This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Every new Administration comes in on a wave of bully confidence. Watch this! We’re gonna change everything! We’ve thought up a new way to pee! Vivek Von Himmler says some government agencies might be deleted outright. Big talk from a little man who isn’t even in office yet. It should be remembered when fighting with an octopus that the animal will fight back and won’t hold still for your nonsense.

Consider the case of one James Earl Carter. Elected on a wave of post-Watergate, anti-Washington belt-way politics. What was needed was a man of the people! Someone from the heartland, someone to return common sense to a corrupt and bitter Washington! Elected on a wave of anti-Washington sentiment, Washington almost immediately developed a wave of anti- Jimmy Carter sentiment.

The story goes, the President wanted the phone number for a specific government agency, and they sent him over a phone book. Drop dead Fred! Negotiating the Federal labyrinth without a guide? Negotiating the Federal labyrinth while vowing to kill it? Way to run your mouth dick weed! Now, they don’t know you’re coming for them.

There is a certain state where I used to reside, where state employees were famous for their exaggerated slowness. If you sent them at eight o’clock in the morning to sharpen six pencils. You wouldn’t see them again before lunch and they’d only have five pencils finished. But promised to wrap it up before going home. The joke went, A guy was looking out his window saw two state workers digging a hole. Before immediately filling it back in and tamping the dirt down and setting up decorative fence around it. After watching them do this three times. The man became curious and asked what they were up to. They explained, they were planting trees, but the guy who put the tree in the hole called out sick today.

If you run on a wave of “gonna fix Washington.” Washington is most likely gonna fix you. Consider what is at stake. Millions and millions of dollars and careers of decades invested. And you really think they will just let some little creep walk in and shut them down? Anyone remember William McKinley? That was over a government job too. And talk of cutting the Pentagon budget! Oooh, you’re really in deep now! Gonna take on the Military Industrial Complex too, are you? Boy! Dwight Eisenhower would sure be proud of you!

You’re so  brave! You just walk right over there, and you take that pork chop away from those hungry Pit bulls. A brave man like you would probably need a lot of life insurance. I’m sure the military establishment won’t mind if you disregard their opinions and cut their budgets. I’m sure they, and Raytheon and Boeing, will take it all lying down.

You see, an adversarial relation is only natural. The military swore allegiance to the Constitution and not to the King. Kings being Kings, it’s only natural they want their ass kissed on a regular basis and anyone who won’t pucker up is viewed with suspicion.

I guess I need to start a list of all those afflicted with a sudden case of buyer’s remorse. Farmers aren’t happy, Catholic Bishops are unhappy. Big tech and the pharmaceutical industry are unhappy. Just think! This is only the honeymoon period! Just wait until the knives come out and gloves come off. And that is just on their side too! These were their own supporters!

The Bishops are unhappy at the selection of Robert Kennedy Jr. Not because he is an unqualified crank living in his van down by the river. No, they don’t approve of his stance on abortion. They don’t care about the wellbeing of millions of living breathing human souls about to suffer and possible die needlessly. Only those poor potential souls whom, I might add, have no way to gain access into heaven. God will cast out these poor little souls into purgatory forever because he doesn’t want them! Because they failed his test and could not speak his holy name. Way to think with your ass guys. But tell me again how abortion is wrong.

So, let me try and get a handle and total this all up. The incoming Administration is going to delete whole agencies. Cut the Pentagon budget. Bankrupt the Military Industrial Complex, destroy the pharmaceutical industry and Wall Street will just sit back and watch and smile, pleased with themselves? Stay out of open cars fellas and don’t drink any drink you didn’t pour yourself.

A lot of big talk and a lot of big talk of unhappiness. A lot of big money and a lot of big prestige at stake. A government office of efficiency is just another layer of bureaucracy. An oxymoron, like intelligent Republican. It’s like wanting to overrule air traffic controllers because you have your own and better ideas on handling air traffic. Experts? What do experts know about anything?

There is one thought which troubles me. Not in anticipation or in speculation but only a curiosity, a vagrant thought. What will happen when those planets traveling in different orbits collide. The Pentagon Generals and Admirals are not just idle travelers along for the ride here. They have a vested stake in these affairs. These are dedicated professionals dedicated to the idea of an independent military. Loyal to the Constitution and not to a petty and unstable king. Willing to follow only lawful orders.

But if those orders violate the Constitution, the military still has an obligation to act in defense of the Constitution. To do otherwise would be self-defeating. If you poke the bear, you’ll get the claws.

Remember, remember, the 5^th of November,

the gunpowder, treason, and plot.

I see no reason.

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.