Random News: July 6, 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 6, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I woke up to my son making a huge racket as he left to go to Anime Expo, which was an annoying start to the day, but then things quieted down and now I’m enjoying some Peet’s Big Bang in my weekend morning uniform of a blue bathrobe, and am ready to spread information to all of you.

• I want to spend some time today talking about something you may have heard about. It’s called Project 2025.
• Some of you know all about it; others may be hearing about it for the first time.
• Interestingly, I’d already slated this weekend to discuss this before yesterday, when Dumples the Clown coincidentally decided to make a public statement about it.
• First, let’s talk about what it is.
• Project 2025 a collection of conservative and right-wing policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation to drastically reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power should Dump win the 2024 presidential election.
• It is an authoritarian, Christian nationalist plan to transform the United States into an autocracy, a system of government in which absolute power is held by the ruler, known as an autocrat. It includes most forms of monarchy and dictatorship.
• Legal experts have asserted that Project 2025 would undermine the rule of law, the separation of powers, the separation of church and state, and destroy nearly all of our civil liberties.
• The plan proposes taking far-right wing control of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Commerce, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
• These government departments would then be weaponized to go after anyone who doesn’t support Dump. It’s very similar to the actions of Joseph Stalin during the Soviet era.
• The Republican supporters of Project 2025 would also dismantle the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
• They’d sharply reduce and/or eliminate environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuel production. Funding for climate research would be cut
• They want to abolish the Department of Education. 
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be reformed along conservative principles, ensuring that government explicitly rejects abortion as health care and eliminates coverage of emergency contraception under the Affordable Care Act.
• Christianity will become the official religion of the USA under Project 2025. Non-Christians will be openly persecuted or worse.
• Pornography will be criminalized. Legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity will be removed entirely.
• There’s a lot more. The one thing that the authors of Project 2025 agree on is that the one way to ensure its adoption is for the Republican Party to control the Presidency as well as the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
• But wait, you say. Isn’t most of that stuff completely unconstitutional?
• Yes, of course. The Founding Fathers of our country were diametrically opposed to all of this. But do you trust the current Supreme Court to be your only failsafe against such monsters after their recent decisions?
• Now let’s talk about why you should care. The Washington Post, just for one example, called Project 2025 "the most detailed articulation of what a second Trump term would look like."
• Obviously, while there are plenty of MAGA people who are 100% onboard with all of the draconian plans of Project 2025, the grand majority of Americans are aghast at this totalitarian vision of the USA.
• And it’s become clear to Dumpy that if he openly supports it, it’s going to harm his election chances.
• Yesterday, on July 5, he finally addressed it.
• He wrote, "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
• So let’s start by his “wishing them luck” immediately after trying to separate himself from them.
• But does he have “nothing to do with them” or not? Project 2025 partners employ over 200 former officials from the Trump administration.
• Project 2025's director is Paul Dans, who served as chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management during the Dump administration. Spencer Chretien, a former special assistant to Dump, serves as associate director.
• One of its leaders is Russell Vought, who was just named policy director of the Republican National Committee platform committee in May 2024.
• Project 2025 put out a press release in May stating that John McEntee, former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, joined Project 2025 as a senior advisor. 
• Other notable Dump team members who are directly involved in Project 2025 include Ben Carson, Ken Cuccinelli, Peter Navarro, and many others.
• Ultimately, this is only a first step of their bigger goals which are far worse. Repealing parts of the Constitution that allow for women to vote, to reinstate slavery, and to remove all protections against anyone who isn’t a white Christian male are in the bigger picture.
• To wrap up this discussion for the time being, this week Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts stated that, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
• The implication being that if we don’t shut up and go along with his plan, we will be shot and killed.
• I’ve got news for you, Roberts: not only will we fight you all the way, but a lot more good will be shed on the side of the wannabe oppressors than that of your intended victims.
• And the fight is just getting started. And guess what? There’s more of us — a lot more — and we’re better prepared than you can possibly imagine.
• So to Project 2025 and every one of its supporters, I have just three words.
• Fucking bring it.
• Moving on.
• President Biden had a great answer during a highly anticipated TV interview last night in response to questions about his mental acuity.
• “Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden told George Stephanopoulos, referring to the tasks he faces daily in perhaps the world’s most rigorous job. “Every day, I have that test. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world.”
• Joe made it through the 22-minute interview just fine. There were no major blunders that would inflict further damage to his candidacy.
• But obviously, concerns about his age and fitness for another four years and his ability to defeat Dumpy in November are still rampant.
• So while it went fine, it also wasn’t enough to silence critics… not that I’d expected it to. Joe also strongly reiterated that he has no plans to step aside.
• “If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race,” he said, but then added: “The Lord Almighty’s not coming down.”
• I’ll say it again: Joe has my complete support as long as he’s in the race.
• And a little pertinent side note…
• Am I the world’s biggest Joe Biden fan? Nope. I didn’t vote for Joe in either of the past two Presidential primaries. My votes went to more left-leaning candidates: Bernie Sanders in 2016, and Elizabeth Warren in 2020.
• But when the general election came around, I wasn’t a whiny baby who cried because he didn’t get exactly what he wanted. I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
• He’s a good man who is a million times better for America and the world than the other guy. He has an all-star team around him doing great work, and he has a VP who is 100% ready to take the reins if that’s ever required.
• That being said, I would be doing you all an injustice by refusing to even contemplate what our full set of options are at this stage. Therefore, as promised earlier, we’ll chat a bit tomorrow about some possible ways this timeline we’re in could evolve.
• Moving on to some great news,
• The latest jobs report shows America’s economy added 206,000 jobs in June, continuing record job growth.
• That’s more jobs created in a single month than Dumples created during his entire presidency. Look it up; it’s true.
• Unemployment ticked up a tiny notch but remains at just 4.1%. If you credit a resident for such things, I’d say Biden is doing a fine job.
• Moving on to another important news item on the fight for women to keep their reproductive freedom.
• From… Arkansas? Impossible, you say!
• Apparently not. A proposed amendment to enshrine access to abortion care in the Arkansas state constitution got one step closer to appearing on the November 2024 ballot after the group behind it submitted the required number of valid signatures yesterday.
• The group, Arkansans for Limited Government (smart name), said it had collected the signatures of more than 100,000 registered voters — more than the approximately 90,700 it needed to submit before a July 5 deadline to move forward with the process of getting their proposal on the ballot.
• They also noted that they’d fulfilled a requirement under state law that the total include the signatures of registered voters from at least 50 of the state’s 75 counties.
• Arkansas is now the last of the nine states where organizers seeking to enshrine abortion rights in state constitutions have formally submitted the required number of signatures to advance the process.
• In another two, New York and Maryland, lawmakers control the amendment placement process.
• The fight for reproductive freedom is our revenge for the Republican right having overturned Roe v. Wade. It’s going to be a massive factor in the November elections.
• Moving on to some international elections news. There’s big stuff going on all over.
• In an election upset in Iran, the reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, who advocated for moderate policies at home and improved relations with the West, won the presidential runoff election, beating his hard-line rival.
• Pezeshkian will replace hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.
• The election of the only moderate in the race is about as good a news item out of Iran as anyone could hope for.
• Pezeshkian, 69, is a cardiac surgeon. He got 16.3 million votes to defeat the hard-line candidate, Saeed Jalili, delivering a blow to the conservative faction and a major victory for the reformist faction that had been sidelined from politics for the past few years. Jalili received 13.5 million votes.
• Jalili would have doubled down on strict social rules, including enforcing mandatory hijab on women, and remaining defiant in negotiations to lift sanctions.
• So that’s the good news.
• Meanwhile in France, voters overseas have already begun casting ballots in parliamentary runoff elections that could hand an unprecedented victory to the nationalist far right.
• Sigh. C’mon France, I know you’re better than that.
• Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration party National Rally came out on top of first-round voting last weekend, followed by a coalition of center-left, hard-left and Greens parties – and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance in a distant third.
• France’s elections wrap up tomorrow. Initial polling projections are expected when the final voting stations close at 8PM Paris time (2PM EDT). We might know official results before the weekend ends here in the US.
• Moving on but staying on the international front.
• Been a bit since we talked about that Israel-Hamas War. It’s almost as if the media doesn’t want us thinking about it. Hmm.
• It sure was leading story, front page news every single day when it was being used to divide liberal/progressive voters and harm the Biden campaign.
• But today, some possible good news: Hamas has given its initial approval of a U.S.-backed proposal for a phased cease-fire deal in Gaza, dropping a key demand that Israel commit up front to a complete end to the war.
• The compromise by the militant group, which controls Gaza and triggering the war with the horrifying October 7 attack on Israel, could deliver the first pause in fighting since November. But all sides cautioned that a deal is still not guaranteed.
• Washington’s phased deal would start with a full and complete six-week cease-fire during which older, sick, and female hostages would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
• During those 42 days, Israeli forces would withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza.
• Hope it works out.
• I want to cover a shitty news item, but not for the reasons you may assume.
• Three people were killed and eight more injured in a New York City park on July 4 when a driver suspected of being under the influence crashed his car into a crowd.
• He was identified yesterday morning as Daniel C. Hyden, 44, of Monmouth Junction, NJ. Hyden was arraigned this morning on a bunch of charges ranging from vehicular homicide to operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
• The reason I mention this awful story is that Hyden had worked a substance abuse counselor and was most recently working for residential treatment programs in Manhattan.
• And in 2020, he published a book entitled “The Sober Addict: A Guide on How to Be Functional With the Dysfunctional Disease of Addiction.”
• And there’s my point.
• People don’t “get over” an addiction. You can go decades without touching alcohol, or heroin, or cigarettes, or whatever your addiction is… but you remain an addict, and the fight to remain free of your demons is one that goes on every single day.
• And not everyone wins that battle every time. Hyden obviously didn’t. I feel horrible for his victims, but also in ways for him. It’s obvious he had at least made a serious effort to be sober, and something slipped.
• Moving on.
• Today’s quote of the day comes from Tabatha Sullivent of Celina, TX, while speaking about her terrifying escape from a near-fatal shark attack in the waters of South Padre Island. She was badly injured and lost most of her left calf.
• ”I turned around and saw something dark in the water. And I thought it was a big fish,” she recalled.
• Um. That’s… what a shark… is. Wishing her luck in her recovery.
• And now, The Weather: “She's Leaving You” by MJ Lenderman
• In actual weather news, Former hurricane Beryl has covered close to 3,000 miles across the open tropical Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico. It’s soon going to make landfall in Texas.
• Meteorologists are expecting the tropical storm to come ashore as an intensifying hurricane Sunday night into Monday, likely as a Category 1 hurricane along the lower or middle Texas coast.
• Stay safe, my peoples.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s early July 1981, and this is the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
• I am in between 7th and 8th grade and am feeling pretty cool about myself. I seem to recall being at the beach constantly that summer.
• I’m gonna sound like that old annoying guy I hate, but hot damn, this is a good-ass collection of music. I can name the cool tunes off almost every one of these albums.
• 1. Mistaken Idenity (Kim Carnes). 2. Long Distance Voyager (The Moody Blues). 3. Hi Infidelity (REO Speedwagon). 4. Paradise Theater (Styx). 5. Street Songs (Rick James). 6. Hard Promises  (Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers). 7. Face Value (Phil Collins). 8. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap  (AC/DC). 9. Stars On Long Play (Stars On). 10. Zebop (Santana). 11. Somewhere In England (George Harrison). 12. Moving Pictures (Rush). 13. The One That You Love (Air Supply). 14. Share Your Love (Kenny Rogers). 15. Fair Warning (Van Halen). 16. Don't Say No (Billy Squier). 17. Christopher Cross (Christopher Cross). 18. Working Class Dog (Rick Springfield). 19. Winelight (Grover Washington, Jr.). 20. There Goes The Neighborhood (Joe Walsh).
• From the Sports Desk… with Wimbledon in full swing, I thought you might like a list of the last 30 years of winners.
• 2023: Carlos Alcaraz; Marketa Vondrousova. 2022: Novak Djokovic; Elena Rybakina. 2021: Novak Djokovic; Ashleigh Barty. 2019: Novak Djokovic; Simona Halep. 2018: Novak Djokovic; Angelique Kerber. 2017: Roger Federer; Garbine Muguruza. 2016: Andy Murray; Serena Williams. 2015: Novak Djokovic; Serena Williams. 2014: Novak Djokovic; Petra Kvitova. 2013: Andy Murray; Marion Bartoli. 2012: Roger Federer; Serena Williams. 2011: Novak Djokovic; Petra Kvitova. 2010: Rafael Nadal; Serena Williams. 2009: Roger Federer; Serena Williams. 2008: Rafael Nadal; Venus Williams. 2007: Roger Federer; Venus Williams. 2006: Roger Federer; Amelie Mauresmo. 2005: Roger Federer; Venus Williams. 2004: Roger Federer; Maria Sharapova. 2003: Roger Federer; Serena Williams. 2002: Lleyton Hewitt; Serena Williams. 2001: Goran Ivanisevic; Venus Williams. 2000: Pete Sampras; Venus Williams. 1999: Pete Sampras; Lindsay Davenport. 1998: Pete Sampras; Jana Novotna. 1997: Pete Sampras; Martina Hingis. 1996: Richard Krajicek; Steffi Graf. 1995: Pete Sampras; Steffi Graf. 1994: Pete Sampras; Conchita Martinez.
• Today in history… Mindaugas is crowned king of Lithuania (1253). Richard III and Anne Neville are crowned King and Queen of England (1483). In Jackson, MI, the first convention of the United States Republican Party is held (1854). Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog (1885). Three thousand eight hundred striking steelworkers engage in a day-long battle with Pinkerton agents during the Homestead Strike, leaving ten dead and dozens wounded (1892). The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago's Comiskey Park, with the American League defeating the National League 4–2 (1933). Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus, leading to a court-martial (1944). The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union (1947). John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before forming the Beatles (1957). The Georgia Guidestones, a monument in the United States, are heavily damaged in a bombing, and are dismantled later the same day (2022).
• July 6 is the birthday of naval captain John Paul Jones (1747), Mexico emperor Maximilian I (1832), businessman Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884), painter Frida Kahlo (1907), wrestling promoter Vince McMahon Sr. (1914), actor Sebastian Cabot (1918), US first lady Nancy Reagan (1921), TV host/producer Merv Griffin (1925), singer-songwriter Bill Haley (1925), actress Janet Leigh (1927), actress/singer Della Reese (1931), actor Ned Beatty (1937), actor Burt Ward (1945), US president George W. Bush (1946), actor Sylvester Stallone (1946), actor Geoffrey Rush (1951), singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith (1953), rapper 50 Cent (1975), comedian Kevin Hart (1979), NBA player Pau Gasol (1980), MLB player Manny Machado (1992), and NBA player Zion Williamson (2000).

So much to talk about in recent times. I guess there always is… it just gets more personal from time to time. I am going to have a good weekend (I’ve already decided), with some chill things and some productive things and some things I don’t know about yet but will handle as they arrive. Enjoy your day.