Random News: March 20, 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 20, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I seem to be starting this spring day in a not-terrible way. Let’s take a look at what’s happened and make some sense of it, if we can.

• It’s a good news/bad news day, as most of them are.
• Let’s get some very bad — but not unexpected — news out of the way, with a possible good twist at the end.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that it would allow Texas to enforce a controversial new law that gives local police the power to arrest migrants.
• The far-right conservative court, with three liberal justices dissenting, rejected an emergency request by the Biden administration, which said states have no authority to legislate on immigration, an issue the federal government has sole authority over.
• The law in question, known as SB4, would allow police to arrest people who they suspect may have illegally crossed the border from Mexico.
• How do you think a cop in Dallas, hundreds of miles from the US-Mexico border. is going to tell if someone is an illegal immigrant? Texas has a population that includes 40% people of Latino heritage.
• So for a little while yesterday, Texas became the “Show Us Your Papers” state. Under this law, any cop anywhere in the state would be able to stop anyone with brown skin with no probable cause other than their race.
• Thinking about the bigger implication of this SCOTUS decision, presumably any state can assume control over their own immigration laws, whether or not they align with the actual federal immigration laws of our nation.
• I think this could be listed as one of the more embarrassing and harmful mistakes of the Supreme Court, along with other awful decisions like Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Korematsu v. United States, and others.
• It was also unclear where any migrants ordered to leave might go. The law calls for them to be sent to ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, even if they are not Mexican citizens. So if you catch an immigrant from Sweden, they get sent to Mexico. Got it.
• But Mexico’s government said yesterday it would not under any circumstances accept the return of any migrants to its territory from the state of Texas. Mexico is not required to accept deportations of anyone except Mexican citizens.
• Because OF COURSE NOT.
• But wait.
• Late last night, an appeals court blocked the state from enforcing SB4.
• Ha ha!
• The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel dissolved a pause that it issued earlier this month to suspend a lower court ruling that found SB4 to be unconstitutional.
• The order blocking SB4 will stay in place until the 5th Circuit rules on Texas' request to allow the law to be enforced while the appeals court considers its legality. A virtual hearing on that question is scheduled for this morning.
• So… again, we’ll wait and see. For now, SB4 is in the off-again phase. Whew.
• Okay, let’s move to some better news.
• As reported yesterday, former Dump White House adviser Peter Navarro reported to prison yesterday, one day after the Supreme Court denied a stay of his sentence.
• Navarro was convicted in September of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide testimony and documents to the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 failed coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol.
• He’s is the first senior Dump aide to serve time in connection with the plot to overturn the 2020 election. Here’s hoping he’s not the last.
• And now some news of justice that’s a long time coming.
• Last June, I covered a sickening story about a group of Mississippi cops who called themselves the Goon Squad. 
• On January 24 of last year, former sheriff deputies Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and former police officer Joshua Hartfield burst into a home in Braxton, MS because a white neighbor had complained that Black people were staying with the white woman who owned the house. The cops had no warrant.
• Then they handcuffed the two men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker. Once restrained, the cops raped them with a sex toy, beat them mercilessly, and shocked them repeatedly with stun guns over a roughly 90-minute period. The assault culminated with one deputy forcing a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing.
• Yesterday, Hunter Elward, the deputy who shot one of the victims in the mouth, received the maximum penalty allowed under his plea agreement with federal prosecutors. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• Big tough guy Elward broke down in tears as he stood before U.S. District Court judge Tom Lee.
• That afternoon, another cop — former deputy Middleton — was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. Today and tomorrow, the remaining officers involved in the incidents — who each could and should be sentenced to a decade or more in prison — will appear in federal court in Jackson, MS. 
• Keep in mind, this stuff happens literally all the time. Residents in impoverished pockets of the county say that the sheriff’s department has routinely targeted them with similar levels of violence.
• So on the bright side, at least there’s some justice in this one incident. The majority of them go entirely unpunished.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Donnie “El Dumpo” Dump begged the Supreme Court to find that former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for acts taken while in office.
• In the 51-page filing, lawyer D. John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision that rejected his claim of immunity and order the charges filed against him to be dismissed.
• His reasoning? Because it hadn’t been done before, and they say that for that reason alone, it can’t be done now.
• Got some bad news for ya, pal. There’s a thing in law called “precedent”, where courts have to rule on a situation that they had yet to address previously.
• While the Supreme Court has said presidents are immune from liability in civil matters, it has never before decided whether a former president can face criminal charges for acts within his official responsibilities.
• Dump is the first former president to be criminally indicted, and the reason is that he’s the first outright criminal who’s ever held the office.
• Let’s take a look at the results of yesterday’s round of primary voting. Keep in mind that after last week when both Biden and Dump exceed the official nomination from their respective parties, presidential votes are largely ceremonial at this point.
• Both Biden and Dumpster won each state where they were on the ballot, obviously.
• But one pattern that’s notable, and has continued in primary battles in most states so far: big, flashing danger signs fro Don the Con.
• In Florida, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley together drew just under 20% of the vote, despite having dropped out of the race.
• Compare that to 2020, when Dump won nearly 94% of the Florida primary. This year, he captured about 81% of the vote.
• The results were similar in other states. Haley won about 20% of the vote in Arizona, 16% in Kansas, and 14% in Ohio and Illinois. In Kansas, an option for "None of the Names Shown" took another 5% of the vote.
• The opposition to the horrors of another Dump presidency could extend to the general election. In Ohio yesterday, half of Haley's supporters said they'd back Biden over Dump in November.
• Does Joe Biden have his own issues? Definitely yes. Right now, his biggest challenge comes via progressive voters who are using the primaries to protest Biden’s Gaza policy. So far, an average of 10% of 2024 Democratic primary participants have voted for “uncommitted” in states where that’s been an option.
• Until the Gaza situation gets resolved, those folks will not throw full support behind the president, and I don’t blame them.
• The only comedic moment I want to point out regarding yesterday’s elections is from Ohio’s Republican Senate primary, where Dump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno defeated two challengers.
• In 2008, “someone with access to Moreno’s work email account” created a profile on an adult website seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex.” Moreno claims it was done as a prank by a former intern.
• Uh huh. Sure it was, Bernie. Moreno will face Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in the November general election.
• When we get to November, keep in mind that the Republican you may plan on supporting is someone who wants to take away women’s reproductive rights and health care.
• Case in point: Arizona state senator Eva Burch (D). The mother of two had multiple miscarriages. When she found out that her current pregnancy would not be viable, she knew she had to seek an abortion.
• Burch visited a clinic last week where she was forced to endure an invasive ultrasound and receive counseling on alternatives to abortion, despite already knowing her pregnancy was not viable.
• To be clear for those of you who don’t understand medical terminology, that means she was forced to have a probe inserted into her vagina, and then receive a speech discouraging her from getting the medical treatment she needs to survive.
• Those cruel actions are required under Arizona law, where the procedure is illegal after 15 weeks and a near-total ban could be reinstated.
• Please do not continue to put women across the country through this experience. Yes, it’s what Republicans want, but please try and be a decent person via your vote.
• Thank you.
• And now, The Weather: “Smoke” by Homeshake
• From the Sports Desk… ESPN did its annual ranking of the top 100 current players in Major League Baseball. Here are the top 10 of those.
• 1. Ronald Acuna Jr., RF, Atlanta Braves. 2. Aaron Judge, CF, New York Yankees. 3. Juan Soto, RF, New York Yankees. 4. Mookie Betts, SS, Los Angeles Dodgers. 5. Freddie Freeman, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers. 6. Corey Seager, SS, Texas Rangers. 7. Gerrit Cole, SP, New York Yankees. 8. Yordan Alvarez, LF/DH, Houston Astros. 9. Shohei Ohtani, DH, Los Angeles Dodgers. 10. Corbin Carroll, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks.
• Today in history… The Dutch East India Company is established (1602). After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule (1815). Harriet Beecher Stowe's ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’ is published (1852). The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, WI (1854). Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity (1916). The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso's first United States showing, entitled ‘Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso’, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States (1923). With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC (1948). The first Provisional IRA car bombing in Belfast kills seven people and injures 148 others in Northern Ireland (1972). Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (1985). A Solar eclipse, equinox, and a supermoon all occur on the same day (2015).
• March 20 is the birthday of poet Ovid (43 BC), Thai king Rama I (1737), poet/playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828), athlete/umpire Amanda Clement (1888), psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904), actor Ozzie Nelson (1906), singer-songwriter/guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915), singer-songwriter Vera Lynn (1917), actor/director Carl Reiner (1922), TV host/producer Fred Rogers (1928), actor Hal Linden (1931), singer-songwriter/producer Lee "Scratch" Perry (1936), singer-songwriter/guitarist/actor Jerry Reed (1937), Canada prime minister Brian Mulroney (1939), NBA player/coach Pat Riley (1945), actor John de Lancie (1948), NHL player Bobby Orr (1948), actor William Hurt (1950), drummer Carl Palmer (1950), actor/director Spike Lee (1957), actress Holly Hunter (1958), model Kathy Ireland (1963), NBA player Mookie Blaylock (1967), singer-songwriter Alex Kapranos (1972), and singer-songwriter Chester Bennington (1976).

That’s plenty of stuff for now. I’m going to go work out, and then do the writing and drawing and thinking that I do for a living. Enjoy your day.