Blog#270- 1/12/26
UNRESTRAINED AGRESSION
By
Richard Davis
It’s not the first time in the history of the world that a power-hungry deranged head of state is trying to take as much of the world as he can grab. It is the first time this type of leader is from the United States. It makes me sick, and it is not only causing Americans to be fearful in their own country, but it is also causing the rest of the world to worry if their country will be his next target.
Fear is the weapon of dictators and autocrats, and Trump is using it here to make people feel unsafe in their own country. If we really had a functional system of checks and balances the legislative branch would have the ability to be guided by a moral and ethical compass. Instead, Washington republicans are following a severely mentally ill leader in lockstep for fear of personal retribution. The lock on domestic power is almost complete.
A maniac, like Trump, with an ego that needs to be constantly fed will not be satisfied to control his own country and force his own people to bend to his will. He always wants more power and that is why he is reaching beyond our borders to kill people and threaten the takeover of other countries.
At some point one would hope that the United Nations or NATO would make an effort to reign in Trump. Those bodies could mount a campaign to put sanctions on the U.S. until Trump stops his aggression and march to destabilize the entire free world.
Trump has killed people on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific and the only blowback has been meaningless political rhetoric.
He has waged an unapproved war on Venezuela and captured its leader and his wife and no one in this country or anywhere else is defying him or making him accountable for breaking international laws.
When Trump first talked about taking over Greenland it seemed laughable. But his recent behavior makes it more likely that he might act on this aggressive talk and actually invade the country. It will be up to Denmark to push back, and it is something they must do. A war could be the next step.
Then there is Cuba. It is another country that Trump is talking about invading. They would not be able to mount a military defense against the U.S. and if Trump decides to send troops there, congress will probably roll over just as they have with other acts of illegal aggression. If Russia or China decides to help defend Cuba it could be the beginning of World War III.
There is no end to Trump’s ambition. He is even talking about sending troops into Mexico to kill drug cartel members. Mexico’s President, Claudia Scheinbaum, has made it clear that if such action is taken it would be an act of aggression against a sovereign nation. Is Trump willing to wage war with Mexico in order to increase his sphere of power?
All of this bluster about taking over countries makes me believe the end game is an all- out war. I don’t think Trump cares what country he might start a war with as long as he can put his military in harm’s way and take over every news cycle in the world for many months. He could drag a war out until the next presidential election and then use some sort of arcane political maneuver to cancel the election and finally become the dictator he has been hoping he could be.
So what are we going to do?
> If we really had a functional system of checks and balances the legislative branch would have the ability to be guided by a moral and ethical compass.
You’ll be waiting a long time for that. Neither of the 2 big parties are going to save us, and it’s not (just) because of checks and balances. Both parties are owned by oligarchs who are on board with Trump. The dems have many ways they could obstruct or slow down the Trump admin, but they’re not doing them. Their role is to *not* do those things, while selling naive people the story that we can vote our way out of this.
Venezuela was a multi-decade, bipartisan project with consensus support from the real constituents: megacorps and the intelligence blob. Trump, as always, did the usually-quiet parts very loudly.
Christopher Hedges (the journalist) has been making a good case for a long time that the only way forward is a mass movement of working people striking to shut down key parts of the economy. One dockworkers’ strike in Italy crippled their economy briefly, stopped a big flow of weapons bound for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and forcing the very-Zionist Italian government to at least tap the brakes on their policies.
Just in the abstract, I don’t think anyone should rule out violence when facing a fascist takeover of one’s country, but that is a losing proposition currently given the lack of an organized left and the massive advantage in firepower and surveillance the government has. Voting, and focusing on this or that demagogue, is a sucker’s game too. That leaves working people shutting down the economy.