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They may be figuring out some things about Trump and changing their tune. I won't hold my breath on that - but obviously they, or at least this author, has been paying attention.
After opening about how Trump has had to deal with mobsters in the NYC business world...
There is growing reason to believe that Donald Trump understands the thug mind a whole lot better than the people who attended our prestigious Foreign Service academies.
North Korea
The first piece of evidence is North Korea. When Trump was trading crude, back-alley swipes with “Little Rocket Man,” Kim Jong-un, about whose nuclear button was bigger, it sounded as if we were heading for a nuclear holocaust led by a pair of overgrown prepubescents.
In fact, Trump’s bellicosity seems to have worked. It’s impossible to know how things will pan out, but the situation with North Korea today is a lot better than it was six months ago.
China
Over the past few decades, the Western diplomatic community made a big bet: If we all behaved decently toward Chinese leaders, then they’d naturally come to embrace liberal economic and cultural values and we could all eventually share a pinot at the University Club.
The bet went wrong. Today’s Chinese elites are polite and coolheaded, but their economic, political and military behavior remains pure thug.
Iran
I do know that the argument that many of the Obama people relied on as predicate for the deal is wrong. They argued that, deep down, the Iranian leaders are worldly sophisticates who, if we just gave them the welcome mat, would want to join our community of nations.
This is the vanity of the educated class going back for centuries. Since we’re obviously so superior, everybody else secretly wants to be like us. It’s wrong. Thugs gotta thug.
Read the whole thing.
Interesting.
I'm not gonna click on that link, but we can look back and see how his efforts pan out wrt China, NK, Iran, etc.
Prior to Trump and wrt the Obama Administration, they were worthless causes.
Someone here recently posted how worried they were about Trump negotiating with Kim Jung-Un as if Kim is going to be the better negotiator. The gist was that he didn’t go to school to learn about foreign policy and will be in way over his head. I feel that Trump will be a far better negotiator than Kim. When has Kim ever had to negotiate anyway? He’s either been the thug holding all the cards or the obsequious puppet to China. Trump has dealt with people like that in New York and New Jersey real estate many times.
I can almost guarantee the results will be better than what Obama and Kerry got in Iran, which ultimately is an unsigned, non-binding nuclear disarmament deal. Most people wouldn’t even have an unsigned deal with a construction contractor, much less a nuclear deal. It’s like their only goal was to give back frozen assets and lift sanctions to the benefit of Iran, with no attempt to make it a good deal for everyone else. It literally was the worst deal in the history of state sponsored deals. We held all the cards too. It’s astonishing how bad it was.
Meh. Trump is pretending to manipulate that crazy nut in North Korea while at the same time happily fanning the flames of war in the Middle East with a different group of crazies. I'm not impressed.
The hypocrisy is on full display here, as Trump mouths off about how "evil" and "bad" it was of Obama to make deals with Iran, while working to make deals with North Korea. There is no evidence of any particular skill on Trump's part. He seems to be acting directly out of spite - "Well, uh - if Obama hated North Korea and liked Iran, I'll do the opposite!" - and is foolish enough to think he's going to make real progress when dealing with crazies.
I wish him luck, but really, people need to get over him. When dealing with nuts like the leaders of Iran and North Korea, you have no idea what you'll get it. It is EXTREMELY dangerous to think that you've made real progress with them when they give in on something.
You have a good point. Here on C-D - the ignore button comes in handy. The one-sided closed minded hacks are generally ignored.
There is an "ignore button" on City Data????
People actually use that sort of thing to stay in their Safe Space Echo Chambers???
How odd. Certainly there are plenty of Ideologues on both the Right, Left, Far Left and even Radical on forums - it's educational to read what these people think. It's beyond foolish to actually believe that these Radicals don't exist.
Say what? The failing New York times? That "Mexican owed blog" to quote a favorite, but lately missing, poster?
What the OP ignores is the the opinion bit in the NYT is by their in house Right winger. Brooks is not a big Trump fan but he is a republican who started to come around once Trump won.
This story would mean something if it were by a liberal or independent. but Brooks in neither of those..
I'm not gonna click on that link, but we can look back and see how his efforts pan out wrt China, NK, Iran, etc.
Prior to Trump and wrt the Obama Administration, they were worthless causes.
The link goes the the NY Times. It's safe... not always accurate - but safe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by evilcart
What the OP ignores is the the opinion bit in the NYT is by their in house Right winger. Brooks is not a big Trump fan but he is a republican who started to come around once Trump won.
This story would mean something if it were by a liberal or independent. but Brooks in neither of those..
I was not aware of who Brooks is when I posted the OP.
And even if it was by someone more liberal, you would poo-poo it anyway.
If Black folk started supporting Trump in the region of 15-20% - would that matter?
The link goes the the NY Times. It's safe... not always accurate - but safe.
I was not aware of who Brooks is when I posted the OP.
And even if it was by someone more liberal, you would poo-poo it anyway.
If Black folk started supporting Trump in the region of 15-20% - would that matter?
I suggest you read my post history, while much of it derides Trump and Trumpism, there are a number where I directly give Trump credit for progress made.
example Trump's policy ref H1B visas is well over due. i am not in favor of ending H1b visas at all , we need them. But they have been greatly abused at the lower levels and while Trump's changes to the rules are not perfect they are a real start.
One concern though is the policy of vetting these folks really hard, it discourages the super stars from coming and we really want them, they add massive value to our nation.
So yep i am not someone who thinks just because it has the stink of Trump on it that it stinks, i fully accept that no matter how evil or bad or mean or racist or sexist or criminal some of the things he does are going to be positive for the nation....
I do think Trump is a loser who was lucky and when his luck ran out he chose the path of criminal behavior.
So now the NYT puts out real news whenever there's the slightest hint of praise for Trump but fake news the rest of the time?
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