“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix
This quote from Jimi Hendrix , which I read after listening to bombs dropping and planes crashing in Jimi’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is appropriate as the U.S. inches close to triggering a global nuclear apocalypse.
Because if Scott Ritter, Former US Marine Officer and Strategic Arms Inspector, is to be believed–and he’s one of at least two-thirds of my T-20 (the Thinking 20) who more or less agree–then the whole world is fairly close to Armageddon thanks to the bitter and mentally-half-gone U.S. president who still has the nuclear suitcase at his disposal anytime he wishes the world to go “Poof!” To quote the New York Times, “An array of neurologists who have not personally examined Mr. Biden said they observed symptoms in his public appearances that were consistent with Parkinson’s or a related disease, such as hypophonic speech, forward flexed posture, a shuffling gait, masked face and irregular speech pattern.. So, if Biden has it (and I think he does, from his paralyzed expression to his slow, shuffling walk, caused by his fear of falling and of inadequate dopamine in his brain), I as a fellow human being pity him for it (despite his having remorselessly sent tens of thousands of Gaza children and women to their horrific deaths, it being his bombs and airplanes and promise of unqualified support that enabled it), but how irresponsible of the powers that be to let a man mentally disqualified to run for reelection, then having his Vice President defeated in a landslide vote giving the newly elected Trump a mandate to end the war, take actions that could end up destroying the planet? The 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows for the removal of a president who is incapable of his duties, which include exercising immense caution, discretion, and wisdom in executing decisions that put his fellow citizens at risk of extinction.
And, the U.S. is risking global annihilation in order protect Ukrainian democracy, while spitting and trampling on American democracy, and it’s basic principle: government of, for, and by the people, and not by some secret elites?
So, having almost no one I could discuss this with right away where I am, I wrote to my friend the author, historian and linguist Mark David Ledbetter, author of America’s Forgotten History, Vols 1-4:
“Hi,
If the world ends with him, as he is already half-dead, nothing would make him happier. The Grand funeral to end all funerals. Dead babies in attendance! (though in the form of ashes.
He’s pulled an Iago on Trump, just as he once did with Bernie.
Okay, think of what happens if Putin drops a thermobaric bomb that wipes out the whole downtown of Kiev. This is what Scott Ritter’s informants have told him it would be. The US would have to respond by going one or two steps up in the escalation ladder, since Putin might be the most hated person in the world at that moment. So Biden completes his one-two punch?) with “Ok, one thermo baric bomb? We up it with two nukes on Moscow, one submarine-launched, and one a regular ICBM (I don’t know if there exists a missile with only one warhead in the US arsenal). At which point, either Putin responds with thousands, including a few on London, and the world ceases to exist, except a few who hid in shelters. Because he has no hope that the Us is going to stop with just a few bombs.
Now if Trump is one of them, what does he do? There are no Big Macs, the chain has been destroyed, as well as the supplies. Or if nothing happens after the bomb on Kiev?
But nothing cannot happen (“Nothing comes from nothing”-Julie Andrews in Sound of Music, and King Lear in the Shakespeare play), because in a democracy, the Prez has to consider his approval ratings. The US can’t be seen as chicken. Whereas Putin can depend on his own wisdom, knowing his people are behind him, and his orders will be followed (unless the CIA has bribed some high-ups in the Strategic Nuclear Forces Command).
Except for this alternative scenario: if Trump and Putin make a deal after the initial bombs on Kiev and maybe a less escalating target: “We want to live, we want our grandchildren to live and experience this wonderful world, so we are not going to be cornered by this stupid trick played on us by a bitter and half-dead dumbo, a defeated president. We’ve both lost something, but if, as a result of this loss, we have come together to end forever wars, and jointly to reform and rearm the UN, and to redirect the money saved on defense budgets towards immediately relieving all fellow humans who are in excruciating pain, as in Gaza, and all who are in dire need, as in a fair portion of Africa and Asia, and all the innocent victims of unjust wars.
Let us dream positive, let us talk positive, let us do our civic duty by telling our politicians not to put the planet’s existence as a lower priority than the survival of their bloated egos? Or, as Scott Ritter puts it, is saving Ukraine’s democracy a cause worthy enough to risk ending all human life? Or, as I say: Give democracy and the world a choice: let them vote in a universal election saying how many of them are willing to give up their lives, and those of their young children and women relatives, in order to save Ukraine’s democracy? Don’t make the decision on their behalf. If you say you believe in democracy, then show it in your actions!
Late addition: No point being gloomy over this piece. Might as well have the best time of our lives while we still have life. And, for a more hopeful takeaway, read Nima Alkhorshid’s “Dialogue Works” interview with Dmitry Orlov, a witty and caustic commentator who seems to know Russia as well as he knows the West. [Other major intellectuals who I recommend you read for their posts before and during the Ukraine war: Jeffrey Sachs, John Mearsheimer, the Durran, Alexander Mercouris, Richard Wolff,the guests on Judging Freedom, Scott Ritter, and Noam Chomsky.]