Random News: July 11, 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 11, 2022, and it’s a Monday. Here’s something, perhaps…

• Here’s a funny for you. You know how Steve Bannon said he was now able to testify in the January 6 hearings due to Trump releasing him from “executive privilege”?
• Nope.
• The DOJ says that Trump "never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials; that the former president’s counsel never asked or was asked to attend the defendant’s deposition before the select committee; that the defendant’s attorney misrepresented to the committee what the former president’s counsel had told the defendant’s attorney; and that the former president’s counsel made clear to the defendant’s attorney that the letter provided no basis for total noncompliance."
• Let me translate for you. That means that regardless of Bannon’s newfound willingness to testify, he’s still going to be tried for contempt. His lawyers were due in court for pretrial arguments this morning at… uh, right now (10am EDT).
• Also, just to drive home the silliness of his excuse, Bannon only worked at the White House for seven months back in 2017, three years before the failed January 6 coup attempt.
• Ugly shit in China: banks in the Henan province have frozen the assets of hundreds of thousands of people, and there were demonstrations for people demanding their life savings back, only to be violently crushed by Chinese authorities.
• Ugly shit in the USA: the red states, who already have the absolute worst rankings in terms of infant and maternal deaths and childhood poverty, are about to get much worse with the end of safe and legal abortion. They’re looking at hundreds of thousands of new births each year concentrated among lower-income families.
• “It is as if somebody came down with a magic marker and circled the states least equipped to deal with an abortion ban and with the largest percentage of their population falling into the most elevated risk categories,” says Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University.
• Sigh.
• Vote please.
• Back to the Jan 6 Select Committee hearings: the next public event is tomorrow (Tue Jul 12), starting at 1PM EDT. This session is going to probe the direct connection between the Trump administration and far-right militia groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
• They’re doing the bull run in Pamplona, Spain. I always root for the bulls. Three people got gored today. Let’s go bulls!
• How about not put animals in highly stressful situations for your amusements, you fucking pieces of shit? I hope the bulls take out a bunch more people before it’s done. I really do.
• In the “watch evil people destroy each other” file… "You know, he said the other day, Oh, I've never voted for a Republican. I said, I didn't know that, he told me he voted for me. So he's another bullshit artist.” - Donald Trump on Elon Musk, July 9, 2022
• QotD: “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” - Isaac Asimov
• The Sports Desk is on vacation since there are no sports worth talking about. oh wait; they left this note: “The LA Dodgers have won seven straight and are 9-1 in the last 10 games. Could be making a run at the Yankees for the best record in the league soon. Don’t forget sunblock.”
• Today in history… Zheng He sets sail to explore the world (1405). Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last since until 1979 (1735). The United States Marine Corp is reestablished after having been disbanded since the Revolutionary War (1798). Aaron Burr shoots Alexander Hamilton (1804). Waterloo Railway Station opens in London (1848). Tijuana, Mexico is founded (1889). Car manufacturer Fiat is founded (1899). Babe Ruth makes his MLB debut (1914). The Hollywood Bowl opens (1922). ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is published (1960). Martin Luther King Jr. is posthumously given the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977). 
• July 11 is the birthday of Scottish king Robert the Bruce (1274), US President John Quincy Adams (1767), writer E. B. White (1899), actor Yul Brynner (1920), actor Tab Hunter (1931), boxer Leon Spinks (1953), musician Peter Murphy (1957), musician Suzanne Vega (1959), one of the best singers of all time Chris Cornell (1964), rapper Lil’ Kim (1975), and NFL player Joey Bosa (1995).

Well, it’s Monday. You can’t expect a lot from a Monday. Just do what you do. Try and enjoy it.