Watching President elect Donald Trump assemble his administration is like jumping on a high speed train to the apocalypse. Now with his selection of the Exxon CEO Tillerson as Secretary of State and fellow Texan Rick Perry as Energy Secretary the government from hell is set to focus their combined talents to not serving the interests of the US and its allies but rather the pursuit of profit at any cost. With a supporting cast of players extreme enough to keep Dick Chaney aroused for years, they are positioned to do a search and destroy mission on the environment and social programs unprecendented in the history of western civilization. Trump the narcissist and his circle of sycophants deny the very science which allows them to drill baby drill for carbon reserves in areas and conditions previously beyond reach. The environment is once again to be relegated to that most external of costs and without any regard to short or long term consequences. The Trump administration is a wet dream for the carbon industry.
The Republican party finds itself maneuvered into one untenable position after another by a President elect whose compromised position in regards to the truly evil and master manipulator Vladamir Putin is likely treason. With the addition of Tellerson to the mix of despicable characters who has made a career of denying environmental and climate science by using any and all available means to supress opposition to his (Exxon’s) agenda, the distortion of truth and facts is assured to continue indefinitely on an exponentially expanded scale. The incoming US administration is threatening an increasingly antagonistic relationship with the true financial and military global superpower; China. In exchange for the prospect of trillion dollar deals with an adversary Russia who has a proven track record of murder, genocide, environmental destruction, and wars by proxy, Trump and his administration have already destabilized the U.S. relationship with China. Going forward the economic and military relationship between the U.S. and China will be renegotiated to the satisfaction of Trump/Putin. It has become clear, with a high degree of certainty (which is to say certain) that Russia interfered with the U.S. Presidential election to the benefit and with the knowledge of both the Trump campaign and some in the Republican party thereby threatening this most basic foundation of American democracy. There is no reason not to believe that this effort was not further assisted by the FBI with Director Comey’s active interference in the campaigns and the agency’s blocking the release of intelligence related to the Russian hacking during the election. The lame and patently absurd claim by Trump and his surrogates that the intelligence is not credible or perhaps was a conspiracy to make them look bad does not scan on any level. Even worse it is an insult to the legions of dedicated patriotic employees of the intelligence community who in many cases have given their lives to provide the best intelligence available in service to our nation. For them, and the numerous other agencies like the EPA, DOI, DOD, NSA, DOE, HUD and so many others (a Trumpism that), the Trump administration is nothing less than an existential threat and a totally demoralizing prospect.
The world has committed to a clean energy future and the price of clean sustainable energy even without factoring in externalities is even now competitive with or cheaper than carbon based fuels. The Trump administration would sacrifice the U.S. position as a global leader and partner in a sustainable future to support and expand the destructive practices of the oil and gas industry. An industry that is hell bent on continuing a path of profit at the expense of our environment, threatening the health and welfare of all life on the planet, and destabilizing long term geo-poliitcal stability.
It is imperative that the Democratic party and its failed leadership work across the aisle with Republicans to ensure that the Trump administration is not confirmed into office. Trump is unifit for office, has inherent unconstitutional conflicts of interest across the globe, and does not consider what is best for the United States in his decision making process. President elect Trump is only concerned with what serves the interests of Donald Trump (and Vladimir Putin). He is a pathalogical liar, a racist, a demagogue, a philandering misogynist, and a loathsome politician in the worst possible sense. He has already broken “so many” campaign promises and set course to do exactly the opposite of what he was elected to do. Donald Trump is at best a threat to the United States democracy, at worst a threat to democracy as we know it. Every American shares in the responsibility to preserve the republic and oppose Trump’s election to the highest office in the land. Time is short.