US federal social welfare programs enable 40 million Americans to stay out of poverty.

That was in 2012, after Reagan, Clinton and Dubya had undermined these programs. However, things have got worse since the financial crisis; SCROTUS (Sleazy Congressional Republicans Of The United States) have been attacking our social welfare programs steadily, and are attacking even harder now.

With public officials eager to end poverty, we could clearly achieve much more.

The Earned Income Tax Credit is especially effective. We should increase it. However, not at the expense of cutting other programs that support the poor. Americans in general have become poorer since 2007 and need more support, not less.

And it is no use encouraging poor people to look for jobs that don't exist. The rate of workforce participation in the US is much lower than it used to be, and millions of jobs are likely to be eliminated by automation in the next decade.

Ultimately we need to enable the millions of never-to-be-employed to have a decent life, while reducing the birth rate.

Putin's antics are risible, but they are very effective politically.

When he talks about "Russia's roots", he's talking about the Kievan Rus, whose territory is known today as "Ukraine." But accuracy is not important to him.

The closest thing to him in the US is Donald Trump.

There is a real danger of a wider war in Europe, between Russian military provocations and strategic western threats such as proffered treaties with Ukraine.

PISSI murdered one of the greats of Syrian archeology.

I read elsewhere that he had refused to tell his captors where to find ancient artifacts that had been saved from them. That makes him a martyr for history.

Companies use slave labor for their workforce in Eritrea, including a Canadian mining company. The government may not give them any choice about this, but it is wrong to operate in such a country.

A Ukrainian who protested Putin's takeover of the Crimea is now being tried for imaginary crimes that he was tortured into confessing to.

He says the trial is political and bogus. I don't think Putin would permit an honest trial.

I wish that the US could condemn this with a straight face. The US must eliminate the Guantanamo "military tribunals" that were set up to deny defendants their legal rights.