Random News: October 19, 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 October 19, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. Not quite sure what I’m writing next, but if I keep tapping my fingers, words usually come out…

• I’ve got some amazing numbers for you in regard to one crucial state: Georgia. Allow me to frame this for you.
• Midterm elections never, ever draw the same number of voters as presidential election years. Example: on the first day of voting in 2014, Georgia cast 20,898 votes.
• Well this year, on Monday, Georgians hit the polls with a fucking vengeance, and 123,834 people voted on that one day.
• Compare that to their last Midterm election, aka the Blue Wave midterm, where 70,848 people voted the first day. Compare it to the presidential year of 2016 when 90,671 voted on that Monday. For Georgia, 2022 is by far a record for turnout in early voting in a midterm election.
• Let me be very clear: THERE ARE MANY MORE DEMOCRATS THAN REPUBLICANS IN THE USA.
• These numbers are real and tangible and a better indicator of what’s going to happen than ANY poll or ANY news pundit on your TV or your favorite websites.
• The higher the voter turnout, the more likely that we have a real chance of doing things like codifying abortion rights for the country, and protecting other rights on the chopping block that include Social Security and Medicare.
• No matter where you live or what obstacles they try and put up to subvert American democracy and prevent you from voting… FUCKING VOTE.
• Thank you.
• It seems half a lifetime ago that the big tabloid news story was the disappearance of college student Kristin Smart.
• Probably because for me, 1996 was almost exactly half my life ago.
• Anyway, I was shocked to see the headline that they’d actually convicted a guy of her murder. It’s not often you see convictions in cases from 26 years ago.
• Keep Ukraine in your thoughts. Russia has been hitting them hard with rocket and drone strikes.
• Putin has now declared martial law in four illegally annexed Ukraine territories.
• There are freeze warnings in many places in the Eastern US, from DC to North Texas to Chicago. As I’ve mentioned roughly 10,000 times before, climate change is causing more severe weather that ranges from devastating storms to bigger extremes in both hot and cold temperatures.
• And now, The Weather: “Charlie” by Sam Valdez
• The increasingly irrelevant FPOTUS is scheduled to be in court this morning, testifying under oath at a trial for defamation after he denied raping writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
• From the Sports Desk… MLB conference series are finally in full swing, so to speak. The Phillies lead the Padres 1-0 in the NLCS, while the Yankees and Astros face off today in Houston for Game 1 of the ALCS.
• Today in history… King John of England dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry (1216). Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (1512). John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States (1789). Austria cedes Veneto and Mantua to France, which immediately awards them to Italy in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy and Nice (1866). Max Planck discovers Planck's law of black-body radiation (1900). Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University (1943). President Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes (1973). Black Monday has the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by 22%, 508 points (1987). Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity (2005). 
• October 19 is the birthday of activist John Woolman (1720), actress LaWanda Page (1920), actor Robert Reed (1932), musician Dave Guard (1934), illustrator Peter Max (1937), actor Michael Gambon (1940), singer-songwriter Peter Tosh (1944), actor John Lithgow (1945), musician Patrick Simmons (1948), actor/director John Favreau (1966), animator Trey Parker (1969), actor Chris Kattan (1970), and MLB player José Bautista (1980). 

My Wednesday plan is pretty typical. Gonna wrap up these bullets, then exercise, and then fight a bunch of metaphorical dragons (that are mostly myself). I’m going to try and have a good day and make some kind of positive impact, even in a very small way. Every tiny little good thing adds up to a better world for everyone. Enjoy your day.