This turn of events was completely unforeseeable.
Said no sane or rational person anywhere.
Trump was shocked by the statement from North Korea’s head nuclear negotiator last week that indicated total denuclearization of the Korean peninsula was not going to happen.
The President has reportedly been talking to aides about whether he should move forward with the historic meeting. On Saturday night, he called South Korean President Moon Jae-in — the Washington Post was first to report — to discuss the North’s latest statement and why it was in contradiction with private conversations Moon has had with Kim.
The U.S. has “no ability” to build sources in North Korea and very limited opportunities to gather intelligence in North Korea
“Since we have no embassy there, we have no diplomatic relations with them, no real commercial interchange with them,” there is little concrete information to offer policymakers, the former official said.
Told someone this earlier, but seeing how the U.S, doesn’t have any reliable HUMINT sources in the DPRK, its going to be funny (at least to me) to watch rage tweet the South Korean government (who Trump is relying on for intel), next month.
It’s only a “historic summit” because other Presidents weren’t stupid enough to believe the lies and have one.
Why then he’d share the feeling the rest of us have had since Nov. 2016…
Because.
Everything.
Is.
Always.
All.
About.
Him.
Literally anyone in the diplomatic or intelligence world could have told him how this would go. But he’s profoundly ignorant, at this point I’d say below average in intelligence, and severely mentally ill. So now he’s the one person in Washington surprised at this.
I know there are perfectly sensible people who say don’t underestimate him. I know why they say that. But for Christ’s sake just look at his record. He constantly, constantly does incredibly stupid, self-destructive things. If the Republican Party were not a pack of power-mad authoritarian racist traitors, he’s have never made it out of the starting gate. The business world rejected him years ago. So let’s not overestimate him either.
Nobody knew health care diplomacy could be so complicated.
but officials are concerned that Trump has been too publicly eager about the meeting — like his remark that “everyone thinks” he should win a Nobel Peace Prize for the historic summit.
Meanwhile there are also reports that:
With less than a month until President Donald Trump’s supposed summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, White House aides say the president has not allocated time in his schedule to prepare, according to TIME.
“He doesn’t think he needs to,” one senior official familiar with the situation told TIME.
The incompetence and narcissism are stunning. He believes he deserves a Nobel Prize for essentially doing nothing (except screwing the pooch by hiring Bolton, who says we want a “Libya solution” to North Korea?)
Where does one even begin with this lunatic?
Is there a Nobel Prize for embarrassment?
the idea that Kim Jong-un was ever going to give up his nuclear weapons?
no!..that was never going to happen.
the goal is to gain as much leverage as possible by agreeing to destroy some facilities which no longer have any use and more importantly to be seen as an equal on the world stage as a nuclear power.
understanding just simple flattery would be enough to gain it all…required hardly no effort…Kim demonstrating that tRUMP after pulling out of the Iran deal and being thoroughly dissed by the big 3…is in need of something that even remotely smells like a win…is playing the fool for the fool he is.
apparently those closest to the fool these days horribly aware of his mounting limitations have been working non stop to influence his fleeting thoughts…apparently are succeeding in shutting down this meeting…if for no other reason than they are aware of the damage he could do…under just the influence of some fake flattery…
what a horror.
HUMINT? We don’t even have a fucking ambassador.
Thats funny, because I thought this was about acheiving peace and world stability. Not gratifying the world’s two most dangerously fragile egos.
After the big build-up by Trump himself, against the warnings of people who know better…
If he calls it off, Kim will be able to say he was willing to talk and deal, and the Americans backed down from him.
If he goes, Kim will refuse to budge from keeping his nukes, and will not allow effective inspections to make sure he isn’t building more; a very light, watered-down deal will possibly be made; and Kim will get some things he wants and be able to say he stared down the Americans.
Trump – more of an embarrassment to America than he is to himself.
South Korea will then be better off dealing with Kim on their own, with the help of China and Japan. Trump again makes the US less relevant in the world.
There is an Ig Nobel for Peace:
PEACE PRIZE [SWITZERLAND, CANADA, THE NETHERLANDS, USA] — Milo Puhan, Alex Suarez, Christian Lo Cascio, Alfred Zahn, Markus Heitz, and Otto Braendli, for demonstrating that regular playing of a didgeridoo is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea and snoring.
REFERENCE: “Didgeridoo Playing as Alternative Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome: Randomised Controlled Trial,” Milo A. Puhan, Alex Suarez, Christian Lo Cascio, Alfred Zahn, Markus Heitz and Otto Braendli, BMJ, vol. 332 December 2006.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Milo Puhan, Christian Lo Cascio, Markus Heitz, Alex Suarez. NOTE: Alex Suarez was the first patient, and was the inspiration for the study.
bout to find out
How can an embarrassment be worried about an embarrassment?
But thank you for your concern, President Dickhead.
I’ve been thinking about this the last couple of days. I don’t know what his real IQ is but functionally, he’s a moron. It doesn’t really matter what your “real” IQ is. It matters what what you do with it and on that, his behavior speaks for itself.
I thought the same about Palin at the time. She may or may not have been stupid. But what bothered me was her complete lack of knowledge of larger issues and more importantly, her complete lack of interest in fixing her gaps (or chasms) in knowledge.
He is right. The dumb ass didn’t think there could be consequences if he pulled out of the iIran deal as he was trying to complete a similar deal with North Korea. Art of the deal my ass. This boob can’t tie his own shoes.
That “He doesn’t think he needs to,”… is so predictable and unsurprising. Yet, at the same time, while we all knew it, could see it - it still is stunning.