Random News: November 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.

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Good morning. It’s November 19, 2022, and it’s a Saturday. I’m in my blue bathrobe, and here’s what’s shakin’…

• Yesterday, AG Merrick Garland announced the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of classified documents at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort golf motel and parts of the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
• His name is Jack Smith. He’s here to chew gum and destroy Trump, and he’s all out of gum.
• Smith says, “The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”
• He has prosecuted cases including civil rights violations and police officers murdered by gangs, oversaw war crimes investigations, public corruption cases, and much more.
• Jack Smith is a badass who will be haunting the FPOTUS’s dreams for awhile.
• “I am not going to partake in it.” - FPOTUS
• “Good luck with that, little buddy.” - Me
• Here’s something that, in addition to the appointment of Jack Smith, must be driving the FPOTUS bonkers today.
• A poll this week in Florida said that if Ron De Santis runs as the GOP nominee in 2024, 66% of Republicans would choose him versus 21% for Trump.
• Additionally, the same poll asked which one would be good role model for young people. The Republicans chose DeSantis over Trump 89% to 4%.
• He’s lost the evangelicals and a huge portion of his base in general. He’s toast. Our focus will definitely be defeating De Santis in a couple of years.
• At least three billionaire mega-donors to the Republican party have already distanced themselves from his 2024 campaign.
• Meanwhile, we watch the GOP Civil War play out.
• Looks like we may have found our Supreme Court leaker. His name is Samuel A. Alito.
• Per a New York Times report, former anti-abortion campaigner Rev. Rob Schenck found out about the outcome of the ‘Burwell v. Hobby Lobby’ ruling before the decision was issued in June 2014.
• This morning, Alito strenuously denied any involvement in leaking. I’ll bet he did. His position on the Court might be in jeopardy otherwise.
• Some very good news with a follow-up to my earlier story about early voting in Georgia for the Warnock runoff for Senate.
• Yesterday a judge ruled that counties can offer early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Warnock's campaign, the Democratic Party of Georgia, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee all sued the State of Georgia, arguing that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger "misreads" and "cherry-picks" the state's election law.
• Go Warnock go.
• And now, The Weather: “Chevrolet” by Neil Young with Crazy Horse
• Quick observation about the Midterm elections: despite winning the Senate, the most important Democrat victories weren’t in D. C.
• Democrats flipped at least three state legislative chambers and held on to their majorities in several states where they were in jeopardy. The victories ended years of Democratic defeat and disappointment and caught even some Democrats off guard.
• It marked the first midterm election since at least 1934 in which the president’s party didn’t lose control of a single legislative chamber.
• The consequences that will be felt for years to come. Since state legislatures draw electoral districts in many places, Republicans have used that advantage to entrench their power, drawing district lines that further guaranteed their majorities. They have also used those majorities to pass measures that make it harder to vote, strip LGBTQ+ protections, loosen gun laws and restrict access to abortion.
• No more.
• The sense of panic in GOP circles is palpable.
• From the Sports Desk… if the NFL season was wrapping up today, the AFC championship would have the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Miami Dolphins. while the NFC championship would be between the Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings.
• The Sports Desk would not have predicted this.
• A MAGA guy was convicted on all counts after telling jurors that he thought he was "following presidential orders" when he participated in the failed coup at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
• He was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Friday.
• January 6 trials and convictions will continue for years as we keep finding those who were involved, regardless of political ebb and flow in the meantime.
• Today in history… Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island he first saw the day before, and he names it San Juan Bautista, later renamed Puerto Rico (1493). U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony for the military cemetery at Gettysburg, PA (1863). Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures (1916). Nazis murder at least 6,000 Jews at Janowska concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv), western Ukraine (1943). Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations (1946). Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon (1969). Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran (1979). U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time (1985). The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton (1998). The worst brawl in NBA history — the “Malice at the Palace” — results in several players being suspended (2004).
• November 19 is the birthday of king Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1600), US president James A. Garfield (1831), bandleader Tommy Dorsey (1905), Indian politician Indira Gandhi (1917), actress Gene Tierney (1920), MLB player Roy Campanella (1921), talk show host Larry King (1933), engineer/businessman Jack Welch (1935), talk show host Dick Cavett (1936), businessman Ted Turner (1938), actor Dan Haggerty (1941), fashion designer Calvin Klein (1942), actor Robert Beltran (1953), journalist Ann Curry (1956), actress Alison Janney (1959), actress Meg Ryan (1961), actress Jodie Foster (1962), motorcycle rider Jeremy McGrath (1971), businessman Jack Dorsey (1976), gymnast Kerri Strug (1977), and actor Adam Driver (1983).

Welp, it’s the Saturday before Thanksgiving, which means I’ll be doing an extra grocery store run today, getting pretty much everything but the turkey. I always buy mine fresh (unfrozen, anyway) two days before the feast. I think they taste better that way and I don’t have to deal with de-frosting them. Later this week, I’ll share some of my Thanksgiving cooking tips with you. I’m the master of the autumn feast! Enjoy your day.