Random News: June 6, 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 6, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! It's been a long and super busy week, and I’m grateful for the coming weekend.

• And it is my birthday. Happy birthday to me.
• It is also — by some strange twist of fate — the birthday of Kat Claxton.
• Here’s a story for you: she and I met in the early 2000s on a web forum (remember those?) with a focus on music creation and performance. And realizing that we both shared a birthday of June 6 was one of the reasons we started getting to know each other and then becoming friends.
• Despite sharing the date of birth, I am a year older than her.
• Here’s another age-related fun fact: I skipped Kindergarten. That was probably a mistake. Regardless, the result was that for my entire scholastic life, I was a year (or more, having a June birthday) younger than every one of my classmates.
• When I graduated high school in 1986, I had just turned 17 a couple of weeks earlier. Back then, I felt like being a bit younger was a detriment, and occasionally it was — like when everyone else got their driver’s licenses and mine was still a year out.
• But now, heh heh, I’m still younger than all of the now-old fucks who graduated in my class. Suck it, you elderly fucks.
• A Pride Note…
• Even if you don’t know a lot of gay people… you know a lot of gay people.
• And here’s the thing: the reason that you don’t know they’re gay is likely that you’ve made your feelings clear in some way or the other that resulted in the gay people around you being uncomfortable in sharing who they are.
• Because they believe you are a person who would react with fear or hatred or disappointment or revulsion at the fact that they’re gay. Why the fuck would they tell you about it?
• So these are members of your family, or coworkers, or neighbors. Stop saying you don’t know gay people. They’re all around you. You just don’t know that you know them, and that’s probably your own fault.
• Or, sadly, it’s the fault of someone other than you who went out of their way to hurt or belittle them, and they understandably developed mistrust of straight people as a whole. Can’t blame them.
• Well, lemme tell you something…
• I was very lucky. I grew up with both of my parents working in the world of fashion and apparel design and retailing. Many of their friends and colleagues were openly gay, and my exposure to gay people started when I was a small child as a result.
• So I never developed the fear that some people do who are insulted from the world around them.
• And then — because I grew up in the relatively liberal environment of Southern California — I was able to go to high school with kids who were pretty open about being gay.
• And they were cool people. I’m still friends with some of them today, 40 years later.
• Nothing in my experience with gay people in my life was negative. In fact, not to generalize, but most of them seemed smart and funny and interesting — three qualities that I enjoy in people as a whole.
• Let’s do some news.
• I got a huge birthday present yesterday afternoon, courtesy of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. One of my favorite presents ever, really.
• As I predicted a long, long time ago, the schism between Elon Musk and Donnie Dump widened into a chasm and then exploded into full-fledged hostility, and it’s glorious.
• Early yesterday, Dumpy questioned the future of his relationship with his billionaire buddy, saying he's "very disappointed" in the man who was instrumental in helping him win the White House and shaping the first months of his administration.
• ”Elon and I had a great relationship,” whined poor little Dump to reporters in the Oval Office. “I don't know if we will anymore.”
• Womp womp.
• The issue at hand: Elon hates Dump’s Big Bullshit Bill, but not for good reasons. He thinks it should slash far more from government spending, which is what he thought he was doing with his little DOGE advisory team.
• And the real reason he’s mad — his little car company will suffer as a result of removing EV car credits.
• And indeed, due to massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would lead to an increase of $2.4 trillion in total deficits over the next 10 years.
• Dumpy now claims that Elon was around for the whole process of crafting the bill, claiming he "never had a problem" with it until provisions dealing with electric vehicle subsidies were eliminated, threatening Tesla's business.
• Which is probably correct, per above. Dumpy whined some more. “I'm very disappointed in Elon. I've helped Elon a lot.”
• Then, the knife twist: “And I'll be honest, I think he misses the place. He’s not the first. People leave my administration and they love us. And then, at some point, they miss it so badly. And some of them embrace it and some of them actually become hostile. I don't know what it is. It's sort of Trump derangement syndrome, I guess they call it.” 
• Hahahahaha…
• So Elon couldn’t let that go. He posted on his little social network, “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in
• the Senate. Such ingratitude.”
• HAHAHAHAHA. Um… does that sound like an admission of the 2024 election being fixed? It kinda does, doesn’t it?
• Then Dumpy hit back…
• “The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it! Elon was "wearing thin," | asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!”
• HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
• And then Elon retaliated, posting…
• “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
• OH DAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMNNNNNNN
• And it was after that when Elon referred Dumpy’s threat to terminate his giant government subsidies, saying, “In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.”
• And almost immediately after all that, Tesla shares plunged as much as 18% in intraday trading — the electric car maker's sharpest selloff in almost five years — before regaining some ground to close down 14.3%.
• The drop wiped out about $151 billion in Tesla's market value. OUCH!
• Anyway, I think we’re about three posts away from these two mean girls that include lawsuits, death threats, election rigging proof, photos of Dump fucking 12-year-olds, and Elon being deported back to South Africa.
• As someone funnier than me wrote, “Honestly kind of fitting that this level of catty public breakup between two aging divas is happening during pride month.”
• Happy birthday to meeeeeeeeee!
• I’m not going to spend any more time for now going through the insults traded by the two oversensitive morons in this squabble. I just have to say, it was (and remains) the most entertaining aspect of the modern era of idiocracy thus far.
• For now, moving on.
• Yesterday, a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official detailed what she said were deplorable and unsafe conditions faced by ICE staff and a group of migrants with criminal records who were transferred to a U.S. military base in the African country of Djibouti after a federal judge blocked officials from deporting them to South Sudan.
• Melissa Harper, the No. 2 official in the ICE division responsible for deportations, revealed in a sworn declaration in federal court in Massachusetts that the detainees are being held in a fucking shipping container.
• What the actual fuck?
• The box they’re in is inside Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. Navy installation. Eight migrant detainees from Asia, Latin America, and South Sudan were flown to the base last month after a judge said they could not be sent to South Sudan without being given a chance to contest their deportation. 
• The concerns Harper outlined included inadequate security equipment, illness among government employees, and 100-degree outdoor temperatures. She detailed risks from exposure to malaria, nearby burn pits, and potential attacks from terrorists in Yemen, presumably the Houthis. 
• To be clear, these detainees were convicted of serious crimes and had been ordered deported from the U.S.
• But Harper said the detainees were placed in a shipping container at the naval base because it was "the only viable place to house them."
• She continued, "Within 72 hours of landing in Djibouti, the officers and detainees began to feel ill. ICE officers continue to feel ill with symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, fever, and achy joints. These symptoms align with bacterial upper respiratory infection, but ICE officers are unable to obtain proper testing for a diagnosis."
• So that’s obviously fucked up on many levels.
• More news from the Immigration Desk (and I wish I didn’t have to have an Immigration Desk)…
• Massachusetts high school student who was arrested by immigration agents on his way to volleyball practice has been released from custody after a judge granted him bond yesterday.
• As we mentioned not long ago, Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, came to the U.S. from Brazil at age 7. He was detained by ICE agents Saturday.
• After being released on bond, Gomes da Silva described “humiliating” conditions and said his faith helped him through his six days of detention.
• Gomes da Silva had been confined to a room holding 25 to 35 men, many twice his age, most of the time he was detained, with no windows, time outside, privacy to use the restroom or permission to shower.
• Active in his local church, Gomes da Silva asked for a Bible and was denied. He also related a story of how many of the men imprisoned with him didn’t speak English and didn’t understand why they were there.
• He had to inform some of them they were being deported, and then watched them break down in tears.
• In many ways, there’s no denying that we live in a bad, bad time.
• Up next, another immigration story — a follow-up on a more hopeful note.
• For the first time,  the Dump administration has brought back a deportee based on a judge's order.
• The Guatemalan man, who was wrongly deported to Mexico, was returned to the U.S. on Wednesday.
• Last month, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered Dump to "take all immediate steps" to return the man after he was placed on a bus and sent to Mexico, a country where he said he was previously held for ransom and raped.
• Murphy found that the man was likely to succeed in showing that "his removal lacked any semblance of due process."
• No doubt.
• Moving on to even more related news…
• Late yesterday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs blocked a proclamation by Dumpy that banned foreign students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard University.
• Dump’s proclamation, issued Wednesday, was the latest attempt by his administration to prevent the nation's oldest and wealthiest college from enrolling a quarter of its students, who accounts for much of Harvard's research and scholarship.
• Burroughs said that Harvard had demonstrated it would sustain "immediate and irreparable injury" before she would have an opportunity to hear from the parties in the lawsuit.
• Obviously.
• She also extended the temporary hold she placed on the administration's previous attempt to end Harvard's enrollment of international students.
• Good. 
• Let’s move on.
• Today is the 81st anniversary of something you know as D-Day.
• But that’s not the actual name. The codename for the entire Allied invasion of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944 was Operation Overlord.
• But the initial amphibious landing that involved the landing of 150,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy — the part we see in films like “Saving Private Ryan” and the like — was also not named D-Day.
It was called Operation Neptune.
• The assault took place across five beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. While the movies seem to depict American soldiers acting alone, that is entirely false.
• Major contributors included the United States, but also the United Kingdom, Canada, and other Allied nations. 
• The operation involved a vast seaborne invasion supported by air and land forces, with the aim of establishing a foothold on the continent and eventually defeating Nazi Germany. 
• The good guys won, but at a high price. Between all Allied nations, there were 226,386 casualties in total. Yeah, almost a quarter million young men.
Today, veterans gathered in Normandy to mark the pivotal moment in world history that eventually led to the collapse of Adolf Hitler’s regime.
• Many were there to cheer the ever-dwindling number of surviving veterans in their late 90s and older.
• The very best way to honor and respect both the living and dead who made huge sacrifices on D-Day is to continue the fight against fascism around the world.
• Those WWII soldiers — especially those who stormed the beaches — were the ultimate anti-fascist warriors in history.
• Back in the present, yesterday also happened to have a meeting between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Big Fat Orange Dumpy.
• Merz pointed out that the anniversary of D-Day is today, saying it was when "the Americans ... ended the war in Europe."
• And the Stable Genius responded, “That was not a pleasant day for you.”
• Merz politely corrected Dump, saying, “In the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship.”
• Fucking hell.
• Moving on.
• Initial claims for U.S. unemployment benefits last week rose to their highest level in eight months, a sign the labor market might be losing steam as concerns over tariffs take hold of U.S. businesses and consumers.
• New applications for jobless benefits in the week ending May 31 reached 247,000, up 8,000 from the week prior. The figure exceeded economists' predictions. 
• In the interest of fairness, overall filings for unemployment claims remain at historic lows. The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of May 24 was 1.9 million, down 3,000 from the week prior. 
• We can thank the remaining aspects of Joe Biden’s economy for that.
• Still, the uptick in initial jobless claims last week is hard to dismiss, as the climb could point to broader shifts in the workforce ahead of the May jobs report, to be released today. 
• In other news…
• Flying into D.C. for Li’l Dump’s birthday party? Better arrive early.
• Reagan National Airport will halt takeoffs and landings for several hours on June 14 to accommodate military flyovers and other events on the National Mall that are part of Dumples the Birthday Clown’s parade.
• Aviation officials have forecast disruptions for more than 100 flights and thousands of passengers.
• The birthday party is scheduled to include flights by 50 Army helicopters above a military parade featuring tanks and troops. The Army’s Golden Knights will parachute onto the Ellipse near the White House and present an American flag directly to the birthday boy. A fireworks display is also planned.
• Seems like a lot of stuff that could go wrong if not planned well. Hmm.
• The airport is expected to be severely disrupted between 6pm and 9:30pm. Customers with flight reservations for the evening of June 14 should check the status of their flights directly with their airline.
• And now, The Weather: “Return of Youth” by DIIV
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s early June 1987. I’m just wrapping up a disastrous first year of college at SDSU, where I spent the majority of my time taking bonghits and watching reruns of “Magnum P. I.” rather than going to class.
• I’ll spend that summer doing labor work for the City of Rancho Palos Verdes… often grueling physical work in the hot sun. I probably deserved that after not giving a shit about anything for the previous 10 months.
• Here’s what’s on top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time.
• 1. The Joshua Tree (U2). 2.Whitesnake (Whitesnake). 3. Slippery When Wet (Bon Jovi). 4. Look What The Cat Dragged In (Poison). 5. Girls, Girls, Girls (Motley Crue). 6. Tribute (Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhoads). 7. Graceland (Paul Simon). 8. Tango In The Night (Fleetwood Mac). 9. One Voice (Barbra Streisand). 10. Spanish Fly (Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam). 11. Licensed To Ill (Beastie Boys). 12. Into The Fire (Bryan Adams). 13. Duotones (Kenny G). 14. Jody Watley (Jody Watley). 15. Crowded House (Crowded House). 16. Sign 'O' The Times (Prince). 17. Trio (Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris). 18. Keep Your Eye On Me (Herb Alpert). 19. Invisible Touch (Genesis). 20. The Final Countdown (Europe).
• From the Sports Desk… game 1 of the NBA’s finals between the Thunder and the Pacers was last night.
• Shocking everyone, the Pacers beat the Thunder in OKC on a buzzer beater by Tyrese Haliburton with 0.3 seconds left in regulation. Final score: 111-110.
• Until that point, OKC had led the entire game.
• Indiana takes a 1-0 lead in the series that some experts predicted they’d lose in a 4-game sweep. Amazing.
• In more news via the Sports Desk… Aaron Rodgers is now a Pittsburgh Steeler.
• Rodgers, age 173 or so, plans to fly to Pittsburgh today and join the Steelers ahead of next week's mandatory minicamp.
• It was obvious that Rodgers intended to join the Steelers, especially after they let both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields leave as free agents.
• So now, we’ll see if he’s as terrible as he seemed in the past two seasons with the Jets.
• Today in history… Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire (913). The Young Men's Christian Association, aka the YMCA, is founded in London (1844). The First Battle of Memphis, a naval engagement fought on the Mississippi results in the capture of Memphis, TN by Union forces from the Confederates (1862). The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle (1889). The Chicago "L" elevated rail system begins operation (1892). Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike (1894). The original Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company (1925). U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1934). The United States Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway is a major turning point in the Pacific Theater of World War II (1942). Commencement of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history (1944). Black civil rights activist James Meredith is wounded in an ambush by white sniper James Aubrey Norvell (1966). Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut (1982). Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia (1993). 
• June 6 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer Regiomontanus (1436), soldier/spy Nathan Hale (1755), author/poet Alexander Pushkin (1799), pharmacist Friedrich Bayer (1825), physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850), entrepreneur David T. Abercrombie (1867), Indonesia president Sukarno (1901), MLB player/manager Bill Dickey (1907), Niger president Hamani Diori (1916), businessman Kirk Kerkorian (1917), singer Levi Stubbs (1936), singer-songwriter Gary U.S. Bonds (1939), bass player Tony Levin (1946), actor Robert Englund (1947), actor Harvey Fierstein (1954), tennis player Björn Borg (1956), comedian Colin Quinn (1959), guitarist/composer Steve Vai (1960), actor Paul Giamatti (1967), singer-songwriter/activist Zak Claxton (1969), journalist Natalie Morales (1972), NFL player DeAndre Hopkins (1992), and NFL player Kenny Pickett (1998).

Welp, that’s plenty. What am I doing today? I mean… not a lot? Working as usual. Having sushi with Kat for lunch, which we do every Friday throughout the year. But primarily being grateful to be alive and mostly well, and still — at least for now — being able to enjoy the freedoms that most of us take for granted as Americans. As Joni Mitchell once sang, “You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone,” so I try and appreciate those things in the present. That’s my birthday present to myself. Enjoy your day.