Random News: June 17, 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 17, 2024, and it’s a Monday. I’m feeling a little frazzled this morning, which in no way is unusual for a Monday. I’ll likely settle into my groove soon enough, as has usually been the case. Looking at news from around the world may help, or may make it worse. No way to know until we jump in…

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved his war cabinet, just over a week after opposition leader Benny Gantz withdrew from the body.
• Gantz – seen as Netanyahu’s most formidable political opponent – announced his “complex and painful” decision to withdraw from the cabinet last week, citing Netanyahu’s failure to devise a strategy for the conflict in Gaza and the future governance of the Strip.
• He accused Netanyahu of putting his own personal political considerations ahead of a post-war strategy for the Gaza Strip, and urged the prime minister to hold an election in the coming months.
• Hmm. Moving on.
• I’ll once again preface this next point by stating my distrust of modern polling, but this one is a doozy.
• In the weeks since Donald John Trump was convicted of a criminal felony, polling shows it has a very tangible effect on possible voters.
• A new survey from POLITICO Magazine and Ipsos shows that 21 percent of independents said the conviction made them less likely to support Trump and that it would be an important factor in their vote.
• And in a close election, as this one is very much expected to be, small shifts among independent and swing voters could determine the outcome.
• Note that a sizable number of Americans, including independents, question whether the verdict was the result of a fair and impartial process.
• Though most respondents rejected the idea that the prosecution was brought to help President Joe Biden, a large number (43 percent of all respondents) either strongly or somewhat agreed that was the rationale for the case.
• We have a name for those people: Republicans. Anyway, I thought that was worth a mention.
• Let’s move on.
• Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will issue a mass pardon of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions this morning.
• It’s one of the nation’s most sweeping acts of clemency involving a drug now in widespread recreational use.
• The pardons will forgive low-level marijuana possession charges for an estimated 100,000 people in a step to heal decades of social and economic injustice that disproportionately harms Black and Brown people.
• Moore noted criminal records have been used to deny housing, employment, and education, holding people and their families back long after their sentences have been served.
• He’s right. I applaud this.
• Moving on…
• Today’s Gay of the Day, celebrating Pride, is actor Elliot Page.
• He has received numerous accolades for his work, including nominations for an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, a Golden Globe Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
• Prior to his public identification as a trans man, Page came to recognition for his starring role in the television franchise Pit Pony (1997–2000) and his recurring roles in the series Trailer Park Boys (2002) and ReGenesis (2004).
• But his breakthrough came with leading roles in the film Hard Candy (2005) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). He also received critical acclaim for portraying the title character in the film Juno (2007), and became the fourth-youngest nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress at the time.
• Page is an outspoken activist. Describing himself as a pro-choice feminist, he has spoken out in favor of the Me Too movement, advocated for abortion rights, and more.
• He has strongly spoken out against discriminatory legislation towards the trans community and has become a vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights. In March 2021, he became the first openly trans man to appear on the cover of Time.
• I find him to be a super talented actor. Hats off to him.
• In other news…
• We have our first notable LA County fire of the year.
• Strong winds pushed flames through dry brush in mountains along Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles yesterday, and officials warned residents in the wildfire’s path to be prepared to leave if it explodes in size again.
• The Post Fire swiftly grew to more than 19 square miles over the weekend. As of this morning, it’s just 8% contained. No injuries were reported.
• Sweltering heat, high winds, and steep terrain hampered efforts to control the blaze. All the way down here some 80 miles south of there, last night we could see the telltale signs of fire season, tinting the afternoon sunlight orange.
• Let’s move on.
• I try not to spend much time covering the near-daily instances of religious leaders being caught having sex with children.
• Honestly, it happen so often that I could make that a daily column if that was something I wanted to do… which, thankfully, it’s not.
• But I do want to mention Dallas-area megachurch pastor Robert Morris, who admitted to having “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” in the 1980s after a woman accused him of molesting her when she was 12 years old.
• Note: 12 is not a “young lady,” it’s a child. And “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a child is called rape. Robert Morris is a rapist.
• I only mention this today because in addition to being a senior pastor at Gateway Church, the child rapist Morris was a member of Donald Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board during the 2016 campaign.
• Dumpy also held a roundtable at Gateway’s Dallas campus in 2020,  where the rapist Morris led a prayer before the event. It is unclear what role Morris has in Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
• So, thought you might like to know about this particular piece of shit.
• Also, my side note: never leave your kids alone with clergy of any kind in any denomination of any religion. I wasn’t kidding about this happening every day.
• Moving on.
• Chances are high that you are reading these words via a social network.
• Today, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy said he will push a requirement for warning labels on social media platforms to combat a mental health emergency among children and teens.
• Murthy will work with Congress to enact legislation requiring that social media platforms include a surgeon general’s warning to regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.
• He said the warning labels should be just one part of a broader set of stepped-up rules to track and limit social media’s effect on consumers — all of which would require the help of Congress.
• Murthy said congressional action is also needed to prevent platforms from collecting sensitive data from children, and it should restrict features such as push notifications, autoplay and infinite scroll, which he said contribute to excessive use.
• Agreed 100% on all of the above.
• Listen… your life is not on a screen. Whether it’s Facebook, YouTube, Second Life, TikTok, that shithole app that Elon Musk runs, or whatever… you can’t base your entire self-worth on what you perceive on the flat glassy surface of your phone or computer monitor.
• And you may look up one day and realize that all of your effort and time that went into your social nets could have been spent doing things that actually matter.
• Just something to consider. I’m not here to tell you how to live your life.
• And now, The Weather: “Aubrey Plaza” by Lozenge
• I’m going to give the most needless reminder of the day: global climate change is creating weather that can and will kill you.
• Residents from coast to coast are being warned to take precautions as a heat wave moved east, while heavy rains and flooding could drench the Gulf states and snow threatens parts of the Rockies and Northwest.
• There’s no way to reverse what we’ve done, so now it’s a matter of trying to survive the consequences.
• From the Sports Desk… just a general observation that at the very tail end of the NBA and NHL seasons, and in the midst of what seems to be a good year for baseball, I’m pining for the return of NFL football.
• What’s up right now in the NFL? Training camps, and a lot of speculation regarding which rookies are going to become strong contributors to their respective teams.
• And while it may seem like forever until football starts up again, the first preseason games kick off in less than seven weeks. I can last that long.
• Today in history… Pope Martin I is arrested and taken to Constantinople due to his opposition to monothelitism (653). Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion — modern California — for England (1579). Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth, and her husband spends the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal (1631). Samuel Wallis, a British sea captain, sights Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island (1767). American colonists inflict heavy casualties on British forces while losing the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775). One thousand five hundred Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory (1876). The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor (1885). The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT (1901). Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic (1944). The United States Supreme Court rules 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools (1963). Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee during an attempt by members of the administration of President Richard M. Nixon to illegally wiretap the political opposition as part of a broader campaign to subvert the democratic process (1972). Following a televised low-speed highway chase, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman (1994). Juneteenth National Independence Day, was signed into law by President Joe Biden to become the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983 (2021).
• June 17 is the birthday of English king Edward I (1239), painter/architect Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691), pianist/composer Igor Stravinsky (1882), illustrator M. C. Escher (1898), actor Ralph Bellamy (1904), guitarist Cliff Gallup (1930), bassist Chuck Rainey (1940), politician Newt Gingrich (1943), singer-songwriter Barry Manilow (1943), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Gregg Rolie (1947), singer-songwriter Paul Young (1947), comedian Joe Piscopo (1951), singer-songwriter Jello Biafra (1958), actor/TV host Greg Kinnear (1963), actor/comedian Will Forte (1970), tennis player Venus Williams (1980), rapper Kendrick Lamar (1987), and NFL player Amari Cooper (1994).

Okay. I think that’s it. Enjoy your day.