The new incarnation of Senator Moonbeam

Young Brown.

That headline requires a little explication. In 1982, two-term California Governor Jerry Brown ran for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Republican S.I. Hayakawa. Jerry had been a mixed bag as Governor, but he seemed a wonderful choice for the Senate, a visionary with big ideas well-suited to an office in which day to day administrative competence was not very important. That's funny to remember now that we've seen two more terms from Guv Jerry in which administrative competence was a cornerstone of his tenure. Anyway, lot of Californians looked forward to seeing the still youthful Brown blow the minds of the old fogies in DC; but alas, more Californians wanted Pete Wilson instead ... and that eventually led to terrible times for the state GOP.

Now that Jerry has finished two more largely successful terms in Sacramento, at age 80, he's back to a visionary role. He's been named "executive chairman" of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, sounding the alarm about climate change and nuclear catastrophe. At the Bulletin's annual shindig announcing the position of their alarming doomsday clock which currently sits at 2 minutes to midnight, Brown laid out our peril:

“The blindness and stupidity of the politicians and their consultants is truly shocking in the face of nuclear catastrophe,” Brown said. “We know that thousands of these weapons on high alert could be launched by mistake…. We are almost like travelers on the Titanic, seeing the iceberg up ahead but enjoying the elegant dining and the music.”

“The danger and probability is mounting that there will be some kind of nuclear incident that will kill millions, if not initiating exchanges that will kill billions,” he declared.

... And Brown had a message for the media too, which he says too often focuses on petty Washington drama and the political horse race over the increasing dangers of nuclear annihilation and environmental collapse.

“You love Trump’s tweets,” he said. “You love the leads and to get the clicks. But the final click could be a nuclear accident or mistake.”