Random News: September 9, 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 9, 2024, and it’s a Monday. Also, if the weather people are correct, it’s the last day of this shitty heat wave that’s making me sorta miserable, so I have that to look forward to… after today. For now, let’s do some news.

• Tomorrow is the first — and most likely only — debate of the presidential election. I doubt that either Dump nor Harris will see much benefit in being seen together onstage from now through election day.
• I know that at least some of you recall Harris in the 2020 VP debate against Mike Pence. Yes, the one where a fly perched on Pence’s white hair for a good portion of the event.
• But just as memorable was Harris’s  quick response when Pence tried to talk over her. “I’m speaking,” she said until Pence, looking like a complete ass, had to trail off and shut up.
• But those of us who know Kamala well — mostly us here in California — are very much aware that she is a laser-sharp debater who is quick on her feet.
• Here’s an example.
• At the 2016 U.S. Senate debate in California, her opponent Loretta Sanchez cast Kamala Harris as a tool of the establishment… but inexplicably closed her remarks with a dab.
• Yes, a dab. Like Cam Newton. Extended her left arm straight out and bowed her head into the crook of her right elbow. Wow.
• Harris played the moment like a master. Staring wide-eyed from across the stage, she pressed her lips together and raised her eyebrows — letting silence hang in the air for a few seconds.
• “So there’s a clear difference between the candidates in this race,” Harris said after several moments, with the audience bursting out in laughter. Sanchez was immediately viewed as an unserious contender, and Harris won the election by a 23-point margin.
• She has great timing in debates, thinks fast on her feet, and knows how to go in for the kill. And in terms of looking presidential versus unserious candidates, she will be ready and waiting for Dump to start spouting gibberish.
• The skills Harris honed in the courtroom during her years as a prosecutor — including how to use restraint, timing, and humor to connect with audiences — will shape the outcome of her debate with Dump tomorrow as they did in her winning races for state attorney general and Senate.
• One more example of that… one I loved.
• In 2010, Harris was running for Attorney General of California. Her opponent was a Republican guy named Steve Cooley, and he was very much favored to win.
• But it was during their debate that Cooley fucked himself up so badly that he ended up losing by less than one percentage point. What happened?
• He was asked whether he would “double-dip” if elected by taking both the state-funded $150,000 salary of the attorney general and the pension benefits he had earned during more than three decades of public service.
• Cooley responded, “I earned it,” adding that he would use his pension benefits to supplement the “incredibly low salary of the state attorney general.”
• The moderator asked if Harris had anything to add.
• “Go for it Steve,” she said with a laugh. “You’ve earned it.” OUCH. That became the sound bite for the rest of the election cycle, and Harris won. And Harris will not hesitate to put Dump on his ass with a little verbal jiu-jitsu.
• And one other point: Dump being the rude, overbearing, misogynist dickhead that he is, it will represent a great opportunity for Harris to show America how she deals with with adversity. If she can handle him, she can certainly handle a hostile international actor.
• Let’s move on.
• Jury selection begins today in the federal trial of three former police officers involved in the fatal assault of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, TN.
• Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith are charged with violating the 29-year-old's civil rights through excessive use of force, and other offenses. They have pleaded not guilty.
• The three defendants are charged with use of excessive force, failure to intervene during the assault, and deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs, as well as obstructing justice by conspiring to cover up what happened.
• Two other ex-officers who were also involved in the incident — a traffic stop that led to a brutal beating caught on camera — may be called to testify against them.
• Nichols's death sparked protests against police brutality and calls for reform in one of the nation's largest majority-Black cities.
• Of course, in this particular instance, it’s Black cops on trial, so sadly I find it more likely that justice of some sort will be served, as opposed to if they were white cops who’d beaten Tyre to death.
• Moving on to another trial you might not have any idea about.
• Four years ago, in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, violent MAGA scum ambushed a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign bus. At least 40 vehicles flying MAGA and Dump flags formed themselves into a so-called “Trump Train” and encircled the bus, trying to run it off the road.
• As tends to happen to MAGA scum, they fucked around, and now they’re finding out.
• A jury trial opening in Austin, TX this morning will seek to hold these violent and dangerous Dump supporters accountable. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege they were terrorized and intimidated for more than 90 minutes as they took a bus tour canvassing for the Democratic ticket in the final days of the election.
• Those plaintiffs, who include the bus driver, a Biden campaign staffer, and Wendy Davis, the former Texas senator and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, say they were forced to cancel campaign events for fear that the intimidation would be repeated.
• They are pursuing punitive damages under both Texas law and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, a federal statute from the Reconstruction period designed to end political violence and voter intimidation.
• The MAGA terrorists swarmed around the tour bus, coming within inches of it and forcing the driver to slow to a crawl. Several of the participants livestreamed their actions on social media, bragging about their aggressive driving.
• One of the defendants, Eliazar Cisneros, side-swiped an SUV being driven by a Biden-Harris campaign staffer behind the bus. The complaint says that Cisneros later boasted about “slamming that fucker”.
• One other important note here: the occupants of the bus pleaded with police to provide an escort but none appeared.
• A separate case, Cervini v Stapp, was settled in October with local law enforcement admitting that they had fallen short of their standards and agreeing to pay compensation to those whose safety they failed to protect.
• Who was at fault for all of this? Donald Trump Jr. arranged for MAGA terrorists to assemble. He posted: “It would be great if you guys would all get together and head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice Trump Train welcome. Get out there. Have some fun. Enjoy it.”
• But of course, he won’t face criminal charges. Only the people who did what he encouraged. If this is reminiscent of January 6, 2021, that is accurate.
• In another news item, I’ll remind you that the entire MAGA mindset is based on lies. Provable lies that are swallowed up by their recipients.
• Case in point…
• Over the weekend, Dumples posted that “20% of the Mail-In Ballots in Pennsylvania are fraudulent. Here we go again!”
• Small problem with that statement: there are currently zero mail in ballots for the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania.
• Their mail-in ballots will not be sent out until Saturday, September 21, and those ballots cannot be sent until their contents are legally certified.
• Why do you people just accept his bullshit? Because you’re fucking victims of a cult. Don’t let your pride stop you from realizing you’re the victims of a long con.
• Moving on.
• I’m only posting this next story to laugh at Dumples the Clown, and to laugh at anyone who thinks he’s some kind of great business guy.
• Ha ha ha ha! I’m laughing at you.
• Dumpy’s social media company is in a deep slump that keeps getting worse, wiping out a huge chunk of his net worth.
• Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) dropped last week to their lowest level since the merger that brought the owner of Truth Social public this spring. It has now lost about three-quarters (74%) of its value since peaking at $66.22 on March 27, currently trading at about $18.
• Most of the shares are owned by Dumpy himself. His dominant stake of 114.75 million shares was valued at $6.2 billion on May 9. It’s now down to about $2 billion, a sharp drop that has knocked Trump off the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world’s 500 richest people.
• The company is losing money, generating very little revenue and Truth Social remains a relatively tiny player in social media.
• There is one saving grace, I guess. “If this wasn’t Trump, this thing would be trading at $1,” said Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management.
• Let’s talk for a second about another supposed business genius, Elon Muck.
• Also over the weekend, Mucky announced, “In order to be a platform that guy embraces Free Speech, the block and mute features will be removed form X this December as they are a hindrance to the 1st amendment.”
• Let me be clear here: this means that anyone who uses Twitter (aka X) will now have no recourse to stop cyberbullying, stalking, and abuse, and will have no control over who sees their posts and how they respond.
• If you have half a fucking brain, get off that platform. Try Threads instead, or any other microblogging platform. It’s going to continue to be worse and worse at Twitter.
• Side note: Elon himself uses the block and mute features quite often. Hypocritical piece of shit.
• And now, The Weather: “Baking Tapes” by Duster
• RIP going out to a guy many of you don’t know, but I did… literally.
• In 1994 or so, songwriter Will Jennings was one of my earliest interviews in the job I’d end up having still today, 30 years later. He died yesterday at 80.
• Jennings was an Oscar-winning songwriter behind mega-hits like "My Heart Will Go On,” and also wrote huge songs for artists as varied as Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, B.B. King, Mariah Carey, Jimmy Buffet, Barry Manilow, and Roy Orbison.
• When I interviewed him it wasn’t long after he’d won a bunch of awards for co-composing the song "Tears in Heaven" that was performed by Clapton.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s exactly 50 years ago in September 1974, and here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
• At the time, I was five years old and in first grade in Marblehead, MA. Kamala Harris was nine, living at her mom’s house in Berkeley, CA during the week and spending weekends with her father in in Palo Alto.
• 1. Fullfillingness First Finale (Stevie Wonder). 2. Bad Company (Bad Company). 3. 461 Ocean Boulevard (Eric Clapton). 4. Endless Summer (The Beach Boys). 5. Rags To Rufus (Rufus). 6. If You Love Me Let Me Know (Olivia Newton-John). 7. Bachman-Turner Overdrive II (Bachman-Turner Overdrive). 8. Marvin Gaye Live! (Marvin Gaye). 9. Chicago VII (Chicago). 10. Caribou (Elton John). 11. Back Home Again (John Denver). 12. Love Song For Jeffrey (Helen Reddy). 13. The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band (The Souther, Hillman, Furay Band). 14. Walking Man (James Taylor). 15. Stop And Smell The Roses (Mac Davis). 16. On The Beach (Neil Young). 17. The O'Jays Live In London (The O’Jays). 18. Small Talk (Sly & The Family Stone). 19. Not Fragile (Bachman-Turner Overdrive). 20. Body Heat (Quincy Jones).
• From the Sports Desk… with the exception of tonight’s debut of Monday Night Football, the first week of the 2024-25 NFL is complete.
• My basic first impression: damn near every team look rusty, including the winners. I saw a lot of careless mistakes that will no doubt be the topic of much film watching and coaches yelling before week two.
• That being said, things went pretty much as expected. Out of 15 games played so far, only three (Steelers over Hawks, Patriots over Bengals, and Cowboys over Browns) were actual upsets.
• Tonight’s MNF premiere is the Jets and Niners.
• From the Desk Adjacent to the Sports Desk… we already know who’s headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, and it’s KDot himself: Compton, CA’s own Kendrick Lamar.
• Kendrick performed at the game in Los Angeles in 2022 as part of Dr. Dre’s halftime show that also included Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and others.
• If you’re not familiar with Kendrick Lamar, you’re probably, um, white and old. Sorry. Since the release of his breakout album ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city’ in 2012, Lamar has won 17 Grammys, and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize for his 2017 album ‘DAMN’.
• From the Definitely Not Sports Desk… a Miami-Dade police officer has been placed on administrative leave after Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill was handcuffed and detained by police Sunday, right before the team played against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• Video circulating online appears to show four officers surrounding Hill as he is in handcuffs. Hill is lying on the ground while one of the officers has a knee on his back.
• I can’t make any judgement here without knowing more details. But Hill himself asked the right question…
• “I’m not going to give you a version that I still don't know what happened,” he said. “But I do want to be able to use this platform to say, ‘What if I wasn't Tyreek Hill?’”
• Indeed.
• Today in history… Christopher Columbus, with 17 ships and 1,200 men, sails on his second voyage from Cadiz (1493). Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned "Queen of Scots” (1543). Thomas Cavendish in his ship Desire completes the first deliberately planned voyage of circumnavigation (1588). The Continental Congress officially names its union of states the United States (1776). Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is named after President George Washington (1791). John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph (1839). California is admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state (1850). George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer (1940). The WWII Allies land at Salerno and Taranto, Italy (1943). First case of a computer bug happens when a moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University (1947). Kim Il-sung declares the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, aka North Korea (1948). Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time (1956). The four-day Attica Prison riot begins (1971). Elizabeth II becomes the longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (2015).
• September 9 is the birthday of Roman emperor Honorius (384), politician Cardinal Richelieu (1585), admiral/politician William Bligh (1754), author Leo Tolstoy (1828), businessman Colonel Sanders (1890), actor Cliff Robertson (1923), singer-songwriter Otis Redding (1941), bass player Bruce Palmer (1946), NFL player Joe Theismann (1949), singer-songwriter/guitarist/producer Dave Stewart (1952), actor Hugh Grant (1960), NBA player Dan Majerle (1965), actor/producer Adam Sandler (1966), singer-songwriter Michael Bublé (1975), NBA player Shane Battier (1978), and NFL player Ricky Pearsall (2000).

That’s plenty of news to get your week started. Enjoy your day.