Speaking of "Lil Mario", I'm waiting for some intrepid reporter to provide us a history of the Rubio family in pre-Castro Cuba.

Did you mean "Little Marco" (Trump's term)? Although, Marco actually does have an older brother named Mario who was born in Cuba and came to America with his parents in 1956. Rubio is indisputably the GOP's definition of the family's "anchor baby," and he has most definitely spent a considerable amount of time lying about his family's history and how they left Cuba as "exiles" in order to escape Castro's Cuba. Of course, nothing could be further from the facts because his parents and older brother actually left Cuba in 1956 with the intention (stated on their immigration documents) to remain in the United States permanently. No need to repeat the plethora of lies that Rubio has told about his family's history since they are definitely easily searchable by anyone.

When I was living in Miami, the Machado car dealership(s) seemed omnipresent. Only recently did I learn that the Machado family were closely tied with the Batista dictatorship.

Interesting. Machado came from Cuba to the United States in 1956 and imported cars from the US to Cuba until relations between the United States and Cuba soured with Castro's overthrow of Batista in January 1959. While I know nothing about Machado's ties to Batista, it is definitely a well-known fact that the American-backed regime of Batista had deep ties to the American mafia for multiple decades: Check out a quick writeup regarding the Havana Conference of 1946.

In exchange for sharing the profits and massive kickbacks, Batista granted the American mafia control over Cuba's booming tourism industry, including hotels/gambling and sex trafficking. Check out Havana during the "good old days" of Cuba where underage girls were prostituted to American businessmen and tourists... not actually so good.

An underreported detail about the Cuban exile community is that many of the powerful and wealthy in S Florida made their fortune in complicity with Batista - and then transferred that wealth to the US when they fled in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They definitely were NOT "your tired, your poor, your hungry."

Right. Rubio and company wax patriotic about "our Cuba" and long for the "good old days" in a similar way that many American White Southerners romanticize the antebellum "Old South" as being idyllic and many Northerners long to return America to the Gilded Age where there was immense wealth for a few but massive political corruption and poverty for most.

Trump refers of an American "Golden Age" (his term) with policies/tariffs that mirror the "Gilded Age," (and we all know what followed that) while the Trump administration longs for a Cuba before Castro. The GOP's rhetoric is sanitized/revisionist history.

Perhaps the Rubio family was one of the many who weren't part of the Batista circle, but it's worth learned - especially if whispers of "Rubio 2028" continue to gain steam.

It's doubtful that Rubio's family were part of that, but it's an indisputable fact that the higher office one seeks in America, the deeper into their past will be delved, and Rubio has definitely fabricated and romanticized his own.

Speaking of "Lil Mario", I'm waiting for some intrepid reporter to provide us a history of the Rubio family in pre-Castro Cuba.

When I was living in Miami, the Machado car dealership(s) seemed omnipresent. Only recently did I learn that the Machado family were closely tied with the Batista dictatorship.

An underreported detail about the Cuban exile community is that many of the powerful and wealthy in S Florida made their fortune in complicity with Batista - and then transferred that wealth to the US when they fled in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They definitely were NOT "your tired, your poor, your hungry."

Perhaps the Rubio family was one of the many who weren't part of the Batista circle, but it's worth learned - especially if whispers of "Rubio 2028" continue to gain steam.

I'd put my money on Cuba... because "Little Marco," who by right-wing definitions is definitely a "DEI hire," an "anchor baby," and more recently would definitely not even measure up to the Trumpian definition of American citizen.

What is to stop another country from indicting Trump and his foreign-born wife (or anyone else in his administration) and invading our country and arresting them to stand trial in a (pick your) foreign country? International law? Diplomatic immunity?

While the Trump administration is highly likely to argue that they don't recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, they definitely are currently recognizing Maduro's Vice President as the legitimate leader.

Connecting the dots is seriously not their strong suit.

After reading lots of commentary and gaslighting from Trump, Vance, Noem, the MAGAt cult minions and various assorted right-wingnut types, it appears to me they're genuinely incapable of connecting the dots on these issues of the use of deadly force. If the ICE officer who discharged his weapon three times and shot an American citizen in the face was justified, by those standards the vast majority of officers on January 6 would have been justified to shoot every one those who disobeyed their orders multiple times and directly in the face. Trump and company should be careful what they're advocating, but connecting the dots is demonstrably not their strong suit, and neither is the safety of others, up to and including themselves.

She was trying to drive away, and she was murdered.

She was definitely trying to drive away, but I doubt you could get a conviction for murder in a court of law where a unanimous jury is required to convict. Would it be possible? Yes. Probable? No. Had she wanted to run over any of the officers that were escalating the situation by ordering her out of her "fucking car," she would naturally have had the chance when the officer walked directly in front of her car the first time. I mean, why turn your wheels to the right and attempt to drive away if your intent was to strike that officer with a cell phone in his hand circling you? If her intent was to strike that officer, she could have also easily done that by backing up into him.

I don't see the justified use of deadly force here, and I cannot fathom why Trump, Vance, and Noem would immediately label her a "domestic terrorist," particularly laughable the day following their hysterical revisionist history blaming police officers for the events of January 6. Did the officer have time and space to move out of the vehicle's path? Yes, and we know this because he did move out of the vehicle's path and continued to record Good on his cell phone in one hand while shooting her point blank in the face with his gun in the other. The ICE officer was definitely not "run over," as Noem lied.

In conclusion, the vast majority of those voicing their support for this homicide and the resultant gaslighting and multiple propaganda and false statements immediately pushed by Trump and his administration would also tell you not to trust the government.

[C]ome widowed mourner, here satiate thy grief; behold thy murdered husband gasping on the ground, and to complete the pompous show of wretchedness bring in each hand thy infant children to bewail their father's fate -- take heed, ye infant babes, lest, whilst your streaming eyes are fixed on the ghastly corpse, your feet slide on the stones bespattered with your father's brains.

Thank you for the history, and I can name that orator: Dr. Joseph Warren, the Boston physician and major general who famously died at Breed's Hill (a.k.a. Bunker Hill, as you know). The excerpt is from a speech he gave in March 1775 for the anniversary of the Boston Massacre in 1770.

There is a web page (not under a paywall) that is kept by his biographer where his collected works/documents reside:

https://www.drjosephwarren.com

Full text of Dr. Joseph Warren's 1775 Boston Massacre Oration

Shortly after that, in April 1775, Dr. Warren/Sons of Liberty got wind that the British were marching from Boston to Lexington (where Samuel Adams and John Hancock were hiding) and Concord (where the patriots kept their arms and ammunition) so Dr. Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes to spread the alarm via different routes in case one of them got captured (which they both actually did). Revere reached Lexington first around midnight via his route, and Dawes joined him there following his route. Revere and Dawes were joined by Dr. Prescott, and all three of them were intercepted by the British. Revere was held at gunpoint for hours and later released (without his horse), while Dawes and Prescott managed to get away. Dawes was later thrown from his horse, but Prescott successfully jumped a stone wall blockade and made it to Concord and delivered the warning to the militia. Massive backfire and epic fail by the British to seize the arsenal and stop a rebellion, and thus began the American Revolutionary War.

Interestingly, of the men you quoted, Dr. Joseph Warren was actually the physician of John Adams and his family. Warren was also physician to John Hancock and Samuel Adams (as well as political allies in the Sons of Liberty). He was also Paul Revere's physician, and Revere was a blacksmith who practiced dentistry and created a dental bridge for Dr. Warren which was later used to identify his body by Revere himself. Dawes was also a patient of Warren's before he and Revere's famous ride, and it was also Dr. Warren who conducted the autopsy of Christopher Seider, the 11-year-old boy whose death on February 22, 1770, was caused by a British customs officer shooting into a crowd of protesters from his home window. Four days later, the Sons of Liberty organized the boy's massive public funeral including procession that was attended by thousands and thus solidified anti-British sentiment days before the Boston Massacre on March 5.

One of the most effective pieces of war propaganda in American history is a depiction of the Boston Massacre, an engraving titled The Bloody Massacre in King-Street created by a silversmith who also practiced dentistry: Paul Revere, Sons of Liberty.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The more you study history, you will learn just how intertwined with each other that many of their lives actually were.

'Democrat Eileen Higgins was elected mayor of Miami on Tuesday night in a stunning upset victory that reversed a run of recent Republican successes in Florida.'
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/09/miami-mayor-election-winner-eileen-higgins

Chris, you started 2026 with a strong list of talking points. Here's hoping the future is just as bright!