Random News: July 18, 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 July 18, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I stole that phrase, by the way, from the late and great David Lynch. Back when he did his daily weather reports for us in the LA area, that was his optimistic message each Friday morning, and I’ve continued his mission to start Fridays on a fun and happy note.

• Dumpy continues to lose his mind over the fils of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
• Bowing to pressure to do something other than deny that there was evidence relating to Epstein, or to claim that it was made up by evil Democrats, Dump has now asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to unseal pertinent testimony related to Epstein.
• Last night, the Dumpster wrote, “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”
• First, note the key language. “Produce” doesn’t mean “release.” And “pertinent” doesn’t mean “complete.”
• Was it merely coincidence that Dump’s announcement came hours after the Wall Street Journal published a report detailing a very interesting birthday letter that Dump sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003? I think not.
• Dump’s letter to Epstein depicted a woman’s breasts and a “Donald” signature in the place of pubic hair. It concluded with the line: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
• Hahahahahaha Jesus fucking Christ.
• Dump claims the WSJ report is “fake news” and threatened to sue the ass off the paper’s owner Rupert Murdoch. Snort.
• Anyway, I don’t need to tell you: there’s no way in hell that anything the Dump administration releases to the public will include any information on Dump’s personal involvement with Epstein or the children who Epstein procured for sex, or anything that could implicate Dumpy personally.
• That would never, ever happen.
• It’s very unlikely that the material gathered for E[stein’s federal grand jury would advance the public’s understanding of the case as it’s not a complete record of the investigation, just enough to get an indictment.
• So now, the Department of Justice is expected ask a judge to release additional material, which is typically kept secret — but despite Dumpy’s social post, it’s not automatic that a judge will release additional material that has been held back to protect victims and accusers.
• And in related news…
• House Republicans are escaping Washington as fast as they possibly can, hoping to avoid a possible vote on the Epstein controversy.
• The GOP lawmakers fear being cornered by an expected “discharge petition” that would force a House vote on publicizing Epstein-related records. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) launched the effort this week, meaning a floor vote could have happened as soon as next week.
• As we reported, Democrats have already forced Republicans to take tough Epstein-related procedural votes that have stoked a barrage of constituent calls into GOP offices, but they have not yet been able to force a clear up-or-down vote on releasing the Epstein files.
• Those GOP reps are pleading with Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise to cancel next week’s scheduled House session, and instead send members home for an extended summer recess once voting concludes today.
• None of them want to face questions at home about whether or not they have signed on to the Massie-Khanna effort.
• They’re also banking on your short-term memory, hoping the whole thing will have died down by the time members return to Washington in September.
• Relevant note: yesterday, the White House shut down the idea of appointing a special prosecutor in the Epstein case.
• We will, of course, be continuing to report on this topic as more events unfold.
• Moving on to last night’s nationwide protest event, Good Trouble Lives On.
• Along with many of you, I was out in the streets last night. I have to say that once again, the turnout for my local event was much larger than I anticipated.
• I figured with it being on a weeknight, with people just having gotten off work and such, we might get a couple hundred people there in suburban Torrance, CA.
• But no, there were probably closer to a couple of thousand. People are fucking fired up. It’s so good to see the involvement in activism at a time when our country needs it the most.
• Nothing special to report. I will say that the protestors were optimistic and determined; the people speaking — several being leaders at local churches and charitable organizations — were very good, and the support of passers-by with horns blaring and fists pumping was constant.
• I swear to you, when one unattractive lady with an ugly grimace on her face drove by giving us the finger, the whole crowd around me burst into laughter. Her’s was the only negative reaction I saw for the entire event.
• There were more than 1,600 of the GTLO events held in all 50 states last night, I’m glad I went, and I’ll gladly sign up for the next action event.
• Let’s move on.
• And now for some fucking unbelievable — and yet true — news about your rights being grossly violated.
• ICE officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States.
• The information will give ICE officials the ability to find “the location of aliens” across the country, says the agreement signed Monday between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement has not been announced publicly.
• The extraordinary disclosure of millions of such personal health data to deportation officials is the latest escalation in the Dump administration’s immigration crackdown, where he’s forcing ICE to come up with 3,000 people per day to deport, whether they merit punishment or not.
• So that’s fucking awful. I promise you that we’re only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of ICE, which is quickly growing to become the largest police force in the USA.
• Let’s move on with a fascinating observation…
• Never before has Donnie Dump or his administration been forthcoming about the health of the president.
• The only time in either of his terms that any health issue was openly addressed was when he got COVID (along with damn near everyone) in 2020.
• So it was interesting yesterday when White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went out of her way to announce that Dumpy is suffering from chronic venous insufficiency.
• Before you get too excited, it’s a very common condition for people over 70, and Dump will be turning 80 next year.
• It occurs when veins in the legs struggle to allow blood to flow back up to the heart. Many people had noted that Dumpy’s legs seemed even chubbier than usual in coverage form his appearance at the World Cup last week.
• According to Leavitt, there’s no evidence of more serious conditions like deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease.
• I am definitely not a doctor, but I do know doctors. They tell me that visible leg swelling to the degree that Dumpy is exhibiting means he's already at Stage 3 of CVI.
• Which would mean he’s been aware of this ailment for a good long while, and could mean he’s approaching heart failure.
• Gee, that would be, um, awful, I guess, maybe.
• But if I didn’t know better, I’d think that in any case, poor Dumpster is trying to score some sympathy points and to get people to stop talking about his connection to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
• In other news…
• Today is the day that the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline’s specialized services for LGBTQ+ youth has officially ended operations, meaning people contacting 988 for help no longer have the option to “press 3” to reach counselors specifically trained to respond to the needs of this group.
• Dump’s administration would rather these people die than receive the help they so desperately need.
• Many LGBTQ+ youth advocacy groups, including the Trevor Project, say the move to end the specialized services puts many young people at risk.
• We’re going to have a lot of work to do to restore the USA to its former glory once Dump is gone. But don’t worry — we’re going to eventually make it like he never existed.
• Moving on with an important story from what would usually just be the Entertainment Desk…
• "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," the most-watched late-night program on U.S. broadcast television and a frequent platform of criticism toward Dumpy, has been canceled by CBS/Paramount.
• After ten successful years on the air, the show will be retired and Colbert will not be replaced. New episodes will air until the end of the broadcast TV season in May 2026.
• The network claims, "This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
• That is a load of fucking bullshit.
• Paramount, the parent company of CBS, is seeking approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.
• And this month, Paramount agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Dump over an interview with his former Democratic challenger, Kamala Harris, that CBS's "60 Minutes" broadcast in October.
• So let’s be real here: Paramount is firing Colbert because Dump told them to. End of fucking story.
• Don’t worry about Colbert, by the way. He will have a plethora of options in terms of vehicles to continue his work.
• But it bothers me to live in a country where the most popular late-night show can be wiped off the map due to an oversensitive man-baby not being able to take being made fun of.
• I won’t be surprised if Dump goes after Saturday Night Live next.
• And now, The Weather: “my mind is a mountain” by Deftones
• Let’s do a chart.
• We’re heading back 30 years ago to the day, in mid-July 1995. Yes, 1995 was 30 years ago. You can deal with it.
• Me? I was 26 years old and working. Oh, and I was needing to move. My tiny apartment in Torrance that I shared with my then-wife was a shithole. Located alongside the 405 freeway, it was falling apart… plumbing broken, black mold, cracks in the walls form the Northridge quake that never got fixed. It was nasty.
• So that week, we went driving around to various areas we liked, despite not being able to afford most of our preferred neighborhoods. Seeing a “for rent” sign in a residential area of Redondo Beach, we stopped by and filled out an application.
• And we got the place, which is in the same neighborhood where I’ve lived ever since. We moved in on August 1. And though I’ve moved to a couple of different local homes on this block, I’m still here now, 30 years later.
• Here was the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at the time…
• 1. Waterfalls (TLC). 2. Don't Take It Personal (Just One Of Dem Days) (Monica). 3. One More Chance/Stay With Me (The Notorious B.I.G.). 4. Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman? (Bryan Adams). 5. Total Eclipse Of The Heart (Nicki French). 6. Water Runs Dry (Boyz II Men). 7. Scream/Childhood (Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson). 8. I Can Love You Like That (All-4-One). 9. Let Her Cry (Hootie & The Blowfish). 10. I'll Be There For You/You're All I Need To Get By (Method Man Featuring Mary J. Blige). 11. Freak Like Me (Adina Howard). 12. This Is How We Do It (Montell Jordan). 13. Run-Around (Blues Traveler). 14. Someone To Love (Jon B. Featuring Babyface). 15. I Believe (Blessid Union Of Souls). 16. Boombastic/In The Summertime (Shaggy). 17. Shy Guy (From "Bad Boys") (Diana King). 18. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (U2). 19. Every Little Thing I Do (Soul For Real). 20. I Know (Dionne Farris).
• From the Sports Desk… there are still weeks before the NFL kicks off again with pre-season, and the teams are in training camp right now. Is it too early to start speculating who might be good?
• Of course not. There are people who do this for a living all year long.
• The top of the latest power rankings are as follows…
• Yahoo Sports: 1. Ravens. 2. Eagles. 3. Chiefs. 4. Lions. 5. Rams. 6. Bills. 7. Commanders. 8. 49ers. 9. Bengals. 10. Chargers.
• ESPN: 1. Eagles. 2. Chiefs. 3. Ravens. 4. Bills. 5. Lions. 6. Commanders. 7. Bengals. 8. Packers. 9. Chargers. 10. Rams.
• Bleacher Report: 1. Eagles. 2. Chiefs. 3. Bills. 4. Ravens. 5. Lions. 6. Commanders. 7. Buccaneers. 8. Rams. 9. Packers. 10. Chargers.
• What’s fun is seeing how amazingly far off some of these assessments are once the season gets rolling.
• The first pre-season game is the Chargers vs. Lions, two weeks from today on July 31.
• And the 2025-26 regular season starts on Thursday September 4, with the Cowboys facing the Eagles.
• Today in history… A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome (387 BC). King Edward I of England — my 23rd great-grandfather — issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews from England (1290). Johann Sebastian Bach leads the first performance of his cantata ‘Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz’ in Leipzig (1723). The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time (1914). Adolf Hitler publishes ‘Mein Kampf’ (1925). Germany test flies the Messerschmitt Me 262, the first jet-powered fighter plane (1942). Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to war setbacks (1944). A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order (1966). Intel is founded in Mountain View, CA (1968). Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics (1976). A picture of parody pop group Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web (1992). The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history (2013).
• July 18 is the birthday of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552), marshal Virgil Earp (1843), gangster Machine Gun Kelly (1895), politician S. I. Hayakawa (1906), actor Hume Cronyn (1911), actor Red Skelton (1913), activist/politician Nelson Mandela (1918), astronaut/politician John Glenn (1921), singer-songwriter/musician Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1929), journalist/writer Hunter S. Thompson (1937), pianist Ian Stewart (1938), film director Paul Verhoeven (1938), keyboardist Brian Auger (1939), actor James Brolin (1940), singer-songwriter/guitarist Lonnie Mack (1941), singer Martha Reeves (1941), publisher/politician Steve Forbes (1947), businessman Richard Branson (1950), actress Elizabeth McGovern (1961), actor Vin Diesel (1967), NBA player Penny Hardaway (1971), baseball player Torii Hunter (1975), guitarist/composer Daron Malakian (1975), rapper M.I.A. (1975), NFL player Deion Branch (1979), actress Kristin Bell (1980), and sprinter Noah Lyles (1997).

That’s plenty of stuff to consider for the time being. I’ll do a more details blog report on last night’s “Good Trouble Lives On” event. For the moment, I’m just going to roll through a typical busy Friday at work. Enjoy your day.