Saturday, August 12, 2017

US President Thrills at the Idea of Killing Hundreds of Thousands

"There are no mixed messages… There are no mixed messages… North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." Apart from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lest we forget.

Relishing the idea of killing and maiming hundreds of people in the cruelest way imaginable, the US president continues to recklessly up his rhetoric, poking his middle finger in the eye of a sociopath. Because it makes him look strong. In his own eyes. In those of most Americans and the rest of the world? Not so much. The administration reiterates ad nauseam that there are no mixed messages, but of course it's just another alternative fact to add to the Trump Administration Collection.

Rex Tillerson has oxymoronically tried to perform the magic trick of toning down the inflammatory rhetoric, while also rationalizing it. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has spoken with solemnity, pointing out that nobody needs to be reminded of the terrible damage done by nuclear war. 

Nobody but the US president. And neither of them are telling him to zip it. Nor is General Kelly. Apparently that's not his job. Senator Lindsay Graham is enabling Trump, as is Nikki Haley and any number of other Republicans who cling to power, no matter the cost to any number of human beings on earth. Including Guam residents, who could be the first Americans to go. 

Trump had this to say to Guam Governor Eddie Baza Calvo:
"Tourism, I can tell you this — tourism, you're going to go up like 10-fold with the expenditure of no money so I congratulate you… We are with you 1,000 per cent, you are safe…You've become extremely famous. All over the world they are talking about Guam, and they are talking about you."
Calvo's response was that he felt 100% safe with Trump as president. The mind boggles. Fortunately, some sanity prevails in Guam, whose Homeland Security Agency put out advice for residents in the event of an "imminent missile threat". Residents should create emergency supply kits, have an emergency plan, and make a list of concrete shelters close by, especially ones underground. 

When an attack warning is sounded they mustn't look at the flash or fireball because it can blind, and they must run for cover. However, "Fallout radiation loses its intensity fairly rapidly. In time you will be able to leave a fallout shelter." 

The Homeland Security website also has a link to an American Red Cross guide on how to shelter-in-place if there's a chemical or radiation attack.

If Kim Jong-un launches missiles, the US has to hope that its missile detection and destruction facility works. Wolf Blitzer spoke to a military analyst who said it's been tested but never tried. It would take 14 minutes for a N. Korean ICBM to reach Guam, but the decision to destroy it or not has to happen immediately the launch has been detected. The US literally has a couple of minutes to make a decision to destroy the missile or let it continue, judging that it will land in the ocean and isn't dangerous.

If they get it wrong; if the missile doesn't have a miniaturized nuclear warhead and would have landed in the sea but the US destroys it, preferring to err on the side of caution, Kim Jong-un has justification in his own mind for a real attack.

And the US president, a man with the personality disorder, has his finger on the red button. But, sure, Donald Trump, show the world how powerful America is. That's real manhood. Real strength of character.