Random News: July 5, 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 5, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. Feels like a Sunday, due to yesterday’s holiday. I’m glad it’s not, though.

• I feel like we’ve spoken so much about the Big Bullshit Bill that’s going to be fucking this country for years and years to come, I should set it aside for now to make sure we give enough attention to other topics.
• After all, your Republican Senators and Congressional Reps already allowed it to go through, and there are no take-backs.
• But I do want to point out the very important fact that those Republicans in Congress have structured the most painful benefit cuts in their budget bill to kick in AFTER the 2026 midterms. 
• However, the tax cuts for the billionaire class? Those begin immediately.
• Keep it in mind.
• We open today’s news with a couple of weather-related events that are awful.
• More than a thousand people are in the midst of search-and-rescue operations today for children from a girls’ camp and many others who were still missing after a wall of water rushed down a river in the Texas Hill Country during a powerful storm that killed at least 27 people.
• The destructive fast-moving waters along the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes before dawn yesterday, washing away homes and vehicles. The danger is not over as more heavy rains are expected today.
• Some 27 people are missing from Camp Mystic, where about 750 kids are at summer camp. An unknown number of people at other locations are still unaccounted for.
• I don’t know when the “right time” is to start talking about why this catastrophe may have been preventable.
• The private forecasting company AccuWeather said that they — along with the National Weather Service, which has been decimated by Dump’s cuts to the deferral government —  sent warnings about potential flash flooding hours before the devastation.
• “These warnings should have provided officials with ample time to evacuate camps such as Camp Mystic and get people to safety,” AccuWeather said.
• Matthew Stone of Kerrville, TX said police came knocking on doors but that he had received no warning on his phone.
• “We got no emergency alert. There was nothing,” he said. Then “a pitch black wall of death.”
• Once we get past the search and rescue phase, will there be enough budget from FEMA to help these flood victims get back on their feet? Many FEMA funds had been diverted toward Dump’s ICE and construction of concentration camps.
• So I guess we’ll wait and see.
• Another event to keep an eye on: a wildfire that broke out in California has rapidly spread to burn more than 79,600 acres, making it the largest in the state so far this year.  
• The Madre Fire was just 10% contained as of this morning.
• The good news: the fire has threatened some 50 structures, but as of yet hasn’t been attributed to any injuries or damage. 
• If you’re wondering, this fire began Wednesday in the Los Padres National Forest, federally managed land area in Central California. It’s in San Luis Obispo County, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles.
• But how big is it? Well, you know the devastating fires we had earlier this year in Altadena and Pacific Palisades? Those were respectively 14,021 and 23,707 acres.
• This one is well over three times as large. It’s just in a place where there are very few people, comparatively.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, the Hamas terrorist group said it has issued a "positive response" to a U.S.-mediated ceasefire proposal in its war with Israel.
• If that’s genuine, it’s good news. We need a world with less war and death and senseless violence.
• Hamas went on to say that it was "fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations on the mechanism for implementing this framework.” 
• While Dumpy has claimed that Israel had agreed to a proposal for a two-month ceasefire, neither Israel nor Hamas confirmed Dump's statement.
• Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington, D.C., on Monday to meet with Dump at the White House. 
• Hamas is insisting on guarantees regarding an Israeli withdrawal to positions it held on March 2, during a previous ceasefire, and an end to the war following a 60-day truce, as well as ending the U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation system for distributing aid. 
• Over 57,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the war began about 21 months ago. Hamas claims that more than half of the dead are women and children.
• And, of course, Hamas themselves are culpable for starting that war, when they attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.
• Here’s a tip: don’t try and pick good guys or bad guys in wars. If people are dying — especially non-combatants — there’s no good in war, ever.
• Let’s move on.
• Now that the Big Bullshit Bill has passed, I can tell that one of the things Dumpy promised the Senators and Congressional Reps in return for their votes was his support in somehow getting them to stay in office.
• Because as you and every other person with a brain is aware, once the true damage of what they’ve done becomes apparent, there’s no way their constituents will vote for any of them ever again.
• Is Dumpy worried about the 2026 midterms as a result? You be the judge.
• Dumpy said, "I think we'll use it in the campaign that's coming up — the midterms, because we've got to beat them. But all of the things that we've given and they wouldn't vote, only because they hate Trump — but I hate them too. You know that? I really do. I hate them."
• So news flash: Dump hates us. I’m sure you’re all shocked.
• All polling has clearly shown that more people — conservatives and liberals, rich and poor, red gates and blues states — oppose than support the bill.
• Just the cuts to Medicaid will be tangible for a lot of people. Almost 7 in 10 say either they themselves, a family member, or a close friend has been covered by the program.
• You want numbers? You got them…
• 83% have a favorable opinion of Medicaid. 82% want to see Medicaid funding either increased or remain the same. 69% said they think the program is working well for most low-income people covered. 66% of those in states that did not expand Medicaid coverage want to see it expanded in their state, 62% see Medicaid as primarily a government health insurance program as opposed to a welfare program.
• And of course, there are many more national issues than the Big Bullshit Bill that will drive Democrats to the polls in record numbers. The Nazification of the USA is a big one, for example.
• There will be more and more news between now and then about the treatment of non-white people in this country as ICE continues abducting people, the concentration camps are filled, and details of torture and death become more widespread.
• I will tell you what my expectations are for the 2026 Midterms.
• I want more than 40 seats in the House to flip from red to blue. And I want another 6-10 seats in the Senate to flip to Democrats as well.
• Does that seem overly optimistic to you? I think it’s minimal. In 2010, Democrats lost control of the House — and 63 seats — in part because of conservative anger about the Affordable Care Act. 
• And that was at a time where the president — Barack Obama — was polling with high popularity. Dump has just a 43% approval rating. And Congressional Republicans only get a 35% approval rating.
• And let’s take a tip from these Republicans going into 2026.
• We all saw how they’ve been squeezing their narrow majority to do everything they want regardless of what you or the public think.
• And if we can take that energy and do a jiu-jitsu move on them in 2026 and 2028, there’s no reason at all we can’t demand Medicare for All, universal pre-K, the complete abolishment of ICE, forgiving student loans, and any other fucking thing we want in one huge-ass bill.
• But let’s be clear about the fucking Democrats as well.
• Because no group is better than fucking themselves as we are. Just look at the 2024 presidential elections, when a candidate who wasn’t 100% perfect lost votes to a guy who would literally kill people.
• So if Democrats want to win back the House, we have to get our own house in order first. And that’s going to be a big part of the efforts moving through the next 16 months.
• Assuming we live that long.
• We may have one advantage we couldn’t have previously anticipated: the help of Elon Musk.
• No, he’s not going to become a Democrat. However, he is hellbent on getting revenge on Dumpy and the Republicans.
• Yesterday, he tweeted a poll to his followers asking if they want “independence from the two-party (some would say uniparty) system.”
• He truly wants to form a new political party, and has the money to make that happen effectively. But anyone with a small portion of a brain can see this would be extraordinarily devise to the conservative side of the populace.
• Because only a tiny fraction of American liberals and progressives would have the slightest interest in being allied with Musk’s “America Party,” while a very significant portion of MAGA would be all over it.
• And now, The Weather: “Connection Issues” by Swiss Portrait
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s 51 years ago in July 1974. I am five years old. I have very distinct memories form this time, and a number of them involve my parents playing music on the big-ass stereo that includes a number of the albums below.
• Here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time…
• 1. Caribou (Elton John). 2. Back Home Again (John Denver). 3. Journey To The Centre Of The Earth (Rick Wakeman With The London Symphony Orchestra & The English Chamber Choir). 4. Band On The Run (Paul McCartney And Wings). 5. Diamond Dogs (David Bowie). 6. Buddha And The Chocolate Box (Cat Stevens). 7. Sundown (Gordon Lightfoot). 8. Bachman-Turner Overdrive II (Bachman-Turner Overdrive). 9. John Denver's Greatest Hits (John Denver). 10. On Stage (Loggins & Messina). 11. The Sting (Soundtrack). 12. Tres Hombres (ZZ Top). 13. Court And Spark (Joni Mitchell). 14. Let's Put It All Together (The Stylistics). 15. Before The Flood (Bob Dylan). 16. Pretzel Logic (Steely Dan).  17. Maria Muldaur (Maria Muldaur). 18. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John). 19. Shock Treatment (Edgar Winter). 20. If You Love Me Let Me Know (Olivia Newton-John).
• Side note: this chart suggested by Kat Claxton, who’s been good at randomly picking great charts as of late.
• From the Sports Desk… here’s every MLB player with 60 or more runs batted in so far this year…
• Cal Raleigh (SEA) - 74. Seiya Suzuki (CHC) - 74. Eugenio Suarez (ARI) - 72. Aaron Judge (NYY) - 71. Riley Greene (DET) - 69. Pete Alonso (NYM) - 68. Rafael Devers (BOS/SF) - 67. James Wood (WSH) - 67. Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC) - 66. Christian Yelich (MIL) - 61. Kyle Schwarber (PHI) - 60. Elly De La Cruz (CIN) - 60.
• Today in history… John Guy sets sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists for Newfoundland (1610). Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). Frederick Douglass delivers his "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" speech in Rochester, NY (1852). The United States Secret Service begins operation (1865). The police open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco (1934). Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation (1937). Micheline Bernardini models the first modern bikini at a swimming pool in Paris (1946). National Health Service Acts create the national public health system in the United Kingdom (1948). The BBC broadcasts its first daily television news bulletin (1954). Elvis Presley records his first single, "That's All Right", at Sun Records in Memphis, TN (1954). The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon (1971). Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title (1975). Swedish tennis player Björn Borg wins his fifth Wimbledon final and becomes the first male tennis player to win the championships five times in a row (1980). Jeff Bezos founds Amazon (1994). The Juno space probe arrives at Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planet (2016). Keir Starmer is appointed UK Prime Minister by Charles III (2024).
• July 5 is the birthday of doge of Venice Carlo Contarini (1580), Connecticut colony founder Thomas Hooker (1586), businessman/politician Thomas Pitt (1653), admiral David Farragut (1801), businessman P. T. Barnum (1810), novelist/poet Jean Cocteau (1889), chemist John Howard Northrop (1891), politician Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1902), actress Katherine Helmond (1929), singer-songwriter/guitarist Robbie Robertson (1943), singer-songwriter Huey Lewis (1950), cartoonist Bill Watterson (1958), singer-songwriter Marc Cohn (1959), actress Edie Falco (1963), rapper RZA (1969), soccer player Megan Rapinoe (1985), and MLB player Shohei Ohtani (1994).

Time to find some way to enjoy the weekend. Side note in that regard: if you find that you can’t enjoy life despite terrible shit happening in the world, congratulations: you just gave those assholes everything they ever wanted. Go cry your liberal tears. But me? Fuck no. I’m scheming and plotting and planning and organizing and informing and protesting and rallying and also making music and petting my pussies and eating the good foods and feeling the sunshine and breathing deep in the sweet ocean breeze that blows outside my beautiful home damn near every fucking moment. It’s no coincidence that I end this column the same way every day, and I mean it. Enjoy your day.