A Trump-suporting relative of mine pretty much told me not too long ago that, if my son lived into adulthood, I’d have Donald Trump to thank for it. He said this in response to my criticism of Trump, which, as I’ve come to learn, is somewhat easy to find on the internet. When I responded by asking him what in the hell he was talking about, he explained that, throughout American history, we’ve had big, all-consuming wars every couple of generations, and that, thanks to Trump, and his incredible grasp of geopolitical dynamics, we, at long last, would be breaking that cycle. I can’t remember his exact words, but I think the conversation ended with him saying something like, “When North Korea destroys their nuclear weapons, and the world becomes a safer place, will you finally acknowledge that Donald Trump deserves credit for having kept your son from danger?” If memory serves, I responded by saying, “There is no deal. All we have is a tweet from Donald Trump declaring that he’s made the world a safer place. So, no, I don’t image I’ll be thanking him for protecting my family.”
Here’s the tweet that I referenced, sent by Donald Trump just after his hastily thrown together summit meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Singapore.
Well, as it turns out, it looks as though my skepticism was justified. According to multiple sources within the administration, the North Koreans, since the Trump summit, have actually started ratcheting up their ballistic missile and nuclear capabilities. The following clip comes by way of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
…North Korea is completing a major expansion of a key missile-manufacturing plant, said researchers who have examined new satellite imagery of the site, the latest sign Pyongyang is pushing ahead with weapons programs even as the U.S. pressures it to abandon them.
The facility makes solid-fuel ballistic missiles — which would be able to strike U.S. military installations in Asia with a nuclear weapon with little warning — as well as re-entry vehicles for warheads that Pyongyang might use on longer-range missiles able to hit the continental U.S…
And this comes just days after NBC News shared satellite images taken of a secret nuclear site in North Korea, that, according to one U.S. official, appeared to show that, “Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, (and) the number of missiles.”
Here’s an excerpt from NBC News exclusive.
…U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months — and that Kim Jong Un may try to hide those facilities as he seeks more concessions in nuclear talks with the Trump administration, U.S. officials told NBC News.
The intelligence assessment, which has not previously been reported, seems to counter the sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after his historic June 12 summit with Kim that “there was no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.”
Analysts at the CIA and other intelligence agencies don’t see it that way, according to more than a dozen American officials who are familiar with their assessments and spoke on the condition of anonymity. They see a regime positioning itself to extract every concession it can from the Trump administration — while clinging to nuclear weapons it believes are essential to survival.
…In recent months, even as the two sides engaged in diplomacy, North Korea was stepping up its production of enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, five U.S. officials say, citing the latest intelligence assessment. North Korea and the U.S. agreed at the summit to “work toward” denuclearization, but there is no specific deal. On Trump’s order, the U.S. military canceled training exercises on the Korean peninsula, a major concession to Kim.
While the North Koreans have stopped missile and nuclear tests, “there’s no evidence that they are decreasing stockpiles, or that they have stopped their production,” said one U.S. official briefed on the latest intelligence. “There is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they are trying to deceive the U.S.”
Four other officials familiar with the intelligence assessment also said North Korea intended to deceive the U.S…
So, yeah, it looks like maybe all of Trump’s talk about how “everyone thinks” he deserves a Nobel Prize for shaking the hand of a dictator and pronouncing that he’d secured a promise of denuclearization may have been a little bit premature… Sorry, folks, but you can stop chanting “Nobel” now.
During his rally, President Trump's supporters begin chanting "Nobel," as in the Nobel Peace Prize. Some have said Trump should be considered for the award for his efforts on trying to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons https://t.co/xOrU0VYPaO pic.twitter.com/zoPq00JfXV
— POLITICO (@politico) April 29, 2018
None of this, of course, should be a surprise to anyone. Kim Jong Un, and his father before him, had tried unsuccessfully for decades to meet with U.S. officials, in hopes of legitimizing their dictatorial rule over North Korea. It wasn’t until we elected Donald Trump, however, that we had a president so desperate for a foreign policy ‘win’ that he’d consent to such a meeting. And Trump, who admitted to us that he didn’t prepare for the summit, gave them everything they could have wanted and more; saluting their generals, agreeing to end joint military exercises with South Korea (without first running the idea by our allies in South Korea), and promising to roll back sanctions against the rogue nation. And, in return for all of this, Trump got less than a handful of magic beans. He got the promise of a dictator… a well-known liar… a man who had his own half-brother assassinated… to end his nuclear missile program. And Trump didn’t just take him at is word, he actually held a press conference calling Kim Jong Un a “very honorable” man, and explaining to the American people that, even though no deal was signed, he’d made the world a safer place. [He then went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to praise Kim Jong Un for being “strong,” “funny,” and “smart”.]
Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that, just before Trump went into this meeting with Kim Jong Un, he tore up a very real disarmament agreement with Iran that essentially accomplished everything he said he wanted to accomplish in North Korea, but failed to. So, no, I don’t think he’s exactly a frontrunner in this year’s Nobel Peace Prize race, as he’s actually making the world considerably less stable. And, no, I don’t think, if my son avoids having to fight the next world war, it’ll be because of Trump’s great genius.
Trump is not, as this relative of mine seems to think, playing three-dimensional chess. He’s just a sociopathic conman with a fondness for authoritarianism, who, after being thrust into a job that he knew would destroy him, has figured out that he can buy time by constantly stirring up chaos and force feeding the accelerated news cycle of post-Twitter America. And that’s all that this is. Trump doesn’t care about North Korean aggression. He doesn’t care about our allies. He doesn’t care about world peace. And he certainly doesn’t care whether or not my son goes to war. He cares about publicly humiliating his opponents, golfing at his resorts, grabbing the occasional pussy, monetizing the Executive Branch to the best of his ability, keeping Robert Mueller at bay, and surrounding himself with people who stroke his ego. That is all.
update: Since posting this, our dangerously unhinged president has tweeted, “If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!“
27 Comments
Donald Trump has responded to your post:
“Many good conversations with North Korea-it is going well! In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months. All of Asia is thrilled. Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining. If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!”
“All of Asia is thrilled.”
Does “all of Asia” include our allies in South Korea who were blindsided when you told the North Koreans that you’d be ending joint military exercises on the Korean peninsula?
Trump shrugs off news of secret nuclear facility, wants credit for not starting WWIII.
Hyborian Warlord was wrong again.
He won’t admit it.
He is currently doing mental trigonometry necessary to prove you are wrong and he and Trump are right.
… wait. That gives him too much credit for independent thought. He is currently doing ‘research’ which he will copy paste here as original thought disproving this post and assuring everyone that he was in fact right about ongoing North Korean denuclearization in advance of any agreement. Right again, as always.
Because everyone knows that independent thinkers are never wrong. That’s fact, not fake news. Why would Kim Jong Un lie? or Trump. Such nice upstanding fellows.
PS North Korea expert in the news yesterday called the belief that NKorea might start denuclearizing in advance of any agreement ‘complete fantasy.’
If your son (and daughter!) avoids military service, it will be more because of your social class than because of a lack of war. Not to mention that the wars Bush started and Obama continued are pretty much still going on. We just don’t hear too much about it because combat deaths have been reduced so much in our modern times so it isn’t especially common anymore. The last big war with a lot of deaths that was felt by society as a whole was Vietnam.
Yes I noticed that presumption off gender too, Lynne. Not too surprising.
I often wonder if we brought back the draft how quickly hard power would be abandoned.
JH, I don’t know. My guess is that if we were actually drafting young people and then sending them off to wars with high amounts of combat deaths, the people would not accept it. That is a pretty high cost to a war, ie. having young people you know personally die in a war. I don’t know anyone who has died in a war. The only people I know who do are people who served. I know a couple of veterans wounded in war but that is it. It is easier to accept wars when the costs to one personally are not too great. The $$$$ costs are too abstract for most people.
Clown propaganda. They aren’t building nukes. CIA desperate to get Trump. You know they will stop at nothing. Do you not think they were involved with the JFK assassination? Problem is this time it is they who could be stopped.
Tell your trump supporting relative he’s fucking insane and that he should disqualify himself from ever voting again. And tell him that if he fucks with the well financed highly skilled libtards he’s gonna get his ass kicked, just like last time.
I hear Alex Jones is trying to bring up the price of ammo for the holidays. What a dick.
You shouldn’t have mentioned the JFK assassination, HW. Now they’ll just make a bunch of conspiracy theorist comments and jokes about you.
It’s not that they know anything about the topic. That’s not a requirement anymore. It’s all about impression. That’s all that matters. Give an impression and you’ve won. Nobody needs knowledge anymore. That’s all been fixed. When you needed knowledge to seem credible on anything, only a few people would do the little it took to get that knowledge. Now way more people can get involved, because people aren’t unfairly filtered out by expectations that they actually have some knowledge. Discussion is now open to anyone who can create a feeling or impression. It’s much more inclusive this way.
Speaking of assassinations, are any of you listening to the “RFK Tapes” podcast?
M
I don’t know why you torture yourself with those fucking podcasts. What are you trying to do, brain damage yourself? The annoying way those flakey nerds overproduce their little shows is so nauseating. It’s like they’re all trying to copy that pointless, time-wasting, ‘style’ with which NPR numbs its listeners’ already feeble minds. You all know what I’m talking about, that shit where it takes a half hour to share a few simple pieces of information, because they’re busy with goofy mood music, irrelevant sidebars, and personal information about which no listener gives a fuck. We don’t care about the fucking room you’re sitting in, podcasters. We don’t need a description of the view out you fucking dining room window, before you start in with the meat of the story. What is it about that crap that so many dopes find so wonderful, when they should actually be absolutely insulted by it. You do realize you’re being treated like a brain damaged fool who can’t just simply process information, right? No, you need a bunch of your tine wasted with shitty, simplistic, mood music and fun little personal tidbits. You’re a stunted baby.
The host of the “RFK Tapes,” Zac Stuart-Pontier, reminds me of Jean. Some sleeper who got jolted recently and now believes everything became real the moment he heard about it, and the source from which he got the info is in his mind automatically where the stuff originated. What an egocentric asshole. I am so sick of guys like that. It’s hard for me to imagine everybody isn’t. But then again, all these man-children are still flocking to superhero movies by the hundreds of millions like so many little emotionally stunted drones. So I guess it’s just something those rare folk with minds and emotions which managed full development to adulthood, are going to have to stomach ‘til they die.
Zac’s dad’s friend, Bill Klaber is even more of a flake, being that he is much older and still treats the fucking thing like it’s a big mystery. Here’s a little clue for you slower folks out there – If any investigator looks at a case as simple as this one for 50 years and still acts like it’s a mystery, he’s a fucking ignoramus. Or, he’s getting paid to pretend it’s still a mystery, for the ‘neat-o’ factor dumb people get from that, or because it’s a stipulation of his suspicious book deal (Mel Ayton & Dan Moldea)
A guy was shot in a room with dozens of witnesses. Just outside that room there are many hundreds more. This was never a fucking tough case. Think about the absurdity of anyone ever suggesting it was, and 50 years later no less. The very first eyewitness reports stated the security guard (Thane Caesar) behind Kennedy pulled a gun and fired it multiple times. Some even stated they saw Kennedy was his by the security guard’s shots. Every bit of evidence suggested multiple guns firing and as technological advances have been made in electronic analysis, it’s been well eastablished that there were two 22 caliber revolvers being fired. Even the general positions of those guns is certain within a foot or so.
If you want to save yourself the agony and hours of wasted time listening to all those musical interludes and irrelevant sidebars those childish podcasters can’t help but torture their listeners with, just read the investigative work of three individuals; Ted Charach, Philip H. Van Praag, and Shane O’Sullivan.
If after going through the research of those three individuals, you still want to continue on with the fun charade of pretending like there is this ongoing unsolved mystery in the case, then you’re a hopeless moron. Or, like I said, your an author who has to avoid certain facts to keep the money you were given in your shady book deal (Mel Ayton & Dan Moldea)
I would have settled for either a yes, or a no.
Oh, well, uh…then, yes
Thank you for the tip. ;-)
I’m on episode 2
I hear Alex Jones is trying to bring up the price of ammo for the holidays. What a dick.
Oh come on! I have been laughing all day to the #SecondCivilWarLetters on twitter. Some good has come of it.
Alex Jones was right again. The second civil war broke out and was raging last night. I hid in my root cellar for the duration.
This morning as the smoke cleared, I emerged into a wasteland. The devistation is post-apocalyptic. The many survivors seem to have all suffered some sort of brain damage, or are severely shell-shocked, as they are wandering around aimlessly and babbling nonsensically. Some appear to be attempting to articulate political and philosophical ideas, but what comes out of their mouths is senseless drivel. Most seem to have given up on that, and instead drone on endlessly about TV shows and sporting events, waiting to be put out of their misery. It’s all so terrible to wade through, but I may try to make it to the freeway and see if I can get out of here and to somewhere safe.
“The host of the “RFK Tapes,” Zac Stuart-Pontier, reminds me of Jean. Some sleeper who got jolted recently and now believes everything became real the moment he heard about it, and the source from which he got the info is in his mind automatically where the stuff originated. What an egocentric asshole. I am so sick of guys like that. It’s hard for me to imagine everybody isn’t.”
iRobert– Ok you finally made me laugh, That was a solid screed plus informed and specific. I even liked getting dinged. Getting dinged on being a know-it-all is apt. Cant deny it. I’m not new to being a news hound or having strong political opinions. I was writing to the politicians and marching to the principal’s office to complain in elementary school. I staged a sit in in 5th grade because the co-teachers instituted a system wherein punishments made up by the students were drawn from a fishbowl no matter the infraction… Ive always been a mouthy and argumentative broad. Even in my Christian Conservative hometown. So good luck whining so much that I stop. I was late the the internet and much later to social media. This is the only blog I engage on. I really only use FB. I also only eat at the same few restaurants, shop in the same few stores. I’ve always been a know it all who haunts the same places. And I for sure wear out my welcome sometimes. I don’t care though. Not one bit.
It is interesting that you have the impression I’m imagining I’m the only person thinking these things. Especially given the links I offer supporting my position. It may sound that way because my posts are a form of working out my thinking in real time. This is why I don’t care what anyone thinks or about spelling etc. I really am fine if you skip over everything I write. We all have to take responsibility for spending our time reading the posts of people who annoy us. Lord knows I spend a lot of time thinking about why I do that. I am first and foremost an extremely curious person. I’m sorry/not sorry if that bugs you. It has mostly served me well.
Anyway, thanks for the laugh.
“Clown propaganda. They aren’t building nukes. CIA desperate to get Trump. You know they will stop at nothing.”
lol
phuuuuck dude secondcivilwarwheresmywhitesupremacistdogantiracistiscodewordforantiwhite dont you se the 1cp connectionsjesterskullbongyo
Fox News: “Pompeo reportedly gives Kim Jong Un an Elton John ‘Rocket Man’ CD at Trump’s request”
This is what now passes for diplomacy under the rule of idiots.
Wait, what’s this? I thought that there was “no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.” This isn’t making any sense. Could it be that Donald Trump was wrong when he told us that he had Kim Jong Un’s solemn oath to denuclearize?
Proving once again that only fools rush in, Trump forced a summit for cheap headlines. In the process, he gave legitimacy to the most oppressive communist regime on the planet, further damaged the United States and made himself look like a fool.
It is all part of his plan to oppose the deep state lizard people conspiracy.
Mark M.: well said!
“Trump doesn’t care about North Korean aggression. He doesn’t care about our allies. He doesn’t care about world peace. And he certainly doesn’t care whether or not my son goes to war. He cares about publicly humiliating his opponents, golfing at his resorts, grabbing the occasional pussy, monetizing the Executive Branch to the best of his ability, keeping Robert Mueller at bay, and surrounding himself with people who stroke his ego. That is all.”
New indicators show that North Korea could be in the midst of building new missiles, The Washington Post reports.
https://cnn.it/2OsvL37
Tell us again about how Donald Trump solved the problem of North Korea and delivered peace to the people of the world.
It’s part of his bigger plan.
Stop trying to twist things so Trump looks bad!
It’s being reported now that North Korea has ramped-up construction of a long-range launch site, since Trunp’s talks with them ended with no progress.
North Korea is making no attempt to conceal the construction activity, suggesting it may be an attempt at bringing Trump back to the negotiating table. Still, it seems likely they will again soon be testing and developing their ICBM program.