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.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 7/1/25

Trump continues to march down the road to fascism, as yesterday he visited what will be his new kennel for humans, the intentionally grotesquely named Alligator Alcatraz.

Basically, it's a flimsy prison tent city in the middle of the Florida swamps.  He wants to eliminate the middleman in his 'deport them to the gulag' system, so he's building a US gulag in the middle of Florida to send people. If you think about inhumane places to send people, Florida is high on that list! 

The people building it have claimed the facility will be hurricane-proof.  As they said this, a rainstorm (which was described as a very average rainstorm) immediately flooded a large portion of the prison complex.  I could point out this is hazardous, but this seems to be the point.  Trump and MAGA seem to want to have a MAGA gladiator stadium at the facility so they can watch the people whom they throw in there suffer.

He will likely start throwing anyone he doesn't like into this facility, including American citizens who have done nothing wrong.  This would be one of the reasons it's out in the middle of nowhere: to avoid scrutiny. 

Here is another weird thing about Trump.  One of the things he LOVES about the Alligator Alcatraz is that it's surrounded by alligators and snakes, which could kill someone who tries to escape. Considering how shoddy the place is built, I think there's a decent chance the animals will get in regardless, but Trump loves the idea of people he's deemed to be criminals being eaten and ripped to shreds by wild critters.

He then talked about restoring the original Alcatraz, an insane idea as that would require a complete rebuild of the facility.  One of the reasons he wants to open Alcatraz back up is that he says it's an island surrounded by sharks, once again relishing in people he's deemed to be criminals being eaten.

Trump seems to want to be a Bond villain.  

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/30/25

The extent of Trump's trade war disaster really came to light yesterday, as his promise of "90 deals in 90 days" is nowhere near fruition.

Trump's trade problems are multi-layer, starting with the obvious:  he applied a 10% tariff on all imports and then said FROM THAT POINT he'd negotiate.  The rest of the world is not willing to accept his 10% mulligan, and so every negotiation starts off with our trade partners already upset.

It gets worse from there.  Trump is basically wanting every concession he can get while offering zero concessions in return to the other countries. For some reason, he thinks he can force his will onto these other nations, and he doesn't seem to understand that these other countries are not about to sacrifice their own internal businesses and GDP to make Trump look like a good negotiator.  

When another country tries to install a retaliatory tariff, Trump screams and throws a tantrum, insisting there is no trade deal will occur.  Most of the time, this leads to the other country backing off, or offering Trump a trade bone, but regardless, to reverts all the trade discussion between the two countries back to square one.

And then there is the fact that Trump can't keep his mouth shut.  Trump has repeatedly bragged about being the chief negotiator in a conflict resolution between Pakistan and India.  Fun fact, he wasn't, but it hasn't stopped him from claiming to be the wheeler-dealer.  The problem is that this resolution between Pakistan and India seems pretty thin to begin with, and Pakistan is happily touting Trump's claims.  Pakistan knows the people of India are not fans of Trump, and if Indian Prime Minister Modi keeps making excuses for Trump and keeps trying to work with him, Modi looks pretty bad to his citizens.  Modi has, in pretty blunt terms, repeatedly said Trump had nothing to do with the resolution, but Trump's continued claims have made India move further away from a proposed trade deal. 

India was going to be Trump's first success story, but Trump's irrational need to be the hero of EVERY story has stalled this trade agreement, and there seems to be a real question on whether it will ever happen.

On top of that, there are demands from the Trump Administration that certain agricultural products from the USA that are banned in other countries because of health, chemical, GMO, or quality concerns be accepted. Foreign trade representatives have pointed out that most countries would need a legislative agreement to lift the protections they have in place, something which will not happen, but these obvious roadblocks are being ignored by Trump's team.  It sounds like at least three major trade deals would be on their way to ratification, but Trump doesn't want to be perceived as being the person conceding. 

In conclusion, Trump is an idiot, and his foolish trade war has been a disaster for the United States.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/29/25

Coming back from my vacation, I could go back over the last twelve days and pick from the buffet of horrific things that human dumpster fire did, but I will only focus on what is in front of us.

On the heels of the Supreme Court attacking their own judiciary and insistting that a judge can't formally stop an executive action without it coming in case form to the Supreme Court, a process which would allow Trump to break the law for up to a year + before someone would actually be able to stop him, Trump has ramped up his racist and totalitarian agenda in the wake of the ruling and is goose-stepping forward.

It came to light yesterday that Trump issued a Justice Department memo that directs attorneys to prioritize denaturalization of naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes. There are currently 25 million Americans who were born in another country and became naturalized US citizens. The argument they are making is that many of these people "illegally procured" their US citizenship, a claim the Trump Administration has zero evidence of. 

Even more heinous is that the attorneys are being told to pursue civil charges, not criminal charges.  That means the government is not on the hook to provide a lawyer for the accused, and their burden of proof is at a much lower level than with a criminal trial.

That means Trump is going after people who not only wanted to become Americans, but who have already gone through the insanely long-winded, time-consuming, methodical, and expensive process of becoming a US Citizen.  Now, Trump is punishing them for already jumping through the hoops, mainly because they have a darker skin tone than Casper.

This is clearly a first step, with the next being to go after birthright citizenship, and eventually getting to Trump's goal of controlling the masses by threatening to revoke the citizenship status of American Citizens whose ancestors came to the US hundreds of years ago.

And my guess is the Supreme Court, even when an eventual case gets onto their docket, would consider undoing a Constitutional Amendment completely from the bench, to help their king, Trump.

Ther Friday Link for 6/27/25

Hi all!

I love history.  I'm currently on my vacation, and the books I've been reading, one has to do with Mark Twain, and the other is a historical investigation into murder.  As I said, I love history.

This week, I stumbled across a great channel that takes us back in time to look at how some of the largest cities on the planet grew to become the greatest cities on the planet. The channel is This Is History, and it reminds me of an old version of the History Channel before they became obsessed with aliens, antiques, and pawn shops. There are a lot of different history videos, all of them providing a look at a larger historical topic or concept.  So far, I like it.

Here are three city videos for New York, London, and Paris! 

Finally, is a cooking video from Jamie at the ANTI-CHEF.  He has found a hamburger cookbook from the 1950s, and he tries some of the dated recipes.  The banana meatloaf is a hard pass from me, but the other three look pretty darn tasty.  And I'll be damned if I don't try the burger dogs for this upcoming 4th of July celebration!  Those looked good! 

Have a great weekend, everyone!  See you at Twin Cities Pride on Sunday! 

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

The Friday Link for 6/20/25

I realized I've not put out a Friday Link with what I thought were the best skits from the last season of Saturday Night Live. Let's remedy that.

Once again, I know there will be people upset with this list. Fine, it's just my opinion.  

I'm giving out an honorable mention as Andy Samberg and Charli XCX had a digital short which was one of the most enjoyable songs from the last year...not the theme of the song, which was calling the cops on everyone (although pretty funny), but just the beat.  Rewrite the lyrics and release this as a regular song!  Here I go! 

#10 - Bungee. Timothée Chalamet is a sneaky good host. His bizarre workout class skit was the right kind of preposterous.

#9 - Beppo.  John Mulaney has such good timing and delivery.  This sketch could have been really boring, but it ended up being hilarious. 

#8 - Sushi Glory Hole. Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer really want to feed you sushi in a creative and disturbing way. 

#7 - Washington's Dream 2. Nate Bergatze returned, and they revisited Washington, talking to the troops. It's not as funny as the first one, but it still holds up pretty good.

#6 - Maybelline - Two of the best impressionists the show ever produced are Chloe Fineman and Dana Carvey, and they are both featured here (with Ariana Grande doing a pretty good impression herself).  The impression is Jennifer Coolidge! 

#5 - Miss Eggy on the White House Correspondents' Dinner.  Live TV can sometimes save a sketch.  As good as Ego Nwodim is, this sketch was kind of pedestrian, until the audience decided to jazz it up! And Ego did not miss a beat. 

#4 - New York City Council Campaign.  John Mulaney shines as a candidate with a less-than-advantageous name. 

#3 - Check To Check Business News - A great sketch with Ego Nwodim and Jon Hamm and a take on business news for most Americans. 

#2 - The Culps from the 50th Anniversary show.  The classic characters of the Culps with Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer were as good as ever.  They did this for the SNL 50th Music night, so not really even in any of the main broadcasts, but it is so good I almost made it the best thing from the season.

#1 - The Weekend Update Christmas Joke Swap. In case you are not familiar, Colin Jost and Michael Che write jokes for each other to read on the Christmas show and the end of the season finale, and they have no idea what they are about to read.  These jokes are some of the most offensive jokes you'll hear, but they have figured out a way to get away with them by making the other the butt of each punchline.  The Christmas edition was the best ever, with an all-time classic joke moment featuring Jost and his wife Scarlett Johansson.

Have a great weekend, everyone!  

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

A Note

This has been a rough week.  After what happened in Minnesota last weekend, I'm taking my pre-scheduled vacation and withdrawing.

I've learned that it's counterproductive to try to keep updating my personal blog while I'm on vacation, so I won't be posting The Worst Thing Trump Did until the 30th. I need to decompress.

I am still numb about the political assassination of Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the shooting of Senator Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. 

I'm taking some time. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/17/25

Trump's threatening Iran is REALLY stupid.  

Embarrassed after his disastrous birthday parade, Trump headed to the G7 in Canada, only to be met with a stunning wall of friendly but tired-of-his-antics world leaders.  Trump started off the G7 by insisting the other members were being too mean to his buddy Putin (who was excluded from these meetings because he's an evil dictator).  The other world leaders didn't budge, and frankly seemed to be openly mocking and ignoring Trump.

Trump stomped off the world stage and headed back to DC, where Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu saw an opportunity.  Bibi started to play on Trump's stupidity and desire to be taken seriously, encouraging him to show the world he's a tough guy and to attack Iran. Trump bit on Netanyahu's lure, and suddenly this country started ramping up its military to match Trump's anti-Iran stupid rhetoric.

Netanyahu knows Israel can only bomb Iran from the air, and he's not stupid enough to try a ground war with them.  That's why he needs Trump and the US military.  Netanyahu is more than happy to sacrifice our troops for his cause, and with Trump, he has an easy-to-manipulate fool who will jeopardize our troops (and the potential for an all-out Middle Eastern war) all for the promise of adulation from the World Stage, a validation Trump begs for. 

Can we beat Iran?  Yes, but it would be a long, incredibly costly (both in human life and cost) venture that would stagnate this country for years.  It'd also probably tank the world financial markets.  Should we attack them? NO!  Reminder, Iran was pretty much (contently) contained after Obama signed the nuclear deal with them, a deal Trump ripped up in his first stupid term.

But Trump is a complete idiot, so...

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/16/25

I would love to make Trump storming out of the G7 the winner today.  He's still furious over the Saturday debacle, and it was clear the other 6 countries think he's a laughing stock, but instead, I'm going to go with the Trump phone! 

The Trump Organization has announced that they have started a new venture, Trump Mobile, and will release a new smartphone, the T1, which they initially said would be made in America. It won't anytime soon, but they still made the claim.  It is also not a new cell phone network, as they are only reselling Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile network access. 

The phone will retail for $499 and requires a non-refundable (HA!) $100 down payment.  On top of that, you'll be required to pay $47.45 per month for it, but they are promising a slew of special services that will come with the phone, such as "device protection."  They did not describe what "device protection" means, but it is likely through a third-party provider, like the other features for the T1, like roadside assistance, telehealth, and prescription services. Most people speculate that the phone comes with very basic versions of those services, and T1 users should anticipate numerous fees if they use those services beyond a basic level. 

OH! And it's just a repackaged phone you can already buy. The T1 is incredibly similar to a T-Mobile REVVL 7 Pro 5G. The specifics of the display and cameras match the other phone perfectly.  

What doesn't match up is the price. The full retail price of the T-Mobile REVVL 7 Pro 5G is $250, and it currently sells on Amazon for $169, $330 cheaper than the T1!

The sitting President is trying to hawk crappy cell phone serivce.  WOW, no wonder the G7 countries mocked him.

For a scam, this is a really stupid one.  Only an idiot would buy this, but that's exactly what Trump is banking on.

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/15/25

Of course, they were going to lie about the attendance at the Trump Birthday parade! 

The Administration said they were expecting 250,000 people, but it's clear they had nowhere near that many people attend the Trump birthday/Army Birthday parade in DC.  Some of the most sparse numbers are pegging the actual attendance at around 10,000.  Now I know sometimes the left gets ahead of themselves and will throw out an atrocious number to goad Trump, but from people who were there on the ground, the actual number of attendees seems to be from 10,000 to 50,000 (but the social media page who placed the attendance on the top of the range acknowledged they were probably giving a generous count).

Regardless, the Trump Administration sent White House spokesperson Steven Cheung out to insist the actual number in attendance was 250,000.  We all know they are making themselves look like idiots for the MAGA faithful who weren't there.  Good news for Steven is that it looks like he'll be the Easter Bunny next Easter at the official White House celebration.

One of the reasons the Administration is furiously trying to inflate the numbers is that on the same day of his big boy birthday parade, the people behind the #NoKings rallies nationwide made an estimate of 11 million people in attendance, protesting Trump. If that number holds up, then 3.5% of the entire population of the country of 330 million spent part of their Saturday protesting the disgrace in the White House.

Trump, clearly raging, made the announcement later on Sunday that he's specifically going to attack Democratic-leaning cities with his ICE Gestapo, a punishment for daring to not bow down to him. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/14/25

No post yesterday as most of us here in Minnesota were shocked by the terrorist attack which killed Democratic Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the shooting of MN Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette by an anti-abortion extremist, who had a plan to kill a lot of other people.

I'd interviewed Speaker Hortman at least 6 times over the years.  She was always a wonderful conversationalist and a political leader who was passionate about helping Minnesotans.  I remember when she became the leader of the Democrats in the House, and I felt she was a sensational pick.  She had a lot to do with that Minnesota Miracle year of 2023 being as good as it actually was.

I've interviewed Senator Hoffman three times, and remember a wonderful evening at a station event a few years back where I got to spend time with him, his wife, and their daughter, the same daughter Yvette threw herself on top of to prevent her from getting shot by a psychopath.  

I am not okay right now. I am so sad and angry. 

I did spend time at the #NoKings rally yesterday in Minnetonka, on the west side of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and being with so many positive people furious at where our country is headed, was a comfort.

The worst thing Trump did yesterday was clearly his attempt to usurp the birthday of the US Army AND Flag Day, and turn them into a big boy petty party for himself, and how horrible it ended up being.  Everything about it was SUPER cringe, from the lackluster crowds, to the lack of motivation from the troops, to the Administration daydreaming throughout the event, to a cake which (frankly) I could have made a better version of.

The US Army deserves better than what they got yesterday, mistreated and turned into a clown for a petulant child's birthday party. Watching Trump fidget through it must have been him realizing how outnumbered he is right now in this country.

As I predicted, the free red hat all the hired seat fillers had to wear was indeed a Trump hat, meaning that the entire point of this was not to honor the troops, but rather to honor the large orange blob.

Finally, yesterday, the Administration put out a tribute on Flag Day.  That's fine, but they, for some reason, put two small icons of the Russian flag on the image they sent out to celebrate OUR Flag Day! I would say it was an accident, but I'm pretty sure we all know it wasn't.

The Friday Link for 6/13/25

Hi all!

If you've followed the Link for a while, you know I LOVED when Bon Appétit had their super chef line up and were putting out must-see cooking videos that made everyone want to work in the test kitchen.  Unfortunately, there were a lot of problems behind the scenes, and most of the great personalities left the channel (although the great Chris Morocco still occasionally shows up). 

The hosts they have now are fine, and the food is still the star, but it was a must-watch for a few years.

Imagine my surprise when I found a new cooking channel on YouTube, Food52.  This is the video that popped up in my timeline, with Noah Tanen showing us how to make Utica Greens, which look really tasty! 

Okay, Food52, you have my attention.  I then went and scrolled through their videos and caught this delightful one with Tess Gigone, where she found an old school savory Jell-o recipe from long ago and gave it the old college try.

I liked this video too.  Tess is quirky, fun, and somewhat addictive (traits a few of the old BA chefs had).  The only suggestion I would make is to not be so over-the-top negative until you try it.  It's a fun video.  I give her a lot of credit for even trying to make this dish.

So lastly, I found this one video featuring Lydia Keating and what I am presuming is her husband (they never really ID him). I LOVE Mussels and this looks delicious.  The two have a fun back and forth, but two things.  I know you've got to pay the bills, but the ad placement in this video is a little heavy-handed.  Also, please do not call a recipe simple if the first thing you are doing is roasting beef bones to get the marrow out of them to make one ingredient of this dish.  Simple for me does not include an extensive (although maybe or maybe not too complicated) cooking time. 

Overall, I like it.  I will be making Food52 a regular watch. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/12/25

I would say the manhandling of Senator Alex Padilla by Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem's henchmen is an undeniable winner.

I say henchmen because you can clearly see that these men don't have an allegiance to the US government at all.  They are there to ONLY serve Kristi and Kristi alone. That's not their job!  These guys weren't Secret Service, they were henchmen.

So 'Cosplay' Kristi, who is always playing dress up, had one of her highly choreographed media showcases, where she had her prepared statements and was going to 'answer' prescreened questions which she had practiced, to address the military being dispatched to attack US Citizens on US soil in Los Angeles, turing the military into a police agency to arrest people Kristi doesn't like, something Krisit was found to have encouraged our drunk Defense Secretary to do more of. 

The California Senator showed up at the event, and even though he clearly identified himself and was a person the Secret Service should have known to be A SITTING US SENATOR, he was wrestled out of the press charade and handcuffed in the hallway.  

It was clear that when he started to ask a question that Kristi wasn't prepared for, that THEN they grabbed him and took him out of the room.  This stunning level of authoritarianism was done just to prevent our incompetent Homeland Security Secretary from having to answer a question in public that she was likely not going to have a ready answer for.  For the Administration, the fake façade of competency is the only thing that matters.

A Noem spokesperson insisted the SITTING US SENATOR was an attacker, lunging at Kristi, even though, ONCE AGAIN, the senator identified himself over and over again to the hired thug henchmen.

Ever since, Kristi has tried to portray herself as the poor innocent victim, portray Padilla as a raging out of out-of-control criminal, and portray her having a 15-minute meeting with the Senator after the incident, behind closed doors, away from media scrutiny as some sort of benevolent charitable act.

If I were the Democratic Party, I would have a Senator or Rep. at EVERY Noem press fiasco from here on out. 

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/11/25

Today is Trump's continued abuse of the military, either through making them do a job they're not supposed to do, turning them into a political prop, or trying to steal a day to honor for them to make it all about himself.

First, this message.  As a Veteran of the US Army, F- this guy!

Word has come out that morale among the troops deployed into LA is pretty low for multiple reasons.  As one soldier put it, "We're usually deployed to help a community, and the community comes out to show their gratitude.  This time, the community doesn't want us here, and they are not very welcoming." On top of that, the deployment of the troops happened so fast that no one at the Pentagon filed the necessary paperwork to get them paid, healthcare, and the benefits that active duty military are promised.  Considering the questionable legality of the deployment, those military employment basics might not be coming to these soldiers anytime soon.  And even after photos showed the less-than-ideal living conditions of these deployed troops, they still have yet to get adequate housing/facilities.

Trump doesn't have time to care about those troops.  He was off to Fort Bragg to do a political rally with the soldiers.  This indeed was a politcal rally because the Trump Administration screened the soldiers that were featured behind the draft dodging anti-Ameirca orange jackass. This whole rally was a "tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics" of the event. The soldiers behind Trump were picked because of their political leanings and physical fitness.  The language of "no fat soldiers" was used to cull the audience.  And female soldiers were not welcome.  Only a handful of the crowd behind Trump was female, BY DESIGN! Trump feels women can serve and die for this country, but he doesn't want you ruining his photo op.

Army officials vented their frustration about this dog and pony show, as politicizing the military, and the Army in particular, is something that leads to falling public opinion, and lower morale within the ranks.

This leads us to the petulant orange man child's birthday military parade, hardly disguised as a salute to the military.  On Saturday, we are going to have a military parade like a third-world dictatorship to make Trump feel like a big boy! One slight problem: they're apparently having difficulty finding enough people who actually want to attend the parade.  Someone has found a Craigslist ad for seat fillers for June 14th in DC.  Perspective hires are expected to wear Red, White, and Blue, and minorities are "encouraged" to apply, as the ad notes these minorities will be prominently featured in the broadcast (my guess is they'll save the ICE arrest for AFTER the parade). 

Parade watching hires will get a free fast food lunch and be paid $1000 in cryptocurrency (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!).  But it's one specific line that gives away Trump's real goal of making this salute to the military really about a swearing of allegiance to him and him alone.  Every hire will be provided a red hat to wear. My guess is that the hat will bear a Trump slogan, and the right-wing TV networks covering it will insist "the crowd all wore the hat independently in a sign of Trump's appeal.  Look, another minority!!!"

...It'd be a shame if a lot of people signed up for that work and wore anti-Trump or pro-Biden shirts under their Red, White, and Blue...

The Worst Thing Trump Did on 6/10/25

Sorry, I've been busy the last few days with graduation stuff.

The last few days could be a litany of things, with Trump's insanely over-the-top, military-heavy reaction to minor protesting in LA, a clear test run of his Administration's desire to deploy active duty military to mandate a 'Trump über alles' standard for all Americans, a clear frontrunner.  I've said for years that Trump is a deranged psychopath, so needy for praise and adulation that he will become a jilted ex if people don't love him.  "If you don't love me the way I want you to love me, I will FORCE you to love me."  Pure dictator 101.

Violent protesting is bad, but the VAST majority of the protesters are peaceful.  When the Right has to create AI-generated videos or show footage from video games or old news stories to make their claims of chaos seem based in reality, you know they have nothing.

I should mention that what LA is really showing us is the insanity of the idea of trying to have the military occupy the major US cities of this country.  They have 4000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines deployed to about a 20 square block radius in Los Angeles, at a cost of 134 million dollars, AND all those troops can do is protect Gestapo ICE agents and guard Federal Buildings.  To hold LA overall, you'd need at least 100,000 troops and well over a billion dollars. Add in New York, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver, San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Miami, and Phoenix, and you'd have to activate EVERY SINGLE MILITARY PERSON across the globe, including pulling every troop off of every foreign base, ordering every US ship back to the US coast, and activiating every National Guard and reservist in the country (calling up all the reservists and National Guard troops for a long deployment would also be a MASSIVE disruption in the economic chain!). The cost to occupy the major US cities of this country would probably be close to a trillion dollars, and I think that's GROSSLY undercounting the cost. 

Still, Trump is foolish enough to try it, so he's creating disasters to portray himself as the hero after he "solves" the problems he has created. 

We definitely could consider Brain Worm Magee's latest anti-vax insanity, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the committee that issues official government recommendations on immunizations.  Kennedy spewed his insane arguments to validate it, but all he did was take respected vaccine experts and remove them, planning on finding the biggest and dumbest anti-vax kooks he could to issue a ruling that validates his zealotry.

And that's what this is all about.  They know eventually, after millions of people start dying of preventable diseases, and the next Administration fires every one of these nutballs, he'll be on the outside again, so what he's doing is preparing to release a slew of unscientific, thrown together anti-vax stupidty as "offical governemnt reports" so that he and his dipsh!t brigade can point to those fraudulent reports and scream "SEEEEEEEE!  The Federal Government even made a report which proved I was right all along!"  They're doing so because they make money off of being anti-vax morons, and so this is them plowing the fields to make as much money for themselves, KILLING PEOPLE WITH THEIR ADVICE, long after they are out of office. 

And a reminder, pretty much all of them have a dark dirty secret they desperately want to keep away from their dumb ass followers:  Their families are all vaccinated.

Nope, for today we have to go with the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who yesterday released a bizarre video talking about the horrors of nuclear bombs. She talked about the devastation and death that a single bomb can produce.  Fine.  We kind of already knew that.

Here's where it gets crazy.  Her main point is to warn the US and all of its allies to not provoke Vladimir Putin and Russia in regards to their conflict with Ukraine. Seriously, this is Russian Propaganda, fed to OUR DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE to be distributed to the American people.

You can easily piece together to conversation Vlad must of had with Tulsi, telling her she neds to do more to push Russian interests. Tulsi, CLEARLY COMPROMISED, put forward this drivel. This would be like warning America to stay out of WWII, as Hitler will be really mean if we interfere.  Stuff like that did happen back before Pearl Harbor, and we now know that those people were agents of Nazi Germany pushing Adolph's agenda.  

I have zero doubt we'll eventually have the evidence proving the Hawaiian Traitor's compromised existence, but really, this plea to 'Be Nice To Vlad' goes a long way to proving she's rotten.