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.
Good morning. It’s September 28, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I’m waking up with a… not a hangover, because I don’t drink alcohol, but a “did too many things and was around too many people and it was somewhat overwhelming” day yesterday. I’m sure with some coffee and other miraculous cures, I’ll be around to my normal self soon enough.
- On that topic…
- I’m very glad I participated in yesterday morning’s “California Strong: Hold the Line” protest. It was exactly as I predicted… small groups of people on nearly every corner for miles and miles.
- I’d say on a 90% basis, the honks and waves and fists of support far outweighed the few boos and middle fingers.
- After we spent a good hour and a half out on Pacific Coast Highway waving our signs, Kat and I hopped in the Jeep and spent the end of the event supporting the others… driving by and leaning on the horn, fist raised in resistance defiance.
- I did, however, actually get assaulted in a minor way. Some piece of shit threw his beverage in my direction out of his car window as he drove by like a pussy. I got hit with a sprinkle or two.
- Not the end of the world, but it’s typical that right-wing violence plagues even the most chill and peaceful of protest actions.
- I did other stuff yesterday, but we’ll save that for later. First, the news.
- The lengths that the Dump administration is going to in order to obfuscate the Epstein files is just mind boggling.
- I mean, let’s just start with Portland, OR.
- Yesterday Dumpy made what might be one of his more insane statements — I know, it’s hard to choose between so many — when we said he was sending military troops to Portland, which he described as “war-ravaged.”
- Dump said he’s authorizing the troop to use “Full Force, if necessary.”
- So to be perfectly clear, a reminder that it’s not right for a president to send military into cities with threats of killing American citizens. Let’s start there.
- Second: Portland is the opposite of a war zone. It’s a peaceful and fun and culturally fascinating place that’s accepting of humans, be they gay, hipsters, immigrants, lumberjacks, or bicyclists.
- Or what the fuck ever.
- Side note: while Dump called out Portland specifically, it’s important to note he didn’t limit his threats to that lively Pacific Northwest city. He said he’s also directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide troops to “any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
- So while I was out in the street protesting peacefully, Dump was threatening me for doing so. That right to protest is in our Constitution. Now doing so makes one a trrorist as defined by Dump.
- Hundreds of years of precedent had stopped all U.S. presidents previous to Dump from directing the nation’s full counterterrorism apparatus against domestic political opponents.
- But now here we are in a fascist dictatorship. I will tell you… I have a. feeling that not every member of our military or law enforcement will be as comfortable violating the Constitution as Dumpy is.
- So there might be some more interesting times ahead.
- As if we needed more.
- Let’s move on.
- The government is about to shut down in a matter of days.
- As I mentioned previously, despite Republicans holding the House, Senate, and White House, the government cannot pass a budget without the help of Democrats.
- And - as I support 100% — the Democrats are using this leverage to try and help Americans. They have requirements for this budget to expand our health care policies, but Dump has called them “totally unreasonable” and refused to even meet with Dem leaders to discuss the compromises.
- By the way, what is this “unreasonable” demand that Dump also called “unserious and ridiculous?” Democrats want an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. That’s all.
- But now Dump has no choice, knowing the shutdown will be perceived as the fault of himself and his party. The latest reports say that Dumpy the Sad Clown will meet with top congressional leaders from both parties tomorrow.
- Will Dumpy budge before the shutdown on Wednesday? I find it less likely that the Democrats will. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries committed that he will not.
- He said, “Our position has been very clear: cancel the cuts, lower the costs, save health care.”
- Jeffries doesn’t want a shutdown either, by the way. He stated, “Well, it’s my hope that we’ll avoid one. At the end of the day, Republicans do control the House, the Senate and the presidency.”
- Indeed.
- Moving on.
- We need to once again mention that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a last-minute global gathering of the nation’s top generals in Quantico, VA.
- It’s said that even top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting. There is a viable theory that Hegseth and Dump are planning to erase the Defense Department’s status as a nonpartisan institution.
- And against the backdrop of Dump’s new threat for troops to use full force against Americans, this seemingly-impossible idea has some merit.
- Interestingly, it was announced this morning that Lord Dumpypants himself has decided to attend the meeting of generals on Tuesday morning.
- There are about 800 generals and admirals spread across the United States and dozens of other countries and time zones. Typically, each of these officers oversees hundreds or thousands of rank-and-file troops.
- So this might be the moment that those military leaders have to choose between following a fascist’s maniacal and often illegal orders, versus staying faithful to their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution.
- Anyway, the addition of Dumpy at Quantico will now put the Secret Service in charge of securing the event. This whole fucking thing sounds like a clusterfuck waiting to happen, I should note.
- And a quick side note: after hearing about the meeting, retired U.S. Army Commanding General Ben Hodges made a social post referencing a meeting Hitler convened in which German generals were required to take an oath of allegiance to him.
- To which Hegesth sarcastically replied, “cool story, general.” Fucking prick.
- Some unnamed military officials expressed concerns about having so many high-ranking commanders in one location, while another said it could make overseas commands “diminished if something pops up.”
- Well yeah. This whole thing fucking reeks of both villainy and ineptitude.
- Let’s move on.
- As I mentioned above, so many things going on in Dumpyworld right now seem to all be distractions from the inevitable release of the Epstein files.
- In addition to weird announcements teasing news on Amelia Earhart’s mystery (what the fuck?), yesterday Dumpy found a new point of blame for the January 6, 2021 failed coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol.
- Dumpy says it was the FBI’s fault. I’m serious.
- He said that the FBI had “secretly placed” 274 agents to agitate the crowd of rioters who stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
- In reality, the inspector general of the Justice Department revealed 10 months ago that “hundreds” of FBI agents went to the Capitol to assist at the request of the beleaguered Capitol Police.
- As they should have, obviously. We needed all the help we could get against those insurrectionist assholes.
- The IG report also found no evidence that the agency had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6. None. Zero.
- Reminder: Dump was president on January 6, 2021. The FBI was serving under Dump at that time.
- Even his current FBI director, the weirdo Kash Patel, walked back these false claims by Dump. Patel corrected Dump and confirmed that agents were there on a crowd-control mission.
- But either way, you can see that what they’re attempting is a rewrite of history in regard to January 6, one of the darkest days in U.S. history thus far.
- With more dark days to come, of course. Don’t kid yourself otherwise.
- And now, The Weather: “California” by Jouska
- I mentioned having had a late (for me) night last night. Kat and I went up to the Greek Theater in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles to see a live music show.
- Being into the indie music, we’re longtime fans of the singer-songwriter Alex G. Kat had grabbed us some tickets months ago, when Alex added a second sold-out night at the Greek.
- She’d never been to the Greek before, and it had been a good while for me as well. It’s such a great open-air (but still intimate, somehow) venue in a natural amphitheater.
- The show was fucking phenomenal. He and his band are incredibly talented, his songs are uniquely superb, the live sound was spectacular, and the performance was super tight. Is Alex pretty big right now in the indie world? He was the musical guest on the second night of the return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” this week.
- From the Sports Desk… it’s the fourth Sunday of the NFL season.
- The most lopsided game of the day — and possibly the season — is New Orleans at Buffalo. The Bills are a crazy -16.5 favorite. Yikes.
- Checking in on the WNBA semifinals, the 4-seed underdog Phoenix Mercury have the 1-seed Minnesota Lynx on the brink of elimination, leading 2-1 in the series. Game 4 is today.
- Similarly but opposite, the 2-seed Las Vegas Aces have taken a 2-1 series lead over the Indiana Fever. Their game 4 is also today.
- Today in history… Pompey arrives in Egypt and is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy XIII (48 BC). King James I of Aragon conquers Valencia from the Moors (1238). Juan RodrÃguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California, becoming the first European in California (1542). The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval (1787). The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is drafted, and will be made public on 13 October (1821). The Brazilian Parliament passes a law that frees all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government-owned slaves (1871). Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska (1919). Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin (1928). Ted Williams achieves a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better (1941). CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later (1951). Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit (2008). Protests begin in Hong Kong in response to restrictive political reforms imposed by the NPC in Beijing (2014).
- September 28 is the birthday of philosopher Confucius (551 BC), plumber/inventor Thomas Crapper (1836), broadcaster/CBS founder William S. Paley (1901), TV host Ed Sullivan (1901), singer/refugee Maria Franziska von Trapp (1914), spy Ethel Rosenberg (1915), poet/singer Tuli Kupferberg (1923), actor/singer Marcello Mastroianni (1924), singer Koko Taylor (1928), actress Brigitte Bardot (1934), guitarist/inventor Emmett Chapman (1936), singer-songwriter Ben E. King (1938), NFL player/politician Steve Largent (1954), guitarist/songwriter George Lynch (1954), pianist Kenny Kirkland (1955), NHL player Grant Fuhr (1962), comedian Janeane Garofalo (1964), actress Mira Sorvino (1967), model Dita Von Teese (1972), NBA player Bonzi Wells (1976), rapper Young Jeezy (1977), singer-songwriter/guitarist St. Vincent (1982), and singer-songwriter Hilary Duff (1987).
Alrighty. I’m still kinda groggy from last night, but getting better as the coffee does its job. Enjoy your day.
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