Random News: May 3, 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 3, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m your headline man, and I’ll do the best I can to run up the news that you can use. Let’s go.

• President Biden delivered an unscheduled address from the White House yesterday in which he denounced the violence and the antisemitism that have erupted on college campuses.
• Biden had previously not addressed at length the pro-Palestinian protests that have disrupted the end of the school year at dozens of universities coast to coast.
• He said, “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos. People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked.”
• I agree.
• Biden also pointedly rejected the idea of deploying National Guard troops to quell the protests.
• I definitely agree with that too.
• In the past week, more than 2,100 arrests have been made nationwide in relation to the pro-Palestine demonstrations. Interestingly, more than a quarter of protesters arrested Tuesday at Columbia University and 60 percent of those arrested at the City College of New York had no connections to the institutions.
• What that should tell you is that there’s a significant influence of outside sources who are using the students and campuses for their own goals, be they antisemitic or anarchistic.
• Let’s move on.
• The criminal hush money/election interference trial of Donnie “El Dumpo” Dump goes into its 11th day today.
• Dump has continued to fall asleep in court, a fact seen by many but that he continues to deny. I rarely quote him here but I snorted at this particular batch of bullshit…
• “Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I don’t fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.’s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!”
• What a fucking kook.
• Apart from various witness testimony yesterday, there was a second hearing on Dump’s continual violations of his gag order where prosecutors raised four more statements Dump made that violated the judge’s gag order barring discussion of witnesses and the jury.
• I think he’s trying to get incarcerated and make himself a martyr.
• Let’s move on.
• Today, President Biden named 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

• It’s the nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors.
• Some of this year’s recipients include Senator Elizabeth Dole, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State John Kerry, swimmer Katie Ledecky, educator/activist Opal Lee, astronaut Ellen Ochoa, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, union leader Teresa Romero, athlete Jim Thorpe, and actress Michelle Yeoh, among others.
• Good stuff. Moving on.
• In our continuing coverage of the pieces of shit who tried (and failed) to enact a coup at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, meet Jack Wade Whitton.
• Whitton is a Georgia business owner who bragged that he “fed” a police officer to a mob of MAGA fuckheads. He was sentenced yesterday to nearly five years in prison for his repeated attacks on law enforcement during the insurrection.
• During the event, Whitton struck an officer with a metal crutch and dragged him — head first and face down — into the crowd on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. He later boasted in a text message that he “fed him to the people.”
• He then tried to pull a second officer into the crowd, and also kicked at, threatened and threw a construction pylon at officers trying to hold off the mob of Dump’s MAGA team. Whitton also shouted, “You’re gonna die tonight!” after striking an officer’s riot shield.
• Now meet Ryan T. Nichols of Texas.
• Nichols brought two guns to a D.C.-area hotel and fought with police at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison.
• He also was fined $200,000, by far the largest financial penalty yet handed down in a Jan. 6 case. Most of the more than 800 defendants sentenced so far either have not been fined (because they’re broke-ass fucks), or were fined only a few thousand dollars, in addition to a $2,000 restitution payment for damage to the Capitol, which all defendants have been assessed.
• But Nichols decided to be a cute fuck and refused to cooperate with probation officials about his financial status, so Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered him to pay the maximum amount allowed under federal sentencing guidelines.
• Ha ha!
• Keep in mind that Donald Trump has already promised to pardon the January 6 insurrectionists, like the attempted cop killer Whitton. You can never again claim to respect law enforcement if you support Dump.
• Arrests from the January 6 insurrection continue to this day. Just yesterday, a case was unsealed against David A. Marshall Jr., 57, of Alexandria, VA.
• In addition to assaulting officers, Marshall helped rioters take a ladder, stole an officer’s baton and bag, and used zip ties to close the Capitol’s Memorial Doors, preventing police from opening them.
• He, too, would be pardoned by Dump if he’s reelected.
• More than 1,350 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the failed cup attempt.
• Let’s move on to a concerning story about Boeing whistleblowers.
• Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at a key Boeing supplier who raised concerns about improperly drilled holes in the fuselage of 737 Max jets, died on Tuesday morning at age 45. 
• He had fallen into critical condition after being diagnosed with a MRSA bacterial infection. Dean is the second Boeing-related whistleblower to die in the past three months. In March, John Barnett, 62, died in Charleston, SC from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• Huh.
• Let’s cheer up a little with an amazing story from our animal friends.
• An orangutan appeared to treat a wound with medicine from a tropical plant.
• Scientists observed Rakus the orangutan pluck and chew up leaves of a medicinal plant used by people throughout Southeast Asia to treat pain and inflammation.
• The adult male orangutan then used his fingers to apply the plant juices to an injury on the right cheek. Afterward, he pressed the chewed plant to cover the open wound like a makeshift bandage.
• Photographs show the animal's wound closed within a month without any problems.
• Never make the mistake in believing that humans are unique in our intelligence or our sentience. It’s my belief that every living creature has far more self-awareness than we’ve ever given them credit for.
• Moving on.
• Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared yesterday that her state won't comply with a federal regulation that seeks to protect the rights of transgender students in the nation’s schools.
• Fuck you, you disgusting scum.
• Sanders signed an executive order stating that Arkansas schools will continue to enforce restrictions on which bathrooms and pronouns transgender students can use, laws that could be invalidated by the new regulations on how to enforce Title IX.
• Her order follows similar moves by several other states, including Texas and Oklahoma, that have told schools to not comply with the new regulation.
• Hey look… when the federal government forced states to ensure their schools integrated black and white students, many conservative states also refused to follow that order until they were forced to do so in various ways.
• These backwards-ass states will get the same treatment.
• Moving on.
• The operator of a retirement facility in Columbus, GA will have to pay $78,000 to a receptionist to settle an age and disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Shirley Noble was 78 when she was terminated from her job at Covenant Woods Senior Living — one month after being honored as a 2021 employee of the year. 
• She’d worked for Covenant for 14 years, but then returned to her job after a brief hospitalization to find a new, younger employee seated at her desk.
• ”Employers have a responsibility to evaluate an employee's performance without regard to age, if the employee is 40 and over, and without regard to an actual or perceived disability," said the EEOC, and they’re right.
• Good for you, Shirley. 
• And now, The Weather: “Forsythia” by Mandy
• From the Sports Desk… the NBA playoffs are chugging along, with more teams eliminated from contention.
• Eastern Conference: Celtics beat the Heat 4-1, Knicks beat the Sixers 4-2, Pacers beat the Bucks 4-2, and Cavs lead the Magic 3-2.
• Western Conference: Thunder sweep the Pelicans 4-0, Nuggets beat the Lakers 4-1, T’Wolves sweep the Suns 4-0, and Mavericks lead the Clippers 3-2.
• The first round will be complete soon, and the semifinals start tomorrow.
• Today in history… A total solar eclipse is visible across northern Europe and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within four minutes accuracy (1715). Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District's founding government (1802). American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua (1855). Ireland is partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (1921). West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues (1921). The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to Blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable (1948). The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time (1952). Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (1957). The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters (1963). The first unsolicited bulk commercial email, which would later become known as “spam", is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States (1978). Margaret Thatcher wins the United Kingdom general election and becomes the first female British Prime Minister (1979). The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet (2000).
• May 3 is the birthday of historian/philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469), Israel prime minister Golda Meir (1898), singer/actor Bing Crosby (1903), playwright William Inge (1913), singer-songwriter/activist Pete Seeger (1919), boxer Sugar Ray Robinson (1921), singer-songwriter James Brown (1933), singer/actor Frankie Valli (1934), businessman/philanthropist David Koch (1940), MLB player Davey Lopes (1945), sportscaster Greg Gumbel (1946), singer-songwriter Christopher Cross (1951), NBA player/coach Tyronn Lue (1977), golfer Brooks Koepka (1990), and rapper Desiigner (1997).

Okay. Off to work out and then do Friday shit. Enjoy your day.