Random News: November 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 November 4, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. Took awhile to write these bullets this morning because a ) there were a lot of them and b ) it's a weekend and I'm purposefully lazy.

• Here are some helpful tips so that your life isn’t ruined by the end of Daylight Saving Time.
• Try staying up sorta late tonight so you don’t wake up at an ungodly early hour tomorrow.
• When you’re driving home from wherever you are tomorrow night, it will be dark. Don’t panic. That’s because the sun is down.
• Don’t spend all week complaining about one hour of your life being slightly different.
• End of tips.
• Now, the news.
• Support between incumbent Governor Andy Beshear (D) and state Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) in the Kentucky gubernatorial race is tied in a dead heat, per a poll yesterday.
• An Emerson College Polling survey found Beshear and Cameron tied at 47 percent, with 4 percent of respondents saying they were undecided and 2 percent saying someone else. 
• Kentucky, don’t pick another Trump-endorsed loser with Cameron. Beshear is a good guy who’s been good for your state. Vote for him on Tuesday.
• Let’s do some more election news, this time for Virginia. their Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is a rising star for the national GOP, if not in 2024 then certainly in the following election. Among other things, Youngkin has advocated for new restrictions on abortion in the state.
• But it’s possible that his own state might not even be able to maintain complete Republican leadership. Every seat in the Virginia House of Delegates and state Senate are on the ballot this year. 
• Virginia Dems say they’re cautiously optimistic about their outcomes in next week’s elections. Like the federal version, Virginia’s GOP currently has a House majority and the Dems have a just a tiny majority in the upper chamber.
• To that end, I highly endorse Danica Roem, a current VA delegate and Democratic state Senate candidate. Her race in northern Virginia could be the majority decider. Another state Senate seat lies just west of Roem's, where Democrat Russet Perry faces Youngkin-endorsed Republican Juan Pablo Segura.
• Also, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are endorsing 23 Democratic candidates in Virginia, including seven candidates for the state Senate and 16 candidates for the House of Delegates.
• Youngkin’s chance of gaining a national profile diminish with each Democrat who wins on Tuesday. Vote blue, Virginia!
• Moving on.
• Yesterday the Supreme Court stepped into a new gun rights battle by agreeing to weigh whether a ban on bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic rifles to fire more quickly, is lawful.
• Oddly enough, the ban on bump stocks was the only gun control measure made during the Trump administration.
• Bump stocks are accessories for semi-automatic rifles like AR-15s. They use the recoil energy of a trigger pull to enable the user to fire up to hundreds of rounds a minute.
• In October 2017, Stephen Paddock used bump stocks to open fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas, initially killing 58 people.
• The current case concerns Texas-based gun nut Michael Cargill, who owned two bump stocks before the ban went into effect and later surrendered them to the government. He sued, claiming that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lacked the legal authority to implement the prohibition.
• I wouldn’t be surprised if the current conservative Court allows them back. Anything that helps people kill other people, they seem very much in favor of.
• Let’s move on to our continuing coverage of the assholes who tried and failed to overthrow our government on January 6, 2021. This one is a doozy.
• Federico Klein is a former Donald Trump political appointee at the State Department who tried to storm the Capitol and assaulted law enforcement officers. He was sentenced to 70 months in prison yesterday.
• Klein was convicted of eight felonies as well as misdemeanor offenses by U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, also a Trump appointee, in July of this year following a bench trial. McFadden said he'd seen no evidence that Klein felt remorse.
• During yesterday’s sentencing, former US Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell told the court that Klein had attacked him multiple times with a police riot shield. Gonell questioned how “someone who took the same oath as I did” to protect the Constitution, could be involved in such an assault on the Capitol.
• Good question. More than 1,100 people have been arrested in connection with the January 6 failed coup attempt on the U.S. Capitol, and more than 400 have received terms of incarceration.
• Moving on.
• I want to talk briefly about the importance of being your true self.
• F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station, AL and pastor at First Baptist Church of Phenix City, killed himself yesterday evening. His death came days after a series of posts by a right-wing conservative website that included photos of Copeland, a husband and father of three, in women’s clothing and makeup.
• Alabama was ranked the third-worst state in the U.S. for LGBTQ safety in 2023, behind Mississippi and Tennessee. Last year, the state passed the most anti-transgender state legislative package in history, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
• For people in other places where transgender people are more accepted, and in professions where open discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people isn’t part of the job, Copeland might not have felt better about being himself and not been compelled to take his own life. Pretty awful.
• Moving on with some news of the crime king El Dumpo.
• Yesterday, a federal appeals court temporarily froze the limited gag order issued against Dumpy in his election subversion criminal case in Washington, DC, allowing him to again speak freely with criticism of possible witnesses in the case.
• The US DC Circuit Court of Appeals said they were pausing the gag order issued by District Judge Tanya Chutkan to give them more time to consider Trump’s request to pause the order while his appeal plays out before the court.
• The three appellate judges – Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard, both Barack Obama appointees, and Brad Garcia, a Joe Biden appointee – said they would fast-track Trump’s appeal of the gag order and hear arguments in the matter on November 20.
• And meanwhile, Dump gets to threaten all the prosecutors and potential witnesses he wants, just like it would be for you and me. Wait, what? We’d be instantly jailed if we did that? It’s almost as if there are two sets of rules… one for the wealthy and powerful, and another for the other 99% of us.
• Hmm.
• Heading down to Georgia and the RICO case against Don the Con and his Merry Gang, just when you think you heard it all, a whole new defense has come from two of Trump’s remaining 14 co-defendants.
• The argument? The 2020 election really was stolen. Hee heee heeeeee.
• Lawyers for Harrison Floyd, claimed in court yesterday that their client is entitled to thousands of pages of election records from Fulton County and the Georgia secretary of state.
• They want access to some of the same material for which election conspiracy theorists have been clamoring for years: cast-vote records from voting machines, ballot reports, every envelope received with absentee ballots, every absentee ballot application and much more.
• Floyd faces three charges in the Fulton case: racketeering, conspiracy to solicit false statements and influencing witnesses. he’s the one who worked with a publicist and a preacher to try and pressure Ruby Freeman into confessing to election crimes that she did not commit.
• Lawyers for another co-defendant in the Georgia case, Robert Cheeley — facing 10 charges in Fulton — are mounting a similar defense.
• Mildly interesting is the fact that this silly defense strategy gives Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee a potential opportunity to rule from a courtroom that the 2020 election was officially not stolen.
• Multiple people in the same case have already pleaded guilty.
• One more Dumples tidbit.
• A California judge made a preliminary finding Thursday that attorney John Eastman breached professional ethics when he aided Dump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election.
• State bar officials are preparing to present aggravation evidence to strip Eastman, a veteran conservative attorney who once clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, of his law license.
• Good. Get his ass. Let’s move on.
• In more Asshole News, a hilarious story of George Santos (R-NY), who sent a thank-you letter to all House members who voted against expelling him this week. one of those recipients was Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
• Raskin proofread the note, then corrected Santos’ spelling and grammatical errors by hand much like a grade school teacher, and sent it back to Santos with the message, “It’s not shameful to resign.”
• Raskin — like me — can’t stand Santos and knows he’s a piece of shit human, but also like me, knows that meting punishment for crimes that have yet to be convicted in court sets a terrible precedent, and is un-American in regard to our laws of due process.
• Santos was presumably too busy in his other careers as an NFL quarterback, NASA astronaut, and award-winning physicist to reply.
• Moving on.
• Something I want to mention in regard to abortion rights is the fact that the grand majority of people who are trying to limit the reproductive freedom of women are men.
• Want to know something about men? A man with an engineering Ph.D recently asked one of his female colleagues how she pees with a tampon in.
• And that’s who you want to make the laws that force women to birth children. Think it through, people.
• And here’s another reminder that Ohio voters will have their chance to codify reproductive freedom in their state by voting YES ON ISSUE 1 this Tuesday.
• The amendment is the only abortion question on any state’s ballot this year. Abortion-related initiatives could be on the ballot across the country in 2024, including in the presidential swing states of Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
• Since the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, voters in six states — California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana and Vermont — have either supported measures protecting abortion rights or rejected efforts aimed at eroding access.
• Let’s go over to the Middle East.
• Yesterday, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against growing U.S. pressure for a humanitarian pause in the war to protect civilians and allow more aid into Gaza.
• He insists there would be no temporary cease-fire until some 240 hostages were released.
• Alarm has grown over spiraling Palestinian deaths and growing misery for civilians after weeks of Israeli bombardment and a widening ground assault that risks even greater casualties.
• The U.N. said yesterday that about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, had fled their homes.
• And in news from Ukraine — you didn’t forget about them did you? — Russia unleashed a wave of nighttime drone and missile attacks across 10 of Ukraine’s 24 regions.
• Last winter, Russia took aim at Ukraine’s power grid in an effort to deny civilians light and heating.
• Sigh.
• Back in the USA, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita made national headlines in 2022 when he criticized a doctor who provided an abortion for a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio. 
• Guess what? In doing so, he also violated two rules governing attorney conduct.
• The Indiana Supreme Court issued a public reprimand of Rokita this week, saying his comments about Dr. Caitlin Bernard were highly likely to create improper influence and also had no substantial purpose other than to embarrass or burden the physician.
• Fucking prick.
• And now, The Weather: “Danielle” by Mickey Newball
• Let’s do a chart. In November 1974, I was five years old and lived in Marblehead, MA. Here’s what would have been on the radio at the time…
• 1. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night (John Lennon With The Plastic Ono Nuclear Band). 2. Do It ('til You're Satisfied) (B.T. Express). 3. My Melody Of Love (Bobby Vinton). 4. Tin Man (America). 5. Back Home Again (John Denver). 6. I Can Help (Billy Swan). 7. Longfellow Serenade (Neil Diamond). 8. Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me) (Reunion). 9. Everlasting Love (Carl Carlton). 10. Carefree Highway (Gordon Lightfoot). 11. Jazzman (Carole King). 12. You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet/Free Wheelin' (Bachman-Turner Overdrive). 13. The Need To Be (Jim Weatherly). 14. The Bitch Is Back (Elton John). 15. Love Don't Love Nobody - Pt. I (The Spinners). 16. When Will I See You Again (The Three Degrees). 17. I've Got The Music In Me (The Kiki Dee Band). 18. Rockin' Soul (The Hues Corporation). 19. Wishing You Were Here (Chicago). 20. Angie Baby (Helen Reddy)
• From the Sports Desk… the best teams in the NFL by their record in Week 9 of the season.
• 1. Eagles (7-1). 2. Chiefs (6-2). 3. Lions (6-2). 4. Dolphins (6-2). 5. Jaguars (6-2). 6. Ravens (6-2). 7. Seahawks (5-2). 8. Cowboys (5-2). 9. Steelers (5-3). 10. Bills (5-3).
• And the actual best teams by the current power ranking, taking into account their division, their momentum, and more…
• 1. Eagles. 2. Dolphins. 3. Chiefs. 4. Ravens. 5. Cowboys. 6. Jaguars. 7. 49ers. 8. Lions. 9. Bills. 10. Seahawks.
• Today in history… The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange; they later jointly reign as William and Mary (1677). Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria (1783). Sir James Young Simpson, a Scottish physician, discovers the anesthetic properties of chloroform (1847). Japanese Prime Minister Hara Takashi is assassinated in Tokyo (1921). British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings (1922). Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female elected as governor in the United States (1924). Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel begins a retreat of his forces after a costly defeat during the Second Battle of El Alamein (1942). The United States government establishes the National Security Agency, or NSA (1952). Dr. Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees creating tools, the first-ever observation in non-human animals (1960). Ronald Reagan is elected as the 40th President of the United States, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter (1980). Barack Obama becomes the first person of biracial or African-American descent to be elected as President of the United States (2008). 
• November 4 is the birthday of painter Guido Reni (1575), painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592), king William III of England (1650), actor Edmund Kean (1787), actor/social commentator Will Rogers (1879), physicist Alfred Lee Loomis (1887), actor Gig Young (1913), gunnery sergeant John Basilone (1916), journalist Walter Cronkite (1916), actor Art Carney (1918), actor Martin Balsam (1919), actress Doris Roberts (1925), actress Loretta Swit (1937), singer-songwriter Delbert McClinton (1940), conservationist Kafi Benz (1941), first lady Laura Bush (1946), photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946), actress Markie Post (1950), race car driver Jacques Villeneuve (1953), guitarist/composer James Honeyman-Scott (1956), keyboardist/composer Jordan Rudess (1956), actress Kathy Griffin (1960), actor Ralph Macchio (1961), rapper Sean Combs (1969), NFL player Vince Wilfork (1981), and NFL player Dez Bryant (1988).

Okay then. I’m now going to do various Saturday-like things. Enjoy your day.