Excerpt: "The top U.S. nuclear commander said on Saturday that he would resist President Donald Trump if he ordered an 'illegal' launch of nuclear weapons."
U.S. Air Force General John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, testifies in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 4, 2017. (photo: Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
US Nuclear General Says Would Resist 'Illegal' Trump Strike Order
19 November 17
he top U.S. nuclear commander said on Saturday that he would resist President Donald Trump if he ordered an �illegal� launch of nuclear weapons.
Air Force General John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), told an audience at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada that he had given a lot of thought to what he would say if he received such an order.
�I think some people think we�re stupid,� Hyten said in response to a question about such a scenario. �We�re not stupid people. We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?�
Hyten, who is responsible for overseeing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, explained the process that would follow such a command.
As head of STRATCOM �I provide advice to the president, he will tell me what to do,� he said in his remarks, retransmitted in a video posted on the forum�s Facebook page.
�And if it�s illegal, guess what�s going to happen? I�m going to say, �Mr. President, that�s illegal.� And guess what he�s going to do? He�s going to say, �What would be legal?� And we�ll come up with options, of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that�s the way it works. It�s not that complicated.�
Hyten said running through scenarios of how to react in the event of an illegal order was standard practice, and added: �If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life.�
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hyten�s remarks.
They came after questions by U.S. senators, including Democrats and Trump�s fellow Republicans, about Trump�s authority to wage war, use nuclear weapons and enter into or end international agreements, amid concern that tensions over North Korea�s nuclear and missile programs could lead to hostilities.
Trump has traded insults and threats with North Korea�s leader Kim Jong Un and threatened in his maiden United Nations address to �totally destroy� the country of 26 million people if it threatened the United States.
Some senators want legislation to alter the nuclear authority of the U.S. president and a Senate committee on Tuesday held the first congressional hearing in more than four decades on the president�s authority to launch a nuclear strike.
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The Art of Sophistry lives in Washington DC.
With a hammer.
I think that this is what the article is trying to explain in part (and don't forget the former "Dixiecrats").
It doesn't help that what passes for news rather than public education for poor folks, is sucked up from the flick'rin' screen owner-media's shallow focus, personality cultism, sound-byte short, detail-lite major issue avoidance, fear and hate-mongering, especially of "the other" -and a long simmering residual resentment over the Civil War from what I've seen of the South, that they've never gotten over.
I mean, they still have heavily-attende d Civil War "re-enactments" for Gawd's sake!
I don't mean to seem simplistic and of course it's never just that easy but then I'm not even a citizen, certainly not a pundit; just an observer writing from personal experience which is all I can offer.
So far as the South is concerned, all that changed in the past 50 years is the name of the White People's Party the idiots knuckle their brows to, to be loyal to "ol' Massa."
--- If the Right-wingers are willing to spend billions getting candidates into office, do you really think they stop there? Or is it possible you need to be a registered Republican just to get a job. One of my favorite conspiracy theories is that the NeoCons keep online lists of people who are not of their ilk and when there is a job opening or any other kind of opportunity, those who have the job or whatever consult this list and if they find your name you get zero.
Continued
When I went into the loan officer's office, he was effusive. Then he excused himself for a few minutes. When he came back his demeanor had totally changed; he was cold, short and rude. He all but threw me out of his office. You can't tell me they don't have a data base somewhere that allows them to pick and choose who they will do business with or advance. Don't forget, these people are as dishonest as the day is long and for us to trust them is totally foolish. We need to get RID of them and put the rest under strong and severe regulation if we are going to survive.
PS Read the Chris Hedges recent article on just this subject:
http://www.truthdig.com/chris_hedges/
The power companies know whether or not you conserve energy, the telephone company knows who you talk to, and the oil companies know how much you drive. At some point, someone knows about your social life, like how often you go out to dinner.
For whatever reason, the analysis drives the decisions to approve your requests for financing, and the salesman is not the decision maker. We're just "at the mercy" , and until someone like Glenn Greenwald gets into this cross-conflagra tion, we will remain at the mercy.
This doomed the country to haves and have-nots, regardless of how hard a person worked.
"We think you're too stupid to figure out the issues on your own. We know what's best for you because you are clearly unable to determine your own interests yourself. We think you're too stupid to understand issues.
The phrase may work well with the already-convert ed, but it almost certainly turns off other people.
--Peabody and Sherman
the Republican party was created to represent the interests of big business and big money in the 1850s. It has always represented only big corporations and banks.
95% of mass media in the US is owned by about 6 huge corporations. They only report favorable things about the republican party movement because that is the kind of political culture that corporate media wants.
It is really weird that Paul Ryan is such a moron and yet he is taken seriously on budget issues. He worships Ayn Rand. He's been a moocher off of public money for his whole life and made millions of dollars at it. But this is not reported. Instead he is made to seem like an economic genius. In reality, he's the only one who is stupid enough to make the insane and audacious proposals that he is making.
Ha! TR was put in by the JP Morgan banking interests and pledged allegiance all the way. To the extent that he understood economics at all, he is best described as a mercantilist.
Mark Twain, who knew a thing or two about people, met him twice and called him "clearly insane".
He never met a war he didn't want to pursue, was an imperialist at heart and if that's not enough for you...he was Richard Nixon's favorite president.
To be honest, I've had it. I awoke a Democrat, but will end the day as a registered Independent. I simply can't tell the two major parties apart any more.
American greatness"??? I mean, honestly, were you guys born yesterday?? Didn't you real Peggy Dennis' [widow of the CPUSA's General Secretary] Autobiography of an American Communist, after she fled to Reaganist "Conservatism"? The entire NEOCON strategy is straight out of Marx and Lenin!
EEWC