More on “Trump’s Katrina”
The disaster in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria has been of mammoth proportions, with much human suffering to go along with the physical destruction. The place is in very dire straits, and will be for a long time to come.
This cannot be fixed overnight. But it does require a huge relief effort under trying circumstances. There is little question that the island’s residents would like to receive as much help as possible, pronto. No matter how much is already being done it can’t really be enough, by definition. The needs are that great.
This would seem to be a situation in which politics shouldn’t rear its ugly head. But it does; oh, how it does. This has been true for all such disasters since at least Katrina (it may have also been the case earlier than that, but I don’t recall it). The MSM is biased towards the Democratic side of things, so the coverage tends to be skewed that way, but each political side has tried to make hay out of the inevitable failings of the opposite side if the opponents are in power.
So good luck on sorting out whether the Trump administration’s response to Maria has actually been good or bad or indifferent in the objective sense. The response can’t possibly enough to satisfy those who are still in trouble, because the situation cannot be fixed adequately in a short amount of time. But has the response of the administration been reasonable, compassionate, typical of what any other administration would have done under the circumstances? Since I have come to profoundly distrust the MSM on these things, it is really really hard to tell. But here’s the memeorandum roundup on the subject, for what it’s worth.
One thing I can say, however, is that I believe Trump’s picking a fight with the mayor of San Juan has been counterproductive and in fact stupid. You don’t start speaking against the people of Puerto Rico at a time like this; you utter soothing platitudes even if you’re pissed at having been criticized.
But that’s not Trump’s style, is it? And this is one PR war I think he’s going to lose. He is tone deaf on this one and comes across as childish and petulant and defensive, not a good presentation during a humanitarian disaster:
“The mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump,” Trump tweeted. “Such poor leadership ability by the mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help.”
“They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort,” he continued. “10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.”
San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz held an emotional press conference Friday ripping the Trump administration’s efforts to assist the island.
“I will do what I never thought I was going to do. I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency,” she said.
It is certainly possible that every single word Trump said is true; I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter; it would still be the wrong response from him. The right response would be something like, “My heart goes out to the major and the people of Puerto Rico, and I understand they are feeling desperate and frightened. We are highly aware of the situation and this is what we have done, and what we plan to do….” followed by a list of all the rescue efforts and aid.
The mayor holds all the emotional cards here. Trump holds none. It’s time to be “presidential” rather than petty—which would give a lot of weight to his claims that the administration is doing all it can.
[ADDENDUM: Let me clarify that I am not saying not to fight back and not to defend yourself. In this case, though, Trump’s manner comes off as nasty. There’s a term for what I’m advocating, and it’s called “stroke-kick.” The principle is that first you give the person or persons some praise or compassion or understanding, and it can be quite brief. Then that’s followed by the defense of yourself and/or the criticism of that person. It can be much more effective than leaving out the “stroke” part. The problem with a lot of Republicans in the past is that the “stroke” part””the compassion or the praise””hasn’t been coupled with a spirited-enough “kick” part. Or the “stroke” part has been too long and involved and sounding like some sort of mea culpa.]
[ADDENDUM II: I also want to clarify what I was referring to when I wrote about speaking against the Puerto Rican people.
Trump’s statements can easily be interpreted that way, whatever he actually meant to convey. Here are his words again (and they were in separate tweets, because one wasn’t enough to get the whole message in). I have put the important parts in bold:
Such poor leadership ability by the mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help.”
“They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort,” he continued. “10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.”
Not many people are going to parse those two tweets so carefully as to realize who those unspecified “others” might be. If he was just talking about officials (and I believe he was just talking about officials) he needed to make that crystal clear, because it sure doesn’t sound that way if you read it quickly. “Others” is way too unclear and open-ended. And then the start of the next tweet “They want everything to be done for them” could (and probably will) more easily than not be misconstrued to mean the Puerto Ricans in general.
Will these tweets end up mattering in the long run? No, I don’t think so. But in my opinion they are an unforced error and will cause more negative reactions than positive ones, unlike some of Trump’s other tweets that have also been highly and widely criticized.]
It seems that we are stuck on the path the DNC, NYT, WaPo, SPLC et al carved.
How ignorant is a person if he is an American but doesn’t know Puerto Rico is part of America? I only found out about that when someone in pr trying to buy something from me on ebay.
She sounds like a female Ray Nagin who is blaming everyone but her own failures. Puerto Rico has been handicapped by their politicians going back to when They forced the US Navy to give up the Island of Vieques, and the jobs that were located there.
Although the Comite pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques (Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, CPRDV) and others protested the U.S. Navy’s presence on the island throughout the 1990s, it was not until a major accident in April 1999 that the campaign began to gain wider support. On April 19, 1999, David Sanes Rodriguez, a civilian security guard, was killed when two F-18 jets misfired two 500-pound bombs. Within a year of his death, fourteen protest camps had been established in Vieques and at other naval sites in Puerto Rico.
Like the Philippines and Subic Bay, they chose politics over jobs.
Don;t know how to delete the comment with the error.
I officially don’t understand what’s going on anymore.
By standard reasoning, much less ordinary compassion, Trump’s tweets are counterproductive, even stupid.
However, that’s what I usually thought about Trump’s jerk tweets and cutesy-vicious nicknames during the campaign and since.
Trump uses divisiveness as fuel and to some extent it works.
Furthermore he may be looking ahead to the difficulties when the question of Puerto Rican relief comes up. The hurricane was bad of course, but Puerto Rico has been in deep, mounting financial trouble for years now due to its own mismanagement.
I can imagine many Americans, including myself, are concerned how much money taxpayers will be dinged to bail out Puerto Rico’s larger problems under the guise of hurricane relief.
Meanwhile, Back in the real world, everyone is pretty sick and tired of Ungrateful Congenitally Criminal Whining Greasers. There, I said it.
Totally disagree with neo on this. We should have learned by now that to the left taking the high road equals admission of failure as illustrated during the bush administration. When ever the left accuse u of anything if you don’t fight back the label will be stuck with you for eternity. The truth is on Trump’s side because of the mayor’s flip flopping with her attitude toward Trump. It is assuring that we can always count on the president to not take s*it from the bully liberals.
This spring, Puerto Rico declared $72 billion of its debt was unpayable. That’s $20,000 for every man, woman and child on the island. Peurto Rico got into these dire straits by borrowing to inflate its public payrolls. PR is to US as Greece is to EU.
Dave:
I don’t think you understood my point.
I am NOT saying not to fight back and not to defend yourself. In this case, though, Trump’s manner comes off as nasty. There’s a term for what I’m advocating, and it’s called “stroke-kick.” The principle is that first you give the person or persons some praise or compassion or understanding, and it can be quite brief. Then that’s followed by the defense of yourself or the criticism. It can be much more effective. The problem with a lot of Republicans in the past is that the “stroke” part—the compassion or the praise—hasn’t been coupled with a spirited-enough “kick” part. Or the “stroke” part has been too long and involved and sounding like some sort of mea culpa.
Mike K:
I’ll delete it for you.
“I believe Trump’s picking a fight with the mayor of San Juan has been counterproductive and in fact stupid. You don’t start speaking against the people of Puerto Rico at a time like this; you utter soothing platitudes even if you’re pissed at having been criticized.” neo
I didn’t listen closely but I didn’t get the impression that Trump was speaking against the Puerto Rican people but against the Mayor’s deceitful assertion that the Trump administration could do more.
In this case, isn’t the utterance of soothing platitudes an implicit acceptance of the Left’s narrative? Wouldn’t a failure by Trump to respond forcefully to unfair and politically motivated criticisms allow that narrative to be more deeply entrenched within the public’s minds? Didn’t Bush’s failure to respond forcefully to the criticisms on Iraq do just that?
Bush offered constant platitudes and history demonstrates where that led.
Offering reassurances to fair minded people is effective. But offering reassurance to political enemies (that Mayor, the media and democrats) is an opportunity to continue the propaganda.
Yes, a forceful, ‘take no prisoners’ response could be more skillfully made than did Trump but you go to war with the army you have not the one you wish you had.
Was Trump supposed to emulate W’s Katrina behavior and allow the local politicians and the press to turn it into the next disaster orgy?
His administration has been spearheading aid to PR from the get-go while the media was busy chasing the NFL kneeling controversy. The mayor, like Nagin, is hoping a friendly, Trump-hating press can be used to cover up her prior incompetence. I don’t know what the right response would be in the face of that crowd, but think it’s appropriate for Trump to push back (even if it’s in his typical brash manner).
Lizzy;Geoffrey Britain:
See my addendum to the post.
Geoffrey Britain:
As I said above, read the addendum to the post and perhaps that will clarify what I’m saying.
But as for the question of what I was referring to when I wrote about speaking against the Puerto Rican people, what I mean is that Trump’s statements can easily be interpreted that way, whatever he meant to say. Here are his words again (and they were in separate tweets, because one wasn’t enough to get the whole message in). I have put the important parts in bold:
Practically no one is going to parse those two tweets so carefully as to realize who those “others” might be. If he was just talking about officials (and I believe he was just talking about officials) he needed to make that crystal clear, because it sure doesn’t sound that way if you read it quickly. “Others” is way too unclear and open-ended. And then the start of the next tweet “They want everything to be done for them” could (and probably will) more easily than not be misconstrued to mean the Puerto Ricans in general.
neo, ah I missed that addendum. Yes, the stroke followed by a firm kick is exactly the response Trump should be following. We can only hope that someone is advising Trump to do that.
One without the other is ultimately counter productive.
Geoffrey Britain, I agree with you.
Trump is not Reagan but he is also not W. We take what we can get. I’m reading Pat Buchanan’s “Nixon’s White House Wars, ” and that era was very similar to this one. Nixon was conflicted as Trump is not but the left’s attacks are quite similar.
I would have expected by now that nearly everyone would have come to assume that when Trump writes “others in Puerto Rico” he’s referring to more of his “others,” which obviously includes everyone from unpatriotic NFL players to those of a darker hue.
This might help understand that San Juan Mayor.
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who attacked President Donald Trump for his response to the hurricane devastion in Puerto Rico, has previously praised FALN terrorist leader Oscar Lopez Rivera.
Yulin Cruz is a member of Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party that wants the island to remain a U.S. territory. But she sounded more like a member of the island’s Independence Party in a video that surfaced back in January when President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Rivera Lopez.
[In a video Cruz says] Hello, San Juan. Freedom for Oscar Lopez Rivera.. soon he will be with us. We have to thank every Puerto Rican man and woman, who for a long time, many of us didn’t know Oscar Lopez Rivera. He was fighting the fight,” she said.
Nice to know who she is.
Is it true that the term “soft bigotry of low expectations” was first coined by W? if only president trump can come up with more intelligent and memorable phases like that to fight the left instead of the usually childish talk backs.
It’s a shame that the media hasn’t tried to explain how complicated the logistics are in a situation like this. It was impossible to plan completely in advance. You needed crews to clear the roads, trucks and drivers to transport supplies, docks that permit boats to unload everything from trucks and machinery, to fuel, to electrical generators, to food and water. Each of these things has to be constantly reassessed as work progresses. Some of the news reports make it sound as though we should have had tanker airplanes dumping gasoline on the ground and that would have solved the problem. This all reminds me of the reaction of some in Germany to the Indonesian tsunami, when the do-gooders were collecting last year’s ski sweaters for the victims while warmonger Bush was sending an aircraft carrier with water-purifying systems and helicopters.
The MSM has gotten so much into feel good or feel bad stories that they totally ignore providing information that can help viewers make their own assessments of what is happening.
Trump could have said that he could understand that Cruz was reacting to what she was experiencing on the ground, but that he and FEMA and the military need to keep think about solving the problems there one step at a time.
Great leadership can do little in a situation where there is minimal communications – their cell phone towers are damaged, the electric grid is damaged, and there is no electricity available on a wide scale basis. To organize relief efforts you need to be able to communicate with first responders, dock workers,. truck drivers, and construction people. Without electricity you cannot pump gasoline/diesel/fuel oil fast enough to mobilize the relief efforts. You can fly food and water into the airports but you then need some means to distribute it – trucks with drivers, navigable roads, and the ability to know where the supplies need to be delivered. These parts of the effort are not working yet.
They need to get as much electricity up and working as possible and as quickly as possible. This will mean big generators first and then the power plants and electric lines next. None of this can be accomplished quickly. Next, they need to get the roads open and traffic flowing again. But that will take time also. And, yes, unfortunately, people are going to die because of the time element.
Less looking to blame someone and more sweat and hard work is what is needed. Recovery will not come in weeks but rather months, even years.
expat,
It is impossible to explain logistics when you are clueless about the logistics given the devastation in PR. Plus, they see any crisis as a chance to advance the right are _____ and we are wise and virtuous agenda.
“SMOKING GUN=> San Juan Teamsters Didn’t Show Up for Work to Distribute Relief Supplies — US Aid Rotting at Ports”
“Kambree Kawahine Koa ✔ @KamVTV
Did mayor of San Juan mention union workers at port are on STRIKE & demanding money first before distributing supplies off boat? #amjoy
1:03 PM – Sep 30, 2017”
This democrat evil witch is sabotaging the rescue efforts to make trump look bad seems to me. Why are liberals so willing to make people suffer just to win political struggles or just to prove they were right
Either she is blaming trump to cover up her own incompetency or she deliberately sabotaging the rescue efforts as a political plot to damage trump.
“Why are liberals so willing to make people suffer just to win political struggles” Dave
‘Liberals’ are not happy to make people suffer, they simply blame the right in order to remain in denial. They are willfully blind to the practical results of the ideas they support.
Leftists are another kettle of fish. They come in two varieties; Trotskyite true believers and power seeking Stalinists. Trotskites believe that the end justifies the means. Stalinists could care less how much suffering is needed to gain power. Both accept that, “If You Want to Make an Omelet, You Must Be Willing to Break a Few Eggs.” – Vladimir Lenin
Teamsters Recruiting Volunteer Members to Assist Puerto Rico:
Mike K Says:
September 30th, 2017 at 4:21 pm
The island was ONLY EVER viable as a military test range.
It’s not big enough to have a decent port.
It’s not big enough to grow sufficient food.
So without the DoD subsidy, the joint is a basket case.
The sole reason so many ‘islanders’ stayed — behind — was because it was a ‘free vacation’ in the tropics. No small number of the ‘poverty stricken’ were on the dole.
Everywhere from Hawaii to the Virgin Islands to Puerto Rico has to remain vigilant against retirees, too.
Everyone on a pension would flee to Honolulu if they realized that the high Hawaii state income taxes don’t apply to pensions// Social Security… and that their power bill is a joke. (usually) You just don’t need ANY HVAC… well, perhaps the occasional window unit for Kona winds.
These paradises repel the YOUNG. You CAN’T get ahead there.
The Jones Act and the local income tax rates prevent that.
The REAL reason that Puerto Rico can NEVER take off — industrially — is because of the Jones Act.
It’s a job killer.
It’s such a burden that NO SHIP — no floating casino — sails directly from Florida to Puerto Rico. They always make a pit stop along the way… ’cause of the Jones Act.
Disagree. The mayor is lying to promote the left’s narrative that Puerto Rico=Trump-caused disaster. She deserves criticism. Why would a good faith actor urinate all over the people in the best position to provide help?
I think most Americans seeing a democrat politician in this situation whining about how little help everyone is giving them while standing in front of pallets of aid understand that this democrat politician is a lying politician.
Trying to finesse how trump should fight back is playing into their game. Don’t play.
So, fight back.
But do so ineffectually?
Is that what the Fredocons call “nuance”? Because I see no use for it whatsoever.
Trump has his rules and doesn’t need my advise
the mayor is a whinny witch
The whole concept of socialism based that capitalists property owners are these lazy stupid lucky people who does nothing but sleeping and eating all day while taking advantage of hard working blue collar labourers taking away all of the hard earned fruit they sown while only giving them peanuts back is false. They have no problem with Stephen Colbert making tens of millions a year reading off jokes written by someone else though.
The mayor has the incentives to blame trump, when the next election comes around if her constituents ask the question of why should they continue to vote for her after the horrendous rescue job she did after Maria she can’t blame everything on trump to deny any responsibility in creating this mess. If PR is as corrupted as Philippines then corrupted politicians probably have taken the money that were supposed to go into improving infrastructure to prevent disasters of this magnitude from happening.
The rumors of Trump’s PR death are premature.
By which I mean public relations.
Trump can’t help himself. His tweets about Puerto Rico have been disgraceful, and even if everything that can possibly be done is being done by Fema to help those people Trump has made things worse.
I wish he would hire Neo to write his tweets.
Why the most powerful man on earth feels like he has to get into p*ssing matches with the mayor of a town in PR makes no sense to me. Now is the time to be the bigger person, and to express something that seems foreign to him – empathy and compassion for the people who have just been demolished by a cat 5 hurricane. But he just can’t do it without victim-blaming and defensiveness.
I’d like to talk about this more, but Trump just tweeted out a few NK tweets that completely undermined his secretary of state, while throwing another childish insult (“Little Rocket Man”) at the crazy guy across the water with the nukes.
Plus there’s the EVER IMPORTANT TOP PRIORITY of forcing NFL players to be patriotic. ‘Murica!
Trump is unfit to be President.
“Fellow Puerto Rican Mayor Rips San Juan Mayor – ‘She’s Not Participating In Any Meetings'”
http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/30/exclusive-fellow-puerto-rico-mayor-rips-san-juan-mayor-shes-not-participating-in-any-meetings/
Bill,
Yes, Trump shouldn’t lower himself to respond forcefully to a leftist hit job. Instead, he should follow the example George W. set, since that worked out so well for Bush. And no President should forcefully object to disrespecting the lives shed to ensure our freedoms. Instead he should allow the left to set the meme that it’s about freedom of speech…
If only Trump was a Felix Unger type instead of an Oscar Madison type, then civility would rein as our country is sold out from under us… we must keep our priorities straight!
GB: It’s about doing what’s right. I’m not against skillful communications that both highlight the good work done while honoring the people who are suffering. Trump already got through two hurricanes successfully.
If you think that Trump’s communications right now are helping him with anyone but his core followers, you may be “willfully blind” 🙂
Trump is setting his own meme that the people kneeling respectfully are “disrespecting our soldiers” (has he even asked them why they are kneeling?) at the same time that he is tweeting out careless tweets undermining his secretary of state, stating that diplomacy has run its course, and putting our soldiers (particularly those in S Korea) in danger. Who’s disrespecting our soldiers?
Trump is unfit to be President.
Here are his two tweets regarding NK today
He’s making a nearly impossible situation even worse. Gleefully goading a nuclear power run by an unstable leader, putting our soldiers at risk. A draft-dodging scoundrel wearing the mantle of patriotism while dealing with consequences that I don’t think he understands. Unfit.
Bill,
“It’s about doing what’s right.”
What’s ‘right’ is to stop the Left because if we don’t do that, everything else is meaningless. Proposing that restricting ourselves to political Marquis of Queensbury rules is a formula for surrender.
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” – Winston Churchill
If only Trump could speak as skillfully as Churchill. sarc/off
Your approach is that of a Neville Chamberlain, “We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will.”
—————————————————-
“If you think that Trump’s communications right now are helping him with anyone but his core followers, you may be “willfully blind”…”
I’ve little doubt that Chamberlain said much the same thing about Churchill.
Your denial is so deep that you imply that Trump should have asked the players why they were kneeling… when we all know why. The black players are spitting on America and telling us it’s rain. And the white players put going along to get along with the club before the nation.
Undermining Tillerson is the best thing Trump could do, that ‘lilly livered’ excuse for a statesman recommends the same failed policies of his predecessors.
The problem with taking the high road is it simply doesn’t work with the average voters. Conservatives like to believe that by being civil and nice with your enemies will win political points among average voters but the fact is it couldn’t be further from the truth. It seems weak and incompetent when a politician has to bow and apologise all the time. People like quick and witty jabs and rebuttals, as demonstrated by how well received trumps answer of Rosie o’Donnell to Kelly’s question was. The average voters grew up with snl lefties’ mean jokes, they are more acclimated to those mean quick rebuttals than you would think.
The benefits of trump fighting back forcefully against the mayors’ politically motivated smear is that it extends its time in the news cycle until truth emerges to prove trump has been right all along. If trump softens his tone and try to make peace with the mayor media will move on to the next story and the left’s narrative will be accepted as the official truth.
GB: “Proposing that restricting ourselves to political Marquis of Queensbury rules is a formula for surrender.”
Well, now you’re putting words in my mouth. I have a confession: I don’t even know what the Marquis of Queensbury rules are. I will agree with you that whatever they are, Trump doesn’t follow them.
I never said “nice”. I said “Skillful”. Trump is not a skillful communicator. And while you continuously assert that he “has” to communicate this way to ensure the left doesn’t win, I’ve yet to see evidence that what Trump is doing is working. What major legislation has he been able to push through? Well, none. There are some reasons – he misuses his bully pulpit on minor issues, self defense, revenge and pique. He doesn’t know how to whip a legislature. He insults people who he needs as allies. John McCain is a great example. In short – he’s not good at this. But you’re right, he’s not honorable, kind or diplomatic either. Trump is a hammer and everything he sees looks like a nail.
I love that Churchill quote, btw. Trump lies all the time, so it applies to him, but just not the way you think.
“Your approach is that of a Neville Chamberlain, “We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will.”
There is a whole spectrum of responses to NK, including war. Including all-out war. But our President is actively undermining the Secretary of State (WHO HE HIMSELF NOMINATED AND WHO SERVES AT HIS PLEASURE). If the time to negotiate is over and we just need to go to war, well, you have information that I don’t have. Make no mistake, it may be that time. But performing foreign policy over twitter is outrageous. If we go to war with NK, a lot of people are going to die.
“Your denial is so deep that you imply that Trump should have asked the players why they were kneeling… when we all know why. The black players are spitting on America and telling us it’s rain. And the white players put going along to get along with the club before the nation.”
Man, we are truly 1,000 miles apart on this issue.
Meant to add – “Undermining Tillerson is the best thing Trump could do, that ‘lilly livered’ excuse for a statesman recommends the same failed policies of his predecessors.”
Trump doesn’t agree with you. He called Tillerson “our wonderful Secretary of State” in the tweets above.
This isn’t normal. He’s unfit to be President.
Trump lies all the time implies that no politicians lie except trump, the prime example of a leftist attack, lying by giving you a partial truth. If all politicians lie, and in fact trump is the politician that has lied the least among them, that statement is true despite the fact that trump appears to be as truthful as George Washington compared to his opponents.
Dave,
“Trump lies all the time implies that no politicians lie except trump”
No it doesn’t.
Let me elaborate, though. Trump’s level of lying exceeds most politicians and is unacceptable for the commander in chief. He is unfit.
GB – Trump does appear to agree with you here:
For the sake of 25MM north koreans who are the mercy of their mad leaders (and Trump) and for the sake of lots of US soldiers, millions of citizens in SK, etc. I hope he’s right.
Foreign policy via Twitter insults and bluster. dodecahedric-dimensional chess . . .
Bill,
“I don’t even know what the Marquis of Queensbury rules are”
Too lazy to google it? Or just uncomfortable with the challenge?
“I never said “nice”. I said “Skillful”.”
Yes, you did, so let’s quibble over semantics.
“you continuously assert that he “has” to communicate this way to ensure the left doesn’t win, I’ve yet to see evidence that what Trump is doing is working.”
First of all, I’ve never said much less implied that Trump HAS to be as he is, I have said that, he is who he is and, since it was him or Hillary, just for his judicial appointments alone… you should be damned glad it was Trump.
Much of what Trump is doing isn’t working. But not even Churchill could get Congress to put the country first.
Tillerson isn’t listening to Trump. His State Dept. is NOT pursuing Trump’s agenda. Hopefully, undermining Tillerson is a sign that Trump will soon fire his keister.
“There is a whole spectrum of responses to NK, including war. … If the time to negotiate is over and we just need to go to war, well, you have information that I don’t have.”
Hogwash. Nothing except overwhelming military force is going to dissuade Kim.
Your problem isn’t enough information, your problem is enough spine. And you’ll never agree that the time for war has come until American cities are nuked. It will take another Dunkirk to force you to acknowledge the obvious and even then you’ll wail that “skillful enough” diplomacy was absent. That despite 25 YEARS of “skillful” diplomacy having failed.
“If we go to war with NK, a lot of people are going to die.”
That’s true. And to avoid that reality, you’ll condemn far more to death.
“Man, we are truly 1,000 miles apart on this issue.”
I didn’t realize that you accept those kneeling player’s assertion that America is a racist society that institutionalizes racism and murderously targets innocent blacks.
“Trump doesn’t agree with you. He called Tillerson “our wonderful Secretary of State” in the tweets above.
This isn’t normal. He’s unfit to be President.”
Apparently, Trump’s facetiousness is lost on you. News flash! No one here is arguing that Trump is ‘fit’ for the Presidency. Neither was Pres. Andy Jackson but he was the right man for his time and so too is Trump because… none of the other Republican candidates fully abandoned political correctness with an attitude of “let the chips fall where they may”. Which is the ONLY thing that can begin to counteract the left’s narrative. A narrative that has resulted in the majority of LIVs marching after the Left’s Pied Piper, Bernie Sanders.
“For the sake of 25MM north koreans who are the mercy of their mad leaders (and Trump) and for the sake of lots of US soldiers, millions of citizens in SK, etc. I hope he’s right.”
The price reality extracts for good to overcome evil is in direct proportion to the degree of evil.
A fair percentage of those 25 Million N. Koreans and US soldiers are “dead men walking”. The ONLY questions are when will they die, how many will die and whether they are the only ones who will die.
Whether millions of SK citizens will die is directly related to whether we continue to try kicking the can down the road on this issue.
Have you learned nothing from WWII?
“Too lazy to google it? Or just uncomfortable with the challenge?”
What?
““I never said “nice”. I said “Skillful”.”
Yes, you did, so let’s quibble over semantics.”
Actually, I didn’t. You can search the thread if you want. Or not.
“Hogwash. Nothing except overwhelming military force is going to dissuade Kim.
Your problem isn’t enough information, your problem is enough spine.”
Just like a shooting civil war in the US is inevitable and if someone doesn’t agree with that they are willfully blind.
GB, are you in the military? I’m not, I do have a military aged son. How about you?
I don’t want our military personnel put in harms way until all other sane, rational options are spent. I don’t think that’s unwise. And if the President is going to talk tough, I want to know that he has a plan. What does “overwhelming military force” mean? Invading NK? Nuking it? What? What are the implications vis a vis the people of South Korea. How about China? Can we at least look at the implications as we weigh options? Or do we just need to get some lead in the national pencil and bombs-away?
Feel free to sit there and question my manhood for thinking that twitter bluster isn’t the best way of carrying out foreign policy and that – perhaps – we haven’t exhausted all options except “overwhelming force”
And – seriously – what are you advocating? Conventional bombing? A decapitation strike against Kim Jong Un? Nuclear exchange? An amphibious invasion? What?
Lots of talking loudly and carrying – well, what kind of stick are we carrying here? What are we willing to do?
“I didn’t realize that you accept those kneeling player’s assertion that America is a racist society that institutionalizes racism and murderously targets innocent blacks.”
I’m willing to listen to them. And I don’t think America has yet arrived when it comes to racial equality. I know as a white person this is hard to stomach.
That being said, I don’t have to agree with a protest to be OK with people peacefully protesting. I can understand people not liking the prayers not standing for the flag thing. What I don’t understand is the level if vitriol.
America isn’t perfect. Look at the number of abortions performed each year. It’s outrageous. But I have a feeling if some white players kneeled in prayer during the anthem to pray for America and the abortion problem the response might be different.
America also isn’t the leftist hellscape that it is often portrayed to be here, one in which we have to elect someone that you yourself admit might not be “fit” to prevent our final slide off the cliff.
When Nancy Pelosi said Trump will never be president was she lying? No, because that was just her opinion, anyone with common sense wouldn’t call someone lying just because their opinion or prediction turns out wrong. This is the problem with the Media, the left and you, you just call Trump lying when in fact it was just Trump having a wrong opinion or prediction on things, that is not lying. When CNN fabricated things to smear Trump and Scaramucci. Lying means someone stating a piece of information as fact when it can be proven wrong. Hands up don’t shoot narrative is a lie when it can be proven to be false.
Clearly more people watched Trump’s inauguration than Obama’s, how many people in china who didn’t watch the Obama’s inauguration nine years ago got to watch Trump’s due to improvement of technology. CNN can’t prove Trump to be lying simply because they don’t have the number of total people in the whole world watching Trump’s inauguration vs Obama’s. CNN loves people like you, someone who doesn’t take your questions a step further.
“A fair percentage of those 25 Million N. Koreans and US soldiers are “dead men walking”. The ONLY questions are when will they die, how many will die and whether they are the only ones who will die.”
Wow.
“Have you learned nothing from WWII?”
I know a lot about WWII, actually. I’m not on Neville Chamberlain’s side. I don’t think there’s a clear one-to-one analog between the late thirties in Europe and this situation. Is this the same situation?
Look, GB – your caustic comments to me aside, I admit I don’t know if we’re truly at the brink of war with NK with no more options available. I suspect you don’t really know either. That’s one good reason neither of us is the Commander in Chief.
My only point is that Trump is undermining his Secretary of State with Twitter and he’s actively goading a nascent nuclear power with public insults. I’m trying to think in what universe that is a good policy.
You may be right and war is the only option. But if our soldiers and millions of NK citizens are truly dead men (and women and children) walking, I want to at least know that we have the best strategic military and diplomatic minds in the world working the situation. If Tillerson is not a good secretary of state (and I won’t argue with you there) he needs to be fired immediately and a better option put in place. Immediately. Waiting for Trump to finish his normal cycle of humiliation and taunting of the one he plans to fire is – if the situation is as dire as you say – completely irresponsible.
Completely.
If you can’t see that Trump and Tillerson are clearly playing the good cop bad cop routine then I don’t know what to say to you. Have you ever purchased a car before? After this hoax display of undermining from Trump Tillerson can take that back to the negotiating table to demand more things in return with a dialogue like this “Sorry, my boss doesn’t like what you were offering, I tried my best to convince him but you read what his response was on the paper, you have to give us something more, sorry”
“If you can’t see that Trump and Tillerson are clearly playing the good cop bad cop routine then I don’t know what to say to you. Have you ever purchased a car before?”
I’ve never purchased one with nuclear war on the line.
By the way, when they pull that” gotta go ask my manager” stuff on me I leave the dealership.
Trump’s tweets for all the world look as if he’s trying to goad Rocket Man into firing the first nuclear shot, so that Trump can then drop the bigger bomb. Untold devastation be damned.
“Unfit” almost seems a mild assessment.
Bill,
How can you respond if you don’t know what the person is referring to? All you had to do was google “Marquis of Queensbury Rules”. The only reasons not to do so that I can think of are laziness or avoidance.
““I never said “nice”. I said “Skillful”.”
“Yes, you did, so let’s quibble over semantics.”
Let me clarify; yes you did say “skillful” which is just another way of saying diplomatic, which is just another way of saying civil, which is just another way of saying ‘nice’. Semantics.
A shooting civil war in the US is inevitable is the Left gets its way and quite possible if they don’t. If they seek to ‘amend’ mu “unalienable rights” I either accept my enslavement or fight. As antifa has proven, if they lose they will resort to violence.
I was in the Navy on board an aircraft carrier from 69 to 73, how about you? In enlisting, I put my life on the line by agreeing to go wherever they might wish to send me. I expect the same from anyone in the military today. As John Stuart Mill aptly observed, “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.”
——————————————————
“I don’t want our military personnel put in harms way until all other sane, rational options are spent.”
Ah but the “all other sane, rational options” have been spent. 25+ YEARS worth of spent. It’s your refusal to accept that reality that’s unwise because that type of thinking is going to result in far more dying.
You can bet that our military has a plan.
“What does “overwhelming military force” mean? Invading NK? Nuking it? What? What are the implications vis a vis the people of South Korea. How about China? Can we at least look at the implications as we weigh options?
Demand that Kim immediately agree to disband his nuclear program and agree to independent international verification. He won’t. Nuke Pyongyang with B2 bombers and simultaneously drop lots of MOABs with B1 bombers on the NK artillery emplacements. Use the SK army to seize that ground. Do NOT invade beyond that point. Let the Chinese deal with the result.
That will SAVE Seoul’s citizens.
China will threaten and gnash their teeth but at this point, they no more want a nuclear war than do we. We’ve had 62 YEARS to think about the implications of the Korean War resuming.
But the ONLY thing you’re willing to do is talk, talk, talk until it’s far too late.
We’ve been listening to black grievances since the 60s and we’ve moved heaven and earth to address racism but it will NEVER be enough because its NOT about racism. It’s about power and about denial.
You’ll never have “racial equality” because people’s abilities, drive, talents and the “inequality of blessings” will never be equal.
If someone hasn’t the brains or money to get into Harvard, their opportunities will never be equal to someone who does possess the needed qualifications. It’s NOT equality of opportunity that determines success, it’s “how well you play the cards you’ve been dealt”.
“What I don’t understand is the level of vitriol.”
A rather wise man once said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he should lay his life down for his friend(s)”. That is what those kneeling babies are spitting upon, they are denigrating the ideals that those men sacrificed their lives for… while proclaiming a LIE as justification.
You’re comparing the slaughter of innocents to police fighting crime in a population that refuses to look in the mirror at the source of that criminality. That instead bears false witness against those trying to help them. Less black men are killed by white policemen than are white men killed by the police.
Nearly half of black men have been arrested by the time they’re 23. So 3 percent of the population is committing 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders, 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties throughout the United States. Yet what we hear from most of the other 9% in the black community is either blame for a ‘racist system’ or silence about the source of the problem. And, when a black person does speak out, condemnations fly hot and heavy and the speaker of truth lies undefended by their “brothers and sisters”. Who in the black community defended Bill Cosby when he dared to hold up the mirror?
She sounds like a female Ray Nagin
Exactly. The mayor and her line are first and foremost responsible for recovery efforts, but also for sustaining an environment where social and individual resources are wholly unprepared for a known, recurring natural threat.
“The only reasons not to do so that I can think of are laziness or avoidance.”
You forgot option c. I Don’t Care.
I was responding to the meme abiut M. De Q. Because I’ve heard it so many times. It’s the way of excusing Trump’s ass-hattery with the false dichotomy that if you actually care about things like truth and honor you’re just a big p_ssy.
Regarding your war plans. You’re talking about a nuclear first strike. This will be absolutely shocking the world over and will have incalculable repercussions financially, militarily, security wise, etc. . It is an amazing risk. The aftermath may make our current problem with a nuclear NK look very small in retrospect.
I hope the military has a plan. Sometimes there is no good plan.
I’m not in favor of unlimited talk while NK continues to build its arsenal. But I’m not with you that we’ve exhausted all avenues via sanctions, diplomatic pressure, pressure from other countries like China, etc. And Trump doesn’t appear to be working very hard on it, does he? Again, my complaint against his diversions (NFL, etc). If we are truly in the state you believe us to be, he should be working on nothing else besides this.
…. And he should be in the white house, not at one of his resorts.
“Less black men are killed by white policemen than are white men killed by the police.”
They are killed at least at 2 or 3 times the rate of white people, on a per capita basis. Look it up.
Bill:
However, white men are killed by police at a higher percentage of total police killings than their violent crime rate. Black men are killed by police at a lower percentage of total police killings than their violent crime rate.
See this.
Neo, I don’t doubt that. I was just referring to the use a of absolute numbers when speaking of two populations with very different percentages of the total population.
We can disagree with the idea that there is systemic racism in America but to act like the statistics give no reason to think otherwise and that Black athletes kneeling during the anthem are lying or misrepresenting their cause is, I think, a stretch.
So you did know what it meant. Why the deceit?
It’s not your caring about things like truth and honor wherein the problem lies, it’s your using them as excuses to do nothing.
Of course the repercussions will be severe. Waiting until it’s too late will ensure much greater repercussions. Clearly, you’re one of those who refuses to learn from history. Churchill is rolling in his grave. You look at the risk and ignore the certainty that a man like Kim will not fail to make use of those nukes.
No you’re just in favor of talking until he has that arsenal, when nothing can then be done. Revealed when you hope for “pressure from other countries like China”… LOL. China’s the one driving this issue.
Trump can do no more than could Churchill. The exact same conditions apply today as did then.
War is too horrible to contemplate! We MUST find another way!
No matter where Trump is, the only way he can satisfy you is if he makes “jaw-jaw”, while doing nothing.
That 2 or 3 rate is the result of 3 percent of the population committing 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders, 45 percent of assaults in the 75 biggest counties throughout the United States…
Riddle me this; since racism is an ‘equal opportunity oppressor’ with racists by definition hating anyone not of their group… why are Asian American arrest and incarceration rates far below their percent of the pop.?
Geoffrey. You’re fixated on the M de Q toss off comment I made ages ago. When I said I don’t know what they are I wasn’t lying. I don’t. And I don’t care. I mean I have an idea, of course but I’m not schooled in them. Your offense at the fact I didn’t Google them should have been answered by the fact I admitted not caring (so call me lazy I suppose. But I’m not a liar)
I have argued with you in good faith this whole time.
You are accusing me of a lot of things that aren’t true. Like wanting to talk forever until NK nukes us.
I just am not ready to press the launch button on a nuclear first strike. I don’t really think Trump is either. But he’s playing nuclear chicken and that should alarm anyone.
People can be racist against different races but they don’t have to be racist against ALL different races. I have never pretended that this is an easy subject. I was in the poor parts of East St. Louis and I had no answers. I just felt anger. And not against anyone specific. The African American community is in crisis. The fatherlessness issue is huge. And there is plenty of blame to go around (including bad incentives in our welfare system). All I’m saying (and it really is all I’m saying) is that pretending like black people have no complaints at all or that there is no such thing as white supremacy is not a slam dunk case at all.
Regarding Kim. He’s not the first leader to develop nuclear weapons. Did we first strike the other countries that developed them?
No, we didn’t. We played the long, hard and frightening game of mutual assured destruction. It’s a bad game, but nuking north Korea will affect a lot more people than North Koreans and will likely lead to a wider war.
We’ve done lots of other things other than nuclear first strike and they have been working for 60 years.
If Kim jong un would use his nukes on America over a trump’s tweet, then the fault is not on trump but Obama who let this unstable man to have nukes, and if Kim jong un would use his nukes on america over a trump’s tweet, then even if you appease him to not unleash his nuclear missile today such an unstable madman will still use it tomorrow over the most trivial reasons. Jesus if you think he is dangerous now wait until when his nuclear program is complete. Who cares about Seoul’s 10 million people today if delaying the attack put the whole world and 50 billions people in danger. The most dangerous people are those without children because they do not care how the world end up after they die.
If liberals are truly afraid of nuclear warfares why do they constantly taunting Russia who is a legit nuclear superpower? If the reason that liberals are afraid of Kim of initiating a nuke attack but not Putin is because of Kim’ madness, then why they don’t agree to decapitate Kim right before he gets even stronger? Let’s wait until hitler has atomic bombs before declaring war on nazi Germany a bunch. It is stupid to put 50 billion people at risk for the sake of 10 million, saving private Ryan is a movie, a leftist propaganda, its not real. Kill one to save a million is always the right course to take, but liberals think that is unfair, they only care about fairness, they want a million to die along with the one.
Bush offered constant platitudes and history demonstrates where that led.
It led to Americans, including the media, believing that Petraeus, Cheney, and Bush II had won in Iraq by 2008.
Of course, I knew the Left wouldn’t give up with just that. And Hussein proved that to be the case. Now people want to rewrite the history as the Leftist victors into something else however.
It’s not your caring about things like truth and honor wherein the problem lies, it’s your using them as excuses to do nothing.
One might have said the same thing a few years ago, but about you GB.
Ann Says:
October 1st, 2017 at 5:03 pm
Trump’s tweets for all the world look as if he’s trying to goad Rocket Man into firing the first nuclear shot, so that Trump can then drop the bigger bomb. Untold devastation be damned.
Demoncrats are experts at using the pretext for wars they want to start or win. Although sometimes, it doesn’t go as planned (JFK, LBJ, Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam). They stopped Nixon from cleaning up the war, however, just as Hussein stopped Bush II and Petraeus from ending Iraq’s conflict.
To Bill, of course white people are being executed per capital far higher than blacks are being executed by police. There are far too many of you patriotic militia right wing extremists for the police to handle, so they end up capping and offing em, when nobody is paying attention, like Waco 1, Ruby Ridge, Waco 2…. so on.
The Black groups like Nation of Islam, have learned not to be idiots, instead using flash riot mobs like anti fa or Wall Street occupiers to test the waters. They didn’t kill Malcom X for nothing you know.
Which is the ONLY thing that can begin to counteract the left’s narrative. A narrative that has resulted in the majority of LIVs marching after the Left’s Pied Piper, Bernie Sanders.
The only crucial difference between Bill and GB, is that I was the one arguing with GB about similar topics back a few years ago. Now GB has transitioned to a position closer to mine, although not quite. As for Bill, of course he is going to need more time and proof to do that transition, as he is farther back. So to me, it’s just a case of two people arguing who are out of time step with each other. It’s the same reason why I pointed out the weakness of individuals, as a proof concept against the rest of humanity.
If a person doesn’t realize that the Leftist alliance hydra even exists, of course they won’t care whether it is evil or not. Any more than people worry about Santa or Satan or fairies.
Once they realize that X exists, then they start worrying about how powerful or evil X is.
I’ve discovered a lot of X, Y and Zs however…
Amongst them is the interesting facet that the Leftist alliance of 1000 hydra headed factions is…. merely a cannonfodder puppet of far greater forces. Some of these forces are not something you can “nuke” GB, or win a war using your exceptional American superpowers either. If it was, things would be easier.
So the threats people think others are blind of…. they themselves are still not aware of all the threats. That’s the problem. It merely takes some time for that to resolve itself, but by then, it’ll probably be too late.
Let’s wait until hitler has atomic bombs before declaring war on nazi Germany a bunch.
MacArthur advised using A bombs in Korea, to put the Chinese in their place, since only the US had A bombs at the time.
FDR, Truman, and other Democrats decided to wait until the Soviets stole the A bomb secrets, however.
The worst enemies of a superpower aren’t the barbarians outside the gates, but the traitors pretending to be loyalists inside the gates.
Kill one to save a million is always the right course to take
It’s like that American Vietnamese era line, you got to bomb the village to save the village….
It’s basically null and void. You can’t kill people to save them either.
That’s because nobody can log off this virtual reality construct that somebody hacked starting from the Garden of Eden time. Something very interesting happened from then on.
Trump can offer Kim jong un a deal that if he gives up his kingdom and nuclear weapons the president will grant him asylum in America and make a personal guarantee that no one could ever harm him in America and he will only die of natural causes. if he refuses this offer than the leftist’ notion that Kim is only trying develop his nuclear program for his own safety, to ensure that he would not be overthrown and executed like all other former dictators can be debunked.
Granting rocket man the Marcos treatment I believe theoretically is a deal Kim couldn’t refuse given the extent of crimes him and his family have committed. If he refuses then this man is crazy and needs to be taken out because there is no way to predict what he wants to do next.
Ymarsakar:
See this from Victor Davis Hanson: