Random News: August 31, 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 31, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’m drinking coffee and I just heard a goose honk somewhere over the horizon. These things aren’t related; I’m just telling you what’s going on.

• Let’s do the latest Don the Con news. There’s always so much of it, and none of it is good… for him. Great for us, though.
• Donnie inflated his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion in one year, per the New York attorney general’s office. This investigation, to help you keep track, is for the civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, his two adult sons, and the Trump Organization.
• The new allegations were made in a partial summary judgment motion made public yesterday by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
• James’ office is asking the judge to find that Trump and others made false or misleading financial statements from 2011-2021 and benefited from inflating his assets by receiving favorable loan terms and insurance rates.
• The judge is not expected to rule on the motions until just before the trial for the $250 million lawsuit, which is set to start in October.
• How about Donnie’s best pals? How are they doing?
• Yesterday, a federal judge ruled against Rudy Giuliani by forfeit for the defamation lawsuit from Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
• The mother and daughter are asking for unspecified damages. Rudy’s trial to determine how much he owes the ladies will be set for later this year or early 2024, per Judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court.
• The damages could easily amount to millions of dollars. Rudy is selling his New York apartment to raise money for his legal defense. Many reports say he is suffering financially and has a serious alcohol problem.
• Let’s move to another Republican guy who’s having problems of a different sort: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He… froze again.
• Ugh. I genuinely feel almost sorry for this guy now. Whoever is encouraging/enabling him to continue working at this point should be charged with elder abuse.
• The new incident occurred yesterday after McConnell, 81, was asked about running for re-election in 2026. He acknowledged the question, but trailed off shortly after and stopped speaking and began to stare ahead blankly.
• After the first 10 seconds of silence, an aide stepped in and asked Mitch whether he heard the question. He continued to look off into the distance for another 30 uncomfortable seconds. After the incident, a spokesperson said that McConnell "plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do."
• They just want him to die on the job. This isn’t a conservative/liberal thing; Dianne Feinstein, whom I adore, has to retire immediately.
• Some very good news out of Texas.
• In June, Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law that prohibited cities from passing certain local ordinances. It was widely seen as an effort to curb the power of Democrat-led cities.
• Now, a judge has ruled HB 2127 unconstitutional. District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Texas announced the decision yesterday in response to a lawsuit from the city of Houston. 
• Among other draconian measures, Abbott’s law even eliminated ordinances that mandated water breaks for construction workers.
• Texas’s corrupt AG Ken Paxton, who is facing impeachment and criminal proceedings, has filed an appeal, meaning that the law will still going into effect tomorrow (September 1) despite being ruled unconstitutional. Sorry, Texas. This will work out eventually, though.
• Moving on… to how not to react to a tragedy.
• After the shooting at UNC Chapel Hill, Wendy Waters, principal of Spring Creek Middle School in Goldsboro, NC, wrote on Facebook about the shooter Tailei Qi…
• “My bet is he’s a Chinese Nationalist as a “visiting student” stealing our intellectual property working for the CCP!! There is nothing WHITE about him and since this is now at my front door I will not let them get away with their gaslighting BS!!!”
• My bet is that Spring Creek Middle School has a new principal next week. Can you imagine having a non-white child at that school, knowing how their principal feels about other races?
• Let’s move back to good news.
• Mississippi will have its first-ever openly gay state legislator after a House candidate won his Democratic primary election runoff Tuesday. Fabian Nelson prevailed over Roshunda Harris-Allen in the race to represent the House district in the south Jackson metro area.
• Republicans did not field a candidate for the general election, so Nelson will go on to represent the district. A gay black man elected to office in Mississippi isn’t something I’d have expected to see in my lifetime. That’s amazing progress.
• And now some horrifying news.
• Alabama’s Republican attorney general said in a court filing that he has the right to prosecute people who make travel arrangements for pregnant women to have out-of-state abortions.
• In a court filing Monday, attorneys for Attorney General Steve Marshall wrote that providing transportation for women in Alabama to leave the state to get an abortion could amount to a “criminal conspiracy.”
• I predicted when Roe v Wade was repealed that the forced-birth states would be pulling over women as they left the state and forcing them to take pregnancy tests.
• I stand by my prediction. Women, you don’t deserve this. Please vote for candidates who respect your bodily autonomy.
• And now, The Weather: “Good Intention” by Laura Groves
• Tropical Storm Idalia is pounding the Southeast’s Atlantic coast, prompting flash flood warnings in North Carolina.
• Thousands of homes are damaged in Florida – some with shredded walls and roofs, others with knee-high, murky floodwater that officials warn could be dangerous for days to come.
• For those needing FEMA relief after Hurricane Idalia, keep in mind that the initial $700 cap is for immediate needs like water, toiletries, clothing, and so on. The longer term assistance is capped at $41,000, which still feels super low compared to what some people will definitely require.
• Republicans fought tooth and nail to keep them that low. If it’s not enough, tell a Republican about it.
• In better news, the Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is recommending that the DEA significantly loosen federal restrictions on marijuana.
• I think it should be entirely removed from the Controlled Substances Act, but that’s me.
• HHS wants the drug moved from Schedule I to Schedule III under the CSA, which would be the biggest change in federal drug policy in decades.
• Here’s a different kind of chart… not really a chart at all, but instead, here are all the songs that made it to #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock charts in 1988 (from when they started this chart) and 1989, along with the dates they did. What was I doing around then? I was just starting to figure out my life while working at a Sunglass Hut in a mall.
• Peek-a-Boo (Siouxsie and the Banshees) - September 10, 1988 • Just Play Music! (Big Audio Dynamite) - September 17, 1988 • All That Money Wants (The Psychedelic Furs) - October 1, 1988 • Desire (U2) - October 22, 1988 • Orange Crush (R.E.M.) - November 26, 1988 • Charlotte Anne (Julian Cope) - January 21, 1989 • Stand (R.E.M.) - January 28, 1989 • Dirty Blvd. (Lou Reed) - February 11, 1989 • I'll Be You (The Replacements) - March 11, 1989 • Veronica (Elvis Costello) - March 18, 1989 • Mayor of Simpleton (XTC) - April 1, 1989 • Fascination Street (The Cure) - May 6, 1989 • So Alive (Love and Rockets) - June 24, 1989 • Disappointed (Public Image Ltd) - July 29, 1989 • Channel Z (The B-52’s) - August 5, 1989 • Come Anytime (Hoodoo Gurus) - August 26, 1989 • Love Shack (The B-52’s) - September 16, 1989 • Sowing the Seeds of Love (Tears for Fears) - October 14, 1989 • Pictures of Matchstick Men (Camper Van Beethoven) - October 21, 1989 • Proud to Fall (Ian McCulloch) - November 11, 1989 • Love and Anger (Kate Bush) - December 9, 1989 • Blues from a Gun (The Jesus and Mary Chain) - December 30, 1989
• From the Sports Desk… congrats to Phillies slugger Bryce Harper, who hit his 300th career home run yesterday against the Angels. Harper is the 158th player in major league history to reach that mark.
• Fun Fact: he hit his first career homer on May 14, 2012, when he was with the Washington Nationals.
• Today in history… Byzantine Empress Theodora dies childless, thus ending the Macedonian dynasty (1056). King Henry V of England dies of dysentery and Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of nine months (1422). Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta (1864). Mary Ann Nichols becomes the first of Jack the Ripper’s victims (1888). Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon (1895). The USA passes a Neutrality Act to try and stay out of the tensions concerning Germany and Japan (1935). Malaysia gains its independence from the United Kingdom (1957). Princess Diana dies in a car crash in Paris (1997).
• August 31 is the birthday of Roman emperor Caligula (12), Roman emperor Commodus (161), Chinese emperor Zhang Zong (1168), educator Maria Montessori (1870), radio/TV host Arthur Godfrey (1903), actor/educator Sanford Meisner (1905), novelist William Saroyan (1908), composer Alan Jay Lerner (1918), actor Buddy Hackett (1924), actor James Coburn (1928), saxophonist/bass player Wilton Felder (1940), illustrator Roger Dean (1944), singer-songwriter Van Morrison (1945), violinist Itzhak Perlman (1945), singer-songwriter/guitarist Bob Welch (1945), actor Richard Gere (1949), track and field athlete Edwin Moses (1955), drummer Gina Schock (1957), voice actor Dee Bradley Baker (1962), singer-songwriter Debbie Gibson (1970), comedian Chris Tucker (1971), NFL player Larry Fitzgerald (1983), and NFL player Sauce Gardner (2000).

That’s all for now. Enjoy your day.