Random News: May 24, 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 May 24, 2025, and it’s a Saturday. It's super quiet here so far today. It’s quite nice. Overcast, in a way that we here by the beach in Southern California call “May Gray,” which eventually transitions to “June Gloom.” If you want sunny summers, move inland. Anyway, I’m in my robe and I have my coffee. Lots going on in the world, so let’s get rolling.

• Let's start today with a reminder that on June 14, there are over 1,000 events scheduled across the USA to protest the fascist takeover of the USA by the Dump regime.
• It’s called “No Kings,” a nationwide day of defiance. It’s purposefully being held on the same day that Donnie Dump is forcing the military to have an expensive parade for his 79th birthday.
• Where are these nationwide events? Everywhere.
• Findlay, OH. Lexington, KY. Jacksonville, AL. Brunswick, GA. McKinney, TX. Perry, IA. Harrisburg, PA. Salina, KS. Hailey, ID. Los Lunas, NM. La Pine, OR. Rolla, MO. Ellsworth, ME. Concord, NC. And about a thousand more cities and towns, big and small, urban and rural, in blue states and red states.
• So many of you come to me all the time asking, “What can I do?”
• This. This is what you can do. Put on your big boy/girl pants, look at the map of events that I’ll include in the comments, and make a plan to attend in person.
• Scared? Don’t know what to expect in a street protest? Don’t know how to get involved? That’s what I’m here for, my peoples. Just ask me. I will walk you through any part of the process that confuses you.
• It costs nothing. It means everything. You don’t need a sign (though you can make one if you want). You don’t need a permission slip. You don’t need special clothes or slogans. You don’t need to RSVP. Just. Fucking. Show. Up.
• Let’s look at the news.
• Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs temporarily blocked Dump from revoking Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students.
• Hours after the Ivy League school challenged Dump from targeting its enrollment, Burroughs agreed to grant Harvard's request for immediate relief and set a hearing for May 29.
• Harvard’s federal lawsuit accurately states that Dump’s decision to bar it from enrolling foreign students is unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House's political demands. 
• Perhaps most prestigious and respected school in the USA, Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, MA. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.
• Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the action against Harvard will "serve as a warning" to other universities.
• That’s how fascism and authoritarian dictatorships work. Choose one entity to punish harshly and use it to scare the others to get in line and meekly obey.
• Not in America, motherfuckers. We fight back. 
• Moving on with a quick question for any MAGA-types that are reading this right now. I know you’re out there.
• So you have an American company named Apple, and a South Korean company named Samsung.
• Both manufacture their phones in Asia. Samsung does in it their native South Korea, while Apple has been making theirs in China, and is apparently considering manufacturing in India.
• And this fucking guy who calls himself the president singles out the American company for a tariff on its product that is far higher than the tariff he’s imposing on the South Korean company.
• He gives a huge advantage in income and profitability to the foreign company while actively harming a beloved and iconic American brand.
• How the fuck is that making American great again?
• Let’s move on.
• As you know, that ridiculous “big, beautiful bill” to give tax breaks to billionaires and take away crucial services from millions of Americans passed the House only after Speaker Mike Johnson struck a series of back-room deals.
• Senate Republicans are now threatening to tear them apart. Ha ha. It’s looking like that shitty budget legislation is in for a major rewrite across the Capitol.
• The big fault lines that the Republicans in the Senate won’t accept?
• Sens. Hawley (R-MO), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) who have all drawn red lines on Medicaid benefit cuts.
• Tillis (R-NC), Curtis (R-UT), and again Murkowski sent a letter to GOP leadership warning against gutting the clean-energy tax credits that represent major investments in their respective states.
• And again, Murkowski along with Sullivan (R-AK), Graham (R-SC), and Tim Scott (R-SC) are balking at the bill requiring states to cover a portion of federal food assistance (SNAP) costs for the first time.
• And then there are the super assholes like Thune (R-SD), who claim that the spending cuts in the House version of the bill aren’t enough. He says he’s aiming for closer to $2 trillion in reductions, above the $1.5 trillion the House passed. 
• Or Johnson (R-WI), who’s pushing for a $6 trillion cut. Hahahahahahahahhaaaa sweet Jesus. But don’t laugh; he says he has the votes to tank the bill if it doesn’t go far enough, pointing to Sens. Lee (R-UT, Scott (R-FL) and Paul (R-KY) as allies.
• So I don’t think this bill will go through as-is.
• However, what has seemed to transpire on many previous occasions is that the spineless Republicans end up caving after their performative pre-vote protests.
• So we’ll all wait and see.
• Moving on.
• Yesterday, scores of staffers at the White House National Security Council were abruptly fired without cause.
• That can’t be good.
• The cuts were made under Dumpy’s new national security adviser, Marco Rubio who — for unknown reasons — is also our secretary of state. That’s fucking weird, ya know.
• A former senior NSC staff member said yesterday’s bloodbath was “both a reflection of Trump’s paranoia that the NSC staff constitutes the Deep State, but it is also a very deliberate effort to kneecap the role of the NSC in generating interagency consensus. The purpose is to make sure there are no alternatives and no constraints to the president’s prerogative.”
• Sounds about right. Look, we told you that this fat asshole was a dictator. He even told you.
• Let’s get back to some good news.
• This week, Judge Susan Illston extended her freeze on Dump’s plan for mass layoffs and reorganizations at 22 federal agencies until a lawsuit against his administration is resolved.
• She said that Dump “likely must” seek approval from Congress before carrying out such widespread changes.
• Illston’s order also states that any federal employees transferred onto administrative leave as a result of Dump’s policies should be moved back to the status they held before being placed on such leave.
• Good. Suck it, Dump.
• More good news for us (and bad news for Dumpy)? All day long, please.
• Yesterday, Judge John D. Bates struck down Dump’s executive order sanctioning Jenner & Block, the second time a court has quashed one of Dumpy’s efforts to single out and punish a respected law firm.
• Bates wrote that Trump’s order was unconstitutional — duh. He said Dumpy was trying “to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers.”
• Thank you! Jesus, why is this even a question?
• Jenner and three other firms — Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey — filed separate lawsuits in federal court, and judges in all four cases temporarily blocked most of Dump’s penalties for the firms.
• But nine of the country’s largest law firms reached “agreements” (aka bribery deals) with Dump, pledging nearly $1 billion in combined pro bono legal services.
• I would never, ever do business with one of those firms. If they wont’ fight back against Dump, why would I think they would fight for me or my business?
• Let’s move over to some immigration news.
• The Dump administration has once again been ordered to facilitate the return of a man who was wrongly deported to Mexico in February, after he told authorities about his fears of violence and torture across the border.
• This case marks at least the third time the administration has been ordered to return a migrant it wrongfully deported.
• The man suffered multiple violent attacks in Guatemala, and on his way to the US, he was raped and held for ransom in Mexico. A judge ruled he should not be sent back to his native country.
• Two days after he received status, however, the man was forced by immigration authorities onto a bus to Mexico, without having a chance to explain the nuances of his case or contact his lawyer.
• Last night, US District Judge Brian Murphy ruled that the man’s deportation lacked due process. 
• Murphy’s ruling came days after an appeals court denied Dump’s request to stop the return of a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year.
• Fucking inhuman pricks. You know, life has a funny way of maintaining balance sometimes. Perhaps some of these men will one day experience punishment without the benefit of due process. It seems fitting from a karmic point of view.
• And now, The Weather: “Chevy” by Triathalon
• Some news from the Entertainment Desk…
• Yesterday, Billy Joel announced that all of his scheduled concerts up to early July 2026 have been canceled after a recent health diagnosis. 
• He announced that he was recently diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brian disorder that’s led to problems with his hearing, vision, and balance.
• I am definitely a person who appreciates Billy Joel, who turned 76 earlier this month, and I wish him well.
• From the Sports Desk… more Conference Final playoff action.
• In the NBA: the Pacers are now shockingly up 2-0 over the Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, taking both of the first games on the road. They won 114-109 in a hard-fought back and forth game last night, with 39 points from veteran forward Pascal Siakam.
• In the NHL: the Oilers blanked the Stars 3-0 in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. That series is tied at 1-1.
• Today in history… Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in North America, is founded (1607). Peter Minuit buys Manhattan (1626). South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (1813). Samuel Morse sends the message "What hath God wrought” from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, MD, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C. (1844). The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction (1883). The first night game in Major League Baseball history is played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2–1 at Crosley Field (1935). Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight (1940). The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland (1956). United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service (1958). Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, MS, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus (1961). Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel (1991). Four men are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993; each one is sentenced to 240 years in prison (1994). Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party (2019). A mass shooting occurs at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, resulting in the deaths of 21 people, including 19 children (2022).
• May 24 is the birthday of Roman general Germanicus (15 BC), physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686), UK queen Victoria (1819), SCOTUS Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo (1870), candy maker H. B. Reese (1879), actress Lilli Palmer (1914), politician Jane Byrne (1933), actor Tommy Chong (1938), singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (1941), actor Gary Burghoff (1943), singer-songwriter Patti LaBelle (1944), actress Priscilla Presley (1945), drummer Albert Bouchard (1947), guitarist Waddy Wachtel (1947), singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash (1955), singer-songwriter Larry Blackmon (1956), actress Kristin Scott Thomas (1960), boxer Héctor Camacho (1962), NBA player Joe Dumars (1963), actor John C. Reilly (1965), MLB player Bartolo Colón (1973), and NBA player Tracy McGrady (1979).

Okay then. Hey, it’s the Saturday of a three-day weekend! I’m going to do various fun things at various points. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 23, 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 May 23, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! Plus, at least here in the ol’ US of A, it’s the Friday before a holiday weekend. This makes me somewhat gleeful.

• Let’s get things rolling with some breaking news.
• Yesterday, Dumpy revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.
• The Department of Homeland Security baselessly stated that Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus.
• And without offering any evidence, DHS also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese communist party.
• What a fucking joke. One of the best things about Harvard through its long existence has been bringing the best and brightest minds around the world to study in the USA, and then help contribute to our success.
• Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body.
• So what do you think happened next?
• This morning, Harvard University announced it is suing the Dump administration, escalating this dispute between Dumpy’s shitty White House and one of the world’s most prestigious institutions.
• In the suit filed in Boston, the university called the administration's actions a "blatant violation" of the law.
• Can you imagine the legal team that fucking Harvard can put together? I hope they prove that Dump has inflicted damages in the range of billions and find him personally liable.
• I’d enjoy that. Let’s move on with a different story in the education realm.
• Yesterday, Judge Myong Joun blocked the Dump administration's attempted dismantling of the Department of Education.
• Dumpy is now blocked from carrying out the reduction-in-force at the Education Department, which was announced on March 11. Joun also blocked transferring the management of federal student loans and special education functions out of the Education Department.
• This keeps getting better. All fired federal employees from the department must be reinstated as well.
• "Indeed, prior to the RIF, the Department was already struggling to meet its goals, so it is only reasonable to expect that an RIF of this magnitude will likely cripple the Department. The idea that Defendants' actions are merely a 'reorganization' is plainly not true," Joun wrote in his decision.
• Dumpy must be apoplectic, having long set his sights on dismantling the Department of Education, saying when he nominated Linda McMahon to head the department that he hoped she would "put herself out of a job."
• Sorry Linda. Get your ass to work.
• Moving on but still in related news…
• Yesterday, District Judge Jeffrey S. White blocked the Dump administration from terminating the legal status of international students nationwide while a court case challenging previous terminations is pending.
• The order bars the government from arresting, incarcerating, or moving students elsewhere based on their legal status until the case is resolved.
• White said the government’s actions “wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here but on similarly situated F-1 nonimmigrants across the United States and continues do so.”
• This is why we resist. We’re the ones with the laws of the USA on our side. Each of these victories against the evil Dump regime takes away another small portion of his power.
• Think of them like Voldemort’s horcruxes.
• Moving on to some less fortunate news.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to reinstate independent agency board members fired by Dump. I’m actually not very surprised.
• The court’s action essentially extended an order Chief Justice John Roberts issued in April that had the effect of removing two board members whom Dump fired from agencies that deal with labor issues.
• How does this help Dump ruin America? Because these agencies don’t have enough appointed members to take final actions on issues before them, as Dump has purposefully not sought to appoint replacements.
• Yesterday’s decision keeps on hold an appellate ruling that had temporarily reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board.
• The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Thank God for those three women and their efforts, even when they’re outnumbered by assholes.
• Moving on to a better court story.
• Judge Susan Illston has extended her freeze on Dumples the Inept Clown's plan for mass layoffs and reorganizations at 22 federal agencies until a lawsuit against his administration is resolved, saying that Dumpy “likely must” seek approval from Congress before carrying out such widespread changes.
• It extends a two-week reprieve granted May 9 and means 22 federal agencies will be forced to pause plans to lay off employees and reorganize while the remainder of the case plays out.
• Ha ha, you sad sack of shit.
• Moving on with some happy follow-up news to a story we reported previously.
• Ximena Arias Cristobal is free. The Georgia teenager who was detained by federal deportation officers following local traffic charges that have since been dismissed was released from immigration custody late yesterday.
• Arias Cristobal, 19, was released by ICE one day after an immigration judge granted her bond. She was picked up by family friends at a detention facility in Lumpkin, GA and return to her home in Dalton overnight.
• Arias Cristobal, who came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 4, had been in ICE custody for weeks.
• Let’s move on to some news from the Business Desk.
• Here’s a new saying for you: Cancel DEI, and business will die.
• Just ask Target, who slashed its financial outlook for the year as it reported weaker-than-expected earnings amid tariff uncertainty and customer pullbacks — tied not only to a challenging economic environment but to a backlash against the company’s decision to end certain diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
• Target’s net sales slumped 2.8 percent to $23.8 billion in the first quarter, with foot traffic and sales in its brick-and-mortar stores declining. The retail titan now expects a “low single-digit decline” in sales for the fiscal year; it previously forecast 1 percent growth.
• I will say that early in the year, even before DEI-related boycotts started, average daily visits to Target’s brick-and-mortar stores fell more than 4 percent by the end of February compared with the same period in 2024
• But Walmart’s daily visits climbed more than 7 percent overall during that period.
• And then activists, civil rights figures, and faith leaders began an “economic blackout” in late February of some major brands over a perceived retreat from DEI programs. Comparable store sales sank 5.7 percent year-over-year in the first quarter.
• Don’t fucking tell me boycotts don’t work. Don’t tell me activism is pointless. Everything we’re doing has a huge impact.
• Resist!
• Let’s move on.
• Goodbye to the penny. Dump’s Treasury Department has placed its last order for blank pennies and plans to stop minting the one-cent coins as soon as that's exhausted.
• Each penny costs nearly four cents to produce, so the move is expected to result in immediate savings of $56 million a year. Shrug.
• This had been on the table for a long time. Canada, New Zealand, and Australia have also eliminated their one-cent coins.
• Obviously, pennies will remain legal tender — more than a billion dollar's worth are in circulation. Most are rarely used; I can’t remember the last time I used a penny to actually pay for anything. I was probably 12.
• Fun Fact: minting nickels is also a money-loser for the government, since the five-cent coins cost about 14 cents each.
• In more money news, this morning Dumpy decided — probably while taking a shit on a gold toilet while looking at his phone — to put a 50% tariff on the European Union after complaining that trade negotiations have stalled.
• And Dump’s announcement came less than 30 minutes after he threatened to impose a tariff of at least 25% on Apple’s iPhones if the company did not start manufacturing them in the United States.
• Apple will never manufacture iPhones in the USA; they would cost about $3,000 if they did.
• So of course, U.S. stock futures sank immediately following Dumpy’s little announcements.
• And now, The Weather: “Danger in Fives” by Wombo
• From the Sports Desk… more basketball and hockey playoff news.
• In game 2 of the NBA’s Western Conference finals, the Thunder continue to look like a mismatch against the Timberwolves, wining handily 188-103. They’re up 2-0 in the series.
• In game 2 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals, the Panthers annihilated the Hurricanes with a 5-0 shutout. They’re up 2-0 in that series.
• Today in history… Joan of Arc is captured at the Siege of Compiègne (1430). South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution as the eighth American state (1788). Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire (1829). A merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would be considered to be a forerunner of the Baháʼí Faith (1844). The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (1873). The New York Public Library is dedicated (1911). American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, LA (1934). The first version of the Java programming language is released (1995). Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party is sworn in as the 31st Prime Minister of Australia after winning the 2022 Australian federal election, ending 9 years of conservative rule (2022).
• May 23 is the birthday of botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707), religious leader `Abdu’l-Bahá (1844), activist Isabella Ford (1855), actor Douglas Fairbanks (1883), actor Scatman Crothers (1910), bandleader Artie Shaw (1910), singer/acress Rosemary Clooney (1928), actress Joan Collins (1933), engineer Robert Moog (1934), composer Michel Colombier (1939), chess player Anatoly Karpov (1951), boxer Marvin Hagler (1954), MLB player/;manager Buck Showalter (1956),  journalist Mitch Albom (1958), actor/TV host Drew Carey (1958), musician Jewel (1974), and NFL player Aaron Donald (1991).

I suppose we’ll wrap this up for now. My plans over the weekend include some more work on the new song I started last Sunday. I’ll even tell you the title: it’s “Sweet Aphrodite.” Now you know. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 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 May 22, 2025, and it’s a Thursday for some reason. I’m awake and aware, or at least as much as one can be at this time in the morning.

• I’ll open today’s Random News with an old joke from the Soviet era.
• A guy stops by the newsstand every day, scans the front page, but he doesn't buy the paper. One day the vendor asks what he's up to.
• The guy says: “I’m looking for an obituary." The newsstand vendor says “Obituaries are towards the back of the paper, comrade."
• The guy replies, "Not the one l'm looking for."
• I mention this for a simple reason: I hear all the time from many, many people that they can’t wait for a particular fascist wannabe dictator to die. And trust me, I understand that emotion.
• But Dump, who turns 79 in a few weeks and obviously doesn’t have that much longer among the living, is not the problem.
• The problem is that Dump was able to make himself a solution for people who believe in the same vile things that he espouses.
• And though cults tend to dissolve once their charismatic leader is no longer influencing them, the same factors still run rampant through American society and in other places around the globe.
• Racism. Nationalism. Xenophobia. Religious bigotry. Homophobia. Classism. And until those things go away — while won’t happen any time soon — there will always be a Dump-like figure there waiting to take advantage of these most immature and negative of human fears.
• Let’s do some news.
• Very early this morning, House Republicans passed Dumpy’s budget.
• This legislation offers big tax breaks for the wealthy, almost nothing fore the middle class and poor, and removes a wide range of social programs relied on daily by millions of Americans.
• I am not a fear-monger, so before I say another damn thing, allow me to remind you that the bill next goes to the Senate where — if they change even one word of the bill, which they 100% definitely will — it has to go back to the House for more votes.
• To pay for the tax breaks in the bill, House Republicans would reduce spending on food aid, what is known as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP), by about $267 billion.
• And with the Republican bill, to be eligible for Medicaid, you have to work at least 80 hours per month. The new requirements would begin on Dec. 31, 2026.
• A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the Republican bill will reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.
• And at the last minute, Republicans threw a lot of other shit into the bill which was over 1,100 pages long.
• They’re eliminating taxes on gun silencers, something that’s existed since Congress passed the National Firearms Act in 1934.
• They’re prohibiting funds from going to Planned Parenthood, making it harder for millions of patients to get cancer screenings, pap tests, and birth control.
• They’re encouraging people to open “Trump Accounts” for babies. They were called “MAGA Accounts” but changed the name at the last minute. These are federal banks accounts that a baby can allegedly get access to when they turn 30 years old.
• There’s a lot more. $46.5 billion to revive construction of Dump’s useless wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and more money for his cruel deportation agenda. $150 billion in new spending for the Defense Department and national security. And leasing of public lands for drilling, mining, and logging 
• So that’s where it stands for now.
• We need four sitting Republican Senators to vote against this madness. And, as I said before, there’s no way in hell this clusterfuck is getting through the Senate as-is.
• More on that later. For now, moving on.
• Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice said that it is moving to drop police reform agreements, known as consent decrees, with the cities of Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis.
• The court-enforceable agreements were born out of probes launched after the 2020 police killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
• The agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville were intended to address allegations of systemic unconstitutional policing and civil rights violations.
• Officials in both cities had previously said that they are still committed to the reforms outlined in the agreements and plan to implement changes with or without the support of the Dump administration.
• Moving on.
• Going somewhat under the radar with all that shitty news are a couple of items of outstandingly good news.
• Today, the Supreme Court effectively ended a publicly funded Catholic charter school in Oklahoma, dividing 4-4.
• It was one of the term’s most closely watched cases. The outcome keeps in place an Oklahoma court decision that invalidated a vote by a state charter school board to approve the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would have been the nation’s first religious charter school.
• While it leaves the issue unresolved nationally, the tie leaves in place a ruling that says public schools must stay secular, marking a key moment for church-state separation.
• Why did only eight justices take part in the case? Justice Amy Coney Barrett is good friends and used to teach with Notre Dame law professor Nicole Garnett, who has been an adviser to the school.
• The SCOTUS didn’t provide a breakdown of the votes, but it seems that Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the liberals to make the outcome 4-4.
• It’s sickening that the other four — Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch — actually voted for public funds to go to a religions school.
• Moving on to some more good news.
• Greenland has signed a lucrative mineral deal with Europe, delivering a blow to Dumpy’s plans.
• It allows a Danish-French consortium to mine anorthosite, a substance key to the production of aluminum.
• The permit granted to Greenland Anorthosite Mining (GAM) is for 30 years. The goal is to use a more climate-friendly alternative to bauxite in producing aluminum for aircraft, vehicles, and defense.
• Let’s move on.
• Those piece of shit grifters actually accepted that ridiculous plane for Dumpy.
• Yesterday, the Defense Department confirmed it’s taking ownership of a Boeing jet from Qatar that will be retrofitted and used to transport Clown Boy.
• They claim that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth accepted the Boeing 747 "in accordance with all federal rules and regulations.
• Minus the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, of course.
• The USA is going to spend millions and millions of taxpayer money to bring the jet up to usable standards,  and then Dumpy gets to take it with him after he leaves office.
• Moving on, but back to the Republican budget for a moment.
• You know how we’ve recently mentioned how vulnerable Republican congressional reps are in blue states.
• Now that Dumpy’s budget has passed — taking away from Medicaid and putting more money in the hands of the wealthiest Americans — there are specific congresspeople who will be held fully accountable for their support of this disaster of a budget.
• Here in my state of California, the bill will strip up to 3.4 million people of their health coverage, and cost the state an estimated $30 billion in lost federal funding.
• Here’s a list of California Republican lawmakers and the direct impact on the number of their own constituents who will lose health coverage. Every one of them voted in favor of the Dump budget.
• And these people assume the same constituents will vote for them in 2026. Hahahaha…
• Doug LaMalfa (CA-1) - 38,000 constituents lose coverage. Kevin Kiley (CA-3) - 23,000. Tom McClintock (CA-5) - 30,000. Vince Fong (CA-20) - 29,000. David Valadao (CA-22) - 43,000. Jay Obernolte (CA-23) - 38,000. Young Kim (CA-40) - 18,000. Ken Calvert (CA-41) - 28,000. Darrell Issa (CA-48) - 21,000.
• And that’s just my state. If Dump’s budget gets past the Senate and is made law, I project that Republicans will lose 50-60 seats in the House and 14-18 seats in the Senate.
• Assuming the USA still exists in 2026 and they allow us to vote.
• Call your Senator TODAY and make sure they know how you feel about this.
• Moving on.
• South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa is being praised for keeping his cool despite serious provocation by Dumpy during a meeting at the Oval Office yesterday.
• Dumpy even went so far as to play an insane montage video purporting to prove "white genocide” in Ramaphosa’s country.
• But Dumpy is nothing to this guy. The South African leader, who was a protégé of Nelson Mandela, has experience intense negotiations. He was one of the key mediators in the talks that ended South Africa's apartheid in 1994.
• Dumpy doesn’t mean shit to a real leader like that.
• And now, The Weather: “Hell Island” by Deradoorian
• Let’s do a chart.
• We’re heading to May 1992, which is somehow 33 years ago. Think about this: the time distance between 1992 and today is the same between 1959 and 1992. That’s a long fucking time.
• I was wrapping up my final year of study at Cal State Dominguez Hills at the time of this chart. I was also working various shitty jobs in between my insane school schedule, in which I took 21 units that semester, and 24 units the following semester so I could graduate and move on with my life.
• How’d that work out for me? Pretty goddamn good; I graduated that fall with a 3.7 GPA, enough to get honors. Here’s the top of the Billboard 200 album chart at the time.
• 1. Adrenalize (Def Leppard). 2. Totally Krossed Out (Kris Kross). 3. Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Red Hot Chili Peppers). 4. Classic Queen (Queen). 5. Ropin' The Wind (Garth Brooks). 6. Wish (The Cure). 7. No Fences (Garth Brooks). 8. Nevermind (Nirvana). 9. Wynonna (Wynonna). 10. Wayne's World (Soundtrack). 11. Achtung Baby (U2). 12. Greatest Hits (ZZ Top). 13. Wild Life (Slaughter). 14. Funky Divas (En Vogue). 15. Metallica (Metallica). 16. Human Touch (Bruce Springsteen). 17. Off The Deep End ("Weird Al" Yankovic). 18. Check Your Head (Beastie Boys). 19. Ten (Pearl Jam). 20. Luck Of The Draw (Bonnie Raitt).
• From the Desk Next To the Sports Desk…
• Rest in peace to Jim Irsay, the owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts, who died yesterday 65. A cause of death was not immediately given.
• He took over sole ownership of the team after his father's death in 1997.
• Irsay is well known to me as a huge collector of historic and valuable musical instruments. He started in 2002 by purchasing Jerry Garcia's custom Tiger guitar.
• He also owned the guitars of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Kurt Cobain, Prince, Lou Reed, Eddie Van Halen, Johnny Cash, Les Paul, The Edge, Walter Becker, and Neal Schon, as well as Elton John's grand piano, Ringo Starr’s drums, John Coltrane’s sax, and Miles Davis’ trumpet.
• It’s probably the most valuable collection in the world.
• From the Sports Desk… basketball and hockey playoffs continue. And I really miss NFL football, which is still months away from being a thing.
• In the NBA: game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was totally fucking bonkers. New York was up by 11 with two minutes left, but the final score was Pacers over Knicks 138-135 in overtime.
• More news from the NBA: after winning his first scoring title and leading the OKC Thunder to a league-high 68 wins, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has earned this year’s MVP award.
• How good is SGA? He led the league with 32.7 points per game on 51.9% shooting, and also averaged 6.4 assists, 5.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.0 blocks.
• The only other player in NBA history to average at least 30 points on 50% shooting, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1 block per game? That would be Michael Jeffery Jordan.
• Shai is a great baller. Well deserved.
• In the NHL: another game 1 — this one for the Western Conference finals — had the Stars beat the Oilers 6-3.
• Today in history… Fourteenth recorded passage of Halley's Comet (760). The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish (1520). The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, MO (1804). A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason (1807). HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage (1826). The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative (1846). Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent (1849). Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made regarding Southerners and slavery (1856). Oliver Winchester founded the Winchester Repeating Arms (1866). President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers (1872). The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine" (1906). Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies (1942). U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson launches his Great Society program (1964). Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka (1972). Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations (1992). A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton (1998). The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum (2015). 
• May 22 is the birthday of Mayan king Itzam K'an Ahk I (626), physicist William Sturgeon (1783), composer Richard Wagner (1813), painter Mary Cassatt (1844), actor Laurence Olivier (1907), pianist/composer Sun Ra (1914), TV producer Quinn Martin (1922), politician Harvey Milk (1930), actress Susan Strasberg (1938), actor Paul Winfield (1939), journalist Bernard Shaw (1940), serial killer Ted Kaczynski (1942), MLB player Tommy John (1943), lyricist Bernie Taupin (1950), activist Barbara May Cameron (1954), politician Lisa Murkowski (1957), singer-songwriter Morrissey (1959), model Naomi Campbell (1970), politician Sharice Davids (1980), speed skater Apolo Ohno (1982), NFL player Julian Edelman (1986), and tennis player Novak Djokovic (1987).

Is that all the news? No, it’s not even close. Is that some news that might impact you and your friends and family? Yeah, 100%. That’s all I try and give you each time I write this shit. I think it’s helpful in various ways. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 21, 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 May 21, 2025, and it’s a Wednesday. So far it’s a very foggy morning here by the beach. I can barely see across my street. I like it.




• Let’s jump right in.
• Late yesterday, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy ruled that U.S. officials must retain custody and control of migrants apparently removed to South Sudan in case he orders that their removals were unlawful.
• Yup. The Dump administration has begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan — despite a court order restricting removals to other countries.
• Surprise, surprise.
• Dumpy has already begun this next phase of his cruel action plan. A flight carrying a dozen people, including citizens of Myanmar and Vietnam, landed in South Sudan yesterday.
• This happened despite a previous court order that bars the US government from deporting migrants to third countries without being given "meaningful opportunity" to challenge such removals.
• Judge Murphy has ordered U.S. officials to appear at an emergency hearing today to answer questions about their violation of the court order.
• And why is Dump sending immigrants to countries other than their own places of origin? Why is he sending Asian people to war-torn South Sudan in Africa?
• It may be even worse than it seems. The Vietnamese man's spouse emailed his lawyer and said that the group of around 10 other individuals who were believed to have been deported to Africa included nationals of Laos, Thailand, Pakistan, and Mexico.
• Let’s move on to some breaking news.
• Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) died this Wednesday morning. He was 75.
• Last month, Connolly had announced that he would not seek reelection and would soon step down from his leadership position on the powerful House Oversight Committee. He’d said that his esophageal cancer — a diagnosis he shared in November — had returned.
• This is obviously sad… but it’s also concerning from the standpoint of the razor-thin margins in the House. Hopefully Virginia can fast-track Connolly’s replacement.
• Moving on.
• Dumpy went to Capitol Hill yesterday to threaten Republican congressional holdouts to support his ridiculous budget bill.
• The massive tax and immigration bill, which is critical to Dump’s second-term evil plans, narrowly passed the House Budget Committee on Sunday but faces continued resistance from both Republican moderates and GOP hard-liners concerned about spending.
• Obviously, every Democrat is opposed to this bullshit.
• But even as of this morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a last-minute rebellion from conservatives on this megabill.
• See, blue-state Republicans know they might as well resign the moment they vote for this thing. They’ll never be re-elected after gutting Medicare and destroying social programs in order to pay for the wealthy to get a big tax break at the expense of everyone else.
• “I think actually we’re further away from a deal because that SALT cap increase, I think, upset a lot of conservatives,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD this morning, referring to the state-and-local-tax deduction.
• On a related side note, I want to briefly talk about Medicaid, the public health system that’s being slashed to pay for Dumpy’s tax breaks to the wealthy.
• Who receives Medicaid help?
• 37% of the recipients are children. 9% are 65 or over. And just 6% of the Medicaid recipients were not working long term — which is only 3% of the total receiving Medicaid benefits.
• And 0% of them are undocumented immigrants. Medicaid is not offered to them at the federal level.
• Dump’s budget negatively impacts everyone except the rich. For now, moving on.
• Let’s move on.
• In their fury over the Dump administration's charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), House Democrats are planning to ramp up oversight visits to ICE facilities.
• "Members are getting increasingly angry and frustrated at the overreach, and now one of our members has been singled out for intimidation," said House Administration Committee ranking member Joe Morelle (D-NY).
• Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), a moderate, said, "Democrats should be all over oversight. We have to double down. We have to do more."
• Several House Democratic groups have discussed organizing oversight visits to ICE facilities during the next week's recess. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said that "many of us were going to go visit anyway, and we're going to move those visits as soon as we can."
• If you need a reminder: Rep. McIver was charged with two counts of assaulting law enforcement officers in connection with a scuffle she and other House Democrats had with ICE officials in New Jersey earlier this month.
• But the migrant holding facility is being operated by a private prison company without the proper permitting. And congressional reps are required by law to have oversight and perform inspections of such facilities.
• Moving on with some info from the Health Desk.
• Yesterday, Dumpy announced a major new policy shift saying that annual COVID-19 shots for healthy younger adults and children will no longer be routinely approved.
• The Food and Drug Administration laid out new requirements for access to yearly COVID shots. They’ll only offer them to adults 65 and older as well as children and younger adults with at least one health problem that puts them at higher risk.
• The upcoming changes raise questions for people who may still want a COVID-19 booster but don’t clearly fit into one of the categories.
• Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, asked, “Is the pharmacist going to determine if you’re in a high-risk group?. The only thing that can come of this will make vaccines less insurable and less available.”
• Who can you blame for this, beyond Dump? The FDA’s new guidance comes from Health Secretary and disgusting anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• Fucking asshole.
• In other news…
• Dump also announced yesterday that the government will move forward on construction of a multibillion-dollar “Golden Dome” missile defense system that will use a constellation of satellites and space-based weapons to intercept ballistic attacks on the United States.
• He thinks the system could be operational within three years, before the end of his second term and has already allocated $25 billion in the federal budget toward the construction of the Golden Dome in the massive budget bill that Republicans in Congress aim to pass in the coming weeks.
• But that’s just start starting cost. Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that deploying and operating just the space-based interceptors of the new missile defense system could cost anywhere from $161 billion to $542 billion over the next two decades.
• Jesus.
• Let’s move on.
• Notice how you’ve barely heard anything about Elon Musk in the past month or so?
• That’s because he’s a walking cancer to politicians. Dumpy used to mention him every few moments, and then abruptly shut him out of all communications.
• Dump saw the polling numbers, where Elon draws negative reactions across wide swaths of the American populace.
• Well, yesterday Elon said that he’ll be spending less on political campaigns.
• “I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said. Asked why, he responded that “I think I’ve done enough.”
• We do too.
• Musk spent at least $250 million supporting Dump in the presidential campaign. He took credit for helping Dump return to the White House. Dumpy didn’t like that either.
• And now, The Weather: “The White Cliffs” by Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke
• Rest in peace to actor George Wendt, whom you almost certainly know from his role as Norm on the beloved ‘80s sitcom “Cheers.” He died yesterday at 76.
• Wendt earned six Emmy nods in the supporting actor in a comedy series category through his tenure as a main cast member across the 11-season run of “Cheers.” 
• I also loved his appearances on SNL along with Chris Farley, Mike Myers, and Robert Smigel in the “Chicago Superfans” sketch. Da Bears.
• Fun Fact: Wendt was the uncle of SNL and “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis.
• From the Sports Desk… we’re in the Conference Finals of the basketball and hockey playoffs.
• In the NBA: the Thunder beat the Timberwolves 114-88, taking a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.
• In the NHL: the Panthers pounded the Hurricanes 5-2, grabbing a 1-0 lead in the East finals.
• Today in history… Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel (1703). Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces (1856). The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C. (1881). FIFA — the Fédération Internationale de Football Association — is founded in Paris (1904). Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean (1927). Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (1932). Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her handbag (1936). Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory (1946). Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out (1961). Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film ‘Heaven's Gate’ (1981). After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests — Robin Williams and Bette Midler — of ‘The Tonight Show’ (1992). Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date (2011).
• May 21 is the birthday of prison reformer Elizabeth Fry (1780), painter Henri Rousseau (1844), volcanologist Giuseppe Mercalli (1850), physician/businessman Armand Hammer (1898), singer-songwriter Fats Waller (1904), author Harold Robbins (1916), actor Raymond Burr (1917), physicist/activist Andrei Sakharov (1921), Australia prime minister Malcolm Fraser (1930), singer-songwriter Ronald Isley (1941), singer-songwriter Bill Champlin (1947), singer-songwriter Leo Sayer (1948), actor/writer/politician Al Franken (1951), actor Mr. T (1952), drummer Stan Lynch (1955), actor Judge Reinhold (1957), serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (1960), rapper The Notorious B.I.G. (1972), actress Fairuza Balk (1974), NFL player Ricky Williams (1977), singer-songwriter Gotye (1980), and NFL player Josh Allen (1996).

Okay then. I’m outta time. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 20, 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 May 20, 2025, and it’s a Tuesday. It’s already the 140th day of 2025. “Fugit irreparabile tempus” is a Latin saying that means "it escapes, irretrievable time.” It’s always true no matter the era in which you happen to live.

• Some big follow-up news from a story we reported not long ago.
• The charge against Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested for allegedly trespassing after he joined members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation to inspect an ICE facility, has been dropped.
• But yesterday, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was charged with assault after a skirmish with federal officers during the same incident at Delaney Hall.
• Dump’s lawyer-turned-interim-U.S. Attorney Alina Habba wrote on social media that McIver is facing a charge of assaulting, impeding or interfering with law enforcement, but court papers providing details were not immediately released or publicly available online.
• The prosecution of McIver is not only a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress; it’s all the more egregious because as a member of Congress, she has the right and responsibility to see how ICE is treating detainees.
• What it really speaks to is Dictator Dump’s plan to begin imprisoning his political opponents. This is simply a test case for him to see how much he can get away with.
• The prosecution is an infringement on lawmakers’ official duties to serve their constituents, and an effort to silence their opposition to a cruel and unAmerican immigration policy.
• McIver stated, “Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues to inspect the treatment of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in my district. We were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka,” she said.
• The confrontation on May 9 happened during a protest outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark. McIver was one of three Democratic members of the New Jersey congressional delegation who have repeatedly stated they were there to inspect the facility as lawmakers conducting federal oversight.
• A statement from Democratic leaders including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Reps. Katherine Clark, Pete Aguilar, Ted Lieu, and Joe Negeuse said, “By visiting the detention center in Newark, Rep. McIver and two other Members of Congress were upholding their oath of office. They didn’t assault anyone, but were themselves aggressively mistreated by illegally masked individuals.”
• Each one of these incidents of fascist behavior by the Dump administration might not seem like a big deal on its own, but much like the frog in boiling water, pretty soon the entire country is destroyed by the hands of authoritarianism.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumpy has decided that his most important way to focus his energies as president is to (drum roll) attack entertainers.
• Most recently, Dump has called for there to be “major investigations” into rock icon Bruce Springsteen and other superstar entertainers for their support of his opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election.
• Yesterday, Dump made baseless allegations about top superstars being paid to throw their support behind Harris last year, calling endorsements by Springsteen, Beyoncé, Bono, and Oprah Winfrey on behalf of the Democratic candidate “corrupt and unlawful.”
• Allow me to unwrap this for you: Dump can’t get anyone’s endorsement without paying them. Ergo, he assumes that anyone supporting his opposition must also be paid.
• He can’t imagine that we actually love our country in a genuine way, and no one needs to pay us to fight for it — and against him.
• This drives Dump insane. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to protest his fat ass out in the streets… and no one is being paid a fucking dime for that, either.
• And as a songwriter and performer of music, I am all the more inspired to create some more original songs to bash his sorry ass.
• What set Dumpy off on his new mission of whininess? It was Springsteen’s concert in Manchester, England last week, where he said onstage, “In my home, the America I love… is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.” The Boss gave a very similar speech at the second stop on his U.K. tour and seems likely to be offering a variation on it every night.
• Good. More of that, please.
• Moving on with some pretty shitty news, but that’s typical for the world in which we live.
• Yesterday, the Supreme Court chose to allow the Dump administration — for now — to cancel temporary protections that have allowed nearly 350,000 Venezuelans to remain in the United States for humanitarian reasons.
• The ruling will have devastating impacts on tens of thousands of migrants living and working in this country. While protections for some Venezuelans will remain in place until September, the status expired for tens of thousands of others on April 7.
• As is typical when they act on emergency requests, the justices did not explain their decision, which will remain in effect while a legal fight over rescinding protected status plays out in the lower courts. The court said individual migrants may mount their own legal challenges if the government tries to deport them.
• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — a hero to freedom and democracy — was the only justice to say she would not have overturned a lower court decision that had kept the protected status in place while litigation continued.
• Dump’s justification for sending these migrants back to unbearable and life-threatening conditions in their home country is that they allegedly present a public security risk and were a drain on resources.
• It’s not just Venezuela, I should add. Dump is also seeking to roll back protected status for migrants from Afghanistan, Haiti, and Cameroon.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumpy was hoping that yesterday’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin would result in a Nobel Peace Prize for himself.
• But instead of an immediate ceasefire, the call opened the way for continued fighting while lengthy negotiations take place — much to the consternation of Ukraine and its European.
• Dump’s weak abandonment of new sanctions on Russia indicated that he may be stepping away from involvement in the talks. European leaders say they had originally been planning with U.S. officials to levy new sanctions on Russia if it did not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
• But Dump fucked that up. Everything he touches dies.
• Let’s just move on for now.
• The ever-insightful Donnie Dump Junior weighed in with his expert analysis of President Biden’s cancer diagnosis. Here’s what Li’l Dump had to say…
• “What I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???”
• Couple of things to unpack here.
• First, there is no “stage 5” cancer. That’s not a thing.
• Second, Dr. Jill Biden has her doctorate from the University of Delaware in education, not medicine.
• And finally, if Mini Dump thinks that everyone’s wife would know if they had prostate cancer, that’s because his women get inside his ass so often that he assumes everyone rolls that way.
• In other news…
• Sesame Street has a new home at Netflix, where the children's show's 56th season will air later this year. 
• Ninety hours of previous programming will also become available on the streaming platform, Sesame Workshop, the non-profit behind the show, announced yesterday. 
• The new Sesame Street season will also air on Public Broadcasting Service stations and PBS KIDS streaming platforms the same day they air on Netflix. 
• I think this is a good idea under the circumstances that PBS could be suddenly eradicated by Dump’s fascist regime. At least there would be some platform for this essential kids’ programming to be aired.
• Let’s move on with some good news.
• Yesterday, Dumpy signed a bipartisan law that criminalizes the spread of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes and revenge porn.
• The bill passed the House 409–2 in April after unanimously clearing the Senate in February.
• Under the law, anyone who distributes intimate images of someone without their consent faces federal criminal penalties. The law mandates that social media companies promptly remove such content when alerted, and empowers the Federal Trade Commission to enforce it.
• The law comes amid mounting concerns over the weaponization of AI to create realistic but fake sexual content, often targeting women and public figures. The bill originated under the co-sponsorship of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
• Lawmakers from both parties have described it as a long-overdue protection against online abuse. I agree. It’s funny how when our government acts in non-partisan ways, good things happen.
• Maybe we can have more of that.
• And now, The Weather: “These Days” by Small Forward
• From the Sports Desk… a day without playoff scores to report! No games in basketball or hockey were played yesterday. What the hell are we going to do?
• First, let’s take a look at the NBA and NHL schedules.
• Tonight, the Timberwolves take on the Thunder in game 1 of the Western Conference finals, which should hopefully be an exciting matchup.
• Wednesday will have game 1 in the east, with the Pacers facing the Knicks.
• Same goes for the NHL, with tonight’s Eastern Conference finals game 1 between the Panthers and Hurricanes.
• And Wednesday’s Western Conference game 1 will have the Oilers at the Stars.
• Today in history… The Battle of Dun Nechtain is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated (685). John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship Matthew looking for a route to the west (1497). Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode, India (1498). Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issues Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas (1570). The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality in the American Civil War, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state (1861). Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets (1873). Cuba gains independence from the United States (1902). Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, landing in Ireland the next day (1932). The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz (1940). In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established (1949). Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Robert Woodrow Wilson and Arno Penzias (1964). In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects, by 60% of the vote, a government proposal to move towards independence from Canada (1980). First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by a team of French scientists including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Jean-Claude Chermann, and Luc Montagnier (1983). The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians (1996). Russia claims full control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol after a nearly three-month siege (2022).
• May 20 is the birthday of anatomist Hieronymus Fabricius (1537), architect William Thornton (1759), novelist/playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799), businessman William Fargo (1818), minister Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825), inventor Emile Berliner (1851), actor James Stewart (1908), tank commander Alexandra Boyko (1918), NFL coach Bud Grant (1927), NHL player Stan Mikita (1940), singer-songwriter Joe Cocker (1944), singer-songwriter/actress Cher (1946), music engineer/producer Andy Johns (1950), singer-songwriter Jane Wiedlin (1958), singer-songwriter Susan Cowsill (1959), singer-songwriter/guitarist Nick Heyward (1961), MLB player David Wells (1963), actor Timothy Olyphant (1968), rapper Busta Rhymes (1972), MLB player Jayson Werth (1979), and actor Jack Gleeson (1992).

Always lots going on. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, which is why I try and focus on the larger things that I think will most likely impact my fellow Americans and the world at large. Don’t allow yourself to give up. We are fighting this shit and mark my fucking words: we will win. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 19, 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 May 19, 2025, and it’s a Monday. I hate that feeling of waking up on a Monday and you immediately convince yourself that you have an awful day ahead of you. I mean, you might, but maybe get it a chance. Also, coffee helps alleviate that pointless negativity. At least it does for me.

• I’ll start today’s report with a rare bit of personal news: I wrote and (mostly) recorded a new song this weekend.
• And as it gets finished up and mixed and stuff, I’ll be glad to let you hear it.
• I haven’t truly released new music as a solo artist since my last solo album in 2009.
• But like I advised not long ago… there are no guarantees in life, and if there’s something you’ve been meaning to do — like writing a book or learning to sculpt or releasing some new music — there’s no better time than the present.
• Let’s do the news.
• Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
• They are hoping to be able to effectively manage the cancer. Biden is 82. The prognosis for men his age with his kind of cancer isn’t terrific.
• A relevant note from the Health Desk: prostate cancer is common, second only to skin cancer as the most common cancer affecting males. For every 100 males, 13 will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives.
• Though all men are at risk for prostate cancer, age is the most common risk factor.
• Some advice that I should follow as a guy in my mid-50s: if you’re a person who has a prostate, you should get it checked if you’re over 50 — something I’ve been putting off but now am more strongly considering.
• The MAGA world is already politicizing Biden’s illness, with some pushing conspiracy theories that Biden “must have known” years earlier about his cancer.
• I can tell you on a very personal basis that it doesn’t always work that way. My mom received her cancer diagnosis in December 2022. She was dead in February 2023.
• A neighbor and friend of nine received her diagnosis and died two weeks later. Stop comparing bullshit that you have no fucking clue about, or assuming that all medical conditions progress the same way at the same rate.
• They do not. Best wishes to President Biden.
• Let’s move on.
• Dumpy the Diplomacy Clown is on the phone right now with Vladimir Putin. They were scheduled to chat about the war in Ukraine at 10am ET, and Dumpy will then talk with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders.
• I truly wish him luck. If there’s anything he can say to Putin without being made to look like a complete idiot — like if Dump announces an end to hostilities and then Putin bombs the fuck our of Kiev afterward — I hope it works out for the best for the Ukrainian people.
• Moving on.
• Late last night, Republican deficit hawks allowed Dumpy’s bill of legislative priorities to advance out of the House Budget Committee in an unusual vote on Sunday.
• After gaveling in after 10pm last night, the committee voted 17-16 to advance the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which would extend Dump’s tax cuts while slashing Medicaid and food assistance programs.
• The four Republican holdouts who had tanked the vote on Friday — Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Chip Roy (R-TX), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and Josh Brecheen (R-OK) — voted present to allow the bill to go forward, with Roy revealing that there was progress on moving up the start date for new Medicaid work requirements and speeding up the phase-out of green energy incentives.
• The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would cause at least 10.3 million people to lose Medicaid coverage. That’s the minimal estimate; the actual effect will be much worse. 
• The bill, as currently written, punishes Medicaid recipients who are unable to comply with strict work reporting requirements and redetermination reviews, risking coverage loss for procedural reasons.
• It also blocks federal rules designed to make Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) applications simpler and more accessible for eligible individuals, primarily children, older people, and people with disabilities.
• These cruel fucking assholes.
• No issue has plagued House Republicans more than federal spending. Speaker Mike Johnson repeatedly was forced to rely on Democrats to fund the government last term; his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted in part due to disputes over spending.
• Between the new spending and the lost tax revenue, the measure would increase the nation’s $36.2 trillion debt by as much as $3.3 trillion over the next decade.
• I thought the conservatives weren’t against piling up our national debt? Oh well, guess it’s okay when Dumpy does it.
• And in the here-and-now, Dump’s bill is the most massive transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich in the history of the country.
• Moving on to some news from the International Desk.
• Romania has a new president — and it’s the liberal, pro-EU mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan.
• He fought off a strong challenge from a Romanian right-wing nationalist to win the presidency after months of political turbulence. Every victory in the world over the far right is good for the entire world.
• More than 11.6 million Romanians voted in yesterday’s run-off, and Dan won the support of more than 54% of them.
• Dan is super smart. He earned international acclaim in his youth as a mathematician, securing gold medals at the 1987 and 1988 International Mathematical Olympiads.
• He studied mathematics at the University of Bucharest and then moved to France, where he obtained a master's degree from École normale supérieure and a PhD from Paris 13 University. 
• Dan campaigned on fighting corruption and maintaining support for their country’s northern neighbor Ukraine, while his asshole opponent Simion attacked the EU and called for cutting aid to Kyiv.
• Moving on to some news from the Financial Desk.
• U.S. stocks are drifting lower, while U.S. bonds and the value of the U.S. dollar are falling more sharply this morning following the latest reminder that the U.S government seems to be hurtling toward an unsustainable mountain of debt.
• Moody’s Ratings became the last of the three major credit-rating agencies to say the U.S. federal government no longer deserves a top-tier “AAA” rating.
• Moody’s pointed to how the U.S. government continues to borrow more and more money to pay for its expenses, with political bickering making it difficult to either rein in Washington’s spending or raise its revenue in order to get its ballooning debt under more control.
• That’s fucking great. Look, we did try and tell you this stuff would happen. It doesn’t make it any better, but you were indeed warned and some of your voted for Donnie Dump anyway.
• Now you live (or die) with the consequences.
• And now, The Weather: “Bird on a Swing” by Cory Hanson
• Some news from the Entertainment Desk.
• Zak Starkey has been the drummer of The Who for nearly 30 years. He’s also — if you were unaware — the son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, aka Richard Starkey.
• And after firing and re-hiring Starkey in April, The Who have finally confirmed, again, that Zak is no longer part of the band.
• The news came via an Instagram post from Pete Townshend that reads “After many years of great work on drums from Zak, the time has come for change.”
• The Who are 80+ years old. Pete actually turned 80 today, coincidentally. If they can’t handle having a rock drummer, they should hang it up and enjoy their retirement. It’s ridiculous to get rid of Zak in the manner they did.
• And wasn’t it The Who who famously sang, “I hope I die before I get old?” Too late, guys.
• Let’s do a chart.
• It’s May 1977. I am in third grade, and pop music is all over the damn place (in a good way). Here’s the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart at the time.
• 1. When I Need You (Leo Sayer). 2. Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder). 3. Hotel California (Eagles). 4. Southern Nights (Glen Campbell). 5. Couldn't Get It Right (Climax Blues Band). 6. Right Time Of The Night (Jennifer Warnes). 7. So In To You (Atlanta Rhythm Section). 8. I'm Your Boogie Man (KC And The Sunshine Band). 9. Got To Give It Up (Pt. I) (Marvin Gaye). 10. I Wanna Get Next To You (Rose Royce). 11. Lido Shuffle (Boz Scaggs). 12. Lucille (Kenny Rogers). 13. Can't Stop Dancin' (Captain & Tennille). 14. Dreams (Fleetwood Mac). 15. Lonely Boy (Andrew Gold). 16. Calling Dr. Love (KISS). 17. Hello Stranger (Yvonne Elliman). 18. I've Got Love On My Mind (Natalie Cole). 19. Feels Like The First Time (Foreigner). 20. Angel In Your Arms (Hot). 
• From the Sports Desk… the playoffs in both basketball and hockey only have a couple rounds left each.
• In the NBA: the Thunder eliminated the Nuggets with a dominant 125-93 game 7 win.
• We now have the NBA Conference Finals all set. In the West, 6-seed Minnesota will face 1-seed Oklahoma City. In the East, 4-seed Indiana faces 3-seed New York.
• Another lopsided Game 7 happened in the NHL, where the Panthers beat the Maple Leafs 6-1, winning the series 4-3.
• The NHL Conference Finals have 3-seed Edmonton against 2-seed Dallas in the west, and 3-seed Florida versus 2-seed Carolina in the east. 
• Today in history… Catherine of Aragon, age 13, is married by proxy to 12-year-old Arthur, Prince of Wales (1499). French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two kidnapped sons (1535). Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest (1536). Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale (1743). U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States (1828). Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the Mexican-American war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for $15 million USD (1848). The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration to limit the number of “undesirable” Italian and Eastern European immigrants (1921). Egypt announces that the Suez Canal is closed to Israeli ships and commerce (1950). Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus, though the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data (1961). Marilyn Monroe's sings "Happy Birthday” to U.S. President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, New York City (1962). The Firearm Owners Protection Act is signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan (1986). The Refugio oil spill deposited 142,800 U.S. gallons of crude oil onto an area in California considered one of the most biologically diverse coastlines of the west coast (2015). The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is held at St George's Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion (2018). Iran president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian die in a helicopter crash (2024).
• May 19 is the birthday of businessman/philanthropist Johns Hopkins (1795), painter Walter Russell (1871), politician Ho Chi Minh (1890), activist Yuri Kochiyama (1921), murderous dictator Pol Pot (1925), activist Malcolm X (1925), NBA player Dolph Schayes (1928), journalist Jim Lehrer (1934), film director/producer Nora Ephron (1941), actor Peter Mayhew (1944), singer-songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend (1945), wrestler/actor André the Giant (1946), singer-songwriter Grace Jones (1948), bass player Dusty Hill (1949), singer-songwriter Joey Ramone (1951), drummer Phil Rudd (1954), keyboardist Martyn Ware (1956), NBA player Bill Laimbeer (1957), race car driver Dario Franchitti (1973), NBA player Kevin Garnett (1976), singer-songwriter Shooter Jennings (1979), comedian Michael Che (1983), producer/DJ Marshmello (1992), singer-songwriter Sam Smith (1992), and YouTube personality Jojo Siwa (2003).

Okay, that’s enough for a Monday morning. Ask any musician who has a regular income-based job how much they like pressing “pause” on a new song in progress after a creative weekend. The answer is “not at all,” but at least I have something cool to do on evenings and next weekend while I get it wrapped up. Enjoy your day.

Random News: May 18, 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 May 18, 2025, and it’s a Sunday. I’m up somewhat early on what seems to be a lovely day, wearing a bathrobe, sipping my coffee, and taking a look around to see what’s transpired in the world.

•  A reminder about something I’ve mentioned before: June 14 is a national day of action called “No Kings.”
• Events are being scheduled across the USA on the same day that Dumpy is throwing himself a $100 million taxpayer-funded birthday party in the form of a gaudy military parade in front of his house.
• While he glorifies himself, the people of the country will be sending him a sharp rebuke; we don’t want a king in the USA. We want democracy.
• Dump has defied our courts, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services.
• We don’t just lie down and accept this shit. We’re Americans. We fight back.
• I’ll put a link in the comments to find a No Kings event on June 14 near you. Clean ahead.
• And now, the news.
• An act of terrorism hit the Southern California desert yesterday morning when a person set off a car bomb outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs.
• The person, who has yet to be identified, had posted rambling online writings before setting off the explosion and dying in the process.
• Authorities were still working to piece together a motive and build a chronology of events leading up to the attack.
• The writings left behind — in which the suspect communicated a belief that the world should not be populated — appear to shed light on the person’s state of mind and help explain the conclusion that the attack was targeted and intentional.
• While others were injured in the blast — which was so powerful it impacted blocks of businesses — no one else died beyond the suspect.
• Also, while the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic was damaged, the clinic’s IVF lab and stored embryos are offsite and were not damaged.
• Moving on.
• In more weirdness, a Mexican navy sailing ship on a global goodwill tour struck the Brooklyn Bridge in New York last night.
• The impact snapped its three masts, killed two of its crew members, and left some sailors dangling from harnesses high in the air waiting for help.
• The 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage, but at least 19 people aboard the ship needed medical treatment.
• It was unclear what caused the ship to veer off course. NYPD said the ship had just left a Manhattan pier and was supposed to have been headed out to sea, not toward the bridge.
• So that’s odd.
• Let’s move on.
• I’m sure you remember when Dumples the Economic Clown said — over and over and over — that other countries would pay for his “beautiful tariffs.”
• And some people — sorry to say, the less informed and intelligent portion of the populace, who don’t really have a grasp of how trade and finance work — believed him.
• The rest of us screamed that tariffs — all tariffs — are a tax on the people and the businesses for the country who is importing the goods… in this case, the USA.
• So please allow me to ask you why yesterday, Dump was screaming at Walmart, telling the retail giant to “eat” the costs of the tariffs. Aren’t they being paid by China and other exporting countries?
• No. No, they’re not. And Dump knew that all along.
• As Dump has jacked up import taxes, he has tried to assure a skeptical public that foreign producers would pay for those taxes and that retailers and automakers would absorb the additional expenses.
• How the fuck was that going to happen? See kids, the way that Walmart and other big-box and online retailers make money is to sell goods at a low profit margin in high volume.
• And if the cost of getting those goods into the country and into their stores goes up, they have to either raise the retail prices or literally lose money and go out of business.
• Walmart had warned on Thursday that everything from bananas to children’s car seats will increase in price.
• Dumpy lashed out at the retailer, which employs 1.6 million people in the United States. He said the company should sacrifice its profits for the sake of his economic agenda that he says will eventually lead to more domestic jobs in manufacturing.
• What the fuck? What kind of communist bullshit is Dump talking about here? I thought he liked capitalism.
• I’m serious. Here are Dumpy’s words…
• “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, “EAT THE TARIFFS,” and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”
• Not charge the customers anything? Is that how we do business in the USA?
• I mean, look: yes, Walmart made billions last year. That’s what businesses are supposed to do. The American system of capitalism is driven entirely by greed.
• And the grand majority of those profits end up in a very small number of hands… and certainly not those of the workers who generate the profits.
• But why would Dump think that a retail company is going to pay for his bad decisions?
• And is his government going to help the already low-paid Walmart workers who would be laid off or otherwise impacted by Walmart eating the costs of his horrible tariff plan?
• I didn’t think so.
• Also, if you were under the impression that the tariffs were not as big of an issue after Dump caved on them recently…
• This morning Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that the tariffs could go back to the ridiculous rates slapped on them on Dump’s laughably-named “Liberation Day” last month if they don’t engage in various negotiations.
• Moving on.
• I want to take a quick look at the false impression that Dumpy’s alleged tax cuts in his budget plan would provide relief to typical Americans.
• Dump claims that his bill delivers "permanent tax cuts and bigger paychecks."
• That is true… if you’re earning over $1 million per year.
• Making less than that, loser? You won’t get anything beyond the scrapings of the bottom of the barrel.
• Allow me to be specific. If the bill is passed, households with more than $1 million in annual income would see their after-tax earnings rise by 4.3%. That’s significant; those well-off people would save nearly $90,000 per year.
• But if you’re in the lowest-earning 20% of Americans, your after-tax income would rise 0.6%, or an average of $90 annually. 
• Annually. That’s $7.50 per month. So they’re going to take away your health care along with a ton of other crucial government resources, and then justify it by letting you keep an extra two dollars per week?
• And those couple bucks per week don’t come close to making up for what you lose in the process. To pay for the cut for the wealthiest Americans, federal programs such as Medicaid and food stamps get slashed.
• Who does that affect? The low- and middle-income households who are already getting fucked.
• And ironically, the reason why Dump’s bill hasn’t already passed the House is that five Republican members of the House Budget Committee voted against advancing the measure, saying the legislation doesn’t do enough to slash federal spending.
• They want to take away even more. If that pisses you off, stop supporting Dump and the Republican’s plans. Vote for candidates who won’t screw you and your family and friends.
• And welcome to the Resistance.
• Moving on.
• Dumpy is so shocked and butthurt by the Supreme Court not rolling over on his use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport immigrants with no due process that now he’s openly threatening them.
• A reminder that this is one of the most far-right Supreme Courts in US history, and includes several members that Dumpy himself appointed.
• Yesterday, Dumpy was starting social posts claiming that the Supreme Court put “an illegal injunction on the president of the United States, preventing him from commanding military operations to expel these foreign terrorists.”
• So now we’re at a point where the POTUS is calling the SCOTUS “illegal.”
• I’ll add that Dump also shared MAGA propaganda saying that these “terrorists” should be released near the homes of Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh.
• A reminder to you all: the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to due process for all people — not just citizens or documented immigrants.
• Denying that right is what’s illegal per the law of the land, and even this far-right Supreme Court has made that clear.
• And now, The Weather: “Some People Can Change” by hockey season
• From the Sports Desk… no basketball games yesterday, but in the NHL, the Stars beat the Jets 2-1 in a game 7 overtime thriller. They’ll head to the Western Conference Finals where they’ll face Edmonton.
• In the NBA, game 7 between the Nuggets and Thunder is today, starting at 12:30 PT.
• Today in history… Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople (332). Alonso de Ojeda sets sail from Cádiz on his voyage to what is now Venezuela (1499). John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts (1631). The Seven Years' War begins when Great Britain declares war on France (1756). The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional (1896). The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription (1917). President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an act creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (1933). Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier (1953). Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage (1980). Israeli troops finish withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, ceding the area to the Palestinian National Authority to govern (1994). A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra (2005). Joe Biden announces his presidential campaign (2019).
• May 18 is the birthday of mathematician/astronomer Omar Khayyám (1048), photographer Mathew Brady (1822), mathematician/philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872), film director/producer Frank Capra (1897), politician Jacob K. Javits (1904), singer Big Joe Turner (1911), singer/TV host Perry Como (1912), actress Miriam Margolyes (1941), singer-songwriter Albert Hammond (1944), MLB player Reggie Jackson (1946), keyboardist Rick Wakeman (1949), singer-songwriter/composer Mark Mothersbaugh (1950), singer-songwriter/guitarist George Strait (1952), NHL player Jari Kurri (1960), tennis player Yannick Noah (1960), NHL player Marty McSorley (1963), singer-songwriter Martika (1969), actress/writer/producer Tina Fey (1970), singer-songwriter Jack Johnson (1975), and NFL player Vince Young (1983).

I’m starting to consider things like eating breakfast and taking a shower and putting clothes on myself. These all seems like good ideas at some point. Enjoy your day.