Random News: August 31, 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 August 31, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I have things to do today, above and beyond the typical Saturday.

• I guess we can start with that. In a world filled with stress and strife, the mundane becomes unusual.
• If all goes well, I am buying a new mattress today. My current mattress has worked very well for the last 15 years or so, but it’s at a point where my mattressmate is having some back issues, and with it being Labor Day weekend, I’m not above saving hundreds of dollars on something we’re going to have to purchase eventually regardless.
• So after I do this news and have breakfast and get appropriately presentable for public appearance, we’ll head to one of the 17,000 or so mattress outlet places in the neighboring city of Torrance, CA.
• Because while I am looking at online buying guides and reviews and price comparisons and testimonials, I definitely need to feel this thing before we commit to it for the next 15 years.
• Holy fuck, I’ll be 70 next time I buy a fucking mattress. That’s assuming I live that long, Statistically and genetically I should, but there are no guarantees. Might as well buy a nice one. Life’s too short to not enjoy sleep.
• Okay, let’s do the news.
• Starting with Donnie the Flipper Dump, proving once again that attempts to please everyone end up pleasing no one.
• As I mentioned yesterday, a couple of days ago, a reporter asked El Dumpo his thoughts on the abortion ballot measure in his state of Florida. He clearly responded that he thought six weeks was too short a period to ban abortions.
• That lasted… less than a day. His evangelical supporters lost their minds over his response, feeling like their dream of controlling American women had turned into a nightmare.
• Yesterday, he and his campaign issued an official statement that was the opposite of Dump’s response, and that he would indeed enthusiastically support Florida’s draconian six-week abortion ban.
• Kamala Harris had something to say about that.
• “Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant. Trump proudly brags about the role that he played in overturning Roe v. Wade and said there should be punishment for women who have an abortion. So, of course he thinks it's a 'beautiful thing' that women in Florida and across the country are being turned away from emergency rooms, face life-threatening situations, and are forced to travel hundreds of miles for the care they need.”
• Harris went on to point out that Dump’s Project 2025 agenda has him limiting Americans’ access to birth control, threaten access to fertility treatments, and ban abortion nationwide, with or without Congress.
• She has vowed to sign into law the enshrinement of reproductive rights for women in all 50 states, returning the protections that Dump took away when his hand-picked Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
• Another big moment in Flippy Floppy Donnie news happened when Dump made a campaign promise that people would get free IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatments under his presidency (without offering any explanation as to how they’d be paid for, making some vague statement that the bill would be footed by the “government, or insurance companies”).
• But in recent months, the far-right Republican Alabama state Supreme Court ruled this year that embryos created via IVF were to be considered people, a move that led the largest fertility clinics in the state to pause their IVF care.
• A bill aimed at expanding IVF access, meanwhile, sailed through in California on Thursday, despite opposition from nearly all Republican lawmakers.
• And earlier this year, Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would have made IVF a federal right. All Republicans except Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine voted against the measure.
• All nine GOP Senators running for re-election voted against it: John Barrasso, Marsha Blackburn, Kevin Cramer, Ted Cruz, Deb Fischer, Josh Hawley, Pete Ricketts, Rick Scott, and Roger Wicker.
• And so did Dumpy’s little VP candidate, JD Vance.
• An AP-NORC poll conducted in June found that more than 6 in 10 U.S. adults support protecting access to IVF, including more than half of Republicans, and only about 1 in 10 are opposed.
• But many anti-abortion groups and lawmakers oppose the treatment, including members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, who have objected to expanding IVF access for veterans.
• So which one is it, Republicans? Do you or don’t you support IVF? And if so, why did you all vote against it?
• Moving on.
• We don’t talk about polls here, but I’m going to make mention of one with the intent of warning you.
• The most recent poll from USA TODAY/Suffolk University shows that Kamala Harris has surged ahead of old Donnie Dump 48%-43%.
• The findings reflect an eight-point turnaround in the presidential race from late June, when Dump had led Joe Biden in the survey by nearly four points.
• Harris's lead was fueled by big shifts among some key demographic groups traditionally crucial for Democrats, including Hispanic and Black voters and young people. Check out the biggest change: people with annual incomes of less than $20,000 had a three-point Dump edge over Biden in June.
• That’s turned around to a current 23-point Harris advantage over Dump in August.
• So, great news, right? The election is in the bag. It’s gonna be a landslide.
• Nope. Not even close. Harris is still a big underdog.
• The 2024 race remains significantly closer compared to how things stood in 2020 with then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.
• In 2020, the polls consistently showed Biden leading Trump. While Biden went on to handily win the popular vote, the election came down to just tens of thousands of votes in several critical battleground states.
• So those polls were very misleading, and underestimated Dump’s support in various locations and among various demographics.
• If you want to prevent the horrors of another Dump presidency, you have to take action with the assumption that Harris still has a long way to go. Start by making sure you’re registered to vote, then ensuring the same for your family and friends.
• And then consider helping in a more widespread way by volunteering to help with campaign events at https://web.kamalaharris.com/forms/take-action-for-kamala-harris/.
• And note there are just 65 more days until the election. Act now. Do not wait.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media shithole X in Brazil after Elmo refused to name a legal representative in the country.
• Justice Alexandre de Moraes had warned Mucky on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative, and established a 24-hour deadline.
• In his decision, de Moraes gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to X, and said the platform will remain blocked until it complies with his orders. He also said people or companies who use virtual private networks (VPNs) to access X will be subject to daily fines of 50,000 reais ($8,900).
• Does Brazil even matter to Muck and his dead bird site? Hell yes it does. Some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.
• And Twitter has already been hemorrhaging money with its loss of advertisers who don’t want to have their content next to Nazi propaganda and far-right memes that took over the app in recent years. Losing Brazil is another financial hit he doesn’t need right now.
• So until he fixes this shit, Brazil is out. Hey, you know… fuck around and find out. Elon found out.
• Moving on.
• There are huge battles being fought in courtrooms across the nation, all with the intent of ensuring your voting rights are not taken away by Republicans.
• Example: yesterday, a state court in Pennsylvania halted enforcement of a requirement that voters include accurate, handwritten dates on envelopes used to submit mail-in ballots.
• This would have had several thousand Pennsylvania votes being thrown out in the November election.
• Their Commonwealth Court ruled 4-1 that disqualifying voters who failed to include the date violates the state constitution’s clause that addresses “free and equal” elections.
• And now, The Weather: “Desire” by Fontaines D.C.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the start of the school year in Fall 1972, and Kamala Harris’s father accepted a position at Stanford University; Kamala and her sister Maya spent weekends at their father's house in Palo Alto, and lived at their mother's house in Berkeley during the week.
• Here’s what records might have been playing around the East Bay area of California 52 years ago this week, from the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart for early September 1972.
• 1. Chicago V (Chicago). 2. Never A Dull Moment (Rod Stewart). 3. Big Bambu (Cheech & Chong). 4. Honky Chateau (Elton John). 5. Moods (Neil Diamond). 6. Carney (Leon Russell). 7. Trilogy (Emerson, Lake & Palmer). 8. Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live! (Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles). 9. Seven Separate Fools (Three Dog Night). 10. Simon And Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (Simon & Garfunkel). 11. Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden (Elvis Presley). 12. Gilbert O'sullivan-Himself (Gilbert O’Sullivan). 13. Too Young (Donny Osmond). 14. Son Of Schmilsson (Nilsson). 15. A Song For You (Carpenters). 16. School's Out (Alice Cooper). 17. Saint Dominic's Preview (Van Morrison). 18. Exile On Main St. (The Rolling Stones). 19. Still Bill (Bill Withers). 20. The London Chuck Berry Sessions (Chuck Berry).
• From the Sports Desk… I hate bad news to be the topic of this fun section of my news, but I’d be remiss not to mention the tragic death of NHL player Johnny Gaudreau who, along with his brother Matthew, were killed Thursday night in New Jersey when they were struck by a drunk driver while riding bicycles not far from their family home.
• The Gaudreau family had gathered in Salem County to attend the wedding of the men's sister, Katie, which had been scheduled for Friday.
• Gaudreau, one of the sport’s top players who spent his first eight years in the NHL with Calgary, was just 31. He signed with Columbus in 2022. Just fucking awful.
• In less sad Sports Desk news, the NFL season starts this Thursday. I’ve already made my picks for Week 1, which will likely be shockingly wrong.
• Today in history… Byzantine Empress Theodora dies childless, thus ending the Macedonian dynasty (1056). King Henry V of England dies of dysentery and Henry VI becomes King of England at the age of nine months (1422). Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta (1864). Mary Ann Nichols becomes the first of Jack the Ripper’s victims (1888). Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his navigable balloon (1895). The USA passes a Neutrality Act to try and stay out of the tensions concerning Germany and Japan (1935). Malaysia gains its independence from the United Kingdom (1957). Princess Diana dies in a car crash in Paris (1997).
• August 31 is the birthday of Roman emperor Caligula (12), Roman emperor Commodus (161), Chinese emperor Zhang Zong (1168), educator Maria Montessori (1870), radio/TV host Arthur Godfrey (1903), actor/educator Sanford Meisner (1905), novelist William Saroyan (1908), journalist Daniel Schorr (1916), composer Alan Jay Lerner (1918), actor Buddy Hackett (1924), actor James Coburn (1928), saxophonist/bass player Wilton Felder (1940), illustrator Roger Dean (1944), singer-songwriter Van Morrison (1945), violinist Itzhak Perlman (1945), singer-songwriter/guitarist Bob Welch (1945), actor Richard Gere (1949), track and field athlete Edwin Moses (1955), drummer Gina Schock (1957), voice actor Dee Bradley Baker (1962), singer-songwriter Debbie Gibson (1970), comedian Chris Tucker (1971), golfer Pádraig Harrington (1971), NFL player Larry Fitzgerald (1983), and NFL player Sauce Gardner (2000).

That’s plenty of news for a Saturday morning. Now off to eat, shower, dress, and then become a part of the American economy by making a major purchase. Side note: you can look at two seemingly identical mattresses and one cats $849 and the other costs $3,799… which is why I’m actually going to the goddamn store to see why that is for myself. Enjoy your day.

Random News: August 30, 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 August 30, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! And it’s the Friday before a three-day weekend here in the USA, where we’ll be celebrating Labor Day on Monday. We will at some point be discussing that holiday and the meaning behind it, but for now we have a ton of news and info that’s pertinent today. Let’s talk about that stuff.

• Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, along with the running mate Tim Walz, did an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash yesterday.
• First side note: doing interviews with your VP choice is a long-standing tradition. It’s been done by Donald Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Biden and Harris themselves, and many other executive teams.
• Some basic takeaways: the Associated Press said that the interview was notable for its… normalcy. Yep, in a world where weird MAGA people spout bonkers gibberish for hours on end, it is indeed nice to see a couple of normal people sit and thoughtfully answer questions in complete sentences.
• Bash did try to call out Harris on how her positions on issues including fracking and border security have evolved since she first ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but Harris calmly offered reasonable responses.
• Continuing her efforts to try and unit the nation, when asked if she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet, Harris said, “Yes, I would.”
• There is, actually, recent precedent for Cabinet selections that cross party lines. Former President Barack Obama appointed several Republicans to high-ranking positions — including former Illinois Rep. Ray LaHood as transportation secretary and former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel as defense secretary.
• “I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion,” Harris said. “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”
• There was one topic that Harris would not entertain… Dumpy’s disgusting statements about her racial and gender identity. When Bash brought up Dump’s opinion that Harris “happened to turn Black” for political purposes, Harris’s response was, “Next question, please.”
• “That’s it?” Bash asked, and Harris replied, “That’s it,” with a smile.
• Well done! 
• The discussion encompassed topics like Biden’s decision to step aide, putting back in place the border security bill that Dump forced the Republicans to tank, and some points on Tim Walz’s background and military service.
• They both seemed kind, dignified, trustworthy… everything you want in a Presidential team.
• No word as to when Dump and Couch Boy are going to do their tandem team interview.
• After the interview, Harris and Walz held a jam-packed rally in Savannah, GA. It’s the first time a presidential nominee has visited the city since the 1990s, because most candidates assume that it’s a safe Republican stronghold.
• Not anymore.
• What’s next for the Harris/Walz team? Starting Tuesday, the campaign is launching a bus tour in Palm Beach, FL to promote access to reproductive rights.
• The “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour includes second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, among others.
• The tour will make at least 50 stops in red, blue, and battleground states in the next couple of months. They will focus on talking to voters about Harris and Walz’s plans to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by the Supreme Court at the direction of Donald Trump in 2022.
• Let’s move on.
• This is a good time to make a point about how important events like presidential elections are covered by the media today, and what that means.
• A great example is that Kamala Harris invited two hundred content creators to the Democratic Convention, and the more traditional media was asking why they were invited.
• Well, those two hundred creators generated over 400 million online impressions. That’s why.
• We still need those trusted news sources that reach a big segment of the populace who otherwise wouldn’t be as informed as they are.
• But today’s world has changed drastically from that of the previous few generations. There are entire huge-ass voting blocs that would never consider turning on CNN or Fox or NBC or any other mainstream news source.
• You have to reach those people — be it on TikTok or Twitch or YouTube or other modern media — or they’ll have no idea who you are.
• Moving on to a point about abortion that men maybe have yet to consider.
• Let’s say you’re some guy who doesn’t give a shit about the battle for women’s reproductive rights. Why would you care, oh alpha male? You don’t carry children. Sucks to be a woman, huh?
• Except now would be a good time to inform you that child support payments start at a quarter of your annual income.
• That’s the lowest level, if you’re very lucky. So if you make $80,000/year, you’re going to be writing a check for about $1700/month for the next 18 years.
• Or if you’re an asshole who can’t be responsible and pay up on their own, they just take it right out of your paycheck.
• Again, that’s the lowest level. It can be much more. Maybe you should care a little more about the legal right for women to choose to get an abortion, even if it’s only for selfish reasons of a man-child asshole.
• But here’s some good news, courtesy of our friends at Fox News.
• Their recent poll in regard to the abortion rights ballot initiatives in states where it’s on the ballot this fall are reflecting the predominant national opinion that women should have autonomy over their own bodies.
• In Arizona, 73% will vote to protect abortion rights, while 23% will vote against protections.
• In Nevada, 75% will vote to protect abortion rights, and just 21% will vote against protections.
• Kamala Harris has promised that she will sign legislation that enshrines a woman’s right to reproductive freedom nationwide as soon as it crosses her desk. Count on it.
• And while we’re on this topic, Donnie Dump is still riding that fence so hard that his hemorrhoids must be hurting.
• Yesterday he enraged evangelicals and other hard-line anti-abortion groups by stating he was now not in favor of Florida’s strict abortion law, saying that the six week ban was “too short.”
• He know how immensely unpopular his decision to kill Roe v. Wade was, and will say anything to try and get those votes back. Too late, Donnie Boy… way too late.
• And immediately after, his campaign negated his statement, with Dump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, "President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”
• Snorrrrrrrrt. What an asshole.
• Let’s move on.
• Jack White noticed a social post by Dumpy’s aide Margo Martin, featuring a White Stripes song that he composed. He replied…
• ”Oh....Don't even think about using my music you fascists. Law suit coming from my lawyers about this (to add to your 5 thousand others.) Have a great day at work today Margo Martin. And as long as I'm here, a double fuck you DonOLD for insulting our nation's veterans at Arlington you scum. You should lose every military family's vote immediately from that if ANYTHING makes sense anymore."
• Get his ass, Jack.
• Speaking of which, the fallout from Dumples the Clown’s happy smiley photo op on the graves of soldiers and Marines at Arlington National Cemetery will not fade away, nor should it.
• The family of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving eight combat tours and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, expressed concern that Dumpy’s campaign had filmed his grave site without permission.
• A reminder that campaign photography is expressly forbidden in the heavily restricted section of the cemetery known as Section 60 where Dump shot his campaign video.
• And this whole thing is far from over. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who sits on the Senate Armed Services panel, added yesterday that he wants to see the Army’s report on the confrontation between Dumpy’s team and the Army staff at Arlington.
• Meanwhile, the effort to cover this up is also blowing up on them.
• Elmo Muck’s social platform X flagged the original story from NPR that outlined the fallout of the clash between Dump and the U.S. Army at Arlington National Cemetery as potentially “unsafe.”
• Users who attempted to view the story through a link on X yesterday were redirected by the platform to a warning page that reads “this may be unsafe.”
• The link was to National Public Radio’s web site. It’s particularly funny how Elmo claims to be a “free speech absolutist” and then immediately censors any story that makes his pal Dumpy look like the asshole he truly is.
• Moving on before I get annoyed.
• And now, The Weather: “Totally Confused” by Barney Cortez
• From the Sports Desk… Tom Brady has always seemed to me to be a guy who wants everything. And, like most successful people, he’s taken action to ensure he gets what he wants.
• But it turns out that indeed, you can’t always get what you want.
• Brady’s approval as a partial owner of the Las Vegas Raiders is still pending, but he’s also trying to get a job as a Fox Sports broadcaster.
• And yesterday, the NFL ruled that he can’t do both, at least not fully. Brady is not permitted to be in another team's facility, is not permitted to witness practice, and is not permitted to attend broadcast production meetings, either in person or virtually.
• Obviously, that makes sense. It could definitely be viewed as a conflict of interest. Tom Terrific is likely going to have to pick a lane and stay in it.
• In other sports/business news, Golden State Warriors star guard Stephen Curry has agreed to a one-year, $62.6 million extension.
• The agreement keeps Curry under contract with Golden State through the 2026-27 season, and he will become the third NBA player, along with LeBron James and Kevin Durant, to pass $500 million in career earnings.
• Half a billion to bounce a ball around. I love sports and I greatly respect Steph, but imagine a world where teachers and nurses and firefighters were paid at a rate that’s commensurate with the importance of their jobs.
• And finally from the Sports Desk, if you have yet to watch the video of Shohei Ohtani’s dog Decoy throwing out the first pitch at Wednesday's Dodgers game, just go over to YouTube and watch it now. You’ll be smiling for a good while.
• Today in history… Guru Ram Das becomes the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master (1574). HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on the Great Barrier Reef (1791). Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is founded (1835). The city of Houston,TX is founded (1836). Germans defeat the Russians in the WWI Battle of Tannenberg (1914). The Queen Mary wins the Blue Riband with the fastest transatlantic crossing (1936). The Moscow–Washington hotline between the leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union goes into operation (1963). Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1967). President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar of Iran are assassinated in a bombing (1981). Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage (1984). The 11-day Ruby Ridge standoff ends with Randy Weaver surrendering to federal authorities (1992). The last remaining American troops leave Afghanistan, ending U.S. involvement in the war (2021).
• August 30 is the birthday of novelist Mary Shelley (1797), physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871), politician Huey Long (1893), actress Shirley Booth (1898), actor Fred McMurray (1908), MLB player Ted Williams (1918), singer-songwriter/guitarist Kitty Wells (1919), actor Bill Daily (1927), businessman/philanthropist Warren Buffett (1930), singer-songwriter/guitarist John Phillips (1935), race car driver/designer Bruce McLaren (1937), radio host John Peel (1939), illustrator Robert Crumb (1943), model/actress Peggy Lipton (1946), comedian Lewis Black (1948), NBA player Robert Parish (1953), singer-songwriter/bass player Dave Brockie (1963), singer-songwriter/guitarist Lars Frederiksen (1971), model/actress Cameron Diaz (1972), tennis player Andy Roddick (1982), and NFL player Drake Maye (2002).

I have some plans for this three-day weekend, but I can tell you about those during said weekend. Enough for now. Enjoy your day.

Random News: August 29, 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 August 29, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’m Zak, here to deliver your morning news like some digital paperboy. Also, I’m starting to yearn for the upcoming three-day weekend, but I have tons to do between now and then, so let’s get this news out of the way and get closer to that point.

• Let’s open with a fun fact couched in a history lesson.
• Fun Fact: if Kamala Harris gets elected in November, she will be the 47th president of the United States. We all know that.
• But if her running mate Tim Walz is elected along with her, he’ll be the 50th Vice President. What is this fuckery?
• It’s really no big thing. We just had a few situations where a President had more than one VP for various reasons.
• The first was Aaron Burr, who was not nominated to a second term as Jefferson's running mate in the 1804 election. Jefferson never trusted him, and soon after he shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel… you might have seen the play. Burr got replaced by George Clinton.
• Like Burr, Hannibal Hamlin got dumped by his president — Abraham Lincoln — after one term. Hamlin was replaced by Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat chosen for his appeal to Southern Unionists.
• Same thing happened again with Schuyler Colfax, who thought Ulysses S. Grant would only serve one term and intended on running for President in 1872. He ended up getting replaced by Henry Wilson.
• Garret Hobart died in office while serving under William McKinley, being replaced by Teddy Roosevelt.
• FDR had three VPs during his four terms as President: John Nance Garner, who fell out of favor with the President; Henry A. Wallace, who was VP during WWII but also ran into issues; and Harry S. Truman, who was VP for only a few months before FDR died and he assumed the Presidency.
• Spiro Agnew was VP under Nixon, but was under investigation for criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion, and tax fraud, and resigned in disgrace. He was replaced by Gerald Ford.
• So now you know why we’ve had more VP’s than POTUS’s.
• Now let’s do the news.
• We don’t talk about polls at Zak’s Random News. Polls are bullshit. We know this.
• But I will say this: the most recent round of polling has opened up an eighth state that was previously listed first as “Likely R” and then “lean R” to now being listed as “toss up”… North Carolina.
• NC is, as of now, a swing state. It has not been a blue state for presidential elections for 16 years, since the first Obama election. Last time before that? In 1976, for Jimmy Carter.
• Two other states have moved from “Likely R” to “Lean R”… Texas and Florida. And even Alaska, Missouri, Iowa, South Carolina, and Ohio are no longer listed as “Safe R” in all polls.
• I’m certainly not in ANY way predicting that Harris/Walz will beat Dumpy/Couchy in all (or possibly any) of those states. But the momentum and enthusiasm behind the Harris campaign are having tangible effects, both in polls and in donations.
• But just to cheer myself up, I made an electoral map with every state that wasn’t “Safe R” and flipped it to see what a 420-118 landslide blowout would look like, and as I suspected, it looked pretty great.
• There’s a horrible scenario where Harris loses Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina (along with the expected Red states), but still wins the election 271-267.
• However, we could save ourselves a whole lot of headaches after the election by making sure that the win is so lopsided in Harris’s favor that Dump doesn’t have a legal foot to stand on, and even the most ignorant members of his violent MAGA base realizes there’s no path to victory.
• Moving on.
• Kamala Harris and Tim Walz traveled across southern Georgia yesterday, the pair’s second bus tour in two weeks and their first burst of campaigning since the Democratic National Convention ended last Thursday.
• The tour, which is scheduled to end with a Harris rally in Savannah today, is the campaign’s latest effort to compete in Georgia, which has become a critical battleground in the month since Biden dropped out of the race.
• The bus tour features more intimate settings and smaller groups, following the template Harris and Walz set while traveling through western Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago.
• Let’s move on.
• A follow-up on our story about the arrest of Pavel Durov, CEO of messaging service Telegram. He was indicted yesterday on charges of complicity in the distribution of child sex abuse images, aiding organized crime, and refusing lawful orders to give information to law enforcement.
• The 39-year-old billionaire was ordered to put up a 5 million Euro bond, and was barred from leaving France.
• Durov’s Telegram is unusual for being run from a nonaligned Middle Eastern country, the United Arab Emirates, and for declaring that it shares no information with authorities anywhere about messages or activities on the site.
• Elmo Muck is very mad about this whole thing… allegedly about free speech issues, but more likely because X (formerly know as Twitter) also has a ton of easily-accessible porn that could include images of children.
• But child safety advocates say Telegram permits more illegal activity, including abuse images, than any other major network. The laws in most countries, including France and the United States, do not protect platforms from prosecution over illegal content.
• Telegram has some 950 million total users and is especially popular in Russia, elsewhere in Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. It is used for private messaging, public posts, and group chats.
• Let’s move on… though still in the realm of Elmo Muck.
• Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded SpaceX rockets following a failure of one of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket boosters.
• The grounding comes as a crew of four astronauts waits in quarantine for the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission aboard a Falcon 9. The private flight, funded by internet entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, is set to conduct the world’s first commercial spacewalk. It had already been pushed back several days due to technical issues and weather concerns.
• The SpaceX Falcon 9 booster failed as it relit its engines to set down on the deck of a ship, when an uncontrolled fire appeared to bellow out from its underside. Seconds later, the rocket stage tipped into the Atlantic Ocean.
• The FAA said that the Falcon 9 would be grounded until the investigation was complete. This is the second grounding of the Falcon 9 rocket in recent months. The FAA grounded the rocket on July 12, after its second stage failed to relight properly during another Starlink launch. That grounding lasted around two weeks.
• Let’s move on.
• The fallout over Donnie Dump filming campaign videos over the dead bodies of fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery has continued.
• The official who tried to do her job to stop the Dump campaign from illegally filming their ad there did not press charges over fear of retaliation by the violent MAGA community. I understand her outlook, but it’s sad that she has to feel that way.
• At least one Republican who accompanied Dump on his trip to desecrate the sacred grounds has apologized.
• Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox faced criticism yesterday for including a photo of him and Dump at Arlington in a campaign email soliciting donations for his reelection bid.
• Cox’s campaign has apologized for using the photo and politicizing the graveside ceremony. “This was not a campaign event and was never intended to be used by the campaign,” the governor wrote in a post on X. “It did not go through the proper channels and should not have been sent.”
• I mean, it’s literally against the law. 
• “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign.”
• Would you want some politician — Republican, Democrat, or otherwise — smiling and giving thumbs-up signs over your dead kid’s or parent’s grave? I didn’t think so.
• Moving on.
• This is a note of warning: if you were one of the people who invested in Dump’s social media stocks, the day of reckoning is coming soon.
• Dumpy’s lock-up period prohibiting him from selling or even borrowing against his $2.3 billion stake in Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) is scheduled to expire by September 25.
• Since people aren’t complete idiots — well, some of them, anyway — the share price is already tanking. The stock tumbled another 4% on Wednesday, trading during the session below $20 for the first time since the merger that formed the company this spring.
• Trump Media has lost a staggering 70% of its value since late March, a selloff that has accelerated as Vice President Kamala Harris has gained in the polls against Trump.
• It would be all but impossible for Dump to liquidate his whole stake or even a fraction of it without completely tanking the stock price. But trust me, he’ll tank it and squeeze whatever he can get out of it.
• And anyone left owning shares will find they are absolutely worthless. Consider yourself fairly informed, while you still have time to cut your loss and sell.
• Let’s move on with some good news.
• Yesterday, the California State Assembly passed a bill that would enact the nation’s strictest regulations on artificial intelligence companies.
• The proposed law would require companies working on AI to test their technology before selling it for “catastrophic” risks such as the ability to instruct users in how to conduct cyberattacks or build biological weapons.
• Seems like the least we could do. Hopefully this law from my state will inspire similar legislation nationwide.
• In other news…
• A note from the Health Desk… check your fridge and make absolutely sure to get rid of any Boar’s Head deli meats.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors turned up dozens of violations at the Boar's Head plant in Virginia now linked to a nationwide recall of deli meats, including mold, mildew, and insects repeatedly found throughout the site.
• Gross!
• Last month, Boar's Head recalled all of the deli meats made at its plant in Jarratt, VA, after a listeria outbreak was blamed on products distributed from the site. 
• The outbreak has grown to 57 hospitalizations in 18 states linked to recalled products from the plant. At least nine deaths have now been reported, including two in South Carolina and one each in Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico, and New York.
• And now, The Weather: “Bon Voyage” by Luna Li
• Let’s do a chart, and let’s dedicate it to Kamala Harris's father, Donald J. Harris. He’s a Stanford University professor of economics (emeritus) who arrived in the United States from Jamaica in 1961, for graduate study at UC Berkeley, and received a PhD in economics in 1966.
• Jamaica is the home of reggae music, a genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s (after Donald Harris had already emigrated to the USA). 
• But like most music genres, Jamaican reggae music didn’t pop out of nowhere. It evolved out of the earlier local genres like mento, ska, and rocksteady.
• Anyway, rather than a real chart, let’s scour the wide-ranging opinions on the Internet for a quasi-legit amalgamation list of the greatest reggae artists and bands of all time. 
• 1. Bob Marley. 2. Toots & the Maytals. 3. Peter Tosh. 4. Burning Spear. 5. Steel Pulse. 6. Yellowman. 7. Toots & The Maytals. 8. Jimmy Cliff. 9. Marcia Griffiths. 10. Sly and Robbie. 11. Gregory Isaacs. 12. Desmond Dekker. 13. Black Uhuru. 14. Lee “Scratch” Perry. 15. Dennis Brown. 16. Ziggy Marley. 17. Third World. 18. Barrington Levy. 19. The Skatalites. 20. Bunny Wailer.
• From the Sports Desk… pitcher Rich Hill is back in MLB, nearly two decades and more than a dozen teams since he made his big league debut.
• The Boston Red Sox selected the 44-year-old lefty from Triple-A Worcester. He very well may face a batter this season — say, 20-year-old Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio — who had just been born when Hill was a rookie.
• Putting it in perspective, when Hill debuted with the Cubs in 2005, George W. Bush had just started his second term.
• Side note: there have plenty of active MLB players older than Hill. Minnie Miñoso, for example, played his first game on April 19, 1949, and his last one on October 5, 1980 at age 56 years, 311 days. That’s over a year older than me right now.
• I still have a chance! Calling the Dodgers right now.
• Today in history… Copper coins are minted in Japan (708). The city of Nuuk, Greenland is founded (1728). American forces defeat the British and Iroquois forces at the Battle of Newtown (1779). Massachusetts farmers have an armed uprising against high taxes and debts, called Shays’ Rebellion (1786). Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction (1831). Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen (1885). The Goodyear tire company is founded (1898). The Beatles perform their last ticketed concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco (1966). Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party (1991). Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service (1997). Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast, killing up to 1,836 people and causing $125 billion in damage (2005).
• August 29 is the birthday of physician/philosopher John Locke (1632), physician/writer Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809), engineer Charles F. Kettering (1876), actress Ingrid Bergman (1915), saxophonist/composer Charlie Parker (1920), businesswoman/philanthropist Iris Apfel (1921), singer-songwriter Dinah Washington (1924), soldier/politician John McCain (1936), actor Elliot Gould (1938), director Joel Schumacher (1939), press secretary/activist James Brady (1940), singer-songwriter Michael Jackson (1958), actress Rebecca De Mornay (1959), astronaut Chris Hadfield (1959), SCOTUS justice Neil Gorsuch (1967), bass player/singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello (1968), and MLB player Noah Syndergaard (1992).

There are just 68 more days until the election. There’s far less time than that to make sure that you and your family and friends are properly registered to vote. In coming days, we’ll talk about what your plan is to vote int he 2024 election. Now just to make it through to this coming Labor Day weekend. I think I can do it. Enjoy your day.

Random News: August 28, 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 August 28, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. It’s super overcast here this morning; I’m sitting in a basically dark room at 7am, since I (thus far) refuse to turn on the light in the morning. That won’t last as the Earth tilts more towards its pole versus the angle of the sun, but I’m still hanging on to summer for awhile. Let’s do some news… there’s a lot of it.

• I know I’ve discussed this before — probably in depth during the 2022 midterm elections.
• But if the whole country had the voting flexibility and security we have in California, things would be a whole lot better for everyone.
• Here’s how it works: as a registered voter, I get mailed a ballot a good month or so out from the election.
• It also includes a full booklet and sample ballot so I can research and plan ahead.
• Then I have multiple options. I can use the included postage-paid envelope and submit my ballot that way. Or — and this is what I always do now — there are authorized ballot dropbox locations that are all over the place.
• The nearest one to me is at the park that’s a block east of me. I stroll over there, usually with my son and Kat, and drop my sealed ballot in the secure box. I usually send mine in a good 2-3 weeks ahead of the election.
• And I always have the option — not sure why I’d do this but the option is there — to go submit my ballot on election day in person at a polling place.
• But wait. If you sign up for a free program called BallotTrax, I then get text or email verification that my ballot has been received and counted. That’s it. It’s so easy.
• Again, I wish it was that easy and secure for everyone in the USA. Some states go out of their way to make it more difficult, most likely in the attempt to purposefully disenfranchise a certain segment of the populace.
• Let’s do some news.
• Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will sit for their first joint interview on Thursday as Democrats work to sustain the high level of excitement from last week’s Democratic National Convention.
• The interview, somewhat alarmingly conducted by CNN’s chief political correspondent and anchor Dana Bash, will air at 9pm EDT on Thursday. It occurs as the candidates embark on a bus tour through the battleground state of Georgia.
• It’s also the first time Harris has sat with a journalist for an in-depth, on-the-record conversation since Biden dropped his bid for a second term and endorsed her on July 21, a fact that has been a talking point for MAGAs.
• I’d hypothesize that maybe they’ll shut the fuck up now, not we all know they won’t.
• Of not: Harris sat for three interviews with content creators and influencers during the DNC last week – an example of her campaign’s belief that voters, especially young voters, are getting their news from less traditional sources.
• I believe that’s correct. The world has changed and a big percentage of us do not immediately turn to the big names in mainstream media for all of our information.
• I mean, look at you, reading this right now.
• Let’s move on.
• El Dumpo has some new legal woes to worry about.
• Yesterday, special counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment against Dumpy in which he again accused Dump of resisting the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election. Smith narrowed the allegations after a landmark Supreme Court ruling on presidential power earlier this year.
• The new charging document is based on a more refined set of criminal acts that happened AFTER the Supreme Court ruled Trump was immune from prosecution for some of the conduct included in Smith's original 2023 indictment. 
• Smith and his team said a federal grand jury in Washington returned the superseding indictment yesterday. Prosecutors said they did not oppose waiving Dump's appearance at an arraignment on the new charging document.
• Again detailing alleged acts like organizing fake slates of presidential electors or working with his private attorneys on a legal strategy to subvert the transfer of power, Smith accused the Dumpster of using his role as a candidate for office — not as president of the United States — to overturn the election results. 
• Dump was hysterical after the indictment was announced. That man knows he has to say and do literally anything to get himself elected, because the alternative is facing dozens of serious felonies.
• Will he go to jail? I’ve always said that no, he won’t. I maintain my opinion. The legal systems in the USA — and most of the world, frankly — extend protections to wealthy and powerful people that ordinary citizens never enjoy.
• Let’s move on to someone who is actually facing justice.
• Michael Sparks was the very first insurrectionist to breach the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 attack. He was sentenced yesterday to more than four years in federal prison after telling a judge that he still believes Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election "to this day."
• Sparks spent the weeks leading up to the failed coup attempt consuming and regurgitating right-wing lies about the last presidential election.
• His case was complicated by the Supreme Court’s shitty decision in June which impacted the obstruction of an official proceeding charge, which had been used against hundreds of January 6 defendants. Prosecutors dropped that charge before sentencing.
• However, like many MAGAs, Sparks fucked himself. The judge said he was able to take the conduct presented at trial into consideration, and said it was clear that Sparks wanted to obstruct the counting of the electoral college votes.
• Just before the attack, Sparks said that he wanted "civil war" and that he was willing to die for his lord Dumpy. Even long after January 6, Sparks continued to believe that the proof of a massive election-stealing scheme was just around the corner.
• More than 1,400 defendants have been charged in connection with the January 6 insurrection, and more than 1,000 have been convicted. Sadly, most of them say they expect Dumples to win in November and free them from prison, including violent rioter David Dempsey, who was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison earlier this month.
• Let’s move on.
• I’d really prefer not spending time in this column talking about that Orange Weirdo, but unfortunately he keeps doing things that require me to make you aware. There will come a day — a glorious day — when I will have no reason to speak of him again.
• But for now…
• Members of Dump's campaign staff had a verbal and physical altercation Monday with an official at Arlington National Cemetery, where the former president participated in a tasteless photo op, giving a happy smile and a thumbs-up over the buried body of a U.S. soldier.
• The cemetery official tried to prevent Dump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members are authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.
• When the cemetery official tried to prevent Dump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside.
• Arlington National Cemetery said in a statement that it "can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed."
• ”Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate's campaign. Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants."
• How low can he go? In a huge list of disrespectful, tasteless, and downright anti-American actions that Dump has done in his entire disgusting life, this is one of the worst.
• Can you imagine being the family of that soldier who was buried there, seeing Dump smiling and waving over his grave?
• Fucking vile. Let’s move on.
• One of the main reasons — if not the only reason — Dump wanted to get aligned with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was to get his name off the ballot in swing states, where RFK Jr. would pull votes away from the Dumpster.
• And they failed even at that task.
• RFK Jr. will be unable to remove himself from the ballots in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin, even after he ended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed former El Dumpo.
• He’s on the ballot in Michigan as a candidate for the Natural Law Party, which nominated him at its convention this year. In Wisconsin, the statute literally says, “Any person who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot may not decline nomination. The name of that person shall appear upon the ballot except in case of death of the person.”
• Ha ha!
• Side note: RFK Jr. had only officially been qualified to appear on eight states’ ballots. This changes nothing.
• Also, RFK Jr. cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home. I’m just gonna leave that there.
• In other news…
• Texas does not want brown people voting in 2024.
• The nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization, LULAC, is one of several entities in Texas targeted in “voter fraud: raids led by state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
• LULAC has now requested that the Justice Department investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. The organization is accusing Paxton's office of carrying out illegal searches premised on voter fraud. 
• One of those targeted was Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old who lives in San Antonio. Martinez has been a LULAC member for over 35 years and works to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in South Texas.
• She said that last Tuesday, there was a knock on her door in the morning, and she was greeted by nine officers in tactical gear and firearms who said they were executing a search warrant. Martinez was questioned for over three hours about her voter registration efforts in Texas.
• Fucking vile Gestapo pieces of shit.
• Let’s move on before I get any angrier.
• Here’s something good, or at least just.
• Yesterday, a judge denied bond for former Okaloosa County deputy Eddie Duran, who shot and killed of a Black U.S. Air Force senior airman for (checks notes) answering his apartment door.
• Duran, 38, was charged with manslaughter with a firearm in the May 3 shooting death of 23-year-old Roger Fortson. The rare charge against a Florida law enforcement officer is a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
• And now, The Weather: “I'VE BEEN EVIL” by SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
• From the Sports Desk… NFL teams have until 4PM EDT today to pare down to their final 53-man rosters for the 2024-25 season.
• Most teams have already submitted their rosters. I took a look at the Raiders’ final cuts and they seem well thought out. My only complaint is that they waived a cornerback named Woo Governor.
• I couldn’t tell you anything about his ability to play. I just liked his name.
• Today in history… Fatimah, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, dies (632). Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founds the oldest continuously European-occupied city in the continental United States near St. Augustine, Florida (1565). William Herschel discovers Saturn’s moon Enceladus (1789). The US takes possession of then-unoccupied Midway Atoll (1867). Caleb Bradham's beverage "Brad's Drink" gets a better brand name, being changed to “Pepsi-Cola" (1898). Italy declares war on Germany in WWI (1914). Nazi Germany begins its mass arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses, who are interned in concentration camps (1936). Toyota Motors becomes an independent company spun off from Toyota Industries (1937). Black teenager Emmett Till is brutally murdered in Mississippi, kicking off the civil rights movement (1955). Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech (1963). Cops and protestors clash at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (1968). 
• August 28 is the birthday of writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749), physician George Whipple (1878), conductor Karl Böhm (1894), writer/illustrator Jack Kirby (1917), actor Donald O’Connor (1925), actress Roxie Roker (1929), MLB player/manager Lou Piniella (1943), drummer Danny Seraphine (1948), MLB player Ron Guidry (1950), actor Luis Guzmán (1956), actor Daniel Stern (1957), singer-songwriter Shania Twain (1965), actor Billy Boyd (1968), actor/singer-songwriter Jack Black (1969), actor Jason Priestly (1969), NHL player Pierre Turgeon (1969), singer LeAnn Rimes (1982), singer-songwriter Florence Welch (1986), and singer-songwriter Cassadee Pope (1989).

Okay then. Time to do things. Enjoy your day.

Random News: August 27, 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 August 27, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. I did manage to live through Monday, as evidenced by my being here and writing at you on this Tuesday morning. I’m going to try to have a good day today… it takes a concerted effort to do so. Anyway, let’s see what’s happening in this wacky world.

• I’m going to open today’s news with a word of caution: made 100% goddamn sure you’re still registered to vote, no matter where you live… but especially in Texas.
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced yesterday that the state has removed over one million people from its voter rolls since Republican legislators passed their sweeping voter suppression law, SB 1, three years ago.
• You can take 30 seconds to visit vote.org and confirm that your voter registration is valid. If you’ve never voted before, it takes mere minute to register.
• Just do it now. Okay, let’s continue.
• Vice President Kamala Harris is drawing attention to her plan to build 3 million new homes over four years, a move designed to contain inflationary pressures that also draws a sharp contrast to Dumpy’s approach.
• Harris highlights her plan in a new minute-long ad released today that uses her personal experience, growing up in rental housing while her mother saved for a decade before she could buy a home. The ad targets voters in the swing states including Arizona and Nevada. 
• In addition to increasing home construction, Harris is proposing the government provide as much as $25,000 in assistance to first-time buyers.
• I like all of that.
• The Harris plan would create tax breaks for homebuilders focused on first-time buyers and expand existing incentives for companies that construct rental housing.
• Also, because local zoning often restricts the supply of homes, she would also double the available funding to $40 billion to encourage local governments to remove the regulations that prevent additional construction.
• Build baby, build!
• Let’s move on.
• I thought you’d find it interesting that the Arizona Police Association, which despite having endorsed Dumples the Clown, has announced they’re endorsing a surprising Senate candidate.
• It’s Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego, choosing the vet and experienced leader over former TV news anchor Republican Kari Lake, who has tried to push herself as the law enforcement candidate.
• As you’d expect, the Arizona Police Association is a very conservative group, and 19 out of its 20 state house endorsements have gone to Republicans. But they still pick Gallego over Lake. That’s an extraordinary rebuke.
• What a fucking joke she is.
• But speaking of endorsements…
• More than 200 Republicans who worked for President George W. Bush, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) or the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, warning in a letter that a second Trump presidency “will hurt real, everyday people and weaken our sacred institutions.”
• The open letter with the endorsement was first published yesterday in USA Today, with 238 signatures. In the letter, the GOP alumni wrote that they are voting for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, despite policy differences.
• We welcome all sane conservatives and Republicans to the Harris camp. There’s a place here for people of patriotism and high ethical values.
• Moving on.
• It’s been a good long while since we last checked in on the criminal proceedings against the Felonious Fart Fucker, Donnie Dump.
• But some big news dropped yesterday,
• As we’d predicted, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a brief with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in which he stated that Florida U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon was wrong when she dismissed the case last month against Dumples for mishandling classified and top-secret documents.
• Smith also said that Cannon was mistaken in ruling that the process used to appoint the Special Counsel was unconstitutional.
• Smith is asking the 11th Circuit Court to reverse her order to dismiss the case and send it back for further proceedings. In his brief, the Special Counsel does not ask the court to remove the Trump-appointed judge from the case.
• But that might happen anyway. If the Appeals court reverses her ruling, many legal observers believe it may also ask Cannon to recuse herself from the case.
• In her ruling last month, Cannon said that Attorney General Merrick Garland exceeded his constitutional authority in appointing a prosecutor who was not subject to Congressional approval. But her opinion runs counter to decades of rulings by other federal courts upholding the constitutionality of the Special Counsel’s office.
• Dump’s lawyers have 30 days to file their reply to Smith’s brief. Smith is asking the 11th Circuit to schedule oral arguments, saying he believes they “would assist the Court’s decisional process in this case of significant public importance.”
• Get their asses, Jack.
• Meanwhile, per an announcement yesterday, his criminal gang will be facing justice in Arizona on January 5, 2026, per Arizona state Judge Bruce Cohen.
• Eighteen Dump allies were charged in April in connection with their post-election activities, as GOP officials submitted a false slate of electors to Congress claiming Dump won the state, and campaign officials including Rudy Giuliani and other Dump attorneys were involved with the scheme.
• Beyond Rudy Tootie, other Dump allows being criminally charged include former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, ex-Dump attorney John Eastman, Dump attorney Christina Bobb, Dump adviser Boris Epshteyn, and other allies 
• Most of the defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges, but ex-Dump attorney Jenna Ellis and false Dump elector Loraine Pellegrino reached plea deals with prosecutors and had their charges dropped.
• The rest were indicted on charges including fraud, forgery, changing votes “by corrupt means or inducement,” tampering with public records, and presenting false instruments for filing.
• And now, on this same topic, moving from the last election into the next one.
• The DNC and the Democratic Party of Georgia has sued the Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board to prevent Dump's allies on the Board from blocking the certification of the 2024 election.
• The DNC says the lawsuit is to ensure that Georgia's State Election Board "doesn't turn a straightforward and mandatory act of certification into a broad license for any county board member to try and delay or block the certification of election results and the will of Georgia voters."
• Good. I’m glad to see they’re on top of this, because you know Dumpy and his criminal gang will try the same unsuccessful tricks this time as they did the last.
• Except now, the would-be perpetrators have seen people get indictments and possible prison terms as a result. Maybe they’ll be a little less open to doing Dump’s lawless bidding as a result.
• In other news…
• The current kerfuffle over the planned debate between Harris and Dump — currently scheduled for September 10 — is about microphones. The two sides are at odds over whether to allow host ABC News to mute the candidates' microphones when it is not their turn to speak.
• But the sides of the issue may not be what you assume. The Harris campaign wants both candidates’ mics on throughout the debate. Dumples wants same rules regarding microphones in place for the first presidential debate, the one in late June between him and Joe Biden.
• Brian Fallon, Harris' spokesperson, stated, "Our understanding is that Trump's handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don't think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own."
• Old-ass Dumpy himself is still suggesting that he will back out of the debate. There’s no way he can seem coherent against a vibrant powerhouse speaker like Kamala Harris.
• The vice-presidential nominees, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are set to debate on October 1. 
• Let’s move on.
• Burning Man seems to losing its luster. They had trouble selling all the tickets for the event this year.
• And then, on the first day of the event, a woman died. The circumstances around her death weren't immediately clear, but law enforcement has confirmed that there's an investigation underway to determine what happened.
• Authorities found her unresponsive on Sunday morning, which was the opening day of Burning Man's weeklong event schedule. Obviously, that had to have put a damper on the fun.
• Burning Man annually draws around 80,000 people to the desert playa in northwestern Nevada, where attendees build a temporary metropolis and camp together in what's billed as an entirely self-sustaining community focused largely on art.
• I’ve never gone, but I have plenty of friends who have and still do, so I’m going to withhold any criticism. But I will say that over time, most events that were once cool and genuine become commercialized and trite.
• See the scientific principle that says “Entropy increases.”
• And now, The Weather: “Mucho Mistrust” by Fake Fruit
• My sympathies going out to Mariah Carey. This past Saturday both her mother, Patricia Carey, and sister, Alison Carey, died on the same day.
• Awful. No information was shared about the circumstances of the deaths. Patricia Carey had been an opera singer. Mariah had an estranged relationship with her sister. In her memoir, she wrote that it was "emotionally and physically safer for me not to have any contact" with Alison and her brother Morgan.
• Sigh.
• Let’s do a chart. This time we’re heading back to early November 2010, which is the first time I voted to elect Kamala Harris to office.
• The election, for California Attorney General, was between Democrat Harris (DA of San Francisco at the time) against Republican Steve Cooley (LA County DA), and it was a super tight race.
• Harris ended up winning with 4,442,781 (46.1%) to Cooley’s 4,368,624 (45.3%). The election was on November 2, and it was so close that Cooley didn’t concede until November 24.
• Harris’s victory for AG, which then propelled her to re-election in 2014, a blowout win in the US Senate election (in 2016) and then being chosen as Biden’s vice president (2020), came as a direct result of her strong opposition to Proposition 8 — a state ballot item to ban same-sex marriage — which Cooley promised to defend in court.
• Had she not won that statewide election, there’s almost no way she’d be our Democratic presidential candidate today.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at the time.
• 1. Like A G6 (Far*East Movement Featuring Cataracs & Dev). 2. Just The Way You Are (Bruno Mars). 3. Only Girl (In The World) (Rihanna). 4. Just A Dream (Nelly). 5. DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love (Usher Featuring Pitbull). 6. Bottoms Up (Trey Songz Featuring Nicki Minaj). 7. Teenage Dream (Katy Perry). 8. Dynamite (Taio Cruz). 9. Club Can't Handle Me (Flo Rida Featuring David Guetta). 10. Raise Your Glass (P!nk). 11. Mean (Taylor Swift). 12. Love The Way You Lie (Eminem Featuring Rihanna). 13. Mine (Taylor Swift). 14. I Like It (Enrique Iglesias Featuring Pitbull). 15. Animal (Neon Trees). 16. Deuces (Chris Brown Featuring Tyga & Kevin McCall). 17. F**k You! (Forget You) (CeeLo Green). 18. No Hands (Waka Flocka Flame Featuring Roscoe Dash & Wale). 19. Please Don't Go (Mike Posner). 20. Right Above It (Lil Wayne Featuring Drake).
• From the Sports Desk… a lot of you enjoyed the Olympics this year. I know I did.
• If you’re interested in continuing those good vibes, you may want to note that the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games start this Wednesday August 28 and run until September 8.
• The 549 events in 22 sports will bring together as many as 4,400 athletes from 169 nations around the world.
• Team USA is sending 130 athletes to compete in a wide range of sports including athletics, wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball, Paratriathlon, and many more. USA! USA!
• In 175 countries where broadcast rights have not been sold — and I think the US is one of them, because we’re dicks — the Games will be streamed on YouTube.
• Today in history… the Visigoths stop sacking Rome after three days (410). George Washington gets his ass kicked by British forces under William Howe at the Battle of Long Island in what is now Brooklyn, NY (1776). Napoleon defeats a bigger army of Austrians, Russians, and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden (1813). Cruse oil is discovered in Titusville, PA, leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well (1859). Krakatoa is almost completely destroyed in four explosions during a volcanic eruption (1883). The UK and Zanzibar fight the world’s shortest war, from 9:02am to 9:40am (1896). In the Battle of Ambos Nogales, the US takes on Mexico in the only battle of WWI fought on American soil (1918). The Kellogg–Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by fifteen nations… lol (1928). First flight of the Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft (1939). The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published (1955). The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA (1962). An attempted coup d'état fails in the African nation of Chad (1971). Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years (2003).
• August 27 is the birthday of shōgun Ashikaga Yoshikazu (1407), philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770), vice president Hannibal Hamlin (1809), vice president Charles G. Dawes (1865), serial killer Ed Gein (1906), president Lyndon B. Johnson (1908), actress Martha Raye (1916), MLB player Pee Wee Butts (1919), computer scientist Kristen Nygaard (1926), writer Ira Levin (1929), pianist/composer Alice Coltrane (1937), guitarist/composer Sonny Sharrock (1940), keyboardist/songwriter Daryl “Captain” Dragon (1942), actress Tuesday Weld (1943), actress Barbara Bach (1947), actor Paul Reubens (1952), guitarist/composer Alex Lifeson (1953), fashion designed Tom Ford (1961), NHL player Adam Oates (1962), dog trainer Cesar Millan (1969), actor Aaron Paul (1979), and NFL player Darren McFadden (1987).

Lordy. So much going on. It is what it is, less than 70 days until an election that will change the course of world history. I try and cover the stuff that matters, but I never get everything in the one hour I allot to write this shit every morning. Enjoy your day.

Random News: August 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 August 26, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I’m trying to be awake and alert, but Mondays are hard. But, cutting myself a little slack, like anything in life, once you get rolling, things tend to seem less insurmountable. I’ll go ahead and assume today will be like that. Let’s see what’s happening in our big ol’ world.

• What are political polls? Say it with me.
• They are bullshit. Never, ever believe them, no matter who they’re from and how legitimate they seem. All they will do is mislead you into a false sense of overoptimism or an equally false sense of despair when neither are true.
• That being said… the first polls after last week’s undeniably successful Democratic National Convention have hit, and things seem pretty, pretty, pretty good.
• Vice President Harris holds a 7-point edge over Dumples the Clown nationally in a new poll, marking the latest gain for the Democratic presidential candidate as the general election approaches.
• Fairleigh Dickinson University released their poll results on Friday, finding Harris leading Dump with 50 percent support to 43 percent nationally, while 7 percent of respondents said they will vote for someone else.
• Harris holds a large lead among self-identified liberals, 87 to 10 percent, along with progressives, 93 to 5 percent, and moderates, 62 to 30 percent.
• Dumpy, meanwhile, leads among conservatives 76 to 19 percent.
• Wait, hold up. Are you telling me that at least in this one poll, two out of ten conservatives are not planning to vote for Dump? That, there, is some interesting shit.
• I mean, Dumpy is not conservative.
• Fun Fact: Dump did register as a Republican in Manhattan in 1987. But since then, he has changed his party affiliation five times.
• True story. In 1999, he changed his party affiliation to the Independence Party of New York. In August 2001, Trump changed his party affiliation to Democratic. In September 2009, he changed his party affiliation back to the Republican Party. In December 2011, Trump changed to "no party affiliation" (independent). In April 2012, he again returned to the Republican Party.
• This guy has no loyalty to Republican values. He’s only part of whatever group from which he feels he best benefit. There are no personal morals or aspects of policy that matter to him.
• Personal Fun Fact: I first registered as a Democrat in 1992 to vote for Bill Clinton when I was 23 years old. I have never once even considered changing affiliations since then (though there were years in between where I was too apathetic to vote… yes, me).
• Obama brought me back into being politically active in a direct sense in 2008. Thanks Obama!
• Back on topic, the Dumpy Dump numbers are sounding alarms in down-ballot races. Why?
• Because when Democrats are energized to vote and rush to the polls, they tend to vote Dem all the way down the board, from Senate to Congressional Rep to Governor to your local mayor and so on.
• At least as far as the pundits can see from today’s vantage point, the numbers are so good for Democrats that the House Majority PAC is now investing in places like Iowa and Wisconsin.
• Chuck Schumer now believes they can outperform like in 2022 and win a majority in Congress.  
• And what’s left of the Republican leadership, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, has to do a daily tightrope act of both distancing the party from Dump without alienating him cult base.
• I wouldn’t want that job.
• Speaking of polls and down-ballot woes, here’s both a happy story and a reminder to choose well in primary elections.
• North Carolina GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson is currently trailing his Democratic challenger, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, by 14 points. Yes, 14. That’s very bad.
• In a new poll, Stein received 48 percent support among voters in the battleground state. while Robinson received just 34 percent, with 18 percent of respondents undecided.
• Now why would a Republican have such a poor showing in a traditionally conservative state? Hmm.
• Maybe it’s because Robinson said that, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.”
• Or when he said that women who receive abortions are murderers. Or when he mocked the victims of Harvey Weinstein. Or said that people who support equal rights for women are, “sexist, hairy armpit having, poo-poo hat wearing pinkos.”
• I’m not sure when, but eventually someone in the GOP will be smart enough not to run candidates with messaging purely based on hatred and ignorance that alienate a huge percent of their own potential voters.
• Right? Maybe?
• Moving on.
• I’ve been reading reports of a pretty brilliant form of guerrilla messaging for the Harris/Walz campaign. I don’t think it’s any official program, but a number of women — especially in red states — have taken it upon themselves to start “Post-It’ing.”
• They write little messages on Post-It notes and leave them in women’s restrooms and changing areas. The notes encourage other women to vote for Harris/Walz despite the pressure they may be under from their conservative husbands, family members, and communities.
• I’ve seen pics of a bunch of them, in places like Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, and more. One said, “Woman to woman — your vote is private. See you at the polls,” with a smiley face.
• Why would something like that be necessary? Well, to give one example, this past week a woman wrote a message on social media in support of Harris/Walz, and her husband replied saying not to expect her car to be undamaged upon her return if she did.
• Are women threatened with violence based on their political views? You betcha. It happens all the time.
• If you’re noticing a theme here — an increase in sexism accompanied by the slow but steady removal of women’s rights by the Christian nationalist far right — all you need to do is to look at other countries where bigotry in the name of religion has become a requirement.
• In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s new vice and virtue laws that include a total ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public.
• That’s right, Now, even the sound of a female voice outside the home is deemed a punishable moral violation. Decrees in the country already bar women from many public spaces, education and most jobs.
• If you don’t think this is possible in the USA, women in places like Kabul in the 1970s looked and acted like women in most of the rest of the world. Ten years later after the entire region fell under of theocratic rule, you see the results.
• It’s yet another in a long list of reasons why having a woman President for this country would be a sign we’re committed to the right and fair path.
• Let’s move on.
• Got some news from the Health Desk. The Biden administration is bringing back free at-home COVID-19 tests by mail.
• At the end of September, each household will be able to order up to four rapid tests through COVIDtests.gov. The cool news? The tests will detect newer COVID-19 variants.
• The mailed tests are returning after the FDA this week approved two updated COVID-19 vaccines to provide protection against current strains of the virus. Those vaccines, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are expected to be rolled out within days for anyone age 6 months and older.
• Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 infection, and testing is key to help limit the spread of the virus. I got my last updated booster in December of last year, so when they come out with these updated versions, I’ll be getting one soon enough.
• This will be my sixth, counting the two-dose original shot.
• Moving on.
• A follow-up story on a MAGA piece of shit who was so horrible, he managed to disgust his Republican pals.
• This weekend, Colorado Republicans voted to remove GOP Party Chair Dave Williams by a vote of 161 to 12. We mentioned this asshole awhile back.
• What did he do to get his ass kicked out? Well, among other things, Williams sent an email attacking gay pride month and referring to the LGBTQ community as "godless groomers.” He called for the burning of all pride flags. He also waded into GOP primaries in violation of party bylaws, and used state party resources to support his own campaign for Congress.
• Anyway, this now-former head of a state’s Republican party was already out of a job. He lost his primary bid for Colorado's 5th Congressional District against Jeff Crank in June.
• Williams’s prejudices are similar to many of those in the Republican party of today; he’ll likely not go away quietly.
• Let’s do some happy news.
• Today is National Dog Day. For my entire youth, I was unaware that we humans created dogs, or at least, the lovable animal friends as we know them today. I was probably in my mid-20s when I got informed about this.
• Every dog you’ve ever seen, from a teacup poodle to a dachshund to a springer spaniel to a great dane and everything in between, exists as a result of humans purposefully breeding these animals for various characteristics and purposes.
• They were all wolves once.
• The top three dog breeds in the USA are currently ranked in order as the French Bulldog, the Labrador Retriever, and the Golden Retriever.
• I love dogs, and most dogs seem to love me. I do not own a dog; I have four weird cats, and I also don’t have the time to commit to proper dog ownership and care. But I still love them and say hi to many of them around my neighborhood.
• And now, The Weather: “Garmonbozia” by Flying Lotus
• From the Sports Desk… a word of warning here at the start of the school year.
• Caden Tellier, an Alabama high school football player, died Saturday after he was critically injured during a game the day before.
• The 16-year-old Morgan Academy quarterback was hurt following a tackle in the third quarter of the school’s game Friday night against Southern Academy in Selma. He suffered a brain injury and was flown to the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital Friday night.
• I will mention that that Tellier was an organ donor, so his tragic death won’t be completely without meaningful reason. But I do want to say that even at the high school level, contact sports are dangerous by definition.
• And ask any ER doctor about the number of injuries — many of them serious — they see each year from high school athletes.
• I love sports. I follow sports. I played sports throughout my youth. I still remain physically active even now in my middle age… every single day after I post this little news report, I head downstairs to do a short but effective workout.
• But I will say that even teenagers are now bigger, stronger, and faster than they were in previous generations. The kinds of injuries that happen as a result are worse than they were before.
• While I’m not telling you to not allow your kids to play contact sports, I will say to take extra caution that their safety equipment — helmets, pads, and so on — are in good shape and fit well.
• Side note: my knee ligaments are still problematic for me today, some 40 years after my last high school basketball game.
• Today in history… the Delhi Sultanate takes Chittorgarh and kills thirty thousand Hindu inhabitants (1303). An English army easily defeats a French one twice its size at the Battle of Crécy (1346). Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavor (1768). John Fitch gets a US patent for the steamboat (1791). The eruption of Krakatoa begins its final stage (1883). The 19th amendment takes effect, giving women the right to vote (1920). The 50th anniversary of US women being able to vote is marked by a nationwide Women's Strike for Equality (1970). The Games of the XX Olympiad open in Munich, West Germany (1972). The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's all-new composite airliner, receives certification (2011).
• August 26 is the birthday of UK prime minister Robert Walpole (1676), mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728), UK prince consort Albert (1819), inventor Lee de Forest (1873), socialite/philanthropist Peggy Guggenheim (1898), Catholic saint Mother Teresa (1910), physicist Katherine Johnson (1918), journalist Irving R. Levine (1922), NBA player/coach Tommy Heinsohn (1934), politician Geraldine Ferraro (1935), voiceover artist Don LaFontaine (1940), drummer Moe Tucker (1944), singer-songwriter Leon Redbone (1949), NBA coach Stan Van Gundy (1959), saxophonist/composer Branford Marsalis (1960), singer-songwriter Shirley Manson (1966), actress Melissa McCarthy (1970), actor Macaulay Culkin (1980), actor Chris Pine (1980), actor/comedian John Mulaney (1982), MLB player Elvis Andrus (1988), NHL player Wayne Simmonds (1988), and NBA player James Harden (1989).

Okay, that’s enough for now. I’m going to try and be productive but peaceful today. It’s possible to do both. Also note that I don’t always get to have the kind of day that I hope for, but such is life. It’s still good to hope. Enjoy your day.

Lutz City of Templemore (08.24.24)

I love being back at Lutz City of Templemore whenever they invite me. Photo by Kat.

Hey there, fun folks. It is I, the magical and musical fool, here with another report from my live music escapades. I believe my show last night at Lutz City of Templemore was my seven billionth overall.

That's... Not True

You are correct; it is not true. That's an exaggeration. If I had to make an educated guess of my total number of live music shows in from of an audience I've performed in my life -- which started when I was 11 years old and continued at various rates of frequency in the 44 years since -- that actual number is probably between three and four thousand, which is still a lot.

That goes back to my high school days, performing in rock bands and playing parties almost every weekend, through my later eras playing small clubs and street fairs and events, to, of course, the past going-on 18 years that I've done solo shows as Zak Claxton in Second Life.

My biggest year for shows? I believe it was 2010, where I did over 130 of them. That's nuts. That's well more than twice a week for a solid year. And yes, still to this day, I know people who do multiple shows daily, leaving my numbers in the dust. Even if I didn't have so many other elements of my life competing for my time and attention, I wouldn't want that at all. I am very much happy doing no more than a couple of shows each month these days. Any more than that feels like a bit much.

So Why Exaggerate?

For me, because it's usually just funny. Obviously, I haven't played seven billion shows. I've only been alive for just over 20,000 days. I didn't start playing guitar in earnest until I turned seven years old. In any case, I'd have to play 350,000 show a day for my whole life to hit that total. That's why it's funny. Ha. Ha.

But also, there's a feeling that I have when I look back which makes me feel that I've always played live music in front of people. I can't remember a time when I didn't. So it might as well be seven billion. Ask any busy musician what happens when someone comes up to you and says, "Hey, remember that one time you played at ____ and (insert thing that happened)?"

And most of them time you kind of nod your head and smile, but in reality, it all kinda fades into one big amorphous blob of a show. I'm much more likely to remember something like, say, a bar that had really good tacos when we ate between sets, or a Second Life venue where something so utterly outrageous happened (often of my own doing) that it stuck out in my memory banks.

Me 44 years ago at age 11, playing a gig.

Here's me 39 years ago at age 16... playing a gig. I've always played gigs.

Anything Else Going On?

Yeah, a whole lot. Obviously paying close attention to last week's Democratic National Convention, which ended up harnessing a lot of my brain that is more accustomed to downtime in the evenings. But I'm not going to just recap the stuff I write here in the daily Zak's Random News updates. You already know my thoughts on that, which are all very positive.

I am already aware that a good portion of my attention will be on various election-related topics and tasks over the next 71 days until the election. Like Coach Walz said at a recent event, we'll sleep when we die. For now, and for the sake of the world, I can muster the extra effort to do my job, do my music, maintain relationships, and still contribute in various ways to the election of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

So frankly, hopefully not much more beyond what's already on my plate for the next 2-1/2 months. That's plenty.

Gratuitous pic of Kamala Harris doing presidential stuff. Get used to it, folks.

How Was The Show?

One thing that's always cool about Templemore: they always make cool-looking, well-designed promo graphics for each show there.

It was awesome. Playing at Templemore is an honor, really. I never ask them to book me, which makes it all the more cool when I get a random notification from them, asking if I'm available on some date. I always am. This time, it was a Saturday night, which was fun for a reason you might not realize.

When you play more often on various weekdays -- say, my first-Tuesday-of-the-month show I've now done for years at Hotel Chelsea -- you forget that some people only tend to come into SL on weekends, which makes sense. So when I do a Saturday show like I did at Templemore, I get all manner of people who I sometimes haven't seen in years, popping up in the audience. It was super fun.

Doing my artistic set at an artistic build. Photo by Kat.

View from the back of the bar. Photo by Kat.

Just me, onstage, being rad. Photo by Kat.

The show itself was great, as far as I can tell. I tend to pull out my more indie singer-songwriter stuff at Templemore for some reason, and always have. And as I note each time I perform there, I make sure to do a song for the sim's late namesake, Garrett Lutz. who passed away from ALS in August of 2017. Garrett was a fan of Sun Kil Moon, and I once again devoted one of Mark Kozelek's songs to Garrett's memory while I played.

We had a solid, steady crowd, and I enjoyed hanging out after my show for a good while, listening to Acoustic Energy, who is another veteran SL performer and a talented dude. A very enjoyable night altogether. Five stars, would do again.

Me, super sweaty and feeling wrung out right after my show. Playing the rock music should be a really solid workout if you do it right. Yes, I'm wearing a me-shirt, but only by coincidence. Laundry day is Sunday.

Lutz City of Templemore set list...

Airport Bar (Martin Courtney)

One of These Things First (Nick Drake)

Snakes And Ladders (They Stole My Crayon)

Among the Leaves (Sun Kil Moon)

Hannah Sun (Lomelda)

Sour Girl (Stone Temple Pilots)

Bird of Paradise (Cory Hanson) 

Sex Kills (Joni Mitchell)

Sex & Candy (Marcy Playground) 

Don’t Let It Pass (Junip)

Bull Black Nova (Wilco)

What I Got (Sublime)

Giant thanks to every single person who came out to my how, with extra special rocket sauce to the following who helped support my show...

Guru Witte, Chipnails Resident, Mandi Mercury, AcousticEnergy Nitely, go2smoky Resident, Trouble Streeter, Rusty Seisenbacher, loki Dada, Asimia Heron, Kat Claxton, my great manager Maali Beck, and  the entire team at Lutz City of Templemore... Luis Lockjaw, AmyraVuitton Resident, Brooks Conundrum, AnaraeShin Resident, and all the rest. You're amazing!