Can Trump DO Anything To Stop North Korea After ICBM Test? No, But He Can Make Another Phony Wrestling Video

The Fourth Of July dawned with the alarming news that North Korea had succeeded in a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) they call the Hwasong -14.   At the outset the brain trusts at the Pentagon and CIA had the test pegged more as an IRBM or intermediate range ballistic missile test, but later analysis - specifically including the duration of powered flight (37 mins.) put the kibosh on that. The maximum altitude of 1700 miles, combined with the 580 mile horizontal range, put the test firmly in the ICBM class with the capability of reaching Alaska.

More unsettling, it showed the missile cone could have survived re-entry through the atmosphere. which is crucial for any ICBM.  As I noted in an earlier post, if  the North Koreans can master the technological re-entry problems, then according to Lt. Gen. Vince Stewart,  it will be "on a pathway where this capability is inevitable."  Of course, it remains to be seen whether the North has miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit in the nose cone of their Hwasong -14 missile. Let's bear in mind the crucial factor here is the mass.

Assuming their nuclear capability is only at the most primitive stage (roughly like the U.S. in mid -1945) that means they'd need their ICBM to deliver a warhead with a yield of roughly 0.08 kt/ kilogram. That is yield per actual bomb mass.  This means they’d need to be able to launch or carry (via plane) at least 100 kg of bomb mass to get an 8 kiloton A -blast, or 200 kg to get a 16 kt yield..

The key aspect for a stable ICBM, of course, is to ensure the center of gravity (or center of mass) of the missile is ahead of its center of pressure. The CG is just the point where the rocket mass is evenly balanced.   (Imagine placing the missile on a knife edge and being balanced). Thus, there is no net moment on one side or the other. Given the nose cone mass is rendered much larger by incorporation of 100 kg or 200 kg mass then it is advantageous for stability to have that extra mass in there. The center of pressure (CP) then is located more toward the tail and is generally considered as the focus of all aerodynamic forces acting, which entails computation of the total area of the missile, e.g. fins, cylindrical surface etc.

The farther behind the center of gravity the center of pressure is placed, the stronger and more precise the restoring forces , so the missile displays greater stability in flight, less wobble.  Of course, the competition for a stable ICBM will be seen between the nose mass (where the warhead is located) and the tail region where the engines reside. One certainly needs engines of powerful thrust - up to  360,000 foot-pounds, or 1, 600 kilo newtons -  but this also implies greater engine mass. The greater that engine mass the more the CG will move backward toward the tail. Obviously then, if the engine mass is too great the danger is that the CG may fall behind the CP leading to instability.

It is doubtful to me that the N. Korean ICBM test included an actual miniaturized warhead. The question they must answer is how the inclusion of a 100-200 kg mass in the nose of the missile will affect its trajectory and especially stability  - in concert with the engine required to hurl it to another continent..  That is basically the sixty four dollar question.  Only at that point , i.e. of an actual  warhead test, should the world really be going into panic mode.

Nonetheless, the successful "bare bones" (e.g. minus warhead)  test marks a direct challenge to Trump, whose tough talk has yet to yield any change in Pyongyang’s behavior as the regime continues its efforts to build a nuclear tipped ICBM that can reach the U.S. mainland.

Trump, the man-baby,  responded to the North Korean missile test by applying rhetorical pressure on China, North Korea’s ally and economic lifeline, and by mocking dictator Kim Jong Un on Twitter. Of course, given Kim Jong Un is the Korean version of Trump (but cubed),  it probably only made more provocations inevitable.

Funniest of all was Trump's trademark childish tweet:

"North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?”

Well, from the looks of it he's certainly got more done than watching cable TV 12 hours a day like the Donald, or making fake wrestling videos body slamming a CNN suit. In a race to tell who's done more, I'd have to say the North Korean wins, especially as he's got Trump totally boxed in with nothing he can really do but tweet like a fool. "Modern day version" of a president? Nope, modern day version of a goofball who has no more business in the Oval Office than a drunken baboon.

Despite Trump's puppet McMaster's veiled threats, there really is no possibility at all for any direct military strikes. Any such retarded and precipitate folly would lead to South Korea being utterly turned into ashes within minutes - and likely via nuclear fireballs.

Interviewed in April,  and asked if Trump would actually attack North Korea, former CIA North Korean analyst Sue Mi Terry responded:

 “I can’t see him following through on this and that is the problem with the brinksmanship policy. Because you’re putting yourself in a bind. You will either have to back down and lose credibility or you are stuck on a ledge with a military option which is very, very risky.

 North Korea is not Syria. It’s not Afghanistan. It’s going to have very devastating consequences.  North Korea will retaliate to any kind of military option. They will retaliate against South Korea given seventy percent of its ground forces are deployed within 100 kilometers (60 miles) of the DMZ.  And there’s twenty thousand U.S. military in South Korea and twenty million people in Seoul”

Let's be clear none of the North's existing weapons could reach the U.S. presently – though they could wreak havoc on Seoul, South Korea – with the potential to obliterate over 20 million people as well as all U.S. troops stationed in S. Korea.

Clearly, this is a cost and risk no sane leader would visit on a vulnerable ally. An 11-page report just compiled by Global Zero's Nuclear Crisis Group also warns that the risk of a nuclear war is now "unacceptably high".  Despite that, some military know nothings exist - just as they did in the Kennedy era with the Cuban Missile crisis (e.g. Gen. Curtis LeMay) who really believe a "pre-emptive strike" can be managed with no further risk of conflagration. 

As Exhibit A for the "Curtis LeMay clone of the year award", I give you  former NATO supreme Allied commander -  Admiral James Stavrids (Ret.). This inveterate dickhead  blithely talked this morning (on 'Morning Joe') of taking out the North like you'd lance a boil. No shit. 

According to Stavrids:

"It will be on President Trump's watch to make this decision and it becomes a pre-emptive strike that is legitimate under international law. So you build an Asian coalition, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapre....as many as you can get on board, And you're going to  have to use a combination of cyber warfare, special forces, and long range air from Guam as well as bring three to four carrier battle groups around the peninsula.

We're gonna lose hundreds of thousands of people in that scenario. Many of them will be Americans, there are 200,000 American citizens there. It's a very dark scenario but if you've gotta lance the boil militarily can you do it? Yes.  Do you have the legitimacy when the nuke and the intercontinental missile stream cross?  Yes, and that's probably eighteen months away."

He acknowledged "hundreds of thousands" dead and doesn't blink an eye. Nor does he see there is no assurance a "preemptive" strike confined to the peninsula means the ensuing war is confined there.

If you go back to read through the transcripts of the tapes made during the Cuban Missile crisis (The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis’, by Ernest R. May and Philip K. Zelikow (1997, President and Fellows of Harvard College) you will see the Joint Chiefs then also firmly believed the U.S. had the "legitimate right" to make a full invasion of Cuba and bomb Castro back to the Stone Age. Of course, Robert McNamara thirty years later on meeting Castro then learned all 90-odd IRBMs would have been launched at the U.S. - doubtless ushering in a full scale nuclear war.

So yeah, it's neat to bang the drum of "legitimacy" by whatever rationalization and ideational confection you  can muster, but the question to be answered is : Do you really want to reduce the planet to ashes that badly? 

Meanwhile, Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. forces in S. Korea (after a joint missile drill with the South Koreans) insisted as per a Financial Times quote that "the allied troops were prepared for war". Seemingly oblivious to the fact the North's response will not be conventional but likely via a single A-bomb of 8 - 20 kt scale dropped from a plane or hurled via solid fuel missile.

Fortunately,  there are still some sane voices to be heard like former CIA deputy director Mike Morrell .  Two days ago when asked on CBS Early Show what the U.S. response should be, Morrell minced no words: "There can be no military response or attack. The only two options are more sanctions and perfecting the missile defense system".   And the latter needs perfecting given it's now exclusively "designed for success" with a GPS locater beacon in the target's nose cones.

If JFK were President as opposed to an overgrown toddler with malignant ego issues, whose only communications are via a cartoon medium, we might have a chance.  Kennedy as per his Cuban Missile solution would have figured the only way out is to make some concessions (say more food supplies) after getting Kim Jong Un to the table.  Then, perhaps trade food and medical supplies for a reduction in missiles.  

What we can hope for is that China's President Xi  Jinping and Vladimir Putin (Trump's "hero") talk some sense into president Man-Boy as regards feasible responses when he attends the G20 summit. The question is whether Drumpf listens to them or the hotheads calling for a pre-emptive strike.

A Heads Up For the 4th: No, Not About Trump's Latest Childish "Wrestling" Tweet

"Yeah, I just made up the Voter Fraud Commission from my illegal voters conspiracy theory! Deal with it!"


As the nation's 241st birthday rolls around tomorrow, let's concede that Americans have disagreed about the nature of government and civic life almost from the start. But now it's evident that democracy and the American Republic itself is "in the dock" as we've beheld the havoc on it wrought by Trump and his Vulgarians.

Trump is front and center at the apparent devolution as witnessed in his latest attack on the media in a phony wrestling video dispatched via tweet yesterday. This follows the man-child earlier naming the press as "the enemy of the people"  along with his disparagement of "so called judges" and attacks on other checks on his  executive power. Much of this, of course, has been met with cheers and applause from his base - more invested in his deplorable, undignified behavior than his actual performance as a president. They never seem to ask themselves why this guy is so busy watching cable TV he has the time to take umbrage and fire off idiotic tweets, instead of getting down to the business of the nation.  The real business, like dealing with North Korea and developing a rational trade policy,  not crafting bogus executive orders to set up phony voter fraud "commissions" based on a pet conspiracy theory. (Which is the general topic of this post)

Let's also be reminded that Jefferson ('Notes on Virginia'), as well as Alexis de Tocqueville ('Democracy In America') expressed concerns the country - if not careful - could enable the 'rabble' to gain control by mischief of faction and usher in new forms of tyranny.  Jefferson, especially, worried a less educated electorate could fall victim, since intelligent voting required a critically thinking public. As Exhibit A, that this is no longer the case, I point to the 4.5 million "unique page views" Alex Jones recently got for his conspiracy bunkum - including captive child sex slaves held on Mars. What manner of moron could believe such drivel? To Jefferson, certainly one that has no business entering a voting booth.

Yet another abomination skating below most citizens' radar is Trump's newly invented "Voter Fraud Commission".  Let's again cut through the fog of fake news media crappola and recognize this bogus commission for what it is: a putrid excrescence of Trump's malignant agenda created to support his favorite conspiracy theory. That is, that he actually won the popular vote if 3 to 5 million "illegals" had not snuck in and voted for Hillary.

This translates to his "commission" being bogus and not worth half an ounce of doggie lickspittle. So, no surprise over two dozen Secretaries of State have told Trump's commission Vice-Chair (Chris Kobach) - now demanding a full set of voter information  where to stick it.     That voter information being demanded from all 50 Secretaries of State, includes: voters' full names, addresses, birth dates, political party, voting history, felony convictions, military status and the kicker - the last four digits of the Social Security number.

For those who might think this travesty is new, it isn't. There was a similar wild goose chase to root out voter fraud during the Gee Dumbya Bush  administration. It was a five-year investigation nationwide that cost millions of dollars and turned up a few dozen reported instances of fraud over a period of time in which hundreds of millions of ballots was cast. It was a political agenda that led to the improper firings of a number of United States attorneys. It was one of the biggest scandals of the George W. Bush administration, and it eventually resulted in the resignation in disgrace of Alberto Gonzalez as attorney general.  So wary citizens and students of history can add that travesty to Bush's illegal and pre-emptive invasion of Iraq.

Now for a real ironic twist:  Kobach, the Vice Chair of this "commission" has himself declined to turn over the Social Security information. Kobach said he can't provide such because of a state (Kansas) law. So he can't provide such but expects other states to violate their own laws?

One of the best and most direct refusals to comply with this voter witch hunt cane from Kentucky's Secretary of State who said:

"Not on my watch,  Are we going to participate in a political activity, a commission that is really set up as a pretext to find an answer to a problem that simply doesn't exist. And not on my watch are going to release sensitive voter information data, that is at best a waste of taxpayer money and at worst a national effort to suppress votes across the United States."

What can I say? She nailed it to a tee.  MSNBC legal specialist Ari Melber Friday night noted the use of the term "pretext" and suggested another more apropos: conspiracy theory.  To fix ideas, this "commission" was created because Trump's febrile, debilitated brain passed a noxious fart to blame  his popular vote loss on  illegal voters.  Thus, Trump and his sorry ass administration then decided, a few weeks after the election,  to spend millions of taxpayer dollars  to try to confirm Dump's conspiracy theory.

The Trump brain spasm had resulted in the following tweet that now has launched a multi-million buck pseudo effort:

"In addition to  winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally"

Of course, he produced no evidence at all to support this balmy claim,, zero. His claim rests entirely on his pathetic ego being bruised by the actual final tally that showed his losing to HRC by 2.9 million votes. BWAHAHAHAAHAA! Build me a commission to disprove it! Still, the asshole in chief took umbrage at the states that declined to turn over their voter data, including one state secretary from MS who said "they can go jump in the Gulf!". To which Trump then responded in a tweet Saturday:

"What have they got to hide?"

Of course they've nothing to hide at all. They simply opt not to share sensitive voter data with a screwball who bases his voter fraud commission on a conspiracy theory.

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law conducted extensive research on all this and subsequently released a report that looked at a previously conducted national study. The latter looked at the non-citizen and potential fraudulent voting in the 2016 election. Their final conclusion?

"From the tabulation of 23.5 million votes there were  only 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting referred for further inquiries or prosecution. Thus, improper noncitizen votes accounted for 0.0001 percent."

Get that?  Not one percent, not one hundredths of one percent, but one ten thousandth of one percent of the total votes!    What percent of noncitizen voter fraud would Trump actually need for his brain fart tweet to hold? Do the math and it works out to some 4 to 8 percent of the total Hillary voters. (Assuming all HRC voters went for her and not Gary Johnson, or Jill Stein)  In other words, Trump's claimed illegal violations are as much as 80,000 times greater than what the Brennan study found!

The only sane and rational conclusion one can draw is that this bogus commission was set up for two functions only:  1) a distraction to the real threat against the U.S. election system, Russian hacking. And (2) the setting up of the false narrative of voter fraud to use as a justification to adopt voter suppression policies.

Sherrilynn Ifill, of the NAACP, had this despicable agenda pegged after Trump released his bonkers tweet claiming he really won the popular vote.  She was quoted in a WaPo piece back in February:

"We take the president at his word when he threatens to launch a 'major investigation' into voter fraud. We will challenge the illegality in the presentation or execution of the program. But we had all best recognize the implications id the president of the United states launching a nationwide voter intimidation program"

And then months later we beheld Trump's bogus "executive order" to try to give his derelict scheme ballast.

As for Kobach his vile voter suppression history precedes him.  In Kansas, he instituted a “Show Me Your Papers” law which required people to produce a birth certificate or passport when they register to vote. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in a unanimous opinion by Judge Jerome Holmes, found that Kobach had engaged in “mass denial of a fundamental right” by blocking 18,000 motor voter applicants from registering to vote.

Ifill in her Friday night interview with Rachel Maddow added other warnings to do with voter suppression.  Indeed, she stated emphatically she was alerted to the incipient danger of Trump's original tweet- about really winning the popular vote- when he began to repeat it, and then surrogates (like Goebbels look-alike Stephen Miller) began to pick it up. She realized then Trump and his cabal would use it. When Miller insisted on assorted Sunday news programs "there was proof of this" her alarms went to Defcon 1 and she then took Trump at his word.  As she put it:

"I believe he would combine his need to believe that he had won the popular vote with something that has been a very important issue on the Right. That is, to prove that widespread voter fraud occurs as a justification for voter suppression, That's what we see in all the states where we're challenging voter ID laws, where you see governors and other state officials insisting there is widespread voter fraud happening despite there being no evidence. That's the reason they enacted some of these very restrictive voter ID laws."

Ms. Ifill went on to note that just in the past year, two federal courts of appeals  "not known for being particularly liberal"  found that at least two states - North Carolina and Texas- deliberately created their voter ID laws for the purpose of discriminating against minority voters."

Ms. Ifill was also blunt and to the point about the purposes of collection for the voter information files:

"There are lots of people affiliated with people like Chris Kobach who know what they want to do with this information. Organizations like True the Vote and others, They want to be able to  use this data to intimidate people on election day. They want to be able to use the data to convince state legislators there is a problem and they need even more restricted voter ID laws. They want to use this information to intimidate individual voters. and suggest to voters if they try to vote they will be prosecuted."


This is serious and shows our democracy itself is at risk, not merely from Russian hackers into our election systems, but home grown political terrorists prepared to gut the system from the inside. This - if successful and not challenged aggressively in the courts- could lead not only to the Dems failing to seize the House in the midterms next year, but the abomination known as Trump getting a 2nd term.

This we cannot allow. We can't allow our democracy to be subverted from the inside by fanatics who can't win except by subversion and suppression of the votes, as well as outrageous gerrymandering.

So yes, that is the topic for a heads up, not Trump's childish display (actually originating with some psycho on Reddit) of a doctored video showing the Swine in chief beating up on CNN.

We need to get our priorities in order. Or as Ben Franklin once warned, after being asked: "What have we got a monarchy or a Republic?".  "A Republic, if you can keep it."

The  Democracy Index, compiled by the British -based Economist Magazine Intelligence Unit,  ranked the U.S. 21st in 2016, tied with Italy. In terms of the report:

"While Norway and several other Scandinavian countries are considered full democracies, the U.S. fell to a 'flawed democracy' '', receiving low scores for functioning of government and political participation.

That rank is destined to go even lower if states allow Trump to in any way legitimize this asinine "voter fraud commission" he has created. This entity needs to be killed where it stands, and the NAACP, ACLU and other organizations must all be ready - as we citizens-- to ensure this happens.

Enjoy the Fourth, but remember it's not just about waving flags, hot dogs and fireworks. There are real issues this nation needs to address to preserve its democratic values and we can't allow ourselves to be distracted or destroyed by the likes of a deviant man-baby like Donald Trump.

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/kali-holloway/73788/trump-and-allies-its-the-fuck-you-presidency

A Rocket Port In Barbados Manned By Amateur Astronomers? A Pipedream For PR

Me, standing next to the BAS' new 16 in. Cassegrain telescope in May, 2014. Up to now I don't believe members have done a thing with it. And now they want to fire rockets into "mid space"?

As we read the headline in The Barbados Nation of May 4 we could scarcely believe our eyes:

"Bajan Scientists Plan To Launch 'Space Mission'"

The article claimed the "Harry Bayley Observatory -based group" (The Barbados Astronomical Society) is no longer content to observe the objects in the sky,  it now plans to launch a "probe" into the "mid level atmosphere".

(See:  http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/96428/heather-lynn-habitat-bajan-scientists-plan-launch-space-mission


As I paused to ask Janice:
"Fire rockets into space? What the hell have they been doing with their existing equipment? Anything?"

Recall three years ago in May we visited the Harry Bayley Observatory and found the BAS had just been the recipient of  a million dollar BDS ($500,000 U.S.) grant from the British-based Sfumato Foundation, to entirely upgrade and refurbish the building as well as purchase a new, fully computerized Meade 16" Cassegrain telescope (the largest of its type in the eastern Caribbean) as well as a NASA-designed Malin camera and a dedicated solar telescope for H-alpha observations.

In addition they reaped a computerized system allowing any one of nearly 140,000 celestial objects to be not only instantly located for the main telescope but also displayed on a 5' wide lecture screen as well as all the surrounding objects, constellations

Small- who "conceptualized" the rocket idea, giving a lecture in May, 2014.

As we examined the fancy equipment with de facto BAS head Ricardo Small, we asked who would be using it and what exactly they'd be doing, what kind of research or projects.  Again, no clear answers were forthcoming.  We also specifically inquired as to who would use the dedicated solar telescope and what would they do with the H-alpha imagery and photos? No answers, but perhaps "someone" at UWI would undertake a project. No specifics.  What about the fancy Malin NASA- designed camera? Unfortunately, the camera could not be interfaced with the telescope. The reason given by Mr. Small was that "conflicting information" had been given from various sources.

Up to now, or at least the day we read the Nation article, not one bit of evidence has emerged to show the society had done a thing with its existing equipment. And they now wanted to venture into scientific rocketry? Pardon me, but puh-leeze!

Let us grasp that even to launch a relatively small rocket to twenty miles altitude - about the minimum needed to gather any kind of decent data, one needs a properly prepared rocket launch site with adequate safety precautions and lots of space. The Observatory area has none of that. Indeed, it has barely half an acre of land in the midst of a high density development at Clapham, St. Michael. There is no way one could logically or safely launch even a ten foot long rocket from that area and not risk homes in the vicinity.

In fact, Barbados as a whole, as we beheld in our trip the last week of April, first week of May, is now overdeveloped to the point of being ridiculous, i.e. some outfit considering building a 15 story  high rise condo on the shores of Carlisle Bay.  So where will this "space launch" pad be located? The article doesn't say and I don't believe Ricardo Small or anyone else has a remote clue. In fact, I cannot see any place or location on the island that would be suitable or safe for genuine rocket launches.  It is basically a PR pipedream spun by members who think they can catapult into respectability and gravitas merely by talking about such.


According to  Mr. Small, quoted in The Nation piece:

“We understand the Barbados Astronomical Society and astronomy are not widely appreciated. Therefore, I have conceptualised a project called Project Skyreach which we will be revealing in all of its entirety in the next couple weeks.”


The impression I got from reading his quote is that he is frustrated that the BAS is gaining so little respect in the larger society, and that includes the astronomy - such as it is.  But, as I pointed out to several members in May of 2014, e.g.


The respect for your work and society beyond mere "star gazing" has to come by actually DOING something! Especially innovative or insightful research which is then published and circulated, e.g. to libraries in the region and outside.  When Janice and I lived in Barbados, an active group of members dedicated to serious study existed and we produced the quarterly Journal. of the Barbados Astronomical Society,

The Journal featured a wide range of research papers, ranging from aspects of  solar and space physics, to variable stars and their light curves, to investigation of binary star models and sketches of comparative lunar crater shadowing (e.g. in one paper by Janice). Two of her sketches from one issue are shown below:

The point is, members contributed productive research which was appreciated and which inevitably led to further contributions to the Society.  In several visits we've made since 2012 we've seen none of that - and yet Mr. Small is talking about rocket endeavors.  And what more will these rocket missions do that a solidly thought out research project using the Malin camera and dedicated solar telescope cannot?

Will launching "probes into lower space from Barbados" garner the respect that Mr. Small and the BAS so desperately want?  Hardly! As has already been demonstrated,  merely possessing fancy $1m BDS equipment in telescopes, cameras etc. is not sufficient to garner respect if it just sits there and isn't applied to directed research. And if such applies to already existing equipment, why expect having access to a $2m rocket pad and rockets will make any greater difference? Well, it won't unless there is a concrete research plan. To me, you use the existing land-based equipment to do serious work and then maybe - maybe, you will show you're ready for rocket research (such as carried out at Poker Flat Range in AK).

In the piece, Mr. Small also claimed The Society "was in talks with a number of Government agencies and other entities about the project".  But I can't conceive at all what these agencies would be. After all, there is no "space agency" like NASA on the island. In fact, much of the government impetus for research that does exist is mainly in the area of applied research, e.g. solar energy collectors, not pure research.

Small also claimed "there had been two project meetings so far" but never gives the names or locations. What are they, top secret?  He added:

“It will be termed an astro-meteorological experiment. During the ascent, the probe will gather meteorological data at the apex of target altitude, which will be 25 miles in space. We will be shooting the moon, we will be shooting Venus, we will be looking at the curvature of the Earth, we will be looking at the sun and that will be telemetered back to Earth. We will then be guiding the craft back to a landing here in Barbados,”

And I'd ask here, just for inquiry sake, why get involved with meteorological data collection when you've not even begun to do astronomical data collection with the existing equipment donated by the Sfumato Foundation?  As for "shooting the Moon", "shooting Venus" etc. that could be done right now using the photographic equipment and telescopes available - no need for fancy rockets.

Finally, the braggadocio- bred,  exaggerated PR ends with Ricky Small asserting:

“If we are successful, we will be the first country in the Caribbean to be able to do it. We will be the first country in the region to do it. Only a few countries have attempted it so far – the United States, Australia, South Africa and Sweden with varying successes......We will be going for the record. This will put Barbados on the map if we are successful."

And my response to this is yeah, and if I am successful in my next mentation, the Roswell aliens will come to life and haul Trump away in a special straight jacket that includes his head.

It is perfectly obvious that Ricardo - confronted by a Nation reporter- found himself eager to plumb the limits of his imagination and extemporaneously portray projects that are about as likely for the BAS as it also undertaking the successful search for actual flying saucers.

What would make me a partial believer in future BAS success and garnering respect from the larger society? Seeing Ricardo and his fellow members resurrect the Journal and publish actual hard research gleaned from data obtained - not by rockets - but by the expensive and sophisticated equipment they already possess. No excuses!

Trump Now Demands "Repeal Only" And NO Replace - Why Even His Supporters Are Abandoning The Twit

"I want the whole Obamacare repealed! No replace! Do it!"

Trump, aka Donald Drumpf, can't seem to help burning his whole administration down from the inside out using his own halfwit, impulsive brain. The latest salvo manifesting as friendly fire on his own Repuke Senate (struggling to pass their "Better care" bill) was his demand to just "repeal Obamacare and don't replace".   The very fact this imbecile could offer this shows: a) he doesn't know diddly about the existing R- bill, and b) doesn't know it contradicts all his previous statements committed to NOT doing that, and c) that it would leave 32 million without any health care.

In addition, as per a WSJ article today (p. A4, 'Conservatives Seek Speedy ACA Repeal') "those inside and outside the GOP warned that repealing the ACA without a replacement would create enormous uncertainty, roiling the insurance markets, panicking consumers and making life difficult for businesses."  Not mentioned is the effect it would have on health insurance stock shares, i.e. send them into the toilet.

Above all this Trump tweet demand discloses the guy isn't serious, he's again acting the part of the disrupting clown he really is, only fit to do stand ins as Bozo, or....maybe clean porto-potties in a clown costume. Hell, he isn't even aware of the peril he's now in as word is spreading through more intelligent and savvy former supporters that he's a loser and the carny barker most of us on the Left had always claimed. He's simply the real estate swindler and reality TV "firing" goon he always was.

As a blogger friend, Vietnam-Era vet and Trump voter put it in a recent blog post referencing the falling out:

 --------------

I voted for you but this is embarrassing,” someone else wrote last week, responding to the president’s tweet attacking the department store Nordstrom.

Complaints like these are being logged by a Twitter account called @Trump_Regrets. Since November, the account, managed by Erica Baguma, a 23-year-old Canadian college student, has climbed to more than 220,000 followers by curating some 1,500 messages, mostly from exasperated people who say they voted for Trump.

And…these people are not the only ones’ pulling their support from Trump. There are literally thousands of veterans like myself also ‘waking up’ to his BS! He’s ‘shit’ on and pissed off the wrong people with veterans. Despite Trump being granted FIVE deferments during Vietnam (one medical and four educational deferments), we vets nevertheless voted for him 2-1 over Killary.

The last straw was when he proposed to cut financial support for aging and disabled veterans included in $1.1 trillion federal budget proposal for the estimated 225,000 vets who would have lost the payments, had it not been for the hue and cry from veterans and veterans’ groups, and finally…Shulkin said he would not include the (IU) cuts in the budget proposal.

But, as far as myself and thousands of other vets are concerned…too little – too late! It shouldn’t have even been a consideration!

Some comments from veterans, when they found out it was in the budget proposal were:

“Make that guy in the White House keep his promise to all of us veterans, lest we all fall by the wayside and be left on the battlefield,” said a former Army staff sergeant who served in Vietnam.

“Please don’t do this to us,” said a sailor who served on ships in the Tonkin Gulf during the Vietnam War. “My wife and I already live our later years in constant uncertainty. We thought our VA benefits were fairly safe.”

“I have become aware that President Trump’s VA budget sets to screw Vietnam veterans first in line by eliminating the unemployability benefit for those of us who actually served and sacrificed who have reached the age of Social Security benefits,” said a former Navy lieutenant who flew the EP-3E version of the P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft in Vietnam.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Wow! If trends like this continue, Drumpf's "re-election campaign" will be dead in the water before it even gets to the midterms next year. And these are just the citizens, mainly military, upset about the potential cuts if his budget goes through, and as my blogger pal noted these are mostly "wish lists", most don't go through in entirety. But now add to those the millions of Trump voters who will be adversely affected by his pulling Obamacare without replacing it and it's his (and the GOP's) worst nightmare.

Even Kimberly Strassel in her Op-Ed in the WSJ two days ago, conceded that 77 percent of Americans now accept the minimum for the health care tableaux must include: i) acceptance of pre-existing conditions and  (ii)that kids can stay on their parents' plans until they are 26 years old. She argued the reason the acceptance of these ACA provisions was so widespread  because they were "the simplest part of the ACA to understand".  Maybe, but they are also humane and rationally based, especially not charging ten times more to those suffering from pre-existing conditions!

All Trump is doing now - between his deranged tweets and trying to trump Bitch McConnell in health care policy -  is ensuring disaster for himself, his administration and his party.

For those of us on the Left, it can't happen soon enough that all of these assholes sink, one time if possible, but we'll accept the 'long game' otherwise.

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/73742/just-say-it-donald-trump-is-mad