Random News: July 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 July 4, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! And it's not just a Friday, it’s a holiday in the USA. I slept in until the luxurious hour of 7:30. Now enjoying coffee in a bathrobe before figuring out what I’m doing today.

• Today is Independence Day. As I have done in previous years, I want to remind you why we have a country called the United States of America.
• In 1776, what we now know as the USA was a batch of 13 British Colonies. Can you name them off the top of your head? I can.
• The New England Colonies: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
• The Middle Colonies: Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
• The Southern Colonies: Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
• Side note fun fact: there were actually more than that. Britain also had established disputed territory in Florida, the Caribbean, and what is today Canada.
• If Great Britain was good at anything, it was being colonizing bastards. They had ships and guns, and used to sail around and just plant flags wherever they landed.
• We still recognize the original 13 colonies to this day. Count the number of stripes on our flag.
• The New World colonies went back to 1607, which is when the first of them — Virginia — was established at Jamestown. So the colonies had been around for over 150 years… long enough for multiple generations to have been born here before the revolution began.
• It was actually in 1765 that the beginnings of the American Revolution started. Important note: the leaders didn’t intend for it to be a full revolt against the king of England.
• They just sought incremental levels of autonomy at first, but King George III was angered at the idea of these peasants getting anything at all.
• It was at the Second Continental Congress, which represented the colonies and convened in Philadelphia, where they formed the Continental Army and appointed George Washington as its commander-in-chief in June 1775.
• And the following year, on July 4, 1776, they unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, which formally established the USA, and escalated the war with England.
• Fun Fact: we actually voted to approve independence on July 2, but adopted the actual Declaration of Independence text two days later, on July 4.
• So the whole point of the USA was to stop being subservient to a king. That was why we have a country. That was the reason. Remember that part. We’ll be coming back to it.
• Thomas Jefferson was largely responsible for writing the Declaration? He did it in isolation over 17 days between June 11 and June 28, 1776.
• Did the Continental Congress accept Jefferson’s first draft? Of course not. Politicians never agree on anything immediately.
• They debated and revised the wording of the Declaration, among other things removing Jefferson’s vigorous denunciation of King George III for importing the slave trade.
• Figures.
• So back to that “we don’t want a king, so let’s make a new country” aspect.
• For a number of years, it was uncertain that the USA even wanted to have any kind of chief executive at all. We knew we didn’t want a king… someone who claimed a God-given right to lead with no rules to follow, but then force those rules on other citizens.
• And in fact, under the Articles of Confederation which were ratified in 1781, the United States officially had no head of state. Betcha didn’t know that.
• It was 12 years into independence that in 1788, we ratified the Constitution, the supreme law of the United States. Article II of the Constitution established the executive branch of the federal government and vested executive power in the President.
• And in January 1789, George Washington, the very respected and popular military general, was elected unanimously by the electoral college.
• He was directly involved in the choice of the title “President,” and refused efforts to have himself addressed as “highness” or “excellency” or “majesty” and so on.
• Instead, Washington would only accept the no-frills “The President of the United States.”
• Did people want him to be a king instead of a president? Yes, many. The idea had been directly and officially proposed, and Washington not only reacted very strongly against the suggestion, but was greatly troubled by it.
• He, and all the Founding Fathers, purposefully built in safeguards to the executive branch and the presidency so that its powers were limited and balanced against the legislative and judicial branches.
• In fact, the role of President was designed to be the weakest of the three branches of government.
• So.
• Why are we talking about all this, other than it being the 4th of July today?
• Because the power given to the executive branch — and therefore the President — has gradually increased over the 249 years since then.
• The Supreme Court has, on multiple occasions in recent years, acquiesced more and more power to the President.
• And Congress — which was supposed to be far more powerful than the president as direct representations of the people — has allowed itself to become weak and subservient.
• Which is the exact opposite of what the Founding Fathers intended. Giving a man the power to be nearly impervious from the law, and anointed with a separate set of rules than all other Americans — or no rules at all?
• That’s a fucking king.
• So, we lasted a good while being a successful nation where the President was not a king. And now that might never be the case again.
• As far as I’m concerned, we’ll be lucky to remain a democracy, and to have free and fair elections ever again.
• So enjoy this 4th of July. There may not be much to celebrate on Independence Day in the future.
• Let’s do the news.
• Yesterday, as expected, the House voted to pass Dumpy’s Big Bullshit Bill.
• What the Republicans who supported the bill wanted was to pass it in the middle of the night. But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wasn’t going to let that happen.
• So before sunrise yesterday morning, he started a little speech that ended up breaking the record for the longest House floor speech ever.
• Jeffries spent over eight hours blasting Republicans and delaying passage of their sweeping tax and spending bill.
• Perhaps the most important part of his marathon speech was reading notes from Americans who would be harmed by Medicaid and SNAP benefit cuts. The speech concluded after 8 hours and 44 minutes.
• And that forced the Republicans to take away American benefits in broad daylight.
• The vote tally was 218-214, Every Democratic congressional rep voted against it, along with two Republicans: Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who were opposed to the huge increase it will cause to our national debt.
• I promise we won’t dwell much on this, now that it’s passed and there’s little we can do about it.
• But here’s what to expect.
• A huge tax break for billionaires. I should add that you might see a tax break as well, if you’re making over $389,000 per year. No one else will get any kind of notable tax relief.
• The legislation contains about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. That’s trillion with a “T.” And you’ll see none of it unless you’re in the top few percentage of income earners in this country.
• In the interest of fairness, I should note that there’s also a $6,000 deduction for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year.
• But while the very wealthiest households will allegedly see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, the bill will cost the poorest people another $1,600 a year, mainly due to reductions in Medicaid and food aid, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House’s version.
• A huge amount of money — $350 billion — is slated for Dump’s ICE gestapo and the construction of multiple concentration camps.
• Your tax money will pay for 100,000 new migrant “detention facility” beds, and 10,000 new ICE officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well.
• The goal, as was made clear in Project 2025 and confirmed by Dump’s administration, is to deport some 1 million people per year. Immigrants coming here seeking asylum will now have to pay for it to be considered.
• How will they pay for all of this lost tax revenue and immigration spending?
• It’s being paid for by the poorest people in the USA via sweeping cuts to Medicaid and food assistance for people below the poverty line.
• The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements, including older people up to age 65.
• More than 71 million people rely on Medicaid, which expanded under Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and 40 million use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The majority of them already work, according to analysts.
• The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 11.8 million more Americans will become uninsured now that the bill is becoming law, and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits.
• Anything else? Sure, might as well get it out in the open now.
• Clean energy is toast. Republicans have rolled back tax breaks designed to boost clean energy projects fueled by renewable sources such as energy and wind.
• So this will accelerate climate change that’s already out of control.
• Those tax breaks for people who buy new or used electric vehicles? Yeah, that’s gone as of September 30. But a tax credit for the production of coal was included to further quicken our own demise.
• There’s more. We could talk about this 900-page monstrosity all day, though I’m not going to.
• Random BBB notes: A new children’s savings program, called Trump Accounts. $40 million to establish Dumpy’s long-sought “National Garden of American Heroes.” A new tax on transfers of money that people in the U.S. send abroad. No more taxes on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns. Eliminating Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood. Billions are slated for the Artemis moon mission and for the exploration of Mars.
• And, of course, a provision to increase the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion (!) to allow continued borrowing to pay already accrued bills.
• So, this is terrible. I take no glee is staying that the first hit — and the hardest — will be people in red states, where the highest percentage of poverty-stricken people live.
• I read a terrible social post yesterday from a Republican woman who literally said she voted for Dump to piss off liberals, and is now facing dire reality. Here, I’ll just show you.
• “I voted for Donald Trump to piss off liberals. It was hilarious, but this bill they're trying to pass will take away my Medicaid. I have type 2 diabetes with diabetic retinopathy. If I can't afford my medicine, I will lose my vision. I’m scared. I'm in tears and need urgent help.”
• There are certainly millions more like her in this country. And I know a lot of you will say you have no sympathy, and she brought this upon herself.
• And that is factually true. But to many people, politics is a game like football, where you root for a team and that’s that. Unlike a football game, though, you can pay a horrible personal price for your “fandom.”
• You can end this, you know. In the 2026 midterm elections, every single one of the congresspeople who voted “yes” on this bill can be kicked to the curb.
• That is your power. It might be your only power. And if you don’t use it, you certainly will lose it.
• Okay. Let’s move on.
• Some good news: yesterday, the Supreme Court said it will not hear a case involving a push to revive a law that minors must have their parents’ permission for an abortion in Montana, where voters have enshrined the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.
• The justices rebuffed an appeal from the Republican-led state seeking to overturn a Montana Supreme Court ruling that struck down the law. The parental consent law passed in 2013 but was blocked in court and never took effect before it was invalidated last year.
• Good. Fuck those people.
• Also note that even in many red states, the majority of people support the rights of women to determine their own reproductive freedom.
• Moving on.
• Dumpy is still standing in the corner into which he’s painted himself regarding undocumented people in the USA.
• We all know that the big-picture plan is to eliminate anyone who isn’t white. That part is obvious. But then, Dumpy’s friends want to know, who will do the shitty jobs that white people don’t seem to want?
• “I’m on both sides of the thing. I’m the strongest immigration guy that there’s ever been, but I’m also the strongest farmer guy that there’s ever been. And that includes also hotels and, you know, places where people work.”
• You ever notice that listening to The Dumpster is like hearing the reasons why an eight-year-old didn’t finish his homework?
• Anyway, there’s a dark underside to his babbling, as usual.
• “We’re going to have a system of signing them up so they don’t have to go. They can be here legally, they can pay taxes and everything. The farmers can be responsible for some of the people. They’re not going to have citizenship, but they’ll be working. They’ll be paying taxes. We need to get our farmers the people they need.”
• So… you’ll have farmers who take ownership of the people — who aren’t allowed to be citizens — but work for them. That sounds vaguely familiar.
• Let’s keep moving on.
• The Marine Corps is sending about 200 service members to assist ICE in Florida. Once again, I’d mention that using the military in this manner is 100% illegal. Go Google the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 if you need to get this explained to you.
• I’m not going to repeat myself every fucking time this comes up, because eventually Dump will have the military in the streets of nearly every state, as I’ve said previously.
• In June, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth green-lit up to 700 military personnel to help ICE in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.
• Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said the Marines will be there “to remove public safety threats from American communities."
• Like the brown people. Right, I get it.
• In other immigration news…
• Here in the LA area, ICE agents gathered at a local high school before a raid and were seen publicly urinating on school grounds, not far from where elementary school students were attending summer classes.
• I’m fucking serious.
• According to a statement from El Rancho Unified School District, which also released video evidence, the incident took place on the morning of June 17 at Ruben Salazar high school in Pico Rivera.
• After school staff observed eight to 10 ICE vehicles arrive on the high school campus — which is adjacent to an elementary school, a park and a preschool playground — they asked the federal agents to leave.
So in response, Dump’s finest agents pulled out their dicks and pissed on the school parking lot in public view.
• The surveillance camera video, posted on YouTube by the school district, appears to show 10 federal agents urinating.
• The district points out that not only did ICE agents “unlawfully trespass” on school grounds,  “but they also did not exercise sound and respectful judgment with the risk of exposing themselves to minors and committing a public offense under California law”.
• Here in my state, if act of public urination occurs near a school or park where children are present, it might be classified as lewd conduct under state law.
• Anyone convicted of this offense faces up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, and being required to register as a sex offender.
• And now, The Weather: “On The Beach” by Caroline Polachek
• RIP to actor Michael Madsen, best known for his tough-guy roles in films like “Reservoir Dogs”, “Kill Bill,” “Donnie Brasco,” and many others. He died yesterday at 67 of an apparent heart attack.
• Madsen was always extremely believable as a psychopath, to the point where I have difficulty separating the actor from his roles… making him a very good actor, hopefully.
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s July 1978, and I am in the summer between 4th and 5th grades. What am I doing? Learning to play guitar, visiting my grandparents in Cincinnati, roller skating. I can’t think of much more than that.
• Sounds kind of nice. Anyway, here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums charts at the time. My parents had many of these records, and my friends’ older brothers and sisters had the rest.
• 1. Some Girls (The Rolling Stones). 2. City To City (Gerry Rafferty). 3. Natural High (Commodores). 4. Saturday Night Fever (Soundtrack). 5. Stranger In Town (Bob Seger). 6. Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Bruce Springsteen). 7. Shadow Dancing (Andy Gibb). 8. Grease (Soundtrack). 9. Feels So Good (Chuck Mangione). 10. Boys In The Trees (Carly Simon). 11. Thank God It's Friday (Soundtrack). 12. But Seriously Folks (Joe Walsh). 13. Double Vision (Foreigner). 14. Songbird (Barbra Streisand). 15. So Full Of Love (The O’Jays). 16. The Album (ABBA). 17. Street Legal (Bob Dylan). 18. FM (Soundtrack). 19. Octave (The Moody Blues). 20. It's A Heartache (Bonnie Tyler).
• From the Not-Sports Desk…
• Famed Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. has been arrested by ICE for entering the U.S. illegally and will be deported to Mexico.
• The arrest comes only days after the former middleweight champion fought in a match Saturday against Jake Paul in Anaheim, CA.
• Chávez’s attorney Michael Goldstein did not know where he’s was being detained as of yesterday.
• From the Sports Desk… let’s take another look at MLB standings. Here are the top two teams in each division.
• AL East: Blue Jays (48-38), Yankees (48-39).
• AL Central: Tigers (54-34), Guardians (41-44).
• AL West: Astros (52-35), Mariners (45-42).
• NL East: Phillies (51-36), Mets (50-38).
• NL Central: Cubs (52-35), Brewers (48-39).
• NL West: Dodgers (56-32), Padres (46-40).
• Today in history… A supernova, called SN 1054, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty as well as Arab and possibly Amerindian observers, and for several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day, with its remnants forming the Crab Nebula (1054). The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois cede lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, PA (1744). The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress (1776). At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens (1802). The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people (1803). John Adams and Thomas Jefferson die on the same day (1826). Slavery is abolished in the State of New York (1827). John Neal delivers the first public lecture in the US to advocate the rights of women (1832). The Iowa Territory is organized (1838). Henry David Thoreau moves into a small cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, MA (1845). Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels (1862). Vicksburg, MS surrenders to U.S. forces under Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege (1863). The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signaling an end to the Confederate invasion of U.S. territory (1863). Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth,” then announces his retirement from major league baseball (1939). After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States (1946). U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law (1966). The U.S. celebrates its Bicentennial (1976). NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars (1997). The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1 (2005). The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN (2012).
• July 4 is the birthday of geographer/surveyor George Everest (1790), novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804), songwriter Stephen Foster (1826), US president Calvin Coolidge (1872), sculptor/cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883), gangster Meyer Lansky (1902), businesswoman Leona Helmsley (1920), actress Eva Marie Saint (1924), actress Gina Lollobrigida (1927), playwright Neil Simon (1927), AFL/NFL executive Al Davis (1929), singer-songwriter Bill Withers (1938), journalist Geraldo Rivera (1943), activist Ron Kovic (1946), drummer Ralph Johnson (1951), singer-songwriter John Waite (1952), NBA player Horace Grant (1965), and rapper Post Malone (1995).

Welp… I know that’s far from ALL the news. But sometimes it’s more important to have a good understanding of the important parts. Hopefully we did that today. I’m going to eat breakfast and take a shower and then… I have no idea. Oh wait: let me remind you that thousands of fucking douchebags, many of them drunk, will get injured — some severely — with their stupid-ass fireworks today. Try not to be them. Also, your pets don’t know that today is July 4 and they have much more sensitive hearing than you, so try to minimize their terror with idiots setting off explosions near your home. Keep windows closed and maybe give them a safe room to stay in tonight. I’d prefer a thousand guys to blow their own testicles off than for one dog to be scared tonight. Actually, that would probably be good all the time. Okay, I’m done now. Happy 4th. Enjoy your day.