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.

---

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.