Random News: August 29, 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 29, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I'd be happy right now about any weekend; the fact that it’s a three-day weekend here in the USA, with Labor Day on Monday, makes it all the more sweet.

• For my final (for now) discussion on the possible forms of a modern civil war in the USA, I want to bring up the fact that this country is far different than it was in 1861, when the previous civil war began.
• For one thing, a contemporary war within the USA might not involve guns and troops, or at least not in the way you expect.
• Instead, imagine entire infrastructures shut down by attacks on satellites, or malicious code being introduced to critical systems… water, electrical power, data, banks and so on.
• Imagine economic war, with the states that generate the most money cutting off funds to those that generate little on their own.
• Imagine the highly expanded role of corporate — rather than political — entities. Here in 2025, would you rather go up against West Virginia… or against Apple, Google, and Microsoft? There’s no telling how these powerful entities might take sides in such a previously unheard-of kind of fight.
• But removing access to phones, TV, and Internet would have a faster impact than sending armed military into any location.
• My point being is that when people like me (and many others) talk about the idea of civil war in the 21st century, it might be different than whatever you envision.
• But for now, let’s say something happens like Dump chooses to defy Illinois Governor JB Pritzker — who commands the Illinois National Guard — or to federalize reservists in the absence of an unusual emergency… these actions would represent another step toward strongman rule.
• Keep in mind that what Dump is trying to normalize now is not only not normal; it’s illegal.
• The president has the authority to deploy the National Guard over the objections of a state governor only in the rarest of situations.
• Title 10 of the US Code allows the president to deploy the reservists in the case of invasion, to suppress rebellion, or to execute the laws of the United States. None of those conditions seem to accurately describe the current situation in Chicago, Baltimore, or even Washington, D.C..
• And yet there are currently thousands of National Guard troops — all from red states  — who are locked and loaded in Democratic cities, and more on the way.
• Add the dangers posed by armed right-wing civilians and militias, along with the nearly 1,600 January 6 felons freed from jail or prison by Dump on Inauguration Day, and it feels like my prediction of escalating violence and civil war isn’t as kooky as it may have first sounded.
• All it takes is for one undisciplined soldier, or one citizen who’s been pushed past their limit, to squeeze a trigger one time. And then you have the mass casualty event that potentially leads to open warfare.
• Dump knows all this. That’s why he stated earlier this week that, “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator.’”
• Because the one thing that would save Dump is being in a situation where he has a reason to declare martial law and cancel the 2026 elections entirely.
• You have to stop reacting to each individual outrage and start thinking like a chess player — looking multiple moves ahead — if you intend to survive whatever is coming next.
• May the odds be ever in your favor.
• Let’s move on.
• Sort of.
• Dumpy’s plan to send the U.S. military into Chicago may happen as soon as next week.
• The Old Orange Ass and his aides have been ramping up their shit talking about Chicago over policies that limit cooperation between local authorities and federal immigration enforcement.
• Dump already tried suing Chicago over its so-called sanctuary policies, but the case was dismissed when a judge ruled the federal government lacked the legal standing to bring the challenge.
• That Bloated Piece of Shit also threatened to withhold federal funding to Chicago… which was then also blocked by a judge.
• So now, because Dump has nothing else to use as a weapon, the anticipated operations in Chicago are expected to be at a larger scale, using personnel from ICE, CBP, and possibly other agencies.
• And yes, they are also preparing the National Guard to help if a peacekeeping presence is needed, similar to what unfolded in Los Angeles following our ICE protests here.
• Let’s move on.
• The craziness going on at the Centers for Disease Control is unprecedented.
• After Susan Monarez was suddenly fired from her position as CDC director just weeks after being sworn in, her dismissal set off a wave of resignations.
• As you’re probably aware, the mass resignation of senior officials at the CDC is a result of the controversial new policies announced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr..
• Yesterday’s walkout at the CDC included dozens of staff members and leaders. Staff began their "clap out" protest — where staffers march, hold signs, and clap — just outside the CDC's Atlanta headquarters to support staff who had resigned.
• Demetre Daskalakis, who was director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said recent policy changes surrounding the COVID vaccine threatened lives and there had been an intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines.
• Other departing officials include CDC chief medical officer Debra Houry and Daniel Jernigan, director of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.
• More than 750 HHS employees went public last week with a letter sent to Kennedy and Congress, accusing him of contributing to harassment and violence against government employees.
• And then yesterday, Dump chose RFK Jr.’s pal Jim O’Neill, currently the deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, as interim leader of the CDC.
• It’s thought that O’Neill is much more like to enact the dangerous policies that Monarez balked at (and was fired for not doing). Primarily, this involves a complete decimation of federal vaccine policy.
• While Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives, O’Neill will gladly do so. Can you imagine bringing a child into the world right now in the USA, knowing they might not have access to the vaccines that allowed us to have lifespans beyond 40 years?
• Sad. Let’s move on.
• As we reported yesterday, DHS has begun moving detainees out of the "Alligator Alcatraz” concentration camp days after a federal judge ruled that parts of the facility must be dismantled.
• It’s not like they’re being let go. The detainees are being transferred to other “immigration detention centers.”
• They said, "DHS is complying with this order and moving detainees to other facilities. We will continue to fight tooth-and-nail to remove the worst of the worst from American streets.”
• The “worst of the worst” being people who aren’t white, of course. But I hope Dumpy is so mad about his favorite concentration camp that his blood pressure goes sky high.
• Side note: Florida taxpayers could be on the hook for $218 million the state spent to convert the remote training airport in the Everglades into a concentration camp that can’t be used.
• The Florida Division of Emergency Management will lose most of the value of the $218 million it has invested in making the little-used airport suitable for a detention center. And as of late July, state officials had already signed more than $245 million in contracts for building and operating the facility, which officially opened July 1.
• That’s what you get for doing illegal shit. And now you folks in Florida can have that fee taken right out of the taxes you pay. What, you thought Dumpy was going to pay for this? Nope.
• More news from the Immigration/Fascism Desk…
• Two Southern California medical center employees involved in an altercation with federal agents during a July immigration enforcement operation were indicted this week by a federal grand jury.
• Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, of Highland, CA and Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, of Corona, CA face one felony count of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer in the altercation captured on video July 8 in Ontario, about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
• We discussed it at the time. That’s when ICE goons were conducting operations in Ontario when they were following a truck that turned into a surgery center parking lot. Two of the three men ran away and a third was "partially detained" near the surgery center entrance.
• He ran inside crying and begging for help. That’s when Ortega and Davila, both dressed in medical scrubs, came to his aid.
• What did they do to catch felony charges? Davila wedged herself between the officer and his prey. Ortega held back the ICE goon by grabbing his arm and his vest.
• More immigration/fascism news, this time a follow-up on a story we reported yesterday.
• Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) has called for the Dump administration to provide “immediate answers” about reports that two firefighters were detained by border agents as they were responding to a wildfire in the state.
• Federal immigration authorities on Wednesday staged an operation on the scene of the Bear Gulch fire, a nearly 9,000-acre blaze in the Olympic national forest, where they arrested two people who were part of a contract firefighting crew. The fire is the largest currently burning in the state.
• Many of the firefighters being interrogated were members of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes. Indigenous people whose ancestors lived in this area for 10,000 years.
• Authorities made the firefighters line up to show ID. One firefighter told a reporter that he was not permitted to say goodbye to their detained colleagues.
• Washington state leaders are furious. Murray, who has been Washington’s senator since 1993, said, “Here in the Pacific Northwest, wildfires can burn and have burned entire towns to the ground. We count on our brave firefighters, who put their lives on the line, to keep our communities safe. This new Republican policy to detain firefighters on the job is as immoral as it is dangerous. What’s next? Will Trump start detaining immigrant service members? Or will he just maintain his current policy of deporting Purple Heart veterans?”
• Moving on.
• Some breaking news courtesy of the Asshole-in-Chief.
• This morning, Dumpy revoked U.S. Secret Service protection for former Vice President Kamala Harris.
• Before you hit the fucking roof about this, be aware that vice presidents typically only get six months of protection when they leave office. It was in 2008 that Congress passed legislation to authorize the Secret Service to protect former vice presidents, their spouses, and their children under 16 years old for up to six months after the vice president’s term has ended.
• However, President Joe Biden had signed an executive memorandum before leaving office that extended Harris’ protection to 18 months.
• Anyway, Dump being an asshole is hardly news, so I’ll just leave it at that.
• Moving on.
• Speaking of Biden, here’s a little flashback to a statement made during his presidency by now-Homeland Security secretary (and former South Dakota governor) Kristi Noem, the lady who shoots puppies.
• “If Joe Biden federalizes the National Guard, that would be a direct attack on states' rights. Over the last several years, we've seen Democrats try to take away our Freedoms of religion, assembly, and speech. We can't let them take away our right to defend ourselves, too. South Dakota defends the Constitution.”
• I had to laugh when Gov. Gavin Newsom reposted her statement recently, adding, “This aged well.”
• Obviously, Noem feels much differently now that Dump has done exactly what she’d accused Biden of doing (when he didn’t). 
• Let’s keep moving on.
• I’m trying to not harp on Wednesday’s horrific mass shooting in Minneapolis. Nothing I say here will make a damn bit of difference in encouraging the USA to enact more sane gun laws.
• But I will mention the cruel irony that one of the young victims remains in critical condition at the same hospital where her mother works as a pediatric critical care nurse.
• Twelve-year-old Sophia Forchas was in her first week in seventh grade when the attack occurred. Fucking awful.
• And every so often, I feel compelled to repost poet Brian Bilston’s masterful work…
• England is a cup of tea. / France, a wheel of ripened brie. / Greece, a short, squat olive tree. / America is a gun.
• Brazil is football on the sand. / Argentina, Maradona's hand. / Germany, an oompah band. / America is a gun.
• Holland is a wooden shoe. / Hungary, a goulash stew. / Australia, a kangaroo. / America is a gun.
• Japan is a thermal spring. / Scotland is a highland fling. / Oh, better to be anything / than America as a gun.
• Moving on.
• I think it’s time to recognize an AOTDOTD (Asshole of the Day Other Than Dump). Today it’s James “Jimmy” Yokeley, a Republican North Carolina election official.
• And this shit is super weird; warning you ahead of time.
• Yokeley has resigned after being arrested for putting illicit drugs into ice cream that his granddaughters were consuming.
• Here’s the super weird part. He flagged down an officer at a Sheetz gas station in Surry County, NC and told the cop that his two granddaughters had found pills in ice creams purchased at a nearby Dairy Queen. 
• With me so far? The girls had not ingested any of the substances, which was good, because the pills were later determined to contain MDMA and cocaine. 
• But when police reviewed video footage, they saw Yokeley himself placing the pills in the ice creams. He had been acting as the girls' guardian for the weekend.
• He was arrested and charged with contaminating food or drink with a controlled substance, felony child abuse, and possession of a Schedule I narcotic. He later posted a $100,000 secured bond. 
• What a fucking weirdo asshole. You have to wonder what he was trying to pull here. Yokeley had been selected to lead the Surry County NC Board of Elections just this past June.
• Moving on.
• A note from the Entertainment Desk…
• Saturday Night Live is doing some major shakeups, which is something that show runner Lorne Michaels had said would be happening in advance of their 51st year.
• Cast members Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, Heidi Gardner, and Michael Longfellow have all been let go from the show, and there may still be more coming.
• SNL Season 51 will premiere October 4 on NBC.
• And now, The Weather: “Oh Well” by flypaper
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s 57 years ago, at the end of August 1968. I haven’t even been conceived yet; I will be born the following June. Where am I?
• Here’s the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time. Some good shit on here, no doubt. Oh, and check this out: Cream, Aretha Franklin, and The Doors each have two albums in the top 20 at the same time; Simon & Garfunkel have three. That’s just fucking nuts.
• 1. Wheels Of Fire (Cream). 2. Time Peace/The Rascals' Greatest Hits (The Rascals). 3. Aretha Now (Aretha Franklin). 4. Waiting For The Sun (The Doors). 5. Beat Of The Brass (Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass). 6. Disraeli Gears (Cream). 7. The Graduate (Soundtrack). 8. Realization (Johnny Rivers). 9. Bookends (Simon & Garfunkel). 10. Feliciano! (Jose Feliciano). 11. Steppenwolf (Steppenwolf). 12. Are You Experienced? (Jimi Hendrix). 13. Wish It Would Rain (The Temptations). 14. Look Around (Sergio Mendes). 15. Aretha: Lady Soul (Aretha Franklin). 16. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme (Simon & Garfunkel). 17. The Promise Of A Future (Hugh Masekela). 18. Honey (Bobby Goldsboro). 19. Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison (Johnny Cash). 20. The Doors (The Doors).

• From the Sports Desk… while NFL football resumes in less than a week — with the Cowboys facing the Eagles on Thursday September 4 and then the Chiefs at the Chargers on Friday September 5 — the MLB season is winding down and there are some exciting playoff races going on.
• If baseball’s playoffs were to start today, here’s how they’d go.
• In the American League, the two top teams — Blue Jays (1) and Tigers (2) would have a bye and advance directly to the Division Series. The Wild Card Series would have the Red Sox (3) facing the Mariners (6), and the Astros (4) would face the Yankees (5).
• In the National League, the Brewers (1) and the Phillies (2) would have the bye, and the Dodgers (3) would face the Mets (6), and the Cubs (4) would face the Padres (5) in the Wild Card.
• That being said, many of these teams are just a game or two apart in the standings, and every win and loss will impact the playoff seedings.
• And there are still about 25 regular season games for each of them to play. A lot of things can — and will — happen at the tail end of the season.
• Today in history… Copper coins are minted in Japan (708). The city of Nuuk, Greenland is founded (1728). American forces defeat the British and Iroquois forces at the Battle of Newtown (1779). Massachusetts farmers have an armed uprising against high taxes and debts, called Shays’ Rebellion (1786). Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction (1831). Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen (1885). The Goodyear tire company is founded (1898). The Beatles perform their last ticketed concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco (1966). Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party (1991). Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service (1997). Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast, killing up to 1,836 people and causing $125 billion in damage (2005).
• August 29 is the birthday of physician/philosopher John Locke (1632), physician/writer Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809), engineer Charles F. Kettering (1876), actress Ingrid Bergman (1915), saxophonist/composer Charlie Parker (1920), businesswoman/philanthropist Iris Apfel (1921), singer-songwriter Dinah Washington (1924), soldier/politician John McCain (1936), actor Elliot Gould (1938), director Joel Schumacher (1939), press secretary/activist James Brady (1940), singer-songwriter Michael Jackson (1958), actress Rebecca De Mornay (1959), astronaut Chris Hadfield (1959), SCOTUS justice Neil Gorsuch (1967), bass player/singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello (1968), and MLB player Noah Syndergaard (1992).

There’s always more news. And by the way, I’m usually quite aware of the stories I don’t cover, usually because of time limitations, but sometimes because I don’t feel it’s something that has enough of a widespread importance that it’s applicable here. Or — as I readily admit — my news has a US-centric focus, and I don’t always include important news from other places around the world. But I do try and get in as much as I can in the time that I have. That’s also what I do in life. Enjoy your day.