From Roger Fitch and our friends down under

 

America’s Ozymandias

ROGER FITCH ESQ    THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2026

 

Roger Fitch, our man in Washington, examines three elements driving the United States towards the abyss ... War ... Corruption ... And, one man's maniacal ego

“The lion’s share of blame for the wreckage this presidency is causing lies of course with Donald Trump himself; it is his whims, his prejudices, his bottomless corruption, his stupidity, and his malignant hatreds that propel it forward. But those with whom he has surrounded himself form a group unlike any we have seen before. When they prostrate themselves before him in those North Korean-style cabinet meetings, we see how pathetic they are, people with vast power yet not a shred of dignity” – Paul Waldman, Public Notice

 

“Anger defines Mr. Trump’s decade on the political stage. Anger at foreigners who come to this country and change its nature. Anger at allies who take advantage of America. Anger at Democrats who cross him. Anger at Republicans who cross him. Anger at appointees he deems insufficiently loyal. Anger at prosecutors, F.B.I. agents, judges, journalists, law firms, elite universities, cultural figures, corporate leaders, pollsters, central bankers and the Norwegian Nobel Committee” – Peter Baker, New York Times

 

“His contempt for law is … foundational. He treats courts as legitimate only when they serve him. He recasts legal accountability as persecution. He elevates loyalty over legality, impulse over judgment, grievance over governance. Mobs are not an aberration but a tool—summoned, legitimized, and, eventually, pardoned“ – Harold Litman

 

“This nation …cannot always remain at peace, and has no right to expect that it will always have wise and humane rulers, sincerely attached to the principles of the Constitution. Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln; and if this right is conceded, and the calamities of war again befall us, the dangers to human liberty are frightful to contemplate” – Ex parte Milligan (1866)

War

Donald Trump is a wicked man; Iran is a wicked war, stupid and irrational, a foreign policy blunder Trump began in 2017.

It’s also unconstitutional. Here’s the two-page letter the US provided to the UN Security Council justifying the invasion, claiming “self-defence” and “preventative war”.

There seems to have been no planning, other than the deception itself, reminiscent of the Japanese in 1941, negotiating peace in Washington while launching the Pearl Harbour attack in the Pacific.

Trump’s double-cross decoy of the Iranians, pretending to negotiate while preparing to attack, has now happened twice. The second time, it led to an unlawful war of aggression, joined by the lawless Israelis.

The US is now seen as untrustworthy, even treacherous.

Though entirely illegal, the war is reported as if Israel and the US were the good guys. In fact, Trump’s unauthorised, senseless, war-criminal attacks should be added to his list of impeachable offences.

Corruption

“[B]efore Trump, lying presidents and lying elected officials tried to make it seem they were not lying. Corrupt presidents and corrupt elected officials tried to make it seem they were not corrupt. With Trump and his banditos, there are no such games of pretend … Trump and his band of racists, profiteers, scoundrels, and flunkies seem high on their shamelessness. They defiantly flaunt their brazenness. They revel in their exploitation of power and their embrace of violence, dishonesty, intimidation, and brutality. Look what we can get away with. This has always been a favourite fix for Trump: conning suckers” – David Corn, Mother Jones

With the immunity the supreme court gave Trump, corruption is now on an industrial scale. Trump family wealth is up 70%. Everything is for sale: in six months, AG Pam Bondi dropped 23,000 criminal cases, surely suspicious.

Corporate bribery is reciprocal: taxpayer baksheesh may be paid to companies (even French ones) who implement perverse government policy incentives, e.g, replacing windmills with oilrigs.

Trump and the Republicans are providing “elite immunity” for people and companies who aren’t elite, only corruptly-privileged. Perhaps it’s natural that an administration run by a convicted criminal has, as one of its main goals, providing impunity for financial crimes perpetuated by its accomplices and supporters.

As Paul Krugman observed,

“There are people in positions of great power in the U.S. government engaged in evil conspiracies against everything that is good and decent … But there are no evil masterminds behind this. Only amoral, stupid grifters like Howard Lutnick … While MAGA-world’s fantasy villains like George Soros are brilliant and subtle, MAGA’s real villains are uncouth and dim-witted. Yet they carry out their sinister schemes in broad daylight. For all they need to flourish is utter shamelessness, along with the backing of a corrupt administration and a corrupt political party.” 

Insider trading is rampant. In the digital era, one must find out when a convenient change will occur, and that’s increasingly in the control of one erratic, indeed insane man.

Krugman believes Trump’s social media postings and counter-postings reveal organised insider trading, and in matters of national security, treason, by Trump underlings and other members of his crooked entourage.

Crime (white collar) never had a better year in the US than 2025, where one of their own (34 fraud counts) is US president, and the role of the Justice Department has changed from upholding the law to one of facilitating such criminal activity, Congress be damned.

Sadly, dropping fraud cases and pardoning convicted white-collar criminals, even those who pleaded guilty, also deprives the government and defrauded consumers of valuable court-ordered compensation.

Make America Gauche Again

The vanity-vandalism of Donald Trump would be funny if it weren’t so destructive. He’s determined to install bad taste in once elegant and sophisticated Washington, DC, and elsewhere.

The pathetic monomania of America’s Ozymandias is everywhere. Not content that Florida has agreed to rename Palm Beach’s airport, “President Donald J. Trump International Airport“, he now seeks other transportation hubs, wanting to rename both New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s regional Dulles Airport (DIA) after himself.

With trademark crassness, Trump pre-emptively sought trademark protection for “DJT” so he can usurp for himself the brand benefits (e.g, sale of tat) for any airport using his name/initials. He is already modelling merchandise from his online shop (MAGA caps) at official functions (e.g, cabinet meetings) and, shamefully, at observances for returning dead soldiers.

Beyond the ego vandalism – eg, purporting to rename Washington’s Institute for Peace and Kennedy Center after himself, there has been a flood of Louis XV-inspired kitsch in the White House itself: whorehouse décor Trump’s grandfather might have employed at his goldfields “hotels” in the 19th century.

No one expected the tasteless lower-class Trump to destroy cultural institutions or impose his edifice complex, a tacky White House ballroom (currently-blocked) and colossal Arch de Trump, on DC.

In Miami, another cash shakedown is underway, a widely-ridiculed and gold-bedecked 50-storey Presidential Library, with hotel rooms. 

 

 

 

24 years of torture

 Saturday March 28, 2026 was not just No Kings Day but it was also the 24th anniversary of my country's torture program. As my friend Any Worthington has pointed out- long time "detainee" Abu Zaubaydah is still being held by my country.

Free Abu Zubaydah now! Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.   The CIA torture program began 24 years ago today A recent photo of Abu Zubaydah, taken at Guantánamo by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Support Andy's group here:  Support us here.

Rogue Superpower

 It has been pointed out to me that the US is not just any old rogue country- we were one of the super powers and now we are a rogue superpower. Thing is, pretty soon at the rate we are going, the world will not have to worry about us being a super power. The American people have been dumbed down and our oligarch contingent has been busy stealing the country blind. 

Of course the world will have to worry about our stock pile of nuclear weapons. And an ignorant conman president who likes to play tough guy.

Except they are not "masters" - they are buffoons.

 very dangerous buffoons.

Rogue Nation part II

I am convinced that this trump guy is a putin asset.

He has done everything in his power to destroy this country - first from within- destroying our governmental structure 

and now with another illegal war. this one with clearly more consequences than Venezuela.

Meanwhile the billionaire oligarchs continue their strangle hold on our media,  our businesses, our housing.

This will not end well.

stay tuned.

Another new anthem for our times?

 As you probably have gathered from this blog- music is an important part of protest. Listen to this new one from Nils Lofgran. 

Fuck trump....

Juliana Stratton is the lt. governor of Illinois and she is running for Durbin's seat in the senate (fortunately Durbin is retiring!) She just put out an ad that shows why she should become Illinois new senator.

Watch it here.

American obituary....

 

The ICC under attack from the trump criminals...

 Almost 20 years ago, when the International Criminal Court was in its infancy, I was honored to be invited as a visiting professional. I worked in the victims unit and helped draft some of the policies that are still in place. I have long wanted to return and continue the work I started but my cases here in Chicago demand my attention. That said, I keep up on the ICC and even paid a visit last year to view the "new" courthouse that was completed after my tenure. 

The ICC is of course a threat to the criminals in the trump regime. Soon after our criminal president was reelected he started his intimidation campaign against the court and it continues to this day. 

This from the Guardian:

"Since Trump returned to power last year, his administration has worked steadily to hobble the Hague-based court. To date, 11 of the court’s officials – including the chief prosecutor and eight judges – have been placed under sanctions, subjecting them to measures that include bans on travel to the US and fines and prison sentences for American companies who provide them services.

In an executive order last year, Trump accused the court of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”, suggesting that the sanctions were in retribution for pursuing investigations into US and Israeli officials. Neither the US nor Israel is among the 125 signatories of the Rome statute, the 1998 treaty that gave rise to the court."

and trump is not alone in his thuggery. His pal Putin has been up to the same criminal behavior. Only difference is that trump, unlike Putin,  started his campaign against the ICC before he has been indicted.

"For the Peruvian judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza, the US sanctions marked the second time she had been targeted by a global superpower for her work with the ICC. In December, a Russian court had tried her in absentia, along with the court’s chief prosecutor and seven other judges, following the ICC’s decision to put out an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine. They were handed sentences of up to 15 years in prison."

Let us hope the court gets around to indicting the trumpers....

read the rest here.

Streets of Minneapolis...

 

YAY ---CCR and the ACLU

 When I find a link to the lawsuit itself I will update: 

Burnley v. U.S., No. 26-cv-10364 (D. Mass. Jan. 27), a landmark action filed by the ACLU and CCR on behalf of survivors of two Trinidanians killed in U.S. boat strikes in the Caribbean---- seeking Accountability for Murder on the High Seas! 

Here is a link to a summary of the actions from CCR's website.

Note- CCR is and has been the leading organization for the Guantanamo lawsuits.

 Donate to them if you can!

my country is actually worse than a rogue state...

 as the current administration continues to kill our people I share this with you:

and  as Tom Morello so nicely put it..."Fuck you, we won’t do what you tell us."

More on Trumps mental "derangement" -From Roger Fitch and our friends down under...

 

Presidential Derangement Syndrome

ROGER FITCH ESQ    TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026

 

The destructive force of Trump's egomania ...Narcissist on the loose ... Mob boss ... Venezuela - "it's mine" ... Real estate opportunities for Greenland ... Roger Fitch reports from Washington

 

“No president has understood less about what makes America great than Donald Trump; none has been more ignorant of the post-WWII international framework that allowed America to remain the premier superpower. In systematically weakening alliances, frittering away our moral authority, aligning himself with international dictators, trashing multilateral organizations, hollowing out the State Department and showing himself to be a feckless, corrupt bully, he has weakened America’s standing around the world to a degree no foreign enemy could have achieved. He always puts America Last” – Jennifer Rubin

 

“The finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history” – White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

 

The United States may never recover from the shame of Donald Trump: the crimes, corruption, vulgarity, the mad egomania. After a year, Americans can feel the physical weight of Trumpism.

 

They still can’t get their heads around a violent, unprincipled gang seizing their government under a deranged Capo, and the US becoming a Mafia state.

 

Signs of Trump’s narcissistic megalomania are everywhere: the Orwellian rebranding with Trump’s tainted name of the Institute for Peace and the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts; naming a new class of (redundant) battleships for himself; authorising the minting of personalised $1 commemorative coins celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with Trump on both sides; displaying Kim-il-Sung-like faces on banners on government buildings; similarly defacing National Park passes; and, fixing his face on $1 million “gold” and $5 million “platinum” visas to be forged by the Mint.

 

As the Atlantic commented, “He asks not what he can do for his country, but what his country can name for him”, or as Trump said of his $300 million White House ballroom, “I’m building a monument to myself because no one else will”.

 

Capping it all off, Il Capo shook-down the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner for her medallion, which he coveted and believed he should have received. She got to keep the prize money.

 

As Paul Krugman observed:

 

“It’s a Nobel medal, a symbol of the honour, not the honour itself. Only a vain, insecure fool would imagine that blackmailing someone into handing their medal over adds to his stature.”

 

Still, as the New Republic said, think of the “joy of detrumpification” that will follow the dictator’s fall. Vandalism will be rectified, pathetic graffiti, scrubbed, sham gold, gone. Buildings and agencies will be restored to their original names, and hopefully, benign purposes. Coins can be withdrawn and melted down. Not much can be done about stamps, but the Post Office will likely not survive Trump.

≈   ≈   ≈

 

“[Trump is] a stupid, domineering brute who compulsively rips off everyone he interacts with … It’s been more than a century since wars for plunder made any economic sense, but for Trump to realize that, he would have to be capable of rational thought” – Ryan Cooper, American Prospect.

 

“Trump wasn’t seeking regime change … He’s more like a mob boss trying to expand his territory, believing that if he knocks off a rival boss he can bully the guy’s former capos into giving him a cut of their take” – Paul Krugman on Trump’s Venezuelan invasion.

 

It was only a matter of time till Donald Trump cast his reptilian eyes on the rest of the world. He decided to begin with murder on the high seas of defenceless fishermen and sailors, and shipwrecked survivors, who, even if they were involved in a war (they are not) were hors de combat.

 

Trump soon added an illegal maritime blockade of Venezuela (the ostensible target of the small-boat maritime murders) to his list of international law violations.

 

The Pentagon has also introduced the ancient war crime of perfidy into its arsenal: disguising US military planes as civilian aircraft in order to deceive both “drug-dealing” fisherman and Trump’s maritime piracy targets, foreign-flagged oil tankers.

 

All this was followed soon after by the outright invasion of Venezuela; it wasn’t the first time a corrupt US government had meddled in Venezuela.

 

Here’s the purported legal justification, an Office of Legal Counsel’s memorandum written by T Elliot Gaiser, surely a future Trump judicial appointee.

 

George H W Bush also invaded a country and captured a head of state, Panama’s Manuel Noriega, but this time the kidnap, though involving the deaths of 100 people, left the government of the overthrown leader in place. David Cole has more on this Vichy Venezuela.

 

Trump now says international law, like US law, only applies to him when it coincides with his “morality”; both domestic and treaty laws are optional. However, under the US constitution, international treaties such as those Trump is flouting, eg, UN treaties, the Torture Convention, Geneva Conventions on War, have the force of US law.

 

A US president has no authority to unilaterally withdraw from ratified treaties, although George W Bush purported to, as did Trump during his first term in office.

 

As Trump soon admitted, he seized Venezuela for the oil, but as the American Prospect’s Ryan Cooper observed, given the quality of the country’s oil, its cost of production and current demand, “Stealing Venezuela’s oil makes no sense, even – indeed, especially – from the standpoint of American oil companies”.

 

Even so, Trump stole the oil, and the oil companies can’t even recoup losses from past nationalisations: the confiscated oil is being sold at a discount to Trump megadonors and the proceeds (some $500 million so far) deposited into a foreign bank account in Trump-friendly Qatar where, presumably, only the Thief-in-Chief has access. There’s no lawful authority, except an invalid purported Executive Order.

 

Perhaps Cooper overlooked the desirability of such a fund for collateral on future real estate ventures of  the Trump Organisation and Jarrod Kushner in the Middle-East and elsewhere.

 

As for the Venezuelan caper, Mother Jones reported on another cui bono, i.e, the vulture capitalist and Trump benefactor Paul Singer. Thanks to the corrupt president’s intervention in Venezuela, Singer is poised to reap windfall billions from his bargain sale purchase of the bankrupt American arm of the Venezuelan state oil company Citgo.

 

≈   ≈   ≈

 

Trump wants Greenland, ignoring a 1917 treaty with Denmark. It’s war, if he doesn’t get his peace prize

 

Why Greenland, besides the many Trump donors investing there?

 

“I’m in real estate … I look at a corner, I say, ‘I gotta get that store for the building that I’m building,’ et cetera. You know, it’s not that different. I love maps. And I always said, ‘Look at the size of this, it’s massive, and that should be part of the United States … It’s not different from a real-estate deal. It’s just a little bit larger” – Trump, in a 2021 conversation with journalists Susan Glaser (New Yorker) and Peter Baker (NY Times).

 

 

Let's go Switzerland...

 Let us hope that Al Gore is not the last to refer to actions by the trump administration as "insane." The man has clear mental health issues. "The campaign against wind by the Trump administration is “insane,” Gore said in an interview on Tuesday in Davos with David Rubenstein."

One of many indications that the man is dangerously sick.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

Racists murdered Martin Luther King Jr. 58 years ago. Some of us will celebrate his birthday tomorrow (Monday, January 19) with peaceful protests against our racist president and perform volunteer work in and for our communities. 

 Tuesday January 20 is the unfortunate anniversary of the current occupant of the white house. Students and women have vowed to walk out of schools and workplaces in another display of peaceful protests against our  corrupt regime.