Random News: April 19, 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 April 19, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. Unlike the past couple of Saturdays, I am back to my normal mode… relaxing in the peaceful quiet in my robe with a cup of delicious coffee and nowhere to rush off to at the moment. We have a lot to discuss today.

• If you happened to catch the end of my Random News yesterday, I mentioned that I’d be offering some suggested things you can do to fight the fascist takeover of the USA beyond making angry posts and replies on social media.
• There are a few organizations that I can recommend with which you may want to look into.
• I’ll include some links in the comments.
• Indivisible is a movement and organization initiated in 2016 as a reaction to the election of Dumpy. They began by producing content giving advice on peacefully but effectively resisting the move to the right under the Dump administration.
• The goal of Indivisible is to save American democracy and creating a humane America that is more like social democracy than corporate plutocracy.
• Another is Mobilize.
• It’s not an organization but rather a technology platform that allows volunteers to sign up for events such as rallies, virtual meetings, canvassing, phone banking, and get out the vote efforts.
• I have found that between those two alone, I’ve been able to stay aware of many opportunities for activism, and most of them are local — often within a few miles of my home.
• What you want to do is actually register with these entities and ask to get alerts. I know that what you try and avoid in most cases, but I’ve found it to be invaluable in terms of staying involved.
• Now to get specific. I find the next big batch of protest actions are centered the quickly-upcoming May Day.
• To that end, I’d like you to visit maydaystrong.org, and see what events are happening near you.
• Mine will be on Saturday May 3 — ironically, like most of you, I have to work on Thursday, the actual May Day. But on that Saturday, I’m once again going to the same local spot in Torrance, CA where we did the hugely successful Hands Off rally a couple weeks ago.
• I’m currently seeing a couple of hundred May Day events on the map, and more will be added as the event is further promoted and organized. They are still seeking more people to host events. Look into it.
• Their mission statement: “Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom—on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself. This May Day we are fighting back. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics.”
• I’m onboard with all that. And if you support workers rights, expressing your freedom to assemble on this day is crucial.
• And now, the news, starting with perhaps one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in a long time…
• Early this morning, the Supreme Court paused the deportation of immigrants potentially subject to the Alien Enemies Act, freezing action in a fast-developing case involving a group of immigrants in Texas who say the Dump administration was working to remove them.
• The vote was 7-2, only drawing dissents from (say it with me)… Alito and Thomas, because of course they did.
• Their brief order this morning did not explain the court’s reasoning. They also ordered the Dump administration to respond to the emergency appeal once a federal appeals court in Louisiana takes action in the case.
• In the meantime, the court said, “The government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this court.”
• And now, of course, comes a crucial moment, when we see whether Dump continues with the illegal deportations despite the Supreme Court order.
• If that were to happen, this country launches immediately into a direct constitutional crisis and most likely some modernized version of civil war.
• So we’ll keep an eye on that, obviously.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) returned from his trip to El Salvador after meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who was deported due to an administrative error. 
• Abrego Garcia was sad and bewildered, as you’d imagine. The good news — apart from him being alive — is that he has since been moved to another prison where he says the conditions are better.
• Despite that, he still has no access to any news from the outside world and no ability to communicate with anybody in the outside world, per Van Hollen. The Senator was the first person Abrego Garcia had spoken to about his situation.
• Moving on…
• Some more hopeful news regarding the immigrants being illegally persecuted by Dump and his gangs.
• Yesterday, US District Judge William Sessions ordered that Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Tufts University student who is being held in Louisiana, to be brought to Vermont by May 1.
• That’s when she’ll get a hearing after having been arrested and jailed over retaliation for an op-ed piece she co-wrote in the student newspaper.
• Sessions said he would hear Öztürk’s request to be released from detention. Her lawyers had requested that she be released immediately, or at least brought back to Vermont.
• Reminder: this is the woman who was grabbed off the streets in Boston by masked men in plain clothes. She’s been held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana since then.
• This one is going to get ugly; a lawyer for the Justice Department said Öztürk’s case should be dismissed, saying the immigration court has jurisdiction.
• I’ll remind you, like the many other cases, Öztürk has not been accused of any crime, was held for days before being allowed to speak to an attorney, and her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
• Let’s move on to more related news, because there are many court actions taking place to stop Dumples the Fascist Clown’s illegal actions.
• Yesterday, lawyers for Venezuelan men detained in Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block their imminent deportation without the judicial review required by the Supreme Court.
• If they are deported, it will be the second time in less than a week that Dumpy has blatantly ignored orders from the Supreme Court and other federal judges.
• The case carries the potential for a significant clash between the two coequal branches of government and possibly even a full-blown constitutional crisis.
• This might be the one.
• Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union said a number of the men had already been loaded on a bus and was pressuring the courts to rule before they could be deported.
• If Dump goes ahead with their deportation, it would be the first since the Supreme Court told his administration on April 7 that it must provide notice to Venezuelan migrants it is seeking to deport under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and give them the opportunity to challenge their deportations in court.
• Let’s move on with yet more very related news…
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy barred the Dump administration from rapidly deporting hundreds — if not thousands — of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to show they fear being persecuted, tortured, or killed there.
• Murphy is the same judge who, last month, temporarily blocked Dump from fast-tracking deportations, hobbling his ability to remove migrants who in some cases have legal protections preventing them from being sent back to their countries of origin.
• Yesterday’s preliminary injunction will keep that order in place until the litigation is resolved. And yes, Dumpy plans to appeal, of course.
• Okay, now we can move on, but more news about the fierce Dump resistance comes in every day if you keep our eyes open for it.
• Yesterday, a federal judge halted the mass firings carried out the day before at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying she was deeply concerned the Dump administration had violated court orders setting conditions on dismissals.
• Because they’re assholes. That’s my note, not the judge’s.
• On Thursday, the agency fired between 1,400 and 1,500 workers, eliminating as much as 90% of its workforce.
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector, overlooking banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors, for-profit colleges, and other financial companies.
• They help you not get ripped off.
• Who blatantly disregarded the court's orders? Per a witness statement filed yesterday morning, its officials associated with Elon Musk's DOGE.
• Just last week, an appeals court ordered that firings at the CFPB could only occur after a "particularized assessment."
• Moving on… to more Dump bitch-slaps.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick blocked the Dump administration from enacting a policy that bans the use of “X” marker used by many nonbinary people on passports as well as the changing of gender markers.
• Good!
• Dump’s bullshit executive order gave only a narrow definition of the sexes instead of a broader conception of gender. The order says a person is male or female and it rejects the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender.
• That’s not up to him to decide, the fucking flatulent fascist fuck.
• Kobick sided with the American Civil Liberties Union’s motion for a preliminary injunction, which stays the action while a lawsuit plays out.
• Every single step to block Dump is a moment of success for freedom in America and the world. Keep it up.
• In other news…
• An international student attending UCLA has been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border as the administration of Dumples the Pricktator continues to cancel student visas across the nation.
• Vice Chancellor Mary Osako confirmed it, saying, “UCLA has learned that an international graduate student was detained by United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) while attempting to enter the United States from Mexico. The student remains in the custody of CBP and we are actively working to learn more information.”
• As of yesterday, it remained unclear why the student was in Mexico, or why she was taken into custody. She attempted to cross back into the U.S. at the San Ysidro border crossing, directly south of San Diego.
• UCLA students have already begun protesting on the campus, urging the university’s administration to “fight back” agains the Dump administration.
• And in the bigger picture, dozens of students at universities throughout California who were legally allowed in the U.S. have had their visas revoked in recent weeks.
• Let’s move on.
• Just two days after being named interim IRS commissioner, Gary Shapley is out of the job.
• Who gets fired in 48 hours? How bad do you have to be?
• Apparently this is a “Musk vs. Dump” situation. Musk had backed Shapley taking the job.
• He was placed at the top of the IRS while Dumpy's pick for the job, Billy Long, has been awaiting Senate confirmation. Long, a former congressman from Missouri, has faced questions about his qualifications.
• Let’s move on.
• This is weird… 
• Now the White House is claiming that the letter sent to Harvard University outlining a list of demands about the university’s hiring and admissions was sent without authorization.
• What?
• The April 11 letter, which demanded that Harvard eliminate its DEI programs and screen international students for ideological concerns, among other sweeping changes, was “unauthorized.”
• But the letter was signed by Josh Gruenbaum, the commissioner of the General Services Administration, Sean R. Kevney, the acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Thomas E. Wheeler, the acting general counsel of the Department of Education.
• See, this is how they operate. Anything they do that ends up being completely fucked up, they say was a mistake by someone other than Dump, or was taken wrong, or was meant as some kind of joke, and so on.
• A Harvard spokesperson quite correctly stated, “Recipients of such correspondence from the U.S. government — even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach — do not question its authenticity or seriousness.”
• “But even if the letter was a mistake, the actions the government took this week have real-life consequences on students, patients, employees, and the standing of American higher education in the world.”
• Correct.
• And now, The Weather: “Anhedonia” by Mamalarky
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s April 1966. I am slightly over negative three years old. Where am I?
• Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at the time…
• 1.(You’re My) Soul And Inspiration (The Righteous Brothers). 2. Daydream (The Lovin' Spoonful). 3. Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) (Cher). 4. Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers). 5. Time Won't Let Me (The Outsiders). 6. 19th Nervous Breakdown (The Rolling Stones). 7. The Ballad Of The Green Berets (SSgt Barry Sadler). 8. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (B.J. Thomas And The Triumphs). 9. Good Lovin' (The Young Rascals). 10. Kicks (Paul Revere & The Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsay). 11. Nowhere Man (The Beatles).  12. Sure Gonna Miss Her (Gary Lewis And The Playboys). 13. Sloop John B (The Beach Boys). 14. A Sign Of The Times (Petula Clark). 15. This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You) (The Isley Brothers). 16. California Dreamin' (The Mamas & The Papas). 17. Little Latin Lupe Lu (Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels). 18. Woman (Peter And Gordon). 19. Homeward Bound (Simon & Garfunkel). 20. These Boots Are Made For Walkin' (Nancy Sinatra).
• From the Sports Desk… all the playoffs commence today. Times listed below are Pacific. The west is the best.
• In the NBA, Game 1 matchups are between Milwaukee at Indiana (10am), LA Clippers at Denver (12:30pm), Detroit at New York (3pm), and Minnesota at Los Angeles Lakers (5:30pm).
• In the NHL, there are two Game 1 matchups, with St. Louis at Winnipeg (3pm) and Colorado at Dallas (5:30pm).
• Today in history… Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia (1770). The American Revolutionary War begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord (1775). John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government (1782). A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city (1861). Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play ‘Sex’ (1927). Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco (1956). Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign (1960). Charles Manson is sentenced to death — later commuted to life imprisonment —  for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders (1971). Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; they surrender two days later (1985). ‘The Simpsons’ first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with "Good Night” (1987). The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out (1993). The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six (1995). Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961 (2011). Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police (2013).
• April 19 is the birthday of musician Christoph Bach (1613), politician Roger Sherman (1721), labor organizer Sarah Bagley (1806), writer/editor Mary Louise Booth (1831), actress Constance Talmadge (1898), law enforcement agent Eliot Ness (1903), chemist Glenn T. Seaborg (1912), actress Jayne Mansfield (1933), actor Dudley Moore (1935), keyboardist Alan Price (1942), keyboardist Bernie Worrell (1944), actor Tim Curry (1946), record executive Suge Knight (1965), actress Ashley Judd (1968), actor James Franco (1978), actress Kate Hudson (1979), NFL player Troy Polamalu (1981), comedian Ali Wong (1982), WNBA player Candace Parker (1986), and tennis player Maria Sharapova (1987).

After weeks of doom and gloom, I’m starting to feel a strong sense of optimism. We’re not only going to fight the immediate threat of fascism here; we’re going to win. And perhaps in the long term, we’re going to take steps to ensure that no person with an agenda like that of Donald Trump will ever have the chance again to try and destroy the USA for his own benefit. It’s going to take time and effort, but we’ve got that in droves. Let’s fucking go. Enjoy your day.