Monday, January 15, 2018
Trump's 'shithole' comment denounced across the globe - POLITICO
"Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina has shared plans to try to censure Trump.
"I think that the president has really stepped into it here," Clyburn said. "I think that the Congressional Black Caucus has solidified around some efforts that I think will take place next week, and one of which is to pursue a censure resolution. I’m hopeful that we will that and get bipartisan support for it."
By Friday afternoon, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), who is chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Rep. Richard Nadler (D-N.Y.), the House Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, issued a joint statement regarding their plans to introduce a censure resolution next week.
“We are deeply disturbed and offended by President Trump’s remarks regarding Haiti and African countries,” they said.
“These remarks have compelled us to prepare a resolution of censure with our colleagues next week, to condemn President Trump for his racist statement,” the two lawmakers added. “This censure resolution is important because America is a beacon of hope. We have to show the world that this president does not represent the feelings of most of the American people which is part of the reason why he lost the popular vote.”
Trump's 'shithole' comment denounced across the globe - POLITICO
Trump Is a Racist. Period. - The New York Times
"I find nothing more useless than debating the existence of racism, particularly when you are surrounded by evidence of its existence. It feels to me like a way to keep you fighting against the water until you drown.
The debates themselves, I believe, render a simple concept impossibly complex, making the very meaning of “racism” frustratingly murky.
So, let’s strip that away here. Let’s be honest and forthright.
Racism is simply the belief that race is an inherent and determining factor in a person’s or a people’s character and capabilities, rendering some inferior and others superior. These beliefs are racial prejudices.
The history of America is one in which white people used racism and white supremacy to develop a racial caste system that advantaged them and disadvantaged others.
Understanding this, it is not a stretch to understand that Donald Trump’s words and deeds over the course of his life have demonstrated a pattern of expressing racial prejudices that demean people who are black and brown and that play to the racial hostilities of other white people.
It is not a stretch to say that Trump is racist. It’s not a stretch to say that he is a white supremacist. It’s not a stretch to say that Trump is a bigot.
Those are just facts, supported by the proof of the words that keep coming directly from him. And, when he is called out for his racism, his response is never to ameliorate his rhetoric, but to double down on it.
I know of no point during his entire life where he has apologized for, repented of, or sought absolution for any of his racist actions or comments.
Instead, he either denies, deflects or amps up the attack.
Trump is a racist. We can put that baby to bed.
“Racism” and “racist” are simply words that have definitions, and Trump comfortably and unambiguously meets those definitions.
We have unfortunately moved away from the simple definition of racism, to the point where the only people to whom the appellation can be safely applied are the vocal, violent racial archetypes.
Racism doesn’t require hatred, constant expression, or even conscious awareness. We want racism to be fringe rather than foundational. But, wishing isn’t an effective method of eradication.
We have to face this thing, stare it down and fight it back.
The simple acknowledgment that Trump is a racist is the easy part. The harder, more substantive part is this: What are we going to do about it?
First and foremost, although Trump is not the first president to be a racist, we must make him the last. If by some miracle he should serve out his first term, he mustn’t be allowed a second. Voters of good conscience must swarm the polls in 2020.
But before that, those voters must do so later this year, to rid the House and the Senate of as many of Trump’s defenders, apologists and accomplices as possible. Should the time come where impeachment is inevitable, there must be enough votes in the House and Senate to ensure it.
We have to stop thinking that we can somehow separate what racists believe from how they will behave. We must stop believing that any of Trump’s actions are clear of the venom coursing through his convictions. Everything he does is an articulation of who he is and what he believes. Therefore, all policies he supports, positions he takes and appointments he makes are suspect.
And finally, we have to stop giving a pass to the people — whether elected official or average voter — who support and defend his racism. If you defend racism you are part of the racism. It doesn’t matter how much you say that you’re an egalitarian, how much you say that you are race blind, how much you say that you are only interested in people’s policies and not their racist polemics.
As the brilliant James Baldwin once put it: “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.” When I see that in poll after poll a portion of Trump’s base continues to support his behavior, including on race, I can only conclude that there is no real daylight between Trump and his base. They are part of his racism.
When I see the extraordinary hypocrisy of elected officials who either remain silent in the wake of Trump’s continued racist outbursts or who obliquely condemn him, only to in short order return to defending and praising him and supporting his agenda, I see that there is no real daylight between Trump and them either. They too are part of his racism.
When you see it this way, you understand the enormity and the profundity of what we are facing. There were enough Americans who were willing to accept Trump’s racism to elect him. There are enough people in Washington willing to accept Trump’s racism to defend him. Not only is Trump racist, the entire architecture of his support is suffused with that racism. Racism is a fundamental component of the Trump presidency."
Trump Is a Racist. Period. - The New York Times
Sunday, January 14, 2018
STASI: Trump's W.H. is real s--thole after racist remarks - NY Daily News
"What a s#!thole the White House has become with a f#!%ing moron in charge.
What? You think the language is rough and disrespectful? Then don’t complain to me, send your complaints directly to your President and tell him to stop using that kind of language about other countries (and maybe drop a note to Rex Tillerson about using that kind of language about Trump).
That’s the level of low that the porn star-loving, p---y-grabbing, white supremacist-defending, climate change-denying, truth-averting, freedom of the press-despising, global warming-loving, free speech-hating, conspiracy-believing, history-twisting, strongman-admiring, race-baiting combover king has brought the U.S. to in one short year.
We’re in some deep s#!t when even the UN denounces our President for making racist “shithole” comments about Africa, Haiti and El Salvador and its immigrants (who are mostly people of color) while asking why we don’t have more immigrants from Norway, which is so white you could go snow-blind just from staring too long at the people. And oh, by the way, since Norway for the past 13 years has been designated by the UN as the best country in which to live and the U.S. the 11th, Norwegians probably won’t start breaking down our borders to get here. They even rank Iceland as a better place to live than the U.S. Of course, they have Björk, but still ...
GOP, Dem senators confirm Trump used racist language at meeting
Wasn’t this Hitler’s dream too? A country with a master race of white people? Good thing Trump’s beloved daughter Ivanka has converted to Judaism, or he might be after them instead of sending his dopey son-in-law to negotiate Middle East peace because he’s the Jew in the family. If only his sons would have married Africans, instead of just thinking it’s a place to slaughter endangered species on rich-boy Safari, Trump might like Africans, too.
Tragic truth: In one year Donald J. Trump alone has turned the White House into a sinkhole of ignorance, bigotry and hatred against anyone who isn’t a white man in a suit. True, he used to welcome Steve Bannon, who showed up looking like an out-of-work gym teacher, but that’s because he thought Bannon had his back. Ooops.
OK, I’m not being fair. The Donald does allow people of color to show up on occasion, and he did appoint brain surgeon Ben Carson as HUD secretary even though his qualifications for housing secretary are that he lives in a house.
But yes, on the anniversary of one of the greatest natural disasters in modern times, the Haitian earthquake that killed 230,000 human beings, our President denounced Haiti. Then he invited several token African-Americans to watch him sign a proclamation and to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life after denouncing the continent from which their ancestors came.
Trump has history of racially charged Oval Office remarks: report
They probably shouldn’t have even shown up, but while they were there I wish they would have taken a knee in protest. In fact, on Monday, MLK Day, we all should protest the racist comments of our President by taking a knee whenever he shows up on TV.
DON TALK NOT FIT FOR KING
Not everyone believes that our President is not only off-track but has gone off the rails completely. To get a view from the other side of the train, I turned to my favorite Republican, Congressman Pete King.
“Tell me, Congressman, do you think President Trump is sane?” I asked.
Congressman Pete King says he thinks Trump is sane and that he can't be making these "tough-guy remarks" as President.
“I think he’s sane,” he answered. “He’s iconoclastic. But by not having the discipline to say or not say what’s appropriate, he creates problems. He makes these tough-guy remarks, and you can’t do that as President. It’s 1960s bar humor.
“But the people who came here through TPS came here legally. I think I have the first- or second-highest number of Salvadorans in my district who came here under TPS. There is absolutely no issue — they have mortgages, their kids go to school, they work hard, pay taxes and are a very vibrant, active part of this community.
“Priests have told me that Catholic parishes on Long Island have been kept going strong by the Haitian (immigrants).”
But does the President appreciate this?
“I’ve been in a number of meetings with him and he’ll suddenly start talking about DACA and how were have to take care of these immigrants’ kids,” King said.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s son says Trump's speech rings hollow
Then why does he project a different image to the public?
“I can’t explain it,” the congressman said. “When I hear him say this stuff I feel like I’m back in a bar in the 1960s. I can imagine him sitting in a bar in Queens back then.”
The problem is that Archie Bunker with the bar humor has become the President.
XXX-CELLENT NEWS
It’s hard to keep a porn star down. Literally.
Trump’s Dutch ambassador apologizes for anti-Muslim remarks
After horny porny star Stormy Daniels denied that she’d taken $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election in exchange for shutting her trap about an alleged sexual tryst she had with Donald Trump over a decade ago, another porn star popped up on Friday.
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels said she did not take $130,000 in exchange for remaining mum about the sexual tryst she had with Donald Trump over a decade ago.
Porn actress Alana Evans told the Daily Beast that just one day after the alleged Stormy tryst, Trump chased her around a hotel room “in his tighty-whities.” Oh God. Make it go away.
And please, call your local suicide hotline immediately if you experience the inability to unsee that image and have lost the will to live.
Front page of the New York Daily News for Jan. 13, 2018.
HELP WANTED ON UFOS
The secret airline of Area 51, which sort of doesn’t exist at a U.S. military base and supposedly housing a crashed alien aircraft that sort of don’t exist with dead aliens, is looking for flight attendants for Janet Airlines, an airline that also sort of doesn’t exist.
The secret Las Vegas airline is looking for flight attendants to take trips to Area 51.
Photo by: (homeworks255/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
According to several news sites, including Newser, the “Air Force-owned planes operated by defense contractor AECOM,” which ferry government employees and contractors from Las Vegas to Area 51, is advertising for flight attendants. Applicants “must be level-headed and clear thinking while handling unusual incidents and situations…” The unusual incidents don’t include dealing with gray aliens who refuse to return their seat backs to the full and upright positions).
UFO expert and best-selling author Whitley Strieber (“Afterlife Revolution” and “Communion”), who knows more aliens from outer space than Trump wants to deport from Earth, said, “It cannot be to fly personnel who have always worked there. Something different must be happening.”
Ya think?
SOMETHING JUST DOESN’T SMELL RIGHT
One of the President’s favorite white guys — and there are a lot of them — is stinking up the joint with his tremendous B.O.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is enjoying a five-year standoff at the Knightsbridge embassy in Ecuador, has such horrible personal hygiene (or make that no personal hygiene) that the embassy staffers are creating a big stink over his bad smell.
Embassy staffers at the Knightsbridge embassy in Ecuador are saying WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
You’d think that a guy who sleeps in the embassy’s former women’s bathroom would at least have learned how to use the indoor plumbing.
What a s#!thole the White House has become with a f#!%ing moron in charge.
What? You think the language is rough and disrespectful? Then don’t complain to me, send your complaints directly to your President and tell him to stop using that kind of language about other countries (and maybe drop a note to Rex Tillerson about using that kind of language with Trump).
That’s the level of low that the porn star-loving, p---y-grabbing, white supremacist-defending, climate change-denying, truth-averting, freedom of the press-despising, global warming-loving, free speech-hating, conspiracy-believing, history-twisting, strongman-admiring, race-baiting combover king has brought the U.S. to in one short year.
We’re in some deep s#!t when even the UN denounces our President for making racist “s#!thole” comments about Africa, Haiti and El Salvador and its immigrants (who are mostly people of color) while asking why we don’t have more immigrants from Norway, which is so white you could go snow-blind just from staring too long at the people. And oh, by the way, since Norway for the past 13 years has been designated by the UN as the best country in which to live and the U.S. the 11th, Norwegians probably won’t start breaking down our borders to get here. They even rank Iceland as a better place to live than the U.S. Of course, they have Björk, but still ...
Wasn’t this Hitler’s dream too? A country with a master race of white people? Good thing Trump’s beloved daughter Ivanka has converted to Judaism, or he might be after them instead of sending his dopey son-in-law to negotiate Middle East peace because he’s the Jew in the family. If only his sons would have married Africans, instead of just thinking it’s a place to slaughter endangered species on rich-boy safari, Trump might like Africans, too.
Tragic truth: In one year Donald J. Trump alone has turned the White House into a sinkhole of ignorance, bigotry and hatred against anyone who isn’t a white man in a suit. True, he used to welcome Steve Bannon, who showed up looking like an out-of-work gym teacher, but that’s because he thought Bannon had his back. Ooops.
OK, I’m not being fair. The Donald does allow people of color to show up on occasion, and he did appoint brain surgeon Ben Carson as HUD secretary even though his qualifications for housing secretary are that he lives in a house.
But yes, on the anniversary of one of the greatest natural disasters in modern times, the Haitian earthquake that killed 230,000 human beings, our President denounced Haiti. Then he invited several token African-Americans to watch him sign a proclamation and to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life after denouncing the continent from which their ancestors came.
They probably shouldn’t have even shown up, but while they were there I wish they would have taken a knee in protest. In fact, on Monday, MLK Day, we all should protest the racist comments of our President by taking a knee whenever he shows up on TV."
STASI: Trump's W.H. is real s--thole after racist remarks - NY Daily News
The Heartbeat of Racism Is Denial - The New York Times
"When our reality is too ugly, we deny reality. It is too painful to look at. Reality is too hard to accept.
Mental health experts routinely say that denial is among the most common defense mechanisms. Denial is how the person defends his superior sense of self, her racially unequal society.
Denial is how America defends itself as superior to “shithole countries” in Africa and elsewhere, as President Trump reportedly described them in a White House meeting last week, although he has since, well, denied that. It’s also how America defends itself as superior to those “developing countries” in Africa, to quote how liberal opponents of Mr. Trump might often describe them.
Mr. Trump appears to be unifying America — unifying Americans in their denial. The more racist Mr. Trump sounds, the more Trump country denies his racism, and the more his opponents look away from their own racism to brand Trump country as racist. Through it all, America remains a unified country of denial.
The reckoning of Mr. Trump’s racism must become the reckoning of American racism. Because the American creed of denial — “I’m not a racist” — knows no political parties, no ideologies, no colors, no regions.
On Friday, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, affirmed that Mr. Trump did use the term “shithole” during a White House meeting on immigration with lawmakers. Mr. Durbin rightfully described Mr. Trump’s words as “hate-filled, vile and racist,” and added, “I cannot believe that in the history of the White House in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday.”
But Mr. Trump is no exception. In framing Mr. Trump’s racism as exceptional, in seeking to highlight the depth of the president’s cruelty, Mr. Durbin, a reliably liberal senator, showed the depth of denial of American racism.
Begin with the eight presidents who held slaves while in the Oval Office. Then consider how Abraham Lincoln urged black people to leave the United States. “Even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race,” Lincoln told five black guests at the White House in 1862. So “it is better for us both, therefore, to be separated.”
Raging then as we are raging now, the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison responded, “Can anything be more puerile, absurd, illogical, impertinent, untimely?” He added that “had it not been for the cupidity of their white enslavers, not one of their race would now be found upon this continent.”
Presidential history also includes the social Darwinism of Theodore Roosevelt, the federal-government-segregating, “Birth of a Nation”-praising Woodrow Wilson — and the bigotry that came from the mouths of presidents who are generally seen as essential to racial progress. President Lyndon B. Johnson said “nigger” nearly as often as Ku Klux Klansmen did.
This denial of racism is the heartbeat of racism. Where there is suffering from racist policies, there are denials that those policies are racist. The beat of denial sounds the same across time and space.
I grew up to the beat of racist denial in Queens, not far from where Mr. Trump grew up. I was raised in the urban “hell” of neighborhoods he probably avoided, alongside immigrants from countries he derided last week. In school or elsewhere, we all heard recitals of the American ideal of equality, especially on the day we celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Those events often feature recitals of the words “all men are created equal,” which were written by a slaveholder who once declared that black people “are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.”
Thomas Jefferson was not a founding father of equality. He was a founding father of the heartbeat of denial that lives through both Mr. Trump’s denials and the assertion that his racial views are abnormal for America and its presidents.
Fifty years ago, Richard Nixon transformed this historic heartbeat of denial into an intoxicating political philosophy. His presidential candidacy appealed to George Wallace-type segregationists while also attracting Americans who refused to live near “dangerous” black residents, obstructed the desegregation of schools, resisted affirmative action policies, framed black mothers on welfare as undeserving, called the black family pathological and denigrated black culture — all those racists who refused to believe they were racist in 1968.
Nixon designed his campaign, one of his advisers explained, to allow a potential supporter to “avoid admitting to himself that he was attracted by” the “racist appeal.”
A new vocabulary emerged, allowing users to evade admissions of racism. It still holds fast after all these years. The vocabulary list includes these: law and order. War on drugs. Model minority. Reverse discrimination. Race-neutral. Welfare queen. Handout. Tough on crime. Personal responsibility. Black-on-black crime. Achievement gap. No excuses. Race card. Colorblind. Post-racial. Illegal immigrant. Obamacare. War on Cops. Blue Lives Matter. All Lives Matter. Entitlements. Voter fraud. Economic anxiety.
The denials using these phrases come from both conservatives and white liberals who think people of color are stuck in cycles of unstable families and criminal cultures, and that the deprivations of poverty and discrimination spin out bad people.
Mr. Trump opened his candidacy with racism, calling Mexicans criminals and rapists. Since taking office, he has looked away from the disaster zone in Puerto Rico, he has called some violent white supremacists “very fine people,” and he has described Nigerians as living in “huts.”
When someone identifies the obvious, Mr. Trump resounds the beat of denial as he did before he was president: “I’m the least racist person that you’ve ever met,” that “you’ve ever seen,” that “you’ve ever encountered.”
These are ugly denials. But it’s the denials from those who stand in strong opposition to this president that are more frustrating to me: denials that their attacks on identity politics are racist. Denials that the paltry number of people of color in elite spaces marks racism.
Those denials echo the same ones that frustrated Dr. King in 1963 as he sat in a Birmingham jail cell and wrote, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
Mr. Trump, I suspect, will go to his grave with his heart beating in denial of the ill will of racism. Many others will as well.
Because we naturally want to look away from our ugliness. We paint over racist reality to make a beautiful delusion of self, of society. We defend this beautiful self and society from our racist reality with the weapons of denial.
Denial is fueled by the stigma associated with being a racist. Feeding the stigma is how “racist” is considered almost like an identity, a brand.
But a racist is not who a person is. A racist is what a person is, what a person is saying, what a person is doing.
Racist is not a fixed category like “not racist,” which is steeped denial. Only racists say they are not racist. Only the racist lives by the heartbeat of denial.
The antiracist lives by the opposite heartbeat, one that rarely and irregularly sounds in America — the heartbeat of confession."
The Heartbeat of Racism Is Denial - The New York Times
Saturday, January 13, 2018
How Republican Lawmakers Responded to Trump’s Vulgar Immigration Remarks - The New York Times
By Alicia Parlapiano, Thomas Kaplan, Emily Baumgaertner, www.nytimes.comView OriginalJanuary 13th, 2018
Reports that President Trump referred to African nations as “shithole countries” and disparaged Haitians during an immigration meeting on Thursday prompted outcry from some lawmakers, but his comments were followed by notable silence from others. Here’s how Republicans in the House leadership, the Senate and other lawmakers who attended the meeting have responded:
Denounced the President’s Comments
Some lawmakers specifically criticized the president, while others countered the sentiment of his remarks.
Senator Roy Blunt Mo.
Senator John Boozman Ark.
“Our country is made of immigrants. This diversity is what makes our country great and something all citizens should be proud of. No matter where people come from, they all deserve dignity and respect.”
Senator Susan Collins Maine
Senator Jeff Flake Ariz.
Senator Lindsey Graham S.C. AT THE MEETING
“Following comments by the president, I said my piece directly to him yesterday. The president and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel. I’ve always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals.” »
Senator Charles E. Grassley Iowa
“I think it detracts from the very important issue we got to get solved by March the 5th," the deadline for Congress to find a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which Mr. Trump is ending. "Bottom line, all people ought to be treated with respect.” »
Senator Orrin G. Hatch Utah
Senator Johnny Isakson Ga.
“I did not hear it, but if it’s true, he owes the people of Haiti and all mankind an apology. That is not the kind of statement the leader of the free world ought to make, and he ought to be ashamed of himself. If he did not make it, he needs to corroborate the fact and prove it and then move forward.” »
Senator Ron Johnson Wis.
“Totally inappropriate and he should apologize. When you enter the public realm, I don't care what your past was, I don't know what kind of salty language you might have used, you stop doing it. You have a certain responsibility, a certain decorum that you need to conduct yourself in public with. You have children watching. You have nations watching.” »
Senator James Lankford Okla.
“If these comments are accurate, they are disappointing. I would not talk about nations like this, because the people of those countries are made in the image of God and have worth and human dignity. The United States should lead the world in respect for all people.”
Senator Mike Lee Utah
“The comments attributed to the president are insulting and distracting.”
Senator John McCain Ariz.
Senator Lisa Murkowski Alaska
“What the president said is offensive and doesn't reflect who we are as a country. It is particularly offensive just days ahead of our recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King. I am disappointed and suggest we move quickly to resolve the status of the Dreamers in a way that truly reflects our values.” »
Senator Rob Portman Ohio
“I wasn’t there, but if he said those things, it’s wrong and indefensible.”
Senator Pat Roberts Kan.
“Allegedly it’s an off-hand remark, but even that, it’s most unfortunate. I try to stick to my business, committees, and get us a good farm bill. I’ve worked with the president. He’s been very personable. That kind of language wasn’t used. So I regret it.” »
Senator Marco Rubio Fla.
Senator Tim Scott S.C.
“If these comments are the president’s words, they are disappointing to say the least. The American family was born from immigrants fleeing persecution and poverty and searching for a better future. Our strength lies in our diversity, including those who came here from Africa, the Caribbean and every other corner of the world.”
Senator Patrick J. Toomey Pa.
“I hope the president retracts the suggestion, attributed to him yesterday, that America should not want immigrants from countries which he was accused of describing disparagingly. There are great people — many of whom would make great Americans — in every country on the face of the earth.”
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan Wis.
“So, first thing that came to my mind was very unfortunate, unhelpful.”
“I think it's a big part of our strength, whether you're coming from Haiti — we've got great friends from Africa in Janesville who are doctors who are just incredible citizens. And I just think it's important that we celebrate that.”
Sidestepped or Did Not Denounce the President’s Comments
A handful of Republican lawmakers who attended the immigration meeting at the White House either said they did not recall the president’s comments or did not directly address them. Others sidestepped the controversy or did not directly denounce the president’s comments.
Senator Bill Cassidy La.
Senator Tom Cotton Ark. AT THE MEETING
Senator David Perdue Ga. AT THE MEETING
Senator Ted Cruz Tex.
“I wasn't in the meeting with the president, so I don’t know what he did or didn't say. I can tell you, in my family, Heidi, as a child, lived in Africa. She lived in Kenya and Nigeria when her parents were missionaries there. And my brother-in-law, Heidi’s older brother, has been a missionary with his wife and sons in Haiti for many years.”
“I can tell you the approach that I’ve tried to take in Washington is to stay out of the nastiness and the attacks and the ‘he said, she said,’ and the insults, and try to focus on substance, try to focus on results, delivering results.” »
Representative Mario Diaz-Balart Fla. AT THE MEETING"
How Republican Lawmakers Responded to Trump’s Vulgar Immigration Remarks - The New York Times
False Alarm Adds to Real Alarm About Trump’s Nuclear Risk - The New York Times
"t was the sort of nightmare that had only ever been real for most people’s parents or grandparents — the fear of an impending nuclear attack. “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii,” read the emergency alert that residents of the Aloha State received on Saturday morning. “Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
The authorities quickly announced that the alert was a mistake. But it made tangible the growing fears that after decades of leaders trying to more safely control the world’s nuclear arsenals, President Trump has increased the possibility of those weapons being used.
At a time when many are questioning whether Mr. Trump ought to be allowed anywhere near the nuclear “button,” he is moving ahead with plans to develop new nuclear weapons and expanding the circumstances in which they’d be used. Such actions break with years of American nuclear policy. They also make it harder to persuade other nations to curb their nuclear ambitions or forgo them entirely..."
False Alarm Adds to Real Alarm About Trump’s Nuclear Risk - The New York Times