Random News: March 8, 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 8, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. I’m up and about, ensconced in my blue bathrobe and drinking some coffee, which is my weekend morning norm. I purposefully got up a little earlier than usual, knowing that tonight is the start of Daylight Savings Time and I’ll lose an hour. Ughhhh.

• Spring forward.
• Ugh.
• For the past four months, we’ve been on standard time. But overnight tonight — at 2am, if you’re specific about these things — we lose an hour of our lives, effectively making it 3am.
• Daylight Saving Time means later sunrises and later sunsets, at least according to our clocks. Obviously the universe doesn’t give a shit about our bizarre methods of timekeeping.
• Who in the USA doesn’t do DST? Arizona, apart from the Navajo Reservation. Hawaii. American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They remain on daylight standard time all year long.
• DST will be staying all the way until November 2.
• Like many things that ended up fucking us up, Daylight Savings started as a joke. Very funny, Benjamin Franklin.
• In 1784, he wrote a satirical letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris calculating the amount that Parisians could save on candles if they shifted their schedules during the wintertime. In his funny little letter, he said they’d revert back to normal schedules in the spring.
• But it wasn’t until 1966 — just a few years before the Zakman was born, I note — that daylight saving time laws went into effect nationwide.
• Before that, states, counties and even cities made their own decisions. That proved especially confusing for the transportation industry. When does the train arrive? Depends where you are.
• It was the Uniform Time Act of 1966 that established dates during which daylight saving time would take effect each year.
• So my whole life, I’ve been handed this weird, shitty time change twice per year. I can’t stand it. It fucks with my sleep patterns. Worst of all, as I mentioned recently, are the first few weeks when it’s pitch black dark for at least the first full hour I’m up each weekday.
• Booooooooo.
• Anyway, set your shit tonight before you go to bed. Actually, in this world of smart devices, a lot of your clocks will just change themselves.
• Moving on.
• Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day.
• This observance is a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.
• In some parts of the world, IWD still reflects its political origins, being marked by protests and calls for radical change.
• Are women’s rights increasing in the USA? That’s a big no, especially under the Donnie Dump regime.
• Even in the best of times, women are still paid less than men for the same work, are not presented with as many opportunities for growth and advancement, are less likely to be trained and chosen for leadership roles, are far more likely to be victims of violence and of sexual harassment, are subjected to antiquated gender roles, have less access to education worldwide, and have decisions regarding their reproductive plans made on their behalf without their approval.
• And that’s true worldwide.
• There are forces in the far-right conservative world who are hard at work to remove even more women’s rights in 2025.
• The right to economic independence, the right to health care, the right to own property, have credit, or even to vote.
• It often starts slowly, with new laws designed to erode rights one step at a time. A good example: the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, aka the SAVE Act.
• It would require individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. It passed in the House in July of 2024 and now has a good chance of success in the current Senate.  
• The SAVE Act requires your name to match that on your birth certificate. If you’re one of the 69 million married women in the United States who have changed your legal name, you could be disenfranchised.
• Meaning you can’t vote.
• And the SAVE Act specifically does not include proof of name change or a marriage certificate as acceptable proof of identity.
• My advice I’d give that applies to all rights: if you don’t use them, you lose them. There’s always someone whose goals are to take away your power.
• And for women, the entities actively working to curtail or remove their rights entirely are many times higher than those overall.
• Which is why it’s sad that IWD is nearly unknown in the USA, where women’s rights are currently under greater attack than any era in my lifetime.
• It’s different elsewhere. Women took to the streets of cities across Europe, Africa, and elsewhere today to mark the occasions with demands for ending inequality and gender-based violence.
• Europe saw women marching to demand an end to treatment as second-class citizens in society, politics, family. and at work. They made their case in cities like Athens, Madrid, Paris, Munich, Zurich, and Belgrade.
• They marched in Lagos, Nigeria. They marched in fucking St. Petersburg, Russia.
• If I was a woman (something no man should ever start a sentence with, but still…), I’d be fucking pissed off and ready to take drastic action to defend my rights in the USA.
• I’m going to add that I consider the rights of trans women to be included in this discussion. Trans women are… women. End of fucking story.
• Anyway, happy International Women's Day. Moving on.
• A group of labor unions are asking a federal court for an emergency order to stop Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the sensitive Social Security data of millions of Americans.
• The motion for emergency relief was filed late last night in federal court in Maryland by the legal services group Democracy Forward against the Social Security Administration and its acting commissioner.
• They want the court to block DOGE’s access to the vast troves of personal data held by the agency. I’m with them.
• Lawyer Karianne Jones says, “Essentially what you have is DOGE just swooping in and bullying their way into access to millions of Americans private data. They cannot explain why they want this data. They can’t really tell you what data they want. They just want everything. They want the source code, and they want to do it without any restrictions.”
• I have to ask even the most hardcore, red-hat-wearing, Trump loving, lifelong Republican conservative person who reads this right now…
• Are you really, really, REALLY supporting a group of 20-year-old kids to have access to 100% of your lifelong financial and earnings and employment and investment information?
• And then, do you want them deciding whether the money you’ve been paying into Social Security your entire fucking life is better spent elsewhere… perhaps to subsidize SpaceX or Tesla after it tanks more?
• Is that what you want? Are you sure?
• If not, why not speak up and make sure it doesn’t happen? Don’t be a giant pussy. Fight for your rights, no matter who is trying to attack them.
• Let’s move on.
• Actually, let’s not. This is too important.
• Millions of Americans will likely feel the impact of the deep staffing cuts being planned at the Social Security Administration due to the massive reorganization being steered by President Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
• The loss of experienced employees who manage Social Security’s fragile and interdependent web of computer systems will likely leave the agency vulnerable to technical outages.
• That, in turn, will almost certainly interrupt the benefit payments that are sent to more than 73 million retirees, people with disabilities, and others.
• When? Some experts say it will happen in the next 90 days. Perhaps longer. Possibly sooner.
• And please, don’t say no one told you this would happen. We’ve been saying in on repeat for years.
• Let’s move on.
• I want to point out that from a purely economic standpoint, one of the most idiotic points of reduction in government spending is for our national parks.
• Dumpy's steep cuts to staff at national parks, forests, and wildlife habitats have triggered a growing backlash, as public access and conservation efforts in these remote wild landscapes fade away.
• The impacts have already been felt by visitors, who are seeing longer park entrance lines, reduced hours at visitor centers, trails closed, and dirty public facilities.
• In 2023 alone, visitor spending in communities near national parks in 2023 resulted in a record high $55.6 billion benefit to the nation’s economy and supported 415,400 jobs. 
• That year, visitors spent $2.2 billion at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and over a billion at Golden Gate National Recreation Area ($1.5 billion) and Blue Ridge Parkway ($1.4 billion). Of the remaining top parks, visitor spending ranged between $559.4 million and $768.4 million.
• And now, not only is Dumpy and his boss Elon Musk causing irreparable ruin to our treasured parks, but they’re going to lose even more money — for the government and the local communities.
• What’s the point, then? Just to make life more miserable for US citizens? I have to say yes, that’s the point.
• Moving on.
• This morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson formally unveiled plans for a government funding stopgap through September 30 — a measure intended to stave off a potential March 14 shutdown and buy time for Dumpy to push his agenda through Congress this summer.
• Tellingly, The Dumpster himself has been highly supportive of the measure, even though it mostly freezes funding levels leftover from the Biden administration.
• Are Democrats supporting the bill? Fuck no.
• Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries strongly opposes the measure — preferring a long-term negotiated deal — and said Johnson and his GOP will need to pass it on their own.
• Asked today if he believed Johnson could pull off the government funding vote next week, Jeffries was blunt: “No.”
• Guess we’ll see.
• In other news…
• A note on a topic we haven’t covered in a good while but I feel should always be of high importance: hazing.
• An arrest has been made in connection with the death of a 20-year-old Southern University student after a fraternity hazing ritual.
• Caleb Wilson died as a direct result of a hazing incident where he was punched in the chest multiple times while pledging to Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
• Caleb McCray, 23, was arrested Thursday evening and faces charges of manslaughter and criminal hazing in the death of Wilson, a mechanical engineering junior at the school who died in late February. McCray is a former Southern University student. 
• Wilson had been taking part in an off-campus and unsanctioned fraternity ritual. Other pledges and members of the fraternity were present. No one called 911 or attempted to summon an ambulance to the location. 
• A group of men brought Wilson to the hospital and said he had collapsed while playing basketball at a park, then left the hospital before police arrived.
• And now, The Weather: “The Seed” by SASAMI
• From the Sports Desk… my team is turning into the Seahawks, and I don’t mind.
• Last night, the Las Vegas Raiders traded for Seattle quarterback Geno Smith, reuniting him with head coach Pete Carroll.
• Las Vegas gave up a 2025 third-round pick (92nd overall) for Smith, which seems like a pretty fair trade. The deal ends his five-year stint in Seattle, where he revived his career and became a two-time Pro Bowl selection.
• Smith has one year and $31 million left on his contract. The Raiders are taking on all $31 million.
• Look, we need a steady and experience QB. Geno is that guy. Is he the ticket to greatness or a deep playoff run — or mayhem like, a winning record? Probably not.
• But as a bridge who will manage games well and not do stupid shit until we get someone better, I welcome him to Raiders Nation.
• Today in history… Following the death of his mother, queen Urraca of León, Alfonso VII is proclaimed king of León (1126). An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes "African Slavery in America", the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery (1775). French aviator Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot's license (1910). International Women's Day protests in Petrograd mark the beginning of the February Revolution (1917). The United States Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule (1917). Daytona Beach and Road Course holds its first oval stock car race (1936). The iconic Volkswagen Type 2 "Bus" begins production (1950). US Marines arrive at Da Nang, Vietnam (1965). Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time (1979). While addressing a convention of Evangelicals, U.S. President Ronald Reagan labels the Soviet Union an "evil empire” (1983). International Women's Day marches in Mexico become violent with 62 police officers and 19 civilians injured in Mexico City alone (2021).
• March 8 is the birthday of composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714), journalist/politician Simon Cameron (1799), businesswoman Harriet Samuel (1836), SCOTUS justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841), journalist/politician Charlotte Whitton (1896), actress Louise Beavers (1902), motorcycle racer/engineer Beatrice Shilling (1909), actor Alan Hale Jr. (1921), actress/dancer Cyd Charisse (1922), singer-songwriter Richard Fariña (1937), actress Lynn Redgrave (1943), actor Micky Dolenz (1945), bass player Randy Meisner (1946), singer-songwriter Carole Bayer Sager (1947), singer-songwriter Gary Numan (1958), journalist Lester Holt (1959), NBA player/broadcaster Kenny Smith (1965), actor Freddie Prinze Jr. (1976), tattoo artist/model Kat Von D (1982), and music producer Benny Blanco (1988).

Okay. Time to do things. Starting with breakfast. Enjoy your day.