Random News: March 28, 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 28, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! It’s been a jam-packed week, both in terms of important news and my level of work craziness, so the approaching weekend is very much welcomed.

• I thought we could start this fine day with a little vocabulary and history lesson.
• In rhetoric, parrhesia is the act of speaking freely. It implies not only freedom of speech, but the obligation to speak the truth for the common good, even at personal risk.
• In the Classical period of ancient Greece, parrhesia was a fundamental component of the Athenian democracy. In the courts or the assembly of citizens, Athenians were free to say almost anything.
• I should not that much like today, saying certain things in the street back then could get you punched in the nose.
• Playwrights such as Aristophanes made full use of their right to ridicule whomever they chose.
• And that has evolved over the centuries to a concept called "speaking truth to power.” It’s a non-violent political tactic, employed by dissidents against the propaganda of governments they regard as oppressive, authoritarian, or an ideocracy.
• Effective users of truth to power in the hopes of a more just and truthful world have included the Hebrew Prophets, Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and many others.
• When I talk to you here, I do it with the awareness that these posts are public.
• That anyone could get offended by what I report, and how I’m almost certainly on someone’s shit list as a result.
• And that I could — especially in the fascist world I’m trying to prevent — face personal risk merely as a result of keeping people informed.
• Is it worth it? Fuck yes it is. I would never want to live a life where I fear dispensing truth, or where my values are dictated by the world’s most evil people.
• So yes, this Random News report is chock full of parrhesia, and I have no intention of changing. Ever.
• Let’s do some news.
• Starting unfortunately with a natural disaster. A massive earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand today.
• The 7.7 magnitude quake, with an epicenter near Mandalay, Myanmar ‘s second largest city, struck at midday and was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock.
• We don’t yet know the full extent of the deaths and damage, but it’s going to be a lot.
• And since Myanmar is embroiled in a civil war, it’s going to make it all the more difficult to provide aid to those affected.
• Send them some good thoughts, please.
• Back in the USA…
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Dump administration to preserve records of a text message chat in which senior national security officials discussed sensitive details of plans for a U.S. military strike against Yemen’s Houthis.
• Over a consumer app called Signal. With journalists accidentally added to the confidential war planning session.
• Boasberg barred administration officials from destroying messages that were sent over the messaging app last weekend.
• A nonprofit watchdog, American Oversight, requested the order. A government attorney said the administration already was taking steps to collect and save the messages.
• Surrrrre Jan.
• As you’re aware, the Atlantic published the entire Signal chat on Wednesday. Its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been added to a discussion that included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
• Why? Because they suck and they’re stupid.
• Two questions that have already been debated — and will come up a lot more during the Signalgate investigation — is, “What is ‘classified’ information?” and “What are ‘secure’ communications?”
• Let’s be clear: things are only classified if the government says they are — or are not.
• But even if the information sent in the text group had been declassified by the Pentagon, it contained details that would have been highly valuable to the Houthis or other adversaries, showing how sometimes the decision of what to classify is a judgment call.
• The federal government routinely classifies vast amounts of information pertaining to military and intelligence operations.
• While the public typically calls any information withheld by the government “classified,” that term only refers to the three broad categories used to “classify” information based on the need for secrecy: confidential, secret, and top secret.
• The Pentagon hasn’t offered classification details about the information in the Signal chats.
• But any information about upcoming military strikes is typically tightly guarded to ensure adversaries don’t have advance warning that could jeopardize the mission, or put American service members at risk.
• And the Signal chat did just that, listing precise times and locations of attack plans.
• Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) noted that Department of Defense policy “prohibits discussion of even what is called controlled unclassified information on unsecured devices,” and asked if Ratcliffe and Gabbard, who oversees the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, were aware of that rule.
• “I haven’t read that policy,” Gabbard said.
• “I’m not familiar with the DOD policy,” Ratcliffe said.
• And I will add that being ignorant of the law is never an acceptable excuse for breaking it. One or more of the people involved in this clusterfuck need to resign — and frankly, to be consistent with previous similar instances, some should face prison terms.
• I’m looking at Michael Waltz.
• Yesterday, the bipartisan leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee requested an inspector general investigation into Signalgate.
• “This reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know,” the committee leaders wrote.
• They are proposing six areas of inquiry, including the “facts and circumstances” around the incident and whether the administration officials followed Defense Department policies on classified information and communication over “nongovernment networks and electronic applications.”
• Will there be any accountability? My guess is no, but I want this story to remain front and center so people know how inept their political leaders are… and how they’re putting the lives of American military in peril with their carelessness.
• Moving on (for now).
• Dumpy has yanked Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Ha ha!
• The reason that he offered is actually semi-legit: he’s afraid that her House seat will be taken by a Democrat.
• The abrupt withdrawal reflects growing concern among House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, that their historically slim majority could be at risk, particularly ahead of two special elections in Florida next week.
• The loss of a few seats could swing the House majority to Democrats and derail Team Fascist’s efforts to enact Dump’s sweeping agenda in the months ahead.
• This is the second withdrawal — forced or otherwise — of a Dump cabinet nominee. The first, of course, was child rapist and former Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who was Dumpy’s first pick for Attorney General.
• How bad are things looking for Republican candidates out there?
• This coming Tuesday, there’s an election in Florida’s deep-red 6th Congressional District that under every normal circumstance would be an easy win for the GOP.
• Republican state Sen. Randy Fine should win by a huge margin. I’d note that he likely will win.
• But Democrat Josh Weil, a teacher, has outraised Fine nearly 10-to-1, running a much more aggressive campaign that ties Fine to the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency and potential cuts to Medicaid and Social Security.
• Smart.
• Anything short of a 20-point margin of victory for Fine and the GOP in one of the most conservative districts of the country will be seen as a death knell for Republicans across the nation.
• We’ll be watching.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, a New York state court blocked a Texas court from enforcing a fine of more than $100,000 against a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to a woman in Texas, escalating the battle over abortion regulation among states.
• The refusal marks a major test of shield laws — a protection that at least 18 states and the District of Columbia have enacted to protect doctors who provide telehealth abortion care across state lines after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
• Where’s this going to end up? The Supreme Court, of course. This is why we had — for about 50 years — a law of the land so that states didn’t have to face off with conflicting laws.
• It’s impossible to know how this will turn out. Stay tuned.
• Moving on.
• Li’l Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, said yesterday that the State Department has revoked 300 or more student visas of otherwise legal residents of the USA.
• Their crime that requires immediate deportation? Peaceful activism.
• As we’ve mentioned here, around the country, scholars have been picked up, in some cases by masked immigration agents, and held in detention centers, sometimes a thousand miles from their homes with little warning and often with few details about why they were being detained.
• L’il Marco doesn’t like the ability to protest that is guaranteed by our Constitution. “It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” he said.
• We used to go out of our way to encourage the world’s best and brightest scholars to study here and add their contributions to our nation.
• Now we not only push them away; we arrest them for taking part in the fundamental American right to free speech and to assemble.
• In other news…
• Donnie Dump pisses me off pretty often — okay, always — but now he’s fucking with the Smithsonian Institution, and this will not stand, man.
• Yesterday, Dumples the No-Culture Clown revealed his intention to force changes at the Smithsonian with an executive order that targets funding for programs that advance “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”
• Suck my fucking dick, Don. Is that improper? Suck it some more, you fat orange fuck.
• The order he signed behind closed doors puts Vice President Jedediah Deliverance Vance, who serves on the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents, in charge of overseeing efforts to “remove improper ideology” from all areas of the institution, including its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.
• The EO also hints at the return of statues and monuments of Confederate figures, many of which were taken down or replaced around the country after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is detested by Dump and other conservatives.
• Let’s face it: if you’re not white, male, and straight, Republicans hate you and will do anything in their power to erase you from history.
• And now, The Weather: “When I Close My Eyes” by SLEEP CLUB
• A funny note about Kendrick Lamar’s fantastic Super Bowl LIX halftime performance.
• It drew 125 FCC complaints, which — given its outspoken nature and the fact that it had 128 million worldwide television viewers and 3.65 billion views total — is way less than I’d have assumed.
• But the reasons for the complaints are what I found hilarious.
• “The halftime show was terrible with the language and gestures. My younger kids did not need to see and hear this!” noted one viewer from Lenox, IL.
• Um… there was no obscene language or gestures. Not one.
• “That was the worst halftime show that I have ever seen,” another viewer from Catawba, NC wrote to the FCC. “It was divisive, downgrading, and filled with profanity. It is absolutely not appropriate entertainment for all ages.”
• Um… again, there was no profanity. What are these people imagining they heard?
• “There wasn’t one white person in the whole show,” wrote one person from Ocean City, MD. 
• Ahhhh. Now I see the issue.
• "I felt discriminated against and why was Uncle Sam Black when Uncle Sam is white?” noted another complaint from Daytona Beach, FL. 
• There we go.
• From the Sports Desk… I was chastised by certain people yesterday for not having reported on Opening Day of Major League Baseball.
• I was just saving my report for the games actually having been played. Also, since my Dodgers were already 2-0 (having opened their season early), I found I gave less of a shit than had they been playing, you see.
• Opening Day winners: Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Guardians, White Sox, Astros, Mariners, Marlins, Phillies, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Padres.
• Opening Day losers: mostly everyone else.
• Today in history… Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco (1776). Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid ever to be discovered (1802). First concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Otto Nicolai (1842). France and Britain declare war on Russia in the Crimean War (1854). In the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico Territory (1862). Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege (1939). The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power (1946). The US Supreme Court hands down 5–3 decision in Stump v. Sparkman, a controversial case involving involuntary sterilization and judicial immunity (1978). A coolant leak at the Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside Harrisburg, PA leads to the core overheating and a partial meltdown (1979). President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal (1990). 
• March 28 is the birthday of painter Fra Bartolomeo (1472), brewer Frederick Pabst (1836), novelist Maxim Gorky (1868), actress Beulah Dark Cloud (1887), politician Edmund Muskie (1914), scientist/engineer Paul C. Donnelly (1923), diplomat/political activist Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928), NBA player/coach Jerry Sloan (1942), actor Ken Howard (1944), Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte (1945), actress Dianne Wiest (1948), singer-songwriter Reba McEntire (1955), NBA player/coach Byron Scott (1961), actor Vince Vaughn (1970), NHL player Keith Tkachuk (1972), NBA player/coach Luke Walton (1980), singer-songwriter/actress Lady Gaga (1986), NFL player Derek Carr (1991), and MLB player Will Smith (1995).

I know that’s a lot of news, but things happen and I try not to leave things out just because other things happened on the same day. There’s too much important stuff going on to leave you in the dark. Wake up. Turn on the light. See what’s going on. Be aware and be better as a result. Enjoy your day.