Random News: September 14, 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 14, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I’m up early on an overcast morning, drinking coffee. Plenty of things going on in the world and stuff for us to discuss here. Let’s do that.

• Since it’s Saturday, I’m gonna spend a minute here talking about the quiet but furious MAGA Civil War that’s been brewing for awhile.
• On one side is that literally insane far-right internet personality/conspiracy theorist, Laura Loomer.
• On the other side is nearly everyone else in the MAGA realm, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Thom Tillis (R-NC), and others. 
• And in between them? A Smelly Orange man.
• The background: Loomer is an open white nationalist who has been known for years in far-right circles. In recent times, she seems to have a more close direct relationship with Trump.
• The rumor mill seems to insinuate that Loomer is residing with Dumpy at Mar-a-Lago, and the former first lady Melania is living in New York.
• Loomer has accompanied Dump on a number of recent trips, including for his disastrous debate against Kamala Harris last week, and she appears often at events where he is speaking.
• Despite having no official role in the Dump campaign, she seems to be advising him in some capacity, and Loomer’s bombastic social media posts have appeared to preview Dump’s next lines of attack.
• Got all that? Well, Loomer’s posts are so over-the-top racist that alarm bells are ringing for the other people who are doing their best to get Dumpy elected.
• She recently posted that is Harris gets elected, “the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center.”
• Marjorie Taylor Greene responded, saying Loomer’s comment “does not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA. This does not represent President Trump. This type of behavior should not be tolerated ever.”
• Loomer publicly freaked out on Taylor Greene, calling her all manner of names, accusing her of being anti-Trump and so on.
• After Lindsey Graham commented that Loomer was a “toxic presence” in the Dump campaign, Loomer responded, “Lindsey Graham has never been loyal to President Trump. When is Lindsey coming out of the closet? We all know you’re gay, Lindsey.”
• Wow.
• And then, Sen. Tillis minced no words when he posted yesterday, “Laura Loomer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans. A DNC plant couldn’t do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump’s chances of winning re-election. Enough.”
• Ouch! It’s pretty typical in a situation with a failing campaign for people to turn on each other, but they usually don’t do it right out in the open as is happening in the MAGA world.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumples the Clown held a press event just a few miles from me in my hometown of Rancho Palos Verdes, at his golf course there.
• I’ll first tell you his ridiculous quote, and then talk about something more serious.
• "I can say this, we will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio – large deportations. We're going to get these people out. We're bringing them back to Venezuela.”
• First: Springfield, OH is where a large number of Haitian people are living after escaping violence and famine in their home country. They are legal residents who cannot be deported just for being Black.
• Second: why did Dump claim he’d deport the Haitians to Venezuela instead of back to their own country? Why not Sweden? Or Zimbabwe? Or Australia? Dump is getting more and more confused each passing day.
• And since he brought up Springfield, OH, we need to seriously discuss what’s gong on there, because I am concerned.
• It was back in 2017 that Haitian immigrants began trickling into Springfield to work in local produce packaging and machining factories. Once home to major agricultural machinery companies in the mid-20th century, Springfield has lost a quarter of its population since the 1960s.
• By all accounts, those Haitians (as well as immigrants from Central American countries) have been in high demand at places like Springfield’s Dole Fresh Vegetables – where they’ve been hired to clean and package produce – and at automotive machining plants whose owners were desperate for workers due to a labor shortage in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• And they are considered to be excellent, hard workers who have dramatically increased productivity at the places where they’re been hired.
• Despite that, it wasn’t long before racists started being upset about the fact that people with dark skin were in their formerly white-dominated town.
• Armed neo-Nazi members of hardcore white supremacist group Blood Tribe flew flags bearing swastikas and marched through a prominent downtown street while a jazz and blues festival was taking place nearby in August.
• Members of the group pointed guns at cars and told people to “go the fuck back to Africa.”
• And then, of course, came the 100% false news that immigrants were eating dogs and cats in the city. Note that there is not a single documented instance of this happening.
• VP candidate JD Vance added fuel to the fire, claiming that “illegal immigrants” are “generally causing chaos all across Springfield” on the campaign trail in recent weeks. JD is well aware that the vast majority of immigrants in Springfield are all legal residents.
• Longtime Black residents of Springfield have reported being verbally abused when walking on the city’s streets, having been confused with members of the Haitian community.
• And them this past Thursday morning, a bomb threat prompted Springfield’s city hall, a school, and other government offices to be evacuated. Continued bomb threats by MAGA/Nazi groups forced a second day of school closures yesterday.
• So my concern is that Springfield, OH — a town of less than 60,000 people — is going to be the flashpoint of a major race-based event that some piece of shit is probably planning right this moment.
• Just over 100 years ago, in 1921, Tulsa, OK was the site of a two-day-long white supremacist terrorist massacre that culminated in the attackers burning and destroying more than 35 square blocks of the neighborhood.
• Don’t think it couldn’t happen today… and the fires are now being stoked by the leaders of the Republican party.
• Let’s move on… but keep your eye on this story. It’s not going away.
• Do we need to remind ourself about being assholes who pull out our guns and wreak havoc on people’s lives for (checks notes) not reason at all?
• A teenager in Colorado was with his buddy, searching out picturesque spots for a homecoming photo. The landowner’s boyfriend saw them on his security cam and assumed he was trespassing.
• So he drove to the property and shot the kid in the face. Brent Metz, 38, was charged with four felonies — first-degree assault, illegal discharge of a firearm and two counts of menacing — as well as two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment.
• The boys, who are minors and names have been redacted, went to their car to leave a note for the property owners. Metz pulled up and with no provocation, shot one of them through the car windshield.
• I should note that Metz is also an elected member of the Mountain View, CO town council. he was allowed to leave jail by promising to return for future court appearances. He faces decades in prison if convicted.
• Fucking piece of shit.
• Moving on.
• It might be time for Shein and Temu to face a new reality under rules proposed by the White House yesterday.
• You’re probably familiar with these ultra-cheap, ultra-fast Chinese retail giants. Both online retailers have been operating differently from most other big retailers, using a tax loophole that's saved them millions of dollars on import fees.
• Here’s how it works: instead of bringing large shipments into U.S. warehouses in bulk, Shein and Temu ship small individual orders directly to American shoppers. That means those packages can legally skip import taxes because U.S. law exempts shipments under $800 from import tax.
• Last year, more than 1 billion packages were shipped to the U.S. compared to 140 million a decade ago… an increase of over 700%.
• In addition to undercutting American workers, retailers, and manufacturers, this system also makes it harder for government officials to ensure the contents are legal and follow all the health, safety, intellectual-property, and consumer-protection rules.
• Please stop buying that cheap-ass shit.
• In other news… sometimes the pope really annoys me. Why’s he gotta be so holier-than-thou?
• Oh yeah, I forgot. He’s the pope. I guess that makes sense.
• Yesterday, Pope Francis described the choice US voters must make in the presidential election as one between the “lesser of two evils,” deeming Dump’s anti-migrant policies and Harris’s support of abortion rights as both being “against life.”
• Honestly, fuck you, Francis. I’ll make you a deal: you put an end to Catholic priests around the world having sex with children, and then maybe I’ll be more willing to listen to your advice on our politics.
• And now, The Weather: “Hound” by Sun Era
• From the Sports Desk… I thought this was nice.
• The Atlanta Falcons hosted the football team from Apalachee High School a week after a shooting left two students and two teachers dead. The high school players watched practice Friday from the sideline at the Falcons' training complex.
• Before their season opener, Falcons coaches and players wore Apalachee t-shirts during pregame warmups.
• Today in history… George Frideric Handel completes his oratorio ‘Messiah’ (1741). The Papal States lose Avignon to Revolutionary France (1791). President William McKinley dies after being mortally wounded on September 6 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz and is succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt (1901). The Hungarian Army kills 158 Romanian civilians in the Ip Massacre, an act of ethnic cleansing (1940). Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces in WWII (1944). The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, aka OPEC, is founded (1960). Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a gas balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean (1984). The Major League Baseball season is canceled because of a strike (1994). Microsoft releases Windows Me (2000). The first observation of gravitational waves is made, announced the following February by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations (2015). 
• September 14 is the birthday of theologian/astrologer/occultist/alchemist Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486), nurse/activist Margaret Sanger (1879), actor Walter Koenig (1936), basketball coach Larry Brown (1940), actor Sam Neill (1947), songwriter/guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith (1949), songwriter/guitarist Paul Kosoff (1950), politician Dmitry Medvedev (1965), US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (1970), rapper Nas (1973), politician Ron DeSantis (1978), singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse (1983), NFL player Michael Crabtree (1987),  and NBA player Jimmy Butler (1989).

I’m gonna wrap this news here because I have things to do… and tonight, for you Second Life folks, I have a show at 5PM SLT at Templemore. Gotta get ready for that too. Enjoy your day.