It has officially begun - the Trump
Era. I sit here looking out my front window at an angry sea (26ft
/14sec groundswell - which is beyond huge). There is whitewater to the
horizon. Is this nature's way of saying “watch the fuck out!”?
One of Herr Trumps first acts was to have “his people” take
down the Obama Administration's Climate Change Plan website. What a
message to send to the rest of the world as the polar ice caps melt,
as 2016 comes in as the hottest year on record, as Miami Beach once high
and dry now is flooding regularly, as the ocean becomes
ever warmer and more acidic disrupting crucial food chains and killing
coral reefs worldwide, and as the weather becomes evermore erratic.
Apparently Trump and his Republican Party enablers, if they can, intend to categorically negate, disable, eviscerate or revoke every single law, initiative, regulation, executive orders, and as well and undermine or cripple every environmental, social service and regulatory federal agency or commission they can get their well manicured greedy hands on. They are declaring war on anything and everything that the government does that does not enrich the already ultra-rich, all in the name of faux populism – and a majority of the white working class bought into this preposterous and evil attempt at political regression project hook, line and sinker.
Apparently Trump and his Republican Party enablers, if they can, intend to categorically negate, disable, eviscerate or revoke every single law, initiative, regulation, executive orders, and as well and undermine or cripple every environmental, social service and regulatory federal agency or commission they can get their well manicured greedy hands on. They are declaring war on anything and everything that the government does that does not enrich the already ultra-rich, all in the name of faux populism – and a majority of the white working class bought into this preposterous and evil attempt at political regression project hook, line and sinker.
Whether The Donald will be able to
deliver on his mishmash of bold ever-morphing array of wild eyed
promises made to the beleaguered (in their own minds anyway)
rural and rust belt white population is beside the point. The Repubs
have run the table. All three branches of government, are now in their hands, plus 26 state
houses. It is truly the season of the witch. To make matters worse
Trump has cobbled-together quite an impressive pack of abject
opportunists and GOP career hounds to make up his cabinet of federal agency
kingpins. It is almost like his cabinet was selected solely to rub
salt in the wounds of his defeated enemies. All of them, probably even including the ex-generals, are Repub loyalists of the ultra-right
variety. Trump himself is the only wild card.
Trump has changed parties back and forth from Demo to Repub five
times. He is his own party. Can this mix of arbitrarily chosen pack
of millionaires and billionaires deliver on any of Trumps laundry
list of absurd and dangerous promises? He does have
a Repub Congress, but already they don't see eye to eye. One scary
possibility that many fear is when things start going sideways re:
Trump's contradiction infested "plan"(if you can call it that), is that his right wing populism will metamorphose
into a virile new form of fascism. Remember fascists
don't need no stinking democracy to get things done.
However The Donald has accomplished
one thing he didn't intend to. He has managed to unify the
opposition. He has' herded the cats' of the progressive/liberal left and
the establishment center together. The centrist (NY Times and Wash Post and
the mainstream Demos like Schumer, the HRC backers, etc.) plus the newly
energized center left (the Sanders/Warren left wing of the Demo
party) plus the incorrigible radical left (anarcho black bloc types) are now all united (at least informally) in vehement
opposition. As I write this women
from all over the East Coast have crammed into DC in a massive
demonstration with solidarity marches in cities and town throughout
the entire country– and in cities all over the world. The 53% (the
majority of voters) that did not vote for this absurd buffoon
plus the unknown number that could not bring themselves to vote for
either the Orange One' or his unappealing opponent, HRC, are now up
in arms. Hey, there are at least 3 million more people on our side
than the combination of GOP country club loyalists and their
redneckian dupes. It reminds one of the old “days of rage”
during the Nixon years (ironically in many ways Richard Nixon now looks
almost like a “liberal”. That's how far hard right the GOP has
traveled into cuckoo land). But make no mistake with Trump in the local PD's are now dry washing their hands
in gleeful anticipation of being unleashed as occupying armies (if
they weren't already) to club, teargas, fire hose and jail the
rabble into some state of docility. It won't work. If everyone opposed to Trump/GOP agenda comes out there won't be enough cops to go around. They will have to bring out the National Guard or the US Army.
We have been hit by a triple whammy: Trump's
inconceivable inappropriateness for his position compounded with
impossible promises and added to that the Republican Party's brutal
new ideology of deregulating and further privatizing the all aspects
of the economy including those that function well and are popular.
What has pretended to be a indigenous rural/blue collar revolt (improbably led by an
ersatz billionaire) against the harm wrought by globalization,
immigration and corporate friendly trade agreements is really a
surrender to the very forces that let these process become harmful to
the working class in the first place.
It remains to be seen how this all will
work out but it looks bad. If the first days are any indication, we
should all hold on to our hats. It's going to be a rough ride.
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