When thinking about John Bolton as National Security Advisor, we should keep in mind that there is no reason for war between the US and North Korea or Iran. Iran has adhered to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the other six signatories are satisfied with the situation. It is testing missiles and is engaged in the war in Syria, which are a concern but not subjects of the JCPOA. North Korea has the capability to build thermonuclear warheads and mount them on missiles, but the numbers are few, and its leaders seem willing to talk.
The cause for talk of war is President Donald Trump’s belligerence. Without that, there are ways forward that do not involve war. Unfortunately, John Bolton has never met a war he didn’t like.
Bolton thinks that the Iraq war was the right thing to do. Now Iran and North Korea are at the top of his to-war list. Iran is much larger and better-defended than Iraq was in 2003, and a war with North Korea would mean the destruction of much of South Korea, damage to Japan, and possibly a nuclear war. Bolton has never considered diplomacy as a part of international relations. He is also connected to the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK), a radical Iranian group that wants regime change.
He has no place in the United States government. But Trump is in the process of removing the advisors who might have supplied some restraint on his impulsive and emotional responses, and has settled on Bolton as the person to coordinate his foreign policy. The position of National Security Advisor is not subject to Senate approval.
Trump has fired H. R. McMaster, Rex Tillerson, and David Shulkin in the past couple of weeks. Ben Carson and Scott Pruitt have been rumored as endangered. Replacements will have to be confirmed by the Senate, which will be more difficult than the first time around. Bolton is expected to fire any national security council staff that disagree with him, as he has in previous jobs. That will undercut planning for a summit scheduled in May with Kim Jong Un, and perhaps another with Vladimir Putin. It is hard to see how the White House can plan for Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong Un in May.
But Trump has stated that only he matters in foreign policy, and he is acting like he believes that. Presumably that is the way he ran his business. He would make a pronouncement, and his underlings would rush to make it happen. He would get credit for the successes, and they the blame for the failures. How will Bolton fit into that? Bolton’s and Trump’s views do not completely overlap. Both are famously stubborn about those views.
In 2010, Bolton wrote the foreword to anti-Islam activist Pam Geller’s book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America, and has appeared on her radio program. He also chairs the Gatestone Institute, a nonprofit that publishes material related to the supposed threat that Islam poses to Western society. That fits with the administration’s anti-Islam stands. Bolton’s extreme animus toward North Korea and Iran also fits with Trump’s predelections, as does his preference for military action over diplomacy.
Bolton, however, is extremely hawkish on Russia. Bolton has called Russia’s meddling in the election an act of war and wants them to “feel pain.” On the other hand, he appeared in a gun rights video to be used in Russia. Bolton says that he did not know that was the purpose of the video. Trump famously has refused to say anything negative about Russia or Vladimir Putin. This could be a source of conflict with Trump’s reluctance to say anything bad about Russia and Putin.
Bolton’s views are so extreme that a Republican Congress refused to confirm him as ambassador to the United Nations under George Bush. Instead, Bush appointed him during a Congressional recess.
Bolton is reported to be both adept at manipulating the bureaucracy and failing badly at it. He is more experienced in the bureaucracy than many of Trump’s appointees, to be sure. The contradiction can be explained by Bolton’s reputation as a “suck up, kick down” manager. He fires people who don’t agree with him. That can produce smooth operations for a time, but usually ends badly.
It’s possible that Bolton is another of Trump’s feints and facades. A superhawk as NSA will frighten the liberals along with North Korea and Iran. Put them in their places and scare them into negotiations. That seems to be both Bolton’s and Trump’s theory of negotiating. Unfortunately, it can lead to miscalculations and rapid escalation to war.
Mike Pompeo must be confirmed as Secretary of State. He and Bolton will be a warlike pair. Voters may be able to insist that their senators hold up Pompeo’s confirmation if Bolton is to be National Security Advisor. A round of firings within the National Security Council will probably result in more people going to the media with their experiences in the Trump White House, none of which is likely to be good news for Trump. The chaos of continuing reorganization will slow other actions. It is becoming more difficult for Trump to find replacements for those being fired, but that may be favorable to his theory of “La politique, c’est moi.”
Another potential legislative block is through Congress requiring an Authorization for the Use of Military Force for any further military action. Representatives Justin Amash (R-MI) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) are pushing for debate on an AUMF, but most of Congress would rather duck that responsibility. Perhaps as war fever heats up in the White House, they will change their minds.
A last resort will be demonstrations in the streets. And, of course, vote them out in November.
More people’s thoughts on Bolton as NSA:
Cermet
This move, more than any is what really threatens the U.S. safety. This one stupid appointment should scare all amerikans.
WereBear
I say let’s dig up Nixon and put an ash stake through his heart. Maybe then all these blood drinkers he turned will fall down in piles of bones.
germy
And yet he’s never fought in one.
Odd.
feebog
Of all the picks Trumpov has made, Bolton as NSA is the scariest. This guy is just as unhinged as Trumpov, but more focused and therefore more dangerous. He is also first class toady and will tell Trumpov exactly what he wants to hear. Look for the North Korea talks to be a complete and total failure as Bolton really wants to get his war on.
schrodingers_cat
Does Bolton have any Russian connections? Since all roads from T’s White House lead to Kremlin.
mart
I am terrified.
Cheryl Rofer
@schrodingers_cat: Bolton is much more of a hawk on Russia than Trump is. This is one place they might part company. But he appeared in an NRA video aimed at gun rights in Russia.
David Rickard
Bolton will get his wars: he’ll tell the shitgibbon that killing Iranians and Koreans will provide irrefutable proof as to the size of Donnie’s.. hands, and that wars will be the ultimate distraction from Mueller, and Twitler will send in the Marines.
mak
@schrodingers_cat: Funny you (and Rachel Maddow) should ask:
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-may-rue-selection-of-bolton-for-national-security-adviser-1197541443503
TL;DW: Yes
The Ancient Randonneur
@Cheryl Rofer: Interesting that Bolton never once mentions the most often cited reason by 2nd Amendment absolutists that the Amendment was put in place to provide a means by which the people could supposedly fight back against a tyrannical government. Convenient omission by the NRA scriptwriters.
rikyrah
New report contradicts police on US death of former top Russian
Jason Leopold, senior investigative reporter for Buzzfeed News, talks with Rachel Maddow about new evidence in the mysterious death of RT founder Mikhail Lesin, including a secret report from Christopher Steele.
rikyrah
Trump lawyer floated possible pardons to Manafort, Flynn: Reports
Bob Bauer, former White House counsel under Obama, talks with Rachel Maddow about reports that Donald Trump’s lawyer, John Dowd, broached the possibility of pardons with Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort.
Mar.28.2018
Brachiator
Yeppity yep. Trump continually makes noise about not being able to be himself. I recall one video where he stiffly moves robotically, and jokes that this is how people who want him to be “presidential” want him to act.
What may restrain Trump from starting a war, or agreeing to one, is his essential cowardice. But he might easily sit back and refuse to intervene in an attack by Israel on Iran, even if that escalates into a larger war. And who knows whether he would meekly sit back and allow Putin to reacquire more former Soviet satellite countries.
I don’t think that Trump has greatly escalated the military effort against ISIS. But what he does with Afghanistan bears watching.
However, as much as Trump claims to love soldiers, as much as he claims to respect his generals, I don’t think he sees anyone other than himself and his family as real people. As he becomes more and more comfortable, especially with Bolton whispering in his ear, there is a chance that he will do or say something so monumentally stupid that it involves the US in a major conflict.
ETA: I heard some talk radio gadfly surmise that Trump would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize if talks with North Korea leads to de-nuclearization. Can you imagine?
Elizabelle
He doesn’t take office until, what, April 9?
I am going to hope something blows up about him, so big, that he is radioactive and a distraction and never assumes his terrible appointment as NSA.
An asshole’s asshole.
I cannot imagine Team Mueller or the Democrats are any less concerned with Bolton’s proclivities than we are.
rikyrah
@Cermet:
Yep
Patricia Kayden
@germy: Chickenhawk. Like Cheney and Bush the 43rd. And Limbaugh and Trump. Tough talking guys who refused to fight in wars when they had the opportunity to do so.
Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin
@germy: Nothing odd here at all. The people who’ve never been in a war are usually the best at beating war drums. He probably thinks there are such things as short, cheap, victorious wars, an idea that should’ve died in 1914.
Patricia Kayden
@David Rickard: isn’t Iran tight with Russia? For some reason I don’t think that Putin’s Puppet will pick a fight with one of Putin’s Middle East partner but we’ll see.
MattF
Bolton reminds me of Cheney in many respects– a flat-out hawk, no regrets for anything, famous for bureaucratic manuvering. That’s not a good thing.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
OT, but I’m still laughing about Assange being sent to bed without supper and having his electronics taken away (although my preferred method was always to take charging cords and watching their crestfallen little faces as the power bar turned red and then winked out – they never learned to keep a full charge).
Anyway, he crossed a red line with regard to that Puigdemont tweet – in Spanish speaking world, you can talk about the politics of any nation or any part of the nation, but you never, ever foment separatism, particularly in Spain itself. Ecuador would be sensitive to that, even the leftists there, because Spanish infrastructure investment is too damned important.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I still say Trump will fire Bolton soon enough because of Bolton’s mustache.
Also, isn’t Bolton and inside man and doesn’t like to take ownership of the schemes he pushes? That won’t work with Spanky who wants scapegoats when something goes wrong.
schrodingers_cat
@Patricia Kayden: Also, with India. Iran is one of the largest suppliers (if not the largest) of oil to India. Plus Pakistan is a thorn in the sides of both countries.
ETA: Also, India has the biggest population of the Shia’ outside Iran. Islam in India has a heavy Persian influence and almost no Arabic influence.
Ocotillo
I am wondering about this Bolton stuff. With Kim meeting with Xi the other day and Trump agreeing to meet Kim in short order something is afoot. Kim is saying he will be open to concessions for American goodwill.
Trump will not do any sort of prep for this meeting and wanting a win is likely quick to agree to something that Kim offers up and will come out of the meeting doing a victory lap because he accomplished what no other American president could. The “deal” will stink to high heaven and not be good for us but Kim will appear to be making some sort of concession.
This is where I can’t figure out why Bolton. He will not want to take any deal short of regime change so could he land on Trump’s sh*t list within the first month of his tenure?
I believe there will be something that comes out of the meeting with Kim that Trump will be crowing about. We know, when he actually meets face to face with people, he is a push over so this does not bode well but I guess a bad deal would be better than war.
MattF
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Pleased to see Assange screw up so badly. Pleased to see Assange show his Russian ass in public. Edifying, in an unpleasant way.
Ocotillo
^^ also to add, I believe Trump will also come out of the meeting saying what a great guy Kim is and how much they respect each other.
Mike E
Bolton’s PAC joined with CambAnal to fund campaign spots for Thom Tillis’ senate run in 2014… I sure do hope Mueller’s Time yields results!
Jonny Scrum-half
This quote “[Trump] would make a pronouncement, and his underlings would rush to make it happen. He would get credit for the successes, and they the blame for the failures” is so correct and obvious that I’m amazed that I’ve never seen it before.
Cermet
@MattF: And add – an utter and complete coward. A person that will kill any amerikan in a war if he is safe and most importantly, profits.
James E. Powell
@MattF:
Another similarity is that the press/media treat them both like wily foreign policy experts despite the fact that they both produced nothing but disasters.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator:
That can played against Trump to get a war “People will see you as a coward if you don’t invade now Mr President”
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Does anyone know who the brain trust is who helps Trump vet these replacement choices?
gene108
Nobody better than Bolton wants to work for Trump.
We saw the best he could bring in and it won’t get any better.
Part of the problem is when you bring in a political outsider, like Trump, Republicans who staff the bureaucracies are not familiar with him and may hesitate to join.
But Trump compounded this natural problem by being Trump.
No one competent is going to work for him
nonynony
@Ocotillo:
My fear is that Bolton will be on board with taking a deal with NK so he can increase the belligerence towards Iran, with the intent of getting back to NK later. To go Godwin – much like how Hitler was on board with non-aggression with Stalin for awhile so he could focus on France and England.
I strongly suspect that Trump is hot to scuttle everything that has happened with Iran for a variety of reasons. First because it’s an Obama-era diplomacy move, and he wants to dismantle everything Obama did. Second because he’s very much stuck in the 1970s and 1980s and the idea that we can move forward with Iran without forcing regime change is baked into his worldview. It would not surprise me at all if “revenge” for the hostage crisis was more important to him than putting NK “in its place”.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Jared and Ivanka.
Cermet
@Ocotillo: You overlook boltans long game; he will allow the orange fart cloud to make a deal that stinks; then watch as it fails. Then as the noise rises about the failed deal, and the fart cloud blames everyone but himself for making it, boltan will whisper in the ear of the orange fart. A surgical strike! Fast, and no warning so those lib’s can’t stop it. It wil lmake you look strong (as fart’s go.) That is boltan’s plan. Count on it.
Cheryl Rofer
@Ocotillo:
Kim is saying what he and his father and grandfather always have said. When he talks about “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” he is talking about American withdrawal. That might include a lessened DPRK reliance on nukes. Trump seems to be thinking that “denuclearization” means that Kim wraps up his program and sends it all to the US, the way Libya did. So there will be a conflict. But yes, it’s likely Trump will be so desperate for a win that he will offer up too much and accept too little.
Steve in the ATL
@schrodingers_cat: Pakistan is the worst ally ever!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Ocotillo:
Since the Chines have no interest in a Korea War II it’s not impossible they were coaching Kim on how to handle Trump. All Kim has to say is Trump is the greatest American leader since Kim took over the NKDR and Trump will be saying how NK nukes are great.
The Moar You Know
Just wait until Trump finds out how much money’s to be made. He’ll be all over it. After all, the US taxpayer is still ponying up without a single complaint for all our wars of choice, last I checked.
Humdog
@Ocotillo: I figured Shitstain will be offered no nukes in NK in trade for US pullout of the Korean DMZ. NK will keep its nukes because Shitstain won’t be smart enough to have inspections and enforcement and he’ll see getting out of the DMZ as the US saving money and face by no longer being “used” by allies for protection. Yes, no other President would make such a deal, so he can crow about it, but NK will have nukes and SoKo and Japan will race to get them as well to protect themselves since we are no longer reliable allies. A mess.
gene108
@feebog:
Bolton will tell Trump what Bolton wants Trump to hear.
Trump is so incurious that Trump won’t care how accurate Bolton’s info is.
This is the real danger.
How badly can Bolton manipulate Trump.
danielx
@germy:
Not so odd; it seems that those who have never heard a shot fired in anger are often the most eager for other people (or other people’s children) to hear those shots.
schrodingers_cat
@Steve in the ATL: They have been ill served by their ruling class. I have met and am friends with many people originally from Pak in this country. People to people relations are friendly even though the governments may not see eye to eye.
A common religion is not enough to base a country on. A lesson the cretinous BJP (Indian RWNJ party) doesn’t seem to understand.
Cermet
@nonynony: Not so sure; Iran is very hard to reach and has good defense means amerkian planes will be shot down. Only carriers can reach it and that vastly limits any chance of surprise so said defenses will be alert, active and include air cover. We can hit NK with curise missles because its targets are few in number, large and easy to badly damage (nuke plants and missile factories.) Not so with the Iranian bases – they are underground, hardened, and protected. They have been waiting for an attack for over a decade. The North has protected and massive artillery that can destroy Soul; so the N. Koreans have been more confident that no strike will occur on its above ground assets.
danielx
@gene108:
Everybody who does work for him ends up with shit on their shoes, one way or another.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Trump seems to care more about the voices in his own head than he does the opinions of others. Also, he likes to twist reality and lie and bluster to appear tough, even if he actually does nothing.
He is probably subject to manipulation, but I don’t think the direct challenge to his manhood would do it.
rikyrah
THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O’DONNELL 3/28/18
Prosecutors: Trump campaign leaders tied to Russian intel officer
The Washington Post reports a new court filing from Robert Mueller is the most direct connection between the Trump campaign and Russia. Betsy Woodruff and Jed Shugerman join Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss how this filing could lead closer to the White House.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: I did a front page post on this two days ago.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MattF:
Big question – does the Russian MFA drive a diplomatic Zil to the back gate, load Assange in and drive him to their Embassy?
Adam L Silverman
@David Rickard: A more accurate statement is that Bolton might get his wars. He doesn’t control the DOD or the Services. He is not the senior military, defense, and/or national security advisor to the President despite the title of the position he’s accepted. A more accurate title for the Assistant to the President-National Security Advisor (APNSA) would be Deputy Chief of Staff for National Security Policy and Strategy. What Bolton’s job is supposed to be is to serve as the honest gatekeeper to make sure that the national security and foreign policy Interagency process functions, that everyone gets an honest chance to send up their best analysis, advice, and recommendations, and that these then get properly reviewed, staffed, and vetted before a final principal’s review and then being appropriately briefed to the President for either his ongoing situational awareness or for decision making.
As Cheryl, I, and those she’s linked to, have all indicated Bolton is temperamentally incapable of doing this job. As I wrote last week: the Interagency process is going to break down. The National Security Staff is going to wither. And Bolton is going to make a complete hash out of things. Might this mess allow him to get at least one of the precious wars that he so clearly craves? Sure, it’s a possibility. More likely he’s just going to move fast, break shit, and then just be surrounded by a lot of broken shit.
TenguPhule
To be fair, this could help us separate the sheep from the goats when its time for regime change.
patrick II
This is the NSA equivalent of his lawyer situation. It would be funny if it wasn’t so very dangerous. Qualified, professional lawyers don’t want to work for Trump, in part because he will take only the advice of the voices in his head. He is left with Jay Sekulow to lead his team, a charity con man masquerading as top tier political lawyer to make millions from gullible republican’s contributions to his conservative law “charity”. So the con man Trump ends up with another con man Sekulow as his most important legal defender.
Bolton is similar. To be a profitable foreign policy adviser, it is good marketing to create a brand, to be unique and stand out from the crowd, to be identified with a simple, unique quality. Bolton offers a mustache and an unalloyed aggression as the sole solution to every possible foreign policy situation. His brand is simple enough and outstanding enough to stand out from the crowd and attract attention and money doing commentary and giving speeches, which is what a brand is supposed to do. To actually solve a problem would be an unlikely coincidence, and secondary to the con.
We are at the mercy of crooked marketers, con men who have been on con so long they believe it themselves and are now conning each other and taking the rest of us down with them.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Jared is a question mark. I have no idea what he really knows about anything. I doubt that Ivanka could even spell “John” or “Bolton.”
trollhattan
@gene108:
Presuming he invests time flattering Trump, and how to do that is an open “secret,” he’ll get what he wants because waging war is an area that doesn’t meaningfully enrich Trump directly. Other than bombing competing hotels, I guess.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: Neither Israel’s military nor intelligence leadership has any interest in the US blowing up the JCPOA or in starting a war with Iran. Israel’s current and foreseeable political leadership does. And remember everyone who is likely to replace Netanyahu is more extreme and a worse person than he is. There is a major Civilian-Military disconnect in Israel between the near permanent right of center to extreme, authoritarian, and theocratic right political leadership in Israel and the senior military and intelligence leadership in Israel.
Spanky
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Hey! Come on!
TenguPhule
For the record, I would just like to note this did not work as planned in 2002, 2003 or 2004.
As a nation we are remarkably stupid when it comes to Republicans kicking off wars of aggression.
TenguPhule
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Bolton will kick down and blame some random henchminion as the best example of COBRA’s leadership at work.
The Moar You Know
NK having nukes is a done deal; nothing’s going to roll that back. My guess is Trump meets with Kim, big parade, Saudi orb treatment, gets rolled hard, doesn’t realize it, comes back and declares victory. He then promptly hangs Japan and South Korea out to dry by removing all US assets.
Bolton then gets permission to nuke Iran as his consolation prize, while everyone in east Asia starts building nukes of their own.
Kim will then pull out a massive protection racket and blackmail Japan and South Korea for huge amounts of cash while they frantically race to complete nukes and delivery systems.
OGLiberal
Banisadr gave us Ayatollah Khomeini as much as anybody, from a cynical “I’m a socialist but I can use this old guy to get the rubes on board” perspective. He was (is?) a leftist who got the boot from Iran (lucky he’s still alive) after AK used him even more than Banisadr used AK. He’s far from perfect but even he thinks the MEK – his former cohorts – are basically a cult. And the moustache is in cahoots with the MEK? Wonderful.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
I would place no faith in that. So far, self-serving as they might be, all the stories are that Trump *wants* to start something with a military attack but keeps getting the run-around from the military leadership and then quickly distracted by new shiny objects on FOX TV.
His personal cowardice actually makes it more likely that he’ll use others to try and maintain his “tough guy” image he’s carefully cultivated in his cult of personality. After all, its not his ass that will come under fire on the front line if he so orders a “bloody nose” attack.
Cheryl Rofer
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s pretty much what I said in the top post, in a different register.
lgerard
@Brachiator:
The under reported story of the trump era is who is coming up with, not the high profile picks, but the cadre of political appointments that have infested the agencies across government. I don’t think there has ever been such a blatant attempt to politicize the bureaucracy to this extent. It certainly isn’t trump who is driving this effort, who is?
Tony P.
Can Congress pass a Declaration of Non-War on North Korea, or a Non-Authorization to Use Military Force in Iran?
Of COURSE the Ryan/McConnell tribe would never do such a thing; and yes, alas, the Democrats probably wouldn’t either. I’m only asking whether Congress hypothetically has the power to tell the US military that it is not the president’s personal plaything.
–TP
piratedan
@Steve in the ATL: believe that Saudi Arabia has to be on that short list too… along with Trinidad and Tobago (j/k, had a Caddyshack moment there)…
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator:
No one. Vets. Anyone.
Brachiator
@Cheryl Rofer:
I thought that the US had removed the last nukes from South Korea during the Bush administration, and protected the area by a nuclear umbrella of ships and other means. What could North Korea push for?.
Also, the new Secretary of State has not been confirmed, we don’t have an ambassador to South Korea, and foreign policy expertise is in a shambles. Is anyone trying to avoid a rush into any meetings with North Korea until the US gets its diplomatic shit together?
Cermet
@The Moar You Know: Someone (cheney, with his bloody hand up bush the socket puppet’s ass, whispered this method into his ear and the puppet mouthed those very words to the Joint Chief’s for a plan) tried that route but the Pentagon purple suits (no generals, of course) nixed it big time. Can’t see them allowing it again. Nuking is off the table in all likelihood.
TenguPhule
@Tony P.:
Sadly no, the executive branch retains its ability to order the military to attack anyone at any time without any need for justification whatsoever beyond “I want to do it.”
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
That’s a rhetorical question, right?
schrodingers_cat
@Citizen Alan: Word. @Brachiator: I was being sarcastic.
Ruckus
@germy:
Never fought in one.
That has never stopped any war hawk in the universe.
Understand that they never will personally fight, they have bodies to do that for them.
They are bullies plain and simple. They are the kid in school who will fuck with you, right up to the time you actually stand up to them, or turn on them. When you actually fight them, they are hurt and astounded that you are pissed and have had enough. He fires anyone who might actually be correct or gives him any shit. He’s just a fucking bully.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
The two little devils sitting on Trump’s shoulders.
TenguPhule
@WereBear:
Have to add Reagan to that, Nixon at least had some standards so he might not be the origin.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: For 90 days. At least that’s what the law says. Congress would love to just turn that power completely over to the executive branch, but haven’t yet out of fear the other party would gain the presidency and turn US troops loose on their enabling allies.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Awhile back I posted a link to a story where someone tried to sneak Trump’s name into the Nobel Peace Prize selection. Twice.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know: Of course 90 days would be a fait accompli.
TenguPhule
@lgerard:
Bush Jr tried this too. We are suffering the results of that even now.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: No, he was the origin. Really was. Literally everything bad in American government for the last 40 years has its origins in the Nixon administration.
Including Reagan’s presidency. No Nixon = no Southern Strategy = no Reagan.
Cheryl Rofer
@Brachiator: Kim doesn’t believe (or says he doesn’t believe) that the nukes are gone. He wants all US troops withdrawn, and probably all nuclear umbrella – type activities ended.
Like I said up top, I think Trump really believes that his opinions are all that matter. And he’s got those.
OGLiberal
Not that the Never Trumpers have done much to constrain him but at least they’ve allowed some “even some conservative/right wing folks hate Trump” discourse to occur. Most of those Never Trumpers love them some Bolton so, that’s worrisome, at least on a foreign policy front. They might think Trump is gross and a racist and would never invite him to a cocktail party because he’s trash (which is why he hates them and much of what drives him) but they will never turn down a war with Iran or NK or escalation in Syria or whatever place they want to blow up at any given time. McMaster whored himself out to get the NSA spot because, for some reason, he couldn’t get a fourth star, but don’t think he was a neo-con fool, at least not based on his Vietnam book. Bolton not a neo-con either but pretty much fully aligned with their foreign policy goals. (because argle, bargle!)
catclub
@mart:
Somehow, I am not.
We were much more likely to go to war in 2002, with Bush and the GOP wise men all pushing for war. Trump has no backing
for war among the population. IN 2002, even though there were plenty opposed, I bet there was a majority in favor. Nowadays, I doubt there is a majority in favor of either war on NKorea or Iran. And Trump has no path to get the majority in favor – no organized team to roll out the new soap.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
Well, whatever is restraining him, I hope it continues. I am curious, though, about what actually goes on in the Trump White House, and who might be a reliable source of information.
I don’t know. Trump likes to preen and sign shit, and then run off to his Florida palace or stage a rally and talk shit for the rubes who support him. Right now, I cannot imagine him standing in front of the Congress and justifying some military action. He reminds me of the coward played by Billy Bob Thornton in “Tombstone,” who was tough only because he bullied men who were weaker than he was, but who didn’t have the stones to stand up to anyone who saw through his bullshit.
But who knows. I certainly would not say that Trump absolutely positively would not start a war. And more to the point, I certainly do not trust Trump or think that anyone can sleep comfortably at night knowing that this egotistical numbskull is in the White House.
ETA: Even thinking about this stuff makes me want to slap anyone who ever said that Hillary would be a warmonger if she became president.
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
… ummm, … no Johnson, no 1965 VRA, no Southern Strategy.
catclub
@Cermet:
Is that like bishops? Archbishops?
MoxieM
Austrian/German surrealist artist Alfred Kubin foresaw. This image is from 1903. It even predates WWI.
(ETA, the drawing is called Macht, or Power. ) Pretty accurate.
Schlemazel
I have a friend who knows about such things & he said DPRK is quite a way from having a being a real nuclear threat for 3 reasons. Then need to reduce the size of their payload. they don’t have reliable targeting systems. They don’t have a warhead that can tolerate re-entry yet.
This friend estimated 8-10 years unless they get gifts from Russia or CHina which they did not expect to happen
Does anyone have information that would confirm or refute this assessment?
schrodingers_cat
I am listening to Fitoor’s album, music composed by Amit Trivedi. It is Dickens’ Great Expectations set in the Kashmir Valley. The music is other-worldly. Just like Kashmir. The 2016 movie I hear was pretty so-so.
OGLiberal
@catclub:”Trump has no backing for war among the population.”
If he decided tomorrow to start dropping bombs on Newfoundland the people who come to his campaign rallies would chant, “Labrador next, Labrador next!” Those are the only people he cares about. And the folks around him who would tell him “not a great idea” is shrinking almost daily.
I’m pretty certain the guy doesn’t think he’ll lose in 2020 and, if he thinks he will, thinks he has the power to prevent that from happening. This is the mindset we’re dealing with. Not saying he’s right in thinking this way but that’s what’s driving his decision making. At least there was some rationality among the Bush folks. There is none in this guy’s head…and what’s in his head is all that matters because there is nobody there to tell him “no”, and if there are, they get fired pretty quickly.
mart
@catclub: I think the ignoramus believes being a war president will bring everyone together under our dear leader. Look what it did for idiot Bush.
Jeffro
Hmm…Russia is going to expel 60 of our “diplomats” and close the consulate in St. Petersburg in retaliation for us expelling their “diplomats” and the Seattle consulate.
Time to restrict Russian
money-launderinger assets in the US, methinks…Jeffro
@OGLiberal: I used to think that, since he initially hated the job and its restrictions so much, he’d “declare victory and go home” after one term. Now I know better. He can’t afford to give up the power of the presidency, he’s dead meat without it.
The Moar You Know
@catclub: The VRA was a moral imperative. Nixon had a choice. He and his party chose the most shitty, destructive course of action possible. And they’ve continued to do so for decades.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Every single leak so far has been consistent on Trump wanting to attack other countries. Even taking them with a huge grain of salt, the pattern is consistent with his prior behavior of considering restraint as a form of weakness to be taken advantage of.
And of course, Bush Jr. gave every other country the “pre-emptive” option when it comes to dangerous mixed signals that could signal a imminent threat.
That would be 90 days after the fireworks start. And we all know how much forethought Trump gives to his actions.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: And I am simply agreeing with you in the vernacular!
cosima
Don’t look for help from the UK if it turns out Mercers/Bannon/et al have been sharing MoD info with the Russians:
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/cambridge-analytica-predecessor-had-access-to-secret-mod-information/ar-AAvfA57?li=AA9SkIr&ocid=spartanntp
Adam L Silverman
@lgerard: Don McGahn the White House counsel working in coordination John DeStefano who runs the Office of Presidential Personnel with liberal inputs from outside advisors like Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani (who pushed having a political commissar at every department, bureau, agency, and office posing as the normal liaison officer back to the White House) and internal inputs from VP Pence and Majority Leader McConnell.
Immanentize
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’m old enough to remember that LBJ was roundly mocked by all for suggesting he could end the Vietnam war if he could just get in a room with Ho Chi Mihn and hash it all out. But this is what Trump calls policy and people support him. Bizarro.
Schlemazel
@catclub:
agreed
The Pentagon had war fever & set Johnson up with the Gulf of Tonkin thing. If you believe they would not have manipulated JFK into escalation you underestimate the evil in that building. Nixon simply recognized the GOPs great opportunity to exploit racist reaction to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights bills before anyone else scummy enough to use it came along. It was also inevitable.
Adam L Silverman
@OGLiberal: The people that go to his rallies think Labrador is a member of Congress, not a place in Canada.
The Moar You Know
@catclub: I would also like to add, just as an example of my own personal idiocy, that I thought for a long time that the VRA had been a mistake. Thought it rushed a process that would have played out with the same results by the mid-1980s and incurred quite a bit of unneeded animosity in the process.
The reaction to the presidency of Barack Obama showed me I was utterly, totally, and completely wrong about that. By the mid-1980s, the asshole racist bloc of the United States, which is close to if not more than half the voters, would have been voting to reinstate slavery.
OGLiberal
@Adam L Silverman: Ha!
Adam L Silverman
@OGLiberal: It’s funny because it’s true!
TenguPhule
@Immanentize:
And several decades later we got John McCain’s “Cut the bullshit!” bullshit.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
You mean they don’t think its their hunting dogs?
schrodingers_cat
@mart: Well he wants to be Churchill. Hence the affectation of a scowl in photographs.
Cheryl Rofer
@Schlemazel:
I did an estimate of North Korea’s nuclear weapons here. It was almost a year ago, but I’ll stick with it. Sig Hecker’s estimate is similar, but you can discount that as our having learned such things at the same place.
The answer to the last is “no.” We are all guessing, including the intel guys.
Eight to ten years is really a lot. Even in your friend’s worst case, I think they could solve those problems adequately in 1-3 years.
It’s always easier to do these things the second or third time around, even if there is no explicit information sharing. There’s enough in the open literature and computing power. I agree with your friend that neither Russia nor China is likely to help.
There’s also the question of whether they want elegant or serviceable. Some of the more complicated things the US has done, that have taken more time, are elegant. My guess is that North Korea will go for serviceable.
Jay S
@Adam L Silverman: Just because Labrador is a floor topping and a dessert wax?
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Those are labs.
rickstersherpa
Bolton not only thinks the Iraqi war was a good idea, he views 1 million dead Iraqis as a “good start,” not a bug. He is a homicidal maniac and represents the homicidal maniac wing (a substantial wing) of the RWNJ movement.
trollhattan
O/T Rep. Joe Wilson continues to have a sad that Democrat meanies keep bringing up the whole “You lie!” thing.
If he’s a “wonk” like Paul Ryan is a wonk, lord help us all.
holaitsmonica
Whenever I think of John Bolton whispering his wretched ideas into the Orange Fartcloud’s ear, the two of them feedling on each other’s worst impulses, I get this visual from Game of Thrones where The Fartcloud is like the little spoiled Lord who wants everyone to be pushed through the Moon Door. I can see that awful smirk of his, the stupid incessant clapping: “make them go through the Moon Door, make them go through the Moon Door!”
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Pretty sure they consider those something to be avoided in high school.
TenguPhule
@rickstersherpa:
Wait, are you telling us some of them are not actually homicidal maniacs? Get out here! //
Tony P.
@TenguPhule: I agree that 90 days is a fait accompli. What’s more, I understand even that restriction (War Powers Act) is considered unconstitutional by many. Even they generally concede, however, that Congress theoretically retains the power of the purse — though defunding the president’s military is out of the question as a practical matter.
So, as things stand, Congress (theoretically) has the constitutional power to declare war ON somebody, but not to declare Non-War against anybody. Now I’m wondering: if Congress were to declare war on some specific enemy, does the POTUS have the authority to refuse to order the military to wage it?
–TP
Brachiator
@Cheryl Rofer:
Wow. Kim sounds as delusional as Trump. Do you think it’s possible that China might have given Kim some “suggestions” to tone it down during the recent super train visit?
Yeah, Trump wants to be free to do what he wants. Maybe that incident where he supposedly deliberately ignored the directives not to congratulate Putin on his electoral win is a preview of Trump’s self-driving foreign policy strategy.
TenguPhule
@Tony P.:
Technically, yes. By simply ordering the military to occupy their time with other matters. Form over substance, in other words.
But it would almost certainly lead to litigation and possibly impeachment.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
John Bolton will end up at the Hague on trial. One can dream.
Cheryl Rofer
@Brachiator:
Yes. Probably told him to cut down the missile tests too.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I always prefer “killed while resisting arrest”. Less paperwork and sauce long overdue for the gander.
Cheryl Rofer
More of Trump’s “strategy.” He just can’t give up that mafia look.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
너는 내 보스가 아니야.
trollhattan
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Is Bolton one of the Bushies who won’t risk traveling to Europe and chance being arrested? Because that would be a bit of a job impediment, if amusing.
Immanentize
@Cheryl Rofer: Does Trump think North Korea and South Korea are the same countries? That punishing the South will move the North? I don’t understand this at all. Help?
Jeffro
Again, breaking, Putin just told the US he’s kicking out the same number of diplomats and shutting down our consulate. Nickel bet Trumpov jumps on Twitter with the equivalent of “See, I told you there was no point in sanctioning Mighty Vlad!” in 3, 2, 1…
OGLiberal
@OGLiberal: Sorry, the Banisadr who considers MEK a cult is different (and younger) than the Banisadr I was referring to – the former president of Iran. But the elder Banisadr (no relation, I think) also cut ties with the MEK a while back. (kid was married to the current MEK leader, since divorced)
Jeffro
@Immanentize: he thinks that if he cuts a deal with NK, it’ll show SK that he’s in control of their future and they’d better cut him a REALLY good trade deal (…or else)
What scum.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Sadly no.
Cheryl Rofer
@TenguPhule: Yeah, both Trump and Kim have that issue.
Mnemosyne
@MoxieM:
I have a Weimar-era piece for you. More Expressionist than Surrealist, but very powerful.
Cheryl Rofer
@Immanentize: I think Jeffro’s got it at #128.
TenguPhule
@Immanentize:
Trump is playing god. And not very well at that.
Brachiator
@Cheryl Rofer:
Wait. What? Does he want something from South Korea?
Cheryl Rofer
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Trade concessions.
So obviously the best way to go about that is to threaten them and then try to do a deal with their mortal enemy.
Arms dealers must be unable to believe their good fortune.
They’re gonna make a killing.
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Hotels. Yuge, classy Trump hotels. Just outside artillery range. And a golf course.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
So much for NATO and every other fucking alliance we’ve ever made.
Taiwan is so fucked.
Mike in NC
@Immanentize: You err in using the words “Trump” and “think” in the same sentence. He merely acts on whatever his enormous gut leads him to believe will yield a profit.
Cheryl Rofer
@Brachiator: They’ve completed negotiating a trade deal with South Korea. From what I read, it’s not much different from the deal we’ve had with them. Trump is doing a speech in Ohio. It’s supposed to be on infrastructure, but it looks like it’s his standard grab-bag of gripes and boasts.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
A foundation of hot air and graft will be the bedrock of the nation’s future.
MomSense
I admit to being a little overwhelmed at the moment. Bolton as National Security Advisor is grim.
If anyone wants to see some interesting musings through art, Jim Carrey’s twitter feed is good. Warning – there are a few really upsetting drawings related to school shootings.
Cheryl Rofer
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer: well there’s that, and then there’s also the fact that he can’t stop being a dick
TenguPhule
Admirers flood Parkland school killer with fan mail and donations
I hate these people so fucking much.
I want them committed to insane asylums. All of them.
catclub
@trollhattan: And he won’t (can’t) apologize for saying it since it was also a fabulous aid in fundraising.
I am not sympathetic.
Ladyraxterinok
@Boris, Rasputin’s Evil Twin: Bush I’s war was short and fast, seemingly fought on tv. Americans watched it all on CNN and thought this war was what modern war is.
Then Bush II and his military applied the ONE thing they learned from Vietnam and kept reporters and camera crews away from any action. And, of course, blocked any news access to returning caskets! So Americans who have no contemporary knowledge of the Vietnam War have little clue about the reality of war.
Then without a draft the 2 Bush family wars affected only the families of volunteers. Most of US has been unaffected by war for 40 some years.
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer: it is hard sometime to truly grasp just how much damage this clown is doing to our country internationally. Sometimes I feel like the domestic damage had already been mostly done and he was just the expression of it. But then there are days like today when he realize just how much damage is doing to us internationally as well
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: starting with whoever thought this needed to be put out in the media, glorifying yet another killer, giving the next one that much more incentive
It’s sick
catclub
@TenguPhule:
my general rule: other people are mysterious. And I can’t even understand myself.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
Well isn’t that just ducky. Bless their hearts.
Related to nothing, per CAISO California electricity demand is currently 23,684 MW of which 11,618 MW (48.3%) is supplied by renewables and 1,721 MW (7.2%) is large hydro. Zinke and Priuitt can shove those numbers up their arses.
Calouste
@Schlemazel: None of those matter if they want to target Seoul, or probably Tokyo.
Targeting depends on how big the error is. If it’s 50 miles there are large parts of the East Coast where an H-bomb will do massive damage even if it misses it’s intended target by 50 miles.
Fair Economist
@Jeffro:
That’s not commensurate retaliation by any standard. Closing the consulate in St. Petersburg is like closing the consulate in NYC.
lamh36
YEAH…i bet this bish took that shit back…then Parkland kids ain’t playing with their axes!!
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Meh. Killers have always attracted weird fans. Charles Manson got fan letters until the day he died.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
My “favorite” part of her non-apology apology was “… in the spirit of Holy Week…” aka Jesus has forgiven me, so now anyone who doesn’t forgive me immediately hates Jesus!
She probably should have paid attention to Pope Francis on Palm Sunday and realized that when he told the kids protesting guns that the adults who opposed them were wrong, he meant people like her. ?
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: I’d like to think this can be changed.
germy
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Not without massive amounts of early psychotherapy for all humans. Whole books have been written about the phenomenon — it’s quite well-studied and has been going on pretty much since newspapers existed.
Not to mention that I bet that at least half of the fan mail is from white supremacists.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Thanks, I was going to write something on similar lines.
Elizabelle
I sorta think this ugly Bolton and his ugly mustache belong under the fold.
I just cannot look at, or listen to, Trump and his criminals. May they all DIAF and not take us down first.
rikyrah
It’s fascinating to watch the RW/GOP sputter as they try to spin their vile against the Parkland kids. The funny part is that none of the kids is going ‘ oh woe is me.’
But, they are standing up for themselves. And showing just how disgusting the other side has always been.
THIS is their standard M.O. This is what they’ve been doing for the past 25-30 years.
But, they have met their match.
Ladyraxterinok
@TenguPhule: Born 1940. While I was growing up the conventional wisdom was that the democrats were the ones who got us into war – Wison and WWI, FDR and WWII, Truman and the Korean War.
When the Soviets put up the Berlin Wall in August 1961 (the summer after I graduated from college), my girl friends were convinced that the democratic president JFK would send their boy friends into war.
This perception that a democratic president will get US into war was reinforced by LBJ and the Vietnam War. (‘Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill foday?’ ‘Hell, no, we won’t go!’)
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Is there anybody more hypocritical than the ostentatiously religious people who wear their religion on their sleeve?
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
The ones who wear it as a t-shirt, bumper sticker and ugly hat?
Spanky
@rikyrah: I’m actually surprised that there have been few, if any, missteps by what is really a fairly large number of teenagers who are (or whose tweets are) under pretty intense scrutiny by the media. The kids are smart and media-savvy.
rikyrah
@germy:
It’s not just that they ‘toned down’ when Dolt45 came in.
THEY DROPPED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH.
They had something to say, everyday, all day, when 44 was in office.
And now, that The Hunger Games have come to America – they are mutes.
PHUCKING MUTES.
JMG
@Ladyraxterinok: This is not correct. The almost incessant deployment of National Guard units from all over the country in Iraq was a major factor in the public turning against the war in the second GW Bush term. Also, since much of the violence took place in Baghdad, it was impossible to keep it off TV.
Spanky
@Spanky: As far as Laura Ingraham goes, since she’s attacking a kid for being rejected from colleges, at least one of which is out-of-state, I’d ask whether any of the schools that accepted her back in the Dark Ages might have reconsidered had they seen the person she grew up to be.
germy
@rikyrah:
Mission Accomplished.
But her emails!!!
@Ladyraxterinok:
There’s some truth to that in that Republicans for a good portion of that period were isolationists. The Vietnam war sort of represents a departure from that pattern in that Eisenhower knocked over the first domino.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Nope. There’s a reason why “You think you’re more Catholic than the Pope” is an insult among my people. ?
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Trump hasn’t imported genetically mutated Japanese giant hornets yet.
J R in WV
@Brachiator:
Yes, I do know. The brain trust is… got it?
Who helps Trump vet his appointments is… also too!
Hope that wasn’t TL;DR for you.
But her emails!!!
@TenguPhule:
Do we also get mocking jays?
MoxieM
@Mnemosyne: Oooh! I love that. Reminds me of the famous American subway piece? (Ok George Tooker, 1950)
My mom’s uncle was an artist and a (very minor) part of the Blau Ritter circle, colleague of Max Klinger, &&. Hence, I have a bunch of German post-impressionist/surrealist art. sooo lucky. Lots of what ever the fuck the Nazi’s called it, Immoral Art or what.
Kind of like, Trump’s absurd portraiture–dictator art. If they don’t like it, it’s probably meaningful.
Art matters!
OGLiberal
@TenguPhule: Every godly person I have known personally or heard of as a “prominent” Christian/Jew/Muslim has been less “holy” – or whatever that means – than my atheist ass. Meaning, I don’t hate people unless they deserved to be hated (for being dicks, not for being gay, black, brown, etc), I don’t cheat on my wife (low fucking bar but I’ll throw it out there), I don’t beat my kids (another very low bar), I don’t cheat, I don’t shit on poor people, etc. I’d give more to charity if I had more to give but I don’t…but I also don’t, again, shit on poor people.
I mentioned “low bar” earlier. Everything I said is “low bar” but many so called “holy” folks in this country – and elsewhere – seem to not be able to get over this “low bar”…or excuse transgressions of it when it suits their needs.
And that’s why they support Trump….because fucking porn stars right after your third-wife has your kid just isn’t much of a problem to them – as long as he puts in the judges you want. (all apologies to said porn star, who is – I’m almost certain – a much, much, much better person than our current president…plus, any one of the GOP clown show losers running against Trump would have appointed the same judges…why did the evangelicals want//love him?)
Kathleen
@Schlemazel: I think Kennedy was killed because they knew they couldn’t manipulate him. He signed his death warrant when he refused to launch nuclear weapons during Cuban Missle Crisis.
Svensker
Good article but you misspelled “racist bigot nutjob war-mongering YOU ARE GOING TO HELL YOU EVIL BITCH Pam Geller”
OGLiberal
@Kathleen: Kennedy was killed because some idiot who had wife problems and a wannabe hero complex was able to order a gun via the mail and had a job in the right place at the right time.
Adam L Silverman
@Spanky: She went to Dartmouth. She was a classmate of the felon Dinesh D’Souza. If I recall correctly they even dated (EWWWW!!!!). Based on these data points Dartmouth has no standards.
KithKanan
@The Moar You Know: Debatable. Nixon helped Reagan’s ’66 California governor campaign and borrowed a lot of the Law’n’Order messaging for his second presidential run a couple years later after seeing how well it worked.
Jay
@lgerard:
Pence
Jay
@Schlemazel:
Yes and no,
The NORK’s don’t need precision targetting. They don’t have enough missiles and warheads, and never will, to strike at the US Nuclear Triad, and have an effect, which is where you need accuracy. The NORK’s don’t need accuracy to hit cities, however, the NOArK’s constant meme, is brining famine, like the ones they suffered during and after the US bombing campaign. One nuke in the Central Valley and 10 nukes lofted over the Rockies, and the US Consumer has two choices, extremely expensive imported food, or gradually more irradiated cheap American food, and lots and lots of iodine.
Miniturization, if the “peanut” is real, has been achieved.
Heatshielding. It’s just a case of data and the maths. So far, the test warheads launched, have had sensor packages installed, and have burned up on reentery, so the NORK’s are/have been collecting data. After that, it’s just a case of crunching the numbers, and picking a heat shield material.
China’s Shenzhou Capsule uses replaceable end grain oak blocks as a heatshield.
debbie
Dana Carvey did a pretty good Bolton on last night’s Colbert.
Jay
@Fair Economist:
Except all the “active” FSO/GRU/IRI cyber and disinfo ops are in St. Petersburg.
OGLiberal
@Adam L Silverman: Pre@Adam L Silverman: I read the D’Souza dating at Dartmouth many years ago as well. Regardless, they both worked together on the Dartmouth wingnut rag and they are horrible human beings. Was first exposed to Ingraham many years ago via a splashy FTFNYNT mag spread that tried to normalize “the new conservatives”. Seriously, even 25-years ago the FTFNYT was up to that shit.
OGLiberal
@OGLiberal: She was wearing a leopard skin skirt sporting a “I think I’m hot but I also hate gays” look.
Haggis
China.
I have read countless articles and opinion pieces on US-NK friction. Not one addresses the elephant in the room which is that NK is effectively a vassal state. China would no more sit idly by whilst the US wages war on the Korean Peninsula, than the USSR would have if NATO rolled through the Iron Curtain.
The story is not about belligerence – the story is about the Korean War which is still de facto, Ongoing. There is only an armistice in place. During the Korean War the US rolled right up to the Chinese border before the Chinese rolled them right back to the 38th parallel.
This, in a nutshell, is how the MSM is failing. Their focus is on Trumps idiotic twitter provocations and they never address the true horror that would follow if those provocations become actions. Most of his idiotic supporters couldn’t pick out any Asian country on a map.
It behooves everyone to hammer home the point that waging war on the Korean Peninsula is certain to involve China.
Procopius
Of course he does. Sheldon Adelson wants him there, and the Republicans desperately need Adelson’s money, so Bolton belongs in a place in the government where he can advance Adelson’s demand for war with Iran. I don’t believe Putin vetoed Mitt Romney, but I do believe Adelson is the lunatic pressing to get Netanyahu’s war, or at least one of them. Haim Mair, Adelson’s doppelganger on the Democratic side is just as much a lunatic, although he get’s a lot less press, and war with Iran is a bipartisan issue. See also, AIPAC.
Procopius
@Brachiator:
Israel is not going to attack Iran. They might “win,” but Israel would be devastated. That is why Netanyahu and Adelson demand that the U.S. attack Iran. Many high officials in the military and intelligence communities understand that this would still cause the devastation of Israel and oppose it. At the moment Adelson and Haim Mair are in the ascendant.
Jay
@Procopius:
We used to have better trolls, isn’t Sergei Afanasyev or Grigoriy Viktorovich Molchanov avaible?