Random News: December 1, 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 December 1, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I’ve just crawled out of bed and am now — in a blue bathrobe and with a large cup of coffee — taking a look around to see what’s going on.

• Rabbit rabbit rabbit.
• We’re in the final month of 2024. But why is it called December?
• December's name derives from the Latin word decem (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the calendar of Romulus which began in March.
• There are plenty of holidays and celebrations that happen in this month around the world. If you’re a person of social conscience, it is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month in the USA.
• If you’re a person who buys into bullshit marketing, it’s also National Egg Nog Month, National Fruit Cake Month, and National Pear Month.
• I will say that pears are underrated. See how it works, though? I already made a mental note to buy some pears when I shop this week.
• I suppose we should do some news, even when it’s eye roll-inspiring stupid news.
• Dump has nominated Kashyap "Kash" Patel to be the next FBI director. As has been consistent with Dumpy’s other picks for cabinet members and government posts, he’s a horrible human being.
• Patel previously served as a U.S. National Security Council official, senior advisor to the acting Director of National Intelligence, and chief of staff to the acting United States secretary of defense during the first Dump administration.
• Like all of Dump’s picks, Patel has for years been a loyalist, doing whatever Dump wants regardless of legality.
• Their close bond would depart from the modern-day precedent of FBI directors looking to keep presidents at arm’s length.
• Here’s a quote that tells you all you need to know about this piece of shit.
• “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.”
• He’s the perfect guy to enact the anti-American agenda of retaliating against Dump’s perceived enemies, be they politicians, journalists, scientists, or just regular citizens like you and me who are critics of Dump and his policies.
• And paired with AG pick Pam Bondi, it’s a dream team for an authoritarian regime. And please, I don’t want to see anyone shocked by what transpires once they’re in office. I will get no joy from any “I told you so” posts down the road.
• Enough on that.
• One more note on a Dump appointment. This one is for real estate developer, pardoned felon, and family connection Charles Kushner as US ambassador to France.
• France reacted to the news with scorn, which is appropriate.
• Kushner, the father of Dump’s son-in-law Jared, was a big donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign.  He was pardoned by Dump after he was convicted on multiple counts of tax evasion, campaign finance violations and witness tampering, for which he spent time in jail. He was released in 2006. 
• He doesn’t even seem to speak French. I’m serious. that might tell you how much of a joke the “ambassador” appointment is.
• Is Kushner a nice guy? Well, at one point he hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife.
• These are the kinds of people Donnie Dump admires. No surprise.
• Okay, let’s move on from that shit.
• I’ve been reading up on the Dump administration’s plan to put an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine. I’m actually trying to keep an open mind on this.
• But for now, it’s hard to separate rumor from reality. 
• Dump has appointed Keith Kellogg, his 80-year-old former national security advisor, as his special envoy to Ukraine, and has chosen a very specific, pre-announced plan.
• The plan In short: a ceasefire will freeze the frontlines and both sides will be forced to the negotiating table. But the longer details get complex.
• What is unknown, among many things, is whether Russia will keep the parts of Ukraine that they’ve taken by force. That would obviously be an unacceptable solution.
• For agreeing to a ceasefire and the establishment of a demilitarized zone, Russia would get limited sanctions relief, and full relief only when a peace deal is signed that is to Ukraine’s liking.
• A levy on Russian energy exports would pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Ukraine would not be asked to give up on reclaiming occupied territory, but it would agree to pursue it through diplomacy alone.
• This plan makes a lot of assumptions about what Putin is actually willing to accept. And a DMZ would need to be policed, possibly putting NATO troops, or soldiers from other non-aligned nations, in between the two sides.
• So all that is very difficult to enact successfully, but as I said, I’m trying to keep myself from naysaying the plan for now.
• And now, The Weather: “Autodog” by Bistro Plate
• From the Non-Sports Desk… shit got really ugly after a brawl between Michigan and Ohio State players broke out yesterday afternoon, moments after the unranked Wolverines stunned the No. 2 Buckeyes in Columbus, OH.
• Players from the Wolverines planted a Michigan flag at midfield and were accosted by Buckeyes players, who took issue with the gesture following their 13-10 loss. Players began shoving, swinging at, tackling and restraining one another.
• And that’s when the cops decided it was a good idea to start pepper-spraying everyone. Videos showed Michigan players crouching and squinting their eyes. Players from both teams were affected.
• Way to go, cops.
• From the actual Sports Desk… not many consequential games in the NFL today. Maybe see an eye on Philadelphia (9-2) at Baltimore (8-4), with both teams in contention for the playoffs.
• The Ravens are favored by less than a field goal at -2.5.
• Today in history… A council is convened in the Vatican, at which Charlemagne — my 39th great grandfather — is to judge the accusations against Pope Leo III (800). Diarist John Evelyn records skating on the frozen lake in St James's Park, London, watched by Charles II and Queen Catherine (1662). Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the 1824 presidential election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1824). In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation (1862). President Rutherford B. Hayes gets the first telephone installed in the White House (1878). Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom (1918). Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom (1919). The National Hockey League's first United States-based franchise, the Boston Bruins, plays their first game in league play at home (1924). The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sex reassignment surgery (1952). In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws (1955). World AIDS Day is proclaimed worldwide by the UN member states (1988). Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet beneath the seabed (1990). Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union (1991). The outbreak of coronavirus infection begins in Wuhan, China (2019).
• December 1 is the birthday of sculptor Marie Tussaud (1761), general/politician Zhu De (1886), general/politician Georgy Zhukov (1896), actress/singer Mary Martin (1913), nun/activist Mother Antonia (1926), actor David Doyle (1929), saxophonist Jimmy Lyons (1931), singer-songwriter Lou Rawls (1933), golfer Lee Trevino (1939),  comedian/actor/screenwriter Richard Pryor (1940), drummer/songwriter John Densmore (1944), singer-songwriter/actress Bette Midler (1945), drug lord/terrorist Pablo Escobar (1949), bassist/songwriter Jaco Pastorius (1951), actor Treat Williams (1951), singer-songwriter Julee Cruise (1956), model Carol Alt (1960), guitarist Brad Delson (1977), singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe (1985), NFL player DeSean Jackson (1986), actress Zoë Kravitz (1988), and NBA player Gary Payton II (1992).

Time to get out of this robe and into the shower. Enjoy your day.