Welcome to #First100Days!
The #First100Days series will “bear witness” to the next 13 weeks of the Trump administration and the climate in America and then respond openly in writing, dialogue, and debate in the hopes of fostering better communication among writers and partisans alike (although the essays and pieces do not have to be political in nature). We’re looking to help give voice to honest and thematic essays from all layers of the political spectrum and across all GMP sections.
All opinions are those of the author and not necessarily of Good Men Media, The Good Men Project, or our editors.
At the end of week one of the new American Presidential Administration, have we hit rock bottom?
Or is there a knock, knock from below of that same rock bottom?
Are the opposition Democrats, protesters, organizers, celebrities, late night talk-show hosts, and marchers going to save us from the backlash of the seven-country ban and the detainment of American, naturalized, and legally-sanctioned citizens at airports and border crossings?
Oh wait, there’s more.
Knock, knock.
The world is preparing for war, according to former Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev this week.
The world is also closer than ever to “midnight”—midnight meaning the end, for some reason—on the symbolic Doomsday Clock, because, “the United States now has a president who has promised to impede progress on [nuclear weapons and climate change],” according to theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss and retired Navy Rear Adm. David Titley, “…never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person. But when that person is the new president of the United States, his words matter.”
And according to Russian-American Jewish journalist Masha Gessen on last Wednesday’s Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, her “biggest worry is a nuclear holocaust. If miraculously we avoid that—then [Trump] is certain to do irreparable damage to the environment that will make survival of the human species impossible.”
Gessen also predicted the President would lift sanctions on Russia, ban certain newspaper reporters from the White House, “start thinking about wars,” and emulate Putin’s habit of holding one press conference a year.
This Saturday’s first conversation between the White House and the Kremlin, “talked about stabilizing the relationship between the two nations and several other subjects.
Together, the U.S. and Russia possess more than 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons.
So between Climate Change and Nuclear Attack, what’s going to scare the Armed First World Nations into settling down?
Or are the alarmists just squawking—this time even louder because there’s just so damn much to squawk about?
My hope is always for peace, but my hope means nothing if the wrong hands are holding the wrong nuclear code “biscuits.”
But if we’re going to avoid a new Cold War and make nice with Russia, then all cynical bets are off, and we’ll have to wait and see what week two of the #First100Days will bring us.
Hopefully not any closer to “midnight,” thank you kindly.
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Nukes closer to “midnight”
Samantha Bee interviews Masha Gessen:
No nukes! No nukes!
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Catch up on all our our #First100Days articles here, here, and here.
And write for this series!
Read Jeremy McKeen every week here on The Good Men Project!
Photo: WikiCommons
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