Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s common sense commentary: 

• Daines’ Travels
• Best & Worst States to Drive In
• U.S. National Debt
• Bizarre Press Briefing
• One More Thing

DAINES’ TRAVELS:

Apparently, U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) has been traveling. 

According to a press release, Daines, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, traveled to India January 17-19 to advocate for Montana’s pulse crops and reaffirm the U.S.-India strategic partnership. The trip included meetings in New Delhi with Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal, members of parliament, and U.S. and Indian business leaders.

I also noticed that Mrs. Daines accompanied the Senator on the trip to India. (Source)

I saw many negative comments on the Senator’s social media pages about the trip. One person called his trip a “boondoggle,” which is defined as “work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.” Another person stated, “Must be an election year we are hearing from Steve!” Other people just wrote, “Epstein,” and others wrote, “25th Amendment.” 

BEST & WORST STATES TO DRIVE IN: 

WalletHub recently released its report on 2026’s Best & Worst States to Drive In.

To determine the most driver-friendly states in the U.S., WalletHub compared the 50 states across 31 key metrics. The data set ranges from average gas prices to rush-hour traffic congestion to road quality.

Montana did not do well in this report. Montana is ranked 48th. Vermont was first, and Hawaii was last (50). 

Check out the full report and all the metrics used HERE. 

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT:

The day (January 20, 2025) that Donald Trump was inaugurated, the U.S. National Debt was $36,375,228,299,244. 

One year later, the U.S. National Debt is $38,632,808,215,897.

That means the U.S. National Debt has increased by approximately $2.26 trillion since Trump was inaugurated last year. Current reports indicate that the debt is increasing at an average rate of roughly $8 billion per day, driven largely by rising interest payments, which now exceed $2.6 billion daily.

Remember that the Republicans have been in charge of the spending this past year. The ball is in their court now, but Democrats have been just as bad at increasing the debt. 

BIZARRE PRESS BRIEFING: 

President Donald Trump held a press briefing on Tuesday. I watched it. 

Trump rambled on incoherently for about two hours and caused many people to comment on his health, which appears to be declining rapidly. 

The Guardian reported:

Trump, 79, a self-proclaimed “very stable genius” who keeps “acing” cognitive tests, made so many references to the “mentally insane” and “insane asylums” in the White House briefing room that it seemed like insecurity.

He also told the press, “I was quite a baseball player, you wouldn’t believe.” 

One person commented, “Watching the Trump presser. Very low energy. Slurring words. Rambling. This guy’s brain is fried.” (Source)

Trump talked about the ICE arrests in Minnesota. He had some photos of those arrested and said, “Hm, I’m just looking at these charges, it’s just pretty incredible,” Trump said, rifling through the stack of papers, intermittently pausing to hold a page up to the camera. “Many murderers. Many, many murderers. People that murdered.”

The Daily Beast reported that earlier this week:

Trump renewed calls for the 25th Amendment to be invoked after he went on a bizarre, contradictory late-morning posting spree.

Trump, 79, posted 33 times in 45 minutes on Tuesday, claiming he “has done more for NATO” than anyone and sharing conspiracies about Dominion voting machines, non-existent voter fraud, and a clip of his 2017 Inaugural address, among other things.

It is time for the President’s cabinet to step up and protect this country. 

(25th Amendment (Section 4): Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

If they don’t do something about Trump soon, he may do something irreversible or detrimental to our country. 

You can watch the press conference HERE. Note: It starts around 47:50. 

ONE MORE THING:

Don’t study me, you won’t graduate. 

## END ##