Random News: May 10, 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 May 10, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m your news guy who can look you in the eye and spread his wings and fly to the sky. What am I talking about? I do not know. Let’s just do the news.

• I’ve got some breaking news from like two minutes ago, and it’s filling me with glee.
• A federal appeals court just upheld the contempt-of-Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the ex-adviser to Donnie Dump who was found guilty after failing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 committee.
• The US DC Circuit Court of Appeals rejected several challenges Bannon made to the case, including his claim that the trial court excluded evidence he should have been allowed to put before the jury in his defense.
• Go to jail, you gelatinous ball of oozing slime.
• Let’s move on.
• Here’s a tech horror story: more than 200 people with diabetes were injured after technology defect caused their insulin pump to unexpectedly shut down.
• The software glitch has prompted the recall of more than 85,000 versions of a mobile app, called t:connect and developed by Tandem Diabetes Care.
• The iOS-based software works with the t:slim X2 insulin pump with Control-IQ technology. The issue can cause the app to continuously crash and restart, draining the pump's battery. 
• While no deaths were reported, there have been 224 injuries as a result. A shutdown of the pump suspends the delivery of insulin, which can result in hyperglycemia or even ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition that can require hospitalization or intervention by a medical professional.
• Fucking hell. I’m sorry, but putting my life in the hands of some fucked up code that could be hacked seems like a super bad idea.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday was another session of Donnie Dump’s hush money trial, and this time, Stormy Daniels was under cross examination by the defense.
• I’d say Dump’s lawyer Susan Necheles is one of his better ones, or at least seemingly more competent than most of them. She did what defense lawyers are supposed to do, which is to challenge the credibility of victims and witnesses.
• But by all accounts, Stormy held her own going up against Necheles, providing consistent answers and seeming very confident as she responded to insinuations of having lied in her testimony.
• It didn’t go well for Team Dump, and his lawyer Todd Blanche argued unsuccessfully for a mistrial based on Daniels’s testimony, saying it went too far in suggesting to the jury that Trump may have committed some sort of sexual assault, in a case in which he is only charged with falsifying business records.
• For the second time in two days of court proceedings, Judge Merchan rejected his mistrial request and faulted the defense for not objecting more to what prosecutors did.
• Dump was furious when he left the court. I mean, if he really wanted to negate Daniels’s story, all he has to do is to take the witness stand, right?
• Heh heh, no way in hell will that happen. If they let Dump testify in his own defense, he would then be cross-examined by prosecutors… and Dumpy’s default mode is to lie, and he’d get caught at that too.
• In addition to failing to get a mistrial, Dump also lost a request to get Merchan to relax a gag order that bars Trump from speaking about witnesses in the trial outside of court.
• The trial resumed this morning with testimony from his former White House executive assistant Madeleine Westerhout.
• Besides her, an employee of the Manhattan district attorney's office is also expected to take the stand today to testify about some of Dump's social media postings. Prosecutors have said they're hopeful they'll be able to wrap up their case by May 21, making it highly likely that fixer/lawyer Michael Cohen will testify sometime next week.
• Enough on that. Let’s go back to some important world news.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly vowed his country would "stand alone" if the US follows through on threats to suspend arms shipments over a full-scale invasion of Rafah, where more than 1 million people have taken refuge.
• Read the room, Bibi. The US wants to defend Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East. But no country in the world wants to enable genocide, or the senseless killing of civilians who are primarily women and children.
• Why is that so hard to understand?
• Speaking after President Joe Biden's warning sparked fury and infighting among his senior figures, Netanyahu said Israel would "fight with our fingernails" in order to pursue its proclaimed goal of eliminating Hamas — with or without the backing of the United States.
• None of the intense diplomatic efforts — including ceasefire talks that were accepted by Hamas — have slowed Israel’s advance. I think limiting our supply of munitions to the country was the only choice left.
• Let’s move on.
• I watched the bodycam footage of 23-year-old Black active duty airman Roger Fortson being shot and killed by a Florida sheriff’s deputy in his apartment. It’s fucking vile.
• Yes, Fortson answered the door with a gun in his hand. But in a country where firearms are legal to own, it’s hard to say that the shooting is in any way justifiable.
• Sad.
• Moving on.
• Late last night, a Virginia school board voted to restore the names of two schools previously named after Confederate leaders.
• The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 to call the schools Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, honoring Confederate leaders Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Turner Ashby.
• Four years ago, after the police murder of George Floyd and the ensuing BLM social action, the county had decided to remove the Confederate leaders’ names.
• Private donations will fund the implementation of the name change. Uh-huh. I’ll bet.
• Honoring the men who wanted America to be a land of slavery hardly feels like a step forward.
• Moving on.
• Two political operatives close to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with the Justice Department’s bribery case against the lawmaker, per newly unsealed court documents.
• Colin Strother and Florencio “Lencho” Rendon admitted to their roles in a bribery scheme in which they funneled more than $200,000 to the congressman and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, on behalf of a Mexican bank. Strother and Rendon were each charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering.
• The Cuellars were indicted last week on charges that they accepted $600,000 in bribes from the bank and an oil company controlled by the Azerbaijan government. Strother is Cuellar’s former campaign manager and chief of staff, while Rendon is a San Antonio businessman whom court records describe as a “close associate” of Cuellar.
• When it comes to justice, I don’t care whether you’re red, blue, conservative, liberal, Black, Hispanic, or any other descriptor. No one is above the law.
• In related news, federal prosecutors have filed new charges against former Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry (R-NE) after an appeals court threw out his criminal conviction in a campaign finance case because the court said he had been tried in the wrong venue. 
• Fortenberry had been convicted for lying to the FBI about illegal contributions to his reelection campaign. The court reversed the conviction so that he could be retried in a proper venue.
• Federal campaigns are required to report to the Federal Election Commission the names and addresses of anyone donating over $50, and foreign donations to federal campaigns are illegal.
• And now, The Weather: “Vacancy” by youbet
• From the Sports Desk… switching back to an update on the NHL playoffs.
• Panthers and Bruins tied at 1-1. Rangers are up 3-0 over the Hurricanes (and are so far undefeated in the playoffs). Stars and Valance tied at 1-1. Canucks are up 1-0 over the Oilers.
• Today in history… A sunspot is observed by Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China (29 BC). Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the numerous turtles there (1503). Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland (1534). The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by reducing taxes on its tea and granting it the right to sell tea directly to North America (1773). Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France (1774). The National Gallery in London opens to the public (1824). A riot breaks out at the Astor Opera House in Manhattan, New York City over a dispute between actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready, killing at least 22 and injuring over 120 (1849). The First transcontinental railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory with the golden spike (1869). Victoria Woodhull becomes the first woman nominated for President of the United States (1872). The Horch & Cir. Motorwagenwerke AG — eventually changing its name to Audi — is founded (1904). Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, WV (1908). J. Edgar Hoover is appointed first Director of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, and remains so until his death in 1972 (1924). In Germany, the Nazis stage massive public book burnings (1933). Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain (1940). Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk (1962). Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder (1975). Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first Black president (1994). 
• May 10 is the birthday of actor/assassin John Wilkes Booth (1838), composer/conductor Max Steiner (1888), actor/singer/dancer Fred Astaire (1899), film producer David O. Selznick (1902), actress Nancy Walker (1922), physicist George E. Smith (1930), singer-songwriter Donovan (1946), singer-songwriter Graham Gouldman (1946), singer-songwriter Dave Mason (1946), drummer Sly Dunbar (1952), murderer Mark David Chapman (1955), bass player Sid Vicious (1957), singer-songwriter Bono (1960), astronaut/criminal Lisa Nowak (1963), drummer Dante J. Silva (1967), race car driver Hélio Castroneves (1975), and actor Kenan Thompson (1978).

I have a couple of unusual things going on today, but I’ll mention them later. Enjoy your day.