It’s hard not to watch this and see the parallels to today’s America.

I didn’t like it as much as the hype, it just wasn’t believable. Oh, the facts were believable, but I never suspended disbelief and got caught up in the action, I was always aware I was watching a re-creation. Maybe if Spielberg, or another Hollywood director, had been involved, it would have been different, but it wasn’t.

I’m old enough to have lived through Chernobyl.

And I must say I have a fascination with it. Down in Laguna Beach, at the art fair, they feature the work of a photographer who went there, before it was de rigueur. Yes, now it seems anybody can get up close and personal, but I don’t need any further exposure to radiation. I had a wart removed on my finger back in the sixties. The dermatologist used a new technique, he radiated my finger for five minutes. Did this cause my leukemia? Or was it the formaldehyde the chiropodist insisted I use to control my stinky feet? My internist says it’s hereditary, my father had blood cancer and therefore so do I, but the literature on CML says otherwise. I guess we’re always looking for answers. And sometimes the answers you expect are not the real ones. And sometimes when you think you’ve found the answers, that turns out to be untrue.

When I think of Chernobyl, I think of the explosion, the radiation, not so much what caused the explosion. But they delve into that and deliver the answer, and that’s what is fascinating.

The Russians cheaped out. They didn’t build a containment dome. That’s why the reactor, with its tower, looked so different from the ones in the rest of the world. And to further save money, they put graphite tips on the control rods, which meant temperature increased before it decreased.

But they did not want you to know this. You see the Russians had to convince the rest of the world that they were equal to the United States, indomitable, always right. And the funny thing is the populace believed this too, and at Chernobyl, they sacrificed their lives for it, whether it be immediately, or dying before their time from radiation poisoning. You see radiation is like Covid-19, you can’t see it, it appears harmless, until it eats you from the inside out.

Now America has changed drastically in my lifetime. In the fifties we believed we were the greatest country on the planet, there was a plethora of good paying jobs, mothers didn’t have to work and…women and minorities took a back seat.

All of the unrest, the discrimination that was not visible, or not emphasized regularly in the fifties, reared its ugly head in the sixties. In the sixties everything was up for grabs. The goal was to be informed and think for yourself. And just because you were young, that did not mean you didn’t count. There was a huge schism between the oldsters, the establishment, and the youngsters, one which we would not see again until the advent of the internet. The only difference was the greatest generation wasn’t buying their children’s antics, whereas the boomers are in bed with their children, believe they’re up to speed, when that is untrue.

And then Nixon bombed and lied.

And then Carter became president.

And then there was the hostage crisis, and suddenly nationalism reared its ugly head in America once again, like it hadn’t for years, like it hadn’t since before the Vietnam War.

Then Reagan enticed many of the left-leaning boomers by lowering taxes and legitimizing greed, and suddenly the boomers were the establishment themselves, with something to protect.

And now?

Well, the economy raged under Clinton.

But then there was the Iraq war and billionaires and…now you’re on one side or the other. Either you believe the United States is the best country in the world or you’re agitating for change. And it’s just like the sixties, if you question authority, if you question the government, you’re shouted down by the establishment, only in this case the establishment is not only the Republicans, but the Democrats, which is why so many, especially youngsters, are disillusioned and feel left out.

So, Chernobyl is burning and people are lining up to sacrifice themselves. Kinda like after 9/11. A war was started and people signed up to serve, and unlike in the sixties, they were lauded for doing so, you could not question anybody’s service, but all these years later…was it worth it? Even Trump said it was not.

And there’s a chain of command in Russia, disobey it at your peril, it doesn’t matter if you’re right. Sounds just like Crozier, who was fired for complaining his ship was inundated with Covid-19. The chain of command was more important than the lives of those on the boat.

And if you stand up and speak the truth, you’re ostracized.

This is very different from political correctness, which has its own pitfalls. But in the last century, facts were facts. Maybe because there was the fairness doctrine on TV.

But if you tell the truth about what happened in Ukraine today, you’re gonna lose your job, just like Trump fired the Intelligence Community Inspector General for allowing the whistleblower’s report to come out. As for the impeachment trial, the Republicans stood their ground, otherwise they’d be ostracized, not only by their fellow congresspeople, but constituents who would primary them out of a job.

And just like it couldn’t be Russia’s fault that the nuclear reactor blew up, it can’t be Trump’s fault that Covid-19 is ravaging the country.

And you do know the rest of the world is laughing at us. And despite all this b.s. about bringing manufacturing back to America, we cannot be self-sufficient, if for no other reason than these companies are all multinationals, they are not beholden to us. The ventilator company’s HQ was in Ireland, the cruise lines are not registered in the U.S. And the U.S. is enamored of cheap products, and they wouldn’t be so cheap if they were manufactured here, even though they can’t be.

But the government keeps spewing falsehoods. And in Russia, they needed something to believe in, if you can’t believe in the state, where does that leave you?

Now if you delve into “Chernobyl,” don’t do so without listening to the podcast with Craig Mazin, the writer/producer of the series. You watch and you keep wondering how accurate the show is. Listening to the podcast you find out it’s hyper-accurate.

But when you watch the final episode, and you see the footage of the real people, it’s eerie, because the actors cast looked very similar, even if they were not believable in their roles.

So…

We are at an inflection point in America. We are fighting for our country’s soul. And it’s not only left/right, it’s also left/left.

All those lefties who made money under Reagan and Clinton? They don’t want to cough it up, they’re accustomed to their lifestyles, they believe they earned that money and you can’t take it away.

So, when Warren starts talking about a wealth tax, rich people start crying in their beer. When Sanders talks about Medicare for All, they’re not for it, after all, they’re wealthy and they can afford the best care. So, the left has left the workers and the young ‘uns to their own devices. Some went to Trump, some went third party, some didn’t bother to vote and…they’re being told to vote for Biden for a return to normalcy. The only problem is normalcy wasn’t that good for them to begin with!

And how is it in America there’s not enough money? It’s not only Cuomo, but the governors of other states begging for money for health care and business. You see states can’t print their own money, the federal government can. But if you don’t toe Trump’s line, your state is going to pay the price.

And when it’s debated whether to speak the truth at the Chernobyl trial, again and again it’s said that it is a SHOW TRIAL, that the verdict has already been decided, it’s just for the party and the public, to keep everybody believing and in line, the truth doesn’t matter, the truth hurts.

But the truth is lies hurt. If for no other reason than they muddy truth.

Now I’m not gonna go micro on you, go deep into the Astroturfing employed for the protests to open states this weekend.

No, the protests were not spontaneous, they were organized, one entity established all the websites

I’m not going to go deep into how the rest of the world sees us, but I must print this joke from the “Sydney Morning Herald.” Actually, I’ll put it at the end of this screed. This is a litmus test, if you can’t swallow another opinion, if you cannot analyze it, if you cannot believe that news sources like the BBC might be more trustworthy than what you’re listening to, you’re part of the problem, and certainly not part of the solution. A wise person weighs both sides and makes a decision. An ignorant person refuses to entertain thoughts contrary to their beliefs.

So, here we are. Turns out the blowback to the reopening of America is pretty big. And all the governors are clamoring for tests even though Trump and Pence say there are more than enough. If you can wrap your head around that, you probably grew up in Soviet Russia.

Which ended by the way. Lies can’t go on forever.

But just like after the Arab Spring, a dictator ended up in control. And the funny thing is a lot of citizens like this, they don’t want to worry, they’ll cough up all their freedoms if they FEEL safe.

So where are we now?

In the thick of it. You can’t say you’re too busy working. You’ve got no excuses. Now is the time to learn, the time to analyze. Knowledge is power, never forget it.

Joke of the Week:

If Trump were captain of Titanic –
There isn’t any iceberg… There is an iceberg but it’s a small iceberg in another ocean… The iceberg is in this ocean but it’s a small iceberg and will melt in about three days… There is an iceberg but we didn’t hit the iceberg… We hit the iceberg but the damage will be repaired very shortly… I didn’t know how big the iceberg was until two weeks ago… The iceberg is a Chinese iceberg… We aren’t taking on water but every passenger who wants a lifeboat can get a lifeboat and they are beautiful lifeboats because we make the best lifeboats in the world… Look, passengers need to ask nicely for lifeboats if they want them… We don’t have any lifeboats, we’re not lifeboat distributors… I really don’t think we need that many lifeboats… The people drowning should have planned for icebergs and brought their own lifeboats… We have lifeboats and they’re supposed to be everyone’s lifeboats, but they’re only for people who kiss my a**… They are not the passengers’ lifeboats… The last captain of this ship didn’t leave enough lifeboats and, besides, nobody could have foreseen the iceberg.

The former PM’s words that left us shocked