MORE TRUMP STUFF

Here's a couple of recent positions coming out of the Trump administration:

They want to send the question of the treatment of transgender folk back to the states.

The problem with this is that a lot of states have legislatures packed with conservative Bible thumpers who know the only proper way to deal with one of those sexual abominations is to crush its head flat in a hydraulic press.

Them good-ol'-boys are acting according to God's Law, and they feel especially good about taking this stand. They can't be wrong.

(No human can be wrong—it's our birthright.)

It used to be that only at the state level could you get a majority of ultra-conservative dingbats elected to office, that a raving lunatic couldn't be elected president.

Then Trump proved he could pound the ground hard enough to bring sufficient worms to the surface to get himself anointed by the American people.

(Plus, all those guys and gals hated Hillary, starting with the fact she was a woman.)

Moving the transgender stuff to the states is just a legal way for Trump to avoid his campaign promises to the LBGTQ community. Turns out his avowed protection was just smoke and mirrors. Sure, he might claim he feels the same as always, that he's sorry the matter is now out of his hands—and always will be.

I don't think he's going to get a lot of flak from his supporters over this position. Those guys are mainly states' rights folk anyway—except when it comes to protecting their right to stockpile assault weapons.

The states are now free to dictate who uses what bathroom.

So we may get this: Some big strapping man will be required (if he was born female) to enter the ladies room. The chicks in there will scream, cops will be called, and the guy will be hauled out into the alley and beaten to death.

Just as God wishes.

Similarly, transgender women born male will have to use the men's room, where they can be raped to death by self-righteous men overtaken by the spirit of the Lord.

It's a win-win, for the Bible smackers, folks fortified with the Truth.

On another issue, Donald Trump wants to beef up the country's nuclear arsenal. He says as long as nukes exist, we ought to make it clear to everyone that our pile is bigger than anybody's.

I don't think he knows how these things work.

Let's say you've got some transgender dude laid out beneath an industrial press. According to Trump, it's not enough to have hundred-ton capacity to crush this monster's head. He wants to have a million-ton press.

Yet, either device will suffice. Perfectly.

It's simply not important to have the most nukes—once you have enough to get the job done.

True, nuclear "parity" is based on perception. Everybody has to know you have enough nukes. And everybody has to believe you'll use them if you have to.

We used to have a "no first strike" policy. That meant we would only use nukes to avenge our soon to be dead population. Send your missiles in our direction, expect American missiles to rain down on you shortly.

An unacceptable number of missiles.

The idea was this: If the other side believed our resolve, they wouldn't take a shot at us in the first place. It would be suicide.

It's called MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction. And it's worked, so far. Like the conclusion reached by the movie WarGames: The only way to win a nuclear war is not to fight one.

Well, that was then. Who knows what our policy is now.

But since it's all about perception, why don't we just lie and say we built a crap-load of new missiles? Trump's already got folks worried he might start slinging nukes around, just to get some value out of them.

And even if our enemies saw through the lie, those with any sense would know the numbers we actually have are perfectly capable of getting the job done.

Even a handful of nukes goes a long way.

We can only hope our nuclear-tipped enemies can stay cool, and not rise to take the poisoned bait. Even if the US is going to have more missiles in the future, that doesn't mean our adversaries are running out of time to act.