Comic

This article first appeared on Substack

I do not know why, but this one makes me laugh.

Trump lived up to his reputation of chickening out after threatening to raise tariffs on a nation. It is the reason for the TACO acronym: Trump Always Chickens Out.

Trump threatened to raise tariffs on eight NATO nations unless they would allow Denmark to sell Greenland to him. Never mind that seven of these nations don't have any say in what Denmark does with Greenland, he's gonna punish them anyway. If you ever figure out Trump logic, let me know.

But yesterday, after giving that horrible speech at Davos and proclaiming time and time again that he would settle for nothing less than absolute and outright ownership of Greenland, Donald Trump caved. He lifted the tariffs on the eight nations, saying there is a framework of a deal involving Greenland.

A colleague, an editor at a widely read outlet that centered Gaza throughout the two-year genocide, recently voiced his frustration that Gaza is no longer a main focus in the news.

He hardly needed to say it. It is evident that Gaza has already been pushed to the margins of coverage — not only by mainstream Western media, long known for its structural bias in Israel’s favor, but also by outlets often described, accurately or not, as ‘pro-Palestine.’

At first glance, this retreat may appear routine. Gaza during the height of the genocide demanded constant attention; Gaza after the genocide, less so.

But this assumption collapses under scrutiny, because the genocide in Gaza has not ended.

What happened to the Epstein scandal? You are gone. Wipe you out of my eyes. Hocuspocus, evaporated with a magic wand move. It seems that the master of illusions, Donald Trump, managed to escape this deadly blow, at least for the moment.

Trump's attack on Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president, Maduro, a former bus driver, got Epstein out of the headlines. Now Trump and his cronies are beating the drums for his aims of world greatness, announced in Davos, Switzerland. This alpine resort, ugly enough — and not strong enough for skiing — was the perfect scene for Trump's show. Davos' annual carnival is the world stage of big egos, swindlers and braggers.

Leading among them was former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a politician with unparalleled bendability and ability to sugarcoat lies and half-truths. Blair has just agreed to join Trump's so-called Peace Board, a bunch of shady politicians. The participation fee is $1 billion, a typical Trump fundraiser.

Trump’s approach to Greenland has something in common with his (Cutting-)Board of Peace approach to Palestine: not even the slightest pretense of involving the people impacted. The residents of Kalaallit Nunaat were never asked about the existing permissions for the U.S. military to build bases in their land and are not being asked now about a “deal” made between Trump and, not even Denmark but, Trump’s servant, the Secretary General of NATO.

“Oh, what a relief to have a deal,” shout the corporate media, after Trump yet again threatens WWIII and then proposes something else. The something else has yet to ever be anything actually desirable.

The people of neither Greenland nor the Earth as a whole have been asked whether, as fossil fuel consumption and other human activities heat the planet and melt the ice, the U.S. military should seek out newly exposed Arctic areas in which to find more fossil fuels with which to finish the job.

In his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, President Trump painted a picture of economic resurgence. The U.S. economy, he declared, is booming. Inflation has been defeated. Investment is pouring back into the country. His administration, he said, has delivered the fastest and most dramatic economic turnaround in American history.

For the global financiers, executives, and investors gathered in the Alps, the message was clear. Capital is winning again.

But that story collapses when viewed from farm coWhat Trump celebrated in Davos was an economy measured almost entirely through the lens of high finance. Asset values. Financial inflows. Market confidence. Investment velocity. Corporate and brand expansion. These are the indicators that matter in global economic forums. They are also the indicators that bypass the lived economy of farmers.

A farm economy is not measured by capital velocity. It is measured by input costs versus crop value, soil fertility over time, access to affordable credit, resilience to droughts and floods, seed sovereignty, and what remains after debt service is paid and another season has been survived.

The first of a series of “Forums for a Nuclear-Free New York” was held last week following New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposition for an expansion of nuclear power in New York State. Earlier in the week she called in a “State of the State” address for an additional four gigawatts of nuclear power in New York, the energy generation equivalent of four large nuclear power plantsThis continued Hochul’s nuclear drive through 2025 pushing for the state to become the center of a nuclear power “revival” in the United States and then proposing one gigawatt of new nuclear power in New York.

This first forum, a webinar on January 15, was titled a “Symposium for Safe and Affordable Energy in New York.” It was organized by a coalition of safe-energy and environmental organizations and moderated by Alec Baldwin, actor and nuclear power opponent. It featured Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere/Energy Program, and Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project. 

Men's faces

[Content Warning - Sexual Violence and Child Exploitation]

Under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security likes to claim that every immigrant is a criminal. But a new list shows the real criminals work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol. Said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, “As the government pushes to hire new agents rapidly, background checks and vetting processes are being tossed aside. How many more predators are in the process of joining these federal agencies? No one knows, and that is terrifying.” 

Details about event

Thursday, January 22, 2026, 7:00 PM
Two Dollar Radio Headquarters, 1124 Parsons Ave., Columbus, 43206

The construction of Anduril’s Arsenal-1 manufacturing facility has drawn together diverse voices in opposition, from environmentalists and affected neighbors to pro-Palestine and anti-war activists.  

Join Kat Finneran of No Anduril Plant, Prince Shakur of the Dugout, and Baladna’s Yezen Abusharkh for an inside look at the coalition drawing attention to the plant’s wide-ranging impact.

 

Judging from opinion polls, the American public has increasingly become largely disenchanted with the bizarre behavior of President Donald J Trump and the clownish entourage that surrounds and encourages him. Last week featured a meeting between Trump and the foreign minister of Denmark as well as his counterpart from Greenland’s legislative assembly. The meeting did not resolve the issue of Trump’s “unacceptable” demand that the United States must have ownership of Greenland, “buying it” if necessary, to maintain its national security against possible invasion coming from Russian and Chinese ships that, per Trump incorrectly, are already infesting Arctic waters to the north. To support his position, Trump has now announced that he is considering punishing with tariffs all countries that do not agree with his position on Greenland, which would be something akin to Washington committing international suicide.

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