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 April 22, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. Greetings and salutations.
- Today is Earth Day, an annual event held every on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection.
- First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally with more than 1 billion people participating in more than 193 countries.
- How is Dumpy celebrating the occasion? By implementing comprehensive policies to make the planet warmer, its weather more violent, its biodiversity less robust, and its human population much less safe.
- During his first term, the Dump administration rescinded more than 125 federal environmental rules and programs.
- In a poll last month, it was found that more than half of Americans oppose Trump’s reversal of America’s climate leadership.
- And literally today, Dump announced plans to impose tariffs of up to 3,521% on imports of solar panels from four South East Asian countries.
- In terms of loving the Earth, it’s a good thing that Dump’s remaining time on it is very comparatively short.
- Happy Earth Day. Let’s move on.
- Despite vehement denials, it seems like the White House has begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense.
- Former “Fox & Friends Weekend” host Pete Hegseth — for reasons that no can understand or justify — was made the head of the world’s largest organization, the United States department of defense.
- And ever since, it’s been one embarrassing moment after another for the Dump administration.
- As we reported yesterday, Hegseth shared details ahead of last month's Yemen strikes with his wife and brother in a Signal chat on his personal phone, minutes after being updated by a senior U.S. military official.
- That follows the debacle last month when Hegseth shared details about action against Houthi targets in Yemen in a Signal chat with top White House officials that accidentally included a journalist.
- Hegseth’s Pentagon is described as chaotic and non-functioning. Four senior advisers to Hegseth have left abruptly in the past few weeks, some accused of leaking.
- But then yesterday morning, that bastion of truth — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — says that reports of the White House had begun the process of looking for a new secretary of defense is “total FAKE NEWS”.
- Leavitt claims that Dump “stands strongly behind” Hegseth. Why doesn’t Dump just fire him? Because that would force him to admit he made a mistake.
- Let’s see how long that lasts while Hegseth continues to humiliate Dump day after day with his ineptitude.
- Moving on.
- Stocks tanked again yesterday after Dumpy renewed his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, branding him as a "major loser."
- Who would have hired such a giant loser? Let’s look into this.
- Oh. It was Dump who tapped Powell to lead the central bank during his first term in 2017.
- The S&P 500 fell 158 points, or 3%, to 5,124 in late afternoon trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 1,159 points, or 3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite sank even more sharply, dropping 3.2%.
- And outside of the stock market, the dollar index slid to its lowest level since 2022 weakening the currency's value. There are many signs that signal investors are increasingly concerned about the safety of U.S. assets.
- Dumpy the Economic Clown has floated the idea of firing Powell. But most legal experts — and Powell himself — say the president lacks authority to fire a Fed chief.
- Let’s move on.
- Yesterday, the Supreme Court considered a case that could impact whether Americans have to pay out-of-pocket for preventive-care services such as diabetes screenings, HIV-prevention drugs and statins, which are currently provided to patients at no cost under the Affordable Care Act.
- Like many Supreme Court cases, this is complicated. Long story short…
- It involves how to classify the 16 members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which sits within the Department of Health and Human Services and has been making recommendations on preventive medical services to avoid serious health conditions since 1984.
- But a federal appeals court found that the task force's structure violates the Appointments Clause of the Constitution because its members are principal officers who were not properly appointed.
- It sounds to me like the insurance companies are once again trying to dictate the health care off Americans, as usual.
- But if the Supreme Court affirms the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, it will limit access to life-saving medical care for millions of patients, as insurers would no longer be required to cover at no cost to patients the services recommended by the task force.
- Among the preventive services currently recommended by the task force are screenings for lung, cervical, and colorectal cancers, as well as diabetes; statin medications to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke; and medication to prevent HIV, known as PrEP.
- Looking on the bright side, there will be no evil insurance industry to worry about after we’re all dead, I suppose.
- In other news…
- Some very good follow-up news from a story that infuriated many of you back in February.
- City prosecutors in Coeur d’Alene, ID have filed criminal charges against six men involved in a chaotic town hall meeting, including the private security guards who physically dragged a woman out of the room.
- Paul Trouette, Russell Dunne, Christofer Berg, and Jesse Jones of the security firm Lear Asset Management are charged with the misdemeanor crimes of battery and false imprisonment. Resident Michael Keller is also charged with battery. The five men and Alex Trouette were also cited for uniform violations and duties violations.
- In Idaho, false imprisonment is punishable by up to a year in jail and a maximum fine of $5,000, while misdemeanor battery carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
- You probably recall on February 22, when Teresa Borrenpohl shouted from the audience during a town hall hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.
- While no criminal charges were filed against Sheriff Bob Norris — though he probably deserves them — Borrenpohl has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the security firm along with local Republican official Brent Regan, Lear founder Paul Trouette, and Sheriff Bob as well.
- Get. Their. Asses.
- Moving on with a sad update on the illegal and immoral immigration policy of the Dump regime.
- Immigration authorities denied an urgent request by Mahmoud Khalil to be temporarily released from detention, under monitoring, so he could attend the birth of his first child.
- So he wasn’t there when his wife, Noor Abdalla, delivered their son yesterday in New York.
- Khalil, who is being held at a remote Louisiana detention center, instead experienced part of the birth through a phone call.
- The one piece of bright news: both Abdalla and the baby are healthy. In a statement, Abdalla wrote that the denial of her husband's request "was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer."
- As we’ve said many time, the cruelty is the point of what Dump and his team of evil do every day. They’re probably laughing about this.
- In other news…
- What’s the one thing you’d require from a Secretary of Homeland Security? Could it be… security?
- Well, Kristi Noem's bag — including $3,000 in cash — was stolen over the weekend, reportedly at a restaurant, though she doesn’t seem entirely sure.
- In addition to the three large, the thief got away with Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, and blank checks.
- Noem — who was previously best known for bragging about shooting a sweet little puppy in the head — said the U.S. Secret Service was aware of the theft but said she hadn't spoken to agency personnel yet about what happened.
- But when asked for comment, a Secret Service spokesperson referred reporters to DHS.
- Pffft. What a bunch of dumbasses. Especially Noem.
- Moving on.
- From the Justice Desk…
- Yesterday, a New York City jury convicted Nadine Menendez, the wife of convicted former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, for her role in a years-long bribery scheme with her husband.
- She was convicted on all 15 counts and faces sentencing on June 12.
- Menendez and her husband have both now been convicted of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for political favors to benefit the government of Egypt and enrich themselves.
- Assholes.
- Let’s move on.
- It seems we found the entity responsible for the opioid epidemic in the USA, and it’s not Mexico, Canada, or China.
- It’s Walgreens.
- The company has agreed to pay $300 million to settle claims that it unlawfully filled millions of invalid prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances.
- The Justice Department, along with other federal agencies, alleges that for more than a decade pharmacists at the second largest pharmacy chain in the U.S. knowingly filled prescriptions of controlled substances, despite clear signs of their illegitimacy.
- Walgreens also pressured its workers to fill the prescriptions quickly without regard for proper legal protocols.
- Included in those prescriptions, the government says, were "excessive quantities of opioids" and prescriptions for "trinity" which is a triple-drug combination of opioids, benzodiazepines and muscle relaxants.
- Fucking hell.
- In other news…
- Donnie Dump wants to get you pregnant, and he is taking steps to make sure it happens.
- The Dump administration is exploring options to raise the birth rate in the USA.
- These include scholarships and cash bonuses, and even a government-funded program to better educate women on their own menstrual cycles so that they know when they should be trying for a baby.
- What in the dystopian hell is this shit?
- The impetus for this right-wing pro-natalism is 100% Project 2025 and the white ethno-nationalists at the heart of it.
- They want compliant women who spread their legs and pop out babies on demand. That’s what they call “traditional gender roles”, and it’s why they described the Democratic Party as full of “childless cat ladies” who are anti-children.
- But giving birth in the U.S. is more dangerous than in other high-income countries, and that's especially true for Black women.
- American Indian and Alaska Native women have a pregnancy-related death rate nearly four times higher than that of white women, and Black women's rate is nearly three times higher.
- The Dump administration's cuts to the federal bureaucracy has included maternal health programs. So you tell me what their motives are.
- And now, The Weather: “Closer To” by Goon
- Want to hear about a morbid line of thought?
- Every once in awhile, I consider the fact that — despite not being particularly old, I should note — I have spent more years as a living human than many well-known people were able to do.
- Obviously there’s that batch of 27-year-olds… Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and the rest of them. RIP. I’m over twice all of their ages.
- But there’s also this whole random and disparate group of people who didn’t live nearly as long as I have already. John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. John Lennon and Freddie Mercury. Thousands of others.
- It’s strange, knowing that I’m older than they ever were… especially because all of them were older than me at the point I learned who they were and what made them special.
- From the Sports Desk… more first round playoff action yesterday in multiple sports. I’m like fucking ESPN over here.
- In the NBA: the Pistons beat the Knicks 100-94, tying up their series at 1-1. The Clippers edged the Nuggets 105-102, also tying that series.
- In the NHL: the Capitals went to overtime to beat the Canadiens 3-2. The Jets beat the Blues 2-1, taking a 2-0 lead in that series. The Stars beat the Avalanche 4-3. And the Kings hung on in a nailbiter against the Oilers, winning 6-5.
- Today in history… Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil (1500). Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico (1519). The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription ‘In God We Trust’ be placed on all coins minted as United States currency (1864). The first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia (1876). President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000 (1898). The first Earth Day is celebrated (1970). Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic (1977). The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming (2016).
- April 22 is the birthday of philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724), feminist/suffragist Emily Davies (1830), revolutionary Vladimir Lenin (1870), novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899), physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904), painter Richard Diebenkorn (1922), bassist/composer Charles Mingus (1922), TV producer Aaron Spelling (1923), actress Charlotte Rae (1926), actress Estelle Harris (1928), singer-songwriter/guitarist Glen Campbell (1936), actor Jack Nicholson (1937), pianist/composer Jack Nitzsche (1937), fashion designer Issey Miyake (1938), actor/director John Waters (1946), singer-songwriter/guitarist Peter Frampton (1950), actor Ryan Stiles (1959), NFL player Jeff Hostetler (1961), actress Amber Heard (1986), NFL player Marshawn Lynch (1986), and rapper Machine Gun Kelly (1990).
I suppose that’s enough news for now. Keep fighting against fascism every way you can. Enjoy your day.
