Random News: December 15, 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 December 15, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I just got up, put only robe, made my coffee, and now here we are, together once again. 

• Opening with a couple of non-news notes.
• Spent a portion of yesterday working on my annual “best-of” list for new music that was released in 2024.
• “Best” is a ridiculous description of any art form, especially one as nebulous and subjective as music. My list will include a ton of music you’ve never heard of, and most of it is in the indie rock/indie pop, shoegaze, experimental/art rcck, and dream pop/bedroom pop genres that you may find horrible to your tastes.
• Which is how I perceive most pop music that many of you enjoy.
• Anyway, I’ll likely wrap up this year’s list later today. It’s fun to do. You know how I include my “weather report” of a song recommendation every single day in these news bullets?
• Well, that’s the challenging process… boiling down those 365 song recommendations into 24 of the best, and then doing a shot blurb on each with a song sample included. There are another 40+ listed in the honorable mention area as well.
• Anyway, I’ll post that when it’s done. Let’s get to the news.
• Looks like there might be at least a little resistance to some of the things Dump and his minions are planning to do to destroy ur country and its people.
• Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said any of Dump’s nominees seeking confirmation should “steer clear” of efforts to discredit the polio vaccine.
• His statement was directed at Dump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after a report that one of his advisors filed a petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine in 2022.
• And while I’m sure most of Dump’s nominees will be confirmed by these spineless toads, it was a sign that Kennedy, who has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism, could face at least some resistance in the soon-to-be GOP-controlled Senate.
• Mitch the Turtle said on Friday, “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous. Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.”
• Allow me to be very clear here: vaccines are considered among the most effective public health measures in history. They’ve been proven to be safe and effective in real-world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades.
• Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or crazy, or both.
• Moving on.
• I think TikTok might be toast… at least for now under its current ownership.
• On Friday, the federal appeals court that last week rejected TikTok's attempt to overthrow its pending ban denied the company's request that sought to pause the ruling and the January 19 deadline for a sale.
• The case would have to go to the Supreme Court if TikTok chooses to appeal, which could delay the deadline.
• What happens if and when TikTok is banned is unclear. There may be a set of delays and proposed new measures. It’s unlikely that the app will suddenly disappear from your phone.
• But the law would penalize internet service providers and app store companies like Apple and Google for distributing or updating TikTok on app stores. Apps — especially those with massive user bases like TikTok — require near-constant updates for compatibility and functionality.
• So TikTok would probably degrade quickly, becoming unusable. Again, U.S. lawmakers have now confirmed that Apple and Google must be ready to remove TikTok from their U.S. app stores on January 19.
• What are my feelings on it? I really don’t have any because I have no possible way of know if we’re being lied to regarding TikTok’s alleged security concerns.
• I’m also not a user of the app, or I’d probably have a stronger opinion. I’m also on the old side compared to most users of the app, which is most popular among the Gen Z demographic.
• But I should also note that around seven million small and medium-sized businesses use the platform to generate revenue and grow their brands.
• In 2023, the platform supported $24.2 billion in the U.S. GDP, including $15 billion in revenue generated by small businesses through organic reach and TikTok's paid advertising. TikTok has also facilitated 224,000 American jobs and contributed $5.3 billion in taxes.
• Is a sizable portion of that TikTok money made via sex-related work? Probably, but sex work is work. I cast no moral judgements on what people do to earn a living.
• Let’s move on.
• A fucking tornado touched down in the Northern California town of Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz yesterday afternoon, flipping cars and knocking down power lines. Several people were hurt. 
• We don’t have tornados in California… except now, apparently, we do. Thanks climate change.
• Here’s how unexpected it was: cops posted an alert on social media advising residents to avoid the area following a multi-vehicle accident that had multiple power lines down and completely blocked the road in all directions.
• Because they had no context or any frame of reference at all to explain why several cars had been thrown off the road and about 20 vehicles damaged in total.
• Because that shit doesn’t happen in our state. Until it does.
• In other news…
• ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Dumpy’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
• The network will also pay $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito.
• What a bunch of weak-ass pussies. 
• What happened was during a live interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Stephanopoulos claimed that Dump had been “found liable for rape” and “defaming the victim of that rape.”
• What’s the problem with that?
• Dump was found liable last year of sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll… but not specifically “raping” her under New York’s legal definitions of that term.
• So he’s not a rapist in that case… merely a sexual assaulter. Got it.
• Side note: ABC’s contribution will likely cover just a fraction of the cost of Dumpy’s supposed library, if it ever opens. Barack Obama’s library in Chicago, for example, was estimated to cost $830 million.
• Let’s move on.
• Following up on yesterday’s news, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement surgery in Germany after sustaining an injury during a congressional trip to Luxembourg.
• After taking fall on marble steps, the 84-year-old was taken by MEDEVAC to Landstuhl, Germany, where she was treated by U.S. military staff.
• It was reported she’s working and will be fine. I hope so.
• Moving on.
• I just had a random thought, probably inspired by the shooting of the insurance company CEO.
• You always hear about the potential for your job to be replaced by AI. But you know what job could be done well with an AI, like, today? CEO.
• We’re told that CEOs have the responsibility of doing what’s most profitable for their respective companies, with little thought given to ethics or morality or the effect on the public.
• Well, with CEO salaries and bonuses in the multiple millions, what could be a better cost-saving (and profit increasing) measure than to replace them with computers who can make better decisions based on pure data and business history and the like?
• What, you don’t like that? How could it be any worse than the current system?
• And now, The Weather: “this december” by charms
• From the Sports Desk… I don’t cover college sports here, but I will mention that this year’s Heisman Trophy winner seems pretty spectacular. 
• Travis Hunter of Colorado is a rarity these days… a true two-way player who excelled on both sides of the ball as both a big-play wide receiver and a lockdown cornerback.
• Hunter joins the late running back Rashaan Salaam in 1994 as the only Heisman winners in Colorado University’s history.
• What school has the most Heisman winners since the award was established in 1935? It’s USC by far. The Trojans have had eight players hoist the sport's most coveted individual award, most recently with Caleb Williams in 2022.
• Today in history… British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia (1778). The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly (1791). The U.S. Patent Office building in Washington, D.C., nearly burns to the ground, destroying all 9,957 patents issued by the federal government to that date, as well as 7,000 related patent models (1836). The Battle of Nashville begins at Nashville, Tennessee, and ends the following day with the destruction of the Confederate Army of Tennessee as a fighting force by the Union Army of the Cumberland (1864). Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890). The "New World Symphony" by Antonín Dvořák premieres in a public afternoon rehearsal at Carnegie Hall in New York City (1893). Gone with the Wind — the highest inflation adjusted grossing film — receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia (1939). German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobytsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine (1941). Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida and achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7 (1965). Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus, the first successful soft landing on another planet (1970). The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1973). U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, aka Taiwan (1978). 
• December 15 is the birthday of Roman emperor Nero (37), architect/engineer Gustave Eiffel (1832), businessman/art collector J. Paul Getty (1892), author Betty Smith (1896), sprinter Harold Abrahams (1899), architect Oscar Niemeyer (1907), librarian Eliza Atkins Gleason (1909), pianist Stan Kenton (1911), farmer Max Yasgur (1919), radio DJ Alan Freed (1921), comedian Tim Conway (1933), MLB player/manager Jim Leyland (1944), drummer Carmine Appice (1946), actor Don Johnson (1949), bass player Paul Simonon (1955), MLB player Mo Vaughn (1967), actor Garrett Wang (1968), and NFL player Rodney Harrison (1972).

I have a few things going on today, some fun and some less so. But one of those things is our annual sojourn to get our Christmas tree, usually a fun event that my son enjoys a lot, and often with me complaining about both the selection and price of the damn trees. Enjoy your day.