Random News: July 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 July 20, 2022, and it’s a Wednesday. If you’re somewhere hot, stay cool while you read these meanderings…

• The House voted yesterday to codify same-sex marriage before the Supreme Court can take it away. The tally was 267-157, with 47 Republicans voted for it (and 157 against).
• It would likely die in the Senate, like all things that are the will of the people. Maybe they’ll hold off until the Senators commit to vote Yes as part of the midterm election process.
• The Secret Service texts that were missing from January 5/6, 2021 and were subpoenaed by the Jan 6 Committee? Yeah, those are gone. Yes, it’s illegal for them to delete. Yup, it’s incredibly suspicious.
• The exodus of people who were former supporters now abandoning the former President continues. 
• Joe Rogan, the podcaster who many people like for unknown reasons, called Trump a “man baby” on his show last Thursday, and made a bunch of references to Trump’s drug addiction to Adderall. 
• The chairman of the January 6 committee, Bennie Thompson (D-MS), has COVID. He’ll be fine, but he won’t be present at tomorrow’s hearing.
• Salute to Nicholas Bostic. He’s a 25-year-old pizza delivery guy in Indiana who drove by a house completely engulfed in flames, then pulled over, ran inside, and rescued five kids, including a 1-year-old baby.
• He didn’t hesitate, didn’t wait for backup, didn’t ask permission, and put himself at severe risk. He was injured and suffered lung damage, and had to be airlifted out. But he did it anyway. That’s a hero. He’ll be okay.
• Hey Uvalde PD.
• The US Capitol Police arrested 35 people at a Roe demonstration near the Supreme Court yesterday. 17 of them are members of congress. 
• Not understanding how law enforcement works, the MAGA/QAnon community is screaming it was a false flag/crisis actor/staged event.
• The arrestees were Dean, Velasquez, Lee, Speier, Clark, Jacobs, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Levin, Maloney, Adams, Watson Coleman, Escobar, Bush, Schakowsky, Omar, and Pressley.
• Anyway, they’ll all pay a fine, and hopefully did the proper job of a demonstration, which is to keep the conversation going about how abortion is healthcare and should be the right of every American woman in every state regardless of circumstances.
• In parts of Europe and the USA today, it will be 115º F/46º C. That is heat that will kill people under certain conditions. I used to harp on people to try and prevent global climate change, but I’m pretty sure we’re way past the point of no return now. I promise it will get worse every year for the rest of your life.
• Speaking of Europe… yeah, Russia is still attacking Ukraine and “annexing” territory. This world sucks ass sometimes.
• Twitter won a motion for an expedited trial for its lawsuit against Elon Musk. It will start in October.
• A tiny micrometeoroid hit the James Webb Space Telescope with “significant uncorrectable” damage. So that was fun while it lasted.
• I don’t know if I’m emotionally capable of trying out this game “Stray”, where you play as a wandering cat in a dystopian city. I just can’t with that. I hear it’s great though.
• QotD: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” - Frederick Douglass
• Today in history… Japanese forces capture Pyongyang (1592). Nicéphore Niépce gets a patent on the first internal combustion engine (1807). British Columbia joins Canada (1871). Ford ships its first automobile (1903). Finnish women become the first in Europe to receive the right to vote (1906). Police in Minneapolis fire on striking truck drivers, killing two and wounding 67 (1934). The DOJ files suit against the motion picture industry for violations of the Antitrust Act (1938). California opens the first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway, known today as the 110 between DTLA and Pasadena (1940). King Abdullah I of Jordan is assassinated (1951). The first-ever Special Olympics is held at Soldier Field in Chicago (1968). Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the moon (1969). Viking I lands on Mars (1976). Same-sex marriage is legalized in Canada (2005). Mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, CO (2012). O.J. Simpson is granted parole from prison (2017).
• July 20 is the birthday of poet Petrarch (1304), paleontologist Richard Owen (1804), explorer Edmund Hillary (1919), NBA coach Chuck Daly (1930), actress Diana Rigg (1938), actress Natalie Wood (1938), singer Kim Carnes (1945), guitarist Carlos Santana (1947), possibly the best rock singer of all time Chris Cornell (1964), guitarist Stone Gossard (1966), hockey great Peter Forsberg (1973), NBA player Ray Allen (1975), hockey great Pavel Datsyuk (1978), model Gisele Bündchen (1980), and NBA player Ben Simmons (1996). 

Well, I hope your day is good. I hope your life is good, more or less. I hope you get to the point where you realize it’s more fulfilling to do things for others than it is to focus on yourself all the time. I hope. I do.