Trump, Netanyahu and the globalization of catastrophe

The wars that Trump and Netanyahu have started in Iran and Lebanon, with the corresponding response from the sinister dictatorship of the ayatollahs, already threaten to devastate everything: the economy, the environment, nuclear containment, and what little remained of international law. When gas fields are bombed and liquefied gas reserves are met with bombings, the security we take for granted—that we'll just get by and everything will work as usual—is more threatened than ever. We are witnessing the globalization of catastrophe, irresponsible and suicidal.

Although the list of global disasters is quite extensive, what we are experiencing these past weeks surpasses the limits of common sense and the general interest, limits that are only transgressed when someone in charge of the system is someone who, in Catalan, we say, "doesn't cover everything." It all started with "I could shoot people in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters," which at the time was applauded by the American public and European imitators as a provocative eccentricity and a promise of huge television ratings, and now we're at "I can cause a planetary cataclysm; and you shut up, loser."

A few months ago, Trump boasted about having ended the Iranian nuclear program. Now he says Iran is still a threat. But it doesn't matter, because even if he loses, Trump will say he won. Populism begins by attacking with words, then transgressing laws and leading the whole world to disaster. Epic fury? No, it's epic bullshit served up by Trump and Netanyahu.