The Same Old Song and Dance

It has been a troubling week. A nominee for the Supreme Court has been accused of a series of criminal acts. The accusations came from educated, successful people. People who really don’t have anything to gain. Think of Doctor Blasey Ford, she had to live through it once, then try not to think about it for years, and then she had to live through it again. This time in front of the most biased judiciary since the Revolutionary Tribunal did such an admirable job feeding the guillotine.

You could just tell the white, middle aged, and older, wealthy men had already made up their mind about Kavanaugh, had probably made up their mind the minute the President had nominated him. They would have just handed him a robe on the first day if it hadn’t looked so bad on television. Whether they believe Dr. Blasey Ford or not doesn’t matter to them. Whether they worry about Judge Kavanaugh’s complete, furious, unseemly and certainly unbecoming of a Supreme Court Justice behavior doesn’t factor in at all. They have a chance to place a conservative on the Court and they fear the window may be closing. Who knows what will happen in November. If we could animate the corpse of Pol Pot and nominate him they would rush to vote, because he did such a good job suppressing seditionists and homosexuals.

And now we play a waiting game so one senator from Arizona can assuage his guilt. One senator who made such a big stink about being taking a stand against Trump. Ah, Senator Flake, we hardly knew ye. We are now stuck, waiting for an investigation that should last several months, compressed into a week, declare the judge innocent and hand him the keys to the executive restroom and a cut and paste version of the constitution.

You can call me cynical and you can call me stupid but don’t call me and tell me a republican heavy, male dominated senate judiciary committee is going to give a fat rat’s ass what a couple of women have to say. 

So, again, I thank the fates, I am a man, middle aged, almost ready to retire, safe from the predations of our government. I have sons, so they should be safe, but, I watch the women, women who know they are becoming cannon fodder for the great, white old boy’s network. And it makes me worry. What are we teaching our daughters, what are we teaching our sons? Do we even care?

Arms Race, there was no winner.

Since we discussed Daniel Ellsberg in yesterday's post, and with President Trump's long anticipated withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal it seemed like a good time to discuss Mr. Ellsberg's early days in the pentagon.

One of the early briefings involved the SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan) that coordinated the use of nuclear weapons by the various branches of the US military. He was horrified.

"I thought they were the most dangerous, depraved, essentially monstrous people. They really had conducted a doomsday machine." He said, in 1961.

They were ready to use it, too. And, they had a plan, a big plan. According to the SIOP there were one hundred and seventy hydrogen and atomic weapons aimed at Moscow. If a branch of the service had a bomb they wanted to explode it over Moscow. There was only one plan and it involved launching everything, right away.

Soon, Ellsberg learned something kept secret from even his Rand associates. Certainly kept away the US public. The Soviet Union had only 4 operational intercontinental ballistic missiles at the time. America nuclear superiority was absolute.

Which led him to the startling conclusion the arms race was not with the Soviets, it was in fact between the branches of the American services. The air force was competing with the navy for defense spending priorities, shiny new weapon systems, a bigger piece of the pie. That was how you made general, or admiral.

And they ran with it. Devising more, better, bigger ways to reduce the Soviet Union to rubble. A Rand analyst, Herman Kahn, actually told SAC officers, to their faces, "Gentlemen, you don't have a war plan, you have a war orgasm." In one ear and out the other, without ever being noticed in between.

In hindsight, it might have been easy, at that point to turn back. Certainly, once the genie was out of the bottle there was no putting it back. But, there was still some hope of stopping the mad rush to apocalypse. It would have required diplomacy, common sense, cooperation, and empathy, but it might have been possible.

Yesterday, I was reminded how far down the rabbit hole we have fallen. At least nine countries, maybe more have nuclear weapons, and they all believe they need them to maintain sovereignty, peace through strength, you know. Soon, we will add Iran to the list. And the brink of the abyss gets closer every day.

"In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. Friedrich Nietzsche

Are We Left With No Sense Of Decency

The other night someone in the house was flipping madly through the channels chasing something decent to watch. It is a common practice, if we had to pedal a stationary bike or run on a treadmill to change channels we might live forever. Or, we might learn to watch what was on, no matter how dull.  That is the real problem, there is not much on, not much that is different anyway. But, they stopped briefly on a show starring the comedian Tim Allen. Apparently he has a new comedy show. He made an insulting reference to Jimmy Carter. I'm not sure why, and it was not so insulting to be offensive, but, it did make think back to Jimmy Carter.

He had to be one of the most educated presidents. And certainly the most civil, humane, kind person to ever occupy the office. Look at his tireless efforts since retiring, look at the things he has sacrificed, look at the things he has done. Which, I understand, does not always make for a good president, but it should exempt you from the acerbic insults of a stand up comedian thirty five years later. But, show business is a mean sport, and ratings are king.

I remember an interview Carter gave to a well known magazine, I don't really remember which, and it doesn't really matter. He talked about how he had lusted after other women in his heart. People went crazy. They were outraged. Now, we, at least I, would be happy if they kept it in their hearts. Hell, I would settle for keeping it in their pants.

I look around and think we are worse than animals, we prey on each other for pleasure, because we can, we enjoy the subjugation of the others. As a species we have proven that we are not able to control our basest, most foul instincts. Women are weaker, they must be chattel, ours to treat how we please.

When I read, almost everyday, the newest serial groper it is another indictment against men. There is no excuse for the behavior, there is nothing to justify the crude, crass, vile demeaning treatment of another human being. There is nothing to say, no way to make it sound like anything besides sinful, criminal, obscene.

I had always hoped I would live to see the day the world lived in peace. A world of one race, humanity, the family of man. This really makes me question that dream. I miss Jimmy Carter.