Random News: December 22, 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 22, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I have a live music show to do in a little while, and that requires a quick breakfast and time to warm up, so I’ll keep this short.

• We should note that while the spending bill did pass late on Friday and Biden signed it into law immediately thereafter, there were certainly some compromises — on both sides — to get it through.
• President Elon Musk and his trusted sidekick Dumples the Clown forced the House to defeat the original bipartisan bill, arguing it included government waste.
• The second version was laughable and failed badly. but the third pass succeeded on Friday. The big change? Speaker Mike Johnson dropped a demand from Musk and Dump to suspend the debt ceiling for two years. The Senate passed the bill hours later.
• Despite Dump’s request being denied, President Musk claimed he was pleased with the bill, writing, “The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances. It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces.”
• But Brian Riedl of the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute pointed out that the revised legislation doesn’t save taxpayers any money, despite the shorter page count.
• Pffft.
• Both the original measure and the one that passed kept the government operating until mid-March and devoted about $110 billion in aid to victims of natural disasters and farmers.
• Two items they pretended to pull out of the bill — funds for pediatric cancer research and the transfer of RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., to the District government — were later passed separately.
• See how it works?
• And yes, there were six other items cut completely for now.
• One was about replenishing food stamp funds for Americans whose benefits are stolen. Another was about changes to the operations of pharmacy benefit managers. Okay.
• A third was about pay raises for members of Congress. Read the room, folks. They currently make $174,00 per year, is lets not cry for them.
• The fourth item cut aimed to crack down on junk fees, requiring ticket sellers and hotels to disclose any service charges and other add-ons up front to customers.
• The fifth cut does piss me off. It was to have been the bipartisan provision that would have criminalized the publication of nonconsensual, intimate images, known as revenge porn, as well as sexual images and videos generated by artificial intelligence, called deepfakes.
• Why do Musk and Dump want that to remain legal?
• Finally, they nixed a measure restricting U.S. investments in China, expanding existing rules currently being implemented by the Treasury Department. Whatever.
• Let’s move on.
• Donnie Dump seems to think the USA is going to take over the Panama Canal by force.
• No, I’m serious.
• Yesterday Dump threatened that the U.S. would reassume control of the Panama Canal if it felt that Panama wasn’t honoring the terms of a 1977 treaty regarding the waterway’s legal status.
• In two lengthy social posts last night, Dump accused Panama of charging U.S. vessels exorbitant rates to pass through the critical waterway. He also claimed that the treaties enabling Panama to take control of the canal in the first place also allow for the U.S. to take it back.
• That is not true, but the truth never stopped Dumpy from doing anything.
• Control of the canal was transferred from the U.S. to the Central American country in 1999 as a result of a 1979 treaty under President Jimmy Carter.
• It is unclear what spurred Dump’s threat about the canal. While China has increased its presence in Latin America over the last two decades — and a Hong Kong-based company administers the two ports on each end of the canal — no Chinese commercial or government entity actually has any direct role in managing the flow of vessels through the critical waterway.
• Whatever. Let’s move on.
• Some guy drove his truck through a mall in Killeen, TX last night, striking several people and injuring at least five before being shot and killed by law enforcement. 
• He was a suspected drunk driver who was being pursued. The truck then drove through the front glass doors of a JCPenny and continued inside, striking several people. The people injured ranged in age from 6 to 75.
• This is one reason I avoid malls… especially during the holidays.
• Moving on.
• New York’s top cop is out of a job.
• Jeffrey Maddrey, the department's highest-ranking uniformed officer, resigned last night after a bombshell allegation of sexual misconduct on the job. The former chief of department is accused of trading sexual favors for overtime.
• What an asshole.
• Lt. Quathisha Epps filed a complaint yesterday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying the abuse started last year and continued up until this week.
• Epps alleges that between June 2023 and Monday Maddrey engaged in efforts "to coerce her into performing unwanted sexual favors in exchange for overtime opportunities."
• Is that how you want your wife to be treated by her boss at work? This shit has to end.
• In somewhat related news…
• Actress Blake Lively has accused her “It Ends With Us” costar and director Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation in a civil rights complaint.
• Filed Friday with the California Civil Rights Department on Friday, Lively claims that during filming of the movie, she raised concerns about “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior by Mr. Baldoni.”
• Lively’s husband is actor and producer Ryan Reynolds. I wish he’d gone Deadpool on their asses.
• The complaint also includes screen captures of text messages and correspondence, obtained by Lively’s legal team in discovery, that show orchestrated attempts on the part of Baldoni’s PR representatives to hurt her reputation in the media as part of a social manipulation campaign.
• That all sounds horrible.
• And now, The Weather: “Dusty Eyes” by Mondaze
• A very sad rest in peace going out to legendary baseball hall of famer Rickey Henderson, who died Friday at 65.
• The greatest leadoff hitting MLB history, Henderson holds the MLB record for most runs scored with 2,295. He also finished with 297 home runs and 1,115 RBI.
• But his unbreakable record is that for 1,406 stolen bases. How unbeatable is this record? Second place of all time is Lou Brock with 938.
• From the Sports Desk… a couple of NFL games were played yesterday. Nothing shocking happened.
• The Chiefs (14-1) beat the Texans (9-6) 27-19. The Ravens (10-5) beat the Steelers (10-5) 34-17.
• Today in history… Three weeks after the death of King Henry I of England, Stephen of Blois claims the throne and is privately crowned King of England, beginning the English Anarchy (1135). The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson (1807). Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy (1808). Savannah, GA, falls to the Union's Army of the Tennessee (1864). Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography (1891). The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York City (1937). German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: “Nuts!" (1944). The first test flight of the SR-71 Blackbird takes place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, CA (1964). Gerald Ford creates the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to the 1970s energy crisis (1975). Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany (1989). Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63 (2001). The repeal of the Don't ask, don't tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama (2010). The 2018–2019 United States federal government shutdown, the longest shutdown of the U.S. federal government in history, begins (2018).
• December 22 is the birthday of playwright Jean Racine (1639), composer Carl Friedrich Abel (1723), politician Frank B. Kellogg (1856), composer Giacomo Puccini (1858), composer Edgard Varèse (1883), chemist St. Elmo Brady (1894), first lady Lady Bird Johnson (1912), actress Barbara Billingsley (1915), actor Héctor Elizondo (1936), journalist Diane Sawyer (1945), MLB player Steve Garvey (1948), guitarist/songwriter Rick Nielsen (1948), singer-songwriter Maurice Gibb (1949), singer-songwriter Robin Gibb (1949), NFL player Ray Guy (1949), guitarist/songwriter Frank Gambale (1958), painter/poet Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960), actor Ralph Fiennes (1962), rapper DaBaby (1991), and singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor (1993).

Alright. Gotta eat breakfast and get my guitar hands and voice working. Second Life people, come see me at Lutz City of Templemore at 11am SLT! Enjoy your day.