Random News: July 15, 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 15, 2023, and it’s a Saturday. If you haven’t been reading these bullets for very long, be aware that on weekends, I am literally always typing my news in a bathrobe while drinking coffee. This will never change. Glad we established that. Let’s see what’s going on…

• A quick note about choice as it relates to the information you get told.
• No matter whether you’re reading the New York Times or watching Fox News or reading some fucking dark web sub-Reddit, someone out there is choosing what information to include and what not to include.
• Is that also true of Zak’s Random News? Hell fucking yes it is.
• I do these every single day, and every day I make sure to include certain topics and I consciously avoid others.
• Some of this is simple practicality. If I included everything that happened to everyone on Earth every single day… you get the idea.
• So there’s a decision on what’s “newsworthy” and what’s not, but it goes far beyond that. I think the better comparison is with the Supreme Court.
• They get around 7,000 requests each year for cases to be heard. They select about 150 of those, and then issue decisions in about 70 of them.
• So they decide on about one percent of the requests. Same with my news, or any news. Shit happens all the time. Some of it is never told to anyone. Some of it is purposefully swept under the rug.
• In most cases — mine included — there’s a set of topics that the media organization feels is important or interesting to their specific readership, and that’s what they cover. Even things like the order in which the topics are covered is done purposefully, knowing a lot of people don’t (or won’t) take the time to read beyond the first few stories.
• Anyway, back to the point: it’s not hard to get informed, but it is hard to find out what you’re not being informed. It’s an old Sherlock Holmes adage: the hard part is seeing what’s not there.
• Okay, let’s do this…
• The House passed a sweeping defense bill yesterday that provides an expected 5.2% pay raise for service members but strays from traditional military policy with Republicans add-ons blocking abortion coverage, diversity initiatives at the Pentagon and transgender care that deeply divided the chamber.
• The final vote was 219-210, with four Democrats siding with the GOP and four Republicans opposed. But the bill, as written, is expected to go nowhere in the Democratic-majority Senate.
• So that was a waste of time for the government and a waste of time for you to read.
• Moving on…
• A federal appeals court yesterday temporarily paused a lower court’s order limiting executive branch officials’ communications with social media companies about controversial online posts.
• Filed last year, the lawsuit claimed the Biden administration, in effect, censored free speech by discussing possible regulatory action the government could take while pressuring companies to remove what it deemed misinformation.
• They cited info misinformation on COVID-19 vaccines, legal issues involving Hunter Biden, and election fraud allegations among the topics spotlighted.
• It’s a tough situation. I am a huge First Amendment supporter, even when it means accepting things like Nazis waving swastikas in front of a synagogue.
• Side note: is hate speech protected by the First Amendment? Yes it is!
• But if I purposefully spread lies that will cause death and wreak havoc on large swaths of people, is there any liability for me or for the platforms I use to blast out misinformation, or is it all just “free speech” and fuck what happens as a result?
• That’s the question at hand.
• Let’s move to some better news…
• In its first year of operation, over five million people used the new 3-digit national crisis line, 988. That's up 35% compared to the old 10-digit suicide prevention hotline.
• Last July, the cumbersome 10-digit phone number became 988. The easy-to-remember lifeline was created to help people dealing with issues like depression, substance use and suicidal ideation get immediate help and be guided to additional resources.
• More than 14 million adults in the U.S. had a serious mental illness in 2021, and 12.3 million seriously considered suicide.
• In the first year of operation, texts to the lifeline increased dramatically and average wait times across the line plummeted from 2 minutes 39 seconds to 41 seconds.
• That’s really cool. If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.
• A mentioned earlier this week, an Iowa ban on most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy was signed into law yesterday. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the measure in front of 2,000 conservative Christians.
• Clinics were forced to scramble to arrange out-of-state care for many women whose access to reproductive health care immediately ended.
• However, a court hearing also took place yesterday, but the judge said his ruling on whether to halt the new law as the courts assess its constitutionality will likely not come until Monday at the earliest.
• Here’s hoping. Allow me to repeat that the grand majority of Americans support women’s rights of reproductive choice and not to be forced to give birth.
• Little side note: this has never been about “the precious little babies”. It’s men controlling women’s choice to have sex or not. That’s what it’s always been about.
• Moving on…
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in hospital for medical evaluation but is allegedly in a “good condition,” per his office. Bibi was admitted today to the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
• No details have been released about the nature of his condition. Israel currently does not have an acting or deputy prime minister, meaning that if Benjamin Netanyahu is incapacitated, the cabinet would have to meet to elect an acting prime minister.
• And now, The Weather: “ETA2 (feat. Paris Texas)” by Yeek
• In addition to record-setting heat, there are also severe storms happening. At least 11 tornadoes hit the Chicago area this week alone.
• Oh, and there are more Canadian wildfires causing air quality issues in places like Minnestoa and Wisconsin.
• We’re fucked, but don’t let that get you down.
• Let’s do some music charts. We’re going to this week in 1996, and I’m doing the Modern Rock tracks because frankly, I wasn’t hearing much else at that point. I was commuting from Redondo Beach to West L.A. for work and had plenty of time in my car listening to KROQ both directions, and here’s what I was hearing…
• 1. Pepper (Butthole Surfers). 2. Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand (Primitive Radio Gods). 3. Trippin’ On a Hole in a Paper Heart (Stone Temple Pilots). 4. Stupid Girl (Garbage). 5. Tonight, Tonight (The Smashing Pumpkins). 6. Counting Blue Cars (Dishwalla). 7. Spiderwebs (No Doubt). 8. Tahitian Moon (Porno for Pyros). 9. Where It’s At (Beck). 10. Pretty Noose (Soundgarden). 11. Mother Mother (Tracy Bonham). 12. Don’t Look Back In Anger (Oasis). 13. You Learn (Alanis Morissette). 14. Here In Your Bedroom (Goldfinger). 15. Who Will Save Your Soul (Jewel). 16. Mint Car (The Cure). 17. All I Know (Screaming Trees). 18. Free To Decide (The Cranberries). 19. Banditos (The Refreshments). 20. Popular (Nada Surf).
• Georgia is out of peaches. They are literally the Peach State.
• GA lost more than 90% of this year’s crop after a February heat wave was followed by two late-spring frosts. This destroyed peach varieties specifically bred to survive different weather scenarios and wildly inflated prices of the fruit. It also moved much of the local market — in some cases, quite unwillingly — to California peaches.
• The horror.
• From the Sports Desk… huge congrats to Marketa Vondrousova, who became the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon in a stunning 6-4, 6-4 upset over No. 6 Ons Jabeur.
• I mentioned Vondrousova yesterday. She was the lady whose husband stayed home to watch their cat.
• The men’s final is tomorrow, with No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz facing No. 2 Novak Djokovic. If Djokovic wins, he'll set the record for the most Grand Slam titles of the Open era. If Alcaraz takes the title, it'll be his second major win and a huge upset. 
• C’mon Alcaraz!
• Today in history… Dedication of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in ancient Rome (484 BC). John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, drawn and quartered in the presence of King Richard II of England (1381). The first university of Finland, the Royal Academy of Turku, is inaugurated in Turku (1640). The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard (1799). US Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine near St. Louis, MO, to explore the west (1806). The Spanish Inquisition is officially disbanded after nearly 356 years (1834). Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union (1870). Emil Kraepelin gives a name to Alzheimer's disease, naming it after his colleague Alois Alzheimer (1910). In Seattle, WA, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products, later renamed Boeing (1916). The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history (1959). Nintendo released the Famicom, later known as the NES, in Japan (1983). AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape and the Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day (2003). Twitter is launched by Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone (2006).
• July 15 is the birthday of Korean queen Yun (1455), painter Rembrandt (1606), activist/suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst (1858), filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker (1925), racing driver Ian Stewart (1929), NFL player/actor Alex Karras (1935), actor Jan-Michael Vincent (1945), singer-songwriter Linda Ronstadt (1946), singer-songwriter/guitarist Roky Erickson (1947), drummer Artimus Pyle (1948), singer-songwriter/producer Trevor Horn (1949), publisher Arianna Huffington (1950), wrestler/politician Jesse Ventura (1951), singer-songwriter David Pack (1952), drummer Marky Ramone (1952), singer-songwriter Johnny Thunders (1952), singer-songwriter Ian Curtis (1956), guitarist/composer Joe Satriani (1956), actor Forest Whitaker (1961), Brigitte Nielsen (1963), drummer Jason Bonham (1966), TV host Adam Savage (1967), actor Brian Austin Greene (1973), comedian Gabriel Iglesias (1976), and NBA player Damian Lillard (1990).

I have a few things to do today. This week was fucked up from the perspective of working constantly, and I’d really like to do… well, nothing at all. But we don’t generally have that option while being a responsible human at the same time. Enjoy your day.