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.