You could not pay me to watch the State of the Union address. I am so done with the hate and lies that I don't have the fortitude to endure it.

Especially knowing that the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy... a non-partisan non-profit organization who does analysis on the taxes we pay... reminds us that unless you're a millionaire or billionaire where your taxes went down, you're paying more fucking taxes now, and have less to show for it because you're losing government services so that millionaires and billionaires can pay less...

You can read all the depressing details on their site here.

In other words, the people who can least afford to pay more are paying more, and the people who have an ungodly amount of money are paying less. Which shows you exactly who the current administration is working for... the top 5% of us. So I hope you have a fucking shit-ton of money so you're getting some kind of benefit out of the shit-show that's become our daily reality.

Shocker.

It's just like where all the economists said that the illegal tariffs will worsen the economy. Then that's exactly what happened, and people are all "HOW COULD WE HAVE KNOWN THIS WOULD HAPPEN?" Well, maybe trusting a guy who could bankrupt a fucking casino would be a good start.

Or you could have just read Project 2025, where everything that's been done was spelled out with alarming clarity.

So... what am I doing if I'm not watching television?

1. Cleaning my toilets because if I don't, hard water stains will build up.
2. Drilling holes in my wall so I can install an in-wall cable kit.

And then I'm going to try to get some sleep. Or try to while knowing I'm paying more in taxes so billionaires can have a better life.

Insomnia has been kicking my ass, but I'm not letting that stop me... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Punch-kun! I ran across the tragic story of the macaque snow monkey "Punch-kun" because I still follow Japanese news. Punch was abandoned my his mother and took comfort in an IKEA stuffed orangutan named "Djungelskog." There were numerous photos of the poor little guy doing his best to find acceptance and love from a plushie...

But then, after days on his own, he finally got a hug from one of his troop...

So that's nice. Especially after the shit-show of a week we've had.

   
• Whither Pixar? When Onward was released in 2020, it was a turning point for me when it came to Pixar. With one exception, I didn't like any of these films. And I never really understood why. I never bothered to search my feelings to understand what it was about Pixar that was turning me off. Then this morning I saw this...

And there it is. The reason there's one exception to Pixar from 2020 onward? It's because I've been to the coastal Italian towns which inspired the film Luca. I have a personal connection to the movie because I can draw on an experience that I've had. It's also why I can like a movie like Elio, but not fall in love with it.

   
• Dave Smash! I've been a big Morningstar Farms fan since becoming vegetarian decades ago. I veered away to Boca Burger for my burgers because they had superior taste and mouthfeel, but after Kraft bought them out and fucked up the recipe, I went back to Morningstar Grillers. They aren't great, and you have to know how to cook them so the texture isn't awful, but at least I'm not gagging them down. And then... Beyond Meat released Beyond Stack Burgers...

Now, I should say that Beyond does make an actual smash burger product, but they're not sold near me and aren't meant to be frozen (though you can), which means you have to eat them the day you open the package. The "stack" version always come frozen and are meant to stay frozen until used. Which means I don't have to eat them all after opening the package. But anyway... I found that I can get the Beyond Stack Burgers locally (well, 25-minutes away locally, but still). I absolutely love these burgers. A little high in sodium (260mg per patty), but not atrocious. They also cook weird, with a strange foamy residue in the pan, but the results are tasty enough when you smash them that I just don't care. As a bonus, Beyond has packaging that actually works... unlike shitty Morningstar Farms packaging which I hate, hate, hate.

   
• Thor Tells Jokes! I really want to see this standup as a special... where is Netflix when you really need them?

Hearing this makes me want to watch Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King again. It's a highly personal work which happens to be very, very funny. And touching.

   
• The Dow! The Dow! This is an absolute banger...

I couldn't even watch the hearing because Bondi is a gaping fucking asshole. Instead of using her position to serve the American people and seek justice, she's conspiring to protect child predators. She's such a massive pile of lying fucking shit that any time she speaks I see red, so I don't put myself in a position to watch. Thanks to this video, I can see the highlights in a way that doesn't make me want to hide under my bed and start screaming.

   
• SANDIWARA! Given my love of all things Michelle Yeoh, I was thrilled when a friend shared this with me...

The comments having people saying this should be a Malaysian tourism video. I cannnot disagree. This definitely makes me want to visit Penang (I've only ever been to Kuala Lumpur in the country).

   
• Finalizada! Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família... AKA the Sagrada Familia basilica, is finally nearing completion. After 144 years...

Fascinating. I've visited Sagrada Familia three times over a 20 year span. It never seemed like it was any closer to being completed. Now that we're so close, it feels like it might be time to visit Barcelona again. Not that I need an excuse... it's one of my favorite cities on earth.

   
• Sci-Fi Entertainment! This list isn't perfect, but dang if it doesn't make me want to re-watch every one of these films...

Even though I've already seen all of them more than once. Some of them many times.

   
And now back to needing more sleep.

It is astonishing to me the mental gymnastics that people are doing in order to justify protecting pedophiles. I would have never in a million years have thought that people would ever endorse such a thing.

And yet here we are.

And I have no fucking clue why. The further down the rabbit hole I fall, the more inexplicable it becomes.

And, no, Pam Bondi did not actually say this. But her actions make it clear she might say this.

In all honesty... does a system deserve to stand if it built around protecting those who would sexually assault children?

Hell no.

So burn this mother-fucker down. I don't give a shit who gets prosecuted or what the consequences are.

I said I was done with commenting on Bad Bunny's Halftime Show, but the hate... it just won't stop.

The things people are saying just blow my fucking mind. On top of the blatantly racist hot takes on somebody daring to sing in Spanish during the Superb Owl... or denying that Puerto Rico is a part of the USA when it's a US territory... and now we've got next-level racism coming at him in the form of The Great Replacement Theory? What the ever-loving fuck?

Just look at this bullshit...

"America first."

Puerto Rico is a part of "America"... a territory of "The United States of America." So what the fuck are you even talking about, you dipshit white supremacist piece of shit? This country's entire purpose is to be a melting pot of cultures. I wonder if this asshole makes similar declarations for Oktoberfest celebrations around the country? Probably not... that's European and white. It's just Cinco de Mayo, Bad Bunny, or anything where people are celebrating while non-white.

Meanwhile, Bad Bunny just goes about being the adorable human being he is.

Like he was when he went on Hot Ones last year...

Yeah. Tell me again how this guy is a threat to American "culture."

Bad Bunny is American culture.

One more thing about the Mr. Good Bunny Superb Owl show before I move on...

I love that the guy who got married at Bad Bunny's Superb Owl halftime show is just a guy. A nurse, from the looks of it. Not some social media influencer or other nonsense (he's gained Instagram followers since his wedding, but he's only posted some random pics).

This is just a guy who had Lady Gaga and Bad Buny sing at his wedding in the biggest televised event of the year. And his new wife's Instagram is private. So... yeah... influencer-free and perfect...

Photo from Tommy's Instagram

One thing you can't deny is that they're an adorable couple...

Photo from Tommy's Instagram

Photo from Tommy's Instagram

The entire show was a celebration of love and joy, but Benito sings in Spanish, so let's shit all over it, I guess. Gotta keep the faux outrage machine churning to distract everybody from the actual problems plaguing us.

Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks! You may be thinking that Bullet Sunday will be canceled because of the Superb Owl (I am not calling it by its real name because you can be sued for that), but you would be wrong... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Loot! This is not a Superb Owl commercial. It's a fake commercial from the television show Loot. And yet, it really should be a real commercial, because...

Can Maya Rudolph do any wrong? A completely serious question here.

   
• Doggy! If there's anything that will get me to go to the theater to see Supergirl, it's Baby Krypto...

I'm sure the rest of the movie is nice too.

   
• Daddy! I sure hope that Instagram is fucking working again and the right video is here, because damn!

Nothing beats a good joke before having to go back to work in the morning!

   
• Unreality. Watch this and be unshocked that this is how the world works...

Nobody and nothing matters more than corporate profits.

   
• Unreality: Part Two! Lest you think that the USA government is alone for being one of the most horrifically corrupt pile of shit on the face of the earth, here's a video for you. I swear, governments just don't seem like the ever operate in the best interest of the people they are supposed to be serving...

And now is where you fall down a Boy Boy rabbit hole like I did, because they have some phenomenal videos about things that will make you think. Assuming you have an open mind to do so.

   
• Together! I like it when content creators put some creativity in their stuff. This is pretty funny...

There's so many shitty content "creators" who just play other people's content and react to it. They don't even try. Yet they probably get gabillions more followers than people who put the effort in.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Trump wanted Dulles Airport, Penn Station named after him — in exchange for releasing federal funds. CAN YOU FOR EVEN FOR ONE SECOND IMAGINE WHAT THE REACTION WOULD HAVE BEEN IF OBAMA HAD TRIED SOMETHING LIKE THIS? CAN YOU? I MEAN, SERIOUSLY... CAN YOU JUST FUCKING IMAGINE???

   
And there you go. If you'll excuse me, I'm back to not watching the Superb Owl.

The winner of the AI game could walk away with billions of dollars.

With a prize this huge, the competition is fierce. Scary fierce. And, as you can imagine, entirely too many assholes are going to stop at nothing to get ahead. They will fuck over however many people it takes and just not give a shit.

I'm still waiting for AI to be widely applied in any meaningful way. Right now it seems to be mostly theft. Stealing from artists. Stealing from writers. Stealing from media. Stealing from whatever can be stolen from. All so computers can learn how to generate fake stuff that looks like real stuff for people who don't want to put in the work to creating stuff for themselves.

The only thing I've heard of where AI has been beneficial is studying hurricane data to better predict where hurricanes will end up... and studying medical data to better diagnose X-rays and body scans. Stuff like that. No theft involved.

Other than that? I dunno. It sure as fuck hasn't been a benefit on my iPhone.

Maybe one day.

But anyway, getting back to the negatives. Here's something that should give everybody pause...

Also something that should give everybody pause?

AI deciding that humans are a threat to its existence and wiping everybody out with a nuclear war... Terminator-style!

Which is something that feels more like science-possibility than science-fiction with each passing day.

I try my best to stay out of politics here any more because it's just not worth it. People are so divided that they're going to think what they're going to think and that's the end of it. You can't change people's minds because they've already bought into a narrative which makes it nigh-impossible to be heard. I've been attacked from all over the political spectrum because I don't adhere to a political party or worship politicians. I'm just a humanist who's critical of politics in general. And that? That's an attitude that's just not possible. Not any more. You have to pick a side.

It's a shame, really. Nobody is growing, learning, and sharing ideas. It's just surrounding yourself with an echo chamber and shouting down anything from the outside trying to get through. So I give up.

Except...

What's happening right now is just so fucking abhorrent that saying something... saying anything is critical.

Jon Stewart and his writers often have good takes on current events. Rational, smart, and researched with a biting humor, I anxiously wait to see if they can make sense of the senseless crap in our world. And in this case, they've absolutely nailed it. If you watch this video from first word to last, you'll know exactly where my head is at...

The hipocrisy and horror of what's happening is so fucking next level that I can't find the words to express just how mortified and angry I am.

And so I'm posting a video.

Which has undoubtedly already been ignored by the people who most need to hear it. They see Jon Stewart, know he's a leftist, and immediately dismiss it out of hand. It doesn't matter that his position here is not a political one. And it really isn't. Not this time. He's merely calling out liars, stating facts, and drawing an inevitable conclusion. But when the liars are people you worship and the facts don't fit the story you choose to believe... well... how could you allow yourself to hear it?

You might draw the same conclusion and have your entire worldview challenged.

And we can't have that.

Not any more.

It's not just another day in hell... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms! I really liked the Dunk and Egg trilogy of books, but was wary of the HBO/HBO Max adaptation because I feared that they would fuck it up like they fucked up Game of Thrones after they ran out of books. But the showrunners say that they will not adapt stories that don't exist, so there's that...

I will say that Dunk and Egg are both flawlessly cast and the first episode is promising. Charming even. I really hope they nail it this time.

   
• DRAMA! Lord only knows I need a cute distraction from the horrors of the day, and here it is...

I don't know how dog groomers don't end up kidnapping a dozen clients a day.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Washington state lawmakers consider 10-cent bottle fee to boost recycling. Christ. Everybody has a recycle container that's bigger than their garbage can now... we already have incentive to recycle. Recycle bins are EVERYWHERE! This isn't the 1970's! This is just going to make shit even more expensive because now you can't use your recycle bin because you don't get your money back unless you make another trip to the store. Get fucked. This stupid shit is driving me insane. Is this going to make such a massive difference as to be worth the trouble for everybody involved? Are stores going to have to raise prices again to cover the labor of having to be a recycling center? This is performative politics, and I really hope that voters ACTUALLY THINK FOR TWO FUCKING MINUTES and shoot this idiocy down. INFURIATING.

   
• Seafarer! My latest YouTube obsession is Joe Franta talking about his life as a U.S. merchant mariner. It's all interesting and fascinating stuff. The first one I watched was when he was working on a cruise ship instead of the cargo ships he usually works on...

He's a fairly level-headed and pragmatic guy, giving you both the good...

And the bad...

My favorite videos are the behind-the-scenes stuff where he talks about what life is actually like and how he gets by when on the job...

If you want a great channel to watch, here's the one for you.

   
• Pengo! This story from years ago is going around again. Some documentarians rescued some penguins... and were roundly criticized for interfering in "natures plan" or whatever...

Yeah... you could not stop me from helping creatures in need. I care more about these penguins than I do 99.9% of the people on this planet, and I am not a part of the United Federation of Planets, so the Prime Directive doesn't apply to me!

   
• He-Him-Man! I gotta say, the new trailer for Masters of the Universe looks darn good...

And of course dipshits across the internet are losing their shit because of the frame where Adam has his pronouns under his name tag. Except ADAM IS HE-MAN... THAT'S THE JOKE! So who is it that's ruining everything? Dipshits like this who just want to complain about how "pronouns" are destroying the American way of life, I'm guessing. Gawd. We truly are living in the stupidest timeline.

   
• Alex Pretti. The right to protest is baked into the First Amendment. It literally guarantees citizens "...peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances..." The State of Minnesota allows open and concealed carry of firearms with a permit. The narrative of Alex Pretti approached officers brandishing a handgun has been proven false. Video evidence shows exactly what happened. Alex Pretti was pepper-sprayed while protecting women and then murdered. Executed. Shot 10 times. The only time his weapon was unholstered was when it was removed from him. The only thing in his hand was a camera at the time of his murder...

I've seen video analysis saying that he was reaching for his gun. It's absurd. The actual analysis is clear to anybody who doesn't buy into a bullshit narrative they cling to. Yes, this video is by partisan MS NOW, but the analysis is on-point...

Alex Pretti worked on curing cancer before becoming an ICU nurse at a VA hospital. He dedicated his life to helping others. He died helping a woman who had been shoved to the ground. Witnesses have testified that he was no threat to anybody... he did not brandish a weapon... he did not reach for a weapon... he did not attack anybody... he was just trying to help when he was executed. Alex's parents released this statement...

"We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man."

Done and done. It's the very least I can do.

American citizens are being executed in broad daylight by government action while legally filming at a legal protest. And you know it's problematic when even the NRA is chiming in for a full investigation. It's painfully obvious that this country has taken a horrific turn. I cannot help but wonder how history will view this period of our country. I suppose it depends on whether the government or the people are the ones left standing at the end of it all.

   
And now... back to our shared nightmare.

Is it just me, or has hope for the future dropped to an all-time low?

It's not just one thing, it's everything. Everywhere you turn, there's bad news. I was going to recap with some examples, but I don't want to depress everybody even more than they probably are. Starting with myself.

I thought I would make myself feel better with some retail therapy, but the thought of buying something I don't need and can't afford... then having to pay the credit card bill... doesn't make me think that it would make me feel any better.

So instead I watched last night's episode of The Traitors (US version) and ate a bag of Bugles corn snacks for dinner.

Probably should have bought a fifth of Jack Daniels.