Random News: July 2, 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 2, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. I slept so hard last night that it’s taking me awhile to remember who I am and what planet I live on. Guess I needed it. The sleep, I mean.

• Let’s jump right in.
• As expected, the Senate gave Dumpy everything he wanted and passed hi Big Bullshit Bill yesterday morning, minutes after I’d finished and posted my news.
• The final tally was 51-50, with three Republicans voting no — Rand Paul (R-KY), Thom Tills (R-NC), and Susan Collins (R-ME) — and VP Jedediah Dickless Vance there to break the tie.
• Is this a done deal? I’d say pretty much yes. The bill now goes back to the House, who will once again capitulate to Dump despite claiming that they have “concerns.”
• The House could return to Washington as early as today to begin consideration of the revised bill. But I’m positive they’ll pass it after some performative bullshit by a few of the Republicans.
• Despite that, you should take every possible step to let your congressional rep know your feelings on the Big Bullshit Bill. You need to do it right now. Tomorrow will be too late.
• Keep in mind that like the Senate, in the House Republicans can only afford to lose three votes. The BBB barely squeaked by with a single-vote margin the first time, and it’s only gotten more divisive since.
• Your message to them is simple: if they rip health insurance away from 17 million people and kick 11.8 million more off SNAP in order to shovel $4.5 trillion to the ultra-rich, they will LOSE THEIR FUCKING JOBS.
• Those reps need to get reelected every two years. They don’t have the luxe of 6-year terms like Senators.
• Flood their phones. Tell your representative that a vote for this bill is a vote to destroy lives -- and that you’ll remember it. Then send an email to drive home the point.
• And forward this info to friends. If you think your friends in swing districts already know, I can guarantee you’re mistaken. Don’t risk it. Reach out to them now.
• Already this morning, the House Rules Committee advanced the Big Bullshit Bill after an hours-long meeting, sending the legislation to the floor for consideration.
• The panel adopted the procedural rule in a 7-6 vote, with two Republicans — Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) — siding with Democrats against the measure, showcasing their opposition to the underlying legislation over deficit concerns.
• The full chamber must now debate and vote to adopt the procedural rule, which could get dicey as a handful of hard-line conservatives vow to oppose the effort. Ha ha ha.
• Regardless of the outcome, keep it in mind when these members of Congress vote to have you or your loved ones refused medical treatment. Or have your tax dollars — literally trillions of dollars in tax cuts — get used to buy big new yachts for billionaires while you struggle to pay your rent or afford medications or food.
• And a good chunk of the money is earmarked for building multiple concentration camps, which is where non-white people will be sent after being abducted form our streets. You just paid for that too.
• And the national debt now soars by nearly $3.3 trillion over the next decade. He’s not only making you pay for this; he’s making future generations pay as well. Long after he’s dead and gone — which really won’t be much longer, thankfully — Americans will still be paying.
• I know we’ve mentioned a bunch of rather nebulous facts about how the Big Bullshit Bill will impact people, but I think it’s important to be very specific at this stage, starting with how it will affect Americans’ health.
• The deepest cuts to health care spending come from the bill’s Medicaid work requirement, which would cut off coverage for millions of enrollees who do not meet new employment or reporting standards.
• There will be fewer health services, medical professionals, and even hospitals, especially in rural communities. Rural hospitals typically operate on thin profit margins and rely on Medicaid tax payments to sustain them. It’s likely that more than 300 rural hospitals — many of them in Kentucky, Louisiana, California, and Oklahoma — toward service reductions or closure.
• ACA coverage will become harder to get and keep. Policyholders will be required to update their income, immigration status, and other information each year, rather than be allowed to automatically reenroll — something more than 10 million people did this year. They would also have less time to enroll; the bill shortens the annual open enrollment period by about a month.
• Those on Medicaid will pay more to see the doctor. Medicaid enrollees often don't pay anything when seeking medical services because studies have shown charging even small copayments prompts low-income people to forgo needed care.
• Dump did this. Dump, with the help of 47 Republican Senators. Dumpy is pushing the House to quickly pass the Senate’s version and have the Big Bullshit Bill signed by Friday, July 4.
• Moving on.
• With some great news and a sign of things to come.
• Yesterday, Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist whose blend of populist ideas and personal magnetism catapulted his upstart candidacy, officially won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City by a significant margin.
• The race was called for Mamdani yesterday afternoon, shortly after New York City’s Board of Elections released its tabulation of ranked-choice ballots.
• It wasn’t close. Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, won with 56 percent of the vote, 12 points (!) ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
• Mamdani now moves on to a contested general election in November, where he will face Mayor Eric Adams (running as an independent); Curtis Sliwa (a perennial losing candidate running as a Republican); and Jim Walden, a lawyer also running an independent campaign.
• Mamdani is going to win this, and he’s going to win despite Dumples the Unconstitutional Clown, who is now questioning the candidate’s citizenship. You know, because he’s not white.
• Dumpy said, “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally. We’re going to look at everything. And ideally, he’s going to turn out to be much less than a communist, but right now, he’s a communist.”
• Like most things that Dumpy says, that means nothing at all.
• And, just FYI: Mamdani is not in the country illegally. He was born in Uganda to Indian parents and became an American citizen in 2018.
• Let’s move on.
• Some terrific news out of Wisconsin this morning, where the state’s Supreme Court struck down the 176-year-old abortion ban, ruling 4-3 that it was superseded by newer state laws regulating the procedure, including statutes that criminalize abortions only after a fetus can survive outside the womb.
• That ban was in effect until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide nullified it. But legislators never officially repealed the ban, and conservatives argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe reactivated it.
• Assholes.
• Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed a lawsuit that year arguing that the ban was overridden by abortion restrictions legislators enacted during the nearly half-century that Roe was in effect.
• He specifically cited a 1985 law that essentially permits abortions until viability. In any case, it’s a step toward reproductive freedom for the women of Wisconsin, and another sign that ever election at every level is important.
• In other news…
• Diddy got off.
• The verdict for Sean Combs came in just now. He was convicted on only two of the five charges, and acquitted of the more serious sex trafficking and RICO counts.
• He’s looking at maybe a 10-year max sentence (which will likely be less), and will serve maybe 2-3 years, I’d guess.
• I mean, look: we have a convicted rapist as a president. Women are never really taken seriously in this country.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta — along with 19 other states’ attorneys general — sued the Dump administration for violating federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials last month.
• Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the release of a dataset that includes the private health information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state, and Washington, D.C., to the Department of Homeland Security.
• Those states allow non-U.S. citizens to enroll in Medicaid programs that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars… not federal funds.
• So they took the private health information — including addresses, names, social security numbers, immigration status, and claims data — and released it to deportation officials.
• And now ICE will be showing up to arrest and deport these people because they got sick.
• Bonta said the Dump administration’s data release violates federal health privacy protection laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
• I agree.
• In other news…
• Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart is dead. He was 90.
• At his peak, in the late ‘80s, Swaggart reached millions of viewers and his broadcasts generated revenue of $140 million a year.
• Some highlights of his career: he attacked Catholicism as a “false cult” and said that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves. 
• Then he got caught with a hooker at a motel outside New Orleans.
• Anyway, it’s unfortunate that hell is not a real thing, or ol’ Jimmy would be screaming up at us right now.
• Let’s move on.
• A little local news that I post out of spite.
• Omar Navarro is some idiot from Torrance, CA, not far from here. A member of the Republican Party, Navarro ran unsuccessfully against Congresswoman Maxine Waters in the 43rd congressional district in 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022, getting badly beat each time.
• Now he’s in jail for misusing campaign funds, including funneling tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations back to himself through friends and family,
• Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, having fundraised over $1 million dollars throughout his four failed political campaigns, and conspiring to steal and convert funds for personal use.
• I hope he enjoys a long and unhappy prison sentence. Asshole.
• Moving on.
• Here’s a news item that I thought I’d never, ever see.
• France has banned smoking in most public areas. France. Of all places.
• I’m serious. France's new law dictates that tobacco must disappear anywhere there are children, and the majority of the country agrees with this. Those who choose to smoke in public in areas like the beach or the park could face a fine.
• How do I feel about this as a smoker? I’m completely in favor of it. We have a number of places here in Southern California — like the nearby city of Manhattan Beach — that does not allow cigarette smoking in public.
• A lifetime of smoking will almost certainly be my cause of death, even if I were to stop today, which I have no plans of doing. Starting smoking was a bad decision I made before I was even a teenager. I was fully addicted to nicotine by the time I was 15, over 40 years ago.
• And I have no right to inflict second-hand smoke on those around me, or to inspire young people to take up smoking just because I look so goddamn cool.
• I mean, I look cool doing anything. I’m a handsome, fit, middle-aged rock star, for crying out loud. I don’t need to smoke to be extra cool.
• Here in the USA, I’m sure you’ve noticed how many fewer people smoke than was common a few decades ago when pretty much everyone seemed to smoke. And in fact, due to that kind of denormalization of smoking, it really is no longer cool.
• Especially for people under 40 or so.
• And now, The Weather: “June Guitar” by Alex G
• From the Sports Desk… Coco Gauf did something yesterday that only two others did before her.
• She lost in the first round at Wimbledon right after winning the championship at the French Open. Guaff was eliminated 7-6, 6-1 by unseeded Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine last night.
• Both Gauff — the No. 2-ranked player — and another highly seeded American, No. 3 Jessica Pegula bowed out on Day 2 of the tournament.
• It happens. Also, it’s bizarrely fucking hot at Wimbledon. Europe is baking in a heat wave and Monday recorded its hottest opening day ever at 91.2 F. Thanks. human-accelerated climate change.
• In another note from the Sports Desk… something I neglected to cover yesterday: Bobby Bonilla Day.
• What is it? Well, it’s the result of one of baseball’s most bizarre contracts. 25 years ago in 2000, the Mets agreed to buy out the remaining $5.9 million on Bonilla's contract.
• However, instead of just paying Bonilla the $5.9 million at the time, the Mets agreed to make annual payments of nearly $1.2 million for 25 years starting July 1, 2011, including a negotiated 8% interest.
• Why in the name of fuck would they have done that? Because at the time, Mets ownership was invested in a Bernie Madoff account that promised double-digit returns, and the Mets thought they were going to make a significant profit if the Madoff account delivered.
• Hahahahahahahaha… that didn’t work out, as you may be aware.
• So yesterday, once again, the 62-year-old Bonilla collected a check for $1,193,248.20 from the New York Mets, as he has since 2011 and will every July 1 through 2035.
• And now you know.
• Today in history… Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident (626). Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine (1698). Bach's Magnificat is first performed (1723). The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not adopted until July 4 (1776). Thirty-five slaves, including Denmark Vesey, are hanged in South Carolina after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion (1822). Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutiny and take over the slave ship Amistad (1839). Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James A. Garfield (1881). The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890). Engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London (1897). U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany (1921). Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight (1937). The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opens for business in Rogers, AR (1962). U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places (1964). The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa (2005). The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx (2013).
• July 2 is the birthday of Roman emperor Valentinian III (419), author Lily Braun (1865), novelist Hermann Hesse (1877), tennis player/shirt designer René Lacoste (1904), SCOTUS justice Thurgood Marshall (1908), fashion designer Pierre Cardin (1922), activist Medgar Evers (1925), politician Imelda Marcos (1929), businessman/philanthropist Dave Thomas (1932), actress Polly Holliday (1937), race car driver Richard Petty (1937), Mexico president Vicente Fox (1942), actor Ron Silver (1946), actor/writer/producer/comedian Larry David (1947), model Jerry Hall (1956), MLB player Jose Canseco (1964), NHL players Joe Thornton (1979), actress Lindsay Lohan (1986), actress Margot Robbie (1990), and rapper Vince Staples (1993).

I suppose that’s enough for now. We’ll be keeping an eye on the Big Bullshit Bill while a bunch of congressional dickwads pretend that they’re opposed to it, and then vote for it anyway the moment they get any pressure from Dumpy. We know how these things work. Anyway, don’t let that stop you from contacting your congressional rep RIGHT NOW to let them know how you feel. Enjoy your day.