Trump, team being blamed for views

It is said that the homeless problem disappears during a Democratic presidential administration and only rears its ugly head when a Republican wins the White House.

This is a normal and foreseen occurrence and therefore should not generate any headlines in the major newspapers.

While reading the political blogs last Sunday morning the following headline from “The New York Times” caught my eye: “Thanks to Trump, the Doomsday Clock Advances toward Midnight.”

My initial reaction was surprise that the Doomsday Clock still existed.

While people my age grew up living under the shadow of the clock set at 2 minutes to midnight from 1953 to 1960, I doubt that most of today’s generation even know what the clock is or what it represents.

Actually, as Glenn Reynolds of “Instapundit” explains, “The Doomsday clock is just a prop, and its advance or retreat reflects nothing more than the decision of a group of people with an agenda”.

If the clock ever gets to midnight, it denotes the end of the world as we know it.

It turns out the members of the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,” who maintain the clock moved it from 3 minutes till midnight to 2 and a half minutes on Jan. 26 of this year.

From 2010 to 2015 during the Obama administration the clock was moved twice; once from six minutes to five minutes till midnight in 2012 and then to three minutes till in 2015.

According to the article by Lawrence M. Krauss and David Titley, Trump is being blamed for the world coming closer to Armageddon with only one week in office. Some of the scientists’ reasoning that triggered the clock movement:

• North Korea continues nuclear weapons development

• Simmering tension between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed

• Russia is upgrading its nuclear arsenal

• China is helping Pakistan build submarine platforms

• World leaders have failed to act with the speed and on the scale required to protect their people from nuclear war and climate change.

Trump has no control over any of the above; what he does have control of are:

• Trump has made ill-considered comments about expanding America’s nuclear arsenal, and even deploying it

• He has expressed disbelief in global warming

• His nominees for Energy, EPA and the Office of Management and Budget have disputed or questioned climate change

I can’t recall a Times headline that said, “Thanks to Obama, the Doomsday Clock Advances toward Midnight.”

Trump and his team are being blamed for their views rather than their actions.

Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at:

[email protected]