Random News: March 27, 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 March 27, 2025, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. We have another jam-packed day of important news and info to relay to you. It’s perhaps more important right now to be aware and awake than any previous time in American history, as we balance on the precipice of the entire future of our country and the world.

• I promise that we’re going to continue covering Signalgate, and we have plenty to talk about in that regard.
• But first, an important ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that will likely be a harbinger of how the Supreme Court will choose to enable the fascist actions of Donnie Dumpo — or not.
• Yesterday, the three-judge panel denied the White House's push to restart deportations under a rarely used wartime authority by a vote of 2 to 1.
• They left in place a lower court order that temporarily blocks the Dump administration from quickly deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
• And the White House immediately said it plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.
• Judge Patricia Millett cited a lack of opportunity for the alleged gang members to contest the cases against them before being quickly removed from the country.
• ”The government's removal scheme denies Plaintiffs even a gossamer thread of due process. No notice, no hearing, no opportunity—zero process—to show that they are not members of the gang, to contest their eligibility for removal under the law, or to invoke legal protections against being sent to a place where it appears likely they will be tortured and their lives endangered,” she wrote.
• So this will become a crucial moment in history when it hits the SCOTUS. Will they allow Dump to act in complete disregard of the Constitution? And if they allow it to happen now, is there any hope of us having free and fair elections again, or is Dumpy the dictator for life that he wants to be?
• Stay tuned and we’ll all see.
• Moving on.
• And back to Signalgate.
• Yesterday, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the committee’s top Democrat, will request an inspector general investigation into the use of Signal by top national security officials to discuss military plans. 
• Wicker’s move is notable given the Dump administration’s defiant lie that no classified information was posted to the Signal chat.
• Wicker’s announcement came as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were questioned before Congress about how a journalist was added to a group chat in which they discussed American military strikes in Yemen.
• Democrats during the hearing called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared in the group chat the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop, to immediately resign over the leak.
• Before we go on, it’s important for you all to understand the reason that they’re using this insecure bullshit app Signal for official communications.
• They don’t want any record of it being retained. Their Project 2025 had created training videos that specifically recommended using Signal to avoid evidence of their criminal activity. 
• Their goal? A total takeover of the USA with no evidence to support any prosecution for their crimes in future court cases.
• One problem: who would be investigating this shit?
• FBI Director Kash Patel made no commitment as to whether the nation’s premier law enforcement agency would investigate.
• Dumpy doesn’t want that, of course. In fact, the Stable Genius said that looking into what happened on Signal isn’t something the FBI would do.
• “It’s not really an FBI thing,” he so eloquently stated. Except it is.
• The FBI and Justice Department for decades have been responsible for enforcing Espionage Act statutes governing the mishandling — whether intentional or negligent — of national defense information like the kind shared on Signal, a publicly available app that is not approved for classified information.
• Merely the choice to use Signal is a punishable offense.
• And it’s clear that Dumpy himself doesn’t know what Signal is. Want to see his quote? Sure you do.
• “Somebody in my group either screwed up or it's a bad signal. You know, it's a bad signal, happens too. But, seems to be, maybe came in with a staffer, and it was by accident, what we can tell, we'll know pretty much today, I think. But, we have some pretty good guys checking out the phones. But, it's something that is not a big deal, other than you want to find out who did it and how they did it, because you don't, don't want it to happen, you know, in the future, you can't have that happen.”
• (slow clap)
• But this is more than Dump being a moron… something we’ve known for many years. And it’s more than just one shitty app.
• A Venmo account under the name Michael Waltz, carrying a profile photo of the national security adviser and connected to accounts bearing the names of people closely associated with him, was left open to the public until yesterday afternoon.
• Yes, Venmo, the peer-to-peer payment platform. The one Matt Gaetz used to pay hookers.
• The account revealed the names of hundreds of Waltz’s personal and professional associates, including journalists, military officers, lobbyists, and others — information a foreign intelligence service or other actors could exploit for any number of ends.
• Among the accounts linked to Waltz are ones that appear to belong to Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, and Walker Barrett, a staffer on the United States National Security Council. Both were fellow participants in the now-infamous Signal group chat called “Houthi PC small group.”
• Public data exposed on Venmo accounts associated with senior administration officials suggests that the Signal group chat was not an isolated mistake, but part of a broader pattern of reckless behavior by some of the most powerful people in the US government.
• The Venmo account under Waltz’s name includes a 328-person friend list, which until yesterday was wide open for the public to view.
• We told you that these people were incompetent for the jobs given to them by Dumpy, and they’re proving this point every day.
• Let’s just fucking move on for now. The only thing I can promise: this is not going away.
• The fucking dipshit who calls himself the president just said he was placing 25% tariffs on auto imports. All of them.
• Let’s start with the easy and obvious point: U.S. automakers source their components from around the world. So let’s make sure you understand… this isn’t a tax on foreign countries.
• It’s just another tax of you, the American consumer.
• The tax hike starting in April means automakers will face higher costs and lower sales. Also, I hope none of you were planning on buying a car soon.
• Let’s move on.
• We should mention the case of Rumeysa Ozturk. She’s a doctoral candidate in a PhD program at prestigious Tufts University on a valid F-1 visa, which allows international students to pursue full-time academic studies.
• On Tuesday evening in Somerville, MA, Ozturk was arrested and physically restrained by immigration officers near her apartment. Six plainclothes officers surrounded Ozturk as she walked alone.
• Ozturk is one of several foreign nationals affiliated with prestigious American universities to be arrested for purported activities related to terrorist organizations. But no charges have been filed against Ozturk.
• Instead, she is being held illegally — with no due process rights being provided — at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
• You don’t think this could happen to you, or to your children? Bullshit.
• Thousands protested Ozturk’s detention last night at a park on the edge of the Tufts’ campus.
• It’s becoming more and more clear that the Dump administration is singling out people who aren’t white straight men for prosecution and other punishment.
• Yesterday, a complaint filed before the Merit System Protection Board accuses Dump of violating workers’ First Amendment rights and unlawfully targeting them because they promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• The complaint also alleges that the mass firings across government agencies violated anti-discrimination laws because they were based on pair of anti-DEI executive orders that “disproportionately singled out federal workers who were not white men for hostility, suspicion, job interference, and termination.”
• The complaint was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward, and two law firms on behalf of Mahri Stainnak, a former employee of the Office of Personnel Management, and “similarly-situated federal workers.”
• I think we need some good news, because in the midst of this insanity, there’s always good stuff happening.
• Democrat James Andrew Malone narrowly won a special election for a Pennsylvania state Senate seat. Normally I wouldn’t really think this was important.
• But that congressional district was one that Dump won by a big margin.
• Malone’s victory over Republican Josh Parsons in Tuesday night’s election came in a county that Democrats say they haven’t represented in the chamber in over a century.
• Who helped Malone win? Dumpy himself, by being himself.
• Malone said in an interview Wednesday that he was helped by Trump’s embrace of chaos and rejection of a methodical, cohesive and by-the-book strategy of accomplishing his agenda in his first two months.
• We going to fuck the Republican party so hard in the next national election… assuming there is one.
• In other news, a note from the Health Desk.
• More than 10,000 cans of Original Coca-Cola have been voluntarily recalled due to possible plastic contamination.
• The recall only affects specific 12-ounce Coca-Cola Original cans produced by Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling, LLC in Milwaukee, WI. Only certain batches distributed in Illinois and Wisconsin are included.
• And now, The Weather: “home.” by Josh Fudge
• An RIP going out to Herb Greene, whose iconic photographs of the ‘60s San Francisco rock scene captured the era’s superstars — Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, among others — in their prime.
• Greene died earlier this month at 82. I promise, if you’ve seen any photos depicting the San Francisco hippie music scene, you’ve seen his shots.
• From the Sports Desk… I got nothing. Go team.
• Today in history… Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reaches the northern end of The Bahamas on his first voyage to Florida (1513). Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France (1625). The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates (1794). In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814). President of the United States of America Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Act of 1866, but his veto is overridden by Congress and the bill passes into law on April 9 (1866). Nikita Khrushchev becomes Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1958). Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins (1975). The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States (1998). North Macedonia becomes the 30th member of NATO (2020).
• March 27 is the birthday of activist Virginia Minor (1824), physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (1845), engineer/businessman Henry Royce (1863), actress Gloria Swanson (1899), bandleader Pee Wee Russell (1906), guitarist Robert Lockwood, Jr. (1915), music producer Phil Chess (1921), singer Sarah Vaughan (1924), mathematician/computer programmer Margaret K. Butler (1924), actor Michael York (1942), keyboardist/songwriter Tony Banks (1950), NFL player Randall Cunningham (1963), film director Quentin Tarantino (1963), singer-songwriter Mariah Carey (1969), and singer-songwriter Fergie (1975).

And now I’m out of time, despite not being out of news. That’s okay. We’ll always have more to talk about here. Enjoy your day.