Random News: July 19, 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 19, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. I awakened pretty early for a weekend, but there’s a huge difference between waking up early because you have to, versus just waking up early because your brain and body were done sleeping.

• One thing that was proven this past week is something we knew all along: Dumpy’s worst enemy is named Dumpy.
• Think about it. He’s basically steamrolled over our entire system of checks and balances. None of the pushback that we’d have expected to function in previous administrations to prevent a fascist dictator has worked with this asshole.
• But he’s a weak man in his own way. His own ego gets in the way of what — for a smarter, stronger man — would be a constant string of successes.
• So it’s really no surprise that he’s been tripped up via his own actions in regard to his long and close relationship with disgraced former financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
• And ironically, if his own MAGA base — his most devoted and loyal supporters — hadn’t made the Epstein files so integral to the reason they voted for him, this would be yet another in a long list of things to sweep under the rug and move on, unscathed.
• But no.
• He tried all of his usual tactics. He claimed that the Epstein files were a "hoax" ginned up by Democrats. He tried attacking his own people, questioning the loyalty of MAGAs who continued to ask for answers about who was on the Epstein list.
• He called them “weaklings.”
• But none of that worked this time. So yesterday, he was forced to ask a federal court to unseal secret documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s case in an effort to put to rest for good a political crisis largely of its own making.
• We can predict what happens from here. Even if those records become public, it’s far from certain they will appease the MAGA faction who is enraged over Dump’s unfulfilled promises of full transparency.
• The final straw to force his hand was the Wall Street Journal publishing a description of a sexually suggestive letter that Dump gave to Epstein in 2003 for his 50th birthday.
• Side note: Dump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against WSJ and its owner Rupert Murdoch yesterday over the letter.
• I can tell you that this lawsuit will never move ahead in earnest once Dump realizes how damaging it could be to himself.
• Will the court release the grand jury materials form the Epstein case? I think Dump is counting on them to not do so. Courts are typically reluctant to release grand jury materials.
• Even with the Justice Department endorsement, it could take weeks or months of legal wrangling to decide what can be released and how to protect witnesses and other sensitive victim information.
• So the request itself buys Dump some time.
• But let’s say they do get released.
• That would almost certainly not satisfy his MAGA base, who are expecting some kind of list of wealthy and powerful people who were connected to Epstein and participated in the infamous actions of sex with children on his private island in the Caribbean.
• But why wait for those transcripts that may never come? The Dump administration could release other records right now if they wanted to.
• Dump’s team is in possession of thousands of pages of evidence related to Epstein. This isn’t conjecture; in February, AG Pam Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI. 
• And they offer no reason why — with victims’ names redacted — they won’t release that evidence, today or ever.
• And the MAGA world — most likely envisioning a long list of the liberal people they despise — is locked into the idea of that information coming out. Some of them probably also assume the list will fully exonerate Dumpy. Boy, are they in for a surprise.
• Anyway, as a result, some strange bedfellows have formed alliances to get to whatever they’re hoping is the truth.
• Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) — respectively two of the most far-right and far-left members of the House — are leading the charge for Congress to vote on publicizing Epstein-related records.
• And they’re not alone. Others who’ve signed on to co-sponsor the vote range from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and more.
• Nine Republicans in addition to Massie are currently in favor of a resolution to insist on full-disclosure. Even if it passes, it likely has no legal teeth. But it’s fucking fascinating to watch in real time.
• Let’s move on. There are indeed many other things than Dump’s Epstein debacle to cover.
• A story about the result of Dump’s immigration policies.
• There are now construction sites across the country who have everything needed to build traditional family homes. Everything, that is, except enough workers to build them.
• Sites that would normally see at least a dozen workers available are getting less than half that number. General contractors say that many of their usual workers are in hiding, fearing coming to work lest they get abducted by ICE.
• You should note, that number includes highly skilled workers who are undocumented, but also many who are in the country legally.
• Here in Southern California, the timing couldn’t be worse. The labor shortage comes while more than 12,000 homes destroyed by the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County earlier this year need to be rebuilt.
• According to a recent analysis, about 41% of construction workers in California are foreign-born. And a report in March found that a rise in deportations will deplete the construction workforce statewide. 
• And another way that Dump’s cruel policies effect you — even as a white American citizen who is presumably in no danger of abduction, imprisonment, and deportation.
• Construction companies report that with the reduced workforce, the remaining willing workers know their value, and are often charging double their typical hourly rate.
• I actually applaud this. But the result is that it’s going to cost new home consumers more.
• Moving on.
• In more immigration news, the USA is making deals that have resulted in more than 250 Venezuelans who’d been deported from the USA and  jailed at the notorious CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador being sent back to their home country.
• That’s being done in exchange for the release of ten American citizens and permanent U.S. residents who were imprisoned in Venezuela.
• One of those is Andry Hernández Romero, whom we’ve mentioned before.
• Romero is a gay makeup artist in his early 20s who’d fled Venezuela last summer and sought asylum in the U.S. He used a U.S. Customs and Border Protection phone app to arrange an appointment at a U.S. border crossing in San Diego.
• But once there, CBP saw a crown tattooed on each of his wrists that have the word “Mom” and “Dad.” They interpreted those as gang symbols, so they handed him to ICE who sent him to a detention center and then deported to be tortured at CECOT.
• Hey you alleged Christians. "Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39. You think Jesus Christ would be onboard with this shit? Frankly, and I mean this in the nicest way possible way possible, you’re all going to hell.
• Interestingly, those 252 Venezuelan men might have a new destination: the USA.
• Yup, after all that, Venezuela has agreed to permit them to return to the United States if ordered by a court. So you tell me, what was that for? What was the reason for these men to be abducted, tortured, transferred all over the continent at high expense, only to come on back?
• Your guess is as good as mine.
• Moving on.
• All reports from the more than 1,600 “Good Trouble Lives On” events across the USA indicate that the people are still very much engaged and ready to keep up the fight against Dumpy and his fascist ways.
• All events were very well attended, exceeding expectations.
• And, like the “Hands Off!” and “No Kings” protests that preceded them, Thursday night’s GTLO events attracted both veteran activists like me, along with people young and old who’d previously never felt a need to protest.
• There will be many more opportunities for us to show our resistance and unwillingness to go along with Dump’s racism, xenophobia, and utter lack of regard for this country’s OCnsitution or its people.
• Moving on.
• A fucking horrifying note from the Health Desk.
• I think most people understand what a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine is and at least sort of how it works. After all, the M is for “magnetic.”
• MRI machines use an incredibly strong magnetic field that allows it to producing detailed images that go far beyond what an x-ray can show, including soft tissue and more.
• So the one thing you can’t do is have anything metallic on your body while an MRI is operating. There have been many stories over the years of people who forgot to mention their piercings and such. The magnetic field is easily strong enough to tear a piercing from its tender location.
• But this week was probably the worst case I’ve ever heard of an MRI incident when a man in New York walked into an MRI room while in was in operation… while wearing a large metal chain.
• The 61-year-old was hideously killed by being magnetically sucked into the machine. On the long list of ways to die, that is nowhere near the top preference.
• Anyway, consider this a reminder to be super careful if you or a loved one need an MRI. Don’t do what that guy did.
• And now, The Weather: “The Villain” by Mal Blum
• RIP going out to Alan Bergman, one of the most acclaimed lyricists in American history, who died yesterday at 99.
• Working as a team with his wife Marilyn, he was a huge contributor to the great American movie songbook.
• Their songs included “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “In the Heat of the Night,”“The Way We Were,” and many more. They were nominated for 16 Academy Awards and won three: for best original song, and also received two Grammy Awards for “The Way We Were,” for song of the year and best soundtrack.
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s July 1982, and I am between the end of middle school and the start of my freshman year of high school.
• I am already training with and playing in summer league games for my high school’s basketball team. And I am… not great.
• How not great? Well, I’m a reserve shooting guard who rarely leaves the bench. My ball handling is atrocious, my shot selection is ill-advised, my rebounds are negligible, and my overall defense is suspect at best.
• However, I do practice and get better. Also, I start the season at 5’4”, and end it at 5’7”, which helps. But after my freshman season, I receive the Most Improved Player award from my team, which is cool. By the time I’m a junior, I’m 5’11” and much more athletic… but have by then abandoned organized sports to spend time on unorganized music.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 at the time.
• 1. Eye Of The Tiger (Survivor). 2. Rosanna (Toto). 3. Hurts So Good (John Cougar). 4. Hold Me (Fleetwood Mac). 5. Let It Whip (Dazz Band). 6. Abracadabra (The Steve Miller Band). 7. Don't You Want Me (The Human League). 8. Tainted Love (Soft Cell). 9. Only The Lonely (The Motels). 10. Keep The Fire Burnin' (REO Speedwagon). 11. Hard To Say I'm Sorry (Chicago). 12. Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me (Juice Newton). 13. Do I Do (Stevie Wonder). 14. Even The Nights Are Better (Air Supply). 15. Caught Up In You (38 Special). 16. Wasted On The Way (Crosby, Stills & Nash). 17. Any Day Now (Ronnie Milsap). 18. Take Me Down (Alabama). 19. Still They Ride (Journey). 20. Personally (Karla Bonoff).
• From the Sports Desk… um, golf?
• The Open tournament at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland is in full swing. Full swing. Man, I crack myself up once in awhile.
• Current leaders: Scheffler (-13), Fitzpatrick (-11), Li (-10), Cotterup (-8), and Hatton (-8).
• Today in history… The Great Fire of Rome causes widespread devastation and rages on for six days, destroying half of the city (64). The attempt to install Lady Jane Grey as Queen of England collapses after only nine days (1553). Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England (1701). Coronation of George IV of the United Kingdom (1821). The last great fire to affect Manhattan kills four firefighters and 26 civilians and destroys 345 buildings (1845). A two-day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, NY (1848). Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France (1903). Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland (1952). Joe Walker flies an X-15 aircraft to 106,010 meters, qualifying as the first human spaceflight under international convention (1963). Ted Kennedy crashes his car at Chappaquiddick Island, MA, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne (1969). The world’s first GPS signal is transmitted and received (1977). Opening of the Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union (1980). French President François Mitterrand reveals to U.S. President Ronald Reagan the existence of the ‘Farewell Dossier’, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development (1981). A faulty software update by CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity company, causes global computer outages (2024).
• July 19 is the birthday of Egypt sultan Baibars (1223), painter/engraver John Martin (1789), businessman Samuel Colt (1814), painter Edgar Degas (1834), accused murderer Lizzie Borden (1860), surgeon Charles Mayo (1865), animator/producer Max Fleischer (1883), politician George McGovern (1922), animator/producer Arthur Rankin Jr. (1924), businessman/engineer Gaston Glock (1929), tennis player/politician Ilie Năstase (1946), guitarist/composer Bernie Leadon (1947), guitarist/astrophysicist Brian May (1947), keyboardist/composer Keith Godchaux (1948), guitarist/composer Allen Collins (1952), businessman Howard Schultz (1953), actor Anthony Edwards (1962), Scottish prime minister Nicola Sturgeon (1970), actor Benedict Cumberbatch (1976), soccer player Nené (1981), and NBA player Adam Morrison (1984).

Good enough. I’m going to eat breakfast and drink more coffee and do things and stuff. Enjoy your day.