Random News: July 21, 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 21, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! This work week has kicked my ass, but the good thing is that there’s a weekend ahead. For you. Not for me. I have work and family obligations both days this weekend. So, I’m fucked, but let’s just live in the moment and educate ourselves as to the goings-on of this wacky world…

• Got some breaking news for you.
• A short while ago, Judge Aileen Cannon set Donald Trump's classified documents trial to start on May 20, 2024.
• Special counsel Jack Smith had pushed for a December start date. Trump wanted to push off the trial until after the November 2024 election. If he (or any other Republican) wins that election, all federal charges against Trump would disappear and he’d get off scot-free with no justice having been served.
• If you’re confused about the many criminal charges that Trump faces, this one is in regard to the Florida federal indictment which charges him with violating the Espionage Act for unlawfully retaining classified documents and obstruction-related offenses.
• As long as we’re talking about Donnie Dump…
• Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia, has developed evidence to charge a sprawling racketeering indictment next month.
• The racketeering statute in Georgia, known as the RICO laws used to prosecute organized crime members, requires prosecutors to show the existence of an “enterprise” – and a pattern of racketeering activity that is predicated on at least two “qualifying” crimes.
• Moving on…
• Remember the QAnon Shaman? That fool who dressed himself in his little costume while participating in the failed coup attempt on January 6, 2012?
• Yesterday, a federal judge on Thursday denied a bid from him, aka Jacob Chansley, to withdraw his guilty plea to obstructing Congress. The judge also rebuked him for going on a Tucker Carlson program that gave a distorted view of the riot.
• Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced him in November 2021 to 41 months in prison, the low end of federal sentencing guidelines, after Chansley said he was “truly repentant” and called his behavior “indefensible.”
• But Chansley was released from prison in March of this year, and then submitted court filings asking the judge to invalidate his guilty plea. Response: absolutely fucking not.
• ”The Court is disappointed to learn that, through his filings and public statements, Mr. Chansley has recanted the contrition displayed at his sentencing nearly two years . Such an about-face casts serious doubt on the veracity of any of Mr. Chansley's claims, here or elsewhere."
• Fuck that guy.
• My next couple of items have sexual assault content, something I almost never cover unless I feel it’s important, so big trigger warning if you want to skip down to the next “moving on” bullet.
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• Alright.
• Hats off to good samaritan bystanders in Long Beach, CA. They noticed a man acting strangely and then saw a 13-year-old girl with a “help me” sign, helped delay the man, and called 911.
• They helped catch 61-year-old Steven Robert Sablan. He’d kidnapped a 13-year-old girl at gunpoint from a bus stop in San Antonio, TX and sexually assaulted her multiple times as he drove across the country.
• Sablan was booked for kidnapping, lewd and lascivious acts with a child, and fugitive from justice. He was booked on a $100,000 bail and was released to the custody of the FBI, and has since been charged with one count of kidnapping and one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
• He faces life in prison. Personally I hope it’s not a long life.
• And another horrible story, this one in international news. I’ve been trying to avoid this for a couple of days since I learned of it.
• A graphic video showing two women being paraded naked in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur has provoked widespread anger in the country and around the world, and has spurred several arrests after it emerged on social media on Wednesday.
• The video depicts an incident from May 4. Police described the incident as “a case of abduction, gang rape and murder”. It wasn’t until yesterday that four people have been arrested and more than three dozen men are being investigated in relation to the apparent sexual assault.
• Manipur has grappled with ethnic violence in recent months, pitting the majority Meitei ethnic community against the tribal people of the Kuki minority. Over 100 people have been killed and tens of thousands more displaced since then.
• A brief aside. Sexual violence during any kind of armed conflict, war, or military occupation is far more common than you probably realize, and always has been. Rape has been considered a spoil of war by every nation and culture throughout history, it is especially egregious in ethnic conflicts, and it is designated as a war crime.
• Okay, enough on that depressing shit. I will be keeping an eye on this and hoping justice is meted out appropriately and quickly.
• Moving on…
• Following up on another story from this week, Alabama Republicans rejected calls to draw a second majority-Black congressional district this week, instead creating maps that Democrats and advocates say completely ignore a recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.
• A federal court ordered the state to redraw its congressional map last year to include two districts where Black voters make up voting-age majorities. The Supreme Court affirmed the ruling this year, prompting the Legislature to call a special session to redraw the map this week.
• Alabama isn’t doing it. As of this morning, the Republican-controlled state legislature is poised to pass a map with just one majority-Black seat. If they think they can act as a rogue state and disregard Supreme Court rulings, they should remember how that’s worked out for them in previous attempts to keep racism alive there.
• And now, The Weather: “Harmless” by Cool Heat
• Rest in peace to the great Tony Bennett, one of the greatest interpreters of classic American songs and originator of a few himself (like his signature tune “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”). He died in New York at 96, just a couple of weeks shy of his 97th birthday.
• Bennett had a decades-long career as a vocalist, earning him the admiration of everyone from Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga.
• I hear that shark week is coming up on the Discovery Channel. I don’t watch television, but I thought I’d add this fun fact.
• 57 people were bitten by sharks last year. 6,700 people were bitten by New Yorkers last year.
• Maybe worry a little less about fish.
• Let’s do some charts. I find those relaxing. The year was 1975. The month was July. I was six. But I liked music a lot, and my parents — bless their souls, assuming souls exist — had it playing in the house most of the time. I especially recall weekends around that time, when my mom would be getting sun in the backyard and cranking the stereo in the living room.
• 1. The Hustle (Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony). 2. I'm Not In Love (10cc). 3. One Of These Nights (Eagles). 4. Please Mr. Please (Olivia Newton-John). 5. Listen To What The Man Said (Wings). 6. Swearin' To God (Frankie Valli). 7. Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees). 8. Someone Saved My Life Tonight (Elton John). 9. Midnight Blue (Melissa Manchester). 10. Rockin' Chair (Gwen McCrae). 11. Dynomite-Part I (Tony Camillo's Bazuka). 12. The Way We Were/Try To Remember (Gladys Knight And The Pips). 13. Love Will Keep Us Together (The Captain & Tennille). 14. Why Can't We Be Friends? (War). 15. The Rockford Files (Mike Post). 16. Rhinestone Cowboy (Glen Campbell). 17. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (James Taylor). 18. I'm On Fire (Dwight Twilley Band). 19. Every Time You Touch Me (I Get High) (Charlie Rich). 20. Mornin' Beautiful (Tony Orlando & Dawn).
• From the Sports Desk… the business side of sports.
• The Washington Commanders, known for many years as the Redskins, no longer belong to Dan Snyder. Halle-fucking-lujah. It’s about time.
• Yesterday, the NFL owners voted during a special session and unanimously approved the team's sale from the Snyder family to a group led by Josh Harris. The Harris group is paying $6.05 billion, a record sum for a North American sports franchise.
• In somewhat related news, the NFL also announced yesterday that Snyder, who sexually harassed a team employee and oversaw team executives who deliberately withheld millions of dollars in revenue from other clubs, has agreed to pay a $60 million fine.
• The NFL released a 23-page report detailing the findings of an independent investigation into Snyder's conduct just minutes after the owners unanimously approved the sale of the team per above.
• Fuck Dan Snyder, an awful human being. I’m very glad he’s gone.
• Today in history… The Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, is destroyed by arson (356 BC). The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight (1545). Qing dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus (1645). Napoleon's forces defeat an Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids (1798). In the market square of Springfield, MO, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown (1865). Louis Rigolly becomes the first person to drive over 100 mph (1904). In Dayton, TN, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching human evolution in class and fined $100 (1925). Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph on land (1925). The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty, leading to the formation of NATO (1949). Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green becomes the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last MLB team to integrate (1959). Astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon, followed 19 minutes later by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1969). President Barack Obama signs the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010). NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (2011).
• July 21 is the birthday of Queen Jeonghyeon of Korea (1462), Austrian archduchess Anna de’ Medici (1616), astronomer Jean Picard (1620), journalist Paul Reuter (1816), singer-songwriter Sara Carter (1898), novelist Ernest Hemingway (1899), philosopher Marshall McLuhan (1911), violinist Isaac Stern (1920), actor Don Knotts (1924), US attorney general Janet Reno (1938), music manager Kim Fowley (1939), singer-songwriter Cat Stevens, aka Yusuf Islam (1948), cartoonist Garry Trudeau (1948), actor/comedian Robin Williams (1951), singer-songwriter Eric Bazilian (1953), bass player Howie Epstein (1955), singer Taco (1955), actor Jon Lovitz (1957), soccer player Brandi Chastain (1968), actor Josh Hartnett (1978), singer-songwriter Damian Marley (1978), MLB player CC Sabathia (1980), and NBA player DeAndre Jordan (1988).

I’m going to try and not be a crazy person today. It’s always a challenge, but that’s my one goal. Enjoy your day.