The Friday Link for 8/8/25

Howdy all!

Let's start off on Broadway! Well, in the movie version at least.

The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is currently running 'Cabaret.' Their presentation (I saw it two weeks ago) is superb, and unbelievably on point for what is happening in this country today. 

'Cabaret' is not a happy musical. By the time you get to the end of it, it's quite depressing. It basically talks about life in Berlin at a cabaret nightclub as the Weimar Republic dies and the Nazis rise to power.  

What's crazy about the relevance to what is going on today is how the Guthrie must have decided 2 years ago to put on 'Cabaret', not understanding what a flashpoint it'd be for Trump's America, nearly mimicking what we are seeing going on in the US with our own eyes. 

Here is the original film version of Willkommen from 'Cabaret,' featuring Joel Gray and Liza Minnelli, both of whom won Oscars for their roles. 

Speaking of Broadway, why not enjoy a song from 'Chicago' too? Here is the Cell Block Tango, featuring the lyrics. 

Next up is a great video from Biblical scholar Dan McClellan.  There is a real concerted effort from right-wing MAGA Christians to make the Bible all Trump, all the time.  It seems being faced with MAGA policies being downright evil, the religious hacks want to make sure no one starts thinking Jesus was about love, compassion, and caring for the less needy, only HATE, HATE, HATE! 

This ends up being a pretty epic smackdown. 

And finally tonight, it has been a while since a movie trailer made me tear up.  This one did.  

I will go see The Choral. 

Have a great weekend, and please make sure to stay vaccinated! 

I want you alive!  I want you to be happy. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 8/7/25

Let's talk about 401(k)s, the employer-sponsored, defined-contribution, personal pension savings account using pre-tax money.  It is a fairly popular investment option for a lot of people, and although there's some risk, it's not nearly as dangerous as picking investments individually.  It's usually a good option for employers and employees.

But maybe not anymore.

One back story note:  The Republican Mantra, which has been folded into MAGA, is that they want to take all the money taxpayers pooled for certain programs and safety net options (NASA, public education, Social Security, the Post Office) and give it to the wealthy.  That's it.  Kill something like Medicare, give all the money to the wealthy, and then accuse the people dying of not working hard enough.  They're cold-hearted bastards.

There is a lot of money in 401(k)s, and the Trump Administration might have discovered a way to drain those accounts and get that money into the hands of the ultra wealthy. 

Trump signed an executive order to open up 401(k)s to private equity, real estate, and cryptocurrencies.

It's that last one that might be the vehicle to drain the 401(k)s.  I'm not a fan of cryptocurrency.  It's WAY too much like a Russian mob Ponzi Scheme for me to take seriously.  For God's sake, there is a story out of some cryptocurrency meme coin douches throwing sex toys onto the floors during WNBA games, promoting the meme coin named after the sex toy.  So far, this disgusting stunt has raised the currency by 300% and, eventually, the owners of the meme coin will sell all their coins and watch the coin lose all of its value, screwing over the parade of idiots who bought it after watching a sex toy hit the floor at a basketball game. It's a grift. And should not be taken seriously.

But Trump LOVES it, because he can manipulate the markets and make himself billions. He wants it in the 401(k)s so that he can eventually run the price up, cash out, and watch America's workforce wonder what happened to their retirement account.

It's basically dildos throwing dildos. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 8/6/25

Apparently, JD Vance's "team" ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to "fix a river."  

Vance, taking a family vacation, had the Little Miami River levels raised so that he and his family could have a more enjoyable time. What they did was regulate the outflow of Caesar Creek Lake, which in turn raised the river level.

Vance's team insists this was to make sure the water levels were safe for the Secret Service Detail that travels with the VP, but sources say the primary concern was to make sure the river had perfect kayaking conditions for the couch humper.

And indeed, US Geological data shows the river height rose sharply and then receded, in conjunction with Vance's trip.

He exploited public infrastructure for his own personal usage.

This is B-rate Bond villain crap. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 8/5/25

Yesterday was a freaking cavalcade of insanity!

From Trump screaming at the press corps from on top of the White House.

To the same Administration that just cut healthcare benefits for the sick and food aid for the hungry, announcing they're going to build a nuclear reactor on the moon (WTF?!?).  Considering the US no longer has any government rockets, this will apparently be a space fuel station for private billionaires.

To the Ag Secretary, tripling down on the idea that sick, disabled, and elderly people on Medicaid should be forced into the fields to pick crops, back-breaking, strenuous work, to keep their healthcare.

But let's go with Brain Worm Magee!

The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., cut 500 million in funding for the development of mRNA vaccines.  In total, he halted 22 projects, most of which were targeting respiratory viruses like influenza and COVID.  Brain Worm lied.  He said the vaccines don't "perform well against viruses that infect the upper respiratory track" (they do), and that the vaccines actually prolong pandemics (a laughable made-up piece of buffoonery). 

mRNA vaccines have FIFTY YEARS of research and development, a track record of success.  They have been proven to train your body to fight viruses and trigger immunity.  They have been so successful that they're currently being developed to potentially treat cancer...CANCER! They're working on a cancer vaccine, and Magee just pulled the plug on it...and a lot of cancer patients. 

It's such a bad decision that Trump's first Surgeon General Jerome Adams tore into RFK, Jr. "...this move is going to cost lives!" He then called out Brian Worm's false standard that unless every respiratory disease is brought under control by a vaccine, the vaccine is useless. 

It's so clear that RFK Jr. is just making this all up as he goes! My guess is there's going to be a suppliment he starts to insist it the real option for healthy living, a suppliment that he gets a cut from, and when a quarter of the population is eventually dead, we'll discover he and his whole family have EVERY vaccine, followed by him insititing he "never was against people getting vaccines."

The good news is I'm not sure where his pardon would even begin.  You can't pardon someone for being a stupid dumb ass. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 8/4/25

For the record, the Confederates were the villain.  They seceded from the Union and murdered hundreds of thousands of American citizens, so that the wealthiest white Southerners could keep black people as slaves.

And yet, Trump shows us he would have been rooting for the South during the Civil War.

The Trump Administration has ordered the statue of Confederate General Albert Pike to be reinstalled in Washington, DC.  

Pike's statue was a long point of contention, with people wanting it removed in the 1990s.  Finally, in 2020, the citizens of the city took matters into their own hands and ripped the statue down.  I do not condone violence and vandalism, but I sure as heck wouldn't be trying to get the statue put back up.

And Pike was a horrible general.  Go look for yourself, but he was bad. The Freemasons had requested the statue be built as Pike was a longtime leader of their organization (tells you about them), but the deal was that he had to be portrayed in civilian clothes, which he was.  Regardless, this would be like having a statue of Himmler installed in the middle of New York City, in civilian clothes, because he was a huge fan of Broadway.

Confederates suck, Nazis suck, Trump sucks.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 8/3/25

Remember when Republicans were up in arms at the completely falsified lie "Hunter Biden is selling access to his father, the President"? Remember how Republicans, with veins popping on the beet-red foreheads, were screaming that the mere appearance of someone buying access to the President, or being rewarded with access, is a failure to our country, and that "President Biden should resign(!)"?

Remember the entire Republican Party screaming that?

Funny, their standards seemed to have shifted slightly. 

Trump basically has a "BRIBE ME" sign up on the White House lawn. He doesn't even hide his pay-for-access or pay-for-approval schemes. He just held up the Paramount/Skydance merger for a payoff (and the firing of Colbert). There are many entities, from universities to law firms to corporations, whom he openly says, "Pay up or else!"

But I know Republicans will say "that's the cost of doing business, and that isn't necessarily screaming 'Bribe Me!"

No, for that, a story came to light yesterday.  Through MAGA Inc., the Trump Super-Pac that funds his political machine, people are outright sending him money for access and appointments to government positions.  In the first 6 months of 2025, they've raked in 177 million dollars. The Crypto industry alone gave him 45 million.  You make a donation, you get private one-on-one time with Trump.  

Multiple donors have even gotten plum administration appointments, including that knucklehead who was nominated to be the ambassador to Singapore and whom embarrassed himself greatly when he couldn't answer basic questions about Singapore at his confirmation hearing.

And those same Republicans who insisted that their going after President Biden had NOTHING to do with politics, only "maintianing an ethical standard for our government" are either scouring their friend groups to offer a bribe to Trump (hoping for a finders fee), or suddenly VERY quiet about what everyone sees going on in front of our faces. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 8/2/25

In what was easily predictable, a leaked memo from the Department of Homeland Security gave some details on the Trump Administration's plans to expand the use of the US military on American soil.

The memo talks about how the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense are coordinating with each other for the expansion of the use of the military, under the argument of immigration enforcement. One person described this expansion as the largest use of US military personnel on US soil since the Japanese internment camps of WWII.

There is another very ugly reason for this.  Right now, there is no way in hell the Republicans are going to hold the US House and Senate in 2026.  The last thing the Trump Administration wants is to give the Democrats the opportunity to openly investigate the Administration.  

If the drunk Pete Hegseth waits until August of next year to start placing armed forces across the country, everyone would know what it's for.  If they start posting military across the country today, in the biggest US cities, under the argument of immigration enforcement, then the troops are in place if the Trump Administration calls for a delay in the 2026 election ("We're going to wait until people's emotions have calmed down and then have an election.").  They might also call for state results to be thrown out, and the military will be there to deal with the masses furious over the overthrow of Democracy.

This is not good. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 8/1/25

Threatening a nuclear war in a desperate attempt to get Jeffery Epstein and bad economic news off the front page is always gold, but let's look at that economic news.

Yesterday, they announced that the July job numbers failed to meet expectations, with 73,000 jobs created versus the estimate of 109,000.  That's not great, but it's not fatal.  What was far more damning was the revised job numbers for May and June. 

Now, for the record, I had insisted that the job numbers for May and June were not right when they came out.  There seemed to be genuine shock and awe that they had come in at 144,000 for May and 147,000 for June. Considering how many Federal Government firings were happening alone, those numbers seemed exceedingly pollyanna. I doubted the numbers were legit.

They weren't.  The stunning revisions on the numbers, May down 125,000 to 19,000 total, and June down 133,000 to 14,000 total, point to Trump manipulating data to push a narrative, preventing the truth from coming out, that his economic plans are quickly souring the economy. His tariffs are weighing heavily on prices and hiring.  These are the worst months for hiring since he was in office during the pandemic in 2020. 

Trump did what all dictators do when faced with bad news: he fired the people who delivered the bad news.  Claiming with ZERO evidence that Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer had falsified the job numbers to make him look bad, Trump fired her and said he wanted a new commissioner who would tell him the economic news he wanted to hear. 

It's pretty clear to me that somehow McEntarfer had posted the correct jobs data, CORRECTING THE FAKE JOBS DATA THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAD MANIPULATED TO MAKE HIM SEEM COMPETENT.  The fake numbers were the original numbers, and Trump is really angry about the truth coming out. 

But it also means no sane person would trust the job numbers that come out of this Administration from this point forward. TRUMP HAS DEMANDED THE NUMBERS BE DOCTORED! Already, many economic experts have stated that August jobs numbers will probably be worse than July's.  This means it will be easy to see the lies being presented as facts.

It also should be noted that a country falsifying jobs data to push a narrative not only creates a recession/depression free fall when the eventual truth comes out, but it also is a prime factor in what is called hyperinflation, when consumer prices skyrocket overnight, pricing the consumer out, devaluing the currency, and stifling spending. 

Fall is going to be an economic nightmare for this country. 

The Saturday Link for 8/2/25

Okay, I missed the Friday Link.  Guilty as charged. 

This year has been a freaking nightmare.  I think yesterday morning, when the truth came out about the jobs numbers in May and June, that they were falsely inflated to make Trump's economic policy look better than it was, I broke down. When the revisions for May and June came out with July's paltry numbers, someone didn't get the 'Lie for Trump' memo, and the truth came out. The whole firing of the numbers person has FAR more to do with trying to cover up the Trump Administration's initial lies when the job numbers came out, versus correcting any wrongs they insist they were never part of.

I'd had it. That was before Trump decided to start moving nuclear subs around to avoid the Epstein Files/bad job number talk.  I took the day and gladly did not look back.

This has been a really tough week for a lot of people.  I've had to become a counselor to a number of stressed-out friends over the last year and requests for me to tell people 'it's going to be all good in the future' skyrocket this week.  I had already taken a break from the WTTD threads, but I feel the need to get back to work.

Trump wants us to be depressed and submissive.  That's the only way he works. I took a day, and now here we go.

The first video is fascinating.  Hank Green's science-heavy discussions on certain topics are great, and I highly recommend following his channel. This week he talks about the evolutionary changes fish had to make to get on dry land, and it really is remarkable. Of the many evolutions that happened, he has one which he is positive was the most important. 

Another thing he does is explain how these evolutions happened, where usually some type of cell in a fish's body reinvented itself in a bizarre way to allow for a new adaptation.  See for yourself. 

Also, funny but with science, True Facts comes at us with the story of how crickets became the loud ones in the animal kingdom! 

Finally, some hope for you. In dark times, good people rise.  Texas State Rep. James Talarico came out swinging.  

As weakling Democrats cower and throw transgender people under the bus, insisting we should allow their rights to be diminished because 70% think they participate in sports is wrong, Talarico gives the response that should be the first thing out of our mouths when the HATE RIGHT attacks.  

You have to click on the link for this one. It's quick and it's worth it. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/i-FvSqPsMkA?si=VN-OrHdGYzJR3uGE

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/27/25

It's a little thing, but Trump getting caught cheating red-handed at golf is such a perfect synopsis of who exactly this man is. 

His caddie got out to look for Trump's ball, and you can CLEARLY see the caddie drop a fresh ball, to which Trump walks up and hits it, acting as if it were his legit shot.  And from the angle, Trump clearly saw the caddie drop the ball.

MAGA loves to talk about how great he is at golf.  I'd be great too if I got a new ball every time I hit one. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/26/25

Let's make sure we understand the reality the news media doesn't want to report:  

One of the Trump Administration's core values is racism.  This is the most racist Administration since before the Civil War, and they are SO FREAKING PROUD OF IT!

Like everyone else trying to decipher Trump's madness, the Government of South Africa wanted clarification about Trump's new refugee program for Afrikaners, the former white ruling class of South Africa.  Remember that the Trump Administration made up fake tales of whites in South Africa being persecuted to justify a new policy where they can come to the US as refugees.

The South African Government asked the US State Department if South Africans who spoke the Afrikanner language, but were of mixed race, would be allowed to take part in this refugee program.

Spencer Chretien, a Senior Official with the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, responded and said everything you need to know:

"The program is intended for white people."

As you can imagine, the State Department insists there is a clarification. They insist that the real policy is that all Afrikanners and other racial minorities would indeed be considered for refugee status. It seems Trump's eager racism caught the Administration up, as the initial order did indeed say that refugee status was to be delivered to Afrikanners and all other South Africans who are in the minority (the Trump Administration thought this would only apply to white people, as South Africa's dominant population is Black). But the mixed-race individuals are also technically a minority in South Africa. They would be allowed to apply for refugee status in the US, something that might be allowed, but they will likely see the racist State Department refuse to process their applications.

Another immigration analyst said it best.  Most people who try to become refugees in the US need to take up to two years to become refugees.  Afrikanners are being allowed into the country in two weeks.  The only reason they would be okay with that timeline is that if the only thing that matters to them is skin color. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/25/25

With all the other crimes against humanity being conducted by Trump and his Administration, we haven't checked in on Brain Worm Magee, Robert F Kennedy Jr., the Director of Health and Human Services.

A few days ago, the brain-dead dolt and his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) stupidity took a huge credibility hit.  Not only did Magee praise drinking soda made with cane sugar, something you should dramatically limit if you are trying to be healthy, but he went on to praise the fastfood-ish restaurant chain Steak and Shake (if you want to be healthy, limiting steak, especially cheap fat laden ones, is a good idea, and shakes are definitely a no-no!) for their commitment to carry the sugar cane soda to go with their fat and calorie heavy meal options.

Anything that a complete moron says about living a healthy lifestyle should be ignored. He's a snake oil salesman. 

And evil, too! Yesterday, he announced his plan to fire the entire 16-member panel of the US Preventive Services Taskforce, an independent panel of national experts who recommend clinical preventive services such as screening tests, counseling services, and preventive medicines. They determine what cancer screening and other preventive medical procedures insurance plans are required to cover.

Why is he firing all 16 members of the panel? He says they are "too woke," having used some terminology he deemed offensive (pregnant persons), dared to mention racial discrimination of minorities, and mentioned the modern psychological impact of generations of enslaved Black women being forced to nurse their slave masters' babies.  For a bunch of guys who screamed about the evils of 'cancel culture,' they are the MASTERS of cancel culture.  They are such pathetic, delicate little flowers!

I have zero doubt this will lead to a Barin Worm Magee/Dr. Oz supplement, which they will insist will help prevent and cure cancer, but whose small print warns that the supplement not only doesn't prevent and cure cancer, but will likely cause it.

We are all less healthy with that f-ing idiot in charge. 

The Friday Link for 7/25/25

This is all about Colbert getting fired and the response afterwards. 

In case you missed it, Paramount, CBS's parent company, decided to give Stephen Colbert 10 months, and then they will cancel The Late Show. They say they are doing this to cut costs, but nobody believes this.  Paramount wanted to merge with Skydance, and since a public broadcast network was part of the deal, they needed the FCC to sign off on the sale. Trump was intentionally holding up the sale to get some concessions. They got CBS to fold on the Trump lawsuit against 60 Minutes, a lawsuit which no one thought Trump had ANY chance to win, and then, for a cherry on top of the sundae, Paramount killed Colbert in some sort of ritual sacrifice to get Trump's favor.

Everyone hates Paramount now.  There is a movement to get people to cancel their Paramount+ subscriptions and give the money to Public TV and radio. That's not a bad idea. 

Colbert's first show back after the firing was magical. The opening monologue was great, but it was this segment with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic that took the cake. They play a Coldplay song, referencing that moment when that CEO got caught at the Coldplay concert having an affair on their 'Kiss cam.' A lot of great cameos, but it's the ending that is just pitch-perfect. 

David Letterman was equally as pissed off about the termination of The Late Show, a show he began 30+ years ago.  He, in solidarity with Colbert, released a video montage of him brutally taking down CBS over the years. 

What comes next is INCREDIBLY ADULT! Do not watch this video if you are easily offended or are under the age of 18. 

South Park got into the game, too.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, had the brilliant season premiere on Wednesday, and they didn't pull any punches. South Park is one of the top-rated shows in the country, and they just made a deal with Paramount (they air on another Paramount property, Comedy Central) for 1 and a half billion dollars. They also have negotiated control over their show's content.  You knew this swipe was coming.

They basically dismantle the weakling that is Trump to perfection.  This clip is the end of the episode, but I HIGHLY encourage you to watch the entire episode to get a master class in dismantling the bully. 

I want to repeat, the end of this video is OH MY GOD!!!  You've been warned.  There is an age restriction on this clip, so you have to go see it on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afetnw70S04

Have a great weekend.  Please stay up to date on all of your vaccinations!

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/24/25

We definitely could go with the Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche, the same guy who represented Trump at his criminal trial, going to Florida to negotiate with the known Jeffery Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to either have her be quiet and not testify in Congress, or to outright lie and make up a fantasy story that Trump was never the Pedophile and Cheif we all know he was in return for a full pardon. 

That's pretty bad, but anytime we discover that the Trump Administration is going full Nazi, that has to be the winner.

It came to light yesterday that Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security Director, a member of the same party who screamed for years about "Government Overreach," is embracing a plan to place tracking devices on immigrants legally in the US. The plan is for around 200,000 monitoring devices to be placed on these HUMAN BEINGS, but they are trying to make it sound "humanitarian."  They say pregnant women will be allowed to wear them on their wrists. How kind...

This is a massive boon for the giant prison company, the Geo Group, a company that donated 1.5 million dollars to Trump.  Their subsidiary company, BI Inc., originally used these devices to help track cattle. 

They are treating human beings like farm animals. And this is the beginning, as the CEO of Geo says they are planning on having monitoring devices on "millions" of HUMAN BEINGS(!!!).

The Trump Administration is officially treating HUMAN BEINGS like...I was about to say a dog getting trained with an Invisible Fence, but that seems far more dignified and far less intrusive than what they are planning to do. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/23/25

We discovered that the worst Attorney General in the history of this country, Pam Bondi, told Trump in May that his name did indeed appear in the Epstein files. 

The story from the Wall Street Journal points to many names showing up in the Epstein files, and that just because a name does appear in the files, it's not necessarily a sign of wrongdoing.  Fine, but two things:  1) If Trump really was innocuously mentioned, would two DOJ officals have gone to his office to inform him of that, and 2) Trump is sure as heck acting like he is guilty as hell, even having his Administration continue with the laughable allegations agains President Obama (because when it comes to Trump, he knows his MAGA base loves attacking an innocent black man more than holding a pedophile accountable).

This, after Trump last week stated twice that he was told directly by Bondi that he didn't appear in the Epstein files.  Even Conservative columnists are face-palming at the obvious lies coming from the White House on this issue.

One thing that's completely being ignored is that the Attorney General of the United States got on camera and outright INTENTIONALLY lied to the American People to try to help Trump.  In the Biden Administration, Republicans wanted Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to be fired because he dissappeared for three days to have cancer treatments.  Republicans didn't want him to resign because he was sick, but rather because "he had broken the trust of the American people."  The SAME EXACT REPUBLICANS have no problem with Bondi breaking and stomping all over the trust of the American people with a FAR MORE heinous crime!

And at the end of the day, the Republicans have decided to protect a pedophile.  

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/22/25

It's unknown whether Trump ordered Speaker Mike Johnson to shut down the US House for the August recess two weeks early, or if it was Johnson's idea, to avoid a growing resentment within his own party to Trump's dodging of the ever louder Epstein files scandal, but the Republicans ran silently screaming away from Washington DC in a desperate hope that the demands for the Epstein Files, and what exactly is the undeniable connection to Trump, dies down like Epstein in his cell, by September.

It's frustrating that a lot of people are acting like this scandal is a new thing. Democrats (yours included) have been screaming for years that Trump is a pedophile, and the national news media outright ignored the obvious connections which were right in front of their faces.

It was only when Elon Musk said that Trump was on the Epstein List that suddenly the national news media finally felt like the potential of the President being a Pedophile is actually a newsworthy story.

I find it funny that the same MAGA trolls who have been screaming that every Democrat is a "pedophile" for the last 5 years, now faced with the reality that Trump is likely the King Pedophile, suddenly insist that either they never would accuse anyone of such behavior (so you should stop saying that about Trump, RIGHT NOW!!!) or that sexually assaulting minors is suddenly not a big deal. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/21/25

There is a long history in this country of minority farmers being discriminated against to the point where they were driven out of the farming business.  After the Civil War, nationwide, it was common to prevent Black and minority farmers from being able to sell their products in white commercial or wholesale markets.  The racists, frustrated by the Black farmer's freedom from slavery specifically, vowed to never help the Black farmer.  When times came where there wasn't enough white farmer crops for the white masses, whites would refuse to pay the same rates for the Black farmers' crops, insisting they were inferior because they came from Black farmers.  Sometimes they would just raid Black farms and steal their crops/animals. 

Like I said, this wasn't a policy just limited to the former slave states. This anti-minority farmer policy became a nationwide policy, and it went a long way to limit the Black and minority farmers of today.  In the US, 38.5% of the population is either Black, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American, but only 4% of farms in the USA are owned by people of color. 

And make no mistake, there is A LOT of racism in the farming industry today, going out of its way to discourage and limit the opportunities for minority farmers.  It was so bad that the Farm Bill in 1990 installed a policy which specifically tried to help minority farmers who had been discriminated against.  

Not anymore. 

The Trump White House and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins are specifically removing the term "Socially disadvantaged" from the law, basically making racism against minority farmers legal again, removing race and sex based considerations in the decision-making process for their USDA programs. They claim they are taking a race-neutral stance, but what they're really doing is intentionally ignoring the racism in the system, and saying minority farmers have always had the same opportunities and chances as white farmers, a laughable argument.

These changes in Ag, as well as other areas, have a designed purpose: to incubate racism by insisting no racism exists. The people complaining about the racism are the real problem, and until they learn to shut up and accept the racism, the victims of racism are the real racists.

A bigot's fever dream. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/20/25

The entire Sunday was a day for Trump to desperately try to get the Epstein scandal off the front page.  First, he had Tulsi Gabbard make up a fake President Obama scandal so he could say, "I'm attacking the Black Man." Then came another threat to undo Rosie O'Donnell's citizenship, something he can't do ("I'm getting the liberal woman!") but then he just let the racism fly. 

Trump vowed to halt the new Washington Commanders' NFL Football stadium unless they return the team to the racist name the team finally got rid of in 2020.  They also said the Cleveland Guardians needed to return to their racist name they recently retired.

It's not clear what Trump could actually force.  The Washington team and the NFL seem to have ZERO interest in bringing the horrifically racist name back.  

This is just racism.  This is Trump knowing that one of his MAGA base's main tentpoles is racism.  MAGA is either racist or completely fine with racists, so this is Trump begging MAGA to forget about Epstein, and he will be the biggest racist he can be for them.

He really is a piece of S#!t. And he raped young girls.  No amount of pandering will ever take that away. 

    

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/19/25

How do you say "Trump is DEFINITELY in the Epstein files" without saying "Trump is DEFINITELY in the Epstein files"? 

The Director of National Intelligence and UNDENIABLE Russian asset, Tulsi Gabbard, started screaming about something to do with President Obama trying to undermine Trump.  She says that emails expose a years-long conspiracy against Trump.

Okay, I'll play the stupid game for a second. You mean Trump, who won the election in 2016, and who won again in 2024?  How exactly did this conspiracy hurt Trump? For something to be bad, shouldn't there have been consequences?

Also, didn't YOUR Supreme Court basically rule that anything a President does in office is legal?  Seriously, you just created a rule saying that Presidents can't be held accountable for what they did in office, so...

Putting aside the most racist Administration since before Lincoln is screaming "Arrest the Black Man(!!!)" to try to take the Epstein scandal off the front page, this is an insanely lame attempt at trying to change the national narrative to protect Trump.

Trump is definitely in the Epstein files.  Trump raped young girls and is desperate to avoid crashing in the game of chicken Trump decided to play with himself.  Remember, he knew he was in those files but yet kept bringing them up as some sort of smoking gun for others.  That is insanely stupid for someone, even if they never thought they'd be held accountable.

 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/18/25

I definitely could go with the defunding of Public Radio. The Right has been threatened by them for decades, considering that in many communities, they are the only non-Right-Wing filtered news option.  They are threatened by the one minute of news at the top of the hour at the classical station, so they are ruining another great element of America. 

Instead, I'll go with the price tag submitted for reopening Alcatraz. They are claiming it would be 2 billion dollars. I don't think they're even close to the right cost.

I traveled to Alcatraz last summer.  It's tiny.  It only held a few hundred prisoners, which means it would be grossly expensive to put prisoners back there, versus someplace like Guantanamo, where there is already a prison and plenty of space. 

The entire island would have to be completely rebuilt.  Pretty much most of the officers' housing was destroyed by fires years ago.  The entire island would have to be razed, and a completely new prison would have to be built. Everything would have to be torn down and shipped off the island, THEN they would have to take every bag of concrete, screw, and board back over to the island to build it. 

There is no way you could pull that off for only 2 billion. Apparently, that price tag came in so high that most of the Administration is not as enthused by this option anymore, but Trump loves the idea. 

The Friday Link for 7/18/25

Hi all!

I took a week off from the blog for some simple reasons.  I was tired, I was having a hard time with the mountain of bad news, I was falling behind in other aspects of my life, and I just wanted a break.

I will try to get back to the WTTD tomorrow.

We start the Friday Link with a shockingly therapeutic video.  It's a simple rendition of the speed of light in our own solar system, but I have enjoyed watching this video multiple times when I am stressed out. It starts at the sun, and for 45 minutes, you travel at the speed of light toward the solar system's gas giants.

It gives you a stunning perspective of the size of our solar system, as it takes all 45 minutes to get to Jupiter alone (we'd need another 35 minutes to get all the way to Saturn at the speed of light).  Also, you don't appreciate how far away from the Earth the moon is, or how far away from Jupiter Callisto is.  

This, along with MST3K and RiffTrax videos, is my go-to stress relief. 

Also tonight is a great commentary from Nick Offerman when he visited The Daily Show, sounding off about the threat Trump and his Administration present to the National Parks. Trust me, they would sell them off to the highest bidder if they could.  Offerman makes a lot of points, but his primary one is simple: National Parks are really cool, and we should treat them as the treasure they are.

Warning, this video does have some adult content.  You've been warned! 

Have a good weekend.

Please make sure you stay up to date on your vaccinations.

The Friday Link for 7/11/25

This week, we start off with an absolutely spectacular tourism ad from Canada. 

I want a Canadian hug! 

Disclaimer: You probably shouldn't just go randomly hug someone, but this ad makes me realize how far this country has fallen.  We used to be nice to each other.  Now we all get roundhouse kicks to the face and then are told we have to be grateful.  Sigh...

Next up this week is a frantic call to help out the Horseshoe Crab. When I was a kid, swimming at Wickford Town Beach in Rhode Island, we'd come across these little aqua-tanks all the time.  Pretty much harmless, but they look intimidating.

Apparently, they've been having a rough time lately. ZeFrank has all the details in True Facts: Turtle Spiders of the Sea! 

Finally tonight, me.  I usually don't post clips from my show, but earlier this week I had a great visit with former Minnesota Vikings punter and Progressive activist Chris Kluwe.  We talked about many things, but mainly how to stay enganged, and the importance of recharging your batteries with non-political activities to help keep your sanity. 

That's it for this week.  Have a great weekend, and please make sure to stay up to date on all your vaccinations! Thanks! 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/10/25

After Trump admitted his harsh 50% tariffs on incoming Brazilian products (once again, NOT PAID BY BRAZIL!  It's a TAX that Americans are having to pay.) was due in part to Trump being upset about his buddy, the former President of Brazil, the MAGA-esque Jair Bolsonaro, being prosecuted for trying to overturn the election he lost in Brazil in 2022 (They prosecute people who break the law in Brazil. Thanks for nothing Merrick Garland), the markets shrugged. 

Here was Trump admitting that he was imposing stiff tariffs on another country not for economic reasons, but for petty personal ones. Congress and the Markets should have thrown a fit.  Maybe they think Trump will TACO out and bail on the tariff threats, AGAIN.  Maybe the markets are just broken and are being falsely inflated.  It's likely a bit of both. 

Trump then turned his attention to Canada, where he is threatening a 35% tariff on all Canadian goods.  Once again, Canada can still get American products without too much of a price increase, but Americans will suffer far more with their costs skyrocketing as the US NEEDS a lot of Canada's products.

Canadians are pretty unified in trying to cut as many US ties as possible, so this whole "Canada needs to be subservient to Trump" foreign policy platform has been a disaster.

And it should be noted that if Canada, one of our largest trading partners, does get into a retaliatory mode and decides, instead of retaliatory tariffs, to just stop sending certain products south of the border, that will dramatically damage the US economy.

Even in a perfect world, it would take the US YEARS to get American production ramped up to sufficient levels, to make up for the metals, precious metals, and other unique imports we NEED from Canada. And instead of investing billions into making products in America, most companies will wait to see what happens in the next elections, as it does a US company no good to spend a lot of money building a new facility only to see tariffs lifted by the next sane person in the White House, putting them at a massive competitive disadvantage. 

And we aren't even beginning to talk about the skilled workforce needed to get raw materials and turn them into a workable product.  That's not a 'week of training' sort of thing.

All the ingredients are there for a massive US economic collapse soon.  Trump will blame Fed Chairman Powell, but this will all be on his stupid, stupid head.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/9/25

It took Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 72 hours, THREE DAYS (!!!) to start sending needed help to Texas after the massive flooding there left over 100 dead, including many children.

In the past, FEMA was proactive and would have had teams on the ground when they knew bad weather was coming.  That all changed with ICE Barbie.  She demanded that any expense costing more than $100,000 be personally approved by her.  That's bad enough, but instead of heading into the office and scratching out a few signatures, Kristi wasn't in the office for three days.

One of the things that she was FAR MORE concerned with was appealing to her social media followers to help her determine which picture of her playing cowgirl would be best for her official South Dakota Governor portrait. 

Part of FEMA, which was NOT deployed, was the Urban Search and Rescue teams.  These teams are experts at getting into disaster areas and finding survivors in the wreckage. It took her THREE DAYS to get them to Texas, meaning there is a likely chance a victim might have died waiting for rescue as Noem played "which photo of me do you like best" on Instagram. 

It also should be mentioned that the head of FEMA himself, David Richardson, a man who had no idea there was such a thing as 'Hurricane Season,' is completely AWOL.  No one seems to know exactly where he is or what he's doing.

The Federal Government's inaction (or maybe this was by design) allowed for racist white supremacist groups to enter the area and present themselves to the victims as a needed resource...well, for the white victims only. Like I said, maybe this was the whole goal in the first place. 

Noem is now saying FEMA is ineffective, using HER ineptitude to argue FEMA should be dismantled completely. 

It worked just fine until Trump got back into office. This is about giving all the money that was supposed to go to save people's lives to the wealthy.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/8/25

There are heartless, stupid, incompetent bags of soup in Trump's Cabinet, but there might be one lurking in the shadows who outshines them all, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

She's basically an incompetent fool who shouldn't be working at an Arby's, let alone at the Department of Agriculture.  She doesn't advocate at all for the American farmer, and so far her entire tenure has been to be someone whose goal is to be smiling like a mannequin, nodding in agreement in the background.

But yesterday she opened her mouth and said a DOOZY!

Saying nothing, as ICE Gestapo raids leave the American Agriculture sector in shambles, having run off the undocumented workers who were willing to do the backbreaking work for a substandard wage, with crops now rotting in the fields, and Agriculture processors and dairies struggling to find enough employees to operate, Babbling Brooke offered a suggestion to deal with the farm labor crisis.

She suggested that the people to do the back-breaking, hard manual labor for a pittance would be "34 million adults in the Medicaid program."  

That's right!  She's suggesting the disabled and seniors on Medicaid get out into the fields and work like a mule...a disabled, elderly mule. 

For the record, 64% of Medicaid recipients ALREADY WORK, so she clearly must not be talking about them.  If she were, she'd be advocating for forced labor(!!!). The other enrollees are either retired, attending school, managing an illness/disability, or are caregivers, so that must be who she is talking about!  Rollins must feel those people have it too easy.  It's bad enough to demand stringent work requirements for Medicaid recipients, but it's beyond cruel to suggest they go out into the fields to pick crops because the Administration ran off the people who were willing to do those jobs.

It'd be funny, if it was so damn terrifying. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/7/25

The idiot is trying once again to play tough guy with trade. 

Earlier this year, on April 2nd, when Trump placed his massive worldwide tariff scheme on pretty much every country, it took 10 hours for the White House to FRANTICALLY walk back that decision.  In the ten hours it was in place, most of the US's foundational economic markets (bond, currency, metals, housing, agriculture) were all cracked.  If they hadn't immediately walked back his disastrous tariffs, the country would have nosedived into a depression by that afternoon. 

Since then, Trump has waffled on tariffs, imposing them, then walking them back, earning a nickname from Wall Street traders, TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out).  Not only that, but Trump has repeatedly made knee-jerk handshake agreements (trade policy must be approved by Congress, NOT the White House), which are disastrous to the United States.

Tariffs on imported products are PAID BY AMERICANS! This means he is placing a tax on products Americans use, to be paid by Americans.  The hope he has is that American consumers will cease buying the foreign products, products which, in many cases, are not produced with any major capacity in the United States. As Trump keeps bragging about the amount of money the government is collecting from tariffs, he clearly doesn't seem to care that the money is coming from Americans.

Yesterday, Trump tried a relaunch of his previous disaster tariff policy, but this time he is trying to feel out how many tariffs he can impose without nosediving the markets.  He picked 14 countries (Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Cambodia, and Thailand) and placed tariffs ranging from 25 to 40% on most imported products, and implied even higher tariffs on certain goods.  If any country puts reciprocal tariffs on the US, he promised to double them.

Trump doesn't seem to understand a lot about the world and trade.  Most of the world HATES him, and so foreign leaders know it will be political suicide to work with him, or to bow down to his wishes.  The other problem is that most of the world doesn't want our products, and can't afford to pay for them.  If he thinks this will lead to a boon to US exports, he's an even bigger fool than he already is.

He swears he won't back down this time, but really, all the world has to do is stop taking our Ag products, and this country's economy will come crashing down fast. Already, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and New Zealand have rushed in to supply the Ag product that the world depended on the US for.  

This will not end well.

And the US dollar had its worst start to a year since 1973 and the oil crisis. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/6/25

Yesterday was a cavalcade of demented arguments as Trump sent Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett out to defend not only his Big Beautiful Disgrace, but also his tariff disaster and the impacts from his ICE raids.

On various Sunday shows, the two clowns claimed:

• Bessent admitted that tariffs were indeed price increases (but tried to claim it was a one-time thing)
• Bessent said that Trump never promised he'd make trade deals, and then claimed that many of the countries never tried to contact them (YES THEY DID! It's something I wrote about in yesterday's WTTD)
• Bessent stated that most people getting Medicaid were able-bodied and would easily be able to find a job that pays for health care.
• Bessent (THE TREASURY SECRETARY) said the Democrats were responsible for blowing out the deficit in 2020, the last year Trump was in office.
• To avoid admitting how many people were going to lose health care under Trump's plan, Hassett insisted that all the people who do lose their insurance should just go get a job.
• Bessent, when challenged about Trump breaking his promises and changing Medicaid by adding a work requirement to it, insisted Trump never said that, only that he wouldn't change the benefits.  He did say he wouldn't change Medicaid, and he has also changed benefits.
• Bessent argues that 57% of Americans who understand that tariffs hurt the economy are all suffering from Tariff Derangement Syndrome. The Treasury Secretary doesn't understand that tariffs do actually hurt your economy.
• Hassett had a weird one.  When confronted about the multiple analyses that say the Trump bill will add at least 3 trillion to the deficit, Hassett responded, "Remember that Science is not a Democracy. Truth is not a Democracy." He then went on to say that all of these reports came from flawed groups and that only the White House is correct.
• When asked about the Yale Budget Lab stating the wealthiest Americans will see their income rise by 2% while the lowest income Americans will see their incomes drop, Bessent attacked the Yale group as "all ex-Biden officials and that we can ignore everything they say."
• Bessent then made the preposterous statement suggesting that Americans will be willing to work the jobs that immigrant labor has been doing.  He then said the jobs would likely have to pay more, and then completely pivoted to talk about new jobs coming back to America...so I guess no one is going to do the jobs the immigrants were doing.

Even these two dolts couldn't sell this crap sandwich.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/5/25

A White House insider has revealed that the Trump trade war is not real at all.  Trump is apparently doing this for attention, to create content for his social media, and to be an agent of chaos. 

The story from Politco highlights that as we approach the 90 day self induced Trump dealline for countries to secure trade deals with the US, the rest of the world is convinced that TACO Trump plans on having to extend out his ultimatum deadline again as so far there doesn't seem to be a cohesive negotiating unit. 

Trump apparently has placed three people, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as his crack team to negotiate all the deals, but no one seems to understand the basic process of negotiating a trade deal, and it's not clear how much communication is occuring between his three appointees.  Foreign countries are sending agents to negotiate, and those agents are not even able to get face time with Trump's three clowns.

The foreign trade representatives who have managed to get meetings with the trio of idiots walk away confused, as even the Trump team doesn't seem to know what exactly they are looking for in trade deals. Some countries have come to actually play Trump's game and give him a lot of concessions, but then Trump bashes them on social media, undoing any negotiations that might have happened.  The Insider's theory is that Trump likes the chaos more than actual results.

It's clear Trump's promise of 90 deals in 90 days will not happen.  And the few deals he has made are horrifically bad for Americans.

Then again, Trump Always Chickens Out...

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/4/25

Yesterday, Trump signed the disastrous piece of legislation, his 'Big Beautiful Bill,' which will end up killing millions of Americans, to make sure billionaires get more free government money. 

Trump at a rally afterwards bashed the Democrats for not voting for his bill. "They wouldn't vote only because they hate Trump (talking about himself in the third person. Okay, James Joyce.), but I hate them too, you know that? I really do.  I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country..."

This is the first time since the Civil War that a President has spoken out against a large portion of the population, and Lincoln was far more congenial in his references to the Southerners fighting against the United States. Trump is the first President to aggressively fight against a UNITED country, not hiding his disdain for the people he is elected to serve, including the ones who did not vote for him. 

Can you imagine the reaction of all the Republicans, the national news media, and even a lot of Democrats if President Obama, President Biden, or VP Harris had said, "I hate MAGA. I cannot stand them."? They'd be going crazy for a year! But the failure of our leaders and institutions to call out this atrocious behavior is inexcusable. 

It will take a generation for the damage this man has done to go away.  My guess is that only when the majority of his supporters pass away over time will Trumpism move back into the shadows, to the barbed wire-surrounded compounds in Montana and Michigan.

The Friday Link for 7/4/25

I will alwasy start a Friday Link on the 4th of July with the Muppets. WEIRDOS! 

Fantastic as always, but considering how things are going in this country today, maybe Stars and Stripes Forever should be replaced with The Talking Heads' Psycho Killer.  This modern video for the song features Saoirse Ronan.  Things aren't going great in America right now.

Then again, maybe we should replace it with A Pitch Perfect Riff Off.  Frankly, these parts are consistently the best part of those movies. And for the record, I could go with a lot more of Das Sound Machine in my life. 

Finally, this week, a more science-y video. Most of the time, when they identify a new dinosaur, they do so with like three bones and a tooth. Have you ever asked how exactly they do that?  The YouTuber channel Howtown, which has some style, asked that question with a class of dinosaurs called Pterosaurs. It is remarkable to see them figure that all out. And I've been to Chicago and seen the HUGE model they feature in this piece at their Natural History Museum (a must-visit!).

That's it for this week.  Happy Independence Day.  May we be free of these dark times soon.

Please make sure you stay up to date on your vaccinations. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/3/25

This is the Worst Thing Trump and his Administration did, and although he will sign the bill later on Independence Day, yesterday the House GOP were the villains on that one, so...

I think we have to go to Trump's victory rally in Des Moines, Iowa, last night. 

We'll start with his desire to have a UFC fight on the White House lawn. If you are not aware, the UFC is a barbaric, drunken bar fight labeled as a sport.  Whereas boxing is a technical enterprise of weakening your opponent, UFC is two people pummeling each other, where blood and injuries are cheered. I have no patience for it.  It's making a sport out of fights between fans in the stands at a minor league hockey game. 

And now Trump wants to put an official UFC fight on the White House lawn. It's beyond parody at this point. As someone pointed out, "Trump has UFC fight on the White House lawn" sounds more like an Onion headline from 2017.  

Trump then went on to use a notorious anti-Semitic term.  Talking to a Des Moines crowd that CLEARLY LOVES Trump for his racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism, Trump said: "No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases shylocks and bad people."  Shylock is the name of the Jewish character from Merchant of Venice, a Shakespearean play where anti-Semetic rhetoric and tropes were displayed.

Over the last 50 years, more and more anti-Semitic people have used the phrase.  Even Joe Biden said the phrase while VP, something the media lambasted him for, and something he apologized for after it was called out by the Anti-Defamation League. 

Don't hold your breath on the news media holding Trump to the same standard, or Trump having an epiphany. 

But it's the rally itself I want to point out. This rally was planned WELL IN ADVANCE! When people were saying the Republicans would show some level of restraint, fighting Trump on his most obnoxious proposals in his 'Big Beautiful' bill, I laughed.  The only time you see a Republican show a spine is when, AFTER political polling tells them they are on the way out, they announce their retirement and suddenly insist they've never fully agreed with the Trump agenda...that they freely voted for.  They're all cowards, but that's what makes them Republicans.  They're there for their willingness to acquiesce.

Trump knew this bill was going to pass.  Any Republican dissent was for show only. The Democrats sure as hell weren't going to do anything to stop it.  They had this all scheduled out.  No drama.  No fuss. 

And now everyone but the billionaires are screwed. 

The Sadness that is America

Instead of doing a Worst Thing, here are pictures of flowers I took while on vacation in northern Minnesota.

After what Republicans did to this country today, looking at flowers seems like a good option.