Random News: March 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.

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Good morning. It’s March 21, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I really could have slept some more this morning had I been in some very unrealistic situation where I didn’t have any need to get up and be responsible and make a living. Since I am up and awake, let’s see what’s happening in this world of ours. As usual these days, it’s a lot.

• The clock is ticking more urgently than ever for Donnie Dump to come up with a big wad of cash.
• Unless an appeals court intervenes or the former president can post a bond for the full amount of the $464 million civil fraud judgment by this coming Monday (March 25), New York Attorney General Letitia James can start collecting on the judgment she secured last month.
• So, since it seems he absolutely cannot afford to just pay the bond, here are Dumpy’s current options: taking out a large loan, selling off some of his properties immediately — or declaring bankruptcy.
• That’s it. Those are the choices.
• Diaper Don has claimed many times via social posts in regard to the judgement against him, "Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before.”
• Except it’s a long-standing practice in nearly every state. James' office noted "there is nothing unusual about even billion-dollar judgments being fully bonded on appeal" and urged the appeals court to reject Trump's argument.
• Bankruptcy was the option for Dumpster’s pals Alex Jones and Rudy Giuliani used when they were hit with large judgments, and Donnie’s companies have declared them six times before.
• Fact check: true. Dump’s Taj Mahal casino went bankrupt on three occasions between 1990-1992. His Plaza Hotel also went bankrupt in 1992. Two of his companies — Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts, and Trump Entertainment Resorts — went bankrupt in 2004 and 2009 respectively.
• But declaring himself and/or his primary business bankrupt while running for president? No fucking way in hell. This prick’s entire political image was built on the illusion of his being a savvy businessman.
• So that won’t happen.
• What if Don the Con just says, “Fuck it,” and does nothing? Well, James would be free to immediately start moving to seize his assets and wouldn't need a further court order to do so in New York.
• She could literally just take Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street. Dump also has several bank accounts in New York that Tish James would snap up.
• So we’ll see if somehow, the money comes up to post the bond at the last second. And if that does happen, a lot of interest will be focused on Dump to find out where that money came from, such as a foreign entity (perhaps Saudi Arabia) or adversary (such as Russia) to whom he’ll be beholden.
• Until it gets resolved, the Republican party is being run by a guy from Queens who can’t make bail.
• Let’s move on.
• This morning, lawmakers unveiled a $1.2 trillion government funding package, and as usual they got their shit together one day before a deadline. Still, it’s not yet clear if thy’ll be able to pass the legislation ahead of tomorrow’s deadline.
• A number of critical government operations need to be funded by the end of the day on Friday, March 22, including the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, State and the legislative branch.
• What does the spending package include? A lot.
• $19.6 billion for Customs and Border Protection, a $3.2 billion increase above fiscal year 2023, including $495 million for additional Border Patrol agents, which the Biden administration has repeatedly called for. It does not add funding for the border wall.
• $90 billion in discretionary funding to the Department of Homeland Security, bolstering funding for additional resources.
• Oh, and $824.3 billion for the Department of Defense, an increase of $26.8 billion above fiscal year 2023.
• Like many spending bills, there were “poison pills” sneakily hidden in there that were all removed. Those included decreasing the salaries of members of the administration including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other officials to $1, blocking funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the defense and intelligence communities, and banning the flying of the Pride flag.
• Nice try, MAGA fuckers. Better luck next time.
• Hopefully they can push it through by tomorrow and avoid even a temporary shutdown.
• One item that’s not in this budget but will certainly affect future spending.
• A large and influential group of House Republicans have called for raising the Social Security retirement age for future retirees and restructuring Medicare.
• Released Wednesday by the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 170 House GOP lawmakers that includes many allies of Republican presidential nominee Donnie Dump, the proposed budget endorses a series of bills “designed to advance the cause of life.” 
• That includes the Life at Conception Act, which would aggressively restrict abortion and threaten in vitro fertilization by establishing legal protections for human beings at “the moment of fertilization.”
• For Social Security, the budget endorses "modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.” They want you to work until they die, and then take the money that you’ve paid into Social Security.
• Also, this Republican budget calls for converting Medicare to a "premium support model,” where traditional Medicare would have to compete with private plans.
• None of this will happen if you don’t put the Dumpster back in the White House, and if you vote for other Democratic representation who support workers.
• While we’re talking about Congress…
• During yesterday’s House Oversight Committee's hearing in the GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, the Republicans, as they do, fucked themselves.
• Ex-Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas testified and slammed Dump and his associates for pushing false allegations against the Biden family.
• As you may recall, Parnas was the guy hired by Dump attorney Giuliani in 2018 and 2019 to try “finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them,” as he now admits.
• He says, “I found precisely zero evidence of the Bidens' corruption in Ukraine. No credible source has ever provided proof of criminal activity, not the FBI, CIA nor the NSA. No respectable Ukrainian official has ever said the Bidens did anything illegal ... The only information ever pushed on the Bidens in Ukraine has come from one source and one source only: Russia and Russian agents. The impeachment proceedings that bring us here now are predicated false information spread by the Kremlin.”
• Well then.
• That joke of a committee, run by waste-of-space Rep. James Comer (R-KY), has now gone on for a full fucking year without producing a single piece of evidence that Biden or his family members have committed any crime at all, much less the high crimes and misdemeanors required to start an impeachment.
• In yet other Congressional news…
• On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted to condemn Vladimir Putin’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children. The measure overwhelmingly passed the House on Tuesday 390-9.
• The House holds votes like this every so often to show that some things go beyond the boundaries of partisan politics, and it’s generally accepted that all members will vote in favor of something as glaringly obvious as protecting innocent children from being abducted by a horrific dictator.
• That being said, nine Republicans still voted against the resolution. Yes. That’s right. They voted against saying that Russia abducting children was a bad thing.
• They are: Chip Roy (R-TX), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Eric Burlison (R-MO), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Warren Davidson (R-OH), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
• When you have the opportunity to vote these Russia-loving, children-hating scum out of office this coming November, please remember this moment and do so.
• Let’s move on to some justice news.
• We’re continuing coverage of the Mississippi cop “goon squad” who are finally facing punishment for having raped and tortured two Black men.
• Yesterday, the third and fourth of the six former law enforcement officers received their sentencing. First, former Rankin County sheriff's deputy Daniel Opdyke was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee.
• Opdyke cried profusely and apologized to his victims Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker. Parker rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes, then stood up and left the courtroom before Opdyke finished speaking. Good.
• And then came the worst one of them all: former Rankin County sheriff’s deputy Christian Dedmon was sentenced to 40 years.
• Dedmon is now a cop in jail who brutally raped and tortured his victims. I’d say “Dedmon” is an appropriate name once he’s behind bars and the other inmates realize who he is and what he’s done.
• Their actions place law enforcement officers in harm across the country. Every police and sheriff’s department is now viewed under a level of suspicion and distrust that stems from what this self-described “goon squad” did.
• But maybe a greatly increased degree of scrutiny toward every law enforcement agency isn’t such a bad thing.
• The fifth and sixth members of this rogue cop gang get sentenced today. Can’t wait.
• Moving on.
• It took awhile, but California’s Proposition 1 has passed, squeaking by with a 50.2 percent of the vote.
• The measure includes a $6.4 billion bond to build 11,000 addiction and mental health treatment beds and supportive housing for veterans. It was a top priority for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
• He says, “This is the biggest change in decades in how California tackles homelessness, and a victory for doing things radically different. Proposition 1’s passage means we can begin repairing the damage caused by decades of broken promises and political neglect to those suffering from severe mental illness.”
• Good news. I voted “yes.”
• In other news…
• Alabama is now free of the horrors of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I hope they’re very happy.
• Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the sweeping SB129 bill into law yesterday. It prohibits public schools and universities from maintaining or funding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
• It also requires public universities to “designate restrooms on the basis of biological sex.”
• The new Alabama law comes amid a nationwide push from Republicans to limit the rights of transgender and LGBTQ individuals and ban DEI programs after the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action.
• No longer allowed in Alabama schools: discussions around conscious or subconscious racism and sexism. The new law also allows school boards to “discipline or terminate the employment of any employee or contractor who knowingly violates this act.”  
• So, that’s obviously terrible, and you have to feel sorry for the young people of Alabama, a state that seems to relish being on the wrong side of every issue.
• Moving on.
• Fun fact: the pursuit of happiness is literally written into the Declaration of Independence which helped form the USA, but we are no longer near the top of happy places anymore.
• The 2024 World Happiness Report is out, and for the seventh year in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world.
• The U.S. didn’t even make the top 20 list — the first time it has ranked so poorly since the World Happiness Report was created in 2012.
• The report ranks global happiness in more than 140 countries based on six factors: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
• Several Nordic countries were in the highest spots, including Finland, followed by Denmark (2), Iceland (3), and Sweden (4). Norway ranked number seven.
• Last year, the United States came in at number 15. For 2024, the U.S. plummeted to number 23. Even countries like Costa Rica and Lithuania — new entrants to the top 20 list — ranked higher than the USA.
• The USA’s happiness deficit is especially true among young people. The world’s happiest country for people under 30? Lithuania. The U.S. ranked number 62 in the under-30 age range.
• If you want to feel better by pure comparison, the bottom of the global happiness list for 2024 was Lebanon, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Congo, and once again in last, Afghanistan.
• At least you don’t live there, unless you do, and then my apologies.
• The American Kennel Club released their annual top 10 ranking of the most commonly registered purebred dogs for the past year. In order…
• French bulldog, Labrador retriever, golden retriever, German shepherd, poodle, dachshund, bulldog, beagle, Rottweiler, and German shorthaired pointers.
• No offense to anyone, and I love all dogs, but any animals I’ll befriend for the remainder of my life will be a rescue of some kind, and likely won’t have breeds per se. No AKC registration available for my mutt pals.
• And my cats? Forget about it.
• Quick blurbs…
• Today is the 50th anniversary of women earning the right to have a credit card without a man co-signing.
• Presidential campaign cash: the Biden campaign raised $53 million in February versus $10.9 million for the Dump campaign. Total cash on hand for each campaign: Biden: $155 million, Dump $33.5 million, which is dwindling fast.
• Over 300 licensed medical professionals have signed a petition diagnosing Deranged Donnie Dump with probable dementia.
• And now, The Weather: “2 True” by Bleary Eyed
• Rest in peace to actor M. Emmet Walsh. He’s a guy you’d know when you saw, and always played a horrible human. He was great at it.
• You might know him from his menacing roles in Blood Simple, Blade Runner, Raising Arizona, Brubaker, The Jerk, and dozens of other films. Walsh was 88.
• On a personal note, rest in peace to my best music teacher ever. Delores Stevens was my senior-level music composition professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills. She passed away earlier this month at age 94. A good long life.

• Dee was well recognized as one of the most respected musicians in the world. Per her obit, when she turned 90 in 2020, the people who sent her letters of admiration included California Governor Gavin Newsom, then Senator Kamala Harris, the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, Representative Ted Lieu, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, and members of the California State Senate and Assembly, as well as from The Recording Academy and the Disney Channel.
• I was very, very lucky to have had her as a teacher, a mentor, and an inspiration for a life working in the world of music. Rest in peace.
• Let’s do a chart, but instead of a chart, let’s look at the music videos that were in the heavy rotation category of MTV’s programming in early 1989 (for nor reason other than that I stumbled across the list and I’m too lazy to find another).
• Straight Up (Paula Abdul), Eternal Flame (Bangles), Born To Be My Baby (Bon Jovi), Punk Rock Girl (Dead Milkmen), Rocket (Def Leppard), If I Can Just Get Through The Night (Phoebe Cole), Lost In Your Eyes (Debbie Gibson), Paradise City (Guns N’ Roses), Cult of Personality (Living Colour), One (Metallica), The Living Years (Mike & The Mechanics), Girl You Know It’s Tue (Milli Vanilli), The Love In Your Eyes (Eddie Money), You Got It (The Right Stuff) (New Kids On the Block), Your Mama Don’t Dance (Poison), Stand (R.E.M.), My Heart Can’t Tell You No (Rod Stewart), End Of The Line (The Traveling Wilburys), Cryin’ (Vixen), Walk the Dinosaur (Was (Not Was)), Seventeen (Winger).
• From the Sports Desk… nah. Welcome back, baseball, I suppose.
• Today in history… The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis near Alexandria in Egypt (1801). Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire (1871). The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee (1925). Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran (1935). The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in professional American football since 1933 (1946). Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, OH (1952). Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes (1963). Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, AL (1965). The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco (1970). San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop and culture festival in the world, hosts its inaugural event (1970). U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War (1980). The social media site Twitter is founded (2006).
• March 21 is the birthday of composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), physicist Joseph Fourier (1768), Mexico president Benito Juárez (1806), composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839), actor Broncho Billy Anderson (1880), painter Hans Hofmann (1880), singer-songwriter Son House (1902), philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III (1906), scientist/inventor Walter Lincoln Hawkins (1911), singer/musician Rose Stone (1945), actor Timothy Dalton (1946), singer-songwriter Eddie Money (1949), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Roger Hodgson (1950), drummer Slim Jim Phantom (1961), actor Matthew Broderick (1962), actress Rosie O’Donnell (1962), actor/comedian Rhys Darby (1974), soccer player Ronaldinho (1980), and NFL player Adrian Peterson (1985).

That was way too much stuff. Try not to get overwhelmed. Just do what you can. Enjoy your day.