Random News: November 10, 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 10, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Thing, as always, happen, and I’m here bright and early to find out what they are, and to tell you about some of them.

• Starting with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV), who announced yesterday he would not seek reelection in 2024. Good fucking riddance.
• Unfortunately, it means that West Virginia will nearly certainly flip to red as a Republican will most likely take his place in that conservative state.
• My feelings? I don’t think we were getting much help with liberal causes from Joe fucking Manchin regardless. But holding on to the Democratic majority in the Senate will become more of a challenge.
• Frankly, even if Manchin hadn’t dropped out, he would have faced long odds against either Gov. Jim Justice or Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), who are running in the GOP primary next year.
• So better to know now and prepare accordingly.
• There are 34 seats up in 2024 - including a special election in Nebraska - of which 23 are held by Democrats or Independents. Republicans can retake control with a net gain of two seats or by winning the 2024 presidential election along with a net gain of one seat.
• I find it somewhat likely that if the election were held at this very moment, the GOP would flip the Senate with a 53-47 majority. That means we have some work to do. We will soon be taking a detailed look at each of those seats and putting together some plans.
• Moving on.
• Israel will begin to implement daily four-hour pauses in its fighting amid growing pressure to allow for more aid to get into Gaza and more hostages held by Hamas to be released.
• Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians are heading south from Gaza City on foot, fleeing intensifying clashes between Israel's military and Hamas.
• A senior UN official accused both sides of war crimes as Israel's ground assault and aerial bombardment fuel growing international outrage. Even in the zone Israel has said is safer, airstrikes continue, hospitals are in crisis, and food, water and medical aid are in short supply.
• More than 1.5 million people have now been displaced in Gaza, and health officials there say more than 10,800 have been killed. Israel says 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas terrorist attack October 7, with 239 people still held hostage in Gaza.
• War fucking sucks. There’s gotta be a better way to resolve differences than having innocent civilians and children being injured, killed, or left with nothing.
• Let’s move on… to some breaking news of the criminal El Dumpo.
• Judge Aileen Cannon has denied Dumpy’s request to delay his May 2024 trial on charges of mishandling classified documents.
• The classified records indictment has loomed over Dump’s candidacy particularly because of the questions it’s raised – with substantial known witnesses and even audio evidence – about how casually Trump treated national security information after his presidency.
• Dump has pushed repeatedly to move this federal criminal trial and others past the November 2024 presidential election. Cannon has appeared to be overly sympathetic, and has moved some deadlines–particularly related to the use of classified material in the case–back leading up to the trial.
• So that’s good.
• In other news…
• There are just seven days left before the federal government is due to shutdown at the end of the day on November 17, which is not enough time to pass the full suite of annual budget bills.
• Despite the time crunch, Speaker Johnson has not announced the details of his plan for a stopgap funding measure, which would temporarily extend government funding in order to allow lawmakers to sort out their disagreements on the full budget.
• That’s because he has no plan. The GOP is weak and fractured, and their current majority in the House will hurt all Americans.
• Let’s move on.
• In our continuing coverage of the insurrectionist assholes who attempted and failed to stage a coup against the USA, meet Gregory Yetman.
• Yetman fled while being served a warrant early Wednesday morning. He hopped a fence and ran away like a frightened deer into a heavily wooded area. 
• After a two-day FBI manhunt, Yetman turned himself in this morning in Monroe Township, NJ.
• Fuck that guy. I hope he enjoys jail. Actually I don’t. he won’t be leaving it for awhile regardless.
• Moving on…
• The Vatican announced this week that transgender people can be baptized and become godparents under certain conditions, as well as serve as witnesses to church weddings.
• The Vatican's document stated that transgender people, including those who have received hormone replacement therapy or sex reassignment surgery, can be baptized "under the same conditions as other believers," but only if there is no "risk of generating a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful." But the document did not clarify what a public scandal would entail.
• The document also specifies that a same-sex couple would be able to baptize a child who had been adopted or born via surrogate providing there is "a well-founded hope that he or she will be educated in the Catholic religion."
• That’s… pretty fucking amazing. If nothing else, it’s a huge step in a direction that many thought would never be possible. I’ve known people who were in conflict between their gender preference and their religious beliefs, and I think actions like this are tremendously helpful toward reaching a societal acceptance and understanding of LGBTQIA+ people and causes.
• Let’s move on.
• Federal law enforcement officials are investigating reports of suspicious letters sent to public officials in California, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, and Washington state. Most of the letters appear to have targeted election offices.
• Officials in Georgia said the letter received by Fulton County was suspected to contain fentanyl. This is being considered an act of domestic terrorism.
• Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, “Domestic terrorists will not trample on our right to free and fair elections.”
• Goddamn right.. And they will catch the person or people responsible. I think we have a pretty good idea who they are.
• Speaking of MAGA freaks…
• Eleven fake electors for Dump convened at the state Republican Party headquarters in Phoenix, AZ, on December 14, 2020. They broadcast themselves preparing to sign the documents, provided by a Dump campaign attorney, claiming that they were the legitimate representatives of the state’s electoral votes.
• By that time, Dump’s loss in the state had already been certified by Arizona’s then-Republican governor, affirming that Joe Biden won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election.
• Now those fake electors find themselves under new legal scrutiny as the Arizona attorney general announced a broad investigation into their actions and their public campaign that could open the electors up to increased legal liability.
• Here’s hoping.
• In other news…
• President Joe Biden will be meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• It goes without saying that things haven’t been great between the US and China, the world’s largest superpowers. The fact that the meeting is happening at all is viewed by White House aides as a positive sign after months of friction.
• Biden’s aides were entering the summit with realistic expectations and don’t anticipate a long list of outcomes afterward, but with wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, Biden is eager to prevent another world crisis from exploding on his watch.
• I agree.
• Moving on to something I’m glad to see, the President’s son Hunter Biden is suing former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne for defamation, accusing the former retail industry executive of falsely claiming that he sought a bribe from Iran. 
• The lawsuit was filed this week in federal court. Hunter Biden claims Byrne made false statements in June when he claimed Biden had contacted the Iranian government and offered to have his father "unfreeze" $8 billion in Iranian funds in exchange for an $800 million bribe. Byrne reposted the false allegations in October to his roughly 290,000 followers. 
• I really don’t care about Hunter Biden, who seems like kind of a slimy piece of shit, but I wish him well in this matter.
• And now, The Weather: “Impasse” by Allegra Krieger
• From the Sports Desk… two of the worst teams in the NFL faced off last night in prime time, with the Chicago Bears hosting the Carolina Panthers. The Bears won 16-13. They’re now at 3-7, while the Panthers are at 1-8.
• Today in history… Raden Wijaya is crowned as the first monarch of Majapahit kingdom of Java, taking the throne name Kertarajasa Jayawardhana (1293). The last colonial governor of New Jersey, William Franklin, signs the charter of Queen's College, later renamed Rutgers University (1766). The United States Marine Corps is founded at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia by Samuel Nicholas (1775). Henry Morton Stanley locates missing explorer and missionary, Dr. David Livingstone in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, famously greeting him with the words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” (1871). A top-secret coded message from Europe that said on November 11, 1918, all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air (1918). Direct-dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States (1951). National Educational Television, the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service, debuts ‘Sesame Street’ (1969). Bill Gates introduces Windows 1.0 (1983). Germans begin to tear down the Berlin Wall (1989). 
• November 10 is the birthday of monk/priest Martin Luther (1483), physician/activist Samuel Gridley Howe (1801), flush toilet inventor George Jennings (1810), actor Claude Rains (1889), composer Carl Stalling (1891), businessman Jack Northrup (1895), actor Richard Burton (1925), composer Ennio Morricone (1928), actor Roy Scheider (1932), singer-songwriter Screaming Lord Sutch (1940), activist James Hood (1942), lyricist Tim Rice (1944), singer-songwriter/guitarist Greg Lake (1947), songwriter/guitarist Glen Buxton (1947), comedian Sinbad (1956), actress Mackenzie Phillips (1959), author Neil Gaiman (1960), NFL coach Mike McCarthy (1963), comedian Tracy Morgan (1968), rapper Warren G (1970), actress Brittany Murphy (1977), DJ/producer Diplo (1978), NBA player Kendrick Perkins (1984), actor Josh Peck (1986), NFL player Zach Ertz (1990), NFL player Teddy Bridgewater (1992), and NFL player Drew Lock (1996).

There’s more news, but not more time. Gotta go. Enjoy your day.