Random News: August 24, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s August 24, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. Here are some things that I think I think…

• There were some state primaries yesterday.
• Val Demings handily won the Dem primary for US Senate. She’ll be going up against Marco Rubio on November 8. Go Val!
• Also, Charlie Crist — the former Republican governor of FL who quit in an unsuccessful bid to be the senator but then changed to being a Democrat and has been a congressman since, confusingly — won the primary and will face Ron DeSantis for the governor’s race.
• Normally I’d be apprehensive about this but, I mean, it’s Florida, so the weirder, the better.
• Had a brief moment of panic when unhinged insane person Laura Loomer was winning her primary for a House seat for much of the day. She ended up losing to the incumbent who cannot be as bad for the USA as she would be. That lady is a nut.
• Loomer makes Boebert and MTG look like rational and well-educated people. That’s how bad she is. Full on QAnon psycho. We all dodged a bullet there.
• Speaking of Florida…
• Florida has banned Medicaid coverage for gender affirming care for trans people. Fuckers.
• Side note: when you are gathering information for your little news thing and do a general search for “Florida trans”, you’re going to see a lot of very feminine and attractive people with penises. Just FYI. I should have probably anticipated that.
• Yet another note from that dingleberry of a state: a Florida Christian school will refer to students only by their 'biological gender,' and they’ve asked gay and trans students to unenroll and leave the school entirely. If it’s a private school, I suppose it’s within their right to spread hate and ill will.
• Isn’t that what Christian schools are for, anyway?
• Note to anyone who doesn’t get it: you don’t choose your sexual orientation or your gender identity. The best parallel is telling a short person to be taller or else.
• A lot of people are mentioning former Air Force member and NSA contractor Reality Winner in regard to the FPOTUS’s stolen classified documents. They say, understandably, that if she did over four years in jail for one stolen document (that she was using as a whistleblower), Trump should get a million years in prison. They’re probably correct.
• However, I’ve gotten to know Reality a bit since she got out of jail, and she specifically does NOT want people bringing her up in this situation. She is adamantly against the current penal system, and doesn’t want to be the poster child for punitive action.
• I respect that.
• Two assholes who conspired to kidnap (and likely rape and kill) Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 were found guilty yesterday.
• Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were also found guilty of conspiring to obtain a weapon of mass destruction that they tried to buy from an undercover federal agent.
• These are proud Trump supporters. This is what Trump supporters do. if you’re one of them, this is what I assume you’re into.
• From the Sports Desk… rest in peace to legendary Hal of Fame quarterback Len Dawson, who won a Super Bowl in 1970 with the Chiefs. Dawson was 87.
• It’s both the Ukrainian independence day and the six-month mark of the Russian invasion. Can you at all envision having spent the past six months with an invading force of military running through your city, bombs and missiles incoming, and not knowing if you or your family would live to see the next day?
• I am grateful every single day about the relative level of peace in my life. Every. Single. Day.
• And now, The Weather: “Dial Up” by Flasher.
• Today in history… the latest known inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs is written (367). The Visigoths pillage Rome (410). Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz, Germany after being blamed for the bubonic plague (1349). William Penn receives a colony now known as Delaware, and adds it to Pennsylvania (1682). British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn the White House, the Capitol and other buildings (1814). Amelia Earhart flies across the USA from Los Angeles to Newark non-stop (1932). Allied troops attack German-held Paris (1944). The treaty creating NATO goes into effect (1949). Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies disrupt the NYSE by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery (1967). Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon (1981). Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union (1991). The IAU redefines the meaning of “planet” and Pluto is demoted (2006).
• August 24 is the birthday of writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899), mob boss Carlo Gambino (1902), historian Howard Zinn (1922), R2D2 actor Kenny Baker (1934), guitarist Mason Williams (1938), guitarist John Cipollina (1943), wrestling promoter Vince McMahon (1945), writer Paulo Coelho (1947), semi-Democrat Joe Manchin (1947), musician Jean Michel Jarre (1948), political asshole Mike Huckabee (1955), actor Stephen Fry (1957), baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr. (1960), actress Marlee Matlin (1965), NBA player Reggie Miller (1965), comedian Dave Chappelle (1973), and actor Rupert Grint (1988).

My day is in typical Wednesday mode, which is not terrible exciting. I’ll be planning and writing and drawing, which is what I do. It’s overcast here near the ocean, which is good for getting work stuff done. I know sometimes you wake up with the realization that your life is going by and time is limited, and can this really be all that there is? And the answer is that yeah, probably that’s true, and yet there’s beauty in routine and responsibility, and that the things you do are more important than you realize. Enjoy your day.