Random News: May 19, 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 19, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I slept so hard last night that even after a giant cup of coffee I’m having difficulty using my brain and typing fingers at the same time, so this might take awhile. Let’s get it started.

• Some breaking news this morning with a helicopter that was carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi making what some called a “hard landing” and others called a straight-up crash.
• Crews were searching through a misty, rural forest where his helicopter was believed to be.
• I don’t have to tell you about the ongoing conflicts between Iran and Israel, not to mention Iran’s own issues of civil unrest and mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over an awful economy and women’s rights.
• So no telling what is actually happening with this crash, which happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan some 375 miles northwest of Tehran.
• Moving on but staying in the same geographic zone…
• Frustration is growing in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war against Hamas.
• Public tensions are high that Netanyahu’s actions could invite increased attacks from Iran and its proxies across the region. 
• Israeli Defense Minister Yovav Gallant is the most senior official to call him out, demanding that Netanyahu decide on a plan for the Gaza Strip after defeating Hamas.
• Probably a good idea.
• Gallant also pointed to the need for Israel’s military to focus on the fight with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has increased in intensity; an estimated 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from communities in the north. 
• War… what is it good for?
• Let’s move on. Sort of.
• Today, President Joe Biden delivered the commencement address at the all-male, historically Black Morehouse College in Atalanta, GA.
• Biden told graduates that he heard their voices of protest over the Israel-Hamas war, and that scenes from the conflict in Gaza have been heartbreaking.
• “I support peaceful nonviolent protest. Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them,” he said.
• He acknowledged the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Biden’s comments were the most direct recognition to U.S. students about the campus protests that have swept across the country.
• Good. It’s always better to openly address issues, even when you don’t yet have all the answers to fix them.
• Moving on.
• Sigh… let’s do Sunday Gunday.
• Three dead, there more injured in a shooting near a park in Columbus, OH. Two shot dead and at least 11 people injured by gunfire in a shooting in the Ellis Square area of Savannah, GA. Two women dead, one man injured in a shooting at an apartment in Dallas, TX. Two dead in a shooting in Milwaukee, WI. One dead, several injured in a shooting in Sarasota, FL. One dead, two injured in a shooting in the northwest valley of Las Vegas, NV. One dead, two injured in shootings at ‘Jeep Weekend’ event near Galveston, TX. One dead, two injured in a shooting in District Heights, MD. A girl shot dead in Grand Rapids, MI. A 16-year-old shot dead in North Las Vegas, NV. A high school student shot dead hours after his graduation ceremony in Cincinnati, OH. Five injured, one critically, in a shooting incident in Bridgeton, MO. Three shot at a park in Washington, D.C. Three shot during a robbery at a supermarket in Claremont, CA. Three shot in Van Nuys, CA. One shot in the Short North area of Columbus, OH.
• That’s just a few. I can’t do this for my entire Sunday morning each week.
• And yes, those are just shootings that happened in the past two days that don’t include police shootings or suicides. The actual total for gun violence every weekend in the USA is many times what I list here.
• Vote for leaders who won’t lie down and accept this shit. And fuck the NRA, while we’re talking about this.
• Let’s move on.
• Taiwan has a new president.
• Lai Ching-te, 64, will take office Monday. And I gotta say, being president of a little island country that’s claimed as a territory by another much more powerful country is not an easy gig.
• I’m you know this but I’ll mention it anyway: Taiwan can’t even be formally recognized as a US ally because officially it is part of China, and China at any moment could decide to retake it by force.
• Much like the typical situation in the USA, Taiwan deals with political gridlock. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has lost the majority in the legislature, making it hard for Lai to push through legislation, including the approval of crucial national defense budgets.
• Sound familiar?
• Let’s move on.
• I didn’t do any coverage this week of the corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), because frankly I don’t need to waste space on that piece of shit.
• But one takeaway — other than Menendez literally trying to cast 100% of the blame on his wife Nadine — is the raw amount of fucking cash he had at his place.
• Per law enforcement testimony, it was everywhere. Locked away in closets, stashed inside designer bags, even stuffed into a pair of Timberland boots.
• “I was directed that if I seized the cash, that I needed to count it in place,” Special Agent Aristotelis Kougemitros told the jury. “So I called in reinforcements.”
• They had to send two cash-counting machines to process the piles of 20s, 50s and 100s, finally tallying $486,461 in bills. And, of course, 13 gold bars worth well over $100,000.
• Menendez has been charged with acting as a foreign agent on behalf of Egypt and assisting the government of Qatar, all while taking bribes from several New Jersey businessmen.
• He’s toast. Moving on.
• And now, The Weather: “Bomb” by juicer
• From the Sports Desk… as mentioned recently, two NBA game 7’s today to determine who makes it into the conference finals.
• Pacers/Knicks starts in a half hour. T'Wolves/Nuggets is tonight. Tomorrow we will give ou a preview of the Eastern and Western conference finals.
• Today in history… Catherine of Aragon — age 13 — is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales — age 12 (1499). French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two kidnapped sons (1535). Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest (1536). Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale (1743). U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States (1828). Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the Mexican-American war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for $15 million USD (1848). The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration to limit the number of “undesirable” Italian and Eastern European immigrants (1921). Egypt announces that the Suez Canal is closed to Israeli ships and commerce (1950). Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus, though the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data (1961). Marilyn Monroe's sings "Happy Birthday” to U.S. President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, New York City (1962). The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1986). The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast (2015). The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is held at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion (2018).
• May 19 is the birthday of businessman/philanthropist Johns Hopkins (1795), painter Walter Russell (1871), politician Ho Chi Minh (1800), activist Yuri Kochiyama (1921), murderous dictator Pol Pot (1925), activist Malcolm X (1925), NBA player Dolph Schayes (1928), journalist Jim Lehrer (1934), film director/producer Nora Ephron (1941), actor Peter Mayhew (1944), singer-songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend (1945), wrestler/actor André the Giant (1946), singer-songwriter Grace Jones (1948), bass player Dusty Hill (1949), singer-songwriter Joey Ramone (1951), drummer Phil Rudd (1954), keyboardist Martyn Ware (1956), NBA player Bill Laimbeer (1957), race car driver Dario Franchitti (1973), NBA player Kevin Garnett (1976), singer-songwriter Shooter Jennings (1979), comedian Michael Che (1983), singer-songwriter Sam Smith (1992), and YouTube personality Jojo Siwa (2003).

Time to do my Sunday rock star things, like rock star laundry, and rock star taking out trash, and rock star fix the lights in the bathroom. All that and more. Enjoy your day.