Random News: June 6, 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 6, 2024, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. Let’s get this out of the way first: yes, it’s my birthday, and also that of my significant other. We both thank you for your kind messages and whatnot. I’ll mention that some more below, but we have lots to talk about first.

• Let’s start with the 80-year anniversary of D-Day today. If you need a brush up on history, D-Day was June 6, 1944. It was the first day of the Normandy landings that laid the foundations for the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
• I was born on the (pulls out calculator)… 25th anniversary of D-Day. What the fuck? How did I get this old?
• Anyway.
• The invasion of Normandy saw tens of thousands of troops from the United States, the UK, and Canada landing on five stretches of coastline, codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches.
• People talk about D-Day like we all just sauntered in, shot some Nazis, drank some beers and called it a day. No, It was fucking brutal for everyone.
• US forces suffered substantial losses at Omaha Beach, where strong currents forced many landing craft away from their intended positions.
• Heavy fire from German positions on the steep cliffs caused many casualties. Around 4,440 Allied troops were confirmed dead that day. More than 5,800 troops were wounded or missing.
• The Allies didn’t get total control of Normandy until 77 days later, and then moved on toward Paris, which they liberated in August 1944.
• Anyway, you know how war history goes: it gets written by the winners, but no matter who tells the story, D-Day and the events that followed did have a massive impact on the direction of the world moving forward from that point on.
• President Biden and key U.S. allies — French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — were in Normandy today to commemorate the historical moment.
• It’s notable that one of the proudest American efforts in history was about us coming together to fight a fascist dictator who’d achieved his power as a populist political leader known for vilifying and dehumanizing other groups of people.
• Hmm.
• Moving on to today’s Gay of the Day, which we’re dong all June to celebrate Pride.
• I selected today’s choice of actor, playwright, and screenwriter Harvey Fierstein not only because he’s well deserving of recognition; it’s also because he also shares today as a birthday. He’s 70.
• Happy birthday Harvey.
• You probably know him for his famous gravelly voice and his many film and TV appearances over the past 40+ years. But Harvey also wrote the highly-respected Broadway play ‘Torch Song Trilogy' that premiered in 1981 and got Tony and Drama Desk awards as well as a film adaptation.
• As one of the first openly gay celebrities in the United States, Fierstein helped make gay and lesbian life into a viable subject for contemporary drama "with no apologies and no climactic suicides.”
• I like that. Let’s move on.
• As we mentioned yesterday morning, the Senate held a vote on a bill that would guarantee access to contraception nationwide.
• To be clear, the test vote won a 51-39 majority, but that was well short of the 60 votes to move ahead on the legislation.
• Along with the rest of their party — with the exception of Susan Colins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — all nine Republican senators running for reelection this year voted against the right for Americans to continue to have access to contraception: John Barrasso (R-WY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Roger Wicker (R-MS). 
• So much for the party of freedom. What’s next, Rick Scott pops up in your bedroom to make sure there are no condoms in the nightstand? Vote every one of these fuckers out of office, for the love of God.
• Moving on.
• Early this morning, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza killed more than 30 people, including 23 women and children.
• Of course, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said they’d been monitoring the school and that 20-30 Hamas and affiliated militants were "operating in three different rooms to plan and launch terror attacks."
• I do not believe them.
• Israel says it won't end the war without destroying Hamas, and it has rejected calls for a permanent cease-fire until that aim is achieved. Hamas is demanding a lasting cease-fire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
• Might be awhile, I say to both sides. Meanwhile, civilians keep paying the price for your war fetish.
• Let’s move on.
• Do you remember that horrifying story from two years ago when a woman was placed in handcuffs and put into a police cruiser which was parked on the tracks and got hit by a train with her inside?
• Yareni Rios-Gonzalez reached an $8.5 million settlement this week with equal payments coming from the cities of Platteville and Fort Lupton as part of the agreement.
• She was severely injured in the incident. Frankly, $8.5 million seems low for what she went through.
• Two officers — Jordan Steinke of Fort Lupton and Pablo Vazquez of Platteville — were charged in the incident and both were terminated by their departments.
• Moving on.
• I have a Fun Fact.
• A week ago today, when 12 Manhattan jurors convicted Dumples the Clown of 34 felonies, they added to an astonishing losing streak for the former president and constant douchebag.
• Dumpy has been unable to win over a single juror, out of 42 total, in recent criminal and civil trials. 
• The juries — two in state criminal trials and two in federal civil trials — have unanimously and quickly ruled against El Dumpo. Winning over just one juror is often the baseline hope for defense attorneys, because a jury that can't reach consensus — known as a hung jury — results in a mistrial. One juror can save a defendant from defeat, at least in the short term.
• But no. Not one. Ha ha.
• Let’s do some terrible news with a bit of good news at the end.
• Multiple inmates have died in Wisconsin correctional facilities. One inmates at the Waupun Correctional Institution was dead in his cell for 12 hours before his death was discovered.
• Another died of dehydration and malnutrition, and an investigation showed that officers at his restricted unit failed to feed him nine out of 12 meals over the course of four days.
• I’m happy to say that nine correctional officials, including Randall Hepp, the warden of the maximum-security prison, have been arrested on charges connected with those deaths.
• I truly hope they face appropriate justice to bring peace tot he families of the departed who were in their care.
• In other news…
• Do you like pretty, bright blue lakes? I do.
• Unless they’re in East Antarctica. Then it’s a fucking problem.
• 8,000 of these azure ponds have emerged there between the year 2000 and 2013. These lakes are appearing on what was considered to be a particularly cold segment of the world’s coldest environment, one that until now has largely resisted man-made climate change.
• These meltwater lakes may mean that East Antarctic’s reputation as an unusual bastion against global warming is about to come to an end.
• Well, it was a good run for awhile. Humans were never destined for permanent existence in this universe.
• Moving on.
• Donnie lost his gun… Donnie lost his gun… 
• Dumpy's gun license is expected to be revoked now that he has been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, per the New York Police Department. His gun license for New York City had been suspended upon his indictment.
• It is not certain that El Dumpo was actually packing heat, but his gun license for New York City was active at the time of his indictment in the hush money case in March 2023.
• Dumbass.
• While we’re talking about dumbasses, meet Matthew Eddy.
• At the Class of 2024 graduation ceremony in Baraboo, WI last Friday, Eddy’s daughter was graduating and was in line to do the customary handshake with the faculty and district management when she got her diploma.
• That’s when Eddy ran onto the stage and shoved school superintendent Rainey Briggs away from her, yelling that Briggs is “not going to touch my fucking daughter."
• Briggs is a Black man, you see. And Eddy is white. And Baraboo High School is the same place where, in 2018, the school made national news when a photo emerged depicting dozens of white current and former students doing the “Sieg Heil!” Nazi salute.
• After the incident, three Baraboo police officers sprang to the stage and escorted Eddy out of the school following the incident. He has been cited for disorderly conduct, a municipal ordinance violation, while possible charges are pending with the Sauk County District Attorney's Office.
• What an asshole. I do have sympathy for his daughter. Maybe she won’t grow up to be a racist piece of shit like her dad, but statistically it’s unlikely.
• And now, The Weather: “David Burn” by banzai florist
• I mentioned up top that it’s not only my birthday but that of my significant other, who some of you know as Kat and others as Christina. It was actually due to our shared birthday — one year apart — that we became acquainted a little over 20 years ago, having met on a forum for music creators.
• I gotta say, it’s very convenient to get both of our birthdays out of the way on the same day. Also, we both like pie. And cheese. And music. Anyway, it’s easy for us to choose gifts for each other, and we end up sharing them anyway.
• From the Sports Desk… seven-year NBA veteran Chase Budinger will head to Paris next month to compete for the United States in the 2024 Summer Olympics. But not in basketball.
• Instead, it’s in beach volleyball. Budinger and his partner Miles Evans qualified yesterday for the U.S. men's team. They are tied for 13th in the most recent world rankings.
• While he will become the only person to play a regular-season game in the NBA and Olympic beach volleyball, there have been plenty of NBA players who were great volleyball players because of… height and athleticism. Duh.
• Pertinent side note: Wilt Chamberlain didn’t play in the Olympics, but became a half of fame pro volleyball player after his NBA career.
• Today in history… Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire (913). The Young Men's Christian Association, aka the YMCA, is founded in London (1844). The First Battle of Memphis, a naval engagement fought on the Mississippi results in the capture of Memphis, TN by Union forces from the Confederates (1862). The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle (1889). The Chicago "L" elevated rail system begins operation (1892). Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike (1894). The original Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company (1925). U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1934). The United States Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway is a major turning point in the Pacific Theater of World War II (1942). Commencement of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history (1944). Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut (1982). Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia (1993). 
• June 6 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer Regiomontanus (1436), soldier/spy Nathan Hale (1755), author/poet Alexander Pushkin (1799), pharmacist Friedrich Bayer (1825), physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850), entrepreneur David T. Abercrombie (1867), Indonesia president Sukarno (1901), MLB player Bill Dickey (1907), Niger president Hamani Diori (1916), businessman Kirk Kerkorian (1917), singer Levi Stubbs (1936), singer-songwriter Gary U.S. Bonds (1939), bass player Tony Levin (1946), actor Robert Englund (1947), actor Harvey Fierstein (1954), tennis player Björn Borg (1956), comedian Colin Quinn (1959), guitarist/composer Steve Vai (1960), actor Paul Giamatti (1967), singer-songwriter/activist Zak Claxton (1969), journalist Natalie Morales (1972), NFL player DeAndre Hopkins (1992), and NFL player Kenny Pickett (1998).

Well, that’s plenty of news. I’ve already had a few people ask if I have special plans for this special day. Um, no. It’s a fucking Thursday. I’m going to work and have a rather typical day, perhaps with some moments of fun between the usual shit. And pie. I’ll have pie. Enjoy your day.