Random News: June 28, 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 28, 2024, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! And let me tell ya, Friday couldn’t come at a better time. I really need a weekend.

• And here come today’s round of SCOTUS decisions, right at 7AM as usual.
• First up: City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. The Supreme Court upholds an Oregon city’s ban on camping in public spaces even if there’s no shelter space or anywhere else for them to go, finding it doesn’t unconstitutionally criminalize the status of being homeless. So, let’s make life worse for the unhoused. Assholes.
• Obviously this now applies across the country, so folks who are down on their luck are now all more imperiled than they were yesterday. It’s said that over half of Americans are less than two paychecks from being homeless.
• That decision is written by Gorsuch, and the vote is 6-3 with the conservatives winning and Sotomayor dissenting, joined by Jackson and Kagan.
• Second decision: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. In another 6-3 vote along idealogical lines, the Court has overturned the Chevron doctrine.
• This is horrible. By overruling Chevron, the Supreme Court has just pickpocketed Congress and stolen power from them. It’s a huge power grab by the Supreme Court… probably the biggest since 1803 when the court decided in Marbury v. Madison that they were going to review and strike down acts of Congress.
• The question in this case was whether to overrule the court's 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which held that courts should defer to an agency's reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute.
• It’s a huge win for business interests over the people. Fucking awful.
• Third and final decision today: Fischer v. United States. This 6-3 vote significant weakens the obstruction charges against January 6 insurrectionists. The opinion was written by Roberts. Oddly, the vote tally had Barrett joining Kagan and Sotomayor in dissent, and Jackson joining the other conservatives.
• So that, too, is awful. No more decisions until Monday, when they’ll drop the presidential immunity ruling on us.
• Moving on.
• I encouraged you all to watch the presidential debate last night.
• I am very, very sorry. No one should have had that inflicted upon them. It was far worse than I thought possible.
• Joe Biden looked to be 137 years old. He’s had a cold, and his voice was gone before the thing even started, adding to the effect.
• His entire demeanor was frail and elderly. His verbal gaffes and stammers were as bad as I’ve ever seen in a major address. Completing a single goddamn sentence was a challenge for him.
• Meanwhile, the Orange Menace spewed lie after lie, with no moderation or fact checking. I thought I mostly remembered how horrible he was, but no… he’s far worse.
• By the way, Dump says that Democrats abort children after they’re born. He said that several times. He’s very proud of having killed reproductive rights of women. He said it was a great thing.
• Here’s my basic reaction: nothing about my stance on the issues facing the US change because of a single debate. All of my values and core beliefs are in line with Biden’s.
• Yes, he’s old. They’re both old. They’re two old-ass men who are not really representational of the type of person nearly any of us would prefer leading the country.
• And yet, those are the choices, and my support remains strongly behind Joe Biden.
• I’m not gonna blame CNN, Jake Tapper, or Dana Bash (though they were fucking trash).
• And frankly, I am truly not sure either of these guys will be alive at the end of this presidential term, and it’s a good thing I truly like Kamala Harris.
• And people do care about optics… especially shallow people, which is frankly a whole lot of us. I do see the panicky headlines this morning, but I’m not buying into their freakout.
• So yes, of course, I’m voting for Biden. I vote for an entire administration, with ideals that match my own. That’s Joe Biden, and of story.
• Moving on.
• We’re getting toward the end of June and Pride Month, so let’s honor a special Gay of the Day today: activist Allan Horsfall.
• Known today as the grandfather of the gay rights movement, Horsfall openly campaigned as a gay man starting in the 1950s, when homosexuality was still very much illegal in his native UK and much of the world.
• In 1964 Allan Horsfall and a group of friends set up the North West Homosexual Law Reform Committee. The base location of the organization was publicly listed as his home address — a very brave action even now, but especially so at the time.
• The work of his committee directly led to homosexuality no longer being illegal.
• The North West Committee was eventually transformed into the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), which was the largest-ever LGBT organization in the UK, with thousands of members and 120 local groups all over the country when it was at its biggest.
• Its role in the removal of the stigma of criminality from homosexuality remained his crowning achievement.
• Horsfall had a long life and died in 2012 at age 84. Hats off to him!
• In other news…
• Yesterday, Oklahoma’s state superintendent mandated that all public schools teach the Bible.
• Yes, the First Amendment has been canceled in Oklahoma, it would seem.
• It was not immediately clear how the Bible would be taught or what instructional standards around it would require. A memo to Oklahoma school districts said schools “are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments,” into curriculum for fifth through 12th grades, effective immediately.
• So they’ve lost their fucking minds, and I look forward to the pending lawsuits.
• Moving on.
• U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon said yesterday that she will hold a hearing for El Dumpo’s lawyers to challenge some of the evidence gathered against him for mishandling of classified documents and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them.
• Dump is seeking to suppress much of that evidence by arguing that the search warrant was faulty.
• As part of her ruling, Cannon also said Dump’s defense lawyers were entitled to a hearing on whether prosecutors had misused statements by one of Trump’s former lawyers.
• You can see where this is headed. We’re supposed to live in a nation where the same laws apply to all the people equally, but we constantly see evidence that this is not the case.
• If you or I had literally ONE page of the documents that Dump had boxes of, we’d be in prison for decades.
• And now, The Weather: “Alligator” by Canty
• A rest in peace going out to singer, songwriter, satirist and novelist Kinky Friedman, leader of the alt-country band Texas Jewboys. He yesterday died at 79.
• Friedman toured with Bob Dylan, sang with Willie Nelson, ran for governor of Texas, and much more. RIP.
• Let’s do a chart. It’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles from this date in June 1971. I am two. I’m not doing too much cool shit yet. The music is mostly good, though.
• 1. It's Too Late/I Feel The Earth Move (Carole King). 2. Rainy Days And Mondays (Carpenters). 3. Want Ads (The Honey Cone). 4. Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian) (The Raiders). 5. Treat Her Like A Lady (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose). 6. Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones). 7. It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr). 8. Don't Pull Your Love (Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds). 9. When You're Hot, You're Hot (Jerry Reed). 10. Sweet And Innocent (Donny Osmond of The Osmonds). 11. I'll Meet You Halfway (The Partridge Family Starring Shirley Jones Featuring David Cassidy). 12. Joy To The World (Three Dog Night). 13. Don't Knock My Love - Pt. 1 (Wilson Pickett). 14. You've Got A Friend (James Taylor). 15. Double Lovin' (The Osmonds). 16. Nathan Jones (The Supremes). 17. She's Not Just Another Woman (The 8th Day). 18. Mr. Big Stuff (Jean Knight). 19. That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be (Carly Simon). 20. Funky Nassau-Part I (The Beginning Of The End).
• From the Not-Sports Desk… yesterday a jury in U.S. District Court ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages after ruling that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on their premium "Sunday Ticket" subscription service.
• Ouch!
• The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class. It covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV.
• Unsurprisingly, the NFL said it would appeal the verdict. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit and then possibly the Supreme Court.
• Because we know the Supreme Court will definitely always act in the interest of the people right? Right?
• From the actual Sports Desk… welp, I guess it’s “Bring Your Child to Work Day” all next year for the Los Angeles Lakers.
• They selected Bronny James — the eldest son of LeBron James — in the second round with the 55th overall pick.
• Bronny, 19, averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 19.4 minutes per game in his lone season at USC. I mean, not that great, really.
• Before yesterday, there had never been a father-son duo playing in the NBA at the same time, much less on the same team.
• And while I don’t know this for sure, I have a pretty good suspicion that their choices were to draft Bronny or lose LeBron, so they went with the former. Either way, I’m telling you, it’ll be weird.
• Today in history… The American Continentals engage the British in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse resulting in standstill and British withdrawal under cover of darkness (1778). Coronation of Queen Victoria of the UK (1838). The first conformation dog show is held in England (1859). The US Congress establishes the first federal holidays - New Year’s Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (1870). Labor Day becomes an official US holiday (1894). The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal (1902). Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, leading to WWI (1914). The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending the state of war between Germany and the Allies of World War I (1919). Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merge their two car companies and call the new one Mercedes-Benz (1926). The Korean People's Army kills almost a thousand doctors, nurses, inpatient civilians and wounded soldiers in the Seoul National University Hospital massacre (1950). Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity (1964). The Stonewall Riots start in New York City, launching the Gay Rights Movement (1969). Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round of a match for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear (1997). 
• June 28 is the birthday of Frankish king Carloman I (751), English king Henry VIII (1491), painter Peter Paul Reubens (1577), playwright/composer Richard Rodgers (1902), actor/director/screenwriter Mel Brooks (1926), actor Pat Morita (1932), US secretary of defense Leon Panetta (1938), comedian Gilda Radner (1946), actress Kathy Bates (1948), actress Alice Krige (1954), NFL player John Elway (1960), actor John Cusack (1966), actress Mary Stuart Masterson (1966), NBA player Bobby Hurley, and businessman Elon Musk (1971).

I know a lot this is depressing shit, but you know what they say: when the going gets tough, the tough get going… and I am a tough motherfucker and so are you. Don’t lie down and surrender. Stand up and be strong, and get ready to kick some ass. Enjoy your day.