Donald Trump's plans are already generating fear and loathing, resulting in violence.

In Pittsburgh, PA, a Mexican college student who is legally in the U.S. listened to Trump on TV (while drinking beer) and got in an argument with his roommate, biting off his ear and breaking his finger. It seems the assaultive roommate feared being deported. Luckily, the assaulted roommate made his way to a gas station to call police. His ear was recovered in the room and stitched back on. The assaulting roommate is gone. Both come form Mexico.

To paraphrase Trump's probable response: "What did you expect? People are angy."

Germany has repealed a law allowing prosecution of those who criticize foreign leaders. It takes effect 1/1/2018.

The Washington Posts suggests it's just in time for Donald Trump.

In related news, the Netherlands is proposing to start a fund for international groups offering abortion counseling, to circumvent Trump's plan: [More...]

Donald Trump and his incendiary but essentially meaningless border wall talk and executive order do nothing but push people's buttons.

Mexican President Pena Nieto today posted a video message to the Mexican people today on Twitter, saying "As I've said again and again, Mexico will not pay for any wall." (México no pagará por ningún muro".) (Article here.)[More...]

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, aka the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has written an open letter to Donald Trump. It was published today on Twitter, and released to journalists.

Here is the English version (I'm not sure how long it will remain up, so if you're interested, read it soon.)

He makes some good points as to why we should get out of Afghanistan for once and for all. Not surprisingly for a man of supreme incompetence and an extraordinarily limited vocabulary, Trump sent the opposite message to U.S. troops in Afghanistan today: [More...]

The New York Times has the facts on what it calls "Trump Voting Fraud Lie."

This year's Oscar nominations are out. The New York Times has the surprises and snubs. The nominations are much more diverse than last year.

I'm tired of reading and writing about the man currently occupying the oval office and his family. Much more pleasant and garnering millions of views per video on Instagram is Nusret Gökçe, aka #SaltBae, the incredibly good-looking, sexy, talented butcher/restaurateur at Nusr Et steakhouses in Turkey, Dubai and now Abu Dhabi. [More...]

You'd never know it from the news headlines, but as the San Francisco Chronicle reports, there are people supporting SNL's Katie Rich, who tweeted a joke about Barron Trump, deleted it and got suspended by NBC, notwithstanding her profusive apology.

The Chronicle reports supporters can be found at the new #KeepKatieRich hashtag on Twitter, where many point out that Donald Trump posts worse things about people every 30 minutes.

There are legitimate topics to discuss about Trump's children, including 10 year old Barron, that affect us all -- like how much extra it's going to cost taxpayers to provide continuing security for him and his mother in New York while Trump is living in the White House so the child doesn't have to be inconvenienced by changing schools in the middle of the school year. This isn't a second residence, which most Presidents have had, but dual residency. While they have the right to decide where they sleep, Trump should be footing that bill, not us. [More...]

Donald Trump has been given the green light for son-in-law Jared Kushner to serve as his advisor.

Here's the legal opinion of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

(My opinion: Forget Mike Pence. Apparently, America elected Jared Kushner. Trump, who has no clue how to govern, little inclination to learn and even less of an attention span thinks his son-in-law will figure it all out. If not, he can always seek Ivanka's opinion.)

In addition to bringing peace to the Middle East, Superman Kushner is expected to handle "government partnerships with the private sector and matters involving free trade." [More...]

The Washington Post reports that U.S. Border Patrol Agents refused entry to Canadians who were coming to the U.S. to join the Women's March:

U.S. border agents asked what they planned to do in the United States. “We said we were going to the Women’s March on Saturday and they said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to pull over,’ ” Dyck told the Guardian. Agents then searched their car and examined their cellphones, according to Dyck. Each member of the group was fingerprinted and had their pictures taken.

Finally, after two hours, the agents told Dyck and his friends to turn around. “They said, ‘You’re headed home today,’ ” Dyck told the Guardian. Officials warned that they’d be arrested if they tried to cross at a different spot this weekend, Dyck said. “And that was it, they didn’t give a lot of justification.”

[More...]

Don't miss SNL's cold open (Vladimir Putin on Trump's inauguration) and the opening monologue by guest host Aziz Ansari excoriating racism and bigotry against immigrants by Trump supporters, whom he calls the “lowercase k.k.k." Both are terrific.

Fast forward through the skit called "Conway" -- it's as lame as the person it's named for. What a waste of air time. Ansari said all that needed to be said about her when he said her inaugural outfit made him wonder if she was moonlighting as a doorman at FAO Schwarz.

Weekend update was also very funny. Video below: [More...]

How lazy or shady are Trump staffers working on his Presidential Inaugural Committee? The organizers of the Salute to Our Armed Services Ball couldn't be bothered to come up with even an idea for Trump's Inaugural cake, so they picked out a local bakery and brought them a photo of Obmama's inaugural cake and asked for an exact replica -- no deviations.

“They came to us a couple of weeks ago, which is pretty last minute, and said ‘We have a photo that we would like to replicate,’ ” MacIsaac told The Washington Post by phone. Her bakery tried to encourage the client to use the photo as “inspiration,” as they do with many others, she said.

“They said, ‘Nope, they want this exact cake. It’s perfect.’ And we said, great,” MacIsaac said. Neither she nor her spokeswoman revealed who placed the order.

Duff Goldman (one of the judges on Food Network's kids baking show) who owns a bakery in Baltimore made Obama's cake. He noticed the similarity and tweeted photos of both cakes with a statement he made Obama's cake but didn't make Trumps.

What kind of bakery copies another baker's design and doesn't give credit until after being confronted with the copying? Duff, however, is
now cool with it and congratulated the copycat bakers on their efforts.

The copycat bakers, having been exposed, are now crediting Duff's great design and trying to make amends by donating their profits to Human Rights Campaign.

The copycat bakers' amends do not excuse the laziness or shadiness of the Trump Inaugural employee who placed the order.