From Caracas to Minneapolis

The Donald Trump administration celebrated the birthday of what those in the Christian faith call the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, on December 25 by bombing two African countries, Nigeria and Somalia. That Christmas day horror was only the beginning of its crimes as 2025 ended. As 2026 began, on January 3, the U.S. bombed Caracas, the first time in history a South American country was subjected to air bombardment, and kidnapped Venezuelan president, Nicholas Maduro, and his wife Cilia Adela Flores. In a world of nation-states, the government of one country has no right to seize the citizens (let alone the head of state) of any other nation-state.

On January 7 in Minneapolis, an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a native-born U.S. citizen who was a poet, a Christian, white, and a mother of three now-orphaned children. While the administration attempted to frame Ms. Good as a “domestic terrorist” who was attempting to run over the agent, Jonathan Ross, bystander videos show she was actually trying to avoid him while he circled her car with a cell phone in one hand and his service weapon in the other.

This horror followed weeks of a coordinated racist drive against the Somali community, which serves as a textbook example of economic scapegoating. Reactionary demagogues first claimed Somali immigrants had been capturing and eating domestic pets; more recently, they have weaponized allegations of “daycare fraud” to charge that Somali businesspeople are funneling federal dollars to international terrorist groups. By criminalizing the Somali community’s economic activity, the federal government has created the pretext for a permanent federal occupation of the city.

More than 2,000 ICE agents have flooded Minneapolis, and Trump wants to send more. This massive deployment represents a domestic application of the “Department of War” philosophy, turning a major U.S. city into a garrisoned territory.

The Historical Limits of Capital: From Stagflation to Artificial Intelligence

Recent media speculation has focused on whether 79-year-old President Donald Trump is experiencing cognitive decline, echoing similar coverage of his predecessor, Joseph Biden.

They’re the oldest men to have held the office. As people age, they become more vulnerable to the group of brain changes we call dementia. I’m not qualified to assess anyone’s health; what matters here is what these stories signal politically — confusion, factionalism, and instability at the top of the state.

At times, it seems that Trump has no coherent foreign policy. There are stories he’s pressuring Euromaidan Ukraine to settle the war with Russia on Russian terms. Then it seems that settlement talks go nowhere.

Gold, Overproduction, and the Emerging Monetary Crisis

On November 8, Senate Democrats made a deal with Republicans to end the government shutdown. The deal was attacked by many podcasters allied with the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.

Led by President Trump, Republicans threatened to cut or end funding for the SNAP (food stamps) program. In 2024, some 41 million people depended on the program.

In the face of court orders, they backed down, but the Supreme Court allowed them to go ahead with the cutoff. Hours before eight Democrats caved to Republican demands and announced they’d vote to end the government shutdown on Republican-Trump terms.

Artificial Intelligence

On August 15, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Alaska was once a Russian colony that was purchased by the U.S. in 1867 and became a state in 1959.

The anti-imperialist YouTuber Brian Berletic expressed concern that the Trump administration might attempt to kidnap Putin. This did not seem so far-fetched in light of the Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran aimed at decapitating Iran’s political and military leadership. This occurred as they were supposed to engage in negotiations to normalize relations. Unlike Iran, Russia has nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them to the U.S. mainland, making any kidnap attempt unlikely, and Putin returned home safely.

Trump has refused to walk away from the Russo-Ukrainian war, and there were no breakthroughs in ending it. The war started with the 2014 U.S.-organized right-wing coup to overthrow the popularly elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych. Coup leaders, called the Euromaidan movement, were supported by a coalition of pro-U.S. imperialist liberals and Ukrainian fascists who provided the muscle power.

Liberation Day

On April 2, President Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs. As this blog concentrates on economic questions, this was the biggest event of the last month. But before I get to the tariff, I’ll look at other developments.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia lived and worked legally in Maryland since 2019. The Trump administration accused him of belonging to a gang, arrested and put him on a plane heading for a notoriously brutal El Salvadoran prison. He had not been convicted of any crime. They then claimed they’d committed an administrative mistake.

On April 10, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. As of this writing (April 28), he remains imprisoned, and Trump has refused to follow the court’s order. [I wonder whether the high court regrets last year’s decision that even after leaving office, a president cannot be criminally prosecuted for any action taken while in office in pursuit of their duties? I don’t know the answer, but it seems the court is like a man sawing off the branch he is sitting on. -SW]

The Genocide Resumes

It was announced on December 1 that Israel’s genocidal bombing and ground attacks on Gaza had resumed. Contrary to media reports, this isn’t an Israeli-Hamas war, but rather it’s a genocidal attempt by Israel, backed by the Genocide Joe’s government, to drive Palestinians out of Gaza into the Sinai, killing as many as possible along the way.

This would reduce the Arab population by about 2.3 million, transforming the current Arab majority in historic Palestine in favor of an Israeli majority. It would prepare the way for finally driving out the Palestinian Arabs from the West Bank into Jordan — again killing as many as possible along the way. The Israeli leadership — not just Netanyahu — hopes that Israel will be consolidated as a nation-state much like the U.S., Australia, and Canada became nations after the genocide and apartheid of the native population. This has been the aim of the Zionist movement and its imperialist sponsors from the beginning of the modern Zionist movement.

Origins of the conflict

Let’s briefly review the process of how Israel was, in the words of Biden, “created.” Toward the end of the 19th century, capitalism was being transformed into monopoly capitalism based on free competition (not the perfect competition of neoclassical capitalist economists).

The Political Crisis of U.S. Capitalism

On September 7, ABC News online edition reported, “More than a dozen presidential centers got together to warn about the fragile state of American democracy heading into 2024.” The phrase “fragile state of democracy” means that the traditional form of class rule by the U.S. capitalist class is in real trouble.

The center of this developing political crisis is the upcoming presidential election in November 2024. As the election approaches, for the first time in U.S. history, a former president faces felony charges in four venues. In New York and Georgia, involving election fraud; in South Florida, involving classified documents allegedly stolen and held illegally after leaving the White House; and in the District of Columbia, where he’s charged with attempting to defraud the United States by stealing the 2020 election.

Trump is not just a former President. He’s also the current leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 election. Attempts by the “Party of Order” to build up a rival Republican candidate have so far not gone anywhere. Polls show that as the downpour of felony indictments descends, his lead in the polls for the nomination over the other declared candidates has widened.

The Phony Crisis, the Real Crisis, and the Whip of Hunger

U.S. law prevents the federal government from allowing its debt to rise beyond a specific limit. As of May 2023, the limit is $31.4 trillion though this will be raised in the coming weeks. If either or both houses of Congress don’t, the federal government will be forced to reduce expenditures and forced into default. Finance capital won’t allow that.

On January 19, 2023, the day the legal limit was reached, the debt ceiling was not raised because of various technical loopholes in the law, but they are not unlimited. This is not the first time for this kind of artificial government debt crisis, which has become a regular feature of U.S. politics since the Obama administration. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen estimates that the legal wiggle room (technical loopholes) will be exhausted by June 1, 2023. So while an over-the-weekend theatrical default is possible, the chance of an extended default is less likely than the Vatican announcing its conversion to Judaism or Islam.

Is the federal debt crisis just for show? Not at all. A bill will be passed within the next few weeks, raising the current $31.4 trillion debt limit. To become law, the bill must be passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President. The Democrats narrowly control the Senate, but the House of Representatives has a slim Republican majority. The House already passed a bill to raise the debt limit, but it contains provisions cutting the budget. Of course, cutting the war budget is off the table — instead, the GOP wants to gut social programs. The most important provision is to attach work requirements to Medicaid and food stamps benefits, as well as measures to promote the production of more fossil fuels. They also want Biden’s limited student debt forgiveness canceled.

The Fed Meets and Congress Investigates January 6

In June 2022, the news in the United States was dominated by two stories. One was the decision of the Federal Reserve System to raise its target for the federal funds rate by 0.75%. The new rate range is between 1.50% and 1.75%. The second story broke the same week: The congressional hearings into the events of January 6, 2021. On that date, a right-wing mob, supported and inspired by President Donald Trump, broke into the U.S. Capitol. It was an attempt to force Congress to reverse the 2020 presidential election results. Is there a connection between these two? Yes, even if it isn’t a direct one.

Let’s begin with the Federal Reserve story. For most people, Federal Reserve operations are a mystery. The federal funds rate is the interest rate charged on overnight loans that U.S. commercial banks make to one another. The law, as well as financial prudence, require commercial banks to maintain a certain minimum of ready money to cover their deposit liabilities. Many are surprised to learn that under the fractional reserve system, commercial banks maintain only enough cash on hand to redeem a small portion of the money the public has on deposit. If all depositors were to try to withdraw all their money at the same time, every bank would fail. The reason? Most of the money on deposit does not represent actual cash in the form of legal tender — bills and coins — but is imaginary money created by the banks themselves through their loans and discounts. To prevent collapse, a minimal cash amount backs up deposit liabilities.

Commercial banks are for-profit enterprises. To maximize profits, cash on hand is kept to a minimum as it earns no interest. To put it in more scientific terms: The cash commercial banks must keep on hand to redeem deposits does not entitle the bank’s shareholders to a portion of the unpaid labor — surplus value — performed by the working class.

Global Economic and Financial War Erupts

As I write these lines the Russo-Ukrainian war is entering its second month. The main fighting is in the Donbass region. The Russian military is attempting to encircle and destroy a Ukrainian army spearheaded by the fascist Azov brigade, variously estimated as between 50,000- to 100,000-strong. Russia also sent ground forces toward Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, with no attempt to storm and seize the city. Kiev is revered by Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians alike as the city of origin of their respective nations.

Putin indicated Russia does not want to occupy or rule Ukraine. Russia has been fighting a limited war. Its demands are that Ukraine acknowledges the independence of the Lugansk and Donestk People’s Republics as well as Russia’s claim to Crimea. Before 1954, Crimea was never Ukrainian. Since the 19th century, it’s had a Russian majority. Russia further demands Ukraine stay out of NATO, be demilitarized, not acquire nuclear weapons or allow NATO to put nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction on its territory, disband the fascist militias operating there and recognize the rights of Russian-language speakers.

Russia hopes to negotiate a peace treaty with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s government meeting Russia’s basic demands. At the start of the war, Russia opened peace negotiations. It would not have done so if it intended to occupy and rule the entire country. Additionally, on March 29 Russia announced as a measure of good faith that it was scaling back, but not ending, its military operation near Kiev and other areas in northern Ukraine.. Regarding the western region, Russia launched cruise missile attacks aimed at military targets but has not moved ground forces into the area.