Random News: August 6, 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 6, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. We have a ton of exciting news to cover, so no time for chit-chat…  let’s jump in.

• We have a Democratic ticket… it’s Harris/Walz!
• YES!
• Beloved Minnesota governor Tim Walz is going to be Kamala Harris’s vice president. I am beyond happy.
• Who is Tim Walz? I am very happy to tell you.
• Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard before retiring from a field artillery battalion in 2005 as a command sergeant major, one of the military’s highest enlisted ranks.
• He is a teacher. He and his wife moved to Mankato in southern Minnesota in the 1990s, where he taught social studies and coached football at Mankato West High School. His 1999 team won the first of the school’s four state championships.
• While he coached the championship football team, he also sponsored the school’s gay-straight alliance.
• In 2006, he made his first race for Congress. Walz upset a Republican incumbent in a largely rural, southern Minnesota congressional district. During six terms in the U.S. House, Walz championed veterans’ issues.
• Walz has made his state a bastion of liberal policy. 
• Walz eliminated nearly all of the state abortion restrictions enacted in the past by Republicans, protected gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
• He rejected Republican pleas that the state budget surplus be used to cut taxes. Instead, he funded free school meals for children, free tuition at public colleges for students in families earning under $80,000 a year, a paid family and medical leave program, and health insurance coverage regardless of a person’s immigration status.
• He’s a champion for veterans’ rights, LGBT rights, women’s rights, environmental protection, and he’s the funniest and kindest person you can imagine.
• THIS IS OUR GUY. SO STOKED.
• And future-President Harris chose well so many reasons. I want to reiterate, all of her potential candidates were good people and remain so.
• A fun fact about Tim; he looks like an old dude, but he’s really not. He’s 60; Harris is 59. They’re both about five years older than me.
• One more fun fact… if you’ve recently heard people using the word “weird” to describe Dumpy and his collection of clowns, well… Timmy did that.
• Okay, moving on for now, but FUCK YEAH HARRIS/WALZ!!! LET’S FUCKING GO!
• I should note that last night, Kamala Harris formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination — becoming the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket.
• Harris had locked down the necessary commitments a mere 32 hours after Joe Biden’s announcement that the was stepping away from the 2024 election.
• Now it’s official. LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
• Yesterday evening after work, I bounced back and forth between a couple of online events supporting Kamala Harris.
• One was Progressives for Harris. The other was Comics for Kamala.
• Guess which one was more enjoyable? I can tell you that the Comics event, which featured funny people like Ben Stiller, Kathy Griffin, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Rosie O’Donnell, Kevin Nealon, and tons of others, raised an assload of cash.
• The Progressives are, by definition, a splintered group with varying priorities. I was very glad to hear an overall message of support for Harris, even when phrased as doing anything to ensure Dump is never again near the presidency (rather than directly agreeing with Harris’s policies and platforms).
• Speaking of Progressives, they will be a group that will be very, very happy with our new VP choice. Out of all the potential VP picks, Walz is definitely the one that most aligns with their values.
• Let’s move on.
• The state of Missouri tried to be a knight in shining armor to ol’ Donnie Dumpster. Didn’t work.
• Yesterday the Supreme Court rejected Missouri’s bid to halt El Dumpo's impending sentence and lift the gag order imposed in the New York "hush money" case until after the November presidential election.
• The SCOTUS both denied Missouri's request to bring its case against New York, and dismissed a separate motion to pause Dump's sentencing in an unsigned order. There were no noted dissents.
• Only Thomas and Alito noted they would have granted the state's request to file a bill of complaint, but would not have granted the other relief Missouri sought. 
• Keeping you on track, this is the case where Dumpy was convicted by a New York jury in May of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. 
• Dump’s sentencing for that felony conviction is on September 18, about five weeks from now.
• But before then, on September 6, Judge Juan Merchan is deciding whether to set aside Trump's guilty verdict based on the Supreme Court's ruling that he is entitled to immunity from federal prosecution for official acts taken while in the White House.
• Honestly, if that happens, Dump will lose the election by a historic margin. There’s no way for him to win, in one direction or another. That’s why he’s in full panic mode now.
• Moving on to another reason for Dump to lose his shit…
• Jenna Ellis, Dumples the Clown’s former campaign attorney, is cooperating with Arizona prosecutors and will testify in exchange for charges being dropped against her in a fake electors case.
• Ellis has previously pleaded not guilty to fraud, forgery and conspiracy charges in the Arizona case. Seventeen other people charged in the case have pleaded not guilty to the felony charges — including Rudy Giuliani, Trump presidential chief of staff Mark Meadows and 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring Trump had won Arizona.
• Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.
• Dumples himself was not charged in the Arizona case but was referred to as an unindicted co-conspirator.
• Ellis flipping and testifying against her former criminal colleagues is a big deal, and will almost certainly lead to the other criminals’ convictions.
• Moving on.
• Google’s days of being the only search engine people use have come to a sudden close after yesterday’s historic ruling that the company violated US antitrust law with its search business, per a federal judge.
• It’s a huge defeat for Google, and it will have a massive effect on the oldest and most important part of their business. The company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.
• US District Judge Amit Mehta said that Google’s exclusive deals with Apple and other key players in the mobile ecosystem were anticompetitive. Google has also charged high prices in search advertising that reflect its monopoly power in search, he added.
• This ruling against Google is the biggest tech antitrust case since the US government’s antitrust showdown with Microsoft at the turn of the millennium 25 years ago.
• We have to cover some international news. The world is not confined to things that happen in this country.
• And lest you assume that all the crazy shit happens exclusively in the USA…
• Starting with the UK, which is buckling under an epidemic… of disinformation from the far right.
• The unrest in England and Ireland began after a 17-year-old wielding a knife attacked a children’s dance class last week in Southport, which is near Liverpool. Three children were killed, and eight were wounded.
• It’s obviously a horrible tragedy. But it has nothing to do with immigrants.
• The suspect was born and raised in Britain, but online rumors soon circulated that he was an undocumented immigrant. The rumors — though completely untrue and likely coming from disinformation factories in Russia and/or China — were all it took.
• Protesters over this past weekend took to the streets of a dozen cities across the United Kingdom, most of them in England. Trouble broke out from Aldershot in the south to Sunderland in the north and Liverpool in the west. Belfast, in Northern Ireland, was also drawn into the fray.
• Why? Because a whole lot of white people irrationally fear those with brown skin. And they hate what they fear.
• Nearly 150 people were arrested over the weekend, and dozens of police officers were injured, including some that required trips to the hospital.
• Elon Musk’s X (formerly known as Twitter) social media platform was the main conduit for much of the disinformation that caused these riots.
• Moving over to Bangladesh, where prime minister Sheikh Hasina has stepped down and fled the country after tens of thousands of protestors converged in the capital Dhaka demanding her resignation.
• This follows the weeks of protests over job quotas that saw clashes between protestors and ruling party supporters, and several instances of police brutality. The death toll from the crackdown ran into hundreds, and precipitated calls for Hasina’s resignation.
• Last night, the country’s army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman in a televised address announced the formation of an interim government. He called for peace and promised justice for the families of those killed.
• And then, as news of Hasina’s exit spread, protestors stormed her residence and looted furniture, TVs, and fish.
• Fish. Okay then. I don’t make this shit up, you know.
• Moving on.
• I usually don’t comment on the typical violent MAGA mentality at large, but I’ll mention this one guy just as an example of what not to do on social media.
• Frank Lucio Carillo of Virginia has been charged with making death threats against Vice President Kamala Harris, along with President Joe Biden, FBI Director Christopher Wray, several Arizona officials, and others.
• Carillo made his extremely graphic threats on the right-wing social media platform Gettr, which I frankly forgot existed. In response to a subpoena, the FBI found 4,359 posts from Carillo targeting various public officials, including Harris.
• When FBI agents arrived at Carillo’s house, he asked if they were there “about the online stuff,” and then said, “I posted it.”
• Good job there, MAGA Frank (slow clap).
• And now, The Weather: “Clowning Around” by Energy Slime
• From the Sports Desk… Team USA has now pulled in 79 medals at the Paris Olympics.
• Since our last update, Valarie Allman grabbed a gold in Women's Discus Throw. Surfing great Caroline Marks grabbed gold for her sport.
• A silver medal went to Sam Kendricks in the Men's Pole Vault.
• A bronze medal went to the Women's 3x3 basketball team.
• Today in history… Bogotá, Colombia is founded (1538). 60 proof sheets of the US Constitution are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia (1787). William Kemmler is the first person executed by electric chair (1890). Gertrude Ederle swims the English Channel (1926). The Soviet Union absorbs Estonia (1940). The USA drops the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan (1945). Jamaica gains independence from the UK (1962). Tim Berners-Lee releases his idea for the World Wide Web (1991). The Ramones play their final concert (1996). NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on Mars (2012). 
• August 6 is the birthday of poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809), biologist Alexander Fleming (1881), journalist Louella Parsons (1881), gangster Dutch Schultz (1901), actress/producer Lucille Ball (1911), actor Robert Mitchum (1917), painter/photographer Andy Warhol (1928), actor/director Peter Bonerz (1938), guitarist/composer Allen Holdsworth (1946), actress Michelle Yeoh (1962), NBA player David Robinson (1965), singer-songwriter Elliott Smith (1969), director M. Night Shyamalan (1970), singer-songwriter Geri Halliwell (1972), actress Soleil Moon Frye (1976), and actor Leslie Odom Jr. (1981).

I am SO FUCKING HAPPY. HARRIS/WALZ 2024! Let’s do this. Let’s go. Enjoy your day.