Kim Jong-un says that North Korea will shut down its nuclear weapons program if America promises not to invade.

Did that missile just crash into the ocean again?

Courtesy of the NYT: 

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, told President Moon Jae-in of South Korea when they met that he would abandon his nuclear weapons if the United States would agree to formally end the Korean War and promise that it would not invade his country, a South Korean government spokesman said Sunday. 

In a faith-building gesture ahead of a summit meeting with President Trump, Mr. Kim also said he would invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States to watch the shutdown next month of his country’s only known underground nuclear test site. 

The comments by Mr. Kim were made on Friday when the leaders of the two Koreas met at Panmunjom, a village on their shared border, the spokesman, Yoon Young-chan, said on Sunday, providing additional details of the meeting. 

“I know the Americans are inherently disposed against us, but when they talk with us, they will see that I am not the kind of person who would shoot nuclear weapons to the south, over the Pacific or at the United States,” Mr. Kim told Mr. Moon, according to Mr. Yoon’s account of the meeting.

I'm sorry didn't he just fire missiles over Japan?

That's a little southish.

Besides the only reason that Jong-un is promising that he will not fire weapons at the United States is because his fucking missiles will not reach the United States.

And his promise to abandon his nuclear weapons program is most likely due to the fact that his testing site collapsed, and NOT because Trump scared him.

However the leader of North Korea has picked up on something that his former wives learned early on. If you shower Trump with praise ("Oh Donald it's the biggest I have ever seen.") he will give you whatever the fuck you want.

Essentially Kim Jong-un is playing Trump like a bloated orange tinted fiddle.

Does Donald Trump deserve credit for peace between North and South Korea? Not so much.

After this admittedly historic meeting, Donald Trump was quick to jump in and snatch the credit.

After a furious year of missile launches and Nuclear testing, a historic meeting between North and South Korea is now taking place. Good things are happening, but only time will tell!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

KOREAN WAR TO END! The United States, and all of its GREAT people, should be very proud of what is now taking place in Korea!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

But is it credit that he deserves?

What do you think?

Courtesy of The Independent:  

In a historic and opulent ceremony, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) to sign the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula during the Inter-Korean Summit and officially ended the war that began when the north and south split in a battle over communism and democracy that began on 25 June 1950.

Dr TJ Pempel, a professor at the University of California-Berkeley told The Independent while Mr Trump “deserves some credit but not as much as he’s taking”. While the United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang involved the US push from Ambassador Nikki Haley, that is “hardly the whole story”, Mr Pempel said. “China’s agreement to the sanctions was far more important,” he noted. 

The important point to note, he said, was that North Korea developed its nuclear programme considerably after Mr Trump took office. “The North is convinced that it has the upper hand in negotiations because of its nuclear and missile testing successes; the US thinks it has the upper hand because it believes Kim is negotiating because of the sanctions. It’s the combination that has triggered the North’s willingness to sit down”.

That is likely part of the explanation for Kim Jong-un's sudden cooperativeness, but this next story is likely an even bigger factor.

Courtesy of Forbes:  

North Korean president Kim Jong-un recently announced his country has halted its nuclear testing program. While it is unclear whether this is a political move in preparation for meeting with the United States president Donald Trump, recent evidence suggests the country may have been forced to halt testing. 

A recent study by a group of geologists discovered that the mountain used by North Korea for its nuclear bomb testing has collapsed as a result of the explosions. The collapsed mountain is raising concerns about radioactive fallout, which could make its way into China. 

Scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China believe this could be the true reason North Korean President Kim Jong-un announced the halt of their nuclear testing program.

So Kim Jong-un is not negotiating because he is suddenly all reasonable and shit, it's because he realizes that he needs to change tactics before his bluff is called and his enemies recognize that he is not the nuclear threat that he has made himself out to be.

He's like a thief who attempts to rob a liquor store, realizes that he forgot to load his gun, and then suddenly says "Look, Just give me a bottle of vodka and I will leave without taking your money. Deal?"

Donald Trump has a history of taking credit for other people's work, and this looks like one more example.

So about that meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

Apparently the stupid hair club is negotiating a nuclear disarmament.

Courtesy of CNN: 

President Donald Trump's stunning decision to meet Kim Jong Un sets up the prospect of the most mind-boggling diplomatic summit in modern history. 

Trump, a reality star turned convention busting President, has dubbed Kim "Little Rocket Man" and threatened to rain fire and fury over North Korea, raising fears of a devastating war across the world's last Cold War frontier. 

Kim, a portly 30-something whose state media recently blasted Trump as a "lunatic mean old trickster and human reject" presides over a prison state, purges his foes and has vowed to obliterate the US in a nuclear cloud. 

The meeting, announced by a South Korean delegation at the White House on Thursday night, would, if it goes ahead, mark an unmatched moment of history in the 70-year standoff between the US and the isolated state. 

In the short term, a meeting could defuse the spiraling tensions between the US and North Korea that have raised fears the two nations are on an accelerating slide to a clash that could kill millions on the Korean peninsula.

Now if I had not been observing Doanld Trump carefully these last two years, and only knew him from his reality show and appearances on the Howard Stern Show, I would not think he had a chance of pulling this off.

But having paid close attention since well before he announced his intention to run for president, I KNOW he cannot pull this off. 

Kim Jong Un is a man who has murdered members of his own family, and engaged in literally every human rights violation known to man, including starvation, torture, and slavery.

Donald Trump is an arrogant man child, with no diplomatic experience, and a penchant for impulsivity.

North Korea has entered into talks before about doing away with their nuclear program and they stalled almost immediately.

I agree with all of the pundits that this is a positive step, and far better than that whole threat of nuclear annihilation that Trump was trumpeting previously.

However only the dimmest Trump supporters will actually have faith that this will end the potential threat from North Korea.

It looks like Donald Trump is finally going to get his military parade.

Courtesy of Politico: 

President Donald Trump’s plans for a White House-backed military parade are beginning to take shape. 

The president has directed the Department of Defense to organize a parade that would take place on Nov. 11 – Veterans Day – according to an unclassified Feb. 20 memo written by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. 

The memo, which was summarized to POLITICO by a senior administration official, was sent from McMaster to Secretary of Defense James Mattis. It says that Trump wants Mattis to brief him on “concepts of operation for this event.” 

The memo also said that the parade route should begin at the White House and end at the Capitol. 

Trump, who revels in pageantry, first floated the idea of putting on a military parade after he witnessed France’s Bastille Day parade last summer as a guest of French president Emmanuel Macron.

Quick question, exactly how much brain damage much you have suffered to actually believe this parade has ANYTHING to do with the veterans?

No this is once again about Trump's overwhelming inferiority complex.

His must be bigger, longer, and more impressive.

And since we know it isn't, he is compelled to produce something that is.

And we know exactly who is is comparing his manhood against, don't we?

Courtesy of the New York Times:

President Trump announced harsh new shipping sanctions against North Korea on Friday — a clear signal, near the end of an Olympic Games marked by a rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula, that his pressure campaign against Pyongyang will not let up. 

“Today, I am announcing that we are launching the largest-ever set of new sanctions on the North Korean regime,” Mr. Trump was set to say to the Conservative Political Action Conference, according to excerpts of his remarks released by the White House.

And then there's this just today:

Speaking at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House, Trump said that if the sanctions don’t work “we’ll have to go to phase two,” which he said “may be a very rough thing.” 

“We'll have to see,” Trump said. “I don't think I'm going to exactly play that card. But we'll have to see. If the sanctions don't work we'll have to go to phase two. Phase two may be a very rough thing. May be very, very unfortunate for the world.”

.@POTUS on North Korea: "If the sanctions don't work we'll have to go phase two and phase two may be a very rough thing. It may be very very unfortunate for the world." pic.twitter.com/PQf0ysED5O

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 23, 2018

“But hopefully the sanctions will work,” Trump added. “We have tremendous support all around the world for what they're doing. It really is a rogue nation. If they can make a deal it will be a great thing. If we can't, something will have to happen. So we'll see.”

"Very rough thing for the WORLD." Not just North Korea, but the world. Keep that in mind folks.

In the past American presidents KNEW that they had nothing to prove, and that they could walk softly because they had a giant stick.

Trump apparently does feel he has such a stick.

And based on his history, he never has.

Which makes him dangerous, very, very dangerous. 

Donald Trump is demanding a strategic plan for a preemptive attack against North Korea. The Pentagon is worried that if they provide one, he will actually use it.

I want to blow something up.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The White House has grown frustrated in recent weeks by what it considers the Pentagon’s reluctance to provide President Trump with options for a military strike against North Korea, according to officials, the latest sign of a deepening split in the administration over how to confront the nuclear-armed regime of Kim Jong-un. 

The national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, believes that for Mr. Trump’s warnings to North Korea to be credible, the United States must have well-developed military plans, according to those officials. 

But the Pentagon, they say, is worried that the White House is moving too hastily toward military action on the Korean Peninsula that could escalate catastrophically. Giving the president too many options, the officials said, could increase the odds that he will act. 

The tensions bubbled to the surface this week with the disclosure that the White House had abandoned plans to nominate a prominent Korea expert, Victor D. Cha, as ambassador to South Korea. Mr. Cha suggested that he was sidelined because he warned administration officials against a “preventive” military strike, which, he later wrote, could spiral “into a war that would likely kill tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans.”

Donald Trump is desperate to find something to change the narrative away from these Russian investigations. 

It is folly to believe that he would not allow the death of thousands in order to accomplish that goal.

Megalomaniacs do not see people as human beings, they see them as a means to an end.

Donald Trump suggests that passing his recent cognitive test means he is more capable of solving the North Korea problem than his predecessors.

According to Reuters Trump said this while being asked about dealing with Kim Jong Un: 

With North Korea persisting as the major global challenge facing Trump this year, the president cast doubt on whether talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would be useful. In the past he has not ruled out direct talks with Kim. 

“I’d sit down, but I‘m not sure that sitting down will solve the problem,” he said, noting that past negotiations with the North Koreans by his predecessors had failed to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. 

He blamed his three immediate predecessors, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, for failing to resolve the crisis and, a day after his doctor gave him a perfect score on a cognitive test, suggested he had the mental acuity to solve it. 

“I guess they all realized they’re going to have to leave it to a president that scored the highest on tests,” he joked.

First off, he wasn't joking. The reporter from Reuters is just giving him the benefit of the doubt here.

And secondly Trump is ALWAYS bragging about his intellect, and I imagine truly believes he is more capable than Bill Clinton, a Rhodes Scholar, or Barack Obama, who became the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review, and may have the highest IQ of any president in modern history. 

Keep in mind that Trump's cognitive test consisted of remembering a sequence of numbers, simple subtraction, drawing a clock, and identifying animals by name.

It is a ten minute test that his doctor claimed took him thirty minutes to complete, and THIS suggests that he has good cognitive abilities?

Just the fact that he made the statement above, demonstrates the falsity of that claim.

It should also be mentioned that later in the Reuters article when asked Trump did not rule out a military solution to the North Korean problem.

Such sharp cognitive skills this one.

While we are all focused on the latest Donald Trump scandals, the military quietly prepares for war with North Korea.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Across the military, officers and troops are quietly preparing for a war they hope will not come. 

At Fort Bragg in North Carolina last month, a mix of 48 Apache gunships and Chinook cargo helicopters took off in an exercise that practiced moving troops and equipment under live artillery fire to assault targets. Two days later, in the skies above Nevada, 119 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division parachuted out of C-17 military cargo planes under cover of darkness in an exercise that simulated a foreign invasion. 

Next month, at Army posts across the United States, more than 1,000 reserve soldiers will practice how to set up so-called mobilization centers that move military forces overseas in a hurry. And beginning next month with the Winter Olympics in the South Korean town of Pyeongchang, the Pentagon plans to send more Special Operations troops to the Korean Peninsula, an initial step toward what some officials said ultimately could be the formation of a Korea-based task force similar to the types that are fighting in Iraq and Syria. Others said the plan was strictly related to counterterrorism efforts. 

In the world of the American military, where contingency planning is a mantra drummed into the psyche of every officer, the moves are ostensibly part of standard Defense Department training and troop rotations. But the scope and timing of the exercises suggest a renewed focus on getting the country’s military prepared for what could be on the horizon with North Korea.

As I reported last month the Navy has deployed special radar hunting warplanes to South Korea, supposedly for military exercises, but that is probably just a thinly veiled excuse.

And of course the Trump Administration is trying to loosen those restrictions on the use of nukes.

All of this seems like it is headed for a disaster for which we are simply not prepared to deal.

No wonder I am drinking so much damn coffee.

Donald Trump claims he didn't say he had a relationship with Kim Jong Un, because it wasn't recorded. But he did, and it was. Update!

The Wall Street Journal stated falsely that I said to them “I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un” (of N. Korea). Obviously I didn’t say that. I said “I’d have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” a big difference. Fortunately we now record conversations with reporters...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018

...and they knew exactly what I said and meant. They just wanted a story. FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 14, 2018

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

This morning, President Donald Trump got his Sunday started by taking to Twitter to rail against the Wall Street Journal over an interview he gave the paper last week. One of the big revelations from that conversation was Trump’s declaration that he actually has a “very good relationship” with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Of course, this raised many eyebrows considering that Trump has publicly denigrated the reclusive and erratic leader numerous times. 

At the start of his morning tweetstorm, Trump claimed that the WSJ falsely represented what he said. According to the president, his actual words were “I’d have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un.”

That followed this tweet from Sarah Huckabee Sanders which claims that the Wall Street Journal misquoted Trump.

pic.twitter.com/u9MHhxkOt0

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 13, 2018

The problem with all of this of course is that the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch by the way, DID record the comments.

We have reviewed the audio from our interview with President Trump, as well as the transcript provided by an external service, and stand by what we reported. Here is audio of the portion the White House disputes. https://t.co/eWcmiHrXJg pic.twitter.com/bx9fGFWaPw

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 14, 2018

So yeah, Trump and his Huckabee attack dog are once again simply lying.

And that is why I simply reject EVERYTHING this Trump White House says as purposefully inaccurate.

Update: For those who are still unsure, this the statement in question and what Trump said immediately following.

Here’s the salient portion of the @WSJ interview with Trump. Note what he says in response to the follow-up question. https://t.co/wfjttZKwaz pic.twitter.com/0fqGHjhXzp

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) January 14, 2018

 Yeah, he knew what impression he was trying to give.

It is only after being called out for it later that he and his sycophants try to change the facts.

Trump Administration wants to loosen constraints on nuclear weapons to make them easier to use in response to an attack. I'm sorry, what?

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

The Trump administration plans to loosen constraints on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a new low-yield nuclear warhead for US Trident missiles, according to a former official who has seen the most recent draft of a policy review. 

Jon Wolfsthal, who was special assistant to Barack Obama on arms control and nonproliferation, said the new nuclear posture review prepared by the Pentagon, envisages a modified version of the Trident D5 submarine-launched missiles with only part of its normal warhead, with the intention of deterring Russia from using tactical warheads in a conflict in Eastern Europe. 

The new nuclear policy is significantly more hawkish that the posture adopted by the Obama administration, which sought to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in US defence.

Arms control advocates have voiced alarm at the new proposal to make smaller, more “usable” nuclear weapons, arguing it makes a nuclear war more likely, especially in view of what they see as Donald Trump’s volatility and readiness to brandish the US arsenal in showdowns with the nation’s adversaries. 

The NPR also expands the circumstances in which the US might use its nuclear arsenal, to include a response to a non-nuclear attack that caused mass casualties, or was aimed at critical infrastructure or nuclear command and control sites.

Okay this is not about Russia, Putin knows that his puppet would never use these against the homeland, this is about North Korea.

Trump had been itching to use nuclear weapons against Kim Jong Un almost since the day he took office, and now he is looking for a way to do that and not blow up South Korea as well.

This lunatic needs to be stopped, and stopped now!

UN Secretary General puts world on "Red Alert."

As we begin 2018, I am issuing a red alert for our world. I call for unity – our future depends on it. pic.twitter.com/fWtTa1irM3

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 31, 2017

Courtesy of HuffPo:

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued a grim warning as 2017 drew to a close. 

In a somber video address posted to Twitter on New Year’s Eve, he cautioned that the globe was on “red alert” following a year marked by deepening conflicts and “new dangers.” 

“When I took office a year ago, I appealed for 2017 to be a year for peace,” Guterres said in the clip. “Unfortunately, in fundamental ways, the world has gone in reverse. ... Global anxieties over nuclear weapons are the highest since the Cold War, and climate change is moving faster than we are. Inequalities are growing, and we see horrific violations of human rights. Nationalism and xenophobia are on the rise.” 

Facing such challenges, Guterres said he was “not issuing an appeal” but a “red alert for our world.” Only international unity and cooperation, he stressed, could now help solve these many crises.

“I truly believe we can make our world more safe and secure. We can settle conflicts, overcome hatred and defend shared values but we can only do that together,” the U.N. chief said. “I urge leaders everywhere to make this New Year’s resolution: Narrow the gaps. Bridge the divides. Rebuild trust by bringing people together around common goals. Unity is the path. Our future depends on it.”

As you can read Guterres does not mention the Russian military buildup, and the back and forth between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un outright, but clearly that is the subtext. 

In decades past the United States was expected to be the voice of reason in working to make the world a safer place, but now that we have our own out of control oligarch in office, we are now seen as perhaps the number one threat to the people on this planet. 

When they coined the term "elections have consequences" I am not sure they ever envisioned consequences of this magnitude.

Apparently Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may soon be on his way out as well.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seemed focused this week on rebooting his image as a beleaguered Cabinet member on the outs with his boss and his own employees — holding a rare town hall with employees, promising foreign trips into 2018 and saying he is “learning” to enjoy his job. 

But then he went off script by offering another invitation for diplomatic talks with nuclear-armed North Korea, putting him at odds once again with President Trump and senior White House officials, who are increasingly exasperated with the secretary of state and say he cannot remain in his job for the long term. 

The episode highlights the deep distrust between the White House and Tillerson and suggests how difficult it will be for the relationship to continue. While Trump and Tillerson have clashed on several policy issues — including negotiating with North Korea, the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and planning to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem — much of the distance between them seems personal and probably irreversible, White House officials said. 

Tillerson, one White House official said, “had not learned his lesson from the last time,” when Trump publicly rebuked his top diplomat on Twitter over the wisdom of talking to North Korea. 

A senior U.S. official said foreign diplomats and leaders often ask if Tillerson is speaking for the administration and when he will depart. Another White House aide said White House officials, diplomats and other Cabinet secretaries largely deem the former ExxonMobil chief executive “irrelevant.”

Inside the White House, this person said, there are fairly regular conversations about who will replace Tillerson even as he remains in the job. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, for example, may no longer be the leading choice because it means he would not brief Trump every day, and the president likes him in that role, the official said. 

“I think our allies know at this point he’s not really speaking for the administration,” this Trump official said — a particularly sharp slap given that Tillerson has sought to be a buffer and interpreter for allies angry or bewildered by some of Trump’s actions.

Tillerson "had not learned his lesson."

Yeah, how dare this guy to continue trying to do his job.

At some point it seems possible that Trump will have replaced every single original member of his administration and White House staff. 

However he should keep in mind that rearranging the deck chairs did not keep the Titanic from sinking to an icy grave.

The US Navy is training for a possible air war over Korea because that is apparently where we are now.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

The U.S. Navy has deployed special, radar-hunting warplanes to South Korea to train for a possible air war against North Korea. 

The five EA-18G Growlers have joined more than 200 American and South Korean planes and tens of thousands of military personnel for a five-day annual war game known as Vigilant Ace. 

The two-person crews of the twin-engine EA-18Gs are responsible for arguably the most dangerous mission in all of aerial warfare. Officially called “suppression of enemy air defenses,” the mission involves clearing a path through sophisticated air defenses so that other planes can safely strike their targets. 

The EA-18Gs carry sensors for detecting radars’ emissions, jammers for interfering with the sensors’ functions, and radar-homing missiles to destroy them. But to take out enemy air defenses, the Growler crews have to get close—and that puts them directly in harm’s way. In North Korea, the crews would face a growing arsenal of radars and surface-to-air missiles based on deadly Russian and Chinese designs. 

The Boeing-made Growlers arrived during the first week of December at Osan air base, around 50 miles from the border with North Korea. The EA-18Gs, from squadron VAQ-134 based in Washington State, were in the middle of a six-month training rotation with two squadrons of U.S. Air Force F-16s flying from an air base in Japan.

I think it is safe to say that the North Koreans have made more progress with their nuclear weapons program in the first year of the Trump presidency than they did in the last three administrations combined.

Nothing like having a thin skinned megalomaniac in office poking at another thin skinned megalomaniac to really speed up the production of weaponry, don't you think?

You know I keep thinking of all of those idiots who voted fro Jill Stein because they had been convinced, possibly by the Russians, that Hillary Clinton was going to take this country into another war.

Perhaps THEY should be the first ones drafted and sent to die in this one.

The New York Times reports that Rex Tillerson may be on his way out at State.

Bad news boss, I think I'm about to lose my job.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

The White House has developed a plan to force out Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, whose relationship with President Trump has been strained, and replace him with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, perhaps within the next several weeks, senior administration officials said on Thursday. 

Mr. Pompeo would be replaced at the C.I.A. by Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas who has been a key ally of the president on national security matters, according to the White House plan. Mr. Cotton has signaled that he would accept the job if offered, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations before decisions are announced. 

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Trump had given final approval to the plan developed by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, but the president has been said to have soured on Mr. Tillerson and in general is ready to make a change at the State Department. Mr. Tillerson was at the White House on Thursday twice for meetings, but neither the president nor his team gave a public reaffirmation of his position in the administration.

When given the opportunity to confirm his confidence in Tillerson, and to assure folks that he was not going anywhere, this was Trump's reply.

Reporter: "Do you have Rex Tillerson on the job?"

President Trump: "He's here. Rex is here." pic.twitter.com/H72H8X529y

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 30, 2017

"He's here. Rex is here."

Yeah, but the question was how long would he be there.

Some have suggested that putting Mike Pompeo in charge of the State Department would be a good move as he takes the position more seriously than Tillerson apparently did. 

However Pompeo is also ideologically more pro-war, so if Tillerson was the obstacle keeping Trump from going off half cocked and attacking North Korea, it is unlikely that Mike Pompeo will continue to obstruct that decision.

One thing is for certain Trump's claim that he "only hires the best people" has now become a running joke.

You know, much like this presidency.

Only no one is laughing anymore.

Yet another State Department employee resigns her post as Rex Tillerson seems to adopt new problem solving strategy called "wishful thinking."

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Rex Tillerson’s State Department slipped further into disarray this week, following the departure of a figure brought in to overhaul the department amid growing tensions within the Trump administration. 

Maliz Beams, who was brought on as Counselor to the Department of State in August, resigned her position after only three months, according to officials. The department confirmed Beams’ departure on Monday. 

“Beams is stepping away from her role here at the Department of State and is returning to her home in Boston,” a spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “Effective immediately, [Tillerson’s deputy chief of staff] Christine Ciccone will step in to lead the redesign effort and manage its daily activities.” 

Beams’ departure is more bad news for the department, which has suffered a number of exits in recent months. Beams, who has an extensive private sector background in business and finance and previously served as CEO of Voya Financial (formerly ING US), was brought in to lead a massive redesign effort championed by Tillerson. Trump’s budget calls for a $10.1 billion reduction in State Department spending, a controversial move that could cost 2,300 people their jobs. Beams reportedly clashed with Tillerson over the effort.

But don't think that Rex Tillerson does not have a plan for how to deal with world crises with only a skeleton crew, because he does.

The aforementioned "wishful thinking."

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s proposal to slash the state department and foreign aid budget is in part based on an expectation it will be able to resolve some of the global conflicts that have been absorbing costly diplomatic and humanitarian support. 

But in a vivid display of the most urgent diplomatic challenge facing the US, Tillerson was speaking as North Korea carried out a new ballistic missile test – the first since it fired a missile over Japan in mid-September. 

The secretary of state presented this rationale for the budget cut at a time when he is under fire from former US diplomats for gutting his state department amid multiple crises around the world – an allegation Tillerson denied.

I think it is overwhelmingly obvious at this point that Tillerson, like many Trump appointees, was  appointed to destroy the very agencies they were supposed to lead.

Tillerson seems particularly adept in that regard.

Of course the problem with that is that it leaves the American people incredibly vulnerable.

All across the board we are suffering a crisis of leadership, and every day the danger to average citizens rises just that much higher.

Donald Trump kinda sorta tries to walk back his statement of belief in Vladimir Putin when he says he did not interfere in the 2016 election.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

At a news conference in Vietnam, Trump distanced himself from remarks he made on Saturday in which he suggested he believed Putin when he said there had been no Russian meddling in the election that took him to the White House. 

The comments had drawn criticism at home because U.S. intelligence agencies have long since concluded there was Russian meddling. 

“As to whether I believe it or not, I’m with our agencies, especially as currently constituted,” Trump said at a news conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang. 

“As currently led, by fine people, I believe very much in our intelligence agencies.”

Of course this only came after Trump was excoriated by folks like John McCain, Preet Bharara, and even his own CIA Director.

And you will notice he only wants to give credit to the current leaders of the intelligence agencies that HE appointed even though they are in total agreement with their predecessors.

However before anybody gives Trump a standing ovation for finally trusting his own intelligence agencies over a former KGB agent, you should probably hear this part as well: 

Trump said he still believed Putin did not think there had been Russian meddling. 

“I believe that President Putin really feels, and feels strongly, that he did not meddle in our election,” Trump said, while adding: “What he believes is what he believes.”

So Trump believes the intelligence agencies in that he think that the Russians influenced out elections, but not when they say it was directed by Vladimir Putin himself?

Or does he completely trust them but think that Putin suffers from some kind of split personality disorder, where there is a good Vlad, who only wants to repair Russia's relationship with America, and a bad Vlad, who wants to destroy western democracy everywhere in the world?

Because if you truly believe our American intelligence agencies, Putin not only interfered in our 2016 election, but interference directed at America and other western countries continues to this day.

For his part Putin also offered a few other denials as well yesterday.

Courtesy of The Hill:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday denied any connections between his country and President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, claiming that such ties are false rumors being propagated by the U.S. leader's political opponents. 

During a briefing at the conclusion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam, Putin also dismissed reports that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross holds a stake in a company that does business with a Russian company with possible ties to the Russian president's son-in-law, according to multiple reports. 

I am just going to go ahead and assume that Trump is taking Putin's side on these allegations as well.

Saves time that way. 

On another somewhat related note Trump is now lobbing preschool insult at the leader of North Korea.

Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2017

Every day, it just gets worse.  

The US is now preparing to put nuclear bombers on 24 hour alert. This has not been done since the cold war.

Courtesy of Defense One:

The U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert, a status not seen since the Cold War ended in 1991. 

That means the long-dormant concrete pads at the ends of this base’s 11,000-foot runway — dubbed the “Christmas tree” for their angular markings — could once again find several B-52s parked on them, laden with nuclear weapons and set to take off at a moment’s notice. 

“This is yet one more step in ensuring that we’re prepared,” Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview during his six-day tour of Barksdale and other U.S. Air Force bases that support the nuclear mission. “I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we’re prepared going forward.”

Yes the global situation exacerbated by our dear leader's back and forth chest pounding with a certain North Korean dictator.

And perhaps this is really no reason to become overly concerned, but then you add this to the mix.

Courtesy of Business Insider:

President Donald Trump amended an executive order on Friday to allow the Defense Department to recall up to 1,000 retired pilots in order to address the Air Force's shortage of qualified fliers. 

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reportedly requested the move, and he now has "additional authorities to recall retired aviation officers," Pentagon spokesman Navy Cmdr. Gary Ross said in a statement.

Now once again this is being described as no big deal, and apparently we are simply lacking the number of qualified pilots that we are supposed to have on hand.

But then there is also this:  

Executive order 13223 declared a temporary state of emergency after the September 11 attacks and allowed the president to call up the National Guard, hire and fire officers, and delay retirements. It has been renewed by every president since, including Trump, but under the previous version only 25 retired officers could to be called back to active duty. Trump's amendment expands that authority.

Yes, expands it from 25 to 1,000, that does not seem to be a simple over correction.

Okay, I think now would be the appropriate time to become concerned. 

North Korea warns that nuclear war could "break out at any moment."

Courtesy of Bloomberg:

North Korea warned that a nuclear war “may break out any moment” as the U.S. and South Korea began one of the largest joint naval drills off both the east and west coasts of the peninsula.

Kim In Ryong, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said on Monday that his nation had become a “full-fledged nuclear power which possesses the delivery means of various ranges” and warned that “the entire U.S. mainland is within our firing range.” He also called North Korea “a responsible nuclear state.” 

“As long as one does not take part in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK, we have no intention to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against any other country,” Kim said, referring to his country’s formal name. 

The comments are similar to other warnings North Korea has made over the past few months as tensions have increased with President Donald Trump’s administration. Kim Jong Un’s regime has repeatedly said it needs the capability to strike the U.S. with a nuclear weapon in order to deter an American attack.

So now there are two megalomaniacs with itchy fingers just waiting for a reason to start World War III.

And our only hope is that cooler heads will intervene before either of them decides that their manhood is being questioned and slaughters thousands, if not millions of people, to prove that their dick is the biggest.

Defense Secretary Mattis tells military leaders to prepare for war.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday urged military leaders "to be ready" with military options for President Donald Trump to deal with North Korea should diplomacy fail -- after Trump reprimanded his top brass last week for not providing him contingency plans quickly enough. 

"Right now it is a diplomatically led, economic sanctions-buttressed effort to try to turn North Korea off this path,” Mattis said following a speech at the annual convention of the Association of the United States Army in Washington. “Now, what does the future hold? Neither you nor I can say, so there’s one thing the U.S. Army can do, and that is we have got to be ready to ensure that we have military options that our president can employ if needed.”

On Thursday, Trump told Mattis and his top generals in a White House meeting that he wanted military options at a “much faster pace.” The president subsequently suggested to reporters that “maybe it’s the calm before the storm," sparking widespread speculation that the cryptic reference was to Korea war plans. 

Before Mattis' remarks Monday, Trump tweeted, “Our country has been unsuccessfully dealing with North Korea for 25 years, giving billions of dollars & getting nothing. Policy didn't work!”

I am at the point right now where I am just assuming that Trump is going to attack North Korea.

In some ways I think he feels he has no other choice.

He understands NOTHING about diplomacy, and does not care about the long term affects of anything that he does.

What's more he desperately needs to shut down this Russia investigation, and since he cannot fire Robert Mueller without making things worse, he has to do something huge to pull attention away from it and insulate himself from further investigations.

Just ask yourself, which Republicans are going to support trying to remove the president while he is in the middle of conducting a brand new war?

Donald Trump tells his aides to portray him as a "crazy guy" in negotiations with South Korea. Well there's a stretch.

Courtesy of Axios:  

In an Oval Office meeting earlier this month, President Trump gave his top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, an Art of the Deal-style coaching session on how to negotiate with the South Koreans.

A number of senior officials and cabinet secretaries were present for the conversation, including Defense Secretary Mattis, Agriculture Secretary Perdue, and Secretary of State Tillerson. At issue was whether the U.S. would withdraw from the Korean trade deal — an action Trump threatened but still hasn't done. 

"You've got 30 days, and if you don't get concessions then I'm pulling out," Trump told Lighthizer. 

"Ok, well I'll tell the Koreans they've got 30 days," Lighthizer replied. 

"No, no, no," Trump interjected. 

"That's not how you negotiate. You don't tell them they've got 30 days. You tell them, 'This guy's so crazy he could pull out any minute.'" "That's what you tell them: Any minute," Trump continued. "And by the way, I might. You guys all need to know I might. You don't tell them 30 days. If they take 30 days they'll stretch this out."

Trump does not have to bother to pretend to be crazy, because few of the things he does demonstrate sanity.

As if the South Koreans do not already have enough dealings with crazy megalomaniacs. 

Did Donald Trump just tweet his intention of going to war with North Korea?

I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017

...Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017

I'm sorry but if you have stopped negotiating with North Korea then what is left besides a military response?

People are counting on General Mattis to be the stop gap that keeps Trump from impulsively attacking North Korea, but a recent Newsweek article suggests that Mattis may not actually have the power to do that.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

"POTUS doesn't need to call the SecDef at all to do this,” says Stephen Schwartz, editor and co-author of Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940. “Although he’d presumably be included on the conference call if this weren't a middle-of-the-night, spur-of-the-moment thing.” And as nuclear weapons historian Alex Wellerstein discovered in a 2015 U.S. Air Force document last spring, the president can bypass the secretary of defense altogether and “direct the use of nuclear weapons through…the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the combatant commanders and, ultimately, to the forces in the field exercising direct control of the weapons."

I am a lover of horror movies, and have watched literally hundreds, but NOTHING has frightened me as much as having this man in the White House. 

I used to stay up night's worrying about what Bush and Cheney, might unleash on the world, but at least they appeared to be sane.

There is no telling where this lunatic might take us.