Random News: August 4, 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 4, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I’m having trouble becoming fully conscious thus far today. The coffee is helping, but I’m bleary eyed and despite having slept some eight hours, feel like I could do some more. Ah well. Time and tide wait for no man, and neither does the news. Let’s see what’s up.

• I’ll start today with a Fun Fact, one that I thought had to be bullshit until I went over it and realized it was straight-up true. Ready?
• The 2024 presidential election is the first since 1976 without a Biden, Clinton, or Bush on the ballot.
• How crazy is that? All the more reason we need some new blood in that office… like that of Kamala Harris.
• Speaking of whom… as you’ve probably seen, in the two weeks since she declared her run for President, there have been many subdivisions of identity groups that have offered their support to her.
• I’m talking about Cat Ladies for Harris, Black Women for Harris, White Dudes for Harris, Deadheads for Harris, Latinos for Harris, and many more. But a new one launched this morning that gives me a lot of hope.
• It’s Republicans for Harris.
• The rollout will include outreach from Republicans to Republicans, targeted ads, and themed events as aides aim to convince voters that Harris is a solid candidate and that Dump and others have changed.
• In an election as tight as this one will likely be, every percentage point from every group really matters. There are many traditional Republicans whose values align much more closely with Harris than they do with Dump.
• Especially those who understand that Dump is an existential threat to democracy, something good Americans hold dear.
• Anyway, tomorrow the new group will hold kick-off events in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Already signing on as supporters: former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, former Virginia Rep. Denver Riggleman, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, and many others.
• Former Rhode Island Rep. Claudine Schneider said that she believes Harris is “the PERFECT candidate to oppose Trump,” calling her “intelligent, honest, hard working” and someone who “genuinely cares about every citizen, and about justice.”
• Let’s fucking go! And I will remind all of you, we once got along with Republicans before the Trump era. We didn’t agree on everything, but could live harmoniously with them.
• Perhaps that time will come again. Maybe try some outreach to friends and family who aren’t too far gone into the MAGA cult, and make them aware that they are not alone.
• Moving on.
• El Dumpo’s lawyers just tried to have his 2020 election interference case, which is now very much back on again, dismissed.
• They argued that poor little Dumpy had been singled out for prosecution, and that his political opponents had launched the prosecution to prevent him from winning re-election.
• U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had a reply ready, which was the judicial version of “Fuck all the way off.” She stated that Dump's legal team had provided “no meaningful evidence” that the former president had been prosecuted for "vindictive and political purposes".
• Chutkan also noted in her ruling that Dump was not charged merely for challenging the results, but because he had made "knowingly making false statements in furtherance of criminal conspiracies and for obstruction of election certification proceedings".
• And then she criticized his shitty lawyers for misinterpreting news stories they cited in their motion.
• Good. Chutkan has scheduled a fresh hearing for Friday August 16 to discuss next steps in the case.
• Moving on to one other news item about the Tangerine Twat. He held a rally yesterday in the same Georgia venue that hosted a packed house of energized Harris supporters a few days back.
• The arena was not nearly as packed form Dump as it was for Harris. Dump got very defensive about this fact and blamed Georgia State University, whom he said blocked “thousands of people” from entering.
• Suuuuuure Donnie.
• Dumples the Clown also fucked up in a big way, spending a good chunk of his speech attacking Georgia Republicans such as Gov. Brian Kemp.
• Kemp is well liked in the state. After Dump’s public tantrum, Kemp’s allies said “the chances are about zero” that Kemp will appear with Dump this fall, even if Dump wanted him to do so.
• An expert on Georgia politics said Republican elected officials were frustrated because they believe the remarks will hurt Dump and could cost him the state.
• “Republicans were lined up to give positive comments tonight, and now some of them are scared to,” the person said.
• Punching themselves in the crotch is something that Team MAGA is very good at and does repeatedly.
• I wanted to make a quick mention about the myth that Dumpy and his Project 2025 are beneficial to the American worker.
• In reality, Project 2025’s labor section proposes hardly anything to improve workers’ wages and working conditions. It is, however, chock full of recommendations that would boost corporate profits, undercut labor unions, and advance the rightwing culture war.
• Here’s Dump’s plan for workers in a nutshell… making overtime pay available to fewer workers; recommending that Congress should consider abolishing all public sector unions including police unions, firefighters’ unions, and teachers’ unions; and banning on the use of the card check, one of labor’s most effective tools to organize workers.
• Fuck that bullshit. American workers deserve rights. Vote for Kamala Harris.
• Let’s move on.
• I’d mentioned recently that we need to also keep our eyes on crucial Senate and House races instead of being just preoccupied on the presidency.
• Nine of the top 10 seats ranked most likely to flip are held by Democrats (or independents who caucus with them). Assuming Republicans flip West Virginia — which they will since Joe Manchin is retiring — the GOP just needs to pick up one more Senate seat to win the majority (or by wininng the White House with fucking JD Vance as the Senate tiebreaker).
• In Idaho, incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D) needs to overperform the top of the ticket in a state that twice backed Trump by double digits. Tester has won tough elections before – including in 2018, when Trump was in the White House – but this is the first year he will be on the same ballot as the former president.
• Tester’s GOP opponent, Tim Sheehy, is a wealthy businessman and retired Navy SEAL. It’s going to be tough to keep that seat.
• Ohio is next on the likely-flip list. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) faces reelection in a state that Trump has twice carried by 8 points. The only good news is that his Republican opponent is weak. Bernie Moreno is a Columbia-born Cleveland car dealership owner.
• Nevada is another concern. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) is running for a second term in a state that seems to have Democratic support (Biden carried it by 2 points). Still, she may have trouble against Republican Sam Brown because of the state’s shifting demographics.
• In Arizona, I feel pretty good about the chances of Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego beating former news anchor and perpetual losing candidate Keri Lake, who lost the 2022 gubernatorial election and continues to make false claims about that defeat and the 2020 election.
• I also feel okay about Michigan, where retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow is being replaced in a state where Republicans haven’t won a Senate race in 30 years. Let’s keep it that way by electing Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin over former Rep. Mike Rogers (R).
• I actually think that the momentum of Harris driving people to the polls will offer a big assist to Rosen, Gallego, Slotkin, and others on this list.
• Pennsylvania is always a question mark, but Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, a three-term incumbent with a well-known name in the state, is facing wealthy hedge fund exec, Republican Dave McCormick. Again, you have to think that supporters of women’s reproductive rights like Casey will have a leg up over the forced-birth candidates.
• Moving over to Wisconsin, which Dump barely carried in 2016 and Biden just edged out the victory in 2020. Two-term Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D) will likely be up against Republican Eric Hovde, the favorite in their primary on August 13.
• Hovde is best known for genius comments like saying that those who are overweight need to pay more for health care, and that most nursing home patients aren’t in a condition to vote.
• I don’t think offending chubby and/or old people in a state like Wisconsin is the best bet.
• In Maryland, Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin is retiring. Angela Alsobrooks surprised the political world by beating Rep. David Trone for the Democratic nomination. She’ll go up against Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan, who is trying really hard to not be attached to Donnie Dump. Frankly, Maryland is a seriously fucking blue state. Hogan is better known, but I think Alsobrooks will ride the Harris train to victory.
• What about vulnerable Republicans? Aren’t there any?
• Oh yes, my dears. Yes indeed.
• Democrats have not won a statewide election in Texas since 1994. That being said, Dallas-area Rep. Colin Allred is polling very competitively with annoying asshole Sen. Ted Cruz (R). 
• Allred originally got to the House by unseating a Republican congressman in 2018. His campaign pulled in more than Cruz’s principal campaign account in the second quarter. Let’s go!
• Another tidbit from the presidential race.
• It is extraordinarily rare for even one of a former President’s cabinet members to not support his bid for re-election. In Dump’s case, it’s about half of them.
• Of the 42 people who worked in President Donald Trump’s cabinet in his term from 2017-2021, just 24 now support his bid for another term.
• Three, however, have explicitly said they will not vote for him… John Bolton, Mark Esper, and Mike Pence.
• And 15 who worked in Trump’s Cabinet have not said whether they support his bid for a second term. They are: Azar, Brouillette, Chao, Coats, DeVos, Haspel, Kelly, Mattis, McMaster, Nielsen, Perdue, Price, Pruitt, Sulking, and Tillerson.
• I still can’t believe that it’s been just two weeks since Joe Biden passed the torch to Harris. Feels like two months. It’s fucking bonkers, man.
• And now, The Weather: “Hangman” by Wand
• A rest in peace going out to Ina Jaffe, an NPR correspondent for more than 36 years. She died this week of metastic breast cancer at 75. 
• Jaffe was lauded many times for her excellence in radio journalism. She did an influential series of reports in 2011 about businesses leasing part of the Veterans Administration’s West Los Angeles Medical Center campus. The land was intended to house homeless veterans, but the businesses did not serve veterans. 
• From the Sports Desk… Tea USA now has 65 medals at the Paris Olympics.
• More gold for Simone Biles, this tim in the Women's Vault gymnastics. Our big man, Ryan Crouser, took gold in the Men's Shot Put. Katie Ledecky got yet another gold in the Women’s 800m freestyle swimming. Another gold in swimming went to the Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay (Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske). Scottie Scheffler, probably the best golfer in the world right now, took gold in the Men's Golf Final. Kristen Faulkner got gold in Women's Road Race cycling.
• A huge-ass batch of silver medals added. Those include Joe Kovacs for Men's Shot Put, the Mixed 4 x 400m Relay (Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little, Bryce Deadmon, and Kaylyn Brown), the Women's 200m Individual Medley in swimming (Kate Douglass), the Women's 100m (Sha’Carri Richardson), and Men's Individual archery (Brady Ellison).
• Bronze medal additions went to Jade Carey for Women's Vault gymnastics, Stephen Nedoroscik for Men's Pommel Horse gymnastics, Melissa Jefferson for Women's 100m, Paige Madden for Women's 800m Freestyle swimming, Jasmine Moore for Women's Triple Jump, Sunisa Lee for Women's Uneven Bars, and Austen Jewell Smith for Women's Skeet shooting.
• Today in history… Dom Perignon invents champagne (1693). England and the Netherlands capture Gibraltar from Spain (1704). The Revenue Cutter Service is formed, eventually to be renamed the US Coast Guard (1790). The Saturday Evening Post is first published (1821). The Great Fire of Spokane, WA destroys 32 blocks of the city (1889). Anne Frank and her family are arrested by the Gestapo (1944). Jimmy Carter signs off on creation of the US Department of Energy (1977). The FCC rescinds the Fairness Doctrine, probably destroying the world in the process (1987). 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate explodes in Beirut, Lebanon (2020).
• August 4 is the birthday of Austrian Duke Leopold I (1290), noblewoman Lucrezia de' Medici (1470), poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792), fashion designer Louis Vuitton (1821), mathematician John Venn (1834), trumpet player/singer Louis Armstrong (1901), businessman Warren Avis (1915), journalist Helen Thomas (1920), NHL player Maurice Richard (1921), actor Richard Belzer (1944), keyboardist/composer Klaus Schulze (1947), NFL player John Riggins (1949), runner Mary Decker (1958), US president Barack Obama (1961), MLB player Roger Clemens (1962), actor Daniel Dae Kim (1968), race car driver Jeff Gordon (1971), race car driver Kurt Busch (1978), actress/royal family member Megan, Duchess of Sussex (1981), and actress/director Greta Gerwig (1983).

Well, we’re living in rather exciting times. That’s usually not good, but right now I am definitely feeling a tingle of optimism. I think that’s what the tingle is. Enjoy your day.