Author: Buck Banks
That Pesky Old ‘Intuitive Sense of Liberty
“It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the assemblage of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody, there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from the courthouse still hold dear.”
— Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee and conservative icon, in an opinion about the Maryland man wrongly-deported to El Salvador.
Trump’s Barbie Doll
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is tawdry and blowzy,
She treats her cabinet post less like a job and more like a hobby.
She likes to play dress-up
In all manner of getups,
Which has earned her the apt and fitting nickname, “ICE Barbie.”
Is Ocasio-Cortez Running for President?
$10 million
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) “raised nearly $10 million in the first three months of 2025, a stunning total for a House member and almost two-thirds of what she raised total in 2023 and 2024 combined,” the Daily Beast reports. “These funds came from more than 250,000 individual donors, with an average contribution of $21. Know what that sounds a lot like? The fundraising haul of a presidential candidate.”
Three-Quarters of Americans Are Religious
76%
Americans’ religious preferences have generally held steady in the past five years, after a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation and concurrent declines in Protestant and Catholic identification over the prior two decades, according to Gallup. In 2024, 45% of Americans identified as Protestant or nondenominational Christian, 21% as Catholic and 10% as another religion, with 22% not identifying with any religion. Those figures are each within one percentage point of their 2018-2020 levels.
Canadians Are Pissed
“Canadians—40 million Canadians—are at a fever pitch right now. They’re willing to sacrifice. They’re patriotic, like patriotism I’ve never seen. We always say how Canadians are so polite. Well, they’re at a fever pitch right now and willing to do anything and sacrifice anything to protect their sovereignty.”
— Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in a conversation with David Frum.
Nobody Is Coming Here
$90 billion
Bloomberg: “Arrivals of non-citizens to the US by plane dropped almost 10% in March from a year earlier… Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates in a worst-case scenario, the hit this year from reduced travel and boycotts could total 0.3% of gross domestic product, which would amount to almost $90 billion.”
The Difference Between a Prison and a Concentration Camp
”What distinguishes a concentration camp from a prison (in the modern sense) is that it functions outside of a judicial system. The prisoners are not indicted or convicted of any crime by judicial process.”
— From the Holocaust Encyclopedia.
On a Roll
Trump’s transactional presidency is taking a toll.
It’s corrupting the United States’ national soul.
Easter is no longer a celebration
Of Jesus Christ’s resurrection,
It’s about corporations sponsoring the White House Easter Egg Roll.
Trump’s Imperial Presidency
About Trump’s imperial presidency, here’s the thing —
He could wear a crown and ermine coat and fancy ring,
But he doesn’t know what he’s doing,
And with millions of lives he’s screwing,
And we’re finding that it really sucks to have an incompetent king.
