Random News: June 14, 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 14, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m feeling pretty good so far today, most likely because it is indeed Friday, despite the fact that work shit always seems to blow up on this final weekday and I end up surly and annoyed before it’s over. However, right now I’m in a pretty positive mode; let’s hope it lasts awhile.

• Positive vibe gone with some breaking news.
• This morning, the Supreme Court struck down the Trump-era ban on bump stocks. A bump stock is a device that allows a legal semi-automatic rifle (like an AR-15) to function more like a fully-automatic weapon, aka a machine gun.
• In a 6-3 ruling (I don’t have to tell you who was on each side), the court held that an almost 100-year-old law aimed at banning machine guns cannot legitimately be interpreted to include bump stocks.
• Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said that a firearm equipped with the accessory does not meet the definition of “machine gun" under federal law.
• The ruling prompted a vigorous dissent from liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck," she wrote.
• Sotomayor also took the rare step of reading a summary of her dissent in court.
• Even the shitty Trump administration imposed a prohibition after the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, in which Stephen Paddock used bump stock-equipped firearms to open fire on a country music festival, killing over 58 people and wounding over 400 more.
• If you’re confused, a bump stock uses the recoil energy of a trigger pull to enable the user to fire up to hundreds of rounds with a single motion.
• And now, they’re legal again. So be prepared for far more death and mayhem. The Biden administration is in full opposition to this decision.
• There will be more huge SCOTUS decisions coming soon.
• Speaking of which…
• Yesterday, we only had a few minutes to mention the excellent news that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld access to mifepristone, the drug used in the majority of U.S. abortions.
• I wanted to be clear about one aspect of this: it doesn’t mean this country is any closer to the return of the rights of reproductive freedom that we held before the repeal of Roe v. Wade almost exactly two years ago.
• And in fact, it may not even be the end of the threat against mifepristone. Rather than fully dive into the issue, the SCOTUS simply found that anti-abortion doctors lacked the legal right to sue.
• So the same issue could get back before the Court any time, and next time, Justices like Kavanaugh, Alito, Thomas, and Coney Barrett may have their chance to really remove the most common abortion medication used in this country.
• There’s only one thing you can do to guarantee the rights of women to make their own reproductive choices and not be forced to birth children: vote for the presidential candidate who wants to enshrine that right in our laws at the federal level.
• And not the party who is working hard to remove those freedoms and many more.
• Let’s move on to a Supreme Court case from yesterday that didn’t make me happy at all.
• The SCOTUS made it harder for the federal government to win court orders when it suspects a company of interfering in unionization campaigns.
• They tightened the standards for when a federal court should issue an order to protect the jobs of workers during a union organizing campaign.
• And again, this was a unanimous decision. I can’t just blame the far-right on this one.
• The case in point began in February 2022, when Starbucks fired seven workers who were trying to unionize their Tennessee store.
• The NLRB obtained a court order forcing the company to rehire the workers while the case wound its way through the agency’s administrative proceedings.
• Workers at 437 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late 2021, according to the NLRB, but none of those stores has secured a labor agreement with Starbucks.
• Shrug. It’s not uncommon for the United States to take the position of corporations over workers. I can’t say I’m shocked.
• And while we’re on the topic of the Supreme Court, let’s talk about that lovable guy Justice Clarence Thomas.
• Thomas took three undisclosed trips aboard a private jet provided by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow between 2017 and 2021, according to documents obtained by the Senate Judiciary Committee and released yesterday.
• But wait, didn’t the Supreme Court just disclose all of their financial info like a week ago? Welp, Thomas chose not to include the private jet travel.
• The Supreme Court did not immediately return a request for comment.
• ”Nearly $4.2 million in gifts and even that wasn't enough for Justice Thomas, with at least three additional trips the Committee found that he has failed to disclose to date. The Senate Judiciary Committee's ongoing investigation into the Supreme Court's ethical crisis is producing new information — like what we've revealed today — and makes it crystal clear that the highest court needs an enforceable code of conduct, because its members continue to choose not to meet the moment.” - Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin.
• And that’s why we have a country where the wealthy dictate the laws to which they, themselves, believe they are immune.
• This is far from over. Moving on for now.
• Also note: the Supreme Court still has over 20 big decisions that will be announced in coming days.
• Perhaps most important is the case where Donnie Dump is arguing that former presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts they took in office and that the indictment he faces on charges of election interference must be dismissed.
• The Supreme Court has previously ruled that former presidents can’t be sued in civil cases for what they did in office, but it has never weighed in on criminal immunity.
• Moving on.
• Today’s Gay of the Day is broadcast journalist Anderson Cooper.
• Cooper is currently anchoring the CNN news broadcast show Anderson Cooper 360°. In addition to his duties at CNN, Cooper serves as a correspondent for 60 Minutes produced by CBS News.
• He’s won 18 Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, as well as an Edward Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club in 2011.
• When Cooper came out as gay in 2012, he became the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television. In 2016, he became the first openly LGBT person to moderate a presidential debate, and he has received several GLAAD Media Awards.
• I think what’s important about Anderson Cooper is that for millions of Americans, he’s shown that a person’s sexual orientation doesn’t make them some weird freak. He’s a trusted news journalist who is viewed primarily for his excellent work as opposed to whom he loves.
• Let’s move on.
• Mark Adams Prieto is an Arizona man who planned a mass shooting targeting African Americans and other minorities at a rap concert in Atlanta in May, looking to incite a race war ahead of the presidential election.
• He was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on charges of firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime, and possession of an unregistered firearm.
• The investigation into Prieto, 58, began last year when a source told authorities that they had spoken to Prieto more than 15 times over three years at various gun shows. Prieto began making suspicious and alarming comments, including “advocating for a mass shooting,” and specifically targeting Blacks, Jews or Muslims.
• Want to know how a guy like Prieto thinks? 
• He said to an undercover FBI agent, “The reason I say Atlanta. Why, why is Georgia such a fucked up state now? When I was a kid that was one of the most conservative states in the country. Why is it not now? Because as the crime got worse in L.A., St. Louis, and all these other cities, all the niggers moved out of those shitholes and moved to Atlanta. That’s why it isn’t so great anymore. And they’ve been there for a couple, several years.”
• Prieto is a big supporter of Donald Trump. I know, shocking, right?
• Sigh.
• Let’s move on. Today, June 14, is Flag Day.
• I swear, I did my research, and I can’t tell you what Flag Day is. It’s not a federal holiday. If it’s a day to fly a US flag, a lot of people seem to do that every fucking day.
• I mean, fine. Fly your flag. Fly whatever flag you want. If you’re a Supreme Court Justice, fly it upside down and blame your wife. I don’t care. I’m not sure we need a day for it, though, and most people don’t seem to know Flag Day is a thing.
• And now, The Weather: “Be There” by Darvid Thor
• From the Sports Desk… while we’re waiting to see if both the NBA and NHL Finals will be sweeps as it’s looking will happen, let’s see the divisional leaders in Major League Baseball.
• AL East: Yankees (49-22). AL Central: Guardians (43-23). AL West: Mariners (40-31).
• NL East: Phillies (46-22). NL Central: Brewers (40-28). NL West: Dodgers (42-28).
• Today in history… Kublai Khan defeats the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria (1287). The Continental Army is established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Armed Forces (1775). The Second Continental Congress passes the Flag Act of 1777 adopting the Stars and Stripes as the Flag of the United States (1777). Trade unions are legalized in Canada (1872). Hawaii becomes a United States territory (1900). U.S. House of Representatives passes the Marihuana Tax Act (1937). Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 83 miles, thereby becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space (1949). U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law that places the words "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance (1954). Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, CA (1959). Mariner 5 is launched towards Venus (1967). The 1994 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot occurs after the New York Rangers defeat the Vancouver Canucks to win the Stanley Cup, causing an estimated C$1.1 million, leading to 200 arrests and injuries (1994). Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by 75,000 miles, about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon (2002). US Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and three others, are shot and wounded by a terrorist while practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game (2017). 
• June 14 is the birthday of author/activist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811), psychiatrist/neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer (1864), singer Burl Ives (1909), journalist/politician Pierre Salinger (1925), guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928), actress Marla Gibbs (1931), saxophonist Junior Walker (1931), politician Steny Hoyer (1939), keyboardist Rod Argent (1945), businessman/politician Donald Trump (1946), drummer Alan White (1949), basketball player/coach Pat Summitt (1952), bass player/composer Marcus Miller (1959), singer-songwriter Boy George (1961), NBA player Sam Perkins (1961), and tennis player Steffi Graf (1969).

Okay, enough for now. Be ready for some more huge news out of the SCOTUS soon. And be ready for the results of those decisions. Might end up being an interesting summer, and I say that in a not good way. Enjoy your day.