Random News: December 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.

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Good morning. It’s December 19, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I had a night chock full of unsettling dreams, so now I’m here drinking coffee and trying to shake that weirdness and face the day. Let’s do some news.

• Dump hasn’t even taken office yet, and you’re already about to get fucked by him for the first of likely many times in his upcoming second term.
• Yesterday, Dumpy abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown. Instead, he ordered House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans to renegotiate — two days before federal funding runs out.
• The 1,500-page spending bill included $100.4 billion in disaster relief, economic assistance for struggling farmers, and funding to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.
• It was put together by Republicans and Democrats. Now, because of Dump’s meddling, it’s unlikely they’ll meet the deadline to keep the government open… Friday, December 20.
• Yes, tomorrow.
• Let’s look at this realistically, something Dump is incapable of doing. Congress last suspended the debt limit to January 2025 as part of a package negotiated by then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
• And even though the bill was signed into law, some House Republicans said it didn’t go far enough, and it ended up costing McCarthy his job when eight Republicans sided with Democrats to oust him.
• It took months for McCarthy to negotiate the last deal. Now Trump is looking for Johnson to pass a debt ceiling extension less than 48 hours before a partial government shutdown.
• A government shutdown for Christmas. Thanks Dump.
• Last night, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that “House Republicans will now own any harm that is visited on the American people that results from a government shutdown, or worse. An agreement is an agreement,” Jeffries concluded. “It was bipartisan, and there’s nothing more to say.”
• How did this all transpire so quickly?
• Elon Musk tweeted his displeasure about the bill. Someone told Dumpy about Elon’s feelings. So Dumpy jumped in to help his boss and owner.
• Musk — the actual President — has demanded that no bills get passed until Dump takes office. Remember people, this is an unelected immigrant who is now dictating US policy.
• That’s how an oligarchy works, kids. The extremely wealthy control the lawmakers who control you.
• And that’s what the MAGA voters wanted, apparently, even though they’re about to be screwed harder than anyone.
• I suppose I should mention that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) just floated the idea of replacing Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House with… Elon Musk.
• I’m serious.
• Let’s move on with some breaking news.
• This morning, a Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the case against Dump and his co-conspirators over charges of 2020 election subversion.
• It’s unknown whether the case can still move forward in court. The appeals court found that Willis’ office can’t prosecute the case, so a new special prosecutor would need to be appointed for the case to continue.
• At least they didn’t dismiss the sprawling racketeering conspiracy case entirely, but as I’ve said many times, this guy will never face justice for his crimes.
• If it doesn’t make you angry, I don’t know what to tell you.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court said it would take up TikTok's appeal challenging a federal law that could ban the popular social media app by next month.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit already upheld the law, finding that the government’s national security justifications, including concerns that the Chinese government could access data about American users and potentially manipulate content on the app, were legitimate.
• The SCOTUS acted pretty speedily, huh? The court agreed to hear the case just a day after TikTok filed its appeal. They’ll hear oral arguments on January 10 before issuing a decision on whether to put the law on hold, which is set to go into effect January 19.
• As you know, the bipartisan measure passed by Congress to ban the platform would go into effect the day before Dump takes office.
• And of course, there is some Dump fuckery going on here. After trying to ban TikTok in his first term and speaking out against their Chinese owners during the election, Dump has changed his tune.
• On Monday of this week, Dumpy said he had "warm spot" in his heart for the platform and met with the company's CEO. Snort.
• Grifters gonna grift, ya know
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Federal Reserve reduced interest rates by a quarter percentage point and scaled back the number of cuts it expects to make next year.
• It’s their third consecutive rate cut of 2024 despite signs that inflation isn’t entirely going away.The consensus among Fed officials is for two rate cuts next year, down from four previously forecast in September.
• I’m sure this means something important to someone. I know the stock market took a hit after the news was announced yesterday,
• In other news…
• We have three back-to-back stories of sex offenses in various forms coming up, if you would prefer to skip down some 20 bullets.
• Just so you’re aware.
• Starting with a serial child molester and retired Roman Catholic priest who yesterday declined an opportunity to apologize to his victims after pleading guilty to child rape earlier this month.
• Lawrence Hecker remained silent in New Orleans’s state criminal courthouse as a judge handed him a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
• The victim who pressed the case and was 16 when sexually assaulted by the priest, leading to Hecker’s guilty plea, described his rape in gut-wrenching detail.
• Hecker’s superiors protected him from law enforcement authorities for decades. The victim added: “In my opinion, the archdiocese should be sitting there with him – because they are complicit in this as well.”
• Next up is the case of Dominique Pelicot of France, who drugged and raped his former wife Gisèle along with 50 other men. Today, they were all found guilty of rape or sexual assault.
• Pelicot, 72, received the maximum sentence of 20 years for aggravated rape. Forty-eight other men on trial were found guilty of aggravated rape, with two guilty of sexual assault.
• The only positive part of the shocking trial — which has pushed the country to examine a culture struggling with pervasive misogyny and systemic sexual assault — is that it galvanized women to demand a change in the way it approaches gender-based violence.
• Third up is part of our ongoing discussion about AI-based deepfake photos and videos.
• A classmate of 15-year-old Elliston Berry of Texas grabbed a picture from Elliston's Instagram, ran it through an artificial intelligence program that appeared to remove her dress, and then sent around the digitally altered image on Snapchat.
• Last year, there were more than 21,000 deepfake pornographic videos online — up more than 460% over the year prior. The manipulated content is proliferating on the internet as websites make disturbing pitches — like one service that asks, "Have someone to undress?"
• The good news: the San Francisco City Attorney's office is now suing the owners of 16 websites that create "deepfake nudes," where artificial intelligence is used to turn non-explicit photos of adults and children into pornography.
• These 16 sites had 200 million visits in just the first six months of the year.
• This needs to be addressed at a national level. That’s why Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Amy Klochubar (D-MN) are co-sponsoring the Take It Down Act, which would require social media companies and websites to remove non-consensual, pornographic images created with AI.
• The bill passed the Senate this month and is now attached to… a larger government funding bill.
• Yes, the one that Dump and his boss Elon just killed. Sorry folks. Those guys don’t give a shit about your daughter’s photo being turned into jackoff material for perverted scum.
• Okay, let’s move on.
• And now, some Nature News.
• Squirrels are now carnivorous. I’m serious.
• A new research study has found unprecedented evidence of squirrels exhibiting carnivorous behaviors, including hunting, killing, and eating voles.
• Published yesterday in the Journal of Ethology, the project examines how California ground squirrels — native to the state’s grasslands — adapt their behavior in response to environmental changes… in this case an increase in the local vole population.
• California ground squirrels have always been considered herbivores or granivores, eating mostly plants and seeds. The new findings offer the first documentation of the species actively preying on other live vertebrates — underscoring its ability to respond to changes in the ecosystem.
• No one likes to think about bloodthirsty squirrels, but dietary changes are quite normal for animals. The new findings may also help set the stage for future research on the adaptability of different squirrel species and other mammals in the face of environmental changes.
• What, you want more Nature News? Sure, why not?
• The USA has a national flower — the rose. We have a national tree… it’s the oak. The bison is our national mammal. But what is our national bird? It’s the bald eagle, right?
• It’s gotta be. It’s been plastered across currency, documents, flags, stamps, government buildings, military uniforms, and more for a long time.
• Ummmm… no. We don’t have a national bird.
• On Monday, the House of Representatives passed a bill amending the U.S. Code to officially designate the bald eagle (aka Haliaeetus leucocephalus) as the country's national bird.
• It just needs President Biden's signature to become the law of the land.
• That’s what they’re doing while not passing a budget to help disaster victims? Fucking Elon.
• Anyway, an estimated 316,700 bald eagles populate the lower 48 states. That number has quadrupled since its last data set a decade earlier.
• By 1963, there were a record-low 417 nesting pairs in the lower 48, but federal protections saved the species from near-extinction.
• How? By banning DDT in 1972. We were poisoning the fucking bald eagles. That’s why we need a strong and powerful EPA.
• And there’s your Nature News.
• And now, The Weather: “Formspring” by Renny Conti
• From the Sports Desk… here’s who’s currently leading each division of the National Hockey League.
• Atlantic: Maple Leafs (20-10-2), Panthers (20-11-2), Bruins (17-13-3).
• Metropolitan: Devils (21-20-3), Capitals (21-8-2), Hurricanes (20-10-1).
• Central: Jets (23-10-1), Wild (20-8-4), Stars (19-12-0).
• Pacific: Golden Knights (20-8-3), Kings (18-9-4), Oilers (18-11-2).
• Today in history… Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey (1154). The ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery depart England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, VI, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States (1606). George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, PA (1777). Fascist John Amery is executed at the age of 33 by the British Government for treason (1945). The last crewed lunar flight, Apollo 17, carrying Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth (1972). The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1983). President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached (1998). Park Geun-hye is elected the first female president of South Korea (2012). 
• December 19 is the birthday of astronomer John Winthrop (1714), activist Mary Livermore (1820), businessman Henry Clay Frick (1849), physicist Albert Abraham Michelson (1852), historian Carter G. Woodson (1875), sportswriter/MLB commissioner Ford Frick (1894), pastor Martin Luther King Sr. (1899), actor Ralph Richardson (1902), politician Leonid Brezhnev (1906), singer Édith Piaf (1915), producer/talk show host David Susskind (1920), actress Cicely Tyson (1924), MLB player Al Kaline (1934), singer-songwriter/guitarist Phil Ochs (1940), singer-songwriter Maurice White (1941), actor Tim Reid (1944), actor Robert Urich (1946), computer scientist/businesswoman Orna Berry (1949), drummer Lenny White (1949), NBA player/coach Kevin McHale (1957), NFL player Reggie White (1961), actress Jennifer Beals (1963), NBA player Arvydas Sabonis (1964), TV host/journalist Richard Hammond (1969), NFL player Warren Sapp (1972), actress Alyssa Milano (1972), NFL player Jake Plummer (1974), actor Jake Gyllenhaal (1980), activist/journalist Ronan Farrow (1987), and singer-songwriter King Princess (1998).

So, a lot of that is horrible news… but here we are. Most of us are capable of resisting the fall of the world into chaos despite everything happening around us. Always remember… the fascist assholes need us a lot more than we need them. Enjoy your day.