Random News: January 18, 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 January 18, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. It’s unfortunately a full-on work day for me, but I’m not here to complain. I am, however, going to have to jam through this news and get my ass out of the bathrobe and into work mode.

• A quick update on the LA fires, which do continue to burn.
• The Palisades Fire is now at 43% containment, having burned 23,713 acres.
• Better news for the Eaton Fire, now at 73% containment after burning 14,117 acres.
• Like most Angelenos, I have many friends directly impacted by this, and I’m helping where I can and wishing luck to every person affected.
• Yesterday, some residents affected by the Palisades Fire are being allowed to return home and begin taking the first steps on a long road to recovery. 
• Several neighborhoods previously under mandated evacuation orders are now under evacuation warnings, while others have been cleared for resident-only access. Some other neighborhoods returned to “normal” status yesterday.
• Let’s move on.
• Monday's inauguration ceremony for Dumples the Clown and his sidekick Jeremiah Dickless Vance will be moved indoors due to chilly temperatures, Dump announced on social media yesterday. 
• ”There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country," wrote a chilly Dumpy. "I don't want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way. ... Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda, as was used by Ronald Reagan in 1985, also because of very cold weather."
• Now, it’s true: temperatures are expected to be in the teens and low 20s on Monday in D.C., with wind chills making it feel even lower. Weather forecasters are also predicting snow the day before. The Rotunda, of course, is under the Capitol dome and is typically used for congressional ceremonies and celebrations.
• A side note: back in January 2009, President Obama's first inauguration was unusually chilly, with a temperature of 28 degrees at noon, though wind-chill temperatures were near 15 degrees.
• But he seemed to handle it fine. Of course, Obama was just 47 years old then. Dumpy the Elderly Buffoon is almost 80.
• And, as some have pointed out, the Dump team can’t handle the cold, but still want to annex Greenland. Hmm.
• A lot of MAGA people went to great expense to attend the inauguration, racking up travel and hotel fees. Just last Monday, officials were beginning to give out more than 220,000 tickets.
• On Friday, they were then told to tell attendees that their tickets are now “commemorative.” The arena where they’ll show the event on a TV only has a capacity of 20,000.
• The MAGAs are understandably furious.
• Of course, they’ve proven before that they can just walk into the Capitol if they feel like it, so maybe they should try that tactic.
• Another little follow-up on presidents who are overly sensitive.
• In 1973, during Richard Nixon's second inauguration, flags were at half-staff because of the death of Harry S. Truman a few weeks before. Nixon had no problem honoring the law and kept them that way during his inauguration.
• And then, just two days after that inauguration, former President Lyndon B. Johnson died. As a result, they had to change or cancel several inaugural events. And once again, there no evidence that Nixon whined about it even once.
• Even Richard M. Fucking Nixon was more ethical, more moral, and had stronger character than Donnie Dumpster.
• I do need to mention that now California and Colorado — two Democratic states — are also flying the flag at full-staff during Dump’s inauguration.
• So much for honoring Jimmy Carter and obeying the law. These people have no balls.
• Let’s move on.
• TikTok said it will have to go dark this weekend unless the outgoing Biden administration assures the company it won’t enforce a shutdown of the popular app after the Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning the app unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company.
• How they fuck they expect Biden to do anything about it is beyond me. Biden leaves office in about 48 hours.
• The Supreme Court in its ruling held that the risk to national security posed by TikTok’s ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States.
• Donnie Dump, who instigated the ban in the first place, vowed that he could negotiate a solution, and Biden’s administration already signaled it won’t enforce the law which goes into effect tomorrow, his final full day in office.
• So now you have Dumpy, who always gives in to what’s popular, is on the opposite side of the argument from prominent Senate Republicans who fault TikTok’s Chinese owner for not finding a buyer before now.
• Which, again, was the sentiment that Dump instigated in the first place.
• Moving on.
• I have no intention of this Random News report becoming a daily batch of panic posts about what Dumpy is doing once he becomes President again on Monday.
• I will, however, mention that immigrants are rightfully fearful that he will fulfill his campaign promise by ordering sweeping deportations across the country.
• How this will go is very dependent on where these people are. In New York City for example, there are 210,000 undocumented people who have arrived there since 2022, and it doesn’t look like Mayor Eric Adams is going to be much help to them. 
• Once in office, Dump has promised to launch the “largest deportation program in American history,” send Congress a bill to ban sanctuary cities, and request funding to hire and retain 10,000 new border agents.
• He has also said he will restrict federally funded benefits to only American citizens, and reinstate and expand a travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries.
• I’ll state for the record right now: if I have to make a choice between watching a family physically ripped apart versus stepping in to help them, I will always be on the side of the people who assisted the poor and vulnerable people of the world.
• In the “What The Actual Fuck” File…
• Vermont’s child welfare agency relied on baseless allegations about a pregnant woman’s mental health to secretly investigate her and win custody of her daughter before the baby was born. A lawsuit against them alleges that the state routinely targets and tracks pregnant women deemed unsuitable for parenthood.
• That’s… fucked up.
• The ACLU of Vermont and Pregnancy Justice, a national advocacy group, sued the Vermont Department for Children and Families this week. The lawsuit seeks both an end to what it calls an illegal surveillance program and unspecified monetary damages for the woman, who is identified only by her initials, A.V.
• According to the complaint, the director of a homeless shelter where A.V. briefly stayed in January 2022 told the child welfare agency that she appeared to have untreated paranoia, dissociative behaviors and PTSD.
• The state opened an investigation and later spoke to the woman’s counselor, midwife and a hospital social worker, despite having no jurisdiction over fetuses and all without her knowledge.
• She was told nothing about this until the moment she gave birth and her baby girl was immediately taken away. She had no idea that while she was in labor, hospital officials were relaying updates to the state — including details of her cervix dilation — and had won temporary custody of the fetus.
• At one point, the state sought a court order forcing the woman to undergo a cesarean section, which was rendered moot because she agreed to the surgery. It took her seven months to win full custody of her daughter.
• That is so beyond infuriating, I can’t even comment.
• And now, The Weather: “Summer of Love” by Throwing Muses
• From the Sports Desk… in between work stuff, I will be checking out the NFL divisional playoff games today.
• I’m a hard worker, not a masochist.
• Today in history… King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York (1486). James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands” (1778). The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay (1788). An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith (1896). Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship (1911). The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France after WWI (1919). The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto (1943). Willie O'Ree, the first Black Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins (1958). Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler", is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment (1967). Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease (1977). Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting (1990). The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France (2005).
• January 18 is this birthday of architect John Nash (1752), lawyer/politician Daniel Webster (1782), Australia prime minister Edmund Barton (1849), assistant to Alexander Graham Bell Thomas A. Watson (1854), author A. A. Milne (1882), aviation pioneer Thomas Sopwith (1888), actor/comedian Oliver Hardy (1892), actor Cary Grant (1904), engineer/businessman Ray Dolby (1933), pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins (1938), singer-songwriter Bobby Goldsboro (1941), singer David Ruffin (1941), actor Kevin Costner (1955), NHL player Mark Messier (1961), politician Martin O’Malley (1963), wrestler/actor Dave Bautista (1969), astronomer Amy Barger (1971), singer-songwriter Jonathan Davis (1971), NFL player Julius Peppers (1980), and NFL player Tee Higgins (1999).

Okay. Gotta roll. Enjoy your day.