THE POOR, FORGOTTEN RICH WILL FINALLY GET SOME TAX RELIEF

I will go on the record right now to state that I am rich. No, I am not anywhere near being in the 1%. My wealth did not come from an accumulation of money and property. My wife and I live very comfortably but there is not a chance we'd be confused with any of the small number of Americans who have financial assets in excess of seven figures.

I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice because I have three of the best children in the world; all college educated, all successful in their careers, all still wanting, and looking forward to, spending time with my wife and me at any time. I have three wonderful, well-adjusted, very intelligent grandchildren. All three grandkids go wild with happiness when my wife and I visit their homes, or when they come to see us. I am their gymnasium. They love when my wife reads and sings to them - and they love everything that comes out of her kitchen. They make the two of us feel richer than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined. Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), I have a wonderful wife who I have been married to for 38 ½ years. I live in a modern, desirable southeastern US city with nice weather, close to the ocean. I recently retired from a highly successful career in broadcasting. I am an award-winning author and perform with a local band. So I am quite content.

          But I have never pursued money. I saw my father engage in that as I was growing up, but for all his pursuit, he never seemed to be happy about it. He was grouchy, distant, self-centered, devious…but never happy. Money accumulation only gave him a dour look as he sought a way to get more.

          I took a cue from that and decided whatever he did I wasn’t going to do…so I never chased the almighty dollar. I have had a successful career and by any measure I have done well, contributed to my savings account along the way, lived frugally, and invested in my wife’s and my retirement. But I did not try to rake in as much cash as I possibly could. I was far more interested in spending time with my family, watching the kids grow, teaching them, being with them, being the best father and husband that I could. I turned down dozens of lucrative opportunities to make substantial additions to our bank account…because of how I saw my father’s accumulations did nothing for his well-being, but generally it was because what those opportunities required of me…far too many nights, weekends, even months away from my family. My family was, is, and always will be, tremendously more important than money. But I apparently got it all wrong.

          The GOP is going to punish me for NOT pursuing the almighty dollar to make myself a millionaire - by making sure my taxes will go up while providing an enormous wealth redistribution to the very well-off, uber-wealthy, and filthy rich. People making over a million dollars a year will get a massive tax cut from the Republican tax plan by taking that money away from people like me to give to someone who’s net worth is ten to a hundred times what mine is.

The poor will just waste that money, anyway.

          

              Why do I deserve to have my taxes raised and my financial wealth diminished? Because, as Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa explained in a November 29^th interview with NPR’s Robert Siegel, part of the reason for repealing, say, the estate tax is “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”

So my tax burden will have to go up substantially because I'm not throwing my money at the stock market, plus, to make up the difference from the government's loss of Estate Tax revenue. I am not deserving of a huge tax cut because Grassley has imagined I spent most of my "pennies" on a house, college funds for my kids, day-to-day living expenses, utility bills and the like...which Grassley equates with booze, women and going to the movies. As my wife, children and friends will all attest, I rarely drink any alcohol, the only women I’ve spent money on the past 40 years are my wife and daughter, and when we go to the movies, we almost always go to the dollar theater, if we don’t just wait for the edited version to air for free on TV. So I don’t know where Grassley got his information. He is implying I’d be a millionaire now and could look forward to getting some of that GOP wealth transfer from poor and middle-class people to fatten my own bank account if I had just pursued a hell of a lot more money the past 50 years.

              

          Put simply, the GOP tax plan has been written to favor asset-based incomes, passive business investments and inherited wealth (like Trump’s, so Trump is lying when he says this tax plan is going to hurt him), and it penalizes those foolish enough to actually work for a paycheck. Hey, if your income is obtained from your stock portfolio or you were born into a rich family, you’re going to love this plan. Otherwise, tough sh*t.

Grassley let the cat out of the bag in that same interview. Siegel asked him “…you agree that before you begin to do that [paying down the $20 Trillion National Debt], this bill would increase deficits and the debt by at least $1.5 trillion...unless you really do take away middle-income tax cuts, $2 trillion, right? Are those numbers about right?” Grassley’s response? “Yeah, if you look at it on paper the way the Congressional Budget Office does, that is right.”

He went on to claim that since Trump SAYS the economy is going gangbusters and IF we can boost our economic growth, up from 2 to around 3%, then the $1.5 trillion additional debt will be made up. 

Not one economist thinks that is realistic. They say that is something Grassley "made up."

         Except for a few years doing factory work and then teaching for a short duration, Grassley has spent his career in Congress where he voted in favor of almost every pay raise Senators and Representatives could give themselves, helped to run up the National Debt (while blaming it exclusively on the Democrats), gave the military Carte Blanche for whatever it wanted, and fleeced American taxpayers. He is fleecing us again…only bigger, badder and bolder than ever before. But by the time the worst of the wealth transfer…uh, I mean the fair and equitable tax policy...is implemented, Chuck Grassley will be well into his own retirement. So he won’t need to make any pretense that those “tax cuts” in the GOP bill were aimed at the middle class.

               Grassley claims the massive tax cuts (like eliminating the Estate Tax which only affects .2% [that's point two percent] of Americans) is really just a question of “basic fairness.” Yes, but fairness to whom? It damn sure isn't fair to people like me who are not millionaires.

Afghan Hero - Lt. Sayed Basam Pacha

This is what a hero looks like.

Afghanistan’s image has suffered considerably over the years, but especially since the Soviet Union invaded in 1979 and then when the U.S. followed suit in 2001. Since the Soviet occupation, news reports have consistently pictured a country in chaos, where life was cheap and religious extremism made it barely inhabitable. But it still produces heroes.

The latest is police Lieutenant Sayed Basam Pacha. And he will be sorely missed, not just by his family, but by the entire nation of Afghanistan. On Thursday, November 16^th Lieutenant Sayed Pacha along with the 2^nd Company of Police District 4, the unit he commanded, was guarding the security gate to the hotel in the Khairkhana area of Kabul where regional and national dignitaries were meeting. A man walked up wearing a heavy coat and Pacha apparently suspected he was a suicide bomber. When the Lieutenant called on him to stop, the man began running and without hesitation, Pacha took several quick steps, threw his arms around the man in a bear hug…and was killed along with his 7 police companions and 6 nearby civilians when the man detonated the suicide vest under his coat. 18 others were wounded.

No one will ever know what Pacha’s last thoughts were, but he knew his duty was to protect and serve. He did this without flinching in the face of certain death. The powerful blast destroyed nearby vehicles and blew out windows in buildings hundreds of yards away. But by all accounts, the death toll would have been much higher without Pacha’s body blunting the effect of the bomb blast.

Pacha’s father, Police Commander Gen. Sayed Nizam Agha, when reached by phone said: “My son sacrificed himself to save other people.” He wept as he recounted his son’s story. “He had two bachelor degrees, one in political science and another one at the police academy,” the father proudly said. “He studied five years in Turkey. He came back from Turkey a year and a half ago. He was 25 years old and was single.”

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack but they did not count on the bravery and devotion to duty of Lt. Sayed that blunted what would have been a much more devasting blast with numerous additional victims. 

        There will never be enough men and women in this world like Lieutenant Sayed Basam Pacha. His bravery and valor are in too short supply. He is a true hero and should be honored and remembered down through the halls of time. Afghanistan is fortunate to have called him a son.

Donald Trump – America's Greatest Character - Flaw

“Predisent” Trump proclaimed this week, October 15th through October 21st, as National Character Counts Week. It’s a week to "reflect on the character of determination, resolve, and honor that makes us proud to be American. Few things are more important than cultivating strong character in all our citizens, especially our young people." Character might be hard to define "but we see it in every day acts — raising and providing for a family with loving devotion, working hard to make the most of an education, and giving back to devastated communities." – Or so someone wrote for Trump last Friday.

Yes, character does count and a strong character is desirable and beneficial as an example to our children, to our friends and allies, and in the way we serve others. But why is it that the people with little to no character are the ones who go on to abuse the term? Of all the people to ever hold the office of president, Donald Trump has the most questionable character of anyone who has held it or aspired to it.

Trump's Presidential Characteristics.

          Trump’s character fosters determination and resolve to boast about how he could get away with anything, even grab women “by the pussy.” And then dismiss it as just locker-room talk. In all my years, I have NEVER, EVER heard any man in any locker room talk about women that way. But then, I never shared one with Donald Trump. He also bragged that he hit on and groped other women who were married, while HE was married.

          This character has shown loving devotion by being married three times and openly admitting he was cheating on one by trying to woo the next one into bed.

This is the same character who cultivated, at last count, at least 15 women who have come forward and accused him of sexual assault. How did he defend his character in all this? By dismissing them saying he couldn’t have done it because “just look at them”, or “she wouldn’t be my first choice, that I can tell you” as though either answer exonerated his character. Do those answers satisfy you that he is innocent of the sexual assault charge? On the Howard Stern Radio Show, he gave our young people a heads up on what to expect from him when he boasted that he would deliberately walk through and ogle a roomful of Miss Teen USA contestants while they were dressing or undressing - because he was the owner of the pageant or the venue.

He said he’s never asked any god for forgiveness because he hadn’t done anything that needed to be forgiven. That’s what men of good moral character always do, isn’t it? Yet the religious right clings to him like leeches. They ignore his lack the character and refuse to see what a liar and con artist he is.

His business ethics have provoked over 360 lawsuits; for stiffing people on payments, reneging on contracts, turning off water and electricity in buildings he bought to force out the people who lived there, false advertising, and for fleecing thousands and thousands of people - like his fake Trump University. Even after losing that particular case and being ordered to pay back $25 million, it didn’t faze his 'character’ in the eyes of his supporters or the GOP. To them, he’s just a savvy businessman who was treated unfairly.

Trump’s character includes disrespect for military people who were captured…because they aren’t war heroes. He likes "people who weren’t captured, okay?” By extension, that also means he doesn't like soldiers who get killed either. So why do any veterans support this character? Especially when he avoids the situation room as American troops are sent in harm’s way, like in Yemen last January where CPO William Ryan Owens was killed.

These men died in Niger and Trump couldn't even bother to be in the situation room when it happened,  couldn't be bothered to read the release put out by the DoD and NSC, and couldn't be bothered to be at the Air Force base when the bodies were flown home.

         On October 16^th in the Rose Garden, his lack of character allowed him to deflect answering a question and falsely claim President Obama hadn’t called families of soldiers killed in combat after he was pointedly asked why he had yet to say anything about four Green Berets killed over two weeks ago in Niger. He didn't go to Dover Air Force Base when the body of the last of the four, Sergeant La David Johnson, was returned. Instead, he was busy with the more presidential duties of golfing and tweeting that NFL players should be fired for kneeling during the national anthem. Which shows less reverence for our nation and flag...kneeling in protest over police brutality, which is protected by the First Amendment, or when the president pointedly ignores a soldier's body returning home, a soldier who was killed on Trump’s watch and due to a Trump directive?

There's not much difference between these two...character-wise.

When most people use the word character, they mean ‘personality’. To say someone has character means they have a sense of humor and endearing idiosyncrasies. The British use the expression “he’s a bit of a character,” which means “he is eccentric, or maybe lives in a hollowed-out tree and steals nuts from squirrels.”

Trump is far and away a character, but not in the good sense of the word…not even in the British way of using the term. Trump is a living, breathing character flaw. He represents the worst characteristics of a portion of the U.S….with his casual racism, his crass materialism, his relentless self-aggrandizement, his vulgarity, his lack of honesty, his sexism, his defense of Nazi supporters as “fine people”, his sleaziness, and he is dismantling everything that makes America safe and prosperous. 
Just so the rest of the world understood Trump’s lack of character, he even shoves other world leaders out of the way so he can be in the front of any photo opportunity - as he did in Europe last summer.

"Get out of my way!"

But this massive character flaw worked on one group of people…his supporters. They believe Trump was sent by God to save the world. Everything he says is true and he has never lied. His snake oil really does work. He’s going to make all of them filthy rich just like he is. And he loves everyone…Amen!

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Bob Corker

Robert Corker Junior, go crawl back under your Tennessee rock and stay there. Now that you’re leaving the Senate and no longer running for office, you've discovered the freedom of being honest - by pissing, whining, and moaning about what a big baby Trump is. You're now quick to point out that his administration is in a downward spiral, that Trump shows neither the stability or competence to hold the office of President, that Trump has to have 24-hour adult supervision, that the Oval Office is nothing more than a daycare center when Trump is “in the house”, that Rex Tillerson is spot on in calling Trump a f*cking moron, and that Trump’s thoughtless, inappropriate, and juvenile comments are putting the U.S. on a path to World War Three. But how did we get here Bob?

On April 28, 2016, you, Bob Corker, praised Trump's evolution as a politician, calling his previous day's foreign policy address in Washington DC a "really good transition in the campaign.” As one of the most powerful men in the Senate, you offered an early and strong endorsement for this man-baby. It was you who assuaged skeptical members of the GOP establishment to support Trump as the party’s nominee. You then considered accepting Trump’s offer to join him as his running mate and, gushing like a teenage schoolgirl, said “The reason you love him so much is because he loves you” as Trump stood next to you. I’m sure that was your "honest" reaction, not the words of a sycophant.

                             One down, eighteen to go.

        You used your position to vote for almost all of Trump’s legislative agenda and you supported and confirmed EVERY SINGLE ONE of his nominees. You didn’t question their competence or qualifications - including Michael Flynn, Betsy DeVos, Tom Price, Jeff Sessions, Rick Perry, Steve Mnuchin, Scott Pruitt…etc. These are, or were, some of the most incompetent people to ever hold their respective offices and you helped put them there just as Trump wanted. You voted in favor of repealing Obamacare - without anything to replace it - every time it came up for a vote.

At the end of May 2017, you were practically swooning over Trump’s first overseas trip as president, a trip that virtually everyone else at home and abroad labeled an unmitigated disaster, claiming it was “executed to near perfection.”

You have always been willing to play a part in this Potemkin village called the Trump administration by being Trump’s adviser, confidante, dinner companion, and golf partner. You couldn't suck up to this Russian-installed clown any more than you already have. You made your pact with the devil, so to speak, and now you’re complaining because of the heat?

Why did it take you until you retired to say what you REALLY thought of Trump? Since 2011 he has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unfit for any office. Had you spoken bluntly and authoritatively a year ago about all the things you can plainly see now, we could have avoided having this self-centered, easily-offended, Twitter-bullying, small-minded, pussy-grabbing, bigoted, dishonest, misogynistic, childish nitwit as our president.

You have no shame, no integrity. and no reason to bitch, Robert Phillip Corker Jr. We got here because of YOU!

In Trump's America - Who Needs that Pesky First Amendment?

Apparently, free speech in America is only that which is approved by Donald Trump. Trump thinks people should be punished and even deported for showing a "lack of patriotism" by refusing to do something that has always been voluntary in our country regarding the flag. Where was all of Trump’s patriotism when he invented that bone spur in his foot to avoid military service during the fighting in Vietnam? Shouldn’t that be a punishable or deporting offense? How about it, Trump?

When the First Amendment was adopted in 1791, our Founding Father’s apparently needed to include “This article is not subject to re-interpretation by any future president or official” to protect coming generations from the whims of some dictator who managed to attain the White House. One of its provisions was to allow unpopular views to be spoken or written…like, say, when writers in the mid-1700s vented about King George III or British actions. The writers and speakers were to be allowed and encouraged to disagree with mainstream thought so public debate could determine what course of action was best for the colonies. That’s why we had people arguing in favor of, and against, the British. It’s why we allowed many different religious practices (although hindsight has shown that the tolerance was primarily limited to Christian-style religions). It’s why newspapers were not subject to censorship by the government. It protects you from the government punishing or censoring or oppressing your speech. Symbolic speech is protected by the constitution, too. Simply put, you have the right to not speak. You have the right to silence. So if you were to be fined or punished by your employer for not standing during the national anthem, that’s a major First Amendment issue. But now, Trump has redefined what that amendment really means. Stand, or get out of the country.

Here we are trying to contend with major issues around the nation and the world, including powerful hurricanes, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, unprecedented flooding, rising sectarian violence, record droughts, suicide bombings, health care, tax reform, and threats of nuclear war (thanks to our president acting like a third grader taunting the second grade bully in North Korea, and then unzipping his pants and flipping out his tiny member at Iran to taunt them as well)...and what does Trump want to address? He decides to escalate a non-issue by attacking the NFL, calling on fans to boycott NFL games until players who refuse to stand for the national anthem are suspended or cut from the team.

So which is it...do fans stop going to games, or are the team owners supposed to fire the players? 

On ABC TV’s “This Week,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin defended Trump’s attack on NFL players. “You know, the NFL has all different types of rules.You can’t have stickers on your helmet. You have to have your jerseys tucked in. I think what the president is saying (Mnuchin doesn't really know, he just made this up on the spot) is that the owners should have a rule that players should have to stand in respect for the national anthem. This isn’t about Democrats, it’s not about Republicans, it’s not about race, it’s not about free speech. They can do free speech on their own time.”

Mnuchin (who never served in the military or as a first responder) needs a thorough lesson on the creation of the First Amendment. He makes the same mistake so many others do about the intent of the amendment - and what the NFL players kneeling represents - by erroneously claiming “This is about respect for the military and so many people who put their lives at risk and what the country stands for, and the owners should meet and they should decide on this rule the way they decide on any other rule.”

Incredulous, ABC’s Martha Raddatz immediately asked: “Is it not about their first amendment rights? Is it not about the first amendment?”

“No, it’s not,” Mnuchin replied. “They have the right to have the first amendment off the field.”

Free speech is only to be enjoyed in private, on your own time, away from everyone and everything. So voluntary standing, voluntary putting a hand over your heart, voluntary singing of the anthem is no longer acceptable. Now it must be coerced and if the NFL players don’t like it, they should be penalized or thrown out of work - or out of the country.

When former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick initially knelt rather than stand at games in 2016, He was NOT disrespecting the flag, the military, or our nation. He was protesting racial injustice and police brutality. That’s all.  He recognized the U.S. as his country too and he knew his First Amendment rights. In his display, he was calling attention to the increase in the number of police shootings of unarmed blacks as well as more overt discrimination against non-whites - yet there seemed to be no concern for it by government officials. There's even less under the Trump administration.

Thanks to Trump’s ignorant tweet and Mnuchin’s failure to understand what was the intent of the First Amendment, protest events and comments were commonplace at NFL games this weekend. At the day’s very first contest, a London showdown between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens, more than two dozen players knelt, as did Ravens owner Ray Lewis. Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan, who had been a Trump supporter, locked arms with his team in a show of unity. So did Ravens coach John Harbaugh. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers posted a photo on Instagram of him kneeling with several of his teammates. The Pittsburgh Steelers sidestepped the anthem entirely by staying in their locker room to demonstrate unity. (Only Alejandro Villanueva broke with them and went out to stand on the field.) LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke, a Trump supporter, released a statement affirming the players’ “freedom to peacefully express themselves”  as did the Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner. Over half of the Denver Broncos kneeled on the sideline at their game while numerous members of the New Orleans Saints remained sitting. The Houston Texans locked arms in a show of unity...the New York Giants locked arms too as several players took a knee. Yes, there were boos from the stands, but that is the fan’s First Amendment right. No one said they can’t do it because it might offend someone.

What Trump is calling for is a new interpretation of the First Amendment. If you live or work in the U.S., you must stand when the national anthem is played. You must stand and face the flag. You must show respect no matter what. And only Trump gets to interpret what “respect” means. When just one man gets that kind of power, it’s called a dictatorship.

So what the hell have we become?

Doomsday...AGAIN!

In September 2015 I posted an End-of-the-World blog at this link: http://warnepiece.blogspot.com/2015/09/end-of-world-september-23-2015.html. It was about Christians saying God has had enough, the end was nigh, and all the proof was pointing to September 23, 2015. They claimed that innumerable cosmic events, news stories, and weather-related phenomenon were the key. But when September 23^rd came to pass the believers were left stunned.

Turns out they just got the last digit wrong; it was supposed to be September 23, 2017. Now we have something to look forward to.

 “We’ll all die then” according to David Meade, author of Planet X: the 2017 Arrival “by the collision with death planet Nibiru which is going to kill us all. It’s written in both the Bible and the Pyramids.” Meade says, ‘It is very strange that Revelations 12 and the Great Pyramid of Giza both point to one precise moment in time – September 20 to 23, 2017.”  Yes…sometime between 12:00 AM September 20^th up to midnight on September 23^rd. How’s that for precision?

To back Meade up, from the website The Catholic Astronomer, comes this: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth … She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.” On September 23, 2017, the sun will be in the zodiac constellation Virgo — “a woman clothed with the sun”. The moon will be at the feet of Virgo — “with the moon under her feet”. The ‘nine’ stars of the zodiac constellation Leo, plus three planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), will be at the head of Virgo — “on her head a crown of 12 stars”. The planet Jupiter will be in the center of Virgo, and, as the weeks pass after September 23, Jupiter will exit Virgo to the east, past her feet, so to speak — “She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth”. Jupiter is the largest of the planets, the “king” of the planets, so to speak — “She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod”. 
Astrological boogah-boogah should convince everybody!

          Then we have self-professed seer Pamela Banda who wrote in a blog on August 29, 2016, that she saw a vision of Houston the previous May. In it, she said that two floods and two storms would hit the city. Harvey did it starting on August 25, 2017, and Hurricane Katia is forming up in the southern Gulf of Mexico, churning northward as of September 8th. However, Ms. Banda gave no indication of the date this would happen after she had her “vision.” It’s her followers and those who subscribe to her nonsense that came up with the date…right now, they say. Harvey and Katia are the proof. How do we know Ms. Banda is right? Because she said “Since I was a little girl, I have had dreams and visions, so seeing things is not new for me, but hearing words from the Lord is. I first started hearing words from Him in 2011.” Yep, until then, God couldn't be bothered with telling Pamela anything.

But maybe those aren’t the only signs that Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, or Elohim have sent to prove he means it this time. For example, doomsayers claim…

…the solar eclipse that was visible across a broad swath of the US on August 21st was a sign…because the Supreme Being can only let us know of his presence by normal celestial events over the United States. Christian websites claim it was proof of God’s coming judgment. (Hey, thanks for nailing that down for us!)

              By the massive 8.1 earthquake along the Mexican Pacific coast on September 7^th, that killed at least 90 people. It produced strange and eerie bluish-green flashes in the skies offshore as the tremors rocked…literally…western Mexico. End times interpreters were having a field day claiming the lights were another sign of God’s presence.

             The gargantuan solar flares on the sun the past few days…the size of which has never been recorded. Active Region 2673 (AR 2673), seen in the short clip above, blasted out another solar flare early on the morning of Sept. 8th, its sixth intense burst of high-energy radiation since Monday, Sept. 4th. Two of the six recent flares from AR 2673 were X-class — including Wednesday the 6th's monster X9.3, which was the most powerful solar flare since 2005.

             The approaching giant Hurricane Irma that has leveled several small Caribbean island nations including Puerto Rico, and is now heading for Florida. It has Hurricane Jose following in its wake.

             The huge wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Montana. They are the worst fires in more than a decade.

So, some God is mad...and rather than show himself or provide concrete evidence of what is the reason is for all this…that Being thought it would be more impressive to continue hiding but use naturally occurring events - just on a bigger, broader scale - to prove His existence. That way, there’d be no doubt who or what we’re dealing with.

And through it all, climate expert Rush Limbaugh, who has a Ph.D. in Meteorology from Trump University, says the global climate change appearing in real time by trendsetting hurricanes, is a liberal hoax that’s being used to advance a socialist agenda, sell products, and whip up negative press toward President Trump. Yet, ironically, even though hurricanes are a liberal hoax, he’s not willing to put his money where his mouth is and stay put in West Palm Beach. No. He headed for the exits so he doesn’t have to face that gigantic bag of hot air bearing down on the state.

          As I stated last time, when September 23^rd comes and goes and the end of the world hasn’t happened, it will just strengthen the Christian and Doomsday proponent’s beliefs…and we’ll be off to the races toward the next end of the world prediction.

          Count on it.

(Update September 27, 2017 - Author David Meade has now clarified that Sept. 23rd was the date of a “historical event” in the skies that would signal the oncoming rapture. He claims it DID happen. It just wasn't Planet X or Nibiru slamming into Earth. But he says doomsday itself will begin on October 15th...or October 21st...or maybe even later. It's fascinating how "precise" Meade's predictions are. And you know you can trust him...because he's gotten it wrong three time in a row now. How did he forget to mention any of this post-Sept.23rd information in his original doomsday prophecy?)

Trump Threatens to Unleash a Nuclear War - After all, why else do we have nuclear weapons?

“President Fire and fury” Donald Trump is still in office because he thinks he has support from the Republicans, the very party most of his own supporters hate almost as much as they hate liberals and Democrats. Those supporters consider the GOP a “do nothing” party. After all, it’s a party that only has a 24% approval rating. The GOP is part of the swamp Trump was supposed to drain, a party that only looks out for its own self-interests, only helps big business, only passes tax cut legislation to aid the richest people…etc.

But why do these Trump supporters continue to cling to Trump? Why do they still support him? Apart from lying incessantly to them, he has done nothing for them. He has passed no legislation that helps them. He has saved no jobs or gotten jobs returned from overseas. He hasn’t built the useless southern border wall. He hasn’t repealed the ACA. He has his own state-run TV news on his Facebook page to spread Trump-approved propaganda, but it doesn’t appear to be changing anyone’s mind. So what do Trump’s supporters see in a Trump presidency? Are they going to jump up and down and cheer when Trump orders our military into action in a backwater, out-of-the-way, piss-ant little country like North Korea? Place your money on it. The whole “North Korea is a rogue state and deserves our wrath” is a smoke screen. Trump is hiding something else. But his supporters will say it shows he’s a strong, tough man that won’t blink before Kim Jong Un.

Trump is going to get us into a war…a war that will involve nuclear weapons. Trump doesn’t understand nuclear weapons. He thinks of them as “well if they are in our arsenal, then we must use them like they are aircraft carriers, armored vehicles, or bombers.” That’s as deep as Trump has thought about the issue. He did not study the Second World War. He does not understand the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He knows nothing about our nuclear triad. He only knows he has the power to launch them and soon he will find a reason or will be provoked or goaded into using them.
           Since the 1950s the Kims have been trying to stay in the public eye. They refused to sign a treaty ending the Korean War. They have been launching missiles of one sort or another since 1988 when Reagan was in office. They developed a nuclear weapon in 2006 when Bush was in charge so Obama cannot be blamed for this. The current threat is nothing new from the North Koreans. Even our latest satellite reconnaissance photographs of North Korea show no preparation for war. South Korean intelligence has indicated there have been no changes made anywhere along the border. It’s the same thing North Korea has done since the 1950s, make meaningless gestures while blowing off hot air. But this is the first time they’ve dealt with Trump and Trump knows nothing about North Korea or how to react so he thinks putting on his tough guy act is the correct course.

On July 31^st  Trump said he wasn’t worried about a possible nuclear threat. “We’ll handle North Korea,” Trump told assembled reporters “We’re going to be able to handle them. It will be handled.” The president offered no specifics about how he would “handle” North Korea. It seems he has no game plan and thinks that if he says “handled” three times it will solve the issue as if it’s Beetlejuice.

On August 5^th National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster ratcheted up the heat by saying “The United States is preparing for all options to counter the growing threat from North Korea, including launching a “preventive war. It’s impossible to overstate the danger associated with a rogue, brutal regime." How ironic that McMaster could also be talking about the Trump regime.,

On August 7^th, from his Bedminster Golf Club, Trump threatened to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it continues to threaten the US as tensions grow. The White House and Defense Dept. are caught completely off guard by Trump’s comments and so far have not issued clarifying statements, just support for Trump's bombastic idiocy.

And then, as Trump does repeatedly because he is a complete amateur or nitwit, on August 8^th he gives away more classified information when he tweeted out a link to a Fox News report about North Korea that contained what U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said was confidential information regarding North Korea mounting anti-ship missiles onto their patrol boats.

Our military forces are already fighting in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, and naval forces are ready to strike off the coast of Iran, in the South China Sea against China, and our navy and air force reconnaissance aircraft are being challenged repeatedly over the Black Sea by the Russians. How many hair-triggers do we need? Now Trump wants to add the volatile North Koreans to the mix.

Will General Mattis (known colloquially as “Mad Dog”) challenge Trump not to launch nuclear weapons? He is the one who used the Massive Ordinance Air Blast bomb in Afghanistan for no apparent reason, and Trump approved it after the fact. Will General H. R. McMaster? Will new Chief of Staff Kelly? Will NSA Director Admiral Rogers? Will Director of Intelligence Dan Coats? Or even CIA director Pompeo? These men are all sycophants who have pledged their loyalty to Trump…not to the country or to the Constitution…but to Trump. Therein lies our problem, as if Trump’s lying isn’t enough. These men are confusing loyalty to Trump with loyalty to the country and its Constitution. Those could not be more different. And that misguided loyalty will get us into a war “the likes of which the world has never seen” to use Trump’s own words.

Trump supporters need to come to the realization that Trump will get them - and/or their sons and daughters - killed in a war he’ll launch strictly to stroke his ego. He’ll blame it on the North Koreans as though he alone finally has to do something about them obtaining nuclear weapons. But we didn’t launch a war to stop the Soviet Union from obtaining theirs…or China...or India...or Pakistan...or South Africa...or Israel...or anyone else.

Keep Trump away from the nuclear codes. Resist this man. Fight this man, Remove this man from office. Our future as a species depends on it.