The far-right's president was easily played by one of the world's worst barbarians, or, as President Spanky calls him "Funny Guy."
All Trump sees in Kim are condos, hotels, etc. He noted the beach area in North Korea as a great area for his future hotel. Trump couldn't care less about human rights violations, all he sees are dollar signs.
I guess time will tell on how this shakes out. So far we did not pay millions for hostage release nor are we giving billions for the further development of Nuc's. We will have to see what the verification process is all about because a previous deal with another country had none.
All of this agonizing about human rights, how Kim is brutal and djt did nothing to stop that. Remember Assad was not very benevolent with his people but that didn't matter. What we got from our esteemed leader was a line in the sand and a russian bailout. Not very positive leadership was it.
Many liberals would rather see the US fail if it meant DJT would be gone, talk about derangement syndrome.
Skud, I hope you're wrong regarding Trump succeeding. I for one hope we do get something positive out of this Korea opening. But I think a lot is going to depend on the Chinese. Will they want an American ally on their doorstep?
I will just say if America succeeds and Trump is president, Great. Because we all win in that. But I think you'll struggle to find a conservative from 2008/2009 who felt that way about Obama. Remember McConnell wishing our president would fail. I'd never heard a member of any opposition party wish for such a thing until then. And I've followed politics pretty closely since before I walked precincts for Richard Nixon before the 1972 elections.
Did I miss reading how NoKo put in writing in "The Deal" just how and when they would denuclearize their country? I seem to have missed the conditions, the verifications, the inspections. Right now, from what I know, NoKo has all of its nuclear weapons, and hasn't got rid of anything.
I remember when President Obama gave the order to special forces to get Osama bin Laden, which resulted in bin Laden's death. No one on the right was willing to praise or give credit for that, and now those same people are howling because we liberals call into question the details of Trump's "deal" with NoKo. There are no details and as far as anyone can determine, NoKo got the better deal: it got a meeting with a US president and NoKo got the US president to call off military games without NoKo giving up anything -- not even their nuclear weapons.
Did the meeting disfuse a dangerous situation? Sure. But who was the loud-mouth bully promising "Fire and Fury!" and the annihilation of the Korean peninsular? Hmmmm? Should Trump get credit for defusing a dangerous confrontation HE started?
Shaw... maybe, just maybe, this will be a great opening for us and give us a front for leverage against China in the war over intellectual rights. Maybe.
Look, Clinton, Bush and Obama all failed using the "normal" methods. It is possible that Trump's approach just might work.
Who knows... maybe we get our ship back after how many years? That would be pretty remarkable wouldn't it?
I could be wrong but I believe NoKo's real position so stated in so many words) is both sides share responsibility to de-nuke.
So far we did not pay millions for hostage release nor are we giving billions for the further development of Nuc's. We will have to see what the verification process is all about because a previous deal with another country had none.
Skud, I assume you mean the Iran deal and none of that is true. The money wasn't ours, it was Iran's frozen assets. The money was returned when they met certain agreements. The deal had the most stringent verification protocols of any any non proliferation deal, ever. Look it up. Iran removed 98% of it's uranium stockpile. They got rid of 75% of their centrifuges and are to keep only the oldest ones. They aren't allowed to enrich past 3.6%, weapons grade must be enriched to 98%.
Trump's own admin. said Iran is complying. It's hard to take you seriously when you can't get one fact straight.
Dave I believe McConnell said he hoped BHO failed to win a second term, big difference and I bet the democrats felt the same for W and DJT.
We will see if this deal with NKO holds up. NKO always tests a new president and in the past we gave them what they wanted, doesn't seem that way now. We are all dealing with a unconventional president who is not a professional politician and doesn't care if the hollywood crowd or the other world politicians think of him. Unlike other presidents he is not running a popularity contest. I don't care for his personal actions but he is accomplishing a lot in 18 months.
Kim is saying the sanctions will be loosened gradually but that's probably just for internal consumption.
skud: "...a unconventional president who is not a professional politician and doesn't care if the hollywood crowd or the other world politicians think of him."
Apparently President Spanky doesn't care about what the majority of Americans think about him either. As of June 10, his average approval rate is 42%. Also it's not just "world politicians" who think he's an ill-informed embarrassing jerk, it's our allies and their populations who do as well. He called our neighbor and close ally Canada's Trudeau "weak" and some other stupid name, but praised a butcher who starves his own people and murders his own family "a talented, funny guy."
You think Trump is good for America and the world because he's not a politician and doesn't care what other people think?
Have you ever studied the history of world despots? Neither did they. Trump has a lot in common with them.
You said Trump has accomplished a lot in 18 months, but give no evidence. Besides reversing everything he can from the Obama years, what has he done to improve life for the average American? Don't tell us the tax cuts, because it is a fact that only the 1% did well on that.
Oh, maybe you believe ripping children as young as 4 years old away from their parents and putting them in cages is something Americans can be proud of?
I am one American sees that as a crime against humanity, and I hope Trump pays dearly for doing that to families.
Skud... you are correct. McConnell said he wanted Obama to be a one term president. Rush Limbaugh said all Republicans want Obama to fail, a claim no one contradicted. Mike Pence at the time said "You bet, we want those policies to fail."
Notice Pence did not say he thinks those policies will fail, or they will not work, he said he hopes they fail. Why? Because if they worked, there would be no reason for the GOP.
Clearly no one was saying within the GOP, as Sen Chuck Schumer did the other say, that while they disagree with Pres Obama, they hope he is successful.
As for Trump, his admin has indeed done a lot. Of damage. To American prestige and influence around the globe. His admin, as evidenced by Scott Pruitt at EPA is also incredible ethically challenged. The economy is humming and that is good for all Americans. I know many of my liberal buddies will just say he inherited the Obama economy, but so what? The pres in office gets the blame and the credit for the econ no matter what.
He has also exacerbated, or perhaps better stated laid bare, the nationalistic almost "White is right" view of many folks of a certain generation. Sadly, he did not have to. I appreciate that he felt he was standing up for the Nazi's in that march because they were American. But when has he ever stood up publicly for blacks, hispanics or any other American group in the face of criticism?
In a sense, I'm with you. I don't think he will be a 100% failure as Pres and I hope he isn't. But as a person, I see no redeeming qualities in him. None. No humility, no empathy and no still small voice in his soul. Only a desire to win and make your opponents look as bad as possible.
Les... NoKo clearly wants to get ALL nukes of the peninsula. And that means ours. That would give them a standing army that literally could just overrun the south.
Dave, I've made that observation as well. If KJU can get the American military out of the Korean peninsular, what's to stop him from going into Seoul, which is just beyond the DMZ? North Korea has one of the world's largest standing army. KJU would love to have the Korean peninsular fall to Communism, and I'm fairly sure China wouldn't mind that either.
KJU is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Trump lavished praise on him that wasn't necessary, but he probably thought it would "soften" the butcher up so that he would cooperate in getting the Nobel Peace Prize for Trump.