Random News: August 6, 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 6, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. I’ve already spent a portion of the morning being a mass murderer of ants who invaded the sanctity of my home, and I promise you, it wasn’t at all the way I wanted to start the day, but here we are, so let’s do some news.

• Continuing our reporting on the asshole who once called himself the president, yesterday, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request from Trump’s legal team for an extension of the deadline to respond to the request for a protective order.
• Trump’s lawyers will have to respond by tomorrow afternoon to the Justice Department’s proposal.
• As a reminder, the request for a protective order is a result of the accused felon posting on Friday, “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
• Special counsel Jack Smith’s team is making the argument that Trump habitually speaks publicly about the details of the various legal proceedings he’s facing.
• The prosecutors argued in their original protective order request that if Trump were to make public statements or social media posts that used details such as grand jury transcripts, it could have a “harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case.”
• FYI: protective orders are common in criminal cases, but prosecutors said it’s “particularly important in this case” because Trump has posted on social media about “witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.”
• Again, as you’re probably wondering: yes, you would be arrested and go to jail immediately for such a violation. Trump has never been treated the way any other American would be under the same circumstances.
• That’s especially true of you MAGA people. You’d be in a holding cell for violating terms of your release before you knew what hit you.
• And despite all that, yesterday and this morning, Trump made a serious of posts accusing the judge in his case of bias and making threatening statements.
• Meanwhile, a crew of congressional reps led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Hank Johnson (D-GA), and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and signed by nearly 40 House Democrats sent a letter to the Judicial Conference to ask the body to allow Trump's federal criminal trials to be broadcast on television.
• The letter argued that increased public access to the court proceedings will be crucial for the health of American democracy. I agree.
• Unlike state courts which can authorize some trials to be televised, federal courts prohibit trials from being broadcast live on television. I doubt they’ll make an exception for this trial. But that level of transparency would be good for America and for democracy.
• Separate and apart from all of that, the state-level indictment from Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is coming in hot. When it happens, it will be Donnie Dump’s fourth indictment in five months.
• Enough on that now. There are many more important things in this world than one sad, fat, aging criminal whose time is running out.
• Like, let’s talk about another prick and how he’s ruining the state he was elected to help: Florida’s Gov. Ron De Santis.
• The batch of new bills he’s signed have spurred protests, lawsuits and travel advisories warning the state is “openly hostile” toward people of color, immigrants, women and LGBTQ+ community members.
• But now it’s hitting Florida in the wallet via Florida’s previously robust convention business.
• In recent weeks, at least a dozen organizations have announced plans to either cancel or relocate their upcoming conferences scheduled to take place in Florida, making a statement by having their thousands of attendees and millions of dollars flow into other states deemed safer and more welcoming.
• The Visit Lauderdale organization has tallied 10 events and conventions that were canceled by organizations citing recently enacted laws, policies and travel advisories. That amounts to 15,000 lost hotel room nights and an estimated $20 million economic impact.
• Broward County has invested $1.5 billion in building an 801-room Omni hotel connected to their expanded and renovated convention center. It’s supposed to be ready in 2025.
• But now they’re not seeing the bookings for 2026 through 2023 which they’d been anticipating. This stuff hits states long term. Even getting rid of De Santis right now would still impact their economy for years to come.
• What’s next? A huge drop in the massive tourism money the state relies on. Ironically, Florida had previously been a big vacation destination for LGBTQ people. With them and their money (and that of their families and other allies) no longer welcome in the state, Florida will have to make do with whatever other economic opportunities they can scrounge up.
• On Sundays we cover gun violence here. Why is Sunday gunday? Because more people shoot each other on Friday and Saturday than other days of the week, so it’s convenient for me.
• Three dead, four injured in D.C. A car-to-car shooting that left one dead in Irvine, CA. And two shot and killed in the El Sereno neighborhood of LA. One dead, one wounded in Beaumont, TX. One dead, one wounded in Minneapolis. One dead, one wounded in Kansas City, KS. One dead, one wounded in Phoenix. Three shot in Atlanta. Two shot in Jacksonville. One dead in Greenville County, SC. One critically injured in Colorado Springs. One critically wounded in Memphis. One wounded in Roanoke, VA. An 8-year-old shot and killed in Chicago. A pregnant woman shot and killed in Cincinnati.
• So all in all, a relatively light weekend of gun violence in the USA. A reminder: the way your child between 1-18 years old will be killed is via gun violence, and yet you keep voting for Republican candidates who allow it to happen.
• Remember that forever.
• Moving on…
• This Tuesday August 8, an election in Ohio will be one of the most high-stakes stress tests for American democracy in recent years.
• Like 17 other states, Ohio allows citizens to place constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot if they get a certain number of signatures and more than 50% of the statewide vote.
• The process has been in place for more than a century in Ohio, and in November, voters will use it to decide whether to protect abortion rights.
• But in May, Republicans who control the state legislature abruptly sent a proposal to the ballot called Issue 1 that would make it much harder to change the constitution. If approved, a constitutional amendment would need 60% of the vote to pass instead of a simple majority.
• They know that the citizens of Ohio will indeed vote to protect women’s reproductive rights, so they’re doing everything in their power to subvert the will of the people.
• Ohioans: Make sure to vote on Tuesday and VOTE NO ON ISSUE 1. Your lives depend on it.
• And now, The Weather: “Fetish” by spill tab
• Oregonians: you can now do what people in 48 other states have been doing for over 100 years: pumping our own fucking gas in our cars.
• All gas stations in Oregon can now allow customers to pump their own gas under a new law signed Friday, lifting a ban on self-service in the state dating back to 1951. There is now only one state in the USA where service station customers can’t pump their own fuel: New Jersey.
• From the Sports Desk… the USWNT is out at the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Sweden won today in a match decided in a 5-4 penalty shootout loss that needed video review to determine that the winning goal had crossed the line despite what appeared to be a save.
• Ah well. Better luck next time, ladies.
• In happier women’s sports news, gymnast Simone Biles, who took a two-year break after the Tokyo Olympics, soared back to victory by winning last night’s U.S. Classic with an all-around score of 59.100 that was easily the best of the night.
• Biles had only really started training seriously in late April after her marriage to NFL defensive back Jonathan Owens. Not too shabby.
• Today in history… Bogotá, Colombia is founded (1538). 60 proof sheets of the US Constitution are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia (1787). William Kemmler is the first person executed by electric chair (1890). Gertrude Ederle swims the English Channel (1926). The Soviet Union absorbs Estonia (1940). The USA drops the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan (1945). Jamaica gains independence from the UK (1962). Tim Berners-Lee releases his idea for the World Wide Web (1991). The Ramones play their final concert (1996). NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on Mars (2012). 
• August 6 is the birthday of poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809), biologist Alexander Fleming (1881), gangster Dutch Schultz (1901), actress/producer Lucille Ball (1911), actor Robert Mitchum (1917), painter/photographer Andy Warhol (1928), actor/director Peter Bonerz (1938), guitarist/composer Allen Holdsworth (1946), actress Michelle Yeoh (1962), NBA player David Robinson (1965), singer-songwriter Elliott Smith (1969), director M. Night Shyamalan (1970), and singer-songwriter Geri Halliwell (1972).

I had to deal with ants twice more between starting and finishing this list of bullets. Now I am become death, destroyer of insects. Enjoy your day.