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Here's what the new AP Norc poll found about American voters' ideas about Trump's war on Iran and gas prices.

If you think US should continue to pursue and even expand Trump's war with Iran, then vote Republican. But if not, better not vote Republican. (I'm an Independent voter, in case you wondered.) See the new AP Norc poll results.

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This today from Peter French, NYT opinion columnist under the headline "The War that Could Swallow the World". "We are marching toward a global conflict and no one is in command." Especially not the US Commander in Chief, seen here.

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Trump's war against Iran "has undermined US deterrence and credibility, antagonized America'a allies, and delighted its adversaries." That from former US negotiator Aaron David Miller, now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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Robin Niblett formerly at the Chathan House think tank: "Now America has confirmed itself as a force of disorder ... and trying to be less dependent. No one wants to be subject to a whipsaw foreign policy that doesn't know its limits and is a strategic defeat."

Comments on Trump's mideast war" "a strategic loss and an embarrassment. For US allies and those who rely on the US for security this is a confirmation that you can't trust the United States". That from Robin Niblett, formerly of the Chatham House think tank.

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Writers who assume readers like inclusion in "We" statements are not persuading anybody. The Sunday NYT opinion piece entitled "Are You a Jerk or a Sucker" was as grating as chalk screeching on a blackboard. It harped on a TV show about the angst of the very rich. So glad I don't have a TV.

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"Trump's in a box, and he's facing a brutal and tenacious adversary whose objectives --maintaining leverage over the strait and newfound desire for hegemony over the gulf -- now hold him hostage". That from Aaron David Miller, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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John Hannah: "Compounding the error, there was no rigorous national security apparatus around the president prepared to speak truth to power and subject his wrongheaded assumptions to systematic questioning" ... Except, John, why do you think any of that would sway Trump?????

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John Hannah a senior fellow at Jewish Institute for the National Security of America "...this was a war based on fatally flawed assumptions, none more damaging than the president's apparent conviction that Iran's revolutionary regime was a flimsy house of cards ready to collapse...

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Part of the reason ICE and BP agents lie about what happens in incidents where they wound or kill people not even targets of an operation is because their departments don't punish lying and criminal misbehavior.

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Why are ICE agents shooting and killing people who were not a target of an operation? Because they are misguided and trigger-happy. Delete ICE and resuscitate the bipartisan immigration bill.

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AC Roosevelt @acroosevelt.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

NYT Business today claims that lower income people are expanding their discretionary buying lately. I don't buy it. It's based on unpublished, un-peer reviewed study by Bank of America, whereas several other expert sources denied that those mostly renters have any discretionary income.

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A study on ancient ground-squirrel coprolite MTDNA reported in NYT Science this week promoted the idea that the tiny rodents were eating mammoths and other large fauna. But the authors confessed that the most DNA from the large fauna was in the middens in which the squirrel coprolites were found.

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AC Roosevelt @acroosevelt.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

The study on biinguals reported in NYT Science Section looked at people who spoke both Spanish and English, languages in the same family: Indo-European. I think they also should have compared people speaking unrelated languages.

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AC Roosevelt @acroosevelt.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

NYT Science Section "Well" recommended tofu as a food that combines abundant protein and fiber. But tofu is a highly refined product made from soybeans and most fiber is removed during its making. So, to get both nutrients as the "Well" article suggests eat the beans.

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AC Roosevelt @acroosevelt.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

NYT Science section claims cuneiform's the oldest script but Egyptian hieroglyph precursors date earlier than cuneiform precursors, and Arnett (1982) showed their forms are recognizable by Badarian times c. 4400-4000 BC.

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AC Roosevelt @acroosevelt.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Hey, NYT Opinion today, the Sumerians had the first libraries, not the Assyrians. I guess you didn't check your info.

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Minnesota's Chief Judge ditched Trump's attempt to subpoena Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Atty. General Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for conspiring to encourage protestors to disrupt ICE. Judge Patrick Schiltz said it was to coerce, harass, and retaliate for not helping ICE.

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This from the judge on the case of Trump's "election integrity voter verification" efforts. "...the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in ways that threaten the sacred right to vote. This court cannot stand idly by while that happens."

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Trump blusters and threatens at will against Iranian leaders when he gets antsy late at night but doesn't like it when they push back. He makes ridiculous threats, like saying he will take over Iran or blow it to kingdom come if their president doesn't watch what he says.

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AC Roosevelt @acroosevelt.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

What do you think of Trump nominating his tax lawyer for top IRS Lawyer? James Gadwood's shingle touts expert representation for large corporations and the wealthy, who can evade taxes with accounting dodges, unlike the rest of us.

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NYT "How does one brain speak two languages" missed flaws in studies it reported. They claimed when bilinguals speak different languages their brains process tasks like pluralizing nouns similarly. But they compared Indo-European ones that add final S, not with a Bantu language that adds prefixes

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was furious at Anthropic's refusal to allow the Pentagon to use its programs without limits on invasion of privacy and other abuses. So now, the department and the president are trying to limit Anthropic's independent business on the grounds of national security.

The AI company Anthropic is one of the few ones whose owner and founder is trying to develop ethical guidelines to prevent AI's harmful effects on society. Could that be why Trump, notoriously laissez-faire about regulating AI, is unfairly trying to limit Anthropic's business and global reach?

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NYT quoted Dario Amodei, the billionaire owner of Anthropic thus: We are already at historically unprecedented levels of wealth concentration...the thing to worry about is a level of wealth concentration that will break society". No wonder Trump is going after Anthropic to reduce its global reach.

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Workers pay both income and payroll taxes that billionaires hardly do, and the lower tax rates on them makes for a larger tax burden on earners and lowers public revenue.

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The small number of people and companies in the top 1 percent of the population are increasing their wealth rapidly while the rest of us are getting a smaller share of the wealth. US tax policies are causing this, especially recent ones that cut taxes on invested income but not earned income.

Front page on NYT today, "A Reuters/Ipsos poll take in February showed that nearly six in 10 Americans think Mr. Trump is growing more erratic.

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NYT Business shows inflation last month rose 4.2% from last May, mainly due to increased energy prices. It rose faster than wages. "It's quite a negative situation, said Stephen Brown at Capital Economics. "Low-income consumers don't have a lot of room to maneuver at this point".

US companies have been losing business in the EU because of the Trump administration's demands that digital service companies yield personal information of users to the administration. Now the Dutch foreign minister Willemijn Aerts says her country has blocked sale of a Dutch tech firm to Solvinity

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Zuckerberg's Meta is under the gun for lax privacy and inappropriate marketing to minors. Now more than 30,000 of its Instagram accounts have been hacked. Passwords were changed and personal information taken. Meta says it fixed the software flaw but hasn't figured out what was taken. !

Oman's foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, told journalists there that the US-Israeli war on Iran had no legal legitimacy. And in The Economist he said, "America's friends have a responsibility to tell the truth" and said that US has "lost control of its own foreign policy" to Israel.

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Oman is a low profile intermediary in the negotiations to try to end US and Israel's war with Iran. But when Trump found out about the country's discussions with Iran about charging fees to facilitate ship's passage in the Strait of Hormuz, he blurted that Oman should be blown up.

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While Trump tries to discourage the development of electrical vehicles in the US, China is increasing its export of them. Who's winning, here?

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Trump's trying to damp down renewable energy sources and increase coal production, but the market for renewables has made them soar. Solar is now the fastest growing energy source, and coal has declined, despite Trump's efforts.