Is Trump Stable Enough to Handle Nuclear Codes Unless We Are Attacked

Trump's Con-Man Card Trick With Our Future

Trump has two aces up his con-man sleeve: 

1. Get tax reform for his BFF's, and if that fails…

2. Take us to Def Con 1 vis-à-vis North Korea.

GOP thrives on those two issues: Tax cuts for the top (to trickle down) and new war to show strength.

FYI: During the Cuban missile standoff with the old USSR in October 1962, we went to Def Con 2 for the first time in history – now under Trump, who the hell knows:

DEFCON 5:  Normal peacetime readiness
DEFCON 4:  Normal, increased intelligence and strengthened security measures
DEFCON 3:  Increase in force readiness above normal readiness
DEFCON 2:  Further increase in force readiness; less than maximum readiness
DEFCON 1: Maximum force readiness.

DEFENSE EMERGENCY definition: Major attack upon U.S. forces overseas, or allied forces in any area, and is confirmed either by the commander of a unified or specified command or higher authority, or an overt attack of any type is made upon the United States, and is confirmed by the commander of a unified, or specified command or higher authority.

AIR DEFENSE EMERGENCY definition: Air defense emergency is an emergency condition, declared by the Commander-in-Chief (e.g., Trump) to North American Aerospace Defense Command. It indicates that attack upon the continental United States, Canada, or U.S. installations in Greenland by hostile aircraft or missiles is considered probable, is imminent, or is taking place.

So, I ask: Does Trump have the best mental stability on his own to avoid war unless we are directly attacked? On the surface, I’d have to say hell no.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by.

Access Hollywood Tape: Is Access White House Next on the Shopping List

Boy, I hope her left hand was covering and protecting her woo-woo

Hypocrisy Much: Don Lemon, Joy Reid, and other media stars ruthlessly mock O’Reilly and Fox News

CNN anchor Don Lemon didn’t hold back when he found out that Fox News paid out $32 million to a woman who accused Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment just a month before the network renewed O’Reilly’s contract.

My Conclusion: First of all, I can’t stop laughing...

So, where is Fox on all this (handled like old news, um)?

Where is Trump on this (routine or SOP for him)?

Reminder of that Access Hollywood tape:

Maybe he is off ginning up a good story for later – that would be my first guess. 

And, he still loves Fox – at least he says so. Both set good examples, right?

Thanks for stopping by.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o21fXqguD7U

"You're Fired" — 5 Out — 4 On Deck: Take A Number Have A Seat Standby

X's Out: Miller up, then Conway, Coin Toss for 3rd and 4th

(My Pick: Tillerson then Sessions)

I read the George Will piece (link below), so I see Stephen Miller, a major W/H adviser to Trump on deck. 

Watch the short slip below (about 3:30 minutes) wherein Miller is ripped by Stephanopoulos on ABC This Week and tell me differently. Miller should not be anywhere near the White House let alone advising Trump or any other president for that matter.  

Now the fine piece by George Will at the Washington Post – Miller the same subject. It is truly a good read and especially with this attention-getting, eye-popping title:

George F. Will: “Sinister figures lurk around our careless president”

A few highlights from the article:

“Trump’s energy, unleavened by intellect and untethered to principle, serves only his sovereign instinct to pander to those who adore him as much as he does. Unshakably smitten, they are impervious to the Everest of evidence that he disdains them as a basket of gullibles. He understands that his unremitting coarseness satisfies their unpolitical agenda of smashing crockery, even though his self-indulgent floundering precludes fulfillment of the promises he flippantly made to assuage their sense of being disdained. He gives his gullibles not governance by tantrum, but tantrum as governance.”

“Trump is, of course, innocent of this (or any other) systemic thinking. However, within the ambit of his vast, brutish carelessness are some people with sinister agendas and anti-constitutional impulses. Stephen Miller, Bannon’s White House residue and Trump’s enfant terrible, recently said that “in sending our [tax reform] proposal to the tax-writing committees, we will include instructions to ensure all low- and middle-income households are protected.” So, Congress will be instructed by Trump’s 32-year-old acolyte who also says the president’s national security powers “will not be questioned.” We await the response of congressional Republicans, who did so little to stop Trump’s ascent and then so much to normalize him.”

Read more from George F. Will’s archive or follow him on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by – hope you enjoyed this post. I enjoyed the topic.

Trump Sabotages ACA (Obamacare) and Attacks Low-Income Citizens

Can Anyone Stop this Trump Madness Run Amok

(The all GOP-run Congress can stop him, will they)

Ring, Ring, Ring: “Thanks for calling the healthcare destruction help line. I’m Dr. Donald. How may I help you? Remember that your government is always here to help and assist you anyway possible with your dire healthcare needs. Now listen carefully to this prerecorded message.”

Media now has a solemn duty for the public report, report, report and be as factual as possible on this topic from Media Matters with this headline: 

Consequences of Trump dismantling the ACA are dire —media coverage must reflect that

Heart of the story – as if Donald J. Trump even had a heart – cite:

Trump just announced (October 12) that he would be ending cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments to insurers, which have been a crucial part of the ACA and that have helped ensure that low-income Americans can afford health insurance.

During the fight over the ACA this summer, media outlets made a litany of mistakes in their health care coverage. Given the dire consequences of this latest move to dismantle the ACA, it’s increasingly important that coverage avoids a few key pitfalls.

More about this latest Trump EO that he acts as if were law (it’s not):

Ending cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments is the latest move by the GOP-led effort to sabotage the ACA and it has been since 2010, and media must say so.

Republican efforts to take down the ACA is not new, but they have been re-galvanized under Trump’s presidency. A lot of the destruction Trump and his cronies have caused has been in the shadows, and that strategy has fooled the media into neglecting to mention the role of sabotage whenever anything goes wrong in the health care market.

FYI: The ACA was doing fine before Trump got his hands on it even with minor glitches.

Despite the near constant complaints from right-wing media figures of a “death spiral,” various analyses have found that the Obamacare markets were in fact stabilizing. Even the Trump administration’s own Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a report finding stable markets in 2016.

This sabotage really shouldn’t be surprising. Trump said he would “let Obamacare implode,” if congressional efforts to repeal and replace the ACA failed. They did horribly many times: votes in Congress and two weak substitute bills went nowhere.

I conclude: Anything new coming from this will be 100% be labeled Trumpcare.

Make no mistake about it, this move is the worst in healthcare history. 

It also reveals the worst president in American history.

Thanks for stopping by.

Unpredictable, Uncertain, Unqualified, Unfit, Unstable, and Unpresidential

This is Self-Evident

His own words: “I wanna be unpredictable”

(see short video clip below)

Here we are with Donald J. Trump as seen in this short video clip – his own words, not mine:

FYI and No, Mr. Trump: The world and people in general like stability in their lives and leaders who are not unstable or unpredictable as you have shown that you are, and nearly every single day. 

Years and decades of fairly workable programs and relations are now in turmoil or jeopardy just because Trump does not like them as he deals in pettiness and childlike behavior by tweeting. All the while major world and domestic issues get flushed down the toilet or are threatened just because Trump says something is “bad or the worse deal or treaty or agreement ever.” Just because Trump says something is bad, does not mean it is bad, but don't tell his loyalists that.

He says NAFTA, the Paris Climate Accord, the Iranian Nuke Deal, NFL unable to manage their own players, that taxes are bad (except for the rich) and that deficits are okay, nasty insults to our allies and friends all the while fluffing adversaries like Russia and Putin with praise. 

BTW: Hearing Trump say something or someone is bad does not make it or them bad just because he says so.

Now he wants pull NBC license over a report about him ... FYI: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and major media giants do not have a license to be taken away by Trump. It is their affiliates who have licenses to operate in town and cities.

Also, his statements about increasing our nuclear force is well-documented (seen here and also more below).

All that is again nothing but a pack of Trump lies.

He is as the entire world knows a pathological and habitual liar about anything and just about everyone – it’s his natural character and probably has been his entire adult life.

We hear him say something in the morning and then deny it in the evening when after it has been captured on film and video in his own words, and then his surrogates come out and say: “He was joking, or his words taken out of context.”

No, his words are not out of context – he is out of touch with reality and way in over his head – everything he says or does or tries is done as if he sits in a business board room and only he get to make decisions – life or death and in this case mostly dealing with death (NK, Iran, China, Venezuela, Russia and of course nuclear threats).

Past Trump Nuclear Weapon Statements – 

“We have nuclear arsenals which are in very terrible shape.”

In that same New York Times interview in March 2016, Trump indicated that Japan and South Korea might need to obtain their own nuclear arsenal to protect themselves from North Korea and China if the U.S. is unable to defend them, saying in part: “It’s a position that we have to talk about. If the United States keeps on its path, its current path of weakness, they’re going to want to have that anyway with or without me discussing it, because I don’t think they feel very secure in what’s going on with our country.”

Then he added: “At some point, we cannot be the policeman of the world. And unfortunately, we have a nuclear world now.”

He implied that Japan and Korea might need to pay more for their own defense saying: “You know, when we did these deals, we were a rich country. We’re not a rich country. We were a rich country with a very strong military and tremendous capability in so many ways. We’re not anymore. We have a military that’s severely depleted. We have nuclear arsenals which are in very terrible shape. They don’t even know if they work.”

“Maybe it's going to have to be time to change.”

Trump discussed his nuclear stance also on CNN in late March, saying the U.S. might need to change its decades-old policy of preventing Japan from getting a nuclear weapon saying: “Can I be honest are you? Maybe it's going to have to be time to change, because so many people, you have Pakistan has it, you have China has it. You have so many other countries are now having it.”

Still later he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper wherein he appeared to contradict himself, saying he doesn’t want more nuclear weapons, adding: “I will have a military that's so strong and powerful, and so respected, we're not gonna have to nuke anybody.”

America's defense force he said in an interview with GQ magazine last November that: “I will have a military that's so strong and powerful, and so respected, we're not gonna have to nuke anybody, and I am amazingly calm under pressure.”

But, then he concluded with GQ that he wouldn't get rid of the nuclear weapons because: “Other people have them and are unfortunately gaining more and more. It is highly, highly, highly, highly unlikely that I would ever be using them.”

Conclusion today: Yeah, that Donald J. Trump: Mr. Wishy-Washy Himself. A man who says he loves to be unpredictable and obviously is as well. 

He is also a pathological and serial liar who probably does not even know it when he lies. 

We in the public have in the past been reluctant to call our leaders a liar – but in Trump’s case it is well documented.

Trump is a liar and cannot be trusted or believed. I can’t fathom having reached this point in our history of not believing or trusting our president, but in this case, Trump cannot be trusted.

Thanks for stopping by.

"What's My Line" Old TV Hit Show: Will the Reel Trump Please Sign In

EPA Director Scott Pruitt: Major announcement in Hazard, KY

(re: Clean Air is a Hoax)

What is Trump's Line: Erase Everything Obama

This background introduces the following post for today, re: Science and Climate Change Deniers Strike Hard Blow Against Clean Air. 

FACTS: Or just call it Science Education 101: Most GOPers use the word “theory” as their definition or personal idea or hunch to show that someone holds a view that is untrue or unproven, and that is totally false and incorrect.

In science, for example, the word “theory” refers to the way a person or team of persons interpret facts to reach a conclusion about a problem to be solved.

For example: Most if not all dictionaries say that every scientific theory starts out as a hypothesis, that is: “An idea that hasn't been proven yet, but if enough evidence accumulates to support the hypothesis, it moves to the next step, which is called a theory.” Like for E=MC2 or theory of gravity, or Heliocentrism from Copernicus in 1543 (i.e., that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the Sun around Earth).

In the scientific method approach that becomes accepted as a valid explanation of a phenomenon or problem that is being studied that needs a solution to prove or in some cases disprove any hypothesis.

Most Republicans however, fail to not only distrust this method or even to fully comprehend the steps (methodology) since they are basically “anti-science” about most anything – that is a proven fact – neither my hypothesis nor a theory – and the whole world knows that – just listen to them try and explain away climate change, birth control, or some tough math problem.

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Now the story and the total irony in the story: First is the name of city where this story took place “Hazard” (KY) – how about hazards to our health? That is dirty, filthy, and polluted air which everyone needs to breathe and live? Oops…!!!

HAZARD, KY (from NPR) – Scott Pruitt, EPA Chief, announced that he and is agency will sign a new rule overriding the “Clean Power Plan” which was an Obama-era effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants – i.e., another attack on Mr. Obama, whom Trump hates and is trying to erase forever – plain as day.

The story from Pruitt in this statement is ironic: “The war on coal is over. No federal agency should ever use its authority to declare war on any sector of our economy.”

I Note: But Federal agencies and EO’s signed by Trump are free to declare war on women and their birth control healthcare, or children and theirs (no funding CHIP), or seniors and Medicare and Social Security under fire (again), or low-income or no-income or disabled people losing Medicaid and SNAP.

I see, I see.

What a bunch of lousy, nasty, just plain awful people the GOP has become – just awful and that’s from Trump on down the line – just terrible and biased to boot.

For Pruitt, getting rid of the Clean Power Plan will mark the culmination of a long fight he began as the former AG in Oklahoma. Pruitt is among about two-dozen attorney generals who sued to stop President Barack Obama's push to limit carbon emissions. Closely tied to the oil and gas industry in his home state, Pruitt rejects the consensus of scientists that man-man emissions from burning fossil fuels are the primary driver of global climate change.

Trump shares Pruitt’s and other’s anti-sciece view and skepticism of established climate science. He plans to kill (and is killing) the Clean Power Plan and other Obama era programs – why? Trump hates Mr. Obama. 

Trump's 2020 campaign logo will probably be this:

Grabbed from GQ - nice logo

In his order, Pruitt is expected to declare that the Obama-era rule exceeded federal law by setting emissions standards that power plants could not reasonably meet. Pruitt appeared at an event with Senate Majority Leader McConnell at Whayne Supply in Hazard, a company that sells coal mining supplies and laid off 60% of its workers in recent years.

While cheering the demise of the Clean Power Plan as a way to stop the bleeding, McConnell conceded most of those lost jobs are never coming back, saying: “A lot of damage has been done. This doesn't immediately bring everything back, but we think it stops further decline of coal fired plants in the United States and that means there will still be some market here.”

Noteworthy: Obama's plan was designed to cut U.S. carbon dioxide emissions to 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The rule dictated specific emission targets for states based on power-plant emissions and gave officials broad latitude to decide how to achieve reductions. The Supreme Court put the plan on hold last year following legal challenges by industry and coal-friendly states.

The plan helped drive a recent wave of retirements of coal-fired plants, which also are being squeezed by lower costs for natural gas and renewable power, as well as state mandates promoting energy conservation.

This is Trump’s latest move in a series of others to dismantle Obama's legacy on fighting climate change, including the delay or roll back of rules limiting levels of toxic pollution in smokestack emissions and wastewater discharges from coal-burning power plants, and that is on top of Trump saying he pull the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement, which nearly 200 countries have committed to combat global warming by reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Shame on Trump and anyone who voted for him … he is a disgrace to the country and world as a whole and a total menace to science and medicine and that is clear as a bell.

More sick Irony from Pruitt: “This president has tremendous courage. He put America first and said to the rest of the world we are going to say no and exit the Paris Accord. That was the right thing to do.”

(I say Pruitt is as crazy and misguided and narrow-minded as Trump – and that’s not good for anyone, anywhere, and at any time).

Environmental groups and public health advocates quickly derided the decision as short sighted with the Sierra Club director, Michael Brune saying:

“Trump is not just ignoring the deadly cost of pollution, he's ignoring the clean energy deployment that is rapidly creating jobs across the country.”

Why am I not surprised by this latest from Trump?

But, the real question is: Why do we tolerate this crap. That a very fair question.

Thanks for stopping by.

History Lesson of North and South Korea: Helps Put Things in Perspective

The Korean Peninsula Today: North and South Korea

A brief history of Korea here in 4 minutes: 

Thanks for stopping by and sharing this short moment in history.

“Closed Case” Reeks to High Heaven: Needs Reopened By Whom (lol lol)

End Their Crooked Ways: Surely Not By The Trump DOJ (oops)

This story, among a lot of other Trump-related stories, should grab the entire nation by the throat as a call for action.

(The article below in part is a collaboration between ProPublica, WNYC, and The New Yorker (and not subject to our Creative Commons license):

The Lead Headline from WNYC:

How Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., Avoided a Criminal Indictment

Background: New York prosecutors were preparing a case against Don Jr. and Ivanka.

Then the Manhattan DA, Cyrus Vance, Jr. overruled his own staff after a visit from President Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz (who we now also know gave at least two campaign contributions to that same DA).

History of the Case: In the spring of 2012, Donald Trump’s two eldest children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., found themselves in a precarious legal position.

For two years, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office had been building a criminal case against them for misleading prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo, a hotel and condo development that was failing to sell.

Despite the best efforts of their defense team, the case had not gone away. An indictment seemed like a real possibility.

The evidence included emails from the Trumps making clear that they were aware they were using inflated figures about how well the condos were selling to lure buyers.

For example:

In one email, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers.

In another, according to a person who read the emails, they worried that a reporter might be onto them.

In yet another, Donald Jr. spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the email.

To listen to the audio radio report of this story on WNYC radio click here and hit the blue button (top left) … the report is about 16 minutes. Most-informative:

Logical conclusion from a person who read the emails: “There was no doubt that the Trump children approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales, and they knew it was wrong.”

My ending now that we the public has found out amount to this in my view:

The obvious facts were brushed aside for what now appears been due to “hush money to the DA office for his reelection” and that closed the case and again now with tons of excuses and lawyer layer of clever slickness.

So, is there a there there? Bet your ass there is and was. So, why has no higher authority looked into the bribe aspect – for surely that was for one clear reason: “To close the case?”

But, in this order of things, so what, right? Call it another Donald Trump con WTF moment.

Our history is now stuck on stupid with this presidency. The Trumps have planted a huge irreversible stain on the country and on our entire social and justice and political systems perhaps forever.

From the story above – this final chapter, I guess:

1.  Ivanka Trump is now an adviser to the president, with an office in the West Wing.

2.  Donald Jr. is running much of the family empire.

3.  Their father is in the White House as president.

4.  Marc Kasowitz attained national prominence when he was retained to represent the president in the Russia investigation, only to be supplanted as lead counsel.

5. Manhattan DA Vance is running unopposed for reelection in November.

6.  The Trump SoHo project went into foreclosure in 2014 and was taken over by a creditor.

7.  Only 128 of the 391 units in the building have sold. That comes out to around 33 percent.

Good business people now running the country, um? Seems this crooked crap runs in the Trump DNA – and that means forever, until???? Who knows, really?

Where do we go now? Who really knows? We appear to be stuck in second gear that is marked national stupidity – at least in my foxhole view.  

Still, thanks for stopping by.

Cache of North Korean RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenades) Seized in Egypt

Type of North Korean RPG Cache Seized in Egypt

North Korean Army with RPG's on Parade

Pretty startling headlines... absolutely astonishing. A cache of some 30,000 RPG's from North Korea (picture above) were nabbed on a ship recently and guess who had ordered them? 

Here's the story and headline from the Washington Post:

A North Korean ship was seized off Egypt with a huge cache of weapons destined for a surprising buyer

Highlights:

Last August, a secret message was passed from Washington to Cairo warning about a mysterious vessel steaming toward the Suez Canal. The bulk freighter named Jie-Shun was flying Cambodian colors but had sailed from North Korea.

The warning said it had an-all North Korean crew and unknown cargo shrouded by heavy tarps.

Armed with this tip, customs agents were waiting when the ship entered Egyptian waters.

They swarmed the vessel and discovered, concealed under bins of iron ore, a cache of more than 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades (RPG’s).

It was, as a UN report later concluded, the “largest seizure of ammunition in the history of sanctions against the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – North Korea).”

So, who were the rockets for? The Jie-Shun’s final secret would take months to resolve and would yield perhaps the biggest surprise of all:

The buyers were the Egyptians themselves – yeah, U.S. ally. 

Then this background: Washington under various administrations has given Cairo nearly $80 billion in military and economic assistance over the past 30 years. Pledges have been made to continue to support Egypt in helping defeat extremists, fighting terrorism, and bolstering their economy (one Trump official said). 

I Conclude: We remain great at picking allies don’t we, um?

Now what is the Trump Team’s next move? Stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by – come again.