Random News: July 12, 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 12, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! We have a tidal wave of news heading your way today, so with no further adieu…

• Yesterday evening (or afternoon here on the West Coast), President Joe Biden answered questions from the media for nearly a full hour after making a short address about the recent round of NATO meetings.
• This was Biden’s first formal solo news conference since November 2023. As president, Biden has held the fewest news conferences since Ronald Reagan.
• Biden delivered a forceful defense of his foreign and domestic policies, and agilely handled questions about his ability to serve another four years.
• Did he have some verbal gaffes? Um, yeah. It’s Joe fucking Biden. That dude was making gaffes since before I was old enough to vote.
• The primary focus of the media questions, which Biden answered directly for an hour with no teleprompter, was on his age and his health.
• Biden firmly pushed back at every suggestion that was slowing down or showing noticeable signs of decline, or that he was not in command of the job in any way.
• I also liked that he was equally confident when asked about the readiness of Vice president Harris to step into the job if a situation arose where that would be required of her.
• He also adroitly answered detailed questions about the USA’s foreign policy, a topic on which he is a renowned expert. It was very impressive.
• He took questions from reporters with 10 different news organizations.
• Asked if he would consider bowing out before November if he’s shown data that Harris could perform better against Trump, Biden responded, “No, unless they came back and said, ‘There’s no way you can win.’”
• He followed up with “No one’s saying that. No poll says that.”
• Biden also — correctly — noted that anyone other than him would have “to start from scratch.”
• So, how do I feel that went? Really well, despite the media’s propensity to put one gaffe in the headline that represented almost none of the actual content of the conference.
• My grade for Joe is 88/100. A solid B+. I couldn’t have really asked for more.
• In terms of the future… it’s impossible to say what’s next.
• There are many different possibilities in terms of the path forward. I’m not going to lay them all out here.
• The one metric we have to work with is polling, which I simply do not trust for reasons I’ve explained in detail previously.
• A new national NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds that the race for the presidency remains statistically tied.
• Biden actually gained a point since last month’s survey, which was taken before the dismal debate. In the most current poll, he leads Trump 50% to 48% in a head-to-head matchup.
• But Biden slips when third-party options are introduced, with Trump holding the slightest advantage with 43% to 42%.
• But the margin of error in the survey is +/- 3.1 percentage points, meaning results could be 3 points higher or lower. In other words, it’s meaningless.
• The poll also found that, at this point, no other mainstream Democrat who has been mentioned as a replacement for the president on the ticket does better than Biden.
• Not Harris, not Newsom, not Whitmer… Biden polls better than any of them against Dump.
• I think the next few weeks will paint a better picture in terms of the level of support Joe has, both from the American people as a whole and the members of his own Democratic party.
• And I’ll tell you once again, loudly and proudly: if Joe Biden is the candidate, I will happily vote for him. If it’s a different Democratic candidate, I will vote for that person.
• Keeping Donnie Dump far away from the presidency is goal #1. Every other option are things that can be adapted and worked with.
• Moving on… to news about the Crime Slime himself, Dumples the Immune Clown.
• As we predicted multiple times here, Dump is now officially seeking to have his recent criminal conviction in New York tossed out, and his indictment dismissed, per a filing made public yesterday.
• He’s claiming that the recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity proves they were correct in arguing before the trial that certain evidence and testimony should have been withheld from the jury, because they were related to protected official acts of the presidency.
• As if you need reminding, Dumpy was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsification of business records trying to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
• Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has until July 24 to file a response to Dump's motion to dismiss.
• Judge Merchan has said he will rule on the motion on September 6, and if Trump's motion fails, sentencing will take place on September 18.
• But if it doesn’t fail, Dump will walk free with no punishment at all after 34 felony convictions. How can you be okay with that? How can anyone claim to uphold the rule of law and still support this fucking guy?
• Moving on.
• But not.
• Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times editorial board called Dump unfit for office.
• “Trump is the only man in the presidential race manifestly unworthy of holding a position of power, and has no business ever returning to the White House."
• CORRECT.
• As long as we’re talking candidates, how’s that guy with the brain worm doing?
• Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has privately apologized to a woman who accused him of sexual assault, saying he does not remember the alleged incident and that any harm he caused was “inadvertent.”
• Fucking Jesus.
• The woman, Eliza Cooney, described inappropriate behavior and sexual advances from Kennedy when she worked as his family’s weekend nanny in the late 1990s, including an incident in which Kennedy approached her from behind and allegedly groped her in a pantry.
• At the time, Cooney was 23. Kennedy was 45 and married, with five children.
• In other news…
• Today’s Asshole of the Moment is Christian Nationalist pastor Joel Webbon.
• I’d never heard of this prick before… I can’t keep track of every asshole in the world, and with eight billion humans on this planet, there statistically has to be a billion assholes or more. probably more.
• But this guy says that he and his fellow white Christians have a “civic duty” to ensure that their children and grandchildren “have the privilege of growing up in a country that is not completely decimated by pagan gods and foreign people from foreign lands.”
• He also fumes that non-Christians are living in his neighborhood: "They worship other gods. They are Hindu. They are Muslim. They are Jews. They are not Christians."
• Webbon is a strong supporter of Donald Trump. If you support Dumpy, I assume your views are the same as Webbon’s.
• Moving on.
• Just a side note that I love that the group who infiltrated Trump’s Project 2025’s website and obtained information about who is behind the plan for Trump’s second term are called the “gay furry hackers.”
• They found that 80% of Project 2025 authors are Trump aides and advisors.
• Of course they are. Thank you, gay furry hackers.
• Moving on to some disgusting news out of Exeter, New Hampshire, were bestselling author Brendan DuBois was arraigned yesterday on multiple counts of possessing child sexual abuse materials after police discovered dozens of “sexually explicit conduct.”
• DuBois, 64, was arrested Wednesday and charged with six felony counts of possession of child abuse materials. He possessed at least 35 visual representations of children under the age of 18 engaging in various sexual acts.
• There’s no possible excuse or justification for possessing child porn.
• Moving on to terrible fads.
• A lawsuit was filed yesterday against Hershey, Walgreens and several others in the case of a Massachusetts teen who died after he participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge that was widely promoted on social media.
• Harris Wolobah, a 10th grader from Worcester, died in September 2023 after eating the Paqui chip as part of the manufacturer’s “One Chip Challenge.”
• If you have kids, please take a moment to impart to them how taking part in things that have a high risk of injuring or killing them aren’t worth it.
• And now, The Weather: “Time Out” by Major Murphy
• Rest in peace to Shelley Duvall, the distinctive actress best known for her roles in “The Shining” and several acclaimed Robert Altman films. She was 75.
• While she was undeniably great in “The Shining” as Wendy Torrence opposite Jack Nicholson, and bizarrely fun in “Popeye” with Robin Williams, the also was terrific in those Altman films including “Brewster McCloud,”“Nashville,” and “3 Women.”
• Another RIP goes out to Hattie Wiener, self-promoted as the “Oldest Cougar,” who died yesterday at 88.
• Wiener had, for decades, been an evangelist for older women having sex with younger men, and the health benefits that she said came with it.
• From the Sports Desk… more Wimbledon, I guess.
• The Men’s semifinals are happening now. Carlos Alcaraz is battling Daniil Medvedev. Medvedev too the first set 7-6, Alcaraz came back 6-3 in the second, and is leading in the third 4-3 as I’m writing these words.

• The other semifinal match is between Novak Djokovic and Lorenzo Musetti, who is ranked 25th and is a super long shot to beat Djokovic. I hope he does anyway.
• Today in history… Hartmann Schedel's ‘Nuremberg Chronicle’, one of the best-documented early printed books, is published (1493). King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace (1543). Mughal Empire annexes Bengal after defeating the Bengal Sultanate at the Battle of Rajmahal (1576). The American Army of the Northwest briefly occupies the Upper Canadian settlement at what is now at Windsor, Ontario (1812). German and Soviet forces engage in the Battle of Prokhorovka, one of the largest armored engagements of all time (1943). The Rolling Stones perform for the first time at London's Marquee Club (1962). Riots begin in Newark, New Jersey (1967). Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on mission STS-104, carrying the Quest Joint Airlock to the International Space Station (2001). 
• July 12 is the birthday of Roman politician/general Julius Caesar (100 BC), potter Josiah Wedgwood (1730), poet Henry David Thoreau (1817), businessman George Eastman (1854), film producer Louis B. Mayer (1884), painter/sculptor Amedeo Modigliani (1884), architect Buckminster Fuller (1895), stage director/lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895), comedian Milton Berle (1908), artist Andrew Wyeth (1917), businessman Roger Smith (1925), pianist/composer Van Cliburn (1934), comedian/convicted rapist Bill Cosby (1937), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Christine McVie (1943), singer-songwriter Walter Egan (1948), actress Cheryl Ladd (1951), actor Charlie Murphy (1959), boxer Julio César Chávez (1962), guitarist/composer John Petrucci (1967), figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi (1971), and actor Topher Grace (1978).

Things are going to be pretty wild in coming weeks and months. I don’t need to tell you that if you’ve been paying attention. All I can say for now is this: when you’re faced with choices, I truly believe that in your heart, you know the difference between good and bad, and right and wrong. Act accordingly. Enjoy your day.