Random News: November 1, 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 November 1, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. I hope your Halloween was fun, but we’re now in what is often one of my favorite months of the year. Let’s see what’s happening around the world and in your neck of the woods.

• Rabbit rabbit rabbit.
• I like pretending to be superstitious. I’m not, but it’s fun to pretend to be.
• Okay, let’s go.
• As I’ve mentioned and will mention again, one of the marquee Election Day contests next week is in Ohio, where voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
• If Issue 1 goes through as I hope it will, it will continue a winning streak for abortion rights supporters. It’s been about 17 months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and since then, candidates and ballot measures backing abortion rights have won in every single election, including in conservative states like Kentucky and Kansas.
• While the polling seems favorable for Ohio’s Issue 1, no one should be complacent or overconfident. What matters is that Ohioan get out and vote next Tuesday. Don’t assume someone else is doing it for you.
• The way to vote is YES ON ISSUE 1. Do it.
• In other election news, Kentucky and Mississippi are both electing governors on Tuesday. Both contests are seen as competitive despite the states’ overall red tilt — Dump won Kentucky by 26 points and Mississippi by 16 in 2020.
• I highly support both Andy Beshear (KY) and Brandon Presley (MS). They are principled men of honor. Please vote for them. Thank you.
• Moving on.
• Some very sad scenes out of the Israel/Hamas war yesterday when an Israeli strike targeting a Hamas commander in the densely populated Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza left catastrophic damage and killed a large number of people.
• While it’s probably a good thing that the Israel Defense Forces targeted and killed Ibrahim Biari, one of the Hamas commanders responsible for the October 7 attack on Israel, the damage to civilians and property seems excessive.
• War never ends well… for the defeated nor the victors.
• On a related topic, the White House says President Biden would veto a package put forward by House Republicans to provide aid to Israel while cutting funding for the Internal Revenue Service and leaving out funding for other national security priorities.
• The White House further asserted that the GOP proposal marks a break from bipartisan precedent by seeking funding cuts as part of an emergency national security package.
• Yup. The Speaker Mike Johnson era may not last long, but it will do plenty of damage to the world in the process.
• Moving on once again to something somewhat related…
• A Cornell University junior was arrested and charged in connection with a series of antisemitic online threats made against the school’s Jewish community.
• Patrick Dai, 21, was arrested yesterday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. Dai posted threatening messages on a discussion website, including threats to shoot up a mainly kosher dining hall on campus.
• The crime is punishable by up to five years in prison. Dai is scheduled to appear in court in Syracuse today.
• Antisemitism in the US is reaching historic levels in the wake of violence in Israel and Gaza, per FBI Director Christopher Wray. He said 60% of all religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish people.
• Other countries, including the UK and France, have also warned of a recent major uptick in antisemitic incidents.
• Allow me to be clear once again: the Israel-Gaza conflict is filled with both good and bad people on both sides, and blaming American Jews for your perception of Israel’s actions is like blaming American Black people for the actions of a warlord in the Central African Republic.
• It’s fucking stupid. It’s as stupid as blaming all Palestinians for the actions of Hamas terrorists. Don’t be an idiot.
• Okay, now really moving on… to Donnie Dumpo, the national joke who’s finally facing responsibility for his actions.
• In Colorado yesterday, lawyers sparred over El Dumpo’s relationship with the army of insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. This is an important point in the lawsuit seeking to bar him from the 2024 ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
• The plaintiffs presented testimony from an extremism expert who maintained that Trump had a clear relationship with far-right extremists and that they interpreted his pleas to protest the certification of President Joe Biden’s win as a call to arms.
• But Dumpy’s lawyers say his comments protesting the election results were merely a matter of him stating his opinion, which he had every right to do.
• This case, along with similar ones in Minnesota and Michigan, will almost certainly end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. The SCOTUS has never before ruled on the insurrection provision in the 14th Amendment.
• In other Dumples news, the former presidumb wrote a social post yesterday railing against the judge overseeing his New York civil fraud case and telling him to leave his children alone. 
• His “children” are grown adults in their 40s, I should remind you.
• Dumpy Junior will be taking the stand today at the New York civil fraud trial surrounding the Dumpy Crime Family’s supposed business empire. Junior is a defendant in the case alongside his father.
• Both Junior and his brother L’il Eric Dump, who are executive vice-presidents at the company, are due to be questioned in court this week. Dumpy himself is expected to testify next week, before his daughter Vanky, who is not a defendant in the case, is set to appear.
• Enough on him for now. Let’s talk about some other assholes.
• A Long Island, NY resident was arrested after pointing a gun at a 6-year-old who mistakenly placed a Halloween candy bag on his doorstep.
• Michael Yifan Wen, 43, was charged with menacing in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child.
• What happened was a woman was driving her children to her 10-year-old daughter’s friend’s house to drop off a goody bag last weekend. They realized that they had dropped it off at the wrong address.
• When they returned to the same home, the son hopped out of the car to grab the bag. Then the front door opened and Wen stepped out of the house and pointed a black handgun at the victim’s head.
• A six-year-old? You fucking piece of shit.
• Moving on to another asshole, which, coincidently, is the title of a really raunchy porn film.
• Jonathan Dunn, a former Delta co-pilot, was federally indicted earlier this month after he threatened to shoot the captain of a commercial flight last year if he diverted the plane because a passenger on board may have been suffering a medical emergency.
• What?
• The captain wanted to potentially divert the flight due to a passenger medical event. Dunn then  told the captain he would be shot multiple times if the flight was diverted. Wow.
• And now, The Weather: “Fuck Love, I Just Bought a New Truck” by Enumclaw
• From the Sports Desk… the Texas Rangers took a 3-1 lead in the World Series last night, jumping to a 10-0 lead by the third inning and winning 11-7. They are one win away from the championship.
• Also form the Sports Desk… the Las Vegas Raiders fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler last night, ending the former Patriots coordinator's head-coaching gig after 25 games, less than two seasons into a six-year contract. McDaniels went 9-16 as the Raiders' coach.
• Good riddance, says me, a Raiders fan.
• Today in history… Philip II is crowned as 'King of France’ (1179). The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time (1512). The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the first recorded circumnavigation voyage (1520). French Huguenots establish the France Antarctique colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1555). William Shakespeare's tragedy ‘Othello’ is performed for the first time (1604). Shakespeare's play ‘The Tempest’ is performed for the first time (1611). The British Crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties (1683). John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion, later renamed the White House (1800). President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army (1861). A picture showing the bare breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time (1896). Photographer Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography (1941). 6,500 United States Army soldiers are involuntarily exposed to 'Desert Rock' atomic explosions for training purposes (1951). Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor (1973). Honda becomes the first Asian automobile company to produce cars in the United States with the opening of its factory in Marysville, OH (1982). The Republic of Serbia and Montenegro joins the United Nations (2000).
• November 1 is the birthday of polymath Jan Brożek (1585), UK prime minister Spencer Perceval (1762), UK prime minister F. J. Robinson (1782), doctor/abolitionist Caroline Still Anderson (1848), painter William Merritt Chase (1849), novelist Stephen Crane (1871), sportswriter Grantland Rice (1880), race car driver Ken Miles (1918), golfer Gary Player (1935), publisher Larry Flynt (1942), bass player Ric Grech (1946), songwriter Jim Steinman (1947), music producer David Foster (1949), computer programmer Mitch Kapor (1950), singer-songwriter Lyle Lovett (1957), businessman Tim Cook (1960), singer-songwriter Anthony Kiedis (1962), singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins (1964), NHL player Tie Domi (1969), and actress/anti-vaxxer Jenny McCarthy (1972).

That’s all the news I have time to give you for now. More tomorrow. Enjoy your day.