At last a regular, but knowledgeable, customer gets his Trump phone! He even takes it apart.
Category: Politics, Religion & Money
You Break It, You Own It
Trump Says U.S. Oversight of Venezuela Could Last for Years – January 8, 2026
Trump excels at breaking things and not, as he claims, fixing them. His inability to manage a real crisis was proven by the Covid pandemic. That was why he lost in 2020. The independent voters who forgot and/or forgave Trump’s ineptitude and elected him again in 2024 have made me very cynical.
Now that we “own” Venezuela, let’s see how much of a commitment Trump actually makes to helping the country recover from two devastating earthquakes.
Remember how helpful he was in Puerto Rico during his first term?
An Opaque Shade of Green
PBS Newshour didn’t shy away from highlighting Alan Greenspan’s devotion to Ayn Rand, whose ultra-Libertarian effect on Capitalism ultimately required a hefty dose of John Maynard Keynes to save the economy.
The NYTimes has, as expected, a comprehensive Greenspan obituary.
But the ideological stamp he put on policymaking came to be associated as well with the destructive consequences of forces that emerged on his watch, including deregulation of banking and Wall Street, the loss of American jobs to free trade and persistent concerns about bubbles in stock and housing prices.
Also from last night’s PBS Newshour, is this reminder of Al Gore’s inconvenient truth.
Colbert & Peanuts & Ben & Jerry
Last week the upshot of Stephen Colbert’s parting shot at CBS, involving Peanuts, was revealed.
I’m glad that’s settled, but what about my very favorite ice cream, Americone Dream, which contains no peanuts?
Oooooo … new patriotic packaging!
Morning Coffee Listening
With Wall Street in retreat, Paul Krugman chats for half an hour about our Trumpy world, while I enjoy my instant coffee.
Ayn’s Acolyte
The Today Show remembers longtime Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, dead at 100. No mention is made of Greenspan’s misguided devotion to the tortured obsessions of Ayn Rand, the Anti-Communist author of romantic fantasy novels. It can be inferred from his admission that he was wrong about financial markets being self-regulating.