Random News: October 19, 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 October 19, 2023, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’m still dealing with some minority annoying things, but I’m striving for some positivity today. If you don’t look for positive aspects in your life, chances are you won’t find them. I have a ton of them. Let’s do some news.

• I’m going to give you all the shortest-ever refresher course in US government. Trust me, this will be helpful for some, and I mean that in a nice way.
• The United States has three separate but equal branches of government: the Executive branch (the President and his cabinet and federal agencies), the Judicial branch (the Supreme Court and all other federal courts), and the Legislative branch.
• The legislative branch, called the Congress, has two chambers. The Senate (comprised of two Senators from each state, totaling 100) and the House of Representatives (comprised of Representatives from various districts in each state whose territories are subject to alteration based on population and demographic changes over time), which currently has 435 members.
• To become the Speaker of the House, you need to be elected by a simple majority of the available Representatives. That magic number is currently 217 votes.
• Anyone can be the Speaker of the House. I could. You can. There are no rules saying who can and can’t, and the person doesn’t have to be a member of Congress. But in practical reality, it’s always a member of the House… usually one of the most senior and respected members of the majority party.
• Until two weeks ago, the USA has never NOT had a Speaker of the House. Then some right-wing psychos got together and threw Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) out of the job despite that fact that he was one of their own.
• Since then, the GOP has tried to figure out who should replace McCarthy. Now you’re up to speed.
• Yesterday was the second attempt for the Republican majority in the House to elect Jim Jordan (R-OH) as Speaker. It… did not go well.
• On the first ballot held Tuesday, Jordan had 20 Republicans vote against him… far more than the five that would allow him to get the role.
• On the second ballot held yesterday morning, the number increased to 22 against Jordan.
• This appears to be the first time the majority party's nominee dropped below 200 votes since 1903…. and back then, the House had just 365 members voting compared to today’s 435 total members.
• Once again, every single Democrat supported minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). All 212 of them in alignment. It was wonderful to see.
• Among those 22 “No Jordan” votes, there were seven votes for Steve Scalise (R-LA), five for Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), three for former GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin, one very bizarre vote for long-retired former House speaker John Boehner (who is now running a marijuana collective), and one each for Reps. Byron Donalds (R-SC), Tom Emmer (R-MN), former GOP Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI), Kay Granger (R-TX), Mike Garcia (R-CA), and Bruce Westerman (R-AR). 
• Between round one and round two of votes, Drew Ferguson (R-GA), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), and Pete Stauber (R-MN) switched their votes away from Jordan to another candidate. The two votes he got back were from Gus M. Bilirakis (F-FL) who wasn’t present at the first vote, and Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), who’s just a spineless prick.
• Of the 18 GOP reps who live in districts Biden won in 2020, 12 of them continued their support for Jordan despite Jordan having attempted to overturn the votes of the citizens in their districts in the 2020 election. Those GOP reps should be our top-tier hit list of candidates whose seats can and should be flipped in 2024.
• They are: Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), John Duarte (R-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mike Garcia (R-CA), Thomas Keane Jr. (R-NJ), Young Kim (R-CA), Marcus Molinaro (R-NY), George Santos (R-NY), David Schweikert (R-AZ), Michelle Steel (R-CA), David G. Valadao (R-CA), and Brandon Williams (R-NY).
• I should remind everyone that Jordan is the Speaker candidate endorsed and highly recommended by the guy who was formerly the president.
• The third vote is scheduled for today at noon ET. Will there be any changes from the last two votes? We’ll find out in an hour or two.
• Also, just so it doesn’t take anyone by surprise: there’s a push by some GOP House members to give speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) — that tiny man with the bow tie — more authority to bring up bills to avoid a government shutdown and approve aid to Israel while they’re figuring all this shit out.
• McHenry’s only current legal role is to oversee the election of a new Speaker… nothing more.
• While that clusterfuck was going on, in the other chamber of Congress some great things happened as the Senate unanimously filled the late Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) vacant committee seats.
• Most importantly, Senator Laphonza Butler (D-CA), who was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to Feinstein's Senate seat, was also named to fill Feinstein's former seat on the Judiciary Committee, restoring the Democrats majority on the Committee and ending the GOP blockade of Biden's federal judge nominations.
• Hell yes!
• Some various news of the criminal mastermind El Dumpo forthcoming, including some BIG breaking news from this morning.
• Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, aka the Kraken lady, has pleaded guilty today in the Georgia election subversion case, one day before her trial was set to start.
• Fulton County prosecutors are recommending a sentence of six years probation in exchange for her full testimony at Trump’s trials. She flipped.
• As part of her guilty plea, Powell is admitting her role in the January 2021 breach of election systems in Coffee County, GA.
• Bye, Don.
• In other Dump news…
• Yesterday, a federal judge denied Dumpy’s attempt to delay a lawsuit against him seeking civil damages over the January 6, 2021 failed coup attempt at the Capitol.
• After Donnie was indicted on federal criminal charges, his attorneys in August attempted to put the civil lawsuit on hold, citing substantial overlap. But U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta denied Trump’s stay motion in a brief order issued yesterday, calling the request “unwarranted.”
• The case comes from Sandra Garza, the longtime partner of Brian Sicknick, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was bear sprayed multiple times, had two strokes, and died hours after the Capitol attack. The U.S. Capitol Police said Sicknick died in the line of duty.
• Meanwhile, in New York City, El Dumpo had another bad day in court yesterday.
• Dumples appeared frustrated yesterday in a New York City courtroom during his ongoing civil trial. Don the Con has already been found liable for fraud, but the trial is proceeding on several other accusations, including falsification of business records and conspiracy. The state is demanding $250 million and severe restrictions on the Trump businesses.
• He was putting on a grandiose performance involving shaking his head, throwing his hands in the air, and whispering loudly while witnesses were testifying. He was admonished by Judge Arthur Engoron and told to simmer down.
• In that same courtroom, something SUPER weird happened when a women walked up to the front of the gallery, approaching Dumpy. She was immediately confronted by law enforcement, who told her to return to her seat then later led her out of the courtroom.
• She was yelling out to Trump that she wanted to assist him. Turns out she was a court employee who had since been placed on administrative leave. She could be heard screaming in the courthouse lobby as she was led out of the building, and has since been banned from entering any Unified Court System facility.
• Psycho MAGA!
• In just plain dumb and embarrassing news about the former presidump, his lawyer had to be told he must apply to join the bar of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit before the court can accept an appeal from him against Trump's recently imposed gag order.
• The clerks of the D.C. Court of Appeals sent a letter to attorney John Lauro yesterdayday advising him that the court could not accept filings from attorneys who are not members of the court's bar.
• ”Our records reveal that you are not a member of the bar of this court. It is the policy of the court that all attorneys appearing before it be members of the bar of this court. Our rules do not allow us to accept filings from attorneys who are not members."
• Pfffft. It’s easily rectifiable by filling out a form and paying a fee, but the blunder is not something you’d expect from an experienced attorney.
• Moving on.
• Let’s do an update on the Israel/Hamas war.
• President Biden spent hours in talks yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet. He then announced an agreement to allow humanitarian aid from Egypt to Gaza. At most 20 trucks will enter Gaza in the coming days, and the U.N. will distribute the aid. Biden warned aid would stop if any of it goes to Hamas.
• Good.
• Biden has returned to the USA and is expected to deliver a prime-time Oval Office address tonight where he’ll make the case for more aid spending for Israel and Ukraine.
• Moving on.
• In our continuing coverage of the insurrectionists in the January 6, 2021 failed coup attempt, meet Rachel Powell.
• The Pennsylvania woman in her early 40s — a mother of eight and grandmother of six — was convicted on nine federal counts in July after a bench trial. Powell smashed a Capitol window with an ice ax and a giant cardboard tube before she used a bullhorn to instruct rioters on how to "take" the building.
• She recently received a personalized hat from the former presidump. She probably won’t be able to wear it while she serves more than four years in prison, per her sentencing Tuesday.
• We will never stop until every one of the people involved in the coup is caught and punished.
• One more piece of news about That Fucking Guy.
• NBC filed a motion in federal court yesterday, seeking to televise Dump's J6 trial in DC this March. The network requested to do that either with its own cameras or using a pool camera available to any media company.
• They argued that millions of Americans have an interest in this trial, but if it is not televised only handful of people will actually be able to witness it, and the public will have to rely on whatever information those observers choose to disseminate.
• Good point.
• Got one more asshole to talk about. Just one, I promise.
• Right-wing troll Douglass Mackey was sentenced yesterday to seven months in jail for attempting to trick Black and Hispanic Democratic voters into disenfranchising themselves with false information leading up to the 2016 election.
• Mackey shared phony advertisements with his followers and other MAGA influencers informing people that the lines at polling places were long so they would be permitted to vote by text and provided a fictitious text number.
• The ads were designed to look as if they were coming from the Hillary Clinton campaign. One ad was written in Spanish and the other featured a Black woman holding a sign that said, "African-Americans for Hillary."
• Mackey’s actions were defended by both Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor-Greene, because of course they were.
• And now, The Weather: “Blanket” by Kevin Abstract
• Rest in peace to actor Burt Young, who died at age 83. You likely know him as Paulie from the ‘Rocky’ film franchise, but he had a ton of other great memorable tough guy roles including films like “Chinatown” and “Once Upon a Time in America”, and a great guest spot on ‘The Sopranos’.
• Young was also a highly-touted visual artist, with his paintings displayed at gallery shows.
• From the Sports Desk… congrats to the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, who became the first team in 21 to achieve back-to-back championships. They beat the New York Liberty 70-69 in a thrilling game 4 victory, winning the best-of-five Finals series 3-1.
• In the MLB world, the Astros grabbed a game in the ALCS, beating the Rangers 8-5. The Rangers hold a 2-1 lead in the series. In the NLCS, the Phillies and D-Backs play tonight, with Philadelphia holding a 2-0 lead in that series.
• Today in history… King John of England — my 25th great-grandfather — dies at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry — my 24th great-grandfather (1216). Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (1512). John Jay is sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States (1789). Austria cedes Veneto and Mantua to France, which immediately awards them to Italy in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy and Nice (1866). Max Planck discovers Planck's law of black-body radiation (1900). Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, is isolated by researchers at Rutgers University (1943). President Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes (1973). Black Monday has the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by 22%, 508 points (1987). Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity (2005). 
• October 19 is the birthday of activist John Woolman (1720), actress LaWanda Page (1920), actor Robert Reed (1932), singer-songwriter/musician Dave Guard (1934), illustrator Peter Max (1937), actor Michael Gambon (1940), singer-songwriter/guitarist Peter Tosh (1944), actor John Lithgow (1945), singer-songwriter/guitarist Patrick Simmons (1948), NBA player Joe Bryant (1954), politician Michael Steele (1958), boxer Evander Holyfield (1962), actor/director John Favreau (1966), animator Trey Parker (1969), actor Chris Kattan (1970), and MLB player José Bautista (1980).

Frankly, there’s a lot more news that what’s listed above, but my time is limited, so that’s what you get. Enjoy your day.