Random News: May 24, 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 24, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. It's super quiet here so far today. It’s quite nice. Overcast, in a way that we here by the beach in Southern California call “May Gray,” which eventually transitions to “June Gloom.” If you want sunny summers, move inland. Anyway, I’m in my robe and I have my coffee. Lots going on in the world, so let’s get rolling.

• Let's start today with a reminder that on June 14, there are over 1,000 events scheduled across the USA to protest the fascist takeover of the USA by the Dump regime.
• It’s called “No Kings,” a nationwide day of defiance. It’s purposefully being held on the same day that Donnie Dump is forcing the military to have an expensive parade for his 79th birthday.
• Where are these nationwide events? Everywhere.
• Findlay, OH. Lexington, KY. Jacksonville, AL. Brunswick, GA. McKinney, TX. Perry, IA. Harrisburg, PA. Salina, KS. Hailey, ID. Los Lunas, NM. La Pine, OR. Rolla, MO. Ellsworth, ME. Concord, NC. And about a thousand more cities and towns, big and small, urban and rural, in blue states and red states.
• So many of you come to me all the time asking, “What can I do?”
• This. This is what you can do. Put on your big boy/girl pants, look at the map of events that I’ll include in the comments, and make a plan to attend in person.
• Scared? Don’t know what to expect in a street protest? Don’t know how to get involved? That’s what I’m here for, my peoples. Just ask me. I will walk you through any part of the process that confuses you.
• It costs nothing. It means everything. You don’t need a sign (though you can make one if you want). You don’t need a permission slip. You don’t need special clothes or slogans. You don’t need to RSVP. Just. Fucking. Show. Up.
• Let’s look at the news.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs temporarily blocked Dump from revoking Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students.
• Hours after the Ivy League school challenged Dump from targeting its enrollment, Burroughs agreed to grant Harvard's request for immediate relief and set a hearing for May 29.
• Harvard’s federal lawsuit accurately states that Dump’s decision to bar it from enrolling foreign students is unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House's political demands. 
• Perhaps most prestigious and respected school in the USA, Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, MA. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.
• Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the action against Harvard will "serve as a warning" to other universities.
• That’s how fascism and authoritarian dictatorships work. Choose one entity to punish harshly and use it to scare the others to get in line and meekly obey.
• Not in America, motherfuckers. We fight back. 
• Moving on with a quick question for any MAGA-types that are reading this right now. I know you’re out there.
• So you have an American company named Apple, and a South Korean company named Samsung.
• Both manufacture their phones in Asia. Samsung does in it their native South Korea, while Apple has been making theirs in China, and is apparently considering manufacturing in India.
• And this fucking guy who calls himself the president singles out the American company for a tariff on its product that is far higher than the tariff he’s imposing on the South Korean company.
• He gives a huge advantage in income and profitability to the foreign company while actively harming a beloved and iconic American brand.
• How the fuck is that making American great again?
• Let’s move on.
• As you know, that ridiculous “big, beautiful bill” to give tax breaks to billionaires and take away crucial services from millions of Americans passed the House only after Speaker Mike Johnson struck a series of back-room deals.
• Senate Republicans are now threatening to tear them apart. Ha ha. It’s looking like that shitty budget legislation is in for a major rewrite across the Capitol.
• The big fault lines that the Republicans in the Senate won’t accept?
• Sens. Hawley (R-MO), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) who have all drawn red lines on Medicaid benefit cuts.
• Tillis (R-NC), Curtis (R-UT), and again Murkowski sent a letter to GOP leadership warning against gutting the clean-energy tax credits that represent major investments in their respective states.
• And again, Murkowski along with Sullivan (R-AK), Graham (R-SC), and Tim Scott (R-SC) are balking at the bill requiring states to cover a portion of federal food assistance (SNAP) costs for the first time.
• And then there are the super assholes like Thune (R-SD), who claim that the spending cuts in the House version of the bill aren’t enough. He says he’s aiming for closer to $2 trillion in reductions, above the $1.5 trillion the House passed. 
• Or Johnson (R-WI), who’s pushing for a $6 trillion cut. Hahahahahahahahhaaaa sweet Jesus. But don’t laugh; he says he has the votes to tank the bill if it doesn’t go far enough, pointing to Sens. Lee (R-UT, Scott (R-FL) and Paul (R-KY) as allies.
• So I don’t think this bill will go through as-is.
• However, what has seemed to transpire on many previous occasions is that the spineless Republicans end up caving after their performative pre-vote protests.
• So we’ll all wait and see.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, scores of staffers at the White House National Security Council were abruptly fired without cause.
• That can’t be good.
• The cuts were made under Dumpy’s new national security adviser, Marco Rubio who — for unknown reasons — is also our secretary of state. That’s fucking weird, ya know.
• A former senior NSC staff member said yesterday’s bloodbath was “both a reflection of Trump’s paranoia that the NSC staff constitutes the Deep State, but it is also a very deliberate effort to kneecap the role of the NSC in generating interagency consensus. The purpose is to make sure there are no alternatives and no constraints to the president’s prerogative.”
• Sounds about right. Look, we told you that this fat asshole was a dictator. He even told you.
• Let’s get back to some good news.
• This week, Judge Susan Illston extended her freeze on Dump’s plan for mass layoffs and reorganizations at 22 federal agencies until a lawsuit against his administration is resolved.
• She said that Dump “likely must” seek approval from Congress before carrying out such widespread changes.
• Illston’s order also states that any federal employees transferred onto administrative leave as a result of Dump’s policies should be moved back to the status they held before being placed on such leave.
• Good. Suck it, Dump.
• More good news for us (and bad news for Dumpy)? All day long, please.
• Yesterday, Judge John D. Bates struck down Dump’s executive order sanctioning Jenner & Block, the second time a court has quashed one of Dumpy’s efforts to single out and punish a respected law firm.
• Bates wrote that Trump’s order was unconstitutional — duh. He said Dumpy was trying “to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers.”
• Thank you! Jesus, why is this even a question?
• Jenner and three other firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey — filed separate lawsuits in federal court, and judges in all four cases temporarily blocked most of Dump’s penalties for the firms.
• But nine of the country’s largest law firms reached “agreements” (aka bribery deals) with Dump, pledging nearly $1 billion in combined pro bono legal services.
• I would never, ever do business with one of those firms. If they wont’ fight back against Dump, why would I think they would fight for me or my business?
• Let’s move over to some immigration news.
• The Dump administration has once again been ordered to facilitate the return of a man who was wrongly deported to Mexico in February, after he told authorities about his fears of violence and torture across the border.
• This case marks at least the third time the administration has been ordered to return a migrant it wrongfully deported.
• The man suffered multiple violent attacks in Guatemala, and on his way to the US, he was raped and held for ransom in Mexico. A judge ruled he should not be sent back to his native country.
• Two days after he received status, however, the man was forced by immigration authorities onto a bus to Mexico, without having a chance to explain the nuances of his case or contact his lawyer.
• Last night, US District Judge Brian Murphy ruled that the man’s deportation lacked due process. 
• Murphy’s ruling came days after an appeals court denied Dump’s request to stop the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year.
• Fucking inhuman pricks. You know, life has a funny way of maintaining balance sometimes. Perhaps some of these men will one day experience punishment without the benefit of due process. It seems fitting from a karmic point of view.
• And now, The Weather: “Chevy” by Triathalon
• Some news from the Entertainment Desk…
• Yesterday, Billy Joel announced that all of his scheduled concerts up to early July 2026 have been canceled after a recent health diagnosis. 
• He announced that he was recently diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brian disorder that’s led to problems with his hearing, vision, and balance.
• I am definitely a person who appreciates Billy Joel, who turned 76 earlier this month, and I wish him well.
• From the Sports Desk… more Conference Final playoff action.
• In the NBA: the Pacers are now shockingly up 2-0 over the Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, taking both of the first games on the road. They won 114-109 in a hard-fought back and forth game last night, with 39 points from veteran forward Pascal Siakam.
• In the NHL: the Oilers blanked the Stars 3-0 in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. That series is tied at 1-1.
• Today in history… Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, is founded (1607). Peter Minuit buys Manhattan (1626). South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (1813). Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought” from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, MD, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. (1844). The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction (1883). The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field (1935). Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight (1940). The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland (1956). United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service (1958). Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, MS, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus (1961). Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel (1991). Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993; each one is sentenced to 240 years in prison (1994). Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party (2019). A mass shooting occurs at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, resulting in the deaths of 21 people, including 19 children (2022).
• May 24 is the birthday of Roman general Germanicus (15 BC), physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686), UK queen Victoria (1819), SCOTUS Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870), candy maker H. B. Reese (1879), actress Lilli Palmer (1914), politician Jane Byrne (1933), actor Tommy Chong (1938), singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (1941), actor Gary Burghoff (1943), singer-songwriter Patti LaBelle (1944), actress Priscilla Presley (1945), drummer Albert Bouchard (1947), guitarist Waddy Wachtel (1947), singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash (1955), singer-songwriter Larry Blackmon (1956), actress Kristin Scott Thomas (1960), boxer Héctor Camacho (1962), NBA player Joe Dumars (1963), actor John C. Reilly (1965), MLB player Bartolo Colón (1973), and NBA player Tracy McGrady (1979).

Okay then. Hey, it’s the Saturday of a three-day weekend! I’m going to do various fun things at various points. Enjoy your day.