Random News: June 25, 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 25, 2023, and it’s a Sunday. I have a rather rare — for me — live show to do this afternoon, so that’s kind of exciting, and if you Second Life people wanna come see me at Hotel Chelsea for their 16th anniversary event at 1PM, you should. Meanwhile, let’s check out this stuff, whatever it may be…

• For today’s Pride note, let’s do the B… as in Bisexuals.
• Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, which is also known as pansexuality.
• A bisexual identity does not necessarily equate to equal sexual attraction to both sexes; commonly, people who have a distinct but not exclusive sexual preference for one sex over the other also identify themselves as bisexual.
• Fun Fact: the term bisexuality, like the terms hetero- and homosexuality, was coined in the 19th century by Charles Gilbert Chaddock.
• One thing about a person’s evolving sexual attraction, behavior, and identity is that they may also be incongruent, as sexual attraction or behavior may not necessarily be consistent with identity.
• Some individuals identify themselves as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual without having had any sexual experience, and that’s fine.
• Others have had homosexual experiences but do not consider themselves to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Likewise, self-identified gay or lesbian individuals may occasionally sexually interact with members of the opposite sex but do not identify as bisexual.
• Yes, this stuff seems confusing and contradictory.
• The bisexual activist Robyn Ochs defines bisexuality quite well, saying it’s "the potential to be attracted—romantically and/or sexually—to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree."
• A study of bisexual women interestingly found that they have fewer personal insecurities than heterosexuals and homosexuals. This finding described bisexuals as self-assured and less likely to have mental instabilities.
• The same research suggested that, for most women, high sex drive is associated with increased sexual attraction to both women and men. For men, however, high sex drive is associated with increased attraction to one sex or the other, but not to both, depending on sexual orientation.
• Bisexual people are not nearly as “out” as gays and lesbians. A survey showed that 28% of bisexuals said that "all or most of the important people in their life are aware that they are LGBT" vs. 77% of gay men and 71% of lesbians. Furthermore, when broken down by gender, only 12% of bisexual men said that they were "out" vs. 33% of bisexual women.
• Are there many well known bi people? Um, yes, of course. Like, millions.
• Alanis Morissette, Billie Joe Armstrong, Cardi B, David Bowie, Drew Barrymore, Frank Ocean, Freddie Mercury, Frida Kahlo, Gillian Anderson, Giorgio Armani, Halsey, Iggy Pop, Janis Joplin, Jason Mraz, Joan Baez, Katharine Hepburn, Kristen Stewart, Kyrsten Sinema, Lady Gaga, Leonard Bernstein, Lil Nas X, Lou Reed, Marlon Brando, Megan Fox, Michael Stipe, Miley Cyrus, Montgomery Clift, Nina Simone, Richard Pryor, Sia, Susan Sarandon, Tyler the Creator, Vincent Price, and thousands upon thousands of other well known actors, musicians, politicians, writers, business leaders, and others openly identified as being bisexual.
• Do bisexuals face their own specific form of discrimination? Of course they do, because people are shitty for the most part.
• Biphobia can take the form of denial that bisexuality is a genuine sexual orientation, or of negative stereotypes about people who are bisexual (such as the beliefs that they are promiscuous or dishonest).
• In its most extreme form, bisexual erasure can include the belief that bisexuality itself does not exist. Bisexual erasure may include the assertion all bisexual individuals are in a phase and will soon choose a side, either heterosexual or homosexual.
• Another common variant of bisexual erasure involves accepting bisexuality in women while downplaying or rejecting the validity of bisexual identity in men.
• One belief underlying bisexual erasure is that bisexual individuals are distinctively indecisive, and misrepresentations of bisexual individuals as hypersexual erases the sexual agency of bisexuals, effectively erasing their true identities as well.
• In the same way I’d recommend trying to understand and accept that gay and lesbian people merit your lack of judgement and condemnation, I’d say the same thing about their lesser-noted part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
• I mean, come on. The B is the third letter in! Respect and appreciate your bi friends. And trust me, you have bi friends even if you don’t think you do. I’ve become friends with too large a number of them, male and female and non-binary, to believe otherwise.
• Moving on… and let’s follow up on yesterday’s dramatic news on the situation in Russia…
• It’s still hard to say exactly what’s happened with the near paramilitary coup in Russia, or more appropriately what’s still in the midst of happening, but yesterday the chief of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, agreed to a truce for his forces to "stop movement inside Russia, and to take further steps to de-escalate tensions.”
• Prigozhin had brokered this supposed peace deal through Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of Putin. They held two meetings to negotiate a deal that includes "security guarantees for the Wagner PMC fighters.”
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov state that accusations were dropped against Prigozhin, who has left Russia for Belarus; that the people of Wagner who did not participate in the uprising will sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense; that Wagner's fighters who participated were not charged; and that there will be no change in leadership in the Russian army.
• I don’t really believe any of that.
• The one takeaway that everyone seems to agree on: despite large parts of this story still missing, the 36-hour insurrection has left Putin seeming weak and ineffective, and more vulnerable to being replaced than any previous time in his 23+ year reign.
• Moving on…
• Special counsel Jack Smith has requested a delay in the classified and sensitive documents trial of Donald John Trump. On Friday, Smith filed a request for the start date for the trial be set for Dec. 11, which would be about four months after the initial Aug. 14 date that Judge Aileen Cannon set last week. 
• The filing notes that the case will require Trump’s counsel to receive interim security clearances because the case concerns classified information, which will require additional time for the counsel to review and process the evidence that the government has gathered. 
• Smith’s request also explains that additional time would be needed for legal proceedings under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which states that parties involved in cases concerning classified information can make a motion for a pretrial conference to consider possible matters that may arise related to the prosecution of the case.
• Keep in mind that in addition to the indictment of Trump for the stolen documents and obstruction of such, Smith is also tasked with investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the legal election from 2020.
• To that end, Smith has compelled at least two Republican fake electors to testify to a federal grand jury in Washington in recent weeks by giving them limited immunity.
• That activity could signal that investigators are nearing at least some charging decisions in a part of the 2020 election probe. 
• Get their asses, Jack.
• Moving on…
• A train carrying potentially hazardous materials derailed into the Yellowstone River in Montana early yesterday. The incident left multiple tankers in the river and decimated the the railroad portion of the Yellowstone Twin River Bridges in Stillwater County, MT.
• Three of the railcars that derailed were carrying hot asphalt, and four were carrying molten sulfur. Two impacted railcars were also carrying sodium hydro sulfate, a corrosive substance, but those substances did not enter the river, according to Montana Rail Link.
• Get your shit together, trains.
• Following up on a recent story, Republican lawmakers in Montana are sharing that they’ve also received letters with white powder as federal agents investigate mysterious substances similarly mailed to GOP officials in in Tennessee and Kansas.
• Gov. Greg Gianforte said he has received "disturbing" reports of anonymous threats sent to legislators. The Montana attorney general’s mother, a state representative, opened one letter with a "white powder substance" sent to her home address.
• Not cool. Don’t do this.
• I usually cover gun violence on Sundays, since a big chunk of America’s constant mass shooting event happen over the weekend. I don’t do it because I like spreading bad news; I do it so you understand the need for common-sense gun laws.
• Three people are dead and multiple are injured after two shootings in Kansas City. Pittsburgh has one dead and multiple wounded in three shootings early this morning. 15 shot and two dead in Saginaw, MI. Two dead and two more shot in Indianapolis. One shot in San Diego. One in San Antonio. One in Rochester. One in Memphis. One in Rockford, IL. 
• There were more, but that’s enough to maybe make you think that voting for candidates who will help slow this down is a good idea.
• On the opposite end of the shooting issue, three San Antonio police officers have been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a woman who was experiencing what the city's police chief said was a “mental health crisis.”
• Sgt. Alfred Flores and Officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos were suspended without pay and later arrested on murder warrants in the shooting death of Melissa Perez, 46, when she refused police orders to come out of her apartment.
• Cops have a very tough job… extraordinarily tough. And yet, there’s a point where the use of deadly force has to be considered the last possible option, and in this case it doesn’t seem like the officers exhausted the possibilities of bringing Ms. Perez out of the situation alive.
• And now, The Weather: “Sit Right” by Honeymoan
• The weather is fucked up in many places. Tornadoes, record high temps, unhealthy air quality, severe storms. I’ve been telling you about global climate change for many years and most of you didn’t give a shit, so…
• Sigh. I want to do some good news.
• Scrolling down my Facebook feed this morning, I see tons of friends who went to Pride events yesterday all over the USA, from San Francisco to San Antonio to New York to Cincinnati to Boston to Nashville, with more events happening today in Seattle, Chicago, and many other places. 
• I am proud… of you!
• From the Sports Desk… so, I’m browsing around Twitter last night and someone comments on the Angels game, saying they are lighting up the Rockies. I pop over to ESPN and… what the fuck? They’d scored 13 runs in the third inning alone, and ended up winning the game 25-1. That 24-run differential is the largest win in Major League Baseball since the Texas Rangers defeated the Baltimore Orioles by 27 runs in 2007.
• Today in history… Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy when she graduates from the University of Padua (1678). Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the United States Constitution (1788). The United States Congress passes the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of women or girls for "immoral purposes"; the ambiguous language would be used to selectively prosecute people for years to come (1910). Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird is premiered in Paris, bringing him to prominence as a composer (1910). Jews in the Częstochowa Ghetto in Poland stage an uprising against the Nazis (1943). Anne Frank’s ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ is published (1947). The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea (1950). The rainbow flag representing gay pride is flown for the first time during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade (1978). The breakup of Yugoslavia begins when Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence from Yugoslavia (1991). 
• June 25 is the birthday of cartoonist Rose O’Neill (1974), novelist George Orwell (1903), director Sidney Lumet (1924), actress June Lockhart (1925), illustrator Peyo (1928), singer-songwriter Carly Simon (1945), actor Jimmie Walker (1947), singer-songwriter Tim Finn (1952), keyboardist/composer David Paich (1954), SCOTUS justice Sonia Sotomayor (1954), chef/author Anthony Bourdain (1956), actor/comedian Ricky Gervais (1961), singer-songwriter George Michael (1963), NBA player Dell Curry (1964), singer-songwriter John McCrea (1964), NBA player Dikembe Mutombo (1966), and actress Angela Kinsey (1971).

As I mentioned about, I have a show today. I adore the folks at Hotel Chelsea and am more than happy to help them celebrate their anniversary. Also, Matthew and Beth are performing together right after me at the same event, so I’ll likely hang out for their shenanigans too. Enjoy your day.