So far there has been no sign of any Australian politician speaking out about Donald Trump’s claims about deaths in Afghanistan.
The reaction in NATO countries, however, has seen a widespread. Veterans, NATO leaders and even Prince Harry (the Duke of Sussex) reacted with anger after US President Donald Trump said veterans from other NATO member states avoided the front line in Afghanistan.
Melvin A. Goodman, a former CIA analysts and senior fellow at the Centre for International Policy, recently compared Trump’s attacks on US democracy to Hitler’s first years in power.
He also reminded us that the mainstream media continues to grapple unsuccessfully with how to describe Trump and suggests the appropriate comparison is the definition of a “Megalomaniac: Someone with an extreme obsession for power, wealth and self-importance characterised by grandiose delusions of being more significant and powerful than they are, often linked to a tenuous grip on reality”.
During World War II the US Government produced a series of pamphlets – called Army Talk – focussing on issues and politics. Orientation Fact Sheet 64 was called Fascism!
In a brief opening summary, the pamphlet said: “Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyse; nor once in power, is it easy to destroy. It is important for our future and that of the world that as many of us as possible understand the causes and practices of fascism, in order to combat it.”
Donald Trump’s outbursts are generally riddled with hyperbole, nonsense and braggadocio.
But in one his latest rants he is showing something unusual – a degree of fear.
On January 6 Reuters reported that he had said told Republicans that they must win the 2026 midterm elections or else he will be impeached by Democrats.
Donald Trump may be revelling in his ‘victory’ in Venezuela but the American public, according to the latest polls, were and are strongly opposed to his war. When pollsters specified the goal of military action (removing Maduro), the numbers barely improved.
The opposition is not new. Data for Progress found back in December that 60% of likely voters opposed “sending American troops into Venezuela to remove President Maduro from power” versus 33% in favour. September YouGov polling on using military force “to overthrow Maduro” found 53% opposed and just 18% in favour. Independents strongly or somewhat opposed and 64% of Republicans were either not sure or opposed.
Foreign Ministers of eight countries – Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden – have issued a statement about conditions in Gaza.
They said: “As winter draws in civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping. 1.3 million people still require urgent shelter support. More than half of health facilities are only partially functional and face shortages of essential medical equipment and supplies. The total collapse of sanitation infrastructure has left 740,000 people vulnerable to toxic flooding.”
The poets of the world often capture realities which are unseen by others. For instance-First Nations poet Evelyn Araluen – who writes in her recent poetry collection:
“You will never be who you were before Gaza”
“In Gaza girls bleed on tent scraps sliced by bunker busters”
“Six days and 75 years into the genocide a library in Gaza writing to a sister library in Barcelona – we don’t know if we’ll be able to keep in contact from now on, so please tell the following generations about us.
The religiosity of the US is a bit off-putting to most Australians. The growing impact of Christian Nationalist authoritarians is as puzzling to us as it would have been for the US Founding Fathers who wrote the wrote the Constitution.
The First Amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1791, in one of the 10 the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. It states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or, prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
US attitudes to the Supreme Court are at an all-time 39 year low according to recent research by the Pew Research Centre. The Court’s favourable rating is now 22% lower than it was in 2020 when 70% of Americans had a positive view.
Just 26% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents view the Court favourably – the lowest rating from either party in the more than 30 years the question has been asked.
When people are asked to reflect on the events of the past year they almost inevitably focus on the things that happen – whether they be wars, floods, pandemics and, in Australia, sporting events.
Yet it is arguable that what often matters is not what happened – but what didn’t happen.
For instance, Donald Trump promised that Americans would get sick of winning from his policies. Instead, they are rating him the most unpopular President in history. He was going to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours. No sign of that unless – as is distinctly probable – he forces Ukraine to submit to Putin demands.