Mort Report is a labor of love by old-style correspondents with lifetimes on the road and young ones with fresh eyes. Our philosophy is simple: we report at first hand with analysis based on non-alternative fact, not opinion. If we get something wrong, we fix it.
TUCSON — Renee Good was the last straw. The snap of that figurative camel's back echoes loudly across every part of the globe.
Democracy is on its last legs when masked goons storm peaceful streets with apparent impunity to open fire on terrified, law-abiding young mothers trying to elude them after taking their kids to school — and then a president blames the victim.
Beyond so many Americans' narrow line of sight, decent people across the world watch Donald Trump with visceral contempt. Dictators, no longer constrained by values America once defended, pop champagne corks and make plans.
Today's headlines say Donald Trump threatens 25 percent tariffs on European allies who won't give him Greenland. Americans would pay more sales sales in exchange for risking a hot war with NATO, which has kept the peace since 1949.
He has mugged a southern neighbor for its oil, allowed Russia to run roughshod in Europe, tossed fuel on Middle East flames, and he continues to chest bump China toward a global war it might win. A "free world" cannot last long like that.
For a decade, he has exploited the gullible with guile, reshaping America in his own despicable image. The Grand Old Party no longer suits its nickname. Greed-driven faithless Republicans fall in line.
Trump thumps a bible he has likely never read. His text is "Mein Kampf." A Kool-Aid cult parrots outrageous Big Lies. An old proverb explains why so many others watch in silence: "There are none so blind as they who will not see."
Fearing a Republican rout in November, he is going for broke. His bogus "insurrections" presage martial law to thwart elections. Stephen Miller, his junkyard-dog deputy chief of staff, is blunt: We're in charge so shut up. Might makes right.
Polls say just over half of Americans believe Renee Good's death was unjustified. What in hell are the rest of them thinking?
TUCSON — And just as I was writing about hope for a better year...
Queen Elizabeth called 1992 an "annus horribilis" to describe royal family scandals and a fire at Windsor Castle. Small-bore stuff compared to 2025, when those words sounded like a Latin translation that sums up Donald Trump. A horrid anus.
The man's preposterous buffoonery at times deserves a good laugh, my draft began. Descending toward his level of discourse only plays into his grasping small hands, further inciting his cultists. We need to look up.
Then I woke up to big, bold type in the New York Times, what old-time editors call a war head: U.S. CAPTURES MADURO, TRUMP SAYS. Terrific. Back to the Colossus of the North days when the United States was roundly despised. But worse.
Trump made no bones about his purpose: "There is a lot of oil in Venezuela, and we need it for ourselves and the world," he said. Basically, it was a midnight gas station stickup writ large.
He said nothing about democracy or improving people's lives. He dismissed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize he covets. as incapable and too unpopular to be president.
Venezuela declared independence from Spain in 1811 and fought its own revolutionary war. Now Trump says he will "run" the country, harking back to Hitler who remotely "ran" Poland, then most of Europe.
The country's 29 million people include diehard "Chavista" loyalists in city slums, eager for vengeance. Vicious cartels and criminal gangs based in mountainous jungle await to fight back.
When George W. Bush invaded Iraq, Colin Powell warned, "You break it, you own it." He was a battle-hardened general who revered the Constitution. Pete Hegseth is a toy-soldier loose cannon, whose motto is FAFO. Fuck around and find out.
Trump says big U.S. companies will exploit Venezuela's oilfields. That means American engineers and workaday "oilies" in remote places would be vulnerable to kidnap as hostages or terrorist attacks. What could go wrong?
