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.

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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.