Random News: August 25, 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 25, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I’m your bathrobe-wearing, coffee-drinking, freedom-loving dude with some news that may help you make better decisions and have a happier life.

• I actually want to start today with a personal story, or at least close to personal.
• A couple of years back, my significant other discovered the other half of her biological family via DNA testing. They are all nice people, but one brother in particular was clear that he held conservative beliefs… more in the churchy way rather than the MAGA way, but still very much a Republican and a Trump voter.
• For obvious reasons, they didn’t discuss political topics often. But then yesterday, she opened Facebook to find that he’d changed his cover image to a banner that promoted “Republicans for Harris/Walz.”
• Surprised and intrigued, she asked about his change of heart.
• One thing was that her brother had watched last week’s Democratic National Convention, and the words of the Republicans who spoke there — talking about the patriotism and love of country they found in the Democrats — rang true to him.
• But the thing that really flipped the switch was Gus Walz, the son of VP nominee Gov. Tim Walz.
• Her brother’s son is profoundly autistic. A special needs child by any definition. When he saw the love and support Gov. Walz gave to his son Gus, that was the moment he felt directly addressed by the party. He was seen. He could identify with those values.
• And while I’m not sure this played into his decision, the MAGA world immediately bullying and making fun of Gus would have been the final straw for me.
• So I’m telling you this because I’ve made it a point to try and change my interactions with MAGA people… especially conservatives who understand that their former party was stolen from them.
• The GOP is not, in any way, conservative anymore. They do not support any semblance of what used to be known as family values.
• All they have is a cult leader and the people who will do his bidding. And I’ve said this many times before: there are many, many, many smart, noble, and kind conservative people who never intended this change to happen to their party.
• Anyway, I’m trying to re-engage conservatives in my life — as difficult and frustrating as it can be at times — and hopefully send them the message that if they truly love America, the team they should be getting behind is Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
• It’s the party of freedom, the party of fun, and the party that loves the country.
• And yes, some are far too gone to try and help. I’m a realist here. A person who grew up being indoctrinated into racism, sexism, xenophobia, and hatred is almost certainly not going to accept leadership from a Black woman. I get it.
• But in my pragmatic way, I’m going to keep my lines of communication open for people who can no longer morally and ethically support the party of Donnie Dump.
• Let’s move on.
• Things are not going well for anyone in the continuing multiple Middle East conflicts.
• Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon early today in what it called a preemptive strike to avert a large Hezbollah rocket and missile attack.
• Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the killing of a top commander last month. Both sides halted the heavy exchange of fire by mid-morning, signaling no immediate further escalation.
• Israel and Hezbollah claim that they aimed only at military targets. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said its attack had been delayed to give cease-fire talks a chance and the target was an Israeli military intelligence base close to Tel Aviv.
• Hezbollah, like Hamas, is backed by Iran.
• All this happens while Egypt hosted high-level talks aimed at a cease-fire in the 10-month-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. This needs to get resolved ASAP for the sake of the whole damn world.
• Moving on.
• I have yet another story of music being used without permission by the Dump campaign, but this one with a rather happy ending.
• It should surprise no one that when Dumpy chose “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters to play at an Arizona rally on Friday, the band issued a statement that said, "Foo Fighters were not asked permission and if they were, they would have not granted it."
• And then they dropped the best part: any royalties received as a result of the Trump campaign's use of the song will be donated to the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz.
• Earlier this week, Dump campaign spokesperson — and astonishingly horrible asshole — Steven Chueng posted a video of Dumples the Clown stepping off a plane while Beyonce's "Freedom" played in the background.
• That song is, of course, the official theme of the Harris/Walz campaign. A day later, Beyoncé’s label sent a cease-and-desist notice to the Dump campaign over the song's use. Cheung took the video down.
• When a political campaign steals music, it’s a strong sign they feel emboldened to steal anything else from American citizens, including their assets, rights, and benefits.
• In more campaign news, one of the strongest signs of a candidate’s enthusiastic support are dollar signs… and the Harris/Walz campaign is hearing the cash register ringing at unprecedented rates.
• Since her campaign launched last month, it has raised $540 million… a record for any campaign in history.
• Last week alone, it raised $82 million during the DNC, with $40 million of that coming in since her speech on Thursday night. It’s amazing.
• A third of the week’s donations were from first-time contributors, indicating her ability to tap into donors that President Joe Biden did not have when he was the presumptive Democratic nominee.
• And two-thirds of the first-time donors were women. They — and the rest of us — are not going back.
• Again, I extend my warm welcome to anyone — including those who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 — to come join us on a team with compassion, ethics, strength, and kindness.
• Moving on.
• Pavel Durov, the French-Russian billionaire who founded the messaging app Telegram, has been detained by cops at an airport outside Paris.
• They took him into custody Saturday evening after he arrived at Bourget Airport on a flight from Azerbaijan
• Durov, 39, was wanted under a French arrest warrant due to the lack of moderation on Telegram which led to it being used for money laundering, drug trafficking, and sharing pedophilic content.
• I truly wish the same standards would apply to Elon Musk and his X platform, which I absolutely promise you is used for the same nefarious crimes along with purposeful spreading of dangerous disinformation.
• These social platform owners have a huge responsibility that comes along with their tremendous wealth (when their businesses are well run, of course).
• Let’s move on.
• We haven’t mentioned JD Vance much lately, because why would we? He’ll be as relevant historically as people like Sarah Palin, John Edwards, and all the rest who were the VPs of losing candidates.
• You may have seen him try unsuccessfully to pretend to be a normal person while ordering doughnuts in a shop for a staged media event this week, but I don’t care about that.
• This, though, is a dick move.
• The Secret Service has closed and barricaded a park near Vance’s home in Alexandria, Virginia.
• The Judy Lowe Neighborhood Park is a typical small suburban park and playground where local families could take their kids, get out of the house, get exercise and fresh air and so on.
• But the Secret Service is closing it to everyone for the benefit of JD, and an entire adjacent block is now restricted to residents only.
• So no matter where you are right now, be glad you’re not JD Vance’s neighbor in Alexandria. Unless you actually are, and then I’m sorry.
• Another thing JD Vance might want to do apart from pissing off his neighbors is to stop insulting women.
• A recent study named the top cities for “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too,” according to Vance.
• Pittsburgh — in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania where Dump is losing his lead — ranked as the top city for the largest number of single women who own cats.
• Washington D.C., New York City, Baltimore, and Chicago rounded out the top five list for childless cat ladies in the USA.
• Moving on. With all this (understandable) talk about the Harris/Walz campaign, I want to once again make sure you’re aware of and putting your support however possible behind the following State campaigns in states where a flip is likely (for good or bad).
• These people have my full endorsement and support…
• Montana: Incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.
• Ohio: Incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown.
• Michigan: Rep. Elissa Slotkin to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
• Arizona: Rep. Ruben Gallego to replace departing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
• Nevada: Incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen.
• Pennsylvania: Incumbent Sen. Bob Casey.
• Wisconsin: Incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin.
• Texas: Rep. Colin Allred to defeat incumbent Ted Cruz.
• Maryland: County executive Angela Alsobrooks to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin.
• There are plenty more, but those are the ones that probably need the most help to get elected or keep their office. 
• We’ll talk about others as we get closer to the election.
• I want to mention one of the specific policy aspects of Tim Walz as Governor of Minnesota that has me excited about the campaign: clean energy.
• Last May, he was quick to note that his state was getting a little over half of its power from renewables, but said the state would never get to 100% — a goal he helped set — without changing outdated permitting laws.
• A few weeks later, he signed legislation to speed things up. Developers no longer have to demonstrate that a clean energy project is needed as part of Minnesota’s energy system.
• His experience enacting such laws in Minnesota could position him as a leader on climate issues if Harris wins in November. Yet another thing to look forward to!
• And now, The Weather: “Anorak” by Peel Dream Magazine
• In actual weather news, a note of support heading to my friends in Hawaii as Hurricane Hone swirled closer to the Big Island with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
• Hone’s strength will likely peak overnight into Monday. Stay safe friends. Mahalo.
• From the Sports Desk… just three games remaining in the NFL preseason, all scheduled for today.
• As I mentioned recently, the first game of the regular season is a little over a week away on Thursday September 5. I am very excited about this.
• Today in history… Byzantine emperor Constantine V discovers a plot against him and executes the leaders (766). António Mota and a few of his friends become the first Europeans to visit Japan (1543). Gallileo demonstrates his first telescope (1609). A hoax is published in ‘The New York Sun’ about the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon (1835). Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel (1875). Germany purposefully destroys the library of the Catholic University, losing hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts in WWI (1914). The British Royal Air Force bombs Berlin in WWII for the first time (1940). Paris is liberated by the Allies during WWII (1944). American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell is shot and killed by a former member of his group (1967). ‘Voyager 2’ makes its closest approach to Saturn (1981). ’Voyager 2’ makes its closest approach to Neptune (1989). Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union (1991). Linus Torvalds announces the first version of Linux (1991). Aaliyah is killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas (2001). Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida (2005). ’Voyager 1’ becomes the first man-made object to enter interstellar space (2012). Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004 (2017).
• August 25 is the birthday of Russian ruler Ivan the Terrible (1530), painter George Stubbs (1724), Bavarian king Ludwig I (1786), writer/activist John Neal (1793), detective/spy Allan Pinkerton (1819), dentist Henry Trendly Dean (1893), actor Van Johnson (1916), actor Mel Ferrer (1917), athlete Althea Gibson (1927), actor Sean Connery (1930), TV host Regis Philbin (1931), saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter (1933), MLB player Rollie Fingers (1946), singer-songwriter/bass player Gene Simmons (1949), singer-songwriter Rob Halford (1951), keyboardist/composer Geoff Downes (1952), singer-songwriter Elvis Costello (1954), director Tim Burton (1958), singer-songwriter Billy Ray Cyrus (1961), guitarist/composer Vivian Campbell (1962), rapper Shock G (1963), singer-songwriter/murder victim Mia Zapata (1965), singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy (1967), NBA player Robert Horry (1970), model Claudia Schiffer (1970), actor Alexander Skarsgård (1976), actress Blake Lively (1987), and MLB player Max Muncy (1990).

That seems like enough for now, and I want to get out of this robe and on with my day. And I’m hungry. Someone come feed me breakfast, please. Enjoy your day.