Random News: June 26, 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 26, 2023, and it’s a Monday. I seem to have a jam-packed day on my schedule, so let’s jump in…

• Today’s Pride note combines two topics that include at least one of which I really actually know what I’m talking about. It’s time for a look at the history of music created by LGBT people and that which focuses on the experiences of gender and sexual minorities.
• Let’s start with an easy (and more than a little stereotypical) example with Broadway musical theater. Gay men are not only some of the primary audiences for Broadway, but often have a hand in the production and creation of it.
• Notable gay men involved in the creation and production of Broadway musicals include some of the very best, like Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Noël Coward, Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, and Stephen Sondheim.
• But historical LGBT music creators also hail far from Broadway, with early Black queer artists like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, who recorded overtly lesbian songs in the 1920s. Little Richard had a hit with "Tutti Frutti" in the late ‘50s, and c’mon, that’s a super gay song.
• After the sexual/cultural revolution of the late ‘60s, counterculture started becoming more mainstream allowing LGBTQ+ music artists to find more acceptance and popularity.
• One of the earliest US top 40 singles to feature a positive depiction of the LGBT community was bisexual rocker Lou Reed's 1972 song "Walk on the Wild Side", which detailed the lives of gay, bi, and trans members of Andy Warhol's social circle. Other hits, such as "Lola" by The Kinks and "Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie, also brought attention to non-heteronormative situations in the world of rock.
• In the mid- and late ‘70s, the disco music that had been cultivated exclusively in gay bars suddenly crossed over into the mainstream.
• In the ‘80s, LGBTQ+ culture was in the forefront with artists such as Culture Club, George Michael and Wham!, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Melissa Etheridge, Pet Shop Boys, Dead or Alive, and Erasure.
• Some of the world’s most iconic artists in that time frame — think Bowie, Freddie Mercury, and Prince — were purposefully ambiguous about their orientation and identity.
• In fact, LGBT musicians have had some of the most successful careers and huge hits. The best-selling single of the 1990s? "Candle in the Wind 1997” by Elton John. The best-selling single of the 2000s? Will Young’s"Anything is Possible”.
• Countless other LGBT artists have had massive hit records, from Ty Herndon to Luther Vandross to Lil Nas X to Lady Gaga to Barry Manilow to Janelle Monáe to the B-52s to k.d. lang to… look, I’m not going to write this list. It would take all day.
• The point I want to make: LGBTQIA+ folks have made massive contributions to the world of popular music that include some of the most critically acclaimed, most influential, best-selling, and beloved songs of the past 100 years.
• We’re all better off for their presence in our lives…. both the music and the people who created it.
• And now some news…
• The short-lived revolt in Russia over the weekend has weakened President Vladimir Putin just as his forces are facing a fierce counteroffensive in Ukraine.
• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the weekend’s events as “extraordinary,” recalling that 16 months ago Putin appeared poised to seize the capital of Ukraine and now he has had to defend Moscow from forces led by his onetime protege. “I think we’ve seen more cracks emerge in the Russian façade,” he said yesterday.
• It’s hard to know long-term how this affects the war in Ukraine, but short-term it resulted in some of the best forces fighting for Russia being pulled from the battlefield: the Wagner troops and the Chechen soldiers who were sent to stop them on the approach to Moscow.
• What’s going to happen to Prigozhin and his mercenaries? He supposedly is going into exile in Belarus but will not face prosecution. Few trustworthy details of the deal brokered by Belarusian President Lukashenko have been released.
• Crazy, though. And I’ll repeat, there are no good guys in that conflict. Even if you feel the world would be better off without Putin running Russia, and it would, replacing him with an aggressive warlord Prigozhin and handling him access to Russia nuclear arsenal? That doesn’t feel great either.
• Moving on…
• Today, President Biden is set to announce more than $42 billion to expand high-speed internet access nationwide. An estimated 8.5 million families and small businesses remain in places where modern-day connectivity has not yet been possible for them.
• The money, which will go out to states over the next two years, serves as the centerpiece of a vast and ambitious campaign to deliver reliable broadband to the entire country by 2030. The funding is a centerpiece of the recent bipartisan infrastructure law.
• White House officials described the new infrastructure project as reminiscent of the government’s work to electrify the nation’s darkened heartland in the late 1930s, when more than 90 percent of farms had no electric power in the face of high costs and prohibitive terrain.
• I think most of us just assume that everyone has had high-speed internet for a long time. Not true. This is great news.
• There will be a flurry of actions by the Supreme Court in coming days.
• Today, they lifted the hold on a Louisiana case that could force the state to redraw congressional districts to boost Black voting power.
• The order follows the court’s rejection earlier in June of a congressional redistricting map in Alabama and unfreezes the Louisiana case, which had been on hold pending the decision in Alabama.
• In both states, Black voters are a majority in just one congressional district. Lower courts had ruled that the maps raised concerns that Black voting power had been diluted, in violation of the landmark federal Voting Rights Act.
• Good. Keep doing that stuff.
• Things to keep an eye on between now and Friday: decisions on student debt relief, affirmative action and federal election laws. There are still 10 cases pending decisions.
• The court has given no indication it will break its norm of finishing decisions by the end of June, and the next batch is slated to be released tomorrow morning.
• In not-great news, Ohio Republicans are jamming in an August election with national political implications.
• The August 8 special election is for a measure that seeks to make it harder to amend the state’s constitution. Republicans’ immediate goal is to make it harder for voters to pass an abortion rights amendment that is in the works for November.
• Other brewing constitutional amendments in Ohio also could be affected, including efforts to legalize recreational marijuana, increase the minimum wage, reform Ohio’s redistricting system and limit vaccine mandates.
• Fucking pricks. I’ll have more news on this Ohio election in coming weeks.
• Back to good news; New York Governor Hochul signed a bill yesterday to protect access to gender-affirming care in her state.
• The bill prevents New York from cooperating in hostile states’ retaliation against gender-affirming care providers, patients, family members, and those who help people access care.
• We’re going to keep fighting this shit, from forced births to open discrimination against LGBT citizens, and we’re going to win.
• And in every election at all levels, we’re going to make sure that the candidates who get our votes have no ambiguity in their commitment to support the rights of women and marginalized members of our communities.
• Count on it.
• Delaware State Sen. Sarah McBride has announced a congressional bid. She would be the country’s first transgender member of Congress if she is elected.
• “It’s clear that diversity in government is necessary for us to not just ensure we have a healthy democracy but also to truly deliver for people,” she said.
• While McBride is aware of the potential to make history if she wins her House bid and the diversity her voice would bring to Capitol Hill, “ultimately, I’m not running to be a trans member of Congress,” she said.
• McBride is running for Delaware’s lone, at-large House seat, currently held by Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who announced last week that she would mount a bid to replace retiring Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE). Both elections are slated for next year.
• In other news, the piece of shit who killed five people and wounded 17 at a gay club in Colorado Springs last year is expected to plead guilty today.
• The plea could bring a life sentence for suspect Anderson Lee Aldrich and end the court case just seven months after the shooting — sparing victim’s families and survivors a potentially painful trial that would force them to revisit the attack.
• Victims’ family members and survivors are expected to speak at today’s hearing about how their lives were forever altered by the terror that erupted just before midnight on Nov. 19 when the suspect walked into Club Q and indiscriminately fired an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.
• And now, The Weather: “Ricochet” by Vitesse X
• And as long as we’re on the weather, I am getting the feeling that things are going to be more and more severe this summer and fall. There were deadly storms across the midwest this weekend that are heading toward the East Coast. Thousands and thousands of people are without power in Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Georgia.
• In “I Wish I Didn’t Know This” news, authorities are investigating the death of a ground worker at San Antonio International Airport who was “ingested into” a plane’s engine Friday. Jesus.
• Throughout your day, people are doing incredibly dangerous jobs all around you that you hardly think about twice. 
• Roofers, garbage collectors, ironworkers, delivery drivers, agricultural workers, crossing guards, construction helpers, and highway maintenance workers are all in the top 20 professions that are statistically most likely to kill you.
• And adding insult to literal injury, many of those rank among the lowest-paying jobs as well, typically in the $30,000 to $50,000 range.
• From the Sports Desk… Belgium’s track and field team had a problem at the European Championships in Poland this weekend. Their two hurdlers had to pull out with injuries. Had no Belgian athlete competed in the event, the team would have been disqualified.
• Enter the hero, Jolien Boumkwo, who was there to compete in the shot put and hammer throw events. To save her team, this strength athlete who is definitely not a sprinter stepped up to run the 100-meter hurdles. She slowly but steadily finished the race without knocking down any of the hurdles in 32.81 seconds, 19 seconds after winning sprinter.
• Boumkwo was applauded by the crowd and congratulated by her opponents as she earned two points for the team, which could be crucial as the bottom three countries will be relegated from Division I.
• Today in history… Roman emperor Augustus adopts Tiberius (4). Richard III becomes King of England (1483). The Battle of Fleurus marks the first military use of aircraft — balloons in this case (1794). The first Grand Prix motor race is held at Le Mans (1906). The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France for WWI (1917). The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, CA (1945). William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor (1948). Shirley Jackson's short story ‘The Lottery’ is published in The New Yorker magazine (1948). Madagascar gains its independence from France (1960). U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall (1963). The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, OH (1974). Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, IN (1977). The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (1997). J. K. Rowling publishes the first of her Harry Potter novel series, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone’ (1997). The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional (2003). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (2013). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution (2015).
• June 26 is the birthday of astronomer Charles Messier (1730), engineer/busienssman Willy Messerschmitt (1898), US Marine Chesty Puller (1898), singer-songwriter Big Bill Broonzy (1903), actor Peter Lorre (1904), athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1911), illustrator/designer Milton Glaser (1929), pianist/composer Dave Grusin (1934), singer-songwriter/politician Gilberto Gil (1942), singer-songwriter Mick Jones (1955), singer-songwriter Chris Isaak (1956), singer-songwriter Patty Smyth (1957), singer-songwriter Terri Nunn (1961), NFL player Shannon Sharpe (1968), actor Sean Hayes (1970), actor Nick Offerman (1970), MLB player Derek Jeter (1974), NFL player Michael Vick (1980), actress Aubrey Plaza (1984), and singer Ariana Grande (1993).

Alrighty. My message to you today is this: things are getting better. It’s hard to tell, but they are. And while it’s no time to be complacent about issues we face, we’re going to step up and fight… and win. Enjoy your day.