Random News: August 16, 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 16, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. I like Wednesdays, mostly because I generally don’t have any pre-scheduled meetings that day, and have the benefit of being able to get more work done. Let’s learn some shit…

• In the wake of Monday night’s massive RICO indictment against Donald Trump and 18 other defendants, I thought you might like to learn a little bit about some of the lesser-known people and why they’re accused of serious crimes.
• Let’s start with Trevian Kutti. She and two others have been charged with solicitation of false statements and influencing witnesses for their efforts to compel Ruby Freeman, an election worker in Georgia’s Fulton County, into making a bogus confession to voting fraud in January 2021.
• Kutti is a Chicago-based publicist who previously had worked for Kanye West and others. She traveled to Georgia days before the Jan. 6, 2021 failed coup attempt and showed up uninvited at Freeman’s door. Kutti told Freeman she was sent by a “high-profile individual,” whom she didn’t identify, to deliver Freeman a message: Freeman was in unspecified danger, “due to the election,” and had just 48 hours to “get ahead of the issue” before unknown people were going to show up at her home.
• Harrison Floyd was a Trump campaign aide who was executive director of a group called Black Voices for Trump as is the one who recruited Kutti. He claims he was asked if he’d be willing to set up the meeting by a man he described as a chaplain with “connections” in federal law enforcement.
• Stephen Lee is an Illinois-based former cop. Lee had visited Freeman’s house himself but was turned away. He does not dispute that he visited Freeman but declined to discuss why or whether someone had sent him. He, apparently, is the “chaplain” that went to Floyd.
• If you need a reminder, Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, were falsely accused by Trump and his campaign of illegally counting phony mail-in ballots. The hounding of Freeman and Moss upended their lives, unleashing a wave of death threats against them and forcing Freeman to flee her home. They later described their ordeal in dramatic testimony before the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 committee.
• Between now and the August 25 deadline to turn themselves in for arrest and booking, I’ll be making sure you all know who each of these people are and why they deserve this criminal trial for participation in organized crime.
• In directly-related news…
• Mark Meadows, Trump's ex-chief of staff who was charged in the Georgia indictment, is seeking to have the racketeering case against him moved to federal court.
• Meadows is portrayed in the indictment as a go-between for Trump and others involved in coordinating his team's strategy for contesting the election and "disrupting and delaying the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021." 
• In his filing Monday, Meadows’s attorney argues that the case should be heard in federal rather than state court because his crimes were committed while he was a White House employee.
• Nah.
• And a final (for now) note: lawyer Jenna Ellis, who is also indicted in this same batch of scoundrels, was thought to be disloyal to Trump by showing support of candidate Ron De Santis.
• Trump’s PAC (the one that people donate to thinking it’s for his re-election but is actually for his legal fees and private jet) has therefore refused to pay her legal fees in the case, so she had to set up a GoFundMe for it.
• Couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
• As for the Creamsicle Criminal himself, he announced an “almost ready” report from his team about “presidential election fraud” which he claims he’ll present on Monday, and that all charges will be dropped based on the findings of that report.
• I’m greatly looking forward to him giving even more evidence to his own prosecution via this report, which will inevitably happen. He’s just not good at… anything.
• Moving on…
• Ron De Who?
• Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has surpassed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the critical early presidential primary state of New Hampshire, per an Emerson poll released yesterday. 
• Christie leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in the Granite State, garnering 9 percent support. DeSantis’s support, on the other hand, fell to 8 percent from 17 percent in March. 
• The GOP are desperate to field a non-MAGA moderate candidate who can compete against the Democrats.
• I’m going to do something weird. I’m going to predict not the next president, but the one after that.
• Let’s just imagine in this scenario that Joe Biden is reelected in 2024 and that he lives through his second term (otherwise this list is all fucked up).
• Under those circumstances in 2028, I think the Democratic primary will have a crowded field of pretty strong candidates that will include Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker, Josh Shapiro, and Raphael Warnock among others.
• I think the nation is just tired of geriatric candidates, and will be even more so by then. I think otherwise great Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren will be out of the picture as a result… again, assuming they’re alive. It’s going to be candidates in their 40s-60s rather than 70s and up.
• I think the Republicans will be severely in bad shape at that point. Let’s hope that Donald Trump is still alive and continues to try and unsuccessfully run. That would be awesome.
• Otherwise, it’s likely going to be Ron De Santis and some asshole dark horse like Tucker Carlson, or other current MAGA pricks like Vivek Ramaswamy and Kristi Noem, but also somewhat moderate Republicans will have a big chance. Those include Chris Christie, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Liz Cheney, and others.
• Anyway, I mostly did this topic so we can all look back on this in four years and laugh at how wrong I was… or marvel at how right. More likely the former.
• Moving on…
• Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) talks a lot about “backing the blue”.
• I guess he changed his mind after he was slammed to the ground by police and detained in response to a chaotic medical situation at a rodeo last month.
• Jackson is a former White House physician to two presidents — Obama and Trump.
• While trying to butt in during a medical emergency at a rodeo, Jackson gets into an argument with someone in the group after multiple people asked him to get out of the way. Moments later, the congressman is taken to the ground by at least two officers with the Carson County, TX Sheriff’s Office and briefly handcuffed.
• Then his true nature came out.
• “You are a fucking full-on dick! You better recalculate, motherfucker! I’m gonna call the governor tomorrow and I’m gonna talk to him about this shit because this is fucking ridiculous. Fucking ridiculous.”
• Jackson had to be physically restrained by bystanders as he lunged toward the trooper. A Defense Department inspector general report released in 2021 concluded that Jackson had bullied his staff, made inappropriate sexual comments about a female subordinate and exhibited an array of other concerning behavior. 
• That guy is a world-class asshole. 
• Let’s move on.
• Pediatricians and emergency medicine providers are pleading for more support and resources as the number of children and teenagers with mental health concerns overwhelm emergency departments nationwide.
• A medical director in San Diego said that kids seeking psychiatric emergency care in her ER has grown from approximately 30 a month in recent years to 30 a day. She also stated that children as young as six are coming in, often talking about suicide.
• The bulk of these children are coming in with depression, anxiety and trauma, but emergency departments are not set up to handle mental health crises.
• It’s a stressful world out there. Please do what you can so that the kids in your life — your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, young people in your neighborhood and so on — aren’t overwhelmed with negativity and hopelessness.
• Believe it or not, despite my tendency to shine a light on the fucked-up things in this world, I do it from a perspective of positivity and optimism that things always do get better in the long run.
• If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
• And now, The Weather: “Slow Cannonball” by Castle Theater
• I’m not sure you’re aware, but while about 100 are confirmed dead due to the Maui wildfires, another 1,300 are currently missing. I’m hoping that most of them just quickly evacuated and will be eventually accounted for, but that death toll is going to grow a lot over coming days regardless.
• President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden will travel to Hawaii on Monday to meet with first responders, survivors, as well as federal, state, and local officials.
• Let’s do some charts. This time we’re looking at the Billboard 200 albums list for this point in August 1980. Fucking strong collection of albums here. Side note: I couldn’t stand ‘Emotional Rescue’ when it was new — it seemed a big letdown after ‘Some Girls’ — but it eventually grew on me.
• 1. Emotional Rescue (The Rolling Stones). 2. Hold Out (Jackson Browne). 3. Glass Houses (Billy Joel). 4. Urban Cowboy (Soundtrack). 5. The Game (Queen). 6. Diana (Diana Ross). 7. Empty Glass (Pete Townshend). 8. Star Wars: Episode V-The Empire Strikes Back - London Symphony Orchestra (John Williams) 9. Christopher Cross (Christopher Cross). 10. Against The Wind (Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band). 11. Fame (Soundtrack). 12. S.o.s. (The S.O.S. Band). 13. The Blues Brothers (Blues Brothers). 14. Just One Night (Eric Clapton). 15. Duke (Genesis). 16. One For The Road (The Kinks). 17. Heroes (Commodores). 18. McCartney II (Paul McCartney). 19. Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere (The Rossington Collins Band). 20. Off The Wall (Michael Jackson)
• From the Sports Desk… did you know that there are now eight full-time coaches in the NFL this season who are female? They are…
• New York Giants offensive quality control coach Angela Baker; Detroit Lions director of sports science/assistant strength and conditioning coach Jill Costanza; Indianapolis Colts special teams assistant Isabel Diaz; Tampa Bay Bucaneers director of rehabilitation/performance Maral Javadifar; Cleveland Browns assistant wide receivers coach Callie Brownson; Washington Commanders assistant running backs coach Jennifer King; Philadelphia Eagles assistant sports performance coach Autumn Lockwood; and Tennessee Titans defensive quality control coach Lori Locust.
• From what I can tell, every one of these women are very qualified and respected in their roles, and some (like Locust) have now been in the league for five+ years.
• In other sports news, England reached their first Women's World Cup final after beating Australia 3-1 today. They will face Spain on Sunday.
• Today in history… The House of Gonzaga begins its rule over the Duchy of Mantua in Northern Italy and will rule for almost 400 years (1328). General John Stark leads the Americans in a rout over British and Brunswick troops at the Battle of Bennington (1777). President John Tyler vetoes a bill to re-establish of the Second Bank of the United States, and Whig Party members lose their shit and riot outside the White House (1841). Gold is discovered near the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush (1896). Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan starts admitting female students (1913). The first color sound cartoon is released (1930). Riots in Toronto pit Jewish and Italian people against local Nazis (1933). Mass riots involving Muslims and Hindus in Kolkata will over 4,000 people in three days (1946). The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong (1966). The August Complex fire burns over one million acres of land in Northern California (2020).
• August 16 is the birthday of soldier/diplomat T. E. Lawrence (1888), cartoonist/animator Otto Messmer (1892), Israel prime minister Menachem Begin (1913), writer Charles Bukowski (1920), singer Eydie Gormé (1928), pianist/composer Bill Evans (1929), actor Robert Culp (1930), NFL player/sportscaster Frank Gifford (1930), actress Julie Newmar (1933), singer-songwriter/guitarist Kevin Ayers (1944), politician Carol Moseley Braun (1947), drummer Scott Asheton (1949), talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford (1953), singer-songwriter James “JT” Taylor (1953), director James Cameron (1954), singer-songwriter Madonna (1958), actor Timothy Hutton (1960), actor Steve Carell (1962), director Taika Waititi (1975), and MLB player Yu Darvish (1986).

Wow. Well, that’s a lot, but lots of things are happening and I didn’t want you to be left in the dark. Enjoy your day.