Random News: January 5, 2025

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 January 5, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I’m up and awake; let’s see what’s transpired in this wacky world of ours.

• Starting with the weather.
• The first weekend of 2025 is having the coldest air of the season. The first significant winter storm of the year has impacted nearly 70 million people across the US through the weekend so far, and will continue into Monday.
• The powerful weather system has delivered a potent mix of snow, ice, and blizzard conditions, accompanied by winds gusting up to 50 mph.
• The NOAA Weather Prediction Center warned that for some, this could be the heaviest snowfall in over a decade.
• Places to be particularly aware of the weather include Kansas City, MO, St. Louis, MO, Indianapolis, IN, Louisville, KY, Cincinnati, OH, Charleston, WV, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, PA, and everywhere in between.
• And severe thunderstorms are also happening in areas with warmer temperatures. The storm is impact Texas and Mississippi.
• Avoid travel if possible, and stay safe in general.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, the nation began its formal farewell to Jimmy Carter as the casket carrying the former president started its journey along the rural roads of south Georgia, where he spent much of his life.
• It then moved onward to Atlanta, where his body will lie in public repose ahead of a state funeral in Washington next week.
• After losing to Ronald Reagan in 1980, setting off a course of events that still negatively impact millions of people today, Carter returned to Plains with wife Rosalynn, and reinvented himself as global humanitarian and champion of democracy.
• He died a week ago today on December 29 at age 100, the longest-lived person to have ever served as US President.
• Moving on.
• Tomorrow is January 6 — a day that shall live in infamy’s far as I’m concerned. 
• But it’s also the day of the congressional joint session to count electoral votes. It’s expected to be much less eventful than the certification four years ago that was interrupted by a violent MAGA mob of Dump supporters who tried to stop the count and overturn the results of an election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
• Presiding over the count is Vice President Kamala Harris, fulfilling the constitutional role in the same way that Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, did after the violence subsided on January 6, 2021.
• Usually a routine affair, the congressional joint session on January 6 every four years is the final step in reaffirming a presidential election after the Electoral College officially elects the winner in December. The meeting is required by the Constitution and includes several distinct steps.
• Liberals, stand back and stand by. We ride at dawn.
• Just kidding. We’re not stupid assholes who don’t respect the rule of law.
• Also, Congress tightened the rules for the certification after the violence of 2021 and Dump’s attempts to usurp the process.
• The revised Electoral Count Act that passed in 2022 more explicitly defines the role of the vice president after Dump aggressively pushed Pence to try and object to his defeat — an action that would have gone far beyond Pence’s ceremonial role.
• Pence — a weird but somewhat decent man — rebuffed Dump and ultimately gaveled down his own defeat. Harris will do the same.
• The updated law clarifies that the vice president does not have the power to determine the results on January 6.
• So I’m fairly sure tomorrow will be uneventful.
• Let’s move on.
• The US Department of State has notified Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale to Israel. The weapons consignment, which needs approval from House and Senate committees, includes missiles, shells and other munitions.
• Biden has rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza. In August, the US approved the sale of $20 billion in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel.
• Funny how — unlike Ukraine — conservatives don’t seem to care about spending vast sums of money to support Israel.
• The US is by far the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world. Between 2019 and 2023, the US accounted for 69% of Israel's imports of major conventional arms.
• Shrug.
• In other news…
• Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Washington Post, has resigned after its editorial page editor rejected a cartoon she created to mock media and tech titans abasing themselves before Donnie Dump.
• Among the corporate chiefs depicted was Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos. The episode follows Bezos' decision in October to block publication of a planned endorsement of Vice President Harris over Dump in the waning days of last year's presidential elections.
• The inspiration for Telnaes' latest proposed cartoon was the trek by top tech chief executives including Bezos to Dump's Florida golf motel, Mar-a-Lago, as well as the seven-figure contributions several promised to make toward his inauguration.
• Interestingly, the result was that far more people have seen Telnaes’ cartoon — which has  been widely shared via social media — than if it just ran in WaPo as usual.
• Many readers have signaled a lack of trust in the paper — which adopted the motto "Democracy Dies in Darkness" during the Trump years — over Bezos' decision to block publication of the Harris endorsement.
• Three hundred thousand people canceled digital subscriptions to the Post between October 24 and Election Day. That figure represents about 12% of all digital subscriptions.
• Moving on.
• Some news of which I approve: President Joe Biden is expected to permanently ban future offshore oil and gas development in parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a way that could be especially difficult for the incoming Dump administration to undo.
• Biden’s planned executive order will invoke the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, a law that gives presidents broad authority to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing and development.
• The law does not give presidents explicit authority to revoke the action and place federal waters back into development, meaning Dumpy would have to get Congress to change it before he could reverse Biden’s move.
• Nice.
• Biden’s move would guard against future oil spills and help slow the addition of more planet-warming pollution from fossil fuels to the atmosphere.
• And now, The Weather: “By Any Means Necessary” by Anna Arboles
• From the Sports Desk… today is the final day of the NFL’s regular season.
• As I’ve mentioned, the playoffs are all but wrapped up. There are still a few teams on the fringe. Tomorrow we’ll list the complete playoff seeding and schedule.
• Today in history… Robert-François Damiens becomes the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering after attempting to assassinate Louis XV (1757). Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold (1781). The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and minimum daily wage of $5 in salary plus bonuses (1914). The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded in Munich (1919). Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay (1933). The play ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett receives its première in Paris (1953). The Venera 5 space probe is launched (1969). US President Richard Nixon announces the Space Shuttle program (1972). The United States Embassy to Somalia in Mogadishu is evacuated by helicopter airlift days after the outbreak of violence in Mogadishu (1991). The dwarf planet Eris is discovered by Palomar Observatory-based astronomers, later motivating the International Astronomical Union to define the term planet for the first time (2005).
• January 5 is the birthday of explorer Xu Xiake (1587), businessman King Camp Gillette (1855), painter Yves Tanguy (1900), actor George Reeves (1914), actress Jane Wyman (1917), music producer Sam Phillips (1923), US vice president Walter Mondale (1928), actor Robert Duvall (1931), NFL player/coach Chuck Noll (1932), music producer Phil Ramone (1934), journalist Charlie Rose (1942), actress Diane Keaton (1946), politician Mike DeWine (1947), actor Ted Lange (1948), guitarist/songwriter Chris Stein (1950), NBA player Alex English (1954), actor Clancy Brown (1959), singer-songwriter Marilyn Manson (1969), actor Bradley Cooper (1975), actress January Jones (1978), and musician Deadmau5 (1981).

Yesterday, my washing machine started being problematic, so in addition to typical Sunday activities, I have to take my dirty-ass clothes to the laundromat, something I’ve managed to avoid for about eight years. Yay me! Enjoy your day.

Random News: January 4, 2025

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 January 4, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. Feels great to be lounging about like a king in my blue bathrobe and my fresh cup of Peet’s Brazil. Got plenty of news — which is typical in this crazy age — so let’s get into it.

• President-elect Donnie Dump will be sentenced on 34 counts of falsifying business records ahead of his swearing-in on January 20, a judge ruled yesterday.
• The decision to schedule the sentencing for January 10 means Dumpy will be the first felon to serve as a U.S. president.
• Ha ha! You suck. Fucking criminal douchebag.
• But before you get all gleeful, note — per what I have told you a thousand times — New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan wrote in his ruling that he does not intend to sentence Dump to jail.
• And even if he was going to, there’s no way Dump’s jail sentence would commence while he was president, as hilarious as that would be. It would begin after he left office, in January 2029 at age 82.
• I seriously doubt he’ll live that long regardless. And even if he does, he’ll never see the inside of a jail cell. Stop dreaming about that. It’s pointless.
• As you recall with joy, Dump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn star, ahead of the 2016 election. He faces up to four years in prison, but many experts said incarceration is unlikely even if he wasn’t the incoming president due to his age and his lack of prior convictions.
• And, um, because he’s wealthy and powerful. Those people never go to jail.
• The case was the only one of Dumpy’s four criminal indictments to go to trial before the 2024 presidential election. Had he not won the election, he might have faced some actual consequences for his crimes.
• But you can pretty much assume he will not… especially while he’s president.
• Let’s move on to more big news.
• Yesterday, after some stumbles, Mike Johnson (R-LA) won reelection to the House speakership on a first ballot, despite not being enough of a shithead for the furthest fringe right wing members of the House.
• He also got a big assist from Donnie Dump.
• In the first tally of votes, three members voted against Johnson. That was all it took to jeopardize his job. But they cornered two of them in the back of the room — and Dumpy spoke to them personally — and they changed their votes.
• Of course they did. These people have zero spine.
• Rep. Keith Self (T-TX), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) all voted against Johnson during the initial vote. Self and Norman switched their vote after being threatened.
• And that was that. The final tally… 218 for Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), 215 for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and 1 for Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN). It was Massie who was the sole holdout against Johnson.
• And now, for at least the next two years, Johnson will have to walk a tightrope and get Democratic buy-in to pass any legislation.
• Get your popcorn ready. I should note that in as much as Johnson is a weird asshole, he’s nowhere near the worst of the GOP at this point.
• It coulda been way worse.
• A fascinating side note to yesterday’s Speaker election.
• Stacey Plaskett, the delegate to the United States House of Representatives from the United States Virgin Islands' at-large congressional district, stood up and spoke.
• "I note that the names of representatives from American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia were not called, representing, collectively, 4 million Americans," she said to broad applause from the Democratic side of the chamber. "Mr. Speaker, collectively, the largest per capita of veterans in this country."
• ”Does the gentlelady have a problem?" was the response.
• "I asked why they were not called. I asked why they were not called from the parliamentarian, please."
• Oooh. Knowing the answer, she still made him respond.
• He gave her the official legal answer. "Delegates-elect and the resident commissioner-elect are not qualified to vote.”
• I think you know this, but I’ll explain anyway. US territories like the ones she mentioned have no real say in government. Unlike states’ reps, their delegates don’t cast votes in the House, despite their millions of people serving our country and being subject to House laws and budgets.
• And Plaskett ended with a zinger.
• "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This body and this nation has a territory and a colonies problem. What was supposed to be temporary has now, effectively, become permanent. We must do something about this."
• Colonies. Ouch. She’s right.
• Moving on.
• As I predicted the other day when Dumples the Clown issued a thoughtful message after President Carter passed away, he suddenly had the realization about how the nation would, by law, honor Carter’s death.
• He wrote, ”The Democrats are all 'giddy' about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at 'half mast' during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves."
• First of all, Fuckface, as I said, it’s a fucking actual law that the flag is flown at half-staff for 30 days after a US President dies. I will respectfully — and joyfully — watch that same flag flown as such after you die, asshat.
• Second, it’s half-staff… not half-mast. We’re not on a fucking ship.
• Dump is likely more familiar with the term half-mast, because it’s also used to describe when a man can’t quite get his dick hard enough to be of sexual use.
• Let’s move on.
• One thing that became apparent in the aftermath of the New Year’s bomb attack at Dump’s Las Vegas hotel: your car is spying on you.
• At least if it’s a Tesla, and probably others.
• Privacy data experts say the very fast, deep dive in info on the driver’s whereabouts leading up to the bombing by Elon Musk’s company was impressive, but also shines a spotlight on a difficult question as vehicles become less like cars and more like computers on wheels: is your car company violating your privacy rights?
• Many of the latest cars not only know where you’ve been and where you are going, but also often have access to your contacts, your call logs, your texts, and other sensitive information thanks to cell phone syncing.
• Within hours of the explosion, Tesla was able to track Matthew Livelsberger’s movements in detail from Denver to Las Vegas, and also confirm that the problem was explosives in the truck, not the truck itself.
• Experts point out that this has a downside as well.
• David Choffnes, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University, said, “It reveals the kind of sweeping surveillance going on. When something bad happens, it’s helpful, but it’s a double edged sword. Companies that collect this data can abuse it.”
• Look, you buy devices like Amazon Alexa that are in your home and are constantly listening to you. Your phones and computers and social networks log all of your activity. 
• And that data is openly for sale. To whom? Whoever wants to pay for it.
• I work in the world of advertising and marketing. I promise, all I need to do is to write check and I can target you for myriad purposes.
• Now imagine I was a government agency who wanted to investigate you, with or without a legal court warrant.
• You get the idea.
• In other news…
• Joe Biden is giving a giant “fuck you” to MAGA here at the end of his presidency.
• He’s awarding the Medal of Freedom to 19 people, including prominent political leaders such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire Democratic fundraiser George Soros.
• He’s also honoring actors and athletes, including Michael J. Fox and Denzel Washington, as well as Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi and Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the retired basketball star who led the Los Angeles Lakers to five championships.
• They’re already freaking out about it over on Xitter. Good.
• And now, The Weather: “Looking at the Geese” by Renny Conti
• Fun Fact: Stephen Stills (Class of’63), Don Felder and Bernie Leadon of the Eagles (Class of ’65), and Tom Petty (Class of ’68) all went to Gainesville High School in Gainesville, FL.
• Stills and Felder were in a teenage garage band together.
• Small world.
• From the Sports Desk… no point in covering the NFL this morning. On Monday, we’ll list the final lineups and seeding of the playoffs.
• Let’s look at the QBR — quarterback rating — leaders for the season.
• 1. Lamar Jackson (BAL): 78.0. 2. Joe Burrow (CIN): 76.7. 3. Josh Allen (BUF): 76.7. 4.Jayden Daniels (WSH): 72.4. 5. Jordan Love (GB): 69.4. 6. Patrick Mahomes (KC): 68.5. 7. Brock Purdy (SF): 67.8. 8. Jared Goff (DET): 67.1. 9. Kyler Murray (ARI): 66.9. 10. Jalen Hurts (PHI): 66.1.
• QBR is the adjusted Total Quarterback Rating, which values the quarterback on all play types on a 0-100 scale, adjusted for the strength of opposing defenses faced.
• Today in history… Æthelred of Wessex and his brother Alfred are defeated by a Danish invasion army in the Battle of Reading (871). English King Charles I, accompanied by 400 soldiers, attempts to arrest five members of Parliament for treason, only to discover the men had been tipped off and fled (1642). The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance (1717). After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South, Solomon Northup regains his freedom; his memoir ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ later becomes a national bestseller (1853). Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state (1896). Soviet spacecraft Luna 1 becomes the first to reach the vicinity of the Moon (1959). Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, UK (1972). Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota (1999). Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC (2004). The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history (2007). The Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world, officially opens in Dubai (2010).
• January 4 is the birthday of mathematician/physicist Isaac Newton (1643), mythologist Jacob Grimm (1785), educator Louis Braille (1809), circus performer General Tom Thumb (1838), Japan prime minister Katsura Tarō (1848), writer/activist Max Eastman (1883), engineer/businessman Leroy Grumman (1895), ornithologist James Bond (1900), pianist/composer Lionel Newman (1916), actress Barbara Rush (1927), actor/director Sorrell Booke (1930), NFL coach Don Shula (1930), boxer Floyd Patterson (1935), actress Dyan Cannon (1937), guitarist John McLaughlin (1942), singer-songwriter Patty Loveless (1957), actor Matt Frewer (1958), singer-songwriter Michael Stipe (1960), singer-songwriter Till Lindemann (1963), NBA player Al Jefferson (1985), NFL player Derrick Henry (1995), and NBA player Victor Wembanyama (2004).

That’s plenty for now. I’m going to shower and get dressed. My responsible duties of the day include taking out the Christmas tree tat has now overstayed its welcome, and dropping off some grown-up clothes at the dry cleaner. Less responsibly: might work on some new music for the upcoming second album by my band They Stole My Crayon. Enjoy your day.

Random News: January 3, 2025

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 January 3, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! While I have some legit reasons to be stressed this morning, I am very much looking forward to a more typical Friday today (in contrast to the previous Friday where I spent the day worrying about Kat at the hospital). Lots of news happening, so for now, let’s focus on that.

• We’re still figuring out the many what-the-fucks involved in the spate of terrorism actions that happened on New Year’s Eve.
• First of all, yesterday the FBI backtracked their initial report about Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the U.S. Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans.
• Initial they postulated that he likely worked with others while carrying out the deadly attack. Now they say he acted alone.
• Shrug.
• The 42-year-old U.S. citizen was seemingly under a variety of pressures. He finalized a third divorce in 2022, saying in filings he couldn’t pay his mortgage and his consulting business was losing money.
• It’s hard to say what made this guy snap. He’d posted five videos to his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with IS. Authorities also found an Islamic State flag on the truck used in the attack early Wednesday.
• His friends and family are also shocked, saying his demeanor had always been calm and well-mannered. It was online recent months that he began isolating himself.
• President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will head to New Orleans on Monday to meet with the families and community members impacted by the devastating truck attack.
• Authorities also say there’s no evidence of a link between that attack and the Las Vegas Tesla Cybertruck explosion in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
• Um, guess that’s all, then?
• There is some more detailed info coming out about Matthew Livelsberger, the highly decorated Army soldier who was inside that Cybertruck which was packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters.
• Authorities say that the 37-year-old Green Beret shot himself in the head just before detonation. Ugh.
• Damage from the blast was mostly limited to the interior of the truck because the explosion vented out and up, and didn’t hit the Trump hotel doors just a few feet away.
• Authorities are still working to determine a motive. Livelsberger had recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on approved leave when he died in this bizarre way.
• It’s interesting to me that no one is falsely claiming that Livelsberger is an immigrant, unlike what they assume about Texas-born Jabbar.
• Oh wait, Livelsberger is white. Never mind.
• And making things even more weird about Livelsberger is something his uncle summed up in an interview yesterday…
• “He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country. He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American.”
• So why did he want to blow up Dump’s shitty hotel using Elon’s shitty car?
• Let’s move on.
• Today is the day that the Republicans in the House may fuck themselves once again by attempting to fire House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
• And their moderate mainstream wing is warning Johnson not to repeat his predecessor's mistake of giving away the store to his right-wing detractors to retain his gavel.
• At latest check, Johnson is facing roughly a dozen right-wing holdouts before today’s speaker election. Only a few GOP defections are needed toxic him off the Speaker podium.
• But the moderate Republicans are warning Johnson not to do what Kevin McCarthy did, which is making promises to the far-right that he can’t (or won’t) deliver.
• You may recall that back in 2023, McCarthy took 15 rounds of voting to become Speaker. He finally did so by cutting a deal with his right-wing rebels — including rules changes, plum committee assignments, and votes on certain bills — that came back to haunt him.
• One of those changes — lowering the motion-to-vacate threshold — led to his own ouster last year.
• The other notable aspect of today’s Speaker vote: Johnson has the full endorsement of Dump, so any far-right GOP member going against him is also going against Dumpy.
• Interesting. I’m sure Dumpy will have feelings about that as well.
• Guess we’ll see what happens today.
• Let’s move on with a look back at one of the major unsolved mysteries of the failed coup attempt on January 6, 2021 (with the four year anniversary of the horrible event coming up on Monday).
• The FBI is releasing new details about the person who planted pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on the night before the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
• They are still trying to identify the individual who placed the devices — which did not detonate — near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee on the evening of January 5, 2021.
• Despite conducting 1,000 interviews, reviewing 39,000 video files, and sifting through some 600 tips, the bomber remains elusive despite a $500,000 reward for information leading to the capture and the conviction of a suspect.
• What have they come up with? Well, they say the person is 5’7”, and wore a pair of black and light gray Nike Air Max sneakers with a yellow logo.
• About 25,000 pairs of those shoes had been sold at the time of the insurrection at the Capitol in early 2021. Side note: I’m 5’11” and wear Nike Air Force 1’s. It wasn’t me.
• That’s it.
• Moving on to some ongoing and weird international news…
• South Korean investigators have suspended efforts to enforce an arrest warrant for embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol today, hours into a standoff in which authorities tried to detain the leader following his short-lived martial law declaration.
• Some 80 police and investigators had entered the presidential compound in Seoul in the early morning to take Yoon into custody for questioning.
• Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) approached within a couple hundred meters of Yoon’s residence, but were blocked by a “human wall” of around 200 soldiers and members of the presidential security detail. There were also several altercations of varying intensity.
• If he is eventually detained, Yoon, who was impeached by parliament last month, would become the first sitting president to be arrested.
• Yoon’s defense minister, police chief and several top military commanders have already been arrested over their roles in the martial law declaration.
• Pretty weird. I’m referring to (gestures vaguely) everything.
• In other news…
• Today, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a new advisory warning Americans that alcohol consumption can increase their cancer risk, and called for an updated health warning label on alcoholic beverages.
• My personal feeling on the topic: alcohol is fucking awful. Yes, like many people, I used to binge drink in my teens and 20s. Fortunately, after a few really horrible experiences, by the time I hit my early 30s I pretty much eliminated drinking from my life.
• “Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States — greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the US — yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” said Murthy.
• The link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is well-established for at least seven types of cancer: breast, colorectum, esophagus, liver, mouth, throat, and voice box. And the risk remains regardless of what type of alcohol is consumed, and increases with greater consumption.
• Before anyone thinks I’m worthy of praise in some way, note that I still smoke weed, and I still smoke cigarettes. I can’t by any definition say that I am sober or that I avoid major cancer risks.
• My only impetus was that about 22 years ago, alcohol just started making me ill and depressed, quickly becoming not worth any upside. I don’t miss it.
• Let’s move on.
• In breaking news this morning, President Biden has rejected the nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel — affirming his earlier vow to block the acquisition of the USA’s most storied steel company.
• “We need major U.S. companies representing the major share of US steelmaking capacity to keep leading the fight on behalf of America’s national interests,” he said this morning.
• I agree.
• Biden’s decision comes after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of the deal last month.
• The committee, chaired by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and made up of other Cabinet members, can recommend that the president block a transaction, and federal law gives the president that power.
• And now, The Weather: “siracusa” by orange flavored cigarettes
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the first week January 1979, and I am in 5th grade at Ladera Linda Elementary School in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. My teacher is Mr. Emde.
• And this is the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
• 1. Barbra Streisand's Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (Barbra Streisand). 2. A Wild And Crazy Guy (Steve Martin). 3. 52nd Street (Billy Joel). 4. C'est Chic (Chic). 5. Grease (Soundtrack). 6. Jazz (Queen). 7. Briefcase Full of Blues (Soundtrack) (Blues Brothers). 8. The Best Of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. I (Earth, Wind & Fire). 9. Backless (Eric Clapton). 10. You Don't Bring Me Flowers (Neil Diamond). 11. Double Vision (Foreigner). 12. Greatest Hits (Barry Manilow). 13. Live And More (Donna Summer). 14. Live! Bootleg (Aerosmith). 15. Cruisin' (Village People). 16. Blondes Have More Fun (Rod Stewart). 17. Living In The U.S.A. (Linda Ronstadt). 18. Dog And Butterfly (Heart). 19. Toto (Toto). 20. Some Girls (The Rolling Stones).
• From the Sports Desk… let’s once again look at the current NFL playoff seeding.
• AFC: the 1-seed Chiefs will have a first-round bye. That leaves the following matchups… 7-seed Broncos at 2-seed Bills, 6-seed Chargers at 3-seed Ravens, and 5-seed Steelers at 4-seed Texans.
• NFC: the 1-seed Lions will sit out the Wild Card round. 7-seed Packers will visit 2-seed Eagles, 6-seed Commanders at 3-seed Rams, and 5-seed Vikings at 4-seed Buccaneers.
• Can that change? Yes indeed. The Dolphins and Bengals each still have a rather remote shot at getting in the AFC playoffs. In the NFC, the Falcons still have a chance at replacing the Bucs.
• The final games of the regular season, scheduled for tomorrow and Sunday, will resolve any final questions.
• Today in history… Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem (1521). American General George Washington defeats British General Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton (1777). Delaware votes not to secede from the United States (1861). Minnie D. Craig becomes the first woman elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first woman to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States (1933). Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time (1947). Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state (1959). Apple Computer is incorporated (1977). Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces (1990). Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons (2002). The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto (2009). Chang'e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover (2019).
• January 3 is the birthday of philosopher/politician Cicero (106 BC), soprano Henriette Sontag (1806), businessman Ichizō Kobayashi (1873), UK prime minister Clement Attlee (1883), writer J.R.R. Tolkien (1892), pianist/comedian Victor Borge (1909), NFL coach Hank Stram (1923), music producer George Martin (1926), director Sergio Leone (1929), actor Robert Loggia (1930), NHL player Bobby Hull (1939), singer-songwriter Van Dyke Parks (1943), singer-songwriter/guitarist Stephen Stills (1945), bass player/composer John Paul Jones (1946), actor/director Mel Gibson (1956), WBNA player Cheryl Miller (1964), racing driver Michael Schumacher (1969), singer-songwriter/guitarist Kurt Vile (1980), NFL player David Tyree (1980), NFL player Eli Manning (1981), murderer Kyle Rittenhouse (2003), and environmental activist Greta Thunberg (2003).

Time for me to jump into the busy portion of my day. If I get through it without any unforeseen emergencies, I’m calling it a victory. Enjoy your day.

Random News: January 2, 2025

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 January 2, 2025, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’m also willing to bet that it’s the most Monday-ish Thursday of the year, with many of us jumping back into our more standard post-holiday work routines today. We have a lot to go over. Let’s do it.

• There are more details that have come out regarding the New Year’s terrorist attack in New Orleans.
• The death toll, sadly, has risen to 15. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s not higher, and it may still grow based on the number of severely injured.
• Authorities are aggressively hunting for additional suspects and do not believe the driver of the pickup truck, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, acted alone.
• Video from the scene shows three men and a woman placing an improvised explosive device in connection with the car attack that killed at least 10 people in the French Quarter.
• What do we know about Jabbar?
• He was a US citizen born in Texas. Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010.
• He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant. He was not an immigrant or someone who illegally entered the country.
• And to that end, Donnie Dump weighed in on the story before reciting any actual information. He wrote…
• “When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before.”
• So again, Jabbar was born in Texas. He was raised a Christian before converting to Islam. Just because his skin wasn’t white didn’t mean he didn’t belong in the country. Also, according to FBI quarterly data released in 2024, contrary to Dump’s statement, New Orleans has seen a decline in violent crimes.
• Dump is, as usual, lying or wrong or both.
• And yet, as will be a big topic of discussion, Jabbar had an ISIS flag at the time of the incident. It’s going to be awhile before we understand the details of his motivation to commit acts of terror.
• The truck used in the attack in New Orleans was listed on the car rental site Turo. I was unaware of it previously, but it’s apparently like Airbnb except it’s with vehicles.
• That sounds like a terrible idea. Letting strangers just use your fucking car or truck to do whatever they want, in return for a few bucks?
• One aspect we mentioned yesterday that ended up transpiring: the Sugar Bowl college football game that was slated to take place in New Orleans last night was postponed to today. 
• They pushed to move forward with the game between Notre Dame and Georgia on schedule, but the possibility of more threats to public safety overrode that decision. Probably the best bet while they’re still figuring this shit out.
• Side note: the Super Bowl is being played in the city in February. And the barrier system designed to prevent vehicle attacks was undergoing repairs in preparation for that game, which is one reason the terrorist fuck was able to enact his evil deeds.
• Let’s move on to another bizarre story from the first day of 2025 that may or may not be terror related… and perhaps even related to the New Orleans event. 
• One person died and seven more were injured yesterday when a Tesla Cybertruck caught fire and exploded outside Donnie Dump’s shitty Las Vegas hotel.
• The driver of the Cybertruck, 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, is also an army veteran who served for nearly two decades. And like Jabbar, he also rented the vehicle from Turo.
• He’d packed it with firework-style mortars, camping fuel, and canisters. It’s thought that Livelsberger — who per. Some reports served at the same base as Jabbar — was the one killed in the attack. Like Jabbar, Livelsberger was a US-born citizen.
• But really: Elon’s car exploded at Dumpy’s hotel? Seems rather on the nose as analogy for coming times. I’m sure that was purposeful. Indeed, the previous night, Musk and Dump celebrated New Year's Eve together at the incoming president's Mar-a-Lago golf motel in Florida.
• Dumpy’s 64-story hotel is a block or so off the famed Las Vegas Strip.
• Side note: the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles make extinguishing those blazes much more difficult. 
• Moving on.
• Let’s wrap up the shitty New Year’s news with the story of a fireworks explosion in a Honolulu-area neighborhood that killed at least three people and critically injured 20 others.
• What the fuck? I ask this of literally everyone.
• It occurred just before midnight outside a home near Honolulu’s international airport and a joint U.S. Air Force and Navy base. I should note that fireworks are illegal in Hawaii, not that anyone seems to give a fuck.
• What happened? Some genius attending a party lit an aerial cake, which is a container containing multiple aerial fireworks. It fell to the side and the aerial shot into crates that contained additional fireworks.
• Lordy.
• Let’s move on.
• President Joe Biden is bestowing the second highest civilian medal on Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, leaders of the congressional investigation into the January 6 failed coup attempt at the US Capitol.
• A reminder: Dumples the Clown said these same people should be jailed for their roles in the inquiry.
• Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people today in a ceremony at the White House. These include Americans who fought for marriage equality, a pioneer in treating wounded soldiers, and two of the president’s longtime friends, former Sens. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) and Chris Dodd (D-CT).
• Moving on.
• In Wall Street news for you big financial wizards, the main indexes rose in the first trading session of 2025 this morning as investors pinned their hopes on a fresh political landscape and more interest rate cuts.
• In early trading, the Dow Jones was up 339.67 points to 42,885.17, and the Nasdaq gained 158.61 points to 19,469.40.
• And now, The Weather: “Everything Breathes” by Sean Henry
• In actual weather news, make sure your winter clothes are handy if you live… mostly anywhere.
• We’re starting the new year with arctic air invading most of the eastern U.S. Cold weather brought on by an arctic blast of Canadian air are forecasted next week, estimating temperatures 10 to 20 degrees colder than average starting this weekend and moving into next week. 
• Central states like Minnesota, Kansas, and Texas will also be feeling it. Stay warm, peoples.
• Here in the Los Angeles area? Lows in the mid-40s, highs in the mid-60s. It’s rather nice.
• From the Sports Desk… the NFL playoff are all but set in stone with very few exceptions that will be decided in this weekend’s final week regular season games.
• For now, let’s look at the individual leaders.
• Passing yards: Joe Burrow (CIN) - 4,641. Rushing yards: Saquon Barkley (PHI) - 2,005. Receiving yards: Ja’Marr Chase - 1,612.
• Today in history… The Alemanni cross the frozen Rhine in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire (366). American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, NJ (1777). Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution (1788). American statesman and diplomat John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China (1900). The second Palmer Raid, ordered by the US Department of Justice, results in 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists being arrested and held without trial (1920). Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union (1959). Ronald Reagan, past movie actor and future President of the United States, is sworn in as Governor of CA (1967). United States President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo (1974). Sharon Pratt Dixon becomes the first African American woman mayor of a major city and first woman Mayor of the District of Columbia (1991).
• January 2 is the birthday of Hawaii Queen Emma (1836), physician Una Ledingham (1900), environmental activist Bob Marshall (1901), politician Barry Goldwater (1909), writer Isaac Asimov (1920), NFL player Gino Marchetti (1926), televangelist Jim Bakker (1940), speaker of the house/convicted felon Dennis Hastert (1942), zoologist Jack Hanna (1947), MLB player David Cone (1963), actress Tia Carrere (1967), actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. (1968), mode Christy Turlington (1969), actor Taye Diggs (1971), actress Kate Bosworth (1983), and MLB player Fernando Tatís Jr. (1999).

I have a very busy day on tap, starting with two back-to-back meetings in the morning and a shit-tonne of work for the remainder of the day, but that’s okay. I love the holidays, but their end also brings a sense of relief in its own way. Enjoy your day.

Random News: January 1, 2025

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 January 1, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. I’m up somewhat early for a New Year’s Day after barely remaining conscious until midnight last night, and then sleeping soundly despite the sound of most of Los Angeles exploding in the distance.

• Rabbit rabbit rabbit.
• And Happy New Year to you all. Did you make any New Year’s resolutions?
• I didn’t. I understand the concept; I just don’t feel tied to a specific date to start doing things that are meant improve my life and that of those around me.
• While two in five (43%) Americans said they weren't making a resolution, the majority of those who did had goals falling into one of six categories:
• Save more money (21%), eat healthier (19%), exercise more (17%), lose weight (15%), spend more time with family/friends (14%), and quit smoking (9%).
• I mean, those are all admirable goals.
• I should now mention that "Ditch New Year's Resolution Day" is January 17. Less than 1% of people claim that they stuck to their resolutions for an entire year.
• And the majority give up within a couple of months.
• Let’s do some news.
• And yes, let’s get the current shitty stuff out of the way.
• Early this morning, some asshole drove a pickup truck around barricades and plowed his vehicle through a crowd of New Year's revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans at a high rate of speed, leaving at least 10 dead and injuring dozens of others.
• Happy fucking new year, I guess.
• After mowing down numerous people over a three-block stretch while firing shots into the crowd, the suspect got out of the truck wielding an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers.
• Cops returned fire, killing the piece of shit who was not immediately identified. At least two police officers were shot and wounded.
• Improvised explosive devices found in and around the scene on Bourbon Street were apparently found to be viable. This was absolutely a planned act of terrorism.
• In addition to being a packed destination for New Year’s Eve, tens of thousands of college football fans were in the city for tonight’s Sugar Bowl playoff game between Georgia and Notre Dame at the nearby Superdome.
• The stadium was on lockdown this morning, but the game was expected to be played as scheduled.
• As of my writing this news, no solid information has been provided about the asshole who did this. Of course, there’s tons of speculation and innuendo already going around.
• For now, let’s move on.
• As we’ve mentioned recently, this coming Friday the House is holding a vote to see if Mike Johnson (R-LA) gets to remain Speaker.
• Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said yesterday that Johnson does not have the votes to keep the gavel and that he remains undecided on whether he can support the Louisiana Republican in the Friday floor vote, despite Dumpy endorsing Johnson.
• Roy added that Johnson does not yet have the support to be Speaker. “Right now, I don’t believe he has the votes on Friday,” he said.
• Keep in mind that at the moment, all it takes is literally one vote to derail the Republicans in any effort they make in the House.
• Let’s assume that all Democrats vote for Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker. That means that a single vote against Johnson from people like Roy — or fellow right-wingers Andy Harris (R-MD), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Victoria Spartz (R-IN) or others — will take Johnson out.
• Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has said he will vote for a person other than Johnson, regardless of Dumpy’s endorsement.
• Guess we’ll see on Friday. But I can tell you, I’m already seeing a lot of signs of unrest about Dumpy among his fellow conservatives.
• The big-time racists and xenophobes have been boiling with rage over Elon Musk’s opinions on legal immigration, and his influence on Dump seems overwhelming.
• 2025 might be more interesting than you currently assume. I mean that in every way.
• Moving on.
• Most of Puerto Rico spent New Year’s Eve in darkness as a critical failure in their power grid caused a massive blackout affecting a large part of the island yesterday.
• It began yesterday morning at 5:30am. The outage initially knocked out power to nearly 90% of customers. By noon over 1.2 million users, or more than 80% of customers, were still without power.
• Power outages on the island have been a long-running source of frustration for Puerto Ricans who rely on a fragile and poorly-maintained power grid, with modernization efforts slow to materialize over several decades.
• Reminder: Puerto Rico is a US territory.
• Let’s head back to the MAGA civil war for a moment.
• It’s no surprise that Elon Musk is a proponent of H1-B visas. He was personally able to work in the USA because of receiving one, and his car company Tesla is among the U.S. companies that bring thousands of foreign engineers and other skilled workers into the U.S. each year.
• Here's a rundown of the top 20 companies as listed by the number of H-1B petitions for initial employment the U.S. approved in fiscal-year 2024… 
• Amazon: 3,871 in 2024. That figure was down from more than 4,000 H-1B visas in 2023 and nearly 6,400 (!) in 2022.
• Cognizant: 2,837. 
• Infosys: 2,504.
• TCS: 1,452. 
• IBM: 1,348.
• Microsoft: 1,264.
• HCL America: 1,248.
• Google: 1,058.
• Capgemini.: 1,041.
• Meta Platforms: 920.
• Deloitte: 891. 
• Apple: 864.
• Intel: 851.
• Accenture: 833.
• LTIMindtree:798.
• Tesla: 742.
• Ernst & Young: 741.
• Goldman Sachs: 678.
• Wipro: 609.
• Walmart: 654.
• Who are these H1-B recipients? Coders, coders, and more coders. They’re software engineers, developers, and analysts. All of these companies require huge amounts of custom code created for their business operations.
• The grand majority of the recipients are from India; a good number are from China; the remainder from Canada, Korea, the Philippines, and other countries. 
• In other news…
• The FBI arrested a Virginia man it says had the largest stockpile of explosives recovered in the agency’s history. 
• Brad Spafford was arrested earlier this month at his farm outside Norfolk on charges related to failing to register a short barrel rifle. Court documents seeking to prevent his release include the information that he had more than 150 explosive devices stored at his home.
• Spafford stored the devices in a barn on his property, including devices marked “lethal.” Pipe bombs were also found in a backpack in a bedroom otherwise completely unsecured.
• Collectively, the cache was preliminarily assessed as the largest seizure by number of finished explosive devices in FBI history.
• This asshole Spafford first came to the attention of authorities through a neighbor who reported the defendant was using a photo of President Biden for target practice.
• He also expressed approval for political violence, and shared a conspiracy theory that missing children were taken by the federal government to be trained as school shooters.
• All sounds pretty MAGA to me.
• In international news…
• Ukraine has halted the transportation of Russian gas supplies through the country after a prewar transit deal expired at the end of last year.
• Ukraine Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko said this morning that the transit was stopped in the interests of national security.
• Russia’s Gazprom said that Kyiv’s refusal to extend the deal means the majority state-owned energy corporation has no technical or legal possibility of sending gas through Ukraine. 
• Nearly 40 percent of the European Union’s pipeline natural gas was supplied by Russia before the war. When the fighting got underway, an energy crisis in Europe followed since Russia cut off most supplies through other pipelines.
• Europe has since outlined plans to completely eliminate Russian gas imports by 2027. For now, Russia is expected to lose over $4 billion a year from gas transported to Europe via Ukraine.
• And now, The Weather: “Fastball” by moodlighting
• From the Sports Desk… we don’t do collegiate sports here at Zak’s Random News. But with it being January 1, It thought I’d relay a couple of memories to you.
• My dad took me to the Rose Bowl in two consecutive years. The first one was in 1978, when the Washington Huskies defeated the heavily-favored Michigan Wolverines, 27-20.
• The player of the game was Washington QB Warren Moon. Interestingly, Michigan’s QB Rick Leach had a solid career as a major-league baseball player.
• In 1979, we went again, and saw the Huskies lose again, this time to the USC Trojans, 17-10. 
• USC’s team that year was loaded with talent, including RB Marcus Allen, RB Charles White, OL Anthony Muñoz, OL Keith Van Horne, DB Ronnie Lott, and DB Dennis Smith. All went on to have outstanding careers in the NFL.
• Today in history… For the first time, Roman consuls begin their year in office on January 1 (153 BC). The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Republic, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year (45 BC). Emperor Honorius issues a historic ban on gladiatorial fights (404). Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral discovers the coast of Brazil (1500). Scotland recognizes January 1 as the start of the year, instead of March 25 (1600). The first traveler's cheques, which could be used in 90 European cities, are issued by the London Credit Exchange Company (1772). Norfolk, VA is burned by combined Royal Navy and Continental Army action (1776). The first edition of The Times of London is published (1788). Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi (1801). French rule ends in Haiti, and it becomes the first black-majority republic and second independent country in North America after the United States (1804). The United States bans the importation of slaves (1808). The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory (1863). Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom is proclaimed Empress of India (1877). Ellis Island begins processing immigrants into the United States (1892). New York, NY annexes land from surrounding counties with four initial boroughs - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx - that are then joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs. The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia (1901). The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, CA (1902). The Republic of China is established (1912). Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay becomes a United States federal prison (1934). Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces (1959). Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television (1971). The ARPANET officially changes to using TCP/IP, the Internet Protocol, effectively creating the Internet (1983). Euro currency is introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union, with the exception of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Sweden (1999). Croatia officially adopts the Euro, becoming the 20th Eurozone country, and becomes the 27th member of the Schengen Area (2023).
• January 1 is the birthday of politician Lorenzo de' Medici (1449), silversmith/patriot Paul Revere (1735), seamstress Betsy Ross (1752), screenwriter/producer William Fox (1879), physicist/mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose (1894), FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (1895), MLB player Hank Greenberg (1911), boxer Rocky Graziano (1919), author J. D. Salinger (1919), philanthropist/diplomat James Hormel (1933), actor Frank Langella (1938), singer-songwriter/guitarist Country Joe McDonald (1942), comedian Don Novello (1943), politician Bob Menendez (1954), rapper/DJ Grandmaster Flash (1958), actor Verne Troyer (1969), and rapper Ice Spice (2000).

So again, happy new year to you all. As I’ve mentioned over and over, good things and bad things happen all the time, all over the world. What’s important is how you react. As my hero Fred Rogers once said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” And my advice to you all… if you can’t find the helpers, maybe the helper is you. Something to consider in this fresh new year of 2025. Enjoy your day.