Musings …

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  • Trump Will Attack North Korea With Nukes!

    I have been wondering for quite a while what Trump’s plan for war with North Korea is? None of these ideas are new and I have no reason to come to a conclusion now, but the reasoning just seems less and less escapable.

    First of all, he has no plan. It is not in his nature to have a plan, not in the ordinary sense, but I am sure he has considered just two possibilities: nuclear war in retaliation or first strike nuclear attack on North Korea by him. Even a conventional war started by them would be followed by a nuclear attack by us. He has made that clear. But he will not allow them to start.

    He has no detailed plan, but he expects that an escalation of his rhetoric and reaction by North Korea will lead to the imminent expectation that North Korea will attack, either with conventional weapons or nukes. Whether or not he anticipates or expects anything, his behavior will take him, them, and us to the same place. We will never know which because he cannot allow them to start the war. He will launch a nuclear attack before they can.

    His choice is between them first, in whatever manner, and our nuclear retaliation, or our first strike. Retaliation will not do! It must be our first strike because only that will invade the most minds with his presence, even after he and the rest of us are all dead and gone. He has no presence in his own mind; his presence exists only in the minds of others. That is his pathology and our plight.

    He will be compelled by his nature to dominate world history – if there is to be any world history – FOREVER!!!

    A frightening thought: His competition is not with President Obama, but with the famous and infamous of history. That is, Alexander, Caesar, Gengis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin and … !!!

  • The 25th Amendment – Section 4 – Encapsulated (Edited Slightly for Simplification)

    – Pence and eight (of fourteen) Cabinet members can declare the President unfit to serve, subject to objection by the President and ratification by Congress:

    Whenever … Vice President [Pence] and a majority of … the principal officers of the executive departments [the Cabinet] … transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, … Vice President [Pence] shall IMMEDIATELY ASSUME THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE OFFICE AS ACTING PRESIDENT [my caps].

    – If the President objects, the VP remains acting President and has FOUR days along with the Cabinet majority to resubmit their declaration:

    Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.

    – If the declaration is resubmitted within 4 days, Pence remains acting President until the Senate and House decide the issue. Congress has 21 days to decide by two-thirds majority vote in both Houses. If not in session, Congress has 48hrs to convene. They then have 21 days to decide while Pence remains acting President. If Congress fails to uphold the declaration, Trump resumes the Presidency:

    Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

  • The Possibility, Even Likelihood of Pence and the Cabinet Removing Trump Increases Day By Day!

    1. Pence wants to be President.

    2. Congressional Republicans would prefer a President Pence.

    3. President Trump is providing more and more pretext for them to get rid of him.

    4. Another international precipice is inevitable, especially when the distraction provided by the aftermath of Charlottesville ebbs, and inevitably the Russia investigation returns in full force.

    We can expect from experience that the next distraction – as we observe from the pattern – will be an escalation from the last. Considering that the last international distraction was the threat of nuclear first strike on North Korea upon verbal threat – NOT EVEN ACTION – it is hard to imagine what that escalation might be. Expect the international community, at least, to be soiling themselves.

    Note that if Republicans aren’t really frightened, they will nevertheless be able to pretend that they are, and use the pretext, even in the House, to ratify a 25th Amendment Section 4 Application to determine Trump unfit to serve and make Pence President.

    5. There is probably no love for Trump in the Cabinet. Consider the humiliation each went through when in turn they disgraced themselves kowtowing to Trump in Kim Jong Un style.

    6. Cabinet members by acting in concert can escape the personal quandary they each face in resigning separately. Having lost the opportunity to not serve at all, or to have resigned quickly enough before being tarnished or disgraced by association, see John Kelly, it is a difficult choice to leave now, when they, having already lost face, can continue claiming that they can still restrain him. However absurd that argument, a valid reason to stay would be to stave off the danger that their replacements would not just be unable like themselves to do any good, but could very possibly have no interest in restraining Trump at all.

    –

    We have observed the subject of removing Trump via the 25th Amendment grow from academic info re the Amendment to activity by Democratic Congressmen, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), to take action to invoke it by declaring Trump incapacitated. This plan would require Congress to get two-thirds majorities in both Houses, Cabinet participation unnecessary, in advance of getting Pence on board. The possibility of this so far is ZERO.

    The possibility of invocation by secret cabal is REAL and the possibility that both Houses would ratify it will grow until possibility becomes probability, probability becomes expectation, and expectation becomes behind the scenes agreement to end the Presidency of Donald J. Trump.

    We must keep our fingers crossed. Success depends on secrecy!

    The 25th Amendment – Section 4 With Plain Language

  • Why Steve Bannon Must! Remain in the White House

    I started with “Might Need to Remain,” but our need depends on our appreciating that Bannon might be able to influence Trump against a first strike. “Might” makes “must,” even if “might not,” because “might” could make the difference between living and dying. Bannon’s voice – one we believe Trump listens to, at least for despicable things – might be the only one he might listen to if he wanted to strike first against North Korea, or even Venezuela. Where Bannon stands on belligerent continuation of the Korean War is not publicly known. On the one hand he is sympathetic to “the generations theory” propounded by two amateur historians, Neil Howe and William Strauss, that major confrontations take part in a cycle of history. On the other hand, Josh Green, says in his book, “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump …” Bannon has an “almost isolationist view of American foreign policy.” Let’s hope it’s that. But how likely is a first strike by either Kim Jong Un or Donald J. Trump. A first strike by Kim Jong Un is – I’m not exaggerating – unimaginable. Not unimaginable in some rhetorical sense of words formed in the mind, but in the sense that that possibility has zero, absolute zero likelihood. Jong Un’s purpose is survival under continuing attack by us, the U.S. His posture is that of a cat puffing itself up, standing taller than thought possible, with fur spiked, hissing. We don’t expect it to attack – the point being we expect it not to – but its hope is to stave off attack, like Jong Un. Kim, like his father and grandfather before him, is not a nihilist. He does not want to die. Kim Jong Un will NOT strike first. He wants to live. Trump on the other hand does not think that he himself will die, and for him nothing but that matters. Being President, at worst he expects to have the best shelters in the world and survive a sort of natural life until he, and his family, dies underground. It is not Jung Un that should concern us – that is, scare us out of our cotton picking minds – but President DONALD J. TRUMP. His survival counts to himself too, but not his mortal survival since he doesn’t expect to die. It is his survival as President, afterwards his survival out of prison, or whatever it is that he is so afraid of that he will put everyone else at risk to save himself. When he is itching to push the button as Mueller is pounding on his door – probably just to change the subject when his imagination has run out of subjects to change to – Steve Bannon’s is the only voice he might possibly heed. That is why, if only for that possibility, Steve Bannon must remain close enough to Trump’s ear to save us from disaster!

  • General Kelly Should Inform the President that They are Playing by Softball Rules

    In softball, two strikes and you are OUT! Kelly should make clear to Trump that one first violation of their understanding of his role as White House Chief of Staff – no ambiguity allowed, that is, if it might not be a violation – will be taken as a violation, strike ONE! Strike one being a warning, strike two and you are OUT! If in a week or a day, strike two and I AM OUT!!!

  • A Horrifying Thought

    When a dangerous country is on the verge of acquiring, not the nuclear weapons that they already have, but the ability to deliver them, it is time to consider an accommodation that gives them a GREAT LOT in exchange for giving up their nuclear program.

    Even if this country and the world had the willingness, even desire, to approach Korea this way, the history of Libya and the developing history with Iran destroys the willingness of a country in Korea’s position to even consider making such a suicidal deal.

    Considering the possibility that a President like Donald Trump might want to secure his place in history, if there is any short history to have a place in – except perhaps in some unlikely archeological history – by being the first person in the World to unleash nuclear holocaust …

  • Ayn Rand Explains Trump

    Why does Donald Trump tweet, not just tweet, but tweet so often and so OFFENSIVELY! Ayn Rand has the answer.

    Ayn Rand identifies as a “Second Hander,” an abysmally weak personality, exemplified in the extreme by Donald Trump.

    A “Second Hander” is a person whose perception of themselves does not exist from within, but from what they imagine is going on in the minds of others. If someone is thinking of THEM, they must be alive, otherwise NOT!

    This characteristic is shared by everyone to some extent. Not of course by Howard Roark or Hank Reardon, but they are characters in Rand’s books. When her syndrome is manifested in the extreme, you get a Donald Trump, who shares company with more infamous pathological power mongers, at least more infamous so far.

    Ayn Rand is not alone. In a story, Ray Bradbury – I think it was Bradbury – wrote about dead people on Mars who came alive whenever someone on earth had them in mind.

    Talk about an inferiority complex: How about a non-existence complex!

    This kind of person has so little sense of self-existence that they have a pathological need to be noticed. In the case of Trump the craving resulting from that need is so extreme that he needs to be forcing people’s attention on him at all times, and in the most extreme ways. The most extreme ways, to assure that the most brains are on him, and at all times, because he can’t live without it.

    Ayn Rand’s “Second Hander” concept explains a lot. It answers questions about his targets. Why women for example? Or why the media? If we ask, “What outrageous statement or target will engage the most minds and tongues for the most amount of time?” we understand his choices.

    The media for example. The media is, after all, his conduit to as many people as possible.

    There are, presumably, deep seated reasons for his misogyny, but even here, for someone who must be alive in someone else’s mind to sense their own existence, women would be obvious targets, even without having personal animosity towards them. Think about this: If he actually had no animus towards women, a sickness, but attacked them, or groped them, just to commandeer at his convenience his presence in their minds, it would be worse. Instead of his carnage resulting from illness, a mitigation, his victims would simply be “road kill!”

    Being a “Second Hander” explains why Trump can’t control himself? Question: Which has more power, some ideological principle of self-control, or self-existence. The latter clearly trumps the former.

    I myself also suffer some from her syndrome. It sometimes causes me, not to force engagement, but the opposite, to disengage.

  • Delighful Convenience Stores in South Korea

    A glimpse into another world!

  • Before Smartphones and Computers Kids Had Real Fun

    The old days had such charm! Perhaps our time will have its charms when seen from its future?

  • Vintage Pictures Brought to Life After Colourisation

    Time machines! Didn’t know the AAA supported such a bad idea. Probably seemed to make a kind of sense at the time, but not in the long run.