Saturday, April 13, 2019

The North Korea issue shows why the Trump presidency is deeply problematic

As I've said before, the Very Stable Genius doesn't regard words the way most of us do. For one thing, hyperbole of the most ridiculous sort rolls off his tongue. For another, he dishes out insults and conspiracy theories with the assumption that the recipient will come around, that such verbal abuse is just part of the back-and-forth of business (of which he sees politics as a subset).

Exhibit A for the above-mentioned hyperbole is the characterization of his rapport with Kim Jong-un as falling in love, and of Kim's letters to him as "beautiful." And now these tweets:

I agree with Kim Jong Un of North Korea that our personal relationship remains very good, perhaps the term excellent would be even more accurate, and that a third Summit would be good in that we fully understand where we each stand. North Korea has tremendous potential for.......
....extraordinary growth, economic success and riches under the leadership of Chairman Kim. I look forward to the day, which could be soon, when Nuclear Weapons and Sanctions can be removed, and then watching North Korea become one of the most successful nations of the World!
As Susan Wright at The Resurgent reports, this gush-fest comes after Kim makes plain that he's as belligerent as ever:

On Thursday we talked about Kim Jong Un’s threats against the United States, promising to deal a “telling blow” to what he called “hostile forces,” unless his demands for lifted sanctions are not met.
Does that sound like someone that we should consider a friend?
The second summit between President Trump and his bff, Kim, took place in February of this year, but ended abruptly, when an agreement could not be made and Trump walked away from the table.
That was the right thing to do, but more right would have been to never have made Kim an equal, to begin with.
Even after Kim’s threats, Trump was unwilling to condemn the remarks, and even suggested a third summit was not out of the question.
For that matter, Kim has indicated he would be open to another opportunity to manipulate meet with Trump, but that hasn’t stopped the aggressive language.
Kim said that he will wait “till the end of this year” for the U.S. to decide to be more flexible in negotiations, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday, according to Reuters.
“It is essential for the U.S. to quit its current calculation method and approach us with a new one,” Kim was quoted as saying during a speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly, the country’s rubber-stamp legislature.
Before, when someone from the Kim family spoke like this, it was just rambling hogwash from a nation hobbled by the controls of the rest of the world. Now, however, it is the demands of someone with the ear of the president of the United States.
The North Korean leader said the Vietnam summit “aroused a strong question if we were right in taking the steps with strategic decision and bold resolution, and evoked vigilance as to the U.S.’ true willingness to improve its relations with the DPRK,” the initials of North Korea’s official name.
Kim called offers floated by the U.S. “absolutely impractical,” arguing that the administration did “not really ready itself to sit with us face-to-face and settle the problem,” according to Reuters.
“We will wait for a bold decision from the U.S. with patience till the end of this year but I think it will definitely be difficult to get such a good opportunity as the previous summit,” Kim added.
By “bold decision” he means they’re waiting for Trump to prove his love.
The shills and apologists can once again trot out all the undeniably great policy moves - judicial appointments, cabinet and agency appointments, deregulation, pulling out of the Paris climate accord and the JCPOA - to which LITD responds that we'd have gotten those moves with an actual conservative with a consistent worldview. Most importantly, though, we wouldn't get a reckless handling of the most existentially threatening issue on our nation's plate.

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