Random News: March 1, 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 March 1, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I am definitely looking forward to the upcoming weekend… not for any specific reason other than that of enjoying things to do that I don’t have to do. I guess that’s the definition of a weekend, pretty much.

• Rabbit rabbit rabbit.
• Yes, it’s a brand new month, and March happens to be Women’s History Month. What is it, and how did it start?
• In the USA, Women's History Month traces its beginnings back to the first International Women's Day in 1911. But it wasn’t until 1969 when a woman named Laura X in Berkeley, CA organized a march on that day which had been largely forgotten about by then.
• She also thought it unfair for half the human race to have only one day a year, and called for National Women’s History Month to be built around the obscure holiday.
• She had a point. Eleven years later in February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women's History Week.
• By 1986, fourteen states had declared March as Women's History Month. The following year, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9, which designated the month of March as Women's History Month.
• Most of you probably have no concept as to how women have been treated, historically and even currently, as second-class citizens of the world.
• Here in the USA, it was barely over 100 years ago that women were “allowed” to vote in elections with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.
• You want something more recent? It wasn’t until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) was passed in 1974 that women were able to get their own credit cards in their own name. That’s right. When I was a child, women could not get a fucking credit card unless it was under their husband’s account.
• How about something that conservatives are gunning for right now: no-fault divorce. Previous to the 1970s, a woman required her husband’s permission to end a marriage, and it trapped women in abusive marriages.
• After the passage of no fault divorce, suicide rates for women dropped by 20%. From 1976 to 1985, overall domestic violence rates dropped by a quarter to one-half in states that adopted no-fault divorce laws.
• Anyway, there are still many, many discrepancies between the rights and privileges of women and men, in the USA and around the world. We will be looking at those from time to time over the course of this month.
• And a side note: I am indeed a feminist. In the same way that I don’t have to be a person of color or a gay person to offer my support to their goals, I have a strong belief in equality and justice, and if you can’t see the injustices suffered by women around the world, you’re fucking blind.
• And unironically, I’d saw to my fellow male humans, be a fucking man and step up to support women. Guys who aren’t feminists are fucking pussies.
• Okay, let’s do the news.
• Several countries have joined the UN in calling for an investigation into the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians during an aid delivery in Gaza. At least 117 people were killed and more than 760 injured yesterday as they crowded around aid trucks.
• This is completely unacceptable, and Israel is quickly losing more and more international support due to actions like these. 
• As is typical in war, the first casualty is the truth; Hamas accused Israel of firing at civilians, but Israel said most died in a crush after it fired warning shots. The evidence is not on Israel’s side here.
• While 14 of the UN Council's 15 members supported the motion, the US blocked it. It’s far past the time that the US condemned Israel’s actions in this war and called for a cease fire.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the House approved a short-term funding bill to avert a partial government shutdown this weekend, sending the legislation to the Senate before today’s funding deadline.
• The legislation — which passed in a 320-99 vote — kicks the two government funding deadlines to March 8 and March 22, buying lawmakers more time to hash out their differences on spending bills and push them over the finish line.
• Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) knows a shutdown would be blamed on House Republicans, who have demanded controversial policy additions to funding bills.
• But the far-right MAGA contingent of the Congress are now mad at him for working with Democrats (which is actually his job). Only 113 Republicans voted for the bill, compared to 207 Democrats.
• Let’s move on for now.
• A federal judge in Austin, TX ordered the state government yesterday to suspend enforcement of a controversial law that would allow state law enforcement agents to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally.
• Judge David Alan Ezra wrote, “If allowed to proceed, SB 4 could open the door to each state passing its own version of immigration laws. SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice.”
• Without action from the court, the law was set to go into effect this coming Tuesday March 4. 
• Texas is, of course, appealing. They want their law enforcement officers to approach anyone who looks vaguely Latino and demand to see their papers. Remember this when you vote.
• In other news…
• It’s a busy day for America’s favorite smelly criminal, Donald John Trump.
• Two hearings Friday, one in Georgia and the other in Florida, could hold significant implications for Dumpy and the criminal charges he faces for his actions around the 2020 election and retaining classified information after leaving office.
• In Georgia, Dump and his co-defendants are delivering final arguments in their effort to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from the case. In Florida, meanwhile, a federal judge could push back Trump’s trial date in the classified documents case.
• Special Counsel Jack Smith and attorneys for Dump proposed moving the trial in the Mar-a-Lago documents case later into the summer. Smith said he believes that Trump and his two co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliviera, should go to trial on July 8, 2024.
• Keeping an eye on that, obviously.
• Dump has only until next weekend to pay the $83.3 million verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit unless a court rules otherwise. 
• And he’s only weeks away from the bill being due for his $454 million penalty in his New York civil fraud trial.
• Reports are flying around that Dumpy is completely embarrassed by the public knowledge that he is not, in fact, rich. He’s stated publicly many times that his wealth is in excess of $10 billion. But if that were the case, he’d have already paid these judgements and not been accumulating massive interest or having to sell off his properties and other assets.
• Moving on.
• Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking a trove of classified military documents and posting them online, has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty.
• Teixeira, who was 21 years old when he was arrested, is accused of abusing his security clearance and posting classified documents on social media sites, such as Discord. He revealed the kinds of military equipment the United States was prepared to give to Ukraine, how the equipment would be transferred, and how the equipment would be used upon receipt.
• Fuck that kid.
• And now, The Weather: “No Way” by Ford Chastain
• In real weather news… uncontrollable wildfires in Texas and dangerous blizzards in California. Welcome to the rest of your life, and please don’t say climate scientists didn’t warn you for decades. They did. Now you’re fucked.
• From the Sports Desk… want to know where the NCAA Men’s basketball tams are from?
• By conference… Big 12: 9, SEC: 7, Big Ten: 6, Mountain West: 6, Big East: 5, ACC: 5, Pac-12: 2, American: 2, WCC: 2, and Atlantic 10: 2.
• I'm sure this means something to someone who follows college sports. That someone would not be me.
• Today in history… Emperor Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as Caesars, marking the beginning of the Tetrarchy, known as the Quattuor Principes Mundi, or"Four Rulers of the World” (293). The Articles of Confederation goes into effect in the United States (1781). United States President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas (1845). Nebraska is admitted as the 37th U.S. state (1867). Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park (1872). Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, MO (1893). Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay (1896). Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later (1953). Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice (1974). Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992). Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide (1998). Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security (2003). 
• March 1 is the birthday of mathematician/diplomat John Pell (1611), SCOTUS justice William Cushing (1732), pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin (1810), poet Basil Bunting (1900), bandleader Glenn Miller (1904), actor/soldier David Niven (1910), novelist Ralph Ellison (1914), singer/TV host Dinah Shore (1917), Israel prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (1922), NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle (1926), singer/activist Harry Belafonte (1927), actor Robert Conrad (1935), singer Roger Daltrey (1944), actor Alan Thicke (1947), actress Catherine Bach (1954), actor/director/producer Ron Howard (1954), singer-songwriter Nik Kershaw (1958), actor Javier Bardem (1969), singer-songwriter Kesha (1987), singer-songwriter Justin Bieber (1994), NFL player Tyreek Hill (1994), NFL player Ja'Marr Chase (2000).

Okay, gotta go. Enjoy your day.