Random News: January 8, 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 8, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. It’s not a pleasant morning thus far; I awoke and opened my bedroom door to inhale the unmistakable smell of heavy smoke. As the sun is now rising, the whole world around me is blanketed in brown-ish orange glaze. So let’s jump in and talk about that and other things.

• Our top story today is, per above, a relatively local one for me.
• Four life-threatening fires are destroying homes as they race across Los Angeles County, the largest of which — in Pacific Palisades — has left tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders.
• LA Mayor Karen Bass warned wildfire conditions are “expected to worsen” throughout the morning.
• The out-of-control Palisades fire is blazing through about five football fields a minute and has burned more than 2,900 acres. Los Angeles has declared an emergency and firefighters warned that tornado-like winds were complicating their battles.
• Three other fires have erupted in LA County: The 500-acre strong Hurst Fire north of San Fernando, the 2,000-acre Eaton Fire in Altadena, and the 75-acre Woodley Fire in Sepulveda Basin. More than 150,000 homes and buildings are without power in the county.
• All these major fires threatening the county are 0% contained and have burned more than 5,500 acres collectively. We’re used to fires here, but these are as bad as I’ve ever seen.
• As of this morning, over 50,000 people in the county were ordered to evacuate the area.
• As I’ve mentioned many times, I live in Redondo Beach, a coastal city about 20 miles south of the Palisades Fire. It’s nearly all concrete between here and there; we’re in little to no danger from that specific event.
• Of course, high winds and extremely dry environments are bad regardless. We’re staying alert. And ash is covering the area, even in my own driveway.
• And the air quality, even here in Redondo, is nightmarish. I’m keeping the windows closed and the air purifiers running on full.
• There will be more to discuss about this disaster, as it’s still in progress.
• For now, let’s move on.
• We have multiple stories about that piece of shit who got himself re-elected, trying to — as usual — rewrite history and wriggle out of accountability.
• In no particular order…
• Dump is asking the Supreme Court to call off Friday’s sentencing in his hush money case in New York. 
• His lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court this morning after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
• While Merchan has indicated he will not impose jail time, fines or probation, Dump’s lawyers argued a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects.
• My response, not that they asked: fuck you, Donnie.
• In other news…
• The Justice Department said this morning that it will release special counsel Jack Smith’s findings on Dump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election… but they will keep under wraps for now the rest of the record focused on the piece of shit having hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
• The revelation was made in a filing to a federal appeals court that was considering a defense request to block the release of the two-volume report while charges remain pending against two Trump co-defendants in the Florida case accusing the Republican former president and current president-elect of illegally holding classified documents.
• Aileen Cannon, the Dump-appointed judge presiding over the classified documents case, granted the request yesterday, issuing a temporary block on the report.
• The legal wrangling over the report came less than two weeks before Dump's inauguration to a second term in the White House, with the special counsel wrapping up its work before he takes office.
• Jack Smith oversaw two cases against Trump: the documents case in Florida, and a case related to Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Washington, D.C. Dump pleaded not guilty to all charges, which have since been dismissed due to him being elected.
• Because the Supreme Court has ruled that Presidents can commit any crime they want.
• Assholes.
• All of them.
• Moving on with one more mention of that orange buffoon…
• Yesterday he gave a press conference form his golf motel in Florida.
• Among other moronic statements, he threatened to use military force to capture Greenland and Panama, said he would immediately reverse President Biden’s recent executive order that will render about 625 million acres of American waters off-limits to new drilling permits, and said he would be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America.’
• I’m already over this guy and he’s not yet in office.
• Let’s move on.
• The asshole who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Dump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack.
• That helps explain why it wasn’t very successful.
• A laptop, cellphone, and watch are still under review a week after 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, a decorate soldier, fatally shot himself just before the truck blew up.
• An investigation of Livelsberger's searches through ChatGPT indicate he was looking for information on explosive targets, the speed at which certain rounds of ammunition would travel, and whether fireworks were legal in Arizona.
• In other news…
• Some good news out of Virginia, where Democrats retained control of the state’s General Assembly in special elections yesterday, dimming Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s prospects for a big legislative legacy.
• Republicans could have upset the balance of power in Richmond — which would have given Youngkin the chance to restrict abortion, fund private-school vouchers, and advance the rest of his conservative agenda in the final year of his term — had they flipped two Loudoun County seats on the ballot.
• But Democrats held on to the Loudoun House and Senate seats. Whew.
• Meanwhile, in North Carolina, the state’s highest court blocked the certification of a November election result for one of its own seats so it can review legal arguments by a trailing candidate who contends over 60,000 ballots that were cast shouldn’t be counted.
• Assholes.
• The decision by the Republican-dominated state Supreme Court to issue the temporary stay is a setback for Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs. Election results show Riggs ahead of GOP challenger Jefferson Griffin by just 734 votes from over 5.5 million ballots cast.
• The ultimate winner gets an eight-year term on a Supreme Court where five of the seven current justices are registered Republicans.
• Let’s hope for the best there.
• And now, The Weather: “Cruise Control” by Local the Neighbour
• Rest in peace to Peter Yarrow, one third of the chart-topping 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. He died yesterday at 86.
• One of the group’s biggest achievements was popularizing the music of Bob Dylan via their popular version of his song “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Other big hits for Peter, Paul and Mary included “Puff, the Magic Dragon” (co-composed by Yarrow) as well as cover songs like “If I Had a Hammer” by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays,, and John Denver’s “Leaving On a Jet Plane,” which reached number one.
• Yarrow’s legacy is rather tarnished by having pleaded guilty to taking “immoral and improper liberties” with a child in the ‘70s. A 14-year-old girl alleged that Yarrow had invited her and her 17-year-old sister to meet him at his hotel room. He answered the door naked and had the younger girl masturbate him while her sister watched.
• He served a short jail sentence and then received a presidential pardon from Jimmy Carter on the last day of his term, January 19, 1981. 
• From the Sports Desk… a bunch of NFL teams will start next season with new head coaches.
• The head coaches of the Bears (Matt Eberflus), Jaguars (Doug Pederson), Raiders (Antonio Pierce), Patriots (Jerod Mayo), Saints (Dennis Allen), and Jets (Robert Saleh) will all be looking for new gigs in 2025.
• The Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs starts on Saturday.
• Today in history… Æthelred I and Alfred the Great lead a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings (871). The premiere of George Frideric Handel's ‘Ariodante’ takes place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1735). George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City (1790). In the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British (1815). The Democratic Party of the United States is organized (1828). US President Andrew Jackson celebrates having reduced the United States national debt to zero for the only time (1835). The United States Congress passes the bill to allow African American men the right to vote in Washington, D.C. (1867). Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory (1877). President William McKinley places Alaska under military rule (1900). President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I (1918). Britain introduces food rationing for WWII (1940). Charles de Gaulle is proclaimed as the first President of the French Fifth Republic (1959). President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States (1964). The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins (1973). Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband (1975). AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions in the breakup of the Bell System (1982). President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act (2002). Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is shot in the head along with 18 others in a mass shooting in Tucson, AZ (2011). Supporters of former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro storm the Brazilian Congress (2023).
• January 8 is the birthday of composer/conductor Hans von Bülow (1830), philanthropist Winnaretta Singer (1865), economist/sociologist/pacifist Emily Greene Balch (1867), physicist Walther Bothe (1891), burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee (1911), actor Larry Storch (1923), comedian Soupy Sales (1926), businessman Bill Graham (1931), journalist Charles Osgood (1933), singer/actor Elvis Presley (1935), singer Shirley Bassey (1937), actor Graham Chapman (1941), physicist Stephen Hawking (1942), guitarist/songwriter Robby Krieger (1946), singer-songwriter/actor David Bowie (1947), singer Mike Reno (1955), businesswoman Betsy DeVos (1958), drummer Dave Weckl (1960), singer-songwriter Andrew Wood (1966), singer/convicted felon R. Kelly (1967), MLB player Jason Giambi (1971), and NFL player Zach Charbonnet (2001).

So, I’m going to try and have a normal and productive day. Let’s hope that something happens that allows the firefighters to get an upper hand on the fires raging around SoCal. For now, I’m just living in, or at least adjacent to, hell. Enjoy your day.