Burke: Got my bearings back, but bracing for impact

By Tom Burke / Herald Columnist

Years ago, as a junior officer in the merchant navy, I sailed (literally) around the world on freighters, tankers and passenger ships.

I learned a lot on those ships: how to manage men, give and take orders, ride out a typhoon at sea, and make decisions and live with the consequences. I could navigate by the stars, pilot in busy waters, supervise cargo operations, and even fight pirates (in Naples harbor and the Malacca Straits).

But one of the most important lessons I learned driving boats was: By the time you realize something has gone wrong, it’s too late to fix it.

Like when you meet another boat and plot the other guy’s course and speed while mentally reviewing the “Rules of the (Nautical) Road” to determine who has the right-of-way and who must take action to avoid a collision.

All the while keeping in mind that when it becomes patently, painfully, clearly obvious that something really bad is gonna happen, it’s way too late for redemption. (It takes four miles to “stop” an average freighter.)

So, because everything happens in really slow motion, you learn quickly that it’s incumbent on boat drivers to anticipate the worst right from the start; take action early; adhere to the written nautical laws; and honor the collective, unwritten conventions developed since the first humanoid sat athwart a floating log and met up with another guy floating on another log.

Now, gentle reader, you might be asking yourself, “Why is he writing about slo-mo collisions at sea in the age of space tourism and the 24-hour news cycle?”

Because one just happened off the British coast? And it did. But nope, not that.

It’s because a bigger collision, the one between democracy and authoritarian plutocracy, is happening today, now, as you read this, people. Right here in America.

And it’s going to be too late to do anything except brace for impact and figure out how to survive the collision if people don’t wake up and do something.

Need proof?

Here’s some in two words: Elon Musk.

Un-elected. Un-democratic. Un-knowledgeable. Un-principled. Un-hinged. And un-responsible to anyone, including Congress and the American voter. (That means you, bunky.)

Need more proof?

Ask yourself what possible good could conceivably come from the chaotic firing of tens of thousands government workers in, say, the National Parks Service, Health and Human Services (all employees there have been offered a $25,000 buy-out to quit), the IRS (cutting workforce by half, slashing its budget by $20 billion, and closing 110 Taxpayer Assistance Offices), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the FAA, the EPA (by 65 percent), the Veterans Administration (firing 80,000), eliminating the Department of Education, gutting Social Security (by 50 percent), NOAA (800 to 1,000 fired, including the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center) and eviscerating a score of other government agencies.

Plus eliminating funding for cancer research and schools mandating vaccines. (Hello, Mr. Measles.)

Yet more proof:

What possible good could conceivably come from Trump’s trade war that’s sending the Dow down 1,000 points on real fears of tariff-caused inflation and costing everyone thousands in higher prices; viciously stabbing the Ukrainian people in the back; abandoning the world’s sick and starving by eliminating U.S. Agency for International Development help (83 percent of programs cancelled); allowing China to continue making inroads globally as they replace us in the developng world; “conquering” Greenland; or making Canada the 51st state?

And the GOP budget up for a vote this week will massively add to the deficit. Think that’s a good idea?

Need a whole lot more proof?

Just wait ‘till Kash Patel, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Pete Hegseth get their hands on the day-to-day operations of the Justice Department, HHS, and Defense Department.

And talking about day-to-day, how about your day-to-day as the Trump $4 trillion tax cut for the 1 percent is — as they’re strongly hinting — going to be paid for by cuts to your Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (the proposed GOP budget cuts of hundreds of billions from Medicaid, which provides health coverage for some 40 percent of America’s children), WIC, SNAP, et al; and that the entire government might shut down this Friday as Republicans try to shovel even more power to Trump and Musk.

And oh, yes, let’s not forget about pardoning the thousands convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as we all watched in real time on TV, and resulting in the deaths of five officers and injuring scores more who were protecting lawmakers and preventing the mob from hanging (Hanging!) the vice president.

Now some folks noticed my hiatus from my column. I did it for a couple of reasons, some personal and some to observe the new administration.

Well, while I am physically and mentally 10,000 percent better than I was in December, I’m, surprisingly to me, flashing back 50 years to potential collisions at sea as we watch Trump 2.0 take shape.

Now I never hit anything when I sailed (although I just-in-time stopped a soon-to-retire-after-50-years-of-sailing-Scottish-born-third-mate, who was torpedoed three times in WWII, from hitting Italy at 25 knots, but that’s another story).

But I, like you, am involved in the collision between responsible governance and the insanity of Trump’s second term, the chaos of his “reign,” his implementation of Project 2025, and the start of an authoritarian dictatorship.

We are watching, in slo-mo, something really, really bad happening: the deliberate destruction of our government and way of life.

And I fear for how it may end.

It certainly gonna be a whole lot worse than hitting Italy at 25 knots would have been.

Brace yourself.

Slava Ukrani.

Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.