Random News: February 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.

---

Good morning. It’s February 28, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m feeling a bit frazzled this early morning, but as I sip my coffee and check the news, I’m settling into a more familiar Friday mode. Hoping to wrap up the week in a positive way.

• Today’s the day: the nationwide economic blackout.
• For 24 hours starting last night at midnight until tonight at midnight, do not buy anything… especially from any large retailer or global brand — online or at a physical location.
• That also means no fast food, no filling your gas tank, no grocery shopping.
• If absolutely necessary or in emergencies, obviously, you can do business with a local small business.
• Try not to use any credit or debit card during the period.
• What’s the point?
• This is an act of resistance. We are flexing our national power against the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations, and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans.
• That’s right. This is a non-partisan protest in a purely economic sense.
• For those of us who are also disgusted by recent acts of the Dump admin that affect all Americans — like slashing Medicaid and possibly cutting Social Security, and incoming tariffs that will further raise our already overwhelming cost of living — this is a way of telling them that we won’t sit back and accept it.
• So all you have to do is not buy shit for one day.
• You don’t have to call congresspeople, march in the streets, or any of that. Just spend one damn day without buying things, especially from giant conglomerates.
• You can do it.
• Let’s move on.
• On almost a daily basis, another judge is finding that the capricious and poorly thought out actions of Dumpy and his little pals are illegal.
• The latest one? Yesterday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind directives that initiated the mass firing of probationary workers across the government, ruling that the terminations were probably illegal, as a group of labor unions argued in court.
• Alsup ordered OPM to rescind its previous directives to more than two dozen agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Science Foundation and others identified in a lawsuit.
• This ruling — temporary, for now — is the biggest “fuck you” to Dump’s effort to slash the federal workforce thus far.
• I liked Alsup’s quote.
• “Congress has given the authority to hire and fire to the agencies themselves. The Department of Defense, for example, has statutory authority to hire and fire. The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees at another agency. They can hire and fire their own employees.”
• Fuck yes!
• A written order is expected later, and the judge said he would hold another court hearing on March 13.
• Moving on.
• Dumpy the Clown says he will impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Tuesday, in addition to doubling the 10% universal tariff charged on imports from China.
• Dumpy says — having nothing at all to do with tariffs, I should add — that illicit drugs such as fentanyl are being smuggled into the United States at “unacceptable levels” and that import taxes would force other countries to crack down on the trafficking.
• How does that work, exactly?
• And here’s a question: if so many people in the USA didn’t buy these drugs, wouldn’t that prevent the issue from happening in the first place?
• And here’s another observation: don’t red states have the biggest problem with their residents suffering form opioid addiction?
• The prospect of escalating tariffs has already thrown the global economy into turmoil, with consumers expressing fears about inflation worsening and the auto sector possibly suffering if America’s two largest trading partners in Canada and Mexico are hit with taxes.
• A reminder: a tariff is a tax upon the American people. The extra fees required to import products are added to the selling price, which is paid by… you.
• As you recall, The Dumpster promised voters in last year’s presidential election that he could quickly lower the inflation rate. But Dumpy doesn’t know how money works.
• So — assuming that Dump isn’t full of shit, as he often is, and goes ahead with his plan — get ready for even higher prices on everyday things you buy.
• In other news…
• Andrew and Tristan Tate, the social media influencers who are charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania, arrived yesterday in the U.S. after Dumpy lifted travel restrictions on the sibling rapists.
• The rapists landed in Fort Lauderdale, FL around midday. They have millions of online followers, mostly young men who buy into their messages of hate and misogyny. 
• The Tates — who are dual U.S.-British citizens — were arrested in late 2022 and formally indicted last year on charges they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they were sexually exploited. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape.
• Romania’s anti-organized crime agency said that prosecutors approved a request to change the travel restrictions on the Tates, but it did not say who made the request.
• But we know who made it. Donald Trump loves rape.
• Why were they in Romania, by the way? Tate said he moved from the U.K. to Romania because the country was less likely to pursue rape claims.
• Andrew Tate has bragged many times about his physical and sexual abuse of women, once laughing about how he broke a woman’s jaw.
• After the brothers arrived in Florida — perhaps stopping by Mar-a-Lago — state Attorney General James Uthmeier said his office would conduct a “preliminary inquiry” into them.
• “Florida has zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women. If any of these alleged crimes trigger Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable,” he said.
• In coincidental timing, yesterday a court ruled in favor of an appeal by the Tates to lift the seizure of multiple assets including six luxury vehicles, land and properties, and company shares. All of their previously frozen bank accounts have been unfrozen.
• Now why would Donnie Dump want to help out these sex-trafficking rapists? Give that some thought.
• Moving on.
• Iowa is poised to become the first state to revoke nondiscrimination protections for transgender people.
• The Iowa Senate and House of Representatives debated for several hours before passing the legislation overwhelmingly along party lines.
• Republicans said the legislation was necessary to protect women and children in Iowa — language that matches several recent executive actions by Dumpy rolling back transgender people’s rights.
• Democrats said Iowa — the first state to desegregate public schools in 1868 — would be reversing course on civil rights protections.
• Fuck Iowa, and fuck companies trying to do business in Iowa. They’re about to find some things out.
• Let’s move on.
• Elon, Dumpy, and their DOGE team has fired another big batch of government employees who we rely on every day.
• Termination letters were sent to staff in offices across the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and to the National Weather Service.
• As we mentioned up top, hours later, a federal judge ordered the administration to reverse directives for mass firings of government workers, ruling they may be illegal. It was not immediately clear how the ruling would affect yesterday’s firings at the weather and climate agencies.
• The agencies warn that the firings will cause massive disruptions in the nation’s ability to guard against storms, solar flares, and other natural threats.
• Wait until you see the impact this will have in a few months as we enter hurricane season.
• You probably won’t have to wait that long; the NOAA is crucial is helping airlines choose flight paths based on weather conditions.
• Maybe that’s what the Dump administration is… a death cult who masturbates to thoughts of purposefully killing thousands of people.
• It makes sense if you think about it.
• In other news…
• As you’re well aware, for years, MAGA folks and others have been screaming for the release of government documents related to wealthy financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
• But yesterday, when Attorney General Pam Bondi released a batch of Epstein documents, the files posted on the Justice Department website were the same ones that have been circulating in the public domain for years and didn’t include any new bombshells about the sex trafficking case that has been a favorite subject of conspiracy theorists.
• The Justice Department also released a blacked-out list of masseuses and an evidence list showing entries for more than 150 items, including nude images, massage tables, sex toys and other items.
• But there wasn’t any indication whether the list was from Epstein’s case, his friend Ghislaine Maxwell’s case, or some other investigation.
• You know who once called Epstein his best friend? That’d be Donnie Dump.
• The lack of new information drew criticism from conservatives. “GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) wrote on social media, calling the rollout a “complete disappointment.”
• Haha. Oh, there will be a lot more disappointment heading your way, I promise.
• Moving on.
• If you needed more direct evidence that Dump is poised to take away the Social Security benefits that you’ve paid into your entire life…
• The Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce. The reduction could be as high as 50%.
• Obviously, the layoffs will directly impact the benefits of the 72.5 million Social Security beneficiaries, which include retirees and children who receive retirement and disability benefits. 
• By not being able to serve people in a timely manner, it will slow the process to a crawl while they eliminate the funding.
• We. Told. You. This. Would. Happen.
• In other motherfucker news…
• Today, Dumples the Piece of Shit Fucking Fool will sign an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States.
• The order will allow government agencies and organizations that receive federal funding to stop offering documents and services in languages other than English.
• Dump’s asshole move will rescind a mandate from former President Bill Clinton that required the government and organizations that received federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
• Enough of that prick. Side note: everything he does will be rescinded at the earliest opportunity. Be aware before you despair.
• From the Hero Desk…
• A school bus driver in Ohio helped evacuate over a dozen students after the vehicle caught fire yesterday morning. The bus was bringing 15 students to Monticello Middle School in Cleveland Heights, OH when a fire broke out behind one of the vehicle's rear wheels. 
• Photos from the incident show fire engulfing almost the entire vehicle with billows of dark smoke pouring from its shattered windows. 
• And that bus driver — who wants to remain anonymous — quickly evacuated the students. The driver credited the district's annual bus evacuation drills with preparing the students for the emergency.
• No injuries were reported, and the fire was brought quickly under control.
• Salute to the heroic bus driver!
• Moving on with a cool story from the Space Desk…
• Sky gazers across the U.S. will have a chance to see an extraordinary celestial event tonight as all of the planets in our solar system will appear in the evening sky.
• This phenomenon known as a "planet parade," will feature Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all visible at the same time along a line or arc in the sky.
• The chance to observe all planets simultaneously is rare. Making it more rare: there’s no fucking way you can ever see some of those planets without a pretty good-sized telescope.
• But it’s still neat. Go outside and look up tonight.
• And now, The Weather: “Seersucker” by Youth Lagoon
• From the Sports Desk… Stef Curry must be slowing down as he gets older, right?
• Um, no.
• Last night, Curry scored 56 points to help the Warriors overcome a 17-point deficit and beat the Magic 121-115.
• The 36-year-old Curry, now in his 16th season with the Dubs, made 16 of 25 shots, including 12 3-pointers, the most by a player this season. He also was 12-for-12 from the free throw line.
• This was his 14th career 50-point game, tying LeBron James and Rick Barry for seventh most in NBA history. He has nine such games at age 30 or older, the most in NBA history.
• Today in history… Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed on the order of conquistador Hernán Cortés (1525). The United Kingdom ends its protectorate over Egypt through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (1922). James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place in April's Nature Magazine (1953). The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers (1983). The first Gulf War ends (1991). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, TX, starting a 51-day standoff (1993). GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way (1997). The 2001 Nisqually earthquake, having a moment magnitude of 6.8, with epicenter in the southern Puget Sound, damages Seattle metropolitan area (2001). Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since Pope Gregory XII, in 1415 (2013). 
• February 28 is the birthday of screenwriter Ben Hecht (1894), chemist/activist Linus Pauling (1901), gangster Bugsy Siegel (1906), architect Frank Gehry (1929), actor Gavin MacLeod (1931), racing driver Mario Andretti (1940), graphic designer Storm Thorgerson (1944), NFL player/actor Bubba Smith (1945), actress Bernadette Peters (1948), film director/screenwriter Mike Figgis (1948), comedian Gilbert Gottfried (1955), actor John Turturro (1957), singer-songwriter Cindy Wilson (1957), NHL player Eric Lindros (1973), MLB player Aroldis Chapman (1988), and NBA player Luka Dončić (1999).

I will give you one final reminder: do not spend money today if you can help it. Not at all. If you must, do so at a local small business. Whether you understand it at the moment or not, it will make an impact… trust me on this. Enjoy your day.

Random News: February 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.

---

Good morning. It’s February 27, 2025, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I already know I have a busy day ahead based on my meeting schedule and the projects that I — for reasons unknown at the moment — committed to finish before the weekend. But that’s okay; I, somehow, some way, keep comin' up with funky-ass shit, like, every single day.

• I’m going to give you yet another reminder that tomorrow — Friday, February 28 — is the economic blackout.
• The billionaires in charge of your life think of you as mindless automatons, numbers on a spreadsheet who exist only to fill their coffers.
• If you can go literally one fucking day without handing over your money to massive retail conglomerates and global brands, it sends a message that the power is, in fact, in our hands.
• Not theirs.
• And perhaps they’ll be a little more hesitant to dictate policies that ruin lives and allow greed to drive prices so high that no one will be able to survive.
• So that’s tomorrow. Plan accordingly.
• Let’s do the news.
• You should not be shocked or surprised that the heavily conservative Supreme Court is already siding with the Dumpster. Conversely, I’ll be shocked any time they don’t.
• Yesterday, Chief Justice John Roberts paused a court-imposed midnight deadline that would have required the Dump administration to release $2 billion in frozen foreign aid, a goal that the government has claimed it is unable to meet.
• The emergency appeal marks the first time Dumpy’s efforts to drastically remake the federal government — including deep cuts across government agencies — have reached the nation’s highest court.
• And yes, the case appears likely to put the justices on a collision course with Dump’s sweeping efforts to take away power from the people and the democracy we’ve enjoyed for 248 years, and instead consolidate power within the executive branch.
• Roberts’ order does not resolve the underlying questions raised by the case. Instead, it imposes an administrative stay to give the court a few days to review written arguments in the case.
• I wouldn’t count on this SCOTUS for any help. They seem ready and willing to hand Dumpy a dictatorship that will result in the loss of our freedoms.
• Let’s move on.
• At least we have the free press on our side, right?
• Um, no.
• Yesterday, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos — who also owns the Washington Post — said that the newspaper’s opinions section would now be focused on “personal liberties and free markets” and won’t publish anything that opposes those ideas.
• Allow me to translate that for you: WaPo is now a mouthpiece for Donnie Dump, and it is no longer trustworthy as an impartial source of news and information.
• Bezos said he offered David Shipley, the paper’s opinion editor, the opportunity to stay at the helm under this new editorial direction, but he declined. 
• “I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes’ then it had to be ‘no.’ After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction,” Bezos said.
• Are they going to at least marginally cover other views, even just for appearances’s sake?
• No.
• “Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others,” said Bezos.
• Moving on.
• As evidenced up top, we’re going to be doing a lot of Supreme Court news over the next four months or so. Might as well start now.
• Yesterday, it seems likely that the Supreme Court will side with an Ohio woman who claims she suffered sex discrimination from her employer because she is straight.
• Oh, how hard it is to be a white heterosexual person in this world. Sigh.
• The outcome of the case could remove an additional requirement that some courts apply when members of a majority group sue for discrimination under federal law.
• The case comes via Marlean Ames, who has worked for the Ohio Department of Youth Services for more than 20 years. She claims was passed over for a promotion and then demoted because she is heterosexual. Both the job she sought and the one she had held were given to LGBTQ people.
• A trial court and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Ames.
• I mean, I should maybe bring up the possibility that she just sucks at her fucking job.
• Who is pushing this case to the top courts in the land? That’d be America First Legal, founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller.
• “Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, whether you are gay or straight, is prohibited. The rules are the same whichever way it goes,” said Brett Kavanaugh. I mean, he’s not wrong.
• But considering that the people being accusing of giving preferential treatment to gays didn’t know Ames’s sexual orientation, the whole thing feels pretty fucking weird to me.
• Let’s move on.
• A story we really hadn’t covered here — simply because it’s so fucked up that I was too angry to describe it rationally — has a good update.
• As most of you know, a week ago on February 22, Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl was with a group of people protesting Medicaid cuts and other Republican policies at the Coeur d’Alene, ID town hall.
• When she spoke out of turn to ask about the nature of the event, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris threatened to arrest her, and then summoned three unnamed and unmarked private security guards to carry her out of the premises.
• Many of you saw a viral video of the altercation, where Dr. Borrenpohl can be seen asking multiple times who the men are, with them refusing to answer.
• The three black-clad men — who were not employed by any law enforcement agency — then pushed her to the floor and forcibly dragged her out of the room. 
• And now the good part… the three workers for LEAR Asset Management, a private security firm, caused their company to have their business licences revoked for violating Coeur d'Alene City ordinances regarding security agencies and agents.
• Also, Borrenpohl — who was briefly hospitalized after the incident — has now raised over $250,000 for her legal fees. Coeur d'Alene police chief Lee White said the actions of LEAR Asset Management violated Dr. Borrenpohl's First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
• I think Kootenai County better start doing some planning on how they’re going to compensate Dr. Borrenpohl… because they’re definitely going to be doing that.
• Let’s move on.
• It’s been brought up recently that a lot of people might not even be aware that their healthcare benefits are handled by Medicaid.
• If they knew, they’d probably be a lot more scared and outraged than they seem to be.
• Why don’t they know? Because Medicaid is often renamed by the states. Here is California, it’s called Medi-Cal. In Indiana, it has a bunch of names like Hoosier Healthwise. In Illinois it’s Medical Assistance Program. In Missouri, it’s MO HealthNet.
• And so on and so forth. I only see about 10 states that just straight-up call it Medicaid. All the rest use a different name.
• So much like the people who loved the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but hate ObamaCare (which is the same thing with a different name), I have to think that a bunch of people are going to be taken by shock when they see their health benefits will be abruptly and severely curtailed very soon.
• Because they don’t even know they’re on Medicaid. But they soon will.
• I’ll remind you that 217 Republicans in the House voted to slash your Medicare benefits this week. Zero Democrats did.
• And in related news, the reason that so many Republicans are enabling Dumpy might be more simple than you think.
• They’re in fear for their lives.
• Like all despots and dictators, Dump is using the threat of physical force against these reps and their families.
• Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said his Republican colleagues were “terrified” of crossing Dumpy not only because of the negative impact on their political careers, but also from anxiety that it might provoke physical retaliation that could cause personal upheaval and require them to hire round-the-clock security as protection.
• Former congresswoman Liz Cheney says that some of her Republican colleagues had voted against impeaching Dump because “they were afraid for their own security — afraid, in some instances, for their lives.”
• And former Republican senator and presidential candidate Mitt Romney had intended to vote for Dump’s conviction at his Senate trial only to change course when a colleague told him: “Think of your personal safety. Think of your children.”
• So sometimes it’s less nuanced than it seems. Sometimes it’s just a page out of the book by Joseph Stalin, where you support the leader or disappear forever.
• Again, none of you should be shocked by this. Dump has been heading that direction from the start.
• And now, The Weather: “Angie” by spill tab
• Very sad to wake up and learn about the death of Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who was 95.
• He, his wife, and their dog were found dead in their New Mexico home yesterday after a welfare check. Authorities did not disclose how they died.
• Hackman, who retired from acting about 20 years ago, was a hugely respected performer best known for his roles in films as “The French Connection,” “Hoosiers,” “Unforgiven,” “The Firm,” and many more.
• Rest in peace to him.
• And a shocking RIP going out to Michelle Trachtenberg, the actor best known for film and TV roles including “Gossip Girl” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” She died yesterday at 39.
• She was found in her New York City apartment, and her cause of death has not yet been announced.
• Let’s cheer up with a chart.
• It’s exactly 50 years ago today, and here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for later February 1975.
• 1. Fire (Ohio Players). 2. You're No Good (Linda Ronstadt). 3. Boogie On Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder). 4. Pick Up The Pieces (AWB). 5. Best Of My Love (Eagles). 6. Some Kind Of Wonderful (Grand Funk). 7. Black Water (The Doobie Brothers). 8. Laughter In The Rain (Neil Sedaka). 9. Lonely People (America). 10. Get Dancin' (Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes Featuring Sir Monti Rock III). 11. Doctor's Orders (Carol Douglas). 12. My Eyes Adored You (Frankie Valli). 13. #9 Dream (John Lennon). 14. Look In My Eyes Pretty Woman (Tony Orlando & Dawn). 15. Please Mr. Postman (Carpenters). 16. Mandy (Barry Manilow). 17. Sweet Surrender (John Denver). 18. Morning Side Of The Mountain (Donny & Marie Osmond). 19. Nightingale (Carole King). 20. Never Can Say Goodbye (Gloria Gaynor).
• From the Sports Desk… this Saturday is March 1, which means we’re soon going to be forced to talk about the NCAA basketball tournament, also known as March Madness.
• I don’t know jack shit about college sports, basketball or otherwise. Maybe if I fill out a bracket, I can convince myself to pay attention.
• According to ESPN, the top men’s teams are (in order) Auburn, Duke, Florida, Houston, and Tennessee.
• And the women’s teams are Texas, UCLA, Notre Dame, USC, and UConn,
• There. You know as much as I do now.
• Today in history… Henry IV is crowned King of France (1594). The House of Commons of Great Britain votes against further war in America (1782). The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti (1844). The British Labour Party is founded (1900). A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett (1922). Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14 (1940). In Berlin, the Gestapo arrest 1,800 Jewish men with German wives, leading to the Rosenstrasse protest (1943). The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified (1951). The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee in protest of the federal government (1973). U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated” in the Gulf War (1991). Russian politician Boris Nemtsov is assassinated in Moscow while out walking with his girlfriend (2015).
• February 27 is the birthday of Roman emperor Constantine the Great (272), poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807), sociologist/philosopher George Herbert Mead (1863), SCOTUS justice Hugo Black (1886), physiologist Charles Herbert Best (1899), author John Steinbeck (1902), actress Joanne Woodward (1930), actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932), activist/politician Ralph Nader (1934), actor Howard Hesseman (1940), political strategist Lee Atwater (1951), guitarist Neal Schon (1954), politician Maggie Hassan (1958), NBA player James Worthy (1961), industrial designer Jony Ive (1967), NFL player Tony Gonzalez (1976), journalist/academic Chelsea Clinton (1980), singer-songwriter Josh Groban (1981), NBA player Devin Harris (1983), and NFL player Chandler Jones (1990).

As has been typical lately, that’s definitely not all the news… just the stuff I have time to tell you now. I advise that you try and keep up with things above and beyond what I mention here. And remember… don’t buy shit tomorrow unless it’s from a small local business. Enjoy your day.

Random News: February 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.

---

Good morning. It’s February 26, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. As has often been the case in recent days, we have a ton of news today, and a lot of it is pretty damn important. Get in the news car and let’s roll.

• First, let’s talk some more about the upcoming economic blackout that happens this Friday, February 28.
• The actual goal of the organizers is not political. It’s instead aimed at things like high housing costs, surging consumer prices, and greed-based inflation.
• However, the bigger-picture message is simply that it’s the people — and their money — who have the real power in the USA. Not a handful of billionaires, and certainly not Dumpy and his administration who are poised to remove the financial safety net from millions of Americans.
• So again, all I ask of you is to try for one day not to be a mindless consumer. Postpone any purchases you were going to make.
• Especially from national brands and massive retailers.
• And note that the blackout makes an exception for buying essentials of absolutely necessity — like medicine, food, or emergency supplies. But if required, try to make those purchases at small, local businesses.
• If you don’t flex your power in ways such as this, other protest actions, and especially voting, you are doomed to lose that power.
• So join us and don’t spend any money on Friday.
• Let’s move on.
• Last night, House Republicans passed Dumpy’s “big, beautiful bill” that include $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy, and $2 trillion in spending cuts to take away services from the rest of us.
• Dumpy himself called the Republicans who were hesitant to screw over their constituents, forcing them to get onboard.
• In the end, the vote was 217-215, with a single Republican and all Democrats opposed.
• What happens next? If you paid attention in middle school, you already know.
• Before anything can become law, there will be weeks of committee hearings to draft the details and send the House version to the Senate, where Republicans have already passed their own scaled-back version.
• So again, not to seem insensitive, but this is precisely what we told you would happen.
• The wealthy will pay less, and the rest of you are fucked.
• And yes, a number of Republican lawmakers worry that scope of the cuts being eyed — particularly some $880 billion for health care spending that includes Medicaid, or $230 billion to the agriculture committee that funds food stamps — will be too harmful to their constituents back home.
• But they voted for it anyway.
• Let’s move on to four successful efforts in a day to stop the rise of Dumpy fascism.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ordered the Dump administration to comply with a temporary order preventing it from pausing foreign assistance funding issued earlier this month, and gave the State Department until tonight to pay all bills for work completed before February 13.
• Ali granted a motion to enforce his temporary restraining order. It required the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, to restore foreign-assistance funds for contracts and other awards while proceedings continue in a case brought by a group of businesses, nonprofits, and organizations that do foreign aid work.
• The contractors had argued that they have been cut off from federal dollars or forced to stop their work because of Drump's executive action — and a subsequent directive from Secretary of State Marco Rubio — that froze foreign development aid for 90 days.
• Under Ali's ruling, the State Department and USAID must pay any invoices and drawdown requests owed before February 13 by midnight tonight. Ali also ordered the government to turn over any internal directives from the State Department or USAID leadership telling employees to comply with the court's restraining order.
• At the emergency hearing yesterday, a clueless Justice Department lawyer was unable to provide any information at all on what steps the Dump administration was taking to restore funding for foreign aid programs.
• That’s because there are none, obviously.
• But wait… there’s more judicial resistance happening.
• Yesterday, Judge Loren AliKhan from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of a group of nonprofit organizations in finding that they are likely to succeed in their challenge to the pause on all federal grants, loans, and other federal assistance programs.
• That’s another block against the Office of Management and Budget from freezing federal assistance, and another blow to Dumpy's ongoing efforts to destroy our country.
• AliKhan found that the nonprofits proved that the "funding freeze would be economically catastrophic — and in some circumstances, fatal — to their members" and agreed to grant their request for a preliminary injunction while the case plays out.
• She’d previously issued a temporary restraining order that prevented Dumpy from freezing federal assistance while she considered the nonprofits' request for injunctive relief. The judge held a hearing on their motion last week.
• We’re not done yet.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Jamal N. Whitehead in Seattle temporarily blocked Dumpy’s sweeping ban on refugee admissions, saying the presidential executive order represented an improper nullification of congressional authority.
• Whitehead’s granting of a preliminary injunction effectively requires the administration to restart the refugee-admissions program that Dump shut down last month.
• The judge’s order will remain in place while the case is adjudicated. Dumpy has the right to appeal his decision within 60 days.
• And one more.
• U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has blocked the Justice Department from transferring 12 transgender female inmates to male prisons in a setback for Dumpy’s executive orders denying recognition of transgender people.
• The inmates housed at Bureau of Prisons facilities filed their lawsuit January 30 because of concerns they would lose access to medical treatment if transferred to prisons that didn't recognize their gender identities.
• More urgently, the inmates argued they would be at substantial risk of serious harm if transferred, a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.
• I agree. What kind of fucking monster puts women in men’s prisons?
• Anyway, this is all good news in the fight against evil.
• Moving on.
• We mentioned many times that one of the expected casualties of a second Dumpy term would be the reversal of Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that allowed for same-sex marriage to be legal in all 50 states.
• On Monday, Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver (R-Oxford) introduced a resolution urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell.
• It has been nearly 10 years since the high court handed down a 5-4 ruling on June 26, 2015, declaring the 14th Amendment requires all states to perform same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
• I would 100% assume that if the case is revisited by the current SCOTUS, the Court will declare same-sex marriages invalid.
• Taking away the rights of people is what these MAGA folks love the most. And if they have their way, the next step will be the reinstatement of sodomy laws that will make being LGBT+ a crime in and of itself.
• In other news…
• Dumpy has decided that US citizenship is for sale.
• That Orange Prick said yesterday the US would sell a “gold card” to wealthy foreigners, giving them the right to live and work in the US and offering a path to citizenship in exchange for a $5 million fee.
• “We’re going to be selling a gold card,” said that fucking maniac from the Oval Office. “You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.”
• Asked whether he would consider selling the cards to Russian oligarchs, Dump responded: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
• I’m sure he does.
• Let’s just move on to some less insane news.
• 21 staffers of the Elon Musk-helmed Department of Government Efficiency have resigned, saying in a letter sent yesterday to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles that they "will not lend our expertise to carry out or legitimize DOGE's actions."
• These officials wrote that they "will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services." 
• Thank God there are still people of conscience in the world. A salute to all of them.
• And speaking of DOGE, this is pretty hilarious.
• It’s run by Elon Musk, right?
• No. A White House official says Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency. 
• Who is she? Her LinkedIn lists her as a U.S. Digital Services senior adviser, and she has a background in consulting and the medical field. 
• And when reporters asked her about her big job as DOGE acting administrator, she said she was in Mexico and declined to comment further.
• I’ll repeat that last week, the White House said in a court filing that Elon Musk isn't an employee of DOGE, and "has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”
• Hahahahahahaha
• Alrighty, let’s move into some more good news.
• Yesterday, Apple shareholders rejected a proposal to end their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program.
• The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, called on Apple to follow other major companies in backing off from DEI, which has come under fire by Republicans and Dumpy himself. 
• In their response to the anti-DEI proposal, Apple defended its diversity program as an integral part of its corporate culture, crediting the policies in part for making the technology giant the most valuable company in the world.
• Good. I’ve been an Apple customer going back to the ‘80s. I work on a Mac to do my. job every day, and use both an iPhone and iPad all the time as well.
• I’m writing this news to you on an Apple product right now.
• A frightening note from the Health Desk…
• An unknown illness first discovered in three children who ate a bat has rapidly killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo over the past five weeks.
• And the interval between the onset of symptoms — which include fever, vomiting, and internal bleeding — and death has been 48 hours in most cases.
• So to be clear, you start feeling sick, and two days later you’re dead.
• They’ve determined what it’s not, which is Ebola, dengue, Marburg or yellow fever, but they have yet to find out what it is.
• The disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on January 21, with 419 cases recorded and 53 deaths.
• Good thing we have a guy like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of HHS. I’m sure he’ll take every step, from mandatory vaccination to social rules designed to protect us, right?
• Lordy. Also, don’t eat bats.
• Moving on. Here’s a fun fact.
• The following is a list of US states that pay more to the federal government than they receive back…
• California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Utah, and Washington.
• All the rest of the states — 38 of them — get more than they pay.
• Notice that nearly all of the states who actually fund the USA are so-called blue states.
• And I’d say it was in the whole country’s best interest to make sure that you respect the wishes of the people of those states. If not, well… there’s no guarantee that we keep footing the bill for the rest of you.
• Just saying.
• And now, The Weather: “RIP” by Triathalon
• From the Sports Desk… one of the most respected, highest-scoring professional basketball players in history has retired.
• Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi, 42, made the announcement in an interview published yesterday.
• She leaves the WNBA as the most decorated player in the history of women's basketball. She  was the 2009 MVP; she was an All-Star 11 times; she led the Mercury to three WNBA titles, Team USA to six Olympic gold medals, and the UConn Huskies to three NCAA championships.
• She was also the fastest to reach 5,000 career points and the only to reach 10,000. She remains the league's all-time leading scorer.
• Well done, ma’am.
• Today in history… Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun (1616). Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from exile on the island of Elba (1815). Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London (1909). President Woodrow Wilson signs an act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park (1919). President Calvin Coolidge signs legislation establishing the 96,000 acres (390 km2) Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming (1929). Robert Watson-Watt carries out a demonstration which leads directly to the development of radar (1935). U.N. Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day (1971). Egypt and Israel establish full diplomatic relations (1980). The Tower Commission rebukes President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff (1987). In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six and injuring over a thousand people (1993). Seventeen-year-old African-American student Trayvon Martin is shot to death by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman in an altercation in Sanford, FL (2012). 279 female students aged between 10 and 17 are kidnapped by bandits in Zamfara State, Nigeria (2021).
• February 26 is the birthday of playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564), author Victor Hugo (1802), fashion designer Levi Strauss (1829), soldier/hunter Buffalo Bill (1846), physician/businessman John Harvey Kellogg (1852), businessman Herbert Henry Dow (1866), animator Tex Avery (1908), actor Robert Alda (1914), actor Jackie Gleason (1916), actor Tony Randall (1920), singer-songwriter/pianist Fats Domino (1928), singer-songwriter/guitarist Johnny Cash (1932), singer-songwriter Mitch Ryder (1945), singer-songwriter/keyboardist Jonathan Cain (1950), singer-songwriter Michael Bolton (1953), politician Tim Kaine (1958), bass player Tim Commerford (1968), singer-songwriter Erykah Badu (1971), NFL player Marshall Faulk (1973), and NBA player Tim Thomas (1977).

The funny thing is that even with this much news, there are still plenty of things that I don’t have time to include here, or have left off for reasons of brevity. It’s a busy world in which we live, and if you don’t pay attention, you’re going to get screwed. Stay alert, stay woke, stay ready. Enjoy your day.

Random News: February 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.

---

Good morning. It’s February 25, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. We have a ton of stuff to talk about today, so maybe get yourself a fresh cup of coffee before diving in. Ready? Okay, let’s do this.

• As I promised yesterday, here’s some more info and background on the upcoming economic blackout on this Friday, February 28.
• A reminder: on that day, you will not make any purchases from national retail chains and brands.
• Why?
• First, as many people have noted… when you have the choice of doing something versus doing nothing, something always wins.
• It doesn’t take you a lot of effort to not buy from major brands for one fucking day. I believe in you.
• But what does it even matter?
• That’s simple. The only power we have that matters to the corporate overlords is our choice to spend… or not. And if they’re going to be supportive toward Donnie Dump’s policies— from abandoning DEI programs through direct contributions and more — they can live with the consequences.
• Those who doth fucketh around, findeth out.
• Think of it this way: if we can do it for one day, it tells them that we could do it more… more often and for longer durations.
• And we can do more than a simple economic blackout. We could do a general strike.
• There are many steps to take before all-out violence in the streets and civil war is inevitable.
• So when I ask that you simply not spend with national brands and retail chains (local small businesses are fine), it’s not a big ask. But it matters, and the more people you make aware of this and encourage to participate, the bigger the impact.
• These companies will only support MAGA, project 2025, Elon, and Dumpy when their coffers are full. The idea that their giant company could be gone (and they could lose their top management jobs for their decisions) will beat out any political ideology they may have.
• So be a hero — just for one day — and don’t buy shit on Friday.
• Thank you.
• Moving on.
• House Speaker Mike Johnson will attempt to pass a Republican budget tonight. It’s Dumpy’s plan that gives $4.5 trillion in tax breaks to wealthy people and cuts $2 trillion in spending from the rest of us.
• Every Republican rep who votes for this is directly screwing their own constituents. They will pay a hefty price in the 2026 election as such.
• And I certainly hope that not even one Democrat lends their support to this bullshit.
• No one know what the outcome will be when they vote. With almost no votes to spare in Johnson’s bare-bones GOP majority, the speaker is fighting on all fronts — against Democrats, uneasy rank-and-file Republicans and skeptical GOP senators — as he works to keep the package on track.
• We’ll be reporting on that vote, obviously.
• Let’s move on.
• As we reported over the weekend, President Musk threatened to fire the entire federal workforce if they didn’t respond to a demand for them to document five things they accomplished over the past week.
• Except… no, he was just kidding, or something.
• Yesterday, Musk revised his command so that individual agencies can decide how to respond. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) held a call with the heads of human capital at federal agencies and said it's up to each entity to determine how they want to handle the directive employees received Saturday.
• Musk had previously stated that employees' failure to respond would be taken as a resignation, and the email set a deadline of 11:59pm Monday to respond. And yes, Dumpy publicly backed the effort at the White House earlier in the day.
• But of course, the directive sparked confusion and several agencies told workers to ignore the request, including the Justice Department, the FBI, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
• That had to sting Elon’s fragile ego a bit.
• During yesterday’s call with agencies, OPM was asked what would be done with any information already provided from employees who responded to the email. OPM said there were no plans to do anything with the information. 
• Uh huh.
• Off of that clusterfuck and on to some news about the resistance to Dumpy and his fascist plans.
• Yesterday, a federal judge in Maryland blocked the Dump administration from carrying out immigration enforcement actions at certain places of worship for Quakers, Cooperative Baptists, and Sikhs, who filed a lawsuit challenging Dump's unwinding of a Biden-era memo that barred immigration arrests at certain protected locations.
• U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang granted a request for a narrow preliminary injunction sought by the religious groups as they pursue their challenge to Dumpy's directive allowing federal immigration authorities to conduct enforcement actions at places of worship.
• Note that Chuang’s order does not block the administration's policy nationwide, and only applies to houses of worship owned or used by the challengers — the Quakers, Cooperative Baptists and Sikhs.
• And that makes sense from a legal standpoint; the more specific and narrow the ruling, the easier it is to remain enforced. Other groups may sue to challenge Dumpy’s order based on this precedent.
• The groups had argued that the new policy allowing immigration arrests at places that were previously considered protected violates their First Amendment rights and burdens the free exercise of religion under federal law.
• Chuang found that the threat of enforcement action at houses of worship attended by the three religious communities has caused reductions in attendance by not only immigrants who are in the country illegally, but also by those with legal status who fear they may be mistaken for unauthorized immigrants.
• Well done.
• Moving on with something to consider…
• President Musk and his little lapdog Donnie are firing hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
• And suddenly, people who gave their lives to government and military service — many of whom had security clearances — are now out of a job and angry about it. And they have sensitive and unique knowledge.
• They’re facing economic hardship, loss of healthcare, retirement in question, lack of savings, and feeling betrayed by the country that they swore to serve.
• So let’s say you’re a foreign intelligence agent. Who would be a better choice to approach and recruit than an extremely disgruntled ex-employee? Those guys dream about this scenario.
• Dumpy has never been able to see the big picture. And Musk just doesn’t have a clue about nearly anything. No wonder they’re so inept… and that’s a good thing.
• Moving on.
• I know you’ve been waiting for this story from the Comedy Desk. Let’s do it.
• An AI video showing Dumpy making out with Elon Musk’s feet played on television screens in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) building yesterday.
• I’m serious. That actually happened.
• The words “Long live the real king” were displayed over the top of the computer-generated video, a reference to Dump’s ridiculous social post last week in which he wrote, “Long Live the King!”
• The prank coincided with many federal employees returning to their offices this week, as Dumpy has sought to roll back the option to work from home. It also follows mass layoffs across the federal government, including at HUD, where some managers have been told to expect a 50% reduction in the number of agency employees. 
• Reports say that everyone at HUD was talking and laughing about it. No news as to who posted the video that ran on all TVs at the government agency.
• But hats off to them!
• And a side note to anyone who thinks that President Musk is doing great work in saving the country money…
• Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that Elon claims to have canceled in his cost-cutting program aren’t expected to save the government any money.
• The Department of Government Efficiency, run by Musk, published an updated list yesterday of nearly 2,300 contracts that agencies terminated in recent weeks across the federal government.
• Data published on DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts” shows that more than one-third of the contract cancellations, 794 in all, are expected to yield no savings.
• Why? Because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, which means the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so.
• Slow clap.
• A note from the Health Desk…
• A listeria outbreak linked to recalled frozen supplemental nutrition shakes has infected 38 people, killing 12, according to an update yesterday from federal and state health officials.
• The infections, which ranged across 21 states, have been traced to recalled products manufactured by Prairie Farms Dairy at a facility in Fort Wayne, IN.
• If you live in the following states, probably avoid those shakes: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia. 
• Maybe just avoid them regardless of where you live.
• And in somewhat related but much more disturbing news…
• A young woman decided to post some really juicy content to get plenty of social engagement. So she peed all over food in a grocery store, and posted the videos.
• Keene Police Department in New Hampshire received an anonymous tip regarding a woman — later identified as 23-year-old Kelli Tedford — who had “posted disturbing videos to an internet site” of her “contaminating items in a local business with her urine.”
• Monadnock Food Co-Op subsequently issued a voluntary recall for red quinoa, white quinoa, tri-color quinoa, cornmeal, polenta, coconut shreds and raw walnuts.
• I’m sure there are some online places where they could have charged extra for that. Oh, and I should mention… videos she’s posted of herself pissing on food go back a good four years.
• Anyway, Tedford was arrested and charged with criminal mischief as a class B felony. She's scheduled for arraignment on April 7.
• Gross.
• And now a note form the Business Desk…
• Goodbye Joann.
• The over 80-year-old fabric and crafts store is going out of business, and they’re closing all of its stores nationwide after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time.
• Earlier this month, Joann said it would close 500 of its stores, while keeping roughly 300 stores open. But after failing to find a buyer that would keep its stores open, all Joann locations will close.
• That’s too bad.
• From the “Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me” Desk.. who’s lining up to buy tix for Fyre Festival 2?
• That’s right kids. A second iteration of the infamous Fyre Festival in 2017 is being planned after its controversial founder, Billy McFarland, spent time behind bars for fraud related to the original event.
• A resale ticketing platform announced yesterday that it has started selling tickets to Fyre Festival 2, which is scheduled take place in May on Isla Mujeres in Quintana Roo, Mexico. 
• Tickets range in price from $1,400 to $1.1 million.
• Hahahahahahahahahaahahahahahaaaaa jesus lord help me god.
• McFarland says, “After years of reflection and now thoughtful, the new team and I have amazing plans for Fyre 2. The adventure seekers who trust the vision and take the leap will help make history."
• This gets funnier: no musical artists have committed to performing at the three-day event. Instead, so-called "Fyre Experiences" will be released in a number of drops leading up to the festival," its website says.
• My take: anyone who buys tickets to this thing deserves whatever transpires as a result.
• And now, The Weather: “hear a whisper (feat. Winter)” by terraplana
• Two minutes after I finished my news yesterday, I saw the sad notification that legendary pop/R&B vocalist Roberta Flack had passed away at 88. Rest in peace to her.
• Flack was launched to stardom in the early ’70s by the Grammy-winning hits “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”
• What you might not know: Flack was a classically trained pianist who got famous somewhat belatedly after Clint Eastwood used her two-year-old version of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” in his 1971 directorial debut “Play Misty for Me.”
• From the Sports Desk… it is yet unclear whether the Philadelphia Eagles will celebrate their Super Bowl victory with Dumpy at the White House.
• Conflicting reports have said that both the Eagles have snubbed Dump’s invitation — team owner Jeffrey Lurie is a well-known Democratic donor — as well as that the team is happy to accept the invitation should Dumpy choose to offer it, which apparently he has not.
• Of note: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell recently went against Dumpy and announced that the league will continue to support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
• Plus, Dumpy was hoping the Chiefs would win the game, and they got their asses handed to them and Dump, who’d attended in person at great taxpayer expense, left around halftime.
• Guess we’ll see.
• In actual sports news, congrats to Mikaela Shiffrin, the American skier who made history this past weekend by becoming the first athlete in Alpine skiing to win 100 World Cup races.
• She passed the milestone just three months after a bruising crash that resulted in a punctured abdomen and left her traumatized. The accomplishment was especially poignant given that Shiffrin's first attempt at her 100th World Cup title ended in the serious fall last November.
• She endured a deep puncture wound in her abdomen, severe muscle trauma, and mental and psychological stress in the aftermath.
• Glad she got back in her boots and bindings and onto the slopes.
• Today in history… George Frideric Handel's opera ‘Nero’ premiered in Hamburg (1705). Samuel Colt is granted a United States patent for his revolver firearm (1836). Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in Congress (1870). In his speech ‘On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences,’ Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, denounces Stalin (1956). President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos flees the nation after 20 years of rule and Corazon Aquino becomes the Philippines' first female president (1986).
• February 25 is the birthday of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841), tenor Enrico Caruso (1873), diplomat/politician John Foster Dulles (1888), spiritual leader Meher Baba 1894), comedian Zeppo Marx (1901), NHL player King Clancy (1903), actor Jim Backus (1913), author Anthony Burgess (1917), singer Ralph Stanley (1927), singer-songwriter/guitarist George Harrison (1943), wrestler Ric Flair (1949), NBA player/coach Kurt Rambis (1958), comedian Carrot Top (1965), actress Téa Leoni (1966), actor Sean Astin (1971), comedian Chelsea Handler (1975), actress Rashida Jones (1976), NFL player/politician Napoleon Harris (1979), NBA player Joakim Noah (1985), NBA player Jimmer Fredette (1989), and NFL player Bo Nix (2000).

I know that was a lot of stuff, but when important shit — or weird shit, or funny shit, or whatever shit — happens, I want you all to be aware. Enjoy your day.

Random News: February 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.

---

Good morning. It’s February 24, 2025, and it’s a Monday. Feeling reasonably good as far as Monday mornings go. At least for now.

• What did I do this weekend? Glad you asked.
• I voted!
• It’s true. I don’t just vote in presidential elections or in midterm national elections. I vote whenever there’s a state, county,. or even local city election. That’s what I returned my ballot for yesterday… the City of Redondo Beach General Municipal Election.
• I cast my ranked-choice vote for mayor, for City Attorney, for school board members, and for a batch of local ballot initiatives.
• Here’s a tip: sometimes the things you vote for in your town may have a bigger impact on your life than the issues that hit national headlines.
• Always vote at every opportunity. If you abandon your responsibility to steer the course of political decisions, you might not ever get it back. Vote every… fucking… time.
• Let’s do some news.
• Yesterday, a rift opened between some of Dump’s agency heads and Elon Musk over Musk’s demand that all federal employees state their weekly accomplishments or risk termination.
• By last night, leaders at the Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Energy had all instructed their staff not to reply to an email that federal workers received from the Office of Personnel Management on Saturday afternoon with the subject line: “What did you do last week?”
• The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the apparent discrepancy between Musk’s directive and the guidance provided by agency heads.
• Ha ha!
• Musk — a man from South Africa who’s shown time and time again that he has no clue how the US government operates — freaked out on social media.
• “EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of government think this is TOO MUCH!! What is wrong with them??”
• Hahahahahahaha!
• Elon is about to find out some stuff about his adopted country.
• Let’s move on to the International Desk for a bit.
• Mostly good news form the German elections: the far-right racist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party did not win, though they came in second for the strongest showing for a Nazi-like party since World War II.
• The election was won by Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz in yesterday’s national election.
• Chancellor Olaf Scholz conceded a mostly-expected defeat for his center-left Social Democrats after what he called “a bitter election result.” Merz said he hopes to put a coalition government together by Easter. But that’s likely to be challenging.
• Before your MAGA pal starts celebrating a “conservative” win in Germany…
• That’s not the flex they think it is. Germany’s Conservative Party, or Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is not in any way similar to MAGA. In the USA, policy-wise, they’d be considered moderate Democrats who are, we should note, appalled at what’s happening in the United States.
• And they’re certainly no fans of Dumples the Clown.
• But support for Merz’s Union bloc was around 28.5%, and the racist AfD is about 20.5% — roughly double its result from 2021.
• And that’s not good. Hopefully that trend will die down in Europe as it eventually will here in the USA.
• Let’s head back to the USA for some other news.
• It’s looking like Dumpy is choosing to violate the rulings of judges in certain cases about his policy decisions. That’s called a constitutional crisis, kids.
• And it’s the mark of a fascist dictator.
• Dumpy’s administration blocked a crucial step in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) process for funding medical research, a move that is in violation of a federal judge’s temporary restraining order on federal funding freezes.
• The NIH has stopped submitting study sections — meetings in which scientists peer review NIH grant funding proposals — to the Federal Register after Dumpy paused health agency communications. By law, study sections must appear on the register 15 days in advance of meetings.
• These meetings are integral in the funding process for scientists at institutions around the country researching virtually all elements of disease and medicine, including drug development, cancer, heart disease, and aging.
• This is a clear violation of federal judges’ orders. If Dumpy continues to evade court orders, judges have a number of tools at their disposal. They could issue more specific orders directed toward individuals responsible for violations, or even hold them in civil contempt of court, which can include jail time, and which cannot be undone with a presidential pardon.
• Moving on.
• Another giant piece of of shit has been smeared across our federal government with the appointment of Dan Bongino to serve as FBI deputy director.
• Bongino is a former U.S. Secret Service agent who ran unsuccessfully for office, but is best known as an Internet troll and a conservative pundit who appears on TV and podcasts.
• Dumples the Clown announced the appointment last night via a social post.
• As we mentioned, Dumpy isn’t concerned about his appointees’ qualifications or policies. He only wants 100% loyalists who will do his bidding regardless of legality.
• Let’s move on.
• I’m going to remind you daily this week that on this coming Friday, February 28, I am asking you to participate in a national economic blackout.
• Don’t buy anything that day. If you must buy something, make it from a local/small business rather than any national chain or brand.
• We are doing this to flex our power as the people who keep this country running with our dollars.
• And it’s but a first step — and a relatively mild one — to express out unwillingness to live in a fascist world.
• More on that later. For now, moving on.
• As we’ve discussed lately, large numbers of Medicaid recipients live in red states and are represented by Republicans.
• Now that Dumpy and Elon are slashing billions in funding for the insurance program for low-income people, they are starting to get worried.
• Probably not for their constituents who will suffer, but for themselves.
• The dissension among House Republicans is growing, and this will be a hit to Dumpy and the GOP to be has made the GOP more appealing to the working class.
• Republicans rely on low-income voters more than they have in decades, with Dump the first Republican presidential candidate to win the poorest third of the electorate since the 1960s.
• 11 Republicans in competitive seats represent larger-than-average Medicaid populations — collectively nearly 2.7 million recipients. A vote to cut the program presents a politically sensitive decision that would absolutely come back to haunt them in the 2026 elections.
• And with a 218-215 House split — the tightest in modern history — Republicans will be fighting for every seat during the midterms to keep control of the chamber. And they can only lose one vote in the House and still pass their budget bill.
• Nationally, about 24 percent of people in the United States are enrolled in Medicaid. Over 72 million people nationwide had Medicaid coverage as of October 2024.
• And Dump and his gang of thieves are about to steal that from them. How do you think those folks — many of them older — will react?
• Guess we’ll see. Moving on.
• Visitors to Yosemite National Park saw something more than majestic mountains and landscapes and nature this past weekend.
• Those who gazed up at El Capitan saw a massive upside-down American flag, which Yosemite employees reportedly hung over the side to protest the recent downsizing that took place as part of the Dump administration’s cost-cutting initiatives.
• Traditionally, hanging the American flag upside down symbolizes a distress call.
• “We’re bringing attention to what’s happening to the parks, which are every American’s properties. It’s super important we take care of them, and we’re losing people here, and it’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open,” said Gavin Carpenter, a maintenance mechanic who supplied the flag and helped hang it.
• Good for them. If we’re silent, we’re complicit. Speak the fuck up!
• Moving on with some hopeful news.
• Not that I 100% buy into this statement, but James Carville has predicted that Dumpy’s White House team will “collapse” in less than a month.
• The famed Democratic Party strategist claimed that the downfall will hit as Dump’s approval numbers continue to crater. Dump, as you know, has implemented a multitude of executive orders and fired thousands of government officials all within his first month in office — moves that risk sending the economy into a tailspin.
• Carville advised Democrats to simply sit back and watch it happen.
• Um, no. I’m not a “sit back and watch” kind of guy.
• But I’ll enjoy it if it happens.
• From the Health Desk…
• More than two decades ago, measles — a potentially life-threatening illness — was declared eliminated in the United States.
• That was when we thought people were smart enough to protect themselves and their children via vaccinations.
• Now, nearly 100 people across Texas and New Mexico have contracted the disease. Ninety cases of measles — the majority affecting children under 17 — were detected in Texas’s South Plains. Nine other cases were recorded in New Mexico, all in Lea County, which borders the South Plains region.
• The spread marks a significant jump from the 24 cases reported earlier this month. The DSHS said “additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities.”
• Slow clap. Way to go, you assholes.
• And now, The Weather: “Fly” by Wishy
• From the Sports Desk… Alex Ovechkin is about to cross a huge milestone in the sport of hockey.
• After a hat trick this weekend, the 39-year-old Russian left wing for the Washington Capitals is just 13 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL career record of 894 that long seemed unapproachable.
• Amazing. He’s spent 19 years in the NHL, all with the Caps, whom he joined in the 2005-06 season.
• Today in history… ‘Rinaldo’ by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage, is premiered (1711). In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review (1803). Arizona is organized as a United States territory (1863). Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives (1868). The stage premiere of ‘Peer Gynt’, a play by Henrik Ibsen with incidental music by Edvard Grieg, takes place in Oslo, Norway (1876). The Zimmermann Telegram shows Germany pledging to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States (1917). Nancy Astor becomes the first woman to speak in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom following her election as a Member of Parliament three months earlier (1920). A false alarm led to an anti-aircraft barrage that lasted into the early hours of February 25 in The Battle of Los Angeles (1942). South Vietnamese forces led by Ngo Quang Truong recapture the citadel of Hué (1968). Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years (2008). Days after recognizing Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states, Russian president Vladimir Putin orders a full scale invasion of Ukraine (2022).
• February 24 is the birthday of Japan emperor Toba (1103), anthropologist/author Wilhelm Grimm (1786), activist Lydia Becker (1827), painter Winslow Homer (1836), suffragist Zara DuPont (1869), MLB player Honus Wagner (1874), admiral Chester W. Nimitz (1885), actor Abe Vigoda (1921), actor Dominic Chianese (1931), businessman Phil Knight (1938), keyboardist Nicky Hopkins (1944), singer-songwriter Rupert Holmes (1947), singer/guitarist George Thorogood (1950), actress Debra Jo Rupp (1951), businessman Steve Jobs (1955), actor Billy Zane (1966), comedian Mitch Hedberg (1968), boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. (1977), actor O'Shea Jackson Jr. 91991), and rapper Earl Sweatshirt (1994).

That’s all I’ve got for now. Here goes Monday. Enjoy your day.

Random News: February 23, 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.

---

Good morning. It’s February 23, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I was going to sleep in some more, but my bladder has its own alarm clock, and I decided to just stay up and make coffee and get things rolling bright and early.

• For those of you who may want to make your displeasure with the Dump administration known in some kind of tangible way — but aren’t in a position to take more direct action — I have a few dates you may want to mark down.
• And they’re all more about what you don’t do, rather than do do. Not doing something is pretty easy.
• February 28th: The Economic Blackout.
• A 24-hour economic protest scheduled for Friday, February 28 has been building steam in recent weeks. The call to action — or rather inaction — is asking that American consumers refrain from making any purchases at major retailers on that day.
• Official messaging from the organization b behind it suggests a boycott of all major retailers, with the goal of enacting broader economic change.
• What’s the point? The real power of the USA exists in the wallets of its people. If the Dump admin wants to run rampant over our laws with the assumption there’s nothing we can do about it, welp… they may find out otherwise.
• It’s really simple: don’t make any purchases at all that one day… or if you must, let them be with small, local, single-location businesses.
• If enough people are aware of this and participate, it sends a powerful message… and makes the powers that be aware that the next one could be much more than 24 hours.
• Some supporters have suggested a more targeted boycott of retailers that have ended their DEI programs to comply with an executive order signed by Dumpy the Douchebag.
• In any case, the protest comes as people continue to endure rising prices on everything from food and gas to housing and utilities, epitomized by the soaring cost of eggs.
• Other coming planned days of inaction are indeed more focused.
• March 7-14: Amazon Boycott. March 21-28: Nestle Boycott. April 7-14: Walmart Boycott. April 18: Economic Blackout 2.
• And more.
• Let’s do some news.
• Federal workers will have to document everything they did last week or face resignation. 
• Those were the instructions that came out yesterday afternoon from Elon Musk, the head of the White House's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
• Federal workers received an email that read, "what did you do last week." They were instructed to reply with five bullet points of what they had accomplished in the last week, excluding any classified information.
• The deadline to reply was by Monday at midnight. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," Musk added in a post on a social platform.
• But the actual email sent to workers made no mention of this possible consequence, which would be illegal.
• “I don’t know how that’s necessarily feasible,” Rep. Michael Lawler (R-NY) this morning. “Obviously, a lot of federal employees are under union contract.”
• Correct.
• And think about this part: the email hit inboxes Saturday, when federal law bars some employees from working outside of their assigned shifts.
• Some federal workers were on leave — such as sick leave, parental leave, or paid administrative leave imposed by the Dump administration — and unable to access their emails. 
• And still others, in the Defense Department, were on duty tours in remote locations, like jungles, without access to computers.
• I kinda had to laugh at a thought that crossed my mind. Imagine if no one at all responded. What is Elon going to do, fire the entire United States government?
• Fucking psychopath douchebag.
• And indeed, The Dumpster earlier that same day posted that Musk is doing a great job in reducing the federal government and that he would like to see him get more aggressive in the pursuit.
• There you have it.
• The comedic aspect of all this: government agencies have no idea what to do about Musk’s email.
• The State Department told employees not to answer it. Employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were told to definitely reply. And in some parts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, staffers received instructions to draft a response but not send it yet.
• So I guess we’ll see tomorrow if President Musk will dismiss the entire federal government of the USA, which, I should note, is our country’s largest employer.
• In somewhat related news…
• One government office that has a mission which seems highly supported by all Americans is the 700-person organization within the Defense Department known as the POW/MIA Accounting Agency, or DPAA.
• Their solemn task is locating, repatriating and identifying America’s war dead. They employ historians, archaeologists, and scientists to long-silent battlefields where the remains of those classified by the U.S. government as prisoners of war or missing in action are believed to be. 
• But Elon and Dumpy are moving with haste to dismantle the federal workforce — including at the Pentagon, just like Putin wants — staff at DPAA fear an indiscriminate approach will jeopardize what they consider a sacred mission.
• DPAA has accounted for 3,477 missing Americans since 1973, when the agency was established, including 172 last year alone. More than 81,000 remain unaccounted for.
• And now, with less personnel and budget, they definitely never will.
• In other news…
• Pope Francis, in critical condition with a complicated lung infection, rested well during a peaceful night following a respiratory crisis and blood transfusions.
• Yesterday he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen.
• I’ve had that happen. It’s pretty awful and I’m nowhere near 88 years old like Francis, who’s been hospitalized for a week with a complex lung infection. 
• The other big threat facing him is the onset of sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.
• Wishing him well and moving on.
• I want to talk about model and actress Hunter Schafer, one of the most prominent transgender women in Hollywood.
• You may know her from her acclaimed role in the HBO drama “Euphoria.” She was also recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for best lead performance in the 2024 film “Cuckoo.”
• After losing her passport recently, Schafer, 26, went through the process of replacing it, but when she received her new passport this week, the gender marker incorrectly listed her as male.
• See, Dumples the Asshole signed an executive order on his first day in office instituting a new and narrow federal government definition of the sexes. As part of the order, the federal government defines sex as only male or female and says that must be reflected on official documents, like passports.
• Shafer explained in an eight-minute video that her driver's license and passport were first changed when she was a teenager, but she never updated her birth certificate. 
• She stated, "Trans people are beautiful. We are never going to stop existing. I'm never gonna stop being trans. A letter and a passport can't change that."
• She’s right. And for all of you who think Dump can change the intrinsic nature of who people are with the stroke of a pen, try and imagine if you’d comply with a president who signed an executive order saying everyone is gay.
• Would you immediately be gay that day (assuming you weren’t already)? No? You’d disobey an illegal executive order? Yes? Then shut the fuck up.
• From the International Desk…
• German voters are heading to the polls today for a national election that pits the incumbent chancellor against the opposition leader, the vice chancellor and — for the first time — a leader of a far-right party.
• Polling stations open from 8am to 6pm. Germans can also vote by postal ballot, but their ballot must arrive by the time polling stations close on election day to be counted.
• Vote-counting will begin immediately after voting ends, and the general picture of the outcome should be clear very quickly thanks to exit polls. A final official result is expected early Monday.
• Four candidates are running to be Germany’s next leader: incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the center-left Social Democrats; Friedrich Merz of the mainstream conservative Christian Democratic Union party; current Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, of the environmentalist Greens; and Alice Weidel, of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
• Side note: turnout is typically high in German elections. The final turnout figure in the 2021 election was 76.4%.
• I genuinely wish we could get that many Americans to give a shit about their own lives and the world around them.
• And now, The Weather: “Mega Circuit” by Japanese Breakfast
• From the Sports Desk… okay, okay, I’m slowly getting reacquainted with the NBA. Let’s do a look at which teams are leading at this point, over halfway through the season.
• Eastern Conference: Cavaliers (46-10), Celtics (40-16), Knicks (37-19), Pacers (31-23), Bucks (31-24), Pistons (30-26).
• Western Conference: Thunder (45-10), Grizzlies (37-19), Nuggets (37-19), Rockets (35-21), lakers (33-21), Clippers (31-24).
• Today in history… Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty (705). The publication date of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type (1455). Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, PA, to help to train the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War (1778). The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, TX (1836). Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union (1870). Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of aluminum from the electrolysis of aluminum oxide (1886). Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity” (1903). U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission — later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission — which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States (1927). German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time (1927). Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg (1941). The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh (1954). Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African-American citizen, is shot and murdered by three white men after visiting a house under construction while jogging at a neighborhood in Satilla Shores near Brunswick in Glynn County, GA (2020).
• February 23 is the birthday of diarist/politician Samuel Pepys (1633), composer George Frideric Handel (1685), banker/businessman Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744), businessman César Ritz (1850), sociologist/activist W. E. B. Du Bois (1868), journalist Agnes Smedley (1892), physicist Allan McLeod Cormack (1924), actress Majel Barrett (1932), actor Peter Fonda (1940), NFL player Fred Biletnikoff (1943), singer-songwriter Johnny Winter (1944), NFL player Ed "Too Tall" Jones (1951), guitarist Brad Whitford (1952), singer-songwriter Howard Jones (1955), MLB player Bobby Bonilla (1963), businessman Michael Dell (1965), actress Niecy Nash (1970), actress Emily Blunt (1983), comedian/actor Aziz Ansari (1983), NFL player/coach Jerod Mayo (1986), actress Dakota Fanning (1994), and NBA player D'Angelo Russell (1996).

It’s still pretty early here, so I’m going to lounge about in this bathrobe for a bit while I figure out what’s next. Enjoy your day.