Random News: November 14, 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 14, 2022, and it’s a Monday. It was an exciting weekend; I could do with a little less excitement going into this week. Let’s see what’s up…

• How not to win elections: conservative candidates spent over $50 million on attack ads targeting transgender issues. That seemed to have the reverse effect it intended.
• States like Michigan, where GOP candidates made this their focus, were among the biggest losers and likely had the opposite effect, driving voters to the other side.
• Same thing with the Republicans who thought it was okay to laugh at the attack on Paul Pelosi. I saw a number of occasions where it was the last straw for traditional conservative voters who couldn’t support that kind of cruelty.
• Ultimately, it was the issues of women’s bodily autonomy and the support of a free and fair voting system to preserve democracy that were the big driving factors toward the Democratic victories… along with the actions taken by young voters and people of color.
• Thank you.
• While we’re still awaiting the final results from the House races, a very important point…
• I’m still anticipating the Dems to lose the House by a tiny margin unless some miracle happens. If that’s the case and they have a 1- or 2- seat majority, every vacancy or resignation could easily tie or flip the chamber.
• And that happens all the time in a government body with 435 members. People get sick. They can’t make it there for a vote. They die. They resign. And so on.
• No one knows how this will go. As we say in the sports world, that’s why they play the games.
• Just for a moment, I want to touch on the quick and fierce schism that’s opened up in the Republican party over the past six days or so.
• As you’d suspect, it’s all about people distancing themselves from Trump.
• Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which owns For News, the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and other media outlets, immediately turned on Trump after the Tuesday election.
• One Fox News headline post-election: “Trump’s midterm failure reignites plans for pro-DeSantis presidential PAC”
• Other former strong supporters of the FPOTUS spoke out harshly against him.
• On Friday, Ann Coulter tweeted, “To Trump: You had your chance, with a Republican House and Senate. You handed domestic policy to your son-in-law and Gary Cohn. You handed foreign policy to your son-in-law and a country that gave your son-in-law $2 billion. Shut the fuck up, forever.”
• GOP Senator Josh Hawley, who was last seen inciting a riot and running away from it like a frightened fawn, tweeted, “The old party is dead. Time to bury it. Build something new.”
• Outgoing MAGA congressman Mo Brooks said, “It would be a bad mistake for the Republicans to have Donald Trump as their nominee in 2024. Donald Trump has proven himself to be dishonest, disloyal, incompetent, crude and a lot of other things that alienate so many independents and Republicans.”
• A number of other prominent former supporters went on record to give their allegiance to Rick De Santis, who presumably will be Trump’s main opponent in the 2024 primaries.
• And Trump himself, as he does, started lashing out at fellow Republicans. His inner circle started doing the same. It’s going to result in a big split in that party.
• Unless the GOP contains Trump somehow (which they’ve never been able to do previously), it will actually tear the entire Republican voter base in half. It will sink both sides, spectacularly.
• So all that will be interesting.
• And now, The Weather: “I Killed Captain Cook” by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
• Meanwhile, Trump himself has promised a “BIG ANNOUNCEMENT” on Tuesday of this week. He may believe — incorrectly — that by announcing his run for presidency that he will be legally shielded from the many criminal and civil actions coming against him.
• Nope.
• Moving on.
• A question that’s come up, and I think it bears some thought: if the polls were so amazingly wrong about the outcome of the midterm elections, how can we trust the same people who are doing opinion polls about Joe Biden?
• From the Sports Desk… the Sports Desk notes that there was an insane NFL game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Buffalo Bills which resulted in an unexpected 33-30 overtime victory for Minnesota. The struggling Green Bay Packers also pulled off an overtime upset win, 31-28 against the Dallas Cowboys.
• The Sports Desk predicts his Las Vegas Raiders won’t win another game this year. 2-15. C’est la vie.
• This coming Saturday, for the 19th time in history, the White House will be hosting a wedding. This time, it’s the President’s granddaughter Naomi Biden, marrying her fiancé Peter Neal.
• I just passed 155,000 words writing these bullets since I started officially on May 17. That’s a lot of words. A lot of them. A. Lot. Of. Them. 
• Today in history… German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope (1680). ‘Moby-Dick’, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA (1851). Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first takeoff from a ship (1910). The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom (1922). Coventry, UK is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers (1940). Ruby Bridges becomes the first Black child to attend an all-White elementary school in Louisiana (1960). American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser (1967). NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon (1969). A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close (1995). Astronomers discover 90377 Sedna, the most distant trans-Neptunian object (2003). 
• November 14 is the birthday of musician Leopold Mozart (1719), engineer Robert Fulton (1765), pianist/composer Fanny Mendelssohn (1805), painter Claude Monet (1840), India prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1889), composer Aaron Copland (1900), politician Joseph McCarthy (1908), producer Sherwood Schwartz (1916), actor Brian Keith (1921), actor McLean Stevenson (1927), composer Wendy Carlos (1939), journalist P. J. O’Rourke (1947), UK king Charles III (1948), politician Condoleezza Rice (1954), composer Yanni (1954), actress Laura San Giacomo (1962), hip-hop artist Joseph Simmons (1964), actor Patrick Warburton (1964), musician Nina Gordon (1967), drummer Travis Barker (1975), actress Vanessa Bayer (1981), and singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe (1983).

Well, here we are on Monday. Pretty normal day ahead for me, or so I believe. You never know for sure. One of the hallmarks of getting older is a greater appreciation of normalcy, but oddly enough, a better ability to handle change and adversity. Why? Because you’ve been through it and you’re still here. Enjoy your day.