This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

The Roman god Janus was always illustrated as having two faces. The god of transitions. He’s both coming and going. He answers both yes, and no, and is known to be duplicitous. When you say good morning, he says good night. The new forever war is both over and not over. We’re winning, but it doesn’t feel like it sometimes. “The war will be over in a minute, but I’m going to need 200 billion dollars for the next ninety days first. An under flunky to the secretary of financial nonsense says oil prices should return to normal by fall. You say goodbye, while I say hello.

From day twenty-one to day one hundred and twenty-one just like that. The war that is already over is going to adversely affect this summer and the world economy for at least the next three months. It’s all over, but here it comes. And just when you think it’s over, it just begins. Yesterday, just yesterday, they were shouting “On to Havana!” Today, they don’t want to talk about it all that much anymore. The President incompetent insists he had no prior knowledge of an Israeli strike on an Iranian gas field. Is he, A. Donald Trump, covering his own ass and not giving a damn about the repercussions? Or, B. Donald Trump  throwing his allies under the bus. Hoping to stop the mission creep. The war that’s already over goes on and on.

The Trump administration suggests lifting oil sanctions on Iran. Is this a desperate, left-handed peace feeler? We’ll give you money to stop shooting! We’ll let you sell your oil. You like money, don’t you? We’re going to assassinate every Ayatollah we don’t like, but you can sell your nice oil! It’s war, but not war, war. We don’t mind if Iran profits from it, if it saves our bacon. It smells like desperation, throwing all the freight overboard at the first squall trying to save themselves. From the aluminum siding salesman of the month, Popgun Pete Hegseth, to an inarticulate man of mush, Scott Bessent. Each offering different approaches. Different paths. Different messaging. Different excuses.

From a nervous “We got this.” to a calm and steady “This won’t be too bad!” They don’t sound so sure of themselves, or they sound overconfident. An administration which speaks with many voices shows no leadership. Everyone is trying to save the day and save themselves instead of speaking with one message. They’re friends when it all goes well. They’re not friends and in a living hell when it all goes wrong. In a constant state of panic and flux. Both coming and going, assaulting and retreating. Letting the chips fall where they may. Always claiming they did that on purpose.

The panicked Highness Trump was begging for help as he denigrated our allies. Of course, no one was going to help him when he asked for help like that? Tulsi Gabbard’s second-in-command, Joe Kent, resigns his post. A brave and morally principled stand? Or a rat deserting a sinking ship? Is he coming or going? Did he not know what they did for a living in the Trump regime? “What? We invade other countries and steal their shit? Really? When did this start? I’m shocked! I tell you, just shocked.  I can no longer participate! Places the back of his hand to his forehead.

Is he a scaredy-cat or a soothsayer? Born with a lack of stick in him, or first out gets out? Added to the Kristi Noem and Kaboodle sacking and you see an administration in flux. The old guy is really angry, so don’t say anything to him to piss him off. Watch Trump on your TV with the sound off on the TV and just watch his body language. There is a new fatalism about him. “Oh well, the meteor is on the way.”

Then, just as you begin to see it all clearly. Donald Trump tells a joke about Pearl Harbor to the Japanese Prime Minister. How does something like that happen? What kind of person needs to be told not to make jokes about Pearl Harbor? This person is in charge, you say? They do such a good job covering up most of his faux pas most of the time. And then, every once in a while, one just slips out. And for just a second we have a vision of hell. The world is at loose ends among the mad. Plans for day twenty-one include waiting by the phone for Iran’s surrender and planning the victory parade and watching the world economy choke on its own vomit. He’s the creator and the destroyer, the bringer and the taker.

Mr. Trump says maybe he’s getting bored with the war and will, perhaps, out of the goodness in his heart, wind down military strikes against Iran. But at the same time, sends more Marines to the Middle East. He comes and he goes. He’s in favor of it; before, he was against it. The god of transitions. He’s for peace and war! While little Nero practices on his violin, Wall Street burns. The Dow is down 5,000 points in a month. That’s 10% in three weeks. If that isn’t a crash, it will do until a real crash comes along. Will it stop? Nobody knows.

It’s the uncertainty. Because Mr. Trump is capable of doing literally anything. Sending in troops or joking about Pearl Harbor with the Japanese Prime Minister. The President recently seems detached from reality. Almost like he doesn’t have to pretend to be nice anymore. Like whatever filter once was there is now gone.

On this the world sits balanced on the head of a pin. Vladimir Putin is in hiding, fearing Ayatollah strikes. His three-day war has not gone well. And Putin fears the end is coming soon. When the war goes badly, the leader goes away. Putin has turned off the internet in Moscow to stifle opinion and conversation and has only doubled the conversations. In Russia, the government owns the Internet in this country; it belongs to the highest bidder.

Mr. Trump wants to declare victory as he retreats. Retreating with nothing to show for his victory. And in its insanity, it shows some clarity. It’s their first move towards understanding the predicament they are now in. A move towards disengagement as he sends more troops. Mr. Trump can’t ever admit to losing. He must be placated. He is the biggest military loser in American military history. Trump lost Iran in less than thirty days. That must be some kind of record.

So Mr. Trump proposes peace while he threatens more war. It’s pure Ego Juice! A spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. He must appear macho at all times! He must be placated with a dual reality. We’re winning! Even when we lose, we must pretend to win. Just nod and play along. “Yes sir, we really let them have it today!”  

“Because there are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli