The Very Stable Genius has swallowed the Kool-Aid.
I think he's going to have a lot of difficulty living this assertion down:
“His country does love him. His people, you see the fervor. They have a great fervor."
Memo to the VSG: Not exuding sufficient "fervor" in North Korea can get you, your children and your grandparents hauled off to the concentration camp.
And suddenly, upon meeting the third-generation face of the dynasty that has been threatening South Korea and the US for six-plus decades, there's no strategic necessity to readiness drill now.
We stopped playing those war games that cost us a fortune. You know, we’re spending a fortune, every couple of months we’re doing war games with South Korea, and I said, “What’s this costing?” We’re flying planes in from Guam, we’re bombing empty mountains for practice. I said “I want to stop that and I will stop that,” and I think it’s very provocative.My take is that of Erick Erickson at The Resurgent:
Trump is a somewhat different kind of narcissist from Obama, but both kinds have this in common: In their capacity as US president, the mounting giddiness at the prospect of being regarded by history as visionaries ushering in an amazing new era of unicorns and rainbows made them lose sight of the evil they were hammering out their respective deals with.The whole design of this is offensive. The President pees in the punch bowl of the G7, insists the Russians come back into the organization, then flies off to Singapore to make kissy face with a man who routinely murders his own people.Had Barack Obama done that, Republicans would be demanding his impeachment.I generally think Donald Trump has run a pretty mature foreign policy that works for American interests. But this past week has been a diplomatic farce, and I suspect those generic ballot numbers that have had Democrats panicking are suddenly going to swing back in their direction.Having the American President abdicate his leadership of the G7 to flirt with a communist monster is unacceptable. Diplomacy to get rid of North Korea's nukes would be great. But that's not what happened. Instead, we gave the North Koreans a considerable PR win in Asia, gave them credibility in South Korea, and came home with just a participation trophy.
No, this doesn't appear to have gone well at all.
Agreed!
ReplyDeleteShowtime!
ReplyDeleteStill, we don't need another war. Paying out for messed up veterans is killing our budget.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Championship Wrestling model is the way: ramp up the threat, demonize your opponent, try a bunch of fake moves to get the fans hot, slam, wham, bam, handshake and cheers, walk off with a babe who'll love u long time....Next is Robert DeNiro, according to Savage, 2 alpha males, but only 1 loser and it ain't Trump.
ReplyDelete"...the narrator insists that the fate of the world hangs in the balance, in sentences that combine pompous syntax, palatial rhetoric, and dodgy grammar. Flattering Kim’s vanity while reflecting Trump’s own, he says, “Of those alive today, only a small number will leave a lasting impact,” while crowds scurry as if in “Koyaanisqatsi,”and postcard images of tourist sites flow past—the Great Wall, the Great Pyramid, and also Times Square, because, according to Trump’s understanding of history, the visual noise of spectacle is a postmodern wonder to revere. These sights yield to a vast North Korean flag—an invitation to a tyrant to think more bigly and take his place alongside the men who built the Colosseum and the Taj Mahal.
ReplyDelete“History may appear to repeat itself for generations,” the narrator says. “There comes a time when only a few are called upon to make a difference.” Trump appears in oratorical postures, in still photos taken at the State of the Union address and the U.N. General Assembly, manning the lectern like the Cicero of his day. Kim waves and smiles, and waves and smiles, and walks a bit and waves some more.
“Destiny Pictures presents a story of opportunity,” the narrator continues, and the viewer wonders if he’s about to hear a pitch for a time-share. It’s “a story about a special moment in time when a man is presented with one chance that may never be repeated.” The man is Kim, waving, waving. The chance is to offer his nation industrial progress and material pleasure, represented by images of a seedling, an aircraft factory, a science lab, and a double-clutch slam dunk, of course. (According to Trump’s understanding of geopolitics, his appeal to Kim as a basketball fan is the sort of personal touch necessary to achieving denuclearization.) “What will he choose?” the narrator asks. “To show vision and leadership, or not?”
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-sensational-idiocy-of-donald-trumps-propaganda-video-for-kim-jong-un?mbid=social_facebook
The materialistic design, that carrot on a stick, not sure that the "Westernization/commercialization of any cultures is all that great for what we lose. We lose connection, compassion and collaboration in our modern world. We lose to competition, conformation and confrontation. No wonder we're waxing tribal here.
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