tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post1420164897341622804..comments2024-03-29T06:22:47.638-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Predicting the Korea "deal." Kim gets everything he wants.David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger128125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74340678906367118392018-06-18T13:30:08.271-07:002018-06-18T13:30:08.271-07:00"Slowly but surely, the Enlightened West has ..."Slowly but surely, the Enlightened West has become an over-legislated shithole that punishes men for marriage & reproduction, the labourer for labouring, the majority in favour of the minority & the hyper-responsible to the benefit of the parasitic layabout."<br /><br />I'm curious as to what you mean to say? The big changes to marriage that I would note are that divorce is easier and women are more likely to work, making alimony smaller on average but making women less likely to stay in a poor marriage. Also, wife-beating has become illegal in fact when previously just de jure. Also, govt cash subsidies for marriage have gone up. <br /><br />Reproduction? The main benefit is personal, as it has always been. It is harder for men to avoid responsibility for their children than previously. Housing and education are more expensive. For non-white parents, their kid's prospects are less limited by racism than ~50 years ago.<br /><br />Labor's reward is still money, as much as you can hustle up, this is unchanged. And with the US being one of the richest countries in the world, the rewards for labor are great. A worker's chance of dying at work by poison or accident has gone down. True, while the US's wealth as a country has more than doubled (2.3X) in the past 50 years, the typically worker's paycheck has not grown at all--the owners of the country have slurped up all the gains. Families are making somewhat more due to more women working.<br /><br />US tax rates have bounced up and down slightly many times--in net the individual rate has gone down, but the SS and Medicare rates have gone up. Total federal tax hasn't changed much for most people, though it is way down for the $1M+ / year folks.<br /><br />I can comfort you with the news that the US's aid to the poor is still terribly stingy. Also, the US governments decided to triple the number of poor people in jail, and mostly this new govt benefit has gone to poor people from racial minorities, especially those with the strongest capitalistic spirit. Does this count as a new govt benefit or 'over-legislation'? One class of 'parasitic layabouts'--old people--have seen great increases in govt largess. The govt now spends much more on health care for the aged than in past times.<br />Jim Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07539726697282516580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31350240990479355432018-06-18T06:48:14.830-07:002018-06-18T06:48:14.830-07:00Kim isn't an idiot - but even if he was, he ca...Kim isn't an idiot - but even if he was, he can see what Trump is doing in Iran. If he gives up his nukes, the way Iran gave up its nuclear ability, we will treat him the way Trump treats Iran.<br /><br />Howard Brazeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08837948125432719131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51144675461095489272018-06-15T14:42:26.584-07:002018-06-15T14:42:26.584-07:00Catfish, welcome back.
But yes...
onward
onward...Catfish, welcome back.<br /><br />But yes...<br /><br />onward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-17655306382565358212018-06-15T13:29:34.852-07:002018-06-15T13:29:34.852-07:00It is getting hard to keep up with how bad things ...It is getting hard to keep up with how bad things are getting, how quickly:<br /><br />* A $50B tariff package was imposed by China; promises of further retaliation are made.<br />* The individual currently styled as "President" praised the attentiveness of the subjects of a dictator and wished for the same from his fellow citizens.<br />* A senior member of the election team was sent to jail for violating bail terms and committing witness tampering, on top of previous charges.<br />* The personal lawyer of the "President" suggested pardoning the newly jailed man, thus committing witness tampering himself.<br />* A nascent compromise on immigration in the House was preemptively destroyed by the White House.<br />* Meanwhile, the Senate is preparing to take up a bill to stop the forced separation of families and concomitant creation of concentration camps for children of asylum seekers.<br />* Religious authorities across the political and dogmatic spectra have condemned said separation policy; the Justice Department blames political enemies while quoting Scripture to justify their cruelty.<br /><br />That is what has happened <i>since I awoke this morning</i>. Catfish N. Codnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-60458526691216589442018-06-15T12:50:36.250-07:002018-06-15T12:50:36.250-07:00Winter7:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/us/po...Winter7:<br /><i><br />https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/us/politics/manafort-bail-revoked-jail.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news<br /><br />¿What are not the links too long lately?<br /></i><br /><br />Someone on this list showed me a trick about those NYTimes links. If you just copy the part up through ".html" and ignore the rest, the link still works. For example:<br /><br />https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/us/politics/manafort-bail-revoked-jail.html<br /><br /><i><br />I do not know if the American judges are reliable.<br />Because in Mexico, judge assignments are sold to the highest bidder. <br />...<br />I hope the judges do not bow to the big clown<br /></i><br /><br />In the US, the judiciary is still fairly independent.<br /><br />Now, as time goes on, Trump himself is appointing more <b>new</b> judges to fill open positions (some of which are open because the Republican Senate never allowed Obama to fill them). But the existing judges are not beholden to Trump, and in fact are doing much to call him on his excess power grabs.<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-54183087088988788462018-06-15T12:43:46.275-07:002018-06-15T12:43:46.275-07:00donzelion:
When Larry's nightmares do not inc...donzelion:<br /><i><br />When Larry's nightmares do not incarnate precisely as he poses them (they surely will not), that nightmare which actually does incarnate will take us all by surprise.<br /></i><br /><br />What makes you think <b>that</b> isn't one of my nightmares?<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74094895914885696062018-06-15T12:23:17.759-07:002018-06-15T12:23:17.759-07:00Donald Trump seems to be deactivating the investig...Donald Trump seems to be deactivating the investigations against him.<br />I do not know if the American judges are reliable.<br />Because in Mexico, judge assignments are sold to the highest bidder. (It was discovered that recently) (But it was clear that the judges in Mexico are tricksters, because in Mexico everything in politics is mud from pigsties)<br /><br />I hope the judges do not bow to the big clown:<br /><br />https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/us/politics/manafort-bail-revoked-jail.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news<br /><br />¿What are not the links too long lately?<br /><br />Winter7<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61608508058959982722018-06-15T12:15:16.832-07:002018-06-15T12:15:16.832-07:00Yana: "This country needs the full four year...Yana: "This country needs the full four years of orange guy, to fully digest what happens when we let Brin's "cranky, ill-educated, boomer white males" run the farm."<br /><br />Unfortunately, the most pernicious harms take time to manifest. One does not perceive how eroding scientific apparatuses will hurt major initiatives - an opportunity foregone is just an idea unrealized. When Larry's nightmares do not incarnate precisely as he poses them (they surely will not), that nightmare which actually does incarnate will take us all by surprise.<br /><br /><i>"we give the ambitious among us a real serious challenge to work on."</i><br />No one ever suffered from a lack of serious challenges...yet while a Musk/Bezos (+Gates/Buffett) partnership is intriguing, I look at that as akin to hoping for French feudalists to guide a fledgling America's foundation - occasionally, some offer useful insight (and even troops/ships), but this is our community to build, and building well includes defending it.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9600084935186897342018-06-15T12:00:52.520-07:002018-06-15T12:00:52.520-07:00Raito: I will not defend Shannara as literature, b...Raito: I will not defend Shannara as literature, but helping grow the 'the Tolkein shelf' at Walden's & B. Dalton into a revolving 'rack' did open space for many other new authors to experiment. And even non-literature deserves better treatment.<br /><br />That said, kudos on you and your family...I fear few of today's children will discover a bibliophile's delights.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9974757028499268402018-06-15T09:36:45.581-07:002018-06-15T09:36:45.581-07:00donzelion,
The Sword of Shannara came out in 1977...donzelion,<br /><br />The Sword of Shannara came out in 1977, which post-dates my 4th grade by quite some time. By 4th grade, I'd read most of Tolkein, Verne, ERB, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and Heinlein. And a pile of other stuff -- whatever the library had.<br /><br />I think the only worse series I read was the Thomas Covenant stuff, which started at about the same time.<br /><br />Most YA lit. is derivative. Thankfully, I never much went in for it (though I guess the Heinlein juveniles count). One of the benefits of being precocious as a reader was never having to wade though it. I recall back when I was working my way through my education, I worked with many high school students. One of them was fairly remedial in his reading ability, but he'd found a series he liked. He had the first book with him one shift, as I asked to read it during my break. He then said that he was reading the second one at home, and had almost finished it. I told him the plot, and he couldn't believe that I hadn't already read it (it was that obvious).raitonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-34725243650567228912018-06-15T08:27:56.584-07:002018-06-15T08:27:56.584-07:00The New York Times tells us what we already know (...The New York Times tells us what we already know (and thank goodness someone other than me had the good sense to mention Neville Chamberlain) :<br /><br />https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/15/opinion/trump-kim-north-korea-dictator.html<br /><i><br />I’ve just watched footage of Donald Trump saluting a North Korean general and it occurs to me that what’s really going on here is that the president is envious of Kim Jong-un, who has the absolute authority to execute his uncle with antiaircraft machine guns, consign tens of thousands of people to the gulag, and rule through a personality cult based on ruthless indoctrination.<br /><br />This, the last hangover of Stalinist totalitarianism, must be the society for which Trump yearns as, remote control in hand, he wanders the corridors of the White House searching for Melania or a late-night burger. It’s one where prostration to the leader is the norm, critical thought is punishable with death, and the whole tedious apparatus of American constitutional democracy — checks and balances, the rule of law, a free press, an independent judiciary — has been relegated to history’s trash heap.<br /><br />The real enemy, you see, is not the North Korean general Trump saluted, or Kim himself, the erstwhile “rocket man” turned “great personality” and “very smart guy.” No, it’s the forces within American society working to limit Trump’s power and so keep the Republic. As he tweeted upon his return from the summit with Kim in Singapore, “Our country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools.”<br /><br />...<br /><br />Dictators can make up their worlds. They can make words mean the opposite of what they were intended to mean. They can turn “fake news” into propaganda that’s impossible to contest. This is what makes Trump so envious. He wants a country where everyone succumbs to his make-believe, a nation where everyone without exception would pound the sidewalk in inconsolable grief if he had the extraordinary temerity to die.<br /><br />The United States now has a president who would have told East Germans in 1961, as the Berlin Wall went up, that the Soviet and East German leaders were to be congratulated for walling them in because they were concerned about their people’s safety, happiness and wellbeing.<br /><br />...<br /><br />But of course history is not our esteemed leader’s strong point. Trump also tweeted that the nuclear threat from North Korea is over — abracadabra, just like that! He urged Americans, in this light, to “sleep well tonight!” This recalled nothing so much as the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, on his return from Munich in 1938, declaring “peace for our time” and saying, “Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.”<br /><br />...<br /></i>LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31677927284393856552018-06-15T08:04:54.278-07:002018-06-15T08:04:54.278-07:00Yana’s billionaire party would be pretty horrible....Yana’s billionaire party would be pretty horrible.<br />A tax system focused on purchases would be very regressive with the poor paying the highest percentage of their income in tax.<br />Land value taxes, taxes on non renewable resources, taxes on wealth above a certain level (say 10 million dollars or more) and a general modest import tariff (say ~15%) would be a much better base for taxation.<br /><br />Barebones healthcare would be both shitty and unpopular. Free collage might be worth wile.<br /><br />And screw your space man fantasy, this “rock” is the only decent place to actually live. You come across as someone willing to destroy the living earth in order to purse a star trek fantasy. There should be a million to a billion times more energy and resources devoted to preserving the earths ecosystems than pursing space colonization<br />occam's comicnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23253164166935436232018-06-15T07:25:14.191-07:002018-06-15T07:25:14.191-07:00Robert:
And after the outcry about the use of the...Robert:<br /><i><br />And after the outcry about the use of the Constitution to remove Trump without Impeachment caught Trump's eyes and that of his supporters, Republicans aren't able to pull the other method of getting rid of Trump. So really, they're left at wit's end especially as Trump starts trade wars with American allies. <br /></i><br /><br />I don't know which Republicans you are talking about at "wit's end" here. The ones I hear are fully on board the Trump train. Not only do they <b>not</b> want Trump gone, but they take active measures to protect him from such threats as the rule of law and the will of voters.<br /><br /><i><br />Eventually Trump will say or do something that will be so horrific that we have to get rid of him. <br /></i><br /><br />I disagree. Trump was correct about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue (though mistaken about whose jurisdiction would prosecute him if he did that) and not losing a vote. Something like 40% of American voters are in the cult of Trump, and they will back him no matter what and smite his opposition no matter what.<br /><br />The Republican Party itself has had to fall in line for fear of losing the support of--and incurring the angry wrath of--the cult of Trump. And so with psychohistorical inevitability, they are firmly tied to Trump even if they can see the downfall that will eventually lead to, because any distance from Trump only brings that downfall faster.<br /><br />So congressional Republicans will never remove him from office. And without Republicans on board, conviction following impeachment is mathematically impossible.<br /><br />So the question is not whether Republicans get fed up with Trump and help remove him. The only thing that will save us is when the rest of the American voters are fed up <b>with</b> the Party of Trump and rise up to vote <b>those</b> bastards out. The Republican Party can't be saved from Trump--America must be saved from the Republican Party.<br /><br /><i><br />But once the cameras are off him [Pence] and he knows he's not being recorded, he'll have the biggest shit-eating grin around because all of the humiliation and bile was worth it, and he can bring about God's Plan - death by fire for humanity and the world.<br /></i><br /><br />You think the joint chiefs and the civil service and even congress itself will just go along with that? They stopped W and they'll stop Pence too if they have to. Trump is an animal all his own, wielding an army of brownshirt enforcers and Mule powers which prevent anyone from opposing any crazy thing he wants to do. Pence, not so much.<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9442230427598662722018-06-15T06:38:57.952-07:002018-06-15T06:38:57.952-07:00 Yana, that sounds good, but how devilish will th... Yana, that sounds good, but how devilish will the details be? For instance, Social Security might be nice to keep.Tim H.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25714439297392151642018-06-15T04:26:00.354-07:002018-06-15T04:26:00.354-07:00Unfortunately, the driver of voter apathy is a 3-w...Unfortunately, the driver of voter apathy is a 3-wood, the favored totem of people who have an interest in keeping as few citizens as possible, from meddling around in politics. And as we know by now, those club wielders include the core of the DNC as well as the RNC. They both want to increase the vote, but only for each's "right sort" of voters. <br /><br />A couple threads back here, people talked about Elon Musk's investments. What if he or/and Bezos put $5-bln into a new political party, with only three political planks? <br /><br />1. Tax purchases and probates, not wages nor savings. <br /><br />2. Barebones healthcare, and K-16 education free. <br /><br />3. Start getting people off this rock, for species survival. <br /><br />And of course, don't kill hookers and no boys, but the main idea being that we teach anyone willing to learn, and we give easy access to health science's current opinions to everyone, and we give the ambitious among us a real serious challenge to work on. <br /><br />That's your win-win-win.yananoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-14784088954712203452018-06-15T03:36:52.089-07:002018-06-15T03:36:52.089-07:00LarryHart:
"If there is a God, the State...LarryHart:<br /><br /> <i>"If there is a God, the State of New York or Virginia also has something on Paul Manafort. And Jared Kushner. And the Trump kids. And Donald Corleone himself."</i><br /><br />Ask -> receive. <br /><br />https://apnews.com/50aaffc1cfbb448f98380be789f5d127/Trump-accused-in-lawsuit-of-misusing-charitable-foundation<br /><br />Likely, the recently-ex NYAG had been brewing this under the rosebushes, as his catapult to NY Gov eventually, once the incredibly ambitious Cuomo II finally moves upstairs somewhere. But then the ex-AG got outed for liking his women extra submissive. <br /><br />Almost anything else goes today, sexually, in politics. But you can't hit a girl, thank goodness we're keeping that one. And of course, the hooker still has to be actually dead and it has to be an actual boy. So NY got a new AG, and she had a staff meeting to ask all the underlings "What is your office working on?" <br /><br />Surprise, surprise. Politics there are quite filthy, like banana republic filthy. Both the NY House Speaker and Senate Prez got arrested, and that's only this decade. But if there are two things filthier than NY politics, they are NYC waste management firms and NY/NJ real estate development. Pretty light rocks to turn over, if someone went looking for snail juice. No crowbar needed, just a skilled couple of fingers. <br /><br />So here's the first one, the low fruit, the orange guy's "charity" which didn't set off loud alarms during the campaign, but it's still a real story. Now mix in the possibility that NY's capital could go super-majority blue on New Years Day next... now THAT'S what we call a constitutional crisis. <br /><br />Lacking pardon power in state cases, the federal executive could have members of the administration unable to travel to NY state, being under warrant for arrest, perhaps even immediately remanded via conviction in absentia. How would the USSC delineate "states rights" at that point? <br /><br />Obviously it won't come to that. And you'd better hope it doesn't. This country needs the full four years of orange guy, to fully digest what happens when we let Brin's "cranky, ill-educated, boomer white males" run the farm. <br /><br />But a showy trial in 2019 NY will almost certainly have the orange guy's state taxes entered into the court record... and'll give ya 1 and one-half guesses at how long those would remain under gag. And if that happens, show's over in DC. <br /><br />We've got to let the full four years run its course. You know Pence would be a clusterf so don't hope for impeachment. I strongly wish for the orange guy's good health and happy he's not clumsy like Ford. Politics is a pendulum but with one difference from the physics apparatus: instead of the highest velocity at vertical, the political pendulum slows down at the middle of its arc. And it moves fastest when at the peak of a swing. <br /><br />It's the Rise of the Normals, apathy still unconscionably high but that number 2,864,974 keeps gnawing at the political middle, and tweet-by-tweet they're getting ready to shove the bob pretty hard left-by-leftwest.yananoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58814378258836629682018-06-14T22:19:31.390-07:002018-06-14T22:19:31.390-07:00Comment before going to sleep:
If the Republican l...Comment before going to sleep:<br />If the Republican leaders are a flock of apocalyptic fanatics; That could have certain advantages that can be exploited by someone like Elon Musk. But it would be something, in the style of "Mission impossible" ... but it could work, a trick.<br />I think you know what I mean. ¿True?<br /><br />Winter7Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-79530913245020506382018-06-14T21:56:02.288-07:002018-06-14T21:56:02.288-07:00Eep! I need to edit. Better version
Re Pence. I...Eep! I need to edit. Better version<br /><br />Re Pence. I don't care that he is politically ineffective. He would fill the White House and Pentagon with apocalypse fanatics. The place would stop leaking - with utter discipline - as the nation sighs with relief... while the worse monsters look for a way to send a Beast slithering to Meggido.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-2087664878827316162018-06-14T21:54:01.697-07:002018-06-14T21:54:01.697-07:00You have to wonder if Pence is quietly encouraging...You have to wonder if Pence is quietly encouraging Trump at being his Trumpiest. After all, Pence <i>wants</i> to be President but knows he can't legitimately be elected as such. And after the outcry about the use of the Constitution to remove Trump without Impeachment caught Trump's eyes and that of his supporters, Republicans aren't able to pull the other method of getting rid of Trump. So really, they're left at wit's end especially as Trump starts trade wars with American allies. <br /><br />Eventually Trump will say or do something that will be so horrific that we have to get rid of him. That is when Pence will step in and "do the honorable thing" by becoming President Pence - with "sadness and reluctance." But once the cameras are off him and he knows he's not being recorded, he'll have the biggest shit-eating grin around because all of the humiliation and bile was worth it, and he can bring about God's Plan - death by fire for humanity and the world.<br /><br />Rob H. who agrees with Dr. Brin that Pence has to be removed before Trump is gone - or at the same time. Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-21711232897370063092018-06-14T20:21:22.322-07:002018-06-14T20:21:22.322-07:00Re Pence. I don't care that he is politically...Re Pence. I don't care that he is politically ineffective. He would fill the White House and Pentagon with apocalypse fanatics. The place would stop leaking with utter discipline as the nation sighs with relief... while the worse monster look for a way to send a Best slithering to Meggido.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-85471268737509116342018-06-14T17:32:42.152-07:002018-06-14T17:32:42.152-07:00It is strange how the simplest details of life mak...It is strange how the simplest details of life make us realize how difficult it is to get a government to create laws and programs for the benefit of the people. Thousands of people over the years worked tirelessly to put the laws and benefits that are the foundations of the freedom and happiness of the American people. Thousands of hours of hard work, bequeathed by thousands of patriots from all over the country to a nation that inspired them to give their best for the benefit of all. A titanic effort of thousands; that was never made to build a pyramid for an egomaniac pharaoh. A titanic effort, given to all those families who seek freedom. So many hours of effort and sacrifice of thousands; erased in a few moments by the caprice of an egotistical usurper, sitting in the presidential chair.<br /><br />Winter7Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39578975804385231122018-06-14T15:15:37.143-07:002018-06-14T15:15:37.143-07:00Jon S: "No orders have apparently been given,...Jon S: <i>"No orders have apparently been given, and US Indo-Pacific Command has indicated that until specific orders come through the chain of command, all previously-organized maneuvers are still scheduled."</i><br /><br />It's exceptionally odd to me that Mattis denies that he was surprised and asserts that he was consulted - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-military/u-s-military-in-korea-says-no-guidance-on-cancelling-war-games-idUSKBN1J812W<br /><br />That's typically assumed, rather than even being a subject that needed to be denied. <br /><br />Which again makes me wonder at the Kelly/Mattis/Bolton/Pompeo roles and 'who knew what, when?' If Mattis was consulted 'hours in advance' - that implies Mattis was not contributing much to the policy Trump had already formulated...interesting.<br /> <br />The latest - from Japan, indicates a statement that no drawdown is required. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180615_05/<br /><br />The last sentence in that story is important: "Mattis reportedly said the US is discussing with South Korea the possible suspension of joint military exercises in line with Trump's suggestion."<br /><br />First, it's 'reportedly said' - instead of any explicit statement (that could just be a time to publication/translation issue). Second, note the word 'suggestion.' Crucially important (if accurate). Third, more consultations are underway (which we all assumed anyway). There's an impressive amount of preparatory work that goes into a simple order like 'move fleet X to Y and do Z.'donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-27135445708273312972018-06-14T11:09:21.373-07:002018-06-14T11:09:21.373-07:00"One thing I do know is that exercises with t...<i>"One thing I do know is that exercises with the SK army are off..."</i><br /><br />Except not so much. No orders have apparently been given, and US Indo-Pacific Command has indicated that until specific orders come through the chain of command, all previously-organized maneuvers are still scheduled.Jon S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13585842845661267920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-52119599674863222342018-06-14T11:03:24.981-07:002018-06-14T11:03:24.981-07:00Bob: "Meanwhile, in Korea... Could the Adorab...Bob: <i>"Meanwhile, in Korea... Could the Adorable Leader be attempting a patron switch?"</i><br /><br />To America? Highly unlikely. But it is fascinating that Putin has no meaningful role in NK, at least none anyone is calling attention to, while China has a powerful one. That was not always the case...<br /><br /><i>"One thing I do know is that exercises with the SK army are off - an automatic dealbreaker if I had any say in the matter."</i><br /><br />The very definition of a bad deal: we give up something important in exchange for a possibility of getting something...but in this case, skipping one year's worth of exercises shouldn't present a huge problem if they commence once more in 2020. Indeed, assessing effects of refraining in exercises for one year one battlefield prep tells us a great deal about our allies...and the costs we are both bearing. If their performance in 2020 is undiminished, or is dramatically diminished, we know a lot more either way, and can spend more wisely.<br /><br />And in this case, by most appearances, Trump's intent may be to signal his generals about who is in command. That is also intriguing...some of then might look at Trump's inner circle and detect a dependency. It could well be that announcing a unilateral decision and imposing it is a testament of rivalry between Bolton v. Mattis v. Kelly. I do not know, only that other presidents would have consulted their own people before announcing something big (even if it proves not to be THAT big).donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9706737521675307782018-06-14T10:47:14.874-07:002018-06-14T10:47:14.874-07:00LarryHart: for me, the effect of Trump, Pence, or ...LarryHart: for me, the effect of Trump, Pence, or any other Rep is that even if someone somehow purges Pruitt, his replacement at EPA will be just as bad. Purge Tillerson? What did that get us? Purge Sessions? No real benefit. De Vos? Carson? Can most of us even name 6 senior cabinet members without invoking Google?<br /><br />I think the best fight is not against any personality, but in favor of an actual vision. It's not sufficient to decry the fat slobs who want to launch golf balls into orbit from Luna - we have to have a sense of what is lost, delayed, missed out on entirely by letting them play on our dime. What precisely are we giving up?donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.com