Random News: November 12, 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 12, 2022, and it’s a Saturday. I’m actually showered and dressed because lots of possibly great shit is going on and I want to be ready to party. Here’s some information to fill your hungry brains…

• Last night, I was flipping between election returns on like five different sites when Steve Kornacki came on MSNBC with the latest updates on the Arizona race.
• While he was feverishly tallying the latest vote drops from the state’s counties, you could see in real time his brilliant mind calculating the math of remaining votes in the state, and that’s when the lovely NBC chimes rang and a graphic filled the screen, announcing that incumbent Democrat senator Mark Kelly’s race had been called.
• That was a HUGE moment. 
• There remain two battles in the Senate race: Cortez Masto versus Laxalt in NV, and Warnock vs Walker in GA. We are thinking that the Nevada race is wrapped up today, and if that happens, we’ll tell you more tomorrow.
• Something completely shocking is also underway. I’m not going to discuss it, but insanely, there’s still a path — narrow as it is — for the Dems to retain control of the House.
• To be clear: I am not personally expecting it to happen. But the margin of victory has grown smaller and smaller for the GOP when just a few days back, they were all very confident in a “Red Tsunami”.
• Congressman Kevin McCarthy had predicted a 60+ seat increase. Now at best, it might be 10… or 5… or even none. But I won’t talk about that until I do.
• Another quick but important note: at the state level not even ONE election denier was elected to roles to be in charge of future elections. That is a HUGE win for democracy.
• While we’re awaiting Nevada returns, note that they passed the country’s most comprehensive equal rights amendment.
• The state constitution amendment ensures equal rights for all, “regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry, or national origin.”
• It’s a massive win for LGBTQIA+ and other people in that state. Well done!
• And now, The Weather: “Benadryl” by Sun Era
• I’ll cut this short for now.
• I should mention that there’s a MASSIVE fight brewing within the GOP as people start to turn their attention toward the 2024 presidential election, with open hostilities being publicly bandied between the group still supporting the former president and others who have become aware that he’s dragging their entire party into failure.
• More on that later.
• Today in history… Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, playing for the Allegheny Athletic Association (1892). Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union (1927). In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic (1936). Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy (1938). Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins and ends three days later with an American victory (1942). In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, U.S. President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran (1979). The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings (1980). Yuri Andropov becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding Leonid I. Brezhnev (1982). Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web (1990). The Los Angeles Superior Court formally ends the 14-year conservatorship to pop singer Britney Spears (2021).
• November 12 is the birthday of entomologist Thaddeus William Harris (1795), activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815), sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840), SCOTUS justice Harry Blackmun (1908), bassist Sam Jones (1924), actress/princess Grace Kelly (1929), cult leader Charles Manson (1934), musician Booker T. Jones (1944), sportscaster Al Michaels (1944), musical legend Neil Young (1945), musician Buck Dharma (1947), actress Megan Mullally (1958), my friend The Big Randu (1966), MLB player Sammy Sosa (1968), figure skater/criminal Tonya Harding (1970), actor Ryan Gosling (1980), actress Anne Hathaway (1982), and NBA player Russell Westbrook (1988).

Okay. I’ll be monitoring elections and eating breakfast and… I don’t know, doing Saturday shit and hopefully having a good-ass time. Enjoy your day.