The bully's methods have much in common with the way Mussolini made himself dictator of Italy.

The US and Russia are opposing the UN's global cease-fire initiative. War takes priority over all.

Billionaires' income is mainly generated by their wealth, so no matter how the tax amounts are determined, we can understand the effect on their wealth by measuring them as a fraction of that wealth. For US billionaires today, that fraction is 1/5 of what it was in the 1980s.

How the tax amounts are determined does make a difference. If it is calculated on wealth, it can exceed the billionaire's income, resulting in a welcome decrease in the billionaire's wealth.

A suffering US restaurant chain owner applied for a loan whose purpose is to allow him to rehire laid-off workers, then complains that it is "inflexible" because it requires him to rehire the laid-off workers.

Over a year ago, Foxconn said it would build a big factory in Wisconsin in exchange for a subsidy. The factory plan keeps changing, and shrinking, but so far nothing seems to be happening.

Amazingly, Foxconn may actually be denied the subsidy for not carrying out the plan.