On Monday, the New York Times reported that North Korea “is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images.” Today, the president of the United States called this “nothing new” and “fake news.”
The story in the New York Times concerning North Korea developing missile bases is inaccurate. We fully know about the sites being discussed, nothing new – and nothing happening out of the normal. Just more Fake News. I will be the first to let you know if things go bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
There’s more than a little reason to believe that President Trump is not an objective judge in this case. While campaigning unsuccessfully against Senator Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Trump described his relationship with Kim Jong Un this way, “…we fell in love, OK? No, really, he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”
This is insane. But it’s also the kind of thing that warrants removal from office. Unless you think North Korea’s nuclear and intercontinental missile programs are trifling matters, it’s simply too dangerous to have a commander in chief who refuses to take the intelligence seriously.
I don’t really understand why Trump has an affinity for the world’s most horrible leaders or why he picks fights with our allies. To some degree, he can choose who he likes and who he doesn’t. But when it comes to the threat of a nuclear attack on our country or on our allies, we can’t tolerate someone who won’t look at evidence.
This subject is a whole lot more serious than violations of the Emoluments Clause, violations of campaign finance law, or even obstruction of the Russia investigation. It could be a matter of life and death for hundreds of thousands or even millions.
Maybe it’s because this is so serious that the media can’t seem to treat it with the urgency and prominence it deserves. I would hope that Trump’s cabinet understands what is at stake, but I don’t see much evidence for that. The longer this goes on, the more normalized it becomes. And the threat grows.
He’ll be the first to let us know if his “love affair” with Kim Jong Un goes bad.
Yeah, right. Bella Figura “trumps” national security with this fool every single time.
This is insane.
The only reason no one in the cabinet takes this man seriously is because he is not running the place. He’s not in charge of anything and he’s got no interest in learning about anything that is required to do this job. So he says stupid shit and the reaction is “so what” and then he unsays it the next day anyway or denies saying it at all.
It’s like when they all brushed aside his use of an unsecured phone – it was not a big deal because Trump isn’t really aware of any operational issues or sensitive facts.
This is the what makes Trump such an absurd character. He maintains his 30% base simply by watching Fox News and saying those things the people who watch Fox News like to hear. I have thought for some time that the GOP would need to clip Fox’s wings and the rest of them, and that meeting with McConnell and Murdoch the other day struck me as the first stirrings of that.
Definitely Faux Noise has been the greatest threat to our democracy. Greater than Citizens United, and greater than gerrymandering, in my personal opinion.
It not only gives the Republicans a place to say their brazen lies (Rick Scott has been to that poison well several times now), but it creates the sealed bubble that reinforces this destructive spiral.
Others may differ on what the gravest threat to our democracy is, but Faux Noise should be on all top 5 lists.
If not greater than then equal to.
Who’s in charge, then? Surely not coffee-spill wiper and errand boy and chief sycophant Pence. Surely not Keep-My-Office-Door-Closed! Kelly. Pompouseo? He’s the one getting pawned here. Mad Dog? Who just had to seal-bark and clap his flippers over the obviously phony ISIS Caravan “emergency”? Certainly no woman, Melania has about the pull of Eva Braun. The Fox and Fools team? Please. They tell Der Trumper what he wants to hear and he acts.
That leaves von Bolton and/or Gruppenfuhrer Miller. Both don’t seem like credible Rasputins to me.
There is no reason to think this failed and collapsing admin has a Cheney, as far as I can see. Hence the abject chaos. They are craven enablers who are “working towards the Fuhrer”, to adopt (yet again) a (highly apt) Nazi analogy.
No one is in charge.
Think of Trump as the worst boss you ever had in your life, but much much worse. He’s a high functioning moron and he’s spent most of his life trying to hide that fact with his ‘eccentric’ behavior.
The individual department heads are running things because there is no guidance coming from the top. Unless he sends out a tweet, there is no Trump policy on anything. And even if he does send out a tweet, you’d be foolish to react because it will be soon retracted and any follow-on stupidity you will then own.
And then, like the worst boss you ever had, he’ll just fire you when he needs to pin some screwup on someone. No more MBA Presidents, please.
I repeat, Trump is not running this thing. He is watching television upstairs and only the stupid/naive people are looking for guidance from him. Look at Sessions, do you think Trump gave him direction on how to hobble police accountability? Of course not, how could he? He’s a moron.
Oddly, if you are a Republican this is actually OK. They are the party that wants Government to suck and fail, so they can drown it in a bathtub.
A very plausible take, although it doesn’t explain things like the incoherent tariff skirmishes, Kiddie Koncentration Kamps and ISIS Caravan nonsense.
Can you elaborate on this? It’s very compelling, and I think I agree…but if I was asked to explain why, I don’t think I could.
Yeah, I know–why IS that?
Because presidents generally are given more latitude in foriegn affairs?
Because we’re all so terrified that he’s Commander-in-Chief and can’t help being relieved that he seems not to be impulsively provoking a war?
Because NK is such a strange wild-card we don’t have more attractive options?
Because (by traditional definition) an American prez from a major party (especially the Daddy Party!) has to be considered competent and serious and able to listen to reason. No cause for alarm!
Because the plutocrats that run the corporate news empires will not permit their reporters to report that the (Repub) Emperor Without Clothes is a complete incompetent who won’t (can’t?) read a full paragraph and may actually be clinically insane. Also, too, because an established constant of the universe is Both Sides Do It!(tm) and, since there isn’t a Dem “side” to be negative about here, that means there can’t be a story.
What would happen to corporate media coverage of a Dem prez who talked about “love letters” (literally!) from any world leader, let alone Kim Jong Un? Because Both Sides Do It is only a restriction on reporting about Repubs….Corollary One.
Exactly what would “treating it with the urgency and prominence that it deserves” look like? How could the treatment be done in such a way that doing it would not make the problem worse — by feeding into brainless frightened hysteria (even though the factual basis for this particular hysteria, as opposed to say the caravan), might exist?
Trump can be described as follows:
A) An honest-to-god Russian agent
B) A reality TV show buffoon who constantly seeks attention, good or bad
C) A genuinely poor trust fund baby who sees the Presidency as a way of lining his own pockets
D) Someone who views diplomacy in personal terms, rather than as a matter of public policy
E) A mobster who’s worried that his crimes may have caught up with him
F) A genuine narcissist who is struggling with the idea that lots of people hate his guts
These options aren’t all mutually exclusive. What’s more interesting (in an academic way) is that the entire GOP has closed ranks around him, despite the numerous pieces of evidence of the above.
“the entire GOP has closed ranks around him”
———————-
But we have reached the moment, it’s after the mid-term. They have backed him up to this point, but if you stand back they have gotten probably all they can get out of him.
Continuing to back him up has costs, even as he remains pretty popular with “The Base” (30%).
He’s going to light himself on fire for the next 2 years. How many Publicans will follow? They have careers to consider and deep down they know Trump is a disaster.
Interesting times.
My guess is all of them.
Well, did ya know Liz Cheney is now number 3 in the house. I think that means the knives are out. But, I’m not sure if that means she is coming for the donald or us.
Why “or”, when “and” seems to work better in that last sentence?
. . . to-god” or anyone else.
Sadly, Cheeto Mussolini is right on this one. See:
Yeah.
Far as I can see, this is the war wing pushing WMD stories in the NYT to break president Moon’s so far pretty successful peace process. Trump is only right because Moon plays his vanity like a piano, but so far Moon has managed both prima Donnas and kept the process rolling despite protests from hard liners (presumably in all three countries).
Decrease in war games, decrease in military border installments, a stop to new North Korean atomic testing (the freeze for a freeze), an ongoing process on family reunions etc. These are good things. I wish US Democrats could see that and support the South Korean peace movement and the president it got elected.
I think it’s rage overload. There are so many heinous transgressions with this administration, we can’t properly react to them all.
I’m actually fine with this dropping off his list of priorities.
In his first year, Trump was threatening “Fire and Fury” and had us all calculating how many people would die in Seoul within the first few days of renewed conflict.
In his second year he was praising the “strong” and “courageous” North Korean dictator: “He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”
I don’t want to see what ideas he will bring to the problem in year three.
The whole rigamarole was to create a fake crisis and claim victory by resolving it with a fake solution. There was never the slightest understanding of the real problems the Norks present or what a real, engaged solution might look like.
And of course Kim knew that Trump was flailing wildly and further would never admit that he got gulled, so he banked a bunch of concessions from the US in return for absolutely nothing.