Random News: October 22, 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 22, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. I slept like the proverbial rock, and am now gulping coffee like a lunatic to try and get fully conscious.

• Still trying to hang on to my vacation brain for as long as possible, but my Monday workday was going about a million miles per hour, so I suppose I am fully back in the midst of it all.
• Let’s do some news.
• Yesterday, Kamala Harris teamed up with Liz Cheney to make a bipartisan appeal to Republican voters uneasy about Dumples the Clown, describing him as a malignant force that needs to be excised from American politics.
• Fact check: true.
• Cheney reminded people that “you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody.”
• “There will be millions of Republicans who do that on November 5,” she predicted.
• Cheney made the comments in Royal Oak, MI, a Detroit suburb, during her second of three events with Harris. Their campaign swing began near Philadelphia and ended near Milwaukee, reflecting an intense focus on moderate, suburban voters in battleground states.
• Although she disagrees with Harris on some issues, Cheney said her conservative philosophy means prioritizing the Constitution over her political party.
• We should all feel that way no matter which side we’re on.
• And with exactly two weeks to go before the presidential election — and all polls point to a dead heat — Harris is smart in looking for support from every possible voter.
• Let’s move on.
• You know that when you live abroad as an American citizen, you still get to vote, right?
• You also know that a huge portion of votes from abroad are coming in from American military service members who are stationed outside the USA, I hope.
• Well good news: two Republican legal challenges to the legitimacy of ballots cast by U.S. citizens living abroad, including U.S. military members, hit setbacks yesterday.
• In Michigan, a state judge dismissed one of three lawsuits that GOP groups filed in swing states in recent weeks, while in a North Carolina-based case, a state judge rejected the Republican National Committee’s request for the court to order that returned ballots of some overseas voters be set aside and not counted until the voters’ eligibility can be confirmed.
• Judge Sima Patel of Michigan’s Court of Claims called the lawsuit an “11th hour attempt to disenfranchise these electors in the November 5, 2024 general election.”
• These RNC assholes tried say that eligible uniformed service members and other citizens living outside the U.S. do not meet requirements under Michigan’s constitution for voters to be state residents.
• Fuck them.
• In the North Carolina case, the RNC made a similar argument against state election rules that allow absentee voting by citizens who were born outside the U.S. and whose parent or legal guardian’s former residence is in the state.
• But with “absolutely no evidence that any person has ever fraudulently claimed that exemption and actually voted in any North Carolina election,” Superior Court Judge John Smith wrote in a ruling released yesterday, the court found there is no need for an emergency court order to block that category of overseas voters from casting ballots.
• The Republicans are constantly doing all they can to disenfranchise as many Americans as possible, while the Democrats are constantly encouraging all eligible people to use their rights to register and vote.
• Why do you think that is?
• Moving on.
• I know that some of you might feel disheartened by the fact that some 50,000 people in seven states seem to be the one who will choose the next President. I can’t deny that by some definition, that is factually correct.
• But there are many hugely important reasons for Democrats to turn out in massive numbers in non-swing states as well.
• We want Harris to win the popular vote nationally by a huge margin.
• I shouldn’t have to mention that control of congress is at state for both the House and Senate.
• On your ballot in your respective areas, there are likely many important ballot questions that will impact your day to day lives on a local basis.
• Speaking of local, it’s crucial that you do your part to elect politicians who share your outlook in state and local races.
• I don’t give a shit whether you live in Washington or West Virginia… New Mexico or North Dakota… Ohio or Oregon. Vote like your life depends on it.
• Because it really might. I’m not exaggerating here. I’m dead fucking serious.
• In other news…
• Those planning on fuckery with the upcoming election should know about Cochise County, AZ Supervisor Peggy Judd, pleaded guilty yesterday to a misdemeanor of failing to perform her duty as an election officer.
• She’s one of two rural Arizona county supervisors who faced criminal charges for refusing to certify the 2022 midterm results by a state deadline.
• The acknowledgment of guilt by Judd was seen by some as a warning to other Arizona county officials who might once again be pressured by election conspiracists not to certify the results.
• Fuck her and anyone else who won’t fulfill their duties in a free and fair election.
• Let’s move on.
• The ACLU and other groups argued in federal court yesterday that a law passed in Louisiana earlier this year requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms violates a Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment.
• Thank God.
• They sued the state to prevent the law from taking effect in January. This was the first time both parties met over the issue.
• Nine Louisiana families are plaintiffs in the case. They argue that the law will harm children if it takes effect. The main focus in court yesterday was whether the case can move forward, as attorneys argue that the plaintiffs don’t have a case until the posters go up in the classrooms.
• Fucking assholes.
• The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar law in Kentucky in 1980. The federal court judge in Baton Rouge says he will decide whether the case will move forward by November 15.
• In other asshole news…
• Mike Jeffries, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, has been arrested on charges related to sex trafficking.
• The indictment — which contains more than a dozen counts — alleges that between December 2008 and March 2015, Jeffries and two other associates engaged in a sex trafficking scheme in which they would recruit men with model aspirations.
• And then they would engage in sex-themed parties at which these prospective models were given drugs, alcohol, and Viagra to perform sex acts.
• People are fucking awful, ya know?
• Jeffries and other defendants were arrested this morning. Two of them, including Jeffries, are scheduled to make their initial appearances this afternoon in federal court in the Southern District of Florida.
• Let’s move on to a more familiar asshole: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
• Attorney John Wilson resigned as general counsel for the Florida Department of Health. rather than “complying with the directives” of DeSantis’s executive staff.
• DeSantis was making him send cease-and-desist letters to TV stations, threatening them with criminal penalties if they aired a political ad backing a referendum that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban.
• A federal judge last week issued a temporary restraining order to stop the state from sending the threatening letters to broadcasters. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said the state’s actions amounted to “unconstitutional coercion” and meant that “any political viewpoint with which the State disagrees is fair game for censorship.”
• “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” Walker wrote.
• Those letters came directly from Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office.
• “I did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions about the letters prior to October 3,” Wilson wrote in an affidavit filed in federal court yesterday. Instead, he said, three attorneys on the governor’s staff gave him the letters to send.
• That is some seriously un-American shit there, DeSantis. Good thing you’ll never be President like you think you will.
• And now, The Weather: “Tear Me Apart” by Niall Summerton
• Side note for no one: that right there was my 874th consecutive day of giving you a new music recommendation. We’ll hit 1,000 in February.
• Nice.
• From the Sports Desk… it’s opening night for the 2024-25 NBA season. Go Lakers!
• Two games last night on Monday Night Football. The Ravens beat the Bucs 41-31, while the Cardinals hung on to a 17-15 win over the Chargers.
• Seven weeks into the NFL season, here’s who’s on top.
• AFC East: Bills (5-2).
• AFC North: Ravens (5-2).
• AFC South: Texans (5-2).
• AFC West: Chiefs (6-0).
• NFC East: Commanders (5-2).
• NFC North: Lions (5-1).
• NFC South: Falcons (4-3).
• NFC West: Seahawks (4-3).
• Today in history… Emperor Kanmu relocates the Japanese capital to Heian-kyō, now known as Kyoto (794). The Ming dynasty defeats the Dutch East India Company (1633). The College of New Jersey, later renamed Princeton University, receives its charter (1746). Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas (1836). The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod's Faust (1883). FBI agents shoot and kill notorious bank robber Pretty Boy Floyd (1934). President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation (1962). Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but turns down the honor (1964). Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (1976). Cyclist Lance Armstrong is formally stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after being charged for doping (2012). Same-sex marriage is legalized, and abortion is decriminalized in Northern Ireland (2019).
• October 22 is the birthday of composer Franz Liszt (1811), actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844), painter/illusrtator N. C. Wyeth (1882), actor Curly Howard (1903), MLB player Jimmie Foxx (1907), psychologist/author Timothy Leary (1920), activist Bobby Seale (1936), actor Christopher Lloyd (1938), actress Annette Funicello (1942), singer-songwriter/guitarist Leslie West (1945), physician Deepak Chopra (1946), actor Jeff Goldblum (1952), actor Bob Odenkirk (1962), ice skater Brian Boitano (1963), NBA player Dražen Petrović (1964), singer-songwriter Shaggy (1968), director Spike Jonze (1969), MLB player Ichiro Suzuki (1973), and MLB player Robinson Canó (1982).

I will remind you right now that no matter what you think, what you read, what you believe, whom you trust, or any other possible factor, we have no way of knowing who will be elected president two weeks from now. But I will say that we will react to the outcome in appropriate ways, whatever they may be. Enjoy your day.