Random News: July 5, 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 5, 2022, and it’s a Tuesday that feels like a super Monday. Various meanderings of thoughts forthcoming…

• Guns.
• Here’s a concept: the same guy (it’s always a guy) who says your opinion on gun control is meaningless because you’re not an expert on guns has a very strong opinion about the viability of an ectopic pregnancy.
• Meet Darren Bailey. He’s the Trump-backed Republican challenger to J. B. Pritzker for this fall’s gubernatorial race in Illinois. Hours after the horrific mass shooting at the July 4 parade in Highland Park, he said the following: “Let’s pray for justice to prevail, and then let’s move on and let’s celebrate the independence of this nation.”
• Move on and celebrate. Blood was still running down the street. The killer had yet to be found. Six people were dead and 24 injured.
• That’s the Republican party encapsulated in one sentence. Let’s move on. Don’t discuss things. Don’t bother trying to fix them either. Just move along.
• The suspect in this, Robert Crimo III, seems like a complete waste of space. I’ll reserve further comment until I know more about him and that it’s ascertained that he is indeed the shooter. He has yet to be formally charged as such. What we know is that he’s 22 and obtained the weapon legally. I’ll leave it there for now.
• But I will say this: a guy had to tell his little kids they were playing a special game of hide-and-seek when he put them inside a dumpster to protect them from the hail of bullets from the high-powered rifle.
• That’s the America Republicans want when time and time again, they make it easier for even the most disturbed people to buy high-power, rapid fire, high-capacity weapons.
• I watched the video. I heard 30 shots squeezed off with no break, followed by about 5-10 seconds of reload time, followed by 25-30 more.
• “But he could have used a knife!”
• He’d have to have a whole lot of knives and be pretty amazing at throwing them from a rooftop. But the gun is what made it easy to take out families in Highland Park, IL.
• It’s the guns.
• “But the founding fathers said…” You wanna know what the founding fathers said? Thomas Jefferson, the primary architect of the Constitution, wanted it re-written every 20 years so that dead people would not rule over the living.
• “You can’t ban guns,” said the macho man who wants to ban books that reference slavery and/or gay people.
• Sigh.
• Finland and Sweden are joining NATO. They formally signed an accession agreement and over the upcoming months will be ratified as members.
• This is probably good news for everyone but Russia, who is not at all happy about it.
• From the sports desk… it seems as if the Lakers are going to sign Kyrie Irving and trade Russell Westbrook to the Nets. I don’t know if this is great news for either team. Kyrie is a great player, but he missed a good chunk of last season due to his anti-vaccination beliefs.
• “When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.” - Dylan Thomas
• Today in history… John Guy sets sail from Bristol to colonize Newfoundland (1610). Isaac Newton publishes the ‘Principia’, a seminal book on math and physics (1687). Frederick Douglass delivers his “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” speech (1852). The US Secret Service begins operation (1865). Cops open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco (1934). NHS creates the first nationwide public health system in the UK (1948). Elvis Presley records his first single, “That’s All Right”, in Memphis, TN (1954). The USA certifies the 26th Amendment, lowering voting age from 21 to 18 (1971). Arthur Ashe becomes the first Black man to win Wimbledon (1975). Jeff Bezos founds Amazon (1994). The Juno space probe arrives at Jupiter (2016).
• July 5 is the birthday of doge of Venice Carlo Contarini (1580), Connecticut colony founder Thomas Hooker (1586), admiral David Farragut (1801), circus man P. T. Barnum (1810), actress Katherine Helmond (1929), musician Robbie Robertson (1943), musician Huey Lewis (1950), cartoonist Bill Watterson (1958), actress Edie Falco (1963), rapper RZA (1969), and soccer player Megan Rapinoe (1985).

Why does everything seem so shitty? Because it is! Don’t let people gaslight you into believing this is normal. It’s fine to be mad. If you’re not mad, I have to wonder about your ability to perceive the world around you like a human being. Take your anger to the polls… the real independence day will be November 8, if we do it right.