Tony Burman writes that this past week reminded us of things we already knew about Donald Trump:
We already knew that Donald Trump has a pathological infatuation for dictatorships and the authoritarian leaders who rule them, and a loathing of everything that genuine democracy entails.
But what we learned -- or should have learned -- this week is that Donald Trump is a danger to us all. There are five lessons we should take from the week just passed:
1. Kim is a much better negotiator than Trump:
The overwhelming consensus of nuclear experts is that Kim Jong Un clearly outmanoeuvred the U.S. president. The North Korean leader made fewer concessions than in previous negotiations with the U.S., dating back to the 1990s. He promised only to “work towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” – but with no timetable or details. In exchange, not only did he achieve a unique one-on-one summit with the American president — an obsession of the Kim dynasty for decades — but Trump also agreed to Kim’s request that the U.S. cancel joint military exercises with South Korea.
2. Trump stands in awe of North Korea:
Only six months ago, Trump had described North Korea in these terms: “The horror of life in North Korea is complete … Leaders imprison their people under the banner of tyranny, fascism and oppression.” Yet, after the Singapore summit, Trump told the Voice of America that he had this message for North Koreans: “I think you have somebody that has a great feeling for them. He wants to do right by them and we got along really well.”
3. Trump doesn't care about international relations. Everything he does is done for domestic reasons:
Trump made this absurd claim: “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office …” But he showed why this is all about the mid-term congressional elections five months from now: “Honestly, I think (Kim) is going to do these things. I may be wrong. I mean, I may stand before you in six months and say, ‘Hey, I was wrong’. I don’t know that I’ll ever admit that, but I’ll find some kind of excuse.”
4. The Iran Deal -- which Trump just walked away from -- was a much better deal than the one Trump got from Kim:
North Korea has a developed and sophisticated nuclear program, hidden in underground bunkers throughout the country. Nuclear experts estimate it would take years for the process to happen. None of that was reflected in the skimpy two-page Singapore statement written by Trump and Kim. In contrast, nuclear experts point to the detailed, 159-page Iran nuclear deal as a potential model for any North Korea nuclear breakthrough. Of course, this is the deal that Trump has attacked as “the worst deal ever … defective at its core.”
5. The G7 meeting in Quebec was a disaster. Through insults and bullying, Trump injected chaos into the western alliance that he seems to loathe so much.
Coming as it did immediately before his lovefest with Kim Jong Un, the uproar revealed the enormous challenge currently being faced by 21st-century democracies in the Era of Trump. That may be the ultimate warning bell from this historic week.
Kim knows he's dealing with a "dotard." After the past week, the rest of the world now knows that, too.
Image: Politico Europe
14 comments:
Among Republicans, Trump's approval numbers are higher than Reagan or even Eisenhower's at the same point in their presidencies. Maher made the point that Trump can freely lie to his base because they function, and may have become, a cult. As for the Republican political caste, he's taught them that whether they are even nominated depends on his nod of approval. As George Will put it, they're in Congress to be in Congress. They have no uncrossable red line when it comes to Trump. They fear him and, for their own survival, will do his bidding.
So, yes, we've seen many horrible things in Trump but it doesn't matter. We will see more. The party has been subsumed by Trump. Now it is the party of Trump. This man is sociopathic in his insatiable quest for power. He leaves nothing on the table, nothing that he can pry loose untaken. And, for him, it truly is a zero-sum world in which the ultimate measure of his success is the loss sustained by the other side. There's a genuine sadism in that.
If the ravages of age and mental infirmity don't claim him first, I still think it plausible that there's a bullet in D.J. Trump's future.
Perhaps a rather telling slip by Trump was something he said that NPR broadcast. In reference to claims of Russian collusion, he said that they were an insult, not only to him but his millions of "followers." Funny, I didn't know that in a democratic institution one has followers. I thought they were "supporters." That slip perhaps suggests the cult of personality he has cultivated, and explains much about his admiration for Dear Leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump is clearly impressed with Kim's hold on his people, Lorne. It's clear that Donald is a meglomaniac. But do Americans care? And what about the rest of us, whose lives he endangers?
There well might be. Mound. But a bullet will make things worse. We can hope that Meuller catches up to him before the bullet. And that voters evict him his party from power before the country crosses the Rubicon.
On the other hand, in polls, fewer and fewer people are self identifying as Republicans, "independents" are up, and so are Democrats.
Only 21-27% of US Voters, ( actual voters, not just registered voters) self identify as Trumpista's, which amounts to 16% or less of eligible voters.
It seems, not voting has consequences.
It's all about turn out, Jay -- and turn out in the right places. It's still worth remembering that Hilary won the popular vote by 3 million votes. And the difference in the the three stytes that made the difference was something a little more than 70,000 votes.
Kim was clearly the better negotiator. We all saw how Trump was impressed with Kim. What we didn't see was how Kim pulled off this feat. Fortunately, cartoonist Tom Toles was on scene and captured it for us.
Cap
It means everything, Cap, to have a "worshipful populace.'
A somewhat more sophisticated analysis than the one offered here would note that North Korea developed nukes to prevent the US running roughshod over it. You'd have to be a delusional paranoid to feel threatened by Kim if you weren't the US. What is he going to do, send troops to invade any country besides South Korea? Does Kim intrude on Canadian business? It only intrudes on US business because the US says it does, which is the imperialist response to "Why aren't you bowing down to us like everyone else? Correct your ways or be destroyed." Very friendly.
The US has invaded 70 countries since WW2, including North Korea, and killed millions. They abrogate treaties when it suits them, such as Iran sanctions and applying mindless new tariffs on raw materials, softwood lumber, etc. Does a written treaty with the US make you certain it will last? The US is as untrustworthy as the pundits say Kim is. It swaggers the big bully line. It could not give a tinker's cuss what its "allies" think, because what are they going to actually do beyond leaping futiley up and down in disagreement? Only France does not have a US miltary base within its borders.
In the next year or so as our Western economies reel under the weight of paying tithes to King Donald Land for perceived past slights, and not putting our shoulder fully to the wheel in assistance of whatever stupid defence policy was dreamt up by the paranoiacs to our south, we'll probably start to feel the way Kim feels now. Oppressed.
And instead of continually parroting whatever neocon foolishness State and CIA come up with on foreign policy, we'll wish we had a way to tell the US to go fly a kite. But we'll have to take it on the chin like good little children, and smile as we eat our gruel. We have no real response.
The US has a funny way of thanking its accolytes for past faithful assistance in imperialist adventures - kick 'em where it hurts.
If Kim outmanoevres Trump, I shall laugh my a*s off. We can't do it, because we are not arguing from a position of strength. The North Koreans can kick back but all we can do is say Yessir.
BM
That's precisely why it's foolish to think Kim will denuclearize, BM. He's not going to givee up -- you'll excuse the pun -- his Trump Card.
And Russian Ratfucking.
In the US, it's often more the trifecta, gerrymandering, ratfucking and voter suppression.
Note the comments that have been made about his inability to employ maximum disagreeability in face-to-face adversarial situations. I've always thought that he's especially intimidated by the authoritarian cutthroats. Of course, I'm sure I would be too.
Everybody has to hope that nobody tries to send that bullet. Whether he survived it or not, he might attain a type of heroic status among his current admirers and the door would be opened to perpetuation of the cult through many more yet to follow. Look what a gunshot wound did for Reagan. It's the stuff of legends.
However you look at it Jay, it's supression and sadism. It's about a man who takes pleasure in other people's suffering -- especially if he can be the cause of that suffering.
The cult is already well established, John. A bullet would make it very hard to get rid of the cult.
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