Random News: June 30, 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 30, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! It’s also the last day of the Supreme Court’s term for the year, and as has been the case in recent years, they’re fucking up so badly that I’d plan on a whole summer of protests. I’m already planning on them. Let’s try not to be mad and learn more about things first…

• Here we are on the last day of June, and that means my final Pride note of the year.
• We’ve covered a lot in 30 days. Much more than I would have anticipated. I started this out intended on having a short “fun fact” on each day, but as the month progressed, we ended up doing some pretty deep dives into specific LGBTQIA+ topics.
• My feeling is that there are many people who have never thought about looking more closely at the details behind the initials.
• One thing I tried to do was to not present LGBTQIA+ as one subject, but break up the initials into the actual sets of people whose lives are impacted by your treatment of them.
• At the same time, I tried to impart this information not so much in a sterile and scientific way, but with the reminder that we are talking about people. People who have much more in common with everyone else than they do as part of a label that’s placed on them.
• What can you do to further your support of LGBT people? That’s easy.
• Make it clear that you’ll never hate a person because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Say that out loud. Write it in your social posts. Tell it to your friends and your children.
• Vote for candidates and for legislative acts that don’t discriminate against people based on who they are and who they love.
• And when you see instances of homophobia and transphobia, be brave and call it out in the same way I hope you do against racism, sexism, and bigotry.
• Also… pie. LGBT people like pie. Ask them, it’s true.
• Let’s do some very related breaking and sad news…
• An hour ago, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a web designer, Lorie Smith, who opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds.
• Smith sued the state of Colorado in 2016 saying she would accept customers planning opposite-sex weddings but reject requests made by same-sex couples wanting the same service. She argued that, as a creative professional, she has a free speech right to refuse to undertake work that conflicts with her views.
• The Court agreed in a 6-3 ruling that it’s fine to essentially hang a sign in your business window saying “NO GAYS ALLOWED”.
• And two minutes ago, again in a 6-3 ruling, the SCOTUS stuck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.
• It would have allowed eligible borrowers to cancel up to $20,000 in debt. About 43 million people would have been eligible to participate. Not anymore.
• EXPAND THE FUCKING COURT.
• Sigh. More on those topics later.
• Just as I was wrapping up my bullet points yesterday, in a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court declared Affirmative Action unconstitutional. It is now gone.
• As you likely know, Affirmative Action was a policy started during the Kennedy administration in 1961. JFK’s "Executive Order No. 10925” included a provision that government contractors "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated [fairly] during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin"
• Affirmative Action became a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking to include particular groups based on their gender, race, sexuality, creed, or nationality in areas in which such groups are underrepresented, such as education and employment.
• It helped compensate for past discrimination, persecution, or exploitation by the ruling class of a culture, and to address existing discrimination.
• Almost since the start, Affirmative Action was criticized by white conservatives with a variety of arguments that, while often deplorable in intent, are not constitutionally invalid.
• They’ve said that Affirmative Action encourages individuals to identify themselves as disadvantaged, even if they are not. That it may increase racial tension and benefit the more privileged people within minority groups at the expense of the least fortunate within majority groups.
• Mostly they say that affirmative action has been a form of reverse discrimination. Some argue that affirmative action devalues the actual accomplishments of people who are chosen based on the social group to which they belong rather than their qualifications, thus rendering it counterproductive.
• The case the SCOTUS took up, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, was also expanded to include the University of North Carolina. That way it covered both private and public schools by intent.
• Here’s a thought, courtesy of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: if SCOTUS was serious about their ludicrous “colorblindness” claims, they would have abolished legacy admissions, aka affirmative action for the privileged. 70% of Harvard’s legacy applicants are white. SCOTUS didn’t touch that - which would have impacted them and their patrons.
• Moving on…
• 37-year-old Taylor Taranto, of Seattle, WA was arrested by law enforcement in former President Barack Obama's Washington, D.C., neighborhood. 
• He had with him materials to make explosives, and also was wanted with an active Jan. 6-related warrant. Secret Service spotted the man within blocks of the Obama's home. Taranto fled and was running toward the Obama home, but was apprehended before he reached it. 
• This piece of shit had been on the radar of law enforcement because he made threats during recent livestreams on social media.
• In other news…
• A Florida sheriff’s deputy was acquitted yesterday of felony child neglect and other charges for failing to act during the 2018 Parkland school massacre.
• The verdict was pretty simple: former Broward County Deputy Scot Peterson was just a coward, and not a criminal for completely betraying the public’s trust and hiding like a scared baby instead of confronting shooter Nikolas Cruz.
• After the not guilty verdict was read, Peterson jumped around and hugged his family. “I got my life back!” he yelled. None of the kids that died due to his inaction, of course, will ever get their lives back.
• Moving on…
• The investigation into impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just got worse for him with the discovery of a series of property purchases he made as he faced a federal probe over allegations that he abused his office.
• Paxton paid nearly $3.5 million on six properties from July 2021 to April 2022 in Oklahoma, Florida, Utah and Hawaii. It was in fall 2020 that several of Paxton’s top aides reported to the FBI that they believed he was misusing his office to help a wealthy campaign donor, Austin real estate investor Nate Paul.
• I hope that guy gets royally screwed. Moving on…
• Wait, what’s this? Some actual news involving Mike Pence?
• It’s true. Former vice president Pence made a surprise trip to Ukraine yesterday where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and sought to reinforce his support for the country in its war with Russia.
• Pence so far is the only GOP presidential candidate to visit Ukraine. Nearly one month into his official campaign launch, Pence has so far struggled to crack double digits in national polls.
• I mean, Pence can also now say he’s now been in two war zones: Ukraine in 2023, and the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
• In other news, tomorrow is July 1, which means in Florida, the permitless carry law goes into effect. It allows anyone who can legally own a gun in the state to carry one concealed without a license.
• Also, it is no longer required to have training and a background check to carry concealed guns in public. Get ready for a whole lot of people shooting each other in the Sunshine State and claiming they were in fear for their lives or were standing their ground.
• One group that’s definitely in danger in Florida as a result: law enforcement. People in Florida are not required to inform a deputy or police officer if they are armed if pulled over for a traffic stop.
• And now, The Weather: “Moonrise” by Night Tapes
• Do you like diet soft drinks? Got some bad news for you.
• Aspartame, one of the world's most common artificial sweeteners used in products from Coca-Cola diet sodas to many others, will be listed in July as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" for the first time by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization's (WHO) cancer research arm.
• Honestly, just drink water. Like, exclusively. Water and coffee, which is basically water with a small amount of bean juice.
• There’s been a string of incidents where female performers have been assaulted in various ways while onstage.
• Country music singer Kelsea Ballerini paused a concert after she was struck in the face by a bracelet while she was on stage in Idaho on Wednesday. Last week, pop star Ava Max was slapped by a concertgoer who rushed the stage as she performed. Days earlier, singer Bebe Rexha was hit in the face with a phone thrown by an audience member during a concert in New York City. At least a guy got charged with assault for that.
• When people are onstage and concentrating on delivering a great performance for a bunch of people, DO NOT THROW SHIT AT THEM. And even if your name is Will Smith, don’t physically attack people onstage either. Fucking morons. Jesus.
• Some more record charts for no reason. Here’s the Billboard charts for June 30, 1984. I had just finished my sophomore year and then spent that summer working as a data processing clerk, and saved up and bought my first synthesizer, the brand new (at the time) Roland Juno-106.
• 1. The Reflex (Duran Duran). 2. Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen). 3. When Doves Cry (Prince). 4. Self Control (Laura Branigan). 5. Jump (For My Love) (The Pointer Sisters). 6. The Heart of Rock ’n’Roll (Huey Lewis and the News). 7. Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper). 8. Eyes Without a Face (Bill Idol). 9. Let’s Hear It For The Boy (Deniece Williams). 10. Almost Paradise… Love Theme from Footloose (Mike Reno and Ann Wilson). 11. Oh, Sherrie (Steve Perry). 12. Borderline (Madonna). 13. Legs (ZZ Top). 14. It’s a Miracle (Culture Club). 15. Magic (The Cars). 16. Stay the Night (Chicago). 17. Doctor! Doctor! (Thompson Twins). 18. Infatuation (Rod Stewart). 19. Dance Hall Days (Wang Chung). 20. Sad Songs (Say So Much) (Elton John).
• From the Sports Desk… congrats to Domingo German of the New York Yankees. He delivered the 24th perfect game in MLB history on Wednesday night in an an 11-0 victory over the A’s.
• German's effort was the fourth perfect game in Yankees history, and the first since Seattle's Felix Hernandez threw one in 2012.
• Today in history… French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope (1859). U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation” (1864). Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield (1882). Albert Einstein sends the article 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies’, in which he introduces special relativity (1905). The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). U.S. President Warren G. Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the United States (1921). U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes and Dominican Ambassador Francisco J. Peynado sign the Hughes–Peynado agreement, which ends the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1922). The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, MI (1953). The National Organization for Women, the United States' largest feminist organization, is founded (1966). The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults (1986). East Germany and West Germany merge their economies (1990). Protests begin around Egypt against President Mohamed Morsi and the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, leading to their overthrow during the 2013 Egyptian coup d’état (2013). 
• June 30 is the birthday of author Georges Duhamel (1884), car designer/engineer Archibald Frazer-Nash (1889), businessman/philanthropist Dan Reeves (1912), singer/actress/activist Lena Horne (1917), bass player Stanley Clarke (1951), actor/comedian David Alan Grier (1956), conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (1958), actor Vincent D’Onofrio (1959), guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen (1963), boxer Mike Tyson (1966), MLB player Chan Ho Park (1973), and NBA player Trevor Ariza (1985).

Alright. Fuck this news. Let’s take action. Enjoy your day.