Corker Told the Truth About Trump. Now He Should Act on It.
'Over the past few months, the country has been in a foul sort of trance. Among people who work in politics, Republicans as well as Democrats, it is conventional wisdom that President Trump is staggeringly ill-informed, erratic, reckless and dishonest. (He also might be compromised by a hostile foreign power.) But its also conventional wisdom that with few exceptions, Republicans in Congress are not going to stand up to him. Americas nuclear arsenal is in the hands of a senescent Twitter troll, but those with political power have refused to treat this fact as a national emergency. Thus, even though a majority of Americans consider the president unfit for office, a fatalistic sense of stasis has set in.
Credit Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, for momentarily snapping us out of it. On Sunday evening, after a Twitter feud with Trump, Corker gave an interview to The New York Times in which he said publicly what Republican officeholders usually say only privately. Trump, Corker told the reporters Jonathan Martin and Mark Landler, is treating the presidency like a reality show and could be setting the nation on the path to World War III. Corker has previously said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly help separate our country from chaos. On Sunday, he identified the agent of that chaos. I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, its a situation of trying to contain him, Corker said of Trump.
Now that Corker has done the country the immense favor of acknowledging the obvious, the key question is: Whats next? Corker, despite his culpability in helping to legitimize Trump during the presidential campaign and despite waiting until hed announced his retirement to speak out, has behaved more patriotically than most of his quietly complicit colleagues. But as Trump continues to tweet threats at a war-ready North Korea, it is not enough to simply hope that the presidents minders can stop him from blowing up the world.
Corker, after all, is not a passive spectator; hes the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Congress holds the ultimate power for war, Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center, a libertarian think tank, told me. Though they have more or less delegated that power away to the executive branch, they can take it back.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/opinion/corker-trump-truth-.html?
PearliePoo2
(7,768 posts)It takes about FOUR (4) minutes until the 'birds' come out of their silos.
There is no calling them back. There is no 'self destruct' capability.
General Mattis? Whatcha gonna do?
sprinkleeninow
(20,249 posts)They got family, children, grandchildren, relatives, loved ones. Not exempt.
They 'know' war. Conventional at this point. They have to have a chilling sense of the next version we could be in. Would they consciously bring that upon all?
I say, "God Forbid". Because I fervently, boldly and militantly, in Faith, petition Him to call this madness null and void, and to cause reasoning and cool heads to prevail.
Some may disagree with my approach, but it's what I got.
EarthFirst
(2,900 posts)Knowing full well the complexity and sheer humanitarian disaster following such orders would create.
I, like you; want to believe that despite their chosen duty; that ultimately the aspect to understand humanity is still present among our top military leaders in this country.
Time may well tell sooner than later...
Stay tuned.
sprinkleeninow
(20,249 posts)but those 'warm bodies' in Congress. Are all gonna be too far gone to allow such a thing as nuclear winter to proceed?
I mean, I believe in my soul anyone with active healthy brain cells will put the cabosh on any attempt of
preemptive 'button pushing'.
Matilda
(6,384 posts)I have read that Alexander Haig, who was Nixon's Chief of Staff, was worried that Nixon's depressed state, plus the fact that he was drinking heavily, might cause him to give the order for a nuclear strike, and ordered the military chiefs to check with him before launching any attack whatsoever on Nixon's orders.
Seems that some such order needs to given now, if anyone close to Trump is smart enough. General Mattis?
steve2470
(37,457 posts)coolsandy
(479 posts)to protect, and defend the Constitution of the US. They should also be removed from office. That goes for any Democrat who refuses to do so too.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)Trying to imitate dumbshit but he would never refer to animals that way, only women and his daughter.
AT the moment trump is taking our healthcare and arming nukes to kill everybody that his healthcare war doesnt kill.
And the GOP sits back and does NOTHING because
tax cuts