No Rain in the Forecast

“I hate and despise, I feel indignant, outraged, and afraid. I’ve become excessively severe, demanding, irritable, ungracious, suspicious.” Anton Chekov, A Boring Story

The sky clouded over briefly today, but no rain fell. If this pattern keeps up – and there’s no reason to think it won’t at this point – the drought will worsen, putting the squeeze on farmers, vineyard operators, home builders, the tourism industry, and many others. The California economy may sour, again, though it will likely be a year or two before the full effects of this drought hit home.

Do most Americans still believe what Fox News tells them, that global warming is a myth, the science still up for debate, or, more precisely, obfuscation, from slick shills paid for by energy extractors? I see in the news that John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, has become a believer in the perils of climate change – belated though his conversion may be – since no nation on earth has done more to delay real action on climate change than the U.S. Apparently, Kerry is now very worried about extreme weather events. Sometimes it takes years for the fog to clear and the truth to be seen. Kerry should mention to his boss, President Obama, that no such thing as “clean” coal exists in the world, that nuclear energy is dangerous, and that the Keystone XL pipeline is a terrible idea after all.

I heard the intrepid journalist Jeremy Scahill on the radio, talking about Dwight Eisenhower’s warning to Americans about the dangers of the military-industrial complex. Ike would not believe his eyes if he could see how his worst fears have manifested themselves. Add the security-intelligence complex to the military-industrial complex and you have a behemoth of global proportions -- intrusive, overbearing, and to a dangerous extent, under the control of private operators such as Halliburton, Blackwater (or whatever name this army-for-rent is calling itself now), and the Carlisle Group. Huge corporate entities have major skin in the war game, the anti-terror game, and the national security game. Preposterous sums of money are at stake, and therefore no incentive exists to stop the failed War on Terror or the intensive surveillance of Americans, Germans, Russians and whoever else the NSA deems an enemy, a threat, or an economic competitor. The incentives all work in the opposite direction. This beast is now so huge and unaccountable that we may not be able to tame it.

Eisenhower would be appalled, but if George Orwell were to come back I imagine he would just shake his head and say, “I warned you.” Orwell did warn us against perpetual war, intrusive surveillance, and debased language; when the Ministry of Truth is devoted to lies, and most people cannot tell the difference, your goose is boiled; when corruption, bribery, and mendacity become the norm in a state, elites win and ordinary people lose.

I walk outside and gaze at the clear sky, the waning gibbous moon, a smattering of stars. No, there’s no rain in the forecast. Mother Nature is unhappy and withholding her love.