Pence won’t fill in squat.
There will be no nebulous policy until Full Metal Jackass and Secretary of Everything Jared Kushner returns from Whistler, B.C., with his skis, his skank, his Wayfarers, his blue blazer and his flak jacket.
G.I. Schlomo visits Iraq
Short Version:
Nice country you got here. shame if someone enraged the neighbors. I expect Hyundai shipping containers full of cash to wash up at Merde-a-Lago. Look for Trumpco to take SK by storm after all this blows over. Golf courses as far as the eye can see … some in the North too if they play their cards right.
President Cui Bono.
Is it possible to present articles taken from the associated press or other sources in a way that shows their origins more clearly? There usually is an underlying framing that I do not expect of TPM. This framing tends to support the conventional wisdom and is not why I come to TPM.
It’s in the Dateline. In this case “WASHINGTON (AP)”
”The U.S…has sent what Trump called an ‘armada’ to the waters off the Korean Peninsula.”
And here’s the problem with that kind of reckless swagger: He can’t recall it without Kim claiming he blinked.
And Trump’s man-baby ego is much too delicate for that.
So now what?
Globalthermonuclear brinkmanship is not a game.
It has real life consequences – for all life on Earth.
And Trump has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.
Pence “may” do an imitation of the black bellied whistling duck call too. Let me know when you have something definite, AP
Like an Easter egg hunt, try to find the three problems that are hidden in “Pence will try to explain the policy.”
It’s also discreetly hidden at the end of the article in oblique references to “Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung” and “Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.”
Two in a row!
Trump has a secret plan for North Korea … he’s sending these guys.
Not sure, but TPM and AP may have a contractual agreement. But I agree with you about AP. Bothsiderism, false equivalency, and “balance” in equal measure.
The meme of the Occupant’s “unpredictability,” which this article repeats, annoys me. It assumes that the O’s positions are purposeful, deliberate, even strategic, and they are not. There is no strategy in this administration’s positions so far. The AP article says:
“After a two-month policy review, the Trump administration has settled on a policy toward the North that relies on “maximum pressure and engagement,” U.S. officials said Friday. The administration’s immediate emphasis, the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of Beijing.”
The “policy,” if one can dignify it with that term, is to piggy-back on China’s national-interest-driven pressure on N. Korea. As I wrote in another thread, the Chinese government delivered an ultimatum to Kim before Xi even set foot in Mar-a-Lago, not just before dessert.
Taking credit for someone else’s work is not a policy – although of course, the Occupant does that all the time.
Also, in claiming that he has an understanding w China about North Korea while at the same time blustering that if China doesn’t reign in North Korea he will, Trump has needlessly taunted China at the exact moment he most needs their help, and has undercut any pro-American faction in the Chinese leadership.
I really wish Trump’s father hadn’t abused him so much, because this is an awful way for a 70 year old man to work out daddy issues.
He’s trying to figure out those details, but he’s got to figure out where NK is, first.
Why ask the organ player, when it’s the monkey that decides ?
Pence has got a brain ? Thought he was just Trumpys lap-dog " pet-pet , pet-pet " .