Random News: September 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 September 30, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. As you’ve come to expect on wonderful weekend mornings, I’m in a blue robe and have a fresh cup of coffee at the ready, so let’s delve into the world of things that seem to have transpired since we last met here.

• I guess we’ll start with the imminent government shutdown, which is just hours away.
• The latest news is that the House just now planned to vote on a measure to keep the government open for 45 days at current spending levels, adding money for U.S. disaster relief but none of the billions of dollars for Ukraine that the White House has sought.
• It would need to pass the House and the Senate. I doubt this will happen.
• The government will shut down at 12:01AM, one minute after midnight tonight, if a deal is not reached.
• Personal story: I actually was leaving for a visit to Joshua Tree in October 2013 when the Republicans shut down the government one time. We went anyway… there are other things to do in that area beyond the national park itself.
• Moving on to something that was only a matter of time.
• Scott Hall, one of the 19 defendants in the Fulton County, GA case about efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, became the first defendant to reach a plea deal with prosecutors yesterday. 
• Hall changed his plea from not guilty and instead pleaded guilty in Fulton County court to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties. He was sentenced to five years probation, a $5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service. He must also write a letter of apology to the citizens of the state of Georgia. 
• Oh, and he is also required to testify at any future trials. In other words, he flipped on Trump, and there will now be an avalanche of others trying to get in pleas deals while the getting is good.
• Hall is a 59-year-old bail bondsman. He helped with the unlawful breach of election equipment and theft of voter data in Coffee County. He initially faced seven counts in all, six of which related to those efforts. 
• Under the plea agreement, he is barred from communicating with any witnesses or co-defendants in the case. He is not allowed to speak with the media until all the cases are resolved.
• But wait! There’s more.
• Defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, two of Trump’s team of terrible lawyers, will be the first defendants to face trial in Fulton County. Chesebro is the guy who came up with the fake electors plot. Powell, aka the Kraken Lady, helped promote Dumpster’s false claims of election fraud.
• You may recall that both of them invoked their right to a speedy trial. They each face seven criminal charges, including state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charges asserting they joined a criminal enterprise bent on keeping Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
• In a hearing yesterday, the prosecution seemed to indicate that they were planning to extend a plea offer to both defendants.
• In the same hearing, Judge Scott McAfee denied two motions by Chesebro aiming to invoke immunity from prosecution and suppress emails authorities obtained via a search warrant.
• Wheeee!
• In related news yesterday from Fulton County, GA, Jeff Clark, the former Justice Department official charged alongside El Dumpo in a sweeping racketeering conspiracy, failed to present evidence that the former president directed him to work on matters related to the 2020 election.
• U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones rejected Clark’s bid to transfer the criminal case against him to federal court. Clark is charged for his efforts to disseminate a DOJ letter that would have encouraged state legislatures in several Biden-won states to hold emergency sessions and reconsider the results of the 2020 election.
• Meanwhile, Judge Steve C. Jones was not swayed by arguments made by Trump co-defendants Cathy Latham, David Shafer and state Senator Shawn Still, all of whom wanted to move their prosecutions in the Fulton County election interference case to federal court.
• "The Court first determines that presidential electors are not federal officers," Jones wrote in all three orders. Ha!
• They’re all fucked… and so is their boss. 2024 is going to be so… interesting!
• A quick follow-up on an item we mentioned the other day…
• Citing Dumpy’s social media post where he attacked General Mark Milley and suggested he should be put to death for treason, special counsel Jack Smith bolstered his push to put a gag order on the former president ahead of his trial for the January 6 insurrection.
• Smith’s team turned in a 22-page filing last night to press the need for a gag order on Trump’s behavior and rejected the former president’s claims that the motion was an attempt to silence him on the campaign trial.
• Senior assistant special counsel Molly Gaston stated the order would prevent Trump from using “his candidacy as a cover for making prejudicial public statements about this case.”
• I 100% agree. Let’s move on for now.
• For our next news item, guess which part of the following sentence is true, okay?
• On Wednesday October 4, every TV, radio and cellphone in the U.S. will blast the shrill, unmistakable sound of a warning tone around 2:20PM ET when FEMA and the FCC conduct a test of the emergency broadcast system, and the high-frequency signal will activate graphene oxide and other nanoparticles that have been inserted into billions of people around the world via vaccines and they will all become zombies and forevermore act as servants of Gates, Soros, and Obama.
• That first part is true. The second part is actual insane viral messaging in the MAGA world. Anyway, be aware that your phone will be loud that day. Don’t freak out.
• Moving on.
• Hideous event in Effingham County, IL last night, with multiple fatalities confirmed following a crash involving a semi-truck that leaked anhydrous ammonia.
• Parts of a local city were evacuated due to the plume from the ammonia leak after the crash US Highway 40. At least five people were airlifted to local hospitals.
• It’s a dangerous world out there.
• Future Motion, the maker of Onewheel electric skateboards, has issued a voluntary recall of all of its boards due to crash hazards. The company said all Onewheel board models can stop balancing under riders and throwing users in a way that can result in serious injury or death. 
• Three of the four deaths related to the boards were reported between 2019 and 2021 and were the result of massive head trauma. There have also been dozens of reports of serious injuries, including traumatic brain injury, concussion, paralysis, upper-body fractures, lower-body fractures, and ligament damage.
• If you or your kids or friends have one of these things, get rid of it immediately.
• Moving on… to a headline I wasn’t expecting to see yesterday.
• A Nevada grand jury indicted Duane "Keffe D" Davis in the drive-by shooting murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas in 1996. 
• Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said a grand jury had been seated in the case for several months. DiGiacomo described Davis as the on-ground, on-site commander who ordered the death of Shakur.
• Wow. The long arm of the law. They’ll get your ass eventually, even if it’s 27 years later.
• Wanna buy a house? Not in the USA, you don’t. A report has found that home ownership is now unaffordable in 99% of America.
• The typical American cannot afford to buy a home in a growing number of communities across the nation under common lending standards, per a new report from real estate data provider ATTOM.
• Researchers examined the median home prices last year for roughly 575 U.S. counties and found that home prices in 99% of those areas are beyond the reach of the average earner, who makes $71,214 a year.
• If you thought it was just you… it’s not. If you felt embarrassed about it, be aware that only one person in 100 is actually able to purchase a home these days. We’re in for a major shift in things pretty soon in this country of ours.
• And now, The Weather: “Blue to You” by Smelter
• New Yorkers are frustrated and angry — which isn’t uncommon — but they have good reason to be, dealing with flooded basements and damaged property, and not enough immediate help from the city and state. The intense rainfall due to climate change did not allow storm drains to keep up with the flow.
• One restaurant owner said she would have had to swim through the street to reach her front door. Instead, she watched the water rise on surveillance cameras, and by the time the flood went down, her outdoor dining structure had been washed away.
• Stay safe out there, peoples.
• Instead of a chart, let’s look at a list of the best selling albums of all time. One thing you’ll note: almost none of them are very recent. People essentially stopped buying music when streaming became the predominant music delivery format, and in the few cases where people actually purchase via download, they mostly buy singles instead of albums.
• Note that’s not always the case. If you’re a huge fan of a specific artist or band and they release something new and cool, you might indeed buy the whole album, or even the physical media (think deluxe packages that include vinyl and t-shirt and stickers and liner notes and so on).
• 1. ‘Thriller’ - Michael Jackson. 2. ‘Back in Black’ - AC/DC. 3. ‘The Bodyguard’ - Whitney Houston/Various Artists. 4. ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ - Pink Floyd. 5. ‘Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)’ - Eagles. 6. ‘Bat Out of Hell’ - Meat Loaf. 7. ‘Hotel California’ - Eagles. 8. ‘Come On Over’ - Shania Twain. 9. ‘Rumours’ - Fleetwood Mac. 10. ‘Saturday Night Fever’ - Bee Gees/Various Artists. 11. ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ - Led Zeppelin. 12. ‘Bad’ - Michael Jackson. 13. ‘Jagged Little Pill’ - Alanis Morissette. 14. ‘Dirty Dancing’ - Various Artists. 15. ‘Falling into You’ - Celine Dion. 16. ’21’ - Adele. 17. ‘1’ - The Beatles. 18. ‘Metallica’ - Metallica. 19. ‘Let’s Talk About Love’ - Celine Dion. 20. ‘Legend: The Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers’ - Bob Marley and the Wailers.
• From the Sports Desk… let’s look at the NFL Power Rankings for week 4, aka someone else’s opinion of which teams are good, or not.
• 1. Miami Dolphins. 2. San Francisco 49ers. 3. Kansas City Chiefs. 4. Philadelphia Eagles. 5. Buffalo Bills. 6. Dallas Cowboys. 7. Detroit Lions. 8. Baltimore Ravens. 9. Cleveland Browns. 10. Green Bay Packers.
• Who’s at the bottom of the list?
• 28. Indianapolis Colts. 29. New York Giants. 30. Carolina Panthers. 31. Denver Broncos. 32. Chicago Bears.
• Everyone else is somewhere in the middle.
• Today in history… Henry IV is proclaimed king of England (1399). Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his forces enter Tula territory in present-day western Arkansas, encountering fierce resistance (1541). The first performance of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death (1791). Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation (1882). Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with ground-to-air fire (1915). The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations” (1938). NBC broadcasts the first televised American football game (1939). The 1947 World Series is the first to be televised and the first to include an African-American player (1947). The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time (1968). Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation (1980). Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in a Danish newspaper (2005). 
• September 30 is the birthday of astronomer Michael Maestlin (1550), activist Ann Jarvis (1832), businessman William Wrigley, Jr. (1861), physicist Hand Geiger (1882), sexologist Charlotte Wolff (1897), drummer/bandleader Buddy Rich (1917), US Army captain Lewis Nixon (1918), novelist Truman Capote (1924), activist Elie Wiesel (1928), actress Angie Dickinson (1931), singer Cissy Houston (1933), singer Johnny Mathis (1935), drummer Dewey Martin (1940), music producer Gus Dudgeon (1942), singer Marilyn McCoo (1943), singer-songwriter/guitarist Marc Bolan (1947), actress Fran Drescher (1957), singer-songwriter/guitarist Marty Stuart (1958), actor Eric Stoltz (1961), singer-songwriter/guitarist Trey Anastasio (1964), actress Jenna Elfman (1971), actor Daniel Wu (1974), MLB player Jeremy Giambi (1974), tennis player Martina Hingis (1980), and rapper T-Pain (1984).

That seems like enough. I’m going to shower and dress myself like a real human being, and then I have a weekend project of getting rid of the clothes I never wear that are taking up space where the clothes I do wear would go if I had space for them. Good times. Enjoy your day.