It's been over a year since I've made one of these posts where I listen to and review the top songs in the USA according to Billboard. Honestly, the main reason I haven't is cause a lot of the pop music trends of the last year have been so stale, and it just feels like pop music has been stuck in a standstill for ages now. It so desperately needs new blood to come and give it a big push this year, especially in the middle of the summer, where we usually get big pop hits to celebrate the season. This year, the big summer song is... Ordinary by Alex Warren? I guess I'll get to my feelings on that in a second, but first, I just want to point out that a lot of the hits in the top 10 aren't even from this year but from last year or older. One song in particular is from 2023 and has been on the charts for what feels like two years straight. Let's just get into this.
8/31/2025
6/05/2025
Best Songs of the 2020s (Half-Way Point)
Already halfway through the 2020s, isn't that great?! I mean, I'm glad we made it passed those first few years of the decade, but maybe it's cool if it slows down a little bit now. Throughout the past 5 years, music has been seeing a shift, and it's not quite the one I was expecting, but... even so, there were a lot of great songs released. Some are groundbreaking and others are just perfecting an already existing sound. Tons of great artists grabbed my attention for the first time, while lots of already established artists released new projects that also caught my attention in good ways. I wanted to look back at those songs that I loved the last 5 years and give them a shoutout and hopefully get people to maybe give some new artists a shot, or go back and listen to some of these great songs and albums you've heard before. So here's my personal favorite 20 songs of the last 5 years! I'm going to try to somewhat put them in order from least favorite to most favorite, but it will be harder the closer to number one I get. Obviously, I haven't listened to every single album that's come out in the last five years, so if you see a great song missing, feel free to recommend it to me. It might have been on the verge of making the list, but I'm going to have to leave out some really good songs to make this list of 20... plus a few extra bonus mentions HERE WE GO!?
A few honorable mentions:
Chapell Roan - Pink Pony Club (2023)
It's Chappell Roan, it's the Pink Pony Club, what else needs to be said?
MICHELLE - Akira (2024)
I discovered this album late in 2024, so I didn't get a lot of time with it before the year ended. It didn't take too long for the track "Akira" to become one of my favorite songs of 2024. It's one of those songs that grabs your attention from the first second with its interesting guitar intro, followed shortly by a busy bassline that really drives the song. That and the awesome vocals and signature catchy melodies by the band really make this one stand out.
Taylor Swift - August (2020)
Taylor's first new album of the decade, which would be the first of many. It still remains the best overall album by Taylor in my opinion, and most people would probably agree in saying that "August" is the standout track in this album. It's got the great lyrics you expect from Taylor, but it's got an interesting mix of sadness and hope in the music that makes it stand out. It also has one of the best bridges I can remember from a Taylor Swift song.
Remi Wolf - Toro (2024)
Another one of my favorites from last year. I hadn't heard of Remi Wolf until this album was released, and I became a fan pretty fast after hearing a few of the singles from her last album. This song (Toro) in particular really stood out as a showcase for Remi's awesome vocals. That, on top of some awesome bass and guitar work, made this a song I played repeatedly a lot.
Magdalena Bay - Killing Time (2024)
Notice a lot of songs from last year on the list. Mostly because I haven't had enough time with some of these songs to truly know if it's more recency bias or if they really do belong on the list. I think over time, these songs might have made the list, but it's hard to say with so many other good songs to have to replace. This song was another one I got to later in the year, but it also didn't take long for it to become one of my favorites of the year.
20. Amyl and the Sniffers - Hertz (2021)
19. Perfume Genius - On the Floor (2020)
18. Jessie Ware - Begin Again (2023)
17. Carly Rae Jepsen - Psychedelic Switch (2023)
16. Vince Staples - Étouffée (2024)
15. Fountaines D.C. - Jackie Down The Line (2022)
14. Caroline Polachek - Bunny Is A Rider (2023)
13. Hayley Williams - Why We Ever (2020)
12. The Japanese House - Sad To Breath (2023)
11. Five Iron Frenzy - Lonesome For Her Heroes (2021)
10. Phoenix - Tonight (ft. Ezra Koenig) (2022)
9. Young The Giant - Otherside (2022)
8. The Last Dinner Part - The Feminine Urge (2024)
7. Bonny Light Horseman - 10,000 Miles (2020)
6. Silk Sonic - Smoking Out The Window (2021)
5. Paramore - Big Man, Little Dignity (2023)
4. GROUPTHERAPY - Nasty (2023)
3. The Weeknd - Out of Time (2022)
2. Sam Fender - Spit Of You (2021)
1. Everything Everything - Pizza Boy (2022)
Everything Everything has released two albums in the decade so far, and both of them have been my favorites of the years they came out. The 2022 album Raw Data Feel was my introduction to this band, and I instantly fell in love with their music. I had a hard time picking which song would be on here, but ultimately I went with "Pizza Boy". Mostly because it was the song I think really hooked me on the band, but it's a song I haven't gotten tired of listening to after almost 3 years now. I could say that for most of the songs on that 2022 album, to be fair. The song Pizza Boy is about the act/dangers of buying products and consuming to fill empty voids in your life. Like being alone, but finding satisfaction in just constantly buying things and letting that alone keep you feeling alive. It's an interesting topic for sure, and the music is also done so well with the bass line and the clapping effects that come in at random times. The chorus brings in the heavier synth sounds that really bring the song to life. It's just all so amazing, and I love every second.
Anyway, here's a playlist of a bunch of songs I considered for this list and all the ones that DID make the list as well. Have fun?!
5/02/2025
Reasons Our President is a Terrible Person PART 2
Just a few months ago (March), I made a post here with 45 reasons our President is a terrible person. Originally I called it 45 reasons he's a piece of shit but I wanted to title to not have curse words on it. In the last post, I talked about a lot of his terrible actions since becoming President again, with things like his weird relationship with Musk, his awful treatment of Zelensky, and his dumb tariffs. Just a few months have passed, and I already feel like there's enough bad to make another one of these. Not 45 reasons long this time, but more than enough to make a post about it for sure.
1. Selling Tesla cars at the White House - Trump being a carny and selling Teslas at the White House after the Tesla stock plummeted because of Elon being a terrible, unlikable person. It's just so pathetic to see him awkwardly sell a car he probably couldn't care less about as he reads from a script and doesn't even pronounce the company name right. Just like when he sold Trump Bibles and his stupid shitcoin, it's all just bullshit from a President who has no shame.
2/3. Selling Merch for 2028 Presidential Election - The official Trump merch store... actually, that existing is probably enough to get its own point. Anyway, this store started selling merch with the TRUMP 2028 words on it, because of course. Pay 50 dollars plus shipping for a basic ass hat with the same giant font that all his other hats have. Maybe get some pink ones for the women in your life you hope will lose all their rights. Excuse me while I delete my browser history after visiting that site.
4. Birthday Parade - June 14th is the President's birthday, where he turns 79 and holy shit he's old. So he decided to throw a nice parade in honor of himself and the anniversary of the Army. Let's face it, if it wasn't on his birthday, he wouldn't have cared to throw a parade for the Army. So let's waste all the money and resources to throw a parade for a terrible human! This also happens to take place the same day as Warped Tour in DC, so hopefully Avril Lavigne will drown out most of the parade.
5. Qatar - Just recently, Trump took a nice brib- I mean a gift from the country of Qatar. A 600 million dollar luxury jet, what a nice gift from Qatar for nothing in return. A plane he wanted to use as the new Air Force One, but he won't be able to until they turn it into a safe replacement. Most likely, he'll just use it as a private plane when he's no longer President, how convenient. Just what a rich guy needs is a free plane. This was so bad that even a lot of his defenders, like Ben Shapiro, thought this was a pretty gross move.
6. Golf - Dude continues to golf too much.
7. Tariffs PART TWO- So Trump has continued his obsession with Tariffs since my last post, really going even further into it with heavy Tariffs on China recently. There was also that hilarious moment where he created a holiday called Liberation Day and was showing all his planned Tariffs as the stock market sank at the same time. Even worse, he threw his Truth Social followers a wink-wink moment to buy stocks right before declaring a pause on his tariffs. Just totally normal shit that a normal not terrible human would do.
8. Constitution, what's that?- Let's see what PRESIDENT Trump said when asked if he should uphold the Constitution.
Interviewer: "... Do you (Trump) think you should uphold the Constitution of the United States?"
Trump: "I DON'T KNOW, BUT I HAVE BRILLIANT LAWYERS"
Interviewer probably: "How the fuck are you President right now?"
Okay, she didn't actually say that at the end, but she might as well have because Jesus Christ, what the hell is he doing? It's the easiest question you could ask a sitting President, and he answers with "I don't know". Remember that oath you took, dummy? Do you know what an oath is? It's like the one you gave to your wife when you married her... actually, no bad example, he broke that one.
9. Kilmar Abrego Garcia - Honestly, this one is probably worth like 30 points on its own, but here we go. Trump has had countless chances to bring back Abrego Garcia to the United States, the country that he is a citizen of. If you don't know for some reason, Abrego Garcia was sent to the notoriously bad prison in El Salvador when he was mistaken for a gang member because of his tattoos. Later, it was confirmed that his tattoos had no real connection with the gang he was accused of being a part of, but it's been brushed off by Trump and his goons, and he remained inside the prison. He wasn't the only one this happened to, just one of the first ones to become a big story. Later, in an interview, Trump claimed he had evidence that he had gang tattoos as he pulled out a picture of Abrego Garcia's knuckles and pointed to the tattoos that had the gang name. Turns out it was a clearly photoshopped picture, and Trump couldn't tell because he's old and out of touch. The interviewer tried to correct him multiple times, and he just brushed him off. Really, the main thing is him not even given due process and was just shipped out to prison without being able to defend himself or prove his innocence.
10. El Salvador Prison - Since I just talked about it, that El Salvador prison they've been sending people to is notoriously terrible. Like the kind of place that is basically 24/7 torture to the inmates. The lights remain on at all times, they sleep on what looks like hard metal bunks with no mattress, and it seems like they're not given any clothes except underwear. They look like they barely have enough space in their cells with the number of people stuffed into each one, and only get an hour or probably less of time outside every day.
11. Signal Gate - Well, I couldn't NOT bring this one up. Not that it was Trump himself who did this, but it was a person whom he chose to put in a high position, his name is Mike Waltz. It all led to an extremely embarrassing moment where the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was accidentally included in a private chat between Waltz and other important figures, where they talked about war plans against Yemen. Pete Hegseth was apparently the one who put out the plans on the chat, another one of Trump's buddies he brought in. It was all very stupid and showed how bad these people are at doing the most basic shit to make sure no one else is seeing this very private information. These are the guys in charge, god help us all.
12. Alcatraz - For some stupid reason, Trump has now decided he wants to bring back Alcatraz as a legit prison. Probably watched the movie "Escape From Alcatraz" and thought it was a great idea to bring this back. Great movie and all, but the last thing you'd want to do after watching that movie is bring back Alcatraz.
13. Cutting Funding of NPR and PBS - Fuck you for trying to take down PBS, like seriously, what are you even on at this point? Trump is actively trying to take down platforms that people use to learn things, because when people learn things, they become smart and smart people... don't like Trump. Now I don't know if this is actually going to happen, but the fact that he's even trying to do this is not good. Silencing (or trying to) any media outlet that you don't agree with your Presidential power is dangerous. I don't even think PBS is especially left-leaning in that case, so I'm not sure what he's on about here, trying to do this, but I think my point stands about Trump just trying to stop people from learning or having news sources that he specifically doesn't approve of.
14. War on Peaceful Protests in Colleges - Trump seems to be going hard on his war with colleges and trying to take away their money if they have peaceful protests or are "too liberal," I guess. Sort of goes with the last point on Trump hating education. The point is that these students are having peaceful protests, and Trump wants to punish schools for it. But he also wants to allow religion (well, Christianity anyway) to be in schools.
15. Trying to Destroy the Press - Pretty much just wanting questions directed at him from the press to be the most softball questions possible. It also helps when the questions are pretty much like: "Trump, you are doing a great job deporting every illegal that's in the USA, how are you so amazing?" and Trump will be like "OH great question, I like this guy, he's very smart."
16. He's Fat - Being fat doesn't make you a terrible person or even a bad person at all. I just wanted to point it out for educational purposes.
17. Bitching out Celebs - I don't know a single other President in recent history who took celebs speaking out against him so personal. His weird war with Taylor Swift after she stood by Harris last year, and now recently with Springsteen. Clearly, he cares what these people think, because he gets so bent out of shape about it. Really, anyone who speaks out against him is his enemy, and he really wants to somehow get rid of anyone who speaks out against him. If I mysteriously disappear in the next few weeks after posting this, you know why. (I say this like this has any chance of reaching him)
18. USA taking the Gaza Strip - I think he mentioned something like this in January, but recently he doubled down on it, saying he wants to make it a "Freedom Zone", whatever the hell that is. I guess I'd imagine his idea of freedom is getting rid of everyone there and moving them to some other country.
19. Ruining the World Cup (probably) - I'm incredibly excited for the World Cup next year, because it's the best sporting event in the world and it's always tons of fun... well, maybe not as fun anymore. Besides the USA national team being somehow worse than usual recently, there's the Trump of it all and how he's ruined relationships with so many countries around the world. People are afraid to come here now because of how immigrants are being treated. It didn't help that JD Vance made a joke about deporting all the visitors coming to see the games. Like, why make such a stupid joke, and why do you think it's even funny at all to mess with people in that way? Nobody likes JD Vance anyway, but dude is such an unlikable prick since becoming Trump's cheerleader. I kind of hope nobody shows up to the games just to show them a message about the state of this place.
20. Kristi Noem - Just... ugh.
Well, that's it for now. As you can see, things are only getting better, and we're only like 4 months into this term. God help us all. But not the version of God that apparently chose Trump to be president. Anyway, below are some articles about some of the points I put on this list if you want to read up. Stay safe and keep fighting.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/g-s1-54206/el-salvador-mega-prison-cecot
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/us-news-mike-waltz-quits-nsa-head-what-is-signal-gate-scandal-that-prompted-nsa-head-mike-waltz-to-quit-white-house-post-explained/articleshow/120798910.cms?from=mdr
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-signs-executive-order-directing-federal-funding-cuts-to-pbs-and-npr
https://apnews.com/article/poll-college-trump-harvard-higher-education-109dae2e19d5fe570a7c02e105bab6e6
https://time.com/7285602/trump-plans-for-gaza-freedom-zone/
https://www.buzzfeed.com/michaelabramwell/jd-vance-disturbing-joke-about-world-cup-deportations
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2025/05/19/trump-wants-investigation-into-springsteen-and-beyonces-endorsement-of-harris/
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/09/first-chinese-goods-145percent-plus-tariffs-arriving-us-ports.html
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/experts-question-trump-claiming-asked-duty-uphold-constitution/story?id=121473077
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/12/media/maga-media-shapiro-loomer-levin-trump-qatar-plane-gift
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-deported-el-salvador-trump-immigration-what-know-rcna201708
3/28/2025
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones REWATCH/REVIEW
Last year, I rewatched and reviewed 1999's Phantom Menace in honor of its anniversary rerelease. I ended up having a good amount of fun reliving that first movie after not watching it for years, so I decided to revisit the sequel. Still have a few years before the 25th anniversary of Attack of the Clones, but I really don't feel like waiting years to do this rewatch, so I'm just doing it now. Also, it will get me ready to do the rewatch and review of Revenge of the Sith, which has its 20th anniversary in May this year... that actually hurt to type. Much like the Episode I rewatch, I haven't seen this one in years, so I am going in pretty fresh and hopefully go in with a more positive outlook. I remember always liking this movie a decent amount more than Phantom Menace, but I guess I'll see if that's still true.
The movie kicks off 10 years after Phantom Menace as the Republic continues the struggle to keep peace in the galaxy and the Jedi struggle to keep up with all the conflicts. A new foe named Count Dooku is leading the separatist movement; he was a former Jedi who left the order. Padme returns to the story, this time as a senator of Naboo who is trying to keep the peace in the galaxy. As soon as the movie starts, Padme is almost assassinated by a bomb on her ship, but she is spared as her decoy is killed instead. This sets up the rest of the movie for her as she's constantly in need of protection from these attempts on her life. Enter Obi-Wan and Anakin, who haven't seen Padme in a decade but agree to protect her. Right away, one of the biggest problems in this movie presents itself here.
One of the main focuses of this story is the romance between Anakin and Padme. In the first movie, Padme was a lot older than Anakin, and their relationship in that movie felt more like big sister and little brother. This time around, Anakin immediately starts flirting with her as soon as he sees her. It's kind of a nice moment to see Anakin super nervous to see her again after 10 years, like his crush on her never went away after a decade. That goes from cute to creepy faster than you'd expect as Anakin's crush on Padme starts to feel inappropriate. One of the main problems with their romance in this movie is that Anakin spends A LOT of his time with Padme crying and complaining about the Jedi and how they keep holding him back. I'll get to this more later as they spend more time together, but right away, you see Padme's not super into Anakin's constant whining and creepy flirting.
The next scene is the first big action sequence, where Obi-Wan and Anakin are chasing an assassin. After using Padme as bait, they are able to find one of the assassins, but she gets away, and they are forced to chase her across the city in a flying car. We get to see a little more of Obi-Wan and Anakin's relationship here as they constantly bicker at each other, and Obi-Wan complains about Anakin's style of flying and recklessness. I mentioned in my last review how I felt it was a missed opportunity that Obi-Wan and Anakin barely interacted in the first movie. Here, they do get split up pretty early in the movie, so yet again, we don't get to see them together much, but this is done to further the romance between Ani and Padme. It makes sense for that, but it's yet again another movie where we don't get to see Obi-Wan and Anakin's friendship. It would have made the third movie even more impactful if they had an established friendship in the first two movies and weren't just bickering at each other for most of this movie.
Obi-Wan eventually ends up going into a club/bar in town to chase the assassin, and this leads to the greatest scene in Star Wars history.
"You wanna buy some death sticks?"
"You don't want to sell me death sticks."
"I don't want to sell you death sticks."
"You want to go home and rethink your life."
"I want to go home and rethink my life."
Pure genius. George Lucas, you've done it again.
The next couple of scenes are just the characters talking and building to the next part of the movie where Obi-Wan searches for the bounty hunter who tried to kill Padme while Anakin and Padme go into hiding. It's here that I noticed how much CGI is used in this movie, even when compared to the last one. Seems like most scenes are filmed on a green screen and feature the characters walking and talking in CGI rooms. It's actually more distracting than I would have thought, especially with how dated a lot of the effects look. I praised Yoda's effects in the last movie, but it was only because compared to the original puppet they used, the CGI version was much better. Seeing him more in this movie, it really stands out how outdated the effects are, but I think at the time this was some of the best effects you could get so it's understandable. Maybe watching it on a remastered Blu-ray also makes the outdated parts stand out more too. Really should have brought out the CRTV for this one.
I'm going to split the Anakin/Padme and Obi-Wan stories and talk about them each one at a time. Starting with the Anakin/Padme storyline since it's a little slower and more about the romance between the two characters. I mentioned before how the romance between the two characters isn't very convincing, and the middle part of the movie where they spend a lot of alone time is the main reason why. Anakin is presented as an emotional, naive, and impatient man. He's constantly complaining about being held back from his true potential and he doesn't hide the fact that he has feelings for Padme, despite the fact that it's forbidden for him to be with her. Yoda and the Jedi council deciding to put them alone together was stupid unless Yoda knew what would happen and was cool with it. Anakin continues complaining to Padme about his Jedi training and he often makes her uncomfortable with his flirting and he even argues with her in front of her peers. At the end of the day though, these are two young attractive people spending all their time together on a beautiful planet so I guess it's not too strange that they still end up in a romance. After Anakin has a nightmare about his mother, he decides to take Padme to visit his home planet and check in on her.
The romance here takes a break as Anakin visits his mother's new home only to learn that she's been taken by raiders. The family had given up hope of her return and presumed her to be dead, but Anakin still feels like she's out there and needs his help. This leads to one of the more important scenes in the movie where we see Anakin finally lose control of his emotions. After finding his mother right as she's dying he loses all control and slaughters an entire village of Tuskens. It's clear that this scene is supposed to be one of the main catalysts of Anakin's eventual turn to the dark side. I guess in that sense it works, though it still makes no sense why the Jedi continue to train him after this, despite Yoda knowing how much of a risk Anakin is becoming. It's also strange that Padme continues her romance with Anakin after his scary rant about how he enjoyed killing all the Tuskens, including the women and children. Nothing says husband material like a man talking about how much he enjoyed killing a whole village. Are there no other men in the universe who are a little more... not crazy? Is therapy not a thing in this universe? We can create a clone army, but we haven't discovered the concept of therapy yet. Joking aside, I will say I did enjoy Hayden's acting here. I haven't really talked about Hayden Christensen much actually, and how much hate he got for these movies. Maybe not as bad as Jake Lloyd from the first movie, although he was worse cause he was just a child and is still new to acting, at least Hayden is a grown man. That being said, I think Hayden did a good job and was mostly held back by the awkward romance writing and direction. I mean that's what made a lot of great actors in this trilogy look bad, the bad writing and directing when it came to dialogue. Not saying that Hayden couldn't have done better, but that it was far from his fault in my opinion. Although the other movies I saw him in after this weren't great either so... maybe it's a bit of both. Sorry, Hayden. I was still very happy to see him in the role again in the Obi-Wan show (one of the few good moments in that show).
Obi-Wan's story is all about him tracking down the bounty hunter who's trying to kill Padme. It's mildly interesting as it leads to Obi-Wan finding a planet that's been deleted from the Jedi archives. This leads to one of the more important reveals in the Star Wars movies, the clone army. For some reason, I thought it was Qui-Gon who was the one who set the cloning army plan in motion, but I guess it was actually a Jedi named Sifo-Dyas whose not really known at this point in the Star Wars movies. Actually, I don't think he's really mentioned again after this movie. He only appears in the Clone Wars cartoon show a few times, but that's about it outside of maybe books and comics. The introduction of the Fetts is kind of interesting, although seeing Boba Fett as a child doesn't really add to his character from the original trilogy, although it's interesting to know his dad was the template for all the clones. Jango Fett felt like a missed opportunity as he really didn't do much outside of just helping make the clones. He has an awesome suit though. It reminds me of Darth Maul from the last movie, a villain who could have done a lot more before getting killed rather quickly. I think it's one of those things where we didn't really need to see Boba Fett in these movies, but for whatever reason Lucas thought it would be a cool fanservice moment. If he really wanted to please the fans we could have gotten more Darth Maul.
I also forgot to mention Dexter Jettster. And now I have.
The two stories come together on the planet Geonosis, a very ugly red planet that looks like Kissimmee on Mars, no offense to Mars. Obi-Wan has been captured by Count Dooku and Anakin and Padme must rescue him by going against the Jedi Council's orders. Something Anakin has no real issue with. This leads to a pretty fun scene where Anakin and Padme are on a droid conveyor belt trying not to be killed by the machines and the local Geonosians. Geonosians are these giant bug-like people with the ability to fly with their dragonfly-like wings. It's understandable why Anakin would want to kill them, but really they were clearly trying to help him off the machinery and he reacted poorly. C-3PO and R2D2 join in the fun as comic reliefs during this whole sequence, and it's kinda alright. The continued tradition from the original trilogy of 3PO getting himself into trouble until R2 saves him continues. I will say seeing 3PO forced to shoot at his friends was pretty funny. At some point, Padme falls into a giant pot that reminds me of a Mofongo mortar so that was cool.
After all the hijinks in the droid factory, we get the epic battle where Anakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan fight in the Coliseum against three cool-looking monsters. I guess epic was too strong a word, but it is an entertaining sequence where we finally get to see Anakin and Obi-Wan fight together again for a bit. This eventually leads to the Jedi reinforcements arriving and a full-on battle against the droids/monsters happening. Unfortunately, we also get to see Jango Fett get embarrassed by Mace Windo, as he barely struggles to pop his head off with his purple lightsaber. After the Jedi are eventually outnumbered by the Droid army, Yoda shows up at the last second with the clone army from earlier in the movie now ready to fight back... and thus begins the Clone Wars TM. The idea of the Clone Wars was cool, but really ended up not being much of anything in the movies, but at least we got the animated show that was loved by many fans. This whole Geonisis part of the movie is very enjoyable, despite some of its flaws at least it's fun action. All this is setting up the final battle of the movie where Anakin and Obi-Wan battle the Sith Count Dooku.
It is interesting to see how powerful a Sith can truly be when seeing Count Dooku fight two Jedis and eventually even get the better of Yoda himself. Seeing that Anakin is not quite on the level of all of his peers, but knowing he eventually becomes the most powerful Sith in the galaxy is interesting. Despite not being on that level yet, he keeps up with one of the strongest Sith for a decent amount of time, showing just how much potential he has even without being a Jedi Master. But after losing we finally get to see Yoda battle for the first time in the Star Wars movies. It was... weird? I always find it a little funny to see Yoda bouncing off the walls and doing 360 spins with a lightsaber even though he looks so old and walks with a cane most of the time. Weird dude. So, much like the second movie in the original trilogy (Empire Strikes Back) this one ends with the good guys losing a big fight and Anakin losing a hand like his son. Padme and Anakin get married in secret and probably break a bunch of other Jedi rules that night. Yoda's gonna be sensing a lot of disturbances in the force if you catch my drift.
I had a good time watching this movie again after many years, but it's still a very flawed movie. The romantic parts of the film aren't great and yet again we split up Obi-Wan and Anakin for most of the movie. The movie has its first tease at Anakin's dark side turn, but by the end of the movie it seems like it's all forgotten and moved past. In a few months, I'll be watching Episode III for the 20th anniversary and will probably drop another long-ass review. Many people still love episode III, even a lot of people who dislike the first two episodes. It'll be interesting to see what's changed since the last time I saw it in terms of my opinion on it. Until then, go force choke yourself. I mean, may the force be with you.
Final grade: 3/5 Death Sticks
3/11/2025
45 Reasons Our President is a Terrible Person
The past month and a half have felt like a lifetime here in the US of A. It's honestly exhausting being here in this country right now with what feels like an infinite amount of news headlines about how our president is fucking our shit up here. I've honestly never felt this ashamed to be a citizen of this country and also never felt this hopeless about how far things can fall. Being tired of just kind of ranting to myself all the time about how things are going, I decided to try to put some of my feelings to words on this here blog to maybe help myself feel slightly better. Also, to try and maybe show other people who maybe don't pay too much attention to politics or the history of Trump why he's such a terrible person. Some of these reasons will be more serious than others. Also, some might require a bit of explaining, while others are just pretty straightforward. Anyway, here are 45 reasons why our president is a piece of shit.
1. January 6th
The day Trump, in my eyes, became a traitor to this country and should have been put behind bars. Well, he probably should have been behind bars before this for other reasons, I guess, but this one was the one that truly should have stopped any future presidential campaign. It's amazingly stupid how he got no punishment for this.
2. Pardoning the Jan 6th insurrectionists
Because it wasn't bad enough he got away with it. Everyone else who was involved in this also gets a pass from any punishment. That includes the ones who were actually violent and harmed the police officers who tried to stop them from entering the building. When you betray your country and attack the capitol and get pardoned, that makes you think that maybe these actions against your political enemies don't have true consequences, and that's pretty scary.
3-4. He's also a convicted criminal you know, and possibly paid to sleep with a porn star (while married)
The first president to be convicted of felony crimes. Found guilty on 34 charges for influencing the 2016 election with hush money. He tried to hide the fact that he slept with a porn star from voters. I guess I should add that he paid to do that.
5. Canada as a 51st State
Just Trump trying to piss off our closest ally by threatening to make them a US state.
6. Canada tariffs
Just further pissing off Canada by putting tariffs on goods. Then, backing down. Then putting tariffs again. Backing down again. Then, starting again? What? I don't know anymore.
7. Really just tariffs in general
For whatever reason Trump is obsessed with giving everyone tariffs, and so far, it hasn't gone well. Stock Market looks terrible, prices going up, and allies are pissed at us. Cool.
8. Ukraine
Just recently, Trump had an interview with President Zelensky where he acted like a baby, along with idiot VP JD Vance getting annoyed at Zelensky for not saying thank you to the USA. It was hard to watch and it made Trump look like an idiot along with all his goons in the room. He also called Zelensky a dictator recently. You know, the guy who got elected in 2019 and hasn't been able to have an election because of war. But not the guy over in Russia though, right?
9. JD Vance
I just mentioned JD Vance so I figured I'd put him on the list too. Just a weird weird boy who tries really really hard to seem tough and smart. He was really unpopular last year when he was chosen as the VP. Said some really stupid things about women and everyone made fun of him for having sex with couches... allegedly.
10-19. Elon Musk
Yes, Musk deserves to be counted for at least 10 reasons why Trump is a piece of shit. Trump bringing him on and giving him all this power is one of the worst things he's done as president. Just to show you where Trump's head is at, he had three of the richest men who control Amazon, Twitter, and Meta/Facebook at his inauguration. These are his people.
BUT Elon is the worst of them because not only is he the richest person, but also the one Trump is letting run a lot of things. The whole Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE sigh) has been just a complete mess so far that's hurt a lot of people and will probably hurt more. He even hired a bunch of young employees, some of whom had some pretty sketchy pasts. One of them had a tweet in the past that said "normalize Indian hate" and another one was suspected of leaking information at a previous job. These are the kind of people working with very sensitive information, huh? OUR sensitive information.
Can't forget that Elon did a heil sieg on stage twice back in January. Thankfully, this seems to have led to his company, Tesla, losing a ton of sales, especially overseas. Elon has promoted a lot of traditional ideas on his Twitter page, often speaking about the importance of families being a husband and wife with kids. Very traditional sort of family values. Meanwhile, the guy has 14 kids himself and is unmarried.
20. DEI
Trump sure hates DEI. Thinks it's one of the things ruining the USA because he hates when people get jobs because of diversity and not "merit". He says this while putting a bunch of people in charge who don't really have any or little experience in the positions he's putting them in. Like recently picking his close friend Linda McMahon to be in charge of Education, who has little experience working in that field. The same goes for Trump putting Pete Hegseth in the Department of Defense. It wasn't so much about "merit" there, but more about putting people you know will be loyal to you and your bullshit. Trump himself got tons of positions and opportunities because of his family wealth and not because of "merit".
21. Golf
Dude just golfs too much.
22. Selling his dumbass merch
One of the annoying things Trump loves to do is sell overpriced merchandise with his name or face on it. When your ego is bigger than your brain, this makes sense. But as a president now it just feels so stupid to see him selling guitars and Bibles. You know, that book he's totally read before. The book he awkwardly posed with when he was president the first time while the country rioted for George Floyd. The book that he is never able to name a favorite verse from. That book. And on that note...
23. Using Christianity
One of the things that always annoys/confuses me the most about Trump is his ties to Christianity. As someone who grew up in that scene (not really in it anymore), it always confused me why the church in the USA seems to think this guy is God's choice and some kind of Christian hero. I know Christianity has always favored Republicans in the USA because the morals of that party align more with Christianity. But to me, Trump always felt like the antithesis of what Christianity is supposed to stand for. I mean, selling Bibles for 100$ because it has your name on them is pretty shady stuff.
There was also that whole debacle where a Bishop pleaded with Trump to have mercy on immigrants and trans people, and he took it in the worst way possible as his goons demanded an apology from her. In what ways is Trump anything like what God calls his followers to be like? When does he ever show empathy for the misfortunate? When does he ever act humble? As I mentioned before, he took pictures holding the Bible, and he may have had a hand in clearing out peaceful protesters with force to get this picture. It's all about the image he's trying to create to make the Christians in this country think he's one of them. I can't just blame Trump here; there are so many people in the USA using Christianity as a way to profit and buy jets and mansions that it's not just a Trump problem. It's just frustrating how the people being used can't see them for what they are.
24. Nazis/KKK/Proud Boys
Besides the Elon Musk salute, it's been known how much the Nazis and other hate groups around the USA support Trump. Sure, he's never outright stood by them in support himself, but he's also had multiple chances to denounce them and their ways, and he always finds a way to avoid doing so. There's a reason why these groups are out there marching and showing themselves more, and it's because they feel more comfortable now that Trump is back. "There's very fine people on both sides" and "stand back and stand by".
25. Guantanamo Bay
Trump's idea of making one of the most notorious prisons in the world a place to send illegal immigrants is just bad.
26. Getting rid of birthright citizenship
It didn't happen, but he sure as hell tried.
27. Saying Kamala Harris wasn't black
One of the weirder parts of the campaign last year was Trump doing an interview at a convention for Black Journalists. During the interview, he claimed that Harris wasn't Black until recently and that she was always Indian but decided to turn Black for the campaign. It made no sense and made him look like an idiot.
28-30. USA owning Gaza, Greenland, and the Panama Canal
About a month ago, Trump proposed the idea of the USA taking over the Gaza Strip and relocating all the Palestinians to other countries. Just another territory Trump wants to claim along with Greenland and the Panama Canal. Greenland has already stated that it wants no part of the USA. Trump seems to have this obsession with claiming these territories, maybe as a way to make a name for himself or because he's just a piece of shit. I think it's both things.
31. Gulf of America
I mean, come on.
32. He's ugly
Being ugly doesn't make you a piece of shit, but I just wanted to point out that on top of being a piece of shit, he is also ugly.
33. USAID
Trump and Elon have pretty much wanted to target USAID since they got into office again this year. Putting a 90-day work freeze on USAID to begin with and probably going to do more cuts to it. Tons of USAID workers who were overseas were forced to come back and leave their posts. This could and probably will hurt a lot of people overseas and in countries where USAID was helping with disease prevention and other foreign aid.
34. Getting rid of Roe v. Wade
This one was a disaster. But it was Trump's takeover of the Supreme Court that led to this happening amongst other really stupid things. Even if it happened while someone else was in office, he still likes to take credit for it... well, it was his choices while he was president that ultimately led to this happening.
35. Threats to cut funding to schools that allow protests
So now schools that have peaceful protests could be in danger of losing federal funding, and any protesters could be deported or imprisoned. I'm assuming it's only if you protest something he doesn't agree with? For someone who claims to love freedom of speech, this seems like the opposite of that.
36. Hulk Hogan
This one is a bit more personal to me, but ew, Hulk Hogan. I find it pretty interesting how celebrities who are found out to be pieces of shit and lose a lot of their fans seem to love to turn to the MAGA world to find a new audience. It's almost like those kinds of people are willing to put up with past racist behavior more easily? Interesting.
37-38. NATO & Putin
Recently, Trump's favorite son, Musk has been calling for the USA to exit NATO. Trump himself has been calling out Ukraine's President Zelensky a lot recently (as I mentioned before) and even called him a dictator. Not sure what Trump is even going for these days, it seems like he's just trying to piss everyone off at this point. At a UN meeting last month, Trump even sided with Russia as he refused to agree with the statement that Moscow was the aggressor in the ongoing war. Ultimately I have no idea where Trump's real alligance lies, but I don't like what he's doing here.
39. Withdrawing from the World Health Organization
One of his first acts as President (again) was to remove the USA from the World Health Organization. I assume it was to save money because the USA is one of the biggest contributors, or maybe it's because Trump doesn't really get what the WHO even is? I mean it's like he already forgot what a huge mess COVID-19 was the last time he was President.
40. COVID
I'm trying to focus more on things he's done more recently, but since I just brought it up, it's worth putting it here. He fumbled the COVID response here in the USA hard and, if done better, could have saved lives. Trump loved to call it the "China virus" because he wanted all the blame to fall on them. Also, it was a big deal to the MAGA people to not wear masks because of freedom or something stupid like that. His not correcting that behavior no doubt cost a lot of his followers their lives, along with a lot of them not wanting to get vaccinated.
41. He never stopped claiming the 2020 election was stolen
At least until now when he became President again and it doesn't matter anymore. I remember during the election last year he still wouldn't give a clear answer on his stance and even JD Vance was too afraid to tell the truth because it would piss Trump and his fanatics off.
42. He wants to abolish the Department of Education
It's bad enough that he brought in Linda McMahon of all people to run education, but apparently he wants to abolish the DoE as a whole. There was that whole Critical Race Theory debacle where it seems like all the MAGA people thought it was ruining their kids. I don't know if he's doing it for that reason or just another way to save money, but it's not good.
43. He served McDonalds to the visiting championship college team
Okay, this is honestly pretty funny looking back at it, but still really stupid. On the list of awful things he's done this is far from the worst, but his obsession with giving everyone McDonald's is pretty weird. Lots of teams at this point decline the traditional White House visit after winning a championship. The Eagles just declined it recently after winning the Super Bowl, and honestly good for them.
44. TRUMP COIN
Of course Trump had to get in on the meme coin trend and just like most of them it lost a lot of people money. What kind of President releases a meme coin? The grifter kind.
45. Hurricane Maria
This one always pisses me off personally, but his horrificly slow response to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was insane. The viral moment of him throwing a roll of paper towels into a crowd will live on in infamy in Puerto Rico forever. There's no doubt he cost lives because of this and it could have been different if he actually gave a shit.
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UPDATE LATE MARCH 2025
It's so annoying how much more stupid shit has happened since I posted this. Like I could literally make another list of 45 things just with things he did after I posted this originally. But here's some more to add to the list because 2025 sucks.
I could go on and on listing reasons why our current President is a piece of shit, but I don't have all the time in the world to do that. These are just some of the things he's done recently or in his last term and not all the things he did before he was even President. There are countless stories and you can go look them up if you're interested, but the point of this was to show you just how much damage one man has done in such a short time. I'm tired of waking up every morning and reading about another stupid choice our President has made that will affect our lives in a negative way. Not only us here in the USA but also countries around the world could suffer now because of Trump's choices. Getting rid of a lot of foreign aid and slowly pissing off every one of our allies in just the first two months of a four-year term is quite concerning. I didn't even mention all the terrible people he's putting in positions of power alongside himself.
Down below will be a list of articles I was reading or looking at for some of the points I made on this post. If you want more information about some of the things I was mentioning or just want to read more detailed stories of Trumps bullshit, well here you go.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/06/nx-s1-5197697/a-capitol-police-officer-assaulted-during-the-jan-6-riot-says-he-feels-betrayed
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/granting-pardons-and-commutation-of-sentences-for-certain-offenses-relating-to-the-events-at-or-near-the-united-states-capitol-on-january-6-2021/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/07/business/tariffs-trump-canada/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c62e2158mkpt
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/06/nx-s1-5289337/elon-musk-doge-treasury
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/08/nx-s1-5251642/linda-mcmahon-trump-wwe-education-secretary-nominee
https://www.livenowfox.com/news/pete-hegseth-military-experience
https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/second-winner/2024/ap-traces-the-printing-of-trumps-god-bless-america-bibles-to-the-country-he-accuses-of-stealing-american-jobs-china/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_photo_op_at_St._John%27s_Church
https://people.com/all-about-elon-musk-children-11678749
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/24/trump-pardon-proud-boys-enrique-tarrio
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/31/politics/donald-trump-kamala-harris-black-nabj/index.html
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/12/1230862336/trump-says-the-us-will-own-gaza-what-that-could-mean-for-the-middle-east
https://www.kff.org/u-s-foreign-aid-freeze-dissolution-of-usaid-timeline-of-events/
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-federal-funding-will-stop-colleges-schools-allowing-illegal-protests-2025-03-04/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7435pnle0go
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/the-consequences-of-the-us-withdrawal-from-the-who
https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/what-happens-if-the-department-of-education-is-abolished-what-we-know/
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/8/21242003/trump-failed-coronavirus-response
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/22/hurricane-maria-puerto-rico-trump-delayed-aid
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/americas/el-salvador-prison-trump-deportations-gangs-intl-latam/index.html
2/09/2025
Looking Back at My First Music Review
(Wrote this months ago and never posted it)
About 8 years ago I started "reviewing" popular music on here. It was a way to express my love for music and also my frustration with the direction pop music was going in at the time. My opinions on music have changed a lot in the last 8 years and I think a part of that is because of this blog. Listening to more pop music because I wanted to review it actually got me to listen to a lot of stuff I probably wouldn't have listened to otherwise and now I love pop music more than I ever have. I've also been able to get into more genres I didn't really like too much back in the day. So with that, I thought it would be interesting to go back and read my first-ever post about music on this here blog and see how much I agree or disagree with my past self from 2016. So I'll post the original review and then follow it up with my updated thoughts afterward in brackets. Hopefully, my writing back then wasn't too bad... is it any better after 8 years? I hope so. This is the Top 10 songs list from back in September 2016. (I'm leaving my old typos in there too lol)
(2016) Closer by Chainsmokers ft. Halsey: Just okay, boring lyrics, generic modern music, feels lifeless, Halsey is okay i guess. feeling sleepy now. must change song. Seriously though, songs like these are why I can’t take the pop music charts seriously. It’s all boring and repetitive dance music that feels lifeless strangely enough. Nothing feels special here- and this is the number one song in the country right now. I know pop music isn’t always amazingly creative or groundbreaking, and it’s okay to have this kind of music in the world. I just don’t understand how something like this can be the NUMBER 1 song in the world. Just my taste I guess. Again, I don’t hate it! It’s listenable for sure, just pretty boring.
(2024) [Remeber the Chainsmokers? I barely do. They never did get much better at making music, though I have to admit I grew to like this song a lot more than I did in my original post. Halsey definitely carries this song as the vocals by Chainsmoker guy are barely passable for a big song like this. You don't have a great voice, my dude, just get someone else to do that part for you. There was potential here for a great pop song without the weak vocals, maybe getting a real male singer here to match Halsey. I think I gave it a little more hate than it deserved. It's not a bad song but certainly could be better.]