Random News: June 4, 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 June 4, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. I awaken to a classic June Gloom weather pattern here near the ocean in Southern California. I always feel bad for people who come to beach in late spring/early summer, expecting bright blue sunny skies, and instead find themselves in Seattle.

• A Pride Note…
• Would your life be better, or worse, or the same, without the presence of LGBTQIA+ people?
• I have a factual and objective answer to that question.
• It’s worse. How do I know?
• Without a gay man named Alan Turing, you don’t have a cell phone, tablet, or desktop computer that you’re reading this on right now. Oh, and without Turing, the Allies don’t defeat the Axis powers in WWII, and you’re living in a dystopian Nazi hell.
• End of story. Let’s do some news.
• Elmo Muck is sad.
• He posted yesterday on his social network, blasting Dump’s tax cuts and spending plans — aka the One Big Bullshit Bill — that passed the House.
• Keep in mind that for a little while, Elon though he was the main figure influencing the budget. No, that was never going to happen. They just wanted his campaign cash.
• He wrote, “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
• Hahahahaha.
• White House press secretary Baghdad Bob — er, I mean Karoline Leavitt — played down Elon’s criticism.
• “The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” Leavitt said, adding that Musk’s post “doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”
• Oh, and speaking of that guy…
• Per a this morning report from — of all places — Fox News, Dumpy was taken by surprise by Elon’s betrayal, and is shocked and furious.
• Ha ha!
• I anticipated this inevitable falling out between these two assholes. I guess Elmo is just going to have to focus on making shitty cars and rockets that blow up.
• While we’re on the topic of that spending bill, which still has to pass in the Senate…
• Yesterday, Dump blasted Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) after Paul criticized the massive budget bill over its provision to raise the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars.
• Paul, a staunch libertarian, said that he is “just not open to supporting $5 trillion … in debt ceiling increase” that the Senate’s version of the bill currently includes.
• Dumpy lost his shit. saying the senator “has very little understanding” of the budget plan. And then Dump attacked Paul in more personal terms, saying he “never has any practical or constructive ideas,” adding, “His ideas are actually crazy (losers!). The people of Kentucky can’t stand him. This is a BIG GROWTH BILL!”
• Hahahahahahaha!
• This would be a good time to mention that today, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Dump’s Big Bullshit Bill will add $2.4 trillion to the national debt.
• I thought the GOP was supposed to be the party of small government and reduced spending?
• One other note about this idiotic shit.
• The queen of Idiotland — aka Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — admitted yesterday that she was unaware of a key provision in Dump’s priority legislative package when she voted for it last month.
• She wrote that she would not have backed the legislation had she known it would block states from passing laws to regulate artificial intelligence for 10 years. She said she would have voted no, if only she’d been aware of that provision.
• Do you know how she could have found out about that? By READING THE BILL THAT SHE VOTED FOR, which is literally her only job.
• Greene called on the Senate to remove the provision.
• Fucking hell. Let’s move on.
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to strike the name of pioneering gay rights activist Harvey Milk from one of its ships, orchestrating the change as Pride month celebrations take place.
• Is it a coincidence that he did it at the start of Pride? Nope. A defense official said the timing of the decision was intentional.
• I’m sure that he can’t wait for next February — Black History Month — to start removing the names of Black Americans from history as well.
• And in fact, he probably won’t wait that long. A list of other ships that Hegseth is planning to name is already out. Among them are the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez, and USNS Medgar Evers. 
• I’m not making this up. When we told you these white nationalist pigs were Nazi, you said to stop being dramatic and alarmist.
• Now what do you say? They’re eliminating anything that honors anyone who isn’t white and male and heterosexual.
• Go ahead and defend that. Give me literally ANY reasonable argument in favor of that.
• Yeah, I didn’t think so. Fucking Nazi pieces of shit.
• As you likely know, Milk was one of the first openly gay men elected to public office in the United States after winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated a year later.
• But before serving in public office, Milk enlisted in the Navy in 1951, and attended Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island. He served nearly four years in the Navy, and was discharged at the rank of a junior lieutenant after being threatened with a court martial because of his sexual orientation.
• The USNS Harvey Milk is one of several ships named after prominent civil rights leaders and activists. A new name has not been announced.
• Our governor Gavin Newsom had a good response.
• “Donald Trump's assault on veterans has hit a new low. Harvey Milk wasn't just a civil rights icon — he was a Korean War combat veteran whose commander called him ‘outstanding.’ Stripping his name from a Navy ship won't erase his legacy as an American icon, but it does reveal Trump's contempt for the very values our veterans fight to protect."
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the federal Bureau of Prisons must continue providing hormone therapy and social accommodations to hundreds of transgender inmates following an executive order signed by Dump that led to a disruption in medical treatment.
• Lamberth said in his ruling that a federal law prohibits prison officials from arbitrarily depriving inmates of medications and other accommodations that the bureau’s own medical staff has deemed appropriate.
• The judge said the transgender inmates who sued to block Dump’s cruel executive order are trying to lessen the personal anguish caused by their gender dysphoria — the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match.
• The Bureau of Prisons is providing hormone therapy to around 600 inmates diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The bureau doesn’t dispute that gender dysphoria can cause severe side effects, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
• Of note: Dump’s order also directed the Bureau of Prisons to ensure that “males are not detained in women’s prisons.”
• Yes. Dumpy wanted transgender women to be locked up with violent male criminals. You get the idea.
• In February, however, Lamberth agreed to temporarily block prison officials from transferring three incarcerated transgender women to men’s facilities and terminating their access to hormone therapy.
• Let’s move on, sorta.
• A not-at-all-fun fact…
• A study created by the UCLA school of law shows that 80% of sexual abusers in the USA are straight men.
• Less than 1% are transgender.
• 87% of them are white.
• 95.4% of them are United States citizens.
• So who is going to be a sexual abuser? Almost certainly not an immigrant or trans person, or a person of color for that matter, based on the percentages above.
• Instead, it’s a relative, a family friend, a clergy person, a school administrator, a neighbor… who, statistically, is a straight, white male and a U.S. citizen.
• In other news…
• Yesterday, the Dump administration announced that it would revoke guidance to the nation’s hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions for women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.
• You read that right. Dump wants hospitals to allow women to die, bleeding to death on the ER floor, rather than receive emergency abortions.
• That guidance was issued to hospitals in 2022, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upended national abortion rights in the U.S. It was an effort by the Biden administration to preserve abortion access for extreme cases in which women were experiencing medical emergencies and needed an abortion to prevent organ loss or severe hemorrhaging, among other serious complications.
• The Biden administration had argued that hospitals — including ones in states with near-total bans — needed to provide emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.
• But the Dump administration is no longer enforcing that policy. Women will now die in states with strict bans.
• These are your wives, sisters, daughters, and friends we’re talking about here. Have you no fucking heart?
• Moving on.
• Are you on a diet? Maybe you should be aware of its effect on your mental health.
• New research says that cutting your calories down too far could be linked with worse depression symptoms.
• A study published yesterday looked at data from more than 28,000 adults. People who followed a calorie-restrictive diet, particularly men and people with a body mass index considered overweight, were more likely to have higher symptoms of depression.
• Of note: quality of diet also mattered. People who reported a diet with more ultraprocessed foods, refined carbs, saturated fats, processed meats, and sweets were more likely to report higher levels of depression.
• Also, keep in mind that weight loss for people classified as overweight or obese was associated with reduced depression symptoms, due to physiological changes, improved physical mobility, or increased positive social feedback.
• But when calories are too restricted or not enough nutrients are being provided by a diet, there could be an interruption in physical processes that could lead to fatigue, sleep problems, and difficulty concentrating.
• So, like most things, it would seem that dietary control is best done in moderation.
• And now, The Weather: “Immortal Hands” by Stereolab
• Let’s do a chart.
• We’re going back to this date in 1959 and seeing what’s atop the Billboard Hot 100. I am exactly negative ten years old at this time.
Where am I?
• 1. The Battle Of New Orleans (Johnny Horton). 2. Personality (Lloyd Price and His Orchestra). 3. Dream Lover (Bobby Darin). 4. Quiet Village (The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny). 5. Kansas City (Wilbert Harrison). 6. A Teenager In Love (Dion & The Belmonts). 7. Tallahassee Lassie (Freddy Cannon). 8. Lonely Boy (Paul Anka). 9. Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) (Edward Byrnes & Connie Stevens). 10. Only You (Franck Pourcel's French Fiddles). 11. So Fine (The Fiestas). 12. Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home) (The Impalas). 13. Along Came Jones (The Coasters). 14. The Happy Organ (Dave "Baby" Cortez). 15. Lipstick On Your Collar (Connie Francis). 16. Frankie (Connie Francis). 17. Endlessly (Brook Benton). 18. Goodbye Jimmy, Goodbye (Kathy Linden). 19. I'm Ready (Fats Domino). 20. Bobby Sox To Stockings (Frankie Avalon).
• Relevant fun fact: a lot of people think of this period in the USA as an ideal time of patriotism and white picket fences and flag-waving, Bible-holding motherfuckers.
• But racism in the forms of lynchings and cross-burning and Jim Crow laws and open bigotry in hiring and housing and the like were prevalent, and no gay person in their right mind in 1959 could openly acknowledge who they were, because they’d get beaten by an angry mob and no one would give a shit.
• I just happen to note that some people in this very chart include Connie Francis (birth name: Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero), Bobby Darin (birth name: Walden Robert Cassotto), and Freddy Cannon (birth name: Frederick Anthony Picariello, Jr.). See, having “ethnic” names in the 1950s meant you had no chance of success.
• Just in case you thought things were worse now in America than ever. Things are actually improved, and we just won’t accept going backwards.
• From the Sports Desk… tonight is game 1 of the NHL’s Stanley Cup finals, with the Edmonton Oilers visiting the Florida Panthers.
• This is a repeat of last year’s championship matchup, in which Florida ended up prevailing 4-3 in the seven-game contest.
• The NBA finals between the Pacers and Thunder starts tomorrow.
• Also from the Sports Desk.. a heart RIP going out to longtime Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jim Marshall, who for decades held the NFL record for most consecutive games played. 
He died yesterday at 87.
• Marshall’s streak of 282 consecutive games played began from his very first game in the NFL in 1961.
• Despite being a worthy Hall of Famer, Marshall’s place in NFL lore happened in 1964 when he returned a fumble the wrong way in a game against the San Francisco 49ers, celebrating what he thought was a touchdown but instead was a safety.
• His career accomplishments far outweighed that gaffe. Rest in peace, good sir.
• Today in history… King Charles VI granted a monopoly for the ripening of Roquefort cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon as they had been doing for centuries (1411). The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their hot air balloon (1783). Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain (1792). Following Louisiana's admittance as a U.S. state, the Louisiana Territory is renamed the Missouri Territory (1812). Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, and gives it a successful test run (1896). Massachusetts becomes the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage (1912). The U.S. Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees suffrage to women, and sends it to the U.S. states for ratification (1919). The British Armed Forces completes evacuation of 338,000 troops from Dunkirk in France (1940). Japanese Admiral Chūichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1942). The Governor of California Jerry Brown signs the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act into law, the first law in the United States giving farmworkers collective bargaining rights (1975). JVC introduces its VHS videotape at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago (1977). The Tiananmen Square protests are suppressed in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army, with between 241 and 10,000 dead (1989). Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing (1998).
• June 4 is the birthday of UK king George III (1738), actor Dennis Weaver (1924), sex therapist Ruth Westheimer (1928), actor John Drew Barrymore (1932), actor Bruce Dern (1936), singer/guitarist Freddy Fender (1937), singer-songwriter/actress Michelle Phillips (1944), NBA player Xavier McDaniel (1963), actor Horatio Sanz (1969), politician Mike Lee (1971), actor Noah Wyle (1971), comedian/accused rapist Russell Brand (1975), actress/activist Angelina Jolie (1975), and UK princess Lilibet (2021).

Alrighty then. Plenty to think about, or — if you’re a strong person — act on as needed. I’ve got a ton of stupid-ass work to do today, so that’s where I’ll be contributing to society on this particular Wednesday, I suppose. Enjoy your day.