Random News: July 2, 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 2, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s the first full day of the USA having a king instead of a president, and I’m not very happy about it. But if you know me, and you at least sort of do, you know I tend to use my fight over my flight, so I’m lacing up the gloves, or locking and loading, or whatever other analogy you want to use for my propensity to kick ass and take names.

• So, here we are. With yesterday’s ruling on presidential immunity, the Supreme Court of the United States has, for all intents and purposes, declared the President a king who is immune from prosecution for any act he deems as “official.”
• Do you think this doesn’t affect things right here and right now? Think again.
• Yesterday afternoon, Dump began an effort to throw out his recent felony conviction in Manhattan and postpone his upcoming sentencing, citing yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling that granted him broad immunity from prosecution for official actions he took as president.
• Let me remind you that his criminal action for which he was found guilty on 34 felony counts happened not while he was president but in 2016, before he was elected.
• Before the ink was dry on the SCOTUS ruling, Dump’s lawyers sought permission to file a motion to set aside the verdict. And he’s already using it for immunity that’s beyond the scope of the ruling, because of course he is.
• Dump is due to be sentenced in nine days, on July 11. Now they want to postpone the July 11 sentencing while the judge weighs whether the Supreme Court ruling affects the conviction.
• Will it work? In normal times I’d say obviously not, but these are not normal times.
• The upshot is that I’ve said this many times, and I’ll keep repeating it forever: the courts will never save you from this horrible piece of shit.
• And, in fact, no one will save you… except yourself.
• And you and I and millions of good people across this land will, indeed, save ourselves via our votes on Tuesday November 5, 2024.
• Let’s step back for a second.
• For decades and longer, the entire brand of conservatives has been to limit government power… and now they do so by granting the most power in our nation’s history to the office of President.
• Explain that, MAGAs. Go ahead, I’m listening.
• For now at least, all hail King Biden.
• Here we are, two days before Independence Day, and we go back to having a fucking king after 248 years of democracy. A man who can commit any crime and never face consequences.
• All he has to do is say it’s an “official act” and he’s completely immune. That is the word-for-word ruling by the Supreme Court yesterday.
• Can he assassinate his opponents, or put them in jail with no trial? Yes.
• Can he enrich himself through illegal means at the expense of the rest of us? Yes.
• What if he sells our military secrets to Russia and North Korea for billions of dollars for himself? If he calls it an official act, again, he is theoretically immune from any punishment.
• That’s a king. Not a president. A king. Everything George Washington looked to avoid in the formation of the USA.
• What the Supreme Court has set up for Biden or Dump or any future presidents is far more insidious than any power handed to dictators like Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, or Pol Pot.
• I leave this topic for now with the wise words of logician/philosopher Bertrand Russell…
• "The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than average leisure, brutality and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement & terrorism."
• We will not be muzzled as long as we use this, perhaps our final chance, to not allow it to happen… by voting.
• So that’s the final thought for now.
• We are now more driven to vote than ever before to make sure a person of high morals with good intentions always holds that suddenly more powerful office.
• We will be fighting in ways that the MAGA crowd can’t even imagine at the moment. And I promise, I’ll be soon detailing some things that you can do to aid the fight.
• Stay tuned… much more to come.
• Let’s cheer up with a bit of schadenfreude.
• Dump’s best pal Steve Bannon reported to federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut yesterday to begin serving a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 failed coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol. 
• Bannon arrived at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury around noon and was formally taken into custody.
• Fuck him. I feel sorry only for his cellmate who will have to smell his various levels of odiferous stench.
• Moving on.
• I know we’ve been slammed with bad news lately, and I hate harping on it. But I also don’t want yesterday’s immunity decision to completely obscure Friday’s life-changing landmark Supreme Court ruling that overturned the Chevron doctrine.
• One of the biggest impacts will be on the nation’s healthcare system.
• A flood of litigation — with plaintiffs like small businesses, drugmakers, and hospitals challenging regulations they say aren’t specified in the law — will likely leave the country with a patchwork of disparate health regulations varying by location.
• Health policy leaders say patients, providers, and health systems should brace for more uncertainty and less stability in the healthcare system.
• Even routine functions such as deciding the rate to pay doctors for treating Medicare beneficiaries could become embroiled in long legal battles that disrupt patient care.
• And the big business groups that oppose a regulation could search for and secure partisan judges to roll back agency decision-making.
• One example could be challenges to the FDA’s approval of a medication used in abortions, which survived a Supreme Court challenge this term on a technicality.
• Are you starting to see the problem here?
• Moving on.
• Seems like no matter where you go in the world, there’s nowhere to escape from the insanity.
• In Turkey, massive riots have been targeting Syrian businesses and cars in the city after a Syrian man was arrested on allegations that he sexually abused his seven-year-old female cousin.
• And then that news, true or not, spread over social media, and outraged local residents set fire to cars and Syrian-run businesses in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri.
• Sigh.
• And of course in France, where the far right seems poised to take over the country, they’re being led by a blandly handsome 28 year old shithead named Jordan Bardella.
• If things go their way, he’ll be the next prime minister there, having built his political power via TikTok and Instagram with his nationalistic and anti-immigrant — especially anti-Muslim —messaging.
• It’s the oldest trick in the books, and it works. It worked for Hitler and every other despot.
• Let’s move on.
• I wonder how our congressional reps are doing here in the USA? Hmm…
• Victoria Spartz (R-IN) has been charged after bringing a gun into a DC airport.
• Slow clap.
• Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority confirmed that Spartz was charged last Friday, June 28, with a weapons violation at Dulles International Airport.
• According to TSA, officers found a .380 caliber firearm in Spartz’ carry-on bag during screening. The airport then took possession of the gun and Spartz was charged.
• Section 18.2-287.01 of the Virginia gun laws code states it is illegal to carry any gun or weapon inside any airport terminal. The charge is a Class 1 Misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
• These MAGA assholes treat guns like their emotional support pets. What a bunch of babies.
• We need some good news.
• Today, the Biden administration unveiled a long-awaited proposal to protect workers from extreme temperatures.
• If finalized, the rule will establish the nation’s first-ever federal safety standard for excessive heat exposure in the workplace and protect as many as 36 million indoor and outdoor workers from heat-related injury.
• The rule would require employers to establish heat safety coordinators, undergo extreme heat safety training, create and regularly update emergency heat response plans, and provide workers with shade and water.
• Not-Fun Fact: three out of four workers who die of workplace heat exposure in the US die during their first week on the job, so the rules would also require a heat acclimatization process for new employees to gradually increase their exposure to high temperatures.
• I support all of this. I’m sure that Republicans are against it and just want you to die.
• Some more good news out of the Biden admin.
• President Biden can move forward with implementing a key part of his new student loan repayment plan after a federal appeals court lifted a temporary ban on that aspect of the program.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit decided to stay an injunction imposed to block Biden from launching the final component of the Saving on a Valuable Education program, commonly known as Save.
• The injunction, which came down last week by some yokel judge in Kansas, blocked the Education Department from cutting most enrollees’ monthly payments in half starting in July.
• Fuck that judge.
• I mentioned a new law that went into effect yesterday here in California, tracking gun purchases.
• Another new California law that started yesterday makes companies disclose the full cost of everything from hotel rooms to concert tickets upfront because of a state law taking effect that bans so-called junk fees. Those are the hidden costs that get tacked onto a bill right before you pay.
• Nice.
• Tennessee also has a new law that I support. They became the first state to protect musicians from artificial intelligence impersonation.
• The law, called the Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act, or ELVIS Act, bans the unauthorized use of performers' voices amid worries about how the technology could affect the music industry.
• I definitely agree with that one, though I doubt any tech companies or other nefarious characters are going to great lengths to put out fake Zak Claxton music.
• And if they do, I need some of that sweet AI cash, homies.
• And now, The Weather: “Looking Back” by Snowy
• Hurricane Beryl fucked up the Windward Islands yesterday, hitting as an extremely dangerous Category 4, delivering catastrophic winds, intense rainfall. and life-threatening storm surge.
• Grenada’s Carriacou Island got flattened by winds of 150 mph. It is the strongest known hurricane to pass through the Grenadines.
• If I lived in coastal Florida or anywhere on the eastern seaboard, I’d be making serious plans now for some inevitably horrid storm hitting sometime in the next few months.
• Let’s do a chart. Here are the top of the Billboard 100 singles charts from the start of July 1996.
• Me? I’m 27, I’m married, I’m working and have done pretty well in my career thus far. I think I know how I want things to go from that point on.
• Narrator’s Voice: but they did not go that way, and he would not have been happy if they had.
• 1. Tha Crossroads (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony). 2. You're Makin' Me High/Let It Flow (Toni Braxton). 3. How Do U Want It/California Love (2Pac Featuring K-Ci And JoJo). 4. Give Me One Reason (Tracy Chapman). 5. Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix) (Los Del Rio). 6. Always Be My Baby (Mariah Carey). 7. Because You Loved Me (From "Up Close & Personal") (Celine Dion). 8. Theme From Mission: Impossible (From "Mission: Impossible") (Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen). 9. Why I Love You So Much/Ain't Nobody (Monica). 10. Nobody Knows (The Tony Rich Project). 11. Ironic (Alanis Morissette). 12. Fastlove (George Michael). 13. Twisted (Keith Sweat). 14. C'mon N' Ride It (The Train) (Quad City DJ’s). 15. Kissin' You (Total). 16. You're The One (SWV). 17. Insensitive (From "Bed Of Roses") (Jann Arden). 18. Who Will Save Your Soul (Jewel). 19. Touch Me Tease Me (From "The Nutty Professor") (Case Featuring Foxxy Brown). 20. Hay (Crucial Conflict).
• From the Sports Desk… the USA is out at the Copa América.
• This is soccer, by the way.
• The USMNT lost to Uruguay 1-0 yesterday, so that’s that. Despite some controversy during the game, United States captain Christian Pulisic was clear in stating that he did not believe the officiating was to blame for his team's group-stage exit.
• Shrug.
• Today in history… Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident (626). Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine (1698). Bach's Magnificat is first performed (1723). The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not adopted until July 4 (1776). Thirty-five slaves, including Denmark Vesey, are hanged in South Carolina after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion (1822). Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutiny and take over the slave ship Amistad (1839). Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James A. Garfield (1881). The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890). Engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London (1897). U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany (1921). Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight (1937). The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opens for business in Rogers, AR (1962). U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places (1964). The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa (2005). The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx (2013).
• July 2 is the birthday of Roman emperor Valentinian III (419), author Lily Braun (1865), novelist Hermann Hesse (1877), tennis player/shirt designer René Lacoste (1904), SCOTUS justice Thurgood Marshall (1908), fashion designer Pierre Cardin (1922), activist Medgar Evers (1925), politician Imelda Marcos (1929), businessman/philanthropist Dave Thomas (1932), actress Polly Holliday (1937), race car driver Richard Petty (1937), Mexico president Vicente Fox (1942), actor Ron Silver (1946), actor/writer/producer/comedian Larry David (1947), model Jerry Hall (1956), MLB player Jose Canseco (1964), NHL players Joe Thornton (1979), actress Lindsay Lohan (1986), actress Margot Robbie (1990), and rapper Vince Staples (1993).

So listen. I know a lot of people are concerned and upset and angry about all the shit that’s gone on lately, from Biden’s shitty debate to the recent debacles of the SCOTUS and much more. You all have your own personal worries as well. I know that. But life is short, and being overwhelmed by emotions like fear and anger is no way to spend what little time you have here. Channel that darkness into action. We’ll be talking about ways to do that in coming weeks. Meanwhile, I have a show tonight in Second Life, and I’ll route some of my own feelings into that. Enjoy your day.