Donald Trump and the sycophants he increasingly surrounds himself with in the US take a lot of my emotional energy each day. Aside from privately complaining about him and the despicable way he treats people and nations, it is time I ‘nailed my colours to the mast’ like the folk who recently marched in the thousands of recent ‘No Kings’ rallies.
America’s recent invasion and still escalating war on Iran (combined with Netinyahu’s invasion of southern Lebanon) crosses so many red lines I have grave fears about how this might end: unless there is regime change through democratic elections in the US and Israel. Both countries are currently governed by increasingly out of control facists. We will look back on this era in decades to come and wonder how all of this was enabled, including by Australia.
The rise of facists is enabled if people do not take action and speak out. Fortunately in Australia, we still have a democracy and I am free to pen this post and speak truth to power. My aim is to progressively add to this post as events unfold during 2026.
I visited and travelled widely Iran as an independent tourist in 2019. I was welcomed there more warmly than anywhere else I have visited in the world. I felt safer and more at home there than I have felt when visiting the US. The Iranian people have a long, proud and deep history. I acknowledge that the current theocratic, revolutionary Iranian regime has oppressed its people, sometimes with a deadly iron fist. But I also acknowledge that the revolution which led to the regime taking power was caused by decades of covert US (and other colonial) attempts to control Iran (and particularly its oil).
It is unsurprising that recent saturation bombing of Iran by the US has only hardened the resolve of the regime (and many Iranian people) to fight back , to damage US interests in the Gulf and restrict the shipment of oil to countries which support US hegemony. Similarly, Israel’s attempt to wipe out Hezbollah by occupying southern Lebanon will only lead to more resentment of the US globally. None of this will make America great again. Quite the opposite.
What a humiliating crisis Trump has created for people all around the world, see link below. That thousands of innocent people have also been killed as collateral to his hubris is a tragedy. That most governments around the world (with a few exceptions including Spain) acquiesce and stay silent is also a tragedy.
I try and keep abreast of what is happening as a consequence of Donald Tump via an excellent daily post penned by Matt Kiser in the US, which summarises recent developments, that you can also subscribe to via: http://www.whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com
As I write this on 31 March 2026, it is Day 1898 since Trump arrived first on the scene. One way for me to cope each day is to look at posts like the one below which humorously highlight the absolute stupidity of the MAGA movement and Trump’s claim of US exceptionalism and ‘America First’. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWW-JpmAcL1/?igsh=MzdmOTk4OHUxMnh1
The US has, in my estimation, now become a pariah state, led by a totally unhinged and out of control, inveterate liar and convicted criminal. I acknowledge Trump and also Netanyahu were democratically elected. I only hope these men (and they are all men) and those who surround Trump in government are voted out of office and that those responsible for this mess (environmentally, ethically, internationally) are eventually charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Today Trump is considering whether to go beyond relentlessly targeting military-related sites in Iran from the air, further escalate his ‘excursion’ by targeting Iranian civilian energy sites and perhaps putting ‘boots on the ground’ to claim and control shipments of Iranian oil. This is a crisis Trump alone created. I have grave fears for the future of much of the planet unless Trump’s current irrational excesses are reined in.
Barry Golding 