Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Random News: November 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.



Good morning. It’s November 19, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. I’m trying to make my brain work but it’s not full cooperating with my efforts this morning, so this may be a short batch of news.


  • The House Ethics Committee is under continued pressure to release its report on attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz.
  • Speaker Mike Johnson has said the report should remain under wraps. I’ll bet he does. Prominent Democrats are calling for its release. The committee is set to meet on Wednesday. 
  • I can tell you one tidbit. Two women interviewed by the House Ethics Committee about Gaetz testified that Gaetz paid them directly and repeatedly in Venmo transactions "for sex," and that those transactions were obtained by the committee.
  • Their attorney, Joel Leppard, also said the women testified that Gaetz inquired in text messages about "party favors" and "vitamins" at upcoming parties, which was understood to be code for drugs.
  • One of the women testified before the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl against a game table at a July 2017 party. All of the events the women allege took place while he was a member of the House. 
  • Meanwhile, numerous Republican lawmakers told Dumpy and his team that they believe Gaetz has little chance of being confirmed.
  • That message was been delivered to Dumpy himself, his future White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and to Gaetz’s little buddy, Vice President-elect JD Vance.
  • We’ll see if it sinks in.
  • The dilemma, if you’re a GOP Senator is easy to see. Opposing Gaetz raises the ire of Dump and could easily cause a MAGA primary challenge if there up for reelection in 2026.
  • But backing Gaetz means kissing their seats goodbye in a general election.
  • Sucks to be them, I guess.
  • How does grown-ass man (and the guy controlling Dumpy via his cash) Elon Musk feel about it? He issued a statement.
  • “He is the Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison. Gaetz will be our Hammer of Justice.”
  • No comment from me needed.
  • Moving on.
  • Dumpy said yesterday that he’s naming former reality TV star and former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy as his nominee for transportation secretary. Duffy left Congress in 2019, and is now the co-host of "The Bottom Line" on Fox Business.
  • In his announcement, Dumples the Clown noted that Duffy is married to a Fox News host, calling him "the husband of a wonderful woman, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a STAR on Fox News."
  • What other qualifications does Duffy have to serve in the job that Pete Buttigieg currently holds? He is a former lumberjack athlete and was featured on MTV's "The Real World: Boston" in 1997. He met his wife on the set of MTV's "Road Rules: All Stars" in 1998.
  • Welp, there you have it. If you voted for Dumpy, you’re going to get everything that comes along with that.
  • Moving over to the International News Desk for a follow-up on a story I recently mentioned.
  • Ukraine has fired US-made ATACMS missiles into Russia’s Bryansk region in a major escalation on the 1,000th day of war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
  • The attack comes just two days after the Biden administration gave Kyiv the green light to use the longer-range American weapons against targets inside Russia.
  • I mean, why wait?
  • Just a few hours ago, Ukraine fired six of the ballistic missiles at a facility in Bryansk.
  • Maybe Russia shouldn’t have invaded another sovereign country. Just a thought.
  • Back in the USA…
  • Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is living up to the MAGA creed of bullying people who aren’t like her. Yesterday she said that she will be introducing a measure to ban transgender women from using biological women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol.
  • Why does this matter, other than on general principle of being a shitty person? Her announcement comes as Rep.-elect Sarah McBride prepares to take office as the first transgender person elected to Congress.
  • The resolution would amend the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives in order to prohibit members, officers and employees from using facilities that are currently designated for the opposite biological sex.
  • I was about to call Mace a nasty word, but I guess it’s implied.
  • McBride implored kindness, posting: “Every day Americans go to work with people who have life journeys different than their own and engage with them respectfully, I hope members of Congress can muster that same kindness.”
  • Let’s move on with some breaking news.
  • House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) won reelection this morning as the Democratic leader, receiving support from his colleagues despite the party’s inability to win back majority control of the chamber in the November election.
  • Most of the current Democratic leadership team is expected to be reelected for the new Congress. I’m cool with that.
  • In line to become the House speaker if the Dems ever manage to win an election again and gain a House majority, Jeffries remains the highest ranking Black elected official in Congress, and the first to hold the job of party leader.
  • In other news…
  • Here are the industries that will be hit hardest by Dump’s plan for mass deportations… those with the largest share of workers who are undocumented.
  • Construction (13.7%), agriculture (12.7%), hospitality (7.1%), general services (6.5%), wholesale trade (5.5%), transportation and warehousing (5.5%), manufacturing (5.4%), professional services (4.7%), retail trade (3.9%), and mining and extraction (3.6).
  • Most of you don’t understand how immigrants improve the quality of people’s lives in the USA, but you’ll probably see soon enough.
  • In other news…
  • Yesterday, a Georgia appeals court canceled oral arguments that were scheduled for next month on the appeal of a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against Dump.
  • Dumpy had asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to hold oral arguments in the case, and the court had set those arguments for December 5. But in a one-line order with no further explanation, the appeals court said that hearing “is hereby canceled until further order of this Court.”
  • Interesting. But again, you should assume that no legal actions will progress against Dump while he’s president, and that he’ll never face any punishment for his many serious crimes.
  • Moving on.
  • And now, The Weather: “light rail” by frans asthma
  • From the Sports Desk… last night on Monday Night Football, the Houston Texans (7-4) beat the shit out of the Dallas Cowboys (3-7), 34-10.
  • The Texans are for real.
  • Today in history… Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island he first saw the day before, and he names it San Juan Bautista, later renamed Puerto Rico (1493). U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony for the military cemetery at Gettysburg, PA (1863). Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures (1916). Nazis murder at least 6,000 Jews at Janowska concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv), western Ukraine (1943). Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations (1946). Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon (1969). Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran (1979). U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time (1985). The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton (1998). The worst brawl in NBA history — the “Malice at the Palace” — results in several players being suspended (2004).
  • November 19 is the birthday of king Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1600), US president James A. Garfield (1831), bandleader Tommy Dorsey (1905), Indian politician Indira Gandhi (1917), actress Gene Tierney (1920), MLB player Roy Campanella (1921), talk show host Larry King (1933), engineer/businessman Jack Welch (1935), talk show host Dick Cavett (1936), businessman Ted Turner (1938), actor Dan Haggerty (1941), fashion designer Calvin Klein (1942), actor Robert Beltran (1953), journalist Ann Curry (1956), actress Alison Janney (1959), actress Meg Ryan (1961), actress Jodie Foster (1962), actress Terry Farrell (1963), motorcycle rider Jeremy McGrath (1971), businessman Jack Dorsey (1976), gymnast Kerri Strug (1977), actor Adam Driver (1983), and NFL player Fred Warner (1996).


That was more than I thought I’d get through. Oh, I got my hair cut yesterday. Very happy with my new barber. So that’s something good. Enjoy your day.

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