Bombs Away
Take the Dr. Strangelove Approach...
I have elected to be sanguine about the state of the world. As bombs drop everywhere, what else can I do? I’m following Stanley Kubrick’s advice and learning to love the bomb. Read the 1964 New York Times review of Dr. Strangelove here. I’m Slim Pickens, aka Major King Kong, riding the bomb.
We bombed a school for girls in Iran that killed maybe 150 students who were sitting there trying to learn. Iran retaliated with cluster bombs/missiles/munitions - the nomenclature varies by press outlet. Radar systems designed to detect missiles have been destroyed or crippled by said missiles. Israel is being bombed, and so are the Middle East countries that sadly were shaken down by our President. Build a golf club resort, buy my crypto coin, give me an airplane; ended up being empty promises as our Commander in Briefs gave orders he didn’t understand and dropped munitions that he now denies dropping. But, hey, he killed the Ayatollah and his second and third string leadership team.
Meanwhile, Pete Hegseth is wetting himself hourly as he gets to deploy bombs around the globe. Venezuela, Ecuador, and soon the new and improved North America + stretching from Greenland to the Equator. Special Envoy Kristy Noem will be reporting for duty. To do what, I don’t know. But there was a helluva derogatory presser at Doral Club last weekend about speaking Spanish. The corruption is as sordid as his diaper.
The US now has the Donroe Doctrine. That’s the clever play on words for Donald’s new Monroe Doctrine. Get it? We are taking over these sovereign nations - like Venezuela. But Pete needs to read the map a little more closely, because Ecuador is south of the Equator and we just started a military conflict there. Get the Sharpie and redraw the Equator line!
I don’t like any of this. Our currency is slipping fast. Banks are on the brink of failure. ICE is still kidnapping and deporting people. Kash fired all our Iranian intelligence experts in the FBI, so we have no clue what’s happening on that front here at home. Bombs may soon make their way here, and the President says, well, people die in war…I thought this wasn’t a war?
Congress fiddles while the country and the world burn. I’ve never witnessed such a cowardly assembly of elected officials. The bombs are falling. The clock is ticking. They fiddle. But the ones who listen, trade their stocks at just the right moment, and walk out the door with fistfuls of cash. Apparently someone shorted oil stocks while the Secretary of Energy manipulated information on social media about our Navy and made $100m. Sweet!
How much do bombs cost? That’s an irrelevant question because there is always enough money. Give them $10 billion, and they want $50 billion more. We spend over 1 trillion dollars annually on defense. I can’t even process that number. A $1,000,000,000,000 is 1 million million or 1000 billion. It’s meaningless to me and to most of us because we live in a 5 and 6-figure world. I do understand this, however. A commentator said today that Iran’s drones cost $20,000 each. We are trying to take them down with radar and missiles that cost over 1 million for each strike. Do that math. We are on the losing side. But Russia wins by getting the US to lift sanctions, and its oil can be sold. All while they send intelligence to Iran to kill us.
How can I be sanguine in the face of these developments? I have to be. Because my fight-or-flight nervous system has completely hijacked my cortisol and metabolism. I’m degrading because of worry over things I cannot stop. I think it is time to realize that democracy gives us power up to a point. We tried to take too much, and the oligarchs, white nationalists, homophobes, patriarchs, and evangelicals refused to sit idly by while we demanded justice, equity, and a decent life with education and health care. They are now stripping away all our gains. They are showing their ruthlessness. The midterms will happen, and special elections are happening. We are winning and will likely win in November. But magically, as happened in 7 swing states, I predict the Republicans will fight with innuendo about rigging in order to maintain majorities. Johnson will refuse to seat new reps in contested races, which will be all the Democratic victories. The Senate will also delay seating new Senators from those states. Crypto for everyone!
I have a primary where I live next week. I’ll vote. I’ll vote in November. I hope people like Marc Elias and Democracy Docket (which I support) will win the inevitable court cases. They did in 2020. We have to believe in a democratic system and that it can be changed. Tax the rich, expand the court, stop illegal deportation, reform immigration, and provide health care for all. Defund ICE and DHS while we’re at it.
Be sanguine. Yee-Hah!
Keep Hope Alive. Sí se puede.