Alrighty, it’s time to get back to work, attempting to make sense of the shit show going on in our world, and yeah, it’s hard, because watching the US self-immolate is completely bizarre. It doesn’t make ANY sense what Trump and his cronies are doing, but they seem intent on tearing everything down. The problem is, there is no clear vision of what they will build in its place (apart from monuments to their own egos), which is why everyone is feeling so discombobulated.
Read: Eurasia Group | The Top Risks of 2026 – “The United States is itself unwinding its own global order. The world’s most powerful country is in the throes of a political revolution.”
To give it a positive spin, please remember, moments like these often inspire revolutions and new leaders rise – the sort of leaders we really need – because we all know we couldn’t keep going the way we were going before Trump, et al. However, the path currently on the table – White Supremacism, Christian Nationalism, imperialism, forever wars, the war on women, the war on DEI, a surveillance state, the tech bros/NerdReich, no free speech, misinformation, disinformation, etc, etc, etc.., needs a very BIG global NO from ALL of us. None of us win here, none.
Perhaps the leaders of the world are finally figuring out that sucking up to Trump is not working? This week gave us a sense of that shift, especially Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who deserved the high praise for his Davos speech, which is a must watch if you haven’t already. We have got to stop pretending like all is well. It ain’t.
From a news perspective, the start of 2026 has been something else and it’s mostly US focused. I mean get this. Renee Nicole Good was murdered by ICE on January 7th, 2026. That was 17 days ago, and yet it feels like a year. As many are saying, we get a decade of news every week right now, but that is the maximalist strategy Steve Bannon discusses here. It’s a strategy to keep us distracted, overwhelmed and eventually, we’ll just give up. So, the question to ask ourselves is: will we let them succeed?
Read: Trump Exhaustion Syndrome – The Atlantic
The murder of Renee Nicole Good felt like a George Floyd moment, with the ability to unify Americans against the fascist take-over. It still might be the “match,” but one thing that really concerned me about this moment is how she was spoken about – not just the domestic terrorist accusation, but the deep misogyny, which is also being applied to all “liberal” white women protesting. We cannot let women’s or minority rights be taken away – everyone’s life is worse when we don’t have equality, EVERYONE.
Read:
- Opinion | The Heritage Foundation Wants to Send American Women Back Half a Century – The New York Times
- The Campaign to Destroy Renee Good | WIRED
- Opinion | The Right Is Furious With Liberal White Women – The New York Times
A few days before that (Jan 4th) another big news moment happened, when Maduro was kidnapped from Venezuela with unconfirmed news of supersonic weapons being used. I can’t get any confirmation on that, so keep your eyes peeled. We saw lots of people circling around that news, coming at it from many different perspectives, but it obviously made Trump super confident.
Because next up, he started rumbling about attacking Iran (which apparently his Middle East mates aren’t keen on) and then he moved onto getting Greenland one way or another, then Davos and all the shenanigans there, including backtracking on Greenland (maybe?) and of course, we’ve got Trump’s Board of Peace too, who’s first act seems to be sending an “Armada of ships” to the Middle East.
I won’t discuss the “Board of Peace” today but keep an eye on this – it is as preposterous as it sounds, that’s for sure. However, the bigger story is the desire to break everything, and while none are perfect, any intention to break up or destroy the UN, the EU or NATO is NOT in any of our interests. Whoever we are, wherever we are, fight for unity, as unity is critical for all of our futures.
I’ll talk more about this next week (if it’s still in the news) but some recent articles on the “Board of Peace.”
- Board of Peace: Could Trump’s bid to become peacemaker-in-chief sideline the struggling UN?
- Trump Shunned By All Major Allies During Key Signing Ceremony | BP Daily
- PROOF EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s “Board of Peace” Just Became a Criminal Enterprise
- Netanyahu accepts Trump’s invitation to join Board of Peace – NewsBreak
The hits just keep on coming, because another outrageous story broke today – Donald ‘Bone Spurr‘ Trump insulting America’s allies…
- Trump angers allies with claim NATO troops ‘stayed a little back’ from front lines in Afghanistan | CNN
- ‘Unfathomable’: Australian veterans disgusted by Trump’s claim allied troops ‘stayed a little back’ from frontline | Donald Trump | The Guardian
As we run headlong into the chaos of 2026, please remember we have a bigger risk to contend with – the stability of our planet to sustain us.
Some recent highlights:
- Australia heatwave: Temps to hit 50C as fire danger soars | news.com.au
- US science after a year of Trump: what has been lost and what remains
- Half the world’s 100 largest cities are in high water stress areas, analysis finds | Water | The Guardian
- Era of ‘global water bankruptcy’ is here, UN report says | Water | The Guardian
- Global warming likely to reach 2°C before 2050, a level associated with catastrophic impacts
- Climate Intuition: Food security: The fates of farming and food in a warming world
While Australia boils, more than half the population of the US freezes.
And we’re also being fracked – How can we defend ourselves from the new plague of ‘human fracking’? | Technology | The Guardian
No wonder people ARE shell shocked, overwhelmed and checked out. But please, if you have the strength for this time, stay in the game, get loud, get involved and let’s fight for a different path forward, together.
Anyhoo, The Shit Show will be back end of February. While David and Richard are in the UK, we time this show for the Asia region, because there’s plenty of news shows already happening in the Northern Hemisphere. That means we pay attention to the rhythm of this region, and out these part, Australia and New Zealand are still on holidays, and shortly after that, Asia starts checking out as Chinese New Year consumes our attention. So, we’ll be all bright and sparkly for our first show, Friday, 28th February.
See you next week for more on the news. What will happen between now and then huh? Who knows in this crazy world.
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