Octopus Overlords

Pyperkub wrote:

Defiant wrote:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.

link

Thinking about this a bit more, I'm a bit freaked out right now.

If the Pentagon doesn't know WTF Trump was about to tweet, but thought it could be NK strikes, WTF would NK read into it?

A nuclear missile could have been headed at Japan, or if our intelligence estimates are off, Hawaii or even the West Coast.

I fear it's possible that our reckless, impulsive, twitter-addicted child of a President just brought us closer to nuclear war than we've ever been in my lifetime (born in '67).

I think I'll be writing all of my congressmen (and women) to ban Trump from twitter,at the least

Some people say that you shouldn’t pay attention to Trump’s tweets because they’re a “distraction.” But the Pentagon is paying close attention. Because they know that any day now President Trump could wake up on the wrong side of the bed and announce World War III in 140 characters. Trump’s tweets have always been a late night punchline, but yesterday was a great reminder that they have real world consequences, whether it’s implementing shitty policies or nearly starting a war.

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And as if all of this wasn’t scary enough, there’s this from Admiral Scott Swift today who acknowledged that if President Trump ordered a nuclear strike on China, he’d have to follow orders.

“At risk of being blunt... if, when you return to your command next week, you were to receive an order from the commander in chief, the president of the United States, to make a nuclear attack on China, would you do it?” asked Pete Van Ness, an academic at a security conference in Australia earlier today.

“The answer would be yes,” Swift said. “Every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as the commander in chief appointed over us.”

Skinypupy wrote:Welcome your newly nominated State Dept International Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback

Pardon me while I go vomit.

Skinypupy wrote:

Pyperkub wrote:

Defiant wrote:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.

link

Thinking about this a bit more, I'm a bit freaked out right now.

If the Pentagon doesn't know WTF Trump was about to tweet, but thought it could be NK strikes, WTF would NK read into it?

A nuclear missile could have been headed at Japan, or if our intelligence estimates are off, Hawaii or even the West Coast.

I fear it's possible that our reckless, impulsive, twitter-addicted child of a President just brought us closer to nuclear war than we've ever been in my lifetime (born in '67).

I think I'll be writing all of my congressmen (and women) to ban Trump from twitter,at the least

Here, this should make you feel better.

Some people say that you shouldn’t pay attention to Trump’s tweets because they’re a “distraction.” But the Pentagon is paying close attention. Because they know that any day now President Trump could wake up on the wrong side of the bed and announce World War III in 140 characters. Trump’s tweets have always been a late night punchline, but yesterday was a great reminder that they have real world consequences, whether it’s implementing shitty policies or nearly starting a war.

.
.
.

And as if all of this wasn’t scary enough, there’s this from Admiral Scott Swift today who acknowledged that if President Trump ordered a nuclear strike on China, he’d have to follow orders.

“At risk of being blunt... if, when you return to your command next week, you were to receive an order from the commander in chief, the president of the United States, to make a nuclear attack on China, would you do it?” asked Pete Van Ness, an academic at a security conference in Australia earlier today.

“The answer would be yes,” Swift said. “Every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as the commander in chief appointed over us.”

We all inherently know that last bit, but it's kinda terrifying when Adm. Scott comes right out and says "Yeah, we'll have to start WWIII if Donald Trump says so."

Asked by an academic in the audience whether he would make a nuclear attack on China next week if Trump ordered it, Swift replied: "The answer would be: Yes."

"Every member of the U.S. military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as commander and chief appointed over us," Swift said.

He added: "This is core to the American democracy and any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus and an allegiance to civilian control, then we really have a significant problem."

Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Charlie Brown later said Swift's answer reaffirmed the principle of civilian control over the military.

"The admiral was not addressing the premise of the question, he was addressing the principle of civilian authority of the military," Brown said. "The premise of the question was ridiculous."

Skinypupy wrote:

Pyperkub wrote:

Defiant wrote:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

“The answer would be yes,” Swift said. “Every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as the commander in chief appointed over us.”

We all inherently know that last bit, but it's kinda terrifying when Adm. Scott comes right out and says "Yeah, we'll have to start WWIII if Donald Trump says so."

Rip wrote:

"The admiral was not addressing the premise of the question, he was addressing the principle of civilian authority of the military," Brown said. "The premise of the question was ridiculous."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... e-48876458

Holman wrote:If Trump had a midnight breakdown and called up Strategic Air Command with orders to flatten Mexico City, it would not happen.

Of course the defined power of the Commander-in-Chief suggests otherwise, but that power has never been tested because we've never had a truly reckless POTUS before now. The one time there was concern (late-stage Nixon), the Pentagon took steps to prevent the launch of nuclear weapons without secondary approval from the SecDef or the Joint Chiefs.

Zarathud wrote:

Holman wrote:If Trump had a midnight breakdown and called up Strategic Air Command with orders to flatten Mexico City, it would not happen.

Of course the defined power of the Commander-in-Chief suggests otherwise, but that power has never been tested because we've never had a truly reckless POTUS before now. The one time there was concern (late-stage Nixon), the Pentagon took steps to prevent the launch of nuclear weapons without secondary approval from the SecDef or the Joint Chiefs.

It would fall to VP Pence and a majority of Trump's cabinet to declare Trump unable or unfit to serve. What are the chances of that happening after Comey and now Sessions?

Zarathud wrote:

Holman wrote:If Trump had a midnight breakdown and called up Strategic Air Command with orders to flatten Mexico City, it would not happen.

Of course the defined power of the Commander-in-Chief suggests otherwise, but that power has never been tested because we've never had a truly reckless POTUS before now. The one time there was concern (late-stage Nixon), the Pentagon took steps to prevent the launch of nuclear weapons without secondary approval from the SecDef or the Joint Chiefs.

It would fall to VP Pence and a majority of Trump's cabinet to declare Trump unable or unfit to serve. What are the chances of that happening after Comey and now Sessions?

“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited. “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said. He channelled Priebus as he spoke: “ ‘Oh, Bill Shine is coming in. Let me leak the fucking thing and see if I can cock-block these people the way I cock-blocked Scaramucci for six months.’ ”

Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” (Bannon declined to comment.)

I got the sense that Scaramucci’s campaign against leakers flows from his intense loyalty to Trump. Unlike other Trump advisers, I’ve never heard him say a bad word about the President. “What I want to do is I want to fucking kill all the leakers and I want to get the President’s agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people,” he told me.

He cryptically suggested that he had more information about White House aides. “O.K., the Mooch showed up a week ago,” he said. “This is going to get cleaned up very shortly, O.K.? Because I nailed these guys. I’ve got digital fingerprints on everything they’ve done through the F.B.I. and the fucking Department of Justice.”

“What?” I interjected.

“Well, the felony, they’re gonna get prosecuted, probably, for the felony.” He added, “The lie detector starts—” but then he changed the subject and returned to what he thought was the illegal leak of his financial-disclosure forms. I asked if the President knew all of this.

“Well, he doesn’t know the extent of all that, he knows about some of that, but he’ll know about the rest of it first thing tomorrow morning when I see him.”

Scaramucci said he had to get going. “Yeah, let me go, though, because I’ve gotta start tweeting some shit to make this guy crazy.”

Skinypupy wrote:

Pyperkub wrote:

Defiant wrote:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.

link

Thinking about this a bit more, I'm a bit freaked out right now.

If the Pentagon doesn't know WTF Trump was about to tweet, but thought it could be NK strikes, WTF would NK read into it?

A nuclear missile could have been headed at Japan, or if our intelligence estimates are off, Hawaii or even the West Coast.

I fear it's possible that our reckless, impulsive, twitter-addicted child of a President just brought us closer to nuclear war than we've ever been in my lifetime (born in '67).

I think I'll be writing all of my congressmen (and women) to ban Trump from twitter,at the least

Here, this should make you feel better.

Some people say that you shouldn’t pay attention to Trump’s tweets because they’re a “distraction.” But the Pentagon is paying close attention. Because they know that any day now President Trump could wake up on the wrong side of the bed and announce World War III in 140 characters. Trump’s tweets have always been a late night punchline, but yesterday was a great reminder that they have real world consequences, whether it’s implementing shitty policies or nearly starting a war.

.
.
.

And as if all of this wasn’t scary enough, there’s this from Admiral Scott Swift today who acknowledged that if President Trump ordered a nuclear strike on China, he’d have to follow orders.

“At risk of being blunt... if, when you return to your command next week, you were to receive an order from the commander in chief, the president of the United States, to make a nuclear attack on China, would you do it?” asked Pete Van Ness, an academic at a security conference in Australia earlier today.

“The answer would be yes,” Swift said. “Every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as the commander in chief appointed over us.”

We all inherently know that last bit, but it's kinda terrifying when Adm. Scott comes right out and says "Yeah, we'll have to start WWIII if Donald Trump says so."

Anthony Scaramucci, the incoming White House communications director, told a reporter with the New Yorker that Reince Priebus, President Trump's chief of staff, is a "fucking paranoid schizophrenic."

In a phone call with Ryan Lizza, the reporter, Scaramucci accused Priebus of leaking and suggested he may ask him to resign.

Scaramucci also threatened to "kill all the leakers."

"I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own cock," he said.

Rip wrote:If he crossed the line the deep state would take him out like they did Kennedy......

Max Peck wrote:

Rip wrote:If he crossed the line the deep state would take him out like they did Kennedy......

If Amerikkka had a "Deep State" to worry about, this would already be the Pence Presidency thread.

Defiant wrote:

Anthony Scaramucci, the incoming White House communications director, told a reporter with the New Yorker that Reince Priebus, President Trump's chief of staff, is a "fucking paranoid schizophrenic."

In a phone call with Ryan Lizza, the reporter, Scaramucci accused Priebus of leaking and suggested he may ask him to resign.

Scaramucci also threatened to "kill all the leakers."

"I'm not Steve Bannon, I'm not trying to suck my own cock," he said.

link

Whatever he's on, he probably should have waited until after the interview to take it.

Enough wrote: This really is good enough to be posted twice, I'm glad you persisted.

Ryan Lizza just confirmed that he recorded his conversation with @Scaramucci

White House chief strategist Steve Bannon supports paying for middle-class tax cuts with a new top rate of 44 percent for Americans who make more than $5 million a year, according to a person familiar with his thinking.

Max Peck wrote:Heh, I was wondering if this might be the case, given what The Mooch has been saying on the record elsewhere.

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/890706776081002497

Ryan Lizza just confirmed that he recorded his conversation with @Scaramucci

Holman wrote:
Will the Pentagon follow orders if Trump orders a nuclear strike on NYC?

Max Peck wrote:Heh, I was wondering if this might be the case, given what The Mooch has been saying on the record elsewhere.

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/890706776081002497

Ryan Lizza just confirmed that he recorded his conversation with @Scaramucci

Unagi wrote:

Max Peck wrote:Heh, I was wondering if this might be the case, given what The Mooch has been saying on the record elsewhere.

https://twitter.com/yashar/status/890706776081002497

Ryan Lizza just confirmed that he recorded his conversation with @Scaramucci

Too soon.
He should have waited until it was denied.

Max Peck wrote:There's a school of thought which opines that these dramatic outbursts of White House infighting are actually deliberate distractions. For example, what's getting the most press coverage at the moment -- The Mooch, or the Senate health care proceedings?

Defiant wrote:Onion Fact Checks: Anthony Scaramucci’s ‘New Yorker’ Interview