Random News: March 27, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s March 27, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. If you recall, I’d been planning on a normal day yesterday. That turned into a window malfunctioning in the Jeep, a run back and forth to the dealer service center, and various work craziness that had me answering emails after 10pm. So today I wish for nothing at all, and perhaps I’ll get that. Let’s do some news.

• I don’t like counting chickens before they hatch, especially in regard to the current hyper-conservative Supreme Court, but yesterday, a majority of the justices appeared skeptical of the idea of a nationwide ban or new limits on mifepristone, the primary drug used for medication abortions.
• The case was the first abortion-related hearing since the court reversed Roe v. Wade under the direction of Donald Trump, who takes full credit for millions of women having lost their reproductive freedom and health care in 2022.
• The SCOTUS proceedings went into detail of the process and any complications of the use of medication abortion.
• Lower-court rulings would have rolled back recent Food and Drug Administration decisions to ease access to the mifepristone. A district court had instituted a nationwide ban as well.
• A quick but pertinent note on Mifepristone.
• In the list of deaths led to drug complications, Mifepristone comes in toward the bottom, at 0.5 deaths per 100,000 people who’ve use it.
• Want a comparison? Sure.
• Tylenol has 0.8 deaths per 100,000, over 75% higher than Mifepristone. But Viagra has 4.9 deaths out of 100,000 users, which is over 600% more dangerous than Mifepristone.
• Why isn’t the Supreme Court looking at banning this dangerous Viagra drug? After all, it’s made for the purpose of allowing men who can’t get their dick hard to procreate, right?
• But none of that was the focus of yesterday’s hearing. The case will more likely be determined on whether the doctors who brought the original lawsuit had the ability to bring the case in the first place.
• Conservative and liberal justices demanded to know why access to Mifepristone needed to be limited if the small number of doctors involved could simply exercise their own religious and conscientious objections individually.
• A good question.
• One thing we can be thankful for is the incompetent lead attorney who is making the argument for a nationwide abortion bad. Her name is Erin Hawley, and she is the wife of conservative Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO).
• Even when they send their best, they’re kinda the worst.
• Anyway, a decision regarding the case is expected by July.
• Moving on.
• Dumpity Dump has been gagged once again.
• Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan said in a court order yesterday that Dump’s statements about various figures involved in the criminal hush money case “were threatening, inflammatory [and] denigrating.”
• The gag order bars Dump from making public statements about likely witnesses and jurors in the case. He must also refrain from speaking about lawyers in the case, court staff, employees in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and their family members if those statements are made with the “intent to materially interfere” with the case.
• The gag order does not specifically bar Dump from criticizing the judge.
• The Smelly Man is already bound by a gag order in a separate criminal case in Washington, D.C., federal court, where he is charged with illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
• A federal appeals court upheld Dump’s challenge of that gag order, but narrowed it to allow him to speak about his prosecutor, special counsel Jack Smith.
• Speaking of New York, got some good news if you’re a Jets fan: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his running mate yesterday, and it’s not Aaron Rodgers. Now you can look forward to your team sucking, but not because your anti-vax QB is busy doing veep things.
• RFK picked Nicole Shanahan, a wealthy attorney and entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area who will be joining his campaign as his vice presidential selection
• Shanahan, who like Kennedy has never run for elected office, has made huge contributions to his campaign and his super PAC. Ahhh… this makes sense now.
• It’s impossible to say at this point whether RFK, a known anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist, will make a dent in the election this fall, or if the voters he pulls in will be more damaging to Dump or to Biden. He’s running as an independent.
• Apart from him, the entire Kennedy family is vociferously supporting President Biden for re-election.
• Moving on.
• Marilyn Lands, an Alabama Democrat who campaigned aggressively on abortion access, won a special election in the state Legislature yesterday.
• She flipped a state seat in a district that Trump won in 2020, and she won by (checks notes) HOLY SHIT, 25 points.
• Lands said her win sends a clear message. “Our legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the right to contraception,” she said.
• She’s right.
• I am telling you now, and don’t say we didn’t give fair warning: Republican politicians will be tumbling down this fall due to their open desire to remove women’s reproductive and health care choices.
• Roevember is coming.
• I haven’t bothered joining the hullabaloo regarding the incredibly fast hiring and firing of former RNC head Ronna McDaniel by broadcaster NBC. I don’t give a shit about talking heads on TV.
• I mean, I don’t even watch TV.
• What I will make a point to mention how her departure happened, which is rather unprecedented.
• Journalists and anchors at both NBC and its cable news sibling MSNBC publicly denounced the decision to hire McDaniel… on the air. That embarrassed the fuck out of the network and its brass.
• NBC isn’t done with paying for this error. McDaniel spent the day yesterday interviewing attorneys in preparation for a potential legal battle with NBC. Creative Artists Agency, who brokered McDaniel’s deal with NBC, also parted ways with her.
• But no legitimate news broadcaster should have ever hired a person who was complicit in the illegal attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and McDaniel is on that list. 
• When she was head of the RNC, McDaniel pressured Michigan officials not to certify the vote from the Detroit area, where Joe Biden had a commanding lead.
• She has remained an election denier during the four years since then. NBC really fucked up by hiring her, and the person who should really pay is NBCUniversal News Group President Cesar Conde, who made the decision to bring McDaniel onboard.
• He’s gotta go.
• Let’s move on.
• Today in Thailand, lawmakers in the country’s lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill that would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender.
• The bill passed with the approval of 400 of the 415 members of the House of Representatives in attendance. Thai society largely holds conservative values, and members of the LGBTQ+ community say they face discrimination in everyday life.
• And yet, they acted on the side of compassion and equality. Hats off to Thailand! 
• From the insane news desk, Donnie Dump is now selling $60 bibles for a living. Hey, anything to make a buck, amirite Donnie?
• And now, The Weather: “Toad Mode” by Sex Week
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the Billboard 200 album chart for late March 1995. I’m in my mid-20s, working in essentially the same field as I still am these many years later.
• 1. Greatest Hits (Bruce Springsteen). 2. The Lion King (Soundtrack). 3. Tuesday Night Music Club (Sheryl Crow). 4. Hell Freezes Over (Eagles). 5. II (Boyz II Men). 6. Cracked Rear View (Hootie & The Blowfish). 7. The Hits (Garth Brooks). 8. Dookie (Green Day). 9. Throwing Copper (Live). 10. CrazySexyCool (TLC). 11. Balance (Van Halen). 12. No Need To Argue (The Cranberries). 13. My Life (Mary J. Blige). 14. Smash (The Offspring). 15. Yes I Am (Melissa Etheridge). 16. Vitalogy (Pearl Jam). 17. Bedtime Stories (Madonna). 18. Wildflowers (Tom Petty). 19. Safe + Sound (DJ Quik). 20. MTV Unplugged In New York (Nirvana).
• From the Sports Desk… the NFL has new kickoff rules.
• The proposal was passed by the NFL owners by a vote of 29-3. The new rules represent the most significant on-field rule change for the NFL in years. They are designed to lower concussion rates, something that’s desperately needed in the sport.
• Here’s the short version: the format will move the majority of the kicking and return teams downfield to minimize high-speed collisions. Kickers will continue to kick from the 35-yard line, but the other 10 players on the kickoff team will line up at the receiving team's 40-yard line.
• Makes sense. Look, I know there are those of you who think nothing should ever change in sports and rules should remain the same as when you were 12 years old.
• But the percentage of high school, college, and NFL players who end up battling the effects of multiple brain injuries for the rest of their lives is shocking, It’s way past time for them to address this in any way possible.
• Today in history… Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of The Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida (1513). Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France (1625). The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates (1794). In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814). President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866, but his veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9 (1866). Nikita Khrushchev becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1958). Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins (1975). The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States (1998). North Macedonia becomes the 30th member of NATO (2020).
• March 27 is the birthday of activist Virginia Minor (1824), physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (1845), engineer/businessman Henry Royce (1863), actress Gloria Swanson (1899), bandleader Pee Wee Russell (1906), guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. (1915), music producer Phil Chess (1921), singer Sarah Vaughan (1924), mathematician/computer programmer Margaret K. Butler (1924), actor Michael York (1942), keyboardist/songwriter Tony Banks (1950), NFL player Randall Cunningham (1963), film director Quentin Tarantino (1963), singer-songwriter Mariah Carey (1969), and singer-songwriter Fergie (1975).

Okay. I’m enjoying this delicious cup of Peet’s Organic Alameda Morning Blend, but now it’s time to go work out. Enjoy your day.