Random News: September 15, 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 September 15, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’ve got my coffee with sugar and cream, so let’s see is everything is what it seems…

• Today is the 258th day of 2023. Now you know that.
• Yesterday’s hearing in the Fulton County, GA trial for the FPOTUS and his team of weenies got pretty testy.
• Snide comments were hurled, voices were raised, and accusations were leveled by prosecutors and defense attorneys during the 90-minute hearing, where the parties asked Judge Scott McAfee to rule on a handful of motions related to the grand jury that handed up an indictment in the case.
• Shrug.
• Another news, House Republicans this week failed to move forward on a procedural vote advancing a bill to fund the Defense Department after it became clear they did not have enough votes to secure its passage.
• The inability to move forward on a basic step to fund the government — the House’s top responsibility enshrined in the Constitution — offered an example of just how difficult it will be for McCarthy and the fractured Republican majority to find consensus, keep the government open and avert blame if a shutdown is triggered. The House has less than a dozen days in session before the September 30 deadline.
• They just suck.
• Hunter Biden has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to his purchase of a firearm in October 2018 while he was a drug user.
• The four-page indictment charges Hunter with three felony counts stemming from his possession of a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in October 2018, which prosecutors previously said he unlawfully possessed for 11 days.
• His attorney says that the statute is "likely unconstitutional" and he expects "the case will be dismissed before trial.” So now, MAGA folks are tasked with the choice of choosing between their beloved 2nd Amendment and their boogeyman, Hunter Biden. I love it.
• If convicted, Hunter Biden could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000.
• Fine. No problem. If someone — anyone — is indicted, they are given the opportunity to defend themselves in court. That’s as true of Hunter Biden as it is of Donald John Trump. If they’re guilty, they should get punished. This is not hard.
• I don’t know a single Democrat who cares whether Hunter Biden gets charged with crimes. I give him the same amount of importance in my life as Amy Carter or Tricia Nixon Cox or Jenna Bush.
• Moving on…
• Let’s do some “Poor Florida” news.
• Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and the state’s surgeon general are warning residents under age 65 against the new coronavirus booster, going against the advice of federal health officials who have recommended the shots.
• As reported here earlier this week, the FDA on Monday approved a reformulated coronavirus vaccine that targets an omicron subvariant and is cleared for everyone 6 months and older. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the shots, manufactured by Moderna and by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
• The CDC recommends that everyone 5 and older receive a single dose of the updated vaccine, which is part of an arsenal of tools the government is using to counter an expected increase in COVID-19, influenza and RSV as the weather turns cooler.
• Since I live in a sane state, I will not be harassed by anyone for getting my booster as soon as possible, which I plan on doing soon after Kat returns from Australia.
• Also, if you’re one of those “vaccines kill everyone!” freaks, I got my first series of COVID vaccinations in April 2021, and then boosters in December 2021, May 2022, and November 2022. Unless I’m a ghost, I’d say these vaccines are extremely safe and exponentially less dangerous than repeated infections of the virus.
• Let’s move on…
• Wisconsin Republicans voted yesterday to fire Meagan Wolfe, the state’s elections chief, just months before the battleground state’s presidential primary.
• Wolfe’s position is a nonpartisan, non-voting one tasked with implementing the decisions made by the three Democratic and three Republican commissioners.
• As the head of the commission, Wolfe has been the target of GOP attacks following the 2020 presidential election, when President Joe Biden narrowly beat former President Donald Trump in the state. These are Republicans who amplified Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the election, and got mad about absentee ballots used during the pandemic.
• Fuck all the way off, Wisconsin Republicans.
• Let’s do some awful news.
• Two former East Cleveland, OH police officers were sentenced this week for stealing thousands of dollars from people they pulled over during traffic stops.
• Willie Sims, 32, got two years in prison yesterday. Alfonzo Cole, 35, was sentenced Monday to 2-1/2 years in prison and was fined $40,000. In total, Sims and Cole stole $14,781 from six victims between July 2020 and July 2021 while on duty.
• "The one person that the public should be able to have confidence in would be your emergency services, your police officers, your firefighters, your EMTs. You've shaken the confidence of the public in the criminal justice system and the trust they put in police officers.” - Judge Michael J. Russo
• While we’re on the topic of awful news and cops… I’ve been loathe to cover this terrible story, but I might as well now.
• On Monday, body-cam footage of Seattle Police Department officer Daniel Auderer was released with him laughing and joking about the death of 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula. She was struck and killed by a police vehicle earlier this year.
• Kandula was fatally struck at a crosswalk by a police cruiser that was driving at 74 mph on January 23. The collision caused her to be thrown more than 100 feet and she later died from her injuries.
• I’m not going to repeat everything this fucking prick cop said, but if he said it about your child who’d been killed, your blood would boil. Among other things, Auderer said that the young woman “had limited value”.
• Kandula was a graduate student from the Seattle campus of Northeastern University, and was set to graduate this December with a master’s degree in information systems.
• Now Auderer’s statements have attracted the attention of Seattle leaders and the Indian Consulate. Is this the first time that Auderer has acted in ways that no law enforcement officer should act?
• Nope. He was one of more than a dozen officers that savagely beat Brian Torgerson, a mentally ill man, causing  permanent brain damage in 2010. He was investigated in 2016 for using force against a woman while she was handcuffed. He punched and choked a homeless man inside the ER at Harborview Hospital in 2015. He sexually harassed a woman in a holding cell in 2015. In 2016, he punched a female bystander in the face for "interfering with an arrest."
• These complaints have cost tax payers of Seattle over $1.7 million. Why is he still a cop?
• Speaking of assholes… 
• You likely recall that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones lost a lawsuit to the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. They were awarded $1.5 billion in that judgement.
• Jones has paid them nothing and continues to beg his audience for funds, but his own documents show his current net worth is around $14 million and his personal spending topped $93,000 in July alone, including thousands of dollars on meals and entertainment.
• In an August 29 court filing, lawyers for the families said that if Jones doesn’t reduce his personal expenses to a “reasonable” level, they will ask the bankruptcy judge to bar him from “further waste of estate assets,” appoint a trustee to oversee his spending, or dismiss the bankruptcy case.
• How did Jones respond? “If anything, I like to go to nice restaurants. That is my deal. I like to go on a couple of nice vacations a year, but I think I pretty much have earned that in this fight,” he said, while urging his audience to keep donating more money for his legal expenses.
• And now, The Weather: “3 45” by Jason Nolan
• Hurricane Lee is barreling toward eastern New England and Canada's Atlantic coast and is expected to make landfall over the weekend. The stormis expected to stay large and dangerous as it continued on a trajectory north.
• Stay safe, friends.
• In local (to me) news, most suspects arrested for non-violent felonies and misdemeanors in Redondo Beach, CA will be cited or booked and then released.
• On July 18, the Los Angeles County Superior Court approved the new zero-bail protocol, which in turn means all county police departments must comply with the rule change. The new bail protocol is slated to take effect on October 1.
• Good. Cash bail has always unfairly targeted lower-income people, who have to remain behind bars while awaiting trial and lose jobs as a result.
• From the Sports Desk… New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers said yesterday that surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon in his left leg "went great.” 
• The four-time NFL MVP posted a photo and statement in an Instagram story the day after his surgery, which he said was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, an orthopedic surgeon based in Los Angeles who has worked with numerous professional athletes during his career.
• It’s almost as if Rodgers has some level of trust in medical science. Huh.
• Today in history… King Philip II of Spain sends an "Invincible Armada” to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and gets crushed in the English Channel (1588). The United States "Department of Foreign Affairs” is renamed the Department of State (1789). Napoleon reaches the Kremlin in Moscow (1812). The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens (1830). HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands (1835). Japan defeats Qing dynasty China in the Battle of Pyongyang (1894). Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme in WWI (1916). Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag bearing the swastika (1935). Marilyn Monroe's iconic skirt scene is shot during filming for ‘The Seven Year Itch’ (1954). U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation (1967). Muhammad Ali outpoints Leon Spinks in a rematch to become the first boxer to win the world heavyweight title three times (1978). The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1981). The Summer Olympics are opened in Sydney, Australia (2000). Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history (2008).
• September 15 is the birthday of explorer Marco Polo (1254), dentist/educator/inventor George Franklin Grant (1846), politician William Howard Taft (1857), car designer/businessman Ettore Bugatti (1881), writer Agatha Christie (1890), singer-songwriter/fiddle player Roy Acuff (1903), actress Fay Wray (1907), criminal and US attorney general John N. Mitchell (1913), comedian Nipsey Russell (1918), saxophonist/bandleader Cannonball Adderley (1928), NFL player/actor Merlin Olsen (1940), actor Tommy Lee Jones (1946), NFL coach Pete Carroll (1951), NFL player Dan Marino (1961), comedian/actor Jimmy Carr (1972), Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (1984), NBA player Dennis Schröder (1993).

I have a busy day lined up, chock full of meetings and work deadlines and all the shit that is typical in many people’s lives. That’s fine. This is what life is. Being active, producing things, helping the world do its thing. Enjoy your day.