While the rockets red glare ...

Donald Trump ushers in the New Year with a fireworks show in Caracas, Venezuela. It seems this administration has made a resolution to overthrow the "presidential republic" and install a more oil friendly government in its place.  They even have a president-in-waiting, Maria Corina Machado, most recent Nobel Laureate and firm supporter of Trump, who is itching to take over the seat the US hopes to soon make vacant. 

Nicolas Maduro and Hugo Chavez have long been seen as a thorn in the side of American hegemony in the combined Gulf of America (nee Mexico)/Caribbean Sea region. The Trump admin. wants nothing that goes in or out of this combined waterway to escape its watch and has beefed up naval military presence in an effort to more tightly patrol this region, much to the chagrin of the countries that border or are engulfed by these two bodies of water. 

It seems that the US has taken its cue from Russia, which similarly wants to control the Sea of Azov and Black Sea on the opposite side of the world. In what is more and more looking like a transactional relationship, the US is asking Russia to give up its claims in the Western Hemisphere in exchange for the US ignoring what it does in the Eastern Hemisphere. I'm not sure exactly where this line falls but safe to say on the Western side of Ukraine.

This was the whole point of the "negotiations" that took place throughout the year in Moscow and Mar-a-Lago. The US was never pursuing a meaningful peace deal.  It was looking for a means to carve up assets around the globe so that both sides benefited at the expense of smaller countries like Ukraine and Venezuela. 

Ever since a peace deal was first proposed back in February, 2025, the aim has been to force Ukraine to accept Russian terms of surrender. Ukraine's sovereignty meant little to the Trump administration, just as Venezuela's sovereignty does now. After an ugly start Trump minions decided to take a softer approach, as they didn't bargain for a united Europe supporting Ukraine. They thought this coalition would fall apart when Biden left, but Joe had checked out months before and European leaders realized that if they were going to defend their Eastern flank they had to do it on their own. The US could no longer be counted on with military and economic aid bills stalled in a Republican Congress. So, EU and NATO-member countries ramped up their efforts long before the Orange Stain came to the White House, beefing up their military budgets and increasing military manufacturing as they knew it was only a matter of time before Russia extended its war beyond Ukraine.

European leaders tried to humor Trump, giving him credit for their increased defense spending.  They praised him to no end when eight European leaders, including Zelenskyy, came to the White House to urge Trump to be more proactive against Russia. Trump glowed from all the compliments being made around the table but he wasn't calling the shots.  He never was.  Trump was a Trojan Horse for radical conservatives determined to take control of the White House and greatly strengthen its rule based on a "unitary executive theory," which they believe harked back to the Founding Fathers. 

To some degree they are right in that the early Federalist government was a very top-heavy form of government that attempted to consolidate power in Washington at the expense of the newly adopted colonies. However in 1800, Thomas Jefferson ran against this form of government and ever since we have seen a more diffuse central government with states given greater autonomy. So much so that in 1861, eleven states chose to secede from the Union because they felt their rights were being infringed upon by anti-slavery measures. They signed what amounted to their own Declaration of Independence believing the Constitution to be null and void at that point.

It seems so long ago but is still so near in conservative minds. What makes it odd is that conservatives today don't support state rights.  Not at all. They want all states to bow to their conservative doctrine. This is in sharp contrast to their stated positions and one that has many MAGA cultists scratching their heads. It's not enough to be left alone, which is what many of these cultists want, the Heritage Foundation wants the entire country to abide by a conservative rule of law that they poured their black hearts and souls into, calling it Project 2025.

As we have seen this is no isolation policy. The Trump administration, driven by the Heritage Foundation, has globalist ambitions. We heard them from the outset in laying claim to the Panama Canal Zone, Canada and Greenland. VP Vance lectured European leaders on the meaning of free speech in their countries, essentially issuing a call to arms to nationalist parties in these countries to seize the initiative that they did in the US to overthrow the liberal European governments and in particular the notorious EU. European leaders weren't quite sure whether this was posturing or serious threats to their sovereignty but then Trump's minions laid it all out in the National Security Strategy announced this past December, making European leaders feel like chumps for giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. As if to rub salt in the wound, Trump reiterated his position on Greenland, announcing a special envoy to convince Greenlanders to secede from Denmark and join the United States.

One knew that Trump didn't mean a single word he said at those meetings with European leaders. I think deep down these European leaders knew it but they hoped that somehow they could influence Trump go against his advisors by flattering him to no end. It was a wasted year in this regard because nothing was accomplished even with a last minute visit to Mar-a-Lago by Pres. Zelenskyy hoping to get some concessions out of Moscow that would result in a peace plan that would give Trump the Christmas gift he most desired - a Nobel Peace Prize like the one Machado received in October.

My wife compared Trump to Leonid Brezhnev. The former Soviet leader was obsessed with honors. He loved to emblazon his jackets with medals, bling as we would now call it, to make himself look all the more imperial, but as one of our friends pointed out on New Year's Eve, Brezhnev actually served in the military and fought in WWII. Trump is content with fake medals and awards. Not completely, I said. He wants the real thing too.

It turns out the military did more than just bomb Caracas, they kidnapped Maduro and his wife and now the Justice Dept. plans to charge them with narco-terrorism.  Essentially a repeat performance of 1989 when George W. Bush invaded Panama and captured Noriega, similarly charging him with funneling drugs into the country.  However, this is a president who recently pardoned former Honduran president on similar charges. This will embolden Russia to ratchet up the pressure on Ukraine and China to seize Taiwan. As my wife so often says, there is no law and order in America. Indeed not. The world is becoming undone right before our eyes.