Random News: April 20, 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 April 20, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. It's also Easter and 4/20, which we’ll mention in more detail somewhere below. At the moment, I am in my misty morning mood, which is very peaceful and involved a blue bathrobe and giant freshly-brewed cup of Peet’s Costa Rica. No complaints.

• Yesterday was, once again, another day of protest and activism across the entire United States, with literal millions of Americans turning out to demonstrate against the Dump administration at hundreds of protest locations.
• All of those folks share the commonality of resistance to Dump’s fascist, anti-democratic policies that are immediate and existential threats to the American way of life.
• These events — organized through the “50501” action group — ranged from a massive march through midtown Manhattan, a huge rally in front of the White House, a packed demonstration at a Massachusetts commemoration marking the start of the Revolutionary War 250 years ago, and many, many more.
• Like, seriously many more.
• Denver. Portland. San Francisco. Columbia. Boise. Twin Cities. Tucson. Wichita. Philadelphia. Raleigh. Cincinnati. Nashville. Cheyenne. Chicago. Salt Lake City. Spokane. Small towns. Huge cities. Rural. Urban. Red states. Blue states. And everywhere in between.
• Much like the previous big wave of protests, it’s being reported that well over three million people took to the streets nationwide yesterday.
• The tide is turning. People aren’t hiding and capitulating. They’re out in the open,  fighting for their rights. This piece of shit does not get to win.
• Even if Dump can turn a blind eye to millions of people taking to the streets, the Republicans in Congress can’t.
• Every member of the House of Representatives needs to get reelected every two years.
• One-third of the Senate does as well.
• And unless they all step up — both Democrats and Republicans — and defend the Constitution over the fascist takeover of America, they will find their asses out on the street and looking for new jobs come fall 2026 and in subsequent elections.
• Let’s do some news.
• Today is the day that may see the next big step in Dump’s fascist wet dream, which would be to invoke the Insurrection Act.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem are due to make a recommendation on whether Dump can use immigration as an excuse to use active-duty forces to suppress a “rebellion,” or for domestic law enforcement.
• It was on that piece of shit’s first day in office — January 20, 2025 — that he signed an executive order to declare a national emergency at the border, and ordered the deployment of additional U.S. troops, surveillance capabilities, and border barriers.
• That’s when he gave Hegseth and Noem 90 days to submit a “joint report to the President about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”
• And that 90-day deadline is today.
• What does the Insurrection Act allow Dumpy to do?
• If invoked, he can use active-duty military forces trained for combat overseas or federalized National Guard troops to suppress a “rebellion,” temporarily suspending the Posse Comitatus Act, which typically restricts the use of military involvement in domestic law enforcement.
• Thousands of active-duty troops have already been dispatched to the southern U.S. border over the last few months. But invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 would let him use those same forces on — for example — protestors in cities across the country.
• Like the ones we saw yesterday, and the ones coming up soon for May Day.
• Rosa Brooks is a Georgetown University law professor who’s expertise is civil-military relations. She says, “We’ve already seen a willingness of the Trump administration to mischaracterize lawful actions as unlawful. If they were to use active-duty troops to suppress peaceful protests in American cities and towns, that would be truly unprecedented and truly quite shocking.”
• She also noted that the recent firing of many senior military leaders — including Charles Q. Brown Jr., the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — may have been part of an effort to proactively squash possible military resistance to such an order.
• There are so many variables here, I could write on this one topic all day. Things like how (or if) the military would work with (or against) local/state/federal law enforcement agencies. Or whether or not military leaders and enlisted troops will follow orders that are blatantly unconstitutional, disregarding their oaths.
• I guess for now, I’ll just ask you if you want to live in a country with uniformed military patrolling your streets alongside tanks and tactical vehicles, or being stopped in the streets at gunpoint and forced to show citizenship papers?
• Is that the world you see for kids growing up in your neighborhood? Is that what you hoped for when you voted for Dumples the Dick Tater?
• You may be wondering when the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked.
• It was in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush, and it was here in my area. California Gov. Pete Wilson (R) had requested military aid to deal with riots spawned by the police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles.
• And at the time, dozens of people had been killed in urban violence, thousands had been arrested by police, and fires and looting had ravaged wide swaths of south LA and surrounding neighborhoods.
• As opposed to now, when none of that is happening.
• I’ll be following up on this, a very important story and potentially a huge note in the history of Dumpy’s horrible leadership, as it happens. Or hopefully doesn’t happen.
• Moving on.
• In the past two weeks or so, three ex-Presidents have taken the extraordinary step of publicly denouncing the current person in that job.
• Barack Obama urged Americans to resist Dump’s bullying. Joe Biden warned that Dump is wrecking the “sacred promise” of Social Security. Bill Clinton decried Dump’s emphasis on grievances and the need to dominate.
• Obama: “It is up to all of us to fix this. It’s not going to be because somebody comes and saves you. The most important office in this democracy is the citizen, the ordinary person who says, ‘No, that’s not right.’”
• Biden: “The last thing people need from their government is deliberate cruelty. In fewer than 100 days, this administration has done so much damage and so much devastation.”
• Clinton: “If our lives are going to be dominated by the effort to dominate the people we disagree with, we are going to put the 250-year march to a more perfect union at risk.”
• They’re all 100% correct.
• Moving on.
• While the external aspects of Dump’s ineptitude is obvious from a public standpoint — huge tariff taxes impacting business, unconstitutional treatment of immigrants, and much more — you may not be aware of how much chaos is happening internally in Dumpy World.
• On Friday, two political appointees at the Pentagon who’d been suspended earlier this week were terminated. 
• They are Pete Hegseth's senior advisor Dan Caldwell and deputy chief of staff Dan Selnick. Both were put on administrative leave earlier this week pending an investigation of leaking secrets to the press.
• A third official, Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, was also put on administrative leave this week amid the investigation.
• In a joint statement yesterday, Caldwell, Selnick, and Carroll said they were "incredibly disappointed" by how their service with the department ended, calling the experience unconscionable.
• Keep in mind… all these fuckers were just hired in the past couple of months. But it’s weird, because Dump said he picks “all the best people.” Huh.
• Let’s just keep moving on.
• Kansas City, MO doesn’t seem like the place that would be targeted by Dump to inflict misery upon its people.
• But that city has nearly 30,000 workers employed by the federal government, making it the largest employer in the region.
• And due to Dump and his boss Elon Musk, it’s estimated that the area is losing at least 6,000 of those good-paying, formerly dependable federal jobs, which in turn would wipe out thousands of others in service industries.
• I want you to keep in mind, Dump’s lust for power and riches impacts everyone in this country. Tariffs, unemployment, and loss of government benefits and personal savings doesn’t only impact liberals.
• And while it may seem like poetic justice for a conservative grandmother in Kansas who strongly supported Dump now finding herself without the ability to get food or medicine, all that thought does to me is fill me with horror and sadness.
• In other news…
• I’m pretty sure that at this moment, in the very start of the major resistance against Dump and his fascist fetish, the timing is right to start blowing up the Democratic party.
• You’d think that unity right now is the most important aspect of being effective in this fight. But I’d also opine that if not now, then when?
• Which is why calls for generational change among Democrats are growing louder as the party seeks to chart a path forward going into the 2026 midterms.
• This week, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Vice Chair David Hogg’s group Leaders We Deserve PAC launched a $20 million effort aimed at primarying House Democratic incumbents in safe seats in hopes of electing younger candidates.
• A number of young progressive candidates have already launched primary bids against longtime incumbent House Democrats.  
• And this comes at a time when more youthful and progressive figures in the party like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are playing a central role in galvanizing the party’s grassroots in large-scale rallies across the country.
• This effort is actually directly related to the fight against Dump. Older and more established Democratic leaders have seemed reluctant to put up the kind of opposition we need right now.
• That dissatisfaction reached a fever pitch earlier this month when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and a handful of other Democrats voted with Republicans to pass a House GOP-drafted budget resolution.
• If I had to, at this moment, guess who the Democratic candidate for president will be in 2028, the names that come to mind are people like AOC, or Cory Booker, or anyone else who has had the balls to put up barriers against Dump at each opportunity.
• In a Yale poll just out this week, AOC has the highest net favorability rating of any of the Democrats that they asked about, coming in ahead of people like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
• We have a long way to go until that election, and many things can and will happen between now and then.
• The good news? We liberals and progressives and other factions of the Democrats are extremely united on the issues and causes that matter most right now, as evidenced by the support given to these huge anti-Dump/anti-Musk nationwide demonstrations.
• It’s Easter today. Happy Easter.
• A side note: I will enjoy any holiday with a salutation that starts with the word “happy.” I will literally celebrate anything that invokes happiness. I don’t care if it’s religious or cultural or commercial.
• Fan fact: the practice of decorating eggshells is ancient. very ancient. Like, 30 times older than Jesus. Decorated, engraved ostrich eggs have been found in Africa which are 60,000 years old.
• Eggs have long been associated with death and rebirth, which obviously influenced early Christian and Islamic cultures despite their Pagan origins.
• I’m suddenly thinking of making deviled eggs. Is that sacrilegious? It sounds yummy regardless. I hope I have some paprika downstairs in the kitchen.
• Of course, the holiday is intended to commemorate the story of the resurrection of Jesus, the Middle Eastern Jew who is the main character of Christianity, and unquestionably the most liberal, woke dude in history.
• Salute to Jesus, you rock and roller. Want to be more like him? Go fuck some shit up in a bank. Hang out with hookers. Engage and inspire and influence people who are equally liberal, edgy, progressive, and revolutionary.
• And if you support removing care from the elderly, the sick, and the vulnerable, or if you want to persecute people who seek safety and asylum, congrats… you are now the most anti-Christian person in history.
• Keep it in mind while your shiny cross hangs on that gold necklace.
• Moving on…
• It’s also 4/20, the international day of stonerdom.
• I used to smoke weed. I still do, but I used to, too.
• Over the past 12 years, 24 US states (plus D.C. and Guam) have made recreational use of cannabis fully legal. 
• Other states have laws that allow for medicinal use. Only 11 states in this year 2025 still have a prohibition on the use of marijuana.
• They are Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
• Despite all that, is marijuana legal at the federal level?
• Nope! Marijuana is classified at the federal level as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, the same as heroin and LSD. Cultivating, distributing, and possessing marijuana violates federal drug laws.
• We live in a weird country. 
• By the way, do I suggest that everyone should smoke weed (or otherwise ingest THC products), or that it has no potential bad effects?
• No, absolutely not. I think you should do the things that help bring some kind of balance to your own life, and not be told what you should like or dislike by others.
• Anyway, happy Easter and happy 4/20. I’m going to start on those deviled eggs soon.
• And now, The Weather: “Heaven Year” by Bleary Eyed
• From the Sports Desk… we have some playoff scores for ya. All of these are gone 1 of the first round.
• In the NBA, the Pacers beat the Bucks 117-98. The Nuggets beat the Clippers 112-110 in an overtime thriller. The Knicks topped the Pistons 123-112. And the T’Wolves upset a completely lackadaisical Lakers team 117-95.
• If the Lakers keep playing that that, they definitely don’t deserve to get out of the first round.
• In the NHL, the Jets beat the Blues 5-3, and the Avalanche crushed the Stars 5-1.
• More first-round playoff games in both sports happening today.
• Today in history… Oliver Cromwell dissolves England's Rump Parliament (1653). Freedom of religion is granted to the Jews of New Amsterdam, now known as New York City (1657). George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, PA while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration (1789). U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory (1836). Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment disproving the theory of spontaneous generation (1862). William McKinley signs a joint resolution to Congress for declaration of war against Spain, beginning the Spanish–American War (1898). Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day (1918). On his 56th birthday Adolf Hitler makes his last trip from his bunker to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth (1945). Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba (1961). Apollo 16 lunar module, commanded by John Young and piloted by Charles Duke, lands on the moon (1972). Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, CO (1999). Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race (2008). The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months (2010). Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all charges in the murder of George Floyd by the Fourth Judicial District Court of Minnesota (2021). SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time and explodes four minutes into flight (2023).
• April 20 is the birthday of mystic/saint Rose of Lima (1586), physician/psychologist Philippe Pinel (1745), composer Georg Michael Telemann (1748), sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850), fashion designer Paul Poiret (1879), politician and genocidal maniac Adolf Hitler (1889), painter Joan Miró (1893), vibraphone player Lionel Hampton (1908), SCOTUS justice John Paul Stevens (1920), drummer Tito Puente (1923), actor George Takei (1937), actor Ryan O’Neal (1941), actress Jessica Lange (1949), singer-songwriter Luther Vandross (1951), MLB player/manager Don Mattingly (1961), actor Crispin Glover (1964), actor Andy Serkis (1964), drummer Mike Portnoy (1967), actress Carmen Electra (1972), musician Stephen Marley (1972), and NFL player Luke Kuechly (1991).

Again, I wish you all a peaceful and happy day of celebration today, no matter what you choose to celebrate. Go hang out with whores and touch lepers, or color eggs, or flip some tables, or eat ham, or smoke a fatty… I mean, you can do it all. You don’t even need a reason. Enjoy your day.