What is a reign of terror?
What it is: A time of intense violence and fear, often by a ruling group against its own people.
A “Reign of Terror” is a period of extreme violence and political repression where those in power use fear, mass arrests, and executions to eliminate perceived enemies and enforce control [as] famously seen during the French Revolution when thousands were guillotined for opposing the revolutionary government. It’s characterized by arbitrary trials, paranoia, and the suppression of rights to maintain power and revolutionary ideals.
(Definition GoogleAI)
Unlike the French Revolution when the ruling elite (aristocracy) were guillotined by the revolutionaries, in the US those being oppressed are in opposition to an authoritarian neo-fascist takeover and support immigrant rights and condemn the presence of ICE agents making arrests and putting people in unsafe and often inadequate of even the most basic needs such as clean water. Often they are beaten and abused as well. Many are then deported to their country of origin or sometimes to a country they are not familiar with at all. American citizens are sometimes arrested as well.
The policies that support aggression internationally and backed by hyper-militarism with a goal of world domination characterized by neo-colonialism pursued by the Trump regime are opposed.
Building a Reign of Terror at Home and Abroad
In recent years the hot wars and bombings are conducted by proxies as in Ukraine and some African countries, and in Palestine/Gaza while financially supported by the US. The war against Venezuela is now a hot war with the recent bombing and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife. This escalation is of concern worldwide as it signals the intent of Trump and his administration to move into a hot-war mode.
Trump’s reign of terror against people within the United States is not always a literal bloody one. Trump’s assault on the United States continues in several forms.
Bruce Springsteen sums up well the travesties of the Trump administration as millions step forward to save Democracy. MEGA? I think not.
Instead for the Trump regime it means pursuing worldwide hegemony and empire in a new neo-colonialism that robs the resources of other countries and puts money into the coffers of multinational corporations with no conscience and where the only Green revolution acceptable is the US dollar. At the same time the Trump administration is attacking America as Springsteen’s video enumerates its many crimes against humanity and the American people.
Climate Crisis
While other countries worldwide are creating new innovations to reduce the results of human-created climate change by the greedy, the US moves backward into promoting fossil fuel and remains the largest polluter of fossil fuel (CO2) worldwide with its over 1000 military bases. The claim is that the US is second to China in CO2 pollution, but that is only the territorial United States and does not include the worldwide bases.
In a vicious circle the polluting of military bases relates to the mistaken hyper-military buildup of the US that leads to the US government’s domination by oil and gas industry and also the weapons industry. The bombing of Venezuela and the attempt to take it over is all about oil of course. To remind you, Venezula has the largest oil resources in the WORLD. US-based multinational corporations like Chevron, Citco, and more have been lusting after it for years.
In the meantime, in the US energy costs increase and Trump tries to destroy any other energy source, no matter how Green, such as the turbine windmills on the East Coast he has had shut down as part of the reign of terror inside our country, as fossil fuel and CO2 prevail, threatening our planet.
College Campuses: Freedom of Speech
Trump’s minions are also attacking the US education system.
Google AI: DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in education is facing significant challenges, with numerous state laws banning DEI offices, trainings, and curriculum, alongside federal actions from the U.S. Education Department and Justice Department targeting related programs, leading to college restructuring, funding cuts, and legal battles over free speech and equity initiatives. This wave of anti-DEI efforts aims to curtail efforts supporting marginalized students, sparking debates about educational access, inclusion, and the future of campus diversity initiatives.
Much of the resistance began on college campuses such as Columbia University with students protesting genocide in Palestine/Gaza. In a weaponization of antisemitism these students were punished for their opposition to genocide and their college administrations were told their federal funding would be cut under the auspices of the Trump administration if they did not shut the student protests down. Academic freedom and freedom of speech were debated and questions raised, but most college administrations caved to the Trumpites because losing the federal funding for research and other programs seemed too much. Essentially they were blackmailed. (I thought that was against the law.)
Only Harvard, with a huge endowment, held out. With the court cases going back and forth between Harvard and the Trump administration, on January 5, 2026 a ruling considered favorable to Harvard was issued regarding research expenses. The ruling may prove important for other colleges as well.
Healthcare and Social Security
The reign of terror also includes the planned cutting of Medicare and Medicaid and shutting down of Obama Care. Ridiculously high rates proposed for healthcare hover around us. Serious cuts to social security are also being proposed.
Immigrant Rights and the Creation of ICE
Where is all this money from the cuts going? In great measure to fund ICE and into the pockets of corporations and billionaires, including the president’s family. Meanwhile the news is saying 500,000 immigrants have been detained or deported although the worst crime of many was getting a parking ticket, or maybe it was a headlight out on a car. Modeled after the Nazi Gestapo, ICE so far has operated with impunity, arresting people off the street or even invading schools and other public areas. These arrests often involve unnecessary violence on the part of the ICE agents.
It is the kind of thing happening to immigrants nationwide, these so-called criminals. Some hold green cards, others are US citizens. They clean our office buildings and hotels, work in construction, all kinds of jobs. Some own shops, are small business owners, and in one way or another contribute to the economy.
Are they taking jobs away from US citizens? Probably not, because all those disgruntled workers, many men who support Trump, don’t do those jobs anyway, or if they do their whiteness gives them priviledge. I don’t like to say it, but even with the gains in feminism, women are used to getting short-shrift with lower wages and being discriminared against in jobs although clearly there has been progress with women who are governors, legislators, managers, heads of departments, etc.
Making America Great Again translates into one simple goal: white male supremacy. Not all men are falling for that, of course, but some still just don’t get it. Why suddenly are they no longer supreme no matter what? Between feminism and DEI they feel attacked.
Women’s Rights
Men traditionally have been taught that they are superior to women in brain power and at performing most jobs. Although that is not true as women have proved their equality in many areas again and again although men have ruled the roost. The shadow of this belief still hangs over us. I am old enough that I remember it, suffered from it.
For example, I was talking to a young helper I had and mentioned to her that women could not get charge cards at stores; they had to be in their husband’s or father’s name. She was flabbergasted.
Similarly, women could not dine in certain restaurants such as the Oak Room in Dayton’s Department Store. Until women broke that taboo, too.
Even as I was effected by discrimination, I also benefited from white supremacy. I could always find a job, even if only a job that was part of shuffling women into low-paying clerical-type work.
These may seem like small things in what was a major women’s revolution, but they illustrate what is part of a larger picture.
Once a man about ten years younger complained to me that his girlfriend was going to a meeting at which no men were allowed He was very hurt by that, having no idea of the centuries of that kind of treatment of women as they were also barred from professions such as doctors and lawyers, even managers, and more.
Trump has created a list of 66 organizations he is withdrawing from; 31 are part of the UN, including UN Women. Trump’s disdain for women is well known. If he is unhappy with men he does criticize them and cut them out of his favored advisors, but he attacks women verbally using disparaging and degrading language. He goes after reporters who ask him hard questions about the Epstein files, but other woman as well. For a number of years he has verbally abused Congressional Representative Ilhan Omar. Born in Somalia, she is of course a US citizen. He derides her for her political positions and her origins and religion in racist rants against her.
International Politics
The United States is now the main threat to the sovereignty of Nations. —David Miller
A short satirical poem about international politics, by Susu Jeffrey.
Let’s Be Consistent (a poem)
If Israel
gets Palestine
then Russia
gets Ukraineand China
gets Tiawanand the U.S.
gets Greenland.
Susu’s poem is not necessarily logical. Not much is now logical internationally, and Trump is anything but consistent. His vision is to go back to the unilateral domination of the world by the US which has been lost. These greedy men, with Trump at the top, want it all. They have a neo-colonial vision. MEGA. Much of the rest of the world is not in agreement. The battle for hegemony goes on, as does the struggle of nations to be sovereign. Trump and Company will not accept that US empire just is not predominant anymore. They think the way to retain their power and control is through a hyper-military, which uses massive amounts of oil/fossil fuel (CO2), and is destroying the planet, that vicious circle.
Trump’s inconsistency whether in foreign or domestic policy is very common. He often says one thing one day and the next day contradicts himself. Or he pardons a drug lord in a US prison while accusing Maduro of drug trafficking and also now attacking the president of Colombia for the same reason. He kept declaring at one time that the targeting of Venezuela was about sending drugs to the United States but immediately after the attack he declares it is all about oil, not drugs. On and on…
The bombing of Venezuela also serves as a distraction from the release of the Epstein files. Whether this timing was planned is unclear, but certainly is at mimimum specious.
Not only are peoples worldwide suffering, the current “ruling elite” and their cronies are attacking us, their own people, to satisfy their greed and their beliefs with their big egos; somehow they think they are superior to others, especially people of color. The evidence is definitely there in the history of the world, including present day ramifications: Genius does not belong to any one race or gender or any one nation. Intelligence does not belong exclusively to any race or gender or nation. Unfortunately, at the same time no race or gender in the history of the world lacks its villains or cruel people who crave and sometimes attain power.
AI
New potential for another aspect of the reign on terror has emerged with AI. It can be used for good but also for evil. On Democracy Now! “Empire of AI”: Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World explains. Once again the aspect of neo-colonialism across the world rears its ugly head as Karen Hao explains.
On the Democracy Now! January 6, 2026 program Amy Goodman talks with Wall Street Journal reporter David Uberti in a three-part interview. Evidently in the year since Trump took office he has acquired $4 billion dollars for his family through Crypto. That us what is known, There may be more.
Data Centers
On January 6 Amy continues what is a three-part interview with David Uberti of the Wall Street Journal. The third segment is about Data Centers and AI. These Data Centers are being built across the country.
What are they? Google AI: A data center is a physical facility that houses an organization’s critical IT infrastructure, including servers, storage systems, and networking equipment. Essentially, data centers are the hardware backbone, and AI provides the software intelligence to optimize these facilities, creating a symbiotic, high-demand relationship.
Data Centers are controversial across the country because of their high energy use. Another threat is to water; these centers require water to cool them. From Google AI: “Data centers consume massive amounts of water, primarily for cooling servers, with large facilities using millions of gallons daily, comparable to towns of thousands of people, raising concerns in water-stressed areas.”
Some communities have succeeded in banning them or putting restrictions on them. Donald Trump is a great supporter of these AI and Data Centers. He is now talking about creating nuclear fusion to power both. While the technology has not yet been developed, he is setting up investments although a usuable product may be decades away. He has now banned individual states from exercising control over Data Centers in their states with an executive order.
Also of concern is their use of water. From Google AI: “Data centers consume massive amounts of water, primarily for cooling servers, with large facilities using millions of gallons daily, comparable to towns of thousands of people, raising concerns in water-stressed areas.”
Minnesota has a lot of water, more than many states. But that does not mean that water should be squandered. It is important to provide drinking water and water for recreation on the Boundary Waters and the many smaller lakes throughout the state, including in Minneapolis. The Mississippi River also starts in northern Minnesota and flows through Minneapolis/St. Paul. It is still an important route for transportation of goods on barges in addition to recreational uses.
Google AI:
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Proposed National Moratorium: Over 230 environmental groups (including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth) have called on the U.S. Congress to pass a national moratorium on new data center construction.
Hyper-Militarism
One topic I have touched on but not addressed directly is Trump’s fascination with and glorification of militarism as the solution to everything. The Trump regime’s recent attacks on the boats off Venezula supposedly carrying drugs and the recent bombing and capture of President Maduro proves he can pick on small countries that have limited resources to resist. He can be the bully on the playground. He did not contact Congress, who are supposed by US law to be consulted for approval for all war; instead he contacted the oil barons, Congress is rightfully upset with him: another flagrant violation of the US Constitution.
Trump started building the military in his first term and has continued with vengeance in his second. Most recent is the passing of the trillion dollar bill for money for the military. Chris Hedges discusses what this means as he interviews veteran military political commentator William Hartung.
Chris Hedges: The historian Arnold Toynbee cites an unchecked rampant militarism as the key factor in the collapse of a civilization. This militarism disembowels a society. It fosters social breakdown, the rise of authoritarian governments and demagogues. It deforms a society until it is unable to respond to existential crises, in our case the climate crisis and a growing social inequality. The ruling elites, Toynbee warns, abandon the common good and become sycophantic appendages of oligarchs and a military machine that functions as a state within a state. The United States now spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on its military.
Trump’s hyper-militarism fits with the strong-man theory on the road to fascism and is related to creating fear.
FEAR
Building fear is one of the main attributes of neo-fascism. Once that fear is built, people look for a strong leader to “save” them. So Trump, although he is personally weak, has to put forth the strong-man image that Stephen Miller has chosen to glorify through hyper-militarism. He is going to Make America Great Again (MEGA). While Trump’s popularity is at an all-time low in the polls, and the myth of MAGA is fading, the reign of terror continues. And it expands after the DOGE cuts of essential jobs and of funding for essential services like FEMA nationally to the cutting of USAID internationally.
On Democracy Now! January 7, 2026 there are several excellent speakers, one addressing the attack on Venezuela and what that means for Latin American countries, especially Colombia. The next speaker discusses Trump’s threats to take over Greenland and what that means, particularly for NATO as Denmark a member., Greenland is a self-governing autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Another speaker represents the Inuit population of Greenland and their call for sovereignty. The final speaker is the author of a new book about the LA fires.
These informative speakers have a common theme: FEAR. Fear of bringing the world to the brink of and into war in their respective areas of expertise. In the case of Venezuela it has already resulted in a bombing, the dealth of at least 80 Venezuelan people and the abduction of a leader of a sovereign nation to get control of their resources, especially their oil. Each speaker made the connections of their particular topic to what that means nationally and internationally and expressed concern and fear of situations escalating or hampered by lack of resources due to the Trump administration cuts of programs such as FEMA for disaster relief.
Also included is a clip of Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s policy drivers, glorifying US military strength and how the rest of the world fears the US because of it. I don’t know what history books he has read. As far as I can see none, or he would know that ultimately the use of force in the history of the world always eventually leads to disaster. In the meantime it leads to the death of many innocent people as it did during both WWI and WWII and many wars that preceeded them and as it did in Vietnam and has in Ukraine and Palestine/Gaza. Somalia is also periodically bombed by the U.S. Yemen is another example.
Our Rogue governent under Trump is a government of death and destruction. It has not only continued policies that also were part of death and destruction under different US presidents, it has escalated them.
The attack on America, the flagrant violations of the US Constitution, has escalated exponentially from the abolishing of important agencies to the rise of ICE raids, especially in targeted cities, and the deportation of essential immigrant workers who are important to keeping the US economy functioning. That is, of course, part of the current reign of terror and the neo-fascism that characterizes the Trump regime.
ICE in Minneapolis has crossed the line. On January 7, 2026: With Trump sending 2000 more ICE agents into Minnesota, in Minneapolis today a woman was shot and murdered by ICE. Although there has been violence by ICE agents before, no outright arbitrary shootings such as this naked travesty have previously occurred ln Minnesota. The woman was shot in the head through her car window as she was trying to trying to move her car out of the way. Her behavior was at no time violent.
The outright murder of Renee Nicole Good could be seen as an attempt to create FEAR in Minneapolitans and other Minnesotans if they continue to protest ICE’s presence. As Gov. Walz says in the related video from MeidasTouch below, do not give in to the hope of Trump and Kristi Noem for violence so they can send in the military.
As ICE haunts our streets we stand together in nonviolent protest against a tyrant, a Rogue regime creating a Reign of Terror. As others around the country join in protest of the murder of Renee Good and the invasion of our city and state we also stand with other cities that have been targeted and with our new neighbors who have become part of the fabric of America, We are all immigrants. We took the land from the Native Americans but now stand with them—Standing Rock, the pipelines Line 3 and now Line 5—as they stand with us.The land was ours before we were the land’s.She was our land more than a hundred yearsBefore we were her people. She was oursIn Massachusetts, in Virginia,But we were England’s, still colonials,Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,Possessed by what we now no more possessed.Something we were withholding made us weakUntil we found out that it was ourselvesWe were withholding from our land of living,And forthwith found salvation in surrender.Such as we were we gave ourselves outright(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)To the land vaguely realizing westward,But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,Such as she was, such as she would become.
Woody Guthrie
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.
Seventh verse
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Eighth verse
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
RELATED — One of many media responses to the shooting in Minneapolis with filmed clips from Kristi Noem, from a person living in the area, and from members of Congress in Washington DC, along with a response from Gov. Walz.
Trump Faces INSTANT BACKLASH after ICE MURDERS CITIZEN
I have not discussed the role of the media in this Reign of Terror. It is a very important role and of course touches all else I have written here. Here is an revealing commentary from FAIR about the coverage of many mainstream corporate media responses to the video of the death of Renee Good that is a critique of the effect of much of their coverage that illustrates how they operate. They may not lie, but they often waffle the truth.
Think You Saw State-Sanctioned Murder? You Failed Media’s ‘Rorschach Test’ — FAIR
