Random News: October 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 October 4, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. We’ve been living in interesting times, and you really should be aware of some things. Let’s talk about them.

• We knew this was coming the moment Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) got named Speaker of the House in January of this year, after a record 15 attempts just to get the coveted leadership spot. He had to make severe concessions to the far right to win that election, including the ability to be removed from his office very easily.
• And that is now what has happened. For the first time in US history, we have removed a sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives. The last time it was even attempted (unsuccessfully) was over 100 years ago.
• McCarthy was ousted in a 216-210 vote, with eight Republicans voting to remove McCarthy from the post. That’s all it took after all 202 Democrats assisted in Kevin’s departure.
• Worried that this is a win for Republicans? Um, no. Just eight of them voted to remove Kevin. The other 210 of them voted to keep him.
• Yesterday’s vote for McCarthy’s ouster came after far-right prick Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) offered a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor. Now the GOP congress looks like an utter clown show train wreck, and they get to clean up their own mess.
• Can you imagine being an old-school, small-government, family-values, traditional Republican and realizing that they’re now the party of utter chaos, in total disarray and engaged in active self-sabotage? It’s just mind blowing.
• Obviously, with Kevin gone, the House needs some warm body to hold the gavel and keep business running there. For the moment on an interim basis, it’s Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), one of McCarthy’s best pals.
• He’s the little guy in the bow tie, and he was super angry about the whole thing as he slammed the gavel down as hard as possible after the vote. Like, it’s comedic if you haven’t seen it yet.
• Less comedic was little Pat telling Nancy Pelosi to vacate her hideaway Capitol office moments later. Pelosi was in California, mourning the loss of her friend Dianne Feinstein. McHenry is a little prick, if you were unaware before.
• So once again, instead of actually working on the country’s problems, passing budgets, making laws, and the stuff we pay them to do, the House will have to vote as many times as it takes to get someone to 218 votes, or a majority of those present and voting for a speaker.
• Who will that be and when will it happen?
• McCarthy said in meetings yesterday that he wouldn’t run again. You might think it would be Gaetz himself, but he is tremendously unpopular in the House, and he’s already planning on running for governor of Florida.
• Not one specific name is being tossed around as a likely serious candidate who can get 218 votes in this weird-ass environment. I suspect some shitty weirdo like Elise Stefanik or Steve Scalise and even Jim “Gym” Jordan will step up soon.
• Could it be a Democrat? Of course not, in a Republican majority House. But — fun fact — the Speaker of the House does not legally have to be a member of Congress. So basically, take your pick of horrible people.
• Except at least one. The House Republicans’ Rule 26 says, “A member of the Republican leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed.”
• Snort.
• It was said that they will aim for next Tuesday/Wednesday to have a speaker vote. Might want to have some popcorn ready for that clown show.
• But to be clear… without a Speaker in place, the House is paralyzed. The Speaker sets the agenda and negotiates between factions in order to figure out what comes to the floor. For however long it takes for them to go through the process of electing a new one, it’s doubtful that Republicans will be able to advance any legislation.
• In other big news… and yes, there’s more…
• New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron issued a gag order yesterday on defendant Donald John Trump after he attacked the judge’s law clerk on social media and in comments to reporters covering his fraud trial.
• He made it all the way to the second day of his trial before he fucked up that badly. Way to go, Dumpster.
• The judge said he ordered that the post be deleted. It was scrubbed from Trump’s account on his Truth Social site earlier yesterday afternoon.
• How can you tell when Donnie is deeply frightened and losing very badly? Yesterday he claimed that the trial was “rigged” and “fraudulent.”
• He is so… fucking… screwed.
• Let’s move on.
• Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) was sworn in yesterday to fill the remainder of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat.
• Butler was sworn in by Vice President Harris. The new California senator served as a senior adviser to Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) stood behind her as she took the oath of office. Butler was also greeted shortly after by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
• “I’m honored to accept Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nomination to be U.S. Senator for a state I have made my home and honored by his trust in me to serve the people of California and this great nation. No one will ever measure up to the legacy of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but I will do my best to honor her legacy and leadership by committing to work for women and girls, workers and unions, struggling parents, and all of California. I am ready to serve.”
• I already like her a lot.
• Moving on…
• The Biden administration has approved debt relief for an additional 125,000 student loan borrowers, totaling $9 billion in forgiveness, the White House said this morning.
• Though the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s hallmark student loan forgiveness program, the administration has continued to find other ways to provide debt relief.
• Thanks Joe!
• An interesting case is in front of the Supreme Court today. A woman with multiple sclerosis had trouble finding information online about hotels that could accommodate her disability, and at times had to sleep in her car because the hotels couldn’t accommodate her wheelchair.
• She began pursuing test cases on behalf of the broader disabled community by finding out which hotels included accessibility information required by law, and filed hundreds of disability discrimination lawsuits against hotels she never planned to visit.
• Her lawyers say her work is necessary to enforce the Americans With Disabilities Act, in the same way that Black civil rights advocates tried to rent apartments they did not intend to occupy to test whether they would be turned away because of race.
• As I said, interesting.
• In other news, the battle for second place in the GOP presidential primary is heating up. A new poll of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire shows it’s Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor — not Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — in a strong second place.
• Haley beat DeSantis 19 percent to 10 percent in a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA TODAY survey released this morning.
• None of this will matter. I just like DeSantis and Trump being upset that a woman is doing well. Haley still sucks, but the enemy of my enemy is… still my enemy, but I hope they’re stressing about her.
• And now, The Weather: “Nintendo Love” by Sea Glass & Sky Adler
• For you folks in the Midwest and East Coast, you’re about to get a dramatic shift in weather as a robust cold front delivers the first hefty dose of fall weather by the weekend. Temps may tumbling by as much as 35 degrees.
• Here in SoCal? Staying about the same as usual all year.
• Last night after my show, I was snacking on a delicious Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, and I was thinking about the old-school brands that somehow managed to survive essentially unchanged for many decades.
• You don’t get product names like that anymore. Like, Reese was an actual dude, and these are his peanut butter cups.
• I may have been high while thinking this.
• A 104-year-old Chicago woman set a Guinness world record by jumping out of a plane.
• Dorothy Hoffner first went skydiving when she was 100 years old and had to be pushed out of the plane. This time around, she joyfully led the tandem jump. “Let’s go, let’s go, Geronimo!” she said while flinging herself out of an aircraft at 13,500 feet.
• I mean, I know 40-year-olds who won’t go out when it’s raining.
• From the Sports Desk… baseball playoff are on. Yesterday, the first four games of the Wild Card round wrapped up with Texas over Tampa Bay 4-0, Minnesota over Toronto 3-1, Arizona over Milwaukee 6-3, and Philadelphia over Miami 4-1.
• Each MLB WC round is three games, so the first team to two wins… wins.
• Today in history… the Battle of Lake Poyang, one of the largest naval battles in history, has Zhu Yuanzhang's rebels defeat rival Chen Youliang (1363). The Gregorian Calendar is introduced by Pope Gregory XIII (1582). The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock (1636). Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic (1824). The Crimean War begins when the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Russian Empire (1853). The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas opens as the first public college in Texas (1876). First run of the Orient Express (1883). Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore (1927). The Metropolitan Police and various anti-fascist organizations violently clash in the Battle of Cable Street in London (1936). Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth (1957). Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 miles per hour (1,019.468 km/h) at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada (1983). Battle of Mogadishu occurs killing 18 U.S. Special Forces, two UN Peacekeepers and at least 600 Somalian militia men and civilians (1993). WikiLeaks is launched (2006). Bubba Wallace becomes the first African-American Driver in the modern era of NASCAR to win a major race (2021).
• October 4 is the birthday of Louis X of France (1289), politician Richard Cromwell (1626), entomologist Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus (1723), US president Rutherford B. Hayes (1822), painter Frederic Remington (1861), actor Buster Keaton (1895), activist Mary Two-Axe Earley (1911), inventor/businessman Ken Wood (1916), actor Charlton Heston (1923), author/futurist Alvin Toffler (1928), NFL player Sam Huff (1934), author Anne Rice (1941), MLB player/manager Tony La Russa (1944), actress/activist Susan Sarandon (1946), actor Christoph Waltz (1956), actor Bill Fagerbakke (1957), music executive Russell Simmons (1957), NBA player A. C. Green (1963), actor Liev Schreiber (1967), singer-songwriter M. Ward (1973), actress Alicia Silverstone (1976), NBA player Derrick Rose (1988), and actress Dakota Johnson (1989).

I had a super good show last night at Hotel Chelsea in SL, and in between work stuff, I’ll also be writing about that at some point today. Meanwhile, I have plenty of shit to do that’s less fun but also necessary. Enjoy your day.