Random News: June 6, 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 6, 2023, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s also my birthday and that of my significant other (yes, we share the same b-day, one year apart), but let’s please not get hung up on that irrelevant point. Instead, let’s learn stuff, and damn, there’s a lot to learn…

• For today’s Pride education, I thought we’d look at this lengthy and evolving abbreviation known as LGBTQIA+. What do all those letters mean?
• Rolls up sleeves…
• The L is for Lesbian. A lesbian is a woman whose enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction is to other women. One theme you’ll see repeating here is that not everyone prefers to be defined into little categories that other people provide, which is why some lesbians may prefer to identify as gay or as gay women.
• The G is for Gay. Per above, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s about men, though it’s commonly thought of as such. Anyone who has attraction to people of the same sex can be referred to as being gay.
• The B is for Bisexual. Perhaps the least understood and supported on this spectrum, a bisexual person can form enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions to those of the same gender or more than one gender. Bisexual people may experience this attraction in differing ways and degrees over their lifetime. Interesting side note: Bisexual people need not have had specific sexual experiences to be bisexual; they need not have had any sexual experience at all to identify as bisexual.
• The T is for Transgender. It’s an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from what is typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth, and can also include people who don’t feel firmly entrenched in any gender, to whom we refer as nonbinary. Some transgender people receive medical treatment to bring their bodies into alignment with their gender identity. But not all transgender people can or will take those steps, and a transgender identity is not dependent upon physical appearance or medical procedures.
• The Q is for Queer. Again, this is one that is commonly misunderstood and not very well defined, and it’s not a universally accepted term even within the LGBTQIA+ community. It’s another umbrella term that includes people who have nonbinary, gender-fluid, or gender nonconforming identities. This word was formerly a pejorative term that was reclaimed by the community. “Q” is sometimes alternatively the abbreviation for a person who is Questioning their own identity. Makes sense.
• The I is for Intersex. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is born with distinct innate sex characteristics, including genitals, internal reproductive organs, and chromosomes. Not all intersex folks identify as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community.
• The A is for Asexual. This is a person who does not experience sexual attraction. As sex-driven as most people are, it’s understandable that *not* wanting sex makes a person an outlier. Again, this covers a range of identities. Some Ace people don’t want sex at all; others have desires that don’t fit the strict definition of sexuality; still others are aromantic, meaning they experience little to no romantic attraction and/or have little to no desire to form romantic relationships. Some people use the “A” to stand for Allies, as in a cisgendered or heterosexual person who supports LGBTQIA+ causes, but I’m not in favor of this use.
• Finally, the “+” is used to signify all of the gender identities and sexual orientations that letters and words cannot yet fully describe. Again, allies sometime get defined as the “+”, but I don’t think that’s right, personally.
• Does everyone agree with the abbreviations as I’ve defined them above, both within and outside of the community? Fuck no. Does everyone want to be defined at all? Fuck no. Does this change over the course of time as it evolves and public awareness and hopeful acceptance of the differences between people becomes more clear? Absolutely.
• Whew, okay, that was a lot of info. Let’s do some news.
• It seems the stable genius who was once somehow the President of the United States of America was in some kind of distress yesterday, after his lawyers were summoned to a two-hour meeting at the Department of Justice where Special Counsel Jack Smith was present. Here’s what Frightened Man posted to a social network right afterwards…
• “HOW CAN DOJ POSSIBLY CHARGE ME, WHO DID NOTHING WRONG, WHEN NO OTHER PRESIDENT’S WERE CHARGED, WHEN JOE BIDEN WON’T BE CHARGED FOR ANYTHING, INCLUDING THE FACT THAT HE HAS 1,850 BOXES, MUCH OF IT CLASSIFIED, AND SOME DATING BACK TO HIS SENATE DAY WHEN EVEN DEMOCRAT SENATORS ARE SHOCKED. ALSO, PRESIDENT CLINTON HAD DOCUMENTS, AND WON IN COURT. CROOKED HILLARY DELETED 33,000 EMAILS, MANY CLASSIFIED, AND WASN’T EVEN CLOSE TO BEING CHARGED! ONLY TRUMP - THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”
• It would be a fantastic birthday present to me were he indicted today, but these things take time. I’m a patient man, though. I’m happy to watch and wait while he stews in his guilt, deathly afraid of what’s coming next.
• But word on the street is that what’s coming are charges under the Espionage Act.
• The full title of said act is as follows: an Act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionage, and better to enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes.
• There have been many famous cases charged under the Espionage Act. They include labor leader and five-time Socialist Party of America candidate, Eugene V. Debs, anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Cablegate whistleblower Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden, U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator Reality Winner, and many others.
• In somewhat related news…
• Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent who was one of the most damaging spies in American history, was found dead in his prison cell yesterday morning. He was 79.
• Hanssen was arrested in 2001 under the Espionage Act and pleaded guilty to selling highly classified material to the Soviet Union and later Russia. He was serving a life sentence at the federal penitentiary in Florence, CO.
• Three years after he was hired by the FBI, Hanssen approached the Soviets and began spying in 1979 for the KGB and its successor, the SVR. And now he’s died in prison.
• Let’s wrap up today’s coverage of the Menace from Mar-a-Lago with a tale of a swimming pool.
• An employee at Donald Trump’s Florida golf motel drained the swimming pool last October and — oh mighty coincidence — ended up flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept.
• The incident occurred amid a series of events that federal prosecutors found suspicious. At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
• Investigators have asked questions indicating they are trying to determine if workers at Mar-a-Lago received specific direction from above, particularly from Trump himself, to obstruct the investigation. Snort.
• Moving on…
• I’m too angry to talk about the Russian destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam that’s brought flooding, evacuations, the endangerment of the nearby nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, and the killing of all animals in a zoo. Maybe later.
• Continuing…
• Another private plane carrying 20 migrants from Texas arrived in California’s capital city of Sacramento yesterday morning — the second such arrival of migrants from a conservative state to land in the city in days.
• The 20 migrants had documents indicating their flight involved the state of Florida.
• Our Governor, Gavin Newsom, had something to say about that on Twitter…
• ".@RonDeSantis you small, pathetic man. This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charges?" He then linked to the text of a California penal code that indicates a person from out of state who transports someone else to California “by force or fraud” could be found guilty of kidnapping.
• A Texas sheriff’s department agrees. They have recommended that the district attorney in Bexar County bring criminal charges over the first iteration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called migrant relocation program.
• Get his ass.
• Moving on…
• The mother of the 6-year-old boy who brought a gun to school and shot his first-grade teacher in January in Newport News, VA, will plead guilty to new federal felony charges as part of a deal with prosecutors.
• She was charged with unlawful use of a controlled substance while possessing a firearm and with making a false statement while purchasing the firearm.
• In addition to the federal charges, the mother has been indicted on state charges of felony child neglect and one count of recklessly leaving a firearm to endanger a child.
• Good.
• Here’s a crazy bit of news…
• As you likely recall, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) was arrested last month on 13 federal fraud charges. To get out of jail, a $500,000 bond was posted.
• Both news organizations and Congress would like to know who posted said half-million dollar bond, but Santos’ lawyer said yesterday that the indicted New York Republican would risk going to jail to protect their identities.
• Moving on…
• A state school board in Oklahoma voted yesterday to approve what would be the first publicly funded religious school in the nation, despite a warning from the state's attorney general that the decision was unconstitutional.
• Obviously it’s against both the state and the country’s constitution, but if this went through, I will be the first to open a Satanic school and demand public funds to run it. I will literally move to Oklahoma, where they want the people’s tax dollars to pay for religious institutions.
• I mean, they’ve approved this for a Catholic school. My Satanic school can’t be much worse than that, and probably a good deal better.
• And now, The Weather: “Ethereal Shore” by Night Hikes
• The owner of Twitter, a gentleman named Elmo Something, recently said Twitter’s advertising business was on the upswing. “Almost all advertisers have come back,” he stated, speculating that the social media company could soon become profitable.
• But Twitter’s U.S. advertising revenue for the five weeks from April 1 to the first week of May was $88 million, plunging down 59 percent from a year earlier, according to an internal presentation.
• The company has regularly fallen short of its U.S. weekly sales projections, sometimes by as much as 30 percent.
• Poor Elmo.
• In “People Who Will Never Be President” news, former Harvard professor and prominent public intellectual Cornel West will mount a third party run for president. It’s West’s third time running for POTUS.
• West is one of the leading democratic socialist activists of his generation. He’s an admirable man who has given much of his life to public service. He also has no chance of becoming President, and any votes he does get will take away from other candidates who need them badly.
• From the Sports Desk… the Vegas Golden Knights have taken a commanding 2-0 Stanley Cup finals series lead over the Florida Panthers. Last night’s Game 2 had the Knights give them a merciless 7-2 pounding, and I’d not be shocked by a sweep.
• From the sports-adjacent desk… the PGA Tour has agreed this morning to merge with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf in a deal that would see the competitors squash pending litigation and move forward as a larger golf enterprise.
• LIV Golf is controlled by the Saudi crown prince. This whole thing disgusts me.
• You know what they say about 9/11? “Never forget”… until there’s enough money on the line to make forgetting convenient.
• Today in history… Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire (913). The Young Men's Christian Association, aka the YMCA, is founded in London (1844). The First Battle of Memphis, a naval engagement fought on the Mississippi results in the capture of Memphis, TN by Union forces from the Confederates (1862). The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle (1889). Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike (1894). The original Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company (1925). U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1934). The United States Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway is a major turning point in the Pacific Theater of World War II (1942). Commencement of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history (1944). Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia (1993). 
• June 6 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer Regiomontanus (1436), soldier/spy Nathan Hale (1755), author/poet Alexander Pushkin (1799), physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850), entrepreneur David T. Abercrombie (1867), Indonesia president Sukarno (1901), MLB player Bill Dickey (1907), Niger president Hamani Diori (1916), businessman Kirk Kerkorian (1917), singer Levi Stubbs (1936), singer-songwriter Gary U.S. Bonds (1939), bass player Tony Levin (1946), actor Robert Englund (1947), actor Harvey Fierstein (1954), tennis player Björn Borg (1956), comedian Colin Quinn (1959), guitarist/composer Steve Vai (1960), actor Paul Giamatti (1967), singer-songwriter/activist Zak Claxton (1969), journalist Natalie Morales (1972), and NFL player DeAndre Hopkins (1992).

Well holy shit, that was a lot of information. Wow. What am I doing for my birthday? Not a whole lot; it’s a Tuesday and I work for a living. However, for those of you who do Second Life stuff, I’ll be performing tonight at 5PM SLT at Hotel Chelsea. Feel free to come by and hang out and I might play some birthday songs for myself. Enjoy your day.