monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Quote:

Report: China, Russia send ships after Trump’s 'armada' heads to N. Korean waters

China and Russia have dispatched spy vessels to shadow a US aircraft carrier group heading to North Korean waters, Japanese media said, amid rising tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Beijing sought Russian help in averting a crisis over North Korea last week, as concerns grow in China that Donald Trump is seeking to confront North Korea over its weapon’s program.

The US president sent a navy group led by the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson into the region, in what is being seen as a signal to Pyongyang.

Mr Trump described the force as an “armada” and said that submarines were being sent which were “far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.”

Our military is building and is rapidly becoming stronger than ever before. Frankly, we have no choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2017

The Yomiuri Shimbun, citing “multiple sources of the Japanese government”, said China and Russia had “dispatched intelligence-gathering vessels from their navies to chase the USS Carl Vinson”.

The ships are “strengthening warning and surveillance activities in the waters and airspace around the area,” Japan’s largest daily newspaper said, according to its English language sister publication, The Japan News.

The Telegraph

0 Replies

Anyone remember the last time the US, China and Russia all had a military presence off the Korean Peninsula at the same time?

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

Quote:

It's not surprising that your contempt for Trump has you equating him with Kim Jong-Un; absurd but not surprising.

No equation was made other than as regards both engaging in a particular, but highly common, presentation of self as a threatening alpha male sort - "I'm big, I'm tough and if you mess with me you'll regret it". In an earlier post, you alluded to our primate inheritance. Chimps and other primates frequently engage in dominance contests but only rarely do these end up in serious fights. Normally, effective presentation of being threatening does the trick. One example from Gombe - an average sized chimp male gained dominance in his troupe with a garbage-can lid and a stick. He held the metal lid in one hand and hit it with the stick as he charged other males. And with humans, most such contests (take the GOP primary debates) avoid violence.

Quote:

One last comment on phallus oscillation – With the unexpected, by me, ballistic missile test by NK, Trump was confronted with what your theory about the man and the matter would seem to dictate: a responsive wave that the insecure little boy inside of him couldn’t possible resist and yet resist such an urge is precisely what little Donny did.

That he resisted launching some sort of military attack doesn't strike me as much of an argument for his sobriety and wisdom.

1 Reply

@hightor,

That NYT piece is very good and I hope folks read it. Thanks hightor.

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@snood,

Hard to bow Blatham's intent in his odd and idiotic comment. Fairly clear it was intended to offend and end a dialogue that wasn't going well for him: his ignorance and prejudices were exposed.

You earlier objected to the term 'slavish claque', but here demonstrated that it fits you perfectly.

3 Replies

@georgeob1,

Teasing would be the better way to understand the "menstruation" comment. Which followed a post from you that was personally rude and mean-spirited. Kind of like this last one.

You've said on numerous occasions that you don't like to see the sorts of opinions I write myself or forward from others (about Trump or other Republicans or conservatism in its modern form). I can accept that but it has no influence on what I'll write or forward. You'll just have to live with that.

As to your supposition that I respond or do not respond to something from you in a manner which provides some means to escape a daunting and superior argument... you're on the wrong track.

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Quote:

Nearly three months into his presidency, and President Donald Trump appears to still sit alone in the morning with Twitter while watching the news.

He published a series of tweets Monday morning while watching cable news, praising “Fox and Friends” and criticizing other members of the media.

Quote:
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
"The first 90 days of my presidency has exposed the total failure of the last eight years of foreign policy!" So true. @foxandfriends
5:07 AM - 17 Apr 2017

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
The Fake Media (not Real Media) has gotten even worse since the election. Every story is badly slanted. We have to hold them to the truth!
5:17 AM - 17 Apr 2017

TPM
Absolutely! Nailed it! No one is more honest than Trump! Except maybe Fox which is terrific on honesty! And truth! So true!! So very, very true!!!

1 Reply

Quote:

Donald Trump’s big problem is he doesn’t know what he’s talking about
At least it’s one of his problems.

Donald Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about. This became clear when he said he realized dealing with North Korea was “not so easy” after 10 minutes with the Chinese president.

Dealing with complicated problems is an occupational hazard faced by outsiders in all fields — and there’s never been a president who is more of an outsider to the realm of public policy. Consequently, a lot of his assertions about critical matters of public concern are based on ... nothing at all. As president, he is fitfully coming into contact with concrete policy choices, actual information, and well-informed people. And it’s making a difference.

That’s the dynamic behind many of this spring’s jarring policy reversals on backing out of NATO, Chinese currency manipulation, and relations with Russia.

And to the extent that Trump is replacing ignorance with information and bad policy with good policy, it deserves to be celebrated rather than mocked. But the wild swings themselves are disturbing and have consequences. And Trump’s actual habits around issuing ignorant pronouncements and failing to obtain sound information don’t appear to have changed. Most fundamentally of all, Trump’s laziness and ignorance leave him easily manipulated.

Vox
And heck, nobody knew that healthcare would be so complicated.

He is easily manipulated and that is no small problem. Because he lacks so much foundational knowledge for this position and because of his personal characteristics (he's intellectually lazy, he doesn't want to read, his attention span is not much better than a toddler, he's incurious, etc) his obvious strategy is to loudly bluster about his intelligence/knowledge/performance but then leave all the hard brain work to others. And if those others aren't helping him promote and market himself and his presidency as Best Ever, he'll turn to some other set of people. And then some other set.

So, this is all a rather serious problem. But thank god he doesn't go around grabbing women by the pussy. And bragging about it.

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@blatham,

As USA put it,

Quote:

It is unclear which story, or stories, prompted the president's ire.

source

Most of the stories have been either just factual, or pretty complimentary of late.

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@georgeob1,

My friendliness with Blatham and others, and the fact that we agree on much politically demonstrates nothing subservient or diminutive about me, as you suggest it does. Your insistence on gratuitously using an ad hominem which is clearly intended to cause offense on a couple of levels is what's demonstrative here - about you.

1 Reply

@georgeob1,

Quote:

Fairly clear it was intended to offend and end a dialogue that wasn't going well for him:

That's you in a nutshell, georgeob1. A coward you flees discussions in a flash when he/you see[s] the direction its going.

Not that you don't have a lot of fellow travelers in that regard. You are all deeply truth adverse. Even the guys you argue with you have much in common with.

0 Replies

@snood,

Quote:

Anyone remember the last time the US, China and Russia all had a military presence off the Korean Peninsula at the same time?

Sure do, Snood, and funny, no one wants to discuss it. Is it because the US is poised to commit another massive set of war crimes against the people of Korea? When you haven't even come to terms with your massive sets of war crimes against the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, ... .

How does such deep, abiding evil persist among a group of people who perennially brag that they are the saviors of the poor, the destitute, the down trodden?

No one has trodden more people and countries down than the genocidal USA.

1 Reply

@snood,

Quote:

which is clearly intended to cause offense on a couple of levels is what's demonstrative here - about you.

Exactly what I was thinking. A couple of levels for sure. Or should I say, "sure enough?"

0 Replies

@camlok,

I am hopeful saner heads than Trump and Pence will win out in the end, and bring down the male chest thumping a notch or two. For the world's sake.

4 Replies

@revelette1,

Trump has never figured out that what he says has consequences. He loves publicity, but doesn't know how to control his ignorance.

1 Reply

@revelette1,

Quote:

I am hopeful saner heads than Trump and Pence will win out in the end, and bring down the male chest thumping a notch or two. For the world's sake.

A nice thought, Revelette, and I hope your hope is realized but it's hardly just a Trump/Pence problem though I know that it's better to stop more slaughter than worry about past slaughters.

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@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

Trump has never figured out that what he says has consequences. He loves publicity, but doesn't know how to control his ignorance.

Stop pointing fingers at Trump, Cicerone and start pointing them at your own chests because your ignorance is willful, it's calculated to deceive, it's amoral, it's deeply evil to banter back and forth about a Dem or a Con when they are all war criminals and terrorist supported by WHO, Cicerone?

1 Reply

Breaking news from the BBC.

Quote:

North Korea will continue to test missiles despite international condemnation and increasing military tensions with the United States, a senior official has told the BBC.

"We'll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis," Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-Ryol told the BBC's John Sudworth in Pyongyang.

He said that an "all out war" would result if the US was "reckless enough to use military means".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39623882

0 Replies

@camlok,

http://www.jjmccullough.com/index.php/the-ignorance-of-donald-trump/
Trump is a deeply ignorant man. I agree with McCullough.

0 Replies

@blatham,

blatham wrote:

Quote:
It's not surprising that your contempt for Trump has you equating him with Kim Jong-Un; absurd but not surprising.
No equation was made other than as regards both engaging in a particular, but highly common, presentation of self as a threatening alpha male sort

That's not the only thing they have in common.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/77/05/59/7705593ca3728495db672c087088ba66.jpg

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/304/media/images/74251000/jpg/_74251310_74251309.jpg

0 Replies

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