May 28—The Diktraitor's impulse-driven and erratic attempts to gain advantage over America's trading partners through the unilateral imposition—and subsequent withdraw, in many cases—of tariffs, is facing new headwinds. After the U.S. Court of International Trade, on May 28, suspended the application of most of the Diktraitor's tariffs-by-decree, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit temporarily stayed the order while it reviews the case. The Diktraitor's regime has announced its intention to take the matter to the Supreme Court. At issue is whether the Diktraitor overstepped his authority, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, to exercise a function—the regulation of the nation's international commerce—which the Constitution reserves to Congress. The notion that the U.S. is facing an economic emergency, when its economy is on a stable footing, and out-performing almost every nation on earth is, of course, ludicrous. Meanwhile, after backing off the trade-killing, 145 percent tariffs imposed on China, the Diktraitor has threatened 50 percent across-the-board tariffs on The European Union and is now promising 50 percent tariffs on steel imports from all sources. Virtually all economists predict heightened inflation and stifled economic activity if tariffs even remotely approaching the Diktraitor's threatened numbers are applied.

May 28—After Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson spoke favorably of the large number of Americans racialized as "black" (ARB) in his administration, the Diktraitor's DOJ's Civil Rights Division opened an investigation to determine if the windy city had applied race-based preferences in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Diktraitor's regime's staunch opposition to racial preferences is bringing the question of whether America is ready for a color-blind society into stark relief.

May 28—Politico looks at the dilemma facing Republican congresspeople whose districts are experiencing significant benefits in economic activity and job gains from Biden administration clean energy incentives; the Diktraitor seeks to eviscerate Biden's climage programs, referring to them as the "Green New Scam."

May 18—Two key cases dealing with the Diktraitor's assault on the federal government and democratic norms gave mixed results. In a case involving the Diktraitor's regime's use of the Alien Enemies Act to carry out swift deportations, the Supreme Court ruled that immigrants must be allowed real due process, with adequate notice to prepare for hearings. In a second ruling, favorable to the Diktraitor's regime, a federal appeals court allowed the implementation of a ban on union organizing at several federal agencies on national security grounds. For a look at the many lawsuits challenging the Diktraitor's actions, see the New York Times lawsuit tracker.

May 18—Romania's voters went to the polls over the weekend to choose between far-right, Russophile, Trumpist presidential candidate George Simion and centrist, pro-European, Ukraine-supporting Budapest mayor Nicusor Dan. A massive turnout increase, giving Dan 54 percent to Simion's 46 percent, in a race that was expected to be neck-and-neck, indicates a sleeping well of support for liberal values in the nation of 20 million. Social Democrats, and all those supporting Ukraine's struggle for democracy and sovereignty, can breathe a big sigh of relief.

Further north on Europe's eastern borderlands, Poles are facing an almost parallel contest as they prepare for a June 1 run-off between Trumpist, populist, nationalist and Russia apologist Karol Nawrocki and pro-European centrist, Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski. Nawrocki's Law and Justice Party and other rightist groups gained slightly more votes in this weekend's first-round poling than groups aligned with Trzaskowski's Civic Coalition, the parliamentary grouping headed by Poland's social democratic prime minister, Donald Tusk. Tusk has warned that the next two weeks will "decide the future" of the 37-million strong nation. The election could be momentous as well for Europe and for the cause of Ukraine, of which outgoing Polish president Andrzej Duda has been a strong supporter.

May 11—The Social Democrat will continue to remind readers that something extraordinary—and extraordinarily bad—is happening in the United States of America: a confirmed traitor to American democracy has lied his way into the Oval Office. After traducing our democracy by pardoning the perpetrators of an attempted coup d'etat aimed at preventing the orderly transfer of the presidential office to a duly elected successor, Donald Trump has attempted with every resource at his disposal, aided and abetted by a coterie of co-conspirators in the executive branch and Congress, to turn the United States into an elective dictatorship. We must not fall into the trap of treating, or speaking about, Donald Trump as if he is an ordinary president of the United States. Nor will TSD give the scoundrel the honor of the presidential title, preferring to refer to this traitor and incipient dictator in our midst as the "Diktraitor." For a fuller treatment of the Diktraitor's attack on our democracy, see TDS's latest "Social Democracy Outlook."

May 11—Several states are now allowing judges in reckless driving cases to require defendants to install speed-inhibiting devices on their vehicles, with Virginia leading the way. The devices will register the appropriate speed limit using satellite signals and prevent the vehicle from exceeding it. A great idea, but TSD asks, pondering the 40,000 dead and one million seriously injured on our roadways every year, "Why not require such devices on all cars?"

May 11—A federal judge for the Northern District of California, Susan Illston, has ordered the Diktraitor's regime to pause attempts to fire federal workers en masse, writing that if a president wishes to radically restructure federal agencies set up and funded by Congress, they "must do so in lawful ways . . . . with the cooperation of Congress." For an update on all of the dozens of lawsuits contesting the Diktraitor's unlawful behavior, visit this lawsuit tracker at the New York Times.

May 11—The spirit of JFK ("we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty") lives on, though unfortunately not in the shameful Diktraitor regime of the present-day United States of America. In a show of remarkable solidarity, human decency, clear-sightedness and courage, British PM Keir Starmer, French president Emmanuel Macron and newly elected German chancellor Friedrich Merz, arriving on the same train, met in Kyiv yesterday with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky. They pledged their continued support of the beleaguered nation, while laying down an ultimatum to Russian dictator, international war criminal and psychopath, Vladmir Putin: agree to an unconditional and comprehensive cease-fire by Monday, May 12, or face punishing sanctions and increased arms deliveries to Ukraine. Putin has, predictably, rejected the social democrats' demands: he is not looking for peaceful coexistence with Russia's neighbors, but to return them to the status of vassal states, as during the Soviet Union.

May 11—House Republicans are twisting themselves into knots attempting to make their propaganda arithmetic add up: no, Congress cannot protect social services vital to their own base like Medicaid and Social Security, slash the federal budget by 800 billion dollars, gift the wealthy with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and balance the federal budget. It appears that no one in the GOP caucus possessed a calculator during the hyping of this magical mega-bill.

May 11—AP News reports that the Diktraitor's hand-selected crackpot co-conspirator Kari Lake has arranged for crackpot MAGA news outlet One America News to provide programming for Voice of America, the United States' signature broadcast service whose mission is to provide reliable news to peoples living under repressive regimes. So much for that . . .

May 2—The biggest news of the week—and an ongoing event—is the attempt by Donald Trump and his collaborators in the executive branch and Congress to turn the United States into an elective dictatorship. The New York Times editorial board finally took off the gloves on Friday, characterizing the Trump regime's approach as "autocratic," pointing out his multiple efforts, on multiple fronts, to subvert our democracy, and issuing a call for a broad-based civic resistance. For The Social Democrat's view, see the banner article on this site, my quarterly "Social Democracy Update."  Finally, a note to readers on nomenclature: in order to keep this most salient feature of the Trump regime top of mind, and because we cannot equate the actions of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators with those of a consitutional American president, TSD will be referring to Trump henceforth as "the Diktraitor," suggesting his dictatorial desires and actions along with the indisputable fact of his treason against American democracy.

May 2—For those interested in reviewing the chaos, AP News has posted a set of articles looking at the first 100 days of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators' efforts to turn the United States into an elective dictatorship. For a general look at the madness, see here. For attacks on the media, here. For bungling the economy, here; degrading public health, here; and making pollution great again, here.

May 2—The Diktraitor's steady stream of unconstitutional acts has already generated more than 200 lawsuits. For the legally curious, the New York Times is keeping tabs on American citizens' efforts to bring the authority of the judicial branch to bear on the Diktraitor's fantasies of grandeur.

May 2—The results are in for the 2025 World Happiness survey, and once again the world's foremost social democracies dominate the top spots, with Finland in the number one position, followed by Denmark and Sweden in positions two and three and Norway at number seven. If you're thinking that the world's wealthiest citizens must be the happiest, think again, as Costa Rica comes in at number seven and Mexico at number ten. The U.S. sits at number 24 in this year's report.