Jan 3, 2024 update - As we told you just before the end of the year, Maine and Colorado both barred Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024 due to his role in inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection. It’s a step – using the 14th amendment to the Constitution – that we’ve been advocating for since 2021, but which has gotten a lot of attention lately due to Trump once again being the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination.
As a result of fairly and impartially enforcing the law, top officials in both states are facing death threats and other threats of violence from Trump supporters.
Add your name to our petition if you agree that threats of political violence are never acceptable.
Dec 27, 2023 – I actually don’t like being right about Trump. Or saying I told you so. Especially when it comes to fossil fuels and fascism. But because the mainstream media is obsessed with polling and both-side-ism, it’s important to remind ourselves every so often that Trump is exactly who he says he is, and that we’ve been right about the rise of fossil fueled fascism since 2016.
And not just about the “climate change is bad and so is Trump” stuff; We’ve accurately predicted specific dates, tactics, and methods Trump and his fossil fuel backers would use to target free speech, attack the climate, profiteer off wars, and more. And it’s worth reminding ourselves once again at the end of this year because the Colorado Supreme Court just agreed with all of us (more than 50,000 of you just this year) that Trump is ineligible to be President due to the third article of the 14th amendment to the US Constitution. And our friends at Razom We Stand just wrote a new report documenting how fossil fuel exports lead directly to tyrants and autocrats from Trump, to Putin, and lots more.
But here’s the thing: Being right, even when courts and international experts agree with you, isn’t the same thing as winning. As an anti-fascist climate group, I’m asking you to support our work now.
Last week’s rulings aren’t the end of Trump. Even the Colorado Supreme Court doesn’t think that their decision will be upheld by the corrupt and unaccountable US Supreme Court. And 2024 is going to be another long hard slog and the courts, President Biden, and the United Nations are not going to step in an save us from Trump or climate chaos. We’ve maintained all along that courts, the media, and civil institutions aren’t capable of stopping Trump as long as he’s backed by rich and powerful extractive industries, including fossil fuels.
Just today, another court in Michigan decided Trump can stay on the ballot, increasing the odds that the process will drag out until it’s too late in the election cycle for courts and the US Department of Justice to take action. Back in July we said (and it’s still true) that:
Obviously, this is only the latest development in the ongoing legal saga facing the corrupt, disgraced, and defeated, former President Trump. But it’s also a clear sign that Trump is not going to stand down, and that neither the special counsel nor any of the other lawyers who have brought serious criminal charges against Trump are likely to stop him from winning the Republican nomination
us, being right again, and getting no pleasure in it
Just like (also in July of this year) we argued that fossil fuel companies were using war and international conflict to jack up prices and make record profits – a term usually known and banned under international law as war profiteering.
The point isn’t that we’re right all the time – though we are. The point is that once you see the connection between fossil fuels and the rise of fascist leaders like Trump you can more accurately predict what they’re going to do, and how to stop them. Other climate groups are focussed on getting people to make better personal choices, or calling on elected officials to change their mind in the face overwhelming scientific evidence. That’s also good and important work.
But the movement needs more than one method to fight the rise of fossil fueled fascism. That’s what this group, and the Gene Sharp pamphlet that inspired our name, are all about. That’s why we were able to get so many high ranking members of the Trump administration disqualified and removed from office. It’s also how we (and our compatriots) predicted the January 6 insurrection weeks before the 2020 election.
Being right isn’t enough. We need to take action. And this organization has repeatedly helped millions of people get into the streets safely, non-violently, and forcefully to resist fossil fuels and fascism. Our very first action was to protest the Trump inauguration. We grew up (organizationally) shutting down Trump and his climate-denying cronies at every turn. And with your help, we’ll never have to suffer Trump or any other fossil fueled fascist President again (the fossil fuel friendly one we have now is challenging enough 😬 ).
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