Random News: June 20, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s June 20, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. It’s also, as explained below, the first day of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere. I’m up and about and really enjoying this cup of Peet’s Sulawesi-Kalosi blend. So let’s see what’s worth seeing and talk about various things, as we do each morning.

• Doesn’t summer usually start, like, a bit later?
• Yes it does. The summer solstice of 2024 happens today — Thursday, June 20, at 1:50 PM PDT/4:50PM EDT. It is indeed on the early side compared to many years.
• In fact, it’s the earliest start of summer in 228 years, thanks to that wacky Gregorian calendar.
• The reason this year’s solstice is the earliest since 1796 is because the Earth doesn’t orbit the sun in precisely 365 days. That’s why we have a leap year.
• But that’s not quite precise enough, so years that begin with 00 are only leap years if the year is also divisible by 400.
• So that’s why the solstice this year is about 45 minutes earlier than previous years. It’s a trend that will continue until 2096, with the solstice creeping earlier with each orbit around the sun until the calendar resets.
• But the universe doesn’t give a shit about people and our calendars. No matter what the date says, the summer solstice occurs the moment that one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun.
• In the Northern Hemisphere where over 90% of humans on Earth live, the summer solstice is in reference to the north pole.
• Every day of summer, the days get shorter, making today the longest day of the year. A more accurate statement: today has the most sunlight of any day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
• No days are really longer than others, changing in only tiny increments over millennia.
• If you live on the equator, none of this has any meaning to you.
• Note that culturally, the summer solstice has been important since the Neolithic era. Many ancient monuments are aligned with the sunrise or sunset on the summer solstice
• And midsummer celebrations extend past into neopagan, Roman, and earlier eras.
• So happy Summer, y’all.
• Let’s move on.
• A giant “fuck you” heading out to the leadership of the state of Louisiana.
• Yesterday, they became the only state moronic enough to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry.
• The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in large, easily readable font be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities.
• This, obviously, goes against the Constitution of the United States of America. It’s also a clear message that anyone who doesn’t worship the Bible is unwelcome in Louisiana schools.
• My solution is simple: just file a lawsuit against every school and every district in the state. Oh wait, the ACLU did that immediately. Never mind. Well done.
• Note that Louisiana doesn’t own the patent on defying our nation’s laws separating church and state. Similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have previously been proposed in Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah.
• However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, no state besides Louisiana has had success in making the bills law. But Louisiana is special like that.
• Of note: in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
• Let’s move on before I get even angrier about that shit.
• In our monthlong celebration of Pride, today’s Gay of the Day is a triumvirate of iconic musical performers: Elton John, Freddie Mercury, and George Michael.
• Why combine these three? Because they each brought an element of over-the-top charisma to the music they performed that remains unmatched.
• Of note: all three gentlemen are/were British, and all three used stage names. Elton was born Reginald Dwight; Freddie was born Farrokh Bulsara; George was born Georgios Panayiotou.
• Elton John has more than fifty top-40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including nine number ones, as well as seven consecutive number-one albums in the US. He has sold over 300 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
• He is also an HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser and has been involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. He established the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, which has raised over hundreds of millions since its inception.
• Freddie Mercury formed Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. He wrote numerous iconic hits for the band including "Killer Queen,” "Bohemian Rhapsody,” "Somebody to Love,” "We Are the Champions,” "Don't Stop Me Now,” and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".
• As the first major rock star to die of AIDS-related complications, Mercury's death represented an important event in the history of the disease. The remaining members of Queen founded The Mercury Phoenix Trust and organized The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness, which took place on April 20, 1992.
• George Michael is regarded as a pop culture icon. He is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, with his sales estimated at between 100 million to 125 million records worldwide.
• Michael came out as gay in 1998, and was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser. His philanthropic efforts included donating all of the the proceeds from the 1991 single "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" to 10 different charities for children, AIDS, and education.
• All three of these men had distinctively incredible singing styles, but they also allowed people to lessen their homophobia via the admiration of them as musicians, realizing that it was okay to be fans of an artist whether or not they were gay.
• In other news…
• A sad piece of tangible evidence regarding global climate change is happening as nearly two million Muslims reach the end of the hajj pilgrimage this week.
• Extreme heat has proved fatal for many who began the journey last Friday to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. At least 562 people have died during the hajj. Egypt alone has registered 307 deaths and another 118 missing.
• Temperatures in the region at times have gone past 124º F.
• Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet in Ecuador, the entire country was plunged into a nationwide blackout yesterday afternoon.
• They blamed the emergency on a failure of a key transmission line that caused a cascade disconnection.
• But Ecuador has faced power shortages this whole year. In April, El Niño-driven drought forced the government to announce a series of planned blackouts that left major cities without power for hours on end.
• Sigh. Power was restored for most of the country by day’s end.
• And here in North America, Tropical Storm Alberto is already being blamed for deaths as it made landfall in Mexico, with Texas in its sights.
• Moving on.
• At any moment now, we should start to get decisions from the Supreme Court on the 23 cases from this term that remain unresolved.
• As we’ve discussed in recent times, these ranges from presidential immunity to Jan. 6 obstruction to emergency abortions to guns, homelessness, social media, and many other crucial topics.
• Oh wait… they just delivered four decisions. That caps it for today.
• Moore vs. US: they rejected a challenge to an obscure provision of Dump’s 2017 tax package, ending a lawsuit that many experts feared could destabilize the nation’s tax system.
• In a 7-2 decision, the court upheld a one-time tax on offshore earnings that helped fund the massive tax cut, saying it was permitted under Congress’s limited powers of taxation. 
• Chiaverini vs. City of Napoleon: Fourth Amendment malicious-prosecution claim. 6-3 decision with Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissenting (which means this is good news).
• Diaz vs. US: something about drug smuggling, with a lady with 100 pounds of meth in her car.
• Gonzalez vs. Trevino: should government officials be shielded from lawsuits when their critics are jailed?
• I don’t have all the info on this shit, as you can tell. More analysis later.
• Let’s move on for now.
• We’ve mentioned a bit about the terrible new use of technology to create nude images from photos of clothed people.
• A bipartisan bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate to address the type of terrible situation that a high school freshman from Texas experienced when she said a fellow student created deepfake images from some of her photos that made it appear she was naked.
• By the time she got to school the next day, the photos had been posted all over Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media.
• And the girl and her mom could not get the social media giants to remove the content.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are two among the bipartisan lot of lawmakers sponsoring the "Take it Down Act," which would criminalize the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery, require social media platforms to remove the content and more.
• I’m in support of this.
• Moving on.
• Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t mention Justin Timberlake’s DUI arrest on Tuesday.
• The reason: I don’t give a shit. Stop your obsession with celebrities.
• Hey, you know who else got arrested for DUI? Me, in June 1989, when I was 20.
• My band was playing a party and I’d been drinking, and LA County Sheriffs raided it, forced me to get in my truck under threat of arrest, and then pulled me out and arrested me anyway as soon as I started the engine.
• Is that fair? No, but I’d driven drunk many times before that, so in a karma sense I had little to complain about.
• I got held in jail overnight, was released in the morning, and had to pay a hefty fine and then attend mandatory DUI classes and AA meetings to be able to retain my driver’s license.
• I will tell you, it was something from which I learned a lot, and fortunately by the time I turned 21, my bad decisions of getting intoxicated and operating vehicles were already behind me.
• But back on topic, celebrities are just people, and they have the same weaknesses and bad decision making process as anyone.
• Due to my work, I’ve met hundreds, perhaps thousands, of well-known musicians and some other folks you’ve probably heard of and know from the broadcast and business worlds.
• And guess what? They’re people. They can be funny or serious, kind or jerks, flamboyant or reserved. They have good moods and bad moods. But whatever you do, even if their work has brought you some kind of joy or fulfillment, do not worship them.
• I gotta say, nothing is more uncomfortable than when I’ve been interviewing someone in a public setting and people interrupt us red-faced and crying and talking about how their song changed their lives.
• Being famous seems, in a word, terrible.
• Speaking of driving…
• We’ve already decided that our next vehicle will not be a fossil fuel machine. It will be either electric or hybrid.
• What were not going to get… the just-announced Ferrari EV.
• The estimated price of the as-yet-unnamed luxury sportscar has it coming in at $535,000.
• The automaker is preparing to open a plant in Maranello, Italy, dedicated to manufacturing the electric model. The plant will reportedly manufacture other Ferrari vehicles, including gas and hybrid models.
• But at over a half million dollars, the Ferrari is out. We’d probably have looked into a Tesla before Elon Musk completely destroyed our perception of that brand.
• So we’ll see.
• And now, The Weather: “Until We Meet Again” by Hermanos Gutiérrez
• Let’s do a chart. It’s this week in June 1965, and I am negative four years old. I do not exist. My parents had just gotten married.
• Side note: where do we go after we die? Back to the same place we were before we were born. The void. I know we all feel we’re pretty special, and it’s hard to conceive of the idea of nothingness.
• Anyway, this was a crucial time in music, where Black artists and folk artists were starting to infiltrate popular culture in a way that had been previously unforeseen.
• It was so disturbing to the status quo that governmental organizations started trying to actively influence the pop charts, realizing the revolutionary effect on culture and society that popular music had, and still has to some degree.
• 1. I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) (Four Tops). 2. Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds). 3. Wooly Bully (Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs). 4. Crying In The Chapel (Elvis Presley With The Jordanaires). 5. Back In My Arms Again (The Supremes). 6. Wonderful World (Herman's Hermits). 7. Help Me, Rhonda (The Beach Boys). 8. Engine Engine #9 (Roger Miller). 190. For Your Love (The Yardbirds). 10. Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Patti Page). 11. Ticket To Ride (The Beatles). 12. Just A Little (The Beau Brummels). 13. Last Chance To Turn Around (Gene Pitney). 14. Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter (Herman's Hermits). 15. Seventh Son (Johnny Rivers). 16. A Walk In The Black Forest (Horst Jankowski). 17. Before And After (Chad & Jeremy). 18. Nothing Can Stop Me (Gene Chandler). 19. True Love Ways (Peter And Gordon). 20. It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones).
• From the Sports Desk… no matter how the NHL Stanley Cup championship wraps up, I have to give mention to Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid. Even before tomorrow night’s game, McDavid is already sitting on 42 points in this postseason.
• What does that mean? Well, the record for most points in a single NHL postseason is held by — unsurprisingly — Wayne Gretzky with 47, a record he set in 1985. Mario Lemieux got 44 in 1991. Gretzky had 43 in 1988 and 40 in 1993.
• Even if McDavid doesn’t touch the puck on Friday, he’s already in 4th place all time… and he’s definitely gonna touch the puck.
• Note for non-hockey fans: a point is awarded for each goal or assist. Your total points in a game are your goals plus your assists.
• For perspective, the top postseason point scorer on the opposing Florida Panthers is Matthew Tkachuk, with 22.
• Today in history… Flavius Aetius battles Attila the Hun, who retreats, and the Romans interpret it as a victory (451). A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta (1756). Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the 'United States’ (1787). Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne (1837). Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph (1840). West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state (1863). Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp (1942). The Mali Federation gains independence from France (1960). Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called "red telephone" link between Washington, D.C. and Moscow (1963). An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex (1972). The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as "summer blockbusters” (1975). Wikipedia is founded (2003).
• June 20 is the birthday of cellist/composer Jacques Offenbach (1819), astronomer Mary R. Calvert (1884), actor Errol Flynn (1909), singer-songwriter/guitarist Chet Atkins (1924), soldier/actor Audie Murphy (1925), actor Martin Landau (1928), actress Olympia Dukakis (1931), actor Danny Aiello (1933), actor John Mahoney (1940), singer-songwriter/producer Brian Wilson (1942), singer-songwriter/producer Lionel Richie (1949), actor John Goodman (1952), bass player Michael Anthony (1954), bass player John Taylor (1960), actress Nicole Kidman (1967), bass player Jeordie White (1971), singer-songwriter Chino Moreno (1973), and NFL player Darren Sproles (1983).

I’m wrapping my news a bit early so I can dig into the other SCOTUS decisions that came in this morning. Enjoy your day.