Random News: June 19, 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 19, 2024, and it’s a Wednesday. It’s even more quiet than usual this early morning, perhaps due to a federal holiday here in the USA. I, however, own a small business and I’m on my usual schedule today as I am for nearly every holiday. I’m not whining about it; it just is what it is. We have a ton of news to cover this morning, but this holiday is important and deserves a deeper dive.

• Today is Juneteenth, the federal holiday that is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States.
• You probably know the origin of Juneteenth by now but why not make sure?
• The holiday's name is a portmanteau of the words "June" and "nineteenth", as it was on June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War.
• Many people are under the mistaken impression that slavery ended immediately after President Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
• No, not even close. The Civil War was still in its bloodiest phase, and there remained legally enslaved people even in states that never seceded from the Union.
• These people did not gain their freedom until the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 6, 1865.
• But early celebrations of Juneteenth date back to 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. They spread across the South amongst newly freed African American slaves and their descendants and became more commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s, often centering on a food festival.
• Another factor to keep in mind: almost immediately after the end of slavery, Jim Crow laws were put in place to keep Black Americans from being able to get fair treatment and opportunity for another 100 years.
• During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Juneteenth celebrations were eclipsed by the nonviolent determination to achieve civil rights, but grew in popularity again in the 1970s with a focus on African-American freedom and African-American arts.
• Beginning with Texas by proclamation in 1938, and by legislation in 1979, every U.S. state and the District of Columbia has formally recognized the holiday in some way.
• Finally, the day was enshrined as a federal holiday three years ago in 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.
• And a brief aside: you hear people saying things like, “Slavery was 400 years ago! Why don’t they just get over it?"
• No. Slavery in the US ended legally just under 160 years ago, but the real beginnings of Black people getting a real chance at equal opportunity started in the past 60 years, and the process has been slow and sometimes painful, and isn’t close to finished.
• My advice for white people on Juneteenth, if you want to know… 
• Do study Black history, Black poets, Black leaders, Black achievements.
• Don’t dwell on your own discomfort in talking about topics like racism or police violence. Be ready to listen.
• Do spend time in spaces with folks who are not like you.
• Don’t invite yourself to the barbecue. But be honored and do show up if you are invited.
• And do hold others accountable — on social media, in your family, at your workplace — who allow racism — subtle or blatant — to continue unchecked. Call their asses out.
• Happy Juneteenth, everyone.
• And now, the news.
• Yesterday, Senate Democrats sought to right a wrong by passing legislation to ban bump stocks for firearms after last week when the Supreme Court overruled a previous ban.
• A reminder: a bump stock allows a legal semi-automatic rifle to behave almost identically to an illegal full machine gun. One trigger pull can generate nine rounds per second.
• It was a guy using guns with bump stocks in 2017 at the Route 91 Harvest music festival who fired more than 1,000 rounds, slaughtering 60 people in cold blood and wounding 413.
• But no… a single Republican objected on behalf of his party and killed the bill for now.
• Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) had sought unanimous consent to pass his BUMP Act that would prohibit the devices.
• But Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) blocked it from moving forward.
• Republicans were all in favor of the bump stock ban when it was imposed by the Trump administration after the Las Vegas massacre.
• There is no purpose for a bump stock other than to kill humans. It’s not useful for any hunting purpose. It’s to spray as many bullets into as many people as possible. That’s what it’s for.
• And the Republicans just voted to keep them legal. Keep it in mind when the next inevitable massacre occurs.
• Let’s move past that awful news and move on with some excellent news.
• Yesterday, the House Ethics Committee said it is probing whether Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) sought to obstruct investigations into his conduct.
• They have issued 25 subpoenas in matters surrounding the congressman. Woo!
• They said, “Notwithstanding the difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others, the Committee has spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in this matter. Based on its review to date, the Committee has determined that certain of the allegations merit continued review. During the course of its investigation, the Committee has also identified additional allegations that merit review.”
• They are continuing to investigate whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, engaged in illicit drug use or accepted improper gifts, matters it first started investigating in April 2021.
• You’re fucked, Fivehead.
• Let’s do today’s Gay of the Day in honor of Pride. And today, it’s one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Billie Jean King.
• Since King’s heydey, there have been plenty of professional female athletes who have been open about their sexual orientation, but King paved the way to allow them to be accepted and eventually welcomed.
• Let’s start at the start: she’s a former world No. 1 tennis player who has won 39 Grand Slam titles — 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles.
• King is perhaps equally well known as an advocate of gender equality, and has long been a pioneer for equality and social justice.
• It was a huge, massive event in 1973 when, at the age of 29, she famously won the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match against the 55-year-old former pro Bobby Riggs, who’d claimed he could beat any female pro.
• As if that wasn’t enough, King was also the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. Her impact on professional women’s sports overall was huge.
• Moreover, King’s cultural impact in the ‘70s was immense. One example: Elton John wrote “Philadelphia Freedom” for her.
• While King’s decision in 1981 to come out was forced at the time by the threat of a palimony lawsuit, when she did, she became the first prominent female professional athlete to do so.
• Hats off to her!
• Moving on.
• In the latest of many setbacks and a continual string of failures for Donald John Trump, yesterday New York’s top court declined to hear his gag order appeal in his hush money case.
• The gag order restrictions remain in place following his felony conviction last month. The Court of Appeals found that the order does not raise substantial constitutional issues that would warrant an immediate intervention.
• Dump wants to be able to publicly insult and threaten witnesses, jurors, and others who were involved in the hush money case against him. However, like many screaming babies, he might still get his way.
• The trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, is expected to rule soon on a defense request to lift the gag order. And Dump is scheduled to be sentenced for that felony crime on July 11.
• Like I said before, don’t get your hopes high. If that entitled piece of shit goes to jail, monkeys will fly out of my butt.
• I mean, look, it’s a worthwhile tradeoff. I’ll deal with the monkeys later.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, Massachusetts’ 911 system had a statewide outage. The service was restored in the afternoon.
• The cause of the outage remains unclear. A few years ago, Massachusetts suffered sporadic 911 outages that were blamed on CenturyLink, which affected some Verizon customers.
• And a couple of months ago in April, workers installing a light pole in Missouri cut into a fiber line, knocking out 911 service for emergency agencies in Nebraska, Nevada, and South Dakota.
• Anyway, it got fixed, whatever it was.
• In other news…
• What’s the world’s most valuable publicly traded company? Up until yesterday, you might have said it was Apple or Microsoft, and you’d have been right.
• But as of today, it’s Nvidia, the computer chipmaker at the center of the artificial intelligence boom. If nothing else tells you how big AI will be in your life in upcoming years, let this be the alarm bell.
• Nvidia’s shares rose more than 3 percent yesterday, giving the company an overall market valuation of more than $3.3 trillion. Apple and Microsoft, which for years have swapped positions as the world’s most valuable company, were worth slightly less at the end of trading.
• Nvidia’s chips and software are crucial to training the AI algorithms behind image-generators and chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Demand for the chips has skyrocketed, pushing Nvidia’s revenue up to $26 billion in the first quarter of this year, up from just $7.2 billion a year ago.
• Yikes! Well, I, for one, welcome our new artificially intelligent overlords.
• I’m being funny here, but you know very well there’s one of them reading this shit right now. And on that topic, I’m not kidding at all.
• In other news…
• I’ve suggested before that you don’t buy food from Dollar Tree or any similar discount store. There’s a reason for that.
• Applesauce pouches contaminated with heavy amounts of lead remained on Dollar Tree store shelves for nearly two months after being recalled and linked to hundreds of lead poisonings nationwide.
• The recalled WanaBana apple cinnamon fruit puree pouches were seen on on Dollar Tree store shelves for weeks and even months that followed the recall.
• Fucking pieces of shit. And people were unknowingly feeding that lead to their children, and there’s no effective treatment for lead poisoning.
• I know food is expensive, but if you think that costs a lot, wait and see what your medical bills are for treating your poisoned family.
• Moving on.
• Anderson Lee Aldrich, the shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others in 2022 at an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs, CO pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes and was sentenced to 55 life terms in prison yesterday.
• Good. I hope that guy lives a very long time behind bars with plenty of moments, day in and day out for decades, to consider what he did.
• While we’re on the topic of terrible people, on Monday I mentioned Robert Morris, the founder and senior pastor at Gateway Church in North Texas.
• He was the guy who raped a 12-year-old girl, and later was named to an official role as spiritual adviser to former President Donald Trump.
• Morris is known in Texas and nationally for his efforts to advance conservative Christian morality through government and Republican politics. Example: in 2017, he called on parishioners to support a bill that would have banned transgender people from using public bathrooms that correspond with their genders. 
• Yesterday, Morris resigned from his position at the megachurch where he’s bilked his flock out of millions of dollars. God knows how many other children he’s raped.
• And now, The Weather: “The Seal” by Beak>
• From the Sports Desk… have to lead with a big rest in peace to the Say Hey Kid. 
• Willie Mays, the iconic baseball legend whose remarkable career spanned 22 seasons, died yesterday at 93.
• He started his pro career in the Negro Leagues, joining the Birmingham Black Barons at age 16. After graduating from high school in 1951, he was signed by the New York Giants and was named National League Rookie of the Year after his first season.
• Mays was a 24-time All-Star, tied for second most of all time, and won 12 Golden Glove awards. He finished his playing career with 660 home runs, the sixth most of all time.
• And now the current news from the Sports Desk… the Florida Panthers had the opportunity to wrap up the 2023/24 NHL championship last night in Game 5 of the finals, but the scrappy Edmonton Oilers held on to win 5-3.
• The Oilers have scored 13 goals in the past two games. That’s a lot.
• Game 6 is in Edmonton on Friday night.
• Today in history… English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in North America. (1586). The first officially recorded organized baseball game is played, with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23–1 (1846). The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford (1862). Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, TX are officially informed of their freedom (1865). The first Father’s Day is celebrated in Spokane, WA (1910). The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States' Federal Communications Commission, the FCC (1934). The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL merge for one season due to player shortages caused by World War II (1943). The first NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway (1960). The Civil Rights Act survives an 83-day filibuster in the Senate and passes 73–27 (1964). Garfield's first comic strip, originally published locally as Jon in 1976, goes into nationwide syndication (1978). WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents (2012). 
• June 19 is the birthday of mathematician/physicist Blaise Pascal (1623), comedian Moe Howard (1897), bandleader Guy Lombardo (1902), MLB player Lou Gehrig (1903), SCOTUS justice Abe Fortas (1910), actress Nancy Marchand (1928), actress Gena Rowlands (1930), novelist Salman Rushdie (1947), singer-songwriter Nick Drake (1948), actress Phylicia Rashad (1948), singer-songwriter Ann Wilson (1950), actress Kathleen Turner (1954), singer/dancer Paula Abdul (1962), TV host Laura Ingraham (1963), UK prime minister Boris Johnson (1964), guitarist Brian “Head” Welch (1970), NBA player Dirk Nowitzki (1978), actress Zoe Saldana (1978), rapper Macklemore (1983), MLB player Jacob deGrom (1988), and NBA player Jordan Poole (1999).

That seems like enough news. In reality, this column could be three times as long each day and still not cover everything that’s actually important, but I do not have the time for that. This isn’t my actual job or anything. Enjoy your day.