Random News: October 23, 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 23, 2023, and it’s a Monday. I’m. dealing with some dental problems, and will continue to do so until I actually get them fixed, as they’re not magically healing on their own. Fucking teeth. Sigh. Let’s do some news…

• The second aid convoy destined for desperate Palestinian civilians reached Gaza yesterday, as Israel widened its attacks to include targets in Syria and the occupied West Bank. Israeli authorities said they allowed the second batch of aid into Gaza at the request of the United States.
• For days, Israel has been on the verge of launching a ground offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ brutal October 7 rampage through a series of Israeli communities. Tanks and troops have been massed at the Gaza border, waiting for the command to cross.
• The aid included water, food and medical supplies and that everything was inspected by Israel before it was brought into Gaza. The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees confirmed the arrival of 14 trucks. Israel has not allowed any fuel to enter Gaza.
• Hamas’ surprise attack in Israel on October 7 brutally killed more than 1,400 people, including civilians and military personnel, and abducted over 200 others.
• And Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 4,600 Palestinians so far, including an estimated 1,900 children, and wounded at least 14,000 others. Another 1.4 million people have been internally displaced.
• It doesn’t matter whose side you take or what your beliefs are… war is awful.
• Back in the USA, the war for the Speaker of the House position continues. As I mentioned over the weekend, there are nine Republicans vying for the role…
• House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), House Republican Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA).
• My support remains with minority party leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). However, since it’s extraordinarily unlikely for a Republican-held House to choose a Democrat speaker, I am actually ready to tell you the best of the worst.
• It’s Tom Emmer. He was one of the only ones listed above who voted to certify the 2020 election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania. He was one of a very small number of House GOP members to vote for a bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex couples.
• Under no possibility can we have a Speaker who supported overturning the 2020 election with no evidence and against the will of the American people. It would be devastating. That’s why Jim Jordan didn’t make it.
• Emmer has also now been endorsed by Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for his former job. Trump doesn’t like him. The far right wing doesn’t like him. And that being said, if Emmer makes some arrangement with the Democrats, there’s a possibility for him to have the votes to get in.
• As such, if I’m forced to support one the GOP Speaker candidates over the others, Emmer would be my choice. No one’s asking me and I don’t get a vote, but that would be mine.
• No other single GOP candidate seems to have any kind of widespread support. And none of them, including Emmer, will have enough pure Republican support to seal the deal. They’ve got to work with the other side of the aisle.
• Let’s do some very good news.
• Today, President Biden and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo will announce the designation of 31 communities across the country as Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs (Tech Hubs) through the Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.
• What’s a tech hub? They’re places that focus on developing and growing innovative industries in regions across the country, including semiconductors, clean energy, critical minerals, biotechnology, precision medicine, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and more.
• The tech hubs result from a process Raimondo’s department launched in May to distribute a total of $500 million in grants to cities. The $500 million came from a $10 billion authorization in last year’s CHIPS and Science Act.
• Here they are…
• Tulsa Hub for Equitable & Trustworthy Autonomy (OK), led by Tulsa Innovation Labs. Ocean Tech Hub (RI, MA), led by the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation. Headwaters Hub (MT), led by Accelerate Montana. Elevate Quantum Colorado (CO), led by Elevate Quantum. The Bloch Tech Hub (IL, IN, WI), led by the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE). Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Tech Hub (VA), led by the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing. ReGen Valley Tech Hub (NH), led by the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute. iFAB Tech Hub (IL), led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Kansas City Inclusive Biologics and Biomanufacturing Tech Hub (MO, KS), led by BioNexus KC. Heartland BioWorks (IN), led by the Applied Research Institute. PRBio Tech Hub (PR), led by the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust. Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub (WI), led by BioForward Wisconsin. Baltimore Tech Hub (MD), led by the Greater Baltimore Committee. Birmingham Biotechnology Hub (AL), led by Southern Research Institute. Greater Philadelphia Region Precision Medicine Tech Hub (PA, DE, MD, NJ), led by the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA. Minnesota MedTech Hub 3.0 (MN, WI), led by the Minneapolis Saint Paul Economic Development Partnership. Gulf Louisiana Offshore Wind Propeller (LA), led by Louisiana State University. Intermountain-West Nuclear Energy Tech Hub (ID, WY), led by the Idaho Advanced Energy Consortium. SC Nexus for Advanced Resilient Energy (SC, GA) led by the South Carolina Department of Commerce. South Florida Climate Resilience Tech Hub (FL), led by the Miami Dade County Innovation and Economic Development Office. New Energy New York Battery Tech Hub (NY), led by the State University of New York (SUNY) Binghamton. Nevada Lithium Batteries and Other EV Material Loop (NV), led by the University of Nevada, Reno. Critical Minerals and Materials for Advanced Energy Tech Hub (MO), led by the University of Missouri System. Texoma Semiconductor Tech Hub (TX, OK), led by Southern Methodist University. Corvallis Microfluidics Tech Hub (OR), led by Oregon State University. NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub (NY), led by CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity. Advancing Gallium Nitride Tech Hub (VT), led by the University of Vermont. Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub (OH), led by the Greater Akron Chamber. Forest Bioproducts Advanced Manufacturing Tech Hub (ME), led by the Maine Technology Institute. American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Tech Hub (WA, ID), led by Gonzaga University. Pacific Northwest Mass Timber Tech Hub (OR, WA), led by Oregon State University.
• Pretty cool.
• Back to the international news.
• Far-right populist Javier Milei has failed to win the first round of Argentina’s presidential election, with the centrist finance minister Sergio Massa unexpectedly beating his radical challenger.
• Milei is a piece of shit. He’s been described as an Argentinian mashup of Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and Boris Johnson, and predicted a landslide victory, because that’s what people like him do.
• However, with nearly 99% of votes counted, it was his Peronist rival Massa who won the day with 36.6% of the 27 million votes cast.
• Milei’s platform was abolishing Argentina’s central bank and shunning its biggest trade partners, China and Brazil. He came second with 29.9% of the vote. The third main candidate, the conservative former security minister, Patricia Bullrich, finished third, with about 23.8%.
• Good.
• In similar news, Venezuelans nominated conservative opposition leader María Corina Machado yesterday to challenge authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro.
• Machado is a 56-year-old industrial engineer and former lawmaker. She won an overwhelming victory in the opposition’s first presidential primary in more than a decade to choose a single candidate to unite behind. In a preliminary report, Machado got 93.13 percent of the vote, with a total of 552,430.
• The problem: Machado is a longtime critic of the government — she was once mocked by Hugo Chávez, the founder of Venezuela’s socialist state. As a result, she’s been disqualified from holding public office for 15 years.
• We’ll see how that goes.
• Back once again in the USA, the news from the end of last week — that both Powell and Chesebro pleaded guilty in the Fulton County, GA RICO case against El Dumpo  — bears more detail.
• There was a time where, cynically, I thought there was no way that Donald John Trump would be indicted for his crimes. And then, when he was, I thought there was no way he’d be convicted. The system seem built to protect the powerful and wealthy. Anyone with a healthy degree of skepticism seemed to agree.
• Now I’m not so sure.
• Dumpster’s chances of being convicted in the federal 2020 election subversion case seem to have increased after his top election lawyer admitted to a felony that the effort to create fake slates of electors was fraudulent.
• Kenneth Chesebro’s plea deal could incriminate Don the Con in Georgia. But Chesebro could also separately incriminate Trump in Jack Smith’s federal criminal case in Washington, should the special counsel use his new admission as evidence that Trump conspired to defraud the United States in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
• As you’d expect, Dumples’ lawyers are downplaying the guilty pleas, but they’re only doing it for damage control since Orange Man is still trying to get himself elected again. I think this is just the beginning of an amazing downward spiral for the former presidumb.
• Moving on…
• Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is scheduled to be arraigned today in Manhattan on new charges alleging he accepted bribes from the Egyptian government and conspired to act as a foreign agent while serving as a member of Congress.
• His co-defendants, including his wife, Nadine Menendez, and businessman Wael Hana, were also included in the new charges. They pleaded not guilty in Manhattan last week.
• And now, The Weather: “Siphon” by Truth Club
• Got a great chart for you…. or maybe just for me. In October 1982, I was a freshman in high school and had all the options still ahead of me. I’m not a nostalgia guy; that time wasn’t “the best time of my life”. But I do have fond memories of freedom and lack of real responsibility.
• 1. Jack & Diane (John Cougar). 2. Who Can It Be Now? (Men At Work). 3. Eye In The Sky (The Alan Parsons Project). 4. Hard To Say I'm Sorry (Chicago). 5. Abracadabra (The Steve Miller Band). 6. I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near) (Michael McDonald). 7. Somebody's Baby (Jackson Browne). 8. You Can Do Magic (America). 9. Heart Attack (Olivia Newton-John). 10. I Ran (So Far Away) (A Flock Of Seagulls). 11. Up Where We Belong (Joe Cocker And Jennifer Warnes). 12. Blue Eyes (Elton John). 13. Break It To Me Gently (Juice Newton). 14. Eye Of The Tiger (Survivor). 15. Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac). 16. Hold On (Santana). 17. Gloria (Laura Branigan). 18. Heartlight (Neil Diamond). 19. What's Forever For (Michael Murphey). 20. Don't Fight It (Kenny Loggins with Steve Perry).
• From the Sports Desk… it was opposite day in the NFL yesterday. Out of 12 games played in week 7 thus far, seven of them were won by the underdog. Also, some respectable teams were not just beaten but annihilated. I’m looking at you, Detroit Lions.
• Also in Sports, the Texas Rangers knotted up the ALCS at 3-3 after a huge win over the Astros last night. Game 7 of the series will be tonight at 8PM ET in Houston.
• In the NLCS, tonight is game 6, with the D-backs at Phillies.
• Today in history… James Ussher's proposed creation date of the world according to the Bible (4004 BC). The first National Women's Rights Convention begins in Worcester, MA (1850). Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe (1906). Nazi Germany prohibits Jews from emigrating, including in its occupied territories (1941). Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame (1970). Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War (1991). Yolanda Saldívar is found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of popular Latin singer Selena (1995). Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye River Memorandum (1998). Apple Computer releases the iPod (2001). Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party by the Central Committee, beginning a third term of the leader of China (2022).
• October 23 is the birthday of US vice-president Adlai Stevenson I (1835), actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844), football player/coach John Heisman (1869), physicist Felix Bloch (1905), TV host/comedian Johnny Carson (1925), golfer Chi-Chi Rodriguez (1935), soccer player Pelé (1940), author Michael Crichton (1942), film director Ang Lee (1954), singer-songwriter/guitarist Dwight Yoakam (1956), film director Sam Raimi (1959), singer-songwriter/accordionist Weird Al Yankovic (1959), NFL player Doug Flutie (1962), bass player Robert Trujillo (1964), and actor Ryan Reynolds (1976), model/activist Ireland Baldwin (1995), and NFL player Nick Bosa (1997).

That’s plenty of info. I have a lot to do and need to look into some dental care options as well. I’ll get through it. Enjoy your day.