Random News: August 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.

---

Good morning. It’s August 21, 2023, and it’s a Monday. Yesterday was more eventful than I prefer my weekends to be, but let’s take a look around and see what’s been happening everywhere…

• But let’s start with here.
• You probably heard quite a bit about Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hilary over the weekend. I did too. It was lighting up emergency alerts on my phone and causing pretty heavy rains here in Redondo Beach for most of the day.
• Other places that were more inland and in direct path of the storm were hit with some serious flash flooding and mudslides. All in all, it could have been way worse.
• One note: we got about the same amount of heavy rain here at the beach as happened in other places, but our rainfall is able to run off straight down hills into the ocean. If you live in the desert where that same amount of rain in two days is more than you get in a. typical year, it’s a problem.
• Some roads were washed out, some people got stranded in their cars, some people lost power. All things you would expect in this area’s first tropical storm since 1939. But then…
• At 2:45 PM, we were just sitting here enjoying the storm when our desk chairs started moving, along with our window blinds and hanging light fixtures.
• After spending a few seconds in the doorway while screaming “earthquake!” to the other residents of my household as is my habit of doing, things settled down and I checked online. It was a moderately good-sized quake, 5.1 with an epicenter in Ojai, about 80 miles north of here.
• Is a 5.1 big? Depends on the depth, the type of quake, and your proximity to the epicenter. The 1994 Northridge quake that devastated much of Los Angeles was a 6.7.
• No damage here yesterday beyond frayed nerves, but really, Mother Nature? An earthquake smack dab in the middle of a tropical storm the likes of which we’ve never seen here in SoCal?
• Not cool at all. One optimistic note: my phone’s emergency earthquake warning notice blared at almost the same moment as the shaking started, so that system is seeming to improve as time goes by. I will say that the invention of the word “hurriquake” was one fun result of the combined disasters yesterday.
• Moving on…
• Lauri Carleton, 66, was shot dead inside her clothing store by a guy who’d made disparaging remarks about a rainbow flag that stood outside the store. He killed this married mother of nine at her store in San Bernardino County for no other reason than being an LGBTQ ally.
• The only good news in this horrible story is the SB sheriff deputies were able to locate the homophobic piece of shit, who was armed, and he was shot dead after a confrontation with the officers.
• Law enforcement agencies in several states have investigated the destruction of rainbow Pride flags as potential hate crimes in recent years.
• Let’s do some criminal news.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday he did not know of any broad-based effort by the former president to declassify documents before he left the White House.
• Pence’s comments came after he was asked about the report that Mark Meadows told special counsel Jack Smith’s investigators that he could not recall Trump ever ordering declassifying broad sets of materials before the end of his presidency.
• This, of course, contradicts Dump’s claim that he had a right to the documents that were stolen and kept at his golf motel in Florida, since he’d magically declassified them before leaving the White House.
• The only other news of Felonious Punk is that he has officially opted out of this week’s coming Republican presidential debate. Instead, he’s airing a pre-taped interview with Tucker Carlson. What a giant pussy.
• A quick note on that topic. One of the people in that debate is Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech business dude, and in my opinion, an awful human whose campaign is based on 9/11 conspiracy theories and not allowing 18-year-olds to vote.
• That being said, there’s a faction of conservatives attacking Ramaswamy not because of his policies, but due to his Hindu faith.
• Another reminder for those who skipped this day in school: the United States of America not only has no official religion, but our very Constitution says “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
• And yet, conservative voices have been quick to disqualify Ramaswamy specifically due to his beliefs. Pro-life activist Abby Johnson said that “Our God will not be mocked” by having Christians support what she described as a candidate who believes in “many gods.”
• Anyway, fuck all of them.
• Let’s unfortunately go back to natural disasters for a bit. It’s one of my least favorite topics to cover, because unlike political news, there’s so little we can do to immediately affect these problems.
• There are still over 850 people missing from the Maui wildfires. President Biden is heading to the island this morning to view the damage and meet with survivors.
• Speaking of fires, northeast of Austin, TX, a fertilizer plant in Williamson County was destroyed in a fire that burned overnight into early this morning. The fire has left the American Plant Food Corporation a total loss.
• And now, The Weather: “6am” by Slowdaze
• LAUSD school will be closed today due to lingering concerns regarding Tropical Storm Hilary. A number of areas did experience flooding and I think they’re playing it safe in not adding to the traffic congestion during peak hours.
• Sorry/not sorry to Russia. Their first lunar mission in decades has ended in failure with its Luna 25 spacecraft crashing into the moon’s surface.
• I’m all for space exploration. I also like when Russia has an embarrassing failure. The incident happened after communication with the robotic spacecraft was interrupted. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.
• A little bit of drama over on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. When conservatives (including actor James Woods) complained about Elmo Muck’s announcement that he was going to remove the ban function of the platform, Elmo blocked them.
• He thinks he’s funny, but he’s a sad troll who is desperate to be liked, and then does everything to ensure he isn’t.
• From the Sports Desk… American sprinter Noah Lyles won the men’s 100m yesterday at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. The 26-year-old finished the event in 9.83 seconds to secure victory and record the joint fastest time of this year.
• How fast is Lyles? At last year’s world championships in Eugene, OR, Lyles smashed the American 200m record set 26 years beforehand and became the third fastest man over the distance after clocking in at 19.31 seconds.
• That’s incredibly fast.
• Today in history… Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from the Spanish (1680). James Cook claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales (1770). Nat Turner leads a slave rebellion in Southampton County, VA (1831). An F5 tornado slams Rochester, MN, which leads to the creation of the Mayo Clinic (1883). A Louvre employee steals the Mona Lisa (1911). The Soviet Union does the first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (1957). Eisenhower signs an EO and proclaims Hawaii as the 50th state (1959). Tiger Woods wins the PGA and becomes the first golfer since 1953 to win three majors in a calendar year (2000).
• August 21 is the birthday of Philip II of France (1165), inventor William Murdoch (1754), pianist/bandleader Count Basie (1904), animator Fritz Freleng (1906), sportscaster Jack Buck (1924), actor Melvin Van Peebles (1932), NBA player Wilt Chamberlain (1936), singer-songwriter Kenny Rogers (1938), guitarist/composer James Burton (1939), singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon (1941), singer-songwriter/guitarist Joe Strummer (1952), actress Kim Cattrall (1956), animator Stephen Hillenburg (1961), actress Carrie-Anne Moss (1967), singer-songwriter Serj Tankian (1967), keyboardist/producer Liam Howlett (1971), businessman/computer scientist Sergey Brin (1973), actress Alicia Witt (1975), sprinter Usain Bolt (1986), singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves (1988), actress Hayden Panettiere (1989), and NFL player Mike Evans (1993). 

Okay. I’m done being a storm survivor and back to being a person having a normal day. Isn’t that nice? A normal day? Here’s hoping. Enjoy your day.