Random News: August 9, 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 9, 2022, and it’s a Tuesday. A plethora of observational tidbits now arriving…

• Hmm, doesn’t seem to be much happening in the news. Oh wait, here’s something…
• “FBI Executes Search Warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago in Document Investigation”
• Ah. Well then (rolls up sleeves)…
• So, for this to have happened, the FBI would have had to have an overwhelming amount of very specific evidence that had to be presented to and then signed off by a federal judge to get the search warrant.
• They would never have done it unless they knew beyond all doubt that the raid would lead to an indictment. 
• The media is in a general consensus that the raid had to do with Trump’s illegal removal of documents from the White House. 
• If you don’t think that’s a very big deal on its own, well…
• Under title 18 U.S. Code § 2071 (Concealment, removal, or mutilation), it say the guilty party “shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”
• Yeah.
• However, it may go beyond that. Far beyond. There may be evidence that Trump was doing something very specific with the documents he illegally stole… like selling them to enemies of the USA. This is all speculation, by the way. Until we know the details of the search warrant, none of us really know anything.
• Trump wasn’t there when the FBI raid happened; he was in New York at Trump Tower.
• The Secret Service was notified immediately beforehand, but they weren’t allowed to have any role in the search of Mar-a-Lago. They open it up and stayed outside throughout the raid.
• Holy shit, this is nuts.
• How did the MAGA world take this news? Not well.
• Plenty of online chatter about civil war and so on. More disturbingly, there were state and federal GOP leaders making open statements about sedition, succession from the union, calls for violence, retribution, civil war, and more.
• A member of the Florida House, one Anthony Sabatini, called for FBI agents to be “arrested on sight”. Congress member Marjorie Taylor Greene screamed “DEFUND THE FBI!” The GOP candidate for governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, called for the state to secede from the USA.
• And, of course, many run-of-the-mill MAGAs are screaming to take up arms and start killing people today, right now, because that’s how their minds work.
• None of these people, I should add, have seen any evidence or have any idea what was being seized and why. Not one of them.
• So, this is obviously an ongoing story. What did the FBI find? What were they looking for? What consequences might Trump be facing? Will his followers accept whatever punishment is levied for his alleged crimes?
• Stay tuned for the next episode of “Do We Still Have a Country?”
• Whew. Jesus. This is all fucking nuts. In a good way, mostly. It really is. Don't let them say otherwise.
• Carrying on…
• Yesterday, President Biden went to visit the area of Eastern Kentucky that’s been devastated by deadly flooding. For some reason, the state’s senators — Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul — have not stopped by.
• Rest in peace to the amazing Olivia Newton-John. I wasn’t ever a big pop music guy, but I still recognized, then and now, her incredibly talented voice and ability to get the exact emotional vibe to deliver a perfect singing performance. 
• Alex Jones' texts have been turned over to the January 6 committee. I pity the person that has to go through them. Ew.
• One person who already did was the lawyer in the defamation case that just wrapped up. He confirmed that in the texts there were naked photos of Jones’s wife that he’d sent to Roger Stone.


• This is 100% true.
• And now, The Weather: “Ålesund” by Sun Kil Moon.
• QotD: “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.” - Aristotle
• Today in history… Julius Caesar defeats Pompey, who flees to Egypt (48 BC). The Creek native Americans sign a treaty and give up huge sections of Alabama and Georgia (1814). Thomas Edison receives a patent on a two-way telegraph (1892). Edward VII is crowned King of the UK (1902). Jesse Owens wins his fourth medal at the Berlin Olympics (1936). The US Forestry Service releases posters featuring Smokey the Bear for the first time (1944). Nagasaki is devastated by the atomic bomb Fat Man, killing tens of thousands of people instantly and many more later (1945). Singapore becomes the only country ever to gain independence unwillingly, being expelled from Malaysia (1965). Followers of Charles Manson kill Sharon Tate and four others (1969). Vice President Gerald Ford is named President upon Nixon’s resignation (1974). 18-year-old Michael Brown is shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer (2014).
• August 9 is the birthday of colonial settler John Webster (1590), psychologist Jean Piaget (1896), first Black woman college president Willa Beatrice Player (1909), astrophysicist William Alfred Fowler (1911), actor Robert Shaw (1927), NBA great Bob Cousy (1928), boxer ken Norton (1943), actor Sam Elliott (1944), terrific drummer Pete Thomas (1954), actress Melanie Griffith (1957), rapper Kurtis Blow (1959), singer WHitney Houston (1963), NHL great Brett Hull (1964), journalist Hoda Kotb (1964), NFL/MLB player Deion Sanders (1967), actress Gillian Anderson (1968), basketball player Derek Fisher (1974), actress Anna Kendrick (1985), and singer-songwriter Arlo Parks (2000).

Like all times when history is being made, we all have to keep living our lives. I remember having to have business meetings on January 6, 2021. I remember having to worry about an upcoming trade show on 9/11/01. I remember dealing with work stuff after the Northridge earthquake in January 1994 while shit was still swaying in my apartment. And today, I’ll be working away and grocery shopping and having meetings while the country decides if it’s going into civil war over some fat prick and the golf motel where he lives. But that’s America for ya. Enjoy your day.