Random News: October 6, 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 6, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. I’m up pretty early for a Sunday, already showered and shaved and dressed, for reasons I will explain below. First, let’s get some news rolling.

• The death toll from Helene has risen to at least 227 across six states. Helene is the second deadliest hurricane to strike the United States mainland in the past 50 years, following Hurricane Katrina, which killed at least 1,833 people in 2005.
• The deaths from Helene by state as of yesterday are as follows: North Carolina - 113 people; South Carolina - 48 people; Georgia - 33 people; Florida - 20 people; Tennessee - 11 people; Virginia - 2 people.
• The massive relief effort is ongoing across the devastated region to restore power, rebuild damaged water and cell infrastructure, and get supplies to areas cut off to road access after Helene tore up and washed out roads and bridges.
• I want to give well-deserved credit to a great American for her support of the people affected by Helene: Dolly Parton.
• Parton, along with her companies Dollywood Parks & Resorts, The Dollywood Foundation, Dolly Parton’s Stampede and Pirates Voyage, will partner with Walmart to provide significant donations to flood relief across the Appalachian region.
• She wrote a personal check for $1 million to the Mountain Ways Foundation, a registered charitable organization dedicated to providing immediate assistance to Helene flood victims. 
• Additionally, Dolly’s East Tennessee businesses along with The Dollywood Foundation are combining efforts to match her donation to Mountain Ways with an added $1 million contribution.
• And at Dolly’s urging, Walmart, including Sam’s Club and the Walmart Foundation, are donating a total of $10 million to hurricane relief efforts across the affected states.
• She stated, “Who knew, in our little part of the country here — where I was born and raised, just right down the road — that we would have this kind of devastation? When I look around, I think, ‘These are my mountains, these are my valleys, these are my rivers… these are my people, and this is my home.’"
• Good for her. She will always be remembered for her positive contributions to the world.
• In related news, Vice President Harris took her second trip in four days to an area impacted by Helene, meeting with victims and first responders in North Carolina yesterday.
• She visited a North Carolina Air National Guard base at Charlotte’s airport, where she received a briefing alongside a phalanx of state elected officials. The guard has airlifted more than 100,000 pounds of food to parts of the state most heavily affected by Hurricane Helene.
• Meanwhile, people across Florida were given notice this morning that Milton, for now just a tropical storm off the coast of Mexico, could intensify rapidly into a major hurricane before slamming midweek into the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.
• We tried for many years to tell people about the effects of manmade climate change. It’s sad, but this pattern of more intense and more frequent severe weather is precisely what was predicted by climate scientists.
• Moving on.
• In a move that definitely falls into the “Too Little, Too Late” file, as Election Day approaches, Republicans are ramping up efforts to distance themselves from the restrictive abortion positions that have defined their party since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade — scrambling to soften, or appear to soften, their hard-line positions.
• Take my advice… do not believe them.
• After years of hardline opposition to women’s reproductive rights, Dump and Vance are all of a sudden becoming real softies on the abortion topic.
• Nearly two-thirds of Americans — spanning both Democratic and Republican voters — say they believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
• During JD Vance’s 2022 Senate rune, he described himself as “100 percent pro-life” and ran on a platform promising to “end abortion.”
• Dumpy himself takes credit all the time for having taken away the protections of Roe v. Wade from the women of the USA, now claiming that :everyone” wanted those protections removed.
• A small group of House Republicans and Republican candidates have also shifted their tone on the issue and are espousing a surprising stance — support for abortion rights — while not necessarily backing legal protections proposed by Democrats.
• It’s pretty hilarious. One example is Rep. John Duarte (R-CA), who suddenly described himself as “pro-choice” after having earned positive ratings from multiple hardcore anti-abortion groups because of his anti-choice voting record.
• Again, these fuckers see the writing on the wall. If a candidate has voted time and time again to remove women’s reproductive rights, they will keep doing so over and over in the future.
• This is 100% true.
• Let’s move on.
• Kamala Harris is going on a major blitz of media interviews this week before heading to the west coast as early voting gets underway.
• Harris will sit for interviews in the coming days with radio host Howard Stern, late night host Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show,” and the hosts of “The View.”
• Those appearances are in addition to a previously announced sit-down with “60 Minutes,” which will air Monday, and an appearance on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast that will be released today.
• Later in the week, Harris will participate in a Univision town hall event and other campaign stops in Las Vegas on Thursday.
• This would probably be a good place to mention that my ballot arrived yesterday. After an event I’m doing this morning, I’ll be spending some time filling it out and dropping it off at the official dropbox down the street.
• So yes, today is Election Day for me. I’m excited.
• In other news…
• I mentioned the Supreme Court recently (cue evil music and thunder). But tomorrow is the official start of their new term.
• Let’s look into some of the important cases set to be heard — tempered by the possibility that the justices will also be asked to get involved in election disputes. Ugh.
• Transgender rights: the Biden administration and families of transgender minors in Tennessee are challenging a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Roughly half the states have enacted similar restrictions.
• Ghost guns: the administration is appealing a federal appeals court ruling striking down a regulation aimed at reducing the proliferation of hard-to-trace ghost guns, which lack serial numbers.
• Death penalty: Oklahoma’s Republican attorney general has joined with death row inmate Richard Glossip in calling for the high court to throw out Glossip’s conviction and death sentence in a 1977 murder-for-hire scheme.
• Pornography: the adult entertainment industry is challenging a provision of Texas law, upheld by a federal appeals court, mandating that pornographic websites verify the age of their users.
• Mexico’s gun lawsuit: leading U.S. gun manufacturers want the Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling keeping alive a $10 billion lawsuit filed by Mexico against over allegations that the companies’ practices are responsible for violence in Mexico.
• Nuclear waste: the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions wants the court to restore licenses it issued for temporary nuclear waste storage facilities in rural New Mexico and Texas after a federal appeals court invalidated them.
• Job discrimination: a woman in Ohio is asking the court to revive her workplace discrimination lawsuit in which she claims she unfairly lost out on state jobs to LGBTQ people, in violation of federal law.
• Flavored vapes: The FDA is asking the justices to overturn a decision that would allow the marketing of sweet e-cigarette products amid concern about a surge in youth vaping in recent years.
• And, as I said, knowing Dumples the Clown, some insane case (or more) will make its way to the SCOTUS while he whines about more imaginary unfairness if he loses the election.
• I mean, let’s have him lose first, and then worry about that other shit later, mmkay?
• In news that will probably surprise no one…
• A rural Colorado county courthouse beefed up security Friday after threats were made against staff and a judge who sentenced former county clerk Tina Peters to nearly nine years behind bars for her role in a data breach scheme to strengthen the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Dumples the Clown.
• Courthouse staff in Grand Junction, CO received multiple threats that were being vetted by law enforcement while extra security was provided.
• As we reported last week, Peters, a Republican, was sentenced Thursday for allowing access to the county’s election system to a man affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell — a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election.
• Peters is one of many people who decided to ruin their lives via support of Dumpy.
• Three people were charged after five vote tabulators were illegally taken from three Michigan counties and brought to a hotel room. Investigators found the tabulators were broken into and “tests” were performed on the equipment.
• Former New York Mayor and current national joke Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred in New York and Washington for pursuing Dumpy’s claims about the 2020 election.
• Other Dump lawyers have been disciplined, relinquished their licenses, indicted, or have pleaded guilty in relation to efforts to overturn the election.
• And of course, hundreds of people have been convicted for their roles in storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an ill-fated coup attempt as Congress was certifying the Electoral College vote.
• Everything that Trump touches dies. Keep it in mind.
• From the “Utter Incompetence” Desk…
• Brazil's Supreme Court said on Friday that lawyers representing social media platform X, owned by Elmo Muck, did not pay pending fines to the proper bank, postponing its decision on whether to allow the tech firm to resume services in Brazil.
• I repeat… they sent $5 million… to the wrong fucking bank. Way to go, bozos.
• The payment of the fines, which X lawyers argued that the company had paid correctly, is the only outstanding measure demanded by the court in order to authorize X to operate again in Brazil.
• X has been suspended since late August in Brazil, one of its largest and most coveted markets, after not complying with court orders related to hate speech moderation and failing to name a legal representative in the country, as required by law.
• Mucky Muck filed a fresh request to have its services restored in Brazil, saying it had paid all pending fines. But in response to the request, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes requested the payment to be transferred to the right bank.
• And now, The Weather: “Window” by Merce Lemon
• Now I’ll tell you why I’m up early.
• I’m having a Zoom call with some members of my newfound genetic relatives. Specifically, a half-sister of my mother that I recently discovered via DNA matching, along with at least one of her children.
• These people would be — genetically speaking — my half-aunt and half-cousin. It’s exciting being able to meet them for the first time. I’m sure I’ll be writing about that encounter later on.
• From the Sports Desk… the first games of the MLB Divisional Series playoffs happened yesterday.
• American League: 2-seed Cleveland 7, 6-seed Detroit 0; 1-seed NY Yankees 6, 5-seed Kansas City 5.
• National League: 6-seed NY Mets 6, 2-seed Philadelphia 2; 1-seed LA Dodgers 7, 4-seed San Diego 5.
• Today in history… Rebels decapitate Wang Mang two days after his capital was sacked during a peasant rebellion (23). ‘Euridice’, the earliest surviving opera, receives its première performance, beginning the Baroque period (1600). Immigrant families found Germantown, Pennsylvania in the first major immigration of German people to America (1683). Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the largest American music fraternity, is founded at the New England Conservatory of Music — side note, I am a Mu Phi alumnus (1898). The Bosnian crisis erupts when Austria-Hungary formally annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina (1908). Opening of ‘The Jazz Singer’, the first prominent "talkie" movie (1927). Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is murdered by Islamic extremists (1981). The first planet orbiting another sun, 51 Pegasi b, is discovered (1995). Instagram, a photo-sharing application, is founded (2010).
• October 6 is the birthday of writer Marie de Gournay (1565), businessman/university founder James McGill (1744), soprano Jenny Lind (1820), engineer/businessman George Westinghouse (1846), pilot Roland Garros (1888), actress Carole Lombard (1908), activist Carolyn Goodman (1915), activist Fannie Lou Harner (1917), actress Britt Ekland (1942), politician Gerry Adams (1948), inventor Lonnie Johnson (1949), TV executive Leslie Moonves (1949), singer-songwriter/guitarist Kevin Cronin (1951), singer-songwriter/guitarist David Hidalgo (1954), NFL player/coach Tony Dungy (1955), actress Elizabeth Shue (1963), singer-songwriter/guitarist Matthew Sweet (1964), politician Steve Scalise (1965), WNBA player Rebecca Lobo (1973), NFL player Trevor Lawrence (1999), and NBA player Bronny James (2004).

I’m pretty excited — and slightly nervous — to meet these blood relatives and to help my new aunt learn more about her genetic background… it’s something I’ve been working on for years, but it’s all new to her, so I have a lot of notes to help that process. Enjoy your day.