Random News: September 12, 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 September 12, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’ve got a big-ass cup of Peet’s Brazil, it’s currently 64 degrees and overcast, and our high temperature today will be just 73. Starting to feel a bit like Fall. Let’s fucking go!

• Let’s start with a step back to Tuesday night’s amazing, incredible, extraordinary, wonderful, delightful debate between the presidential candidates.
• Respondents in a new survey say Vice President Harris soundly won the debate over convicted felon Donald Trump — a complete reversal of Dump’s showing when he faced President Biden on the debate stage three months ago.
• Forty-three percent of respondents in a YouGov poll conducted yesterday morning said they thought Harris won her first — and possibly only — faceoff against Trump, compared to 28 percent who said they thought Trump won the debate. Another 30 percent said they were not sure who came out on top.
• Where do they even find these people?
• But more encouragingly, an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, released just hours before the debate, found that 30 percent of registered voters surveyed said the debate would help them decide who to vote for in November.
• And I’ll bet they did walk away with a better idea of who they want leading the USA.
• While almost no Republicans would go on record with their utter disappointment on Dumpy’s awful performance at the debate, a number did go on record anonymously to journalists.
• “I’m just sad,” said one House Republican who is supportive of Dump. “She knew exactly where to cut to get under his skin. Just overall disappointing that he isn’t being more composed like the first debate. The road just got very narrow,” they added. “This is not good.”
• A second House Republican said many in the GOP conference were disappointed that Dumples could not stay on message throughout the debate.
• And yet a third House Republican stated, “Lots of missed opportunities so far. It’s not devastating – but it’s not good.”
• How about Dump’s friends at Fox? Surely they were all very supportive, right?
• Um, no.
• Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume said Dump had a rough outing during the debate, saying he fell for some of the vice president’s traps and aired “old grievances” that are not advantageous politically.
• “Now, look, make no mistake about it, Trump had a bad night. He rose to the bait repeatedly when she baited him, something I’m sure his advisers had begged him not to do,” said a sad Hume Tuesday night.
• Let’s sort of move on.
• This is cool: as of yesterday afternoon, there had been 337,826 unique visitors to vote.gov coming in from the referral link created and shared by Taylor Swift when she endorsed Kamala Harris on Tuesday night.
• That’s a huge amount of people looking to register to vote, or to confirm their voter registration. That’s a number that could make an impact on tight election.
• While we’re talking Tay…
• I try and make it a point to not fact-check the entire Internet, because that’s just silly.
• But I’ll make an exception here for the random person who wrote, “Who cares about Taylor Swift endorsing Harris? None of her fans are old enough to vote.”
• Allow me to correct this error. Taylor Swift is 34 years old. She turns 35 in December. Her first album came out in 2005, almost 20 years ago.
• She has always had a youthful fan base… but many of her fans have grown up with her music and continue to enjoy it today.
• I think it’s a safe estimate to say that out of her many millions of fans in the USA, the large majority of them are now well over 18 years old, and therefore are ready to vote in November.
• And one more Taylor Swift note before I (wait for it)… shake it off.
• Within minutes after Swift threw her support behind Kamala Harris for president, the Harris-Walz campaign debuted their own friendship bracelets containing the candidates’ names.
• Friendship bracelets are important in the Swift world, you see.
• And the bracelets sold out within minutes.
• Okay, now we’ll move on.
• Except no.
• Yesterday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, distanced himself from Dump's insanely false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating people's pets. 
• ”This is something that came up on the internet, and the internet can be quite crazy sometimes," said DeWine. Oh, that zany internet, ha ha.
• DeWine reiterated that city officials have said they have not received any credible reports of such conduct. The baseless rumors have been amplified in recent days by Dump and his allies including VP candidate JD Vance, Elmo Muck, and many others.
• Dump dramatically repeated the claim during the debate, and there are plenty of videos of people at watch parties laughing uproariously at his line, “In Springfield, THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS.”
• Jesus.
• I mean, a single debate can’t actually cost a candidate the election, right?
• Except Republican pollster Frank Luntz predicted Dump’s performance in the debate will ultimately cost him the election in November.
• “It was a pretty negative performance, pretty pessimistic, cynical, contemptuous,” Luntz said in an interview yesterday, adding, “and I think that this will cost him, yes.”
• Luntz hesitated, appearing to choose his words carefully. “I’m trying to decide if I want to go on record, and the answer is yes,” he continued. “I think that, that he loses because of this debate performance.”
• Welp.
• Okay, now let’s really move-
• EARTHQUAKEEEEEE AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
• Okay, while I’m writing this news, we just had a 5.1 magnitude earthquake here in Southern California, epicenter up the coast in Malibu.
• Calming down… whew. No reports of injury or damage yet, but that was a pretty good one, so more info to come, probably.
• Okay, back to the news.
• Riding a tidal wave of momentum after her debate performance, Kamala Harris is ramping up her campaign today by holding two rallies in North Carolina as she tries to wrestle back the key battleground state which would close off one Dumpy’s only remaining paths to victory.
• Both campaigns see the state as playing a key role in November. Dump narrowly won it in 2020, and no Democrat has prevailed in the presidential race here since Barack Obama in 2008.
• I think Harris can take NC. One of the things that will help her: the GOP picked a horrible extremist candidate in the state’s governor race, and many North Carolinians will be jamming the polls to ensure that Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein defeats Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
• In other news…
• We haven’t spoken about it here because it’s just so fucking stupid, but the Republicans have been trying to once again shut down the government. I suppose I assumed you knew this already. If not…
• This time it’s over the completely made-up issue of migrant voting swinging the election… something that is not a thing. Illegal immigrant voting is extraordinarily rare. The stalled legislation includes a measure that would require people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship.
• And if you’re a logical person with at least part of a brain, the very last thing an illegal immigrant would want to do is to vote and call attention to him or herself and risk imprisonment and deportation.
• Even so, the Republicans couldn’t get in array to pass this temporary spending bill in a vote that was scheduled for yesterday. Speaker Mike Johnson cancelled that vote when it became apparent that the measure lacked the votes to pass.
• To be clear: only US citizens may vote. That has always been a law. There is no need for additional legislation because the current system to prevent any kind of voter fraud is already exceptionally good.
• The current spending bill would keep federal agencies and programs funded for six months, starting when the new budget year begins on October 1.
• Democrats are overwhelmingly opposed to the current version of the bill, and enough Republicans had voiced opposition to raise serious doubts about whether the measure would pass.
• Dumples the Clown is, once again, pushing for the Republican shutdown of the government so that he can blame it on Joe Biden, somehow.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday morning had President Joe Biden, former President Donnie Dump, and Vice President Kamala Harris standing side by side at ground zero of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan for observation of the somber anniversary of the attacks.
• Harris and Dump had just met for the first time the previous evening for their debate, which Harris won by all accounts other than Dump’s own. The candidates once again shook hands, the second time in less than 12 hours.
• Families and friends of 9/11 victims have, for all these years, asked the government to demand accountability from the Saudi Arabian government for the role their citizens had in the attacks.
• Nothing seems to have ever transpired in that regard. Hmm, wonder why that could be?
• And one other note on that event: Dump’s companion at the 9/11 ceremony was self-described “pro-white nationalist” and “proud Islamophobe” Laura Loomer.
• Loomer has repeatedly claimed, even recently, that the 9/11 attacks had been an inside job. It was another example of Dump’s poor decision making skills to invite Loomer there, or possibly more evidence of his mental decline.
• Moving on.
• We have three major fires during in Southern California at the moment. Hopefully this cool-down in weather will help contain them.
• The Bridge Fire above Glendora became the largest active wildfire in California at 49,000 acres. The Line Fire is at 18% containment. It has burned nearly 37,000 acres in nearly a week. And the Airport Fire began in an Orange County canyon and crossed into Riverside County.
• I have many friends impacted by each of these, and I hope the best for all of them.
• And now, The Weather: “Nine Clean Nails” by Dummy
• In actual weather, tropical storm Francine is spreading dangerous conditions across the South today after it slammed into Louisiana with extreme rainfall, life-threatening flooding, and destructive winds.
• Be safe, my peoples.
• Let’s do a chart, or instead, a list.
• VP candidate Tim Walz was elected in 2018 as the Governor of Minnesota. It’s a state I’ve visited several times and I really like it. I like the people and the vibe.
• To be clear, being a guy who’s spent most of his life in Southern California, I would never survive even one winter there, honestly. I get cold in temperatures in the 50s.
• That being said, there is an extraordinary amount of musical talent that’s come out of that great state. Here’s a list of some of the best, in alphabetical order.
• Babes in Toyland, Bob Dylan, Hippo Campus, Hüsker Dü, The Jayhawks, Lizzo, Low, Marcy Playground, Prince, The Replacements, Semisonic, Soul Asylum, The Suburbs, and The Trashmen.
• From the Sports Desk… there are only about 15 games remaining in the regular season for Major League baseball. If the playoffs were starting today, here’s how they’d be seeded.
• American League: 1. New York Yankees. 2. Cleveland Guardians. 3. Baltimore Orioles. 4. Kansas City Royals. 5. Minnesota Twins. 6. Houston Astros.
• National League: 1. Philadelphia Phillies. 2. Los Angeles Dodgers. 3. Milwaukee Brewers. 4. Arizona Diamondbacks. 5. San Diego Padres. 6, New York Mets.
• Keep in mind these regular season numbers are so tight that literally none of these teams have clinched a division or even secured a playoff spot at this moment. That will soon change, though.
• Week 2 of the NFL kicks off tonight with the Buffalo Bills at the Miami Dolphins. Miami is favored by -2.5.
• Today in history…  Premiere performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Munich with a chorus of 852 singers and an orchestra of 171 players (1910). Leó Szilárd conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction (1933). Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France (1940). The People's Republic of Korea is proclaimed, bringing an end to Japanese rule over Korea (1945). U.S. Senator and future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier (1953). Jack Kilby demonstrates the first working integrated circuit at Texas Instruments (1958). ‘Bonanza’ premieres, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color (1959). South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody (1977). Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 276 (1984). Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica then fucks up Mexico (1988). Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-47 has Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, onboard (1992). NASA confirms that its Voyager 1 probe has become the first manmade object to enter interstellar space (2013).
• September 12 is the birthday of activist Samuel Joseph May (1797), inventor Richard Jordan Gatling (1818), UK prime minister H. H. Asquith (1852), journalist H. L. Mencken (1880), actor Maurice Chevalier (1888), publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. (1892), athlete Jesse Owens (1913), actor Ian Holm (1931), singer-songwriter George Jones (1931), singer-songwriter Maria Muldaur (1943), activist Leonard Peltier (1943), singer-songwriter Barry White (1944), drummer/composer/lyricist Neil Peart (1952), composer Hans Zimmer (1957), singer-songwriter/pianist Ben Folds (1966), actor/comedian Louis C.K. (1967), actor Paul Walker (1973), singer/actress Jennifer Hudson (1981), , MLB player Freddie Freeman (1989), and NFL player Andrew Luck (1989).

Okay, I’m going to sip my coffee and calm down more after that quake. Despite any natural disasters wherever you live, I hope you are doing well and are feeling good. Enjoy your day.