Dr. Strangeglove

     There was a time not too long ago, when Donald Trump, who's still stubbornly referred to as the "president", channeled his inner Michael Jackson and took to wearing a single glove. It gave him the appearance of a nursing home resident who lost his other glove because the orderly forgot to pin it to his coat.

     The reason he wore the glove was obvious: Too many people began noticing the bruising on his Halloween hand, a condition blamed on taking excessive amounts of aspirin and his shaking hands. It made him look like a more or less fresh zombie who was decaying in real time.

     At the time, I immediately thought of Peter Sellers' titular character in Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick's dark comedy about nuclear annihilation and mutually-assured destruction. In the end, I decided to not make the obvious joke and cultural reference because there was no nuclear deal with the Saudis on the horizon. Now that there is, I couldn't resist revisiting it.

      Unless you live in a cave or are hiding under a flimsy desk under a teacher's advisement as if it will protect you from the thermonuclear fury of an atom bomb, then you'll know about Trump's deal with the Saudis.

     A few days ago, Trump entered into an agreement with MBS, a guy who butchers American journalists with bone saws when he isn't beheading Saudi dissidents, allowing the kingdom to enrich uranium and plutonium with no binding limits or safeguards. The Saudis' rationale, of course, is that they need to enrich nuclear material for their energy program.

     Gee, where have we heard that before? Oh yeah. Iran.

     On their side of the negotiating table, the Saudis flatly refused to allow weapons inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations. They also flat out said that they would enrich uranium and plutonium to weapons'-grade levels (90% or more) if it became clear to them that Iran had developed a nuclear weapon.

     You know, the same reason we went to war with Iran.

     So, you know the one big difference between Iran and Saudi Arabia? Trump doesn't have any pending business deals with the Iranians.

     As proof positive that Trump isn't the master deal-maker that he'd positioned himself four decades ago, as proof positive that Obama was a far better deal-maker, let's take a stroll down Memory Lane. In 2009, the 44th president's first year in office, our government entered into a nuclear deal with the UAE.

     That deal, as with the one hashed out by President Obama with Iran, was very strict, including inspections by the IAEA. The UAE also agreed not to make its own fuel, meaning they'd have no chance of creating a warhead.

     The recent deal with Saudi Arabia, a country that historically has had Trump bent over an oil barrel while he sobs like a prison bitch, contains no such restrictions. They've come right out and said, Yes, we will build nuclear warheads if we think Iran is building one.

     If this threat doesn't ramp up Iran's own nuclear weapons ambitions, then what will?

     Basically, Trump is setting off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, a place that for eight decades has been the most unstable place on the planet.

     Ironically, the one thing that'll save the world and scuttle the deal is Trump's own stupidity. The day after this proposed deal was announced, Trump announced a new condition: That Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel and to recognize it. Saudi Arabia, as with Iran has never, ever recognized Israel and isn't likely to anytime soon.