In 1912 the British launched an “unsinkable” passenger ship. On its maiden voyage, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in about two hours. About half of the people on board perished in the frigid water. If you did not see James Cameron’s cinematic depiction of the disaster, it is currently back in movie houses thanks to a new Dolby version. See it. It is amazing.

Whether we know it or not, we are all sailing on an older TITANIC called the United States of America. For two centuries, we have been an unsinkable democracy.

But, as the ship Titanic proved, nothing is truly unsinkable.

The world has been living with a threat of a possible rogue nuclear power since 1945. We are now living on the brink of uncertainty of whether North Korea can be contained. One North Korean bomb could unleash a devastating nuclear war, the full consequences of which are almost impossible to predict.

More recently, the United States has been living with a rogue and accidental President who has neither a rational policy for dealing with North Korea nor any idea how to manage the United States and its economy.

Meanwhile, the Republican leadership in the US Senate and House of Representatives is rushing towards a budget and tax reform bill that virtually all independent and knowledgeable economists warn is a major threat to the US economy.

The last time our leaders ignored such a large number of economists was in 1930, when the Congress passed the disastrous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which led directly to the worst economic depression our country has ever seen.

Despite the numbers and expertise of their opposition, Congressional Republicans evidently want to ram their tax bill through before Trump implodes, believing that may help them in coming elections.

Like the ship Titanic the United States does NOT have enough life boats. Our national ship has sailed and none of us can get off. The combination of the threat of nuclear war with a serious threat to the whole American economy looms as a giant iceberg in our path forward.

But we can still scream and yell loudly before the Congress finally votes on the reconciled tax bill and we can argue that Trump’s incoherent foreign policy is in itself grounds for removing him from office.

We must take to the streets ASAP and yell REMEMBER THE TITANIC!!!