The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/7/25

Let's just start with the truth:  Trump, desperate to get his spat with Elon Musk off the front pages of newspapers, decided to go full dictator and send in troops to occupy Los Angeles. 

As local Los Angeles residents once again protested masked ICE agents violently searching for anyone they could deport, it became clear that the protestors were not going to relent and allow the house-to-house searches the ICE Gestapo was attempting.  The protestors were angry and vocal, and some even did cross the line and get violent, but a reminder that this is the same President that was giggling and laughing, REFUSING to call up the military to stop the January 6th insurrectionists who were directly attacking the US Capitol building, looking to kill any Democrat and hang Mike Pence.  It was only when Virginia and Maryland said they were sending in their National Guard forces did Trump finally tell his supporters to leave and go home.

In comes Trump this time, promising to send in the National Guard. 

Then the Drunk Pete Hegseth puts the Marines on ready to ATTACK AMERICAN CITIZENS, while the Nazi Steven Miller intentionally started labeling this an Insurrection.  He was doing so to goad the Democrats, but it does present the question.  Does Miller think that Insurrections are bad, hence he's now equally condemning January 6th, or does he feel the current people he's labeled as Insurrectionists should get he same treatment as the previous Insurrectionists, pardons from Trump?

To show you this was all about getting the Trump/Musk feud off the front pages, Trump didn't let this stop him from attending a UFC fight.

Folks, you have a camera.  USE IT! Make sure you are filming Trump's secret police and military when they are dropped into US Cities.  Trump and Republicans WANT to start killing US citizens.  When they do, they will make up a completely fraudulent narrative to justify their unjustifiable actions.  As we saw with George Floyd, eyewitness video might be the only way we find out what really happened.  Film it and post it as fast as you can, tagging the BBC, The Guardian, and Rolling Stone. 

I will never forgive Marrick Garland for not doing his job. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/6/25

The Trump Administration finally obeyed the multiple court orders and returned Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man they wrongly deported to a gulag in El Salvador to be tortured and killed, back to the United States.

Before you begin to think that this is a positive, you underestimate the pettiness and bigotry of the Trump Administration.  

Ábrego García, a man with no criminal record, was returned to the United States only to be indicted and charged on what appear to be made-up charges, because the Trump Administration is made up of small people unable to admit their mistakes. 

They're charging him with illegally smuggling undocumented people and conspiracy to commit that crime.  During their showboat press conference, AG Pam Bondi also accused him of smuggling guns and drugs (racist attacks because he's not European White), but with all her allegations of a massive crime ring, the smuggling charges are the only ones they are prosecuting.

This whole attack is a smear campaign.

It should be noted that Trump got this Federal Grand Jury indictment in Tennessee, NOT Maryland, where Ábrego García lives, or in Washington, DC, where the Federal Government is located.  Federal District Courts, where Federal Grand Juries are summoned, are located everywhere, so this was CLEARLY jury shopping, heading to the most conservative state east of the Mississippi, close to DC, to prosecute this case. 

They jury shopped because, without a bunch of racists, they wouldn't have gotten the indictment.  They clearly didn't want to bring him back from Trump's gulag without a prosecution in place. Trump, Bondi, and MAGA are terrified of being proven wrong about immigrants.  White Supremacy is what appeals most of all to their base. 

Most legal experts are expecting a full exoneration of the charges. 

The Friday Link for 6/6/25

Howdy All!

Today I was at my youngest child's high school graduation.  It was wonderful.  I am a proud father, and I made a lot of noise when my daughter's name was called.  There were a lot of proud parents there. When their child's name was read, the family members in the stands hooted and hollered, waved banners, made noise, and made sure their family pride was on display for everyone to see.

Talking to another one of the parents, she made an understandable point, that sometimes the cheering went on so long that it somewhat drowned out the name of the next person coming up to get their diploma. I get wanting to be fair and nice, but I also want to point out that considering the 4-year college graduation rate in the United States is around 38% (that's all Americans, either born here of American parents, immigrants, and those with birthright citizenship), high school graduation IS the major life education event for most families.  Let them hoot and holler.

The first video this week is a political one, but 1) it's fantastic, and 2) it addresses graduation and other topics that MAGA attacks immigrants and birthright citizens for.  It turns out that the far more productive class of people is the immigrants/birthright citizen group, NOT the American citizens born of American parents.  As a matter of fact, it's not even close.  Sullys_Classroom is the YouTube channel, and his point that some in MAGA feel like they don't have to earn something to receive it, is SPOT ON! No one is stealing anything from MAGA.  Some MAGA don't want to put in the hard work, demanding to be rewarded just for being MAGA. That's not how life works! 

Next up are two videos that are a bit heady.  The first is from regular Link contributor Joe Scott, asking what a common item found from the Roman age actually is. There is this strange object which has been found throughout the northern extent of the Roman Empire, and no one seems to know what its function was.  Scott breaks down the theories!

To understand the next video, you need to know what the Fermi Paradox is.  Enrico Fermi, when he started to realize how big the universe was, asked the question of "Where is everyone?" Considering the number of planets and stars and galaxies and universes, shouldn't there be a lot of alien species, some of whom are far more advanced than us, if evolution is something common?  This question has only gotten more and more interesting with the more and more planets and stars and galaxies and universes we discover.

Maybe there is a simple solution to why Earth managed to eke it out, and what happened on Earth is limited to a handful of other planets, a certain evolution of our cells, which makes the explosion of evolutionary diversity possible.

This is HEAVY DUTY SCIENCE! I found it fascinating. PBS Space Time has the details! 

That's it for this week!

Please make sure to stay up to date on your vaccinations.  I want you to be healthy! 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/5/25

The verbal breakup and slap fight between the world's wealthiest man and Trump has to be the winner today.

Let's unpack one little element of this fight: the admissions.

By the end of the day yesterday, Trump was openly acknowledging that he knew of/heard rumors of Elon Musk's mentally unstable behavior and disturbing drug use.  He didn't just find out about what should have been sure-fire deal breakers as far as government service, HE KNEW!  Not only did he say he knew Musk was mentally unstable and a drug user, but he put the man in charge of regulating everyone's personal information, allowing a damaged man to build a database of private information on every American citizen.

Musk made the clear accusation that the reason Trump has not released the Epstein Files is that Trump's name is all over them.  We already knew that Trump was BFF's with Epstein, appearing with him in multiple photos (some of which proudly featured underaged girls).  We also already know that Trump's name appeared on the flight logs of Epstein's child sex plane multiple times, and he traveled to Epstein's child sex island with underage girls, ONCE AGAIN, multiple times.  At this point, the only people who ignore the circumstantial evidence that Trump likely participated in child sex acts with underage girls are the MAGA cult members who will desperately discredit anything to make their Trump a God. 

But this assertion that Trump is indeed in the Epstein Files points to a VERY ugly truth.  If true, Elon, Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, and MANY OTHER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS KNEW Trump was a child sex abuser and not only ignored that crime, they became his enablers.  These are the same people who scream "GROOMER(!)" and PEDOPHILE (!)" anytime they want to dismiss a Democrat. Every Republican accusation is an admission...

I also love Trump, after Musk took credit for getting him elected, furiously arguing he was the most popular elected President of all time.  That is a laughable statement.  YES, Elon Musk, with his major donations, and his buying Twitter for billions just to turn it into a mouthpiece for MAGA, indeed handed Trump the election.  Trump really hates that being pointed out.

I don't see this ending well for them, but this is really a fight between narcassitic pond scum and a white sumpracist smelly fungus.  No one sane is rooting for either side. 

The Worst Thing Trump did on 6/4/25

There are unqualified hires, and then there is the entire Trump Administration.

The latest national embarrassment comes in the name of Thomas Fugate. He has been given a leadership role at the Department of Homeland Security, in the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3), combating terrorism, school shootings, and other hate-driven crimes. Part of his job is to oversee an 18-million-dollar grant program, which is dedicated to helping communities battle violent extremists. He replaced Bill Braniff, a counter terrorism expert with 20 years of national security experience. 

Thomas is 22. He recently graduated from the University of San Antonio (probably a fine college).  He has zero government work experience, zero government leadership experience, and absolutely zero experience in terror prevention or government security.

Staffers who have met with him state he seems to have zero knowledge about the role he now holds, and call meetings with him "career counseling." 

His LinkedIn profile says he was a gardener in 2020. So, how does someone so criminally unqualified for a job get one like this?  Fugate had an internship at the Heritage Foundation, and he worked for the Trump campaign last year. 

I am going to add his photo to this story as it's better than any movie villain I could post.  I love the peach fuzz mustache and the attempt to look intelligent with his raised brow. He looks like a complete and total f-cking moron. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/3/25

One of the things about the supporting cast of clowns that Trump has made his cabinet is how they seem to have taken their personality and professional standards from a villain of an 1980s teen movie. Self-centered, arrogant, full of themselves, petty, small, greedy, self-serving, and mean-spirited (although they think they're HILARIOUS!)

Case in point, the ultimate douche-nozzle that is the Secretary of (hic) Defense, Drunky McGuzzlebottle, aka Pete Hegseth.  What that f-er did yesterday is so bigoted, homophobic, and demented that there's a decent chance a court would order mandatory mental health counseling for him.

As Pride month kicks off, Hegesth specifically waited until the beginning of Pride to announce he was stripping the name of prominent gay rights activist and Navy Veteran Harvey Milk from a naval ship, a fleet replenishment oiler.  He specifically wanted to announce this at the beginning of Pride to hurt the LGBTQ population. Who the F- DOES THAT?!?

Milk was a gay rights activist in San Francisco,  a major early voice in the initial fight for equality for the gay community, but he's far from the only name Hegseth is eagerly wanting to rip from the bow of a Navy Ship.  Thurgood Marshall, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Harriet Tubman, Delores Huerta, Lucy Stone, Cesar Chavez, and Medgar Evers are all going to have their names equally removed from the Navy ships they adorn.  My guess is that The Drunk Hegesth is waiting until Juneteenth to announce the removal of the Black names from the ships, as he and his aryan nation buddies high-five and giggle about "showing them!"

When the Democrats return to office, not only should they return these ships to the names they had, but they should also find the latrine ship and name it after that Drunk F-er. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/2/25

Trump's director of FEMA, David Richardson, stunned his staff when he claimed he was unaware that the term 'Hurricane Season' actually referred to a specific timeline of when hurricanes typically hit the United States, generally between June and November.

The head of FEMA wasn't aware of the primary timeline threat of hurricanes, one of the most consistent, deadly, and costly natural disasters that hit the United States EVERY YEAR!

A FEMA spokesperson insisted that Richardson was making a joke (???), but Richardson was hired with ZERO Emergency Management experience.  He claims his resume as a Marine artillery officer qualifies him to run FEMA.  It doesn't.

It's also a real problem that many members of FEMA upper management have either left the agency or been fired, and reductions in FEMA staff have left the agency ill-prepared to deal with a major natural disaster, IF TRUMP EVEN SENDS IN FEMA!!!

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/1/25

June 1st is the official start to hurricane season, and thanks to Trump, these storms are about to become a lot more dangerous.  Not because (undeniably) climate change is making these storms worse, but rather because he's understaffed the offices needed to help forecast these massive storms.

Fifteen national weather service offices stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Puerto Rico are short meteorologists, and four offices in particular (Miami, Houston, Jacksonville, and Puerto Rico) are short-staffed by at least a third. And the National Weather Service is frantically trying to fill the 'meteorologist-in-charge' position in both Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The National Hurricane Centers were already understaffed, but now, thanks to Trump, they are grossly overstretched. The head of the National Weather Service Employees Organization has said bluntly, "We're at the snapping point now."

A National Hurricane Center spokesperson implied "we'll be fine," but Rick Spinrad, who was administrator for the NOAA until January, had a different outlook. "If I were a citizen of Texas, Florida, or Georgia, I wouldn't be sure how well warned I would be of a hurricane."

And considering how FEMA has pretty much stopped showing up to disaster areas, this could be a long year for anyone in hurricane country. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/31/25

It is no secret that the white supremacist element in the White House, mainly White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Racist Fredo himself, Stephen Miller, is very upset that more brown skinned people have not been rounded up and shipped out of the country.  

My guess? When Trump announced his racist roundup, there were some special precautions made to prevent certain areas from being raided.  While Los Angeles, NYC, and Chicago were fair game, some metro areas (like Las Vegas) and a lot of the rural corporate farm strongholds were initially exempt from the ICE Gestapo's roundup list.  This was due to large GOP donors saying, "Hey, your round-up of migrants is fine in Liberal areas, but we need those workers here, so we expect some guarantees we won't be raided."

It seems like any hypothetical agreement is out the door, as Racism will always win within the Trump Administration. 

There is a new list of "100 Sanctuary Jurisdictions" from the Department of Homeland Security, which not only includes the Right Wing's usual liberal metro area punching bags, but also includes Las Vegas, Huntington Beach, California, and Athens, Georgia.  And the list includes rural counties, with many of those counties being the location of meat processing facilities, large agriculture regional hubs, large dairy operations, or counties with a large corporate farm presence.  In those regions, undocumented workers are generally the only people willing to do the hard work for the wages they receive. 

There are a lot of Republicans currently freaking out, with good reason.  A study in Wisconsin showed that if raids happened in Chicago, the ripple effect would hit hundreds of miles from the roundup zone, costing local agricultural operations up to a third of their workers, as the workers run in fear.  Now that these raids are happening in rural America, with local county sheriffs (eager to try to impress Trump with their loyalty) taking on the role of 'local ICE agents,' the economic impacts on the Ag sector and Republican strongholds will be massive. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/30/25

Elon Musk's tenure with the White House is now "officially" over.  What we have found out about his 4+ month term is incredibly disturbing.

Trump insiders have started throwing him under the bus as he leaves, probably paving the road to eventually blame Elon for the inevitable pain Trump's policies are going to cause.

The New York Times published a story that alleges Elon is abusing drugs on a massive scale. Multiple White House insiders detail disturbing levels of drug use, including Elon's overuse of ketamine, a horse tranquilizer, apparently taking so much of it that his body was starting to have severe reactions to the amount he was using, including the loss of bladder function, a symptom associated with massive intake. 

But ketamine is only the beginning.  He apparently abused ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, and carried around with him a daily "medication" box which consisted of 20 pills, SOME of which were labeled as Adderall.  He's also been known to be abusing Ambien, a sleep medication (what the other pills in the box were, no one knows).  There are also reports of excessive use of weight-loss drugs.

Musk even admitted using ketamine, but insisted it was only once every few weeks, but the Times report implies it was far more of a daily use, something which would be needed for advanced medication implications like bladder failure. And it was alleged that he took these drugs in private meetings. 

Once again, these are allegations. 

His personal behavior was also a major problem. Not only did the billionaire constantly play video games and post on his social media accounts on Twitter, but apparently, he got violent. There is a reported story that two of Trump's more senior advisors got into a screaming match.  Now we find out that it was Musk and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and it wasn't just screaming.  After Bessent called out Musk for not finding far more in government cuts, Musk apparently physically shoved the Treasury Secretary.  This alleged ethics breach was too much for Trump, and he asked Musk to depart the Administration.

Yes, this story is getting some coverage, but ALL OF THIS should be leading the news for the next two months! It sure as hell would be if Biden had given an alleged druggie access to the public's personal information, and that same person started a physical altercation with the Treasury Secretary.  This is a BAD reality TV show at this point.

Part of this is also Elon desperately wanting to distance himself from Trump, because the second the Democrats take back over in this country, he knows every action and contract he has will be under review.  He needs time to sway public support and (to be honest) buy a few Demorcats to keep him safe.

But we should never forget that Elon bought his way into the White House with not only hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, but in buying Twitter for 44 billion just to neutralize what had been a check on Republican/Trump lies.  Trump gave this man, a man with (allegedly) serious behavioral issues and (allegedly) serious drug issues, access to everyone's personal financial, medical, and educational information, and there's a decent chance Musk copied it all and has it on his own personal servers. 

The Friday Link for 5/30/25

This week's link starts off with a brilliant piece from Jimmy Kimmel.  

Kimmel puts on a fake conspiracy theory show, and the results are hilarious.  He asks a simple question:  Is Donald Trump a time traveler?  What Kimmel then does is top notch layered comedy, absolutley mocking and destroying Trump for the jackass he is, while at the same time skewering these right wing conspiracy dolts who can find a conspiracy in everything! Kimmel feasts on these losers' pathetic desire to be right at all costs, so that they make the most outrageous and unhinged jumps and connections in a failing attempt to create an aura of legitimacy.

It's spot on how he mocks the way those people pause their show to take drink breaks big enough to drive a semi through. I also love the self-absorbed merch swipe!  Enter The Rabbit Hole! 

Next up is the folks at Rotten Tomatoes putting together all the trailers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe up until Endgame. It's fun to go back and see these trailers again, and see some of the moments which were featured in the trailers but never ended up in the movies themselves.

I loved the fact that my kids came of age at the time these movies hit.  My son, who turns 24 later this year, still goes to Marvel movies with me.  We just saw Thunderbolts* together. 

Finally, tonight is a local band made good, Durry.  This is the latest music video for their new song More Dumb.  Austin and Taryn are getting really good at creating memorable music, and their videos just keep getting better.  These guys are hitting on all cylinders right now. I could not be happier for them! 

Have a great weekend, and please make sure you stay up to date on all of your vaccinations. 

The Worst Thing Trump did on 5/29/25

When the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Brain Worm Magee, aka RFK Jr., released his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report, we all knew what was eventually going to be uncovered.

The report has been revealed to have quoted made-up research and is riddled with numerous citation errors.  Frankly, it's a mess. Seven sources credited in the report don't seem to even exist. In one example, they quoted a report by epidemiologist Katherine Keyes about youth mental health. One slight problem.  The paper cited never existed, at least not one where the reported authors of said paper had anything to do with it.

Another author was also quoted for a made-up report, and the misquoted author, Harold Farber, criticized the content in the made-up paper he was credited for writing as a gross overgeneralization of the scientific research.

When confronted by this, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed "complete confidence" in Magee's report, claimed the errors were nothing more than formatting problems, and said Kennedy's MAHA report was "backed on good science that has never been recognized by the Federal Government."

That is a crazy ass excuse! 

On a follow-up question, she was asked if the report was written AI, and Leavitt refused to answer.

Yes indeed! Clearly, large swaths of this report were written by AI. The insanity of the Federal Government releasing an "official" report with such obvious flaws and mistakes is mind-boggling. 

 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/27/25

The Trump pardons are just a freaking travesty.  If you pay Trump an obscene amount of money and/or go on television and claim you were politically prosecuted by Joe Biden, you are in line to get a pardon.

Over the last few days, Trump pardoned Paul Walczak, who undeniably cheated his employees out of money and was a tax cheat.  Elizabeth Fago, Walczak's mom, is a major fundraiser for Trump and was involved in the stolen diary of Ashley Biden and the attempts to use it as a smear campaign against Biden's campaign. Fago attended the million-dollar-a-plate Perkins meal at Mar-A-Lago and, PRESTO!, Paul was pardoned.

Trump also pardoned Scott Jenkins, a disgraced Sheriff from Virginia, who sold auxiliary deputy sheriff positions within his department to area businessmen for $75,000 each. He was guilty, as a jury found him guilty late last year. He insisted he was politically prosecuted by Biden, even though the evidence of his cash-for-badges scheme was undeniable. 

Yesterday, Trump pardoned Todd and Julie Chrisley, stars of the reality TV show Chrisley Knows Best.  Once again, a stunning amount of evidence against them led to a jury conviction of the two for tax evasion and stealing more than 36 million dollars from banks through fraudulent loans. They attempted to steal 36 million, and they are being let go.

Why?  Their daughter, another MAGA harpy who constantly screams about being a victim, claimed on Lara Trump's Fox show that they were prosecuted solely for political reasons.  They weren't. They were thieves. 

I find it funny that the same people arguing that stealing 36 million is no big deal are the same people who would demand a Black person be locked up for life for attempting to take $36 that wasn't theirs.  

And the report is that Trump is considering offering a full pardon to Oath Keeper traitor Stewart Rhodes.  And although he can't pardon state charges, he's actively trying to find ways to pressure the governors of Minnesota and Colorado to release Derek Chauvin and Tina Peters (respectively).

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/26/25

Details stuffed into Trump's Big Beautiful Bill are trickling out.  This is because the bill is so large and enormous that it has been easy for people to stash little things into it without really being seen.  Someone, under the cover of darkness, added a small note that would immediately revoke the Judiciary Branch's ability to oversee Trump.

"No court in the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued." 

The language at the end of the tidbit is designed to make this sound fair, but in reality, it's a poison pill to any court cases against Trump.

The courts use budgeted funds to enforce contempt citations and failure to comply orders.  What this bill is saying is that the people bringing the cases against Trump would have to completely fund any potential enforcement action needed when Trump says "Screw You" to the courts.  Unless the people who have brought the charges put forth hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance, there's technically nothing the court can do to enforce any violations of their rulings. 

One little line says there will no longer be any consequences for Trump ignoring a court order.

The insanely fast march to turn Trump into a king and this country into a dictatorship continues. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/25/25

Because the news media treats Trump like no president who has come before him, we sometimes miss the little things that in ANY OTHER ADMINISTRATION would have begun major discussions on fitness for office.

Between posting clips of his bizarre West Point speech, continued threats against Harvard University, once again walking back a trade threat after he tanked the markets on Friday,

(Quick side note: What do you bet, at his crypto banquet Thursday night, Trump and some buddies set up a plan where he would knock down stock prices of European companies and Apple computer with these on the fly tariff threats, quietly put buy orders in, and then walk back his tariff threat, eagerly making millions of his market manipulation?)

And already posting inappropriate attacks on Memorial Day, Trump posted a picture of a "friend" of his being bitten by a swan at his golf course, claiming golf is a dangerous sport.

Past Presidents have had rough, colorful personas that they kept in the quiet of back rooms. We've NEVER seen a President present such weird, stupid, and (to a point) inappropriate content directly to the masses like a manager getting ready to be visited by HR.  

This is not a sign of the times.  CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT THE NEWS MEDIA WOULD BE LIKE IF JOE BIDEN HAD SENT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THIS IMAGE?!?  They would be going nutzoid, with at least half the major newspapers in the country demanding an immediate investigation, and the other half demanding his immediate resignation.  Their argument would be, "Clearly, his mental decline has become too much for the job!"  And EVERY MAGA DOLT would be demanding Biden be prosecuted for...something(???).

But Trump does it? The MAGA dolts are screaming it's hilarious, and the news media outright ignores the questionable behavior. 

The national news media's failure to fairly cover Trump, ignoring behavior they would've condemned under ANY OTHER ADMINISTRATION, is one of the greatest betrayals this country has ever seen. The national news media are a partner in this Administration's crimes, easily manipulated out of fear of making Trump mad. 

The national news media continues to attack Joe Biden four months after he left office, for such things as having cancer (!!!).  They are so determined to look like they have integrity, they hyperfocus on the one guy they've been allowed to kick, while outright ignoring the FAR GREATEST THREAT TO THIS COUNTRY in the last 160+ years. 

The national news media, after Trump orders troops to fire on unarmed US citizens, will gleefully write the stories about how they all deserved to be gunned down for their thoughts. 

By the way, if I were the guy in the swan picture, I'd sue the hell out of Trump and his golf course. This post would be considered Exhibit A.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/24/25

Trump gave the traditional presidential address at West Point, which ended up being a jumbled mess of dementia, random unrelated issues, and political quackery. 

Wearing a MAGA hat as he addressed the graduating officers, Trump bragged about his isolationalist stance, and bragged about getting rid of DEI initiatives, which in turn ended up with him screaming about transgender people and drag shows. 

"The job of the US Armed Forces is not to host drag shows..."  As a member of the US Army, I never remember drag show week in the battalion.  He went on to brag about ending "transgender for everyone forced onto our brave men and women..." Once again, I never remember the Army having a mandatory transgender week.  Along with comments about critical race theory, it was clear he was just flexing his racism and bigotry over the troops. I have zero doubt he had his dips!t racist inner circle screaming, "Hilarious, Sir!"

Then the speech turned stupid.  We got a rant where he advised the graduates (including many women) to avoid trophy wives. "...I must tell you, a lot of trophy wives, it doesn't it work." (That's the quote!) Trump notoriously has had three trophy wives, women who ARE THE MOTHERS OF HIS CHILDREN, and he badmouthed them in front of West Point. 

He then went on to complain that he was investigated more than the "Great, late Alphonse Capone." As Trump continues to praise Capone as "Great," we should note that he wasn't.  He murdered a lot of people and ran a crime empire.  Trump's comparing himself to him in a favorable light and calling him "Great" while pretending he himself is innocent doesn't hide the stink as well as he thinks it does.  Trump is indeed a convicted criminal, also found guilty of sexually assaulting E Jean Carroll in a civil case, and is clearly guilty of many other crimes. And my guess is that Trump is going to be investigated a lot more in the future.

Trump then broke with modern tradition.  Past Presidents (Obama and Biden) shook the hands of every West Point graduate as they walked across the stage.  Trump ended his speech and quickly left before any names were read. 

There is one quote I want ot point out.  Trump said: "The military's job is to dominate any foe, and annihilate any threat to America, anywhere, anytime, and any place."  This is clearly code telling the graduates, 'if I order you to shoot at American citizens in this country, you'd damn well better do it!'

He will eventually order troops to attack us. I am convinced of that. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/23/25

Trump said he's going to apply a 50% tariff on the European Union and a 25% tariff on the US company, Apple.

I could try to explain Trump's latest round of idiot 'tough talk,' but the truth is he thinks he can force countries into taking all US products for free while the US imposes tariffs on the other countries. I've made the point before that the EU did fine without the US for a long time, and even though this new trade-heavy world is nice, I don't think they have a real problem going back to ignoring the US, at our peril.

The threat against Apple is interesting. Apple has consistently made the point that the reason they manufacture their products in China has far less to do with the cost of labor, and far more to do with the skill set of the labor.  The machinists in China are more plentiful and more educated than what you can find at home.

This actually goes back to a major problem of Trump's demand to just shift high-tech jobs back to the US.  Setting aside Apple needing to build billion-dollar manufacturing facilities here, which currently do not exist, and pretending the materials needed to make an iPhone could all be sourced domestically, there's a real problem with getting enough trained US workers to do the job.  

Some dolt who barely finished high school, who thinks "learning stuff is for stupid idiots," who has been fired from three jobs because he's a drunk, and whose best career outcome was two years working second shift at a gas station, can't just be put into a high tech production facility, where the employee needs a high skill set of technical courses just to understand the basics of the job they're doing.  This isn't a "we'll train you for three days and then you can make the iPhone!" kind of job!

Dumb MAGA idiots don't want to accept this reality;  the problem is not the availability of jobs, but their reluctance to take math, science, and higher education seriously when they were in school.  They're grossly unqualified to do the job!  They don't think this is a resume position, but a 'filling out an application' job, like it's an Arby's.   China understands what is required in modern manufacturing, hence why they've been training people in technology at a MUCH higher rate than the US.  

Trump's real problem with Apple is that he wants them to dumb down production, which they can't do.  Considering Trump will never invest in educating his base, all Apple can do is look at this threat and shrug.

The Friday Link for 5/23/25

Hey all!  I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! 

Let's start off with a video celebrating America, namely, why does every major city in the US exist? Actually, it's pretty entertaining! Sometimes the explanation is a no-brainer, but some of the cities' locales were a mystery to me. The YouTube Channel Mr. Beat has the details! 

Next up is fossils.  Sometimes fossils look like fossils.  Sometimes they make absolutely no sense. There are more of the latter than you know.  Extinct Zoo steps up with a video introducing you to some of the most bizarre animals and plants we've ever found fossilized, with some of them escaping being classified as anything we've ever seen. 

Finally, I was proud to serve in the US Army (salute to all who do and have served, along with their families who also serve at home), but I am not brave enough to try to make Thomas Keller's version of a Caesar Salad.  Seriously, it looks AMAZING, but the complexity of this recipe is nutzoid! Anti-Chef is willing to take the hit for me, and considering how fast he devours it, it must be absolutely spectacular flavor-wise. 

That's it for this week.  Stay healthy and safe.  I hope you enjoy your weekend! 

Please stay up to date on your vaccinations!

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/22/25

Last night's "Give Trump money to get access" event, where people literelaly bought access to Trump via his crypto currency and investment funds (tollerated by the same people who made up fake outrage about the fake 'Hunter Biden is giving people access' scandal), for a chance to sit with him at a dinner is bad, but no one in this Adminstration out crazies Brain Worm Magee.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. released his report on children's health yesterday, and it's everything stupid you'd expect it to be.

We'll start by pointing out that Brain Worm promised that his department would have absolute transparency during his confirmation hearings, but we have no idea who the actual authors of the report are. He specifically has not released the names of the people who wrote the report, only that the report was commissioned by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) committee.  We have no idea who exactly it came from, but it screams the usual health huckster conspiracy theory bull, which is all about scaring and not about finding the real problems.

The report specifically focuses on five areas.  Ultra-processed foods, environmental chemical exposures, children's mental health, "overmedicalization," and corporations taking over the regulatory commissions that are placed there to regulate them. Sure, some things might get some majority appeal, but the report also ventures into quack science.

They talk about flouride leading to lower IQ in kids, but intentionally leave out the exposure rate to get lower IQ outcomes is insanely high, something the majority of kids will never be exposed to, and it also ignores the PROVEN science that flouride in water reduces children's cavities, the most common chronic condition in children.  

Magee also goes back to implying that vaccine schedules are a problem for children's health, while offering ZERO evidence that vaccines are the cause of any specific chronic disease.  He's just pushing his anti-vaxx crap. 

I also wonder if the rest of the Republican party had read this report, as the makers of ultra-processed foods, the people dumping dangerous chemicals into the environment (both of which should be regulated more, in my opinion), and the corporations taking over the regulatory commissions are ALL major Republican sponsors.

This report outright ignores the two most dangerous things to kids today, automobile crashes and firearm incidents. It also ignores the role of behaviors started in adolescence, namely smoking and drinking, which lead to chronic health problems later in life.

It becomes really hard to argue you want to fight something like ultra-processed foods without talking about the real problem, access to affordable healthy food options.  The Trump Administration has killed numerous programs designed to get healthy food options to kids since it took office. So far, RFK Jr. has not said a thing about those cuts.

This is about Brain Worm Magee setting up the reports so that HIS issues, which he uses to make money for himself, are the only things discussed, ensuring the outcomes that make him the most money are the ones found, regardless of whether they're factual or not.

The Worst Thing Trump Did 5/21/25

It'd be justifiable and easy to go with the insanely embarrassing attempt to "Gotcha" the president of South Africa with a made-up bit of white supremacist imagination theater about non-existent white genocide, but today I'm going to pick one that's a little more personal.

I live in the Twin Cities metro area.  I remember 5 years ago, the horror at watching four police officers kill George Floyd in the street at 38th and Chicago.  I remember the shame I felt after realizing it was crystal clear that the minority population of the metro had been telling the truth about the racist Minneapolis cops. I remember watching the city burn with riots (started in part by white supremacists who infiltrated our city).  I remember the Minneapolis police at that time targeting the media to punish them for telling the world the truth.  I remember Jaleel Stallings (look him up) and an almost equally evil bit of racism by Minneapolis cops, TWO DAYS after murdering George Floyd!  I remember the police union head at the time, Bob Kroll, initially praising the four officers who killed Floyd, then sounding like he and the Republican MN Senate majority leader, Paul Gazelka were working on an attempt to overthrow the state government.  I remember the trial, hoping justice would be done.  I remember crying tears of joy when it was a guilty verdict!  I saw the Minneapolis PD get purged, as Bob Kroll left in shame, and no other leader was going to be allowed to cover for the HORRIFIC policing that had occurred over the decades in this city.  And I remember the DOJ report on how broken the Minneapolis police actually was (read my post about it at this link: https://progressivecitizenx.blogspot.com/2023/06/police-state.html).

Minneapolis policing was broken.  Yesterday, Trump said, "Nothing to see here."

The Trump Administration moved to dismiss the consent decree between Minneapolis and the Department of Justice, which mandated sweeping changes for the MPD.  He also dismissed consent decrees for Louisville and multiple other metro areas, whether finished or still being investigated. 

The last five years have seen a lot of bigots and racists try to revisit the murder of George Floyd and try to spin it as some sort of cover-up, that George Floyd deserved it, that the cops were actually heroes. These brazen lies have permeated the racist tolerant minds of MAGA, and now Trump thinks he's righting some wrongs committed against white people.

I guess it does tie back to the stupidity he laid out in the Oval Office yesterday.

F Trump and F all these guys who perpetuate the lies.  God bless George Floyd and God bless Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/20/25

It is STUNNING how ill-prepared and unqualified most of Trump's Cabinet officials are.  Yesterday we saw a doozy! 

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi "Where's Cricket?" Noem showed the world that she DOES NOT KNOW what habeas corpus is. She CLEARLY had no clue.

Habeas corpus is the legal principle that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. The Suspension Clause of the US Constitution (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2) states, "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended."  The Federal government allows you to petition for habeas corpus, and most states have the right of habeas corpus in their constitutions and/or state laws.

When asked by Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire what habeas corpus means, THIS is the word salad that came out of Kristi's pie hole:

"Habeas Corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country."

NOT EVEN CLOSE! She was immediately stopped by a stunned Hassan, who realized in real time that Noem has no idea what habeas corpus really means.  And for the rest of the questioning, Noem never once gave the impression she even knew the basic framework of the principle.

WOW!!!

Then again, it's already come to light today that she is interrogating staff at Homeland Security with FOUR-HOUR lie detector tests to try to determine who is and is not a leaker! Needless to say, this has led to many seasoned employees within the department to leave.  

I'd say this is comical, but there is nothing funny about any of this.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/19/25

With last week's announcement that Trump's Federal Emergency Managemnt Agency [FEMA], the main federal government agency that deals with the aftermaths of natural disasters striking the United States, that the agency ITSELF said it was not even close to being ready to deal with hurricane season, which begins on June 1st, the effects of Trump's cuts are plainly and painfully apparent.

Two days after storms ripped across Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia on Friday, FEMA is still nonexistent in any of those states. The mayor of St. Louis said FEMA was nowhere to be seen on the ground. This is an incredible reversal of the standards that existed for FEMA for my lifetime.  They were usually on the ground assessing and setting up operations within 12 hours of a natural disaster.  This is something that had been confirmed by two friends who have worked with FEMA.

In case you're saying, "Okay Matt! Sure, Trump is ignoring the super liberal city of St. Louis, but he surely has FEMA on the ground in rural red areas!" That's a big no. FEMA has announced they are waiting until later THIS WEEK to begin their assessment for who will and will not receive funds.

Spoiler alert, most of these areas will be on the "Will not" side of that equation.

Trump running FEMA this way is a total businessman's overview.  FEMA is not a profit-making department.  They exist to help people struggling through tough times, hence, the entire purpose of the agency is to go and give aid as needed. Trump looks and sees no revenue being generated and immediately says, "That has to stop."

The end result will be natural disaster-created economic disaster zones where the community slowly dies due to the lack of investment to get them back on their feet.  St. Louis will survive, but towns with 3000 or fewer people will collapse. 

An example of this is in Mississippi, where March storms have still not been addressed, and victims there are still rummaging through piles of debris that used to be their homes. The state asked for FEMA help on April 1.  They still have not gotten ANY assistance, or even a response.

Reminder: the Trump campaign made up an outrageous lie, that Biden had forsaken the victims of flooding in the southeastern US and had refused to send FEMA in to help "those poor people."  Trump campaigned on that LIE, telling everyone that he would be there "100 times better."

And you stupid dopes believed him.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/18/25

This isn't so much about Trump's Administration, but rather the mentality that has permeated our culture as Trump and MAGA have been given the spotlight.

President Joe Biden announced he's suffering from an aggressive form of prostate cancer, and it has spread to his bones. 

Many of the front-facing members of the Trump Administration have sent what appear to be sincere condolences and prayers to him, but this allows the B-team MAGA douches to shine, the guys who will first scream how all liberals want Trump dead, then insist they are taking the Christian 'high road' and sending Biden their best, only to immediately smack back hard at Biden with an uncalled for attack.  They can't help themselves.  They are the worst of humanity.

Donald Trump Jr. attacked Biden and his wife, former First Lady Dr Jill Biden, who has a doctoral degree in Education, NOT medicine, implying she should've rooted out this cancer much earlier, and that Biden's cancer might actually be some sort of twisted conspiracy. And of course, MAGA jumped on board and immediately started to attack a man who just announced he has cancer.  At this point, all MAGA is saying is "what did he know and when did he know it?"  They've removed any false veil of concern from their faces.

The national news media, clearly a lapdog of Trump and MAGA, piled on.  They immediately ran with the conspiracy, implying it's impossible that this diagnosis could have just happened, and that he must have known he had cancer for 5, 10, even 20 years and kept it quiet.  It took the national news media only a few hours to turn a cancer diagnosis into a 'scandal.'  Mind you, the same national news media doesn't bat an eye when the clearly overweight Trump insists his height and weight make him a top-echelon athlete in the NFL. 

I hope none of these people have the public and national media react as coldly and callously to the news of themselves or a loved one getting cancer.  If it does happen to these fools, the hardest thing to take will be their insistence that any criticism of them is unfounded, as they NEVER disrespected Biden over his diagnosis. 

Atrocious behavior and a lack of accountability are the real diseases plaguing our country today. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/17/25

As Trump and his Administration act like they have pulled back on the tariffs, the reality is that there are a lot of tariffs still in place on most of the goods coming into the United States. There is a 10% universal tariff, a 25% tariff on cars and auto parts (with some exceptions), a 30% tariff on Chinese imports (with a few exceptions), and a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico not covered by USMCA.  All of those tariffs are currently in effect and costing Americans more.

Trump has now gone after Walmart, the country's biggest retailer.  Walmart announced this week that customers should expect prices to go up because the Trump Administration is making them go up.  Trump didn't like that and has ordered Walmart and their executives to eat the extra costs so that their customers don't get mad at him.

And that's the whole point.  Trump, by going after Walmart publicly, knows a majority of his base will blame Walmart for his disastrous economic plan. Trump knows he's hurting Americans with his tariffs, and he knows that Walmart executives will only cover so much extra cost.  There is no way Walmart is going to eat all of these extra costs, so prices will go up in their stores. When that happens, Trump wants to make sure Walmart takes all the heat for it. 

It also should be noted that the same MAGA people who scream at the top of their lungs about the made-up hysteria about Democrats wanting government price regulations on private companies are the ones now ORDERING private companies to absorb the costs of their horrendous tariff debacle, hence government regulating prices of private companies, courtesy of MAGA!

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/16/25

You need to pay attention to what the Republicans in Congress, under Trump's command and the guidelines of Project 2025, are about to do to kill affordable college for most students.  

• Subsidized loans, where the Federal government pays the interest while a student is in college, will end.
• Unsubsidized loans would be maxed out using a guideline with a very limited focus; the median cost of a student's program of study, BUT the maximum amount of unsubsidized loans a student could get would be the median cost of college period. A more expensive program at a more expensive college would mostly be out of pocket and too expensive for 90% of families.
• The aggregate amount you could borrow from all entities to attend college would be maxed out at 50k for undergraduate, 100k for graduate, and 150k for professional programs.
• Students would also have to max out their unsubsidized loans before they could use Parent PLUS to help cover the remaining costs, a reversal in how that program works
• Colleges and Universities would have to pay the Federal Government a percentage of the non-repayment balance, meaning they would have to start denying access to lower-income students.
• Pell grants would be limited to students taking 15 credit hours per semester, up from the current 12.
• If they are already borrowing twice the amount of the maximum Pell Grant, they would be forbidden from getting a Pell Grant
• They will kill Biden's SAVE plan and only have two methods of repaying loans: one tied to a fixed payment that cannot be waived, and one based on the borrower's total adjusted gross income, with a variable interest rate. 

An undeniable outcome of these changes is that college will become too expensive for a third of the people currently attending college. Putting aside the government basically saying, "You're not wealthy enough to have THAT career," the long-term impact of denying people the ability to earn $75,000 and more a year and being restricted to careers that pay $40,000 a year will dramatically limit Federal and state tax bases.  Not to mention, these changes dramatically limit the ability of poorer people to be able to lift themselves into a different economic bracket.  

To all those idiot GenZ'ers who insisted Trump would make college more affordable, F-you! 

And a reminder that this is all a part of the Far Right puppet masters' ultimate goal of returning the United States to a pre-1890 economic model, where the commoners were kept uneducated and working for low wages in their company towns. By removing public education and affordable higher education, you are creating an economic model based on feudal system economics. 

And remember, Republicans refuse to raise the Federal minimum wage.

The Friday Link for 5/16/25

Of course, we are going to start off with the new Superman trailer. 

This looks really good.  They're including a lot of DC superheroes in the movie, like Guy Gardner, Green Lantern, and the amazing Isabela Merced from Alien Romulus and The Last of Us as Hawkgirl. They are also not shying away from some of the kitchy elements of Superman, like Superdog, but it's the interaction between Superman (David Corenswet) and Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) that sells this trailer.

The remainder of this week's link is really science-y! Have you ever asked how the scientists have been able to figure out how to back-track the plate tectonics and show where all the land masses used to be on the planet?  

Considering plate tectonics wasn't even an accepted science until 80 years ago, it is remarkable how they've been able to quickly understand how the Earth's crust moves.  Howtown does an easy-to-follow and entertaining crash course on how exactly the land masses move, and how they figured out where exactly they used to be.

The last science video tonight is really cool, because it allows you to do something you can't really do in a lot of places, actually get an idea of what the earth looked like millions of years ago, namely an underwater reef which is now high and dry on the Texas/New Mexico border. 

PBS Terra has a great video on the fossilized remains of an ancient underwater reef.

And before this video, a quick note.  The US would be A LOT worse (and dumber) if not for quality PBS and Public Radio programming. PLEASE contact your politicians and tell them to preserve PBS and NPR! Thanks.

Have a wonderful weekend, and please make sure you stay up to date on all your vaccinations! 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/15/25

Sorry for missing yesterday. I was massively busy.  I learned from past postings that if I burn myself out, I eventually quit altogether, and I want to try to keep this going as long as I can.

Yesterday, we had a story come out that I initially thought was fake.  It sounded so dystopian and outrageous that it couldn't possibly be real. But once again, it was proven to me that nothing can out insane the Trump Administration.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi "Where's Cricket" Noem is apparently working with Duck Dynasty producer Rob Worsoff on a reality television show where immigrants will be pitted against each other in a contest where the winner would be fast-tracked for US citizenship.  The show would be called The American.

Apparently, there is a 35-page pitch that was coordinated with Noem herself. The "contestants" would be given tasks to accomplish across the country, like rolling logs, mining for gold, or driving a stock car on a dirt track, and officials from US Citizenship and Immigration Services would vote for which "contestant" gets eliminated at each round.  The grand finale would be the winner being sworn in on the steps of the US Capitol.

This sounds less like the Apprentice and WAY more like the scene in The Dark Knight where Joker breaks a pool cue, throws it at three guys, and tells them there is one opening in his organization.

This Administration is ONE STEP AWAY from having starving people fight for Trump's table scraps on a Pay-Per-View event, with his whole cabinet in the front row, howling in delight as people hurt themselves for food.  

You know...Christians. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/13/25

Sean Duffy once again proved that the high point of his career peaked on The Real World. 

The Transportation Secretary was frantically deflecting and avoiding answering why exactly the Newark Liberty Airport tower, one of the three airports serving New York City, and one of the major air traffic control centers in the country, had 3 people working instead of the REQUIRED 14 on Monday evening, from 3 to 10 PM. This massive shortage of staff caused major delays, with flights up to 7 hours behind schedule. 

This is on top of the revelation that the Newark air traffic control center has experienced 3 communications blackouts, where, each time, the tower wasn't able to communicate with any airplane for more than a minute. 

The most recent communications failure came this last Sunday morning, as Duffy and his staff were panicking, trying to tell everyone that flying into and around the Newark airspace was safe to do.  

Apparently, there were massive delays on Sunday in Atlanta, as failing runway equipment impacted hundreds of flights at one of the country's busiest airports. This is on top of a laundry list of tragic accidents, near misses, delays, and equipment failures that have plagued the Transportation Department since Trump took over.

This is all on Trump.  He tried to pull a Reagan and fire all the air traffic controllers (somethiing that was actually quite disasterous to US airline travel when Reagan did that in the 1980s, a problem that was only fixed when President Clinton hired them all back after taking office in 1993) in a pathetic attempt to look like he was cutting costs, but failed to understand the immediate and damaging consequences he had committed to the air taffic system.  Duffy has been desperately playing Whack-A-Mole, dealing with the continued problems Trump created within the first week of his Presidency.

None of these problems were occurring anywhere close to as frequently when President Biden was in charge. 

But, poredictably, Duffy eventually went on to blame President Biden. 

When I flew back from South Carolina a week plus ago, we had to do an emergency waive off at MSP because a Delta flight had not cleared the runway, something that occurs, but I've never had it happen before on a plane. My family, who all flew back to New England, experienced MASSIVE delays and cancellations just trying to get back home.

Trump has really damaged American Transportation.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/12/25

God damn Brain Worm Magee.

Once again, in an interview and in a press conference, he said the following things:

• Parents, through their failure to research every element of their child's life, are the real cause of their child's autism. (IT'S A GENETIC DISEASE, YOU DUMBASS!!!)
• Vaccines cause autism.  (THEY DON'T!!!)
• The MMR vaccine (which is needed right now with the Measles outbreak in the USA) causes severe brain swelling (IT DOESN'T!!!)

He also goes on to say that parents should research every medicine their child takes. THIS IS AN INNOCENT STATEMENT WHICH ACTUALLY IS THE LYNCHPIN TO HIS LIES!!!  Not only is this highly impractical for a parent to fully research every medication, because not every parent has the science background or time to do/understand the research, but he knows this mentality drives people to fraudulent huckster websites, which are lies disguising themselves as wholesome medical research. These people make money by pushing anti-vaxx hackery as fact, and in turn jeopardize the health and well being of your children/family/community.

RFK Jr. makes a mint off of anti-vax rhetoric and misinformation. 

And a reminder that Magee insisted all this anti-vax stupidity was just a smear campaign against him when he was being confirmed.  He lied his ass off. 

This is why we need a competent Health and Human Services to do the research and give us the honest answers, something Brain Worm has worked hard to undermine ("Don't trust anyone but me!").

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/11/25

Trump isn't even trying to hide the fact that he has turned on the "International Bribes Now Accepted" sign at the White House. 

In a BRAZEN bit of bribery and corruption, Trump has agreed to take a $400 million plane gift from the royal family of Qatar.  The plane is known as a 'flying palace' and is being described as a gift to Trump, NOT to the United States. 

Even though the plane is a gift to Trump, Trump plans on using taxpayer dollars via the Air Force to upgrade the plane to Air Force One standards (and I WOULD PRAY sweep the damn thing for listening devices and cameras).  Then, right before he leaves office, the plane would be transferred to his Presidential Library for him you use privately.  Trump is getting a sports car plane and having the taxpayers pay for the bulletproof glass and the super-duper, limited edition detailing package. 

Coincidentally, Trump lawyers have a prepared release stating it's not a conflict of interest to receive the plane because no stated benefit to Qatar was guaranteed.  This LAUGHABLE argument has already been endorsed by the worst Attorney General in US history, Pam Bondi. 

This plane would be the most expensive gift to a US President in history. And I guarantee that when Qatar wants something, Trump will quickly pick up their call. 

The Constitution does specifically state that any gift to the President MUST be approved by Congress, but considering how little this Administration thinks the Constitution applies to them, and Congressional Republicans obediently forgoing their obligation to ensure their true God Trump is happy, everyone involved will likely just shrug their shoulders and let it happen, as they always do with Trump. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 5/10/25

This entry is not so much about Trump, but about one of his biggest enablers, the national news media.  And (spoiler), they're still HORRIFICALLY favoring Trump in all their news coverage.

The most common example I bring up about the mind-numbing favoritism the national news media has with Trump is his age and competency.  The national news media PROUDLY ran Joe Biden out of the Presidential race last year, yet a nearly equally elderly man who is clearly FAR MORE mentally unfit for office doesn't get a peep of outrage about his presidency.

How about another one?  Trump is not negotiating trade deals with the UK and China.  He can't.  Only Congress can formalize a trade deal with a foreign country. What Trump is doing is (at best) handshake deals about a vague framework of a future trade agreement, which may or may not come to fruition.  That is a LONG way away from a "trade deal."

But yet the national news media reports his actions as a "Trade deal," something the BBC pointed out was not true.  This is a BASIC fact check, and yet the national news media allows the lie to be pushed without even a simple, mild clarification.

What has always been the more heinous element of the national news media's behavior is how they go after a Democrat for the same statement.  Imagine if Joe Biden had said, "I've just made a trade deal with the UK."  The national news media would rush out to counterpoint (AND educate) about how Biden did no such thing.  Then they'd run with the 'mental decline' narrative on Biden, the same one they loved going with last July.  "Biden thinks he's making trade deals!  Clearly, he's mentally unfit for office!" 

The national news media not only enable Trump, whether out of fear, orders, or compliance, but they present an intentional viciousness when it comes to traditional coverage of Democrats, constantly vilifying them with hearsay, hypotheticals, and zero flexibility, ALWAYS presenting the negative narrative.

One extremist far left protestor presents an outrageous statement on policy at a rally, and suddenly, it's "EVERY Democrat is on board with this new policy from the extreme left."  Meanwhile, at least a third of Trump's staff are undeniable racists and Nazis, but the national news media still refuses to cover the CLEAR infiltration of the Republican Party, making excuse after excuse on why they can't label MAGA fairly. 

The national news media would complain about Joe Biden for ONLY giving them an hour-long interview as "Biden Administration abuses the media."  Meanwhile, Trump could round them up and start shipping them to his El Salvadoran Gulag, and they'd probably insist, "We deserved this."

Not only has the national news media not gotten better from last Fall.  They've gotten monumentally worse.  Their inexcusable failure to properly cover Trump, himself, his lies, his agenda, and the consequences of it all will cost lives, if it hasn't already.

For the record, I read the Guardian and the BBC for national news.