# America is going to Hell Trump’s tariffs are bringing on a global recession that will more than likely hit America harder than it hits the rest of the world. Trump is destroying international relationships left and right. He is dismantling national networks for health, education, social services, and so on. By the time he leaves office, even if a more sane government takes over, it will be left with a broken, impoverished, bitterly divided nation, deep in a downward spiral, with no friends left in the free world.

# I stand with Ukraine What Trump and his stooge did to Zelenskyy was depraved and disgusting. Everyone already knew that Trump is a narcissist who demands that foreign leaders kiss the ring. What everyone didn’t know—and is abundantly clear now—is that established relationships, allies, treaties mean nothing to him. # Budapest Memorandum The USSR had a lot of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Those would have made Ukraine one of the strongest nuclear powers in the world.

This is not a news site. I’m not going to aggregate or discuss every new twist and turn that happens either around the globe or in the Trump administration. Partly, because that would drive me insane. I’d rather focus on things that are positive. Partly because there’s going to be a non-stop barrage of bad news for the next four years (at least) and that’s all I’d ever have time to write about.

I’ve been going to the National Association of Music Merchants (or NAMM) show, for more than 25 years. For those who don’t know, it’s an musical instrument (MI) industry-only trade show, in which those who create musical instruments, equipment, or software show their wares to media, distributors, and retail buyers. It has always been a major event in the musical instrument industry; for a small company, lots of buyer interest at a NAMM show can mean getting enough purchase orders for the entire year in a few days.

I’m not going to post here every time there’s a news story that interests me, but this one is something that could affect me (and likely, you) directly. Diamond Comic Distributors is the largest distributor of English-language comics, toys, games, collectables, etc. They have just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This is going to have major repercussions. First of all, they owe many companies a lot of money. For example, they owe Hasbro (makers of Dungeons & Dragons and many other things) around $2m total.