Random News: September 23, 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 September 23, 2024, and it’s a Monday. Waking up on a day where I can unquestionably dress in jeans instead of shorts tells me that autumn arrived exactly when it was supposed to. We have a ton of news to impart, so let’s jump in.

• I thought we’d open today with another big endorsement for Kamala Harris. It’s from a bipartisan collection of 741 former senior national security leaders.
• Among them are over 230 general and flag officers — including 15 retired four-star generals and admirals — 10 cabinet secretaries, 10 service secretaries, and 148 ambassadors.
• The National Security Leaders for America characterized the election as "a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism." In the letter, the group says Vice President Harris will "make an excellent Commander-in-Chief."
• Perhaps the most important part of the statement: “We are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We are loyal to the ideals of our nation—like freedom, democracy, and the rule of law—not to any one individual or party.”
• Same here.
• In other news… the government will stay open a little while — or, more accurately, the Republicans won’t risk party suicide by closing it down right before a national election.
• Yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a temporary agreement that would keep the government funded until December 20… and the measure does not include any part of the SAVE Act, the election security proposal backed by Dumpy.
• The measure, minus the absolutely ridiculous security proposal, is expected to have broad bipartisan support and pass the House.
• As I have already said many times, the SAVE Act was entirely unnecessary and performative; it is already illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote. There are extremely few instances of it ever having happened.
• And now, of course, the far-right MAGA portion of the GOP will be screaming for Johnson’s head. So it goes.
• Back to election news.
• Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris raised $27 million — yes, twenty-seven million dollars, you read it right — at a packed New York City fundraiser. It was her largest fundraising haul since she took over at the top of the ticket.
• Though Harris has raised far more money than Dumpster, the money will be needed to compete with pricey advertising by deep-pocketed outside groups that support him.
• The blockbuster fundraiser was held at Cipriani Wall Street in a massive Greek Revival ballroom. Much of the crowd stood shoulder to shoulder as Harris needled El Pollo for refusing to debate her again.
• In other news…
• The conflicts around Israel continue to get worse.
• A number of Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon have killed 182 people and injured 727. It’s the heaviest daily toll in nearly a year of cross-border clashes, and the deadliest in the long-running conflict since 2006.
• Children, women and paramedics were among the casualties in the strikes on southern towns and villages as thousands of people fled north along the main road towards the capital, Beirut.
• Sigh. Maybe someday people will evolve past the need for violent conflict. Maybe not.
• Moving on with some advice for anyone who is assuming there will be an easy victory for either side of the presidential election in 43 days.
• Polling since the September 10 debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris shows that the 2024 presidential election will be the closest race for the White House in the past 60 years.
• In other words, in my entire lifetime, and most of yours as well.
• While Harris seems to have a slight national edge over Dumpster, their race remains well within the margin of error and too close to call. This is especially the case when looking at the Electoral College.
• The Democratic nominee’s largest leads in polls in 2016 and 2020 were at least double where Harris is now.
• When I say to act as if we were underdogs, this is exactly what I’m talking about. There can be no rest until November 5. Do anything in your power to help people understand how Harris will be a great leader for the USA.
• Thank you.
• In other election news…
• Yesterday, the entire staff of Republican candidate for North Carolina Mark Robinson’s campaign team resigned.
• Womp womp.
• Yes, this is the self-proclaimed Black Nazi who wants to own slaves and yet remains endorsed by Donald Trump.
• Conrad Pogorzelski, Robinson’s general consultant and senior advisor, campaign manager Chris Rodriguez, finance director Heather Whillier, and deputy campaign manager Jason Rizk all stepped down just weeks before the election.
• Robinson has vowed to stay in the race. I sincerely hope he does.
• Speaking of voting and stuff…
• Something I posted about but neglected to cover in my news over the weekend: on Friday, I received my California Voter Information Guide, a 144-page tome that includes details on all ten of the statewide ballot propositions.
• On Saturday for fun — because this is what’s fun to me — I pulled up Ballotpedia and went over each of the 10 prepositions we have here in the Golden State.
• Then yesterday, I perused Blue Voter Guide to learn some more about local initiatives and down ballot races. I’m damn near ready to go.
• However, I’m not ready to do my full list of endorsements just yet… and besides, those will only be useful to California residents (and some only to my very local area). But I will eventually publish them anyway.
• Let’s do some international news.
• Marxist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake won Sri Lanka’s presidential election yesterday, as voters rejected the old political guard that has been widely accused of pushing the South Asian nation toward economic ruin.
• Dissanayake, whose pro-working class and anti-political elite campaigning made him popular among youth, secured victory over opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and incumbent liberal President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over the country two years ago after its economy hit bottom.
• Do you know what a Marxist is?
• You know, I always hear words being tossed around to describe a particular sociopolitical outlook, and I’m pretty sure that 90% of the time the person using the word has no fucking idea what they’re talking about.
• Seriously, ask a random person to state the differences between Marxism, communism, and socialism. Watch their brains melt.
• I can give you the answer, because it’s super simple.
• Marxism and communism are interrelated in theory, but never in practice. Marxism is a philosophy where workers own the means of production. In real-world communism, governments own the means of production, but it never fairly benefits the people.
• Socialism is different. While communism eliminates private property in the hopes of creating equality, socialism seeks greater equality by creating more equal distribution of wealth.
• What am I? Like most Americans, I’m a capitalist, even though it’s a fucking horrible system that ensures the greatest gap between the rich, a shrinking middle class, and the poor. 
• And that gap only grows worse over time, which is why many refer to the current era as “late-stage capitalism,” because it’s nearly at a point where only a tiny handful of people will have all of the money. No purely capitalist society can sustain itself forever.
• So the better description of my own sociopolitical outlook would be of a Democratic Socialist, like that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bernie Sanders, and many others. That’s a system where capitalism remains in place, but there is — to varying degrees — some form of a socially owned economy to everyone’s benefit.
• While someone like Tucker Carlson would therefore — ridiculously and erroneously — call me a Marxist (like they do people like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris), we’re all barely left of center in reality. Whatever.
• Let’s move on.
• From the Health Desk… Americans will soon be able to order free COVID-19 test kits that will be mailed to their homes.
• And I strongly suggest you do.
• U.S. households will be able to order as many as four nasal swab tests at COVIDTests.gov when the federal program reopens shortly. The U.S. Health and Human Services agency has not yet given an exact date when ordering can begin.
• The tests will detect current virus strains and can be ordered ahead of the holiday season. They’re always good to have around.
• And get your immunity updated like I did on Friday. While most Americans have some degree of immunity from prior infections or vaccinations or both, that protection wanes. I’m gonna guess that you got your last COVID booster about a year ago.
• But last fall’s shot targeted a different part of the coronavirus family tree, a strain that’s no longer circulating.
• Get your update. I’m now on Zak 7.0, all Moderna, baby.
• And now, The Weather: “Lightning Strike” by Lutalo
• Let’s do a chart.
• After getting her Juris Doctor (law degree) from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco in 1989, the following year Kamala Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart for this date in 1990.
• 1. Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em (M.C. Hammer). 2. Wilson Phillips (Wilson Phillips). 3. Mariah Carey (Mariah Carey). 4. Blaze Of Glory/Young Guns II (Jon Bon Jovi). 5. Poison (Bell Biv DeVoe). 6. Graffiti Bridge (Soundtrack) (Prince). 7. Flesh And Blood (Poison). 8. Soul Provider (Michael Bolton). 9. Compositions (Anita Baker). 10. Empire (Queensryche). 11. I'll Give All My Love To You (Keith Sweat). 12. Step By Step (New Kids On The Block). 13. Violator (Depeche Mode). 14. The Real Thing (Faith No More). 15. Ghost (Soundtrack). 16. Time's Up (Living Colour). 17....But Seriously (Phil Collins). 18. After The Rain (Nelson). 19. Johnny Gill (Johnny Gill). 20. Stick It To Ya (Slaughter).
• From the Sports Desk… for the second week in a row, the NFL hosted a sea of upsets on Sunday. 
• Of the 13 games played yesterday, seven were won by the underdog. It’s a topsy-turvy world out there, and apparently no one knows shit.
• Today in history… Drusilla, the sister of Caligula with whom the emperor is said to have had an incestuous relationship, is deified (38). The Mongols beat the Ming dynasty at the Battle of Kherlen (1409). King Philip II of Spain orders a halt to colonizing efforts in Florida (1561). The first commencement exercises occur at Harvard College (1642). John Paul Jones, naval commander of the USS Bonhomme Richard, wins the Battle of Flamborough Head (1779). Lewis and Clark return to St. Louis after exploring the Pacific Northwest of the United States (1806). The Knickerbockers Baseball Club, the first baseball team to play under the modern rules, is founded in New York (1845). Astronomers Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Gottfried Galle collaborate on the discovery of Neptune (1846). Nintendo is founded to produce and market the playing card game Hanafuda (1889). Norway and Sweden peacefully dissolve the union between the two countries (1905). Roland Garros of France becomes the first to fly in an airplane across the Mediterranean (1913). The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opens in New York City (1962). The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released (2002). 
• September 23 is the birthday of Roman emperor Augustus (63 BC), Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan (1215), violinist/composer Giovanni Maria Bononcini (1642), journalist/activist Victoria Woodhull (1838), engineer/businessman Robert Bosch (1861), activist Mary Church Terrell (1863), musicologist John Lomax (1867), actor Walter Pidgeon (1897), actor Mickey Rooney (1920), saxophonist/composer John Coltrane (1926), singer-songwriter/pianist Ray Charles (1930), singer-songwriter/guitarist Roy Buchanan (1939), singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias (1943), NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer (1943), singer-songwriter/guitarist Bruce Springsteen (1949), actress Rosalind Chao (1957), singer-songwriter/guitarist Ani DiFranco (1970), press secretary/dancer Sean Spicer (1971), actor Karl Pilkington (1972), actor Anthony Mackie (1978), and MLB player Matt Kemp (1984).

That’s a lot of news for a Monday. I think you can expect a ton of news most days between now and November 5, and beyond. But you know, that’s what life is; things happen and we talk about them, and maybe form opinions and we all live and learn. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 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 September 22, 2024, and it’s a Sunday. It’s overcast and cool, and I’ve got a big cup of Peet’s Sumatra as I start the day in a blue bathrobe. We’re waking up today to a whole new change of season, so…

• First and foremost, a Happy Fall to all.
• The Autumnal Equinox was about three hours ago, at 5:43am PT/8:43am ET this morning.
• What does that mean, other than the official real start of Fall? Simple.
• At that moment, the Sun — as viewed from the equator — rises due east and sets due west. It’s the start of fall here in the Northern Hemisphere where 88% of all humans live.
• For you Brazilians and Aussies and other rare friends down south, it’s the first day of spring. But the rest of us are pulling out our jeans and flannel shirts and so on. Overall, fall is probably my favorite time of year.
• For pagans, the autumnal equinox is a holiday known variously as Harvest Home, Mabon, the Feast of the Ingathering, Meán Fómhair, An Clabhsúr, or Alban Elfed. It is a festival of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and the Gods during the coming winter months.
• I may celebrate it by dancing around naked. I mean, I was gonna do that anyway but now I have an actual reason.
• Let’s do some news.
• Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris accepted CNN's invitation for a second debate, and challenged The Dumpster to join her. It’s scheduled for Wednesday October 23.
• But Don the Chicken — or El Pollo, as I will now refer to him — doesn’t want to have his ass publicly handed to him like he did at the previous debate. At a rally yesterday, Dumpy contended it's "too late" for another debate, noting, "Voting has already started.”
• Let’s see here. In the previous election, the final presidential debate took place on October 22, 2020, literally within a single calendar day of this proposed event. Dumpy didn’t have a problem doing it then. What’s changed?
• Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon noted, "Donald Trump should have no problem agreeing to this debate. It is the same format and setup as the CNN debate he attended and said he won in June, when he praised CNN's moderators, rules, and ratings."
• Bok bok bok bok bok (chicken noises to enrage El Pollo).
• Here’s something that is actually odd: due to his fear of debating Harris again, Dump is allowing his running mate, JD Vance, to have the final debating word this fall.
• Vance and the Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz will participate in a vice presidential debate on CBS News a week from Tuesday, on October 1. The VP debate has never been the last in an election cycle, but that apparently will be the case this time.
• Moving on.
• Where is Kamala Harris today? She is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in New York this afternoon, aiming to pad her cash advantage against El Pollo by courting donors in the city that made him famous.
• How is fundraising going for the Harris/Walz campaign? Glad you asked. Kamala Harris’s campaign raised more than four times as much as Dump’s effort in August, capitalizing on the surge of Democratic enthusiasm during the first full month of her presidential campaign.
• Harris’s campaign raised $190 million in August, per reports filed Friday night with the Federal Election Commission. Dump raised $43 million in August.
• Ruh roh.
• Let’s move to some international news, which is pretty concerning.
• Hezbollah launched more than 100 rockets early today across northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon. Both sides appeared to be spiraling closer toward all-out war.
• I shouldn’t have to remind you that as an ally of Israel, if open war begins, the USA will have some level of commitment to defend the country. Hezbollah is backed by Iran.
• None of this is good.
• In Europe, France unveiled a long-awaited new government yesterday dominated by conservatives and centrists. And yes, a left-wing coalition secured the most seats in the June-July parliamentary elections, but failed to win a majority.
• Unsurprisingly, student groups and activists from the hard-left France Unbowed party held protests around the country yesterday against a government they say rejects the voters' will.
• President Emmanuel Macron named conservative Michel Barnier as prime minister earlier this month even though Barnier's Republicans party had a poor showing in the elections, and Barnier put together the government after difficult negotiations.
• None of this is encouraging if you appreciate democracy. Marine Le Pen's far-right anti-immigration party National Rally has no seats in Barnier's government (yay!), but has enough votes in parliament to bring it down (boo!).
• Moving on.
• We no longer do the Sunday Gunday column here at Zak’s Random News. I stopped in July because I realized it was too time consuming to do with the amount of shootings in the USA every weekend.
• It was also too depressing and didn’t seem to solve a damn thing. Few people seem to care that gun violence is the number-one killer of children in the USA… probably because they assume it will always be someone else’s kid who is shot to death (until it isn’t).
• But I still feel compelled to mention that four people were killed and 17 others were injured when multiple shooters opened fire in the center of one of the most popular entertainment areas in Birmingham, AL last night.
• Just after 11pm, multiple shooters fired multiple shots on a group of people in the Five Points South area. Two men and a woman were pronounced dead on the scene, and another man died later at the University of Alabama Hospital.
• Maybe support common-sense gun regulation? Maybe elect candidates who give a shit about our kids? It’s up to you.
• Moving on. Yesterday, Dumpster did a rally in North Carolina and went the entire time pretending that Republican governor candidate Mark Robinson does not exist. He didn’t make a single mention of him.
• Probably a good idea. What’s he going to do… talk about how he “cherishes” this man who calls himself a Black Nazi, enjoys transgender porn, and wishes slavery to be reinstated?
• This morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” and said the allegations against Robinson would make him “unfit to serve” if they are true.
• “The charges are beyond unnerving,” Graham said. “If they’re true, he’s unfit to serve for office. If they’re not true, he has the best lawsuit in the history of the country for libel.”
• Still waiting for that lawsuit, Robinson. If you’ve been slandered, you should definitely sue.
• Crickets. Please vote for Democrat Josh Stein, North Carolinian friends. Or, if you can’t being yourself to do that, just sit out the election altogether.
• Let’s move on.
• As the old saying goes, “As goes California, so goes the Nation.” This might be good news for the whole USA, if that’s the case.
• On Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that aims to reduce social media use among children, the latest state effort to regulate the medium over increasing concerns that heavy use is damaging to young people.
• The Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act makes it unlawful for online services and applications to provide an “addictive feed” to a minor, unless they are unaware the user is underage or have obtained parental consent. It passed the Democratic-led state Legislature by comfortable margins last month.
• The bill defines an “addictive feed” as “an internet website, online service, online application or mobile application in which multiple pieces of media generated or shared by users are recommended, selected, or prioritized for display to a user based on information provided by the user, or otherwise associated with the user or the user’s device, as specified, unless any of certain conditions are met.”
• That’s in reference to the “endless scroll” offered by platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Facebook/Instagram stories, and the like.
• The law also bans notifications from platforms from midnight to 6 a.m. and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, times when children are in school, unless the user has parental consent.
• Platforms must allow parents the option to choose specific hours for their child to not receive notifications, limit access to the platform’s feed, view the number of “likes” and set their child’s account to private.
• I agree with all of that.
• In other news… Earth is getting a new moon. A little tiny mini-moon. It’s only hanging around for a couple of months.
• The space rock, which has been named “2024 PT5,” has been traveling along its normal path around the sun, but will be temporarily pulled into Earth's gravitational orbit later this month.
• It’s a rock about 33 feet long. No, you won’t be able to see it. 2024 PT5 will travel around the Earth in a horseshoe path for about two months, from September 29 to November 25.
• This actually happens pretty often. In 2020, astronomers identified another mini-moon, 2020 CD3, which orbited the Earth for over a year.
• Earth is a big-ass hunk of rock with a big iron core. Hence, we have gravitational supremacy over smaller rocks.
• And now, The Weather: “Getting Old” by Circus Trees
• From the Sports Desk… today is the third Sunday of the 2024-25 NFL season. Here’s who’s playing, along with the spreads.
• Giants at Browns (-6.5). Packers at Titans (-3). Bears at Colts (-2). Texans (-2) at Vikings. Eagles at Saints (-2.5). Chargers at Steelers (-3). Broncos at Buccaneers (-6). Panthers at Raiders (-5.5). Dolphins at Seahawks (-4). Ravens (-1) at Cowboys. 49ers (-6.5) at Rams. Lions (-3) at Cardinals. Chiefs (-3) at Falcons.
• Monday night has two games this week: Jaguars at Bills (-5.5) and Commanders at Bengals (-7.5).
• Today in history… The last hanging of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials, including Samuel Wardwell, my 10th great-grandfather (1692). George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz are crowned King and Queen of Great Britain (1761). Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during the American Revolution (1776). Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history at the time (1896). The steel strike of 1919 begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across the United States (1919). On Rosh Hashanah, the German SS murders 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, who are the survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier in which about 24,000 Jews were executed (1941). François Duvalier is elected president of Haiti (1957). Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford (1975). Iraq invades Iran, sparking the nearly eight year Iran–Iraq War (1980). The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time (1991).
• September 22 is the birthday of Chinese emperor Li Zicheng (1606), physicist Michael Faraday (1791), activist Christabel Pankhurst (1880), actor Paul Muni (1895), actor John Houseman (1902), Nazi war criminal Ilse Koch (1906), activist Eric Baker (1920), MLB player/manager Bob Lemon (1920), MLB player/manager Tommy Lasorda (1927), NBA commissioner David Stern (1942), singer/choreographer Toni Basil (1943), singer-songwriter King Sunny Adé (1946), singer-songwriter David Coverdale (1951), singer Debby Boone (1956), bass player Doug Wimbish (1956), singer-songwriter Nick Cave (1957), singer-songwriter/bass player Johnette Napolitano (1957), singer Andrea Bocelli (1958), singer-songwriter/guitarist Joan Jett (1958), MLB player/manager Mike Matheny (1970), and actor Tom Felton (1987).

Time to get out of this robe and into something more… productive. Happy Fall. y’all. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 21, 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 September 21, 2024, and it’s a Saturday. I’m up and about somewhat early for a Saturday, enjoying a big cup of coffee in my ubiquitous weekend bathrobe, so we might as well get into some news.

• Ba-dee-ya!
• If you know, you know. Check the date if you remember.
• Okay, now some news. Let’s start today’s roundup in Arizona, where after a state Supreme Court decision yesterday, almost 100,000 people whose voter registration status was in limbo will be able to participate in the full ballot in November.
• This is excellent news. Let me explain.
• The uncertainty regarding the voters’ fate came after the Maricopa County Recorder’s office discovered a clerical error from 2004. In 2005, Arizona state law required documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The state considers driver’s licenses that were issued after October of 1996 to be documentary proof of citizenship.
• But residents who received licenses prior to 1996 and who later received replacement IDs were automatically deemed to have had documented proof of citizenship on file when none had actually been provided.
• As a result of tightened regulations imposed in 2004, those voters had never been asked to comply with the stricter rules, leaving the voting status of 97,928 Arizonans in limbo. 
• Before anyone freaks out, this decision was applauded by both Democratic and Republican leaders.
• Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state Adrian Fontes said, ““Today marks a significant victory for those whose fundamental right to vote was under scrutiny. We deeply appreciate the Arizona Supreme Court for their prompt and just resolution.”
• But Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda joined him in applauding the court’s decision. last night, Swoboda said, “I could not be happier with this result. We’re very grateful to the state Supreme Court for protecting the voices of almost 98,000 voters who were in danger of being disenfranchised in this election.”
• Early voting in Arizona kicks off on October 9.
• Let’s move on to North Carolina, where the self-proclaimed “Black Nazi,” North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, refused to step aside in the race before yesterday’s deadline.
• It puts the whole Republican party into turmoil, even at the highest level. Donnie Dump knows all about Robinson’s exploits… but will not rescind his endorsement of him, because it would make Dump look back to go back after endorsing Robinson so heartily.
• The Dumpster is indeed facing calls both from his allies and from within his own campaign to pull his endorsement from Robinson, but so far, however, there are no plans for Dump to distance himself in any way.
• At least that’s what’s being said publicly. But Robinson has been quickly un-invited to speak or appear at Dump’s rally today in Wilmington, NC.
• When asked, Dump’s PR people just commented on Dump planning to win NC. And if you ask me, a guy like Robinson who loves transgender porn, says the right to vote should be taken away from women, and says he wants to own slaves is a perfect person for Dumples to endorse heartily.
• Can’t imagine why he’s suddenly unwelcome to appear in public with Dumpy. Huh.
• Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) straddled a fence so hard about Robinson that he must have some new hemorrhoids.
• Tillis wrote, “If the reporting on Mark Robinson is a total media fabrication, he needs to take immediate legal action. If the reporting is true, he owes it to President Trump and every Republican to take accountability for his actions and put the future of NC & our party before himself.” 
• North Carolinians, please cast your governor’s vote for Josh Stein. The world will thank you.
• Let’s move on.
• Last night, Kamala Harris held a massive rally in the Democratic stronghold of Madison, WI. The event continued a long tradition of that party’s candidates for president drawing huge crowds in the capital city of the swing state.
• Harris’s stop there yesterday was her fourth to Wisconsin as the nominee, and her first to Madison. Dump has been to Wisconsin for several rallies in 2024 and during the Republican National Convention, which was held in Milwaukee.
• And yes, while Madison is a Democratic stronghold, the race statewide in Wisconsin is expected to be tight.
• In related news…
• As of yesterday, the first in-person votes have been cast in the US presidential race, a milestone moment that comes six weeks before election day on November 5.
• Virginia became the first state in the country to allow in-person voting on Friday, and early polling sites will remain open there until November 2. Long lines were seen as voters cast ballots on national, state, and local levels.
• In two other states, Minnesota and South Dakota, voters beginning yesterday can hand in absentee ballots in person instead of mailing them.
• But the turnout in Virginia was massive… which is bad news for Republicans, who try and suppress the vote at nearly every opportunity.
• In the previous presidential election in 2020, Fairfax County saw about 1,200 voters for the entire first day of early voting. But turnout yesterday easily surpassed that.
• By mid-afternoon, 2,800 people had already voted in the county. By 7pm last night, 4,232 people had voted at the three open locations… and all three locations are open for voters today from 9am to 5pm.
• In other election news…
• Nebraska is one of only two states — the other being Maine — that awards some of its electoral votes by congressional district. So instead of the entire state going to the candidate who wins the popular vote there, the Omaha area has often been a “blue dot” in a sea of red.
• But Dump is now trying to kill that. In an election as close as this one might be, a single electoral vote from the Omaha area could pave Kamala Harris’s path to victory.
• Dump is pushing for a last-minute change regarding how the state allocates its electoral votes. State Sen. Merv Riepe (R) said he spoke with Dump on Wednesday. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was there on Dumpy’s orders to encourage Republicans in the state’s unicameral legislature to change to a statewide winner-take-all electoral vote system.
• What a prick.
• And now down to Georgia for more related news in GOP attempts to block a free and fair election.
• Yesterday, the Georgia State Election Board approved a controversial rule requiring a hand count of the number of ballots cast on Election Day.
• Yes, all of them.
• Republicans advanced the measure over the opposition of Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and attorney general and dozens of local election officials who said the last-minute change could cause delays and confusion on election night and the days that follow.
• The result might mean that Georgia’s vote tally could last weeks after Election Day.
• What I’m hoping for is solid wins for Harris in places like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and perhaps  North Carolina, which would render moot this attempt to obstruct our election process.
• But what the GOP is up against might not be able to be defeated by any of their sleazy means.
• Voter registration is breaking records as Election Day approaches, particularly among young people, including many first-time voters.
• On Tuesday's National Voter Registration Day, more than 150,000 people registered through Vote.org, the most the organization has ever seen on that day. The organization registered 279,400 voters in all of last year.
• And last week, more than 400,000 people visited a link posted on Instagram by pop star Taylor Swift that directed them to their state's voter registration site.
• Does that mean they’ll vote, though? Survey says yes; about 80% of people who register turn out in the next election. And guess what? A huge percentage of the newly registered voters are young people, many voting for the first time.
• We have to continue assuming that Kamala Harris is a big underdog to Dump, especially with all the voter repression and fake elector bullshit they have planned.
• I want her victory to be so extremely lopsided in a landslide that there is absolutely nothing that can be done to sabotage it.
• Let’s move on.
• Allow me to expand on something I mentioned yesterday, when we talked about people’s surprise at Kamala Harris being a gun owner.
• If you think that only men, or conservatives, or Republicans, or MAGAs own guns, you are way, way, way, completely wrong.
• When I talk about guns here — usually in regard to incidents of violence — what I am always referencing is sensible gun regulation.
• Limiting access to high-capacity semi-automatic weapons. Increasing the depth of background checks. Putting red flag laws in place. That kind of thing. You’ve heard me say it many times here.
• But never once have you heard me call for guns to be banned entirely, or guns to be taken away from owners. Nor have you heard me say I want to abolish the Second Amendment (though it could use some better interpretation for the modern world).
• I’m not the type of person to take pictures with guns, or to show photos of myself at a range, or talk about firearms in any kind of fetishist way like you see certain people do.
• But none of that means that, like Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, I’m not a responsible gun owner. And many liberal/Democrat people I know own guns. Kamala Harris owning one surprises me exactly zero percent.
• Let’s move on.
• In our continuing look at the pieces of shit who attempted to enact a coup against the USA on January 6, 2021, meet William Dunfee.
• Dunfee is an Ohio pastor who used a bullhorn to incite the January 6 mob of insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol. He was sentenced Thursday to two and a half years in prison and three years of supervised release after being found guilty of multiple offenses.
• He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $2,000 restitution.
• Since the Jan. 6 insurrection, more than 1,500 people have been charged in relation to the breach and more than 500 individuals have been charged with the felony of assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
• Dump has promised to release these anti-American assholes from jail if elected. D NOT allow that miscarriage of justice to happen.
• Moving on.
• In the Continuing Adventures of Elmo the Asshole…
• The Securities and Exchange Commission intends to seek sanctions against Elon Musk over his failure to appear for testimony in an investigation related to his takeover of Twitter, now called X, per court filing yesterday.
• Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered Musk to testify as part of the SEC’s probe of his $44 billion acquisition. The agency is examining whether Musk followed the law when disclosing his purchases of Twitter stock and whether his statements in relation to the deal were misleading.
• Elmo was supposed to testify on September 10, and SEC lawyers flew to Los Angeles to take his testimony. But three hours before his testimony was set to begin, Elmo’s lawyer told the SEC that Elmos bailed on them to watch launch of one of his little rocket ships.
• The SEC alleges that Elmo violated a court order requiring that he seek written consent of the SEC or order of the Court to modify the date of his testimony, which he blew off before failing to appear on September 10.
• Fucking prick.
• From the Health Desk… a word to the wise.
• My significant other and I went yesterday to CVS, where we had an appointment to get COVID vaccine boosters. She is insured; I, as a self-employed person, am not. I could be and should be, but I’ll tell you it is outrageously expensive, even under the Affordable Care Act.
• So, her COVID vaccine, as has been the case for both of us the entirety of the pandemic, was free.
• Mine was $180-something plus tax, coming in at just under $200. So that fucking sucked, having to shell out two bills that I hadn’t planned on doing, but frankly I should have health insurance, and I’m aware of that, so I’ll try not to complain.
• But it did suck. Side note: the vaccines — Moderna, as usual — went fine and neither of us got ill afterwards.
• And now, The Weather: “Good Friend” by Snoozer
• From the Sports Desk… as I mentioned not long ago, we’re getting down to the final games of the regular season in MLB, and now some of the playoff slots are getting filled.
• Four teams have now secured playoff berths… the Yankees, Guardians, Brewers, and Dodgers. Milwaukee has also become the first team to clinch a division… the NL Central.
• The other teams who are almost certainly playoff-bound: the Orioles, Royals, Astros, Phillies, and Padres. Hanging on by a thread (but not eliminated) are the Twins, Tigers, Mets, Braves, and Diamondbacks.
• And yes, we now have a good number of teams eliminated from the 2024 playoffs: the White Sox, Athletics, Angels, Nationals, Marlins, Reds, Pirates, Giants, and Rockies are out of contention. 
• The final games of the regular season will be played on Sunday September 29.
• Today in history… The Kingdom of Dublin falls to Norman invaders (1170). A Hanoverian army is defeated in ten minutes by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1745). Benedict Arnold gives the British the plans to West Point (1780). France’s National Convention abolishes the monarchy (1792). Empress Dowager Cixi seizes power and ends the Hundred Days' Reform in China (1898). Salvador Lutteroth establishes Mexican professional wrestling (1933). In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2,588 Jews (1942). Malta gains independence from the United Kingdom (1964). Bahrain, Bhutan and Qatar join the United Nations (1971). Sandra Day O'Connor is unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate as the first female Supreme Court justice (1981). The Defense of Marriage Act is passed by the United States Congress (1996). The Galileo spacecraft is terminated by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere (2003). 
• September 21 is the birthday of painter Barbara Longhi (1552), actor Maurice Barrymore (1849), actor John Bunny (1863), novelist H. G. Wells (1866), US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson (1867), composer Gustav Holst (1874), publisher Allen Lane (1902), animator Chuck Jones (1912), physicist Donald A. Glaser (1926), actor Larry Hagman (1931), singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934), film producer Jerry Bruckheimer (1943), songwriter/guitarist Don Felder (1947), author Stephen King (1947), actor Bill Murray (1950), guitarist/keyboardist Dave Gregory (1952), Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe (1954), drummer Phil Taylor (1954), film director Ethan Coen (1957), actor Dave Coulier (1959), actress Cheryl Hines (1965), singer-songwriter Faith Hill (1967), talk show host Ricki Lake (1968), actor Luke Wilson (1971), singer-songwriter Liam Gallagher (1972), NFL player Jon Kitna (1972), and NFL player Doug Baldwin (1988).

Okay, that’s enough. Ba-dee-ya! I’m gonna take a shower and put on clothes and so on. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 20, 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 September 20, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Once again, the news cycle is in fifth gear and there’s no possible way I can tell you all the important things in the hour that I have to do it. I’ll give it a shot though.

• Regardless, I am feeling positive. Let’s start with some positive news today.
• The S&P 500 notched a new high yesterday after a big-ass cut to interest rates from the Federal Reserve invigorated a global market rally.

• The Fed’s announcement on Wednesday — that it would lower rates by a half a percentage point — erased uncertainty financial markets for months.
• With a 1.7 percent gain yesterday, the S&P 500 crossed above its last closing record, reached in mid-July. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies more sensitive to the ebb and flow of the economy rose 2 percent.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by +522.09, closing at 42,025.19. It’s the first time in history the Dow has closed above 42,000.
• Joe Biden’s — and Kamala Harris’s — economy is kicking ass. Hopefully your 401(k) or IRA will show you a big benefit on your next statement.
• Speaking of Kamala…
• Last night was a big one for the Harris campaign as she joined Oprah Winfrey for an event that used a similar format to Winfrey’s former long-running talk show.
• Held in Farmington Hills, MI, the event featured a mix of celebrities, campaign organizers and a crowd of battleground state voters. It was watched live by hundreds of thousands of viewers.
• The primary theme was the fallout that’s happened after Dump’s Supreme Court threw out the protections of Roe v. Wade.
• The mother and sisters of Amber Thurman — a Georgia woman who died in 2022 after medical care was delayed due to the state's abortion ban — spoke publicly for the first time. It was heart-wrenching.
• One point of the event that grabbed headlines was Harris repeating something she’d mentioned in last week’s debate: she’s a gun owner.
• Harris made it clear that "if somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot.” She then quipped, "Sorry, probably should not have said that. My staff will deal with that later." 
• I know some people who are surprised that both Harris and Gov. Walz are gun owners.
• Let me tell you a thing I know: I’ve been acquainted with several District Attorneys, ADA, and even judges. And every single one of them owned a gun and had a concealed carry license.
• If your literal job is to put criminals in jail, you are constantly the target of potential retribution. I would have been shocked if Kamala wasn’t a gun owner.
• Do you know who can’t own a gun? That would be Donald Trump. See, a felon in possession of a gun is a felony charge unto itself. Dump has been convicted of 34 felony counts.
• Ironically, being a felon in possession of a firearm is exactly what his would-be golf course assassin Ryan Routh is being charged with.
• Back on topic: a wide range of celebrities appeared on the Oprah event by video, including Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jennifer Lopez, Julie Roberts, Tracee Ellis Ross, Bryan Cranston, and Meryl Streep. 
• Streep inadvertently opened her portion by stating: “Oh hello President Harris…”
• Harris, always quick on her feet, held up a finger and responded, “Forty-seven days,” while laughing.
• Winfrey, a longtime political independent, closed the show by addressing anyone who had yet to make up their mind about the upcoming election.
• “For all of you watching who are still on the fence, in the middle, independent as I am. This is the moment for all decent and caring people. This is the moment for people who are tired of all of the bickering, people who are exhausted by the craziness. This is the moment you wanna get on with your life because you know that we can do better. As my friend and mentor Maya Angelou always said, ‘When you know better, you got to do better.’ So let's do better and vote for Kamala Harris.”
• Agreed.
• So let’s move on from that positivity, and into the vile oozing sludge of the other side of the political spectrum.
• Starting with the North Carolina governor’s race. Heh heh heh. Oh boy.
• Because I am really looking forward to talking about that (rubs hands together with schadenfreude glee).
• That election is pitting Democrat NC Attorney General Josh Stein against Republican NC Lt. Gov, Mark Robinson.
• We’ve mentioned Mark a bunch of times here. He’s said, among many other things, “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote.” Robinson also doesn’t believe that men are at fault in sexual assaults and domestic violence. 
• And as such, he’s garnered the love and affection of a certain Donnie Dump. Donnie said not long ago, “I told that to Mark. I said, 'I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.'”
• Wow! Anything else to say about Mark Robinson, Donnie?
• “We have to cherish Mark Robinson. You have to cherish him. He’s like a fine wine. He's an outstanding person. I've gotten to know him so well.”
• Cherish him! Hmm, must be a great guy! Oh, wait…
• Breaking CNN headline yesterday afternoon: “‘I’m a black NAZI!’: NC GOP nominee for governor made dozens of disturbing comments on porn forum”
• Oh.
• Here are a few of Robinson’s greatest hits…
• “I like watching tranny on girl porn! That’s fucking hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in! And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!”
• “I came to a spot that was a dead end but had two big vent covers over it! It just so happened it overlooked the showers! I sat there for about an hour and watched as several girls came in and showered.”
• Since Donald Trump said that Robinson was “Martin Luther King times two,” let’s see how Robinson feels about Dr. King…
• “Get that fucking commie bastard off the National Mall!,” Robinson wrote about the dedication of the memorial to King in Washington, DC, by then-President Barack Obama.
• When someone accused him of being a white supremacist as a result, Robinson replied, “I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!”
• Anything else, Mark?
• “I’m a black NAZI!”
• Oh, okay. Done yet?
• “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it back. I would certainly buy a few.”
• Ladies and gentlemen, your Republican party! (applause)
• By the way: most of his comments were FAR, far worse. Those were the just ones that CNN could reprint.
• Meanwhile, an email address belonging to Robinson was registered on Ashley Madison, a website designed for married people seeking affairs.
• Here’s the funny thing: Robinson could have dropped out of the race in time to be replaced by an electable candidate. In fact, yesterday was the last day to do so. Everyone in the GOP — including Dump — was screaming at him to get out while he could. But he’s going to stay.
• And that will mean that Republicans in the state will need to consciously choose to vote for the pro-slavery Black Nazi trans porn lover, or not. And that other, more sane folks will be driven to the polls to make sure that Josh Stein becomes the next governor of that great state instead of Robinson.
• And while they’re there, they can also vote for down-ballot races in the state, and then vote for Kamala Harris and award North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes to her.
• What was Dumpy up to yesterday? Glad you asked.
• He was blaming Jews ahead of time for his upcoming loss of the election.
• “I’m not going to call this a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I’m at 40%,” said the Dumpster during a campaign event titled “Fighting Antisemitism in America,” referencing a poll that doesn’t appear to exist.
• It’s important to emphasize that Dump not only thought it’d be a good idea to tell a Jewish audience that he’ll blame Jews for his election defeat, but that he did so twice in the span of half a day.
• Side note: American Jews favor Harris over Trump 65 percent to 34 percent, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted August 26 to September 2. that number has probably risen in Harris’s favor since then, like most polls.
• Moving on to some lurid shit.
• One of America’s most acclaimed political writers, Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine, has been placed on leave while a third-party review is conducted after Nuzzi disclosed that she “had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign.”
• Who was it with? That would be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a married man who ran for president as an independent candidate and recently endorsed Dump. It is claimed that the relationship was emotional and digital in nature, not physical.
• If you think about it, RFK Jr. is an anti-vaxxer who killed a bear and dumped it in a park, ate a dog, had a worm eat his brain, and sawed off a whale's head. An affair with a human might be the most normal thing he has done in many years.
• Nuzzi penned a profile of Kennedy last November and has written numerous other features about Trump and the 2024 campaign since then. Kennedy is married to actress Cheryl Hines.
• Jesus Christ. Are we done with people behaving badly today?
• No. No, we’re not.
• Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal, according to legal documents filed to a Florida federal court shortly before midnight last night.
• The minor, who was a junior in high school at the time, arrived in her mother’s car for a July 15, 2017, party at the Florida home of Chris Dorworth, a lobbyist and friend of Gaetz’s.
• One eyewitness cited in the court filings, a young woman referred to as K.M., provided a sworn affidavit that claimed the teenage girl was naked, partygoers were there to “engage in sexual activities,” and “alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy … and marijuana” were present.
• Sigh. Again, Gaetz was 35 at the time. She was a junior in high school.
• Moving on, I guess.
• Another little note about the difficulties of being Elmo Muck, the world’s richest man.
• As we mentioned this week, in the second quarter, his little social media platform formerly known as Twitter only made $114 million in revenue in the US — a 53 percent drop from the same quarter last year, and an astounding 84 percent decline in revenue from the second quarter of 2022 before he bought the company.
• The situation is so dire that even longtime Tesla investors predict that Muck might have to sell some of his own shares in the automaker to prop up his failing website.
• Making matters worse — beyond Muck telling his advertisers to fuck off (his words) — is that the number of active daily users is down by around 23 percent.
• So sad, too bad. Any other news about Elmo?
• Why yes. Yes, there is.
• The U.S. Secret Service has launched a probe into a since-deleted post from Elmo over the lack of assassination attempts against President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
• "The Secret Service is aware of the social media post made by Elon Musk and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence," Secret Service spokesperson Melissa McKenzie said in a statement.
• Musk wrote and then deleted a post shared Sunday questioning why Dumpy faced two recent apparent assassination attempts while Biden and Harris have not.
• He initially resisted calls to delete or reword the post, before ultimately taking it down on Monday. He later said the post was a joke. Turns out the joke’s on you, Elmo.
• Let’s move on.
• From the “Holy Fucking Shit!” Desk… District Judge Kevin Mullins of Kentucky is dead today after being shot in his chambers by Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines. Mullins, 54, was hit multiple times in the shooting.
• Stines, 43, surrendered without incident and has been arrested and charged with one count of first-degree murder.
• Okay, I’m all out of room to talk about insane shit.
• Moving on.
• I know that I’ve begged you people to please stop leaving the trail when you visit Yellowstone National Park. Or if I haven’t, I should have.
• But this week, a 60-year-old woman suffered second-degree and third-degree burns to her lower leg while walking off-trail in a thermal area.
• The woman, who was visiting from New Hampshire, was walking with her husband and leashed dog near Mallard Lake Trailhead at the Old Faithful Geyser on Monday when she broke through a thin crust over scalding water.
• Thankfully, her dog was not injured. Neither was her husband, but more importantly, the dog is okay. But she had to be airlifted to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center for further treatment. Her condition was not immediately known.
• A little reminder: going off the designated trails and boardwalks in the park is prohibited. Also, no pets are allowed on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry, or in thermal areas.
• So this was a huge and preventable fuckup.
• Ask me about the time that my good friend and bandmate Bunny left the trail in Joshua Tree and encountered a very large and very angry rattlesnake.
• After ascertaining that he didn’t get struck (he didn’t), he encountered me screaming, “I TOLD YOU NOT TO LEAVE THE TRAIL!”
• And now, The Weather: “Cowgirl” by cutouts & Tomberlin
• From the Sports Desk… first, congrats to Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the first-ever player in Major League Baseball to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season.
• As I noted yesterday, I have no reservations whatsoever at calling Ohtani the best baseball player I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.
• In the NFL, the New York Jets destroyed the hapless New England Patriots 24-3 last night. Are the Jets great or do the Pats suck? Only time will tell.
• Today in history… Saladin begins the Siege of Jerusalem (1187). Cardinal Robert of Geneva is elected as Pope Clement VII, beginning the Papal schism (1378). The Nankai tsunami washes away the building housing the Great Buddha at Kōtoku-in, and it’s been outside ever since (1498). Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda which ultimately culminated in the first circumnavigation the globe (1519). The future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom begins the first visit to North America by a Prince of Wales (1860). U.S. President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in upon the death of James A. Garfield the previous day (1881). British police known as "Black and Tans" burned the town of Balbriggan and killed two local men in revenge for an Irish Republican Army (IRA) assassination (1920). The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been delayed seven years due to World War II (1946). James Meredith, an African American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi (1962). Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match at the Houston Astrodome (1973). Singer Jim Croce, songwriter and musician Maury Muehleisen and four others die when their light aircraft crashes on takeoff at Natchitoches Regional Airport in Louisiana (1973). American football players in the National Football League begin a 57-day strike (1982). In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a "War on Terror” (2001). The United States military ends its "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time (2011). Hurricane Maria makes landfall in Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, resulting in 2,975 deaths, $90 billion in damage, and a major humanitarian crisis (2017). Roughly four million people, mostly students, demonstrate across the world to address climate change, and 16-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden leads the demonstration in New York City (2019).
• September 20 is the birthday of inventor Frederick Ellsworth Sickels (1819), publisher Herbert Putnam (1861), novelist Upton Sinclair (1878), actor Kenneth More (1914), animator Jay Ward (1920), actress Anne Meara (1929), actress Sophia Loren (1934), guitarist Eric Gale (1938), businessman/politician Pete Coors (1946), novelist George R. R. Martin (1948), bass player Chuck Panozzo (1948), drummer John Panozzo (1948), NHL player Guy Lafleur (1951), singer-songwriter Alannah Currie (1957), singer-songwriter/guitarist Nuno Bettencourt (1966), singer-songwriters/musicians Gunnar and Matthew Nelson (1967),  songwriter/bassist Ben Shepherd (1969), NFL player Dante Hall (1978), and NFL player Trevon Diggs (1998).

In other news (as if you need other news), I’m going to get a COVID booster this afternoon. Hopefully that won’t fuck up my weekend too badly, but it’s necessary and I’ll put up with some momentary discomfort to avoid some large-scale horribleness. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 19, 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 September 19, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. Once again, we have a lot of important things going on in the world. It’s often difficult to pick and choose what I’m going to cover here. Every day, I’d say there are at least three times as much news than what I select for this little column that is still pretty damn relevant to people’s lives, but overwhelming you with too much info means you might lose interest in all of it. So I try to stick to the things I know will be the most impactful to you. Let’s do it.

• As predicted, yesterday the Republican-led House was unable to do the one thing they are required to do: pass a budget. It’s their one job.
• A diverse group of House Republicans torpedoed Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) proposal to fund the government, dealing an embarrassing blow to the GOP leader and derailing his strategy to avoid a shutdown at the end of the month.
• Fourteen Republicans joined virtually every Democrat in voting against the spending plan — which paired a six-month stopgap bill with a measure that would require proof of citizenship to vote — bringing the final tally to 202-220, with two voting present. Three Democrats crossed the aisle to back the measure.
• The GOP opposition included hardline conservatives criticizing the use of a continuing resolution; defense hawks voicing concern about the impact the long-term funding bill would have at the Pentagon; and moderates expressing worries about having a shutdown threat so close to the election.
• Now Mike Johnson is in a bit of a bind. There’s no obvious path to averting a shutdown on October 1, he’s disappointing his lord and savior Donnie Dump along with the far-right wing of his party, and the likelihood of him remaining Speaker grows more dim.
• Obviously, if we do the right thing and elect a Democratic majority to the House, he won’t have to worry about that, and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) will take the job anyway.
• And none of this actually matters anyway. It’s all performative. The bill as it stood had no chance of progressing in the Senate.
• Again, note: it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote, and there’s zero need to place extra burdens on eligible voters.
• Shutting down the government via the inability for Republicans to work for the good of the entire country is a politically horrible idea right before an election. It’s bad for Dump and for GOP incumbents trying to hang on to their jobs.
• Let’s move on from that clusterfuck.
• Vice President Kamala Harris will return to Atlanta tomorrow to highlight her support for expanded abortion rights and make it clear that the deaths of two Georgia women died as a direct result of Dump having killed Roe v. Wade, the former legal landmark that allowed for women to have reproductive rights in the USA.
• Harris plans to address the deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, both of whom died shortly after Georgia’s anti-abortion limits took effect following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
• “This is exactly what we feared when Roe was struck down,” Harris said of Thurman. “In more than 20 states, Trump Abortion Bans are preventing doctors from providing basic medical care. Women are bleeding out in parking lots, turned away from emergency rooms, losing their ability to ever have children again.” 
• Georgia law bans abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant. Thurman’s death took place two weeks after the law took effect in 2022. 
• In other news…
• I’m not a big finance guy, but I know enough to know this is good news.
• Yesterday, the Federal Reserve said it is cutting its benchmark interest rate by 0.50 percentage points, marking the first reduction in four years and moving to ease borrowing costs.
• That’s a big cut. Experts were expecting half that. It’s going to help consumers who are grappling with high rates on everything from mortgages to credit cards.
• The cut lowers the federal funds rate into a range of 4.75% to 5%, down from its prior range of 5.25% to 5.5%, which had been its highest level in 23 years. 
• The half a percentage point cut suggests an abrupt switch of focus back to the maximum employment mandate and a very sharp improvement in confidence in inflation progress in the last month and a half.
• It also shows confidence in the current direction of the economy, with inflation dropping and employment high.
• Moving on to some real news about fake news.
• Yesterday, fake info was spread around social media reporting that explosives had been found in a car near former Dump’s planned rally in Long Island, New York.
• Who helped spread it? Among thousands of MAGAs, Elon Musk and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) shared the misinformation.
• The local cops reported that the source of the ridiculous rumor was a civilian who’d said he trained his own bomb-sniffing dog. No really, I’m serious. Stop laughing.
• And side note: what in the name of fuck is Dump doing campaigning in New York in the first place? Did someone tell him it’s a swing state?
• Lordy. Let’s move on to some real, actual explosions from yesterday.
• Another series of explosions rocked Beirut yesterday in an apparent second wave of attacks targeting devices a day after pagers used by Hezbollah blew up.
• This time, it was walkie-talkies and solar equipment. At least 20 people were killed and more than 450 wounded in the second wave. The attacks are widely believed to be carried out by Israel targeting Hezbollah… but they’ve also killed civilians.
• It’s not good.
• Speaking of Hezbollah (and therefore Iran)… let’s talk about something that caused Dumpy to shit his pants while tweeting in all caps.
• Iranian hackers sent unsolicited information they stole from Dump’s presidential campaign to people who were affiliated with Joe Biden’s campaign over the summer.
• The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that in late June and early July, Iranian malicious cyber actors “sent unsolicited emails to individuals then associated with President Biden’s campaign that contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails.”
• There is no indication that Biden’s staff ever replied or made use of the stolen info. At the same time, the New York Times and The Washington Post reported that they, too, had been sent a similar cache, including a 271-page document on JD Vance dated February 23 and labeled “privileged & confidential.”
• Both news outlets noted the content sent to them was based on publicly available information.
• How did Iran get that info, if you need a reminder? They breached the email account of longtime Dump buddy Roger Stone, and then used that email account to try to break into the account of a senior Trump campaign official as part of a persistent effort to access campaign networks.
• Moving on.
• Some good news out of Kentucky, where Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear banned the use of “conversion therapy” on minors in the state yesterday.
• He called his executive order an overdue step to protect children from a widely discredited practice that tries to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.
• The governor took action using his executive powers after efforts to enact a state law banning the practice repeatedly failed in the state’s Republican-dominated legislature.
• Well done. Beshear is a great guy.
• Also in Kentucky… yesterday, police found a body believed to be Joseph Crouch, the man accused of opening fire on a major Kentucky highway this month, injuring several people and inciting an 11-day manhunt.
• Unspecified items found near the body make police confident of the identification. The cause of death remains under investigation.
• In other news…
• For the first time since 1996, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have declined to endorse anyone in the 2024 presidential race, becoming the only one of the nation's major 10 unions not to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. No unions have endorsed Dump.
• But minutes after that announcement, West Coast Teamsters announced their endorsement of Harris in a sharp break with the powerful union’s membership.
• Teamsters Joint Councils 7 and 42 — which are made up of 39 local unions representing 300,000 members in California, Nevada, Hawaii, and Guam — wrote in a statement that Harris and her running mate Tim Walz have a history of supporting expanded labor protections for workers, like the proposed Protect the Right to Organize Act and a Minnesota law that will ban employers from forcing workers to attend anti-labor meetings.
• And then other local Teamsters unions showed their support. The Teamsters Joint Council 43 in Michigan and Teamsters Joint Council 39 in Wisconsin both offered their hearty endorsement to the Harris/Walz ticket.
• In other news…
• I was unaware until yesterday that this is Bisexual Awareness Week. Apparently it runs annually from September 16–23, culminating on Celebrate Bisexuality Day, held each year on September 23.
• According to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, bisexuals represent approximately 40% of the LGBTQ community.
• So shout out to the Bi people. I am aware of you!
• Moving on.
• We all know that billionaire Elmo Muck has endorsed Dumpy McDumpster for president.
• Isn’t it sorta awkward that very few of his own employees are in agreement with him?
• Workers at Tesla have contributed $42,824 to Harris' presidential campaign versus $24,840 to Trump's campaign, per a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks U.S. campaign contributions and lobbying data.
• Employees at SpaceX have donated $34,526 to Harris versus $7,652 to Trump. Employees at the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, have donated $13,213 to Harris versus less than $500 to Trump.
• Relevant side note: I’ve known multiple people who’ve worked at SpaceX, Tesla, and X. Every one of them said it was the single worst place they’d ever been employed.
• Let’s move on.
• Diddy has been denied.
• Yesterday, a federal judge ordered Sean Combs to remain in jail until his trial for sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, rejecting an appeal by the music mogul’s lawyers requesting that he be released on bail.
• Judge Andrew L. Carter Jr. said that Puff Daddy posed a risk of witness tampering and was a danger to the safety of the community. I 100% agree.
• How serious is this shit? Diddy’s lawyers had offered a $50 million bond for his release, and they were still shot down.
• From the “What the Fuck?” Desk: six people who sat behind Dump at a rally in Tuscon, AZ last week were left with strange eye injuries, including one who says she was nearly blind the day after.
• One of the victims, anti-abortion activist Mayra Rodriguez, told the station her eyes began hurting after leaving the rally last Thursday. She went to the ER for treatment, where staff reportedly told her it looked like she was sprayed with something.
• Rodriguez thought it might have been the result of allergies until she learned that five other people in her section reported similar symptoms.
• Maybe they were blinded by the gaseous emissions from Dump’s ass? There’s no way to know for sure.
• And now, The Weather: “Driver” by Soccer Mommy
• From the Sports Desk… San Francisco 49er George Kittle has surpassed Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow Sr. (6,330 receiving yards) for the third-most receiving yards ever by a tight end in his first 100 games.
• Honestly, if you don’t like Kittle, I’m not sure how you call yourself a sports fan, or a human. The dude is great.
• Also note: there’s a football game tonight, starting Week 3 of the NFL season. The New England Patriots (1-1) visit the New York Jets (1-1) in this division game. The Jets are favored by -6 points.
• Today in history… Jamestown is burned to the ground by the forces of Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion (1676). The Continental Congress passes the first United States federal budget (1778). George Washington's Farewell Address is printed across America as an open letter to the public (1796). Union troops under William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by Sterling Price (1862). Union troops under Philip Sheridan defeat a Confederate force commanded by Jubal Early (1864). The Electoral Act of 1893 is consented to by the governor, giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote (1893). Witold Pilecki gets captured on purpose, and is sent to Auschwitz concentration camp to gather and smuggle out information for the resistance movement (1940). Tipper Gore and other political wives form the Parents Music Resource Center as musicians testify at U.S. Congressional hearings on obscenity in rock music (1985). Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees surpasses Trevor Hoffman to become Major League Baseball's all-time saves leader with 602 (2011). A drone strike by the United States kills 30 civilian farmers in Afghanistan (2019). The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is held at Westminster Abbey, London (2022).
• September 19 is the birthday of Roman emperor Antoninus Pius (86), Liao emperor Mu Zong (931), explorer Thomas Cavendish (1560), lawyer Leon Jaworski (1905), car designer/businessman Ferdinand Porsche (1909), actress Frances Farmer (1913), actor/TV host James Lipton (1926), actor Adam West (1928), music manager Brian Epstein (1934), singer-songwriter Bill Medley (1940), singer-songwriter Paul Williams (1940), singer Cass Elliot (1941), songwriter/musician Lol Creme (1947), actor Jeremy Irons (1948), model/actress Twiggy (1949), journalist Joan Lunden (1950), music producer Daniel Lanois (1951), songwriter/guitarist/producer Nile Rodgers (1952), singer-songwriter/guitarist Lita Ford (1958), chef Mario Batali (1960), actress Cheri Oteri (1962), singer-songwriter Tricia Yearwood (1964), politician Tim Scott (1965), astronaut Sunita Williams (1965), journalist Soledad O’Brien (1966), TV host Jimmy Fallon (1974), actress Alison Sweeney (1976), NBA player Tyreke Evans (1989), and NBA player Trae Young (1998). 

Again, sorry to bombard you with a million news items. I promise you, I also left a ton of stuff out. But it’s Thursday, and that means we’re getting closer to the weekend, and I don’t know about you, but I cold really use a weekend sooner than later. Enjoy your day.

Random News: September 18, 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 September 18, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. I have just a ton of news to tell you people this morning, and not nearly enough time to do it well. (Cracks knuckles)… here we go.

• Some more good news for the Harris/Walz campaign arrived yesterday in the form of a strong endorsement from another influential musician.
• Billie Eilish and her brother, artist/songwriter/producer Finneas, have officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president over Dumples the Clown. In a joint video post on Instagram, the Grammy and Oscar-winning duo celebrated National Voter Registration Day by encouraging their followers to register, vote early, and to vote for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket.
• “We are voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz because they are fighting to protect our reproductive freedom, our planet and our democracy,” Eilish said.
• Finneas added, “We can’t let extremists control our lives, ours freedoms and our future. The only way to stop them and the dangerous Project 2025 agenda is to vote and elect Kamala Harris.”
• Fuck yes.
• Moving on.
• Today the House will vote on a government funding bill that appears doomed to fail, with less than two weeks left to prevent a partial shutdown starting October 1.
• Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team spent the weekend trying to shore up support for his short-term funding plan. But it is still expected to fail when it comes to the floor today. He doesn’t have the votes.
• Johnson’s proposed bill combines a six-month stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (Save) Act, a controversial proposal that would require people to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote.
• Important note: it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote, and the only thing this law would do is hinder legitimate voters’ efforts to cast their ballots.
• No Democrat is going to vote for that shit, and a good number of Republicans won’t either. So if it fails, it will highlight publicly what some House Republicans have been saying privately for days: They can’t pass any government funding bill on their own and will ultimately need to team up with Democrats to pass a short-term measure, likely into December.
• Duh.
• Let’s move on. We have some super weird news on the international front.
• Yesterday, at least nine people were killed and 2,800 wounded in an attack that targeted pagers held by members of Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon was one of those injured, according to Iranian state media.
• Hezbollah said it holds Israel responsible for the deadly explosions, amid already increased tensions in the region. There was a “no comment” response from the Israeli military. Hmm.
• At least 170 people injured are in critical condition, and many hospitals in southern Lebanon have exceeded capacity.
• Apparently, Israel (probably) intercepted the shipment of the pages and stuffed them with explosives. Then they sent a code that would cause the pagers to vibrate with an error message.
• When the user pressed the button to stop the error… blammo.
• I mean… exploding pagers? I’m not going to defend any terror groups like Hamas or Hezbollah or the Taliban or any of them. But I will say, this kind of action seems to me to be begging for a violent response.
• Let’s move on.
• Microsoft is warning that Russia is using fake videos and phony social media accounts to target Kamala Harris as the U.S. presidential election draws closer.
• The Kremlin’s influence operations initially struggled to pivot operations aimed at the Democratic campaign following President Biden’s departure from the US 2024 presidential race in July.
• But starting in August, influence campaigns the company has been tracking began to churn out content about Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.
• The Russia-linked campaigns included a baseless claim accusing Harris of being involved in a hit-and-run in 2011 that was spread via a website claiming to be a local San Francisco TV station.
• The article was accompanied by a video in which a woman, whom Microsoft identified as an actor, claimed to be the victim of the crash. There is no evidence any such incident occurred, and the purported TV station does not exist.
• Moving on.
• I bring up this next point not just to illustrate how you should never listen to what a politician says… but instead, watch what they do.
• For example, when Dump says he won’t sign a national abortion ban, and then does the moment he gets elected, it’s because you mistakenly trusted him and allowed that to happen.
• Recently, Dump has not only voiced total support for In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), but says that the expensive procedure will be free (without explaining how, but that’s Dumpy for ya).
• But yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would protect access to IVF.
• The package, called the Right to IVF Act, would establish a nationwide right "to receive fertility treatment from a health care provider, in accordance with widely accepted and evidence-based medical standards of care." 
• The legislation was first blocked three months ago by Senate Republicans.
• The legislation needed 60 votes to move forward. The vote was 51 to 44, with just two Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — joining Democrats in voting to advance the measure. 
• Interestingly, all nine Republican Senators who are up for re-election this fall also voted against protecting IFV. They are John Barrasso (R-WY), Marcha Blackburn (R-TN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).
• Here are the candidates running against them. I highly recommend that instead of these incumbents who want the government to control your reproductive decisions, you vote for Scott Morrow (D-WY), state rep Gloria Johnson (D-TN), professor Katrina Christiansen (D-ND), Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), union president Dan Osborn (I-NE), Lucas Kunce (D-MO), Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL), and Ty Pinkins (D-MS).
• Moving on.
• Texas Attorney General — and one the USA’s most preeminent assholes — Ken Paxton has failed to block a voter registration drive in one of his state’s most populous urban counties and biggest Democratic strongholds.
• On Monday, State District Judge Antonia Arteaga dismissed the Republican attorney general’s lawsuit against Bexar County, the home of San Antonio. 
• Paxton’s suit was part of a broader GOP campaign against Democratic voter registration efforts as the Senate and presidential races have tightened in Texas — a campaign marked by false claims and conspiracy theories of a grand Democratic plot to steal the election with a wave of ballots cast by voters who are in the country illegally.
• Paxton is the guy who  kicked off the plan to search Latino and Democrat activists and a candidate in counties surrounding Bexar.
• Bexar County had proposed to send out registration forms to unregistered voters — something Paxton argued was outside of the scope of the county’s legal powers.
• Judge Arteaga ruled Paxton’s suit was moot, because the county had already sent out the voter registration forms.
• Again, to be clear: the County is just sending out registration forms. They’re not automatically registering these voters. What they’re doing is 100% the right thing to do in a democracy.
• And with the Senate race in Texas appearing tight — Democratic Rep. Colin Allred has repeatedly polled within the margin of error against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R) — the election could come down to registration.
• In 2020, less than 80 percent of Texas’s voting age population registered to vote, and just more than half of eligible voters cast a ballot. Less than three weeks remain to register Texas voters for the election to come.
• Please, Texans friends and other good people of the Lone Star state: let everyone around you know that voting now will make a huge impact on their lives moving forward.
• Let’s move on.
• Fun Fact: one of the segments of the US populace who are overwhelmingly in support of Kamala Harris… our friends, the gays.
• A resounding 70% of LGBTQ+ voters are backing VP Harris and Gov. Walz, but the more impressive number is that 95% of those surveyed have confirmed they are registered to vote. 
• With their (and many others’) help, we’re going to create a better future for our country.
• Let’s do another Fun Fact. I like those.
• X, the web site formerly know as Twitter, has had an extraordinary revenue collapse in the time frame that supposed business genius Elon Musk has owned it. I think this will be studied in “what not to do” classes in business schools for years and years.
• In Quarter 2 of 2022, the platform took in a respectable $661 million in revenue, primarily via advertising. But in Q2 of this year, it was only $114 million.
• Not only is that a drop of over 500%, but the company’s total annual revenue is insufficient to cover its interest payments on its debt. The equity of Musk’s X is now worth zero.
• Womp womp. And just think, all Elon had to do was to not be an evil prick. Guess that was asking too much.
• In somewhat related news, yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the country’s toughest law banning digitally altered political “deepfakes,” following through on a vow to act after rebuking Elon Musk for sharing a doctored video of Vice President Kamala Harris.
• The new California law — which will take effect before the November election — channels rising alarm about artificial intelligence’s capacity to disrupt elections by sowing misinformation, with voters increasingly confronted with deepfake images and audio impersonating candidates.
• It was due to Musk, who shared the AI-altered video of Harris in July, drawing Newsom’s public promise to prohibit similar practices. Newsom made it clear that it wouldn’t have mattered whether Musk had shared fake AI videos of either Harris or Dumpy.
• Newsom also signed a companion bill that targets deepfakes by compelling platforms to pull down such content when users flag them, although that bill will not take effect until next year. He signed a third measure requiring disclaimers on political ads that use AI.
• Good. We need this.
• In other news…
• The fallout from the made-up “immigrants eat our pets” debacle is impacting more than just the Dump/Vance campaign. It now affects a number of down-ballot races to politicians who helped spread the baseless rumor.
• New York Rep. Marc Molinaro followed Dump’s lead and posted the false claims that Haitian newcomers to Springfield, OH abduct and eat cats and dogs to X, Instagram, and Facebook. He was trying to challenge his Democratic rival’s commitment to border security.
• Two congressional districts to the south, Rep. Mike Lawler, whose constituency includes a sizable Haitian American population, released a statement urging his fellow Republicans to refrain from circulating unsubstantiated rumors.
• Now both incumbents might end up losing their races… one for being a racist idiot, and the other for not being supportive enough of Dump’s lies.
• Meanwhile, MAGA social media accounts are still circulating AI-generated art of Trump rescuing and embracing kittens and ducks.
• Honestly, the level of unintentional comedy would be off the charts if not for the fact that real human beings are being threatened with violence over these things that never, ever happened.
• Let’s just move on.
• Do I have to talk about Diddy? I’d rather not.
• Let’s just get it out of the way. Sean “Diddy” Combs has been charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking in a federal indictment unsealed yesterday in New York.
• He “abused, threatened and coerced victims” from at least 2008 to the present, the New York US attorney said. Combs, aka Diddy, aka Puff Daddy, created and ran a “criminal enterprise” through his business empire that engaged in crimes including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
• Diddy was arrested Monday night at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan and taken into custody by Homeland Security.
• At an arraignment yesterday afternoon, Diddy was denied bail. He’s in jail and may remain there until his trial. The racketeering charge alone carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a sex trafficking conviction would carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years.
• Sucks to be him.
• But wait! We have more news of shitty people being shitty, and the justice they face.
• Yesterday, a federal appeals court upheld the sex trafficking conviction of the former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, rejecting her appeal.
• Maxwell, 62, was arrested in 2020 and charged with involvement in her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls.
• She was found guilty of sex trafficking in 2021, convicted on five of the six charges she faced for having recruited and groomed four underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004, and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars.
• Maxwell has been serving her sentenced at a low-security prison in Tallahassee and she is eligible for release in July 2037.
• And now, The Weather: “Sleeper” by knitting
• Rest in peace to JD Souther, a prolific songwriter and musician who helped shape the country-rock sound that took root in Southern California in the 1970s with his collaborations with Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. He died yesterday at 78.
• Souther collaborated on some of Eagles’ biggest hits, such as “Best of My Love,” “James Dean,” “New Kid in Town,” and “Heartache Tonight.”
• He also worked with James Taylor, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt and many more, and also found success as a solo artist. He also dated a lot of musicians including Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, and Stevie Nicks.
• From the Sports Desk… Shohei Ohtani is getting closer to the amazing landmark of 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases. Last night he hit a third-inning home run in an 11-9 loss to the lowly Miami Marlins.
• He is currently at 48 each of home runs and steals with 11 games remaining in the regular season.
• Today in history… Nerva is proclaimed Roman emperor after Domitian is assassinated (96). Norwegian king Harald Hardrada lands with Tostig Godwinson at the mouth of the Humber River and begins his invasion of England (1066). The first cornerstone of the United States Capitol is laid by George Washington (1793). Tiffany & Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City (1837). First publication of The New-York Daily Times, which later becomes The New York Times (1851). Fritz Pollard becomes the first African American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros (1919). The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) goes on the air (1927). General Douglas MacArthur moves his general headquarters from Manila to Tokyo (1945). Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations (1960). Voyager I takes the first distant photograph of the Earth and the Moon together (1977). First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks (2001). Scotland votes against independence from the United Kingdom, by 55% to 45% (2014). 
• September 18 is the birthday of Roman emperor Trajan (53), singer-songwriter/lute player Francesca Caccini (1587), lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709), actress Greta Garbo (1905), actor Jack Warden (1920), director/producer Bud Greenspan (1926), actor Robert Blake (1933), actor Fred Willard (1933), singer Frankie Avalon (1940), singer-songwriter Michael Franks (1944), computer businessman John McAfee (1945), guitarist/songwriter Kerry Livgren (1949), singer-songwriter/bass player Dee Dee Ramone (1951), basketball coach Rick Pitino (1952), football coach/politician Tommy Tuberville (1954), actor James Gandolfini (1961), NBA player Toni Kukoč (1968), actress Jada Pinkett Smith (1971), cyclist Lance Armstrong (1971), rapper Xzibit (1974), and soccer player Ronaldo (1976).

Holy shit, that was a lot of news, and trust me… there was a lot more I didn’t have time to cover. It’s a busy-ass world out there, so stay focused on the things that are important and we’ll make it through. Enjoy your day.