Random News: November 11, 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 11, 2022, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! We’re still in the midst of this election, so let’s talk about that and other things…

• Before anything else, let me note that today is Veterans Day in the USA. Veterans Day is NOT Memorial Day; it’s for anyone who has ever served in any capacity in this nation’s military, living or dead.
• I want to thank every person who served, which includes many of my close friends and family members.
• One person I’d like to single out is Captain George Russell Ball, Sr. (1752-1825), my direct ancestor who served in the Revolutionary War as a member of the 9th Virginia Regiment. He was taken prisoner by the British on October 3, 1777 in the battle of Germantown, but survived and had kids and now here I am.
• Salute to Captain Ball, and to all veterans! Thank you for your service!
• Back to the present.
• We’re a bit closer to a final picture from the 2022 elections. As of now, I’m comfortable saying that Mark Kelly has won the Arizona Senate race (note: this has not been called yet by the AP), and my superpowers of election observation say that Catherine Cortez Masto will come from behind and win in Nevada.
• If it happens that way, it will seal Democratic control of Senate, but also getting the runoff win in Georgia next month with Warnock beating Walker would send a strong message as well as allow for a more cohesive Democratic Senate without that bullshit from Manchin and Sinema.
• The House remains murky. I’m still assuming that the GOP will control the House, but with a Democrat Senate and President, it just means two years of gridlock, with bills not advancing or being vetoed.
• This is pretty amazing: for the first time since 1934, this is the first midterms in which the party in power did not lose a single state legislative chamber.
• As I’ve mentioned many times now, the fact that we’re not experiencing a HUGE Republican victory is only due to a couple of factors: a) the repeal of Roe v Wade and b) a very impressive voter turnout by young people across the USA.
• I’ve spent very little time giving a single shit about the former president, who seems very sad to not be the center of attention right now. But in the midst of a tantrum yesterday, he claimed via a social post that he personally sent in the FBI and US attorneys in 2020 to sway the vote to allow De Santis win election.
• He is very scared of what may happen in his run in 2024. I’ll leave it at that for now. FPOTUS is expected to make what he calls a “big announcement” next Tuesday. It’s going to be a big problem for the GOP and I’m getting my popcorn ready.
• One other note on that guy: had he graciously conceded his defeat in 2020, all of the talk about election deniers and the potential for loss of our democracy would have been moot, and again, Republicans would have won handily. 
• I know that many folks in the South are disappointed about their election results, but I want to point out that. their efforts were NOT in vain.
• One story that’s not getting enough attention: voters in North Carolina stopped Republicans from gaining a veto-proof supermajority. This means, among other things, that the GOP can't push through a total abortion ban and NC will remain the one safe haven for reproductive rights in the South.
• There are many stories like that in states that seem red on a map, but are actually very purple. Keep up the fight!
• And now, The Weather: “What I Wanted To See” by Sungaze
• In world news, Russia has retreated from the Ukrainian city of Kherson. This is a huge victory for Ukraine.
• Elon Musk’s management of Twitter has been a complete nightmare thus far. They’ve had to roll back many of the programs that Musk had launched, their staff is in  complete disarray, huge security holes are popping up daily, and Musk himself said on a staff call yesterday that bankruptcy was a strong possibility. 
• Today in history… Tycho Brahe observes the supernova SN 1572 (1572). The Mayflower Compact is signed in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod (1620). Gottfried Leibniz demonstrates integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the graph of ‘y = ƒ(x)’ (1675). The State of Washington is admitted as the 42nd state of the United States (1889). Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies (1918). The United States Numbered Highway System is established (1926). NASA launches Gemini 12 (1966). 
• November 11 is the birthday of novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821), general George S. Patton (1885), author/activist Shirley Graham Du Bois (1896), novelist Kurt Vonnegut (1922), musician Chris Dreja (1945), actor Vincent Schiavelli (1948), producer Mutt Lange (1948), golfer Fuzzy Zoeller (1951), musician Marshall Crenshaw (1953), singer-songwriter Andy Partridge (1953), actor Stanley Tucci (1960), actress Demi Moore (1962), actress Calista Flockhart (1964), actor Leonardo DiCaprio (1974), and musician Jon Batiste (1986).

Well, it’s Friday, which is nearly always by busiest day of the work week. And obviously, I’m still pretty fixated on the results of the election, so between the two I’ll be a busy dude today. But that’s okay. I’ve always found that having too much to do is better than not enough. I’m going to drink more coffee, do more work, and see what happens after that. Enjoy your day.