Random News: November 8, 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 8, 2023, and it’s a Wednesday. I woke up still full of post-election glee, so let’s jump right in with a shit-tonne of damn fine news.

• Yesterday was Election Day here in the USA, being the first Tuesday in November. Many things happened. Things beyond my most optimistic expectations.
• Starting with Ohio, where the state’s Issue 1 makes it a state constitutional right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions,” including abortion, contraception, fertility treatment and miscarriage care.
• Ohio became the seventh state to vote to protect access to abortion in a statewide initiative since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2022. Four of those initiatives were on the ballot in states that Joe Biden lost in the 2020 election; in all seven, the abortion-access position outperformed Biden’s support in the state.
• Issue 1 won by an overwhelming percentage of Ohio voters, and keep in mind: Ohio is a state that solidly went for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. I’d say women everywhere are just over having conservative men make their reproductive decisions for them.
• Ohio’s Issue 2, legalizing recreation weed, also passed with a sizable margin. Mazel tov.
• Let’s go down to Kentucky, where incumbent Governor Andy Beshear (D) soundly defeated state Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R), who’d been highly endorsed by Trump. Note: everything Trump touches dies.
• Beshear won by a much larger margin of victory in his re-election than in his first term, where he took it by less than a percentage point.
• Now over to Virginia, where shockingly, Democrats not only keep their slim majority in the state Senate, but also flipped the state House of Delegates from red to blue.
• First and foremost, this allows them to continue blocking Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) conservative political agenda in the General Assembly. Youngkin had said that his first order of business after the Republicans won both campers would have been to ban abortion in the state.
• The Democrats’ victory in VA is the result of big wins in competitive races: Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-Henrico) defeated a Republican incumbent, while Danica Roem (D-Manassas), the first transgender person elected to any state legislature, will also move across the Capitol. First-time candidate Russet Perry (D-Loudoun) narrowly prevailed in a tight battle. And in Virginia Beach, Aaron Rouse beat Republican opponent Kevin Adams.
• Is there more? You bet your ass there is.
• Moving up to Pennsylvania, Democrat Daniel McCaffery has won the election for an open seat on Pennsylvania's Supreme Court. Democrats now will hold a 5-2 majority on highest court in the Commonwealth.
• Why is this a big deal? Because Pennsylvania is a swing state, and if Donnie Dumpo tries any fuckery after the 2024 election, he won’t have a court of MAGA judges ready to overturn the will of the people.
• We’re not done.
• Democrat Cherelle Parker won her race for mayor of Philadelphia. With her win, Parker will become the first woman to serve as Philadelphia's mayor. She received endorsements from President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and will become the city's 100th mayor when she takes office in January.
• Democrat Gabriel Amo won the special election to represent Rhode Island's First Congressional District, defeating Republican opponent Gerry Leonard. Amo makes history with his win, as he is the first person of color elected to represent Rhode Island in Congress.
• And in New York, Democrat Yusef Salaam, who was one of the "Central Park 5" who were exonerated in 2005, has won his race for a New York City Council seat.
• You may recall that he was one of five Black teenagers falsely accused and wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for a brutal rape in 1989. Then-businessman Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for a return to the death penalty for the teens.
• But it was serial rapist Matias Reyes who eventually confessed to the assault and DNA evidence confirmed his involvement. Salaam was released in 1997, and in 2014, New York City paid $41 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit. Salaam has since worked as an activist and a motivational speaker.
• Are we done? Fuck no.
• Moms for Liberty, the right-wing “parental rights” group advocating a hardline anti-woke agenda in America’s schools, had a rough night in Tuesday’s elections for school board seats around the country.
• The organization, considered an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, endorsed scores of candidates in school districts in several states from Alaska to North Carolina. But the group’s record backing book bans, opposing racially inclusive lessons in classrooms, and pushing anti-LGBTQ messages failed to connect with voters in multiple ballots.
• Example: in Bucks County, PA, the GOP-led school board made headlines in July after a curriculum consultant it hired said he wanted to remake schooling for “our side.”
• But last night, all five of the school board’s open seats went to Democrats. The rejected Republican candidates had advocated a policy requiring kids to use restrooms and play on sports teams which aligned with their biological sex.
• So what does all this mean?
• In a nutshell… polls are fucking worthless. The methodology of calling someone on a land line and then determining the direction of a political race worked well in 1983… but not in 2023, when no one under 40 or so seems inclined to answer a phone, much less respond to a poll.
• So to wrap this up for the moment: we are going to carry this momentum for the next 12 months. We’re going to make sure that every Republican candidate who voices support for forced birth is outed as such. Joe Biden will win re-election and we will flip the House and keep the Senate in 2024.
• For now, we should do some other news.
• The US House of Representatives yesterday voted to censure its sole Palestinian-American lawmaker, Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), for her comments on the Israel-Hamas war.
• The resolution, which was backed by some 22 members of her Democratic party, claimed Tlaib had been “promoting false narratives” regarding the October 7 Hamas attack inside Israel that killed more than 1,400 people. She was also accused of seeking “destruction of Israel” – a charge she rejected.
• I’m not going to offer an opinion on this. Tlaib is a grown woman and can stand by the consequences of her words.
• Moving on.
• A man with a gun was arrested yesterday across from Union Station on Capitol Hill. Capitol Police found the man and commanded him to drop the weapon. Officers then tased him when he didn't comply.
• The suspect, 21-year-old Ahmir Lavon Merrell of Atlanta, GA is a registered sex offender. Police still don't know why he was there with an AR-15.
• In other news, police in Bentonville, AR police arrested a rapper, saying his lyrics contained threats. What?
• Reese Alexander Sullivan, 20, was arrested on a charge of terroristic threatening based on music Sullivan had posted online. The FBI searched Sullivan's apartment. They didn't find any weapons or explosives.
• Sullivan told police he was rapping as a humorous fictional character when he made the videos. He said he doesn't actually want to rape or kill anyone and doesn't own any weapons.
• I would be planning on a massive lawsuit against Bentonville if I were him. Arrested over fucking lyrics? Jesus.
• Moving on to some world news.
• Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa resigned yesterday after his government was involved in a widespread corruption probe. The announcement came hours after police arrested his chief of staff while raiding several public buildings and other properties as part of the probe.
• Back in the USA, the office-sharing company WeWork filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. WeWork reported total debts of $18.65 billion against total assets of $15.06 billion in an initial filing.
• Valued in 2019 at $47 billion, the COVID pandemic sort of fucked their business model, when the last thing people would be doing is going to a shared office space.
• And now, The Weather: “my little tony” by bar italia
• Let’s do a chart, and damn, this one is pretty special. It’s November 1976. I’m seven years old and in third grade. Songs from these albums are somehow on the radio. I see a couple of amazing debuts here… the first albums by Boston and Heart, both among the best first records anyone ever did. 
• 1. Songs In The Key Of Life (Stevie Wonder). 2. The Song Remains The Same (Soundtrack) (Led Zeppelin). 3. Blue Moves (Elton John). 4. Boston (Boston). 5. Spirit (Earth, Wind & Fire). 6. A Night On The Town (Rod Stewart). 7. Frampton Comes Alive (Peter Frampton). 8. Children Of The World (Bee Gees). 9. One More For The Road (Lynyrd Skynyrd). 10. Fly Like An Eagle (The Steve Miller Band). 11. Dreamboat Annie (Heart).  12, A New World Record (Electric Light Orchestra). 13. Part 3 (KC And The Sunshine Band). 14. Summertime Dream (Gordon Lightfoot). 15. No Reason To Cry (Eric Clapton). 16. Bigger Than Both Of Us (Daryl Hall John Oates). 17. Chicago X (Chicago). 18. Best Of The Doobies (The Doobie Brothers). 19. Silk Degrees (Boz Scaggs). 20. Nights Are Forever (England Dan & John Ford Coley)
• From the Sports Desk… it’s week 10 of the NFL season, and per ESPN, here’s who’s on top of the current power rankings.
• 1. Philadelphia Eagles (8-1). 2. Kansas City Chiefs (7-2). 3. Baltimore Ravens (7-2). 4. Miami Dolphins (6-3). 5. Detroit Lions (8-2). 6. Jacksonville Jaguars (6-2). 7. Cincinnati Bengals (5-3). 8. San Francisco 49ers (5-3). 9. Dallas Cowboys (5-3). 10. Cleveland Browns (5-3).
• The five worst teams?
• 28. New England Patriots (2-7). 29. New York Giants (2-7). 30. Chicago Bears (2-7). 31. Carolina Panthers (1-7). 32. Arizona Cardinals (1-8).
• Today in history… Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with a great celebration (1519). Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state (1889). The New Orleans general strike begins, uniting black and white American trade unionists in a successful four-day general strike action for the first time (1892). While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers the X-ray (1895). In Munich, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government (1923). Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected as the 32nd President of the United States, defeating incumbent president Herbert Hoover (1932). Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than four million unemployed (1933). United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown, while piloting an F-80 Shooting Star, shoots down two North Korean MiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfight in history (1950). John F. Kennedy is elected as the 35th President of the United States, defeating incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon (1960). U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League (1966). American pay television network Home Box Office (HBO) launches (1972). U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush is elected as the 41st president (1988). Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States, defeating Hillary Clinton (2016).
• November 8 is the birthday of Roman emperor Nerva (30), astronomer Edmond Halley (1656), businessman Milton Bradley (1836), novelist Bram Stroker (1847), psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (1884), novelist Margaret Mitchell (1900), actress Esther Rolle (1920), computer scientist Thea D. Hodge (1922), singer Patti Page (1927), journalist Morley Safer (1931), singer Bonnie Bramlett (1944), singer-songwriter Minnie Ripperton (1947), singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones (1954), singer/actor Leif Garrett (1961), actress Courtney Thorne-Smith (1967), actress Parker Posey (1968), businessman Tom Anderson (1970), model/actress Gretchen Mol (1972), actress Tara Reid (1975), and singer-songwriter SZA (1990).

I’ll have more to say about last night’s spectacular election results and the path moving forward into 2024. I also will be writing about my fun show last night at Hotel Chelsea while all that was going on. And yes, being a boring-ass worker drone as usual on a Wednesday. Enjoy your day.