Random News: June 15, 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 15, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. Just random things ahead…

• I’m not going to shame Lauren Boebert (R-CO) about the news coming out about her allegedly having been a paid sex worker, or that she’s had multiple abortions as is her right (and the right of every American woman). However, if true, the blatant hypocrisy in her political messaging cannot be forgiven. Even if they could, her role in the January 6 coup attempt needs to be the focus.
• I’ll say it again: if the people responsible for the defeated coup attempt on January 6, 2021 are not held liable for their actions, it will happen over and over until one day we won’t have a country anymore. This is the most perilous event for the USA since the Civil War.

• Surveillance footage shows a tour led by Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) had people photographing and taking video of areas not typically of interest to tourists: hallways, staircases and security checkpoints. Some of the same people on that “tour” were seen participating in the coup.
• Not much news to discuss from yesterday’s primaries. I think it’s still a situation where you have normal Republicans versus Trump/MAGA Republicans, and some districts are won and others lost by either side.
• It’s been said there’s an “enthusiasm gap” for the Democrats, and that’s probably not wrong. Perhaps a better way to approach it is that there are so many vital issues in limbo right now, from forced birth through mass shootings through that fucking coup where we nearly lost the whole country, that people’s short attention spans are strained.
• Come November, we’d better have some great candidates with cohesive messaging.
• One topic I didn’t mention above is rearing its ugly head right now via the heat wave gripping much of the USA: climate change. Every summer for the rest of your life will get hotter and hotter. Bigger and more devastating storms will happen very year. It’s probably too late for us to undo the man-made aspects (though we could slow down the inevitable).
• Human colostomy bag Mitch McConnell has stated he’ll vote for the upcoming bipartisan gun control bill, which is good news. He’s officially the 11th GOP member to support it, along with every Democrat. That would ensure passage by the Senate when the bill arrives.
• Happy the Elephant has been the subject of a court case. The Bronx Zoo was sued for her release, stating that she is a person who is illegally imprisoned. The court determined in a 5-2 vote that Happy is not a person, and I agree. No elephant could be as shitty as a human being. 
• Microsoft has retired Internet Explorer after 26 years. I think it’s been maybe 20 years since I used that browser, but I know some people who were still hanging onto it for some reason. 
• The most popular desktop browsers in 2022 by percentage of users are Google Chrome (77.03%), Safari (8.87%), Mozilla Firefox (7.69%), and Microsoft Edge (5.83%). On mobile platforms, it’s Chrome (59.15%), Safari (32.94%), and Samsung Internet (4.74%).
• Scientists in China say they have detected what could be the trace of a signal from one or more advanced alien civilizations. The odds of us being alone in our galaxy, much less our entire vast universe, are infinitesimally small.
• Today in history… Assyrians record a solar eclipse that helps us determine the age of Mesopotamian history (763 BC). King John of England approves the Magna Carta, a document that set the pathway toward legal freedoms still in use today (1215). Margaret Jones becomes the first of many women hanged for witchcraft in Massachusetts (1648). Charles Goodyear gets a patent for vulcanization to strengthen rubber (1844). Bessie Coleman becomes the first Black person to get a pilot’s license (1921). Charles Manson goes on trial for the Sharon Tate murders (1970).
• June 15 is the birthday of Mona Lisa model Lisa del Giocondo (1479), Russian politician Yuri Andropov (1914), pianist Erroll Garner (1921), politician Mario Cuomo (1932), singer-songwriter Waylon Jennings (1937), singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson (1941), football coach Mike Holmgren (1948), actress Courteney Cox (1964), rapper/actor Ice Cube (1969), baseball player Tim Lincecum (1984), and NFL player Cooper Kupp (1993).

I guess that’s all. It’s never enough. We live in an age where you can easily access so much information that most people don’t bother accessing any at all. I get it; it’s overwhelming. That’s one of the reasons I do this silly list every day. Be well.