President Donald J. Trump

[Lance]

LOL!

[Heid the Ba]

Doesn't Mongolia have small horses? I would fear the little horses.

The sound of hoofbeats cross the glade . . .

[Enzo]

My pony had a cold, and he's just a little horse.


SoKos probably could make nuclear bombs, most any industrial nation could I imagine. It strikes me that Trump thinks that is the answer, or considers it a reasonable option.

[g-one]

My pony had a cold, and he's just a little horse.

Badorties?

[Richard A]

I was one of the grudging supporters of the air strikes, although several friends and colleagues weren't - some felt it was US imperialism (for some reason, they seem to have less of a problem with Russian quasi-imperialism) while others made the more reasonable point that if America can afford to launch 58 Tomahawks at $500,000 a pop, how can they say they can't afford decent social welfare? But the real question that is bedevilling the West is: when Milosevic's behaviour in first Bosnia and then Kosovo became unacceptable, we went in with airstrikes (famously blowing a train full of kids into a ravine, albeit that pretty much everyone - except for the Serbs - have forgotten about that) and then limited ground troops and the result was not a disaster. Sarajevo is once again a very pleasant city (OK, unless you're a Serb, living in rather less pleasant "East Sarajevo" across the line in the Republika Srbska) - and the atrocities have stopped. But in Iraq, Syria and Libya, it hasn't. (Actually, to be fair, in Iraqi Kurdistan, it also worked for a while - until Qatar and Saudi Arabia decided to stir it and Turkey was only too delighted to help.) And that is our problem,

Yemen is a separate case - more like Iraqi Kurdistan than the others. There was an uprising that might well have been successful, replacing the President not with an enlightened democrat but at least with someone who was somewhat of an improvement. But Saudi Arabia had issues and we (Iargely the UK although I don't doubt others as well) make far too much money selling them arms to try to rein them in. Syria has been a morass - in Yemen, we have been actively culpable.

[Heid the Ba]

I'm with you on this, on all points. The cost of a Tomahawk varies from about USD 800k to USD 1.4 mil as far as I can see, depending on what you want it to do, these would have been at the lower end.

[Arneb]

I doubt the attacks will really shift any balances in the ME. But it probably can't hurt that the interested parties now know that gassing civilians can attract big insects with 1000 pounds of explosives that know where you parked your car last night. It's not speaking softly, but it's sure showing the big stick around.

In a not unexpected quirk, Russia and Iran chastised Drumpf for being "unpredictable". Have I got news for you...

Of course, the social wlefare argument is rather inane, as Richard A probably told his friend. If these costs were ever saved, (and they wont'), they'd go into tax cuts, not welfare.

[Richard A]

Arneb, re. the final point, I've learned when to argue and when not to bother. And to the first, absolutely!

[Lance]

There are now Syrian rebels singing Drump's praises and thanking him profusely. This worries me a little, because we know how much he feeds on that.

"Gee, blow shit up and people love me. Let's blow more shit up!"

[Arneb]

That's what we have had to say good-bye to: The notion that there is a gentleman in the White House who knows his stuff and makes calm, informed decisions. And it's precisely what people who voted for him wanted. That the right wing press now gives him gruff for changing his mind on seeing a few photos is the irony: You wanted him to be a loose cannon all along, right? Well, those cannons have a way of coming your way now and then, in a rolling ship.

[Lance]

Apparently we now have a carrier battle group headed toward the Korean peninsula.

Awesome.



ETA: Two irrational leaders going head to head. What could possibly go wrong?

[Enzo]

Well, recently Kin Dong Weenie wailed that our making fun of him in our media was tantamount to an "act of war", I wonder what he thinks of naval armadas showing up and real saber rattling rattling on? What does it take to tip that guy into rash action?

[Lance]

What does it take to tip that guy into rash action?

Waking up in the morning?

[Arneb]

That guy isn't rash. He is playing high stakes poker with a rotten hand and one ace up his sleeve - his maybe-maybe-not-working nuclear arsenal. I think he is very rational, though pretending not to be.

[Lance]

But to what end? He had the opportunity to ascend to power as a sane, rational leader and join the world stage and be welcomed. Wouldn't a sane, rational person have done that?

If he believes what he says and actually thinks he can win, that doesn't sound too rational to me.

What am I missing?

[Arneb]

Not much, I think. But perhaps he knows that as soon as he releases the grip on the North Korean people, who live in literally abject poverty while all the world around them is exploding with wealth, as soon as he touches the absolutely outrageous priviliges the North Korean nobilitiy is endwed with - they will find someone who puts HIM in front of a grenade launcher at the right time.

As I said, he is holding a very, very rotten hand. Towards the home front, there is little else to do than dispose of anyone who could get up to something in the most visible and abhorrent manner possible and to unite those who remain, trembling, behind the only rallying cry that still has some chance of having any effect: Yankee Ho Home!

He simply doens't have a chance as an enlightened despot correcting the exaggerations of his predecessors and preparing for his own retirement as a hero of Korean perestrojka. Maybe his father could have done it, in the early 90s, but chose to pass. Of course, it is entirely possible he is simply a barking mad sadist who actually believes what he tells the Korean media to say about him. And yes, that would be quite irrational.

[Lance]

I guess we'll know soon enough. If he starts shooting at the U.S. Warships (as they like to call themselves) I think that would make a clear case that he is stark raving mad.

Call me naïve, but I think he could find a way out of he wanted to, even now.

[Richard A]

The irony is that the Chinese are getting increasingly fed up with him as well. An option that he probably does have is a nice house in one of the new exclusive developments outside Beijing or Shanghai. Not as nice as continuing to be king of all he surveys, but better than being put in front of a grenade launcher. But, and this is the tricky bit, it would need the cooperation of someone a lot more savvy than Big Don! There have been some interesting articles on why China didn't pull the plug a while ago, but one of the more credible theories is that they don't want the loss of face of a complete Washington/Seoul victory combined with a string of US bases along the Yalu River. A deal could have sorted that - but post November 2016, it's a bit late for that. Unless those in the CIA who have the same view of their Commander-in-Chief that many others do can pull something.

[Enzo]

How about the CHinese look at North Korea as a blank slate, they could turn it into a huge industrial/commercial hub - a giant Hong Kong maybe?

[Lance]

That's a pretty good idea. It could be China's puppet and still be a buffer between itself and the South, but get some freedom, a sane leader and a more healthy economy.

Mactep? Any reason something like that wouldn't work?

[g-one]

The first part of this took me a sec., still chuckling though.

[MM_Dandy]

Ok. I have to admit it, you're better at this Illuminati secret code thing than I am. I have no idea what I'm looking at.

[g-one]

der fewrer

[Arneb]

[Arneb]

I wonder why this thread has fallen dormant. Isn't there anything to talk about here? I mean, treason of military secrets, bullying agencies of law enforcement, and meddling of a foreign power in a campaign leading up to supposedly free, fair, secret and equal elections isn't nothing, is it?

Or is everyone just getting used to that annyoing master alarm blaring about incessantly and tries to ignore it as best as possible?