Random News: July 3, 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 3, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. Kinda feels like a Friday here in the USA due to our Independence Day holiday tomorrow, and a lot of businesses closing Friday as well. I still have plenty of things to do before I can go into any kind of relaxation mode, starting with whatever I’m about to write here, so let’s do it.

• Let’s get something out of the way.
• Yesterday, I opined — both here and on some friends’ posts — that Dump’s immunity would immediately be used in ways that go against even the most basic limits that the Supreme Court had defined. 
• And then it happened almost immediately.
• Dump’s sentencing in the New York hush money case, scheduled for July 11, was pushed back to mid-September as his lawyers seek to convince the trial judge that his conviction should be tossed out after a Supreme Court ruling that presidents have immunity for official acts.
• Keep in mind, the man was tried by a jury of his peers, evidence was presented, a defense was presented, and the jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts.
• And now, not only has his sentencing been pushed back, but the language of the order indicated that no sentencing may be necessary.
• And that’s for a crime that he committed before he was elected President.
• So, it’s all bullshit. The system is set up so that Dump and other wealthy people will never face repercussions for what they do, while you and I and 99% of the rest of the country are expected to obey laws.
• And I’m sorry if this surprises you, but it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.
• I told you that he’d never spend a single minute behind bars. I told you that maybe a dozen times. I meant it then, and I mean it now.
• If you want to remove this guy from being in a position to damage our country more than he always has, all you have is your vote on Tuesday November 5.
• Nothing else matters. Please make sure everyone around you understands this.
• Moving on.
• I don’t know if this next item is good news or silly news or some combination thereof.
• Justice Department officials plan to pursue the criminal cases against El Dumpo past Election Day even if he wins, under the belief that department rules against charging or prosecuting a sitting president would not kick in until Inauguration Day in January.
• Senior law enforcement officials have long viewed the two federal indictments against Dump as operating with potential time constraints. That’s because of long-standing Justice Department policy that officials cannot criminally charge a sitting president.
• Shrug.
• Let’s move on.
• France is doing something smart to try and avoid being overrun by the fascist far right.
• In a nationwide effort to prevent Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) winning an outright majority in parliament, more than 200 candidates pulled out of Sunday’s legislative election runoff to avoid splitting the anti-far-right vote.
• Neither their far-left nor centrist factions can win on their own, very similar in ways to our progressives and centrist Democrats in the USA.
• Had we consolidated into a united team, Dump never would have made it into office in the first place. I’ll remind you about the intense squabbling in 2016 between Team Hillary and the Bernie Bros.
• France is making the smart move, one I wish we’d been able to do… and still can.
• There are far more Democratic voters in the USA than Republicans, and there are also many Republicans who know that voting for Dump is the wrong thing for America.
• If we can find middle ground and join together, there’s no fucking way to stop us.
• Something to consider. Moving on.
• Let’s do some happy news.
• Rudy Giuliani is no longer a lawyer.
• The former New York City and current alcoholic punchline has been disbarred for his part in Donald Trump’s election interference efforts in 2020.
• The New York Supreme Court announced the decision yesterday prohibiting Giuliani from practicing law, effective immediately.
• His disbarment is permanent.
• The court noted that Giuliani “not only deliberately violated some of the most fundamental tenets of the legal profession, but he also actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 Presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant.”
• Fuck Rudy.
• In other news, Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who has spent most of his life in prison since his conviction in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents in South Dakota, has been denied parole.
• For decades, it’s been argued that Peltier was wrongly convicted. Those of us of a certain age will recall the many “Free Leonard Peltier” t-shirts and bumper stickers from our youth.
• Peltier is serving life in prison for the killing the agents during a standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The health of the now 79-year-old is failing.
• The fight for Peltier’s freedom, ongoing for nearly 50 years, is embroiled in the Indigenous rights movements.
• Let’s move on.
• I know the Supreme Court has been at the center of many news stories in recent weeks, most of them terrifying.
• But really, they prefer to be out of the spotlight, which is why they said yesterday that they won’t take up a challenge to parts of a federal law that bar convicted felons and drug users from possessing firearms, and also let stand a ban on assault-style weapons in Illinois.
• While the Court may be shirking their responsibility here, it’s probably a good thing. Gun nuts were pushing them to be more and more lenient about any offense that related to gun use.
• Fuck them too.
• Here’s something cool.
• Today, President Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry to two Union soldiers who stole a locomotive deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War and drove it north for 87 miles as they destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines.
• Badass!
• U.S. Army privates Philip G. Shadrach and George D. Wilson were captured by Confederates and executed by hanging. Biden is recognizing their courage 162 years later with the country's highest military decoration.
• And fuck the Confederacy, you traitorous sons of bitches.
• Moving on.
• You people know that I distrust all polls. Literally all of them.
• However, here’s one of interest. Before the disastrous debate, a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted June 11-12 showed Dump with a marginal two percentage point lead over Biden, 41% to 39%.
• But this week, Biden evened things up with the Dumpster, with a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showing Biden and Dumpy each had 40% support among registered voters in the two-day poll that concluded yesterday.
• We’re going to organize and we’re going to beat this fucking guy. All we have to do is vote… by mail, by ballot dropbox, at the polls. We will never surrender!
• I have a genuinely fun fact, or at least an interesting one.
• In 1930, a Hungarian inventor named László Biro was watching kids play with marbles in a puddle, and noticed how the balls left a trail of water in their path.
• And he thus invented the ball-point pen, which many people in Europe still call a “biro.”
• In 1950, Marcel Bich acquired the rights to the device, and, on the advice of a smart publicist who anticipated that people would pronounce it “bitch,” removed the "h" from his surname and founded the company BIC.
• Since 1953, more than 100 billion Crystal BICs have been manufactured, making it the best-selling pen of all time.
• And now, The Weather: “JJ” by Wand
• Hurricane Beryl is plowing into Jamaica as a Category 4. It’s forecast to make landfall there today. Stay safe, Jamaican friends.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the start of July 1973 and here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
• Side note: those two Beatles compilation albums — the red one and the blue one — were in constant play in my home. In fact, it wasn’t until I was older, maybe in middle school at the start of the ‘80s, before I really went through and started discovering the original albums from which those songs were drawn.
• 1. Living In The Material World (George Harrison). 2. There Goes Rhymin' Simon (Paul Simon). 3. Red Rose Speedway (Paul McCartney And Wings). 4. The Dark Side Of The Moon (Pink Floyd). 5. Now & Then (Carpenters). 6. Houses Of The Holy (Led Zeppelin). 7. Made In Japan (Deep Purple). 8. The Beatles 1967-1970 (The Beatles). 9. Fantasy (Carole King). 10. Diamond Girl (Seals & Crofts). 11. The Captain And Me (The Doobie Brothers). 12. Call Me (Al Green). 13. They Only Come Out At Night (Edgar Winter). 14. Live At The Sahara Tahoe (Isaac Hayes).  15. Yessongs (Yes). 16. Machine Head (Deep Purple). 17. The Beatles 1962-1966 (The Beatles). 18. Bloodshot (The J. Geils Band). 19. The Best Of Bread (Bread). 20. I've Got So Much To Give (Barry White).
• From the Sports Desk… no tennis fans, I haven’t forgotten that your sport exists.
• Wimbledon began on Monday with defending champ Carlos Alcaraz a favorite to win again, and American Coco Gauff a possibility to win her second Grand Slam.
• Actually, in terms of betting, Jannik Sinner is the world's top-ranked player coming into Wimbledon and is the money favorite, with Alcaraz close behind. Seven-time champion Novak Djokovic underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus on June 6, but remains in third place in betting.
• In the women's tournament, Aryna Sabalenka is currently the betting favorite to win, with French Open champion Iga Swiatek close behind.
• Today in history… William the Conqueror — my 29th great-grandfather — becomes Duke of Normandy (1035). Québec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain (1608). George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, MA (1775). Dow Jones & Company publishes its first stock average (1884). Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state (1890). Confederate veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913 reenact Pickett's Charge; upon reaching the high-water mark of the Confederacy they are met by the outstretched hands of friendship from Union survivors (1913). The Constitution of Puerto Rico is approved by the United States Congress (1952). U.S. President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul (1979). President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi is overthrown by the military after four days of protests all over the country calling for Morsi's resignation (2013).
• July 3 is the birthday of French king Louis XI (1423), poet William Henry Davies (1871), author Franz Kafka (1883), composer Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901), actor Ken Russell (1927), guitarist Tommy Tedesco (1930), lawyer/activist Gloria Allred (1941), actor Kurtwood Smith (1943), journalist Dave Barry (1947), singer-songwriter Laura Branigan (1952), bass player Andy Fraser (1952), talk show host Montel Williams (1956), musician Poly Styrene (1957), singer-songwriter Stephen Pearcy (1959), singer-songwriter/musician/producer Vince Clarke (1960), actor Tom Cruise (1962), actress Yeardley Smith (1964), NHL player Teemu Selänne (1970), activist Julian Assange (1971), and actress Olivia Munn (1980).

Here’s hoping today is nice for you. We have many things to discuss in coming days and weeks, but we’ll cap it here for now. Enjoy your day.