President Trump suddenly got all sensitive and tweeted an all-caps warning at Iran, saying, in effect, if he hears one more "Death to America" threat he's going to wipe the country off the map of the world.
Iran replied, in effect, "Yo mama!"
Now both countries have been officially warned to be cautious.
Unfortunately, "cautious" is not a setting on Trump's Earth-pulverizing juggernaut.
(Except when he's standing next to Putin, when the machine shrinks back down to toy-shop size and purrs pleasantly.)
So, why does Trump appear all hot and bothered by Iran? I see it as a posture he thinks worked well on Kim Jong-un: Scream at the man, belittle him, and threaten him with total nuclear annihilation.
Do that, and you can get whatever you want out of the guy.
The problem is, Trump had nothing to do with what happened with North Korea.
(Whatever it was that happened; they've dismantled all their nukes and missiles, right?)
The reality is, it was Kim's show all the way. He got his missiles to fly far enough to hit all of the US, he tested a hydrogen bomb, and was in the process of mating the two for maximum effect. At that fortuitous moment the winter Olympics were about to start in South Korea. Kim jumped at the chance to make overtures, setting the ball in motion.
Whatever his long-term goal might be (and we still don't know what it is), he was now positioned to meet face to face with the American President on the World Stage.
Kim made it happen. Trump was just a noisy bystander.
What we've got now is like an episode of the Outer Limits—the one where time travelers or aliens or whatever deflected a bullet in midair, convincing a would-be criminal mastermind he's immortal and can do whatever he wants in the future.
Based on his magnificent performance with Kim, the immortal Trump is fired up and looking for new worlds to conquer.
His meeting with Putin went "great" (he assures us; nobody will ever know what really happened in that room for two and a half hours). The press conference after, not so much.
It must be so frustrating! You're great "in the room," then a bunch of Fake News jumps up to ruin everything!
Donald Trump, by his own admission, has been tougher on Russia than anybody in the history of history, yet he gets no respect. People actually call his actions at the Helsinki press conference treasonous.
(C'mon! What about Crooked Hillary? She destroyed whole sections of America and personally murdered every single person in Benghazi! Why the hell is she not in jail?)
Most recently Trump tweeted he expects the Russians will hack the 2018 election in favor of the Democrats. (They don't like him anymore 'cause he's so tough on 'em.) I guess that explains in advance any losses the Republicans might suffer. Nothing to do with their performance in Congress, that's for sure.
Any future success for Trump and his party will be based on herculean efforts to defeat an entire country intent on seeing him fail. Any loss, a martyrdom to dishonest international politics.
Trump's position on election hacking has gone from the "400-pound man on his bed" to anybody and everybody in the world to absolutely the Russians (as long as Putin is not standing right there). He now has an iron-clad excuse for any future failures as president.
Well, two excuses: the Russians and Fake News.
Always nice to have your wagons circled against impending disaster.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
CLUELESS LEADERS
Well, the Helsinki "summit" is over, along with the press conference that got Trump in trouble, again. Let's see if we can make any sense of this mess.
The first problem is that we don't know exactly what Putin said to the President. Trump said he said: "It wasn't Russia."
Did he really say that? Or did he say, "It wasn't me."
There's a difference.
Saying he has no knowledge of any such operation against the 2016 election could mean his guys kept him in the dark—a kind of "plausible deniability" deal.
The problem with that, Putin doesn't seem like the kind of leader who can be left in the dark about anything. And given the uproar over the results, whoever put Putin in the jackpot (without orders) is going to be in a world of hurt.
Even if they were doing what Putin privately wanted.
(He stated in the press conference he wanted Trump to win the election. He also seemed to say he did something to make it happen, but that part [typical two-part reporter question] may have been missing from the translation—he may have only admitted to liking Trump, whom he thinks he can work with. It's pretty clear he hates Hillary.)
Trump, for his part, seems not to have considered the possibility Putin might have been bamboozled (for his own good) by his own people. Trump should have said: "Okay, you say it didn't happen, but we have proof it did happen. That means your people are operating behind your back—what are you going to do about that?"
If you can't confront the man about what he says, you can always confront him about the implications of what he says. He doesn't have to take it personally.
But of course he will. They both will.
Putin is a strong-man president; Trump is a very stable genius. There's no way either one of them is going to be clueless when important stuff is going on.
Most likely: Putin knew what his guys did and he's lying about it now.
Like he's lying about the operation to poison folks in England. Like he's lying about Russian soldiers involved in Eastern Ukraine, or shooting down an airliner, etc.
(As for Crimea, he might maintain his unmarked soldiers have always been there, blending into the scenery, biding their time.)
Trump lies, too, of course. Though it's not clear if he has any idea he's doing it.
He stated in that press conference, for the millionth time: "There was no collusion and everybody knows it."
Does he mean he didn't collude, or that nobody in his campaign colluded? We don't know; he never explains. The second part of the statement is, of course, bizarrely ridiculous.
But wait. Does he really mean "everybody knows it," or is that just some sort of extraneous bit of conversational nonsense. Something he says without realizing it, like folks who pepper their utterances with "you know" or "you understand" or "yadda-yadda."
"I beat Hillary worse than anybody ever and everybody knows it!"
"I had cheeseburgers for breakfast again and everybody knows it!"
"I just took the biggest dump in the world and everybody knows it!"
(In the last case, I'm betting some unfortunate folks nearby could say they do know about the dump, though they would only be able to speculate as to its magnitude.)
On the other hand, if "everybody knows it" is a real statement that has to be taken into account, it may be time to wonder about the speaker's mental state. Quite frankly, it verges on paranoia to think "everybody knows" anything. Worse, Trump seems to be saying the whole world is ganged up in a conspiracy to destroy him.
Bottom line, Trump is at best careless in the way he says things. He seems not to be aware his words are taken down all over the world and may be used against him in the court of public opinion.
For instance: Backing up Putin's position, Trump said something to the effect he didn't know why Russia would have meddled in the election. Really? No idea? And does that include hacking and disinformation? Russians have also been indicted for the fake campaign ads, too. Has Trump forgotten that part?
He seems more ready to blame Obama and the Democrats for making it so easy for "somebody" to mess with their stuff. Or to blame the FBI for its vindictive witch-hunt investigation, which is tearing this beautiful country apart.
God knows Trump did nothing wrong, nor did his new best bud, Vladdie.
WTF, man? Why is this wicked, crazy world trying so hard to come between two simple-minded, clueless fellows and the sweet, sweet relationship they both crave so much?
It's just so unfair!
The first problem is that we don't know exactly what Putin said to the President. Trump said he said: "It wasn't Russia."
Did he really say that? Or did he say, "It wasn't me."
There's a difference.
Saying he has no knowledge of any such operation against the 2016 election could mean his guys kept him in the dark—a kind of "plausible deniability" deal.
The problem with that, Putin doesn't seem like the kind of leader who can be left in the dark about anything. And given the uproar over the results, whoever put Putin in the jackpot (without orders) is going to be in a world of hurt.
Even if they were doing what Putin privately wanted.
(He stated in the press conference he wanted Trump to win the election. He also seemed to say he did something to make it happen, but that part [typical two-part reporter question] may have been missing from the translation—he may have only admitted to liking Trump, whom he thinks he can work with. It's pretty clear he hates Hillary.)
Trump, for his part, seems not to have considered the possibility Putin might have been bamboozled (for his own good) by his own people. Trump should have said: "Okay, you say it didn't happen, but we have proof it did happen. That means your people are operating behind your back—what are you going to do about that?"
If you can't confront the man about what he says, you can always confront him about the implications of what he says. He doesn't have to take it personally.
But of course he will. They both will.
Putin is a strong-man president; Trump is a very stable genius. There's no way either one of them is going to be clueless when important stuff is going on.
Most likely: Putin knew what his guys did and he's lying about it now.
Like he's lying about the operation to poison folks in England. Like he's lying about Russian soldiers involved in Eastern Ukraine, or shooting down an airliner, etc.
(As for Crimea, he might maintain his unmarked soldiers have always been there, blending into the scenery, biding their time.)
Trump lies, too, of course. Though it's not clear if he has any idea he's doing it.
He stated in that press conference, for the millionth time: "There was no collusion and everybody knows it."
Does he mean he didn't collude, or that nobody in his campaign colluded? We don't know; he never explains. The second part of the statement is, of course, bizarrely ridiculous.
But wait. Does he really mean "everybody knows it," or is that just some sort of extraneous bit of conversational nonsense. Something he says without realizing it, like folks who pepper their utterances with "you know" or "you understand" or "yadda-yadda."
"I beat Hillary worse than anybody ever and everybody knows it!"
"I had cheeseburgers for breakfast again and everybody knows it!"
"I just took the biggest dump in the world and everybody knows it!"
(In the last case, I'm betting some unfortunate folks nearby could say they do know about the dump, though they would only be able to speculate as to its magnitude.)
On the other hand, if "everybody knows it" is a real statement that has to be taken into account, it may be time to wonder about the speaker's mental state. Quite frankly, it verges on paranoia to think "everybody knows" anything. Worse, Trump seems to be saying the whole world is ganged up in a conspiracy to destroy him.
Bottom line, Trump is at best careless in the way he says things. He seems not to be aware his words are taken down all over the world and may be used against him in the court of public opinion.
For instance: Backing up Putin's position, Trump said something to the effect he didn't know why Russia would have meddled in the election. Really? No idea? And does that include hacking and disinformation? Russians have also been indicted for the fake campaign ads, too. Has Trump forgotten that part?
He seems more ready to blame Obama and the Democrats for making it so easy for "somebody" to mess with their stuff. Or to blame the FBI for its vindictive witch-hunt investigation, which is tearing this beautiful country apart.
God knows Trump did nothing wrong, nor did his new best bud, Vladdie.
WTF, man? Why is this wicked, crazy world trying so hard to come between two simple-minded, clueless fellows and the sweet, sweet relationship they both crave so much?
It's just so unfair!
Friday, July 13, 2018
FAKE PRESIDENT
Donald Trump has a bizarre psychological habit: He spontaneously accuses people of possessing the faults that rightly belong in his column.
He's a liar, but he accuses others of lying all the time.
He's apparently so stupid he's gone around the horn and declared himself smart. ("I'm a very stable genius.") And from that shaky platform he declares other folks to be low-IQ people.
Asked if he will go on Twitter and disparage the NATO memorandum he just signed, he says other people do that, not him.
His reputation is in tatters—as history will undoubtedly show—but he accuses others (like the FBI) of disintegrating right in front of the world.
And everybody knows it.
See, he's not the only person who sees these alleged defects. He claims everybody knows what he's saying is true.
There's been no collusion with Russia, and everybody knows it.
By first insulting, then staging a happy-fest meeting with Kim Jong-un, Trump single-handedly saved the world from nuclear holocaust, and everybody says he should get a Nobel Peace Prize for doing it.
In Charlottesville, Virginia, where the "alt-left" collided with neo-Nazis, there was bad behavior on "many sides" and everybody knows it. Even the cynical reporters who call him on it know he's right.
Nobody should ever criticize the man because everybody knows he's perfect and beyond criticism.
Ipso-flipso, all attempts at criticism are fake news, pure and simple. And the perpetrators also know they are the Enemy of the People.
The other day, before the NATO meeting, Trump accused Germany of being controlled by Russia because the two countries have agreed to build a natural gas pipeline beneath the Baltic.
Is he just trying to preempt an accusation that he is in the thrall of Vladimir Putin?
Trump calls the man a competitor, not an enemy. He says he will confront Putin about meddling in the 2016 election, but expects the man to deny it, which will probably close the matter. Thank God.
(Everybody knows the Russians are blameless, right? What about Hillary's private email server, the poor thing hacked so many times it belongs in a horror movie? Are we making any progress getting that monstrous woman in federal custody?)
Trump apparently wants the Putin meeting to take place behind closed doors, just the two men and their translators. Sounds pretty lovey-dovey.
Maybe we can expect a pipeline of our own—in about nine months. Or whatever is the natural gestation period of the wild pipe.
He's a liar, but he accuses others of lying all the time.
He's apparently so stupid he's gone around the horn and declared himself smart. ("I'm a very stable genius.") And from that shaky platform he declares other folks to be low-IQ people.
Asked if he will go on Twitter and disparage the NATO memorandum he just signed, he says other people do that, not him.
His reputation is in tatters—as history will undoubtedly show—but he accuses others (like the FBI) of disintegrating right in front of the world.
And everybody knows it.
See, he's not the only person who sees these alleged defects. He claims everybody knows what he's saying is true.
There's been no collusion with Russia, and everybody knows it.
By first insulting, then staging a happy-fest meeting with Kim Jong-un, Trump single-handedly saved the world from nuclear holocaust, and everybody says he should get a Nobel Peace Prize for doing it.
In Charlottesville, Virginia, where the "alt-left" collided with neo-Nazis, there was bad behavior on "many sides" and everybody knows it. Even the cynical reporters who call him on it know he's right.
Nobody should ever criticize the man because everybody knows he's perfect and beyond criticism.
Ipso-flipso, all attempts at criticism are fake news, pure and simple. And the perpetrators also know they are the Enemy of the People.
The other day, before the NATO meeting, Trump accused Germany of being controlled by Russia because the two countries have agreed to build a natural gas pipeline beneath the Baltic.
Is he just trying to preempt an accusation that he is in the thrall of Vladimir Putin?
Trump calls the man a competitor, not an enemy. He says he will confront Putin about meddling in the 2016 election, but expects the man to deny it, which will probably close the matter. Thank God.
(Everybody knows the Russians are blameless, right? What about Hillary's private email server, the poor thing hacked so many times it belongs in a horror movie? Are we making any progress getting that monstrous woman in federal custody?)
Trump apparently wants the Putin meeting to take place behind closed doors, just the two men and their translators. Sounds pretty lovey-dovey.
Maybe we can expect a pipeline of our own—in about nine months. Or whatever is the natural gestation period of the wild pipe.
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
DANGER MAN
Donald Trump recently tweeted that—if it hadn't been for him—we would right now be in a war with North Korea.
Let's all take a moment to stare at that sentence and let its sweet, sticky gooeyness sink in.
We would be at war with North Korea—right this very moment—if it hadn't been for Donald Trump and, I presume, his masterly manipulation of Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
Holy crap! Did we all just dodge a bullet or what?
Our Secretary of State is on his way to Pyongyang (also right now) to fiddle with the denuclearization business theoretically set in motion in Singapore. Amid word the North Koreans might be continuing to create nuclear material—bomb-making material, I'm pretty sure folks are suggesting.
Putting these three stories together, we might have to conclude there will, in fact, be no denuclearization of North Korea.
But that's okay, because simply by going to Singapore and meeting with Kim—even with no tangible positive outcome visited upon the Korean Peninsula in the future—Donald Trump has released the building pressure in his noggin to set our nuclear missiles loose on the North.
And this may be the best we can hope for, in Korea or anywhere else in the world.
The new (and dangerous) game in Washington these days might be to keep the President from blowing his top and unleashing deadly force on ...somebody.
And with the man's wide-ranging list of enemies and personal affronts, it really could be any country (or any individual) on the face of the planet.
Including our friends and allies.
On the other hand, maybe Trump is just campaigning for that Nobel Peace Prize "everybody" told him he should get. Perhaps he figures he needs to keep reminding folks of just how close we all were to global annihilation—before he stepped in and calmed everybody down.
Or—to be more precise—calmed himself down by slathering praise on his world-saving ass. But can you really expect a Peace Prize for threatening war and then calling it off?
Do I need to remind you how much of the sabre-rattling rhetoric was coming right out of Trump's mouth (or Twitter-wrangling thumbs)? And if it is your memory Kim threatened to blow Guam out of the water, hold up. North Korea merely suggested they might send unarmed missiles down there to bracket the island in a demonstration of their long-range capability. Wiser heads prevailed. (And none of those heads belonged to Donald Trump.)
At the end of the Singapore Summit, the President lowered expectations (which he was otherwise pumping up) by saying he might be standing before the American People in six months to admit there was no lasting progress with North Korea. He also suggested he might avoid any blame by coming up with some excuse or other.
Now he reminds us we are experiencing peace with North Korea this very moment because he made it happen. Not exactly an excuse, but it may have to do.
Let's all take a moment to stare at that sentence and let its sweet, sticky gooeyness sink in.
We would be at war with North Korea—right this very moment—if it hadn't been for Donald Trump and, I presume, his masterly manipulation of Kim Jong-un in Singapore.
Holy crap! Did we all just dodge a bullet or what?
Our Secretary of State is on his way to Pyongyang (also right now) to fiddle with the denuclearization business theoretically set in motion in Singapore. Amid word the North Koreans might be continuing to create nuclear material—bomb-making material, I'm pretty sure folks are suggesting.
Putting these three stories together, we might have to conclude there will, in fact, be no denuclearization of North Korea.
But that's okay, because simply by going to Singapore and meeting with Kim—even with no tangible positive outcome visited upon the Korean Peninsula in the future—Donald Trump has released the building pressure in his noggin to set our nuclear missiles loose on the North.
And this may be the best we can hope for, in Korea or anywhere else in the world.
The new (and dangerous) game in Washington these days might be to keep the President from blowing his top and unleashing deadly force on ...somebody.
And with the man's wide-ranging list of enemies and personal affronts, it really could be any country (or any individual) on the face of the planet.
Including our friends and allies.
On the other hand, maybe Trump is just campaigning for that Nobel Peace Prize "everybody" told him he should get. Perhaps he figures he needs to keep reminding folks of just how close we all were to global annihilation—before he stepped in and calmed everybody down.
Or—to be more precise—calmed himself down by slathering praise on his world-saving ass. But can you really expect a Peace Prize for threatening war and then calling it off?
Do I need to remind you how much of the sabre-rattling rhetoric was coming right out of Trump's mouth (or Twitter-wrangling thumbs)? And if it is your memory Kim threatened to blow Guam out of the water, hold up. North Korea merely suggested they might send unarmed missiles down there to bracket the island in a demonstration of their long-range capability. Wiser heads prevailed. (And none of those heads belonged to Donald Trump.)
At the end of the Singapore Summit, the President lowered expectations (which he was otherwise pumping up) by saying he might be standing before the American People in six months to admit there was no lasting progress with North Korea. He also suggested he might avoid any blame by coming up with some excuse or other.
Now he reminds us we are experiencing peace with North Korea this very moment because he made it happen. Not exactly an excuse, but it may have to do.
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