Random News: May 26, 2024

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 May 26, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. It’s the midpoint in a holiday weekend, and while I am sure I’ll do something today, I don’t know what it might be, so for now let’s look at the news while I sip my coffee and lounge about.

• I’m not sure what Dumpy would think would happen when he spoke yesterday at the Libertarian Party’s national convention.
• Some people do mistake Libertarians for Republicans, or at least assume that they share the same conservative values.
• No. It’s a mixed bag, but some Libertarians are actual huge supporters of civil liberties (hence the name of the party)… something that an authoritarian, wannabe dictator prick like Dump would represent the opposite of.
• Dump was loudly and consistently booed throughout his speech, particularly when he asked attendees to “nominate me or at least vote for me.”
• The heckling began the moment the former president and current accused felon took the stage. It was ugly. Dumpy left the stage after just 34 minutes, marking one of his shortest campaign speeches to date.
• The Libertarian Party is expected to select its presidential nominee today. The best-performing Libertarian candidate in history? That was Gary Johnson who earned slightly more than 3% of the popular vote in 2016 – a high point in the party’s history.
• Why did he want to appear there? Because the margins are so close between Dump and Biden that any small percentage of a voter base is now drastically magnified in its importance.
• And Dump is scared that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ability to siphon some votes from his GOP base is indeed a potential problem in an election expected to be decided by a narrow margin in a handful of states.
• RFK Jr. might end up getting the official Libertarian nomination. Despite asking for their nomination, Dump never filed paperwork to actually be considered.
• Dumbass. Let’s move on.
• After the holiday weekend, the closing arguments in the Dumpy hush money/election interference trial will happen on Tuesday, and then the jury will deliberate on whether Dump is guilty or innocent of the multiple felonies of which he is accused in that case.
• How will they decide? No matter what you’ve been told, no one can possibly know.
• Based on the trial, the only prediction that’s fairly certain is that the jury will likely not be unanimous in finding him innocent. But that’s not what matters.
• To convict him, all 12 of the jurors must agree to the same decision on each of the 34 counts against Dump, or the case ends up as a mistrial.
• So all the defense needs is just one juror to not agree to convict, which is exactly what his defense is going for. Just one weak person in some way, shape, or form, is all they need.
• We’ll see soon enough. Moving on.
• Speaking things we’ll see, it seems inevitable that there will be threats and actions of violence against poll workers during and after the election this fall.
• A bipartisan panel of four secretaries of state from key battleground states this week on “Meet the Press” said that they’re prepared to execute a safe and secure presidential election.
• The secretaries of state, from Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, had all been personally threatened multiple times during and after the 2020 election.
• Beyond straight-up intimidation and violence, their biggest challenge is dealing with misinformation in their respective states, each of which had legal challenges after Dump lost there in 2020.
• Moving on.
• Let’s get Sunday Gunday out of the way. Yes, these are only from the past two days and not nearly all of them.
• Two or more dead and 10 others injured in multiple shootings in Chicago, IL. One dead, six injured in a shooting in the Midtown-Westport area of Kansas City, MO. One dead, three injured in a shooting in downtown Cleveland, OH. One dead, one injured in a shooting at a home in Naugatuck, CT. One dead, one injured in a shooting at an apartment in Nashville, TN. A 15-year-old girl dead and a man injured in a shooting near a carnival in Virginia Beach, VA. One dead in a shooting in the Glendale neighborhood of Salt Lake City, UT. One dead in a shooting in downtown Los Angeles, CA. A teenager dead in a shooting in Elkhart, IN. A woman dead in a shooting in Savannah, GA. One dead in a shooting in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle, WA. One dead in a shooting in Santa Fe, NM. One dead in a shooting in downtown Greenville, SC. One dead in a shooting in Durham, NC. A woman killed in a shooting in downtown Milwaukee, WI. A man shot and killed by his own brother in Farmington Hills, MI. Four injured in a shooting in North St. Paul, MN. Two shot in Mobile, AL. Two shot near a hotel in Prospect Heights, IL. One shot in Huntsville, AL. One shot in Harrisburg, PA. One shot in Myrtle Beach, SC. One shot outside a bar in Toledo, OH. One shot at bowling alley in Torrance, CA… about a five-minute drive from my home.
• I stopped about halfway through the list. Try not to shoot and wound and/or kill anyone today, fellow Americans. I know it’s difficult, but I have faith in you.
• And now, The Weather: “The Flowering” by Lightning Bug
• At least 11 people are dead across Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas after powerful storms rocked the region. Be safe, peoples.
• And as I’m writing this, the Indianapolis 500 is being delayed due to severe weather.
• From the Sports Desk… rest in peace to two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray, who died by suicide yesterday at age 30.
• He had long battled both alcohol abuse and mental health issues. Murray withdrew from the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial after the 16th hole of Friday's second round, citing illness.
• Sad. The national suicide and crisis hotline inn the USA is 988.
• In other Sports Desk news, the Celtics took a nearly impossible to overcome 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, beating the Pacers 114-111.
• Game 3 of the Mavericks/T’Wolves series in the West is tonight. Mavs are up 2-0 at the moment.
• Today in history… Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city (1538). Montana is organized as a United States territory (1864). The Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last full general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, TX (1865). The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson ends with his acquittal by one vote (1868). Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (1896). The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles (1927). In the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session (1938). In northern France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk (1940). The Beatles' ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is released (1967). Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first crewed moon landing (1969). The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972). The European Community adopts the European flag (1986). United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing (2004). Protests triggered by the murder of George Floyd erupt in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, before becoming widespread across the United States and around the world (2020). 
• May 26 is the birthday of singer/actress/musician Mamie Smith (1883), singer/actor Al Jolson (1886), photographer Dorothea Lange (1895), actor John Wayne (1907), actor Peter Cushing (1913), singer-songwriter Peggy Lee (1920), trumpet player/composer Miles Davis (1926), pathologist Jack Kevorkian (1928), singer-songwriter/drummer/actor Levon Helm (1940), guitarist/songwriter/producer Mick Ronson (1946), singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks (1948), actress Pam Grier (1949), physicist/astronaut Sally Ride (1951), actor Bobcat Goldthwait (1962), singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz (1964), actress Helena Bonham Carter (1966), animator Matt Stone (1971), singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill (1975), singer-songwriter Phil Elvrum (1978), NHL player Jimmy Vesey (1993), and NFL player Micah Parsons (1999).

That’s all for now. Hope you’re having fun this weekend, or something. Enjoy your day.