Random News: June 20, 2022

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 June 20, 2022, and it’s a Monday. I’m drinking coffee and writing things as such…

• Awful fact: I can write the words “there was a shooting last night” on any morning of the year before going to the news and finding out where it was and how many were hurt or killed. Last night it was at a pop-up concert in D.C., with a 15-year-old dead and a cop and two adults wounded.
• There was also a mass shooting in East Harlem, NY, with one dead and nine shot.
• In France, the centrist government led by Macron has lost its majority in the National Assembly due to a right-wing influx, and now they are trying desperately to avoid political paralysis.
• Sounds kinda familiar, for some reason.
• Some people “bought the dip“ in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin over the weekend, which drove the value back up… and it immediately started sinking again. Here’s the deal with Ponzi schemes: if you’re not at the top of the pyramid, you’re the one financing whoever is at the top.
• Thousands of flights were delayed and/or canceled over the past four days. Airlines are blaming a combination of bad weather and staffing shortages. This may or may not be true, but Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg met with airline leaders to ask them what the fuck.
• Of course, if you cheered when airlines announced that masks were now optional, maybe you don’t get to complain when your flight is canceled from the pilots and flight attendants who can’t work due to COVID. Just a thought.
• The first guy took delivery of the Ford F-150 Lightning. He lives on a family farm in a small town in Michigan and is thrilled to have the benefits of a powerful truck while moving away from fossil fuels. Ford had intended to build about 40,000 or them; they had to stop taking orders after 200,000 people ordered the truck. 
• Additionally, GM is rolling out an electric Silverado next year, and a new RAM EV truck is coming soon. GM and Ford are also working on electric versions of the Equinox and Explorer.
• I want all fossil-fuel cars gone before I’m dead. I think it will happen.
• Roe v Wade might be repealed as early as tomorrow. This supposed first-world nation is about to take a major fall in regard to women’s reproductive health, and the rights of women are being stepped up purposefully.
• Every Republican is laughing at you and can’t wait to force you (or your daughter or your wife or your girlfriend) to give birth. They’re going to have parties. Wait and see.
• FUCKING VOTE.
• Today in history… Flavius Aetius battles Attila the Hun, who retreats, and the Romans call it a victory (451). Queen Victoria takes the British throne (1837). Samuel Morse gets a patent on the telegraph (1840). West Virginia is admitted as the 35th state (1863). Mali gets independence from France, later splitting into Mali and Senegal (1960). Investigators find an 18-minute gap in the Watergate tapes (1972). ‘Jaws’ is released, starting the trend of summer blockbusters (1975). Wikipedia is founded (2003).
• June 20 is the birthday of astronomer Mary R. Calvert (1884), actor Errol Flynn (1909), actor Martin Landau (1928), actress Olympia Dukakis (1931), amazing songwriter Brian Wilson (1942), smooth-ass singer Lionel Richie (1949), actor John Goodman (1952), bass player John Taylor (1960), actress Nicole Kidman (1967), singer Chino Moreno (1973), and NFL player Darren Sproles (1983).

I hope your Monday is not awful. I hope you plan to help people other than yourself. I hope you can encourage others to be positive and to fight for good things. I hope you’re ready when shitty things happen that are totally predictable.