Random News: July 22, 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 22, 2022, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Here’s what it is…

• Yesterday was, for now, the final hearing of the January 6 Select Committee. It is likely they will resume in September.
• Those of you who watched the prime time airing last night already know the focus of this session, which was to show that the former president personally encouraged the coup attempt and then purposefully allowed it to continue, hoping it would somehow be successful.
• It wasn’t.
• But as has been said many times, the factors that caused the insurrection didn’t go away. It’s continuing today and will almost certainly happen again in multiple ways. As long as the Big Lie continues to be pushed — and trust me, it is — these people will keep trying to subvert the laws and the will of the people.
• While it will likely happen regardless, since a lot of these people have been mass hypnotized beyond the point of repair, the one thing that’s essential is that ALL of the people involved, top to bottom, face repercussions. Otherwise, why have laws at all? Why be a country?
• I found it particularly disturbing to hear about Mike Pence’s security detail, calling their families to say goodbye in case they were killed by the mob. No one should ever have to go through that.
• Anyway, that’s done for a little while. If there are some immediate next steps, perhaps it won’t be by a congressional committee and instead will be handled by the Department of Justice.
• President Biden has COVID. He’s fully vaccinated, is in good shape for his age, and obviously has the best health care in the world. He’ll be fine.
• In the low-percentage odds he’s not, we’ll welcome our first female President with Kamala Harris.
• In the contempt of Congress trial of Lumpylumpagus, aka Steve Bannon, after all the posturing and blowhard statements of how he’d expose the truth at his trial, the defense called no witnesses and Bannon himself did not take the stand in his own defense. Closing arguments, if there are any, are scheduled for today.
• In absolutely insane news, yesterday the Secret Service retained outside counsel regarding their role in the January 6 coup.
• So a department of our own government hired private lawyers to defend themselves against our own government? What the actual fuck?
• We’ll hear more about that soon enough.
• New York health officials have reported a polio case, the first one in the USA in nearly a decade. I don’t think it’s a stretch to think that the trend toward vaccine aversion is the cause of this. Polio was declared eradicated in 1979, back when more people were less likely to be stupid and/or crazy.
• QotD: "Having a bunch of cats around is good. If you're feeling bad, you just look at the cats, you'll feel better because they know that everything is just as it is. There's nothing to get excited about. They just know. They're saviors.” - Charles Bukowski
• From the Sports Desk… the Seattle Mariners, a baseball team that seemed pretty mediocre this year, is on a 14-game winning streak. That is pretty incredible. Only three other teams this century — the 2002 A’s, the 2017 Indians, and 2021 Cardinals — have done better streak-wise. We’ll see if it continues. Go Mariners!
• Today in history… Godfrey of Bouillon is named the Defender of the Holy Sepulchre (1099). A second group of settlers arrives at Roanoke Colony (1587). Albany, NY is chartered (1686). Katherine Lee Bates writes “America the Beautiful” (1893). The USA begins compulsory civilian gas rationing for WWII (1942). The Mariner I spacecraft launches erratically and has to be destroyed (1962). Greg LeMond wins his third Tour de France (1990). US military attacks a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay along with others (2003). 
• July 22 is the birthday of painter Edward Hopper (1882), philanthropist Rose Kennedy (1890), politician Bob Dole (1923), actor Orson Bean (1928), fashion designer Oscar de la Renta (1932), novelist Tom Robbins (1932), actress Louise Fletcher (1934), godlike game show host Alex Trebek (1940), funk master George Clinton (1941), actor Danny Glover (1946), actor/writer Albert Brooks (1947), musician Don Henley (1947), guitarist Al Di Meola (1954), actor Willem Dafoe (1955), actor John Leguizamo (1964), actor David Spade (1964), NFL player Tim Brown (1966), singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright (1973), actress Selena Gomez (1992), and NFL player Ezekiel Elliott (1995).

It’s Friday, which is always a busy work day for me, but is also the day where I reward myself with a sushi lunch. You know what day of the week is generally really good for me? Thursday. Weird, huh? Friday is often when I get piled on to complete work deliverables that people forgot to tell me about earlier in the week but still need done before the weekend. So it goes. Anyway, I wish you a good day. Do what you do.