The Nuclear Option: President Trump announced over the weekend that he plans to pull out of the intermediate range nuclear missile treaty signed with Russia in 1987.

Short-range nuclear missiles quickened the time frame of potential nuclear war and made the world much more dangerous. The treaty was designed to control them. The US first complained that Russia was not in compliance back in 2014. “Russia has not, unfortunately, honored the agreement so we’re going to terminate the agreement,” Trump told reporters after a political rally in Elko, Nev.

Russian foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the plans for a unilateral withdrawal “very dangerous.”

Former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, who signed the agreement with President Ronald Reagan, said, “All agreements aimed at nuclear disarmament and limiting nuclear weapons must be preserved, for the sake of preserving life on earth.”

I See Nothing: Saudi Arabia’s public relations machinery claimed yesterday that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman didn’t know in advance about the plot to detain and even kill dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Protecting the Crown Prince, who probably ordered the killing, is vital to the stability of the Kingdom and its relations with the US.

The latest explanation is that the 60-year-old Khashoggi was accidentally killed during a fight while he was being interrogated. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister told Fox News that “The individuals who did this did this outside the scope of their authority.” He said, “There obviously was a tremendous mistake made, and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover up.”

The coverup began immediately. A man wearing Khashoggi’s clothes was captured on surveillance video leaving the Istanbul consulate after Khashoggi was probably dead.

The Saudis have not said where the body is. They claim the body was rolled in a rug and given to a local “co-operator” for disposal.

Even President Trump, whose instinct is to say he believes anyone who denies wrongdoing, told The Washington Post over the weekend, “obviously there’s been deception, and there’s been lies.”

Turkey claims to have absolute proof that Saudi agents tortured and killed Khashoggi and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he will reveal it all tomorrow. He said, “We seek justice and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth.”

At the same time, Trump still defends the oil-rich monarchy as an “incredible ally” and still won’t point the finger at bin Salman. “Nobody has told me he’s responsible, Trump told The Washington Post. “We haven’t reached that point.”

He also told the paper that no matter what happens he will not let it interfere with the $110 billion weapons sale to the Saudis he announced last year. “It’s the largest order in history,” Trump said. “To give that up would hurt us far more than it hurts them. Then all they’ll do is go to Russia or go to China. All that’s doing is hurting us.”

The Trumpster Fire: Heading into the midterm elections just two weeks away, President Trump is blaming the miseries of the world on the Democratic Party. Yesterday he said the caravan of 5,000 people trying to escape Central America to reach the US is the fault of the Democrats. He tweeted, “The Caravans are a disgrace to the Democrat Party. Change the immigration laws NOW!”

He doesn’t say how the Democrats are involved with people trying to escape poverty, gang crime, and murder in central America.

Still, Trump promised to shut the doors of America. “Full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our Souther (sic) Border. People have to apply for asylum in Mexico first, and if they fail to do that, the U.S. will turn them away. The courts are asking the U.S. to do things that are not doable!”

As an aside he threw in an attack on CNN. “Facebook has just stated that they are setting up a system to ‘purge’ themselves of Fake News. Does that mean CNN will finally be put out of business?”

After a weekend of exaggerations, diversions, and lies, Frank Bruni writes in the NY Times, “That’s Trump’s edge over everybody. That’s his gift. He can do no wrong because he’s all wrong. He never really shocks because he’s a perpetual shock.”

She Must Have Done Yoga: When Brazil’s National Museum was gutted by fire last month, curators feared they had lost the remains of “Luzia,” the oldest human fossil found in the region. Luzia is believed to have lived about 12,000 years ago.

The 200-year-old museum housed about 20 million artifacts, many of which were lost. The full extent isn’t known yet, but mummies from both Egypt and South America probably went up in smoke

Not Luzia. Museum directors say about 80 percent of Luzia survived the fire, adding to a tale of life and afterlife on earth that has spanned thousands of years.

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