Wayback Wednesday Déjà Vu as Melania and Donald Trump call for Kimmel to be fired

Happy Wayback Wednesday! Today's blast from the past is Jimmy Kimmel on Melania & Donald Trump Demanding His Firing & The White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Jimmy responds to both Melania and Donald Trump saying he should be fired by ABC over a light roast joke he made on the show three days before The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and talks rejecting hateful and violent rhetoric, what unfolded on Saturday after the gunman was captured, RFK Jr. leaving his wife Cheryl Hines in the proverbial dust, an attendee who continued to eat his salad while others were taking cover, newspeople who were at the event reporting on the story in tuxedos and ballgowns, Trump arguing that this is why we need his new ballroom more than ever, Trump sitting down for an interview with 60 Minutes, and in honor of King Charles and Queen Camilla arriving at The White House today we present a special King Charles Edition of Lie Witness News.

Here is the relevant segment with the offending joke: Jimmy Kimmel Roasts Trump & His MAGA Minions at Our Alternative White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

The NFL Draft is tonight, the Trump administration is reportedly hashing out a deal that would give the U.S. Government up to a 90% stake in Spirit Airlines, Ghislaine Maxwell sent a mysterious USB to the Department of Justice a week after that surprise press conference by Melania Trump, Melania made an appearance at the First Lady’s Luncheon today, Trump is planning to go The White House Correspondents' Dinner for the first time as President, Oz Pearlman the Mentalist is set to be the host, and since there is no comedian this year Jimmy steps in to tell all of the jokes Trump is too scared to hear.

I'm with Kimmel; this is about the age difference between the two and the apparent distaste the First Lady has for her husband. That latter might be an incorrect perception. Based on her reaction, maybe Melania loves him after all.

I'm giving MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, the last word in this section by embedding rump, apparently oblivious, makes the same joke he wants Kimmel fired for.

Jen Psaki shows Donald Trump making the same joke about how much older he is than Melania as the joke Trump and Melania claim is so offensive that Kimmel should be removed from his job.

Jen Psaki is right; Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump doubling down on his ballroom and going after Kimmel and James Comey is just him persuing his pet projects. It's also an example of "never let a good crisis go to waste." It's just a shame that the projects being pursued are so petty.

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts about the last time Hoover Cleveland tried to get Kimmel canceled, literally.

'Underdogs' earns four News & Doc Emmy Award nominations

Happy Flashback Friday on Arbor Day! As I promised twice, I'm resuming my coverage of nominees at the News & Doc Emmy Awards. Today, I'm examining Underdogs, which earned more nominations than Secrets of the Penguins, yet didn't receive a nomination for Outstanding Nature Documentary. In fact, it may be the most nominated documentary not to earn an Outstanding Documentary category nomination this year. I'll confirm if that suspicion is true as a contintue my coverage, but right now I'm sharing Underdogs | Official Trailer | National Geographic.

Hold on to your binoculars, folks, as Nat Geo gets up close and personal with the outcasts of the animal kingdom in UNDERDOGS, narrated by Ryan Reynolds. From their hidden talents to their unconventional hygiene choices to their unsavory courtship rituals, UNDERDOGS celebrates the unique behaviors of the animals who don’t usually get to be the stars of the show. From Reynolds’ Emmy® Award-winning Maximum Effort and Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning Wildstar Films (a Fremantle company), NationalGeographic’s UNDERDOGS premieres June 15 at 9/8c, simulcast on ABC, and will be available to stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. Each episode of the five-part series showcases a different aspect of the underdogs’ bizarre mating strategies, surprising superpowers, deception, dubious parenting skills and gross-out behaviors. UNDERDOGS features a range of never-before-filmed scenes, including the first time a film crew has ever entered a special cave in New Zealand—a huge cavern that glows brighter than a bachelor pad under a black light thanks to the glowing butts of millions of mucus-coated grubs. All over the world, overlooked superstars like this are out there 24/7, giving it maximum effort and keeping the natural world in working order for all those showboating polar bears, sharks and gorillas.

That was as funny as it was informative, thanks to the writing and Ryan Reynolds' narration. Speaking of which, this series aired during the eligibility period for this September's Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Reynolds could earn a nomination for Outstanding Narrator then, just like Angela Bassett did for Good Night Oppy. May he be so lucky. His wife Blake Lively wasn't; her narration for Secrets of the Penguins was eligible last year, but her competition was too stiff; she wasn't going to beat any of them out for a nomination.

Enough speculation about nominations that haven't happened yet. Time to examine the nominations that have.

Outstanding Writing: Documentary
Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya
Thunderheart Films [WETA-TV]
2000 Meters to Andriivka
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press]
Songs From the Hole
Netflix [Cocomotion Pictures | Question Culture | Impact Partners | Artemis Rising Foundation | Netflix]
The Stringer
Netflix [A Netflix Documentary | An XRM MEDIA | VII FOUNDATION Production | LinLay Productions]
Underdogs
Wildstar Films [Maximum Effort | National Geographic]

The trailer alone demonstrated that Underdogs deserved this nomination. Unfortunately, I doubt it will win this award. It's competing against 2000 Meters to Andriivka with six nominations including Best Documentary, Songs from the Hole with four nominations including Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary, and The Stringer, also with four nominations including Outstanding Investigative Documentary. I expect grit will win over wit.

Outstanding Graphic Design: Documentary
Antidote/Kill List
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Passion Pictures | Bellingcat]
The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets
Texas Crew Productions [Peacock Original | New York Post Entertainment | G Unit Film & Television, Inc.]
The Ride Ahead
LikeRightNow Films
Titanic: The Digital Resurrection
Atlantic Productions [National Geographic]
Underdogs
Wildstar Films [Maximum Effort | National Geographic]
In Waves and War
Studio AKA [Netflix | Actual Films]

This is likely to be Underdogs' best shot to win, but it faces a tough competitor in Titanic: The Digital Resurrection. Either way, National Geographic would win.

Now two categories I covered in 'Secrets of the Penguins' leads Outstanding Nature Documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Earth Day.

Secrets of the Penguins is in very good company, including 2000 Meters to Andriivka with six nominations including Best Documentary, which is my pick to win both that award and this category. Also, this is one of two nominations for Pangolin: Kulu's Journey, which missed out on a nomination for Outstanding Nature Documentary.

Underdogs might be more deserving than Pangolin: Kulu's Journey and as deserving as Secrets of the Penguins, but I still think 2000 Meters to Andriivka is the favorite to win Outstanding Cinematograpy: Documentary.

Secrets of the Penguins deserved this nomination, but I doubt it will win. Instead, I think it's between Turning Point: The Vietnam War with five total nominations and Love + War with four nominations. Both are also nominated for Best Documentary. The sounds of combat would probably impress the journalists and documentarians, possibly even more than the sounds of nature or music. If the entertainment professionals in the Creative Arts Emmys were voting, they might give WE WANT THE FUNK! the advantage. Not here; electorates matter.

I think the same of Underdogs' chances for Outstanding Sound: Documentary. Given the competition in its categories, it has an apt title.

Despite my pessimism about its awards chances, I will recommend Underdogs to my students as a documentary they can review for extra credit. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

Follow over the jump for a retrospective continuing my examination of the most read entries about the Emmy Awards during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

PBS Terra warns 'A Hidden Antarctic Tipping Point May Have Just Been Triggered' for Wayback Wednesday

Happy Wayback Wednesday! Today's retrospective covers the most read entries about climate change and extreme weather, particularly those featuring videos from Weathered on PBS Terra. I begin with the show and channel's latest on these topics, a warning that A Hidden Antarctic Tipping Point May Have Just Been Triggered.

Something unexpected and potentially irreversible is changing Antarctica and scientists finally know why.

Over the past few decades, researchers have tracked the mysterious growth and sharp decline in sea ice in Antarctica. But a few years ago a troubling discovery was made that could upend global ocean circulation, push one species of penguin to extinction, and change our planet’s climate forever.

In this episode of Weathered, Maiya May looks into the role sea ice plays in our global climate, and the threat that its disappearance poses to our natural world.

From emperor penguins, to sea level rise, to the slowing of the AMOC, these seemingly inconsequential chunks of floating ice could hold the key to our survival. And their loss could be a sign that we’ve crossed a tipping point in an already delicate region of our planet.

Climate scientists and oceanographers have been so concerned about the AMOC weakening and collapsing because of the Greenland ice sheet melting that we've ignored the threat to the Global Conveyor Belt current from melting in Antarctica. We can't do that anymore, not once the Antarctic sea ice began to shrink the same way that Arctic sea ice had been for decades. At least Antarctic sea ice growing will no longer be a viable climate change denial talking point. Small favors.

Follow over the jump for the most read and active posts about climate change and extreme weather during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

'The Wild Robot' and 'Yanuni' among EMA Award winners for Wester

I closed Marsh Family sings 'Measles and Polio Down in the Schoolyard' for RFK Jr. by telegraphing today's topic: "Stay tuned for the winners of the 2025 Environmental Media Association (EMA) Awards as the Sunday entertainment feature to celebrate Wester." Time to compare my picks with the winners.

I'm pleased that this year's nominees for feature film, Jurassic World Rebirth, Wicked, and The Wild Robot, are all speculative fiction, one each from science fiction, fantasy, and animation, although The Wild Robot earned two nominations as science fiction in this year's Critics Choice Super Awards. This demonstrates once again that genre entertainment can convey serious messages in the middle of all the escapism. Speaking of serious messages, a combination of environmental content and star power decides these awards and that makes me think that Jurassic World Rebirth is the favorite. Its theme of the importance of biodiversity as natural capital is as strong as the respect for nature in The Wild Robot and stronger as an environmental theme than the animal rights subplot in Wicked. Jurassic World Rebirth also has as much star power as Wicked, although previous host Jeff Goldblum plays the Wizard of Oz, which might tip the balance, and more than The Wild Robot. Sorry, I don't think Lupita Nyong'o in a voice-acting role is enough.

I guess the EMA thought the environmental message in The Wild Robot was enough to overcome its lesser star power — it won. Surprise!

Now for the nominees I can recommend to my students as extra credit. My pick is Emmy winner Octopus! on the basis of environmental content and star power. I predicted I would see it nominated at the EMA Awards and I was right. The Last Rhinos: A New Hope and Yanuni have as stong environmental themes, but no other awards nominations and no Hollywood stars. However, Yanuni has a compelling personal story, which might be enough for it to upset Octopus!

It was. Congratulations to Yanuni!

Now for the television winners.

I'm glad to see two genre series among the nominees, Alien: Earth and Paradise. I fully expect to see the former nominated at the Saturn Awards and mused about suggesting the latter as an action/thriller or action/adventure nominee. I'm also pleasantly surprised Grey's Anatomy earned a nomination. That's a show I associate with the People's Choice and Teen Choice Awards. My pick is Yellowstone, which is a previous winner. That written, I'm thrilled to see four nominees. It beats the years when The Blacklist would win by default.

Surprise! Grey's Anatomy won. Twenty-two seasons in, it still has the ability to cover new ground and win awards.

Oh, look, three Emmy nominees, Common Side Effects and The Simpsons for Outstanding Animated Program and Abbott Elementary for Outstanding Comedy Series. I'm glad to see animation, which qualifies as speculative fiction, be treated equally with live-action comedy. That written, I'm not expecting either Common Side Effects or The Simpsons to be nominated at the Saturn Awards and I'm not going to suggest either of them, either. Also, Abbott Elementary is a previous winner, so it's my pick to win.

Surprise, Common Side Effects won. Congratulations!

Follow over the jump for the rest of the television winners.

PBS NewsHour explains 'How Meta's blockbuster antitrust trial could have major implications for big tech' — a Throwback Thursday special

Happy Throwback Thursday! I'm returning to what I wrote in BBC News asks 'Will Bluesky be able to rival X or Twitter?' A Wayback Wednesday special, "I plan on getting to Zuckerberg and Meta's legal fight with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Flashback Friday, when I finish this series with the blog's year on Instagram and Threads." I wrote Howtown asks 'How accurate was the Covid death count?' A Flashback Friday pandemic update instead, so I'm covering the case today.* I begin with PBS NewsHour explaining How Meta's blockbuster antitrust trial could have major implications for big tech.

A blockbuster antitrust trial between Meta and the Federal Trade Commission is underway. The government alleges the company monopolized the social media market when it purchased Instagram and WhatsApp. The trial could have major implications for big tech. Stephanie Sy discussed the case with Rebecca Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University.

That was in April. The trial is still going on, so I turn to The Verge for an update in Inside the Meta monopoly trial | The Vergecast, uploaded two days ago.

After more than a month of testimony, the Meta antirust trial is beginning to slow down. The Google search remedies trial, meanwhile, is about to heat up again, with closing arguments coming soon. The Verge’s Lauren Feiner has been in the DC courthouse for all of it, and has finally emerged to tell us about what she’s seen, and learned, from two all-important monopoly trials. After that, The Verge’s Victoria Song tells us about her latest experience with Google’s smart glasses prototypes, what Google is doing differently from Meta and Apple, and what she thinks Jony Ive and OpenAI might be building. Finally, we answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline about what to do now that Mozilla is shutting down Pocket.

I don't use WhatsApp, but I do use Instagram and X competitor Threads. The latter two are tied so closely together that I have a hard time seeing how the two would be separated without imparing Threads, even though Threads doesn't seem to be an issue in this case by itself. I might be wrong, but I don't know how. In any event, this trial will last long enough, short of a surprise settlement, that Tech Policy has scheduled FTC v. Meta: Takeaways from A Landmark Trial for June 26th. That will make for a post that I can share in July. Wowzers!

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the blog's year on Instagram and Threads, which will complete this series.

Crossmen's 'Protest' for a drum corps May Day on Throwback Thursday

A happy drum corps May Day on Throwback Thursday! Today's featured performance is one I telegraphed back in 2022, when I wrote "I might also use Crossmen's 'Protest' show." Its time has come. Watch 2013 Crossmen - Protest from Drum Corps International (DCI).


That's just a brief highlight clip. For the full show, I turn to Crossmen 2013 - Final Run Through from TacoXLV.

Crossmen's final run through at Canyon High School. Sorry if it's a bit shaky here & there, holding my phone up for almost 15 min. while trying not to shake gets a bit challenging after awhile haha, anyways i hope you guys enjoy!

Taco did just fine with their smartphone.

Here's the program's repertoire from DCXMuseum, which is where I also found the left half of the preview image: "The Prophet's Song * She's Too Good For Me * The Sound of Silence * They Don't Care About Us * Some Nights * We Shall Overcome * Goodbye Blue Sky * Find The Cost Of Freedom." It works for this show theme.

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of last year's top posts featuring drum corps, nearly all of which were also top posts on Facebook.

PBS Terra asks 'The Biggest Climate Scam Ever?' for a Flashback Friday Arbor Day

Happy Flashback Friday and Arbor Day! I'm observing the environmental holiday with a contrary perspective, Weathered on PBS Terra asking The Biggest Climate Scam Ever?

What happens when a study goes viral? After the “trillion tree” campaign captured the internet's imagination, YouTube sensation, MrBeast, raised 20 million dollars to plant 20 million trees. But did they survive? We went to check in on them… and were shocked.

In this episode of Weathered, we get into the surprising origins of the viral “trillion tree” campaign, why it nearly ended the careers of the scientists behind it, and what actually works when it comes to storing carbon and fighting climate change. Spoiler: it’s not as simple as planting trees.

This video calls back to the second video I embedded in Vox and PBS Terra examine planting trees to fight climate change. My observation then was "Planting trees serves as an example of 'Nature knows best' for sequestering carbon, but this video shows it's not a good short-term solution." The video above shows that's still true. It also calls back to 'Weathered' on PBS explains 'Why Heat Domes Are SO Deadly', which itself revisited another entry about planting trees.

Maiya May is revisiting the weather and climate events that formed the background to PBS Terra shows how past redlining leads to heat wave deaths in the present and future and Detroit floods while the Pacific Northwest bakes in record temperatures. Those concentrated on a possible solution to the problem and pointing out how an unhealthy planet is running chills and fever.

Planting trees will definitely make the local environment cooler and relatively soon, but it will take decades for the trees to have a positive effect on global carbon dioxide. As May pointed out, we don't have decades. Conserving forests will have more of an effect now.

I already covered the top posts from PBS Terra and Weathered on PBS in PBS Terra asks 'Save the Planet? In THIS Economy? Pffft' for an Earth Month Throwback Thursday and PBS Terra tells 'The REAL Story of the LA Fires | Full Documentary' for Flashback Friday, so follow over the jump for a retrospective of the holiday entries that got traction on social media during the blogging year that ended on March 20, 2025.

Randy Rainbow sings 'Fees, Fees, Fees' for Wayback Wednesday

Happy Wayback Wednesday! I promised something fun today, and I have it. Watch and listen to Randy Rainbow sing Fees, Fees, Fees.

Parody of “Please, Please, Please” by Sabrina Carpenter, Amy Allen, and Jack Antonoff

I wrote, "As for Hoover Cleveland, I'm sure he'll have much more to say about him," last month and Randy delivered!

It turns out I haven't heard the original, which I listed among Espresso's GRAMMY nominations for Espresso Day, so I'm sharing Sabrina Carpenter - Please Please Please (Official Video).

Music video by Sabrina Carpenter performing Please Please Please.© 2024 Island Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

Randy could have gone much darker, making his parody about crime as well as convicted criminal Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump's tariffs and stock market crash. As I wrote on Bluesky last month, "Elect a criminal, expect crimes."

Elect a criminal, expect crimes.

— Vince Lamb (@vincelamb.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 11:26 PM

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts featuring Randy during the 14th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

Kosta, Colbert, and Meyers take closer looks at tariffs on Flashback Friday

Yesterday's bad news was tariffs and, of course, tariffs were the story that stuck around. The Daily Show was among the shows that featured them as the topic of their monologues. Since it had the best preview image, I'm sharing Trump’s Tariffs Send Markets Plunging and Penguins Waddling to a Trade War first.

Michael Kosta recaps Trump's tariffs fallout, from a stock market crash to cabinet officials taking to the airwaves to cheerlead the move. Plus, Grace Kuhlenschmidt checks in on the penguins who now find themselves in a trade war.

Imposing tariffs on a territory inhabited only by penguins was the funniest thing about this mess. It shows that Hoover Cleveland and whoever was actually doing his work just went down a list and assigned tariffs without checking to see if any people actually lived there. *Eye roll* I'd say we're living in Idiocracy except that's science fiction that takes place in the 26th Century. We're really living in a kakistocracy, "government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens." How about all three?

Speaking of "the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens," the title of Stephen Colbert's monologue was Trump Jets Off To Watch Golf After Triggering Global Market Meltdown | No Tariffs On Russia.

President Trump's tariff announcement, which sent stocks into a nosedive and enraged America's allies around the world, mysteriously excluded one major country: Russia.

No tariffs on Russia? I'm not surprised. As I wrote yesterday, "Maybe it's good for his fellow billionaires, including Vladimir Putin, his partner in a bad bromance. I have long had my suspicions." This just reinforces them.

My wife and I watched both Colbert and Seth Meyers, who examined the situation in Trump's Insane Tariff Plan Tanks Stock Market, Risks Economic Collapse as Prices Rise: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at Trump implementing massive tariffs on almost every country in the world, raising prices for American consumers, escalating a pointless trade war with allies and pushing the economy into a self-inflicted meltdown.

Seth mentioned his wife's shopping list, which reminds me that my wife went shopping at Costco yesterday. She said it reminded her of the early days of the pandemic, when everyone was buying toilet paper, including her. Doom spending, anyone?

I close this portion of the post with the cold open of The Late Show, The World Reacts To Trump's Tariffs.

The president thinks his man-made economic disaster is going "very well."

He would think so. In reality, we're partying like it's 1929.

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts from last year featuring late-night talk-show hosts examining Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump's second term so far to observe Flashback Friday.

'SNL' mocks the Signal group chat in its cold open and Weekend Update

Last night's Saturday Night Live began by mocking last week's top U.S. political story in Group Chat Cold Open.

A group of teenagers (Mikey Madison, Sarah Sherman, Ego Nwodim) get added to a group chat with Secretary Pete Hegseth (Andrew Dismukes), Vice President JD Vance (Bowen Yang), Secretary Marco Rubio (Marcello Hernández) and Editor of the Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg (Mikey Day).

Where's National Security Advisor Mike Waltz? Didn't he start the group chat? I guess he's not known, disliked, or funny enough to be parodied in the skit. On the other hand, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is all three, which is one of the reasons both this scandal and Hegseth are called Whiskeyleaks, a nickname alongside Kegseth. Hegseth deserves his own label on this blog and I think I'll use Kegseth.

SNL continued mocking Whiskeyleaks, both Hegseth and the scandal, in the first segment of Weekend Update: Pete Hegseth Sends Attack Plans on Signal Group Chat.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visiting a Salvadoran prison.

At least Waltz made the preview image along with Hegseth, JD Vance, and Marco Rubio, and had a couple of jokes told about him, although I think the one about Hegseth was funnier. As for Kristi Noem's photo op, Michael Che's quip about OnlyFans reminds me of what Steve M. wrote at No More Mister Nice Blog yesterday.

It's obvious that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's visit to El Salvador's brutal Cecot prison was part of the the Trump administration's effort to keep pumping out images of performative machismo in order to appeal to Trump's multi-ethnic, multi-generational coalition of male voters (a "badass" woman in skintight clothing is a familiar trope in male-coded popular culture)...The Trumpers know what boys like.

A conservative female politician using her sex appeal? I've seen that before.

Weekend Update continued with Will Smith's New Album, 23andMe Goes Bankrupt.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like three girls trying to stab [their] mother after she turned off the Wi-Fi.

Will Smith's new album alone qualifies this entry as the Sunday entertainment feature, but so does Jost's rant about Paddington and to a lesser extent, Melania Trump's campaign against deepfake revenge porn plus more over the jump.

Too bad 23andMe filing for bankruptcy only got a throwaway line; I guess the privacy concerns weren't funny enough. On the other hand, Joann's bankruptcy earned an entire segment, Joann on JOANN Fabric and Crafts' Bankruptcy.

Joann (Ashley Padilla) stops by Weekend Update to discuss JOANN Fabric and Crafts announcing store closures.

I wish SNL gave all the casualties of the Retail Apocalypse that much attention. Imagine the one of the teens from the cold open bemoaning the loss of Forever 21!

Follow over the jump for more highlights from last night's show plus the top posts from the 14th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News featuring SNL.

CNBC describes 'How Bluesky Grew From A Twitter Side Project To An X Competitor'

Today's content worth sharing next month is CNBC describing How Bluesky Grew From A Twitter Side Project To An X Competitor.

Not many people had heard of Bluesky when the Twitter side project made its debut as a separate company in 2021. The decentralized social media platform initially flew under the radar, but user numbers skyrocketed after the U.S. election in November. This was largely because many of X’s users fled to Bluesky, as they were unhappy with some of the changes that Elon Musk made to Twitter after he acquired it in 2022 and later renamed it X. Bluesky now has over 27 million users, but whether it can continue its rapid growth and compete with the likes of Musk’s X and Meta and Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads remains to be seen.

I'm one of Bluesky's new users since the election, although Katharine Hayhoe recommended that I join her on the service when it no longer required an invite code. That happened when my wife created an account on November 16, 2024 and I created mine later that same day. The first person I followed was my wife. The second was Dr. Hayhoe, who followed me back, which I don't think she ever did on Twitter/X.

Speaking of following me back, I've grown my followers faster on Bluesky than I ever did on any other platform. It took me 13 years to get to 1,000 followers on Twitter/X. It took me one month on Bluesky. I now have nearly 3,000 followers two-and-one-half months after I joined. That's almost triple the 1,075 friends and 174 followers I have on Facebook, the next largest audience I have on social media, and that took 17 years to achieve. I'm also getting more engagement in the form of likes, reposts, and replies on Bluesky than X, although Facebook still beats both, but not enough link clicks from Bluesky to register, while X ranks in the top five. I'm not deactivating my X account for just that reason; it's still useful.

That's it for today's post worth sharing in February. Stay tuned for another evergreen entry tomorrow.

Colbert and Kimmel comment with comedy on Trump's hush money trial

Happy Flashback Friday! I'll get to today's look back at the 13th year of this blog over the jump after continuing with the main topic of yesterday's Meyers, Colbert, and Kimmel take closer looks at Trump's trial and other news with last night's monologue by Stephen Colbert, Michael Cohen’s Mean Nickname For Trump | Noem Defends Killing Her Puppy | Boeing Sends A Message.

While Donald Trump snoozes in court, his former lawyer Michael Cohen is mocking him on TikTok. Elsewhere, Governor Kristi Noem tried to explain away her puppy murder story, and another Boeing aircraft lost a crucial part mid-flight.

Courtroom drama? In the hands of Colbert and his writers, it's more like courtroom comedy, which makes the news a lot easier to digest. This includes Kristi Noem, who acts like she thinks she's the latest version of Sarah Palin, right down to shooting canines (wolves in the case of Palin) and being the running mate on a Republican presidential ticket. I'll get back to that and Boeing's problems, but I'm moving on to Jimmy Kimmel Made it Into the Trump Trial, Donald "Can't Even Testify" & Crazy Abortion Law Repealed, which didn't bleep out what Michael Cohen called "Naptain America." I guess showing a cable news clip slipped it past the censors.

We are officially part of the record of the People vs Donald Trump, prosecutors entered into evidence a series of text messages between lawyers for Trump and Stormy Daniels about our show, Trump has been encouraging supporters to come to the courthouse and support him and was greeted by a single fan, he is very upset about reports that say he’s been sleeping during the trial, the courtroom sketch artist appears to hate him, today he tried to float the idea that because of the gag order he’s not allowed to testify, he played shows in Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday where he fired up the crowd telling them everything’s a disaster and America is dead, we have a new water pressure edition of Drunk Donald Trump, the state Senate in Arizona finally voted to repeal their antiquated and crazy abortion law from 1864, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem went on Hannity last night to do damage control after she revealed she shot her puppy, and This Week in Unnecessary Censorship.

Kimmel and his writers and editors made up for not bleeping CNN's Jake Tapper with "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship." They should do that to Marjorie Taylor Greene more often.

Speaking of CNN, I'm returning to Stephen's show with his interview of a CNN anchor telling him that “Both Sides Are Framing It Incorrectly” - Laura Coates On Trump’s Hush Money Trial.

CNN Chief Legal Analyst Laura Coates breaks down the arguments on both sides of Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York City, and explains why it’s important for the public to know what really happened. Watch “Laura Coates Live” weeknights on CNN.

That's enough for me to pay attention to Coates. She sounds smart and knowledgeable.

I close this portion above the jump with two of The Late Show's cold opens about the trial, beginning with Trump’s Aggressive New Attorney.

Angry that his lawyer wasn’t tough enough, Donald Trump hired someone much more aggressive.

That's only a slight exaggeration. Trump is in the WWE Hall of Fame and a telegenic lawyer who used to be a wrestler would be right up his alley.

Now last night's cold open, which asked Do You Have Trouble Falling Asleep?



Reach for a Magatonin!
This trial is teaching me to appreciate a good fart joke.

Follow over the jump for the Flashback Friday retrospective of the most active shares from the blog on Instagram and Threads during its 13th year.

Stats for the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Throwback Tuesday

As I wrote yesterday, "Stay tuned for stats!"

As of 11:59 PM EDT March 20, 2024, this blog had a lifetime total of 4,463,208 page views, 5,798 total posts, and 4,057 comments. Minus the 3,821,974 page views, 5,418 total posts, and 3,979 comments as of just before March 20, 2023, that means this blog earned 641,234 page views and 78 published comments on 380 posts during the 366 days of the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. My calculated page views are close to the ~640,000 page views Blogger's counter showed during the past twelve months, which I think covered April 1, 2023 to March 20, 2024, but wildly off from the 199 comments it counted during the same period. Blogger aggressively threw a lot of comments into the spam filter beginning about February 2023, including some that were not spam and which I had to approve to display again, which would explain the more than 100 comment difference. Blogger also aggressively held a lot of comments in the spam filter and never published them. That's O.K. I don't miss the spam.

I also don't miss the anxiety I was feeling when I wrote last year's post. This past year's 641,234 page views beats the year before's 419,300 page views on 379 posts between March 21, 2022 and March 20, 2023. It's also more than the 532,981 page views the blog earned between March 21, 2021 and March 20, 2022. Had I actually followed through on raising my page view goal to 25,000 per 29 days, which translates to 862 page views per day, I would have easily exceeded the 315,517 page view goal for the 366 days of the blogging year. Yay!

I'm also no longer working harder for fewer page views, as the blog earned 1,687.46 page views per post and 1,752.01 page views per day. That's much better than the 1,106.33 page views per post and 1,148.77 page views per day last year and the 1,452.26 page views per post and 1,460.22 page views per day the year before that. Whew. Still, I'm not tempted to increase my page view goals this coming year.

While the raw number of comments, including spam never released from the spam filter, increased from 168 to 199, the published comments remaining at the end of the blogging year decreased from 122 to 78. Since I don't have comment goals, I'm not concerned. I'd prefer fewer quality comments than a lot of spam.

As for my commenters who aren't spammers, I'd like to thank them, beginning with continuing commenters Infidel753, Nebris, the first commenter on my blog, Friend of the Court, and best man at my first wedding Narb Xorbian. Keep up the good work! I also want to thank H-bob, tronvillain, August Johnson, Noah, Marc McKenzie, Realityhold, Steve in Manhattan, and my student Ecogranite for making their first posts here. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost longtime commenters Paul W. and Sarnia Sam, while last year's first-time commenters Powers, Sicko Ricko, Expat, verbum, Buzzcook, Bruce.desertrat, and emjayjay didn't return. Come back, I miss you!

Follow over the jump for the rest of the analysis.

Randy Rainbow sings 'Sedition,' a bonus blast from the past

I know I promised "PBS NewsHour also examined Biden's speech and the participants in the insurrection. Stay tuned for that next" and I will — tomorrow. Tonight, I'm sharing Randy Rainbow singing SEDITION! - A Randy Rainbow Parody.


I saw Randy himself sharing this on Threads, and thought "Why not? My readers and I could use a good laugh" and I got one. Did you?