Random News: July 13, 2023

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 July 13, 2023, and it’s Thursday for some reason. I’m sipping my coffee in the peaceful quiet of the early morning. Let’s find out together what’s transpired so we can be awake and alert and aware and other things that start with “A”…

• Starting with some huge news…
• Today, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the birth control pill Opill to be available over-the-counter — the first nonprescription birth control pill in the United States.
• Opill is a “mini-pill” that uses only the hormone progestin. It’s not yet known when Opill will be available over the counter at stores. The FDA says it’s up to its manufacturer Perrigo to determine the timeline and the medication’s price.
• Amazing!
• Moving on…
• Fox News has been hit with another defamation lawsuit. Ray Epps of Arizona is a MAGA supporter who was at the pro-Trump rallies in Washington in January 2021, but was not among the people found to have breached the Capitol building and has not been charged for his conduct.
• Epps’ suit centers on the actions of since-fired douchebag Tucker Carlson. On his show, Carlson repeatedly placed Epps at the center of the violent siege on the U.S. Capitol, without presenting hard evidence.
• But here’s the funny thing: Epps is upset because the Fish Stick Heir suggested that Epps was an undercover government informant, which Epps and the FBI have strongly denied.
• As you know, Fox News paid $787.5 million earlier this year to settle a defamation claim brought by a voting-technology company over falsehoods related to the 2020 presidential election. This new suit is being heard in the same venue, Delaware Superior Court.
• Moving on… kind of.
• Remember when Rudy Giuliani wasn’t a laughing stock? Yeah, me neither.
• But speaking of defamation suits, new court filings against Giuliani show the promoters of the “Big Lie” 2020 election fraud narrative failed to do basic vetting of the false claims they were touting.
• The evidence in the lawsuit from Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss of Georgia, who were at the center of Giuliani’s claims that vote-counting was fraudulent in the state, includes documents that could be pursued by criminal investigators as well.
• Fuck Rudy. He brought all of this on himself. 
• Let’s do one more thing about these MAGA fucks.
• This is the first time I am mentioning a January 6 coup participant who was acquitted. James Beeks, an actor from Florida, was arrested in 2021 during a stint in a production of "Jesus Christ Superstar."
• Prosecutors alleged at the time that Beeks paid for a one-year membership to the Oath Keepers and weeks later marched with other members of the group up the U.S. Capitol steps and into the building.
• Federal Judge Amit Mehta ruled yesterday there was little evidence that Beeks — who is no longer a member of the Oath Keepers — actually planned ahead of Jan. 6 or was aware of the group's conspiracy.
• Okay then. Look, I’m all about “innocent until proven guilty”, and if the government didn’t present enough evidence to convict Beeks, so be it.
• Let’s move on…
• This isn’t good. Hackers based in China recently broke into email accounts of at least two major U.S. government agencies, Microsoft and U.S. officials said.
• Spokespeople for the State Department and Commerce Department each confirmed yesterday that email accounts of people in their agencies had been breached. Microsoft said approximately 25 organization were part of the hack. The other organizations that were breached have not been identified.
• News agencies are saying that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s email was compromised as part of the breach.
• I have made it a hobby to be able to identify attempts to scam/hack my email and other communications. I have a big list of red flags that I watch out for, and I haven’t been wrong yet.
• In other news, an LA County sheriff's deputy punched a woman twice in the face as she held her baby during an arrest last year in Palmdale.
• I am trying to not hold on to my extraordinary personal prejudice against the LASD. This happened a year before the current Sheriff, Robert Luna, took office. He announced he is taking action now that the video has come to his attention.
• Ask me if I’ve been punched in the face by an LASD deputy in my youth. Survey says… yes, yes I have. But I’m still willing to give Luna the benefit of the doubt in fixing the fucked up culture of the LASD.
• Here’s a thing that sounds weird but isn’t.
• Kamala Harris has made history by matching the record for most tiebreaking votes in the Senate.
• Yesterday, her 31st such vote advanced the nomination of Kalpana Kotagal to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The only other vice president to cast so many was John C. Calhoun, vice president from 1825 to 1832.
• Why so many tie-breaking votes from a VP? Because the Senate itself is damn near tied. Frankly, breaking Senate ties is about the only important part of the VP gig, and in a normal world isn’t required because there’s a clear party majority in the Senate.
• We don’t live in a normal world.
• And now, The Weather: “Birthday Party” by Richie Quake
• I mention some stuff about dealing with heat yesterday. I’ll just say again today — a day where more than 110 million Americans are subject to severe heat warnings — that shit can and will kill you.
• Don’t die due to something as dumb as heat. Die some other way.
• Speaking of which, a tornado touched down near O’Hare airport in Chicago and hundreds of flights were disrupted. Thousands in the Chicago area are without power. Be safe, my many Midwest friends.
• Do you play the lottery? I don’t. The odds of winning are too ridiculously infinitesimal to throw the money away. That being said, the Powerball is up to $875 million, and I could do some serious damage with that kind of scratch. Maybe I’ll give it a shot.
• Little note about my Random News. I started it in May 2022 for the specific reason of not posting something each and every time I became aware of some important news item or political issue. It was just too much, and wasn’t fair to the people whose timelines were getting filled with my constant bitching.
• As of now, I’ve put 469,691 words into it. Let’s put that into perspective with comparison to literary epics.
• Catch-22 (Joseph Heller): 174,269 words. Moby Dick (Herman Melville): 206,052 words. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky): 211,591 words. Ulysses (James Joyce): 265,222 words. Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry): 365,712 words. Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell): 418,053 words. 
• I’ll be at ‘War and Peace’ level within a few months… not that my news blurbs are great works of art, but it’s still a lot of words I’ve spewed forth.
• I could have written a really mediocre book that no one would have read instead of doing this for the past 14 months.
• Let’s do some charts for no reason. This date in 1985, I was between my junior and senior years of high school and was studying — and fucking around a lot — in a summer session at Berklee College of Music in Boston. This is about the point in the ‘80s where a lot of popular music began an irreversible descent into shit (with some notable exceptions). It would get better for awhile in the ‘90s.
• 1. A View To A Kill (Duran Duran). 2. Sussudio (Phil Collins). 3. Raspberry Beret (Prince). 4. The Search Is Over (Survivor). 5. Would I Lie To You? (Eurhythmics). 6. Everytime You Go Away (Paul Young). 7. You Give Good Love (Whitney Houston). 8 Voice Carry (’Til Tuesday). 9. Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen). 10. The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough (Cyndi Laupr). 11. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (Sting). 12. Heaven (Bryan Adams). 13. Sentimental Street (Night Ranger). 14. Shout (Tears for Fears). 15. Crazy In The Night (Barking At Airplanes) (Kim Carnes). 16. 19 (Paul Hardcastle). 17. Angel (Madonna). 18. Get It On (Bang A Gong) (The Power Station). 19. Just As I Am (Air Supply). 20. Never Surrender (Corey Hart).
• From the Sports Desk… Rory McIlroy, the third-ranked PGA golf player in the world, said he’d retire rather than play for the Saudi-owned LIV golf organization.
• "If LIV Golf was the last place to play golf on Earth, I would retire. That's how I feel about it.”
• Good for him. It’s nice to see someone with actual ethics.
• Today in history… Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem ends after the destruction of Solomon’s Temple (587 BC). The Congress of the Confederation enacts the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory, establishes procedures for the admission of new states, and limits the expansion of slavery (1787). The New York City Draft Riots, some of the worst civil unrest in US history, begin (1863). The inaugural FIFA World Cup begins in Uruguay (1930). The Dartmouth workshop is the first conference on artificial intelligence (1956). Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of a secret Oval Office taping system to investigators for the Senate Watergate Committee (1973). Amidst a period of financial and social turmoil, New York City experiences an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that leads to widespread fires and looting (1977). The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Moscow and Sydney (1985). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron resigns, and is succeeded by Theresa May (2016).
• July 13 is the birthday of Pope Clement X (1590), Ku Klux Klan racist piece of shit Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821), businessman John Jacob Astor IV (1864), author/illustrator Marcia Brown (1918), actor Bob Crane (1928), NFL player/politician Jack Kemp (1935), chef Paul Prudhomme (1940), actor Patrick Stewart (1940), actor Harrison Ford (1942), singer-songwriter/guitarist Roger McGuinn (1942), actor/comedian Cheech Marin (1946), film director Cameron Crowe (1957), voice actor Tom Kenny (1962), actor/comedian/physician Ken Jeong (1969), and MLB player Cody Bellinger (1995).

Okay well… I have a work day from hell facing me. Massive deadlines, creative work with a proverbial gun at my head. I usually do pretty good work under those circumstances, but it’s not what I’d call fun. Wish me luck. Enjoy your day.