Dance Card Days. . .

(Dance Card Days. . .)

General Leslie Groves was the one who built the Pentagon. He was also the head of the Manhattan Engineering District, otherwise known as the Manhattan Project, the American effort to develop an atomic bomb. Groves oversaw work at fissile material development at Oak Ridge (enhanced uranium), Hanford (plutonium) and of course the lab at Los Alamos, headed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer. The latter location was primitive for the scientists who had nineteen months to develop a working nuclear weapon. General Groves made it clear to that Los Alamos was not meant to be comfortable.

Another group of scientists not necessarily under Groves' jurisdiction resided at the University of Chicago (Professor Enrico Fermi conducted the first sustained atomic chain reaction under the University squash courts) were physicists who were on the theoretical side of the Project and. when efforts at Los Alamos began to results, when a practical application came to be realized, that a Bomb was possible in other words, the Chicago group began to have reservations.

Many of the involved scientists were German and their involvement had been predicated on the threat of a Hitler Bomb. When that threat receded but at least thousands of people could die, many scientists in Chicago began to have qualms. And they said as much. Letters were dispatched voicing these concerns. Arguments were furious, alternate uses for the bomb discussed like making a demonstration and inviting the Soviets. All such alternatives were discounted and, on the authorization of President Truman, the atomic missions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were flown.

President-Elect Trump has assembled his Dance Card and these Nominations now go to the Senate. Republican Senators might be in the Majority but like those Chicago that were shocked that an atomic Bomb might actually be produced, the idea of Trump actually winning is the same as bombing Hiroshima. There are the usual suspects. All of them so-called "moderate" Republicans. Ones who take the President-Elect with a grain of salt. They have never been comfortable with Trump and are unsure of his agenda.

However, like what General Groves said about Los Alamos, these Senate Republicans are not there to be comfortable. If they confirm Trump's Cabinet and cooperate with House Republicans and forward the Trump agenda, the tax cuts and regulation reductions, or all the "government reform" from the DOGE. In any event, a target rich environment. This is not building an atomic bomb. It might be a situation where one only has to say yes.