Random News: August 26, 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 26, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s amazing how the time of sunrise changes over the course of August. At the start of the month, I was waking up at 6am to daylight. A few weeks later, it’s practically still nighttime when my alarm goes off. That’s what we get for living on a tilted sphere in space.

• Let’s do some news.
• When I talk about the GOP and in particular the MAGA World being the most hypocritical slice of society in history, here’s a great example of what I’m talking about.
• As you know, Dumpy commanded the state of Texas to gerrymander their congressional districts to try and get rid of five predominantly Democratic voter areas.
• In response, the state of California did the same thing.
• And then yesterday, Dump said that the Department of Justice will sue California over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to draw a new, Democratic-leaning congressional map. It’s the same thing that Texas did… but Dumpy was’t expecting it, because he’s not a smart man.
• Dumpy whined, “I think I’m going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon, and I think we’re going to be very successful in it. We’re going to be filing it through the Department of Justice. That’s going to happen.”
• Newsom promptly responded: “BRING IT.”
• Ha ha!
• Dumpy already fucked himself on this supposed lawsuit via his own words last week. He wrote, “The incredible people of Texas will have the opportunity to elect five more Republicans to Congress, thanks to the passage of their much more fair new Map — A BIG WIN for Republicans in Texas, and across the Country!”
• The Justice Department had no response to requests for comment on Dump’s remarks.
• In other redistricting news…
• Yesterday, Utah District Judge Dianna Gibson ordered lawmakers in the state to draw a new congressional map, delivering a win for Democrats and reminding state legislators across the country that they don’t get the only say on political boundaries.
• The roots of Utah’s redistricting fight stretch back seven years. In 2018, voters placed an initiative on the ballot requiring the state to draw lines neutrally.
• Voters approved the measure, but two years later GOP state lawmakers repealed it and replaced it with a law that gave themselves all the power on how to draw lines. They adopted a map in 2021, and all four of the state’s congressional seats are now held by Republicans.
• Gibson ordered the GOP-dominated legislature to draw a new map by September 24 that adheres to the redistricting standards established by the 2018 voter initiative.
• And that very well might mean another seat added to the Democratic side of the aisle. In a situation where only three seats give the GOP an advantage, this is huge news.
• Moving on to some news from the Immigration Desk…
• Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the U.S. to face new criminal charges, was taken into immigration custody after checking in with ICE at its office in Baltimore yesterday morning.
• He’s currently being held at a detention center in Virginia, where he is again facing deportation.
• U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who has been overseeing his deportation case, said at a habeas hearing yesterday afternoon that the federal government is "absolutely forbidden" from deporting him for the time being.
• ”Your clients are absolutely forbidden at this juncture to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the continental United States," she told government attorneys.
• So at least through tomorrow, the federal government is currently blocked from deporting him, and Judge Xinis said she is also considering extending a temporary restraining order blocking Abrego Garcia from being deported to Uganda, where the government has indicated he may be sent despite his designated country of choice being Costa Rica.
• Xinis also said she will order the government not to move Abrego Garcia from the Virginia detention center where's he's currently being held, and to make sure he has access to counsel.
• There are so many illegal aspects to Abrego Garcia’s case. His lawyer was with him while he was detained again yesterday.
• "We asked the ICE officer what the reason for his detention was, the ICE officer didn't answer. We asked the ICE officer for a copy of any paperwork that's being served on him today, the ICE officer wouldn't commit to even giving us that paperwork," he said.
• Keep in mind that Abrego Garcia, who was born in El Salvador, was deported in March to that country’s notorious CECOT mega-prison despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution.
• We’ll continue to keep an eye on this man and the hideous treatment he’s undergoing due to a personal vendetta by Dictator Dump.
• Let’s move on.
• Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the Republican who leads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has issued a subpoena to the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein seeking documents and other material as part of its ongoing examination of the government's investigation into Epstein.
• The subpoena demands the co-executors of Epstein's estate turn over to the House committee more than a dozen categories of documents and communications, including material from 1990 through August 2019 that references all presidents and vice presidents, videos taken from Epstein's properties, and listings in his contact and address books.
• Lawmakers are also seeking entries contained within a leather-bound book put together by Epstein's pimp, Ghislaine Maxwell, for his 50th birthday. They also want the 2008 non-prosecution agreement reached with the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida, as well as Epstein's will.
• Dumpy called the letter "fake" and filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper, its parent company, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over the story.
• Moving on.
• It didn’t take long to test Dumpy’s ridiculous proclamation that burning the U.S. flag was somehow illegal.
• Yesterday evening, a 22-year combat army veteran named Jay Carey purposefully set fire to a U.S. flag across the street from the White House to protest Dump’s anti-flag-burning executive order.
• Carey was arrested in Lafayette Square, but not on grounds of violating the order — or of burning the flag. Instead he was charged with violating a law against setting fires at federal parks.
• Why? Because Dump’s executive order isn’t worth wiping your ass with, much less trying to enforce.
• As we mentioned yesterday, the Supreme Court has ruled that burning the flag is a mode of symbolic speech protected under the First Amendment.
• Let me say this: the First Amendment protects many kinds of speech and action. You may not agree with what’s being said or done. For example, it allows for Nazis and fundamentalist Christian organizations to hold marches and rallies with signs that would disgust decent human beings.
• But it is still protected. Whether you agree with flag burning or not, it is protected, and it’s very important for our freedom of speech to remain intact, no matter what some asshole dictator says or does.
• “I fought for every one of your rights,” said Carey to about two dozen people gathered near him in the park. he went on to say that no president had the right to make an order infringing on the First Amendment.
• He’s right.
• Some news from the International Desk…
• Israel is acting like the same terrorist organizations that they claim to despise.
• Yesterday, they struck one of the main hospitals in the Gaza Strip with a missile, and then fired another as journalists and rescue workers rushed to the scene, killing at least 20 people and wounding scores more.
• At least five journalists were among those killed. Israel fucking sucks.
• It was among the deadliest of several Israeli strikes that have hit both hospitals and journalists over the course of the 22-month war that was sparked by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack.
• Asked about the strike and journalists being among the victims, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement saying it had carried out an attack and adding that it would "conduct an initial inquiry as soon as possible," adding that it regretted "any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such."
• I don’t believe anything Israel says anymore.
• The journalists killed in Israel’s attack include Hossam al-Masri, who worked for the Reuters news agency, Mohammed Salama, who worked for Al Jazeera, and freelance journalists Maryam Abu Daqqa and Moaz Abu Taha, who did independent work for the Associated Press and others.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, Dumpy fired Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors — a dramatic move after months of public attacks against the central bank.
• Dump accused Cook of making false statements on mortgage documents, actions he claimed were "gross negligence" and "potentially criminal."
• The move is an early test of The Old Orange Asshole’s power to terminate members of the Federal Reserve. Under federal law, Fed board members serve for 14-year terms and can only be fired by the president "for cause."
• Cook has served on the Fed since 2022, meaning her current term runs until 2038. And she is not accepting Dump’s action.
• Cook said in a statement that “no cause exists under the law, and he (Dump) has no authority” to remove her from the job.
• She continued, “I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.”
• We will, of course, keep a close eye on that situation as well.
• Let’s move on with one more story of that piece of shit in the Oval Office.
• Yesterday, Dumpy said he wants to return the Department of Defense to its prior name: the Department of War.
• What a douchebag.
• Dump said the change would likely be made "over the next week or so." Hours later, he said he'd leave it up to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: "We'll do it a couple of more times. And if everyone likes it, we'll make that change."
• Asked whether Congress would need to sign off on restoring the agency's old name, since lawmakers had passed the initial renaming, Dump said he didn't think so: "We're just going to do it. I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't think we even need that."
• Of course he doesn’t. The current Congress is packed with people who line up to eat his ass and thank him for it.
• Okay, let’s just move on.
• Something we find far too acceptable in this modern era: AI is often straight-up wrong.
• Over the weekend, author Neal Stephenson had his Facebook account suspended by its parent company Meta.
• The reason? He’s suspected of impersonating someone noteworthy.
• Facebook’s security AI cannot discern the difference between a bad person impersonating someone else and the actual fucking person. How many times have you (or your friends) had content flagged for seemingly no reason at all?
• It’s because we already put far too much reliance on computer software (which is what AI is, despite the glamorous-sounding name) to be smart. And yes, it’s getting somewhat smarter.
• But so is my cat, and yet I don’t rely on him to do crucial tasks that are beyond his capabilities.
• Stephenson is an author that my Second Life friends should know well, since in his 1992 novel ‘Snow Crash,’ he coined the concept of the metaverse and predicted a virtual reality–based Internet that SL’s founders would later use as inspiration.
• Moving on.
• Some news from the Nature Desk…
• New data shows that great white sharks are spending more time in the chilly waters off New England and Canada's Atlantic coast.
• Sightings of great whites are becoming more commonplace is areas like Maine and Nova Scotia where they were previously rare. Now they’ve increased by up to four times the previous rates.
• Why? Well, those waters remain cooler than the oceans to the south, which are getting hotter and hotter due to human-assisted climate change.
• The same reason we’re having more (and more severe) hurricanes and storms.
• So the food chain moves along with the more hospitable water temperatures. Seals move north to get their food, and sharks — who eat the seals — make the journey as well.
• You shown’t be worried about the sharks; attacks on humans are still very rare. But you should definitely be worried about the reason they’re seeking cooler waters.
• Moving on.
• A note of ridicule from the Entertainment Desk…
• Aaron Lewis, the singer of the band Staind — who were last relevant from a single pop hit in 2001 — decided to actually listen to the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic song “Born in the USA.”
• On the topic of Springsteen, Lewis said, “The fact that he duped us all with one of the most anti-American songs ever and called it 'Born in the USA' as some sort of celebration of how great it is to be born in the USA. I'm angry at myself for not seeing it for so long.”
• If I was Lewis, I’d be angry at myself just for being an idiot. That’s a plenty good enough reason.
• “Born in the USA” is on a short list of songs that are almost always misinterpreted. Like many great works of American artists, it’s a protest song, not some kind of patriotic, jingoistic anthem.
• It tells the story of a disillusioned Vietnam War veteran who returns home to a country that has left him behind and fails to support him. It describes the economic hardships, social rejection, and lack of support veterans faced in the post-war era.
• If telling the truth is anti-American in Lewis’s view, maybe he’s the one who needs to take a look in the mirror.
• Relevant side note: some of the other most misinterpreted pop songs in history include “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen), “Every Breath You Take” (The Police), “Revolution” (The Beatles), and many others.
• These songs don’t mean what some people think they mean.
• And now, The Weather: “Like Lovers Do” by Winter
• From the Sports Desk… you know how I rant against NFL preseason because it’s a violent sport where people get hurt, and ending your season before it even starts is the most stupid possible scenario for any athlete?
• Over the weekend, it happened to my fucking team when backup quarterback Aiden O’Connell broke his wrist in the final preseason game for the Las Vegas Raiders.
• That left the Raiders with just rookie Cam Miller to backup starter Geno Smith. So yesterday, the Raiders traded for Browns backup QB Kenny Pickett… a wise choice, but an unfortunate reason to be forced to bring on a new QB.
• Side note: today is the deadline for all NFL teams to pare down to their final 53-man roster. By tomorrow, you’ll know who’s actually on your football team.
• In other Sports Desk news…
• Congrats to Taiwan, who beat Nevada 7-0 in the Little League World Series championship. Pitcher Lin Chin-Tse retired the first 13 batters he faced and allowed just one hit in five innings.
• Taiwan’s victory ends a 29-year title drought for the country. Well done, kids.
• Today in history… the Delhi Sultanate takes Chittorgarh and kills thirty thousand Hindu inhabitants (1303). An English army easily defeats a French one twice its size at the Battle of Crécy (1346). Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavor (1768). John Fitch gets a US patent for the steamboat (1791). The eruption of Krakatoa begins its final stage (1883). The 19th amendment takes effect, giving women the right to vote (1920). The 50th anniversary of US women being able to vote is marked by a nationwide Women's Strike for Equality (1970). The Games of the XX Olympiad open in Munich, West Germany (1972). The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's all-new composite airliner, receives certification (2011).
• August 26 is the birthday of UK prime minister Robert Walpole (1676), mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728), UK prince consort Albert (1819), inventor Lee de Forest (1873), socialite/philanthropist Peggy Guggenheim (1898), Catholic saint Mother Teresa (1910), physicist Katherine Johnson (1918), journalist Irving R. Levine (1922), NBA player/coach Tommy Heinsohn (1934), politician Geraldine Ferraro (1935), voiceover artist Don LaFontaine (1940), drummer Moe Tucker (1944), singer-songwriter Leon Redbone (1949), NBA coach Stan Van Gundy (1959), saxophonist/composer Branford Marsalis (1960), singer-songwriter Shirley Manson (1966), actress Melissa McCarthy (1970), actor Macaulay Culkin (1980), actor Chris Pine (1980), actor/comedian John Mulaney (1982), MLB player Elvis Andrus (1988), NHL player Wayne Simmonds (1988), and NBA player James Harden (1989).

That’s a lot of stuff, but it’s good to know many things. In the coming days, there’s a topic I want to bring up that maybe you want to think about beforehand and form some opinions. I’m going to ask you whether or not the new U.S. Civil War has already begun, and I’m going to tell you what I think. But in the meantime, give that some thought. Enjoy your day.