Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

“The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
Around and around goes the wind,
and on its circuits the wind returns.”

– Ecclesiastes

I won’t bury the lead:

There are two existential bullet points Americans face along with the entire planet:

Human driven global warming rendering the Earth unlivable for species, including homo sapiens sapiens;

Nuclear war or accident destroying us.

What Can You Do?

Don’t elect a President who believes global warming is a hoax.

Too late for that.

Plan B: Vote out global warming deniers in the 2026 Congressional elections.

Impeachment: Third time is a charm:

Follow where Trump gets the money while President to pay off the more than half a billion dollars he owes in civil penalties for defamation and fraud.

Regarding the second threat to existence, this admonition:

Don’t elect a President who “has no place for ‘mutual good’ or ‘mutual advantage.” (David Frum, “Marauding Nation,” The Atlantic, January 2025)

Too late for that.

Plan B: Get him out of office before he joins the Confederacy of Autocrat Bullies fermenting hate across Europe and each bent on “Their Country First!” advantage. His thinking that he can out-bully this crowd is the surest ride to WWIII. He’ll want them to pay him not to hurt them.

So, a President Trump can do the very worst: WWIII?

Yes, if you first tell him what he needs to do to put you in this condo today.

Serious answer: Because his delusions are so observable in every country but the U.S., he could trigger another civil war but not a world war. I say “could” because a list of folks on Trump’s hit list vs. folks in red baseball caps is a clown show, and does not a Civil War make.

Trump’s erratic, unpredictable cognitive grasp can never be a serious starting point for anything so serious as war in the eyes of those on the global stage who retain focused cognition. Nonsense coming out of a paper bag, that is, the striving after wind of this man’s vanity is too comically clear to precipitate anything of consequence thirty hours after he’s gone. Denmark, Panama, Canada, Greenland, Sanctuary Cities, and the Gulf of Mexico are not preparing for a Trump Wehrmacht.

But won’t another four years of President Donald J. Trump lead to the end of our liberal democracy, our Constitutional order, our habeas corpus?

Flippant answer: Yet again?

Serious answer: The end of a 248 year old institution, of any kind, by a man without a plan or a record of having done anything but put you in a condo today needs to be treated as Hail! Hail! Freedonia comical.

Forgive me, but I see the next four years of Trump as small matter striving after wind, as Ecclesiastes reminds us is what vanity does.

This does not mean there’s no heat here; rather more heat than light.

In fact, the heat of passions (love’s rival: hate) has snuffed out the light of reason. This is not an Absolute and Universal Reason I’m referring to here but rather one in which likes and opinions shut up while serious arguments are presented and a dialectic of such goes on. Of course, “social” media isn’t going to allow that.

However, before the next Pandemic hits, we should be at a point where facts and evidence established by the scientific method earn more respect than our own personal “gut wisdom.” Right now, if the Black Death returned, we’re prone to say it was “Fake!” and “weaponized”........

© CounterPunch