Random News: July 25, 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 25, 2022, and it’s a Monday. “I haven’t finished my first cup of coffee” thoughts ahead… 

• After Saturday’s gun incident here in my neighborhood, there was another that was too close to home on Sunday when a gang incident at Peck Park in San Pedro left seven shot and two dead.
• I grew up not far from there and went to many events in that park as a kid. My mom still lives in San Pedro, and her house is about a two-minute drive from Peck Park.
• It’s just sad.
• I hate having to wake up every fucking day wondering how many people will have their lives cut short due to the easy accessibility of high-capacity, semi-automatic firearms.
• Fuck guns.
• A bit of good news: last Thursday’s hearing of the January 6 committee drew over 17 million live viewers. Many more watched various clips of the hearing on Friday and over the weekend.
• MSNBC said that it was the network's biggest prime-time audience since, ironically, the night of January 6, 2021.
• Something is definitely happening within conservative media in regard to their formerly unwavering support of the former president. TV and newspaper editorials from right-wing publications are now being very critical of Trump’s actions and inactions around the failed January 6 coup attempt.
• In ocean news, a) a humpback whale breached the water in Massachusetts and landed on a small fishing boat, and b) a 100-pound sailfish leapt from the water in Florida and stabbed a 73-year-old woman who had to be airlifted to a hospital (she’ll be okay).
• Maybe the denizens of the ocean are trying to tell us something.
• Myanmar is an example of what happens when democracy fails and the rule of law changes to survival of the fittest. They executed two pro-democracy leaders this week. Myanmar was taken over in a military coup in February 2021.
• Don’t be like Myanmar.
• Be like Jason Momoa. He was driving here in LA yesterday on Old Topanga Road, and a motorcyclist crossed over the double yellow and hit his 1970 Olds almost head-on. Momoa pulled over and ran to the guy’s aid, then flagged down other drivers to call 9-1-1. Jason was fine and the motorcycle driver had only non life-threatening injuries.
• From the Sports Desk, it seems like we’re heading into an era of greatness in Team USA track and field. Americans got 33 gold medals at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon. Most of the winning athletes (many of whom broke world records) are very young, meaning we should have high hopes going into the Paris Olympics in 2024. 
• QotD: “Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. Of course it is understandable that we seek happiness and avoid unlucky and disagreeable chances, but the more you deliberately seek happiness the more sure you are not to find it. It is therefore far better to take things as they come along, with patience and equanimity.” - C. G. Jung.
• Today in history… Constantine I is proclaimed Roman emperor (306). Henry IV converts from Protestant to Catholic (1593). An 8.5 earthquake kills 42,000 people in eastern China (1668). British forces capture Fort Niagara from the French (1759). Mozart completes his Symphony No. 40 in G minor (1788). Congress authorizes the rank of General of the Army, and gives the job to Ulysses S. Grant (1866). Monosodium glutamate is patented (1908). Bob Dylan “goes electric” at the Newport Folk Festival and everyone freaks out (1965). The first baby is born via in vitro fertilization (1978). WikiLeaks publishes classified documents about the War in Afghanistan (2010). 
• July 25 is the birthday of Scottish King James I (1394), dramatist George Peele (1556), English Prime Minister Arthur Balfour (1848), actress Estelle Getty (1923), musician Don Eillis (1934), lynching victim Emmett Till (1941), NFL great Walter Payton (1954), model Iman (1955), musician Thurston Moore (1958), and actor Matt LeBlanc (1967).

I’m going to try and have a not-shitty Monday, and I wish a not-shitty Monday to all of you too. You know, the more I do to help people, the better day I have. The more I do that’s productive, the less I worry about the bad shit that happens whether or not I try to do good things. Might as well do the good. It can’t hurt.