If it was easy it'd just be the way

(hat tip if anyone knows the movie without Google)

Road Trip!

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Winner winner chicken dinner

Everyone hates us 'cos they aint us.

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Swim. Overbike. Walk.

"I think i said somewhere else. North korea could be a conflict you could win. It would have none of the cultural issues of the middle east "

What is your definition of winning?

Jet.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

New rocket launch today. It flew for 6 min longer than the last and well within Japan's 200 mile exclusive economic zone.

And the US is considering "military response options."

First time I've heard that from Dunford on North Korea.

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Suffer Well.

The chit is about to get real. We now have the potential that a fat, delusional, egotist with the ability to attack targets across the globe will be squaring of against his Asian equivalent. We all will be losers in that game.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

I think with Mattis, McMaster, Kelly, Tillerson, and the Joint Chiefs. there's enough intelligence, character, and fortitude to provide legit checks on Dr. Strangelove-grade insanity.

Though Kelly has just a bit of nutter in him, from what I've read about him.

are china and russia nervous that this wing nut may eventually have missiles pointed at them?
if the fat man thinks he can take on a country half a globe away does he think he can take on/take out these two also?
or do they have enough access, known or unknown to NK, to know that if they wanted fat man gone they have operatives on site that with a call he'd be horizontal within 15-30 mins?

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

Probably not that worried about missiles. What China is worried about is what happens with a failed North Korean state - the millions of refugees pouring over the border.

I think China/Russia love the current situation, which is why there hasn't been much help from them. They get a nice buffer between themselves and U.S. allies South Korea and Japan. And they get a lever of negotiation over the U.S. There's probably a price tag at which China actively helps. I just bet it's a steep price. Trade deals, dropping all human rights claims about China, etc, dropping all currency manipulation claims, etc., cutting all military and diplomatic support for Taiwan. Etc.

No U.S. President/Congress has been willing to cut that deal. I thought we should have moved forward with TPP negotiations, because that's one more lever of negotiation the U.S./ Trump could have had (e.g. pulling out as part of the deal, or creating terms favorable to China (even though China isn't a partner in TPP).

The U.S. / South Korea lever of power is convincing China that we're really going to take military action. Because I don't think they want that.

But that's a tough bluff to play because I'm sure China knows that South Korea has by far the most to lose in any military action, with its absolute crown jewel of a city within artillery range of the DMZ. And the best of plans for limited, surgical strike can quickly go wrong. The old saying about what happens to plans at first contact with the enemy....

But maybe Trump is the right guy to play that bluff, because he's got street cred cred playing that batshit crazy card.

Or the West could turn things around and make it clear that unless China does something we will stop buying all their stuff. We could start off with strategic materials before we make any threats. However people really want their stuff for cheap.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Other than taking a job and then CoS for Trump, what makes him a bit of a nutter?

He's got a little Boston in him, but I heard nothing but exceptional word from those I know who have served with him.

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Suffer Well.

Maybe I'm being too hard. I did include him in the list of rational, good people.

But he's a bit of a super-hawk (Syria, Libya, North Korea, et al) and a super hawk at the ear of Trump just raises my blood pressure slightly, even an honorable super-hawk.

His language is often dark.

And if I had to pick one quote, it's this one:


Forgetting the issue that he apparently wanted to stay in Vietnam, Korea, and Iraq longer which in itself could be considered nutty (though possibly just a disagreement in policy)......what he's talking about is the military can't overthrow the civilian governments when the stupid pussy civilian leaders end the war too soon or mismanage the war. He was lecturing coup-happy Central-American countries.

The slightly nutty thing to me is that he makes it sound like that, as worded, it takes a lot of conscious effort for him not to act. He has to suck it up. To not overthrow the Federal governments of Eisenhower, Nixon, or Obama. ."

Maybe I'm reading too much into that. He gives the right answer after all. I just got the slightest twinge.

He spent 45 years in the Marines and is from Boston. I expect him to be frank and direct in his language and is not a concern to me. But I get his culture. I've read in acticles as his "temperament" was rough, but again given where he came from I think he perhaps needs a cultural adjustment, one that he perhaps has gotten in the last six months.

He is historically spoken his mind, especially when his point of view is at odds with his superiors and this caused some friction with President Obama.

My view of him is largely based upon people who served with him, both senior and junior to him. All to man, hold him in the highest regards. I think he and the President showed their inexperience with the first run through of the travel bans.

I'm interested to see how he and Mooch play together. My bet is on Kelly.

Those same critisms of temperament have been said about Mattis. He's not exactly been politically correct when he was Commanding General of 1st Marine Division either. Hell there are entire website dedicated to his quotes.

http://freebeacon.com/...from-mad-dog-mattis/

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Suffer Well.

I've been thinking about Kelly and why he would take this job for the last several days. I'm not sure about his decision making process and why he thinks the being Chief of Staff is the right thing to do. He's not a politician, he is a man of strong work ethic and accomplished much, moral integrity, and has sacrificed more for our country than most.

So why does he take the job of CoS for a man who serves no one but himself, lack the ability to even discern between truth and lies, and has a flexible relationship with doing what he says he will do? The best I can come up is that he desires to serve this country and thinks that he can do that best. He may have the tools to be successful in getting the cabinet on message and working with Congress to move legislation forward- maybe- but all of the could be undone when his boss goes on a middle of night twitter rant.

I heard it Sunday morning that he is the Chief of Staff... not the Chief of the President and the Trump will be Trump. And there is nothing that anyone - his family included- to moderate Trump.

I came across this article this morning and it says it far better than I could say.

https://www.theatlantic.com/...ys-ascension/535383/

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Suffer Well.

I think China/Russia love the current situation, which is why there hasn't been much help from them.

Both China and Russia would love nothing more than see the U.S in disarray and neither will do anything to change what is happening in Washington. Trump now acts surprised that China isn't doing anything against North Korea but that's only because he doesn't understand China, no surprise there.

Trump and many others (*cough*Ironmayb and JSA*cough*) see China as partners who are there to co-operate with others but they don't see that it's the communist party that is in control in China. For some reason, Trump thinks that China operates like other countries in the West because of their appearance of being a capitalist country but the party controls all public corporations and they are just extensions of the government. They have no interest now or will they have an interest in doing anything except what helps the communist party in China.

It would be immature view of geopolitics as a zero-sum game. China absolutely does not want the US in disarray over the DPRK. It benefits China little and there are some very serious risks. Even Russia, which supported the election of Trump must be feeling unease over this level of potential instability. No sane, rational government - this means China, Russia and the USA (I'll give the White House the benefit of the doubt) wants a major war, potentially involving nuclear weapons.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

And of course you have to wonder about the DPRK too. I have to assume the leadership there doesn't believe their own propaganda. And they're nothing if not masters of self-preservation. They have to understand that there's no nuclear end-game where their government survives. They have a long history of using military bluster to extract economic concessions. It's the first page in the Supreme Leader's geopolitical playbook. And any real military purpose of their nukes has to be considered defensive ("You try to a decapitation move, we're taking Seoul with us, and will launch a Hail Mary at California, maybe").

Unless there's some paroxysm of genuine insanity and instability, maybe triggered by severe internal conflict, I don't see them initiating a war beyond sinking the odd patrol boat, etc.

But maybe I'm wrong. I'm not a Rand Corp. analyst.

But I hope the Trump administration employs creative measures in dealing with this, neither caving in to concessions again, nor starting a war. This is where Trump deal-making could come in handy, if he's willing. Of course dangling the threat of military action is the best way to gain leverage when initiating talks, so we have to live with the military bluster.

It would be immature view of geopolitics as a zero-sum game. China absolutely does not want the US in disarray over the DPRK. It benefits China little and there are some very serious risks.

What China fears most is a unified Korean peninsula. The last thing they want are North Koreans pouring across their border and having a pro-U.S ally next door. They want Pakistan and North Korea to be unstable, it serves their purpose. They don't look at it as a potential nuclear war, they look at it as being in control of Asia, that's all they care about. They will do nothing to disarm North Korea, they are the ones arming them.

Even Russia, which supported the election of Trump must be feeling unease over this level of potential instability.

They wanted Trump because they hated Obama over the sanctions he imposed and they assumed Clinton would continue them. Clinton also called out Putin over his invasion of the Crimea and he was looking to get rid of her ever since. They also saw in Trump someone without any firm views on Russia and determined they could play him to have the sanctions reversed. They would have succeeded if it wasn't for Congress stepping in and blocking Trump.

Russia's goal with the U.S election was to create instability in the U.S. Putin is a nationalist, looking to regain the strength Russia used to have before the break-up of the U.S.S.R. Any weakness in the U.S is a bonus for Putin and he sees that as far more important than the nuclear threat from North Korea. China and Russia don't think like the West, where we tremble over North Korea. They are very inward looking, trying to build up their own power.

I wouldn't go that far. I bet it makes them a little nervous, being just hundreds of miles from their border. And I'm sure they'd prefer to be the only nuclear power in Asia.

They have completed the next step.

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Suffer Well.

Great . Two leaks today. This and the bit about loading onto patrol boats. I don't get it. I hope people get fired, because neither of those things should be leaked.