Random News: December 30, 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 30, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I hope your weekend was enjoyable, coming into the final couple days of this year and getting ready to welcome the next one. We have plenty to talk about, so let’s do that.

• Opening with a big rest in peace to the USA’s 39th President, Jimmy Carter.
• He died yesterday at age 100, the most long-lived President in US history.
• A lot of people bought into the message that he was a simple peanut farmer. Carter was — like many US Presidents, despite frequent evidence to the contrary — a brilliant man.
• Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in 1946. He was commissioned as an ensign. The same year, he married Rosalynn Smith, a friend of his sister Ruth.
• In 1952, Carter began an association with the Navy's fledgling nuclear submarine program. He was sent to the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C..
• Famously, after a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor, Carter — then 28 years old — was physically lowered into the damaged reactor, exposing himself to dangerous levels of radiation, to help fix the reactor and avert mass tragedy.
• After his father died, he returned to his home in Plains, GA to run the family farm.
• He served as a Georgia state senator (1963–1967), and then governor of Georgia (1971–1975).
• Civil rights were a high priority for Carter as governor, and he added black state employees and portraits of three prominent black Georgians to the capitol building: Martin Luther King Jr., Lucy Craft Laney, and Henry McNeal Turner. This angered the Ku Klux Klan.
• Any time you can anger the Klan or Nazis or MAGAs, you’re doing something right.
• In the 1976 presidential election, Carter won with 297 electoral votes and 50.1% of the popular vote to Ford's 240 electoral votes and 48.0% of the popular vote. It was close.
• Side note: Texas was blue in that election, and California was red. Look it up.
• Carter's victory was attributed in part to his overwhelming support among black voters in states decided by close margins, such as Louisiana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Mississippi, Wisconsin, and Ohio.
• He was president during a tumultuous time. The country was still shaken by the Watergate scandal, the Vietnam war was just ending, and the world was fighting a wave of economic inflation and global strife, including the Iran hostage crisis.
• Despite his unpopularity at the time, Carter was very effective as President. He passed more legislation in one term than most presidents do in two. This is something they’ll also say about Joe Biden, someday.
• Jimmy Carter had a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s.
• And in fact, his humanitarian efforts that went on decades after his presidency are perhaps themes impressive part of this man’s amazing legacy.
• I deeply respected this guy. He once said, “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”
• And he did just that. 
• Even Dumples the Clown managed to be semi-respectful in his statements about Carter’s passing.
• “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.” Trump said.
• He added, “He worked hard to make America a better place, and for that I give him my highest respect. He was a truly good man and, of course, will be greatly missed. He was also very consequential, far more than most Presidents, after he left the Oval Office. Warmest condolences from Melania and I to his wonderful family!” 
• Well said. Those statements are all true, a rarity for Trump.
• I wonder if, when Dumpy wrote that (or had it written by someone), he had yet to realize that in accordance with federal law, the flag was lowered to fly at half-staff.
• And because Carter is a former president, flags are to remain at half-staff for 30 days from the day of Carter’s death. They are expected to be at half-staff until January 28, 2025 on all federal buildings and grounds in the U.S. and its territories, as well as all naval vessels.
• Which means flags will be at half-staff during Dump’s inauguration on January 20 and for the subsequent first week of his term.
• Moving on.
• We have some more Dumpy news breaking this morning.
• Today, a federal appeals court panel upheld a jury’s verdict finding Dump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll and ordering him to pay $5 million.
• A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit concluded Dump did not sufficiently show any claimed errors affected his rights or warranted a new trial.
• As you hopefully recall, a New York jury found Dump liable last year for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defaming her by denying her story when she came forward during Trump’s first presidency. 
• And in a separate case, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in defamation damages for continuing to deny her story.
• Dump is still appealing that verdict, but today’s decision marks a blow in his defense, as it was underpinned by the earlier sexual abuse judgment.
• Ha ha, you piece of shit.
• One other note regarding Dumples and the MAGA world.
• This morning, Dump offered his complete and total endorsement of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), days before a House vote on Friday to elect a new Speaker.
• So again, we have this schism in the right wing, with Dump supporting Johnson but many GOP House members against him.
• Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has said he will not support Johnson, and several other hardline conservatives will not commit to supporting him.
• And because of the razor-thin House GOP majority, Johnson cannot afford to lose more than one Republican vote — literally one — for Speaker, assuming every member is present and votes for a candidate.
• So that’ll be fun.
• In other news…
• Any concern about bird flu? Maybe you should at least have it on your radar.
• Dr. Leana Wen said yesterday that the lack of testing for bird flu doesn't mean that the virus isn't alive in humans, and that she feels the federal government "should have learned our lesson from COVID" and should be proactive in making tests available for Americans — and not wait for labs to characterize the cases and their severity. 
• Makes sense to me.
• "We should be having rapid tests, home tests, available to all farm workers, to their families, for the clinicians taking care of them, so that we aren't waiting for public labs and CDC labs to tell us what's bird flu or not," she added.
• The recent outbreak of bird flu stems from a mutation of the H5N1 virus that affects humans more easily, compared to past mutations of the virus that targeted birds and not mammals.
• On Thursday, the CDC reported its first severe case of bird flu in the U.S. found in a patient in Louisiana who was infected from a backyard poultry flock. The Louisiana case was first confirmed by health officials Friday, adding to the total of 61 reported human cases of H5 bird flu reported in the United States. Another severe case of H5N1 has been reported in a teen in British Columbia.
• Ugh. C’mon man. We don’t need another disease-ridden period.
• Also, still glad I mask up in crowded settings. As I’ve said before, I may just keep doing that forever.
• Let’s move on.
• The latest news in the MAGA civil war is that Elon is a giant pussy. I suppose that’s not really news.
• Musk backed off his defense of skilled worker visas in an apparent bid to patch up divisions in the Republican Party.
• In an about-face of his position last week, he admitted that H1-B visas are “broken” and proposed potential reform. H1-B visas permit highly-educated foreigners to work in the US for up to six years.
• In his usual manner of giving poorly thought out answers for complex problems, Musk said: “Easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H1-B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically.”
• If it was that easy, it would have been done long ago. The whole reason companies hire H1-B immigrants is to pay them less and work them harder than they can their American equivalents.
• Musk’s original solution was more on the nose, vowing to kick out “hateful, unrepentant racists” from the Republican Party. But how can you do that when it represents the majority of the party?
• Tech companies rely on the H1-B visa program to bring in thousands of foreign engineers and other skilled workers each year from India, China, and other nations.
• And then they’re trapped here, forced to work 70-80 hour weeks for less compensation than they should receive, knowing they’ll be deported if they complain.
• Meanwhile, the above mentioned racists that Musk referred to are mad that brown-skinned and Asian people are being offered American jobs at all.
• And now, The Weather: “Rust” by Witch Post
• In real weather news, a deadly storm system spawned tornadoes across the South and Southeast over the weekend, killing at least four people and destroying homes and schools.
• In Mississippi, two people were killed, at least six injured, and over 100,000 lost power as tornadoes ripped through the state. In Texas, one person was killed after a tornado tore into areas south of Houston.
• Stay safe, peoples.
• Another RIP going out today to actress Linda Lavin, who died yesterday at 87.
• She was already a success on Broadway when she was chosen to star in a new CBS sitcom based on “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, with the title the show shortened to “Alice.”
• Lavin become a role model for working moms as Alice Hyatt, a widowed mother with a 12-year-old son working in a roadside diner outside Phoenix. The show, with Lavin singing the theme song “There’s a New Girl in Town,” ran from 1976 to 1985.
• From the Sports Desk… a bright note amidst an otherwise horrific season for my Las Vegas Raiders.
• In addition to the team winning two entire games in a row (amazing!), yesterday rookie tight end Brock Bowers broke two NFL rookie pass-catching records in the Raiders' 25-10 win at the Saints, as well as a franchise record.
• Bowers first surpassed Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Ditka's 63-year-old mark for most receiving yards in a season by a rookie tight end.
• He also set a record for most catches in a season by any NFL rookie. His seven catches for 77 yards Sunday gave him 108 catches for the year with one game to play.
• In NBA news, here are the current offensive leaders in the league, based on points per game.
• 1. Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks): 32.7. 2 (tie). Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Thunder): 30.8. 2 (tie). Nikola Jokic (Nuggets): 30.8. 4. LaMelo Ball (Hornets): 30.1. 5. Jayson Tatum (Celtics): 28.7.
• Today in history… British soldiers burn Buffalo, NY in the War of 1812 (1813). The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed (1816). The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed (1825). The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest in the Gadsden Purchase (1853). The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - USSR - is formed (1922). The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan (1927). The Flint sit-down strike hits General Motors (1936). Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel (1996). Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed (2006).
• December 30 is the birthday of author Rudyard Kipling (1865), Japan prime minister Hideki Tōjō (1884), cricketer Dick Spooner (1919), singer-songwriter/guitarist Bo Diddley (1928), astrophysicist John N. Bahcall (1934), singer-songwriter/guitarist Del Shannon (1934), actor Russ Tamblyn (1934), MLB player Sandy Koufax (1935), singer-songwriter/bass player Felix Pappalardi (1939), director James Burrows (1940), actor/singer-songwriter/guitarist Michael Nesmith (1942), actor/singer-songwriter Davy Jones (1945), singer-songwriter Patti Smith (1946), singer-songwriter/guitarist/producer Jeff Lynne (1947), journalist Matt Lauer (1957), actress/singer Tracey Ullman (1959), bag of dicks Sean Hannity (1961), US secretary of state Mike Pompeo (1963), pimp Heidi Fleiss (1965), singer-songwriter Jay Kay (1969), golfer Tiger Woods (1975), MLB player A. J. Pierzynski (1976), NBA player LeBron James (1984), and NFL player Carson Wentz (1992).

I’m definitely planning a busy work day today, but that’s okay. I still feel like I’m making up time that I lost hanging out on Friday in my least favorite place, a hospital. But that’s okay. Time is an illusion. Try and appreciate whatever time you have regardless. Enjoy your day.