Random News: April 19, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 19, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! We’ve made it through another week, and if it’s news you’re here to seek, my name is Zak the Info Geek; scroll down a bit and take a peek.

• Against the urging of the international community, Israel launched a drone offensive against Iran early today, responding to the Iranian attack last weekend which has fueled mounting concerns over a wider war in the Middle East.
• The extent of the damage, if any, was unclear. No damage was reported at Iran's nuclear sites. Iran claims to have hit three drones over the city of Isfahan, causing a small number of explosions in an area where a military base and nuclear facilities are located.
• Much like Iran’s attack, Israel’s retaliatory strike appears to have been very limited in scope and designed to avoid turning the long-running shadow war between the two Middle East rivals into a full-blown conflagration.
• The attack was a response to Iran’s offensive the previous weekend, which itself was a response to a reported Israeli airstrike on an Iranian embassy compound in Syria that killed multiple officers, including a top commander.
• See how this shit escalates?
• As the US, UK, and other countries are recommending, hopefully calmer heads can prevail and not turn this into WWIII. That would be nice.
• In related news, New York City police arrested at least 108 people yesterday during a pro-Palestinian protest on Columbia University's campus after the university's president requested their removal.
• More than 100 people occupied the campus' South Lawn for more than 30 hours. Those who were taken into custody were issued summonses for trespassing. Two people were also charged with obstruction of governmental administration.
• And then the police presence led to another impromptu protest in support of those who were detained. Sigh. See how this shit escalates? Wait, I just said that.
• Side note: Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), was suspended from Barnard College over her involvement in the protest.
• Side note 2: I, too, protest. I’ve been a part of marches, rallies, public speeches, all of it. I support that right. What I don’t do is protest on private property, or disrupt people’s ability to lead their lives just because I’m passionate about a cause.
• That doesn’t make me a very good militant activist, because I’m not one. I’m a chill activist. A chillivist, perhaps.
• Something I am definitely NOT chill about: women’s reproductive rights.
• Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from U.S. emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
• One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her. Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldn’t offer an ultrasound. The baby later died.
• I thought all of this action by Republicans was meant to help save the lives of babies?
• Fucking pieces of shit. Vote them all out. Every one of them.
• And some good news in that regard: the Nevada Supreme Court will allow an abortion measure to be on the ballot this November. If passed, the measure would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.
• Let’s go! Nevadans, you know what to do. VOTE!
• Moving on.
• Here’s an update from the third day of the criminal trial of Donald John Trump, accused felon.
• They now now seated 12 jurors and selected one alternate. As per our reporting yesterday, two of the originally-selected jurors cannot fill their duties.
• The first, whom we mentioned yesterday, was not sure she’d be able to act fairly and impartially toward Dump.
• The second one released was the man who’d said he found Dump “fascinating and mysterious.” Turns out that he was arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political advertisements, and his wife was a participant in a corruption inquiry—none of which the juror disclosed to the court.
• The is apparently a big win for the prosecutors; Dump’s team had really wanted him on the jury, hoping to use his previous actions as cause for a mistrial.
• So they were down to five, and then added seven more plus one alternate (they’ll need five more alternates to complete the process).
• Now that’s the jury is seated, here’s a recap that includes info on each of the seven men and five women who were sworn in (and yes, I’m repeating some of this from the other day, to be clear).
• Juror 1 (foreperson): Originally from Ireland, works in sales, has some college education, married no kids. Reads the New York Times and Daily Mail, watches some Fox News and MSNBC. 
• Juror 2: Investment banker with a Master's degree. Married, no kids. Follows Dump's Truth Social posts as well as Michael Cohen on X. Has seen quotes from Trump’s book, "The Art of the Deal."
• Juror 3: Corporate lawyer from Oregon. Gets news from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal. and Google. Younger guy, never married, no kids.
• Juror 4: Security engineer. Married, three kids, has a high school diploma, uses no social media.
• Juror 5: Young Black woman. Teaches English in a public school. Master’s degree in education. Not married, no kids. 
• Juror 6: Software engineer at a large broadcast company,, recently college grad. Not married, no kids, lives with three roommates in Chelsea. Gets her news from NYT, Google, Facebook, and TikTok. 
• Juror 7: Civil litigator, married, two kids, lives on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. From North Carolina. Reads the NYT, WSJ, New York Post, and Washington Post.
• Juror 8: Retired wealth manager. Married with two kids. Does fly fishing and yoga.
• Juror 9: Speech therapist with a Master’s degree. Not married, no kids.
• Juror 10: Works for an e-commerce company, doesn’t follow the news. Listens to podcasts on behavioral psychology. Unmarried. Spends time outdoors and with animals. 
• Juror 11: Works for a multinational apparel company, not married, no kids. Doesn’t follow the news but occasionally sees headlines. 
• Pausing a moment… she was seated on the jury despite Dump’s challenge to remove her for cause. His lawyers argued she should be dismissed because she said she does not like Trump’s “persona.”
• Snort. I mean, no one likes that. They’d never come up with 12 people who actually liked him.
• Juror 12: Physical therapist with a doctorate degree. Reads/watches the New York Times, USA Today, and CNN. 
• Alternate 1: Analyst for an asset management company, grew up in England. Reads the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
• That looks to me like a batch of very typical people who live in Manhattan. I can’t say from any of that whether they’d be biased for or against Dumples.
• The only other thing to report for now… prosecutors asked for Trump to be held in contempt over a series of social media posts this week, and the judge barred reporters from identifying jurors’ employers after expressing privacy concerns.
• Please note that I have respected the judge’s orders here.
• A couple of the dismissed potential jurors had some comical statements to the media afterwards. One was a woman who was dismissed yesterday because she couldn’t be impartial, and stated, “You know, he looked less orange. Definitely. Like, more yellowish.”
• Good to know.
• Another woman, this one dismissed from the larger pool due to work conflicts, said it was jarring when she realized she’d been chosen as a potential juror for Dumpy’s hush money trial.
• When the jury pool walked in the room and saw Dumpy himself, “Everybody was shocked. Everybody was frozen,” she said. “And you get the sense that it’s like, ‘Oh, this is just another guy.’ And also he sees me talking about him, which is bizarre.”
• I’ll bet.
• They’ll finish picking alternate jurors today. Opening statements will begin as early as Monday, and the case is expected last no more than eight weeks.
• Moving on for now.
• On Monday, the Supreme Court will weigh arguments in the most significant case involving the homeless in decades.
• We already mentioned the case, Grants Pass vs. Johnson, earlier this week. It involves whether laws that punish homeless people with civil citations for camping on public property are outside the bounds of the Constitution.
• On any given night there are over a quarter million unsheltered people in the U.S., per estimates by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2023. Homelessness rose 12% from 2022 to 2023, its highest level since tracking began in 2007.
• The Court’s ruling will either make it easier for cities to punish people for sleeping outside while failing to provide them shelter or housing, or it will push cities to fund actual solutions to homelessness.
• Here’s hoping.
• While that trial was progressing in a rather normal way yesterday, El Dumpo got some very bad, not good, rather sad news in another of his criminal trials via U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who ruled that lawsuits filed against Donald Trump over his actions tied to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol were allowed to advance despite Dump’s request to pause litigation amid his related criminal case in Washington, D.C.
• Ha ha!
• Some terrific news for the environment came yesterday in the form of a new Interior Department rule that puts conservation, recreation and renewable energy development on equal footing with oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining, and livestock grazing on public lands across the country.
• It’s a huge shift in the management of roughly 245 million acres of public property — about one-tenth of the nation’s land mass. But expect legal challenges from fossil fuel industry groups and Republican officials.
• In addition to leases to oil and gas companies, mining firms, and ranchers, the Bureau of Land Management for the first time will auction off restoration and mitigation leases to entities with plans to restore or conserve public lands.
• Awesome.
• Did you buy a Cybertruck from Elon Musk? Give it back.
• Tesla is recalling every single one of the 3,878 Cybertrucks that it has shipped to date due to a problem where the accelerator pedal can get stuck, putting drivers at risk of a crash.
• Also, apparently if you put your Cybertruck through a car wash, it turns into a shiny brick, per reports.
• I’ve still never seen one in person, though I’ve been told there are several around my area. I’ll try not to barf when it eventually happens.
• In other news…
• The TikTok ban is happening.
• If the popular video-sharing app does not divest from China-based ByteDance within one year, it will be banned nationwide. 
• The bill to ban TikTok already passed the House in a bipartisan 352-65 vote in March. It had stalled in the Senate, but now the House is packaging a slightly revised TikTok ban with billions in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, all but guaranteeing the ban will become law.
• The House plans to pass the combined foreign aid and TikTok package Saturday night and send it to the Senate, setting up a possible vote as early as next week.
• Moving on.
• An Arizona Republican done fucked up.
• Now Republicans in the state will have to rely on a write-in campaign to hold a state House seat after Rep. Austin Smith (R-Surprise) ended his campaign after it came out that signatures on his nominating petitions were forged.
• By himself. D’oh!
• Keep in mind: Arizona’s GOP House has a tiny one-vote majority, and it can't afford to concede any safe districts.
• Smith’s former district is overwhelmingly Republican, but I love that they’re having to scramble.
• In somewhat similar news…
• Yet another GOP House member is getting the fuck out of that hellhole.
• Rep. Jake LaTurner's (R-KS) is “retiring” from the House at age 36 after just three years in office. House Republicans say they expect more retirement announcements in the coming weeks.
• LaTurner makes nearly 20 House Republicans who have left or are planning to leave Congress without immediate plans to run for another office. Another five are seeking higher office.
• Moving on.
• In today’s Asshole Files, meet Sean Patrick Palmer, 49, of Perkins, OK. He was arrested this week for throwing a pipe bomb that damaged The Satanic Temple headquarters in Salem, MA.
• There’s security video footage of Palmer igniting and throwing a pipe bomb over a fence and onto the covered porch of The Satanic Temple building. The explosive partially detonated and caused minor fire damage to the exterior of the building.
• Fuck you. Throwing bombs at a place of worship is never, ever okay.
• And now, The Weather: “Turtleneck Weather” by JW Francis
• A big RIP to singer-songwriter and terrific influential guitarist Dickey Betts, who died yesterday at age 80.
• If you’ve ever heard music categorized as “Southern Rock,” Dickey is the man who set the standard for it. Betts was a cofounder of the Allman Brothers Band in 1969.
• Dickey was also a fine singer. While many of the band’s big hits were sing by Gregg Allman, Dickey sometimes took the vocals on tunes he’d written, which include two of my favorites by the band: “Blue Sky” and “Ramblin' Man.”
• Let’s do a chart. This time, it’s the very bottom of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for this date in April 1969.
• I recognize many of the artists but only a few of the songs. But hey, having a song anywhere on the charts is better than 99.999% of musicians ever get to experience.
• 81. Cissy Strut (The Meters). 82. Tracks Of My Tears (Aretha Franklin). 83. Morning Girl (The Neon Philharmonic), 84. Back In The U.S.S.R. (Chubby Checker). 85. Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) (The Vogues). 86. Goodbye (Mary Hopkin). 87.(We've Got) Honey Love (Martha Reeves & The Vandellas). 88. Any Day Now (Percy Sledge). 89. I've Been Hurt (Bill Deal & The Rhondels). 90. A Million To One (Brian Hyland). 91. Breakfast In Bed (Dusty Springfield). 92. California Girl (And The Tennessee Square) (Tompall & The Glaser Brothers). 93. There Never Was A Time (Jeannie C. Riley). 94. Singing My Song (Tammy Wynette). 95. Rhythm Of The Rain (Gary Lewis And The Playboys). 96. Sorry Suzanne (The Hollies). 97. It's A Groovy World! (The Unifics). 98. I Can't Do Enough (The Dells). 99. I'm A Drifter (Bobby Goldsboro). 100. July You're A Woman (Pat Boone).
• If you’re curious, the #1 song at that moment was Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures) (The 5th Dimension).
• From the Sports Desk… NHL playoff teams are ready to face off.
• Atlantic Division: 1-seed Florida Panthers vs. Wild Card 1 Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-seed Boston Bruins vs. 3-seed Toronto Maple Leafs.
• Metropolitan Division: 1-seed New York Rangers vs. Wild Card 2 Washington Capitals, 2-seed Carolina Hurricanes vs. 3-seed New York Islanders.
• Central Division: 1-seed Dallas Stars vs. Wild Card 2 Vegas Golden Knights, 2-seed Winnipeg Jets vs. 3-seed Colorado Avalanche.
• Pacific Division: 1-seed Vancouver Canucks vs. Wild Card 1 Nashville Predators, 2-seed Edmonton Oilers vs. 3-seed Los Angeles Kings.
• Playoff games begin tomorrow.
• Today in history… Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia (1770). The American Revolutionary War begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord (1775). John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government (1782). A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city (1861). Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play ‘Sex’ (1927). Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco (1956). Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign (1960). Charles Manson is sentenced to death — later commuted to life imprisonment —  for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders (1971). Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; they surrender two days later (1985). ‘The Simpsons’ first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with "Good Night” (1987). The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out (1993). The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six (1995). Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961 (2011). Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police (2013).
• April 19 is the birthday of musician Christoph Bach (1613), politician Roger Sherman (1721), labor organizer Sarah Bagley (1806), writer/editor Mary Louise Booth (1831), actress Constance Talmadge (1898), law enforcement agent Eliot Ness (1903), chemist Glenn T. Seaborg (1912), actress Jayne Mansfield (1933), actor Dudley Moore (1935), keyboardist Alan Price (1942), keyboardist Bernie Worrell (1944), actor Tim Curry (1946), record executive Suge Knight (1965), actress Ashley Judd (1968), actor James Franco (1978), actress Kate Hudson (1979), NFL player Troy Polamalu (1981), comedian Ali Wong (1982), WNBA player Candace Parker (1986), and tennis player Maria Sharapova (1987).

My goodness, that’s too much stuff. I’m going to go do things now. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 18, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 18, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. We have a literal ton of news. If you printed out all the news and weighed it, it would be at least 2,000 pounds or more. Fortunately, were not going to do that and instead I’ve chosen just a smattering of the crazy shit that goes on the world to include here. You’re welcome.

• For the second time in two weeks, Arizona Republican lawmakers rejected an attempt to repeal a near-total ban on abortion from 1864 that was upheld by the state’s Supreme Court.
• Again, keep this in mind: they’ve now had two opportunities to repeal this 160-year-old law that removes bodily autonomy rights form women of that fine state, and both times have chosen not to do it.
• Even Donnie Dump and failed candidate Kari Lake are pressuring them to repeal the ban so that they won’t pay the political price for it. Nope. They like it. And, of course, they are beholden to the evangelical people who give them money and want to force women to give birth with no exceptions for rape or incest.
• As yesterday’s state House legislative session started, Arizona Democrats introduced a bill to repeal the Civil War-era ban and filed a motion to Republican House leaders requesting an immediate vote.
• The vote to suspend the rules to hold an immediate vote failed, with Republican House Speaker Ben Toma saying, "And I would ask everyone in this chamber to respect the fact that some of us believe that abortion is in fact the murder of children.”
• Those Arizona Republicans were cheering and taunting the horrified women who were there in protest. This is no accident.
• So again: this is what they want. It’s not some kind of mistake. And you’ll be able to express your opinion via your vote this fall.
• Let’s move on.
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said yesterday morning that he would move to dismiss impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a move that would end the Senate trial before arguments even begin.
• And that is exactly what happened. The vote to reject the first article of impeachment against Mayorkas, declaring it unconstitutional, was 51-48, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voting present.
• The second article of impeachment was also rejected as unconstitutional by a vote of 51-49.
• To be clear: Mayorkas never did a damn thing wrong. Nothing. The House Republicans had said they were going to pick a member of Biden’s cabinet and impeach them.
• To be impeached from that position, a person would need to be guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and Mayorkas has done literally nothing that breaks any law.
• The outright dismissal of the prosecution of Mayorkas, with no chance to argue the case, was an embarrassing defeat for House Republicans and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who made the impeachment a priority.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, we mentioned the process of jury selection, aka voir dire, in Dumpy’s hush money case.
• And I think it was pretty clear that the rules were firm and fair… each side can recommend to strike any juror who exhibits actual prejudice and is incapable of an objective view in the court case at hand.
• And we also mentioned that each side in a case gets another 10 strikes that can be applied with no questions asked, and no reasons provided.
• Side note: because Dumpy is charged with a Class E felony, which is a lower-level felony, he and prosecutors are entitled to 10 peremptory challenges each. The number goes up to 20 for defendants facing the highest level of felony charge, Class A.
• But Dumpy just learned about this, apparently.
• Yesterday he went off on a rant (shocking, I know), saying, “I thought STRIKES were supposed to be 'unlimited' when we were picking our jury? I was then told we only had 10, not nearly enough when we were purposely given the 2nd Worst Venue in the Country.”
• Now tell me… how would “unlimited” strikes work? Any time anyone had a trial, your lawyer could just continue striking potential jurors infinitely, so the trial would never begin.
• And Donnie’s crowd is not capable of that level of basic intellect, so they buy into his narrative that he’s being treated unfairly, as opposed to receiving more leeway than any other criminal defendant in history.
• The trial is in its third day of jury selection today… but we are down to six jurors.
• Juror 2, the oncology nurse, has been excused from duty. The high profile nature of this case has left her concerned she will not be able to act fair and impartial… and probably concerned about her own safety, with the MAGA community already lining up to harass and attack members of the jury.
• "Yesterday alone, I had friends colleagues and family push things to my phone questioning my identity as a juror," she said.
• So the voir dire jury selection continues today. A fresh panel of 96 potential jurors are being interviewed today, to add to the now-six jurors who were seated on Tuesday.
• From the new batch of 96 potential jurors being questioned this morning, 48 were summarily excused because they said they cannot be fair and impartial.
• I couldn’t be either. No fucking way.
• Moving on to some good news from the Supreme Court.
• Yesterday they made it easier for workers to pursue employment discrimination claims over job transfers, unanimously siding with a female police sergeant in St. Louis who said she was reassigned to a less prestigious role because she is a woman.
• Federal civil rights law prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics such as sex, race and religion under Title VII, which is meant to ensure equal employment opportunities and eliminate discrimination in the workplace.
• The debate in this case was whether Title VII guards against all discriminatory job transfers, or requires an additional showing in court by the employee that the involuntary move causes harm to career prospects, or a change in salary or rank.
• Justice Elena Kagan wrote the opinion, saying that the higher standard applied by some lower courts was wrong, and employees instead must only show some harm.
• Good. Moving on.
• Yesterday, legislators in Maine approved new restrictions on weapons sales but did not pass a measure that would have significantly strengthened the ability to remove guns from those deemed dangerous.
• You probably recall last October when a gunman in the state killed 18 people at a bowling alley and bar, an event that inspired the renewed look at common sense gun regulation.
• However, Maine is a largely rural state where gun ownership is common, and even Democratic lawmakers are reluctant to enact fresh limits.
• Depute that, lawmakers passed bills this week that expanded background checks to cover private gun sales advertised on platforms such as Facebook, and approved a measure instituting a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases.
• Good for them. The right thing isn’t always the popular thing, which is one reason that politicians often support an obviously wrong direction to gain better chances of re-election.
• Moving on.
• Today, more than a dozen members of the Kennedy family will endorse President Joe Biden for a second term, passing over family member and unhinged asshole Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with their support.
• The Kennedy family has stepped up its involvement in the Biden campaign, working to lift Biden's odds and helping to eliminate the potential spoiler risk of RFK that could hand the election to Dumpy.
• In other news…
• I have yet to mention the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which started construction this week here in Southern California.
• It’s a special overpass of the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills that covered in vegetation, and once completed will be one of the largest urban wildlife crossings in the world.
• The 101, aka Ventura Freeway, is extraordinarily busy, and is 10 lanes wide plus exit/entrance lanes. The crossing is particularly critical for the mountain lions of the Santa Monica Mountains, which have declined and become genetically isolated since the 101 prevents them from moving between the Simi Hills to the north and the Santa Monica Mountains to the south.
• I am 100% in favor of this.
• Hats off to the the Annenberg Foundation who kicked in a $25 challenge grant to get it rolling. The project costs around $90 million in total, with funding from private donations covering about 60% and the rest coming from public funds set aside for conservation purposes.
• Also thanks to our congressional Rep. Ted Lieu (D) for getting $2.5 million in federal funding for the project.
• Moving on to a philosophical note.
• People complain a lot about the things they could have done in the past to make their present situation potentially better.
• But hardly anyone looks at their present situation and does the things that will almost certainly make their future better.
• And even if it’s not a matter of jumping up and making life changes, maybe it’s just about simply appreciating what you do have right now.
• 20 years from now, assuming you’re alive, your life will be different in many ways. The world around you will be different. You, yourself, will be different.
• And you may look back to the good old days of 2024 and wish things were like that again from your vantage point in 2044.
• Why not just enjoy today because you can? Why not do some things you can do right now, at the age you are and in the place you are and in the physical and mental condition you have at this moment?
• And then you’ll have less to regret later.
• Anyway, just a thought.
• And now, The Weather: “Pile of Photos” by Dogs on Shady Lane
• RIP to Bob Graham, who died yesterday at age 87. He was a governor of Florida, a U.S. Senator, and ran for President in 2004.
• Graham was a good guy. He helped found the Democratic Leadership Council and eventually became Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 
• Let’s do a chart. It’s April 1983, and this is the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles. I was nearing the end of my freshman year of high school, so trust me, I know every one of these songs, for better or worse.
• 1. Come On Eileen (Dexys Midnight Runners). 2. Beat It (Michael Jackson). 3. Mr. Roboto (Styx). 4. Jeopardy (Greg Kihn Band). 5. Billie Jean (Michael Jackson). 6. Der Kommissar (After The Fire). 7. One On One (Daryl Hall John Oates). 8. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) (Journey). 9. Let's Dance (David Bowie). 10. She Blinded Me With Science (Thomas Dolby). 11. Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran). 12. Little Red Corvette (Prince). 13. Even Now (Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band). 14. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me (Culture Club). 15. Overkill (Men At Work). 16. I Won't Hold You Back (Toto). 17. You Are (Lionel Richie). 18. Solitaire (Laura Branigan). 19. We've Got Tonight (Kenny Rogers And Sheena Easton). 20. I Know There's Something Going On (Frida).
• From the Sports Desk… we’re one step closer to a complete NBA playoff picture. In the single-elimination play-in tournament, the Philadelphia 76ers won 105-104 in a hard-fought game against the Miami Heat, and the Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks 131-116.
• Tomorrow will have the final games of the play-in tournament to determine the last spots in the playoffs, with Chicago at Miami, and Sacramento and New Orleans.
• Playoffs start Saturday.
• Today in history… The British advancement by sea in the Revolutionary War begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements (1775). Black slaves in the United States of America are counted as three-fifths of persons in a resolution of the Congress of the Confederation, later adopted in the 1787 Constitution (1783). The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City (1912). The British Broadcasting Corporation announced that "there is no news" in their evening report (1930). The Doolittle Raid on Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed (1942). The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague, Netherlands (1946). A redacted version of the Mueller report is released to the United States Congress and the public (2019).
• April 18 is the birthday of Roman emperor Gratian (359), noblewoman Lucrezia Borgia (1480), lawyer Clarence Darrow (1857), conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882), actress Barbara Hale (1922), singer-songwriter Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (1924), journalist Robert Christgau (1942), actor James Woods (1947), actor Rick Moranis (1953), actress Jane Leeves (1961), TV host Conan O’Brien (1963), NFL player Willie Roaf (1970), actor David Tennant (1971), NFL player Derrick Brooks (1973), actress Melissa Joan Hart (1976), ummm… Kourtney Kardashian (1979), MLB player Miguel Cabrera (1983), and actress America Ferrera (1984).

That’s way more than enough news. I am hoping for a good, productive day, filled with positivity and happiness. Or, you know, whatever. Any normal day is fine. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 17, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 17, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I’m your host for today’s round of this and that, comings and goings, and things and stuff and whatnot. Time to crack open the news and see what’s important to some of us.

• Starting with reporting on Day 2 of the criminal hush-money trial for Sleepy Don.
• And yes, he fell asleep again in court yesterday. Multiple times. That guy definitely has some major health issue(s) going on. I mean, he does turn 78 in June, and not every older person has the stamina of a guy like Joe Biden.
• He did wake up enough at one point to gesture at and speak audibly in the direction of a potential juror who was being questioned.
• Judge Juan Merchan issued a stern warning to the Nappy Nincompoop for his reaction to the juror in the courtroom. But it was just that, for now — a warning — not to do it again. "I will not have any jurors intimidated in the courtroom," said Merchan after the juror left the court.
• Can Dump’s lawyers just reject every potential juror? Nope.
• Both the prosecution and defense get 10 strikes, no questions asked, for jurors who are not being dismissed for a specific cause. In the instances in which either side is successful in dismissing a potential juror for cause, it does not have to use a strike. Yesterday, for example, Dumpy’s team sought to dismiss a juror who made a celebratory video when Dump lost in 2020.
• I mean, I did too. I really did. There was dancing and singing.
• Both sides have each used six preemptive strikes so far, leaving each side four strikes left.
• Anyway, they seemed to have a super productive day yesterday, seating seven jurors. That leaves six to go, and six alternates. They seem to be ahead of schedule.
• Want to know about the jury thus far? Why not… this shit is gonna be everywhere soon enough.
• Juror 1 (who will be the foreperson) is originally from Ireland. Works in sales; married, no kids. Reads the New York Times and Daily Mail; watches some Fox News and MSNBC.
• Juror 2: Oncology nurse, native New Yorker, reads the Times, watches CNN.
• Juror 3: Corporate lawyer from Oregon. Gets news from NYT, WSJ, Google. Young guy, never married, no kids. Hmm.
• Juror 4: Older Puerto Rican man, married with adult children and two grandkids. Has an IT business for training and consulting. Said he finds Trump fascinating and mysterious. Fuck.
• Juror 5: Young Black woman who teaches English language in a public school. Master’s degree in education. Not married, no kids. Was not aware Dump is facing other charges.
• Juror 6: Software engineer at a large broadcast company. Recent college grad. Not married, no kids, currently living with three roommates. Gets her news from NYT, Google, Facebook, and TikTok.
• Cute side note on Number 6. She asked the judge whether her sister’s wedding on a Sunday in September would be a scheduling conflict. Merchan quipped, “If we were still here in September, that would be a big problem,” and the whole courtroom busted out in laughter.
• Except the sleepy guy in front.
• Juror 7: Civil litigator, married, two kids, lives on the Upper East Side…. ooh, fancy. Reads NYT, WSJ, New York Post, and Washington Post.
• So, that’s seven down, five to go, plus six alternates.
• There are no proceedings today in the trial; they are taking each Wednesday off. At least Sleepy Don will get his nap time today. Maybe he’ll be less cranky.
• Let’s move over to some world news.
• It seems clear that Israel, despite the advice of its allies, is going to retaliate against Iran after their drone and missile attack over last weekend.
• Israeli officials have not said how or when they might strike. Regardless, there is no situation where a direct Israeli attack on Iranian soil wouldn’t lead to major fallout.
• As a reminder, Iran claims that their strike on Israel was to avenge an Israeli airstrike that killed two Iranian generals in Syria on April 1. It has pledged a much tougher response to any Israeli counterattack attack on its soil.
• Being logical on this… Israel is already focused on its war against Hamas in Gaza. They are already battling Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Is a direct attack on Iran even feasible?
• How does Iran feel about this? Well, today, President Ebrahim Raisi stated that Saturday’s attack on Israel was a limited one, and that if Iran was provoked to carry out a bigger attack, "nothing would remain from the Zionist regime.”
• Can we just not?
• Back in the USA…
• House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) job is in deeper jeopardy as two far-right members are now threatening to oust him after he proposed a complex plan intended to fund key foreign allies during wartime.
• During a weekly Republican meeting yesterday morning, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) stood up and called on Johnson to resign. Massie also signed on to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) plan to depose him via a motion to vacate.
• Man. How embarrassing it would be to be a Republican right now? I can’t even imagine.
• Meanwhile, the Supreme Court was busy hearing arguments about the poor people who mounted an insurrection on January 6, 2021, and whether they should be treated more leniently.
• The justices heard arguments over the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding in the case of Joseph Fischer, a former Pennsylvania police officer who has been indicted for his role in disrupting Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Dump. Fischer is one of 330 people facing that charge… and another is Dump himself. 
• And next week, the justices will hear arguments over whether Dumpy has “absolute immunity” from prosecution in that case, a proposition that has so far been rejected by two lower courts.
• In much less significant but humorous SCOTUS news, they also denied a petition by MyPillow founder and election denier Mike Lindell to consider his challenge to the legality of the FBI’s seizure of his cellphone at a restaurant drive-through.
• Snort. Three lower court rulings in the case already went against Lindell. Fuck that guy.
• A quick mention of the debacle of Dump’s Truth Social stock collapse.
• One thing that’s not mentioned enough are the poor folks who actually believed in this as a good investment instead of a scam.
• I’ve read reports of families in the South and Midwest who cashed out money from 401k's, other stock, life savings, and home equity to buy Dump’s stock, not knowing that it was meant to fail the whole time.
• Shares of the stock tumbled another 14% yesterday after closing 18% lower Monday. Driving the stock lower Tuesday: Truth Social announced a major expansion into streaming, a notoriously cost-intensive business in which media behemoths like Disney have struggled to turn a profit.
• The stock is down more than 70% from the all-time high it set on March 26.
• I genuinely feel badly for the folks who thought it was legit.
• And now, The Weather: “On Fire” by IDAHO
• From the Sports Desk… a little reminder of how the modern NBA playoffs work.
• In addition to the top six seeds in each conference, there is a mini play-in tournament to determine the seventh and eighth playoff spots. Each play-in game is single-elimination.
• So, the current playoff schedule is as follows…
• Eastern Conference: 1-seed Boston Celtics vs. 8-seed TBD. 2-seed New York Knicks vs. 7-seed TBD. 3-seed Milwaukee Bucks vs. 6-seed Indiana Pacers. 4-seed Cleveland Cavaliers vs. 5-seed Orlando Magic.
• Eastern play-in teams: 76ers, Heat, Bulls, and Hawks.
• Western Conference: 1-seed Oklahoma City Thunder (1) vs. 8-seed TBD. 2-seed Denver Nuggets vs. 7-seed Los Angeles Lakers. 3-seed Minnesota Timberwolves vs. 6-seed Phoenix Suns. 4-seed LA Clippers vs. 5-seed Dallas Mavericks.
• Western play-in teams: Pelicans, Lakers, Kings, and Warriors.
• The play-in tourney started last night with Lakers beating the Pelicans 110-106, and the Kings beating up the Warriors 118-94. Tonight has the Heat at Sixers and Hawks at Bulls.
• Today in history… Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly of the Diet of Worms (1521). The state of Virginia's secession convention votes to secede from the United States, later becoming the eighth state to join the Confederate States of America (1861). Confederate forces attack Plymouth, NC (1864). The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York, which holds that the "right to free contract" is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1905). The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day (1907). A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro (1961). Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy (1969). The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely (1970). NASA's Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star (2014). 
• April 17 is the birthday of poet/playwright John Ford (1586), SCOTUS justice Samuel Chase (1741), financier J. P. Morgan (1837), MLB player Cap Anson (1852), ventriloquist Señor Wences (1896), actor William Holden (1918), journalist Harry Reasoner (1923), music manager/producer Don Kirshner (1934), keyboardist Jan Hammer (1948), wrestler Roddy Piper (1954), singer-songwriter Michael Sembello (1954), DJ/producer Afrika Bambaataa (1957), NFL player Boomer Esiason (1961), singer-songwriter Liz Phair (1967), actress Jennifer Garner (1972), and actress Rooney Mara (1985).

That seems like enough news for now. I have no specific plans today other than doing work and… I can’t think of anything else. Enjoy your day.

Bellisseria 5th Anniversary (04.15.24)

A nice crowd for Bellisseria's 5th anniversary. Photo by Kat.

To tell you the story of last night's fun and sorta wild show at the fifth anniversary celebration for Second Life's Bellisseria community, I have to rewind the clock to May 17, 2023. That's when my manager Maali Beck passed me some information on an upcoming show that I thought for sure must have included a mistake in the date.

It was from Prudence Anton, and it read in part, "Hi Maali. I'm with the Bellisseria planning committee to help celebrate its 5th anniversary on April 15, 2024. The event will run through the month of April 2 - 30, 2024. I'd like to try to book Zak during this event."

At first, I assumed that this couldn't be correct. Typically, a show in Second Life gets booked anywhere from a couple of weeks before the event, to a few days before to, in cases where a venue needs a fill-in for another artist, literally the day of the show. And here was a place that was hiring me 11 full months beforehand.

But no, it was correct, so first, big kudos to Bellisseria for being super ahead of the game in their planning. Also, the timing ended up being terrific; as I've mentioned before, this year -- with its dental and medical issues, and business and family responsibilities -- has been a low point in terms of the amount of time I've had to perform live music, or work on music in general. When the show date finally arrived, I was very happy to have an opportunity to get onstage and showcase my set to a big crowd.

Getting Ready

I wasn't quite sure what to expect at Bellisseria, including what sort of stage setup would be in place for their anniversary event. I don't like leaving things to chance, so the night before my show, I noted that my fellow SL music performer Nina Rose Setner was one of the other people booked to play there, and I dropped by her gig on Sunday night to check it out.

It was cool... a little bandshell stage at one end of a nice open park space. Also encouraging was the fact that there was a pretty good sized crowd there on Sunday evening. One of the things I like about performing at Second Life places that have their own strong community; they tend to bring out their own crowd, and that has a couple of advantages.

First, the artist is under less pressure to populate the venue via their own promotional efforts. I have great fans but there's no way on a given Monday evening they'd take up much space in. large open air venue. Second is the fact that people from that community who perhaps haven't heard you perform often -- or at all -- get a chance to get exposed to you and your music.

Checking out Nina's show the night before mine.

After seeing Nina's show, I felt pretty good about doing my own the following day. It's little things like that which add some extra confidence to live performers. More confidence almost always turns into a better show for everyone... artists and audience and venue management alike.

Running Out of Juice

No, this isn't a reference to O. J. Simpson. I was exactly ten minutes into my show, toward the end of my second song, when something happened that has never happened before during one of my live shows. 

Allow me to briefly explain what an acoustic-electric guitar is. This is a topic I know a few things about; my career for the past three decades has been working for manufacturers of musical instruments and pro audio gear. One of my clients is Takamine Guitars, and it shouldn't surprise you that I use a Takamine for all of my SL shows.

Anyway, my instrument -- a Takamine Pro Series P5DC -- is an acoustic guitar that has a pickup and a preamplifier, allowing it to easily be plugged in and amplified, or in the case of an SL show, plugged into an audio interface for live streaming. The preamplifier runs on four standard 1.5V AA batteries, and they really last a long time. I've had this guitar for nearly eight years, and all that time through hundreds of shows and recording sessions, I've only had to change those batteries two or three times.

The CTP-3 CoolTube preamplifier in my Takamine P5DC.

To be clear, the preamp in this guitar does have a flashing light to warn you when a battery is getting low, but apparently I didn't notice it, or ignored it, or something. Either way, I was playing along and then through my headphones, I heard my guitar quickly get more and more quiet, and then drop out altogether. It was still slightly audible via my vocal microphone, but that was not at all acceptable.

Quick Change

While I've dealt with things like a string breaking during a set, as well as total power outages and, of course, Second Life going down like a sack of bricks, that's the first time I had a preamp die mid-set. So, being an experienced live performer, I knew what I had to do, and it's fortunate that Takamine guitars make this process pretty fast and easy. The incredibly lucky part of this is that by complete happenstance, I had a package of Duracells sitting on my desk in front of me, and there were exactly four batteries in there. Wow.

Hats off to my pals at Takamine for making this process super fast and easy. I had the batteries swapped out and was back up and running in under two minutes.

While telling the large crowd what was going on, I simultaneously popped out the preamp, swapped out the batteries (messing up the order the first time but quickly resolving it), turning the volume back up and voila... I was up and running again. Whew!

Of course, after that process, I was a sweaty mess, but it's funny... the process actually energized me in some weird way, and the rest of my set went extraordinarily well. We maintained a great crowd the entire time, the vibe was good, people seemed to be having fun, and while I'm my own harshest critic interns of my singing voice and guitar playing, both were at fully acceptable levels of goodness as I rocked for the rest of the hour.

Little side note: I don't know who was responsible for choosing the artists that would be playing at this event, but they did a great job for this three-hour music fest with Max Kleene at 4PM, me at 5PM, and Noma Falta at 6PM. While each of us have our own distinct performance styles, none are so different that the crowd would want to leave the event as each performer hit the stage. Well done.

Me with my minimal stage setup. Photo by Kat.

While not everyone is rezzed enough to see in every pic, we had a crowd that passed 50 people during my set, and it was fun to get up in front of a big-ass crowd and rock. Photo by Kat.

What a cool place for a community celebration! Photo by Kat.

Thanks again, Bellisseria. Let's do it again soon. Photo by Kat.

Bellisseria 5th Anniversary set list...

Barely Breathing (Duncan Sheik)

Interstate Love Song (Stone Temple Pilots)

On A Plain (Nirvana)

Better Man (Pearl Jam)

What I Got (Sublime)

If You Could Only See (Tonic)

Wonderwall (Oasis)

Low Key (Tweedy)

Carey (Joni Mitchell)

Any Major Dude (Steely Dan)

Allentown (Billy Joel)

Man of Constant Sorrow (Traditional)

Runnin' Down a Dream (Tom Petty)

Big ol' thanks to the entire Bellisseria community who came out in droves for the celebration, with extra-special thanks to the following who helped support my show!

Callan Handrick, Bevan Whitfield, Xia Xevious, Maurice Mistwallow, not4gods Resident, Alex Zelin, SkyWatcher Questi, Richy Nervous, PamelaRaven Resident, Kat Claxton, stephmgardner Resident, Asynja Xubersnak, Rascal Randt, samuel22200 Naxos, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and PrudenceAnton Resident and the rest of the folks at Bellisseria!

Random News: April 16, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 16, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s nice and quiet shortly before 7AM, making it a good time to zip around the information superhighway and get information that may or may not be useful in some way to someone. Hop in; let’s go.

• Couple of notes from yesterday’s historic opening to Donnie Dump’s first criminal trial.
• Early in the day, Dump was read what is called a “Parker Warning,” which is a notification that if a defendant does something in his or her trial, additional charges can be levied.
• Judge Merchan said, “You have the right to be present during the trial and to assist your attorneys. Do you understand?” Dump said he did.
• Merchan then said, “If you disrupt the proceedings, you can be excluded from the courtroom and committed to jail based on your conduct and the trial will continue on in your absence. Do you understand?” Again, Dumpy acknowledged this.
• And finally, to make the point crystal clear, Merchan said, “If you do not show up there will be an arrest. Do you understand?” Dumpy said he did understand.
• There were some administrative statements made early on. One was to reiterate that there will not be any court in session on Wednesdays during this trial.
• Another was that there won't be trial proceedings on any day that conflicts with the religious observance of any juror, which means April 22-23 and April 29-30 for Passover.
• Judge Merchan also read a list of names to potential jurors that could figure into the case, though not all of them will be called to testify. The names included Dumpy himself as well as Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Hope Hicks, Sharon Churcher, Dan Scavino, Keith Schiller, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, Melania Trump, John McEntee, Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, and more.
• In other trial news from the first day…
• Remember how one of Dumpy’s childish insults to President Biden was “Sleepy Joe?”
• Well, we have a new one for Dumpy: Don Snoreleone.
• He fucking fell asleep during his trial. His head dropped down and his mouth went slack.
• I seem to recall that Hillary Clinton testified in the Benghazi hearing for 11 straight hours and was as sharp at the end of the day as she was at the start.
• Other tidbits…
• Judge Merchan set an April 23 hearing date over the prosecution's request that Dumpy be held in contempt for violating the gag order in the New York hush money case.
• Dump, who has no respect for laws and considers himself too important to obey them, has repeatedly taken to social media to attack people involved in the cases against him.
• I’ll remind you that if you or I did that, there would be a sheriff at our houses within minutes to arrest us for contempt of court.
• Even yesterday, Dumpy reshared a video criticizing Judge Juan Merchan's wife's purported work with New York Attorney General Letitia James.
• The realization of being a criminal defendant seems to be slowly sinking in for Dumpy. Criminal defendants don’t get to pick and choose their own schedules, and have to spend time in drab county courthouses.
• Suck it up, Don.
• Day two of the trial, with continued efforts toward jury selection, has already started today. Remember, it was planned that the jury selection process would take between one and two weeks, so everything is moving along at the predicted pace.
• Let’s move on from that for now. It’s going to be a lot of information forthcoming, and we’ll take it as it comes.
• Maniacal far-right Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was a no-show at the court for oral arguments yesterday, with the court giving no reason for his absence.
• Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged in court that Thomas “is not on the bench today” but would participate fully in the two cases being argued based on the briefs and transcripts. No further information on Thomas’s absence was provided.
• Typically when a justice is not present for oral arguments, the court will give a reason, including instances when there is a health issue.
• Huh.
• Anyway, the SCOTUS is hearing arguments today from a former Pennsylvania police officer who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a case that could undermine federal charges against more than 350 rioters.
• They are looking at whether Dump and the rest of the January 6 insurrectionists are being correctly charged with violating a federal law enacted in 2002 that prohibits people from obstructing an official proceeding.
• The charge can add up to 20 years to a prison sentence.
• If the Supreme Court throws out that charge in this Fischer v. US case, it would be a travesty of justice. And of course, Dumpy would be ecstatic because he’d personally be facing less penalties.
• Staying tuned on that.
• Last night, House Speaker Mike Johnson finally unveiled an outline of his plan to address the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
• He plans to put four different bills on the floor, essentially decoupling aid for Israel from help for Ukraine. The right flank of his party — like Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) and others — is super mad and have threatened to oust him from the speakership if he moved forward with funding for Ukraine.
• Johnson will then advance separate votes for aid to Taiwan and a measure to satisfy Republican foreign policy demands, including the seizure of Russian assets and a bill to ban TikTok from the United States.
• Shrug.
• Let’s move on to that disaster of Dumpy’s media company.
• Trump Media & Technology Group tumbled 18% in Monday afternoon trading, a drop that follows last week's 21% plunge.
• The sharp drop in value comes after the company filed a document with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that opens the door for the future potential sale of millions of shares.
• The stock plunge has erased billions from Dump's net worth. The shares soared when they began trading on March 26, giving Trump's 57% ownership position a value of $6.25 billion. But now that stake is worth $2.1 billion, representing a paper loss of $4.15 billion.
• Hahahaha.
• Let’s move on.
• There are two special elections in Michigan today that may help Democratic lawmakers win back a majority in the deadlocked Michigan House and regain control of the state government.
• Democrat Mai Xiong is taking on Republican Ronald Singer in District 13, while Peter Herzberg, a Democrat, faces Republican Josh Powell in District 25.
• Both districts are located just outside Detroit and are heavily Democratic, with the previous Democratic incumbents each having won by over 25 percentage points in 2022.
• The state’s lower chamber has been tied 54-54 between Democratic and Republican lawmakers since November.
• Here’s hoping the best for them.
• Let’s continue moving on.
• Yesterday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked roadways in Illinois, California, New York, and the Pacific Northwest, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation's most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and on a busy West Coast highway.

• I support peaceful protest, and have done it on a number of occasions myself.
• But I’m not sure this is helping their cause. I am sure that people who are impacted — those trying to get to work, or catch a flight, for example — are likely angered at their actions and even less likely to support their goals.
• Among other things, the protesters have called for an immediate cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas. I can’t say they’re actually helping the situation, and perhaps the opposite.

• Sigh.
• In related news, the University of Southern California has canceled a planned commencement speech by its valedictorian, citing security concerns due to tensions over “the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.”
• Asna Tabassum said she was told yesterday that she would no longer be able to give a speech at graduation on May 10.
• At least two pro-Israel and Jewish groups complained to USC about the choice, pointing to Tabassum’s social media activity. 
• Her Instagram account links to a slideshow that calls for “one palestinian state,” which it says “would mean palestinian liberation, and the complete abolishment of the state of Israel.”
• Sigh.
• And now, The Weather: “Nurture” by youbet
• From the Sports Desk… Caitlin Clark, unsurprisingly, was selected No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA draft last night.
• Showing the drastic difference between pay in women’s professional sports versus men’s, Clark’s four-year rookie contract has her earning about $80,000 a year.
• If she was a man in the NBA, the minimum salary for players signing contracts in the 2023-2024 season amounted to over $1.1 million.
• Today in history… Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the First Jewish–Roman War (73). In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle (1881). The oldest existing indoor ice hockey arena still used for the sport in the 21st century, Boston Arena, opens for the first time (1910). Mohandas Gandhi organizes a day of "prayer and fasting" in response to the killing of Indian protesters in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by the British colonial troops (1919). Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic effects of the research drug LSD (1943). Bernard Baruch first applies the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union (1947). The New York Times and the New Yorker win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for breaking news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal (2018).
• April 16 is the birthday of actor/director Charlie Chaplin (1889), madam Polly Adler (1900), actor/comedian Spike Milligan (1918), actor Peter Ustinov (1921), composer Henry Mancini (1924), NFL player Night Train Lane (1928), flute player Herbie Mann (1930), music manager/film producer Robert Stigwood (1934), singer Dusty Springfield (1939), NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947), singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty (1947), NFL coach Bill Belichick (1952), voice actor Billy West (1952), actress Ellen Barkin (1954), keyboardist T Lavitz (1956), actor Jon Cryer (1965), actor Martin Lawrence (1965), singer-songwriter/actress Selena (1971), actress Claire Foy (1984), NBA player Luol Deng (1985), and actress Sadie Sink (2002).

As usual, there’s always more news, but never more time. Also, a little later after I get some real work accomplished, I’ll write up a recap of my fun show last night in Second Life. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 15, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 15, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I’ve got a busy day ahead, with a bunch of work (typical) and a live show tonight (less typical), so let’s not dilly dally.

• This morning is the start of the first criminal trial of Donald John Trump, which, as I’ll remind you, is the first time a former US president has been tried as a criminal.
• One thing I want to point out that differentiates Dump’s first criminal trial to his many previous civil trials: attendance is not optional.
• The Dumpster will be spending four days a week in court for the next several weeks. of course, being who he is, during that time he’s going to try and make the courtroom into a campaign rally.
• Is this trial for 34 counts of falsifying business records related to his $130,000 payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels serious? Well yes, yes it is. It may not not as egregious as his other criminal charges, but it’s a lot of felonies.
• A Reuters/Ipsos poll published last week found 64 percent of surveyed voters viewed the hush money charges as at least somewhat serious.
• Anyway, it’s now underway. So far this morning, a court clerk opened the proceedings by saying, "This is the people of the state of New York vs Donald J. Trump."
• The next order of business was Judge Juan Merchan noting that there are two motions for recusal pending, one before him and one before a New York appeals court. He immediately denied the motion for recusal and says he won't consider it again until the appellate court rules.
• I’m not going to sit here and recap this shit moment by moment. We’ll fill you in tomorrow morning on how today’s proceedings went.
• Fun Fact: if convicted of a felony, Dump will not be allowed to vote for himself, or anyone else, this fall. Ha ha.
• Oh, and a relevant side note — while I very much doubt Dump will ever see prison time for any of his crimes, the New York state department of corrections states: “No skin tanning or coloring or hair coloring products.” Hairspray (non-aerosol) is permitted only for female inmates.
• Moving on.
• The FBI opened a criminal investigation into the cargo ship that slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge and caused it to collapse in Baltimore last month.
• Federal agents boarded the 985-foot ship Dali early this morning with search warrants. 
• A portion of inquiry involves whether there was prior crew knowledge that the vessel had potential mechanical problems that would have made it unsafe in the harbor. 
• A valid question. FBI agents are collecting physical evidence and data from inside the ship relating to the moments before, during, and after the impact.
• In other news…
• Today is the sentencing for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the movie weapons supervisor who is facing up to 18 months in prison for the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust.”
• She was convicted in March by a jury on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins and has been held for more than a month at a county jail on the outskirts of Santa Fe.
• On a much broader basis, I’ll say that most people have jobs, and with jobs come certain responsibilities. Some are seemingly more critical than others, like being an airplane pilot or a surgeon or a cop.
• But really, every job has some degree of public trust involved, as well as the expectation that your actions won’t harm your coworkers.
• What I do seems mostly harmless. How could anyone be hurt by some guy who writes about guitars and speakers and stuff?
• Well, let me tell you. If I include a wrong specification on an amplifier and a building burns down and people die… that’s on me. If I purposefully mislead people about a product my client is sued, that’s on me too.
• Most of you don’t understand that what you do is important. If they pay you for it, it’s important. You’re important.
• Let’s move on.
• After Saturday drone attacks by Iran against Israel and with renewed bipartisan pressure to do fucking anything at all, Speaker Mike Johnson is vowing to take up aid to our important Middle East ally.
• The action also fuels questions whether the GOP leader will also act on Ukraine aid, which comes as Ukrainian leaders warn they are running out of resources to combat Russia’s military aggression.
• Meanwhile, Johnson faces ouster threats by some of his own membership.
• On the news shows yesterday, Johnson said he plans to move forward with Israel aid bills this week, though he did not provide further details.
• Dump wants Johnson to set up the aid as “loans,” which for Johnson would be an effort to appease the far-right contingency of the House.
• Several top Republicans — including the three leaders of relevant committees — argue in the wake of the attacks that Johnson must hold a vote to grant aid to both allies as well as to Taiwan and other Pacific partners.
• We’ll see how that goes.
• Meanwhile, world leaders are urging Israel not to retaliate after the drone and missile attack.
• Among others, US President Joe Biden, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, and French President Emmanuel Macron are clearly stating their respective countries will not support any retaliatory measures.
• Let’s all hope this starts to settle down over there.
• Moving on.
• Tesla will lay off more than 10% of its global workforce, per an internal memo that was seen today.
• Falling sales can be attributed to several factors, including Elon Musk’s public behavior and an intensifying price war for electric vehicles.
• By market value, Tesla remains the world's largest automaker. Some staff in California and Texas have already been notified of layoffs.
• And now, The Weather: “AMAMA” by Crumb
• From the Sports Desk… first, congrats to Scottie Scheffler, who picked up his second green jacket with a victory at the 2024 Masters.
• Scheffler has been ranked the No. 1 golfer in the world for more than 80 weeks during his short career. He's won eight times on the PGA Tour since February 2022, a stretch that saw him become the first golfer ever to win the Players Championship in back-to-back years.
• In sorta-sports news, Nike’s new outfit design for the US women’s Olympic team has been widely criticized by athletes and fans alike.
• Images of both the men’s and women’s outfits dressed on mannequins were made public last week as part of a launch ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics. The picture of the women’s leotard on display had a very high-cut bikini line.
• I had to giggle a bit when US long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall, upon seeing the new uniforms, wrote, “Wait my hoo haa is gonna be out.” But she’s right; it’s not acceptable to blatantly sexualize women’s sports.
• Today in history… Samuel Johnson's ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ is published in London (1755). Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc found the American School for the Deaf, the first American school for deaf students, in Hartford, CT (1817). President Abraham Lincoln calls for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the insurrection that soon became the American Civil War (1961). Upon Lincoln’s death, vice president Andrew Johnson is sworn in as president (1865). The General Electric Company is formed (1892). U.S. Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of a secret land deal, which leads to the discovery of the Teapot Dome scandal (1922). Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes (1923). Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line (1947). McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, IL (1955). The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in China (1989). The cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in France is seriously damaged by a large fire (2019).
• April 15 is the birthday of painter/sculptor/architect Leonardo da Vinci (1452), mathematician/physicist Leonhard Euler (1707), novelist Henry James (1843), general/politician Nikita Khrushchev (1894), singer Bessie Smith (1894), general/politician Kim Il Sung (1912), actor Michael Ansara (1922), educator/politician Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (1930), musician/TV host Roy Clark (1933), actress Elizabeth Montgomery (1933), businessman/criminal Kenneth Lay (1942), singer-songwriter/guitarist Dave Edmunds (1944), composer/conductor Michael Kamen (1948), singer-songwriter/producer Linda Perry (1965), guitarist Ed O’Brien (1968), NFL player Jason Sehorn (1971), singer-songwriter/guitarist Chris Stapleton (1978), actor/screenwriter Seth Rogen (1982), NHL player Ilya Kovalchuk (1983), and actress Emma Watson (1990).

That seems like enough news for now. For those of you who do Second Life, I’ll be playing a show tonight for the fifth anniversary celebration of the Bellisseria community, with my show at 5PM SLT following Max Kleene at 4PM and ahead of Noma Falta at 6PM. Come see me if you can. Enjoy your day.

Random News: April 14, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s April 14, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. It’s a gray and gloomy morning here in Southern California, but I got a good night’s sleep and am feeling pretty chipper despite the world hanging on by a thread. I’m also showered and dressed for some reason, so now I’ll enjoy this cup of coffee and look at news with you.

• As you’re likely aware, last night Iranian drones and missiles lit up the night sky in an attack on Israel and the occupied West Bank.
• Over 300 drones and missiles navigated above Iran’s neighbors, including Jordan and Iraq — both with US military bases — before penetrating the airspace of Israel, who for decades has been considered to be the mortal enemy of Iran.
• A direct attack on Israel by Iran has long believed to be the Middle East’s doomsday scenario, and this was the first time it’s ever happened. And since Iran is backed by Russia and Israel by the USA, there was some understandably nervous chat last night of the start of WWIII.
• However… 
• Tehran’s offensive was highly choreographed, apparently designed to minimize casualties while maximizing spectacle. Iran launched its killer drones from its own territory some 1,000 miles away, purposefully giving Israel hours of advance notice.
• Only a small handful of locations were attacked, including a military base and an area in the Negev desert. Israel’s famed Iron Dome defenses fended off one of the largest drone attacks in history, but the Iranians would have been aware of that ahead of time.
• Had Iran wanted to inflict severe damage on Israel and directly target its civilian population, there are plenty of other ways this attack could have gone, like firing from a neighboring country where its non-state allies are prevalent, like Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, or Iraq.
• Plus, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian gave neighboring countries, including major US allies, 72-hour notice. That’s not how you do a surprise attack intended to inflict severe devastation.
• I am (duh) opposed to any kind of military violence as a means of solving the world’s problems, and I’m not defending Iran’s actions here in any way. But by going about this retaliatory counterattack the way they did, Iran made a good decision here.
• As a result, the need to escalate is minimized. President Biden called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday and told him that the U.S. won't support any Israeli counterattack against Iran. Netanyahu replied that he understood.
• And yes, we already had some degree of direct involvement; U.S. forces in the region shot down some of the Iranian-launched drones that had targeted Israel.
• Biden is holding a call today with the G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response — not a violent military counterattack — to Iran.
• So this is obviously a situation that’s still in flux, but it’s a lot better news than I could have seen waking up this morning.
• Oh, and not that it’s relevant toward any of this, but the Apricot Pol Pot, aka Orange Julius Caesar, aka El Dumpo, did his very best to escalate things this morning, screaming threats in an all-caps social post to the Iranian leadership.
• An all-out war with many civilian deaths would help his campaign, you see. He’s probably extremely disappointed that more damage wasn’t inflicted.
• This would probably be a good space to remind folks about the Logan Act, a United States federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized American citizens with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States.
• As usual, if there’s a wrong way to do something — often an illegal way as well — the Dumpster will always choose that path.
• Moving on.
• As we’ve noted many times, tomorrow morning begins the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president.
• We spoke yesterday about the start of the process, jury selection. The will take at least a week and more like two.
• So let’s do a quick recap of why Dumples is facing a number of felony charges here.
• Donald John Trump is being tried for having falsified business records to hide the reimbursement of hush money payments that were made to influence the election outcome. He has pleaded not guilty and has denied having had sex with porn star Stormy Daniels in 2006 while his wife Melania had recently given birth to their child.
• Ten years later, in 2016 near the time of the presidential election, Dumpy knew the Access Hollywood tape catching Trump on a hot mic speaking graphically about his proclivity to grope women had just come out.
• His campaign panicked, knowing the potential impact on female voters if it was more well known that he was a rapist. Having information proving that he cheats on his wife made public would have likely sunk his campaign.
• So Dump needed to kill at least two additional stories before they came out. One was about him having sex with Karen McDougal, a former Playboy playmate, while he was married.
• Dump’s pal David Pecker, former CEO of the company that published the National Enquirer, paid off McDougal for her silence with $150,000 and two magazine cover stories.
• On October 27, 2016, a lawyer/fixer for Dump, Michael Cohen wired $30,000 to Daniels, and 12 days later Trump won the election over Hillary Clinton.
• And now it’s all coming out in a court of law. Note: this trial will not be televised, so hopefully you’ve got some good sources of info to be your eyes and ears in the court.
• And yes, I’ll fill you in as I learn things.
• Moving on.
• Let’s talk about homelessness.
• The U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear arguments in  a case called Grants Pass v. Johnson, which focuses on whether a local government can make it a crime to live outside when adequate shelter is not available.
• The erroneous premise of the case leads people to believe that there are only two potential outcomes: arrest those who are unhoused, or homelessness will become an inevitable and permanent fixture of the urban landscape.
• There is a third path, though… providing subsidized housing with services to people experiencing homelessness.
• There was a troubling 12% increase in homelessness between 2022 and 2023, with the estimated count rosing from 582,500 to 653,100 in just one year.
• Why? Easy. First, an insane lack of affordable housing. Second, the end of pandemic-era housing and social supports. And yes, third, the displacement of migrants and asylum seekers to cities where they lacked connections and housing.
• Some cities are doing it right. Denver’s median rents literally doubled in one decade, going  from $872 to $1,711. So their mayor Mike Johnston instituted the “House1000” initiative, which moved more than 1,000 people — more than 70 percent of the city’s unsheltered population  — off the street. 
• Here in California, Santa Clara County is one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, where the average home is worth more than $1.5 million.
• But the county created thousands of units of permanent, deeply-affordable housing, while simultaneously ramping up its homelessness prevention efforts, resulting in 26,000 people housed and nearly 17,000 people receiving homelessness prevention services.
• So tell me, what sounds better to you: criminalizing some of the most vulnerable people in society with fines they can’t ay and jail time that prevents any chance of them turning around their lives, or making an investment in a future in which everyone has a place to call home?
• I know the answer and so do you.
• Let’s move on.
• It’s Sunday Gunday, my least-favorite regularly-scheduled part of this news thing I do.
• Two dead, one injured in a shooting at a park near a high school in Blue Springs, MO. Two dead, one injured in a shooting at a gas station in the Model City neighborhood of Miami, FL. Two women shot dead in Napa, CA. One child dead, ten other people (including three more children) wounded in a shooting in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago, IL. One dead, at least nine others injured in a shooting at a block party in Wynne, AR. One dead, at least eight others injured in a shooting after a party in Dallas, TX. A woman killed and a female teenager seriously wounded in a shooting in South Franklin Township, PA. One dead, one injured in a shooting in a bar in West Elizabeth, PA. One dead, a female juvenile injured in a shooting in Baton Rouge, LA. One shot dead in Syracuse, NY. One shot dead in Worcester, MA. One shot dead on the north side of Indianapolis, IN. One shot dead in Lynchburg, VA. Three shot, one critically, in South Memphis, TN. Three shot in Rockford, IL. A 7-year-old girl in critical condition after being shot multiple times at a shopping mall in Baltimore, MD. One in critical condition after being shot multiple times at an apartment complex in Conroe, TX. One in serious condition after a shooting outside a bar in Fresno, CA. A teenager in serious condition after a shooting at a party in Lakewood, CO. A teenager shot in Wilmington, DE. One shot in Greenville County, SC. One shot in Sunrise, FL. One shot in San Francisco, CA.
• Standard note: are these all the shootings? Far from it; only from the past two days and only after a short scroll of news.
• Don’t like it? Vote for candidates who support and vow to enact common-sense gun regulation. Thank you.
• Moving on. For the second day in a row, I’m going to mention the definition of pure evil, more common known as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
• The Republican signed two controversial bills on Friday that he says will buffer law enforcement from what he calls "anti-police activists."
• SB 184 sets a 25-foot "no-go" zone around police and first responders who are "engaged in the lawful performance of a legal duty." People in violation of the rule will receive a verbal warning. Failure to comply will result in a second-degree misdemeanor.
• The much-worse HB 601 limits the abilities of citizen police oversight boards to investigate misconduct allegations, and gives power to sheriffs and police chiefs to appoint the members of said oversight boards.
• I don’t have to tell you the implications of this. Florida is continuing its path toward being a totalitarian nightmare under DeSantis. I wouldn’t put up with that anti-American shit if I lived there.
• And now, The Weather: “in the dark” by pecq
• Let’s do a chart. We’re in April 1968, and I am not yet alive. Lotsa good music, though.
• 1. (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay (Otis Redding). 2. Young Girl (The Union Gap Featuring Gary Puckett). 3. Valleri (The Monkees). 4. La - La - Means I Love You (The Delfonics). 5. (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone (Aretha Franklin). 6. Cry Like A Baby (The Box Tops). 7. Lady Madonna (The Beatles). 8. The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde (Georgie Fame). 9. Love Is Blue (L'amour Est Bleu) (Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra). 10. Honey (Bobby Goldsboro). 11. Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo) (Manfred Mann). 12. Simon Says (1910 Fruitgum Co.). 13. Scarborough Fair/Canticle (Simon & Garfunkel). 14. Dance To The Music (Sly & The Family Stone). 15. Kiss Me Goodbye (Petula Clark). 16. If You Can Want (Smokey Robinson & The Miracles). 17. (Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls (Dionne Warwick). 18. I Got The Feelin' (James Brown And The Famous Flames). 19. Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) (The First Edition). 20. I Thank You (Sam & Dave).
• From the Sports Desk… please stop talking about Tiger Woods.
• He finished the Masters today with a 16-over 304, his highest 72-hole score in a career that spans three decades.
• He’s had a great career and came back from an injury that would have left many people unable to walk again. So that’s very admirable. But there are actual current golfers who are out there being competitive, and yet every single fucking headline about the Masters don’t mention them.
• It’s all Tiger, all the time. And that’s not fair to the sport itself.
• Today in history… Legions loyal to the Roman Senate defeat the forces of Mark Antony in the Battle of Forum Gallorum (43 BC). A celestial phenomenon is reported over Nuremberg, described as an aerial battle (1561). The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the first abolition society in North America, is organized in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush (1775). Hungary declares itself independent of Austria (1849). U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth and dies the following day (1865). The first ever commercial motion picture house opens in New York City (1894). Muslims in the Ottoman Empire begin a massacre of Armenians in Adana (1909). The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic and begins to sink (1912). The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia completes its first test flight (1981). The heaviest hailstones ever recorded, each weighing 2.2 pounds, fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92 (1986). The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99% (2003). The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples a year earlier by Multnomah County (2005). Boko Haram abducts 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria (2014). The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer — JUICE — is launched by the European Space Agency (2023).
• April 14 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer/physicist Christiaan Huygens (1629), actor John Gielgud (1904), physician/politician François Duvalier (1907), actor Rod Steiger (1925), singer-songwriter/guitarist Loretta Lynn (1932), actress/activist Julie Christie (1940), MLV player Pete Rose (1941), guitarist/songwriter Ritchie Blackmore (1945), actor/comedian Brad Garrett (1960), MLB player Greg Maddux (1966), MLB player/manager Brad Ausmus (1969), actor Adrien Brody (1973), rapper Da Brat (1974), martial artist/boxer Anderson Silva (1975), actress Sarah Michelle Gellar (1977), NFL player Baker Mayfield (1995), NFL player D. J. Moore (1997), and NFL player Patrick Surtain II (2000).

Okay, well… it’s time for me to do things other than this. Enjoy your day.