Random News: February 5, 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 5, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. It’s drizzling here in the Los Angeles area, a fact that makes me happy as I awaken on this February morning.

• Who’s done with this shit and ready to cheer the fuck up?
• I am! Let’s look at some of the many countermeasures that are being implemented against the fucking shitshow of Dumpyworld.
• Two groups of FBI agents who participated in January 6 investigations have filed lawsuits against the Department of Justice, after the agents say they were instructed to fill out a survey regarding their roles, if any, in those cases or in the investigation into Dump's possession of classified documents at his Florida home between his terms as president.
• In one suit, nine FBI agents are arguing that the specific purpose of the survey "is to identify agents and other FBI personnel to be terminated as a form of politically motivated retribution," according to their complaint, which was filed in D.C.'s federal district court.
• The agents have been informed they are “likely to be terminated in the very near future” for their work on the January 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases.
• “They intend to represent a class of at least 6,000 current and former FBI agents and employees who participated in some manner in the investigation and prosecution of crimes and abuses of power by Donald Trump, or by those acting at his behest,” lawyers Pamela Keith and Scott Lempert write in the complaint.
• Good. Fuck this fucking prick.
• Ready for more?
• On Monday, immigration advocacy groups sued the Dump administration over its ban on asylum access at the southern border, saying the sweeping restrictions illegally put people who are fleeing war and persecution in harm’s way.
• The decision outlined in one of Dump’s immigration-related executive orders is “as unlawful as it is unprecedented,” the groups — led by the American Civil Liberties Union — said in the complaint, filed in a Washington federal court.
• “The government is doing just what Congress by statute decreed that the United States must not do. It is returning asylum seekers — not just single adults, but families too — to countries where they face persecution or torture, without allowing them to invoke the protections Congress has provided,” lawyers wrote.
• The ACLU and other groups filed the complaint on behalf of Arizona-based Florence Project, El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Texas-based RAICES.
• Get his ass.
• Let’s do some more.
• House Oversight Democrats are demanding answers about the installation of a “server of unknown nature and origin” at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that aided the agency in sending buyout offers to federal employees.
• The letter asks for a list of employees that installed the equipment, the authority under which they were hired, and whether they faced background investigations — a nod to the word going around that employees outside OPM installed the server.
• The installation of the server appears to have been a stepping stone in OPM’s work to assemble a list of federal employee emails ahead of offering the “Fork in the Road” buyout package to nearly all employees — a brainchild of Elon Musk.
• But in doing so, OPM may have violated laws dictating how the agency must plan for using databases with personally identifiable information.
• “At best, the Trump Administration’s actions at OPM to date demonstrate gross negligence, severe incompetence, and a chaotic disregard for the security of our government data and the countless services it enables our agencies to provide to the public,” said the letter from Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.), the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s top Democrat, and Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio).
• “At worst, we fear that Trump Administration officials know full well that their actions threaten to break our government and put our citizens at risk of foreign adversaries like China and Russia gaining access to our sensitive data.”
• Fucking pieces of shit.
• Americans aren’t accepting this.
• Over 1,000 people gathered in front of the Treasury Department in D.C. yesterday afternoon, protesting what they described as a breach of secure information and excessive access being offered to Musk.
• In between comments from House and Senate Democrats, the crowd chanted “Let us in!” to the building they were standing in front of and “Elon Musk has got to go!”
• Some held signs that said things ranging from “Musk owns Trump” to “Muskrats are an invasive species.”
• The gathering came after some members of Musk’s illegal and unregulated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gained access to sensitive information, including bank accounts and Social Security payments.
• Your dad who voted for Dump is about to lose his Social Security. Good job, MAGAs. Enjoy footing the bill for that.
• Wait, let’s keep going.
• A movement to oppose the early actions of Dicktater Dump’s administration is taking off online, with plans to protest across the U.S. today.
• The movement has organized under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Many of the protests are planned at state capitols, with some in other cities.
• The movement has websites and accounts across social media. Flyers circulating online decry Project 2025, Dumpy’s hard-right playbook for American government and society, and include messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.”
• Let’s fucking go!
• How about some more news of accountability for these assholes?
• Kash Patel, Drumples the Clown’s pick to lead the FBI, worked as a consultant to the government of Qatar, newly released disclosures show, raising questions from ethics experts about his failure to register as a foreign agent.
• Patel listed the U.S. Embassy of Qatar as among the clients of his consulting company Trishul, which he has managed since shortly after Trump left office in 2021.
• State Democracy Defenders Action said Patel failed to register his consulting work, something they said could violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
• The disclosure forms show Patel earned more than $2 million through the consulting firm, though it is unclear how much of that came from Qatar.
• In another form, Patel indicated he does not plan to divest from Trishul, instead saying he will recuse himself from any matters related to its work for the next year.
• Fuck that fucking prick too.
• Here’s the point of all this: the people of the USA are not going to sit silently while these fuckers commit crimes and rob us blind.
• Under no circumstances do they get to win.
• Moving on.
• As you likely recall from last fall’s election season, perhaps the biggest protest group against President Biden and VP Harris were those who thought they were supporting the Palestinian people who were the victims of the war between Hamas and Israel.
• They occupied college campuses, disrupted speeches, and more.
• So now, we can give them credit… for the Gaza people being permanently displaced. Good job, you idiots.
• Yesterday, alongside visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Dump said that the USA is going to take over the area.
• "The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," said Dumpy the Colonialist Clown. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings."
• Anyone with half a brain knows that Dump wants to turn the area into a tourist zone, with gaudy resort hotels built on top of the mass graves of women and children.
• Dump estimated that about 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza would have to be relocated to achieve his vision of creating "the Riviera of the Middle East", and said they would be housed in Jordan, Egypt, and other countries.
• When asked whether the refugees would eventually be allowed to return, he said that "the world's people" would live in Gaza, before adding "also Palestinians".
• So, no.
• As you would assume — if you’re not an idiot — this statement was swiftly condemned by world leaders in both the Middle East and Europe..
• "We will not allow the rights of our people... to be infringed on," Palestine president Mahmoud Abbas stressed, warning that Gaza was "an integral part of the State of Palestine" and forced displacement would be a serious violation of international law.
• Arab states also rejected the idea, with Saudi Arabia reiterating it would not normalize ties with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
• Let’s move on with some good news.
• A historic Black church in D.C. that was vandalized by members of the extreme far-right Dump-supporting Proud Boys in 2020 has secured the group’s naming rights, allowing the institution to seek proceeds from sales of the organization’s merchandise and membership dues.
• If they want to sell anything that has their disgusting racist symbolism on it, the Proud Boys must seek permission from the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church or the court.
• The case stemmed from the night that Proud Boys tore down and destroyed the church’s Black Lives Matter sign.
• Ha ha, you dumbfucks.
• Let’s move on.
• There was a big heist over the weekend in Pennsylvania. The criminals snuck in and stole tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise.
• Did they steal jewelry? Gold? Straight cash?
• No. It was a load of eggs worth about $40,000.
• Pennsylvania State Police said approximately 100,000 eggs were taken from the back of Pete & Gerry's Organics' distribution trailer Saturday around 8:40 p.m. in Greencastle. An investigation is ongoing and police did not provide further details. Pete & Gerry's is part of the better-known egg distributor Nellie's Free Range.
• Hopefully police crack the case.
• And now, The Weather: “Earthstar” by Hannah Cohen
• Today is a hideous anniversary for me.
• One year ago today, after spending more than four hours in the dentist’s chair for some major (and long overdue) work on my teeth, I ended up in an ambulance that night after passing out and then vomiting blood all over the place.
• That fucking sucked. I’m appreciative of my relative level of health today.
• From the Sports Desk… the odds for this Sunday’s Super Bowl remain consistent, with the Kansas City Chiefs maintaining a tiny -1.5 advantage over the Philadelphia Eagles in betting markets.
• I think I’m taking the Eagles.
• Today in history… J. P. Morgan forms U.S. Steel, a $1 billion steel company, having bought some of John D. Rockefeller's iron mines and Andrew Carnegie's entire steel business (1901). Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic (1907). The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto (1917). Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane; this is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military (1918). Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists (1919). General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila (1945). A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, GA, never to be recovered (1958). Astronauts land on the Moon in the Apollo 14 mission (1971). Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges (1988).  United States President Donald Trump is acquitted by the United States Senate in his first impeachment trial (2020).
• February 5 is the birthday of businessman John Boyd Dunlop (1840), engineer/businessman André Citroën (1878), politician Adlai Stevenson II (1900), John Carradine (1906), novelist William S. Burroughs (1914), actor Red Buttons (1919), drummer Hal Blaine (1929), MLB legend Hank Aaron (1934), NHL coach/announcer Don Cherry (1934), artist H. R. Giger (1940), producer/screenwriter Stephen J. Cannell (1941), singer-songwriter/producer Barrett Strong (1941), NFL player Roger Staubach (1942), singer-songwriter/producer Al Kooper (1944), actor Christopher Guest (1948), drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, actor Tim Meadows (1961), actress Jennifer Jason Leigh (1962), actress Laura Linney (1964), singer-songwriter Bobby Brown (1969), and soccer player Neymar (1992).

That’s… a lot of news. And there’s always more. But I will tell you one thing: we’re going to fight the quiet coup against the USA, led by Dumpy the Shitfuck Assfaced Bitch, and we’re going to win. Enjoy your day.