Random News: August 30, 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 30, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. This week has kicked my ass and it’s only Wednesday somehow, but I’m gonna keep on truckin’ along and do what I have to do.

• I want to start today with a message from political commentator Lawrence O’Donnell Jr.
• “What did liberals do that was so offensive to the Republican party? I’ll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed liberals on every one of those things, every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal’, as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work because I will pick up that label and wear it as a badge of honor.”
• Same here, Lawrence.
• And one addendum I like to add: a huge majority of the people helped by these liberal actions are those who now vote against them. If you meet a MAGA supporter who accepts any form of public assistance, they do so only because Republicans were unsuccessful in their efforts in preventing it, and fought kicking and screaming against it.
• The hypocrisy seems to be part of the mindset. Many of these folks have bumper stickers showing their support of law enforcement and the justice system (Back the Blue! Thin Blue Line!), but then they cheer when cops are injured and killed during an insurrection, or decide that justice is crooked when their favorite people have to face repercussions for the crimes they commit.
• They claim to hate illegal drugs but have the highest addiction rates for opioid substances. They fight to control women’s reproductive rights, and then fight even harder to prevent children from getting necessary benefits.
• The easier thing to do would be for liberal folks to say, “Okay, you know what? You’re on your own. Good luck,” and let them find out what happens. But that’s not in our nature. I’m fighting for the rights of every person, including those who act against their own best interests.
• Okay, on with the news…
• The center of Hurricane Idalia has slammed Florida at dangerous Category 3 strength, with a deadly storm surge and catastrophic winds not seen in that Gulf Coast area in 125 years.
• As of 9AM ET, it was whipping top sustained winds of 110 mph, threatening inland Florida and the Georgia and South Carolina coasts with intense flooding, ferocious winds and tornadoes.
• I wish nothing but the best for you folks. Please prioritize your safety and that of your family and neighbors above all else.
• In other news…
• Today was supposed to be the sentencing day for Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys group, but Judge Timothy Kelly is ill.
• Prosecutors are seeking 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, who organized and led the group’s assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 during the failed coup attempt.
• He and three lieutenants were convicted in May of charges including seditious conspiracy.
• Moving on…
• Canada is advising LGBTQ travelers planning trips to the United States to check how they might be affected by recently passed laws in some states.
• Canada’s travel advisory for the U.S. now includes a cautionary message for those who consider themselves two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning or intersex.
• Can you blame them? I’d advise against nearly anyone visiting certain states in the USA right now. Those who discriminate against LGBTQIA+, those who negate women’s reproductive rights, those where racial and religious violence is rampant… those states make it clear who they are.
• And their economies don’t merit income from tourism, much less national/global business.
• In other news of people behaving badly and reflecting badly on their state…
• Oklahomans are calling for an impeachment probe of Ryan Walters, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, citing a range of recent issues, including bomb threats against a school district following one of Walters’ provocative social media posts. 
• Walters, a Republican known for focusing on culture war issues, has ushered in the nation’s first religious charter school, promised to “put God back in schools” and threatened to take over the state’s largest school district in Tulsa — all within his first eight months in office. 
• Fuck that guy. Kick Ryan Walters’ anti-American, anti-Constitutional ass to the curb. What an embarrassment to Oklahoma.
• Moving on to our destruction of the environment.
• Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency and US Army released a new rule that slashes federally protected water by more than half, following a Supreme Court decision in May that rolled back protections for US wetlands.
• The rule will invalidate an earlier definition of what constitutes the so-called waters of the United States, after the Supreme Court ruled Clean Water Act protections extend only to “wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are waters of the United States in their own rights.”
• It will impact up to 63% of US wetlands by acreage and around 1.2 million to 4.9 million miles of ephemeral streams. The new rule will take effect immediately.
• This used to be such a nice planet. Pity that people fucked it up so badly that they couldn’t even live here anymore and had nowhere else to go. I hope the next intelligent species that evolves here learns from our mistakes.
• Let’s do a little news in regard to the Creamsicle Criminal.
• Three of Trump's co-defendants turned on him in the Fulton County, GA case. They are among the group of fake electors. In court filings submitted this week, they say that they signed falsified forged documents “at the direction of Trump and his legal team."
• I’d have never have thought it possible, but there is a distinct chance, the way things are headed, that criminal #P01135809 could easily win the GOP nomination while being tried and convicted, and immediately remanded to jail. 
• Can you imagine next year, with that Orange Blob running a general-election campaign… while incarcerated?
• However, he may face another obstacle to that plan. Yesterday, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office began reviewing an effort by some Republicans in the state to keep Trump off the ballot in 2024.
• Bryant “Corky” Messner — an attorney and prominent Republican who ran on Trump’s endorsement as the state’s 2020 U.S. Senate nominee — has publicly questioned Trump’s eligibility to run for president, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
• The section disqualifies those who’ve taken an oath to support the Constitution from holding office again if they’ve “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
• Other states will be following suit.
• In other breaking news regarding That Pricks and his pals, DC District Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled just now that former White House aide Peter Navarro must face both of his contempt of Congress charges for defying a subpoena from the January 6 Select Committee, rejecting claims that former Trump invoked executive privilege and partially immunized him.
• Hilariously, Trump had given Navarro immunity from the House COVID subcommittee, and did not authorize Navarro to claim privilege when he was subpoenaed later by the Jan. 6 committee.
• What. An. Idiot.
• And now, The Weather: “what's underneath” by Swansea Skag
• Labor Day Weekend is coming up fast, and your area may be getting nailed with yet another heat wave. Just get used to the weather being shitty for most people in most places.
• If you want to know how deeply the MAGA ideology has permeated some areas of this otherwise great country, 40% of American dog owners are concerned about vaccinating their pets — including rabies shots — for fear their dogs will develop autism.
• I’m not kidding. Some of these people are your friends and neighbors.
• From the Sports Desk… defending champion Carlos Alcaraz cruised into the second round of the US Open yesterday after his opponent, Dominik Koepfer of Germany, retired because of an injury during their prime-time match in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
• The 20-year-old top seed from Spain was leading 6-2, 3-2 when Koepfer quit after rolling his ankle (ouch). Alcaraz will play Lloyd Harris of South Africa in the second round.
• Today in history… Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master (1574). HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on the Great Barrier Reef (1791). Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is founded (1835). The city of Houston,TX is founded (1836). Germans defeat the Russians in the WWI Battle of Tannenberg (1914). The Queen Mary wins the Blue Riband with the fastest transatlantic crossing (1936). The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union goes into operation (1963). Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1967). President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing (1981). Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage (1984). The 11-day Ruby Ridge standoff ends with Randy Weaver surrendering to federal authorities (1992). The last remaining American troops leave Afghanistan, ending U.S. involvement in the war (2021).
• August 30 is the birthday of novelist Mary Shelley (1797), physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871), politician Huey Long (1893), actress Shirley Booth (1898), actor Fred McMurray (1908), MLB player Ted Williams (1918), singer-songwriter/guitarist Kitty Wells (1919), actor Bill Daily (1927), businessman/philanthropist Warren Buffett (1930), singer-songwriter/guitarist John Phillips (1935), race car driver/designer Bruce McLaren (1937), radio host John Peel (1939), illustrator Robert Crumb (1943), model/actress Peggy Lipton (1946), comedian Lewis Black (1948), NBA player Robert Parish (1953), singer-songwriter/bass player Dave Brockie (1963), singer-songwriter/guitarist Lars Frederiksen (1971), model/actress Cameron Diaz (1972), and tennis player Andy Roddick (1982).

Alrighty, well… lots going on, as always. But I think a lot of it is tilting more toward the good than the bad, despite all of this seemingly depressing shit you just read above. The good guys do win in the end. If they haven’t won yet, it’s not yet the end. Enjoy your day.