COLUMNIST: It's Been a Week, Even by Trump Standards
First Venezuela, now he wants Greenland, Colombia, Canada and Cuba. The world is taking notice.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
Life is happening fast and furiously in the Trump regime.
His blitzkrieg conquered Venezuela in one quick strike and now the president has set his sights on Greenland, with Colombia, Canada and Cuba also in the conversation. Then, Friday he boldly suggested that the United States military might go after drug cartels in Mexico.
That’s pretty brazen, and the rest of the world is taking serious note of what is going on. Some countries are already sounding the alarm. Just how long Europe and Asia will allow such imperialist greed to continue is anyone’s guess, but you can be sure Trump’s actions are being discussed in sober words by many heads of state.
Already new alliances are being forged, pacts that do not include the United States. Since Jan. 20, 2025, we – not Russia or China or even Iran - have become the world’s “loose cannon.”
Trump has seized oil tankers on the high seas, cargo destined for China and other countries. Under international law, this is piracy, plain and simple.
What would happen if China hijacked a tanker loaded with American oil? We would retaliate, of course, and rightfully so. So far, China has not responded to Trump’s piracy in a violent manner. But as the old Chinese proverb says, “Revenge is best served cold.”
It has been widely reported and confirmed that Trump conferred with American oil companies, not Congress, before going into Venezuela. The regime change he sought there was not about drugs or justice, it was about oil, and the president made no bones about declaring that fact. The blasting of “drug boats” before the raid was obviously a ploy to build a case for his eventual oil takeover.
Oil companies, even if they were eager to get Venezuelan oil at the outset, may be rethinking their strategy. According to Trump – and oil experts – it will take billions of dollars to upgrade that country’s oil infrastructure.
What happens in four or five years when Trump is out and a more honest president takes over? Does he (or she) give Venezuela back its oil and allow its leaders to sell it to who they want? Will oil companies spend big bucks in equipment upgrades over a period of several years, then find out that those dollars were wasted?
Trump, like other brazen leaders of the past, seems to believe that his regime will continue for the next 1,000 years. That will not happen. First, the rest of the world will not allow it to happen and second, a continuation of Trump’s philosophy will run this country into the ground, perhaps by the end of his term.
Trump’s Venezuelan strike could be a hedge against our future relationship with Canada, one of our greatest allies until the president’s threats began. If we strike at Greenland, Canada will almost certainly retaliate, most likely shutting off its oil supply to the U. S. And Canada is our greatest supplier of crude.
Canadian crude is heavy crude and Texas refineries are already equipped to handle it. Venezuelan crude is also heavy crude, which would keep the refineries operating in case of a Canadian embargo.
If oil companies had to switch to light, sweet crude from other parts of the world, refineries would have to be refitted, which would require at least a partial refinery shutdown and dramatically raise the price of gasoline.
Even the Trump bootlickers don’t like high gas prices.
The rest of this world can’t help but see Trump and the Republican Congress, which has failed to reign him in, as a threat to world peace and at some point, even our allies may turn against us. We have never had a world war on our soil, but we are not immune to an attack from other nations.
China, for instance, could put more soldiers on the ground than America has people. And that country has nuclear capability, as does Russia. Are those countries just sitting and allowing Trump to play his hand before uniting in a common cause?
We in this country have long said that all it takes is one deranged leader to start a nuclear war. We now have men in charge of Russia, China and the United States who could push the button at any moment.
When a world leader invades one country and then, in a matter of days, threatens to invade four or five others, the rest of the world stands up and takes notice.
Last week Mexico’s president did turn to the United Nations for help in stopping Trump, but that world group was rendered impotent by George Bush when he defied it and went into Iraq. That, of course, turned out to be an unholy mess and further destabilized the Middle East.
It should be noted here that the League of Nations, established after World War I, was done away with in the 1930s. World War II followed its demise.
And an American invasion of Greenland would almost certainly destroy NATO. Some European nations have already threatened to remove U. S. military bases if Trump follows through with his Greenland threats.
In 1940 Hitler invaded neutral Holland and established a government that answered to him personally. Is history repeating itself? Now Trump wants to do the same thing in Venezuela and Greenland, and maybe other countries.
The past two weeks have been troubling ones. Two shootings by ICE with the Trump Administration now saying that agents may go door-to-door looking for illegals (probable cause is being thrown out the window), the intimidation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the taking-over of Venezuela (which “we will run”), threats to take over Greenland, Cuba, Canada, and Colombia, the piracy of oil tankers and a threat to put boots on the ground in Mexico.
Trump’s manifest destiny seems to be a takeover of the both the North and South American continents.
Will the rest of the world stand for this or will they answer with bombs?
God help us.
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Okay - 1st off, why is it's God's job to help us, rather than us helping ourselves?
Do we not have free will, a conscience? Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
And, though not as glaring as Mr Davis's ongoing mantra that there is no right and wrong, and we all do it - I'm afraid this otherwise compelling column still does not go far enough.
What's omitted is as glaring as what's contained.
The claim that Trump's policies are wrong and that the Republican controlled Congress is AWOL are certainly true.
To the point where, yes, likely they will soon reap a whirlwind of death and despair upon us. Either from civil war, world war, or instituting a government of arrogant imperialism and fascism from the oligarchs who rule us, where we once had a republic.
All true.
And growing more true every day. No doubt.
My greatest fears are now not of some Chinese or Russian communist occupying my home after an invasion. Of a zealous Muslim martyring himself in an act of destruction. Or all of the other things that Hollywood has shown me over the last half century or more. The cruel drug overlord, the angry black man, the mad scientist.
Yada, yada, yada....
Nope.
That's not who I should be worried about. Facts dictate otherwise.
The guy or gal I should fear looks just like me when I look in a mirror. I've worked beside him, fought beside him, bled beside him. Worshipped, fished, hunted, cried, drank, cheered beside him. Admired her. Sat at her table.
If I end up dead or in a concentration camp, it's a lot more likely to come from them than anyone else.
As thousands more stormtroopers occupy Minneapolis. As "Homeland Security" queen Kristi Noem employs shock and awe tactics upon us while standing, literally, behind the Nazi mantra of revenge and retribution: "One of us, all of them".
As Niemoller warned us, "First they came.....".
I see that now.
Yet, it can't be denied. Somewhere along the line, we parted ways. I can't say exactly when. Nor why. Though, I've often wondered. I truly can't. Especially in the last 10-20 years. But it's true.
Did I change, or did they?
I don't think it was me. But would I know?
Looking back, I'm not sure what bothers me more. Have they become someone that I no longer recognize, or were they that person all along, and I just didn't recognize it?
I do not know.
I had a neighbor back home.
A good man.
Lived a few doors up from me. Smart, honest, hard working. I knew him and lived beside him for 30 years. He gave me honey from his hive. We shared garden secrets, fishing spots. He raised his children next to mine. Refereed my children's soccer games.
When I had my heart attack, he came and shoveled my walk without me asking. He had a snow blower and would do anyone's in the neighborhood, just to be doing it. A deacon in his church. A man who I asked for advice on many an occasion. And yet, when it came time to sell my home, one day he came to ask me if I was going to sell it to a Mexican. He was serious. Where in the hell did that come from? How did I not see it? Once it was over, I tried to forget it. And yet, a few days later, another good neighbor mentioned our conversation. They'd been talking. It mattered. They were worried.
Had it been there all along, and I just chose not to see it; or had these otherwise good, ethical people been manipulated into it?
I honestly do not know. Not sure I wanted to. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I think about it.
These are the people that I thought I would grow old with. Telling old jokes, old stories. Making new ones. Now, I avoid them like the plague. I don't argue with them, nor try to reason with them, because now I realize that reason has nothing to do with it. So why bother?
But I think the thing that bothers me more - is wondering - did they really think I was one of them?
That I too would be okay with it? With racism, ignorance, greed, injustice? All the things that today's "conservatism embraces? That I would lie, cheat, steal to get what I want?
Accept it being done for me? In my name?
All I know is this.
It comes down to the basics. Though admittedly, it's things that I considered so basic, I remain astounded that I have to explain them to anyone, much less an American.
Reason ain't what got them into this, it ain't what will get them out. Not sure anything will, so we better start treating them according to what they are, not what we wish they were.
Still, let me make it clear.
I'm against the torture and killing of children. Not just my children, but anyone's. Never thought I'd have to justify such a stance, yet here we are.
Force should be a last resort, not the first, because all life is precious. Not just my life, but all life.
Rule of law matters, those who enforce the law should do so openly, lawfully, and with the consent of the governed.
Law enforcers are servants of the citizens, not their masters. Answerable to the Constitution, the law, and the courts. Guardians, not lords.
Servants.
Ut prosim.
Rights belong to all.
Lying's wrong, as is cheating, stealing.
A person should be judged by their actions, not how their looks, where he comes from, or how much money or fame he has. Not because of who he knows, but what he does.
All those things you learned about in kindergarten, they're still true.
So when I see our nation's legally chosen leaders suddenly deciding that they've found a great new way of making money, we'll just steal it from Canada, or Greenland, or Venezuela - because we can - not only am I against it, I can't help wondering why others are not.
Mr Johnston mentions and rightly condemns Trump, and to a lesser degree the Republican Congressional members. All true. All true.
But again, where's the condemnation of the rest?
In 2016, and to a much, much lesser degree in 2020 - Republicans could've and did claim they know no better. They were all following the George Costanza method of morality. As long as they did not admit it was a lie, then it wasn't a lie.
That wore a little thin by 2024, and is even more so now.
If they didn't know by then, or now - it's because they didn't want to know. Not because they couldn't.
There can be no reasonable doubt at this stage.
So why are we not holding not only the Wttmans or Rubios of the world accountable - why not the Durants, Diggs, etc. as well?
The ones who are YOUR neighbor, who pass the plate at your church?
This don't happen without them.
Ain't it about time we admit that, and say that? Even if they won't?
Answer me that.
The only way lies can live is if no one shines a light on them. Turn on the light.
Say it. Then we can go from there.