Grim Prospects in Bigger Picture

Grim Prospects in Bigger Picture

First, the little picture – what happens in Washington DC, which is not so encouraging right now.

Several fundamental problems with Trump’s effort to adapt to a new situation:

Even though he has made noises about “this is like Nazi Germany” and Putin has talked about a “witch hunt,”

Trump

 still has not caught on to the fact that the effort to impeach or isolate him before he is even elected goes far beyond mere Democrats’ response. Previously, I mentioned that I did not seriously consider Bernie Sanders for the Presidency as it exists today, because “they would convert him into the Queen of England,” a totally impotent object of display with no ability whatsoever to affect the trends he (or Trump) talked about. With Hillary, I mentioned that certain folks were ready and willing to handle her exactly as they handled Rousseff of Brazil (a kind of dress rehearsal or warning?). They had to adapt a little when it turned out to be Trump, but ... the current news suggests that Trump himself might well be emasculated just as Sanders would have been.

Key evidence: if he knew what is going on, and what is awaiting him, he would not be going back now to the theme of “lock her up.” He would be offering very vigorous support for the investigation of what was done IN THE US, by US government moles and their external operators, to prepare to get rid of Hillary Clinton. He would push to have them fully exposed and rooted out, because  the exact same people are exactly the same kind of threat to his own hope of having at least some limited power and staying out of jail.

Another piece of evidence: he seems to have chosen his appointees with the implicit assumption that it is like picking lieutenants for a company he runs. He has line experience (a major argument for him over Sanders and Clinton at a time when line capacity is essential)... but in a different environment. He doesn’t seem to have understood that he may or may not be “the boss” of “his” cabinet people after they are appointed. Maybe he needs another, deeper and more personal one-on-one with Clapper? To learn what Clapper was referring to in regards to “micromanagement” from selected people in Congress and the stakeholder managers many of them (like Lamar Smith, Shelby and Chaffetz) grovel to?

It was especially jarring for me to hear, in the hearing on Tillerson, how one senator praised Tillerson as a “wonderful asset.” The word “asset” does have special meanings...

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But..

On a positive side, there may be some chance of literally making America great again in its space capabilities,

which are... a different kind of potential asset. Even if the rest of the enterprise goes south, in any of a hundred ways, it would probably be a serious good thing to restore the space capabilities if there is still some hope of that. So I may narrow focus on that, in one strand.

In another strand... what of the growing gap between the coming H2S collapse and current policies all over the world?

Had an interesting conversation with a climate guy this past month. If no one revives the Teller/Wood/Caldeira proposal for emergency action to restore the specific ocean currents which brought oxygen to the Pacific Ocean, then what?

I have searched and found no credible scheme for geoengineering to prevent the new damage to stratospheric ozone which

would be the quickest pathway to eliminating all humans. But there is one other thing he raised which I had not considered:

what of raising albedo in the north enough to refreeze the antarctic enough to restore currents? Certainly not a US government proposal, under present circumstances! It is very hard to imagine Putin and Trump agreeing (and getting support and funding) for a dam to block the Bering Strait to restore ice in the north. But... is there any other way?

Immediately after we understood... and discussed... it is odd how sudden snow and cold stretched from Portugal to Turkey and Russia. One hell of a way to get albedo! But as human policies depart more and more from what is needed, things like the curses of Moses (actually a great gift, when  all is considered) may become more likely. Who knows?

But back to reading the Dark Forest...

At some point, I should also note how analysis of stability of the noosphere has changed my views of Fermi’s paradox.