Random News: September 30, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s September 30, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I’m the first person up in my house each morning, so while I write this news for you — at least the start of it — it’s super quiet apart from the occasional car engine of other early risers in my neighborhood. It’s nice. Just you and me, and my coffee, and the news.

• Once again, we need to open things today to the continuing emergency situation in the Southeast via the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
• The storm tore through multiple states since Friday, killing over 100 people across five states, knocking out power to millions, and trapping families in floodwaters. In hard-hit North Carolina, which has a death toll of 42 and rising, days of unrelenting flooding have turned roads into waterways, left many without basic necessities and strained state resources.
• Deaths have been reported in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. Scores of missing persons reports have been filed amid communication outages.
• Hundreds of roads remain closed in the Carolinas. Those closures have hampered delivery of water and emergency supplies to communities in need. There are 50 boil water advisories in effect across western communities.
• Like many of you, I have friends who have been directly impacted by this. Even those who escaped injury and whose homes are intact have been told not to expect to have power back for a week or more. I feel badly for them.
• President Joe Biden will visit some of the affected communities later this week, as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations. The president approved disaster relief and has been in contact with the governors where the damage was most severe.
• In the midst of all that, a fire at a Georgia chemical plant (ironically caused by a sprinkler head malfunction) forced evacuations and road closures in the area.
• It happened at BioLab in Conyers, GA. Water from the malfunctioned sprinkler head came in contact with a reactive chemical and produced a plume. BioLab is a manufacturer of pool and spa treatment products.
• Trump’s Project 2025 plans to remove regulation of manufacturing and to remove safety standards for workers and nearby residents.
• Voting for that piece of shit can literally cause the deaths of yourself and people you love. I can’t emphasize this enough. Fuck politics, fuck parties, fuck it all. Just don’t vote in ways that end up killing yourself and your families.
• Thank you.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have enacted the nation’s most far-reaching regulations on the booming artificial intelligence industry.
• He did it despite our legislators having overwhelmingly passed the bill, called SB 1047, which was seen as a potential blueprint for national AI legislation.
• The measure would have made tech companies legally liable for harms caused by AI models. In addition, the bill would have required tech companies to enable a “kill switch” for AI technology in the event the systems were misused or went rogue.
• Who was against the bill? A bunch of powerful players in Silicon Valley, including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI, and trade groups representing Google and Meta. They argued it would slow the development of AI and stifle growth for early-stage companies.
• Who was for it? Elon Musk and pioneering AI scientists like Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, who signed a letter urging Newsom to sign it.
• Why was it vetoed? Newsom said that while SB 1047 was well-intentioned, it didn't take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data.
• How do I feel? Frankly, I don’t know the details enough to be able to offer a strong opinion either way. I know that like all tech, AI has the possibility to be used to the benefit or to the detriment of people.
• Unrelated side note, since I mentioned Elon… his social media platform is now estimated to be worth $9.4 billion. Seems like a lot, right?
• Um, no. According to analysis by investor Fidelity, X is now worth 79% less than what it was worth when Elon Musk purchased it for $44 billion.
• Let’s move on.
• Speaking of money, Kamala Harris' U.S. presidential election campaign raised $55 million during two events this weekend. Holy shit!
• The Democratic candidate raised $27 million at a fundraising event at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco on Saturday.
• She then drew $28 million for an event in downtown Los Angeles that included performances by Alanis Morissette and Halle Bailey. Also spotted at the event were Keegan-Michael Key, Sterling K. Brown, Demi Lovato, Jessica Alba, Lily Tomlin, and Stevie Wonder.
• And my friend, audio manufacturer EveAnna Manley. I saw you!
• Speaking of Kamala…
• Harris is going to be the latest guest on perhaps the most unlikely media vehicle to ever host a presidential candidate: All the Smoke, the podcast by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
• As a sports guy, I’ve been a fan of this podcast since it started some five years ago. Here’s the weird thing: I did not appreciate Barnes or Jackson during their playing days due to my own prejudices.
• I considered them straight-up thugs. Gangsters. Both of them were involved in serious violent incidents on and off the court. But as the went by and I became a regular viewer of their interview content, I found their perspective to be so incredibly genuine and lacking in the glossy bullshit factor you get from most other shows.
• But how the fuck did those two guys get Kamala? I’m blown away. The new episode featuring Harris just premiered this morning, and I am definitely finding some time to watch it today.
• There are just 36 days until the election.
• In international news…
• The Freedom Party secured the first far-right national parliamentary election victory in post-World War II Austria yesterday. That’s definitely not good.
• What was their platform? Same as it ever was: they tapped into anxieties about immigration, inflation, Ukraine and other issues.
• Sound familiar? 
• Preliminary official results showed the Freedom Party finishing first with 29.2% of the vote and Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austrian People’s Party was second with 26.5%. The center-left Social Democrats were in third place with 21%.
• Herbert Kickl, a former interior minister and longtime campaign strategist who has led the Freedom Party since 2021, wants to be chancellor. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Vienna last night, holding placards with slogans including “Kickl is a Nazi.”
• Sigh.
• Over the weekend, I watched some clips from the first episode of Saturday Night Live’s 50th season. Most of it was good.
• I bring it up only to mention that absolutely excellent cold open that featured Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris, Jim Gaffigan doing an uncannily great Tim Walz, Dana Carvey returning as Biden, and Andy Samberg playing Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
• It’s on YouTube. Watch it if you need a laugh.
• And now, The Weather: “Backyard Lover” by Merce Lemon
• A big RIP to a talented guy… Kris Kristofferson died yesterday at 88.
• He attained success as both a groundbreaking singer-songwriter and a film and TV star.
• As a songwriter, Kristofferson wrote a bunch of number-one country hits including “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (Johnny Cash). But his most well-known tune on a larger scale was “Me and Bobby McGee” which became a posthumous number-one pop hit for his former girlfriend Janis Joplin.
• He also starred in some huge acclaimed movies, like Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and won a Golden Globe Award as a dissolute rock star co-starring with Barbra Streisand in “A Star is Born.”
• As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Kristofferson was a genius-level student and a star athlete in his youth. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English from Pomona College, and attended Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar.
• Wow.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the end of September 1977. I am just starting fourth grade at Madera Linda Elementary School in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. Kamala Harris is starting her freshman year of high school.
• I 100% promise she had a few of these albums.
• 1. Rumours (Fleetwood Mac). 2. Star Wars (Soundtrack). 3. Moody Blue (Elvis Presley). 4. JT (James Taylor). 5. Shaun Cassidy (Shaun Cassidy). 6. Commodores (Commodores). 7. CSN (Crosby, Stills & Nash). 8. Foreigner (Foreigner). 9. Going For The One (Yes). 10. Floaters (The Floaters). 11. Anytime… anywhere (Rita Coolidge). 12. I Robot (The Alan Parsons Project). 13. Right On Time (The Brothers Johnson). 14. Here At Last… Bee Gees… Live (Bee Gees). 15. Rejoice (The Emotions). 16. Little Queen (Heart). 17. Simple Things (Carole King). 18. Star Wars & Other Galactic Funk (Meco). 19. Livin' On The Fault Line (The Doobie Brothers). 20. I'm In You (Peter Frampton).
• From the Sports Desk… I know we’re only four games into the NFL season, and statistically this makes sense, but I’m feeling an odd amount of parity in the league this year.
• Yes, there are the anomalies, like the undefeated Chiefs and Vikings at 4-0 and Seahawks at 3-0). There’s also the hapless Titans and Jaguars who are winless.
• But the teams at 2-2? The Jets, Falcons, Colts, Saints, Ravens, Chargers, Cowboys, Raiders, Broncos, Eagles, 49ers, Packers, and Bears.
• I’m sure the better and worse teams will separate a bit more as the season progresses… right? We can’t end up with most of the league at 9-8 or 8-9.
• Today in history… Henry IV is proclaimed king of England (1399). Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his forces enter Tula territory in present-day western Arkansas, encountering fierce resistance (1541). The first performance of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death (1791). Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation (1882). Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft with ground-to-air fire (1915). The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations” (1938). NBC broadcasts the first televised American football game (1939). The 1947 World Series is the first to be televised and the first to include an African-American player (1947). The Boeing 747 is rolled out and shown to the public for the first time (1968). Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation (1980). Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in a Danish newspaper (2005). 
• September 30 is the birthday of astronomer Michael Maestlin (1550), activist Ann Jarvis (1832), businessman William Wrigley, Jr. (1861), physicist Hand Geiger (1882), sexologist Charlotte Wolff (1897), bassist/bandleader Thelma Terry (1901), drummer/bandleader Buddy Rich (1917), US Army captain Lewis Nixon (1918), novelist Truman Capote (1924), activist Elie Wiesel (1928), actress Angie Dickinson (1931), singer Cissy Houston (1933), singer Johnny Mathis (1935), drummer Dewey Martin (1940), music producer Gus Dudgeon (1942), singer Marilyn McCoo (1943), singer-songwriter/guitarist Marc Bolan (1947), actress Fran Drescher (1957), singer-songwriter/guitarist Marty Stuart (1958), actor Eric Stoltz (1961), singer-songwriter/guitarist Trey Anastasio (1964), actress Jenna Elfman (1971), actor Daniel Wu (1974), MLB player Jeremy Giambi (1974), tennis player Martina Hingis (1980), and rapper T-Pain (1984).

As usual, that’s not all the news. It’s some of the news. It’s the news as filtered through the things I note at 7am on a random Monday morning. But perhaps it’s more than you would have known otherwise. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 29, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s September 29, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. It’s nice and quiet here as I lounge about in my bathrobe, and I just this moment poured a big cup of Peet’s Brazil to get my day started.

• Speaking of which, it’s National Coffee Day.
• This is not a real thing. It’s like most pseudo events that were dreamt up by a trade consortium in order to sell products. I call those “marketing holidays.”
• Nevertheless, I am a coffee aficionado, drinking the magical elixir each morning and afternoon for the past 40+ years.
• In the early 1600s, English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon wrote, “They have in Turkey a drink called coffa, made of a berry of the same name, as black as soot, and of a strong scent, but not aromatical; which they take, beaten into powder, in water, as hot as they can drink it: and they take it, and sit at it in their coffa-houses, which are like our taverns.”
• I consume coffee in relative moderation; I don’t drink it all day long or in ridiculous amounts. But I’d be absolutely lying if I said I wasn’t addicted to it, physically and mentally and every other way.
• There are many worse vices. I mean, I do some of those too, but we’re not here to talk about me.
• Let’s do some news.
• We’re not nearly done with the rescue and recovery from the devastating Hurricane Helene. I am personally still not able to contact several friends in places like Asheville, NC who were directly impacted.
• The hurricane/storm slammed people in five states in the Southeast, and took out power to people in ten states. At least 63 people are dead and thousands more have been injured or otherwise impacted.
• There are still about three million without power as of this morning, which also means no hot water, no internet, no AC, and no way to enjoy life. People who want to get out can’t even get gas for their cars, with the pumps that run on electricity. It fucking sucks.
• The extent of damage in some places is just being revealed as of today, where hundreds of roads were washed away, entire houses picked up and destroyed, and cars floating away like bathtub toys.
• I am thinking the best for all of you.
• And thankfully, as Americans, there will be federal funds to help your states. There is federally backed flood insurance. And there’s an NOAA and a National Weather Service to help you plan and prepare for inevitable future devastating storms.
• And every one of those things will be eliminated under Donald Trump’s Project 2025.
• Moving on.
• We have yet to cover Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
• I can’t support political assassinations. But I also can’t be very sad over the death of Nasrallah, who led the terrorist group for 32 years.
• Hezbollah’s announcement of his death Friday triggered tears and celebrations across the Arab world, pointing to the widespread reach and influence of a divisive man who has been at the forefront of Middle Eastern politics for decades.
• It remains to be seen whether his death will be a trigger for an all-out war between the two sides that could potentially drag in Iran and the United States.
• Interestingly, I suppose, Nasrallah took over Hezbollah from Abbas Mousawi, who was also assassinated by Israle, killed by an helicopter attack in 1992.
• But Hezbollah today is very different from the ragtag organization it was in the ’90s. It’s become an organized army-like group estimated to have tens of thousands of fighters and a sophisticated arsenal capable of reaching anywhere inside Israel.
• Stay tuned on this. Let’s move on.
• An unlikely but welcome endorsement for Kamala Harris came this morning from former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who announced today that he’ll be voting for Harris in the upcoming election.
• The Republican, who stepped down earlier this month from being the Turkish ambassador, said in a lengthy statement he supports Harris because she understands political opponents are fellow citizens, “not the enemy.”
• He said, ”Republicans believe in the rule of law in particular, and it's difficult to support a candidate who, having lost an election, tries to use the powers of the presidency to overturn that election."
• I agree. And I welcome any Republican who hasn’t been utterly and irreversibly brainwashed by the MAGA cult to join us in doing the right thing and electing Harris for President on November 5.
• I should note that while November 5 is election day, plenty of folks have already cast their votes. My ballot here in Los Angeles County, California, will be arriving in just about a week.
• And I promise you, the voters in my household will be filling ours out and turning them in at an authorized drop box location as soon as possible.
• I am really looking forward to that action of being part of a great democracy.
• In related news…
• Vice President Harris is set to rally in Las Vegas tonight, looking to gain momentum in the swing state as Election Day nears.
• The rally is part of Harris’s latest West Coast swing, which a trip to the U.S.-Mexico border. On Friday, she walked alongside a towering, rust-colored border wall fitted with barbed wire in Douglas, AZ, and met with federal authorities.
• A quick note about immigration: if you can’t stop complaining about immigrants because you believe they’re criminals, but you’re willing to vote for a man who is a convicted criminal, you don’t have a problem with crime.
• You have a problem with people who don’t speak like you or look like you. And there’s a word for that.
• Last night Harris attended a San Francisco fundraiser, and is doing an event here in LA before heading to Nevada, returning to Washington tomorrow night, but not for long; Harris plans to be back in Las Vegas on October 10 for a town hall with Hispanic voters.
• Nevada’s Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 hospitality workers in Las Vegas and Reno, has endorsed Harris.
• This woman is out there kicking ass every single day.
• I’ll remind you that Tuesday night of this week is the Vice Presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. In most elections, few people give a shit about the VP debate.
• But not this one!
• It used to be in campaigns that the role of the VP held the role of political attack dog, laying into opponents so that their running mate can appear above the political fray.
• But Dumpy never understood that he wasn’t supposed to be rolling in the slime, and in fact took to that role naturally. So the job of the VP in a campaign has changed somewhat.
• You have to understand that the absolute number-one primary job of the Vice President of the USA is to be ready if the President should die or otherwise become incapacitated. 
• It is almost certain that Donald Trump will not live four more years, so your perception of JD Vance should be judged as a tryout for the guy who will be the President when Dump passes away.
• Conversely, Tim Walz is a far more experienced member of the government, having served in the House of Representatives for twelve years (and being the ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee), and then the governor of Minnesota.
• Walz is unquestionably more ready than Vance, a lawyer who worked for venture capital investment firms until becoming a Senator in 2023.
• Do you trust Vance? Last night at a. rally, he said, “Trump got insulin down to $35 a vial. Thank Donald Trump for that!”
• Fact check: This is a blatant lie. Trump did not cap insulin costs. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did it for seniors through the Inflation Reduction Act. Trump’s Project 2025 wants to repeal it, which will raise insulin costs for over a million Americans.
• In the interest of fair reporting, I also wanted to be sure to mention a quote form Dumples the Clown at his rally yesterday.
• “All the stupid people said I fell into her trap. They said I fell into her trap. She can’t set a mental trap. I didn’t fall into her trap. There is no trap. I didn’t fall into her trap.”
• Another Dump quote? Sure.
• “Most people don't have any idea what the hell a phone app is.”
• Let’s move on.
• I want to remind you that while everyone always seems 100% focused on the presidential race, it’s probably the least important to your day to day lives compared to the Senate, House, and other down-ballot races.
• States like Florida and Texas have a real opportunity to finally rid themselves of the horrible leadership of Senators like Rick Scott and Ted Cruz.
• States like Montana and Ohio can continue on with the positive directions they’ve set under leaders like Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown.
• If you have a defeatist attitude or believe the bullshit that passes for polls, no one would bother voting at all. It’s all up to you — yes, you — to make the USA and the world a better place in which to live.
• You can do it!
• And now, The Weather: “La Vendetta” by Dude Low
• From the Sports Desk… believe it or not, there are still three National League MLB teams vying for a Wild Card spot in the playoffs as of this morning: New York Mets (87-72), Arizona Diamondbacks (88-73), and Atlanta Braves (88-71).
• May the best team win.
• Also, Week 4 in the NFL rolls through its Sunday games starting in a few minutes. Biggest mismatches? The Niners are -10 point favorites over the Patriots, the Jets are -8.5 point favorites over the Broncos, and the Chiefs are -7 point favorites over the Chargers.
• Per how this season is going thus far, at least one (if not more) of those games will still be upsets.
• Today in history… Danes capture Canterbury after a siege, taking Ælfheah, archbishop of Canterbury, as a prisoner (1011). Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades (1227). Protestant coup officials in Nîmes massacre Catholic priests in an event now known as the Michelade (1567). The United States Department of War first establishes a regular army with a strength of several hundred men (1789). Germany's Supreme Army Command tells Kaiser Wilhelm II and Imperial Chancellor Georg Michaelis to open negotiations for an armistice in WWI (1918). The First American Track and Field championships for women are held (1923). The Kyshtym disaster is the third-worst nuclear accident ever recorded (1957). NASA launches STS-26, the first Space Shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster (1988). John Roberts is confirmed as Chief Justice of the United States (2005). The stock market crashes after the first United States House of Representatives vote on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act fails (2008). Over 42 people are killed by members of Boko Haram at the College of Agriculture in Nigeria (2013). 
• September 29 is the birthday of Roman general/politician Pompey (106 BC), polymath Michael Servetus (1511), novelist Miguel de Cervantes (1547), English admiral Horatio Nelson (1758), physicist Enrico Fermi (1901), fashion journalist Diana Vreeland (1903), singer/actor Gene Autry (1907), director Stanley Kramer (1913), football coach Bum Phillips (1923), model/actress Anita Ekberg (1931), singer-songwriter/pianist Jerry Lee Lewis (1935), actor Larry Linville (1939), actress Madeline Khan (1942), violinist/composer Jean-Luc Ponty (1942), composer Mike Post (1944), singer-songwriter/guitarist Mark Farner (1948), TV host Bryant Gumbel (1948), animator Gábor Csupó (1952), journalist Gwen Ifill (1955), singer-songwriter/bass player Les Claypool (1963), actor Mackenzie Crook (1971), NFL player Calvin Johnson (1985), NBA player Kevin Durant (1988), and singer Halsey (1994).

That’s good enough for a Sunday. Have some coffee! Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 28, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s September 14, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. It’s overcast, I’ve got a big cup of coffee, and I’m in a bathrobe. Seems like a good time to see what’s going on in the world.

• Let’s understandably start with some follow-up news from the devastation of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Helene.
• Emergency crews have rushed to rescue people trapped in flooded homes for the past 36 hours after Helene roared ashore as a powerful Category 4 hurricane in Florida.
• At least 52 people were reported dead in four states, including at least 19 people in South Carolina. State officials say dozens were still trapped in homes last night after being severely damaged by Helene.
• The death tool will definitely be rising. It’s all pretty horrible.
• More than four million homes and businesses are still without power across the eastern U.S.
• This is in no way politicizing a horrible tragedy that is still ongoing, but I hope that all of you understand that these more frequent and intense storms are 100% attributable to mankind-assisted global climate change.
• Climate change is also causing hurricanes to produce more rainfall than they used to just a few decades ago.
• Here’s wishing luck to my many friends who live in the 10 states impacted by Helene, with hopes that your homes and families are intact.
• Last night, Vice President Harris said, “I want to say a few words about Hurricane Helene. We have mobilized more than 1,500 federal personnel to support communities that have been impacted. We have food, water, and generators that are ready for deployment and we are working to restore power for millions of people who currently are experiencing outages.”
• And President Biden has approved almost $1 billion in FEMA relief for Florida alone.
• And now I will politicize this.
• Donnie Dump’s Project 2025 would gut both the NOAA and National Weather Service, among many other agencies that help Americans.
• If Dump is elected, these and other crucial services that help people prepare for and recover from devastating natural disasters like Helene will have their independence from the executive branch undermined, and many of its internal departments will be eliminated.
• The remainder of your life will include events like record-setting hurricanes, heat waves, and other extreme weather events. Dump and his Project 2025 will make these unavoidable events much more difficult to live through for you and your family.
• Let’s move on.
• In my daily reminder to PLEASE CHECK YOUR FUCKING VOTER STATUS by visiting vote.org, some pertinent news.
• North Carolina recently removed 747,000 voters from the voter rolls, either because they had new addresses or because they had not voted in last two elections.
• There are only 7.3 million registered voters in the entire state. That means they purged over 10% of their entire voter rolls. So check your status right now now matter where you live, and especially if you live in NC.
• There is still time to re-register there so you have the opportunity to vote in this critical election. Check your status right now.
• And in related news, the Justice Department sued Alabama yesterday for removing allegedly ineligible voters from its rolls. The process comes too close to the upcoming election, per the suit.
• The National Voter Registration Act prevents states from removing voters from the active rolls less than 90 days before an election to prevent last-minute mistakes.
• Screw you, Alabama. You could have done this any time, but you purposefully waited until these people would have little chance of being re-added due to your errors.
• In other news…
• Yesterday, Vice President Harris made an aggressive move to cut into Dump’s polling lead on immigration, traveling to the southern border to lay out her plans to tackle what she described as a problem that has languished for decades.
• During her trip to the key swing state of Arizona, Harris lambasted Dump for his role earlier this year in tanking a border security bill that was the product of months of bipartisan negotiations.
• She used her past experience as California’s attorney general to prove that she has what it takes to attack Dump on his signature issue.
• When she was our state’s AG, Harris prosecuted members of transnational criminal organizations, and travelled to Mexico City with other attorneys general to share intelligence on gangs and cartels.
• She stated, “Stopping transnational criminal organizations and strengthening our border is not new to me, and it is a long-standing priority of mine. I have done that work, and I will continue to treat it as a priority.”
• Some other news on the Harris campaign… and this speaks to something I’ve personal witnessed.
• The guys (and let’s face it, they’re almost all guys) who continue to support The Dumpster think they’re doing it in some macho way.
• But Dump isn’t macho. He’s a prissy New York fancy boy who shits on a literal gold toilet and has never worked a day in his life. Ever seen Dump throw a football? Drive a car?
• Has he ever in his life put himself at risk to support and provide for his family?
• I believe that most of Dump’s male supporters are guys who had no strong male role model in their lives, and that they’re looking toward Dump to being a father figure who will give them the sweet manly love they missed growing up.
• The real men — those who support Kamala Harris — are those who are willing to step up and fight for their families.
• Anyway, a new block of endorsements came in this week via "Athletes for Harris,” and the effort is designed to mobilize athletes and coaches in the final weeks of the campaign
• The 10 co-chairs leading the effort are: Hall of Famer Magic Johnson; tennis great Billie Jean King; Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr; two-time World Cup champion Ali Krieger; WNBA champion and Olympic gold medalist Candace Parker; Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers; South Carolina coach Dawn Staley; Paralympic swimmer Ali Truwit; NBA all-star Chris Paul; and Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Thomas Booker.
• Harris also recently got the backing of 15 Pro Football Hall of Famers: Mel Blount, Emmitt Smith, Kellen Winslow, Andre Tippett, Marv Levy, Alan Page, Drew Pearson, Kenny Houston, Jan Stenerud, Calvin Johnson, Robert Brazile, Willie Roaf, Mike Haynes, Elvin Bethea, and Ron Mix.
• If you’re worried that supporting a woman candidate somehow makes you less of a man, I’ll tell you right now, it’s the exact opposite.
• Supporting Donnie Dump makes you a fucking weakling with daddy issues who will be laughed at. And let me tell you, we are and have been laughing at your pussy ass. Instead, be strong, be a fucking man, and vote for Harris.
• Moving on.
• This coming Tuesday October 1 is the third debate event of the general election… and the first between the VP candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance.
• And this debate will not be like the previous two. While the event will be moderated by the outgoing “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, it will be up to the politicians — not the moderators — to check the facts of their opponents.
• There will be no opening statements or live studio audience, similar to the debate earlier this month between Dump and Harris, and the candidates will get two breaks, each lasting four minutes, over the 90-minute debate.
• The candidates will have two minutes to answer each question. Then, two minutes will be given to their counterpart to push back. After that, the VP hopefuls will each get one minute for rebuttals. 
• Microphones can be muted if the network decides, but unlike the other debates, otherwise they will be hot.
• Make sure to watch what Tim Walz has to say to JD live on Tuesday night starting at 9pm ET.
• What has li’l JD been up to anyway? Haven’t heard much form him since he fucked his bosses campaign by talking about people eating dogs and cats.
• Oh wait, now I see.
• JD is participating in a town hall in Pennsylvania today with evangelical religious leader Lance Wallnau, who said after this month's presidential debate that Vice President Kamala Harris used “witchcraft" to beat Dump’s ass.
• Seriously. I’m not making any of this up.
• By the way, Wallnau is the guy pushing the Seven Mountains Mandate — a far-right belief that says conservative Christians are called to occupy positions of power in seven key spheres of society, including business, education, media, and government.
• Suck my dick, you evangelical grifters.
• In other election news…
• Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed New York to block Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the state’s 2024 general election ballot.
• Since RFK Jr. joined forces with Dumpy, their plan was to leave his name up in Blue states where he might siphon votes from Harris (like New York) while pulling his name in Red states where his inclusion could harm Dumples the Clown.
• But it’s not working very well.
• While RFK Jr.’s peons gathered more than 100,000 valid signatures to be added to the ballot, as a minor-party candidate, RFK Jr. was required to include his place of residence on the petition.
• And the candidate’s residence must be the “fixed, permanent and principal home” to which the candidate “always intends to return.”
• But instead of using his address here in Los Angeles where he lives, Kennedy used the address where he rents a room from a childhood friend in New York. He concedes he has stayed there overnight on only "one occasion.”
• Therefore… "The application for writ of injunction presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied," the court said in a one-sentence order. There were no noted dissents.
• What a dumb ass.
• Let’s move on.
• I’m compelled to mention another recent capital punishment execution, this one bring Alan Eugene Miller, who was put to death by the state of Alabama on Tuesday night.
• I’m pretty sure Miller was a real murderous prick. This is nothing like our discussion of Marcellus Williams in Missouri a few days ago, a man who very well may have been exonerated by DNA evidence and was killed anyway.
• Conversely, in 1999, Miller murdered his coworkers Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancy, and Terry Lee Jarvis in cold blood after he believed the three “spread rumors about him.”
• It’s not Miller’s guilt that concerns me. It’s his method of execution. Don’t read the rest of you’re squeamish.
• He was killed via nitrogen hypoxia execution, which replaces oxygen breathed by an inmate with 100% nitrogen. Opponents like the ACLU call it a torturous method of killing people used by Nazis during the Holocaust.
• Miller took over six minutes to die, struggling against his restraints and gulping for breaths until the end. Doctors have said that they could not pinpoint if or when a person will lose consciousness when exposed to high concentrations of nitrogen gas.
• I do support justice, and equal justice for all. I can’t ethically support capital punishment at all, and especially a type that could be a horrifying and lengthy way to die, no matter what crime has been committed.
• Back in politics for a moment…
• North Carolina Lt. Gov. and self-described Black Nazi Mark Robinson was treated for second-degree burns following an incident at a campaign event last night.
• He’s fine. He burned his hand at a truck show. Seems like a weird way to grab sympathy, but whatever. Hopefully it’s not the hand he uses while enjoying transgender porn.
• North Carolina, after you recover from the hurricane, please vote for Josh Stein for Governor of your fine state.
• And now, The Weather: “Problems” by Being Dead
• From the Sports Desk… MLB playoffs are moments away from being set in stone. There are still a few teams who may or may not make a Wild Card spot, and we’ll know by tomorrow who is whom.
• If the playoffs started today…
• American League: Wild Card round — (6) Royals* at (3) Astros*, (5) Tigers* at (4) Orioles*. ALDS: Royals/Astros vs. (2) Guardians*, Tigers/Orioles vs. (1) Yankees*
• National League: Wild Card round: (6) Mets at (3) Brewers*, (5) Braves at (4) Padres*. NLDS: Mets/Brewers vs. (2) Phillies*, Braves/Padres vs. (1) Dodgers*
• The teams marked with an asterisk have already clinched a playoff spot.
• Today in history… Pompey arrives in Egypt and is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy XIII (48 BC). King James I of Aragon — my 25th great-grandfather — conquers Valencia from the Moors (1238). Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California, becoming the first European in California (1542). The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval (1787). The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is drafted, and will be made public on 13 October (1821). The Brazilian Parliament passes a law that frees all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government-owned slaves (1871). Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska (1919). Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin (1928). Ted Williams achieves a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better (1941). CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later (1951). Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit (2008). Protests begin in Hong Kong in response to restrictive political reforms imposed by the NPC in Beijing (2014).
• September 28 is the birthday of philosopher Confucius (551 BC), plumber/inventor Thomas Crapper (1836), broadcaster/CBS founder William S. Paley (1901), TV host Ed Sullivan (1901), singer/refugee Maria Franziska von Trapp (1914), spy Ethel Rosenberg (1915), poet/singer Tuli Kupferberg (1923), actor/singer Marcello Mastroianni (1924), singer Koko Taylor (1928), actress Brigitte Bardot (1934), guitarist/inventor Emmett Chapman (1936), singer-songwriter Ben E. King (1938), NFL player/politician Steve Largent (1954), guitarist/songwriter George Lynch (1954), pianist Kenny Kirkland (1955), NHL player Grant Fuhr (1962), comedian Janeane Garofalo (1964), actress Mira Sorvino (1967), model Dita Von Teese (1972), NBA player Bonzi Wells (1976), rapper Young Jeezy (1977), singer-songwriter/guitarist St. Vincent (1982), and singer-songwriter Hilary Duff (1987).

That’s not all the news, but it’s enough of the news. I’m going to shower and dress and eat breakfast and do other things to be determined. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 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.

---

Good morning. It’s September 27, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I had a night packed full of bizarre dreams, so I find myself more happy than usual to be up and about in the land of reality.

• I definitely had an easy night compared to my many friends in the Southeast, who were impacts directly by Hurricane Helene.
• The massive hurricane crashed into Florida’s Big Bend region last night as a category 4, bringing storm surge and high winds across Gulf Coast before ripping into southern Georgia.
• At the moment, nearly four million homes and businesses are still without power in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
• Helene is producing rain accumulations of 6 to 12 inches, with isolated totals around 20 inches in some parts of the southeast. It’s still possible that catastrophic flash and urban flooding could happen as far north as the Appalachian mountains.
• While I write this at 7am PT, Helene has been downgraded to a tropical storm, and is about 50 miles southwest of Clemson, SC and moving north.
• Thinking good thoughts to my FL, GA, and SC friends. I’ll be checking in with many of you today to see how you weathered the storm.
• In other news…
• Today, Vice President Kamala Harris is going on the offensive against Dumples the Clown on immigration when she visits the southern border in Arizona.
• Immigration has featured prominently in the 2024 presidential election. I’ll remind you that it was Dumpy who killed the bipartisan border measure earlier this year.
• It could have been fixed except Dump wanted the problems to remain so he could use them as an election prop. Fuck that guy. Vote for Harris/Walz.
• Moving on.
• New York City Mayor Eric Adams surrendered to federal authorities this morning after being indicted on five corruption charges for allegedly taking bribes and campaign contributions from foreigners.
• Adams will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker in Manhattan in a couple of hours at noon. He’s denied wrongdoing and said he would fight the charges in court.
• I think he’s full of shit and needs to resign immediately. The country’s largest city doesn’t need this kind of distracting crap.
• If you need a quick refresher: yesterday, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing Adams of letting Turkish officials and businesspeople buy his influence with illegal campaign contributions and lavish overseas trips.
• Adams, a Democrat, faces conspiracy, wire fraud, and bribery charges. Among many other horrible things, it seems that he got well as campaign contributions from straw donors, some of which helped him qualify for more than $10 million in matching public campaign funds.
• NY Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams from office, but I doubt she will. If Adams were to resign, he would be immediately replaced by Jumaane Williams, a progressive Democrat who serves as the city’s public advocate.
• That’s what I’m hoping will happen.
• In other news…
• Do not ever again eat any Boar's Head products. No meat, no cheese, no snacks… nothing.
• The company’s processing plants nationwide are now part of an ongoing law enforcement investigation in the wake of a deadly outbreak blamed on some of the company's now-recalled deli meats. 
• At least 59 hospitalizations and 10 deaths have been linked to a listeria strain traced back to Boar's Head products distributed from a now-shuttered plant the company ran in Virginia. 
• USDA Food Safety Inspection Service reports from the facility described dozens of violations, including insects, mold, blood in puddles on the floor and worse. Fucking disgusting.
• It is unclear whether the nationwide probe is a criminal or civil investigation.
• Let’s move on.
• The far-right, pro-Dumpy cable TV channel Newsmax has settled a major 2020 election defamation lawsuit with voting systems company Smartmatic in a last-minute agreement to avoid a high-stakes trial that would have doomed them.
• The terms of the settlement were not immediately known. The deal comes hours after jury selection got underway in a Wilmington, DE, courtroom ahead of opening statements scheduled for Monday.
• A loss at trial could have put Newsmax on the hook to pay tens of millions of dollars to Smartmatic, putting the small cable channel in financial peril.
• Fox News famously settled with Dominion Voting Systems last year for $787 million, and the far-right channel One America News settled with Smartmatic earlier this year. Both cases were also about the same 2020 election smears.
• Media across the spectrum need to understand that spreading lies to the American people comes with a very high cost. Hopefully, Fox, OAN, and Newsmax will be a bit more careful before repeating this kind of bullshit.
• Moving on.
• Donnie Dump is still endorsing the self-described Black Nazi — North Carolina governor candidate Mark Robinson.
• Robinson has attended Trump events as recently as August 21, when he received a shout-out from the podium. “Mark Robinson, he's out there. He's fighting. He's fighting. He's a great one,” said Dump of the man who peeped through vents to watch women shower and said he’ like to own slaves.
• Yesterday as Dump spoke to reporters at a press conference in Dump Tower, a reporter asked if he was planning to pull his endorsement of the lieutenant governor. Dump responded, and I quote, “I don’t know the situation” before quickly walking away.
• How is it that YOU know the situation and Dumpy doesn’t? Is he just poorly informed? Is he an idiot? Is he maybe lying to you again? Is it all of the above?
• The world might never know. Let’s move on.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed the SB 1099 bill this week. The California Department of Public Health must now reveal the number of newborn DNA samples that California is storing and the number of DNA samples that the state sells to researchers each year. 
• California has stored blood spots from every baby born in the state since the 1980s. Researchers and law enforcement can use those DNA samples without your knowledge or consent. 
• If you're related to someone who was born in California since 1983, a portion of your DNA is likely in the state's massive Newborn Genetic Biobank.
• That’s pretty freaky.
• And speaking of freaky, Disney has paused the production of a movie based on a book by the noted British author Neil Gaiman after allegations that five women have made against him relating to conduct from 1986 to 2002, including one woman who said Gaiman groped her on a tour bus in 2013 and later paid her $60,000.
• The allegations played a role in pausing the production of “The Graveyard Book,” an adaptation of the eponymous young adult novel by Gaiman. Another production related to Gaiman, “Dead Boy Detectives,” has been canceled for unspecified reasons.
• People fucking suck.
• And now, The Weather: “Dump No Waste, Flows to the Sea” by Office Dog
• Rest in peace to Dame Maggie Smith, one of the world’s most beloved actresses. She passed away this morning at age 89.
• While her storied career had her lauded for decades in roles that ranged from Shakespeare — acting alongside Laurence Olivier in “Othello” on stage and screen — to comedies, she’s probably best recognized by later generations for her roles in “Harry Potter” and “Downton Abbey.”
• Whether you think of her as Minerva McGonagall, Violet Crawley, or any of her many other roles, she was one of the best who ever practiced her craft.
• From the Sports Desk… the Cowboys (2-2) beat the Giants (1-3) in New York last night.
• Today in history… William the Conqueror begins the Norman conquest of England (1066). The death of Pope Urban VII, 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, ends the shortest papal reign in history (1590). Lancaster, PA becomes the capital of the United States for one day after Congress evacuates Philadelphia (1777). The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, is ceremonially opened (1825). Production of the Model T automobile begins at the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit (1908). The Republic of China is recognized by the United States (1928). USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt becomes the first person to exceed Mach 3 but dies in the attempt shortly after (1956). Rachel Carson's book ‘Silent Spring’ is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1962). Over two million people participated in worldwide strikes to protest climate change across 2,400 locations worldwide (2019).
• September 27 is the birthday of Florence ruler Cosimo de' Medici (1389), king Louis XIII of France (1601), philosopher/politician Samuel Adams (1722), chemist Hermann Kolbe (1818), cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840), magician Harry Blackstone, Sr. (1885), pianist/composer Bud Powell (1924), actor Wilford Brimley (1934), sportscaster Dick Schaap (1934), TV host Don Cornelius (1936), singer-songwriter/guitarist Randy Bachman (1943), singer-songwriter/actor Meat Loaf (1947), MLB player Mike Schmidt (1949), musician/songwriter Greg Ham (1953), actor/singer Shaun Cassidy (1958), radio host Marc Maron (1963), NBA player/coach Steve Kerr (1965), politician Debbie Wasserman Schultz (1966), actress Gwyneth Paltrow (1972), singer-songwriter/guitarist/actress Carrie Brownstein (1974), rapper Lil Wayne (1982), singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne (1984), and actress Jenna Ortega (2002).

That is all the news I have time for. First, I wish you well if you’ve been affected by Hurricane Helene. Second, the news is going to be insane daily from now through the election and beyond. Let’s all support one another as best we can. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 26, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s September 26, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. As usual, many thing happening in the world, some of which will impact you personally, some folks you know, others to people you’ll never meet but are still part of our human family. Let’s see what those thing are.

• First, here’s something I may repeat every fucking day and it still won’t be enough: Check your voter registration right now. Stop reading, go to vote.org and take a look.
• It will take ten seconds.
• Why? Because hundreds of thousands of people have been removed from voter rolls in recent months.
• They get removed, allegedly, because they haven’t voted in awhile, or because they moved, or for other reasons.
• So especially if you’ve changed residences in the past four years, or your changed your name (like, maybe got married or something), or you didn’t vote in 2020 or 2022… just go check.
• Don’t wait any longer or you might not be allowed to vote in November despite being a legal adult citizen of the USA. There are powers acting at this very moment whose entire goal is to stop you and a bunch of people like you from voting.
• I’d been hesitant to talk about the things going on with New York Mayor Eric Adams until something tangible happened.
• And now it has. Yesterday, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that remain sealed, but are expected to be announced today.
• Even as recently as this morning, FBI agents were conducting a search of Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s home.
• Words on the street is that Adams is being indicted on a number of corruption and bribery charges, some of which may involve foreign entities. The charges are supposed to be announced in about a half hour after I post this.
• His administration was already reeling from a series of high-level resignations amid at least four federal probes. Some of those who stepped down include Edward Caban, his handpicked police commissioner, after the authorities issued a subpoena for his phones.
• The mayor's chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, stepped down. This week, the schools chancellor, David Banks, announced plans to retire at the end of the year. Banks had also turned over his phone to federal authorities.
• I’ll mention once again that if a political leader commits a crime, they should face legal repercussions like any other person…no matter who they are, what party they’re with, or how powerful or rich they are.
• That’s how it’s supposed to go in America. None of this bullshit of being above the law.
• Let’s move on.
• Oh wait.
• Speaking of the mayors of New York, a former one — Rudy Giuliani — was permanently disbarred in Washington, DC this morning.
• His disbarment is from ethics proceedings Giuliani faced due to his efforts to help Dumpy try to overturn the 2020 election.
• Giuliani is one of multiple former Trump attorneys who faced professional disciplinary proceedings for their participation in El Dumpo’s election reversal schemes, but for most of the other Trump lawyers, their proceedings are still ongoing.
• Okay, let’s do other news.
• Yesterday, as expected, the House approved a three-month government funding bill to avoid an end-of-the-month shutdown.
• They cleared the legislation — funding the government until December 20 — in an 341-82 vote, including support from 209 Democrats and 132 Republicans. Eighty-two GOP lawmakers voted against the measure.
• Of course they did. Those 82 people are called “assholes.” They wanted to shut down the government right before a fucking election.
• And then the Senate passed the funding extension quickly in a 78-18 vote, and sent it to Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
• As you’re likely aware, the first attempt to pass this package failed because of a ridiculous add-on voting bill to make voting by non-citizens illegal… which has always been the case.
• Dumpy had wanted the House to shut down the government rather than pass the budget. They denied him. Dumples should get used to be denied… it’s going to happen to him with increased frequency in coming months and years.
• In other Senate news, here’s a rare moment when they acted unanimously.
• Yesterday the Senate passed a resolution to hold Ralph de la Torre, the CEO of troubled hospital operator Steward Health Care, in criminal contempt of Congress. 
• De la Torre failed to appear at a hearing where he was subpoenaed to testify on Capitol Hill earlier this month, and the Senate resolution refers the matter to the Department of Justice for prosecution. It marks the first time first time since 1971 that the Senate has held someone in criminal contempt.
• Every Senator from the most hardcore right wing to Bernie Sanders voted to nail De la Torre’s ass to a wall. I’m proud of them.
• Before declaring bankruptcy earlier this year, Steward owned more than 30 hospitals across eight states. The company failed to pay for life-saving supplies at its facilities after de la Torre and private equity investors he partnered with extracted hundreds of millions of dollars out of the company.  
• Get that prick.
• Moving on.
• The U.S. Secret Service, which usually tries to stay out of the news, has made headlines far too often lately. This time it’s for an even worse reason than usual.
• A Secret Service agent is under accusations of sexually assaulting a staff member of the Kamala Harris campaign in Green Bay, WI.
• The alleged assault was witnessed by other people and happened in a hotel room after staff had been to dinner. The agent allegedly forced himself on a female staffer, groping her in the process.
• I can tell you one thing: the remainder of that guy’s life is going to be very, very bad.
• Speaking of “very bad,” let’s talk about today’s supreme asshole (it was a tough choice), Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA).
• Yesterday, he put up a blatantly racist social post…
• "Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters… but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP," referring Dump and Couch Fucker.
• He continued, ”All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.”
• I guess he decided not to call them “uppity n*ggers,” but that was his intent. Higgins deleted the post after being pressured from members of his own party.
• I’ll remind you that there have been no actual instances of pets being eaten, and that the Haitian people in question are in our country legally.
• I think Higgins should be the one to get his ass out of our country. people like him are not welcome here. Get the fuck out, racist pig.
• Also, I believe that Clay Higgins fucks goats. Prove me wrong.
• Let’s move on.
• US troops have been deployed to Cyprus amid sharply escalating tensions between Israel and Hezbollah, and they are preparing for a range of contingencies including a possible evacuation operation from Lebanon for US citizens should a full-blown war erupt.
• Likewise, the UK announced this week that it was sending 700 troops to Cyprus to prepare for a possible emergency evacuation of British citizens from Lebanon if one becomes necessary.
• Sigh.
• There are more resignations from the staff of North Carolina Lt. Gov. and self-described Black Nazi Mark Robinson. Brian LiVecchi is resigning from his post as chief of staff and general counsel in the office of the lieutenant governor, and so is Director of Communications John Wesley Waugh, Policy Director Jonathan Harris, and Director of Government Affairs Nathan Lewis.
• Good people of North Carolina, please vote for Josh Stein for Governor.
• Even more political assholes to talk about today. 
• Wausau, WI Mayor Doug Diny posed for a picture Sunday to memorialize his removal of the city’s lone drop box that had been put outside City Hall around the same time late last week that absentee ballots were sent to voters.
• The city’s election clerk, Kaitlyn Bernarde, said she has reported the issue to the Marathon County district attorney a well as the state elections commission.
• After Dumpy lost the state in 2020, he and Republicans alleged that drop boxes facilitated cheating, even though they offered no evidence.
• It is a felony in Wisconsin to impede or prevent “the free exercise of the franchise at an election.”
• Fuck you, Diny, I hope you face charges, you asshole.
• And now, The Weather: “About (Hall of Egress)” by Lutalo
• Obviously, there’s some real weather news going on for our Florida friends. Hurricane Helene continues to intensify as it tracks north toward the Florida Panhandle. The eye — around which are the most dangerous and life-threatening conditions — is expected to make landfall this evening.
• Helene is forecast to grow into one of the largest storms in the Gulf of Mexico in the last century, with a wind field that could span the distance between Indianapolis and Washington, DC. Its huge size will result in higher storm surge and dangerous winds that stretch well inland. Widespread power outages are likely across the Southeast.
• I am hoping that my friends down that way are taking smart precautions and not just riding it out.
• From the Sports Desk… there are only a handful of MLB teams remaining that haven’t been either eliminated from the playoffs or have secured a playoff spot.
• They are the Royals, Tigers, Twins, Mariners, Mets, Braves, and Diamondbacks. My guess as to the two who will get in? Detroit (AL) and New York (NL). We’ll know in the next few days.
• Today in history… William II is crowned King of England (1087). Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth in Plymouth, England (1580). The Parthenon in Athens, used as a gunpowder depot by the Ottoman garrison, is partially destroyed (1687). George Washington appoints Thomas Jefferson the first United States Secretary of State (1789). Albert Einstein publishes the third of his Annus Mirabilis papers, introducing the special theory of relativity (1905). The United States Federal Trade Commission is established (1914). The ocean liner RMS Queen Mary is launched (1934). United Nations troops recapture Seoul from North Korean forces (1950). Typhoon Vera, the strongest typhoon to hit Japan in recorded history, makes landfall (1959). In Chicago, the first televised debate takes place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy (1960). Abbey Road, the last recorded album by the Beatles, is released (1969). Nolan Ryan sets a Major League record by throwing his fifth no-hitter (1981). The PBS Kids Channel is shut down and replaced by a joint network with Comcast called Sprout (2005).
• September 26 is the birthday of gardener/environmentalist Johnny Appleseed (1774), physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849), poet T. S. Eliot (1888), composer George Gershwin (1898), actor George Raft (1901), fitness expert Jack LaLanne (1914), singer-songwriter/guitarist Marty Robbins (1925), singer-songwriter Brian Ferry (1945), singer Gal Costa (1945), activist Andrea Dworkin (1946), singer-songwriter Olivia Newton-John (1948), musician Cesar Rosas (1954), actress Linda Hamilton (1956), singer-songwriter Darby Crash (1958), sports executive Jeanie Buss (1961), drummer John Tempesta (1964), politician Beto O’Rourke (1972), NHL players Daniel and Henrik Sedin (1980), and tennis player Serena Williams (1981).

Alright, I’m out of time… for this, anyway. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 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.

---

Good morning. It’s September 25, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I’m Zak, here to tell you the news, good or bad, happy or sad. We’re all better off knowing things than… not.

• Let’s start with the horrible news about Marcellus Williams, who was executed via lethal injection last night after a lengthy and complex effort to exonerate him based on DNA testing issues.
• Williams spent over two decades in prison, convicted of a 1998 murder that he says he did not commit. The original prosecutor, the victim’s family, and a wide range of legal groups were vehemently opposed to the execution.
• But after refusals for clemency by Republicans Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Gov. Mike Parson, his last-minute attempt at reprieve via the U.S. Supreme Court was also denied, despite evidence that could have potentially exonerated him.
• The court’s three liberal members — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — disagreed and said they would have granted the request to halt the execution.
• Williams, 55, was pronounced dead at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point.
• NAACP President Derrick Johnson stated, “Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man. When DNA evidence proves innocence, capital punishment is not justice — it is murder.”
• That’s right. I’ve told you my feelings on capital punishment before… if the risk of letting a thousand guilty people go unpunished versus putting one innocent human to death is worth it to you, I don’t know what to say.
• RIP Mr. Williams. Let’s move on.
• Donald John Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) were hit with criminal charges yesterday over their role in elevating false allegations about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating local pets in Springfield, OH.
• The complaint, filed by Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) in Clark County Municipal Court, alleges that Dump and Vance, by amplifying those claims, had a “direct impact” in spurring the 33 bomb threats that rocked the southwest Ohio city.
• HBA Executive Director Guerline Jozef filed the document, backed by an affidavit alleging Dumpy and Vance committed seven separate offenses, including disrupting public services, making false alarms, aggravated menacing, complicity, and telecommunications harassment.
• I’ll remind you, if I haven’t mentioned it already, that close to 600,000 Haitian-American people live in Florida, which per recent polls should be considered a swing state. The horrible lies Dump and Vance have spread about them could cost them that state in the November election.
• Moving on.
• Hey kids, what are polls? We all know the answer by now. Polls are bullshit.
• So here’s how I want you to think about this morning’s Reuters/Ipsos national poll that finds Vice President Harris with a 7-point lead over Dumpy, with 46.61 percent support compared to his 40.48 percent.
• The more accurate way to see it: Harris still has a lower degree of advantage over Dump on this date than Hillary Clinton did in 2016 (and lost) or Joe Biden did in 2020 (and won by a very close margin),
• And the national poll averages don’t mean shit. With Dump still apparently leading in Georgia and Arizona, it will be very difficult to Harris to win enough of the other swing states to get elected.
• We still have 41 days and we have to do our part every single one of those days to ensure that Dumpy cannot enact his brutal plans for the USA.
• Speaking of which…
• Buried in Dumpy’s Project 2025 is a plan to eliminate overtime pay.
• Donald Trump's Project 2025 has a provision where employers could force workers to work more than 40 hours a week without paying them time-and-a-half.
• It is a generous gift from Dumpy to the extremely wealthy people and their big corporations, and an insult to the American worker.
• If you want to work harder and get paid less, I guess Dump is your guy.
• Let’s get some more news of that prick’s legal shit out of the way.
• Yesterday, Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request from Dumples the Clown, who’d asked her to upend previously set deadlines and bar a lengthy filing from special counsel Jack Smith.
• The order from Chutkan comes after Dump complained about a decision that allowed Smith’s team to first file their brief laying out how to proceed in the case in the wake of a decision from the Supreme Court granting former presidents broad immunity.
• “The court has already addressed the scheduling objections Defendant raised when he was given an opportunity to do so,” she said.
• In the same order, Chutkan granted Smith’s request to file a 180-page opening brief on how to address the immunity issues in the case, a request which likewise earned pushback from Trump’s team.
• Fuck all the way off, Dumpy.
• And in super fucking weird news, yesterday prosecutors filed the charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate against Ryan Wesley Routh, the psycho who camped outside Dump’s golf course and was caught by the Secret Service before trying anything.
• Which is fine by me. No assassination attempts are ever acceptable.
• But here’s the insane part: Routh’s case was assigned — allegedly via random selection — to Judge Aileen Cannon, the Dump-appointed judge who oversaw, and later threw out, the federal criminal classified documents case against Dumpy.
• With any other judge, it would be assumed that she would recuse herself due to this conflict, but I’m done trying to assume that any GOP-related official will act along the lines of ethics that have been in place for hundreds of years.
• Relevant side note: if you think Dump is the only candidate who is getting violent threats and actions, think again.
• On Monday night in Tempe, AZ,, some asshole took shots at a Democratic Party-coordinated campaign office for Vice President Harris. She is scheduled to visit Arizona this week.
• Tempe police observed gunshots through the front windows of the office, which is shared by staff members for the Arizona Democratic Party, the Harris campaign, and Senate and House campaigns to boost turnout for the party in November.
• Violence is the only thing that stupid people have to solve their problems.
• Moving on.
• As we predicted yesterday, Nebraska GOP Gov. Jim Pillen announced he will not call a special legislative session to change how the state allocates its electoral votes, dashing Republican hopes that the switch could happen before November.
• Dumpy and his allies have been pushing hard for state lawmakers to switch to a winner-take-all system instead of delivering electoral votes by congressional districts.
• Pillen said that Republicans still do not have the 33 votes needed to overcome a filibuster in the unicameral legislature, noting that he and his team "have worked relentlessly" to find the votes.
• So the Nebraska Blue Dot lives on, at least for this election.
• In other news, the Senate will vote this afternoon on a stopgap measure funding the federal government until December 20. They will not consider any amendments that the Republicans were trying to jam in.
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) received unanimous consent for the Senate to immediately proceed to the three-month government funding bill once it passes the House, which is expected to happen today as well.
• So that’s good. Let’s do some more happy news.
• Yesterday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said during a court hearing that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars media platform and its assets will be sold off piece by piece in auctions this fall to help pay the more than $1 billion he owes relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
• Good. Fuck that asshole. I hope they take every fucking thing he owns. Jones, of course, will continue trying to spread his bullshit via other means.
• We have some more news from the Asshole Files.
• Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY), one of the GOP’s most endangered House incumbents, gave both his lover and his fiancée’s daughter part-time jobs in his district office on Long Island, a violation of House ethics rules.
• What an asshole.
• D’Esposito hired the pair shortly after taking office in 2023, together paying them nearly $30,000 in taxpayer funds, records of which are publicly available.
• The House of Representatives’ code of conduct forbids members from employing close family members.
• D’Esposito is already locked in a tight rematch with Democrat Laura Gillen, whom he defeated by fewer than 10,000 votes two years ago.
• Fuck D’Esposito, that corrupt piece of shit. Vote for Gillen, people of NY-4.
• Moving on to some business news.
• The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services giant uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.
• I agree!
• The complaint filed yesterday says Visa penalizes merchants and banks who don’t use Visa’s own payment processing technology to process debit transactions, even though alternatives exist.
• That’s pretty much the definition of an illegal monopoly. Visa earns an incremental fee from every transaction processed on its network.
• 60% of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s debit network, allowing it to charge over $7 billion in fees each year for processing those transactions.
• Get their asses.
• And now, The Weather: “Circles” by Tanukichan
• From the Non-Sports Desk… retired NFL hall of fame quarterback Brett Favre, who has been at the center of a welfare misspending scandal in Mississippi, announced he has Parkinson’s disease during a congressional hearing yesterday.
• Favre, who is a few months younger than me, does not face criminal charges after repaying just over $1 million in speaking fees funded by a welfare program in the state, and was also an investor in a biotech company with ties to the case.
• The causes of Parkinson’s disease is unknown, and it is unclear if Favre’s disease is connected to his football career or head injuries. Like many NFL players, he experienced a multitude of concussions during his career.
• Sigh.
• From the actual Sports Desk… the MLB playoffs continue to solidify. Here’s who’s in as of today…
• AL East: Yankees, Orioles.
• AL Central: Guardians.
• AL West: Astros.
• NL East: Phillies.
• NL Central: Brewers.
• NL West: Dodgers, Padres.
• Just a handful of games remain to determine the final slots.
• Today in history… the last Roman emperor elected by the Senate is Marcus Claudius Tacitus (275). England and Scotland sign the Treaty of York, establishing the location of their common border (1237). Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean (1513). The United States Congress passes twelve constitutional amendments: the ten known as the Bill of Rights, the unratified Congressional Apportionment Amendment, and the Congressional Compensation Amendment (1789). The United States Congress establishes Sequoia National Park (1890). Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City (1912). TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable system, is inaugurated (1956). Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, is integrated by the use of United States Army troops (1957). Dr. Frank Jobe performs first Tommy John surgery on baseball player Tommy John (1974). Bill Cosby is sentenced to three to ten years in prison for aggravated sexual assault (2018). 
• September 25 is the birthday of novelist William Faulkner (1897), artist Mark Rothko (1903), pianist/composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906), MLB player/sportscaster Phil Rizzuto (1917), journalist Barbara Walters (1929), author/illustrator Shel Silverstein (1930), pianist/composer Glenn Gould (1932), keyboardist John Locke (1943), actor Michael Douglas (1944), model/actress Cheryl Tiegs (1947), actor/director Anson Williams (1949), actor Mark Hamill (1951), NBA player Bob McAdoo (1951), actor Christopher Reeve (1952), actor Michael Madsen (1957), actress Heather Locklear (1961), actress Aida Turturro (1962), NBA player Scottie Pippin (1965), rapper/actor Will Smith (1968), journalist Bill Simmons (1969), actor Hal Sparks (1969), actress Catherine Zeta-Jones (1969), NFL player Matt Hasselbeck (1975), rapper T.I. (1980), actor/rapper Donald Glover (1983), and NFL player Brandin Cooks (1993).

There’s always more news than I realize there is, and never enough time to tell you everything you need to know. Hopefully you find out the rest on your own. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 24, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s September 24, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s always nice to wake up in the morning and be alive. Well, not always nice, per se, but I believe it beats the alternative. Then again, I have no proof of this, so let’s just look at the news.

• Our endorsement of the day for Kamala Harris comes from more than 400 economists and former high-ranking US policymakers. They are endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris and her vision for the American economy.
• The group includes top Biden economist Brian Deese; Obama administration officials Jason Furman, Bill Daley and Penny Pritzker; Clinton-era policymakers Robert Reich and Alan Blinder, who also served as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve; and University of Michigan economists Justin Wolfers and Claudia Goldin, who won the Nobel Prize last year for tracking women’s labor participation and the evolving wage gap.
• “With Kamala Harris in the White House, workers, families, and businesses can be confident that they have a president who will work relentlessly to build a strong, pro-growth economy for all Americans,” they wrote.
• I agree.
• And the 2024 General Election is six weeks from today. Act accordingly.
• Moving on…
• We don’t talk about polls here. And I’m about to tell you why.
• Senate Democrats are worried pollsters are once again undercounting the Dump vote and say Vice President Harris’s slim lead in battleground states, especially Pennsylvania, is cause for serious concern.
• And I agree. Remember, in both 2016 and 2020, Dump’s performance in the election was stronger than any of the polls at the time predicted.
• Look, Harris is doing great. If anything, she’s the one who is seeming to overperform the polls herself, driving young voters and Black and Latino voters to the polls in huge numbers.
• Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said it well in regard to his state. “Polling has really been seriously damaged since 2016. And that’s one of the truths, is that Trump is going to be tough in Pennsylvania, and that’s absolutely the truth.”
• I’m fine that you may be feeling joyful and positive about Harris’s chance of being our next President. I’m feeling it too.
• But being lulled into a false sense of optimism can result in your not doing all you can to ensure that Harris gets the actual votes. That’s the only poll that matters… the one on November 5.
• Most trustworthy polls Harris and Dump running neck and neck, and nearly all are within the margin of error.
• So consider this a reminder that your bubble, as comfortable as it may be, is not doing you any favors.
• Surrounding yourself only with like-minded people and going out of your way to mute/block those who don’t share your positions may lead to horrendous results.
• And yes, of course… I support your right to not be exposed to targeted abuse. But don’t allow that to expand to, “I will not listen to any Republican.” You’re setting yourself up for a huge shock if you put on blinders.
• Let’s move on with some great election news that has a tangible impact.
• Nebraska’s Blue Dot seems safe for now.
• We mentioned the other day how just two states — Nebraska and Maine — award electoral votes by congressional district rather than statewide winner-take-all.
• There had been a big push from the Dump campaign to suddenly change that in the Cornhusker State, but it met a significant setback yesterday when a pivotal Omaha state senator said he would not support Dump’s last-ditch effort to overturn the 30-year law.
• State Sen. Mike McDonnell, a former Democrat who joined the GOP earlier this year, said in a statement yesterday that he would not vote to change the law in Nebraska before the November election.
• Brave man.
• He said, “After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change. I have notified Governor Pillen that I will not change my long-held position and will oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election.”
• McDonnell had been seen as the last best hope from Republicans to change the law before November. The “Blue Dot” in Nebraska represents the more urban and liberal Omaha area.
• In 2016, all five of the state’s electoral votes went to Dump. But in 2020, the Omaha-area Blue Dot flexed its power, delivering a single electoral vote for Joe Biden in a sea of red.
• And per above, in an election that could be super close, every electoral vote matters. There is a scenario where the two candidates could end up at 269-269, but we won’t discuss that potential nightmare just yet. 
• Moving on.
• Israeli strikes on Lebanon yesterday killed more than 500 people, including more than 90 women and children in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
• Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut.
• And as I warned you would likely happen, the U.S. is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in response to this sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.
• The Pentagon would not say how many more forces would be deployed or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. currently has about 40,000 troops in the region.
• Yesterday, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, two Navy destroyers, and a cruiser set sail from Norfolk, VA. The ships’ departure opens up the possibility that the U.S. could keep both the Truman and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is in the Arabian Gulf, in the region in case more violence breaks out.
• Ugh. Can we not do the war thing?
• Let’s move on to the state of Ohio, where the GOP candidate for Senate had some things to say about women at a recent town hall.
• Bernie Moreno, who is trying to unseat respected Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), stated, “You know, the left has a lot of single issue voters. Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ … OK. It’s a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.'”
• Holy fuck. So, women are crazy, and post-menopausal women don’t matter. Good job, Bernie.
• This would be a good place to note that 57% of Ohioans voted to protect their reproductive freedom last year. I don’t think that’s crazy… and I do think that women in post-childbearing years still have a voice.
• Vote for Sherrod Brown, Ohioans. Current polling has them neck and neck, so get ready to kick ass for him. Encourage others not to vote for that piece of shit Moreno.
• Donnie Dump also had some thoughts to share about women and abortion at his rally yesterday.
• “All they can talk about is abortion. That’s all they talk about, and it really no longer pertains, because we’ve done something on abortion that nobody thought was possible,” he said in reference to his role in having the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.
• Dumpy also said some supremely creepy shit about women in general.
• “Because I am your protector. I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector. I hope you don’t make too much of it. I hope the fake news doesn’t go, ‘Oh he wants to be their protector.’ Well, I am. As president, I have to be your protector.”
• What the fuck?
• Let’s move on, this time to California.
• Yesterday, CA attorney general Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, alleging it engaged in a decades-long deception about whether the plastics it manufactured can be recycled.
• Bonta said, ”For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn't possible. ExxonMobil lied to further its recording-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health."
• Plastics are difficult to recycle. Bonta pointed out,"92% of plastics in advanced recycling become transportation fuel — only a very small amount is recycled. Exxon can only recycle about 1% of its own plastic."
• Get their asses.
• Let’s keep our political focus once again on North Carolina, where top Republican leaders have called on Mark Robinson to provide proof that he wasn’t behind weird and sleazy posts on a porn site.
• New info keeps coming up that dig Robinson’s hole deeper and deeper. Turns out they tracked the location of the IP address of the posts to near Robinson’s home, and found his email address is also registered with other previously unreported dating websites.
• In addition to the previously-mentioned Ashley Madison, the account registered to Robinson’s email address was also on the dating website Fling, Adult Friend Finder, and Mate 1, as well as the now-defunct website Lords Of Porno.
• Meanwhile, the Republican Governors Association has abruptly stopped placing ads on Robinson’s behalf. The organization and its super PAC had already spent roughly $16 million on ads in the race.
• That leaves Robinson without any more TV ads scheduled. Democrat Josh Stein’s campaign has booked $13 million worth of ads for the coming weeks.
• Womp womp.
• And then yesterday, another big blow to Robinson the Black Nazi by way of Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, who officially withdrew his support. 
• The Georgia governor’s statement came after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained photographs of Kemp speaking at an August fundraiser in North Carolina for Robinson.
• No one wants any association with that guy.
• In other news…
• I did not realize until just now it is Banned Books Week, an observance that was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools.
• The good news: the American Library Association found a substantial drop in 2024 so far in complaints about books stocked in public, school and academic libraries, and in the number of books receiving objections.
• But PEN America is documenting an explosion in books actually being removed from school shelves in 2023-24, tripling to more than 10,000 over the previous year. More than 8,000 of those were pulled in Florida and Iowa alone, where laws restricting the content of books have been passed.
• The book bans have overwhelmingly featured stories that are by or about people of color and the LGBTQ community, and book-banning efforts have increasingly restricted stories by and about women and girls.
• I’d love to recommend a banned book to you. Read ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ by Kurt Vonnegut (1969), one of the most enduring anti-war novels of all time. I was probably 15 when I first read it.
• From the Weird Science Desk… scientists in the United Kingdom have stored the entire human genome on a “5D memory crystal,” in the hope that it could be used in the future as a blueprint to bring humanity back from extinction.
• I mean, cool idea, but that’s not terrifying or anything, right?
• The crystal can hold up to 360 terabytes of information for billions of years and can withstand extreme conditions, including freezing, fires, direct impact force, cosmic radiation and temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius.
• They describe the data storage on the crystal as 5D because the information is translated into five different dimensions of its nanostructures — their height, length, width, orientation and position.
• And now, The Weather: “Boiler Room” by Callahan & Witscher
• It’s been awhile since we did a word count.
• I started Zak’s Random News in May 2022. I believe that its purpose on that day was that I had a bunch of observations on current events, and didn’t want to bombard Facebook with like 10 different posts.
• So I shoved them all into a single post, delimited them via bullet points, and now here we are.
• Our current word count since then is 1,099,746 words. Is that a lot of words? Um, yeah.
• The King James Authorized Bible has 783,137 words. If you’re a Jew, you may know that the Hebrew Bible has 306,757 words. In the five books of the Torah, there are just 79,980. I have them all beat by a lot.
• How about really meaty novels?
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo has 568,751. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy has 567,246. Ulysses by James Joyce has just 268,170 words. 
• However, I can put things in perspective but comparing my Random News to writing of the world’s biggest word whore, the beloved Stephen King. I believe the current count of all of his works is now at 6,641,958.
• It would take me another four years at my current rate to catch up with ol’ Steve.
• From the Sports Desk… yet another NFL upset last night when the Washington Commanders (a -7.5 point underdog) beat the Cincinnati Bengals, who were predicted to be good again this year but are now 0-3.
• No one knows anything about football this year. I’m going to start making my pool picks via dart throws. I can’t do any worse than I’m doing by using actual logic to pick winners.
• Today in history… The Battle of Rowton Heath in England is a Parliamentarian victory over a Royalist army commanded in person by King Charles (1645). The United States Congress passes the Judiciary Act, creating the office of the Attorney General and federal judiciary system and ordering the composition of the Supreme Court (1789). General (and future President) Zachary Taylor captures Monterrey in the Mexican-American War (1846). Gold prices plummet after President Grant orders the Treasury to sell large quantities of gold after Jay Gould and James Fisk plot to control the market (1869). Teddy Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation's first National Monument (1906). Jimmy Doolittle performs the first flight without a window, proving that full instrument flying from take off to landing is possible (1929). Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong (1946). The Honda Motor Company is founded (1948). President Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation (1957). USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is launched (1960). Representatives of 71 nations sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations (1996). 
• September 24 is the birthday of Roman emperor Vitellius (15), Guru Ram Das (1534), historian/politician Horace Walpole (1717), SCOTUS Chief Justice John Marshall (1755), athlete Lottie Dodd (1871), third oldest person ever Sarah Knauss (1880), singer-songwriter/guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson (1893), novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896), soldier/pilot Dick Bong (1920), sportscaster Jim McKay (1921), puppeteer/director/producer Jim Henson (1936), singer/activist Linda McCartney (1941), guitarist Jerry Donahue (1946), actor Phil Hartman (1948), MLB player Rafael Palmiero (1964), and drummer Janet Weiss (1965).

That’s plenty of news. Time for me to do other things. Enjoy your day.