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.