Random News: March 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 March 29, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. I’m enjoying a slow morning in my bathrobe, sipping my second cup of Peet’s Brazil. It’s really a drastic difference when I write this stuff on the weekends, compared to my anxiously looking at the time on a weekday while knowing I have to keep a tight schedule. Monday through Friday, at 7:58am, I have to have this thing posted so I have time to work out and then get ready to be a productive worker drone. But not on weekends. It’s kinda nice. I can just sit here and lazily write words like these, not really caring how long it takes, or how bored you are reading this preamble while waiting for me to start offering anything of value. Ahhhh.

• That being said, I still impose a 10am deadline on weekends so I can get this done and get on to other weekend activities. The world doesn’t end if I’m not on schedule, but as I often say… ain’t no one got time for this shit.
• Let’s do some news.
• A fascinating report by respected German news website Der Spiegel yesterday, in the wake of Signalgate.
• The situation with our inexperienced and inept national security leadership is much worse than you realize.
• Der Spiegel reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and even some passwords belonging to the top officials.
• They simply used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web. Specifically, they easily dug up this info on National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
• Making matters worse, this wasn’t old info. Most of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn.
• And if it was that easy for reporters, you can’t imagine what a gift it is to hostile intelligence services, who could use this publicly available data to hack the communications of those affected by installing spyware on their devices.
• And in fact, the reporters determined that publicly accessible telephone numbers belonging to Gabbard and Waltz are, indeed, those that are linked to Signal accounts. Waltz’s information also led to his profiles for Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and more.
• Hegseth’s phone, email address and, in some cases, even the password associated with it, could be found in over 20 publicly accessible leaks. Using publicly available information, it was possible to verify that the email address was used just a few days ago.
• Fucking hell.
• Can you imagine what Fox News would be saying if this was happening in a Democratic administration? These people are the absolute worst.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Dumples the Racist Clown asked the Supreme Court to lift lower court orders blocking deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the wartime Alien Enemies Act with no due process.
• We knew that was coming after federal judges and courts of appeals all found it completely unconstitutional.
• The court has asked the individuals challenging Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to respond to Dump’s emergency request by Tuesday.
• Side note: this request for emergency relief from the Supreme Court is now the sixth made by the Justice Department. Three others are still awaiting action by the justices.
• Let’s move on… sort of.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed to block Dumpy from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that was targeted for mass firings before the court’s intervention.
• She issued a preliminary injunction that maintains the agency’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve the agency. The judge said the court “can and must act” to save the agency from being shuttered.
• This is the agency that Congress created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect Americans’ financial security. Dump wants it shut down so his wealthy friends can more easily commit fraudulent business practices against Americans.
• Let’s keep moving on… sort of.
• Yesterday, Judge James Paul Oetken halted the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle Voice of America, the eight-decade-old U.S. government-funded international news service. He called the move a “classic case of arbitrary and capricious decision making.”
• I agree.
• Oetken blocked the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which runs Voice of America, from firing more than 1,200 journalists, engineers, and other staff that it sidelined two weeks ago in the wake of President Musk and his sidekick Donnie ordering its funding slashed.
• His order also bars the agency from terminating grant funding for its other broadcast outlets, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Free Afghanistan.
• At the hearing, Oetken faulted the Trump administration for “taking a sledgehammer to an agency that has been statutorily authorized and funded by Congress.”
• Okay, now we’re really moving on.
• But be aware: people across the country at many different levels are successfully stopping this wannabe fascist piece of shit.
• He will never achieve his goals. He will be angrier and more frustrated at each passing defeat. And I will have my popcorn out watching every moment of his downfall.
• Meanwhile…
• President Musk is 100% definitely up to some fuckery.
• He announced last night that he’s sold his social media company, X (formerly known as Twitter), to… himself.
• Or rather to xAI, his artificial intelligence company. xAI will pay $45 billion for X, slightly more than Musk paid for it in 2022, but the new deal includes $12 billion of debt, giving X (according to its owner) a valuation of $33 billion.
• I know there’s some absolute sleaze going on here. I mean, what… he got a bunch of people to invest in his shitty AI company, then used that money to pay himself to alleviate some of the massive hole he dug himself by overpaying so much for Twitter?
• And since both companies are privately held, they are not required to disclose their finances to the public. So who even knows what’s going on? I’m glad I don’t have a penny invested in any of his bullshit companies.
• Let’s move on.
• I haven’t said shit about this whole Greenland thing in awhile, and it’s so embarrassing for the USA that I hardly want to now.
• But I did giggle over this.
• In advance of the visit by Second lady Usha Vance, officials were traveling around the Danish-controlled territory looking for locals who wanted to receive a visit.
• Greenlanders’ response? No thanks.
• Even the company who’d initially said they would host Usha pulled out.
• “After closer consideration, however, we have now informed the consulate that we do not want her visit, as we cannot accept the underlying agenda and will not be part of the press show that, quite, of course, comes with it. No thanks to nice visit… Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders," the company said.
• Ha.
• It probably didn’t help that her husband, Jiminy Dicklet Vance, decided to accompany her there.
• He said, “There was so much excitement around Usha’s visit to Greenland this Friday, that I decided that I didn’t want her to have all that fun by herself, and so I’m going to join her.”
• HAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh Lordy Jesus.
• Some news from the Health Desk. Seems like we’ve had a lot of those lately.
• As of yesterday, at least five states have active measles outbreaks, and Texas’ is the largest with 400 cases.
• Already, the U.S. has more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. Other states with outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. Since February, two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes.
• The new outbreaks confirm health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year or more.
• Measles is highly contagious, but is fully preventable through vaccines, and until Dump came back into office with his gross disease bag people like RFK Jr., it had been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.
• Moving on.
• This week, Utah became the first state to prohibit flying LGBTQ+ pride flags at schools and all government buildings. Their Republican governor announced he was allowing a ban on unsanctioned flag displays to become law without his signature.
• Starting May 7, state or local government buildings will be fined $500 a day for flying any flag other than the United States flag, the Utah state flag, military flags, or a short list of others approved by lawmakers.
• City buildings in liberal Salt Lake City typically honor Pride Month each June by displaying flags that celebrate its large LGBTQ+ population. Local leaders have illuminated the Salt Lake City and County Building in rainbow lights to protest the flag ban each night since the Legislature sent it to Cox’s desk.
• That’s not going to end well.
• Moving on to a free speech story.
• The leader of a small group of self-described satanists and three other people were arrested yesterday following a scuffle inside the Kansas Statehouse arising from an effort by the group’s leader to start a Black Mass in the rotunda.
• What’s really at issue here: the separation of church and state that’s being one of the primary guiding principles of the USA since our foundation.
• The Satanic Grotto’s rally outside drew hundreds of Christian counter-protesters because of the Grotto’s satanic imagery. About 100 Christians stood against yellow police tape marking the Satanic Grotto’s area.
• The two groups yelled at each other while the Christians also sang and called on Grotto members to accept Jesus. Snort.
• When group leader Michael Stewart tried to conduct his group’s ceremony in the first-floor rotunda, a young man tried to snatch Stewart’s script from his hands, and Stewart punched him.
• Then several Kansas Highway Patrol troopers wrestled Stewart to the ground and handcuffed him. They led him through hallways on the ground floor below and into a room as he yelled, “Hail, Satan!”
• Hee hee hee hee.
• Well people, hate to break the news to you, but saying, “Hail Satan” is no more illegal than saying, “Praise Jesus.”
• I should note that Marcus Schroeder, the 21-year-old who accosted Stewart, was also arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, with his bond also set at $1,000.
• Good.
• And now, The Weather: “Honey Water” by Japanese Breakfast
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s this week 35 years ago in 1990. Don’t get me started on the fact that 1990 was 35 years ago. Hell, a person born in 2004 can now go drink in a bar.
• What was I doing in spring 1990? Going to college at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and working at a Sunglass Hut in a mall.
• At that Sunglasses Hut, I met the young woman who I would date, marry, have a child with, and eventually divorce. Such is life. Still got the kid out of it, though. He’s 25 and playing video games down the hall from me at the moment. So that Sunglasses Hut was of importance in its own way.
• 1. Love Will Lead You Back (Taylor Dayne). 2. I'll Be Your Everything (Tommy Page). 3. All Around The World (Lisa Stansfield). 4. I Wish It Would Rain Down (Phil Collins). 5. Black Velvet (Alannah Myles). 6. Don't Wanna Fall In Love (Jane Child). 7. Get Up! (Before The Night Is Over) (Technotronic). 8. Here And Now (Luther Vandross). 9. Nothing Compares 2 U (Sinead O’Connor). 10. Forever (KISS). 11. I Wanna Be Rich (Calloway). 12. All My Life (Linda Ronstadt Featuring Aaron Neville). 13. Whole Wide World (From "True Love") (A'me Lorain). 14. Escapade  (Janet Jackson). 15. How Can We Be Lovers (Michael Bolton). 16. Without You (Motley Crue). 17. Keep It Together (Madonna). 18. Whip Appeal (Babyface). 19. Heartbeat (Seduction). 20. Roam (The B-52s).
• From the Sports Desk… March Madness continues with the Elite 8 Round. Here’s who’s left.
• 1-seed Auburn vs 2-seed Michigan State. 1-seed Florida vs. 3-seed Texas Tech. 1-seed Duke vs. 2-seed Alabama. 1-seed Houston vs. 2-seed Tennessee.
• Two of those games are today, the other two tomorrow. The final four and the championship games are next weekend.
• Today in history… Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway (1806). United States forces in the Mexican-American War led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege (1847). The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab (1849). Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes Canada on July 1 (1867). Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria (1871). Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage (1951). The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections (1961). Lieutenant William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder in the My Lai Massacre and sentenced to life in prison (1971). NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury (1974). The Baltimore Colts load its possessions onto fifteen Mayflower moving trucks in the early morning hours and transfer its operations to Indianapolis (1984). The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark for the first time, during the height of the dot-com bubble (1999). Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members (2004). The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales are performed (2014). Prime Minister Theresa May invokes Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, formally beginning the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union (2017).
• March 29 is the birthday of biologist/physician Santorio Santorio (1561), US president John Tyler (1790), engineer/inventor Elihu Thomson (1853), MLB player/manager Cy Young (1867), US first lady Lou Henry Hoover (1874), actress/singer Pearl Bailey (1918), businessman Sam Walton (1918), UK prime minister John Major (1943), saxophonist Michael Brecker (1949), NFL player Earl Campbell (1955), actress Marina Sirtis (1955), MLB player/manager Billy Beane (1962), politician Catherine Cortez Masto (1964), actress Lucy Lawless (1968), politician Ted Lieu (1969), and tennis player Jennifer Capriati (1976).

And here I am, wrapping up my news right on time. Now for a shower, and the wearing of clothes, and then the weekend chores that I don’t want to do but eventually will anyway. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 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 March 28, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! It’s been a jam-packed week, both in terms of important news and my level of work craziness, so the approaching weekend is very much welcomed.

• I thought we could start this fine day with a little vocabulary and history lesson.
• In rhetoric, parrhesia is the act of speaking freely. It implies not only freedom of speech, but the obligation to speak the truth for the common good, even at personal risk.
• In the Classical period of ancient Greece, parrhesia was a fundamental component of the Athenian democracy. In the courts or the assembly of citizens, Athenians were free to say almost anything.
• I should not that much like today, saying certain things in the street back then could get you punched in the nose.
• Playwrights such as Aristophanes made full use of their right to ridicule whomever they chose.
• And that has evolved over the centuries to a concept called "speaking truth to power.” It’s a non-violent political tactic, employed by dissidents against the propaganda of governments they regard as oppressive, authoritarian, or an ideocracy.
• Effective users of truth to power in the hopes of a more just and truthful world have included the Hebrew Prophets, Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and many others.
• When I talk to you here, I do it with the awareness that these posts are public.
• That anyone could get offended by what I report, and how I’m almost certainly on someone’s shit list as a result.
• And that I could — especially in the fascist world I’m trying to prevent — face personal risk merely as a result of keeping people informed.
• Is it worth it? Fuck yes it is. I would never want to live a life where I fear dispensing truth, or where my values are dictated by the world’s most evil people.
• So yes, this Random News report is chock full of parrhesia, and I have no intention of changing. Ever.
• Let’s do some news.
• Starting unfortunately with a natural disaster. A massive earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand today.
• The 7.7 magnitude quake, with an epicenter near Mandalay, Myanmar ‘s second largest city, struck at midday and was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock.
• We don’t yet know the full extent of the deaths and damage, but it’s going to be a lot.
• And since Myanmar is embroiled in a civil war, it’s going to make it all the more difficult to provide aid to those affected.
• Send them some good thoughts, please.
• Back in the USA…
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Dump administration to preserve records of a text message chat in which senior national security officials discussed sensitive details of plans for a U.S. military strike against Yemen’s Houthis.
• Over a consumer app called Signal. With journalists accidentally added to the confidential war planning session.
• Boasberg barred administration officials from destroying messages that were sent over the messaging app last weekend.
• A nonprofit watchdog, American Oversight, requested the order. A government attorney said the administration already was taking steps to collect and save the messages.
• Surrrrre Jan.
• As you’re aware, the Atlantic published the entire Signal chat on Wednesday. Its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been added to a discussion that included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
• Why? Because they suck and they’re stupid.
• Two questions that have already been debated — and will come up a lot more during the Signalgate investigation — is, “What is ‘classified’ information?” and “What are ‘secure’ communications?”
• Let’s be clear: things are only classified if the government says they are — or are not.
• But even if the information sent in the text group had been declassified by the Pentagon, it contained details that would have been highly valuable to the Houthis or other adversaries, showing how sometimes the decision of what to classify is a judgment call.
• The federal government routinely classifies vast amounts of information pertaining to military and intelligence operations.
• While the public typically calls any information withheld by the government “classified,” that term only refers to the three broad categories used to “classify” information based on the need for secrecy: confidential, secret, and top secret.
• The Pentagon hasn’t offered classification details about the information in the Signal chats.
• But any information about upcoming military strikes is typically tightly guarded to ensure adversaries don’t have advance warning that could jeopardize the mission, or put American service members at risk.
• And the Signal chat did just that, listing precise times and locations of attack plans.
• Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) noted that Department of Defense policy “prohibits discussion of even what is called controlled unclassified information on unsecured devices,” and asked if Ratcliffe and Gabbard, who oversees the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, were aware of that rule.
• “I haven’t read that policy,” Gabbard said.
• “I’m not familiar with the DOD policy,” Ratcliffe said.
• And I will add that being ignorant of the law is never an acceptable excuse for breaking it. One or more of the people involved in this clusterfuck need to resign — and frankly, to be consistent with previous similar instances, some should face prison terms.
• I’m looking at Michael Waltz.
• Yesterday, the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee requested an inspector general investigation into Signalgate.
• “This reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know,” the committee leaders wrote.
• They are proposing six areas of inquiry, including the “facts and circumstances” around the incident and whether the administration officials followed Defense Department policies on classified information and communication over “nongovernment networks and electronic applications.”
• Will there be any accountability? My guess is no, but I want this story to remain front and center so people know how inept their political leaders are… and how they’re putting the lives of American military in peril with their carelessness.
• Moving on (for now).
• Dumpy has yanked Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Ha ha!
• The reason that he offered is actually semi-legit: he’s afraid that her House seat will be taken by a Democrat.
• The abrupt withdrawal reflects growing concern among House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, that their historically slim majority could be at risk, particularly ahead of two special elections in Florida next week.
• The loss of a few seats could swing the House majority to Democrats and derail Team Fascist’s efforts to enact Dump’s sweeping agenda in the months ahead.
• This is the second withdrawal — forced or otherwise — of a Dump cabinet nominee. The first, of course, was child rapist and former Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who was Dumpy’s first pick for Attorney General.
• How bad are things looking for Republican candidates out there?
• This coming Tuesday, there’s an election in Florida’s deep-red 6th Congressional District that under every normal circumstance would be an easy win for the GOP.
• Republican state Sen. Randy Fine should win by a huge margin. I’d note that he likely will win.
• But Democrat Josh Weil, a teacher, has outraised Fine nearly 10-to-1, running a much more aggressive campaign that ties Fine to the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency and potential cuts to Medicaid and Social Security.
• Smart.
• Anything short of a 20-point margin of victory for Fine and the GOP in one of the most conservative districts of the country will be seen as a death knell for Republicans across the nation.
• We’ll be watching.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, a New York state court blocked a Texas court from enforcing a fine of more than $100,000 against a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a woman in Texas, escalating the battle over abortion regulation among states.
• The refusal marks a major test of shield laws — a protection that at least 18 states and the District of Columbia have enacted to protect doctors who provide telehealth abortion care across state lines after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
• Where’s this going to end up? The Supreme Court, of course. This is why we had — for about 50 years — a law of the land so that states didn’t have to face off with conflicting laws.
• It’s impossible to know how this will turn out. Stay tuned.
• Moving on.
• Li’l Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, said yesterday that the State Department has revoked 300 or more student visas of otherwise legal residents of the USA.
• Their crime that requires immediate deportation? Peaceful activism.
• As we’ve mentioned here, around the country, scholars have been picked up, in some cases by masked immigration agents, and held in detention centers, sometimes a thousand miles from their homes with little warning and often with few details about why they were being detained.
• L’il Marco doesn’t like the ability to protest that is guaranteed by our Constitution. “It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” he said.
• We used to go out of our way to encourage the world’s best and brightest scholars to study here and add their contributions to our nation.
• Now we not only push them away; we arrest them for taking part in the fundamental American right to free speech and to assemble.
• In other news…
• Donnie Dump pisses me off pretty often — okay, always — but now he’s fucking with the Smithsonian Institution, and this will not stand, man.
• Yesterday, Dumples the No-Culture Clown revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian with an executive order that targets funding for programs that advance “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”
• Suck my fucking dick, Don. Is that improper? Suck it some more, you fat orange fuck.
• The order he signed behind closed doors puts Vice President Jedediah Deliverance Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents, in charge of overseeing efforts to “remove improper ideology” from all areas of the institution, including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.
• The EO also hints at the return of statues and monuments of Confederate figures, many of which were taken down or replaced around the country after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is detested by Dump and other conservatives.
• Let’s face it: if you’re not white, male, and straight, Republicans hate you and will do anything in their power to erase you from history.
• And now, The Weather: “When I Close My Eyes” by SLEEP CLUB
• A funny note about Kendrick Lamar’s fantastic Super Bowl LIX halftime performance.
• It drew 125 FCC complaints, which — given its outspoken nature and the fact that it had 128 million worldwide television viewers and 3.65 billion views total — is way less than I’d have assumed.
• But the reasons for the complaints are what I found hilarious.
• “The halftime show was terrible with the language and gestures. My younger kids did not need to see and hear this!” noted one viewer from Lenox, IL.
• Um… there was no obscene language or gestures. Not one.
• “That was the worst halftime show that I have ever seen,” another viewer from Catawba, NC wrote to the FCC. “It was divisive, downgrading, and filled with profanity. It is absolutely not appropriate entertainment for all ages.”
• Um… again, there was no profanity. What are these people imagining they heard?
• “There wasn’t one white person in the whole show,” wrote one person from Ocean City, MD. 
• Ahhhh. Now I see the issue.
• "I felt discriminated against and why was Uncle Sam Black when Uncle Sam is white?” noted another complaint from Daytona Beach, FL. 
• There we go.
• From the Sports Desk… I was chastised by certain people yesterday for not having reported on Opening Day of Major League Baseball.
• I was just saving my report for the games actually having been played. Also, since my Dodgers were already 2-0 (having opened their season early), I found I gave less of a shit than had they been playing, you see.
• Opening Day winners: Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Guardians, White Sox, Astros, Mariners, Marlins, Phillies, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Padres.
• Opening Day losers: mostly everyone else.
• Today in history… Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco (1776). Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be discovered (1802). First concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Otto Nicolai (1842). France and Britain declare war on Russia in the Crimean War (1854). In the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico Territory (1862). Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege (1939). The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power (1946). The US Supreme Court hands down 5–3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity (1978). A coolant leak at the Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside Harrisburg, PA leads to the core overheating and a partial meltdown (1979). President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal (1990). 
• March 28 is the birthday of painter Fra Bartolomeo (1472), brewer Frederick Pabst (1836), novelist Maxim Gorky (1868), actress Beulah Dark Cloud (1887), politician Edmund Muskie (1914), scientist/engineer Paul C. Donnelly (1923), diplomat/political activist Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928), NBA player/coach Jerry Sloan (1942), actor Ken Howard (1944), Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte (1945), actress Dianne Wiest (1948), singer-songwriter Reba McEntire (1955), NBA player/coach Byron Scott (1961), actor Vince Vaughn (1970), NHL player Keith Tkachuk (1972), NBA player/coach Luke Walton (1980), singer-songwriter/actress Lady Gaga (1986), NFL player Derek Carr (1991), and MLB player Will Smith (1995).

I know that’s a lot of news, but things happen and I try not to leave things out just because other things happened on the same day. There’s too much important stuff going on to leave you in the dark. Wake up. Turn on the light. See what’s going on. Be aware and be better as a result. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 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 March 27, 2025, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. We have another jam-packed day of important news and info to relay to you. It’s perhaps more important right now to be aware and awake than any previous time in American history, as we balance on the precipice of the entire future of our country and the world.

• I promise that we’re going to continue covering Signalgate, and we have plenty to talk about in that regard.
• But first, an important ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that will likely be a harbinger of how the Supreme Court will choose to enable the fascist actions of Donnie Dumpo — or not.
• Yesterday, the three-judge panel denied the White House's push to restart deportations under a rarely used wartime authority by a vote of 2 to 1.
• They left in place a lower court order that temporarily blocks the Dump administration from quickly deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
• And the White House immediately said it plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.
• Judge Patricia Millett cited a lack of opportunity for the alleged gang members to contest the cases against them before being quickly removed from the country.
• ”The government's removal scheme denies Plaintiffs even a gossamer thread of due process. No notice, no hearing, no opportunity—zero process—to show that they are not members of the gang, to contest their eligibility for removal under the law, or to invoke legal protections against being sent to a place where it appears likely they will be tortured and their lives endangered,” she wrote.
• So this will become a crucial moment in history when it hits the SCOTUS. Will they allow Dump to act in complete disregard of the Constitution? And if they allow it to happen now, is there any hope of us having free and fair elections again, or is Dumpy the dictator for life that he wants to be?
• Stay tuned and we’ll all see.
• Moving on.
• And back to Signalgate.
• Yesterday, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the committee’s top Democrat, will request an inspector general investigation into the use of Signal by top national security officials to discuss military plans. 
• Wicker’s move is notable given the Dump administration’s defiant lie that no classified information was posted to the Signal chat.
• Wicker’s announcement came as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were questioned before Congress about how a journalist was added to a group chat in which they discussed American military strikes in Yemen.
• Democrats during the hearing called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared in the group chat the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop, to immediately resign over the leak.
• Before we go on, it’s important for you all to understand the reason that they’re using this insecure bullshit app Signal for official communications.
• They don’t want any record of it being retained. Their Project 2025 had created training videos that specifically recommended using Signal to avoid evidence of their criminal activity. 
• Their goal? A total takeover of the USA with no evidence to support any prosecution for their crimes in future court cases.
• One problem: who would be investigating this shit?
• FBI Director Kash Patel made no commitment as to whether the nation’s premier law enforcement agency would investigate.
• Dumpy doesn’t want that, of course. In fact, the Stable Genius said that looking into what happened on Signal isn’t something the FBI would do.
• “It’s not really an FBI thing,” he so eloquently stated. Except it is.
• The FBI and Justice Department for decades have been responsible for enforcing Espionage Act statutes governing the mishandling — whether intentional or negligent — of national defense information like the kind shared on Signal, a publicly available app that is not approved for classified information.
• Merely the choice to use Signal is a punishable offense.
• And it’s clear that Dumpy himself doesn’t know what Signal is. Want to see his quote? Sure you do.
• “Somebody in my group either screwed up or it's a bad signal. You know, it's a bad signal, happens too. But, seems to be, maybe came in with a staffer, and it was by accident, what we can tell, we'll know pretty much today, I think. But, we have some pretty good guys checking out the phones. But, it's something that is not a big deal, other than you want to find out who did it and how they did it, because you don't, don't want it to happen, you know, in the future, you can't have that happen.”
• (slow clap)
• But this is more than Dump being a moron… something we’ve known for many years. And it’s more than just one shitty app.
• A Venmo account under the name Michael Waltz, carrying a profile photo of the national security adviser and connected to accounts bearing the names of people closely associated with him, was left open to the public until yesterday afternoon.
• Yes, Venmo, the peer-to-peer payment platform. The one Matt Gaetz used to pay hookers.
• The account revealed the names of hundreds of Waltz’s personal and professional associates, including journalists, military officers, lobbyists, and others — information a foreign intelligence service or other actors could exploit for any number of ends.
• Among the accounts linked to Waltz are ones that appear to belong to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and Walker Barrett, a staffer on the United States National Security Council. Both were fellow participants in the now-infamous Signal group chat called “Houthi PC small group.”
• Public data exposed on Venmo accounts associated with senior administration officials suggests that the Signal group chat was not an isolated mistake, but part of a broader pattern of reckless behavior by some of the most powerful people in the US government.
• The Venmo account under Waltz’s name includes a 328-person friend list, which until yesterday was wide open for the public to view.
• We told you that these people were incompetent for the jobs given to them by Dumpy, and they’re proving this point every day.
• Let’s just fucking move on for now. The only thing I can promise: this is not going away.
• The fucking dipshit who calls himself the president just said he was placing 25% tariffs on auto imports. All of them.
• Let’s start with the easy and obvious point: U.S. automakers source their components from around the world. So let’s make sure you understand… this isn’t a tax on foreign countries.
• It’s just another tax of you, the American consumer.
• The tax hike starting in April means automakers will face higher costs and lower sales. Also, I hope none of you were planning on buying a car soon.
• Let’s move on.
• We should mention the case of Rumeysa Ozturk. She’s a doctoral candidate in a PhD program at prestigious Tufts University on a valid F-1 visa, which allows international students to pursue full-time academic studies.
• On Tuesday evening in Somerville, MA, Ozturk was arrested and physically restrained by immigration officers near her apartment. Six plainclothes officers surrounded Ozturk as she walked alone.
• Ozturk is one of several foreign nationals affiliated with prestigious American universities to be arrested for purported activities related to terrorist organizations. But no charges have been filed against Ozturk.
• Instead, she is being held illegally — with no due process rights being provided — at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
• You don’t think this could happen to you, or to your children? Bullshit.
• Thousands protested Ozturk’s detention last night at a park on the edge of the Tufts’ campus.
• It’s becoming more and more clear that the Dump administration is singling out people who aren’t white straight men for prosecution and other punishment.
• Yesterday, a complaint filed before the Merit System Protection Board accuses Dump of violating workers’ First Amendment rights and unlawfully targeting them because they promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• The complaint also alleges that the mass firings across government agencies violated anti-discrimination laws because they were based on pair of anti-DEI executive orders that “disproportionately singled out federal workers who were not white men for hostility, suspicion, job interference, and termination.”
• The complaint was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward, and two law firms on behalf of Mahri Stainnak, a former employee of the Office of Personnel Management, and “similarly-situated federal workers.”
• I think we need some good news, because in the midst of this insanity, there’s always good stuff happening.
• Democrat James Andrew Malone narrowly won a special election for a Pennsylvania state Senate seat. Normally I wouldn’t really think this was important.
• But that congressional district was one that Dump won by a big margin.
• Malone’s victory over Republican Josh Parsons in Tuesday night’s election came in a county that Democrats say they haven’t represented in the chamber in over a century.
• Who helped Malone win? Dumpy himself, by being himself.
• Malone said in an interview Wednesday that he was helped by Trump’s embrace of chaos and rejection of a methodical, cohesive and by-the-book strategy of accomplishing his agenda in his first two months.
• We going to fuck the Republican party so hard in the next national election… assuming there is one.
• In other news, a note from the Health Desk.
• More than 10,000 cans of Original Coca-Cola have been voluntarily recalled due to possible plastic contamination.
• The recall only affects specific 12-ounce Coca-Cola Original cans produced by Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, LLC in Milwaukee, WI. Only certain batches distributed in Illinois and Wisconsin are included.
• And now, The Weather: “home.” by Josh Fudge
• An RIP going out to Herb Greene, whose iconic photographs of the ‘60s San Francisco rock scene captured the era’s superstars — Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, among others — in their prime.
• Greene died earlier this month at 82. I promise, if you’ve seen any photos depicting the San Francisco hippie music scene, you’ve seen his shots.
• From the Sports Desk… I got nothing. Go team.
• Today in history… Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of The Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida (1513). Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France (1625). The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates (1794). In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814). President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866, but his veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9 (1866). Nikita Khrushchev becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1958). Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins (1975). The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States (1998). North Macedonia becomes the 30th member of NATO (2020).
• March 27 is the birthday of activist Virginia Minor (1824), physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (1845), engineer/businessman Henry Royce (1863), actress Gloria Swanson (1899), bandleader Pee Wee Russell (1906), guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. (1915), music producer Phil Chess (1921), singer Sarah Vaughan (1924), mathematician/computer programmer Margaret K. Butler (1924), actor Michael York (1942), keyboardist/songwriter Tony Banks (1950), NFL player Randall Cunningham (1963), film director Quentin Tarantino (1963), singer-songwriter Mariah Carey (1969), and singer-songwriter Fergie (1975).

And now I’m out of time, despite not being out of news. That’s okay. We’ll always have more to talk about here. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 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 March 26, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. We probably have too much important news to talk about in the 56 minutes I have to report it, so I’ll skip the preamble. Wait, I’m preambling right now? Dammit.

• Signalgate is getting worse and worse for the Dump administration.
• Yesterday, defense secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that “nobody was texting war plans” in the messaging app group chat that was inadvertently sent to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, hours before the attack on Yemen began.
• And Dumples the Untruthful Clown backed him up. “It wasn’t classified information,” whined the Orange Goblin. 
• But today, in response to the lies of the Dump and his department of defense, a new article was published by the magazine that shows it 100% was classified war plans.
• “There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared,” the magazine said.
• The magazine then reproduced numerous messages from the text chat. They included details of US bombings, drone launches, and targeting information of the assault, including descriptions of weather conditions.
• However, the magazine did not include specific details of the attack, saying it did not want to jeopardize national security.
• Want a sample of the texts sent with no consideration for security? Sure. I’ll give it to you right here and now.
• TEAM UPDATE:

TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/ CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.
1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)
1345: "Trigger Based" F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME) - also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)
1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)
1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier "Trigger Based" targets)
1536: F-18 2nd Strike Starts - also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.

• What the actual fucking fuck?
• So, that’s the exact times of warplane launches, strike packages, and targets — before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen’s Houthis on behalf of the United States were airborne.
• It’s been pointed out that if an Army corporal sent these war plans to a reporter — accidentally or otherwise — they’d be spending decades in Leavenworth prison.
• But since it was done by the top people who run our country’s defense forces, all they want is to sweep it under the rug.
• Not so fast, buckaroos.
• This morning’s article was published just over an hour before a House intelligence committee hearing was set to begin. At yesterday’s hearing, both the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, who were participants in the Signal chat, said the leak contained no classified information.
• Democrats and others who care about our country’s national security will no doubt use today’s hearing to demand an explanation of how operational attack plans are not classified information.
• The only other thing I’ll add for now…
• Federal judges are randomly assigned cases, but the roll of the dice for Signalgate is going to make every MAGA’s head melt down in a Chernobyl-level manner.
• The judge assigned to it? That would be James Boasberrg, who is already considered public enemy number one by the Dump world due to his blocking Dump’s illegal immigration scheme.
• Jesus. Anyway, the Signal fiasco is happening now at the House. A number of political leaders are publicly calling for the immediate resignation of Hegseth, Waltz, Gabbard, and anyone else whose ineptitude led us to this point.
• For the moment, let’s move on.
• Yesterday, Dumples the Unconstitutional Clown signed a far-reaching executive order that promises to fundamentally disrupt American voter registration processes.
• Fascist piece of shit.
• If enacted, Dumpy’s latest EO introduces measures so restrictive they could in effect disenfranchise millions of citizens.
• The sweeping order amends the federal voter registration form to require proof of citizenship in order to vote. It demands documentary proof for citizenship such as a passport to be eligible to vote in federal elections, empowers federal agencies to cut funding to states deemed non-compliant, and instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute what the White House paints as “election crimes”.
• Let’s be clear. This executive order is written as if a child who had no understanding of the election process had a fever dream.
• Taken literally, it would bar voter registration to almost everyone without a passport, which is over half the population of the USA.
• It doesn’t mention citizenship-proving items like birth certificates. And that REAL ID that you got recently? Yeah, that’s not enough either, because people with green cards get them too. 
• The measure also seeks to block states from accepting mail-in ballots after election day, regardless of when they are mailed in.
• So yes, we knew this dictator shit was coming. Before you get super worried… none of that is legal.
• Many — if not all — of the provisions in the order are likely to be quickly challenged and are almost certainly suspect from a constitutional standpoint.
• The US Constitution explicitly gives states and Congress the authority to set the rules for elections, and does not authorize the president to do so.
• So blow it out your fat ass, Donnie Boy.
• Let’s keep moving on.
• Got some breaking news from the Supreme Court… and it’s actually good.
• This morning, the SCOTUS upheld a Biden administration rule that regulates unserialized firearms called ghost guns, delivering a win for federal efforts to curb gun violence. 
• The high court ruled 7-2 in finding that the rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is not facially inconsistent with federal firearms law. Thomas and Alito dissented (shocking, I know).
• But Justice Neil Gorsuch authored the opinion for the majority.
• The case did not involve the Second Amendment, but whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went too far when it issued the rule subjecting ghost guns to the same requirements as commercial firearms.
• In other news…
• Frank Bisignano is Dump’s nominee to run the Social Security Administration. Yesterday, he vowed to crack down on fraud and to protect Americans' personal data in a Senate confirmation hearing.
• Who is this asshole? The CEO of a financial technology company called Fiserv.
• There are open concerns that Bisignano supports privatizing Social Security, a federal agency that provides retirement, disability, and other benefits to more than 70 million Americans. 
• Who would benefit from privatizing Social Security? Well, first and foremost, private-sector players like Fiserv.
• During yesterday’s confirmation hearing, Bisignano said he hasn't thought about privatizing the agency.
• He was responding to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) who pointed out that the Dump administration's aim is to discredit the system and then send in "tech bros and private equity folks" to "save" it.”
• In a letter to Bisignano, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) — both members of the Senate panel that will consider his nomination — expressed concern about the ongoing cost-cutting efforts at the agency.
• The SSA has been targeted for major job cuts by President Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with thousands of jobs being slashed.
• I’ll mention — not that it matters — that in 2024, Dumpy promised not to touch the Social Security program, which provides monthly financial payments to roughly 1 in 5 Americans.
• I would have a plan together if you or any member of your family rely on Social Security. There’s no telling when Musk, Dump, and this new guy will be pulling the rug out from under your feet.
• Let’s keep rolling with more news, and a follow-up from yesterday.
• Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald has ordered immigration authorities to halt, for now, their efforts to detain a Columbia University student who is being targeted for her involvement in pro-Palestinian protests.
• The temporary restraining order was issued at the request of lawyers for Yunseo Chung, 21, a Columbia junior who was born in Korea and holds a green card after coming to the U.S. as a 7-year-old child.
• Chung’s attorneys said they believe Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Chung’s green card revoked on grounds that her presence in the U.S. was undermining U.S. foreign policy.
• Rubio has issued similar findings in recent weeks that triggered deportation efforts against another Columbia student, Mahmoud Khalil, and a Georgetown researcher, Badar Suri.
• Both are currently in immigration custody in Louisiana, but have filed lawsuits demanding release. And all the suits contend that the detentions violate First Amendment free-speech rights.
• They do. These people are legal residents of the USA, and we have the right to peaceably protest. It’s right there in the U.S. Constitution.
• And I want to point out an important fact: none of the people detained and threatened with deportation are white.
• Despite that fact that white students, professors, and academics have also been heavily involved in pro-Palestinian protests, people of color have disproportionately faced sudden arrests and threats of deportation or had their visas revoked.
• Imagine that.
• Got some more good news for ya’.
• A Democrat won a state senate seat in a Pennsylvania district that overwhelmingly voted for Dumpy, offering a ray of hope for the party.
• James Malone triumphed yesterday in the 36th senatorial district, which voted for Dump over Kamala Harris by more than 15 points in last November’s presidential election, in a victory that Democratic party leadership said “should put Republicans on edge”.
• Let’s fucking go!
• Moving on.
• A sad note from the Health Desk… and a word of warning.
• I really love coffee. I do. I love the taste, the mild boost, and the entire experience of it.
• You hear me mention it several times each week. But like anything else in life, good or bad, most things need to be done in moderation. I drink coffee in the morning and afternoon, and I never, ever add any other stimulant to my intake.
• That wasn’t the case for 28-year-old Katie Donnell, a teacher and avid health enthusiast from Florida, who would drink up to three energy drinks a day, every day, along with coffee — and would take a caffeine supplement before hitting the gym.
• In August 2021, Donnell was hanging out with friends when she suddenly collapsed. It was a heart attack from her excessive use of caffeine. She suffered brain damage, and died 10 days later while in a coma.
• It shouldn’t be news to you that caffeine can impact the heart. A typical cup of coffee has 95 milligrams of caffeine (so my habit is well within the safe zone that the Mayo Clinic lists at up to 400 mg per day.
• But some energy drinks can contain up to 200 milligrams of caffeine per can.
• All I’m saying is, whether it’s you or your kids or your friends… those energy drinks can and will kill you, or cause serious and irreparable damage to your body.
• Stop with that shit. Side note: on almost a 100% basis, the only thing I drink every day — other than coffee on the morning and afternoon — is water. No sodas, no sports drinks, no alcohol. Water.
• Side note 2: I also do things that I’m fully aware are very bad for me and will likely kill me eventually. I’m not a saint and am far from perfect.
• But unlike Ms. Donnell, I’ve also lived far past 28. Twice as far, to be specific, and hopefully have a good ways to go. Stay away from energy drinks and caffeine supplements.
• Another note from the Health Desk… this one a little more generalized.
• Can the USA afford to offer health care for all?
• As it turns out, the U.S. already spends far, far more per person each year in health care than any other developed country.
• United States: $1,001/person.
• Compared to the next highest countries… Switzerland ($392), Germany ($365), France ($346), Netherlands ($268), Canada ($219), OECD Average ($191), Sweden ($114). United Kingdom ($104), and Italy ($80).
• As Bernie Sanders points out, “Our for-profit health care system is not only broken & cruel, it's extremely wasteful. While we spend billions on stock buybacks, CEO compensation & denying needed care, Medicare for All would save $650 billion & 68,000 lives a year per CBO & Yale University. Let's get it done.”
• And now, The Weather: “Over and Over” by Wishy
• Let’s… do a chart.
• It’s March 1969. I am a fetus. This is the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart that perhaps I listened to prenatally.
• 1. Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell). 2. Goodbye (Cream). 3. The Beatles [White Album] (The Beatles). 4. Greatest Hits (The Association). 5. Ball (Iron Butterfly). 6. Yellow Submarine (The Beatles). 7. TCB (Diana Ross & The Supremes With The Temptations). 8. Crimson & Clover (Tommy James). 9. Blood, Sweat & Tears (Blood, Sweat & Tears). 10. Help Yourself (Tom Jones). 11. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly). 12. Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin). 13. Donovan's Greatest Hits (Donovan). 14. Bayou Country (Creedence Clearwater Revival). 15. Aretha Franklin: Soul '69 (Aretha Franklin). 16. The Second (Steppenwolf). 17. Bless Its Pointed Little Head (Jefferson Airplane). 18. The Live Adventures Of Mike Bloomfield And Al Kooper (Al Kooper). 19. Gentle On My Mind (Dean Martin). 20. Live At The Copa (The Temptations).
• From the Sports Desk… Russell Wilson has a job, which means that Aaron Rodgers probably will as well.
• Yesterday, the New York Giants signed Wilson to a one-year deal worth up to $21 million, including $10.5 million guaranteed.
• So it’s now looking more and more like Rodgers may have a spot with the Pittsburgh Steelers -- Wilson's former team -- assuming the quarterback decides he wants to play this season.
• And not do something like retire from the NFL and work for Fox Sports or join the Dumpy team, both in the realm of possibilities.
• Today in history… Saladin becomes the emir of Egypt (1169). William Caxton prints his translation of ‘Aesop's Fables’ (1484). Utrecht University is founded in the Netherlands (1636). A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term "gerrymander" to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win reelection (1812). The Vancouver Millionaires win the 1915 Stanley Cup Finals, the first championship played between the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the National Hockey Association (1915). The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces (1945). Ten thousand people gather for one of many Central Park be-ins in New York City (1967). East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins (1971). Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Egypt–Israel peace treaty in Washington, D.C. (1979). Thirty-nine bodies are found in the Heaven's Gate mass suicides (1997). The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapses following a collision between the MV Dali container ship and one of the bridge's support pillars, killing 6 people (2024).
• March 26 is the birthday of socialist/visionary Edward Bellamy (1850), poet Robert Frost (1874), first president of South Korea Syngman Rhee (1875), socialist activist Kate Richards O’Hare (1876), engineer Othmar Ammann (1879), fashion designer Guccio Gucci (1881), mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904), playwright Tennessee Williams (1911), US general William Westmoreland (1914), actor Strother Martin (1919), SCOTUS justice Sandra Day O’Connor (1930), actor Leonard Nimoy (1931), actor Alan Arkin (1934), physicist Anthony James Leggett (1938), actor James Caan (1940), politician Nancy Pelosi (1940), novelist Erica Jong (1942), journalist Bob Woodward (1943), singer-songwriter Diana Ross (1944), singer-songwriter Steven Tyler (1948), actress/singer Vicki Lawrence (1949), singer-songwriter Teddy Pendergrass (1950), actor Martin Short (1950), composer Alan Silvestri (1950), politician Elaine Chao (1953), actress Jennifer Grey (1960), NBA player John Stockton (1962), actor Michael Imperioli (1966), singer-songwriter Kenny Chesney (1968), guitarist James Iha (1968), computer scientist/businessman Larry Page (1973), actress Keira Knightley (1985), and NFL player Von Miller (1989).

Well, a lot of stuff in flux right now, with news breaking left and right. I need to hurry up and finish this shit so some other crazy-ass story doesn’t pop up. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 25, 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 March 25, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. I usually enjoy being a human, but today I’d prefer to be a capybara. No job, few responsibilities, hanging out with my animal friends on a sunny river bank. Sounds nice, huh?

• But I still seem to be a Homo sapiens, so I guess let’s see what’s going on.
• If you’re one of the 15 million people who shared your DNA with 23andMe— like me — stop reading this Random News report right now and delete your DNA from the service immediately.
• Go on. I’ll wait here.
• Done? Good. 
• The genetic information company announced Sunday that it is headed to bankruptcy court to sell its assets. And 23andMe’s financial distress prompted California Attorney General Rob Bonta to issue an unusual privacy consumer alert about it.
• “I remind Californians to consider invoking their rights and directing 23andMe to delete their data and destroy any samples of genetic material held by the company,” he said in a statement.
• The company said there will be “no changes” to the way it protects consumer data while in bankruptcy court. But unless you take action, there is a risk your genetic information could end up in someone else’s hands — and used in ways you had never considered.
• That data could be sold to the US government. To law enforcement agencies. To China. For God’s sake, Elon Musk might buy it.
• Here’s how to do it…
• Log into your 23andMe account. Go to your Profile, then to Settings.
• Scroll to the “23andMe Data” section at the bottom of the page and click View.
• If you want to download your data, select what data you want to save. I didn’t bother.
• Scroll to the “Delete Data” section and click Permanently Delete Data.
• Confirm your request: You’ll receive an email from 23andMe, and click the link in the email to confirm.
• I did this process yesterday and it seemed to have worked. And yet, how would I know for sure? I guess at least making the effort is worth something, and I documented the process of deleting my data in screen captures that I’ll save.
• I do want to add… both Kat and I got a lot out of 23andMe. Both of us found information about our respective backgrounds and family relationships that were meaningful to us.
• So it’s a shame that typical corporate bullshit caused us to have to eliminate it entirely, but we both did without hesitation under the circumstances, and I highly recommend you do as well.
• Immediately. This could get real bad.
• Let’s move on.
• Members of Congress in both parties exploded in anger yesterday after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic revealed he was inadvertently included in a highly-sensitive Trump administration Signal chat on airstrikes in Yemen.
• How sensitive? Jeffrey Goldberg received a text from Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, with precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing. And he got it over two hours before the bombs started dropping.
• Goldberg was added to the chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal earlier this month by White House national security adviser Mike Waltz.
• But the plan for strikes in Yemen came directly from Hegseth.
• And now, some politicians are already calling for an investigation and potential repercussions against the national security officials involved in the lapse.
• I would hope so. Hegseth out here texting war plans to people like party invites.
• Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said it well. “This is an outrageous national security breach and heads should roll. We need a full investigation and hearing into this on the House Armed Services Committee, ASAP.”
• The Signal chat included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Vice President Vance were among the 18 people in the Signal chat.
• Was the chat that Goldberg received even legit? Yup.
• "At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain," said National Security Council Spokesman Brian Hughes.
• Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), another Armed Services Committee member and a former Air Force brigadier general, tried to downplay it, saying, "I've accidentally sent the wrong person a text. We all have."
• Except my wrong texts involve telling a coworker that I’m picking up bananas at the store… and don’t involve information that could cause thousands of people to die.
• Bacon added, "The unconscionable action was sending this info over non-secure networks. None of this should have been sent on non-secure systems. Russia and China are surely monitoring his unclassified phone.”
• What even is Signal, the messaging app that our top-level government officials were using to communicate classified war plans?
• Well, it’s available for anyone with a phone, and can be downloaded in the Apple and Android app stores. It has not been approved by the government for classified communications.
• Side note: the Presidential Records Act requires federal officials to use government-approved communications channels for all work-related matters, classified or not.
• You may recall in 2016, when Dumpy claimed that his rival Hillary Clinton was using a private email server for communications.
• This is a million times worse than that. Imagine using Facebook Messenger to send confidential war plans to a random group of people.
• This idiotic maneuver isn’t going to just fade away… at least not for a little while.
• This morning, Dump’s top intelligence officials are facing Congress to get questioned about the security breach. 
• FBI Director Kash Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard are among the witnesses who are appearing today before the Senate Intelligence Committee and tomorrow before the House Intelligence Committee in back-to-back hearings.
• I doubt they’ll offer any reasonable excuse for their absolute ineptitude.
• And before I wrap up this topic, a big thanks to Jeffrey Goldberg for making this public the moment it happened, and not waiting for two years to include in some tell-all book.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Judge Patricia Millett noted that Nazis were treated better under the Alien Enemies Act than Venezuelan migrants removed from the U.S. and flown to El Salvador earlier this month. 
• Millett noted that during World War II, Nazis were put before hearing boards under Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, and Dumples the Evil Clown’s administration has conceded that immigrants deported to El Salvador and detained in a maximum security prison did not have the chance to appear in court. 
• Millett, ruled migrants may continue to be detained under the Alien Enemies Act, but they may not be deported until there is a decision on a preliminary injunction to stop the removals.
• And then, late last night, Dumpy invoked the state secrets privilege over its use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants, again refusing to provide more details about the flights to a judge.
• The invocation deems details about the flights a state secret — seeking to limit information to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who has vowed to “get to the bottom” of whether Dump violated his order to turn around or halt the flights. 
• I thought this guy was all about transparency in government, right?
• Now he can’t even follow one of the most important concepts in American freedoms and justice. And when he gets busted, it’s a “state secret.”
• Fuck you, Donnie.
• Moving on but still on the topic of immigration…
• Yesterday, another Columbia University student said that Dump has targeted her for deportation over her pro-Palestinian views, accusing immigration officials in a lawsuit of employing the same tactics used on Mahmoud Khalil and other college activists.
• Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old legal permanent resident who came to the U.S. as a 7-year-old child, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to deport her after she was arrested March 5 while protesting the Ivy League school’s disciplinary actions against student protesters.
• She was at a sit-in at a library.
• And then ICE officials signed an administrative arrest warrant and went to her parents’ residence seeking to detain her.
• Again, let’s note that Chung has lived in the U.S. since emigrating from South Korea with her parents at age 7. You know what we call a person like that?
• An American.
• Let’s do some SCOTUS news.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to take up a case brought by casino mogul and Dumpy donor Steve Wynn that would have challenged a landmark decision that established a higher standard for public figures to successfully sue for defamation. 
• The Court formally declined to consider 83-year-old Wynn's request to revisit their decision in a case known as New York Times Company v. Sullivan as a part of Wynn's legal battle against the Associated Press. 
• This was a unanimous 1964 Supreme Court decision that determined the First Amendment requires a public figure to prove a defendant acted with "actual malice" and knew a statement was false or recklessly disregarded the possibility that it was false to sustain a claim of defamation.
• The higher standard makes it more difficult for those in the public eye to win defamation cases. First Amendment advocates see it as a fundamental pillar on modern press freedoms.
• Why does Wynn give a shit? Because he sued the AP in 2018 over its reporting about sexual misconduct allegations against him from the 1970s that were filed with law enforcement. He had to step down from his position as chief executive of Wynn Resorts after the Wall Street Journal published sexual misconduct allegations.
• And the old douchebag also stepped down from his role as the finance chairman for the Republican National Committee. Ha ha.
• Anyway, this is good news, and yes: we don’t want public figures suing every time something they don’t like is published about them.
• Let’s move on with what might be not-bad news.
• Dump will nominate Susan Monarez, the acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a longtime federal staffer, to the permanent position.
• Monarez is a replacement for Dumpy’s original choice, David Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to lead the CDC.
• Weldon is a real piece of shit who even the worst members of Congress couldn’t get behind. He’s closely aligned with RFK Jr., who for years has been one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine activists.
• Conversely, Monarez has been serving as the CDC’s acting director since January and came from another federal government agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. She holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, and her postdoctoral training was in microbiology and immunology at Stanford University.
• In other words, an actual qualified person.
• And now, The Weather: “Talk” by Lucy Dacus
• Let’s do a chart. We’re going back to this date in 1988.
• At the time, I was… Lordy, what was I even doing? I was 19 and in a period of upheaval. I had an apartment in Studio City and was attending Musicians Institute in Hollywood. I was also working as a furniture salesman.
• But I had no idea how the rest of my life would go. It took another year and a half before I settled in and started working toward my bachelor’s degree again.
• Much like my life at the time, music was all over the place. Here was the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart… and yes, I’m Rickrolling you as a matter of factual circumstance.
• 1. Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley). 2. I Get Weak (Belinda Carlisle). 3. Father Figure (George Michael). 4. Man In The Mirror (Michael Jackson). 5. Endless Summer Nights (Richard Marx). 6. She's Like The Wind (Patrick Swayze Featuring Wendy Fraser). 7. Out Of The Blue (Debbie Gibson). 8. Just Like Paradise (David Lee Roth). 9. I Want Her (Keith Sweat). 10. Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car (Billy Ocean). 11. Hysteria (Def Leppard). 12. Rocket 2 U (The Jets). 13. (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay (Michael Bolton). 14. Girlfriend (Pebbles). 15. Be Still My Beating Heart (Sting). 16. Devil Inside (INXS). 17. I Found Someone (Cher). 18. Some Kind Of Lover (Jody Watley). 19. Where Do Broken Hearts Go (Whitney Houston). 20. Wishing Well (Terence Trent D’Arby).
• From the Sports Desk… in 2018, one of the most decorated skiers in the world, Lindsay Vonn, was forced to step away from her sport due to a series of injuries to her left leg.
• Vonn holds numerous records, including the most World Cup victories by any skier — male or female — in both the downhill and the super-G events. She’s won World Cup events in all five disciplines: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and combined.
• And now, six years later at age 40, she’s back. On Sunday, Vonn made headlines by becoming the oldest woman to earn a medal in a World Cup race, following her second-place performance in the Super-G race of the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, ID.
• Side note: I skied Sun Valley when I was a senior in high school. That place is awesome.
• Today in history… Italian city Venice is founded (421). Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scots (1306). Hernán Cortés, entering province of Tabasco, defeats Tabascan Indians (1519). Sir Walter Raleigh is granted a patent to colonize Virginia (1584). Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens (1655). Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for publishing the pamphlet ‘The Necessity of Atheism’ (1811). Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon, OH for Washington, D.C. (1894). The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape (1931). United States Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" on obscenity grounds (1957). Civil rights activists led by Martin Luther King Jr. successfully complete their 4-day 50-mile march from Selma to the capitol in Montgomery, AL (1965). The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch (1979). The European Union's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (1996).
• March 25 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer Christopher Clavius (1538), U.S. navy founder John Barry (1745), sculptor Gutzon Borglum (1867), conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867), composer Béla Bartók (1881), director David Lean (1908), journalist Howard Cosell (1918), businesswomen Eileen Ford (1922), film critic Gene Shalit (1926), activist Gloria Steinem (1934), singer-songwriter Hoyt Axton (1938), screenwriter D. C. Fontana (1939), singer-songwriter/pianist Aretha Franklin (1942), singer-songwriter/pianist Elton John (1947), singer-songwriter/guitarist Buzz Osborne (1964), actress Sarah Jessica Parker (1965), MLB player Tom Glavine (1966), singer-songwriter/guitarist Jeff Healey (1966), WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes (1971), race car driver Danica Patrick (1982), and NBA player Kyle Lowry (1986).

Okay then. I’ll go do what I do now, which is to work out, have meetings, write and draw shit, and earn a living. Last reminder: get your DNA away from 23andMe right now. Enjoy your day.

Random News: March 24, 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 March 24, 2025, and it’s a Monday. I slept so hard that my alarm clock was inordinately shocking at 6am. I guess that’s good? Anyway, now that I’m awake and showered and dressed and have coffee, let’s get rolling on our news.

• We’re now are the point where the Attorney General is publicly threatening a member of the House of Representatives.
• That didn’t take long.
• AG Pam Bondi warned Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) on Sunday to “tread very carefully” following the lawmaker’s recent remarks in opposition to Elon Musk.
• “She is an elected public official, so she needs to tread very carefully because nothing will happen to Elon Musk, and we’re going to fight to protect all of the Tesla owners throughout this country,” Bondi said during a televised interview.
• The warning comes days after the Democrat spoke at a virtual rally held for the The Tesla Takedown movement, a group rallying against Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to bulldoze the federal bureaucracy through boycotts and demonstrations at Tesla properties. The coalition is organizing 500 demonstrations March 29 at Tesla locations across the country.
• Crockett clarified during the rally that her calls for action were nonviolent.
• Bondi also doubled down on her determination to rein in the anti-Tesla protests. “We are looking at everything, especially if this is a concerted effort,” she said.
• So yes, in the USA in 2025, if you don’t like a car company and want to peacefully protest it, the White House is happy to call you a terrorist.
• In very much related news…
• Over the weekend, a man drove his car into protesters outside a Tesla dealership in Palm Beach County, FL but did not injure any of those who had gathered to demonstrate against Musk and his little sidekick Dumpy.
• The protest on Saturday was interrupted when Andrew Dutil drove his vehicle onto the sidewalk full of protesters, forcing people to scramble out of the way to avoid the being hit.
• Dutil was arrested and faces an assault charge. To be clear, the peaceful protesters are terrorists, according to the Dump administration. The guy who tried to run them over with his car isn’t.
• This is America.
• Let’s move on.
• If you have kids who require special education, Dump’s attempt to close of the Department of Education will be particularly difficult for you.
• Example: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA. It’s a federal law, enforced by the US Department of Education, that guarantees free public education for disabled children and protects Individualized Education Programs, which are tailored to their unique needs.
• With no DOE, that’s gone.
• This past Thursday, Stinky Dump signed an executive order kicking off the process of eliminating the Department of Education. While entirely shuttering the department would require an act of Congress, Dump directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.”
• The Department of Education provides more than $15 billion annually to help serve 7.4 million students through the IDEA. If the Department of Education closes, parents of disabled children will lose federal funds and protection and enforcement of their educational needs.
• The USA used to be a place where we cared for our children with special needs. Maybe it will be again someday.
• Moving over to the International Desk…
• Canada is jumping right into some snap elections, and the focus of theirs on April 28 will be Dumples the Colonizing Clown.
• Both new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Conservative opponent said Dumpy — who’s been making the ridiculous threat of annexing Canada into a new US state — must respect Canada’s sovereignty as they kicked off their election campaigns yesterday.
• Carney was clear and to the point.
• “We are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes because of President Trump’s unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty. President Trump claims that Canada isn’t a real country. He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen,” he stated.
• The governing Liberals had previously appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Donnie Doo Doo declared a trade war. He has repeatedly said Canada should become the 51st U.S. state and has acknowledged he’s upended Canadian politics.
• Now, Canada has united via Dump’s almost daily attacks on the country’s sovereignty, and they are infuriated. A surge in Canadian nationalism has bolstered Liberal poll numbers.
• Good.
• Moving on.
• A rest in peace going out to Mia Love, a daughter of Haitian immigrants who became the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress. She died yesterday of cancer at age 49.
• Cancer crosses every race, every age, every nationality, and certainly every political affiliation. 
• Unfortunately, with the current effort to eliminate birthright citizenship, Love likely would not have been able to run for office (or possibly even vote) as the daughter of immigrants under the current administration, despite being a Republican.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumpy has announced that Boeing — not Lockheed Martin — will build the U.S. Air Force's next generation of fighter jets. In an extraordinarily ass-kissing maneuver, Boeing named the imaginary plane the F-47.
• "The generals picked a title, and it's a beautiful number," said Dumples the Easily-Influencable Clown."Nothing in the world comes even close to it."
• Nothing is known about its exact specifications, appearance or capabilities. Dump stated that the sixth-generation fighter aircraft would be "virtually unseeable" on radar, as if he knows anything at all about science.
• The price tag? Estimated somewhere in the hundreds of billions.
• ”We've given an order for a lot. We can't tell you the price," Dumpy said.
• Moving on.
• I thought we were done talking about Republican state senator Justin Eichorn of Grand Rapids, MN, who — one day after introducing a bill to declare anyone who doesn’t love Dumpy legally insane a week ago — was arrested for trying to have sex with a child.
• He then resigned on Thursday under pressure from his party.
• Now, federal prosecutors are asking the court to keep him in jail until his trial after he lied to investigators and tried to conceal evidence.
• In a motion filed yesterday, prosecutors asked the court for a new detention hearing after a search of Eichorn's St. Paul apartment. Investigators found a handgun and ammunition while searching the apartment despite Eichorn’s claim of not owning a gun.
• But in an amazing moment of stupidity, while authorities searched the apartment, a woman showed up and asked to retrieve a laptop computer from inside. She was denied and left.
• Later, she declined to be interviewed by the FBI. But Eichorn and the mystery lady had communicated multiple times via jail phone calls. And they also found an iPhone that had recently been reset to factory default settings to erase all content on the phone.
• LOL. That guy’s been fucking all kinds of kids.
• In other news…
• Conan O’Brien received the received the 26th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last night at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
• I’m a longtime fan of the guy and all his work.
• O'Brien was announced as this year's Twain Prize winner in mid-January. A month later, Dump ousted the Kennedy Center's president, board chair, and appointed board members. In response, artists resigned from leadership roles and canceled gigs.
• While accepting the prize, Coco pointedly thanked former board chair David Rubenstein and former president Deborah Rutter. "They're the reason I'm here," he said. "Honestly, I don't know why they aren't here tonight."
• Hahahahaha!
• Toward the end of the evening, David Letterman — himself a Mark Twain Prize winner — called the evening "the most entertaining gathering of the resistance ever."
• And Conan made another pointed comment directed at El Dumpo: ”First and foremost, Twain hated bullies. He punched up, not down. And he deeply, deeply empathized with the weak."
• He’s not the only one to perform at Kennedy Center and make their sentiments known from the stage. Earlier this month, cellist Erin Murphy Snedecor ended her set with a performance of the Woody Guthrie protest anthem “All You Fascists Bound to Lose.”
• I do that song too.
• And now, The Weather: “Bolted Heart” by Dana Gavanski
• In celebrity gossip news, golfer Tiger Woods has confirmed his relationship with the former daughter-in-law of Dumpy.
• Woods is banging Vanessa Trump, who was formerly married to a human-sized 8-ball of cocaine named Donald Trump Jr.
• I mean, I guess that’s gotta be a step up for her?
• From the Sports Desk… under duress, I shall tell you the schedule of the next round of the NCAA Men’s basketball tourney, aka the Sweet 16.
• 1-seed Auburn v. 5-seed Michigan. 6-seed Ole Miss v. 2-seed Michigan State. 1-seed Florida v. 4-seed Maryland. 3-seed Texas Tech v. 10-seed Arkansas. 1-seed Duke v. 4-seed Arizona. 6-seed BYU v. 2-seed Alabama. 1-seed Houston v. 4-seed Purdue. 3-seed Kentucky v. 2-seed Tennessee.
• Today in history… King Richard I of England is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting in France (1199). James VI of Scotland is proclaimed King James I of England and Ireland upon the death of Elizabeth I (1603). The Province of Carolina is granted by charter to eight Lords Proprietor in reward for their assistance in restoring Charles II of England to the throne (1663). Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos (1721). Great Britain passes the Quartering Act, which requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops (1765). Japanese Chief Minister Ii Naosuke is assassinated by rōnin samurai outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle (1860). Robert Koch announces the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (1882). Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn (1900). Direct rule is imposed on Northern Ireland by the Government of the United Kingdom under Edward Heath (1972). In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Perón and start a 7-year dictatorial period (1976). In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil after running aground (1989). Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 is discovered by Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker, and David Levy at the Palomar Observatory in California (1993). Students across the United States stage the March for Our Lives demanding gun control in response to the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (2018).
• March 24 is the birthday of clock maker John Harrison (1693), politician Rufus King (1755), poet/composer Fanny Crosby (1820), activist Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826), SCOTUS justice Horace Gray (1828), businessman/philanthropist Andrew W. Mellon (1855), magician Harry Houdini (1874), actor Roscoe Arbuckle (1887), MLB player George Sisler (1893), animator Ub Iwerks (1901), criminal Clyde Barrow (1909), animator Joseph Barbera (1911), poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919), actor Norman Fell (1924), actor Steve McQueen (1930), bass player Carol Kaye (1935), fashion designer Bob Mackie (1940), actor/drill instructor R. Lee Ermey (1944), harmonica player Lee Oskar (1948), singer-songwriter Nick Lowe (1949), fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger (1951), actor/comedian Louie Anderson (1953), businessman Steve Ballmer (1956), actress/model Kelly Le Brock (1960), actress Lara Flynn Boyle (1970), NFL player Mike Vanderjagt (1970), comedian/actor Tig Notaro (1971), actor Jim Parsons (1973), NFL player Peyton Manning (1976), actress Jessica Chastain (1977), NBA player Chris Bosh (1984), and NFL player Damar Hamlin (1998).

Alrighty, time for the less fun part of Monday to get rolling. Enjoy your day.