Random News: July 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 July 26, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! This entire month of July 2024 had been more jam-packed with history-making news, it’s amazing that I’ve found time to do anything other than to write this silly column, and yet I jam it into a frenzied hour of research and typing between 7-8AM each day. If things seem a little rushed, that would be why. But I guess it still serves its purpose, which is to help make folks aware of stuff and — big picture — make the world a better place in which to live. Okay, let’s dive in.

• My standard disclaimer… I hate polls, they are mostly useless, blah blah blah.
• In early July, not long after the Biden/Trump debate debacle, things were starting to seem bleak (though I still think Biden would have squeaked out the win in November).
• The New York Times-Siena national poll back then had likely voters at Trump 49%, Biden 43%, and registered voters at Trump 49%, Biden 41%.
• But the same group just came out with a new poll, and the Kamala bounce is real. Likely voters: Trump 47%, Harris 46%; registered voters: Trump 48%, Harris 46%.
• And when a third party is factored in…  Harris 44%, Trump 43%, Kennedy 5%.
• This race can and will be won by Kamala Harris… and I have suspicions that a lot of the people who aren’t being polled are the younger voters who support Harris by huge margins over Dump.
• One tangible item of note: when the announcement was made on Sunday that Kamala was our candidate, the fundraising heat map via ActBlue showed massive numbers of people donating from areas like Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas and Tampa, Florida… places we’ve long been told were Republican strongholds.
• I looked at one scenario where Harris beats Trump 406-132 in the electoral vote… and it wasn’t crazily far-fetched. The reality is that it will likely be much closer, but we really don’t know.
• And there are still over 100 days until the election.
• Some breaking news in that regard: former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama endorsed Harris for president this morning. They are the final key leaders in the Democratic Party to unite behind Harris after President Biden passed the torch to Kamala for the coming term.
• A video of the Obamas calling Harris was published.
• “We called to say, Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” said Barack. Michelle added, “I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala: I am proud of you. This is going to be historic.”
• In a statement, the Obamas pledged to “do everything we can” to elect Harris and called on their legions of supporters to join the effort.
• Fuck yes. Let’s go.
• The last time I checked, at least 3,334 pledged delegates have now endorsed Vice President Harris. She’s far past the number required to be nominated, and will soon be approaching the total number of delegates who committed to Joe Biden.
• The official delegate roll call where Kamala Harris will get the nomination is on August 7.
• Let’s talk about what white women were doing last night.
• 164,000 of them joined the largest Zoom call in history. Dubbed "White Women: Answer the Call," the event — supporting Kamala Harris for President — quickly set a world record, crashing the platform but continuing on, and raising over $2 million in the process.
• Organized by prominent activist Shannon Watts, the event called on women across the nation to join the livestream and invite others to support Harris. The call featured notable speakers from across a wide swatch of politicians, athletes, and entertainers.
• They’re planning for another call on Sunday evening, rallying American women of all backgrounds, races, and ethnicities to come together for Kamala. Pretty exciting stuff!
• The call definitely had its effect on prominent Republicans, who took to social media last night telling men to not allow their wives to vote for Kamala Harris.
• Hahahahaha. Good luck with that, dudes.
• Fun Fact: Kamala Harris will not be the shortest US president in history. She’s still a quarter inch taller than James Madison, who was 5’ 4”. And anyway, per Kamala’s own claim, she is 5’ 7-1/2” in heels.
• Why this matters to anyone is far beyond my ability to understand people, but I thought I’d mention it before the MAGA world tries to come up with some imaginary height requirement law.
• Random Note: This week, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings donated $7 million to a super PAC that supports Kamala Harris' campaign.
• Apparently this led to a meltdown on MAGA social media sites like Elon Musk’s X, with people saying they’d never watch anything on Netflix again.
• Snort. I give them three minutes after the new season of their favorite show drops to come running back.
• In other news of support for Harris, the gun safety group Giffords is rolling out a $15 million campaign to help her defeat Republican rival Dumples the Clown, as well as help House candidates in battleground districts who favor tougher gun laws.
• Fuck yes. Let’s go.
• In other news…
• Donnie Dump is scared to death of Kamala. He’s now trying to back out of the debates that had been previously scheduled.
• Vice President Harris says, “I'm ready to debate Donald Trump. I have agreed to the previously agreed upon September 10 debate. He agreed to that previously. Now it appears he's backpedaling. But I'm ready. And I think the voters deserve to see the split-screen that exists in this race on a debate stage. And so I'm ready. Let's go.”
• Trump’s confidence seems completely shot at the prospect of facing Harris in the general election.
• Meanwhile, he has other things to worry about.
• Prosecutors sad in a court filing yesterday that El Dumpo’s conviction for falsifying business records should not be reversed because of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity for reasons including a wealth of incriminating evidence.
• Dumpy’s lawyers had tried to claim that because the witness testimony included events that happened in 2017 during Dump’s first year in office, they were part of his official duties and he was therefore immune.
• But it would be insane to think that any court would find that his conviction on 34 felony counts for illegally trying to conceal the nature of a hush money payment for sex with a porn star before the 2016 election were “Presidential duties.”
• Moving on to another tidbit of the Orange Twatwaffle.
• The FBI is examining numerous metal fragments found near the stage at a campaign rally in Butler, PA to determine what actually caused the scratch of Dump’s ear after the assassination attempt on July 13.
• They’re trying to see if it was indeed a bullet or perhaps debris that caused the injury.
• Dump won’t allow the release of official medical records related to the incident.
• Let’s move on.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House yesterday to discuss the war in Gaza — and the possibility of securing a cease-fire deal — with President Joe Biden and future President Kamala Harris.
• The visit comes at a time of growing pressure in Israel and the U.S. to find an endgame to the nine-month war that’s left more than 39,000 dead in Gaza and some 1,200 dead in Israel. 
• After the meeting, Harris said, “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”
• Dumples the Clown claimed this week that Harris “is totally against the Jewish people.” This is probably a good place to note that Harris is married to a Jewish man, Doug Emhoff, who has played an outspoken role in the administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism.
• Moving on.
• In all of the recent excitement about Kamala Harris, we haven’t spoken enough about the horrors of the Republican Project 2025.
• Why, here’s a good one now, on pages 477-478…
• Adoptions will only be allowed by a family unit consisting of a “married mother and father.”
• So obviously, their plan is to make adoptions by single women or men, or by married same-sex couples, impossible or even illegal.
• Having government involvement in your most intimate and personal decisions is what Donald Trump and his Project 2025 is all about.
• And now, The Weather: “Airplane” by Color Temperature
• From the Sports Desk… first, some actual news.
• Just hours before the Summer Olympic Games torch relay concludes and the opening ceremony begins in Paris today, France’s high-speed train lines were targeted by malicious acts, including arson, in what has been described as “coordinated sabotage” to disrupt travel.
• The ceremony will go ahead as planned, despite the attacks. Rain is also threatening to disrupt festivities, but no changes have been made to the ceremony plans.
• So with opening ceremonies kicking off shortly in Paris, a quick Olympic tidbit.
• When the games were held in 1900, over 98% of the participating athletes were male. Even in 1964, more than 86% of the Olympians were men.
• Even as recently as the 1992 Olympics in Atlanta, women athletes made up only 29%. But for 2024, for the first time, exactly 50% of the Olympic athletes are female. Cool.
• Let’s talk about medals. The USA leads all other countries in medal count by far with 2,975 total. They are followed by the Soviet Union (1,204 medals) and Germany (1,058 medals).
• Gold medals? Yeah, still us. The US has a total of 1,179, then the Soviet Union with 473, and then Germany (342).
• It’s worth noting that Great Britain, France, Italy, China, Sweden, and Norway have all won more than 200 gold medals apiece.
• The most successful Olympic athlete of any gender and nationality is American swimmer Michael Phelps, with 23 gold medals, three silver and two bronze won across five games. 
• Among women, former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina is the most successful female Olympian. Nine of her 18 Olympic medals were gold, along with five silvers and four bronze between 1956-1964.
• The Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games starts today at 1:30PM EDT/10:30AM PDT.
• Today in history… Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at the Battle of Valdejunquera (920). Francis Drake, the English explorer, discovers a major bay on the coast of California, now known as San Francisco (1579). The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress, and Benjamin Franklin takes office as Postmaster General (1775). New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States (1788). Liberia declares its independence from the United States (1847). George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run (1861). Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera ‘Parsifal’ (1882). France annexes Tahiti (1891). United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner, later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1908). In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, the United States, Britain and the Netherlands freeze all Japanese assets and cut off oil shipments (1941). The USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with components and enriched uranium for the Little Boy nuclear bomb (1945). Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu (1946). U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council… holy shit (1947). Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States (1948). Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution (1953). A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (1989). The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush (1990). Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster (2005). Hillary Clinton becomes the first female nominee for President of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (2016). 
• July 26 is the birthday of US vice president George Clinton (1739), playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856), psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875), novelist Aldous Huxley (1894), actress/comedian Gracie Allen (1895), actress Vivian Vance (1909), director Blake Edwards (1922), actor Jason Robards (1922), writer/illustrator Jan Berenstain (1923), director Stanley Kubrick (1928), singer-songwriter Dobie Gray (1940), singer Darlene Love (1941), singer-songwriter Mick Jagger (1943), actress Helen Mirren (1945), singer-songwriter/drummer Roger Taylor (1949), figure skater Dorothy Hamill (1956), actress Nana Visitor (1957), actor Kevin Spacey (1959), actress Sandra Bullock (1964), actor Jeremy Piven (1965), actress Kate Beckinsale (1973), singer-songwriter Iron & Wine (1974), UK prime minister Liz Truss (1975), and NBA player Delonte West (1983).

There’s always more news than I have time to offer, but this is a pretty good batch of stuff. Hey. I’m proud of you people. We have a good ways to go, but our trajectory is looking great, and I think things are going to continue on a path of optimism and energy. In upcoming weeks we’ll be expanding our discussions about the important things to focus on between now and November 5. Enjoy your day.