Random News: June 16, 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 16, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’ve had a busy-ass week and I’m looking forward to some hopeful downtime this weekend, but for now, let’s see what’s been going on…

• For today’s Pride chat, I thought we’d cover the aspect of non-traditional orientation and gender identity that most often gets overlooked… romantic orientation.
• Isn’t that the same as sexual orientation? Nope.
• I’ll ask the straight men reading this: have you ever felt very sexually attracted to a woman but  perhaps don’t have much in common with her, or don’t have much interest in getting to know her as a person, or would never in a million years consider dating or (especially) marrying her?
• Congrats, you’ve personally experienced the difference between sexual attraction and romantic attraction.
• Are most people romantically attracted to the same gender of people to whom they are sexually attracted? Yes, of course.
• But it doesn’t have to go that way. Just like all the other subcategories in the LGBTQIA+ world, there are subdivisions of how different people experience romance.
• Aromantic means a person who experiences little to no romantic attraction.
• Grayromantic means experiencing romantic attraction rarely, or only under certain circumstances, or only weakly.
• Demiromantic means developing romantic attraction only after forming a deep emotional bond with the person(s).
• Heteroromantic means romantic attraction towards person(s) of the opposite gender.
• Homoromantic is romantic attraction towards person(s) of the same gender.
• Biromantic is, yes, romantic attraction towards two or more genders, or person(s) of the same and other genders.
• Panromantic means romantic attraction towards person(s) of any, every, and all genders.
• Polyromantic is romantic attraction towards person(s) of various, but not all, genders.
• And no, I don’t quite understand the minute differences between some of these, but I’ve never claimed to understand everything.
• Keep in mind one other thing, though: there are so many varieties of love, and almost every person gets to experience different aspects of love, from deep friendships to affection to familiar love to enduring love to sexy-ass love… all different and distinct sensations.
• My vote is to let love happen between consenting adult people and to never get in the way of it no matter what.
• And also, stop assuming that everything about LGBTQIA+ orientations is about actual sex. Love and sex are distinct things that are intertwined but separate. If a person wants to love and feel loved in return, that makes the world a better place to live for everyone.
• And now, lovers, let’s start with some great news…
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court left intact a decades-old law that prioritizes the placement of Native American children with Native families or tribes in child custody proceedings, rejecting challenges brought by several adoptive parents.
• The 7-2 decision backs the law passed in the wake of decades of hostility on the part of the federal government when it comes to child custody issues and traditional values of Indian tribes.
• Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority, and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
• Who were the two completely evil justices who want to take Native babies and give them to white people? Why, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, of course. Thomas wrote a 40-page dissent that said the Constitution's Indian protections do not extend beyond matters of trade and commerce.
• What a fucking disgusting prick that guy is.
• Moving on…
• Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman accused of posting a trove of classified documents to social media, has been formally indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to national defense.
• See, having illegal possession of classified information is a very serious crime. Teixeira, 21, posted Secret and Top Secrets documents on Discord. He was arrested in April and charged under the Espionage Act.
• In other news, sorta…
• Several US federal government agencies have been hit in a global cyberattack that exploits a vulnerability in MOVEit, a file sharing app.
• It’s not immediately clear if the hackers are a Russian-speaking ransomware group that has claimed credit for numerous other victims in the hacking campaign.
• The Department of Energy was among the multiple federal agencies breached in the ongoing global hacking campaign. One of the DOE victims is a contractor for Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
• That’s… not good at all, and probably worse than they’re telling us.
• This is noteworthy… U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon took one of her first substantive steps yesterday in Donald Trump’s criminal trial for storing military secrets at his golf motel.
• Cannon required all attorneys in the case — for Trump as well as his co-conspirator Walt Nauta — to contact the Justice Department about obtaining security clearances. The same instructions apply to any “forthcoming” attorneys, the judge said.
• She ordered the attorneys to file a “notice of compliance” by June 20, a relatively rapid pace.
• I have to relate one more story of Orange Julius Caesar just for laughs.
• On Tuesday after he was arrested and indicted, he made an appearance at the Versailles restaurant in Miami’s Little Havana area. It’s a Cuban food place. Very tasty. 
• When he walked inside, he declared “Food for everyone!” to the happiness and cheers of those inside. They sang him “Happy Birthday”. They did a group prayer. They loved that fat man.
• Then he turned around and left without paying a dime for anything. So kids, remember: if you want to be rich, it’s easy. Just lie all the time and never pay any bills.
• Moving on with some more great news…
• The two Tennessee state lawmakers who were expelled from the state legislature earlier this year for protesting gun violence on the House floor easily won their special primary elections yesterday.
• State Rep. Justin Jones ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination in his Nashville-area district, while state Rep. Justin Pearson sailed to victory over challenger David Page in the Democratic special primary for his Memphis-area district, winning 94% of the vote.
• The special general election in Tennessee is set to be held in early August.
• In “what the fuck?” news, Japanese lawmakers adopted legislation today to raise the country’s age of sexual consent to 16 from 13, an age limit that had remained unchanged since 1907.
• It’s been 13 for over 100 years? 13??? What the fuck, Japan? I mean, good job finally raising it to 16, I guess.
• And now, The Weather: “See You Again” by Today Junior
• The weather today comes with a big warning for some 50 million people across the south. Tornadoes, flash flooding, large hail, massive power outages, and damaging winds are all on the weather menu today. Try and be prepared, please.
• A little follow-up from yesterday, when I told you about the Fox News chyron that read, “WANNABE DICTATOR SPEAKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE AFTER HAVING HIS POLITICAL RIVAL ARRESTED.”
• I opined yesterday that the producer responsible should be fired immediately. And Fox agreed.
• Alexander McCaskill, the former managing editor on “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, is no longer employed by the media company. It turns out that McCaskill is a special kind of piece of shit, having also been named repeatedly in a lawsuit brought by former “Tucker Carlson Tonight” producer Abby Grossberg who blamed him and others for a misogynistic and toxic culture on the show.
• Good riddance. I hope his next job is producing birthday party videos for children of Nazis.
• From the Sports Desk… RIP to former New York Giants wide receiver Homer Jones, the first player to spike the football after a touchdown. Jones died this week at age 82.
• For those who are unaware, Jones is still the NFL's all-time leading wideout in one category: he had a career average of 22.3 yards per catch. Damn! He caught 224 passes for 4,986 yards and 36 touchdowns in 87 games with the Giants and Browns.
• I like Jones’ story of the very first spike, which happened after an 89-yard touchdown catch against the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 17, 1965, for his first career score.
• ”I had always said that when I made my first touchdown, I was gonna throw the ball in the stands. They changed the rules in the offseason to I think a $500 fine for throwing the ball into the stands. And as I crossed the goal line my intention had always been to throw that ball into the stands, but I thought about that $500 and I threw it on the ground. So that was the original spike right there."
• Today in history… Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain (1779). A meeting in London leads to the formation of what is now the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (1824). A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed (1897). The Ford Motor Company is incorporated (1903). IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, NY (1911). George Junius Stinney Jr., age 14, becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century after being unfairly convicted in a two-hour trial for the rape and murder of two teenage white girls (1944). While on tour with the Kirov Ballet in Paris, Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union (1961). Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space (1963). A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa, turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd (1976). Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, CA, as Software Development Laboratories by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates (1977). Upwards of 2,000,000 people participate in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the largest in Hong Kong's history (2019).
• June 16 is the birthday of economist Adam Smith (1723), actor Stan Laurel (1890), geneticist Barbara McClintock (1902), actor Jack Albertson (1907), Mexico president José López Portillo (1920), songwriter Lamont Dozier (1941), singer-songwriter Eddie Levert (1942), NFL player Al Cowlings (1947), boxer Roberto Durán (1951), singer Gino Vanelli (1952), actress Laurie Metcalf (1955), soccer player/manager Jürgen Klopp (1967), golfer Phil Mickelson (1970), rapper Tupac Shakur (1971), actor John Cho (1972), and NFL player Justin Jefferson (1999).

I suppose that’s all for now. I’m going to have a reasonably good day if at all possible. I believe it is possible. I also believe that there are elements outside of my control that can influence how things go, but it’s up to me how I react to those things. Hopefully well. Enjoy your day.