OK. Now, it’s official. This country has gone insane.
On the one hand we have one of the loopiest, wackiest dictators on earth running North Korea. This small nation, with an economy one six-hundredth that of the USA, a population roughly one one-fifteenth that of the USA, has suddenly gotten readily deliverable nuclear weapons that actually have been tested and actually work — which we don’t know for sure about ours. Much more shocking, possibly with the help of Russia, North Korea has rockets that can reach any part of the USA with that nuclear bomb.
So, that’s one story, which gets about fifth or sixth place on the breaking news lineup. Then, there are the gossip stories about famous men being fired from media and other jobs because of allegations of severe sexual misconduct. As I’m writing this, Matt Lauer of NBC is king of the news with allegations of serious sexual misconduct on the job at NBC. If these allegations about acts that happened years ago are true, they’re genuinely terrible. Then we have an allegation that Garrison Keillor of “Lake Wobegon” fame was fired (although he was apparently already retired) for hugging a woman staffer who had a scooped back dress and touching her skin.
To call this trivial makes much too much of it.
There have also been allegations of serious misconduct by high achievers in Congress. And I am sure there are many more to follow. After all, it’s juicy gossip. Mass media has made all of America into one enormous small town and now we’re all gossiping about our neighbors. What could be better?
I’ll tell you what: doing something about North Korea. We are just sitting around reading tabloid gossip as we enter the most dangerous period in the history of our nation. In Kim Jong Un’s North Korea, we have a brutal terrorist nation that hates us and now has nuclear weapons and can deliver them in a way we cannot stop. Imagine Adolf Hitler with nuclear weapons which his neighbors and the USA cannot stop — and you have a good idea of what we’re facing.
As usual, Ronald Reagan had it right. He said we must have an anti-ballistic missile system 37 years ago. If we had worked on it seriously, we would have it now. But the Congress would not appropriate the money for it, and so we are now basically defenseless against a nation that does not care how many people it loses and can kill a hundred million Americans in an hour or soon will be able to.
Facing North Korea we have large armed forces — but the most inexperienced President we have ever had. And almost nothing to stop Kim’s rockets.
Yes, we can attack North Korea tomorrow and turn it all into a glass parking lot. Tens of millions will die and if Kim can get off even a few hours of his artillery, South Korea will be a vast mortuary. If they can get off a few of their missiles aimed at us, it will be by far the worst catastrophe we have ever faced.
We need RIGHT NOW a crash program, a Manhattan Project times ten, to make a workable anti-missile system. Money should not, must not be an object. Nothing should be an object. Why aren’t we doing it?
I don’t know but maybe it’s because it would interfere with our national gossip obsession. Look, I’m all for elevating and protecting women in the workplace and all for punishment for those proved guilty of crimes and serious misconduct against them. But surely our national obsession right now should be with defense and not with gossip.
If North Korean nukes start exploding over Manhattan and Hollywood, it will be the worst day in the history of the world. Let’s pay attention.
