;)
The Commentariat -- March 9, 2018
Afternoon Update:
Trumpity-Doo-Dah. "I Alone Can Fix It." Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Shocking and yet somehow not surprising, Mr. Trump's decision to do what no other sitting president has done and meet in person with a North Korean leader reflects an audacious and supremely self-confident approach to international affairs. Whether it is Middle East peace or trade agreements, Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he can achieve what has eluded every other occupant of his office through the force of his own personality. So far, he has little to show for that."
Matthew Mosk & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "... Donald Trump has added yet another lawyer in his outside legal team -- New York attorney Lawrence S. Rosen, multiple sources tell ABC News. Rosen has been brought in by Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to handle the legal issues surrounding the so-called 'hush' agreement that Cohen negotiated with the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels.... Rosen, a partner in the firm LaRocca, Hornick, Rosen, Greenberg & Blaha, is a 'pit bull' who will 'aggressively fight and use his rhetorical and writing skills to get you a win,' according to the firm's website." ...
... The E-Mails! Sarah Fitzgerald & Tracy Connor of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney used his Trump Organization email while arranging to transfer money into an account at a Manhattan bank before he wired $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence. The lawyer, Michael Cohen, also regularly used the same email account during 2016 negotiations with the actress -- whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford -- before she signed a nondisclosure agreement, a source familiar with the discussions told NBC News. And Clifford's attorney at the time addressed correspondence to Cohen in his capacity at the Trump Organization and as 'Special Counsel to Donald J. Trump,' the source said." ...
... It's the Cover-up. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the Daniels story is germane to the overriding scandal of the Trump administration, the one involving Trump's relationship with Russia. Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy who compiled an infamous dossier of opposition research on Trump, wrote that Russia could blackmail Trump with evidence of his 'sexual perversion.' Nothing we know of Daniels confirms the dossier's outré claims about what such perversion entailed. The [NDA] does, however, show that Trump was susceptible to blackmail.... The scandal will lie less in the details of Trump's degeneracy than in the steps he and his lawyers took to cover it up."
Ben Protess & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Travelers trying to book a stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama on Thursday found no rooms available on TrumpHotels.com. But the website for the Bahia Grand Panama had several luxurious options, at the very same oceanfront hotel. The dueling websites ... are the latest twist in the oft-bizarre battle between President Trump's family business and the majority owner of the Panama City property, who has spent months trying to oust the Trumps as both the managers and the branders of the hotel.... By Thursday, a statement was released that said the hotel had a new name, Bahia Grand Panama; a new website; and even new social media accounts. The statement ... declared, 'As of today, the former Trump International Hotel & Tower Panama is no longer managed by or affiliated with Trump brand.' Don't tell that to the Trumps, who continue to make their case in various legal venues. In a statement, the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, Alan Garten, noted that the management contract 'mandates that all disputes be resolved through binding arbitration' and that 'Trump Hotels has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Mr. Fintiklis,' [the majority owner.]"
Josh Gerstein & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, who threatened earlier this week to defy a subpoena from special counsel Robert Mueller, showed up Friday morning at the federal courthouse in Washington, where he appeared set to answer prosecutors' questions in the ongoing probe of alleged collusion between Trump aides and Russia."
Mother Jones publishes "the second of two excerpts adapted from Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump..., by Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, and David Corn, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones. The book will be released on March 13."
Congressional Race. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "If Republican congressional candidate Rick Saccone wins an unexpectedly close special election [in Pittsburgh] next Tuesday, it will be on Donald Trump's coattails.... This race should be a gimme for the GOP. Democrats didn't even bother to field a candidate in 2016 or 2014. But public and private polls show the contest in the 18th district is now a toss-up, even after Republicans have poured in more than $10 million -- about five times what Democrats have spent.... The White House is sending the cavalry.... White House officials have said over the past week that they think the new tariffs could help tip the race their way." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Capt Russ!
Paul LaMonica of CNN: "Bankrupt retailer Toys 'R' Us may shut all its US stores as soon as next week, according to several reports. That's terrible news for the two biggest publicly traded toy companies. Investors are clearly preparing for the worst. Shares of Hasbro ... fell 3.5% Friday morning while Mattel ... plunged 7%.... Toys 'R' Us is the last megastore dedicated to toys. Without it, toymakers will struggle to promote anything but their most popular items." ...
... Mrs. McC: LaMonica lists several reasons for the Toys 'R' Us failure, but he didn't think of this one: the U.S. has an aging population & low birth rate: the market for toys is shrinking. (Also, too, as inequality increases under GOP tax policies, people can't afford to buy so many toys for the kiddies.) However could we get some more kids into the population? Say, how about young immigrants??? So thanks, GOP!
*****
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, has invited President Trump to meet for negotiations over its nuclear program, an audacious diplomatic overture that would bring together two strong-willed, idiosyncratic leaders who have traded threats of war. The South Korean official, Chung Eui-yong, who conveyed the invitation told reporters that Mr. Trump had accepted it and would meet with Mr. Kim by May." ...
... "Beep Beep." David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Trump Is Wile E. Coyote.... When it comes to global diplomacy, America under President Trump has become something of a hapless cartoon villain, detonating bombs on itself and running into walls -- while our nimbler adversaries dart away in a blur of dust.... His strategy, if you can call it that, has been to disrupt America's traditional economic and security relationships and commitments. He must imagine that this gives him new leverage, but mostly the result has been a series of self-inflicted wounds." Mrs. McC: Kinda unfair to Wile E. ...
... Ankit Panda of the Daily Beast: "For more than two decades, successive North Korean leaders -- first Kim Il Sung, then Kim Jong Il, and now Kim Jong Un -- have sought to meet a sitting U.S. president as equals and enter comprehensive talks on the future of the Korean Peninsula. No sitting president has accepted.... There was a good reason for this U.S. refusal to meet with any North Korean leader.... A one-on-one meeting with a U.S. president would serve as a major propaganda coup for the North.... It’s not clear that the Trump administration has internalized this.... The United States is woefully lacking in subject matter expertise on the Korean Peninsula at the highest levels of government, with the State Department's special representative for North Korea policy, Joseph Yun, having just stepped down last week and the post of ambassador to Seoul still vacant. Trump has the intelligence community behind him, but it's doubtful that he's capable of being successfully briefed." ...
... Oh, AND This, Shortly Before South Korea's Announcement. Nick Wadhams of Bloomberg: "Secretary of State Rex Tillerson played down hopes for a breakthrough on North Korea's nuclear program, saying the U.S. is a 'long way' from negotiations after the country's leader offered to give up his weapons in exchange for security guarantees." Ole Rex was in Ethiopia & clearly had no idea what Trump was cooking up in his absence.
Trumpy Trade Terrorism. Peter Baker & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump defied opposition from his own party and protests from overseas on Thursday as he signed an order imposing stiff and sweeping new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. But he sought to soften the impact on America's closest allies with a more flexible plan than originally envisioned. After a week of furious lobbying and a burst of last-minute internal debates and confusion, Mr. Trump agreed to exempt, for now, Canada and Mexico and held out the possibility of later excluding allies such as Australia. But the order, which would go into effect in 15 days, could hit South Korea, China, Japan, Germany, Turkey and Brazil and foreign leaders warned of a trade war that could escalate to other industries and be aimed at American goods.... Mr. Trump said that his tariff order would be tailored to exclude some countries and would give him the authority to raise or lower levies on a country-by-country basis and add or take countries off the list as he deems fit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McC: So it's a game in which President* Bullyboy will throw his weight around, constantly threatening and/or raising tariffs on other nations, & in the process alienate every country & many domestic industries. What a colossal jerk. ...
... Anna Fifield & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "... bewilderment, along with anger and frustration, has rippled across the capitals of U.S. allies -- countries that figured, no matter the bumps in relations with Washington, they would wind up on the same side against China in any dispute over steel or unfair trade practices. And yet suddenly there is talk of a trade war between the United States and its supposed friends.... The frustration is compounded by Trump's national security rationale. In fact, say U.S. allies, there is no national security risk to importing steel and aluminum from one's closest military partners.... The tariffs could soon put citizens in ally nations out of work, and if a trade war escalates, all sides could feel the pain, officials from Brasília to Brussels to Seoul say.... Trump's order came hours after Japan and 10 other countries formalized a new Pacific free-trade agreement, notably without the participation of the United States, which dropped out of those talks early in the Trump administration." ...
... ** Paul Krugman: "... the tariffs are arguably the Trumpiest thing Trump has done so far. After all, trade (like racism) is an issue on which Trump has been utterly consistent over the years. He has spent decades railing at other countries that, he claims, hurt America by taking advantage of our relatively open markets. And if his views are based on zero understanding of the issues or even of basic facts, well, Trumpism is all about belligerent ignorance, across the board.... The world trading system is, in large part, specifically designed to prevent people like Trump from having too much influence. Of course he wants to wreck it." Read on. this is our Econ 101 lesson for the day.
... Trump's Protection Racket. Eric Levitz: "During a signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room, the president explained that: The United States will impose a 25 percent tariff on steel imports, and a 10 percent one on aluminum imports, in 15 days -- or in no sooner than 15 days, anyway. Canada and Mexico will be indefinitely exempted from these tariffs -- unless they refuse to concede to his administration's (radical) demands in NAFTA negotiations. America's other core allies can 'negotiate' for an exemption from the tariffs.... The United States will ... enact 'reciprocal tariffs' on Chinese imports in the near future, even if that means slapping a '50 percent' tariff on some Chinese products. This cacophony of contradictions reflected divisions within Trump's administration and, by all appearances, his own mind. Throughout Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, White House aides whispered to reporters that unresolved 'debates and complications' might force the signing ceremony to be postponed. But, just as he had one week earlier, the president forced his administration to take a 'fake it 'till you make it' approach to global economic policy, by unilaterally tweeting a confirmation of the event.... Nonetheless, even in the most pessimistic reading, Trump appears to be scaling back his ambitions from 'win a global trade war' to 'extort some policy concessions and/or Mar-a-Lago memberships' from core allies in exchange for tariff relief.' Which is to say: He appears to be less interested in pursuing protectionism than a protection racket." ...
... Oops! Again. Jonathan Chait: "Earlier this week, President Trump raised eyebrows when he told reporters of a phone call he had held with North Korea, in which he warned the dangerous rogue state it must de-nuclearize. (His administration later admitted quietly Trump had actually spoken with South Korea, not North Korea.) This week, Trump ventured another strange foreign policy pronouncement. He had asked China to produce a plan to reduce its trade deficit by One Billion Dollars.... This demand was incredibly puzzling to trade economists, and regular economists, and anybody who had ever read a couple paragraphs in a random business story. China runs a trade surplus of $375 billion with the United States. Trump was demanding a reduction of 0.3 percent, or less than a single day's worth of imports. The Wall Street Journal's Lingling Wei reports that the demand was actually supposed to be $100 billion.... This is not the kind of deft maneuvering Americans expected when they elected a famed negotiator to the presidency to make the Best Deals." ...
... Elana Schor & Burgess Everett of Politico: "A bloc of Senate Republicans is readying legislation to halt Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, in the most provocative step yet taken to thwart the president on trade. GOP leaders have spent this week urging Trump to reconsider his tariff plan, warning of a snowballing trade war that could choke off the economic benefits of the tax cuts they are touting on the campaign trail.... Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) [told] reporters that he will introduce legislation to block the tariffs.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan both issued statements expressing concern with Trump's decision, but neither mentioned the prospect of a legislative response."
Jim Rutenberg & Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "... the lawsuit [Stephanie Clifford a/k/a Stormy Daniels] filed this week, seeking to break a 2016 agreement to keep silent in return for a $130,000 payout, opens what could be a precarious new legal front for a White House already beset by the investigation by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.... If her court case proceeds, Mr. Trump and his longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, may have to testify in depositions.... Ms. Clifford's suit could possibly also provide evidence of campaign spending violations...." ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Oliver Darcy of CNN: "President Trump might be facing a period of stormy news coverage over allegations he paid to cover up an affair with a porn star, but it's mostly clear skies in the conservative media universe.... There was not one article about the latest Stormy Daniels developments featured prominently on the Fox News homepage. A search in TV Eyes, a media monitoring search engine, returned only two segments in which the unfolding drama was discussed on the network Thursday morning. On the web, there was a similar blackout."
This Russia Thing, Ctd.
Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "President Trump's former campaign manager pleaded not guilty to tax and fraud charges in federal court in Virginia Thursday, as he appeared before a judge in the second criminal case brought against him by the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Paul J. Manafort last week also pleaded not guilty in a related case in Washington, D.C., where he is set to go to trial Sept. 17. Manafort lives in Virginia and was indicted there in February. During the Thursday hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Judge T.S. Ellis III put Manafort on home confinement, requiring him to wear a GPS bracelet, and set a trial date for July 10. It is expected to last eight to 10 days."
Jeremy Herb & Manu Raju of CNN: "The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee says another former senior aide to ... Donald Trump should be subpoenaed for refusing to answer questions -- this time former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Lewandowski returned to the intelligence panel Thursday to answer more questions in a second interview as part of the committee's Russia probe, but Rep. Adam Schiff said Lewandowski still would not discuss questions about numerous topics, including conversations he may have had about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and the possible firing of special counsel Robert Mueller. The California Democrat said he had requested a subpoena to compel Lewandowski's testimony, and the Republicans were 'taking it under consideration.' 'Witnesses don't get to pick and choose when it comes to very relevant testimony to our investigation,' Schiff said. Lewandowski disagreed with Schiff's assessment of the interview, telling reporters as he left the closed-door meeting that he had answered all 'relevant' questions."
Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is questioning whether Blackwater founder Erik Prince potentially misled lawmakers during his testimony last fall about the purpose of his 2016 meeting with a Russian official with ties to the Kremlin. Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into efforts by Prince to establish a 'back channel' between the Trump administration and the Kremlin during a meeting in Seychelles that took place before President Trump took office, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. 'That allegation if true would be very disturbing, considering that using Russian diplomatic facilities for a back channel would only be designed to hide those communications -- not from the Russian government but from our own government,' Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told reporters on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "If there was 'no collusion' why did the Trump transition team work so hard to set up a back channel with Russia?... Robert Mueller ... is apparently particularly interested in a meeting that [Erik] Prince had with a Kremlin-connected Russian official in the Seychelles during the Trump transition, in which they reportedly discussed setting up a back channel between Trump and Moscow.... If true, this would be at least the third known attempt to set up a back channel between Trump and Russia. In December of 2016, Jared Kushner, Michael Flynn, and then -- Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak secretly met in Trump Tower, and Kushner later testified before Congress that Kislyak had suggested they set up a back channel. Two weeks later, Kushner and Flynn secretly met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, and discussed setting up a back channel between Russia and the United States. Zayed's office then reportedly set up the meeting between Erik Prince and the Russian official in the Seychelles.... These discussions were happening only a few days before Trump was inaugurated. If the topic of conversation really only centered on foreign policy, that surely could have waited a week and a half."
Yahoo! News publishes an excerpt of a book by Michael Isikoff & David Corn titled Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday.)
Stocking the Swamp. Michael Biesecker, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump and his appointees have stocked federal agencies with ex-lobbyists and corporate lawyers who now help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks, despite promising as a candidate to drain the swamp in Washington. A week after his January 2017 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order that bars former lobbyists, lawyers and others from participating in any matter they lobbied or otherwise worked on for private clients within two years before going to work for the government. But records reviewed by The Associated Press show Trump's top lawyer, White House counsel Don McGahn, has issued at least 24 ethics waivers to key administration officials at the White House and executive branch agencies.... An analysis by the AP shows that nearly half of the political appointees hired at the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump have strong industry ties." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Watch What Trump Does, Not What He Says. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "It's always suspicious when a federal agency quietly makes a major policy change and does not put out a news release about it. That's what the Interior Department did last week. Handing another win to the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a ban related to importing elephant trophies from Africa. A March 1 memorandum, written in dense legalese, said the government will now allow hunters to receive permits on 'a case-by-case basis' to bring tusks and other body parts back to this country. This is notable because Trump chastised and then overruled his own political appointees at the department, led by Secretary Ryan Zinke, when they unveiled plans last November to lift restrictions put in place by Barack Obama. The president called the hunting of elephants for sport a 'horror show.'... The NRA has been aggressively challenging the 2014 ban on elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia in court, and the D.C. Circuit ruled in December that the Obama administration didn't follow proper procedures related to soliciting public comments when implementing it. The Trump administration cites this finding as the justification for its policy change. But The Hill notes that Fish and Wildlife is simultaneously withdrawing other findings related to trophy hunting that stretch back to 1995. So that spin doesn't necessarily pass the smell test." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Imperial Presiduncy. Cameron Joseph of TPM: "The White House is refusing to comply with a request from House Oversight Committee's Republican chairman for information on how top staffer Rob Porter was allowed to work with an interim security clearance in spite of accusations of domestic abuse." Committee Chair Trey Gowdy could subpoena the info.
Zinke Gets Some Very Nice Doors. Michael Biesecker & Matthew Daly of the AP: "The Interior Department is spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in the office of Secretary Ryan Zinke. Zinke was not aware of the contract for the work prior to a request about it from The Associated Press, spokeswoman Heather Swift said. The project was planned by career facilities and security officials as part of the decade-long modernization of the historic building erected in 1936 a few blocks from the White House, she said.... Records show the Maryland contractor hired to do the work, Conquest Solutions LLC, has done several renovation projects at federal buildings. A man who answered the phone at the company Thursday hung up when a reporter asked about Zinke's office."
2018 Elections
Do-Nothing FEC Reluctant to Do Anything. Michelle Lee & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Proposed Federal Election Commission rules aimed at preventing foreign influence on U.S. elections through better disclosure of online political ad sponsors may not take effect before the 2018 midterms, the panel's Republican chairwoman said Thursday. 'The commission has been reluctant to change the rules of the game in the middle of the election season, so that would be something we would want to seriously consider,' Chairwoman Caroline Hunter told reporters. A delay by the FEC would probably leave the task of providing more transparency about who is seeking to shape public opinion online in the hands of tech companies."
Senate Races. Alexi McCammond of Axios: "Five Senate Democrats would lose to Republican candidates if the elections were held today and three have approval ratings under 50%, according to new Axios/SurveyMonkey polls.... The most vulnerable senators are Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester in Montana and Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Each of their approval ratings is either under 50% or just above it, while Trump's is well above that in all three states. The least vulnerable senators are Bill Nelson of Florida, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Trump's approval is at just 46% in Florida and Pennsylvania and 54% in Ohio. But, but, but... With the election many months away and final Republican opponents not set, these numbers are likely to change as real GOP challengers get involved in the race. The approval ratings of each senator may give a better idea of where they stand with voters in their states."
Share Article
Reader Comments (20)
At the end of yesterday's Comments thread, Ken Winkes wrote, "Democracy is such a bother. It's just too hard."
I think Ken has hit on something. Donald Trump is just too simpleminded to grasp anything as complex as democratic power-sharing.
It's the same reason he thinks tariffs are a good idea: he sees balance-of-trade as a zero-sum-game. He can't understand all of the other factors involved in international trade. He thinks the U.S. isn't "winning" if it has a negative balance with other countries. He thinks the other countries have to be "unfair" if the U.S. isn't "winning." (Of course in some cases, that's true.)
He also thinks the president is the "boss," because he has no idea of how the Constitution more-or-less dictates how a republican, federal government is designed to work. When the other branches of government -- or even his own aides -- don't rubber-stamp his "gut" proposals, when they fail to applaud those proposals, they are guilty of "treason." These "subordinates" (and they are not subordinate, they are, at least theoretically, co-equal) are supposed to follow the leader, the way they do in authoritarian countries. He really has no idea that a government that 5th-graders learn operates on a balance of powers is not a top-down org chart.
Donald Trump is just too dimwitted to grasp even the most obvious, slightly gray areas. Everything is black-and-white.
And he cannot learn anything new, unless he can twist the "new" thing into something that benefits him; for instance, his idea that "the president can't have a conflict of interest." That isn't true, but that's the way he has interpreted the fact that, for practical reasons, the president is not subject to conflict-of-interest laws. Of course, built into the law is the assumption that the president will follow the norms to which others are bound by law.
So yeah, democracy, as Ken writes, is "just too hard." For Trump, it really is.
The Con Man at Work
The tariffs which seem to be up and down by the hour have received a big welcome from steel and aluminum workers in places like Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Kentucky where plant owners are announcing hundreds of new jobs. These people should be careful. As with everything else he does, this tariff is for Trump and no one else. If things become dicey and it looks like the little king might start taking the blame for fallout in the many other sectors of the economy where 40 or 50 workers start losing their jobs for every one new job in the steel and aluminum industries, Trump could blow off those tariffs altogether, leaving those newly hired employees in the lurch.
It’s what he does. Those who trust this crook with their livelihoods and their families’ future will have no one but themselves to blame when Trump folds his con and moves his operation to greener pastures looking for new marks.
The tell here is the way it’s been handled. It’s all seat of the pants. There’s no master plan, no detailed economic analysis or reaching out to allies and those in other industries reliant on these resources. It’s like a guy announcing beautiful new homes for sale. One day it’s an empty lot. The next day, hundreds of new homes are up. But it’s all a facade. There’s been no infrastructure built. No sewer, no power, no plans. Just flats like they use on movie sets. Nothing behind them. The absolute definition of a Potemkin village.
This is always the tell with Trump. All bluster and brag and show. Nothing to back it up. He folds his tent and moves on. The rubes are left to deal with the wreckage as the con man beats it out of town, their life savings in his pocket.
Okay class, time for our Friday morning pop quiz.
This one is a hummer.
Who said the following?
“To include millions more of our people in true economic progress, our lawmakers must act on behalf of all Americans — not just the privileged few.”
A. Bernie Sanders
B. Samuel Gompers
C. Mother Jones
D. Charles Koch
If you guessed the wildly improbable D, you win the golden 🤮 puke monster!
Yes, poor Charlie Koch, man of the people, working class Joe, ol’ lunch bucket Charlie, who has never in life sought to influence policy to help the privileged few (him and his rat bastard brother) over the millions, is doing wee wee in his pants.
Apparently Chuck didn’t get his way on this tariff thing and his diapey needs changing. Waaaahhhh.
Anyway, if you were looking for a textbook case of tunnel vision solipsism with a soupçon of vicious self-serving greed, and mind altering hypocrisy, here it is.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/corporate-leaders-must-reject-trumps-tariffs/2018/03/07/2f4bc7b2-2209-11e8-badd-7c9f29a55815_story.html?utm_term=.4926bc4580f3
With apologies to Noel Coward:
Mad dogs and manly men (Little Kim and Daffy Donnie)
Go out in the midday sun
The Japanese don't care to
The Chinese don't dare to
South Koreans stay inside and just facilitate.
O where are the protective screens
To protect us from the glare
Of this crazy, risky risible fare!
Good heavens! and who the hell is going to do the hard work of diplomacy that is required here. Another example of Ak's comments above––this madman is flying by the seat of his pants and somehow NoBODY seems able to rein him in. I'm hoping at the end of this abattoir, instead of Trump folding his tent and moving on, he is humiliated, disgraced, and spends a few glorious years in the hoosegow.
And, as Marie says, "So yeah, democracy, as Ken writes, is "just too hard." For Trump, it really is."
Ole Rex is not wrong to have said that we are a long way from negotiation with N. Korea.
When (if) DiJiT meets with Kim, the most that can come of it would be that the two agree to have "my people get with your people to work out the details." That'll take a while.
DiJiT is just doing the business backwards, like with Jerusalem.
The problem here is that N. Korea has zero incentive to de-nuke, and at the end of the process we're all back where we started. Which is better than shooting, and by which time the con man will have moved on. As long as Japan and S. Korea can live with that, OK, but the real problem remains that if NK has nukes, Japan, S. Korea and even Taiwan may feel the need too. Which you will recall DiJiT thought was a great idea during the campaign.
Keep in mind: "Proliferation is bad." It just is, no nuance.
@Patrick writes, "'Proliferation is bad.' It just is, no nuance. Alas, even when an issue is as straightforward as that, Donald doesn't get it -- as Patrick also points out. The guy is stupid AND ignorant.
Patrick wrote: "...the most that can come of it would be that the two agree to have 'my people get with your people to work out the details.' That'll take a while."
Especially since Trump HAS no people. Not anyone who knows crap about the Korean peninsula, that is. Oh, what am I talking about? Young Jared will be up to speed on all things Korea by May. He's prob'ly already sent in his subscription to Korea Today. He'll be fine. No prob. He'll probably have his top, top, tippy-top security clearance restored by then too.
Seriously, Kim has nothing to lose. And once again another dodgy world leader finds Trump an exquisitely easy mark. Lucky us.
Trump no doubt sees this as his chance to show that he can do what that horrible nee-groe couldn't (or wouldn't--for good reasons). If he thinks it makes him look good, he's all for it no matter the international security implications.
It appears, according to the Times article (linked above), that the North Korean plan to get Kim to meet with Trump has been in the works for some time. Using the Olympic games as a jumping off point, Kim sent his sister to South Korea on a charm offensive, along with a number of North Korean athletes. Kim's people were greeted warmly (not by everyone, but by many) at the Olympics. Step one concluded. Step two, more official talks with President Moon's government leading to step three, getting Moon's people to approach President* Dolt about a face to face.
Kim couldn't have planned it better. First, he realizes that Trump is an idiot. He has no Korean advisors, and he is abysmally susceptible to flattery which was dished out judiciously by Chung Eui-yong, Moon's national security advisor. Why would the South be happy to make this meeting happen? Why the hell not? Kim is pointing nukes at their necks. Anything they can do to ratchet that down is a plus. And too, they also know what an idiot Trump is.
So flatter the guy, tell him how much Kim would really, really, really LOVE To meet the great Donald, and presto. Trump practically ran to the White House briefing room to tell everyone what bigly news he had coming.
But as usual, with Trump, after his meeting with Chung, he "directed" him to run right out and tell the press aaalllll about it. Chung, clearly not a Trump style underling (ie, a professional), said no, he had to clear it first with his boss, President Moon. Doing things in a professional and organized manner is clearly not Trump's style.
And rather than let Kim cool his heels for a while and maybe extract a few concessions from him before this summit meeting (along with time to gather some expert opinions and background information), Trump runs to the press and dances a tarantella dedicated to his own personal greatness. "See? I'm so wonderful!"
The North Koreans might have a vicious, dangerous narcissist as their leader, but at least he's not an easily played poltroon.
Bottom line is that it appears that the sanctions have finally gotten to Kim. He's had it, but he needs a new way to approach getting those sanctions lifted. Now, with an idiot on the other side of the table, all he has to do is tell him how smart he is and sanctions will disappear faster than a Trump White House staff member; sanctions, by the way, that Trump has been screaming have never, and will never, work.
Right again, Donnie! Yaw so fuckin' smaht. I can hahdly stand it.
Just wait Trump is not planning to walk in without an amaaazing expert to participate in the talks. Don't wanna say I tol' ya so...but watch for the announcement of our likely new ambassador to North Korea. Ladees and gent'mens, here's my good friend and best men for the job: Dennis Rodman.
My predictions:
N. Korea negotiates with the Trump. N. Korea wins.
Trump redoes the tariff game. The world wins.
Evidence of the person planning to take on Trump in the next election, Stormy Daniels.
MAG,
The only question now is whether Rodman will show up in drag and if he does, will Trump try to goose him.
Hey, as an aside, favorite line so far about the Kim-Trump summit:
Will it be "Nixon in China"?
Or "Ernest Goes to Camp"?
Quickly discovered, I'm not the only one thinking about Dennis as per New York magazine: evidently "...the former NBA star has for months offered to mediate the conflict." (Rodman) has insisted that if Trump and Kim were to speak, they’d find common ground."
That nearly happened in 2014, if Rodman is to be believed. That summer he told Business Insider that Trump “wanted to go” with him to North Korea, but “all of sudden he started to get " all weird and shit"
My predictions: Trump & Kim meet in North Korea. In an effort to please & impress Trump, during the meetings Kim launches a nuclear attack on Sacramento (so long, Trump enemy Jerry Brown). Radiation cloud consumes Western U.S. Donald is saved, since he is in Korea. He moves to Trump Towers India or some other undisclosed location, & the U.S. implodes. Everyone above Elaine Chou -- who is in South Korea with Trump because she's so "Oriental" -- in the presidential order of succession is killed or incapacitated. Chou, who is not eligible to be president because she was not born in the U.S., declares herself president, creating a Constitutional crisis on top of everything else. (John Kelly, who is not in the order of succession, organizes a coup.)
Otherwise, the "negotiations" go well.
Can you identify the first U.S. Cabinet (without the help of the Googles)? I'm ashamed to say I couldn't get more than two out of four, & I've seen a drawing of them in recent years.
I've been to Korea a couple of times. I even like bibimbap and kimchi. Maybe I should go instead.
Washington's cabinet? Oh man. I can name three. That's about it. Jefferson, Hamilton, and Knox (at least I think that's correct). The VP was John Adams. Sorry.
Jefferson's an easy one. Hamilton too. Those guys are pretty easy because they represented two opposing views of where the United States might be headed. Knox is a guess. He was one of Washington's favorite generals during the Revolution (one who didn't try to stab him in the back). Can't get the Attorney General for the life of me.
Hey, at least there were a lot fewer departments to staff then. I guess Washington was trying to save the taxpayers money, just like Trumpy when he says not appointing people to all those positions is a money saving tactic.
Hey, if Elaine Chao became president, wouldn't that make Mitchy First Turtle? Or maybe that should be First Turtle-ess. I think he'd look cute in some of those Melania Trump six inch high heels.
But I have no doubt that Chao would be challenged by Kelly who might decide to go full Al Haig, as in "I'm in charge here!" Trumpy would try to continue as president* from afar via tweeties. Can you imagine a SOTU given completely by Tweet? Or Skype?
Sorry to hear about Jerry Brown though. A good guy. A little weird sometimes, but a good guy nonetheless. Better to be a little weird and good like Brown than disgusting weird and stupid like Trump. Or pence.
But would the Trump/Sessions/ICE war on California sanctuary cities continue with half the state glowing?
Inquiring minds want to know.
The Corn and Isikoff piece in Mother Jones left me believing that Obama did the right thing by not throwing counter punches with Putin in August 2016, (I recant) but also raised the disturbing reality that according to the IC's calculation, "we had more to lose than gain", which suggests there are vulnerabilities in our cybersecurity that us mere mortals will never comprehend. Throw in the context of Trump feeding the deep state conspiracy wingers by saying the election was "rigged" - Obama had his hands tied.
Predictions for Trump-Kim summit: Kim will heap an uncomfortably inappropriate amount of praise on von Clownstick - which will work to change the topic to military parades; Ivanka will attend and present Kim's sister with a token gift from her product line; North Korean cyber hackers will demonstrate their abilities on US targets mid-meeting before the topic of denuclearization is mentioned; von Clownstick, ignoring the attack, will brag that the deal he got in the meeting was the greatest, "like never before - believe me".
@Periscope: Not to disavow my own excellent prediction, I must admit your predictions actually seem plausible.
I forgot to add my final prediction: that several months after the Kim meeting Trump's lawyers file suit against the Nobel Prize committee, because the Peace Prize was not awarded to him; instead it was awarded to a UN commander who had mediated a cease fire in one of those African 'shithouse' countries.