Next week—in contravention of Section 3 of the 14th amendment to the US constitution—the leader of the most powerful nation in the world will be a convicted felon, and someone who has evaded three other lawsuits; he will be a professed white supremacist, racist, anti-Semite; a proud misogynist, bigot and liar. Trump is a climate catastrophe denier and promoter of disastrous and lethal junk science. The new president is ignorant of and incompetent in areas of fiscal, domestic and foreign policy. He has surrounded himself with openly fascist and far right upholders of damaging dogmatic nonsense. Most of these oligarchs are in this for their own gain. Unelected Elon Musk, for instance, is estimated to have become richer by about $10,000, or £7,900 per second as a result of the election. The wellbeing of the rest of the country is not important to the MAGA cult. As opposition and resistance from most quarters seem misguided (“Let’s find common ground with Trump”) weak, or missing entirely, it seems a fond hope that the enormities of the coming farce—however long it lasts—will rid supporters of their addictions to the ‘liberal democracy’ that sponsors this kind of calamity.

Environment

The extent of damage and destruction resulting from the fires which began last week in Los Angeles is difficult to calculate accurately. Estimates place the final (if there is an end: wildfire ‘season’ in California is now year round) cost at hundreds of billions of dollars, with several thousand structures lost and hundreds of thousands of residents displaced already. The fires are not out yet. At least this has happened before Trump’s inauguration: he is likely to turn his back on California completely and could—in theory—revoke any order to help people in Los Angeles made by the outgoing president when Trump takes office next week. Even though 2024 has surpassed 2023 as the hottest year in recorded history, few commentators are linking these fires to the climate catastrophe as they should. Though fires as such are not entirely attributable to changes in the climate, the cause of their ferocity (continuing drought conditions; dry unkempt brush; an inadequate response by local government to preparedness and a firefighting force up to the job) is plain to see—even when taking the very long, geological-time view. Indeed, the ‘alternative explanations’ offered by cult members still circulate widely and seem to satisfy a majority of people. Last weekend the governor of California took the unusual step of launching a website dedicated to correcting the disinformation spread by MAGA and friends. This small but significant victory for young people in Montana is a standout; as are actions such as this. Reducing emissions may actually also be easier than you think: fewer than 60 companies are guilty of producing 80% of emissions according to a report published recently. Nevertheless, Trump intends to accelerate fossil fuel extraction. That will advance the extinction of life on Earth; he will remove what paltry environmental protections which his predecessor implemented. Indeed, Project 2025—as carried out by Trump, Musk and their cult—specifically insists on drawing the teeth of attempts just to mitigate climate collapse. What’s more, the new administration will have the US Supreme Court behind it.

Racism

Last year ended as it began as far as the MAGA cult’s insistence that white people are superior to black people. For instance, Daniel Penny (white), who had just been controversially acquitted of the murder of Jordan Neely (black), was rewarded when Vice President-elect JD Vance invited him to an Army-Navy sports event. Earlier in December a new study offered evidence that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) air quality monitoring system places more equipment in white neighbourhoods than in black or LatinX ones. MAGA rhetoric seems increasingly to be encouraging open acts of racist aggression: an anonymous letter in Lincoln county, Oregon, for example, has been asking residents to “report brown people”. Since the election fascist groups – swastikas, chants and all – have been marching in public. Then one Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, followed a reporter from TV station KKCO/KJCT for about 40 miles to attack him physically believing him to be a Pacific Islander. “This is Trump’s America now”, shouted Egan. Earlier in 2024 Kevin Colantonio had been charged with setting fires around the exterior of the Shiloh Gospel Temple. In court last month he admitted to targeting sites important to Jewish communities. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, topped things off for MAGA by openly advocating the return of Fascism in Germany when he wrote in support of the anti-Semitic AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) party. Musk recently hosted a supportive ‘event’ on X with AfD’s leader.

Repression

As Trump takes office with the most unqualified and furthest right gaggle of cabinet and senior officials in the history of the United States, he plans to use the “Unitary Executive” theory as a way to bypass congressional authorisation. This began during the Civil War in the 1860s and had its last ‘high point’ when Richard Nixon was in office). It will arrogate greater power to to the office of president than ever before. Sources suggest that Trump has as many as 100 Executive Orders ready for his first day as president. Although it is unconstitutional and will face many legal challenges, a bill mentioned in last month’s ‘Notes from the US‘ has passed the House of Representatives which would give Trump the power to shut down any organisation of which he disapproves—without evidence. Trump signs the order and 90 days later organisations like Oxfam, WWF, Palestinian support groups and so on are effectively defunded. This law, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act (HR 9495), passed 219 to 184, as 15 Democrats joined Republicans in support of the measure. Remember Steve Bannon’s dictum that it was not the Democrats which MAGA had to fight but the media? Religious dogma is also increasing. For instance the governor of Oklahoma is pushing onto schools both Trump’s bibles and a video of the former praying for the latter. In Texas—again against the law—schools can now “infuse” all areas of their curriculum with bible studies. Then there is the case of ‘Colonisation and the Wampanoag Story‘. That is a history book by Native American historian Linda Coombs for older children and young adults, covering a portion of United States history from the perspective of indigenous peoples – rather than of those who are misrepresented as ‘discovering’ America and living peacefully with its first inhabitants. Because that truth doesn’t fit with the white supremacist views of a “citizens review committee” appointed by the commissioner of Montgomery county in east Texas after hearing an objection to the book by a resident, it is to be wrongly re-classified as fiction. This cannot be appealed.

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Photo: Wikpedia