Random News: May 3, 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 3, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. At the moment, it’s dark and overcast and quiet here, and I”m drinking coffee and wearing a bathrobe, which is my preferred state for a Saturday. It won’t last long, though.

• I have to kinda hurry through this news for now; I’m heading out to protest in the damn street to help save this country of ours.
• You can still head out to a local event. They usually start at noon. Head to maydaystrong.org to see if there’s one near you.
• And I’ll report back tomorrow on the event I’m attending in Torrance, CA, which features guest speakers including my congressional Rep. Ted Lieu and She Na Na singer Bowser (he’s now a union leader).
• Let’s do the news.
• Yesterday, the Democratic National Committee announced the Fight to Save Medicaid, a pressure campaign that aims to derail the passage of Dump’s bill in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold only a three-seat majority.
• The plan targets Nebraska’s Don Bacon, New York’s Mike Lawler, and Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, who all represent districts that Kamala Harris carried in last November’s election. 
• Also in the cross-hairs is Tom Barrett, a freshman lawmaker whose district in Michigan went for Trump by only a slim margin.
• The DNC will organize “people’s town halls” in the four lawmakers’ districts this month, in partnership with its House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
• The party will also encourage voters to call and email the lawmakers to share their views on the bill, hold in-person gatherings, and post on social media, all tactics to which Democrats nationwide have lately turned as they hope to claw back power in Washington.
• Good plan. More of this, please.
• Under a budget framework the House enacted last month, the bill would reduce government spending by at least $1.5 trillion and extend tax cuts to the wealthy at a cost of $4.5 trillion.
• Medicaid, which provides health insurance to poor people and those who are disabled, would lose more than $800 billion in funding under Dump’s plan. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, could also be cut by more than $200 billion.
• More on that topic in a moment.
• Let’s head to the International Desk for a moment.
• For the second time in a week, Donnie Dump managed to lose an election for a whole other country.
• Today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has become the first Australian prime minister to win a second consecutive three-year term in 21 years.
• The losing opposition leader, Peter Dutton, had run on a platform that was similar to Dumpy and his boss Elon Musk.
• It didn’t go well. 
• The Australian Electoral Commission's projections gave Albanese's ruling center-left Labor Party 70 seats and the conservative opposition coalition 24 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, the lower chamber where parties need a majority to form governments. 
• Boom.
• Moving back to the USA…
• Yesterday, the Dump administration asked the Supreme Court to let the Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have access to the sensitive information kept by the Social Security Administration.
• The so-called emergency appeal to the Supreme Court stems from an injunction issued by a federal district court judge in Maryland who limited DOGE's access to Social Security Administration system of records containing the personal information of millions of Americans.
• U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander had concluded in her April decision that giving DOGE access to millions of Americans' confidential information violated the Privacy Act and a federal law governing the agency rulemaking process.
• Here’s a not-at-all Fun Fact: Elon Musk makes $8 million every day from his government subsidies. A senior citizen on Social Security makes $65 per day.
• And now DOGE wants to cut the amount of the elderly Social Security recipient. How can you possibly support that?
• And are you prepared to pay for your parents and grandparents to stay alive after Dump and Musk steal what little remains of their support?
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell struck down Dump's executive order targeting the prominent law firm of Perkins Coie, finding it unconstitutional and declaring it an attack on the foundational principles of the American legal system.
• The ruling is the first to permanently block an executive order issued by Dump punishing a law firm for representing clients or causes that he dislikes.
• ”No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies," Howell wrote.
• Dump has issued similar executive orders against several other prominent law firms that he views as political enemies.
• Three of those firms, in addition to Perkins Coie, have sued to challenge Trump's actions, and won court orders temporarily blocking enforcement of the orders. Perkins Coie's case is the first to be permanently blocked.
• Good. Fuck Dump. Fat piece of shit.
• Moving on.
• Let’s go back to Dumpy’s budget plan for a moment. It’s far too important for you not to understand what he’s trying to do.
• Yesterday, Dump released a budget proposal calling for a mix of cuts to domestic programs involving public health, education, and clean energy.
• Important side note, for those of you who didn’t pay attention in middle school: the president doesn’t make the budget. That’s what Congress does,
• White House budgets are purely symbolic and never become law as written. But they represent the president’s vision for spending and tend to influence the debate on Capitol Hill.
• Office of Management and Budget Director — and Project 2025 architect — Russell Vought said the proposal contains a 23% cut ($163 billion) in discretionary funding, and a 13% increase in military spending.
• How unlikely is it that Dump’s budget is worth more than toilet paper?
• This would affect funding legislation that happens after September 30, and is subject to the 60-vote filibuster rule in the Senate, meaning it would need significant Democratic support to become law in the Republican-controlled Congress.
• Hahahahahahaha… no.
• Think about it: Dump’s budget proposes a variety of steep cuts to well-known government programs, including cutting the National Institutes of Health by $18 billion, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by $4 billion, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by $3.6 billion.
• The budget also calls for various cuts to clean energy funding, education funding, scientific research and international aid.
• Let me think. Ah yes. The answer is, “Fuck off all the way back to Florida, Donnie.”
• Moving on.
• Dumpy’s support among one of his most loyal constituencies — rural Americans — is showing signs of significant erosion.
• Rural voters have long been a cornerstone of Dump's base, and any slippage in their support could have major implications for future Republican success. A weakening grip on rural America not only threatens GOP margins in key battleground states, but also signals broader cracks in the coalition Dump needs to push his second term agenda.
• He got 63 percent of rural voters in 2024. No surprise. I’d have assumed it was higher.
• But a new poll, conducted between April 21 and 23 among 1,439 adults, shows that Dump's support among rural voters is declining.
• Now just 46 percent of rural voters now approve of Trump's job performance, while 45 percent disapprove.
• The disapproval of Dump and his moronic policies is definitely going to increase as more and more Americans feel the pending effects of his horrific leadership.
• Let’s move on with some justice news.
• An Illinois man has been sentenced to 53 years in prison for the 2023 fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy.
• That poor little boy was stabbed 26 times and his mother more than a dozen in the October 14, 2023, attack inside their home in the Chicago suburb of Plainfield.
• Their landlord, 73-year-old Joseph Czuba, was convicted in February on multiple murder charges, as well as attempted murder, aggravated battery and hate crime counts.
• Czuba will definitely die in prison, and I hope every day in there is miserable for him.
• Let’s move on.
• We should mention Dumpy’s birthday party. It kinda makes me sick to think about, but we don’t hide from shit we need to know about.
• Yesterday, the White House confirmed that he intends to host a military parade for his birthday on June 14, which coincides with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army.
• Dumpy wants 150 vehicles, 50 aircraft, and 6,600 soldiers to roll through the streets of the National Mall.
• Dumpy’s birthday parade will also include re-enactors and equipment from conflicts including the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, both world wars, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, and the “Global War on Terror.”
• Re-enactors? What the fuck?
• The full cost of Dumpy’s little birthday bash is unknown, but is estimated at over $100 million. Can you imagine if he instead spent that money on Americans in desperate need of food, housing, and medication?
• In other news…
• You already know that Dump and his gang of evil are sending Hispanic people to a notorious prison in El Salvador despite being from other countries — or even from the USA.
• And now he has a place to send Black people.
• Rwanda's government and the Dump administration are discussing details about a potential agreement to accept deportees from the U.S., including Africans and other non-Rwandan nationals.
• Decisions on potential financial compensation for taking in the deportees and other details would be discussed within the next two weeks. A U.S. official and a Rwandan official both confirmed the active talks about sending third-country deportees from U.S. soil to the east African nation.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was actively searching for other countries to take in people expelled from the U.S. 
• ”We are working with other countries to say, 'We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings,’ adding that the "further away from America, the better."
• And now they get to decide and define who is “despicable.” Think about it.
• And now, The Weather: “Tether You” by Pry
• A couple of recent noteworthy RIP’s.
• Starting with Jill Sobule, a terrific singer-songwriter whom I had the pleasure of interviewing about 30 years ago after she released her hit song "I Kissed a Girl.” She died in a horrible way, in a house fire. She was 66.
• Jill was beloved among the community of performing musicians, and was an icon for young LGBTQIA+ women.
• Additionally, rest in peace to Ruth Buzzi, the actress/comedienne best known for her performances on the comedy-variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In from 1968 to 1973. She was 88.
• For that show, she won a Golden Globe Award and received five Emmy nominations.
• From the Sports Desk… it’s our daily roundup of playoff scores.
• In the NBA: the Rockets beat the Warriors 115-107, forcing a game 7 in the first round series.
• In the NHL: the Blues beat the Jets 5-2 in game 6, also forcing a game 7. Exciting!
• Today in history… Mayan king Bird Jaguar IV assumes the throne (752). A total solar eclipse is visible across northern Europe and northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within four minutes accuracy (1715). Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city after Congress abolishes the Board of Commissioners, the District's founding government (1802). American adventurer William Walker departs from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua (1855). Ireland is partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (1921). West Virginia becomes the first state to legislate a broad sales tax, but does not implement it until a number of years later due to enforcement issues (1921). The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to Blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable (1948). The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time (1952). Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (1957). The police force in Birmingham, Alabama switches tactics and responds with violent force to stop the "Birmingham campaign" protesters (1963). The first unsolicited bulk commercial email, which would later become known as “spam", is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States (1978). Margaret Thatcher wins the United Kingdom general election and becomes the first female British Prime Minister (1979). The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet (2000).
• May 3 is the birthday of historian/philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469), Israel prime minister Golda Meir (1898), singer/actor Bing Crosby (1903), playwright William Inge (1913), singer-songwriter/activist Pete Seeger (1919), boxer Sugar Ray Robinson (1921), singer-songwriter James Brown (1933), singer/actor Frankie Valli (1934), businessman/philanthropist David Koch (1940), MLB player Davey Lopes (1945), sportscaster Greg Gumbel (1946), politician Ron Wyden (1949), singer-songwriter Christopher Cross (1951), NBA player/coach Tyronn Lue (1977), actress Pom Klementieff (1986), golfer Brooks Koepka (1990), and rapper Desiigner (1997).

Like I said up top, now that this news is finished, I’m going to shower and dress, and soon head out the door to make use of my First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble and use my free speech rights as well. If you don’t use your rights, you lose them. Throughout history, this is always true. Enjoy your day.