Random News: March 2, 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 March 2, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. Unlike yesterday, I am not compelled to hurry through my news, so while I relax here in my blue bathrobe and my fresh cup of coffee, let’s take a look around and see what’s up.

• The fallout from the most embarrassing diplomatic meeting in history continued into yesterday, when protests against the Dump administration erupted across the US following the unprecedented Oval Office clash between Dumpy, Couch Boy, and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
• Over a thousand protesters gathered in Waitsfield, VT yesterday morning to oppose the vice-president’s visit to the state for a little ski vacation.
• Protesters held signs reading “Vermont stands with Ukraine” and “International embarrassment”, while many waved Ukrainian flags in solidarity.
• Vance, who admitted on Friday he has never been to Ukraine, ran away like a scared little baby to an undisclosed location to evade protesters. Zelenskyy, who stayed in Ukraine during Russia’s invasion, was returning to a Kyiv still under attack.
• A brief recap, for those who missed it.
• On Friday, there was a contentious confrontation in the Oval Office, where Dumples the Clown told the Ukrainian leader to make a deal with Russia “or we’re out”. A reminder: Ukraine is a sovereign nation that was aggressively invaded by Russia.
• All they’ve ever done is defend their own country, just as we’d hopefully do under similar circumstances.
• At one point, Dump accused Zelenskyy of not showing enough gratitude for US military and political aid.
• Zelenskyy countered that he had repeatedly thanked the American people and their leaders for their support, that but Ukrainians did not want to accept a ceasefire with Russia without security guarantees, since Vladimir Putin had repeatedly broken a previous ceasefire agreement.
• Anyway, the pointlessly aggressive meeting led to protests in cities and towns across the US, including New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, where hundreds gathered to express their support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy.
• Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York’s Times Square, many carrying the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine on their backs.
• In Los Angeles county — just a few miles up the road from me — a pro-Ukraine crowd rallied in front of a SpaceX facility.
• Protesters in Boston held an “emergency rally” for “fair peace” for Ukraine at Boston Common.
• And there were dozens of similar protests in other cities across the country.
• I’m very glad to see there are still many Americans ready and willing to stand up for what’s right, and fight back against the embarrassing actions of the Dump/Musk administration.
• There was one entity that highly approved Dumpy in his talk with Zelenskyy: Russia.
• Today, the Kremlin cheered the shift in U.S. foreign policy under Dump, saying the American view now “largely coincides” with Russia’s take on geopolitics.
• Dump has echoed Moscow’s talking points to the point that Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said today that, “The new [U.S.] administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely coincides with our vision.”
• There you have it.
• Let’s move on.
• U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled yesterday that Dumpy’s firing of a federal workforce watchdog was illegal — teeing up a Supreme Court showdown over the president’s claim to nearly absolute control of the executive branch.
• She concluded that Hampton Dellinger — confirmed last year as head of the Office of Special Counsel — may continue to serve his five-year term despite Dump’s effort to remove him from the post via email last month.
• See, we have laws. The president may think he’s above those laws, but the laws and the Constitution of the USA say otherwise.
• A law on the books for more than four decades specifies that the special counsel can be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
• Jackson ruled that Dellinger’s duties, which include holding executive branch officials accountable for ethics breaches and fielding whistleblower complaints, were meant to be independent from the president, making the position a rare exception to the president’s generally vast domain over the executive branch.
• Ha ha, you fucking loser.
• We have another piece of good news with the courts doing the best they can to stop (or at least slow down) the fascist takeover of the United States.
• A couple of weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Lauren King in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order blocking Dump’s executive order halting federal funding of gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
• Her temporary restraining order was issued on February 14 and was set to expire at midnight on Friday.
• But it didn’t because she then issued a preliminary injunction, granting Washington state’s request.
• King correctly said the executive order “blatantly discriminated against trans youth.” King filed Friday night's ruling hours before the temporary pause was set to lapse.
• “The Court’s holding here is not about the policy goals that President Trump seeks to advance; rather, it is about reaffirming the structural integrity of the Constitution by ensuring that executive action respects congressional authority,” she wrote in the ruling.
• I don’t know that the courts will ultimately save us from this Orange-Hued Excrement, but I have to give them all the credit for being the biggest obstacle against him for now.
• Moving on.
• A coalition of immigrant rights and legal aid organizations has sued the Dump administration to try to stop the transfer of migrants from the United States to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
• Yesterday’s lawsuit does not challenge the U.S. government's authority to detain migrants on U.S. soil, or to deport them directly to their home country or another country allowed under immigration law.
• Instead, the American Civil Liberties Union and its partner civil rights groups — the Center for Constitutional Rights, International Refugee Assistance Project, and ACLU of the District of Columbia — argue that it is illegal for the U.S. to first send those migrants to Guantánamo.
• I agree.
• The suit maintains that there is no legitimate reason to do that because the government has ample detention capacity inside the United States, and because holding migrants in the U.S. is more financially and operationally practical.
• Also true.
• And the lawsuit alleges that the reason the Trump administration is sending migrants to Guantánamo is to "instill fear in the immigrant population."
• Again, correct. We’ve said for a long time about nearly all of the Dump policies: the cruelty is the point. This man jacks off to thoughts of people being controlled and tortured.
• Let’s move on.
• It’s a good while until the next national election in fall 2026. But a whole lot of lawmakers — some freshly elected this past November — are already in deep shit.
• An example: newly-minted U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) swore he wouldn’t support gutting government benefits such as Medicaid that residents of his northeastern Pennsylvania district rely on.
• Then the first-term Republican voted for a bill that will almost certainly do just that.
• Bresnahan and two other Pennsylvania Republicans won in November by some of the smallest margins in all of Congress, prevailing in a critical battleground state that not only helped decide the presidency but also aided the GOP in taking control of the U.S. House.
• They now find themselves having acted directly against the well-being of their own constituents by supporting things like tariffs on raw materials such as steel and aluminum, firing federal workers, shedding federal office space and, pushing for votes on budget legislation that appear likely to require major cuts to Medicaid and other programs people in Pennsylvania might care about.
• And that’s not just happening in Pennsylvania. Republican reps across the USA are now having to answer to their constituents for their actions.
• With the already razor-thin margin in the House and Senate, Democratic opposition candidates are already marking the difference between these GOPS reps’ promises and what they actually delivered to the voters.
• So when you bemoan the idea of nearly four more years of Dumpy destroying the country… maybe it’s more like less than two years.
• Because if we flip the House and Senate in 2026, Dumpy is effectively neutered. With no one to appropriate money for his plans, and elected official with the balls to stand up to him and enact laws to stop fascism in its tracks, Dumpy and his little minions are fucked.
• Keep it in mind as we slog through the next year and a half before that election. Get ready to throw 100% of your support behind the opposition candidates in Congress, whomever they may be.
• Moving on.
• I guess I should mention that the Oscars are tonight.
• I’m a huge fan of host Conan O’Brien, which would be the one reason why I might watch, if I watched awards shows.
• Which I don’t. And frankly, I haven’t seen any new movies in the past year, so I don’t really have any opinions to offer about them regardless.
• But I can tell you some of the films that will likely take home awards, because I do try and at least stay in touch with popular culture. I don’t live in a cave in the mountains.
• “Dune: Part Two,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Wicked,” “Conclave,” “A Complete Unknown,” “The Brutalist,” and “Anora” all should be among the pictures that take home the big honors.
• The Oscars start at 7pm ET/4pm PT on ABC. It’s also being livestreamed this year on Hulu.
• And now, The Weather: “Something New” by SELL EVERYTHING
• Got a couple of RIPs going out.
• First, David Johansen, the frontman and last surviving member of proto-punk band New York Dolls — who also had unlikely success as a lounge singer under the name Buster Poindexter as well as an acting career — died at 75.
• He’d had terrible health problems over the past decade including stage four cancer, a brain tumor, and a broken back. Terrible.
• Next, Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone, a member of the all-female hip-hop trio The Sequence and known for the hit song “Wish I Didn’t Miss You,” was killed early yesterday in a car crash. She was 63.
• The singer-songwriter created hits like “No More Rain (In This Cloud)” which reached No. 1 for 10 weeks on Billboard’s Adult R&B airplay chart, “Baby” with legendary soul singer Betty Wright, another No. 1 hit, and “Wish I Didn’t Miss You” and “Brotha.”
• From the Sports Desk… wide receiver Deebo Samuel had a contentious relationship with the San Francisco 49ers. He got what he wanted last night, and was traded to the Washington Commanders in exchange for a fifth-round pick.
• The Commanders had a really good end to their season last year and were looking to ramp up to being a top-tier team in the NFC. Now they’ve added another weapon for quarterback Jayden Daniels.
• Today in history… Vasco da Gama's fleet visits the Island of Mozambique (1498). The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes (1797). The U.S. Congress passes the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country (1807). The Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico is adopted (1836). The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, begins (1859). The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act (1867). Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 U.S. presidential election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote (1877). United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion (1901). The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry (1937). Allied aircraft defeat a Japanese attempt to ship troops to New Guinea (1943). Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points (1962). The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets (1972). Previously been available only in Japan, Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets (1983). Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join the United Nations (1992). The elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson are officially added to the periodic table at a conference in Moscow, Russia (2017). Russian forces capture the city of Kherson during the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022).
• March 2 is the birthday of Scotland king Robert II (1316), politician DeWitt Clinton (1769), soldier/politician Sam Houston (1793), brewer/philanthropist Carl Jacobsen (1842), pianist/composer Kurt Weill (1900), writer/illustrator Dr. Seuss (1904), actor/singer/producer Desi Arnaz (1917), actress Jennifer Jones (1919), author/journalist Tom Wolfe (1930), Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (1931), novelist John Irving (1942), singer-songwriter Lou Reed (1942), author Peter Straub (1943), guitarist Larry Carlton (1948), singer Karen Carpenter (1950), actress Laraine Newman (1952), singer-songwriter Dale Bozzio (1955), singer-songwriter Jon Bon Jovi (1962), surfer Laird Hamilton (1964), actor Daniel Craig (1968), rapper/actor Method Man (1971), singer-songwriter Chris Martin (1977), NFL player Sebastian Janikowski (1978), actress Rebel Wilson (1980), actress Bryce Dallas Howard (1981), NFL player and accused rapist Ben Roethlisberger (1982), NFL player Reggie Bush (1985), actor Robert Iler (1985), and NFL player Tua Tagovailoa (1998).

Alrighty then. Guess I’ll shower and dress and do things. Enjoy your day.