Kim, it seems, has outmaneuvered Trump and turned him into his personal capon, a juicy morsel ready to pop into the oven.
Trump set out to "denuclearize" the Korean peninsula and he figured his irresistible personality and deal-making skills had convinced Kim to give up his missile and nukes. Americans could sleep peacefully in their beds once more. The Nobel Prize was surely to be his for Trump had outshined all others - again.
Yeah. Mmmm-no. American intelligence agencies report that Kim has wasted no time getting back to the business of building up his stocks of weapons-grade nuclear materials and building more and more missiles.
U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months — and that Kim Jong Un may try to hide those facilities as he seeks more concessions in nuclear talks with the Trump administration, U.S. officials told NBC News.
The intelligence assessment, which has not previously been reported, seems to counter the sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after his historic June 12 summit with Kim that "there was no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea."Trump was played - badly. He was conned. But, having assured his base that he had tamed the little "rocket man," he can't even open his mouth without making himself out to be a fool.
Analysts at the CIA and other intelligence agencies don't see it that way, according to more than a dozen American officials who are familiar with their assessments and spoke on the condition of anonymity. They see a regime positioning itself to extract every concession it can from the Trump administration — while clinging to nuclear weapons it believes are essential to survival.
US right wing radio hosts are having a hell of a time trying to protect Trump nowadays.
ReplyDeleteLimbaugh and Lars Larsen are playing deflection daily with little time spent on news of substance.
Off subject.
A little mistake on CKNW yesterday when a caller was cut off after suggesting Rich Coleman had been seen being entertained in the VIP area of a casino!
Anyone catch it?
TB
Looks like Rocket Boy wants his "war games" back. (He's a stubborn one. But he'll come around – or one day see his dynasty collapse overnight followed with a bullet to the back of the head.)
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump is no paper tiger – just ask the Iron Nanny!
Rocket boy has played Trump for the fool he is.
ReplyDeleteOnly an internal revolt will unseat him and that's not likely.
TB
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/6/18/17441296/north-korea-propaganda-ideology-juche
ReplyDeleteThis is Korea, hate it as you will.
There is little chance it will fail as a world state but will possibly struggle on as the hermit kingdom forever.
TB
So now in our Trump hatred we're supposed to trust the CIA criminals who've undermined and overthrow over 60 governments worldwide? Sorry, I call BS.
ReplyDeleteIf Trump were to eliminate the CIA, he will have done precisely ONE more good thing than Obama did in 8 years.
I think you are all a bit off the trail.
ReplyDeleteThe N. Korean beast has been neutered...
by a Nobel-prize-worthy unprecedentedly successful President...
https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1009847187088347136
now on to Iran.
Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess...
I would say we WERE living in the post-truth, post-modern era of incremental Orwell – BEFORE Donald J. Trump came to town!
ReplyDeleteLike I mean a Nobel Peace Prize to a president elected on "Hope and Change" who said he'd end 2 hated wars then spread war, chaos and terrorism across the Middle East sending millions of refugees flooding into Europe. (Didn't even close Gitmo!)
THAT'S Orwell.
People hysterical the worst bribe-taking neoliberal of all (mirror mirror on the wall) did not get her claws on the presidency.
Someone who destroyed evidence by smashing smartphones with a hammer. Bitbleached emails of "cat pictures and recipes" to save the FBI the bother of reading through them.
She was effectively pardoned for a laundry list of crimes the head of the FBI simultaneously read out and said no prosecutor would ever prosecute her for.
THAT'S Orwell.
I could go on…
Like Trump said, he hasn't finished the work in NK yet. So no Nobel Peace Prize yet. Although he has made enough progress to put his predecessors to shame.
So many world leaders were pathetic Neville Chamberlains before the hermit-kingdom boy dictator and his predecessors. So many whimpering JFK neoprogs wetting themselves over a nuclear war Trump was working hard to prevent.
(That was hilarious when Kim Jung Un said something about having a red button on his desk. Trump tweeted at him: he has one too, and his works! It was the perfect response. A good reality check. One that probably punched though. Art of the Deal. Trump ain't perfect, but he's got some serious game.)
It's not actually a defeat to only appear to solve a problem if the problem was only ever really a problem of perception. North Korea having nukes is only a problem if you have invasion plans, and you only need to have invasion plans if they're officially a threat.
ReplyDeleteSo if you have a meeting and solve nothing but officially declare them not a threat, then you don't need to plan to invade and it doesn't matter if they have nukes. Appearance of problem solved, at the expense of the people for whom it was important for NK to be a threat so they could have plenty of warmaking stuff in South Korea to threaten China with. Trump doesn't understand why, if you want to threaten China with stuff, you can't just say you're bringing in the stuff to SK to threaten China. That is, there are plenty of reasons why, but he doesn't understand them.
The current president of South Korea is, in any case, not willing to stay enemies with North Korea for the sake of US foreign policy, so peace was gonna happen whether Trump went along and claimed credit or not. It is distinctly possible that if they had to start kicking US troops out to get some peace, they would have. Looking magnanimous about it is to some extent just cutting losses.
People who have lived in South Korea long enough to know what the North is doing would like I have, know that was a given...like I mentioned....Kim would shake Trump's hand , smile and lie to his face and Trump would believe Kim....what a dit. Anyong
ReplyDelete