Random News: July 13, 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 13, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. A variety of various varied thoughts heading your way like a choo-choo train through a tunnel…

• Yesterday was the seventh hearing of the January 6 Select Committee.
• The focus was on extremist groups who followed the former president’s instructions to attack the USA in a violent coup.
• The committee showed direct evidence of how and when Trump and his allies interacted with these violent far right extremists.
• It was sad to hear some of them, with the too-late realization they’d been lied to and made fools of. One guy, Stephen Ayres, lost his job and his house as a result of his criminal actions on January 6. He said, "I felt like I had horse blinders on. Take the blinders off, and make sure you step back and see what's going on, before it's too late."
• He also warned there were still millions of people who still believe the Big Lie and should be thought of as a threat to future elections.
• Looking down your list of friends and family, I’m willing to bet that you personally know some of these people who remain a threat to America. They tell you who they are; don’t be surprised when they get even more radicalized and take action.
• While the session was wrapping up, Liz Cheney dropped a huge bombshell.
• “After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation, a witness you have not yet seen in these hearings. That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call, and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us. And this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice.”
• Witness tampering is a massive crime that always carries a huge penalty. Even the implied threat of retaliation, much less violence enacted or explicitly stated against a witness, carries a multiple year jail sentence.
• This call did not come from one of Trump’s minions. It came from Trump himself, directly. And it’s already been referred for criminal investigation to the DOJ.
• Another quotable moment from Ms. Cheney: “President Trump is a 76 year old man, he is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.”
• Ba-bam!
• Twitter has sued Elon Musk. Musk’s choices are to a) pay them the $44 billion he promised for the acquisition of Twitter, b) pay them $1 billion as an agreed-upon cancelation fee for not buying Twitter, or c) find a legal reason why he doesn’t have to honor the commitment.
• This case is going to go on for months and months, so don’t expect any quick resolution.
• Meanwhile, combining these two topics, there’s been a simmering war going on between Trump and Musk. A few days ago, Musk said on Twitter, “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” after earlier voicing support for Republican Ron DeSantis for president.
• Trump, as he is prone to do, came unglued. He wrote, “When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it.”
• Musk’s response to this on Tuesday evening: “Lmaooo.”
• That’s gonna keep going. I love when pieces of shit fight each other, because either way, we all win.
• QotD: “Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private.” - Dr. Cornel West
• Today in history… Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem ends after the destruction of Solomon’s Temple (587 BC). The Continental Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance (1787). The New York City Draft Riots, some of the worst civil unrest in US history, begin (1863). The Dartmouth workshop is the first conference on artificial intelligence (1956). A secret Oval Office taping system is revealed to Watergate investigators (1973). Electrical blackout with widespread fires and looting grips NYC (1977). Live Aid benefit concerts in London and Philadelphia (1985). UK Prime Minister David Cameron resigns and is replaced by Theresa May (2016).
• July 13 is the birthday of Pope Clement X (1590), football player/politician Jack Kemp (1935), chef Paul Prudhomme (1940), the great and mighty actor Sir Patrick Stewart (1940), actor Harrison Ford (1942), musician Roger McGuinn (1942), comedian Cheech Marin (1946), director Cameron Crowe (1957), voice actor Tom Kenny (1962), comedian/physician Ken Jeong (1969), and baseball player Cody Bellinger (1995).

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to do what I do today, and so should you. One idea that’s helped me over the course of my life: you don’t have to do everything. Try doing one thing, and see what you can do after that. Enjoy your day.