Random News: May 20, 2025

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

---

Good morning. It’s May 20, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s already the 140th day of 2025. “Fugit irreparabile tempus” is a Latin saying that means "it escapes, irretrievable time.” It’s always true no matter the era in which you happen to live.

• Some big follow-up news from a story we reported not long ago.
• The charge against Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested for allegedly trespassing after he joined members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation to inspect an ICE facility, has been dropped.
• But yesterday, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was charged with assault after a skirmish with federal officers during the same incident at Delaney Hall.
• Dump’s lawyer-turned-interim-U.S. Attorney Alina Habba wrote on social media that McIver is facing a charge of assaulting, impeding or interfering with law enforcement, but court papers providing details were not immediately released or publicly available online.
• The prosecution of McIver is not only a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress; it’s all the more egregious because as a member of Congress, she has the right and responsibility to see how ICE is treating detainees.
• What it really speaks to is Dictator Dump’s plan to begin imprisoning his political opponents. This is simply a test case for him to see how much he can get away with.
• The prosecution is an infringement on lawmakers’ official duties to serve their constituents, and an effort to silence their opposition to a cruel and unAmerican immigration policy.
• McIver stated, “Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues to inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district. We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka,” she said.
• The confrontation on May 9 happened during a protest outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark. McIver was one of three Democratic members of the New Jersey congressional delegation who have repeatedly stated they were there to inspect the facility as lawmakers conducting federal oversight.
• A statement from Democratic leaders including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Reps. Katherine Clark, Pete Aguilar, Ted Lieu, and Joe Negeuse said, “By visiting the detention center in Newark, Rep. McIver and two other Members of Congress were upholding their oath of office. They didn’t assault anyone, but were themselves aggressively mistreated by illegally masked individuals.”
• Each one of these incidents of fascist behavior by the Dump administration might not seem like a big deal on its own, but much like the frog in boiling water, pretty soon the entire country is destroyed by the hands of authoritarianism.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumpy has decided that his most important way to focus his energies as president is to (drum roll) attack entertainers.
• Most recently, Dump has called for there to be “major investigations” into rock icon Bruce Springsteen and other superstar entertainers for their support of his opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election.
• Yesterday, Dump made baseless allegations about top superstars being paid to throw their support behind Harris last year, calling endorsements by Springsteen, Beyoncé, Bono, and Oprah Winfrey on behalf of the Democratic candidate “corrupt and unlawful.”
• Allow me to unwrap this for you: Dump can’t get anyone’s endorsement without paying them. Ergo, he assumes that anyone supporting his opposition must also be paid.
• He can’t imagine that we actually love our country in a genuine way, and no one needs to pay us to fight for it — and against him.
• This drives Dump insane. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to protest his fat ass out in the streets… and no one is being paid a fucking dime for that, either.
• And as a songwriter and performer of music, I am all the more inspired to create some more original songs to bash his sorry ass.
• What set Dumpy off on his new mission of whininess? It was Springsteen’s concert in Manchester, England last week, where he said onstage, “In my home, the America I love… is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.” The Boss gave a very similar speech at the second stop on his U.K. tour and seems likely to be offering a variation on it every night.
• Good. More of that, please.
• Moving on with some pretty shitty news, but that’s typical for the world in which we live.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court chose to allow the Dump administration — for now — to cancel temporary protections that have allowed nearly 350,000 Venezuelans to remain in the United States for humanitarian reasons.
• The ruling will have devastating impacts on tens of thousands of migrants living and working in this country. While protections for some Venezuelans will remain in place until September, the status expired for tens of thousands of others on April 7.
• As is typical when they act on emergency requests, the justices did not explain their decision, which will remain in effect while a legal fight over rescinding protected status plays out in the lower courts. The court said individual migrants may mount their own legal challenges if the government tries to deport them.
• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — a hero to freedom and democracy — was the only justice to say she would not have overturned a lower court decision that had kept the protected status in place while litigation continued.
• Dump’s justification for sending these migrants back to unbearable and life-threatening conditions in their home country is that they allegedly present a public security risk and were a drain on resources.
• It’s not just Venezuela, I should add. Dump is also seeking to roll back protected status for migrants from Afghanistan, Haiti, and Cameroon.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumpy was hoping that yesterday’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin would result in a Nobel Peace Prize for himself.
• But instead of an immediate ceasefire, the call opened the way for continued fighting while lengthy negotiations take place — much to the consternation of Ukraine and its European.
• Dump’s weak abandonment of new sanctions on Russia indicated that he may be stepping away from involvement in the talks. European leaders say they had originally been planning with U.S. officials to levy new sanctions on Russia if it did not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
• But Dump fucked that up. Everything he touches dies.
• Let’s just move on for now.
• The ever-insightful Donnie Dump Junior weighed in with his expert analysis of President Biden’s cancer diagnosis. Here’s what Li’l Dump had to say…
• “What I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???”
• Couple of things to unpack here.
• First, there is no “stage 5” cancer. That’s not a thing.
• Second, Dr. Jill Biden has her doctorate from the University of Delaware in education, not medicine.
• And finally, if Mini Dump thinks that everyone’s wife would know if they had prostate cancer, that’s because his women get inside his ass so often that he assumes everyone rolls that way.
• In other news…
• Sesame Street has a new home at Netflix, where the children's show's 56th season will air later this year. 
• Ninety hours of previous programming will also become available on the streaming platform, Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind the show, announced yesterday. 
• The new Sesame Street season will also air on Public Broadcasting Service stations and PBS KIDS streaming platforms the same day they air on Netflix. 
• I think this is a good idea under the circumstances that PBS could be suddenly eradicated by Dump’s fascist regime. At least there would be some platform for this essential kids’ programming to be aired.
• Let’s move on with some good news.
• Yesterday, Dumpy signed a bipartisan law that criminalizes the spread of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes and revenge porn.
• The bill passed the House 409–2 in April after unanimously clearing the Senate in February.
• Under the law, anyone who distributes intimate images of someone without their consent faces federal criminal penalties. The law mandates that social media companies promptly remove such content when alerted, and empowers the Federal Trade Commission to enforce it.
• The law comes amid mounting concerns over the weaponization of AI to create realistic but fake sexual content, often targeting women and public figures. The bill originated under the co-sponsorship of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
• Lawmakers from both parties have described it as a long-overdue protection against online abuse. I agree. It’s funny how when our government acts in non-partisan ways, good things happen.
• Maybe we can have more of that.
• And now, The Weather: “These Days” by Small Forward
• From the Sports Desk… a day without playoff scores to report! No games in basketball or hockey were played yesterday. What the hell are we going to do?
• First, let’s take a look at the NBA and NHL schedules.
• Tonight, the Timberwolves take on the Thunder in game 1 of the Western Conference finals, which should hopefully be an exciting matchup.
• Wednesday will have game 1 in the east, with the Pacers facing the Knicks.
• Same goes for the NHL, with tonight’s Eastern Conference finals game 1 between the Panthers and Hurricanes.
• And Wednesday’s Western Conference game 1 will have the Oilers at the Stars.
• Today in history… The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated (685). John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (1497). Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode, India (1498). Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas (1570). The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality in the American Civil War, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state (1861). Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets (1873). Cuba gains independence from the United States (1902). Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day (1932). The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz (1940). In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established (1949). Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias (1964). In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, by 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada (1980). First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier (1983). The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians (1996). Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege (2022).
• May 20 is the birthday of anatomist Hieronymus Fabricius (1537), architect William Thornton (1759), novelist/playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799), businessman William Fargo (1818), minister Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825), inventor Emile Berliner (1851), actor James Stewart (1908), tank commander Alexandra Boyko (1918), NFL coach Bud Grant (1927), NHL player Stan Mikita (1940), singer-songwriter Joe Cocker (1944), singer-songwriter/actress Cher (1946), music engineer/producer Andy Johns (1950), singer-songwriter Jane Wiedlin (1958), singer-songwriter Susan Cowsill (1959), singer-songwriter/guitarist Nick Heyward (1961), MLB player David Wells (1963), actor Timothy Olyphant (1968), rapper Busta Rhymes (1972), MLB player Jayson Werth (1979), and actor Jack Gleeson (1992).

Always lots going on. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, which is why I try and focus on the larger things that I think will most likely impact my fellow Americans and the world at large. Don’t allow yourself to give up. We are fighting this shit and mark my fucking words: we will win. Enjoy your day.