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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
- Thread starter CdnGuy
- Start date
Evidence keeps on accumulating that Trump’s engagement with N Korea is random, thrown-together, & shallow. He is an increasingly faustian bargain for NK doves: Trump’s substance-free pseudo-diplomacy will tarnish diplomacy as an option in the future. Hawks will use the coming /1
failure to argue that diplomacy doesn’t work. And yes, it will fail, bc Trump is too lazy & disinterested to demand anything beyond a superficial agreement like Sentosa which changes nothing substantive. So the post-Trump hawk line will be that summit diplomacy doesn’t work, /2
that POTUS got played by the North into legitimizing its leadership for nothing. Everyone wants diplomacy to work of course, but Trump is so unserious about it that any deal will likely be made-for-TV-&-Trump’s-reelection while not actually resolving much. That’s the worst of /3
both worlds for engagers: you finally get the POTUS-level engagement you’ve wanted for 3 decades, only to see it immediately discredited by a game show host who just wants TV coverage & couldn’t care less about the issues or Korea. The dovish argument for leader-level summitry /4
presupposed, understandably, a normal POTUS driving a serious process like the C David Accords. But T is utterly incapable of this. The outcome is then is that no process & more strategic patience will likely be judged to have been preferable to T’s pseudo-process. Disappointing.
Thread by @Robert_E_Kelly: "Evidence keeps on accumulating that Trump’s engagement with N Korea is random, thrown-together, & shallow. He is an increasingly faustia […]"
Senorman
Well-known Member
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That would be the best (although unlikely) outcome, Trump ousted from the election by a Republican.
Early on Saturday morning the peace and tranquility of the Arctic, hundreds of miles from the nearest signs of human activity, was shattered. A Russian submarine punched through the ice near the North Pole and fired a Sineva type intercontinental ballistic missile. Meanwhile, around 1,000 miles further south, yet still within the Arctic Circle, another Russian submarine launched a Bulava type intercontinental ballistic missile from beneath the surface of the Barents Sea. The timing and location of these tests may be intended to send messages both internally and to the rest of the world.
Donald Trump’s affect, speech patterns and overall delivery this week have been alternately horrifying and hilarious. A combination of waking hallucinations, verbal tics, lies surpassing even his usual fabulist standard, aphasias and lunatic blurtings, each public utterance was a moment where the eye of his aides either popped or rolled, depending on their level of cynicism.
His, um, creative pronunciations of common words, mayfly attention to the most ephemeral ideas and high-tempo tweeting left people wondering if a heapin’ helpin’ of large-animal tranquilizer might be in order with the next round of KFC.
This week wasn’t just the usual Trump performance art; it was a new, strange and somewhat frightening level of antic. Even his allies whispered to reporters that perhaps the stress brought on by the prospect of an economic downturn was getting to him. With no adult supervision in the White House left — and no, Ivanka doesn’t count — this is a man on the edge, and there is absolutely nothing and no one to stop him.
It was a question, not an answer, and because the answer is absolutely terrifying, no elected Republican wants to admit the truth. What we’re seeing is the real Trump, the unfiltered maniac, not the man who is occasionally chained to a teleprompter and forced to read Kellyanne Conway’s work product aloud.
His sweaty, heavy-breathing press sprays on the White House lawn left reporters in a state of stunned silence, the spittle-flecked rantings of a man determined to machine-gun out a hundred ideas in the time a rational person would discuss two.
Here’s a pointer I can tell you from 30 years now in politics: When an elected official declares himself to be “The Chosen One” or agrees that he’s the “King of Israel” and “the second coming of God," it’s not time for a re-election campaign; it’s time for an extended, quiet stay with the nice men in white coats.
If you wanted an example of pure, uncut fiscal insanity, take a quick look at the U.S. budget deficit and our skyrocketing national debt.
Trump, the self-proclaimed “King of Debt,” is eager for Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell to unleash another tidal wave of “free” money into the economy by loosening the reins of the money supply. Trump desires this not because he gives a damn about the economy or the American people, but because he certainly gives a damn about his re-election chances.
The weird week ended on the most bizarre note of all. In a moment when Trump’s absurd and failed trade war with China collided with his absurd and failed war with Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell, Trump issued two tweets that left Washington and the world scratching their collective heads.
Trump asked in a tweet whether the bigger enemy of America was Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi or Powell. Of the Fed. He really did.
Not satisfied in clowning himself with that one, Trump then lowered the bar again and proceeded to jump under it when he said “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China...”
Really, comrade? Is that part of the Five-Year Plan? How's the beet harvest looking this year? Will the Stakhanovite efforts of the peoples’ vanguard at Comrade Newton Leroy Gingrich Heavy Machinery Plant 14 in the Wisconsin Oblast meet the tractor quota?
No Method In The Madness
Eschaton: No Method In The Madness
One might be tempted to see bucking trade orthodoxies and reconsidering our various relationships with China as good things. They probably are good things!
But Trump has no idea what he's doing and even if he accidentally settled on smart policies he'd forget about them and do something differently the next day.
Eschaton: No Method In The Madness
One might be tempted to see bucking trade orthodoxies and reconsidering our various relationships with China as good things. They probably are good things!
But Trump has no idea what he's doing and even if he accidentally settled on smart policies he'd forget about them and do something differently the next day.
President Trump has suggested multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States, according to sources who have heard the president's private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments.
Behind the scenes: During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, "I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them?" according to one source who was there. "They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can't we do that?" the source added, paraphrasing the president's remarks.
- Asked how the briefer reacted, the source recalled he said something to the effect of, "Sir, we'll look into that."
- Trump replied by asking incredulously how many hurricanes the U.S. could handle and reiterating his suggestion that the government intervene before they make landfall.
- The briefer "was knocked back on his heels," the source in the room added. "You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, 'What the f---? What do we do with this?'"
