Time for a breather — one bullet governments

It’s been hot and heavy with articles on Cassava Sciences, Simufilam, obits, reviews of physics books etc., etc.   It’s time for a breather, although the subject is still heavy and fraught.

Quick.  Think of who would take over if any of the following died — Putin, Xi or the Ayatollah Khamenei.  You can’t can you.  Why?  Because they’ve eliminated any plausible successors (because they are plausible successors).

Back in the day, the Council on Foreign Relations sent speakers out to the hinterlands, on the premise that out of country events could and would impact us severely.

This was certainly true for those of us listening to their speakers in Billings, Montana, after President Carter banned US exports of wheat to Russia after their invasion of Afghanistan in ’79.  Those ‘amber waves of grain’ in America the Beautiful were Montana wheat fields, which actually could look amber when the light was just right.

One of the most interesting speakers was the Egyptian ambassador, who talked about ‘one bullet governments’ whose policies could (and did) radically change when one bullet took out the supreme leader.   I think this was before the assassination of Anwar Sadat which changed Egypt’s policies radically.

Putin, Xi and the Ayatollah Khamenei  bring to mind a great science fiction story written by William Tenn back in 1955 called “The Servant Problem” concerning the ‘day of complete control’.  Here’s a link —  enjoy  — https://fb2.top/the-servant-problem-227187/read.    It’s still quite relevant.