Random News: August 21, 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 August 21, 2022, and it’s a Sunday. No idea what’s going on in my mind or the world, so let’s find out together…

• Not-fun Fact: The historical average time limit of a democracy on our little planet is about 300 years. The USA has made it through 246 years, and even survived a civil war with our democracy mostly intact.
• But there’s no guarantee that the USA won’t fall into a fascist dictatorship. The former president tried hard to make it happen.
• Your vote today hopefully guarantees that your daughters and sons get to vote tomorrow.
• Maybe you don’t give a fuck about the future or subsequent generations or any of that shit. Fine.
• Just focus on today then. 
• The rights of women to maintain bodily autonomy, without being forced to give birth and having access to safe and legal abortion. Over 2/3 of ALL Americans, Democrats and Republicans, are in favor of this.
• Enacting laws to provide background checks so guns aren’t so easy to get for the kind of people who want to shoot up schools and kill our children.
• Keeping the costs of medical care and prescription drugs affordable for all Americans.
• What can your vote do? It can elect candidates who will help codify Roe into national law, strengthen gun laws while still respecting 2nd Amendment rights, and keep working toward health care plans for everyone that don’t favor the wealthy and leave the rest of us to die or go broke with medical bills.
• Those things can and will affect your life TODAY. Your lives and those of your family.
• On a related topic, here’s an old phrase: if you don’t use it, you lose it.
• If we don’t respect the Constitution of the USA, we lose the rights that it guarantees us. If a person is allowed to flaunt his egregious lack of respect for laws and gets no punishment, then all laws are pointless. So for anyone who thinks it’s time to forgive and forget the January 6 coup attempt, or that a former President steals national security documents, that’s a fast road to total anarchy and nihilism.
• If you want to live in a country where the people with the most money and guns win every time, I feel sorry for you… but I’m going to fight you all the way before allowing that to happen.
• What about things like inflation and gas prices? Are those important to people? Hell yes they are! They are affecting people all over the world, in the USA, in South America, in Europe, and in Asia.
• But your vote doesn’t affect those things very much. What you can do in that regard is to stop accepting corporate greed and to limit your consumer spending while telling companies that you simply won’t pay outrageous prices just to bolster their record-breaking profits.
• And now, The Weather: “Thin Air” by Wand.
• Some polling… please note that I don’t include polls of less than 1,500 people or done by extreme partisan groups if possible.
• Nevada Senate: Adam Laxalt (R) 47% (+3), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-inc) 44% (Trafalgar)
• Nevada Governor: Joe Lombardo (R) 46% (+2), Steve Sisolak (D-inc) 44% (Trafalgar)
• C’mon Nevada. Turn that shit around.
• Ohio Governor: DeWine (R-inc) 44%, Whaley (D) 43% (Lake Research)
• Please vote, y’all.
• From the Sports Desk… The Sports Desk once again reminds you that preseason NFL football games are a combination tryout and scrimmage, and are meaningless. My Las Vegas Raiders are 3-0 in preseason and it means nothing at all. Zero. Three games in, and less than half of our starters have spent one second on the field. Don’t get too happy or too sad about anything in preseason.
• Today in history… Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish (1680). James Cook claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales (1770). Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion in Southampton County, VA (1831). An F5 tornado slams Rochester, MN, which leads to the creation of the Mayo Clinic (1883). A Louvre employee steals the Mona Lisa (1911). The Soviet Union does the first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (1957). Eisenhower signs an EO and proclaims Hawaii as the 50th state (1959). Tiger Woods wins the PGA and becomes the first golfer since 1953 to win three majors in a calendar year (2000).
• August 21 is the birthday of Philip II of France (1165), inventor William Murdoch (1754), pianist/bandleader Count Basie (1904), animator Fritz Freleng (1906), sportscaster Jack Buck (1924), actor Melvin Van Peebles (1932), NBA great Wilt Chamberlain (1936), singer Kenny Rogers (1938), guitarist James Burton (1939), singer Jackie DeShannon (1941), musician Joe Strummer (1952), actress Kim Cattrall (1956), SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg (1961), actress Carrie-Anne Moss (1967), singer Serj Tankian (1967), Google founder Sergey Brin (1973), really fast dude Usain Bolt (1986), singer Kacey Musgraves (1988), and actress Hayden Panettiere (1989).

I have no specific plans today. I need to sew a button back on some shorts. That’s the exciting height of my activities today, and I may or may not get to that. I am going to relax and recharge my energies, which is important. There’s no rule that says you have to be doing something specific for every minute of every day. Sometimes it’s nice to just appreciate being here and alive, and that’s good enough. Enjoy your day.