Random News: October 17, 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 17, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. We’ve got plenty of news to talk about this morning, but let’s start with a special announcement.

• I can now tell you something I’ve been holding off on mentioning… I’m going on vacation! Today!
• Before anyone thinks about stealing my shit while I’m gone, my household will be occupied by a strapping young lad — my adult son — who very well may be armed. In terms of surviving, you’d be far better off robbing me while I’m here.
• Anyway, heading out to Joshua Tree for a few days, leaving here about noon and making the 150-mile trek due east. My last vacation? March 2022, which seems like, oh, 10 billion years ago.
• Kat and I are staying at a place that’s new to us, but in the same Joshua Tree Highlands neighborhood where we’ve been visiting for nearly 15 years.
• We love it there. It’s off a series of dirt roads, and you’re so far removed from civilization that it’s the closest thing to staying inside the national park itself — which is just a short distance up the road.
• I always make a special music playlist for both the trip and for the cabin and excursions into the park. I have done so again this year, mostly full of indie alternative music.
• It’s chock full of bands and artists you’ve never heard of because I’m cooler than you, obviously,
• Actually I have two playlists: the aforementioned “Desert 2024” list, and a more palatable list of rock and funk and new wave and metal and the like. That one is called “Rockin’ Shit.”
• Tonight’s supermoon will likely have the cabin in the desert surrounded by wildlife… coyotes, mainly. But during our visits, we often see snakes, iguanas, rabbits, hares, quail, ravens, bats, and more rarely, bighorn sheep and other animals you don’t usually meet in the urban landscape.
• As is typical with our vacations, we have no plans at all, and no schedule to which to adhere. We’ve been there many times, and know what we like to do.
• There will be some excursions into the national park, but also plenty of chill time at the cabin, whee I’ll make some music, read, relax, and enjoy the scenery and the quiet far away from the city.
• I do plan to get a rib eye at Pappy & Harriet’s, which is another tradition when we visit.
• One of the reasons I’m telling you all this… I’m not at all sure if there will be any news updates tomorrow through Sunday.
• However, I might find time in the morning hours to jot down a few bullets, assuming I have reasonable internet to post them. We’ll see.
• Okay, let’s do some news.
• Vice President Kamala Harris was feisty and focused in her first interview with Fox News last night, sparring with Bret Baier on immigration policy and much more. She was tough and stood tall in a hostile environment.
• Unlike Dumpy, who considers Democrats as “the enemy from within,” Harris has been looking to broaden her outreach to GOP-leaning voters. Her nearly-30 minute sit-down with Baier repeatedly grew heated, with the two talking over each other.
• Harris noted that several high-profile former members of the Dump administration now believe “that he is unfit to serve, that he is unstable, that he is dangerous, and that people are exhausted with someone who professes to be a leader, who spends full time demeaning and engaging in personal grievances.”
• Another response I enjoyed…
• “Let me be very clear. My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency, and like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh new ideas. I represent a new generation of leadership.”
• It was about what I expected from Fox, but I enjoyed seeing Kamala stand her ground. I don’t think it will cause many MAGA-type voters to change their mind, but I never would expect that regardless.
• And the big takeaway is that Harris isn’t afraid to be strong in the face of adversity, while her opponent, Little Old Dumpy Wumpy, won’t debate her and won’t even do interviews on something as innocuous as 60 Minutes.
• He’s a frightened and diminished man, and he’s going to lose on November 5. He might even lose badly, assuming you have a plan to vote.
• Wouldn’t that be something?
• Let’s move on.
• I’ve got a reliable early-voting stat out of perhaps the most crucial swing state of all… Pennsylvania. Of the votes submitted thus far as of yesterday…
• Democrats: 416,239 (with 40.6% of requested ballots returned). Republican: 158,486 (31.8%). Other: 57,000 (27.7%).
• That is super good news. Want some more good news?
• Yesterday, a Georgia judge declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the MAGA-run State Election Board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”
• Boom!
• Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox issued the order after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated include three that had gotten a lot of attention — one that requires that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.
• Cox found that the rules are “unsupported by Georgia’s Election Code and are in fact contrary to the Election Code.”
• He also wrote that the State Election Board did not have authority to pass them. He ordered the board to immediately remove the rules and to inform all state and local election officials that the rules are void and not to be followed.
• Take that, you suckers!
• Who wants more good news? Let’s do it!
• Yesterday, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that people with felony convictions may register to vote.
• Good. Disenfranchising people who’ve already paid their debt to society is fucking bullshit.
• Since 2005, Nebraskans with felony convictions could register to vote two years after completing all the terms of their sentence. 
• But Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers invalidated that law just two days before it was set to go into effect. He argued that only Nebraska’s Board of Pardons — made up of himself, Secretary of State Bob Evnen, and Gov. Jim Pillen, all Republicans — were empowered to restore voting rights. 
• The Nebraska Supreme Court rejected the contention that the board has sole authority to restore such rights. 
• The ACLU successfully litigated the case on behalf of two Nebraskans seeking ballot access — a Republican and an independent. The order could have kept 7,000 or more residents from voting this November.
• Isn’t Nebraska a deep red state? Traditionally yes, but they also have a more liberal zone — the “blue dot” around Omaha.
• Also, interestingly, the reelection bid of Republican Sen. Deb Fischer is facing a surprisingly strong challenge from independent candidate Dan Osborn. This ruling could make a difference.
• Speaking of Senate races, the debate Tuesday night between Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) and his Democratic opponent, Rep. Colin Allred, was judged by most as a huge victory for the blue team.
• Throughout the debate, Cruz appeared incapable of countering any of his opponent’s blows. As Allred launched attack after brutal attack, Cruz just awkwardly laughed.
• And in his closing remarks, Allred didn’t hold back.
• “We’re all Americans, and we’re all Texans. We need a leader who will bring us together around our shared values. That’s what I’m trying to do during my six years in Congress. That’s the exact opposite of what Senator Cruz has done. Whatever he says tonight, you’ve seen it for 12 years. He’s been one of the most divisive senators in the entire country. If you don’t like how things are going in Washington right now, well, you know what, he is singularly responsible for it.”
• Well said!
• Does Allred have a chance? I’d say he does, albeit low as a Democrat running in Texas. But polling is close, Texans seem disappointed in Cruz’s lack of performance, and the circumstances today are far different than they were in 2018 when Cruz narrowly defeated Beto O’Rourke for the office.
• In other news…
• The Dumpster also held an event yesterday. He spoke to a Latino audience on Univision last night.
• Keep in mind that this guy has said many times that he’s going to enact mass deportations of brown-skinned people as soon as he’s elected.
• Dumpy stood by his false and dangerous claims that Haitian immigrants ate pets in the town of Springfield, Ohio, claiming he "was just saying what was reported.” Uh huh.
• Then, to the immense visible skepticism of the audience, Dumples called January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol a “day of love” and then threw his supporters under the bus by saying he wasn't to blame for the violence.
• Whatever. Let’s do some more real news.
• The Fulton County district attorney who charged Dumpy with election interference in Georgia has asked an appeals court to reinstate a number of charges against Dump and his co-defendants that were tossed out by the trial court judge earlier this year.
• District Attorney Fani Willis, in a filing to the Georgia Court of Appeals yesterday, argued that Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee "erred" in March when he quashed six of the counts in the indictment, specifically relating to the charge of Solicitation of Violation of Oath by a public officer.
• McAfee’s ruling removed three of the charges Dump was facing in the case, reducing the original 13 counts to 10. He later tossed two more counts against Dump, reducing the number to eight.
• Willis’s new court filing pushes back on the judge's ruling, arguing that the indictment "more than sufficiently" included those details and called for the charges to be reinstated.
• We’ll see how that goes.
• In other news of the Creamsicle Criminal, yesterday Special counsel Jack Smith contested an effort by Dumples the Sad Clown to toss his January 6 prosecution, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of an insurrectionist facing one of the same charges.  
• Smith’s team argues that the charges for obstructing an official proceedings should stand, arguing that the statute includes Dump’s bid to include false slates of electors to Congress.
• Moving on.
• Some more news of election fuckery being thwarted.
• Yesterday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Alabama’s voter removal program in one of the major legal fights over voter purges in Republican-led states ahead of this fall’s Election Day.
• The court ruling comes after the Justice Department and civil rights groups represented by the Campaign Legal Center challenged what the office of Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, a Republican, has called “strategic efforts” to “remove noncitizens registered to vote” from the state’s voter rolls.
• Bullshit. When Allen announced a process for purging Alabama voters who had been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security, among those put on the path to removal, Allen acknowledged, are U.S. citizens who were naturalized and are eligible to vote.
• Fucking prick.
• As we’ve mentioned here in recent days, a federal law known as the National Voter Registration Act bans Alabama and other states from systematically removing people from their lists of registered voters within 90 days of a federal election.
• These assholes purposeful try to wait until it’s too late for legal voters to get their status fixed, ensuring they don’t have the opportunity to vote in the election.
• Not acceptable.
• In yet more news…
• The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades. It’s the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese.
• After the announcement of the agreement, Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement, "I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart.”
• I’ll mention — and this is only my opinion here — that I’d never leave my child alone with any clergy or other religious leader figure from literally any religion. Never, ever, ever.
• I could report sexual abuse cases from priests and youth pastors and ministers every single day here, if I wanted to do that.
• Fortunately, I don’t.
• And now, The Weather: “wish u well” by shower curtain
• RIP to a guy whose music I never heard, but of whom I know that many of you were aware… Liam Payne of the boy band One Direction. He was 31.
• He was in Buenos Aires, and reportedly had been acting erratically in a hotel lobby — he smashed his laptop, and had to be carried back to his room.
• And then he fell from his room on the third floor of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. Fucking yikes. That’s awful. The whole things sounds terrible.
• From the Sports Desk… the 1-seed Dodgers completely dominated the 6-seed Mets in an 8-0 beatdown in Game 3 of the NLCS. LA takes a 2-1 lead in that series.
• In the WNBA Finals Game 3, the New York Liberty battled the Minnesota Lynx to an 80-77 victory, capturing a 2-1 lead in the 5-game series. New York could win the championship in Game 4 on Friday night in Minnesota.
• Who is slinging the old pigskin well? After six weeks of the NFL season, here are the leaders in quarterback rating.
• Passer rating in the NFL is on a scale from 0 to 158.3. It’s a formula that takes into account pass attempts, completions, passing yards, touchdown passes, and interceptions.
• 1. Joe Burrow/CIN (110.3). 2. Baker Mayfield/TB (109.4). 3. Lamar Jackson/BAL (108.4). 4. Jayden Daniels/WSH (107.1). 5. Josh Allen/BUF (106.8). 6. Jared Goff/DET (105.3). 7. Sam Darnold/MIN (103.4). 8. Joe Flacco/IND (102.2). 9. Derek Carr/NO (100.7). 10. Brock Purdy/SF (100.5).
• Today in history… Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, is founded (1558). Kepler's Supernova is observed in the constellation of Ophiuchus (1604). The nine regicides who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England are hanged, drawn and quartered (1660). British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders at the Siege of Yorktown (1781). Eight people die in the London Beer Flood (1814). Aboriginal Australians kill nineteen Europeans in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre (1861). Marconi begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service (1907). Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion (1931). Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States (1933). The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield, England (1956). OPEC imposes an oil embargo against countries they deem to have helped Israel in the Yom Kippur War (1973). Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1979). The 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast, killing 63 (1989). The recreational use of cannabis is legalized in Canada (2018). An explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza kills hundreds of Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war (2023).
• October 17 is the birthday of poet Jupiter Hammon (1711), drummer Cozy Cole (1909), playwright Arthur Miller (1915), actress Rita Hayworth (1918), actor Montgomery Clift (1920), actor Tom Poston (1921), guitarist/composer Luiz Bonfá (1922), guitarist/composer Barney Kessel (1923), NFL coach Don Coryell (1924), daredevil Evel Knievel (1938), singer-songwriter/guitarist Jim Seals (1941), actor/musician Michael McKean (1947), actress Margot Kidder (1948), actor George Wendt (1948), astronaut Mae Jemison (1956), bassist Pino Palladino (1957), actor/comedian Norm McDonald (1959), animator/screenwriter Mike Judge (1962), singer-songwriter/guitarist Ziggy Marley (1968), actor Wood Harris (1969), rapper Wyclef Jean (1969), actor Wood Harris (1969), rapper/actor Eminem (1972), actress Felicity Jones (1983), and NFL player Jamal Adams (1995).

So, listen. I have no idea if I’m going to be able to give you your news for the next few days. If I can and it’s convenient, I will, or at least an abridged version of it. But regardless, I’m going to be in a magical place and allowing my mind and soul to repair themselves from the day-to-day grind of normal life. Wish me luck in that endeavor. And enjoy your day.