So We're Kinda Getting To the End of the World Now

Just a couple of news worthy items today:

One of trump's lead lawyers trying to defend him against Mueller's investigation into trump-Russia ties resigned today (via David A Graham at The Atlantic):

Dowd announced his exit late Thursday morning. The specifics of the decision remain obscure—The Washington Post described it, somewhat paradoxically, as “a largely mutual decision”—but the departure comes amid rising frustration from the president with his legal team and frustration from the legal team over Trump’s refusal to follow advice. Dowd had been a particularly strong voice arguing against Trump testifying to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and over the weekend Dowd called for Mueller’s firing, initially telling The Daily Beast he spoke for the president, then later insisting he spoke only for himself...

In this way, trump is self-destructing. he won't listen to reason, doesn't trust his own experts, and is leading by impulse.

trump wants to do two things, probably at the same time: he wants to testify to Mueller as though a direct confrontation could somehow compel Mueller to end his probe, and then just after giving that testimony have one of his flunkies fire Mueller (trump CANNOT fire someone face to face) with the belief that having testified he could then claim his "innocence" and quash all inquiry.

Dowd was likely one of the ones telling him how reckless it would be getting a known liar like trump to testify to anything, and that firing Mueller may not even close the investigation and may make things worse for trump. But with him gone, and with more "aggressive" lawyers joining trump's team, it's likely we're going to see at least one more public attempt to fire Mueller. Most likely this Friday. Yeah. Prepare for the Internet to melt down tomorrow.

The second note of interest is that trump's second NSA handler HR McMaster is getting the boot and is getting replaced by John Bolton. You all might remember Bolton from such previous hits as "Let's have a war in Iraq," "Let's lie about our intel," "Bombing North Korea should be a winner," and "Hey, nuking Iran is a great idea."

In short, we're going from a war hawk with prudence in McMaster to a war hawk with too much bloodlust and not enough brain cells or integrity in Bolton.

Let's refer to Uri Friedman also at The Atlantic:

On Thursday, donald trump replaced a man who built the case for war with North Korea as a last resort with a man who just made the case for war with North Korea as more of a first resort...

Until today, it was McMaster who was considered Trump’s most militant adviser on North Korea. A three-star general and earnest intellectual, McMaster clashed with Trump personally and on matters of policy; he recommended—over the president’s objections—sticking with the Iran nuclear deal, the war in Afghanistan, and America’s commitments to NATO allies and pushback against Russian aggression. McMaster, like Rex Tillerson, notably used his final days in office to condemn Russian malfeasance in ways his boss never has...

While Friedman argues in his article that McMaster's hard-line stance was more towards posturing to let China - and Russia - know that the U.S. wasn't going to tolerate a rogue North Korea, he tempered his saber-rattling with arguing in favor of maintaining existing deals and treaties to show the nation was still honor-bound towards diplomacy.

We're not going to get that with Bolton. This is a man with a documented history of mocking allies and enemies alike, of spoiling for fights he can't finish. He mocked the very existence of the UN he was sent to serve as ambassador to, argued for ignoring international law, and drove out career diplomats and foreign policy experts who disagreed with him. He is, basically, the worst person to give foreign policy decision-making authority.

So we're likely going into war with North Korea before the end of the month based on Bolton's bad input, if not trying to break our nuclear management arrangements with Iran by the same time, essentially putting the U.S. in a two-front war without any of our more helpful allies willing to help out this time. Yeah, by the end of the month. Prepare for the entire world to melt down by Saturday night March 31st.

Just remember, some of Hillary's critics on the Left - looking at you BernieBros and Jill Stein voters - argued that Hillary was going to be a war-monger. Congratulations. You lot teamed up with an entire PARTY that wants war in the Republicans, and you just let Cadet Bone Spurs bring onto his team the biggest warmonger of that mob.

We are so royally fucked.

And this is all before the 2018 Summer Movie season kicks in... damn you, trump voters, damn every single one of you to HELL...