Random News: June 13, 2024

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 13, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. This morning is going fine this far; I could find something to complain about but why bother? I’m alive and primarily well, and my coffee is delicious. And I have access to all the information in the world, so let’s see what the world is doing today.

• Starting with some of the best news imaginable.
• A few minutes ago, the Supreme Court unanimously preserved access to mifepristone, the medication that was used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the U.S. last year, in the court’s first abortion decision since conservative justices overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago.
• Had they decided the opposite way, the country would have been sent into a tailspin of the destruction of women’s reproductive rights. This is huge news.
• The justices ruled that abortion opponents lacked the legal right to sue over the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone and the FDA’s subsequent actions to ease access to it.
• Without mifepristone, abortion access would be severely limited even states where women have not had their reproductive freedom ripped away from them.
• There is still another abortion matter on the docket for the SCOTUS… they’re considering whether a federal law on emergency treatment at hospitals overrides state abortion bans in rare emergency cases in which a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk.
• Here’s hoping. As I mentioned yesterday, it’s that time of year where we can expect a flurry of Supreme Court decisions.
• Keeping my fingers crossed and my expectations realistic.
• In our continuing celebration of Pride Month, today’s Gay of the Day is a triplet of very funny people: Bowen Yang, Billy Eichner, and Tig Notaro.
• As a whole, I find a lot of my LGBTQIA friends to be extraordinarily witty and sometimes downright hilarious. I’m not necessarily making a direct connection between humor and sexual orientation, but they do seem to be above average in the funny department.
• Actor/comedian Bowen Yang was hired to join the writing staff of Saturday Night Live in 2018, and a year later was promoted to on-air cast status for SNL's 45th season. He’s been a highlight of the cast ever since.
• Actor/comedian Billy Eichner, who’s acted in a number of films and had great guest roles on several TV series. He’s perhaps best known as the star, executive producer, and creator of Funny or Die's “Billy on the Street,” where he goes around the streets of New York City, asking people random questions or having them compete in trivia games.
• Actor/comedian Tig Notaro is beloved for her deadpan comedy in her standup act, but also has appeared in many films and TV shows, including a regular role in the Star Trek: Discovery series.
• I appreciate all three of these very funny people not because they’re gay, but because they’re super funny and relatable in ways that encompass their identity both inside and out of the gay community.
• In related news, I’ll answer the question as to why we need a special month to honor our LGBTQIA friends.
• Colorado Republican party chair Dave Williams has called on people to “Burn all the #pride flags this June.”
• In emails and social posts, Williams — who, I remind you, is the head of the Republican party for his state — has made statements representing all LGBT people as “groomers.”
• “The month of June has arrived and, once again, the godless groomers in our society want to attack what is decent, holy and righteous so they can ultimately harm our children,” he wrote.
• I’ll remind you that Colorado’s 5th District is the home of Club Q in Colorado Springs, the gay nightclub where five people were murdered by a gunman in 2022, inspired by sentiments like those Williams continues to promote.
• And that is why there’s a need for Pride Month. That right there.
• While some Colorado GOP officials and candidates are pressuring Williams to resign as a result of his bigotry, others, like CO Republican House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, declined to sign a petition seeking his removal. 
• Colorado’s state primary is on June 25. A vote for a Republican candidate there is an endorsement of Williams’ hateful outlook. Keep it in mind.
• Moving on.
• The G7 met in Italy. What is that?
• The Group of Seven are wealthy democracies… Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US. Their current summit also involves leaders from Africa and the Indo-Pacific region.
• The group cannot pass laws, obviously. However, some of their past decisions have had global effects, including backing a deal in 2021 to tax multinational companies
• This year, the summit leaders agreed to engineer a $50 billion loan to help Ukraine in its fight for survival that would use interest earned on profits from Russia’s frozen central bank assets as collateral.
• Nice!
• Details of the deal were still being hashed out, but the money could reach Kyiv before the end of the year. Most of the money would be provided in the form of a loan from the U.S. government that would be backed by windfall profits being earned on roughly $300 billion in immobilized Russian assets.
• While the loan would be mostly U.S.-guaranteed, officials say it could be “topped up” with European money or other national contributions.
• Today, President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plan to sign a 10-year security agreement that will commit Washington to supply Kyiv with a wide range of military assistance.
• Cool. Slava Ukraini!
• Let’s move on.
• We’ve got Russians in our backyard.
• Four Russian naval vessels - including a nuclear-powered submarine and a frigate - have arrived in Cuba, in a show of force amid tensions with the West over the war in Ukraine.
• The warships are anchored at Havana Bay, about 90 miles from Florida. The frigate and subs are armed with advanced weaponry, including hypersonic missiles.
• Cuba claims that none of the vessels has nuclear arms on board, and their five-day visit does not pose a threat to the region.
• Oh, well, no problem then. Pffft. US officials say they are closely monitoring the visit.
• I’ll bet they are. In fact, the US Navy also used sea drones to shadow the Russian vessels as they made their approach to Cuba.
• Let’s seriously move on. I can’t enjoy life while under constant threat of annihilation. It’s not worth it.
• At least two human cases of the new "dual mutant" strains of H1N1 influenza have been detected in U.S. patients, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday.
• The problem with this new H1N1 flu? It has evolved to limit the effectiveness of oseltamivir (aka Tamiflu), the main flu antiviral that hospitals rely on.
• That’s really not good.
• Some optimistic news on that topic for the future, though.
• Although it won’t be ready for this year’s flu season, there could be an effective combined COVID-19 and flu vaccine shot coming from Moderna.
• On Monday, they announced positive late-stage trial results for its COVID-flu combination vaccine it calls mRNA-1083.
• The positive trial results were true even for people in the trial who were 65 years and older. Generally, older people don’t mount as robust a response to vaccines as younger people do.
• It’s a good thing that scientists keep up their hard work even when idiots fight them all the way (even if those same idiots benefit later).
• Moving on.
• The American Civil Liberties Union and several migrant rights groups filed a lawsuit yesterday targeting President Biden's recently announced crackdown on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
• I expected that. I’m sure Biden did as well.
• The partial ban on asylum claims took effect a week ago and will remain in place until the weekly average of daily illegal border crossings falls below 1,500 — a level that has not been recorded since 2020.
• We typically get about 3,500 illegal border crossings per day. It’s not even close.
• ACLU lawyers asked the federal district court in Washington, D.C., to strike down the regulations that implemented Biden's order, arguing that they violate U.S. asylum law and federal policy-making rules.
• However, interestingly, the civil rights group did not ask the court to immediately block the regulations, which were published by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.
• Note that the ACLU was successful at blocking this same kind of action previously… in 2018, when the Dump administration did it.
• Let’s move on.
• If you think we’re going to be able to fuck up Earth and have Mars as a backup plan for humanity to exist, think again.
• In addition two a plethora of other reasons involving radiation and other challenges, new research revealed that long-duration space travel can impact the structure of astronauts’ kidneys.
• Samples from more than 40 space missions involving humans and mice revealed that kidneys are remodeled by the conditions in space, with certain parts showing signs of shrinkage after less than a month in space.
• This basically negates all plans by SpaceX and NASA to send crewed missions to Mars in the coming decades, despite Elon Musk’s drug-fueled bullshit.
• Under current medical technology, the best0case scenario would perhaps allow an astronaut to make it to Mars, but they’d need dialysis in space on the ride home, assuming they returned immediately.
• In other words…. let’s try and keep Earth livable. We’re not going anywhere else for a very long time.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Southern Baptist Convention narrowly rejected a constitutional amendment barring women from all pastoral positions.
• And I do mean narrowly. Their church requires two-thirds approval to pass a motion, and this one garnered 61 percent of votes to ban women, to 38 percent who rejected it.
• What a bunch of assholes. It’s this kind of thing that will continue the steep decline of participation in organized religion of any sort.
• And now, The Weather: “What Could I Say?” by Margaux
• Let’s do a chart. It’s this week in June 1993, I’m a marketing assistant, figuring shit out in the job I still do today, and here are the… wow, really not-very-good singles at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, 31 years ago.
• 1. That's The Way Love Goes (Janet Jackson). 2. Freak Me (Silk). 3. Knockin' Da Boots (H-Town). 4. Weak (SWV). 5. Show Me Love (Robin S.). 6. Looking Through Patient Eyes (P.M. Dawn). 7. I'm So Into You (SWV). 8. Bad Boys (Theme From "Cops") (Inner Circle). 9. Have I Told You Lately (Rod Stewart). 10. Come Undone (Duran Duran), 11. Love Is (From "Beverly Hills, 90210") (Vanessa Williams/Brian McKnight). 12. Dre Day (Dr. Dre). 13. I'll Never Get Over You (Getting Over Me) (Expose). 14. Nuthin' But A "G" Thang (Dr. Dre). 15. Don't Walk Away (Jade). 16. Ditty (Paperboy). 17. Three Little Pigs (Green Jelly). 18. Livin' On The Edge (Aerosmith). 19. More And More (Captain Hollywood Project). 20. Connected (Stereo MC’s).
• Frankly, if you take out Dr. Dre and maybe SWV from this list, it’s a big stinky turd of bad music. Don’t tell me that music today — even corporate pop music — isn’t better than it was in many other eras.
• From the Sports Desk… as much as it pains me to admit, I think the Celtics are going to sweep the Mavericks and win the NBA championship.
• Last night they took a 3-0 lead in the series, beating Dallas at home 106-99. With one more win, Boston would have an NBA record 18 titles.
• Booooo!
• Today in history… Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns (1525). Georgia provincial governor James Oglethorpe begins an unsuccessful attempt to take Spanish Florida during the Siege of St. Augustine (1740). Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves (1774). The American League of Colored Laborers, the first African American labor union in the United States, is established in New York City (1850). Twentieth opera of Giuseppe Verdi, ‘Les vêpres siciliennes’, is premiered in Paris (1855). A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia (1886). Germany launches the first V1 Flying Bomb attack on England, but only four of the eleven bombs strike their targets (1944). The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their Fifth Amendment rights before questioning them (1966). Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey and Bill Russell play together as an infield for the first time, going on to set the record of staying together for 8-1/2 years (1973). Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune (1983). A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages (1994). The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (2002). The jury acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of his charges for allegedly sexually molesting a child in 1993 (2005). Volkswagen is fined one billion euros over the emissions scandal (2018). 
• June 13 is the birthday of Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald — my 37th great grandfather (823), physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831), poet W. B. Yeats (1865), actor Basil Rathbone (1892), composer Carlos Chávez (1899), actor Paul Lynde (1926), sculptor Christo (1935), actor Malcolm McDowell (1943), guitarist Howard Leese (1951), actor Tim Allen (1953), actress Ally Sheedy (1962), singer-songwriter/guitarist Rivers Cuomo (1970), actor Chris Evans (1981), actress/businesswoman Ashley Olsen (1986), actress/businesswoman Mary-Kate Olsen (1986), and actress Kat Dennings (1986).

I’ll be watching today for more Supreme Court decisions and we’ll talk about those tomorrow. Hope things go well… for you, me, and all of us.  Enjoy your day.