Random News: July 10, 2022

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 July 10, 2022, and it’s a Sunday. No idea what’s coming next, so let’s see what my fingers type…

• Went to Lobsterfest last night, guests of my mom and her husband at their yacht club.
• That sounded pretty bougie, and I suppose it is, but it’s the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club in San Pedro, CA. Pedro is a pretty working-class town, with the major industry there being the Port of Los Angeles.
• As a result, many of my Pedro friends and their family members have been longshoremen, crane operators and the like.


• That being said, it’s still a yacht club, and I always get a bit of the Caddyshack clubhouse vibe when we go for this event. At age 53, I’m probably in the youngest 10% of people there. These are old people. With yachts. You get the idea.


• It had been an annual tradition for many years before the pandemic hit. Last time we went was 2019. I always do enjoy myself, digging into some clam chowder followed by Maine lobster, corn on the cob, fries, and a little ice cream dessert.
• So that was nice, having a little time with family and such. I always advise all of you to appreciate good times, so I try and take my own advice occasionally.
• Steve Bannon, who to me always resembles the absolute personification of evil in lumpy human form, has allegedly agreed to testify to the January 6 House Select Committee. He originally defied the subpoena and is set to go on trial for criminal contempt charges as a result.
• I don’t trust this shit one bit. Trump made a very public display yesterday of waiving the executive privilege that Bannon was using to avoid giving testimony.
• Trump’s letter to Bannon, provided to media outlets, included the following… 
• "When you first received the Subpoena to testify and provide documents, I invoked Executive Privilege. However, I watched how unfairly you and others have been treated, having to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees, and all of the trauma you must be going through for the love of your Country, and out of respect for the Office of the President. Therefore, if you reach an agreement on a time and place for your testimony, I will waive Executive Privilege for you, which allows you to go in and testify truthfully and fairly.”
• What a load of crap.
• In other Jan 6 news, committee member Adam Kinziger said Pat Cipollone’s testimony on Friday did not contradict the testimony given by other witnesses like Cassidy Hutchinson.
• So much for the “she lied!” defense.
• Keep your eye on this thing with Trump having ordered the IRS to audit Comey and McCabe. If proven true, it’s going to be another huge legal strike against the former President. This is the kind if stuff that forces criminal charges. Guess we’ll see.
• The situation in Sri Lanka is crazy. I was looking at the thousands and thousands of people storming the presidential palace, and I couldn’t help but think that this is what the yokels on January 6 thought it was going to be like.

• If we don’t prosecute them to the fullest extent and safeguard it from happening again, it could be that way next time. It didn’t end on that day.
• Can you believe it’s only been six days since Robert Crimo shot up the Highland Park parade? See how easily you get numb to mass shootings?
• From the sports desk… Novak Djokovic beat Nick Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) for his fourth consecutive Wimbledon championship and seventh overall. Can I just say that tennis is super weird in that the same one person can dominate an entire sport for like a decade at a time? Other sports “dynasties” typically get 2-3 year runs of greatness.
• QotD: “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” - Epictetus
• Epictetus was a Greek stoic philosopher, in case you were wondering.
• I can be pretty stoic and logic-driven, but I’m not all that virtuous and I like to chill and laugh and have a good ass time. Not sure what that makes me philosophy-wise.
• Today in history… Soga no Iruka is assassinated in a coup d’état in the Japanese imperial palace (645). King Canute IV of Denmark is killed by peasant rebels (1086). Lady Jane Grey, a teenage girl, takes the throne of England for nine days (1553). Louis XVI declares war on Great Britain to aid the American Revolution (1778). Wyoming is admitted as the 44th state (1890). Bloody Sunday in Belfast, Northern Ireland (1921). The start of the Scopes trial against the teaching of evolution (1925). Telstar, the first communications satellite, is launched (1962). Boris Yeltsin becomes the first elected president of Russia (1991). The final Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line (2019).
• July 10 is the birthday of theologian John Calvin (1509), vice-president George Dallas (1792), brewer Adolphus Busch (1839), physicist Nikola Tesla (1956), novelist Marcel Proust (1871), blues musician Blind Boy Fuller (1907), journalist David Brinkley (1920), activist Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921), boxer Jake LaMotta (1922), actor Fred Gwynne (1926), singer Mavis Staples (1939), metal god Ronnie James Dio (1942), tennis player Arthur Ashe (1943), musician Greg Kihn (1949), musician Béla Fleck (1958), actress Sophia Vergara (1972), singer Jessica Simpson (1980), and NFL player/head case Antonio Brown (1988).

Welp, I guess that’s all for now. I’m going to do Sunday things.