Random News: September 23, 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 23, 2024, and it’s a Monday. Waking up on a day where I can unquestionably dress in jeans instead of shorts tells me that autumn arrived exactly when it was supposed to. We have a ton of news to impart, so let’s jump in.

• I thought we’d open today with another big endorsement for Kamala Harris. It’s from a bipartisan collection of 741 former senior national security leaders.
• Among them are over 230 general and flag officers — including 15 retired four-star generals and admirals — 10 cabinet secretaries, 10 service secretaries, and 148 ambassadors.
• The National Security Leaders for America characterized the election as "a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism." In the letter, the group says Vice President Harris will "make an excellent Commander-in-Chief."
• Perhaps the most important part of the statement: “We are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We are loyal to the ideals of our nation—like freedom, democracy, and the rule of law—not to any one individual or party.”
• Same here.
• In other news… the government will stay open a little while — or, more accurately, the Republicans won’t risk party suicide by closing it down right before a national election.
• Yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a temporary agreement that would keep the government funded until December 20… and the measure does not include any part of the SAVE Act, the election security proposal backed by Dumpy.
• The measure, minus the absolutely ridiculous security proposal, is expected to have broad bipartisan support and pass the House.
• As I have already said many times, the SAVE Act was entirely unnecessary and performative; it is already illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote. There are extremely few instances of it ever having happened.
• And now, of course, the far-right MAGA portion of the GOP will be screaming for Johnson’s head. So it goes.
• Back to election news.
• Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris raised $27 million — yes, twenty-seven million dollars, you read it right — at a packed New York City fundraiser. It was her largest fundraising haul since she took over at the top of the ticket.
• Though Harris has raised far more money than Dumpster, the money will be needed to compete with pricey advertising by deep-pocketed outside groups that support him.
• The blockbuster fundraiser was held at Cipriani Wall Street in a massive Greek Revival ballroom. Much of the crowd stood shoulder to shoulder as Harris needled El Pollo for refusing to debate her again.
• In other news…
• The conflicts around Israel continue to get worse.
• A number of Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have killed 182 people and injured 727. It’s the heaviest daily toll in nearly a year of cross-border clashes, and the deadliest in the long-running conflict since 2006.
• Children, women and paramedics were among the casualties in the strikes on southern towns and villages as thousands of people fled north along the main road towards the capital, Beirut.
• Sigh. Maybe someday people will evolve past the need for violent conflict. Maybe not.
• Moving on with some advice for anyone who is assuming there will be an easy victory for either side of the presidential election in 43 days.
• Polling since the September 10 debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris shows that the 2024 presidential election will be the closest race for the White House in the past 60 years.
• In other words, in my entire lifetime, and most of yours as well.
• While Harris seems to have a slight national edge over Dumpster, their race remains well within the margin of error and too close to call. This is especially the case when looking at the Electoral College.
• The Democratic nominee’s largest leads in polls in 2016 and 2020 were at least double where Harris is now.
• When I say to act as if we were underdogs, this is exactly what I’m talking about. There can be no rest until November 5. Do anything in your power to help people understand how Harris will be a great leader for the USA.
• Thank you.
• In other election news…
• Yesterday, the entire staff of Republican candidate for North Carolina Mark Robinson’s campaign team resigned.
• Womp womp.
• Yes, this is the self-proclaimed Black Nazi who wants to own slaves and yet remains endorsed by Donald Trump.
• Conrad Pogorzelski, Robinson’s general consultant and senior advisor, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, finance director Heather Whillier, and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk all stepped down just weeks before the election.
• Robinson has vowed to stay in the race. I sincerely hope he does.
• Speaking of voting and stuff…
• Something I posted about but neglected to cover in my news over the weekend: on Friday, I received my California Voter Information Guide, a 144-page tome that includes details on all ten of the statewide ballot propositions.
• On Saturday for fun — because this is what’s fun to me — I pulled up Ballotpedia and went over each of the 10 prepositions we have here in the Golden State.
• Then yesterday, I perused Blue Voter Guide to learn some more about local initiatives and down ballot races. I’m damn near ready to go.
• However, I’m not ready to do my full list of endorsements just yet… and besides, those will only be useful to California residents (and some only to my very local area). But I will eventually publish them anyway.
• Let’s do some international news.
• Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake won Sri Lanka’s presidential election yesterday, as voters rejected the old political guard that has been widely accused of pushing the South Asian nation toward economic ruin.
• Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, secured victory over opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the country two years ago after its economy hit bottom.
• Do you know what a Marxist is?
• You know, I always hear words being tossed around to describe a particular sociopolitical outlook, and I’m pretty sure that 90% of the time the person using the word has no fucking idea what they’re talking about.
• Seriously, ask a random person to state the differences between Marxism, communism, and socialism. Watch their brains melt.
• I can give you the answer, because it’s super simple.
• Marxism and communism are interrelated in theory, but never in practice. Marxism is a philosophy where workers own the means of production. In real-world communism, governments own the means of production, but it never fairly benefits the people.
• Socialism is different. While communism eliminates private property in the hopes of creating equality, socialism seeks greater equality by creating more equal distribution of wealth.
• What am I? Like most Americans, I’m a capitalist, even though it’s a fucking horrible system that ensures the greatest gap between the rich, a shrinking middle class, and the poor. 
• And that gap only grows worse over time, which is why many refer to the current era as “late-stage capitalism,” because it’s nearly at a point where only a tiny handful of people will have all of the money. No purely capitalist society can sustain itself forever.
• So the better description of my own sociopolitical outlook would be of a Democratic Socialist, like that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bernie Sanders, and many others. That’s a system where capitalism remains in place, but there is — to varying degrees — some form of a socially owned economy to everyone’s benefit.
• While someone like Tucker Carlson would therefore — ridiculously and erroneously — call me a Marxist (like they do people like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris), we’re all barely left of center in reality. Whatever.
• Let’s move on.
• From the Health Desk… Americans will soon be able to order free COVID-19 test kits that will be mailed to their homes.
• And I strongly suggest you do.
• U.S. households will be able to order as many as four nasal swab tests at COVIDTests.gov when the federal program reopens shortly. The U.S. Health and Human Services agency has not yet given an exact date when ordering can begin.
• The tests will detect current virus strains and can be ordered ahead of the holiday season. They’re always good to have around.
• And get your immunity updated like I did on Friday. While most Americans have some degree of immunity from prior infections or vaccinations or both, that protection wanes. I’m gonna guess that you got your last COVID booster about a year ago.
• But last fall’s shot targeted a different part of the coronavirus family tree, a strain that’s no longer circulating.
• Get your update. I’m now on Zak 7.0, all Moderna, baby.
• And now, The Weather: “Lightning Strike” by Lutalo
• Let’s do a chart.
• After getting her Juris Doctor (law degree) from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco in 1989, the following year Kamala Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart for this date in 1990.
• 1. Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em (M.C. Hammer). 2. Wilson Phillips (Wilson Phillips). 3. Mariah Carey (Mariah Carey). 4. Blaze Of Glory/Young Guns II (Jon Bon Jovi). 5. Poison (Bell Biv DeVoe). 6. Graffiti Bridge (Soundtrack) (Prince). 7. Flesh And Blood (Poison). 8. Soul Provider (Michael Bolton). 9. Compositions (Anita Baker). 10. Empire (Queensryche). 11. I'll Give All My Love To You (Keith Sweat). 12. Step By Step (New Kids On The Block). 13. Violator (Depeche Mode). 14. The Real Thing (Faith No More). 15. Ghost (Soundtrack). 16. Time's Up (Living Colour). 17....But Seriously (Phil Collins). 18. After The Rain (Nelson). 19. Johnny Gill (Johnny Gill). 20. Stick It To Ya (Slaughter).
• From the Sports Desk… for the second week in a row, the NFL hosted a sea of upsets on Sunday. 
• Of the 13 games played yesterday, seven were won by the underdog. It’s a topsy-turvy world out there, and apparently no one knows shit.
• Today in history… Drusilla, the sister of Caligula with whom the emperor is said to have had an incestuous relationship, is deified (38). The Mongols beat the Ming dynasty at the Battle of Kherlen (1409). King Philip II of Spain orders a halt to colonizing efforts in Florida (1561). The first commencement exercises occur at Harvard College (1642). John Paul Jones, naval commander of the USS Bonhomme Richard, wins the Battle of Flamborough Head (1779). Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States (1806). The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York (1845). Astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune (1846). Nintendo is founded to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda (1889). Norway and Sweden peacefully dissolve the union between the two countries (1905). Roland Garros of France becomes the first to fly in an airplane across the Mediterranean (1913). The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opens in New York City (1962). The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released (2002). 
• September 23 is the birthday of Roman emperor Augustus (63 BC), Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan (1215), violinist/composer Giovanni Maria Bononcini (1642), journalist/activist Victoria Woodhull (1838), engineer/businessman Robert Bosch (1861), activist Mary Church Terrell (1863), musicologist John Lomax (1867), actor Walter Pidgeon (1897), actor Mickey Rooney (1920), saxophonist/composer John Coltrane (1926), singer-songwriter/pianist Ray Charles (1930), singer-songwriter/guitarist Roy Buchanan (1939), singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias (1943), NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer (1943), singer-songwriter/guitarist Bruce Springsteen (1949), actress Rosalind Chao (1957), singer-songwriter/guitarist Ani DiFranco (1970), press secretary/dancer Sean Spicer (1971), actor Karl Pilkington (1972), actor Anthony Mackie (1978), and MLB player Matt Kemp (1984).

That’s a lot of news for a Monday. I think you can expect a ton of news most days between now and November 5, and beyond. But you know, that’s what life is; things happen and we talk about them, and maybe form opinions and we all live and learn. Enjoy your day.