AlterNet / Joe Conason - Trump and his minions attempt to make America small, stupid and mean



The solidarity of American communities in the face of catastrophe, whether natural or manmade, is an aspect of our national character that most of us cherish. We never tire of stories about our fellow citizens upholding one another at the worst of times. We venerate the firefighters, emergency service workers, law enforcement officers and ordinary neighbors whose endurance and sacrifice hold communities together against cruel circumstance -- without regard to race, creed, color, gender or partisan affiliation.

Or at least we did during much of our history. Yet as huge swaths of Los Angeles are consumed by wildfire, it is striking to see those traditional American values torched by a self-serving coterie of right-wing billionaires, whose loyalty to any principle beyond self-aggrandizement is nil: Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk and of course their political avatar Donald Trump, the president-elect.

While the LA blaze rages on, all three of these men have used their gigantic public platforms to stoke a different but exceptionally destructive conflagration. Rather than encourage patriotic bonding and mutual aid, they broadcast messages of division, hatred and suspicion, served up in a poisonous stew of blatant lies, conspiracy theories and wretched nonsense.

Even as the Los Angeles Fire Department's undaunted officers and leaders work around the clock, confronting danger and tragedy in every moment, loudmouths like Musk have the temerity to attack them, prattling on about "DEI," the effort to mitigate decades of discrimination. Neither the Tesla mogul nor Murdoch's blithering minions on the Fox News Channel -- who are shocked that the LA fire chief is a lesbian -- have produced a shred of evidence to show that diversity hinders firefighting. They never will. For the purposes of right-wing Republican propaganda, facts and logic are irrelevant and annoying.

In the same vein are Trump's attacks on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whom he disparages with his usual gutter vernacular as "Newscum." Posting ridiculous falsehoods about the state's water supply, claiming the governor is withholding water from burning communities, can only be regarded as an obnoxious distraction while state officials try to save lives and stop the fire. With reservoir levels at or above capacity in most of the state, there is no shortage of water, but its use has been hampered by the hurricane-force winds and other more technical obstacles.

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