Trump describes his meeting with Putin. Putin lavishes praise on Trump and says he wants to do business with the USA. From this Trump concludes "great progress" was made toward ending the war with Ukraine. Could it possibly be more clear that Trump is being played for a fool, and likes it?

The headline should be, "Alex Jones Loses Info War!" www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...

Maybe you can think of an action more heartless. Off the top of my head, I cannot. wapo.st/3W4mySQ

This editorial selectively pulls facts out of context. E.g., it says Goldman's prediction was way off. But what it said was, "high tariffs don’t normally cause recessions, but unpredictable tariffs . . . might." And the claim that tariffs have gov't awash in money? The deficit is UP.

It's a tough balance. Crack down on fraud and abuse and invariably some with legit claims will be caught in the crossfire. But the VA seems to be the one place where politicians would rather tolerate fraud (and abuse) than institute reasonable checks and balances. wapo.st/4qaMv0Q

The Cato Institute was founded by, among others, Charles Koch.

Even the Wall Street Journal warns that Trump's economic policies are not sustainable. www.wsj.com/economy/fede...

Just a little something for history nerds. letsmoseyon.com/noble-gas/

Noble Gas I previously promised to write about Arundel Castle. I have been bombarded with cards and letters, hounding me for that report. Obviously, I am lying. People want to hear a tourist describe his castle trip about as much as Bluto welcomed a 1960s beatnik to a toga party.

About 90 million people have immigrated to the US since the Civil War. Apparently they and their descendants are less "American" than the people who got here before them. I still do not understand the explanation for that. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

I posted on social media an article about Trump saying on Truth Social that henceforth anyone who burns a flag will be sentenced to a year in prison. I noted that Trump must be delusional to think he can legislate. MAGA response: "But flag burning is very bad." The don't get it. They never will.

Dems (correctly) object that these are not normal times. This, they say, justifies a gov't shutdown. But their stated aim, to save health care subsidies, concerns a normal policy disagreement. It does not address the problem that makes these times abnormal, and dangerous. Political malpractice.

The cost to sit in the nose bleed section of the Super Bowl is about $1,000. Kristi Noem thinks it will be populated by undocumented aliens -- you know, folks who take poor-paying jobs so they can live under the radar. The country is being run by morons. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/a...

The president apparently believes he can create criminal statutes by executive order. I would love one of his supporters to explain why this is not persuasive evidence that Trump has completely lost his mind. www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...

This is a really good article about how the Army has successfully met recruiting goals. Obviously, it is not consistent with claims made by Trump and Hegseth. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/u...

She wrote on a private Facebook account, “If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends.” MAGA went nuts and she was fired. It isn't about Kirk. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/u...

Dems can deny that crime is a problem, which is not what real people think. They can deny that uniformed patrols deter crime, which is not what criminologists think. Or, they can make "tough on crime" their own issue, while lambasting Trump for budget cuts that make the job harder.

RFKjr urges that all sorts of problems have been caused by medicines being approved after too little study, but he wants to fast track other medicines? wapo.st/48tQFKA

Trump knows that Jair Bolsonaro is innocent, even after being convicted, and that James Comey, Letitia James, Lisa Cook, and Adam Schiff, are guilty, even though his own political appointees have said there is not enough evidence to indict. Imagine the time he has spent examining the evidence!

Trump insists that the VA US Attorney did not quit, but was fired for not indicting Trump's political foes. He is saying this out loud -- putting it in writing -- and MAGA does not care. wapo.st/3VwbgGK

Homan accepted $50K in cash, but there will be no indictment. What I want to know, and what everyone should want to know, is what happened to that cash? Most corrupt administration, ever. wapo.st/46xMPh8

Trump appointed Erik Siebert to be the US Attorney in Virginia. He has now fired the man for not "finding" sufficient evidence to indict one of Trump's foes. wapo.st/4guN6py

Republicans justify the firing of Monarez because after being fired she hired a lawyer who criticizes Trump. Got that? If you don't use a Trump-approved lawyer to sue Trump for wrongful termination, you must have deserved being fired all along. wapo.st/48hzE6o

After each political murder we insist the killer was inspired by the other side's rhetoric. This is strange. Nobody claims that Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy was egged on by others. They just saw people they wanted to kill, and killed them. Why is Tyler Robinson different?

The DOJ has quietly removed from its web site a 2024 study that contradicts the administration's claim that political violence is mostly a problem with the left. Everyone should download and share this study (see link). We can't let government control information. web.archive.org/web/20250911...

Trump tells an Australian reporter that he will penalize Australia because the reporter is asking Trump uncomfortable questions. If Dems fail to recognize corruption as the most obvious theme for attack on this president, well that's on them. www.youtube.com/shorts/_XGZn...

Here is a deep dive into just one example of Trump's blatant corruption. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

This is funny. I don't care who you are.

Last June Vance Boelter assassinated Dem legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband. He went looking for more Democrats. He believed that the prosecutions of Pres. Trump were politically motivated. Trump said only that the man wanted to kill "legislators." No mention of the political motive.

Progressives need to be careful when discussing Trump's DC adventure. Yes, officers did patrol tourist areas, but also high crime neighborhoods. Armed patrols unquestionably deter crime. These are facts. But they are not the only relevant facts. wapo.st/4pouJqp

Trump will not sanction Putin unless all NATO nations suddenly quit buying Russian oil. Ukraine is not a NATO member and NATO cannot force members to not buy from Russia. The EU is dramatically weaning itself from Russian energy. Turkey is in NATO but not the EU and gets 1/2 its oil from Putin.

August 13: Trump warns of “very severe consequences” if Putin does not stop the war August 22: Trump threatens Russia with “massive sanctions” unless an agreement is reached in 2 weeks Sept. 13: Trump says no sanctions until all NATO countries stop buying oil. What does Putin have on him?

So, Kirk's killer turns himself in, apparently having been persuaded by his father to do so, and Kash Patel, who had wrongly accused someone else of the murder, congratulates his FBI for finding and capturing the culprit. Prizing fealty to Trump, rather than competence, has a cost.

Charlie Kirk's killer has been arrested. Police say he left shell casings with etched messages, reminiscent of Luigi Mangione. Many people responded positively to Mangione's messages, and the murder. He became something of a cult hero. Perhaps glorifying one murder led to another.

People condemn "political violence." Or they condemn "gun violence." Why do we not simply condemn "violence"? We glorify violence. Sure, we SAY we condemn violence, but respond to it by expressing hatred and implicitly condoning more violence. Here is a funnier way of saying that.

Notice how differently we are treating the murders of Charlie Kirk and Brian Thompson (CEO of UnitedHealthcare)? Many people on Bluesky cheered the Thompson murder. Political violence seems less cool now. Maybe assassins shouldn't be treated like heroes. Ever.

RFKjr refuses to go after Big Ag, even though it is responsible, directly and indirectly, for numerous health problems in America. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KXO...

To recover on his lawsuit against the WSJ, Trump must prove that the paper published a false and defamatory statement, and either knew it was false, or acted with reckless disregard for the truth (NY Times Co. v Sullivan (1964)). He will lose that lawsuit. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

People who like history (and who doesn't like history?) should enjoy this story about how Argentina went from an economic powerhouse to an economic disaster. www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

On its surface, this seems like a nonpolitical story. But, given the way social media is used to drive people into political chutes, like cattle to the slaughterhouse, it has political ramifications. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/w...

This article does a pretty good job of summarizing the situation. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/o...

What is the difference between extrajudicial killings on the high seas, and murder in the homeland? If Trump can kill suspected drug dealers in international waters, why can he not murder them as they leave a home in Des Moines? If the law does not protect accused people, it protects nobody.

Finally, we have a leader able to cut through the BS and determine the real cause of our inability to establish lasting democracies in Vietnam and Afghanistan. The real cause, obviously, was the wimpy name, "Department of Defense." Hoo-ah! www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Trump can fire the statisticians, but people know when their lives are getting harder. Little by little, people will see that Trump is working for the rich, not the middle and lower classes. www.wsj.com/economy/cons...

We hear a lot about the dangers of AI. I think this is the best of the articles I have read. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/o...

They said they would prioritize deporting violent people. I guess "fighting" is part of the job description. Still, one has to wonder at this particular exercise of discretion. wapo.st/4lR1ids

Pundits often cite polls showing Dems have low favorability ratings. What they miss is that the party is growing faster than the GOP. The low favorability ratings are meaningless. Dems complain about their own party because it is not adequately opposing the GOP. They are not looking for a new home.

Dems who criticize Mayor Bowsers think she should have denied the undeniable: There is less street crime in city streets patrolled by heavily armed men. But most people do not want to live in a police state, even if there are fewer carjackings. That is what she said, and it is undeniably true.

This story should be filed under "Unexpected Heroes." On July 29 the Senate confirmed, on a party line vote, Trump's pick, Susan Monarez, to lead the CDC. Dems protested that she would be a RFK shill. One month later RFK wants to fire her for calling BS on his anti-science agenda.

Judge Sol Wachtler famously said, "A prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich." Trump's prosecutors are so inept that can't indict even a salami footlong. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/u...