Random News: September 5, 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 5, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. This week so far has once again proven my theory that for many of us, holiday weekends mean that you only get 80% of the time to do 100% of the work the subsequent week. Yes, this is me complaining about being busy. I’ll try to stop that. Lots of important news, so let’s jump in.

• It’s been awhile, but not nearly long enough, since we had to open our news with a story about a mass shooting at a school here in the USA.
• But yesterday morning, a 14-year-old student named Colt Gray opened fire at a Georgia high school and killed four people and sent another nine or more to the hospital in varying condition.
• He used an AR-15-type rifle. Because of course he did.
• The dead were identified as two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, GA, about an hour’s drive from Atlanta.
• Two school resource officers encountered the shooter within minutes. The suspect, a student at the school, immediately surrendered and was taken into custody. He was being charged as an adult with murder.
• Last year in 2023, Gray had been questioned by law enforcement regarding anonymous tips about online threats to commit a school shooting. The online threats included photographs of guns.
• His father stated at the time that he had hunting guns in the house, but the kid did not have unsupervised access to them. Agencies claim that at the time, there was no probable cause for arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state, or federal level.
• Sigh.
• Winder, GA now joins a sorrowful list of cities with large mass murders in schools, including Columbine, CO, Newtown, CT, Parkland, FL, Uvalde, TX, and far too many others. 
• None of these mass shootings of children have affected gun laws in any meaningful way. Before yesterday’s shooting, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. so far this year. At least 127 people have died in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the definition defined by the FBI.
• Last year ended with 217 deaths from 42 mass killings in the U.S., making 2023 one of the deadliest years on record for such shootings in the country.
• More children die from gun violence than via any other cause in the United States, but little is done to research or prevent these tragedies.
• From 2008 to 2017, just $12 million in federal research awards were granted to study pediatric firearm mortality each year – about $600 per life lost.
• Want a comparison? Motor vehicle crashes, the leading cause of death among children at the time, received about $26,000 of research funding per death.
• Funding to study pediatric cancer, the third leading cause of death, topped $195,000 per death.
• But no. The US government likes killing children. If they didn’t, they would have used one of the many, many opportunities to fix this via legislation of common sense gun laws.
• If your government representative has an A grade from the NRA, he or she is every bit as much to blame for this epidemic of preventable child deaths as the shooters themselves.
• The state of Georgia makes this kind of avoidable tragedy easy to enact.
• Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill in 2022 that made it legal for gun owners in the state to carry a concealed handgun in public without obtaining a permit.
• The state also doesn't require a license to carry a handgun in a resident's home, vehicle or place of business, nor does it require background checks in private sales of firearms.
• In 2017, the state passed a law requiring colleges and universities to allow guns on campus, and teachers are allowed to carry the weapons at schools.
• Let’s move on, as we always seem to, while doing nothing to stop the inevitable next mass shooting.
• With some huge news that directly affects the 2024 presidential election and more.
• A federal indictment unsealed yesterday alleges that a Tenet Media, Tennessee-based media company which played home to several prominent right-leaning online commentators, was secretly a Russian government-backed influence operation.
• The company is accused of receiving nearly $10 million from employees of Russia Today (RT), a Russian state-backed media company, as part of “a scheme to create and distribute content to US audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” according to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
• The right-wing media figures involved in this Russian propaganda. attack include well-known podcasters and YouTubers Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, Taylor Hansen, Lauren Southern, and Matt Christiansen, who variously present themselves as independent journalists, documentarians, and political commentators.
• Most of them have kept silent about the indictment. Johnson soon wrote on social media that he and other influencers had been ‘victims in this alleged scheme.’”
• Hmm.
• The indictment alleges that RT and two specific employees — Kostiantyn “Kostya” Kalashnikov and Elena “Lena” Afanasyeva — worked to funnel money to Tenet Media as part of a series of “covert projects” to shape the opinions of Western audiences.
• Also specified in the indictment is info that Tenet’s coverage “contain commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics… consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions.”
• So, Pool and the rest are either criminals, or they’re so stupid that they’ve been fooled into being criminals. Per the indictment, it looks more like option 2.
• It alleges that “Founders 1 and 2” of the company knew the source of their funding. The founders of Tenet Media are Lauren Chen and her husband; Chen is a conservative influencer and YouTuber who’s hosted a show on Blaze TV and who’s affiliated with Turning Point USA. Her husband Liam Donovan identifies himself on Twitter as the president of Tenet Media. 
• And then it states that the RT officials and Founders 1 and 2 “also worked together to deceive two U.S. online commentators (“Commentator-I” and “Commentator-2″), who respectively have over 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers.” Dave Rubin has 2.4 million YouTube subscribers; Tim Pool has 1.37 million.
• Fucking dipshits, getting paid and used to spread Russian propaganda to their large viewership of susceptible people who are too naive and/or stupid to know better.
• Tenet Media’s Russia-funded shows in recent months have featured high-profile conservative guests, including RNC co-chair Lara Trump, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake.
• And Dump himself has appeared alongside Pool on Pool’s IRL Podcast… and Pool even visited Dump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in May.
• That indictment was only one of two steps announced yesterday by Merrick Garland and the Biden administration to push back against Russian attempts to spread disinformation ahead of the November presidential election.
• In the other action, officials announced the seizure of 32 internet domains that were used by the Kremlin to spread Russian propaganda and weaken global support for Ukraine.
• The websites were designed to look like authentic news sites but were actually fake, with bogus social media personas designed to look like they belonged to American users.
• In many cases, Americans may have no idea that the content they see online either originated or was amplified by the Kremlin.
• The Kremlin is outsourcing work to marketing and communications firms within Russia for creating digital propaganda while also covering their tracks. Two such firms were the subject of new U.S. sanctions announced in March. Authorities say the two Russian companies created fake websites and social media profiles to spread Kremlin disinformation.
• Internal strategy notes released yesterday make clear that Donnie Dump and his campaign were the intended beneficiaries.
• Let’s move on… for now.
• Liz Cheney, former Republican congresswoman from Wyoming and daughter of former Republican VP Dick Cheney, said yesterday that she plans to vote for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in November.
• “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. And because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said at an event at Duke University.
• Well said, and congratulations on sticking to your ethics. It’s impressive to see.
• In international news, French President Emmanuel Macron has named Michel Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, as prime minister of France.
• The 73-year-old conservative must now face a no-confidence vote in the lower house of parliament before assuming governance.
• The announcement hopes to end a weeks-long political standoff and resolve a hung parliament that emerged after the surprise victory of the five-party left-wing New Popular Front coalition in the run-off vote of July 7.
• Macron’s centrist “Together” bloc came in second in the election, with the far-right Rassemblement National coming in third.
• Good luck with all that, France.
• Back in the USA, the upcoming debate between Kamala Harris and Dumples the Clown now has set rules agreed upon by both parties.
• The presidential debate between Dump and Harris on September 10 has each candidate agreeing to the rules after they clashed over whether the microphones should be muted when the other candidate is speaking.
• They settled on the same set of rules at the previous debate in June, where microphones will only be live during each candidate’s turn to speak and will be muted when it’s their opponent’s turn to speak.
• Next Tuesday’s debate will be moderated by ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis and will take place in the the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA without an audience. The debate will be 90 minutes long and include two commercial breaks.
• Each candidate will have two minutes to answer the questions, two minutes for rebuttals, and one additional minute “for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.” Candidates are not allowed to ask questions of each other.
• They will each have a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water but will not be allowed any prewritten notes or props. Campaign staff will also not be allowed to interact with their candidates during commercial breaks.
• Seems fine to me.
• Hey, do we like or trust polls here at Zak’s Random News? To quote Amy Winehouse, no, no, no.
• But this one was so spectacularly lopsided, I’m sharing it more for entertainment’s sake than any informational benefit.
• Kamala Harris’s lead over Dumpy among Americans under the age of 45 has expanded to an incredibly wide margin, per a new poll. 
• The new Economist/YouGov poll, released yesterday, found that Harris has a 22 percentage point lead, 56 to 34 percent, over Dump among adults 45 and younger.
• And I should also point out that among registered voters who are 65 and older, Dump bested Harris with 56 percent support compared to her 39 percent. 
• But even among “older youngsters” aged 30 to 44, Harris gets 53 percent support to Dump’s 36 percent.
• I will also mention here that Allan Lichtman, the historian who correctly predicted the outcome of nine out of the ten most recent presidential elections, has made his guess on who will reclaim the White House this year.
• Lichtman uses 13 specific criteria factors for his predictions. They are whether: the White House party gained House seats during the midterm elections, the sitting president is running for re-election, the White House party is avoiding a primary contest, there is a third-party challenger, the short-term economy is strong, the long-term economy growth has been as good as the last two terms, the White House party has made major changes to national policy, there is sustained social unrest during the term, the White House is untainted by scandal, the incumbent party is charismatic, the challenger is uncharismatic, the incumbent is charismatic, the White House party has major failure in foreign policy, and the White House party has foreign policy success.
• His prediction? Eight of the keys are in favor of Harris, while three are in favor of Trump.
• Lichtman says that Kamala Harris will be the next President of the United States.
• Which is cool and all, but again, for those in the back: out of hundreds of millions of votes, about 50,000 people in seven states will determine the electoral vote and the presidency.
• How fucked up is that?
• We have a lot of work to ensure that Harris beats Dump, and we only have 60 more days to do it. Let’s fucking go.
• And now, The Weather: “Not Just Yet” by Enumclaw
• From the Sports Desk… there is a real-ass NFL game on tonight. I repeat, the 2024-25 NFL season begins tonight at 5:20pm PDT.
• The Baltimore Ravens are visiting the current champion Kansas City Chiefs. It’s a rematch of the 2023 AFC Championship Game. Odds on the game are tight, with the Chiefs being favored by a field goal.
• Fun fact: this opener features a quarterback duel of Patrick Mahomes vs. Lamar Jackson. It’s the first time two multi-MVP winners under 30 have faced off in Week 1.
• Side note: the defending Super Bowl champion has lost just five times since 2004 when appearing in the kickoff game. That being said, I’d love for the Ravens to kick some ass.
• The Chiefs are in the AFC West along with my beloved Las Vegas Raiders. Hence, it is my solemn duty to wish bad things upon them.
• Today in history… Louis XIV's Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers (1661). Tsar Peter I of Russia imposes a tax on beards for all men except the clergy and peasantry (1698). First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia (1774). The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses (1812). Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas (1836). The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City (1882). A group of youths affiliated with the fascist National Socialist Movement of Chile are executed after surrendering during a failed coup (1938). Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg constitute Benelux (1944). Cassius Clay wins the gold medal in the light heavyweight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome, later changing his name to Muhammad Ali (1960). Squeaky Fromme attempts to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford (1975). NASA launches the Voyager 1 spacecraft (1977). The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage (1984). Liz Truss is declared the winner of the UK Conservative Party leadership election, beating Rishi Sunak (2022).
• September 5 is the birthday of king Louis VIII — my 26th great-grandfather (1187), king Louis XIV (1638), composer Johann Christian Bach (1735), poet/author Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817), inventor Lester Allan Pelton (1829), outlaw Jesse James (1847), pianist/composer Amy Beach (1867), MLB player Nap Lajoie (1874), composer John Cage (1912), actor/comedian Bob Newhart (1929), author Werner Erhard (1935), singer-songwriter/guitarist John Stewart (1939), actress Raquel Welch (1940), director Werner Herzog (1942), singer-songwriter Al Stewart (1945), singer-songwriter Freddie Mercury (1946), singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III (1946), singer-songwriter/drummer Buddy Miles (1947), cartoonist Cathy Guisewite (1950), actor Michael Keaton (1951), NFL player Willie Gault (1960), drummer/songwriter Brad Wilk (1968), guitarist Dweezil Zappa (1969), director/musician Liam Lynch (1970), actress Rose McGowan (1973), NBA player Lance Stephenson (1990), and NFL player Mac Jones (1998).

Wow, that’s a lot of important news. You can expect a bunch of follow-up on these stories as more details become clear. Now it’s time for me to do mundane stuff, like exercising my body and then earning a living. Enjoy your day.