Random News: June 3, 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 3, 2024, and it’s a Monday. It feels kinda extra Mondayish today, perhaps because last week we weren’t subjected to one. But today there’s no doubt. I’m up and awake and ready to see what’s happening in the world, and I’ll share it with you… that’s what I do.

• Mexico did something yesterday that has been difficult for the USA. They elected a smart, sane leader.
• Claudia Sheinbaum will be Mexico’s first woman president and first Jewish president. She won the election by promising continuity from her popular predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
• She’s a former Mexico City mayor and a lifelong leftist, and ran a disciplined campaign capitalizing on López Obrador’s popularity before emerging victorious in Sunday’s vote.
• Sheinbaum is viewed as being a data-driven leader which is no surprise; her background is in science and she has a Ph.D. in energy engineering.
• I’m very happy for Mexico and I’d bet that they will do very well under President Sheinbaum.
• Let’s move on.
• Celebrating Pride Month, today’s Gay of the Day is Massachusetts governor Maura Healey.
• In 2022, she became one of the first openly LGBT people (alongside Oregon governors Kate Brown and Tina Kotek and Colorado governor Jared Polis) elected governor of a U.S. state. Healey was also the first woman elected governor of Massachusetts.
• Like most successful political leaders, it’s safe to label Healey as an overachiever, at least from my slacker perspective.
• She majored in government at Harvard College, graduating cum laude in 1992. While there, she was co-captain of the Harvard Crimson women's basketball team, and then spent two years playing as a starting point guard for a professional basketball team in Austria
• Upon returning to the USA, Healey earned a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in 1998.
• In 2014, Healey defeated Republican nominee John Miller 62.5% to 37.5% to become the United States' first openly lesbian state attorney general.
• In her career, she has championed the reduction of gun violence, access to women’s reproductive health services, combatting prescription drug abuse, and fighting against injustices like Dump’s 2017 Muslim ban.
• Hats off to Governor Healey.
• Moving on.
• I promise there’s no reason to dwell on this for awhile, but an amazing degree of hypocrisy was pointed out over the weekend in regard to the felony conviction of El Dumpo last Thursday.
• On Friday, Dump blasted the United States’ criminal justice system, saying it’s corrupt and rigged. He called our system of justice a scam.
• But fascinatingly, Dump was found guilty in the same courthouse that truly was the site of one of the most notorious examples of injustice in recent New York history. And Dump had a part in that trial too.
• It was 34 years ago that five Black and Latino youths were wrongly convicted in that court for the beating and rape of a white female jogger.
• Except none of them had anything to do with the crime. They eventually had their convictions vacated in 2002 after evidence linked another person to the crime.
• But Dump’s first foray in politics was having taken out a full-page newspaper ad in New York City in the aftermath of the 1989 attack, and in that ad he called for the immediate execution of the accused.
• And even after their innocence was proven and they were fully exonerated, Dump refused to issue an apology to the Central Park 5 for having demanded their execution, even as recently as 2019.
• Dump has obviously been scared shitless since his conviction. Last night, he begged the Supreme Court to intervene in his case.
• So, enough on all that. Dump gets his sentence on July 11, and while I’m not expecting any jail time, I am anticipating some interesting side results.
• Moving on.
• Some sad news out of Congress where longtime Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
• That’s really bad, if you’re unaware. That’s not the cancer anyone wants.
• Jackson Lee, 74, has served in Texas’s 18th congressional district since 1995. Throughout her career she has sponsored legislation on issues such as police reform, sentencing laws, safe gun storage, and white supremacy-motivated hate crimes.
• She also sponsored legislation that led to Juneteenth being recognized as a federal holiday in 2021; that same year, she was arrested during nonviolent protests that called for the protection of voting rights.
• Thinking good thoughts for her.
• In other news…
• Jury selection begins today in the federal gun case against Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
• I’ve said before and I’ll say again: what the family members of leaders do matters exactly zero to me. If Hunter is guilty, lock his ass up. If not, send him on his merry way.
• I don’t care about Eric Trump, or Tricia Cox Nixon, or Amy Carter, or the Bush twins. I just don’t. And if any of you want to be perceived on the actions of your entire family, I’d be very surprised.
• But as always, no one is above the law.
• Moving on.
• Hey, remember when we had that pandemic? Whew, it’s a good thing that’s all gone and we can go about our lives as if COVID was never a thing.
• Except it’s still a thing, and summer travel and people stuck together in air-conditioned spaces are going to pump up the latest set of variants that scientists call “FLiRT.”
• FLiRT is a term being used to describe a whole family of different variants—including KP.2, JN.1.7, and any other variants starting with KP or JN—that appear to have independently picked up the same set of mutations. This is called convergent evolution.
• Every summer since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen a summer wave. And we will probably will get another summer wave in coming months.
• The good news: as of last Friday, the CDC says that the amount of respiratory illness in the U.S. is currently low. But I just wanted to mention… COVID hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s probably here to stay, like colds and flus (except with a higher mortality rate than either).
• So do make sure you’re updated on the most recent vaccine.
• Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the hero who lead the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is appearing before a congressional committee today for the first time since retiring about 18 months ago.
• The House GOP is still focused on the origins of COVID, trying to find a scapegoat for things that happened in 2020 when Dump was still president.
• Assholes.
• And now, The Weather: “Fade Out” by Lunar Isles
• From the Sports Desk… the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals will be between the Edmonton Oilers, seeking their sixth cup, and the Florida Panthers seeking their first.
• Fun Fact: The Oilers last won it in 1990, three years before the Panthers were an NHL franchise. Game 1 is Saturday June 8 in Florida.
• Today in history… After a five-month siege during the First Crusade, the Crusaders seize Antioch, today’s Turkey (1098). Hernando de Soto claims Florida for Spain (1539). The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherland (1621). Jack Jouett begins his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of an impending raid by Banastre Tarleton (1781). In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kilograms of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a casus belli to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War (1839). Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, VA, now West Virginia (1861). The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, OR (1889). In Los Angeles, CA, white U.S. Navy sailors and Marines attack Latino youths in the five-day Zoot Suit Riots (1943). Ed White, a crew member of the Gemini 4 mission, performs the first American spacewalk (1965). A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded (1979). The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence (2006). The trial of United States Army private Chelsea Manning for leaking classified material to WikiLeaks begins in Fort Meade, MD (2013).
• June 3 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer David Gregory (1659), Confederate president Jefferson Davis (1808), businessman Ransom E. Olds (1864), UK king George V (1865), singer-songwriter Memphis Minnie (1897), physician Charles R. Drew (1904), actress/singer/resistance operative Josephine Baker (1906), burlesque dancer Lili St. Cyr (1918), actor Tony Curtis (1925), poet Allen Ginsberg (1926), TV host/producer Chuck Barris (1929), businessman Joe Coulombe (1930), politician Raúl Castro (1931), novelist Larry McMurtry (1936), singer-songwriter Ian Hunter (1940), singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield (1942), drummer Michael Clarke (1946), singer-songwriter/bass player Suzi Quatro (1950), US first lady Jill Biden (1951), singer-songwriter Dan Hill (1954), guitarist/composer Kerry King (1964), journalist Anderson Cooper (1967), NBA player Al Horford (1986), tennis player Rafael Nadal (1986), and singer-songwriter/guitarist Beabadoobee (2000).

Alrighty… time to start Mondaying for real. Ugh. Enjoy your day.