Random News: August 12, 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 August 12, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. I am able to mostly chill today; got responsibilities tomorrow, but that’s a long way off. Let’s see what’s happening…

• At a hearing yesterday morning, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan set the tone for how she would preside over the election subversion trial against Donald John Trump. The hearing focused on what limits would be placed on how Trump can handle the evidence prosecutors will be turning over to him.
• Chutkan noted that while Trump’s rights as a criminal defendant would be protected, his First Amendment right to free speech was “not absolute.”
• “In a criminal case such as this one, the defendant’s free speech is subject to the rules. It is a bedrock principle of the judicial process in this country that legal trials are not like elections, to be won through the use of the meeting hall, the radio and the newspaper. This case is no exception,” she said.
• Chutkan later issued a protective order barring Trump from publicly disclosing sensitive information in the case. MAGAs are up in arms about this, saying Trump’s First Amendment right were being violated.
• Nope. He is being treated like all other accused criminals. He does not get special treatment. That’s how we do it in America, or at least how we’re supposed to.
• One thing to keep in mind: Chutkan declined a broader protective order sought by prosecutors who wanted to lock down all evidence turned over in discovery. And yet, nothing is ever enough for the MAGAs.
• Her order defines sensitive information as grand jury secrets, including subpoenaed information and witness testimony; transcripts and recordings of witness interviews done by investigators outside of the grand jury; evidence obtained through court-approved searches; and sealed orders related to the investigation. The evidence Trump cannot share publicly also includes material from other government agencies, such as the Secret Service.
• The order also specifies that while Trump can review the evidence unaccompanied by a lawyer and take notes about it, he cannot put in those notes any especially personal identifying information and cannot make photos, copies or recordings of the evidence. He can’t even have his phone with him while reviewing evidence.
• Will Trump be able to abide by this clear and simple order of the court?
• My guess is no, because he has very little maturity or self-control. But like everything in this unprecedented situation, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
• Moving on… in an interestingly-related way…
• A federal judge revoked bail for FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, citing probable cause that the accused crypto fraudster attempted to tamper with witnesses.
• Bankman-Fried had previously been on home arrest. Now he’s been remanded to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. he might remain there until his trial which is scheduled for October. Following the ruling, US marshals handcuffed Bankman-Fried and escorted him out of the courtroom.
• In other news… wanna talk about Hunter Biden, the President’s 40-something son and scary boogeyman for all GOP conservatives?
• U.S. Attorney David Weiss was appointed special counsel in the ongoing probe of Hunter Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced yesterday.
• Weiss, a Trump appointee who was already overseeing the Hunter Biden probe and is based in Delaware, asked to be appointed special counsel and Garland agreed it was "in the public interest" to do so.
• Here’s my opinion about that: fine. Hunter Biden seems like a sketchy piece of shit. He doesn’t work in our government. I don’t give two shits about him. Investigate him all you need. Arrest him and put him on trial if here’s evidence to do so.  No one is above the law.
• Moving on…
• A fifth suspect in the Montgomery riverfront brawl investigation has been arrested nearly a week after the incident. Yesterday, Montgomery police said Reggie Ray, 42, turned himself in. 
• He was the guy with the folding chair. He’s being held in the Montgomery Municipal Jail on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge.
• Fair enough. I think there may be a reasonable defense that he was acting in defense of the others being attacked, but maybe not. I’m not a lawyer.
• I’m also not a cop, but even so, I’d like to think that if I were, I could tell the difference between a man responsible for a string of car thefts versus a 12-year-old taking out the trash for his family.
• That’s what happened in Lansing, MI, when Tashawn Bernard was taking trash out to the dumpster when he was approached by an officer that had his gun unholstered and was holding it in front of him.
• They cuffed Tashawn, put him in the back of a police cruiser, and held him in custody for several minutes while the boy’s father came out and spoke to police. Tashawn remained compliant and the dad was being much more calm than I wouldn’t have been under the same circumstances.
• The family’s legal counsel stated, “Tashawn does not want to go outside anymore. He doesn’t want to go outside to take the trash out. He doesn’t want to go outside to even get the mail.”
• “Our hope is we can put this unfortunate case of ‘wrong place, wrong time’ behind us and continue to represent the community that we serve,” Lansing police said in a statement.
• Sigh.
• We haven’t discussed the murder of O’Shae Sibley.
• He was the guy who was having fun and dancing at a Mobil station while pumping gas when a group of people that included 17-year-old Dmitriy Popov confronted them, demanded they stop dancing, and used racist and homophobic slurs against them.
• Popov then approached Sibley, stabbed him in the rib cage, and then fled in a Toyota Highlander. Popov is being charged as an adult, and prosecutors are alleging the murder was a hate crime. I agree. He faces 20 years to life in prison.
• Moving on…
• Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, of West Virginia, was arrested Thursday after engaging in threatening conduct towards jurors and government witnesses in the federal trial against the the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter.
• He was charged with obstruction of justice, transmitting threats and witness tampering. Lloyd is a self-proclaimed ‘reverend’ of a White supremacy movement. He made threatening social media posts, online comments and emails toward the jurors and witnesses in the trial of Robert Bowers, who was sentenced to death last week after he killed 11 worshipers and injured six others at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018. It was the deadliest-ever attack on Jewish people in the United States.
• And now, The Weather: “Tin Man” by feeble little horse
• If there’s anything you can do to help the residents affected by the fires on Maui, please do. One thing: if you have a vacation scheduled there, maybe reconsider that. If you’re going to Hawaii anyway, go there to help.
• A brief personal aside about these bullets (that’s meta, writing a bullet about the bullets).
• We’re well beyond a half million words since I started in May 2022. At this moment, it’s just past 522,000.
• That’s a lot of words. Are they all original thoughts and personal reporting? Fuck no. Some are, like these, but a lot of others are just reformulations of the hard work of actual journalists. It’s most of an aggregation of news and info from trusted impartial sources that any kind of amazing original work.
• And, of course, a lot of my own outlook and opinion thrown in. And then sometimes random bullshit like when I tell you about fighting ants or working out or playing guitar or whatever the fuck else I do.
• Anyway, that word count puts Zak’s Random News in the same length category, were it a book and not a bunch of social media blog posts, as Les Miserables by Victor Hugo at 530,982 words.
• Within the next couple of months, I’ll be passing War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy) at 561,304 words and the entire Lord of the Rings series, including The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, at 576,459 words.
• Good thing I like doing it. I don’t make any money from it. That helps keep it pure, I think, and keeps me from having any agenda other than to make the world a better place in which to live. How? Because I like being around people who know what the fuck they’re talking about.
• Simple enough.
• From the Sports Desk… The Los Angeles Dodgers retired Fernando Valenzuela's No. 34 jersey last night. His number was cut into the center-field grass and stenciled in white on the back of the mound.
• Retired Dodgers Orel Hershiser and Manny Mota lifted off a blue cloth to reveal Valenzuela's number high above the field. A mariachi band broke out in music and song as Valenzuela was introduced and walked from the dugout to the stage set up in front of the mound.
• If you were here in LA in 1981, “Fernandomania” was absolutely a real thing. I loved that fat little Mexican kid who started his career with an 8-0 record, including five shutouts, and an 0.50 ERA. Besides winning the World Series, he won Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award, the first player to do so in the same year.
• Today in history… Christopher Columbus arrives at the Canary Islands (1492). Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine (1851). Joseph Lister, British surgeon and scientist, performs 1st antiseptic surgery (1865). The US flag is raised in Hawaii to signify the transfer of sovereignty (1898). Alençon is the first French city liberated from the Germans in WWII (1944). The Soviets conduct the first thermonuclear bomb test (1953). NASA’s first communications satellite is launched (1960). South Africa is banned from the Olympics due to racist policies (1964). The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise (1977). The IBM Personal Computer is released (1981). Canada, Mexico and the USA complete negotiations for NAFTA (1992). Major League Baseball players go on strike, eventually forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series (1994). 
• August 12 is the birthday of UK king George IV (1762), businessman Diamond Jim Brady (1856), poet Katherine Lee Bates (1859), director Cecil B. DeMille (1881), physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887), actress Jane Wyatt (1910), music promoter Sid Bernstein (1918), publishers/activists Norris & Ross McWhirter (1925), singer-songwriter/guitarist Porter Wagoner (1927), singer-songwriter/guitarist Buck Owens (1929), businessman/investor George Soros (1930), actor John Cazale (1935), actor George Hamilton (1939), composer/keyboardist Ron Mael (1945), singer-songwriter/guitarist Mark Knopfler (1949), singer-songwriter Kid Creole (1950), guitarist/composer Pat Metheny (1954), guitarist/composer Roy Hay (1961), rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot (1963), tennis player Pete Sampras (1971), NFL player Plaxico Burress (1977), and MLB player Julio Urías (1996).

Welp, that’s some news and stuff. Every one of these reports could be ten times as long and still I wouldn’t have told you all the things of which you should be aware, but hopefully you learn a thing or two regardless. Enjoy your day.