Random News: September 30, 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 30, 2022, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Here’s whatever floats my boat in this moat with a goat…

• Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of SCOTUS justice Clarence Thomas, testified for the January 6 Select Committee yesterday. Thomas had been texting with other perpetrators of the attempted coup before and during the event.
• She continues to believe the election was stolen, and yet when asked why she believed that, had no specific information or proof.
• I don’t give a shit about her, but I do care that her husband may be in a position to decide the winners of future close elections.
• Lots of stories of various hardships as a result of Hurricane Ian making its way across Florida and heading north. My best wishes to everyone affected.
• Parts of Florida could be facing weeks without power. Also, not to be Mr. Bummer, but with the speed of climate change, these storms will get worse and more frequent every year. Little we do at this stage can prevent that.
• This morning is the first appearance of justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court. As a reminder, she is the first Black women to serve on the SCOTUS.
• Bold prediction based on nothing: Joe Biden will appoint another SCOTUS justice before the end of his first term.
• The governor of my state, Gavin Newsom, is doing a lot of stuff. I am fairly sure that much of it is positioning himself to run for president, if not in 2024 then in 2028. 
• In the past few days, he signed legislation to protect animal welfare, to turn unused retail areas into housing, to protect transgender youths feeling red-state laws, to aid small performing arts nonprofits, and making California an abortion sanctuary for residents of forced-birth states.
• Trevor Noah has announced he is leaving The Daily Show where he has hosted for seven years. He’s done a great job, and replacing Jon Stewart was a difficult task for anyone.
• And now, The Weather: “Me and My Husband” by Mitski.
• US District Judge Aileen Cannon nixed several aspects of the plan proposed by senior Judge Raymond Dearie (the special master that Trump had requested) that would have required the FPOTUS to make uncomfortable assertions in court, including whether he actually believes the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago.
• This is because he is a giant pussy, as are his cult followers.
• From the Sports Desk… the hideous injury to Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa was not something anyone would want to see. Football is a violent sport and the fact of the matter is that no player is ever completely safe from extreme bodily harm while playing it. That’s true from kids playing Pop Warner to high school to college to the NFL.
• I love the sport but I hate the fact that it’s so goddamn brutal… and as these players get bigger and faster in each passing generation, no amount of safety protocols in the rules or the equipment will stop these kinds of incidents.
• Tua is apparently okay after suffering back and neck injuries. He had movement in all his extremities and flew back to Florida with the team.
• The sedition trial of the Oath Keepers starts today. I hope they each get 750-year sentences.
• “Republicans are more upset about Lizzo playing James Madison's flute than they were about insurrectionists smearing shit on the Capitol walls. They don’t care about “history” they’re just racist.” -  Gen Z activist Jack Cocchiarella
• It’s true. They wouldn’t say a peep if this wasn’t a black female artist. Republicans are just racist. Sorry if you’re offended. Actually I’m not. Live with it.
• Ukraine applied for membership in NATO. Fascinating. I wish them success, though it’s hard to see a pathway to their acceptance by all of the member nations.
• Today in history… Henry IV is proclaimed king of England (1399). Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his forces enter Tula territory in present-day western Arkansas, encountering fierce resistance (1541). The first performance of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death (1791). Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation (1882). Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with ground-to-air fire (1915). The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations” (1938). NBC broadcasts the first televised American football game (1939). The 1947 World Series is the first to be televised and the first to include an African-American player (1947). The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time (1968). Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation (1980). Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in a Danish newspaper (2005). 
• September 30 is the birthday of astronomer Michael Maestlin (1550), activist Ann Jarvis (1832), businessman William Wrigley, Jr. (1861), physicist Hand Geiger (1882), sexologist Charlotte Wolff (1897), drummer Buddy Rich (1917), Army captain Lewis Nixon (1918), novelist Truman Capote (1924), activist Elie Wiesel (1928), actress Angie Dickinson (1931), singer Cissy Houston (1933), singer Johnny Mathis (1935), drummer Dewey Martin (1940), producer Gus Dudgeon (1942), singer Marilyn McCoo (1943), musician Marc Bolan (1947), actress Fran Drescher (1957), musician Marty Stuart (1958), actor Eric Stoltz (1961), musician Trey Anastasio (1964), actress Jenna Elfman (1971), actor Daniel Wu (1974), tennis player Martina Hingis (1980), and rapper T-Pain (1984). 

Okay. Time for me to be a worker bee. Buzz buzz. Be good to other people and various animals. Enjoy your day.