce said yesterday they have agreed to create a framework to guide organizing and collective bargaining and potentially settle scores of pending legal disputes.
• Starbucks and Workers United said in a joint announcement that during talks last week to settle an ongoing court case, a constructive path forward emerged on the future of the nationwide labor campaign that began in 2021 and has led workers to unionize at nearly 400 of the company's 9,000 U.S. stores.
• Commenting on this, President Biden wrote, “Months ago, I sat down with Starbucks Workers United leaders to discuss their fight for better conditions and pay. Today, I applaud workers and Starbucks for announcing a framework that respects the right to form and join unions. When workers win, we all win.”
• Joe is right.
• In other news…
• Prosecutors preparing for El Dumpo’s first criminal trial next month are seeking a partial gag order to prevent him and those speaking on his behalf from disparaging witnesses, jurors, and others involved in the case, and have asked a judge to protect jurors by shielding their names and addresses from public view.
• This is just the first of four prosecutions Dump faces as he closes in on the 2024 Republican nomination for president, in regard to Dump’s hush money payment during the 2016 election.
• Shielding the names and addresses of jurors will help “ensure the integrity of these proceedings, minimize obstacles to jury selection, and protect juror safety.”
• Dumpy’s defense lawyers will have a chance to respond to Bragg’s motions before Judge Merchan rules on them.
• And now, The Weather: “Alesis” by Mk.gee
• Some crazy weather last night in the Midwest, with severe thunderstorms in Illinois and Michigan, and at least two tornadoes touching down in Ohio. Be safe out there, friends.
• From the Sports Desk… the current five best goalies in the NHL based on goals allowed.
• 1. Connor Hellebuyck (WPG): 2.21. 2. Adin Hill (VGK): 2.26. 3. David Rittich (LA): 2.32. 4 (tie). Pyotr Kochetkov (CAR): 2.35. 4 (tie). Sergei Bobrovsky (FLA): 2.35.
• Today in history… Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés (1525). The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (1922). James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place in April's Nature Magazine (1953). The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers (1983). The first Gulf War ends (1991). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, TX, starting a 51-day standoff (1993). GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way (1997). The 2001 Nisqually earthquake, having a moment magnitude of 6.8, with epicenter in the southern Puget Sound, damages Seattle metropolitan area (2001). Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since Pope Gregory XII, in 1415 (2013). 
• February 28 is the birthday of screenwriter Ben Hecht (1894), chemist/activist Linus Pauling (1901), gangster Bugsy Siegel (1906), architect Frank Gehry (1929), actor Gavin MacLeod (1931), racing driver Mario Andretti (1940), graphic designer Storm Thorgerson (1944), NFL player/actor Bubba Smith (1945), actress Bernadette Peters (1948), comedian Gilbert Gottfried (1955), actor John Turturro (1957), singer-songwriter Cindy Wilson (1957), NHL player Eric Lindros (1973), MLB player Aroldis Chapman (1988), and NBA player Luka Dončić (1999).

There’s always more news, but never more time. Gotta go. Enjoy your day.