Random News: May 31, 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 May 31, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. Hello.

• I thought today would be a good time to remind you that in exactly two weeks, on Saturday June 14, we are putting our foot down as a nation and collectively saying that we do not want — and will not accept — a king of America.
• No Kings is a nationwide day of action, with over a thousand individual events that span all 50 states.
• I strongly urge you to get involved. My PMs are open to anyone who has questions about activism, be it for this specific event or others.
• And I’ll put a link in the comments so you can find an event near you.
• But no matter what, plan on joining us on Saturday June 14. The future — yours, mine, all of ours — may depend on it. If you ever wanted to be brave and heroic, the time is now.
• Let’s fucking go.
• For now, let’s do some news.
• Yesterday, an appeals court refused to freeze a California-based judge’s order halting the Dump administration from downsizing the federal workforce, which means that the Department of Government Efficiency-led cuts remain on pause for now.
• This is another major blow to Dumpy’s plan to destroy America.
• A split three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the downsizing could have significant ripple effects on everything from the nation’s food-safety system to veteran health care, and should stay on hold while a lawsuit plays out.
• Obviously.
• Dumpy had sought an emergency stay of an injunction issued by U.S. Judge Susan Illston in a lawsuit brought by labor unions and cities, including San Francisco and Chicago, and the group Democracy Forward.
• The Justice Department has also previously appealed her ruling to the Supreme Court, one of a string of emergency appeals arguing federal judges had overstepped their authority when in reality, they are just doing their jobs.
• And already, tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, have left their jobs via deferred resignation programs, or have been placed on leave.
• Illston made it clear in her ruling that presidents can indeed make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies… but only with the cooperation of Congress.
• Moving on.
• Dumples the Economic Clown announced yesterday that he would be doubling tariffs on steel to 50%. 
• This is part of a larger situation and a nebulous deal that supposedly allows U.S. Steel's headquarters to remain in Pennsylvania despite Dump also supporting the acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan-based Nippon Steel.
• President Joe Biden had blocked that acquisition. Dumpy pushed it through. What did he have to say about it?
• “We’re going to be so successful. You have just, you have just started, you watch, we’re here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays and American company, you’re going to stay in American company.”
• Okay then, TACO Boy.
• Like anything else Dumpy supports, I’m 100% sure that Nippon Steel just raised the amount of the bribe to him until he agreed to allow U.S. Steel to be taken over by the Japanese company.
• In other news…
• Transgender military service members are being forced to come forward and voluntarily leave active-duty service by next Friday. After June 6, the military is expected to begin involuntary separations for active-duty trans service members who remain. 
• This would be a great time to find out that like 25% of our military is trans. I’m joking, but kinda not.
• A high percentage of transgender people have always been active in their military participation and defense of our country.
• The Army's new internal directives to units instruct personnel to intentionally address transgender troops — even superior officers — in accordance with an individual's medical assignment at birth rather than by their preferred pronoun. 
• When the military starts forcing out transgender troops through involuntary separations, soldiers will identify fellow service members suspected of having gender dysphoria following a “list of criteria” outlined in the guidance.
• Like what? The list includes past requests for grooming standard exemptions tied to medical assignment at birth, or the initiation of a medical treatment plan tied to gender dysphoria. 
• Also, "overt conduct," either on social media or in person, of gender identity differing from assigned sex at birth, or even a commander's "private conversation" where a soldier disclosed gender dysphoria, are considered relevant under the guidance. 
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) had a response to her constituents who are extremely concerned about the largest Medicaid cuts in US history.
• The Medicaid cuts, if signed into law, will sever healthcare for the poorest Americans in order to offset massive tax cuts for the wealthy.
• And when her worried constituents brought up the inevitable deaths that will result from the slashing of Medicare, her response was telling.
• “Well, we all are going to die,” she smugly stated.
• Jeopardizing health care for the most vulnerable? Sure, why not? Speeding up death for the oldest Americans by making them sicker? Well, we all are going to die, Ernst smirks.
• And that is indeed how the Republican party thinks. To paraphrase Ebenezer Scrooge, if they’re going to die, they should do so, and decrease the surplus population.
• A lot of you folks out there can’t imagine how bad it’s going to be. But please, no matter what you do, don’t act all surprised when it happens.
• You were warned. Fuck, I’m literally warning you right now. Get on the phone (or the email or text) with your Senator. Tell them that slashing Medicaid is unacceptable.
• Better yet, promise them that if they vote for Dumpy’s budget bill, they’ll never have a chance of re-election, which is the one thing they actually care about.
• Moving on.
• From the Health Desk…
• Contradicting Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement earlier this week, COVID-19 vaccines are still recommended for healthy children if their doctors approve.
• Says who? This is per updated immunization schedules published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• The CDC did not remove the coronavirus vaccines from the childhood schedule, as Kennedy said it would, when it updated its website late Thursday.
• It’s quite obvious that there’s a layer of government who are still trying to act in the best interest of the American populace, despite the efforts of their bosses to kill us all.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, the nonprofit Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) sued Dumpy over his executive order seeking to cease all federal funding to National Public Radio (NPR) and PBS.
• The lawsuit follows a similar complaint filed by NPR earlier this week.
• The complaint, which was filed in a U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., argues the president doesn't have the authority to serve "as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS."
• It goes on to say that the president lacks the power to influence funding decisions made by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is a non-government entity, and says the president's executive order violates PBS' First Amendment rights.
• PBS is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from Dump's executive order and asks the court to declare that the order violates the Constitution.
• I agree with all of this.
• In other news…
• Dumpy is super mad at the person who was responsible for putting in the judges who’ve been blocking his fascist agenda.
• That person, of course, is named Donald Trump.
• Dump questioned where the judges in the ruling that blocked most of his tariffs had “come from” and whether they had a “hatred” of Dump.
• But the decision had been handed down by a panel of three judges — one of whom, Timothy Reif, was appointed by Dump in 2018.
• But since Dump doesn’t accept blame for anything like a normal adult human being does, he redirected his ire toward the conservative legal movement and one of its prominent leaders, Leonard Leo.
• Dump called Leo a “real ‘sleazebag’ ” and said that the Federalist Society led him astray on judicial nominations during his first term.
• The Orange Clown wrote, “I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!”
• The far-right Federalist Society had a major role in Dump’s first term, helping influence his judicial nominations — including to the Supreme Court. Leo, the former vice president of the society, remains a co-chair of the group’s board.
• It’s more than just the tariffs. Some of the judges he selected during his first term have ruled against him on a range of issues, including his migrant deportation efforts.
• Ha ha fucker.
• Let’s do a story from the Entertainment Desk…
• Taylor Swift has regained control over her entire body of work. Yesterday, she announced: “All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me.”
• Good.
• She purchased her catalog of master recordings — originally released through Big Machine Records — from their most recent owner, the private equity firm Shamrock Capital. She did not disclose the amount.
• Swift originally lost the rights in 2019 when her first record label, Big Machine, sold them to music executive Scooter Braun.
• And she’d done something brilliant in the meantime: in recent years, Swift has been rerecording and releasing her first six albums in an attempt to regain control of her music.
• The four rerecorded albums released so far have been massive commercial and cultural successes, each one debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
• So she won that battle in every possible sense. Taylor Swift, I should add, is the world’s wealthiest female musician, with her net worth of $1.6 billion second only to Jay-Z’s massive wealth.
• And now, The Weather: “Cathode Ray” by Folk Bitch Trio
• Rest in peace going out to Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards playing Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on “M.A.S.H.” She was 87.
• Swit and Alan Alda were the longest-serving cast members on the show which aired for 11 years from 1972 to 1983, and is still widely considered one of the best TV shows of all time.
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s the end of May 1979, and I’m at the end of my elementary school years, wrapping up 5th grade. I’ve already been playing guitar for a couple of years.
• I would call this chart my roller skating soundtrack. It was also right at the point where I was getting into some much more hard rock compared to my parents, a trend that would move upward exponentially as I went through middle school.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles at the time.
• 1. Reunited (Peaches & Herb). 2. Hot Stuff (Donna Summer). 3. In The Navy (Village People). 4. Stumblin' In (Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman). 5. Goodnight Tonight (Wings). 6. Love You Inside Out (Bee Gees). 7. Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) (The Jacksons). 8. Take Me Home (Cher). 9. He's The Greatest Dancer (Sister Sledge). 10. Heart Of Glass (Blondie). 11. Love Is The Answer (England Dan & John Ford Coley). 12. Love Takes Time (Orleans). 13. We Are Family (Sister Sledge). 14. The Logical Song (Supertramp). 15. Just When I Needed You Most (Randy VanWarmer). 16. I Want Your Love (Chic). 17. Disco Nights (Rock-Freak) (G.Q.). 18. Deeper Than The Night (Olivia Newton-John). 19. Renegade (Styx). 20. Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy (Bad Company).
• From the Sports Desk… holy shit, there were no playoff games yesterday.
• As mentioned yesterday, hockey’s Stanley Cup finals is already wrapped up, and starts this coming Wednesday June 4.
• And in the NBA, game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Pacers and Knicks is tonight. If necessary, game 7 would be held Monday night. Whichever of those teams wins will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals starting Thursday June 5.
• Today in history… Emperor Petronius Maximus is stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome (455). King Henry III lays the first stone of the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge of Paris (1578). Citing poor eyesight as a reason, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary (1669). The United States enacts its first copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790 (1790). The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time (1859). Gilmore's Garden in New York City is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue (1879). The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, convenes for the first time (1909). The RMS Titanic is launched in Belfast, Northern Ireland (1911). The Tulsa race massacre kills at least 39, but other estimates of black fatalities vary from 55 to about 300 (1921). The U.S. Supreme Court expands on its Brown v. Board of Education decision by ordering district courts and school districts to enforce educational desegregation "at all deliberate speed.” (1955). The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is completed (1977). Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 100m sprint, with a wind-legal 9.72 seconds (2008). 
• May 31 is the birthday of poet/journalist Walt Whitman (1819), entrepreneur John Ringling (1866), actor Don Ameche (1908), Monaco prince Rainier III (1923), actor/director Clint Eastwood (1930), singer-songwriter Peter Yarrow (1938), actress Sharon Gless (1943), NFL player Joe Namath (1943), singer-songwriter Jimmy Cliff (1946), drummer John Bonham (1948), actor Tom Berenger (1949), guitarist Tommy Emmanuel (1955), actress Lea Thompson (1961), Hungary prime minister Viktor Orbán (1963), rapper Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels (1964), model/actress Brooke Shields (1965), actor Colin Farrell (1976), MLB player Jake Peavy (1981), NBA player Nate Robinson (1984), NFL player Jordy Nelson (1985), and rapper Azealia Banks (1991).

I suppose that’s enough for now. I’m going to get out of this bathrobe (woo woo) and into a shower and into some clothes and… actually, no plans at that point, but I’m sure something will come up. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 30, 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 May 30, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I'm your dude with news. As always these days, there’s a lot of it, so let’s see what we can prioritize in the time that we have.

• In typical whipsaw fashion, yesterday saw both a second federal court blocking the bulk of Dumpy’s tariffs, followed quickly by a federal appeals court temporarily halting a similar decision from a federal trade court
• So for now, Dump’s ridiculous tariffs — aka huge taxes on the American people — remain back on.
• Ask me again in a couple of hours what the status is. It’s genuinely the worst economic policy ever implemented by any administration in the aspect that no business in America can plan ahead for their pricing, their procurement of materials, or anything else that allows them to confidently do business.
• Day by day, hour by hour, we don’t know if the goods we import have no tariff, 10% tariff, 145% tariff, 50% tariff, and so on.
• That type of wishy-washy, back-and-forth bullshit makes it impossible to do business along a retail supply chain, the backbone of business in the world.
• It’s now to the point that Wall Street is using Dump’s inability to stick with a tariff plan that financial analysts have taken to calling the on-again, off-again moves as “TACO trade” or the “TACO theory,” and have to plan on investment advice as such.
• That’s the acronym for "Trump Always Chickens Out,” if you hadn’t heard.
• How many times has President TACO threatened, then backtracked on, tariffs since he took office? 10 different times now. And that level of uncertainty has done nothing but ruined businesses in the USA.
• It’s pointless to get into the minutia of shit that may change before I finish writing this column. So let’s just move on for now.
• Dump is shaking up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership amid continued frustrations within the White House about the level of immigration arrests and deportations conducted by the agency.
• If you’re unclear on the concept, Dump wants them arresting many more people than they already are.
• In it’s most simple terms, if there’s a person with brown skin in the USA, Dump wants to know why they’re still here.
• Kenneth Genalo will no longer lead the ICE branch tasked with carrying out arrests and deportations, called Enforcement and Removal Operations. 
• ERO has been spearheading Dump's immoral campaign to ramp up efforts to locate, arrest,  and deport unauthorized migrants across the country. Additionally, Robert Hammer will no longer be the head of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations.
• As the Department of Homeland Security's investigative arm, HSI is a specialized law enforcement agency that has historically focused on combating transnational crime, like child exploitation and human trafficking, but many of its agents have been diverted by the Dump administration to support immigration arrest and deportation efforts.
• Stephen Miller, the White House's deputy chief of staff and one of the world’s most despicable human beings, said this week that the administration is pushing ICE to carry out "a minimum" of 3,000 arrests per day.
• When you set quotas on any kind of law enforcement, it forces them to abandon the standards of investigation to truly ascertain whether the people being detailed, arrested, and jailed are guilty or innocent.
• So with all these terrible immigration stories as of late… I’d expect them to start ramping up in a big way.
• In related news…
• This morning, a divided Supreme Court cleared the way for the Dump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who have been allowed to live and work in the United States while their immigration cases play out.
• The ruling is the second time in recent weeks the high court has given Dumpy permission to terminate programs that protect immigrants fleeing countries racked by war or economic turmoil.
• Earlier this month, the justices allowed the administration to revoke temporary protections that have allowed a different group of nearly 350,000 Venezuelans to live and work in the United States.
• Immigrant advocates said the revocation of status and work permits for roughly 900,000 migrants is largely unprecedented and will have devastating impacts on migrant communities across the country.
• And in more related news…
• People both inside and outside the State Department were struggling yesterday to understand how a new plan to revoke Chinese students’ visas will work — and whether it will end up being a blanket ban on Chinese nationals studying in the United States.
• Embassies had yet to receive official instructions on how to implement the plan, which also includes revising visa criteria to increase scrutiny of future applicants from China and Hong Kong.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week that the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security will “aggressively revoke” visas for Chinese students studying in “critical fields.”
• But that isn’t easy to put into practice, and the manner in which it is done will say a lot about the Dump administration’s ultimate goals.
• Whatever those are.
• Reviewing all Chinese student visas could be a daunting task for the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. There were around 277,000 Chinese students in the United States during the 2023 to 2024 school term.
• Fucking pricks.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court sharply narrowed the scope of a key environmental statute. The decision makes it easier to win approval for highways, bridges, pipelines, wind farms, and other infrastructure projects.
• And it does so by fucking the environment. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is considered the nation's premier environmental law because it sets up a regulatory regime under which the federal government seeks information from a wide array of agencies about the impact of proposed infrastructure projects before they're built.
• At issue in yesterday's case was the proposed building of an 88-mile stretch of railroad that would connect Utah's oil-rich Uinta Basin to the national freight rail network. Once built, the new rail lines would facilitate the transportation of crude oil to refineries in Texas and Louisiana along the Gulf Coast.
• The U.S. Court of Appeals had ruled in the case that the NTSB had violated NEPA by failing to consider the environmental effects from oil drilling and production — referred to as upstream — and oil refining and distribution, known as downstream.
• The Supreme Court, however, reversed that ruling, and in so doing dramatically limited the 1970 law.
• Of note: their vote was unanimous, though Justice Neil Gorsuch did not take part in deliberations, and the court's three liberals wrote a more limited concurring opinion. The Court's conservatives, however, took a major whack at the NEPA law.
• So much for this once-beautiful land.
• In other news…
• Many people in Texas were really excited about Elon Musk moving SpaceX to a city that they named Starbase.
• Except now, residents there have been notified that they might “lose the right to continue using” their property as they do today. The new town is considering a new zoning ordinance and citywide map.
• The notice, sent to property owners in a proposed “Mixed Use District,” would allow for “residential, office, retail, and small-scale service uses.”
• As of early this year, the population of Starbase stood at around 500 people, with around 260 directly employed by SpaceX. Most other residents of Starbase are relatives of SpaceX employees.
• The company town includes the launch facility where SpaceX conducts test flights of its massive Starship rocket, and company-owned land covering a 1.6-square-mile area.
• I thought Texans were strong people who allegedly liked their individualism and independence? And now they have to let some geek from South Africa tell them how they can use their own property?
• Shrug.
• And now, The Weather: “Salt” by Triathalon
• Let’s… not do a chart. Instead, we’re gonna flash back to this date in 1983, when a huge music festival was happening in Southern California.
• It was called the Us Festival, and it was held at a time when big music fests had not been a think since the days of Woodstock and Monterey Pop and all that form the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
• I was at the end of my freshman year of high school, and it was definitely a big fucking deal. They divided the three-day festival — which was oddly on a Saturday, Sunday, and Monday — into genres.
• Day one (May 28) was New Wave day. The lineup: Divinyls, INXS, Wall of Voodoo, Oingo Boingo, Flock of Seagulls, The English Beat, Men at Work, and headlining the day, The Clash.
• Day two (May 29) was Hard Rock/Metal day. Lineup: Motley Crue, Joe Walsh, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Triumph, Scorpions, and headliner Van Halen.
• Day three (May 30) was Pop day. Lineup: Little Steven, Berlin, Quarterflash, U2, Missing Persons, Pretenders, John Cougar, Stevie Nicks, and the big headliner, David Bowie — who was HUGE at that moment via his ‘Let’s Dance’ album.
• From the Sports Desk… more exciting playoff action in multiple sports. Thank the sports gods that we’re getting toward the end of this shit.
• In the NBA: there will be a game 6 in the Eastern Conference finals after the Knicks beat the Pacers 111-94. Indiana leads the series 3-2.
• In the NHL: but the Oilers ended the Stars’ run in their game 5, winning 6-3 and punching a ticket to the Stanley Cup finals.
• Game 1 between Edmonton and Florida will be on Wednesday June 4.
• Today in history… Titus and his Roman legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem (70). Beginning of the Peasants' Revolt in England (1381). In Rouen, France, the 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal (1431). Johann Sebastian Bach assumed the office of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, presenting his first new cantata, ‘Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75’ (1723). The Kansas–Nebraska Act becomes law establishing the U.S. territories of Kansas and Nebraska (1854). Decoration Day — the predecessor of the modern "Memorial Day” — is observed in the United States for the first time (1868). At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the first Indianapolis 500 ends with Ray Harroun in his Marmon Wasp becoming the first winner of the 500-mile auto race (1911). The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. (1922). Chicago police shoot and kill ten labor demonstrators (1937). Mariner 9 is launched to map 70% of the surface, and to study temporal changes in the atmosphere and surface, of Mars (1971). Spain joins NATO (1982). Nigeria passes a law banning same-sex marriage (2013). Donald Trump is convicted of falsifying business records in his New York trial, the first time a former President of the United States has been found guilty in a criminal case (2024).
• May 30 is the birthday of mathematician Grace Andrews (1869), film director Howard Hawks (1896), actor Stepin Fetchit (1902), voice actor Mel Blanc (1908), clarinetist/bandleader Benny Goodman (1909), NFL player Gale Sayers (1943), actor Colm Meany (1953), drummer Topper Headon (1955), actor Ted McGinley (1958), singer-songwriter Wynona Judd (1964), songwriter/guitarist Tom Morello (1964), singer-songwriter Stephen Malkmus (1966), singer-songwriter Idina Menzel (1971), MLB player Manny Ramirez (1972), and singer CeeLo Green (1975).

I am out of time for this news activity. Much more to discuss over the weekend, as usual. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 29, 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 May 29, 2025, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. So much stuff going on around this world of ours, it’s damn near impossible to know where to start. I suppose I’ll start at the start.

• Donnie Dump’s entire economic agenda was thrown into chaos late yesterday as a US federal court ruled against his authority to levy some of his most sweeping tariffs.
• Yes… most of Dumpy’s tariffs — including those on Chinese goods — are illegal.
• Dumpy’s defeat is great for the rest of us; stocks soared on the news that a three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade blocked Dump’s global tariffs, which he imposed citing emergency economic powers.
• As you’d expect, the Dump administration appealed the ruling, and plans to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court if need be.
• And even before the tariffs were shot down in court, Dumpy had to address an embarrassing new acronym for his trade policies: TACO.
• It stands for "Trump Always Chickens Out,” describing a pattern of stocks plunging when Dump announces stiff new tariffs, then surging when he eases up on them days or weeks later.
• So, as usual, this is a situation in flux with a lot of details still to come. I can tell you, from the perspective of someone who works with a bunch of companies who manufacture and import products from around the world, the rollercoaster caused by Señor Taco has made this year a nightmare for many.
• It would be nice to settle down for a bit.
• Moving on.
• Goodbye Elon Musk. Your presence in our government will not be missed.
• Mucky is leaving his government role as a top adviser to Dump after spearheading ill-conceived efforts to overhaul the federal bureaucracy.
• His departure, announced last night, marks the end of a turbulent chapter that included thousands of layoffs, the evisceration of government agencies, and reams of litigation.
• Elmo thought it was going to be easy to tear apart the fabric of our society, but it turns out that we have systems to prevent exactly what he was attempting to do. He struggled in the unfamiliar environment of Washington, and he accomplished far less than he hoped.
• If you recall, he loudly projected that he was going to hit a target for spending reduction by $2 trillion. Then the goal was lowered to $1 trillion. Then to $150 billion.
• Yesterday, Elmo posted on his social network that he was leaving his dubiously-legal Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
• Perhaps it was only a coincidence that his departure comes one day after he criticized the centerpiece of Dump’s legislative agenda by saying he was disappointed over Dumpy’s so-called “big beautiful bill.”
• In an interview, Elmo said, “I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful. But I don’t know if it could be both.”
• In other news…
• Yesterday, the Dump administration moved to dismantle one of the federal government’s largest and longest-standing affirmative action programs.
• They are siding with two white-owned contracting businesses that challenged its constitutionality. Figures, huh?
• The Justice Department said that a Transportation Department program that has carved out an estimated $37 billion for minority- and women-owned businesses violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
• If a judge approves the proposed settlement, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program (DBE) will be prohibited from awarding contracts based on race and sex, effectively ending its founding mission.
• The settlement is still subject to challenge by a coalition of businesses that intervened in the case after Dump took office, arguing that the program is essential to removing entrenched barriers that minorities and women face in the $759 billion contracting sector.
• Dump wants to build more barriers for women and minorities, not tear them down.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, misogynistic assholes and abusers of a multitude of women — brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate — have been charged in Britain with rape and other crimes.
• Andrew Tate, 38, faces charges related to three women that include rape, actual bodily harm, human trafficking, and controlling prostitution for gain. Tristan Tate, 36, faces charges related to one woman that include rape, human trafficking, and actual bodily harm.
• The Tates, who are dual U.S. and British citizens, were arrested in Romania in late 2022 and formally indicted last year on charges that they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they were allegedly sexually exploited.
• It’s a very good thing these guys are being charged in the UK, because otherwise, Dumpy would just immediately pardon them.
• Dumpy would never hold a man responsible for rape. He doesn’t believe women have any right to refuse sex.
• Speaking of Dumpy’s pardon spree…
• Yesterday, Dump commuted the sentence of notorious former Chicago street gang leader Larry Hoover, who was serving multiple life sentences in federal prison.
• Hoover, 74, the co-founder of the Chicago gang Gangster Disciples, was already serving a 200-year sentence on state charges in Illinois for the 1973 murder of a 19-year-old, when he was convicted of federal charges in 1997, and sentenced to six life terms.
• Even though he was behind bars, federal prosecutors had accused him of leading a criminal enterprise to continue overseeing the gang. Hoover had been serving six life sentences in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
• But maybe Dumpy doesn’t understand that after he’s released from federal custody, Hoover still faces the remainder of his 200-year sentence in Illinois, dating back to 1973 for Young's murder.
• But Dump wasn’t done throwing around pardons like paper towels in a flood zone.
• He also pardoned Louisiana rap artist NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden.
• Last year, Gaulden was sentenced to just under two years in prison on gun-related charges after he acknowledged having possessed weapons despite being a convicted felon. Gaulden also pleaded guilty to his role in a prescription drug fraud ring in Utah.
• Is that all? Nope, Dump is letting all the best people out of jails where they’d been placed by judges and juries.
• Yesterday, Dump also pardoned James Callahan, a New York union leader who pleaded guilty to failing to report $315,000 in gifts from an advertising firm and was about to be sentenced.
• And he pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, a Republican who was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for charges related to concealing his involvement in two federal election campaigns.
• And he pardoned Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress after being convicted of tax fraud.
• What the actual fuck? I thought conservatives were all about keeping criminals off the street and having people be accountable for their actions?
• Moving on to some immigration news.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz ruled that Secretary of State Marco Rubio violated the Constitution when he stripped Mahmoud Khalil of his green card and ordered him deported over his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University.
• Despite that, Farbiarz declined to order Khalil released from federal immigration detention in Louisiana, where he's been held since ICE agents arrested him in New York City on March 8. 
• The judge said Khalil had not yet proven that his detention is causing him "irreparable harm," and gave him more time to provide evidence that it is. How the fuck is being kidnapped and held without trial not considered irreparable harm?
• For me, it would be reparable… for the sum of $1 million per day that I was illegally held, if anyone wants to know the price for my freedom being taken from me.
• In related news…
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss released Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher, as she deals with a criminal charge of smuggling frog embryos into the United States.
• Colleagues and academics testified on Petrova's behalf, saying she is doing valuable research to advance cures for cancer.
• Petrova, 30, is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in Louisiana. She is expected to be brought to Massachusetts as early as tomorrow in preparation for a bail hearing next week on the smuggling charge.
• What’s the deal with the frogs? She’d been vacationing in France, where she stopped at a lab specializing in splicing superfine sections of frog embryos and obtained a package of samples to be used for cancer research.
• In her ruling, Reiss noted that the immigration officers' actions were unlawful, that Petrova didn't present a danger, and that the embryos were non-living, non-hazardous, and “posed a threat to no one.”
• Let’s move on.
• And now, The Weather: “Assis” by spill tab
• Let’s do a chart. It’s 40 years ago in May 1985, and I’m wrapping up my junior year of high school. That summer, I’d head off to Boston, MA to attend a semester at Berklee College of Music.
• It was a great experience for me. I wasn’t that great at being a responsible student, but I did hook up with a girl named Juley and, well… yeah. The other memorable part of that summer was watching Live Aid on a staticky TV in our dorm room.
• This was the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time.
• 1. No Jacket Required (Phil Collins). 2. We Are The World (USA For Africa). 3. Beverly Hills Cop (Soundtrack). 4. Born In The U.S.A. (Bruce Springsteen). 5. Around The World In A Day (Prince And The Revolution). 6. Diamond Life (Sade). 7. Southern Accents (Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers). 8. Like A Virgin (Madonna). 9. Make It Big (Wham!). 10. Centerfield (John Fogerty). 11. Reckless (Bryan Adams). 12. Songs From The Big Chair (Tears For Fears). 13. The Power Station (The Power Station), 14. Nightshift (Commodores). 15. Private Dancer (Tina Turner). 16. Crazy From The Heat EP (David Lee Roth). 17. The Breakfast Club (Soundtrack). 18. Wheels Are Turning (REO Speedwagon). 19. Break Out (The Pointer Sisters). 20. Agent Provocateur (Foreigner).
• From the Sports Desk… we’re getting down to the nitty gritty in both basketball and hockey playoffs.
• In the NBA: the Western Conference finals are done, with the Thunder beating the Timberwolves 124-94 and winning the series 4-1. OKC is headed to the NBA championship.
• Similarly in the NHL: the Panthers have eliminated Hurricanes with a 5-3 win in game 5, also winning the series 4-1. They will head to the Stanley Cup finals.
• It’s quite possible that we will have the championship matchups in both basketball and hockey as early as tomorrow.
• Today in history… The Mongols entered Kaifeng after a successful siege and began looting in the fallen capital of the Jin dynasty (1233). Charles II is restored to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland (1660). Rhode Island becomes the last of North America's original Thirteen Colonies to ratify the Constitution and become one of the United States (1790). Wisconsin is admitted as the 30th U.S. state (1848). Sojourner Truth delivers her famous ‘Ain't I a Woman?’ speech at the Woman's Rights Convention in Akron, OH (1851). The pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in The Atlanta Journal (1886). Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a riot (1913). Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested and later confirmed by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin (1919). Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest (1953). Tom Bradley is elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles, CA (1973). Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station (1999).
• May 29 is the birthday of English king Charles II (1630), poet/playwright G. K. Chesterton (1874), actor/singer Bob Hope (1903), US president John F. Kennedy (1917), race car driver Al Unser (1939), singer-songwriter/composer Danny Elfman (1953), failed assassin John Hinckley Jr. (1955), singer LaToya Jackson (1956), actress Annette Bening (1958), musician/activist Melissa Etheridge (1961), singer-songwriter/guitarist Noel Gallagher (1967), actress/activist Laverne Cox (1972), singer-songwriter Mel B (1975), comedian Daniel Tosh (1975), NBA player Carmelo Anthony (1984), NBA player Austin Reaves (1998), and NFL player Puka Nacua (2001).

If I had more time, I could include at least twice as much shit as we were able to list today. Lots going on. But ya know, you are capable — all on your own — of finding news beyond the limited scope of what I cover here. Just saying. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 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 May 28, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. We have so much news today, it’s not even funny. I mean, most news isn’t funny, unless you can laugh at that fucking clown in the White House, but that’s just the way it is.

• Let’s jump right in.
• It’s been discovered that Dump’s border czar, Tom Homan, recently earned big consulting fees from a detention center company that will benefit financially from Dump’s immigration crackdown.
• Homan grabbed an undisclosed amount in fees consulting for a division of the GEO Group, one of two companies that operates the vast majority of the nation’s immigrant detention facilities.
• ICE initially declined to comment. After this news went public yesterday, the agency issued a statement, saying, “Tom Homan has never been involved in any contract discussions or decisions at ICE since being named border czar."
• Yeah… but he sure made those arrangements before taking the job, huh?
• Does anyone here see anything wrong with the guy who got paid by a for-profit prison corporation now being in charge of who gets sent to those same prisons?
• Apparently Dumpy is fine with this insane conflict of interest. And probably gets a cut.
• Homan has gone on record saying that the nation’s immigrant detention system needs at least 100,000 beds to accommodate the large numbers of noncitizens the administration plans to deport. 
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the federal government to transfer thousands of acres of national forestland containing a Native American sacred site to a copper-mining company.
• The land in central Arizona known as Oak Flat, which has great spiritual value to the Western Apache Indians, sits on the world’s third-largest deposit of copper ore.
• Well, if there’s money involved, the native people of this nation — or most nations, frankly — will get completely fucking screwed even time.
• Interestingly, it was conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch — whose rulings have long supported Native American rights — who called the court’s refusal to review the case a “grievous mistake — one with consequences that threaten to reverberate for generations.”
• And I fully agree. It’s fucking vile. The copper mine will create a disgusting two-mile-wide crater, eliminating all access to the sacred site.
• Wendsler Nosie Sr. of Apache Stronghold called the court’s order a “heavy blow” and said in a statement that the group’s efforts to protect the site would continue. I hope it does continue, by any means necessary
• Western Apaches have worshiped at Oak Flat for centuries, conducting ceremonies that they say cannot take place anywhere else.
• Mark my words, that’s not the last time you’ll be hearing about this story.
• We have more news out of the Supreme Court.
• Yesterday, the SCOTUS rejected the appeal of a Massachusetts student who was barred from wearing a t-shirt to school proclaiming there are only two genders.
• Good. Fuck that kid.
• The justices left in place a federal appeals court ruling that said it would not second-guess the decision of educators in Middleborough, MA to not allow the T-shirt to be worn in a school environment because of a negative impact on transgender and gender-nonconforming students.
• I’d love to explain all the intricacies of free speech here, but I think it’s very clear here that allowing a kid to wear that shirt is no different than allowing a shirt that expressed hate toward a specific race or religion.
• Oh, and just for fun, I’ll note that justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, because if there’s a wrong side of anything, they’ll be on it.
• Moving on.
• Abortions are back off in Missouri.
• And yes, you remember correctly that Missouri is the only state where voters have used a ballot measure to overturn a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
• But yesterday, the state’s top court ruled that a district judge applied the wrong standard in rulings in December and February that allowed abortions to resume in the state.
• The state is using a baseless excuse that abortion facilities are “functionally unregulated” and leave women with “no guarantee of health and safety.”
• Planned Parenthood — who has the state’s only abortion clinics — maintains that those restrictions were specifically targeted to make it harder to access abortion.
• Fuck you, Missouri. Allow your women to have reproductive freedom, per the will of the people. 
• In other news…
• Dumpy is pardoning a whole lot of sleazy fucking people all of a sudden.
• Taking bribes much, Donnie?
• Yesterday, Dump said he would pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who are in prison for charges that include bank fraud and tax evasion.
• The couple was sentenced in 2022, with Todd Chrisley receiving 12 years and Julie Chrisley receiving seven years. They’d submitted false financial statements to obtain more than $30 million in personal loans to pay for their luxury cars, designer clothes, real estate, and travel. 
• And then later, after earning millions from their reality TV show, the couple concealed their income from the IRS to avoid paying nearly $500,000 in delinquent taxes, while also failing to file tax returns and pay taxes from 2013 through 2016. 
• While we’re on the topic of pardons…
• Ed Martin — the racist asshole who was forced to withdraw from his nomination for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — is now Dump’s “pardon attorney.”
• Now he wants Dump to pardon the worst of the January 6 coup organizers, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
• In addition to a potential pardon for Rhodes, pardon applications were discussed for Proud Boys Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola, and others.
• As you know, Dumpy already issued pardons to over 1,500 people convicted for their participation in the January 6 insurrection on the first day of his second term.
• That includes more than 170 who were accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon, such as a fire extinguisher or bear spray, against police officers. Because MAGA hates cops, as we know.
• However, a group of 14 current and former members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers — including Rhodes — were only given commutations that allowed them to leave prison but left their criminal convictions in place.
• Those were the assholes who were found guilty of more serious charges, like conspiring to use force to resist the transfer of power and seditious conspiracy.
• Let’s keep moving on.
• Yesterday, former heroin addict and parasite host — and U.S. Health Secretary — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women.
• Kennedy said he removed COVID-19 shots from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for those groups.
• U.S. health officials, following recommendations by infectious disease experts, have been urging annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older.
• I’ve gotten a COVID booster once or twice each year after the initial set of inoculations in 2021.
• HHS officials refused to respond to questions about why Kennedy decided to take the step now, or to release additional information about what went into the decision.
• In other news…
• You can expect to see more and more news stories like the horrific one below, due to the climate of hate that’s fomented by Dump and the people who are like him.
• Kady Grass is a woman. She was born a woman and identifies as a woman. She took her 13-year-old cousin to get some McDonalds in Carpentersville, IL after a middle school choir concert.
• When she went to use the restroom, patrons accused her of using the wrong gender bathroom — and beat her unconscious in front of the kid. Even after she was unconscious, they continued stomping on her head.
• Grass was nearly killed. She suffered a broken nose, a hemorrhage in her eye, and is understandably experiencing severe PTSD after the attack. "I genuinely think that their plan was to kill me, and that they didn't care if they ended my life that day,” she said.
• The Kane County State's Attorney's office is considering hate crime charges in addition to aggravated battery for perpetrators 19-year-old John Kammrad and an unnamed 17-year-old boy.
• So is that how it is now? If you don’t wear your hair long, put on garish makeup, or have immediately identifiable feminine facial and body features, you get stomped to death when you have to use the bathroom?
• And where are the Republicans to speak out against this, or defend Grass’s right to look the way she wants?
• Let’s keep on moving.
• Elon blew up another rocket. You sure you want this guy transporting you to Mars?
• After the last two test flights ended prematurely with the destruction of the spacecraft, yesterday's Starship launch left the spacecraft spinning and mission control unable to control the craft.
• So it spun into a wild dive and exploded in the atmosphere, with pieces falling into the Indian Ocean.
• Slow clap. Good job, Elmo.
• It’s been awhile since I noted a “Florida Man” story that was so outrageous, I felt the need to share it.
• But then came Timothy Schulz, 42, who had a history of drug-related arrests and had only recently been released from Polk County Jail on charges of methamphetamine possession.
• What did Tim do after getting out of jail? Well, he got all tweaked out on meth, jumped into an alligator-infested lake, got bit by one of them, refused the offer of a life preserver, and then attacked sheriff deputies with garden shears and tried to steal their patrol vehicle.
• “As a result, Timothy is deceased,” stated the sheriff.
• Now that is prime Florida Man lore right there. RIP Tim, I guess.
• And now, The Weather: “BOYS WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOLVES” by Unknown Mortal Orchestra
• A genuine rest in peace going out to guitarist, songwriter, and producer Rick Derringer. He died yesterday at 77.
• It was all the way back in 1965 that Derringer first gained success in his band the McCoys via their debut single "Hang on Sloopy,” which was a number-one hit. Then in 1973, Derringer found further success with his now classic-rock song "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo".
• Derringer also worked extensively with Edgar and Johnny Winter, playing lead and rhythm guitar in their bands and producing all of their gold and platinum records, including hits "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride.”
• Let’s do a chart. It’s late May 1996, and I’m about to turn 27. I’ve recently been named the director of marketing communications for a respected manufacturer of musical instruments and audio gear.
• It’s probably too big a job for me at that time, and I did end up paying a price in the mental and emotional aspects, trying to keep that shit running without a ton of support.
• But I did keep it running, and I’m proud that I stepped up to handle that shit as well as I did. Side note: I still have those same job responsibilities — doing advertising and various marketing content and PR — today, 29 years later. I just do it independently, which is much, much nicer.
• Here was the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at that moment in time.
• 1. Tha Crossroads (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony). 2. Always Be My Baby (Mariah Carey). 3. Because You Loved Me (From "Up Close & Personal") (Celine Dion). 4. Nobody Knows (The Tony Rich Project).  5. Ironic (Alanis Morissette). 6. Give Me One Reason (Tracy Chapman). 7. You're The One (SWV). 8. Count On Me (From "Waiting To Exhale") (Whitney Houston & CeCe Winans). 9. 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New) (Coolio). 10. Follow You Down/Til I Hear It From You (Gin Blossoms). 11. Down Low (Nobody Has To Know) (R. Kelly Featuring Ronald Isley). 12. Keep On, Keepin' On (From "Sunset Park") (MC Lyte Featuring Xscape). 13. Sittin' Up In My Room (From "Waiting To Exhale") (Brandy). 14. Old Man & Me (When I Get To Heaven) (Hootie & The Blowfish). 15. Fastlove (George Michael). 16. Insensitive (From "Bed Of Roses") (Jann Arden). 17. Get Money (Junior M.A.F.I.A. Featuring The Notorious B.I.G.). 18. Sweet Dreams (La Bouche). 19. Missing (Everything But The Girl). 20. Woo-Hah!! Got You All In Check/Everything Remains Raw (Busta Rhymes).
• From the Sports Desk… grinding through the basketball and hockey playoffs. 
• In the NBA: the Pacers grabbed a crucial victory in a hard-fought game 4 against the Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, winning 130-121. They’re now up 3-1 in the series.
• In the NHL: the Oilers are now just one win away from making the Stanley Cup finals after beating the Stars 4-1 in game 4. 
• Today in history… A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist Thales (585 BC). In the first engagement of the French and Indian war, Virginia militia under the 22-year-old lieutenant colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania (1754). U.S. President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act which denies Native Americans their land rights and forcibly relocates them (1830). In San Francisco, John Muir organizes the Sierra Club (1892). Alan Turing submits ‘On Computable Numbers’ for publication (1936). Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer, is founded (1937). Peter Benenson's article ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’ is published in several internationally read newspapers, later thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International (1961). The Palestine Liberation Organization is founded, with Yasser Arafat elected as its first leader (1964). U.S. President Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal, and the Governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud (1996). The last steel girder is removed from the original World Trade Center site (2002). 
• May 28 is the birthday of physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738), UK prime minister William Pitt the Younger (1759), poet/composer Thomas Moore (1779), inventor Carl Richard Nyberg (1858), athlete Jim Thorpe (1888), author Ian Fleming (1908), singer-songwriter/guitarist T-Bone Walker (1910), actress/activist Zelda Rubinstein (1933), NBA player/executive Jerry West (1938), lawyer/politician/national joke Rudy Giuliani (1944), singer-songwriter Gladys Knight (1944), physician Patch Adams (1945), singer-songwriter John Fogerty (1945), bass player Leland Sklar (1947), singer-songwriter Wendy O. Williams (1949), guitarst Jerry Douglas (1956), MLB player Kirk Gibson (1957), singer-songwriter/actress Kylie Minogue (1968), politician Rob Ford (1969), politician Marco Rubio (1971), and NFL player Percy Harvin (1988).

That was a lot of news. Don’t get overwhelmed. Pick your battles and fight accordingly. And a quick reminder that on two weeks from Saturday, we’re going to organize nationally for “No Kings” day on June 14. Just keep it in mind. I’ll be pumping out details about that as the big day grows closer. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 27, 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 May 27, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s also one of those notorious days after a holiday, where you know you’ll be doing all the work of both today and the Monday you didn’t work. At least that’s how it goes for me.

• Hey, remember that COVID-19 disease? That sucked. It’s a good thing we beat that and it went away.
• Oh wait. That’s the exact opposite of truth. Sorry about that.
• Cases of the new COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1 which has surged China have been detected in multiple locations across the United States.
• It’s like most other variants — commonly reported symptoms include respiratory issues such as cough and sore throat, as well as systemic effects like fever and fatigue. 
• However, data indicates that NB.1.8.1 appears to have a growth advantage, suggesting it may spread more easily. It is more transmissible.
• Have I mentioned in recent months/years that when I’m in crowded public places, I still wear a mask? Oh, I do, I do.
• And as I’ve mentioned recently, the Dump administration is limiting COVID booster vaccine access. 
• In addition to last week’s announcement by the FDA about curtailing vaccine updates so they’re only for seniors and those with an underlying medical condition, they are also requiring vaccine makers to conduct major new clinical trials before approving them for wider use.
• Between these two factors, many Americans will not have access to updated shots this fall.
• Let’s do some news.
• Today, National Public Radio and three local stations filed a lawsuit against Donnie Dump, arguing that an executive order aimed at cutting federal funding for the organization is illegal.
• Fuck yes.
• The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington by NPR, Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KUTE, Inc. argues that Dump’s executive order to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR violates the First Amendment.
• Dump had issued the order after baselessly alleging — with no evidence — there is “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.
• NPR’s lawsuit against Dump says, “The Order is textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, and it interferes with NPR’s and the Local Member Stations’ freedom of expressive association and editorial discretion.”
• Every entity that Dump tries to destroy should be doing the same. Keep this illegal and immoral shit locked up in court for months or years.
• Moving on. Did Dumpy do anything interesting over the holiday?
• Why yes. Dump issued a pardon to former Culpeper County, VA Sheriff Scott Jenkins, who had been found guilty of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes.
• He took this money in exchange for naming several businessmen as law enforcement officers without them receiving any training.
• The men who bribed Jenkins paid for auxiliary deputy sheriff positions so they could avoid traffic tickets and carry concealed firearms without a permit.
• Needless to say, this is a massive breach of public trust. Giving our badges and guns to anyone who can pay for them could turn an entire region into a nightmare for normal law-abiding citizens.
• Jenkins — a huge MAGA guy — was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison. He was set to report to jail today. But due to Dump's pardon, he will not spend a single day behind bars.
• It’s fucking disgusting.
• And in somewhat related news, Grant Hardin — a former small-town police chief in Arkansas — escaped from prison on Sunday. He was serving decades-long prison sentences for murder and rape, and is still on the loose.
• Hardin, 56, escaped by imitating law enforcement. he’d has been serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, as well as two 25-year sentences for two counts of rape.
• It’s stories like these two that should give you a clue as to why a whole lot of people can’t place trust in law enforcement. And as usual, any actual good cops pay the price by association with these kinds of men.
• Let’s move on.
• Rest in peace to former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. The Harlem-based Democrat spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill, and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. He died yesterday at age 94.
• Rangel had been a hero of the Korean War, and launched his political career in 1970. In 2007, he became the first Black person to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
• In more politics news… want to know why Republicans are scared to death?
• Here’s an example. Last week there was a special election in New York for a state Senate seat.
• Dump won that district by a mile in the 2025 election, beating Kamala Harris by 55 (!) points.
• And in last week’s election? Democrat Sam Sutton grabbed 69.91% of the vote, while his Republican opponent Nachman Caller got 29.15%.
• That’s a Democratic win by more than two-to-one margins in a conservative district. And that same thing is going to happen over and over again from now through the 2026 Midterm elections and beyond.
• Let’’s do a horrible story from the International Desk.
• Yesterday, a 53-year-old British man plowed a minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who were celebrating the city’s Premier League championship, injuring more than 65 people as shouts of joy turned into shrieks of terror.
• The crash is not being investigated as an act of terrorism, though the exact details are still being sorted out.
• As the parade was wrapping up, a gray minivan turned onto the parade route and plowed into the sea of fans wrapped in their red Liverpool gear.
• Police identified the suspect as white. Normally they wouldn’t include that detail, but England is as notorious as the USA for spreading racist misinformation over social media.
• Moving on to some immigration news in the USA. These horror stories seem to come in daily.
• A 31-year-old man from Denmark with no criminal record who has been living in the U.S. legally for more than 10 years was detained by ICE officials during a routine appointment to finalize his citizenship.
• It’s becoming a repeating pattern. People who are doing their best to become full citizens of the USA getting grabbed while they’re in the official process of it.
• And I can tell you why: because the Dump administration fucking sucks, so what could be easier than kidnapping people from a list they already have available?
• Kasper Eriksen is a green card holder who works as a welder in Sturgis, MS, where he lives with his wife and four children. He first moved to the States as an exchange student in 2009, then returned legally in 2013 after he and his wife married and he began the legal process of becoming an American citizen.
• He’s now been held more than a month, rotting in a Louisiana detention center with no kind of trial or other way to claim his innocence. He’s jammed in with dozens of other detainees, unsure about his future, where he might get sent, and without a date scheduled for a court to hear his case.
• His wife, who homeschoools their kids, has no income or other means of support, and has been relying on the community to feed and house them.
• In a GoFundMe campaign, Kasper is described a devoted father and husband, a proud landowner in the U.S. with a valid driver’s license and social security number, who has always paid his taxes.  
• And now, The Weather: “Patsy’s Twin” by Goon
• Let’s do a chart. We’re going back to… one year ago, in late May 2024.
• Why not? Well… I’ve been open about my personal distaste for newer pop music, which may seem odd to those of you who see me suggesting a brand new song every fucking day here in the “Weather” section. 
• But, heh heh, that stuff I like isn’t… pop. It’s sometimes indie pop. Or indie rock. Or dream pop. Or shoegaze. Or art rock. Or prog pop. Or experimental. Anyway, here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time.
• 1. The Tortured Poets Department (Taylor Swift). 2. Radical Optimism (Dua Lipa). 3. One Thing At A Time (Morgan Wallen). 4. We Don't Trust You (Future & Metro Boomin). 5. SEVENTEEN Best Album '17 Is Right Here’ (SEVENTEEN). 6. Vultures 1 (¥$: Ye & Ty Dolla $ign). 7. Dangerous: The Double Album (Morgan Wallen). 8. Cowboy Carter (Beyonce). 9. Stick Season (Noah Kahan). 10. SOS (SZA). 11. Fireworks & Rollerblades (Benson Boone). 12. Zach Bryan (Zach Bryan). 13. Eternal Sunshine (Ariana Grande). 14. We Still Don't Trust You (Future & Metro Boomin). 15. The Diamond Collection (Post Malone). 16. American Heartbreak (Zach Bryan). 17. Guts (Olivia Rodrigo). 18. DAMN. (Kendrick Lamar). 19. Lover (Taylor Swift). 20. For All The Dogs (Drake).
• From the Sports Desk… we inch closer and closer to the finals in both the NBA and NHL playoffs.
• In the NBA: the Thunder and Timberwolves played a super tight game, which still ended in OKC winning 128-126 and grabbing a 3-1 lead in the series. They’re a win away from the NBA finals.
• A side note: no matter who wins the NBA championship this year between Indiana, New York, OKC, or Minnesota, it’s going to be a team that has yet to win it in this decade.
• 2020: Lakers. 2021: Bucks. 2022: Warriors. 2023: Nuggets. 2024: Celtics.
• The age of the NBA dynasty seems to be gone, and perhaps that’s a good thing.
• In the NHL: the Hurricanes were on the verge of elimination, and instead shut out the Panthers 3-0. Florida still has a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. 
• Today in history… John is crowned King of England (1199). Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg (1703). First Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson (1863). The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A (1927). The 1,046 feet Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public (1930). The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission (1933). The Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, CA (1937). U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency” to deal with WWII (1941). Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census (1967). Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire (1996). Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot that led to the Oklahoma City bombing (1998). The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo (1999).
• May 27 is the birthday of businessman/philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794), journalist/activist Amelia Bloomer (1818), businessman Jay Gould (1836), police officer Wild Bill Hickok (1837), novelist Dashiell Hammett (1894), biologist/environmentalist Rachel Carson (1907), US vice president Hubert Humphrey (1911), actor Vincent Price (1911), actor Christopher Lee (1922), politician Henry Kissinger (1923), businessman/philanthropist Sumner Redstone (1923), author/screenwriter Harlan Ellison (1934), pianist/composer Ramsey Lewis (1935), model/actress Lee Meriwether (1935), actor Louis Gossett Jr. (1936), singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn (1945), bass player Pete Sears (1948), singer-songwriter Siouxsie Sioux (1957), singer-songwriter Neil Finn (1958), actress Peri Gilpin (1961), actor Adam Carolla (1964), MLB player Jeff Bagwell (1968), actor Paul Bettany (1971), rapper Lisa Lopes (1971), rapper André 3000 (1975), chef Jamie Oliver (1975), and NFL player Daniel Jones (1997).

Okay, time to jump into what will likely be some kind of work hell day. That’s okay. Might as well get the inevitable over with. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 26, 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 May 26, 2025, and it’s a Monday. It’s a holiday but I’m up and pretty much my usual weekday time. I have things I want to do and, as the saying goes, time and tide wait for no man.

• It’s Memorial Day in the USA.
• This holiday specifically honors the military personnel who died in duty. It’s not Veterans Day, which is a general holiday that salutes anyone who ever served in any capacity, living or dead.
• Most people seem to forget what this somber day is about, and celebrate by barbecuing and going to the beach and drinking beer and whatnot.
• Or taking advantage of retail sales. I’m not sure how those things respect the people who died fighting in wars.
• Over 400,000 American soldiers died in WWII just to prevent a fascist maniac from taking over the world.
• The price for keeping the world out of the hands of psychotic dictators is immense and tragic. If you want to honor their memory today, the very best thing you can do is to continue their efforts by not offering support to current maniacs.
• Let’s do some news.
• Remember last fall, when Dumples the Peace Prize Clown said he would stop the Russian invasion of Ukrainian within 24 hours?
• Or, if your memory span is a bit shorter, how about a week ago, when Dumpy was going to stop the war via a phone call with Vladimir Putin?
• Welp.
• Overnight, Russia launched the biggest drone attack on Ukraine in the more than three-year war.
• The Russian bombardment on Sunday night included 355 drones. The previous night, Russia fired 298 drones and 69 missiles of various types at Ukraine in what Ukrainians said was the largest combined aerial assault during the conflict. From Friday to Sunday, Russia launched around 900 drones at Ukraine.
• What has Dumpy done about it? He threatened massive sanctions on Moscow, but so far hasn’t taken action.
• He’s done nothing. Oh wait, I’m sorry; Dump wrote a social post. That should clear things right up.
• “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” wrote Dumpy last night.
• Let’s move on.
• As a preamble to this next story, I want to mention that there’s a right way to resist a horrible political regime and a wrong way.
• And as much as I understand the desire to bring harm to certain people for the apparent betterment of the world at large, it’s never the way that’s best in the short or long term.
• Federal prosecutors announced yesterday that Joseph Neumayer, 28, was arrested for trying to firebomb the U.S. embassy branch in Tel Aviv, and making threats against Dump.
• Neumayer was taken into custody in New York City by FBI special agents after he was deported from Israel. He’d traveled there in April.
• Without provocation, he spat at an embassy guard as he walked by and was able to flee as the guard attempted to detain him. He left his backpack outside the embassy after the tussle. A search of the backpack found three Molotov cocktails inside.
• This moron had posted on social media: "join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv. Death to America, death to Americans, and fuck the west."
• See, that’s the wrong way. Neumayer was charged with attempting to destroy, by means of fire or explosive, the U.S. Embassy. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
• FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that Neumayer's alleged actions were "despicable and violent" and "will not be tolerated at home or abroad."
• Hate to say it, but Patel is right. 
• As Isaac Asimov once wrote, ”Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” I’ve long believed that to be true.
• If you have strategic and nuanced skills like me, you can change the world while never lifting a gun or a knife. With the right strategy in place, the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.
• Still, come at me with violence and it’ll be the worst fucking decision you ever made. As another old saying goes, you can run up to me, but I promise you’ll limp away.
• Moving on.
• One group of immigrants who’ve been solid supporters of Donnie Dump are the 2.4 million Cuban-Americans. They’ve strongly backed him twice, and have long enjoyed a place of privilege in the U.S. immigration system.
• Thanks to Cold War laws aimed at removing Fidel Castro, Cuban migrants for many decades enjoyed almost automatic refugee status in the U.S. and could obtain green cards a year after entry, unlike migrants from virtually every other country.
• So imagine their shock when they found out that they, too, are in the crosshairs of being sent away. Yes kids, the leopards you voted for will also eat your face.
• Amid record arrivals of migrants from the Caribbean island, in March Dump revoked temporary humanitarian parole for about 300,000 Cubans. Many have been detained ahead of possible deportation.
• Among those facing deportation is a pro-Dump Cuban rapper behind a hit song that became the unofficial anthem of anti-communist protests on the island in 2021 and drew praise from the likes of then Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State.
• Eliéxer Márquez, who raps under the name El Funky, said he received notice this month that he had 30 days to leave the U.S.
• Womp womp.
• Or then there’s Tomás Hernández, who worked in high-level posts for Cuba’s foreign intelligence agency for decades before migrating to the United States to pursue the American dream.
• The 71-year-old was detained by federal agents outside his Miami-area home, accused of hiding his ties to Cuba’s Communist Party when he obtained permanent residency.
• Look… if you’re not white, straight, male, born in the USA, and have a certain amount of wealth, Dump doesn’t give a flying fuck about you.
• And in related news…
• The Dump administration’s move to end deportation protections for wartime allies who fled to the United States after the fall of Afghanistan has infuriated veterans of the 20-year conflict there.
• Those vets say the U.S. government is betraying a sacred promise made to some of America’s most vulnerable partners. They’re right.
• Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem announced the administration’s termination of temporary protected status, or TPS, for Afghans, exposing thousands, potentially, to deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as soon as July.
• The fear, veterans and other advocates say, is that anyone who returns to Afghanistan will face immediate and harsh reprisal by the Taliban, the extremist militant group that in 2021 overran the U.S.-trained Afghan military and toppled the government in Kabul.
• For those of you who don’t get it, let me be super clear: these Afghans helped out our US military, often saving their lives many times over. Now Dump and Noem are sending them away to be tortured and killed.
• Matt Zeller, an Army veteran who became a prominent advocate for America’s Afghan allies after his interpreter saved his life, stated, “If they attempt to deport the Afghans, you’re going to see actual physical conflict between veterans and ICE.”
• And no, I don’t support violence as a solution. But I’m not going to stop a Navy Seal or an Army Ranger or a Green Beret from doing a beatdown on some cowardly piece of shit from ICE.
• In fact, I’d get out popcorn and enjoy the show.
• Moving on.
• Over the weekend, an unruly passenger forced an All Nippon Airways flight from Tokyo to Houston to divert to Seattle.
• The dude attempted to open the plane's exit doors during the flight. Fellow passengers and flight crew members restrained him before landing.
• Obviously the guy was having a severe psychotic episode. He was transported to a local hospital for further treatment. But wait.
• While on the tarmac in Seattle, a second passenger became unruly and was also removed by the Port of Seattle Police. The two incidents are unrelated.
• Hey everyone. How about we all calm the fuck down, mmkay?
• King Charles III is arriving in Ottawa, Canada today. The reason for the royal visit? To underscore Canada’s sovereignty to Dumpy.
• Dump’s repeated statements that the U.S. annex its northern neighbor prompted Prime Minister Mark Carney to invite Charles to give the speech from the throne that will outline his government’s agenda for the new Parliament.
• For those who don’t know: the king is the head of state in Canada, which is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.
• So Dumpy isn’t just insulting Canadians by implying that the USA is going to take over their country; he’s insulting our dear friends in the UK as well.
• Stupid piece of shit.
• In other news…
• Since some of you are out at barbecues and get-togethers where food is being served, I advise you be a lot more careful about what you put in your mouth.
• The Dump administration’s anti-regulatory and cost-cutting push is unraveling a critical system that helps ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply.
• Case in point: Colton George is a 9-year-old from Indiana. He’d eaten salad that was tainted by E. coli bacteria, and it ravaged his kidneys and nearly killed him.
• It was actually a widespread outbreak of E. Coli, but most people have never heard about it. In what many experts said was a break with common practice, officials never issued public communications after the investigation nor identified the grower who produced the lettuce.
• Be extra careful, for yourself and your kids… because Dump and his gang do not care. The systems of government that always served us so well can’t be relied on anymore.
• And now, The Weather: “Dudu” by yeule
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s 60 years ago in late May 1965. Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. I won’t be born for another four years and 11 days. Where am I?
• 1. Ticket To Ride (The Beatles). 2. Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter (Herman's Hermits). 3. Count Me In (Gary Lewis And The Playboys). 4. Help Me, Rhonda (The Beach Boys). 5. I'll Never Find Another You). 6. Back In My Arms Again (The Supremes). 7. Silhouettes (Herman's Hermits). 8. Wooly Bully (Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs). 9. Just Once In My Life (The Righteous Brothers). 10. Crying In The Chapel (Elvis Presley With The Jordanaires). 11. Cast Your Fate To The Wind (Sounds Orchestral). 12. Baby The Rain Must Fall (Glenn Yarbrough). 13. I Know A Place (Petula Clark). 14. Game Of Love (Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders). 15. It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones). 16. I'll Be Doggone (Marvin Gaye). 17. True Love Ways (Peter And Gordon). 18. She's About A Mover (Sir Douglas Quintet). 19. Just A Little (The Beau Brummels). 20. Iko Iko (The Dixie Cups).
• From the Sports Desk… more playoff action in a couple of sports.
• In the NBA: for most of the game, it looked like the Pacers were going to take an insurmountable lead over the Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals. But New York came back from a more-than 20 point deficit, and won 106-100. Indiana leads the series 2-1.
• In the NHL: the Oilers gave the Stars a 6-1 beatdown, and went up 2-1 in the Western Conference finals.
• Today in history… England is left temporarily without a monarch after the death of King Edmund I in a street fight (946). Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city (1538). Montana is organized as a United States territory (1864). The Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last full general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, TX (1865). The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson ends with his acquittal by one vote (1868). Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (1896). The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles (1927). In the United States, the House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session (1938). In northern France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk (1940). The Beatles' ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is released (1967). Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first crewed moon landing (1969). The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972). The European Community adopts the European flag (1986). United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing (2004). Protests triggered by the murder of George Floyd erupt in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, before becoming widespread across the United States and around the world (2020). 
• May 26 is the birthday of singer/actress/musician Mamie Smith (1883), singer/actor Al Jolson (1886), photographer Dorothea Lange (1895), pianist/composer Ernst Bacon (1898), actor John Wayne (1907), actor Peter Cushing (1913), singer-songwriter Peggy Lee (1920), trumpet player/composer Miles Davis (1926), pathologist Jack Kevorkian (1928), singer-songwriter/drummer/actor Levon Helm (1940), guitarist/songwriter/producer Mick Ronson (1946), singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks (1948), actress Pam Grier (1949), physicist/astronaut Sally Ride (1951), actor Bobcat Goldthwait (1962), singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz (1964), actress Helena Bonham Carter (1966), animator Matt Stone (1971), singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill (1975), singer-songwriter Phil Elvrum (1978), NHL player Jimmy Vesey (1993), and NFL player Micah Parsons (1999).

As I said, I really do have today off. But I am going to go work out, because though my mind knows this is a holiday, my body requires various actions to keep it functioning as expected. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 25, 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 May 25, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I’m some guy in a bathrobe, and yet somehow I’m more trustworthy than some guy in a suit. If you think about it, a guy in a bathrobe has no reason to lie to you. I’m already enjoying my robe life as much as possible, and there’s no reason to be anything other than honest.

• I’ll start today’s column with a personal experience: Elon Musk got me out of bed at 10:41pm last night, so that’s another reason to be annoyed with him.
• I’d been working on music all day (more on that later) and found myself nodding off, so I had just gotten under the sheets at 10:30, and was starting to drift off when a very loud “BOOM-BOOM” rattled my house.
• I got up with my bleary eyes, and confirmed that the others in my household had heard it — they had. And that’s when I suggested that the double-whammy was the typical sound of a space vehicle reentering the atmosphere at supersonic speeds.
• It was something I’d heard a lot during the years of the Space Shuttle program, when it would land here in Southern California at Edwards Air Force Base.
• I went back to sleep, but sure enough, this morning I saw that a SpaceX Dragon was the culprit. Fuck you, Elon. Land your shit at a decent hour.
• Let’s do some news.
• Today marks five years since Minnesota resident George Floyd was murdered by former police officer Derek Chauvin on the streets of Minneapolis.
• It was May 25, 2020. the world was already in the midst of the worst parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. And then for 9 minutes and 29 seconds Chauvin pressed his knee and the weight of his body against Floyd’s neck.
• People in the streets watched as two officers held the unarmed, handcuffed Black man down. A third monitored the crowd that was stunned by what it witnessed. 
• Floyd was murdered at age 46, ten years younger than I am now.
• We all know what followed. In Minneapolis, people filled with helpless rage and the need for any kind of justice burned buildings and cars. The BLM protests hit nearly every major city across the country, though most were largely peaceful.
• Floyd’s murder prompted outraged responses at the time from politicians, businesses, schools, and other institutions nationwide, with vows to deal with America’s deep-seated racial injustices.
• Companies pledged more than $66 billion for racial equity initiatives. Cries for police reform were thrust into the forefront. It almost looked, for awhile, that something good could come from this horrifying event.
• That was then. Today, many of those same lawmakers, companies, and institutions have pulled back from those commitments. Why?
• Because Donald Trump hates anyone who isn’t white, and has made it part of US policy to not only end all of widespread initiatives announced in Floyd’s name, but to actively battle against any initiative that promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion of people regardless of race or sex.
• So that’s where it stands today, five years later. Will things get better? Yes. Slowly, over the long term, the human species has become more accepting of the differences between us.
• But there will always be high points and low points in that slow climb toward enlightenment and growth.
• One of those low points happened this past week, when the Dump administration chose to dismiss lawsuits and drop accountability agreements with police departments.
• As I previously mentioned, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it would drop proposed consent decrees with Minneapolis and Louisville, and end investigations into police departments in Phoenix, Trenton, Memphis, Oklahoma City, and elsewhere.
• Long story short is that those efforts to help protect people’s civil rights and other unconstitutional acts from malicious law enforcement — including all acts of excessive use of force — weren’t just put in place to help Black Americans. They are there to help us all.
• Moving on.
• I think it’s safe to say that Harvard University has a strong chance to prevail in its immigration battle with Drump over the right to enroll international students.
• A reminder, if you missed it. On May 22, DHS Secretary and puppy murderer Kristi Noem sent a letter to Harvard: “I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program [SEVP] certification is revoked.”
• Without the certification, a school cannot enroll international students.
• The high-profile action against Harvard came as Dumpy’s nominee for director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said he would eliminate Optional Practical Training and STEM OPT, another measure educators warn could cause international student enrollment at U.S. universities to plummet.
• What is SEVP? Enacted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the SEVP certification process encourages schools to report when students dropped out or no longer maintained a required courseload, and to remove fraudulent or illegitimate schools.
• But the rules were never intended to be used to punish universities for not complying with unrelated demands by ending their ability to enroll international students.
• From a legal standpoint, Harvard’s strongest argument may be that DHS did not follow its own regulations in decertifying the university, which would violate the Administrative Procedure Act.
• Congress passed the APA to prevent federal agencies from operating in an arbitrary and capricious manner, which is precisely what the Dump administration is doing.
• And how about Dumpy himself? What are his justifications for singling out Harvard, which is not only one of the most respected educational institutions in the USA but in the entire world? A school that is notoriously difficult to get into, and only accepts a tiny fraction of the top students on the planet?
• When a reporter asked why Dump wouldn’t want the “best and brightest from around the world to come to Harvard,” he snapped back by making up some bullshit, as he does.
• Dump said, “A lot of the people need remedial math. The students can’t add two and two and they go to Harvard. So why would they get in?”
• If you sense there’s some personal vendetta against this specific school in regard to Dumpy, you’re right: they didn’t accept his son Barron.
• So, I issue a simple challenge to Donald John Trump: take an SAT or similar test that millions of American teenagers take every year. See if your score would allow you to get into Harvard.
• Fuck, see if you’d get into a public state school, or a local community college, Donnie. Do it, you illiterate fuck. I’ll wait here.
• Moving on.
• It’s still another 18 months until the 2026 midterm elections, but the Republicans in Congress who are on record with their votes supporting Dumpy’s spending and tax cut bill and the potential impact of his erratic tariff policies are taking a big risk.
• And history is not on their side.
• The risky bet they’ve taken by putting all their chips behind Dump — who doesn’t have to worry about getting re-elected — is a massive swing in the makeup of the House and Senate, with a big portion of them losing their gigs.
• As we stated after Dumpy’s country-killing bill passed the House by a single vote on Thursday, it still has significant hurdles ahead. Senate Republicans have already promised to rework it before it goes back to the House for more bullshit to get to Dump’s desk.
• Those same Republicans know the bill could amount to the entirety of Dumpy’s ability to enact his cruel agenda this year and next.
• But in the bigger picture, it’s a huge political gift that Republicans have handed Democrats, if they can take advantage of it.
• The message is clear and simple: Dump’s bill gets boiled down to a single accurate phrase: “tax cuts for the wealthy, health-care cuts for the many.” It’s simple, easy to understand, provable, and true.
• And they know it. Republican pollster Whit Ayres wrote, “Let’s see. Higher prices as a result of tariffs, and millions of Trump voters losing their Medicaid-funded health care. I think even the Democrats might be able to do something with that.”
• Combine that valid perception with the historical fact that the party that holds the White House invariably loses House seats in the midterm following a presidential election.
• House Democrats need to flip just three seats to reclaim the majority. Frankly, I see scenarios where the flip is more like 40-50 seats.
• The Senate — also with a three-seat margin between the parties — will be more difficult due to the voting patterns in 2026, where there are currently more Senate seats opening in red states than blue states, and votes for senators are closely aligned with votes for president.
• But I can still see situations where Democrats gain 4-5 seats… enough to push control back to the their party.
• Again, all this assumes we get to vote in 2026. Paranoia aside, there are legit circumstances where the quickly-approaching end of democracy in the USA may be a legitimate concern.
• Let’s move on.
• Looks like Texas is going 100% anti-America by requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
• Yesterday, a Republican proposal cleared a major vote and would make the state the nation’s largest to impose such a mandate.
• A reminder: the Ten Commandments are from the Judeo-Christian religious texts, and the United States was founded on a concept of freedom of religion and separation of church and state.
• Forcing these specific religious concepts on children — who have to attend these schools by law — is 100% unconstitutional, and Texas’s new law will certainly be legally challenged as such.
• Texas’s Republican-controlled House gave its preliminary approval with a final vote expected in the next few days. That would send the bill to the desk of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has indicated he will sign it into law.
• Two other states, Louisiana and Arkansas, have similar laws, but Louisiana’s is on hold after a federal judge found that it was “unconstitutional on its face.”
• Moving on with a couple of immigration stories.
• Leonardo Garcia Venegas, 25, was at his construction job in Foley, AL, when officials arrived to arrest workers there.
• When Garcia Venegas began filming the arrests with his phone, Dumpy's gestapo knocked the device out of his hand, threw him to the ground, handcuffed him, and tried to arrest him as well.
• But wait.
• Garcia Venegas was born in Florida. He’s a US citizen. So he thought that would be easily proven when government agents took out his wallet and removed his REAL ID, which complies with higher federal security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses as well as identification.
• Then the piece of shit assholes claimed it was fake.
• It was not. Officials removed the cuffs from Garcia Venegas hours later — after he gave them his social security number, verifying his US citizenship.
• His cousin — also a US citizen — said later, “I feel sad because, even though we were born here, that doesn’t matter any more. To have our skin color has, apparently, become a crime. And it has become a crime deserving of this type of treatment — as if we were real criminals.”
• It is unclear whether the officials who cuffed Garcia Venegas were local officials, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, or other members of federal law enforcement.
• Why is it unclear? Because they send these goons into places with no uniforms or insignia identifying who they are or who they work for.
• Why would you run an operation like that unless some illegal shti was going on?
• Let’s do one more related story.
• Mexican superstar Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda had to postpone their concert scheduled in Arlington, TX yesterday.
• Álvarez stated that his work visa has been suddenly revoked, preventing him from entering the United States for the sold-out performance at the AT&T Stadium. The stage was already set for the show, and over 50,000 tickets had been purchased.
• Those who have already purchased tickets have been told that their tickets would remain valid for the rescheduled date, but refunds are available upon request.
• Álvarez had performed three sold-out concerts at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA last month, marking his first US shows in eight years. Now, it’s unsure when he’ll return.
• He’s one of many musicians who’ve been forced to alter touring plans due to Dump’s vendetta against anyone who’s not white, male, heterosexual, and cisgender. Or, for that matter, anyone who refuses to publicly kiss his ass, like Bruce Springsteen.
• FKA Twigs had to drop out of Coachella because of similar visa complications, and Bells Larsen wasn’t even able to apply for a visa because he’s trans.
• Wake the fuck up, people. Life will continue in this downward spiral until Dump and everyone who shares his beliefs are removed from positions of power.
• Moving on to a weird note form the Entertainment Desk, since we’re kinda there already.
• Yesterday, a power cut in southern France caused by suspected sabotage disrupted screenings on the final day of the Cannes Film Festival.
• About 160,000 homes in the city of Cannes and surrounding areas lost power when an electricity substation was set on fire and a pylon at another location damaged.
• They were able to finish the festival as planned using a backup power supply.
• But this was obviously purposeful and malicious. The first power cut occurred when a substation was attacked by arsonists in the early hours. Then the legs of an electricity pylon were cut, triggering a second outage.
• Several screenings were interrupted by the cut in the morning before festival organizers were able to switch to private generators.
• Hmm.
• And now, The Weather: “Susan” by Bleary Eyed
• Some of you may recall that I mentioned I was working on a new solo song last weekend. I spent all of yesterday getting it wrapped up… sort of.
• See, writing and recording music is a multi-faceted activity. Where my song “Sweet Aphrodite” is at now, is that it’s been recorded with what we call a “scratch vocal,” which is meant to be temporary until I go back and do it for real.
• But even as-is, it’s sounding really good. I look forward to releasing it once it’s done and mixed and mastered.
• From the Sports Desk… the playoffs keep chug-chug-chugging along.
• In the NBA: Game 3 of the Western Conference finals was somewhat different than the first two, with the Timberwolves beating the living crap out of the Thunder 143-101. The series is now 2-1 in OKC’s favor.
• In the NHL: the Eastern Conference finals game 3 was yet another with the clearly outmatched Hurricanes getting beat up by the Panthers, with a score of 6-2. Florida is up 3-0 and will be looking for a sweep.
• Today in history… The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw (1521). A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners (1738). Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ opens at the Opera Comique in London (1878). Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison (1895). John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching human evolution in Tennessee (1925). The Walt Disney Company cartoon Three Little Pigs premieres at Radio City Music Hall, featuring the hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” (1933). At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducts its first and only nuclear artillery test (1953). The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston (1953). U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces, before a special joint session of the U.S. Congress, his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade (1961). The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, is dedicated (1968). Star Wars is released in theaters (1977). The Hands Across America event takes place (1986). Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her 25-year run of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ (2011). Ireland votes to repeal the Eighth Amendment of their constitution that prohibits abortion in all but a few cases (2018). George Floyd is murdered by Minneapolis police office Derek Chauvin (2020).
• May 26 is the birthday of US speaker of the house/SCOTUS justice Philip P. Barbour (1783), poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803), actress Marie Doro (1882), aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky (1889), Burma prime minister U Nu (1907), songwriter Hal David (1921), actor Claude Akins (1926), NBA player Bill Sharman (1926), soprano Beverly Sills (1929), NBA player/coach K. C. Jones (1932), actor Ian McKellen (1939), puppeteer/actor/director Frank Oz (1944), singer-songwriter Klaus Meine (1948), singer-songwriter Paul Weller (1958), politician Amy Klobuchar (1960), actor Mike Myers (1963), actress Anne Heche (1969), NFL player Brian Urlacher (1978), and NFL player Cam Ward (2002).

It’s time to wrap this up and do things other than sitting here in a bathrobe writing this stuff. Tomorrow we’ll chat about the reason we Americans have a holiday weekend. Enjoy your day.