Random News: March 16, 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, or afternoon if I’m being truthful. It’s March 16, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. Kinda feeling more normal about Daylight Saving Time after a week of being annoyed by it, so I’m here in my blue bathrobe with a big cup of coffee and ready to explore the happenings of this wacky world with you. Let’s see what’s up.

• Yesterday, former vice president Mike Pence said that he will not endorse Donnie Dump, the president with whom he served.
• There is no historical precedent for a former vice president of the USA to withhold endorsement of the former president for subsequent political endeavors. Withholding his endorsement in this remarkable break with tradition, Pence rebuked his former boss in strong terms yesterday, saying Dump’s agenda doesn’t align with his view of conservatism.
• On Fox News, Pence said, “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years, and that is why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.”
• A lot of folks can’t remember what the Republican party used to be. Granted, I wasn’t a fan of them then, either.
• Think of it like a well-intentioned Facebook group, maybe one set up to get volunteers to keep a local park clean. The group does well and many people join and participate in its goal.
• And then one day, some guy comes into the group and says, “Yeah, it’s great we can keep the park clean, but you know who’s doing most of the littering? The black kids.”
• And while there are some mild protests and arguments, he doesn’t get banned right away because the group admins don’t want to create controversy. A couple of like-minded racists want to hear him out and agree with him. And the group’s founders are kind of scared of them.
• The next thing you know, the entire group has a singular focus of racism, no one is cleaning up the park, and while the group still has the same name, it’s completely been stolen from them, and all the people who started it have been driven out.
• That’s the Republican Party in 2024.
• I know some people don’t want to abandon the Republican Party. It’s what they always supported before, and perhaps their parents supported it, or most of the people in the area where they live support it.
• But to be clear, the party they’re involved now in is NOT THE SAME PARTY as it was just 20 or so years ago. It has the same name, but that’s about it.
• It got invaded by outsiders and all of its missions of conservatism were pushed aside.
• I’ll quote Mike Pence again on this topic…
• “Should the new populism of the right seize and guide our party, the Republican Party we’ve long known will cease to exist. And the fate of American freedom would be in doubt.”
• Another former VP and staunch conservative, Dick Cheney said in a video, “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters.”
• If you don’t believe Pence and Cheney, believe the new MAGA Party itself. Lara Trump, the co-chair of the RNC, said last week, “Anyone who is not on board with seeing Donald Trump as the forty-seventh president and America-loving patriots all the way down the ticket being supported by the RNC is welcome to leave because we are not playing games.”
• So, if you’re a traditional conservative or even a neocon who wants small government, family values, and other aspects of America that you thought were the right direction under leaders like Ronald Reagan, you are being told you are no longer welcome in the GOP.
• You’ve been asked to leave. Why are you still trying to be pals with these disgusting MAGA people who do not want you there and have clearly told you as such?
• Anyway, Pence is out. Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, President Joe Biden expressed support for Senate Leader Chuck Schumer after he gave a speech castigating Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for Israel to hold elections and replace Bibi.
• Joe said, “I think he expressed a serious concern shared not only by him but by many Americans.”
• Schumer, notably, is the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US government, perhaps giving him more leeway to be openly critical of Netanyahu’s actions. He’s been a long-time strong supporter of Israel, but said the Israeli leader was allowing "his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”
• Fair point, sir.
• More than 30,000 Palestinians — the majority of them children and women — have now been killed in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas terrorist group attack on Israel on October 7.
• But the actual number of Palestinian dead is likely to be far higher, as the count does not include those who have not reached hospitals, among them thousands of people still lost under the rubble of buildings hit by Israeli air strikes.
• The conflict will continue to impact the elections in the USA, but I believe there will be some resolution on it well in advance of the general election in November.
• What won’t get resolved before then? The battle to maintain women’s reproductive rights, along with those for contraceptive access, in vitro fertilization, and LGTBQ+ freedoms.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in a 9-0 unanimous decision that public officials may block people on social media in certain circumstances. I told you about these cases when they were brought to the court last year.
• While it might surprise you, I agree with them. Written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court set a clearer standard for when public officials are state actors online and when they can have more control over their social media presence.
• The cases involved local public officials in Michigan and California (city managers, school board members) who used their personal Facebook page for things like family news and vacation pics, but also would post things like press releases.
• They started getting attacked on their personal pages, and removed the posts and banned the repeat offenders. 
• In her opinion, Barrett wrote that “if (defendant) Freed acted in his private capacity when he blocked (plaintiff) Lindke and deleted his comments, he did not violate Lindke’s First Amendment rights – instead, he exercised his own.”
• Fair enough. Note that most public officials do have some means of actual official contact, including via social media. Going after them on the page where they show you pics of their kids’ sports teams and what they had for lunch is pretty trashy, if you ask me.
• In another tidbit from the Supreme Court, Peter Navarro is still trying to wriggle out of his jail sentence. He’s supposed to report to prison in Miami to start serving his sentence by Tuesday March 19.
• Yesterday, Navarro asked the Supreme Court to let him stay out while he appeals his conviction for refusing to testify before Congress about his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
• He was already shot down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week. It will be interesting to see how the Supremes vote. If they keep him out of jail, we’re in for real problems regarding the accountability of all the criminals who tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election.
• Including Dumpy. Stay tuned on this. Moving on.
• In 2019, the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award was established to recognize "an extraordinary woman who has exercised a positive and notable influence on society and served as an exemplary role model in both principles and practice." Past recipients have included Queen Elizabeth II and Barbra Streisand.
• But next month, the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation will present it to four men and Martha Stewart. Among the winners are two convicted felons, the founder of right-wing Fox News, and Elon Musk.
• RBG’s family is blasting the foundation's selection of this year's recipients, saying the decision is an affront to the memory of the late justice and her values.
• ”This year, the Opperman Foundation has strayed far from the original mission of the award and from what Justice Ginsburg stood for," said Jane Ginsburg.
• Everything turns to shit at some point. Again, this is what happens when bad actors take over a formerly noble organization, per our unintentional theme of the day.
• And now, The Weather: “Seeds of Evil” by youbet
• Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, but since it’s on a Sunday this year, it’s a solid bet that a lot of Americans are drinking green beer today.
• Fun Fact: Cook County, IL (which includes Chicago) is the nation's county with the largest Irish-American population. It comes in at 418,997. Now you know why they dye that river bright green every year.
• I’m not gonna preach about what you do on informal holidays like St. Paddy’s or Cinco de Mayo, where most of you appropriate other people’s cultures and eat and drink until you have no cognitive ability or reasoning skills and then assault a waiter, drive into an embankment, and get arrested or, ya now, whatever else you had in mind to do for fun today.
• As I always say, enjoy your day.
• From the Sports Desk… LA Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald announced his retirement yesterday after 10 dominant seasons.
• He was a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, an eight-time first-team All-Pro, a 10-time Pro Bowl selection, and the 2014 Defensive Rookie of the Year. Donald holds the Rams' franchise record for career sacks.
• Honestly, I think NFL players who leave the game before their bodies are forever damaged are the smart ones.
• Today in history… Samoset, a Mohegan, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them in English, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.” (1621). The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point (1802). Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, MA (1926). Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in at least 4,000 deaths (1945). Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott performing the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit (1966). Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States (1988). Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery (1995). The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (2020).
• March 16 is the birthday of astronomer Caroline Herschel (1750), US president James Madison (1751), physicist Georg Ohm (1789), comedian Henny Youngman (1906), mass murderer Josef Mengele (1911), US first lady Pat Nixon (1912), politician Charles Goodell (1926), actor Jerry Lewis (1926), opera singer Christa Ludwig (1928), film director Bernardo Bertolucci (1941), TV host Chuck Woolery (1941), singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker (1942), actor Erik Estrada (1949), singer-songwriter Ray Benson (1951), singer-songwriter/guitarist Nancy Wilson (1954), NFL player Ozzie Newsome (1956), rapper Flavor Flav (1959), singer-songwriter Patty Griffin (1964), NBA player Blake Griffin (1989), musician Wolfgang Van Halen (1991), NBA player Joel Embiid (1994), and MLB player Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1999).

Okay, time to do stuff and things, whatever they may be. Enjoy your day.