Random News: October 24, 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 24, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. A week ago today I was all happy and excited to be heading out on vacation; today I am overflowing with stress about huge work deadlines, national elections, and even stupid-ass baseball games. Such is life, which is why we need to appreciate the rare moments of peace and contentment… and trust me, I do.

• There are 12 days until the election. Yes, including today, which is well underway. It’s a fucking week from next Tuesday.
• Since I’ve already voted — and I check in with people daily to make sure they have a plan to vote — there’s little point in my being stressed about it.
• I mean, sure, yes, it’s nerve-racking. It’s terrifying. I get all that. But the fact is, I’ve done my part and will continue doing so right up until November 5.
• And if things go well, and I hope they will, we will have our first woman POTUS being sworn in on January 20. It’s exciting.
• I want to show you something from eight years ago, in 2016. I mention it because at this exact point that year, we were also getting excited about the possibility of a woman leading the USA.
• Hillary Clinton was leading all polls at that point. Heh.
• And in that election, 25.6% of registered voters chose Clinton. 25.5% of them chose Trump. 1.7% voted for Johnson.
• And nearly half — 46.9% of them — DID NOT FUCKING VOTE.
• You may think this is really sad, but frankly it’s pretty typical for US voting averages over the past 100+ years.
• 65.9% of eligible voters in 2016 actually voted. It’s been since the year 1900 that the USA has gotten more than 70% of eligible people to vote.
• That same election, there were 240,628,443 eligible voters in the USA, but only 168,308,000 of them actually registered.
• You know the rest of the story; despite winning the popular vote, Clinton lost pretty badly in the electoral vote, 304-227.
• All I’m saying is that we can have a better country. It’s taken a long time to get past the horrors of the pandemic and reversing the failures of Dumpy. Biden’s done exemplary work in both jobs.
• Voting is easy. Why not help make the world a better place for everyone? Vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on or before November 5.
• I believe in you.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, in battleground Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris warned that democracy and reproductive rights were at stake as she campaigned alongside a former Republican congresswoman.
• While Dump’s team has abandoned efforts to broaden his message to target moderate voters, Harris is leaning into a more traditional all-of-the-above playbook targeting the narrow slice of undecided voters that remain, especially moderates, college-educated suburbanites, and women of all races and education.
• And smartly, more than Dump, she’s going after Republican women who may have supported rival Nikki Haley in this year’s GOP primary and are dissatisfied with the former president.
• Harris said that comments praising Adolf Hitler made by Dumples the Clown to his chief of staff offer a window into who the former president really is and the kind of commander in chief he would be.
• If you weren’t aware, this week John Kelly warned that Dump fully meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office he said that Hitler “did some good things.”
• Later in the day, Harris held an in-depth town hall on CNN. It was originally scheduled as a debate, but Dump chickened out and didn’t show up.
• She pointed this out, saying, “Donald Trump should be here tonight to talk with you and answer your questions. He’s not. He refused to come.”
• Harris did extremely well. Her performance was lauded by both Democratic and Republican voters in attendance. One pointed question from an audience member was how her Presidency would differ from the current one.
• “My administration will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” she said. “I bring to this role my own ideas and my own experience. I represent a new generation of leadership on a number of issues and believe that we have to actually take new approaches.”
• And yes, when moderator Anderson Cooper asked, “Let me ask you tonight, do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?” Harris replied, “Yes, I do.”
• What is the orange-hued Nazi lover up to?
• Dump had a strangely wistful statement after doing an event yesterday for his right-wing base in Georgia.
• He said, “I realized the time is coming to an end. And in many ways, it's sad, because we're down to 12 days. We've been doing this together for nine years.”
• Hmm. Not gonna speculate on that.
• One more Harris note: while she was in Philly, she hit up Famous 4th Street Deli, an eatery that opened in 1923.
• It’s been a tradition since the ‘70s for politicians to gather there on Election Day to hang out with supporters and reporters, while perhaps having lunch, or a delicious black and white cookie.
• Harris met with volunteers and took selfies with some and with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker. Some random guy yelled, “We’re gonna win,” and Harris responded, “We are.”
• In case you’re interested (I was), she grabbed a to-go order of a pastrami sandwich on rye and a slice of German chocolate cake.
• Yum. My stomach just growled menacingly at me.
• Let’s move on.
• The editor of the Los Angeles Times opinion section has resigned from her post after the newspaper’s owner prevented the editorial board from endorsing a candidate for president.
• Mariel Garza resigned in protest of the decision by Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Times, to block the editorial staff from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
• “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”
• Good for her. I admire this woman for standing up for her ethical duty to do her job.
• Side note: the LA Times has endorsed a presidential candidate every election since 2008 after abstaining from the practice for decades after it endorsed Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal.
• Soon-Shiong purchased the newspaper for $500 million in 2018. He also prevented the editorial staff from endorsing Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic Primary.
• Prick.
• In other news…
• I wasn’t going to bother mentioning the newly-revealed information about Dumpy groping and sexually touching a woman against her will.
• Honestly, no one seems to care that this guy is a fucking rapist. It’s something that’s been documented in multiple court cases against him.
• In case you give a shit at all, a former model who met Dumpy through the late sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein says that in an incident in Dump Tower in 1993, he grabbed and felt her up in what she believed was a “twisted game” between the two men.
• As you know, Epstein was later convicted on sex offenses and, uh, killed himself, I guess, in prison in 2019.
• When Williams and Epstein arrived at Dump’s place, Dump greeted her, pulled her toward him and started groping her. She said he put his hands “all over my breasts” as well as her waist and her buttocks.
• She also said she saw the two men smiling at each other.
• A total of two dozen women have accused Big Smelly, who has been convicted of multiple felonies, of sexual misconduct dating back decades.
• The allegations have included claims of Dump kissing them without their consent, reaching under their skirts, and, in the case of some beauty pageant contestants, walking in on them in the changing room.
• And last year, a jury found Dumpy liable for sexually abusing the columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, and awarded her $5 million in a judgment.
• That’s who you want for your President… again? That’s your role model for your sons and daughters?
• Let’s move on.
• Police have identified a suspect arrested in connection with three shootings targeting a Democratic National Committee office in Tempe, AZ in the past couple of months. 
• And it’s a good thing they did. Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, was also arrested for hanging suspicious bags of white power from political signs lined with razor blades. 
• But wait. Kelly’s home was searched and he had more than 120 guns and more than 250,000 rounds of ammunition in his home. I can almost guarantee that this guy was planning a mass shooting of liberals.
• Because his lord Donnie Dump wants that across the country.
• Kelly is charged with several felonies, including committing an act of terrorism, unlawful discharge of a firearm and shooting at a non-residential structure. He is also charged with criminal damage, a misdemeanor.
• This piece of shit was previously been arrested in 2022 for stealing campaign signs. A judge set his bail at $500,000 and ordered electronic monitoring and house arrest in the event he is able to raise the money.
• Be aware, there are many more assholes like Kelly out there.
• We haven’t mentioned much about the recent hurricanes as recovery continues, but we can tell you one entity to blame for the stream of disinformation… and yes, it’s Russia.
• The country helped amplify and spread false and misleading internet claims about Helene and Milton and the federal government’s response, part of a wider effort by the Kremlin to manipulate America’s political discourse before the presidential election.
• The content, spread by Russian state media and networks of social media accounts and websites, criticizes the federal response to the hurricanes in an attempt to paint American leaders as incompetent and corrupt.
• And all it takes are a few susceptible idiots to help them spread their lies. Hopefully you’re smart enough to question things you see and read.
• Moving on to a sad story about Sewell Setzer, a 14-year-old from Florida who committed suicide after spending months talking to a chatbot.
• This week, Sewell’s mother filed a lawsuit that accused the company behind the bot of being responsible for his death. 
• Friends, please pay attention to what your kids are doing. I’m not saying this was avoidable, but instilling some information to your children about life’s real priorities may help them from being susceptible to fake relationships of all kinds.
• From the Health Desk… how long can you stand on one leg?
• Specifically, your non-dominant leg. It’s a telltale sign of age-related decline, according to a study led by researchers at Mayo Clinic.
• Participants, ages 52 to 83, were compared with each other in a cross-sectional study.
• “If you can’t stand on your leg for five seconds, you’re at risk of falls,” said said Kenton Kaufman, the senior author of the study and a musculoskeletal research professor. “If a person can stand on their leg for 30 seconds, they’re doing really well, especially if they’re older.”
• Try it. Don’t fall while you do.
• And now, The Weather: “Opposite Day (feat. Yoshi T.)” by FIG
• From the Sports Desk… it’s a magical week for sports fans. MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL are all in full swing.
• I remember as a younger man flipping back and forth between football games, the World series, and Lakers and Kings games.
• I don’t do that now. I have the Internet to check scores, and I don’t have even close to the amount of spare time to really watch sports.
• Anyway, tonight has the Vikings at Rams in the NFL, and Game 1 of the Dodgers/Yankees World Series is tomorrow night. Whee!
• LET’S GO BLUE!
• Today in history… William Lassell discovers two moons — Umbriel and Ariel — orbiting Uranus (1851). Sheffield F.C., the world's oldest association football club still in operation, is founded in England (1857). U.S. Government announces plans to buy Danish West Indies for $7 million (1900). Harry Houdini's last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit (1926). "Black Thursday" on the New York Stock Exchange (1929). The George Washington Bridge opens to public traffic over the Hudson River (1931). A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space (1946). President Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam (1954). In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gender inequality (1975). The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series (1992). "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history (2008). 
• October 24 is the birthday of microbiologist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632), author/activist Sarah Josepha Hale (1788), physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804), US vice president James S. Sherman (1855), NFL player Y. A. Tittle (1926), singer-songwriter/guitarist The Big Bopper (1930), singer-songwriter/bass player Bill Wyman (1936), actor F. Murray Abraham (1939), actor Kevin Kline (1947), Australia prime minister Malcolm Turnbull (1954), academic Zephyr Teachout (1971), singer-songwriter/guitarist Laura Viers (1973), singer/rapper Monica (1980), model Tila Tequila (1981), rapper Drake (1986), YouTube PewDiePie (1989), and NFL player Amon-Ra St. Brown (1999).

Okay, time for me to continue on my super busy schedule for today. I’ll be fine. I’ve been way more stressed than I am now. I'm just using it as inspiration to make sure I get the shit done that needs doing. Enjoy your day.