http://abcnews.go.com/International/tillerson-americans-sleep-night-amid-korea-crisis/story?id=49111147
He later said, “Americans should sleep well at night. I have no concerns about this particular rhetoric over the last few days."
But back home, there is great concern over the tough talk from Trump.
Seems like Trump has painted himself into a corner.
Oh yeah I remember Trump knows how to win https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkghtyxZ6rc
Yeah, he'll make American great again, his word is good as gold.
Meanwhile back at the ranch:
Forget Russia. Is Provoking a Nuclear War with North Korea Grounds for Impeachment?
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, the U.S. nuclear system was already dangerous, irresponsible, insane, because it’s on, most—many of the U.S. weapons are on hair-trigger alert. The missiles in the silos, the missiles on the submarines, they can be fired within minutes, which could easily lead to a mistaken firing. And now there’s a president who’s on hair trigger.
For years, there was a consensus, a complete consensus, within the U.S. establishment and military, that military action against North Korea was unthinkable, because, just with conventional artillery, North Korea could immediately devastate Seoul, killing more than 100,000, perhaps. But recently, the political culture and discussion around military action against North Korea has shifted. Colonel Guy Roberts, who’s a longtime Pentagon and NATO official, last year wrote an article calling for the U.S. to adopt a first-strike nuclear policy, to be willing to use nuclear weapons against a country—and he specifically mentioned North Korea as one—in the event they use conventional weapons. He wrote that last year. This year, Trump nominated him to be the assistant secretary of defense for nuclear policy. John Bolton recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. should consider a ground invasion of North Korea. Lindsey Graham recently quoted Trump as saying that the U.S. should be ready to destroy—
AMY GOODMAN: Let me go to that quote of Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, being questioned last week on the Today show by Matt Lauer.
MATT LAUER: Every military expert says there is no good military option.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, they’re wrong. There is a military option.
MATT LAUER: What’s a good one?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: To destroy North Korea’s program and North Korea itself. He is not going to allow—President Trump—the ability of this madman to have a missile to hit America. If there’s going to be a war to stop him, it will be over there. If thousands die, they’re going to die over there. They’re not going to die here. And he’s told me that to my face.
AMY GOODMAN: "He’s told me that to my face," he said. President Trump told him, Lindsey Graham. Allan Nairn?
ALLAN NAIRN: Yeah, well, given Trump’s comments yesterday, it sounds like Graham was quoting Trump accurately. You know, recently, even Mother Jones ran a column asking, "Well, why shouldn’t the U.S. do multiple nuclear strikes on North Korea?" During the campaign, Trump talked about nuclear weapons for South Korea and Japan and said, "Well, if there’s a North Korea-Japan war, go for it. Have at it." {The thinking of imbecile, or a demon.}
And also, this is not something that Trump just stumbled upon. There are really only three substantive issues that Trump has been engaged with throughout his career. One is trade. One is racism. He’s for it. He campaigned for the execution of the Central Park Five, who were innocent. But also nuclear weapons. During the Reagan administration, Trump tried to get appointed as a U.S. special envoy to negotiate a nuclear weapons deal with the Soviet Union. He’s been thinking about this for decades. ...
This is horrifying, but it's being normalized.
Trump’s Threat to North Korea Was Improvised
By PETER BAKER and GLENN THRUSH - AUG. 9, 2017
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Trump delivered his “fire and fury" threat to North Korea on Tuesday with arms folded, jaw set and eyes flitting on what appeared to be a single page of talking points set before him on the conference table at his New Jersey golf resort.
The piece of paper, as it turned out, was a fact sheet on the opioid crisis he had come to talk about, and his ominous warning to Pyongyang was entirely improvised, according to several people with direct knowledge of what unfolded. In discussions with advisers beforehand, he had not run the specific language by them. ...
Imagine it's going to be worse than you can imagine.
Imagine Intellectually Enlightened people getting engaged en masse and saying enough is enough.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: He is not going to allow—President Trump—the ability of this madman to have a missile to hit America. If there’s going to be a war to stop him, it will be over there. If thousands die, they’re going to die over there. They’re not going to die here. And he’s told me that to my face.
Oh that worked REALLY WELL in the Middle East, didn't it? What could possibly go wrong with that?
They’re closing in on trump, the FBI just raided Manafort.
trump is upping the rhetoric on North Korea to distract from his own treason. Presidents in the past have used military actions to re-direct public attention, the movie “Wag the Dog” is an excellent examination of this tactic.
Because of the level of scandal involved with a president accused of high treason, the distraction also needs to be at the highest level to be effective. trump is talking nuclear war to scare Americans not the North Koreans. He is our enemy first and foremost, that should always be kept in mind.
trump is upping the rhetoric on North Korea to distract from his own treason. Presidents in the past have used military actions to re-direct public attention.
I’m going to offer a contrarian view. I didn’t vote for Trump, am against everything he is, stands for, his supporters stand for, etc. But part of being a true liberal is being open to other viewpoints regardless of whose viewpoint it is. That said, I actually think it’s good to see an American wag his military Johnson a bit. Kim Jung Un is a big baby BUT he knows, or knew until now, that US POTUS would always be presidential, would always act in a way that would allow him to portray POTUS as weak. Now he’s not so sure. I imagine he and his military advisors thinking, hmm, this guy just might be crazy enough to actually do something. It worked, for a time at least, for Nixon. The mad man theory.
I don’t like that the US is so military-heavy. But it is a fact. So let’s flex some muscle for a change instead of letting weak namby pamby politicians go through the same ineffective song and dance. Dem and Repub alike tried and ultimately failed. Obviously that’s all well and good as long as nothing actually ends up happening and Un backs down. But heck, why not fly a squadron of F15s over Un’s residence, right over it, middle of the night, scare the shizz out of him and his advisors. Follow it up with a wing of bombers flying low level over his residence in mid day. Show some muscle all the while pushing diplomatic channels too. I don’t know, just a thought.
Ok, ream me a new one.
trump is upping the rhetoric on North Korea to distract from his own treason. Presidents in the past have used military actions to re-direct public attention.
With way the hell too much success.
Yes, but it's only short term.
The investigations against trump are bases on evidence not public opinion, at some point the evidence will outweigh the short term distractions being created by trump. The same thing happened with Nixon and his scandal, the Post reported on Watergate for several years before the stories started to have an effect on policymakers.
The stories of trump being involved with Putin started before he even came to office and scandal there started right away with the removal of Flynn for lying about his involvement with the Russian government.
The thing to be very concerned about is trump actually starting a nuclear war in his version of Gotterdammerung, if he's going down he may decide to take as many of us with him as he can.
We'll soon find out if he really is that much of a psychopath.
McConnell is now criticizing trump for his behavior on things like the ACA repeal, trump will have very few allies in Congress when the FBI starts turning up evidence of clear involvement with the Russians.
Some of the evidence turned over to the FBI already has come from republicans like McCain. When this happens it's going to be because all this has reached a critical point and things will unfold very quickly. trump will be removed from the military chain of command and then all decision making.
He's on his way out, they just haven't handed him his hat yet. The danger is he takes out his big guns and starts blasting before they get him out the door, that may not happen, but it is possible.
Even the trump camp is admitting they’re using the spectacle of nuclear war for domestic political purposes.
While Mr. Trump and his staff say his statements reflect a desire to deal with the North Korea problem once and for all, they also have an unmistakable domestic political component, according to people in the president’s orbit. He feels besieged by the investigation into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia and frustrated by his sinking poll numbers, and he is seeking targets to attack. Asserting his strength abroad in such stark terms when he is so weak at home helps him politically and, more important, improves his wavering state of mind, according to current and former advisers. The tough talk also seems to appeal to many of his most ardent supporters.
Instead of resigning in disgrace before he faces charges, trump is staying true to form and trying to intimidate then destroy all his domestic opponents. If he actually is working for Putin - which seems likely - then those opponents would include most of the people of the USA.
So he may not care at all about getting millions of Americans killed if he's already betraying them by being in the pocket of Putin.