Are you stressed out? I know I am. I’m sitting here, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Tomorrow might bring news of indictments from Mueller. That should be good news, but will it be the announcement that leads to horrible news–Trump’s nuclear tweet?
We know now how Trump responds to bad news. It reminds me of stories from people with rageaholic parents. They needed to walk on tiptoes so they won’t set off dad. They changed their behavior, because they have no control over the parent’s.
What should you do if you know something is coming that will trigger a dangerous, irrational act in someone? If you are a child there isn’t much you can do, you’re usually powerless. But what if you are part of a group of adults whose duty is to check the misuse of power?
Psychiatrists often need to make determinations about a patient’s mental state. They ask “Is this person a danger to themselves or others? ” If the answer is yes, the doctors are supposed to act in a way that protects both the patient and the people who might be harmed. It’s their duty.
If you know someone is going to lash out with a massive lethal response, shouldn’t you prepare for it? What should you be doing now? For example, should you take steps to remove their easy access to weapons?
According to General Jack Keane last Thursday, Trump is “dead serious about the potential use of a military option.”
BTW, Fox News doesn’t tell you but my friend Lee Fang did, Keane has been on board of directors of General Dynamics since 2004 and, according to the company’s most recent proxy statement, received $257,884 in compensation (including “stock awards”) in 2016. Keane is also a special adviser to Academi, the contractor formerly known as Blackwater. It was founded by Betsy Devos brother, Erik Prince.
We know cornered or wounded animals are dangerous, especially to the people in their vicinity. But their violent response is local. Humans who are cornered or wounded can also be dangerous and their response can cause destruction over great distances because of the tools we have created.
In time travel movies the idea is that if you can travel to the past and make a change, it can change the future. But you don’t have to be a time traveler to predict how some people will act, just a good observer.
Right now the President is a danger to others. We don’t follow the precautionary principle here in the US. We allow the tragic incident(s) to happen and then say, “Nobody could have predicted.”
I’ve correctly predicted how certain politicians will respond andI patted myself on the back. But my friend Cliff Schecter said it’s actually pretty easy to predict the future, it just doesn’t get you anything, unless you use that insight to change the outcome.
Yet people HAVE predicted how Trump will react. Now they are just trying to control the timing of his reaction. The GOP is rushing the tax bill through hoping it will pass and get signed before Trump’s inevitable nuclear tweet.
They have a duty to act, but they haven’t. They want the crisis to happen so they can take advantage of it. Disaster capitalism is a real thing. Should the people who fail to act, knowing the harm they are causing others, then profit from their failures?
They can if we let them. The darkest timeline should apply to them too, especially since they brought us to it.
