Random News: September 6, 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 6, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! My brain is behaving like a 1970 Chevelle; it’s taking awhile to start up but once it does it runs like hell. Hey, that rhymed. Let’s do a shit-ton of news.

• Out of necessity, I have some follow-up on the mass shooting this week at Apalachee High School in Winder, GA.
• The father of Colt Gray, the teen gunman who killed four people at shot many more at his high school, told police that he gave his son the AR-15-style rifle used in the massacre as a Christmas gift last year.
• Keep in mind that on May 22, 2023, members of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office went to the home of his father, Colin Gray, to investigate multiple tips from the FBI from a Discord user that the teenager allegedly threatened to shoot up a middle school the next day.
• Gray gave the AR-15 to his son in December… months AFTER the FBI visit.
• The victims who died include two students, Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, as well as two teachers, Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimie. The nine other victims who were hospitalized after the shooting are expected to survive their injuries.
• I am glad to report that Colin Gray, 54, is now being charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children.
• The son has been charged with four counts of felony murder.
• Obviously the entire situation is unacceptable… unless you’re a Republican politician.
• Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) gave his opinion on the mass shooting. “We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it. I don’t like that this is a fact of life.” 
• If JD Vance doesn’t like it, maybe he should call his Senator and demand common sense gun laws. Oh wait, he is the Senator. And he’s never done a goddamn thing about it. To Dump and Vance, having our children slaughtered is just a fact of life.
• It’s not a fact of life in any country but the USA. But neither of them can come up with one solution, despite having been in positions to affect change. They don’t want to. Simple as that.
• Vance said what the families in Winder, GA need are prayers and sympathy. I think they need a time machine to elect a politician who’s not insane and doesn’t allow the circumstances that resulted in their children being dead or wounded. 
• Let’s move on.
• In a sign of things to come if Donnie Dump is elected — and a play directly from his Project 2025 — the state of Texas sued the Biden administration on Wednesday in a bid to block a rule designed to protect the privacy of women living in states that ban abortion who travel over state lines for the procedure.
• In a federal suit Texas asked a judge to strike down a rule issued in June that strengthened the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy rule regarding reproductive health. The rule prohibits the disclosure of protected health information related to reproductive health care in certain circumstances.
• Texas wants to remove your right to medical privacy so they can prosecute women trying to escape the state, forcing them to carry and deliver children against their will.
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued the rule would unlawfully restrict state law enforcement investigations. Paxton wants the state to be able to track how and when you got pregnant and then lock you down, not allowing you to have autonomy over your own body.
• The rule, announced earlier this year, came in the wake of concerns that patients who travel to clinics for legal abortion or reproductive care will eventually have their records sought following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
• Because that’s exactly what Texas wants to do. Fucking disgusting. For the love of all that’s good in the world, please vote for Kamala Harris, who will make it a priority to enshrine abortion rights nationwide.
• Thank you.
• Let’s move on.
• Following up on our story yesterday about Tenet Media… 
• YouTube took down several right-wing politics channels that had been linked with allegations from the Justice Department that Russian government employees were paying right-wing influencers in the United States to produce content.
• They terminated Tenet Media and four other channels run by right-wing media entrepreneur Lauren Chen as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations.
• YouTube was the main platform for videos produced by Tenet Media and is popular with conservative media personalities, including those who had worked with Tenet, such as Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, and Dave Rubin.
• Pool and Johnson have both issued statements that they are merely victims and had no idea that it was Russia who was paying them $100,000 per video to spread their misinformation to unsuspecting Americans.
• Guess we’ll see about that. Moving on.
• How are things going with the legal woes of El Dumpo? Not so good.
• Yesterday, in the first court hearing in nearly a year, a lawyer for Dump clashed with the judge in the federal election interference prosecution case.
• This case charges Dump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.
• Dump lawyer John Lauro told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that the Supreme Court’s opinion required the outright dismissal of the case. She made it clear that she thinks this is a crock of shit.
• She also bristled at Lauro’s reference to the November election, such as when he said: “This process is inherently unfair, particularly during this sensitive time.”
• “I understand that there is an election. The court is not concerned with the electoral schedule,” she said.
• Good.
• When Lauro told Chutkan, “We are talking about the presidency of the United States,” Chutkan shot back: “I’m not talking about the presidency of the United States. I’m talking about a four count indictment.”
• Fuck yes!
• Neither side envisions a trial happening before Election Day, especially given the amount of work ahead.
• But she did set a schedule that will allow prosecutors to release never-before-seen evidence, such as grand jury transcripts, ahead of the presidential election.
• The deadline for the filing from prosecutors is September 26, which largely sides with special counsel Jack Smith’s proposed schedule discussed at yesterday’s hearing. Dump’s defense team had sought to delay the public release of evidence in the case until after the November election.
• This is the one of several filings the judge expects before voters head to the polls. She has not scheduled additional hearings or a trial date.
• Let’s move on.
• One thing I’ve learned to appreciate about NPR: they give no fucks. If something is true and verifiable, they will never hold back.
• So yesterday, after Donnie Dump claimed that the altercation at Arlington National Cemetery did not happen, they named and shamed.
• NPR named the two staffers involved in the horrible incident at America’s hallowed grounds. They were Dump’s deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Dump’s advance team.
• Here’s how NPR is reporting the incident. Arlington National Cemetery rules were made clear to the Dump campaign in advance. They say that only an official Arlington photographer can take pictures or film in Section 60, where many casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.
• When an ANC employee tried to enforce the rules, she was verbally abused by the two Trump campaign operatives named above. Picard then pushed her out of the way.
• Pricks.
• Speaking of pricks…
• Things aren’t going well for Elmo Muck and his social media platform.
• About one-quarter of advertisers plan to cut spending on social media site X (formerly Twitter) next year, according to a new survey of marketers by Kantar. That would mark the biggest recorded pullback from any top ad platform.
• The findings come as X has faced an exodus advertisers for the past year, with big companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola, and Disney removing paid ads from the platform in 2023.
• Most of the advertisers cut spending with X after Elmo endorsed an antisemitic post last year.
• X’s ad woes have continued into 2024, with the World Bank ceasing all paid advertising on the platform earlier this month after a CBS News investigation found that the organization's ads were showing up under a racist post from an account that prolifically posts neo-Nazi and white nationalist content. 
• While we’re on the topic of social media platforms…
• On Wednesday evening, the state of New Mexico filed a lawsuit against Snap, the owner of the popular social app Snapchat.
• The state alleges that Snapchat is a breeding ground for predators seeking to collect sexually explicit images of children and extort them.
• During a months-long undercover investigation, the New Mexico Department of Justice said it surfaced evidence that the app recommends accounts held by strangers to underage Snapchat users, who are then contacted and urged to trade sexually explicit images of themselves.
• “While failing to prevent, identify, or protect even young children on its platform, Snap introduced them to the equivalent of an adults-only show for which they were not only the inappropriate audience, but often the main object,” said the lawsuit.
• The probe involved standing up a decoy account named “Sexy14Heather,” using AI-generated images to simulate a 14-year-old girl. The fake account received a flood of recommendations to contact accounts seeking to trade sexually explicit messages and photos.
• And all this is on the heels of last week indictment in France for the CEO of the popular messaging service Telegram on charges that included complicity in the distribution of child sex abuse images.
• It’s really past the time where these companies should have been held responsible for the content they allow and/or encourage on their platforms that are easily accessibly by — and marketed to — children.
• Better late than never, though.
• In our continuing coverage of the complete pieces of shit who attempted a coup against the USA on January 6, 2021, meet Dr. Jacquelyn Starer.
• The Massachusetts medical doctor who punched a police officer during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced yesterday to nine months of imprisonment followed by nine months of home confinement.
• Starer was in a crowd of rioters inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when she struck the officer with a closed fist and shouted a profane insult.
• “I accept full responsibility for my actions that day, and I truly wish reason had prevailed over my emotions,” she said. She also apologized to the officer whom she assaulted, who’d told the judge she feared for her life as she and other officers fought for hours to defend the Capitol from the mob of Donald Trump supporters.
• Starer, 70, of Ashland, MA, pleaded guilty in April to eight counts, including a felony assault charge, without reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. Perhaps the doctor should have hired a better lawyer.
• Nearly 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 900 of them have been convicted and sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
• And now, The Weather: “come on, baby! be a good girl for the camera” by Ada Lea
• Let’s do a chart. Or, more like a list. Yes, a list.
• Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, CA in 1964. I assume you know where that is. It’s on the east side of the San Francisco Bay.
• Oakland has had its own music scene apart from the the more well-known one across the Bay. Here’s a list of some of the best-known and coolest and most influential bands and artists covering a multitude of genres out of Oak-town, in alphabetical order.
• Digital Underground, En Vogue, Hieroglyphics, High On Fire, Machine Head, MC Hammer, The Pointer Sisters, Sheila E., Too $hort, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Tower of Power, and Y&T.
• From the Sports Desk… last night’s NFL season opener turned out to be a nail-biter, with the Chiefs beating the Ravens 27-20.
• And right from the start of the season, there was some controversy. Isaiah Likely's last-second touchdown was overturned by officials. One official initially ruled Likely got both feet inbounds in the back of the end zone, which would have put Baltimore in position to win with a 2-point conversion, but a replay review confirmed the front of Likely's right foot touched the white out-of-bounds line.
• Ouch.
• Looking forward to chilling on Sunday with the first full day of games.
• Also from the Sports Desk, an impressive and noteworthy milestone in a sport I don’t follow or care about, unlike most of the entire fucking planet.
• Yesterday, soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo became the first men’s player in history to score 900 goals in official matches.
• He scored the 900th goal of his illustrious career in Portugal’s UEFA Nations League group stage match against Croatia in Lisbon on Thursday.
• Side note: if I’m understanding his specs correctly, his 900 match goals are in addition to another 769 goals scored in his club career. Amazing!
• Today in history… Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time (1492). The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower to settle in North America (1620). Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807 (1870). Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York (1901). The Monterrey Institute of Technology is founded in Monterrey, Mexico as one of the largest and most influential private universities in Latin America (1943). Nine Israeli athletes die at the hands of the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games (1972). Tawny Elaine Godin, an eighteen year old pianist from Yonkers, was crowned Miss America (1976). Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that had stood for 56 years (1995). Princess Diana’s funeral is attended by over a million people lining the streets and 2.5 billion watching on television (1997). Ukraine begins its Kharkiv counteroffensive, surprising Russian forces and retaking over 3,000 square kilometers of land, recapturing the entire Kharkiv Oblast west of the Oskil River, within the next week (2022).
• September 6 is the birthday of educator/activist Catharine Beecher (1800), soldier/diplomat William Rosecrans (1819), sociologist/activist Jane Addams (1860), businessman/diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1888), singer-songwriter/guitarist Jimmy Reed (1925), singer-songwriter/guitarist David Allan Coe (1939), songwriter/bassist Roger Waters (1943), actress Swoosie Kurtz (1944), actress Jane Curtain (1947), businesswoman Carly Fiorina (1954), bassist/composer Patrick O’Hearn (1954), comedian Jeff Foxworthy (1958), actress Rosie Perez (1964), singer-songwriter Macy Gray (1967), singer-songwriter CeCe Peniston (1969), singer-songwriter Dolores O’Riordan (1971), actor Idris Elba (1972), rapper Foxy Brown (1978), and NBA player John Wall (1990).

That’s gonna have to be all for now. My morning is exceedingly busy today with meetings and deadlines and all that stuff. But it is Friday, so I have a sense of optimism, or at least relief, with a weekend imminent. Enjoy your day.