Random News: August 11, 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 11, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I’m feeling pretty peaceful this morning, despite knowing that eventually I’ll have to go murder a bunch of ants. But doing things one finds unpleasant or distasteful is absolutely a necessary part of life. Avoiding those things leads to worse things. Meanwhile, I’ll just sit here and write my news. The ants will still be there when I’m done.

• It was another exciting rally event for the Harris/Walz campaign last night, this time in Las Vegas, NV.
• I watched the whole thing. It’s amazing how quickly they’ve solidified both the base and the messaging they’re expressing. I find that impressive in and of itself.
• One explanation that’s been offered for the meteoric rise of the Harris/Walz ticket is simple: it’s joy.
• Both Kamala and Tim have positive messages that reinforce the idea of the greatness and the potential of the USA. Dump’s consistent messaging, filled with lies and outright hatred, has always been about how terrible things are and how it will get so much worse.
• Both the messaging and the upbeat demeanor of the Democratic ticket have people feeling optimism, hope, and yes, joy.
• The value of that is immeasurable.
• I don’t want to discuss polls — which I distrust for many reasons — but if the trajectory we’re on remains consistent for the next 86 days, I don’t just hope that Harris/Walz wins.
• I think it could be a landslide where no amount of fake electors or bullshit court filings could ever hope to change the outcome.
• I think Harris/Walz will win in Georgia. In Arizona. In Pennsylvania. Michigan. Wisconsin. Nevada. Minnesota.
• But I also think there are legitimate possibilities for them to win North Carolina. Florida. Ohio. Even Texas. I could genuinely envision a 389-149 blowout. I know that’s pretty optimistic.
• Regardless, I’m perfectly fine with any outcome that gives Harris/Walz 270 or more electoral votes. Beyond that is just icing on the cake.
• Let’s move on.
• President Biden did an interview with CBS News this morning, his first since stepping aside from the 2024 presidential race in July.
• Joe explained that losing the confidence of senior House and Senate Democrats, who feared his unpopularity would hurt them at the polls in November, had weighed on his mind. That makes sense to me.
• He told Robert Costa, “Although I have the great honor to be president, I think I have an obligation to the country to do the most important thing you can do, and that is we must, we must, we must defeat Trump.”
• Amen.
• The other main point of the interview had Biden expressing that he was not confident there would be a peaceful transfer of power in January 2025 when Dump loses the election.
• “Mark my words, if he wins watch what happens. He’s a genuine danger to American security.”
• Agreed. And we will be watching… and ready.
• Moving on to more bad news for the Dumpinator.
• Yesterday, the presidential campaign of Dumpy said it has been hacked and suggested Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents.
• They provided no specific evidence of Iran's involvement. Shrug.
• But the hack was done via a rather old and unsophisticated method. Someone sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of Dump’s campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.
• So basically, someone sent a faked forwarded message with a URL that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain.
• And someone in Dump’s campaign fell for it. Yikes.
• Whoever it was that snagged data from Dumpy began delivering it to the media.
• Politico reported yesterday that it had received messages starting July 22 from an anonymous sender offering proprietary information about the Trump campaign, including a copy of a vetting document related to Vance.
• This past Thursday, The Washington Post was also sent a 271-page document about Vance from a sender who called himself Robert and used an AOL email account. Two people familiar with the document confirmed it was authentic and was commissioned by the campaign from law firm Brand Woodward.
• The sender would not speak on the telephone with a Post reporter but indicated they had access to additional information, including internal campaign emails and documents related to Trump’s court cases.
• I’m going to remind you that when the Democratic National Committee got hacked in 2016, Dump repeatedly touted internal Democratic emails and other documents released by WikiLeaks that U.S. officials suspected had been stolen by Russia.
• “I love WikiLeaks,” said Don the Con while campaigning against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in October 2016, after the organization had posted online tens of thousands of emails hacked from the account of Clinton’s campaign chairman.
• It’s hard to say if he’ll love whatever else this hacker group leaks. I’m guessing probably not.
• While we’re talking about that fucking old demented weirdo…
• NPR did an actual fact check on the completely disastrous press conference that Donnie Dump did the other day. God bless NPR.
• Dumpy had no topic or anything to say, you know. He was just in utter panic and terror about the tidal wave of enthusiasm for the Harris/Walz campaign.
• I mentioned maybe 10 lies and bizarre observances uttered by Dumples the Clown that day. NPR found a few more than that.
• A team of their reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of his news conference. They found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations, and outright lies in 64 minutes.
• That’s more than two a minute. How do you tell two lies per minute for over an hour? If there’s anything in life that the Orange Menace excels at, it’s telling provably false information and then getting butthurt when he’s called out on it.
• No parent would ever accept behavior like Dump’s from their children.
• Anyway, on their site, NPR actually lists all 162 items of bullshit that flowed from that felonious punk’s mouth that day. Quite a thorough report. I’ll add a link in the comments.
• Last note on that prick who once called himself president.
• He’s once again been called upon to stop using an iconic song at his MAGA rallies. This time it’s the estate of Isaac Hayes in regard to the soul classic “Hold On I’m Comin’,” written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter and a huge hit for Sam Moore and Dave Prater — the R&B duo known as Sam & Dave.
• Isaac Hayes III, son of the late singer and songwriter, emphasized that his father’s estate did not authorize Dump to use the song and indicated that they are taking legal action to stop the unauthorized use of this song.
• Hayes III added that “Donald Trump represents the worst in honesty, integrity and class and we want no association with his campaign of hate and racism.”
• Despite having been warned, the Dump campaign continues to use the song. They have no respect for the property and rights of anyone but themselves.
• In similar news but much funnier, Celine Dion’s management team and her record label, Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., became aware of the unauthorized usage of the Dump campaign’s using her song, “My Heart Will Go On” at their rally in Montana on Friday.
• She responded, “In no way is this use authorized, and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use. … And really, THAT song?”
• Hahahaha! The song is, of course, the main theme from the film ‘Titanic,” a movie about a big fat ship assumed to be impervious, only to unexpectedly sink and drag its occupants to a hideous cold death.
• You know, that really does sound like the Dump campaign!
• Including Hayes and Dion, at least two dozen artists or their families and estates have objected to Dump using their music at events. These include Phil Collins, Panic! at the Disco, Elton John, R.E.M., Adele, Pharrell Williams, the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Rihanna, and the estate of Prince, among others. 
• Let’s move on.
• Of the many evil platforms of the Dump campaign, from nationwide abortion restriction to tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, one thing is standing out as unpopular among his own base: mass deportations.
• A good chunk of the Republican base aren’t behind that. Sure, they’re in favor of our current policies of deporting immigrants who commit crimes. I think we’re all okay with that.
• But Dump is putting immigration at the heart of his campaign to retake the White House and pushing the Republican Party towards a vile strategy that hearkens back to the 1950s when President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched a deportation policy known by a racial slur — “Operation Wetback.”
• Dump says he would use the National Guard, and possibly even the military, to target between 15 million and 20 million people.
• Important note: there are less than 11 million migrants living in the U.S. without permanent legal permission right now. Who else is Dumpy going to deport?
• To accomplish his sickening plan, Dump would revive travel bans from countries deemed undesirable, such as majority-Muslim countries.
• He would launch a sweeping operation by deputizing the National Guard to round up immigrants, hold them in massive concentration camps, and put them on deportation flights before they could make legal appeals.
• And perhaps worst of all, Dump has also pledged to end birthright citizenship — a 125-year-old right in the U.S. And per his plan with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, he would also choke off other forms of currently legal migration from countries without predominantly white Christian populaces.
• Also relevant: Latino voters could be pivotal in many swing states.
• And now, The Weather: “Centipede” by Gramp
• Rest in peace to Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube (and the first marketing manager at Google, starting in 1999). She died Friday at age 56 of cancer. 
• She came from a family of geniuses; her mom an acclaimed journalist and her dad a professor of physics at Stanford. Her sister Anne founded 23andMe.
• Wojcicki spent years on the lists of the world’s most powerful women. Her net worth was estimated at $765 million.
• She was an advocate for several causes, including the expansion of paid family leave, the plight of Syrian refugees, countering gender discrimination at technology companies, getting young girls interested in computer science, and prioritizing computer programming and coding in schools.
• From the Sports Desk… yesterday was the final day of competition in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Team USA ended up with 126 total medals.
• A huge gold medal to our Women's Football (soccer) team, beating Brazil in the gold medal round 1-0. More gold to Team USA with Masai Russell taking the Women's 100m Hurdles, Jennifer Valente winning the Women's Omnium cycling, and the team of Chris Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, and Rai Benjamin winning the Men's 4x400m Relay. More gold to the USA via the Women's 4x400m Relay (Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabrielle Thomas, and Alexis Holmes), and finally to the Men’s Basketball where Team USA beat France in the final, 98-87.
• Note: it was the USA’s eighth Olympics in a row to claim gold in the women’s 4x400, and the fifth in a row in Men’s basketball.
• Shelby McEwen added to our silver collection in the Men's High Jump. Simone Biles got another silver in Women's Floor Exercise gymnastics, Kennedy Alexis Blades got one in Women's 76kg wrestling, and the Team USA Women’s Volleyball team got silvers as well.
• Three additional bronze medals were earned by Kyle Dake in Men's 74kg wrestling, by Grant Fisher in the Men's 5000m, by the US B-Boys in breaking, and by the USA Men’s Water Polo team.
• I think the final leading medal totals were 126 for the USA, 91 for China, 65 for Great Britain, 64 for France, and 53 for Australia.
• USA! USA!
• The next Summer Olympics are… here in Los Angeles in 2028. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
• Today in history… The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar begins (3114 BC). Claudius Silvaneous proclaims himself Roman Emperor despite being accused of treason… hmmm (355). The Great Famine of Europe becomes so dire that even the king of England has difficulties buying bread for himself and his entourage (1315). Babe Ruth hits his 500th home run (1929). Actress Hedy Lamarr gets a patent for a frequency-hopping communication system that’s the basis for all wireless phones and Wi-Fi (1942). Chad declares independence from France (1960). Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity (1962). The Watts Riots begin in Los Angeles (1965). The last US ground combat troops leave Vietnam (1972). The Mall of America opens in Minnesota (1992). 
• August 11 is the birthday of physician and contagious disease scholar Richard Mead (1673), talk show host Mike Douglas (1920), historian and author Alex Haley (1921), televangelist Jerry Falwell (1933), journalist Marilyn vos Savant (1946), singer-songwriter Eric Carmen (1949), computer scientist Steve Wozniak (1950), musician/composer Bob Mothersbaugh (1952), wrestler/actor Hulk Hogan (1953), singer-songwriter/pianist Joe Jackson (1954), podcasterJoe Rogan (1967), actress Anna Gunn (1968), singer-songwriter/guitarist Ben Gibbard (1976), actor Chris Hemsworth (1983), political commentator and my former neighbor  — ew — Tomi Lahren (1992), and NFL player Marvin Harrison Jr. (2002).

Okay. Now I’m going to go kill some ants, put on some pants, write some rants, and maybe dance. Enjoy your day.