Random News: July 10, 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 July 10, 2023, and it’s a Monday. I have a busy workday ahead of me, so before I do that, let’s do this…

• A little follow up on the right-leaning SCOTUS having ended affirmative action. There’s always a finding out phase after fucking around.
• Now there’s a target on the back of university legacy admissions. 
• To surmise: every year, thousands of students are able to get into top schools through their ties to family alumni or wealthy donors, a practice that largely favors applicants who are rich and white.
• Days after the Supreme Court ruling, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) filed a civil rights complaint to the Department of Education against Harvard for its legacy admissions. It claims 70 percent of applicants related to wealthy donors are white and 70 percent of those related to alumni are white.
• You ended affirmative action for reasons of fairness, right? Well, let’s take it all the way and not have any group favored for admissions. Just admit the students with the best grades and best test scores no matter who they are or whether or not their Daddy went there.
• Yes? No? Why not? Hmm.
• Moving on…
• Members of SAG-AFTRA were making picket signs this weekend, ready for use in case their leadership is unable to reach a deal on a new labor contract with Hollywood studios and orders a strike Wednesday night.
• SAG is the Screen Actors Guild. AFTRA is the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. This conjoined American labor union represents approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, recording artists, singers, voice actors, internet influencers, fashion models, and other media professionals worldwide.
• In combination with the ongoing WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike, if they don’t work some shit out pretty soon, there will be no way to create new original content for TV or movies.
• In terrorism news, U.S. forces killed an Islamic State leader with a drone strike last week in Syria. Three Reaper drones struck Usamah al-Muhajir while the militant was riding his motorcycle near Aleppo.
• Let’s move on…
• Today, President Joe Biden and King Charles III met for the first time since the British monarch ascended to the throne. Biden visited Windsor Castle.
• The military band played “God Save the King” upon the monarch’s arrival and “The Star-Spangled Banner” upon Biden’s entrance. Nice touch.
• Moving on…
• I heard this story over the weekend and it made me a little ill, but I guess it’s something I shouldn’t shove under the rug.
• A Marine is in custody after authorities found a 14-year-old learning-disabled girl in the barracks of Camp Pendleton in late June after she had run away from her grandparent's home earlier in the month. The Marine has not been identified nor has he been formally charged.
• In possibly similar news, the phone belonging to Tennessee soccer coach Camilo Hurtado Campos, 63, was found to contain hundreds of disturbing videos and pictures, including videos recorded of him raping unconscious boys.
• And in definitely similar news, disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted of sexually abusing female gymnasts including Olympic medalists, was stabbed multiple times yesterday during an altercation with another inmate at a federal prison in Florida. He’s in stable condition today.
• How can people be so heartless and cruel, and so self-centered that they place their own twisted desires above the effect on their victims?
• Related side fact: no child can legally consent to sex, and any sex act with a child is, by definition, rape. 
• Speaking of humans behaving badly, Michigan GOP members turned violent on Saturday night at a state committee meeting.
• James Chapman, a Republican from Wayne County, wasn’t allowed into the meeting, so he and others gathered outside the meeting location and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. He also said that he attempted to open a door to the meeting room by jiggling the doorknob.
• Mark DeYoung said he heard Chapman’s attempt to enter the room and opened the door after seeing someone show his middle finger through a window. “He kicked me in my balls as soon as I opened the door,” DeYoung said of Chapman, speaking by phone from the emergency room.
• He wasn’t in the ER for his nads, by the way. DeYoung added that Chapman charged him, slamming his body into a chair, and said he now has a broken rib. He intends to press charges.
• Ladies and gentlemen, your GOP!
• In other news… Wisconsin has something that no other states have, and I’m not talking about insanely cold temps in the winter and giant mosquitoes in the summer.
• No, they have a governing tool specifically designed to infuriate the opposing party. The state’s uniquely expansive "partial veto" allows the governor to surgically remove words, phrases and individual numbers or letters from appropriations bills when signing them into law.
• How did Gov. Tony Evers (D) use it this week? Among other changes, he struck the "0" in "$10 million" to slash a piece of funding for the upcoming Republican National Convention.
• But even better, Evers also used his veto pen to lock in funding for Wisconsin's public school system for more than 400 years, changing the phrase "2023-24 school year and the 2024-25 school year" to the "2023-2425" school years.
• Good. I like this.
• And now, The Weather: “Fleabag” by dani mack
• Millions are under flood watch in the northeast. Especially in New York’s Hudson Valley, where at least one person was killed in a flash flood, flooding is also impacting Connecticut, Vermont, and elsewhere in the region. Please be careful out there, folks.
• Legendary singer-songwriter Elton John concluding his marathon farewell tour Saturday night in Stockholm, Sweden with an appropriate final tune: "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”
• The 76-year-old singer has won five Grammy awards and sold over 300 million records in a spectacular career spanning 50 years and nearly 4,600 performances worldwide.
• While Elton is surprisingly not on this particular list, let’s head back to this week in 1976. Gerald Ford is president (though not for long), I’m in between 2nd and 3rd grade, America just had its bicentennial, and the Billboard Top 20 was as follows…
• 1. Silly Love Songs (Wings), 2. Afternoon Delight (Starland Vocal Band), 3. Misty Blue (Dorothy Moore), 4. Sara Smile (Daryl Hall & John Oates, 5. Shop Around (Captain & Tennille, 6. More, More, More (Part 1) (Andrea True Connection), 7. Get Up and Boogie (Silver Convention), 8. I’ll Be Good to You (Brothers Johnson), 9. Kiss and Say Goodbye (Manhattans), 10. Love Is Alive (Gary Wright), 11. Never Gonna Fall In Love Again (Eric Carmen), 12. Got To Get You Into My Life (The Beatles), 13. Let Her In (John Travolta), 14. Moonlight Feels Right (Starbuck), 15. Take The Money And Run (Steve Miller Band), 16. Rock and Roll Music (Beach Boys), 17. The Boys Are Back In Town (Thin Lizzy), 18. Love Hangover (Diana Ross), 19. If You Know What I Mean (Neil Diamond), 20. Get Closer (Seals & Crofts).
• From the Sports Desk… the LIV Golf League, a Saudi-owned organization that recently merged with the PGA, announced they’ve moved their championship to Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami, which is owned by accused felon Donald Trump.
• The three-day team championship was originally scheduled to be played Nov. 3-5 at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
• In case you forgot what you swore to never forget, the 9/11 attacks on the USA were planned and perpetrated by Saudi terrorists including Osama bin Laden. Enjoy your golf game, folks.
• Today in history… Emperor Hadrian of Rome dies of heart failure at his residence on the bay of Naples (138). Prince Naka-no-Ōe and Fujiwara no Kamatari assassinate Soga no Iruka during a coup d'état at the imperial palace (645). King Canute IV of Denmark is killed by rebellious peasants (1086). Lady Jane Grey, a teenage girl, takes the throne of England for nine days (1553). Louis XVI of France declares war on Great Britain to aid the American Revolution (1778). Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state (1890). Belfast's Bloody Sunday occurs with 20 killings, at least 100 wounded and 200 homes destroyed during rioting and gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland (1921). In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins of John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act (1925). Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit (1962). Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia (1991). In women's soccer, the United States defeated China in a penalty shoot-out at the Rose Bowl near Los Angeles to win the final match of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup (1999). The last Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the line in Puebla, Mexico (2019).
• July 10 is the birthday of theologian John Calvin (1509), US vice-president George Dallas (1792), brewer Adolphus Busch (1839), physicist Nikola Tesla (1856), novelist Marcel Proust (1871), philanthropist/art collector Ima Hogg (1882), singer/guitarist Blind Boy Fuller (1907), journalist David Brinkley (1920), activist Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921), boxer Jake LaMotta (1922), actor Fred Gwynne (1926), politician David Dinkins (1927), singer Mavis Staples (1939), singer-songwriter Ronnie James Dio (1942), tennis player Arthur Ashe (1943), actor Ron Glass (1945), singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie (1947), singer-songwriter Greg Kihn (1949), singer-songwriter Neil Tennant (1954), banjoist/composer Béla Fleck (1958), drummer Sandy West (1959), actress Sophia Vergara (1972), singer-songwriter Jessica Simpson (1980), and NFL player Antonio Brown (1988).

That’s all I’ve got. Time to do other things. Be well. Enjoy your day.