The honeymoon is over.

“BUT WHY?!” The Donald screamed as he slammed his small, soft hands down on the Resolute desk. His anger forced his voice two full octaves higher and made him sound like a petulant child.

“Don-” Paul Ryan began. The Donald cut him off.

“MR. PRESIDENT!” The Donald whined.

“Mr. President...” Ryan choked out the words. “We don't have the support.”

“Well, maybe if you'd made it better! Why is it so bad? You're the worst! SAD!” The last word he almost spit out involuntarily, as though he suffered from Tourette's.

“You said you liked it yes-” Ryan was cut off again.

“FAKE NEWS!” The Donald began sputtering. “You are just as bad as CNN and NBC! Fox and friends knows! You're just like the fake dishonest media! SAD!”

“Do-Mr. President, this isn't the end of the fight. We can rewrite it and reintroduce it. We can-” Ryan pleaded.

“No! The stupid loser Democrats want Obamacare? Fine! They can have it! Steve told me that it's going to explode anyway and, when it does, it'll be their fault! They're going to have to come to me for help and I'll make them all come down to Mar-A-Lago and eat the meatloaf! Get out of my office!” The Donald turned his back and stared angrily out of the window.

“Yes, Mr. President.” Ryan said. As he left the Oval Office, closing the door behind him, a tear rolled down his cheek.

“Sad.” He said to himself quietly as he wiped it away.

A war is coming, and soon - Version 2.0.

I've written about this before with the hope of being wrong. And I was. Unfortunately, I don't think I was wrong about the war, only the target, and I fear it's still coming. It's just looking like Trump will attack North Korea, instead.

Makes a lot of sense, really. 

Iran, my previously suspected target, is a Russian ally. My reasoning was that Putin doesn't give a fuck. I firmly believe that he'd feed us Iran if it made us happy so that he could concentrate on his own European aspirations as long as we made some deals regarding the distribution of oil. Since he has a puppet in the White House that wouldn't really be much of an issue. 

North Korea, however, is looking like a better target. I'm already seeing Trumpkins on twitter urging military action against North Korea for “bullying the US” and “building weapons of mass destruction”. Gee whiz, it all sounds so familiar.

Nevermind that Kim Jong Un isn't really a threat. Trump needs a boost to those approval ratings. The kind of boost that only military action can bring. A war turns nationalism into patriotism, paranoia into prudence, dissent into disloyalty. “You're either with us or against us!”, they'll cry.

People need to wake up to the danger that is Trump's administration. They are a desperate and flailing bunch that will do anything to succeed up to, and including, throwing the country under the bus. Our fate lies in the hands of folks like Mattis and McMaster - potential voices of reason within the administration that could steer Trump away from war. 

It's something to hope for in a time seemingly without hope.

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While it is true that Trump's White House is now clearly a lost cause of scandal and incompetence there may still be a silver lining:

Trump may be too busy, or even completely unable, to pursue military actions.

He's in it now and it's showing. He's coming apart at the seams live on Twitter. His mad ramblings, written in such obvious panic and desperation, should be more proof than anyone needs. The way he attempts to fling blame at other people is a clear indicator. He's compromised, there is proof, and he knows it. Why else would he be so worried about a wiretap that he'd tell his tweeps before he asked his advisers? 

He's rattled.

Imagine that you're a general watching this. A general that, not so long ago, watched your commander-in-chief throw you and your buddies under the fucking bus for a botched raid that he himself greenlit. 

Now you're thinking about your career, your family, your troops. Are you going to follow this man into battle? Having served under some questionably suited NCOs and officers I can tell you that disobeying an unlawful order is as much a soldier's duty as following a lawful one. I have to hope that our military commanders are the men that I think they are and that they should be.

I also don't see Trump getting any cooperation from our allies at the moment regarding broad military action - like war with Iran. I've written about my belief that Trump will attack Iran in much the same way that Bush attacked Iraq; Looking for things that aren't there and after a dubiously connected terrorist attack. I can't see that happening with the way things are going. As with most of my most pessimistic writing... I hope I'm wrong.

The support that he needs seems to be dwindling. As Republicans continue to play damage control, while they push through measures to make their friends rich, they are slowly distancing themselves from the Trump administration. Especially now that the Republican healthcare plan has been outed as an absolute disaster. Trump has no real allies that I can see. Is a politician ever a true ally? A person motivated solely by their self interest is never going to burn for you.

It'll be very interesting to see how the Trump administration responds to Rachel Maddow's exposure of Trump's 2005 tax returns. The WH's statement...

is a disaster. How embarrassed are you that this is the kind of statement that Trump's WH releases?

So, what now? They just accused Maddow of breaking the law. Are they going to arrest her? Is this the next iteration of the "Lock Her Up!" movement? Isn't it funny that Trump and his cronies have been saying for this entire time that he can't release his tax returns and then today, when the press gets a portion of them, they are eager to release that portion but only that portion? We need to see those taxes.

What Maddow has now isn't actionable but she's got the right idea. By showing what she has she can show us what we need and why we need it. Hopefully this is only the beginning. 

I believe that the president is corrupt and compromised, I believe that initially only his inner circle were fully aware of the extent of this, and I believe that now, as the evidence pours out of the many holes in the HIRMS Trump, people that previously did not believe are starting to. What they will do with this information I have no idea. 

Trump is sinking, though. 

Watch the rats.

No Strings.

"No, puppet! It is not time to dance!" President Putin screamed at his television set.

He turned to me, beseechingly, and said "He's fucking doing it again. Every time he fucks our shit up."

This has been the life of President Vladimir Putin since Donald Trump has taken office.

"When we first made plans to make him president we thought it would just be nonstop luls. I mean, President Trump. Rekt, America. Rekt." 

Far from buoyant however, a tired President Putin confided in me that "Trump won't stick to the script. Directing him is an absolute nightmare. He is the worst. Seriously, how hard is it to stay off of the twitter?"

Usually a meticulously groomed and imposing man, today's President Putin was decidedly less impressive. For the short time that he has granted this reporter access he has been in pajama pants and a Motley Crew T-shirt. It's been eighteen hours so far. We were scheduled for an hour but when I arrived for the interview he waved me into his suite , saying "Fuck it. He's ruined everything anyway.", and pouring himself a coffee mug of vodka. Rather than let me leave he's making me write the article right here so that he can read it.

"Honestly, all he was supposed to do was beat Hillary. We were hoping for some deals afterwards, sure, but that wasn't the payoff. I just don't like Hillary. I winked at her once and she flipped me your bird when no one was looking. Fuck Hillary. Also, Obama got all up in my face and there's that picture that makes me look like a bitch. Did you think Vladimir would not get his get back?" He laughed heartily at that, exclaiming "I'm motherfucking KGB, bitch."

"Look at this shit!" He said, stabbing a finger at the CNN anchor's face, "He reads OUR fucking propaganda, believes it, and then tweets it when his handler isn't looking! Now everyone is talking about our fake bullshit news story. It was only meant for the idiots!"

He stopped abruptly then, regarded me sharply, and said "Let me see what you've written."

After reading this draft the President seems slightly subdued but he's a very hard man to read. He's asked me to join him for tea after he changes in the other room. Perhaps when he returns we can get to the original topic for my interview, Top 10 Pimpin' Places President Putin Parties.