So much for the theory that all it takes to stop a murder is a good guy with a gun.

Experts say it would take $100 billion and 10 years to get (low quality) oil flowing from Venezuela’s deteriorated infrastructure. Meanwhile Big Oil is cutting back on capital expenditures in the face of a global oil glut. Trump’s anschluss may amount to nothing but empty political theater.

Mark my words, Cuba is next. Venezuela was just a dress rehearsal. Little Marco has been dreaming about re-taking Cuba his entire life, along with the entire Miami Cuban-American population. Meanwhile they’ll choke off Cuba’s oil supply, coming mostly from Venezuela. Bay of Pigs II, anyone?

Trump just fired dozens of top career diplomats, including many in highly sensitive posts. He plans to replace them with people “aligned with the administration’s priorities.” In short, hacks, ideologues, and sycophants. U.S. influence abroad is already at a nadir. Now it’s falling off a cliff.

I just had this depressing thought: we’re still less than a year into Trump’s term of office. How much more of this can I endure? Sorry for the interruption. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Donald Trump calls the affordability crisis a “hoax”. Try telling that to the bill collectors.

Sen. Slotkin is 100% correct. “Just following orders” is NEVER a legitimate defense to a crime, whether in uniform or out of it. Surely the Nuremberg trials established that principle as applied to war crimes, but under U.S. law it applies to lesser crimes as well.

I wonder if China is manipulating the soybean market with its on-again, off-again import bans. Futures are up 10% in the last month on news China will resume buying U.S. soy—a purely discretionary matter. They could have bought low & now either take delivery on the cheap or sell high at a profit.

Modern technology could allow creation of “ICE Alert” networks in cities targeted for immigration crackdowns. People would phone in ICE sightings, location data then automatically transferred to real-time online maps, thus alerting potential targets to ICE presence in their communities. Yes or no?

Trump seeks to force universities to bend the knee and pledge ideological fealty in exchange for priority treatment in federal funding. This is extortion. It’s also a violation of Constitutionally protected freedom of speech and bedrock principles of academic freedom. This hill is worth dying on.

GOP: You broke it. You own it.

If Jan. 6th happens again, who will be left to stop it? Trump has federalized the DC National Guard and claims to be running the DC Police. His minions are in charge of the Pentagon and both houses of Congress. His current VP is a spineless lackey. What’s to prevent a complete coup d’etat?

It’s terrifying that the fate of the nation and 30% of the world’s economy is in the hands of an innumerate and economically illiterate delusional narcissist, operating on impulse and grievance with no institutional guardrails.

Jeff Bezos’ lavish Venice wedding is a vulgar display of what Thorstein Veblen dubbed “conspicuous consumption” in the original Gilded Age. Its indulgent excesses are a rude slap in the face to the working people of that historic city, and to working people everywhere struggling to make ends meet.

Now that Netanyahu’s self-destructive and utterly counterproductive war with Iran has paused, he can get back to the main object on his agenda: slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza.

U.S.A. Proudly and Defiantly King-Free Since 1776. And determined to keep it that way!

Notice to all military and National Guard personnel: “Just following orders” is not a legally valid defense if the order was unlawful. Nuremberg taught us that.

Nothing says ‘Police State’ quite like military forces in the streets, suppressing protest via wholesale detentions and abductions without any semblance of due process.

Maybe if Donald Trump wasn’t so insecure about the size of his penis, we’d be spared the obscene expense of his macho-man military parade. Listen, Donald: the Ancient Greeks thought a small dick was an attractive feature in a man. Just look at their statues. And commission one of yourself!

Cruelty seems to be the ultimate point of many of their policies. It’s not collateral damage; it’s the intended result.

Trump is determined to choke off EVs, trains, and green energy in a last ditch effort to save a slowly dying fossil fuel industry. This will only put America further behind the global technology curve, a race we’re already losing. We’ll end up much poorer for it. Call it the anti-Abundance agenda.

Trump and the MAGA Congress are taking “one big, beautiful” dump on the poor and working class Americans.

Trump’s proposed cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, Head Start, and student loans are plain cruel. As is ICE’s treatment of undocumented immigrants and international students. Cruelty seems to be the point—they delight in it, as did Italy’s Fascists and Germany’s Nazis. Cruelty goes hand in hand with fascism.

You’ve gotta hand it to that slick conman Trump. With his tariffs, he’s selling a multibillion dollar tax hike on the poor and middle class, which his base gladly accepts on the empty promise of future manufacturing jobs. Every scam starts: “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

Trump adviser Stephen Miller wants to suspend habeas corpus. The Constitution forbids this except in case of insurrection or invasion, but Trump could gin up a pretext. The “Great Writ” is all that stands between us and arbitrary detention, imprisonment, or disappearance—i.e., Gestapo rule.

Does this China tariff pause mean little Susie gets her usual 30 dolls, and as many pencils as she wants?

Trump hates Hollywood. And Hollywood hates him right back.

Trump’s pro-ignorance agenda: * eliminate Dept. of Education * cut K-12 funding * eliminate Head Start * cut Pell Grants, student loans * cut NIH, NSF funding * suppress academic freedom & institutions * slash gov’t science—NOAA, NASA, EPA, CDC, FDA, USDA, etc. * cut spy agencies * de-fund NPR, PBS

Trump and Trumpism are failing. But Democrats must offer more than reversion to the status quo ante, because that wasn’t working for too many Americans. Especially working class and rural Americans who were left out of the prosperity enjoyed by the college-educated and professional classes.

How do I apply for one of those “paid protester” jobs some people on the Right keep yammering about? I’ve been to countless protests over the years and never been paid a nickel. I demand back pay!!!

The Trump regime is hell-bent on destroying the entire knowledge-creation industry. First by discrediting all legitimate news and information sources. Now by attacking deeper levels of knowledge through K-12 & post-secondary education, plus both academic and agency-sponsored research.

I get the sense the Trump administration is divided on tariffs. Some want to wall off our economy with permanently high tariffs. Others want to use tariffs as bargaining leverage in gangster-style shakedowns of other countries and individual firms and sectors. Either approach is a disaster.

I wonder if Germans who resisted Nazism in the 1930s were accused of “Hitler Derangement Syndrome”?

Universities of America, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! Don’t give in to fascist bullying, don’t think you can fight Trump alone, and don’t cower before him pleading for leniency. He’s out to break you. Resist! Fight back! And remember, in solidarity there is strength!

Columbia University set a very dangerous precedent by allowing the White House to exercise veto power over its curriculum. Similarly, some BigLaw firms set a dangerous precedent by affording the White House power to decide who is entitled to legal representation. This way lies fascism.

Trump’s “Liberation Day” just liberated me from a big chunk of my retirement nest egg, as well as a fair bit of my disposable income now that tariffs will be driving prices higher. Oh, well. At least the billionaires will be happy with their tax cuts!

Scene: An exclusive club Oligarch #1: I’m bored. Got any creative ways to make more money? Oligarch #2: Tank the economy, then buy up everything on the cheap. #1: Excellent! How do we do that? #2: Elect some chump President and start a tariff war! #1: Brilliant! I know just the guy! Donald J. Chump!

Anyone else notice Trump’s hair turning white and his hairline visibly receding, despite his best efforts to hide it?

In solidarity with our Canadian friends, VISIT CANADA this summer! After Trump’s insults and tariff wars, many Canadians have canceled U.S. travel plans. But their economy will go through a rough patch. They need our tourism dollars, the exchange rate is favorable, and there’s much to see and do.

Lawyers claim to be “officers of the court”, duty bound to defend the integrity of the judicial process. Others may view them less kindly. Now it’s time for good lawyers to show their mettle and resist Trump’s efforts to subvert the judiciary, the Constitution, and our democracy. We have one chance.

If I were Canada, the UK, or any EU country, I’d think twice before sharing military secrets or sensitive intelligence information with the Trump administration or Trump himself. They’ve proven they can’t be trusted. And it’s not even clear which side they’re on, though possibly Putin’s Russia.

Canada has always been a good neighbor to the U.S. Setting aside that time they burned down the White House . . .

The worst part of a skunk is what comes out of the Musk gland.

Trump’s $400 million funding cut to Columbia will cripple that university’s educational and research mission. It’s also a shot across the bow of academia generally. Trump intends to impose ideological conformity on academic speech. Antisemitism is merely a convenient pretext and first step.

My retirement nest egg is shrinking faster under Trump than it grew under Biden—and that’s what I call fast!

The only fraud DOGE has found so far is in its own claims of how much it has saved taxpayers.

Nixon: “I am not a crook.” Musk: “I am not a Nazi.” Equally credible.

Kind of ironic that the British monarch is a bigger defender of democracy than the President of the United States.

Donald Trump betrayed our nation and the cause of democracy with the whole world watching. This shameful moment will long be remembered.

Memo to Jeff Bezos: Democracy thrives in open debate and a full airing of alternatives. Democracy dies in suppression of opposing views.