Quote of the Day: Kim Goads Don the Con
“We consider the U.S. no more than a lump which we can beat to a jelly any time.”
North Korean taunt reported by the New York Times on Friday (August 11, 2017)
gemli
is a trusted commenter Boston 20 hours ago
It’s possible that the hypersensitivity we see surrounding race, gender, ethnicity, political leanings and all of the other silos of identity are due to one underlying cause: there is a sense that progress has stopped.
Various groups are feeling pushback after decades of slow advancement. White Power is surging, legislators are passing bathroom bills to thwart transgender rights, abortion rights are under attack, a Supreme Court nomination was hijacked by Republicans, and a man with a possibly racist past was nominated for Attorney General. When Elizabeth Warren protested, she was told to sit down and shut up.
We have a president who invited white supremacists to sit at his right hand, and who has the cultural sensitivity of turn-of-the-century robber baron. As I write this, people are dying in Charlottesville as white nationalists assert power.
Nobody wants to listen politely to right-wing zealots speaking at their commencement, or thoughtfully consider what Betsy DeVos has planned for public education in this country. The Civil War ended a century and a half ago, and people are still having to remind us that black lives matter.
The Twentieth Century was a time of increasing rights for people of color, women, gays and lesbians, the poor and the sick. Salaries were rising and infrastructure was booming.
Conservatives are fed up with all of that, and they’ve let us know they’re not going to take it anymore.
Some don’t choose to listen politely to their plans.
I like this picture so I’m going to use it to head all my posts.
The new EPA administrator and former attorney general of Oklahoma, who used to get his jollies suing the EPA, now is implementing his plant to dismantle the agency and abnegate its mission of protecting our environment. Here’s a quote from a NYT article about his “secret” and paranoid mission:
Mr. Pruitt, according to the employees, who requested anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs, often makes important phone calls from other offices rather than use the phone in his office, and he is accompanied, even at E.P.A. headquarters, by armed guards, the first head of the agency to ever request round-the-clock security.
A former Oklahoma attorney general who built his career suing the E.P.A., and whose LinkedIn profile still describes him as “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda,” Mr. Pruitt has made it clear that he sees his mission to be dismantling the agency’s policies — and even portions of the institution itself.
But as he works to roll back regulations, close offices and eliminate staff at the agency charged with protecting the nation’s environment and public health, Mr. Pruitt is taking extraordinary measures to conceal his actions, according to interviews with more than 20 current and former agency employees.
Why would a man insist that employees leave their cell phones behind and take no notes, as the NYT states elsewhere in the article? Because he is paranoid about leaks. Why would he leave his own office to make important phone calls? Because he is paranoid that the employees of his office are against him and out to leak details of his plans.
Do we really need an EPA administrator who plans to dismantle the EPA? Or who is so paranoid that he won’t make important phone calls from his office?
Billy the Dog says:
Comment of the Day: Don the Con is Desperate
James
San Clemente, CA 14 hours ago
On the same day that Donald Trump threatened nonspecific military action against North Korea, and contended that his despicable comments denigrating U.S. diplomats and local employees in Russia was just “sarcasm,” the President opened a new front in his rhetorical war on the world, saying that he would “not exclude” military action against Venezuela. I’m getting the feeling that all these impromptu press conferences the President has been giving lately all have the same purpose. He’s feeling the hot breath of Special Counsel Robert Mueller on his neck, and he is casting around for an issue to distract the press from the fact that the walls are closing in on his administration. All this flailing is understandable, given that the President has no actual skills other than those appropriate to a snake-oil salesman, but we are getting close to the point where one of Trump’s ill-considered remarks could actually start a war. This is political malpractice on an epic scale, and raises the following question: when will the Congress, the remaining adults in the Executive branch, and the American people themselves decide that they have had enough and must now begin the process of removing this travesty of a President? The clock is ticking, and Trump’s folly grows.
A Modest Proposal on North Korea
- Offer, in secret through the Chinese, to begin negotiations without preconditions, one-on-one, between North Korea and the US. If they ignore the offer, make another offer in public.
- Remind the public that at present, North Korea and the US are still technically at war, and what exists is a 50+ year truce, not a peace treaty.
- Make secret, one-on-one negotiations with the North Koreans through a plenipotentary (authorized to make any deal at once) ambassador.
- Continue sanctions and a military cordon around North Korea until they agree to give up their nuclear weapons per the UN’s resolutions.
- Rinse and repeat.
(Note that the Chinese have declared that, if North Korea attacks the US or South Korea first, the US will have a free hand and China will “remain neutral.” But that, if the US tries to unseat Kim or attacks first, China will defend North Korea. It seems obvious that, with that Chinese statement, we have little to fear from the North Koreans; if they attack us, we can annihilate them and China will stand by and do nothing.)
Quote of the Day: Don’t Spook the Herd
“We are playing right into Kim Jong-Un’s hands,” General Thurman said. “That is what he wants. He wants to be on the world scene.”
“I really would want to tamp down this rhetoric, maintain armistice conditions, keep the force ready and,” he said, “not get the herd spooked.”
Jon K
New York, NY 1 hour ago
I don’t think anyone likes the idea of a war with North Korea (if they attacked Seoul the death toll would potentially reach the hundreds of thousands), but do you want to fight this war now, or 20 years down the road when their military is 5x as strong and more technologically advanced?
Kim Jung Un is a wicked man whose regime has committed countless crimes against humanity. Do you think his threats will end if we simply allow him to develop his military unabated? Do you think he will play fairly if we allow him a seat at the “big boy table”? Do you think he is happy with the current sanctions imposed on his country? Do you think he is happy that a US-backed South Korea borders his country?
He knows he is currently outgunned, and that is why he’s doing nothing more than running his mouth, but the moment feels he his military could actually win a war against South Korea, he will invade no doubt about it. That is what we are looking at 20 years down the road.
It’s a sad, sad situation that should have been dealt with 15 years ago… and since it wasn’t, a lot more people are going to die when this comes to a head…
Phyliss Dalmatian
Wichita, Kansas 50 minutes ago
We are now counting on North Korea to behave in a rational fashion, because OUR Dear Leader cannot. Think about that. Seriously.
Another Blog: Dying Man’s Daily Journal
Another site you may wish to peruse is a daily journal kept by a man with “terminal” congestive heart failure who was told in 2006 that he had a year or two to live (apparently he wasn’t offered a heart transplant). It runs from September 20, 2006 to August 4, 2016– nearly ten years. It contains intensely personal thoughts as well as many expressions of love to his relatives and friends. There are comments thru-out, sometimes as many as thirty. Here is a quote from a page he calls “my story”:
There is the saying which is so true. “Knowledge, without experience is only information”. I hope this will become a meeting spot for all that have the information and are in the midst of the experience.
Reading even a few entries in this blog will get you painfully close to a feeling of mortality. Fortunately for you, this will only be knowledge without experience, so you can take it.
Gentle readers are advised to try “VVatt’s Up With That“, a site which capitalizes on a homophone or visual pun on “Watt” to create a space which directly contradicts “Watt’s Up With That”– which is a fairly long-lived “climate denier” web site that has been an annoyance to everyone connected with the movement to limit the production of greenhouse gases.
Their latest post states that Greenland’s peat bogs are burning and shows what appears to be a satellite photo of a lot of fires… in fact, articles in New Scientist, Newsweek, and so on have spread the word that the largest wildfires in the short record of Greenland satellite observations (10 years) have begun over the last week and are likely to spread. Local authorities may not have the resources needed to attack these fires, which appear to be consuming dried-out peat bogs on the western coast of Greenland. Most of the country is still covered in ice up to 3 km thick, but the ice-free areas in the west have steadily enlarged over the last few years.
This is the sort of occurrence that will become more common as the twenty-first century wears on. The only way to prevent this is to reduce the carbon dioxide and methane concentrations in the air, and this is beyond our current technology. I suggest that a crash national program to develop such technology be implemented immediately (just kidding.)
Christine McM
is a trusted commenter Massachusetts 16 hours ago
Epic clash? Only if Trump stays as stupid as he has been. The worst thing that happened to Trump was that the Access Hollywood tape didn’t do him in.
Up to that point, he’d pretty much skated above all his usual garbage, from the attacks on Gold Star parents and to the low blow to McCain.
But hubris–which Lord knows Trump has in spades– has a tendency to metastasize. As Maureen points out, even now Donald thinks he can intimidate Mr. Clean.
He actually feels he can set “red lines” across which Mueller won’t dare cross out of fear of …. Hum. Fear of what, Mr. Trump?
Now I can’t speak for Russia, but here in the United States there is a quaint custom we have called the rule of law. And as far as I know, a person or team leader being investigated has to be pretty brazen to think he’s above it. Especially a president of the United States under investigation for collusion with a foreign power to win an election.
Yes, there are tributaries and rivulets of criminality that Trump may think out of bounds, but aren’t. Former FBI chiefs know the Russians are notorious for setting financial traps to coopt US citizens years before they need them for nefarious plots.
And if anyone acts coopted, it’s Donald J. Trump–an ideal “useful idiot” Putin has right where he wants him, to use as a poster boy for how easy it is to sew chaos inside an effete American democracy.
Colin McKerlie
Sydney 14 hours ago
I don’t believe Congressional Republicans will ever allow impeachment proceedings to begin, no matter what anyone can prove about Trump. Mueller and Comey might be Republicans, but they aren’t politicians.
What I want out of this investigation is publication of a detailed and accurate analysis of all Trump’s business dealings from Day One.
Any decent, thinking person must believe that the fundamental problem is that Trump was able to be nominated as a candidate for president while actively and openly concealing the truth about his business history. That was insane and it must never be allowed to happen again.
I don’t care so much about whether Republican politicians want to know the truth about Trump. I want to know the truth. I want to know who this guy really is, what he has done, who he has done business with and who he owes money. I want my own opinion to be informed, and then I’ll know what to think about Trump and what to think about the people who would nominate a man for president without knowing the truth about him.
This cannot be allowed to happen again. This investigation must lead to bipartisan laws that require full disclosure of every official document of any kind relating to a candidate before he is even allowed to register as a candidate.
The very idea that you are entitled to keep secrets about your business, professional or in any other way accountable behaviour while running for high public office is just insane. We need laws that make it impossible.
Mike Roddy
is a trusted commenter Alameda, Ca 15 hours ago
Trump, of course, is crazy, but the business with the Russians is about one thing: Money. The whole Trump ship was about to go down a decade ago, as lenders canceled his credit and he had to sell his yacht. That meant that Trump would do whatever it took to avoid penury. He was not going to get a job as a waiter, or live on his salary from The Apprentice. Instead, he turned to criminals for help:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/28/trump-business-past…
As you have pointed out, Maureen, Trump is the same person he’s been since his parents so tormented him many years ago, and is not capable of change.
The real villain here is the Republican Party. Very few of them opposed his candidacy on principle- unless, like Romney, he wasn’t running for office.
No, they expressed quiet “concern” with his candidacy, and then went back to their cowardly, obsequious selves when Trump won a few primaries. After he won, and his Presidency looked like something out of a funny farm, they made aw shucks gestures, and fell in line. As with siding with the oil companies (Russia is a major exporter) and Kochs.
The Democrats aren’t much better, but at least about a quarter of their Senators don’t sell out every single time. That’s our starting point- but if civilization is going to survive- no exaggeration- the people must insist on publicly financed elections.
Conrad Theodore Seitz 