Relax
Last night I came home from a meeting, hungry and hoping to relax before bed. So, I ate a bowl of Skyline Chili (after all, I am a born and bred Cincinnatian), and sat down to catch up on the world. First was an hour of political commentary. It explained how the Trump Administration nominated thirty year-old Paul Ingressia, a “ride or die” Trumper, to head the Office of Special Counsel. What does the Office of Special Counsel do? Primarily, the job is to protect “whistleblowers”, members of the Federal government who call out wrong-doing in their own agencies.
The Trump Administration is on a continual witch-hunt for the self-same “whistleblowers”. They want to silence the consistently critical attacks of Trump’s riding roughshod over Federal law and procedure. Appointing Ingressia isn’t putting “the fox in the chicken coop”: this is sending the chickens to the fox for protection.
So that wasn’t particularly relaxing.
Top Gun
Then, after all of our “usual” Thursday night shows were reruns, I decided to join a movie, “in progress”. I dropped into the second half of Top Gun, Maverick, the twenty years later sequel to the original blockbuster, Top Gun. It’s a movie about redemption. Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, is a hot-shot test pilot whose program is cut. He faces retirement from the Navy, until he is saved by his friend and commander, Iceman. The nation needs a special assignment with a special leader, and Maverick is the only man to do it.
The plot line is a variation on the original Top Gun. But this time, there’s a rogue nation, enriching uranium in a deep, underground facility. The only way to prevent this nation from gaining a nuclear weapon is to destroy the heavily guarded secret base. And the Navy is tasked with sending a squad of carrier launched F-18’s to strategically place the bombs down a ventilation shaft. They have to fly an impossible corridor, then hit a target about the size of a refrigerator. But that’s the only way to destroy the complex.
In fact, the first attack opens the shaft, and the second attack drops bombs down the shaft to destroy the facility.
Precision Bombing
It’s a carefully planned assault. Additional cruise missiles are launched to take out as much of the opposition weaponry as possible. And it’s a precision strike with special weapons. If you’re into aircraft carriers, dog fights at supersonic speeds, and Tom Cruise “macho”, it’s a pretty good movie. But last night I watched it with a whole new perspective.
Do you think President Trump watched the movie? How about Pete Hegseth, another “Bro” (along with young Mr. Ingressia) who seems to be over his head as Defense Secretary? Because the attack on “the foe” in Top Gun, Maverick, seems oddly in line with the US attack on Iran just a few weeks ago.
Even the terminology was similar: size of a refrigerator, two bombs to open the door, two bombs to destroy the facility. The US and a highly organized precision attack. Sure, there wasn’t the drama of Americans shot down over enemy territory. No one stole an old F-14 (just like in the original Top Gun). But is fiction mimicking fact, or did the Trump Administration take fiction and try to make it factual?
Drama
We know that Trump and his political handlers are all about “the drama”. In fact, in my opinion, Donald Trump is the President of the United States because of their adept use of the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. Before that attack, Trump and Biden were “even” in the polling, despite Biden’s poor showing in their only debate. But, after the drama, the raised fist over the blood-stained face, “Fight-Fight-Fight”, and the carefully staged Trump “resurrection” at the Republican Convention (remember the Trump kiss of the fire helmet?); it was clear the entire Presidential race was altered. Biden dropped out a few days later.
In fact, the Trump folks were terribly annoyed after the attack, that the media attention turned to whether the enriched uranium was actually destroyed. I think they were looking for the celebration scene on the flight deck, this time with crowds raising the B-2 bomber crews after their thirty hour mission half-way around the world and back. Trump followed Director Joseph Kosinski’s lead; from precision bombing (the refrigerator) to the cruise missile distractions, to the most advanced bombers in the real world,“Bat-Wing” B-2.
Awake
But they somehow didn’t get the popular results they expected. It wasn’t “just like” the movie.
What really concerns me is this. If the administration is taking their cues from popular movies, what’s the next “act” going to be? They already are following the plot of the TV show, Twenty-Four, ignoring the law for the “greater good”. Are we playing out in real time one of the “middle” Star Wars movies, where the Empire seems inevitable and the Jedi Knights are vanquished? Or is this some darker sequel, more of a Manchurian Candidate kind of thing?
I didn’t relax much. And it wasn’t the chili that kept me awake.
