Random News: May 19, 2025

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s May 19, 2025, and it’s a Monday. I hate that feeling of waking up on a Monday and you immediately convince yourself that you have an awful day ahead of you. I mean, you might, but maybe get it a chance. Also, coffee helps alleviate that pointless negativity. At least it does for me.

• I’ll start today’s report with a rare bit of personal news: I wrote and (mostly) recorded a new song this weekend.
• And as it gets finished up and mixed and stuff, I’ll be glad to let you hear it.
• I haven’t truly released new music as a solo artist since my last solo album in 2009.
• But like I advised not long ago… there are no guarantees in life, and if there’s something you’ve been meaning to do — like writing a book or learning to sculpt or releasing some new music — there’s no better time than the present.
• Let’s do the news.
• Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
• They are hoping to be able to effectively manage the cancer. Biden is 82. The prognosis for men his age with his kind of cancer isn’t terrific.
• A relevant note from the Health Desk: prostate cancer is common, second only to skin cancer as the most common cancer affecting males. For every 100 males, 13 will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives.
• Though all men are at risk for prostate cancer, age is the most common risk factor.
• Some advice that I should follow as a guy in my mid-50s: if you’re a person who has a prostate, you should get it checked if you’re over 50 — something I’ve been putting off but now am more strongly considering.
• The MAGA world is already politicizing Biden’s illness, with some pushing conspiracy theories that Biden “must have known” years earlier about his cancer.
• I can tell you on a very personal basis that it doesn’t always work that way. My mom received her cancer diagnosis in December 2022. She was dead in February 2023.
• A neighbor and friend of nine received her diagnosis and died two weeks later. Stop comparing bullshit that you have no fucking clue about, or assuming that all medical conditions progress the same way at the same rate.
• They do not. Best wishes to President Biden.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumpy the Diplomacy Clown is on the phone right now with Vladimir Putin. They were scheduled to chat about the war in Ukraine at 10am ET, and Dumpy will then talk with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders.
• I truly wish him luck. If there’s anything he can say to Putin without being made to look like a complete idiot — like if Dump announces an end to hostilities and then Putin bombs the fuck our of Kiev afterward — I hope it works out for the best for the Ukrainian people.
• Moving on.
• Late last night, Republican deficit hawks allowed Dumpy’s bill of legislative priorities to advance out of the House Budget Committee in an unusual vote on Sunday.
• After gaveling in after 10pm last night, the committee voted 17-16 to advance the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which would extend Dump’s tax cuts while slashing Medicaid and food assistance programs.
• The four Republican holdouts who had tanked the vote on Friday — Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Chip Roy (R-TX), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Josh Brecheen (R-OK) — voted present to allow the bill to go forward, with Roy revealing that there was progress on moving up the start date for new Medicaid work requirements and speeding up the phase-out of green energy incentives.
• The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would cause at least 10.3 million people to lose Medicaid coverage. That’s the minimal estimate; the actual effect will be much worse. 
• The bill, as currently written, punishes Medicaid recipients who are unable to comply with strict work reporting requirements and redetermination reviews, risking coverage loss for procedural reasons.
• It also blocks federal rules designed to make Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) applications simpler and more accessible for eligible individuals, primarily children, older people, and people with disabilities.
• These cruel fucking assholes.
• No issue has plagued House Republicans more than federal spending. Speaker Mike Johnson repeatedly was forced to rely on Democrats to fund the government last term; his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted in part due to disputes over spending.
• Between the new spending and the lost tax revenue, the measure would increase the nation’s $36.2 trillion debt by as much as $3.3 trillion over the next decade.
• I thought the conservatives weren’t against piling up our national debt? Oh well, guess it’s okay when Dumpy does it.
• And in the here-and-now, Dump’s bill is the most massive transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich in the history of the country.
• Moving on to some news from the International Desk.
• Romania has a new president — and it’s the liberal, pro-EU mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan.
• He fought off a strong challenge from a Romanian right-wing nationalist to win the presidency after months of political turbulence. Every victory in the world over the far right is good for the entire world.
• More than 11.6 million Romanians voted in yesterday’s run-off, and Dan won the support of more than 54% of them.
• Dan is super smart. He earned international acclaim in his youth as a mathematician, securing gold medals at the 1987 and 1988 International Mathematical Olympiads.
• He studied mathematics at the University of Bucharest and then moved to France, where he obtained a master's degree from École normale supérieure and a PhD from Paris 13 University. 
• Dan campaigned on fighting corruption and maintaining support for their country’s northern neighbor Ukraine, while his asshole opponent Simion attacked the EU and called for cutting aid to Kyiv.
• Moving on to some news from the Financial Desk.
• U.S. stocks are drifting lower, while U.S. bonds and the value of the U.S. dollar are falling more sharply this morning following the latest reminder that the U.S government seems to be hurtling toward an unsustainable mountain of debt.
• Moody’s Ratings became the last of the three major credit-rating agencies to say the U.S. federal government no longer deserves a top-tier “AAA” rating.
• Moody’s pointed to how the U.S. government continues to borrow more and more money to pay for its expenses, with political bickering making it difficult to either rein in Washington’s spending or raise its revenue in order to get its ballooning debt under more control.
• That’s fucking great. Look, we did try and tell you this stuff would happen. It doesn’t make it any better, but you were indeed warned and some of your voted for Donnie Dump anyway.
• Now you live (or die) with the consequences.
• And now, The Weather: “Bird on a Swing” by Cory Hanson
• Some news from the Entertainment Desk.
• Zak Starkey has been the drummer of The Who for nearly 30 years. He’s also — if you were unaware — the son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, aka Richard Starkey.
• And after firing and re-hiring Starkey in April, The Who have finally confirmed, again, that Zak is no longer part of the band.
• The news came via an Instagram post from Pete Townshend that reads “After many years of great work on drums from Zak, the time has come for change.”
• The Who are 80+ years old. Pete actually turned 80 today, coincidentally. If they can’t handle having a rock drummer, they should hang it up and enjoy their retirement. It’s ridiculous to get rid of Zak in the manner they did.
• And wasn’t it The Who who famously sang, “I hope I die before I get old?” Too late, guys.
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s May 1977. I am in third grade, and pop music is all over the damn place (in a good way). Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart at the time.
• 1. When I Need You (Leo Sayer). 2. Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder). 3. Hotel California (Eagles). 4. Southern Nights (Glen Campbell). 5. Couldn't Get It Right (Climax Blues Band). 6. Right Time Of The Night (Jennifer Warnes). 7. So In To You (Atlanta Rhythm Section). 8. I'm Your Boogie Man (KC And The Sunshine Band). 9. Got To Give It Up (Pt. I) (Marvin Gaye). 10. I Wanna Get Next To You (Rose Royce). 11. Lido Shuffle (Boz Scaggs). 12. Lucille (Kenny Rogers). 13. Can't Stop Dancin' (Captain & Tennille). 14. Dreams (Fleetwood Mac). 15. Lonely Boy (Andrew Gold). 16. Calling Dr. Love (KISS). 17. Hello Stranger (Yvonne Elliman). 18. I've Got Love On My Mind (Natalie Cole). 19. Feels Like The First Time (Foreigner). 20. Angel In Your Arms (Hot). 
• From the Sports Desk… the playoffs in both basketball and hockey only have a couple rounds left each.
• In the NBA: the Thunder eliminated the Nuggets with a dominant 125-93 game 7 win.
• We now have the NBA Conference Finals all set. In the West, 6-seed Minnesota will face 1-seed Oklahoma City. In the East, 4-seed Indiana faces 3-seed New York.
• Another lopsided Game 7 happened in the NHL, where the Panthers beat the Maple Leafs 6-1, winning the series 4-3.
• The NHL Conference Finals have 3-seed Edmonton against 2-seed Dallas in the west, and 3-seed Florida versus 2-seed Carolina in the east. 
• Today in history… Catherine of Aragon, age 13, is married by proxy to 12-year-old Arthur, Prince of Wales (1499). French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two kidnapped sons (1535). Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest (1536). Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale (1743). U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States (1828). Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the Mexican-American war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for $15 million USD (1848). The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration to limit the number of “undesirable” Italian and Eastern European immigrants (1921). Egypt announces that the Suez Canal is closed to Israeli ships and commerce (1950). Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus, though the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data (1961). Marilyn Monroe's sings "Happy Birthday” to U.S. President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, New York City (1962). The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1986). The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast (2015). The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is held at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion (2018). Iran president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian die in a helicopter crash (2024).
• May 19 is the birthday of businessman/philanthropist Johns Hopkins (1795), painter Walter Russell (1871), politician Ho Chi Minh (1890), activist Yuri Kochiyama (1921), murderous dictator Pol Pot (1925), activist Malcolm X (1925), NBA player Dolph Schayes (1928), journalist Jim Lehrer (1934), film director/producer Nora Ephron (1941), actor Peter Mayhew (1944), singer-songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend (1945), wrestler/actor André the Giant (1946), singer-songwriter Grace Jones (1948), bass player Dusty Hill (1949), singer-songwriter Joey Ramone (1951), drummer Phil Rudd (1954), keyboardist Martyn Ware (1956), NBA player Bill Laimbeer (1957), race car driver Dario Franchitti (1973), NBA player Kevin Garnett (1976), singer-songwriter Shooter Jennings (1979), comedian Michael Che (1983), producer/DJ Marshmello (1992), singer-songwriter Sam Smith (1992), and YouTube personality Jojo Siwa (2003).

Okay, that’s enough for a Monday morning. Ask any musician who has a regular income-based job how much they like pressing “pause” on a new song in progress after a creative weekend. The answer is “not at all,” but at least I have something cool to do on evenings and next weekend while I get it wrapped up. Enjoy your day.