Random News: October 11, 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 October 11, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! My coffee this morning is Peet’s Columbian, a hearty brew that tastes like… coffee. That’s what I want my coffee to taste like. Let’s take a sip, and then see what’s happening in this world of ours.

• For the first time in a long time, I’m not feeling compelled to open my news with breaking info on horrific weather events.
• Despite being less severe than feared, Milton still carved a path of destruction and grief across the state. At least 16 people were killed in the hurricane, six of them in two tornadoes that touched down ahead of the storm.
• Obviously, the cleanup and recovery from both Helene and Milton will be continuing for a long while. I was happy to see that many of my friends in places like North Carolina and Florida were starting to get their power and cell service restored, and eventually life will get back to normal for all of them.
• Yesterday, Barack Obama held a get-out-the-vote rally for Kamala Harris in the critical battleground state Pennsylvania.
• Always a great speaker and messenger, Obama refashioned his old campaign rallying cry, “Yes, We Can,” to “Yes, She Can,” which beamed on a screen over the crowd.
• “I get it, why people are looking to shake things up. I mean, I am the hopey-changey guy. So I understand people feeling frustrated and feeling we can do better. What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you, Pennsylvania,” said Obama.
• One point Obama drove home: he admonished Black men who are hesitating to back Harris’s presidential campaign, telling them it’s “not acceptable” to sit out this election and suggesting they might be reluctant to vote for Harris because she’s a woman.
• “You’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down?” Obama said. “That’s not acceptable.”
• I agree.
• And I’ve been saying this for a long time. If you’re a man who’s scared to vote for a woman because you fear women, you gotta get past that. The fact is, you have a real choice here between a competent proven leader and a guy who has plans to ruin the lives of everyone but the extremely wealthy.
• Be a man, stand up, and fight. Don’t sit this out. It’s not a time to stay on the sidelines.
• Obama’s appearance last night at the University of Pittsburgh was his first at a campaign rally for Harris, as he sets off on a swing-state tour on her behalf.
• Of note: Pennsylvania is a state Obama won in his 2008 and 2012 presidential races, but Dump won in 2016. Biden narrowly carried it in 2020 and the state is shaping up to be one of the most closely contested in this year’s race.
• Moving on.
• Last night, Harris did a town hall in Las Vegas, sponsored by Univision. She took questions from undecided Latino voters in an unscripted format that she used to try to show empathy while making the case that her opponent does not care about the problems of the middle class.
• Latino voters were a key voting bloc for Democrats in 2020, helping the party win Nevada and Arizona. But polls have shown that enthusiasm has slipped, and the Harris campaign has been fighting to win back support.
• Once again, the problem is the men.
• Harris handled a bunch of pointed questions. One woman tearfully described how her mother, who died six weeks ago, was unable to get the medical care she needed as a result of her immigration status.
• Another voter said she has lost everything because of long COVID and can’t get Social Security disability benefits, while a third shared a story about being unable to get good health care for a knee injury.
• Harris responded by talking about how these matters would get much worse under another Dump presidency. “There's a big contrast between me and Donald Trump,” she said. “When he was president of the United States, he and his friends 60 times tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.”
• Let’s move on.
• In the interest of fairness, I suppose I should quote the Republican candidate from his event in Detroit last night.
• “And, it’s so simple, I mean, you know. This isn’t like Elon with his rocket ships that land within 12 inches on the moon where they wanted to land. Or, he gets the engines back—that was the first I realized, I said, ‘Who the hell did that?’ I saw engines about three, four years ago. These things were coming—cylinders, no wings, no nothing—and they’re coming down very slowly, landing on a raft in the middle of the ocean someplace, with a circle, boom! Reminded me of the Biden circles that he used to have, right? He’d have eight circles, and he couldn’t fill ’em up. But then I heard he beat us with the popular vote. He couldn’t fill up the eight circles, I always loved those circles, they were so beautiful, so beautiful to look at.”
• There you go.
• Are you voting for that demented pants-shitting freak?
• Moving on.
• I’ll remind you once agin that there’s much more at stake than the presidential election in 24 more days. Senate races — especially in places like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere — will be crucial toward how your quality of life goes in upcoming years.
• In other news…
• A company is recalling nearly 10 million pounds of meat and poultry products because they may be contaminated with listeria bacteria that can cause illness and death.
• Gross.
• BrucePac of Woodburn, OR, recalled the roughly 5,000 tons of ready-to-eat foods this week after U.S. Agriculture Department officials detected listeria in samples of poultry during routine testing. Further tests identified BrucePac chicken as the source. The recall includes 75 meat and chicken products.
• The foods include products like grilled chicken breast strips were produced between June 19 and October 8 and shipped to restaurants, food service vendors, and other sites nationwide.
• Officials said they are concerned that the foods may still be available for use or stored in refrigerators or freezers. The products should be thrown away.
• Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches, and tiredness, and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. 
• Under Donald Trump’s Project 2025, many regulatory agencies within the federal government would be severely cut back or eliminated altogether. If he’s elected, you and your family won’t have any warnings before buying and eating contaminated food.
• Something to keep in mind.
• Let’s move on.
• TD Bank will pay approximately $3 billion in a historic settlement with U.S. authorities who said that the financial institution’s lax practices allowed significant money laundering over multiple years.
• The Canada-based bank pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, the largest bank in U.S. history to do so.
• The bank is the 10th largest in the United States, and its CEO said the company takes full responsibility and has been cooperating with the investigation. The Justice Department said the bank allowed at least three different money laundering networks to move a total of $670 million through TD Bank accounts.
• What kind of illegal activity was laundered through TD Bank? It ranged from fentanyl and narcotics trafficking to terrorist financing and human trafficking.
• Assholes.
• And now, The Weather: “Motel” by hot brother
• Rest in peace to Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy who was assassinated on the night he won the 1968 California Democratic presidential primary. She died yesterday at 96.
• Mrs. Kennedy served a lifetime's work in social justice and human rights.
• From the Sports Desk… yesterday in MLB playoffs, two ALDS games.
• The New York Yankees have made it to the ALCS after a 3-1 win over the Kansas City Royals knocked them out of the playoffs. Yankees won the series 3-1.
• The Cleveland Guardians hung on for a 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers, tying that series up 2-2. The deciding game 5 is on Saturday.
• The WNBA finals are on. In game 1 last night, the Minnesota Lynx beat the new York Liberty 95-93 in an exciting overtime finish.
• And in the NFL, the 49ers (3-3) kicked off week 6 of the season by beating the Seahawks (3-3) 36-24. It’s frankly difficult this season to establish any solid direction for all but a few teams in the league.
• Today in history… The Daughters of the American Revolution is founded (1890). San Francisco sparks a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Japan by ordering segregated schools for Japanese students (1906). Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane (1910). The Duke and Duchess of Windsor tour Nazi Germany for 12 days and meet Adolf Hitler a couple weeks later (1937). CBS's field-sequential color system for television is the first to be licensed for broadcast by the FCC (1950). NASA launches Pioneer 1, its first space probe, although it fails to achieve a stable orbit (1958). NASA launches Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission (1968). Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk (1984). The AIDS Memorial Quilt is first displayed during the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights (1987). Professor Anita Hill delivers her televised testimony concerning sexual harassment during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination (1991). NASA launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission (2000). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he will extend the settlement freeze if the Palestinian leadership recognizes Israel as a Jewish state, an offer the Palestinians quickly reject (2010).
• October 11 is the birthday of first lady businessman Henry J. Heinz (1844), activist Emily Davison (1872), US first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884), racist real estate developer Fred Trump (1905), director/choreographer Jerome Robbins (1918), drummer/bandleader Art Blakey (1919), singer-songwriter Dottie West (1932), singer-songwriter/guitarist Daryl Hall (1946), politician Patty Murray (1950), NFL player Steve Young (1961), actress Joan Cusack (1962), actor Luke Perry (1966), actress Jane Krakowski (1968), rapper MC Lyte (1970), director Justin Lin (1971), rapper Cardi B (1992), and NFL player T. J. Watt (1994).

Perhaps this weekend, I’ll find some time to do a more thorough look at key down ballot (Senate and House) races to watch. That seems like a good idea. Enjoy your day.