The Excrement Is Soon To Meet with the Rotating Blades

Let’s consider two great hurdles our civilization faces: one short-term (will come to a head in the next few months), and the other much longer-term (may stay with us until our ultimate demise).

In November, the U.S. presidential election will be held, and at this point Trump looks near-certain to lose. Now, does anyone think he’s simply going to pack his stuff, make a short speech thanking Americans for giving him the privilege of serving them, and then go back to ripping people off via his assortment of con games (shady deals with Russian oligarchs, fake universities, sham charities, and bankrupt casinos)?  No.  Not one chance in one thousand.  Nobody knows what’s going to happen, but it’s almost sure to involve great terror and violence.

A long-term challenge is that a huge percentage of people on this planet, perhaps most of them Americans, doesn’t care a whit about anyone but themselves.  This is a comment I’ve made dozens of times over the years, as it’s accelerating climate change and other forms of environmental damage.  Remarkably, we have billionaires whose wealth derives from activities that are poisoning the planet and everyone on it, and they simply couldn’t care less.

Now we have an even bigger problem: dealing with a pandemic that requires human cooperation to bring it under control.  One might think that wouldn’t be an issue; after all, who is so coldly indifferent to others’ well-being as to impede the actions of public health officials?  Well, how about the ass**** driving this car?