Random News: June 22, 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 22, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. Let’s look at various items of varying levels of variety…

• The fourth session of the January 6 Select Committee has held yesterday. It is very hard to watch these without becoming extraordinarily angry. I’ve done a tiny bit of study of Zen Buddhism, and I’ve gotten pretty good at processing things that would have once consumed me with anger and other negative emotions.
• When you hear the testimony from Atlanta election workers Wandrea "Shaye" Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, it’s so hard not to let your blood boil. When they followed the law and refused to push the Big Lie of Trump, their lives became hell. Someone must be liable for what happened to them.
• Trump made claims that specific Republican election officials told him the vote was rigged. Not only did those people not believe that, but they never said it to Trump or his team, per the testimony of one such person, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers.
• Trump personally published the home addresses and contact information for Republican election officials who refuted his lies, like Bowers and GC Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Their family homes, which had young children and ill people living there, were under constant harassment by mobs who threatened their lives and their families’ lives.


• Sigh.


• People keep asking me if I think anything will happen from all this. My answer is that I have no idea. Historically, is it likely that a former President will be charged and convicted of a felony-level criminal offense and receive punishment of any kind? No.

• However, I’m seeing some signs out there that some folks who were formerly supporters of the MAGA ideology backing away as a result of these hearings. I’ve seen this personally among acquaintances, and through anecdotal information heard from others.
• Moving to some more promising news, yesterday the Senate voted 64-34 to advance a gun safety bill, the first attempt at a federal gun control measure in 30 years.
• 14 Republican Senators joined all Democrats in supporting the bill, despite all of them currently having A and A+ ratings from the NRA. They won’t have those grades for long. My thanks go out to them.
• The bipartisan bill will need to pass the Dem-controlled House and then go to Biden to sign, which could happen as early as next week.
• I consider the bill a step in the right direction. It’s not nearly enough, but at least the government managed to do something, which is more than the nothing they’ve done about this in over three decades.
• Speaking of guns: the more that comes out about the Uvalde child massacre, the more it’s clear that the police response was, in the words of the head of the Texas state police, an “abject failure”.
• Quote of the Day: “I am not a member of any organized party — I am a Democrat.” - Will Rogers.
• Today in history… Romans defeat Macedonians in the Battle of Pydna (168BC). The Catholic Church forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun (not the Earth) is the center of the universe (1633). Congress creates the US Department of Justice (1870). George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom (1911). The Pledge of Allegiance is adopted by the US Congress (1942). The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, OH, spurring passage of the Clean Water Act and the foundation of the EPA. Diego Maradona scores the infamous “Hand of God” goal allowing Argentina to defeat England in the World Cup quarterfinals (1986).
• June 22 is the birthday of explorer George Vancouver (1757), criminal John Dillinger (1903), film director Billy Wilder (1906), fashion designer Bill Blass (1922), amazingly old Senator Dianne Feinstein (1933), actor Kris Kristofferson (1936), record label founder Chris Blackwell (1937), musician Howard Kaylan (1947), amazing point guard Pete Maravich (1947), extraordinary musician Todd Rundgren (1948), actress Meryl Streep (1949), actress Lindsay Wagner (1949), actor Freddie Prinze (1954), lawyer/activist Erin Brockovich (1960), NBA player Clyde Drexler (1962), author Dan Brown (1964), NFL player Kurt Warner (1971), and TV host Carson Daly (1973).

That’s all for now, I suppose. There’s always more news and info than I put into this thing, and there’s much, much more important news that most of us never get to hear. But you get what I can do in about a half hour in the early morning. That’s good enough. Enjoy your day.