Saturday, June 30, 2018

Northern Minnesota Love

Just back from the northland and I wanted to share some of the images I captured.


The pretty lake...



Someone must have really hated that moose.


Fishing!


Swimming!


The spectacular northern Minnesota color!







Hello!


The gorgeous nights after long June days...


The Strawberry moon...


I do hope you have someplace where you can go to collect yourself.  I think the lakes are what make Minnesotans the good people they generally are.  













Friday, June 29, 2018

The Friday Link for 6/29/18

Hi all!  Back from vacation and I'm just catching my breath.

Thank Goodness Jon Stewart made a triumphant return to Colbert's show.  It's amazing how easily he cuts through the noise machine that is Trump.  This is the best assessment of him...since Stewart left the Daily Show.



I'll also add the great bit Colbert, Fallon and Conan did after being heckled by Trump:



Have a great weekend everyone!





Friday, June 22, 2018

The Friday Link for 6/22/18

Short and sweet as I'm on vacation.  Two dinosaur related entries from Friday Link regulars for today.

The Honest Trailers guys take on the worst of the Jurassic movies, Jurassic Park 3.  And I love Sam Neil!



And since I like to pair these two together, here is Everything Wrong with Jurassic World, from the guys at CinemaSins.



Have a nice weekend everyone!





Tuesday, June 19, 2018

The Trump Top 20 Countdown for the Week of 6/11/18

Welcome to the Weekly Top 20 Countdown of Trump's ineptitude and stupidity for the week of 6/11/18 to 6/17/18.


These are the 20 most insane and (in some cases) evil things coming from Trump and his Administration this week.  If this was a Democratic Administration, EVERYTHING on this list would have triggered investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges.  Instead, we have an Administration preforming some of the most sinister actions in this country's history.  How can someone gleefully scar the mental psyche of thousands of people for life?  How can someone lie so often, about easily disproved things?  How does a man-child continue to serve as the country's leader even though he's been proven utterly unqualified repeatedly?  Never forget the Republican silence which enables this man...


FYI - After this week, I'm taking a break, but the countdown will return in mid-July.  Have a wonderful 4th of July everyone!


A quick Google search will give you plenty of news options on all of these stories.  The ranking is purely on me.  Please feel free to disagree and comment why below.


On with the countdown!




20 - Apparently there are rogue FBI agents, but they're not working for the Democrats.  Rogue FBI agents out of New York apparently gave Trump defender Rep. Devin Nunes classified information about Hillary Clinton's e-mails in 2016.  He bragged about getting this information on Fox News, which led the leading Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff to ask whom exactly Nunes shared the information with, clearly implying he's concerned Nunes did indeed share the classified information with members of the Trump campaign. (6/17)


19 - Scott Pruitt, Trump's EPA director, ordered his agency's staff to help his daughter get an internship in the White House.  His staff would be the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, not a job placement group.  His staff felt like they were being used as stepping stones to try to achieve a better lifestyle for Pruitt's daughter, a lifestyle Pruitt portrayed his staff as being beneath.  He also ordered the former speaker of the Virigina House to help get his daughter into University of Virginia's Law School.  It was also revealed Pruitt got Rose Bowl tickets from an Oklahoma businessman with ties to the Energy Industry, something which is very illegal.  In actually EPA stuff, Pruitt decided the US has had enough with clean water as he's starting to undo the 2015 Clean Water Rule.  This will open up protected drinking water sources for 117 million Americans to pollution. (6/15 and 6/16)


18 - The idea of dropping the USA/South Korean joint military maneuvers (spoilers), the deterrent to North Korea and their potential saber rattling, likely came to Trump via Russian despot Vladimir Putin.  The Wall Street Journal reported in January Trump had spoken with Putin and he suggested to Trump the idea of halting the military exercises. (6/12)


17 - Trump, clearly bothered we haven't started carving his head into Mt. Rushmore after his embarrassing North Korean Summit performance (spoilers), went on the offensive.  He first went on Fox News with fellow Michael Cohen client Sean Hannity to praise the non-exisinting agreement.  He then tweeted out he completely solved the North Korea problem, taking a swipe at former President Obama, before ending the tweets with "sleep well tonight."  Putting aside the fact he hasn't solved squat, I'm sure Kim Jong-Un is sleeping very well tonight.  Finally, when he realized people saw through his North Korean talking points, he went on the attack, claiming NBC and CNN are the biggest enemy to the country because they're refusing to tout Trump's self created greatness.  (6/13)


16 - Trump's State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert thinks it's her job to troll CNN news, the source of a lot of Trump's anger.  She called out CNN for not covering the Trump visit to the US Embassy in Singapore's security team.  Three slight problems with her attempted slam.  First, the meeting was closed to the media (which would include CNN), something pretty much every media outlet corrected her on.  Second, the image she used to taunt CNN seemed to be from Trump meeting with young schoolchildren, not the embassy security team.  Third, this is so beneath her position, it's embarrassing. (6/11)


15 - Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the US will now refuse to accept immigrants and refuges fleeing abusive domestic relationships.  This sets up a standard where a known physical threat to an applicant won't be enough for said immigrant to seek asylum.  Already numerous immigrants deported by Sessions have been killed upon returning to their country of origin.  Sessions still claims he's a Christian. (6/11)


14 - It wasn't a good day for White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.  As rumors swirl she may leave the White House, she tried defending Trump's policy of ripping children away from their parents at the border, and putting those children in cages.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions claims the BIBLE supports this extremely anti-Christian policy, and the press corps wanted Sanders to clarify. "I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law.  That is actually repeated a number of times throughout the bible."  When pushed to explain the passage which supports the Administration's policy, she became insulting and snippy.  The AP reporter reminded her there's NO LAW which requires families be separated at the border, but Sanders refused to acknowledge the remark.  It was at this point Playboy correspondent Brian Karem finally unloaded on her.  "You're a parent of young children.  Don't you have any empathy for what they go through?" She ignored Karem and moved on to another question.  Since then, people have been pointing to the numerous Bible passages which contradict the White House policy, something we shouldn't even have to do considering there's supposed to be separation of church and state. The Bible should never be the Government's policy validation. (6/14)



13 - At the G7 meeting, Trump apparently told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe he'd send 25 million Mexicans to Japan, implying that Abe would be in big trouble if all the sudden 25 million illegal Mexicans showed up to vote against him in the next Japanese election.  Was it a threat?  Would Trump kidnap 25 million Mexican people and send them all to Japan?  How many boats would that take?  Does he think the Mexicans would do this willingly?  If he thinks 25 million Mexicans illegally voted against him in 2016, but yet he still won, what lesson would he be trying to teach Japan anyway?  Trump is an idiot. (6/15)


12 - Net Neutrality officially died on Monday, as Ajit Pai's new FCC rules took effect. (6/11)


11 - In trade news, Trump is doubling down on his criticism of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after Canada refused to bow to Trump's wishes on trade at the G7 conference.  In an interview, Trump was quite harsh on Trudeau standing up for Canada's sovereignty. "That was a mistake.  That's going to cost him a lot of money."  In a 'not shocking at all poll,' Canadians are siding with Prime Minister Trudeau in his trade war with Trump.  Seventy percent of Canadians now say they're purposely going out of their way to avoid buying US products.  On another trade war front, Trump has decided to slap another 50 billion dollars in tariffs on China.  This as China continues to attack US trade with surgical precision.  They've announced tariffs on 659 US products, revising their list to remove most high end products, only focusing on the lower income items, imports which will really damage the American economy, particularly soybeans. (6/12, 6/15, 6/16-17)


10 - Republicans on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) are rallying against Trump's plan to use tax payer dollars to prop up the coal and nuclear industries.  Trump's trying to validate the federal bailout of the industries by saying there's a national security emergency involved.  All five of the committee's members, including the conservative Republicans, disagreed with the assessment.  If it's approved, the tax payers would potential give 65 BILLION dollars to the coal and nuclear industries, for basically no reason whatsoever. Seriously...no reason. (6/12)


9 - North Korean media (spoilers) is boasting that Trump made numerous other concessions to North Korean President Kim Jong-Un, including the promise of removing sanctions without any concessions in return.  The Trump Administration has yet to comment on the report.  Russian media has also declared The Singapore Summit a grand victory for Kim. And for some inexplicable reason, Trump decided to salute a North Korean military commander.  The clear submission move caught everyone off guard.  Reminder:  Many Republicans demanded former President Obama leave office for what they labeled was too deep of a bow to the Saudis.  (6/13-14)


8 - A new Washington Post report states Trump BFF Roger Stone did indeed have a meeting with a Russian national who offered "dirt" on Hillary Clinton prior to the 2016 election.  The man approached Stone and Trump aide Michael Caputo. The man then offered the information for 2 million dollars, to which Stone allegedly stated Trump doesn't pay for information.  Stone is stating he never knew the man was actually a Russian, but communications from Caputo to Stone directly contradict that claim, pointing out they both knew the man was Russian.  This would make a dozen Trump aides who have stated they did not meet with the Russians prior to the 2016 Election, who have now proven to have been lying. (6/17)


7 - The entire Trump family is in BIG trouble.  New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed suit on Thursday against the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the Trump family nonprofit, as it appears the foundation operated more as a checkbook for Trump.  For decades, the money was often used for personal matters, not charitable functions.  The suit names Trump, Trump daughter and White House staffer doing...something Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. (Tweddle Dee), Eric (Tweddle Dum) and the entire foundation board.  The Foundation is also accused of using charitable funds to support Trump's Presidential campaign, a HUGE legal no-no!  Trump, seething at the news, attacked the AG and New York Democrats.  Legal papers paint pretty damning evidence against the whole family. (6/14)


6 - Paul Manafort's bail has been revoked and he's going to jail.  This after Manafort was caught trying to tamper with witnesses against him in the Mueller investigation.  Manafort's scheduled to be in jail until his trial begins in September.  Most experts feel, due to his prison stay, he'll be screaming for a deal in the near future. (6/15)


5 - Asked by a reporter what he'll do if Kim Jong-Un doesn't follow through with his promises from the Singapore Summit, Trump stated: "I may stand before you in six months and say 'hey I was wrong.' I don't know that I'll admit that, but I'll find some excuse."  Trump sized up in a nutshell:  I won't admit I was wrong.  I'll just make up an excuse. (6/12)


4 - Trump does interviews!  Trump went on Fox News for another absolutely bonkers interview which featured some of the most outrageous lies yet. He blames President Obama for Russian Despot Vladimir Putin invading the Crimea, attacking Ukraine, and shooting down a civilian airliner, all because Putin didn't respect Obama.  Trump stated he could ask Putin to leave Crimea and Syria and Putin will do it.  The obvious follow up question should've been 'why haven't you?'  Trump now insists Kim Jong-Un's brutal regime is nothing unusual, no big deal.  He reiterates how great Kim is for inheriting North Korea from his dictator father, implying it was some sort of populist ascension. He then reiterated his call to pull all troops out of South Korea, insisting the South Koreans don't pay us enough for the military presence.  He again praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for being 'President for life,' adding "that's pretty good."  Then came the two unbelievable lies.  The first was his claim he's done more in the first 500 days of his term than any other president ever.  This is a stunning lie, one he tries to validate by claiming "a lot of people are saying it." No one with a brain is saying it.  He might, MIGHT be slightly better than 1 president, but remember Harrison died six weeks into his term.  But the most bizarre claim he made was (multiple) parents of Korean War veterans came up to him during the 2016 campaign wanting Trump to get their children's remains back from North Korea.  While returning soldiers remains is a VERY good outcome to strive for, parents of Korean War veterans would be AT LEAST 100 years old.  That's if you have a 16 year giving birth and their 18 child served at the very end of the Korean war, a fact which would make it very unlikely their remains would be in current North Korea.  Putting aside the clear lie 100 year olds were mobbing Trump as his rallies, it's stunning the interviewer failed to even follow up on such an outrageous claim. Two days later, Trump wandered out of the White House, and (surprise!) Fox & Friends was coincidently broadcasting.  Trump proceeded on another bizarre rant.  On dictator Kim Jong-Un: "He speaks and his people sit up at attention.  I want my people to do the same."  He wants the same respect from his people as a brutal dictator receives under their iron fist (WOW!).  Trump then proceeded to call FBI leadership "scum," a response to the DOJ's FBI/Clinton/email/Comey report he insisted was a "lie" and was "wrong" (spoilers), a comment even host Steve Doocy said "this is your FBI." Then Trump repeated his claim hundreds of 100+ year old fathers of Korean War Veterans asked him to bring home the remains of their kids.  Once again it's good to get soldiers remains returned, but this is such a clear lie Trump's insisting on doubling down on.  The more disturbing element is he twice in two days expressed the desire to be a President with authoritarian control. (6/13, 6/15)


3 - Trump has been hyping the release of the DOJ report on the firing of James Comey, promising it to be the smoking gun proving the entire Mueler investigation is a fraud.  Now that it's been released, it can be said it does no such thing.  What it does prove is that the Comey's actions in regards to Hillary Clinton and her emails was the mistake, and none of it was motivated by political leanings. The report says Comey was justifiably fired due to his lack of following the rules in regards to Clinton, not because of some grand anti-Trump conspiracy. This puts Trump and his followers into an interesting box.  Either they think Comey deserved to be fired, and hence Hilalry Clinton was wronged, OR they think Hilalry Clinton wasn't wronged, hence Comey should still be employed.  It's one of the two. Even far right conservatives are stating Hillary Clinton got screwed over, not Trump.(6/14)


2 - Trump's child prisons were opened to the public and what we've seen is disturbing.  There are murals praising Trump EVERYWHERE in the facility, resembling indoctrination techniques of evil dictators.  1500 young boys, children as young as 10 years old, are being kept in incredibly overcrowded conditions.  The kids get only 2 hours of fresh air every day (children!?!).  Trump insists this is about stopping MS13 gang members from entering the country, but officials at the shelter admit they have yet to encounter a single gang member.  So far the US government has ripped 2000 children from their parents since Trump enacted his barbaric policy. Expectations are the number will be dramatically higher by the end of summer. (6/14, 6/16)




1 - Trump's Summit with North Korean President Kim Jong-Un happened, and regardless of how it's measured, the results were lackluster at best, with Trump the only one making concessions.  It was clear Kim was going to try to play Trump, when right before the summit, Kim changed his timeline, sending the US envoy scrambling to ensure the summit still happened.  North Korea basically says it's committed to peace, adding they're willing to look at the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. THOSE ARE GOOD THINGS, as is the willingness to meet, but the positive wears off from there.  None of the US's pre-summit demands were met.  The agreement they signed is basically the same agreement North Korea signed twenty five years ago, only more toothless, and North Korea never followed through on that one.  The talks of peace and de-nuclearization have no timelines or metrics, only a vague promise of eventually trying to do something.  Even so, Trump keeps insisting they are comprehensive standards.  There are not.  Trump, during the press conference afterwards, stunned South Korea, and our own military, by stating he's conceding to Kim, ending the joint military exercises which are routinely conducted between the South Korean/US armed forces.  This apparently was something never discussed even with our own military brass.  Many people are looking for Trump to clarify what exactly he meant, with even the South Koreans implying he must have mis-spoke. To reiterate, Trump got nothing of what he wanted, the agreement was vague and noncommittal, and the only major concession made was Trump insisting our military will no longer train with the South Koreans as a deterrent against the North Koreans. (6/12)





The unbelievable thing is:


After the empty foreign policy
The disastrous trade policy
The undeniable racism
Ripping kids from their parents and throwing them into #KidPrison
The low moral character
The undeniable sex scandals
Destroying the only healthcare many of us have access to
The clear purchasing of Trump and his term by the Russians
The failure in Puerto Rico
The never-ending shady cast of characters
His desire to be an authoritarian dictator
His wildly inappropriate social media presence
The shady business background
And his undeniable ignorance


538 still has his approval average at 42%.  That means ALL Republicans still approve of him.  They truly do hate Democrats more than they love their country, their religion and their own quality of life.  They are so terrified of being proven horribly wrong, they have decided the rotting cow carcass is the prettiest date in town.


The ONLY way we are going to solve this problem is by getting every freaking Democrat off their caboose and get them to the polls in November.  EVERY person who sat out last election (110 million).  Every person who insists politics doesn't matter to them.  Every person who tries so hard to make the both sides arguments as a way to not break down into a fit or rage.  EVERY ONE!!!


#2018IsEverything.  The Countdown will return in a few weeks.











Friday, June 15, 2018

The Friday Link for 6/15/18

Hi all.  Really busy day for me, but time for two brainy videos for this week.

First off, back to the super number geniuses at Numberphile.  This week they jump into a unique number sequence which not only exposes numbers as art, and very cool art at that, but as music, kind of creepy music at that.  This is one of those things where you come to realize how completely unrelated things, from wildly different fields of study, are actually deeply connected.




Also this week, Mr. Puzzle has a kitty!



Have a great weekend and Happy Father's day to all, from one big mother!



Tuesday, June 12, 2018

The Trump Top 20 Countdown for the Week of 6/4/18

Welcome to the Weekly Top 20 Countdown of Trump's ineptitude and stupidity for the week of 6/4/18 to 6/10/18.


These are the 20 largest chunks of incompetence coming from Trump and his Administration for this week alone.  All the things on this list should lead to investigations, committee hearings, firings, resignations and even one or two impeachment charges.  Instead all Republicans, out of misguided loyalty, are failing to do their job; all of them ready to scream "I was only following orders" when the world collapses.


A quick online search will give you plenty of news options on all of these stories.  The ranking is purely on me.  Please feel free to disagree and comment why below.


On with the countdown!




20 - Even as his top aides are telling him to fire EPA Director Scott Pruitt, Trump has grown closer to him.  He confides in Pruitt, and the two of them 'gossip' often, even bad mouthing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with each other.  And in 2017,  Pruitt ordered one of his employees to purchase a used mattress from Trump International Hotel in DC.  The aide told congress she wasn't sure why Pruitt wanted a mattress, or if he ended up eventually buying it, but the mattress definitely wasn’t for official government business. (6/10 and 6/4)


19 - Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, a woman who has regular contact with Trump, has told White House aides she wants to be Trump's Attorney Genral.  She's been openly lobbying the White House to remove current AG Jeff Sessions and to put her in charge.  Trump apparently did order Sessions to interview Pirro for the position of Deputy Attorney General, the position currently held by Rod Rosenstein.  When Sessions balked at interviewing the grossly unqualified Pirro, Trump threatened to put her on the Supreme Court if Sessions didn't follow his commands. (6/7)


18 - Apparently Trump's biggest complaint about life in the White House, according to one of his close friends, is that he can't watch porn there.  Seriously! (6/7)


17 - The Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles' trip to the White House has been cancelled.  Trump cancelled the visit after having a temper tantrum about the players not attending, as only three players, the owner and the mascot were planning on being there.  He was so furious, Trump accused the team of wanting to kneel for the National Anthem instead of wanting to visit Trump.  The Philadelphia Eagles were one of only a few teams who didn't have a single player kneel for the National Anthem during last year's season, a fact which got more awkward after Trump supporters posted images of Eagles players supposedly kneeling during the National Anthem, when they were actually kneeling in prayer before the Anthem.  Trump's planning on a celebration even without the Super Bowl champs.  Many analysts point to this as Trump desperately tying to divert attention away from the Mueller investigation.  (6/4)


16 - Former Fox News Chief Political Correspondant Carl Cameron, in a series of interviews about an upcoming book, stated undoubtedly Russia helped Trump win in 2016, and Roger Stone was the catalyst for the collusion.  He goes onto detail the numerous connections and admissions, painting a clear timeline of Stone's involvement with the Russian Intelligence Officer Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks' Julian Assange.  He added that during 2016, Stone's own admissions are enough to prosecute him. (6/6)


15 - Because of document preservation laws, the White House has had to employ an individual whose sole job is to tape back together all the documents Trump apparently rips apart.  They've had to hire a person at 65K a year to tape back together the papers Trump destroys either in fits of rage, or because he keeps forgetting he's not supposed to rip them up. (6/10)


14 - After Rudy Giuliani states that First Lady Melania Trump "believes her husband" in regards to the Stormy Daniels situation, Melania's spokesperson responded.  Stephanie Grisham is a rep for Melania, and was blunt: "I don't believe Mrs. Trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with Mr. Giuliani."  Not only a rebuke of Giulianai, but also a clear sign the First Lady is upset about the Stormy situation, a situation she seems to believe to be true. (6/7)


13 - In a desperate attempt to get Trump to read, his aides are putting together a daily book.  The book isn't filled with detailed reports and synopsis of the world today.  Rather, to get Trump to pay any attention to it, the book is mostly simple phrases, incomplete sentences and pictures of screen grabs which have cable news network chyrons (the words at the bottom of the screen) to help him understand.  They learned this technique after former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster used to infuriate Trump by using complete sentences, according to one staffer.  This is apparently the only way to get real news and real facts, albeit abridged ones, to Trump. (6/7)


12 - Paul Manfort, Trump's former Campaign Manager, has been busted trying to tamper with witnesses in the Mueller investigation, and like everything else in this investigation, it highlights a level of stupidity hard to fathom.  Manafort was allegedly using encryption messaging services WhatsApp and Telegram to try to communicate with witnesses against him.  He had the encryption apps set to back up on his iCloud service, something the Mueller investigation has access to.  Let me repeat that: the encrypted messages were automatically backed up on a storage drive the Mueller investigation could legally read.  On top of that, one of the people he contacted handed the texts over to Mueller. (6/5)


11 - Russian despot Vladimir Putin told an Austrian journalist he and Trump talk on a regular basis.  He said the two "regularly talk over the phone," but went on to insist the conversations weren't formal. (6/5)


10 - Trump has his Philadelphia Eagle-less White House Super Bowl ceremony, and it was as scary and hilarious as you could imagine.  First, when asked by the media to identify the Super Bowl winning QB from their team, many of the supposed Philadelphia Eagles fans had no idea, meaning these were clearly not Philadelphia fans.  The crowd seemed to made up mostly of older, white, balding men.  The tone was very military/authoritarian, which featured a barely coherent Trump, who attempted to sound patriotic, but instead sounded like a fourth grader spouting off poorly written fake patriotism drivel.  Trump bragged about the crowd size, which was small, and then proceeded to not know the words to God Bless America, deciding to bob his head along after the first two lines.  For the record, someone at the event kneeled during the National Anthem.  It's later admitted White House interns filled out the crowd for the event. (6/5)


9 - A new plan from Trump's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson is set to raise the rents on the poorest Americans by 26%.  This rent hike would likely increase homelessness in America.  Carson says the plan is to push people off of housing assistance, but the plan has no contingencies for people who aren't able to become more self sufficient.  This plan also banks on the job market in a given community, something which is an unpredictable variable. It should be added wages in communities where housing assistance is needed have stayed stagnant for the last few decades, with no sign of rising.  8.3 million people would be affected by this, including many children. (6/7)


8 - Very quietly, the White House aide who made the joke about Senator John McCain dying from cancer has left the White House.  Kelly Sadler, who also had an EPIC meltdown during an open door communications staff meeting, has been confirmed to no longer work in the White House. (6/5)


7 - Trump, not sounding like a guilty man at all, has tweeted he has "the absolute right to PARDON myself..."  In an attempt by Trump to then cover his tracks, he then insists has done nothing wrong.  (6/4)


6 - The new US Ambassador to Germany has some explaining to do.  Richard Grenell stated in an interview with Breitbart he wanted to empower the right wing, anti-establishment movements in Europe.  This was interpreted, correctly, by German leaders as a pseudo-endorsement of certain politicians and political parties, something Ambassadors are not supposed to do.  He's being asked to explain his comments during his first official state meeting with German leaders.  (6/4)


5 - Paul Manafort has new charges filed against him in the Robert Mueller investigation.  In the latest superseding indictment, Manafort's accused of disguising millions of dollars in unreported income via offshore accounts, and then lying about said funds.  Another person named in the indictment is Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime Manafort aide and a likely Russian intelligence asset who oversaw the Kiev office of Manaforts DMI consulting, a firm used repeatedly in Manafort's crimes (allegedly).  For the first time, Mueller has officially tied a member of the Trump team directly to the Russians. The charges are Obstruction of Justice, and Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice.  And due to Manafort's attempted witness tampering, Mueller has asked for his bail to be revoked. (6/8)


4 - After eluding to it at his impromptu press conference before he flew to Canada, Trump arrived at the G7 meeting in Quebec demanding Russia be reinstated into the group.  This infuriated the rest of the G7 members, considering they threw Russia out for invading Ukraine, after Russia blew up a commercial airliner killing hundreds of innocent people, and (more recently) after Russia attempted an assassination on British soil.  Trump's reversal of American policy on Russia is also a major reversal of Trump's campaign promises.  Trump also refused to be part of the G7 climate meeting. (6/8)


3 - Trump goes on a bonkers rant at the G7 meeting in Canada.  He first arrived late to the first G7 session about women's equality, something the Canadian Prime Minister alluded to in his opening remarks.  Afterwards, Trump became belligerent. He basically told our closest trade allies they HAVE TO open their countries to US products with zero tariffs, while the US can impose tariffs on their products whenever Trump wants to.  If our allies don't agree to those terms, Trump will completely close the US market to their individual trade.  "They have no choice" Trump told the press, while showing the world how little he knows about trade.  He told the same countries (minus Japan) to not retaliate agains the new steel and aluminum tariffs the US has imposed on them.  He then attacked the EU, Canada and Mexico individually, with Mexico getting: "Mexico - we have a $100 billion trade deficit with Mexico and that doesn't include all the drugs that are pouring in."  During a closing press conference, Trump took a FAR friendlier tone with North Korea than he did with our closest allies.  He then, clearly feeing cocky, went after CNN, repeatedly calling them "fake news." Trump then left the G7 before their sessions on climate change and clean oceans. (6/9)


2 - Trump is furious at our closest allies, specifically Canada, after a joint statement is released by the G7 leaders which showed they will not curtail their trade policies to Trump's demands.  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went the extra step further to emphatically swat down any attempt by Trump to dictate Canadian trade.  In regards to a potential trade war between the US and Canada, Trudeau stated "I have made it very clear to [Trump] that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do."  "...we will not be pushed around."  This sent Trump into a tweet rage on Air Force one, calling the Canadian Prime Minister "very dishonest & weak".  Larry Kudlow, Trump's top Economic Advisor, implied this was some sort of "betrayal" by Trudeau, and top White House trade advisor Peter Navarro said "there's a special place in hell..." for Trudeau. Kudlow then admitted the attacks on the Canadian Prime Minister were just bravado to try to impress North Korea before their talks, even implying if the talks fail, it's Canada's fault.  It's a good time to point out Trump's allegations about Canadian trade deficits are a complete lie.  According to Paul Conners, the Canadian Consul General for the Midwest region, "[the US] had a [trading] surplus with Canada last year, as [they] did the year before.  You do not have a trade deficit with Canada."  It's reported the rest of the EU has decided to stand with Canada against Trump's trade demands. (6/10)


1 - The White House is attacking Oregon Senater Jeff Merkley for trying to get access to a Texas shelter, housed in an abandoned Wal-Mart, where immigrant children who were ripped away from their parents at the border are being held.  The windows are all blacked out and the police were called to prevent a sitting US senator from seeing what conditions the Federal Government is keeping children in.  The conditions inside the center are likely horrific.  Earlier in the weekend, Merkley and his staff were granted access to a processing center where children are being kept in cages.  Once again, this is Trump's policy, gleefully instituted by Jeff Sessions and ICE.  It's reported over 1500 families have been split up at the US border over the last 18 months.  Once again, under Trump's direct orders, young children are being ripped from their parents, and are being held in cages. (6/6 and 6/8)





How can ANY Christian, Evangelical or not, be silent at the ripping of children away from their parents at the border, throwing young innocent kids into cages?  How can any human be silent?  It's amazing to live through one of the most barbaric incidents in this country's history, something history books will describe with contempt and shame.  Seeing how many people seem perfectly fine with such crimes against humanity is astounding (and yes, silence is endorsement).


As far as Canada goes, remember after 9/11 how Canada was there for the US, taking in America travelers whose flights had been grounded, and helping them get back home to loved ones.  They were our closest friend.  We have a trade surplus with them, not a deficit.  Because Trump's an idiot, our relations with Canada will never be the same.


You solve all of this easily.  Get off your cabooses and vote in the November elections.  Put Democrats into power in was many places as you can.  It's the only way to save the union.  #2018IsEverything!