Random News: July 10, 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 July 10, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. Plenty of things going on in the world right now, so let’s pick a few to learn more about.

• I think it’s time we started a frank discussion about Donald John Trump’s actions with Jeffrey Epstein. Trigger warning for sexual assault descriptions for the next 10 or so bullets.
• Let’s start with some breaking news in that regard.
• It turns out that Florida prosecutors knew that Epstein sexually assaulted teenage girls two full years before they cut a lenient plea deal. Epstein could have been imprisoned a decade earlier had they been public with that information.
• Per transcripts released Monday, the 2006 grand jury investigation had details about Epstein’s rape and sex trafficking of teenagers — and how his ties to the rich and the powerful seem to have allowed him to avoid prison or a serious jail term for over a decade.
• Guess who was listed 69 times in the new Epstein transcripts? Donald John Trump.
• But it’s another transcript, that of a Jane Doe plaintiff in a suit against both Epstein and Dump ten years later in 2016, that paints a more vivid picture of what happened at Epstein’s notorious sex parties for wealthy scum.
• Here’s what she provided in sworn testimony…
• “The parties were held at a New York City residence that was being used by Defendant Jeffrey Epstein. Each of the parties had other minor females and a number of guests of Mr. Epstein, including Defendant Donald Trump at four of the parties I attended. I understood that both Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein knew that I was 13 years old.”
• “Defendant Trump had sexual contact with me at four different parties in the summer of 1994. On the fourth and final sexual encounter with Defendant Trump, Defendant Trump tied me to a bed, exposed himself to me, and then proceeded to forcibly rape me. During the course of this savage sexual attack, I loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but he did not. Defendant Trump responded to my pleas by violently striking me in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted.”
• “Immediately following this rape, Defendant Trump threatened me that, were I ever to reveal any of the details of Defendant Trump’s sexual and physical abuse of me, my family and I would be physically harmed if not killed.”
• So, that’s your guy, MAGA? I wonder if any of you have early-teen kids who El Dumpo would treat in a similar manner. I mean, I know that he would. I’m just wondering how you’d feel about it.
• I’m pretty sure you’d still vote for him after he was done with them.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, President Joe Biden delivered a speech to open the NATO summit in Washington, aiming to reverse doubts about his fitness for the job domestically while boasting that his leadership revitalized the storied alliance and saved Ukraine.
• How did it go? Joe was, in a word, on fucking fire.
• And the media, for the first time in a good while, agreed. The various news outlets had similar adjectives to describe Biden’s performance…
• New York Times: Forceful. Politico: Forceful. Reuters: Forceful. Guardian: Forceful. Fox News: Powerful, Strong. Associated Press: Strong-Voiced. Daily Beast: Peppy.
• I really can’t advise more strongly: if we stop panicking and simply come together in our support of Joe, there’s no way we can lose. The only thing to fear, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, is fear itself.
• During the conclusion of his remarks at the alliance's summit, Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg in a surprise announcement.
• Nice.
• While Joe was busying trying to save the world, his Republican opponent was… I don’t even know what the fuck he was doing.
• During one of his cult rally speeches yesterday in Florida, Donnie Dump praised the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter, promised to appoint a Project 2025 leader to his administration, promised to round up immigrants into mass detention camps, said he didn’t know what NATO was when he was President, said he told NATO allies he wouldn’t defend them against Russia, praised SCOTUS for giving him criminal immunity, praised a self-described white nationalist, promised to pardon J6 insurrectionists, and claimed that his son Don Jr "has a great wife.”
• Don Jr. isn’t married.
• Donald Trump is mentally incapable of holding the role of President and should step down from the race immediately, and the Republicans should find a more suitable candidate to face Joe Biden in November.
• Moving on.
• In our continuing coverage of the assholes who tried and failed to enact a coup at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, meet Jay Johnston.
• Oh wait… you might already know him. He’s an actor you’ve seen in roles on Arrested Development, Bob’s Burgers, and other TV and film comedies.
• Johnston, 55, pleaded guilty yesterday to a felony charge over his role in insurrection. He was arrested in June of last year, and charged with a felony count of interfering with law enforcement officers during civil disorder and several misdemeanors.
• He’s scheduled to be sentenced on October 7. Johnston joined a mass of people in a tunnel leading inside the Capitol building, where he used a stolen U.S. Capitol police riot shield to help shove police officers backward toward a door.
• Fuck that guy.
• Moving from the live asshole files to the dead ones…
• Former Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), a conservative whose career was defined by funneling as much money as possible into the war machine and denying that humans have anything to do with climate change, is dead. Inhofe was 89.
• Inhofe underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in 2013 before being elected to a fourth term, and was elected to a fifth Senate term in 2020 before stepping down in early 2023.
• That asshole called climate change, “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” He once brought a snowball onto the Senate floor to show that there was no such thing as global warming.
• That snowball definitely melted when he reached his special place in the afterlife yesterday.
• Let’s move on to some international news.
• Yesterday, a Russian court ordered the arrest of the widow of opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, accusing her of “participating in an extremist community.”
• The court order against Yulia B. Navalnaya, who left Russia in 2021, comes five months after her husband died under murky circumstances (i.e., was killed by Putin) in a harsh Russian penal colony.
• Ms. Navalnaya has repeatedly accused President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia of murdering her husband and has vowed to continue his opposition work.
• Make no mistake: Donnie Dump would love to model his presidency after Putin, simply jailing and killing anyone who opposes him. That very likely includes you.
• Make sure that piece of shit stays on the golf course and out of the White House.
• Moving on to a quick follow-up on a story we reported not long ago.
• We told you about Robert Morris, the founder of the Gateway megachurch in Southlake, TX, and how he stepped down after information became public about his have had a sexual relationship with a girl that began when she was 12.
• Correspondence between Morris and the girl’s attorneys show that Morris’ legal defense was that it was the girl’s fault she was molested, not his.
• “It was your client,” wrote lawyer J. Shelby Sharpe, referring to victim Cindy Clemishire at age 12, “who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client’s bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen.”
• Fucking pig.
• And now, The Weather: “Draining” by Hard Chiller
• In real weather news, my sympathies go out to people in the Houston area, facing sweltering heat after Hurricane Beryl while more than 1.7 million homes and businesses in Texas lacked electricity this morning, down from a peak of over 2.7 million on Monday.
• From the Non-Sports Desk… Vice President Kamala Harris was a surprise guest at the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team's practice yesterday, and told the star-studded team their mission was to bring back the gold.
• USA Basketball Men’s Olympic Team coach Steve Kerr said,"It's a great reminder of the fact that we're playing for our country. Vice President Harris told the guys how much she admired them, how much they really embody excellence and that we are going over there to try to win a gold medal for our country."
• The star-studded roster includes players like Devin Booker, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Jrue Holiday, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, and others.
• From the Sports Desk… this week is a golf tournament worthy of discussion.
• The 3rd Annual Adaptive Golf Open is underway in Kansas as disabled golfers from 32 states and 11 countries vie for a championship.
• Categories allow for fair competition between the athletes, and range from Intellectual Impairment to Lower Limb Impairment, Multiple Limb Amputee, Neurological Impairment, Seated Players, Short Stature, Upper Limb Impairment, and Vision Impairment.
• After the first two rounds, defending men’s champion Kipp Popert, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth, was leading all categories having shot 65 and 66 for a -13 score.
• In the women’s tourney, Bailey Bish’s three-under 69 on Monday wasn’t just her career best by two shots; it was the first-ever under-par round by a woman in the U.S. Adaptive Open. Despite her neurological condition and resulting physical limitations, she currently leads all fields at +3.
• Side note: almost all of these people in every category would beat me, an able bodied person with very few physical challenges, at golf. The leaders of the blind category were scoring as well or better than me on a typical day at the golf course.
• Hats off to all of them.
• Today in history… Emperor Hadrian of Rome dies of heart failure at his residence on the bay of Naples (138). Prince Naka-no-Ōe and Fujiwara no Kamatari assassinate Soga no Iruka during a coup d'état at the imperial palace (645). King Canute IV of Denmark is killed by rebellious peasants (1986). Lady Jane Grey, a teenage girl, takes the throne of England for nine days (1553). Louis XVI of France declares war on Great Britain to aid the American Revolution (1778). Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state (1890). Belfast's Bloody Sunday occurs with 20 killings, at least 100 wounded and 200 homes destroyed during rioting and gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland (1921). In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins of John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act (1925). Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit (1962). Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia (1991). In women's soccer, the United States defeated China in a penalty shoot-out at the Rose Bowl near Los Angeles to win the final match of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup (1999). The last Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the line in Puebla, Mexico (2019).
• July 10 is the birthday of theologian John Calvin (1509), US vice-president George Dallas (1792), brewer Adolphus Busch (1839), physicist Nikola Tesla (1856), novelist Marcel Proust (1871), philanthropist/art collector Ima Hogg (1882), singer/guitarist Blind Boy Fuller (1907), journalist David Brinkley (1920), activist Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921), boxer Jake LaMotta (1922), actor Fred Gwynne (1926), politician David Dinkins (1927), singer Mavis Staples (1939), singer-songwriter Ronnie James Dio (1942), tennis player Arthur Ashe (1943), actor Ron Glass (1945), singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie (1947), singer-songwriter Greg Kihn (1949), singer-songwriter Neil Tennant (1954), banjoist/composer Béla Fleck (1958), drummer Sandy West (1959), actress Sophia Vergara (1972), singer-songwriter Jessica Simpson (1980), and NFL player Antonio Brown (1988).

I know many of you are annoyed at this period of limbo where the media and certain wealthy people are doing everything they can to tear apart the base of support for President Biden. I am hoping that the entire thing gets resolved ASAP so we can rally together to defeat one of the world’s great evils and preserve our democracy. Meanwhile, keep on keeping on. Enjoy your day.