Random News: September 4, 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 4, 2023, and it’s a Monday. Here in the USA, it’s a national holiday we call Labor Day. I’m not entirely off work, but I’m not really on either, which is basically your life 24/7/365 when you own a business. But let’s talk about stuff regardless.

• What is Labor Day? I ask that each year because I genuinely think a lot of people don’t know.
• And truthfully, I think a lot of people are either totally ignorant or completely misinformed about most of the holidays we celebrate in the USA.
• Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States.
• Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday in 1887. It became an official federal holiday in 1894 and has remained so ever since.
• What is labor? is that only applicable toward jobs that require physical effort? Is this holiday limited to blue collar workers?
• Fuck no. It’s for everyone who works for someone else (oddly, that doesn’t include me, but I digress). If you’re an employee, you perform labor for a business where the business benefits from your efforts more than they pay you for it. That’s literally how businesses work. If you cost the business more than you bring in, either in revenue/profit or savings, there’s no point in your being there.
• Labor Day is probably the most universal holiday in the US, second only to Independence Day. Damn near everyone is a worker. More people are workers than those who celebrate Christmas. More people are workers in the civilian world than those who did military service.
• If you like Labor Day weekend, or any weekend, or not being forced to work 16 hours per day without any days off until you die, or not having your young children be forced to work in brutal conditions, the labor movement is who you should thank.
• It’s one of the most liberal, progressive concepts that exists in our country… that as a worker, you have rights and you have the power to exercise those rights.
• Just note: plenty of labor leaders died, got the shit kicked out of them, or got arrested to fight for the rights of working people. If it was up to the corporations who generally control things, you’d never have any rights at all as an employee.
• So really, thank them.
• Alright, let’s check the news… and staying on our labor theme at the same time.
• The Big 3 automakers — General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford — make billions in profits, but they’re seemingly unwilling to budge to the newest demands of the United Auto Workers, and whew, the UAW is going for the gusto this time.
• They want a 46% pay raise, a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay, and a restoration of traditional pensions. Otherwise, plan on a potential strike from 146,000 UAW members.
• ”Our employers only value one thing, profit; they do not value us. And the only way the working class advances is if we stand together.” - Shawn Fain, UAW leader
• Moving on…
• Tomorrow, the Texas Senate will convene as a high court to consider the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.
• He’s been accused by his own party of taking bribes and abusing his office. The Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives voted 121-23 on May 27 to impeach him on these charges.
• Paxton was indicted on securities fraud counts in 2015. His own staff reported him to the FBI for suspected corruption in 2020 over his dealings with Nate Paul, a donor and real estate investor, for which Paxton struck a $3.3 million settlement.
• According to the impeachment articles, Paxton used his power and office to help Paul work through legal difficulties. They also accuse him of accepting bribes in the form of renovations to his home and a job for a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
• When confronted allegations of wrongdoing, Paxton retaliated against whistleblowers in his office and spent government money trying to cover up his wrongdoing with a sham investigation into their claims.
• Hopefully justice will be served. Paxton is a grade-A asshole, one of the worst.
• Moving on.
• President Joe Biden is in Philadelphia today for a Labor Day event, touting the importance of unions and applauding American workers in building the economy.
• Biden's Labor Day speech came after news last week that America’s employers added 187,000 jobs in August, evidence of resilient labor market.
• In other news, the Minnesota Department of Corrections says a situation at the Stillwater prison has been resolved after an emergency lockdown on Sunday.
• Inmates have returned to their cells after about 100 of them refused to do so yesterday morning. An emergency lockdown was issued starting around 8 AM for the incident.
• A Stillwater inmate gave the reason for the uprising in a phone interview. “It's supposed to be a record week of heat and they got us locked in cells. No air conditioning, no water, no showers, no nothing. It got to a point now where we had to take a peaceful protest and take a stand for our rights and say, 'Listen, we ain't taking no more.’"
• I support that. If we’re going to lock people up (and yes, there are valid reasons for using loss of freedom as a punishment), they still need to be treated humanely. Even here in the civilized USA, there are some prison conditions so bad that they’d be illegal if the same things were done to animals in a pound.
• And now, The Weather: “The Dark Prince” by Eyedress & Mac DeMarco
• Here’s some weird weather shit for ya. In Rochester, NY and surrounding areas, meteorologists are warning about dangerously high heat on this Labor Day, while Lake Tahoe, NV experienced near freeing temps overnight.
• Now that we’re basically past the point of no return of what used to be weather anomalies caused by man-assisted global climate change, you can expect the unexpected from now through however long you live.
• RIP to Steve Harwell, the former lead singer of the rock group Smash Mouth, who died today at age 56.
• No official cause of death was shared, but Harwell had reportedly fought cardiomyopathy and chronic liver failure, which both likely stemmed from his chronic alcoholism. I won’t speak ill of the dead, but there were many incidents of that guy not treating others well due to being drunk. It’s sad.
• I just saw the very best description of contemporary Burning Man, courtesy of my friend Beachy Piers. Someone was asking what Burning Man was and couldn’t figure out why it had any appeal.
• “That’s because it used to be a real earthy grassroots gathering, which, like everything in this capitalistic hell, has now turned into rich people LARPING the idea.”
• Exactly correct.
• Got a cool chart for you today. It’s the first week of September 1977. I’ve just started fourth grade. I’m already playing guitar. I know at least six chords, which is twice as many needed to have a hit song.
• 1. Best Of My Love (The Emotions). 2.(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher (Rita Coolidge). 3. I Just Want To Be Your Everything (Andy Gibb). 4. Handy Man (James Taylor). 5. Float On (The Floaters). 6. Don't Stop (Fleetwood Mac). 7. Easy (Commodores) 8. Strawberry Letter 23 (The Brothers Johnson). 9. Telephone Line (Electric Light Orchestra). 10. Smoke From A Distant Fire (The Sanford/Townsend Band). 11. Star Wars (Main Title) (London Symphony Orchestra). 12. Just A Song Before I Go (Crosby, Stills & Nash). 13. Barracuda (Heart). 14. Cold As Ice (Foreigner). 15. Keep It Comin' Love (KC And The Sunshine Band).  16. On And On (Stephen Bishop). 17. Swayin' To The Music (slow Dancin') (Johnny Rivers). 18. Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band (Meco). 19. That's Rock 'N' Roll (Shaun Cassidy). 20. Don't Worry Baby (B.J. Thomas)
• Got another special chart for you today. It’s some of the current Top 10 on Apple’s iTunes chart.
• 1. Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett). 4. Come Monday (Jimmy Buffett). 5. Cheeseburger in Paradise (Jimmy Buffett). 9. Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes (Jimmy Buffett). 10. It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere (Jimmy Buffett).
• From the Sports Desk… Ben Shelton and his scary serve moved into the quarterfinals of the US Open yesterday with a 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Tommy Paul. Shelton won 75% of his first-serve points, blasting 16 aces and putting in two serves in one game recorded at 149 mph.
• Holy shit. 
• Shelton will face fellow American Frances Tiafoe tomorrow, while American Taylor Fritz will square up against some guy named Novak Djokovic.
• Also at the Sports Desk, a reminder that the NFL season kicks off (literally) on Thursday September 7. Your team most likely has its depth chart pretty well set, so you can go check that out if you’re interested. It’s also not too late to get in on an NFL pool just for fun.
• Today in history… Romulus Augustulus is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself "King of Italy", thus ending the Western Roman Empire (476). The worst day of the Great Fire of London (1666). 44 Spanish settlers found El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles, now known as Los Angeles (1781). After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona (1886). George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film (1888). A German submarine makes the first attack of tWWII against a US warship, the USS Greer (1941). The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference (1951). The governor of Arkansas calls out the National Guard to prevent Black students from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School (1957). Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games (1972). Two students at Stanford University named Larry Page and Sergey Brin found something called Google (1998).
• September 4 is the birthday of businessman Stephen Whitney (1776), inventor Lewis Howard Latimer (1848),  businessman William Lyons (1901), mob boss Mickey Cohen (1913), businessman Henry Ford II (1917), chemist George William Gray (1926), actor Dick York (1928), golfer Raymond Floyd (1942), singer-songwriter/drummer/guitarist Gene Parsons (1944), guitarist Danny Gatton (1945), golfer Tom Watson (1949), drummer Martin Chambers (1951), idiot Drew Pinsky (1958), guitarist/songwriter Kim Thayil (1960), actor Damon Waynans (1960), MLB player Mike Piazza (1968), actress Ione Skye (1971), music producer Mark Ronson (1975), singer-songwriter Beyoncé (1981), and comedian Kyle Mooney (1984).

That’s all for now. I’m going to get back to not working except for when I work a little. Enjoy your day.