Random News: October 27, 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 27, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I slept in a bit — which for me means until 7:30am — and now have a fresh cup of coffee and am ready to see what’s going on in the world, and share it with you.

• Let’s start with a timely question, nine days from Election Day.
• Beyond the usual party-based players, who is influencing your opinions on the 2024 election by using disinformation?
• Russia is the most active and sophisticated nation working to manipulate the U.S. election, using fake websites, state-controlled media, and unwitting Americans to spread misleading and polarizing content aimed at undermining confidence in elections.
• The Kremlin’s disinformation apparatus focuses on contentious topics like immigration, crime, the economy, and disaster relief.
• Russian disinformation — often AI-generated — is used to smear Dumpy’s Democratic opponent. Dump has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested cutting funds to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance.
• So it’s very much in Putin’s best interest for Dump to win, and they are trying hard in that regard.
• Who else? China seems to be taking a more equal-opportunity stance, and is targeting candidates from both parties based on their positions on issues of key importance to Beijing, including support for Taiwan.
• China operates a sophisticated hacking operation targeting all manners of Western life and industry that goes well beyond election influence.
• On Friday, news broke that Chinese hackers — as part of a much broader espionage effort — had targeted cellphones used by Dump, Vance, as well as people associated with Harris’s campaign.
• Many — or all — other countries know that the coming election in nine days will have a huge impact on not only the USA but the world.
• And some will do what they can to influence the outcome that best favors them, as opposed to benefitting the people of the USA.
• Let’s talk about not talking about polling.
• The last time we had polls that perfectly predicted the outcome was in 1984, when a double-digit blowout White House race had Reagan coasting to victory by winning 49 out of 50 states against Democratic challenger Walter Mondale.
• Elections have been closer ever since, including the races in 2000 and 2016 where the Democrat won the popular vote but fell short in the Electoral College.
• And in recent years, there’s a hyper-competitive media landscape who put out dubious polls,  and now in 2024 a whole-ass cottage industry of pollsters, pundits, and even gamblers who seek to give each side a preview of what will happen. 
• We’ve all seen the models be way off in the past few elections. In the 2012 election, Romney was predicted to beat Obama. In 2016, Clinton was supposed to easily defeat Dump. Even in 2020, many wanna-be polling firms undercounted Dump’s performance heading into the election.
• And another thing: in previous elections, events like Joe Biden's summertime exit, persistent economic woes, Harris's historic bid, and two alleged assassination attempts against Dump would have cause huge swings in surveyed opinions.
• But not this time. The partisan and ideological polarization has kept the results hovering around 50-50 despite everything else going on.
• So I’ll close this section by saying the only person who matters in the election at this stage is you. You, and your choice to vote.
• And now, the news.
• Kamala Harris’s special guest at her rally in Michigan yesterday was former first lady Michelle Obama, who challenged men to support Harris's bid to be America's first female president.
• She also warned that women's lives would be at risk if Ol’ Dumpy returned to the White House.
• Obama described the assault on abortion rights as the harbinger of dangerous limitations on healthcare for women. "If we don't get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage. So are you as men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them you supported this assault on our safety?"
• Valid point. 
• While Harris was with Obama in Michigan, President Biden visited the Laborers' International Union of North America in Pittsburgh. He mentioned that Harris once walked a picket line with the United Auto Workers while Dump has undermined organized labor.
• “It's in labor's interest to defeat Donald Trump, more than any other race you've been in,” said Joe, and then, referring again to Dumples the Clone, said, "I'm just gonna say straight up, he's a loser as a man."
• I support this message.
• A reminder: your cost of living will skyrocket under a Dump presidency due to his promise to add massive tariffs to imported goods. He’s threatened to raise tariffs anywhere from 20% to 2000%.
• That’s a tax on the American people. The tariffs are not paid by other countries. They’re paid by US businesses who have to pass the cost on to you, the consumer.
• Under a Kamala Harris presidency, no one making under $400,000/year will see a tax increase. If you are making over that amount, I congratulate you and I know you can afford to pay more.
• Today, Harris is in West Philadelphia, delivering remarks at a Black church, followed by a visit to a barbershop. She'll also visit a Puerto Rican restaurant and meet families at a youth basketball center.
• Let’s move on.
• You know how I’m always cheering efforts to stop Republican states from suppressing your vote? Do you assume I’m only addressing Democratic voter disenfranchisement?
• No. I’m talking about all voters.
• For instance, Dennis Henson of Lynchburg, VA has been a registered voter his entire adult life.
• So he wasn’t expecting the letter that told him his voter registration would expire because he had been identified as a noncitizen.
• What happened? He thinks he accidentally forgot to mark his citizenship status on the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles form when he renewed his driver’s license in July. 
• Failing to check that citizenship box triggers a process in which the DMV notifies the Department of Elections, which then notifies the local registrar’s office, which then sends a warning letter to the resident to tell them their registration is about to be canceled. The resident is given 14 days to respond
• And Henson is a big MAGA. White guy. Born in the USA. Wears the red hat. Has “Let’s Go Brandon” stickers on his truck.
• These laws are in effect to protect ALL voters, and every American should support them. And I’ll remind you that actual instances of non-citizen voting attempts are extremely rare.
• The risk of stopping a legitimate American from voting due to silly clerical errors is much, much higher than preventing any sort of voter fraud.
• Moving on.
• I’m only mentioning this next item out of spitefulness and a hatred of hypocrisy.
• South African-born Elon Musk worked illegally in the United States as he launched his entrepreneurial career after ditching a graduate studies program in California.
• This same man today has amplified Dump’s claims that “open borders” and undocumented immigrants are destroying America.
• But Musk himself did not have the legal right to work while building the company that became Zip2, which sold for about $300 million in 1999.
• That was his steppingstone to buy Tesla and the other ventures that have made him the world’s wealthiest person — and America’s most successful illegal immigrant.
• I am aware that most people who speak out strongly against illegal immigration think that all immigrants are brown-skinned and don’t speak English. But a lot of them are more like Elon.
• More than 22 million people live in a U.S. household where at least one occupant is in the country without authorization. That represents nearly 5% of households across the country. Many of them are now older folks who moved here decades ago and have families with kids and grandkids who were born in the USA and are American citizens.
• Dump has vowed to force all of them out of the USA in mass deportation plans.
• In other news…
• Remember earlier this week when I mentioned that the U.S. Army was going to release the report from a controversial August incident between the Dump campaign team and an Army staff member working at Arlington National Cemetery?
• Well, they did, on Friday… and nearly the entire document is redacted. The details are completely blacked out on the page.
• The release does identify the incident as “simple assault,” in which the Dump campaign staffer made contact with the Army cemetery official “with both hands.”
• It comes amid fresh scrutiny over Dump’s horrific treatment of veterans, including comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, who said the former president disparaged wounded and fallen troops.
• Having his male staff physically push a female Army official out of the way to take a thumbs-up picture over a dead soldier is very much on-brand for Dump.
• One more election note…
• The record-breaking early voting in Georgia, a key battleground state, has already brought in more than half of 2020’s total turnout since it began last week.
• As of yesterday morning, more than 2.6 million people in the Peach State have already voted. In 2020, just under 5 million voters total cast their ballots in the state. 
• That’s exciting.
• And now, The Weather: “one way route (feat. viscera corps)” by frans asthma
• From the Sports Desk… last night’s Game 2 of the 2024 World Series didn’t feature quite as dramatic an ending as Game 1 — how could it? — but it still came down to the bottom of the ninth inning for the Dodgers to rack up a 4-2 win over the Yankees, taking a 2-0 lead in the series.
• Again, both teams engaged in a battle of tough pitching performances. It was the Dodgers bats — home runs by Edman, Hernandez, and once again Freddie Freeman — that were key to the victory, along with the outstanding pitching of Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
• The Yankees left three men stranded in a bases-loaded heartbreak as the game ended. Game 3 is tomorrow in New York.
• One note of obvious concern: superstar Shohei Ohtani partially dislocated his left shoulder during the seventh inning of Game 2 while trying steal second base. His status for Game 3 is unclear.
• Today in history… Æthelstan, the first king of all England, dies and is succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund I — my 34th great-grandfather (939). Founding of the city of Amsterdam (1275). Philadelphia is founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1682). United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida (1810). The first underground New York City Subway line opens, later designated as the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line (1904). Mrs Wallis Simpson obtains her divorce, which would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (1936). Ecological disaster in Donora, Pennsylvania (1948). NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1 (1961). By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war (1962). The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire (1971). United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay (1992). A gunman opens fire on a Pittsburgh synagogue killing 11 and injuring six, including four police officers (2018).
• October 27 is the birthday of writer Mary Sidney (1561), composer Niccolò Paganini (1782), businessman Isaac Singer (1811), US president Theodore Roosevelt (1858), poet Dylan Thomas (1914), actress Nanette Fabray (1920), artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923), Watergate lawyer H. R. Haldeman (1926), poet Sylvia Plath (1932), singer/pianist Floyd Kramer (1933), actor John Cleese (1939), mob boss John Gotti (1940), race car driver Dick Trickle (1941), actress Carrie Snodgress (1945), bass player Garry Tallent (1949), guitarist/songwriter K. K. Downing (1951), actor Roberto Benigni (1952), actor Robert Picardo (1953), singer-songwriter Simon Le Bon (1958), NBA player Yi Jianlian (1984), NFL player Brady Quinn (1984), NBA player Andrew Bynum (1987), and NBA player Lonzo Ball (1997).

Beyond relaxing and getting my energy up for another busy upcoming week, I am doing some long-overdue cleaning and rearranging in various parts of my house. My last word: stay optimistic about the future while doing your part to actively make the world a better place in which to live. You can do it. I believe in you. Enjoy your day.