Random News: September 14, 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 September 14, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. Some various this and that…

• Russia has secretly funneled at least $300 million to foreign political parties and candidates in more than two dozen countries, including the US, since 2014.
• Per a just-released US intelligence review, Russia’s goal was an attempt to shape political events beyond its borders.
• Theoretically, that would be a great explanation for the global rise of fascist candidates (Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, Le Pen, etc.) as well as self-harming national actions like Brexit.
• We do not yet know to whom the money was funneled. It would be nice to find out, though.
• In news that made me giggle yesterday, MyPillow guy and fervent election denier Mike Lindell was returning from a hunting trip and drove through a Hardee’s, presumably to get a delicious Famous Star with Cheese and some fries, when the FBI pulled up, blocked in his vehicle, and took away his phone.
• This is all according to him.
• He also claims that he doesn’t use a computer and that all of his business and other communications -- perhaps with other people who attempted to overthrow the US government and the will of the people -- are on that phone.
• I’m giggling again.
• Also from the Asshole Desk, meet Brett Favre. Newly released texts show that Favre purposefully colluded with former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant to channel at least $5 million of the state’s welfare funds to build a new volleyball stadium at University of S. Mississippi, where Favre’s daughter was going.
• We already knew most of that, but Favre had previously denied any awareness of the heinous action of his crimes… but here’s a sample text from him: “If you were to pay me is there anyway the media can find out where it came from and how much?”
• Fucking Jesus. Unbelievable. 
• Yesterday, West Virginia Republicans passed a draconian bill prohibiting nearly all abortions from the point of conception, making their state the second to pass such a ban since the GOP-controlled Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade. 
• Also yesterday, Mitch McConnell, lord of the turtles, claimed that Lindsay Graham’s national abortion ban should be left to the states… but had already stated that they’ll vote it in with a Senate majority if they win in November.
• Please fucking vote for Democrat Senators and Representatives. It really matters. Every vote matters.
• And now, The Weather: “Handsome Man” by Wednesday.
• I was an admirer of Queen Elizabeth II. That being said, now that she’s dead, I don’t need to have my news headlines be dominated by where her coffin is now and what some guy wore to pay respects and so on. None of that shit is relevant to my life as an American. Sorry.
• From the Sports Desk… Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is four home runs shy of tying Roger Maris' American League single-season record after a two-homer performance yesterday, hitting HRs number 56 and 57.
• To me, that Maris record of 61 is the real MLB record. Anyone who’s hit more than that has admitted to using steroids.
• Bad news for Republicans in last night’s primaries. In New Hampshire, Don Bolduc, a right wing extremist and election denier, won the GOP Senate nomination, and is likely to be crushed by incumbent Maggie Hassan in November. A more moderate candidate could have won there.
• Bolduc called the state’s Republican governor Chris Sununu a “a Chinese communist sympathizer”, if that tells you where he’s at.
• Someone sent a package bomb to Northeastern University in Boston. It exploded, injuring a staff member. Apparently it also contained a rambling note that criticized Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the relationship between academic institutions and the developers of virtual reality.
• Hmm.
• Today in history… George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio ‘Messiah’ (1741). The Papal States lose Avignon to Revolutionary France (1791). President William McKinley dies after being mortally wounded on September 6 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz and is succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt (1901). The Hungarian Army kills 158 Romanian civilians in the Ip Massacre, an act of ethnic cleansing (1940). Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces in WWII (1944). The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, aka OPEC, is founded (1960). Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean (1984). The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike (1994). Microsoft releases Windows Me (2000). The first observation of gravitational waves is made, announced the following February by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations (2015). 
• September 14 is the birthday of theologian/astrologer/occultist/alchemist Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486), nurse/activist Margaret Sanger (1879), actor Walter Koenig (1936), basketball coach Larry Brown (1940), guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith (1949), guitarist Paul Kosoff (1950), rapper Nas (1973), singer Amy Winehouse (1983), and NFL player Michael Crabtree (1987).

Welp, I guess that’s all. I’m having coffee and thinking about whether the t-shirt I’m wearing is appropriate for a meeting with one of my more formal clients later this morning. Most of clients are in the rock and roll industry and don’t give a shit what I wear on a Zoom call, but this one is a little more business-like. Maybe I’ll put on a shirt over my shirt. Maybe I’ll say “fuck it” and just be myself. Enjoy your day.