Gillibrand wants to reach out and touch someone with a tactile nuke: Bolton nearly wets himself

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton along with his mustache, was a guest on the  Hugh Hewitt’s show, and broke up laughing, nearly wetting himself, at silly remarks made by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (Dummy-NY) showing her tremendous grasp of nuclear weaponry in which she referred to “tactile” nuclear weapons. She apparently feels they’re dangerous because they’re something you can reach out and touch and with which you can blow someone to smithereens.

Hewitt played a clip of Gillibrand speaking at a townhall in Dover, New Hampshire, in which she repeatedly referred to “tactile” nuclear weapons, which caused Bolton to go on a laugh marathon.

Here's the exchange:

Hewitt: Last question, Ambassador Bolton. The presidential campaign is underway. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand ventured into strategic matters at a town hall in Dover. Let me play you a 40 second cut of what she had to say and ask the follow up question. Cut number 17:

Gillibrand can be heard saying, “When you say you want to develop low-yield nuclear weapons that are tactile, what you’re saying is you want to use them. Now the military will make an argument to say oh, this is just again to make, we have to have an equal threat. And this, if it’s usable, then it’s a better threat. I just found that is not believable. I just, I, they’re trying to create nuclear weapons that are usable. So I opposed the entire Defense bill because of that one provision. So if I am president, I am going to make sure we unwind that completely, and I don’t think we should be trying to create tactile nuclear weapons.”

Hewitt continued, “So the…”

Bolton, laughing so hard his mustache did the Electric Slide, “Tactile nuclear weapons?”

Hewitt: Well, I was unfamiliar with the concept, Mr. Ambassador.

Bolton can’t stop laughing.

Hewitt: What are you up to?

Bolton still laughing, “I have to say, I was unfamiliar with it as well. I wonder what Senator Gillibrand knows that I don’t.”

Hewitt: Oh, they are very worried.

Bolton is still laughing uncontrollably.

Hewitt: I’ve been studying this stuff with, since President Nixon was in retirement in San Clemente. First time I’ve heard of tactile nuclear weapons. So what, is something going on at Andrew Marshall’s old office at the Pentagon we don’t know about?

Bolton: (laughing) Well, you know, Hugh, as national security advisor, I don’t get involved in politics. But I’ll just say maybe Senator Gillibrand could give me a call and tell me what she knows about those tactile nuclear weapons. I’d be interested in learning it. (laughing--see video above).

Now let's be clear. There are weapons known as "tactical" nuclear weapons. They are low-yield and destroy less stuff than the big boys [pun intended, if you get it], so there's less collateral damage. 

Former Secretary of Defense James "Mad Dog" Mattis had stated there was no such thing, asserting, "I don’t think there is any such thing as a ‘tactical nuclear weapon.’ Any nuclear weapon used any time is a strategic game-changer."

But even if you disagree with Mattis, be assured that there are no tactile nukes in our arsenal.

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POTUS and FLOTUS make 1st visit to Iraq

President Trump and first lady Melania showed up in Iraq on Wednesday for a surprise visit with our troops and senior military leadership at Al Asad Air Base. He told officials that he has "no plans at all" to remove any of our 5,000 troops from the country.

This is the Commander in Chief's first visit as president to a combat zone and it comes soon after he announced that he was pulling all our troops from Syria, is spite of his policy to be unpredictable "unlike Obama." There were rumors that he planned to remove thousands of troops in Afghanistan but he cleared that up right away.

The president was joined at the air base by National Security Adviser John Bolton and his mustache for meetings with political and military leaders.

Trump spent around three hours on the ground with First Lady Melania visiting U.S. Troops, according to Reuters.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted:

"President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Iraq late on Christmas night to visit with our troops and Senior Military leadership to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas," 

Trump's surprise visit to the region came a week after he declared ISIS had been “defeated” in Syria in a tweet and ordered all American diplomats and soldiers out of the country. The reason for surprise should be obvious since the territory can be dangerous.

The Obama administration first deployed troops to Syria in 2015 in partnership with Kurdish-led forces fighting ISIS. Before the deployment, the U.S. flew airstrikes in Syria.

Outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis signed orders on Sunday to pull all American troops out of Syria in the coming weeks, a senior defense official told Fox News. Pentagon officials at the time refused to discuss specifics, including the timeline, citing operational security for the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria.

The president told reporters traveling with him that he wants to get U.S. soldiers home from Syria and that Iraq can still be used as a base to stage attacks on Islamic State militants if needed, according to the Associated Press.

Trump added that if needed, the U.S. can attack IS "so fast and so hard" that they "won't know what the hell happened."

Yes, Mr. Trump, it would make their head spin.


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No Christmas celebration for Mattis: Trump taps Patrick Shanahan as Acting Sec Def

Defense Secretary James Mattis turned in his resignation letter effect the end of February, but evidently it angered President Trump that Mattis was leaving and how Mattis'  bombshell resignation letter was written, so he will be gone as of January 1st.

Trump announced the news in a tweet Sunday morning:

"I am pleased to announce that our very talented Deputy Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan, will assume the title of Acting Secretary of Defense starting January 1, 2019. Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!"

In his resignation letter Thursday, Mattis, 68, had said he would remain in his role for more than three months, and on that day Trump said Mattis -- the first Cabinet official in 40 years to resign over a policy difference with the president -- was leaving in February.

POTUS evidently changed his mind.

"The end date for my tenure is February 28, 2019, a date that should allow sufficient time for a successor to be nominated and confirmed as well as to make sure the Department's interests are properly articulated and protected at upcoming events to include Congressional posture hearings and the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting in February," Mattis wrote Thursday.

It was not immediately clear why Mattis' departure date was apparently moved up, but sources told Fox News that Mattis quit "in protest" over the Trump's national security policies and that more resignations could be coming, which turned out to be true after Brett McGurk, U.S. envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State also resigned the following day. His resignation is effective December 31st.

The president downplayed the news via Twitter Saturday evening, saying he had neither met McGurk nor appointed him. He tweeted:

"Brett McGurk, who I do not know, was appointed by President Obama in 2015. Was supposed to leave in February but he just resigned prior to leaving. Grandstander? The Fake News is making such a big deal about this nothing event!"

He followed up with:

"If anybody but your favorite President, Donald J. Trump, announced that, after decimating ISIS in Syria, we were going to bring our troops back home (happy & healthy), that person would be the most popular hero in America. With me, hit hard instead by the Fake News Media. Crazy!"

The White House's plan to withdraw about half its troops in Afghanistan by the summer -- some 7,000 soldiers -- has drawn similar criticism. 

Having troops anywhere to fight Islamists is not very effective. If we actually did defeat ISIS completely, another jihadi group would take its place. It isn't about who we are fighting, in terms of the group's name or country of affiliation, it's what we are fighting--sharia.

It's best to allow each faction of Islam, regarding how they view sharia, to kill each other and spare our own forces. Islam is its own worst enemy and Trump is probably right in the pullout of our troops.

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Brett McGurk US envoy to anti-ISIS coalition, resigns

Brett McGurk, U.S. envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, has resigned, following the resignation of Secretary of Defense James Mattis' resignation. Both for apparently the same reason: President Trump's unilateral decision to pull all 2,000 U.S. forces out of Syria.

Trump had tweeted that “we have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”

Brett McGurk

We have not defeated ISIS, and there is more than one reason for being there, particularly this ally trust thingy reason and the fact that our pullout is going to likely cause the emboldenment of IS and subsequent bloodshed and heads without bodies.

Ground troops moved into Syria in 2015 to fight ISIS amid the Syrian civil war. Trump talked about pulling out of Syria before, but military leaders had warned about ISIS re-emerging should the U.S. do so. He did not listen to them and this has frustrated military people who know military things like strategy and consequences.

On Thursday, Trump announced that Mattis was retiring in February. Mattis’ resignation letter can be seen here in full.      

The AP reported that McGurk's resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Islamic State was on the run, but it still wasn't defeated. He also said that the U.S.'s work in Syria wasn't completed. McGurk was appointed by former President Barack Hussein Obama in 2015.

In a December 11th press conference McGurk explained that “enduring defeat of a group like this means you can’t just defeat their physical space and then leave.”

“Nobody is saying that they are going to disappear. Nobody is that naive,” he told the press. “So we want to stay on the ground and make sure that stability can be maintained in these areas.”

According to one official as per the AP, McGurk's plan was to leave the job in mid-February. However, he felt that due to Trump's decision to leave Syria, and Mattis' resignation, he could no longer continue.

Fox News has learned that McGurk submitted his resignation letter on Friday, a day after Secretary Mattis resigned. His resignation is effective December 31st.

McGurk previously served as a deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran, and led secret talks with Iran about the release of American prisoners during the negotiations for the crappy Iran nuclear deal.

McGurk also previously worked as a Supreme Court law clerk to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist and had also served on former President George W. Bush’s National Security Council staff, where in 2007 and 2008, he was the lead U.S. negotiator on security agreements with Iraq.

On Saturday, Trump said that ISIS is “largely defeated” and that other countries, such as Turkey could take care of whatever is left.

Turkey will also take care of our allies, the Kurds, once we're gone--you can almost count on it.

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Navy vet hit with more charges in ricin case

William Clyde Allen III, a 39-year-old Navy veteran, was arrested earlier this month after authorities intercepted envelopes containing ground castor beans addressed to President Trump. Federal prosecutors in Utah have also filed charges against Allen after intercepting additional letters that were addressed to FBI Director Chris Wray, Defense Secretary James Mattis, and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson. Most recently, authorities intercepted envelopes that were addressed to CIA Director Gina Haspel and Air Force Secretary Dr. Heather Wilson.

Allen has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including threatening to use a biological toxin as a weapon (castor beans are the basis for ricin, a highly deadly toxin) mailing a threat against the president and mailing threatening communications to an officer of the United States.

Allen also is alleged to have told investigators that he bought hundreds of castor beans on eBay to "defend our nation" if "World War III broke out." Yes, the country could count on him to save us.

All the letters tested positive for ricin but, fortunately, no one was hurt.

Allen served in the Navy from 1998 to 2002 and has a criminal record in Utah including attempted aggravated assault and child abuse.

To be fair, Allen also has a history of sending threatening emails to then-President Barack Hussein Obama, the U.S. Air Force and the state of Utah.

A judge denied Allen a request on Monday and decided to keep him in jail ahead of trial. He said he's needed at home to care for his wife who has a spinal condition and uses a wheelchair. She also has bad judgment as she married him.

Allen faces up to life in prison if convicted on the ricin charge. A count of mailing a threat against the president carries up to five years in prison, and five counts of mailing a threat to a U.S. officer are each punishable by a maximum of 10 years.

Allen's trial is scheduled to begin the day after Christmas. Hope he doesn't need to return any gifts.

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Trump says of Mattis: 'He's sort of a Democrat' and might leave administration

In a "60 Minutes" interview host Lesley Stahl asked President Trump whether Secretary of Defense James Mattis might leave his administration just a few weeks since journalist Bob Woodward wrote in his book "Fear" that Mattis compared the POTUS to a "fifth-or-sixth-grader."

Trump responded, "Well, I don't know. He hasn't told me that."

"I have a very good relationship with him," Trump continued. "I had lunch with him two days ago. ...It could be that he is. I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth. But General Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That's Washington."

Leave, leave, leave--everybody. They leave.

Regarding reports that the White House is in chaos, Trump called the claim "so false" and "fake news," adding, "I have people now on standby that will be phenomenal. They'll come into the administration.

"Yeah, other people will go, sure. We have a great Cabinet. There are some people I'm not happy with. I have some people that I'm not thrilled with. And I have other people that I'm beyond thrilled with."

He has people he's not happy with, nor thrilled with, but he has others that he's beyond thrilled with, which brings to mind many questions.

President Trump's repetitive comments came soon after U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley abruptly announced her resignation, to take effect at year's end. The left-leaning media  claimed the departure indicated an extraordinarily high number of high-level departures from the Trump administration, but after looking at the numbers, the nonprofit Brookings Institution found that previous administrations lost a similar number of top officials.

After chinless Syrian dictator Bashar Assad launched a chemical attack on Syrians in April of last year, Woodward's book claimed that Trump demanded Mattis launch an assassination attempt.

"Let's f**king kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f**king lot of them," Trump allegedly said. According to Woodward, Mattis told an aide, "We're not going  to do any of that. We're going to be much more measured."

Mattis, according to the book, was also caught by surprise while on vacation when Trump proposed a ban on transgender troops. Mattis, who opposed the policy, has since unveiled a policy much more aligned with Trump's requests, but several lawsuits have temporarily put a hold on enforcing it.

Mattis said in a statement that "the contemptuous words about the president attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence."

Woodward is known to document "facts" that are uncorroborated. Kind of sounds like the Kavanaugh debacle. Trump openly wondered if Woodward is a "Dem operative." He also posted on Twitter in September calling his book a "con on the public."

Mattis worked as head of the U.S. Central Command under former President Barack Hussein Obama, replacing David Petraeus. Mattis openly disagreed with Trump on several issues, favoring the preservation of certain aspects of the Obama Iran nuclear deal. Trump had called that deal a "horrible, one-sided" giveaway, basically the worst deal any human being has ever made in the history of the world, and maybe even the universe. Mattis believed the deal included "robust" measures and overall, it helped our interests [like not dying in a blinding nuclear blast].

Mattis views NATO as an alliance that's key to maintaining international order, while Trump criticized member nations for not paying their fair share of their GDP for national defense.

Secretary Mattis was able to change Trump's mind in certain areas. He convinced POTUS to abandon his stated desire to torture terror detainees and also got him to send more troops to Afghanistan.

There are no overt indications that Mattis has been withdrawing from his normal duties, and he will be heading to Vietnam on Tuesday, where he will visit Ho Chi Minh City [aka: Saigon] as the administration is attempting to counter China's military assertiveness.

Some see the arrival of Deputy National Security Adviser Mira Ricardel to the White House in May, as a sign Trump is planning to fire Mattis after the midterms next month. Ricardel and Mattis have often sparred in the past.

Also, Trump's hiring of U.N. ambassador John Bolton as national security adviser is a sign Trump's shift to a more hardline stance than Mattis supports, shows that the president is looking to change tactics and may want Mattis to go.

"I heard you're actually the Devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you," Mattis told Bolton in an open mic exchange when they met at the Pentagon earlier in the year.

In September, Mattis downplayed reports that he'd be leaving the Defense Department.

But we shall see.


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Schumer threatens Trump over firing Rosenstein

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer flared his enormous nostrils and warned President Trump that just because Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested wearing a wiretap in order to record the president to secure an impeachment, is no reason to fire him. If Trump dares to do that, there will be hell to pay.

"This New York Times report must not be used as a pretext for the corrupt purpose of firing Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein in order to install an official who will allow the president to interfere with the Special Counsel's investigation," Schumer tweeted.

Schumer also alleged that other Trump administration officials have supposedly said negative things about him, but they weren't fired.

Perhaps that is because Trump didn't believe they actually did and that the reports about the allegations were fake news.

"Generals Kelly, Mattis and numerous other White House and cabinet officials have been reported to say critical things of the president without being fired," Schumer added.

But saying critical things about Trump is not the same as threatening to undermine him by wearing a wire.

Schumer's tweets come amid a New York Times article claiming the pencil-neck Deputy AG suggested secretly recording the president's conversations with officials at the DOJ and FBI after former FBI Director James Comey was fired.

If The Times report turns out to be fake news, it will be the first time in recorded history of the Trump administration that a mistake was made in favor of the president.

After Rosenstein was caught, he said he was only kidding, of course.

The blockbuster report also said that Rosenstein talked about invoking the 25th Amendment with Cabinet members to remove Trump from office based on his being unfit for duty. But of course, Rod was just joshing.

Rosenstein denied the accuracy of The Times report, describing it as "inaccurate and factually incorrect" and suddenly the "Gray Lady" had become a lying old whore.

"I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda," he wrote in a statement to Fox News. "But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment."

He said in another statement: "I never pursued or authorized recording the president, and any suggestion that I have ever advocated for the removal of the president is absolutely false,"

Good save, Rod.

So we can now assume that everything The New York Times reports should be considered fake news. Yet somehow I don't believe the left will agree with me when it goes against the GOP.

Do you believe Rosenstein? Feel free to comment.


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Trump flirts with having a military parade: pros and cons

Washington -- Say what you want, but Americans love a parade. Especially parades like the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade or a parade when the hometown wins the big one. But military parades are not the same thing.

Do we really need to flex our muscles in front of a global mirror?

Short answer: maybe . . . maybe not.

Traditionally, the United States has had to world's most 'kick-buttiest' military, but we don't tend to flaunt it on the public streets of our cities--we let Russia, China and North Korea show off and hype their weaponry.

But since when does President Trump follow tradition? He has given a directive for the Pentagon to come up with options for a yooge military march to do what our rival nations do. However lawmakers and military brass are mulling over the purpose, the risk and the cost of putting on a really big show.

Both Democrats and Republicans have voiced concern and for good reason.
"People will wonder, 'Well, what are they afraid of now? What are they trying to prove?'" asks Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a woman with an impressive name who represents the District of Columbia in Congress. "We don't have to show off to make a point." 

You see, President Trump attended the Bastille Day celebration in Paris last July and it apparently gave him parade envy. The Washington Post wrote that he wants one too.

On one hand it's a "fantastic waste of money," as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said. Another senator who calls himself a Republican, Lindsey Graham, told the Certainly Not News network that the parade risks being "kind of cheesy and a sign of weakness" if it's just about showing them that ours is bigger than theirs.

But Trump doesn't seem to care, in spite of his aides performing verbal calisthenics to downplay the idea that it was anything more than an idea he had "in a brainstorming session" for Americans to express gratitude and military pride. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said there has not been a final decision on the matter, and it's assumed the parade would cost millions.

"We've been putting together some options. We'll send them up to the White House for a decision," Defense Secretary James Mattis said. "The president's respect, his fondness for the military I think is reflected in his asking for these options."

On the "con side," there's the problem that heavy tanks and other armament would tear up the streets of D.C. under the tremendous weight. When Trump first suggested the idea to top aides aboard Air Force One after the Paris parade, staff discussed the best time to have it, but noted the tanks at the Bastille Day Parade tore up the city's pavement, throwing chunks of concrete as they moved along.

But President Trump dismissed the concern, according to one person who spoke on condition of anonymity because he or she may, or may not actually exist, but if he or she does, they don't want to get fired. The anonymous source said that Trump told them, "That's okay, we can fix the streets."

Holmes Norton told the Associated Press that she is taking steps to ensure that "if Trump wants a parade, he pays for it."

She probably didn't mean that Trump pay for it out of his own pocket, but out of federal tax money. Evidently Holmes Norton is a liberal who cannot differentiate between tax money and personal funds. In any case, she knows there's little hope of blocking a parade permit due to the problem she has with the existence of a U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment right to free assembly.

Another con: military strength is strongest when its power is inferred, not flaunted, like North Korea tends to do. "We have avoided doing this kind of display, in part to emphasize that contrast because this has been so commonplace in authoritarian countries," Julian Zelizer a presidential historian at Princeton University said. "For some presidents, it's sometimes a strategic act: Speak quietly while carrying a big stick," as President Theodore Roosevelt advised.

On the pro side: it's a way to venerate our troops. "I trust President Trump, Defense Department, Secretary Mattis to do it the right way, and do it in a way that makes sense and is cost effective," Jonny Havens, an Iraq war veteran said.

Which puts a new meaning on "bigger bang for your buck."

Maybe the country needs a parade, I suspect President Trump just likes the pomp and circumstance. The few million dollars it would cost is really comparable to pizza money in terms of the national budget.

The question is, do we really need it or will it just be another thing that further divides an already divided nation?

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SoKo holds ship crew that gave NoKo oil

The crew of Hong Kong-flagged ship that possibly Yeosu, UN, appeared to allegedly provide oil to a North Korean vessel in October, in violation of U.N. sanctions, is being held in South Korea until a full inspection is sent to the Security Council.

The Lighthouse Winmore (aka The Fortune Cookie) is believed to have transferred about 600 tons of refined petroleum products to the North Korean ship, the Sam Jong 2, (aka the Ewelldie Amerikandoggs 2) in the waters of the East China Sea on October 19, after leaving the South Korean port of Yeosu, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official told the Associated Press.

This announcement came the day that Defense Secretary James Mattis told Fox News that he thinks the world will exert "increased pressure on North Korea in the coming months following the recent maritime incidents," and I said to my wife, "bull crap; China will never comply." And she said, "Maybe you should be Secretary of State, you big lug." 

South Korea customs authorities boarded the ship and interviewed the crew members after they returned to Yeosu on November 24. South Korea formally seized the ship after the U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea on December 22 that allowed member states to seize, inspect and freeze vessels suspected of transferring banned goods to or from North Korea, the official said. He spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity as per usual.

The crew of 25, 23 who are Chinese nationals and two from Myanmar, will be allowed to leave Yeosu after the investigation is complete.

The Fortune Cookie also transferred oil to three other non-North Korean vessels . . . allegedly. 

Ship-to-ship trade with North Korea at sea is strictly prohibited under useless U.N. sanctions. Any country caught engaging in this illegal trade will receive a wag of the finger and possibly a tongue-lashing.

China accounts for most of North Korea's external trade and oil supplies. It seems they don't want to give up such a lucrative business.


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POTUS, Mattis let loose the dogs of war

Baghdad -- Hundreds of terrorized black-clad terrorists from the "JV Team" had just been chased out of a northern Syrian city fleeing through the desert in long convoys and providing U.S. A-10 "Warthogs" with target practice. 

But the orders to bomb the jihadists didn't come and they disappeared back into their caliphate, living to fight another day.

That was back in August 2016 when President Trump was not yet president. He had vowed to allow his military leadership crush ISIS that, under Obama, had grown from the "jayvee team" to the world's most feared terrorist organization.

Trump told America, "I will . . . quickly and decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS." He then chose legendary USMC General James Mattis as his Secretary of Defense (SecDef) and Trump added "We will not have to listen to the politicians who are losing the war on terrorism." 

A year later, ISIS was kicked out of Iraq and Syria that made Obama's leadership look like a ferret driving a clown car. The speed with which it was done even surprised the top brass. Trump kept his campaign promise, something unheard of in the past. Obama's rules of engagement that helped getting Americans killed, we dumped and he allowed his generals make the military decisions rather than politicians.

So while ISIS once ruled 8 million people and controlled the oil fields, refineries, agriculture, huge arsenals and smuggling routes, Trump allowed the military to win.

But I disagree with the notion that we will actually get tired of winning.

Now ISIS only controls 3 percent of Iraq and less than 5 percent of Syria. The "caliph," Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is believed to be injured and holed up somewhere along the border of Iraq and Syria. 

ISIS is still a danger--their jihadists live among civilians in the region, Europe and probably even the U.S. They will likely remain a danger for years unless we can convince those who harbor them to turn them in.

Some ISIS cells are trying to regroup in the Philippines, Sinai Peninsula and Libya.

But the tough job of taking back ISIS's land is largely completed.


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Trump and Mattis shoot down NBC claims on nukes

President Trump had an ally in Secretary of Defense James Mattis when "Mad Dog" backed him up on challenging the claim by NBC that the Commander-In-Chief wants to drastically increase our nuclear arsenal tenfold. Trump called the press "disgusting."

While Canadian Prime Minister Justin "Inshallah" Trudeau sat on the sidelines in the Oval Office, Trump went after the NBC report.

"Frankly, it's disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write and people should look into it," Trump told other left-wing reporters. "I never discussed increasing [the nuclear arsenal]. That is fake news by NBC, which gives a lot of fake news recently."

What he said he only wanted was "modernization" and "rehabilitation" of the stockpile.

It isn't clear what 'rehabilitation' means unless Trump meant that he wanted to replace the current uranium in the warheads with fresh uranium and maybe put a new coat of paint on the bomb with a picture of Kim Jong Un on the side.

"It's got to be in tip-top shape," the president said. "I know the capability we have, and it is awesome. It is massive." Huge. Humongous. Incredible.

Trump slammed the press for allegedly making up sources. "There are no sources," he said, and NBC didn't provide any when they gave the story. Hopefully the American public will be skeptical when there are anonymous sources in this type of "journalism."

Defense Secretary Mattis, who doesn't always carry water for Trump, issued a statement saying: "Recent reports that the President called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false. This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible." In other words, it's about an arsenal statement made by an arse.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump threatened to go after the licenses of "NBC and the Networks," as he increased his ire about "Fake News." This was likely in response to the NBC report on Trump's arsenal ambitions.

"With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!" he exclaimed in a tweet.

I believe that if the allegations are false, then there's no need for Trump to be concerned. And going after the licenses of media outlets sounds like something a dictator would do and I don't believe Trump should go there, not even verbally. 

A free press is as American as the National Anthem, and to take that away, even from the liberals who may use it for their purposes, goes against the First Amendment. It will only make Trump look bad, I believe.

Sharyl Attkisson, a former CBS reporter, and a working journalist for over thirty years, writes about smearing one's opponents, in her book titled: The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote. I highly recommend you read it.

Trump tweeted earlier: "Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a 'tenfold' increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC=CNN!" proving once again that Trump ends roughly the same percentage of his tweets [with an exclamation point] as the percentage of negative news articles published about him, or 92 percent!

"Trump indicated he wanted a bigger stockpile, not the bottom position on that downward-sloping curve," NBC reported.

Officials were said to be surprised by Trump's alleged suggestion, but said that no increase in the arsenal was planned.

Ali Velshi

An NBC representative didn't return a request for comment Wednesday, but MSNBC host Ali Velshi tweeted that the network "stands by our reporting."

As you may know, Velshi has a condition known as "dishonesty induced trichotillomania" whereby he pulls a hair from his head every time he tells a lie. 



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Trump's 'tweet-off' with Sen. Corker

In a Tweet-off on Sunday, President Trump went after the escalating vocal critic of his administration, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). 

Trump said Corker gutlessly dropped his re-election bid after begging him for an endorsement in which he said 'no.'

"Corker 'begged' me to endorse him," Trump said in a salvo of tweets. "I said 'NO' and he dropped out (said he could not win without my endorsement). He also wanted to be secretary of state, I said 'NO THANKS.' . . . Hence, I would fully expect Corker to be a negative voice and stand in the way of our great agenda. Didn't have the guts to run!"

Corker returned fire a few minutes later and tweeted: "It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

This attack by the president comes after Corker saying last week, that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will resign. He also said that Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly "are those people that help separate our country from chaos."

It wasn't always this way. Early in Trump's term the couple played golf together along with retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, another Tennessee native. 

Nobody saw it coming between Don and Bob (which also happens to be the name of a great hotdog joint in Rochester, NY).

But the relationship went south, at least publicly, in August, when Bob criticized Trump for how he handled the violent Charlottesville, Virginia protests, in which an alleged white supremacist plowed his car into the crowd and fatally struck a young woman.

Corker said the president has not demonstrated "the stability nor some of the competence" needed to be successful.

"You just put your lips together and blow"

On Sunday, Trump argued that Corker supported the Iran nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration that Trump claims Iran is violating. Trump tweeted: "He is also largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal!" ending his sentence with his signature exclamation point.

In an August 2016 opinion piece in The Washington Times, Jed Babbin says that Corker "has a problem" when it comes to the Iran deal and that he basically caved in to the Obama administration when he served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

So Trump is correct when he tweeted about Corker's involvement with the Iran deal. Whether or not Corker asked for his endorsement is a moot point--he probably did but we cannot know for certain.

What we know is that Corker has a belly-full of sour grapes and Trump is the cause. Like Hillary Clinton, Corker needs to bow out gracefully, but grace is beginning to seem like a very rare commodity in Washington D.C.



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SoKo holds missile drill--just in case

South Korea's military held a drill in response to the North's latest nuclear test in which Pyongyang claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb--experts are not denying that claim.

The South Korean military held a live-fire training exercise aimed at North Korea's nuclear testing site. Long-range air-to-ground and surface-to-surface missiles reportedly hit their targets in the Sea of Japan.

On Sunday, North Korea said they successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb which may have triggered an earthquake.

Defense Secretary James Mattis made it clear that any threats by North Korea to the U.S., our allies or our territories would be met with an "effective and overwhelming" military response, and he alluded to the possibility of North Korea's total annihilation if necessary. His words in were " . . . we are not looking to the total annihilation of a country . . . but . . . we have many options to do so."

If Saturday's test is confirmed, it would be the sixth test since President Trump was inaugurated, and seven is a charm.


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BREAKING: Trump meets with Mattis over NoKo

"What's this red button for?"

"When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you don't wait for it to strike before you crush it." Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)

Nothing we say, nothing we sanction, is going to stop North Korea in its pursuit of its ballistic missile program.  Former [so-called] President Obama used words and "strategic patience" with Kim, and in spite of that, the nuclear ambitions of the hermit nation are coming to fruition.

Now the North Korean's are bragging that they've developed a hydrogen bomb.

So what should Trump do besides tweet about it and say that China should be embarrassed over North Korea's latest misbehavior?

Supposedly, we've already put strong sanctions on North Korea, but they're obviously doing nothing to put them in check. Perhaps we can go further in our efforts.

Economic sanctions will obviously be put in place and Defense Secretary James Mattis said that diplomatic options are always available.

Militarily, we can take out North Korea's artillery, but it must be done quickly once begun.

Former Ambassador John Bolton believes our only diplomatic actions would be to take out NoKo's leadership (aka Fat Kim). "We have fooled around with North Korea for 25 years," and nothing will change with what we've been doing in the past, he said.

It's possible that North Korea is bluffing and the "nuclear warhead" was a fake, nothing more than a giant metal phallus. 

President Trump met with top officials on this matter today, including Mattis to discuss military options, if necessary. 

Any threat to the US and our allies, including Guam, will be met with strong military force, Mattis said at a brief press conference on the White House lawn. 

Mattis added that "We are not looking for the total annihilation of an entire country."

That's some powerful words that you don't hear every day.

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Average transgender soldier takes 238 days to deploy

Photo: Getty images

When you have your genitals removed and replace them with something shaped in the image of genitals of the opposite sex, it takes quite a bit of time to recover from the surgery.

When the surgery is performed on someone in the military, on average it takes 238 days to recover and for the soldier to deploy. This was a study done during the Obama administration, at a time when the former president decided to use the military as a social experiment and didn't know how to pronounce the word 'corpsman,' indicating just how little he understood about our fighting forces.

The Trump administration's transgender ban uses deployability as a determining factor as to whether to admit the transgender mentally ill into the military. 

The White House provided guidelines to implement the ban within six months in a memo to Defense Secretary James Mattis, according to the Wednesday Wall Street Journal. 

The study was commissioned by the Obama administration in 2016 and favored opening the ranks to individuals with sexual dysphoria in spite of their extremely high suicide rate compared to the main population. 

The study was funded by the office of former secretary of defense Ash Carter, and found that troops seeking a basic cosmetic genital makeover, the person would be nondeployable for 238 days, or 34 weeks out of a year. That's 65 percent for you math buffs.

"These constraints typically include a postoperative recovery period that would prevent any work and a period of restricted physical activity that would prevent deployment," the RAND study says.

"We note that these estimates do not account for any additional time required to determine medical fitness to deploy," the study added. "Army guidelines, for example, do not permit deployment within six weeks of surgery."

The RAND study reported that "male-to-[fake]-female" surgeries would cost 210 days of nondeployability, including medical leave and medical disability periods, [funded by the taxpayer].

An Obama hero

Breast augmentation and mammoplasty, which include breast implants, result in gender dysphoric troops being unable to work for one week, up to six weeks of restricted physical activity, and up to 60 days of medical disability. The stud said breast augmentation would result in 75 days a gender dysphoric individual could not be deployed.

Gender surgeries require longer recovery times. RAND reported that a gender dysphoric man having his testicles cut off, and then have a vaginoplasty, in which a fake vagina is installed, would be nondeployable for 135 days.

Nondeployable time for male-to-fake-female surgeries include four to six weeks of no work; eight or more weeks restricted physical activity such as applying nail polish and other makeup; up to 45 days medical leave; and up to 90 days medical disability.

These fake men and fake women are the real heroes.

Sue Fulton, former president of Sparta, a military organization for LGBTQ individuals, told the Wall Street Journal that gender dysphoric individuals (she used the word 'transgender') are "just as deployable as other service members," and compared the time off to undergoing a gall bladder surgery.

The difference being that having your junk removed or changed to look like that of the opposite sex is an elective procedure that arises from the delusion that the person wanting it believes him- or herself to be a person of the opposite sex than they actually are. 

Gall bladder surgery is not an elective surgery and is life-saving and most people who undergo this surgery return to normal activities in a week to 10 days after surgery.

So it's a really poor comparison.

The RAND study also notes that some gender dysphoric people who have the make believe sex-change operations "experience postoperative complications that would render them unfit for duty."

Between 6 to 20 percent of men receiving a fake vagina, have complications. Up to 25 percent of women receiving a fake penis, have medical complications, according to the study. And women-to-fake-men transitions on average take 267 days where they cannot be deployed.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) supports Trump's ban on transgender individuals in the military. She believes the RAND Corp. estimates are low because they don't take into account other surgeries that transgender advocates say are "medically necessary."

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health as medically necessary for Gender Dysphoria. For example, they advocate for scrotoplasties [surgery to create a fake scrotum]; facial hair removal [for heroes like Bruce Jenner]; voice therapy or surgery [to fool oneself into believing they actually changed their gender].

According to the Washington Free Beacon, transgender surgeries would cost the Pentagon (aka us, the taxpayers) $1.3 billion over 10 years, assuming about 8,200 gender dysphoric troops undergo the taxpayer-funded surgical operations.

Based on the low RAND study estimates of nondeployable time of 210 days, the 8,213 surgical procedures would lead to a total of 1,724,730 days of nondeployable time, or 4,725 years!

The White House directive to Secretary of Defense Mattis mostly applies to new recruits and gives the Pentagon the discretion of discharging current gender dysphoric troops based on deployability. The memo also instructs the Pentagon to stop paying for transgender medical treatment for those currently serving.

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POTUS to speak on Afghanistan Monday

President Trump will be addressing the nation Monday night regarding the war in Afghanistan. Mr. Trump might be considering taking a fresh approach to the longest war we've fought.

Trump will "provide an update on the path forward for America's engagement in Afghanistan and South Asia," the White House announced.

He hinted that he and his top generals have agreed on a new strategy for the war after they put their heads together at Camp David retreat.

Trump went to Twitter to make his innermost thoughts known:

"Important day spent at Camp David with our very talented Generals and military leaders. Many decisions made, including on Afghanistan."

Since his inauguration, President Trump has considered several options for our involvement in Afghanistan, from sending more troops and actually treating it as a war, to walking away from it and actually treating is as an Obama strategy if he could get consensus. 


The latter move is unlikely, however, since we are trying to deal with Islamic terrorism and that wouldn't be smart as it would only embolden ISIS, the Taliban and other groups like Antifa.

Defense Secretary James Mattis said earlier in the week that the administration was "very close" to finalizing a new approach.



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Pentagon finds 'security risks' in immigrant recruitment

Photo: AP

The Department of Defense investigators have found "potential security risks" in a Pentagon program consisting of over 10,000 foreign-born people into the U.S. armed forces. This began in the Obama debacle in 2009 and was just now discovered. Sources on Capitol Hill and the Pentagon have expressed alarm over "foreign infiltration" and enrollees now unaccounted for.

Thank you Barack Obama.

To be fair to Barack, however, the program was first created in the final weeks of the Bush-Cheny administration.

The investigation began over a year ago and the Pentagon's inspector general recently issued a report. It's actual contents remain classified, but its existence has been revealed for the first time exclusively to Fox News, because they aren't CNN.

The report identifies serious problems with Military Accessions Vital to the National Defense (MAVNI), a DoD program that gives immigrants and non-immigrant aliens an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for military service.

The program is still active but new applications have been suspended. MAVNI was designed to recruit people with foreign-language and other skills deemed useful by the Pentagon and in short supply. It has been successful at times and MAVNI recruits out-perform non-MAVNI soldiers in critical areas, but there have been recent management concerns.

"The lack of discipline in implementation of this program has created problems elsewhere," Rep. Steve Russell (R-OK) said. Russell is a retired Army officer and sits on the House Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel and he was the person who first sounded the alarm.

During the markup of the latest defense authorization bill, on June 28, Russell noted: "The program has been replete with problems, to include foreign infiltration--so much so that the Department of Defense is seeking to suspend the program due to these concerns."

Army Lt. Col. Paul Haverstick, a Pentagon spokesman, told Fox News that the program has been "compromised." There are missing enrollees of the program. "Where are they? What do they know? Where are they serving? What are their numbers?" he said.

"The Department of Defense is conducting a review of the MAVNI pilot program due to potential security risks associated with the program," Haverstick said.

Several foreign-born MAVNI enrollees have filed a lawsuit filed in February against Defense Secretary James Mattis. The lawsuit alleged that an upper echelon decision in September to tighten up access to security clearances issued through MAVNI had the effect of "crippling their military careers."

While it also protected the U.S. from seditious activity, but the suit doesn't mention that little aspect.

Some of MAVNI's problems include a vetting jam-up the allowed the enrollment of many foreign-born soldiers prior to the completion of their background checks, and a "drift" in the program's criteria--drivers, mechanics and cooks, who didn't possess the specialized skills the program was created to exploit, were hired. 

Some lawmakers received classified briefings on the situation and sources say that some of the countries of origin for MAVNI enrollees are "of concern" but so far there's no evidence that ISIS, Al Qaeda or any of the myriad terrorist groups have penetrated MAVNI.

But the chances are likely "very good to great."

Retired U.S. Army General Jack Keane, a Fox News military analyst said that "ISIS has always had the desire to use migration as a way to penetrate into countries. They have done that successfully in Europe because of open borders, mass immigration with no vetting. In the U.S., we haven't had any record of their penetration. And certainly if this program is compromised and there's a possibility of that kind of penetration, it's got to be thoroughly investigated."

So the question is: are we giving the keys to the henhouse to the wolves?



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POTUS wants to ban trannies from military

No more men with women's chromosomes and internal uteruses. No more women whose penises have been removed but still produce sperm cells. No more transgender people whose suicide rate is approximately 40 percent.

President trump tweeted that he wants to ban transgender (aka gender dysphoria; formerly gender identity disorder) people from the U.S. military in any capacity. 

He came to this conclusion after getting advice from his "generals" and analyzing medical costs.

In a Trumpian tweetfest he wrote:

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow . . . Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military (sic). Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming . . . victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

President Trump's tweets came just several weeks after Defense Secretary James Mattis said that he'd give military leaders another six months to review the efficacy of allowing transgender people to enlist in the armed services. That is, they must decide whether it will affect the "readiness or lethality" of the force--the deadline is Dec. 1, 2017.

The National Center for Transgender Equality, an organization advocating for equating this mental illness with normal behavior, said in a statement: "This is worse than don't ask don't tell, this is don't serve, don't serve." The went on to say, "This is an appalling attack on our service members; it is about bigotry rather than military readiness, reason or science. It is indefensible and cannot stand," they insisted.

But Tony Perkins, President of The Family Research Council praised Trump's action.

"I applaud President Trump for keeping his promise to return to military priorities--and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military." He went on to add, "The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama [LGBTQ] social agenda."

And the worst part is that these mentally ill gender dysphoric people want the taxpayers to pick up the check for their junk removal and fake penis implants.

While Trump may have tweeted during the campaign season that he would "fight" for the LGBTQ community, the word 'fight' does not mean 'grovel.' 

It also does not mean that Trump's decision will put the LGBTQ people "back in the closet." That's a non sequitur. Transgender people just will not be serving in the military, just like people with other physical or mental disorders cannot serve. 

And they will have to handle their own "gender reassignment," (as if they can actually change their gender--take a biology course, people).

When Mattis was being confirmed, he was asked by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand whether he believed LGBT people should be allowed to serve in the military or if women in combat would undermine the military's lethality.

"Frankly, senator, I've never cared much about two consenting adults and who they go to bed with," Mattis responded.

A RAND study found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service member on active duty in the military and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves. According to Wikipedia, there are 1,281,900 active duty military and 811,000 reserves. 

In the best case scenario, that translates to about 0.5% of active military consider themselves the gender they aren't.

Hissy fits to follow.


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Mattis: N.Korea clear & present danger. Trump: Kim's a fat loser

Defense Secretary James Mattis said that North Korea's threats are in no uncertain terms a "clear and present danger."

Tom Clancy has threatened to sue, but has reconsidered the idea since we all may have to depend on Mattis and the military to deal with the threat.

Mattis also criticized China for heightening tension over the contested islands in the South China Sea, but his words also suggested he believed China would, out of self-interest, put pressure on the rogue nation to stop its nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions even as Washington pushes Beijing to change course in the South China Sea.

Mattis addressed attendees at an international security conference in Singapore and said President Trump had positive feelings over China's renewed commitment to working with the U.S. and other nations to rid Kim Jong Un of its nuclear weapons. He added that Beijing would eventually see Kim's regime as a liability, not an asset.

And anyone who goes around killing his family with anti-aircraft cannons is himself a loose cannon.

Mattis was very critical of North Korea, describing it as an economically and politically isolated nation whose leaders have viewed us as a military threat.

When asked whether the U.S. might attack the North pre-emptively and without warning South Korea in advance, Mad Dog Mattis replied: "We're working diplomatically, economically, we're trying to exhaust all possible alternatives to avert this race for a nuclear weapon in violation of . . . the United Nations' restrictions on North Korea's activities. We want to stop this. We consider it urgent."

China blocked tougher sanctions against the North that we put forth in the U.N. Security Council on Friday. On a positive note, the Security Council voted unanimously to add 15 individuals and four entities linked to the North's nuclear and missile programs to a U.N. sanctions blacklist, making it extremely difficult for the North to acquire fresh beets and Spam.

However, Mattis said the U.S. was fully committed to working with our global partners. "Like it or not, we are a part of the world . . . What a crummy world if we all retreat inside our borders," he said.

The U.S. currently has about 28,500 troops based in South Korea.

"We oppose countries militarizing artificial islands and enforcing excessive maritime claims unsupported by international law," Mattis said of the man-made islands in the South China Sea. "We cannot and will not accept unilateral, coercive changes to the status quo."

Rep. Mac Thornberry, (R-Tx.) chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told a news conference that he believed Mattis effectively stressed our commitment to our allies in the Asia-Pacific region.

"He was very clear, very strong," Thornberry said. He led a bipartisan congressional delegation on an Asia tour and attended the Singapore conference.

"While the North Korean regime has a long record of murder of diplomats, of kidnapping, killing of sailors and criminal activity, its nuclear weapons program is maturing as a threat to all," Mattis said. "As a matter of national security, the United States regards the threat from North Korea as a clear and present danger."

When questioned about Mattis' comments regarding the North Koreans, President Trump shrugged and simply said, "Kim's a fat loser. If necessary, and I hope very, very much, that I won't have to, I will bomb the s*** out of him. He's a loser. A big, fat loser."


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