Random News: July 18, 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 18, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I saw someone write yesterday that we’re getting a week’s worth of news every day in recent times, and I definitely agree with them. It’s easy to have important shit slide by under the radar, often obscured by equally important shit. I’m just trying to tell you things that I think may be of importance to you, or that you’ll find amusing in some humorous or cynical way, or both.

• Here’s a big one now.
• Yesterday, special counsel Jack Smith filed an official notice of appeal of federal Judge Aileen Cannon's order dismissing El Dumpo's classified documents case. Smith indicated that he will appeal the decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Get get ‘em, Jack.
• Cannon had dismissed the case on the grounds that Smith's appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional because he was not appointed by the president or confirmed by Congress.
• All previous courts — every single time this has been brought up as a defense — has considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel.
• To keep you on track, Dump pleaded not guilty last year to 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House.
• He repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information and took steps to thwart the government's efforts to get the documents back.
• Moving on with some not good news.
• President Biden has tested positive for COVID-19. He was poised to address a conference of the Latino civil rights and advocacy group UnidosUs, but he was not able to attend.
• Joe is vaccinated and boosted, and is experiencing only mild symptoms. He’s being treated with Paxlovid.
• Kinda funny how we know more about Biden’s mild COVID treatment than we do about Dump having been shot in the head last weekend.
• I know that many of you from all political outlooks are super focused on whether or not Biden will — or should be — the Democratic candidate in this November’s presidential election.
• My advice is very simple: this is a process that. You can’t control personally. However it plays out is how it will go.
• That being said, I highly suggest you adopt my outlook on the matter, which is that if the candidate is Biden — and I genuinely think it will be — we continue to support Joe with all our might.
• If someone else ends up being the candidate, we support that person with equal gusto.
• Democrats don’t vote for a cult leader. We vote for a set of ideologies that encompass freedom, equality, empathy, justice, diversity, and more.
• And that mindset can be delivered no matter who is at the top.
• Let’s move on to discuss one of the highlights of the Dump campaign: a mass deportation program unlike anything the country has seen.
• His party’s platform, which was ratified just this week at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, promises the “largest deportation effort in American history,” and immigration was the theme of Tuesday’s gathering.
• There were 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States in 2022. More than eight out of 10 have been in the country for more than a decade.
• As has been typical of Dump’s administrative style, he and the Republican platform have made broad declarations but thus far offered no details whatsoever about how they intend to do this mass deportation.
• Or even how to pay for it. The costs would be astronomical.
• The ICE budget for transportation and deportation in 2023 was $420 million, and in that year the agency deported 142,580 people. Removal of 10 million people could easily cost US taxpayers in the tens of billions.
• But the millions of deportees would also have to be detained and housed prior to removal. Currently ICE manages 41,500 beds across 200 jail and detention centers at a cost of $57,378 per year… PER BED.
• In the event of a mass deportation, the government would need to pay for far, far more beds.
• Where will they get that cash? Easy. By stealing your Social Security and Medicare, and by raising taxes on the middle class.
• Let’s move on but stay for a minute on aspects of Project 2025.
• You already know they’re directly targeting abortion and contraceptives. But did you know they plan to transforming the Department of Health & Human Services into the "Department of Life?”
• ”The Dobbs decision is just the beginning,” they say in the document.
• In addition to passing nationwide abortion restrictions, it also calls for the FDA to reverse its approval of abortion pills and criminalize their distribution.
• And you’re not going to be allowed to even discuss this soon.
• In an effort to stop "woke culture warriors," Project 2025 demands that the terms abortion, reproductive health, and reproductive rights be deleted from "every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."
• That’s what happens if Dump wins. You have the grave responsibility of making sure that does not happen — for yourself, your wives, your daughters, your friends. Use your vote. Encourage others to use theirs.
• Okay, back to some good news. I promise, there’s always some good news.
• Yesterday, a federal court swiftly tossed out a lawsuit from the Republican National Committee, Nevada Republican Party, and the Dump Campaign alleging that Nevada’s post-election ballot receipt deadline violates federal law and unconstitutionally dilutes Republican votes. 
• The ruling simply held that the GOP plaintiffs lacked standing. 
• Under Nevada law, mail-in ballots received up to four business days after Election Day are counted. Additionally, the state presumes that ballots received up to three days after Election Day were postmarked on Election Day.
• Which seems fine to me, and certainly doesn’t harm either party over another.
• Back to some bad news that literally anyone could have predicted? Sure.
• A federal appeals court ruled this week that Minnesota’s ban preventing residents ages 18 to 20 from carrying handguns in public is unconstitutional.
• Because of course they did.
• The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit could soon allow Minnesota residents to apply to carry handguns in public once they turn 18, removing an age restriction the state imposed in 2003.
• And everyone knows that 18-year-olds are exactly the type of calm, mature people who would never pull out a gun in anger due to a momentary annoyance.
• Note: that was sarcasm. I just need to make sure you knew. So high school seniors in the North Star State will soon be able to pull out a Glock 9 to wave around next time someone cuts them off in traffic.
• As you can probably guess, this is typical Second Amendment stuff. “Minnesota has not met its burden to proffer sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption that 18 to 20-year-olds seeking to carry handguns in public for self-defense are protected by the right to keep and bear arms,” the judges wrote.
• Yup. Moving on.
• Historical Note: in 1869, Congress set the number of Supreme Court Justices at nine, which made sense, because there were nine judicial circuits at the time.
• Today, there are 13 circuits. Hmm. Seems to me like it’s high time to add another four Justices. Why not?
• Here’s some cool news: this year’s crop of Kennedy Center Honors recipients includes, among other, the Grateful Dead.
• Along with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, blues legend Bonnie Raitt, and the legendary Harlem theater The Apollo, the Dead will be honored with an evening of tributes, testimonials and performances on December 8 at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The 47th Kennedy Center class ceremony will be broadcast on December 23.
• Starting around my junior year of high school and continuing long after, I can genuinely call myself a Deadhead. Beginning around 1985, I attended some 30+ shows.
• They are an iconic influence on American culture, and they deserve this honor as much as anyone.
• Moving on.
• Any news from the RNC? Well first, their TV ratings are far down from previous Republican conventions. I sure as fuck am not watching that shit.
• Second item is Matt Gaetz’ face. I’m not even going to tell you why this is worth mentioning. You can find out on your own.
• And finally — and this is unconfirmed but I choose to believe it anyway — the gay partner finding app Grindr is reporting all-time record use for the city of Milwaukee while the RNC goes on.
• See, here’s the thing about Republicans: everything they rail against, they do. They get the most abortions. They have the larger percentage of gay sex. Even things like their hatred of immigration is based on the fact that many of their own ancestors were indeed “illegals.”
• So fuck them and their hypocrisy.
• And now, The Weather: “You Don't Know” by Clothesline From Hell
• Let’s do a chart. Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles for this week in July 1983. I’m between my freshman and sophomore years of high school, so obviously I’m well acquainted with every one of these songs.
• What else was happening with me at this time? Definitely playing a lot of guitar, starting to write some of my own songs (which definitely sucked, since I was 14 and didn’t have shit to write about), went surfing a lot, had various short-term girlfriends. Normal shit.
• 1. Every Breath You Take (The Police). 2. Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant). 3. Flashdance...What A Feeling (Irene Cara). 4. Never Gonna Let You Go (Sergio Mendes). 5. Too Shy (Kajagoogoo). 6. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (Michael Jackson). 7. Time (Clock Of The Heart) (Culture Club). 8. Come Dancing (The Kinks). 9. Don't Let It End (Styx). 10. Our House (Madness). 11. Family Man (Daryl Hall John Oates). 12. I'm Still Standing (Elton John). 13. Is There Something I Should Know (Duran Duran). 14. Stand Back (Stevie Nicks). 15. 1999 (Prince). 16. She's A Beauty (The Tubes). 17. All This Love (Debarge). 18. She Works Hard For The Money (Donna Summer). 19. Baby Jane (Rod Stewart). 20. Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (Eurythmics).
• From the Sports Desk… time to start focusing on the Olympics.
• Team USA Basketball continues its preparation for a run at a fifth straight Olympic gold medal with a series of exhibition games against other contending teams before arriving in Paris.
• Yesterday, they defeated Serbia 105-79 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, behind stellar play from Stephen Curry, who finished with 24 points. Bam Adebayo contributed 17 points, including three 3-pointers.
• It was Team USA's third straight exhibition win, after defeating Australia 98-92 on Monday at Emirates Arena and defeating Canada 86-72 in Las Vegas last week. The team now heads to London for two more exhibition games, against South Sudan and Germany.
• USA! USA!
• Frank admission: I’m more looking forward to things like the track and field events than things like basketball. I see basketball every year. I don’t see the 400m relay often at all.
• Today in history… A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome (387 BC). King Edward I of England — my 23rd great-grandfather — issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews from England (1290). Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata ‘Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz’ in Leipzig (1723). The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time (1914). Adolf Hitler publishes ‘Mein Kampf’ (1925). Germany test flies the Messerschmitt Me 262, the first jet-powered fighter plane (1942). Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to war setbacks (1944). A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order (1966). Intel is founded in Mountain View, CA (1968). Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics (1976). A picture of parody pop group Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web (1992). The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history (2013).
• July 18 is the birthday of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552), marshal Virgil Earp (1843), gangster Machine Gun Kelly (1895), politician S. I. Hayakawa (1906), actor Hume Cronyn (1911), actor Red Skelton (1913), activist/politician Nelson Mandela (1918), astronaut/politician John Glenn (1921), singer-songwriter/musician Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1929), journalist/writer Hunter S. Thompson (1937), pianist Ian Stewart (1938), film director Paul Verhoeven (1938), keyboardist Brian Auger (1939), actor James Brolin (1940), singer-songwriter/guitarist Lonnie Mack (1941), singer Martha Reeves (1941), publisher/politician Steve Forbes (1947), businessman Richard Branson (1950), actress Elizabeth McGovern (1961), actor Vin Diesel (1967), NBA player Penny Hardaway (1971), baseball player Torii Hunter (1975), guitarist/composer Daron Malakian (1975), rapper M.I.A. (1975), NFL player Deion Branch (1979), and actress Kristin Bell (1980).

Well, that was more than I intended to write this morning, but as I said up top… it’s an extraordinary time period, and I try not to miss the things that we may want to look back on later and wish we’d acted on when we could. Enjoy your day.