Random News: October 30, 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 30, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. Lots to talk about in this news-packed era in which we live right now. I’m looking forward to things mellowing the fuck ut, he said, not sure if they ever would.

• Last night in Washington D.C., Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the speech of a lifetime.
• In front of over 75,000 cheering fans situated at the same site where Dumpy encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol to try and enact a coup against the USA on January 6, 2021, Harris made her closing argument  for the election.
• The crowd at the Ellipse near the White House was massive. Far, far bigger than any event I’ve ever seen Dumpy try.
• There were well over three times as many people there to support Harris as there were at the Nazi rally that Dump did in Madison Square Garden over the weekend.
• Harris said, “We know who Donald Trump is. He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election, an election that he knew he lost.”
• She continued, “America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind. More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path. And I ask for your vote.” 
• Harris’s speech drew a contrast between her vision for the country and Dump's as she sought to win over any remaining undecided voters a week before Election Day. 
• Where was Joe Biden for this? Getting ice cream in Baltimore, MD. Because of course he was. He said he was watching Kamala’s speech on TV.
• When asked why he wasn’t at the Ellipse with Harris in person, I loved his response: “Because it's for her, it's her night.”
• Goddamn right. Good call, Joe.
• Let’s move over to the International Desk for a moment.
• At least 62 people have died and a number feared missing after torrential rain led to flash floods in the south-east of Spain.
• More than a year's worth of rain fell in just eight hours in Chiva, Valencia, with video showing floodwaters dragging cars through the streets and leaving people clinging to trees.
• More than 1,000 troops have been deployed to help with the rescue operation, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promising residents "we won't abandon you.”
• Around 155,000 households are still without electricity in the region. Train service on the high-speed Madrid-Valencia and Barcelona-Valencia routes have been cancelled.
• My thoughts are with those people. Americans tend to think that the difficulties we experience with natural disasters and political strife and so on are unique to us, for some reason.
• But they’re not. Save some thoughts and positive vibes for the people in Spain, please.
• Moving on.
• I’ll bet you didn’t know that Allentown, PA is one of the cities that will decide next week’s US election… and has a huge population of Puerto Rican people.
• After a speaker at the Dump Nazi rally in New York City called Puerto Rico — a US territory in the Caribbean Sea — an “island of garbage”, residents there said the fallout could be brutal for the former president.
• Pennsylvania is the largest battleground state and the biggest prize in the White House race between Dump and Harris. The state has a Puerto Rican population of nearly 500,000. As US citizens, Puerto Rican adults can vote.
• Dump has refused to personally apologize for the statement, as some members of the Puerto Rican community in Allentown have been demanding.
• Instead, before flying to Pennsylvania to try and control the damage, he called the New York rally a “lovefest.”
• But Matt Tuerk, the mayor of Allentown, said that his constituents are "furious."
• ”People are going to turn that anger into voting. That's how people will react," he said. "We don't get mad; we get even."
• I approve of this.
• And if you want a sure sign that Dumples the Demented Clown is panicking about the state, he wrote on social media, “"Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before."
• That fat asshole didn’t identify what, specifically, he's accusing the state of cheating at, nor did he provide any evidence. That means he knows he losing.
• Let’s talk about one of the many awful consequences that are guaranteed to happen: huge price increases on consumer goods across nearly all categories of products due to Dump’s idiotic tariff plan.
• And across the United States, companies that rely on foreign suppliers are already preparing to raise prices in response to Dumpy’s ridiculous massive import tariffs.
• The planned price increases next year would come as consumers are beginning to enjoy relief from high inflation, and directly contradict Dump’s repeated assurances that foreigners will pay the tariff tab.
• Timothy Boyle, chief executive of Columbia Sportswear, said it straight out: “We’re set to raise prices. We’re buying stuff today for delivery next fall. So we’re just going to deal with it and we’ll just raise the prices. It’s going to be very, very difficult to keep products affordable for Americans.”
• While Dump lies over and over again, saying foreign companies — not Americans — pay such import taxes, the fact is that American importers pay all tariffs to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency at the time their products enter the country.
• And then you, the consumer, cover the bill.
• A Dump presidency means prices on nearly everything you buy will skyrocket. Hopefully you’re smart enough to understand this.
• Let’s move on.
• Another Texas woman has died as a result of Dump’s Supreme Court having killed Roe v. Wade.
• Josseli Barnica was 17 weeks pregnant, and a miscarriage was “in progress,” doctors noted in hospital records.
• But doctors at the hospital in Houston refused to give her medical attention until the fetus had no heartbeat, per the laws in that state.
• For 40 hours, the anguished 28-year-old mother prayed for doctors to help her get home to her daughter; all the while, her uterus remained exposed to bacteria.
• Three days after she delivered the stillborn baby, Barnica died of an infection.
• For the love of God, please vote for Kamala Harris and end this fucking nightmare.
• Thank you.
• In other election news…
• While former President George W. Bush will not be weighing in on this year's divisive election, his daughter is.
• Barbara Bush, 42, one of the former GOP president's two children, spent part of the weekend campaigning in Pennsylvania for Democrat Kamala Harris.
• She said, “It was inspiring to join friends and meet voters with the Harris-Walz campaign in Pennsylvania this weekend. I’m hopeful they'll move our country forward and protect women’s rights.”
• Well done!
• And now some of the most horrifying info to come out previous to the 2024 general election.
• Yesterday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said that Dumples the Clown has promised him control of all of the public health agencies.
• According to him, that includes but is not limited to: Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
• So a vote for Dump means that a man who had a worm eat part of his brain… a man who found a dead bear cub and placed it in a park… and man who sawed the head off a whale to keep for reasons unknown… will be in charge of the medical care you receive and the food you and your kids eat, among other things.
• RFK Jr. is also staunchly against childhood vaccinations, and the USA will have an immediate outbreak of otherwise easily-controllable diseases including polio, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, hepatitis, and much more.
• I have been telling you that this election matters more than any other in your lifetime.
• I was serious every time. PLEASE FUCKING VOTE.
• While we’re on the topic of that weird fucking freak, RFK Jr.’s bewildering campaign has shot itself in the foot for the umpteenth time. 
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against his request to be removed from presidential ballots in Michigan and Wisconsin. Justice Neil Gorsuch was the only dissenting vote, for some reason.
• As we’ve mentioned previously, the third-party spoiler turned Dump advocate has been pathetically attempting to help Dumpy by removing his name from swing state ballots, while remaining on the ballot elsewhere. But even the Supreme Court has had enough of his shit.
• Moving on…
• David DePape, the asshole who was convicted in the 2022 attack on the husband of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole yesterday following his state trial.
• DePape’s early morning break-in at the Pelosi home almost exactly two years ago on October 28, 2022 — just days before the 2022 midterm elections — sent shockwaves through the United States and was attributed to the predictable effects of increasingly demonizing political rhetoric.
• And yes, DePape was already sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for this same brutal crime. He can start his life sentence with the state after he finishes that one. Fuck around, find out, motherfuckers.
• Let’s move on.
• Jaywalking is now legal in New York City.
• Mercedes Narcisse, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said yesterday that the new law ends racial disparities in enforcement, noting that more than 90% of the jaywalking tickets issued last year went to Black and Latino people.
• The new law permits pedestrians to cross a roadway at any point, including outside of a crosswalk. It also allows for crossing against traffic signals and specifically states that doing so is no longer a violation of the city’s administrative code.
• Before you go play in traffic, it should be noted that the new law also warns that pedestrians crossing outside of a crosswalk do not have the right of way and that they should yield to other traffic.
• A good idea no matter where you are.
• In New York City, where struggles between pedestrians and motorists are constant, the jaywalking law had been on the books since 1958, and carried a penalty of up to $250.
• And now, The Weather: “Lazy Universe” by Phoebe Rings
• A huge RIP going out to Oscar-nominated actress Teri Garr, who was best known for her work in films like “Young Frankenstein,” “Tootsie,” and “Mr. Mom.” She was 79.
• She died yesterday in Los Angeles, more than twenty years after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
• From the Sports Desk… the Yankees finally showed that they have some life in them, beating the Dodgers 11-4 in Game 4 of the World Series and avoiding an embarrassing sweep.
• Game 5 is tonight in New York.
• Today in history… Guangzhou is sacked by Arab and Persian pirates (758). Simón Bolívar becomes President of the Third Republic of Venezuela (1817). Orson Welles broadcasts a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's ‘The War of the Worlds’, causing a massive panic in some of the audience in the United States (1938). Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the baseball color line (1945). President Eisenhower approves the top-secret document NSC 162/2 concerning the maintenance of a strong nuclear deterrent force against the Soviet Union (1953). The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated (1961). Quebec citizens narrowly vote in favor of remaining a province of Canada in their second referendum on national sovereignty (1995). Sweden becomes the first European Union member state to officially recognize the State of Palestine (2014).
• October 30 is the birthday of US president John Adams (1735), poet Ezra Pound (1885), bodybuilder Charles Atlas (1893), actress Ruth Gordon (1896), journalist Fred W. Friendly (1915), trumpeter/composer Clifford Brown (1930), film director Louis Malle (1932), NFL coach Dick Vermeil (1936), singer-songwriter Grace Slick (1939), actor Henry Winkler (1945), journalist Andrea Mitchell (1946), drummer Chris Slade (1946), singer-songwriter/bass player Timothy B. Schmit (1947), soccer player Diego Maradona (1960), singer-songwriter/guitarist Gavin Rossdale (1965), umm… Ivanka Trump (1981), NFL player Trent Edwards (1983), and NBA player Devin Booker (1996).

There is so much more news happening, but I never have time to deliver it all. Hopefully the stuff I chose is as important and/or interesting to you as it is to me. Enjoy your day.