Random News: June 30, 2025

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 30, 2025, and it’s a Monday. I’m doing my usual Monday stuff, which includes dragging my ass out of a comfy bed, getting into a hot shower, putting on clothes, making coffee and sitting down here to find out what’s going on in the world and sharing it with you. That’s actually what I do every day, but I do it on Mondays too.

• A final Pride Note for 2025…
• I’ve greatly enjoyed writing these Pride Notes every day this month. I truly have.
• The process of thinking about something and then writing it in a way that makes it easier for people to understand is a skill that comes naturally to me, and something I’ve used my whole life in academia and my professional career.
• This is what I do.
• And using that skill to help you diminish your fear of LGBTQIA+ people is something I can be proud of, assuming that even one of you gave some more thought to this topic as a result of reading these notes.
• I’ll end this with a lyric from the 1980 Genesis song “Duke’s Travels”…
• “I am the one who guided you this far / All you know and all you feel / Nobody must know my name / For nobody would understand / And you kill what you fear / And you fear what you don't understand.”
• Knowledge begets understanding. Understanding is the first step toward love. And love will always beat hate. Every fucking time.
• Try and let love guide you, and your life will be immeasurably better off as a result.
• As I write this first bullet, the Senate is in session this morning, going over numerous amendments to Dump’s massive tax cut for the wealthy and slashing of government programs that the rest of us depend upon.
• Most of the amendments are being offered by Democrats and are destined to fail in the Republican-led chamber. Republicans seem perfectly fine with the horrible and cruel changes they are inflicting on the American people.
• Dumpy wants to get the bill wrapped up and sent to his desk by July 4, which is Friday. A Senate-passed bill would require action in the House, which narrowly passed its version of the Big Bullshit Bill last month.
• The weird thing? A good portion of the Republicans who seem to support the bill know very well — and have expressed direct concerns — how it will have a devastating impact on their constituents.
• As in, the people whose votes they need to stay in office.
• But they’re all too scared to oppose Dumples the Fascist Clown, so I guess they’re fine with destroying the lives of people and at the same time throwing their own jobs down the toilet.
• These people will not be reelected after what happens to Medicaid and other vital safety-net programs.
• At least one of them — one of only two who aren’t in full support of Dumpy’s bill — has the balls to stand up for the people. But he’s already losing his job as a result.
• Yesterday, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced he would not seek reelection next year.
• Dumpy, of course, immediately started threatening and demeaning him. Dumpy’s tool set is extremely limited. He turns to the same thing every time his ass isn’t kissed to his liking.
• For days, Tillis has criticized the Medicaid provisions in the bill, and has data showing it would require his state to pick up more than $30 billion in costs in order to make up for lost federal funding.
• He accused other politicians of not taking the time to understand how legislation would affect regular Americans.
• I’m sure that’s true of some of them. The rest do understand but simply don’t care.
• Tillis wrote, "Too many elected officials are motivated by pure raw politics who really don't give a damn about the people they promised to represent on the campaign trail."
• That is correct.
• First thing this morning, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) praised Tillis for having the “backbone” to oppose the bill.
• Schumer said, “My guess is about half, maybe even more than half of the Republicans in the Senate totally agree with [Tillis]. … The bill devastates his state, but make no mistake about it, it will devastate the state of almost every Republican here.”
• Again, correct.
• And keep in mind: they know this, but they’re doing it anyway.
• Side note on Tillis: his seat is by no means safely red. Yesterday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put out a statement predicting Democrats would flip the seat next year.
• National Democrats are hoping former Governor Roy Cooper, who is popular and has far-reaching name recognition, will decide to run for the now open seat.
• Guess we’ll see.
• Another note on the extremely unpopular Big Bullshit Bill…
• Yesterday, our new favorite person — the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian — advised Senators that several provisions violate the chamber’s strict rules for budget reconciliation bills.
• On Saturday night, Sen. Lisa Murkowski threatened to derail the bill unless given special consideration to boost Medicaid and SNAP payments only to Alaska and Hawaii.
• In doing so, the Senate violated the Byrd rule, which limits what can pass through the reconciliation process with a simple majority.
• I have no faith that the Senate will operate under its own rules, and apparently Dumpy is already telling them to overrule or just ignore the parliamentarian. But if she is obeyed, the bill would now require a supermajority of 60 votes to go through, which of course, they don’t have.
• Moving on.
• Even though we just wrapped up the current term of the awful Supreme Court, they’re still at work.
• Today, they took up a new challenge to campaign finance restrictions in a case brought by Republicans seeking to overturn limits on party committees spending money in coordination with individual candidates.
• As you likely know, the SCOTUS has long been skeptical of campaign finance restrictions on free speech grounds, with its most notable ruling being the horrible 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision that paved the way for unlimited independent expenditures by outside groups.
• However, in a 2001 ruling, the court upheld the restrictions at issue in the new case, meaning the justices would have to overturn that decision for the Republicans to win.
• To make it as simple as possible, Republicans are trying to say that campaign contributions should have no limits, and that any restrictions violate the Constitution's First Amendment.
• The restrictions, first imposed via the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1971, will now be defended by the Democratic National Committee and associated committees, which filed a motion to intervene in the case.
• Sigh.
• I have no faith that they’ll do the right thing.
• Moving on.
• Dumpy says he has a buyer for TikTok, the video-sharing app that was banned in the US amid claims it posed a national security risk.
• Who? Dump said he had a group of "very wealthy people" willing to acquire the platform. Who are they and when will we know? "I'll tell you in about two weeks," said the Orange Moron, using his standard reply for everything.
• A sale would need approval from the Chinese government, but Dump said dhe thought President Xi Jinping "will probably do it".
• Sure, Donnie.
• Side note: Dump has now delayed the enforcement of a law mandating TikTok's sale three times. The latest extension requires parent company ByteDance to reach a deal to sell the platform by September 17.
• Congress passed a law forcing TikTok's sale in April 2024, with lawmakers citing fears that the app or its parent company could hand over US user data to the Chinese government.
• A note from the Immigration Desk…
• We’ve all seen the sad coverage of the ICE raids, with masked agents going en masse into businesses and arresting hard-working immigrants.
• But what about the companies that hire these undocumented people? Aren’t they breaking the law?
• The Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement operations have overwhelmingly focused on arresting workers rather than punishing employers.
• After dozens and dozens of documented raids aimed at arresting workers, reviews of court filings and searches for records involving individuals named in corporate records of businesses DHS has raided showed only only one employer was charged after the raids ICE has publicized. 
• Why is that? Could it be that the immigrants themselves are mostly powerless and don’t have the resources to fight back, while the owners are often wealthy white people?
• I’m pretty sure that’s why.
• And now, The Weather: “Here For You” by Slow Joy
• From the Sports Desk… today is the start of Wimbledon.
• Interested in doing some betting? Carlos Alcaraz (+120) and Jannik Sinner (+190) are the clear favorites to win the men's tournament. Novak Djokovic (+600) is the only other player below +1000 before it drops off to Jack Draper at +1600.
• In the women’s field, Aryna Sabalenka (+240) leads the women's field, with past Grand Slam champions Elena Rybakina (+550), Iga Swiatek (+650), Coco Gauff (+750), and Madison Keys (+1200) within striking distance.
• Sports Desk Fun Fact: Wimbledon has been held for 148 years, starting in 1877, and is the only tennis major still played on traditional grass courts.
• Today in history… King Henry II of France is mortally wounded in a jousting match against Gabriel, comte de Montgomery (1559). French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope (1859). U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for "public use, resort and recreation” (1864). Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield (1882). Albert Einstein sends the article 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies’, in which he introduces special relativity (1905). The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). U.S. President Warren G. Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the United States (1921). U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes and Dominican Ambassador Francisco J. Peynado sign the Hughes–Peynado agreement, which ends the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1922). The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, MI (1953). The National Organization for Women, the United States' largest feminist organization, is founded (1966). The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults (1986). East Germany and West Germany merge their economies (1990). Protests begin around Egypt against President Mohamed Morsi and the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, leading to their overthrow during the 2013 Egyptian coup d’état (2013). Donald Trump becomes the first sitting US President to visit North Korea (2019).
• June 30 is the birthday of author Georges Duhamel (1884), car designer/engineer Archibald Frazer-Nash (1889), businessman/philanthropist Dan Reeves (1912), singer/actress/activist Lena Horne (1917), singer-songwriter/guitarist Dave Van Ronk (1936), bass player Stanley Clarke (1951), actor/comedian David Alan Grier (1956), conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (1958), actor Vincent D’Onofrio (1959), guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen (1963), NBA player Mitch Richmond (1965), boxer Mike Tyson (1966), MLB player Chan Ho Park (1973), NBA player Trevor Ariza (1985), businesswoman Allegra Versace (1986), and MLB player Trea Turner (1993).

I'm out of time, but we’ll obviously keep an eye on the Big Bullshit Bill as it winds its way through the sausage factory. My guess? Expect it to pass, and then let’s focus all of our attention on the legislators who fucked the American people worse than just about any single moment in history… and make them fall on their swords as a result. Enjoy your day.

Hotel Chelsea Anniversary Rooftop Party (06.28.25)

Party time on the Hotel Chelsea rooftop. Photo by Kat.

Hey there. Zak Claxton here. Musician, raconteur, former male model.

That's true, by the way. When I was a child, I did fashion shows, photo shoots, and other events for a large department store chain here in the Los Angles area. But I was about 12 years old the last time I strutted my stuff out on the catwalk. Still, it is an accurate description.

So that would have been around 1981, but I'd done them for years. Side note: I think my mom just straight-up took all of my modeling money. I don't remember getting a dime of that. I suppose I could be on some gossipy cable show about child stars, but I digress. I'm not here to talk to you about that. Instead, we'll talk about my terrific show at the 16th anniversary party for Hotel Chelsea in Second Life.

Really? Just Gonna Talk About The Show?

I am absolutely going to do that right now, sure. Look, if you want to know what's going on in the world, I write and post my Zak's Random News column literally every day. 95% of the posts on this blog are my daily bullet-point news blurbs. I have nothing other than the show to mention at the moment.

Ok Then. How Was The Show?

It was terrific. First of all, I paid a lot of attention to planning my set list. I always do, but this time, with the star of the day being the Hotel Chelsea itself, I really focused on curating a list of songs to perform that I felt would be appropriate for the venue. No, I didn't go to all the obvious choices. In fact, it was funny; when I arrived, my pal Kaklick Martin had the slot before me, and was doing a Leonard Cohen tune when I arrived midway through his set.

Getting my set going before a small but fun crowd. Photo by Kat.

What Does That Have To Do With Hotel Chelsea?

A lot. Hotel Chelsea is a real place, you see. It's located at 222 West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, and is now is a New York City designated landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Chelsea has always been known as a bastion for creative people. Over the years, its notable residents have included Mark Twain, Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Arthur C. Clarke, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, and many others. In the virtual world, Hotel Chelsea has long been known for maintaining the same vibe, being a venue and entire sim that promotes visual arts, poetry, and of course, live music. And I have performed there on the first Tuesday of every month going back to November 2020.

Up On the Rooftop

From time to time when I've played special events at Hotel Chelsea, they've been held on the 12-story hotel's rooftop, as opposed to downstairs at the street-level bar and the El Quijote restaurant (which, I should note for the sake of veracity, could not in real life accommodate a giant open dance floor as in the virtual version). I love playing on the normal stage, but since I've done it dozens and dozens of times, the change of scenery from playing on the rooftop stage is enjoyable.

A few of the songs that I did were in reference to this having been my first gig after the summer solstice. Others found they way onto the list because when I do special shows — anniversaries and so on — I don't want to play songs that my regular fans have heard me do often. A lot of the set was comprised of tunes I hadn't done live in months, or in some cases years.

Rocking the people on the roof. Photo by Kat.

Or ever, as was the case with the Velvet Underground tune. I told a little story before launching into the Lou Reed-penned tune, saying, "It's not just by a guy who hung out here at the Hotel Chelsea and did heroin here; it's about him going up to Harlem to get more of the heroin he was going to do at Hotel Chelsea!" And with that pleasant trivia point, I did the tune.

Beyond that, I also did a Brian Wilson song as this was my first show after his passing, and it was the least I could do to memorialize one of the world's greatest pop songwriters in history. Most of my other repertoire was included to showcase the truly creative — and often overlooked — independent singer-songwriters whose music would have been appreciated at Chelsea for their creativity and vibe.

Me, being the goofy rock king of SL onstage at Hotel Chelsea. Photo by Kat.

Hanging out with Kat after the show. That's how I looked in SL right after performing...

... but in real life, it was more like this. Rock and roll is a workout, especially in the summertime.

Hotel Chelsea Anniversary set list...

Crosses (José González)

River Man (Nick Drake)

Doin' Time (Sublime)

Sweet Aphrodite (Zak Claxton)

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm (Crash Test Dummies)

Abrasion (They Stole My Crayon)

Swirl (Charlie Martin)

*I’m Waiting For the Man (Velvet Underground)

It's Choade My Dear (Connan Mockasin) 

Summer Breeze (Seals & Crofts) 

Woodstock (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)

Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)

God Only Knows (Beach Boys)

*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.

Thanks to everyone who hung out at the special anniversary show for Hotel Chelsea, with special super sauce servings of thanks for the following who helped support it!

Spyker Xenno, londonrain2023 Resident, Guru Witte, MarieKosinski Resident, Trouble Streeter, Judytoo Resident, Kat Claxton, Kaklick Martin, my terrific manager Maali Beck, Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko, and Chelsea's great staff! Congrats on 16 years of awesomeness!

Random News: June 29, 2025

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 29, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I’m feeling quite sanguine on this peaceful morning. No particular reason. I do have my coffee and am in a bathrobe, so those two factors alone are enough to make me appreciate being a human being, at least for a moment or two.

• A Pride Note…
• Let’s imagine your life was in danger.
• You’ve had a heart attack and are being wheeled into an ER. Your house is on fire and you’re trapped in a room upstairs. Your country has been invaded and you’re praying that an allied soldier stops an enemy. You’re drowning and hoping that someone gets to you before you sink to the murky depths.
• At that moment, how concerned are you that the person who might save you is gay, or a lesbian, or a transgender person?
• Probably not very much. Instead, what you probably hope for is help from any human being who’s skilled in whatever they do that will allow you to go on living.
• Why not live your life the same way? Why not respect people for what they do to make the world a better place in which to live, rather than obsessing on how they look or how they talk or who they love?
• Every day, you’re surrounded by other people who differ from you in many ways. You can choose a path of fear and hatred, or a path where you get to benefit from their contributions.
• It’s your choice. It always was.
• And I'm going to open today’s news with a beautiful Pride story.
• Over 100,000 people defied a government ban and police orders yesterday to march in what organizers called the largest LGBTQ+ Pride event in Hungary's history in an open rebuke of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government.
• Imagine living in a country where Pride was literally outlawed… and marching anyway. Don’t think it couldn’t happen here; there are plenty of MAGA people who would push you back into the closet if they could.
• Marchers gambled with potential police intervention and heavy fines to participate in the 30th annual Budapest Pride, which was outlawed by a law passed in March by Orbán's right-wing populist governing party.
• The march began at Budapest City hall and wound through the city center before crossing the capital's Erzsébet Bridge over the Danube River. Members of Hungary's LGBTQ+ community and large numbers of supporters danced to music and waved rainbow and anti-government flags.
• This was giant “fuck you” to Orbán. He may still be the European Union's longest-serving leader, but his popularity is tanking and actions like this may be the tipping point to allow a new opposition force to finally take control of the nation.
• Don’t ever tell me these things don’t matter. They fucking do. If you don’t use your rights— all of your rights — you WILL lose them.
• And now, on to the expected wave of shit news.
• After some performative but unserious objections raised by a few GOP senators, Dumpy’s Big Bullshit Bill passed a procedural hurdle yesterday evening.
• All 47 Democrats voted against it, and they were joined by two Republicans. But that still gave it enough room, passing 51-49 in the Republican-controlled Senate and moving ahead for a vote that’s likely scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
• Don’t let any of those GOP Senators try to say they didn’t understand what was in the bill, or believe their claims that they still want to amend it more before passing it.
• This bill is about two things only: a $3.8 trillion tax break that will only benefit the extremely wealthy, and allocating a lot of money to further Dump’s cruel plans to eliminate Latino people from the USA.
• And to pay for those things, Dump is slashing huge amounts from Medicaid, food stamps, and other essential programs.
• So here’s what I want you to remember. First is that EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN SENATOR, with the exception of Rand Paul (R-KY) and Thom Tills (R-NC) voted to advance this bill in its current state.
• Whatever happens to you as a result is 100% their fault… and, of course, that of Dumples the Fascist Clown.
• And while we’ll try and summon sympathy for people who continue to support Dumpy while he screws them (and their families) over, all I want you to do is look at the claims that Dumpy himself made over the past few days while the Senate was going back and forth.
• Dumpy claims: people are “not going to feel any” of the spending cuts included in the bill. He then said, “Your Medicaid is left alone. It’s left the same.”
• That is 100% false. The bill very clearly makes multiple significant changes to Medicaid and reduces federal funding for the program by hundreds of billions of dollars.
• The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that the legislation’s Medicaid provisions will result in 7.8 million more people being uninsured.
• Dumpy claims: the bill is “so good” because it includes “hundreds of things” that will benefit Americans — including “no tax” on Social Security.
• This is also 100% false. The bill temporarily beefs up seniors’ standard tax deduction, but it in no way eliminates taxes on Social Security benefits. It’s just a straight-up lie.
• Dumpy claims: “If the bill doesn’t pass, there’ll be a 68% tax increase. Think of that: 68%.”
• And once again, this is provably false. There is no credible basis for the claim that failing to pass the bill would result in anywhere near a 68% tax increase. Dump just picked a number that sounded good to him and used it. There’s not one economic indicator that backs it up.
• The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank thinks that taxes might rise by an average of about 7.5% in 2026 if Dump’s bill didn’t pass. Not 68%.
• There are other people who detest this bill for the wrong reasons, but detest it nonetheless. One of them is Dump’s ex-boyfriend Elon Musk.
• His remark yesterday?
• “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”
• See, the bill raises taxes on solar, battery, geothermal, wind, and nuclear energy projects. Elmo’s companies produce, sell, and install battery energy storage systems and solar photovoltaics.
• And the bill also adds new subsidies for… coal. Jesus. So that’s why Elmo doesn’t like it.
• Anyway, I can’t blame you if — as a Dump voter — you feel like a fool when the impact of his bill starts to affect you. No one likes being lied to. And this is stuff that’s more than just bothersome to your political outlook; it’s going to mean life or death for many of you.
• And your families. I genuinely wish you the best of luck, regardless if you brought it upon yourself.
• When your elderly parents have to turn to you for financial support or to pay their medical bills or costly prescriptions. When your kids don’t get their SNAP benefits in order to eat. One way or another, you’ll be paying more, not less.
• Some folks just aren’t that great at seeing when they’re being scammed. I think of your support of Dump as a kind of disability. I won’t poke fun at you for it, though I certainly will talk some shit about it, because your choices affect me and my friends/family too.
• We’ll cover the vote itself, and any final changes to the Big Bullshit Bill, as it goes through the voting process tomorrow.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, mourners gathered for the funeral of Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota lawmaker who was slain by a far-right MAGA psycho in a display of political violence that shocked the nation.
• In addition to Hortman, a former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House, the murderer shot and killed her husband, Mark as well as the family dog, a golden retriever named Gilbert.
• The service was attended by family and friends of the couple and a number of high-profile Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who delivered remarks.
• In addition to the Hortman family, the evil MAGA asshole also shot Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, but the pair survived, despite sustaining multiple gunshot wounds.
• Vance Boelter has been charged with stalking and murdering the Hortmans, and stalking and shooting the Hoffmans. Boetler — a conservative Christian MAGA — is being held in federal custody.
• Like most MAGAs, Boelter is painting himself as a victim, complaining about unsatisfactory jail conditions. He doesn’t like his pillow and says doors get slammed and it smells. He believes he should be granted bail to leave prison.
• Sheriff Joel Brott, thankfully, doesn’t give a shit. "He is not in a hotel. He's in jail, where a person belongs when they commit the heinous crimes he is accused of committing," he said. 
• It is yet unknown whether Dump will attempt to pardon Boelter.
• Moving on.
• I want to tell an immigration story having nothing to do with immigration, but rather the illegal kidnapping of a U.S. citizen.
• This week, Andrea Velez — a 32-year-old woman who was born and raised in the USA, and who graduated with a degree in fashion from Cal Poly Pomona — was walking into work.
• An ICE raid was happening nearby. Out of nowhere, a masked ICE agent barreled into her, tackled her to the ground, and handcuffed her.
• Why? Because she’s Latina and has brown skin. There’s no other possible explanation. Velez had done nothing wrong other than not being white. No one asked her for ID or asked about her status.
• For the first 24 hours, her family couldn’t find Andrea. Then DHS said she would be charged with “assaulting an officer,” despite no assault having occurred. When they got to court on Friday, ICE lawyers downgraded that to “obstructing” an officer.
• How so? An ICE officer claimed that Andrea stepped in his way. But multiple witnesses saw an ICE agent approached her, knock her down, then arrest her without asking any questions about her status or identity.
• Velez was released on a 5k bond.
• While it’s not yet clear how many citizens have been affected by the Dump administration’s attack on immigrant communities, a government report found that between 2015 and 2020, ICE erroneously deported at least 70 US citizens, arrested 674, and detained 121.
• These people are Americans. Again, their crime is not being white. Is that what you want happening in the country you know and love?
• I sure hope not.
• While we’re here at the Immigration Desk…
• I have yet to talk about the imminent construction of an immigrant detention center in Florida that the right wing is referring to as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
• But from what I understand, the more appropriate name analogy is “Alligator Auschwitz.”
• How fast is this hellhole going up? Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis fast-tracked the project under emergency powers via an executive order, sidestepping the state’s purchasing laws.
• And unsurprisingly, Dump has backed the building of this concentration camp, which DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said will be partially funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (yes, the same FEMA that Floridians will go to for help after the next inevitable series of hurricanes).
• They’re not even waiting for it to be built to use it. The facility will have temporary structures like heavy-duty tents and trailers to house detained immigrants. The state estimates that by early July, it will have 5,000 immigration detention beds in operation.
• The compound’s proponents have noted its location in the Florida wetlands — teeming with massive reptiles like alligators and invasive Burmese pythons. Once a brown person is sent there, you’ll likely never hear from them again.
• Many have already raised human rights concerns over what they condemn as the inhumane housing of immigrants. Worries about environmental impacts have also been at the forefront, as groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Friends of the Everglades filed a lawsuit Friday to halt the detention center plans.
• Yesterday, a coalition of groups, ranging from environmental activists to Native Americans advocating for their ancestral homelands, converged outside an airstrip in the Florida Everglades to protest the detention center.
• This is the kind of place where people will be forced to stay after being kidnapped by Dump’s ICE gestapo. They aren’t criminals, but they’ll be treated far worse than most people who receive due process and are incarcerated in the USA.
• And if you really want to know what kind of people are in the Republican party, Florida’s GOP is now selling merchandise to promote “Alligator Alcatraz.”
• Like I’ve said before, the cruelty is the point. Republicans are salivating at the prospect of subjecting undocumented migrants to brutal conditions in giant plastic tents situated in the oppressive heat and humidity of backwater Florida. 
• They sent a fundraising email this past week.
• “The feds have greenlit Alligator Alcatraz — Florida’s gator-guarded, python-patrolled prison for illegal aliens who thought they could game the system. Surrounded by miles of swamp and bloodthirsty wildlife, this ain’t no vacation spot. It’s a one-way ticket to regret for criminals who’ll wish they’d self-deported.” 
• And they want you to buy a t-shirt, hat, or beer koozie with an AI-generated image of a prison in a swamp, with a python and an alligator in the foreground.
• The cruelty is the point. They get off on people suffering and dying. And if the person isn’t white, all the better. Just ask them; they’ll tell you.
• So any time you wonder why they’re doing something so awful and inhumane — is it for money? Political clout? Brainwashed by a cult leader? — just read that sentence again. The cruelty is the point.
• And now, The Weather: “Heaven” by Laveda
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s late June 1971. I am two. I do not have specific memories of being two. It’s very odd how your brain has to develop and, in essence, come online before you’re able to retain memories.
• This phenomenon is known as infantile amnesia. It isn't because babies don't form memories, but rather because the brain structures and processes involved in memory encoding and retrieval are still developing during infancy. makes sense.
• Specifically, the hippocampus, crucial for forming new memories, undergoes significant development during this period. Additionally, the way memories are organized and stored in the brain changes as we mature, making it difficult to access early memories.
• You’re just a machine. Beep bloop beep beep.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at the time…
• 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. Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones). 5. It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr). 6. Treat Her Like A Lady (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose). 7. Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian) (The Raiders). 8. Joy To The World (Three Dog Night). 9. I'll Meet You Halfway (The Partridge Family Starring Shirley Jones Featuring David Cassidy). 10. Sweet And Innocent (Donny Osmond of The Osmonds). 11. Bridge Over Troubled Water/Brand New Me (Aretha Franklin). 12. When You're Hot, You're Hot (Jerry Reed). 13. I Don't Know How To Love Him (Helen Reddy). 14. Don't Knock My Love - Pt. 1 (Wilson Pickett). 15. Double Lovin' (The Osmonds). 16. Nathan Jones (The Supremes). 17. Superstar (Murray Head With The Trinidad Singers). 18. Me And You And A Dog Named Boo (Lobo). 19. Don't Pull Your Love (Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds). 20. She's Not Just Another Woman (The 8th Day). 
• From the Sports Desk… there are now two MLB teams with over 50 wins: the AL’s Detroit Tigers (52-32) and the NL’s Los Angeles Dodgers (52-32).
• Interestingly, there are also two teams that are exactly 2.5 games behind them… the Houston Astros (49-34) and the Chicago Cubs (49-34).
• The saddest two teams in baseball remain the same as last season. They are the Chicago White Sox (27-56), and the far more pathetic Colorado Rockies (18-65).
• Today in history… Sverre is crowned king of Norway, leading to civil war (1194). English crown bans tobacco growing in England, giving the Virginia Company a monopoly in exchange for tax of one shilling per pound (1620). Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population at the time (1889). The first Miss Universe pageant is held and Armi Kuusela from Finland wins the title of Miss Universe (1952). The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System (1956). Prior to re-entry, the crew capsule of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft depressurizes, killing the three cosmonauts on board (1971). The United States Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment (1972). Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet (1974). Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time (1995). The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law (2006). Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone (2007).
• June 29 is the birthday of Aragon queen Petronilla (1136), diplomat/statesman Peter Agricola (1525), Japan emperor Go-Mizunoo (1596), poet Lavinia Stoddard (1787), poet Celia Thaxter (1835), activist/politician Julia Lathrop (1858), physician/clinic founder William James Mayo (1861), writer/pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900), actor Slim Pickens (1919), actor/producer Robert Evans (1930), singer Little Eva (1943), actor Gary Busey (1944), actor Richard Lewis (1947), drummer Ian Paice (1948), NFL player/sportscaster Dan Dierdorf (1949), sportscaster Craig Sager (1951), singer-songwriter Don Dokken (1953), singer-songwriter Colin Hay (1953), MLB player Pedro Guerrero (1956), actress Maria Conchita Alonso (1957), actress Sharon Lawrence (1961), NHL player Theoren Fleury (1968), actor/musician Bret McKenzie (1976), writer/comedian Colin Jost (1982), NBA player Kawhi Leonard (1991), and NBA player Michael Porter Jr. (1998).

Okay then. I have a bunch of stuff to do today. It’s not horrible, but you probably know as well as I do that weekends are often the only time you can do larger-scale housekeeping chores. Is it what I’d prefer to be doing on my alleged “day off”? No, but it’s just life, at least at this point in time in our universe. I’ll be glad when it’s done. Enjoy your day.

Random News: June 28, 2025

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, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. I’m in Saturday morning mode, which involves a bathrobe and a giant mug full of amazing coffee. I really slept in, which for me means it was nearly 8am before I got my ass out of bed. Now I’m here and we have a bunch of things to talk about.

• A Pride Note…
• What are you proud of?
• I’m not talking about LGBTQIA+ stuff here. I’m talking to you (whether you’re gay or not).
• Are you proud of your children? Perhaps your work accomplishments? Proud of your material possessions, like your house or your car or your fancy sneakers? 
• Maybe you’re proud of your skills, like painting or music or crochet? Or your efforts in environmentalism or political activism?
• While we’re taught that pride isn’t always positive — and indeed is listed among the Catholic Church’s deadly sins, along with greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth — pride of a positive nature is a good feeling.
• It means you’ve experienced a sense of satisfaction with your identity, your performance, or your accomplishments. In some aspects, it’s something we’ve all strived to achieve; having done something to the best of your abilities and knowing that you pushed yourself to hit that goal.
• Pride in the sense of the LGBTQIA+ world is no different.
• I think a world where people could walk around with their heads held high, knowing they are being authentic to themselves and the world around them, is a far better world than one filled with shame, guilt, and negativity.
• That’s what I think, anyway.
• Let's do some news.
• We need to take a closer look at the Supreme Court decisions that were handed down yesterday on the final day of this session’s term.
• Some of them are extremely important, and possibly difficult for you to understand in terms of the broader picture, so we’ll look at that.
• Starting with the big one.
• The far-right conservative majority of the Supreme Court ruled that federal judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions.
• Full stop. That’s what they decided. They didn’t decide anything about birthright citizenship, which we’ll get to in a moment. And what they did was horrible on its own, and much bigger than the one topic relating to citizenship.
• U.S. federal judges have, until now, been the major blocking point to many of Dump’s most evil agenda items. Nationwide injunctions have been the most effective check on Dumpy’s efforts to expand executive power and remake the government in ways to benefit himself and his wealthy pals.
• Let me put this in a way that everyone here can easily understand.
• Until yesterday, we lived in a country where there could be laws that applied everywhere in the country. With me so far?
• Now we basically have 50 micronations, each with their own laws interpreting the U.S. Constitution, that are wholly separate from one another.
• Don’t we still have laws that still apply to everyone in the country? I’m not sure how you can say that when a judge can rule a certain way that is no longer applicable throughout the whole country.
• And as you know, the Supreme Court doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on every single national ruling. They only do a handful of cases per year.
• Also need to point out: this goes both ways. Example: if a U.S. District Court judge in Texas says that abortion pills are illegal, it won’t mean shit to a doctor in New York.
• In her dissent, SCOTUS Justice Sotomayor was clear: "No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates. Today, the threat is to birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, a different administration may try to seize firearms from law-abiding citizens or prevent people of certain faiths from gathering to worship."
• She’s 100% correct.
• Now, will Dumpy get away with abandoning the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by revoking birthright citizenship?
• If you’re unclear, since the Civil War, the law has clearly stated that if you’re born in the USA, you’re an American citizen regardless of the origins of your parents. Dumpy wants to change that.
• Here, read it for yourself…
• “Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
• So Dumpy’s executive order to try and revoke birthright citizenship is overtly unConstitutional, obviously. He’d need to amend the Constitution to make it legal.
• Will he get away with it? I don’t know. But I’d like to think he wouldn’t, nor was the Supreme Court willing to make that call yesterday.
• There were more Supreme Court rulings handed down yesterday.
• They upheld the Texas law that forces adult website users to verify their ages to access pornographic material.
• The court split along ideological lines in the 6-3 ruling. Clarence Thomas, who wrote the majority opinion, didn’t think the measure restrict adults’ free-speech rights. “Adults have the right to access speech obscene only to minors ... but adults have no First Amendment right to avoid age verification,” he wrote.
• But getting more to the heart of the matter, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the court should have used a higher legal standard in weighing whether the law creates free-speech problems for adults. “I would demand Texas show more, to ensure it is not undervaluing the interest in free expression,” she wrote.
• I would have too. And as we mentioned before, there’s a very strong possibility that adults who are required to submit personal information could be vulnerable to hacking or tracking, or blackmail or any number of bad things when your name and photo is traceable to the porn you watch.
• Another Supreme Court ruling yesterday, Kennedy v Braidwood Management, was the only one where three conservative justices — Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts — joined with the court’s liberal branch for a six-to-three ruling.
• The case was about the ability of a government task force to determine what kinds of preventive healthcare the country’s insurance providers had to cover.
• And it was the latest case to challenge the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, which you may know as Obamacare. This case focused on a section of the act that allowed a panel of health experts who determine what preventive services should be covered at no cost.
• A group of individuals and Christian-owned businesses had challenged the legality of that task force, though. And thankfully, they lost and can go fuck themselves as far as I’m concerned.
• However, the last ruling the SCOTUS offered was back on the side of the far-right.
• Mahmoud v Taylor was the case centered on a Maryland school where books portraying LGBTQ themes had been approved for use in primary school curricula. their parents wanted to be able to opt out of those assignments.
• Some education officials argued that allowing kids to opt out of LGBTQ material would confer a stigma on the people who identify as part of that community, which of course is accurate.
• But again, the right-wing Court struck again, with Samuel Alito interpreting the books as being against the religious views of parents.
• Hey Alito. Fuck you.
• There’s another case we were watching that ended up getting booted to the next term for some reason.
• The Court said it would reargue Louisiana's congressional redistricting plan in its next term, after this summer.
• At issue is the Louisiana legislature's creation of a Black-majority congressional district. A group of voters sued, arguing that the state legislature had unconstitutionally relied on race in drawing new congressional district lines.
• Well, guess what? Louisiana's population is roughly one-third Black. But the state legislature drew new congressional district lines that provided for only one majority-Black district in a state that has six congressional seats.
• See how they continue systemic racism in the USA?
• If they redid the districts in a fair way, both Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) would be in danger of losing their jobs. That’s why it keeps getting bounced around.
• That’s all for the Supreme Court for now. Except this side note…
• I find it likely that right now, Dump is negotiating with both Thomas and Alito to retire in the next 12 months so he can replace them with young MAGA conservatives who will impact the country for generations to come.
• Why in the next 12 months? If Congress flips blue in 2026, Dump will never get any SCOTUS nominee confirmed.
• You heard it here first. So now we have to hope that these respective 75- and 76-year-old jerks stay alive and choose not to retire. What a conundrum.
• Moving on.
• The Senate is actually working this weekend. Boo fucking hoo.
• The rare weekend session has Republicans racing to pass Dumpy’s Big Bullshit Bill of tax breaks for the wealthy and spending cuts that affect everyone else by his July Fourth deadline.
• Republicans are doubt everything they can to kiss Dumpy’s big fat ass, but they have run into a series of political and policy setbacks. Not all GOP lawmakers are on board with proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid, food stamps, and other programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending some $3.8 trillion in Dump tax breaks.
• The 940-page bill was released shortly before midnight last night. Senators were expected to take a procedural vote today to begin debate on the legislation, but there’s at least 10 hours of debate time and an all-night voting session on countless amendments.
• Fucking pricks.
• In any case, Senate passage could be days away, and the bill would need to return to the House for a final round of votes before it could reach the White House.
• We will obviously cover the final version of the bill in depth so you’ll be aware off what to expect in terms of what’s being stolen from you. In any case, I would expect a lot more of your tax money to go straight to the richest people in the country.
• That’s what you got when you voted for Dumples the Oligarch Clown.
• Let’s move on.
• A note from the Immigration Desk…
• On Thursday, an Afghan man in San Diego who saved the lives of U.S. troops in Afghanistan was placed in expedited removal from the USA.
• Sayed Naser was detained by ICE officers two weeks earlier when he appeared at the San Diego federal courthouse for his mandatory immigration hearing. 
• Shawn VanDiver, executive director for a nonprofit that advocates for U.S. wartime allies, said, "A bureaucratic technically just stripped a wartime ally of his legal protections and fast-tracked him for deportation. Sayed stood with U.S. forces in combat. Now he faces removal without a lawyer, without a hearing and possibly without a country. This isn't just cruel, it's cowardly.”
• Fucking disgusting. What are they going to do, send him back to Afghanistan to be tortured and killed? No MAGA person ever gets to say that they support the troops again.
• In more immigration news…
• Here’s a fucking weird win: yesterday, Robert E. McGuire, acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, ruled that Kilmar Abrego Garcia should remain in jail.
• Why? That was the request of Kilmar’s legal team, who know that he will be deported if released from custody.
• As you know, in March, Abrego Garcia was deported to his native El Salvador in what federal officials later admitted was an "administrative error."
• Earlier this month, Garcia was returned to the U.S. where he was charged with human trafficking.
• And then last Sunday, Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes of Nashville ordered Garcia to be released on bail, saying she did not believe he was a flight risk or a threat to the wider community.
• But his own legal team knows that ICE will not only kidnap him is he’s released; they will send him to a third country where he’d never be seen or heard from again.
• He’s safer in jail. How fucked up is that?
• Moving on.
• Dumpy is bigly mad at Canada (again).
• Yesterday, Dumpy said he’s immediately suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.”
• Maybe someday someone will actually attack our country, and Dumples can reset his definition of the word “attack.”
• Like all of President TACO’s tariff announcements, it’s hard to say what will actually transpire, or whether he’ll follow through with any announced plans.
• In other news…
• Yesterday, the Senate voted down an effort to block Dump from using further military force against Iran.
• The measure failed in a 47-53 vote, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voting with most Democrats in favor of the resolution, and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voting with most Republicans against it.
• I should note that Fetterman has been a massive disappointment. I”m glad he beat Dr. Oz in the election, but he’s been of little help to his party and the country ever since.
• Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced the war powers resolution days before the U.S. bombed three locations central to Iran's nuclear program, seeking to force the president to get congressional authorization before entering the conflict between Israel and Iran. 
• You know, like the law says he should.
• Let’s just move on.
• For more than 40 years, the Defense Department has operated satellites that collect information about conditions in the atmosphere and ocean.
• That data has been crucial for hurricane forecasters to provide accurate and timely information about the specific of hurricanes.
• That’s gone now.
• This week, the Department of Defense announced that it would no longer provide that data, according to a notice published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.
• The Navy did not respond to questions about why it has stopped sharing the data with scientists and forecasters.
• Does this… save money, or something?
• Nope. The satellites and instruments are still functional, and the Department of Defense will continue to use them even as it cuts off access for scientists. there’s no cost savings or other reason provided.
• I’m pretty sure that Dump just wants everyone to die. I think he masturbates to these fantasies.
• Let’s do a tiny bit of good news. We need it.
• Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) will not seek reelection. And his district — which includes Omaha — went for the Democratic candidates Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election and Joe Biden in 2020.
• And just last month, Omaha voters elected a Democratic mayor in John Ewing Jr., the city’s first Black mayor, who defeated three-term Republican Jean Stothert.
• So assuming we have elections in 2026, this would be a very important seat to pick up for the Democrats.
• I’m actually hoping/planning for 40-50 seats swinging over to the Democratic side, especially after voters in rural areas feel the shocking loss of government services like Medicaid due to Dumpy’s bill.
• Those congressional reps are the ones who were supposed to be fighting for their constituents’ needs. But their votes to take away Medicaid are already on record.
• Moving on.
• After the SCOTUS ruling on forcing people to submit their photo ID and other personal info to be able to view porn in Texas, I found myself asking if many people actually visit porn sites often.
• Welp… let’s look at the world’s most visited web sites.
• A lot of them are what you assume. The very top of the list is Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, ChatGPT, X (Twitter), WhatsApp, Wikipedia, and Reddit.
• Next up is a mix of info/social/entertainment and shopping sites. Yahoo JP, Yahoo!, Yandex, TikTok, Amazon, and Baidu.
• But also in the list of most visited web sites in the entire fucking world are Pornhub, XVideos, and XHamster. Pornhub is the 17th most visited site on Earth.
• It’s above Netflix, Temu, Microsoft, and the New York Times.
• So yes… whether you’re morally opposed to porn or not, millions of people view it daily. And now you know.
• And now, The Weather: “Erased” by Lipsticism
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s the end of June 1991. I am in college at Cal State Dominguez Hills, studying music and communications. Life is kinda topsy turvy but mostly okay, and since I’m 22, I don’t really know enough to complain.
• I do have a job; I had to work throughout college because I otherwise wouldn’t eat and stuff. At this moment, I’m an IT admin for a library district. A few days a week, my shift starts at 5:30am to run backups and bring the circulation system online before the library opening… but I’m done working by 10am, which was cool too.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time.
• 1. Efil4zaggin (N.W.A.). 2. Spellbound (Paula Abdul). 3. Out Of Time (R.E.M.). 4. Gonna Make You Sweat (C+C Music Factory). 5. Time, Love And Tenderness (Michael Bolton). 6. Mariah Carey (Mariah Carey). 7. Coolin' At The Playground Ya' Know! (Another Bad Creation). 8. No Fences (Garth Brooks). 9. New Jack City (Soundtrack). 10. Shake Your Money Maker (The Black Crowes). 11. Extreme II Pornograffitti (Extreme). 12. Schubert Dip (EMF). 13. Power Of Love (Luther Vandross). 14. Unplugged - The Official Bootleg (Paul McCartney). 15. Heart In Motion (Amy Grant). 16. Wilson Phillips (Wilson Phillips). 17. Empire (Queensryche). 18. Mama Said Knock You Out (LL Cool J). 19. Vagabond Heart (Rod Stewart). 20. O.G. Original Gangster (Ice-T).
• From the Sports Desk… I’m not quite sure what lacrosse is, or how it’s played. I know people run around with little stick-net things and there’s probably a goal somewhere on the field. It’s played on a field, right?
• But there is apparently a Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), and here’s the current power rankings going into Week 5 (of how many weeks? I have no idea. Could be 10, could be 30. I do not know anything about this sport and couldn’t name one team or one player).
• 1. Boston Cannons (3-1). 2. Denver Outlaws (2-2). 3. New York Atlas (2-2). 4. Utah Archers (2-2). 5. Philadelphia Waterdogs (2-2). 6. California Redwoods (2-1). 7. Maryland Whipsnakes (2-3). 8. Carolina Chaos (1-3).
• Go Redwoods Go!
• 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). The United States Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012).
• 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), physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906), 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).

My schedule today includes a somewhat rare Saturday live music show at 4pm in Second Life for Hotel Chelsea’s anniversary celebration. I’m trying to build out a cool set list for that, so hopefully that’ll be fun and will go well. We’ll be back tomorrow, as we are every damn day of the year, with more important news and various things to think about. Enjoy your day.

Random News: June 27, 2025

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 27, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’ve had a busy but mostly productive week, and today I’ll be continuing that trend to make it through to a weekend that I’m planning to enjoy in no specific way.

• A Pride Note…
• From the most open and compassionate liberal to the most hate-filled conservative, every single one of you have had your lives positively impacted by people across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.
• Some of those folks are obvious — we spoke earlier this month, for example, about Alan Turning, without whom you might not have a computer, a smart phone, or any freedom at all (since Turing was perhaps the most important person in helping the Allies defeat the Axis in WWII).
• But life without LGBTQIA+ people is fucking shitty on a wide range of areas.
• Here’s a list of people who do various things that help you be a happy person. The fact that they’re gay, or lesbian, or trans, or whatever they are, is probably irrelevant to you.
• But their contributions to the world make your life better.
• Gilbert Baker (artist/activist). James Baldwin (activist). David Bowie (musician). Pete Buttigieg (politician). Brandi Carlile (musician). Charlotte Clymer (activist). Jason Collins (athlete). Anderson Cooper (journalist). Deadpool (comic/film character). Billy Eichner (actor). Justin Fashanu (athlete). Harvey Fierstein (actor). Keith Haring (artist). Maura Healey (politician). Monica Helms (veteran/activist). Elton John (musician). Marsha P. Johnson (activist). Billie Jean King (athlete). Jeanne Manford (activist). Ian McKellen (actor). Freddie Mercury (musician). George Michael (musician). Carl Nassib (athlete). Tig Notaro (actor). Elliot Page (actor). Sally Ride (astronaut). George Takei (actor/activist). Oscar Wilde (poet/playwright). Bowen Yang (actor). Lil Nas X (musician).
• And that’s a tiny and somewhat random list. The real list — that also includes teachers, coworkers, religious clergy, doctors, scientists, business leaders, first responders, and friends — is in the millions and millions.
• Let’s do the news.
• Today is the day. All the rulings in the remaining cases in this term of the Supreme Court come out today.
• There are six of them.
• One — likely the most impactful — is the “emergency appeal” from the Dump administration, regarding Dumpy’s birthright citizenship order that has been blocked by lower courts.
• Dump wants to change something that’s been part of the USA since the country was founded, which is to deny birthright citizenship to U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrant parents.
• And in a bigger picture related to this case, the SCOTUS is being asked whether or not to limit the authority of judges to issue nationwide injunctions.
• In recent times, those federal judges have been one of the only roadblocks between Dumpy’s plans for a total authoritarian dictatorship, versus the America we’ve known and loved for almost 250 years.
• At arguments last month, the court seemed intent on keeping a block on the citizenship restrictions while still looking for a way to scale back nationwide court orders.
• Neither ruling would be good. And do keep in mind: no matter what your political ideology is, whatever SCOTUS ruling that applies now to Dump will also apply to the next Democratic president who succeeds him.
• Aaaaaaaaaand breaking news: the Court just ruled in favor of Dump, 6-3. We’re fucked.
• This ruling now scales back nationwide orders that have for months blocked Dump’s ban on automatic citizenship for the U.S.-born babies of undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors.
• The court’s three liberal justices dissented from the ruling, which sends the cases back to the lower courts to determine the practical implications of the majority’s decision.
• The justices were not directly addressing the constitutionality of Dump’s horrible birthright citizenship order, which conflicts with the 14th Amendment.
• A sad, sad day in U.S. history. Democracy itself is at risk. There may need to be actions that we’d hoped wouldn’t be necessary.
• Some of the other cases with rulings coming today…
• The court seems likely to side with Maryland parents in a religious rights case over LGBTQ storybooks in public schools
• Parents want to be able to pull their children out of lessons that use certain storybooks, with such titles as “Prince and Knight” and “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding.”
• Shrug. I’m not losing sleep over this. If people want to be discriminatory assholes, so be it, as long as my own kids can get a thorough and broad education.
• Another SCOTUS case involves a three-year battle over congressional districts in Louisiana. That case is making its second trip to the Supreme Court.
• Lower courts have struck down two Louisiana congressional maps since 2022 and the justices are weighing whether to send state lawmakers back to the map-drawing board for a third time.
• Louisiana’s voting districts have long been skewed so that Black folks in that state don’t have proper representation. But this Supreme Court has been skeptical of considerations of race in public life.
• At arguments in March, several of the court’s conservative justices suggested they could vote to throw out the map and make it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act.
• Assholes.
• Yet another SCOTUS case to be decided today is about a Texas law aimed at blocking online pornography. 
• Texas is among more than a dozen states with age verification laws for online sex content. The question for the court is whether these laws infringe on the constitutional rights of adults as well.
• The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment industry trade group, agrees that children shouldn’t be seeing pornography. But it says the Texas law is written too broadly and wrongly affects adults by requiring them to submit personal identifying information online that is vulnerable to hacking or tracking.
• Valid point.
• Anyway, I don’t know what time the Court will release these decisions, so now I’m hurrying through my news so it’s not obsolete by the time I post it at 8am PDT.
• Moving on.
• You know how on Wednesday, Dumples the War Clown said he’d be meeting with Iran “next week”?
• He must have forgotten to tell White House Mouth of Sauron Karoline Leavitt, who said yesterday that the Dump administration doesn't have any meetings scheduled with Iran.
• You have to understand… Dumpy will say things that pop into his head. Some of those things might be real; others might be imaginary.
• And you never know which is which until he does or doesn’t do the thing he said he was going to do. And most of the time, he’ll just deny having said it, or claim it was a joke, or say that Democrats or Communists stopped him from the thing.
• It’s kind of the exact opposite of what anyone wants from a leader. A man who takes no responsibility for the results of his actions.
• And if you want another example of Dump being a massive fucking clown show moron — and yes, there are so many every day — look at this little nugget.
• Japan has condemned Dumpy for comparing recent US strikes on Iran to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.
• Dumpy said, “I don't want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing.”
• What the actual FUCK?
• A reminder: about 140,000 people were incinerated alive when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the two southern Japanese cities in August 1945. Survivors live with psychological trauma and heightened cancer risk to this day.
• That is what Dumpy thinks is “essentially the same thing” as what he did last Saturday in Iran.
• And he’s proud of it. Asshole.
• Let’s move on.
• We've recently gotten a couple of big saves via the Senate Parliamentarian.
• I’m going to take a guess here and assume that most of you don’t know 1) what the Senate Parliamentarian is and 2) who that person is currently.
• The short version: the Parliamentarian is a non-partisan position. They are the official advisor to the United States Senate on the interpretation of Standing Rules of the Senate and parliamentary procedure.
• The most important role of the parliamentarian is to decide what can and cannot be done under the Senate's budget reconciliation process under the provisions of the Byrd Rule.
• That’s super important because the rulings allow certain bills to be approved by a simple majority, instead of the sixty votes needed to end debate and overcome a filibuster.
• While it’s true that the presiding officer of the Senate may overrule the advice of the parliamentarian, in practice it’s extremely rare.
• Last time it happened was with VP Nelson Rockefeller in 1975, and it was so controversial that the leaders of both parties immediately met and agreed that they did not want this precedent to stand.
• Can the Senate majority leader fire the parliamentarian? Yes. Last time it happened was in 2001 during a dispute between parliamentarian Robert Dove and Majority Leader Trent Lott.
• But again, it’s super rare. There have only been six Senate parliamentarians since the role was founded in 1935.
• The current Senate Parliamentarian is Elizabeth MacDonough, who has served in the role since 2012, under both Democratic and Republican majorities. She is the first woman to hold the position.
• And MacDonough has done some important shit. She guided the Senate through the first and second impeachment trials of Dumpy, and she and her staff brought the Electoral College certificates to safety during the January 6 failed coup attempt at the Capitol.
• Moving on.
• My state’s leader is not fucking around, and Fox News may do some finding out.
• California governor Gavin Newsom accused Fox News of defamation in a lawsuit this morning, alleging the network should fork over $787 million.
• Fox host Jesse Watters had claimed that Newsom lied about his phone calls with Dump after Orange Julius Caesar ordered National Guard troops to Los Angeles this month. Newsom’s lawyers argue Watters’ program misleadingly edited a video of Dump to support the claim.
• If that $787 million sounds familiar, that’s because Newsom’s request for damages is nearly identical to the $787.5 million sum Fox News paid Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 to settle another defamation case over election falsehoods.
• Newsom’s lawyers said he is prepared to drop the lawsuit if Fox retracts its claims and Watters apologizes to him on air.
• Hahahahah. It’s gonna hurt either way.
• In news from the Immigration Desk…
• Johnny Noviello, a 49-year-old citizen of Canada who was being detained by ICE, died in their custody this week. His cause of death is still under investigation.
• Congressional requirements require ICE to make public all reports regarding an in-custody death within 90 days.
• Noviello entered the United States in 1988 using a legal visa status. In 1991, he became a lawful permanent resident. But then he was arrested for selling drugs.
• Hardly an offense that warrants a death sentence. According to ICE, all people in custody receive a screening for medical, dental, and mental health within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility.
• They are also supposed to have access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. It’s not certain that ICE is following its own rules — especially in the overcrowded condition of detainment facilities — and it’s definitely not the case if people are shipped off to foreign prisons where no such guarantees are offered.
• So how many other people have died in ICE custody?
• According to ICE, at least 185 people have died in immigration detention since 2003. This year alone, at least four deaths have been reported.
• Dead, in a holding facility, with no legal help, no trial, or other means to prove one’s innocence. Is that what makes America great again?
• In news from the Spite Desk…
• Yesterday, Kenneth Chesebro — a lawyer who was part of the failed plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep Dumpy in power — lost his license to practice in New York.
• A New York appeals court determined Chesebro should be disbarred because of his 2023 conviction in Georgia for his role in the effort to subvert the election.
• As I’ve said many times before, ETTD (Everything Trump Touches Dies).
• And now, The Weather: “The Scene” by Hotline TNT
• RIP going out to Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary who became one of television’s most honored journalists. He was 91.
• Moyers was deputy director of the Peace Corps before being named Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary. His career notes also included being a newspaper publisher, the senior news analyst for “The CBS Evening News,” and chief correspondent for “CBS Reports.”
• But PBS is where he did his best stuff. In hundreds of hours of programming on public television, Moyers covered in-depth topics ranging from government corruption to modern dance, from drug addiction to media consolidation, from religion to environmental abuse.
• Another RIP for Lalo Schifrin, one of the great composers for film and TV. He died yesterday at 93.
• If you know him for anything, it’s the hummable 5/4-time signature theme from "Mission: Impossible,” but he did over 100 other arrangements, winning four Grammys and six Oscar nominations for his outstanding film compositions.
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s the end of June 1980, which is somehow 45 years ago today. Fuck, I’m old.
• I’ve just finished 6th grade at Margate Intermediate School. I like music a lot. I’ve already been playing guitar for a few years, and I soon receive as a gift a huge-ass book of guitar chords and tablature called “Platinum ’80,” and I’m pretty sure I learned to play every song in there, front to back.
• Many of these albums — the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time — had the songs I was learning in there.
• 1. Glass Houses (Billy Joel). 2. Just One Night (Eric Clapton). 3. McCartney II (Paul McCartney). 4. Against The Wind (Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band). 5. Mouth To Mouth (Lipps Inc.).  6. Star Wars: Episode V-The Empire Strikes Back (London Symphony Orchestra). 7. The Wall (Pink Floyd). 8. Let's Get Serious (Jermaine Jackson). 9. Empty Glass (Pete Townshend). 10. Middle Man (Boz Scaggs). 11. Women And Children First (Van Halen). 12. Christopher Cross (Christopher Cross). 13. Duke (Genesis). 14. Heroes (Commodores). 15. Scream Dream (Ted Nugent). 16. Sweet Sensation (Stephanie Mills). 17. Off The Wall (Michael Jackson). 18. Trilogy: Past, Present And Future (Frank Sinatra). 19. 21 At 33 (Elton John). 20. The Rose (Bette Midler).
• From the Sports Desk… I know, basketball season is over. But lacking anything better to discuss in sports, here are the ten current NBA franchises that have never won a championship.
• Listed by their year of inception: Brooklyn Nets (1967), Indiana Pacers (1967), Phoenix Suns (1968), Los Angeles Clippers (1970), Utah Jazz (1974), Charlotte Hornets (1988), Orlando Magic (1989), Minnesota Timberwolves (1989), Memphis Grizzlies (1995), New Orleans Pelicans (2002).
• Today in history… The thirteen Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs (1556). In the Battle of Dettingen, George II becomes the last reigning British monarch to participate in a battle (1743). Cherokee warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Echoee near present-day Otto, NC (1760). The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia (1898). Romanian authorities launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iași, resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews (1941). The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War (1950). U.S. president Richard Nixon visits the Soviet Union (1974). France grants independence to Djibouti (1977). Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4 (1982). Tony Blair resigns as British Prime Minister (2007). NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun (2013).
• June 27 is the birthday of French king Louis XII (1462), French king Charles IX (1550), anarchist/activist Emma Goldman (1869), author/activist Hellen Keller (1880), pool player Willie Mosconi (1913), philosopher/activist Grace Lee Boggs (1915), singer-songwriter Doc Pomus (1925), businessman/politician Ross Perot (1930), fashion designer Norma Kamali (1945), fashion designer Vera Wang (1949), singer-songwriter Lisa Germano (1958), film director/producer J. J. Abrams (1966), actor Tobey Maguire (1975), businesswoman Khloé Kardashian (1984), actor Drake Bell (1986), singer-songwriter H.E.R. (1997), and NFL player Will Levis (1999).

So yes, today’s SCOTUS decision is really, really bad, and will have implications that go far beyond the important matter of birthright citizenship. And I will remind you that this dismantling of American checks and balance systems will be a hard pill to swallow for conservatives when a Democratic president is elected in 2028. You wanted it, MAGA. Let’s see what happens when you understand what you actually wanted. Either way, we’ll keep fighting. I know I will, and I trust you will too. Enjoy your day.

Random News: June 26, 2025

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 26, 2025, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I received a batch of coffee straight form Peet’s, and am now sipping on an absolutely fucking delightful cup of Zenith Summer Blend. It’s like summer… in my mouth!

• Before we do today’s Pride Note, an important historical moment needs to acknowledged.
• It was 10 years ago on this very day — June 26, 2015 — that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalized same-sex marriage across the U.S.
• I was fortunate enough to have a big live music show that day, and got to announce the decision to my audience, then performed “The Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog in celebration.
• There weren’t a lot of dry eyes in the house.
• The Obergefell v. Hodges ruling — a 5-4 SCOTUS decision — followed years of national wrangling during which some states moved to protect domestic partnerships or civil unions for same-sex partners, and others declared that marriage could exist only between one man and one woman.
• It was a hard-fought victory for civil rights in the USA… but like most of our rights, Obergefell v. Hodges is constantly under attack, and the fight continues to this day.
• Now our Pride Note…
• From time to time, you’ll see a news story of someone coming out or being open about their sexual orientation. Maybe it’s an athlete announcing a same-sex engagement, or a celebrity posting pics with their loved one.
• And invariably, there’s a comment — from a bot or otherwise cult-afflicted person — that seems to get posted almost immediately.
• “Who cares?”
• Let me tell you what that really means.
• That means, “I am not emotionally capable of showing support for peoples’ happiness. I need to react a certain way to appease my social group because I am weak. I didn’t need to comment at all, but I put this here so that no one might get any ideas that I am also gay via my silence. You’ve made me uncomfortable by being public about your contentment and excitement, because I am not able or willing to do that about myself, and that upsets me.”
• I know, it’s a lot to pull from a two-word response.
• I’m not here to stifle your freedom of speech or of expression. But I have to wonder, each time I see a “Who cares?” response, what’s really behind it.
• And I assume it’s a desperately unhappy person. It doesn’t need to be that way.
• Some alternatives: “Congrats.” “Good for you!” “Happy for you.” “Best of luck!”
• Or again, the option of not responding at all. If you truly didn’t care, that’s what you’d do. You obviously do care, though. That’s one thing we can all see.
• Relevant side note: as I remind people from time to time, hate isn’t the opposite of love. Hate and love are both very intense emotions. The opposite of love is indifference.
• Let’s do some news.
• There’s a lot of “he said, she said” going on in regard to the effectiveness of the USA’s bombing raid on Iranian nuclear sites.
• On one side, you have Dumpy and his defense secretary Pete Hegseth who say the attacks were "a historic success,” obliterating Iran’s nuclear program.
• On the other, you have Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei saying that the U.S. “failed to achieve anything significant" in its attacks on Iran's key nuclear facilities.
• Since I don’t trust either of these resources of info, let’s break down a couple of points. There are some actual facts here.
• Did those six massive US bunker-busting bombs, the GBU-57s, all hit their targets in the mountain at Fordo? Yes.
• Were they the culmination of alleged study by the Pentagon on how best to attack Iran's deeply-buried uranium enrichment systems? Yes.
• Did they choose the best line of attack — the ventilation shafts — then detonate at the right depth to achieve maximum effect? Yes.
• If you leave it at that — the pure tactical aspects of the mission where the B-2 pilots who flew an extraordinary 37-hour mission to drop multiple 13-ton bunker-busting bombs — they fulfilled their mission to the letter.
• Now the part that we don’t know.
• In what condition are Iran’s centrifuges? Where is the missing 408kg of highly enriched uranium? How much material was moved out of Fordo before the attack? How quickly can Iran restart its nuclear program regardless of the effectiveness of the raid?
• Unless you want to put 100% of your faith in Dump or the Ayatollah — and you can bet your ass I trust neither — there’s no way to know except to wait awhile and see what Iran does.
• Let’s move on.
• I’d like to give out an award. It’s for Asshole of the Day, and it goes to… Donnie Dump!
• I mean, it’s tough competition with him around.
• Yesterday, the Dump administration filed a lawsuit against all 15 federal judges in Maryland over an order blocking the immediate deportation of migrants challenging their removals.
• The move is, to put it mildly, unusual.
• At issue is a May order signed by Chief Judge George L. Russell III blocking the administration from immediately removing from the U.S. any immigrants who file paperwork with the Maryland district court seeking a review of their detention.
• The order blocks the removal until 4pm on the second business day after the habeas corpus petition is filed. Ya know, like the law says it should for due process. We’ve spoken about that a few times.
• But Dumpy says the automatic pause on removals violates a Supreme Court ruling and impedes his ability to enforce cruel immigration laws.
• Oh, you want to reference the Supreme Court, Donnie? How about when you tried to have a federal judge impeached over this same topic, and Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rebuke directly aimed at you, saying, "impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision."
• Anyway, let’s be clear here: it’s rare for anyone — especially the federal government — to sue the entire federal bench in a state.
• Obviously, as we adults know, the normal thing to do when parties are on the losing side of an injunction is to appeal the order — not to sue the court or judges
• It’s another clear-cut action of a fascist government.
• Let’s move on for now. We’ll keep a close on on that ridiculous shit.
• How can you tell that the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral primary is a big fucking deal?
• Because Dumpy McPoopypants completely lost his shit over it. Want to see for yourself? Look at his social post…
• “It's finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is on his way to becoming Mayor. We've had Radical Lefties before, but this is getting a little ridiculous. He looks TERRIBLE, his voice is grating, he's not very smart, he's got AOC+3, Dummies ALL, backing him, and even our Great Palestinian Senator, Cryin' Chuck Schumer, is groveling over him. Yes, this is a big moment in the History of our Country!”
• Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha… catches breath… hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
• Dump sounds frightened and miserable. I could not be happier about this.
• Mamdani responded, “You know, this is not the first time that President Trump is going to comment on myself, and I encourage him — just like I encourage every New Yorker — to learn about my actual policies to make the city affordable.”
• Nice!
• Let’s move on.
• This morning, the Supreme Court allowed states to cut off Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood.
• The case centers on funding for other health care services Planned Parenthood provides in South Carolina, but the ruling will definitely have broader implications for Medicaid patients.
• The court split 6-3 in the opinion, with the three liberal justices dissenting.
• An important note: public health care money generally can’t be used to pay for abortions regardless. Medicaid patients go to Planned Parenthood for things like contraception, cancer screenings, and pregnancy testing, in part because it can be tough to find a doctor who takes the publicly funded insurance.
• And now Dump’s Big Bullshit Bill cuts Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, which will force the closure of about 200 centers, most of them in states where abortion is legal.
• Fucking pricks. All of them.
• But we do have some very good news regarding Dumpy’s shitty-ass bill.
• This morning, Senate Republicans hit a major setback in their race to pass the massive plan for tax breaks for the wealthy when the  nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian ruled against a key provision to get the conference on board to vote for the plan by week's end.
• Ha ha!
• The parliamentarian, who plays a key role in determining what provisions can stay in the fast-tracked bill, said the GOP change to how states can tax Medicaid providers does not adhere to rules for passing the bill with a simple majority.
• Other provisions were flagged by the parliamentarian, including one barring Medicaid from covering gender affirming care, and denying coverage to some Medicaid recipients who are not U.S. citizens.
• These are big wins for the people of the USA.
• Let’s move on.
• Here’s something I would never say under most typical eras of American history.
• I would not have a child right now. And I don’t mean to offend anyone that is currently trying to (or has recently had) a child.
• I’m just saying that the odds of that kid growing up to be healthy and happy seem lower than at any time within the 50+ years I’ve been on this silly little planet. I would not procreate at this moment — not that I have any plans of making more people regardless.
• But a federal vaccine advisory committee under RKF Jr. plans to review the childhood vaccination schedule and scrutinize vaccines that have been approved for decades, fueling concerns that the panel may consider changes to long-standing vaccine recommendations.
• Yesterday, the newly appointed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices convened for the first time. Earlier this month, Worm Brain fired all 17 members of the panel and appointed eight of his own, many of whom are big anti-vaxxers.
• And this independent panel makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about who should get certain vaccines, which can in turn influence whether the vaccines are covered by insurance.
• The new committee chair is a guy named Martin Kulldorff, who was fired from Harvard for refusing to get a COVID vaccination.
• Kennedy himself has frequently criticized the childhood vaccination schedule, including the fact that children are vaccinated against far more diseases compared with many decades ago.
• So… he’s mad… that science got better and we advanced so that children are better protected today than in 1955?
• He didn’t acknowledge that that today’s shots contain fewer antigens — the key components of vaccines that train the immune system to recognize the germ — compared with generations ago, and are therefore less taxing on the immune system.
• Anyway, maybe consider waiting out this administration so your child doesn’t suffer horrible — yet completely preventable — diseases.
• In other news…
• Even if I live to be 100, I will never stop following up on any accountability for the traitorous assholes to attempted and failed to enact a coup against the USA on January 6, 2021.
• On Monday, a federal jury awarded $500,000 to the widow and estate of Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, who killed himself nine days after he helped defend the U.S. Capitol from a mob of MAGA insurrectionists.
• One of the men Smith scuffled with during the attack was 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, who now has to shell out $380,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages to Jeffrey Smith’s widow Erin.
• The jury also awarded an additional $60,000 to compensate Jeffrey Smith’s estate for his pain and suffering.
• While it’s likely that the settlement will be less — or that Walls-Kaufman will appeal the verdict — it’s nice to see some measure of accountability for any of these fuckers.
• And a reminder here that Dumpy pardoned over 1,500 of these assholes. There will never be any criminal justice for what they did.
• And now, The Weather: “manny” by Retail Drugs
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s late June, 1965. I won’t be born for almost four years. Where am I?
• Earlier that month, astronaut Edward H. White II became the first American to walk in space during the Gemini 4 mission. The South Vietnamese district headquarters and US Special Forces camp at Dong Xai were overrun by a Vietcong regiment. And there was a partial lunar eclipse.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at the time.
• 1. Chapel Of Love (The Dixie Cups). 2. A World Without Love (Peter And Gordon). 3. I Get Around (The Beach Boys). 4. Love Me With All Your Heart (Cuando Calienta El Sol) (The Ray Charles Singers). 5. My Boy Lollipop (Millie Small). 6. Walk On By (Dionne Warwick). 7. Love Me Do (The Beatles). 8. People (Barbra Streisand). 9. Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying (Gerry And The Pacemakers). 10. Diane (The Bachelors). 11. Little Children (Billy J. Kramer With The Dakotas). 12. My Guy (Mary Wells). 13. Tell Me Why (Bobby Vinton). 14. Hello, Dolly! (Louis Armstrong And The All Stars). 15. Memphis (Johnny Rivers). 16. Bad To Me (Billy J. Kramer With The Dakotas). 17. Today (The New Christy Minstrels). 18. Every Little Bit Hurts (Brenda Holloway). 19. Once Upon A Time (Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells). 20. Tears And Roses (Al Martino).
• From the Sports Desk… last night was the start of the NBA Draft. As expected, the Dallas Mavericks took Duke forward Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
• Who are the very best players in NBA history to be drafted No. 1? Well, here are the ones who made it to the Hall of Fame…
• 1958: Elgin Baylor. 1960: Oscar Robertson. 1961: Walt Bellamy. 1968 Elvin Hayes. 1969: Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar). 1970: Bob Lanier. 1974: Bill Walton. 1975: David Thompson. 1979: Magic Johnson. 1982: James Worthy. 1983: Ralph Sampson. 1984: Hakeem Olajuwon. 1985: Patrick Ewing. 1987: David Robinson. 1992: Shaquille O’Neal. 1993: Chris Webber. 1996: Allen Iverson. 1997: Tim Duncan. 2002: Yao Ming.  2004: Dwight Howard.
• And while he’s not eligible for the Hall yet (because he’s still playing), let’s not forget the No. 1 drafted guy in 2003: LeBron James. Other No. 1 draft pick future Hall of Famers potentially include Kyrie Irving (2011), Anthony Davis (2012), and others.
• Today in history… Roman emperor Augustus adopts Tiberius (4). Richard III becomes King of England (1483). The Battle of Fleurus marks the first military use of aircraft — balloons in this case (1794). The first Grand Prix motor race is held at Le Mans (1906). The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France for WWI (1917). The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, CA (1945). William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor (1948). Shirley Jackson's short story ‘The Lottery’ is published in The New Yorker magazine (1948). Madagascar gains its independence from France (1960). U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall (1963). The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, OH (1974). Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, IN (1977). The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (1997). J. K. Rowling publishes the first of her Harry Potter novel series, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone’ (1997). The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional (2003). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution (2013). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution (2015).
• June 26 is the birthday of astronomer Charles Messier (1730), novelist Pearl S. Buck (1892), engineer/businessman Willy Messerschmitt (1898), US Marine Chesty Puller (1898), singer-songwriter Big Bill Broonzy (1903), actor Peter Lorre (1904), athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1911), illustrator/designer Milton Glaser (1929), pianist/composer Dave Grusin (1934), singer-songwriter/politician Gilberto Gil (1942), singer-songwriter Mick Jones (1955), singer-songwriter Chris Isaak (1956), singer-songwriter Patty Smyth (1957), singer-songwriter Terri Nunn (1961), NFL player Shannon Sharpe (1968), actor Sean Hayes (1970), actor Nick Offerman (1970), MLB player Derek Jeter (1974), NFL player Michael Vick (1980), actress Aubrey Plaza (1984), NBA player Rudy Gobert (1992), and singer Ariana Grande (1993).

A busy news day, to say the least. But even if you just get part of the story, it’s better than walking around in a fog of ignorance. Now you have been awakened to information and can make better decisions as a result. Enjoy your day.