Random News: March 21, 2023

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 March 21, 2023, and it’s a Tuesday. By the time I finish writing the bullets, many things may have changed, so let’s get ‘em out while they’re still relevant…

• The Secret Service is coordinating security plans with the NYPD in the event that Donald Trump is indicted and arraigned in an open courtroom in Manhattan today.
• The two agencies had a call yesterday to discuss logistics, including court security and how Trump would potentially surrender for booking and processing.
• Little note to all you people who dream about Trump being handcuffed and shoved into a squad car: it doesn’t work that way. White collar criminal defendants are typically allowed to negotiate a surrender, meaning they arrange a day/time and come in on their own.
• I know you’re imagining an episode of “COPS” with him waddling away and getting tackled by six burly guys in uniform, but no. Wealthy people don’t get that treatment.
• I find it unlikely that Orange Man will actually be indicted/arrested today. That was something he dreamed up. But since he already riled up his base of fools…
• Apparently all NYPD officers, including plainclothes detectives, have been ordered to wear their full uniform today ahead of the possible indictment.
• Also, the Port Authority has also been reportedly warned that the possibility of car caravans that could disrupt rush hour traffic, including traffic in bridges and tunnels.
• Be safe over there, New Yorkers.
• Moving on…
• Yesterday, President Biden issued his first veto since taking office, rejecting a bill that would have reversed a Labor Department rule on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing.
• “This bill would risk your retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don’t like. Your plan manager should be able to protect your hard-earned savings — whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not.” - Joe Biden
• For those of you who may be unclear on the process of legislation, Congress is unlikely to be able to override Biden’s veto, as it would require the support of two-thirds of both chambers.
• Which is what I told you after the November 2022 election.
• In other Biden news…
• Today the President will designate two new national monuments, putting nearly 514,000 acres off-limits to development as part of his pledge to protect 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030.
• Biden will sign proclamations to protect Castner Range, a former military training and testing site in El Paso, and more than 500,000 acres around Avi Kwa Ame, a sacred tribal site in southern Nevada.
• Awesome. I like this. Go Joe.
• More than 1,000 schools serving more than 600,000 students will be closed today as support staff at the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) — the nation’s second-largest school district — begin a massive strike.
• The district’s teachers are not directly involved in the dispute, but United Teachers Los Angeles — which represents some 35,000 educators — has said that they will honor the strike and not cross the picket line.
• Got some news on some news…
• Fox News sought a restraining order against one of its own senior producers yesterday to prevent her from publicly disclosing information linked to the $1.6 billion defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems regarding falsehoods it broadcast after the 2020 presidential election.
• Hours later, Abby Grossberg, the senior producer in charge of booking guests for star Tucker Carlson, sued the network for discrimination and retaliation. But it’s her allegations that Fox lawyers “coerced, intimidated, and misinformed” her as they prepared her to give testimony in the Dominion case that are the biggest issue for the network. 
• Get their asses.
• How about some Jan. 6 news?
• A Washington, D.C., jury yesterday found four associates of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group guilty of conspiracy for their role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
• The six defendants in the current jury trial, Sandra Parker, Bennie Parker, Laura Steele, Connie Meggs, Michael Greene and William Isaacs, faced the lesser charge of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding along with a range of other felony charges.
• Isaacs, Meggs, Steele and Sandra Parker were found guilty as charged while Greene was acquitted of conspiracy to obstruct and prevent officers from carrying out their duties. Bennie Parker was found not guilty of obstructing the Electoral College certification while all six defendants were found guilty of trespassing.
• We will never stop until 100% of the people involved in the planning and execution of the failed coup attempt are caught and face the consequences of their actions. When you go up against the USA, we win.
• And you lose, losers.
• Joining the growing list of states enacting hateful and discriminatory laws against transgender people, Missouri’s Republican attorney general on Monday said he will limit access to gender-affirming care for minors, sidestepping the GOP-led Senate as it struggles to pass a law banning the practice for children completely.
• Fuck you.
• Here’s a reminder to myself to mention at some point that a Florida bill would ban girls from talking about their period. Fucking Florida. Jesus.
• And now, The Weather: “Mean” by Bleary Eyed
• It’s pouring rain here again this morning, as it always does in Southern California. Seriously, it just rains all… the fucking… time. It rains so much, I’m going to start a grunge band.
• Speaking of music, I can’t claim to be a huge Def Leppard fan in recent decades, but it’s really shitty that one-armed drummer Rick Allen was physically attacked by some punk-ass kid last week. 
• Allen was smoking a cigarette outside of the Four Seasons hotel in Fort Lauderdale when a young man ran out from behind a pillar where he had been hiding and attacked him. 
• That piece of shit, identified as 19-year-old Max Edward Hartley, slammed Rick’s head into the ground, then attacked a woman who had run out of the hotel to help Allen, battering her with his fists. When she tried to escape, he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her outside the hotel. Then he ran away, and was arrested at a nearby hotel where he was breaking car windows.
• Hartley is from Cleveland but was in Florida on spring break. He now faces two counts of battery, four counts of criminal mischief, and abusing a disabled adult for the attack on Allen. I imagine he’ll say he was somehow forced to use drugs and alcohol and couldn’t control himself, boo hoo.
• Side note: I really liked Pyromania when it came out in 1983. Great hard rock album in that highly-polished ‘80s sense, for real.
• Hideous news out of Colorado, where two teenage boys from Illinois died in a sledding accident. They were at Copper Mountain Ski Resort, riding tandem on a sled when they launched off a large snowbank at the bottom of the half pipe and came down hard on the hard ice, suffering blunt force trauma.
• You know, I skied in Colorado over spring break one year in high school (Steamboat Springs, to be specific). And I did many irresponsible things on that trip both on and off the slopes, and I can’t criticize the decisions of those kids because they might have been that same as mine at their age. I just happened to live.
• From the Sports Desk… for no reason, the winningest NBA coaches in history. 1. Gregg Popovich (1,363), 2. Don Nelson (1,335), 3. Lenny Wilkens (1,332), 4. Jerry Sloan (1,221), 5. Pat Riley (1,210), 6. George Karl (1,175), 7. Phil Jackson (1,155), 8. Larry Brown (1,098), 9. Doc Rivers (1,091), and 10. Rick Adelman (1,042).
• That top ten is also the list of all coaches with over 1,000 wins, coincidentally.
• Today in history… The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis near Alexandria in Egypt (1801). Otto von Bismarck is appointed as the first Chancellor of the German Empire (1871). The Butler Act prohibits the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee (1925). Shah of Iran Reza Shah Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran (1935). The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in professional American football since 1933 (1946). Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, OH (1952). Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes (1963). Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, AL (1965). The first Earth Day proclamation is issued by Joseph Alioto, Mayor of San Francisco (1970). San Diego Comic-Con, the largest pop and culture festival in the world, hosts its inaugural event (1970). U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces a United States boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet–Afghan War (1980). The social media site Twitter is founded (2006).
• March 21 is the birthday of composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685), physicist Joseph Fourier (1768), Mexico president Benito Juárez (1806), composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839), actor Broncho Billy Anderson (1880), painter Hans Hofmann (1880), singer-songwriter Son House (1902), philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III (1906), scientist/inventor Walter Lincoln Hawkins (1911), singer/musician Rose Stone (1945), actor Timothy Dalton (1946), singer-songwriter Eddie Money (1949), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Roger Hodgson (1950), drummer Slim Jim Phantom (1961), actor Matthew Broderick (1962), actress Rosie O’Donnell (1962), actor/comedian Rhys Darby (1974), soccer player Ronaldinho (1980), and NFL player Adrian Peterson (1985).

Well, I’m posting this now before any other potential crazy shit happens. I mean, crazy shit always happens but I don’t want the craziest shit to happen before I hit the “post” button. That’s how news is; it’s gotta be new. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 20, 2023

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 March 20, 2023, and it’s a Monday. Let’s goooooooooooo…

• Happy first day of Spring 2023, fellow Northern Hemispherites.
• It’s the start of autumn in the lower half of the world.
• 87% of all humans live in the Northern Hemisphere, I should add, so there’s a major northern bias on this planet.
• Why is it even called “spring”?
• Because the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt relative to the Sun, and the length of daylight rapidly increases for the relevant hemisphere. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to "spring forth.”
• Scientifically, or at least astronomically, Spring begins at the moment of the vernal equinox, when the Sun is exactly above the Equator and day and night are of equal length. My personal equinox, here at 33° 50' N latitude, happened a couple of days ago. My sunset and sunrise were both at 7:01am.
• The actual equinox happens today at 2:24pm PDT/5:24pm EDT.
• Fun Fact: the Baháʼí calendar year starts at the sunset preceding the March equinox, calculated for Tehran.
• Neopagans observe the March equinox (referred to as Ostara) as a cardinal point on the Wheel of the Year.
• In Annapolis, MD, boatyard employees and sailboat owners celebrate the spring equinox with the "Burning of the Socks" festival.
• Let’s do some news…
• Ben Barnes, a former Texas Lt. Gov., is claiming he witnessed a plot to sabotage the reelection of President Jimmy Carter in 1980 by delaying the release of 52 U.S. hostages in Iran.
• Let’s be super clear about this.
• 52 American hostages were held in Iran for 444 days. They could have been released earlier.
• But high-ranking members of Ronald Reagan’s 1980 Republican presidential campaign took a secret diplomatic tour of the Middle East and told them to hang on to the Americans longer than they would have.
• Iran finally released them minutes after Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981, per the plan that Reagan had set up.
• Fucking disgusting. And this whole time, people blamed Jimmy Carter.
• Barnes, now 85, said, “History needs to know that this happened. I think it’s so significant and I guess knowing that the end is near for President Carter put it on my mind more and more and more."
• Better late than never, I guess.
• In other news…
• The City of Miami Beach, FL has issued a state of emergency and a midnight curfew following two fatal shooting incidents and “excessively large and unruly crowds” during spread break activities there.
• On Friday, violence broke out in the popular South Beach area amid both St. Patrick’s Day festivities and Spring Break celebrations, leaving one person dead and another injured. In addition, one person was fatally shot and another injured early Sunday morning.
• Moving on…
• I know people are trying to scare you with statements like, “Trump will definitely get reelected if you indict him!” or “There will be blood in the streets if he is arrested!” and all that mumbo jumbo.
• It’s all bullshit. Trump is scared as hell. He’s never in his life been held accountable for his actions like any other American would be.
• If he thought that getting indicted would increase his chances for reelection, he’d have made it happen long ago. If people were going to shed blood for that prick, there would have been a lot more than what happened on January 6.
• No one, and I repeat, NO ONE is above the law. 
• The FBI and local law enforcement entities have been monitoring any signs of large-scale organization of violent actions in regard to Trump’s pending arrest. Nothing of concern has been noted.
• There’s also a lot of extreme paranoia in their ranks, talking about how they’re being set up to be arrested and so on.
• The funny thing, despite Trump’s direct call for people to take to the street, is that even that is being downplayed by his minions.
• "I don't think people should protest this. I think President Trump, when you talk to him, he doesn't think that either.” - Kevin McCarthy, human jellyfish.
• The MAGA world is taking advantage of this in one way, though. Trump-loving conservatives want Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to defend Trump against the Manhattan district attorney's investigation. DeSantis, who's expected to run against Trump for president in 2024, hasn’t said a damn word about the whole thing.
• So now the Orange Man’s lovers are using this lack of a statement as a talking point to denigrate DeSantis.
• Heh heh.
• In my own local news, the Redondo Beach city council voted unanimously to fly a Pride flag this June.
• My city usually manages to do the right thing after creating unnecessary drama about the wrong thing for awhile.
• And now, The Weather: “Crushed Out” by Pynkie
• There was a 150-car pileup in terrible weather conditions on I-96 in Michigan on Saturday. That sounds awful. Amazingly, only 16 people were transported to area hospitals and none with serious injuries.
• Be safe out there.
• Were there more shooting last night? Of course there were. This is America. Gun violence is our claim to fame.
• A Michigan college baseball player. Two high school kids in Texas. Six in a nightclub in Ohio. Three in an Atlanta-area home. A guy in Connecticut. Two in Charlotte. 
• From the Sports Desk… I was a little concerned for Shaquille O’Neal. The formed NBA center posted a rather cryptic pic of himself in a hospital bed last night. Turns out it was just follow-up from a recent hip replacement. The big guy is fine.
• Back in the NCAA tournament, but on the ladies’ side, 8-seed Ole Miss stunned 1-seed Stanford 54-49 to advance to the Sweet 16. 5’8” senior guard Angel Baker had 13 points, while Stanford’s 6’4” junior forward had 13 rebounds.
• Today in history… The Dutch East India Company is established (1602). After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule (1815). Harriet Beecher Stowe's ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’ is published (1852). The Republican Party of the United States is organized in Ripon, WI (1854). Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity (1916). The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso's first United States showing, entitled ‘Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso’, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States (1923). With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC (1948). The first Provisional IRA car bombing in Belfast kills seven people and injures 148 others in Northern Ireland (1972). Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (1985). A Solar eclipse, equinox, and a supermoon all occur on the same day (2015).
• March 20 is the birthday of poet Ovid (43 BC), Thai king Rama I (1737), poet/playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828), athlete/umpire Amanda Clement (1888), psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904), actor Ozzie Nelson (1906), singer-songwriter/guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915), singer-songwriter Vera Lynn (1917), actor/director Carl Reiner (1922), TV host/producer Fred Rogers (1928), actor Hal Linden (1931), singer-songwriter/producer Lee "Scratch" Perry (1936), singer-songwriter/guitarist/actor Jerry Reed (1937), Canada prime minister Brian Mulroney (1939), NBA player/coach Pat Riley (1945), actor John de Lancie (1948), NHL player Bobby Orr (1948), actor William Hurt (1950), drummer Carl Palmer (1950), actor/director Spike Lee (1957), actress Holly Hunter (1958), model Kathy Ireland (1963), NBA player Mookie Blaylock (1967), singer-songwriter Alex Kapranos (1972), and singer-songwriter Chester Bennington (1976).

There’s always more news than I have time or energy to give you. There are always things that could make you a better and stronger person by simply being aware of what’s going on around you. Me? I’m going to do usual Monday things and be a productive member of society. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 19, 2023

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 March 19, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. The world is weird, so the more you know, the less surprised you’ll be…

• As I mentioned yesterday, the former president anticipates that he’ll be arrested on Tuesday March 21.
• He’s milking this. If anything, all that will happen will be the issuing of a criminal indictment and the requirement for him to surrender and be processed and arraigned — booked, fingerprinted, mug shots, and so on.
• No one is above the law.
• In New York City, they’re beefing up courthouse security due to the potential for demonstrations or rallies outside of the courthouse by Trump supporters or counter demonstrations by anti-Trump protesters, with the risk of the two groups clashing.
• However, the assumption that Trump will turn himself in as anyone would do under similar circumstances may be wrong as well.
• There’s are conflicting reports about his plans. A source close to the Trump family that, contrary to what his attorneys have said publicly, he does NOT plan on cooperating with law enforcement for his arrest, and he plans on barricading himself in Mar-a-Lago in a public standoff.
• Oh, please do that.
• The funny thing: this Tuesday date is something arbitrary he made up based on shit he’s read in the news. There’s been no indictment or any arrangements made as of yet.
• “No one tells us anything which is very frustrating. President Trump is basing his response on press reports.” - Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina
• As for Trump’s call for people to protest, his followers have been quite conflicted about what he means. Some are viewing it as an immediate call for openly hostile armed civil war.
• Others think it’s time for a peaceful protest, as is their right. Yet others think they’ll organize all Republicans in the USA for a general strike.
• I doubt any of those things will happen. I think there will be isolated flare-ups of MAGA crybaby actions.
• In other shitty person news, a retired Air Force officer who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was sentenced to two years in prison Friday. 
• 55-year-old Lance Brock, a resident of Galveston, TX, was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment for a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding. 
• These criminal investigations will never stop until each and every participant in the failed coup attempt is brought to justice. It might take decades, but justice will prevail.
• In other news…
• Wyoming has become the first state in the nation to outright ban abortion medication. The state  also enacted a near-total ban on abortion.
• Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed a bill making it a felony to prescribe, sell, or use “any drug for the purpose of procuring or performing an abortion.” Violators could face up to six months in prison and a $9,000 fine.
• If you are a woman in Wyoming, the state will force you to give birth regardless of the circumstances.
• The one thing that Republican lawmakers do NOT want is abortion on the ballot for the people to decide.
• In a recent letter to legislators, Oklahomans for Life Chair Tony Lauinger argued that if they don’t amend the state’s anti-abortion law to add exceptions for rape and incest, there is a real chance a citizen-led ballot initiative to make all abortion legal will eventually succeed.
• Think hard about that.
• How can they stop citizens from enacting ballot measures that people overwhelmingly want? Easily, it turns out.
• Legislatures in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma are debating bills this session that would hike the filing fees, raise the number of signatures required to get on the ballot, restrict who can collect signatures, mandate broader geographic distribution of signatures, and raise the vote threshold to pass an amendment from a majority to a supermajority.
• Moving on…
• As is typical in the USA on any given weekend, there were dozens of shootings in the past few days. A baseball player in Ohio. Four people near Temple University. Two minors in Indianapolis. Two spring breakers in Miami Beach. Some guy in Hampton, VA. Two in Columbus, OH. A motorcyclist in Albuquerque. Two people in San Antonio.
• A single day never goes by in the USA without some incident of fatal gun violence. You’ve been trained by the gun lobby to think of it as normal and to accept it.
• It’s not normal. Do not accept it.
• And now, The Weather: “Breast” by Matty
• Fertility rates are down worldwide.
• In 2020, the United States saw 43 states register their lowest fertility rates in at least three decades. And the U.S. Census Bureau projects that by 2034, people 65 and older will outnumber those under the age of 18 for the first time in U.S. history.
• In South Korea, the fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years — is now 0.78.
• In January, China also recorded its first population decline in decades.
• Experts say a 2.1 rate is needed for a country to maintain a stable population without migration.
• The drop in fertility rates has left countries facing a future of aging populations and shrinking workforces. Fewer young adults working means slower economic growth, which will make it harder for governments to care for older people as they continue to make up a larger share of the population.
• Why are people having less kids? That’s easy.
• Housing and cost of living rates are so high that people can’t afford them. It’s also much more difficult for women to be in the workplace while also being the primary child caregiver. Also, people are having children later, and therefore have fewer of them.
• Also, a lot of men are assholes, so who wants to fuck them anyway?
• From the Sports Desk… for you NCAA fans, yet another huge upset. Kansas, the top seed in the West, fell to the Razorbacks 72-71. Kansas becomes the second No. 1 seed in this year's tournament to fall, following Purdue.
• That’s why they play the games. There’s now a possibility of a final four with no number-1 seeds left.
• The Sports Desk also notes that the World Baseball Classic is producing more than great international baseball games; it’s injuring MLB players.
• New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz suffered a torn patellar tendon while celebrating Puerto Rico's win over the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, and is out for the season.
• And then yesterday, the Houston Astros lost All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve for an undetermined period of time after he suffered a right-hand injury during an at-bat.
• Today in history… The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it "useless and dangerous to the people of England” (1649). Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men (1687). First documented bank heist in U.S. history, when burglars stole $245,000 from the City Bank — now Citibank — on Wall Street (1831). The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines, and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000 (1863). The US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time (1918). Governor Fred B. Balzar signs a bill legalizing gambling in Nevada (1931). Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed (1945). 
• March 19 is the birthday of lawman/gambler Wyatt Earp (1848), politician William Jennings Bryan (1860), politician Edith Nourse Rogers (1881), SCOTUS chief justice Earl Warren (1891), actress Ursula Andress (1936), actress Glenn Close (1947), producer/rapist Harvey Weinstein (1952), songwriter/guitarist Ricky Wilson (1953), actor Bruce Willis (1955), NFL coach Andy Reid (1958), police officer/murderer Derek Chauvin (1976), and NBA player Hedo Türkoğlu (1979).

I think I will take off this robe (woo woo!) and get into the shower, and then put on clothes, and then do various things that people do. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 18, 2023

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 March 18, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. I’m a random dude in a robe, so respect my authority…

• This morning, the former President of the United States said he is being arrested on Tuesday of next week. He took the news well.
• “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”, he screamed.
• I wouldn’t make any big plans for Tuesday 3/21/23.
• In fact, local, state and federal law enforcement and security agencies were already preparing for the possibility that former President Donald Trump will be indicted, and all that entails. 
• I mean, you know some of those MAGA folks are going to lose their shit as soon as he turns himself in. I’d expect some kind of weird-ass violence when it happens.
• But I sure am going to enjoy it. Every bit of it. Every morsel.
• The officials stress that the interagency conversations and planning are precautionary in nature because no charges have yet been filed. But it seems, per the scared fat man, that they actually will.
• But let’s be clear here: Trump is calling for yet another January 6-type event, except likely more widespread, and his cult 100% WILL do as he says. And personally, I hope the cliffs they fall off as a result are steep.
• I am in favor of peaceful protest. I do not think these folks are capable of that. Anyway, keep your eyes open on Tuesday and days before and after. That’s all I’m saying.
• Speaking of assholes getting arrested…
• Vladimir Putin, you have the right to remain silent.
• Actually probably not. But the International Criminal Court said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.
• The ICC also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.
• I’m not sure how they’re going to apprehend Putin, but I do wish them luck doing so.
• Back in the USA…
• A Kansas bill banning transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly for the third year in a row, setting up a hotly contested fight in the Republican-controlled Legislature to override her.
• She said that decisions about transgender athletes should be made by schools, doctors, families and local officials, and that the two bills she vetoed would have “created unnecessary new government mandates.”
• I think those decisions should be made by… transgender athletes. But I’m glad she’s showing support.
• In “Florida Being Florida” news, the state remains unable to enforce its "Stop Woke Act" pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) after a federal appeals court ruled against removing a temporary block on the legislation.
• The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction last year temporarily prohibiting the state from enforcing the law at colleges and universities. The state appealed and requested a stay, which would allow the state to continue enforcing the law until the appeal was resolved. Both requests were denied Thursday.
• Ha ha.
• The pointless law restricts how race is discussed in Florida schools, colleges and workplaces. The state Legislature approved the measure last March, and it was signed into law by DeSantis in April.
• Anyway, the law was ruled unconstitutional in most cases, with the court saying it violates the First and 14th Amendments as well as the Equal Protection Clause. But the law remains intact for K-12 schools, because fuck those kids, right?
• And now, The Weather: “Paraiso” by Pearl & The Oysters
• From the Sports Desk… more bracket busters in the NCAA tournament, aka March Madness. No. 1 seed Purdue had a  stunning loss to No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson. I’ve never even heard of that college. I’m not sure it’s real.
• Anyway, they’re only the second 16 seed to beat a No. 1 in history, and no one on Earth picked them, so no one has an intact bracket at this point.
• Good times.
• Today in history… Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Kraków in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city (1241). English lord John Berkeley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers (1673). The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act (1766). Six farm laborers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union (1834). The Congress of the Confederate States adjourns for the last time (1865). Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience (1922). Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom (1940). Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space (1965). The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency (1968). 
• March 18 is the birthday of US vice president John C. Calhoun (1782), US president Grover Cleveland (1837), UK prime minister Neville Chamberlain (1869), mystic Edgar Cayce (1877), businessman Ernest Gallo (1909), activist Fred Shuttlesworth,  (1922), race car driver/businessman Andy Granatelli (1923), journalist/author George Plimpton (1927), businesswoman/philanthropist Lillian Vernon (1927), novelist John Updike (1932), singer Charley Pride (1934), singer-songwriter Wilson Pickett (1941), singer-songwriter Eric Woolfson (1945), actor Brad Dourif (1950), guitarist/composer Bill Frisell (1951), singer-songwriter Irene Cara (1959), singer-songwriter/guitarist Jerry Cantrell (1966), rapper/actress Queen Latifah (1970), NBA player Brian Scalabrine (1978), singer-songwriter Adam Levine (1979), and singer-songwriter Lykke Li (1986).

Okay, so I’m going to take a shower and put on clothes. I’m serious about this Trump shit. Do not be at all shocked if some crazy-ass MAGA “protests” in various places turn weird/violent. I’ll just be making popcorn over here. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 17, 2023

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 March 17, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Since things have happened, you might want to know about them…

• At least two dozen people – from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to members of Donald Trump’s inner circle at the Florida estate – have been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith to testify to a federal grand jury that’s investigating the former president’s handling of classified documents.
• Good.
• The leader of China, Xi Jinping, is heading to Moscow next week to meet with Vladimir Putin in his first visit to Russia since Putin launched his devastating invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago.
• Under Xi, China has refused to condemn Russia’s invasion – or even refer to it as such, instead blaming NATO for provoking the conflict.
• Keep in mind that if you’re against the US support of Ukraine, you’re on the same side as both Russia and People's Republic of China.
• Brief side note for comedy…
• “I’ve never seen Putin actually show in any detail his plans to invade Europe. No one has shown me that. So I don’t believe the lies that I’m being told about this.” - Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)
• Someone tell her that Ukraine is in Europe, please.
• Speaking of Russia, their Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu presented state awards to the two Su-27 pilots who forced down a US Reaper drone over the Black Sea this week.
• They did that to troll us.
• Seems like a bunch of people really want direct military hostilities between the world’s nuclear superpowers. I, for one, am not one of them.
• The USA has a border problem… with Canada.
• The number of illegal border crossings between northeast states and Canada over the last five months is nearly 10 times what it was over the same time last year. 
• From Oct. 1 to Feb. 28, about 2,000 migrants crossed the border between Canada and New Hampshire, Vermont and New York south through the forests, compared to just 200 crossings in the same period the previous year.
• Build the wall? 
• More news from up north… Minnesota regulators said they’re monitoring the cleanup of a leak of 400,000 gallons of radioactive water from Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear power plant, and the company said there’s no danger to the public.
• Well that’s good. Giant and powerful corporations would never lie, right?
• While Xcel reported the leak of water containing tritium to state and federal authorities in late November, the spill had not been made public before yesterday. State officials said they waited to get more information before going public with it.
• Pffffft.
• In other news about corporations and public health, newly released data shows soil in the Ohio town of East Palestine – scene of a recent catastrophic train crash and chemical spill – contains dioxin levels hundreds of times greater than the exposure threshold above which Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists in 2010 found poses cancer risks.
• And they told everyone to go home and that everything is fine.
• This is why we don’t trust these fucking greedy pieces of shit.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced yesterday that the state is on track to cut the number of unsheltered people by an ambitious 15% in two years, and vowed to provide 1,200 tiny homes to help achieve that goal.
• Cool.
• Democrats in Michigan have wasted no time getting their top priorities to the governor's desk. Within the first two months of the legislative session, Democrats passed their centerpiece tax plan, a bill to repeal the state's defunct 1931 abortion ban, and legislation to create civil rights protections for LGBTQ people.
• MI Senate lawmakers also advanced a trio of proposals to expand gun buyer background checks as well as establish gun storage requirements and a new "red flag" law.
• Hell yes Michigan. Keep doing all this.
• Meanwhile, Georgia, Tennessee, and other states are moving backward. The Georgia House on Thursday approved a bill that would prevent medical professionals from giving transgender children certain hormones or surgical treatment.
• It’s worse in Tennessee; their bill’s provisions allow teachers to misgender their students and instituted a ban on gender-affirming medical care for trans youths, despite medical experts and their professional associations saying such care is safe and effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria.
• Doctors in TN would be required to set a timeline to detransition children already taking puberty blockers or undergoing hormone therapy.
• And in Idaho, a bill designed to make students use the bathroom that matches their biological sex has passed the Idaho House 59 to 10.
• I will do many things that are in my power to pull money out of states that discriminate and support hatred. Not just my tiny amount of money. Big corporate money. And I will make sure they know why.
• And now, The Weather: “It Gets Better” by Jaguar Sun & Husbands
• I’m about to poke fun at a religion, so be ready to possibly be mad at me.
• Catholics are getting a special dispensation allowing parishioners to eat meat on Saint Patrick’s Day, which happens to fall on a Friday this year. People like their corned beef on St. Paddy’s, but as most people are aware, Catholics are not supposed to eat meat on Fridays during Lent in commemoration of Jesus' death on the cross.
• Until it’s somewhat inconvenient, apparently.
• Catholicism has a lot of hard and fast rules that they seem to change whenever they feel like it.
• I guess I should mention this holiday.
• Saint Patrick’s Day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.
• Fun Fact: Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated in more countries than any other national festival.
• Here in the USA, it’s primarily a drinking holiday. Since I don’t drink alcohol, it’s not much of a big day for me. However, weed is green, in the spirit of things.
• My biggest recollection of St. Paddy’s Day as a kid was making sure to wear green so I didn’t get pinched. Who wants to get pinched?
• From the Sports Desk… nearly everyone who carefully filled out their brackets for the NCAA men’s tournament is already out. 15-seed Princeton pulled off stunning upset of 2-seed Arizona in the first round. Bye, y’all.
• Today in history… Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius (180). The British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city (1776). The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed (1861). Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO (1948). The United States launches the first solar-powered satellite, which is also the first satellite to achieve a long-term orbit (1958). Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel (1969). A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2% (1992). 
• March 16 is the birthday of Scotland king James IV (1473), SCOTUS chief justice Roger B. Taney (1777), engineer/businessman Gottlieb Daimler (1834), social reformer Martha P. Falconer (1862), composer Alfred Newman (1900), NFL player Sammy Baugh (1914), singer Nat King Cole (1919), singer-songwriter Paul Kantner (1941), serial killer John Wayne Gacy (1942), singer-songwriter John Sebastian (1944), author William Gibson (1948), actor Kurt Russell (1951), actor Gary Sinise (1955), NBA/MLB player Danny Ainge (1959), actor Rob Lowe (1964), singer-songwriter Billy Corgan (1967), fashion designer Alexander McQueen (1969), bass player Melissa Auf der Maur (1972), soccer player Mia Hamm (1972), singer-songwriter Justin Hawkins (1975), porn actress Stormy Daniels (1979), singer-songwriter Grimes (1988), singer-songwriter Hozier (1990), and actor John Boyega (1992).

I’m going to try and have a low-stress day. I still have tons to do, but it seems possible for me to be very productive and not freak the fuck out about it. I mean, that’s the goal; it may or may not work out that way, but I’m truly going to make the effort to not be in a shitty mood and snarl at people. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 16, 2023

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 March 16, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. Here’s whatever things be…

• Moscow is working to retrieve the wreckage of an American drone that crashed into the Black Sea after a Russian fighter jet collided with it.
• Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the drone likely broke up in the crash and its debris was under thousands of feet of water in the Black Sea.
• ”That's U.S. property," Milley said during a press conference yesterday at the Pentagon. "... There's probably not a lot to recover, frankly.
• The U.S. took mitigating measures to prevent the loss of any sensitive intelligence, Milley said. "We are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value.”
• Alrighty then.
• Yesterday, Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui was arrested in New York for orchestrating what the Department of Justice called a more than $1 billion fraud conspiracy.
• He’s an associate of former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon, because of course he is.
• The SEC filed a related civil complaint against Guo and his co-defendant in the criminal case. Bannon, while working with America’s Laughingstock Rudy Giuliani, had “arranged for Guo and his followers to spread salacious videos and pictures from” a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.
• Ha! Get his ass.
• Speaking of China, the Biden administration is demanding that Chinese-owned TikTok be sold, or the popular video app could face a ban in the U.S..
• It is the first time the Biden administration has explicitly threatened to ban TikTok. It’s also a topic where Biden and Trump seem aligned; Trump attempted to put TikTok out of business, but the actions were halted by federal courts.
• In other news…
• Yesterday’s arguments in a Texas court suggested US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is seriously considering undoing the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, a medication abortion drug.
• If it goes his way, Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, will be responsible for removing access to safe abortions for millions of women across the entire country.
• Speaking of the Orange Menace, the porn actor at the center of the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal investigation of Donald John Trump spoke to prosecutors yesterday at their request as the probe enters its final stages.
• As you may recall, Stormy Daniels, received $130,000 in so-called hush money at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign after alleging an affair with Trump.
• Ha ha!
• MyPillow CEO, former crackhead, and continual Trump fellator Mike Lindell is broke. He had to take about a $10 million loan due to his legal costs of defending the lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, and will likely declare bankruptcy at some point to avoid paying his eventual settlement.
• So sad, too bad.
• The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nomination of former LA mayor Eric Garcetti to be ambassador to India.
• Not everyone is a Garcetti fan. The final vote was 52 to 42. Seven Republicans voted in favor of the nomination (Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Susan Collins (R-MN), Steve Daines (R-MT), Todd Young (R-IN), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Three Democrats voted in opposition: Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ).
• Weird.
• RIP to singer-songwriter Bobby Caldwell, who passed away at age 71. Don’t know who he is? Sure you do. YouTube “What You Won't Do for Love”, an extremely smooth-ass tune from 1978. 
• Seven Virginia sheriff’s deputies have been charged with murder in the death of a man who had been arrested and was physically restrained while being admitted to a hospital this month.
• ”He died of asphyxia due to being smothered to death, thanks to having at least seven people, including the defendant, on top of him and holding him down.” - Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill.
• The accused murders: Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43; Tabitha Renee Levere, 50; Brandon Edwards Rodgers, 48; and Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, 30.
• And now, The Weather: “Don't Fade Away” by Beach Fossils
• For the first time in 31 years, the Labrador Retriever has been unseated as the most popular dog breed in the US. In its place sits the cute and compact French Bulldog.
• I do like me a Frenchie. I like labs too. I basically like dogs. If you’re a dog, I like you.
• Students at Wellesley College, a Massachusetts private liberal arts college for women, voted on Tuesday in favor of allowing transgender men and non-binary individuals who were assigned male at birth to enroll.
• However, the school has no plans to actually change its admissions policies. Some of their alumnae include Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Diane Sawyer, Cokie Roberts, Nora Ephron, and many other leaders in the world of politics, business, and more.
• From the Sports Desk… nah. I guess people are doing NCAA brackets, I guess Ja Morant is suspended for eight games for being an idiot, I guess Aaron Rodgers says he wants to plays for the Jets.
• Nothing specific worth getting into.
• Today in history… Samoset, a Mohegan, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them in English, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset.” (1621). The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point (1802). Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, MA (1926). Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in at least 4,000 deaths (1945). Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott performing the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit (1966). Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States (1988). Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery (1995). The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (2020).
• March 16 is the birthday of astronomer Caroline Herschel (1750), US president James Madison (1751), physicist Georg Ohm (1789), comedian Henny Youngman (1906), mass murderer Josef Mengele (1911), US first lady Pat Nixon (1912), politician Charles Goodell (1926), actor Jerry Lewis (1926), opera singer Christa Ludwig (1928), film director Bernardo Bertolucci (1941), TV host Chuck Woolery (1941), singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker (1942), actor Erik Estrada (1949), singer-songwriter Ray Benson (1951), singer-songwriter/guitarist Nancy Wilson (1954), NFL player Ozzie Newsome (1956), rapper Flavor Flav (1959), singer-songwriter Patty Griffin (1964), NBA player Blake Griffin (1989), musician Wolfgang Van Halen (1991), NBA player Joel Embiid (1994), and MLB player Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1999).

Welp, time to dive into another day of work hell. Why am I so busy? Got my industry’s big trade show coming up, and as a guy who writes press releases, creates show displays and graphics, and puts together marketing plans for new product launches, this is my Olympics, so to speak. 

Random News: March 15, 2023

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 March 15, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. Things have happened, so you should know about them…

• It’s the Ides of March today. Know what that is?
• It’s just March 15. 
• The Romans did not number each day of a month. Instead, they counted back from three fixed points of the month: the Nones, the Ides, and the Kalends). In March, the Ides fell on the 15th.
• According to philosopher/historian Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Julius Caesar on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "Well, the Ides of March are come,” implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, they are come, but they are not gone."
• It’s probably bullshit that was written way after Caesar was killed to spice up the story. Plutarch’s account was from 100 years later. It probably wouldn’t have been remembered at all but then Shakespeare made it a big dramatic point in the play written over 1600 years after the fact.
• While I don’t believe in cursed days, I did get laid off from a job on the Ides of March some 23 years ago… but then I found a better job a couple of weeks later and my life improved dramatically. So much for curses.
• The US government reported yesterday that a Russian Su-27 jet has collided with a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea. To be more precise, it seems the Russian jet purposefully dumped fuel on the propellor of the drone.
• The incident took place in international airspace over international waters. The US military was forced to bring down the drone over the Black Sea. 
• Russia gives a somewhat different account of this encounter, as you’d expect.
• Cmdr Gen. James Hecker of the USAF says: “Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9.”
• That’s not good.
• If it had been a manned aircraft as opposed to a drone, it would immediately be defined as an act of war. Frankly, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life at war with anyone, much less Russia or China (or both).
• Got some potential breaking news for ya…
• Trump Media, which owns the social media platform Truth Social, is under federal investigation to determine whether it violated money laundering laws in connection with two loans totaling $8 million from shady Russian sources.
• The loans seem to be connected "in part by the relation of an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin."
• Moving on…
• Today in Texas, a federal judge will have a hearing where he’ll decide whether or not to block the US government’s approval of the drug used for medication abortions.
• The case was brought by the anti-abortion right. Depending on how US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk handles the medication abortion lawsuit, access could be cut off nationwide to mifepristone, the most common method of abortion in the United States.
• So yes, to be clear: today, a male judge in Texas is going to choose the reproductive rights of women in Oregon, New York, California, Massachusetts and so on.
• If you were under the impression that all January 6 insurrectionists were uneducated middle-aged yokels who were misled by evil politicians, meet Larry Fife Giberson, 21, of Manahawkin, NJ.
• Larry, a Princeton University student, was arrested Tuesday on charges that he joined other rioters in pushing against police officers guarding an entrance to the U.S. Capitol during the mob's attack. He has a felony count of civil disorder and faces four other counts including engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds.
• Giberson tried in vain to start a chant of "Drag them out!" and then cheered on rioters using weapons and pepper spray against police in the tunnel, according to the FBI.
• The Justice Department recently reached a milestone in its prosecution of the U.S. Capitol attack, confirming it has arrested at least 1,000 people in connection with the failed coup attempt.
• And now, The Weather: “Love Fang” by Moto Bandit
• Speaking of weather, both coasts got a bunch of precipitation in the last day… some wet, some frozen. Buncha people flooded, many without power. It happens.
• I wasn’t going to mention this next thing, but I have far too many friends with teenage kids not it.
• A 34-year-old piece of shit — I won’t give him the honor of calling him a man — met a 13-year-old girl in a video game chat and enticed her to leave the home. He abducted her and took her from Dallas, TX to Davidson County, NC, a thousand miles away.
• They found the child two weeks later. Jorge Camacho was arrested on child abduction, felonious restraint, statutory rape and other charges.
• My point here… yes, it’s impossible to monitor everything your kid does online. But when they have a headset on and are playing some first-person shooter game, you have no idea who they’re interacting with. The way that these criminals find their victims is not something that’s immediately obvious to a parent.
• Maybe it’s a discussion you want to have with your teen son or daughter. I’m just saying.
• From the Sports Desk… so much movement in NFL free agency this week, your team will likely be unrecognizable by the time the season cranks back up next August.
• Today in history… The assassination of Julius Caesar takes place (44 BC). King Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, granting limited religious freedom to all Christians (1672). Maine is admitted as the twenty-third U.S. state (1820). Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne, ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty (1917). Germany occupies Czechoslovakia (1939). President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to the Selma crisis, tells U.S. Congress "We shall overcome" while advocating the Voting Rights Act (1965). Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first President of the Soviet Union (1990). Approximately 1.4 million young people in 123 countries go on strike to protest climate change (2019).
• March 15 is the birthday of US president Andrew Jackson (1767), physician/epidemiologist John Snow (1813), physician Emil von Behring (1854), mathematician Grace Chisholm Young (1868), singer-songwriter Lightnin' Hopkins (1912), actor Lawrence Tierney (1919), NFL player Norm Van Brocklin (1926), music producer Arif Mardin (1932), SCOTUS justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933), actor Judd Hirsch (1935), songwriter/bass player Phil Lesh (1940), director David Cronenberg (1943), singer-songwriter Sly Stone (1943), guitarist Ry Cooder (1947), singer-songwriter Dee Snider (1955), singer Bret Michaels (1963), singer Mark McGrath (1968), actress Eva Longoria (1975), rapper will.i.am (1975), and MLB player Kevin Youkilis (1979).

Alrighty, well… I’m just going to do normal human stuff on this hopefully normal day. I’ll work and stuff and things and whatever. Enjoy your day.