The end is near, the end is near . . .

Nothing like two crazed two-year olds each in the middle of a temper tantrum, but each armed with nuclear weapons to gain your attention.  And Rex Tillerson tells us all we can sleep peacefully at night, and we should not be concerned. Well, Rex, you’re an idiot, but I suppose you already know that.

Way back when I was an engineer in the aerospace industry, we were working on a missile design that could be launched from a nuclear submarine, and each of the 16 missiles on board each submarine, could deliver ten nuclear warheads, independently targeted on different cities.  That was back during the 1950’s and early 1960’s. It was a time when we didn’t used to elect total idiots to the presidency. Dwight Eisenhower, and JFK come to mind. They were smart, understood both foreign and domestic policy issues and seemed to possess the intellectual awareness needed for a complex world.

And they had to deal with the Soviets. Stalin, Khrushchev, et al, were determined to maintain the status of the Soviet Union after WW II. Their leaders were as determined as ours to promote and maintain their views of how the world ought to be run.  And so the Cold War was initiated and then maintained for decades, with each side armed to the teeth, but still run by rationalists.

As I have noted in past writings, we were momentarily sidetracked by Cuba and its attachment to the Soviets. We had the military might to dispose of Cuba, but the Soviets began claiming it as a satellite ally.   They brought in arms and some troops.  But, then they began bringing in missiles that could reach the US. That was a measure beyond what we intended to tolerate. So, as Soviet ships approached Cuba with missiles, we said NO. We would not tolerate a Cuba armed with nuclear missiles. We engineers continued our daily work, but each night, we would retreat to a local pub to drink and contemplate our future, or lack thereof.  Should we head to the Sierra’s, or rather try to reach the coast when the missiles began flying?  See, we knew with reasonable certainty what would occur should the missiles in fact begin to fly.  It would mean the end of everything we held dear, and perhaps the end of our universe.

Now, the only thing that sustained us was the leadership at the top of our nation, both civilian and military. We thought we had intelligence at the top, even if that intelligence was now being tested to the maximum.

So, now spring forth to 2017. We have known for many years that the Kim family, daddy and junior, were/are authoritarian dictators who seem not to mind killing anyone in their way.  North Korea has been that way for decades, perhaps as a result of that UN "peace action" back in the 1950s. They neither won nor lost.  Both sides called it a draw, but the North at least was forced to withdraw. They/we have been relatively hostile ever since.

Then the Kim’s came in to power, and they seem to behave as crazed two-year olds, especially Kim the younger.  He is always saying or doing something terminally stupid, just to show he is in charge.

He was always a problem, but one we thought could be “managed”.  Enter Donald Trump, another two-year old with a classic terrible-twos temper tantrum, on seemingly all the time.  He also says and does terminally stupid things, just to show he is in charge. Tweeting up a storm at 3:00 AM because someone has said something snarky about him is not the stuff of National Leadership we all dream of.

And, despite having earlier said admiring things about Kim, the Donald has decided he is to be “handled”.  And Kim, does not wish to be “handled”. So, he has continued to proceed with his missile and nuclear warhead design challenge to the world at large.  He will possess them by God, and if the world does not like it, then he might just take out that part of the disapproving world.  And if the Donald in particular does not like it, then Kim just might aim one of his infamous missiles at our bases in Guam, just, you know, to show that he will not be “handled”.

Now, the Donald, in full two-year old temper tantrum mode, will not be spoken to/at by just any old two-year also in full temper tantrum mode. So, he fires back in full might, all about fire and fury such as the world has never seen. Well, see, actually, the world has seen the fire and fury. They were called Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  And we, the World, don’t quite know what to make of this display of two-year old temper tantrums aided by nuclear weapons.  We once were governed by responsible, thinking adults, who surrounded themselves by responsible thinking adults. No longer.

 Now, we have to sit and bite our nails each day, til one or the other two-year old decides to go play and torment someone else. And the awful part is that we no longer have any assurance that there are any intelligent, responsible adults left at the top . . . on either side.

And, I am left, nearing the end of my life, wondering whether my children and my grandchildren will be able to continue living in this world.  And it doesn’t help when I read articles by folks like Stephen Hawking who keep yakking about how we all need to leave this planet because, even if the Donald and Kim don’t destroy us, we have already done so much damage to our environment, that our world may not be livable much longer. Oh, gee, just what we all needed to hear.

And, I am left dazed, and wondering what happened to the adults in our universe.  Reading the continued approval by even 25 or 30% of the people who supported our lunatic president makes me want to throw up. And, looking at and listening to his appointees is not helpful.  Where, I wonder, does he find these people? Our leaders, even our dimmer ones like Reagan and Bush II, used to at least try to fake it by bringing in some folks who appeared to be responsible adults.  But, not the Donald. He apparently only knows people who are either terminally stupid, angry like him, or permanently on the make . . . other con artists like him.

So, I go through the motions each day, and hope this will not be the last day I will observe a butterfly, or see a smile by a loving child.  And, I fail to detect any adults at the top of our land who seem moved by the continued histrionics. Folks in our land seem either borderline hysterical, like me, or angry with folks like me for daring to disapprove of their chosen two-year old “leader”.

How did we reach this pass?

And how will it end?