Random News: August 24, 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 August 24, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I’m having trouble getting my brain and fingers working at the same time, and both are required for me to find the news and impart it to you. Guess we’ll go slow and see what happens.

• One thing that should be on your mind, if it’s not already: the president is sending military troops into cities across the USA to bully the citizens and other residents of this country.
• Does that not bother you? Do you think that’s normal behavior for an American president?
• Per an announcement on Friday, the next big target of Dump’s illegal and immoral use of our nation’s troops is Chicago, IL.
• Dump is framing it in the same way as he’s done in other places — he says he’s using the military to crack down on crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration.
• Again, ask yourself: is that why we have a military? Do people voluntarily sign up to defend our country only to be tasked with persecuting its residents?
• Dumpy said, “I think Chicago will be our next. And then we’ll help with New York.”
• The comments came as the Pentagon began ordering troops in Washington, D.C. to carry firearms, though there have been no overt indications they have faced threats that would require them to carry weapons.
• What this is about is intimidation. And they way they’re planning and timing it, I find it very likely that armed troops will be present at polling locations across the country in the 2026 Midterm elections in November 2026.
• Assuming we have elections then.
• Dump’s description of America’s greatest cities — from New York to Los Angeles to Chicago and San Francisco and beyond — is “dangerous and filthy.”
• The commonality of most of these cities is that they are run by Democrats, with Black mayors and majority-minority populations.
• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said his office has not received formal communication from the Dump administration about military or federal law enforcement deployments in Chicago.
• But he said that “we have grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops.”
• And he should. It’s only a matter of time before violent conflict happens between American civilians and Dump’s troops.
• Mark my fucking words. This will happen. It’s not “if”… it’s only when.
• The Dump family has a specific vendetta against the country’s most liberal zones. On Friday, Dumpy Jr. let it slip that the Pacific Northwest is another target.
• “Maybe we should roll out the tour to Portland, Seattle, the other craphole cities of the country,” said Li’l Dump.
• Note how he’s calling it a “tour.” That’s because it’s the language being used inside Dump World. They’re intentionally using military troops for intimidation to achieve political goals.
• At the least that’s their intent. I don’t believe they will be successful, and I think it’s going to backfire in ways that they are far too stupid to predict or understand.
• I’d normally move on to another topic right now, but there are some details that are too important to brush aside.
• Much of this political theater is being enacted under the name of illegal immigration, and as you’re aware, Dump’s Big Bullshit Bill increased funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) so high that it’s soon going to be the USA’s largest military force.
• After years when the number of deportation officers largely remained even, the agency is now rapidly hiring.
• The Big Bullshit Bill — passed only by Republicans, with every Democratic lawmaker opposed — gave ICE $76.5 billion in new money to help speed up the pace of deportations. 
• That’s nearly 10 times the agency’s current annual budget. Nearly $30 billion is for new staff.
• So here are the four ways that ICE is scaling up. I promise that with this level of investment, they won’t only be seeking out immigrants.
• First, ICE is beefing up its 6,500 deportation officers, hiring an additional 10,000 by year’s end. To do that, they’re offering hiring bonuses as high as $50,000.
• Second, ICE is planning on bashing more heads. They are making gas masks and helmets standard issue for new agents. They’re also increasing their “security teams” to accompany agents making arrests, to better rough up the residents and make them faster to comply.
• Third, ICE is adding military-style training, weaponry, vehicles, and procedures with a “Special Response Team,” similar to a SWAT team for a police force. Roughly 450 deportation officers are on these teams, and they have been deployed to assist with immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and Washington.
• He said he’d like to have more such units but wouldn’t put an exact number on how many. Vitello said they’re also in the process of getting more of the specially armored vehicles.
• Fourth, they are training ICE agents in ways to best get around the protections of our Constitution’s bill of rights. For example, ICE uses administrative warrants — rather than criminal warrants that require a judge to sign off. They count on people — especially immigrants — to not understand the difference.
• Additionally, they are trained that while our Fourth Amendment does protect people in their homes, it doesn’t extend to their cars. That’s why you’ve seen the news footage of ICE smashing car windows and dragging people out.
• I could go on all day about this, but instead, I’ll just point out something.
• All of those people who said they needed guns to protect themselves against a tyrannical government are now waving flags that say “Please Tread On Me.”
• It tells me what I knew all along: Republicans are pussy ass bitches. They talk a mean game behind a keyboard, and are good at posting pics of their fat asses, mean mugging and holding their ridiculous AR-15s.
• But when it’s time to show up, they all bow down and kiss the ass of their oppressors.
• Okay. Now moving on.
• A lot of the things that are going on are the direct result of Dumpy wanting to distract and cover up his role as a child rapist along with his close friend, the disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
• And Epstein’s girlfriend and pimp Ghislaine Maxwell is using one of Dump’s favorite excuses to explain her role in these crimes: deny her involvement and label proof of it as “fake news.”
• Example: the infamous photo of her with Prince Andrew and an American teenager? Maxwell says it’s fake, and that the sexual encounter between the British royal and the girl could not have happened at her London home.
• Maxwell claimed during her two-day interview session that she did not hear or witness any improper or illegal activity by anyone linked to Epstein.
• That’s despite the fact that victims like Virginia Giuffre had gone on record with information about having been trafficked for sex on multiple occasions as a teenager to places like Epstein's homes in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Instead of interviewing the criminals like Maxwell, why doesn’t our supposed Justice Department interview her victims? Many have been open about their abuse under Epstein and Maxwell. Many have stated on record that prominent people were directly involved in these illegal acts of prostitution, rape, and pedophilia.
• Where are those files, Donnie?
• And in related news, the Epstein files that the Justice Department provided to the House Oversight Committee on Friday are all recycled and old.
• Yesterday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said, “Only 3% of the documents given to the Oversight Committee are new. The rest are already in the public domain. Less than 1% of files have been released. DOJ is stonewalling.”
• Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) confirmed that the DOJ’s files are “largely thousands of pages of recycled content already made available to the public.”
• Moving on, for now. We will keep talking about Dump’s relationship to Jeffrey Epstein every fucking day until the truth comes out.
• Let’s talk about museums… specifically, the one that’s most representative of our entire country, the Smithsonian.
• Dump’s White House has called for a “comprehensive review” of eight Smithsonian museums, and has produced a list of allegedly objectionable content on display.
• What kind of content? The list points out the institution's artwork, exhibitions, programs, and online articles that focus on race, slavery, immigration, and sexuality. That includes works at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, The National Portrait Gallery, and The National Museum of the American Latino.
• A week ago, Dump told the Smithsonian's museums to submit their current and future plans for exhibitions, social media content, and other material. They were told they have 120 days to comply.
• Dump’s administration has directed the museums to replace "divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions."
• We talk about the signs of fascism; it’s a topic studied in college.
• When you have a government that’s openly controlling the art and rewriting history of a nation… that’s fascism.
• When that government makes threats against the institutions that archive a nation’s culture… that’s fascism.
• When the mistakes that were made in the past — such as slavery, segregation, and voter suppression — are minimized and denied rather than explored and learned from to prevent from happening again in the future… that’s fascism.
• The good news: first, enough people are smart enough to know the signs when they see it coming, per above. I’m not saying they’re brave enough to do anything about it, but at least they can recognize it and make that choice before it’s too late.
• And the other good news: Dump thinks it’s 1983 or something, where you can change an exhibit in a museum and erase what happened. Information storage and dissemination is one of the biggest changes in my entire life.
• It’s decentralized and impervious to any one attack. The things that Dumpy wants to cover up will only get more public and more prevalent the more he tries to repress them.
• So while many school kids in Florida are no longer allowed to read “The Diary of Anne Frank,” that information will eventually find its way to them. Whether it’s slavery, the Holocaust, or the current U.S. president being a child rapist, the truth always comes out eventually.
• Let’s move on.
• Believe it or not, we’re coming up on the 20-year anniversary of one of the worst disasters in U.S. history.
• It was August 23, 2005 that Hurricane Katrina formed. After briefly weakening to a tropical storm over south Florida — thereby lulling people into a sense of false security — Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane.
• Still, Katrina had weakened to a Category 3 at its landfall on August 29 in Louisiana. Despite that, 80% of New Orleans, as well as large areas in neighboring parishes, were flooded.
• The largest loss of life was due to flooding caused by engineering flaws in the federally-built hurricane protection system, particularly the levees around New Orleans.
• The emergency response from federal, state, and local governments was widely criticized, leading to the resignation of FEMA director Michael D. Brown.
• He’s the guy who George W. Bush infamously praised while the disaster was still in its worst phase, saying, “Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.”
• I should point out that several agencies — such as the United States Coast Guard, National Hurricane Center, and National Weather Service — were commended for their actions, with the NHC being particularly praised for its accurate forecasts well in advance.
• Of course, many of those organizations have been decimated under the current Dump regime, and we couldn’t expect to get the level of help from them today than we could 20 years ago.
• Katrina killed somewhere between 1,400 and 1,800 people, and the damage was assessed at $125 billion (about $207 billion in today’s value). It’s the costliest tropical cyclone/hurricane in history.
• Here’s hoping that people will survive the inevitable next devastating storm.
• And now, The Weather: “Sideways” by Worthitpurchase
• An RIP going out to actor Jerry Adler, best known for his role as Herman "Hesh" Rabkin on “The Sopranos”. He died yesterday at 96.
• The neat thing about Adler was that he didn’t get into acting until he was in his 60s. Interestingly, before he ever stepped in front of a film or television camera, he had 53 Broadway productions to his name — but all behind the scenes, serving as a stage manager, producer, or director.
• From the Sports Desk… some sad news out of Philly, where Phillies ace Zack Wheeler will miss the remainder of the season and is expected to be out for six to eight months after being diagnosed with venous thoracic outlet syndrome.
• The 35-year-old right-hander had surgery this week to remove a blood clot in his throwing shoulder. Venous thoracic outlet is a rare subtype of the compression disorder that pinches a vein and causes blood clots to form.
• And — not to freak you out — the surgery typically entails the removal of a rib to help decompress the area. And the guy expects to pitch in Major League Baseball again after that? Hats off to his bravery, I guess.
• Let’s do a… different kind of chart.
• I usually draw my info from Billboard charts, which are pretty much the most accurate listings of music sales (and therefore popularity) for many decades.
• However, today I’m going more local with a chart from fall 1980 on a local Los Angeles radio station called KROQ. Back then and through most of my youth, KROQ was the huge alternative rock station… long before the term “alternative rock” became a thing.
• At that point in 1980, KROQ (with the then-slogan “Rock of the ‘80s!”) was somewhere between new wave and college rock, with occasional punk rock, some local bands, and more pedestrian album oriented rock thrown in.
• Here was the top of KROQ’s album chart at the time.
• 1. Zenyatta Mondatta (The Police). 2. Remain in Light (Talking Heads). 3. Panorama (The Cars). 4. Wild Planet (The B-52’s). 5. New Clear Days (The Vapors). 6. E.P. (Oingo Boingo). 7. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (David Bowie). 8. Holiday in Cambodia (Dead Kennedys) 9. Emotional Rescue (Rolling Stones). 10. Freedom of Choice (Devo). 11. Back in Black (AC/DC). 12. Crimes of Passion (Pat Benatar). 13. Taking Liberties (Elvis Costello). 14. Gary Myrick & the Figures (Gary Myrick & the Figures). 15. Rock and Roll and Love and Death (The Romeos). 16. The River (Bruce Springsteen). 17. Code Blue (Code Blue). 18. Minimum Wage Rock & Roll (The BusBoys). 19. The Game (Queen). 20. Black Sea (XTC).
• Sweet. I’d listen to literally any of those albums today.
• Today in history… the latest known inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs is written (394). The Visigoths pillage Rome (410). Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz, Germany after being blamed for the bubonic plague (1349). William Penn receives a colony now known as Delaware, and adds it to Pennsylvania (1682). British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn the White House, the Capitol and other buildings (1814). Amelie Earhart flies across the USA from Los Angeles to Newark non-stop (1932). Protests force Adolf Hitler to order the cessation of Nazi Germany's T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped, though the program continues privately (1941). Allied troops attack German-held Paris (1944). The treaty creating NATO goes into effect (1949). Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies disrupt the NYSE by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery (1967). Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon (1981). Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union (1991). The IAU redefines the meaning of “planet” and Pluto is demoted (2006). Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, is discovered by the European Southern Observatory (2016).
• August 24 is the birthday of Count of Anjou Geoffrey Plantagenet (1113), writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899), mob boss Carlo Gambino (1902), historian Howard Zinn (1922), actor Kenny Baker (1934), guitarist Mason Williams (1938), guitarist John Cipollina (1943), astronaut Gregory Jarvis (1944), businessman Vince McMahon (1945), writer Paulo Coelho (1947), politician Joe Manchin (1947), musician Jean Michel Jarre (1948), politician Mike Huckabee (1955), actor Stephen Fry (1957), MLB player Cal Ripken Jr. (1960), game designer Hideo Kojima (1963), actress Marlee Matlin (1965), NBA player Reggie Miller (1965), comedian Dave Chappelle (1973), actress Jennifer Lien (1974), and actor Rupert Grint (1988).

I need to get out of this robe and into a shower and then plan for some useful way to spend this day. I suppose writing this has been useful; I don’t mean to minimize that part. But there’s only a limited amount of productivity a human can accomplish while in a bathrobe. Enjoy your day.