There is panic in the air … airwaves, that is. And in the ether and the worldwide web. Panic in the boardroom. Panic in the media prep rooms. Panic in the lobbies of Congress (and their office palaces). Panic in the universities. Panic everywhere.

Why? To read dozens of commentaries and hear hundreds of sound bites, the End Times are here. Armageddon! Ragnarok! Total destruction of civilization – and then the entire world! The panic and fear-mongering are running wild.

According to all these sources, World War Three is upon us. Trump has started the next global war. The Iranians will destroy the world’s economy, the world’s infrastructure, and we are all gonna die. The killing of an Iranian military commander is the greatest crime of the century (so far, at least). Trump must be brought to justice. The Iranians must be bought to peace (not a typo). Iraq is at last united – but in hatred of America. American soldiers and their families must (and are) cowering in fear.

And that is just the so-called “legitimate” media: both mainstream and alternative (even libertarian). If you look at the real conspiracy sites, the panic is even more overblown, more exaggerated. And even less founded.

The panic and inflated claims actually are on both sides: there are also those who are hailing Trump and his minions as geniuses who are finally getting things straightened out. Some point out this is some kind of fourth-dimensional chess game that Trump is playing to get the US out of the Persian Gulf quagmire.

As is typical in a time of wide and spreading panic, people’s normal behavior is magnified. Those who love Trump seem to love him more. Those who hate the Donald intensify their hateful and bitter rhetoric. Those who love Israel swarm to its defense, and those who view Israel as the spiritual heir of the Third Reich celebrate its supposed greater vulnerability. Those who view the Democrats of Congress as evil incarnate, are more sure than ever of the horns and tail.

I’m going to go out on a limb. This is going to blow over. The FedGov (or Trump) didn’t start World War Three. Iran isn’t going to launch hundreds of sleeper cells across the FIfty States to destroy the power grid, poison the water, fry our cell phones, blow up military family housing areas, and the like. Iran is not going to close the Straits of Hormuz and cause the energy starvation of Japan, Korea, India, and a part of Europe and Africa. The US Army, Navy, and Air Force isn’t going to launch a massive ground invasion of the Islamic Iranian Republic. The armies and militias of Mesopotamia are not going to swarm American military bases in the area, massacring American troops or getting massacred.

And probably, all American troops are not going to be removed from the Middle East – probably not even the ones in Mesopotamia (“Iraq”).

The entire drama WILL continue now – right up to and well past the federal elections in November. We will continue to hear and see all the squalls and screams and threats in the UN and various EU and other world capitals.

The Tranzis will continue to speak highly and respectively of their Islamist proxies, and those Islamist proxies will in turn continue to harangue their proxies and minions. The low-level wars in Mesopotamia and Canaan will continue. The higher-intensity wars in Yemen and Syria and Libya will go on. The fears of revolt and civil war in Iran and Arabia and elsewhere will still be there, and will be periodically fanned up, then smolder.

And the world will. not. come. to. an. end. Life will go on. Miserable for way to many of us. Comfortable – and even more comfortable – for a lot of us. And downright luxurious and decadent for the “elite” and the celebrities.

And we will periodically have these incidents and crises and stupid (or not) decisions.

The greatest concern I believe is warranted is just what this sort of panic and overreaction might be distracting us from. What other idiotic actions are our vaunted politicians in DC (and elsewhere) doing? How cunning are they right now? What evil schemes are they hatching and trying to sneak by us?

So what do we do as lovers of liberty? We keep on course. We follow Browne’s advise and live free in an unfree world. We encourage and help others learn about freedom and liberty and work towards it. And we continue to counter the efforts by so many people to take those freedoms away. Not just here at home, but any place else we can help.