So long, it’s been good to know yuh
So long, it’s been good to know yuh
So long, it’s been good to know yuh
This dusty old dust is a-gettin’ my home
And I’ve got to be driftin’ along
I’ve put off writing anything about the new old US president till now, partly because there was lots of stuff out there and partly because, like a lot of people, I couldn’t understand what was happening and what the grand plan was.
It’s tempting, from the other side of the Atlantic, to feel something like ‘It serves you right for voting for a vindictive, sexist, racist, narcissistic, lying, crook’ but I know that’s unfair on lots of counts. For a start, quite a few Americans didn’t vote for Trump and plenty of those who did had no idea what he really stood for. Those Joni Mitchell lines
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
suddenly seem a tad prescient from over here.
Add to that that when the most powerful man on the planet decides he’s going to break all ‘his’ toys we all feel the heat, American or not. When that bright orange butterfly flaps its wings we all stand to suffer the consequences; it’s not just America and its citizens in the firing line.
So here’s my take on things. If the storming of Congress was the worst he could do when he was out of office, what’s happening now is the worst he can do now he’s back in office. This isn’t about attacking the physical seat of government to overthrow an election, it’s about destroying the machinery and agencies of government to destroy democracy. I think all those ‘deep state’ anti-federal government zealots are going to suffer along with most American citizens as federal initiatives and organisations are hollowed out. If your home burns down, or your welfare check stops coming or there’s another pandemic or you get sick or you’re a teacher or maybe you just live in a democrat voting state, things will get worse. Whether democracy will really get buried under the car park tarmac of MAGA America really is an open question; after all, they’ve got Congress, they’ve got the press and they’ve got the Supreme Court.
I won’t bore you with the latest updates on executive orders; you can find them on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_executive_orders_in_the_second_presidency_of_Donald_Trump
or in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/29/donald-trump-executive-orders-signed-list
There’s a theory that the blitz of vital changes like getting rid of those exploding paper straws and getting rid of all competent federal personnel is just a tactic to confuse and fragment the opposition. In the mean-time of course the kids have been given the keys to the toyshop. Musk and his posse of adolescent zealots are having fun. They don’t actually know what any of the toys do and they don’t actually care — they don’t want to play; they want to smash it all. Maybe kids and toyshops doesn’t quite do it as an image; mad dogs on the loose might be closer to what’s going on. So, while Trump2 is busy getting his own back, buying or invading Greenland, Gaza and Panama, persecuting minorities and migrants, creating climate, war and political refugees and accelerating the climate crisis, Musk and an enabling, supine Republican party are stripping out what’s left of federal government and an, admittedly dysfunctional, democracy.
We can look forward to a recession in world trade, extreme weather, more poverty, greater inequality and more suffering, all to Make America a basket case.
So, I guess on the upside, Europe and unaligned states will develop stronger ties with each other and fill what they can of the vacuum left by the US going rogue. Chinese and what’s left of Russian power will become more influential and the world will wait and watch to see whether this is the end of democracy in the US and how they can prevent the same thing happening in their own place.
Oh, and the grand plan I mentioned at the beginning. Well, what does he believe in beyond junk food and real estate? Does he really believe the stuff he says? Does he know the difference between truth and lies. Can he even read? We know he can’t write. The plan seems to be to pillage and destroy, build lots of condos. and go down in history as a peacemaker!
The dogs are out!
The world’s been in dark places before and the US came to its aid. For now, all we can do is watch on the side-lines and build shelters.
Words don’t change the way things are but they can give us hope and we do need hope.
We’ll meet again
Don’t know where, don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again
Some sunny day
Keep smiling through
Just like you always do
’Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds
Far away
So we’ll see you on the other side of the tunnel America …if you make it that is.
