Random News: September 6, 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 6, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. I wish it was a normal Saturday; it’s not. I have a business event to attend tonight — call it a “mandatory fun” thing. And while anyone should appreciate being invited to a party, I also know I am there to work. Anyway, that’s a number of hours away, so for the time being, let’s just do some news so I can stop obsessing on what sneakers go with the jacket I’m wearing and similar inane thoughts.

• Let’s look at the news.
• Yesterday, Dumpy declared that the Justice Department had “done its job” on the Jeffrey Epstein case and called for an end to the whole thing.
• He’s really saying that. He wrote that the DOJ “has done its job, they have given everything requested of them. It’s time to end the Democrat Epstein Hoax, and give the Republicans credit for the great, even legendary, job that they are doing.”
• So Donnie is straight-up stating that all the words of those victims — many of whom were still children when they were raped and abused by Epstein and his powerful friends — is some kind of hoax.
• And that’s very typical among men who are accused of any kind of sexual assault. That women lie, that it never happened, that there’s a conspiracy against him, and all that.
• In fact, the lengths that they’ll go to in this regard boggles the mind — or at least it would with anyone other than Dump, who you already expect to be one of the worst human beings that ever lived.
• How ridiculous is it? Well, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Donnie Dump was an FBI informant against Epstein.
• Johnson claimed, “When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”
• Huh. How do people become FBI informants? Well, it’s usually when they’ve been caught committing a crime, and then inform on a bigger criminal to avoid (or at least lessen) their own prosecution.
• And while we’re on this topic… if Dump is such a big proponent of transparency regarding Epstein and wanting the truth to come out, why hasn’t he done everything in his power to hear the stories of the victims?
• During the emotional press event they held on the steps of the Capitol, some of their harrowing stories were briefly drowned out by the sound of F-35 military jets that Dump had fly by at that moment.
• And even some of Dump’s closest allies — like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — have stated that Dump should meet with the victims at the White House.
• I mean, he’s likely met them before, but it was on an island and they were naked. But I digress.
• As you’re aware, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) — in a bipartisan effort with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) — has sponsored a discharge petition aiming to force the Dump administration to release all the government files on Epstein. And yes, that petition appears poised to receive the necessary support in the coming weeks.
• And Massie has said that he would personally read the names of powerful people on the Epstein list — the one that Dump and his DOJ say doesn’t exist.
• Massie knows that the victims would be liable for massive lawsuits that they can’t afford if they reveal the names on their own, so he’s offered to do it himself under special immunity on the floor of Congress.
• This week, Massie said, “Let me give you the name of one the billionaires, John Paulson. He is a major donor to the Republican party, a major donor to the speaker of the house, a major donor to the president’s campaign and he is in Epstein’s black book. That is indicative of the types of people who may be implicated or embarrassed by a complete release of these files.”
• Anyway, I mostly bring this up today because Dump himself continues to deny and obfuscate the scandal, and the more he avoids it, the more we’ll continue discussing it until the truth is revealed.
• And — as I’ve stated before — I give zero fucks about whether there are prominent Democrats on that list. Every one of them, from billionaires to royalty to leaders of industry, liberals and conservative, men or women, should face punishment if they were involved in sexual encounters with children.
• Let’s move on.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ruled against the Dump administration from ending temporary legal protections that have granted more than one million people from Haiti and Venezuela the right to live and work in the United States.
• Chen’s ruling for the plaintiffs means 600,000 Venezuelans whose temporary protections expired in April or whose protections were about to expire this coming week have status to stay and work in the United States.
• He also added that Homeland Security Secretary and puppy murderer Kristi Noem’s actions in terminating and vacating three extensions granted by the previous administration exceeded her statutory authority and were arbitrary and capricious.
• Correct.
• Millions of Venezuelans have fled political unrest, mass unemployment, and hunger. I’d hope you’d do the same thing for yourself and your family under similar circumstances.
• Moving on.
• Since we mentioned Venezuela…
• For the second time in two days, Venezuela has flown military aircraft in the vicinity of the USS Jason Dunham in international waters near South America.
• The F-16 fighter jets flew over the Dunham sometime overnight Thursday. It was unknown if the aircraft were armed.
• What is the Dunham even doing there? It’s among a flotilla of U.S. warships dispatched to the region in recent weeks that the Pentagon claims have been deployed to target criminal organizations and narco-terrorism.
• This past Tuesday, the U.S. military carried out a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat from Venezuela, killing 11 people. Dump claimed the boat was operated by a gang.
• But what right do we have to murder people — even alleged gang members and drug traffickers — with no trial and no opportunity for them to defend against accusations?
• And I’ll add that the little boat that Dump had blown up didn’t look like any drug-trafficking vessel I’ve seen. It just looked like poor refugees, clustered together.
• Let’s just move on.
• While Dump isn’t busy attacking people of other nations, he’s still got his sights focused on residents of our own country.
• Currently, it’s Chicago, Baltimore, and New Orleans that are preparing for the arrival of Dump’s National Guard troops to intimidate the people of those fine cities.
• Dump is claiming that his military attack on those cities are intended to curb crime — though data shows that crime has gone down in all three places. It comes after Dump’s use of the National Guard in Los Angeles in June — which was recently declared illegal — and in Washington, D.C. last month.
• You may not know that Chicago is home to one of the largest Mexican communities in the U.S..
• Major events will continue this weekend as scheduled in the Windy City, including Taste of Chicago, but organizers say they'll be monitoring the situation closely.
• At least one celebration for Mexican Independence Day, which is on September 16, has been postponed to November because of worries about immigration raids and National Guard deployment.
• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he expects Dump to deploy "unidentified agents in unmarked vehicles" to Latino neighborhoods in Chicago, along with federal agents at federal properties throughout the city.
• He said, "We are ready to fight troop deployments in court and we will do everything possible to ensure that agents operating inside the confines of this state do so in a legal and ethical manner.”
• Here’s hoping it stays at that level, with courts and meetings and talks and so on. Because this morning, Dump made it pretty clear that’s not his plan.
• Dumpy wrote, “Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR.”
• And Pritzker responded, “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”
• For months, I’ve been talking about the possibility of open and violent civil war happening. Don’t be all shocked when it happens.
• We’re in unprecedented times right now. Be ready for whatever happens next.
• Moving on.
• I want to once again make mention of the West Coast Health Alliance. It’s the group of states who are collaborating to ensure that public health policies are informed by trusted scientists, clinicians, and other public health leaders.
• And not by RFK Jr., who wants to remove literally all vaccines across the country for everyone, including children.
• My update: the original three states in the Alliance — California, Oregon, and Washington — have now been joined by Hawaii.
• And this week, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Massachusetts also chose to break with the CDC’s vaccine recommendations. Yesterday, Governor Matt Meyer announced that Delaware is also joining other Northeast states in this regional public health coalition.
• That coalition — the Northeast Public Health Collaboration — includes all of the New England states except New Hampshire, as well as New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
• Some people are feeling — perhaps hoping — that this is the beginning of what they’re calling a “quiet secession” from the USA. But I’ll maintain that these states ARE the USA.
• We contribute the most to the economy. We have the highest populations. So in my mind, we don’t secede. We own the country, and we beat back those trying to take it from us.
• Moving on.
• In one of the largest copyright settlements involving generative artificial intelligence, Anthropic AI has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by a group of authors.
• If the court approves the settlement, Anthropic will compensate authors around $3,000 for each of the estimated 500,000 books covered by the settlement.
• The settlement, which U.S. Senior District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco will consider next week, is in a case that involved the first substantive decision on how fair use applies to generative AI systems.
• To understand this, you have to know a little about something called the fair use doctrine, which enables copyrighted works to be used by third parties without the copyright holder's consent in some circumstances, such as when illustrating a point in a news article.
• But these AI companies are trying to make the case for the use of copyrighted works to train their generative AI models. Authors and other creative industry plaintiffs have been pushing back.
• Cecilia Ziniti, a tech industry lawyer and former Ninth Circuit clerk, said it well. "This settlement marks the beginning of a necessary evolution toward a legitimate, market-based licensing scheme for training data. It’s not the end of AI, but the start of a more mature, sustainable ecosystem where creators are compensated, much like how the music industry adapted to digital distribution."
• Well… yeah, except all music creators ended up getting screwed by the micropayment systems set up in that circumstance. I guess some money is better than being ripped off for no money at all.
• And now, The Weather: “Spell” by Joyer
• RIP going out to Mark Volman, the musician best known for being a founding member of The Turtles. He died yesterday at 78.
• The singer had been known for lending his voice for many of the band’s biggest hits, including “Elenore,” “It Ain’t Me Babe,” and the iconic “Happy Together.” But after The Turtles ended, Volman eventually partnered with his Turtles bandmate Howard Kaylan to form Flo and Eddie, who worked with Frank Zappa and others.
• Volman also featured on many other classic hits throughout his career. Outside of his own hits, he also provided backing vocals for Bruce Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” as well as backing vocals for the T Rex hit “Bang A Gong (Get It On)."
• From the Sports Desk… the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers met up last night for the second game of the NFL season, played in São Paulo, Brazil.
• The Chiefs looked like compete shit, and the Chargers — who were the alleged underdog — looked shockingly good. QB Justin Herbert had a 318-yard, three-touchdown performance in a 27-21 victory. Herbert also had 32 yards rushing.
• Patrick Mahomes seemed like the only guy on the Chiefs who knew there was an actual football game going on, but one guy does not a football team make.
• Today in history… Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time (1492). The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower to settle in North America (1620). Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807 (1870). Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York (1901). The Monterrey Institute of Technology is founded in Monterrey, Mexico as one of the largest and most influential private universities in Latin America (1943). Nine Israeli athletes die at the hands of the Palestinian "Black September" terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games (1972). Tawny Elaine Godin, an eighteen year old pianist from Yonkers, was crowned Miss America (1976). Cal Ripken Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that had stood for 56 years (1995). Princess Diana’s funeral is attended by over a million people lining the streets and 2.5 billion watching on television (1997). Ukraine begins its Kharkiv counteroffensive, surprising Russian forces and retaking over 3,000 square kilometers of land, recapturing the entire Kharkiv Oblast west of the Oskil River, within the next week (2022).
• September 6 is the birthday of educator/activist Catharine Beecher (1800), soldier/diplomat William Rosecrans (1819), sociologist/activist Jane Addams (1860), businessman/diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (1888), singer-songwriter/guitarist Jimmy Reed (1925), singer-songwriter/guitarist David Allan Coe (1939), songwriter/bassist Roger Waters (1943), actress Swoosie Kurtz (1944), actress Jane Curtain (1947), businesswoman Carly Fiorina (1954), bassist/composer Patrick O’Hearn (1954), comedian Jeff Foxworthy (1958), actress Rosie Perez (1964), singer-songwriter Macy Gray (1967), singer-songwriter CeCe Peniston (1969), singer-songwriter Dolores O’Riordan (1971), actor Idris Elba (1972), rapper Foxy Brown (1978), and NBA player John Wall (1990).

Alright. This news is already late and I have many things to do before I go to the work party that I do not want to go to but will because of reasons. Enjoy your day.