Random News: November 10, 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 November 10, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. There’s still a lot going on, and I’m here to bring it to you in a half-assed way. Let’s go…

• President Biden will be able to claim the best midterm performance for an incumbent president’s party in 20 years, and one of the best in 100 years. It’s just amazing.
• It’s still likely that control of the House will fall to the Republicans, but by a tiny margin. It’s going to be a bit before we know the final tally there.
• Much more still in play is the Senate, which was tied at 50-50 before the election and now is tied up at 48-48 pending the final vote counts.
• We are officially going to a runoff in the GA Senate race between Warnock and Walker, happening on December 6. I have strong optimism for a Warnock victory, especially as Democrat enthusiasm surges.
• Other Senate races still being determined are for Arizona (Kelly versus Masters) and Nevada (Cortez Masto versus Laxalt). It all going to come down to these three. I’m optimistic and feeing good.
• Of note…
• Out of the seven GOP governor candidates who’d said they wouldn’t have certified Biden’s election win (aka “election deniers”), six of them lost and the seventh will hopefully lose. Those losers are: Tim Michels (WI), Tudor Dixon (MI), Doug Mastriano (PA), Darren Bailey (IL), Dan Cox (MD), Lee Zeldin (NY), and possibly Kari Lake (AZ).
• I want to talk about some history makers.
• Democrat Maura Healey is the first elected female governor in Massachusetts and the nation's first openly lesbian governor.
• She was followed quickly by Democrat Tina Kotek, the new governor of Oregon and another lesbian. Lesbians are good at handling things, I’ve found.
• Democrat Becca Balint won her race for Vermont's only seat in the House. Her win means she will be the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to represent the state in Congress.
• Democrat Wes Moore made history as Maryland's first Black governor, and only the third Black governor elected in U.S. history.
• Democrat Summer Lee became the first Black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania.
• Democrat Kathy Hochul was elected to a full term — becoming New York's first elected female governor.
• In New Hampshire, Democrat James Roesener became the first openly trans man to win election to a state legislature in U.S. history.
• And now, The Weather: “Tell Me It’s Easy” by Andrew Goldring
• You think “red states” are a lost cause? Missouri legalized weed, Nebraska passed $15 minimum wage, Montana and Kentucky rejected abortion bans, and Kansas re-elected their Democratic governor. 
• Good people are everywhere.
• The very biggest reason for the Democrats’ performance was the removal of women’s health rights via the overturn of Roe v Wade. Had that not happened, I have no doubt that Republicans would have completely smashed both the House and Senate.
• Frankly, the women’s vote was not as much of the key factor as I’d assumed. It was, instead, Generation Z, the youth vote, that had the biggest impact.
• It was so important that yesterday, a number of really angry GOP pundits were calling for the voting age to be raised to 21 (little problem there, of course, with military enrollment and taxation being applied to 18-year-olds, and it being in the Constitution).
• And I’m here to tell you, not only are those kids fired up, but many of their younger brothers and sisters will be of voting age before the 2024 general election.
• You love to see it.
• Quick hits…
• The Michigan State Senate flips to Dems for first time since 1983. That’s about 40 years ago. Lordy.
• Dr. Oz spent a reported $27 million of his own money on his senate race, and lost.
• One moment of extreme comedy on Tuesday night. The CA polls closed at 8PM. The governor and senator races for Newsom and Padilla respectively were called at 8:03PM. I shit you not.
• “Yesterday we created a Blue Wall that stopped a red wave. Few were willing to predict that. Millions of you made it happen, and our Democracy lives to see another day. Thank you.” - Michael Moore
• "The red wave was more like a pink splash — kinda like when you accidentally wash your klan robe with your MAGA hat.” - Steve Colbert
• “By 2028, Millennials & Gen Z will dominate U.S. elections. This is why the GOP is pulling out all the stops to entrench their power. They know they don't stand a chance against a multi-racial, progressive generation of young people that will make their backwards ideas irrelevant.” - Robert Reich
• “We lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than any Democratic president’s first midterm election in at least 40 years. And we had the best midterms for Governors since 1986. The American people spoke.” - President Biden
• In totally unrelated news — something I can’t wait to get back to — Kat and I had our new COVID booster yesterday. It’s the bivalent Moderna vax that protects against original COVID and new and improved Omicron variants. No side effects, and we were in and out of the clinic in about five minutes.
• Today in history… Raden Wijaya is crowned as the first monarch of Majapahit kingdom of Java, taking the throne name Kertarajasa Jayawardhana (1293). The last colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College, later renamed Rutgers University (1766). The United States Marine Corps is founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas (1775). Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” (1871). A top-secret coded message from Europe that said on November 11, 1918, all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air (1918). Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States (1951). National Educational Television, the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service, debuts ‘Sesame Street’ (1969). Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0 (1983). Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall (1989). 
• November 10 is the birthday of monk/priest Martin Luther (1483), physician/activist Samuel Gridley Howe (1801), flush toilet inventor George Jennings (1810), actor Claude Rains (1889), composer Carl Stalling (1891), businessman Jack Northrup (1895), actor Richard Burton (1925), composer Ennio Morricone (1928), actor Roy Scheider (1932), singer Screaming Lord Sutch (1940), activist James Hood (1942), lyricist Tim Rice (1944), musician Greg Lake (1947), comedian Sinbad (1956), actress Mackenzie Phillips (1959), author Neil Gaiman (1960), comedian Tracy Morgan (1968), rapper Warren G (1970), actress Brittany Murphy (1977), and NFL player Drew Lock (1996).

As I said before and I’ll say again, this election was vital to America’s ability to carry on as a democracy, as opposed to a fascist dictatorship. At all levels, from local to state to federal, people put up defenses against conservative efforts that would have stripped them of their rights. And no, not every state went as we’d wished and the problems that face a divided America are still omnipresent. But this could have been so, so, SO much worse that I can’t help but feel very grateful. Enjoy your day.