Random News: January 10, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s January 10, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! It’s a day when we’d have a ton of news even without natural disasters happening, so let’s see how much we can get through.

• Again, to be 100% clear: we are in zero danger from the fires where I live in Redondo Beach, a good 20 miles south of the danger zones. Our only predicament has been very poor air quality and soot/ash.
• And as of this morning, our air quality here by the beach is — at the moment — back down to a reasonable range.
• We’re fine here. No need to be concerned about me. Other people, yes, but us, no. I thank every who’s sent well wishes.
• And now the news…
• The LA fires are now the costliest in U.S. history. That was already the case with initial economic damages estimated at least $50 billion.
• But that number rose significantly, and now the estimate for damage and economic loss is at $135-$150 billion.
• I’m really not surprised. The areas burned or otherwise damaged include some of the most high-end real estate in densely populated areas with a lot of homes and other structures.
• As of now on this early Friday morning, these fires are not under control by any definition.
• Red flag warnings have been extended through today for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. For those of you not in fire zones like we are, a red flag warning means the combination of warm temperatures, low humidities, and strong winds are expected to increase the risk of fire.
• So far, over 180,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, and over 10,000 structures have burned between the Eaton and Palisades fires alone. Roughly 400,000 customers statewide were without power as of last night.
• The Palisades fire has burned about 26.9 square miles. The Eaton fire in Altadena has burned about 21.4 square miles. The Kenneth fire has burned 1.5 square miles.
• As of this morning, the Palisades Fire near the coast is 6% contained. The Eaton Fire north of Pasadena is 0% contained. The Hurst Fire just south of Santa Clarita is 37% contained. The Kenneth Fire in the San Fernando Valley is 35% contained.
• If you want to be mad at someone regarding their actions during the fires, I have a good choice for you.
• Yesterday, a Canadian “Super Scooper” aircraft fighting the Palisades Fire had to be grounded after it hit a drone flying in restricted airspace over the devastating blaze.
• The specifically designed CL-415 firefighting planes are used to scoop up more than 1,500 gallons of ocean water to drop on active fires.
• The plane sustained wing damage and remains grounded and out of service.
• The collision caused the temporary grounding of all aircraft responding to the Palisades Fire. The midair collision is now under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, which said the firefighting aircraft landed safely.
• Fucking piece of shit, getting their little drone footage for their YouTube channel. I hope they catch that asshole.
• Continuing on…
• As I posted yesterday afternoon, officials with Los Angeles County attempted to send an evacuation order alert to residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills, near the Kenneth Fire.
• But it was mistakenly sent countywide. There are over 9.6 million people in LA County, and every one of us nearly had a fucking heart attack when our phones blared a full-volume alarm along with instructions to gather pets and belongings and leave immediately.
• Better safe than sorry, I suppose.
• Lordy.
• President Biden received the correct answer to counter a batch of bullshit that Donnie Dump has been slinging. Dump had claimed that the hydrants used to fight our fires were running dry because of water conservation priorities.
• That is utterly 100% untrue.
• Deputy energy secretary David Turk explained how hydrants need power in order to pump water up, but during such disasters, power lines are cut in order to curb the potential for power surges and line breakdowns.
• It’s obviously an infrastructure issue that needs fixing. But it’s not because we conserve water in a drought-stricken state. Shut the fuck up, Donnie.
• We have a lot more to discuss today, so let’s move on.
• Dumpy’s Supreme Court didn’t rescue him from his sentencing today.
• He will be the first person to take the presidential office as a convicted felon.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch effort by Dumples the Clown to forestall his sentencing for his New York criminal conviction.
• The five justice majority that voted to deny Dump's application wrote that the evidentiary issues Trump has complained about "can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal." 
• They also noted that the judge overseeing Dump's New York case has signaled he will not sentence Trump to serve any time in jail, writing "the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect's responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court's stated intent to impose a sentence of 'unconditional discharge' after a brief virtual hearing."
• Ha ha, you piece of felonious shit.
• Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch would have granted Trump's application for a postponement of sentencing, the majority wrote.
• But the rest of them — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Kentanji Brown Jackson — told Dump to man the fuck up.
• While I’m writing this at 7am PST, Dumpy’s lawyers are in court at the sentencing. Dump didn’t bother showing up — why would he? — but he appeared remotely.
• And, just now, it’s done.
• Dumples the Clown was sentenced in his hush-money case to unconditional discharge, in which a defendant is not fined, locked up, or given probation.
• So, nothing at all, just as we told you, for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Hope you’re not disappointed.
• Anyway, today’s sentencing formalized Dump’s ignoble status as the first president or president-elect who is a felon.
• We have some other news about the Supreme Court.
• At this moment, they are hearing oral arguments over the fate of TikTok. The high-stakes case reviews a federal law that would effectively shut down the popular social media platform in the United States in nine days if the company does not divest from Chinese ownership.
• The company and a group of TikTok creators are asking the justices to block the sell-or-ban law, which they say is an unprecedented, sweeping violation of free speech protections for the platform’s more than 170 million users in the United States.
• The court will weigh those claims against the national security concerns that prompted Congress to pass the law in April with bipartisan support.
• Since Dumpy wants the ban to be revoked and for TikTok to continue doing business, my bet is that the conservative justices will make their boss happy.
• Guess we’ll see.
• Let’s move on.
• Last night, some more bad news for the ol’ Dumperino.
• A federal appeals court in Atlanta rejected a bid to block the release of a portion of special counsel Jack Smith's final report detailing his investigation and prosecution of President-elect Dumpity Wumpity stemming from an alleged plan to subvert the transfer of power after the 2020 election.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit denied the request from Walt Nauta, an aide to Dump, and Carlos de Oliveira, the former property manager at Mar-a-Lago, who were charged for their role in allegedly obstructing a separate federal investigation into Dump's handling of sensitive government records. 
• The 11th Circuit granted Smith's request to drop Dump from the case in late November after he was elected to a second term in the White House because of a Justice Department policy that forbids the prosecution of a sitting president.
• Nevertheless, federal prosecutors are moving forward with the appeal of a lower court decision dismissing the charges against Nauta and de Oliveira on the grounds Smith was unconstitutionally appointed.
• So Smith submitted a two-volume final report to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday evening that detailed his investigations into Dump. The first volume relates to the prosecution stemming from the 2020 election, and the second volume pertains to the president-elect's alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office in 2020.
• Garland has pledged to disclose to the public all special counsel reports completed while he was attorney general, and has so far followed through on that pledge, including after the investigation into President Biden's handling of documents marked classified.
• Dumpster’s legacy will continue to be more and more tarnished as more people learn about the level of disgrace and discrepancy that’s made up the majority of his life and his actions.
• It will be at least Sunday before the Smith report goes public. We’ll keep an eye on it, of course.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Senate advanced a bill known as the Laken Riley Act. It’s a largely symbolic and performative measure that is allegedly aimed at expanding the federal government's mandate to detain immigrants who are in the country illegally.
• In a 84 to 9 vote, the Senate voted to advance the legislation, with dozens of Democrats voting with Republicans to clear a 60-vote threshold to begin debate. The bill marks the first policy legislation of the new Congress, and the House approved it in a bipartisan vote of its own on Tuesday.
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune will now decide which, if any, amendments will be considered on the floor. Some Democrats who voted to proceed said they did so in order to offer changes to the legislation before deciding how they would vote on final passage.
• Under current law, the Department of Homeland Security is mandated to detain noncitizens convicted of certain crimes, including "aggravated felonies," or serious offenses like murder and sexual assault.
• The Laken Riley Act would expand mandatory detention to include noncitizens convicted of or charged with burglary, larceny, theft, or shoplifting, as well as those who admit to committing those crimes.
• I have no problem with that. People who commit crimes regardless of place of national origin should face justice. If you are already an undocumented person in the country, you should expect to be jailed for crimes you commit.
• In other news…
• Senator JD Vance resigned from his Senate seat last night at midnight as he prepares to become vice president later this month. 
• Vance served just two years of his six-year Senate term. He’ll be noted as one of the least experienced vice presidents in US history.
• Ohio Governor DeWine, a Republican, will appoint Vance's replacement. His successor will fill the seat until a special election is held in 2026. After that, the winner of the special election would serve the remaining two years of Vance's term.
• Let’s move on.
• What were President Obama and Dumpity Doo talking about during their cheerful-looking chat at President Carter’s funeral yesterday that went viral?
• If you missed if, Obama and Dump were seated next to each other, and at one point leaned in and shared some laughs. They almost looked like normal people just for a second.
• Dumpy was asked about it later in a Fox News interview from his home in Florida.
• “It did look very friendly, I must say,” said the Dumpster. “I didn’t realize how friendly it looked. I saw it on your wonderful network, just a little while ago before I came in and I said 'Boy, they look like two people that like each other.' And we probably do,” he said.
• Nice non-answer. Dump didn’t say what he and Obama were talking about.
• I don’t really give a shit. Just thought I’d mention it.
• Moving on.
• Wealthy asshole Elon Musk praised the co-leader of the German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as “very reasonable” yesterday, urging Germans to vote for the far-right party in Musk’s latest high-profile involvement in global politics.
• AfD’s platform is based on opposing immigration into Germany, and encouraging hatred of Muslim people. Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution — the country’s domestic intelligence agency — has classified AfD as a "suspected extremist" organization.
• AfD is also focused on removing any welfare for non-Germans, denying human-caused global warming, and supporting closer relations with Russia.
• I thought Germany had been done with Nazis for a good while, but these things tend to circle back every so often. And it’s no wonder that Musk is their biggest fan.
• Germany’s election is on February 23.
• Moving on.
• Here’s a note from the Stupid and Brainwashed People Desk…
• Edgar Welch was the guy who, back in 2016, drove from North Carolina to D.C. to investigate a false far-right conspiracy theory claiming that Democrats were running a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor there.
• Yes. Pizzagate.
• When he arrived at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, he pulled out an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and a revolver, and then fired the rifle into a door. No one was hurt.
• Welch pled guilty to one federal count each of interstate transportation of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon. Coincidentally, he was sentenced to four years in prison by then-U.S. district judge — now Supreme Court Justice — Ketanji Brown Jackson.
• Why are we talking about this stupid and sadly gullible MAGA fuck? Because he didn’t stop being stupid after serving his jail time. And now he’s dead.
• Welch was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop on Saturday in Kannapolis, North Carolina. He was wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant. When officers moved to arrest him, he produced a handgun from his jacket and pointed it at them.
• Goodbye Welch.
• And now, The Weather: “Orlando In Love” by Japanese Breakfast
• From the Sports Desk… would you like to know the official gambling odds of this weekend’s Wild Card NFL playoffs? Sure you would.
• Chargers (-3) over Texans. Ravens (-9.5) over Steelers. Bills (-8.5) over Broncos. Eagles (-4.5) over Packers. Buccaneers (-3) over Commanders. Vikings (-2.5) over Rams.
• For those unfamiliar, the number is the amount of points the favorite team is expected ton win by, aka the spread. The larger the number, the higher expectation of victory.
• I would bet any amount of money that at least one — if not more — of these games will be won by the underdog.
• Perhaps the most memorable Wild Card upset was in 2011, when the Seahawks somehow got into the playoffs with a losing 7-9 record, and faced the 11-5 Saints, who had just won the Super Bowl the year before. Seattle was a ten-point underdog.
• They beat New Orleans 41-36. This was the “Beast Quake” game, which featured Marshawn Lynch's epic 67-yard touchdown run that saw him break nine tackles and fire up the fans so much that their celebration registered on the Richter scale.
• Good times.
• Today in history… Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war (49 BC). Archbishop William Laud is beheaded for treason at the Tower of London (1645). Thomas Paine publishes his revolution-supporting pamphlet ‘Common Sense’ (1776). Florida becomes the third state to secede from the Union (1861). John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil (1870). Automobile Club of America installs signs on major highways (1901). The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I for all combatant nations except the United States (1920). Fritz Lang's futuristic film ‘Metropolis’ is released in Germany (1927). The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals (1946). The New England Journal of Medicine publishes the letter “Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics”, which is later misused to downplay the general risk of addiction to opioids (1980). Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba (1985). Time Warner is formed by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications (1990). 
• January 10 is the birthday of poet/philosopher Robinson Jeffers (1887), racing driver Violette Cordery (1900), actor Ray Bolger (1904), journalist/music producer Jerry Wexler (1917), MLB player Willie McCovey (1938), actor Sal Mineo (1939), singer-songwriter Jim Croce (1943), singer-songwriter Rod Stewart (1945), singer-songwriter Donald Fagen (1948), boxer George Foreman (1949), porn actress/activist Linda Lovelace (1949), singer-songwriter Pat Benatar (1953), singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin (1956), politician Chris Van Hollen (1959), and whatever Jared Kushner (1981) is.

Wow, that’s a lot of stuff going on at once. But, you know, it all matters. And I do try and get as much of the important shit in each day as I can, within the short time I give myself to do it. I think it all works out. Time to go do things, work hard, and appreciate a Friday as much as possible. Enjoy your day.