Constructive Activity
Think I will be spending the next little while on some more constructive activity than writing blog posts:
Seriously, I have always tried to devote my writing to saying something that not everyone else is saying, and there is nothing like that to say about what happened yesterday.
As I have stated, I am not as upset by this as a lot of people. It has been my firm belief, as stated here before, that the Republican party was determined to give oligarchic dictatorship a try, and whether or not they won this time, they would have kept at it, with the vast resources of money and evil which they have to muster. If it hadn't happened this time, it would have happened in four or eight years, and probably with someone with the self-control to bring about their fascist golden age far more efficiently than Trump ever could. Honestly, I'm not so young any more, and I'm sort of glad that it happened when I still have the energy to do whatever I can about it.
And one final thing. I remember Bertrand Russell once being asked what he thought about people who predicted the future by measuring the Pyramids. Russell said that the interesting thing about all of those predictions was that they were perfectly accurate at delineating world history up to the time that the prediction was made, and utterly useless after that. So I make a reservation about the following comment:
I have a decades-long, almost unbroken record of accurately predicting what was about to happen in this country, something for which I take very little credit, as any person willing to be honest with themselves could see what I did. I want to predict the following: this is going to end up with a first strike use of nuclear weapons by the United States, against whatever innocent victim is most convenient at the time, just to prove that we are the biggest, toughest guy on the block.
Call me crazy; I've been called that so many times, but in the end I have always been right. Time will tell.
As I have stated, I am not as upset by this as a lot of people. It has been my firm belief, as stated here before, that the Republican party was determined to give oligarchic dictatorship a try, and whether or not they won this time, they would have kept at it, with the vast resources of money and evil which they have to muster. If it hadn't happened this time, it would have happened in four or eight years, and probably with someone with the self-control to bring about their fascist golden age far more efficiently than Trump ever could. Honestly, I'm not so young any more, and I'm sort of glad that it happened when I still have the energy to do whatever I can about it.
And one final thing. I remember Bertrand Russell once being asked what he thought about people who predicted the future by measuring the Pyramids. Russell said that the interesting thing about all of those predictions was that they were perfectly accurate at delineating world history up to the time that the prediction was made, and utterly useless after that. So I make a reservation about the following comment:
I have a decades-long, almost unbroken record of accurately predicting what was about to happen in this country, something for which I take very little credit, as any person willing to be honest with themselves could see what I did. I want to predict the following: this is going to end up with a first strike use of nuclear weapons by the United States, against whatever innocent victim is most convenient at the time, just to prove that we are the biggest, toughest guy on the block.
Call me crazy; I've been called that so many times, but in the end I have always been right. Time will tell.
Comments
Like I say, if you are ever in Hollywood, get in touch and we can knock back a few.
I hope you're wrong about that last prediction, but it's my own biggest concern as well.
Marc: I suspect we'll soon see several Third World countries acquire nukes in the hope of deterring being chosen as Trump's "most convenient" target.
I'll just share my favorite piece of music with you instead: Bach's Third Cello Suite. This version is by Pau (Pablo) Casals, and never fails to make me feel better.
I hope things get better.
Alliances aren't a "please Batman we're in trouble please help us", they're a structural means of ensuring containment.
Right now every friend of the US is quietly discussing contingencies. Theoretical to be sure, but the seed is being planted. It doesn't have to be pointy things that blow up either, it can just be a less consultative approach, less intelligence sharing, less all the things that ultimately benefit the USA. Contrary to the Superman complex, alliances are about US interests in the first place. It would be bad for the USA for Russia to go west of Ukraine or North Korea to explode insanely over North East Asia. It would be bad for business.
I would love to be able to hear some of those discussions.
If Japan thinks it's about to be abandoned and starts building its own nuclear deterrent, China will go apeshit and the world as we've known it since 1945 will be completely disrupted. A fully rearmed Japan, given its superior technology, would potentially be a third superpower more in the same league with the US and Russia. Trump has no idea what he's messing with. I hope Obama at least takes a shot at explaining it to him.