Random News: September 22, 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 September 22, 2025, and it’s a Monday. It's now officially the time of year when I’m up long before the dawn. My alarm goes off at 6:00; sunrise here was 6:42 today. I really don’t mind it, but I also refuse to turn on lights in the morning unless absolutely necessary. No reason; I’m just weird like that.

• Happy Autumn. The equinox happens at 11:19AM PT/2:19PM ET.
• Fall is definitely my favorite season in most years. I’m really looking forward to cooler weather, flannels, and continuing my tradition of avoiding anything that has “pumpkin spice” in its description.
• Sorry, that shit is gross.
• Let’s do some news.
• As has been the case in several situations as of late, the Democrats are doing things the Republicans have done for years and years.
• And frankly, it’s kinda fun.
• Case in point: looming government funding deadline. It’s happened so often with the minority party making use of its leverage to push for priorities it can’t enact otherwise.
• Except this time, it’s not Republicans pushing for policy concessions. It’s the Democrats. And they’re going to get what they want, or, as Republicans have done many times, we’ll push the whole fucking thing off a cliff and start a government shutdown on October 1 with no obvious end in sight.
• And making matters more ironic, it’s now conservative Republicans — the ones who balked at past stopgap spending  bills — who have signed on to their party’s strategy.
• Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) said, “My brain’s falling out of my head. When you talk about the Freedom Caucus talking about passing a CR and the Democrats saying, ‘I’m going to shut down the government.’ I’ve never seen anything so weird in my life.”
• Get used to it, and much more. The Democrats are done fucking around. No more sternly-worded letters. No more capitulating “for the public interest.” Those days are gone. Oh, how the tables have turned.
• Unless Dump and the Republicans cave and accept our changes to the budget, you get nothing.
• By the way, this “Twilight Zone” government isn’t only happening via the Democrats growing balls and doing a tactical 180. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) vowed last year to never pass another continuing resolution to fund the government. On Friday, he put forth the second GOP-backed stopgap of 2025.
• Snorrrrrt.
• Let’s move on.
• The Dump administration is terminating the federal government’s annual report on food insecurity in America.
• The way that things work in Dumpyworld is that any information that’s bad news and requires the action of people to help is shoved aside or called false.
• Dumpy says the food insecurity report had become “redundant, costly and politicized” and noting that “extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger.”
• The USDA said it still plans to issue one final report — on hunger in 2024 — in October. So they will never issue a report on the number of hungry Americans during Sump’s term.
• The real reason they’re eliminating the report: Dump and the Republican-controlled Congress passed a sweeping domestic agenda package this year — his Big Bullshit Bill — that will enact massive cuts to the food stamp program.
• Nearly 2.5 million fewer Americans — including families with children — are forecast to receive food stamp (SNAP) benefits in an average month after lawmakers expanded work requirements to some parents, older enrollees and others.
• And other recipients are expected to see their monthly assistance shrink at a time when grocery prices remain high and food banks are trying to cope with increased demand.
• Nearly 42 million people received food stamps in May, according to the USDA. The average monthly benefit was just over $188 per person.
• Just two years back in 2023, about 13.5% of households were food-insecure at least at some point in the year. That share was higher than in 2022, when it was 12.8%.
• Why would anyone go hungry in a wealthy first-world country?
• Moving on, by staying on topic of people and their money.
• While the U.S. economy seems to be chugging along for well-off people and the stock market, it’s facing growing headwinds on one crucial front — consumer spending.
• Americans’ long-running spending boom is showing signs of faltering as consumers of all income levels scale back, leaving the economy on shaky ground. This shift is most pronounced among lower-income consumers, who are disproportionately vulnerable to rising prices and other economic pressures eroding their purchasing power.
• Working-class Americans — already up against waning wage growth and rising housing and electricity costs — are easily burned by any increase in grocery prices and tariff-fueled increases on household staples, apparel and furniture.
• So in addition to dipping into savings and racking up more debt, most Americans are pulling way back on discretionary spending.
• Even in the middle- and upper-income tiers are being more strategic about when to make big purchases, buying in bulk and shopping at cheaper retailers.
• And as a result, sales in the luxury sector are weakening as customers grow increasingly fed up with brands charging higher prices without notably improving quality.
• See how it works? You can’t fuck any one part of the populace and expect not to fuck them all — including yourself and your rich pals — as a result.
• Let’s move on.
• A reminder to every Californian who’s reading this: in a little over a week, you’ll be receiving a ballot in the the mail on Proposition 50, the ballot initiative for a special election that will allow us to stop Dump from tilting the scales of Congress.
• I assume you’re a registered voter. If not, I’m not sure why you read this column.
• While we despise polling here at Zak’s Random News, the initial results look very good regarding Prop 50.
• An Emerson poll finds over half of voters — 51% — support the redistricting measure. 34% did not support it, and 15% are undecided. 
• Support for Proposition 50 is strongest among voters with college or postgraduate degrees, at 60%, compared to 43% among those without a college degree.
• Anyway, vote YES on 50. If you have even a single doubt as to why this is the right thing to do, my inbox is open and I”m happy to discuss it with you personally.
• Moving on.
• An observation…
• It’s pretty funny that for an alleged terrorist organization — at least according to Dumpy — Antifa seems to have in its membership some of the most admired characters in fiction.
• Indiana Jones, Captain America, Luke Skywalker, Wonder Woman, Superman… all Antifa.
• And, of course, non-fictional people, like every American and British soldier in WWII. Those guys defending Pearl Harbor, raising the flag at Iwo Jima, storming the beach at Normandy? Yeah, those are all gung-ho Antifa.
• Now explain why they’re the villains in your story. Go on, we’ll wait here.
• Back to the news.
• Dumples the Moronic Clown is expected to link the use of pain reliever Tylenol in pregnant women to autism.
• I’m going to start by pointing out that autism has been around forever, and was first clinically diagnosed in 1911. Tylenol — which is a brand name, not a drug — came out in 1955.
• Despite that, at an Oval Office event today, Dump will reportedly advise pregnant women in the US to only take Tylenol to relieve high fevers.
• What is Tylenol? It’s a popular brand of pain relief medication sold in the United States, Canada, and some other countries. Its active ingredient is acetaminophen, which is called paracetamol outside North America.
• There are no accepted scientific connections between Tylenol and autism.
• More importantly, Tylenol is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women. Without it, women face a dangerous choice between suffering through conditions like fever or use riskier alternatives.
• But frankly, Dump and his ilk want women suffering and in pain as much as possible. So blaming all mothers for their children’s autism is totally on track for the Dumpy world.
• The widely held view of researchers is that there is no single cause of autism, which is thought to be the result of a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.
• And now, The Weather: “Existentialism” by Winter
• From the Sports Desk… some pretty surprising games in yesterday’s NFL action.
• The Eagles being down 26-7 in the third quarter, only to win 33-26 on a last-second block field goal recovery. The not-at-all-good Panthers beating a very favored Falcons team 30-0. And the Packers, who’d been more than a touchdown favorite, losing to the lowly Browns 13-10.
• Crazy. That’s why they play the games. Tonight’s Monday Night Football has the Lions visiting the Raven. Baltimore is favored by -4.5.
• Today in history… The last hanging of those convicted of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials, including Samuel Wardwell, my 10th great-grandfather (1692). George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz are crowned King and Queen of Great Britain (1761). Nathan Hale is hanged for spying during the American Revolution (1776). Queen Victoria surpasses her grandfather King George III as the longest reigning monarch in British history at the time (1896). The steel strike of 1919 begins in Pennsylvania before spreading across the United States (1919). On Rosh Hashanah, the German SS murders 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, who are the survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier in which about 24,000 Jews were executed (1941). François Duvalier is elected president of Haiti (1957). Sara Jane Moore tries to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford (1975). Iraq invades Iran, sparking the nearly eight year Iran–Iraq War (1980). The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time (1991).
• September 22 is the birthday of Chinese emperor Li Zicheng (1606), physicist Michael Faraday (1791), activist Christabel Pankhurst (1880), actor Paul Muni (1895), actor John Houseman (1902), Nazi war criminal Ilse Koch (1906), activist Eric Baker (1920), MLB player/manager Bob Lemon (1920), MLB player/manager Tommy Lasorda (1927), NBA commissioner David Stern (1942), singer/choreographer Toni Basil (1943), singer-songwriter King Sunny Adé (1946), singer-songwriter David Coverdale (1951), singer Debby Boone (1956), bass player Doug Wimbish (1956), singer-songwriter Nick Cave (1957), singer-songwriter/bass player Johnette Napolitano (1957), singer Andrea Bocelli (1958), singer-songwriter/guitarist Joan Jett (1958), MLB player/manager Mike Matheny (1970), and actor Tom Felton (1987).

So, happy fall to you all. Maybe that’s what we need; a change of season, a change of scenery, and a change in our belief in ourselves to stand up and fight back against these fascist fucks who are trying to destroy our friends, families, and country. I can tell you right now: they will not win. They suck. And they don’t know how hard we’re going to fight… and they’re in for a shock. Enjoy your day.