Trump’s nukes…
With Il Duce Trump, there are many things to worry about, but none more serious than an arms race. Nukes were and are in every fascist’s wet dreams. Think of what the world would become if Hitler’s atomic program had gelled. Think of what the Cuban Missile Crisis might have become if Nikita’s shoe tantrum had led to nuclear Armageddon. Every time a two-bit fascist shakes the nuclear club, that Doomsday Clock approaches closer to midnight.
Trump argues we can build more and better bombs than anyone else. This crazy policy isn’t the dandy’s game of an old-fashioned duel between Burr and Hamilton with old pistols, yet our dandy Il Duce is challenging the rest of the world’s fascist leaders to a duel (and maybe anyone else he doesn’t like?), and everyone else in the world will be innocent bystanders for the duelists. Potential candidates for Il Duce’s wrath? Leaders of France, Great Britain, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia—have I left anyone out?—are either fascists like Trump waving this dueling pistol or potential fascists who will do the same if the world continues to turn to fascism. It’s like a game of musical chairs: round and round we go, and, when Berlioz’s “March to the Gallows” stops, someone will shoot the first missiles. Given Il Duce’s thin skin, the first one will probably be Trump.
He’s so thin-skinned he’d like to censor SNL and ship Alec Baldwin off to Gitmo. Let’s hope he doesn’t confuse the nuclear codes with his Twitter account! Of course, most fascists are thin-skinned and raging paranoid hotheads, so that’s not surprising. What’s surprising to many of us and a large part of the world is that U.S. voters can elect a hot-headed fascist to be their president. Whatever popularity he has is beside the point. Hitler was popular. Stalin was popular. Castro was popular. Franco and Mussolini were popular. Putin is popular. Their attraction stemming from carefully cultivated cults of personality still exists in their respective countries. Once in Madrid I wasn’t almost trapped in a pro-Franco demonstration. Weeping crowds in Cuba over Castro’s ashes on tour is yet another example. People can love fascism…until it bites them in their butts. Trump, if tweets are any indication, has enormous mandibles (made larger by his foot in his mouth, of course), so he will be biting us sooner than later (his cabinet is a big intolerable bite already). The monster is loose and will soon be in the White House.
If I were in charge of that Doomsday Clock, I’d set it at 11:59 P.M. right now. The one minute hedge is just to allow for the possibility that Trump is just a narcissistic, strutting peacock and won’t really carry out his threat of renewing a worldwide arms race and send the nukes instead of a tweet. It’s hard to imagine anyone is that insane, but other fascist leaders around the world might take him seriously and strike first. But here’s another worry: there’s no real diplomat in his proposed cabinet! His SecState is used to getting his way in Exxon/Mobil, and those three generals are probably ready to bomb first and ask questions later—and maybe even argue war is good for the economy! What will happen when everyone in the White House kitchen wants to break the nuclear cookie jar?
Our unilateral nuclear attack on the Japanese was carried out with impunity because no other country, including Japan, could strike back in kind. That let the nuke-loving genie out of the bottle, never to return, and we’ve continued to live with the threat of a nuclear holocaust since then. A thousand years from now ETs might visit Earth, study the forensic evidence, shake their heads, and say, “It might not have happened if they hadn’t elected Trump.”
Of course, Il Duce might end the world with a whimper and not a bang instead. He hasn’t said anything about bio or cyber warfare, but you can bet he’ll be quick on the trigger there too. When a psychotic fascist throws a tantrum, he will pick up the weapon closest at hand. And I’m betting Trump will have every “beautiful” weapon every other fascist has and then some. Moreover, he’ll probably retaliate in kind to every attack from another fascist, leading to escalations without end.
How can we control this hothead? A straitjacket and padded cell come to mind, but that won’t happen unless there’s a mutiny in the Secret Service (not a bad idea—hint, hint!). A strict insistence on congressional war powers might work if we didn’t have Congress people who are more dangerous psychotics than Trump (mostly from his party, of course, if you can believe he actually has a party). All I can suggest now is to knock on wood, cross your fingers, squeeze your rabbit foot, make an anti-warlock’s hex, pray to Pope Francis, whatever…and hope for the best. We’re going to suffer through four years with this man, if we make it even that long. God help us because the Devil will be in the White House and the place will be reeking of brimstone!
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And so it goes…
