Feeling: Annoyed

I added a review for Ultima: Exodus.

• Trumpcare is going to be a complete disaster, Trump said he would cover everyone and not cut Medicaid, the Republican plan covers fewer people than Obamacare and makes massive cuts to Medicaid. No wonder police had to drag disabled protesters out of Mitch McConnell's office. As is common with Republicans, their proposed changes are going to hurt their voter base more than anyone else, but you can bet that they'll keep their votes.
• Trump want to replace wind power coal and mocks wind power in the state that gets more of its energy from wind than any other state.
• What, Sean Spicer is being replaced? But who will not answer questions?
• Trump's budget cuts, which take money away from innovation and helping the poor, and give tax breaks to the wealthy, are expected to devastate American innovation.
• Trump's approval ratings remain in the gutter.

Simone Giertz's hilarious pussy grabs back machine, and a personal rating of her inventions.

Christians again show their true colors by threatening to publicly murder someone for upholding the US Constitution.

Two women talk about leaving Islam.

California police shot to death a teenager and his dog because the music at his party was too loud.

Catholics in Montreal are finally doing something to address their child-raping priests. They're fingerprinting all clergy who will deal directly with children, and refusing to let priests be alone with children.

Tumblr used to be extremely vocal about the importance of net-neutrality, but, now that they're being bought by an anti-net-neutrality company, Verizon, they've become quite silent.

Feeling: Happy

I beat the game Her Story, which was very interesting, and added a review for ActRaiser.

• According to the Washington Post, Trump is under investigation by the Department of Justice because he fired FBI Director James Comey because Comey wouldn't stop investigating one of Trump's cronies for Russia collusion. Trump himself confirmed the investigation online, but Trump's lawyer is quick to point out that he's not under investigation, but he is, but he doesn't know.
• Having been to Georgia, I don't expect much. The people I talked to were racist homophobes who were too interested in NASCAR to care about civil rights, but then I went and got my hopes up thinking they would elect Jon Ossoff. But no, Georgians voted for bigot Republican Karen Handel, proving once again that they're a state who prefers a woman who openly hates the LGBT.
• Trump continues his nervous breakdown.
• Sorry minority graduates, it's called the "White" House for a reason.
• Trump is trying to eliminate all types of funding for programs that help the poor find homes, except for the type that he profits from.

The dashcam video of Officer Jeronimo Yanez murdering Philando Castile has been released. According to Yanez's statement, part of the reason he shot Castile seven times in front of his daughter is because he cared deeply for the safety of Castile's daughter. And, the people who should care about a man being guned down by police because he expressed his legal right to carry a firearm, the NRA, is completely silent.

Today is the summer solstice!

Famine isn't always because of a drought or plague, it's often because men want others to starve to death.

Game programming jumps and publishing in a year.

Why the ontological argument fails.

Feeling: Happy

Saw the twins on the ultrasound yesterday. They're both growing nicely at the same rate, and squirming around like sea monkeys in an aquarium!

I added a review for Super Mario Bros. 2 and the Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man.

• Trump is wasting time and money trying to bring back coal. The industry has been dying for decades now, and it's now so small, a single retailer like JC Penny employs more people.
• Everything that Trump promised about health care has been a lie, and every Republican involved is lying about it too. They're still trying to secretly push their bill, which appears to be even worse than the House bill in order to eliminate health care for millions so they can give tax cuts to the wealthy.
• The demographics show that intelligent people voted against Trump, that's not a big surprise. But it also shows that intelligent people tend to herd together, which is bad news for winning elections. I completely understand why intelligent people seek the company of other intelligent people, but until they make a concerted effort to help the undereducated areas of the country, they will continue to lose elections.
• How is the US able to bomb a whole bunch of countries without declaring war? Because of the Bush Administration. Obama tried to end it, but the Republicans in Congress refused.
• Obama ran one of the most open White House administrations in history. He constantly exposed himself to the scrutiny of the media to help eliminate corruption, and it worked. Trump, however, is extremely corrupt, and fears scrutiny, so he continues to block the media from the White House.
• Fox "News" adds a new segment called the "Fox News Specialists." I think it goes without saying that the hosts of the show are not specialist in anything. They're not journalists, they're not military strategists, they're not anthropologists, but that doesn't mean they're not convinced we should bomb North Korea.
• Asking Trump's racist Attorney General tough questions about his involvement with the Russian scandal doesn't make a woman hysterical.

Betsy DeVos has ruined Michigan's public school system, and now, without even a public vote, Michigan politicians are taking $34,500,000 from schools and parks to build another sports stadium, and federal judge, Mark Goldsmith, won't intervene. It's now up to The Detroit City Council to decide if they care more about the future of Detroit school children, or having an arena named after the worst pizza in the world, Little Caesars.

Another Christian cross on public land is coming down after city officials failed arguing that no reasonable person would view it as a religious symbol.

Who would win in a staring contest, a hardened prison thug, or a kitten?

How to setup a camera rig to see the invisible.

Why too much salt is bad for your body.

Alex Dainis is awesome.

Feeling: Happy

I added a review for SimCity 2000 and the SNES.

• President Trump admits he's being investigated for obstruction of justice, but his staff are quick to point out that he's not being investigated for obstruction of justice, but he's also not lying or misinformed when he claims that he's being investigated for obstruction of justice.
• Republicans continue to keep their health care bill a secret from journalists, Democrats, and even other Republicans.
• Mike Pence was sending and receiving government emails from a private email account, but... but, her emails!
• Trump appoints racist judges that will continue to mistreat against minorities long after he's gone.
• The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS just lost six members. They all resigned explaining that Trump does not care about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
• This is why we can't have honorable politicians.
• After Republican Steve Scalise was shot by a white terrorist, Republicans blamed Democrats and their violent rhetoric (though, I don't recall hearing any actual examples), and demanded that we tone down the discourse. Well, except Republican Joe Walsh who says we're at war and we should choose side and grab our guns.
• Some solemn moments in the hallowed halls of Congress.

Trump's Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, may have to recuse himself from the Russia probe. Trump renews trademarks in the country he certainly has nothing to do with.

• By forcing the Secret Service to rent our rooms at a premium in his own resorts, Trump is making big bucks off the US taxpayer.
• Like everything Trump does, his infrastructure plan is a scam.

The EU is considering making end-to-end encryption mandatory and banning encryption back-doors for law enforcement. Meanwhile, the USA continues to spy on your most intimate private moments.

Philando Castile was murdered by officer Jeronimo Yanez for owning a gun while being black.

PZ Myers went to the Ark Encounter and discovered it was just a bunch of wooden boxes, posters, and recordings of animal sounds.

If you're safely able to do so, it's important to out your different sexuality, gender, or beliefs, because the more people who know they are friends with someone who is different, the less likely they are to be hateful to different people and we don't get people like Republican Karen Handel.

Part of why there is such an uproar over transgender people using public bathrooms comes from years of being a punchline. And it doesn't help that the Trump Administration is pure evil.

Feeling: Happy

I finished reading The Color of Magic and wrote a review for Spirited Away.

• It took the largest protests in the history of our nation, and a disapproval rating of 60% in record time, but Trump finally decided to lighten up on his racist immigration policy. But, don't kid yourself, we're still a long way away from an even decent policy, but it's progress. As expected, the racists who love Trump are pissed off.
• Until we get rid of Republicans who ask about a potential criminal's taste spy movies, Jeff Sessions will never be dealt with justly.
• I don't trust the government much to begin with, but as long as Trump is president, you can't trust it at all.
• Remember in 2008, when the US economy crashed because banks were recklessly engaging in high-risk lending? Well, the banks were bailed out at the expense of the US tax payer under a strict set of terms, namely the Dodd-Frank Act. This is a set of laws that regulate banks and prevent them from engaging in the same risky ventures that crashed the economy. Republicans voted to eliminate all of the important aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act and let banks go back to the same risky behavior that crashed the economy.

Republican Greg Abbott is proud to sign a law which gives tax payer money to organizations who discriminate against the LBGT, and Republican Matt Bevin is proud to sign a law allowing Christian students to bully LGBT students.

When a Muslim makes a Internet post about disagreeing with the government, he's a radicalized Islamic terrorist. When a white person opens fire on a bunch of congressmen, it's the liberal media's fault. Ironically, the hearing on gun control has been canceled because of the terrorist shooting, but you can bet the Republicans will continue to fight to let mentally ill people get guns.

Can we PLEASE follow Canada's rule requiring cellphones to be unlocked?

NBC, you need to fire Megyn Kelly. Yes, I understand that she draws ratings, but do you want to be "Fox" News, or actual news? Kelly is not a journalist, she is a feeder of trolls. You're embarrassing yourselves.

A courageous 12-year-old Mormon girl named Savannah tried explaining to her church that their god didn't mess up when he made her gay. They responded by turning off the microphone and telling her to sit down.

Many states still have laws that allow children to get married, a practice that attracts a lot of sexual predators. Why haven't these laws been abolished? Because Republicans.

The Cosmic Skeptic has a chat with Lawrence Krauss.

Incarcerated people need reform, and it's nice to see it in action.

Feeling: Sad

I woke up this morning from a wonderful dream where Jeff Sessions had been arrested for obstruction of justice, and the Trump empire was collapsing.

I added a review of Rad Racer and Tetris Attack.

• When Republicans can't get their way, they do everything in their power to shut down the government for everyone. This is nothing new, and, sadly, it's working. During the last couple years of the Obama Administration, Republicans blocked every single nomination Obama submitted for a judges from smaller federal courts, all the way up to the US Supreme Court. Now, the judicial branch of our government is having a difficult time getting anything done because there are a staggering 130 vacancies! Well, Trump was too busy playing golf to appoint judges for anyone of those positions, in his first several -month- of office, so they continued to remain vacant, despite his crying that judges weren't ruling in his favor. Now, sadly, Trump has decided to do, at least a portion, of his job, and appoint some new judges. Among them is John Bush and Damien Schiff, two men who, using pseudonyms, posted racist conspiracy theories on political blogs. During their testimony, it was brought up that they said abortion is as bad as slavery, Obama is from Kenya, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is a "judicial prostitute," gay rights should be eliminated, and used such credible sources a white-nationalist web sites. Despite their bigotry, Republicans are expected to make Bush and Schiff judges. Republicans are either spineless sycophants who would rather have bigots for judges than disagree with Trump, or, more likely, they actually want bigots for judges.
• Racist Jeff Sessions is knowingly obstructing justice. He says he doesn't have to answer questions under oath because of reasons, but he's not sure if the reasons actually exist.
• Republicans continue to work on Trumpcare in secret refusing to share it even with the people who will have to vote on it. By blocking news agencies from reporting on it, they won't have to deal with additional town hall disasters until after they pass it.
• Christian pastor John Hagee wants to deport all atheists, thinks reading Harry Potter will turn you into a Satanist, doesn't think gay people can be Christians, and believes his god gave us Hitler to cause the Jews to return to Israel. He is also, apparently, a good friend of Vice President Mike Pence.
• The same reporters who smiled as Donald Trump told his supporters to kick the shit out of protesters and asked gun nuts to "stop" Hillary Clinton, are now telling Liberals their words are too violent.

Even women of power are still being interrupted by men, all the friggin time. If you care about equality, make a conscious effort to let women talk.

I think the headline says it all, Arctic Climate Change Study Canceled Due to Climate Change.

Tim Farron was the leader of the UK's Liberal Democrat Party, and also an Evangelical Christian, who had a very hard time answering a simple question, "Is homosexual sex is a sin?", After a lot of waffling, Farron eventually said that it's not a sin, but then decided to resign because he felt like his personal beliefs weren't in harmony with his political party. That's the sort of thing I would never expect to see from an American politician!

Alabama police continue to use their authority and tax payer dollars to promote Christianity.

If someone wanted me to play soccer wearing a Confederate flag on my jersey, I wouldn't do it, which is why I can understand why Jaelene Hinkle refused to play soccer when her jersey would have a gay pride rainbow on it. Hinkle, being a Christian, doesn't support gay people. She then went on to explain how she believes her god created the rainbow as a sign that he was done murdering everyone on earth, and the reason she refuses to respect the rights of homosexuals because she loves them.

Feeling: Sunburned

I added a review of Age of Empires and DuckTales.

• Trump doesn't know what he's doing. Last month, Trump called the Republican repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act a "very, very incredibly well-crafted" plan. Now, even though the plan hasn't changed, but Republican voters continue publicly hating it, he's says the plan is "mean." This is what happens when you elect an ignoramus.
• Noted racist, Jeff Sessions, continues to claim that the White House's Russian collusion is a lie, but then refuses to answer the questions for the investigation committee to back up his lie, because, as a judge, he's all about obstructing justice.
• Are Republicans really such sycophants, or did Trump demand they kiss his ass on camera? Because, damn!
• Spineless Republicans continue to claim that Trump is far too stupid and incompetent to obstruct justice.
• Donald Trump is the kind of man who can accomplish nothing and be very pleased with the nothing he's accomplished.
• Missouri Republicans created a new voter id law just before several important elections and tried to keep it a secret from voters.
• Here is how a state where the majority of its citizens vote for Democrats can still have a Republican super majority.

A gunman opened fire on Republican members of congress while they played baseball. Five people were shot, nobody was killed. I'm going to predict that the gunman is white, because they're using the term "gunman" instead of "terrorist," (yup). I'm also going to predict that these Republicans will continue to vote against any bills that try to take guns away from the mentally insane (we'll have to wait on this one).

A quick recap of how humans got to the point we are today.

Most Canadians now believe that religion does more harm than good.

Simple science about why carbon dioxide amplifies the greenhouse effect.

Some interesting tools for game programmers.

US health care and the case of the $629 band-aid.

Feeling: Sunburned

I added a review of Bionic Commando: Elite Forces and Little Inferno.

• Every time I hear someone talk about America's "Judeo-Christian Heritage" I remind them about how the US turned away thousands of Jewish refugees back to Europe for fear of criminals among them, and many were captured and tortured to death by the Nazis. Having learned nothing, we're now turning away Muslim refugees, but Republicans claim that all Christians are welcome. Except, Trump's orders are now deporting Christians as well. During the Gulf War, many Christians living in the Middle East came to America seeking refuge, and things have only gotten worse in their home countries now that the region has become even more Muslim-controlled. However, the USA is rounding up many Middle Eastern Christians who have been living in the USA for decades now, to be deported back to a country where they will likely be executed. ICE is claiming that they're only arresting refugees who have committed a crime in the past, which means they've already served their time, but they're being punished again. Sadly, many of these people being deported, as Christians, voted for Trump.
• Even with full control of the government, it took Trump a grueling five months to put together his White House cabinet. Now that the gang of racists, bigots, and old rich white men have assembled, what do they do? They praise their fearless leader. Seriously, Trump droned on about his record-breaking accomplishments (even though most of them have failed), and then each old white man in turned said what an honor it was to lick Trump's ass.
• According to Trump, there is no need whatsoever for a Russian investigation, but according to Bloomberg, Russia cyber-attacked most of states in the Union specifically targeting computers related to the election. According to the NSA documents leaked by Reality Winner, a total of 122 government computers were hit specifically by Russian military intelligence.
• Trump just can't resist calling his Muslim ban a "ban," which has led to yet another court saying it's illegal. It stupid remarks like this that make it so hard for Trump to find a lawyer.
• Jeff Sessions continues his war on marijuana, now he wants to prosecute providers of medical marijuana.

Biblical historian Bart Ehrman talks about the fraudulent books in the New Testament.

Back in 1975, before Republicans took over Christianity, even a bible publisher could publish a book which said abortion was in line with Christian ethics.

Conservatives in the UK have lost big!

The Vatican's official position on homosexuality is that it's evil, homosexuals should not have sex, and they cannot become priests. However, there is a small, but growing number of Catholics who have decided to stop being part of the problem and embrace their gay followers.

Staring a fire with a sandwich bag full of water.

Pakistan still executes people for insulting Islam. And Imams living in America are still telling Muslims to have their daughter's genitals cut off so to prevent them from enjoying sex.

A Facebook page called "Warriors for Christ" had to censor their own page to stop people from spamming them with rainbow images after they said they would ban anyone using them.

Feeling: Sunburned

Got a crazy sunburn from spending too much time at the beach with not enough sunscreen, but it was a blast!

I added a review of Super Mario Land and Pitfall!.

• The James Comey's testimony was pretty accurate to his memos. Comey explained that he took so many notes because he accurately predicted Trump would lie about their encounters, and straight up called Trump a liar. He also pointed to how unusual it was for a president to request so many solo meetings with the Director of the FBI, and how blatantly corrupt it is for a president to request the ending of embarrassing investigations. Unfortunately, the most important bits were left unsaid to the public. It's all become rather homo-erotic.
• Trump wants to ban Muslims from entering the country because he believes many of them are dangerous terrorists. Sadly, he is correct, many Muslims have committed horribly violent acts of terrorism from the recent London attacks, to the awful September 11th attacks, and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight any time soon. But, you have to wonder which he cares about more, protecting the US from terrorists, or making money. Why is he selling $350,000,000,000 worth of weapons to Saudi Arabian Muslims, when most of the hijackers in the 9/11 terrorist attack were Saudi Arabian Muslims? They couldn't even be bothered to show respect for the terrorist victims in London during a moment of silence.
• Republicans are drifting away from Christian values and landing on Randian values.
• More details about how Eric Trump's children's charity was scammed by his own father.
• Republican Jason Rapert believes that Islam, "is a cult of death and violence against all non-Muslims." And he called for all Muslim "extremists" and everyone who sympathizes with them to be deported. When his opinion was highlighted by a reporter, Rapert called the reporter a terrorist and said that he holds the reporter personally responsible for any threats made against him.
• Republicans in Texas have passed a law forcing women who have abortions to hold funerals or cremations for their aborted fetuses.

A postmortem of Civilization.

The US continues to become more and more secular. In the 1950s, 82% of Americans believed that religion can answer all of their problems, while only 7% thought it was old-fashioned and out of date. Today, after decades of steady change, only 55% believe religion has all the answers while 34% believe it's out of date.

A brief history of Western philosophy.

Brand Russell is a member of a neo-Nazi group, claims he knows how to make bombs, and police found explosive material in his house along with guns, white-supremacist literature, and a framed picture of Timothy McVeigh, the terrorist who blew up the Oklahoma City Federal building. Police also believe that Russell made posts online about threating to blow people up. However, Judge Thomas McCoun III ruled that there just isn't enough evidence to consider him a danger to society and keep him in jail until his trial. Now, imagine a Muslim who declared himself a member of ISIS, was found with bomb-making material in his house and a framed picture of Osama Bin Laden. Do you think the judge would let him out on bond?

Some tough advice for dealing with the real world.

Feeling: Okay

I added a review of Super Metroid and the Game Genie.

• James Comey already made his testimony, but I'm a bit behind, so here are some pre-testimony videos.
• Donald Trump and his son Eric, stole millions from a children's cancer charity event.
• When the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred, the UK mourned with the USA. When London was hit by terrorist attacks, Trump mocked them.
• Racist Jeff Session's war on drugs is stupid and misguided, and will disproportionately hurt the poor.
• Remember when Trump claimed he saved over a thousand jobs at Carrier? But then we found out it came at the cost of millions in lost taxes, so it wasn't exactly a win? And then we learned that Trump greatly exaggerated the number of job he "saved?" Well, now we're learning that Carrier is laying off their employees despite the huge tax break and Trump got played.
• Because of Trump, the USA is effectively the only nation that isn't taking part in the Paris Climate Agreement. Meanwhile, the UK is generating over half of its energy in renewables.
• To Trump, and even American film-makers, Middle Eastern people are villain templates.
• A quick recap of just how awful Trump has been lately.
• Aron Ra talks about American politics in Helsinki, Sweden.

Republican Jesse Kremer is trying to pass a law to prevent public schools from teaching anything controversial (he means anything that conflicts with his religious beliefs). To explain how stupid this is, a Democrat asked him, if a student in a geology class argued that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, shouldn't the geology teacher teach them why they're wrong? Republican Kremer responded, "The Earth is 6,000 years old, that's a fact."

How to tell the difference between a bee, wasp, hornet, and striped fly.

Spotting fakery in the tape measure tricks video.

Feeling: Cheery

I added a review of Yars' Revenge and Duck Hunt.

• Trump is so proud of the things he hasn't done.
• The nation is currently speeding toward the brick wall that is Trumpcare, but most mainstream news outlets are only interested in the drama.
• What is expected from James Comey's upcoming Senate hearing.
• In addition to severely cutting the food stamps program, Trump wants to charge a fee to every store that accepts them.
• Hopefully, the sacrifice made by Reality Winner will not have been made in vain.
• William Boucher of Chicago is your typical Trump supporter.

Unfortunately, consuming the blood of children will not make you immortal.

If atheists used the same arguments as Christians.

The Vatican has been protecting child-rapists for at least 60 years, so when a Catholic priest complains that another religion's public monument will attract pedophiles, I'm not very impressed.

The number of people burdened by war continues to decrease.

Explaining CRISPR in increasingly complicated levels.

Feeling: Annoyed

I added a review of Dragon Warrior.

• Before Trump tried to convince the James Comey at the FBI to stop investigating his ties to Russia, he asked Mike Pompeo of the CIA and Daniel Coats of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, not just to lie that there wasn't any evidence, but to actively undermine the FBI. And who did Trump pick to replace Comey as the Director of the FBI? A lawyer.
• The same racket the Trumps use to skim money from children's cancer research is being used to skim from the American tax payer.
• Trump is pulling the USA out of the Paris Climate Agreement, making it the only non-war torn nation in the world to do so, but 246 mayors across the country have confirmed that their cities will meet the Agreement despite Trump's incompetence. Meanwhile, Trump's own Defense Secretary tries to explain to him that climate change is a threat to national security.
• Depending on how much money you make, you can afford better health care, which isn't surprising. In countries like Japan and Switzerland, the wealthy can afford coverage that is around 3-6% better then the poor. In less noted countries like Slovenia, the difference grows to 19%. But near the bottom of the barrel is the USA with a massive 26% difference. Only two developed nations are worse than us.
• The White House keeps saying that, in order to pass their Muslim ban, all they have to do is stop calling it a ban, but Trump keeps undermining his own cabinet every chance he gets!
• Republican Clay Higgins personifies the typical Trump voter by calling for the extermination of an entire group of people.
• The White House lied about creating jobs by trying to resurrect the coal industry. Truth is, coal just isn't a big market in the US anymore, and never will be.
• Trump's kids are just as corrupt and dishonest as their father.
• New Zealanders tell Republican Rex Tillerson to fuck off home.
• Megyn Kelly spent years on Fox "News" being a highly-paid buffoon, but after leaving because she was being sexually harassed by her boss, Roger Ails, she now acts like she's far too professional of a journalist to watch the hacks at Fox News.

Christian televangelist Paul Crouch raped his 13-year-old granddaughter, Carra Crouch. When Carra told Paul's wife, her grandmother, Jan Crouch, Jan refused to bring her husband to justice and blamed Carra. Now that both Paul and Jan are dead, Carra finally went public about her rape, and sued Paul and Jan's television empire, the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Thankfully, Carra won her case, and will be awarded $2,000,000 in damages.

The rarest element of them all, astatine.

Josh Duggar sexually molested several children, and like many Christian before him, he's confident that Jesus has forgiven him and is ready to move on (whether the girls he molested can move on is their own problem). To help get his life back on track, he needs money, and to get that, he's joining the lawsuit of the sisters he sexually molested to sue the city for making public his interview about sexually molesting several girls.

How a stack works in a computer, especially on the SNES.

How zoology disproves the Noah's Ark myth.

Feeling: Annoyed

I added a review of The Goonies II.

• Just to show how pathetic Trump is, several world leaders are committing to going beyond the stipulations of the Paris Climate Agreement toward a greener future. With his withdrawal, Trump is killing American jobs. Scientists may not be the best at conveying just how severe of a problem climate change is, but that means it's up to us!
• This mash-up of Donald Trump quotes and The Handmaid's Tale is terrifying.
• Despite US intelligence actively investigating Russians hijacking our democratic process, and Trump's original campaign manager now falling under criminal investigation, Trump is still bending over backwards for Russia.
• Many people watch in horror as a doctor was attacked by airport security because United Airlines wanted to kick him off their flight because of their own incompetence, demonstrating once again just how awful airline companies are. Trump's response is to make airlines even worse!
• As a Christian who thinks the free world is called "Christendom," Republican Congressman Clay Higgins wants America to hunt down and execute every single person on Earth who is suspected of being a radical Muslim because it's the right thing to do.
• Some of the best covfefe posts.

The US government has convinced various printer manufacturers to include watermarks in the documents we print so they can track when and where a document was printed. They claim it's to identify counterfeiters, but they used the same technology to arrest an NSA whistle blower.

Why are women being blamed for shark attacks?

Churches don't think they should have to pay for the fire department. Their belief is, that by being a church, they provide a service to the community greater than anything you can buy with tax dollars. Of course, churches don't have to provide any evidence that they "help" the community, and they don't have to remind you that the "help" they provide comes with its own price, your very soul!

Some Did You Know Gaming on Wolfenstein 3D.

Walgreens still allows its employees to deny you medicine they believe their god doesn't want you to have.

Simone Giertz's portable mattress.

The rate of cervical cancer is half of what it was 10 years ago, and that's mostly due to the HPV vaccination.

Feeling: Happy

Won 176th game, Puss N Boots: Pero's Great Adventure and added a review of King's Quest.

• There are only three countries not part of the Paris Climate Agreement: war-torn Syria, Nicaragua who going even greener, and the USA, which, thanks to Trump, has become the laughing stock of the rest of the world. Thankfully, many Americans are still working to meet the Paris Climate Agreement despite Trump selling out to oil companies.
• Donald Trump's biggest enemy is his own stupidity.
• White racists in Europe have raised over £56,000 ($72,000) to buy boats to interfere with foreign aide vessels in the hopes of murdering Africans trying to cross the Mediterranean to immigrate into Europe. And white racist Trump supporters in America are swarming on Portland, Oregon to defend Jeremy Christian, the man who murdered two Muslims.
• Ben Carson doubles-down, if you're poor, it's your own damn fault!
• Trump uses the London terrorist attack as a political opportunity to make the USA even more bigoted than it already is.
• Samantha Bee and Al Franken compare notes on Ted Cruz.
• The legend of Covfefe and the reality.

Flint, Michigan still has poisoned water, but the problem isn't that Republican Rick Snyder's unelected emergency manager switched the city's water supply to the Flint River causing lead to leach from the pipes, the problem according to Flint's Land Bank Sales Manager Phil Stair, is, "fucking n*ggers don't pay their bills."

In 2006, 13-year-old Carra Crouch claimed she was raped by her grandfather, Christian televangelist, Paul Crouch. She told her grandmother, Christian televangelist, Jan Crouch, and all Jan did was yell at the girl. Now that both Paul and Jan are dead, Carra has decided to sue their televangelist company, the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The lawyer for the network has argued that if Carra had come to her grandmother Jan in a formal ministry setting, Jan would have been legally obligated, as an employee of Trinity Broadcasting Network, to report her granddaughter's rape, but sine Carra confided in her grandmother outside of the TBN, Jan was acting as a family member, and not an employee of TBN, therefore the televangelist company should not be held accountable. Once again, Christians are acting like a lite version of fundamental Islam.

Walmart often gets a big discount when it builds a new store claiming that it will create tons of jobs for the area. In reality, Walmart pays its employees so little they need government assistance, which costs US taxpayers $6,200,000,000 every year!

Apple's crappy gaming console that could have been good.

Denmark has officially scrapped its 334-year-old blasphemy law.

Alex Dainis is awesome.

Feeling: Happy

I've beaten my 175th game, Golden Axe on the Genesis.

• Trump officially announced that the USA will no longer adhere to the Paris Climate Agreement, either because Republicans don't understand evidence, or because they got a lot of money from oil companies. Meanwhile, India is going green.
• According to a memo written by James Comey, Trump asked him to stop investigating Mike Flynn's Russian corruption, but according to a deposition by Comey, nobody asked him to stop halt an FBI investigation. There's wiggle room for lies of omission, but either way, Comey doesn't look very honest.
• Republican Rick Santorum says we can't convert to solar energy because it's not reliable or consistent. You know, for all those days when the sun doesn't rise.
• Still hoping for someone at the White House to find their back bone and take down Trump like they took down Nixon.
• Trump is still trying to ban all Muslims.
• We get it, it was a typo, but seriously, this is the President. Couldn't you find someone to actually proofread his incoherent, often racist, tweets? And really Spicer, you're going to say people knew what he meant?
• Another Republican nonpology.

In case you needed another reason to stop shopping at Wal-Mart.

When Christian health care providers refuse to pay for your children's medical needs, Medicaid will. Well, for awhile anyway, Trumpcare will cut Medicaid and give the money to the private insurers who won't cover your needs.

God wanted Elizabeth Wettlaufer to kill eight people.

Why the argument from wind or love doesn't prove a god.

What is Wanna Cry, how it was stopped, and how to deal with future crypto-viruses.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Trumpcare is a dumpster fire, and a leaked draft shows that it is going to eliminate the birth control mandate, so all employers will be able to refuse birth control coverage.
• Trumps has taken a new approach to his Russian corruption scandal, simply refuse to talk about it at all.
• Trump was a laughing stock during his time abroad, and thanks to him pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, we're now living in a world where China has a stronger commitment to clean energy than the USA. We really are the worst ancestors ever, and now the worst polluter ever!
• What's the point of ethics if everyone on Trump's staff gets a waiver?
• James Comey keeps going from evil to good and back to evil.

The Guttmacher Institute released their polling data of US women who have had abortions, and, not surprisingly, the people who are most likely to get abortions are white Christians.

Yes, sometimes criminals are going to go unpunished, but that's better than forcing everyone to surrender their passwords to law enforcement.

The movie featuring a single white teacher fixing all the problems of an entire classroom full of minority students is not just a myth, it's a myth almost always created by a white writer with no experience in teaching, and no understanding of how much harm is caused by perpetuating this myth. The best way to help troubled youths through school is through a comprehensive increase in quality of schools and their home life.

Wondering what it would be like if the Earth had a Saturn-like ring?

Feeling: Annoyed

• After Trump embarrassed the US at NATO, the de facto head of the EU, Angela Merkel, explained that Europe can no longer trust the USA to do what's right, and that Europe should start taking world matters into their own hands. Every day that Trump is in charge, the country grows weaker.
• More details are coming out about Jared Kushner's Russian ties and why we're just now learning about them. And, it's not a good sign when the attorney you hired to cover up your Russian corruption is also being investigated for Russian corruption. Also, another one of the rats on Trump's sinking ship is hoping to sell out the lot in the hopes of avoiding prison, but no one's buying.
• Undocumented immigrants tend to be more lawful because they have a lot more to lose from being arrested. But facts don't fit the Trump administration's narrative, so they're trying to make immigrants look like evil hellspawn by creating a database of their misdeeds called the "Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement," where they list crimes committed by immigrants, including the personal information of their victims!
• When you have an immoral billionaire who made their fortune cheating the ill-informed out of their money, it only makes sense that they will want to destroy the education systems that actually work.
• The media's obsession with weapons is only making the US a more violent nation.
• Trump's artificial heraldry was stolen from Joseph Edward Davies' crest with the word "integrity," replaced by "Trump." Kind of sum's up the entire existence of Trump.

Muslim men are still murdering their sisters because they refuse to take part in arranged child marriages, and American men are still killing Muslims for being Muslims.

One of the most expensive substances in the consumer world is printer toner. Ounce for ounce, it costs more than gasoline, more than Chanel No. 5 perfume, even more than Dom Perignon champaign, and printer manufacturers try very hard to keep it that way. Lexmark appealed a lawsuit all the way to the US Supreme to prevent companies from reselling toner cartridges, but they finally lost.

The conspiracy cranks who believe that 9-11 was an inside job and that Sandy Hook never happened, aren't just hurting their own reputation, they're also hurting the families of everyone involved.

That's a seriously heavy weight!

Feeling: Content

Had a nice productive weekend. Mowed the lawn, laid out new mulch, went to the beach (no swimming), and finished re-reading Dune.

• Trump's trip abroad was a complete failure. He became fast friends with Muslims, insulted our allies, was schooled by the Pope, and generally lied his head off. But according to Fox "News," the trip was the best in history.
• Republican Peter Palumbo, famous for calling a teenage girl an "evil little thing" because she made sure her school upheld the US Constitution, was arrested for embezzlement, and has now been indicted by a grand jury!
• It's a shame that we have to encrypt the entire Internet in order to deal with oppressive government, but welcome to the world we live in.
• Some more details about Republican Greg Gianforte who body-slammed a reporter, but won his election anyway!

Jupiter's south pole is home to beautiful 600-mile wide cyclones.

Want super powers? Get a genetic mutation.

Alex Dainis is just plain awesome.

Lawrence Krauss' Darwin Day lecture.

Feeling: Frustrated

• After Russian hackers stole personal information from the DNC computers, they shared it with Republicans. At least one of them said he adjusted how he ran his campaign in light of the stolen information.
• Almost as if he's a man-child, Trump pushed Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic of Montenegro out of the way so he can be at the front of the group photo.
• Trump's slumlord son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is now under investigation for Russian ties. Wilbur Ross, a billionaire CEO Trump appointed to Commerce Secretary, also has ties to Russia he refuses to talk about. One of Trump's election campaign workers, Carter Page, was being investigated by the FBI as a possible Kremlin agent.
• In the past, several states have tried making drug screening mandatory for welfare recipients to weed out drug users because it's common thinking among Republicans that people are poor because they are drug addicts. In most cases, what they found was that so few of their welfare recipients were on drugs that the states wasted more money testing everyone than they saved from the few who were kicked out of the program. It turns out that the number of drug users of welfare is actually -lower- than the national average. Well, just because it failed every time before doesn't mean a thing to Republican Scott Walker who intends to force everyone on state health insurance to go through drug screening.
• More on the Trump administration's $2,000,000,000,000 math error and how the people it will hurt the worst are the people who voted for Trump.
• Budget Director Mick Mulvaney explained that we have to take money away from food stamps because he doesn't want his unborn grandchildren to have to pay for the food of children starving today. Even though his wording is rather stupid, I get his point. We shouldn't be spending money we don't have. But it's hard to take him seriously when he's suggesting a budget where the richest people will pay less in taxes than the poorest.
• Trump's visit with the Pope was uncomfortable for everyone involved.
• Trump's congratulatory phone call to an admitted murderer.
• Republican Greg Gianforte, who attacked a reporter for asking him questions about Trumpcare, still won his election!
• The state of Minnesota is having a problem with companies dumping money out of the country in order to avoid paying taxes. If the government can't close the tax law loophole, they will either have to cut spending or raises taxes to citizens. State Democrats introduced a bill to close the loophole, but when Republican Abigail Whelan was asked her position on this, but rather than answer the question, she talked about the importance of Jesus. Later, she voted with her fellow Republicans to keep the tax loopholes in place. Whelan, like all good Christians, also thinks gay people are evil.

Antivaxers spread lies about vaccines, nothing new there. Unfortunately, a lot of people are stupid tend to believe celebrities over doctors and scientists. This has led to a resurgence of deadly diseases, and a lot of dead children. The best way to fight such ignorance long-term is to educate people on how their immune system works, how vaccines work, and how medical safety testing works. In the meantime though, children are dying and something needs to be done to save them. Germany, which is in the middle of an measles epidemic which could have been easily eliminated with vaccines, is planning to institute drastic measures, fining parents €2,500 for being too ignorant to vaccinate their children.

Why do your fingers get pruned when you're wet? It's not because of osmosis, the real answer is much more interesting.

When someone with no science background sues the Grand Canyon National Park because they won't let him chop away at the bedrock in that hopes it will prove the bible is literal.

Florida's law to prevent felons from being allowed to vote was originally created by white politicians to prevent black people from voting, but now that white people commit most of the felonies in the state, it now hurts white voters more!

Feeling: Frustrated

• The Trump administration explains that complying with the US Constitution, just "isn't practical." Yes, the law is so damned inconvenient when you're massively corrupt.
• Ben Carson once again reveals how utterly clueless he is. He believes that poverty is "a state of mind," and that, "You take somebody that has the right mind-set, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there." So, if you're poor, it's entirely your fault, and if you're rich, it's not because your daddy gave you millions, it's because you're a winner!
• Betsy DeVos goes full-racist after being asked if she would give US taxpayer money to a school that refuses to allow students to attend based on their race, she answers by saying if the parents don't like it, they can go to another school. Her bigotry has caused at least one top official at the Department of Education to resign.
• In his call to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, Trump congratulated him on how well he handled his country's drug problem, which tells you how Trump thinks, because Duterte "handled" his country's drug problem by executing people accused of selling, buying, or even using drugs. Trump also gave away the location of two US nuclear submarines near North Korea. With Trump unable to keep state secrets, Israel decided to change its policy on how it will share classified information with the US, weakening our nation by leaving us more susceptible to terrorist attacks.
• Trumpcare is expected to raise the premiums for the elderly and poor as much as 850%.
• Why did Attorney General Jeff Sessions lie under oath about his contact with Russia? Now he's claiming that the FBI told him to!
• With Republicans, it's an unpopular opinion to believe children should have access to food and medicine because Trump is rewarding the poor people who voted for him by cutting their food stamps.
• How Fox "News" lies to help cover up Trump's corruption.
• As law enforcement predicted, Trump's short-sighted view on immigration has led to many crimes going unsolved because witnesses are afraid to talk to the police.
• Trump claimed he would drain the swamp, meaning he would get rid of special interest groups in the White House, but almost every one of his appointees are corporate lobbyists.
• Why is it important to stop the Republican push to end Net Neutrality? Because we don't want to be like Russia, China, or Egypt where the state controls which news organizations you have access to. Right now you even have to worry about Comcast suing you for revealing their dishonesty.
• Remember the old land lines where everyone's phone number was publicly listed which meant you'd get telemarketer calls several times a day? Things changed with cell phones thanks to a law that required the written consent of the phone owner to legally call them for marketing purposes. There are still some shady companies that make an effort, but they're fighting a losing battle with the courts. Enter the Republicans, who are trying to make it legal for telemarketers to leave you voicemail commercials.
• More people across the globe than ever before are concerned about climate change, and ready to help by making changes in their lives, meanwhile, the USA has Trump.
• Republican Greg Gianforte was getting tired of a reporter asking him direct questions about his opinion of Trumpcare, so Gianforte went crazy and attacked the reporter!

More Christians lying for their religion.

The people of Williamstown, Kentucky voted to give away millions to a young-earth creationism theme park, but the park is struggling. They even tried selling liquor licenses in hopes that it would boost restaurant growth (because Christianity and alcohol are such a great match), but even that didn't work! The park continues to take out more loans for larger exhibits, but attendance continues to drop, and the city has given up hope of profiting, now they're just hoping they can break even before the park closes, but even that's unlikely. If only they could be like a real theme park.

Simple ways to know the Earth isn't flat.

David Gallacher will spend the next three years in jail after he attacked a pregnant Muslim woman causing her to miscarry.

Since coal and gas are killing us and the planet, we would be wise to switch to the latest nuclear power plants.

Feeling: Annoyed

• More news of Trump's corruption. When Trump was unable to convince James Comey to end the FBI's Russian investigations, Trump asked people at the Department of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency to publicly deny any evidence of corruption in order to discredit the FBI!
• Jared Kushner, the guy in charge of pretty much the entire US government right now, because of Trump's nepotism, is a slum lord.
• Trump had a crazy time in Saudi Arabia, as he tries to promote world peach. Meanwhile, his domestice properties sink into the abyss.
• Why is it important to fight the Republican attack on Net Neutrality? Because without it, companies like Comcast wouldn't have as much trouble shutting down web sites that are critical of the company.
• Republican Mark Walker really hates ducklings.
• Not like it's a shock, but Trump's budget proposal breaks seven of his campaign promises.

How to convince people of contrary beliefs using street epistemology.

The Great Barrier Reef is dying, and may not recover.

Neo-Nazi converts to Islam and murders two people, what the hell?

If they can't get you to buy two smart-phones, maybe they can get you to buy a smart-watch.

Religion has many benefits, no matter which religion you believe, but that doesn't make it true.

Feeling: Annoyed

• Spineless Republicans continue to choose party over country, and Trump can't even stay interested in major world events unless they're about him.
• Everything Trump told you to fear from Hillary has come true under Trump. Remember what the Republicans hated about Obama, that he ate arugula and spicy mustard?
• Finally! A foreign country is wisely refusing to take Trump seriously and not allowing him to address their government.
• Ever since his election, Trump's entire family has been taking extravagant vacations and charging them to the US taxpayer, and his wife hates him so much she refuses to live with him, resulting in massive taxes for New York. So, you'll forgive me if I don't take his new tax plan called, "Taxpayer First" very seriously. It cuts Medicaid, food stamps, student loans, and retirement plans, while giving a huge tax break for the extremely wealthy. And it's based on a math error of $2,000,000,000,000.
• The head Democrat in charge of the Michael Flynn affair writes that he misled the Pentagon. Not like it's new information, but it's nice to see if more official.
• The interesting part of the SNL cold open is that the joke would have worked even without the funny costumes or the skeleton. Just the idea of the Trump administration singing a deep and meaningful song is ridiculous.
• Not surprisingly, Christian leaders think the students at Notre Dame who walked out during Mike Pence's speech should be punished.
• With all the Trump scandals, there isn't any time to talk about how the TSA is raking you over the coals.

More good news on the religion front. The number of people who believe that God created the universe with humans in the current form is at an all time low, and the number of people who believe God did not have a part in the development of humans is at an all time high!

John Joseph Boswell is the CEO of a manufacturing company where he makes around $600,000 a month and makes large donations to the Republican Party. He just plead guilty to sexually assaulting a maid who was working alone in his hotel room and was fined $50.

Cultures create color words as needed, but they usually have a predictable pattern.

Due of a resurgence of deadly diseases, Italy is making several vaccines mandatory. While I think that this is a good first step, forcing people to do what is in their best interest is never a good longterm solution. It is very important that the public be educated on the human immune system so that they understand why vaccines are so important.

Republican Karl Oliver wants people executed for trying to take down Confederate monuments.

Feeling: Happy

This weekend, I got to pull a tick off my chest and a flea from my sleeve, but I still love my little puppy Lucy! Oh yeah, and I saw the musical Assassins.

• Trump's loose lips have made it harder for America to stop terrorism, so I'm interested to see what will come out of the special counsel.
• A large portion of Trump's staff are people whose only qualifications for their job is that they gave Trump a lot of money during his election. They have even been hired at a much higher salary than they traditionally receive. All of this cronyism has led to a the Office of Government Ethics trying to investigate the White House, but, as expected, the White House is trying to block their investigation. To Trump, stopping ethics violations is a witch hunt.
• Not surprising, the person Trump placed in charge of voter integrity, Kris Kobach, agrees with him that millions voted illegally in the last election, despite being unable to come up with any evidence.
• Rather than visit Canada or Mexico, our closest neighbors and trading partners, Trump's first stop on his business trip was Saudi Arabia, and things became both hypocritical and corrupt.
• Even the CEO of Shell believes climate change is real, and the US should remain in the Paris Climate Treaty.
• Over 100 graduates at Notre Dame turned their backs on Mike Pence and walked away during his speech!
• Vox did a nice article comparing the bias of web sites like Breitbart and Fox News to real journalism.
• Yes, North Carolina, you're gerrymandered districts are racist.
• A short review of First Lady Ivanka Trump's new book.

In 2015, Ramad Chatman found out he was a suspect for an armed robbery crime that happened almost a year ago. Apparently, a person involved with the crime claimed to have recognized him from his Facebook profile. For some reason, police hadn't gotten around to bringing him in, even though he was checking in with them routinely as part of his parole from an earlier crime three years ago. In order to clear his name, Chatman turned himself in, but instead he was arrested and put back in jail for violating his parole with this new crime! The armed robbery case went to trial and Chatman was found innocent, but Judge John Niedrach wanted to punish Chatman anyway, so, even though he was found innocent, and never violated his parole, Judge Niedrach refuses to let Chatman back out on parole. Not only is Judge Niedrach ignoraing the American judicial ideal of "innocent until proven guilty," but he's also discouraging people from turning themselves over to the police if they're a suspect in a crime.

Sometimes academic journals publish junk-science. In order to keep them on their toes, and expose academic journals that aren't properly reviewing their published articles, sometimes scientists will submit a joke article to see if the journal will publish it, and every so often it works, and the journal is highly embarrassed. However, if you're trying to expose scientists in the gender studies field, it doesn't count as a burn if you're able to publish your fake article in a journal where you can get anything published for $625.

A female student at a private Christian school learns what many teenage girls have learned before her. If she becomes pregnant, it's much easier to quietly get an abortion than to deal with the stigma of being an unwed mother.

A look at the amazingly complex James Webb space telescope.

When our commander and chief is an ignorant man-child, we have to take solace in the little victories.

Did You Know Gaming looks at The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Want to know more about your genotype?

Feeling: Happy

• Trump's childish corruption has gotten so bad that a special prosecutor had to be hired to deal with his recklessness. Trump asked the director of the FBI to quietly make his problems disappear, and when Comey wouldn't comply, he believing that firing him would solve his problems, not exacerbate them. And Trump, the word "exacerbate" means "to make worse." But not everyone sees this as criminal behavior, Fox "News," is playing dumb. Well, dumber than usual anyway.
• While Trump was out complaining that people are highly critical of him, he put his daughter in charge of the White House, not realizing that this is precisely why people are highly critical of him.
• The disgraced CEO of Fox "News," and professional sex offender, Roger Ailes, is, thankfully, dead. He is survived by an empire of lies and misogyny, but at least we get some nice jokes.
• Sheriff Clarke and his fake medals for fake military achievement. He reminds me of Buster Bluth from Arrested Development. Oh yes, and he also has ties to Russia.
• Using Trump's penis size as a joke or saying he's gay or effeminate, might piss him off, but it doesn't help the problem of toxic masculinity.

Sam Harris looks pretty racist defending Charles Murray's hypothesis from The Bell Curve, a book which argues that white people are generally smarter than black and Hispanic people. As many scientists are quick to point out, it's difficult to measure intelligence between various cultures using the same test, not just because of cultural biases, but because our cultures affect how we think. There also isn't a way to quantify intelligence to a single number because there are many types of intelligence including spatial reasoning, memory, general problem solving, mathematics, creativity, etc. There isn't even a universally accepted measure for race. Most people group race by appearance or cultural similarities not along genetic lines. For example, the US government currently defines "white" as having European, Middle Eastern, or North African ancestry which means an Egyptian, Scott, Greek, and Norwegian are all treated as the same race despite the large genetic differences.

Amish men traditionally don't wear mustaches for the same reason military men traditionally did.

Police officer Kenneth Lopera electrocuted Tashii S. Brown seven times, punched him a few times in the head, and then choked him to death, all because he thought he was trying to steal a truck. However, the owner of the truck doesn't believe the man was trying to steal his truck, which means that Officer Lopera killed an innocent unarmed man. Texas police at a Dallas school electrocuted a 7-year-old boy and beat him with their batons, and handcuffed him, the next day, in the same school district, police body-slammed a 12-year-old girl and pepper-sprayed her in the eyes.

A man drove his car right into Times Square in New York, killing one person and injuring dozens more. Why? God told him to do it. Also, police officer Logan August stole 25 pound of seized marijuana from the the department's evidence room and got caught trying to sell it for $15,000. As a good Christian man, he takes full responsibility that Satan made him do it.

If you give churches an inch, they will take your children's soul.

Feeling: Cheery

• The Atlantic recaps the past ten days of the Trump presidency spinning out of control. It includes Trump giving away military secrets to the Russians, which will probably blacklist the USA from global intelligence, and that Trump is probably guilty of obstruction of justice for begging Comey to end the corruption investigation of Michael Flynn.
• When banks take on too much debt due to poor decisions from CEOs who get paid billions, the US government pays their debt with our taxes and forgives the banks. When students take on too much debt when they try to become better people, Betsy DeVos is there to make sure they remain in debt for the rest of their lives. Oh yes, and Trump is cutting funding to public schools and giving the money to for-profit schools.
• Poor Trump, he's complaining that no politician in history has ever been treated as poorly as he has. Could it be that no politician in history has been as pathetic as he?
• Sean Spicer defends other villains.
• Yes, Los Angeles, we get it, you're better than the rest of us by continuing to adhere to the Paris Climate Accord, even though Trump is too incompetent to do it.

The history of the entire world, I guess.

Lloyd Barrus is just your typical friendly fundamentalist Christian racist who murders police officers, but you wouldn't even know he's a Christian from the way the media ignores his religion.

Did you know your graduation song is about British imperialism?

A massive case of insurance fraud against the government has been exposed.

Are you a sun sneezer?

Feeling: Annoyed

• The details around Trump's involvement with Russia just keeps getting worse. It turns out that the highly classified military information Trump handed over to the Russians without consent was given to us by Israel, a country that isn't on the best of terms with Russia either, who probably won't be sharing their intelligence with us any more.
• The details surrounding Trump's firing of James Comey just keep getting worse. It turned out, Trump also asked Comey to end the investigation of Michael Flynn's Russian corruption, another black mark for Trump, but unless more than one Republican grows a backbone, nothing will come out of it. Meanwhile, Trump is having a hard time filling the position, as everyone who is qualified is turning him down because they don't want to risk giving up their current position for one that will surely result in their also being fired. Until then, let's all pretend he makes good decisions to prevent a nuclear tantrum.
• As the White House continues to try and say the truth is false, they've had to come up with all sorts of deceptive terms like "alternative facts." They're latest double-speak is "fake, but accurate." As in, yes, the story we believed about a 1970s Time cover article about global cooling was fake, but it accurately describes our beliefs. The reality is, while there may have been individuals in the 1970s who believed there might be an impending ice age, actual scientists were very concerned about global warming. But don't worry, the Trump administration has a way to solve all of these problems. If you stop studying the problems, you don't have to worry about them!
• Trump congratulates himself on a packed crowd at a Christian college graduation. Yes, it's packed, it's their graduation.
• American hero, and US government pariah, Chelsea Manning has been released from military prison after serving seven years for leaking evidence which showed that the CIA was spying on every civilian in the country.

Though we still have a long way to go, the number of people who believe the bible is a book of fables is at an all time high, and those who believe is should be interpreted literally is at an all time low!

A talk about the more magical aspects of The Legend of Zelda.

Want to keep your PC free from viruses? Don't bother with the latest anti-virus software, hire an Orthodox priest to throw holy water on your electronics!

The USA is officially on the metric system, even though we don't use the kilogram.

For some reason, Christians get pissed off when you use bible quotes that disagree with their view of Christianity.

Strangely, I don't see fans of open carry laws crying foul at a gang of police officers who handcuffed a man, destroyed his personal property, and tazed him for carrying a BB gun in public. I'm sure it has nothing to do with him being black.

Feeling: Proud

Here is a collage of my top 100 favorite albums. My most favorite albums are larger.

• Well, yes, Trump, you do technically have the right to give classified government information to the Russians, which may result in the intelligence community blacklisting the US, but considering you just fired the director of the FBI for investigating your involvement in a Russian conspiracy, and you're denying the whole thing, even though reporters were present, it just makes you look guilty. Well, more guilty than you already are.
• Donald Trump is both for and against every political issue.
• To add insult to injury, Republicans are trying to punish people for losing their health insurance.
• Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, is another appointee with absolutely no knowledge of his department. In an open letter, almost 700 doctors and scientists tried explaining to him why they use methadone and buprenorphine to help reduce the cravings of opioid addiction.
• More of Spicer's greatest hits.
• Trump doesn't even understand basic human physiology.
• The US Supreme Court just ruled that states cannot ignore the parental status of a same-sex couples who adopted a child in a different state, because that's what Alabama was doing.
• The CIA is still in the business of spying on you through your computer, and even slowing down your PC, just to be jerks.
• Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen is the sort of politician who will use his authority to personally ruin your career if you don't support Trump.

The truth about pet ownership.

Superintendent Kent Medlin pissed off a lot of high school students after he turned their graduation into a Christian church ceremony.

The Taco Bell of dialysis and an update with John Oliver's plea for Net Neutrality.

Oh that kooky bible!

Feeling: Proud

Emily and I found out this weekend that the illness she has is due to a parasite. The doctor's aren't positive, but they believe it was passed from me to her; I was a carrier even though didn't have any symptoms. We'll have to go back for more testing so they can properly identify it, but Emily really needs everyone's support because it's causing a lot of terrible problems like vomiting, extreme fatigue, and mild psychosis. We were told that there is no cure, we will have to deal with the parasite for the rest of our lives, but the good news is, after about nine months, it will burst out of her, ending the symptoms. Of course, then we'll have to name the parasite, dress it in cute baby clothes, and take it with us where ever we go. I've heard that some people even grow to love their parasites, teach them to read, play games with them, and get family photos made. Please keep us in your thoughts as we go through this difficult time.

• Trump has become the Russian puppet that Hillary Clinton warned us about in the presidential debates. He can't even agree with the lies the White House agreed to tell. He recently hinted that he may have tapes of his conversations with Comey, but after all his lies about the FBI wiretapping, Congress is demanding he either put up or shut up.
• The good news is, Trump is becoming so erratic and obnoxious that even Republican legislatures aren't that interested in trying to keep him happy. The bad news is, he's still president.
• Being insulted by Trump is a badge of honor. It shows you have integrity.
• The UK likes to pretend they're a free country that respects personal privacy, but even a doctor will get arrested if they don't surrender the passwords to all their private intimate pictures and correspondents, if they look Muslim.
• Trump originally had Michael Flynn in the White House who made a lot of money from Turkey, and it's disturbing when someone takes money from a dictatorship.
• Republican Kris Kobach, the Vice Chair of Trump's Election Integrity Commission has been successfully sued for voter suppression four times.
• Turns out, if you're one of the few Americans who can actually point to North Korea on a map, you're less likely to want to get into a shooting match with them.

I stopped reading the comic strip Dilbert a couple years ago when I found out that Scott Adams is a misogynistic asshole. Now I find out that he's also a climate change denier. I encourage everyone else to stop reading his comic, and, if they read a newspaper which contains his comics, to contact them and ask for its removal.

Part of having a National Park Service means protecting the land from people who would want to destroy it for their own gains. They don't let amateurs come in and carve up the mountains to collect precious stones to sell or fossils to lie with. Everyone who wants to chisel away at the rocks needs to get a permit which requires showing a scientific reason for the damage they'll cause. Creationists aren't very good at coming up with scientific reasons.

I always enjoy science more when it's presented by attractive young nerdy women.

When a taxi driver makes more money than a doctor, that's an important reminder why top-down governments are so difficult to make work.

Maybe if he were in a private Christian school, Michael Stack could get away with saying gay men "deserve to die," but that sort of talk will rightly get you fired from a public school.

Feeling: Angry

I've written an essay on what it would take for me to believe in various supernatural concepts like gods and souls.

I also created a pretty snazzy collage of my favorite video games.

• Trump couldn't even fire someone without bungling it, sending his personal body guard to deliver the letter to the very same place where James Comey wasn't. Comey's firing is still big news, although Fox "News" reported that he resigned. Trump and Jeff Sessions continue to claim that they Fired Comey because he was too mean to Hillary, but both of them personally applauded his actions only a few months ago. Sessions shouldn't have even been involved as he had already recused himself on the matter. Eliminating anyone who is investigating your corruption allegations is what dictators do, but high-ranking Republicans care more about the illusion of party cohesion than the fate of the nation.
• As Republicans work hard to eliminate health care for 24,000,000 Americans, and make it unafforable for millions more, the rate of mothers dying in childbirth continues to raise. The US appears to be the only country in the developed world where maternal mortality is rising! But don't worry ladies, we've obtained a sneak peak of the new Trumpcare!
• The US appoints oil executives to the highest levels of government, meanwhile, Germany continues to break records with renewable energy.
• Samantha Bee delivers a scathing review of Ivanka Trump's book in which she contrasts being a hard-working white women to African slavery.
• Republican Mike Ritze knows how to cut the gap in Oklahoma's massive budget gap, force any student who can't speak English very well to undergo an check on their immigration status, and, if they're not legal, deport them. Ignoring that this violates the Federal Constitutional (you can't target people based on their language), it also violates the Oklahoma Constitution which requires educating everyone in the state, regardless of immigration status! Republican Mike Ritze is too racist to care about the Constitution.
• Florida continues to refuse the right to vote to anyone who has been convicted of a felony, even if they've turned their life around. Why? They think criminals vote Democrat.

If you own an HP laptop, you will want to read about this massive security hole! Some HP laptops have an audio driver with a built-in keylogger. Everything you type on the keyboard (including user names and passwords) are stored in a plain text file on disk that anyone can open and read!

Some science experiments that take f-o-r-e-v-e-r!

The Progress Party in Norway is trying to do something that every nation should do, ban mutilating infants for religious reasons.

The truth about big box stores.

Why animals have such crazy genitalia.

Feeling: Happy

I beat Half-Life Source, this time on normal difficulty.

• Turns out, Trump wanted to get rid of Comey for about week before he sacked him, and Comey asking for more resources to investigate the Russian hacking scandal sealed the deal, but Trump still insists he was never investigated. Comey joins Sally Yates and Preet Bharara who Trump also fired for investigating him. It also turns out Trump was once again acting on impulse because Sean Spicer had no idea what to say to the press and tried hiding in the bushes to avoid them! Meanwhile, Trump bars US press from his meeting with Russia while allowing a state-owned Russian propaganda factory to sit in. Republican's aren't even attempting to smooth things over; Mitch McConnell says he'll block any effort to hire an independent group to investigate Trump's Russian connections, and the acting FBI Director is disagreeing with the White House saying the Russia scandal is a big deal. And just in case you needed a reminder why we shouldn't be friends with Russia, they are they type of country that put people in jail for playing a game on your phone while in church.
• Trump really is going through with the investigation on voter fraud. Apparently, the White House has nothing better to do with tax dollars.
• When you read the headline, "Lawmaker Accused of Online Misogyny Faces Expulsion," you already know they're a Republican. When you read the headline "Lawmaker Declares There's a Distinction Between Human Beings and Gays," you already know they're a Republican.
• I'll bet you didn't know that, only a few days ago, Trump invented the phrase "priming the pump."

Can you trust the mainstream media? For the most part, yes.

If an over-the-counter product claims it is a detox, it is a scam.

I eat a lot of meat, and it's something I'm not very proud of. I know that I'm directly contributing to the torture of animals, many of whom are certainly intelligent enough to not enjoy living their entire lives in tiny crates. However, I take some solace in the fact that they were most likely killed by first being stunned so that they won't feel any additional pain from the butchering process. If I were Jewish or Muslim, however, I'd have to come up with a way to rationalize butchering animals in a very painful way: Kosher and Halal. Thankfully, some of the more progressive countries are outlawing the process.

New remains of an early ancestor of humans, Homo naledi have been discovered.

The Dakota Access Pipeline is already leaking, and it hasn't even gone online yet.

Feeling: Okay

• Last night, FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the investigation of Trump's Russian corruption, was fired by Trump! Comey found out he was fired while speaking to his employees at the FBI, and his termination came up on the news! Trump's official reason for firing Comey was because of how he handled Hillary Clinton's emails, which doesn't make any sense because Trump previously praised Comey for what he did, and it certainly played a big part in getting Trump elected. It's clear that the real reason Trump fired Comey is, much like when Nixon fired Archibald Cox, because he wouldn't cancel the corruption investigation against the White House, and even Republican members of Congress are now calling for an independent investigation, (but, shockingly, not McConnell). Despite saying he'd recuse himself, Jeff Sessions was very involved with Comey's firing, and this is a problem because is the one who decides whether there will be an independent investigation. Trump's response to this whole Russian corruption mess? Have another chat with Russian officials, get more lawyers, and continue to hide the evidence.
• Trump hired the disgraced Flynn, that makes him responsible, no matter how much he tries to blame Obama. And now Flynn's employees are being subpoenaed.
• Republicans are deleting the portions of there web pages where they made all their health care promises during Trump's candidacy.
• When you have to apologize for insensitively saying you wish all people had access to health care. And make sure you apologize to a white man, they're they only people who get to decide how everyone else gets health care. And make sure they're rich.
• Bethune-Cookman University is a historically black college/university (HBCU) with a history of over 100 years in Florida, and President Edison O. Jackson probably should have expected to see alumni return their degrees in disgust after inviting Betsy DeVos to speak. In addition to actively trying to replace public schools with private Christian schools, DeVos said HBCUs were the "pioneers of school choice," not knowing that black colleges only exist because people of color were refused entry into white colleges.
• Republicans once again demonstrate that they are wholly unaware of reality. When asked which groups faced the most discrimination, black people, homosexuals, and immigrants ranked below Christians and white people.
• Republicans hate small government, and true to form, Trump is trying to eliminate sanctuary cities. As authoritarians, Republicans are less interested in helping people, and more interested in forcing people to follow the rules, so they usually don't even know what a sanctuary city is.
• SNL's cold open was pretty funny.
• Trump is finally ready to release his taxes, as confetti!

When a young-earth creationist tells you you shouldn't use an argument, it's probably exactly what you should use.

How we know the rate at which the universe is expanding is accelerating.

An interesting glitch in Super Mario World, and why it happens.

Various differences between Zelda 2 for the NES and FDS.

Feeling: Blah

• For some time now, Republicans have been afraid to go to their town hall meetings because of the huge crowds of people angry at them for ruining their health care. They've tried to go again only to find that the people are even more pissed off than before with the new Trumpcare, which is so destructive (24 million will lose insurance outright, millions more won't be able to afford it anymore, women will lose access to birth control because Republican's won't let them be involved, and we go back to being kicked off for getting sick), so it's doubtful to make it through the Senate unscathed, or even at all.
• Scott Pruitt, whose credentials include being a co-owner of a minor league baseball team, receiving huge campaign fund from oil companies, and suing the EPA 14 times, is now the head of the EPA, thanks to Donald Trump. Pruitt is also a climate change denier, so there is no surprise that he has fired half of the EPAs science advisers.
• Oklahoma Republicans passed a House bill that tries to get politicians, when speaking to the public, to refer to abortion as murder. I dubt they've ever taken the time to answer the question, "What is murder, and why is it wrong?" but it th
• John Oliver has once again taken down the FCC Web site after pointing out that Republicans are once again trying to ruin Net neutrality.
• Another thing that Trump knows absolutely nothing about: libel laws. He wants to change them so he can sue more people, but he doesn't realize that it would require a new Constitutional Amendment to do it.

Officer Ray Oliver, who killed an unarmed 15-year-old boy, claims that he did so to avoid being run over. But the dash cam video clearly shows that the boy purposely drove around Officer Oliver, and he only started shooting at the boy after it was clear he was in no danger of being run over.

The horror that is Sonic 2006.

This is what it looks like when a Christian is discriminated against, and this is what it looks like when Christians do the discriminating.

Anti-vaxxers are still causing outbreaks of diseases that were all-but eliminated decades ago.

In order to make it impossible to shop around, hospitals won't give you an accurate quote for how much a procedure costs, even for everyday procedures like delivering a baby. This is one of the many reasons why the US pays more in health care than any other country, despite inferior quality.

How is Hollywood white-washing still a thing?

Magnets, how do they work? It actually requires an understanding of special relativity.

Feeling: Sick

I finished reading the book Bullsh*t, which was a fun read.

• The House passed their awful Trumpcare bill, which essentially strips out everything good in Obamacare from normal people, but Congress keeps everything. Federal Republicans claim the new bill will allow states to decide who gets covered with Trumpcare, and how much coverage they get, but even State Republicans are saying the bill doesn't do anything to give states more control. And even though Republican Mo Brooks, who calls himself a Christian, says that people who live good lives don't get pre-existing conditions, the truth is, Trumpcare treats pretty much every illness as a pre-existing condition. Even if you're not on Obamacare, you can expect your premiums to skyrocket. Trumpcare is also expected to eliminate insurance for 24,000,000 Americans, something Republicans are celebrating with an actual party.
• Trump signed an executive order telling the IRS not to enforce the Johnson Amendment (they hadn't been anyway), which is supposed to prevent churches from promoting specific politicians. It's still illegal for all other non-profit organizations to endorse politicians, only churches get a pass, which is why the Freedom From Religion Foundation is suing.
• Even though she wasn't my first pick, I have to admit that Hillary Clinton was one of the most qualified people to run for president, and it's a shame that she lost.
• A wonderful crack at Trump.

I was sick yesterday, but I want to remind everyone that on May 4th, 1970, the Ohio National Guard fired live ammunition randomly into a crowd of Kent State University students, killing four and wounding nine more.

Delta Airlines kicks off a family and their two kids because they oversold the flight. First, to try and free up a seat, they told the father that his child must sit in his lap (even though that goes against Delta's own safety advice, and the FAA's, but when the father refused, explaining that he had paid for the seat, Delta officials threatened the parents, telling them they would be thrown in prison and have their children taken away if they don't comply. Even though the father eventually agreed, Delta officials threw him and his family off the plane and gave the seats to the people they had oversold the flight to. Yes, airlines have lower prices after deregulation, but now they can get away with treating their customers like garbage.

Sheesh! You imprison someone against their will and suddenly Scientology is viewed as a cult!

Alabama Christians have successfully passed a law that allows adoption agencies to refuse to let otherwise fully qualified parents adopt a child if they're gay, even though the data suggest that same-sex parents tend to have healthier and happier children than heterosexual couples.

Feeling: Sick

• Bernie Sanders explains that it's not that Trump has failed to do in the first 100 days (nearly everything), it's more a problem of his outright hypocrisy.
• Trump is interviewed by Stephen Colbert.
• More cracks at Trump for claiming that people don't ask why the Civil War started, and how Andrew Jackson didn't like it.
• Who did Trump pick to lead the Renewables section of the Department Energy? Naturally a man who doesn't think we should use renewable energy, Dan Simmons. And why is Trump trying to destroy the Energy Star program? Is it because his own products fail to meet them?
• Republican John Allen thinks the number one thing Americas should be concerned about is getting rid of is compulsory education.
• Trump calls himself a big history fan, so big he has to make up fake Civil War battles to promote a golf course.
• Republicans are trying to eliminate the need of employers to pay overtime rates.

The European Union is demanding the United Kingdom pay all their bills before leaving, which they estimate to be around £100,000,000,000. The UK says they won't pay it, which will surely create decades of turmoil. Smart move with that Brexit!

Will we survive our own curiosity before it kills us?

The police officer who shot an unarmed 15-year-old black child to death has been fired.

An old roast of Silicon Valley by John Oliver.

No, evolution is not racist.

Feeling: Blah

I feel like I'm getting sick. Blah!

• Trump was too afraid to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, and the Daily Show's Hasan Minhaj took full advantage of that fact. Samantha Bee created an entire special about it, and it was hilarious! Pre-show, Intro, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
• A more in-depth tear-down of Trump's first 100 days in office, and a funnier one.
• Trump's ignorance of American history is yuuge.
• Trump's disgusting family is costing US tax payers another $120,000,000.
• Obama made it a point to make the White House more transparent. He was partially hypocritical about this, but he did open things up to the public more than his predecessors. Trump, on the other hand, continues to close down the White House and make it more like a bureaucratic black hole where information goes in, but never comes out. He's even deleting a lot of public government data, but thankfully, there are a few people in Congress trying to protect it.
• Congress largely ignored Trump's budget plan and just did what they wanted, which thankfully continues funding PBS and NPR.
• Mark Green, Trump's pick for Secretary of the Army, think evolution has been disproved by the second law of thermo-fluid dynamics. I'll bet you didn't even know there was such a thing as thermo-fluid dynamics!
• Trump's racist Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, was really hoping to bring his Reefer Madness approach to marijuana into the Federal Government, but Congress refused to allow any tax payer money to be spent on persecuting people who comply with their state's marijuana laws. But he's still an asshole because, when a Republican claimed that Sessions had a history of "treating all Americans equally under the law," a woman laughed at the sheer bullshit of the statement and was arrested and is seriously being prosecuted for laughing.
• Another Fox News executive, Bill Shine, resigns due to his incompetent way of handling the company's many sexual harassment lawsuits.
• US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose experience as a Commerce Secretary doesn't appear to go beyond having to pay around $100,000,000 for multiple insider trading violations, said he and his fellow Republicans saw the the very expensive and entirely ineffective bombing of Syria as after-dinner entertainment at Mar-a-Lago. Disgusting.

In video games, women usually play the sexy dumb sidekick AKA a glorified door opener.

The Myers-Brigg test is little more than astrology.

Montreat College of North Carolina is forcing everyone on its faculty to sign a document saying they opposed same-sex marriage and abortion, or be fired, and shockingly, it's expecting to cause a bit of an exodus.

It shouldn't be hard to go green, but some people do it really well, like this woman who, last year, pretty much created no trash.

Feeling: Annoyed

• Donald Trump has failed to do pretty much everything he promised he would have done by his first 100 days in office.
• The full Senate meeting about North Korean really was just a publicity stunt.
• Trump gives the go-ahead for drilling for oil in the arctic and continuing our reliance on dirty energy.
• Marine Le Pen is like the Donald Trump of France. She belongs to a racist white nationalist party that has a long history of bigotry, not just against black people, but also against most religions including Sikhs, Muslims, and Jews. Le Pen stepped down from her position as leader of her racist party in order to concentrate on her bid for France's Prime Minister (horrifyingly, she's doing quite well in the polls), which left a void in her party's structure, and Jean-Francois Jalkh was set to be her replacement. Fortunately, Jalkh has decided not to be the party's head after it was found out that, like many people in his party, he is a Holocaust denier.
• In order to justify his violation of the US Supreme Court's ruling, and his ordering the travesty known as the Trail of Tears, President Andrew Jackson wrote one of our nation's most bigoted and embarrassing statements: "It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community." To be compared to Andrew Jackson is a great insult, so nobody should be shocked that Trump lovingly thinks they're peas in a pod. To further demonstrate his ignorance of Jackson, Trump explained that Jackson was angered by Civil War and wanted to stop it, which is amazing, considering Jackson died 16 years before the war began.
• By now, you know that if Trump says it, the opposite is true. Take, for example, his claim that the New York Times is failing. Actually, the NYT is seeing its subscriber base increase dramatically with the presidential shitstorm Trump has created. However, if they keep making stupid moves, like hiring science deniers, they may actually lose all those new subscribers.
• Mitchell Adkins, a 19-year-old man, believed he was being discriminated against because he was a Conservative living in Kentucky attending a university that is slightly Liberal. Well, Adkins and decided that it was the Liberal's fault he failed, so he returned to his school and hacked two Liberal women with a machete before being arrested.
• The all-white panel of young Republicans agree that Trump is doing a wonderful job. They can't quite come up with any concrete examples, but they really don't like Obama's trickle-down economics. I hope someone explained to them that trickle-down economics is what Trump is doing, not Obama.
• Republican Randy Weber publicly breaks down in tears hoping his god will forgive the USA for letting women in abusive relationships get divorced and other despicable acts.
• Ivanka Trump should be booed for sticking by her racist, bigoted, sexual predator of a father. At least the German media will call it like it is.

Here is an interactive graph which shows just how effective vaccines have been at ridding the US of disease. The most impressive is the measles vaccine. Prior to it, over half a million people were getting infected each year, after the vaccine was licensed, there was a dramatic drop down into the double digits. Sadly, it's going up again due to ignorant parents.

Indonesia Muslims are doing something that Muslims all over the world should be doing, trying to prevent child brides. Meanwhile, the king of Swaziland is trying to ban divorce, not just to force his 15 wives to stay with him.

"Men Who Aren’t Governed By God, Will Be Governed By Tyrants," is a bit redundant since the god of the bible is the worst tyrant imaginable, but that is what was engraved on a veteran's memorial bench in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, it took a threat of legal action to get the city to finally agree to replace it with something that doesn't violate the US Constitution. At least they were smarter than Belle Plaine, Minnesota who refused to remove their Christian memorial and will now see a Satanic memorial right next to it.

If brains are computers, then surely the software needs a programmer, right? Yes, but the programmer is nature.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Republicans once again fail to be fiscally conservative. With Trump's massive tax cuts for the extremely wealthy and increased spending being approved by his fellow Republicans, the national debt will be rising even faster.
• Even Trump's most ardent supporters didn't expect much out of him, but he couldn't even meet their low standards. Trump has failed to make good on nearly all of his campaign promises (border wall, health care, Muslim ban, defeated ISIS, tough on China, etc.), but still likes to pretend that he's the most accomplished president in history. Well, he has accomplished some things. But let's not kid ourselves, he's making out like a bandit stealing tax payer's money.
• Since he rarely has any idea what he's getting into, it's no surprise that Trump is shocked that being President is hard work. At least, it would be if he actually did any work. Thankfully, social media is having a field day with his whining.
• The UK has conducted a study showing that they're polluting the air beyond their standards and it's killing around 40,000 people prematurely each year, however, politicians are trying to delay the release of the study because they think it will interfere with the nation's upcoming elections. In fact, a group of lawyers representing people who don't want to die from lung cancer had to sue the government to force them to release the study. Gee, I wonder what type of people would want to prevent the spread of life-threatening knowledge because it may hurt their chances of getting elected? In America, we call them Republicans.
• The NRA's latest spokesman, Bill Whittle, believes black people are inferior to white people.
• Betsy DeVos likes to talk about how her plan of destroying public school and replacing them with for-profit schools will be great, so let's look at what she's accomplished with all her hard work in Michigan.
• Trump continues to be a puppet for oil companies.

The North Korean nuclear missile program may not be a problem for the US now, but it is expected to be a real problem in just a few years.

Yet another Pew poll shows that, the more education a person receives, the less likely they are to be religious.

PZ Myers has a good post about free speech. It means everyone has the right to say what they want, it doesn't mean everyone gets free access to university resources, especially when their speech is non-academic and factually incorrect, like Ann Coulter.

Pastor Greg Locke makes a very anti-climatic protest video about all the people who donated to Planned Parenthood in his honor.

The South still doesn't understand how honoring their Southern heritage really does honor slavery.

Non-believers are familiar with Christians threatening them with Jesus.

Atheists, much like people who don't play baseball, do not have a conduct.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Trump keeps making unconstitutional executive orders, and judges keep shooting them down. A sane person would stop making unconstitutional executive orders, but Trump's solution involves trying to eliminate the judges. Really, Trump has nobody to blame but himself, as he's responsible for filling the many empty judge seats that Republicans refused to Obama fill on the gamble that they would take power again, but he can't be pulled away from the golf course long enough to actually do it.
• Republican Mike Enzi states publicly that people who dress according to his standards are kind of asking to get into fist fights.
• We didn't elect Ivanka Trump or her husband Jared Kushner, but they're running the country anyway.
• Republican Mark Green, who Trump wants as the new Secretary of the Army, can't stop lying about transgender people, even to the point of claiming psychiatrists call transgender a disease. They do not.
• Trump tariffs Canadian wood is not the titles of a gay porn, but should be.
• Trump believes that immigrants are dangerous people and the country needs to spend extra time and money focusing on them, when, in fact, immigrants are less likely than native-born Americans to commit crimes. This makes sense when you think about it. If you're driving without your license, aren't you more careful to follow traffic laws?
• Donald Trump doesn't know how to pronounce the word "Nazi," which I guess is a good thing?
• Trump on The Daily Show.

The Christian pastor who said the people murdered in the Pulse nightclub shooting deserved to be murdered because they were gay has just been sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in prison for molesting children.

The oddity of mirror image molecules.

Is Facebook help Pakistan catch blasphemers? You know, the country that executes them?

Why you're always tired, and what you can do about it.

This is why racial minorities don't trust the police.

Feeling: Annoyed

• Donald Trump made a big deal about all the major changes he was going to get done in his first 100 days in office, but with nothing done and the 100 day mark nearly upon us, he is now trying to distance himself from his ridiculous claims and is even threatening to shut down the government if his fellow Republicans don't give him what he wants.
• Trump's tax plan is really truly awful. He stands to personally gain tens of millions of dollars by cutting his own taxes (and other extremely wealthy people's) in half, while the rest of us will only see minor cuts. And how will the government continue to function with all this missing revenue? Trump claims the economy will grow hugely to make up for this loss, but there isn't an economist alive who think the tax cut could possibly grow fast enough to make up for the loss. Essentially, the government will once again be running a severe deficit, which happens every time Republicans are in charge.
• Trump continues to overstep his authority, this time by trying to withhold funding to states that help refugees and immigrants. Thankfully, the Judicial branch of the US is still putting him in his place and blocking his unconstitutional bills, but if Trump ever does his job and appoints the several dozen judge seats that need to be filled, we may not even be able to say that.
• No Ivanka, your father is not a champion for women's rights, he's a serial sexual harasser. And you're not much better since your clothes are made in Chinese sweat shops.
• An interesting point, Trump has no values, no morals, no beliefs, no ideals, he is a nothing.
• Bill O'Reilly has been fired for years of sexual harassment and it's great to play him off.
• Peggy Whitson, who has become the Astronaut who spent the most time in space, made a great jab at Trump about drinking pee.
• Republicans are still trying to destroy health care, but this time they remembered to exempt themselves from their own shitty bill.
• More information has come to light about Trump's original security advisor, Michael Flynn. As a retired Lieutenant General in the US military with access to State secrets, Flynn is supposed to obtain government permission before receiving money from foreign countries. Flynn claims he spoke with a Defense Intelligence Agency before and after speaking in Russia, but he somehow forgot to mention that Russia gave him tens of thousands of dollars. There is also evidence that he failed to disclose money received for helping the Turkish government as well.
• Trump had to be reminded 11 times that he couldn't make a trade deal with Germany (or any other EU country) directly before finally understanding that he had to make trade deals with the EU.
• Are your appliances Energy Star compliant? Well, that's another piece of environmentalism Trump is trying to eliminate.

You can now buy Plan B in vending machines on the University of California, Davis campus. Naturally, Christians are freaking out that other people be allowed access to birth control.

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin prison slowly tortured one of their their mentally-unstable inmates to death by shutting off the water to his cell and refusing to give him water with his meals until he died.

Keep you chin up, you're doing better than you think.

Some interesting facts about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game franchise.

What's the deal with menopause?

Feeling: Annoyed

• It looks like the same hackers who successfully destabilized democracy in the USA by helping Trump get elected are now working to get another White Nationalist elected in France.
• Trump is calling all US Senators to the White House to talk about North Korea. Which of the two tubby narcissistic unstable power-hungry men with a bad haircuts and daddy issues might kill us all? Hard to say, but one thing we do know for certain, Trump really has a boner for authoritarian dictators.
• If you go through an airport, you may be forced to give the US government passwords to your private devices and applications or denied access to your flight (with no refunds) thanks to the current Secretary of Homeland Security, John Kelly, appointed by Donald Trump. When confronted about the viocation of their civil rights, Kelly said Americans should shut up.
• Only the stupidest of Trump voters actually believed Mexico would pay for a border wall, and now Trump is threatening to shut down the government if his fellow Republicans won't divert $21,600,000,000 from their own programs to pay for his useless wall. The last three times Republicans shut down the US Government because they couldn't have their way had some pretty dire consequences, but if my options are no government or a government with Trump in charge, I think I'd prefer no government.
• They're few and far between, but I have to hand it to Judge J. Douglas McCullough who purposely stepped down a few days before his mandatory retirement to prevent a Republican power grab from taking place.
• Trump is using official government websites to advertise for his property.
• Who will Trump pick? His inexperienced Jewish son-in-law, or his experienced white supremacist?
• Just a reminder that our president cannot speak in coherent sentences.

Islam is the religion of peace.

A day in the life of useless robot builder, Simone Giertz.

The importance of teaching computers to know fact from popular fiction.

That Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad would have been a lot different if she were black.

Feeling: Determined

The March For Science was wonderful and the signs were hilarious. I don'cease funding to scientific research, but it was a great way to let the public know that he is cutting funding for something useful to afford more war.

I beat all of the maps in Mini Metro in normal mode. I also finished reading Catcher In the Rye, and thought it was terrible.

• The Murdoch family (ultra-Conservative owners of Fox News, and many other propaganda mills) has their hands full. All the sexual harassment settlements between Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly and the bribery and hacking scandals may prevent them from ever buying Sky.
• Trump still wants to send the US back into the stone age with coal-dependency, meanwhile Great Britain is officially coal free.
• Ah yes, more of that small government state's rights that Republicans are always demanding.
• Trump is eliminating public access to the EPA's data.
• The female Trump that might become Prime Minister of France. I hope the French aren't as stupid as Americans.
• Most Americans are now in favor of the legalization of marijuana, but Trump's cavemen are old enough to still be hypnotized by Reefer Madness!
• Despite Trump censoring the White House's visitor log, someone was able to get a hold of it!

Police officer Caleb Johnson of Grand Rapids, Michigan pointed loaded guns at several children between the ages of 12 and 14 as they were walking home after playing basketball. The boys begin crying and begging not to be killed after officer Johnson demanded they get on the ground. Afterward, they were handcuffed and questioned. Why? Someone called the police about a fight in the area, and one person may have a gun. Why did the officers think these kids were involved? Probably because they were black. The police insist they were just following procedure and didn't do anything wrong.

Want to be depressed? Read some of the posts attributed to #ThingsOnlyChristianWomenHear.

Saudi Arabia has a very poor track record with women's rights. Women are not allowed to do even simple every-day tasks like drive a car or comb their hair in public. So, why are they now part of the UN's Women's Rights Commission?

Court ordered rape is a thing in Swaziland.

If you're poor, San Antonio, Texas Mayor Ivy Taylor has the solution, become a better Christian and you won't be poor.

Feminist Frequency visits Spotify.

Feeling: Excited

I'll be protesting for science tomorrow in Ann Arbor!

• If you want to stop people who protect unscrupulous serial sexual harassers (the way Fox News protected Bill O'Reilly), don't bother appealing to their conscience, appeal to their wallet.
• Trump is gouging the American science budget, but Neil DeGrasse Tyson explains why America needs science.
• Racist Attorney General Jeff Sessions is amazed that a judge on a tiny island in the Pacific can block Trump's Muslim ban. So, Hawaiians had to remind Sessions that, Hawaii is actually a state with 1.5 million Americans living in it, Hawaii isn't an island, but a collection of several islands, and the US Constitution gives the state judge the authority to stop Trump from violating it.
• After a long fight for equality, atheists were finally allowed to give invocations at the Arizona State Capitol. However, the Republicans there refuse to accept philosophically secular invocations, so they keep holding Christian prayers after the secular invocations.
• Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the Conservative who wields his gavel as a political tool by refusing to uphold national law, is on suspension, and will likely remain so after a special court of his piers convened!
• Remember the judge who Trump said couldn't be trusted because his parents were born in Mexico? Well, now he's hearing the case of a man who claims he was illegally deported by Trump.
• The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the G.I. Bill, is a law created to aid veterans returning from war by helping them in finding work, a place to live, and an education. Soldiers usually lose their jobs when they enter the military and, though they receive a military education, knowing how to reload a battleship's cannon doesn't transition well into the civilian job market. This is the least we can do for people we send to potentially die in a far away land so we can have cheaper gas prices and the G.I. Bill has been hailed as a success by economists and sociologists, but there is no success that Republicans can't ruin. A Tennessee Republican is trying to pass a law that would force US soldiers to buy into the program at a cost of $2,400. I wonder if the goal is to make it so really poor soldiers can't afford to buy in, and then the US won't have to pay for any of their future benefits?
• Frank Artiles, the Republican who likes to throw around the N-word, well, one of them anyway, is resigning.
• Trump's pick for Army Secretary, Mark Green, believes that transgender people, like ISIS, are diseased, evil, and need to be crushed because the bible tells him so.

Oprah is a terrible person for promoting fake medicine, but now she's promoting Christian pastors who spout hate-speech against the LGBT communities.

An atheist football player talks to Bill Nye about science. Also, Bill Nye answers questions.

When the US court system has to decide if ghosts are real.

The complex way the SNES handles graphics.

Iranian women are protesting their country's mandatory head-scarf laws by posting pictures of their hair on social media.

Pepsi sucks.

Feeling: Happy

• I'm sure it's not a conflict of interest that Trump appointed an Exxon executive who now gets to decide if Exxon can team up with Russia to drill for oil. I mean, it's not like the Russian government murders people who protest it. Lets be friends!
• The White House continues to censor, hold back, and shut down. Even the sidewalk in front of the building is going to be closed to all tourists for the rest of the Trump administration.
• The various ways Russia helped elect Donald Trump.
• I have to admit, I am a bit surprised that Trump hasn't started a thermonuclear war yet despite all the lies about his military operations.
• Alex Jones is having a hard time sticking to his lawyer's claim that he's not really as crazy as he is on his show.
• Trump called the Iran nuclear agreement "the worst deal in history," so why is he sticking to it?
• For women who love YouTube tutorials, here's how to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
• Republican Frank Artiles still refers to black people using the N-word.
• Another Republican bites the dust. Jason Chaffetz is having such a terrible time in office, he won't run for re-election.

How and why random numbers are generated in Super Mario World.

A lot of Christians are afraid that by doing Yoga they're accidentally worshiping Shiva and angering their wrathful jealous god, so one Catholic School has decided to rename Yoga to "Lifestyle Fitness," in order to prevent the "spiritual harm" caused by Yoga.

In case you haven't seen enough videos debunking Pascal's Wager AKA the What If You're Wrong argument.

Cults and religions differ more than just their age. It's really about control.

Why is North Korea so odd? Mostly because other nations kept screwing with them.

Feeling: Annoyed

• The disappointment in Republicans is making it possible for Democrats to almost reach victory even in Georgia. I hope this hate-fire burns as bright come the midterm elections.
• Trump praises the new autocratic leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who took power after a rigged election. Is Trump knowingly applauding dictators, or is he just trying to curry the favor of dictators because he owns buildings in Turkey?
• Two facts. One, Trump made his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the head of several major aspects of the Federal Government. Two, Steven Bannon hates Democrats and thinks everyone who isn't as bigoted as he is is a Democrat. But why is Bannon mad at Kushner? The majority of the world is less-racist than Bannon. Bannon should really be mad at Trump. After all, it's Trump's incompetence that put someone woefully unqualified like Kushner in charge of everything, Trump is the one ousted Bannon and couldn't even replace him properly, Trump is ultimately responsible for the many, many failures in his presidency so far. And yet, like a child who hates his sibling because Daddy likes him best, Bannon lashes out at Kushner.
• It looks like Fox "News" is going to fire Bill O'Reilly. No, not for sexually harassing all those women, but because he's losing advertising dollars.
• Trump has complained that all these Liberal judges are obstructing his work, but his administration has the authority to appoint new judges, and they just haven't gotten around to it yet. Turns out, when you play golf every other day, it's hard to get your job done.
• CNN is less of a news channel and more of an entertainment channel. Much like Fox "News," They hire people to say incorrect, often racist things, to create a false conflict, to increase ratings. This makes CNN viewers less-informed.
• Alex Jones is a certifiable nut case--racist, sexist, and bigoted all around--but when he wants control of his children, he pretends it's all an act.
• Trump is too incompetent to even know what his own navy is doing, but he could start a nuclear war with North Korea, so, there's that.
• Trump supporters used social media to organize a riot at a peaceful Berkeley protest, even to the point of training other Trump supporters on how to smuggle weapons past security. And after they attacked and injured several protesters, most of the rioters avoided arrest. This sets a pretty dangerous precedent for future peaceful protests, like the March For Science which I'm attending this Saturday.
• In order for dictators to thrive, they need to control how their subjects receive their information. This can be done in various ways, creating false new, censoring information, and ceasing all public discourse. Trump's administration is guilty of all three.
• Like everything else the White House does, their children's Easter egg hunt was a mess.

Where did the antivax movement come from? It's a combination of ignorance and greed.

Meet the scientist who ran the lab which synthesized several of the heaviest elements.

Not so shocking, the "non-profit" PhRMA which is trying to keep prescription drugs from other countries banned in the US is funded by American prescription drug companies.

Four science riddles and their solutions.

Feeling: Annoyed

• The US military claims they bombed an al-Qaeda meeting site. But locals and a London-based human rights watchdog group says they bombed a peaceful mosque killing 38 civilians.
• Donald Trump is still dealing with countless lawsuits, but his lawyers are trying an interesting tactic. They're claiming he can't be sued for damages because he's the President. Their hope is, Presidents, like kings and pharaohs, are above the law.
• Let's hope France doesn't screw the pooch the way the USA and the UK did. And speaking of John Oliver, Christian Republicans love killing people, Trump changed his mind on everything he campaigned for, and Sean Spicer doesn't know much about the Holocaust.
• Republicans have had enough of those damn voters using town halls to express their political concerns! Of course, Republicans don't go to their town hall meetings, so...
• As Trump destroys safety regulations and watchdog organizations between rounds of golf, there is a massive tire fire in Texas billowing toxic smoke into the neighborhood and the nearest fire hydrant is four miles away.
• Recently, Chechnya, a republic of Russia, has been accused of having a homosexual prison where inmates are tortured for the "crime" of being gay. Chechen politicians say it's a lie, but they refuse to let independent journalists investigate, and those who originally broke the story are in hiding due to death threats.
• Trump's ultra-Conservative judge, Neil Gorsuch has already embarrassed himself on his first cases, asking and re-asking the senior judges why they don't just go with the plain-English interpretation of the law for their rulings. The other judges, and even the lawyers, had to keep reminding him that there are no plain-English interpretations on these laws because they're all ambiguously worded. Gorsuch reminds me of a young-earth creationist who claims to believe in a literal interpretation of the bible, and can't comprehend why every other young-earth creationist who also claims to believe in a literal interpretation of the bible disagrees with him.
• Another rich white man busts unions.
• Betsy DeVos, Trump's Secretary of Education who is trying to replace public schools with for-profit Christian schools, "forgot" to disclose a $125,000 donation to the Republican group that is trying to eliminate worker unions in Michigan. And her employees can't spell "education."
• Not so surprising, the Office of Government Ethics has seen an unprecedented surge in complaints and requests since Trump took office. Unfortunately, it's the Republicans who get to decide if anything gets done about it, and they're being as hypocritical as ever.

Delicious schadenfreude, despite getting a massive state tax break under the pretense that it would be a big draw for the local economy, Ken Ham's Ark Encounter is failing to draw any visitors.

Black holes from the beginning of the universe. No big deal.

Another bashing of The Case For Christ, where a journalist shows how they don't care about journalistic integrity when it comes to religion.

The always boring ontological argument.

Feeling: Frustrated

I hear Trump's increasing the chocolate ration to 20 grams. That's doubleplus good.

• Why did people vote For Trump? Was it love of authoritarianism? Was it hatred of the poor? Yes, it was those things, but more than anything else, it was racism.
• Trump's father may have given him millions of dollars when he was young, but he didn't give him even a single lesson in self-control. Because of this, the US military strategy under Trump can accurately be described as, bomb whoever last mocked me on Twitter. This makes me a bit apprehensive to hear Mike Pence say we're done with an era of strategic patience with North Korea.
• Berkeley, California saw a violent protest between Liberals and Trump supporters, and, by Trump supporters, I mean KKK, alt-right, neo-Nazis, and various other white supremacists.
• Millions of protesters in over 150 cities across the nation gathered to protest Trump and demand the release of his tax returns. Trump responded by claiming the protest was both small and full of paid protesters.
• Even in Kentucky, where 90% of the state's energy is from burning coal, businesses are pressuring the state to switch to greener renewable energy. Trump will not bring back horribly dangerous energy.
• More of the unintended consequences of Trump's bigotry, rape increases.
• What most Americans don't know about taxes is costing them a lot of money, and favors the wealthy. For example, by re-branding the estate tax as the "death tax," Republicans have convinced a large percentage of Americans to dislike the idea, even though it only affects the extremely rich. Also, most Americans think the rich pay more in taxes than they used to, but they actually pay far less, and sometimes none at all. This will only get worse as Trump plans to cut taxes ever further for the richest people in the country.

An in-depth video about how a Muslim apologist decided to finally treat the religion with the same objectivity as any other bad idea. The reality is, the only was Muslim apologists can make the religion sound less evil is to lie about it. However, there are still plenty of progressive Muslims out there who aren't nearly as evil as their religion demands they be.

Judge Thomas Low calls a man "good," "great," and "wonderful," after he was found guilty of raping two of his own relatives, even as one of the victims was present in the courtroom. Why would the judge praise an incestuous rapist in front of his victims? The rapist was a Bishop in the Latter Day Saints church.

Bayesian analysis is often counter intuitive, but extremely important to know.

A generous man who makes the rest of us look bad.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Trump and the US military may be patting themselves on the pack for bombing some ISIS fighters in Afghanistan, but, because the bomb was so large, several houses within a three mile radius were destroyed by falling rocks. A tribal elder near the detonation site explained that several civilians were still living in the blast area and those who survived are now horribly injured. We've know this for many years now, you can't stop this type of terrorist uprising with bigger bombs. You may kill some fighters, but you create several more by destroying all the reasons they had to live a normal life in the first place.
• Another air strike in Syria, another 18 allies dead. Obama certainly killed his fair share of civilians and allies, but at least under his administration the White House scrutinized every military strike; Trump gave the US military carte blanche. Bombs away!
• NPR shows, using Trumps own words, how he has been outspoken both for and against every major political issue. He really has no beliefs at all.
• With Steven Bannon on the out, Trump is trying to distance himself from him claiming he didn't know him until just before becoming president (so why did he choose him?), but that is a lie, the two have been in cahoots since 2011. The New York Times calls him out on several more lies as well.
• The Late Show has come up with some pretty clever descriptions for the monsters in the Trump Administration.
• Republican Markwayne Mullin was reminded by one of his constituents that his salary comes from US taxpayers, to which he responded, "That's bullcrap... I pay for myself! This is a service, no one pays me to go." Yes, he's doing his voters a favor just by showing up and looking so pretty.
• Trump lost another one of his lawsuits today. Back in 2014, he hired a painting company to paint one of his golf courses, and then, true to form, refused to pay them after they finished. It took a couple years, but the lawsuit has finished, and Trump will have to pay the original cost, the lawyer's fees, and a penalty fee, but it's still chump change to him. Hopefully, as he continues to lose lawsuits, he will end up having to declare bankruptcy for a seventh time.
• Esquire points out the fact that Republicans are delicate snowflakes.

Christian Pastor Kevin Swanson is human garbage.

Want to know more about SHA?

When pressed for examples, American Christians often cite their inability to indoctrinate other people's children as an example of their persecution. This is slightly different than the persecution of secular people in Muslim nations where they're routinely murdered.

Why it's a horrible idea that the USA uses your Social Security Number as a unique identifier.

Sheesh, you stop a few handcuffed people, and suddenly you're not fit to be a police officer anymore?

In Canada, the state can take away your foster children if you refuse to lie to them.

Why you see strange colors at the edges of the screen in some Nintendo games.

To recap the Michigan water problem, Flint still has poisoned drinking water, but the state is considering letting Nestle pump 400 gallons of water a minute for it's Ice Mountain bottled water. It already pumps 250 gallons every minute.

Feeling: Frustrated

• A couple of minor issues with Trump's explanation of his bombing of Syria. He couldn't even remember which country he bombed, but he did remember what he had for dessert (his country club serves the best chocolate cake, it's beautiful!). He was amazed that all 59 missiles hit their target (they are filled with sensor equipment and cost $1,870,000 a piece, they better hit their target!). And, even though the bombing cost US taxpayers $110,000,000 in missiles alone, the airfield Trump bombed is still operational. Mission accomplished!
• Speaking of bombing, today the US military dropped a bomb in Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. They claimed the area contained ISIS tunnels, but also wanted to take revenge for the death of a US soldier. The bomb they dropped was a GBU-43/B MOAB which is 30' long, weighs 21,600 lbs., has an 11-ton yield. To produce the bomb, the US spent $314,000,000, and each bomb made costs $16,000,000 (had we not made this bomb, we could have sent 1,820 people to Harvard for four years each). It's the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal, and, even though it has been in service since 2003, it has never been used before today because the blast radius is so large it's very difficult to avoid killing civilians. The White House and the US military are all smiles, but neither they nor the Afghani government seem to have any idea how many civilians, Afghani troops, or ISIS fighters were killed in the blast, if any. Despite their ignorance, Trump says the bombing makes a "tremendous difference" in stopping ISIS. Mission accomplished!
• Trump is still claiming that Obama wiretapped him, which will cost taxpayers even more to continue the Congressional investigation, even though the team can't find any evidence to support his baseless claim.
• Americans often mock Islam because many areas have religious police, policemen who roam the land enforcing Koranic rules. Well, Alabama is trying to copy them.
• Everyone's favorite fake-historian, David Barton, rewrites a Thomas Jefferson quote about Yellow Fever to make it about anti-immigration.
• Kentucky has problems. They rank high in levels of poverty and incarceration, but low in quality of life and GDP. But don't worry, Kentucky Republicans have devised a way to solve all these problems. They're going to force all government documents to list the year as, "2017 In the Year of our Lord."
• Nazi and KKK vandalism has skyrocketed ever since Trump was elected.
• Republican Larry Pittman believes that Abraham Lincoln was the same sort of tyrant as Hitler because he started the American Civil War.

Ellinor Grimmark argued that she shouldn't be expected to do her job because she was a Christian. While this may fly in the USA, Sweden doesn't allow that crap.

Why aren't there more atheists in Congress?

There is an important distinction between something drying out and setting.

If the sale of college textbooks were honest.

George Hrab's Misconception Song. How many do you believe?

Feeling: Frustrated

• Bill O'Reilly is taking a two week vacation, but if has nothing to do with him losing all his sponsors because he paid out $15,000,000 in lawsuits for sexually harassing so many women and masturbating to them over the phone, and it has nothing to do with him laughing David Dao, the Asian doctor who was knocked unconscious by Chicago police for refusing to give up the seat he paid for on a United flight. No, he wants to spend more time with his family.
• Robert Bentley, Republican Governor of Alabama, just resigned after it became public knowledge that, while preaching a message of the importance of Christian family values from his office, he had been cheating on his wife with an employee.
• Trump's air strike was just like the man himself, misguided and impotent. The millions of dollars we spent on missiles to destroy the airfield didn't even destroy the airfield! If you're wondering about the whos and whys of Syria, here's a quick recap of the conflict, and Trump's hair-brained reaction.
• Like every move Trump has made so far, his poorly-thought out halting of all Federal hiring has had disastrous effects. The FDA hasn't able to approve new drugs, the Veterans Affairs offices haven't been able to treat veterans, social security checks haven't been mailed to seniors on time, prisons don't have enough guards, military bases haven't been able to provide childcare to the families of soldiers, and so forth. So, Trump is finally lifting his stupid ban.
• Where did the $15,000,000 come from that helped get Neil Gorsuch appointed to the US Supreme Court?
• Betsy DeVos is making it easier for companies to target students with predatory lending practices.

When a Texas gun fondler doesn't understand why it's wrong that you can have a gun in public, but not a dildo.

Christian pastor Kenneth Adkins has been found guilty on 8 counts of child molestation as he was a 50-year-old man who repeatedly had sex with a 15-year-old girl. Adkins's lawyer kept trying to convince the jury that the accusers were liars, sociopaths, desperate for money, and trying to hurt Adkins because he is a well-known hate-preacher against homosexuals.

If life was a video game.

The new £5 note is pretty tough.

Why can't tax returns be this fun?

Feeling: Excited

I'm officially older.

• Boming Syria doesn't make Trump seem more presidential. He is a man-baby who constantly throws tantrums.
• The Republican Party will be forever be known as the anti-intellectual group who ruined American democracy because they people wouldn't vote for their terrible ideas.
• Trump has really brought the White House back to its Whites only roots, and while he may not have a token black man, he at least allows a token white woman sit in the same room. Oh wait, this isn't the White House, it's his vacation resort that we're paying for.
• Texas Republicans are following Trump's lead and taking $20,000,000 from clean air funding and using it on anti-abortion propaganda.
• Trump is probably golfing as I type this, and while he doesn't want to have to do the work a president is expected to do, he doesn't want anyone else to get credit for doing his job for him.
• Christian white male Republicans want everyone to know that they own the USA, and are looking forward to the passing of their law that allows tax-exempt preachers to tell their congregations to vote for them. An they seriously still believe that Trump is a good Christian.
• It bothers me a little that there are self-proclaimed news sources out there where real news is ignored so they can promote propaganda, but it bothers me a lot that they're watched by Americans more than real news sources.
• Authoritarians like the Trump administration eliminate the arts, not because they want to save money, but because they understand that art provokes anger at anything that discourages freedom.
• Two thirds of the Great Barrier Reef are now severely damaged due to the Chinese climate change hoax.
• You know Trump isn't having things his way when a Kentucky Coal Museum has to install solar panels to save on their electricity bills.

It's amazing to see such a global shift from a couple decades ago when homosexuality was illegal in dozens of nations, to now when straight men are holding hands in public in a show of solidarity against those who still have such backward views.

There aren't nearly enough educated people in politics, probably because they have such a hard time dealing with all the bullshit.

You know Christianity is on the decline in the UK when a quarter of the people who call themselves Christians don't even believe in the resurrection of Jesus.

How scientists found water on the moon.

Feeling: Excited

Having an early birthday party tomorrow, like a boss.

• During his election campaign, Trump said it would be foolish of Obama to attack Syria. But, as the breeze changes, so does Trump's tiny mind, and his America-first attitude has been replaced with the bombing of Syria. Trump refused to let any refugees into the safety of our country, but he has no problem obliterating the nation. Russia is calling it a violation of International Law, but Trump wasn't even able to issue an air strike properly, because Syrians appear to have anticipated his attack and move their more important vehicles out of harm's way.
• Neil Gorsuch, a true unAmerican hero, has been confirmed for the US Supreme Court. This is a sad day because, even if the Trump administration goes down in flames, he will still be there, casting a pall on our nation's future. Naturally, ever group that favors the separation of church and state is thoroughly pissed.
• If there's one thing you can say about Republicans, they stand together in solidarity to protect each other from the enraged hordes of women they've sexually assaulted.
• Meliania Trump does not keep her father in check, despite her simple-minded beliefs.
• There really isn't any doubt anymore, Russia spent a lot of money, time, and effort to undermine the US election in favor of Trump.
• Sean Spicer's rhetoric makes a lot more sense if you assume he's talking to little children, well, except when he's trying to denounce hate crimes, which he can't seem to do.
• Trump may have put his son-in-law in charge of most of the US government, but that doesn't mean he isn't also a big player in the Russian government.
• Why did Trump demote Bannon? Apparently, he called Trump's son-in-law a cuck.
• The Obama administration helped students pay back their student loans through payments rather than default and ruin their credit scored. Betsy DeVos, who cares more about banks than students, rescinded that help.
• Trump claimed that Democrat Elijah Cummings said, "he would go down as one of the great president in the history of our country." Needless to say, Cummings said nothing of the sort.

How YouTube monetizes advertisements.

Why did Americans stop going to the Moon?

Simone Giertz tries out her new manicuring robot.

Feeling: Happy

• The US Senate requires more than a simple majority vote on issues of major political importance, like, for example, voting in a new Supreme Court Justice. By needing a 60% agreement, the country is kept on a more stable path. Republicans, in particular Trump and Mitch McConnell, just used the so-called nuclear approach to get their pick approved, which means Justices can now be approved by a simple majority. While this favors the Republicans for now, they're going to be very upset when a Supreme Court Justice needs to be approved when Democrats are next in control of the Senate. This is typical of what we've come to expect from the very short-sighted Republican Party. They would never pass the marshmallow test.
• Even more frustrating is that this major decision was made in light of the Russian investigation that continues to get worse. The lead Republican investigator, Devin Nunes, just stepped down from the committee now that he is the target of another an ethics investigation!
• Is anyone shocked that an admitted sexual predator signed an executive order to eliminate sexual harassment protections for women?
• After appointing his family to be in charge of pretty much the entire Federal government, the Secret Service is now pointing out the fact that they don't have enough money or manpower to protect his moronic spawn. In fact, agents have been pulled away from their real work to guard the Trumps on their extensive vacations. Trump is not only burning our tax money, he's also making the country more dangerous.
• Sean Spicer keeps getting smaller, just like the nation's chances of remaining solvent.
• Republicans get more upset with the people who expose their criminal acts than the people in their party who actually commit criminal acts.
• As Seth Meyers points out, Trump continues to suck.

When high school student journalists discover their principal lied on her resume about her degree forcing her to resign.

How to dodge traffic.

An interesting study shows that students who attend ivy league colleges don't go on to earn more than those who attend regular state colleges.

Some wonderful new subtitles for this creationist propaganda film.

Feeling: Happy

• Did Donald Trump and Steve Bannon break up?
• ISIS often had a lot of terrible things to say about Obama, but they've been strangely silent about Trump. Why? Well, Obama made it clear that Muslims were welcome in America and part of American culture, and ISIS saw this as a threat to their message of violence and hate, but Trump, Trump outright bans Muslims from entering the country and says Islam hates America. He does more damage to America than ISIS could even dream of doing.
• Trump, once again, lies his ass off. He claims that Obama spent $1 trillion and nothing was built, all the money went to social programs, but he's wrong about everything. It was actually $800 billion, there were thousands of construction projects spanning several years, and only a portion was spent on social programs. Of course, the social programs were wonderful and included increased education and vocational training, tax breaks, improved health coverage, and food stamps. Hilariously, at the time, Trump applauded Obama's stimulus package! Speaking of Trump sticking his foot in his mouth, remember when he said people only ask for immunity when they're guilty?
• I'm really hoping the Republicans fail as bad as they did with health care reform when they get to putting slime like Gorsuch in the Supreme Court. Even though they're seeing fewer cases now, they still make a lot of very important decisions.
• Christians are still fawning over Trump, even to the point of claiming that if you criticize him, their god will curse you!
• Life for D'Ann Loop is difficult living in the USA, but still behind the border wall. This will become even more common with the expansion.
• Whelp, it's official. Trump signed the repeal of the Internet privacy bill. Every aspect of your private life online can now be bought and sold without your consent.
• Ann Arbor, Michigan is fighting Trump's bigotry by making it illegal for police to ask a person's immigration status. By not collecting the information, it's hard to be bigoted about it.

The Arch Bishop of York is very mad at Cadbury for having an "egg hunt," but not an "Easter egg hunt," because children searching for Pagan symbols is a very important part of Christianity.

Feminist Frequency shows up for GDC 2017.

Malaysian Muslims believe that life would be better for rape victims if they would just marry their rapists.

An early study shows that video games may be helpful in treating post traumatic stress disorder.

Feeling: Annoyed

Spent about three hours working on crown molding for our second bedroom. 20% finished! >:-(

I added a new Flash Card set for Discoveries By Scientists.

• Republicans: See? Trump donated his pay checks to the National Parks Service! Sane People: He just cut the programs by $230,000,000, and he's only doing this to get a tax break.
• One of the best things about Obamacare is that it forces insurers to insure people even if they have a preexisting condition. Before Obamacare, if someone was diagnosed with something awful like a brain tumor, it was pretty much impossible for them to get insurance, and unless that wanted to become a meth kingpin, they would probably die from their disease. Well, the Tea Party Caucus refuses to vote in favor of Trumpcare unless the preexisting condition is removed, effectively forcing sick people to die again. This is all part of the Republican's vile plan to make health insurance worse for the poor.
• Trump's cabinet is just a hive of uneducated conspiracy theorists, and they can't learn from their mistakes.
• Where traditional media fails at covering a non-traditional president, satirists succeed.
• John Oliver explains why marijuana is illegal, argues in favor of state's rights for legalizing it, and shows how Federal Republicans are preventing it.
• The Late Show does a recap of last week's talking points.
• Trump's pet Devin Nunes is doing his part to ruin democracy.
• Even George W. Bush thinks Trump is some "weird shit."

The US government is getting more bold at demanding private data from social media websites. All the more reason to not include your private data on web sites.

Pat Robertson cries that Christians like he are being "dominated" by homosexuals. Phrasing!

Mormons are becoming more and more like Evangelicals. This preacher says parents should give money to the church even if it means starving their own children.

The problem and joy of dams.

The FFRF goes to the Ark Encounter.

Feeling: Annoyed

• Bill O'Reilly isn't just a racist, he's also a sexual predator. In addition Fox News's sexually assaulting CEO, the network has had to pay out $13,000,000 in lawsuits to protect O'Reilly from the many women who worked for him or appeared as guests that he sexually harassed. The Washington Post gives an overview of his decades of harassment. He really needs to learn how to shut his damn mouth.
• Despite Trump filling the White House with his family members and friends who use their position for insider trading, he still can't do anything with the Tea Party obstructing everything.
• Mike Pence's unusual eating habits display the similarities between American Christians and Al Qaeda.
• Just in time for Transgender Awareness Month, North Carolina tries to silence them.
• The LA Times has an article about how nobody really expected Trump to fail this miserably as President, but, yeah, I think a lot of us expected this.
• Devin Nunes continues to sabotage the Trump/Russian investigation.
• Trump complained that too many jobs were going to foreigners, but what does he expect when he keeps cutting American education making Americans less desirable to companies.
• China is allied to North Korea. Trump is meeting with China. So what does Trump say just before the meeting? That the USA is prepared to go to war against North Korea.
• To all those Trump voters who believed Trump couldn't be corrupted because he's already rich... how do you think he got rich?

Another high school creates a ridiculous girl's dress code for a dance, but to top it off, the girls who wear a modest enough dress get a lovely endearment for dogs.

Why does it feel like you've lost a family member when a dog dies? It might have something to do with 10,000 years of co-evolution.

Some rather odd results of food studies.

An interesting lecture by Bart Ehrman on the New Testament.

Feeling: Surprised

• Wow! Mike Flynn has offered to testify to the FBI about the Trump administration's connection with Russia provided they give him immunity for prosecution! So far, the FBI isn't interested, either because they don't think he has any useful information, or because they already know enough to take them all down!
• Trump, while speaking at women's empowerment meeting (you already know this is going to be funny) claimed his cabinet was full of women (it actually has fewer than any since the 1980s), and then was shocked that the women at the women's empowerment meeting had ever heard of an obscure American named... Susan B. Anthony. How unbelievably sexist and ignorant do you have to be to think other women wouldn't know about Susan B. Anthony?
• The Guardian makes a good point, the USA has never seen a party less-caring than the current Republican party. Republican administrations from the past often welcomed welfare programs and environmental protections, but the current Republican party is against everything unless it helps the rich get more money.
• Gun nuts are shockingly easy to manipulate. Tell them someone bogeyman is going to outlaw guns, and they'll throw you their paychecks to buy more. So, the people who love guns the most are also extremely impulsive and knee-jerk. That's not a safe combination.
• Trump is learning the hard way that being an asshole might get you elected, but it won't give you a successful presidency. Trump doesn't have a clue how to motivate people who disagree with him, so I'll just cheerfully watch the party melt down with all the in-fighting. They may be destroying what Obama did, but they can't build anything new.
• Republican Scott Wagner believes global warming is occurring because the Earth is getting closer to the Sun. Had he read this children's science article from the Library of Congress, he would know that it gets warmer in the summer due to the tilt of the Earth, not it's proximity to the Sun along its elliptical orbit. Wagner also suggests that, because humans have warm bodies, and there are more humans than before, global warming may be caused by population increases. This is also the kind of hypothesis that could be figured out in the science class Wagner obviously skipped. First, human body heat ultimately comes from the Sun, so it doesn't actually increase the planet's temperature. Second, even if it did, it would be a negligible amount. Republicans really are the anti-science party.
• Mike Pence's Christianity causes him to have some very strange eating habits when it comes to women.
• Despite Republican opposition, the rape kits in Georgia are finally being processed.
• Johnnie Caldwell is a Georgia Republican Judge who had to step down to avoid being prosecuted for sexually assaulting and harassing several women, but now he may be elected to an even higher office because he's running unopposed.
• An interesting point to bring up, nobody wants ISPs to sell their private personal information. Really, nobody. However, corporate entities very much want this because it will make them more money. If we held a popular vote on this, everyone whould vote against it, but Republicans don't care what the people want, they only care about helping corporations get more money because they'll give the Republicans some kickbacks.
• Coal is a dying industry, so we should be working to replace it with greener energy, but Trump still wants to whip the dead horse a bit longer.

The University of Louisiana might be destroying several million specimens of plants and animal species in order to have a better Track team.

Strangely, a glass or metal splinter isn't as dangerous as a rose thorn.

Christians keep buying up hospitals which is bad news if you need treatment for endometriosis or an ectopic pregnancy, but even worse news if you work for them and expect to retire.

The math behind fitting a couch around a corner.

Feeling: Angry

• For seven years the Republican Party has been trying to kill the Affordable Care Act, and even when they control the entire government, they're too impotent to do it. But that won't stop Trump from lying about it.
• Of course Devin Nunes will continue to lead the investigation of Trump's involvement with Russian, he even admits that it's the Democrat's problem that he's too good of friends with Trump administration to do his job properly. I mean, this is an administration that has been actively trying to block any investigation of their criminal past.
• Conservative bigot, Tomi Lahren, just learned first hand what it's like to be a woman in a caveman's party. She was fired for expressing her less than firm opinion on abortion.
• The Government Accountability Office has agreed to investigate all the taxpayer money Trump is paying to himself in his many vacations to his own property.
• Aetna lied to the public that they weren't making money on Obamacare. They were, but they wanted more, and Republicans used their lie to help bolster support for the ACA's repeal.
• Trump's lawyers don't believe he should have to stand trial for sexually assaulting one of many women because he's the president. He has many important things to do. Like golf.
• Even the CEO of a coal company has tried explaining to Trump that he can't bring back coal jobs.
• Trump is still blaming Clinton for all his problems, even suggesting that it should be Hillary, not he, who should be investigated for Russian collusion.
• Republicans just voted to let companies like Comcast and AT&T, without your consent or knowledge, sell your private personal information including your medical history, financial history, web browsing history, and even information about your children. Republicans claim this is good for you because, by eliminating oversight and allowing profits to increase, other companies will see how much profit they make, and want to start broadband companies of their own. Of course, this is bullshit. ISPs do not need to sell you Social Security number to make ends meet, they're bursting with money because they're monopolies. And it is because they're monopolies that it doesn't matter how much money they make, no other company will be allowed to compete with them. Republicans have done what they always do: give more money to people who are already obnoxiously wealthy at the expense of the poor.

I so greatly admire anyone who can stick to a game long enough to build one all alone.

Birth control should be cheap and easily available for everyone.

Sheesh, you traumatize a child by holding them under water in an unwanted religious ritual, and people just freak out!

It's illegal in the USA to execute people who are mentally disabled, but for years Texas has been executing them anyway because they devised their own criteria for what it means to be mentally disabled. To Texas, the only people who are mentally disabled are those who are so disabled they can't preform even simple tasks like mowing a lawn or playing a game. Their definition had no scientific basis, and the US Supreme Court just ruled that they must fix their standard and bring it in line with current medical understanding.

Racism, rape, and sexualized children are just some of the wonderful things we find in children's cartoons.

CGI animated characters look better when they're less freakish.

Feeling: Angry

The semi-live-action Beauty and the Beast movie isn't that good.

• One of Obama's claims to fame was a push toward environmental stability. Granted, it was nowhere near strong enough to prevent the oncoming catastrophe of climate change, but at least it was a step in the right direction. Well, Trump is going to ruin everything that Obama worked so hard to achieve, even to the point of eliminating government climate data.
• Republicans are expected to eliminate any Internet privacy that you might have expected.
• Reader Neo pointed out an important fact. The 33 Republicans who opposed Trumpcare didn't hate the bill because it would ruin people's health care, but because it wasn't going to ruin people's health care enough! The self-proclaimed "Freedom Caucus" has a mission, end government safety nets, no exceptions (unless you're rich). This isn't a surprise when you consider the Republican wish list.
• Ayn Rand was a pro-choice atheist who hated caring for the less fortunate. Naturally, she is the Republican Party's unofficial spokeswomen.
• The cost of the Trump family's vacations could fund several of the programs he's trying to cut.
• What happens when Trump's campaign is converted into Dungeons and Dragons terminology?
• Bill O'Reilly proves that he can be racist and sexist at the same time.
• A judge just ruled unconstitutional the law passed by Louisiana Republicans which prevented people from marrying non-Americans.
• Obama created an executive order which prevented government contractors from cheating their workers out of wages and forced them to have safe working conditions. Trump just repealed this executive order because he is pure shit.

Finally! A white terrorist is actually charged with terrorism!

Death may still be undesirable, but it's not so scary when you don't believe in an afterlife.

Mighty Morphin Power Ranger video games are really awful.

Usually, if you hear someone talking about "Millennials" you're listening to a bigot.

Bible historian Bart Ehrman explains several biblical contradictions.

Feeling: Angry

I added cat breeds, logic symbols, Spanish time words, and a third level to religious symbols to my Flash Cards site. I also resize the image to fit your browser.

• Well, it's official, Trumpcare has failed. Even when the Republicans run everything, they still can't figure out how to make anything work. The New York Times lists the 33 Republicans who refused to vote in favor of Trumpcare, which shows that there are only 33 sane Republicans in Congress. One good thing to come out of all of this, is that it shows just how callous and evil Republicans are.
• Donald Trump gave the Chancellor of Germany a £300,000,000,000 invoice for US defense, because he doesn't understand how NATO works.
• Trump lies all the time, and while many of his lies are childish (like how many people attend his speeches), some of them are serious threats to the USA, like when the FBI explained that they are currently investigating Russian attacks on the stability of the US democratic process, Trump lied saying that the FBI told congress there was no Russian hacking. The Trump presidency isn't going to be remembered for a few lies, or even a lot of lies, it's going to be remembered as a time in American history when truth died. Fox "News" continues to help Trump with his lies, reporting that he's working when he's actually on vacation... again. Trump may be garbage, but at least there are still puppies.
• Vladimir Putin, like all modern dictators, is ruining his country. The more he tries to control the Russian people, the less likely other countries are willing to make deals with the country, and the Russian ruble has been sinking like a stone. Eventually, the people will revolt, but this will only happen if major countries like the USA continue their sanctions. Unfortunately, Trump is a huge fan of authoritarian dictators like Putin.
• In an effort to reduce Trump's corruption, Democrats have introduced a bill that will require the President to release information about who he speaks to even while on vacation (something Obama willing did, but Trump refuses to do), and they're humorously naming it after the place Trump goes to waste millions.
• A military strike in Iraq killed around 200 civilians, and it appears to have been executed by the US. Not that this is a shock, it's precisely what Trump said he would do.
• The government, because it serves all Americans, is supposed to be neutral on matters of religion and business. The Trump campaign is not neutral on either, preferring Christianity over all other religions, and certainly preferring Trump businesses over all others.
• You want to feel bad for the people who voted for Trump even though their family members are illegal immigrants and they're now being deported. After all, they really are losing an important part of their lives, and it's going to cause some serious repercussions, but then again, it's hard to feel bad about people who brag about how great of a shot they are just before shooting themselves in the foot.
• If Trump kills NPR, many rural cities will lose their only source for local news.
• Trump gave his daughter security clearance even though there is no possible reason she should have it, and now he's giving a serious raise in power to his inexperienced son-in-law. You know, the one who is being questioned about his involvement with Russia.

I'll bet you didn't even know that United Airlines has a dress code for female guest passengers and may force women to change out of their tights and into a dress.

The strange history of make-up.

Another white terrorist.

Watched the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie over the weekend. Meh. Lindsey Sterling does it better.

Postmortem of Star Control.

Paleontology also disproves Noah's flood.

Feeling: Angry

• Trump thinks he is a great negotiator with the best deals, but even when Republicans controlling the House, Senate, White House, and majority of Governors, he's still failing to get Trumpcare passed! Maybe if they used a bucket analogy?
• Mike Pence is proud of the fact that the future of American health care is being decided by a room full of rich old Christian white men.
• The hated Keystone XL oil pipeline is officially back on track to ruin the drinking water of Native Americans.
• Trump's terrorism "expert" has a fake degree and Nazi sympathies.
• With all the lies and bullshit coming out of Trump's mouth, we barely have time to hear the rest of the news.
• Trump's budget sounds like a gay porn: Hard Power.
• The White House let Trump have a field day so he could pretend he was driving a big boy truck.
• Republican George Faught believes that if a girl is raped by her father and becomes pregnant, she shouldn't be allowed to have an abortion because it was God's will.
• When it comes to the White House, it's not breaking news, it's breaking nonsense, which is about as believable as this skit.
• Jeff Sessions continues his losing fight against weed.
• Trump just learned that Abraham Lincoln was Republican.

Some facts about Internet memes.

Yet another Christian lies that they will deliver a secular sex-education message, but when they're in front of public school students, it's all about abstinence and their god.

Bart Erhman answers questions about the problems with the bible.

Remember Josh Duggar? The guy who sexually assaulted his younger sisters and cheated on his wife with hookers? His wife is pregnant with child number five!

Why didn't old timey people smile in their photos? Because they didn't have teeth? No, probably because photography was serious business.

The mayor of Carey, Ohio suggested doing away with prayers at council meetings because he didn't want to lose his taxpayer's money fighting the same lawsuit that so many towns have lost in the past. After his suggestion, he decided to resign because he received many threats against his life. We must assume that these threats are coming from people who fancy themselves proper God-fearing Christians.

How we might be able to save the local news.

Feeling: Frustrated

I beat Neutopia last night, my second TurboGrafx-16 game. I would have liked it more if I didn't know about The Legend of Zelda.

• Today we get to see just how good Republicans are at destroying health care for the poor, sick, and elderly. Vox explains it quite succinctly: if you're a millionaire, Trumpcare will give you $50,000 a year, but if you're poor, you will lose $1,420. It's a shame that Republicans are just now starting to warm up to the idea of Obamacare after stupidly voting to have it taken away from them.
• Republicans have shown contempt for the US Supreme Court for years now, and soon, all their obstructionism will pay off. We learned that Trump's pick, Neil Gorsuch, even as he refused to answer any questions of substance in his hearing, had one of his earlier rulings overturned by the Supreme Court that he will soon be on. The case was whether public schools should have to accommodate disabled students (Gorsuch doesn't think they should).
• The US military budget is far too large, and we wouldn't have any problems caring for the sick and educating the poor if we could simply divert those funds.
• Are you the kind of person who enjoys shooting a mother bear in front of her cubs from a helicopter? Well good news, Republicans are allowing that again!
• Republican Steve Curtis is one of those loudmouths who believed Trump's lie about massive voter fraud, and you already know where this is going, he's facing charges for voter fraud.
• There is absolutely no reason to give Ivanka Trump security clearance.
• At least there are a few Republicans who recognize that the party chooses itself over the country and have the decency to officially resign.
• The Wall Street Journal (of all places) brings up an important point, Trump has proven himself to be so dishonest that he could go on television and claim a foreign power was attacking the country, and a large population of the world wouldn't believe him.
• Allowing Republicans to be involved in the Russian investigation is like trusting a fox to guard your hen house. Time and time again, they've proved they value party over country, and they did so again when Devin Nunes, the head of the Republican side of the investigation shared his findings with Trump, but not his fellow investigators.

Wearing glasses will not ruin your eye sight, that's just a myth.

As your science education level increases, your views tend to align with the experts of the field. For example, a layman may disagree with evolution, but those who take biology classes in college and are exposed to the evidence of the theory tend to comprehension and accept it. However, there is an interesting outlier to be found with how Republicans accept climate change. A recent Pew Forum poll showed that, regardless of how much science education they have, few Republicans accept climate change. At first, this made me wonder, perhaps Republicans know something about climate change that I don't, but after reviewing the results in more detail, I no longer think is the case. The data show that, regardless how much they understand science, the more a person identifies as a Republican, the more contempt they have for science in general, especially climate science. Also, the poll gauged a person's science education level with general science questions in the fields of biology and physics, not a person's understanding of climate science. It looks as though the Republican denial of climate change comes a general hatred of any science that disagrees with preconceived beliefs.

Crash Course Philosophy teaches you about language and meaning, the implications behind words, and how they cause harm.

I've seen hundreds of Christian vanity plates in my years of driving, so why does it take a lawsuit for a non-religious person to get their vanity plate?

A postmortem on Populous.

Feeling: Frustrated

• The FBI is disagreeing with pretty much everything Trump has said, yet Trump lies about the FBI while the FBI are calling out his lies! The most interesting thing is that Trump Tower was wire tapped back in 2013, but it wasn't at the request of Obama, it was by the FBI, because there was a Russian mafia boss staying there. But, these willingly-ignorant Fox News watching mothers don't care about Russia's involvement in Trump's victory, so you shouldn't either.
• Trump may have promised those coal miners they would get their jobs back, but the reality is, coal plants are closing despite Trump's lies, and they should die off because they are inefficient compared to better, cleaner, and safer technologies.
• Republicans really are trying to ruin life for everyone who isn't rich, and for good reason, Trump has threatened any politician who doesn't try to push through his plan.
• Remember when Republicans held hearings on access to birth control and everyone involved was male? We all mocked them at how sexist and backward they were. Well, Trump's Republican's are still just as bigoted and thoughtless. Each year, the US holds the African Global Economic Development summit to discuss the growth of African businesses, but nobody from Africa could actually make it because Trump denied all their visas.
• Trump's head of the State Department, Rex Tillerson, who used an alias to talk about the effects of climate change on his company so he could continue to claim he didn't believe in it, will not be attending a key NATO summit because he'll be in Russia. Maybe it's because NATO is now claiming that Russia is involved in the politics of more than just the USA?
• At least a little good news comes out, the US Supreme Court just ruled that law enforcement cannot search your cellphone without a warrant.
• Not that I'm surprised, but the US government is no longer involved in the Human Rights Hearing.

Texas Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack starts his court sessions with a bible reading and a prayer and tells anyone who may be offended by this, including the people who are at his mercy, that they should leave the court if they are offended, but their wanton heathenism will definitely not change his ruling on them. Yeah right! He was encouraged to stop using a government institution to discriminate against people that don't believe in his version of a god, but he refused. Now he's facing a lawsuit where he doesn't get to be the judge.

Fixing some quibbles with a recent evolution video.

Microsoft unleashed a strong marketing campaign about the quality of their new Edge browser being ultra fast and ultra secure, but it was the most-hacked browser at a 2017 hacking contest where five exploits were discovered.

Twenty lessons learned after 20 years of Magic.

Cosmic Skeptic does a Q&A after reaching 80,000 subscribers.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Trump's budget is going to ruin the US economy.
• Trump's approval rating has dipped to it's lowest number yet, which makes me wonder, what did you think would happen? You voted for a human parasite.
• The US has been investigating Russia's interference with the US election since July of 2016, and are still investigating it, including another one of Trump's cronies, Roger Stone.
• Trump won't bother going to security meetings prepared by the CIA or FBI, but he will give his daughter security clearance. Just one more person to do his job for him so he can play more million dollar rounds of golf.
• Congress costs Americans about $2,000,000 each year just in the cost of pastries.
• Neil Gorsuch, the man Trump nominated to fill the vacancy in the US Supreme Court, claimed that many women manipulate companies for maternity leave, hiring in shortly before or after becoming pregnant, waiting until their maternity leave is complete, then quitting. He wasn't able to provide evidence for this practice, but he still suggests that companies should demand to know from their female applicants if they're pregnant or thinking or becoming pregnant, so they can refuse to hire them.
• I have a hard time believing that Republicans are too stupid to understand climate change. Instead, they're lying that it doesn't exist because they think protecting the environment will hurt their profits. Of course, if everyone shared the burden equally and worked toward a greener business model, we would promote business growth, create jobs, and raise income all at once. But Republicans are usually too short-sighted to worry about that stuff. And, if you want a reminder of the reality of climate change, take a look at National Geographic's before and after pictures of glaciers.
• What happens when you spend all of your time worrying about terrorism.
• Tennessee Christians already convinced the state government to create special Christian license plates, but that's not enough. Now, Republicans are trying to force all drivers to use Christian license plates.

Be careful if you think probability can prove the existence of your god, because that means there's an even higher probability that some other god exists.

US courts continue to set dangerous precedences favoring trigger-happy police officers over innocent civilians. Police can now shoot you dead in your own home, and, even if you're completely innocent, your family can no longer sue them for wrongful death. Andrew Scott was slain after Florida Deputy Richard Sylvester and three other police officers shot him several times after police confused him with a criminal they were pursuing. This is just another reminder that the police should never be trusted. Unless you need their help, never open your door to the police, never talk to the police, never let the police on your property.

Ninteen-year-old Shana Grice called the police on her ex-boyfriend (29-year-old Michael Lane) who had been stalking her and her new boyfriend. According to Grice her ex was following her around making unwanted phone calls, and leaving disparaging notes to her new boyfriend. Police investigated, but because her ex was able to show them text messages where Grice seemed to be sending mixed signals, the police not only dismissed her allegations, but fined her for wasting their time. A couple months later, Shana Grice was murdered.

Christians still physically and emotionally abuse children in cruel ways.

Postmortem of Marble Madness.

Racists continue to be emboldened by Trump even risking their jobs as waiters and refusing to serve non-US residents.

Feeling: Happy

We had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day party, and today is the first day of spring!

• Remember when Trump mocked Obama for taking vacation (Obama actually took very little vacation time) and said if he were president he'd be so busy working hard for the American public that he wouldn't have time to take vacation? Well, Trump was lying. Not only has he taken more vacations than probably any other president in history, he's also costing the American tax payer more than any president in history. In fact, if he would just stop taking so many vacations, we'd be able to keep the National Endowment For the Arts and Meals on Wheels, which gives you an idea just how minuscule his budget cuts are to things that matter. TLDR: Trump's budget is terrible.
• While trying to defend their evidence-free accusation that Obama wiretapped Trump, the White House blamed British Intelligence. Now, they're had to apologize after they couldn't find any evidence that the UK spied on Trump at Obama's request. But where did the lie about the UK being involved come from? Fox News.
• Republicans defend Trumpcare by saying healthy people should have to pay for sick people, but that's precisely how health insurance works.
• Trump complained the political leaders of our nation are incompetent, and he was finally proved correct the day he took office..
• Having a hard time paying back your student loans? It's about to get harder. The man who uses bankruptcy to get out of paying his own debts wants to make sure you can't do the same.
• While he was on the campaign trail, his supporters loved the fact that Trump said horrible things about racial minorities, women, and non-Christians, and while I don't expect him to change his rhetoric, he's finally realizing that his words are hurting him, and he can't fire the American people.
• Protesting is very important, but if it doesn't convince Liberals to vote, it doesn't do a damn bit of good.
• Trump embarrassed the US at his meeting with the German Prime Minister, but even more afterward, claiming Germany owed NATO and the US vast sums of money for military protection. The German Defense Minister had to teach Trump how NATO handles defense, because he doesn't know.
• Why is it important that governments don't have access to your private data, because democracies are sometimes replaced by totalitarian regimes, and the new government will want to use the surveillance to murder freethinkers.
• Christian Republican Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, has spent his career promoting religion, but now that Islam is raising, he's suddenly injured by prayer in school.
• Racist fascists are becoming more vocal all over the world.

The US has long since lost the drug war, but our bloated military budget has put military-grade equipment in the hands of local police who are trained in a military style to deal with ordinary citizens. SWAT teams are bursting into homes, destroying property, shooting dogs, burning children, and often killing innocent people without any consequences. Fun!

Want to learn about non-coding DNA?

Aron Ra calls one of those Christian TRUTH billboards and finds that they're not too interested in the truth.

Postmortem on Oregon Trail.

How can someone who is a Christian support the Muslim ban?

Feeling: Happy

On this St. Patrick's Day, remember, if you don't get drunk to celebrate a Catholic saint, you're making baby Jesus cry.

• So here's the breakdown of Trump's tax plan. Big cuts in medical research, science research, climate change research, education, feeding the helpless, and helping the poor, so that we can focus on what's important, more war machines.
• For reasons of national security, the CIA does not verify hacking claims. That way, even if someone does successfully hack the CIA and releases top secret information, people can't be sure the data is really the CIA's data, or just someone pretending it's the CIA's data. Then Trump comes along and blurts out, yes the CIA was successfully hacked, meaning all the top secret information on WikiLeaks is valid!
• While working under Trump, Michael Flynn was paid by several Russian groups, including the Russian government, a total of $68,000.
• Trump's second Muslim ban was also ruled unconstitutional.
• The new Republican defense is the "deep state," Democrats that are hiding in the Trump administration to oppose him. Too bad it was Trump's job to replace them, but he and his staff was too stupid to know that.
• When everything Trump says is a lie or "a joke," then you can't trust anything he says.
• Texans are receiving letters from the US government being told they are going to have their land taken away from them so that Trump can have his wall.
• Trump's lie about wire tapping has officially turned up no evidence, but probably cost millions of taxpayer dollars. Trump defended his wasteful lie with the solid argument that he had been, "reading about things."
• Republicans are pushing forward with the bill to allow mentally unstable people to have guns.
• With Trump and Paul Ryan trying to eliminate health care for the poorest and sickest Americans, it makes you wonder, what kind of Christians are they?
• As anyone could predict, Ralph Shortey, a Republican who fought to keep transgendered people out of the proper bathroom because they might molest children, was caught in a hotel room with an underage male teen after an online conversation where he offered the boy money in exchange for "sexual stuff." Despite his crime, other Republicans have refused to fire Shortey, so that he can continue to vote on future bills. Which kind of raises the question, what does a white guy have to do to get fired?
• Stephen Colbert mocks Rex Tillerson and his climate change alter-ego Wayne Tracker.

Catholic priests are still raping children.

The struggles of creating Antichamber.

What it's like to create satire news in a totalitarian regime.

A dictionary writer explains what it means to define a word.

Flint just got $100,000,000 to fix the damage Republicans made to it. Thanks Obama!

Feeling: Frustrated

• Breitbart released a recording of Paul Ryan slamming Donald Trump prior to Trump becoming president, and nobody can really understand why. Are Republicans they trying to sabotage their own party because of the vitriol against Trumpcare?
• Why can't Americans be more like the Dutch where 80% of the population votes, and they defeat the racist Nationalist party? Instead practically nobody votes, and those who do elect a war monger.
• Trump's bigoted past keeps coming back to bite him in the ass. When he claims that his Muslim ban isn't a Muslim ban, judges can look at his past statements and see that he was talking about banning Muslims specifically all through the election, so it doesn't mean much to now claim that it's a generic travel ban.
• Had Trump's ridiculous tax plan been implemented in 2005, when he lost $103,200,000, he wouldn't have to pay hardly any taxes at all. He's changing tax law specifically to help crooks like himself, which means even less money for the government to operate. So less police, fire department, environmental protection, etc.
• Important instructions that will, hopefully, soon come in handy for impeaching the president.
• With all the leaks coming out of the White House, Republican paranoia is at an all time high.

• Trump continues with his plan to defund the EPA.

The beautiful grossness in the science of fruit flies.

Why only teaching your kids the good parts of religion will backfire.

Training your computer to compose music.

Feeling: Annoyed

Finished re-reading Fantastic Mr. Fox. It basically encourages children to steal from ugly people.

• Remember when Trump said he wouldn't draw a salary if he became president? Well, he lied, but worse yet, he's using his salary as a tax write-off, and just like the $100,000,000 he lost in 2005, and wrote off, the cost goes to the American people! Well, at least he's earning that $400,000, right?
• Remember when Trump said he wanted all Americans to be insured and wouldn't touch Medicaid? He lied.
• While trying to defend Trump's lie that Obama wire tapped him, Kelleyanne Conway explains that your microwave is spying on you.
• This headline says it all: Donald Trump White House Has No Integrity.
• Just a reminder that the Trump budget will wreck the economy.
• Trump's Muslim ban is really keeping the American court system busy. Too bad it's ruining American tourism.
• Steve King, the Republican who only wants the USA to produce white babies, is convinced there will be a race war in the near future between African Americans and Hispanics after they overtake white people.
• As Trump continues to destroy public science, people are continuing to see science as a political institution.
• Trump's Defense Secretary, James Mattis, just said that climate change is a national security challenge. Will Trump fire him for his insolence, or keep him in place, knowing that Mattis's opinions won't affect Republican legislation?
• Under Obama, it was mandatory to discuss the handling of public schools with teachers, principals, and student parents. Under Betsy DeVos, the handling of public schools doesn't need to be discussed with anyone except politicians.
• Mike Pence is turning out to be just as dishonest as Trump, but he's more clever about his lies.
• When the US government allows the destruction of the environment, they should pay the price. Naturally, Trump is trying to get out of paying his bills.
• Republicans are hypocrites. They keep demanding religious freedom, but they always vote in favor of religiously oppressive laws.
• Republican Pat McCrory is upset because he's having a hard time finding a job because he's a well-known bigot.

Simone Giertz trains for a NASA mission by locking herself in her bathroom for a weekend.

Why it isn't always important to have your graph show zero.

When we suddenly see a new star in the sky.

Why cartoon characters often wear gloves.

Feeling: Annoyed

Finished reading Freakonomics.

• Republicans complained all the time that we had Obamacare that it didn't cover every American, but Trumpcare is expected to cover 24 million fewer, particularly among those who voted for Trump. Trumpcare is also expected to raise premiums for the elderly and the poor by 750%. Pretty much every part of Trumpcare is a train wreck.
• Republicans in New Hampshire voted to NOT raise the legal age for girls to marry from 13 to 18, probably because they're hoping to land a 13-year-old bride themselves.
• US Border Control, the ultimate racists. At least some Democrat politicians are demanding answers.
• Boy, did Trump sure show us!
• Paul Manafort, Trump's original campaign manager who resigned after it was discovered that he received $12,000,000 from Russia, is being accused of having a part in the Ukrainian genocide by his own daughter.
• Roger E. Ailes, former-CEO of Fox News has been accused of sexually harassing several women at the network. An investigation has been under way for awhile now, but it hit a roadblock when Trump became president. Trump originally kept Obama's investigating attorney Preet Bharara, but recently fired him (probably when it became clear he couldn't be bought). Trump is no doubt trying to find someone to throw out the case, but unfortunately for him, everyone he knows is also in bed with Fox News and would have to recuse himself. Thus, the case will continue.
• What would it take to build Trump's wall?
• If you're receiving praise from a member of the KKK, you're doing something wrong.
• SNL has Al Fraken question Jeff Sessions about his racism and corruption.
• Stephen Colbert does a recap of the previous week of the Trump administration.

Facebook decided to, at least a little, stop feeding your personal information to the police.

Why atheism is not a disease, the bible is not a historical account, and the moral argument is not valid.

Alabama has a long history of continuing to hate minorities long after it stopped being fashionable, and this often backfires on them. Like, when they refused to screen Disney's new Beauty and the Beast film because it has a gay character and instead screened a documentary about drag queens.

People are still arguing that it is religious freedom for a Rabbi to suck the penis of infant boys.

Samuel L. Jackson's entire film career montage.

Feeling: Angry

• Many Americans refer to their country as the "land of the opportunity" and claim a strong "Judeo-Christian heritage," but let us not forget that in 1939, almost 1,000 Jewish refugees escaped persecution from Nazi Germany only to find an American that refused to accept them (largely due to Cordell Hull, a man who called himself a Christian). Their ship had to return to Europe where many of the Jewish refugees ended up dying in the Holocaust. This was a black mark for America, proof that we were xenophobic and selfish. You'd think we'd have learned from our mistakes, but here we are again, refusing to let Muslim refugees enter the country, demanding they go back to where they came, a war-torn wasteland where they will most likely be killed. This is especially infuriating when the data show that most terrorists in America are white Americans.
• The Republicans who, after seven years of trying, finally ruined the Affordable Care Act by turning it into Trumpcare, don't want people calling it Trumpcare. And Trump voters continue to fear the loss of their health care.
• Republican Steve King is a white supremacist.
• Republican Roger Marshall explains, "[poor people] just don't want health care and aren't going to take care of themselves."
• Trump quotes fit surprisingly well with sexist advertisements from the 1960s.
• In Trump's America, the KKK is out in the open.
• Steven Bannon's seedy past, and possible voter fraud, is catching up with him.
• Trump still holds to his claim that Obama wiretapped Trump tower, but he still can't provide a shred of evidence.
• New damning information continues to come out about Mike Flynn.
• Is this the most corrupt White House in history?

Red light cameras are just another way for the government to rob the people all the while claiming to help them.

I wish there were more political leaders like Sumi Kailasapathy who would rather face the people than say a political prayer.

An interesting lecture about how emulation can be used to sell old games.

It's official, Windows 10 isn't an operating systems so much as a really complex advertisement.

God didn't do so well on his annual performance review.

Feeling: Excited

Going to see Eisley play tonight.

I added a solar system objects set to my flash cards program.

• Russia has violated a nuclear arms treaty with NATO, but will Trump do anything to stop his best buddies?
• There are several greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, etc. Greenhouse gases are so called because they're able to absorb heat from sunlight causing the ambient temperature to increase, as in a greenhouse. These differ from non-greenhouse gases like argon and helium which do not absorb heat from sunlight. As you might expect, as the level of greenhouse gases increase, so too does the temperature. We're dumping tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere all the time, so the average temperature of the planet is continuing to rise in step. Scientists have been studying carbon dioxide and its greenhouse properties for centuries, so we can calculate the raise quite accurately and the data bear this out. Unfortunately, Trump's pick for the head of the EPA is either ignorant of science, or is purposely lying to make money, because he is claiming that carbon dioxide is not an important factor in climate change.
• Trumpcare is just Obamacare with a higher price tag and less coverage. But Republicans don't want us calling Trumpcare, Trumpcare. And it's funny to hear Republican's bragging about how small their bill is. Why are they always so concerned about heir size? And should we really believe them when they claim that didn't know that it contained a massive tax break for the extremely wealthy? And why do Republicans have such a hateful view of the less-fortunate?
• Republicans are hypocrites. They claim to be about small government and privacy, yet they work hard to ensure that your private lives can be sold to corporations without your permission. They also claim to be all about ethics, but they don't think ethics should apply to them.
• And this is why the government shouldn't be advertising for businesses or running their own.
• Republican John Shimkus, a good Christian man, doesn't think that men should be expected to pay for women's prenatal care. I guess, in his bible, Jesus said, "to hell with the fetuses!"
• Ben Carson doesn't understand the difference between a slave and an immigrant, but even more frightening, doesn't understand how the brain works.
• It's sad to see CPAC being housed in the same hotel that houses MAGFest.
• Trump having the capacity to control himself for one hour is not a good enough reason to forget all the bullshit he has said in the past, or certainly will say in the future.
• Trump really does know how to pick 'em.

A postmortem on Maniac Mansion.

The bad news is, white Evangelicals have convinced themselves that they are the most persecuted group in America, the good news is, nobody else believes them. Likewise, Republicans think white people are more persecuted than homosexuals and immigrants, and far more persecuted than black people

Dan Barker lectures about the purpose of his book, Losing Faith In Faith.

As the transgendered demand for their freedom, a lot of bigots are beating them to death.

Carol Tavris talks about her book, Mistakes Were Made, but Not By Me.

Feeling: Annoyed

Added dog breeds to my flash cards program.

• When compared to the Affordable Care Act, the new Republican health care plan is an all-around disaster. It will eliminate health care for millions of Americans, especially women, cost more, and cover less. Despite these facts, Republicans, who lack a sense of irony, are calling their tax break for the wealthy insurance plan the "World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017." However, most medical groups are against the new plan because of its many shortfalls, including: the AHA, the AAMC, the CHAUS, the CHA, the AARP, the American Nurses Association, and the American Medical Association. However, there are a few ultra-Conservatives who say the plan doesn't go far enough because they would prefer poor people go back to dying. In what has become a sad twisted reality, the people who were most likely to vote for Trump (i.e., poor Southerners), are also the ones who are most likely to rely on Obamacare.
• The Trump dossier, which was compiled by a British Intelligence agent and suggests that Trump has been compromised by the Russians, continues to be proven accurate.
• Just a reminder, the US spends -way- too much on its military.
• It's a sad time for our country when schools have to hold seminars to teach Americans their rights when being harassed by Immigration officials.
• FBI director James Comey, who used his governmental position to help Trump win the election, says that no American should ever expect to have privacy from the government.
• Some more jokes about Trump's unfounded accusations that Obama tapped his phones.
• Jeff Sessions admitted he lied about the Russians, but now it turns out he may have even lied in his admission!

A postmortem of Zork.

Want another reason to avoid Windows 10 outside of the hideous interface? How about its mandatory built-in advertisements?

Megan Phelps talks about what it was like to grow up in, and finally leave, the Westboro Baptist Church. And a Jehovah's Witness explains why he almost let himself die because his religion told him he can't have a blood transfusion.

Samantha Bee talks about her awesome show, Full Frontal.

Feeling: Frustrated

I finished reading The War of Worlds.

• If you're wondering where your female coworkers are today, they're just trying to get equal rights. No big deal.
• The Republican health careless plan, which has been panned by the AARP, actually encourages health care companies to increase the salary of their billionaire CEOs. This is what happens when you think the length of the law is more important than the content of the law. The plan is expected to cost enrollees about $1,542 more each year for less coverage than Obamacare. While trying to defend this increase, Republican Jason Chaffetz revealed just how out of touch he is and told Americans they need to choose between health care and an iPhone, Americans reminded him that hospital bills cost tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. One group actually calculated the average cost of medical bill using iPhones instead of dollars. A twisted knee costs about 24 iPhones, but a single round of chemo therapy to treat cancer could easily run you 218 iPhones.
• Trump's evidence-free accusations about Obama wire tapping him are quite childish, but also quite expensive.
• Republicans are still trying to let cable and phone companies sell your personal data without your consent and take away a state's right to set decent emission laws, just like Lincoln wanted.
• I think we all knew it would come to this, the White House is now advertising for ExxonMobil.
• Most of Trump's inner circle has had a lot of contact with Russia, and so does Trump himself.
• Trump has spent almost a third of his presidency at his vacation home in Florida.
• A former NSA analyst is claiming that he has evidence that the White House is accepting Russian intelligence to crack down on American journalists.
• Betsy DeVos pays money to start organizations where the boss thinks it's normal to shake your wife.
• Remember the Pakistani father of the US soldier who was killed in Iraq and spoke out against Trump's bigotry? Well, he's now under review by the US government.
• Ben Carson calling slaves, "involuntary immigrants" wasn't the stupidest thing he said recently. He is a neurosurgeon who believes the brain is a video recorder.
• Republicans just removed "science" from the description of the EPA's Office of Science and Technology.
• School vouchers are a way for your tax dollars to go to religions or corporations you don't agree with.
• In case there was any doubt, here are several pictures of Trump's crowd size compared to Obama's across the span of the day.

Our brains don't like having to think.

Why the Wingding's font was created.

Much like Sharia Muslims, Boylan Catholic High School in Rockford, Illinois has implemented modesty rules for school dances. And much like Sharia laws, the rules for boys are simple, essentially a single sentence: wear a suit or tuxedo, while the girl's dress code is several pages including multiple example examples of dos-and-don'ts. They even say that the same acceptable dress on one girl may be inappropriate on another.

A quick and easy-to-understand video that explains the evidence for evolution.

A postmortem on Lucasfilm Games.

Feeling: Frustrated

I added a couple new categories to the flash card project.

• The Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act is nearly ready, and, unless you're a rich male, it will ruin your life. The insurance mandate is gone (the mandate was the only reason insurance providers approved the removal of pre-existing conditions and inability to drop sick patients, so those will come back). Subsidies have switched from income-based to age-based, so if you're poor, young, and sick, you will now receive less help than someone who is rich, old, and healthy. Medicaid, which helps low-income families, will no longer be expanded. Women's health care options will be massively decreased by the cutting of all funding to the largest provider of women's health care, even private insurers will be prevented from being able to cover abortions (even when no Federal money is used), and maternity benefits have been removed. This is what happens when you vote for a party that is proud to watch people die. Our only hope is that federal judges rule the plan unconstitutional in the impending lawsuit against the plan. Just don't succumb to your untreated illnesses before then.
• Safe working conditions may help workers, but they cost money to corporations, and since Trump cares more about corporations than people, he's repealing the requirement for safe working conditions.
• Trump's new Muslim ban is slightly less unconstitutional. It still block people from majority-Muslim countries, but now it people from Iraq, doesn't ban people with valid visas, and removed the wording which gave preferential treatment to Christians (though, I'm sure they will still get it).
• Lying about Russian connections is what Jeff Sessions does best.
• Trump doesn't seem to realize that it was the Republicans who were responsible for Watergate.
• Republicans continue to try and ban pornography, even after several Republican-led investigations showed that it does not harm mental health.
• Ben Carson refers to African slaves as, "involuntary immigrants."

China continues to try to conquer Buddhism.

The Catholic League's Bill Donohue takes a page out of Trump's book and calls the mass children's grave in Ireland fake news.

A postmortem for Portal 2.

How horrifying, a group of poachers broke into a French zoo and killed an endangered rhino just to take its horn.

Great white sharks just don't do well in aquariums.

Feeling: Annoyed

I went to a wonderful Women's March protest in Flint with Wallee.

Working on a new flash card project.

• The latest lie to come out of Trump is his insistence that Obama was wiretapping his phone just prior to the election, an allegation that is completely devoid of any evidence, a claim even the FBI says should be rejected.
• Despite all the protesting, the Keystone XL pipeline will be built thanks to direct intervention from Trump. And although Trump promised it would put a lot of Amercian steel workers back to work, Keystone XL will be built with foreign steel.
• Mike Pence used an America Online email account to conduct state business including matters of homeland security. His email account was hacked while he was in office, just before he started complaining about Hillary Clinton's private email server. Will Republicans investigate or punishment Pence for the same crimes of Clinton? Of course not. Republicans don't care about justice or even the American people, they only care about their party.
• To all those nature-loving hunters and fishers who also voted Republican, Trump is expected to cut the following projects: the Puget Sound restoration project, the Great Lakes cleanup, the Chesapeake Bay restoration, the California coast cleanup, beach water testing across the country, diesel emission reduction, research on harmful chemicals in the air and water, children's environmental education, and 34 other EPA projects.
• It's very unlikely that Jeff Sessions will resign, despite his involvement with Russia, but at least he says he will recuse himself from the investigation that Republicans will never allow.
• Meet Kathy Watson, who has multiple health issues, and couldn't get insurance until Obamacare finally made it possible. She probably would be dead now without Obamacare, so, naturally, she voted for Trump. Then, meet Timmy who is still alive because of Obamacare, and his parents are quite thankful.
• Republican John Bennett forces his Muslim constituents to take a quiz about wife beating and child molestation before he will speak with them.
• Texas Republicans are trying to pass a law protecting doctors who want to lie to their patients if it helps prevent abortions.
• Trump's father was arrested at a riot in 1927 between Italian fascists and the KKK. There's not really a correct side in that fight.
• During the Cold War people had to live under constant fear of two nuclear super powers with their fingers on the button. Thanks to Trump, we may soon wonder what it's going to be like with a dozen nuclear super powers.
• Looks like US ICE agents used immigrants for slave labor.
• Trump isn't the only person who can embarrass himself on Twitter, His long-time advisor also went on a Twitter rant making horrible insults against women.

A postmortem for Alone In the Dark.

A old Catholic home for unwed mothers turns out to also be a mass-grave for children.

Humans are prone to forgetting and misremembering things from the past. There is nothing supernatural about that.

When a child dies of a treatable illness because the parents believe that medicine is demonic, sure, the parents should be held accountable, but so too should the preacher who didn't speak up or even told the parents not to treat their child.

A simple run down of what atheism is and is not.

Feeling: Annoyed

• If your constituents are pissed off at your for not listening to them, it doesn't help to stop going to town hall meetings. And when they get even more mad and start bombarding you office with phone calls, don't do what Republican Ron Johnson did and issue a restraining order against your constituents or what Republican Mike Bost did and use racial slurs.
• While Mike Pence was Governor of Indiana, he used an AOL email account to conduct official State business, and it got hacked. Kind of funny that this was when he was crying about Clinton's email server getting hacked. And it looks like Trump's EPA pick, Scott Pruitt had his own personal email account which he used for government business, and then lied about.
• Trump's massive tax cuts for the extremely wealthy are causing a huge shortfall in the US government. In order to make ends meet, Trump is cutting those unimportant programs like the environment and education. These cuts don't even make up for the loss of tax revenue, let alone Trump's massive military increase. Yet another self-proclaimed fiscally conservative Republican will ruin the economy.
• Trump's team continues to lie to reporters about their connections with Russia, but more ties keep surfacing, like Trump's son, Donald, Jr., who met with a pro-Russia group in Paris just three weeks before the election, and Jeff Sessions who used Republican campaign funds to meet with the Russian Ambassador, as well as two other Trump staffers.
• If you're a racist bigot, pretty much anything you do will look "more presidential," it just makes you a polished turd.
• If you are a Trump supporter, you better not be a Christian.
• Turns out, Jeff Sessions didn't even bother to read the accusations of police abuse and just ignorantly dismissed them. But he did finally realize that his massive involvement in the 2016 election means that he has to recuse himself from any investigation that may take place (if there ever is one).
• For years, Americans were allowed to travel around Europe with only their passport, without needing a visa, but thanks to Trump, those days have ended. Because Trump is refusing to honor the same travel allowances Europe affords Americans, now Europeans will deal out the same level of scrutiny to Americans.

A nice postmortem of Pitfall!.

The important reason why the FDA banned antibacterial soap.

An interesting look at the font, Futura.

Feeling: Annoyed

• For the first, and I'm sure not the last, time, politicians are calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from a Russian inquiry due to his pre-election contact with a Russian officials. Sessions gave testimony during his hearing that he had never discussed the 2016 election with Russian officials, but his own spokesperson admitted that Sessions talked with the Russian ambassador twice while on the campaign trail.
• On the topic of Jess Sessions, Republicans appointed a know racist, and they got one! His liberal use of the N-word aside, Sessions just dropped the case against Texas's anti-minority voter laws and put a stop to the federal investigations of those police departments where officers have a history racist complaints.
• There is a lot of circumstantial evidence both from US intelligence and foreign intelligence that ties Trump and his cronies to Russia, and while it would be wonderful to know the full depth of Russia's involvement in Trump's election, Republican's refuse to ever investigate their own crimes. The little we do know is thanks to the fact that the Obama Administration actually took the Russian threat seriously, and kept detailed records.
• Trump's speech was not "presidential" it was dictatorial, and the major points were all lies.
• The sad state of the State Department under Trump.
• It makes my black-little heart proud to see protesting so effective that it keeps oppressive assholes like Marco Rubio out of his offices.
• US Border Security detained an Afghani man for five hours badgering him about his "tribal chief." The man is a doctor. A Nigerian software developer was detained and Customs demanded that he prove his skills by answering several tech questions like how to optimize a binary tree and describing why you need abstract classes. According to the developer, the quiz was clearly created by someone who didn't know anything about computer science, and the Customs official who administered it knew even less. And, even after supposedly failing the quiz, Customs let the man enter the country.
• White House staffers are leaking so many embarrassing stories about Trump that they've decided to take action. No, they're not going to clean up their act, they're going to violate their staffer's privacy by performing random cell phone checks.
• Trump's nuclear plan is basically to go back to the Cold War.

North Carolina is still sexist.

A wonderful postmortem on Prince of Persia.

Why don't women's sizes make sense? It's not just because of vanity sizing (which also exists in men's clothes), but because women's bodies are so varied, a simple waist and inseam system wouldn't be very useful.

Flint, Michigan still doesn't have clean water after Republicans ruined the entire city's water system, a misstep that has cost the state over $40,000,000 to subsidize the poisoned water supply. But even though the water still contains toxic amounts of lead, and even though Republican Governor Rick Synder promised he would keep helping until March 31st, he's decided to end the support prematurely. Flint citizens are now expected to pay full price for their poisoned water.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Trump's first Congressional speech was mostly lies.
• The Trump administration's Russian connections run deep, but we may never know how deep, because Republicans refuse to investigate them, interfere with intelligence investigations, and keep matters secret.
• Trump claimed that all these bomb threats against Jewish Americans are might actually be false-flag operations designed to make people look bad! What Trump is too stupid to realize is that the only people who are made to "look bad" by these terrorist threats are anti-Semites, which means Trump doesn't already think that anti-Semites look bad!
• Trump cited a study by the National Academy of Sciences to back up his belief that immigrants strain the economy they enter and lower wages, but the study actually shows that immigrants invigorate the economy and do not lower wages. His incompetence is probably why he's declared a military operation against Mexican immigrant, except that it's not a military operation.
• The additional amount of money that Trump is pouring into the US military, not the total, just the increase, is almost as large as Russia's entire military budget. The rest of Trump's tax plan is equally unsustainable.
• Thankfully, the Republicans who were trying to criminalize peaceful protests had their bill shot down. This is good news considering it's usually the police who incite violence, not the protesters.
• Republican Governors are taking a lot of heat in town hall meetings what with the destruction of health care, and Republican's inability to hold Trump accountable for the terrible things he does. This has led some Governors to just simply stop meeting with the public.
• If Trump is the kind of man who blames the US military for his botched Yemen raid, how do you think he's going to act if he starts a war?
• Trump keeps claiming that the New York Times is failing, even though they're seeing a massive boon in sales due to his dangerous policy decisions, and continues to praise racism rags like Breitbart, which is now losing tons of money because they keep losing advertisers.
• Trump decides to take water back to the good old days when rivers caught on fire and we didn't have protections.

It's always heart-breaking when a man who identifies as a feminist is discovered to be abusing women. Self-proclaimed feminist Jamie Kilstein was kicked off Citizen Radio for doing just that. I can relate to Kilstein because, I too have the hormones that make me want to have sex with everything that moves, I too grew up with movies where manly men forcibly grab non-consenting women and kiss them to make them fall in love, and I too sometimes have a difficult time squaring my new-found feminism with what I've been told is romantic or passionate. But I hope to do something that Kilstein has not done: admit that I have wronged women. I understand that the American legal system punishes the truth, and that Kilstein may be keeping quite for fear of a lawsuit, but he should at least have the decency to say what I'm saying now, "To every woman whom I have hurt, I sincerely apologize. It is wrong to make women feel pressured or frightened, and that is never my intention."

Adding lyrics to the music of Civilization.

A postmortem for the game Myst.

When you finally tell your adult son there is no god.

Why Hollywood has gotten better at depicting science in the movies.

Feeling: Angry

I finished reading Carrie Fisher's memoirs, Wishful Drinking. It was just okay.

• Trump's military strike in Yemen was an attempt to kill an al-Qaeda operative. The strike resulted in the loss of a $75,000,000 US aircraft, dozens of dead Yemenis civilians (including women and children), and the death of a Navy SEAL, but the operation failed to kill the al-Qaeda operative or gain any additional intelligence. In the face of so many failures, the White House called the travesty a success. The father of the slain SEAL refuses to speak with Trump and is demanding an investigation, but Trump's people are trying to shut down any investigations because they claim understanding the details of their failure would dishonor the dead.
• Trump is literally using phrases coined by dictators.
• Trump's latest pick for his cabinet is another person with deep financial ties to Russia. At this point, even The Dubyah wants to investigate Trump's ties with Russia.
• On average, women use health care more than men. This isn't because women are more fragile, but that their biology is intrinsically more complicated (what with being able to grow another human). Because of this, whenever we talk about health coverage, it's extremely important to have a lot of women involved in the process... pan to Trump's health care team. Well, at least Trump is finally realizing that maybe he should have tried to understand even a little bit about health care before trying to destroy it.
• Crowds continue to protest Trump's Muslim ban... thanks Obama! And here's how the Arizona police handle protesters.
• Republicans had their chance to expose Trump's tax returns, but they just voted against it.
• All of Trump's posturing about law and order only seems to apply to white victims.
• Trump's racist friend said Paris isn't Paris anymore (translation, it isn't white enough anymore). But France isn't detaining everyone from foreign countries and demanding they surrender the passwords to their private email and messages like the USA. Just ask French historian and Holocaust scholar Henry Rousso, who, after being detained for 10 hours, said the US is no longer quite the US.
• Betsy DeVos just praised Segregation-era Black colleges in order to push her "School Choice" agenda. DeVos, did it ever occur to you that if the government fought oppression, people wouldn't need to start their own colleges?

Why do Americans keep giving awards to racist sexually violent men?

The Canadian parents who let their son slowly die a horrible death of diabetes because that's what Jesus would have wanted have been sentenced to life in prison. Meanwhile, in the USA, their are six states which legally protect parents who let their children die.

John R. K. Howard is a white teen in the almost entirely white neighborhood of Dietrich, Idaho where he's admire for his ability to play football. There is only one black family, and their mentally-disabled son also played football alongside Howard. The black teen received a lot of racist bullying from Howard and other students, which culminated in them deciding to torture the teen. In their locker room, one teammate shoved a coat hanger into the black teen's rectum and then Howard kicked it into the boy's body (which could have killed him). After a lengthy trial, it was determined that racism did NOT play a part in the crime, because, as Howard's attorney explained, nobody thinks terms like fried chicken, watermelon, grape soda, lynching, and KKK songs are derogatory. There's more to the story, but it ends with Howard being told his actions were not racist and certainly not worthy of a jail sentence!

Getting pictures of beautiful animals before we cause their extinction.

Feeling: Angry

Over the weekend, I finished reading "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", saw "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" on stage with Wallee, Allen, and Emily (fantastic!), and wrote commentary for the Jehovah's Witness kid's propaganda worksheet "Explaining Your Beliefs About Homosexuality."

• Just in case you weren't already frightened, Republicans in 17 states are trying to bypass the portion of the First Amendment that grants the right of peaceful assembly, and their cancer seems to be spreading to Canada.
• Vladamir Putin is tied to the murder of several journalists who wrote articles critical of him, and is pushing Russia deeper into the hole of an authoritarianism. However, since the Trump administration closely tied to Putin, the dictator is now rising in approval ratings among American Republicans.
• While white supremacist Steve Bannon maintains he will continue trying to ruin American journalism, one of the Navy Seals who took down Osama Bin Laden says this war on the press is a threat to democracy. Meanwhile, the New York Times fact-checked Trump's CPAC speech, and it's one lie after another.
• Why are Republicans continuing with their plan to decrease the number of Americans with health coverage when the majority of Americans want to keep it and even Republicans are beginning to protest? Because they think, if fewer Americans are required to have health coverage, that's a good thing! Just ask Rick Santorum who believes that there are literally millions of perfectly healthy Americans scamming health care by faking preexisting conditions.
• Not sure where Betsy DeVos went to college, but she must have been sick the day they taught projection in psych. I highly doubt her professors told her what to think, that is the purview of authoritarianism. The goal of college is to promote intelligence and wisdom, the goal of DeVos is to force Christianity onto children.
• Mem Fox, a children's book author was harassed by US customs to the point of tears and a Jordanian with a valid US visa and stellar school record was deported. And, I'm not sure how reputable the Daily Xtra is, but they're reporting that US Customs demanded a Canadian man's phone and computer passwords (and saved them in their database), looked through his personal emails and online dating sites, and refused to let him into the country, because they assumed he was a gay prostitute. US Intelligence explains that this is not keeping us safe from terrorists, but Trump's not interested in intelligence.
• The country should really decriminalize marijuana for personal use, and so many Americans agree that several states have legalized it for recreational use. But those small-government Republicans continue to be the police state.
• A White House staffer explains that Fox News and Brietbart are often used to create fake stories of praise for Trump to try and limit his embarrassing Twitter posts. Of course, Trump hates any news outlet that is using an anonymous source... unless it's one of his anonymous sources.
• After electing a racist Attorney General, Trump appears to have changed his tune on transsexuals in bathrooms.
• Bill O'Reliey interviewed the Swedish Defense and National Security Advisor, Nils Bildt on Fox News, Bildt linked immigration to an increase in crime. There was just one problem, Nils Bildt is not the National Security Advisor. In fact, he's not a member of the Swedish government at all!

Good news, the entire chain of Family Christian Stores, which filed for bankruptcy in 2015, is finishing up the last of its store closings.

Do not trust a theoretical physicist to teach you evolution, especially if it's Michio Kaku who believes that UFOs might be real. not because of evidence, but because so many people have anecdotes about them.

Ed Logg talks about designing the arcade game Gauntlet.

It's always embarrassing when government officials in your own backyard waste your money to defy the US Constitution.

In what is only a shock to the Kentucky politicians who voted in favor of a huge tax write-off for the genocide-themed amusement park, the Ark Encounter wasn't the economic boon the owners claimed it would be.

Feeling: Happy

I beat Bonk's Adventure, my first ever TurboGrafx-16 victory.

• Republican Bill Cassidy showed up late to his town hall meeting and then decided to waste even more time praying so the audience booed his prayer demanding that he get on with it. Angry crowds like this are occurring all over at country, creating a new level of hatred even amongst fellow Republicans. The White House's official position, despite having any evidence to back them up, is that much of outrage comes in the form of professional protesters that Democrats paid pretend to be angry.
• Trump's racial epiphany after seeing shackles used to chain up slaved children was to say... "that's really bad." Well, that ought to solve the problem of racism.
• Rather than learning from all the protests against Trump, Republicans are pushing to let police arrest protesters, not when they're violent, but when police think they might become violent.
• Donald Trump is getting advice from Alex Jones. Let that sink in.
• When Trump fans were waving around red, white, and blue Trump flags, they didn't realize they inadvertently waving Russian flags.
• The good news is, Trump's possible new science advisor, William Happer, actually believes in climate change. The bad news it, he thinks irreparable climate change is a good thing!
• Trump's new anti-immigration policy makes a criminal out of everyone who didn't go through the extremely difficult proper channels to enter the country. But, when law enforcement has to treat everyone as a criminal, there are fewer resources available for processing actual criminals.
• Trump is claiming that he saved the nation $1 billion by making smooth deals with Boeing on a replacement Air Force One and the useless F-35 fighter jet, to which the Air Force replies, no he didn't.

Another white male terrorist.

The complexities of the wage gap between the sexes isn't caused simply by overt sexism, but rather by women still being expected to do most of the house work and child-rearing.

Alexander the Great rap-battles Ivan the Terrible.

No, cranberries will not cure your UTI.

Feeling: Determined

It's February, but I'm driving with my car's top down. The Chinese are really out-doing themselves with this global warming hoax!

• Throughout the history of the USA, we see political groups rise, fall, and sometimes even change dramatically. The Republican party began as anti-slavery, pro-environmentalism, and pro-separation of powers, but are now pro-discrimination, anti-environmentalism, and pro-authoritarianism. These changes moved the party from being the heroes of history to the villains, and now, every move they make puts them on the wrong side of history. They make a mockery of African Americans, appoint a puppet of the fossil fuels industry to head of the EPA, and even though Americans are becoming more accepting of transgendered people because they realize that a person's gender is their own choice which doesn't hurt anyone, they vilify them as rapists and child molesters, effectively banning them from public bathrooms.
• Trump ran on a campaign claiming he would bomb the shit out of ISIS and kill their families, but, it turns out, his perceived real number one enemy of the nation is, the free press. And, by the way, most of the country favors the press over Trump. Let's hope he doesn't follow his buddy Putin and murder reporters.
• Being elected to Congress comes with its perks, one of which includes top-notch socialized health care for life, paid for by US taxpayers. Republicans have complained for years that socialized health care is bad, and now that they have a Congressional majority both in the House and Senate, we can expect them to dismantle their own socialized health care and buy on the free market, right? Of course not, Republicans are hypocrites. While they were enjoying free health care, they fought tooth-and-nail to prevent everyone else from getting it, and even after Democrats finally made it a reality, Republicans wasted millions of taxpayer dollars weakening it and trying to repeal it. Now that they have control, they will destroy it for everyone except themselves.
• What happened to all those smiling white racists we see in photos from the Civil Rights protests?
• The protest site of the Dakota Access Pipeline ends in flames as the remnants of the camp are burned to the ground by the US government.
• The Department of Homeland Security is now lying to the American people as part of its official practice.
• There may yet be a chance to end gerrymandering in the US.
• Like many Republicans before him, Trump claims to be pro-veterans, but his federal hiring freeze has caused at least two army bases to close their child care programs.
• There is some good news about Trump's election, it's causing more women to become interested in running for office.
• Trump is expected to allow your Internet service provider to sell your private data.
• Republicans are arguing that, since Heaven has a gate, wall, and extreme vetting, so too should the USA. But their asinine argument raises more problems than solutions.

Homeopathic teething pills for babies won't numb a baby's teething pain, but it might kill them.

When trying to get your point across to someone else, you first need to ascertain, are they swayed by facts? If not, you can only sway them by emotions.

Rebecca Watson explains why gluing your vagina shut won't help menstruation and why you won't be riding a woolly mammoth anytime soon.

Many states in the US still allow 12-year-old girls to marry older men. The people who take advantage of this are usually religious people afraid that their pregnant daughter will make them a social outcast and pedophiles.

I can see some redneck bigot trying to sue his employer for making him watch a sensitivity training video about respecting homosexuals in the work place, but what does it say about Texas when that redneck bigot is a state judge?

The meteorological problems with the flood myth.

Constant vigilance is what keeps young-earth Creationists out of public schools and prevents Republicans from blocking Democrats from being hired by public universities.

Feeling: Frustrated

• The Washington Post has a great pie graph of how Trump spent his first month as President, mostly taking it easy. All this vacationing and partying is costing us millions, but I'm okay with it because he can't do as much damage if he spends every day golfing and making bigoted posts on Twitter. The real terrifying thing is that his supporters still believe he's doing a great job.
• Trump's budget is expected to lose the US government around $1,000,000,000,000 over the next ten years, but don't worry, he's making up for that shortfall by cutting funding to arts, which makes up a solid 0.0625% of the budget.

• Trump is either refusing to give up his old insecure phone, or too stupid to learn to use a modern phone. Either way, he's a risk to national security.
• Even though there are recorded calls of Trump's staff making deals with Russia during the election and Russian officials saying they spoke with Trump's people, Trump's administration continues to deny they had any contact with Russia at all.
• After giving a talk about the Holocaust and never once even mentioning the Jews, and then, rather than apologizing for the oversight, dismissing the criticisms, Trump finally got around saying that antisemitism is bad, but nobody's impressed.
• Trump literally lies every day.
• Trump is still intent on ruining the water of the Standing Rock Tribe because he stands to gain a lot of money.
• Trump may have removed the executive order which prevented people with mental illnesses from buying guns, but at least the courts are helping keep assault rifles out of their hands.

Honest Trailers does Batman Begins.

Another public school that just couldn't understand why preaching religion to children is illegal just lost a $163,500 lawsuit.

An interesting history of the toilet.

The evolution of human birth.

Feeling: Frustrated

• As Trump continues to lick Putin's boots, it's important to remember what kind of person Putin is.
• Trump's Muslim ban was ruled unconstitutional, even by Republican-appointed judges, but Muslims are still being denied entry into the US. Why do this when most acts of terrorism in the US are committed by white men.
• Jews across the country continue to be targeted, but Trump refuses to denounce anti-Semitic threats.
• Trump's tax plan is a economic nightmare. It basically calls for huge tax cuts for the wealthy, and an increase in military spending, both which decrease the government's revenue by billions. In order to allow his voters to at least pretend he's not causing a third depression, Trump is also cutting out a bunch of programs that help the poor.
• Trump has access to Top Secret information from the FBI, CIA, and NSA, and yet he listens to an anti-immigration story on Fox "News" and repeats it to the public. Worse yet, the Sweden story turned out to be poor journalism and the people involved say they Fox misrepresented them.
• Celebrities claiming that have damning evidence of Trump is not helping the situation. If you have evidence, show it. If not, claiming you do only fuels the people who think you're a liar.
• The person who created the Betsy DeVos segregation cartoon parody doesn't understand just how racist he is.
• Much like George W. Bush before him, Trump is taking plenty of vacations on the US tax-payer's dime.

China continues to build military outposts in the South China Sea.

A story of two Texas hunters were shot out on a ranch after being attacked by violent immigrants was made popular by Republican Sid Miller, but it later came out that they were lying to cover up the fact that they stupidly shot each other.

Some interesting facts about the Nintendo 64.

Kudos to the highest level of an openly-atheist Republican, New Hampshire State Representative Max Sullivan.

What annoys God the most?

Feeling: Frustrated

Took advantage of global warming by playing disc golf without a jacket in February.

• NPR created a transcript of Trump's first press conference with annotations to show all the lies and corruption. And some satire commentary.
• Republicans agree that the corruption in Trump's administration is terrible, and even Trump admitted that he would have ordered Michael Flynn to make shady deals with Russia. So, why do Republicans refuse to investigate the corruption? Thankfully, there are still a small amount of Republicans left in the party who still have a modicum of integrity.
• Trump writes, "Look what's happening in Sweden," which raises some eyebrows. What about Sweden? Their better-educated populace? Their higher-paid better-employed work force? Their lower infant mortality rate or higher longevity? No, it turns out that Trump wanted us to look at the fact that they're helping out Syrian refugees! Of course, there hasn't been a noticeable increase in crime, so the only criticism Trump has is that Sweden is helping the destitute. Oh the humanity!
• Trump has been ordering government economists to lie to the public about growth forecasts to make his insane budget look sane.
• Betsy DeVos complains that her critics want to make her life a living hell. Well, not so much your life, just your desire to ruin education.
• Several states have tried forcing people on government assistance to take drug tests to exclude drug users. Each state that has implemented such mandatory drug tests has found that it actually costs more money to pay for the testing than what would be saved from kicking out the drug users. This goes against the Conservative belief, that poor people are lazy drug addicts, so many people don't believe the facts. Like, for example, the Republican congress.

The FBI has a large dossier on men who graphically threaten to rape and murder women, call in bomb threats where the women live or work, and claim they will go on a school shooting rampage. But, even when the men are caught and confess, the FBI refuses to prosecute them.

If Republican Justin Humphrey is okay saying that women are "hosts" to fetuses, then they means fetuses are parasites.

A very cool postmortem of Diablo.

Hannah Smith, a senior counsel member of the Becket Fund, was trying to defend those Christians who refuse to serve homosexuals when she was asked a pretty simple question, should businesses be allowed to refuse service to an interracial couples? Smith refused to answer the question, so it was posed to her several more times in different ways, but she continued to refuse. What does it say about the racist views of the Becket Fund and Hannah Smith that she couldn't just say, no?

Why is raw fish safe, but not raw chicken?

Americans have a double-standard when it comes to religion. If a Christian commits an act of violence as it is described in the bible, we don't think that person is a true Christian. However, if a Muslims commits an act of violence as it is described in the Koran, we think the person is a true Muslim.

Feeling: Angry

• You would think, with all of his blunders and bungles Trump voters would be very disenfranchised with their pick, but no, online polls indicate that 90% of Republicans are still keeping the faith. Much like Paul Ryan, to them, the party is more important than the country.
• The entire Trump Administration is a series of lies, and further ties to Russian are uncovered.
• When Fox News calls out a Republican, you know you're a terrible president.
• Melinda Gates plans to help pay for the contraception that women are going to lose under Trump's regime.
• Trump lost ten members on his Asian American Advisory Commission. They all resigned due to Trump's bigotry. Also, when Trump was asked what he was going to do to combat the rising anti-Semitism in America, he talked about his Electoral College victory.
• Well, it happened. The guy who has been trying for years to destory the EPA is now in charge of it.
• Trump sees a black reporter and just assumes that they're in charge of setting up meetings for the Congressional Black Caucus.
• Republicans have revealed a draft of their health care plan, and, big shocker, it won't cover nearly as many poor people as Obama's.
• Another deal with the Russians, held in secret.
• Illegal border crossings into Canada have spiked. It turns out, there quite a few people who would rather live in a Canadian jail than in Trump's America.
• Just in case Trump tries to shake your hand.

Another white terrorist who will not be labeled as such.

I love Philomena Cunk.

Florist, Barronelle Stutzman, hasn't learned much from bakers and lost her lawsuit where she claimed religious freedom should protect her from discriminating against people her religion tells her are evil (i.e., gay people). I'm sure she also refuses to sell flowers to people who violate the Sabbath, don't honor their parents, and commit adultery, right? What, no? The only part of her religion she follows is hating gay people? Well that's not very Christian-like! There wasn't even a single dissenting vote, state judges unanimously ruled against her.

Wonderful Tecmo Bowl music, with lyrics.

Lauren and Garyt wanted to have children, but things weren't working out. They tried various fertility drugs, diagnostic tests, corrective surgery, and four in vitro attempts. After years of doctors poking and prodding, they finally get a successful pregnancy, and immediately gave all the credit to their god.

Amazing that civil rights leaders were able to solve all the racist problems in the country in one month!

Feeling: Angry

• Trump's now-former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, bashed Hillary Clinton during the election calling for her to be locked up because of her crimes, even saying that if he did anything wrong, he would expect to be in jail. But, now that he has been caught red-handed making deals with the Russians, he isn't honoring his precious principles. In fact, all these self-proclaimed law-and-order Republicans who pretend to be tough on crime, are letting him off the hook. Of course, one had to wonder, did Flynn make deals with the Russian in a vacuum? Surely the Russians wouldn't believe Flynn could honor his agreement without being authorized by someone higher up in the Trump administration, which is probably why Republican hypocrites refuse to investigate matters further. Thankfully, a wonderful time line has been made which shows just how much involvement the Trump administration has had with Russia over the years, which shows just how false many of their statements, Trump's especially, really are. Rather than investigate their own corruption, Republicans are going to investigate the US Intelligence Agencies.
• The Republicans currently have control of the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and most state Governorships, yet all their clashing egos still can't get anything accomplished!
• Vox has put together a collection of clips of Steve Bannon which expose how racist he really is.
• Trump is just as misinformed about autism as he is any other topic. If your source of data is a multitude of double-blind clinical trials, you know that vaccines don't cause autism. If your source of data is Robert DiNiro, I fear for your sanity.

Despite the growing fringe of white supremacists in America, there is some good news about American religious acceptance. Since 2015, Americans are becoming more open to people of varying religions. The largest jump is in the acceptance of atheists, but other big increases are among Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists. In fact, the only group that didn't see growth is Evangelical Christians, which makes sense as they are one of the least inclusive groups.

Several studies show that doctors tend to under-diagnose pain in their female patients.

Christian Conservative Dennis Prager and his incompetence with political philosophy and biology.

Another 60 extra-solar planets have been found, which is good news because we'll need a new home after we destroy our current one.

Christian politicians in my home state are costing taxpayers more money by trying to force their religion on citizens, but thankfully, Judges have a better grasp of the Constitution.

Feeling: Angry

• The New York Times and CNN were able to confirm several aspects of the British dossier on Trump. Not the pee pee parties, but Trump's ties to Russian officials before the election. When these facts were reported, Trump denied them all and suggested that everyone stop reading the news and instead watch Fox and Friends. Meanwhile, a Russian jet just buzzed an American destroyer at close range without identifying itself and Russians deployed a new missile that violates our peace treaties. You know, just a few dangerous act of military aggression to test how much control Putin has over Trump.
• The Trump administration originally claimed that National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned, but is now claiming that he was fired by Trump due to Russian corruption. So, naturally, Flynn will be investigated and brought up on criminal charges, right? Nope! Republicans are refusing to investigate their own party (probably because of what it will uncover), but don't think that they're being lazy, they still intend to form an investigation over the whistle blower who reported Flynn's corruption!
• John Oliver figures out how to deal with Trump's compulsive lying.
• In Trump's America, the TSA can coerce you to unlock your computer/phone/tablet so they can read all your personal emails, text message conversations, and see your contacts and pictures. If you refuse, and you're not an American citizen, they can bar your entry to the US. If you are an American citizen, they can detain you until you miss your flight and steal your device. They are supposed to return it to you after a few weeks, but what are you going to do if they don't?
• Trump signed an executive order repealing the anti-corruption rule that forced fossil fuel companies to disclose how much money they were paying to foreign governments, claiming that it will, somehow, help American jobs. He also repealed Obama's gun control executive order, so now it will be easier for people with mental illnesses to buy guns.
• White American hate groups like the KKK and especially anti-Muslim groups are on the rise. Steve Bannon must be thrilled that he is the president.
• Ethics groups are still calling for the investigation of Kellyanne Conway for turning the White House into QVC as well as
• Trump's officials are deleting all of there communication records that are supposed to be kept.
• The Daily Show wraps up week three of the Trump administration.
• SNL creates a pretty accurate depiction of a White House press conference.
• Stephen Miller, Trump's cheerleader, went on several rants about how Trump should be the King of America.
• Trumps administration couldn't even be bothered to fact-check a quote from Lincoln.
• Trump is -still- lying about voter fraud.

Addressing some common misconceptions about evolution.

Brentalfloss, and the Game Over Tinies.

On February 11th, Magnum, Oklahoma reached a temperature of 99.4°F, the hottest the state has ever seen in the middle of winter. Damn, those Chinese hoaxers are really selling global warming!

Feeling: Loved

• Trump's National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, has resigned after it came out that he had improper dealings with Russia during the election. In fact, Trump was warned about his corruption by Sally Yates (who Trump fired). Trump's original campaign manager, Paul Manafort, also resigned in disgrace over Russian bribery accusations. But, Trump's response to all the corruption in his administration is to denounce the people who exposed the corruption.
• Speaking of a lack of national security, Trump took a classified military phone call about a North Korea missile test in a public restaurant while people used their cell phones to take pictures.
• George W. Bush had severe disapproval ratings until he started a war, and Nixon purposely scuttled peace talks with Vietnam for public approval (wartime traditionally favors more authoritarian rulers). Will Trump follow this common Republican course of action?
• What fourth amendment?

• I didn't expect it to work, but it's nice to see that 1.8 million people think that it would be an embarrassment to Crown to have Trump visit the UK.
• Trump gives some words of wisdom.
• Rather than bother with US border security, Canadian schools are just eliminating student visits to the US.

A simple explanation of gerrymandering and how it is used by politicians to prevent the public from getting what they vote for.

Crash Course philosophy talks about personhood, free will, and compatibilism.

Mayor Mark Lauretti of Shelton, CT lost $1,000 of the tax payer's money because he refused to stop giving preferential treatment to Christians.

Arguments in favor of string theory.

How to deal with Christian apologetics.

Feeling: Annoyed

• Trump's Muslim ban is shot down by judges again, to which he replies, "See you in court!" Well, yes, they're judges. That's where they work. The US Marines have an interesting take on the Muslim ban that blocked their translators from entering the country. To defend himself, Trump tried pretending he was an attorney and cited a legal article, but his make-believe didn't account for the fact the article he cited actually favored the judges who blocked his ban. Trump also congratulated his adviser Stephen Miller who complained that the judicial branch of government is too powerful, and that Trump's power, "will not be questioned."
• Why did Trump remove white supremacists from the definition of terrorists when they commit the most acts of terrorism in the US, and they're growing on social media faster than ISIS?
• The Trump administration is -still- claiming that there is an epidemic of voter fraud in this country with absolutely no evidence.
• I spent a week in Scotland, and it was amazing, not just from the beautiful scenery and wonderful culture, but also the interesting Scottish people... who hate Trump.
• Mitch McConnell was protested at his house for his sexist attack on Elizabeth Warren.
• DeVos has already made it clear that she wants to dismantle American public schools, so we may as well bar her from entering them. And to give you an idea just how serious she takes her position, after her department misspelled the name of the co-founder of the NAACP, they issued a correction which misspelled another word.
• Now Kmart and Sears are dropping Trump's product line, keep up the good work people.
• In Trump's America, law-enforcement doesn't respect the fourth amendment, and presidents don't respect the Constitution.
• Despite Trump's disregard for truth and journalism, fact-based journalism is the only kind of journalism there is. If it's not facts, it's not journalism. In general, the media is doing their job without lying, but Trump isn't.
• Hypocritical Republicans want less government and prefer it delegated to individual states, unless they defy Trump.
• Trump is not very smart.
• New England Patriots, you just won the Super Bowl, what are you going to do next? I'm avoiding Trump!

What happens when you purposely isolate yourself from other people for several days?

Hope isn't lost. It turns out, if you point a gun at a group of peaceful protesters, even if they're black, and you're white, you can still go to jail!

Bakeries have become civil rights battlegrounds. And Christian Robert Mannarino is on the side of hate. He sued a bakery because they wouldn't give him a reasonable price on a cake with the phrase "homosexuality is an abomination" on it. The lawsuit was dismissed because Mannarino doesn't understand that discrimination doesn't mean preventing people from being allowed to discriminate.

Students in Idaho will no longer learn about climate change.

Ricky Gervais eats hot wings and chats.

Feeling: Annoyed

• Trump's pick to lead Health and Human Services, Tom Price, was confirmed. He claims that he wants to ensure health insurance for all Americans, but he's replacing coverage with tax vouchers and recently cut $500,000,000 from Medicare. He also seems to be cashing in on insider trading.
• Republicans refused to let Elizabeth Warren read Coretta Scott King's letter about how racist Jeff Sessions is, but they didn't have a problem when it was read from by several male Senators.
• Looks like Trump's botched Yemen raid killed nine children including a 3-month-old baby.
• Trump isn't very bright, but several of his evil league of rich racists are, meaning, they'll be the ones calling the shots.
• Trump claims that he hasn't received one call complaining about the Dakota Access Pipeline. Well, to be fair, he hasn't received one, he's received one million.
• Geologists weigh in on Trump's colossal waste of money, a Mexican border wall. And while he's wasting our resources on a useless wall, he's also attacking businesses to help himself.
• Jeff Sessions agrees with Trump's false reality that crime is extremely high (it isn't) and immigrants are extremely dangerous (they aren't).
• By refusing to hire new government employees, the draft-dodger Trump is hurting veterans who need to see doctors.
• The courts shot down Trump bigoted Muslim ban, despite him trying to argue it wasn't a Muslim ban, even after he called it a Muslim ban. Trump isn't doing much winning after all.
• Trump didn't even know about a nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia before talking about it with Vladamir Putin.

A beautiful map of mathematics.

Slate has compiled a list of the dozens of terrorist attacks in the US since 1995, all of which were conducted by white people. But please, ban the Muslims.

John Oliver is too cute to get deported.

NRA members have been paying Wayne LaPierre's $1 million annual salary, but now they just paid for his $5.1 million retirement plan!

Who makes a better front man for Queen?

Idaho Judge Randy Stoker released Cody Herrera, a man who raped a 14-year-old girl, under the condition that he only have sex with his wife while he's on probation, because, really, it's social media's fault.

You have a few orgies, and suddenly the Vatican doesn't think you're right for the priesthood.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Now it's Sean Spicer who is creating a terrorist attack that never happened!
• After Republican Mitch McConnell prevented Elizabeth Warren from reading Coretta Scott King's letter about Jeff Session's racism, Orrin Hatch defended his fellow Conservative explaining that we should be nice to Trump's pick because Sessions has always been a gentleman to him, and asked people to, "Think of his wife." Vox points out the problems. One, Sessions is only a gentlemen to fellow white men, not black people. Two, saying, "think of his wife," implies that his wife is some weak woman that must be protected by strong men. I'm sure Sessions's wife knows precisely how racist he is! Despite the work put forth by Democrats, Republicans voted to appoint the racist Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. So, we now have a man who makes liberal use of the N-word and believes that the separation of church in state, which is detailed in the first amendment of the US Constitution is unconstitutional.
• The Trump administration is suggesting that the US government should demand the user name and passwords of any Muslim trying to enter the country so they can read their private emails.
• Yes, the Trump's really are cashing in on the government, and taking business trips at our expense. Also, dropping the products of such a criminal family is something every ethical company has a responsibility to do, and Trump using his government position to injure that company is not him being a protective father, it's him being a bully.
• One of Trump's investments, the Keystone XL Pipeline, is back in business, and ready to ruin the drinking water of the Native Americans who live there. Thankfully, there is some pressure being put on Wells Fargo, the bank in charge of the project. Seattle, WA and Davis, CA have both voted to drop them as their bank because of their involvement, which will pull several billion out of the bank. I hope other cities follow their lead!
• Trump, who prides himself on being a fantastic business man, called an economist to ask, which is better, a strong dollar or a weak dollar?

When segregation prevents you from getting a loan and the GI Bill only applies to white soldiers, it makes it very difficult to get ahead.

If you work with churches to gather money to pay for a Ten Commandments monument to place on public land with a religious ceremony and claim that anyone who disagrees is attacking your religious freedom, don't be surprised when a judge doesn't believe you when you claim it's there for historical reasons.

Does Comcast really have the fastest Internet speeds? Nope.

Bruce Leonard and his wife Deborah have finally been sentenced to prison terms after beating their nineteen-year-old son to death because he wouldn't go to church any more.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Trump's officials say they will continue their attack on free speech and the free press unless journalists kowtow to Trump.
• In a speech to police, Trump lied about the US murder rate saying that it is the highest it's been in almost 50 years, when, in fact, it's the lowest it's been in almost 50 years.
• As commander of the US military, Trump is ultimately responsible for stopping terrorist attacks. Federal judges, on the other hand, are responsible for making rulings on how the US Constitution applies is interpreted. This is part of an inherent system of checks and balances to make sure everything runs smoothly and to prevent, say, a supposed reckless reality TV host from wiping his ass with the Constitution. Unfortunately, Trump is so incompetent he placed a white supremacist without any experience in national security in charge our nation's security. So, no Trump, any future terrorist attacks are not the fault of judges who are doing their part correctly, it is your fault for being too ignorant to do your job effectively.
• Despite claiming he is one of the smartest people alive, Trump has a very juvenile understanding of global trade.
• In an effort to show just how racist Jeff Sessions is, Elizabeth Warren began reading a letter about how racist he is written by Martin Luther King's widow, but Republicans forced her to stop claiming she had impugned Sessions's character. Of course, as a staunch racist, Sessions has no character to impugn.
• It's so sad to watch these poor Trump supporters explain that, when they voted for Trump, they didn't expect him to actually cancel their health insurance, even though he kept saying he would.
• Just a reminder, your tax dollars are going directly into Donald Trump's pockets, and he's using his government position to hurt corporations.
• Why won't the media tell us the truth about 9/11 and the Bowling Green Massacre?
• A mash-up of Betsy DeVos's incompetent ramblings and the protesters who wish she would have been denied.
• Another one of Trump's failed businesses.
• Attorneys explain why Trump's plan to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which prevents churches from endorsing specific political candidates, is a terrible idea. Need an example?

Captain Disillusion teaches you how to make you own fake viral video and gives an update on the failed Cicret Bracelet.

Watch a Jehovah's Witness couple write their son out of their lives because he's gay.

More songs from the second season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Kellyanne Conway's fake terrorist attack wasn't a slip of the tongue, she had mentioned it before. And now, Trump is claiming the media is purposely covering up terrorist attacks and said he would release a whole slew of terrorist attacks that weren't covered by the media. He's wrong, of course. His list includes several very high profile shootings which made headlines across the globe and covered extensively. Even the more minor ones were reported on. Where would Trump get such a ludicrous idea? From the bat shit crazy conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones!
• All this brings up an interesting question for the media. If the White House has no problem with blatantly lying, how should you report on them when you can't just mock them like SNL's Sean Spicer bit and immigration video bit.
• Is anyone surprised that Trump's pick for Labor Department, Andrew Puzder, employs illegal immigrants? Such hypocrites.
• Protesting is hard thankless work. It involves traveling to a destination, usually at your own expense, and then spending a day that could be self-productive marching and chanting for the benefit of other people. By the time you get home, you're exhausted and have little to show for it. So, don't believe Trump when he tries to delegitimatize his millions of protesters by saying they're getting paid, they're not.
• I don't blame British Parliament who, citing Trump's racism and sexism, refuses to allow him to address the House of Commons, claiming that speaking is not a right, but an honor he has not yet earned. As it stands, Trump is ruining relationships between the US and several nations.
• Is $818,000 enough money to buy the Department of Education? Yes.
• Melania Trump's lawyers explains that she will be using her status as the First Lady to make millions as a walking clothing advertisement.
• Trump's order to build the Keystone XL pipeline means the protesters have to go.
• Banning Muslims means also preventing them from doing their jobs, even when they're furthering American science.
• The Independent makes a salient point, the USA is no longer the leader of the free world, it's Europe.

Thousands of civilians were executed by the Syrian government.

Using black women as exotic fantasies isn't just sexist, it's also racist.

As Arkansas inches closer to putting up a Satanic monument at their Capitol, the state is trying a new tactic, create an emergency law so they can vote on whether they need to obey the Constitution.

Feeling: Angry

Saw the Vagina Monologues on Thursday with my mom, had a colonoscopy on Friday, took part in another protest on Saturday. Like a boss!

• How many lies can Trump tell in a week? A rhetorical question, but the reality is it's been another fully dishonest week for the Trump administration whose lies are growing. Hell, even Teen Vogue is now fact-checking Trump.
• In order to offer reasons for their Muslim ban, the Trump administration fabricated a terrorist attack. Thankfully, federal judges are refusing to allow the ban, but the stories of the people who were detained at airports will serve as a testament.
• During his campaign, Trump was all about Wall Street reform, but instead he's doing what he's told by bank managers and removing the restrictions on dangerous lending which were created to prevent another 2008 depression. Trump explained his actions saying his friends need more money.
• Trump offers a helpful way to determine real news from fake news. If the new is negative toward him, it's fake. Interestingly, he lists every major American news outlet except his buddies at Fox "News" which is objectively the least honest.
• Trump's family is costing tax payers millions. It cost $100,000 to send Donald, Jr. to Uruguay to further his father's business. Melania Trump's (who eats diamonds) refusal to live with Trump in the White House (and who could blame her?) costs New Yorkers $1,000,000 every day. It shouldn't be too shocking that Trump is using his position as President for his own personal gains and funneled the money people donated to his campaign into his businesses. No wonder Trump is facing over 50 lawsuits after being in office for only 2 weeks!
• American terrorist organizations like the KKK are thrilled that Trump is removing them from the federal group that monitors terrorism. And watch a black woman read Trump's speech for Black History Month.
• Trump's not interested in filling his cabinet with competent people, he only wants loyalty. And he gets loyalty from his racist Attorney General who is also a bigot and blames disabled children for the decline in civility in public schools.
• Trump's botched Yemen strike may have even more civilian deaths than originally reported.
• When you elect a reality celebrity for your president, you get a reality show for a country.
• Trump continues to defend Putin, even at the cost of denigrating the USA.

Arkansas has passed a new law which allows a woman's right to an abortion to be contingent on her husband's approval, even if she is raped by him.

As we've seen from all the protests against Trump in his first two weeks, protesting can work. However, never forget that protesting is tricky work, and it is always important to understand they ways an oppressive majority can undermine your efforts.

Never trust a company that is claiming to give you something for free. Companies are not in the business of earning less money and so-called "discount cards" are just a sleazy way for companies to squeeze more money out of your business and erode your privacy. So, when telecomm companies that are near monopolies already claim to offer free services, it's probably not because they don't like money, but instead because they want control over how you can access the Internet.

After the official Royal Commission was released on sex abuse in the Australian Catholic Church, the final number is shocking. Over 4,000 people have reported having been abused by a member of their church. Of all the Catholic priests in the country from 1950-2010, 7% have been accused of sexual abuse!

Feeling: Angry

Have to get a colonoscopy tomorrow, so I'll probably be too sedated to update. The perks of getting old!

• Using a racial slur in the process, Trump threatens Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto with a US military invasion if he doesn't take care of his "bad hombres."
• When Jimmy Carter's plan to rescue hostages from Iran failed, he took responsibility, even though it was the US military that botched it. Now Donald Trump has ordered a Navy Seal strike on a Yemen home suspected to house al Qaeda militants. Pretty much everything went wrong. Their plane crash-landed injuring several Seals and another was killed in the ensuing firefight. When the Seals finally infiltrated the house, they killed everyone in it including several women and children and the 8-year-old daughter of the country's former agriculture minister, then burned it to the ground. Trump called this a success. Although Trump lies about most things, he is certainly being true to his word when he said, "You have to take out their families."
• Trump owes another $6,000,000 for fraud. I wonder how many back-alley deals he's going to make as President to get his money back?
• Like a tantrum-prone teen, Trump, upon being informed of Obama's arrangement to accept some of their refugees, hung up on the Prime Minister of Australia, whining that it would hurt his political image. Trump later folded and said he would honor the agreement, possibly after being reminded that Australia could replace the US with China for trade deals.
• Scott Walker explains to Trump that America can be fixed by eliminating unions for government workers. It's those damn employees making barely enough money to feed their families who are ruining America, it has nothing to do with the ultra rich 1% who pay nothing in taxes.
• Even though most terrorism in the USA is caused by American-born white men, Trump's regime wants to change the "Countering Violent Extremism" program to the "Countering Islamic Extremism." Currently, the program targets any form of violent extremism whether it comes from the KKK, Black Panthers, or Jihadist. Its new highly specific and irrational name implies that it will ignore white supremacists and neo-Nazis. This is about as stupid as changing the "Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms" Agency to the "Marlboro" Agency.
• Republicans claim they only want to accept immigrants who are willing to work, Trump says he's going to put America back to work, and Starbucks solves both problems at once by saying they'll hire 10,000 immigrants. Naturally, racists threatened a boycott because they only want white people to get jobs, but their cries were drowned out by people pointing out their hypocrisy.
• DeVos's goal, take your tax dollars away from public schools and give them to private Christian schools.
• To be a non-profit organization you have to prove that you are helping the community and you must keep very detailed records of your money for the IRS. Unless you're a church. Churches don't pay taxes, but they don't even have to attempt community progress or keep any records at all (which is probably why they're so often implicated in corruption). One other part of being a non-profit means not being allowed to endorse political candidates. Non-profits can talk issues all they want, but they can't name names. The idea is, if you don't want to contribute to the country's infrastructure because you're -so- concerned with helping people, then you don't need to be so involved in politics. Of course, in reality, churches have been getting away with endorsing political candidates for years without punishment, and it wasn't until the IRS was sued that they finally pretended to care. But, if Trump gets his way, churches will become Republican political rallies even more than they already are.

According to a recent Pew Research Poll, 83% of Republicans believe that you must speak English to be a true American compared to 61% of Democrats. 43% of Republicans say it is necessary to be Christian to be a true American compared to 32% of Democrats. 35% of Republicans say you must be born here to be a true American compared to 32% of Democrats. Also interesting, these numbers decrease as a person gets a better education, becomes less religious, and among the young, indicating we're heading in the right direction. Each nation varies widely on their level of nationalism.

The only moral dilemma behind autonomous cars is why are we afraid to have them when they're clearly safer that even the best human driver.

Honest Trailers does The Princess Bride and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Just a reminder how wasteful US military spending is, and how hard it will be to fix the problem.

Feeling: Annoyed

• Protesting works. Donald Trump was going to go to Milwaukee to visit a Harley-Davidson factory, but the company decided it was in their best interest to rescind the invitation. Trump has become so toxic, they would rather take their chances with his useless Tweets than millions of protesters. But don't forget, dictators will always try to take away your protesting rights.
• During his campaign, Trump claimed he would renegotiate with pharmaceutical companies to get better deals. Well, he met with several of them, and after his meeting decided that the pharmaceutical companies are barely scraping by, so he decided to lower their taxes instead. It doesn't help that Republicans in the Bush Administration created a law to prevent the government from negotiating with drug manufacturers.
• In order to justify his tax cuts for the wealthy and massive military increases, Trump has decided to cut out nearly everything good that the government does. Art, literature, civil rights, public radio, environmental protections, science education and investigation, and energy investments are going to be eliminated entirely saving the nation about $7.3 billion a year, which sounds like a lot until you realize that he needs cut about $1,050 billion to make his tax plan work. translates to just $22.36 a year per person. http://time.com/money/4639544/trump-nea-sesame-street-budget-cut/
• A closed Republican meeting was infiltrated and recorded by an anonymous person and the recordings sent to various news outlets. What was discovered from the private talks? Republicans support Trump's wasted effort investigate non-existent voter fraud, they think repealing the Affordable Care Act is political suicide, and they wondered how they can massively increase military spending and a useless border wall for Trump without first removing all the laws they created to prevent runaway government spending!
• Betsy DeVos was approved by Republicans and will become the head of the USA's education programs. Just to add icing on the unqualified inexperienced cake, DeVos cheated on her approval questions. And more horrible news, looks like Jerry Falwell, Jr. will also be ruining American education.
• Trump admits, like the self-proclaimed "fiscally responsible" Republicans before him, he's far more interested in military spending than a balanced budget.
• Michigan's Attorney General is Republican Bill Schuette. He actively worked to eliminate women's abortion rights, ban same-sex marriage, and is now siding with Trump's bigoted belief that Muslims should be banned from entering the US.
• Republican's cried "tyrant!" when Obama issued executive orders, even when most American's favored them, but now that Trump's writing them, they can't agree more, even when they're bullshit.
• Trump's message to CNN, if you don't do what we tell you to do, we won't grant you interviews!
• Trump's America is about to get a little smaller as Republicans plan to sell off an amount of land equal to the size of Connecticut to private owners. Oh yeah, and they're trying to drill for oil in National Parks.
• Trump officially nominates Neil Gorsuch for the US Supreme Court, a man much likened to Antonin Scalia, AKA the most evil judge in recent times. Expect to see the wall between church and state to crumble a little more.
• New York Catholic priest, Philip Pizzo, posted a joke which he thought funny which suggested that anyone who opposes Trump should commit suicide, something Catholics view as a mortal sin. This wasn't seen as a joke by Carlos Coburn, a man struggling with suicidal thoughts who was counseled by Pizzo.
• Despite being a minority victor, Trump continues to alienate himself with the Democratic majority.
• Rebecca Watson explains why Trump is wrong to favor torture.

Once again, to prove they are the party of small government, North Dakota Republicans continue to control when businesses are allowed to open on Sundays (not until noon) because people should be in church, and women shouldn't be out spending their husband's money, but rather at home making him breakfast in bed!

Robert Arnold, former Sheriff of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, thought it was important to put up the Ten Commandments in his jail to force his religion on other people. Unfortunately, he never read the commandment about stealing because he just plead guilty to corruption and extortion charges. There is also evidence that he's guilty of witness tampering and domestic assault.

A collection of songs from the second season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

It took the Prime Minister of Canada to get Fox "News" to finally take down their post implying the Quebec Mosque shooter was Moroccan instead of a white Conservative.

Aron Ra makes some videos for Monster On Sunday's songs Just Like You and Make a Believer.

A bunch of men protest Planned Parenthood.

Feeling: Annoyed

• During the confirmation hearing of Obama's Attorney General, Sally Yates, she was asked by the racist Alabama Judge Jeff Sessions if she would defy the president if he asked her to do something unconstitutional, which Yates agreed it was her duty. In a dark coincidence, Sally Yates was just fired by Trump for refusing to enforce Trump's unconstitutional ban on Muslims, and will probably be replaced by the racist Alabama Judge, Jeff Sessions. Trump's Muslim ban went into effect, and on the first day almost 400 people were detained, but Trump lied and said it was only 100. These detentions caused massive protesting at airports all over the country which Trump dismissed as a problem with Delta's computers. Many Liberal politicians called-out such a bigoted policy, to which Trump, in a very unpresidental move, mocked them by name. Commenting on their Muslim ban, Trump's slime pit explained that they're just getting warmed up.
• Those Trump supporters who thought he would have to clean up his act when he became president are probably kicking themselves now because his vast array of lies are making other countries question if they can trust the US about anything. Despite all their SNAFUs, Trump continues to pretend everything is wonderful and that it's the Democrats who are a mess because it took them a little while to get a microphone working.
• In the USA, we're celebrating the fact that Trump is too chicken to let Mike Pence eliminate Obama's protections for the LGBT, even the Boy Scouts are now allowing transgendered boys, but in the UK outdoes us by officially admitting they were wrong have ever criminalized homosexuality.

Hey, if you wanted to pour gas on the fire, malaria appears to have evolved an immunity to even our most powerful drugs.

Feeling: Cold Sore

• BBC refers to Trump's Muslim ban as "amateur hour at the White House," because he failed to consult legal console before signing his executive order. The order, which requires the dentition of Muslim travelers in airports, even those with green cards (though they let up on that part), has caused huge protests blocking airports all over the country, and Federal Judges are disagreeing with Trump's rules. This mother had to wait at Washington Dulles Airport while here five-year-old son was detained for several hours without her. I hope more people follow Madeleine Albright's lead of registering as Muslim.
• A lot of Conservative web sites were reporting on the terrorist who murdered several people in Quebec, Fox "News" said the shooter was of Moroccan origin, and Trump's press secretary used the shooting as an example for why we need to ban immigrants. Then, it turned out that the shooter was a Canadian-born white nationalist. As expected, Fox and Trump weren't too quick on an apology.
• A recap of Trump's first week in office by NPR and The Nation. Basically, Trump lied, a lot.
• Trump met with UK's Prime Minister, Theresa May, and wouldn't confirm to her that the US would keep sanctions against Russia, then told a BBC reporter that he endorses torture.
• Our national security is now being handled by a white supremacist with no experience in national security. Not a wise idea when top Chinese military officials are suggesting that a war with the USA may become a reality.
• How can so many white Evangelical Christians vote for Donal Trump? Probably because 62% of the same people believe that God decides the outcome of major sporting events. And while Evangelicals may still worship Lord Trump, Catholics probably don't approve of him insulting the Pope.
• Over 900,000 signatures were added to an online petition to refuse Trump's state visit to the UK to give him taste of his own immigration ban.
• More Twitter accounts are popping up from people claiming to be government employees to defy Trump's media blackout. Of course, since they have to remain anonymous in order to keep their jobs, there is no telling if they're real employees or Internet trolls.
• Christians often like to talk about the nation's "Judeo-Christian" roots, so you would expect them to be outraged when their elected president gives a speech about the Holocaust and deliberately overlooks the Jews. Sorry Jews, all lives matter! Trump also didn't realize that his ban on Muslims coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day.
• More signs from cities all over the world for the Women's March On Washington.

The cause of life's major evolutionary events.

Christian Kristan Hawkins, head of Students For Life (scary), wants to outlaw many forms of birth control including the birth control pill because she wrongly believes it causes abortions. I can only assume the children she works with are being subjected to her scientific ignorance.

Philomena Cunk is hilarious.

Feeling: Cold Sore

I beat the campaign mode of Antiyoy.

• The Trump administration continues to tell people not to listen to the media, and tells the media not to report what they do. Sounds like a dictatorship. The truth is, you shouldn't trust Trump because he is the most dishonest politician in recent history, his administration is forced to lie for him, and his followers know it. Case in point, if someone quoted a bible verse about how lying is evil without any context, I would not assume it was directed at me. Trump fans, however, get stirred into a frenzy over it. Normal people are not this thin-skinned over the size of their crowd. He's so desperate to have a big crowd size that he's even pressuring the National Park Service to create evidence of a crowd larger than what existed. Trump, your inauguration was a joke. Normal people aren't so fragile over their lack of votes, and don't need to create fake studies that even Fox News won't believe.
• Over one million emails have arrived in the in-boxes of US Senators urging them not to appoint Betsy DeVos to Secretary of Education.
• The guy who thinks climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese is going to force a review on all EPA data before they're allowed to publish.
• Once again proving that Republicans are the party of big government, Trump threatens to override any city who doesn't comply with his bigoted immigration views.
• Just to help prove his corruption, Trump is banning immigration from countries all over the Middle East, except those where he has business ties.
• As Trump give the green light on the Dakoata Access Pipeline, a pipeline in Iowa leaks 140,000 gallons of diesel into farmland.
• The Netherlands made Trump a wonderfully informative video.
• Samantha Bee's recap of the Women's March On Washington.

Mississippi's Republican Governor Phil Bryant just signed into law a bill that allows store owners to discriminate against the LGBT.

David Barton is a Christian liar who creates fake history, Glenn Beck is a Mormon lunatic who sees conspiracies everywhere. By their powers combined, they hope to create a children's museum and history class where they will lie to public school kids for weeks at a time in hopes of preventing them from learning real history from real history teachers!

Feeling: Cold Sore

• No, we don't live in North Korea, but if you listen to Trump's science committee chairman advisor, you'd think that we do. Lamar Smith, after verbally fellating Trump, encouraged Americans not to listen to reputable news journals and instead get all their news directly from Trump. Add that to the several journalists who have been arrested and charged with felony rioting for taking pictures of riot that occurred during Trump's inauguration, and you've got the makings of a full-fledged dictator.
• The entire senior management of the US State Department just resigned! These people, who have been working there for years under both Republican and Democratic leaders and knew the job inside and out, and decided they would rather be unemployed than work under the woefully unqualified Rex Tillerson, ex-CEO of ExxonMobil. I really admire their courage! Along with many other government officials who are disgusted by Trump's picks, this appears to be the largest Federal mass-resignation in memory. Not very shocking since even Trump's own team has a lot of terrible things to say about him.
• Trump said Hillary Clinton should be jailed for having private email accounts, but that obvious corruption doesn't prevent his staff from having their own!
• Trump, with his alternative facts still believes that as many as 5 million people voted illegally for Clinton, in fact, he even tells a story about how professional golfer Bernhard Langer wasn't able to vote, but Mexican-looking people standing in the polling line with him were. Of course, Langer couldn't vote because he's not an American citizen, while the Mexican-looking people probably were. Trump's anecdote is probably false, anyway, but it's interesting how in Trump's racist mind, all white people are American by default, while brown people aren't. Even more interesting, Trump's own advisor, white supremacist Steven Bannon, is registered to vote in two states, as is Trump's own daughter. They probably didn't vote twice, but for a man who claims to abhor illegal voting, his staff isn't in a good position to claim purity. The truth is, voter fraud is extremely rare, but when it does happen, it's usually Republican voters and Republican politicians.
• The underlying problem Republican's face with the repeal of Obamacare is not that they have no idea how to keep the good while eliminating the bad. No, the real problem is, as Republicans, they don't believe well-off people have a moral obligation to help the less fortunate.
• Trump is trying to squelch all climate change data, because he doesn't want his precious businesses to be stifled by minor things like the end of life on Earth. Much of the climate research done in the USA is conducted by NASA, and, in what I'm sure has nothing to do with Trump, NASA just declared that all research data to conduct will be made available to the public for free.
• J.R. Doporto, a Trump loving City Councilor in New Mexico posted that women have the right to cook and clean, and if they don't stop their bitching, they'll be slapped. Now he's issuing a series of non-pologies saying he's sorry if he offended anyone, but he doesn't understand why suggesting that women should be beaten would upset anyone. The fact is, Republicans are hated, particularly by women, and they're too ignorant to know why.
• Republicans are still very intent on discriminating against the LGBT community.
• Trump campaigned under the promise that he would build a wall along the Mexican border and make Mexico pay for it, using logic that only the most uneducated would believe. Well, he still plans on building the wall just using taxpayer dollars instead. But don't worry! Trump has assured us he will get Mexico to pay us back, he just doesn't have any idea how! He also signed an executive order to indefinitely detain illegal immigrants, rather than deport them, which will cost the US taxpayer loads more!
• Obama had his faults, but he was loved by the people, leaving some very big shoes for Trump to fill, and with Trump constantly being the purveyor of doom and gloom, I don't see that happening. Republicans have made their bed, but they won't be able to sleep in it.

Christians are still trying to use the government to promote their religion, and are still trying to eliminate science from the classroom.

Republican Chris McDaniel claims that most Liberal women are unhappy, lazy, intolerant, hateful, murderers.

Feeling: Cold Sore

• Repealing the Affordable Care Act means going back to a system where pre-existing conditions prevent you from getting insurance, women are discriminated against, college students can't remain on their parent's insurance, and veterans, mothers, and the poor and elderly have less coverage. Senate Republicans voted to repeal.
• Trump is still going to build a useless wall along the Mexican border, but he's expecting the US taxpayer to foot the bill. Yes, I know he claimed Mexico would pay for it, and, if you believed him, you're stupid.
• For all of those who have a "wait and see" attitude toward Trumpenomics, remember that pretty much all economists, both Liberal and Conservative, agree that his economic plan is not going to lower prices, won't create American jobs, and will cause a massive Federal deficit. What do you expect from a man who chants "buy American!" yet everything he sells was made in China!
• Without evidence, Trump's administration continues to claim that as many as 5 million individual cases of voter fraud were illegally cast against him, causing a to reporter ask, if you really believe that, why haven't you called for an investigation of voter fraud?
• Trump's administration tries to fix their lies about his attendance by creating more lies.
• I wish all Governors were as brave as Jerry Brown in his speech to defy Trump.
• It's pretty telling of just how dishonest Trump is that news organizations have to explain the details of calling someone a liar versus calling what they say a falsehood.
• There is a lot of the evidence for climate change, but that isn't stopping Trump from trying to destroy it all.
• There are two things that Trump has done that I think are beneficial. One, he's made a lot of money for political satirists. Two, he's caused more people to read Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
• Trump is expected to destroy American education, science, and innovation.
• Let the national bigotry begin.
• With all the negative press, protests, and accusations of corruption, Trump is annoyed that he can't "enjoy" his presidency.
• Here is a collection of articles written by Mike Pence when he was Governor of Indiana including he belief that smoking doesn't kill, CO2 doesn't contribute to climate change, and how George Washington was a Republican, all of which were known to be false when he wrote them.

The adventures of the Juno spacecraft.

The history of language and how the Tower of Babel myth is wrong.

Korean tech company LG is losing money mostly because of their failing smart phone division. As someone who owns an LG phone, I totally understand this. The phone is garbage, and I have no intention of ever buying another LG phone.

The transition from boxy to curvy car design.

Feeling: Cold Sore

• Lies the the Trump administration continue to tell: Most Americans want Trump to release his tax returns, but they say nobody's interested. Trump's inauguration was not the biggest in history by any metric (the women's protest was even larger), but they claim it was. The popular vote was nearly 3 million in favor of Hillary Clinton with practically no evidence of voter fraud, they pretend there were as many as 5 million illegal votes.
• Despite the protesting, bloodshed, and cries of American natives which prompted Obama to halt the Dakota Access pipeline, Trump follow a long tradition of presidents lying to Natives and reinstate the building of the pipeline. This isn't much of a shock since Trump would stand to lose money if the pipeline didn't get built, since he owns stock in the company building it!
• The White House offered an unprompted press conference, but CNN, assuming it was going to be another commercial for Trump, didn't cover it live, and they were right to do so. The "press" conference was just a series of lies designed to make Trump look good. Other news outlets should stop live-streaming anything from the Trump administration so they can properly fact-check everything they say.
• In order to stop a riot, Police in D.C. started randomly beating and pepper-spraying children and the elderly, and arrested over 200 people including journalists.
• How are Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un alike? They're both so egotistical they declared the day they took office a national holiday.
• As expected, James Comey, the F.B.I. director who used his position to help Trump win the election will be kept by Trump because Trump loves sycophants.
• If you're a woman who thinks she doesn't need the Women's Rights Movement, that's wonderful. It means everything is going great for you. However, don't be so self-centered as to think that all women have it as good as you do. The march wasn't for the few women in positions of authority, it was for the majority who are not.
• The Conservative strategy is for billionaires to pay people to create fake controversies of fear and doubt against any legitimate science that goes against their bottom line, and it is shockingly effective. If you've ever met someone who believed climate change was false, second hand smoke wasn't that bad, evolution was a lie, the EPA harms innovation, unions take their money, or similar unscientific beliefs, you know just how dangerous they are.
• Many scientists saved or copied as much data as possible before Trump took office because they feared Trump would try and erase it from public view. They were right.
• Thousands of coal miners suffering from black lung disease rely on Obamacare for treatment and may lose their coverage when its repealed, meaning their health will rapidly decline, and they'll die. And they purposely voted for this to happen to them.

In Oklahoma, it's legal to force a woman to give you oral sex, if she is unconscious.

The Russian military presence in Syria continues to grow, but do you think Trump will do anything to stop his best buddy Putin?

Republican Tony Tinderholt is trying to pass a bill that will treat rape victims who have had abortions as murderers. He's doing this because he believes that women aren't responsible enough with their sex lives. Tinderholt is currently on his fifth marriage.

Republican Bill Kintner, best known for having to pay a $1,000 fine for using government computers for cybersex, posted a picture that implied the women of the D.C. march were too ugly to be sexually assaulted, and, rather than apologize, complained that he was being misconstrued.

Republican Peter Palumbo, known for calling a school girl an "evil little thing" because she upheld the US Constitution, has been arrested for embezzling over $70,000.

Philomena Cunk is just plain amazing.

If you live in Texas, there's a good chance your tax dollars paid for a Catholic medical facility that refuses to treat women's health.

Detecting gravity waves is no big deal.

Four people were killed and thousands of dollars of damage was caused by a tornado in Mississippi, but a giant stone statue remains, so, clearly, Jesus loves you.

Part of what makes science so great is that no idea is sacred.

Feeling: Cold Sore

The Women's March On Washington was an amazing show of strength and solidarity for women all over the world. Every major city in the USA held a rally, and I am proud to have taken part in this small piece of history thanks to the Michigan Education Association. It says a lot when the protest for Trump was three times larger than his inauguration, and, when all cities are combined, the largest protest march in the history of the nation. I'm still sore and exhausted from the trip, but it was sooo worth it! Only wish I got to see Samantha Bee. Unfortunately, all the stress and lack of sleep allowed for a cold sore. Boo, hiss!

• Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer (who really hates Dippin' Dots), lied about the size of Trump's inauguration which was quite small compared with those in the past while Kellyanne Conway backs up the truthiness of his "alternative facts."
• Trump promised to do 36 things on the first day of his presidency. He failed to do 34 of them. Trump ignored all promises relating to immigration, energy production, gun control, and wall building. So what were the two promises he kept? One, he halted the hiring of federal workers, and two, he halted the creation of federal agencies. Yes, for Trump's first day in office, the only promise he kept was the elimination of job growth!
• Even though people are just now starting to make a stink about it, fake news has always existed. But even with fake news, the majority of the American people still voted for Clinton. The real enemy that allowed Trump to take power is gerrymandering.
• Although Trump promised he would place his businesses in a blind trust before taking office, he has not. Despite his mistaken belief that putting his family and friends in charge of his businesses will prevent corruption, this will most likely lead to a lawsuit for the violation of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause... oh wait, it just did!
• While entirely surrounded by men, Trump banned all money to any foreign aid agencies that takes part in abortion. This will mostly hurt poor women.
• Even though Trump has mocked the CIA in the past, and rarely bothers to read the intelligence reports they prepare for him, he still had the audacity to stand in front of a monument for CIA agents killed in the line of duty and lie to them saying nobody loves them more than he. Former CIA director John Brennan found his lies infuriating. And just like is joke of a press conference, Trump brought in subordinates to cheer for him since nobody else would.
• Even among Republicans, there are many who want to keep Obamacare, but that won't be enough to stop their blind party loyalty. Expect thousands of people who lose their insurance to die.
• Trump, not knowing how government works, didn't bother to put together a White House cabinet until the very last minute, and, in many cases, still hasn't assigned positions. You would assume that he would keep the existing Obama staff working at least until he could replace them with his own incompetent cronies, but that would be rational. Instead, he fired all of Obama's ambassadors even though nobody has been hired to do their jobs.
• In Obama's last press conference he actually told the press "good luck" with handling the Trump administration!
• The Twitter accounts of several government bureaus were shut down after the National Park Service made posts critical of Trump. They have since been reactivated. Sadly, Trump's Twitter account has yet to be banned.
• The USA had a law that helped fast-track immigrant Cubans due to their country's especially terrible government. However, with the growing friendliness between the two nations, Obama recently ended the preferential treatment of Cubans requiring them to go through the normal channels of immigration. Unfortunately, there were many Cubans who were trying to immigrate into the USA before the law ended, but arrived too late. There are currently over 1,000 Cubans at the Southern-US border unable to get in. They now rely on Trump to have a change of heart.
• A little late, but the Daily Show's take on Trump's mockery of a press conference, And Late Night tackles his lack of preparedness as he takes office and how bad his inauguration was.

I like my new mouse pad.

The Patriarchy may have ruined most of history, but they didn't take Friday the 13th away from women. But alt-med is still trying to sue away its critics.

Feeling: Determined

I'm heading to Washington D.C. tonight to be part of the Million Woman March protesting the inauguration of an admitted sex-offender president.

• Trump was inaugurated today. Not exactly a big turn out.
• Obama chose a nuclear physicist to head the Department of Energy. Trump is replacing him with Rick Perry, a man who vowed to permanently eliminate the department, but couldn't even remember its name, and doesn't even know what it does! Frighteningly, the same man who thinks gay people are evil is now in charge of the US stockpile of nuclear bombs.
• Trump's inauguration party is looking pretty dull.
• As the old saying goes, pray for peace, prepare for war... with China.
• What we can look forward to for the next four years in Trump's America.
• Republicans argue that the next Supreme Court judge should be elected by the people, but the majority of people have voted for Democrats in six of the past seven presidential elections.
• When asked why there aren't any Latinos in his cabinet, Trump's spokesman said the cabinet was composed of the best and brightest, indicating that there isn't a single Latino brighter than Ben Carson. And just look at how Trump's sycophants treated Hispanic students.
• Why aren't we celebrating Kellyanne Conway as the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign? Because her two-faced lies helped elect a racist sexual predator.
• Trump fooled his voters into thinking he was going to get bankers and billionaires out of politics, and then made them his entire cabinet.
• First action as president, remove from the White House web site the pages about climate change, LGBT rights, and health care. Then, steal an Obama photo for your Twitter background.

In the Wall Street Journal there is a nitpicking of Edward Snowden where the author claims that Snowden took many secret military documents from the NSA unrelated to surveillance. I'm fine with that--do you expect a whistleblower to hang around for months painstakingly teasing out proof of unconstitutional surveillance?--this had to be a smash and grab job. The author explains just how dangerous it would be for these documents to fall into the wrong hands. First of all, how poor is security at the NSA when a junior-level employee has access to millions of secret documents and can just walk out the door with them? Second, if the NSA wasn't lying to Americans, they wouldn't be in this mess. The author critiques Snowden's information of the events that happened while fleeing the US government. I'm fine with that--if you were afraid an unscrupulous government agency was trying to make you disappear, do you really think you'd know when your passport was revoked? And would you simply give up when they did? Finally, the author claims Snowden lied that he didn't give any secret documents to the Russians, but he fails to offer any hard evidence. The best he can manage is testimony from two Russian "insiders," who apparently are just as bad at keeping secrets as the NSA. Bottom line, while I fear for the damage caused to our nation's security, it was the corrupt and unethical practices of NSA that is ultimately responsible.

Indiana Republicans are trying to pass a law that gives police the legal right to kill protesters.

Aron Ra finishes up his critiques of the so-called Irrefutable Proof of God with parts 17, 18, and 19.

Finally! Someone made a robot that will serve you beer.

Religious barbarians continue to destroy their own history.

Feeling: Determined

Well, this should squelch those rumors about me being gay, a Time Line of Musicals.

• DeVos wants more guns in public schools, wants to allow the elimination of education for disabled children, and doesn't know about a long-standing debate in education, measuring a student's educational proficiency versus growth, or even the difference between the two. But what can you expect from a woman who lies to the Senate. When she was told that the charter schools she champions in Michigan routinely under-perform the state's public schools (except those that expel students with difficulties), DeVos's only response was that, "there is a lot that has gone right." Sure, for the bank accounts of the inferior charter schools, but certainly not for their students. I guess, when your boss had to pay $25,000,000 because he conned people with a fake university, you can expect her to accomplish her goal, the dismantling of public education.
• Millions of Americans want Obamacare repealed even though they don't know what it is.
• This probably won't shock anyone, but Trump's pick for Department of Treasury is a corrupt banker who "accidentally" forgot to mention $100,000,000 in assets.
• Since Trump's tax plan is expected to cost the nation billions every year, he needs to make some deep cuts in government spending. Now, he could simply eliminate welfare for corporations that post massive profits, but that would be ethical. Instead, he plans on cutting the unimportant things like the departments that oversee safety and fairness in transportation, justice, commerce, and energy. He also plans to eliminate the public broadcasting (NPR and PBS), public arts, and public humanities.
• Trump explains how he stole, borrowed, entirely by himself thought up his slogan, and how he plans to hold parades of military war machines through our cities, just like Russia, North Korea, and China.
• As any expert on border security and they will tell you that a wall is practically useless for stopping illegal immigrants.
• The whole point of the freedom of press, is that they're able to investigate politicians and hold them accountable for their corruption. So, naturally, Trump bans them.
• There is some hope the nation can weather the next four years, if Trump is as useless as he claims to be.

Before it was an estimate, but now it's official, 2016 was the hottest year ever recorded. The Chinese are really good at making hoaxes. Do you know what the hottest year ever recorded was before 2016? 2015. The hottest year ever recorded before that? 2014! Climate scientists are trying to capture as much data as possible before Trump shuts them all down.

How Bitcoin works and why Luigi is the richest man in the Mushroom Kingdom.

White men help teach us what MLK Day is all about, like preacher Franklin Graham who re-purposes an MLK quote about racism to say American Christians should fight their horrible persecution, and Rob Schneider, who already knows more about vaccinations than a doctor, now he knows more about civil rights than a civil rights hero.

Just a reminder, Flint, Michigan is on its 1,000th day with water poisoned by Republican politicians.

What's the deal with Spain's border, and what is the hottest thing ever?

It's a bit late, but Adam Ruins Everything did a pretty good election lecture.

Feeling: Determined

• Betsy DeVos's hearings were just as bad as expected. It was moderated by Republican Lamar Alexander who purposely held the meeting before the investigating ethics committee could find all of DeVos's conflict of interests and only let people question DeVos for five minutes before cutting them off. When asked if she would work to cut funding to public schools and privatize them, her non-answer indicates that she will. She advocated for guns in school because students need to protect themselves from grizzly bears. When reminded of her millions of dollars of donations to Christian hate groups that torture gay people to turn them straight, she explained that she embraces equality in people, "no matter their age." Tim Kaine kept asking her a simple question about whether she believed that same standards should apply to public and private schools, and she just kept chanting, "I support accountability." Elizabeth Warren grilled DeVos about her knowledge of higher education, especially the handling and distribution of all of money used in government loans and grants, and for every question, DeVos answered that she had no experience whatsoever. But probably the most infuriating comment came from Joe Lieberman who said DeVos's most important qualification is that she doesn't know anything about the politics of public education. Of course, there are billions of people in the world who similarly don't know anything about the public school system, but unlike DeVos, they didn't give Trump $2,700,000.
• An accurate portrayal of Trump's sham of a press conference.
• The repeal of the Affordable Care Act will leave millions of Americans without insurance and cost more for those who still have it.
• With every intelligence agency in the US in agreement that Russia hacked America, probably to help Trump get elected, there is one lone voice arguing that it is Obama who is trying to negate Trump's legitimacy. That lone voice is from dictator Vlaimir Putin. Well, him, and the Republicans who think Mexican TV stars endorsing Clinton was just as bad as Russians hacking US government computers.
• Trump lies that it is only reporters who care about the tax returns he promised to released but hasn't, when in fact, it's 74% of all Americans.
• While they're in control, Republicans plan on destroying any law that keeps American clean or beautiful. Next on the chopping block, the Endangered Species Act.

I would totally follow youth pastor Nick Thune.

Despite the Arab Spring, Egypt is still a dangerous place if you're not a Muslim.

Epic Rap Battles between Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, Wonder Woman and Stevie Wonder, and Nice Peter and Epic Lloyd.

Feeling: Determined

• Republican ethics solution: when the ethics board points out all your ethics violations, don't eliminate the violations, eliminate the ethics board.
• Trump's pick to head the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos, has a goal. To use the American public school system to promote her ideal of Christianity, a Dutch Calvinist Reformed ideal. As she explained at a Christian meeting, "Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God's Kingdom."
• Just before introducing legislation that would increase the Zimmer Biomet corporation stock dramatically, Republican Tom Price bough several thousands of dollars worth of stock in the company. Rather than be punished for this shady practice, Price is now Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services.
• Republicans claim to be tough on crime and like chanting "blue lives matter," but it's a Republican billionaire family who is cutting the retirement of Michigan police officers.

Thanks in part to the Obama administration and groups like Planned Parenthood, abortion has fallen to it's lowest level since Roe v. Wade. However, with the changing of the guard, we should expect to see more abortions as Trump and his cronies work to dismantle women's reproductive rights and affordable access to birth control.

As the rate of rape increases, New York Police Captain Peter Rose explains that, unlike being raped by a total stranger, most women are raped while on a date or by an acquaintance, so he's not too worried about the increase.

Do you think a Conservative would be okay if their tax dollars were used to repair a mosque? No? So why are they fine using everyone else's tax dollars to repair a church?

Alex Dainis gives a 2017 check-in, how to stack 24 dimensional spheres, detecting antimatter light, a thermal camera over a Bunsen burner, and a beautiful map of physics.

Coal is a very dirty and (hopefully) dying form of energy production, but as long as politicians are more concerned with their bank account than their children, they will continue trying to outlaw green energy production.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Our president-elect likens US government intelligence to the Nazis while at the same time praising a Russian dictator. Now Israel is afraid to share military information with the US because they fear Trump will share it with Russia. With tensions this high, now is probably not a good time for C-SPAN to accidentally replace a Russia-critical speech with Russian state-controlled television. And speaking of Russia, they just decriminalized beating your wife. Expecting Trump's praise in 3... 2... 1...
• NATO is a military alliance between 28 nations (most of Europe and North America) which not only helps member countries maintain peaceful relations, but also prevents violent nations like Russia and North Korea from invading their neighbors. NATO was instrumental in preventing North Korea from conquering South Korea, they kept the USSR at bay during the Cold War, and, more recently, have been protecting nations against ISIS and Russia. Part of what makes NATO such a powerful force is the agreement that, if you invade any NATO nation, all NATO nations will come after you. Naturally, NATO is instrumental in keeping a peaceful world, so, naturally, Donald Trump opposes it. He also opposes the European Union and is expected to purposely make poor trade deals with the UK in order to help them out now that they left the EU.
• How does Trump celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day? By insulting one of MLK's right-hand men, John Lewis, a Civil Rights leader, by saying he's "All talk... no action or results." Meanwhile, a Mississippi city is changing MLK Day to Great Americans Day so they can also honor Confederate General Robert E. Lee. You can bet these are the same racists who tell Democrats to get over their loss for the presidency.
• Some Americans do get universal health care paid in full by the US taxpayer. These are the same people are in the process of eliminating health care for everyone else in the country. Why would they take the only health care option available away from 23 million Americans? Because they stand to personally make millions doing so. Most Americans want to keep the Affordable Care Act, and protests are occurring all over the country and you can see why by reading this Reddit of people who are expected to lose their coverage without any chance of getting any more.
• The Trump administration is a bunch of dishonest bullies and cannot be trusted. Now they're threatening the ethics committee in charge of keeping them honest, exactly they type of behavior you expect from corrupt politicians.
• Before Trump chose Betsy DeVos to head the Department of Education, a woman with no experience in education whatsoever, she belonged to a Conservative Religious organization called the Acton Institute which in an article called, "Bring Back Child Labor," extols the virtues of eliminating protective child labor laws and minimum wages so children can honor God with labor.
• Sure, when Trump brags that he grabs women by the pussy, it's not big deal, but when Republican Christopher von Keyserling does it, he gets arrested for sexual assault!
• Trump and his picks are racist, incompetent, and corrupt. Really, really corrupt.

Another victory for the Constitution as a giant Christian cross is removed from public land.

The Oliver Twins are famous British game programmers, but not to the level of Shigeru Miyamoto. Either way, they both had to design their first games in assembly.

David and Collet Stephan, who don't believe in medicine refused to treat their one-year-old son's meningitis (a disease he never would have acquired had he been vaccinated), even after being warned by a medical professional, and instead tried curing him with fruit juice and maple syrup. As expected, their homemade concoction didn't work, and their son died a painful death. The couple was found guilty of negligence, with a maximum of five years, but the father was only given four months in jail and the mother three months of house arrest. So, what did they learn from their child's death? That they should be spokespeople and tell other parents about the wonderful health benefits of all-natural medicine!

Skiing Ostriches aren't real, and YouTube algorithms aren't out to get you. Although, this one might be.

You always hear Christians talking about the importance of religious freedom, but to them "freedom" means being able to force other people to abide by their Christian restrictions. Case in point, Mike Dunn is trying to stop everyone from learning about LGBT families because, even though they're not Catholic, he is. Interestingly, while the number of religious people in America who have come out as LGBT has remained stagnant for the past five years, the number has increased among the non-religious, probably because, despite Christians assuring everyone that they love gay people, it is the non-religious who are actually compassionate toward them.

A black man wearing a hooded sweatshirt was seen using what appeared to be a metal bar on a car which prompted someone to report him to the police as a suspected carjacker. The man, Lawrence Crosby, was pulled over and, with his hands over his head, several police officers pointed their guns at him, violently tackled him to the ground, and beat him while he was down. There was just one tiny problem, Crosby was driving his own car, and the bar he had was just a piece of his car's molding that Crosby was fixing. While the police were holding his face to the pavement, Crosby tried explaining to the police that he had the registration of ownership. When the cops finally realized how bad it was going to look when it came out that they had just arrested and beaten an unarmed innocent black man while he was heading to Northwestern University for his graduate engineering classes, they decided they needed to devise some phony charges quick to make him look guilty. They hauled him in for disobeying an officer and resisting arrest, but he was eventually acquitted. Unfortunately for police, but fortunately for law-abiding citizens everywhere, the video of the police brutality has been made public. The Evanston Police Department assures us that the abuse was done in compliance with police procedure.

Feeling: Angry

• Trump's press conference was a train wreck. In addition to not taking any important questions, his showcased plans of moving his business into a blind trust turned out to be unmarked folders containing blank pages.
• In addition to being a racist, Trump's pick for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, continues to believe that only religious people can be truthful, and that only evil people smoke marijuana. This man is awful.
• Less than a decade ago, it was perfectly legal for medical insurance companies to deny coverage to people who were sick. They could also accept your monthly payments for years until you became sick, and drop your coverage once you started needing it. These vile tactics were practiced by most companies, but the Affordable Care Act put a stop to them. When Republicans repeal Obamacare, they're not just going to take away the insurance of 23 million people who rely on it, they're going to eliminate these benefits and many others from everyone, whether you use Obamacare or not. The repeal is also expected to eliminate about 3 million jobs. No wonder why most Americans want to keep the ACA.
• There are millions of Native Americans who could be hired to lead the Senate's Indian Affairs Committee, but instead, Trump picked John Hoeven, a Republican who opposes the Standing Rock protest of the Keystone XL pipeline.
• As Trump continues to praise Putin, NATO forces are deploying tanks to prevent him from invading Europe. Meanwhile, Trump continues to claim he has never had any dealings with Russia, but he has, for the past 30 years.
• Trump is surrounding himself with Christians who preach the importance of being wealthy, just like Jesus.
• Trump probably couldn't have picked a worse cabinet if he tried. He chose people who are actively trying to ruin the organization they will now lead. Despite this fact, even they think Trump's ideas are too crazy to be followed.
• Trump continues to be a sore winner saying Clinton is, "guilty as hell," even though there is no evidence against her.
• The problem with Trump uses the "people are saying" tactic (that is, saying any unsubstantiated claim and citing "people" as evidence), it will get used against you.
• Obama didn't do a very good job when it came to dealing with immigrants, and Trump plans to make it worse.
• Trump is using his government position to advertise for the companies that backed him and attack those that fought him.

Bo Bice is a racist whiny brat, and Fox "News" is racist.

What it's like for a Muslim woman to de-convert.

An elementary school in Utah is now home to an After School Satan club.

If you're going to be judged based on your moral behavior, you'll probably want an atheist on the bench.

Republican Bill Sanderson is so insecure about his religion that he feels obligated to force everyone in his state to pretend to believe it too.

The Thinking Atheist's 300th podcast.

Feeling: Angry

• During his press conference, Donald Trump refused to take any questions from CNN calling them "fake news" because they reported on a report which shows deep ties with Russian crime bosses. Actually, while less reputable outlets reported the details of the report, CNN did not because they haven't been substantiated. Even Fox News agreed that CNN followed journalistic standards. So, to punish CNN for good journalism, Trump took a softball question from the white-supremacist website, Breitbart.
• Trump's pick for Attorney General, known racist Jeff Sessions, has claimed to work on as many as 30 civil rights cases, but when pressed for evidence, he can only find three with his name on them. Upon further investigation, all he did was sign his name, he wasn't involved in the slightest. Also, for the first time since 1986, you can read the letter written by Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., which pointed out his racism and contributed to Sessions not being allowed to become a federal judge.
• Trump claims that, by handing his businesses over to his children, he's avoiding a conflict of interest, but the ethics panel disagrees. And for good reason, the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution, though vaguely worded, was specifically written to protect the nation from people like Trump.
• I'm glad to hear that the Tennessee woman Republicans tried to imprison for giving herself an abortion is set free, but in Trump's America, this sort of this is going to happen a lot more.
• Even without a plan in place, Republicans have taken the first step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act.
• Trump's pick for Secretary of State, former CEO of ExxonMobil Rex Tillerson, he does not believe the scientific consensus that humans are causing global climate change.
• Obama's totally real farewell speech.

No taxpayer money is used to pay for abortion at Planned Parenthood. In fact, abortion only accounts for 3% of what the organization does. The vast majority of Planned Parenthood includes teaching women about their reproductive organs, giving them pregnancy and STD tests, performing medical health examinations, and selling women affordable birth control. Despite these truths, Republicans have been trying to defund Planned Parenthood for decades.

If you believe Conservative pundits, American Christians are constantly under attack and in need of protection, but when the Christian non-profit group Open Doors ranked countries based on their level of Christian persecution, they discovered that the USA isn't even in the top 50!

Is the United States a country? It depends on how you define "country."

Mississippi has a law requiring public schools to lead their students in a morning loyalty prayer, but that isn't enough for the state's Republicans who are demanding that they do it at the beginning of the school day, or be fined $1,500. Once again, Republicans show that they are the party of forced nationalism, not small government.

Why do we shorten the name Richard to Dick?

Feeling: Angry

• Now that Trump is under the microscope of the press, more information is coming out about his shady business practices, and evidence for some rather shocking deals are coming to light. Was one of his six bankruptcies settled by a Russian crime syndicate? The document in question hasn't been verified, but it would certainly explain his constant praise for their dictator. The FBI also spoke with Trump about compromising personal and financial documents held by the Russians and collected by British intelligence.
• Senator Cory Booker Making sure Trump's pick of known-racist Jeff Sessions doesn't go unopposed. And these protesters are forcing Sessions to remember just how racist he is.
• Trump is anti-science and an anti-vaxxer, so naturally he picked another anti-vaxxer to lead a commission on vaccine safety.
• Despite lying about wanting to eliminate debt, the hypocritical Republicans are trying to raise the debt ceiling by $10 trillion in their budget.
• Trump is gaslighting America.
• NPR puts together some important questions that Trump won't answer because he doesn't answer questions from the press, he prefers Twitter.
• Trump continues to be an ethical nightmare.
• Trump often brags about his projects being finished under-budget, but he never explains that they're under budget because he doesn't pay his contractors.
• Democrats don't have much governmental power left, but they did enjoy forcing most of Trump's picks to disagree with pretty much all of his beliefs. Trump says he wants to water board, his picks admit it's illegal. Trump doesn't think grabbing a woman's genitals without consent is sexual assault, his attorney general does. Trump wants to ban an entire religion from entering the country, his cabinet says it's wrong. Trump doesn't think Russia hack America to try and help him win, his staff says they did. At the end of the day, these are all words, and I don't expect any of his scum to be honest, but at least it's now a matter of public record that even Trump's own staff thinks he's full of shit.

If we used milestones of human history as a basis of the common era instead of magical religious events that never happened.

Christianity continues to devolve into a religion of hate.

Rebecca Watson, psychic extraordinaire.

Feeling: Exhausted

• During the Obama Administration, Republican Mitch McConnell demanded full background checks for everyone in Obama's cabinet, even from the most open and qualified people. Now, because Trump waited until the last minute to put together his cabinet (because he was too ignorant to know he even needed one), McConnell is demanding we skip background checks entirely for Trump's incompetent staff. It's great to quote him his own words to show just hypocritical he is. The scary part is, Democrats won't be able to stop them now that Republicans have a majority and can ruin the nation without any sane checks or balances.
• Appointing your relatives to areas of government has been such a problem that the US created laws to stop nepotism, but will that stop Trump from appointing his unqualified son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to a senior adviser in the White House?
• Just a reminder, Betsy DeVos, who Trump put in charge of US education, has no experience as a teacher, never attended public schools, never let her children attend public schools, is hated by teachers, and made a huge mess of Michigan public schools. She still has yet to be appointed because she her ethics review is taking a long time because she has so many potential conflicts of interest.
• When you're too stupid to know that the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare are the same thing, so you celebrate the repeal of Obamacare even though you rely on the Affordable Care Act.
• Trump's cabinet gets yet another racist blogger.
• In Trump's America, transgendered people are barred and harassed at public restroom, but in reality Republican politicians are more likely to sexually assault you.

If there is a god, it is the god of cancer.

Although the US is not officially at war, we still dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016 alone, almost entirely in the Middle East. I wonder how many innocent people were murdered by the US?

Matt Dillahunty and Richard Dawkins have a chat.

Aron Ra and The Thinking Atheist's 300th episode.

Feeling: Exhausted

MAG Fest 2017 was wonderful, but incredibly exhausting. I only slept about 16 hours total from Thursday to Monday. Watched a lot of great panels on videogames and music, bought a lot of new audio, and made some new friends. Looking forward to next year!

• If your companies are always on the verge of bankruptcy due to crippling debt the way Trump's are, you're not a good businessman. No wonder Trump is still in trouble with the Office of Government Ethics.
• Though I doubt Trump will bite, most Americans want a single-payer health care plan like that promoted by Bernie Sanders.
• Trump's pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has ruined the Michigan school system, and now she gets to ruin the nation's school system.
• Much of the US has a crumbling infrastructure, roads are full of potholes, and bridges are collapsing, but, by all means, keep out the brown people by building a giant wall.
• The Trump cabinet thinks people shouldn't try to vet his picks. To them, if Trump picked them, they must be trustworthy, and can't possibly have conflicts of interest. Never mind that, just like the liar Trump, they refuse to release their financial records to the public, even though Republicans demanded that from Obama's picks. Of course, for the information that is available, we know that Trump's picks are largely dishonest. Take his national communication security pick, Monica Crowley, whose book is filled with plagiarism.
• Artists around the world continue to point out Donald Trump's bullying, and he responds by bullying them further.
• I admire people who can change their mind when they're presented with new evidence. I despise people who change their mind for political gain; people like Trump. Thankfully, in this era, the evidence is here to stay.
• Why did so many white Christians vote for Trump? Because they long for the good old days AKA racism.

When Republicans were voted into power in all areas of Kentucky's government, they didn't waste any time creating new laws to fix the state's problem. No, not by reducing debt, transferring to green energy, or eliminating bureaucracy, that's not what it means to be a Republican. Their first order of business is stripping women of their rights.

A great comic about why Planned Parenthood is so important.

It's important to point out how often movies or TV shows depict a character uses a lot of drugs as someone who has lost their way and is in need of saving when they're white, but when they're black they're a criminal.

Adam talks about how we're already ruining the world with climate change, why electric cars won't solve the problem, and why corporations try to trick you into think trash is an individual's problem.

It may be cold where you are right now, but it's not nearly cold enough to prevent a massive crack in the Antarctic ice that will drift into the ocean, melt, and cause sea levels to rise.

Epic Rap Battles of History presents Tony Hawk versus Wayne Gretzky and Teddy Roosevelt versus Winston Churchill.

Poor Simone Giertz is losing her sponsors because they don't like her saying things like shit and fuck.

Sometimes it's difficult to stop Christians from using tax-payer dollars to proselytize because they do it behind closed doors, like when an audit revealed that Republican Micah Neal accepted bribes in exchange for giving $600,000 in tax money to Christian colleges. That's why it's so refreshing when they create YouTube videos where they admit to breaking the law.

If the British Empire were still intact today, they'd be crazy rich.

Timothy and Sarah Johnson let their 7-year-old son die of pancreatitis because they preferred to pray for a miracle cure rather than take him to a doctor.

Feeling: Overwhelmed

I begin my journey to MAG Fest tonight to submerse myself in videogame music for 96-hours straight. Catch you nerds on Monday!

• More of this. Protest everything Trump does so people never forget that the majority of Americans do not want him.
• In addition to being a racist, misogynist, and bigot, Trump is also a bully. Much like a schoolboy, Trump insults people with far less power. And now, Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, asks America to stop mocking him. Trump deserves ridicule because he is ridiculous. His ideas are stupid and his behavior is crude, he has no redeeming qualities, and things he does deserve scorn.
• Neo-Nazis are planning an armed march through a small town in Montana, the home of white supremacist Richard Spencer, the same man who led the "Heil Trump" protest in D.C. The purpose of the march is to protest is to create a show of force to terrorize Jewish families so much that they'll leave their homes.
• China's state media is trying to explain to Trump why Twitter is not a useful platform for international diplomacy.
• Even George W. Bush's EPA head, Republican Christine Todd Whitman, is afraid of Trump's environmental recklessness.
• Rather than try and repeal Obamacare directly, which would just result in filibusterer after filibusterer, Republicans are trying to defund Obamacare by stripping out every part that helps the low and middle class.
• The Washington Post has a great article on Trump's Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. It recounts his inability to join a Senate committee because of his liberal use of the N-word, his opposition to even legal forms of immigration, as well as his anti-science approach to environmentalism. The one thing the article is missing is his anti-woman stance. For example, Sessions explained that Trump's claim that he had grabbed women's vagina's without their consent should not be considered sexual assault and he voted against the bi-partisan Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013.
• Just a quick recap of the awfulness of the 2016 election.
• When Trump lies, the media needs to call him out on it!

Minute Physics did a great video series with Sean Carroll about Big Picture physics: 1.) Why doesn't time flow backwards?, 2.) Do cause and effect really exist?, 3.) Where does complexity come from?, 4.) How entropy powers the Earth, and What is the purpose of life?.

The Detroit Free Press makes a good point, maybe if we renamed the city of Flint to Benghazi, Congress would re-open the case!

All popular Christmas songs have one thing in common, their music.

Philomena Cunk is the queen of deadpan.

Feeling: Overwhelmed

Over the weekend, I had a great New Year's with friends, got a lot of preparation done for MAG Fest, finished reading Amy Poehler's autobiography "Yes Please," and I beat, "You Have to Win the Game."

• After it became clear that the Russian government was responsible for infiltrating the US and influencing the presidential election, Obama rightly kicked Russian intelligence agents out of the country. US officials have even found Russian spy-ware on computers in control of the US electrical grid. Putin decided to hold off on kicking American intelligence agents in Russia until Trump took office, probably because he expects Trump to be a pushover. This led Trump to once again praise the Russian dictator.
• Republicans voted to eliminate the Congressional House Ethics Committee, and put themselves in charge of whether they were doing anything illegal. However, after receiving a lot of negative press, insults from Democrats, and even some Republicans, they decided to reverse their decision. It does let us know what they truly want though.
• A brief run down of when Donald Trump declared bankruptcy, six times.
• Paul Ryan, and the Republican Party are working to eliminate Medicare and Obamacare, and since the programs have been successful, the only way they can convince people to accept their destruction is to outright lie about them.
• And just another reminder, vaccines do not cause autism, but a third of Trump supporters wrongfully believe they do. Likewise, Trump is equally as misinformed, and I'm not going to be shocked if he appoints Jenny McCarthy to head the CDC.
• What could change your mind about Trump? A look at what he's done, and what he'd have to do to become less of a harbinger of doom.
• Obama's New Year's posts were inspiring showcasing all of the progress that was made in the past eight years. Trump's was yet another divisive post of hate and insult.
• Donald Trump believes, quite wrongfully, that "torture works," and he's not alone.
• Trump's Twitter account is a national embarrassment.
• American coal miners who voted for Trump to bring back the coal industry are afraid that he won't be able to deliver, and they should be. He really won't be able to deliver. And it's not just because natural gas has been replacing coal for several decades now, but also because green energy like solar continues to be cheaper and more effective.

Texas lost it's "Most backward state in the Union" trophy to Indiana, but have not fear, they're working on their own discriminatory bathroom bill.

No, computer screens are not breaking your child.

Michigan Republicans once again show that they are the exact opposite of small government, using state authority to ban cities from making their own laws to help combat pollution and litter.

An honest look at your New Year's party.

Turns out Richard Nixon purposely ruined the Vietnam peace talks for political gain, a maneuver which cost countless American and Vietnamese lives.

The problem with all maps.

Father Andrea Contin is a priest and an orgy pimp. Police seized an assortment of sex toys and pornographic videos from the priest's personal belongings and numerous allegations of him acting as a pimp have been brought up. Worse yet, the church explained that they have known about this for half a year, but hid it from the police.

Feeling: Overwhelmed

• Some of the technical details of the Russian hack of the Democratic National Convention computers is being made available. Obama said, "All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions," and the FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, and 14 other national security agencies are in agreement. The only person who is still ignoring this threat is Donald Trump who still doesn't believe the Russians are involved, but said he will finally meet with government intelligence next week if it will placate America. He dismissed Obama's sanctions against Russia with an almost coherent sentence, saying, "I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole, you know, age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what's going on. We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I'm not sure we have the kind the security that we need." He will be our leader.
• Trump inaugural party has been having a lot of trouble finding artists willing to perform for them, but they were able to secure the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. However, one singer in the choir explained that performing for Trump would not only severely damage the choir's image, but she wouldn't be able to look herself in the mirror anymore if she had to perform for such an immoral man. So, she bravely decided to resign from the choir. Hopefully, other Mormons in the choir will realize their morality is more important than their political affiliation and do the same.
• Speaking of a lack of morals, Trump has chosen a "prosperity gospel" preacher, one of those people who says the best way to prove your love to God is to give them lots of money. Two peas in a pod, really.
• Sprint recently announced that the company is creating 5,000 new jobs, but this doesn't mean much considering they laid off 8,000 people in the past couple years. Either way, Donald Trump is taking credit for it, even though he had nothing to do with it.
• Trump's advisor, Anthony Scaramucci, not only denies climate change, but believes the Earth is 6,000-years-old.

Vera Ruben, the scientist who discovered dark matter has died. She never did win a Nobel Prize for her discovery because the committee was too busy awarding the prize to more important discoveries like, blue LEDs.

Why do men have such a hard time understanding consent? Probably because nearly every movie they've ever seen shows a man sexually assaulting a woman to make her fall in love with him.

Wanna melt something? Check out the strongest acids in the world.

Why is it so important that governments do not control the Internet? Because in 2016, governments around the world shut down access to the Internet for their citizens over 50 times, often to hide evidence of their human rights violations and prevent people from protesting.

What's the deal with Fahrenheit?

Aron Ra fails to get good at street epistemology.

Feeling: Exhausted

• Not that I expect him to answer, but US Senators are asking General Scott Pruitt (Trump's pick for the head of the EPA) to disclose his connections to the energy industry. Why? Because when the man in charge of our clean air and water is paid by the highly polluting coal industry, that's a big problem! The same is true with Rex Tillerson (Trump's pick for Secretary of State) who is the current CEO of Exxon, one of the most environmentally destructive companies in history.
• Obama has kicked several Russian operatives out of the country and has cut back on the amount of intelligence the US is willing to share with the country as punishment for their interference with our election. I wonder if Trump will welcome his friends back with open arms when he takes office?
• Obamacare has been on the Republican chopping block ever since it was announced, and now that they're in charge, you can bet they'll axe it as soon as possible. The only problem is, in their several wasted years of trying to kill it, they never bothered to come up with anything better. And now, it looks like it will be eliminated (along with Medicare) long before anything new is created to take its place. So, all of Trump's poorly educated and poor in finance voters who have been relying on Medicare and Obamacare are going to have their insurance taken away, including the type of coverage they need the most, and if they're sick, they will have no option to get more. I can't be too upset for them because they did this to themselves, but I'm very upset about all the sane Hillary voters who will also lose their insurance because of the stupidity of Trump supporters.

You should learn a second language, even if it's only to understand the hidden jokes in movies.

End of year list of the top ten most popular pages at The Friendly Atheist.

Rebecca Watson calls bullshit on the "studies" that claim Facebook makes you depressed.

Secular politics in Utah have increased enough to warrant a Secular Caucus.

To honor Carrie Fisher, here is one of her Star Wars audition tapes.

Feeling: Annoyed

• You're probably just as shocked as me about this, but Trump's "charity" is currently under investigation for corruption, as he may have been siphoning money out of it illegally to cover the costs of his lawsuits, contribute to his political campaign, and to buy sports memorabilia and paintings of himself. Under the guise of eliminating conflicts of interest (now he cares?), Trump tried and dissolve the charity to prevent the investigation, but this same tactic has been used by many criminals before him and is protected against by law enforcement. To try and cover his ass, Trump took to Twitter and claimed to have donated millions to his charity, but the charity's own records show that Trump didn't donate a cent from 2009-2014. In fact, the largest donation came from pro-wrestling's Linda McMahon, a donation which bought her a place on Trump staff.
• Republican and Trump Supporter, Carl Paladino, responded to Artvoice's 2017 survey by saying he hoped Michelle Obama would, "return to being a male and [be] let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla," and also said that hoped Barack Obama would die from mad cow disease. In his apology, Paladino explained that he had only meant to write that for his (equally racist) friends, and not to share it with Artvoice!
• Donald Trump thinks he can make his own Internet meme. Nope!

What Neoliberalism is, and how it helped ruin America.

Creationists argue that they are scientific, but the way they conduct themselves is entirely non-scientific. In science, you start with observations, make hypotheses, then create and conduct falsifiable tests to see if the hypothesis is correct. From there you create theories and forever update them as new information is presented. Creationism, on the other hand, starts with a conclusion which is regarded as unquestionable truth and then looks for evidence to support that truth, while ignoring all evidence to the contrary. You can see just how non-scientific this is by looking at a list of Creationist achievements for 2016; they're all about preaching, none are about science.

Adam ruins the McDonalds coffee lawsuit and the public defender system.

Naughty church sign.

Ironically, the holy day of Christmas is mostly about greed and lying.

You should know about Murasaki Shikibu.

Feeling: Annoyed

Had a CAT scan yesterday regarding the pain in my lower-right abdomen that hasn't gone away in over a year. They're not as fun as people make it out to be. Also finished reading Richard Feynman's "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" and Sam Harris's "Free Will."

• Republican tantrums shut down all areas of the government, not just when they officially shut it down, but also by obstructing the president from appointing judges. And I'm sorry to say, but these tantrums worked. By preventing democrats from being able to do their jobs and crying big crocodile tears of failed promises, ignorant Americans fell for the Republican trap. But we're not just losing a Supreme Court judge, Republicans also prevented Obama from appointing over 100 other judges around the country at various levels of authority. Now Trump gets to fill them all. No doubt Trump will apply the same clarity and foresight he used when assembling his crack team of billionaire cronies to head organizations they know nothing about, so America can expect to be punished by white Christian male voters long after the radioactive orange turd gets flushed.
• The United Nations is the largest political organization in the world with 193 nations as members (including the USA which is a founding member). It includes the General Assembly which allows all nations to speak to each other, the International Court of Justice which has peacefully ended disputes that would otherwise have lead to wars, the World Bank which has prevented global economic depressions, the World Health Organization which and has successfully stamped out smallpox, polio, and leprosy from most of the world, the World Food Programme which has saved millions of lives from starvation, the UN Committee on Decolonization which has helped many colonies become independent nations, and many many other organizations. While it's not without its problems, the UN has been a strong force for good in the world. And then there is Trump, ever the ignorant prat, who says the UN "is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!" Trump is human garbage.
• When Mussolini became the fascist dictator for life over Italy, the US media seemed okay with it. When Hitler rose to power in Germany, the US media said he was a silly barker, but now that he was in government, he'd have to tone himself down. Dorothy Thompson explained in 1935, "no people ever recognize their dictator in advance," but we can learn from their mistakes and not let Trump become a dictator. Thankfully, Trump's incompetence may keep him from becoming a tyrant, as he keeps mocking the nation's intelligence agencies.
• The USA has the most expensive health care in the world, but it's also one of the worst. Obama made things a lot better with the Affordable Care Act, but Republican obstructionists blocked it at every turn and prevented it from being the force it needed to be to succeed. Unfortunately, with Republicans in charge, things are only going to get worse, and for many people, they already have.
• How can Trump be a hero of the working class when he has a long history of not paying his employees?

Ada Lovelace was a genius who created the first computer program.

Tucker Carlson is either a genuine dishonest sexist moron or offers a flawless impersonation of a dishonest sexist moron.

Mississippi Christians fight for legal protection claiming Jesus requires them to discriminate against the LGBT, but they had no problem voting for the guy who loves money more than his third wife and can't name a single bible passage.

Cheetah numbers are dropping toward extinction.

Aron Ra discusses the fundamental fallacies of faith.

Mr. Deity explains the Mormon Church's racist history.

Feeling: Okay

• Trump doubles down on nuclear proliferation telling the world, "Let the arms race begin!" Cue end of the world music.
• Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican Catholic, will forever live on in history as an American villain. His life was spent on a witch hunt, labeling homosexuals and Liberal politicians as enemies of the state, often leading to their wrongful arrest and imprisonment. In many ways Trump is taking his lead from this American villain, working in secret, creating lists of enemies whom he feels aren't "American" enough because they don't hate Muslims or Mexicans as much as he, and those scientists who don't share his idiotic views on climate change. And now, he's refusing to say why he wants the names of everyone who was been working to counter violent extremists.
• Our upcoming president has some very wrong beliefs about climate change.
• Trump has been having a lot of trouble getting performance artists to show up at his inauguration party. His star-filled lineup consists of household names such as some oldies cover band, someone who calls himself "DJ Freedom," and the Rockettes, whose boss had to be reminded them that boycotting the event is invalid. I'll bet it's going to be off the hook!
• It's not a good sign when you and your teams have several sex scandals begin before you can even take office.
• Mr. Deity talks about the election results.

What it feels like to get stung by a bullet ant.

A spoken-word poem about the importance of science and the problem of religion; Gravity.

In a time that Conservatives call post-truth and claim that any news that isn't Conservative news must be fake, fact-checking web sites like Snopes are a candle in the dark.

Feminist Frequency reviews Rouge One.

A pretty cool look at what goes on behind the scenes on SNL during the opening credits.

Another one of Reza Aslan's terrible arguments shot down.

Feeling: Blah

• In the Cold War Era, the nuclear capabilities of the USA and USSR led to a long painful standoff, each constantly in fear of a nuclear holocaust from the other. After wasting billions building up arsenals, the two finally started to wise up and began dismantling their bombs and after reaching a peak of 77,000 nuclear warheads in the late 1980s (enough to vaporize the entire surface of the planet), we've finally reduced the amount back down to a 1965 level (still around 15,000). Enter Donald Trump, who can't be trusted with a pointy stick, let alone a nuclear bomb; unable to learn from historical mistakes, his goal is to increase up our nuclear stockpile not comprehending the irony of his statement, "The US must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." But this is not the 1950s anymore, there are now eight nations with nuclear bombs including Russia, China, Pakistan, and possibly North Korea, and the more players involved, the less likely a war will remain cold.
• The new Ebola vaccine is extremely effective. Too bad Trump is an anti-vaxxer.
• This explains Trumps terrible picks. He's not interested in experience or competence, he's interested in looks.
• Breitbart News (once run by Trump's new chief strategist, and known white nationalist, Steve Bannon), The Blaze, and Fox News, each misinformation factories, have been spreading a lie that a Jewish family canceled a Christmas play. This shoddy reporting will only add fuel to the growing Neo-Nazi threat emboldened by Trump's election.
• Horrible events like Brexit, the fall of Allepo, and Trump's presidency have caused a huge drop in the belief in gods.

Adam Ruins Christmas from buying gifts, to It's a Wonderful Life, and especially its Pagan roots.

Responding to street harassers by making them feel uncomfortable is hilarious and empowering.

What happens when you drop a watermelon off a tower when it's coated in a truck bed-liner?

Nebraska has a pretty impressive promotion of atheism and Humanism at their state capitol.

Captain Disillusion debunks another fake Internet video.

Feeling: Blah

• White Supremacists of Montana, motivated by Trump's election, have published the names and personal information of local Jews requiring the police to step up their patrols.
• Hillary Clinton's popular vote has now surpassed 2%. She should have won. There is no excuse.
• An interesting primer on how republics end, not with a bang, but with a whimper.
• Trump may think he's bulletproof from corruption charges now that he's going to be president, but laws will still apply to him.

For the first time in US history, non-religious people are given government protected from discrimination. Thanks Obama!

Republican Rick Synder has increased his legal budget to protect him from all the Flint who are trying to sue him for poisoning their drinking water. Ironically, because Snyder is Governor, the citizens of Flint are in part paying to defend him from their own lawsuit.

Texas Republicans have officially defunded Planned Parenthood. Not a very wise choice for the state with the highest rate of teen pregnancy, and the highest rate of repeat teen pregnancy!

Two of my favorite scrappy STEM females hav new videos, Simone Giertz and Alex Dainis.

Feeling: Frustrated

• If a foreign power takes a military vehicle while it is in an agreed upon international area, the correct response is to demand its immediate return. But, if you're incompetent, you might tell them to just go ahead keep your property, even if it means losing state secrets. Sounds like something Trump would do.
• When we look at how dictators rise to power throughout history, we find that they look just like Donald Trump.
• Trump's new budget director, Republican Mick Mulvaney, isn't so sure the government should be spending money on such frivolous things as scientific research.
• Although there are some prominent Republicans who don't think Russia's cyber-attacks are important enough to even believe, the majority of Congress is in agreement that we need to investigate this problem thoroughly. So, Republican leader Mitch McConnell responds by refusing to create a special investigative committee.
• Despite its shortcomings, the Affordable Care Act is a success. No wonder Trump wants to eliminate it.
• The Washington Post is calling it now, Trump's presidency will be a new low for government corruption.
• Obama, along with Canada, is banning off-shore drilling for the northern coasts. This is good news, although, I'm sure Trump will reverse the progress.
• If your advisor believes the Earth is only 6,000-years-old, you probably shouldn't trust his position on global warming.
• Oh great, now look who Trump is appointing!
• Christian leaders continue to destroy their own religion by tying it to Donald Trump.

Samantha Bee covers North Carolina's Republican's abuse of democracy, confronts the Conservative argument of helping veterans before helping immigrants, and talks to a recently apologetic Glenn Beck.

Flint's water crisis investigation is over. The Republican team concluded that blame should not fall on the Republican Governor who usurped Flint's elected officials or his appointed Republican who forced the city to use water that caused a toxic increase in lead. No, the Republicans point the finger at the EPA, and suggest fixing the problem by taking away research money that is supposed to be used to study climate change.

Why your mass doesn't come from the Higgs boson.

Rebecca Thering's interesting journey out of religion.

Vsauce talks about centripetal force.

Forcing victims of sex trafficking to become Christian does not help them.

Simon's Cat enjoys bed sheets.

Oklahoma Republicans are trying to use taxpayer money to put up anti-abortion advertisements in public bathrooms.

Feeling: Annoyed

• Probably the scariest thing that happened while I was on vacation is that now both the FBI and CIA are in agreement that Russia is actively involved in cyber-warfare against the USA, that they succeeded in helping get Donald Trump elected, and that the hacks point to the highest levels of Russian government, specifically Putin, a dictator whom Trump refuses to denounce and has even complimented. In 2014, Trump thought Russian hacking was a big problem, but now that it's helping him, he and several other prominent Republicans are refusing to believe the existence of this clear and present danger. To add some much-needed levity to our country's dwindling cyber-security, Stephen Colbert interviews Trump.
• Although it had the largest number of detractors in over 100 years, the Electoral College electors still voted in favor of Trump proving wrong one of the main arguments in the College's favor (that it can prevent a demagogue from seizing control). Meanwhile, Trump continues to lie claiming his Electoral College victory was a historic landslide victory, when, it fact, it ranks near the bottom (46th out of 58 presidential elections). But what can expect from a man who, before he won due to the Electoral College said it was a "disaster," but after it allowed him to win, called it, "genius."
• If you still haven't wet your pants, just a quick reminder, you know that massive surveillance state that Obama has spent the past eight years strengthening? Well, in a month, it will be under the control of Donald Trump.
• Trump claims that other rich people don't like him because he's all about the working man, so why did he appoint to his cabinet so many billionaires who ruin blue-collar jobs.
• Trump has been demanding the names of scientists and officials who have been working with the Department of Energy to help solve the world's climate change problem. Since Trump is so anti-science, specifically anti-climate change, he probably wants the names so he can fire/punish them, but the Department of Energy has thankfully refused to hand them over. Although, Trump may get those names anyway now that he chose Rick Perry, the guy who couldn't even remember the Department of Energy when he was listing off which departments he would eliminate, to be its leader.
• Trump's Carrier failure continues to get worse, and how many other companies will get special treatment?
• Even the US government is telling Trump he needs to divest himself from his businesses to avoid corruption. Of course, he won't, because he is corrupt. But Newt Gingrich has a way to solve that problem, simply change US laws to allow for corruption!

Seth Meyers weighs in on the despicable destruction of democracy at the hands of North Carolina Republicans, and the ignorance of the climate at the hands of Republicans, and good old fashioned American racism.

Ohio's insane abortion bill was not signed into law, but the state Republicans still passed a law banning all abortion after 20 weeks.

A lot of reporters, and even some politicians, are trying to figure out why Democrats lost the election, and one of their arguments (though they don't word it this way) is, "calling racists racist means they're less likely to vote for you, so we should stop calling racists racist." To be fair, there are a lot of racists in the US, and their voter block made the biggest contribution to Trump's election, but should we really stop calling racists racist? Shouldn't we address some of the known problems first? Problems like gerrymandering, low minority turn out, the Electoral College, and Russian hackers? Samantha Bee explains it well. Rather than ignore racism, why not learn about it? Why not realize that you're racist, and educate yourself on what you can do to change? You can do this by watching, Jane Elliot's blue-eyed experiment.

Feeling: Annoyed

Between work, this election, and the snow, I'm in much need of a vacation, and I will be enjoying the next six days in Sunny California. See you all on Tuesday.

• Trump has a press conference scheduled for Thursday to talk about his many... MANY conflicts of interest and massive debts, and I'm sure he will assuage our fears of corruption, but then, aw, screw America! Turns out, Trump's so busy filling his new cabinet, he doesn't have time to talk about his rampant corruption. And why didn't he have a cabinet ready in the first place? Oh right, because nobody on his team, including Trump, knew they needed to hire a cabinet!
• Trump's pick for Secretary of State is Rex Tillerson. For the past 41 years Tillerson has worked for ExxonMobil. Tillerson has strong ties with Russia. Tillerson has never worked in politics. He will now be the country's chief diplomat.
• Presidents have been having daily intelligence briefings for the past 50 years so they can understand the most important matters of national security. Trump has decided that these matters are not worth his time and has delegated these briefs to his underlings so he can focus on more important matters, like producing the Celebrity Apprentice.
• Trump claims, unless you catch a hacker in the act, you can't know what nation they were hacking from, showing that he knows as much about computers as he does being a president. He then asked, why didn't anyone talk about Russian hacking before the election? So, Buzzfeed compiled several months worth of reports of Russian election hacking, including the time Trump begged Russians to hack Americans, when his own VP acknowledged Russian hacking, and when Clinton brought it up to him during the presidential the debates. Has trump just been sleeping this whole time?
• How did Clinton lose her huge lead in the polls before the election? One event that coincides well with her drop in popularity is when the FBI director and Trump supporter, James Comey, falsely claimed the FBI had new information about her non-existent email scandal.
• Republicans have been dead set on repealing the Affordable Care Act for nearly a decade, and now, with a government run entirely by Republicans, that's going to happen. There's just one tiny problem, in all these years they've been trying to repeal Obamacare, they never thought to come up with a plan to replace it. Now, 20 million people rely on Obamacare, and when Trump gets his way, they will all lose their health insurance. How do they plan on avoiding this catastrophe? Republican's are betting that it will take two years to repeal Obamacare, and, in that time, they hope they will have come up with a solution.
• Tips on how you can criticize the women in Trump's cabinet without being sexist explained through Goofus and Gallant comics.

Pew Forum published the results of an interesting poll which shows education levels among various religious groups including the gaps between the sexes which have been closing, and in some cases, women are surpassing men. A not-so-shocking result shows that, although Christians are well educated world-wide, they are the least educated religious group in the USA. Hey, they're also the most hateful.

Pamela Ramsey Taylor, the racist who lives in a 98% white county, was fired after calling Michelle Obama an "ape in heels." Taylor later apologized for the comment and explained that what she said had nothing to do with race insisting she was only trying to say that, compared to how classy and attractive Melania Trump looks, Michelle Obama looks like an ape in heels. Well, after that heart-felt apology, Taylor was rehired by the Clay County Development Corporation!

More songs from the new season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) is one of the largest accounting companies in the world, and since they deal with other people's money all day, you would think security would be high on their list. Well, a security firm was investigating PwC's software and found a gaping hole that could allow a hacker to essentially steal their client's investments. As security companies are wont to do, they gave a detailed report of the flaw to PwC and explained that they would make the flaw public in three months. This gives PwC enough time to fix the problem, but also prevents them from ignoring their responsibility to their customers who trust them. PwC took a very Microsoft style approach. Rather than rush to fix the problem, they instead slapped the security firm with a lawsuit telling them never to tell anyone about the PwC security flaw. When that didn't work, PwC tried a second lawsuit, but in this age of information, news spreads fast, and now the whole Internet knows that PwC has no inclination to fix its own security holes or even to find them in the first place, but instead attacks the people who help their incompetent security team.

If you're thinking of weathering the Trump presidency with drugs, be warned, here's what happens to your body when you're drunk and stoned at the same time.

Feeling: Aggravated

• During his presidential campaign, Trump begged Russians to hack an American politician, and sure enough, the CIA is now stating that Russia did indeed hack various US computers for what is presumed to be to help get Trump elected. Traditional Republicans are denouncing Russia, like Lindsey Graham who said every American should be alarmed and John McCain even went as far as to call their hacking a "form of warfare." Even ten of the electors of the Electoral College are demanding to see intelligence reports before they cast their vote for president on the 19th. Meanwhile, Trump refuses to believe any of it, which is probably related to his refusal to even listen to intelligence reports prepared by the CIA, FBI, and US military. Why? Because, in the fantasy kingdom where he lives, he's, like, a smart person.
• Melania Trump has said her project as First Lady will be to fight against bullying, so I guess she'll have to fight her husband every day because he's a huge bully who doesn't speak out against his followers who send death threats to teenage girls.
• Trump is still lying that he won in a landslide even though Clinton took the majority of the popular vote 48.0% to Trump's mere 46.3%.
• Here's a sentence that I expect to use a lot over the next four years: Donald Trump is a petulant, thin-skinned, and vindictive man-child.
• Gary Cohn, COO of Goldman Sachs and one of the bankers directly responsible for the 2008 economic depression was picked by Trump to direct his Economic Council.
• The media has a long history of normalizing fascist dictators in their rise to power, and we see the same thing with Trump. They make him out to be a silly clown who will be forced to fall in line once he's elected, but don't call him out as the dangerous monster he really is.
• The number of coal miners has diminished, not because of immigrants or Democrats, partially because traditional mining has been replaced by fracking and strip-mining (which require far-fewer jobs), and partially because of green energy like solar and wind. The only way Trump can get back mining jobs is to either outlaw solar energy or to outlaw fracking and strip-mining, and I doubt he can do either. Which means, like all of the rest of his promises, it was a lie that the angry ignorant white man bought hook, line, and sinker.
• Actual quotes of Trump on naked women's bodies.

This nurse claims she was fired for being a Christian, but really, she was fired because she kept trying to force her religion down her patient's throats. Kind of like Todd Starnes saying this school had their first amendment rights violated by taking down a student's poster which promoted a bible verse (it's actually all the students of the school who had their first amendment rights violated. Why is it

Kellogg stopped displaying advertisements on the anti-Semitic white nationalist website Breitbart (where one of Trump's cabinet members worked), to which the racists running Breitbart complained somehow violated their freedom of speech.

This Christian Pastor went into his mall where children were lined up to meet Santa and began preaching that parents shouldn't lie to their children about Santa, they should lie to them about Jesus.

What happens when you shake up a pop can and open it on the ocean floor?

Adam explains why the Internet is good for society and how Facebook uses intrusive marketing.

Why is it so many Christians pretend they have degrees?

Feeling: Aggravated

• Trump has no experience or background in government, foreign policy, national security, or counter-terrorism, and yet he still skips 6 out of 7 of the intelligence briefings prepared for him.
• After the head of the union at Carrier called Trump out on his lies, Trump took to Twitter to attack him directly, and the entire workers union for being too lazy to keep their jobs in America. A true cyberbully of the people.
• Tom Price, Trump's pick for the Department of Health and Human Services, has worked to criminalize abortion and eliminate access to birth control. I doubt the majority of the women who voted for Trump are following his politics, but they really shot themselves in the groin with this one.
• Thanks to Trump, racism has become fresh and bold.
• After Obama described what being president entails, Trump said it was more work than he had expected (it's always good when your new boss doesn't know what they have to do). The new president could put our apprehension at ease by pledging to focus on his career, but instead, Trump has decided to continue being the producer of his lame TV show, Celebrity Apprentice. When asked about his moonlighting, his advisor explained that Trump will work on the television show during all the copious amounts of free time that come with the job.
• Stephen Colbert comments on how Trump is a whining child as well as the dangers of morons like him spreading fake news.

Conservatives who cry about having to be politically correct have their own form of political correctness where they aren't ever allowed to criticize the USA or Republicans, and they must speak ill of all their perceived enemies like Mexicans or Muslims, the term has been dubbed patriotic correctness.

In addition to outlawing abortion, Ohio is trying to ban minimum wage increase laws at the city level. Can we call Ohio a Southern State now?

Bohemian Rhapsody, the gritty melodrama.

Republican Sid Miller of Texas has been using his government Facebook page to post lies from fake news sites. When confronted by this, he said he doesn't see a problem with posting false statements from his government page because he's not a news outlet, and that his Facebook page is like Fox News, he reports, and his readers decide if his post is true or not. Well, I guess I have to agree that his his journalistic rigor is on par with Fox "News." Speaking of Fox, a survey from the Morning Consult shows that Americans think Fox "New" is one of the most dishonest media sources, just slightly less than the purposely satire news of The Onion.

An actual tail of a dinosaur has been found preserved in amber for almost 100,000,000 years. As expected, it's covered in feathers.

Some of the more interesting maps.

Daryl Davis is a black man who talks one-on-one with KKK members in an effort to get them to give up their hatred.

Russia is so corrupt, they can't even play sports without cheating.

Another Christian group claims that a giant cross is not a symbol of Christianity.

Ex-Muslim Sarah Haider critiques Islam.

Feeling: Aggravated

• Trump is Time's "person of the year," which doesn't mean they're saying he's a good person, since Trump is sharing a stage with other dictators like Joseph Stalin, Ayatollah Khomeini, and, of course, Adolf Hitler. And it is from the photo of Hitler that the photographer seems to have taken inspiration for the photo of Trump.
• Trump and other Republicans continue to lie about voter fraud, and yesterday, Michigan Republicans approved a new law to help combat voter fraud. This must come as a shock to them, because on the very same day they won their argument to stop the Michigan election recount because there was no evidence of voter fraud.
• Samanthaa Bee points out more of Trump's corruption and lies.
• Trump's VP, Mike Pence thinks that if a mother has a career, she is damaging her child's emotional growth. Funny, he didn't say anything about working fathers damaging their children. And even though Trump lost to Clinton by a huge margin of votes, Pence repeats Trump's lie that he was mandated by the people.
• Trump's pick for head of the Environmental Protection Agency is Scott Pruitt, is a Christian lawyer and climate change denier with strong ties to the oil and gas industry. But at least he's picking more military leaders in his cabinet, I hope Trump supporters are looking forward to another war. But wait, there's more! He also picked a professional wrestling founder to lead Small Business Administration, because we need more WWE in America.
• The Weather Channel calls out Breitbart and the whole Trump circus for misusing their data to mislead readers saying, the "Earth is not cooling, climate change is real and please stop using our video to mislead Americans."
• Edward Snowden talks about the importance of privacy in the era of Trump.

Ohio Republicans have passed a bill that outlaws abortion after 6 weeks, often before women even know they're pregnant, even for women who became pregnant after being raped by their fathers. Conservatives are calling this the Heartbeat Bill because six weeks signifies around the point in gestation when the fetus's heart starts pumping blood. Of course, this is entirely meaningless, as your heart has nothing to do with your personality or identity, and it's only ignorant people who believe they "love with their heart."

Adam ruins the Wild West.

Samantha Bee addresses the problems with fake news.

Pointing out all the racism in Mormonism.

A woman teaches one of her critics how to make a sandwich.

Feeling: Frustrated

• Trump promised to bring back blue-collar jobs to the Rust Belt, but this isn't going to happen, and it's not just because so many business owners like Trump buy their products from overseas, it's also because automation has made the factory worker as relevant as the travel agent. In order to succeed with his promises, Trump not only has to convince businesses to relocate and pay drastically more for production costs, but he also has to convince them to trash their robots and replace them with people.
• It's shocking, I know, but Republican politicians are unprincipled sellouts. They pretty much universally panned Trump during the election, but now they're kowtowing.
• Racist Tomi Lahren defends Trump's racism with more racism.
• We are going to have a president who is citing teenagers and random Americans as proof that the media is conspiring against him.
• This is precisely why sane presidents don't go on the radio shows of mentally unstable conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones.
• Who would have thought that most dishonest president in recent history would lie about his election? No, his election was not a mandate from the people, and he certainly didn't win in a landslide, but rather lost the popular vote by a substantial margin.
• A little late now, but Trump's scam of a university was definitely a scam.
• The president has the ability to send an unblockable text message to all Americans, and soon Trump will have that technology.

What if computer languages had personalities?

When we talk about female genital mutilation we usually think of places like Africa, but it was only a few decades ago when the practice was used in the USA by Christian doctors to prevent little girls from touching themselves.

With the pipeline on hold, the Standing Rock protesters are asked by their tribe chairman to go home.

Michael Shermer makes an anti-woman Tweet. Not really surprising considering his past involving several allegations of sexual assault.

Feeling: Relieved

Emily's surgery went well!

• Trump claimed to save jobs by giving Carrier a huge tax break, and it turns out that Trump has commercial ties to Carrier and stands to profit from their success. Yay, corruption! So what is Carrier going to do with that extra money? Well, they're going to replace humans with automation and drop the jobs anyway! And what about all the other companies that are itching for tax breaks? Can't they just say they're going to move jobs out of the country to have their taxes lowered? And what about all the companies who can't move jobs overseas? Will they still have to pay higher taxes? Like of of his deals, Trump really botched this one.
• Well, it looks like we can all relax, Trump has chosen a brain surgeon who has never held any form of public office or any job even related to housing to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but not just any brain surgeon, we're talking about the same man who thought the Egyptian pyramids were built to house grain, Ben Carson!
• In 1996, Jeff Sessions, Trump's new Attorney General, tried to ban an LGBT conference from the University of Alabama because he believed it violated Alabama's anti-sodomy law which the state barbarically passed in 1992.
• The North Carolina head of the KKK was going to attend the Trump rally, but he was arrested for stabbing someone during a pre-Trump white power rally.
• Trump's pick for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, a woman who made her riches from pyramid schemes and is trying to eliminate public schools, said that her goal for education reform is to advance belief in her god.
• Securing Trump Tower is costing the state of New York $500,000 a day, a bill that the state is trying to push on the entire country.
• One of the things that pundits talked about after Clinton's loss was that she didn't address the working class, and that Democrats have lost touch with blue-collar workers. The reality is, Clinton addressed middle-class issues all the time during her campaign, so what excuses are we left with? The one thing I see with Republicans is that they have a very powerful fear and hate machine like Fox "News" and there really are still that many bigoted white people who just can't stand the idea of peeing in the same bathroom as a transgendered person, having a woman with authority over them, or not being allowed to make racist jokes in public.

There has been a temporary stay on the Dakota Access Pipeline. Many rags are calling this a victory, but the pipeline hasn't been canceled, or even re-routed yet, it has just been put on pause. People standing with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe can't afford to let their guard down now.

If you read fake news sites and think they're real, you may wind up in a pizzeria firing an assault rifle.

Seattle raised its local minimum wage and, while the Conservatives and Libertarians predicted the end of civilization, but two years later, unemployment is down, wages are up, and the city is doing just fine.

A Moroccan TV program shows women how to cover up bruises with makeup after their husbands beat them, because why address domestic abuse when you can pretend it doesn't exist?

A black man portraying Santa is enough out online racists.

Republican Paul Ryan, and actual piece of human garbage, explained how government assistance that feeds poor children gives them a "full stomach," but an, "empty soul."

If the US can't make progress, at least other countries can. Australia voted against their racist bigot of a candidate.

Oh no, from where will I steal my bibles?

Feeling: Angry

• Trump is turning the American presidency into a commercial for the businesses that kiss his ass the most.
• Trump and his Republican cronies are doing their best to destroy the Affordable Care Act, which is odd, considering most Americans are in favor of it.
• Trump's lead strategist, Kellyanne Conway is shocked, I repeat shocked that the Trump campaign is being accused of catering to white supremacists.
• Despite losing the popular vote by a wide margin, Trump is doing a series of victory rallies. Is it normal for a presidential leader to hold victory rallies? Well, yes, if you live in Germany just before World War II.
• Trump keeps blaming Clinton's huge popular vote lead on voter fraud, but there continues to be absolutely no evidence for his assertion.

Global warming is getting worse, the rain forests are being depleted at an increasing rate, the top ten hottest years ever recorded have all occurred since 1998, but the Republicans in charge of setting regulations on controlling the climate believe it's a vast conspiracy and the planet is actually getting colder. Hooray, we're doomed!

The mathematical problems with a Secret Santa, and how to solve them.

Gamergate is just a microcosm of alt-right terrorism.

Alex Dainis vlogs about being a scientist at conventions.

There is no Patient Zero when it comes to HIV, and the media was wrong to pin the blame on a single person.

The Courageous Life of Ida B. Wells.

Dr. Oz is once again being sued for making false claims on his show, this time about olive oil being magical.

Feeling: Upset

• With the counts still coming in, Clinton is almost a full 2% above Trump, but he still feels the need to do a victory tour to show how much America loves him, even though most of us don't.
• Awhile ago Trump Tweeted about how awful Pakistan was, and now he's sucking up to their Prime Minister.
• Post-election Trump is really just horrifying.
• Much of what Conservatives read and watch is a false reality created by Republican billionaires, many of whom are now in Trump's cabinet.
• More details about Trump's many many conflicts of interest.
• Trump is expected do devastate US water and wildlife by pushing forward on fracking.
• Just a reminder, Trump's "charity" once donated $10,000 to an antivax group.
• Samantha Bee has a hard time suggesting that Mike Pense will run the White House.

If you're a teacher living in Michigan, you may want to move to another state. Republicans are actively working to eliminate teacher Pensions.

Texas has always been an embarrassment of a state, and now the Republicans there are pushing the envelope by forcing women who have lost a pregnancy for any reason, even having a miscarriage, to buy a funeral for their fetus, as early as 1 day after conception. By punishing all women, they hope to decrease abortion, but all the evidence says this won't work.

Politics doesn't need any more liberal white men telling people of color what they're doing wrong.

Turning Point USA, a wretched hive of Republicans and villainy, has put together The Professor Watchlist where professors who teach their students real history and political science are named so Conservative students can remain ignorant to topics like climate change, racism, and LGBT issues. If you're a teacher, and you find yourself on this list, well done!