Donald Trump's nuclear button is way bigger than yours - CNN Politics

Donald Trump's nuclear button is way bigger than yours

Chris Cillizza

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Updated 1349 GMT (2149 HKT) January 3, 2018

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Police accuse man of acting as N. Korean agent

north korea missile launch newton_00000629.jpg

Watch North Korea's huge new missile launch

The second most powerful official after Kim Jong Un has not been seen in a couple of months. Has General Hwang Pyong So been purged.. or even executed?

North Korean high-ranking official missing

In this Sept. 3, 2017, image distributed on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017, by the North Korean government, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un holds a meeting of the ruling party's presidium. North Korea claimed a "perfect success" for its most powerful nuclear test so far, a further step in the development of weapons capable of striking anywhere in the United States. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

Kim Jong Un: What we know about him

Tillerson: We do not accept N. Korea's path

Why does North Korea keep launching ICBMs?

How much damage can North Korea's weapons do?

North Korea's regime has "succeeded in making a more developed nuke," according to state news agency KCNA. During a visit to the country's Nuclear Weapons Institute "he watched an H-bomb to be loaded into new ICBM," KCNA added.

The weapon that makes N. Korea more dangerous

lead jake tapper trump north korea live_00000000.jpgNOW PLAYING

Trump to Kim: My nuclear button is bigger than yours

north korea kim jung un new year speech hancocks lklv_00005209.jpg

Kim Jong Un delivers New Year's address

This photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on December 23, 2017 and released on December 24, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons.

North Korea may test missile in new year

The Lighthouse Winmore, chartered by Taiwanese company Billions Bunker Group Corp., is seen at sea off South Korea's Yeosu port on December 29, 2017.

South Korea briefly seized and inspected a Hong Kong-registered ship in November for transferring oil products to a North Korean vessel and breaching UN sanctions, a foreign ministry official said on December 29.

China accused of letting oil into North Korea

Images of the North Korea missile launch on November 28 taken from Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official newspaper.

Officials: Signs NK is prepping missile launch

ghost ships of NK watson pkg_00001324.jpg

North Korean 'ghost ships' washing up in Japan

North Korean soldiers (R) look at the South side while US Vice President Mike Pence (not pictured) visits the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the border between North and South Korea on April 17, 2017.

What it's really like to be inside North Korea

PAJU, SOUTH KOREA - JANUARY 08: A sunrise is seen through a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on January 8, 2016 in Paju, South Korea. South Korea announced on January 7th that it would resume the broadcasts from loudspeakers placed along the border, criticizing the North in response to its nuclear test. In August, 2015, when South Korean soldiers were maimed by land mines in the DMZ, South Korea started the loudspeaker broadcasts and the North threatened to attack the speakers. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

North Korean soldier defects across the DMZ

Police accuse man of acting as N. Korean agent

north korea missile launch newton_00000629.jpg

Watch North Korea's huge new missile launch

The second most powerful official after Kim Jong Un has not been seen in a couple of months. Has General Hwang Pyong So been purged.. or even executed?

North Korean high-ranking official missing

In this Sept. 3, 2017, image distributed on Monday, Sept. 4, 2017, by the North Korean government, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un holds a meeting of the ruling party's presidium. North Korea claimed a "perfect success" for its most powerful nuclear test so far, a further step in the development of weapons capable of striking anywhere in the United States. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

Kim Jong Un: What we know about him

Tillerson: We do not accept N. Korea's path

Why does North Korea keep launching ICBMs?

How much damage can North Korea's weapons do?

North Korea's regime has "succeeded in making a more developed nuke," according to state news agency KCNA. During a visit to the country's Nuclear Weapons Institute "he watched an H-bomb to be loaded into new ICBM," KCNA added.

The weapon that makes N. Korea more dangerous

lead jake tapper trump north korea live_00000000.jpg

Trump to Kim: My nuclear button is bigger than yours

north korea kim jung un new year speech hancocks lklv_00005209.

Kim Jong Un delivers New Year's address

This photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on December 23, 2017 and released on December 24, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons.

North Korea may test missile in new year

The Lighthouse Winmore, chartered by Taiwanese company Billions Bunker Group Corp., is seen at sea off South Korea's Yeosu port on December 29, 2017.

South Korea briefly seized and inspected a Hong Kong-registered ship in November for transferring oil products to a North Korean vessel and breaching UN sanctions, a foreign ministry official said on December 29.

China accused of letting oil into North Korea

Images of the North Korea missile launch on November 28 taken from Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official newspaper.

Officials: Signs NK is prepping missile launch

ghost ships of NK watson pkg_00001324.jpg

North Korean 'ghost ships' washing up in Japan

North Korean soldiers (R) look at the South side while US Vice President Mike Pence (not pictured) visits the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on the border between North and South Korea on April 17, 2017.

What it's really like to be inside North Korea

PAJU, SOUTH KOREA - JANUARY 08: A sunrise is seen through a barbed-wire fence at the Imjingak, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea on January 8, 2016 in Paju, South Korea. South Korea announced on January 7th that it would resume the broadcasts from loudspeakers placed along the border, criticizing the North in response to its nuclear test. In August, 2015, when South Korean soldiers were maimed by land mines in the DMZ, South Korea started the loudspeaker broadcasts and the North threatened to attack the speakers. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

North Korean soldier defects across the DMZ

Washington (CNN)Size matters.

If you were looking for a two-word slogan to describe Donald Trump's life, that would be a fitting one. In everything -- from the size of his buildings to the size of his genitals to the size of his nuclear arsenal, Trump is totally and completely obsessed with being the biggest and the best.

Witness his tweet Tuesday night directed at North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un:

"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.' Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

"Much bigger & more powerful." "My Button works."

If you don't see what Trump is going for there, then we need to have a side conversation about the birds and the bees. This is a measuring contest provoked by the President of the United States against an unstable dictator pursuing a nuclear capacity.

It's absolutely stunning given the stakes: Nuclear war/annihilation. At the same time, it's an entirely predictable tactic from Trump given what he we know about him.

Let's remember that in the 2016 Republican primary process, Trump got into a pissing contest -- almost literally -- with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio about genital size.

President alone has power to order nuclear action

President alone has power to order nuclear action 01:53

At a rally in early March, Rubio said this of Trump: "He's like 6-foot-2, which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who is 5-foot-2. And you know what they say about men with small hands? You can't trust them."

Days later -- at a GOP primary debate -- Trump made sure to address the Rubio allegation.

"Look at those hands, are they small hands?" Trump said while displaying his mitts. "And he referred to my hands -- 'if they're small, something else must be small.' I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee."

I guarantee you there's no problem.

Trump's obsession with size is evident in ways large and small -- ahem -- throughout his life.

Remember how he had the biggest inauguration crowd ever? Or how his tax cut was the biggest in history? Or how the ratings for "Saturday Night Live" when Trump made a guest appearance were the biggest in years? Or how Mar-a-Lago is the best club in the world? Or how "The Apprentice" was the biggest TV hit in history? Or how he actually had the tallest building in downtown Manhattan -- on September 11, 2001, following the terror attacks that brought down the World Trade Center? (Yes, that actually happened.)

There's dozens more examples just like these, but you get the point. In Trump's mind, the first, second and third most important measures of success are size. Everything he is involved with must be the biggest, the tallest, the most well-attended, the most expensive, the best.

A bit of armchair psychology would suggest that relentless focus on size is born of insecurity.

Remember that Trump has always viewed himself as an outsider, scorned by the cool kids. His father was a successful developer, but not in Manhattan, where the big boys played. Trump went into Manhattan and built right in the heart of it, but the major players in the city's power structure didn't like him or let him into their clubs. When he came to Washington in 2011 considering a potential political career, the establishment laughed at him during the White House Correspondents Dinner.

In Trump's mind, he is always on the outside looking in. And he is motivated by a desire to stick it to the elites who have shunned him his entire life.

Trump launches Twitter tirade first day back

Trump launches Twitter tirade first day back 02:32

The way to do that -- in Trump's mind -- is to always one-up whoever is challenging him. If you build a 95-story skyscraper, he'll find a way to build a 96- story one. If you got 50,000 retweets, he'll want to get 100,000. And, if you have a nuclear button ready to push on your desk, well you can sure as hell bet Trump has a bigger and better nuclear button on his desk.

Trump's size obsession was mildly amusing when he was a private citizen. The man who always had to have the biggest toy.

But, as President, his compulsive need to not only have the biggest and the best everything but to shove it in the face of world leaders that he has the biggest and the best everything takes on an entirely different feeling -- one of uneasiness about whether the President of the United States grasps what his size contest obsession means in a world of nuclear weapons.

Trump to North Korean leader Kim: My nuclear button ‘is bigger & more powerful’ - NBC News

3/1/2018

Trump to North Korean leader Kim: My nuclear button ‘is bigger & more powerful’

by HASANI GITTENS

My button is bigger than yours.

President Donald Trump, reacting to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un saying he had a "nuclear button on his desk" and was ready to use it against the United States, said on Twitter late Tuesday that his own nuclear button "is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

@realDonaldTrump

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

11:49 AM - Jan 3, 2018

In a televised speech Monday, Kim had said: "The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat."

While Trump boasted about his "nuclear button," the president doesn't actually have a physical one.

The process for launching a nuclear strike is secret and complex and involves the use of a nuclear "football," which is carried by a rotating group of military officers everywhere the president goes and is equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans.

If the president were to order a strike, he would identify himself to military officials at the Pentagon with codes unique to him. Those codes are recorded on a card known as the "biscuit" that is carried by the president at all times. He would then transmit the launch order to the Pentagon and Strategic Command.

The fiery rhetoric comes as representatives from North and South Korea could meet for the first official discussions between the neighbors since 2015 ahead of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.

South Korea proposed Tuesday that talks be held next week. A spokesman for the South Korean government said Seoul had consulted with the United States and had Washington's go-ahead.

South Korea's overture was in response to comments made by Kim in a New Year's Day speech. He suggested immediate talks with Seoul over sending a delegation to the Olympics.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, warned North Korea earlier Tuesday against staging another missile test and said Washington would not take any talks between North and South Korea seriously if they did not do something to get Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.

@realDonaldTrump

Sanctions and “other” pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!

1:08 AM - Jan 3, 2018

Haley told reporters that the United States was hearing reports that North Korea might be preparing to fire another missile.

"I hope that doesn't happen. But if it does, we must bring even tougher measures to bear against the North Korean regime," Haley said.

Trump has 'unhealthy obsession with nukes,' analyst says Play Facebook Twitter Embed

Trump has 'unhealthy obsession with nukes,' analyst says 1:58

In September, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. Pyongyang tested a total of 23 missiles in 2017, including 15 that were nuclear-capable. The November launch of what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile flew farther than any of Kim's previous tests — and the North claimed it could reach anywhere in the mainland United States.

However, analysts say that based on the current evidence it's hard to prove or debunk North Korea's claim that it can now hit faraway American targets such as New York or Washington.

Trump's tweet across the bow Tuesday evening was part of a barrage of New Year's posts chastising Iran, Pakistan and the Palestinian leaders.

There’s No Such Thing As a Universal Symbol in Dreams - New York Magazine

SCIENCE OF US

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

There’s No Such Thing As a Universal Symbol in Dreams

By

Sonya Vatomsky

Dreams are one of life’s great equalizers. No matter who you are, your sleeping self is free from the logic that rules your waking hours — you can experience the thrill of flying, or start a consequence-free affair, or just spend some time with dream-friends at a really great party. Of course, this same freedom from the rules of waking life also means you could find yourself suddenly naked in the middle of the street, or fleeing from some terrifying attacker. Everything’s fair game.

At least you’re not the only one. Chris Ufere, the founder and CEO of the dream-interpretation app uDreamed, spends his days sifting through all the strange places the subconscious can go. “What we have noticed so far (in terms of common dream topics) is not far from existing research,” he writes in an email. “People of all demographics frequently dream of falling, ending relationships, being naked in public, flying, being chased, cheating in relationships, being unprepared, needing to use the bathroom, quarrels with friends/family and co-workers, the apocalypse and war and violence, being in an airplane, seeing feces, car accidents, attacking someone or being attacked, being drunk, death — the usual suspects.”

The purpose of uDreamed — which allows users to “record, associate, analyze, match, and share their unconscious experiences and consult professionals to gain unique insights” — isn’t particularly new: As long as we’ve been dreaming, we’ve been ascribing meaning to our dreams.

Particularly in the last few decades, many dream dictionaries have been published offering simple or complex meanings for specific symbols and themes. But dreams, especially common dreams like the ones Ufere describes, are influenced by a combination of psychology, culture, and individual circumstances.

“Since we share many symbols and metaphors, there are some general themes that are likely to mean similar things for dreamers,” says Harvard Medical School psychologist Deirdre Barrett, author of The Committee of Sleep. “Certainly a test-anxiety dream is likeliest to have something to do with a waking-life situation of feeling judged by authorities and worried about falling short. The naked-in-public dream is likely to have something to do with a sense of being exposed or failing to conform to social expectations.”

These meanings must then be passed through the lens of the individual. According to Barrett, there’s no such thing as a universal dream symbol: “If someone dreams about a dog,” she explains, “there’s no one thing that’s likely to represent. You want the dreamer’s associations with dogs — a person may tell you dogs are loyal and man’s best friend, or a big animal with sharp teeth that bites, or a cute helpless little creature that needs to be taken care of. A dog dream will mean radically different things for each dreamer.”

Still, analyzing many dreams at once offers insight into how our subconscious thoughts are shaped by the world around us. For example, as final exams concluded for many schools in May and June, uDreamed saw an uptick in the number of dreamers being unable to find their classrooms; Ufere anticipates the same trend as school starts up again this month. “We have also noticed that dream experiences seem continuous with activities the dreamer engaged in his/her waking life,” he says. “We ask dreamers, immediately after recording dream content, to associate their dream experience with events in their waking. For example, we find that 22.6 percent of dreams [in the database] are caused by an internal conflict, 21.3 percent by a recent stress or pressure, 20 percent by something observed recently, 19.8 percent by relationship concerns, and 16.3 percent by familial concerns.”

“The relationship that is emerging is intriguing,” Ufere says, “But we need more data across cultures and demographics to be able to generalize and make predictions.” (UDreamed has yet to launch globally, so their database of dreams is fed primarily by U.S. citizens, with a few dreamers from Africa and India.)

Barrett agrees that demographics is an extremely important factor when discussing common dreams. “It’s hard to talk about ‘common themes’ without specifying at least age range,” she says. “Children dream about all kinds of animals frequently: pets, jungle/zoo animals, and farmyard livestock. Animals in dreams drop off radically for adults. Dogs or cats are still reasonably common for pet owners but other animals become rare,” except when the dreamer has a profession such as farmhand or zookeeper. Even when it comes to something easily classified as an anxiety dream, the general content will differ by age. “By far the most common anxiety dream for children is of being chased by an evil human, animal, or monster,” Barrett explains. But by adulthood, we generally dream of taking tests or being naked in public.

But just because dreams are common doesn’t mean they’re meaningful — or even interesting. For example, a frequently occurring dream for adults involves a social setting with people they seem to know and a feeling of okayness or vague positivity. Instead, much of dream research has been on themes that are “striking but not particularly common,” like sex dreams and dreams in which the dreamer commits violent acts. “Rare types of dreams that are either very desirable or extremely unpleasant are often studied with an eye toward what can increase or decrease their occurrence,” Barrett explains.

Ufere is intrigued by those rare dreams as well. He divides the dreams in uDreamed’s database into two categories, which he calls logical and illogical. “The logical dreams have a clear story and seem to be connected to waking events or unconscious thought,” Ufere explains. Some of the illogical recorded dreams, however, are completely bizarre, like that of the user who wrote, “I dreamed a ball’s circumference would determine the college my daughter would be accepted to, and we were anxiously waiting for a phone call about the radius.” Or, “my arm was a fork and I couldn’t bend my elbow.” Such dreams seem highly individual and show no apparent patterns (or not yet, anyway). For now, at least, they make for good stories — and make that whole naked-in-public thing seem a little less weird by comparison. Above all, they’re a helpful reminder that your subconscious has no rules.

U.S. companies will pay billions in tax on offshore cash piles - CNN Money

U.S. companies will pay billions in tax on offshore cash piles

by Alanna Petroff @AlannaPetroff

January 2, 2018: 12:47 PM ET

U.S. multinational companies are preparing to pay hundreds of billions of dollars in tax on profits they made overseas in the last 30 years.

New American tax rules mean firms can no longer avoid paying tax on past international profits by keeping the money outside the United States. They must pay tax whether they bring this cash back to the U.S. or not.

Goldman Sachs (GS) was the first big multinational to announce a hit to profits in 2017 from the new tax. It said on Friday that the "repatriation tax" was responsible for most of a one-off charge of $5 billion.

Tax experts expect many more big U.S. companies will announce similar one-off charges in the weeks to come.

"They should all come out with similar statements," said Ryan Dudley, head of international tax services at Friedman LLP.

The new rules require U.S. companies to pay a tax of between 8% and 15.5% on overseas earnings made since 1987 if they remain offshore. After making this one-off payment, they'll be able to bring the money back home without paying additional tax.

"For many U.S. multinationals, by far the biggest impact is that one-time charge," said Craig Hillier, head of the international tax practice at EY.

Under the old law, they would have owed a top rate of 35% when bringing foreign profits back to the U.S.

U.S. companies are expected to announce the tax hit now and pay the money in installments over several years. Congress expects this one-time charge will bring in an estimated $339 billion over the next 10 years.

While the one-time "repatriation tax" will sting, many companies stand to benefit from much lower tax rates in the future. Much of the earnings they make overseas in 2018 and beyond will no longer incur any U.S. tax, even if they're returned to the U.S.

Moody's estimated in November that U.S. companies were holding about $1.4 trillion in cash offshore.

It projected that five major tech companies -- Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSCO), Oracle (ORCL) and Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) -- would be holding $594 billion in cash overseas at the end of 2017.

Pharmaceutical giants including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK) and Pfizer (PFE) were also named as major holders of overseas cash in a 2017 report by Oxfam

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in 2015 that he would "love to" repatriate foreign profits but he couldn't because "it would cost me 40%." He was referring to the combined U.S. federal and state tax rate Apple would likely have owed under the old tax law.

Apple has $129 billion in offshore cash that has not been subject to U.S. tax, according to its latest annual earnings report. If all this was taxed at the upper 15.5% rate under the new rules, Apple would owe about $20 billion.

GE, meanwhile, had about $82 billion held outside the U.S. at the end of 2016. If this full amount is taxed at the 15.5% rate, the company would have to pay $13 billion to the taxman.

The huge tax overhaul -- which was signed into law last month by President Trump -- is expected to boost business by cutting the tax on U.S. earnings to 21% from 35%.

But the transition to the new system could be messy.

Many big international companies recently warned that other changes in the tax code will mean billions of dollars in one-off losses in 2017 as they have to write down the value of tax credits accumulated in previous years.

Major European banks Barclays (BCS), Credit Suisse (CS) and UBS (UBS), plus oil giants BP (BP) and Shell (RDSA), have indicated the new tax rules could cost them between $1 billion and $3 billion each in 2017.