Random News: September 4, 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 4, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. Lots of stuff happening around the world, as usual. You know, the scary thing is that a lot of the news items that may be the most impactful on your life never gets covered in the news. Thank about that.

• Let’s start with abortion. The issue of reproductive freedom will remain one of the key decision points in the 2024 general election.
• One example is Florida. A state that should have been a sure thing for Republicans is now in sway.
• While winning the Sunshine State remains an uphill climb for Democrats, Vice President Harris’s campaign has increased its presence in Florida amid an effort to legalize abortion in the state through a ballot initiative that will go before voters in November.
• Yesterday, the “Fighting for Reproductive Rights” bus tour launched in Palm Beach, the hometown of Lord Dumpy, with Harris surrogates meeting with voters to discuss access to reproductive rights.
• Additionally, polls show an increasingly tight race for Florida’s Senate seat, as former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL) hammers incumbent Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) on abortion rights.
• Last week, Dumpy made headlines when he said he thought the state’s six-week abortion ban was “too short.” However, less than 24 hours later, Flip-Flopper Dumpy said he will vote against Florida’s Amendment 4, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution. 
• Let’s move over to Tennessee, another state where the rights of people are under attack… to the point that Republicans are taking steps to protect their children from draconian conservative laws.
• More than 30 prominent Republican officials and conservative leaders filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday, opposing a Tennessee law that bars transition-related care for minors.
• They wrote, “While the government has a role in keeping kids safe, that role is limited, and it does not justify the State second-guessing the judgments of parents acting in good faith who are best positioned to know what their children need. States have no business overruling the decisions of fit parents who make an informed medical choice for their children that is supported by their doctors, by the medical profession more generally, but the children themselves, and by their conscience.” 
• Goddamn right. Well done, Tennessee Republicans.
• The Supreme Court agreed in June to hear the case, L.W. v. Skrmetti, as Republican lawmakers in dozens of states have introduced bills to restrict gender-affirming care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries — for minors and, in some states, adults on Medicaid. So far, 26 states, including Tennessee, have adopted such measures.
• All of this big government meddling into the decisions of individuals and families may very well bite them in the ass… faster than they could have believed.
• Moving on.
• What is Kamala Harris doing today? She’s using a New Hampshire campaign stop to propose an expansion of tax incentives for small businesses.
• She wants to expand from $5,000 to $50,000 tax incentives for small business startup expenses, with the goal of eventually spurring 25 million new small business applications over four years.
• She’ll be at Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, outside Portsmouth, and meet with co-founders Annette Lee and Nicole Carrier. Their brewery got support to open its current location through a small business credit and installed solar panels using federal programs championed by the Biden administration.
• Nice! Good plan.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, a federal judge denied Donnie Dump’s request to move the New York hush money case to federal court, finding there is nothing in the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling that alters his view of the fact that the payments were “private, unofficial acts.”
• Womp womp, ya’ fucking criminal.
• Last week, Dump’s attorneys sought to move the state case to federal court, an effort they previously lost, citing the Supreme Court’s decision this summer that granted immunity for some of Dump’s conduct that fell within his official powers. They also urged the judge to postpone Dump’s sentencing, currently set for September 18.
• Not only did Judge Alvin Hellerstein reject the long shot bid, but he also found that Dump’s reimbursement to Michael Cohen, who facilitated hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, were not official acts he took as president.
• I wouldn’t get your hopes up for the sentencing — either happening as scheduled two weeks from today, or in its severity you think is deserved for 34 felony counts — but for now this is very good news.
• Let’s move back to another prominent Republican who cannot support Dumples the Clown. It’s 1st Lt. Jimmy McCain, son of the late Sen. and presidential candidate John McCain.
• The last straw for McCain, who has served in the military for 17 years, was Dump’s conduct at Arlington National Cemetery, the hallowed ground where several generations of McCain’s family, including his grandfather and great grandfather, are buried.
• He changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to vote for Kamala Harris in November, adding that he “would get involved in any way I could” to help her campaign.
• Let’s move over to some international news.
• Two ballistic missiles blasted a military academy and nearby hospital yesterday in Ukraine, killing more than 50 people and wounding more than 200 others. It’s one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began.
• War fucking sucks, and it’s stupid and pointless. No one wins… especially not the people doing the fighting and risking their lives.
• Also in international news, the Justice Department announced terrorism charges against six Hamas leaders including Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the group’s deadly October 7 attack against Israel.
• Seems kinda late, no? Turns out that the charges were filed under seal on February 1, in order to be ready to take Hamas leaders into custody if needed. But after several of them died (among other recent developments in the region), the seal was no longer necessary.
• Back in the USA…
• Linda Sun, a former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was charged with acting as an agent for the Chinese government.
• She was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registrations Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy, per the indictment. Her husband was similarly charged.
• Their home was raided by federal investigators in July, and both were arrested yesterday morning.
• Maybe hire better people, folks?
• Moving on.
• The town where I grew up, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, remains in national news. Yesterday, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency on Tuesday for the city amid the ongoing land movement threatening hundreds of homes.
• I spent the summer after my first year of college working for the city of RPV. I gotta say, I’m glad I don’t work there now. What a horrible situation.
• And now, The Weather: “Into the Night” by Z Berg
• In real weather news, Phoenix, AZ hit a scary milestone yesterday: 100 degrees for the 100th day in a row. The longest previous 100-degree streak was 76 days in 1993.
• In other words, this year has seen an uninterrupted stretch of 100-degrees days at least 3½ weeks longer than in any other year since records began in 1896.
• That can’t be a good sign.
• From the Sports Desk… the NFL season opens tomorrow. Here’s the top of the power rankings, per a bunch of writers who usually don’t get it right.
• 1. Chiefs. 2. 49ers. 3. Ravens. 4. Lions. 5. Eagles. 6. Bengals. 7. Texans. 8. Bills. 9. Packers. 10. Cowboys.
• Those assholes have my Raiders at #29 out of 32 teams. Maybe they can use that for a little inspiration to not suck.
• Today in history… Romulus Augustulus is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself "King of Italy", thus ending the Western Roman Empire (476). The worst day of the Great Fire of London (1666). 44 Spanish settlers found El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles, now known as Los Angeles (1781). After almost 30 years of fighting, Apache leader Geronimo surrenders to General Nelson Miles in Arizona (1886). George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak and receives a patent for his camera that uses roll film (1888). A German submarine makes the first attack of tWWII against a US warship, the USS Greer (1941). The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference (1951). The governor of Arkansas calls out the National Guard to prevent Black students from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School (1957). Mark Spitz becomes the first competitor to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games (1972). Two students at Stanford University named Larry Page and Sergey Brin found something called Google (1998).
• September 4 is the birthday of businessman Stephen Whitney (1776), inventor Lewis Howard Latimer (1848),  businessman William Lyons (1901), mob boss Mickey Cohen (1913), businessman Henry Ford II (1917), chemist George William Gray (1926), actor Dick York (1928), golfer Raymond Floyd (1942), singer-songwriter/drummer/guitarist Gene Parsons (1944), guitarist Danny Gatton (1945), golfer Tom Watson (1949), drummer Martin Chambers (1951), radio/TV host Drew Pinsky (1958), guitarist/songwriter Kim Thayil (1960), actor Damon Waynans (1960), MLB player Mike Piazza (1968), actress Ione Skye (1970), music producer Mark Ronson (1975), singer-songwriter Beyoncé (1981), and comedian Kyle Mooney (1984).

Okay then. Oh, I had a really fun live music show at Hotel Chelsea in Second Life last night. I’ll be writing about that when I can. Enjoy your day.