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The Monday Pig: Убирайся! (Get Out!)

             A new week, and the president's troubles continue to mount. His porn star problem. His special prosecutor problem. His gun problem. And now, come Monday morning, his Putin problem.

Hellfire Boys

    As my last post indicates, my neglect of this blog is profound. Which is why it's all the more embarrassing that my book Hellfire Boys came out in November and I didn't even post so much as a word about it. So here's the belated correction to that: a link to my Web site, in all its glory. From the Washington Post review: "Though squarely a crackling history, “Hellfire Boys” is also a relevant primer on the past 100 years and on a kind of total warmaking that continues to haunt us — sometimes from another hemisphere, sometimes in our own back yard... Emery’s reporting is vast and meticulous, and his storytelling is focused and clean."

     For good measure, here's the terrific graphic on the front page.

The Monday Pig (Tuesday morning edition): Get On

            Monday was my first day back at my desk after a parental sabbatical. My book Hellfire Boys had been published, and wobbly stacks of used books on a half-dozen potential topics for future research framed my laptop screen. I clawed through unopened bills and paperwork. Unmailed Christmas cards sat next to my keyboard. Crumpled receipts littering my desktop reminded me that April 15 is right around the corner.

North Korea and the Threat of Chemical Warfare

My take in the New York Times on chemical weapons and the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula. Read the article here:

 

The war of words between President Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over Pyongyang’s nuclear program has rattled nerves around the world. But the trial of two women in Malaysia for using the nerve agent VX to kill Mr. Kim’s half brother is a reminder that North Korea’s lethal arsenal isn’t limited to nuclear weapons. The North’s chemical weapons pose a grave risk to South Korea and to regional stability.

The Hellbox: Declarations of Independence

 

          A week and a half after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz delivered a blunt message to President Trump on Friday evening: "I am asking the president of the United States to make sure that somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives."

            "If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency, and the bureaucracy," she said, struggling to contain her emotions. "If we don't get the food and water into people's hands, we are going to see something close to a genocide."

            Cruz's anguish over the response to Puerto Rico's crisis stirred a presidential response, but not the one she was looking for. On Saturday, President Trump accused Cruz of "poor leadership" and criticized her for being "nasty" toward him at the behest of Democrats. With that, a natural disaster whipped into another political disaster, a vicious cyclone of infighting with the White House in the eye of the storm.

            Welcome to the Hellbox, my long-neglected, end-of-week wrap-up of news, political cross currents and shouts from the hustings. Declarations of Independence is this week's theme on this late September weekend, with the unfolding crisis in Puerto Rico front and center.

            Why Declarations of Independence, when July 4 is a distant summertime memory? In addition to the growing desperation of millions of U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, residents of two corners of the globe -- Iraqi Kurds and Spanish Catalans -- are flexing their political muscles in gambits for independence. And while the Friday afternoon resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price might not seem to fit the frame, that scandal ultimately speaks to trust and faith (or lack thereof) in Washington. When in the course of human events... Read on!

The Monday Pig: Eye On the Ball

            Sunday morning dawned hot and clear over Washington, a lazy day that meant rest for some and prayer for others. At the Episcopal Ascension Church in Silver Spring, the reading was from Matthew 20:1-16, the parable of the workers: "So the last will be first, and the first will be last." When the service ended, some in the congregation streamed toward the coffee in the fellowship hall, while others headed for the doors. For some of them, no doubt, Sunday also meant NFL game day    

            By the time football-loving church members reached home, a day of rest had become a day of restiveness. On Friday, President Trump had used the phrase "son of a bitch" for any NFL player who knelt in protest during pre-game ceremonies and called for their firing. On Sunday morning, he urged an NFL boycott. By noon, protest of the president had begun to roll in from around the NFL world, while the president's supporters on Twitter erupted with praise for his harsh words.

            For Mr. Trump, the best use of the Sunday morning bully pulpit was to accuse professional ball players of being unpatriotic. The Tweetstorm continued on Monday morning. Perhaps the pulpit is the wrong analogy. A better analogy: he pulled a quarterback sneak. It was, in other words, a high-stakes distraction.

            Keep your eye on the ball and welcome to the Monday Pig, a (very) periodic start-of-the-week blog post looking forward to the news of the week ahead. It's been some time since I've written one of these, so let's blow the whistle and run some plays.

Superheroes, Super Gases, and Super Villains

    As the lights dimmed in my local multiplex, latecomers to the sold-out Wonder Woman screening fumbled through the darkened aisles. Parents shushed their young children. A woman to my right, who had been chatting excitedly with the man next to her, fell silent as the trailers began.

New York Times: VX Killed Kim Jong-Un's Estranged Half-Brother

    Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was killed with the nerve agent VX when he died in Malaysia on February 13, the New York Times is reporting. VX is one of the deadliest chemical weapons agents in existence.

The full story is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/world/asia/kim-jong-nam-vx-nerve-agent-.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

A Century of "America First" from 1917 to 2017

           The first words of every new president are carefully parsed, but two words in particular stood out in President Trump's inaugural address on Friday. Partway through his speech, the president called for "a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power."

            "From this day forward, it’s going to be only 'America first, America first,'" he said, as the crowd on the National Mall broke out in applause.

            Despite Mr. Trump's assertion, "America First" is hardly a new decree at all. Some observers quickly pointed out that "America First" was a 1930s-era slogan of isolationists before World War II, which is true. But some additional historical context is helpful, because the phrase dates to many years earlier, to before World War I, when another awful conflagration consumed Europe and the Middle East.

ISIS Has Used Chemical Weapons at Least 52 Times

    ISIS has used chemical weapons at least 52 times since 2014, according to the New York Times. The IHS Conflict Monitor, a London-based intelligence analysis service, compiled the information based on local news reports, ISIS propaganda, and social media. Mosul has been the epicenter of such attacks -- roughly one-third of the chemical weapons attacks took place in the city, which Iraqi forces and its allies have launched an offensive to retake from ISIS, also known as Islamic State, ISIL or Daesh.