Random News: April 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.

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Good morning. It’s April 27, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I’m some random guy in a bathrobe, waking up on a Saturday morning and collating the news for you while I drink multiple cups of coffee.

• I’m going to start with a story that’s so cruel, vile, and almost certainly deeply upsetting to any normal person that I’m going to give you a rare chance to skip the next big set of bullets.
• So go ahead and skip. Like 20 bullets.
• Last chance.
• Okay.
• Kristi Noem is the governor of South Dakota and a Republican. She has a new book out where she — for reasons unknown — details the story of her puppy Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehair pointer.
• Noem took Cricket on a pheasant hunt where, in Noem’s own words, was, “out of her mind with excitement, chasing all those birds and having the time of her life.”
• She went on to say, “I hated that dog,” and described her as untrainable and “less than worthless as a hunting dog.”
• So she took the puppy to a gravel pit and shot her in the head.
• I’m going to state the obvious. For any normal human being with any level of empathy, you understand that puppies can be trained.
• And in the case that you can’t take the time or effort to train a dog and you’re a shitty person, you still have the option of re-homing an animal, or what I used to think was the worst case scenario, turning the dog in at an animal shelter.
• Under no circumstances is it excusable to murder a fucking puppy because its inconvenient for you.
• And the reason I’m even mentioning this whole disgusting story is simple: I find it to be indicative of the underlying mindset of a good chunk of the Republican party.
• Think about it.
• These are people whose parents never taught them kindness or empathy. That’s why they do things like put helpless migrant families on buses and drop them off in freezing, unfamiliar places with no food or shelter.
• That’s why they support and enact draconian laws that say a woman is legally required to give birth to a rapist’s baby.
• That’s why they work hard to remove the rights and benefits to live freely that all Americans merit.
• As has been said many times before but becomes more transparent all the time… the cruelty is the point. That’s what they admire in themselves and in others.
• Which brings us to this.
• Why would Noem write this story in her book? Why would she willingly publicize a fact that nearly any human with a heart would find disgusting and repulsive?
• Because her supporters won’t. And if you admire Noem for being able to “make hard decisions” like she’s trying to impart here, I have no room for you in my life, and I will never be able to call you a friend.
• No matter who you are to me.
• And last note: Noem is near the top of the list of vice president candidates expected to be selected by Donald Trump. And Trump highly endorsed this very book that includes the story of the murder of Cricket.
• Okay.
• That’s all on that.
• Let’s do some news.
• All charges against the 57 people arrested in connection to the Wednesday pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas have been dropped.
• The Travis County attorney's office said all 57 arrests, which were all criminal trespassing charges, lacked probable cause.
• Hope those UT cops enjoyed doing all that paperwork for no reason at all.
• I was just being snarky there, but it turns out that Nouha Ezouhri, an attorney with the Travis County public defender's office, noted that university police copy/pasted each probable cause affidavit for every person arrested.
• Doesn’t work that way, you lazy fucks. Now you have no cases at all.
• I noticed a lot of people angry and upset about the filmed arrest of Emory University economics professor Caroline Fohlin, who was thrown to the ground, pinned down, and cuffed.
• Breathless headlines called the incident “shocking.” How is that shocking? Cops do that to people in every city across the country every day.
• I mean, it probably should be shocking, but ask literally any cop of any law enforcement agency if this is abnormal.
• Ask any Black or Hispanic person who is being detained or arrested if it’s shocking to be roughed up and thrown down.
• Fuck, ask ME about being pulled through the window of a car by my hair and body slammed and knelt on for (checks notes) no reason at all.
• Fohlin is one of two professors among 28 people who were arrested by police on Thursday at the campus, where police had deployed rubber bullets to disperse crowds.
• I don’t have much more to report on the nationwide pro-Palestine college campus protests. They continue all over, everywhere from community colleges to Ivy League universities.
• Over 100 people were arrested just this morning at Northeastern University in Boston as police broke up their encampments.
• Here in California, Cal State Polytechnic University, Humboldt is closing and moving to a remote format until the end of the semester due to the continued occupation of at least two campus buildings. 
• And so on. There are dozens and dozens of similar stories.
• On one hand, there’s the support of the First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly. On the other are reports of infiltration of student groups by purely antisemitic hate groups.
• There’s no way to know how things will transpire, with so many variables in place. Hopefully, it will be resolved peacefully inane case, though it’s hard to see how that’s possible.
• Moving on.
• I thought you’d enjoy hearing Rudy Giuliani’s defense about the criminal charges he faces in Arizona’s fake elector plot.
• “Well, I didn’t spend as much time on Arizona as I did, let’s say, with Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. I know those better,” said Rudy this week on right-wing broadcaster Newsmax.
• That’s like being accused of murder in one state and justifying it by saying that you actually murdered more people in other states.
• As we reported this past week, Arizona has joined Michigan, Nevada, and Georgia in charging fake electors for trying to overturn the 2020 elections.
• Fake electors in Wisconsin have settled a civil lawsuit over their fraudulent efforts. Meanwhile, in Fulton County, GA, Dump himself faces charges for trying to overturn the state election results.
• In other news…
• Remember in February 2022 when basketball player Brittney Griner was detained and arrested on smuggling charges by Russian customs officials after cartridges containing less than a gram of medically prescribed hash oil, illegal in Russia, were found in her luggage?
• She was put in a Russian penal colony and wasn’t released until that December.
• I recall a lot of MAGA-type folks saying things like, “Well, she should have known the country's laws and she deserved it.”
• Why am I mentioning this?
• Because Oklahoma man Ryan Watson and his wife and friends were in Turks and Caicos to celebrate a birthday. But then airport security found ammunition that was allegedly unknowingly left in a duffel bag from a deer hunting trip.
• Possessing guns or ammunition is prohibited in Turks and Caicos. Watson could face a 12-year prison sentence.
• He is currently out on bail as of this morning, but must remain in the island country. His next court date is scheduled for June 7.
• I’m sure the folks who thought Britney Griner deserved a long sentence in a Russian labor camp will also support Watson’s imprisonment.
• Right? No? Why not? Might it have something to do with Griner being a Black lesbian and Watson being a white man from the American heartland?
• Ah.
• Let’s do some fun news. I think we need it.
• Tonight is the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and I think Joe has got some roasting to do.
• Biden will speak to a crowd of nearly 3,000 journalists, celebrities, and politicians, continuing a tradition dating back to Calvin Coolidge of presidents addressing the dinner at least once during their term.
• Every president since then has done this hilarious event with one exception. Iron’t even need today who it was.
• Biden has dropped a few zingers lately, poking fun at Dumpy’s hair, the dropping stock price of his social media company, selling bubbles and so on. Easy targets, really.
• So I’m anticipating some brutal Dark Brandon vibes tonight. Looking forward to the coverage.
• And now, The Weather: “The Bug” by Crumb
• Speaking of weather, major tornadoes gutted homes as they plowed through Nebraska and Iowa, and the storm threat could escalate today, posing a risk from Michigan to Texas.
• Stay safe, peoples.
• Rest in peace to Mike Pinder, keyboardist and the last surviving founding member of the Moody Blues. He died this week at age 82.
• Pinder was an early proponent of the Mellotron, a keyboard that uses tape loops in the same way a modern sampler uses digital audio files. That instrument helped tie the Moody Blues a distinctive orchestral sound that differentiated them from other bands of their era.
• And, in fact, it was Pinder who introduced the Mellotron to his friend John Lennon, which he used on "Strawberry Fields Forever.”
• From the Sports Desk… I am very happy with the picks my Las Vegas Raiders have made in the NFL draft thus far.
• They took tight end Brock Bowers from Georgia in the first round with the 13th pick, offensive lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson from Oregon (pick 44), offensive lineman Delmar Glaze from Maryland (pick 77), and just now, cornerback Decamerion Richardson from Mississippi State at pick 112.
• I’m perfectly fine with us not having chosen a quarterback. Let Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew battle it out for the starting job.
• The draft, which started Thursday night and is currently in the 4th round, continues through seven rounds today.
• Today in history… Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapulapu (1521). John Milton sells Paradise Lost to a printer for £10, so that it could be entered into the Stationers' Register (1667). American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus (1861). The United Auto Workers (UAW) gains autonomy from the American Federation of Labor (1936). Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier (1945). John Ehrlichman, a former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, AZ, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes (1978). Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse (1981). The April 27 demonstrations, student-led protests responding to the April 26 Editorial, during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 (1989). The first democratic general election in South Africa in which black citizens could vote (1994). Airbus A380 aircraft has its maiden test flight (2005). Two hundred five tornadoes touched down in the Southeast USA, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more (2011).
• April 27 is the birthday of Mughal empress Mumtaz Mahal (1593), feminist philosopher/writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759), inventor Samuel Morse (1791), US president Ulysses S. Grant (1822), MLB player Rogers Hornsby (1896), poet Cecil Day-Lewis (1904), track and field athlete John Kuck (1905), actor Jack Klugman (1922), activist Coretta Scott King (1927), radio host/voice actor Casey Kasem (1932), NFL coach Chuck Knox (1932), drummer Jim Keltner (1942), singer-songwriter/guitarist Pete Ham (1947), singer-songwriter Kate Pierson (1948), guitarist/songwriter Ace Frehley (1951), NBA player George Gervin (1952), politician Cory Booker (1969), singer Lizzo (1988), and MLB player Corey Seager (1994).

Okay. I’m going to take a shower and figure out what I’m doing with this Saturday. I currently have no idea. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 26, 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 April 26, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m glad this week is drawing to a close. I mean, I’m sure you are too. This has just been a bit of a grind with work stuff and crazy news things and whatnot. Speaking of which…

• Yesterday was the historic Supreme Court hearing to determine whether a president has total immunity regarding crimes they commit while in office.
• The good news: the Court appeared ready to reject Dump’s claims of sweeping immunity and the broad protections he has sought to shut down his federal election subversion case.
• The less good news: they also seemed reluctant to give special counsel Jack Smith carte blanche to pursue those charges.
• The court’s radical conservatives aggressively questioned the lawyer representing the special counsel, seemingly embracing Dump’s central theme that without at least some form of immunity, future presidents would over time be subjected to politically motivated prosecutions.
• Much of the hearing focused on whether there should be a distinction between official acts by a president pursuant to presidential duties versus his private conduct.
• Their decision could determine not only Dump’s legal fate, but also will set the rules of criminal exposure for future presidents.
• One hopeful note: Dump’s attorney John Sauer acknowledged that some of the alleged conduct supporting the criminal charges against the former president were private.
• That would mean he committed those acts as a private citizen, which would get no special protection in his role as president.
• This is against Dumpy’s claim that the entire prosecution should be thrown out.
• Interestingly, conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett was the first to pin Sauer down on the distinction between official and personal acts alleged in the charges.
• Sauer agreed that particular acts that Dump is being tried for — spreading bogus election fraud claims, filing false court filings, putting forward fraudulent sets of electors — were not acts he did as president, and conceded those private acts would not be covered by presidential immunity.
• In a back and forth with justice Elena Kagan, Sauer also said that Dump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger —  the one where he infamously requested Raffensperger “find” enough votes to flip the results — was not an official act.
• However, Sauer did try to claim that Dump was acting in an official capacity in his conversation with the Republican National Committee about assembling slates of so-called “fake electors” and his call for the Arizona lawmakers to hold a hearing on election fraud.
• When will we get their ruling? Well, everything thus far has played into Dump’s tactic to keep delaying judgements until after the election this fall.
• The Supreme Court has moved quite quickly in similar high-profile matters in the past. In 1974, for instance, when a unanimous court ordered President Richard Nixon to turn over the tapes of surreptitious recordings he made in the White House, it did so after roughly two weeks after arguments.
• In another often-cited example, the court decided the Bush v. Gore election dispute in 2000 a day after it heard arguments.
• But this time? I seriously doubt any drastic speed will be applied.
• Guess we’ll see. I predict that the Supreme Court’s decisions will be thrown at us sometime in June, by which time it will be difficult to get Dump’s other criminal trials to be enacted previous to the election.
• Little side note: when an accused person is innocent, they want their trial as soon as possible, and that’s why there’s a constitutional right to a speedy trial. Guilty criminals almost always seek to delay their trials as long as possible, as Dump is doing now.
• Let’s move on with some excellent news on a totally different topic.
• Yesterday, the US government banned internet service providers (ISPs) from meddling in the speeds their customers receive when browsing the web and downloading files, restoring tough Obama-era rules that were rescinded during the Dump administration.
• You may have heard of this “net neutrality” regulation. The new rules adopted by the FCC prohibit providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon from selectively speeding up, slowing down or blocking users’ internet traffic.
• The order will go into effect in about 60 days. However, if Dump wins reelection, a GOP-led FCC would likely repeal the rules.
• The telecom industry is also expected to file a legal challenge. There will also be pushback from top Republicans on Capitol Hill.
• But it’s a good step. I was pretty vocal about net neutrality when it was taken down in 2017.
• Moving on.
• Let’s talk about the continuing flareup of student social action at an expanding list of colleges across the country.
• Yesterday’s series of arrests at pro-Palestinian protests brought the total number of people detained in a week of demonstrations to more than 500. College officials have struggled to quell the unrest with attempts to clear encampments and close buildings.
• Perhaps the biggest story of the moment is from here in Los Angeles, where the University of Southern California was compelled to cancel the school’s main commencement ceremony that had been slated for May 10.
• Over the past couple of weeks, police have detained demonstrators at schools including Emerson College in Boston, New York University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Ohio State University, in addition to ongoing actions at renowned schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and many others.
• What do these student protestors want? It actually varies somewhat from place to place.
• The most common theme is a demand that their institutions cut ties with corporations doing business with Israel due to the students’ perception that the country is engaged in genocidal action against Palestine — and it’s difficult to argue against their point.
• Other common threads include demanding universities disclose their investments, sever academic ties with Israeli universities, and support a ceasefire in Gaza.
• And then, of course, after the schools started trying to gain back control of their campuses, the protests began against the reactions. Many are now also calling for school officials to protect free speech and spare students from being punished for participating in the protests.
• But on the central call to action, universities have largely refused to budge on the demand for divestment.
• It’s also easy to see why some of these actions can be perceived as creating a hostile and threatening environment for Jewish students and staff, many of whom possibly agreeing with the cause but still getting blamed for world events they have nothing to do with.
• Turning Jews into scapegoats is a centuries-old tradition, unfortunately.
• Let’s move on to a more modern kind of horror.
• A Maryland high school teacher was arrested after he allegedly used artificial intelligence to create a fake audio recording, planting racist and antisemitic words into the voice of his boss.
• Dazhon Darien, a PE teacher and the athletic director at Pikesville High School, was accused of falsifying the voice of principal Eric Eiswert.
• He was charged with disrupting school activities and other counts, and was arrested yesterday Thursday morning at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
• We’re entering an age where your voice and image can be used by anyone to seem to say or do anything, ranging from racist behavior to porn.
• It’s going to be a huge challenge in coming years to discern the difference between reality and AI-generated content that gets more and more accurate all the time.
• And the biggest problem is that very soon, nearly anyone will have access to the tools to use AI in these nefarious ways, without any kind of special training or expertise.
• I promise you now… this will be bigger and bigger before you can imagine.
• In our continuing coverage of the people who attempted a cup against the USA on January 6, 2021, we have a bit of a different kind of tale to tell this time.
• John Sullivan was convicted in November on numerous charges, including felony obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder, and is scheduled for sentencing this afternoon.
• But Sullivan isn’t a MAGA or a Dump supporter of any kind. Prosecutors describe him as an antiestablishment activist who wanted to “burn it all down.” His brother James Sullivan is a right-wing activist with ties to the Proud Boys.
• In footage played at his trial Sullivan said, ”I brought my megaphone to instigate shit,” and bragged that he'd sought to "make those Trump supporters fuck shit up."
• The government is asking for a lengthy sentence of more than seven years in federal prison.
• Shrug. Over 1,387 Capitol attack defendants have been charged, and prosecutors have secured more than 984 convictions.
• One quick item of news about the former Criminal-in-Chief.
• Yesterday, a federal judge rejected Dump's bid for a new trial in a defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. The ruling upheld the jury's $83.3 million damage award.
• Ha ha, fucker.
• "Contrary to the defendant's arguments, Ms. Carroll's compensatory damages were not awarded solely for her emotional distress; they were not for garden variety harms; and they were not excessive," Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote.
• ”Mr. Trump's malicious and unceasing attacks on Ms. Carroll were disseminated to more than 100 million people," he added. "They included public threats and personal attacks, and they endangered Ms. Carroll's health and safety."
• Correct.
• Here’s something that seems kinda unsettling.
• Federal regulators found bird flu virus fragments in roughly one in five retail milk samples tested in a nationally representative study, per the FDA yesterday.
• Samples from parts of the country that are known to have cows infected with the virus were more likely to test positive, which makes sense.
• Regulators said that there is no evidence that this milk poses a danger to consumers or that live virus is present in the milk on store shelves.
• But finding traces of the virus in such a high share of samples from around the country shows without a doubt that the bird flu outbreak in dairy cows is more extensive than we were previously aware.

• And now, The Weather: “old friend” by flypaper
• From the Sports Desk… I’ve actually watched the first round of the NFL draft for a few years, and it’s more fun than it would seem on the surface. I watched the first round picks last night.
• I won’t list the entire fucking draft… you can find it everywhere. But the interesting thing was that the first 14 picks (!) were all offensive players.
• In order: QB, QB, QB, WR, OT, WR, OT, QB, WR, QB, OT, QB, TE, OT. Wow.
• And yes… six quarterbacks in the first 12 picks. That seems insane tome. Statistically, there can’t possibly be that many top-tier NFL-ready quarterbacks that high in any draft class.
• Today in history… The Virginia Company colonists make landfall at Cape Henry (1607). Sybil Ludington, aged 16, rode 40 miles to alert American colonial forces to the approach of the British regular forces (1777). Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European scientists that meteors exist (1803). Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, in Virginia (1865). Ice hockey makes its Olympic debut at the Antwerp Games (1920). The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established by Hermann Göring (1933). Guernica, Spain, is bombed by German Luftwaffe (1937). The first clinical trials of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begin in Fairfax County, VA (1954). NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon (1962). The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force (1970). The Chernobyl disaster occurs in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1986). The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on mission STS-55 to conduct experiments aboard the Spacelab module (1993). South Africa begins its first multiracial election, which is won by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (1994). American comedian Bill Cosby is convicted of sexual assault (2018). Marvel Studios' blockbuster film ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is released, becoming at the time the highest-grossing film of all time (2019). 
• April 26 is the birthday of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121), French queen Marie de' Medici (1575), French queen Maria Amalia (1782), ornithologist John James Audubon (1785), politician Charles Goodyear (1804), physicist Owen Willans Richardson (1879), singer-songwriter Ma Rainey (1886), philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889), seismologist Charles Francis Richter (1900), architect I. M. Pei (1917), actress Carol Burnett (1933), music producer Giorgio Moroder (1940), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Gary Wright (1943), drummer Roger Taylor (1960), martial artist/actor Jet Li (1963), first lady Melania Trump (1970), singer-songwriter Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins (1970), drummer Joey Jordison (1975), actor Channing Tatum (1980), and MLB player Aaron Judge (1992).

As is almost always the case, there’s more news, but not more time, and I have to get off my ass and go work out before the work day gets rolling in earnest. But I will say that even with all the craziness of the world, I’m feeling a strong sense of optimism about how I believe things will turn out, and I mean that on many fronts. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 25, 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 April 25, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I woke up somewhat discombobulated, still immersed in a bizarre dream. But then as I gained more consciousness, I realized I’m immersed in a bizarre life. Let’s take. look around at the weirdness.

• It’s another huge-ass news day, so buckle up. They’re coming in fast and furious lately, and it’s only gonna get crazier, I promise.
• Okay, let’s go.
• Yesterday, after overcoming months of opposition by Republicans in Congress, President Biden signed a military aid package worth $95 billion that will arm Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
• The shipments of weaponry, ammunition, and other aid toUkraine began within hours after Biden’s sign-off.
• Good. Slava Ukraini!
• In another super important news item, the far-right Supreme Court seemed skeptical yesterday that federal law can require hospitals to provide emergency abortion care in states with strict bans on the procedure.
• Throughout two hours of argument, only the court’s three liberal justices — Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson — strongly backed the Biden administration’s view that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act — known as EMTALA — preempts Idaho’s strict ban that imposes penalties of up to five years in prison on doctors who perform the procedure.
• But the radical conservative SCOTUS judges pushed back on the Biden administration’s interpretation of EMTALA during oral arguments and suggested the federal government cannot force private hospitals that receive federal funds to violate a state’s law.
• I will tell you now… whether it’s Donnie Dump or laws that curtail your rights, the path to victory won’t go through the courts. They’ll happen at the ballot box.
• Moving on to another abortion rights story.
• Yesterday, the Republican-controlled Arizona House approved a repeal of an 1864 abortion law that would have banned nearly all abortions, sending the measure to the state Senate. 
• Like many Republican politicians, the AZ House members are well aware that supporting draconian abortion laws that remove all reproductive freedom form women is a sure ticket to losing their next election.
• Arizona's state Senate is set to consider the law on May 1. The 1864 law is set to go into effect on June 8, and it would supersede what had been the state’s current 15-week abortion ban. 
• In yesterday's contentious AZ House session, three Republicans joined all the Democrats in a 32-28 vote to overrule GOP House Speaker Ben Toma, who twice previously blocked the bill from moving forward. Republicans control the chamber by a 31-29 margin.
• Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court ruled that the highly-restrictive 160-year-old law that bans nearly all abortions — put in place during the Civil War before Arizona was a state — can be enforced. 
• Let’s do some Dumpy news. Despite the fact that he wasn’t in criminal court, it was another not-good day for him yesterday, in what will be a more and more common occurrence of very bad, very sad, never glad days.
• Let’s start in Michigan.
• Yesterday it was revealed that Dumpy, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani are unindicted co-conspirators in the Michigan attorney general's case against the state's fake electors in the 2020 election.
• Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged 16 Republicans last year with forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery for allegedly attempting to replace Michigan's electoral votes for Joe Biden with electoral votes for Dump at the certification of the vote on January 6, 2021.
• During a hearing yesterday, a special agent for the attorney general's office also testified that former Dump attorney Jenna Ellis is also an unindicted co-conspirator.
• Now let’s head to Arizona, where a state grand jury indicted their own batch of fake electors and their illegal attempts to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election in the state. 
• What did they do? A month after the 2020 election, 11 Dump supporters convened at the Arizona GOP’s headquarters in Phoenix to sign a certificate claiming to be Arizona’s 11 electors to the Electoral College.
• These morons not only committed a crime, but then signed their names to it, documented it on social media, and sent it to Congress and the National Archives.
• Among those charged is Kelli Ward, who served as chair of the Arizona GOP during the 2020 election and the immediate aftermath.
• Others charged include state legislators Anthony Kern and Jake Hoffman; Michael Ward, Kelli Ward’s husband; Tyler Bowyer, the Republican National Committee's Arizona committeeman and CEO of right-wing group Turning Point USA; Greg Safsten, the former Arizona GOP executive director; former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon; Robert Montgomery, the former head of the Cochise County GOP; and Republican Party activists Samuel Moorhead, Nancy Cottle and Loraine Pellegrino.
• Oh, and also named was "Unindicted Coconspirator 1,” identified as Donnie Dump. It also includes redacted names of other people who have been charged in the case but have not yet been served.
• They will all face justice, both as a punitive action to pay for what they did and as a message to those in the future who are planning to do the same thing.
• Moving on, sort of.
• As we mentioned yesterday, right at this moment, the Supreme Court is tackling the question as to whether or not US Presidents have total immunity from crimes they commit in office, like a king.
• And early reports say that the judges on both sides on the spectrum — Sotomayor and Thomas — agreed early on that there’s no mention of absolute immunity in the Constitution.
• That’s a hopeful sign.
• Finally note on the Creamsicle Criminal: his trial for election interference via hush money payments continues in New York today.
• Lots going on right now. Stay awake and informed, peoples.
• Moving on.
• Rest in peace to Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ), who died yesterday following a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes. He was 65.
• Payne entered Congress somewhat reluctantly in 2012 following the death of his father, Rep. Donald Payne Sr., who was the first Black person elected to Congress in New Jersey and who became one of the city’s luminaries during his more than two decades in Congress.
• Payne’s district is one of the most heavily Democratic in the country. Primary ballots were due to be mailed on April 20, so his name will remain on the ballot.
• Let’s do some “Sucks to Be You” news.
• The Gateway Pundit, a far-right website known for spreading election conspiracies, will declare bankruptcy as it faces lawsuits for defamation.
• Those lawsuits include one from the Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, who sued the organization in Missouri, where it is based, after the website perpetuated false claims that the two had been involved in election fraud in Georgia.
• Here’s something that shouldn’t surprise you if you’re paying attention to the direction of the world.
• The pace of babies born each year in the U.S. has slowed to a new record low. 3,591,328 babies were born in the U.S. in 2023, down 2% from the 3,667,758 born in 2022.
• The fertility rate is now the lowest in a century.
• When people can’t feel secure about their future, economically or socially or otherwise, they will take further measures to make sure they’re not bringing more people into the world.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Ohio lawmakers finally voted to make it illegal to drug and rape your spouse. That’s nice of them.
• It took over a decade for the state’s lawmakers to agree. State Rep. Bill Dean (R-Xenia) still opposed it, saying the law could "be used as a wedge between husband and wife."
• Fucking piece of shit.
• The bill now goes to be signed by Gov. Mike DeWine.
• And speaking of rape…
• Producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction was overturned this morning by the New York Court of Appeals.
• The court ordered a retrial, ruling that the judge in Weinstein’s original trial improperly allowed testimony about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
• Weinstein was originally sentenced to 23 years in prison for forcibly performing oral sex on a former production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013.
• Before you get too concerned… the case will be retried and Weinstin will spend the rest of his life in prison regardless.
• And now, The Weather: “Wild Life” by Molly Drag
• From the Sports Desk… a little update from the NBA playoffs.
• Celtics and Heat are tied at 1-1, as are the Bucks and Pacers. The Knicks have a 2-0 lead over the 76ers, as do the Cavs over the Magic.
• In the West, the Thunder are up 2-0 over the Pelicans. Same with the Nuggets over the Lakers and the T'wolves over the Suns. The Clippers and Mats are knotted at 1-1.
• Today in history… The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar (1607). Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine (1792). Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War (1846). Forces under U.S. Admiral David Farragut demand the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, LA (1862). New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates (1901). The United Negro College Fund is incorporated (1944). Assaulting Chinese forces in the Korean War are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces, primarily made up of Australian and Canadian troops, at the Battle of Kapyong (1951). Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA (1953). Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit (1961). President George W. Bush pledges U.S. military support in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan (2001). The March for Women's Lives brings between 500,000 and 800,000 protesters, mostly pro-choice, to Washington D.C. (2004). The Flint water crisis begins when officials at Flint, Michigan switch the city's water supply to the Flint River, leading to lead and bacteria contamination (2014).
• April 25 is the birthday of my 25th great-grandfather, French king Louis IX (1214), my 22nd great-grandfather, England king Edward II (1284), general/politician Oliver Cromwell (1599), astronomer James Ferguson (1710), inventor/businessman Guglielmo Marconi (1874), physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900), journalist Edward R. Murrow (1908), singer Ella Fitzgerald (1917), singer-songwriter/guitarist Albert King (1923), actor/director Paul Mazursky (1930), basketball player/actor Meadowlark Lemon (1932), songwriter/music producer Jerry Leiber (1933), actor Al Pacino (1940), bass player Stu Cook (1945), drummer Steve Ferrone (1950), singer Paul Baloff (1960), actor Hank Azaria (1964), bass player Eric Avery (1965), sportscaster Joe Buck (1969), actress Renée Zellweger (1969), and NBA player Tim Duncan (1976).

So much going on. Try not to let important things get lost in the shuffle. And please, keep your fingers crossed over the current presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court. Our county’s founders did a lot to make sure the USA would not be led by kings. Let’s respect their wishes. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 24, 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 April 24, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I slept like a rock last night, to the point that my alarm going off at 6am was entirely shocking. “What is this infernal sound?” I asked aloud while in a dream about interviewing Leonard Nimoy. Anyway, back to reality, so here’s a giant pile of news for you to enjoy.

• Here’s a noteworthy tidbit to open things up.
• Yesterday saw the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state.
• President Joe Biden, unsurprisingly, got over 93% of the vote, winning his race easily.
• But the Republican race was pretty shocking. Donnie Dump won, of course… but only got less than 85% of the vote. Nikki Haley, who dropped out early last month, received over 15% of the vote.
• That is a nightmare scenario for Team Dump. They need a ton of hearty support in that state to have a hope of winning, and it doesn’t seem to be there.
• Let’s stay on the good news for a bit.
• Yesterday the Biden administration announced a new rule that would make millions of workers newly eligible for overtime pay.
• Currently, employees who are in executive, administrative, and professional roles have a salary threshold of just $35,568 to be exempt from receive overtime pay. 
• Starting July 1, the rule would increase the threshold to $43,888, and on January 1, the threshold would rise further to $58,656.
• I like the quote from Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su: “So often, lower-paid salaried workers are doing the same job as their hourly counterparts but are spending more time away from their families for no additional pay. This is unacceptable.”
• But that wasn’t the only good news for workers that came out yesterday.
• The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted 3-2 to ban noncompete agreements. This is really, really good news.
• Noncompete employment clauses prevent tens of millions of employees from working for competitors or starting a competing business after they leave a job. The FTC estimates that 18 percent of the U.S. workforce is covered by noncompete agreements — about 30 million people.
• Fuck that bullshit. I’m glad they’re gone… at least for now. 
• Because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the largest pro-business lobbying group in the country — has said it will sue to block the rule. Of course they will. Pricks.
• Back to the good news.
• Last night, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the bill for $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays.
• After making it through the House over the weekend, the bill passed the Senate on a 79-18 vote. U.S. officials said about $1 billion of the aid could be on its way shortly, with the bulk following in coming weeks.
• Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said something interesting after the aid bill passed the Senate. He was asked why it took so long for the USA to show its support. His answer…
• "I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should've been all along, which is interviewing Vladimir Putin. He had an enormous audience, which convinced a lot of rank-and-file Republicans that maybe this was a mistake."
• I think we’re going to see more moderate Republicans growing some balls and standing up to the wacko far-right MAGA/QAnon crowd as various events transpire over coming months.
• Let’s do the bad news.
• Volker Türk, the UN's human rights chief, has said he is horrified by the destruction of Gaza's Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals and the reports of mass graves being found at the sites after Israeli raids.
• He’s called for independent investigations into the deaths.
• Palestinian officials said they had exhumed the bodies of almost 300 people at Nasser. It is not clear how they died or when they were buried.
• More than 34,000 people — most of them children and women — have been killed in Gaza since the war began in October of last year.
• Sometimes, I have to repeat myself here, because some things are too important to risk being misunderstood.
• I am horrified by the atrocities Israel seems to be committing in their war in Gaza.
• I believe war crimes are being committed and that eventually, someone will have to answer for that… most likely Bibi Netanyahu.
• I also feel it’s very understandable that college students in the USA are exercising their right to protest against Israel’s actions in Palestine.
• It’s also understood that Israel is able to act in this way via the support of US money and military might, making us complicit in these actions and deserving to be called out on it.
• Now let me tell you something else.
• If you’re blaming Jews in the USA for what’s happening in Israel and Palestine, you’re a fucking fool who’s being used for an entirely different agenda.
• Protest your asses off. But any negative sentiment or attacks aimed at your friends, classmates, neighbors, and fellow citizens who are Jewish are no less appalling than what people did to Muslim Americans in the wake of 9/11.
• Bigotry can never be accepted, and antisemitic behavior of any kind at any level only hurts the cause of trying to help the people of Palestine.
• Let’s move on.
• I suppose we should do some mention of yesterday’s antics in the hush money/election interference criminal trial of Don the Con.
• Before yesterday’s proceedings got underway, they had to attend to the matter of Dump’s continual violation of the gag order imposed that — like any other criminal defendant — does not allow him to try and intimidate witnesses or the court’s officers and jurors.
• One of Dump’s lawyers spelled out the process behind his social posts, explaining that people working with Dump will pick out articles and then repost them under his name.
• His lawyers actually said, and I’m not making this up, that reposting a news article (rather than writing it himself) means it doesn’t violate the gag order.
• So Judge Merchan asked for legal citations to cases to back that up. The lawyer said he didn’t have any, but claimed that, “it’s just common sense.”
• Lemme tell you… if I willingly repost any content, it’s with the purpose of spreading that content to my followers and it means I openly endorse the message. That’s just common sense.
• If I disagree with the content, it’s up to me to make that clear when I quote the original post or article.
• The remainder of the day was focused on the testimony of former tabloid executive David Pecker. He testified for over two hours yesterday.
• The short version: Pecker, who is the ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, detailed a 2015 agreement with Trump and his lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen to try to kill negative stories about Trump and run negative stories his rivals.
• Prosecutors say that the hush money deal with Stormy Daniels that Pecker helped broker was part of a larger conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election.
• Let’s move on.
• Right now, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments over whether the federal government has the power to penalize hospitals that fail to provide emergency abortions even in states with strict bans on the procedure.
• They are considering the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act — known as EMTALA — a law that requires hospitals that receive federal funds to stabilize or transfer all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
• The Biden administration invoked EMTALA to try to retain emergency access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
• The administration sued the state of Idaho in 2022, saying that the state’s abortion restrictions are preempted in part by the federal law, and that strict state bans have confused health workers, confounded patients and led to delays in lifesaving care for pregnant women.
• Here’s hoping for the best. It’s impossible to really predict what this far-right Court will do.
• Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will take up the monumental question of whether a U.S. president has absolute immunity from crimes, like a king or emperor, placing him or her above the law of the land to which every other American is subject.
• The case, Donald J. Trump v. United States, presents an unprecedented constitutional quandary for the court brought about by equally unprecedented actions by Dumpy in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden by a margin of 7 million popular votes.
• The outcome of this case will determine whether Dump faces a federal trial this year on four felony counts pressed by special counsel Jack Smith, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstruction of an official proceeding, for his attempts to overturn the electoral vote count certifying Biden's victory.
• Two courts have resoundingly rejected Dump's immunity arguments, including a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
• The appeals court warned that if Dump's constitutional theory were accepted, it would collapse our system of separated powers by putting a president above the law.
• We will be keeping a close eye on that, obviously. It would mean the end of America as we know it should the SCOTUS side with Dumpy.
• Back to cool news.
• The Voyager-1 space probe launched in 1977 and is humanity's most distant object.
• And it’s talking to us again. A computer fault had stopped Voyager-1 returning readable data in November but engineers have now fixed this.
• Currently Voyager is sending back only health data about its onboard systems, but further work should get the scientific instruments back online.
• That little probe is now more than 15 billion miles away. Its data, moving at the speed of light, takes 22.5 hours to reach us.
• Voyager-1 moved beyond the heliosphere in 2012, and is now embedded in interstellar space, which contains the gas, dust, and magnetic fields from other stars.
• That’s amazing. Keep going, space probe brother.
• And now a flashback and a reminder.
• Yesterday was the anniversary of an infamous moment in American history. Back on April 23, 2020, we were at one of the crucial moments of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Researchers were working around the clock to develop a vaccine, but at that time, there was no way to protect people from being infected by — and potentially dying from — the virus, beyond isolation, social distancing, and mask use.
• April 23 was the date that Donnie Dump held a COVID press conferences and claimed that his health advisers were going to "test" whether "very powerful light" could be brought "inside the body" to kill COVID.
• And then, just allowing his mouth to ramble with no basis in reality, he continued, "And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. It would be interesting to check that."
• I know we all try and forget those dark days, but due to the nature of Dump’s brainwashed MAGA crowd taking him at his word, his comments prompted the makers of disinfectants like Lysol to issue a statement warning that "under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body."
• Fucking hell.
• When people ask whether you’re better off today than your were four years ago, keep in mind that the President of the United States was advising people to shove UV lamps up their asses and to shoot up bleach.
• And now, The Weather: “Dedicated To The World” by Chanel Beads
• From the Sports Desk… Reggie Bush is getting his Heisman Memorial Trophy back. Bush won the Heisman in 2005 when he rushed for 1,740 yards on 200 carries and scored 18 total touchdowns for the University of Southern California.
• In 2010, Bush voluntarily gave up the coveted award after an NCAA investigation found he received benefits of several thousand dollars and a vehicle that were not allowed at the time.
• But current rules would not have prohibited Bush from those actions. College athletes can now receive compensation for their name, image, and likeness. I think it’s fair to return the trophy to him as such.
• Today in history… Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (1479 BC). Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris (1558). The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress” (1800). American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West (1885). The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation (1922). Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II (1953). Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open (1967). The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery (1990). WikiLeaks starts publishing the Guantanamo Bay files leak (2011).
• April 24 is the birthday of Tahiti queen Marau (1860), painter Willem de Kooning (1906), actress Shirley MacLaine (1934), politician Richard M. Daley (1942), singer/actress Barbra Streisand (1942), music producer Tony Visconti (1944), singer-songwriter Jack Blades (1954), comedian/actor Cedric the Entertainer (1964), MLB player Chipper Jones (1972), MLB player Carlos Beltrán (1977), singer-songwriter/TV host Kelly Clarkson (1982), actor Jack Quaid (1992), and NFL player Jerry Jeudy (1999).

Okay, that was a massive ton of news shit, and a lot of it was super important. I hope you’re paying attention somewhat. I do hear from people that if not for these bullets I spend an hour each morning writing, they wouldn’t be nearly as well informed, and that makes it completely worthwhile to me. Time to go workout. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 23, 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 April 23, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s a fresh new day, the sky is gray, so why not listen to what I have to say?

• With last night being the start of Passover, and with all kinds of crazy shit going on in the world, it seems like a good time to talk about Jewish topics.
• Chag pesach sameach!
• The Bible describes Passover in the Book of Exodus, when God commanded Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors so that the Angel of Death would pass over them.
• Doing so meant they would not be touched by the tenth Plague of Egypt, the death of the firstborn. After this Plague, Pharaoh ordered the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they wanted, and asked Moses to bless him in the name of God.
• So, good move, Jews.
• People get confused about Judaism, and for good reason.
• I am ethnically Jewish, or about 80% of my genetics are. But I am not at all Jewish from a religious standpoint. I’m Jewish in the way that Scarlett Johansson is Swedish. My ancestors came from places with historically high Jewish populations, like what would now be Ukraine and Lithuania.
• For as long as I can recall for my entire life, I’ve been pretty committed to my Atheism. I don’t think they allow people who don’t believe in any god at all to be considered a good Jew.
• I’ve never been inside a synagogue, and any information I’ve picked up about the religion has been through basic cultural awareness.
• But I will say that over the course of my life, my many Jewish friends, schoolmates, coworkers, colleagues, and acquaintances have been great people who’ve given me a lot of enjoyment. I’d say I am better having known them.
• And of course, if you’re a Christian, the central figure of your religion was a young Jewish guy in the Middle East.
• So, let’s shift this pleasant chat into some actual news tidbits.
• Early yesterday, police in riot gear swarmed Yale University’s campus and arrested dozens of students who refused to clear out from an anti-Israel protest encampment.
• At least 47 protesters were cuffed and hauled away from the New Haven, CT campus on shuttle buses, and given trespassing summons. They will also be referred for Yale disciplinary action, which may include suspensions.
• Not very far away in New York City, leaders and organizations have called on Columbia University to protect students amid reports of antisemitic and offensive statements and actions on and near its campus via its own pro-Palestinian encampment and protest.
• How do I feel about this? It’s complex. I support the right to free speech and protest. I 100% do NOT support singling out people from racial or ethnic groups and making them feel unsafe or unwanted.
• That goes against everything I stand for.
• You think that being an antisemitic piece of shit to your fellow Americans is going to somehow change things in Israel?
• Fuck all the way off with your TikTok political research, kid.
• And that is coming from someone who fully supports Palestine’s right to coexist peacefully without having its citizens attacked by militant Israeli assholes.
• If you really want to know what I think, it’s that Nazis have seen this situation as an opportunity to inflame anti-Jewish sentiment, and are driving a lot of the messaging that these college kids are sucking up.
• Let’s move on with some better news.
• Remember back in 2022 when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) threw 49 helpless migrants on an airplane and dropped them off in the wealthy enclave of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts?
• He did it as a cruel joke, so people could laugh at the desperate folks who came here to escape extreme poverty and persecution.
• They were promised by DeSantis’s team that they’d be flown to New York, Washington, D.C., and other locations, and assured they'd get housing and jobs.
• Well guess what? That’s a crime, and now those people — as victims of crime — have cleared a significant hurdle in their efforts to obtain visas to remain in the USA and get lawful employment.
• So, to be clear, as a direct result of DeSantis’ criminal action, these immigrants will now be protected from deportation and will be able to continue to live and work productively in the USA.
• Let’s move on.
• Newly unsealed documents show that in late November 2021, as officials at the National Archives were trying to persuade El Dumpo to return a trove of records he had taken from the White House when he left office, an unnamed associate advised him in the sharpest terms possible to give the materials back.
• “Whatever you have, give everything back — let them come here and get everything,” they told Dump, per an interview the person gave the F.B.I. “Don’t give them a noble reason to indict you, because they will.”
• Guess what? That associate was correct. Federal prosecutors charged Dumpy last June with violating the Espionage Act, accusing him of illegally holding onto more than 30 highly classified documents and obstructing the government’s repeated efforts to retrieve them.
• We find out now about this because yesterday, nearly 400 pages of investigative records were unsealed by judge Aileen M. Cannon.
• The same associate also said to the F.B.I. that Dump told his personal aide, Walt Nauta, who was ultimately charged as a co-defendant in the case, that he would receive a pardon if Dump was elected again.
• What an asshole. Lock him up!
• Back to today’s events with Dumples…
• His criminal hush money/election interference trial in New York continued this morning with a hearing on prosecutors’ accusations that he violated a gag order in the case taking place before testimony resumes.
• The hearing to start today’s trial proceedings is inn regard to the prosecution’s request that Dump be held in contempt of court and fined at least $3,000 for allegedly violating his gag order.
• Prosecutors cited 10 posts on Dump’s social media account and campaign website that they said breached the order, which bars him from making public statements about witnesses in the case.
• Prosecutors are seeking a $1,000 fine — the maximum allowed by law — for each of the first three alleged violations. They did not specify the punishment they are seeking for the seven other posts, which date to the morning jury selection began in the trial last week.
• Lock him up!
• Moving on.
• In our continuing coverage of the assholes who attempted and failed to enact a coup against the USA on January 6, 2021, meet Isreal Easterday.
• He was sentenced yesterday to more than two years in prison for pepper spraying two police officers in the face, partially blinding them for hours.
• Easterday stormed the U.S. Capitol while carrying a Confederate battle flag. He was only 19 when he participated in the insurrection, which was cited by Chief Judge James Boasberg as a reason for handing down a prison term — two years and six months — that was over five times lower than the Justice Department’s initial sentencing recommendation.
• Plus, the dumbass was homeschooled by his mother while living on a family farm and may have just been too stupid to know what he was doing, per the judge.
• And now, The Weather: “Martini” by Sofia Bolt
• The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has revealed its class of 2024, and I have to say, it’s a good one.
• This year’s inductees include Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Matthews Band, Cher, A Tribe Called Quest, Mary J. Blige, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, and Kool & The Gang.
• As long as we’re doing music news, we have to acknowledge ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ the newest album from megastar Taylor Swift.
• It smashed previous records, and is the first album in Spotify's history to have more than 300 million streams in a single day.
• The same day, Swift also became the most-streamed artist within a single day ever on Spotify — and the album's first track, "Fortnight," which also features Post Malone as a vocalist, became Spotify's most-streamed song in a single day.
• Happy for her and her fans.
• From the Sports Desk… in the NBA playoffs thus far, not a single underdog team has yet to win a game.
• Boooooo.
• Today in history… Edmund Ironside succeeds his father Æthelred the Unready as King of England (1015). The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston (1635). King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey (1661). First baseball game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park, in Chicago (1914). Coca-Cola disastrously changes its formula and releases New Coke (1985). The first YouTube video, titled "Me at the zoo", was published by co-founder Jawed Karim (2005). 
• April 23 is the birthday of US president James Buchanan (1791), politician Stephen A. Douglas (1813), physicist Max Planck (1858), actress/singer/dancer/diplomat Shirley Temple (1928), singer-songwriter Roy Orbison (1936), actor Lee Majors (1939), actress Jan Hooks (1957), actress Valerie Bertinelli (1960), comedian George Lopez (1961), wrestler/actor John Cena (1977), comedian/TV host John Oliver (1977), and model Gigi Hadid (1995).

As usual, there’s much more news than I have time to deliver, but many things are always happening around the world that merit your awareness and attention. For now, I’m going to go do yoga and strength training and a tiny bit of aerobics, all of which which I do daily despite hating. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 22, 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 April 22, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I’m trying to get the week stated on a positive note, which isn’t always easy, but worth the effort. Let’s take a look around and see what’s happened and try and be prepared for whatever happens next.

• But first…
• Happy Earth Day. It’s celebrated on April 22 every year since 1970, making this the 54th Earth Day. The purpose of the event is raising awareness about various issues that threaten the environment and endanger the planet.
• The theme this year is "Planet vs. Plastics," which aims to increase public awareness of the detrimental effects that plastic pollution has on both human and environmental health.
• Less than 10% of plastic is recycled. Most is buried, burned, or dumped. Recycling rates for glass, aluminum, and cardboard are far higher. Cardboard and paper packaging is biodegradable.
• Plastic production continues to ramp up globally and is projected to triple by 2050 if nothing changes. Most of it is made from fossil fuels and chemicals. As the world transitions away from using fossil fuels for electricity and transportation, plastics offer a lifeboat for oil and gas companies as a market that can grow.
• I am pretty awful about single-use plastic consumption, and I’d like to make it a personal goal to back off the amount of plastic I consume.
• Maybe you should think about that too.
• President Biden will mark Earth Day by announcing a $7 billion investment in solar energy projects nationwide, focusing on disadvantaged communities, and unveiling a week-long series of what the White House say will be historic climate actions.
• The $7 billion in grants is going through the Environmental Protection Agency’s “solar for all” program, funded by last year’s $369 billion bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act, which the Biden administration says benefits more than 900,000 households.
• The money will be targeted at low-income and disadvantaged areas.
• Good stuff.
• Let’s do more news.
• Despite being the recipient of a big aid package on Saturday, yesterday Israeli leaders harshly criticized an expected decision by the U.S. to impose sanctions on a unit of ultra-Orthodox soldiers in the Israeli military.
• The decision, potentially expected today, would mark the first time the U.S. has ever imposed sanctions on a unit inside the Israeli military.
• Israeli leaders and local media identified the unit as Netzah Yehuda — an infantry battalion founded to incorporate ultra-Orthodox men into the military. Many religious men receive exemptions from what is supposed to be compulsory service.
• The sanctions, which would be imposed under the 1997 Leahy law, would prohibit the transfer of US military aid to the unit and prevent soldiers and officers participating in training either with the US military or in programs that receive US funding.
• That law stops the US from offering aid to hundreds of units around the world accused of rights violations. The state department has been investigating a number of Israeli security units, including police and military, for alleged violations.
• The reported plans were disclosed as Israeli strikes on Rafah on Saturday night killed 22 people, including 18 children.
• Israeli says its unfair and vowed to oppose it. Tough shit.
• Let’s move on for now.
• At this moment in New York City, opening statements are getting underway in Donnie Dump’s first of several criminal trials. Dumpy is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star with whom he paid to have sex.
• Very important note, because I see this shit all the time: he’s not in trouble for paying Stormy Daniels to fuck him, nor for cheating on his wife while she’d just given birth to their son Barron.
• Even if Dumpy had made the payments so his wife wouldn’t find out that he pays women for sex is not a crime. In fact, the defense that he made copayments to save his marriage would help get him off the hook.
• Those things are sleazy but not illegal per se.
• What Dump did, right before the 2016 election, was to reimburse his lawyer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 in payments to Daniels in 12 monthly installments during the first year of his presidency, and he portrayed those payments as checks for ongoing legal services.
• In doing so, he falsified business records, and may have also violated campaign finance laws. As a result, he was charged last year with 34 felony counts.
• Opening statements for the prosecution were expected to go about 40 minutes, and about 25 minutes for the defense this morning. That, as I said, is happening right now as I write this at about 7am PDT.
• The first witness expected in the trial is David Pecker, the former head of the National Enquirer's parent company. Pecker met with Dump and Cohen in 2015 to “help deal with negative stories about Trump” by purchasing them and not publishing them.
• For now, let’s move on. I’m sure there will be plenty of details available later today.
• As we happily reported over the weekend, the House of Representatives finally passed a multitude of foreign aid bills. This made Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) very upset.
• Yesterday, she said that she plans to follow through with an effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) if he doesn’t resign.
• Greene will be spearheading an effort by the far-right to once again vacate the Speaker’s chair, as they did with Kevin McCarthy in 2023.
• Chaos and dysfunction is their goal.
• Johnson seems to have a good outlook on all this, "I have to do my job. We did. I’ve done here what I believe to be the right thing, and that is to allow the House to work its will. And as I’ve said, you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may, and I’ll continue to do that.”
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would introduce legislation that would help Arizonans get abortions in his state, a move that comes after the Arizona Supreme Court this month ruled that a near-total abortion ban from 1864 will take effect in the coming weeks.
• Arizona’s GOP-controlled legislature chose last week to not repeal the Civil War-era law.
• The best way to give women the right to control their own reproductive choices is to remove politicians who want to force them to give birth — even in cases of rape, incest, and when the mother’s life is in danger — and replace them with candidates who support women’s rights.
• Let’s move on.
• A follow-up on something we mentioned previously: today, the Supreme Court will consider whether banning homeless people from sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
• The case comes from the rural Oregon town of Grants Pass, which started fining people $295 for sleeping outside to manage homeless encampments that sprung up in the city’s public parks as the cost of housing escalated.
• Grants Pass v. Johnson is considered the most significant case to come before the high court in decades on homelessness, which has reached record levels in the United States.
• In other news…
• Late on Friday, a third temporary channel in the Port of Baltimore was opened, allowing more vessels and goods to flow into the crucial shipping center following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month.
• The passageway was opened by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) as it continues to clear away the wreckage of the Dali, the container ship that collided with the bridge, as well as the twisting metal and chunks of concrete from the bridge itself.
• USACE, along with the Coast Guard and other responding crews, have been able to remove around 120 containers from the wreck of the Dali, and hope to finally move the ship after taking away 140. 3,000 tons of bridge steel has also been removed from the port.
• Good job, people.
• And now, The Weather: “Theodor Marmalade” by Apifera
• A heads-up to the astronomy world: tomorrow night, a pink moon will rise.
• No, it doesn’t actually look pink. The name of April’s full moon comes from the color of the earliest widespread flowers of spring, notably the creeping phlox native to the eastern US.
• And of course, it’s also the name of perhaps the most well-known song by singer-songwriter Nick Drake. The moon will appear mostly full from tonight through Thursday.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums from this date in 1992. What am I doing at that time? I’m getting toward the end of my college life and figuring out what’s next. I’m living in Long Beach with my dad and then-fiancee, which is not at all ideal but beats being homeless.
• 1. Wayne's World (Soundtrack). 2. Ropin' The Wind (Garth Brooks). 3. Nevermind (Nirvana). 4. As Ugly As They Wanna Be (Ugly Kid Joe). 5. No Fences (Garth Brooks). 6. Metallica (Metallica). 7. Achtung Baby (U2). 8. Funky Divas (En Vogue). 9. Classic Queen (Queen). 10. Time, Love And Tenderness (Michael Bolton). 11. Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Red Hot Chili Peppers). 12. Dangerous (Michael Jackson). 13. Cooleyhighharmony (Boyz II Men). 14. We Can't Dance (Genesis). 15. Unforgettable: With Love (Natalie Cole). 16. Luck Of The Draw (Bonnie Raitt). 17. C.M.B. (Color Me Badd). 18. The Comfort Zone (Vanessa Williams). 19. Lean Into It (Mr. Big), 20. Emotions (Mariah Carey).
• From the Sports Desk… while NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing, and baseball season is fully underway, my focus will turn later this week to the NFL draft, which starts Thursday evening.
• It’s always fun to watch, mostly to see how the experts are often wrong in their predictions in terms of what teams need and who they take.
• Today in history… Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico (1519). The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription ‘In God We Trust’ be placed on all coins minted as United States currency (1864). The first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia (1876). President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000 (1898). The first Earth Day is celebrated (1970). Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic (1977). The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming (2016).
• April 22 is the birthday of philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724), feminist/suffragist Emily Davies (1830), revolutionary Vladimir Lenin (1870), novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899), physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904), painter Richard Diebenkorn (1922), bassist/composer Charles Mingus (1922), TV producer Aaron Spelling (1923), actress Charlotte Rae (1926), actress Estelle Harris (1928), singer-songwriter/guitarist Glen Campbell (1936), actor Jack Nicholson (1937), pianist/composer Jack Nitzsche (1937), fashion designer Issey Miyake (1938), actor/director John Waters (1946), singer-songwriter/guitarist Peter Frampton (1950), actor Ryan Stiles (1959),  NFL player Jeff Hostetler (1961), actress Amber Heard (1986), NFL player Marshawn Lynch (1986), and rapper Machine Gun Kelly (1990).

I spent a good portion of the weekend working on a new song, and while it was an enjoyable process, I hit the almost inevitable point of creative work where I’ve decided I don’t really like the song I made. It happens. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 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 April 21, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. It is, like so many Sunday mornings in recent times, quiet and overcast. I’m up and have my coffee, so we might as well see what’s happening in the world.

• I realized very belatedly after doing my annual 4/20 information dump yesterday that I’d neglected something important.
• Don’t drive high. And no, I don’t want to hear any compare/contrast views between driving under the influence of marijuana versus alcohol. It’s not a competition.
• Driving or operating machinery — or performing literally any task where your impairment of mental acuity and dexterity and reaction time can be a life-or-death situation — while intoxicated on anything at all is beyond a bad idea. It’s horribly irresponsible and beyond selfish.
• That includes alcohol as well as recreational and prescription drugs with psychoactive effects. And no amount is safe in that way, no matter how small.
• You lucky modern people have apps on your phone where you can get picked up and taken to and from damn near anywhere. Use them.
• Okay, that’s it. Now that I’ve admonished you, we have some long-awaited good news.
• The House of Representatives did its job yesterday, passing $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and other U.S. allies.
• The whole package will go to the Senate, which could pass it as soon as Tuesday. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately thereafter.
• It was a bipartisan effort, with the sides being Democrats and sane Republicans versus the MAGA contingency… and MAGA lost. Let’s look at them one by one.
• The House first passed the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental bill with a bipartisan vote of 385-34 plus one present vote: Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
• The package includes $8.1 billion to counter China’s actions in the Indo-Pacific region, $3.3 billion to develop submarine infrastructure, $2 billion in foreign military financing for Taiwan and other key allies, and $1.9 billion to replenish defense items and services provided to Taiwan and regional partners.
• Next up was the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which passed with a vote of 311-112. One member – Rep Dan Meuser (R-PA) – voted present. 
• This bill provides nearly $61 billion to assist Ukraine and others in the region fight Russia.
• Of that total, about $23 billion would be used to replenish US weapons, stockpiles and facilities, more than $11 billion would fund current US military operations in the region, and nearly $14 billion included in the bill would help Ukraine buy advanced weapons systems and other defense equipment.
• As you’d probably assume, this one was a bit more contentious, with all 210 Democrats voting yes, joined by 101 Republicans. 112 Republicans voted no. 
• Funny side note about the Ukraine bill, since I am always willing to make fun of moronic behavior on all sides of the political spectrum.
• Democrats were so pleased with themselves for having passed it that they jumped around and whooped and high-fived and started running out of the chamber to celebrate.
• Except they weren’t yet done voting for the day, and Dem leaders had to rush out into the hallways and physically grab their members and drag them back inside to get back to work.
• Lordy.
• Third up was the Israel Security Supplemental, which passed with a vote of 366-58.
• That package includes $26.4 billion to aid Israel, $4 billion for the Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems, $1.2 billion for the Iron Beam defense system, $4.4 billion to replenish defense items and services provided to Israel, $3.5 billion for the procurement of advanced weapons systems and other items through the Foreign Military Financing Program, $9.2 billion in humanitarian assistance – including emergency food, shelter and basic services – to populations suffering crises.
• So those were a long time coming. I’m glad they got it done, and I’m also pleased that the foreign aid bills upset the far-right wing so much.
• Are you mad that the USA is providing foreign assistance rather than devote resources to our own border protection? Then you must be very mad at the Republicans who blocked the border bill.
• They want it to remain an issue so they can use it as a speaking point for campaigning. They could have passed that bill at any time. They chose not to.
• Anyway… before any of those votes happened, the House also passed the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act with a bipartisan vote of 360-58.
• That bill includes sanctions on Iran, the seizure of frozen Russian sovereign assets, and a measure for a nationwide ban of TikTok.
• The bill places sanctions on ports and refineries that receive and process Iranian oil, places sanctions on anyone involved in activity covered under the UN missile embargo on Iran that lapsed last year or in the supply or sale of Iran’s missiles and drones, further restricts the export of goods and technology of US origin to Iran, and empowers the executive branch to seize and transfer frozen Russian assets held in the US to Ukraine.
• And yes, it gives TikTok's Chinese parent, ByteDance, nine months to sell the social media company or it would be banned from US app stores.
• How do I feel about the TikTok ban? For one thing, I don’t think it will stick. I think it will face a bunch of First Amendment challenges over the nine month window before it would go into effect.
• Do I think TikTok is used to spy on its users? Yes, definitely. Do I also think the same about Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, and every social platform that exists? Also yes.
• Moving on.
• The same day the US advanced an aid bill for Israel, they struck the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight and killed 22 people, including 18 children.
• Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive against the Hamas militant group to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the U.S.
• This can’t go on this way. It can’t just be accepted or shrugged off.
• In other news…
• Donnie Dump tried to have one of his rallies yesterday in Wilmington, North Carolina. It would have been his first MAGA rally since the start of his criminal hush money trial, but Mother Nature had other plans.
• He didn’t show up. Instead, he called in from his plane, saying, “I’m devastated that this could happen but we want to keep everybody safe. I think we’re gonna have to just do a rain check. I’m so sad.”
• Let me tell you something: you will never see Dump make an appearance in rain, nor be seen outdoors without a hat. Rain causes his makeup to run, and the thing on his head that passes for hair can’t get wet or it becomes animated, runs around the room, and multiplies.
• This whole time, the entire reason for the red MAGA cap is to hide Donnie’s weird fake hair from wind and precipitation. That’s it.
• Anyway, you will never see him brave the elements due to his vanity.
• I suppose we have to do Sunday Gunday. Here are just some of the incidents of gun violence in the USA over the past two days.
• Two dead, six injured in a shooting at a block party in Memphis, TN. Two dead, one injured in a shooting in the South Chicago neighborhood of Chicago, IL. Two dead in a shooting in Marshalltown, IA. Two dead in a shooting in Portsmouth, VA. One dead, three injured in a shooting on the Dan Ryan expressway in Chicago, IL. One dead, two injured in a shooting in Newark, NJ. One dead, one injured in a shooting in St. Petersburg, FL. One dead, one injured in a shooting in the West End neighborhood of Cincinnati, OH. An 18-year-old woman shot dead on campus at Delaware State University in Dover, DE. One dead in a shooting near Panorama Park in Bakersfield, CA. One dead in a shooting at an apartment in West Palm Beach, FL. One dead in a shooting at a strip club in Tampa, FL. A woman dead in a shooting in Cheat Lake, WV. One dead in a shooting in the Overtown neighborhood of Miami, FL. A teenager dead in a shooting at a park in the McKees Rocks area of Pittsburgh, PA. One dead in a shooting in Birmingham, AL. One dead in a shooting in Lubbock, TX. Three shot at a large party in Fort Worth, TX. Three shot at a large party in Beaumont, TX. Two shot outside a nightclub in Pasadena, TX. Two shot at a Waffle House in Lynchburg, VA. One shot and in critical condition after a possible domestic incident in Memphis, TN. One shot outside a business in Roanoke, VA. A woman shot in a hotel parking garage in Kansas City, MO. A woman shot in a drive-by at a family reunion in Southwest Miami-Dade, FL. A juvenile shot near Waterfront Park in Louisville, KY.
• Standard mention: these are just SOME of the shootings. I don’t have the time nor the desire to list them all. Don’t like it? Vote for candidates who support common sense gun control.
• While we’re on this topic… I didn’t want to be a bummer yesterday, but April 20 was also the 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, when two high school students murdered twelve other students and one teacher, wounded twenty-one additional people, and then committed suicide.
• The murderers used semi-automatic 9mm weapons and sawed-off shotguns. Their friend purchased the weapons for them at a gun show.
• If guns weren’t so easily accessible and so many measures weren’t neglected to ensure proper background checks, these pointless deaths could be greatly reduced if not eliminated, as has been the case in nearly every other country.
• And now, The Weather: “Angel Blessings” by Sex Week
• From the Sports Desk… between NBA and NHL playoffs thus far, there have been exactly zero surprises.
• Yesterday’s first-round NBA playoffs games had only the higher-seed teams winning: Knicks, Cavs, Nuggets, and T’wolves all took the wins.
• And in the NHL, same story. Bruins and Canes won their games.
• Many more games scheduled for today. Let’s see if we can get any upsets going.
• Today in history… the traditional mythological date of Romulus founding Rome (753 BC). Henry VIII ascends the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII (1509). The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River by King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (1782). John Adams is sworn in as 1st US Vice President — nine days before George Washington (1789). Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna (1836). Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated (1960). The Seattle World's Fair opens, the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II (1962). A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds of radioactive plutonium in its power source is widely dispersed (1964). Astronauts John Young and Charles Duke fly Apollo 16's Apollo Lunar Module to the Moon's surface, the fifth NASA Apollo Program crewed lunar landing (1972). Annie opens on Broadway (1977). In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang (1989). The city of Flint, Michigan switches its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis (2014). 
• April 21 is the birthday of painter Ludovico Carracci (1555), novelist Charlotte Brontë (1816), environmentalist John Muir (1838), economist/sociologist Max Weber (1864), actor Anthony Quinn (1915), UK queen Elizabeth II (1926), actress/comedian Elaine May (1932), actor Charles Grodin (1935), singer-songwriter Iggy Pop (1947), actress/singer Patti LuPone (1949), actor Tony Danza (1951), actress Andie MacDowell (1958), singer-songwriter Robert Smith (1959), actor James McAvoy (1979), NFL player/announcer Tony Romo (1980), and MLB player Joc Pederson (1992).

Alrighty then. Oh, forgot to mention: I got inspired yesterday and for the first time in a good while, recorded a new tune. Just a little demo, nowhere near complete. But it’s always a positive thing when I’m making new music. Enjoy your day.