Random News: February 10, 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 February 10, 2025, and it’s a Monday. I’m up and showered and dressed and ready to tackle a new week of work, life, and resistance to fascism.

• I guess we’ll start with the Super Bowl.
• I had a thoroughly good time watching the Eagles make mincemeat of the Chiefs. The final score was 40-22, but it wasn’t nearly that close.
• And not only did the Eagles win, but I got an unlikely come from behind first-place victory in the football pool I’ve done for like 15 years with Jess Smith.
• I was in seventh place with like two weeks remaining in the regular season. Now, thanks to Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley among others, I am the champion, my friends.
• Takes bow. Bizarrely, I seem to win exactly every three years. I won in 2015/16, 2018/19, 2021/22, and now 2024/25.
• Another reason I enjoyed the game…
• Donnie Dump had predicted a Chiefs win, and ended up leaving the game early like a little baby man.
• The Chiefs’ Chris Jones went out of his way to go over and be friendly with Dump. Jones ended up exiting the game with what looked like a bad knee injury.
• Everything he touches dies.
• Also, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is a solid Democratic donor and has made it clear that he’s no Dump fan.
• How about the ads?
• The ones I liked: Little Caesar’s “Flying Eyebrows,” Ritz “Salty Club,” Pringles “Flying Mustache,” Mountain Dew “Kiss from a Rose,” Dove “These Legs,” DoorDash “Savings,” Nike “So Win,” Pfizer “Don’t Call It a Comeback.”
• The ones I absolutely hated… CoffeeMate “Let’s Go Tongues,” Hims & Hers “Sick of the System,” and whatever the fuck that was with Kanye (P.S., no way in hell I’m visiting a site that Ye recommends).
• And we should discuss the halftime show by Kendrick Lamar — unquestionably the most subversive, protest-packed show of its kind in history.
• He said it straight up: “The revolution is about to be televised. You picked the right time but the wrong guy.”
• The American flag literally being built on the backs of black people? Uncle Sam — aka Samuel L. Jackson — making references to the culture and reminding Black folks to “play the game”? The entire stage being a Playstation controller representing a game to keep people entertained while actually being inside a prison yard? Fellow Compton native Serena Williams crip-walking in to represent woman who’ve faced abuse?
• There was a lot more than that.
• But — and I mean this with all due respect — if you didn’t understand it, it wasn’t meant for you to understand.
• And — again, not for you if you don’t get it or like it — Kendrick’s performance was fucking outstanding.
• One way or the other, it was definitely the finest Super Bowl halftime show by a Pulitzer Prize winner. No one can argue that.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumpy, speaking to reporters on Air Force One yesterday, said he planned on announcing a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States.
• Dump also said he planned to hold a separate news conference to announce massive new reciprocal tariffs, which could match other countries’ tariffs on US goods dollar-for-dollar.
• The Dumpster did not provide many details about how expansive the new tariffs would be or when they may go into effect — because he has no fucking clue and is just making up shit in his head as he goes along.
• Side note: in 2018, during his previous administration, Dumpy also announced 25% tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum, and then ended up lifting them.
• I give no shits about the random babbling of this insane idiot.
• In fact, I prefer to cover his many failures.
• Like this morning, when a third federal judge blocked that piece of shit’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of people who are in the U.S. illegally.
• The ruling from U.S. District Judge Joseph N. Laplante in New Hampshire comes after two similar rulings by judges in Seattle and Maryland last week.
• Laplante, who was nominated by George W. Bush, said he wasn’t persuaded by the Dump administration’s defense of the executive order. He said he would issue a longer preliminary injunction later explaining his reasoning.
• A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union contends that Dump’s order violates the Constitution and “attempts to upend one of the most fundamental American constitutional values.” It was brought on behalf of immigrant rights groups with members who are pregnant and whose children could be affected by the order.
• Keep on fighting. This guy cannot and will not win.
• And something I want you to remember…
• The Republicans who are rolling over and enabling Dump to pull the USA into a fascist dictatorship? We will remember each and every vote of support.
• We will not forget… not forgive. Every one of them will be fucking gone at the next available opportunity. We’re going to single them out, along with their voting record, one by one.
• Moving on to another group that is about to be completely devastated by Dump: America’s farmers.
• They report missing millions of dollars of funding they were promised by the U.S. Agriculture Department, despite promises from the Dump administration that a federal funding freeze would not apply to projects directly benefiting individuals.
• On his first day in office, Dumpster ordered the Agriculture Department to freeze funds for several programs designated by President Joe Biden’s signature clean-energy and health-care law, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
• The freeze paused funding for the department’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which helps farmers address natural resource concerns, and the Rural Energy for America Program, which provides financial assistance for farmers to improve their infrastructure.
• Farmers who signed contracts with the Agriculture Department under those programs paid up front to build fencing, plant new crops, and install renewable energy systems with guarantees that the federal government would issue grants and loan guarantees to cover at least part of their costs.
• Now, with that money frozen by Dump, they’re on the hook for millions of dollars, and there’s no sign that they’ll get any help.
• Fuck you Donnie, you fucking scum.
• And now, The Weather: “Melancholic Daydream” by cosmicdust
• Rest in peace to author Tom Robbins, an amazing and unique voice in the world of storytelling. He died yesterday at his home in La Conner, WA at age 92.
• Robbins dazzled millions of readers with the whimsy and imagination in his bestselling novels, such as ‘Jitterbug Perfume,’ ‘Skinny Legs and All,’ ‘Still Life with Woodpecker,” Another Roadside Attration,’ and ‘Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,’ which was adapted by director Gus Van Sant into a 1993 film.
• From the Sports Desk… I think we’ve said enough. Go Lakers, I guess, now that football is over?
• Today in history… Baghdad falls to the Mongols, bringing the Islamic Golden Age to an end (1258). Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India (1502). Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1840). Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America (1861). A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Civil War Battle of Elizabeth City in North Carolina (1862). Texas Tech University is founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, TX (1923). U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam (1954). Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (1962). The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified (1967). Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party (1989). The traditional Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is canceled for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic (2021). Texas' worst energy infrastructure failure, the 2021 Texas power crisis, starts (2021).
• February 10 is the birthday of poet John Suckling (1609), composer Johann Melchior Molter (1696), English admiral William Cornwallis (1744), astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke (1842), electrical engineer Edith Clarke (1883), actor/singer Jimmy Durante (1893), playwright/director Bertolt Brecht (1898), actress/educator Stella Adler (1901), actor Lon Chaney Jr. (1906), composer Jerry Goldsmith (1929), actor Robert Wagner (1930), singer-songwriter Roberta Flack (1937), singer-songwriter Kenny Rankin (1940), drummer Nigel Olsson (1949), swimmer Mark Spitz (1950), golfer Greg Norman (1955), astrophysicist Katherine Freese (1957), journalist George Stephanopoulos (1961), bass player Cliff Burton (1962), actress Laura Dern (1967), director/producer/screenwriter Vince Gilligan (1967), actress Elizabeth Banks (1974), NFL player Ty Law (1974), MLB player Travis d’Arnaud (1989), and actress Chloë Grace Moretz (1997).

I think that’s enough for now, and I have to go workout now anyway. Enjoy your day.