Random News: February 18, 2025

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s February 18, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. I was sound asleep in a land of dreams when my alarm clock rudely awakened me at 6am, and I still haven’t forgiven it even while taking my first sips of coffee. As long as I’m up, let’s see what’s happening.

• The US and Russia are talking to end the war in Ukraine… without Ukraine in the conversation.
• Senior officials from both countries met in Saudi Arabia today to begin talks on improving ties and negotiating an end to the war. Dumpy has already handed Putin a victory just by agreeing to hold the high-level meeting.
• Putin, as you recall, was the person who launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost exactly three years ago on February 24, 2022.
• And Ukraine wasn’t even invited to participate in the discussion about the fate of their nation.
• The delegations were run by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov behind closed doors at the Diriyah Palace in Riyadh. The meeting is meant to pave the way for a future chat between Dump and Putin.
• Assholes of a feather flock together, ya know.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday was Presidents’ Day. Some of you enjoyed a day off work. others, like me, worked regardless, not having the luxury of time off.
• But tens of thousands of others across the USA descended upon state capitol buildings and other locations to protest actions by President Musk and his whipping boy Donnie Dumpster.
• In Washington, D.C., thousands of people gathered at the Capitol Reflecting Pool chanting "Where is Congress?" and urging members of Congress to "do your job!" despite nearly 40-degree temperatures and 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts.
• Protests were held in more than half of the states in the U.S. from California to Colorado, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and many more.
• They were part of the 50501 Movement, which stands for "50 protests. 50 states. 1 movement." These protests are a response to what organizers describe as "the anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration."
• Good. I’m ready to get onboard with any focused effort to organize and defeat these pieces of shit.
• Speaking of Elmo Muck (the real president)…
• Yesterday, the White House said that Elon Musk is technically not part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), even though that prick is said to be leading its sweeping cost-cutting efforts.
• Hahahahahaha… lordy.
• According to a court filing from Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, Musk is an employee of the “White House Office” and serves as senior adviser to the president.
• Wait, this gets funnier.
• Musk is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, both of which are separate from the White House Office. 
• He is also not U.S. DOGE Service administrator, the position that leads DOGE, as laid out in Dump’s executive order last month establishing the service. 
• And listen to this quote…
• “In his role as a Senior Advisor to the President, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisors. Like other senior White House advisors, Mr. Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself. Mr. Musk can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.”
• HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
• So let’s unwrap this a bit.
• Mucky is trying to shield himself from the tidal wave of wrongful termination lawsuits that will be on its way to Washington.
• And Dumpy is protecting his ego from the correct perception that Mucky is the one running the country.
• The inevitable schism between those two assholes will be spectacular to see.
• In other news…
• We told you that the Dump administration and his pals in Congress were coming after your (or your parents’) Medicaid. You said we were being alarmist.
• Okay then.
• Today, Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, threatening health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program.
• They’re looking to slash federal spending and offer lucrative tax cuts to corporations and wealthier Americans, and now they see a big target ripe for trimming. The $880 billion Medicaid program is financed mostly by federal taxpayers, who pick up as much as 80% of the tab in some states.
• Over the next decade, Republican lawmakers are trying to siphon billions of dollars from the nearly-free health care coverage offered to the poorest Americans.
• Many of whom voted for the people who will now kill them.
• We did — I’ll keep repeating — try to warn you.
• Side note: cuts to the program will not be well received. Over half of U.S. adults say the government spends “too little” on Medicaid. Only 15% say it’s spending “too much,” per a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
• Let’s just move on for now.
• Another day, another serious commercial airline crash.
• Yesterday, a Delta Air Lines plane arrived at Toronto Pearson Airport from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport… upside down.
• All 80 people on board Flight 4819, operated by Endeavor Air, were evacuated. 15 patients were transported to the hospital.
• Communications between the tower and pilot were normal on approach and it’s not clear what went so drastically wrong when the plane touched down.
• Yesterday’s crash was the fourth major aviation accident in North America in the past three weeks.
• A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., on January 29, killing 67 people.
• A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground.
• And on February 6, 10 people were killed in a plane crash in Alaska.
• I am usually a big proponent of the safety of air travel, but while Dump’s people run the transportation department and the FAA, I’m not super comfortable getting on a plane.
• Moving on.
• Do you want to know what happens when propaganda takes over the minds of what would ordinarily be normal people?
• Mordechai Brafman, a Jewish man in Miami Beach, Florida was driving his truck when, he told police, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.
• Turns out that Brafman didn’t kill anybody, though he shot at the two people 17 times. He got one in the left shoulder; the other was grazed in their forearm.
• Turns out the victims were an Israeli father and son who have nothing to do with Palestine.
• Brafman remains in Miami-Dade Corrections Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center after his arrest on two counts of attempted second degree murder.
• Sigh.
• And now, The Weather: “Etch” by Bedridden
• Let’s do a chart.
• We’re going back 32 years to February 1993. I’d just graduated college a couple of months before and am looking around for a career-oriented job… and I’d get it about a month later.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at the time…
• 1. I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston). 2. A Whole New World (Aladdin's Theme) (Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle). 3. If I Ever Fall In Love (Shai). 4. Saving Forever For You (From "Beverly Hills, 90210") (Shanice). 5. Ordinary World (Duran Duran). 6. In The Still Of The Nite (From "The Jacksons") (Boyz II Men). 7. Mr. Wendal (Arrested Development). 8. 7 (Prince And The New Power Generation). 9. Rump Shaker (Wreckx-N-Effect). 10. I'm Every Woman (From "The Bodyguard") (Whitney Houston). 11. Here We Go Again! (Portrait). 12. Rhythm Is A Dancer (Snap!). 13. When She Cries (Restless Heart). 14. Deeper And Deeper (Madonna). 15. Give It Up, Turn It Loose (En Vogue). 16. Good Enough (Bobby Brown). 17. Don't Walk Away (Jade). 18. Get Away (Bobby Brown). 19. Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat) (Digable Planets). 20. Hip Hop Hooray (Naughty By Nature).
• From the Sports Desk… I’m almost — but not quite — done talking about NFL football for a good while.
• All the open head coach positions — and there were plenty — have now been filled. Let’s see who’s where.
• Mike Vrabel is the new HC of the Patriots. He was an NFL linebacker for 14 seasons, seven of them with the Pats where he won three Super Bowls. Vrabel was the HC of the Titans from 2018-2023.
• Ben Johnson will be the new coach of the Bears. He’s been a position coach for a long time, and was offensive coordinator for the Lions since 2019, leading the team to a top-five offense in every season.
• Aaron Glenn is the latest victim to coach the Jets. He was an NFL cornerback who spent eight years as a jet, and had been the defensive coordinator for the Lions since 2021.
• Liam Coen is now HC for the Jaguars. he’s been a position coach and an OC for a number of teams.
• Pete Carroll is the most well known guy in this list. Now coaching the Raiders, Carroll has served as head coach for the NCAA's USC Trojans and the NFL's Jets (1994), Patriots, and Seahawks (2010–2023). He’s one of just three head coach to win both a college football national championship and a Super Bowl.
• Brian Schottenheimer — the son of famed coach Marty Schottenheimer — is now coaching the Cowboys. The younger Schottenheimer has been the OC for the Cowboys, Seahawks, Jets, Rams and elsewhere.
• Interesting story about Kellen Moore, the new HC of the Saints who just helped the Eagles win a Super Bowl as their OC (a position he also held for the Cowboys and Chargers).
• He was part of this super disparate batch of QBs who entered the league in 2012. Along with him… Andrew Luck (retired early), Robert Griffin III (injured, retired early), Ryan Tannehill (who had a super random career), Brock Osweiler (less than impressive, retired early), Russell Wilson (still somehow playing, Super Bowl winner), Nick Foles (quietly great career, Super Bowl winner), and Kirk Cousins (an occasionally fantastic player in the regular season).
• Today in history… Kali Yuga, the fourth and final yuga of Hinduism, starts with the death of Krishna (3102 BC). Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy (1229). Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective March 4 (1791). Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America (1861). ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain is published in the United States (1885). While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto (1930). The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore (1942). The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles (1954). The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom (1965). The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention (1970). The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment (1972). FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union (2001). WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning (2010). Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, lands successfully (2021).
• February 18 is the birthday of English queen Mary I (1516), physicist Alessandro Volta (1745), physicist Ernst Mach (1838), stained glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848), businessman Charles M. Schwab (1862), pediatrician Hans Asperger (1906), actor Jack Palance (1919), journalist/publisher Helen Gurley Brown (1922), actor George Kennedy (1925), novelist Toni Morrison (1931), film director Miloš Forman (1932), artist/musician Yoko Ono (1933), singer-songwriter/musician Dennis DeYoung (1947), film director/producer John Hughes (1950), model/actress Cybill Shepherd (1950), singer-songwriter/guitarist Juice Newton (1952), actor John Travolta (1954), game show hostess Vanna White (1957), rapper/producer/entrepreneur Dr. Dre (1965), actress Molly Ringwald (1968), singer-songwriter/pianist Regina Spektor (1980), NFL player Le'Veon Bell (1992), and NBA player Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (1993).

I have a pretty busy day ahead, with some video editing, some content creation, some advertising design, and the other stuff I do for my clients pretty much daily. That’s fine; I’m happy to have a gig. Enjoy your day.