Random News: October 14, 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 14, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I’m up and about early as usual; it’s getting to that time of year when I’m up and showered and dressed a good while before the sun decides to join me for the new day. But that’s fine; I enjoy the quiet while gathering these news items for you.

• Yesterday, Kamala Harris appeared before a largely Black church audience in battleground North Carolina, and called out Dumpy for spreading misinformation about the government’s hurricane response.
• The vice president spoke at Koinonia Christian Center about the “heroes” all around who are helping residents without regard to political affiliation.
• “Yet, church, there are some who are not acting in the spirit of community, and I am speaking of these who have been literally not telling the truth, lying about people who are working hard to help the folks in need, spreading disinformation when the truth and facts are required,” Harris said.
• In her speech to thousands of supporters at a rally at East Carolina University’s arena, Harris suggested that Dump’s team has stopped him from releasing medical records or debating her again because they might be “afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable.”
• She’s correct, as usual.
• Today, Harris will rally voters in Erie County, PA, a bellwether that has a knack for predicting who carries Pennsylvania, having mirrored the outcome of this crucial battleground state in the last four elections.
• Tomorrow she’ll appear in Detroit for a live conversation with Charlamagne tha God, a prominent Black media personality.
• Moving on.
• Things continue to look bleak in the Middle East. Today, an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 18 people.
• There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military and it was not clear what the target was. The strike hit a small apartment building in the Christian-majority village of Aito, far from the Hezbollah militant group’s main areas of influence in the south and east of the country.
• Sigh.
• Yesterday, it was announced that the United States will send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to Israel, along with the troops needed to operate it.
• The mission marks the first significant deployment of U.S. troops to Israel since the war in Gaza began. And the delivery of the sophisticated missile defense system risks further inflaming the conflict in the Middle East despite widespread diplomatic efforts to avoid an all-out war.
• Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump have vowed to forcefully defend Israel while expressing support for a swift end to the war.
• How?
• Let’s move on.
• Aid to several communities impacted by Hurricane Helene was temporarily paused in parts of North Carolina over the weekend due to reports of threats against FEMA responders.
• On Saturday, FEMA workers had to halt their work in Rutherford County due to reports that National Guard troops saw armed militia threatening the workers.
• These are people who’ve fallen victim to Dump’s spread of misinformation, and are now causing irreparable harms to their own neighbors and families.
• Despite that, FEMA released a statement, saying, “For the safety of our dedicated staff and the disaster survivors we are helping, FEMA has made some operational adjustments. Disaster Recovery Centers will continue to be open as scheduled, survivors continue to register for assistance, and we continue to help the people of North Carolina with their recovery.”
• It’s incredibly sad, these brainwashed people screwing themselves. Dump is probably laughing about it.
• In other news…
• You know I rarely get into the details of things that are said and done at Dump rallies. To me, it represents the worst of America.
• But I do want to relate something that happened Saturday night of this past weekend, when Dump — for reasons unclear to anyone — did a rally in the Southern California desert city of Coachella.
• I don’t care about what happened during the thing. But afterwards? Thousands of people who’d been brought to the event in busses were stranded in the fucking desert.
• Here’s the tale as told from a hardcore MAGA named Wesley Johnson…
• “It's 10:22pm. Rally ended at 7pm. Thousands of people still stranded here waiting for transit back to the parking lots. Something has gone horribly wrong. Someone needs to ask the Coachella mayor if he had anything to do with this. Parking lot is a 2 hour walk. Countless elderly stranded here and can't walk anymore.
• “No restroom facilities accessible anymore. No more water. No food. Started with 20 busses for escorting people to the rally, and now only 1 bus remains at this point. Busses apparently went home. Not confirmed, but no more buses have showed up in the last hour and a half. Someone find out what happened here. This is not normal and feels nefarious and criminal.”
• It’s like, he’s so close to getting it. 
• I genuinely feel sorry for those people. Being stranded in the desert is no joke, especially for some of the elderly folks in that area.
• It’s difficult to say what happened. Some blame poor logistics planning, others opine that Dump simply may not have paid the transit company hired to retrieve the rally-goers. He has an ongoing and well-documented history of not paying his bills.
• This is not the first time attendees have been left high and dry after one of the Orange Twat's rallies. In 2020, rally-goers were left stranded in the cold after a Dump event in Omaha when coaches failed to pick them up.
• In related Dump rally news, I want to quickly mention Vem Miller, the guy who tried to go through a checkpoint outside Dump's Coachella rally while in illegal possession of a shotgun, loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine.
• Who is this guy? Miller is a registered Republican. He has a master's degree from UCLA and campaigned for Nevada's state assembly in 2022, but lost in the primary election.
• He is part of a far-right anti-government group, and considers himself a sovereign citizen. Snort lol guffaw hahaha hahahahahahaha. Oh Lordy.
• Yesterday, Miller said he was "shocked" to be arrested and accused of trying to hurt the former president, of whom he is a huge supporter.
• He said he was at the California rally on a "special entry pass" given to him by a Republican Party associate, and that he never had trouble when he attended Trump rallies in Nevada with weapons in his trunk.
• Yikes!
• Miller has since been released from the detention center on $5,000 bail. He is due to appear in court in January.
• In other news…
• Let’s go to the Economy Desk. I want to, once and for all, help you understand the concept of tariffs on imported goods.
• Dumpy seems to think they’re great for the American economy. He’s 100% dead wrong. I will show you how.
• Let’s say you have a hypothetical company in Germany who makes boots. They’re called Glückliche Stiefel. Their boots are sold around the world.
• They will happily sell their boots to a hypothetical US retailer called Boot Boy, but now Dumpy the Economy Clown has put a 20% tariff on them.
• Who pays the tariff? IT’S BOOT BOY. They have to pay Glückliche Stiefel for the cost of the boots, plus pay the US Treasury for the cost of the tariff.
• What happens next? It’s super simple.
• Boot Boy — the US-based retailer — jacks up the price of the boot by 20% to make up for the amount they pay in tariff fees.
• And now you, the consumer, run into higher prices on all manner of items. That’s how a tariff is just a tax on the American people.
• Any questions?
• Today is Indigenous Peoples' Day, a commemoration of Native American history and culture.
• The holiday was formally known as Columbus Day (and is still recognized as such in some states). California dropped Columbus Day 15 years ago in 2009.
• Indigenous Peoples' Day has been federally recognized through proclamation for the past three years. In 2023, President Joe Biden proclaimed the day to “honor perseverance and courage of Indigenous peoples.”
• One thing you might do that is cool today: take a look at a historical map, and see the tribal name of the people who once resided on the land where you live today.
• Where I live, in the Los Angeles suburb of Redondo Beach, CA, the Tongva/Gabrielino Tribes lived for over 7,000 years before the area was colonized… first by Spain/Mexico, and then by the USA.
• Moving on.
• From the Space Desk, a factoid that will be impactful to me later this week, for reasons that I shall unveil soon.
• We have a full moon coming… the Hunter's Moon, a centuries-old name for the full moon immediately following the autumnal equinox and the September Harvest Moon that rises with it, which signals an acceleration in the hunting season.
• But the upcoming full moon is also a supermoon, where the moon appears brighter and larger to skywatchers on Earth because of its proximity to the planet, and this one is slated to be the most dazzling of the year so far. 
• It would be neat to, say, be somewhere that might be interesting to be during the brightest supermoon of the year. Hmm.
• And now, The Weather: “edgar” by shower curtain
• From the Sports Desk… the 1-seed Dodgers gave a shellacking to the 6-seed Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS last night. With that 9-0 win, the Dodgers have now not allowed a run to score in the past 27 innings of play.
• Game 2 is this afternoon. Tonight is Game 1 in the ALCS, with the 2-seed Guardians visiting the 1-seed Yankees.
• In Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, the New York Liberty opened a can of whoop-ass on the Minnesota Lynx, winning 80-66. That series is tied 1-1 as it shifts to Minnesota for Game 3 on Wednesday.
• In the NFL there was a shift back to the expected results, as every game thus far in Week 6 has been won by the favored team. 
• Tonight’s Monday Night Football game features the Bills at the Jets.
• Today in history… The Norman conquest of England begins with the Battle of Hastings (1066). Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England — my 22nd great-grandfather — forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence (1322). The First Continental Congress denounces the British Parliament's Intolerable Acts and demands British concessions (1774). George Eastman receives a U.S. Government patent on his new paper-strip photographic film (1884). The Chicago Cubs defeat the Detroit Tigers, 2–0, clinching the 1908 World Series; this would be their last until winning the 2016 World Series (1908). Theodore Roosevelt is shot and wounded but still delivers his scheduled speech (1912). Prisoners at Sobibor extermination camp covertly assassinate most of the on-duty SS officers and then stage a mass breakout (1943). Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to exceed the speed of sound (1947). Martin Luther King Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence (1964). The first live television broadcast by American astronauts in orbit is performed by the Apollo 7 crew (1968). Jim Hines becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100-meter sprint with a time of 9.95 seconds (1968). The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights draws approximately 100,000 people (1979). U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs (1982). Eric Rudolph is charged with six bombings, including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia (1998). The Steve Bartman Incident takes place at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois (2003). Felix Baumgartner successfully jumps to Earth from a balloon in the stratosphere (2012). About 10,000 American employees of John Deere go on strike (2021).
• October 14 is the birthday of businessman William Penn (1644), UK prime minister George Grenville (1712), US president Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890), actress Lillian Gish (1893), poet E. E. Cummings (1894), basketball coach John Wooden (1910), Surgeon General C. Everett Koop (1916), actor Roger Moore (1927), lawyer John Dean (1938), fashion designer Ralph Lauren (1939), singer-songwriter Cliff Richard (1940), actor Harry Anderson (1952), singer-songwriter/producer Thomas Dolby (1958), fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi (1961), MLB player/manager Joe Girardi (1964), actress Lori Petty (1973), police brutality victim George Floyd (1973), singer-songwriter Usher (1978), and NFL player Jared Goff (1994).

Well, there you go. You’re now informed. If you were previously asleep, now you’re woke. You’re welcome. Enjoy your day.