Random News: December 24, 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 24, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s also Christmas Eve, and by scheduling that I don’t claim to understand, tomorrow is also the start of Hanukkah. So it’s a big “day before” for a bunch people on this little planet of ours. Hopefully you’re ready to enjoy the holidays no matter how you celebrate.

• As I mentioned, it’s Christmas Eve and Hanukkah Eve (which I’m going to pretend is a thing). As an atheist with Jewish ethnicity who’s celebrated Christmas his entire life, I’m fine with however you want to enjoy this special time year.
• I’ve received a lot of great Christmas gifts over the past 55 years, but I do know the one that had me so excited that I could not sleep at all the night before.
• It was Christmas Eve in December 1982, and I was in 8th grade. And I was, seemingly, the only person in the world without my own video game console. Most of my friends seemed mohave then already.
• My wishes came true the next morning, with a large box containing my Atari 2600 system under the tree.
• My absolute favorite game cartridge? Adventure, of course. I played that shit so much that right now, 42 years later, I could go through every castle maze without a pause.
• Let’s do a little news.
• President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of nearly every prisoner on the federal government's death row. This maneuver, which is the right thing to do from a purely ethical standpoint, is also designed to hinder Dumpy’s ability to rapidly resume executions.
• Dumpy loves killing people. It’s his favorite thing.
• Biden will commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 men condemned to death. The president called the death row commutations, which will instead sentence them to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole, consistent with his administration’s moratorium on executions.
• Joe stated, “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss. But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
• He also specifically added that the commutations were spurred by Dump’s fervent support for the death penalty. He stated that he could not allow the incoming administration to restart executions for those he had spared over the last four years.
• Thirteen federal inmates were put to death during Dump’s first term. In some instances, he took cases to the Supreme Court to defeat their final legal appeals.
• Of note: Biden left three prisoners on death row: Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, mass shooter Robert Bowers, and mass shooter Dylann Roof.
• Good. Fuck those guys.
• Moving on…
• A federal lawsuit alleges that Walmart deceived more than a million delivery drivers by creating deposit accounts without their knowledge or consent, using their social security numbers and other personal information.
• What the actual fuck?
• Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau accused Walmart and their payments platform, Branch Messenger, of costing delivery drivers over $10 million in fees through these accounts.
• Walmart told drivers, who deliver its shipments to customers' homes, that they would lose their jobs if they didn't use Branch accounts to receive the pay. Thousands of drivers had their wages deposited into a Branch account before ever agreeing to terms and conditions.
• Drivers who didn't want to — or couldn't figure out how to — access their Branch accounts would lose their Walmart delivery work and often the wages that had been deposited to those Branch accounts, too.
• This is seriously fucked up. Perhaps there will come a day when the workers who allow these massive corporations to exist will flex their real power.
• Let’s move on.
• President Biden gave a big “fuck you” to Donnie Dump yesterday by vetoing a once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal district judgeships.
• The legislation would have spread the establishment of the new trial court judgeships over more than a decade to give three presidential administrations and six Congresses the chance to appoint the new judges.
• The Senate passed the measure unanimously in August. But the Republican-led House brought it to the floor only after Dumpy was reelected to a second term in November, adding the veneer of political gamesmanship to the process.
• So Joe shitcanned the whole thing. I can’t say I disagree.
• Moving on.
• A former D.C. police lieutenant was found guilty in federal court yesterday on charges that he improperly warned Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio of his pending arrest two days before the January 6, 2021 failed coup attempt, and then lied about it to investigators.
• Shane Lamond, a 24-year department veteran, helped the far-right Proud Boys group when he leaked word to Tarrio that a warrant had been signed for his arrest for burning a Black Lives Matter flag stolen from a historic African American church during a pro-Trump rally weeks earlier.
• Lamond headed D.C. police’s intelligence unit at the time. He was found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements. We’ll keep an eye on his sentencing.
• In other news…
• Honda and Nissan have formally agreed to hold talks over the next six months on a possible merger, a deal that would create the world’s third-largest automaker and give them more resources to compete with a growing threat from Chinese carmakers.
• Mitsubishi, which is already in an alliance with Nissan, will also participate in the talks. The combined company, should it be created, would trail only Toyota and Volkswagen in global sales.
• Mergers in the auto industry are nothing new, but they’re also hit-and-miss. It worked well in the early 1900s when various brands merged to form General Motors, for example.
• But when German automaker Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler in 1998, they split up a decade later. The newly independent Chrysler went bankrupt and required a federal bailout within two years.
• Nissan’s alliance with Renault ended up collapsing following the arrest of Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn over charges of “significant” financial misconduct. He fled Japan before a trial could take place.
• Still feels weird to think about Honda and Nissan as one company. Many drivers of those car brands seem dislike each other. Now they’re like school enemies whose divorced parents marry.
• Moving on.
• I have many Christmas traditions. I’m sure most of you do as well.
• Such as?
• Well, there’s putting up and decorating a tree, of course. And the present opening frenzy of the morning, which is more hectic in direct proportion to the age and number of smaller children in a household.
• But I have other little things that I do to get myself the spirit. At some point today, I’ll probably put on a performance of Handel’s “The Messiah” because it’s fucking amazing music.
• My absolute favorite version of this is the full 2 hour, 17 minute performance by the Prague-based Collegium Vocale and Collegium 1704, recorded in 2019.
• It’s conducted by Václav Luks, and features soprano Hana Blažíková, contralto Delphine Galou, tenor Markus Brutscher, and bass Marián Krejcik, bass, as soloists. Galou has perhaps my favorite voice of any human. It’s an instrument beyond compare.
• It’s on YouTube if you want to check it out. The tempo is brisk as fuck in this version, and I like it. I performed this music as as chorus member back in 1991 or so with hundreds of other vocalists and a full orchestra.
• Another thing I enjoy doing: keeping an eye on Santa via NORAD’s Santa Tracker.
• Yup. The North American Aerospace Defense Command is once again prepared to track Santa and his reindeer around the world. NORAD is responsible for protecting the skies over the United States and Canada, and they activated their Santa tracking system at 6am ET this morning.
• This is the 69th year NORAD has tracked Santa’s yuletide journey around the world. It started by accident in 1955 when a local newspaper advertisement informed children they could call Santa directly — only the contact number was misprinted.
• Instead of ringing Old Saint Nick, a child called the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, CO.
• Air Force Col. Harry Shoup answered the child’s call and assured the child he was Santa. When the phone kept ringing, Shoup assigned an officer to answer the calls, and a tradition was born.
• And now, The Weather: "Must Be Santa" by Kurt Vile
• In real weather news, a part of the Santa Cruz Wharf collapsed yesterday afternoon during a high-surf warning, with two people having to be pulled from the water.
• The collapse of the municipal wharf was just one of multiple impacts in the weather-battered region as high surf and flooding led to multiple road closures and some coastal evacuations.
• And down here in Redondo Beach, video was posted from right down the street from me, showing massive 12-foot waves crashing over the break wall.
• Through tomorrow night, large breaking waves will continue to pound LA county beaches, with all the risks one would assume. Maybe stay away from the beach for a bit.
• From the Sports Desk… last night on Monday Night Football, the Green Bay Packers clinched a playoff spot in a rather over-the-top way, beating the hapless Saints 34-0.
• Today in history… Du Fu departs for Chengdu, where he is hosted by fellow poet Pei Di (759). Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook (1777). Representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States sign the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812 (1814). The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria (1818). The opera Aida premieres in Cairo, Egypt (1871). Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast, consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech (1906). U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower is named Supreme Allied Commander for the Operation Overlord (1943). The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so (1968).
• December 24 is the birthday of astronomer Jean-Louis Pons (1761), frontiersman/general Kit Carson (1809), brewer/physicist James Prescott Joule (1818), engineer/pilot/businessman Howard Hughes (1905), actress Ava Gardner (1922), general George Patton IV (1923), producer/businessman/politician Mike Curb (1944), trumpeter Woody Shaw (1944), singer-songwriter/bass player Lemmy (1945), guitarist Jan Akkerman (1946), actor Diedrich Bader (1966), singer-songwriter Ricky Martin (1971), author Stephenie Meyer (1973), radio/TV host Ryan Seacrest (1974), and NFL player Davante Adams (1992).

Time for me to do things. Ho ho ho! Make some time to enjoy the holidays, folks. As the ghost of Christmas Present said, “Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly you’re not there anymore.” Take advantage of the moments you have to appreciate being here. Enjoy your day.