Buck Banks, Author at Pensito

Trump depicting himself as Jesus is a sign of our broken zeitgeist,
At the same time, his picking a fight with Pope Leo just isn’t nice.
But we can see how the president got confused,
See, Donald Trump has grown quite used
To people exclaiming — following his words or deeds — “Jesus Christ!”

Vance Says the Wrong Thing at the Wrong Time

April 14, 2026 Buck Banks

“What they have done is engage in this act of economic terrorism against the entire world. As the President showed, two can play at that game.”

— Vice President JD Vance, on Fox News.

Pope Leo Is Not Intimidated by Trump

April 14, 2026 Buck Banks

“I will not shy away from announcing the message of the gospel and inviting all people to look for ways of building bridges of peace and reconciliation. The message of the gospel is very clear: Blessed are the peacemakers. … I have no fear of the Trump administration.”

— “Pope Leo vowed to carry on speaking out against war after President Trump launched an extraordinary tirade against the pontiff on social media,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Young Voters Hate Trump

April 13, 2026 Buck Banks

72%

A new Yale Youth Poll finds 57% of all voters disapprove of Donald Trump’s job performance as president, including 68% of voters aged 18-22 and 72% of voters aged 23-29. Compared to the fall 2025 poll, Trump has lost the most ground with women under 35 and men under 30.

Blockade to Blockade the Blockade

April 13, 2026April 20, 2026 Buck Banks

Trump’s war in Iran is over and won, and now we’ve got it made,
But the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, and that’s affecting trade.
So what is Trump’s solution
To a stand-off without resolution?
Why, the United States will just impose an extra double-secret naval blockade.

Hungary for Democracy

April 13, 2026April 13, 2026 Buck Banks

It’s all over for Hungary’s dictator, Viktor Orban,
For 16 years he was the country’s hard-right strongman.
But democracy’s a stubborn bitch,
And voters wanted a liberal switch,
And that’s how Hungary’s Viktor Orban got shit-canned.

Fed Up with Ethics and Sex Scandals

April 13, 2026 Buck Banks

“We want a full house cleaning. Get the garbage out of here. These jerks are destroying Congress, for the American people and for all of us who came here to do good work.”— A House Democrat, quoted by Axios, exasperated with recent ethics and sex scandals by lawmakers of both parties.

Author: Buck Banks

Over Half of U.S. Businesses Have Embraced AI

+50%

US business adoption of AI crosses 50% for the first time in March, according to Ramp AI Index; Anthropic goes from 7% to 30% market share year-over-year, nearly equal to OpenAI (35%).

The Wrong Direction We Might Not Be Going In

“Just because it looks like we’re going in the wrong direction doesn’t mean that’s the direction we are going.”

— Energy Secretary Chris Wright, on Fox News.

Wholedsale Prices Rose 4% in March

4%

His Mistaken Identity

Vance Says the Wrong Thing at the Wrong Time

“What they have done is engage in this act of economic terrorism against the entire world. As the President showed, two can play at that game.”

— Vice President JD Vance, on Fox News.

Pope Leo Is Not Intimidated by Trump

“I will not shy away from announcing the message of the gospel and inviting all people to look for ways of building bridges of peace and reconciliation. The message of the gospel is very clear: Blessed are the peacemakers. … I have no fear of the Trump administration.”

— “Pope Leo vowed to carry on speaking out against war after President Trump launched an extraordinary tirade against the pontiff on social media,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Young Voters Hate Trump

72%

A new Yale Youth Poll finds 57% of all voters disapprove of Donald Trump’s job performance as president, including 68% of voters aged 18-22 and 72% of voters aged 23-29. Compared to the fall 2025 poll, Trump has lost the most ground with women under 35 and men under 30.

Blockade to Blockade the Blockade

Hungary for Democracy

Fed Up with Ethics and Sex Scandals

“We want a full house cleaning. Get the garbage out of here. These jerks are destroying Congress, for the American people and for all of us who came here to do good work.”— A House Democrat, quoted by Axios, exasperated with recent ethics and sex scandals by lawmakers of both parties.

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“One woman at a rally in New Jersey told me last week that she was ‘nauseously optimistic.’ That may capture a lot of people’s last-minute jitters.”

— Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), quoted by Axios, on what Democrats feel ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace’s bathroom.”

— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by The Wrap.

“Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

— Republican election law expert Ben Ginsberg, quoted by Politico, on the Trump administration’s effort to invalidate Alaska’s election results.

Numerati

3,824

$1.4 billion

-35 points

31%

63% to 38%

KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”