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 19, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. This isn’t actually the first thing I do every day; I get out of bed, shower and dress, make coffee, and check on my client web sites and social media. Then I do this. Now you know.
- And another brief note on this little column.
- I’ve had a number of people over the years I’ve been doing this question my approach, or suggest that my news would be more effective if I did it a different way.
- Which is fine, I should add. No one should be shielded from criticism. That leads to bad things. You are welcome to give advice.
- But I will say that the most common error is the perception of why I write these bullets. Some people think that I’m here to convince MAGAs to see the error of their ways.
- Uh, that’s a big nope.
- No MAGA who happens upon my daily news bullets will have an epiphany and suddenly stop supporting Dumpy and all he brings.
- That part will, in some cases, happen naturally as those same people’s lives are destroyed by the very person they worship. When their SNAP benefits are gone or their Medicaid ends or, eventually, their Social Security checks stop coming.
- Or their veterans benefits are removed. Or their job is eliminated. Or consumer prices and general cost of living gets so high that they can’t afford basic necessities.
- Either way, it will have nothing to do with this column.
- I am here only to tell people what’s going on. Most people either don’t have the time or energy to look at and analyze news sources like I do each morning between 7-8am PT.
- Or their news sources are highly skewed and they don’t get the complete picture. Or they just feel despair due to not being aware of the fight against Dumpy and all he stands for.
- I’m basically here for vengeance against those whom I see destroying things I care about… democracy, freedom, equality, individualism, and the pursuit of happiness.
- I’m making their lives more difficult by promoting an informed populace.
- So again, if you have critiques on the words I use when I write this thing, you are welcome to express them to me…
- With the awareness that in 99% of cases, I will not change a goddamn thing about how I do what I do, or the reasons I do it. It’s nothing personal, I promise.
- Let’s do some news.
- A coalition of watchdog groups and unions has filed a lawsuit seeking to block Elon Musk's DOGE team from accessing sensitive taxpayer information at the IRS.
- A similar battle is brewing at the Social Security Administration as Musk's deputies try to pry open some of the government's most closely-guarded data doors.
- ”DOGE and its game of governmental whack-a-mole has wreaked havoc on the American system of government and caused incredible concern for the privacy of the American public," said the complaint filed in federal court for the District of Columbia.
- The lawsuit notes that Musk's "Department of Government Efficiency" team has already tapped into computer systems at numerous federal agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Education Department and USAID.
- But it argues — as we already pointed out — that taxpayer data at the IRS enjoys special legal protections.
- Experts argue that keeping that information confidential is critical to maintaining taxpayers' willingness to file.
- Just last year, a former IRS contractor, Charles Littlejohn, was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking information on the tax returns of Dumpy and other wealthy individuals to the news media.
- And any leaks that come from the DOGE camp should also result in prison time for those responsible, up to and including Elon Musk himself.
- For decades, the executive branch had easy access to taxpayers' data, but Congress passed a law in 1976 restricting that access — partly in response to concerns that President Nixon had weaponized the information to help friends and punish foes.
- So fuck you, Elmo, and your little pals too.
- Keep fucking around, and I 100% promise that you’ll find out.
- Let’s move on.
- In news that should surprise you as much as “water is wet,” just days after promising i his Senate confirmation hearings that he would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed yesterday to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.
- Kennedy’s remarks were delivered during a welcome ceremony for the new health secretary at the agency’s headquarters in Washington as a measles outbreak among mostly unvaccinated people raged in West Texas.
- The event was held after a weekend of mass firings of thousands of HHS employees. More dismissals are expected.
- When your children are dying for no reason and disease runs rampant and unchecked across the country and around the world, remember… you voted for this.
- If you thought the COVID-19 pandemic was bad, you win’t seen nothing yet.
- Moving on.
- I know a lot of you are looking for some centralized focus for your resistance efforts against what President Musk and his pal Donnie are doing to the USA and the world.
- Right now, the one that seems to get gaining the most traction is 50501.
- As I’ve reported, the group has thus far organized a successful nationwide demonstration on February 5, and another nationwide "No Kings on Presidents Day" demonstration this week on February 17 (Presidents' Day).
- Thousands of people participated by gathering outside state capitol buildings and city halls during both protests.
- The name of the organization came from their original protest event — “50 protests, 50 states, one day.”
- But they seem to be expanding to multiple future events. I’ll be keeping an eye on them and possibly getting involved in local action.
- That’s what I do.
- Let’s get back to the shitty shit.
- The next area of the USA that will be decimated by Musk and Dump: our national defense.
- Dumpy has directed defense agencies to turn over a list of employees with the expectation that many could be laid off as soon as this week.
- The directive coincides with the arrival at the Pentagon of personnel from that unelected South African asshole Elon Musk and his little boys at the DOGE Service, which has overseen the firing of thousands of employees in other federal agencies and coordinated the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
- If implemented widely, cuts to employees across the Defense Department could result in thousands of layoffs.
- The Dump administration says it has exempted service members from its sweeping budget cuts. But they say a lot of things and then turn and do the opposite.
- In other news from the land of shit…
- Yesterday Dumpy stopped support for legal representation in immigration court for children who enter the United States alone, an obvious setback for people fighting deportation who obviously can’t afford a lawyer.
- They typically serve 26,000 migrant children under a federal contract. The Interior Department gave no explanation for the stop-work order, telling the group only that it was done for “causes outside of your control” and should not be interpreted as a judgment of poor performance. The halt remains in effect until further notice.
- If you can think of the worst possible things that people can do to other people, I promise it’s already in the Dump/Musk playbook.
- Okay, let’s move on.
- Louis DeJoy, the infamous head of the U.S. Postal Service, is finally stepping down.
- DeJoy took the helm of the postal service in the summer of 2020 during Dump’s first term. He was a Republican donor who owned a logistics business before taking office and was the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who was not a career postal employee.
- He is also a giant piece of shit. Good riddance.
- And now, The Weather: “Ostinato” by Masako Ohta, Matthias Lindermayr
- From the Sports Desk… who are the current top golfers in the world? No one cares. But I’ll tell you anyway.
- 1. Scottie Scheffler. 2. Xander Schauffele. 3. Rory McIlroy. 4. Ludvig Åberg. 5. Collin Morikawa. 6. Hideki Matsuyama. 7. Wyndham Clark. 8. Tyrrell Hatton. 9. Justin Thomas. 10. Tommy Fleetwood.
- Now you know.
- Today in history… The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the worship of pagan idols in the Roman Empire (356). Former US vice president Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, AL (1807). The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States (1846). Thomas Edison patents the phonograph (1878). Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country (1913). Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people (1942). About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima (1945). The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence (1959). The publication of Betty Friedan's ‘The Feminine Mystique’ reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women's organizations and consciousness raising groups spread (1963). Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford's Proclamation 4417 (1976). NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system (2002).
- February 19 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473), physician/chemist Friedrich Hoffmann (1660), burlesque performer Lydia Thompson (1838), writer/poet André Breton (1896), jockey Eddie Arcaro (1916), actor Lee Marvin (1924), sportscaster Dave Niehaus (1935), singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson (1940), chemical technician/activist Karen Silkwood (1946), guitarist Tony Iommi (1948), novelist Amy Tan (1952), actor Jeff Daniels (1955), singer-songwriter/guitarist Peter Holsapple (1956), singer-songwriter/guitarist Dave Wakeling (1956), singer-songwriter Falco (1957), keyboardist/composer Steve Nieve (1958), businessman Roger Goodell (1959), UK duke Prince Andrew (1960), singer-songwriter Seal (1963), actress Justine Bateman (1966), actor Benicio del Toro (1967), singer Beth Ditto (1981), NBA player Nikola Jokić (1995), singer-songwriter Chappell Roan (1998), and model/actress Millie Bobby Brown (2004).
That’s all I’ve got for now. Time for other things. Enjoy your day.
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