Random News: April 6, 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 6, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I woke up with a smile and some rather gravelly vocal chords after yelling at top volume for a couple of hours yesterday. Currently in my robe in the peaceful quiet and enjoying a massive tankard of coffee, which is helping my overworked voice.

• I'm not quite sure where to start on a historical news item that I got to be a direct part of.
• I’ll tell you what… I’m going to withhold my own direct and subjective observations of yesterday’s “Hands Off!” national day of action, and put those in its own post. For now, let’s just look at the big picture.
• First a recap. “Hands Off!” is not an organization on its own, but rather a confederation of more than 150 groups that combine many different causes and issues with the commonality of drawing attention to the actions and hideous results of Donnie Dump and his boss, Elon Musk.
• What issues? All of them.
• Dump and Muck are dismantling Social Security and Medicare — forcing seniors and disabled Americans to jump through hoops to access the benefits they’ve already paid into.
• They’re handing trillions to billionaires — while forcing the rest of us to pay higher prices for food, rent, and healthcare.
• They’re gutting protections for working people — so payday lenders, banks, and credit card companies can scam Americans with zero consequences.
• They’re assaulting our communities and our rights — targeting veterans, kids, seniors, farmers, immigrants, transgender people, and political opponents.
• As “Hands Off!“ states, “This is not just corruption. This is not just mismanagement. This is a hostile takeover.
• And the groups who aligned in support of this day of action are as diverse as the causes they prioritize. 
• \They included labor union coalitions, environmental protection groups, LGBT and women’s and other civil rights groups, groups for seniors, veterans, democracy activists, consumer protection groups, and progressive political groups, all working hand-in-hand as one.
• Now let’s talk about the expectations, and the results.
• It’s always difficult to know for sure how these things will go. A lot of people express interest and support, but that support may be limited to clicking the “like” icon on a social post and then scrolling by.
• But how many would actually take to the streets?
• We were told by the organizers that if things went well, they hoped for a half million people across the 1,200 scheduled events in all 50 states.
• That seemed optimistic to me, but possible. Especially in the final days leading up to April 5, I did see a good amount of chatter about “Hands Off!”, however I chalked some of that up to my being in an echo chamber with like-minded folks.
• Nothing was going to stop me from personally being involved. But I was hopeful the organizers were right and that we’d have some 500,000 Americans making an impact that day.
• But they were wrong. It wasn’t 500,000.
• It was ten times that, estimated at over 5,000,000 people nationwide. If true, it makes April 5, 2025 one of the largest single days of in-person activism in the history of the country.
• One direct example I can relate to you… my local organizers said they expected about 1,000 people at our “South Bay Fights Back” event in Torrance, CA. The crowd quickly swelled to nearly 10,000. It was nuts. I’ve never seen anything like it.
• One thing that can’t be disputed: it was by far the biggest day of anti-Dump demonstrations ever, and it’s really no surprise that this many people — of different ages, races, backgrounds, economic status, genders, and more — can feel aligned and in agreement that Dumpy is destroying the USA.
• I’m sure you’ve seen it on the news so I don’t have to recap the details. Many larger cities like New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, St. Paul, and elsewhere had massive crowds in the 100,000+ range.
• What was even cooler, in my opinion, were the hundreds and hundreds of well-attended events in suburbs and smaller cities and towns, including many in deep red areas of the USA.
• But then we also got unexpected and heartwarming support worldwide in cities like Paris, Berlin, London, Lisbon, and many other places.
• A few final thoughts.
• There were very few instances of violence at any of the events, and zero organized counterprotests of which I’m aware. It’s frankly amazing how perfectly the goal of peaceful assembly — a right guaranteed in our country’s constitution — was enacted.
• Even with 5,000,000 people in the streets, there were no immediate reports of arrests.
• Here’s where I try not to be cynical when I point out that a majority of the protestors seemed to be white, with a good portion of seniors — the people least likely to be targeted for law enforcement harassment. That made it a little different than, say, the George Floyd/BLM protests in 2020.
• Which also explains why there were less arrests, less violence against the protestors, and less bad actors instigating illegal action.
• So for now, that’s enough on that. Later today, I will hopefully have a different recap that focuses only on my own experiences. I think you’d enjoy that.
• Moving on.
• We’re not going to stop talking about Maryland-based father of three Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, and now the Dump administration refuses to bring him back.
• We mentioned that veteran DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni expressed his frustration in court Friday over the lack of information he had received from DOJ officials regarding Abrego Garcia's arrest, and acknowledged he should not have been deported.
• For the crime of being truthful, Reuveni was placed on administrative leave yesterday, which Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed this morning.
• A reminder that Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of gang-related crimes, despite members of the administration accusing him of having such ties.
• Bring him home immediately. If it can happen to him, it can happen to you.
• Let’s move on.
• Economists at the American Enterprise Institute — a conservative think tank — say that the formula used by Dumpy’s administration to levy reciprocal tariffs contains a serious math error that over-inflates the impact by about a factor of four.
• They say the error led to tariff rates massively higher than they should have been to achieve the goals the administration sought.
• It turns out that Dumples the Economic Clown’s formula is simply the U.S. trade deficit with each country, divided by the value of the goods the U.S. imports from that country.
• But AEI's economists say that Dump's team used the wrong value for import prices, and instead used the value for a retail price, or what happens to the final consumer price after the good is imported and distributed.
• Reminder: these are CONSERVATIVE ECONOMISTS saying this.
• And because of the fact that Dump surrounds himself with idiots — which is understandable, since he is also an idiot — the global economy is fucked and American people will suffer.
• Of note: the AEI isn’t alone. A growing number of conservatives are challenging Dump’s idiotic tariffs, with some questioning whether he has the authority to implement them.
• One of the first legal challenges is coming from an influential, conservative-backed legal nonprofit. And in a Congress where both chambers hold a GOP majority, two Republicans —  the longest-serving member of the Senate and a battleground district Nebraska representative endorsed by Trump last year — are leading the legislative branch’s hamstrung, bipartisan attempt to push back on the tariffs.
• In other news…
• Did you know that Dumpy told Ukrainians refugees they needed to leave the U.S. immediately because their legal status was being revoked?
• Oh wait. They say it was a mistake on Friday. Oops.
• Some Ukrainians who had entered the U.S. under the Biden administration following Russia's invasion of their homeland received emails this week telling them that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would be terminating their legal protections.
• ”DHS is now exercising its discretion to terminate your parole," the April 3 notice said. "Unless it expires sooner, your parole will terminate 7 days from the date of this notice."
• The USA welcomed roughly 240,000 Ukrainians under a policy known as Uniting for Ukraine that allowed Americans to sponsor Ukrainians displaced by Russia's invasion.
• If recipients failed to leave the U.S., the message read, they would "be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States.”
• The notice also said recipients would lose their work permits once their parole status was revoked, and encouraged them to sign up for self-deportation using a government smartphone app.
• ”Again, DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you," the notice warned. "Please depart the United States immediately."
• When confronted by media organizations about the notice, DHS claimed hit was a mistake — another in a long line of fatal mistakes by Team Dumpy.
• On Friday, they sent a second email: "You may have received an email notification titled 'Notice of Termination of Parole.' The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent this email to you in error. No action will be taken with respect to your parole.”
• Fucking pieces of shit.
• Moving on with a story I’d rather not tell you but that you need to know.
• The Dump administration has removed environmental protections covering more than half of the land managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
• That’s right. Half of our country’s precious national forests are now open for logging.
• The directive issued Thursday from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said “heavy-handed federal policies” have prevented the United States from making use of its “abundance of timber resources that are more than adequate to meet our domestic timber production needs.”
• Rollins’s memo, which does not make a reference to climate change, instructed Forest Service field leadership to fast-track timber production by removing National Environmental Policy Act regulations, making it easier to obtain permits and reducing “contracting burdens.”
• Now you know why we need to protest… among myriad other reasons.
• And now, The Weather: “Summer Sweat” by Hannah Cohen
• From the Sports Desk… the NCAA Men’s Championship matchup is set.
• Florida will face Houston in tomorrow night’s final game, and now I can stop talking about college sports for another 11 months or so.
• Today in history… Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Cato the Younger at the Battle of Thapsus (46 BC). The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 begins near Broadway (1712). John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America's first millionaire (1808). U.S. President John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become president upon William Henry Harrison's death (1841). In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I (1896). Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first people to reach the North Pole (1909). The United States declares war on Germany (1917). Huey P. Long, Governor of Louisiana, is impeached by the Louisiana House of Representatives (1929). Sarajevo is liberated from German and Croatian forces by the Yugoslav Partisans (1945). The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement (1947). Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit (1965). Pierre Elliott Trudeau wins the Liberal Party leadership election, and becomes Prime Minister of Canada soon afterward (1968). Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft (1973). The first California Jam festival takes place at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, CA, co-headlined by Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1974). 
• April 6 is the birthday of philosopher/scholar Maimonides (1135), poet/playwright Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (1671), painter Gustave Moreau (1826), engineer/businessman Anthony Fokker (1890), businessman Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. (1892), composer/conductor André Previn (1929), guru Ram Dass (1931), singer-songwriter Merle Haggard (1937), actor Billy Dee Williams (1937), actress Marilu Henner (1952), actor John Ratzenberger (1947), singer-songwriter/guitarist Warren Haynes (1960), singer-songwriter/guitarist John Pizzarelli (1960), politician Tim Walz (1964), singer-songwriter Black FrancisSterling Sharpe (1965), actor Paul Rudd (1969), actor Zach Braff (1975), NFL player Tim Hasselbeck (1978), and soccer player Julie Ertz (1992).

I’m sure there’s plenty of other news, but I have even more to write — my own experiences at yesterday’s outstanding “Hands Off!” day of action — so I’ll cap this for now. Keep fighting, keep kicking ass. I’m proud of you all. Enjoy your day.