LA Progressive

After Venezuela and Cuba, will the Trump administration turn its spotlight onto Nicaragua?

On June 6, 2025, Donald Trump’s White House staff issued an upbeat statement proclaiming that what it called the “Trump Effect” was creating “higher pay for American workers.” The reality, though, is that Trump, during his second term in office, has deliberately reduced the wages of millions of workers and, despite substantial inflation, frozen the wages of millions more.

Routine care is not glamorous work. It is a series of small, repeated tasks that never feel urgent on any given weekend. A yard is one of the first things people notice about a home, and it is also one of the easiest things to let slide. Grass grows, beds fill in, and for a few weeks everything looks fine on its own. Then a dry stretch arrives, a corner of the lawn thins out, and the whole space starts to look neglected.

Behind the rise in international conflict and the decline of peacemaking efforts lie weapons and the money that finances them. They provide the fuel for civil wars, wars of choice, and other forms of conflict. The world is awash with weapons, and the United States as always is leading the way. The latest figures are supplied by the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI.org) in Sweden, the leading source for data on military spending and the arms trade.

The nation’s biggest low-wage employers celebrated tax breaks for the wealthy while saying little about cuts to programs their own employees rely on. Low-wage US workers have faced multiple rising threats to their economic and personal security over the past year. Aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions have terrorized immigrant workers, who are disproportionately represented at the bottom of the corporate ladder.

The tipping point came in March, when temperatures in Arizona set national records for the month by hitting 112 near Martinez Lake and Fort Yuma. Arizonans know the ritual of the long summer — the thermostat nudged to 82, the vacation skipped, bracing for the electricity bill. What they didn’t budget for was reaching for the AC before spring had even arrived.

On 22 July, the United States and Saudi Arabia signed what Washington calls a ‘peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement.’ The agreement has been presented as a commercial arrangement that will help Saudi Arabia diversify its energy system while creating a vast new market for US-based nuclear companies. But its significance goes far beyond the construction of power stations.

The United States has declared victory over Iran. Iran has declared victory over the United States. Both countries firmly believe what they say. Can we clear up the apparent contradiction here? Yes. Both countries are using the word victory in the same sense. But they have different criteria, standards, or benchmarks for success. The US’s criteria are military devastation, degraded infrastructure, and severe economic damage. These criteria worked for most twentieth century wars, but not all.

At the Sea Castle apartments, just steps from the beach in Santa Monica, a small one-bedroom with an ocean view starts at $2,900 per month. But some tenants pay only about 30% of their income, and use Section 8 housing vouchers or other government subsidies to cover the rest. Moving in was life-changing for Lorenna Taylor, 55.

The Pentagon is rebuilding the nuclear triad not because America needs more weapons, but because the military-industrial complex needs more money. Mark Twain was right when he said history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Consider America’s approach to nuclear weapons. Under Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, America’s strategic nuclear triad was modernized at immense cost. One hundred B-1 bombers were built. The stealthy B-2 bomber followed. MX “Peacekeeper” ICBMs were deployed.