Park It

Image:  Facebook

National parks offer some fee-free days, and the Trump administration has tweaked the schedule for next year. No longer can you get in free on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

Gee, what could those two holidays have in common?

But rejoice, for one of the new additions to the fee-free calendar is June 14, Flag Day, which also happens to be Donald Trump's birthday. What a coincidence.

I suggest you and your friends visit your nearest national park on that day, wave the flag, and play rousing birthday games like pin the tail on the narcissist and Simon Says Impeach.

Bribery on the Cheap

 

Breaking Barriers Across the Pond

Image by Shafin Al Asad Protic from Pixabay

I now present you with a pair of news items from abroad. Partly because the news items from here tend to suck.

On Nov. 21, a 20-year-old musical theater student became the first out lesbian winner of the Miss England beauty pageant. Grace Richardson considered keeping mum about her sexuality during the competition, but when the interview panel asked her about overcoming challenges, "the first thing that crossed my mind was my coming out story."

We might be at that point in social evolution where the other contestants thought, "Damn! Why didn't I say that?"

Also in late November, rising Swiss tennis player Mika Brunold came out as gay on Instagram. The 21-year-old wrote that being gay means "dealing with things most people never have to think about. The fear of not being accepted, the pressure to stay quiet, the feeling of being different. But I’ve grown. And I’m proud of who I am today."

Brunold is only the second active male pro tennis player to come out, following Brazil's Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva, who did the deed last year.

An openly lesbian beauty queen and an openly gay male tennis pro. What next? An openly transgender mafioso?

This Week's Quote

Image:  Facebook

Even as his Cabinet was assembled to engage in one of his favorite activities – singing the praises of Trump – he repeatedly appeared to doze off.

Aaron Blake

Source:  CNN

Maybe That's Now an After-School Activity

 

Dec. 1, 2025

Image:  Facebook

Today is World AIDS Day, when we remember those we lost and, as Joe Biden put it last year, "we renew our commitment to accelerating efforts to finally end the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

And here in 2025? The U.S. State Department sent an email to employees reading, "The U.S. Government will not be commemorating World AIDS Day this year."

May Donald Trump wake up with dreadlocks.

And He's Off

Image:  Facebook

The murder by an Afghan of a member of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., has freed Donald Trump to launch into xenophobic overdrive.

In other words, he got an early Christmas present.

"I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States," Trump posted late on Thanksgiving, a holiday that celebrates immigration.

Our leading nativist also said the government would deport any foreign national who's "non-compatible with Western Civilization." Trump himself isn't compatible with any form of civilization. Letting him define Western civilization is like handing the job to a combination of Al Capone and Liberace.

His jingoistic hysterics are meant to feed his base, in the hope that while they froth and seethe they won't notice how prices continue to rise. Trump's approval ratings have cratered to a record low. His frenzied bigotry will likely boost his numbers.

For a while. Until Christmas shoppers realize that their budget can no longer stretch to a Marvel Spider-Man VenomVersus Spider-Man Liquid Shifter Action Figure with Accessories.