At the moment, we have a president* who couldn't name all the continents if you spotted him the one he lives on, a Secretary of State who is one step removed from counseling sedition as a congressman from Kansas, and a Secretary of Defense who has been a permanent employee since the end of June. Ordinarily, this would be considered to be a somewhat perilous situation. At the moment, however, there are three major crises overseas, at least two of which could plausibly lead to shooting wars, and one of which involves two nuclear powers spitting in each other's eye.

The other one has to do with Russia's continuing problems with both nuclear power and the truth. From CBS News:

Several unidentified residents of Nynoksa, in Russia's Arkhangelsk region, told local news website 29.ru that they had been told they would have to leave the village for at least two hours, between 5 and 7 a.m. on Wednesday, and that a train would be provided for them. The government of Severodvinsk, a city 25 miles away from Nynoksa, seemed to confirm the evacuation ordered to the state-run Interfax news agency. "We have received a notification… about the planned activities of the military authorities. In this regard, residents of Nynoksa were asked to leave the territory of the village from August 14," officials were quoted by Interfax as saying.

The people living near whatever it is that happened don't know what's going on. That does not make me brim with confidence that this administration has a clue. From Defense News:

Initial speculation within the Russian press suggested several possibilities based on what little evidence was available. One of those included a failed test of a missile already in service with the Russian Navy, perhaps something using a highly toxic fuel known as heptyl. Another story, based on unidentified sources, claimed it was Russia’s new Tsirkon anti-ship hypersonic missile. But the detection of elevated radiation levels in Severodvinsk has been hard to ignore, and consensus has settled on a third theory: a failed test of one of President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear vengeance weapons announced in a saber-rattling speech last year. Specifically, the 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, known to NATO as SSC-X-9 Skyfall.

Leave it to Vlad. MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV Getty Images

A failed test of Burevestnik would explain the radiation spike, the apparent secrecy, the hazmat response team and the extension on Aug. 8 of a sea lane closure in the region around the Russian military’s Nyonoksa missile test range. Western experts have since compiled additional, compelling evidence that the device in question was indeed Burevestnik. In a thread on Twitter, arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis with the Center for Nonproliferation Studies laid out the case for Burevestnik: Commercial satellite imagery of the Nyonoksa range suggests the site has been modified to resemble a remote range at Novaya Zemlya where Western experts believe earlier Burevestnik tests were conducted.

I'm the furthest thing from an expert on this stuff, but a nuclear-powered cruise missile sounds like a horribly impractical weapon system, although it probably sounds cool in a Dr. Evilish way when you're pitching your potency in the Duma. From The New York Times:

Some Moscow television broadcasts were mysteriously interrupted for as long as 53 minutes on the night of the accident. A government broadcast agency later described the disruption as a malfunction of a storm warning system. Screens went blue. A text urged people to stay at home because of a storm with strong winds, but it never arrived. When a state nuclear energy company first conceded the accident involved nuclear materials — on Saturday, two days after the explosion — the disclosure did not make the evening news on all television channels. Channel One, the main state broadcaster, gave the story just 36 seconds.

A flurry of murky, misleading reports surfaced, which for some Russians recalled the lethal delays in acknowledging the Chernobyl accident three decades ago, although the radiation release last week was far smaller. Only on Sunday did Russian scientists explain that a small nuclear reactor had malfunctioned.

Here, of course, the president* was right on top of things.

“The United States is learning much from the failed missile explosion in Russia. We have similar, though more advanced, technology. The Russian ‘Skyfall’ explosion has people worried about the air around the facility, and far beyond. Not good!”

We do? Of course not. From The Independent:

America explored the development of a nuclear-ramjet-powered projectile during the Cold War but the scheme – Project Pluto – was abandoned for being unstable and dangerous, given it would exhaust radiation and cause massively damaging shockwaves while flying at low altitude. Joe Cirincione, a US nuclear weapons and policy expert, said on Twitter: “This is bizarre. We do not have a nuclear-powered cruise missile program. We tried to build one, in the 1960’s, but it was too crazy, too unworkable, too cruel even for those nuclear nuts Cold War years.”

Meanwhile, of course, there is Kashmir, one of the world's most volatile regions in the best of times, and a positive cauldron since Indian prime minister Narindra Modi revoked the region's status as an autonomous part of the Indian nation. From The Washington Post:

The region has remained on edge since Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked autonomy for Indian-controlled Kashmir, fulfilling a major campaign pledge of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party but raising the likelihood of unrest in India’s only Muslim-majority region. To maintain control, India has sent thousands of additional troops to Kashmir and detained hundreds of local politicians and party workers. They include two of the highest-profile leaders in the state: Mehbooba Mufti, who until last year was the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, and Omar Abdullah, one of her predecessors in that post.

Kashmir is on volatile ground in the best of times. Yui Mok - PA Images Getty Images

On a recent afternoon, the metal entrance gates were draped in black plastic to obscure the view. Nuzhat Ishfaq, 34, went to find her husband and father, both members of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party. Her husband was a member of the state legislature from the district of Ganderbal...“There is a volcano waiting to erupt,” she said. “Earlier militants or separatists were picked up, but now India has taken away those who were pro-India.” She continued: “This is injustice. We are not militants. What is our crime?”

The ripple effects of this crackdown were bound to reach Pakistan, the other nuclear power for whom Kashmir has been a flashpoint for 70 years, which in turn is complicating the negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan. From The New York Times:

Pakistan’s ambassador, Asad Majeed Khan, emphasized in an interview with The New York Times editorial board that the Kashmir and Afghanistan issues were separate and that he was not attempting to link them. On the contrary, he said, Pakistan hoped the American talks with the Taliban would succeed and that his country was actively supporting them. “We are doing all that we can and will continue,” Mr. Khan said. “It’s not an either-or situation.”

Nonetheless, Mr. Khan said, India’s crackdown on the disputed region of Kashmir, on Pakistan’s eastern border with India, “could not have come at a worse time for us,” because the Pakistanis have sought to strengthen military control along the western border with Afghanistan, an area long infiltrated by Taliban militants, as part of the effort to help end the Afghanistan conflict by denying the group a safe haven.

Here, of course, the president*'s instinct to make a bad situation worse remains unfailing. From The Guardian:

Trump’s remarks, made sitting alongside the Pakistani prime minister, Imran Khan, on Monday, provoked uproar in the Indian parliament and demands for the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to respond. While Pakistan has called for third-party involvement over the long-running dispute, India has always insisted the issue can only be resolved through direct talks with Islamabad.

Trump’s suggestions were quickly rebutted by Delhi on Monday night and, following heated exchanges in parliament on Tuesday, the foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, issued a strenuous denial. “It has been India’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally,” he said, amid jeering from MPs. “I would further underline that any engagement with Pakistan would require an end to cross-border terrorism.”

And, finally, of course, there are the massive—and now very bloody—demonstrations in Hong Kong that shut down the city's international airport for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. From The Independent:

Emergency staff have taken an injured mainland Chinese man away from Hong Kong's airport after angry protesters who accused him of being a Chinese undercover agent tied up his hands and tried to beat him up. The man was pictured with his hands bound with cable ties, lying in a fetal position on the ground surrounded by a crowd of protesters as demonstrations continued at the airport for a second day and turned tense late Tuesday.

Some tried to kick and hit him while others tried to hold the crowd back.

Protestors at the Hong Kong airport construct a makeshift barricade. MANAN VATSYAYANA Getty Images

Protesters said they detained him because he wore a press vest and claimed to be a reporter, but a mainland Chinese ID card was found in his belongings. The chaotic situation eventually ended when protesters allowed ambulance workers to take the man away on a stretcher. Pro-democracy protesters have been sensitive to police infiltration after activists were arrested by officers dressed just like them. Police have acknowledged that they use decoy officers in some operations.

The casus belli is the fact that China is reneging on promises it made when Hong Kong was ceded to it back in 1997, particularly as regards the extradition of activists whom China claims are subversive. The latest ominous development comes via reports that the Chinese military is massing at the borders of Hong Kong. Right now, it seems that a replay of Tiananmen Square on a mass scale is not out of the question.

Here, of course, the president* feels very strongly both ways, tweeting:

Our Intelligence has informed us that the Chinese Government is moving troops to the Border with Hong Kong. Everyone should be calm and safe!

No, I don't know what the hell he meant, either.

We'll be lucky to live through this.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io