Random News: November 11, 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 November 11, 2024, and it’s a Monday. It’s a holiday for some — but not many — folks in the US. We’ll talk about that and a lot more.

• November 11 is Veterans Day in the USA. 
• While it’s an American observance, it coincides with holidays in several countries, including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which also occur on the anniversary of the end of World War I.
• It honors military veterans of the United States Armed Forces.
• Veterans Day is distinct from Memorial Day. Veterans Day commemorates the service of all U.S. veterans, while the older Memorial Day specifically honors those who have died while in military service.
• How does one celebrate Veterans Day? Well, for one thing, you can thank a veteran for their service… something you should really consider with or without holidays to remind you.
• Non-essential federal government offices are closed on Veterans Day. So are banks. No mail is delivered. But for the grand majority, it’s a regular work and/or school day.
• And — most of you probably are unaware, as I was — legally, two minutes of silence is recommended to be observed at 2:11pm Eastern Standard Time.
• I have tons of military veterans among my family and friends. That includes U.S. Army private Kat Claxton, as well as my late father who was a U.S. Army staff sergeant in the Vietnam era, and a number of cousins who served career jobs in various branches.
• Thank you for your service!
• I won’t go off on a big tangent here, but our country does not have a great track record of providing adequate treatment to our vets after their service is complete.
• And our current president-elect has been quite clear regarding his disdain for members of our military, alive or dead.
• Speaking of Ol’ Dumpy…
• President-elect Donnie Dump has, for some time, talked up his plans for “Day 1” when he gets back in office. That’s on January 20, 2025, for those who don’t follow US history.
• His list for that very first day includes, among other things…
• Starting up the mass deportation of migrants.
• Rolling back Biden administration policies on education.
• Reshaping the federal government by firing potentially thousands of federal employees he believes are secretly working against him.
• Pardoning people who were arrested for their role in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
• And then there’s the matter of his own crimes. 
• He has vowed that “within two seconds” of taking office that he will fire Jack Smith, the special counsel who has been prosecuting two federal cases against him.
• He will also leverage his status as president-elect to set aside or expunge his state-level New York felony conviction and stave off a potential prison sentence.
• The election interference case in Georgia? It will be put on hold until at least 2029, at the end of his presidential term.
• So there you have it. A king who is above the law, just like many of you wanted. Those people who voted for him wanted this, and now they get it.
• Note: we’ll be using the above sentence a lot in the next four years.
• Will all of Trump’s campaign promises go into effect immediately, or at all? No, of course not.
• He had made many similar promises before taking office in 2017. And sure, there are less guardrails available in this term than he had then, but even so, there is still the matter of that pesky Constitution to try and navigate.
• But you can count on certain things happening that will be to the detriment of millions of Americans, even if they take time and meet resistance. 
• Moving on.
• The control of the House is still close but will likely remain in Republican hands as it has been since 2022. 
• Current tally is 216 Republican and 209 Democrat, with the remaining 10 races still too close to call. Republicans only need two more wins to control the chamber.
• But as we’ve seen a lot in the past couple of years, that narrow of a majority doesn’t allow for any kind of smooth function in the House, since the Republicans are so prone to infighting and incapable of compromise.
• It ironically leaves the Democrats with a good deal of control even as the House minority, since the GOP fails over and over to get enough of their own party in alignment to pass bills.
• And speaking of infighting, in other news…
• There’s already a lot of squabbling and backstabbing while members of Dump’s ass-kissing brigade jockey for various positions in his upcoming administration and government leadership roles.
• There’s a three-way race for the next Senate majority leader job. That is currently held by Chuck Schumer (D-NY), but with the Republicans taking the tiniest majority, it will shift over to either Rick Scott (R-FL), John Cornyn (R-TX), or John Thune (R-SD).
• I’d say you can count on the winner being the most egregious asshole… which is a tough choice among those three but Rick Scott seems likeliest.
• Especially now that he’s the choice of Elon Musk — though it will be interesting to see how quickly Trump gets irritated at Elon Musk being the guy who calls the shots and is really running the country.
• That will be a fascinating moment… the inevitable fallout between those two.
• In today’s edition of “Hey, You Have Rights!”, we’re going to look at a constitutional amendment that massively reshaped our country: the 19th Amendment.
• Allow me to show it to you…
• “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
• So yes, this was the amendment, introduced in Congress in 1878 but not passed until June 4, 1919, that stopped the country and its states from denying women the right to vote.
• When I was younger, it was described as “allowing” women the right to vote. You don’t fucking “allow” rights; you “allow” privileges.
• The right to vote in a supposedly free country is something women — and all citizens — should have had since day one.
• In case you ever wonder about the demographic that faces the most deep-seated and blatant discrimination in the USA, keep in mind that Black men got the right to vote in 1870… almost 50 years before women.
• Do you think all the states happily ratified the 19th Amendment? Oh hell no.
• Eight states rejected it outright. My favorite is Mississippi, which not only rejected a woman’s right to vote on March 29, 1920. They didn’t ratify the amendment until March 22, 1984.
• Yup!
• Just to name and shame the other misogynist asshole states, it was between 1969-1971 that Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina formally agreed that women have the right to vote.
• My main reason for the spotlight on the 19th: rights can be given, and rights can be taken away.
• There is a subset of the MAGA world that is actively trying to revoke the 19th Amendment and take away that rights of women to vote.
• Seem alarmist and extreme? A lot of you said I was overblowing the issue when I said for years that they were taking steps to revoke women’s health care and reproductive rights, and then they killed Roe v. Wade.
• Other countries that formerly had strong women’s rights changed quickly under dictatorial and theocratic rule. Iran used to have strong women’s rights. Look at them now.
• That could happen here.
• Moving on.
• I’m sure some of you are following along with news about Dump’s cabinet appointments. I’m sure we’ll talk about those people eventually, but I find I just don’t care enough for now to call them out.
• From what I’ve seen so far, it’s pretty much the opposite of a dream team. And keep in mind that nearly 100% of Dump’s cabinet from his first term wouldn’t even endorse him for this election cycle.
• And many have been labelled as enemies by Dump at this stage. Anyway, it’s all too flaky. No need to discuss for the time being.
• A couple of points about last week’s election.
• One: I am annoyed by the people who — in ways no better than the MAGA crowd — won’t accept the results of the election.
• If you have any actual evidence of wrongdoing, by all means, make it public.
• Otherwise, as I told the Republican election deniers from 2020, shut the fuck up.
• Two: there was chatter over the weekend about Biden resigning now, allowing Kamala Harris to become President during the transition time before Dump is sworn in on January 20.
• That is the worst fucking idea ever. First, it accomplishes nothing. Second, it tells the American people that the only way a woman could actually get the job is through the most pitiful circumstances imaginable.
• So shut the fuck up with that too.
• And now, The Weather: “Ya Ready” by Freak Slug
• From the Sports Desk… week 10 in the NFL season went without many surprises. Don’t get me wrong; there were some upsets, like New England (3-7) over Chicago (4-5).
• But frankly, with the exception of only a few teams, this whole season thus far has been notable only for its inconsistency among both teams and players, with the exception of the annoyingly good undefeated Chiefs (who are the new Patriots in that regard).
• Tonight on MNF, the Dolphins take on the Rams in LA. It’s a pretty even match; Rams are favored by -2.5.
• Today in history… Tycho Brahe observes the supernova SN 1572 (1572). The Mayflower Compact is signed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod (1620). Gottfried Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of ‘y = ƒ(x)’ (1675). The State of Washington is admitted as the 42nd state of the United States (1889). Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies (1918). Adolf Hitler is arrested in Munich for high treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch (1923). The United States Numbered Highway System is established (1926). NASA launches Gemini 12 (1966). Space Shuttle Columbia launches from the Kennedy Space Center on STS-5, the first operational mission of the Space Shuttle program (1982). 
• November 11 is the birthday of novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821), general George S. Patton (1885), author/activist Shirley Graham Du Bois (1896), lawyer/spy Alger Hiss (1904), novelist Kurt Vonnegut (1922), actor Jonathan Winters (1925), politician Barbara Boxer (1940), songwriter/guitarist Chris Dreja (1945), actor Vincent Schiavelli (1948), music producer Mutt Lange (1948), golfer Fuzzy Zoeller (1951), singer-songwriter/guitarist Marshall Crenshaw (1953), singer-songwriter/guitarist Andy Partridge (1953), singer-songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin (1955), actor Stanley Tucci (1960), actress Demi Moore (1962), actress Calista Flockhart (1964), actor Leonardo DiCaprio (1974), singer/pianist Jon Batiste (1986), and activist X González (1999).

That’s enough for now. I do have a busy work week ahead, but that’s because I’m good at what I do and people want to work with me, and I’ll never complain about that. I will say, it does make you appreciate the rare moments in which one is not actually working, which is less and less common for me in recent times. Enjoy your day.