Random News: April 5, 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 5, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! There’s a bizarre feeling of accomplishment making it through each week. The reality is that time keeps on tickin’, tickin’, tickin’ into the future regardless of what you did or didn’t do. Time is a dimension that keeps moving regardless of your feelings about it. I suppose if I’m writing this and you’re reading it, we can both be glad we’re here and alive and presumably well, so happy Friday, I guess.

• Yesterday was jam-packed with news, and a lot of it was pretty, pretty, pretty good.
• Let’s start with some important stuff.
• Yesterday, President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is unacceptable and warned Israel to take steps to address the crisis or face consequences.
• I think the Israeli strike last week that seemed to purposefully target and kill aid workers from the World Central Kitchen was the last straw for Biden.
• Israel is able to exist as a country in the Middle East only with the military and financial support of the USA. They’ve been an important strategic ally for decades.
• But Secretary of State Antony Blinken was clear: “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there’ll be changes in our own policy.”
• More than 32,000 people — mostly civilian women and children — are dead in Gaza after Israel retaliated for terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7 of last year.
• Thousands more are on the brink of death due to starvation and lack of basic human services.
• Let’s all hope there’s some resolution there soon. Moving on.
• President Biden is heading to Baltimore today… not a long trip from DC. 
• He’s there to survey the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, discuss the cleanup with Maryland officials, and meet with family members of the six construction workers who died in the disaster.
• Yesterday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a timeline for the reopening of the shipping channel in the Patapsco River blocked by the collapse. The disaster has crippled the Port of Baltimore and spread economic pain locally and nationally.
• They plan to open a 280-foot-wide and 35-feet-deep channel by the end of April that should allow some ships carrying automobiles and farm equipment to again sail into and out of the port. Their bigger goal is to reopen the entire shipping channel by the end of May, restoring normal traffic.
• As to the bridge itself, Biden’s administration is formally requesting that Congress allocate funds to pay for the entire cost of rebuilding a new span.
• In other Biden-related good news, the United States added 303,000 jobs in March, soaring past expectations and reflecting renewed strength in a labor market that continues to prop up the broader U.S. economy.
• Also, the unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent last month. It’s the longest stretch of unemployment below 4 percent in decades.
• No matter what your feelings are about him (or why), Joe Biden is having an extraordinary impact on the country and he’s going to be viewed by history as a great US President.
• In other news…
• U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon has rejected El Dumpo’s bid to have his charges of mishandling classified documents dismissed on the grounds that a federal records law protected him from prosecution.
• Dumpy had been trying to claim that the Presidential Records Act took priority over the Espionage Act when it came to dozens of boxes of highly classified documents that he stole and hid at Mar-a-Lago, his golf motel in Florida, after his presidency.
• But yesterday, Judge Cannon shot down that argument, saying the PRA “does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss” either the mishandling charges or the related obstruction charges against Trump.
• Ha ha!
• Not coincidentally, her decision comes two days after special counsel Jack Smith made a court filing saying the judge was pursuing a legal premise about the PRA that was wrong and urged her to rule, adding that if she decided otherwise, he wanted to appeal any such decision quickly.
• Cannon knew she’d be looking at being dismissed from the case entirely unless she got off her ass and acted, which she promptly did. Good job, Jack Smith!
• This conflict between Smith and Cannon is far from over, I should note. He’s protested Cannon’s request for both sides to put forth two competing versions of instructions for jurors in the case, saying her request would distort the trial.
• Smith indicated in that filing that if Cannon ruled against federal prosecutors, this could be a trigger for an appeal to the Eleventh Circuit that could remove her from the case. 
• Okay, onto another case…
• Next up: very bad news for Dumpster in the Georgia RICO case.
• Yesterday, Judge Scott McAfee officially denied Dumpy's motion to dismiss the racketeering case against him on First Amendment grounds.
• Dump had ridiculously argued that his speech relating to the big lie and overturning the 2020 election was constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment.
• That was never going to fly. The Supreme Court has ruled on and refined the definitions of free speech many times over centuries of landmark cases. The “speech” in question — trying to force GA election officials to change vote counts — was 1) done in furtherance of criminal activity and 2) was false, and neither of those are protected under the Constitution. 
• Moving on.
• No Labels is out.
• The organization had emerged earlier this year as a potentially well-funded third-party force in the 2024 election. However, No Labels announced yesterday that they cannot get their shit together enough to nominate a presidential candidate this year.
• So in as much as I hear people whine about having to choose between Donnie Dump and the very successful President Joe Biden, even a big organization with a lot of money could not come up with one fucking person who they felt could beat either of them.
• They just would have been another distraction and an impediment to Biden’s re-election chances. Good riddance.
• Moving on.
• Once again proving the unbeaten adage that “everything Trump touches dies,” yesterday an attorney discipline panel in Washington, DC has made a preliminary decision that former Dump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark will face disbarment for promoting the Big Lie in 2020.
• Clark is separately fighting criminal charges in Georgia related to those efforts.
• After yesterday’s finding was announced, a lawyer for the disciplinary counsel confirmed the office would seek Clark’s disbarment.
• Dump tried to install Clark as attorney general. At the time, Clark spread a fictional belief that foreign-controlled smart thermostats interfered with votes.
• Bye, asshole.
• We mentioned here in Zak’s Random News yesterday that this week, the $175 million bond in Dump’s New York civil fraud case had been rejected, but we didn’t have any details as to why that might be more than an administrative issue.
• New York State Attorney General Letitia James' office filed papers yesterday, giving Dump's lawyers or the bond underwriter 10 days to “justify” the bond — essentially, to show that the company can make good on it. That will likely mean disclosing more about the collateral Trump provided.
• Remember, the court assigned former judge Barbara S. Jones to monitor every penny from the Dump Org, so if there was a transaction specific to that collateral, she’d legally have to be aware.
• A hearing was set for April 22. Can’t wait.
• And now, The Weather: “Kool-Aid” by Chastity Belt
• And yes, I know that a lot of you in the Midwest and Northeast are being impacted by the major storms that were forecast for yesterday. Hopefully you didn’t lose power or have significant damage to your homes.
• It was absolutely pouring here when I awoke.
• And a word to the wise for those who live in hurricane-susceptible places: this is gonna be a rough year for you.
• Top forecasters announced yesterday that they expect the highest number of hurricanes ever predicted in an April forecast since the team began issuing predictions in 1995.
• Their prediction includes 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes and five major hurricanes.
• Maybe plan ahead for that? Just to be safe?
• Let’s do a chart. It’s early April 1982, and this is the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. I’m in 8th grade, feeling pretty good about myself. I have a little girlfriend whose hand I hold while we walk around Margate Intermediate School. MTV is a big thing.
• 1. I Love Rock 'N Roll (Joan Jett & The Blackhearts). 2. We Got The Beat (Go-Go’s). 3. Chariots Of Fire - Titles (Vangelis). 4. Freeze-frame (The J. Geils Band). 5. Make A Move On Me (Olivia Newton-John). 6. Don't Talk To Strangers (Rick Springfield). 7. Do You Believe In Love (Huey Lewis & The News). 8. Key Largo (Bertie Higgins). 9. Open Arms (Journey). 10. That Girl (Stevie Wonder). 11. Edge Of Seventeen (Just Like The White Winged Dove) (Stevie Nicks). 12.(Oh) Pretty Woman (Van Halen). 13. '65 Love Affair (Paul Davis). 14. One Hundred Ways (Quincy Jones Featuring James Ingram). 15. 867-5309/jenny (Tommy Tutone). 16. Find Another Fool (Quarterflash). 17. Did It In A Minute (Daryl Hall John Oates). 18. Nobody Said It Was Easy (Lookin' For The Lights) (LeRoux). 19. Goin' Down (Greg Guidry). 20. Get Down On It (Kool & The Gang).
• From the Sports Desk… today is the Final 4 for the Women’s NCAA tournament. 
• 1-seed South Carolina takes on 3-seed NC Site at 4PM PDT, and then 1-seed Iowa battles 3-seed UConn at 6PM PDT.
• Today in history… Two hundred Dutch noblemen, led by Hendrick van Brederode, force themselves into the presence of Margaret of Parma and present the Petition of Compromise, denouncing the Spanish Inquisition in the Seventeen Provinces (1566). In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe (1614). United States President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States (1792). The American Birth Control League, forerunner of Planned Parenthood, is incorporated (1922). U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs two executive orders: 6101 to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps, and 6102 "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens (1933). Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito signs an agreement with the Soviet Union to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory” (1945). A fire in Effingham, IL, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States (1949). Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union (1951). Massive anti-Vietnam war demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities (1969). The US Supreme Court rules that congressional legislation that diminished the size of the Sioux people's reservation thereby destroyed the tribe's jurisdictional authority over the area in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip (1977). In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world (1998). 
• April 5 is the birthday of French queen — and my 27th great-grandmother — Isabella of Hainault (1170), politician Benjamin Harrison V (1726), revolutionary war hero Sybil Ludington (1761), sea captain/politician Robert Smalls (1839), educator Booker T. Washington (1856), actor Walter Huston (1883), actor Spencer Tracy (1900), actress Bette Davis (1908), film producer Albert R. Broccoli (1909), actor Gregory Peck (1916), music producer Joe Meek (1929), entertainment manager Peter Grant (1935), US general/secretary of state Colin Powell (1937), actor Max Gail (1943), actress Jane Asher (1946), engineer/astronaut Judith Resnik (1949), actor Mitch Pileggi (1952), singer-songwriter Peter Case (1954), singer-songwriter Stan Ridgway (1954), wrestler Diamond Dallas Page (1956), guitarist Mike McCready (1966), singer-songwriter Paula Cole (1968), singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams (1973), and NBA player Stephen Jackson (1978). 

I’m planning on a regular-ass Friday, which often means it will be a busy day. There’s something about the field of marketing where executives work through their week and suddenly remember that they had committed to some marketing action before the weekend, which they then let us know about with mere hours to spare. No worries; I’ve been at this a long time and no longer get sucked into other people’s panic. Enjoy your day.