Justice is coming?

No doubt everybody knows about the news of late last week about the indictment of former US president Donald Trump on various federal charges relating to his wilful retention of classified documents, hiding documents, and obstruction of justice. In my opinion, this is a cause for celebration, that they've finally built a case that they can prosecute.

The documents in question have a connection to the rest of the world, and our country, in particular. New Zealand is part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, and some of the documents reportedly were connected with the security of a number of nations. In retaining those documents and, seemingly parading them in front of people without requisite security clearance, he put many people at risk.

Now there are many reasons to be concerned about government surveillance of people, and intrusion of prying eyes into our private lives. In an ideal world, we'd all just get along, but I fear that such an attitude is hopelessly naive. As we've seen with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and many other wars and conflicts, there are always competing forces out to increase their power, acquire others' land and resources, and generally extend their influence. As the world becomes increasingly affected by climate change, pollution, resource constraints, overpopulation, and the potential for cyberterrorism, we'll continue to need agencies working behind the scenes to provide some level of protection from malicious actors.

It's quite obvious that there have been many actions by Trump and his associates which have breached various state and federal laws, but have not been able to be prosecuted. It does seem that there are particular classes of people for whom laws seldom apply. But, prosecutors need to pick cases that have the highest chance of success.

It's likely that the indictments announced late last week will not be the last. The attack on the US Capitol on January 6th 2021 has seen many of the participants in that - the foot soldiers of the insurrection - be prosecuted and convicted of fairly serious crimes, and sentenced to multi-year jail terms. What we've not seen yet is any consequences for those who incited things. Clearly, Trump, in his efforts to corruptly retain power, was in that position. I do believe that eventually there will be indictments related to that event for Trump and his top associates.

Regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, the rise to power of people like Trump - people with fascist and authoritarian tendencies - is never a good thing.

As skeptics, we should all have concern for truth. Truth certainly fell by the wayside when Trump was president, with his audacious promotion of complete untruths and outright lies at every opportunity.

And while the USA is not New Zealand, and we're an isolated nation in the middle of the Pacific, that country has enormous influence on the rest of the world - at least the Western world. It's been shocking to me to see how easily conspiratorial thinking and ideas that have originated in the political far right in America have infiltrated many people here.

Also shocking to me is the extent to which people will follow a political figure like Trump in an almost cult-like manner, hanging on his every word, and seeing any action taken against him as a conspiracy by elites to take him - and by extension, them - down.

Speaking of how these ideas have infiltrated some here, just last week, a public meeting in Hamilton discussing “15 minute cities”, at which conspiracy-promoting outfit Counterspin Media was present, erupted into chaos, with the deputy mayor being subjected to an attempted citizen's arrest. I don't think we've covered 15 minute cities in the past, but it's basically a fairly innocuous idea that people can live in cities where everything they need is within easy reach. They're a form of urban planning designed to address climate change issues, but conspiracy theorists have latched onto the idea that they're somehow nefarious, designed to imprison people, and make them pay to leave the city.

Anyway, I'll be following developments in the US with great interest. My prediction, which many are skeptical of, is that Trump will eventually spend the rest of his life in prison. We shall see…