This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Wrecking Ball Politics! That’s what the German Chancellor called it. Trump engages in Wrecking-Ball politics. Little Marco Rubio, the small man in the big job, calls it “a new era.” Sort of like describing a car crash as a new era. A new era of corruption. And that whistleblower complaint that Tulsi Gabbard illegally sat on for eight months about a major breach in our national security involves the name “Kushner.”

Pam Bondi’s performance before Congress draws into sharp focus the crisis we face. Donald Trump’s brain farts and glitches make it perfectly clear the man doesn’t have both oars in the water. He’s a clown car, ersatz pseudo president. He’s no more in charge of the government than I am.

Back when John Kennedy was first elected, there were those inside the Pentagon who thought a nuclear war could be won. It was the same type of thinking that prompted Hitler to invade Russia. Germany held a military advantage over Russia. In two years, Russia would catch up, so the time to attack was now. In 1960, the United States held a significant advantage in nuclear weapons. And maybe the time to settle the nuclear question was now?

The Bay of Pigs invasion was set up by the CIA during the Eisenhower administration. Kennedy later said the CIA lied to him and tried to manipulate him. Kennedy refused to provide air cover, and the attack quickly failed, and Kennedy was blamed. But the attack would have failed, anyway. The rebels had no heavy weapons. The Cubans knew the invasion was coming. It was a trap to force an American president into starting a war. Which in turn prompted the Soviet Union to place nuclear weapons in Cuba. Both sides were playing with fire without knowing what might happen next.

President Kennedy was trying to defuse the situation and lower the temperature, and the rhetoric before someone made a drastic mistake. This was interpreted inside the Pentagon as “soft” on Communism. Of course, to those willing to sacrifice 30 or 35 million Americans, it would appear to be soft on communism. These people were insane. “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” – Mark Twain.

It’s hard to imagine today, the fever pitch of the Cold War. Both sides distrustful, both unreasonable and in a frenzy until the unthinkable became doable. Kennedy issued Presidential directive 273 to bring the first 1,000 troops home from Vietnam. The order was immediately cancelled, after the assassination. No, no, no. We were going to fight communism on every front. What’s 55,000 American boys when they were willing to sacrifice 35 million Americans?

Soviet leader Yuri Andropov had spy satellites counting cars in the Pentagon parking lot. Certain that more cars could be a precursor to an American attack. Everything balanced on Berlin. It was incredibly expensive to keep the number of US forces in West Germany to stop a possible Russian attack on Berlin. Nikita Khrushchev even hinted it might be coming soon. As Pentagon planners answered, maybe the time to answer the nuclear question with the Soviets was now? While the US still held a significant lead. Hit em now, while they weren’t expecting it. Kennedy refused to authorize any nuclear first strike. And so, Kennedy was considered soft on Communism, they said. After the Cuban Missile crisis, Khrushchev was removed from office for being too soft on capitalism.

We assume, we like to assume, that sane people are in charge of our world. We have as President of the United States a man with zero military experience. A man with limited government experience. A man, of whom it is said, listens to the last person he talks to. A man who is vainglorious, who wants military parades and monuments built to his greatness. A man to whom the law means nothing. A man who only sees his own desires and glory. A man easily manipulated into rash behavior.

The invasion of Venezuela was illegal. The attack on Iran was illegal. The President can’t just use the military as a personal enforcement tool to impose on the world a Pax Americana. Illegal, like the invasion of Poland or Czechoslovakia was illegal. Criminally illegal acts! As Pam Bondi cries, “Donald Trump is the greatest American President of all time!” Is that fanatical enough for you folks at home? What regime in history does that instantly remind you of, right off? Can Bondi be trusted to safeguard our elections?

It was a bizarre and crazy thing to say in public. Take it to the bank that she means it. Take it to the bank; Stephen Miller means it. Tom Homan means it and Kristi Noem means it. Marco Rubio means it. A new era of do what we say and not what we do. A new era of wars and rumors of wars. Trump demands compensation for a bridge built entirely with Canadian money. Trump wants compensation, wink, wink. Let him wet his beak, or he’ll make trouble.

It is madness in every direction and the abandonment of law. It can only lead to trouble and bad things happening. The concentration camps are already built and they want to build more. Gee, I wonder why? Don Lemon has been arrested and charged with being there. The administration went after sitting congresspeople because they didn’t like what they said. Do you think Donald Trump did that, or was it his acolytes trying to gain favor? Everyone knows what the boss wants. Kristi Noem was reportedly furious that Tom Homan was getting more TV time than she did. What to do? What to do?

Gee, I bet those killings in Minneapolis were accidental. It couldn’t be because someone wanted more airtime, could it? It couldn’t be because someone wanted to precipitate a larger crisis, could it? After all, Kristi Noem is known for her humanity and her respect for life. Donald Trump, in an effort to build his grand ballroom, calls it a matter of national security. He wants to build a new Führer bunker and a bomb shelter deep underneath the former East Wing of the White House. Assume for a moment that Donald Trump is a normal, sane President and then assume that he’s not. What visions does it conjure up inside your mind?

Little Marco calls it “A New Era!” What vision do you see when he says that?

“I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived–yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.” – John F. Kennedy

“Hitler knew nothing about his enemies and even refused to use the information that was available to him. Instead, he trusted his inspirations, no matter how inherently contradictory they may be and these inspirations were governed by extreme contempt and underestimation of the others.”  ― Albert Speer

Never assume sanity. If they act insane, it is because they are insane. If an Attorney General calls a pedophile child rapist, the Greatest American President ever! Assume the worst.