Random News: September 21, 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 21, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I’m up and about somewhat early for a Saturday, enjoying a big cup of coffee in my ubiquitous weekend bathrobe, so we might as well get into some news.

• Ba-dee-ya!
• If you know, you know. Check the date if you remember.
• Okay, now some news. Let’s start today’s roundup in Arizona, where after a state Supreme Court decision yesterday, almost 100,000 people whose voter registration status was in limbo will be able to participate in the full ballot in November.
• This is excellent news. Let me explain.
• The uncertainty regarding the voters’ fate came after the Maricopa County Recorder’s office discovered a clerical error from 2004. In 2005, Arizona state law required documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The state considers driver’s licenses that were issued after October of 1996 to be documentary proof of citizenship.
• But residents who received licenses prior to 1996 and who later received replacement IDs were automatically deemed to have had documented proof of citizenship on file when none had actually been provided.
• As a result of tightened regulations imposed in 2004, those voters had never been asked to comply with the stricter rules, leaving the voting status of 97,928 Arizonans in limbo. 
• Before anyone freaks out, this decision was applauded by both Democratic and Republican leaders.
• Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state Adrian Fontes said, ““Today marks a significant victory for those whose fundamental right to vote was under scrutiny. We deeply appreciate the Arizona Supreme Court for their prompt and just resolution.”
• But Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda joined him in applauding the court’s decision. last night, Swoboda said, “I could not be happier with this result. We’re very grateful to the state Supreme Court for protecting the voices of almost 98,000 voters who were in danger of being disenfranchised in this election.”
• Early voting in Arizona kicks off on October 9.
• Let’s move on to North Carolina, where the self-proclaimed “Black Nazi,” North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, refused to step aside in the race before yesterday’s deadline.
• It puts the whole Republican party into turmoil, even at the highest level. Donnie Dump knows all about Robinson’s exploits… but will not rescind his endorsement of him, because it would make Dump look back to go back after endorsing Robinson so heartily.
• The Dumpster is indeed facing calls both from his allies and from within his own campaign to pull his endorsement from Robinson, but so far, however, there are no plans for Dump to distance himself in any way.
• At least that’s what’s being said publicly. But Robinson has been quickly un-invited to speak or appear at Dump’s rally today in Wilmington, NC.
• When asked, Dump’s PR people just commented on Dump planning to win NC. And if you ask me, a guy like Robinson who loves transgender porn, says the right to vote should be taken away from women, and says he wants to own slaves is a perfect person for Dumples to endorse heartily.
• Can’t imagine why he’s suddenly unwelcome to appear in public with Dumpy. Huh.
• Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) straddled a fence so hard about Robinson that he must have some new hemorrhoids.
• Tillis wrote, “If the reporting on Mark Robinson is a total media fabrication, he needs to take immediate legal action. If the reporting is true, he owes it to President Trump and every Republican to take accountability for his actions and put the future of NC & our party before himself.” 
• North Carolinians, please cast your governor’s vote for Josh Stein. The world will thank you.
• Let’s move on.
• Last night, Kamala Harris held a massive rally in the Democratic stronghold of Madison, WI. The event continued a long tradition of that party’s candidates for president drawing huge crowds in the capital city of the swing state.
• Harris’s stop there yesterday was her fourth to Wisconsin as the nominee, and her first to Madison. Dump has been to Wisconsin for several rallies in 2024 and during the Republican National Convention, which was held in Milwaukee.
• And yes, while Madison is a Democratic stronghold, the race statewide in Wisconsin is expected to be tight.
• In related news…
• As of yesterday, the first in-person votes have been cast in the US presidential race, a milestone moment that comes six weeks before election day on November 5.
• Virginia became the first state in the country to allow in-person voting on Friday, and early polling sites will remain open there until November 2. Long lines were seen as voters cast ballots on national, state, and local levels.
• In two other states, Minnesota and South Dakota, voters beginning yesterday can hand in absentee ballots in person instead of mailing them.
• But the turnout in Virginia was massive… which is bad news for Republicans, who try and suppress the vote at nearly every opportunity.
• In the previous presidential election in 2020, Fairfax County saw about 1,200 voters for the entire first day of early voting. But turnout yesterday easily surpassed that.
• By mid-afternoon, 2,800 people had already voted in the county. By 7pm last night, 4,232 people had voted at the three open locations… and all three locations are open for voters today from 9am to 5pm.
• In other election news…
• Nebraska is one of only two states — the other being Maine — that awards some of its electoral votes by congressional district. So instead of the entire state going to the candidate who wins the popular vote there, the Omaha area has often been a “blue dot” in a sea of red.
• But Dump is now trying to kill that. In an election as close as this one might be, a single electoral vote from the Omaha area could pave Kamala Harris’s path to victory.
• Dump is pushing for a last-minute change regarding how the state allocates its electoral votes. State Sen. Merv Riepe (R) said he spoke with Dump on Wednesday. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was there on Dumpy’s orders to encourage Republicans in the state’s unicameral legislature to change to a statewide winner-take-all electoral vote system.
• What a prick.
• And now down to Georgia for more related news in GOP attempts to block a free and fair election.
• Yesterday, the Georgia State Election Board approved a controversial rule requiring a hand count of the number of ballots cast on Election Day.
• Yes, all of them.
• Republicans advanced the measure over the opposition of Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and attorney general and dozens of local election officials who said the last-minute change could cause delays and confusion on election night and the days that follow.
• The result might mean that Georgia’s vote tally could last weeks after Election Day.
• What I’m hoping for is solid wins for Harris in places like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and perhaps  North Carolina, which would render moot this attempt to obstruct our election process.
• But what the GOP is up against might not be able to be defeated by any of their sleazy means.
• Voter registration is breaking records as Election Day approaches, particularly among young people, including many first-time voters.
• On Tuesday's National Voter Registration Day, more than 150,000 people registered through Vote.org, the most the organization has ever seen on that day. The organization registered 279,400 voters in all of last year.
• And last week, more than 400,000 people visited a link posted on Instagram by pop star Taylor Swift that directed them to their state's voter registration site.
• Does that mean they’ll vote, though? Survey says yes; about 80% of people who register turn out in the next election. And guess what? A huge percentage of the newly registered voters are young people, many voting for the first time.
• We have to continue assuming that Kamala Harris is a big underdog to Dump, especially with all the voter repression and fake elector bullshit they have planned.
• I want her victory to be so extremely lopsided in a landslide that there is absolutely nothing that can be done to sabotage it.
• Let’s move on.
• Allow me to expand on something I mentioned yesterday, when we talked about people’s surprise at Kamala Harris being a gun owner.
• If you think that only men, or conservatives, or Republicans, or MAGAs own guns, you are way, way, way, completely wrong.
• When I talk about guns here — usually in regard to incidents of violence — what I am always referencing is sensible gun regulation.
• Limiting access to high-capacity semi-automatic weapons. Increasing the depth of background checks. Putting red flag laws in place. That kind of thing. You’ve heard me say it many times here.
• But never once have you heard me call for guns to be banned entirely, or guns to be taken away from owners. Nor have you heard me say I want to abolish the Second Amendment (though it could use some better interpretation for the modern world).
• I’m not the type of person to take pictures with guns, or to show photos of myself at a range, or talk about firearms in any kind of fetishist way like you see certain people do.
• But none of that means that, like Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, I’m not a responsible gun owner. And many liberal/Democrat people I know own guns. Kamala Harris owning one surprises me exactly zero percent.
• Let’s move on.
• In our continuing look at the pieces of shit who attempted to enact a coup against the USA on January 6, 2021, meet William Dunfee.
• Dunfee is an Ohio pastor who used a bullhorn to incite the January 6 mob of insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol. He was sentenced Thursday to two and a half years in prison and three years of supervised release after being found guilty of multiple offenses.
• He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $2,000 restitution.
• Since the Jan. 6 insurrection, more than 1,500 people have been charged in relation to the breach and more than 500 individuals have been charged with the felony of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
• Dump has promised to release these anti-American assholes from jail if elected. D NOT allow that miscarriage of justice to happen.
• Moving on.
• In the Continuing Adventures of Elmo the Asshole…
• The Securities and Exchange Commission intends to seek sanctions against Elon Musk over his failure to appear for testimony in an investigation related to his takeover of Twitter, now called X, per court filing yesterday.
• Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered Musk to testify as part of the SEC’s probe of his $44 billion acquisition. The agency is examining whether Musk followed the law when disclosing his purchases of Twitter stock and whether his statements in relation to the deal were misleading.
• Elmo was supposed to testify on September 10, and SEC lawyers flew to Los Angeles to take his testimony. But three hours before his testimony was set to begin, Elmo’s lawyer told the SEC that Elmos bailed on them to watch launch of one of his little rocket ships.
• The SEC alleges that Elmo violated a court order requiring that he seek written consent of the SEC or order of the Court to modify the date of his testimony, which he blew off before failing to appear on September 10.
• Fucking prick.
• From the Health Desk… a word to the wise.
• My significant other and I went yesterday to CVS, where we had an appointment to get COVID vaccine boosters. She is insured; I, as a self-employed person, am not. I could be and should be, but I’ll tell you it is outrageously expensive, even under the Affordable Care Act.
• So, her COVID vaccine, as has been the case for both of us the entirety of the pandemic, was free.
• Mine was $180-something plus tax, coming in at just under $200. So that fucking sucked, having to shell out two bills that I hadn’t planned on doing, but frankly I should have health insurance, and I’m aware of that, so I’ll try not to complain.
• But it did suck. Side note: the vaccines — Moderna, as usual — went fine and neither of us got ill afterwards.
• And now, The Weather: “Good Friend” by Snoozer
• From the Sports Desk… as I mentioned not long ago, we’re getting down to the final games of the regular season in MLB, and now some of the playoff slots are getting filled.
• Four teams have now secured playoff berths… the Yankees, Guardians, Brewers, and Dodgers. Milwaukee has also become the first team to clinch a division… the NL Central.
• The other teams who are almost certainly playoff-bound: the Orioles, Royals, Astros, Phillies, and Padres. Hanging on by a thread (but not eliminated) are the Twins, Tigers, Mets, Braves, and Diamondbacks.
• And yes, we now have a good number of teams eliminated from the 2024 playoffs: the White Sox, Athletics, Angels, Nationals, Marlins, Reds, Pirates, Giants, and Rockies are out of contention. 
• The final games of the regular season will be played on Sunday September 29.
• Today in history… The Kingdom of Dublin falls to Norman invaders (1170). A Hanoverian army is defeated in ten minutes by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1745). Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point (1780). France’s National Convention abolishes the monarchy (1792). Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China (1898). Salvador Lutteroth establishes Mexican professional wrestling (1933). In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews (1942). Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom (1964). Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations (1971). Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice (1981). The Defense of Marriage Act is passed by the United States Congress (1996). The Galileo spacecraft is terminated by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere (2003). 
• September 21 is the birthday of painter Barbara Longhi (1552), actor Maurice Barrymore (1849), actor John Bunny (1863), novelist H. G. Wells (1866), US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson (1867), composer Gustav Holst (1874), publisher Allen Lane (1902), animator Chuck Jones (1912), physicist Donald A. Glaser (1926), actor Larry Hagman (1931), singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934), film producer Jerry Bruckheimer (1943), songwriter/guitarist Don Felder (1947), author Stephen King (1947), actor Bill Murray (1950), guitarist/keyboardist Dave Gregory (1952), Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe (1954), drummer Phil Taylor (1954), film director Ethan Coen (1957), actor Dave Coulier (1959), actress Cheryl Hines (1965), singer-songwriter Faith Hill (1967), talk show host Ricki Lake (1968), actor Luke Wilson (1971), singer-songwriter Liam Gallagher (1972), NFL player Jon Kitna (1972), and NFL player Doug Baldwin (1988).

Okay, that’s enough. Ba-dee-ya! I’m gonna take a shower and put on clothes and so on. Enjoy your day.