Random News: June 2, 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 2, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m very glad it’s Friday; it’s been a busy week with a bunch of stressful shit, so hopefully whatever news I’m about to share will help cheer me up (he said, knowing it wouldn’t)…

• Let’s continue our support of Pride Month all month long. Seems appropriate. Here’s a factoid.
• To date, scientists have observed homosexual behavior in over 450 species of animals. But only one species seems to exhibit homophobic behavior, and it ain’t capybaras.
• Now, some news…
• In a vote last night, the Senate approved a measure to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025. President Joe Biden is expected to swiftly sign the bill into law to avert the United States’ first-ever default on its debt.
• The vote was 63 in favor, and 36 against. 
• 31 of those 36 against were the far right-wing Republicans who felt that the budget should have added more to defense spending and didn’t slash enough services like Social Security. Many of them tried to amend the budget at the last minute. All 11 amendments introduced on the Senate floor Thursday failed to pass.
• Here are those 31: John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Katie Britt (R-AL), Ted Budd (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Deb Fischer (R-NB), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Ron Johnson (R-WI), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Mike Lee (R-UT), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), Pete Ricketts (R-NB), James Risch (R-ID), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), JD Vance (R-OH), and Roger Wicker (R-MS).
• Just four Democratic Senators and one Independent voted against the budget as well. They felt the budget had unacceptable compromises, such as resuming student loan payments, work requirements for SNAP programs, COVID fund clawbacks, and more.
• Those liberal nay votes were from John Fetterman (D-PA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
• I mean, I agree with them. But I also know that the world realistically doesn’t run without some degree of compromise, and to say otherwise would make me no better than the MAGA folks whom I find, to use Hillary’s term, deplorable.
• Joe Biden ran on a centrist platform of reaching across the aisle and bringing the parties closer together. This seems to be an example of his behavior matching his campaign promises. It’s not 100% what I want, no. But it’s reasonable enough.
• My last note on this, hopefully for a couple of years: in both the House and the Senate, the number of votes in favor of the budget was much higher percentage-wise by Democratic politicians than Republicans. Anyone claiming this was a GOP win is full of shit.
• Moving on…
• I know many of you — especially in the Second Life communities — who keep funds available via PayPal, as do I.
• Government regulators warned yesterday that people who keep cash with payment tools like Cash App, PayPal and Venmo are at risk of losing their money in a crisis because the funds are not protected by federal deposit insurance.
• The warning follows the recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank, which collapsed after panicked depositors withdrew their funds. But those funds were secured via the FDIC, and people were able to access their money afterwards. If a payment service suddenly folds, any consumer funds stored on the app could vaporize.
• I think we all knew that, but it’s good to remind yourself every so often. These are not banks. You could get fucked.
• Moving on…
• After speaking to new graduates of the U.S. Air Force Academy yesterday, President Biden turned to walk across the stage and tripped on a sandbag.
• I’ve tripped on a sandbag. Those fuckers jump out and getcha.
• Biden was helped up by an Air Force officer as well as two members of his U.S. Secret Service detail. he’s fine. He jogged back to his awaiting car after the ceremony was done.
• He’s 80 and probably in better shape than me, nearly 30 years his junior. I never jog anywhere.
• Moving on…
• 20-year DOJ vet and MSNBC journalist Andrew Weissmann had a pretty strong reaction to special prosecutor Jack Smith having the recording of the former guy where Trump admits that he’s not supposed to have the stolen classified docs.
• “I think it’s a matter of when he’s charged, not if he is charged. As far as when, I would think we are talking a matter of days, not months.”
• I doubt it, but hey, I’ll be as happy as anyone if I’m wrong.
• As of today, Fort Bragg is no more. It’s now Fort Liberty.
• This is part of the continuing effort to drop Confederate names from our military bases. The North Carolina base was originally named in 1918 for Gen. Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general from Warrenton, NC, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles that contributed to the Confederacy’s downfall.
• Fuck that guy.
• Yesterday, the SCOTUS ruled against unionized drivers who walked off the job with their trucks full of wet concrete. The vote was 8-1, with the lone dissenter in the case, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying the ruling would hinder the development of labor law and “erode the right to strike.”
• I like KBJ. It’s too bad that even the other liberals couldn’t support her on this matter.
• And now, The Weather: “Sex” by The Dare
• On the topic of weather, hurricane season is here. Officials predict 12 to 17 named tropical storms in the Atlantic this year. Five to nine of those systems could become hurricanes and as many as four could strengthen into major hurricanes at Category 3 or stronger, per the NOAA.
• Good luck, folks.
• Billy Joel will end his record-breaking residency at Madison Square Garden in 2024. He began performing at the New York arena back in 2014.
• Throughout his residency, Joel has sold 1.6 million tickets to fans from all 50 states and 120 countries. That’s… a lot. I certainly appreciate Billy Joel, but it’s amazing how folks will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to hear a guy perform songs that they’ve heard 17,000 times before.
• I know, I’m in the minority of people who like new music. That doesn’t mean I don’t like old music too. But I’d much prefer to spend $20 to see a show at a little venue where I’m standing 10 feet from the artist than spending $1500 to sit in the back of an arena or stadium.
• From the Sports Desk… the 1-seed Denver Nuggets took game 1 of the NBA Finals, beating the 8-seed Miami Heat 104-93. They dominated the Heat even more than the score indicates. I always like an underdog, but the Nugs are a seriously talented team.
• Today in history… Vandals enter Rome and plunder the city for two weeks (455). Virginia gets new charter, extending borders from "sea to sea” (1608). Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort (1763). The Quartering Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided (1774). P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States (1835). Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his wireless telegraph (1896). Anarchists simultaneously set off bombs in eight separate U.S. cities (1919). U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States (1924). In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic, after which King Umberto II of Italy is exiled (1946). The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey (1953). During the FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history (1962). Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world (1966). Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in which 168 people died (1997). 
• June 2 is the birthday of U.S first lady Martha Washington (1731), philosopher/politician Marquis de Sade (1740), novelist/poet Thomas Hardy (1840), composer Edward Elgar (1857), swimmer/actor Johnny Weissmuller (1904), businessman Tex Schramm (1920), writer/architect Norton Juster (1929), actress Sally Kellerman (1937), actor Stacy Keach (1941), drummer Charlie Watts (1941), composer Marvin Hamlisch (1944), actor Jerry Mathers (1948), NHL player/coach Larry Robinson (1951), NHL commissioner Gary Bettman (1952), philosopher Cornel West (1953), actor Dana Carvey (1955), race car driver Kyle Petty (1960), activist Candace Gingrich (1966), TV host Andy Cohen (1968), actor Wayne Brady (1972), actor Zachary Quinto (1977), drummer Fabrizio Moretti (1980), and soccer player Abby Wambach (1980).

Well, I am glad it’s Friday. I’ve had multiple stressful things coming at me from multiple directions lately. It’s okay; I’m handling shit as well as I can. But it will be nice to have some downtime once I make it through today. Enjoy your day.