Week of April 27th, 2025

Here goes...

1. Trump put 100 mugshots of immigrants on the lawn at the white house. These were mostly pictures of people arrested, not convicted. (USA Today, CBS News) Nice.

2. A reminder that Trump said he would end the Ukraine war on day one. (The AP, PBS, ABC News) In fact, he said it would be settled before he took office because he’d make a deal. He now says it was a “joke”. (New York Post, CNN, The Independent) A joke. Okay.

3. “Early yesterday morning, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent three U.S. citizens aged 2, 4, and 7 from Louisiana, including one with Stage 4 cancer, to Honduras when they deported their mothers. The three are children of two different mothers who were arrested while checking in with the government as part of their routine process for immigration proceedings. The women and their children were not permitted to speak to family or lawyers before being flown to Honduras. The cancer patient was sent out of the country without medication or consultation with doctors although, according to Charisma Madarang and Lorena O'Neil of Rolling Stone, ICE agents were told of the child’s medical needs.” Heather Cox Richardson.

I’ve seen comments from MAGA. They seem to think this was no big deal because the mothers “got to keep their children”. Oh.

4. Look, I don’t care what clothes people wear. But the Vatican put out the protocol for attire at the funeral mass for Pope Francis. Trump violated that protocol and disrespected not only Pope Francis but also over a billion Catholics. Look, he couldn’t stand the Pope. There is no way this wasn’t a deliberate screw you (my opinion obviously – but come on – his world class obnoxiousness is almost constantly on display.)

5. Speaking of Trump and the Pope (a beloved Pope who just died, with millions grieving), the White House AND Trump personally, shared this on social media this week.

Look, this is as unforgivable as the Mara Lago Gaza video - but excuses will be made.....again. It wasn't a "mistake" or a rogue staffer. If it was, he would have disavowed it.

6. Pete Buttigieg, always the best communicator said this week “The whole point of this country is that no one is supposed to have too much power”. Simply, but brilliant, and true.

7. Oh, Trump claimed this week he is “running the world”. (Forbes, The Atlantic)

8. On the same day he said that, Canada seemed to send him a giant middle finger when the Liberal party overcame what was a 27 point lead a few weeks ago and won. (BBC, AP News). And just a few days later Australia did the same. Trump is making the world liberal again!

9. Big court win: Court orders administration to stop requiring academic institutions to certify that they are not engaging in “illegal” DEI practices in order to maintain their funding. (WSJ) As an aside, if you think you hate DEI, I guarantee you, you do not understand it or someone has lied to you about it.

10. Trump administration dismisses all authors of major climate report. (CNN, NPR)

“The National Climate Assessment is the most trustworthy and comprehensive source of information about how global warming affects the United States. It answers common questions about how quickly sea levels are rising near American cities, how much rain is normal for different regions and how to deal with wildfire smoke exposure” (NPR).

11. 220 Lawsuits against the Administration in 100 days! (MSNBC, ABC News) This is YUGE!

12. Trump doesn’t want Amazon to show tariff prices. Huh. Why? (Fortune, AP News)

13. The Trump administration has dismissed all voting rights cases and all senior staff in the voting rights section of the Justice Department, leaving no one to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (The Guardian, Rolling Stone)

14. Pete Hegseth: “This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ (WPS) program inside the @DeptofDefense,” Hegseth wrote. “WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING.” (Yahoo, The Daily Beast, CBS News). WHOOPS! That was a program started during the last Trump Administration and championed by Ivanka.

15. At his rally in Michigan (why is he still having rallies? Are tax dollars paying for this? They most certainly are – but anyway…), Trump plays a propaganda video of prisoners having their heads shaved at the Gulag in El Salvador to big cheers from the crowd and "U-S-A!" chants. (Yahoo, AOL, Daily Kos) BTW, Normal people think this is sick.

16. Former second gentleman Doug Emhoff was kicked off of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum board, which includes over 50 president-appointee members. (The Hill, NPR, ) One word: Petty.

17. Trump is still ignoring a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling. Once again, we all understand that if Trump can do this without consequence our constitution is fish wrap, right?

18. At a public cabinet meeting, after patiently waiting for her turn to gush about Trump (like the last term, this is required at Cabinet meetings), Attorney General Pam Bondi says: "President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of ANY other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you." (Rolling Stone, The Independent) Well, that’s one way to put it.

19. Trump (and Kristi - Puppy Killer - Noem) is ending Temporary Protected Status for Afghans. They had Seven day’s notice. Noem determined conditions in Afghanistan don’t meet the requirement. Really? Things have gotten better since the ‘Taliban took over?

As an aside, yes, she will always be a puppy killer. There was absolutely no excuse for her to take a puppy she didn’t like to a quarry and f&%$king shoot it. She could have taken it to a shelter, found another home, hired a trainer, etc. She has zero remorse. She should be shamed for that forever. Don’t tell me – well that’s the way it is on the farm – no it isn’t, unless you are a world class asshole. This tells you what kind of person she is as much as anything else.

20. This week every single Republican on the House Judiciary Committee voted against banning the deportation of AMERICAN CITIZENS to foreign countries and prisons. (Forbes, Newsweek)

21. The Trump Administration is cutting 1 billion in mental health services in schools. (NYT, ABC News) You know how they always say it’s not the guns it’s mental health that is the problem? They clearly don’t care about mental health either.

22. The Trump administration is withholding funding for trailblazing breast cancer researcher with UW. (King5)

23. A white woman calls an autistic black 5-year-old a nigger (no – I’m not softening it by saying “the n-word”. She called the boy a nigger). She suffers the consequences when a video surfaces, so she sets up a fundraising page – for herself - and good folks all over the country contributed, to the tune of 1 million dollars. (NBC News) And some (like Chief Justice, John Roberts) say we are a post racial society.

24. Marco Rubio thought he would lecture Germany on how to identify right wing extremists. Yep. (Politico, AP News)

25. And lastly, Trump was asked today on Meet the Press if he is obligated to uphold the Constitution and he says, and I quote, “I don’t know”. (USA Today, NYT, NBC News. I feel like the answer to that question should be pretty easy to come up with. I also thought there was some oath Presidents have to recite that covers this territory, but what do I know.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton, “So what did I miss?"