Random News: September 7, 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 7, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. Let’s see what’s rattling around my mind…

• Heat wave continues in California and other western states. It has, to be fair, gotten somewhat less miserable over the last day or so.
• We’re still under an excessive heat warning that goes through Friday. Along with that, we’re still being asked to curtail our use of electricity, especially during peak hours of 4-9PM.
• I did a live show in Second Life last night at 5PM from my non-air conditioned home here at the beach, and when I finished, I was sweat-drenched head to toe.
• Big congrats to Maura Healey for her overwhelming victory in Massachusetts’ gubernatorial primary. She will go up against a Trump-backed election denier in November and win, and will be the state’s first female governor and first lesbian governor.

• Healy is the current Attorney General for MA, and a former college and pro basketball player.

• I know a lot of lesbians, and the country would run great if all of them were governors, in my opinion.

• I said I wasn’t going to talk about the espionage and obstruction criminal investigation of the FPOTUS until there was something worth talking about, and that is still the case.
• I did want to note that some of the documents found have to do with the nuclear capabilities of a foreign country. There’s no reason for a former president to be in possession of that information. But again, I’ll talk about that when the time is right.
• But I will ask the question, how much would England’s nuclear secrets be worth to Russia? How much would the FPOTUS’s best pals in Saudi Arabia pay for information on Israel’s nuclear capabilities.
• More later.
• Meet Couy Griffin.
• He founded a group called “Cowboys for Trump”. He took part in the January 6 failed coup attempt (and was convicted for the minor crime of trespassing as a result). He was also an elected county commissioner in New Mexico.
• And now, he’s the first official removed from office as a result of violating the clause in the 14th Amendment that bars people from participating in an insurrection against the USA holding public office.
• Griffin’s removal from office also marks the first time a judge has formally ruled that the events of January 6, 2021, were an "insurrection."
• But it won’t be the last!
• Speaking of assholes, Steve Bannon will be turning himself in on Thursday. 
• That human-shaped lump of goo and former Trump White House adviser is being charged with fraud related to the fake We Build the Wall charity.
• He took donor money and skimmed it for personal use, and built no wall. He knew that most of these MAGA folks are extremely gullible.
• And now, The Weather: “Strokes” by Ovlov.
• A cyberattack hit the Los Angeles Unified School District yesterday with some kind of ransomware demand. LAUSD is one of the largest school districts in the country. It’s a serious problem and will get worse with every organization and business being a potential victim.
• Newly obtained surveillance video shows a Republican county official in Georgia escorting two operatives working with an attorney for FPOTUS into the county's election offices on the same day a voting system there was breached.

• The official is Cathy Latham, a former GOP chairwoman of Coffee County, who is under criminal investigation for posing as a fake elector in 2020.


• Hmm.

• From the Sports Desk… the Sports Desk made their picks for the first week of NFL games, which begins Thursday night and continues Sunday and then Monday night. Week One is a clusterfuck every year. Nothing is certain. No one knows anything. Players have changed teams. Skills diminish. Rookies come out of nowhere. The Sports Desk will let you know how terribly their picks went next Tuesday.
• Today in history… A Roman army under Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem (70). Thomas Howard is arrested for his role in the Ridolfi plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots (1571). The city of Boston, MA is founded (1630). Dom Pedro I declares Brazil independent from Portugal in São Paulo (1822). Mormon settlers slaughter most members of a peaceful emigrant wagon train (1857). Atlanta is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman (1864). Eugène Lefebvre crashes a biplane during a test flight, becoming the first aviator to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft (1909). US federal employees win the right to Workers' compensation by Federal Employers Liability Act (1916). INTERPOL is formed (1923). The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Farnsworth (1927). The German Luftwaffe begins the Blitz, bombing London and other British cities for over 50 consecutive nights (1940). Japanese forces on Wake Island surrender to U.S. Marines (1945). Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1953). The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members (1963). The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for $1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy (1979). Tupac Shakur is fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, NV succumbing to his injuries six days later (1996). The United States government takes control of the two largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (2008).
• September 7 is the birthday of Japan emperor Suzaku (923), queen Elizabeth I of England (1533), folk artist Grandma Moses (1860), banker/Philanthropist J. P. Morgan Jr. (1867), engineer/businessman and co-founder of HP David Packard (1912), actor Peter Lawford (1923), golfer and LPGA co-founder Louise Suggs (1923), politician Daniel Inouye (1924), Scooby Doo voice actor Don Messick (1926), rock and roller Buddy Holly (1936), singer Gloria Gaynor (1947), actress Julie Kavner (1950), composer Mark Isham (1951), organist Benmont Tench (1953), songwriter Diane Warren (1956), rapper Eazy-E (1963), actress Evan Rachel Wood (1987), and NBA player Kevin Love (1988).

Okay, well… now it’s a Wednesday that feels like a Tuesday. These holidays fuck up my entire sense of reality. Of course, once you acknowledge that time doesn’t exist and that clocks and the calendar are just manmade inventions that let us all meet for coffee at the same time, it doesn’t matter that much. Enjoy your day.