This Was the Day It Was

It was an interesting sort of day in our sad old world. 

Some of us focused on Davos and the visual display of the Trump effect. That started with the 'vertical insertion'  of Hair Furor, on the third of four helicopters.  They didn't pop flares on the way in, there was probably a lot of surveillance on  that part of the Alps yesterday.  Trump met with the leaders of European Industry who introduced themselves and spoke briefly about what their corporation was doing for America. Some of the names like 'Nestle', Trump recognized - he asked about their candy bars and was informed they were now into coffee,  infant nutrition, water and more lucrative fields.  He politely congratulated each on on their accomplishments after their 30 seconds of thumbnail sketching. Trump closed the audience by inviting them all to do more in America. He should have asked them if they had homes there. I'd  bet most of them do.

Day two he gave his address to the 'Davosians'.  Basically he said America was up for anything - so long as it was an American idea. The world was invited to follow, but only if American rules were followed. 'Open for business' in America means you're getting a tax cut, 'open for business' anywhere else means no government involvement. Trump said nothing new. At home the state Department did, announcing a new round of sanctions against individual Russians. Trump announced that the DACA problem was going to be solved and WH spokespeople said that legislation would be forthcoming this week -  'breaks' for some young 'dreamers' who might not be sent back.

Another focus of attention was the enclave of Afrin in Syria which was taken under attack be Turkish forces in an effort to extend its buffer zone in, and influence on Syrian. Although the Turks were well positioned on three sides and had moved the whole Army it seemed into position , the only indication they were serious came in the form of some pretty spectacular bombardment. The military advance, mostly, it seemed, by 'free Syrians' allied with the Turks - seemed spotty and tentative and more about eating rations than fighting. The Turks announced killing hundreds of Kurds, while the Kurds claimed they were killing hundreds of 'gangsters'. It would appear that the Turks weren't suffering much at  all beside the ammunition expenditure. So far the eastern Kurds have done little to help their brothers. The Syrians, having been asked to intervene by the Kurds,  were holding out for a restoration of Afrin to the Motherland. That wasn't forthcoming. The Americans have managed to stay out of it, and to keep their Kurds out of it. But they may have to clamp down on Free Syrians who see this as an opportunity to get back at Assad.

It will be interesting to see if the Eastern Kurds will remain uninvolved,  as a loss in the West is every bit a loss to them. They might inconvenience the Turks at home or along the border or, with Assad's not looking,  travel west to reinforce Afrin from government territory.

The third focus of interest was on England where some cretin politician hit the headlines saying the Russians had threatened to kill hundreds of thousands of Brits by a nuclear attack on the water and gas works or infiltrating the electrical system. This came after yesterdays military harrrumph that there wasn't enough in the national mess fund to battle the 'feckin Russians' at all. The furor rose and was drowned out, in the tabloid media, by even more startling news that a pack ( a herd?  a giggle? ) of baboons had escaped the zoo there and were 'marauding' the city of Paris. As well as that, there was another tale spread about a EURO riot over a sale of Nutella. Hopefully most Brits could 'hoik it' home, to find the Russians had not yet eliminated all the utilities and hopefully find that any French baboons in the area had missed the Nutella in the larder..

Hawaii's Big Skeer

Saturday morning last , or at least 28 minutes of it, must have been a real 'doozie' for those Hawaiians, and tourists,  who weren't sleeping through it.  Some lummox at Civil Defense HQ  accidentally toggled the switch  that posts the alert for incoming rocket strikes - assuming there are a variety of such alerts.  All of a sudden individual cell phones received the 'automated message'. If you were messaging the family, back on the mainland, over a vacation breakfast, they had a few minutes to wish you hadn't done that Hawaiian get-away.  TV programs were interrupted with a red 'warning bar' scrolling across the screen indicating ICBM, imminent and take cover - a British premier league soccer game - was one I noticed. The warnings triggered 'somebodies' else to toggle local air raid sirens (which had, we are told, recently been part of the high-intensity 'training' going on - the NORK's threat to civilization, eh?). So a cacophony of sound (I was going to say not heard since the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor, but they've 'upgraded' the sound to a sort of eerie, alien 'warbling' - that none save a sound engineer, or Darby O'Gill,   has ever heard) added to the already heightened tensions.  Road traffic took a turn for the worse as people pulled-off to the side as instructed, and abandoned their cars, while others bolted for home or the office. One fellow even tossed his toddler into a storm drain for protection.

It only took Civil Defence 28 minutes - in consultation with every other attack detection and warning agency on 'erth', the four branches of the armed forces in the Pacific, National Security HQ and, no doubt, the White House - to determine that one, there was no incoming attack and two, someone had blundered. I guess the notion of just turning things off isn't in the 'play book'.

Which all leads one to believe that the CD warning system might be tied into something automatic with the 'manual override' that caused the problem. And that 'the human element' doesn't have immediate access to real-time awareness of an actual threat situation.  Next time a faulty chip or sensor could trigger a warning and nobody might 'know' for more than an hour - although  real incoming missiles from eastern Asia would have a flight time of between 13 and 20 minutes - so the loud 'bangs' interspersed with the alien noises and the pandemonium might 'prove' something. A blinding white flash or two, would shut everything to fuck up.

The White House took until later on Saturday to comment.  Thank goodness the President might have been 'occupied' - taking a Trump dump,  or entertaining some overpaid, over-injected "golf  tournament diversion" and didn't make one of those crucial  '2 pm decisions'.  I'm pretty sure somebody important was asking if the Norks, or the Chinese or the Russians,  might not have 'stealth ICBMs? And shouldn't we let off a few just to be careful?   I visualize Pence and the Prosyliterians poring over 'the Big Board' down in the war bunker.

There's possibly a book, or two, in this one.

The Trump dump emoji

                    Mia Khalifa - last weeks 'meme' for Islamic 'wummin' and golf diverter

What ever happened away from the news is starting to take on the aspects of human nature at its best and worst.  Honeymooning couples celebrated their last few minutes together with a glass of wine and render expressions of eternal love. Others used the opportunity to do some crime. One fellow stiffed his young child into a manhole to help him, or her,  survive. Others made tearful calls home , bidding farewell - courtesy of our interconnected whirled.  I'm pretty sure more than a couple hit their knees to 'get right' with 'God'  or simply bent over, quietly,  to kiss their ass good-bye.


 To-day it's looking like the 'book' would be a revised CD manual, for the only thing America sees going wrong is that this was 'only' a false alarm. the notion of it actually being a real alarm is discounted as - well - not very 'American',  or not very 'well-prepared to survive'.   After some clear-eyed thinking, 'upping the CD 'game' is being touted as the panacea.

Atomic war is still very much 'on the table'.