Patterico's Pontifications

11/11/2017

Trump: I Would Never Call Kim Jong-un Short and Fat

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:30 pm



The glaring exception to the “let’s look at what Trump does and not what he says” principle is when he uses his Twitter account to taunt an unstable man with nuclear weapons. Here’s Donald Trump, a little over an hour ago:

If your ten-year-old acted like this, you’d put him in a time out.

He can be more presidential than Inflatable Pub Price anyone but Lincoln!

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

118 Responses to “Trump: I Would Never Call Kim Jong-un Short and Fat”

  1. if i had to put all the presidents like if they were christmas ormanents and I had to put them all on a tree with the best ones on the top and the yucky ones on the bottom the one that was at the very tippy top of the tree would be President Trump

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  2. So Trump treats Li’l Kim like a friend?
    Hate to see what he says to his enemies.

    kishnevi (aef29b)

  3. As opposed to Wendy Sherman who acted like she was at prom, 15 years later. She repeated the deal that corker ratified (Mr. Blount in this equation)

    narciso (d1f714)

  4. Keep feeding the trolls.

    Jerryskids (cfad51)

  5. But thank goodness Vladimir Putin has cleared Russia of any interference in our election!

    Mr. “America First” says he believes Putin’s word over our military and intelligence professionals.

    He’s also very concerned that Putin is offended by the allegations.

    Dave (445e97)

  6. #AlertTheDayCareStaff

    nk (dbc370)

  7. We’re in this mess that Rumsfeld predicted twenty years ago, because there administrations looked the other way with regards to North koream

    narciso (d1f714)

  8. He’s lucky he made that Lincoln speech as far north as Youngstown.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  9. I have often said how much I detest Trump’s tweeting, but in this case, I’m stunned to say that I very much approve of this tweet.

    Ridicule is a very potent weapon against dictators. Trump’s tweet is also sarcastic, which I fully approve of in this context.

    This tweet is so good that I have trouble believing that it’s a Trump tweet.

    Arizona CJ (cad93c)

  10. #AlertTheDayCareStaff

    The presidential sippy-cup has flown more miles flown than Air Force One…

    Dave (445e97)

  11. Dave the juche loving Republican

    narciso (d1f714)

  12. 10, I think a lot of those 3am tweets could be “hacks” – hes either choosing to own them or it’s a form of puppetry.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  13. 9, rather

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  14. He’s lucky he made that Lincoln speech as far north as Youngstown.

    “People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, you think about it, why? People don’t ask that question. But why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”

    Dave (445e97)

  15. Since when is it an “insult” to call somebody who’s 71 “old”?

    Dave (445e97)

  16. Are you smarter than a 5th grader? Well, if you are, then you’re surely brighter than a President.

    noel (b4d580)

  17. I don’t think Chang would have been in charge:
    https://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/11/russian-revolution-never-happened/

    narciso (d1f714)

  18. Let’s see. Trump has been disrespectful to Kim, dangerous as he is a nuclear threat. Trump has also been too respectful to Putan… and that’s bad because Russia is not a nuclear threat? Or something. Tough to keep up around this place.

    Anon Y. Mous (6cc438)

  19. As I noted this timeliness is like that around the time the soviet’s were launching the
    Booster that would carry the sputnik, that came right after our betrayal of the hungarians

    narciso (d1f714)

  20. Bambino: What’d you shoot him for?
    Trinity: He called Ma an old [rhymes with door].
    Bambino: Well, she is!
    Trinity: Aw, she’s not that old.

    nk (dbc370)

  21. Bush looked into Putin’s eyes. I wonder where Trump looked.

    nk (dbc370)

  22. 15. The one thing hat would have stayed he same is Japan, unless Germany would have been so different, they wouldn’t have modeled themselves on it. Maybe Japan would have formed an alliance with Greater Poland. Saudi Arabia would also be the same.

    There would be far fewer dictatorships in the world or at least no secret police.

    But other things wrong could have happened.

    I agree I don’t Chiang would have been around for generations, and maybe he owed something to the Soviet Union, too.

    Sammy Finkelman (8e756e)

  23. Well, maybe Trump tried to be a friend to Kim Jong Un in the same way Abimelech said he was a friend to Isaac – he didn’t harm him. (Genesis 26)

    Sammy Finkelman (8e756e)

  24. Would sun yet sen have yielded power

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/chiang_kaishek.shtml

    Would kornilov have taken power like horthy would later do in Hungary?

    narciso (d1f714)

  25. @15,22

    Reposting from HotAir:

    The failure or prevention of Lenin’s coup would not have made communism go away, nor would it have solved the problems in Russia that made the Kerensky government unsustainable.

    National socialism under Hitler was a reaction (in part) to the attempt by German communists to seize power after the war in the so-called “Spartacist uprising”. While perhaps taking moral inspiration from Lenin’s coup, this was entirely a German internal clash between two wings of the German Socialist Democratic Party. It’s conceivable that without the taint of being seen as (and in many cases, being in fact) puppets of a foreign government in Moscow, communists in Germany and elsewhere might have had greater success.

    Without the need to distinguish themselves from the foreign influence on the Communists, and use them as a foil, Hitler and the radical nationalist element that followed him might have simply become communists themselves. Mussolini started out as a leftist, and the initial Nazi economic platform was little different from Communism.

    World War Two might have then featured a Communist Germany vs. the western democracies and an ultra-conservative, right-wing, possibly even fascist, Russian empire…

    Dave (445e97)

  26. Doubtful communist saw lenins model as illustrative,

    narciso (d1f714)

  27. Narciso @26. I don’t know how to parse that sentence.

    Do you mean that you are doubtful that Communists saw Lenin’s model as illustrative, and therefore, they (assuming they existed) would have done the same things they did (in Germany around 1919) even if Lenin had never been in power; or that people doubtful about Communism saw Lenin’s model as illustrative, and therefore if Lenin had never been in power they never would have to do anything similar?

    Sammy Finkelman (8e756e)

  28. Do we know Kim even reads English?

    Pinandpuller (2e01d0)

  29. nk (dbc370) — 11/11/2017 @ 9:25 pm
    If you liked that, then you’ll prolly like this.

    felipe (023cc9)

  30. He can be more presidential than anyone but Lincoln!

    And occasionally just as humorous.

    “If General McClellan isn’t going to use his army, I’d like to borrow it for a time.” – A. Lincoln.

    Even if telegraphed by Morse Code, that was fairly witty back in the day.

    “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me “old,” when I would NEVER call him “short and fat?” Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe someday that will happen!” D. Trump

    SNL’s ‘Weekend Update’ quipped this particular tweet by our Captain was fairly funny, too. And it is.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  31. SNL’s ‘Weekend Update’ quipped this particular tweet by our Captain was fairly funny

    It’s all fun and games until somebody starts a nuclear war…

    Dave (445e97)

  32. @28. We know he’s short and fat and goes to the same barber as every figure in Legoland.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  33. TDS has been weaponized… isn’t that contra teh Geneva Convention or something?

    In THIS country, any display of it makes your junk smaller…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  34. Thanks for the chuckles

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  35. “Normally a favourite haunt of tourists, businessmen and bachelor parties on the hunt for titillation, the mirror-lined club one recent day had just two sole punters on its cherry red seats, taking in an x-rated show that often requires audience participation.

    Down the road, an avenue lined with theatres and cinemas is similarly bereft of visitors.

    In a reminder of the region’s tumult, the face of a pro-independence actor, Quim Masferrer, appears on a poster for one show. “If we want a normal country, we need to have a normal life,” he told local radio station Rac1.

    De Lucia feels much the same.

    “When you live in Barcelona, you know you can come and go as you please, but people outside of the city don’t realise this,” she says.”

    Now there’s a name for yez!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  36. Ridicule is a very potent weapon against dictators.

    I think ridicule is effective to discredit a dictator like Kim in the eyes of the American public. I’m not sure it’s effective to make Kim back down. It may do the opposite and encourage him to escalate the conflict, and I don’t think that is a desirable outcome here.

    DRJ (15874d)

  37. I think ridicule is effective to discredit a dictator like Kim in the eyes of the American public. I’m not sure it’s effective to make Kim back down. It may do the opposite and encourage him to escalate the conflict, and I don’t think that is a desirable outcome here.

    All that matters is that it makes President Snowflake feel good. Duh.

    Dave (445e97)

  38. There’s lots pf reasons to criticize Trump for tweeting like a Bonobo on locoweed, but making Kim Jong Un upset is not one of them. That short, fat dictator runs things in North Korea only as long as people think he’s running things. If his image is destroyed, he will be too.

    nk (dbc370)

  39. If a presidential candidate made Patterico’s argument, it would be a signal that he can be blackmailed. Trump’s comments signal that he can’t be blackmailed.

    jcurtis (226923)

  40. If ridicule was not a powerful weapon of persuasion we wouldn’t use it against him either, would we?

    “Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It and Polarize It.”
    – Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals.

    “Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.”
    ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

    We’re not the audience – the leaders of the nations he’s trying to organize to deal with No Ko’s threat to the world are. Typical American leaders don’t talk this way but because Trump does Kim’s not going to go crazy and start nuking the world but the people and leaders of the region are being pressured to choose between enabling Kim’s nuclear threat or stopping it. There are risks to doing what we’ve always done and risks to breaking from the status quo. One leads to No Ko locked, loaded and proliferating, the other to a denuclearized No Ko.

    Half a century ago JFK denuclearized Cuba by risking a major confrontation with Russia enforcing a total embargo of the island. In the end, the risk set up the deal that took the nukes out of Castro’s arsenal. There’s no way to predict whether Trump will succeed where others have failed, but notice what didn’t happen this week – no missile or weapon tests despite evidence of preparations – probably just a coincidence.

    crazy (d99a88)

  41. Politicians can be blackmailed but they are more likely to pay heed to public pressure. Even Trump, especially Trump, since he is so concerned about what the media says about him.

    As for Kim, I doubt much of his public will see this tweet. Maybe a few, maybe even the few who matter and are willing to start a coup. But I doubt ridicule by an American President will convince them to risk their lives. I think they are looking for something more substantial and meaningful than American ridicule.

    DRJ (15874d)

  42. My guess is there have been no missile tests because there was an incident.

    DRJ (15874d)

  43. Link.

    DRJ (15874d)

  44. It may also explain why Trump is taunting Kim.

    DRJ (15874d)

  45. I forgot about that. Sick mountain syndrome or new test we don’t know yet but good point. Thanks

    crazy (d99a88)

  46. This is a guy who hasn’t mastered this twitter stuff yet. You don’t need to leak the truth or feed it to your friends to leak it for you or ignore the plain meaning of the statute to justify not charging the target of the investigation or announcing prosecutorial decisions that aren’t yours to make either.

    crazy (d99a88)

  47. Thank you, crazy, and I completely agree the other world leaders should be the people Trump is trying to reach. I’m confused how this will impact them. I don’t see how this will help change their interests in North Korea, or their positions.

    DRJ (15874d)

  48. keep feeding the trolls

    Beauty in the eye of the beholder. Troll definition is subjective.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  49. In THIS country, any display of it makes your junk smaller…

    Good cautionary tale for fans of small hands

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  50. 5. Dave (445e97) — 11/11/2017 @ 7:54 pm

    Mr. “America First” says he believes Putin’s word over our military and intelligence professionals.

    He seemed to say that, but then, when questioned on Sunday, he said that Putin believed that, but actually he (Trump) agreed with our intelligence agencies, especially since they was now being run by his appointees, and not political hacks like Brennen, Clapper and proven liar and leaker Comey, that Russia intervened in the 2016 Presidential election in the United States.

    Kind of like Truman saying “I like old Joe” and all these bad things were being done by the Politburo.

    Whether Trump really can believe that thing is another story.

    It may be Trump’s idea of diplomacy – you can’t contradict the leader of Russia too mch if you want to get things done.

    Sammy Finkelman (8e756e)

  51. He’s also very concerned that Putin is offended by the allegations

    Yes. So now we either have Trump valuing personal contact more than anything else, or we have him diplomatically lying (you can also say he’s protecting himself in some way except he now agrees Russia did it, just not Putin.)

    And that’s what Putin is saying now:

    I learned only yesterday+ of some sort of meeting of my relatives with representatives of the administration or official figure. I know absolutely nothing about this – absolutely nothing.

    This is referring to a meeting in London on March 24, 2016, between George Papadopoulos, Joseph Mifsud, who claimed high level cntacts in Russia, a man from Russia’s Foreign Ministry and a woman who was presented to George
    Papadopoulos as Vladimir Putin;s niece.

    Well, she is not his niece, in fact Vladimir Putin is not known to have a niece, and she is suspected of course, of being some kind of Russian intelligence agent.

    George Papadopoulos is the man who pleaded guilty to lying to be the FBI, and apparently he told Robert S. Mueller III about this meeting, and somebody leaked it, and the New York Times doesn’t say what happened at at this meeting but says that what George Papadoupolous says happened at a meeting the next month, (in April 2016) is that Joseph Mifsud that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.”

    So now for some reason they are thinking that this is referring to what the Russians > really had, that is the DNC emails and possibly Podesta’s hacked G-mail account, which was first broken into March, and NOT Hillary’s deleted emails, which is undoubtaedy what was meant. (and which was claimed could have been hacked, but I’m sure the Russians never had it.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/us/russia-inquiry-trump.html?_r=0

    So now Putin’s approach is to say she wasn’t a niece but she was a relative, but he doesn’t know anything about this. He’s trying to protect everyone’s credibility. He doesn’t want to do anything to confirm an intelligence operation was underway or that anybody from Russia was lying. Niece, cousin, what’s the difference?

    Sammy Finkelman (8e756e)

  52. I get it DRJ. It’s not my view of how to win friends and influence people either but Sun Tzu’s point that you have to be yourself to keep your enemy from seeing what you’re doing in plain sight is also a very Trumpian view. There are others here far more experienced in untangling the oriental regional mindset of the players than I am but I can see how Trump thinks focusing attention on the little barking dog in North Korea may push the leaders of the regional players to band together with US enough to convince Xi and Putin to actually cut off the dog food or get rid of the dog.

    I think that’s the play. I have no idea if it will work but we know how this usually works. Kim barks and barks until we give him a treat to stop barking until he barks again. Xi and Putin have to be convinced it’s better for them to deal with Kim now than it is to keep using him against US. You can see the outline of the deal if you squint a little. We accept North Korea as a defanged communist state and they ensure North Korea is not a military threat to the South or the rest of the region and we all trade happily ever after. Or something to that effect. Or the full weight of the United States is going to be used against Kim and anybody else who’s enabling him and Trump’s crazy enough to do it.

    Khrushchev and JFK decide to step back. Trump wants Xi and Putin to do the same. Let’s hope they do.

    crazy (d99a88)

  53. What can you call this phenomena of rock-headed intransigence?

    https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/12/roy-moore-alabama-sexual-misconduct-allegations-244807

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  54. Hey, at least President Trump didn’t make fun of Marshall Kim’s hair!

    Oh, wait: Mr Trump might have sympathy for people with bad hair.

    The Dana who is somewhat follically challenged (8110d1)

  55. OK, President Trump is a blowhard, someone who doesn’t even attempt to act ‘presidential.’ He’s an [insert slang term for the rectum here], most of us would agree.

    But what has he actually done as President?

    1 – He nominated, and got, Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.
    2 – He changed the wholly ineffectual ‘play nice’ policy of the Obumble Administration with regards to Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
    3 – He stopped micromanaging the war on Islamism, and let the generals handle it, resulting in pushing back Da’ish.
    4 – He has reduced government regulations on business, which has helped the rise in the stock market, and Americans’ personal wealth.
    5 – He is withdrawing the United States from the misbegotten Paris climate agreement signed by his oh-so-presidential but practically stupid predecessor.
    6 – He has ended the stupidity of recruiting ‘soldiers’ who don’t know what sex they are, and is trying to kick out the ones allowed in by his oh-so-presidential but practically stupid predecessor.
    7 – He has eliminated some — unfortunately not all — of the Social Justice regulations imposed by his oh-so-presidential but practically stupid predecessor.

    These are all things which virtually everyone on this site, including our esteemed host, approves! His unpresidential demeanor is obscuring the fact that his deeds are very much in line with what is needed in the United States.

    Oh, he certainly hasn’t accomplished everything we’d like. The horribly, propagandistally named Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land, and the tax reform legislation has the serious problem of blowing up the deficit. But he’s a clear sight better than the alternative we faced.

    The coldly realistic Dana (8110d1)

  56. Khrushchev and JFK decide to step back. Trump wants Xi and Putin to do the same. Let’s hope they do.

    Do we want them to step back and let Kim continue on his current path, or do we want them to step in and help stop Kim?

    DRJ (0280d9)

  57. I understand they are finding Kim and I assume that’s what you mean by stepping back, but I don’t think either country will agree to drop a trading partner. Their economies and the location of this particular partner make that unlikely, just as the Soviet Union didn’t want to let Cuba go. It takes real incentives or disincentives to get countries to drop important relationships. We need to convince them it’s in their interests to do that here.

    DRJ (15874d)

  58. Funding Kim, not finding. Sorry.

    DRJ (15874d)

  59. Those are 7 things that are better than what Hillary would have done, Dana, but only number 1 is a real change. The rest are temporary measures while Trump holds the power of the pen.I

    ObamaCare is proof. We’re still talking about it because it was Democratic legislation that survived Obama’s Presidency. Trump’s actions so far won’t survive his term. It’s a nice respite but not real change, and it won’t seem like much of a respite if it changes back in 2020.

    DRJ (15874d)

  60. DRJ, that’s a reasonable assessment, but what President Trump has done so far is something on which the country can build. We can hope that he’s successful enough to leave office happily on January 20, 2025.

    The very realistic Dana (8110d1)

  61. President Trump has done so far is something on which the country can build.

    The rubble foundation..

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  62. Perhaps people will recall the previous holder of the ‘most unpresidential President’ title: Andrew Jackson. All that he did was usher in an era of increased democracy, end the Bank of the United States, and pay off the national debt.

    The ‘elites’ of the 1830s didn’t like Mr Jackson very much. He was an uncouth Tennesseean who was quite willing to abuse his political enemies, and didn’t care what Henry Clay or other people thought of him. He wasn’t perfect by any means, and had some deeply seated insecurities — especially over his wife — insecurities which he covered by bluster and a fearlessness of action. He was one of our very few transformative Presidents.

    The historian Dana (8110d1)

  63. Some just want to see the World burn

    Dark Knight

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  64. Mr Burn wrote:

    President Trump has done so far is something on which the country can build.

    The rubble foundation..

    I have a house for sale, still standing strongly and proudly, 127 years after it was built on a rubble stone foundation.

    Sometimes things have to be torn down, to build something better in the space. Conservatives in this forum have complained, throughout the Bush as well as Obama administrations, that the liberal foundation on which the federal edifice has been built was not being torn down, but added to, and, oft-times, simply patched over. If President Obama imposed too much liberalism on this country, then so did President Bush with his cockamamie ‘no child left behind’ education program and Medicare Part D expansion.

    We need Presidents who will not try to build on an already left-leaning foundation, one with black mold and termites in the building sitting atop of it, but remove the mold, kill the termites — and cockroaches — and add new, stronger, stable structures which are clean and good.

    The Dana who has actually built things (8110d1)

  65. DRJ @59. Step back from the military and economic confrontation with US that their legitimate support of Kim’s regime and illicit support of his nuke program is pushing US to.

    Get North Korea off the path it’s on. Defang Kim’s regime or get rid of Kim and his nuke program before we have to do what it takes to stop it. The real incentives are they keep North Korea in their orbit(s), we work out something about China’s military expansion to the “nine dash line,” we cool down the Korean reunification idea and we all trade happily ever after. China and Russia’s views are that they get that and more on the current path enabling Kim. Trump has to convince them as JFK convinced Khrushchev did that he’s willing to risk the unthinkable.

    “We need to convince them it’s in their interests to do that here.”

    Exactly, that’s what I believe is what’s going on during the 11-day ASEAN trip in plain sight while the Big Dog puts down the Little Barking Dog and everybody snickers. That’s also where the bilateral trade deals come in. Multilateral deals negotiate everything up front including legal-sounding enforcement mechanisms leaving enforcement to some unaccountable group of Lilliputians who are good at nothing but bureacratic entanglements. Bilateral deals between you and me avoid all that. The marxists nations of the world use those agreements and bodies to strangle our efforts to shape relations among nations leading US to proxy conflicts and war rather than away from it. Nobody complies with the terms of the deals but US – that’s nuts.

    crazy (d99a88)

  66. Dana I appreciate your positivism but an example of your house being on a sound foundation sounds like the exception to a rule

    Check out the house in Photograph 1. Built in 1880 on top of a rubble foundation. It was a dump. Every time it rained the basement flooded. And it wasn’t really a basement. It was sort of a tall crawlspace with a short crawlspace attached to one side. The house smelled. It smelled bad. Moldy, musty, and dirt-like. The floors were freezing in the winter. During cold weather it was not possible to keep the basement door closed because of the draft rushing up from purgatory.

    https://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-041-rubble-foundations

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  67. crazy is closer to the truth. Avoiding TDS is good. He is doing this in China and may be offering an offramp to KIm.

    We’ll see what Kim’s response is.

    The mountain collapsing is part of it.

    Mike K (b3dd19)

  68. Nobody complies with the terms of the deals but US – that’s nuts.

    Greater concentrations of wealth into shrinking numbers of people is the rip tide taking us out to deeper waters. Don’t fight it…just drown.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  69. Greater concentrations of wealth into shrinking numbers of people is the rip tide taking us out to deeper waters. Don’t fight it…just drown.

    All of which has occurred as the country slowly but continuously slid left. Perhaps a course adjustment is needed before the leftist elites own everything and control everyone. As the Democrat Party went towards socialist and beyond more and more of their players were billionaires and millionaires so that now the Democrats control the top wealthiest and the bottom poor and between them are crushing the working man and small businessman. Hence a populist like Trump. Maybe those of us in the middle are tired of rich leftists taxing our money away to buy votes from poor leftists to stay in power.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  70. htztp://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/11/you_have_to_hand_it_to_hillary__the_girl_can_smear.html

    narciso (46632a)

  71. Teh media, Kim Jong Un, and TDS sufferers are a gigantic Herd of Cats, and Twitter is Trump’s frickin’ laser beam.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  72. Russia can be pressured economically but I don’t think China would accept anything less than the U.S. giving up on Taiwan independence. Would Trump do it? I think he would.

    DRJ (15874d)

  73. Narco..http not htzp….ffs..

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  74. Exactly my thoughts Drj.

    Remember his idiocy on Tiananmen Square.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  75. Well looking with hindsight yeltsin victory led to oligarch rule which was catastrophic enough to bring about the current era of men of power: siloviki of which putin is just lead representativr.

    narciso (364166)

  76. I agree his Tiananmen Square comment was stupid but it was also a clear signal that Taiwan is on the table.

    DRJ (15874d)

  77. Taiwan is the only thing we have that China really wants and we can give. We’ve never been willing to do it before but my guess is that Trump is willing. America First!

    DRJ (15874d)

  78. Businessman Trump cared about his brand but President Trump cares about his legacy. He wants to be remembered as another Lincoln or Reagan. Selling out Taiwan to make a deal with China regarding Korea? It would be his version of Reagan neutering the Soviet Union, and he would sell it as unifying the world just as Lincoln unified the States.

    And maybe it would be true, except for the bad news for Taiwan and other freedom-loving nations.

    DRJ (15874d)

  79. Headline: China does not want – nor does it need – the American Markets!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  80. EPIC American Consumer Fail!!!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  81. 1 – He nominated, and got, Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.

    McConnell’s win, not Trump’s. The choice of Gorsuch was someone else’s decision, because Trump knows nothing about the constitution or originalism.

    2 – He changed the wholly ineffectual ‘play nice’ policy of the Obumble Administration with regards to Iran, Cuba and North Korea.

    Yes, his equally ineffective “make empty threats and act like a 7-year old” policy is a huge improvement.

    3 – He stopped micromanaging the war on Islamism, and let the generals handle it, resulting in pushing back Da’ish.

    That was going on for a long time. Any Republican president would have done the same.

    4 – He has reduced government regulations on business, which has helped the rise in the stock market, and Americans’ personal wealth.

    All put together and decided by people other than Trump, because Trump knows nothing about anything, and any Republican president would have done the same.

    5 – He is withdrawing the United States from the misbegotten Paris climate agreement signed by his oh-so-presidential but practically stupid predecessor.

    An agreement that required nothing more than writing voluntary plans and reports. Yawn.

    6 – He has ended the stupidity of recruiting ‘soldiers’ who don’t know what sex they are, and is trying to kick out the ones allowed in by his oh-so-presidential but practically stupid predecessor.

    Yes, this has been a huge problem. Oh, wait, it hasn’t.

    7 – He has eliminated some — unfortunately not all — of the Social Justice regulations imposed by his oh-so-presidential but practically stupid predecessor.

    This was all the work of people other than Trump, because Trump knows nothing about anything. Any Republican would have done the same.

    Dave (445e97)

  82. While you were chasing that frickin’ laser dot… https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/11/10/trump-policy-immigration-cuba-regulation-000582

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  83. Also, in nominating Gorsuch, Trump broke (yet another) prominent campaign promise:

    “The justices that I’m going to appoint will be pro-life.”
    – Donald Trump, October 2016 presidential debate

    Neil Gorsuch is not “pro-life”, categorically denies being “pro-life”, categorically denies telling Trump he is pro-life, and has never criticized Roe v. Wade. He made that amply clear in his confirmation hearings:

    GORSUCH: Senator, […], the Supreme Court of the United States has held in Roe v. Wade that a fetus is not a person for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment…

    SENATOR DURBIN: Do you accept that?

    GORSUCH: That’s the law of the land. I accept the law of the land, senator, yes.

    Doesn’t sound very “pro-life”, does he?

    (I have no problem with Gorsuch or his stated position, which is the proper one for a judge in a nation of laws; promising to appoint “pro-life” judges just shows how scandalously ignorant Trump is. Again.)

    Dave (445e97)

  84. remember though Mr. Dave many lifeydoodles are just vapid virtue-signalers they don’t really give a crap about abortion lol

    this is the stark truth what has emerged from Alabama

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  85. If your ten-year-old acted like this, you’d put him in a time out.

    US breaks ground for new permanent base in Israel

    he’s doing just fine

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  86. DRJ @81. While that may well be China’s ask I would bet they’ll give up Kim and his nukes before the US abandons Taiwan. Two points to consider about Taiwan. We’ve pretty much agreed with China since Nixon that the people of Formosa and the people of mainland China are one people with separate governments while disagreeing with the chicoms over reunifying them under communist rule against the will of the Taiwanese people. That’s what all the doubletalk about the One-China policy is. We agree and disagree at the same time.

    We’ve also been filling Taiwan’s arms request that Obama left unfilled much to China’s chagrin. In addition while China may demand the return of Taiwan as they did Hong Kong even if Trump were to let them go Taiwan’s unlikely to go quietly or be as easy to absorb as Hong Kong was. That’s a lot of capitalism and democracy for the chicoms to try to absorb without a fight or a revolution. I suspect Xi knows it’s a better issue to make noise about while gaining the security and trade concessions from US in the South China Sea that we’re probably exploring quietly with him.

    Either way things are coming to a head fast enough that will probably know in the next few months.

    crazy (d99a88)

  87. It’s hard to believe you are seriously discussing selling a democratic ally and its 23+ million people into totalitarian servitude.

    It’s not going to happen, not even with an evil, ignorant dotard like Trump nominally in charge.

    Dave (445e97)

  88. Get a load of what the HSBC bank building in Hong Kong looked like after the Southerland Springs church shooting. Guess they haven’t squeezed all the democracy out of Hong Kong yet.

    crazy (d99a88)

  89. Well that is the other way to say it.

    crazy (d99a88)

  90. Mr Burn wrote:

    Dana I appreciate your positivism but an example of your house being on a sound foundation sounds like the exception to a rule:

    Check out the house in Photograph 1. Built in 1880 on top of a rubble foundation. It was a dump. Every time it rained the basement flooded. And it wasn’t really a basement. It was sort of a tall crawlspace with a short crawlspace attached to one side. The house smelled. It smelled bad. Moldy, musty, and dirt-like. The floors were freezing in the winter. During cold weather it was not possible to keep the basement door closed because of the draft rushing up from purgatory.

    I invite you to visit the quaint town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. The town, previously known as Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk — two towns, on opposite sides of the Lehigh River — once held the highest concentration of millionaires in the United States, as anthracite coal mining made the area wealthy.

    Alas! Those days are gone, but the town, now known as Jim Thorpe as the two merged as the river was bridged, is filled with homes built on, you guessed it, rubble stone foundations. As always, homes poorly cared for got into poor shape; those well cared for are in fine condition.

    The Dana who used to live in Pennsylvania (8110d1)

  91. Too early for Tchaikofsky

    A Last Illusion:

    Flight of the Bumblebee

    Ode to Joy

    With a little Latin Lingo thrown in

    Like a double pickle-shot of Irish Espresso

    Trans-Siberian Orchestra

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  92. Now there’s a name for yez!
    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/12/2017 @ 1:53 am

    I haven’t heard that term since I last watched Rob Roy.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  93. Do North Koreans keep smart phones under their floorboards like The Lives of Others?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  94. Tell me, Dave @ 84, when you tell us, several times, that “any Republican president would have done the same,” why is it that other Republican presidents didn’t do it? Did President Bush change Clinton Administration policies on North Korea in any substantive manner? Dir President Bush reduce government regulations? Did President Bush take any real action against illegal immigration?

    Oh, some of the Republican candidates said that they would, but who can know what they would have done, had they been elected? President Trump’s order on ‘transgendered’ troops — people so delusional that they don’t know what sex they are, and ought to be in mental institutions, not the Army — generated a collective roar from the elites and the left; would President Rubio have caved? President Trump’s cancellation, after six months, of DACA drew cries of horror from the left, and not a few business leaders; would President John Kasich have continued on, or curled into a fetal position?

    The Dana who remembers (8110d1)

  95. Beauty in the eye of the beholder. Troll definition is subjective.
    Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/12/2017 @ 6:51 am

    In THIS country, any display of it makes your junk smaller…

    Good cautionary tale for fans of small hands
    Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/12/2017 @ 6:54 am

    The better to Tweet you with, muh dear.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  96. President Trump has done so far is something on which the country can build.

    The rubble foundation..
    Ben burn (b3d5ab) — 11/12/2017 @ 8:26 am

    The Infernal Optimist.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  97. Yeah it’s funny how much stuff they find when they excavate under all the rubble in London and Rome and Jerusalem.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  98. 88, sheesh Steve57 is gonna re-up!

    urbanleftbehind (a69ce6)

  99. Ben Burn the Dy-no-mite archaeologist

    Like Heinrich Shliemann

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  100. Here’s a bright light in the darkness of academia. Class rules for Foundations of Law: ID your own bias first, demonstrate 3 things you understand about the point you’re criticizing before you do, cluck like chicken every time you say “I feel.” Cluck like a chicken – that’s my favorite. Sounds like it’s working. If others do the same, maybe there’s hope that academia will abandon the social justice curriculum someday after all.

    crazy (d99a88)

  101. Excellent. My favorite is to demonstrate 3 things you understand about the point you’re criticizing.

    DRJ (15874d)

  102. That’s good too!

    crazy (d99a88)

  103. Some of the most beautiful rolling hills are in Pennsylvania (Ephratah) and I’m certain Ben Franklin could make rubble work.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  104. “…Trump called the North Korea’s leader ‘short and fat.’ Will that help the crises in North Korea? We’ll give you our expert opinion when we come back.” – Fareed Zakaria

    Tillman (a95660)

  105. Tell me, Dave @ 84, when you tell us, several times, that “any Republican president would have done the same,” why is it that other Republican presidents didn’t do it? Did President Bush change Clinton Administration policies on North Korea in any substantive manner?

    Yes.

    Dir President Bush reduce government regulations?

    Yes.

    Did President Bush take any real action against illegal immigration?

    Yes.

    Oh, some of the Republican candidates said that they would, but who can know what they would have done, had they been elected? President Trump’s order on ‘transgendered’ troops — people so delusional that they don’t know what sex they are, and ought to be in mental institutions, not the Army — generated a collective roar from the elites and the left; would President Rubio have caved?

    Who cares? It’s a PR gimmick to please his bigoted fringe supporters in the alt-right, not an effort to solve any problem actually identified by the military’s leadership (as evidenced by the fact that his announcement took the Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and everyone else, completely by surprise.

    President Trump’s cancellation, after six months, of DACA drew cries of horror from the left, and not a few business leaders; would President John Kasich have continued on, or curled into a fetal position?

    You mean his promises to “Chuck and Nancy” to make DACA permanent, right?

    Dave (445e97)

  106. On the plus side, the worse Trump polls, the more he tries to keep some of his campaign promises. It probably won’t happen but we can hope.

    DRJ (15874d)

  107. Truth be told, he’s done more to right the ship in less than 1 year than GWB did over the course of two terms.

    Colonel Haiku (993483)

  108. That is not true.

    DRJ (15874d)

  109. You like Trump because he is fighting the culture war, something Bush did not do, but there is more to being President than pontificating on culture. He could change the direction of government and, unlike pontificating, that would be a change that survives his term.

    DRJ (15874d)

  110. We are still fighting the war after 9/11 on the international blueprint Bush created. Even Obama didn’t change it much, and Trump hasn’t either. Ditto ObamaCare and Obama. Implementing policies is how Presidents make lasting changes, not trash talk.

    DRJ (15874d)

  111. Truth be told

    He’s a legend in your mind Hoagie.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  112. What did GWB do to reduce burdensome regulations? Not all of the most egregious were Obama-inspired. Bush helped grow the reach of the State.

    Colonel Haiku (993483)

  113. Sorry..Haiku legend/mind.

    Ben burn (b3d5ab)

  114. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/us/politics/north-korea-missile-defense-cyber-drones.html

    President Trump has praised the existing missile defense system, insisting last month that it “can knock out a missile in the air 97 percent of the time,” a claim that arms control experts call patently false. In trial runs, conducted under ideal conditions, the interceptors in Alaska and California have failed half of the time. And the Pentagon has warned administration officials that the North will soon have enough long-range missiles to launch volleys of them, including decoys, making the problem far more complex.

    Also in the article:

    So the administration plans to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the two other approaches, both of which are still in the experimental stage. The first involves stepped-up cyberattacks and other sabotage that would interfere with missile launches before they occur — what the Pentagon calls “left of launch.” The second is a new approach to blowing up the missiles in the “boost phase,” when they are slow-moving, highly visible targets.

    So the administration plans to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the two other approaches, both of which are still in the experimental stage. The first involves stepped-up cyberattacks and other sabotage that would interfere with missile launches before they occur — what the Pentagon calls “left of launch.” The second is a new approach to blowing up the missiles in the “boost phase,” when they are slow-moving, highly visible targets. The twoi paragraphs are actually maybe in the wrong order.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)


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