Random News: June 12, 2023

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 12, 2023, and it’s a Monday. I have a fairly normal day ahead, I think, and it might be the last normal day for awhile depending on how things go at the federal court in Miami tomorrow, so let’s enjoy whatever level of normalcy we have while while we can.

• Today’s Pride note is about biologist and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, who in 1948 published a book titled ‘Sexual Behavior in the Human Male’.
• Previous to Kinsey, little legitimate scientific work had been devoted to human sexuality, especially in regard to sexual orientation. From his research, Kinsey concluded that homosexual behavior is not restricted to people who identify themselves as homosexual.
• At the time, psychologists and psychiatrists considered homosexuality to be a form of illness.
• But Kinsey’s research showed that 37% of men had experienced homosexual activities at least once. The findings surprised many conservative notions about sexuality.
• Instead of rigid definitions of homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual, Kinsey created a seven-point scale system with a range from 0 to 6, with 0 being completely heterosexual and 6 completely homosexual.
• Introducing the scale, Kinsey wrote, “Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories … A seven-point scale comes nearer to showing the many gradations that actually exist.”
• Using his rating scale, Kinsey found 11.6% of white males aged 20–35 were given a rating of 3 for this period of their lives, and reported that 10% of American males surveyed were "more or less exclusively homosexual for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55" (in the 5 to 6 range).
• The Kinsey scale is credited as one of the first attempts to acknowledge the diversity and fluidity of human sexual behavior by illustrating that sexuality does not fall neatly into the dichotomous categories of exclusively heterosexual or exclusively homosexual.
• Hopefully this knowledge helps you challenge some preconceptions you may have about LGBTQIA+ people.
• Let’s do some news.
• Yesterday, federal and local authorities in Miami, FL amped up security preparations ahead of Donald Trump’s first appearance in federal court on criminal charges.
• Escalating violent rhetoric in online forums, coupled with defiant statements from the former president and his political allies, have put law enforcement officials on alert for potential disruptions ahead of Trump’s court appearance on 37 federal felony charges.
• Authorities were monitoring plans for pro-Trump rallies in Miami, including one outside the federal courthouse on Tuesday purportedly organized by a local chapter of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys.
• Adding to this mess is failed gubernatorial candidate and former Fox News anchor Kari Lake, who stated, “If you want to get to president Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat – that’s a public service announcement. We will not let you lay a finger on president Trump. Frankly, now is the time to cling to our guns and our religion.”
• Narrator’s voice: but they will get to him as they do every criminal eventually, and you won’t do shit.
• Fun Fact: if you literally added up every felony charge against Trump and he was found guilty to all of them and then sentenced at the maximum for each crime and he was to serve them serially instead of concurrently and he did the entire sentence with no parole, he would go to jail for exactly 536 years.
• TRUMP 2560! Make the Northern Megalopolis Great Again!
• Yesterday on Fox News, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr said that if the allegations the former president willfully retained hundreds of highly classified documents are proven true, then "he's toast."
• "I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were ... and I think the counts under the Espionage Act that he willfully retained those documents are solid counts. If even half of it is true, then he's toast." - Bill Barr.
• That’s enough on that topic for now. I’ve already carved out sections of my Tuesday to be aware and alert regarding anything transpiring around his surrender, arrest, and arraignment.
• Let’s hope that “June 13” doesn’t become an infamous date like “September 11” or “January 6”. Moving on…
• JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, has settled a class-action lawsuit from Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse victims.
• The victims had accused the bank of enabling sex trafficking by the deceased financier when he was a client. The agreement is subject to court approval, and the amount of the settlement was not disclosed.
• Wealthy guy and boogeyman to conservatives George Soros has handed control of his charitable and political activities to his son Alex.
• Alex Soros says he is “more political” than his father, and that he expects to be embracing some different causes with the foundation, particularly voting rights and abortion rights.
• Hell yes.
• In world news, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy has died. He was 86. Berlusconi was a media mogul who dominated and divided his country for decades.
• Yesterday, New York City announced a new minimum pay-rate for app food delivery workers amid a rise in use of services like Uber Eats and DoorDash since the pandemic.
• Manhattan’s 60,000 food delivery workers currently make on average about $7.09 an hour. The pay will increase to $17.96 an hour on July 12 then increase again to nearly $20 an hour in April 2025. Pay will be adjusted annually for inflation.
• Good. I have friends who work these gigs and they seem often taken advantage of by these delivery tech firms. Hopefully this spreads to other locations.
• And now, The Weather: “Carnavoyeur” by Queens of the Stone Age
• I rarely do any kind of “Entertainment News” here, mostly because that’s too close to what I do for work and no one’s paying me for this shit.
• Buttttt… Saturday night at The Gorge, a beautiful natural amphitheater in Grant County, WA, was a special musical performance that no one thought would or could ever happen again.
• Along with her friend Brandi Carlisle and an embarrassment of riches for a backing band, 79-year-old Joni Mitchell took the stage for a one-off Joni Jam. Carlisle was kind of the evening’s MC, musical director, and the main vocal cohort to Mitchell, who’s had years of health issues and a disdain for the industry that’s prevented her from even wanting to perform.
• In addition to Joni and Brandi, the band included Marcus Mumford on percussion, other longtime members of Carlile’s band, and Annie Lennox and Sarah McLachlan as backup singers. They formed a half circle around Mitchell and Carlile, each member getting their chance to take a solo vocal and heap praise on the woman of the hour.
• I just thought it was neat. Joni had no reason to ever perform again. She’s just up there having fun with these amazing supporters and fans.
• From the Sports Desk… tonight may be the final game of the 2022/23 NBA season. The Denver Nuggets, playing at home, have a 3-1 lead over the Miami Heat, and would take the championship with a win tonight. The game starts at 5:30 PT/8:30 ET.
• Also a shout-out to the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen, who recorded his 2,000th hit yesterday. McCutchen, currently 36 and a designated hitter, became the 291st guy overall and fifth active player to reach this MLB milestone.
• Today in history… In England, rebels assemble for the Peasants’ Revolt at Blackheath, just outside London (1381). Thomas Willett is appointed the first mayor of New York City (1665). The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl von Drais (1817). The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, NY (1939). Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday (1942). The film ‘Cleopatra’, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, is released in US theaters (1963). NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement (1963). The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional (1967). The first of the Indiana Jones film franchise, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, is released in theaters (1981). U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall (1987). All analog TV stations switch to digital transmission (2009).
• June 12 is the birthday of Chinese emperor Gao Zong (1107), Tuscany duke Cosimo I de' Medici (1519), author Johanna Spyri (1827), physicist Oliver Lodge (1851), UK prime minister Anthony Eden (1897), businessman David Rockefeller (1915), US president George H. W. Bush (1924), diarist Anne Frank (1929), actor Jim Nabors (1930), sportscaster Marv Albert (1941), composer/pianist Chick Corea (1941), singer-songwriter/bass player John Wetton (1949), drummer Bun E. Carlos (1950), singer Brad Delp (1951), actor Jason Mewes (1974), and NBA player Jrue Holiday (1990).

Well, hell. I hope those idiots don’t choose violence tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ve got normal things to do, with meetings and deliverables a-plenty. Oh, and my son wrapped up his college semester last week, so today I have a new intern for my business. Get used to working for a living, kid. Enjoy your day.