Random News: May 2, 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 2, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I like Fridays, or at least the concept of Fridays. My actual Fridays usually end up being horrendously busy and annoying in multiple ways. And yet, it is Friday, and I still appreciate it for the reasons that most of us do.

• A reminder: protests are happening across the USA. I’ll be heading to the streets tomorrow (Saturday May 3).
• Find a local event at maydaystrong.org.
• Let’s jump in.
• Someone eventually had to take the blame for Signalgate, the embarrassing series of events where a non-secure public communications platform was used for military planning in a group chat that included the editor of a magazine.
• And that person is now-former national security adviser Mike Waltz. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is taking over Waltz’s duties on an interim role.
• Waltz, a former Florida congressman, fell out of favor with Dump and his team with his shifting explanations for how the incident took place.
• At one point he said that the contact information from the journalist, Atlantic magazine editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, got “sucked in” to his phone and that he never met or spoke with Goldberg before.
• To try and save face, Dumples has now named Waltz as the nominee for United Nations ambassador. He’d have to get confirmed by the Senate for this new role.
• And the Senate Dems are relishing the prospect.
• “I look forward to a thorough confirmation hearing,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) posted on social media, linking to a photograph that showed Waltz holding his phone  with the Signal messaging app open on his screen.
• Hahahahaha! Zing!
• Also departing with Waltz: his deputy Alex Wong. No word on whether Wong gets some other cushy job after fucking up this one like Waltz did.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez ruled that the Dump administration cannot rely on the wartime Alien Enemies Act to detain or remove from the U.S. a group of Venezuelan migrants who are being held at a facility in southern Texas.
• Good. This is a big deal.
• Although Dump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act has been litigated in multiple courts nationwide, including the Supreme Court, Rodriguez is the first judge to have reached a final decision on the merits.
• Rodriguez was appointed by Dumpy in his first term. Ha ha.
• He said the rarely-used law can only be invoked when an “organized, armed force” is entering the United States, rejecting Dump’s bullshit claims that he can use it against alleged members of a Venezuelan gang.
• The ruling is a massive legal victory for the ACLU, which has filed a wave of class action lawsuits in judicial districts across the country on behalf of detained migrants.
• In related news…
• Also yesterday, Dumpy asked the Supreme Court to strip temporary legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans, exposing them to being deported immediately. A federal appeals court had earlier rejected Dump’s request.
• Dumpy and his Gang of Scum have been pushing hard to eliminate Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans. The status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.
• Dump wants to end TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians. Today.
• Let’s move on for now.
• Yesterday, Dumples the Uncultured Clown signed an executive order to kill PBS and NPR as he alleged “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.
• So yes, Sesame Street is an enemy of the people, according to Dumpy. They’re going to send Bert and Ernie to El Salvador, I assume.
• The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations.
• Fucking piece of shit.
• Speaking of more good things Dump wants to end…
• That fucking idiot announced yesterday that he wants to rename Veterans Day, a federal holiday on November 11, to “Victory Day for World War I.”
• He also said he wants to celebrate May 8, which is not a federal holiday, as “Victory Day for World War II.”
• This guy is an insane old man who babbles moronic random thoughts with no concept of the consequences.
• Side note: all federal holidays have been created by acts of Congress. 
• Congress originally passed a law in 1938 that November 11 would be Armistice Day, “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace.”
• Moving on.
• Some good news from the International Desk…
• Today, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency designated the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, as an “extremist endeavor.”
• You may recall that Elon Musk is a strong supporter of AfD — a political faction focused on anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant platforms. He declared in December that “only the AfD can save Germany.”
• And Vice President JD Vance denounced the AfD’s exclusion from German politics at the Munich Security Conference in February.
• Let’s move on.
• From the Health Desk… don’t call it a comeback.
• Here’s something that’s probably not on your radar: tuberculosis.
• Many mistakenly believe this pathogen was eradicated decades ago. It not only still exists but is thriving, especially in some of the poorest countries around the world.
• The ability to monitor this disease, save lives, and protect the health of Americans grows weaker by the day as the U.S. deprioritizes international funding to combat it.
• And earlier this month, a high school student in Joliet, IL tested positive for it.
• Since its diagnosis in 1882, tuberculosis killed more than a billion people — more than malaria, HIV/AIDS, smallpox, influenza, cholera, and the plague combined.
• And over a million people worldwide died from TB in 2023. Ten million had active symptoms the same year, including nearly 10,000 Americans, a number that’s been climbing steadily since the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Who’s job is it to protect you from a mass TB outbreak in the USA? Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
• And he’s too busy taking away fluoride from water supplies to give the potential outbreak any consideration.
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates nearly 13 million people in the U.S. have “latent TB infection.” Up to 10 percent will develop active TB if they aren’t treated.
• As cases of measles — which the U.S. eliminated back in 2000 — rise across America, we should be mindful that other diseases, like tuberculosis, are lurking around the corner.
• How to defeat this before it’s a problem here? Continue supporting measures to stop their transmission, both here at home and abroad.
• And now, The Weather: “hyperbole” by Adult Male Blondes
• From the Sports Desk… don’t worry, these daily reports on playoff scores for both the NBA and NHL will be done in just another… six fucking weeks??? Jesus.
• In the NBA: the Knicks beat the Pistons 116-113 in a tight game, and in the process win the series 4-2. The Clippers beat the Nuggets 111-105, forcing a game seven in that series.
• In the NHL: the Maple Leafs beat the Senators 4-2, simultaneously winning the series 4-2. The Golden Knights beat the Wild 3-2, winning their series 4-2. The Avalanche beat the Stars 7-4, tying the series at 3-3. And the Oilers have eliminated the Kings with a 6-4 win, taking the series 4-2.
• Lest we forget that other sports exist, here are the current leaders in MLB.
• American League: Tigers (20-12), Mariners (18-12), Yankees (18-13), Guardians (18-13), and Astros (16-14).
• National League: Dodgers (21-10), Mets (21-11), Padres (19-11), Cubs (19-13), and Giants (19-13).
• Today in history… Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason, and witchcraft (1536). The King James Version of the Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker (1611). King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America (1670). Cree and Assiniboine warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion (1885). The first game of the Negro National League baseball is played in Indianapolis (1920). The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin (1945). A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg (1952). The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City (1969). The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano in the Falklands War (1982). President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military (2000). Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks and the FBI's most wanted man, is killed by the United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan (2011). A pastel version of ‘The Scream’ by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for $120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for a work of art at auction (2012).
• May 2 is the birthday of composer Alessandro Scarlatti (1660), Russian empress Catherine the Great (1729), gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (1885), fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen (1892), actress Norma Talmadge (1894), playwright/lyricist Lorenz Hart (1895), pediatrician Benjamin Spock (1903), singer-songwriter/actor Theodore Bikel (1924), singer-songwriter/guitarist Link Wray (1929), singer Engelbert Humperdinck (1936), actor Lorenzo Music (1937), singer-songwriter Lesley Gore (1946), singer-songwriter Lou Gramm (1950), fashion designer Donatella Versace (1955), soccer player David Beckham (1975), race car driver Kyle Busch (1985), NFL player Pat McAfee (1987), NBA player Paul George (1990), singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus (1995), and British royal Princess Charlotte of Wales (2015).

That’s all for now. In addition to a ton of work and typical Friday stuff, I’ll be preparing for tomorrow’s day of social action. Feel free to ask me details. Enjoy your day.