Random News: March 24, 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 March 24, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I definitely have some things I need to do today, but for the moment, allow me to enjoy the peacefulness of the morning. Sipping a cup of freshly brewed coffee in my robe. Ahhhhh. Nice. Okay, let’s go.

• Some of you may wonder how much of this news I work on ahead of time.
• Answer: almost none of it, with a caveat. First, I can’t pre-write these bullets because I can’t predict the future, and the things I mention here almost always are in regard to things that have happened in the past day, right up until the moment I hit the “post” button.
• However, when I am made aware of something of note on any given day, I often send myself a link to the story so I can more easily refer to it when I write my bullets.
• The bullets themselves, I write fresh each day. And now, you know.
• So here we go.
• Broke Don Dump must put up a bond of nearly half-a-billion dollars by tomorrow (March 25) if he wants to stop New York Attorney General Letitia James from collecting on the judgement against him while he appeals it.
• To recap: last month, Judge Arthur F. Engoron ruled that Dumpy, his two eldest sons, and two of his executives submitted false data to lenders and insurance companies to secure better financial deals.
• Dump and his co-defendants were ordered to pay $464 million, an amount that continues to grow at a rate of more than $100,000 per day.
• Dumpy’s lawyers told an appellate court that they tried to get a bond through 30 different insurance companies but none offered one. Selling golf courses or hotels generally takes much longer than a few days or weeks, time the Dumpster no longer has.
• Like a rat in a cage, Dump is now a cornered man who has very few options left.
• Experts say nothing will happen immediately. As much as you may want to see Tish James putting a padlock on Trump Tower, that’s not how it works.
• Legally there is nothing preventing James from calling on the New York City sheriffs or on city marshals to begin seizing his assets tomorrow morning. But the optics of seeming overages probably wouldn’t be helpful in the big picture.
• Also, the appeals court generally issues rulings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so she’ll at least give them the time to give their ruling on Dumpy’s Hail Mary request..
• After that? Well… 
• James will probably start with New York properties, partly because the LLCs that own two of them — 40 Wall Street and his Seven Springs estate in Westchester County — are defendants in the fraud case.
• New York City marshals could go to Dump’s banks and drain his accounts at James’ behest.
• All this assumes he doesn’t miraculously find the money that his lawyers insisted he doesn’t have. That’s been my prediction, and I stated it would happen sometime today.
• El Dumpo could get money from rich friends or from entire big corporations or even countries who may be happy give or lend him money to put up a bond. But there’s a price: he’d be forever indebted to them, literally.
• And he’d owe them a lot of favors. Think about how that might affect a presidency, if he was elected.
• Why not just get a loan from a bank like a normal billionaire? Because Dump has alienated all of his banking relationships.
• If he does put up a bond, former federal judge Barbara Jones — the court-appointed babysitter of his business empire and finances — should have insight into that deal.
• The order specifically required that Jones be informed in advance of any efforts to secure bonds, including “any representations made by Trump Organization in connection with securing such bonds, any personal guarantees made by any of the Defendants, and any obligations of the Trump Organization required” by the bonding company.
• That’s very specific. So one way or another, we’ll know where the cash comes form, if it does.
• Finally, as I noted the other day, Dumperino could push all the problems back for months or even years by declaring bankruptcy.
• Big Smelly wouldn’t escape his debt and interest would still continue to accrue — but the clock would stop ticking on his need to immediately put up a bond.
• But there’s no way a guy whose entire self-promoting pitch as a savvy business guru can declare bankruptcy in the middle of a presidential election and expect to survive.
• We’ll know which option happens very soon.
• Moving on.
• Voters in about a dozen states this fall will have the opportunity to decide the fate of abortion rights with constitutional amendments on the ballot.
• Some of those are battleground states that will also determine the presidential race and which party controls Congress.
• Why go so far as to amend the states’ constitutions? Because if passed, they would supersede any law enacted by state legislatures.
• And thus far, it’s worked. Since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022, every ballot measure that has sought to preserve or expand abortion access has been successful, even in states that skew conservative.
• Voters in deep-red Kansas defeated a ballot measure that would have removed abortion protections from the state’s constitution. Voters in Michigan, California, and Vermont approved ballot initiatives that enshrined the right to abortion in state constitutions. Voters in Kentucky and Montana defeated antiabortion ballot measures. Voters in Ohio approved a measure to enshrine the right to an abortion.
• You can divide the upcoming women’s reproductive freedom ballot initiatives this fall into three categories.
• This first category is a definite ballot measure to protect abortion access. 
• Maryland: The state already protects the right to abortion under state law and Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1. Now they’re adding it to their constitution. Abortion is allowed in Maryland until viability.
• New York: Voters this fall will choose whether or not to bar discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, pregnancy outcome, and reproductive healthcare as part of a broader equal protection amendment to their constitution. Abortion is allowed in New York law until viability.
• The second category are states that might get abortion topics on their ballots.
• Arizona: If supporters gather about 384,000 valid signatures by July 4, they’ll add a measure to the ballot saying the state would not be able to ban abortion until the fetus is viable, with later abortions allowed to protect a woman’s physical or mental health. Current law bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
• Arkansas: They need to get 91,000 valid signatures by July 5 to get a measure on the ballot that would bar laws banning abortion in the first 20 weeks of gestation and allow abortion later in pregnancy in cases of rape, incest, threats to the woman’s health or life, or if the fetus would be unlikely to survive birth. The state currently bans abortion at all stages with few exceptions.
• Colorado: Two measures are possible in this state — one to completely ban abortion, and one to amend the state constitution to protect it. Deadlines to get 124,000 signatures for the dueling sides are quickly approaching for both; April 15 for the ban and April 26 for protection of women’s reproductive rights. Abortion is, for now, legal at all stages of pregnancy in Colorado.
• Florida: Supporters have already collected nearly a million signatures, far more than the 892,000 required, to put a state constitutional amendment to legalize abortion until viability on the ballot. In typical GOP fuckery, Florida AG Ashley Moody has now asked the state Supreme Court to keep the measure off the ballot anyway. If it makes it to the voters, 60% of them would have to vote yes for it to take effect. Abortion is currently legal in Florida only through the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, but a 2023 law would drop that to just six weeks — often before women know they’re pregnant.
• Missouri: This one seems like a long shot with two competing measures. Abortion rights advocates are pushing a ballot measure that would guarantee abortion is legal until viability. A different group comprised of moderate Republicans are calling for an amendment that would allow abortion up to 12 weeks, and after that only under limited exceptions. Abortion is currently banned at all stages of pregnancy there.
• Montana: Supporters have until June 21 to get 60,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment that would bar the government from denying the right to abortion before viability or when it’s necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant person. Once again, GOP fuckery is at work here, with AG Austin Knudsen ruled that the measure is legally insufficient, and it’s under appeal. Abortion is currently legal until viability in Montana.
• Nebraska: Advocates need about 125,000 signatures by July 5 to put a constitutional amendment before voters to protect abortion rights until fetal viability. Abortion there is now banned after 12 weeks, with some exceptions.
• Nevada: Supporters are trying to get more than 102,000 valid signatures by June 26 to place a measure on the ballot to enshrine abortion access for the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in their constitution. It’s the same law that Nevada currently has.
• South Dakota: They need more than 35,000 signatures by May 7 to get a measure on the ballot that would only loosen some restrictions, which isn’t far enough. It would at least ban any restrictions on abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. Abortion in the state is now banned at all stages of pregnancy.
• The final category are states that could put women’s reproductive freedom on the ballot but almost certainly won’t, and in some cases are working to curtail abortion rights even further.
• Iowa: Even before Roe v. Wade was killed by Donald Trump and his cronies on the SCOTUS, the state had already advanced a resolution to find there is no constitutional right to abortion there. Abortion is currently banned 20 weeks into pregnancy in Iowa, but they are pushing for a stricter six week law.
• Maine: As usual with their weird systems of doing things, Maine Democrats are calling for a measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, but they’d need a two-thirds majority of lawmakers in each legislative chamber to adopt it and send it to voters, and they don’t have it. Abortion is already allowed throughout pregnancy there.
• Pennsylvania: Their former Republican lawmakers wanted to amend their constitution to find no right to abortion, but Democrats have since taken control of the state House, so it’s a no-go. Abortion is now legal there for up to 24 weeks.
• Wisconsin: In January, their state assembly approved calling for a binding statewide referendum for a law to ban abortions after 14 weeks of pregnancy. Gov. Tony Evers has promised to veto it. Abortion is legal there within the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.
• Hopefully that’s some useful info for you. If you live in one of the states mentioned above who are trying to get these measures on the ballot and want to support their efforts, let me know if you need help finding out how to do so.
• It’s Sunday Gunday here at Zak’s Random News. Here are some people who’ve been affected by gun violence over the past couple of days.
• Two dead in a shooting at an apartment complex in the Hermitage area of Nashville, TN. One dead, five wounded in a shooting outside a bar in Indianapolis, IN. One dead, two wounded in a shooting inside a bar in North Lauderdale, FL. One dead, two wounded in a shooting at a house party in Commerce City, CO. One dead, one wounded in a shooting in North Philadelphia, PA. One dead in a shooting in Sylvester, GA. One dead in a shooting in Orlando, FL. One dead in a shooting in Adelphi, MD. One dead in a shooting in Lafayette, LA. One dead in a shooting in Austin, TX. Three shot in Tampa, FL. Two shot at a party in Des Moines, IA. One in critical condition after a shooting occurred in the Over-the-Rhine area of Cincinnati, OH. One in critical condition after a shooting during a fight in Piedmont, SC. A woman shot in a road rage incident in Pittsburgh, PA. One shot in Brentwood, NY. One shot in Aurora, CO. One shot in Little Rock, AR. One shot in Virginia Beach, VA.
• So, a pretty light weekend for the USA. Thanks for not shooting and killing as many people are you usually do, gun fanatics.
• Usual disclaimer: these are just a few of the gun violence incidents, and only those in the past 48 hours I find in a quick scroll of depressing news. I never have the time or desire to list them all.
• And now, The Weather: “24” by KALENA & Whose Rules
• From the Sports Desk… if you’re following the NCAA Men’s tournament, some games to watch today…
• 1-seed UConn vs. 9-seed Northwestern. 1-seed Houston vs. 9-seed Texas A&M. 1-seed Purdue vs. 8-seed Utah State. 
• I won’t be watching, but you can.
• Today in history… King Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France (1199). James VI of Scotland is proclaimed King James I of England and Ireland upon the death of Elizabeth I (1603). The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne (1663). Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos (1721). Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops (1765). Japanese Chief Minister Ii Naosuke is assassinated by rōnin samurai outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle (1860). Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (1882). Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn (1900). Direct rule is imposed on Northern Ireland by the Government of the United Kingdom under Edward Heath (1972). In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period (1976). In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil after running aground (1989). Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 is discovered by Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker, and David Levy at the Palomar Observatory in California (1993). Students across the United States stage the March for Our Lives demanding gun control in response to the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (2018).
• March 24 is the birthday of clock maker John Harrison (1693), politician Rufus King (1755), poet/composer Fanny Crosby (1820), activist Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826), SCOTUS justice Horace Gray (1828), businessman/philanthropist Andrew W. Mellon (1855), magician Harry Houdini (1874), actor Roscoe Arbuckle (1887), MLB player George Sisler (1893), animator Ub Iwerks (1901), criminal Clyde Barrow (1909), animator Joseph Barbera (1911), poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919), actor Norman Fell (1924), actor Steve McQueen (1930), fashion designer Bob Mackie (1940), actor/drill instructor R. Lee Ermey (1944), harmonica player Lee Oskar (1948), singer-songwriter Nick Lowe (1949), fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger (1951), actor/comedian Louie Anderson (1953), businessman Steve Ballmer (1956), actress/model Kelly Le Brock (1960), actress Lara Flynn Boyle (1970), NFL player Mike Vanderjagt (1970), comedian/actor Tig Notaro (1971), actor Jim Parsons (1973), NFL player Peyton Manning (1976), actress Jessica Chastain (1977), and NBA player Chris Bosh (1984).

Okay. Got stuff to do. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 23, 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, uh… no longer morning. It’s March 23, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I’ve been lazily enjoying a drizzly morning in my bathrobe, sipping some Peet’s Luminosa Breakfast Blend. It’s a lovely way to begin a weekend. And yet, news has happened and I feel compelled to tell you what it is.

• Side note on that.
• Throughout my life, when I’ve ben put in a position of having to teach or inform, I find that I am greatly more informed myself as a result of preparing whatever it is I’m going to then disseminate to others.
• So while I sometimes say that I do these daily bullet points for you, I probably get the very most benefit from the action of researching and then writing it.
• Okay, let’s go.
• At 2:03AM EDT this morning, the Senate voted for a $1.2 trillion spending plan to fund the government, avoiding a shutdown and sending the measure to President Joe Biden for his signature.
• The 74-to-24 vote happened after more than 12 hours of negotiations following a House of Representatives vote yesterday morning of 286-134. The 1,012-page bill covers an estimated 70% of discretionary government spending.
• But once again, 112 House Republicans went against House Speaker Mike Johnson's move to work with Democrats and unsuccessfully voted no on the bill. The queen of moronic conservatives, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), even filed a motion to vacate and remove Johnson from his position for having supported the bill.
• Many of her fellow Republicans lambasted her.
• “It’s not only idiotic, but it actually does not do anything to advance the conservative movement. And in fact, it undermines the country, and our majority,” - Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY).
• “I consider Marjorie Taylor Greene to be my friend. She’s still my friend. But she just made a big mistake. To think that one of our Republican colleagues would call for his ouster right now — it’s really, it’s abhorrent to me and I oppose it.” - Clay Higgins (R-LA).
• Sporky claimed that a number of her colleagues are behind her effort to find a new Speaker — ”I’m not the only one” — but refused to disclose just how many.
• Pfft. That far-right MAGA contingent wants the government to shut down and have our country’s military and civilian employees not be paid. They are sick and sad people.
• President Biden was expected to sign off on the budget this morning. He may have already. I’m too busy writing this and enjoying my coffee to check.
• Oh wait, he just did. Okay, cool.
• Let’s move on to a horrible event in Russia.
• At least 133 people are known to have been killed in a massive terrorist attack near Moscow at the Crocus City complex, home to a popular music hall and shopping center. Yesterday, crowds had gathered there for a concert by the Russian rock band Picnic.
• Additionally, 121 others were injured in the incident, 44 of whom are in serious condition.
• Heavily armed attackers entered the popular concert venue complex with automatic rifles and opened fire indiscriminately, killing dozens of people at point-blank range.
• The Islamic militant group ISIS claimed responsibility for the assault in a short statement published by their news agency. American officials had warned Moscow that militants from Islamic State-Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K, were determined to target Russia in the days before assailants stormed the concert hall, but President Vladimir Putin rejected the advice as “provocative.”
• Leaders around the world condemned the attack. Despite the claim from ISIS, Putin seemed to be trying to put the blame on Ukraine, who strongly denied any involvement.
• In other international news…
• Yesterday, Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored U.N. resolution calling for an immediate and sustained cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians.
• The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 members in favor and three against, including Algeria, the Arab representative on the council. There was one abstention, from Guyana.
• Sigh.
• Back in the USA…
• The Republican majority in the House of Representatives is getting smaller and smaller.
• Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) announced yesterday he would resign from Congress before his term is up. Gallagher is a four-term lawmaker who is considered a rising star within the GOP.
• He’d already announced last month he would not seek reelection. But yesterday, he said he would leave the House on April 19. Whoa!
• Why does this seem purposeful? Because under Wisconsin law, vacancies occurring prior to the second Tuesday in April get filled… but after that, it keeps the seat vacant until November.
• Gallagher’s departure will leave House Republicans with 217 members to Democrats’ 213, meaning Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can afford to lose only one vote on any bill that doesn’t have Democratic support.
• In congressional news that won’t matter to anyone, ever…
• Former Rep. George Santos said yesterday that he's leaving the Republican Party. Snort.
• Santos says, “The Republican Party continues to lie and swindle its voter base. I in good conscience cannot affiliate myself with a party that stands for nothing and falls for everything.”
• He’ll run as an independent. Hahahahahahaha.
• In the good news/bad news folder, yesterday, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) vetoed a bill that would have erected significant barriers to abortion, should it remain legal in the state, but then signed legislation banning gender-affirming care for minors.
• The rejected abortion bill would have required facilities providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers, adding to their cost and the burdens they face to operate.
• At least for now, abortion is still legal in Wyoming pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging new laws to ban the procedure. The bill was aimed at the state’s only full-service abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access that opened in 2023 — almost a year later than planned after being badly burned in an arson attack by an insane woman who opposed abortion.
• Sigh.
• Wyoming’s lawmakers are very, very much against women’s reproductive rights. the abortion bill passed their state senate on a 24-6 vote March 1, and earlier cleared the state House with a 53-9 vote.
• These are people you elect. You get the leaders and the laws you choose when you vote. Keep it in mind this fall.
• Finally, Missouri and Louisiana hold their presidential primaries today. Biden will appear in the Democratic primary in both states. Republicans will vote only in Louisiana as the Missouri GOP already held caucuses on March 2.
• None of the races will offer suspense. Biden and Trump have already clinched their party nominations and beaten their major competitors. But the primary races are still closely watched for turnout and signs of protest voters.
• I’ll check on them tonight, as I always do.
• And now, The Weather: “Krillin (feat. Greg Mendez & Sun Organ)” by They Are Gutting a Body of Water
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart for March 1981. I’m in the spring semester of seventh grade, and holy fuck, look at this list. I know it’s reflective of my age and culture, but at least three of my favorite albums in history were all in the top 20 albums at the same damn time. Wow.
• 1. Hi Infidelity (REO Speedwagon). 2. Paradise Theater (Styx). 3. The Jazz Singer (Soundtrack) (Neil Diamond). 4. Double Fantasy (John Lennon & Yoko Ono). 5. Zenyatta Mondatta (The Police). 6. Crimes Of Passion (Pat Benatar). 7. Autoamerican (Blondie). 8. Moving Pictures (Rush). 9. Captured (Journey). 10. Guilty (Barbra Streisand). 11. 9 To 5 And Odd Jobs (Dolly Parton). 12. Arc Of A Diver (Steve Winwood). 13. Back In Black (AC/DC). 14. Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits (Kenny Rogers). 15. Celebrate (Kool & The Gang). 16. The Gap Band III (The Gap Band). 17. The Two Of Us (Yarbrough & Peoples). 18. Hotter Than July (Stevie Wonder). 19. Horizon (Eddie Rabbitt). 20. Winelight (Grover Washington, Jr.)
• If you like piña coladas, the place to be is Westford, MA, where a tractor-trailer veered off Interstate 495 early this morning and spilled a load of thousands of pineapples.
• From the Sports Desk… the NCAA Women’s bracket hasn’t been as tumultuous as their male counterparts. So far advancing to the second round are powerhouse teams like 1-seed South Carolina, 1-seed Texas, 1-seed USC, 1-seed Iowa, 2-seed Stanford, 2-seed Ohio State, 3-seed Oregon State, 3-seed UConn, and others.
• Today in history… Patrick Henry delivers his speech – "Give me liberty, or give me death!" – at St. John's Episcopal Church, Richmond, VA (1775). After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home (1806). The University of California is founded in Oakland, CA (1868). In England, The Football League, the world's oldest professional association football league, meets for the first time (1888). In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement (1919). The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act of 1933, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany (1933). NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight, crewed by Gus Grissom and John Young (1965). Guatemala's government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García is overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt (1982). The Affordable Care Act becomes law in the United States (2010). Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the United Kingdom into its first national lockdown in response to COVID-19 (2020). A container ship runs aground and obstructs the Suez Canal for six days (2021). 
• March 23 is the birthday of writer/assassin Lorenzino de' Medici (1514), US vice president Schuyler Colfax (1823), outlaw Nathaniel Reed (1862), psychologist/sociologist Erich Fromm (1900), film director Akira Kurosawa (1910), physicist Wernher von Braun (1912), runner Roger Bannister (1929), race care driver Craig Breedlove (1937), singer-songwriter/producer Ric Ocasek (1944), mandolin player David Grisman (1945), NFL player Ron Jaworski (1951), singer-songwriter Chaka Khan (1953), fashion designer Kenneth Cole (1954), NBA player Moses Malone (1955), actress Amanda Plummer (1957), singer-songwriter Damon Albarn (1968), NBA player/coach Jason Kidd (1973), blogger Perez Hilton (1978), runner Mo Farah (1983), NFL player Maurice Jones-Drew (1985), and NBA player Kyrie Irving (1992).

Well, I’ve showered, dressed, and cooked and eaten breakfast while constructing these news items for you. Now I have other things to do. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 22, 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 March 22, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I woke up with “In a Big Country” by Big Country stuck in my head for some reason, so I’m gonna take that as a sign to come up screaming and ready to kick ass for justice. Let’s do the news!

• I never know exactly where to start when bonkers news items are flying by, as they have been in recent days.
• Let’s start with some good shit.
• President Joe Biden has forgiven roughly $6 billion in student loans for nearly 80,000 public service workers — including teachers, nurses, and firefighters.
• Joe said, ”These public service workers have dedicated their careers to serving their communities, but because of past administrative failures, never got the relief they were entitled to under the law."
• I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be provided this relief than teachers, nurses, or first responders.
• In news from the dark side…
• Effective yesterday, Donnie Dump's family real estate company has a full-time babysitter.
• Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a monitor over the Dump Organization as part of a judgment that also required Dumpy to pay a nearly-half billion dollar penalty.
• Barbara Jones, a retired federal judge, has been overseeing Dump Org's finances since November 2022 as part of a preliminary injunction. She is now installed for the next three years.
• As part of the arrangement, the Dump Org must open its books to Jones, who has also been given the ability to suggest court-ordered changes in how the company operates.
• She must be notified about any large cash transfers (!), the creation or dissolution of assets, the restructuring of debt and any efforts to secure surety bonds.
• That means if Big Smelly suddenly gets an influx of cash to pay his appeal bond by Monday, Barbara Jones will need to know from whence it came.
• Hahahahahahaha… this is… chef’s kiss.
• So about that…
• Yesterday, the $454 million judgment against the Tangerine Twat was formally registered in Westchester County just outside Manhattan, a sign that his properties in the area may be at risk of being seized if the former president fails to post an appeal bond.
• What properties would those be? Oh, only some of his most valuable ones of all: Trump National Golf Club Westchester and the mostly undeveloped 212-acre Seven Springs estate.
• The judgment is already entered in New York City where Dumples’ properties including Trump Tower, his penthouse at Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, his hotel abutting Central Park, and numerous apartment buildings.
• Interesting fact…
• Dump is sending out fundraising emails and posts saying, "KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF TRUMP TOWER!"
• I’m not making that up, by the way. That’s copy/pasted.
• But campaigns are barred from spending money on anything that isn't a specific, election-related expenditure, and paying off a personal legal judgment doesn't fall into that category.
• Dump would not hesitate to do it anyway, but I just wanted to make that clear. Regardless, it could only be enforced by the Federal Election Commission, whose Republican staff have blocked every investigation into Dump and his campaign over the years.
• Don the Con spent more than $52 million on legal fees in 2023 using funds from two political action committees that he controls. 
• Nearly $40 million of the $52.4 million in donor money was spent on law firms working on cases that had nothing to do with Dump's candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.
• Let’s talk about that too.
• Diaper Don’s new joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee directs donations to his campaign and a political action committee that pays the former president’s legal bills before the RNC even gets a cut.
• Again, for those who are in denial: Republican donor funds are being diverted straight to the Save America PAC. That money goes to Dump’s lawyers, who have received at least $76 million over the last two years to defend him against four felony indictments and multiple civil cases.
• And now they’re painted into a corner, because the RNC is run by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Chris LaCivita, who is one of two campaign managers for the Dump campaign.
• There’s no money in the RNC for any candidate other than Dump.
• He’s fucked your entire political party, likely for years if not generations to come.
• And just this morning, that Orange Idiot made a huge mistake.
• He posted in all caps on his stupid social network, "Through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash, a substantial amount of which I intended to use in my campaign for president.”
• But his own lawyers have argued in court that Don the Con does not have the money to pay his legal judgements. But if he truly has $500 million in cash, he can’t claim hardship to get a stay.
• So either he’s lying, or his lawyers are lying, but either way, the judge is going to be interested in which.
• One other quick hit: yesterday, New York prosecutors insisted that Dump’s hush money criminal trial will start on April 15 without further delay.
• The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan finished giving evidence to Trump’s lawyers on March 15, and allowed for another month for review… hence the April 15 trial date.
• Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled against Dump in virtually all of his motions to exclude evidence in this case. By contrast, the judge largely granted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s motions to exclude evidence for trial that Dump believed might be exculpatory.
• None of that bodes well for Dumpy’s chances to avoid conviction when the case goes to trial.
• Okay, enough on him. We have other assholes to shame.
• Continuing our coverage of the Mississippi "Goon Squad” — the cops who raped, tortured, and nearly killed two black men for the crime of hanging out with a white woman.
• The first four members — Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke, and Christian Dedmon — received their sentences on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Yesterday, former Rankin County deputy Brett McAlpin was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee. 
• It was McAlpin who, in January 2023, took the call from a white person who complained that Jenkins and Parker were residing with a white woman at a house in Braxton, MI. He took charge of assembling the Goon Squad of cops to go rape, torture, and shoot the Black men.
• Later in the day yesterday, the sixth and final officer, former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield, was ordered to serve just over 10 years.
• Moving on to yet more continuing coverage of assholes… the ones who tried to overthrow our country on January 6, 2021.
• Jeffrey Sabol was sentenced yesterday to more than five years in prison for his role in the insurrection. Sabol ripped a baton from an officer’s hands before pulling another officer into the crowd outside the Capitol, allowing other rioters to assault the officer with weapons.
• Sabol tried to flee the country after the failed coup attempt. He microwaved laptops and hard drives, dropped his cell phone out a car window, and booked a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, but he didn’t make it. He was arrested on January 22, 2021.
• Other insurrectionists who were charged with Sabol and convicted of attacking the injured officers include former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy Ronald Colton McAbee (five years and 10 months), Florida resident Mason Courson (four years and nine months), Arkansas truck driver Peter Francis Stager (four years and four months), Michigan resident Justin Jersey (four years and three months), Michigan construction worker Logan Barnhart (three years), and Kentucky business owner Clayton Ray Mullins (two years and six months).
• More than 1,300 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol insurrection. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment.
• Fuck around, find out.
• Oh, speaking of which…
• Pro-Dump lawyer Stefanie Lambert surrendered yesterday to Michigan authorities in connection with her 2020 election tampering indictment.
• The surrender came days after Lambert’s arrest at the federal courthouse in DC. She was taken into custody Monday by US marshals immediately after she participated in a two-hour hearing in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation case against her client, ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, regarding his false claims about the 2020 election.
• Lambert was indicted last year in connection with an attempted election system breach in Michigan… one of several incidents in battleground states where Dump supporters tried to prove their voter-fraud theories after he lost the 2020 election.
• Dipshits. All of you MAGA folks will eventually wake up and realize you got conned and you ruined your fucking lives over some guy who never gave a single shit about you.
• Okay, this is weird.
• Multiple states reported disrupted services at department of motor vehicles offices yesterday in a national outage that halted license-related transactions due to a loss in cloud connectivity.
• I mean, yeah, that’d do it.
• The outage lasted from 9:50AM to 12:30PM EDT. They say they’re working internally and with cloud providers to determine the root cause of the outage.
• Disruptions were noted in states including Illinois, Colorado, Massachusetts, Virginia, and elsewhere.
• Alright, we need some good news.
• Yesterday, after many years of lobbying, the World War II Ghost Army finally got the recognition they deserve. But their contributions remained classified for decades, with many veterans taking the secret to their graves.
• This unit used inflatable tanks, phony uniforms, fake rumors, and special effects to deceive German forces, diverting attention from larger units and saving hundreds of thousands of American lives in the process.
• Three Ghost Army veterans came to the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to accept the Congressional Gold Medal, surrounded by military and congressional leaders, lawmakers from both parties, and relatives of Ghost Army members.
• Cool. Salute!
• And now, The Weather: “Malcolm” by Meagre Martin
• Spring came this week, but we have rain and cooler temps returning to Southern California, and New England will have flooding and snow this weekend as well. Mother Nature doesn’t use our calendar, apparently.
• From the Sports Desk… huge upset in the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament (aka March Madness) last night when the 14-seed Oakland Golden Grizzlies beat the 3-seed Kentucky Wildcats 80-76. Oakland guard Jack Gohlke nailed 10 3-pointers in the victory.
• In another upset, 11-seed Duquesne beat 6-seed BYU, 71-67.
• So well over 99% of people’s brackets are ruined. Hope it was fun making your picks. In fact, as of this morning, exactly 0.00038% of men’s NCAA brackets are still active. I’m serious. Snort.
• Today in history… Roman emperor Severus Alexander is murdered, marking the start of the Crisis of the Third Century (235). The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags (1621). The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables (1631). The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act that introduces a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies (1765). The Slave Trade Act of 1794 bans the export of slaves from the United States, and prohibits American citizens from outfitting a ship for the purpose of importing slaves (1794). In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment (1871). The Stanley Cup ice hockey competition is held for the first time, in Montreal, Canada (1894). The first Masters Tournament is held at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia (1934). Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser (1960). The Beatles release their debut album ‘Please Please Me’ (1963). In Eisenstadt v. Baird, the United States Supreme Court decides that unmarried persons have the right to possess contraceptives (1972). NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3 (1982). The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path (1993). Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces the country's largest ever self-imposed curfew, in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19 (2020). Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announces a national lockdown and the country's first ever self-imposed curfew, in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19 (2020).
• March 22 is the birthday of astronomer/mathematician Ulugh Beg (1394), Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I (1459), actor Chico Marx (1887), novelist Louis L’Amour (1908), actor Karl Malden (1912), talent agent Lew Wasserman (1913), mime Marcel Marceau (1923), composer Stephen Sondheim (1930), actor William Shatner (1931), drag queen Foo Foo Lammar (1937), International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound (1942), singer-songwriter/guitarist George Benson (1943), singer-songwriter Keith Relf (1943), journalist Wolf Blitzer (1948), composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948), sportscaster Bob Costas (1952), figure skater Elvis Stojko (1972), actress Reese Witherspoon (1976), NFL player J. J. Watt (1989), and MLB player Edwin Díaz (1994).

Once again, yeah, that’s a lot of stuff, and there is more news breaking that will have to wait for tomorrow. We live in interesting times, and that’s not a compliment toward the current era. But keep doing what you do. We’ll make it through. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 21, 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 March 21, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I really could have slept some more this morning had I been in some very unrealistic situation where I didn’t have any need to get up and be responsible and make a living. Since I am up and awake, let’s see what’s happening in this world of ours. As usual these days, it’s a lot.

• The clock is ticking more urgently than ever for Donnie Dump to come up with a big wad of cash.
• Unless an appeals court intervenes or the former president can post a bond for the full amount of the $464 million civil fraud judgment by this coming Monday (March 25), New York Attorney General Letitia James can start collecting on the judgment she secured last month.
• So, since it seems he absolutely cannot afford to just pay the bond, here are Dumpy’s current options: taking out a large loan, selling off some of his properties immediately — or declaring bankruptcy.
• That’s it. Those are the choices.
• Diaper Don has claimed many times via social posts in regard to the judgement against him, "Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before.”
• Except it’s a long-standing practice in nearly every state. James' office noted "there is nothing unusual about even billion-dollar judgments being fully bonded on appeal" and urged the appeals court to reject Trump's argument.
• Bankruptcy was the option for Dumpster’s pals Alex Jones and Rudy Giuliani used when they were hit with large judgments, and Donnie’s companies have declared them six times before.
• Fact check: true. Dump’s Taj Mahal casino went bankrupt on three occasions between 1990-1992. His Plaza Hotel also went bankrupt in 1992. Two of his companies — Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts, and Trump Entertainment Resorts — went bankrupt in 2004 and 2009 respectively.
• But declaring himself and/or his primary business bankrupt while running for president? No fucking way in hell. This prick’s entire political image was built on the illusion of his being a savvy businessman.
• So that won’t happen.
• What if Don the Con just says, “Fuck it,” and does nothing? Well, James would be free to immediately start moving to seize his assets and wouldn't need a further court order to do so in New York.
• She could literally just take Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street. Dump also has several bank accounts in New York that Tish James would snap up.
• So we’ll see if somehow, the money comes up to post the bond at the last second. And if that does happen, a lot of interest will be focused on Dump to find out where that money came from, such as a foreign entity (perhaps Saudi Arabia) or adversary (such as Russia) to whom he’ll be beholden.
• Until it gets resolved, the Republican party is being run by a guy from Queens who can’t make bail.
• Let’s move on.
• This morning, lawmakers unveiled a $1.2 trillion government funding package, and as usual they got their shit together one day before a deadline. Still, it’s not yet clear if thy’ll be able to pass the legislation ahead of tomorrow’s deadline.
• A number of critical government operations need to be funded by the end of the day on Friday, March 22, including the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, State and the legislative branch.
• What does the spending package include? A lot.
• $19.6 billion for Customs and Border Protection, a $3.2 billion increase above fiscal year 2023, including $495 million for additional Border Patrol agents, which the Biden administration has repeatedly called for. It does not add funding for the border wall.
• $90 billion in discretionary funding to the Department of Homeland Security, bolstering funding for additional resources.
• Oh, and $824.3 billion for the Department of Defense, an increase of $26.8 billion above fiscal year 2023.
• Like many spending bills, there were “poison pills” sneakily hidden in there that were all removed. Those included decreasing the salaries of members of the administration including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other officials to $1, blocking funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the defense and intelligence communities, and banning the flying of the Pride flag.
• Nice try, MAGA fuckers. Better luck next time.
• Hopefully they can push it through by tomorrow and avoid even a temporary shutdown.
• One item that’s not in this budget but will certainly affect future spending.
• A large and influential group of House Republicans have called for raising the Social Security retirement age for future retirees and restructuring Medicare.
• Released Wednesday by the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 170 House GOP lawmakers that includes many allies of Republican presidential nominee Donnie Dump, the proposed budget endorses a series of bills “designed to advance the cause of life.” 
• That includes the Life at Conception Act, which would aggressively restrict abortion and threaten in vitro fertilization by establishing legal protections for human beings at “the moment of fertilization.”
• For Social Security, the budget endorses "modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.” They want you to work until they die, and then take the money that you’ve paid into Social Security.
• Also, this Republican budget calls for converting Medicare to a "premium support model,” where traditional Medicare would have to compete with private plans.
• None of this will happen if you don’t put the Dumpster back in the White House, and if you vote for other Democratic representation who support workers.
• While we’re talking about Congress…
• During yesterday’s House Oversight Committee's hearing in the GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, the Republicans, as they do, fucked themselves.
• Ex-Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas testified and slammed Dump and his associates for pushing false allegations against the Biden family.
• As you may recall, Parnas was the guy hired by Dump attorney Giuliani in 2018 and 2019 to try “finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them,” as he now admits.
• He says, “I found precisely zero evidence of the Bidens' corruption in Ukraine. No credible source has ever provided proof of criminal activity, not the FBI, CIA nor the NSA. No respectable Ukrainian official has ever said the Bidens did anything illegal ... The only information ever pushed on the Bidens in Ukraine has come from one source and one source only: Russia and Russian agents. The impeachment proceedings that bring us here now are predicated false information spread by the Kremlin.”
• Well then.
• That joke of a committee, run by waste-of-space Rep. James Comer (R-KY), has now gone on for a full fucking year without producing a single piece of evidence that Biden or his family members have committed any crime at all, much less the high crimes and misdemeanors required to start an impeachment.
• In yet other Congressional news…
• On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted to condemn Vladimir Putin’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children. The measure overwhelmingly passed the House on Tuesday 390-9.
• The House holds votes like this every so often to show that some things go beyond the boundaries of partisan politics, and it’s generally accepted that all members will vote in favor of something as glaringly obvious as protecting innocent children from being abducted by a horrific dictator.
• That being said, nine Republicans still voted against the resolution. Yes. That’s right. They voted against saying that Russia abducting children was a bad thing.
• They are: Chip Roy (R-TX), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Clay Higgins (R-LA), Eric Burlison (R-MO), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Warren Davidson (R-OH), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
• When you have the opportunity to vote these Russia-loving, children-hating scum out of office this coming November, please remember this moment and do so.
• Let’s move on to some justice news.
• We’re continuing coverage of the Mississippi cop “goon squad” who are finally facing punishment for having raped and tortured two Black men.
• Yesterday, the third and fourth of the six former law enforcement officers received their sentencing. First, former Rankin County sheriff's deputy Daniel Opdyke was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee.
• Opdyke cried profusely and apologized to his victims Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker. Parker rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes, then stood up and left the courtroom before Opdyke finished speaking. Good.
• And then came the worst one of them all: former Rankin County sheriff’s deputy Christian Dedmon was sentenced to 40 years.
• Dedmon is now a cop in jail who brutally raped and tortured his victims. I’d say “Dedmon” is an appropriate name once he’s behind bars and the other inmates realize who he is and what he’s done.
• Their actions place law enforcement officers in harm across the country. Every police and sheriff’s department is now viewed under a level of suspicion and distrust that stems from what this self-described “goon squad” did.
• But maybe a greatly increased degree of scrutiny toward every law enforcement agency isn’t such a bad thing.
• The fifth and sixth members of this rogue cop gang get sentenced today. Can’t wait.
• Moving on.
• It took awhile, but California’s Proposition 1 has passed, squeaking by with a 50.2 percent of the vote.
• The measure includes a $6.4 billion bond to build 11,000 addiction and mental health treatment beds and supportive housing for veterans. It was a top priority for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
• He says, “This is the biggest change in decades in how California tackles homelessness, and a victory for doing things radically different. Proposition 1’s passage means we can begin repairing the damage caused by decades of broken promises and political neglect to those suffering from severe mental illness.”
• Good news. I voted “yes.”
• In other news…
• Alabama is now free of the horrors of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I hope they’re very happy.
• Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the sweeping SB129 bill into law yesterday. It prohibits public schools and universities from maintaining or funding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
• It also requires public universities to “designate restrooms on the basis of biological sex.”
• The new Alabama law comes amid a nationwide push from Republicans to limit the rights of transgender and LGBTQ individuals and ban DEI programs after the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action.
• No longer allowed in Alabama schools: discussions around conscious or subconscious racism and sexism. The new law also allows school boards to “discipline or terminate the employment of any employee or contractor who knowingly violates this act.”  
• So, that’s obviously terrible, and you have to feel sorry for the young people of Alabama, a state that seems to relish being on the wrong side of every issue.
• Moving on.
• Fun fact: the pursuit of happiness is literally written into the Declaration of Independence which helped form the USA, but we are no longer near the top of happy places anymore.
• The 2024 World Happiness Report is out, and for the seventh year in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world.
• The U.S. didn’t even make the top 20 list — the first time it has ranked so poorly since the World Happiness Report was created in 2012.
• The report ranks global happiness in more than 140 countries based on six factors: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
• Several Nordic countries were in the highest spots, including Finland, followed by Denmark (2), Iceland (3), and Sweden (4). Norway ranked number seven.
• Last year, the United States came in at number 15. For 2024, the U.S. plummeted to number 23. Even countries like Costa Rica and Lithuania — new entrants to the top 20 list — ranked higher than the USA.
• The USA’s happiness deficit is especially true among young people. The world’s happiest country for people under 30? Lithuania. The U.S. ranked number 62 in the under-30 age range.
• If you want to feel better by pure comparison, the bottom of the global happiness list for 2024 was Lebanon, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Congo, and once again in last, Afghanistan.
• At least you don’t live there, unless you do, and then my apologies.
• The American Kennel Club released their annual top 10 ranking of the most commonly registered purebred dogs for the past year. In order…
• French bulldog, Labrador retriever, golden retriever, German shepherd, poodle, dachshund, bulldog, beagle, Rottweiler, and German shorthaired pointers.
• No offense to anyone, and I love all dogs, but any animals I’ll befriend for the remainder of my life will be a rescue of some kind, and likely won’t have breeds per se. No AKC registration available for my mutt pals.
• And my cats? Forget about it.
• Quick blurbs…
• Today is the 50th anniversary of women earning the right to have a credit card without a man co-signing.
• Presidential campaign cash: the Biden campaign raised $53 million in February versus $10.9 million for the Dump campaign. Total cash on hand for each campaign: Biden: $155 million, Dump $33.5 million, which is dwindling fast.
• Over 300 licensed medical professionals have signed a petition diagnosing Deranged Donnie Dump with probable dementia.
• And now, The Weather: “2 True” by Bleary Eyed
• Rest in peace to actor M. Emmet Walsh. He’s a guy you’d know when you saw, and always played a horrible human. He was great at it.
• You might know him from his menacing roles in Blood Simple, Blade Runner, Raising Arizona, Brubaker, The Jerk, and dozens of other films. Walsh was 88.
• On a personal note, rest in peace to my best music teacher ever. Delores Stevens was my senior-level music composition professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills. She passed away earlier this month at age 94. A good long life.

• Dee was well recognized as one of the most respected musicians in the world. Per her obit, when she turned 90 in 2020, the people who sent her letters of admiration included California Governor Gavin Newsom, then Senator Kamala Harris, the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, Representative Ted Lieu, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, and members of the California State Senate and Assembly, as well as from The Recording Academy and the Disney Channel.
• I was very, very lucky to have had her as a teacher, a mentor, and an inspiration for a life working in the world of music. Rest in peace.
• Let’s do a chart, but instead of a chart, let’s look at the music videos that were in the heavy rotation category of MTV’s programming in early 1989 (for nor reason other than that I stumbled across the list and I’m too lazy to find another).
• Straight Up (Paula Abdul), Eternal Flame (Bangles), Born To Be My Baby (Bon Jovi), Punk Rock Girl (Dead Milkmen), Rocket (Def Leppard), If I Can Just Get Through The Night (Phoebe Cole), Lost In Your Eyes (Debbie Gibson), Paradise City (Guns N’ Roses), Cult of Personality (Living Colour), One (Metallica), The Living Years (Mike & The Mechanics), Girl You Know It’s Tue (Milli Vanilli), The Love In Your Eyes (Eddie Money), You Got It (The Right Stuff) (New Kids On the Block), Your Mama Don’t Dance (Poison), Stand (R.E.M.), My Heart Can’t Tell You No (Rod Stewart), End Of The Line (The Traveling Wilburys), Cryin’ (Vixen), Walk the Dinosaur (Was (Not Was)), Seventeen (Winger).
• From the Sports Desk… nah. Welcome back, baseball, I suppose.
• 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).

That was way too much stuff. Try not to get overwhelmed. Just do what you can. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 20, 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 March 20, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I seem to be starting this spring day in a not-terrible way. Let’s take a look at what’s happened and make some sense of it, if we can.

• It’s a good news/bad news day, as most of them are.
• Let’s get some very bad — but not unexpected — news out of the way, with a possible good twist at the end.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that it would allow Texas to enforce a controversial new law that gives local police the power to arrest migrants.
• The far-right conservative court, with three liberal justices dissenting, rejected an emergency request by the Biden administration, which said states have no authority to legislate on immigration, an issue the federal government has sole authority over.
• The law in question, known as SB4, would allow police to arrest people who they suspect may have illegally crossed the border from Mexico.
• How do you think a cop in Dallas, hundreds of miles from the US-Mexico border. is going to tell if someone is an illegal immigrant? Texas has a population that includes 40% people of Latino heritage.
• So for a little while yesterday, Texas became the “Show Us Your Papers” state. Under this law, any cop anywhere in the state would be able to stop anyone with brown skin with no probable cause other than their race.
• Thinking about the bigger implication of this SCOTUS decision, presumably any state can assume control over their own immigration laws, whether or not they align with the actual federal immigration laws of our nation.
• I think this could be listed as one of the more embarrassing and harmful mistakes of the Supreme Court, along with other awful decisions like Dred Scott v. Sanford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Korematsu v. United States, and others.
• It was also unclear where any migrants ordered to leave might go. The law calls for them to be sent to ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, even if they are not Mexican citizens. So if you catch an immigrant from Sweden, they get sent to Mexico. Got it.
• But Mexico’s government said yesterday it would not under any circumstances accept the return of any migrants to its territory from the state of Texas. Mexico is not required to accept deportations of anyone except Mexican citizens.
• Because OF COURSE NOT.
• But wait.
• Late last night, an appeals court blocked the state from enforcing SB4.
• Ha ha!
• The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel dissolved a pause that it issued earlier this month to suspend a lower court ruling that found SB4 to be unconstitutional.
• The order blocking SB4 will stay in place until the 5th Circuit rules on Texas' request to allow the law to be enforced while the appeals court considers its legality. A virtual hearing on that question is scheduled for this morning.
• So… again, we’ll wait and see. For now, SB4 is in the off-again phase. Whew.
• Okay, let’s move to some better news.
• As reported yesterday, former Dump White House adviser Peter Navarro reported to prison yesterday, one day after the Supreme Court denied a stay of his sentence.
• Navarro was convicted in September of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide testimony and documents to the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 failed coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol.
• He’s is the first senior Dump aide to serve time in connection with the plot to overturn the 2020 election. Here’s hoping he’s not the last.
• And now some news of justice that’s a long time coming.
• Last June, I covered a sickening story about a group of Mississippi cops who called themselves the Goon Squad. 
• On January 24 of last year, former sheriff deputies Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and former police officer Joshua Hartfield burst into a home in Braxton, MS because a white neighbor had complained that Black people were staying with the white woman who owned the house. The cops had no warrant.
• Then they handcuffed the two men, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker. Once restrained, the cops raped them with a sex toy, beat them mercilessly, and shocked them repeatedly with stun guns over a roughly 90-minute period. The assault culminated with one deputy forcing a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing.
• Yesterday, Hunter Elward, the deputy who shot one of the victims in the mouth, received the maximum penalty allowed under his plea agreement with federal prosecutors. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
• Big tough guy Elward broke down in tears as he stood before U.S. District Court judge Tom Lee.
• That afternoon, another cop — former deputy Middleton — was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. Today and tomorrow, the remaining officers involved in the incidents — who each could and should be sentenced to a decade or more in prison — will appear in federal court in Jackson, MS. 
• Keep in mind, this stuff happens literally all the time. Residents in impoverished pockets of the county say that the sheriff’s department has routinely targeted them with similar levels of violence.
• So on the bright side, at least there’s some justice in this one incident. The majority of them go entirely unpunished.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Donnie “El Dumpo” Dump begged the Supreme Court to find that former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for acts taken while in office.
• In the 51-page filing, lawyer D. John Sauer urged the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision that rejected his claim of immunity and order the charges filed against him to be dismissed.
• His reasoning? Because it hadn’t been done before, and they say that for that reason alone, it can’t be done now.
• Got some bad news for ya, pal. There’s a thing in law called “precedent”, where courts have to rule on a situation that they had yet to address previously.
• While the Supreme Court has said presidents are immune from liability in civil matters, it has never before decided whether a former president can face criminal charges for acts within his official responsibilities.
• Dump is the first former president to be criminally indicted, and the reason is that he’s the first outright criminal who’s ever held the office.
• Let’s take a look at the results of yesterday’s round of primary voting. Keep in mind that after last week when both Biden and Dump exceed the official nomination from their respective parties, presidential votes are largely ceremonial at this point.
• Both Biden and Dumpster won each state where they were on the ballot, obviously.
• But one pattern that’s notable, and has continued in primary battles in most states so far: big, flashing danger signs fro Don the Con.
• In Florida, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley together drew just under 20% of the vote, despite having dropped out of the race.
• Compare that to 2020, when Dump won nearly 94% of the Florida primary. This year, he captured about 81% of the vote.
• The results were similar in other states. Haley won about 20% of the vote in Arizona, 16% in Kansas, and 14% in Ohio and Illinois. In Kansas, an option for "None of the Names Shown" took another 5% of the vote.
• The opposition to the horrors of another Dump presidency could extend to the general election. In Ohio yesterday, half of Haley's supporters said they'd back Biden over Dump in November.
• Does Joe Biden have his own issues? Definitely yes. Right now, his biggest challenge comes via progressive voters who are using the primaries to protest Biden’s Gaza policy. So far, an average of 10% of 2024 Democratic primary participants have voted for “uncommitted” in states where that’s been an option.
• Until the Gaza situation gets resolved, those folks will not throw full support behind the president, and I don’t blame them.
• The only comedic moment I want to point out regarding yesterday’s elections is from Ohio’s Republican Senate primary, where Dump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno defeated two challengers.
• In 2008, “someone with access to Moreno’s work email account” created a profile on an adult website seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex.” Moreno claims it was done as a prank by a former intern.
• Uh huh. Sure it was, Bernie. Moreno will face Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in the November general election.
• When we get to November, keep in mind that the Republican you may plan on supporting is someone who wants to take away women’s reproductive rights and health care.
• Case in point: Arizona state senator Eva Burch (D). The mother of two had multiple miscarriages. When she found out that her current pregnancy would not be viable, she knew she had to seek an abortion.
• Burch visited a clinic last week where she was forced to endure an invasive ultrasound and receive counseling on alternatives to abortion, despite already knowing her pregnancy was not viable.
• To be clear for those of you who don’t understand medical terminology, that means she was forced to have a probe inserted into her vagina, and then receive a speech discouraging her from getting the medical treatment she needs to survive.
• Those cruel actions are required under Arizona law, where the procedure is illegal after 15 weeks and a near-total ban could be reinstated.
• Please do not continue to put women across the country through this experience. Yes, it’s what Republicans want, but please try and be a decent person via your vote.
• Thank you.
• And now, The Weather: “Smoke” by Homeshake
• From the Sports Desk… ESPN did its annual ranking of the top 100 current players in Major League Baseball. Here are the top 10 of those.
• 1. Ronald Acuna Jr., RF, Atlanta Braves. 2. Aaron Judge, CF, New York Yankees. 3. Juan Soto, RF, New York Yankees. 4. Mookie Betts, SS, Los Angeles Dodgers. 5. Freddie Freeman, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers. 6. Corey Seager, SS, Texas Rangers. 7. Gerrit Cole, SP, New York Yankees. 8. Yordan Alvarez, LF/DH, Houston Astros. 9. Shohei Ohtani, DH, Los Angeles Dodgers. 10. Corbin Carroll, OF, Arizona Diamondbacks.
• 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).

That’s plenty of stuff for now. I’m going to go work out, and then do the writing and drawing and thinking that I do for a living. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 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 March 19, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. Kinda feels like a normal Tuesday thus far, but I’ve only been awake for an hour, so it’s hard to know for sure. One thing I do know: there is a metric fuckton of news that’s recently happened, so (cracking knuckles) let’s not dilly dally here and get on this shit.

• First, a note about time and space.
• Depending on where you live in the world, spring starts today or early tomorrow. The exact official moment of the spring equinox is at 8:06pm PDT/11:06pm EDT tonight.
• I write this assuming you live in the Northern Hemisphere. 87% of all humans live in the Northern Hemisphere. True story.
• Fun Fact: Neopagans observe the March equinox (referred to as Ostara) as a cardinal point on the Wheel of the Year.
• Now onto the big news that broke yesterday morning.
• Former president, accused felon, and supposed billionaire Donald John Trump told a New York appellate court yesterday that it’s impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of a $454 million civil fraud judgment while he appeals.
• Dump’s lawyers asked the state’s intermediate appeals court to overturn a previous ruling requiring that he post a bond covering the full amount in order to halt enforcement while he appeals the judgment in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit.
• With interest, the Dumpster owes $456.8 million. In all, he and co-defendants, including his company, sons L’il Eric and Dumpy Dump Jr. and other executives, owe $467.3 million. To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral worth $557 million.
• His lawyers said they have approached 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers, and none of them were willing to post the bond for Dump.
• Dump has less than a week until March 25 to pay the judgment or obtain a court order known as a stay which would prevent enforcement while he is appealing. Tish James has said she will seek to seize some of Trump’s assets if he is unable to pay by the deadline.
• But he owns all that high-priced property, you think to yourself. Why not just sell some off and put up the cash, or use it as direct collateral for the loan?
• Welp.
• If this was a typical situation with a less horrible person, a bondsman could consider taking his real property as collateral for the bond.
• But Dumpy is a self-described debt master. He's likely mortgaged up to his eyeballs, and has little actual equity in his properties, or at least not enough to convince them he's worth the risk.
• That’s probably why Chubb, the one company who’s already been loaning Dump money to file the appeal in a separate judgement (his $93 million bill for rape and subsequent defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll), said that they would not accept real property as collateral.
• Also, ironically, Dumpy massively overvalues his properties when it’s convenient for him… which is the basis of the New York case itself.
• I mean, who would buy a building for $50 million when it’s actually worth $20 million? No one.
• So now, this man’s irresponsibilities are becoming a national security risk.
• At the moment, Dump owes $467,358,000 in the judgement for his New York civil fraud, $88,300,000 in the judgement for his E. Jean Carroll rape/defamation, $400,000 in his New York Times lawsuit and another $100,000,000 in legal fees.
• He’s in the hole for some $656,058,000, and that’s just the debt we know about.
• Any foreign adversary of the USA now knows the price to buy favors from the GOP nominee for President. To put this into perspective, all members of the US Congress are required to post regular reports of their assets and liabilities.
• That’s to help prevent a situation where they can be blackmailed or corrupted.
• The D.C.-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington warned that, “Giving the highest and most powerful office in the land to someone deeply in debt and looking for ways to make back hundreds of millions of dollars he lost in court is a recipe for the kinds of corruption that aren’t theoretical when it comes to Trump. Despite his financial ups and downs in office, one thing remained remarkably consistent: Trump’s laser focus on using the presidency to line his pockets.”
• Yesterday, That Guy also offered his opinion about about Jews.
• He stated, “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion.”
• I state that any Jewish person that votes for Trump would have apparently also supported Hitler in 1933. Don’t believe me? Ask the crowd that Trump called “very fine people” who chanted “Jews will not replace us!” a few years back.
• We should mention an upcoming criminal case El Dumpo faces.
• Yesterday, Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Dumpy’s criminal trial stemming from hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, rejected Big Smelly’s attempts to block her testimony.
• Ha ha!
• The judge also denied Dump’s attempts to block testimony from Michael Cohen, his former attorney/fixer who helped bury the compromising details of Dump’s many weird sexual affairs leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
• While he was rejecting all that Dump begged for, he also denied attempts to block testimony from former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also had an affair with Stable Genius before his presidency.
• Reminder: that trial got pushed back to mid-April after the government found some fresh evidence against the Dumpster. They’re giving him time to review it.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court indefinitely blocked Texas from enforcing an immigration law — the infamous SB4 — that would have allowed state officials to arrest and detain Latino people for no reason at all.
• The stay will remain in place while the court considers emergency appeals from the Biden administration and others, who want the justices to block enforcement of the law while their legal challenges to it play out. 
• Senate Bill 4, signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in December, immediately raised concerns among immigration advocates of increased racial profiling as well as detentions and attempted deportations by state authorities in Texas, where Latinos represent 40% of the population.
• So, still keeping an eye on that big pile of bullshit, but good news for now.
• Oh yes, and there was another notable Supreme Court action yesterday.
• Chief Justice John Roberts rejected former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro's attempt to stay out of prison while he appeals his conviction for contempt of Congress.
• Navarro is expected to report to federal prison in Miami today. This Dump sycophant was charged and found guilty after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.
• He was sentenced to four months in prison in January. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time, sucka.
• Here’s some more rather significant shit regarding the SCOTUS.
• U.S. Supreme Court justices and federal judges can no longer avoid disclosing the value of travel-related gifts they receive by classifying such free trips as "reimbursements" on their financial disclosure forms under new regulations now in effect.
• The regulations, announced on Friday by the federal judiciary, follow revelations that conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had not disclosed luxury trips paid for by a wealthy benefactor.
• Let’s move on.
• As I mentioned previously, today is another big batch of state primaries. Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio all have their primaries for both Democratic and Republic voters.
• This isn’t only a presidential primary. Other candidates and possibly propositions may be on your ballot as well. It’s also important to show trends moving forward toward the November general election.
• Please vote at every opportunity. Thank you!
• In other news…
• As of yesterday, the cancer-causing material asbestos has been banned in the USA.
• Wait, what? Wasn’t it banned decades ago? No, only some forms of it.The carcinogen has already been banned by more than 50 countries and is linked to around 40,000 US deaths every year from lung cancer, mesothelioma and other cancers.
• In 2005, a real estate developer testified to Congress, arguing against the ban and describing asbestos as "the greatest fire-proofing material ever made".
• His name? Donald John Trump. And when Dump came to office in 2017, with his administration overseeing the EPA, the effort to ban it was quashed.
• Industries still using white asbestos will have up to 12 years to phase it out of use.
• Got one more note on one more asshole.
• The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and the Hellsite Formerly Known as Twitter uses ketamine.
• Elon Musk defended his usage of the drug, saying it helps him alleviate a "negative chemical mind state.”
• You may recall that ketamine, a "dissociative anesthetic hallucinogen,” was cited as a cause of actor Matthew Perry's death last year. Musk says that he takes it about once every other week.
• So that’s the guy who has defense contracts with the USA and other countries, and builds cars in which you transport your families.
• Suddenly some of Elon’s decisions make more sense now.
• And now, The Weather: “Soul-net” by DIIV
• From the Sports Desk… here’s who’s leading the NHL.
• Atlantic Division: Boston Bruins (40-14-15), Florida Panthers (45-19-4), Toronto Maple Leafs (38-19-9), Tampa Bay Lightning (36-25-6), and Detroit Red Wings (34-28-6).
• Metropolitan Division: New York Rangers (45-19-4), Carolina Hurricanes (42-20-6), Philadelphia Flyers (34-26-8), Washington Capitals (33-25-9), New York Islanders (29-23-15).
• Central Division: Winnipeg Jets (43-19-5), Colorado Avalanche (43-20-5), Dallas Stars (41-19-9), Nashville Predators (39-25-4), St. Louis Blues (36-29-3).
• Pacific Division: Vancouver Canucks (42-18-8), Edmonton Oilers (40-21-4), Los Angeles Kings (34-22-11), Vegas Golden Knights (36-24-7), Calgary Flames (33-30-5).
• 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). The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN (1979). 
• 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), comedian/singer Moms Mabley (1894), actress Ursula Andress (1936), singer Ruth Pointer (1946), 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), NBA player Hedo Türkoğlu (1979), NFL player EJ Manuel (1990), and NFL player Julian Love (1998).

So yes, that was a lot of stuff, but sometimes a lot of stuff happens all at once, and I don’t like leaving shit out just because your attention span doesn’t appreciate this level of detail. You’re welcome. Enjoy your day.