Make No Mistake, Kim Got The Better Of Dotard In The Singapore "Deal"

 

Kim Jong -Un and Dotard do their 'Meet and Greet' in Singapore

Fresh off his impudent, childish lambasting of allies at the G7 meeting in Canada, there was Dotard yesterday evening greeting Kim Jong Un in Singapore. As wifey and I briefly watched the proceedings, before going back to the Brewers- Cubs game, she blurted out: "Which of those guys do you think has the biggest gut?"   I replied, "Trump by about a mile! Okay, maybe a foot!"

Picayune?  Petty? Unbecoming of global TV connoisseurs?  Maybe, but vastly more substantive than the vapid media coverage, show summit and absurd speculations about the likely results- one more symptom of our 24/7 cable news fetish.   Perhaps one former CIA specialist put it most aptly: "All empty calories, no substance".

In truth,  the outcome of this "summit" is already known and well defined, as Fareed Zakaria intimated on Bill Maher's Real Time Friday night. The bottom line is there isn't going to be any widespread removal of nuclear weapons, nor any ICBMs.  Certainly not in the immediate future - if ever.  (Talking heads this morning on CBS, Jeff Glor  and Ben Tracy, cited a period of "3 to 15 years" - in other words long after Dotard has likely croaked.)

It could in fact be much longer. As per a NY Times piece on Sunday ('What's Denuclearization, Exactly?, p. 8) we learn:

"The American definition of the term has referred to the demand that North Korea relinquish its nuclear arms capabilities, making the entire peninsular nuclear free.

John R. Bolton's denuclearization would also include much more, applying to ballistic missiles, chemical and biological weapons, the means to produce them and verifiable ways to ensure North Korea is not hiding anything.

North Korea's use of the term has never explicitly applied to its own weapons. Disarmament experts (say based at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) say North Korea has used denuclearization to refer to what it views as the American military's strategic capability to strike North Korea with nuclear weapons from afar, and to the American protection of South Korea and Japan under a so-called nuclear umbrella."

Commenting on the latter, Evans J.R.  Revere - a former State Dept. official specializing in North Korea - emphasized the term is how North Korea defines it: essentially meaning all parties denuclearizing especially the U.S.  

Anyone with sense can agree there is about as much chance of this happening as extraterrestrials abducting Trump out of Air Force One before he gets back to D.C.  It ain't gonna happen, no matter how many breathless talking heads you hear or see in the next few days.

Revere also notes this has "created a dangerous basis for misunderstanding perpetuated in part by South Korea's President Moon Jae-In, who has been eager for the Trump-Kim summit meeting to succeed..  The mantra is that the North Korean leader has committed himself to denuclearization. There's an element of wishful thinking, an excess of optimism and maybe even misjudgment."

Perhaps too eager.  Also, too damned ambitious given Bolton's desire to include ICBMS, chemical and biological weapons too.  In the words of CBS' correspondent Ben Tracy:

"Dismantling North Korea's vast nuclear arsenal would be one of the most challenging attempts at nuclear disarmament in history. The first step would be finding out what they have and where they have it."

Ahhh, but the devil is in the details, and these are pretty daunting.  As  Fareed Zakaria pointed out, the North has nearly one hundred nuclear testing sites all well hidden and all over the place. There is no way the U.S. is going to be allowed into all of those sites, even assuming they could find them.  To the North, its nuclear weapons are a matter of life and death, and no promises of "prosperity" are going to change that as one N. Korean security official made clear last week.  As for Bolton's idea of including missiles and chemical -bio weapons, that's as big a pipe dream as Elon Musk thinking he can get a manned space ship to Mars in the next few years.

What everyone needs to do then in the wake of this Singapore spectacle which has been blown up into the biggest summit in over 50 years, is to take a chill pill and move away from the tube. Or the favorite streaming device.  What happened in Singapore was just a giant optics show, a PR opera and little more.  Duyeon Kim, a senior research fellow at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum put it thusly (ibid.):

"It's pretty clear there is a strong inclination by both leaders to have a good show, a good PT opportunity, and this is where it gets risky and dangerous. My concern is that the two leaders -especially Trump  - would want to declare peace, just because it sounds good, is historic and unprecedented."

In other words, both dictators could be taken in by the hubbub and believe their own bullshit, as well as firing up preposterous expectations that can never be met.  In addition, both can spin this joke anyway they want given no notes were taken during the meet, and no aides were present to validate anything of what was said. (Oh, an absurd 4 minute PR video - claimed to have been shown to Kim  during the meet- was presented to the press later. In Lawrence O'Donnell's words "This looks like a child's presentation to another child to convince him to come to his party")

This video PR codswallop featured an idealized view of the future North under the new prosperity Trump would deliver if they only gave up their nukes.  Then the future scenes flipped  to a barren, isolated, poverty stricken landscape if they didn't. I had to tell Janice, I bet Kim held in his hysterical howls of laughter until he could trek to his personal toilet.)

Perhaps the most appalling aspect of this whole charade is how we've since learned that Dotard's blowing up of the G7 meet and attacking Justin Trudeau - was all done to "telegraph" to Kim Jong Un that he (Trump)  was a "tough leader" and the U.S. wouldn't tolerate anything from critical leaders. In other words, done to try to prove the Amerikkan Trumpie team would be tough negotiators. Of course, Kim isn't stupid, and would have seen through all this and interpreted it as weakness, emboldening him to give up even less and provide even fewer details of how the "denuclearization" dog and pony show will proceed.

Sad to say, it won't work. The takeaway - as one observer put it - is that Kim got nearly all he could ask for and more. He's been instantly transformed from global renegade and crazy guy into a shrewd and judicious world leader, almost a statesman.  By his meeting with Trump his country has also attained instant status and respect on the world stage - and he's not given up anything at all of substance - anything concrete.  Another heads up: The ink was barely dry on the statement sheet signed by both when KCNA (North Korean state news) blabbed that Kim had forced Trump to cancel joint military exercises with South Korea.

Trump insists Kim will give up his weapons.  Not a chance in hell.

You can bank on it.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/79630/just-another-great-con


And:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2018/05/as-i-predicted-kim-jong-un-has-no.html

Kudos To Justin Trudeau For His Smack Down Of Traitor Trump

This photo of the 71 year old brat facing an "intervention" by REAL world leaders, said all you needed to know about the G7 summit over the weekend. When I asked Janice  what Angela Merkel was likely saying she replied: "I'm going to bash your fat orange face in if you don't act your age!"

"To our allies: Americans stand with you even if our president doesn't."  - Sen. John McCain

"Why is Donald Trump acting like a snowflake on the international stage? Why is he acting like the ultimate snowflake when Justin Trudeau gives a blandly Canadian response? It was not that tough. He was being kind, eminently reasonable." Joe Scarborough this morning.

The ending of the G7 meet in Quebec was supposed to be a non-drama. Basically, all seven member nations had agreed to signing the final statement --  which was crafted by the U.S. delegation though with some disagreements noted.  Reporters on Air Force One had even been told that the United States would sign the joint statement. But then the unthinkable occurred, as Traitor Trump - our illegitimate resident - unleashed a broadside on Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau.  The orange- hued mutt didn't even have the courage to broach opposition (to a Trudeau speech) to his face, but  in a remarkable pair of acrimony-laced tweets after sneaking away on Air Force One.. But this is the coward twerp we've come to know:

A fucking disgrace and rank embarrassment  to the nation and a blight on the world.  A blight because this feral swine - by his puerile actions-   upended two days of global economic diplomacy late Saturday.    He did this by having  a hissy fit and refusing to sign a joint statement with America’s allies, threatening to escalate his trade war on the country’s neighbors and deriding Canada’s prime minister as “very dishonest and weak.”

Imagine that! This Do-TURD calling Justin Trudeau 'dishonest and weak' when already Trump had spieled off over 3, 300 lies by his 500th day as resident.  A zero who is so weak he has to recruit lackeys to do his firing for him (such as for Comey and Tillerson)  and hasn't the balls to criticize a man to his face but has to resort to tweet attacks on Trudeau on his plane. . Like a little tweety bird, all twitters, no substance...and no balls.  Rather like the "ultimate snowflake" to use Joe Scarborough's phrase.

But it didn't stop there. In addition, Trump sent off his little pet monkeys, including economic adviser Larry Kudlow and senior trade adviser Peter Navarro,  to spout even more disparaging adjectives on the Sunday talk show circuit. These included the following descriptors of Justin Trudeau: “amateurish,” “rogue,” “sophomoric” — while also accusing Trudeau of a “double-cross” and “betrayal.”

But the most incendiary remark was unleashed by the pretentious buffoon, Navarro:

“There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door.”

Making one wonder what this imp would say if Trudeau had really stabbed Dotard in the back.  Somehow I think these two assholes-  Kudlow and Navarro -  have their perspectives inverted. They need to reverse the mirror because they are the dregs who betrayed the Canadian PM and the G6.  Why? Because literally moments after Mr. Trudeau’s government proudly released the joint statement, again drafted and approved by the UNITED STATES -  and agreed to by all seven countries -  Trump blew it apart with his deranged tweets.  As Ian Bremmer put it this morning on CBS, "this was the geopolitical equivalent of the Comey firing".  And he traced it to Trump's inability to control his emotional impulses in a critical setting.

Trump  also, by his classless fit, shattered the veneer of cordiality that had prevailed throughout the two days of meetings in a resort town on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.  That fit, perhaps triggered by the worry he would soon be meeting a superior opponent in Kim Jong Un in Singapore,  led him to tweet:

“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our U.S. farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our U.S. Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the U.S. Market!” 

 

Of course, all of this is horse manure, given that when goods and services are factored into the trade equation, the U.S. is actually coming out slightly ahead of Canada.

 And WHO is Trump anyway, that he can't be challenged or confronted-  especially by a PM defending his own country from the ravages of a Hitler wannabe, e.g.


Hyperbole? Hell no!  Recall that Bill Eddy-   who wrote the definitive book on high conflict personalities -  observed that Trump is  “…potentially the most dangerous person in politics since Adolf  Hitler.”  Got that? The most dangerous politico since Adolf Hitler. Indeed, he's already shown himself to be a traitor to this Republic  and even former Director of National Intelligence,  James Clapper,  now concedes (in the latest TIME, June 11, p. 45), that Trump definitely got shoehorned into office by Russian hacking into U.S. election systems. As he put it:

"Of course the Russian efforts affected the outcome. Surprising themselves, they swung the election to a Trump win. To conclude otherwise stretches logic, common sense and credulity to the breaking point.  Less than eighty thousand votes in three key states swung the election, I have no doubt that more votes than that were influence by this massive effort by the Russians."

So despite Trump incessantly calling the Mueller probe a "witch hunt" and "a hoax" he knows damned well he had the assistance of an alien, hostile state to get into high office. In other words, he is a traitor:
One can then plausibly conjecture that a prime reason for Trump's rage against Trudeau is that he knows in his heart of hearts Trudeau is legit, legitimately elected, while he needed the help of Putin and Co. to grab enough electoral votes. (And as I noted in previous posts, had the electoral college done its due diligence as opposed to rubber stamping, Trump never would have been installed, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2016/12/why-hamilton-electors-would-be-right-to.html

In an alternate universe where law is respected, this bitch would have been hung already or put before a firing squad. He most certainly wouldn't be sowing discord and chaos, alienating our closest allies and slandering the Prime Minister of the host nation for the G7 meet..  All appalling actions, behavior more in synch with a mentally unbalanced 12 -year old than a U.S. president. But wait, he isn't a real president, only a pretender, a fake. A Traitor!

 In an interview with a San Diego journalist two years ago,  referencing the earlier quote, Bill Eddy was asked: "Clearly a terrifying opinion — yet we do remember the ardent hordes of Hitler’s followers. Can you elaborate?"

Eddy replied:

"There are similarities regarding how he connects with his followers, so that they become more passionately connected when he and they are criticized. It strengthens their bond. It’s a major part of my book. In a nutshell, it’s because he uses emotions instead of logic, and uses repetition on a greater scale than most politicians since Hitler. He has conditioned his followers to his simple arguments from day one. Hitler was known for spewing ten times as many words as any other politician, and he used modern media for voice (daily speeches  on the radio) and face (movies of him speaking at his huge rallies). These emotional media projecting face and voice are much more powerful on our brains than printed words."

It is noteworthy that in the interest of comity Justin Trudeau had sought to play down personal clashes with Trump as he wrapped up the summit, calling the meeting “very successful” and saying he was “inspired by the discussion.”.   Why wouldn't the PM who is the host of such a meeting want to at least put a positive accent on it at the end?  The same way (well, not quite) Dotard is trying to put a positive spin on the Singapore meeting with Kim, before even having met him.  A "summit" which from all indicators will be more like a glorified photo op.

Trudeau was also justified in pledging to retaliate against the United States tariffs on steel and aluminum products in defense of Canadian workers.  Again, this is eminently natural to do  for a nation's leader and only a spineless, worthless wuss and loser would punt.   He also said this to Trump's face, as well as on assorted Sunday shows last week, so it was never "behind" the orange baboon's back.  But see, Trudeau didn't realize fully he wasn't dealing with a mature adult male but a sick, narcissistic, egomaniacal coward who sees every robust defense of others' interests as a threat to his own.  Hence, the urge - like a 12 year old who needs a serious intervention - to 'punch back",   even when others are merely defending their own turf and principles. 

But like the alley cats  the 14 year old Trump used to stab with his specialty switchblades while growing up in Queens, he expects no one to fight back. Trudeau did and the bellyaching litte yellow belly couldn't take it.

 Trump, who apparently saw Trudeau’s news conference on television aboard Air Force One en route to Singapore, lost it at the sight of a fearless leader.  His only recourse then was to again emulate a petulant twelve year old, and project his own insecurities and defects onto Trudeau, e.g.

“PM Justin Trudeau of Canada acted so meek and mild during our @g7 meetings,only to give a news conference after I left saying that, ‘US Tariffs were kind of insulting’ and he ‘will not be pushed around.’ Very dishonest & weak. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy!”

Not long after that childish expulsion, John "Ripper" Bolton -  Trump's top national security stooge.....errr adviser  -   tweeted out a photo of Trump, with arms crossed and pouting, as the leaders of the other nations stood in a circle around him.  Evidently DOLT-on believed the image (seen at the top) would convey Trump in a defiant pose facing down the G7 allies trying to get him to rescind "America First".

In fact, all the photo did is confirm the truth most already knew: The U.S. is being led by a 71 year old, navel -gazing man baby who conducts government business like a dyspeptic toddler who shits his diapers every two minutes and expects quick changes.

Mr. Trudeau’s office responded to Dotard’s Twitter barrage with a carefully worded statement, making clear the U.S.'  maggot leader had lied again.   As Trudeau spokesman Cameron Ahmad put it:

 “The prime minister said nothing he hasn’t said before — both in public, and in private conversations with the President.”

Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron of France had left an indelible imprint of his thumb on Trump's right hand after a particularly vise-like hand shake. (Google "Trump bruised right hand from Macron" or some such, and you'l see it.) As Janice put it when the image flashed across the news last night: "Too damned bad Macron didn't break his hand!"  Ouch!

That  power hand shake (Macron got the jump on him) was followed by 48 hours of tense and often confrontational closed-door discussions between Trump and the leaders of America’s closest allies — France, Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and Germany — in the hopes of resolving a brewing trade war among friends. Instead, the gathering   to further inflame Dotard's belief that the United States is being treated unfairly by countries with which prior presidents had long ago negotiated trade agreements for the flow of goods and services.

Exhibiting his full range of ignorance and stupidity, Trump railed about what he called “ridiculous and unacceptable” tariffs on American goods and vowed to end them.  Like the disruptive, ignorant  brat he is, he whined:

“It’s going to stop, or we’ll stop trading.with them. And that’s a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.”

Awww, Bwaahahahahahaaa!   Poor little baby Doturd. Give him a sippy cup, and another diaper change. Wouldn't want him going into that meeting with Kim Jong Un with a full load.

The other six leaders were defiant in the face of Trump’s threats, accented by Justin Trudeau's end comment:
 

“I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do. As Canadians, we are polite, we’re reasonable, but also we will not be pushed around.”

Goof for you, sir! And be ready to level the full 'boom' of the planned $12.8 billion tariffs on Trumpdom come July 1st.

Emmanuel Macron himself  said that trade debates ought never be conducted via angry emotional outbursts, Adding:

 “There is no winner, there are only losers when you take that strategy.”

Next time, sir, please do crush Trump's tiny hand. It would make wifey's day.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/79588/america-first-more-like-america-dead-last

Why Can't Muslim Haters See They're Playing Into ISIS' Hands?

Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau greets Syrian refugees Friday morning in Toronto "to show the world how to open hearts and welcome people.”

The Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov hit it squarely on the head when he wrote ('Islamic State Tries To Forge Divide in the West', Dec. 11, p. A9):

"The group's objective is clear: To bait Western societies into an indiscriminate backlash that, if successfully provoked, would disrupt these Muslims' bonds with their countries of citizenship and residence - and as it happened with Iraq's Sunnis- validate Islamic state's claim to be their only protector"

That means every anti-Muslim wag of the tongue from a blithering idiot like Trump, every off the cuff social media insult, and every hurling of the epithet "raghead" on a blog or FB post  is another promotion for ISIS' agenda.  Quoting an expert from the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London (ibid.):

"ISIS thrives on polarization. They want people to say they hate Muslims. This is the foundation of their success"

Thus, by stupidly invoking Muslim hatred Trump and his Trumpites are playing directly into ISIS' hands by disrupting the very Muslim bonds with their nations of citizenship  to validate the Islamic State's insidious claim as their only protector. Also, as a recent salon.com article pointed out  - the incessant shaming of political correctness (in trying to contain his anti-Muslim diatribes) is merely fashioning an excuse to spew hate. It isn't really about attacking "PC" at all but trying to justify hate speech.

This take is further reinforced in the Dec. 12-13 WSJ Review article, 'How to Beat This Enemy' (p. C1), noting:

"The theocratic ideology of Islamism thrives on division, polarization and claims of Muslim victimhood.. Islamic State's leaders insist that the U.S. and the rest of the West  are waging a global war against all Islam and Muslims.  This is obvious nonsense but by a combination of provocation and self-fulfilling prophecy  Islamic State is doing everything possible to make it a reality  - helped along, alas, by Donald Trump and his call for complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."

That, along with directing hateful epithets at Muslims on social media, or tossing severed pigs' heads on the doorways of Mosques (as recently happened in Texas) propels the very polarization that ISIS wants. By contrast, as shown by Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau - when one welcomes Syrian refugees one shows he transcends being a puppet for the polarizers or ISIS. Trudeau also made clear in The Toronto Star that "We get to show not just a planeload of new Canadians what Canada is all about, but we get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome people.”

As The Star explained:  "there is much to be said for a nation-state self-consciously showcasing its treatment of stateless refugees. Far from being empty symbolism, it serves as a defiant testament of Canadians coming to the aid of people a world away." Indeed, so why aren't American politicians or more of our people able to show such generosity? I suspect because the 'lizard brains' of too many have been triggered by lizard-brained politicos.

This is why too many Americans - say on seeing the image at the top of this post- will  think Trudeau is "pro-terrorist", unhinged, or simply a gullible dope for his welcome of the first of up to 25,000 refugees - in a nation of barely 12 million. But Trudeau is, in fact,  showing the rational way to respond for any Western nation that really wants to subdue ISIS. The videos showing the Canadians in Toronto welcoming Syrian refugees effectively amounts to an educational video for Americans on how to deal with ISIS.

Another, lesser aspect dealt with by author Maajid Nawaz is that both liberals and Muslim- hating pro- Trump conservatives are making critical errors in the interpretation of ISIS in relation to Islam.

The liberal error is the fear of "calling Islamist ideology by its proper name". Thus, too many liberals fear the Muslim community and religiously intolerant "will hear the word 'Islam'  and simply assume all Muslims are being held responsible for the excesses of the Jihadist few"

In other words, liberals fear the word use will be an example of the fallacy of composition.  But as Nawaz notes:

"It is as disingenuous to argue that Islamic State is entirely divorced from Islam as it is to assert it is synonymous with Islam. Islamic State does have something to do with Islam. That something is the way in which Islamists justify their arguments using Islamic scripture ."

As I pointed out in my December 8 post, while it's true the Qu'ran contains outlandishly extreme passages in terms of  "jihad" and  "infidels",  it is also true that most Muslims today don't literally accept those statements any more than  Christians literally accept the extreme sanctions such as stoning homosexuals or adulterers to death as seen in Deuteronomy or Kings. For instance, 2 Kings 2, 23:24 allows children to be slain by wild animals ("she bears")  if they insult their elders or any authority  (in this case a prophet).  Similarly, by Deut. 22:22 both John Edwards and his former girlfriend (Riele Hunter) would have been stoned to death.

The point is that enlightened followers of a religion do not mindlessly follow its every admonition, phrase injunction or prescription. Even most Catholics I know no longer follow the idiotic anti-birth control dogma. (Which to be fair, is nowhere in the Bible anyway.) I've also met Catholics that no longer believe in papal infallibility but they still remain nominal Catholics.

Why can't the same be true for Muslims? Just because certain sections of their book says "slay the infidels" doesn't mean all Muslims will feel compelled to act like zombies or robots and obey it any more than most Christians will feel the need to follow an injunction from Leviticus to slay homosexuals.

We have to give all religious people- including Muslims -  a modicum of credit for common sense, sound judgment and temperance.  It is baseless then to inveigh against and vilify an entire religion based on what a minor subset of radical fundamentalists (who adhere to every word) do.

Thus, the term "radical Muslims" ought to be used in the same way we might use the term radical right wing Christians - say like Kevin Swanson- who last month convened a National Religious Liberties Conference and invoked Leviticus 20:13  as well as Romans 1, to stone homosexuals to death. (He later said we "didn't have to do this yet" because "there was still time for them to change")

In either case - radical extremist Christian or radical extremist Muslim-  we are looking at an unhinged segment that seeks to justify heinous acts using arguments selectively based on their more primitive textual references - interpreted literally. Since both Bible and Qu' ran contain such passages then it stands to reason not all members of the respective belief system can be guilty. Only that subset that believes in taking the words literally and acting out.

To fail to make that distinction, namely in the case of radicalized Muslims like Tashfeen Malik,  is to commit two gross errors: 1) to fail to name and call out the Islamist extremists who adopt the jihad aspects of the Qu'ran literally ("the Voldemort effect" according to Namaz), and 2) the failure to distinguish rational Muslims who do not take jihadist passages literally from the radical fundamentalists who do.

On a solidly good note, our local Islamic Society here in the Springs is now holding weekly open houses to explain the basis of their faith to locals. This includes the clear separation of passages that today's Muslims do not take literally, according to organizer Arshad Yousufi. As he noted over the weekend:

"There are a lot of misconceptions about Islam which I think harms the American attitude toward Muslims."

The purpose of the open houses and question sessions - which have seen 'full house' attendance, is o clear the air and reduce these hostile attitudes which only serve to feed ISIS propaganda.

See also:

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/11/donald_trump_is_just_this_destructive_why_his_incendiary_rhetoric_is_making_the_world_a_more_dangerous_place/