Hammer Mill Days

Some people count to ten when they're angry. Others resort to a punching bag or maybe a mattress stood up against the wall. I've known people to shut themselves in a closet and scream bloody murder. But THIS ... THIS is outrageous. Remind me, next time I start a band, don't ... repeat, don't have a mad science advisor. Sure, they can help you out in a pinch, like that time we needed to get to that gig on Neptune and our van had broken down. Or that other time when I needed a personal robot assistant. Thing is, they are so freaking mercurial. (In Mitch Macaphee's case, I think the reason for that may be that he just spent way too much time on the planet Mercury.) And when the act out, it can have profound consequences. I've never even come close to being a scientist, but when I was a kid - like most American kids - I built a plaster volcano. Pretty sure Mitch did so when he was young, only his little 'cano burned down his elementary school and his mates ...

Elections have consequences, as they say, and few weeks have provided better evidence of that nostrum than this past one. The pullout from the Iran deal (JCPOA) is the most obvious example. Trump has been threatening this since his first Nuremberg rally on the campaign trail two years ago, and he made good on the threat, shredding what was the positive centerpiece of Obama's foreign policy legacy (the negative one being Libya). It feels very much like this is simple get back on Trump's part - there's no way in hell that he ever read even the preamble of the JCPOA; his drive to kill the deal was part of his determination to undo the previous eight years, and he put another nail in that coffin this week. The Sharpie ink was barely dry on Trump's memorandum to leave the JCPOA before Israel began threatening more action against Iran and Syria. Just the previous week, an official had threatened a decapitation raid on Syria if Assad would not stop hosting Iranians. Now they...